It looks like it's a day in the Psalms, so we're going to be looking at Psalm 106 this morning. Psalm 106. And we're not going to read the whole Psalm, okay? So just in case you were a little bit worried there. Now we're going to read from verse 6 to 12. Let's read from verse 6 to 12. We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies, but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, He saved them for His namesake, that He might make His mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red Sea also and it was dried up. So He led them through the depths as through the wilderness. And He saved them from the hand of Him that hated them and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies. There was not one of them left. Then believed they His words. They sang His praise. Let's pray to the Lord. Father in heaven, we do thank you, Lord, for your word. We pray this morning that as we look at the people of Israel as they came out of Egypt, Lord, that it would be also a message for our own hearts. And Lord, we seek your guidance, we seek, Lord, your wisdom, and we pray, Father, this morning that you would speak to us and meet us at our point of need, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so, have you ever read the Bible and thought to yourself, what were these people thinking? You know, like, what's wrong with these people? You know, they were in Egypt, they were under bondage, They're getting whipped and they're forced to labour their slaves, having to make brick in the wilderness. And they got to a point where they're crying out to God and they're saying, God, please deliver us from this place. We need out. We've had enough. It's been 400 years and we're suffering here in the land of Egypt and we need you to do something. And God hears their prayers and works through the heart of a man who was saved by God and delivered by God when he was a baby and was brought up in the king's palace and ended up fleeing and running out into the wilderness and he thought, I've escaped, I've gotten out of here. He's with the sheep and he's humbled himself before God and God visits him and says, hey Moses, You know that thing you were trying to do 40 years ago when you thought you could do it in your own strength and you thought you could deliver your people from the hand of Pharaoh? He says, it's time to do it now. You're 80 years old, full of strength. Is that right? 80 years old, full of strength, let's go. Go down there and you tell that Pharaoh, you say, let my people go. And he's just going to do that, right? He's just going to let them go. That's not what he says. He says, you tell them to let my people go. He's not going to let them go. I'm going to show you my wonders and my miracles. I'm going to show you the power of God and be able to defeat what was the centre of the earth at that time. Egypt was the main hub of the known world at that time. It was great, it was powerful and it was to be feared. God said, look, I'm going to show you a short period of time I'm just going to make an absolute waste of this place. They're not going to have food, they're not going to have their cattle, they're not going to have the fruit, there's going to be nothing left when I'm finished with them. And so he goes down there and he tells the people of Israel, God's heard your cries, God's heard that you want to be delivered and here we go, this is it. And he goes before Pharaoh and he says, let my people go. And Pharaoh says, who's the Lord that I should let these people go? I don't know. Who is this God? Who's the Lord? Well, he was going to find out, right? He was going to find out who the Lord was. And so he said, no, in fact, you know what? These guys, obviously, they've got too much time on their hands to think about wanting to be free. So, you know, tell them to get their own straw. But don't let them stop. They've got to do the same quota of bricks that they make every day, but they have to go and find their own straw now. We were helping them, but obviously they've got too much time on their hands, so we'll have to give them a little bit more work. And so it got worse. And the people, you know, they got angry with Moses. Well, if you hadn't come along, we were doing all right here. Were they? They weren't doing all right. But they said, well, since you got here, it's gotten worse. You know, we thought that was bad. Now it's getting worse, you know, and they complained and they whined and they whinge. And I think Moses then, he probably should have realized this is going to be my life. If I get these guys out of Egypt, it's going to be whinging and complaining all day, you know, because it's just the way they were right from the beginning. They were like that. Anyway, so You know, they're doing their thing and they're making their bricks and all that. And then God starts to do these wonders through Moses. He turns the Nile into blood and the fish come up and they die and they're stinking the whole place out. And Pharaoh says, no, not letting them go, not letting them go. And all of a sudden they're looking from their homeland and they see swarms of flies. Wow, that's different. I haven't seen that before. Just looking at that. No flies on us. Someone got that. No flies on us. These guys over there, they're all suffering over there and God's giving them what for. Yeah, okay, Moses, we can see what's happening here now. God's on our side. He's going to do our thing. And then the locusts come through and then the hail comes down and the people of Israel in their area, nothing's happening for them. There's no locusts in it. Their land's still green. Everything's fine, but they're looking across over there to Egypt and it's getting hammered by all these natural disasters. That's how it would be on the news today. They'd be like, oh, climate change. It's not God trying to get your attention. You're ruining the place. You need to get it right. That would be the news going around Egypt. But here they are, they've seen all these things, and Moses is telling you, God's going to destroy these people, and he kills all the cattle, and he kills all the green herbs, and kills all the trees, and kills everything that's in Egypt, and all the fish and everything. There's no food. Can you imagine what it would be like in a city and the food supply is just taken away? And so they're seeing these wonders, wonders after wonder, and seeing God defeat the nation of Egypt, and all they had to do was sit there and watch. You know, and they're, oh, fantastic, you know. And then the Passover comes and Moses gets them prepared. He says, you make sure you get yourself a lamb. put it aside by faith, because if you don't do this by faith, if you don't trust what God is saying now, you're going to lose the firstborn. Even if you're the children of Israel, you're going to lose the firstborn if you don't trust what God says. And so they paint the doorposts with the blood, the Passover happens, all of a sudden they hear the wailing. the wailing of the people of Egypt and those that had lost people that night. And you can imagine the firstborn. I mean, how many people here today are firstborn child? Okay, there should be more than the rest. Because every family has a firstborn. If you've got kids, there's a firstborn child. They may have others, but if you've had one, that's the firstborn, right? You can't have a secondborn. without the firstborn. So there's always, every family that has children has a firstborn child, so that every family was affected in that time, and a lot of people would have died in Egypt, and they hear the wailings and those things, and the people of Egypt are saying, get out of here, we don't want you here anymore. Take your stuff and take our stuff, whatever you want, just get out of here, we don't want your God here with us anymore. Tell him to leave us alone. They basically just pushed them out, and they went out, quickly out of Egypt, walking down to the Red Sea, and Pharaoh changes his mind yet again, sends his army down to destroy them. And they look back and they go, Moses, what have you done? You know, they just complained. They didn't think, oh, God might be able to do something here. They just forgot all about all the things that God had done to get them out, and they forgot about it, and they said, oh, it was all for nothing. Why do we want to ask? We're all going to die here in the traps. We can't get across the sea. We can't get out. We're stuck. And Moses says, God's going to save you. Just watch what God does. The pillar of cloud falls on the other side and shields them from the Egyptian army while God blows a strong wind and divides the sea, the Red Sea. And they're walking through the Red Sea. Just think, they're walking through the Red Sea, they get to the other side, the Pharaoh's armies follow, God closes it up, they all die. And the people of Israel go, wow, yes, God's done what He said He's going to do. We're delivered, we're saved. Next day, oh, we've got no water. Oh, we've got no food. Oh, we've got no... It was like a day after. And they were already complaining and whinging and whining and things like that. And you think to yourself, who are these people? Did they not see those miracles? Did they not just walk through the Red Sea? I mean, who walked through the Red Sea? Nobody. They walked through on dry land. They saw the miracles of God. They saw what God can do. And yet, a couple of days after, my whole life, it's all coming to an end. What are we going to do? We're all going to starve to death. We're all going to die. not have enough water, the end is near. We would have been better off in Egypt than to die in the wilderness. That's what the people were saying. And you think to yourself, man, are these guys stupid? Have you ever thought that? What? How can it be that you could have that blessing and that salvation of God and then straight after just go, God has left us out here in the wilderness and we're all going to die. That never happens today, right? We look at them and we go, what a bunch of noobs these guys are. What a bunch of goobers. These guys are out there and they've just seen these great and amazing miracles and the next day they're like, We're dead, you know? And we, don't we do the same thing? And we get blessed with the Lord and we get, God helps us with something and then the next day we completely forget, look, how many people, you don't have to put your hand up for this one, but how many of you walk out that door on a Sunday morning and then forget what the sermon was about? Can you even remember what the first hymn was this morning? We forget. We forget so quickly. Here it says in Psalm 106, we have sinned. They weren't innocent before God. We've sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not the wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude of His mercies, but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless He saved them for His name's sake that He might make His mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up. So He led them through the depths as through the wilderness. He saved them from the hand of Him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies. There was not one of them left. Then believed they His words, and they sang His praise. And yes, when they got out on the other side of the Red Sea, they went, yes! And they were out there with their timbrels and their dance, and they were singing and saying, praise God, and how amazing was God who saved us from our enemies. Then read the next verse. They soon forgot his works. They waited not for his counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. It didn't take long for them to forget. And we are exactly the same. And you look at the disciples. The disciples were with Jesus, and they were walking with Him, and they were looking at the miracles of Jesus, and they saw the things that He did, and they saw and heard the things that He said, and He told them several times, you know what? They're going to deliver me over to the Gentiles, and they're going to kill me. And the Bible says they understood not. They understood not. And it was just, they just didn't understand. And you're reading it, and you're going, What do you mean they couldn't understand? And we judge them. And then we say, oh, these guys should have known better. Didn't they know who Jesus was? Didn't they see the miracles? He just fed the 5,000, they get in the boat, and when they got on the boat, they forgot the bread. And they're going, oh, no, we've forgotten the bread. And he says, what are you talking about? Oh, we're worried about bread. And he says, didn't you not learn one thing? from the feeding of the 5,000? How many baskets did you collect when we fed the 5,000? Oh, 12. And when we fed the 4,000? Oh, seven. And you're worried about the bread? I could just, and there'd be bread. What are you worrying about? You know, God can supply, God can do those things. And we judge them and we look upon them and they think, well, these guys, you know, they're so dumb. Sometimes we think that. Really, these guys, and if you want to be honest, you say sometimes those things. And you go, who on earth are these people? How do they not see those things and then not have that affect their lives continually and just be faithful to God after what He's done? And then we look at ourselves, and we're exactly the same. And we know what we should do, and we've been told from the Bible how we should be, but then when we go out into the world, all that's forgotten because, well, you've got to work, and you've got to do this, and you've got to do that kind of thing, and you just forget about it. And that's why it's so important to be in the house of the Lord, isn't it? especially as the day approaches. And the Bible tells us, you know, forsake not the gathering of yourselves together as the manner of some is. That, you know, especially as the day approaches, you know, we need to encourage each other. We need to be reminded. We need to look upon the things which God has done and encourage ourselves to continue. We need that because we forget so quickly, we forget so quickly. And if we go to Romans chapter three, he's talking about, not Romans chapter three, Hebrews chapter three, sorry, written to the people of Israel in the New Testament and he warns them of what happened in the wilderness. We'll start with verse one. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. But Christ, as a son, over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the day of provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years, Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said, they do always err in their heart and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. While it is said, today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the day of provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke, albeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And in whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. And there may be someone here today who hear the gospel. You hear the message of salvation. You see the works of the Lord. You see what God can do for you. And when you hear His voice, it says, today when you hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation. You will not enter into the rest of God if you harden your heart and reject the Gospel. He's saying the people that came out of Egypt, not everyone, even though they were part of the nation of Israel, not all of them were believing. And so they went through those things, and they saw the miracles, and they saw the deliverance of God, and they walked through the Red Sea, and they went through the wilderness, and they were at the door of the Promised Land and could have gone in, but they did not believe. They did not believe. Only two men, two men out of four million people, maybe two million people that came out of Egypt, two men trusted and believed God out of all them. Can you believe that? They were willing to follow Moses because they wanted to save their lives. They wanted to be out from the bondage. They came along, they went, they saw, they tasted, they drank of the water that came out of the rock. They ate at the manor in the wilderness. They had all those things there. They had all the supply of God. You might be that person and in all your life God has been looking after you. and He's been supplying for you, and He's been helping you, and He's been doing everything that He needs to do for you, and He's been good to you your whole life until this day, and yet when He calls out to you and says, will you put your trust in Me, you harden your heart. You can't enter into His rest. You can't enter into the blessed state. You would have been where all the people of God were, And you were there, and you tasted, and you drank, and you saw the works of God, but you weren't believing. You weren't of faith. You weren't a true believer on the Lord Jesus Christ. You were there, you saw it all, but you were not a part of it. And so today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart. Harden not your heart. Coming to church doesn't save you. Christ saves you. Amen? Only Christ can save your soul. I can't save you. Your neighbours can't save you. Other Christians can't save you. Your parents can't save you. Your children can't save you. Only Christ can save. So when you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts as these people did. They saw the miracles, they saw all those things. They took of the blessings of God, but they hardened their heart and they couldn't enter in. And so we are challenged today to remember, don't forget. If you are one of the faithful, if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have received the gift of eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ, don't forget what God has done for you. Amen? Don't forget those things. Don't allow the things of this world to stop you from being able to understand and to do what God wants. Make sure that you are faithful to the Lord. Because, you know, you come to church, you hear the Word of God, you say, you know, I need to do something about that. You walk outside, you start talking to someone, and it might be politics or something, because politics is a big thing at the moment. Yesterday and the weeks up in the weeks in America and stuff like that, people were talking about politics and things like that. And all of a sudden, everything you heard, just straight out your ears. It's like the sower, sowing seed. And he throws it on the wayside. And it was like, I didn't understand it, I didn't let it sink in, and the devil just comes along and just takes that away, and it was for nothing. You say, oh, I had a great time at church today, but I can't remember a thing that happened. That shouldn't be the way, amen? That shouldn't be the way that it is. We should be attentive to the things of the Lord. and consider it and understanding what God is doing in our life. And we should always be seeking, Lord, I need you to speak to me this morning. I need you to tell me what I need to do. I don't want to forget. I want you to show me something that I can use in my life that's going to make me continue and be faithful. I need to be changed. And that's why I believe in a church we give altar calls. And we say, now, while you're thinking about it, now while you've got it fresh in your mind, now while it's all there and you can still remember it before you've started another conversation with someone else, make a decision today. Come down to the altar and say, Lord, please make this a reality in my life. Make it now so that you can remember it. And you set up a little thing in your mind saying, you know, I went forward that day in church and I said to the Lord, I need you to help me with this area of my life. I need you to change me. I need you to make me the way that I ought to be. If we continue in Romans chapter four, it says, Let us therefore fear, lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. And so if you're here this morning and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, He died for your sins. You can say, well, yeah, Christ died for the whole world, the sins of the whole world. You are part of the world, amen? You are part of the world. That means He died for your sins. Make it personal. He died for you, so that you could enter into His rest, so that you could be saved. And you have to come to Him. And you have to say, Lord, please forgive me a sinner. I need you to save my soul. I'm trusting in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that it was sufficient to pay for my sins. Lord, will you please forgive me a sinner and God will save you. You have to mix those words with faith. Amen? I've told you But you have to mix it with faith. You have to say, I believe what God's saying in the Bible. I believe that what He has said is true and I'm going to trust it. For we which have believed do enter into rest. As he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all of his works. And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest. Seeing, therefore, it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in, because of unbelief, again he limited a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not have afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick and is alive, and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That means God knows everything about you. Every thought, every intention, every single little bit of you, He knows. You can't hide it from Him. You might want to deceive yourself and think that you're good because you've done this and you've done that, and you've been in church your whole life, and you've wanted to do the right thing by people and stuff like that. You can puff yourself up and say all those things, but God knows deep, deep, deep in the heart that there's things in there that even you don't want to know about. There are things in there that you hide, that you cover, that you hope would never be exposed and your God knows them. And one day we'll stand before God and give an account of our lives and all those secret things that we've been trying to hide will be made manifest and everyone will know. So we may as well come to the Lord, amen, and say, Lord, you know my heart. You know everything in here, even the things that I'm trying to hide from other people. I need you to forgive me. I need you to save me. I need you to cleanse me of those things. And God will do that, because he knows those things. And then when you stand before the Lord Jesus, those things which you're ashamed of, those things which you're trying to hide, they won't be mentioned. They're not mentioned, because he's only going to be judging the things that you did for him from the day that you trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. He knows every single thing. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. But he was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And so if you're here this morning and you know, man, God knows every single little thing in my life and I still haven't made it right. I'm not at peace with God. There are things in my life that need to be confessed to Him. And I know I'm a sinner. I need a Saviour. Jesus is saying to you, the throne of grace is open. And if you will come to Him, He will in no wise cast you out. He wants you to come. He knows your weaknesses. He knows the sins. He's been here before. He's lived on the earth. He's suffered through the temptations. He knows all those things. He knows you and he's willing to have mercy and to show you the mercy of God. If you'll just come to him and if you will mix the message of the gospel with faith this morning and come to the Lord Jesus Christ, he will save you. He will deliver you, He will forgive you, and He will give you the gift of eternal life. If you're a Christian here this morning, God still knows your heart. He knows the intents, He knows the things that are there, and He knows how feeble we are, and He knows how quickly we forget, and He knows that any day through the week we could just make compromises and mistakes and even sin. And we need to come to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm just like those foolish people in the Bible. I look at them and I think to myself, they saw all those miracles and they saw all those things and they still failed and they still forgot. If you saw a fire coming down from heaven, I think you'd remember that for the rest of your life, wouldn't you? Apparently not. Apparently not. We just forget so easily because we get so consumed in our life. And maybe you need to be at the altar this morning and say, Lord, I need you. I need you more than I really realize. I need you to change me, to shake me up a little bit, to get me out of this lurch. Maybe you need to be reminded more often. And you say, Lord, help me to be in your house, help me to be reading the Bible every day, helping me to pray every day, help me to do what I need to do to remind myself and to be reminded continually how I ought to be. And maybe God will have his way with us, amen? Maybe we'll see some revival in our hearts, maybe we'll see people come to the Lord because the judgment starts with the house of God. It starts with us. And we have to be honest to God. If we're not honest to God... I once heard a man say, you know why God doesn't give us revival? Because He doesn't trust us to give Him the glory. We forget and we think, how good were we? It's not like that, is it? We have to remember. the things that God has done and say, God, you did that, you did that, you did these amazing things, and may God help us to always remember those things. There is a rest, and that rest will save us from having to do our own works, trying to please God with our good works to get to heaven, and when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we say, Lord, I'm a sinner, I need salvation, All that is not necessary here. I'm at rest. I don't have to struggle to try and please God anymore. I'm already in the Lord. I've already have eternal life, and God wants me to do these good things, not for me, so that I can get to heaven, but do good things to people so that they can get to heaven. Amen. so I'm not selfish anymore. May God help us to be this way, to be more faithful, to be more diligent in our Bible reading and our prayer, to be more faithful to Him and to be where He is and to want to know more about Him and that we would be yielded to him and be able to be used by him. Father in heaven, we do thank you for this day. We pray, Lord, that even this morning as you're speaking to our hearts that we would not forget, that we would not forget the things which you've done for us. And Lord, we were reminded this morning in Sunday School of all the benefits that You've given to us. Help us not to be like the people of Israel at that time and in the day of the provocation. Lord, help us to be mindful of all those things that You've done, that we would live for You, that we would fulfil Your will, that we would be yielded to You and be used by You. And so, Lord, we want You to be glorified with our life. And we just pray, Father, this morning that we might be shaken from our sleep, that we might arise and go out into this world and be a shining light that would bring people to Christ. And Lord, that you would stir our hearts and cause us, Lord, to serve you with all of our hearts and to give you the glory for that. Father, we thank you now in Jesus' name. Amen.