7. God’s Clear and Patient Grace! Psalm 78:35-57

Text: “But He (the Lord God), being full of compassion forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned He His anger away, and did not stir up His wrath.  For He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.”

Psalm 78:38-39. 

Good morning, thankful Christian!  Your thankfulness, and mine is, primarily, an everlasting thankfulness and gratitude for being permitted, elected, to be part of God’s Salvation plan Divinely conceived in Eternity – when God the Father chose us as His gift to His Son, Jesus Christ, with the full pre-knowledge that His dear Son would go to the Cross and suffer and die to make a full Atonement Sacrifice for all the sins of ‘His people’ elected to Salvation. 

“All that the Father giveth Me (in Eternity, before the world was Created) shall come to Me; and him/her that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”  (John 6:37)

However, following this primary cause for great thankfulness and Eternal gratitude, we are also most grateful and eternally thankful for God’s patient grace bestowed upon us AFTER we have been gloriously saved, AFTER we have been redeemed by the precious and sinless Blood of Christ Jesus, God’s only begotten Lamb.  Redeemed sinners are still sinners yet!

God has been so very gracious to us, in tolerating our sin-prone state, and, after granting us continual repentance from our committed sin, and after confessing it to Him - continuing to forgive us our sin, and continuing to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This gracious gift of God to us enables us to continue on in close fellowship with His Holy Self. 

Praise God for His gift of repentance and Progressive Sanctification from our daily sins!  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour we love and seek to serve, in Christ Jesus!

“If we say that we have no sin (after we are saved), we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-10)

The Sin of Self-righteousness: One of the greatest sins being committed today within the professing church of Christ, is the sin of self-righteousness, which is in itself, a form of blatant legalism.

Legalism: “A term that is used with various meanings. 1. The dogma of Salvation by works, the heresy that man must earn a place in Heaven by his/her personal righteousness. 2. Neonomianism – the theory that works of obedience are a constitutional part of saving faith, rather than its natural fruit.  In earlier times Neonomianism produced the sterile moralism of moderatism.  Nowadays it has found a place in much evangelical preaching where faith is looked upon as “man’s part” in the plan of Salvation.  It is often popularly expressed, “God has done His part, now it is up to you to do your part.” In the Neonomian scheme, this doing is the condition of Salvation; it is not the fruit of the free gift of saving faith, sovereignly imparted by God to His elect.” (Alan Cairns, Dictionary of Theological Terms, Ambassador-Emerald International, 1998)

Legalism: Sinful man gets all puffed up by relying on his ‘works’, how many times he/she attends church-meetings; how much he/she tithes to the church group; how much of the ‘touch not, taste not, abstain from’ one can personally achieve –  this all leads to the person thinking of themselves as not as sinful as other professing believers all around, and thus promotes within themselves a ‘better than thou’ attitude, which can stifle the grace of Christian humility and thankfulness for God’s free and Sovereign grace bestowed daily. 

Self-righteousness is an ugly characteristic being too much tolerated and practiced within church groups today, as those afflicted by it take on the high look and distaste of one constantly sucking on a sour grape.  Or indulge vain-glorious pride in self: Phariseeism.

“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth (does, and continues to do) the will of My Father which is in Heaven.” (Matthew 7:19-21) God’s will is found, clearly, in God’s Word.

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10) We all need Christ’s impeccable righteousness to get into Heaven, and that is imputed unto us by God-given faith.

The Lord God in His Divinity is long-suffering towards sinners such as we, ‘His people’, and necessary so, for honest Christians prove to ourselves every day, the sinfulness of our Adamic, sin-prone, nature.  This is the point in this lesson that the self-righteous and the legalistic professors leave the page in protest.  Please feel free to do so.

Psalm 78: 35-56: This section of Psalm 78 reveals how consistently mankind has provoked our Holy Lord God by our accursed sinful nature, inherited from Adam, but if we are honest, wilfully practiced by ourselves.  This section of Psalm 78 also, praise God, reveals God’s clear and patient grace bestowed upon our forefathers in the wilderness, and ourselves in the increasingly apostate wilderness of this modern 21^st Century social and political world.

State of the Nations: False worship, religious flattery of God, dishonesty, provocation of our Holy Lord God in a host of varied manners; ignoring of God’s Day of grace; taking for granted God’s deliverance from floods, earthquakes, disease; wild storms; the nations have wallowed in diabolical social trends and deep sin that the Lord God has proven to all that He particularly detests. God cannot bless nations or individuals that persist in blatant ignoring of His’ clear and patient grace’. If we deny the Lord God, He will deny us. Time to turn from sin. “But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him/her will I also deny before My Father which is in Heaven.” (Matthew 10:33)

Verse 56. “And kept not His testimonies. They were true to nothing but hereditary treachery; steadfast in nothing but in falsehood.  They knew His truth and forgot it, His will and disobeyed it, His grace and perverted it to an occasion for greater transgression.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 341)

Thought: It is dangerous to ignore God’s clear and patient grace. Judgement is coming.

6. A List of God’s Gracious Gifts Psalm 78:23-35

Text: “Though He (the Lord God) had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of Heaven, and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of Heaven.”

Psalm 78:23-24.

Good morning, Christian recipient of God’s grace!  You and I, if we are Spiritually regenerated, Bible-believing Christians today, are clear and obvious recipients of the free and Sovereign grace of a truly Almighty and compassionate Lord God of Heaven and earth. Fact.

It was only by God’s Sovereign grace that we were ever placed in a position to hear the Gospel message of Salvation through the full Atonement Sacrifice made at Calvary’s Cross by God the Son – Jesus Christ – for ‘His people’.

The Gospel: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep (have died).  After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles (eye-witnesses of the risen Lord Jesus).  And last of all He was seen of me (Paul) also, as of one born out of due time.  For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet (fit) to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of Christ.”  (1 Corinthians 15:1-9)

Faith: It was only by God’s Sovereign grace that the hearing of this Gospel message imparted faith to our elect hearts, by which we might believe and receive Salvation in Christ the Lord.

“So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing (or reading) by the Word of God.”     (Romans 10:17)

Not all who hear the Gospel message of Eternal Salvation preached/taught receives God’s gift of faith to truly believe it with the heart – only those chosen (elected) by God the Father in Eternity, before the world was Created; receive His wondrous gift of faith to believe in Christ Jesus; and be saved.  The Gospel message is foolishness to the reprobate’s ears.

“For unto us (the chosen/elect) was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them (the reprobate, those not chosen by God): but the Word preached did not profit them (the reprobate), not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”  (Hebrews 4:2)

Sovereign Grace: God, is a Sovereign Lord God, He does exactly as He alone pleases in His Created world, and to His creatures - Created in Adam/Eve, but born fallen from grace since Adam/Eve sinned in Eden’s Garden, and therefore merely natural in Adam’s fallen image. You and I are NOT Created in God’s Supernatural image, but born in Adam’s fallen image, prone to sin and cursed with disobedience in our Adamic nature. (Genesis 5:3)

God, because He is God Almighty, decided whom He would save, and whom He would pass over reference His gift of Salvation, way back before He Created this world. In His foreknowledge and Sovereign power, He gave those whom He had elected to save to His Son, Jesus Christ that, in time, Christ would go to the Cross as a Holy and acceptable Atonement Sacrifice for those souls God the Father had chosen, and given to Him to save.  Not one of those precious and chosen souls shall ever be cast away, but Eternally saved.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.  For we (the Father’s elect) are His workmanship, CREATED in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath BEFORE ORDAINED that we should walk in them.”  (Ephesians 2:8-10) (Psalm 115:3)

“All that the Father giveth Me (in Eternity) shall come to Me; and him/her that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. For (a conclusion) I came down from Heaven not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him (God the Father) that sent Me.  And this is the Father’s will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me (in Eternity) I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”  (John 6:37-39)

Psalm 78: 23-35: We find here in these verses a list of God’s gracious gifts to Israel as they wandered in the desert wastes as a consequence of their unbelief and disobedience. It mirrors the depths of unbelief we encounter even today – as God’s gracious love and blessings are taken completely for granted, and the Gospel of Salvation in Christ increasingly spurned.

Verse 24. Manna from Heaven: “O Lord Jesus, Thou blessed manna of Heaven, how all this agrees with Thee!  We will even now feed on thee as our Spiritual meat and will pray Thee to chase away all wicked unbelief from us. Our fathers ate manna and doubted; we feed upon Thee and are filled with assurance.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 335)

Verse 27. “He rained flesh also upon them as dust.  First, He rained bread and then flesh, when He might have rained fire and brimstone. The words indicate speed and abundance of the descending quails.”

Verse 27.  “And feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea. There was no counting them. By a remarkable providence, if not by miracle, enormous numbers of migratory birds were caused to alight around the tents of the tribes.  It was, however, a doubtful blessing, as easily acquired and superabounding riches generally are. The Lord save us from meat which is seasoned with Divine wrath.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 335)

Divine Wrath: Verse 32/34. “For all this they sinned still, and believed not…When He slew them, then they sought after Him; and they returned and enquired after God. Little has changed today.  Oh, that men/women would cry out in repentance and receive Christ!

Thought: God’s grace, and gracious gifts, are poured out to us daily – to obedient and to disobedient.  God’s Divine wrath is poured out also, to those that scorn His grace. 

5. The Persistence of the Ungodly Psalm 78:17-22

Text: “And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness…Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His Salvation.”

Psalm 78:17;22.

Good morning, Alarmed Christian!  It seems like each day you and the author open our eyes after sleep, we become alarmed at the increase in sinfulness we encounter in the lives of those all around us; it is as though Satan has caused them to fall into a deep trance from which they shall never recover until they open the eyes of their sous in a Christ-rejecter’s Hell.  Oh, that the souls of our nations would awake from their sinful sleep!  Oh, that our nation’s rebellion against all things Christian, pure, and Godly would cease!  Have mercy, Holy Lord God, and quicken these souls that lie like Spiritually dead and dry bones in this ever-growing valley of vile sin

Read Ezekiel chapter 37, verses one to ten, and catch the vision of today’s sinful nations.  Only Spiritual Regeneration can deliver ungodly nations from certain doom.

Verse 17. “And they sinned yet more against Him. It was bad enough to mistrust their God for necessities, but to revolt against Him in a greedy rage for superfluities was far worse. Ever it is the nature of the disease of sin to proceed from bad to worse; men never weary of sinning but rather increase their speed in the race of iniquity.  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 333)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon has such a wonderful way of setting forth clear truth and defining it as he goes.  This was another reason why I decided to try to reintroduce his wonderful and powerful Treasury of David to this 21^st Century church world-wide.

Note: Charles Haddon Spurgeon (19 June 1834 –31 January 1892) was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, among whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers". He was a strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.)

Sin: Mankind sins naturally, because we are all born natural sinners, in Adam’s fallen image. (Genesis 5:3) (Psalm 51:5) (Romans 3:22-23) However, Scriptures warns over and over again about mankind committing ‘wilful sin’, and this is the rebellious sin here mentioned in Psalm 78.  They sinned wilfully against God.  Their disobedience was a wilful rebellion.

“He does not say that they sinned only, but that they sinned against God. And they sinned yet more against Him, namely God. Against what God?  Against Him Who had delivered them by great and unheard-of wonders out of Egypt, Who had led them as free men across the Red Sea with a dry foot, Who had continued to lead and to protect them with pillars of cloud an fire by day and night and had given them to drink abundantly of water drawn from the arid rock.  Against this God, they had added sin to sin.  Simply to sin is human, and happens to the saints even after they have received grace: but to sin against God argues a singular degree of impiety.”  (Wolfgang Musculus, 1497-1563)

Think now, alarmed Christian!  Let your alarm sound against the personal sins you and I have committed AFTER we have been saved – it will be a good remedy against the blight of self-righteousness. We should all cry out with the apostle Paul, “O wretched man that I am!”.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”  (Philippians 4:8)

 Verse 18. “And they tempted God in their heart. Christ cannot die again, and yet many crucify him afresh, because such would be the legitimate result of their behaviour if its effects were not prevented by other forces.  The sinners in the wilderness would have had the Lord change His wise proceeding to humour their whims, hence they are said to tempt Him.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 334)

Sinful mankind is often defined as having eyes bigger than our bellies.  Greed is sin.

Verse 18. “…Asking meat for their lust. God had given them meat for their hunger in the manna, wholesome, pleasant food, and in abundance; He had given them meat for their faith…But all this would not serve, they must have meat ‘for their lust’; dainties and varieties to gratify a luxurious appetite.  Nothing is more provoking to God than our quarrelling with our allotment, and indulging the desires of the flesh.”  (Matthew Henry, 1662-1714)

These rebellious sinners were most persistent in their tempting of the Lord God – there would be little mercy shown them, once a God of righteous judgment chose to react. The arrogance of such vile, rebellious sinners only seems to increase, as God’s merciful hand is restrained from punishing their rebellious, and often gross, sin.  Nothing has changed today.  For example: legal rights to protect homosexuals, has only paved the way for arrogant and public parades of the gross sin of Sodomy; sin that the Living Lord God has proven He detests.  Fire and brimstone rained down upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when God’s patience was pushed to its Holy limit.  Our Lord God is unchanging, immutable, watch out!

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination (vile sin).” (Leviticus 18:22)

“And likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet (a fit reward) (monkey-pox? Aids?)” (Romans 1:27)

Thought: Main reason for gross sin: “Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His Salvation.” (Psalm 78:22) Gross sin is caused today, by persistent unbelief!