Turn with me, if you would, to
Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy in the last chapter,
chapter 33. We're going to look at the first
five verses, verses 1-5. Deuteronomy 33. Let me read these first five
verses for us. And this is the blessing wherewith
Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before
his death. And he said, the Lord came from
Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them. He shined forth from Mount
Paran and He came with ten thousands of saints from his right hand
went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the people. All his saints are in thy hand. They sat down at thy feet. Every
one shall receive of thy words." Moses commanded us the law, even
the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was king in
Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel
were gathered together. Now, before I get into what's
being said, the very first phrase in verse 1, and this is the blessing. This is the blessing. I ask myself
this, I ask you this. Is Christ precious to you? What think ye of Christ? Whose
Son is He? Do you know, and do I know, do
we know together, that from birth we speak lies, we have deceit
in our tongue, in our heart, and all of the best that we can
do, all of our righteousnesses, plural, are as filthy rags. Do you know that? Do I know that? Because until you know that your
righteousness, until I know that my righteousness is worth nothing,
we won't seek Christ's righteousness. We just won't do it. Until we
see our need of a Savior, we don't go to the Savior. Little
kids, children, until you're thirsty, you will not ask your
parents or you will not go to... In the schools, they used to
have fountains. I don't even know if they have them anymore. They shut
them off probably. You will not go get a drink until
you're thirsty. The Gospel tells you, the Gospel
tells me that there is a man, one man, the man Christ Jesus. And in Him, in Him alone, No
other man can pardon sin but the Lord Jesus Christ. No other man has a perfect righteousness
but the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, you don't go to yourself,
you don't go to somebody else, you go to Him for everything. Do you know that? Do I know that? And as enjoyable as this is,
when we gather together with brethren of like mind, and I
would not want to be anywhere else than right here. And I don't
even have to be up here. I could be down there and somebody
else could be up here. Just to hear the words of Christ. To
hear the words from this book, this infallible, inerrant, unerrant
Word of God. Tell me something of Christ. Tell me something, not about
myself, not what I can do, not I'm empowered, not me this, not
you that, but about Christ. If you're there, if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've confessed Him, if you've
been baptized, that he that believeth in baptized." Baptism is very
important. It's not unto salvation, but
it certainly is something that we do as obedient children. I
still don't understand what the argument is. You believe Christ,
He says be baptized. You get baptized. And you don't
get sprinkled, you get immersed. Am I talking to you? Am I speaking
from my heart to you? This may be the last sermon,
I don't know. One old preacher said, we ought
to preach as a dying man to dying men. Getting older, getting slower,
weaker. My memory, my wife, she's going
too. So if I can't remember, she can't
remember. As John and Betty Seaball, we
used to love, they're so precious to us. Betty used to say, both
of us together don't make one good one. That's exactly right. If you're in earshot, if you
can hear this, if this is you, if this is me, this message is
so comforting. Look with me at Deuteronomy 33. And verse 3, the second portion
of verse 3, yes, He loved the people. Now look at this phrase,
all His saints, all His saints, just for His saints, this isn't
for everybody, this is children's bread, this is the children's
food. All His saints are in His hand. Now, is that not a huge pillow? Is that not a huge pillow for
you today? What does it make any difference if
your age, if you're just one day in the Lord, or if you're
50 years in the Lord? It doesn't matter if you're gender,
you're male or female in the Lord. It doesn't matter your
economic status. your ethnic background, black,
white, red, purple, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether
you're in the middle of a trial or you're coming out of a trial
or hardships. All his saints, those who are
called by his free sovereign electing grace, They're called
saints here, they're called elect in other places, they're called
chosen in other places, they're called the remnant in other places,
and in other places they're called sinners, they're called of the
baser sort. But according to our lovely text
this morning, these are all in the mighty supreme hands of the
Creator of all things. that His saints are in His hand. As saints, neither bond nor free,
Jew or Greek in status, nothing can separate them, says Romans,
from the love, particular discriminating love of God's own Son. He owns every one of them. We're
bought with a price. He paid with blood. and sealed
with the Holy Spirit. He owns every one of them. He
has called them out from darkness unto light. He has chosen these
who are called saints before time ever was, and He has sealed
them with that sweet and lovely spirit of comfort. Nor, says
the Scripture, shall any one of them ever be lost. Not a single
one. Not a single one. A bruised reed
Says the Scripture, "...shall not he break, or smoking flax
shall he not quench? He is said to keep his sheep,
and he cares for his lambs." And says Matthew 1.21, "...he
came to save his people from their sins." These are the ones
addressed in this chapter, in this verse. All his saints are
in his hand. But we are defiled. We're beggarly. We're a beggarly lot. Yet our
hope is not in self, but it's in Savior. Let's look today at
the keeping, saving hands of our Kinsman Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ. All His saints, particular, so
specific, And I encourage you, and I've encouraged you time
and time again through the years I've been preaching, is to go
back to Songs of Solomon and don't read any commentator. Don't
read a one. Just read it, the bare naked
Word of God, and be overwhelmed with the beauty of that love
relationship between Christ and His Church. Let's look at these. His saints are in His hands. These hands are fashioning hands. They're fashioning hands. What
do I mean by that? Well, in your mind's eye, go to the ceramic
shop and go to some pottery and get some clay and fashion it. That's what I mean. He, as the
scripture says, is the potter. We are the clay. He has formed
and created us in Christ Jesus unto good works. Ephesians chapter
2. Let's turn to Isaiah 43. Isaiah
43. Isaiah 43 in but one verse. Verse 21. This people, Isaiah 43, verse
21, this people have I formed for Myself. This is God speaking. They shall show forth My praise. They shall show forth My praise.
This people have I formed for Myself. Well, that's not fair.
Didn't I just say in the Scriptures, Romans, didn't I just say that
He is the potter and we're the clay. This people, this people have
I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. So it's as normal for a believer
to pray and to come to worship and to gather together and to
give what the Lord has prospered them. It's as common as breathing. Why? Because we're new creatures
in Christ. Because He's formed us. were his workmanship created. That's what the scriptures, what
Ephesians says. His praise, my people are formed
for his praise. He has done all the work in righteous
redemption. Shall he not receive all of our
adoration and thanksgiving? Where's boasting, says Paul? Where's boasting? It's excluded. And boy, how we like to talk
about ourselves. But in true religion, it's excluded. It's excluded. Away with self. Away with self-serving religion. And I do believe that Karl Marx
hit the nail on the head when he described, I don't know if
he was throwing any darts at America, But he understood the
truth when he said, religion is the opium of the people. And talk to Bruce, you know,
when he drives at Sadie, it's like a crutch. It's all they
talk about is religion. They don't talk about Christ,
they talk about religion. And I had a Mormon friend, a
friend, because he was a friend, he was a good work buddy. Nice
guy. Do anything for you. He never
talked about Christ once. He talked about his religion.
Mormonism. This. Mormonism. That. And he
missed the boat. It's a religion of works. Do
this and don't do that. Say this and say that. Away with
self. Away with self-serving religion.
We shall worship Emmanuel in spirit and truth. Why? Because
He formed us. Why? Because He has us in His
hands. He has us in His hands. Secondly,
these hands are preserving hands. I know sometimes when the doctor
comes in, and not literally, but when the doctor comes in
and tells you've got a disease or a problem or whatever that
you were not expecting, they call it a punch in the gut. You
don't know what to do, you don't know what to say. Am I going
to make it to the end? I ask you, Are you His people? Are you His lamb? Yes. I have all the confidence in
this book. I never met Christ, but I know
this book and I've met Him through this book. The Spirit has made
it. He's the Comforter. He's comforted me with these
words, wherewith I am comforting you, if you are one of His foe,
if you are one of His lambs, His children. His saints are
in His hands. These are preserving hands. Now
that we are His adopted sons and daughters, we will need to
be kept by His sustaining grace. So, like Paul said to the Galatians,
did you get saved by the Spirit? Now you've got to do something?
No. No, there is works after salvation. We desire to maintain good works
because He's, again, If you can think back this far, if those
of us who are not children, you used to try to please your parents.
Why? Because they were your parents.
Because you loved them. And there were certain rules
and regulations they also set down. But our Heavenly Father,
the love of Christ, constrains us. I'll take love over law any
day. Any day. We are, it says in the
Scriptures, His jewels and His crown. Because we're such, we're ready
to be seized upon by the world and by the ministers of darkness. They hate the gospel of God's
grace. They hate Christ. Yet, in Christ,
we are safe and secure under His everlasting arms. Isaiah
62. Isaiah 62. And verse 3, Isaiah 62 verse
3, "...Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." In His hand. Ok,
turn to John chapter 10. John chapter 10, verse 27-29. Christ says, My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
look at this next phrase, neither shall any man pluck them out
of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me,
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand." I had somebody say, what about me? Are you not
a man? No, nobody. Nobody. Because again in our text, all
His saints are in His hand. Now in His hand, we could emphasize
that, which we were trying to emphasize, and Bruce emphasized,
and we emphasize this regularly from this pulpit. His hands is
God's hands. Now, if your God is a mealy-mouthed,
weak-kneed, effeminate Jesus that is so often depicted, then
you've got trouble. But if your God is the Lord of
Lords, and what the Scripture says, King of Kings, He's referred
to as the potent one, he's referred to as the majestic one, majestic
sweet that sits enthroned upon our Savior's brow. As Bruce said
this morning in Bible class, he spoke and the worlds were. So his hands are preserving hands. His hands, we've seen, are fashioning
hands, preserving hands. Thirdly, these hands are guiding
hands. He leads the blind. He said His people knew not the
way. But He leads us in a way not
known to His people by birth, nature, and practice. But blessed
be God, He knows and He leads us by the hand. How precious
it is. Parents are going to find this
out if you haven't found it out. The kids, little one or little,
They reach in for daddy's and mommy's hands. And then one day,
you reach, and they're like, no, I got this. I can handle
this. And I remember that day when
doing that with Jackson. I remember my daughter just released
my hand. I can do this. Oh, it just killed
me. But the believer is to be as a little child. Are we not? One of the old timers said, snuggle
up to Christ and don't let go. Like Jacob, I'm wrestling, but
I'm not going to let Him go. I'm not going to let Him go until
He blesses me. Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41 and verse
10. Isaiah 41 and verse 10. For I am with thee." This is
God speaking to His children. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. Back to our, we're in His hands.
Every which way, every which way, we're in His hands. These
are guiding hands. Seeing then that we are blind
from birth, that means we're sinners, we're lost, helpless,
hopeless, He by Himself shall lead and direct us to Canaan
land. He's promised. He has never lost
one for whom He has suffered, bled and died, and He cannot
fail. This God, the God of the Bible,
cannot fail. Fourthly, these hands are chasing
hands. We don't like that. Chasing hands. Oh, how often we wander from
the fold and from our elder brother, which is Christ. This is an integral
part of His teaching work. We teach our children, we swat
them, we discipline them, we chase them. We don't punish them. The Scripture
never talks about punishing His people talks about chastening,
it talks about his affliction, doesn't seem to be comfortable
for a time being, but he chastens those whom he loves as the Father
disciplines His children. Only our Father in heaven never
errs, He can never do any wrong, And though we may not fully understand
his correcting rod, like one of the old writers wrote years
ago, I like this, he said, he uses the rod and then he drops
it and comes over and comforts his dear children. And I remember,
it's like, man, this is kind of tough, but it's needful if
the child needs correcting. And we need correcting, because
we know ourselves. We don't know ourselves as good
as we think we do, but we know enough about us. He's revealed
ourselves unto us, and we realize, well, we cry what He says in
the New Testament. Without Him, we can do nothing. See, God's mathematics is perfect. One plus zero always equals one. Christ plus nothing. None of your righteousness, none
of your helps, none of your, but I can afford this. No, Christ plus nothing equals
Christ. That's God's addition. That's
God's arithmetic. I like what Luther said. He said,
Lord strike on, strike on, for now I know I'm your child. And I've seen this, and I've
been there, and I probably was like, well, I need to grow in
grace, and I need to learn the Scriptures more, and I need to
be more loving, I need to be more charitable. Well, what you're
praying for is you need affliction. Because in order to grow in grace,
He's going to withhold something. He's going to chastise or rebuke
or afflict. But that's okay. Because these
hands were in His hands. Not only these hands are guiding
hands, but these are chastening hands. This is seen in Jeremiah
31. I always like to go to the Scriptures. And there's so many more of these.
I'm just usually using one to prove what the Scriptures already
say. Jeremiah 31 and verse 20. This is God speaking. Is Ephraim
my dear son? Yes. Is he a pleasant child? No. For since I spake against
him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore, my bowels
are troubled for him. I will surely have mercy upon
him, saith the Lord. It's almost contradictory language.
But Dad, you said you loved me and you would buy me a car when
I'm 16. I heard that and it didn't come
true. So you're not doing what you
said, but God does what He says. We're His dear children, sons
and daughters. For since God spake against us
when we're disobedient. All according to His will and
plan, I can't figure it out, and I don't need to. I just know
I'm in His hands. Bottom line, keep it simple. The Gospel, we're far too intellectual,
we're far too removed from the simplicity that's in Christ. This and Christ too? This book
and Christ too? These hands are chastening hands. And time would not allow us to
mention Christ's graven hands. I won't believe unless I see
His hands. His hands are graven for us.
Pierced for His people. Time would not allow us to speak
of His sovereign, majestic hands controlling all things for His
people. All things are working together
for good to them who love God and are called according to His
purpose, sovereign hands, and His covering hands. He covers
us from the storms of life. Like was mentioned in Bible class,
this country, as long as I've been alive, this country is what
people are calling wrong is right, and what's right is they're calling
wrong. The political moral compass in
this nation is so upside down fear, the media, the pandemic,
this or that, whatever, whatever. His covering hands, all His saints,
go back to our text, all His saints are in His hands. He is fully responsible. for
every single saint that there is and shall be. And we need
to remember this. He has not dealt with us after
our iniquities deserve. We're worse than what we know.
We deserve wrath, but instead have received mercy. We deserve
damnation, But by grace and through grace and through His blood and
righteousness and by faith, we will meet Him in glory. That's the bottom line. Ecclesiastes,
in closing, chapter 9. Ecclesiastes, chapter 9. What a comforting verse. Verse
1. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 1. Bruce taught this in Bible class,
it's been a while ago, but who's the writer of this? This is Solomon.
Now what's the Bible say about Solomon? He's the wisest, smartest
man ever lived. No, no, no, period. The Bible
says it, period. Well, if they didn't understand
astrophysics, then I don't care. It doesn't matter. This man,
and more importantly, New Christ. Listen to what he says. Ecclesiastes
9 verse 1, For all this, cattle, agronomy, biology, study
of flora, study of fauna, study of human nature, humankind, for
all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that
the righteous and the wise And their works, this is the saints,
are in the hand of God. They're in the hand of God. And according to the New Testament,
He can do with us as He will. He can do with us as He will. Now, if you're a believer, that
is of the most tremendous comfort that you can think of. And it's
just kind of goofy, but when I think of the hands of the Lord,
I don't know why, I guess maybe because I grew up with Allstate
or whatever, whichever the one, State Farm, you're in good hands. And they showed little hands.
Well, our Father's got one hand underneath and one hand over.
Nothing can get in. No disease, no sickness, no poverty,
no death. can get in unless He allows it. And when He allows it, He will
allow us to see Him in it and glorify Him in it. May we find comfort in this Word
for our souls this morning. All His saints are in Thy hand. And may we be like the two messengers,
if you're familiar with John Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress. There's
two messengers and they're talking with pilgrim and Christian and
they lead them up to the delectable mountains. And they look off
in the distance and they can see the celestial city. They
can see Canaan land. They can see glory. They can
see it. And it says, they encouraged
one another in the way. Now I know some of you are young,
some of you are middle-aged, some of you are older, but if
you're a believer, you need encouragement in the way. And that's why we
gather together, and that's why we call one another, and that's
why we pray for one another, and that's why we glorify our
Father. He wants to hear from us. So, I want to be like those
two. In my mind, it goes crazy. I can just hear some of the things.
Oh, there will be no sin there. There will just be comfort. There
will be no more sorrow, no more pain, no more worry. And it's
like Bruce said, you go on vacation and you think about what you
just did, and you gather back together, and you're like, oh,
encouraging in a way, encouraging in a way. Did you hear what so-and-so
did on Capitol Hill? I don't care. I don't care. Oh,
did you hear there's another variant? I don't care. I'm in His hands. And one old
writer said, if He kills us or if He takes us out, He ushers
us to glory. Because we're in His hands. But
that's the only place the believer wants to be. truly and really. So let us thank Him evermore
for His sovereign, free, unchangeable grace. And Him, obviously. We can talk about a sovereign
God, but we need to talk about the God who is sovereign. Bruce,
would you close us?