Sunday Morning, September 13, 2020 AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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September 14, 2020

Michael Dirrim Pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church OKC "Praise the Lord for His Works" (Part 3) Psalm 111:1-10

00:28: All right, good morning everyone. Come on in, have a seat, we're glad that you're here to worship with us at Sunnyside Baptist Church this morning.
00:37: A few announcements as we're getting started, tonight evening service, after we were off last week, evening service is back on at 5 .30
00:45: p .m. tonight, Wednesday, 6 .30, TAG is starting back up. Again, there is a
00:51: TAG meal beforehand, but that's only for families whose kids are participating in TAG, and that's at 5 .45,
00:59: before that, and then prayer meeting for the adults while TAG is going on. Truth Group is that next, or September 27th, 4th
01:09: Sunday. So Truth Group's coming up September 27th for the young adult kids in church.
01:16: Our fighter verse for this week is in Jeremiah, chapter 32, verse 40, it's good to be back in Jeremiah a little bit,
01:24: I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me.
01:36: Reminder, Diane McGarry is a notary public, so if you have any needs regarding that, or a mail -in ballot for the upcoming elections in November, she can help you with that as well.
01:48: Offering plate continues to be on the back table, we're not passing that yet in church, so don't forget your tithes and offerings, and then nursery is available as well.
01:58: Lastly, Jill Smoot, there she is, she has an announcement about Operation Christmas Child boxes.
02:40: Okay, thank you, so take advantage of those shoe boxes that we've been given, again those are back in Jill's Sunday school classroom, so if you go straight out the doors, it's the first room past the bathroom on your right there.
02:55: Any other announcements that I'm missing this morning? Alright, well we're going to prepare our hearts for worship, and then after that,
03:04: Dad will lead us in prayer. Gracious Father, we give you thanks for the blessing of this day.
04:21: Every good and perfect gift comes to us from your hand, both in blessing and in sorrow.
04:35: Lord, you are faithful, and you are good, and we give you glory and praise.
04:48: Father, as we come this morning, Lord, I pray that you would give us clean hands and a pure heart that we might come into your presence.
05:03: Oh God, we cannot cleanse ourselves, so we run to you, we run to Jesus, the only one who can take our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh.
05:31: Lord, we confess our neediness this morning, and how grateful we are that you as our
05:44: Heavenly Father do not ignore us or push us aside, but that you welcome us when we come in Jesus' name and when we say,
06:03: Lord, we need your grace. So Lord, help us today to worship you, to glorify your name together.
06:14: Lord, work in us and through us, for yours, oh
06:23: Lord, is the kingdom and the glory forever.
06:30: Amen. Morning. Before we start,
06:44: I wanted to share just a personal note. It's just good to see the sunny side this morning.
06:50: I know some are returning from out of town, passing of loved ones. Others have been out for health reasons and now back.
06:58: So it's just good to see the sunny side family this morning. Our family had a praise yesterday,
07:04: I just wanted to quickly share. We were, the van keys were gone. And Lisa and I, I know we're separately silently praying, and within minutes,
07:15: God just provided, showed us, Lisa actually found them. So, and Chris and I were there working to look for them, and we just cried out to God.
07:26: And that's just a little small area of miracle, but for us, that meant so much to our family.
07:33: And it's just good to know that no matter what the situation is, we can cry out to God in our time of crisis or in time of joy.
07:42: And right after that, I found myself singing All Creatures of Our God and King.
07:50: And even though I didn't have all the words memorized, I was singing that. But let me read just a couple phrases here.
07:58: All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and with us sing. And then also, praise
08:05: God and on Him cast your care. O praise Him, O praise Him. Anyway, if you would stand for our call to worship this morning.
08:15: Our passage is found in Psalms chapter 47. We'll be reading verses 5 through 7.
08:22: Read with me together. God has gone up with a shout, the
08:27: Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Sing praises to God. Sing praises.
08:34: Sing praises to our King. Sing praises. For God is the
08:39: King of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm. So our first song this morning is page 64.
08:47: All Creatures of Our God and King. And we'll sing verses 1, 2, 4, and 5. Sing a little black humans.
09:01: All creatures of our voice and let us sing.
09:13: Alleluia, Alleluia. Thou burning sun with golden beam.
09:21: Thou silver moon with soft reprieve. O praise
09:28: Him, O praise Him. Alleluia, Alleluia.
09:38: Alleluia. Thou rushing wind and oars so strong.
09:47: Ye clouds that sail in heav 'n above. O praise
09:54: Him, Alleluia. Thou rising morning, praise rejoice.
10:03: Ye lights of evening, find the voice. O praise
10:09: Him, O praise Him. Alleluia, Alleluia.
10:19: Alleluia. And all ye men of tender heart.
10:30: Forgiving others take no part. O sing ye,
10:37: Alleluia. Ye who long pain and sorrow bear.
10:45: Praise God and all Him cast your care. Praise Him, Alleluia.
10:59: Alleluia. Alleluia. And worship
11:23: Him in humbleness. O praise Him, Alleluia.
11:33: Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son. And praise the
11:40: Spirit, three in one. O praise Him, O praise
11:47: Him. Alleluia, Alleluia.
11:58: Alleluia. Let's turn to God's Word, the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy.
12:27: And I'll be reading the whole chapter. The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel.
12:38: They shall eat the Lord's offerings by fire and His portion. They shall have no inheritance among their countrymen.
12:45: The Lord is their inheritance, as He promised them. Now this shall be the priests do from the people, from those who offer sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep, of which they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.
13:00: You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep.
13:06: For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and serve in the name of the
13:13: Lord forever. Now if a Levite comes from any of your towns throughout Israel where he resides and comes whenever he desires to the place which the
13:22: Lord chooses, then he shall serve in the name of the Lord his God like all his fellow
13:28: Levites who stand there before the Lord. They shall eat equal portions except what they receive from the sale of their father's estates.
13:37: When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.
13:44: There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or those who cast spells, or a medium, or a spiritualist, or one who calls up the dead.
14:01: For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord. And because of these detestable things, the
14:07: Lord your God will drive them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your
14:12: God for those nations which you shall dispossess. Listen to those who practice witchcraft and diviners.
14:20: But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen.
14:32: And you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you have asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of the
14:42: Lord my God. Let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die. The Lord said to me, they have spoken well.
14:51: I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I'll put my words in his mouth.
14:57: And he shall speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name.
15:06: I myself were required of him. But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which
15:12: I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.
15:19: You may say in your heart, how will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken when a prophet speaks in the name of the
15:25: Lord? If the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the
15:30: Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.
15:43: Lord, we thank you again for the time we have here among your people. Just thank you for this congregation,
15:50: Lord, and the blessing they've been to my life. Thank you for your word. I thank you most especially for your son and the gift that we were given through him.
15:59: I just pray, Lord, that you would help us to take full advantage of this time as we sit to learn about you.
16:06: Just pray that you'll be with Michael as he comes to speak to us. Please quicken his memory to the things that you've spoken to him throughout the week.
16:14: I pray that you would make our hearts receptive to hear the words he has to say. In your name, amen.
16:24: You may be seated. We're going to continue our song service with page 211,
16:35: O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus. To call him a little
18:34: How for them he interceded
18:41: What endured them from the throne
18:49: O the deep, deep love Love of every
18:58: Love the best of blessing
19:09: It's a haven sweet of rest
19:16: O the deep, deep love of Jesus It's a heaven on earth to thee
19:31: And it is the home to glory
19:37: For it is the home to thee
19:47: And our last song is Christ, Our Hope in Life and Death.
19:55: What is our hope in life and death Christ alone
20:39: Spring eternal O sing hallelujah
20:47: Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death
21:01: What truth can calm the troubled soul God is good
21:08: God is his grace and goodness known
21:15: In our youth stands above the stormy trial
21:29: His hands await that bring us nigh Up to the shoulder rock of Christ O sing hallelujah
21:42: Our hope springs eternal O sing hallelujah
21:51: Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death
22:05: Unto the grave what shall we see Christ it is,
22:12: Christ it is And what reward will heaven bring
22:19: Everlasting life within There will we rise to meet the
22:27: Lord And sin and death will be destroyed
22:32: And we will feast in tender joy
22:38: Rest his arms forevermore
22:44: O sing hallelujah Our hope springs eternal
22:53: O sing hallelujah Now and ever we confess
23:01: Christ our hope in life and death O sing hallelujah
23:09: Our hope springs eternal O sing hallelujah
23:18: Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death
23:26: Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death
24:18: Let's go to the Lord in prayer together. Father, I thank you for the day that you have made.
24:27: I pray that you would help us to rejoice and be glad in this day as we have gathered in honor of our risen and reigning
24:37: Jesus Christ. We confess that he is our hope.
24:46: I thank you for those that you have brought here today. Thank you for those who are able to be with us and still listening in or praying for us.
24:58: Lord, we ask special grace for them. And we ask for mercies and grace for us that we would hear your word what it is that you have to say to us about your
25:11: Son and through your Holy Spirit. We ask that you would give us a clear view of your
25:18: Son Jesus Christ. That we would give him praise and honor and glory. That we would rejoice in him.
25:24: That our worship would be as you would have it. Thank you for being
25:39: God. Thank you for being a creator and savior.
25:48: Thank you for grace that you leave us not in the dark. That you reveal yourself to us through your
25:56: Son. Bring us into worshipful, loving, everlasting relationship with you.
26:09: Pray these things looking only to Christ. The one with whom you are well pleased.
26:15: Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 111.
26:24: Psalm 111. My intention, as I've been stating the last two weeks, is to preach through Psalms 111 through 118.
26:40: The goal is to see what these Psalms have to teach us about praise.
26:49: About how to praise the Lord. What we're to praise him about.
26:57: Why we should praise him. And so on. These are Psalms that lead us in this way.
27:04: Psalms 111 and 112 are organized originally in the
27:10: Hebrew as alphabetical acrostics. We would say ABC.
27:16: We would say Aleph, Beth, Gimel. And they are used to teach children how to praise the
27:26: Lord. They are excellent for us to learn how to praise the
27:32: Lord. Psalm 111, particularly, strives to excite the worshiper's praise by presenting the quality of God's works.
27:43: If we want to excite God's worship, then we need to examine
27:49: God's works. This is what Psalm 111 is all about.
27:56: I invite you to stand with me as I read the text. So we hear what Christ says through his
28:03: Spirit in the words of the Psalmist. Praise the
28:09: Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, in the company of the upright and in the assembly.
28:17: Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them.
28:24: Splendid and majestic is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has made his wonders to be remembered.
28:32: The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He has given food to those who fear him. He will remember his covenant forever.
28:40: He has made known to his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.
28:48: The works of his hands are truth and justice. All his precepts are sure.
28:56: They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness.
29:02: He has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.
29:11: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments.
29:21: His praise endures forever. These are the words of the
29:28: Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. I wonder if you have ever seen a dancing, kissing hug.
29:50: Have you ever seen that? I saw some old news footage the other day. It followed the emergency landing of an airplane where the pilot had made a courageous and daring maneuver to land the plane safely on the ground and save the lives of all of his passengers.
30:08: There was some video footage later on of when the passengers were able to meet the pilot, who had actually saved their lives.
30:17: It focused in on one gentleman. He was older. He was larger, far larger than the pilot.
30:23: He had his arms around the pilot. He was dancing back and forth, lifting the pilot off the ground, and kissing him on the cheek and exclaiming his joy in this man.
30:36: Because the man had, by his God -given skill and in the moment, by all the providence of God, yes, but this man had saved his life.
30:44: And he could not express himself coherently enough. It was a dancing, kissing hug.
30:56: How much greater is the salvation which
31:01: Christ accomplishes for us? What Christ does by his works, his works of righteousness, his works of suffering in our place and for our sake, raising from the dead the third day to give us new life, how he saves us in his perfect wisdom from sin, from Satan, from death, that he grants us his own righteous standing before God, that he makes us new creatures for the new creation, that he will raise us from the dead, that he will shepherd us through an eternity of life.
31:54: How much greater is the salvation that Christ renders to us?
31:59: You know, you may be a few decades out from the moment of salvation, when you came to know
32:13: Jesus Christ, when by the power of the Holy Spirit your heart of stone was removed, and you were given a heart of flesh, and you repented of your sins, and you believed upon Jesus Christ, and you knew that Jesus was the
32:34: Christ, the Son of the living God, and that he was your Savior.
32:40: He deserved all your worship. You may be a few decades out from that great awakening of your soul, when faith and repentance first flowed in your heart, and your mind perceived the glories of Christ.
32:55: It's been 35 years for me.
33:04: No, 33. 33 years for me. You may have learned a lot more about what it meant that Christ died upon the cross.
33:14: What does it mean that he rose from the dead? It may be relatively new in your faith and your understanding of Christ.
33:21: But what is it that we all need? What do we need renewed for us regularly?
33:28: We need rejoicing. We need thanksgiving.
33:35: We need worship given to Christ in view of his works, in view of his saving works, in view of what he has done before God and for us.
33:52: And you know, there's no standard form that you have to follow. In rejoicing in the
33:58: Lord. We don't have to all have the same form.
34:03: It's not necessary, you see, for all of us to break out and dance in kissing hugs. Not everybody who met the pilot that day had the same reaction, you see.
34:16: But we do need to examine the works of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
34:21: We need to examine the works of God in our salvation. If we want to excite
34:29: God's worship, if we want to truly praise him and know the joy of worshiping
34:34: God, we need to examine his works. We've thought about the works of creation already.
34:42: We've considered the grandeur, the majesty, the splendor of God's works in creation.
34:47: That the more we examine those by faith and with thanksgiving, the more our worship of God will increase, the more we will praise him.
34:55: This is also true of God's works in his covenant. How he saves for himself a people and brings them into his place under his rule.
35:07: Psalm 51, 12 -15, I think captures exactly the kind of approach that we need.
35:15: Psalm 51, verses 12 -15. David says this, Restore to me the joy of your salvation.
35:26: Is that your prayer? Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.
35:38: Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you.
35:44: Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation.
35:51: Then my tongue will joyfully sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips that my mouth may declare your praise.
36:03: Restore unto me the joy of your salvation, O God, that my lips will be opened in praise to you.
36:14: To excite God's worship, we must examine God's works. We thought of the works of the
36:21: Lord in worshipful company, that we are to worship and to praise the Lord with all of our being, not just our outer, exterior hands and the shell that we might put on, but with a whole heart, with an unqualified heart, that we would worship and praise the
36:43: Lord, and we would do so not only on our own, but with the few or with the many. We've talked about the works of the
36:49: Lord and the wonders of creation, and everything really that we said about the works of God in creation, we may also say about the works of God in salvation, that they surpass our appreciation.
37:06: The goodness of the works of God, either in creation or in salvation, wherever we find them, truly surpass our capacity to fully appreciate.
37:21: Meaning, they're not as good as we think they are.
37:27: They are far better than we think they are. They're not limited by our capacities to understand or to be thankful.
37:38: In fact, they delight the student. The more we know about God's creation, and the more we know about how
37:44: God has saved us, the more delight we have in God.
37:50: Indeed, they enthrall the believer. We are enthralled with God as we consider
37:57: His works, and the works of God remain and redound, whether in creation or in salvation.
38:04: The work that God does in salvation does not pass away, but in fact is established by His own perfect, eternal righteousness.
38:15: And what He has done in salvation is done in such a way that it should be remembered. Yes, this is true of the works of God in creation, but it's also true in His works of salvation.
38:26: He has done things in a way that we ought to remember them, and come back to them again and again, examining the works of the
38:36: Lord so that we may praise Him and worship Him. So look with me at the works of the
38:43: Lord and the ways of His covenant. We'll begin reading the second half of verse 4.
38:51: The Lord is gracious and compassionate.
38:58: He has given food to those who fear Him. He will remember His covenant forever.
39:04: He has made known to His people the power of His works in giving them the heritage of the nations. The works of His hands are truth and justice.
39:12: All His precepts are sure. They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness.
39:20: He has sent redemption to His people. He has ordained His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is
39:26: His name. You can tell this is the greater portion of Psalm 111, and it focuses on the works of the
39:35: Lord in the ways of His covenant. In the ABCs of praise, in the
39:41: Aleph, Beth, Gimels of praise, we first praise the Lord for His wonders in creation, and then we praise the
39:50: Lord for His grace and mercy so evident in the ways of His faithful love, in the ways of His covenant.
40:00: By the glories of God revealed in creation, we know that God is splendid, that He is majestic.
40:06: And by the works of God revealed in His covenant, we know that God is gracious and God is merciful.
40:13: Notice what is said at the very beginning. The Lord is gracious and compassionate.
40:18: That's the end of verse 4. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. The psalmist, in considering how this grace and this mercy is made known, thinks in terms of the three ingredients of covenant, which we find again and again throughout the
40:38: Scripture. God's people, God's place, and God's rule. We see this time and again, whether we're looking at the
40:45: Garden of Eden, or we're talking about Noah, or the children of Israel, or King David, or the New Covenant. What we're thinking of, time and again, is about how
40:53: God brings His people into His place and blesses them under His rule.
40:59: And these are the three ingredients of covenant. Sometimes it's hard to extract one from the other. They're so connected.
41:05: And yet, these three are in view here in Psalm 111. And the psalmist also thinks about these ingredients of the covenant in terms of the historical works of God.
41:21: The things that He has done in such a way that they ought to be remembered.
41:28: He has done things in such a way that they ought to be remembered. And so He has shown
41:33: His covenant love to His people, bringing them into His place, blessing them under His rule, and He has done these things in such a way that they are to be remembered generation upon generation upon generation.
41:46: And so there are concrete deeds, and there are stone -carved words, which are in the mind of the psalmist at this very moment.
41:56: And they prove the excellencies of God. Consider the praise offered here, the
42:02: Lord is gracious and compassionate. This is a direct quote from Exodus chapter 34, verse 6.
42:11: The Lord is gracious and compassionate. What is going on in Exodus chapter 34?
42:19: God has instructed Moses to cut two new fresh stone tablets.
42:28: Remember the two stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written.
42:36: God tells Moses to cut two new stone tablets. Why? What happened to the original
42:42: Ten Commandments? Moses, coming back down the mountain, discovers the people of Israel in immoral and idolatrous chaos.
42:55: In holy rage, he picks up the Ten Commandments, the two tablets, and he throws them down and shatters them.
43:04: And now God has dealt with the matter, and now He instructs Moses again to cut two new stone tablets and to bring them up the mountain of Sinai.
43:19: And once again, all the safeguards are put in place. Once again, God has come down upon the mountain, and it is burning and smoking under His holy weight.
43:31: And Moses is about to go up because God tells him, God says He will personally write the
43:40: Ten Commandments on these two stone tablets, which will then be placed in the
43:47: Ark of the Covenant. It's at this point when
43:52: God has come down in the cloud, and He's speaking to Moses, He says this, verse 6,
44:00: Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed,
44:06: The Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth.
44:15: Verse 7, Who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.
44:25: Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.
44:36: Meaning that God is stating the terms of His covenant. He's telling Moses, I am a forgiving and a merciful
44:45: God, and yet if there is the breaking of the covenant, the consequences are going to be for many generations.
44:53: Now verse 8, Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. And he said, now
44:58: Moses says, If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your own possession.
45:13: Then God said, Behold, I am going to make a covenant before all your people. I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations, and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the
45:27: Lord. For it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you. Be sure to observe what
45:33: I am commanding you this day. Behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the
45:38: Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the
45:43: Jebusite. Now I read verses 6 -11 because the elements composed here are all lying beneath the surface of Psalm 111.
45:56: As the psalmist speaks about how the Lord provides for His people, how He gives them the inheritance of the nations, how
46:07: God gives them His law to follow. We're learning about how
46:13: God says, I will gather together for Myself a people. Not that they deserve it, they're obstinate.
46:19: I will gather together for Myself a people, and I will bring them into a place that I will provide for them, and they're going to live under My rule.
46:28: They must do everything that I instruct them to do. We hear all the three ingredients of covenant here in Exodus 34, and we are reminded of these matters here in Psalm 111.
46:43: These are the same terms, these are the same themes that lay behind the psalmist's hallelujah here in Psalm 111 as he praises the
46:53: Lord for His works, for His ways in the covenant. Now, God works for His people.
46:59: We see that in verses 5 and 9 in Psalm 111. God works for His people.
47:07: These are not a strong people. They were not more numerous than the other nations.
47:17: God tells them that He brings them straight out of slavery, out of bondage.
47:24: These are not a mighty people. They are not a numerous people.
47:31: They really don't have a lot to offer to Him. Much of what happens in the wilderness for 40 years is something of a violent extraction of Egyptian pagan culture from their midst.
47:46: So they're not even a holy people, but He will make them so. How does
47:53: God work for His people? This is what the psalmist is praising the Lord for. I praise the
47:59: Lord because He works for His people. Two particular works are examined. First of all, that He gives food to those who fear
48:07: Him, verse 5. And then verse 9, it says He sent redemption to His people.
48:13: So He has given food to those who fear Him. And it says He has sent redemption to His people.
48:19: And then notice the next set of parallel thought. He will remember His covenant forever.
48:25: He has ordained His covenant forever. Do you hear the parallel? So He gives food to those who fear
48:33: Him. He has sent redemption to His people. He has ordained His covenant forever.
48:38: He will remember His covenant forever. These are in parallel. So two particular works of God are examined as praiseworthy in regards to God's covenant.
48:47: The first is bread from heaven. It's bread from heaven. He has given food to those who fear
48:56: Him. He will remember His covenant forever. You see, when
49:01: God rescued His people, when God redeemed His people out of Egypt, He brought them into the wilderness for there at Sinai He was going to make a covenant with them.
49:11: But as they left Egypt, although they plundered Egypt, the food soon ran out.
49:17: The only thing left is to start killing livestock, but then you don't have any flocks and herds left. So they were running out of food, and they began to grumble and complain against the
49:27: Lord and say, You have brought us out into the wilderness to starve. We always had enough to eat back in Egypt.
49:36: But here, you have brought us out here to starve. Remember that God has rescued His people time and again, and He has delivered them.
49:43: He has used wonder after wonder to deliver them. But here they are in the wilderness. They have no food, and they're complaining against Him. But God says that He brought them into the wilderness, and it says
49:54: He humbled them by letting them go hungry.
50:03: He brought them into the wilderness, and He let them be hungry to humble them, to teach them.
50:11: It says very clearly in Deuteronomy 8, very clearly He says, I did this so that you would fear
50:18: Me, so that you would be humbled, so that you would learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
50:34: So the psalmist is thinking of this. He has given food to those who fear Him. He humbled them to teach them to fear
50:41: God, so that He would give them manna from heaven. He would give them food. He will remember
50:46: His covenant forever. You see, we don't live because we have bread.
50:54: We live because God sustains us.
51:01: Because God has promised that He would. We live by every word of the mouth of God, and He has made covenant promises, and He's going to remember them.
51:11: So He was teaching the Israelites to fear Him, to trust Him, to depend upon His words.
51:20: Manna from heaven was a sign that God would remember His covenant forever. Manna from heaven was totally out of their realm of experience.
51:30: Who would have ever thought that food, some sort of bread -like substance, would fall out of the sky and end up on the ground, only in the mornings, would melt away into nothing when the sun came up too high, would only last for the day, except on Fridays it would last for two days and fall in double portion.
51:51: I mean, what kind of thing is this? This is the same kind of provision that Abraham knew
51:58: God would give him on the mount. The mount where the Lord provides.
52:05: Because he had Isaac on the altar, his only heir. Isaac was on the altar.
52:11: Abraham's knife was in his hand. His hand was raised over Isaac, and he was ready to kill
52:18: Isaac upon the instructions of God Almighty. And Hebrews tells us the faith of Abraham.
52:25: Abraham knew. I know he's the only heir. I know he's the promised one through whom the descendants will come.
52:35: But Abraham knew, if God tells me to kill him, that just means that God will raise him up from the dead again. So God gives manna from heaven to teach
52:45: His people to fear Him, to trust Him, because He was teaching them long before they ever made it to the promised land, when they went into a land flowing with milk and honey, where the grapes were the size of a man's fist.
53:00: Long before they got into that wonderful blessed land full of abundance, before they got there, they were taught that all of the abundance, all of the sustenance came from God.
53:12: Whether it was manna from heaven or the crops from the ground. And God was teaching them that man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
53:22: Their lives depended upon the life -giving God. And so the psalmist says,
53:28: Hallelujah. The psalmist says, Praise the Lord. The Lord sends bread from heaven.
53:34: The Lord is the one who gives us life. By His word He gives us life.
53:39: He promised to preserve us, and preserve us He did. The gift of life to His people is this provision of grace, it is a provision of mercy, it is provision of truly everlasting life.
53:55: John chapter 6 verses 32 -35, Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly,
54:00: I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my
54:09: Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.
54:24: And they said to Him, Lord, always give us this bread. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
54:35: That's good, Jesus. Where is it? Jesus said to them,
54:41: I am the bread of life. He's the manna from heaven.
54:49: He's the bread of life. He says, He who comes to me will not hunger.
54:56: And he who believes in me will never thirst. So here we have much to praise.
55:05: God has given us bread from heaven. See, He will remember His covenant forever.
55:12: He gives us food. Jesus is our sustenance.
55:19: He forever satisfies. He forever quenches. Let us praise the
55:25: Lord. And in praising the Lord, we build ourselves up on our most holy faith. You see,
55:31: He gives food to those who fear Him. What happened when the children of Israel stopped fearing the
55:38: Lord and started playing with the idols? What happened when they began to be confident in their own strength, living in houses they did not build and reaping crops they did not sow?
55:55: What happened? Exactly what God said would happen in the covenant. Famine.
56:03: Famine. What happened when they trusted in their own strength and they stopped letting the fields rest every seventh year?
56:10: When they wouldn't let their slaves go every seventh year? When they wouldn't give the properties back to the original owners on the year of Jubilee?
56:17: When they made it all about what they could do? When they stopped following through on the covenant, what happened?
56:23: Famine. Famine. Death, disease, destruction. He's given food to those who fear
56:32: Him. And God has sent us the bread of heaven. And who is the bread of heaven for?
56:38: Who has eaten the manna? Have you eaten the manna from heaven? Are you satisfied in the gift of life from heaven?
56:47: Jesus Christ. Those who fear God. Those who do not fear man.
56:54: Those who do not fear death. Those who have laid aside the idols of our age.
56:59: Those who come to Christ and say, I don't know about any of this other thing. I'm giving up on whatever
57:05: I had before. You're it. You're it. You're the only reason why God would ever love me, accept me, forgive me, and smile upon me.
57:12: You're it. You're the only reason why I'd ever have eternal life in heaven with God and fellowship with God's people.
57:18: You're it. Manna. That satisfies. You never have to go find something to add to it.
57:26: Jesus even says, he's the kind of bread that quenches thirst. That's amazing.
57:36: And when we praise the Lord, we're building ourselves up on our most holy faith and everything else is put into proper perspective.
57:44: Romans 8 is full of gospel meditations on how to live as those in Christ, even as we suffer.
57:54: And here's Romans 8 .32
58:00: He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all.
58:09: God who gave us bread from heaven, his own son Jesus Christ.
58:15: How will he not also with him freely give us all things?
58:22: You see, if you have the manna, you know that God will always remember his covenant.
58:29: If you have the manna, you know that God will always provide for you all that which you need.
58:36: Whatever situation that you're in, trust the Lord. Not only does he give bread from heaven, but he also saved his people from bondage.
58:45: And we see this in verse 9 of Psalm 111. He has sent redemption to his people.
58:51: He has ordained his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. So the psalmist says, hallelujah!
58:59: The Lord gave us bread from heaven. He is our sustenance. Praise the
59:04: Lord. He has sent redemption to his people. Now, what historical event is in view here?
59:13: Well, God sent Moses and Aaron down to Egypt to confront
59:18: Pharaoh, who had enslaved the people of God. And what was the word of the
59:23: Lord? Let my people go. God said from the very beginning in Exodus 4, long before everything got started, he said long before it all got going, he said,
59:40: I will harden Pharaoh's heart. Go tell him to let my people go and I'll make sure he won't until I have thoroughly destroyed him and his.
59:52: Why would God do it that way? Because he was going to magnify his powerful name through many judgment wonders.
01:00:00: For this purpose, he raised Pharaoh up. By bringing Pharaoh down, the world would know who is
01:00:08: God. Not Pharaoh. Not the gods of Egypt.
01:00:16: And particularly, God redeems his people through Passover. And I think that's what's in mind here.
01:00:24: Passover. The last plague, the last wonder, the last judgment that God brought upon the land of Egypt was that of the angel of death.
01:00:36: The angel of death was to pass through the land of Egypt and kill the firstborn of every household.
01:00:44: But God gave instructions to his people and those who would believe the message and do the same, that they were to take a lamb or a goat, one year old, without blemish, bring it into their home.
01:01:01: Keep it for three days. Nourish it. Nurture it. Until the time came.
01:01:09: And then they slit its throat. And as it bled out from its throat, they caught all of the blood in a bowl.
01:01:18: They took that blood and they grabbed some hyssop and they dipped the hyssop, a brush -like branch, into the blood and they covered the doorposts of their house all over.
01:01:32: Then they entered into the house and they had a meal of that lamb. And they were to eat every piece of it, leave nothing behind.
01:01:43: Anything that was edible, they were to eat along with unleavened bread because they were going to be delivered with haste so they didn't have time for the yeast to do the work.
01:01:53: And to eat it with bitter herbs to remind them of their many years in slavery. They were to eat this meal and they were to be completely satisfied in the lamb.
01:02:06: They had to eat all of it. And anything that wasn't eaten was burned and consumed.
01:02:13: So that the lamb, the substitute sacrifice for the firstborn of that household, would be completely consumed.
01:02:24: They would find full satisfaction in the lamb. Why? Because God would find full satisfaction in the lamb and the angel of death would pass over those houses with the blood upon the doorposts.
01:02:40: And this is the way in which God swiftly delivered his people up out of the land of Egypt.
01:02:46: Finally, Pharaoh told the people to go and they left plundering Egypt. Each Israelite only simply demanding of their neighbor
01:02:57: Egyptian, give us your goods. And they did. Without firing a shot,
01:03:04: Israel plundered Egypt. And God delivered them. Took them out into the wilderness.
01:03:11: Defeated Pharaoh as Pharaoh came after them, even at the very last. Defeated Pharaoh at the Red Sea. And God established his covenant with Israel at Sinai.
01:03:19: Now, Exodus 15 .11 -13 says, here's the praise of Moses. Who is like you among the gods,
01:03:27: O Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?
01:03:35: You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. In your lovingkindness, you have led the people whom you have redeemed.
01:03:43: In your strength, you have guided them into your holy habitation. From the very first wonder of turning the
01:03:49: Nile into blood, to the moment Sinai trembled and smoked under the weight of holy
01:03:55: God. This praise was on the lips of the faithful. Holy and awesome is his name. Holy and awesome is his name.
01:04:04: Deuteronomy 10 verses 21 -22. He is your praise and he is your God. Hear that.
01:04:10: He is your praise and he is your God. What do you praise? He is your praise and he is your
01:04:21: God. Who has done these great and awesome things for you, which your eyes have seen.
01:04:27: Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.
01:04:34: Look what God has done. Look what God has done in working for his people. He has redeemed them.
01:04:40: And look how he has kept his promises to them. Not only does God grant life to his people by bread from heaven, he also delivers them from slavery.
01:04:49: He provides a satisfying sacrifice for the redemption of his people.
01:04:58: Was there ever a day, was there ever a day that a Jew of Joshua's generation, or Samuel's generation, or Hezekiah's generation, was there ever a day that a
01:05:14: Jew did not give thought to the fact that God had redeemed them as his covenant people up out of Egypt?
01:05:23: Was there ever a day? If there was, then that was a sad day.
01:05:31: A day of misery and folly. A day of futility and darkness.
01:05:41: God had redeemed them to praise him. Calvin comments,
01:05:48: All who are ignorant of the purpose for which they live are fools and madmen. It's a special kind of insanity that is common to many.
01:06:03: Why do you live? Created in the image of God? Why do you live?
01:06:09: Saved by the blood of Jesus Christ? Do not be ignorant of why
01:06:14: God has given you life and new life. You are created for praise. Made in the image of God.
01:06:20: But you are recreated for praise. Believer. That there never be a day that you do not remember, that you do not examine what
01:06:29: Christ has done for his people. What Christ has done for you. He has offered himself as the
01:06:35: Passover Lamb. Unblemished. Not a bone broken. Satisfying to God.
01:06:42: Satisfying to us. Let us examine his works of redemption.
01:06:47: That we may worship him with renewed praise. Think on these things.
01:06:54: Think on these things. For Christ was born of Mary.
01:07:03: The son of God. And he has done mighty deeds. He suffered unto death on the cross.
01:07:12: To propitiate our sins. And he rose from the dead to deliver us from death.
01:07:19: He went down into the pit of death. And came forth holding the keys of death and Hades.
01:07:25: So their gates will never prevail over his church. He has chained the growling lion.
01:07:33: He has disarmed our strong enemy. Who through fear of death had subjected us to slavery all of our lives.
01:07:41: He has taken the very weapon of the enemy. And he has defeated him through it.
01:07:47: He has bound this strong man. And plundered him of his possessions. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness.
01:07:56: And transferred us into his kingdom. And in him we have redemption. The forgiveness of sins.
01:08:04: And that's why we say hallelujah. And that's why we say praise the Lord. We always live before the face of God.
01:08:15: He's everything that happens. We always live before the face of God. Praise.
01:08:24: Praise chases the clouds of doubt away. Praise attunes our vision to the light of God's glory.
01:08:35: Praise directs our lives. How we need to live each day.
01:08:42: Praising the works of the Lord. In the ways of his covenant. His life giving, forgiving, atoning, cleansing ways of Jesus Christ.
01:08:54: Let's pray. Father we thank you that you are a God. Who has given us bread from heaven.
01:09:02: We may fear you. We may worship you and know you and praise you.
01:09:09: You have given us bread from heaven. And you have given us salvation in Christ.
01:09:16: You have sent to us redemption. Deliverance. For Christ has suffered.
01:09:26: And shed his blood for us. And you have passed over us in our transgressions and sins.
01:09:37: They have been laid upon Christ. Who knew no sin.
01:09:43: That we might be the righteousness of God in him before you. We give you the praise.
01:09:51: You are worthy. We say hallelujah. Bring this to our minds again and again.
01:09:59: That we may live a life full of praise and joy. In Christ's name.
01:10:15: Would you stand with me for our song of benediction. Is Christ your only hope?
01:10:25: Praise the Lord. We are going to sing the solid rock. Page 404. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.
01:10:49: My hope is built on nothing less.
01:10:58: I dare not trust the sweet spray. But only lean on Jesus name.
01:11:10: Solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
01:11:18: All other ground is sinking sand.
01:11:25: His oath, his covenant, his blood. Support me in the whelming flood.
01:11:34: In all around my soul his way. He then is all my hope and stay.
01:11:45: On Christ's solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
01:11:54: All other ground is sinking sand.
01:12:01: On Christ's solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
01:12:13: All other ground is sinking sand.
01:12:23: May the love of the Father and the grace of the Son. And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.