One of the best portions of the
Psalms is found in Psalm 65, and it's verse 4. But I just
want to reflect upon this section of Scripture in the beginning
because this puts things in context. I believe that the context in
which you present things is important. And by the way, that comes from
studying Jonathan Edwards. He didn't like to take anything
for granted. Edwards was a stickler for being
definitive. He was very much aware of terms
that were a part of the vernacular of Christian folk. And you understand
in his day and time, there was one church in the whole county.
It was a county church. And this is early American days. This is pre-revolutionary war
days. And so everybody that claimed
to be a Christian or that wanted something to do on Sunday, that
they didn't care if they were recognized as Christians, the
church was filled. And so Edwards always had, but
he was always concerned that when he was saying certain terms
that related to the Christian faith, that the people understood
what he was defining those terms as. And this ultimately got him
ousted from this church. After years, they finally caught
on what he was saying. And they didn't like it. And
that thrust his ministry off into a whole other direction. It put him even further out into
the wilderness. And one of his children, who
was only 12 years old at the time, who had grown up playing
with the Indian kids who knew how to speak their language fluently,
the pioneers came and hired him. Imagine this, having a son and
having the soldiers come in and say, we'd like to use your boy
as an interpreter. That means when we go off into
the wilderness, we're going to be gone for months at a time. And Edwards and his wife consented
to that because they knew how important that work was. But
here was a 12-year-old boy that was the only way they could communicate
with the Indians on the far reaches of it. And it is written that
on one Sunday morning, and there was always two services, they
would gather in the morning and have a service, and then they
would gather in the evening and return, and that between the
morning service In the evening service, there was a raid on
the camp and four people were scalped. And they met and they
honored the burial of their dead. But that was life for Edwards. And I say all that to put the
context, hopefully in your mind, of how different we have it today. And yet what is the same is how
definitive we need to be where the gospel is concerned. And
in this particular portion of the Psalms, it says, Praise waiteth
for thee, O God, in Zion. Praise waiteth for thee, O God,
in Zion. And the word waiteth there literally
means silently waiteth. Silently waiteth. It's patient
waiting. It's that excruciating form of
waiting. Our fallen flesh is not accustomed
to complying with, ever. Praise silently waiteth for thee,
O God, in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. Substitutionary atonements all
over the place in that phrase. And unto thee shall the vow be
performed. What vow? The vow of God getting
all the praise. See, praise is what connotes
worship, the very first commandment. That's loving the Lord, thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve.
Or as Jesus put the spin on it, love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, soul, mind and strength. Praise waiteth for thee in Zion
and unto thee shall the vow be performed. The Lord Jesus Christ
performed that. Our flesh miserably fails that.
O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Now this is in the Old Testament.
I immediately think of Christ's consecrationary prayer in the
garden. Glorify thy Son, Father, that
thy Son may glorify thee as thou hast given him authority over
all flesh to give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him. how that fits so well with this phrase in the Old Testament.
Unto thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities, look what it says
next, matters of iniquity, literally is what the word connotes, matters
of, understand what iniquity is now, perversions of the truth. Perversions, that's what iniquities
connotes. It can mean sexual perversions,
yes. But in this context, that would
not fit. But perversions of the truth
concerning God, and even the truth concerning the phrases
that are just presented in verses 1 and 2, iniquities prevail against
me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. Thou shalt purge them away. Then
this verse, blessed is the man. whom thou choosest and causest
to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee." Now,
if you turn over real quickly to Romans chapter 6, You'll see
a cohesive connection to the thought of what we have just
read in Psalm 65, 4. Look at verse 17 of Romans chapter
6. But God be thanked, it says. Who's going to be thanked? God.
God be thanked. The apostle is led of the Holy
Spirit. What's God to be thanked for?
That you were the bond slaves, literally, of sin, but something's
changed. You have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine, that type of doctrine, that specific doctrine. You have obeyed from the heart.
You were the bond slave of sin. God be thanked that though there
has been a time in your life when all you were were a bond
slave of sin, suddenly something's different. You have obeyed from
the heart That form of doctrine, now the Old King James says,
which was delivered you. A more accurate rendering from
the literal is, where unto you were also delivered. So, the Old King James delivers
to us a statement, which is true. The doctrine was delivered unto
them. But more importantly, it was delivered unto them because
God caused them to end up in the hearing of it. So this ties
right in with blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes
to approach unto thee. And God be thanked that you were
a bond slave of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine whereunto also you were delivered. Isn't that
great? And I trust, I hope, I pray, You'll be able to say that you
were delivered over into the hearing of the gospel this morning.
In Deuteronomy chapter 32, the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy,
we have Moses' song. This is his final
words. The Lord has instructed him to
write this song. This is an inspired song. And
while I'm going a seeming different direction this morning with the
topic, the magnitude of the curse, I'm not really. Because in my
study of the curse, which we're all a part of, our whole life
on this timeline, we're under the curse of the law. We're only
delivered from the curse as we read last week from Galatians,
as we looked at specifically from the book of Galatians, Christ
became a curse for us. And that magnitude of that, but
how and the question we're seeking to answer, because Proverbs 26
tells us the curse causeless shall not come and Christ became
a curse. I know you know the answer to
the question, what could possibly be the cause of Christ being
cursed? The holy Son of God to come under
the holy law of God in its unbending, cold-hearted truth and become
the curse. We are the cause. That's us. And we're going to see the answer
from the scriptures of that. But in his becoming the curse
for us, the nation of Israel, who are a nation of multinational
people in reality. Think of it. Jacob was a Syrian. The Bible says that. Now, if
you say that out loud in most churches in this day and age,
they'll call you a heretic, because for all practical purposes, Jacob's
a Jew. He was not. Abraham, his grandfather,
was a Chaldean, a Babylonian. Where does the Jews come from?
Well, in particular, they come through Judah, one of the twelve
sons. of Jacob. But Jacob had 12 sons. Jacob had the revelation of grace
from God personally, dramatically, when he wrestled with the angel
of the Lord all night long. And he said, I won't let you
go until you bless me. He struggled. And the angel,
who had control of the situation entirely, just touched his thigh
and said, it's time for me to go. He touched his thigh and
broke the hold. And he says, what's your name?
Jacob. Which means supplanter, trickster,
deceiver. From henceforth you shall be
called Israel. Israel is a title. It means Prince
of God. One who struggles with God and
prevails. That became how he was to be
called. But he'll always have a time
when he was Jacob, and then he was Israel. And when you go through
the Old Testament Scriptures, and you read the Psalms, and
when it makes reference to Jacob and then to Israel, multiple
times it does this. It's pointing to pre-regeneration
days and post-regeneration days. It's a revelation of what takes
place in the transformation of our life. We call ourselves Christian. Why? Because you came to know
Christ, or because you know Christ came to know you. In any way,
you enter into the community of professing Christianity. That's
because you're claiming that Christ has given you His name. And you are a follower of Him.
It's the same thing. And God very pointedly, from
the magnitude of what the law is and its coldness and its justice,
the justice of God must be carried out without mercy. There's no
mercy in the justice of God. But God will have mercy on whom
will have mercy. But the justice of God is very
cold. And the law of God in that sense
reigns supreme over fallen humanity because he is sovereign over
all. And the judgment of God, the
justice of God on man is he must die. Sin and death are the two
principles that govern our circumstances, ultimately, our existence. And
there's an outline that is really unfolding before me that shows
that previously in the book of Deuteronomy specifically, there's
an outline of cursed. If you don't obey the commandments
of God, all these curses are going to come on you. And if
you do obey perfectly, the commandments of God, which is what Galatians
3 is referring to and says, the man that lives in the law shall
continue in it perfectly. And if he doesn't, then he's
cursed. And then the book of Galatians
points us to Christ. But I want us to focus on that
magnitude of things. But at this point right here
in Deuteronomy 32, from what I've set you up with,
with Psalm 65, 4 and Romans 6, 17, and obeying from the heart
that form of doctrine. Listen to how the Lord instructed
Moses, the Lord's inspired Moses in this song. In the last verse
of chapter 31, Moses spake in the ears of the congregation
of Israel. the words of this song until
they were ended. And I want you to realize that
the whole nation of Israel, with all their faults, with all their
fallen tendencies, all their fallacies, as well as their victories,
connotes a connection to the single life. of a true believer
going through this world. I don't care what generation
on the timeline of the history of human fallenness. They come
into being. God's ordained, whatever that
would be. But He's also ordained. This is our lives in a nutshell. And what's the difference? And
there are many, many warnings. There are many, many warnings.
The nation of Israel complained. And we'll see where God says,
if you complain about the circumstances that you've put you in, if there's
nothing but complaining day in and day out, then that's a bad
sign. That's a bad sign. God doesn't
put up with that. If you truly profess to believe
in God as sovereign, as so many people do, But then they rebel
at their circumstances. That's a bad sign. That's an
indication of something awry. If you confess God is sovereign,
then you can't help but humbly be put in your place. When circumstances
come up that are adverse, whether it's in your health or your finances
or your work or whatever, your school, your life, in total,
you know that God, there's a confession, a saying, the same thing about
God that the Bible does, and you realize whatever He wants. Faith prevails, you see. The grace of faith will prevail.
You'll see things because you're not looking at the things that
are seen, but at the things that are not seen. Whatever the circumstances
may dictate. OK, let's look at this. Give
ear, O ye heavens. Be thinking of what the scripture
is saying when you read it. Give ear, O ye heavens. And I will speak, and hear, O
earth, the words of my mouth. You realize that eternity and
time both are in reference in this verse. This encompasses
the creation that surrounds us, that encompasses us. Then it
says, My doctrine, verse 2, shall drop down as the rain. My speech
shall distill as the dew. as the small rain upon the tender
herb, and as the showers upon the grass." He's relating his
doctrine. His doctrine. It's a specific
doctrine. It's owned by whoever is speaking
this. And God, through Moses, is speaking
this to the nation of Israel. My doctrine shall drop down as
the rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew, that which causes fertile, vibrant growth in the plant world. The doctrine that God speaks,
that he's speaking right now through Moses, His chosen leader
of Israel. This is at the end of Moses's
life. It's shortly after this. He's
going to go up to on top the mountain, look into the land
that he won't be able to go into. And he's going to die. This is
the final words, practically, he's going to issue forth his
blessings upon the different tribes of the nation of Israel,
but For all practical purposes, what he delivers in this song
is the last words. But it's from God. It's inspired. And it holds a context of eternality. What's true then is true now. And in principle, we see so many
connections here to what has been presented even this morning
in brief reference to Romans 6, 17. The obedience that we ultimately
display in our regeneration that separates us from every other
bond slave of sin that isn't. We're connected to them because
it's true. We've been one too. In time past,
we have walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, to the evil spirit that
works in the sons of disobedience in total. We were once a part
of that, even as they are. But something is dramatically
different. There's rained on our hearts the instruction from
the Lord, the revelation of truth from the Lord. And it has this
effect on us that's in like kind to what's being delivered here.
Verse 3, because I will publish the name of the Lord, because
I will declare loudly and boldly The honor, the authority, the
character of the Lord. Like Edwards wants to be a stickler
for definition, I too, when we think of the name of the Lord,
I don't want you to just think of the name of Jesus or the name
of God and let it go at that. To pray in the name of the Lord,
that's to be immersed within His Spirit. Because it's the very character,
it touches on the very person, the very nature of the person.
One of the chapters in Pink's Sovereignty of God, which I hope
you've all read that. If you haven't, you would be
delighted to do so, and it would be a great learning experience
for you to do so. But it was the sovereignty of
God in prayer. And I'll confess to you that
the very first time I picked this book up, that I even discovered
it by its title, I was in a a pastor's study in Huber Heights, Ohio,
which is right outside of Dayton, Ohio. And there was this book,
this title screaming at me, The Sovereignty of God. Who wrote
about that? Well, Pink wrote about that.
And I was familiar with Pink, but only superficially. And I pulled that book off the
shelf and I asked the pastor who was sitting at his desk,
have you read this book? And he said, referred to it,
which means he didn't read it. I said, could I read it? He said,
yeah, sure, anything. Go ahead. Take the book. Go somewhere
and read it. And the very first chapter I
read was in the middle. And it was the sovereignty of
God in prayer. And for the very first time, I was introduced
to an understanding of praying in the name of Jesus. of what
it truly is. It's praying according to the
very nature of Him Himself. In fact, Pink draws a connection
of the Spirit that dwells in us. That deciphers our inner
groanings. Do you ever have those times
before God where you just can't find the phrase? You can't find
the word? But you're burdened. Maybe you're
hurt. You're feeling the infirmity
of your circumstances. And it's a cry for help. It's a cry for deliverance. It's
a cry for comfort. But it's all mixed up together
and you can't put your words together. That's what Romans
8 tells us the Holy Spirit does for us. He enters into that very
moment. And we can trust our God that
He has sent His Holy Spirit to communicate to God exactly what
we need to say, exactly what needs to be said in that time. And you know what? That's precisely
the same moment that the same word, intercession, is used in
context of our Savior, who has been raised up from the dead
and sat on the right hand of God, and He ever lives to make
intercession for us. That when Christ is praying for
us, the Spirit of Christ is praying from us. And this is praying
in the name of the Lord. And what is being communicated
from Deuteronomy 32, 3 here, is because I will boldly and
loudly, that's what the word published connotes, the name
of the Lord. And then it says, ascribe ye
greatness unto our God. Give the magnitude of Elohim
His just due. Our God. Ascribe greatness. And then it says, He is our rock,
which connotes our foundation. And then it says, His work is
perfect. His work is perfect. His work
is perfect in creation. His work is perfect in ordering
the course of your circumstances. His work is perfect in what you
do, in every way. There is no imperfection in His
work. The world continually refers
to God making some sort of mistake. It can't happen. It doesn't happen. His work is perfect. He's perfect. It's perfect even who is our
President. adverse circumstances that come
together from that. His work is perfect. We need
to be humbly giving God His just due whenever we pray for our
country in that regard. And believe me, I'm as unhappy
with the way things are as you are. But His work is perfect. His work is perfect in your Christian
life, in your walk. What you have learned, what you
still have to learn, His work is perfect. What I have learned,
what I still have to learn, His work is perfect. This is God
we're dealing with here. For all His ways are judgment. This is an understatement. The
word judgment is not a word to be particularly attached to whether
things are favorable or unfavorable. It's just a word. It means verdict. The verdicts of God on your present
circumstances, how they are, what constructs them, what the
magnitude of your circumstances are. Whether you feel like you
want them to change, and what do you want to be in the change
for them. Remember, His way is perfect.
All His ways are judgment. These are His verdicts. His verdict. Unfavorable or favorable. The
child of God, the chosen sinner, who is chosen to be saved by
grace, is assured that all things work together for good. Because
they are the ones that love God. That's how that verse identifies
them. As well as it identifies them who are the called according
to His purpose. Even the bad things. Remember,
Abraham came to the conclusion, God who raises the dead and calls
those things which aren't as though they are. He is able. All His ways are judgment. A
God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. What a statement that is. There
is no perversity of the truth. There is only purity. A God of
truth. Praise the Lord. Now, it's written
in 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 24. I'll just quote this verse
for you. It says, Only fear the Lord and
serve Him in truth with all your heart. For consider how great
things He hath done for you. Only fear the Lord and serve
Him in truth with all your heart. For consider how great things
He has done for you." In the 71st Psalm, in verse 19, it says,
Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high. When it speaks
of something being very high, it means it's up here. The righteousness of the law
is one thing, but there is a righteousness of God apart from the law. that
Romans 3.21 reveals. So thy righteousness is very
high. Very high. This law of God is
holy, just, and pure, and good. And it condemns all of us. But
there's a righteousness that we need to get to heaven that
allows us to be accepted by holy, holy, holy God. And that's a
righteousness apart from the law. That's incredible, isn't
it? But Romans 3 tells us that the
righteousness of God apart from the law is manifested, revealed,
which the law, this, And the prophets, through whom the law
is administered to humankind, explaining to them, there's no
hope for them, they're all judged, they're all condemned, they all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. They bear witness
to the righteousness of God, apart from the law, which has
been revealed. They bear witness to that, which
is imputed to all who believe, unto all and upon all that believe. Thy righteousness also, O God,
is very high. Psalm 71, 19 says, Who has done
great things. Makes that statement. Who has
done great things. O God, who is like unto Thee,
is the last phrase of that verse. Who is like unto thee? There's
nobody. Now, much more familiar to us is the written Word of
God from all three of the synoptic Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke
all record the words of Christ when he said, Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Heaven and
earth shall pass away. but my words shall not pass away."
And this statement is intended to emphasize who's doing the
speaking. It's intended to communicate
the veracity of what's being said because of who is saying
it. And who's saying it? The Lord. The Lord is saying it. It's the
Lord who is speaking. Just like it says My doctrine
shall drop down as the rain, and my speech shall distill as
the dew." Here it is, the Lord who is speaking. And He says
that all of creation in its entirety, heaven and earth, in the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth. All of creation in its
entirety shall pass away. But what the Savior Son of Man
has to say, shall never, never, ever pass away. What he is saying
comes from the realms of eternity, because he comes from eternity.
Do you see the connection? Why we must understand and not
forget the connection of Jesus Christ being the eternal Son,
being the eternal Lamb, It tells us where He comes from. And the
magnitude of everything that He has to say to us, everything
that He does for us. He lived perfect holy life for
us. For us. We can't live a perfect
holy life. Our goose is cooked from the
start. What a great Savior. Because of the great magnitude
of what it is that he's done for us. And what he speaks has
the weight of being truth. Truth always has been truth,
always will be truth. And when we understand the magnitude
of this, as I hopefully, I've touched on very crudely with
you this morning, He's the Lord. We see that all of the integrity
entirely of the Word of God in total is caught up in the net
of the meaning. It's true. Turn with me to 1st
Timothy, chapter 6. And let's observe verses 3 through
5. 1st Timothy 6, verses 3 through
5. We read, if any man, any fallen
sinful man, because all men are fallen and sinful, if any man
teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, that is literally
the word wholesome means healthy, sound words, even the words of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine, there's that word
again, And to the doctrine, it's specific, which is according
to godliness. The doctrine which is according
to godliness. The doctrine that drips down
like the rain upon the grass and comes forward and manifests
itself in the moisture, the life-giving nutrients of the moisture of
dew as on the grass and nourishes it, causes it to grow. What is
it that this doctrine, what's the grass attributed to? Godliness. Godliness comes forth like your
life becomes a garden where this doctrine is concerned. This doctrine
drops down as rain. And from the garden of your life,
from the essence of your nature, from your being, godliness is
produced. In Titus chapter 1, I don't need
to turn over to it, but I'll just remind you of the phrase
of Scripture that's given forth from Titus 1.1. It mentions acknowledging
the truth, which is after godliness. So we've got doctrine and truth
that are synonymous. Now the context of the 1 Timothy
6 passage is, if any fallen sinful man teaches otherwise, verse
4 says, he is proud, knowing nothing. But what he's doing
and what he practices doing, what he ends up doing, doting
about questions and stripes of words. It's a phrase that literally
describes harping about things that are trivial, that don't
matter. And then it says, whereof come
envy and strife, or quarrels, railings, or literally blasphemies,
evil surmising. That's evil suspicion. Now, what
Paul was dealing with were Jews, were the Sanhedrin type Jews,
were Pharisee Jews like he used to be, who were always harping
about living according to the law of God. And it was revealed
to Paul, you can't do that. That's denying Christ. There's
so much involved in blaspheming the Lord Jesus Christ by even
attempting, by even thinking that you can do that. And what
do you end up doing? Evil surmisings are evil suspicions. It causes you to become self-absorbed. And with what you're doing, you're
like the rich young ruler whom the Lord quoted the first five
of the table of the law. He quoted the last five, the
table of the law, and the rich young ruler had the audacity
to say, all these have I kept from my youth up. And his very
approach to Christ showed that he was looking horizontally and
not vertically. He was assessing himself from
the standpoint of others of his kind. And he found himself to
be, well, I'm better than that guy. That causes you to have
evil suspicions. And that's what this word means.
Evil surmisings. The fruit of teaching otherwise. Perverse disputings, verse 5
says, of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. This
is literally misemployments of thinking and reasoning by men
of fallen minds. All of our minds are corrupt.
We're admonished to trust in the Lord with all our heart and
not even lean on our own understanding because our very point of reference
of our reasoning is already off center, you see. It's fallen. It's corrupt. perverse disputings
of men of corrupt minds, misemployments of thinking and reasoning by
men of fallen minds who are deprived of the truth concerning Christ.
That means they haven't yet received the revelation of the truth that
comes through the gospel and through the gospel only. They
end up supposing that gain is godliness, it says. We might
better, it might better communicate to us the meaning of this phrase
if we put it just the other way around. Supposing that godliness
is something that is gained, a worldly gain. Where they take
the things that are seen and they make them the most important
thing, an evidence of godliness. When it's never that, it's always
the things that are not seen. What are we supposed to do with
these people? The last phrase, from such withdraw thyself. Don't
even go near them. Don't go near where that is fed. Why? Because, you know, your
mind is still in a fallen state and condition. And it's the mind
that the Holy Spirit of God renews, isn't it? Be ye not conformed
to this world, but be ye transformed. by the renewing of your mind.
That's the Holy Spirit that does that work. We are called, we
who are thee called, are called to a much greater goal, much
greater aim than this. Look at verse 11 and 12 of this
same chapter. It says there without reservation,
but thou, O man of God, flee these things. Oh man of God,
you know what that is in the original? Anthropos of God. You know why that's significant?
It's not really ladies saying man, per se, gender wise. It's saying human being, fallen
sinner, chosen by God. It's a person of God. There is no gender separation
in this phrase. But thou, oh person of God, flee
these things. Don't just avoid them. Flee them
and follow after. Now what is being described here
is not disconnected action. It's connected. If you follow
after, therefore, what is being encouraged upon you to follow,
you will be fleeing the other. You can't do one without the
other. Follow after righteousness. Remember we read it, or I referred
to it, Thy righteousness, O God, is very high. Follow after that. That's the high calling. Jesus
said, but seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Well, that's very high, Lord.
Yeah, I know. Pursue it. And after all, He
who inhabits eternity has exalted us. You've been raised from the
dung heap to that level. You've been given eyes that see
and ears that hear. You are receiving the revelation
of these things. Follow after righteousness, the
next word is godliness. And that comes from the context
of hearing the doctrine, the truth. The doctrine of God. What's the result of that? Faith,
love, patience, meekness. These are attributes of the Holy
Spirit of Christ. Faith is part of that too. You
realize that. When you read the nine constituent
fruits of the Spirit, faith is right there in the middle. You're
not left to Build up your own faith. The Spirit of God does
that work through you. Because it's the faith, after
all, it's the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. That by grace you've
been given. And then oddly enough, verse
12, right after meekness, right in the same line, without changing
or taking a breath, the Spirit of God says, fight the good fight
of faith. It goes back to faith that's
been mentioned in the previous list, and it says, fight. And this is so opposite of meekness.
You don't think of meekness as being involved in a fight. But
this is not just any fight. Fight the good fight of faith. The faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This points to the connotation of fighting for the integrity,
the defense, contending with every spiritual muscle within
your spiritual being. What Jude says, fight, contend
for the faith. It's the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know what that calls for?
Being quick to draw a distinguishing line between what our friends,
our relatives, Even strangers on the street refer to when they
are speaking of faith, being quick to defend it, to draw that
line. I'm not saying you'd be harsh
with them, but point out that there is a difference between
what the Bible defines as the faith, the faith of God's elect,
the faith of grace, the grace of faith. in what is believed to be faith. The flesh has a faith. You know
that, don't you? Oh, it's very important you see
that. So you can distinguish. Because your own flesh will want
to resurrect that faith. It can happen to even a child
of God. The flesh has its moments. You
need to be very cautious. Fight the good fight of faith,
the integrity of the faith. And in so doing, it says, lay
hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called, O Anthropos
of God, human being of God. You're called unto that. Lay
hold on eternal life. Seize and don't let go of is
what that connotes. You say, now wait a minute. You've
done well to elucidate these things for us, but there's something
that's not consistent here. How exactly do we lay hold in
this fashion to seize and lay hold of something that's a gift? Because seizing and laying hold
implies that we take it. And a gift is totally different. It's given to us. The wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. So what are we to do with this? How are we to understand what's
being said here? Well, it's true that we would
like to think that just because we want it, The gift of God is
always being offered to us. This is what troubled Andrew
Fuller in his surmisals of the so-terological scheme of things
from God's standpoint. This is how he saw that the gospel
must be accepted by the sinner. He is to seize and take hold
of it, because it's offered to us. In fact, it makes God out
to be a sort of ogre or monster, if eternal life in His Son is
not offered to everyone at all times. But that just isn't true. That just is not true. Turn to
Psalm 145, the 145th Psalm. And observe with me a very poignant
statement about God and also plainly, clearly clarifies the
direction of it. Look at verses 17 and 18. We
read, The Lord is righteous in all His ways and holy in all
His works. The Lord is nigh, near unto all
that call upon Him." That's great news. Here's the clarifying statement. To all that call upon Him in
truth. Ah, God's a God of truth. The
world is content to believe without reservation the Lord is righteous
in all His ways and holy in all His works. I give you that. The
Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him. Praise the Lord. Let's have a closing prayer and
go home. To all that call upon Him in truth, the Spirit of God
says. It is the things of the truth
concerning Him that we're talking about. It is the truth that is
the gift of God. It is the truth that comes to
be known and received, but one way, by the grace of God and
the hearing of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Earlier
in Psalm 145, look up at verse 8 of the same psalm. We read,
the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger,
and of great mercy. It is of the Lord's great mercy
that we receive the truth. But it is also known as truth
that He does not have mercy on everybody. May I remind you of
Romans 9, verses 15 and 18, which are again quotes from the Old
Testament, from the book of Exodus, and God's communications with
Moses. That's where the Lord says to
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and compassion
on whom I will have compassion. And then he makes it very clear
that Paul draws the right conclusion of all this. There are many that
have come to the to the conclusion that Paul was a false apostle
because he makes a statement like this. And I mean that I've
actually talked to him. Oh, yeah, the writings of Paul
are in the New Testament, but Paul was a false apostle. And
I can prove it. And they say their proof amounts
to the conclusions that he comes from passages like this in verse
18, where he says, therefore, hath he God mercy on whom he
will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth. When in the very
context, it's pointed out that for this purpose, he raised up
Pharaoh and he hardened his heart. He told Moses, I've hardened
his heart. You're going to go to Pharaoh
and you go and you say, you demand from him, let my people go. that
they may come out here to this mountain and worship me, but
I will harden his heart." That would be a mission I wouldn't
want to go on. No wonder Moses was rebelling, huh? Well, wait
a minute. I've been living in bliss out
here on this other side of the desert from Egypt because they
wanted to lynch me, and you want to send me back there? And you
want me to tell Pharaoh what? And you're going to harden his
heart so he won't do what I'm going to tell him to do? This
looks like a dead man's walk to me. But we all know how it
turned out, don't we? But that was the circumstances. And the Lord intended to harden
Pharaoh's heart. And for this purpose, He raised
him up. He raised this Pharaoh up to
demonstrate his power. His almighty power, His absolute
sovereign power over all creation. But just exactly what does His
mercy cause us to receive the truth about? Psalm 145 reveals
to us what. Listen to what it says in verse
10. It says, All thy works shall
praise thee, O Lord. And thy saints shall bless thee."
Look at verses 11-13 now. How are thy saints going to bless
thee? They shall speak of the glory
of thy kingdom. They shall speak of the glory
of thy kingdom." There's an inseparable connection between eternity,
the eternal reality of all of God's elect, regardless of what
generation they come into existence on this timeline, and the eternal
kingdom. And they shall, on this timeline,
speak of thy kingdom, the glory of that kingdom, and talk of
thy power. Verse 12, why? To make known
to the sons of men His mighty acts and the glorious majesty
of His kingdom. That's what it says. And then
verse 13 comes forward like as it just comes off the page. It
just comes completely out of the general tenor of the context
and takes a separate place. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. This
is what the blessing of the saints. You ever wonder what it means
when it says, Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within
me, bless thy holy name. Who are we to bless God? Why
does it say, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ? God's the one that bestows blessings that's of any value
or consequence. What kind of blessings could
we bestow upon Him? Telling of the glories of His
everlasting Kingdom through Christ. Moses was not completely unfamiliar
with the context that the little two words, thy saints, speaks
of. In Deuteronomy 33, verses 2 and
3, Moses relates to us what really happened at the giving of the
law when he was on Mount Sinai. He says, he came with ten thousands
of his saints. And that in the Hebrew means,
holy myriads of his saints. Wow, what a revelation, what
a vision he must have had. And it says, from his right hand
went a fiery law for them. Oh yeah. And Moses said, yay,
he loved his people. All his saints are in thy hand,
and they sat down at thy feet. Every one shall receive of thy
words." That's in Deuteronomy 33, verses 2 and 3. That's reminiscent
of what Jesus said in John 6, 45, right after he said in 44,
no man can come unto me except the Father that sent me. Sent
me from eternity down here into this time frame to talk to you
all. Except the Father that sent me,
draw Him. And I'll raise Him up at the
last day. It makes a very stringent clarification. And then He says in verse 45,
for it is written, they shall all be taught of God. Everyone therefore that hears
and learns and is taught from God, cometh to me." Just what
Moses, in his description of what he was seeing when he was
receiving the law. And they sat down at thy feet,
every one shall receive of thy word. It is to all of these that
the goodness of God and the tender mercy of God is displayed. These
in the reception of this revelation on a personal basis because the
Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. There's that personal encounter
with God. These lay hold of. These cease
and keep hold. Not in their own power. by the
power of God's grace, they apprehend that for which they are apprehended
of. That's in Philippians. They get
a hold of that which has got a hold of them. And they seize
it and they keep it. Even because, as Ephesians 2.10
says, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. which God hath before ordained,
that in them we should walk." We only speak of the things that
we receive by direct divine intervention. We speak of His great and glorious
kingdom. The Bible says in Romans 11,
O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding out. Then it asks the question, for
who hath known the mind of the Lord? Who hath been His counselor? Who hath first given to Him?
And it shall be recompensed to Him again. For of Him, through
Him, and to Him, are all things, the great things of the glory
of Christ's work, to whom be glory forever. That verse ends
in that fashion. Amen. Hopefully the Lord has
blessed you this morning. Let's pray. Our Father, we confess
that we cannot possibly plumb the depths the length and the
breadth or the height of the great things that you have done
for us. It is enough, O God, for us to
grasp the magnitude of who you are and why you came into this
world. I pray, Lord, that you give us
eyes to see this. Give us ears that love to hear
this. May we enter into the fellowship of this reality with one another
as well as rejoicingly with you. Bless our time together and the
time that we will have yet together. For your glory only, Lord, I
pray. Amen. It's a nalbotros.