Joy in Forgiveness Part 3 — Chuck Smith

Welcome to the Word for Today, a broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of the Word for Today, we'll be continuing with joy and forgiveness as we pick up in the 106th Psalm, beginning with verse 21. And now, with today's message, here is Pastor Chuck Smith.

Forgetting God’s Deliverance and Falling into Idolatry

So they lusted exceedingly, they were guilty of envying the program of God with Aaron, and then they went into idolatry, making this golden calf and worshipping this molten image. They forgot, verse 21, God their Savior, which had done the great things for them in Egypt.

They forgot the greatness of God, the wondrous works in the land of Ham, and the awesome things by the Red Sea. They forgot these things. Therefore, God said, I'm going to destroy them. And had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them?

You remember the story, how God said to Moses, Moses, stand back away. I'm going to wipe them out. And Moses prayed and interceded. And he said, Lord, I ask you to forgive them, and if not, then blot my name out of your book of remembrance.

The Unbelief of the Ten Spies

He stood in the breach. Yea, it says they despised the pleasant land, this land that God had promised them. They despised it, and they did not believe his word. When the ten spies came back, they said, oh, it's a rotten land.

You know, it's a land that eats up its inhabitants. That is, it doesn't produce enough food to take care of the people. And there are giants in the lands, and the cities have walls that reach up to heaven.

We were like grasshoppers in there saying, we can't take that land. It's not worth it anyhow. It's no good. They despised the land. But Joshua and Caleb, hey, they brought back a bunch of grapes that was so big they had to carry it on a staff between them.

They said, look what we ripped off in the Elah Valley. Man, it's a land that flows with milk and honey. You haven't seen grapes like that anywhere in all your life. It's a fabulous land. They said, yea, but we hear that there are giants.

They said, ah, we'll eat them up. They're bread for us. We heard that their cities have walls that reach heaven. Ah, we can, you know, we can go and we can take it. But the people didn't believe the promise of God.

They forgot what God had done in Egypt. They forgot His power in wiping out the Egyptians. And thus they stopped. They did not go in. In fact, they said, let's get us a captain that will lead us back to Egypt.

God’s Grace Rather Than Human Merit

Unbelief kept them from all that God was desiring to do for them. As unbelief can keep you from all of the things that God is wanting to do in your life. Now, our unbelief so often stems from our looking at ourselves and seeing our weaknesses and our failures and saying, well, I understand why God wouldn't want to bless me because I failed.

I haven't been faithful to God as I should. And I look at myself and I can understand why God wouldn't bless me. But you see, God doesn't bless me because I am good. God doesn't bless me because I am faithful.

God blesses me because He is good and His mercy endures forever. And the blessings of God on my life are not rewards that God has said, good job, Chuck. Here, let me do this for you. No, it's not rewards.

The blessings of God upon my life are pure grace, unmerited favor. And thus, many times as I look at myself, I can't believe that God would bless me. And when I don't believe it, He doesn't. Because God's blessings come by my believing, my faith in His grace and in His mercy and His love towards me.

And when I look at God and I see His grace, His mercy and love, I say, all right. Lay it on me, Lord. You know, and I expect God to bless me because He is gracious and He is merciful and He is good. So that's why it's important to keep your eyes on the Lord instead of yourself.

As you look at yourself, you're going to choke off the blessings of God on your life. You look at Him, hey, the door is wide open because He is merciful, He is gracious, He's kind, He's loving, and He delights in doing good things for His children.

Wilderness Judgment and the Loss of Blessing

So through unbelief, though, they said, we can't go in. We can't do it. They'll kill our children. Here are little children. They're going to be victims, you know, these monsters that are there. And so God said, okay, okay.

You've made your choice. You will wander in this wilderness until you die. For 40 years, until this generation passes away. And your children, which you said would be their victims, they will rise up and they will go in and take the land.

Jordan as a Picture of Death to the Old Life

But you're not going to make it yourself. And unbelief kept them from that place of God's full blessing. Now, in the spiritual allegories that are drawn with the children of Israel coming out of the bondage of Egypt through the wilderness and ultimately into the promised land as they come through Jordan, the River Jordan, which God dries up as He did the Red Sea.

The promised land is analogous to that life of joy and blessing in the Spirit. That super abundant life in Christ. That full, rich walk in the Spirit. To enter in, you've got to come through Jordan. Now, Jordan has become symbolic of death.

Not so. It's death of the old self, the old life. Because you see, when they came into the land, they still had battles to fight. When you get to heaven, you're not going to have any battles to fight.

And thinking of Jordan, you know, I won't have to cross Jordan alone or swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home. I looked over Jordan, what did I see? A band of angels coming after me, coming for to carry me home.

And Jordan was likened to my death and going to heaven. No, it's my death to the old nature, to the old life. My reckoning myself dead, crucified with Christ, that I might enter into this walk in life in the Spirit.

Yes, I still have battles, but I have the victory. And I go in and I conquer and I possess the land. And God said, every place you put your foot, I have given that to you as a possession. And I go in and I possess those promises of God, that wonderful life in the Spirit that has been promised to us.

Psalm 106’s Account of Israel’s Rebellion

So they forgot God, their Savior, the things which He had done in Egypt, the wondrous works in the land of Ham. And they despised this pleasant land, and they did not believe His word that He would take them in.

But they murmured in their tents, and they hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. And therefore He lifted up His hand against them to overthrow them in the wilderness. They wandered there for forty years, until they all died off, to overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.

And while they were wandering, they joined themselves unto Baal Peor, and they ate the sacrifices of the dead. And thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions, and the plague broke upon them.

And then stood up Phineas and executed God's judgment, so that the plague was stayed, and that was crowned unto Phineas for righteousness unto all generations forevermore. And even at that time that the psalm was written, they were still talking about Phineas and the family of Phineas.

Phinehas, Baal Worship, and God’s Mercy

Boy, he's the one that stopped the plague of God when the children of Israel were committing literal fornication and spiritual fornication. When they were coming into the land of the Edomites, the Edomite king hired Balaam, the prophet, to come down and put a curse on the people, which he was unable to do because they were God's people.

And so Balaam said to the king, look, I can't put a curse on them, but I'll tell you what you do. You send your cute young gals down there and let them flirt with the guys and get them all hot and excited.

And when the guys are excited and they take the gals into the tents, then have the gals bring out their little goddesses of fertility and say, hey, would you like to see how we worship our gods? And lead them on into this worship of your gods.

Go down and be friends with them. Invite them into your homes and show them how you worship your gods. And so the children of Israel began to go to these places of the worship of Baal. And the young men began to commit fornication with the gals.

And the wrath of God was kindled and 22 ,000 were slain in one day. And Moses and the elders had gathered before the tabernacle, and they were crying out to God because of the plague that was in the camp, destroying people.

People were dying all over, and they were there crying before God. And while they were there crying before God because of this horrible plague and the things that were happening, some young Israel guy came, you know, giggling into the tent with this gal.

Phineas stood up, and he took his javelin, and he went into the tent, and he wiped them out. And the plague was stayed at that point because of his stand for righteousness. And yet God was merciful to them.

His mercy endureth forever. Praise the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. They angered him also at the waters of Strife, the waters of Meribah, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes, because they provoked his spirit so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips.

Moses’ Failure at Meribah

So again, they were thirsty. They came to Moses and said, hey, here we are. We're going to die of thirst. We've been out here for 40 years. You didn't bring us into the land. Why did we ever listen to you?

We should have never listened to you in the first place. You know, you've not kept the promise and all this kind of stuff. Started laying this heavy tribble on Moses. Moses went in and said, Lord, they're ready to kill me.

I can't take it anymore. Lord, I've had it for 40 years. I'm through. I can't take this anymore. Then the Lord said, Moses, they're thirsty. Go out and speak to the rock that it might give forth water.

And Moses went out to the people and he said, you rebels. Must I smite this rock again to give you water? And he took his rod and smote the rock. He spoke ill advisedly with his lips. He didn't represent God.

God is merciful. His mercy endures forever. Water came out, but God said, Moses, come here, son. He said, what did I tell you to do? You told me to go out and speak to the rock. Why did you smite it? That's mad.

Did I tell you to rebuke the people? No. Moses, I'm awfully sorry. And you're my representative. But you didn't represent me before the people. I'm not angry with them. They think I am because you misrepresented me.

And because you misrepresented me, Moses, you won't be able to lead them into the promised land. Oh, Lord, that's not fair. Forty years and now I can't. Moses, don't talk to me about it. It's a closed issue because you failed to represent me there.

Israel’s Disobedience and the Judgment on Canaan

The waters of strife, Meribah, can't lead them in. Now, God brought them into the land, but even there they disobeyed God. They did not, verse 34, destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord had commanded them.

God wanted them to be his instruments of judgment to wipe out these nations that were involved in such filthy practices that they would have destroyed themselves. They were involved in abortion and the sacrificing of the little children unto their gods.

Do you know that babies are being sacrificed unto Satan in the United States today in satanic rituals? It's happening. They mingled among the heathen, God said, and they learned their works. They started doing the same filthy things.

Instead of wiping them out, they became infected by them. That's why God wanted them wiped out, so they wouldn't become infected by them. Now, a lot of times people have difficulty with God, the God of the Old Testament, because he ordered the complete eradication of these nations.

They were deserving to be eradicated. Because of their practices, they would have eradicated themselves. If you were hired to be the overseer of the playground of a preschool, and you had all these beautiful little children out there in the playground, and you're there watching their activities, watching over them, if a little dog comes up the street foaming at the mouth, yipping and nipping at everything, and you recognize that dog has rabies, if that dog comes towards the children that you are there to be guarding and protecting, you would have every right in the world to kill that little dog before it had a chance to bite the children.

Because having rabies, it's going to die anyhow. Rabies is lethal. It's deadly. It's going to die. If you just allow it to be totally free, it could bite these innocent little children, and they could also die.

So it would be more or less your duty in protecting those children to kill that mad dog. These nations were as mad dogs. They had a deadly malady, and they were being wiped out because of their practices, both in human sacrifice and in their licentious sexual practices.

They were destined to be wiped out. God ordered Israel to be His instrument of judgment to get rid of them so that they would not infect His children, but the children of Israel disobeyed God. They didn't wipe them out, and they began to follow the practices of these people whose extermination God had ordered.

Idolatry, Child Sacrifice, and the Cycle of Judges

And they served their idols, which became a snare to them, and they sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils. You see, what's happening today isn't new. It happened to the children of Israel. Even they began to sacrifice their sons and daughters in satanic rituals, sacrificing them to devils.

And they shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And so what makes the United States any different today? And the land was polluted with blood.

Thus were they defiled with their own works. They went whoring after their own inventions. And therefore, because of this, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people in so much as He abhorred His own inheritance.

And He gave them into the hands of the heathen. So the book of Judges, what is it? The book of Judges tells us how that they sinned against the Lord. They began to do these things, and so God would let them go into captivity to their enemies.

And they would then cry unto the Lord because of the reason of their captivity, and God would send a deliverer, a judge, and he would be raised up, and God would deliver them from their enemies, and they would be prospered.

But then they'd again go back into the practices of the heathen, and they'd again go into captivity. And it's just one of those cycles that went over and over and over again. Their enemies oppressed them.

They were brought into subjection under their hand. And many times, not just once, many times did He deliver them, but they provoked Him with their counsel, and they were brought low for their iniquity.

Crying to God for Forgiveness and Deliverance

But the mercy of the Lord endureth forever. Nevertheless, because His mercy endures forever, He regarded their affliction when He heard their cry. Even though they were so guilty, yet when they cried unto the Lord, He heard them.

He answered them, O what that should do for you who are conscious of your failure and of your sin! If you will cry unto the Lord, He will hear you. His mercy endureth forever. And He remembered for them His covenant, and He repented according to the multitude of His mercies.

And there it is, because now the psalmist is calling for God's salvation to gather us from among the heathen—they've been carried away captive—to give thanks unto Thy holy name and to triumph in Thy praise.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord. Oh, God is so good. Praise ye the Lord. Give thanks unto God, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever.

We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Psalms in our next lesson, as Pastor Chuck Smith continues with Thanksgiving to the Lord. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us.

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Here's Pastor Chuck Smith with today's closing prayer. Thank you, Lord, that your mercy endures forever and that when we call upon you, you hear us and you answer us and you forgive us our sins because your mercy endures forever.

Oh, Lord, we praise you. We give thanks unto you because you're so good to us and your mercy endures forever. Thank you, Lord.

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