I'd like to read beginning with
the 26th verse and read down through verse 29 of the book
of Deuteronomy chapter 33. There is none like unto the God
of Jeshurim, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in
his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he shall thrust out
the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Israel,
then, shall dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be
upon a land of corn and wine. Also his heavens shall drop down
dew. Happy art thou, O Israel! 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. I wanted to make this remark
before we got into the message. I was blessed by the selection
of the hymns this morning. Mike was very hurried when he
came in and didn't feel that he had had time to select hymns,
but the Spirit of God did lead, and the hymns were blessed and
they go along with the message. Now, beloved, these are the last
recorded words of Moses. And they're very significant
because I think they show us that in the hour of his, in the
time of his death, that he was considering the happiness of
the people from whom he had labored most of his life. He was considering
these. Now Moses knew that he was going
to die. He knew that very shortly The
Lord was going to take him out of this world. And from the day
when by God's power he led up the people of Israel out of Egypt
and brought them into the wilderness, they had been on his heart. They
had never ceased to be near, to lie near his heart. Now, they'd
been a very heavy burden to Moses, the people of Israel, because
they'd been a rebellious people. They'd been a wicked people,
a sinful people. And they had been a very heavy
burden to him at times, but with meekness and patience, most of
the time, Moses had borne with their many rebellious provocations. Moses had endured in a great
fashion, in a great fashion. He was the meekest man on the
face of the earth at the time, and he was a patient man, somewhat
patient, maybe probably more patient than most of us here,
and he stayed under the load for the most part. We know that
he was a man of flesh, in flesh, and body of flesh, and that he
did fail at times. He was not perfect in the flesh. Oftentimes he had to stand in
the gap and make intercession for these people when otherwise
they would have been destroyed if he hadn't prayed earnestly
to God for them. And then also he had, for their
sakes, given up, I think, one of the most glorious prospects
that was ever proposed to the mind of a man. For the Lord said,
you remember, to him, he said, let me alone, that I may destroy
this people, that I may destroy Israel. And then he said, I will
make of thee a greater nation. That's what God said to old Moses.
He said, I'll fix this thing. I'll destroy this rebellious
bunch of heathen that are living like there is no God. I'll destroy
them, and I will make of thee a greater nation." But no, even
such a proposal as that could not divert Moses from his patriotic
zeal toward his people. He would have no part of it.
He wanted this people to be preserved. He loved Israel, erring Israel,
ungrateful Israel, as a mother would love her child. Moses loved
these people and continued to instruct and lead and guide this
stiff-necked race, having no thought but the glory of God
in the midst of the camp and no ambition but to see the tribes
brought at length into that land that God had promised them. That
was the desire of Moses. Well, when he was about to die,
he seems to say, I can no more go in and come out among this
people. Also the Lord has said unto me, thou shalt not go over
this Jordan. You're not going over this Jordan.
But though I must leave this people, I must leave them a word. And he said, though I must leave
this people, yet they are a happy people and are safe in Jehovah's
hands. They are safe in the hands of
their God. He looks at the privileges with
which God had enriched these people and feels that he may
go up to the mountain and fall asleep. For this people is in
the hands of the Lord, and this people are blessed by God, and
this people are the saved of the Lord. And so he feels that
he can leave them in the hands, the good hands of their sovereign
God. So you see how Moses consoled
himself. Well, why was this not left unrecorded? Why do we have all of this? Why
is this necessary that this should be recorded and that we should
read about it? March the 23rd, 1997. Why should
the Spirit of God direct our hearts to this portion of the
scripture? Why should we be able to read
such an account as this? Why tell this to these people,
these Israelites? Why comfort them? Why tell them
that they're a blessed and a happy people, that they're a people
saved of the Lord? Why do all of this? Could this
not sometimes be unwise to tell people about their position before
God, their standing before God? Could it sometimes be unwise? I mean, may they become vain
if they knew exactly their position, their standing before the God
of the Bible? If they understood where and
how God looked upon them, would it make them vain? Well, most
men are not able to divide or make a distinction between themselves
and their condition. Most men are not able to do that. Most everybody in this room here
this morning thinks that their condition is exactly like they
are. They're not able to make a distinction
between themselves and their condition. They read a commendation
of their condition as a commendation of themselves, though it be not
so. Now, beloved, we have long tried
to emphasize here in our preaching that there's a difference between
our state and our position. that there's a great difference
between what we are in a state of nature and how we are accepted
and appear this morning before God in the beloved one. We have tried to emphasize how
that we have a standing before God just as if we had never committed
a sin and how that God has pledged his blessing to us as we stand
in another. as we stand in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We've tried to emphasize that.
God would not touch us as we stand in a state of our own nature
with a ten-foot pole. God is not going to do anything
but damn you to hell as you are in a state of nature. God's not
going to bless you for what you are in your state this morning
as far as the old nature, as far as the old man is concerned.
But God has made Him, Jesus, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption in our room and in our stead and place. And God
has, by a sovereign act, placed us in Christ, and we shall be
in Christ for all eternity. We've been in Him from old eternity. We shall forever be in Jesus
Christ. We're accepted in Him. Now then
beloved, oh to grace how great a debtor. Do we understand this? That we are to grace a great
debtor. That we owe our standing before
God this morning to God's grace and not to ourselves. Not to
our situation. Not to the way things are presently
with us. There are those here this morning
that might be admiring themselves. There may be those here this
morning that feels that they've had recently some mountaintop
experiences spiritually and they're quite proud of themselves. There
may be here those that have fasted and prayed diligently and earnestly. There may be those that are sacrificing
now in some peculiar, unusual way, and they're quite confident
that God is looking upon them with favor and that God is well
pleased with what they're doing. but beloved you're confused if
you think that you're standing before god your happiness and
blessedness before god has anything to do with all of that it has
nothing to do with that and so while you might be commended
for all that you're about and what you're doing and the way
you're going about it your diligence and your faithfulness you might
be commended for that But beloved, after all, it's not he that commendeth
himself that is commended, but it's whom the Lord commendeth.
It's if God commends you. Now, we can commend ourself.
We can say, well, I'm quite satisfied with my progress. I'm quite satisfied
with where I am in my knowledge of the scripture and in my diligence
and in my duty. I'm quite satisfied. But beloved, that does not mean
that God feels any different toward you than He does toward
this brother who is struggling every day, that has tremendous
difficulty in trying to get above his feebleness and his inabilities
as he stands in this state of nature. But now listen to me,
we cannot be sure that people are happy ever by external circumstances. I think that external circumstances
is a very poor means of making a judgment as to whether men
are happy or not. Now, I think this is important
for us to understand this. There are times when God strips
men. There are time when God brings
men low. There are times when God is pleased
to lay the rod upon men's back. There are times when men and
women receive from the hand of the Lord a life situation, a
situation in life that is extremely shameful to them, very embarrassing,
very difficult for them to know how to deal with. Many, many
times they're left in a state where they just feel that they
just absolutely are so inadequate, they're not prepared, they're
not able to deal with it, and we see them in great weakness
and great frailty. The Bible talks about when we're
weak, we're strong. But very few people know anything
about what that means other than they know the meaning of the
word weakness. They haven't experienced it yet. They don't know what
it's about. But to be weak, beloved, for
a child of God to be weak is for a child of God to be emptied
out. of himself is for him to be like
a plate turned upside down and wiped out to where that individual
has no longer any confidence in themselves, no ability as
they look at their own situation to derive any comfort from their
own state of affairs. They are not able to do that.
And so, beloved, to judge in an external way, we don't know
whether anybody's, there's nobody, maybe there wouldn't be anybody
happy here this morning if we're going to take it on an external
basis. Nobody blessed here today from
an external point of view. And we need to realize this.
It is said that the fairest apple may be rotten at the core, and
the finest piece of linen that you can find may just turn out
to be a cover for a corpse. You cannot determine one's happiness
by his external affairs. Yet Moses speaks openly to Israel
without a word of qualification or caution, and he says, Art
thou, O Israel, who is likened to thee? Now, I'm sure that he
did not err in this. I'm sure that he did not. I believe
that Moses spoke as the Spirit of God moved him to speak, and
I'm sure that he did not speak with rashness, for he was of
a meek disposition, and he was slow in speech, and he was not
likely to become unreasonable, enthusiastic, if you please,
and go beyond the sober truth when he said happy art thou Israel
saved of the Lord listen beloved he was speaking the truth the
people were favored and it was right for them to be told so
They were that chosen nation. They were that people that were
greatly favored of God. God was their God. They were
His people. And it was right that they be
told of their blessedness and they be told of God's desire
toward them. He consoled the people in this
way. Now whether Moses is with you
or not, God is with you. God is with you. You see, beloved,
it makes no difference who else dies. God is not dead. God is the God of His people,
and He ever lives. He's an ever-living God. He ever
lives. The Bible says to make intercession
for us. The scripture says that the Lord
Jesus was he that was alive and was dead and now is alive forevermore. So Moses can say, God is with
you. I'm not going to be long, but
God is with you. So I learned from this example
of Moses that to commend a man's condition for the right motive
is a right thing to do. And I intend this morning, if
I can, to repeat the experiment that old Moses gives us here
and to talk a little bit about the happy condition of the people
of God, those that are saved of the Lord. Whatever was true
about the happy condition of the natural Israel is emphatically
true of the spiritual Israel, emphatically true. Now, so we
can apply this to all believers, all who are in Christ Jesus,
all who rest in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. The
words of Moses to Israel are full of comfort to the Lord's
people, especially when these people have been brought down,
have been brought low, have been under the rod of chastisement,
are about to lose their treasured leader, Moses, and are in a very
difficult situation. Now, I don't know this morning
whether you, just where you are, and you probably don't know just
where I am, But oftentimes we find ourselves in a situation
wherein we feel greatly our need to be reminded of our position
before God. We need to know where we stand
before God because everything around us is a sinking sand. Everything is changing around
us. Everything around us is unstable
and we need to know where we stand with God. Now there's a
couple of verses that recently have been a challenge to me.
One of them is over in the book of Jeremiah chapter 10 and I
want you to listen as I read these verses and maybe it'll
give you some kind of a clue as to why that I come to these
words this morning and why I want to talk about these words here
today. Here in this 10th chapter of
the book of Jeremiah, I wanted to read verse 19 and verse 20. Woe is me for my hurt. My wound is grievous, but I said
truly, this is a grief and I must bear it. My tabernacle is spoiled. All my cords are broken. My children
are gone forth of me and they're not. There is none to stretch
forth my tent anymore and to set up my curtains. These are
the words that, I mean, Jeremiah's talking about the children of
Israel in captivity and how things shall be with them, but they're
also typical of my situation. I feel a great deal, like old
Jeremiah did here on this occasion, even this morning. And then there's
another passage of scripture that I'd like for you to look
at with me. It's found over in the book of
Habakkuk. And I'd like to read from the
third chapter of the book of Habakkuk, where it says, although
the fig tree, in verse 17 of the third chapter, although the
fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines.
The labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield
no meat. The flock shall be cut off from
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength,
and he will make my feet like hinds feet, and he will make
me to walk upon my high places to the chief singer on my stringed
instruments. These verses here speak of that
time of depression, that time when there is not the plenty
that there have been at other times, and when there's a great
need that exists, situation is, everything is low, and everything
is not comforting at the time as far as outward circumstances
are concerned, but he said yet. I will rejoice in the Lord, I
will joy in the God of my salvation. Now if you would please turn
back in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy and let us look
at some things here. We want to look at the happy
condition of God's people and we must begin with the cause. The happy condition of God's
people and we begin with the cause. What is the cause? of
the happy condition of these Israelites. Well, verse 26 says,
There is none like unto thee, God of Jethream, who writeth
upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the
sky. The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms. Now, beloved, the first
cause of the happy condition of these Israelites is their
God. No God like the God of Israel. None of the gods of the nations
were capable of doing for their worshippers what Jehovah is going
to do for these people and what he had did for these people.
And one of the most solemn ways of praising God is by acknowledging
that there is none like him. that there is none like Him. In Isaiah 45, if you have your
Bible and care to turn with me, listen to these verses. Isaiah
chapter 45, and I want to read verse 5 and 6. I am the Lord
and there is none else. I am the Lord, none else but
me. There is no God besides me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me. This is talking to the children
of Israel. That they may know from the rising
of the sun, verse 6, and from the west, that there is none
beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none
else. And so, beloved, one of the ways
that we can honor God and praise Him is by acknowledging that
there is none like Him. This is the first cause of the
blessedness of God's people. God is that cause. Now, this
was the honor of Israel. Every nation boasted of their
gods. None had a God like Israel. None had a God such as this God. It was their blessedness or happiness
that they were taken into covenant with such a God. Two things that
he takes notice of here as proofs of the preeminence of the God
of Jesterim above all other gods. Number one is his sovereign power
and his authority. He rides upon the heavens And
this denotes his greatness and his glory. God manages and directs
all things in the upper and lower world as man does a horse that
he rides upon. As he takes the reins and turns
him to the right and to the left and then stops him with the reins. This is our God running and controlling
the upper and the lower world, and then his boundless eternity. He is the eternal God. His arms
are an everlasting arm. God, listen, the heathen gods
are Johnny-come-lately gods, but the God of the Bible is an
eternal God. He is an eternal God. Now then,
we think somewhat of His blessing upon His people, and I want to
say a little bit about that this morning. The happy condition
of God's people, number one, is because of their God, and
secondly, because of His blessings upon them. Now, if you've been
born again by God's Spirit, If the Spirit of God dwells in you,
if you have an interest in the shed blood of the Redeemer, the
Lord Jesus Christ, then you're the pick and choice. of all God's
creatures by God. God has chosen you and God has
been pleased to favor you with many, many choice blessings. And he has indulged you with
a measure of love and kindness such as he has shown to none
else. Now, beloved, this is the peculiar
blessing of being a Christian, being a child of God, is that
God has indulged us with a measure of love and grace and favor which
is not indulged to anybody else. Now, let me say this. I believe
that God distinguishes between men. I think there's two classes
of men in the world. There are believers and unbelievers.
They're those who know Christ and those who do not. And God
knows who they are. And all those whom God has chosen,
they belong to Him. They're His. They're the people
of His pasture. They belong to Him by His sovereign
choice and also by His purchase of them. And so, beloved, when
we talk about the blessings of God, this God, we talk about
these blessings, I think it's good for us to remember how that
God has made these blessings known to us, how that He's revealed
them to us, how that He's given them to us as His people. Now, we've talked a little bit
this morning about how that we might be in a very difficult
situation this morning for various reasons have soul trouble heart
sickness we might be disappointed we might have bodily ills we
might even be facing the prospect of death ourselves only God knows
when it shall happen but do we remember do we remember our God
and do we remember his blessings to us thy shining grace can cheer,
the poet said, this dungeon where I dwell. Tis paradise when thou
art here, if thou depart, tis hell. This God, this God of ours,
is a God that has caused our blessedness, caused us to stand
where we stand, and to have the enjoyments that we have this
morning. We have been adopted into the
family of God. We have been justified. We have
been redeemed through the substitutionary work of our Lord. Our positions,
the angels might envy us because of our standing in Jesus Christ,
because of God's treatment of us. I'm sure the angels wonder
with amazement. when they see us on the face
of the earth and they see our daily activity and they've been
sent out you know to minister to those that are the heirs of
salvation and they see our waywardness and our unfaithfulness and they
see the unbelief of our hearts and they wonder about why the
sovereign God treats us and continues to favor us and continues to
come to us and minister to us when we're such a rebellious
lot of people. They don't understand this mystery
of the gospel. Angels never felt the salvation
and never felt what our salvation brings to us and they don't understand.
They're looking into it. The Bible teaches us that. They're
looking into it. all the time trying to figure
out why God will treat a sinner like he treats him. And then
why he treated Jesus like he treated him on the cross. And
they're working and looking into it trying to figure it out. But
I want to tell you our position, our blessedness, our happiness
as a child of God would make the angels to envy us. And there
was a time that you would have given everything you had to be
in the situation you're in this morning. to be S-A-V-E-D. There was a time when you would
have given everything to have been saved and to know that your
sins were forgiven, to know they were blotted out, to know that
they'd been put away, to know that you were in Christ and to
know you're standing before God and that it was a permanent standing,
that it could never be changed. I say there was a time when you
had to give everything you had, even one or two, Either way,
I thought about something, I'm not going to tell about it, but
anyway, you might even get one of your eyes. One of your eyes
for your standing. You might get them both. It would
be better for you to go to heaven with no eyes, the Bible says,
than it would be for you to go to hell with your eyes. It would
be better. It would be better. And there
was a time maybe when you would have given it all, your sight
and everything, just to know that you're a child of God. You're
a child of the King. But now there are some things
here that I want to just point out to you in sticking with the
scripture here in Deuteronomy. This people, as we read here,
these blessings which Moses is giving to them, what time is
it anyway? Well, it's getting late, but I want to kind of give
you something here. These verses, verse 27, It says,
the eternal God is thy refuge, underneath of the everlasting
arms he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall
say, destroy them. Israel then shall dwell safely
alone. The Lord's people are well housed
and sheltered in this world, and I think that the Lord has not only provided for our eternal
comfort, but that in the covenant of grace he's made provision
also for our pilgrimage in this world. And I think these verses
here that talk about God being with these people and God dwelling
with them and how that their needs will be met and how that
all those things that are necessary concerning the driving out of
the enemy and God destroying them and making their enemies
to be found liars unto them I think all of this is just the provisions
of God for his people in a temporal way in this world, and there's
corresponding spiritual blessings that we could find and that we
do experience as the Lord's people here in this world. Now, these
people that receive these blessings, they were well provided of, and
in verse 28 there it speaks of the fountain of Jacob. It says, Israel then shall dwell
safely alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be
upon a land of corn and wine, also as heaven shall drop down
dew. Now the reference here to Jacob
seems to me to be, you know, Jacob was one who looked out
after his family. And Jacob was one who sent his
sons over into Egypt to get corn, bring it back because of the
famine in the land. And the Lord seems to consider
the need, the temporal need of his people and demonstrates that
here. And we see that these people
are happy because of the fact they're under God's protection.
and that they're in the Lord and they're at home in the Lord. Beloved, we rest in our God. And whatever be our situation,
however low we sink, however low, however far down we get,
we can rejoice as Habakkuk states in the Lord because God has a
way. God has a way, and this God is
a God of wisdom and a God of might. This God, all men are
his servants, and God has a way of providing what you have need
of. God has a way of sustaining you.
And we're blessed, beloved, because we're favored, highly favored
of God. We're not out here in this world
without God keeping an eye on us. God's eye is upon His people,
and God's providing for His people. And the Bible says that He shall
supply all of your need. according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. He will bless you with what you
need. God will give it to you. The
folks memorized Matthew 6.33 last week. And this verse of
scripture tells us that if we seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, all these things, these mundane things,
the things of this earth, the things of this world, they will
be added. God will see to it that we have
what we need. But then I must get to this expression
down here. Happy art thou, O Israel, who
is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord. These people
were saved by the Lord. Let me say that if we're saved
at all, it is of the Lord. Our salvation is of Him. If we're saved, we're saved by
the grace of God. We cannot talk of merit. We abhor
the Word. We abhor the word merit. We do
not feel that any of us here merit the Lord's salvation. Our
salvation is of the Lord. We're saved, listen to it, we're
saved by the Lord. And Israel was also saved by
the Lord. What does it mean? It means God
planned it. It means that Christ bought it.
and it means that the Holy Spirit applies it. It's of the Lord. Salvation is of Him. We don't dare to attribute our
salvation in any way to our free will, but we know that free grace
must wear the crown. Isn't that right? Free grace
must wear the crown. Happy art thou, O Israel, people
saved by the Lord. Now, never were people so well
assured of victory then these people, they were assured of
it. He said, all your enemies are going to be found liars.
What a shameless liar the devil is. I thought a lot about this. I like this a great deal because
there's a lot of liars and unbelief is a liar. Do you know that?
Unbelief is a liar. The devil is a liar. He's the
father of lies. And you know what the devil says? When you get in the kind of fix
I get in and am in most of the time, spiritually, and dealing
with things in this life, the devil says the hand of God is
against you. The devil says that everything
that's happened to you has been against you. Just look at it.
Look at it real close. It's all been against you. And
that's a lie. That's what he told old Jacob.
Remember Jacob said, this is all against me. This providence
is all against me. It's not working for my good,
for God's glory. Well, that's a lie. That's a
lie. And then the devil says, in the
Ammon belief says, he's forsaken you. God has forsaken you. And then he says, he'll never
be gracious to you anymore. He never will. Oh, he has been
in the past, but he's not going to do it anymore. Well, thank
God that these enemies are going to, these liars are going to
be, their mouths are going to be shut. That God's going to
deal with these enemies. And he'll not hear prayer. Have
you ever heard that? Well, God's not. He might have
heard somebody's prayer, but he ain't going to hear yours.
Your prayer or who are you? that's right there's where the
devil's got you if you're not up on your theology my friend
the devil's got you right there he'll not hear you and that is
so he will not hear you but if you use the right name when you
go to God he'll hear he'll hear your petition Now you come in
here, you see this is one of the blessings of being a child
of God is that God give us the right to use somebody's name
that's good! He give us the right. Now you see we can go in some
places and some places we get a little credit. Your name's
worth a little bit, you can get a little bit. But I'll tell you
what, when you go to the bank of heaven, when you go to God,
when you come to a thrice holy God, and you begin to ask and
beg and petition God, you better take this name that God gave
you a right to use that means something in the courts of heaven,
the name of Jesus. That name means something. That
man, that God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, he never sinned. He never
sinned. He never had an unholy thought
went through his brain. He never, never was impure in
any of his acts. Never, never. And I'll tell you
what, now to be able to use his name, for God to give me the
right to use his name, for this old sinner to be able, in the
name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, to come before God. the devil says well he'll not
hear you he'll not hear your prayer and I just agree with
him and go on and plead the name of Jesus that's what I do because
I know that God loves his son And I know that God was well
pleased with his son. I know that Jesus never displeased
the Father. I know he got a perfect record
in heaven. And he's got credit. I'm telling
you, he's got. You know what the Bible says?
The Bible says that the Father loved the Son and turned all
things over to him, put all things in his hand. Placed everything
in his hand. That's how much the Father thinks
of his Son. Put it all in his hand. He's
the Prime Minister of the Universe. He got some credit, hadn't he?
Bless God, he's got some credit. And I can use that name. Oh my,
my, my. Well, where would a guy go from
here? I'm preaching on something like this. Well, and then the
devil will say, you're gonna fall. And he says, your heart's
going back in the world, buddy. That's what's happening to you.
Why, you'll apostatize as sure as the world. You're bound to
bring disgrace on the Lord. You're bound to do it. You got
an evil heart. You got a sinful heart. You got
a wicked nature. You're not going to make it.
You're going to disgrace the Church of the Living God. You're
going to disgrace the Lord. You're going to do it. You're
going to do it. You're going to do it. Now that's one of the
enemies. That's the old enemy lying to
a child of God. And we need to believe that God
is going to cause those enemies to be found liars unto us. that
those enemies, the devil and our old wicked heart and our
unbelief are all enemies. You know why I say that? It's
because we're blessed of the Lord. That's why I say it. Because
we're happy. We got a happy state. We're favored
of the Lord. We have obtained that happiness
as a result of the possession or the attainment of what is
good. And we have attained it in Christ.
and we possess it in Him. Now then, quickly, before we
dismiss here, what is the result of our realizing this happiness? God is the cause of it, and then
there's blessings, real blessings, which we've tried to give you
some account of. Well, I think it keeps, and it
intends, now like in the case of Israel, it would have a tendency
to keep their allegiance to God unshaken. they would never seek
another God if they knew this one God that there was none other
like, this God of Jeshurim, this God, this sovereign God that
controls the world. It would tend to keep their allegiance
to God. Now if you know God, if you know
Him, and if you know His Son Jesus Christ, My friend, you
got a better chance of making it through this whole world,
believing, believing, believing, day after day, day after day,
whatever you face, than a man, I read about it all the time,
this fella reached a certain age, 17, 18 years old, maybe
not even that old, and he had to put an end to his life, couldn't
make it, couldn't make it. This fellow out here, he goes
so many years, maybe he goes 30, maybe he goes 35. He says,
I just can't make it anymore. I'll never make it. This is a
real world, and I'm talking to you this morning about reality. This world will back you up in
the corner, and it'll put a hand right in your face. And if you
don't believe your God, you're in trouble. This is a tough world,
and this world is not getting any easier for anybody. and anybody
thinks it is, you're just foolish. I'll tell you, you better believe
your God. You better trust your God. And you better just cast
yourself upon the God of the Bible and stand with Him. And then I think that it creates
enthusiasm and grateful love within our hearts toward the
Lord, doesn't it? What does in my old heart? And my old heart's
just as bad as anybody's heart here. desperately wicked, deceitful
above all things out of this old heart all corruption comes
we're full of it by nature but it creates in us a grateful love
for the Lord to know that we're happy, blessed and to know that
we're saved, the saved of the Lord and we're not going to be
lost. It will give us confidence to expect other blessings Remember
that Psalm says, 23rd Psalm, the Lord's two sheepdogs, Shirley,
goodness and mercy, shall follow us all the days of our life.
We shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Well, I think
that if you understand the things I'm talking about here today,
it'll make you expect the blessing because you know what grounds
upon which the Lord will give them. He's not going to give
them to you because of who you are, but because of who your
Redeemer is, because of who your surety is, because of who your
representative is, Christ. Expect more blessings. You say,
well, I never expected anything. Well, bless God, you'll never
be disappointed, but there is some blessings coming. God will
give his people more and more blessings. It'll give you strength
for bearing all your burdens and courage for facing your enemies
and facing them down. It will give you courage. And
then for a Christian to be happy, I think, and to know his blessed
state, is one of the surest ways to set him seeking the lost sheep,
the Lord's lost sheep. It will make him have confidence. It will make him want to find
the Lord's sheep. It will make him want to take
what he has and what he knows to be sure what God has revealed
to him, made known to him, and take it and share it with other
poor sinners, that they'll be able to find in this God true
blessedness, true favor, and to be saved of the Lord. May the Lord bless these things
this morning that's been said, and bless His Word above all,
and bless the exaltation of His Son, He said, if my son be lifted
up, I'll draw all men unto him. We've tried to lift up the Lord
Jesus to you this morning. I trust your heart has been drawn
toward him. Let us have a word of prayer.
Father, in the name of Jesus, take this word and bless it.
Comfort this people. And may this people be encouraged
to go on. And may we all be kept. Our Father,
if it were left to us, We're so fickle, we're so feeble. We
would fall 1,000 times a day, as the old poet said. And Lord,
our only confidence is you. You know what you're working
with when you're working with us. And we thank you for being
so patient and being so faithful toward us and being so forgiving. We thank you, Father. We praise
you. We rejoice in you. And all of
these voices we're hearing Lord, trying to, they're negative,
trying to drive us down, down, down, further and further. We
know that they're liars. And we're blessed, favored of
God, saved of the Lord. Give us, thy grace, and give
us strength, O Lord, for whatever the days hold. And as our brother
read it this morning, as thy days, so shall thy strength be. May it be so, ever so. In Jesus'
name, amen.