The twelve tribes in this chapter
are being blessed. Moses is going through each one
and telling them the blessings from the Lord. And just look
with me at verse 27, speaking to Jeshurun. The Eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms, and He shall thrust out
the enemy before thee, and shall destroy them. Israel then shall
dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be
upon a land of corn and wine. and also His heavens shall drop
down due." So we've got then this last verse, the very last
verse is the verse we're going to look at. We see the sum and
conclusion of God's blessing upon His people. The sum and
conclusion of the blessings that God has for upon His people.
And He starts out, obvious, Happy art thou. With all these blessings,
And could we not say the same thing? Could we not say the same
thing? Yes, it's been a tough year,
a tough two years, three years, but we're all here. We're all
here. Some healthier than others, some
not healthier, some whatever, but we're all here. We've been
preserved for now. He may take us home tomorrow.
We don't presume that we know God's will, but happy art thou. That word is blessed. Blessed. Happy art thou, O Israel. This is for the elect. This is
for those whom He's chosen, called out by His grace and His name.
Who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the shield
of thy help? And who is the sword of thy excellency? and thine enemies shall be found
liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places."
Happy. Happy. And I know we can be stoic
and, well, the Lord says all things are working together for
good, so I'm not going to show emotion, I'm not going to weep,
I'm not going to be hurt or upset when a friend or a loved one
goes in the hospital or the Lord takes them suddenly. That's not
what He's talking about. Because God's people go through everything
anybody else does. It's just we have the Redeemer
on our side. And so after these pronounced
blessings on each of the tribe, He just sums the whole thing
up. Happy are you, O Israel. Happy
are you. Turn to Psalms 33. Psalm 33, verse 12, Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance. He didn't do anything. He did
it all. Psalms 144, Psalms 144 and verse 15. Psalms 144 and verse 15. Happy is that people that is
in such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is the
Lord. Not this world, Not this world's
God, not your own God, but whose God is the Lord. The Lord of
glory. Numbers chapter 23. Numbers chapter
23 and starting in verse 20. Numbers 23 and starting in verse
20 forward. Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He hath
not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. The Lord his God is with him. and the shout of a king is among
them. For God brought them out of Egypt, and hath, as it were,
the strength of a unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment
against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. According to this time, it shall
be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought? Behold,
the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up themselves
as a young lion, He shall not lie down until he
eats of the prey and drinks the blood of the slain." Back to
Joshua. Happy. Blessed. None can bless or make eternally
happy like our God in Christ Jesus. And this happiness is
very reasonable. Because of three things. Because
of its source, its object, and its results. This happiness is
very reasonable. Its source. It's in God. Happy art thou, O Israel, who
is like unto thee a people saved by the Lord. Because the source is in God.
The object is Christ. And the result is complete forgiveness
by blood at Calvary 3. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
1. This is all three of these wrapped up in one in this section
in Ephesians chapter 1. Verse 1, Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints, to Israel, which
are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to
you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us, O happy are ye. with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace." Happy? Happy? Maybe your circumstance, maybe
you go back to work and you may not have a job to go to. I mean,
like I say, just because you're a believer, and we're believers,
does not exclude us, shield us. Though it does, if it's according
to His good pleasure and His good will. Secondly, why are we happy? Back
to our text. O people saved by the Lord. We're
saved by the Lord. By grace through faith in that,
not of ourselves. Then we could go to Ephesians
chapter 2. By grace are you saved through faith. It's a gift of
God. Not of ourselves. Not of works
as any man should boast. We're His workmanship. Happy? Yes. Because we didn't save ourselves.
We couldn't save ourselves. We stopped saving ourselves. Nothing from man. Not by our
puny wills or our want-tos or our intentions. These all miss
the mark horribly. No matter how sincere we are
in the flesh, in and of ourselves, if God does not reveal His Gospel
to us, we've missed the mark. We've missed the mark. But the work of Christ, pure,
perfect, unfailing, without error or waiver. Our Redeemer did not
try to save anybody if they'll let Him, if we'll let Him. But
He accomplished salvation for all for whom it was intended.
Zephaniah chapter 3. I guess I should have told you
I was going to be looking at several scriptures. Zephaniah. Chapter 3. Zephaniah 3, verses 16 forward. In that day, that happy day,
it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear thou not, and to Zion, let
not thine hands be slack, For the Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty, he will save, he will joy over thee with joy,
he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
I, says God, in Christ by the Holy Spirit's enabling will gather
them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee
to whom the reproach of it was a burden, Behold, at that time
I will undo all that afflict thee, and I will save her that
halteth, and gather her that was driven out, and I will get
them praise and fame in every land where they have been put
to shame. And at that time will I bring
you again, even in the time that I gather you. For I will make
you a name and a praise among all people of the earth when
I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord." Happy. Oh my word, what words of encouragement. Sinners, who cannot do anything
in and of themselves, are set free. In our own eyes, in our
own eyes. We understand redemption in Christ. We understand, we don't understand
all the workings of God, it's a mystery. But we understand
enough. And we know whom we believe.
And we are persuaded that He's able to keep that which we've
committed unto Him against that day. It's always, we understand.
Salvation is not a blind, you know, they talk about blind faith.
It's not salvation. It's not salvation. Happy, nextly,
because He is our shield. Back to our text. Happy art thou,
Israel, who is like unto the old people, saved by the Lord,
the shield of our help. The shield of our help. Psalms
91. Psalms 91 verse 4. Psalms 91 verse 4. He shall cover
thee with His feathers And under his wings shalt thou
trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and buckler." Indeed, this word shield could
be rendered defense, it could be rendered protector, or it
could be rendered our armor. He is our armor. The saints of
God, as I said, go through every trial known to man, but God is
ever with His people to defend, or protect, or cover, or take
us home. He take us home. He may be ushered
to glory. Enoch, you know, he had more
of his life to live, but the Lord said, nope, now I'm going
to take you with me. And he was not. And that's the
way it is with every... it's given unto man once to die.
You know, I know some people talk about death and they say,
oh well, you know, auntie so and so, she waited, you know,
until this person got there and then she died. No, she didn't
have, she didn't have anything to do with it. When the Lord,
the exact moment the Lord was going to take her, Him, them,
us, He will take us. He will take us. Nextly, He is our sword of our
excellency. Look at the same verse, the shield
of thy help who is the excellency, the sword of thine excellency.
This word sword or excellency could be triumph. He is our triumph.
Zechariah chapter 4. Zechariah chapter 4. We triumph in Christ. We try
and then we fail. And if you don't believe me,
wait until you start getting a little older and you can't do the things you
would and you want to, and you see you're not able to do so
many things. But He is our sword of our excellency. He is our
triumph. A man thinks he's in charge or
he's in control, yet the Lord is over all and governs all he
surveys. Zechariah chapter 4 and verse
6. Then he answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord
of hosts." If we have any strength or power or cognitive abilities,
it's by God's grace. It's by God's grace. And I know
the essential oils and all these different things. And I do, you
know, vitamins or whatever. But even all that, he may take
that and use that. But it's not by our abilities,
not at all. And again, the older you get,
the more you see that. So we go to him. We go to him
because he's made us happy. He's made us blessed. He set
us apart. We didn't set ourselves apart.
Who maketh thee to differ? O people, saved by the Lord,
saved by His grace, not by our wills or want to. He's our shield,
our defense. He's our sword of excellency.
He's majestic, He's sovereign, He's supreme, and none reign
like He does. O blessed, happy thought to know
beyond a shadow of a doubt, grasped by faith in Christ, that he's
on the throne. To me, a lot of times it boils
down to understanding by the grace of God two essential truths.
One, that man is totally enabled and totally depraved. From what
Adam did in the garden, when he lost his righteousness, when
he lost, when he fell, he fell and we fell in him. You try to
tell somebody that they're a sinner, and they go, well, I know I'm
bad, but not as, no, we are bankrupt. We're bankrupt, we're ungodly.
We're of the baser sort, and he talks about Romans, that's
us. And then that God is totally sovereign, everything Every bill,
every article that is passed in this state, in this country,
in D.C., and in Europe, everything is done according to God's good
pleasure. And if you don't think so, please
read that little book pamphlet. Read that and read it slow. Go through Esther and look at
it and read it and then go over that. And you'll see, there's
things I hadn't seen before. God is absolutely sovereign.
And several months ago, I preached a message about Ahab, that wicked
king. And he disguised himself, you
remember that? He disguised himself, and he was going with another
king, and he says, you put on all this regalia, because they're
looking for a king, and I'm gonna look like a regular soldier.
And it just says in the Bible, somebody just happened, some
man, just took a bow and arrow and just out of venture, which
just, he wasn't shooting at anybody, he just shot it. And it fully
clad, fully armored, well there's gaps in armor, and that arrow
hit Ahab right in the neck and killed him. What rotten luck. Any statisticians in here figure
out the percentage, how likely that was of happening? No. God
ordained that arrow to hit that mark at that time. God knocked Paul off that horse
to raise him up to preach the gospel to all the Gentiles, the
people who had never heard it before. And we could go on and
on. Joseph, for this cause, God raised
him up. You, my brethren, did this to
me. You sold me into slavery. You
did this for evil. But God meant it for good. And
when David is running from Saul, he's walking up to a guy named
Shimei. He starts throwing rocks at him and cussing at him. And
the captain said, let me go take this sword and just cut his head
off. And he said, no. God told him
to do that. God is over every little thing,
if the sparrow doesn't fall. Now this does not cause the believer
to say, well, what will be will be. No. It excites the believer
that he's under a God who is this sovereign. And he desires
it to be so. Anything of God in the Scripture
boosts faith. It will increase faith. So may
we look to the Lord and realize we're happy. We're blessed. Not
anything we did. We're not in a proper position.
We're not because we're white, we're black. It doesn't have
anything to do with eccentricity. It doesn't have anything to do
with education. Book of Acts. They'd noticed
that these were ignorant and unlearned men, but they had been
with Christ. That's fine. I know the kids,
the children, we want the kids to be as smart as possible and
all these different things, but all this is an applause of men. And if it doesn't work out, if
you have the gospel, if you have Christ, everything else doesn't
matter. And I know, live our lives and
be the best people we can be. I'm not saying not to do that.
Because the right understanding of the gospel does not cause
people to be that way. It doesn't cause them to be lethargic
or lazy. It causes them to desire to do
what we do because we love Christ. So, we are indeed happy, blessed,
graced to know and experience, look at this last thing, the
defeat of our enemies. Now this is, I think, very interesting. We're happy, we're blessed, we're
graced, and our enemies shall be found liars unto us, unto
ourselves. Now this is what happens when
we live in the world. We think these people are great,
or this situation is great, or this event is great, and then
it's like, nah, nah. They weren't really concerned
about me. They were concerned about the money. They were concerned
about this, they were concerned about that. But look at this.
And thine enemies, plural, shall be found liars unto thee. Now
who are the enemies of the saints? Satan, our flesh, and the world. Now he's conquered our archenemy,
Satan. And Satan's main desire is that
as he deceived Eve, so he tries to deceive us constantly. Our
flesh pulls always against the Spirit so that we cannot do the
things that we often desire to do. This world would have us
follow it and forsake righteousness and peace found only in our Kinsman
and Redeemer. This is what they all say. This
is what the flesh says, the world says, and Satan says. It says we'll fall from grace.
Do you ever have any doubts? Do I really believe what this
Bible says about myself, about redemption, about Christ? Do
I really believe it? They all say we shall fall from
grace. We will dishonor our profession
and perish with the apostates. In the end, I'm going to be found
a liar. That's what they all say. They
tell us our daily bread shall fail. They tell us we shall starve
with our children. Oh my, you're going to take care
of your children. Take care of that grandbaby. Do whatever you
can. Can't do it. It's going to fail. Your bread's
going to fail. The economy's going to collapse.
This is what the world, this is what the flesh, and the flesh
likes to project what it doesn't know. They whisper that our gracious
Lord will not deliver us out of trial, which looms somewhere
in the future, that we cannot stand till the end. He delights,
they delight in telling us death will prove too much for us. Jordan's
swelling tides will wash away us forever. But what does the
Word say? and thine enemies shall be found
liars unto us." So when you begin to read the Word, and you begin
to believe what's being preached, if it's the Gospel, and you see
what's in the Word, and you start gathering these great and precious
promises, you realize that all these enemies
are liars. What liars they all three are.
Christ cannot fail to bring His children with Him to glory. or
else he's a counterfeit. And we know he's no counterfeit.
This is what these three liars forget. Study the Word, be a student
of the Word, and find all these things. They forget that the
ravens fed the prophet and so kept him in that narrow way of
peace, grace, and mercy. How is that possible? How is
that possible? He was out in the desert, going
to die of starvation. The ravens. the ravens fed him. Are we to look for miracles?
No. But are they still abounding?
You bet. There's things that we don't know why it's happened
other than for the grace of God. They forget that He prepares
a table in the midst of our enemies. Nay, He opens to us a banquet
and His storehouse never empties. Never empties. Well, there's
so many needs, there's so many, you know, so many sicknesses,
so many people we love that are, this and that. Go to Him still. They forgot this, but He prepares
a table in the midst of our enemies. They forget, time after time,
our Lord comes to the rescue and aid of His precious little
ones, never turning His back upon them. Never. Never does. They forget. As the Israelites
cross the Red Sea and the Jordan during tide swell, that He will
safely lead us over death and into Canaan, ever to be with
Him at His side, world without end. That's what this book says.
But our liars, the flesh and the world and Satan, they accuse
and they taunt and they lie. Now, you know, I was growing
up and when I'd catch somebody that would, in a bold-faced lie,
it would make me mad. Just tell me the truth or don't
tell me anything. And last night, we were just
talking to some people and just some of the stuff that was, oh,
I said this and that, you know, talking about the news and all
this kind of nonsense. I'm like, I've never even heard
that. And this guy was all worked up. They're all found liars. They're
all found liars. So, let us be strong in the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Cling to Him. Bow to His right
to rule over us in love. And simply rest in and on Him. I was reading something Spurgeon
said about rest. And that word is just so... I've
always thought it was special. We cease from our works and enter
into His rest. I mean, really rest. To where? When, you know, you're sleeping,
if you've got a good sleep, you're hard to wake up. That's true.
If you're resting in Christ and all this nonsense is going on
around you, it's always going on. It's never going to get any
better. It's getting worse. Whatever. But if you're resting
and you're reposed in Christ, Nothing can touch you. And if
it does, it's got to come. Like Job, he's just sitting there,
bam! Well, I was looking at some things
Job said, and this is pretty interesting, some things he just...
And at the end, he was preserved. The Lord took care of him. And
he will take care of his people. Maybe not in the way we think.
You know, my last ten years of life may be in a wheelchair.
I don't want to... He still will not leave and forsake his people.
He just won't do it. Don't let anybody rob you of
your joy and true safety found only in the Anointed One. Look in this book. There are
so many promises. There are so many examples of
believers in hard situations, between a rock and a hard place
as they say, And like the Lord, He delivered them out of the
mall. And if you didn't deliver them, He took them home. And then you
were with the Lord. And I know it's easy to stand
up here and say this, but He is our only hope for everyday
situations. May God honor and bless the reading
and preaching of His Word. Bruce, would you close us?