The Sovereign God Part 4

THE SOVEREIGN GOD pt4

Pastor Charles Holmes

01-02-2013

GOD WILL GIVE MERCY TO WHOM HE WILL AND HOLD MERCY BACK FROM THOSE THAT HE WILL.

DEUTERONOMY 3:24-28

24 O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?

25 I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.

26 But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.

27 Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

28  But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

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98 Remember Moses also, that great leader. God should've killed him when he went down there to glorify himself by smiting that Rock and said, "You see what I can do?" in other words. "You rebels, must we fetch you water from this Rock?" And he smote It, and the waters didn't come; he smote It again. What did he do? He testified of the weakness of the--of Christ, 'cause Christ was that Rock. That's the Headstone. Instead of smiting it, or speaking to it... It was smitten once.

Remember, God told Moses over in Exodus, "Go out and I'll stand before--before you upon the Rock, and smite the Rock." And he smote the Rock, and It brought forth waters. God said, "The next time, go speak to the Rock and It'll bring forth Its waters."

But Moses wanted to show he had a little authority, a little power, so he said, "I'll bring you water out of this Rock." God should've killed him for it. God should've separated him there; he broke God's law right there, 'cause he spoke of the weakness of Christ; He has to be smitten the second time. Christ was only smitten once. Now, we speak to the Rock and It brings forth Its waters.

But he smote it, the waters didn't come. And he smote it again. He had power to do it. He was a prophet. And the waters came forth. That's right. What did God do? Said, "Come up here, Moses." Said, "You see the land yonder? You're not going in. You didn't obey Me down there at the rock." You remember the story, don't you? He had power to do it, but he'd better watch the way he used that power.

God said, "Come up here. Come here. You glorified yourself. You took My power; instead of sanctifying Me, you sanctified yourself. Now you're not going over in the land. Look over, see what it looked like; but, here, you're going to leave right here." Oh, my! There never has been one like Moses, you know. No, no.

BUT ANOTHER CASE WHERE A MAN PRAYED AND GOD SHOWED MERCY.

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27 Now, my sight falls upon a text here of Isaiah, Isaiah 38. Let's read over to Isaiah, Isaiah 38.

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shall die, and not live.

Then Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall, and prayed unto the LORD.

And said, Remember me, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Heze-... Hezekiah wept sore.

Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,

Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

BOTH OF THE MEN WERE SENTENCED TO DEATH, BOTH PRAYED EARNESTLY UNTO THE LORD FOR A REPRIEVE, AND ONE WROTE, THE LORD WOULD NOT HEAR ME. AND HE DIED WITHOUT GOING OVER TO THE PROMISED LAND.

BUT GOD SAID UNTO THE OTHER, I HAVE HEARD THY PRAYER, AND HIS LIFE WAS SPARED.

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148 You may now ask me, "Why did He permit her to be designed thus?" I don't want to take too much time, 'cause I got a lot more to say here. "Why," the question might arise then, "why did God make this woman like this? Why did He permit her to be like that?" It was for His Own good pleasure. Sure.

149 Now if you want to turn in your Bible just a minute, let's turn to Romans 9, just a minute, and show you something, how God does these things, if you want to--to read it. And we can see here what God does for His Own good pleasure. Romans 9:14.

Then what shall we say then?

Is there unrighteousness before God?...

150 When He chose Esau, or chose Jacob and rejected Esau, before either boy could have a right to make a choice, himself, neither one of them; before they was born, still in the womb of the mother, God said, "I hate Esau, and I love Jacob." See? Why?

For he said unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

So then it is not... him that willeth, nor... him that runneth, but it's God that sheweth mercy.

For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Therefore he... (now watch here)... for he... mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Thou will say... unto me, Why then does he... find fault? For who has resisted his will?

Nay but, O man, who art thou that rilest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me this?

Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and the other to dishonour?

What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured... such long-suffering the vessel of wrath fitted to destruction:

... that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessel of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

151 Now argue with That a while. God did it! He had to make it this a way. It had to be there. Now listen now for about five minutes, I want to call your attention to something.

152 What is God? God is a great Eternal. At the beginning, way back before there was a beginning, He wasn't even God. Did you know that? God is an "object of worship," and there wasn't nothing to worship Him. He lived alone.

153 And in Him was attributes.

NOTICE AGAIN WHEN GOD WAS MANIFEST IN THE FLESH OF HIS DEAR SON, WE SEE THE SOVEREIGN EXERCISE OF GOD’S MERCY.

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158 Now in Saint John 5:19, when He had healed the man at the gate called Beautiful, we know He... No, I beg your pardon, He was at the pool of Bethesda. He healed this man, and was questioned why He didn't heal all the rest of them.

159 Now, that man. There was people laying there who were lame, halt, withered, blind. And here He come walking through there, walking through this pool, and He went to a man, that, I don't know what he had. He might have had TB, prostate trouble, something. He was retarded, he had had it for thirty-eight years, it wasn't going to kill him. He--he could--he could walk, he'd go down.

160 But notice, He come right through that pool of people, where they was all there, multitudes, thousands of them, as they lay at the sheep gate, "watching for the moving of the water." God has always had a way for Divine healing, for the people. And so the one stepping in first would have had enough faith, it taken the virtue from the water, he was healed.

161 But notice, this Man Jesus come through there, which was the very God of the creation, and He came through the gate, and mingled among the people, just think, having compassion. Do you believe He had compassion? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]

162 Now just stop just a moment and think of this. There is a lady with a baby with a waterhead maybe this big around, passed right by. And here was a man that was blind, "Somebody have mercy on me and put me in the pool." The Bible said they were lame, blind, halt, withered. Some poor man laying there, that probably his arms wasn't that big around. Or, a little mother with a bunch of children at home, and a compassionate Jesus passed right by her. That strange? And, yet, full of compassion. But that's the Bible. Anyone... See, now watch. We don't know what compassion means.

163 Notice Him. He found a man laying on a pallet, that could walk, and He said to him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" Why that one? See, why that one? Now watch and He'll tell you. Jesus knew this man had been there in this time, you see, all these years. He healed him, told him take up his bed and go home. And he did. They found him packing his bed, and found Jesus and brought Him before the court.

164 Listen what He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees the Father doing." There is the compassion, knowing the will of God and then doing it. See? See? "The Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees," not hears. Not... See? "What He sees the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise."