Address—John Kaiser
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Begin this afternoon by singing hymn #22 in the appendix.
Number.
22 in the appendix and let us think.
Thou wholly one, and through our hearts in Thee.
Confide.
And in the circle of thy love, as brethren, we abide. Teach us that name to own while waiting, Lord, for Thee and what's involved.
In owning his name.
Unholiness.
And sin to shun.
From all untruth to flee #22 in the Appendix.
Thou holy.
I am laughter.
All my love, all right.
Great, I'm on my.
In Hebrews chapter 4.
We find these words. The word of God is living.
And powerful.
And sharper than any two edged sword piercing.
You better look at it since I can't quote it properly for memory. Let's look at it briefly. Hebrews chapter 4.
Verse 12. The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
That's the word of God, the written word of God.
And now we find the nature of the surgeon.
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, or, as another translation says, to whom we must give account.
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It's my desire.
For the glory of God.
That we would.
And myself included.
Experience spiritual surgery this afternoon.
It's so easy to.
B.
Umm.
Unobserv.
To be just a watcher.
And not let the Spirit of God speak to our hearts individually as He sees the need and so before we.
Commit this surgery to the Lord we want to look at briefly.
Some of the passages we hope will be involved. Let's turn to 1St Kings Chapter 6.
Let him speak to us before we speak to him first Kings, chapter 6.
Excuse me a second, I think actually a second Kings chapter six. Yes, Second Kings chapter 6.
Verse.
15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early.
And I gone forth, behold, and host compassed the city, both with horses and Chariots. And his servant said to him, Alas, master, how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not.
For they that be with us.
Are more than they that be with them.
Psalm 89.
Psalm 89 verse seven. God.
Is greatly to be feared.
In the Assembly of the Saints and.
To be had in reverence.
Of all them that are about him.
Proverbs, chapter 16.
Proverbs chapter 16 verse.
6.
By mercy and truth iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.
Turn to Isaiah chapter.
1.
Isaiah, chapter one, verse 16.
Wash you.
Make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil.
Learn to do well.
Malachi, chapter one.
Malachi, chapter one.
And verse 6.
A son.
Honoured his father.
And a servant, his master.
If I then be a father.
Where is my honor?
And if I be a master?
Where is my fear?
First Timothy.
Chapter 3.
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First Timothy chapter 3, verse 15. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself.
In the house.
Of God.
Hebrews chapter 3, verse one.
Hebrews chapter 3, verse one.
Where for?
Holy Brethren.
Partakers of the heavenly calling.
Verse 8.
Harden not your hearts.
As in the provocation in the day of temptation and the wilderness, when your father's tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 40 years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said they do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.
Chapter 13.
Verse 28 Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom.
Which cannot be moved.
Let us have grace.
Whereby we may serve God.
Acceptably.
With reverence.
And godly fear.
4.
Our God is.
A consuming fire?
Let's break.
When I was asked to take this meeting some days ago, I told the brother.
That I didn't have anything definite before me.
And he reminded me that God has a way of preparing us and I.
Now find I have so much to talk about, so much to say that I don't know that we can cover it all in an hour.
But we all have a limited capacity.
So I wanna go over some of these passages that we have read together and it's my hope that maybe we can expand a bit too.
I want to begin with first a second Kings chapter 6 again. Let's look back at that passage.
These things that are in this book were written for us.
Yes, they were written 2000 years ago, but they're up to date because God knew what we need today.
I wanna remind you of that. The last verse we read it says our God is.
We have a God who is presently.
Available.
And not only presently available, but presently engaged.
And not only presently available and presently engaged, but he is all sufficient. He's a consuming fire. What's a what could be more irresistible than a consuming fire? And we think in terms of judgment.
If you look earlier in that chapter we we read how the children of Israel trembled.
When the law was given and they were afraid to approach the mount because they recognized God as a consuming fire, they recognized His power.
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But that's just one aspect of God's consuming fire.
God is not only a consuming fire in holiness.
And then righteousness and purity.
That character is also in his love.
Before we pro ceed, I want you to know.
That the hand of the surgeon is a loving hand.
God's love is infinite, and it's not only infinite, it's passionate.
Our God is a consuming fire.
What brought this particular verse in First Kings to me, to mine?
His experience I've had in the past month talking to two young men.
Or younger men.
Both of whom profess to be believers.
And in connection with them, I thought of this passage.
What we have here in Second Kings verse chapter 6 is a battle situation.
And we're in battle.
We're all of us engaged in a war.
Ephesians 6 says we fight.
We're not observers. We like to be observers. It would be more comfortable to be observers, but we're not.
We're in the battle and we can fight, we can stand, or we can succumb to the enemy.
And here was somebody who was distressed. He saw the battle, he felt inadequate for it. And he said, alas, master, how shall we do?
And he answered, That's the Elisha.
Answered Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with me.
And if that was true, then it's true now. God has given us the Holy Spirit.
We find in first John it says greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
We have no excuse except our human weakness to feel defeated.
God has amply provided for us for the battle.
Verse 17 And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may say, that's my prayer today.
That if you're facing a battle that you feel you can't deal with.
That God will open your eyes.
To see.
To see things as they really are, You see, God deals with reality because God determines what reality is. We look at circumstances around us and we think we have a grasp of reality and we don't see behind the scenes.
Elijah prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold.
The mountain was full of horses and Chariots of fire.
Round about Elijah, that's all we need to read is this story. You know the end.
God was there. God had provided.
The problem is that we forget. We get occupied with what we can see and what we feel, and forget what God has. We don't have God's view of things.
What in particular brought this to mind is both of these younger professing believers confessed to involvement in ***********.
And it may be that.
There are some here who can identify with that.
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Most of us have encountered it at one time or another.
And it's a real trap.
I want you to know that there is hope, there is deliverance.
And God has shown us how to deal with these things.
Let's turn to next to.
Psalm 89.
Psalm 89 and verse 7 again.
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints, and to be had in reverence.
Of all them that are about.
You will notice that in several the verses we read, you have a pair of phrases.
Fear and reverence. I want to talk about those later.
But what I'm concerned is right now is, do you understand that God, if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, you and God are inseparable.
And whatever you're involved with, you're involving God with.
Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 23 please.
I don't know what the psalmist was thinking about here, but this is one passage that.
Might have he might have umm been thinking of when he wrote this Psalm, Deuteronomy 23.
Deuteronomy 23 and verse.
14 For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the camp. That was actually what's referred to here by the assembly.
And uh, this Psalm God is greatly to be fear in the assembly of the Saints. We we see this in meeting rooms and it applies. It applies here too. But this is ex this is what was actually being referred to the camp of Israel. The Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the camp to deliver thee.
Not to condemn.
Yes, we may feel condemned. We should feel condemned.
Someone asked me a while back and I was pointing out a fault to them. Are you trying to give me a guilt trip?
The answer is yes.
Guilt trips are healthy.
If the surgeon goes in and and strikes, find something that's not right. There should be pain.
God gave us a conscience for a reason.
But God doesn't walk in the midst to condemn, He walks in the midst to deliver.
The Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the camp to deliver thee.
And to give up thy enemies before they therefore shall thy camp be holy.
That he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.
So why did the psalmist write this verse? God is greatly to be feared because.
What happened to Israel?
Happens to us, we get complacent. The Israel was given the oracles of God. They had the Tabernacle, they had the priesthood, they had the sacrifices, they had the offerings. No other nation had that.
And they grew complacent and forgot who was walking among them, who was associated with them. And so the psalmist says, God is to be.
Greatly, God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence and like. I want to talk about those two terms later, but the point is, do we accept that?
Do I give God the reverence He deserves?
Does that fear characterize my life?
Things haven't changed.
The world changes.
But God doesn't. He still deserves what he always deserved.
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He deserves reverence and fear.
Turn to Proverbs chapter 16 now.
Proverbs 16.
And verse 6 By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged.
Or atone for?
So there's two things that are dealt with here in a connection with sin. By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged or atoned for.
But then there's the area of responsibility too. By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. Is there sin in your life? Is there a habit you want to be rid of?
Do you accept the fear of the Lord? Because that's.
The way of deliverance by the fear of the Lord. Man depart from evil. Why do I say that? Let's turn to Genesis 39.
We know the story of Joseph.
Joseph.
What came from a family?
Blessed by God.
But Joseph ended up in Egypt.
And everyone of us lives in Egypt.
How do we deal with the temptations around us?
Genesis 39 verse seven. I can't you pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eye upon Joseph and she said.
Lie with me. But he refused, and said to his master's wife, Behold, my master, what if not, what is with me in the house? And he has committed all that he hath to thy hand, and there is none greater in this house than I. Neither has he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
You know he started out by explaining.
Very practical reasons why what this woman proposed was not a good idea, but he ended up. The bottom line was this.
How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Who thought it was wickedness? She didn't.
The Egyptians were immoral people. They didn't consider wickedness. And we tend to take on the influence, the the opinion of the world about us and the world shrugs of evil and so we shrug it evil. But Joseph didn't.
He said, how can I do this great wickedness?
And sin against God. And what you think we're Joseph was Joseph was a man who'd had communication from God. He had a dream, but that dream was shattered.
He couldn't see any hope of that dream ever being fulfilled.
So they say I give up, I'll take what the world's got to offer. No, he says. I.
Fear.
How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
He feared God. He recognized God in the situation. He still had God in the situation. The situation was lousy.
It looked hopeless.
Except God was there.
And he honored God by recognizing God in that situation. How can I do this great wickedness and sin?
Against God? Well, does it just matter what he said? No.
And it came to a path, as the as she speak to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. He avoided this temptation.
He deliberately avoided this temptation.
This is scriptural.
Sometimes we make excuses, say well, just I can't happen, help it. Every time I turn on the computer, it's there or, or whatever it is, maybe it's something else. It's a problem for you, for you here. And temptations abound and opportunities abound and with every circumstance in our lives.
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God gives these things.
To test us.
And to give us an opportunity to prove what He is. What do I mean by that? Every circumstance in life has A2 fold purpose. To prove what I am and to prove what God is. Some people.
Say, well, God didn't give me a good hand. People are using the analogy of cards. Some people say God didn't give me a good and it gave me a bad hand. I might as well play it for what it's worth.
I was just telling your brother before the meeting. I just recently enjoyed a little two verse expression, A22 word expression. Hebrews 13. People complain about the hand God has dealt them and use it to make excuses.
If someone deals you a bad hand, what do you do with it? You go back to the dealer and in Hebrews 13 it says God Dealeth.
It says literally God deals with you as sons. But the point is.
God is in all our circumstances.
And he's giving us opportunities.
To overcome for His glory.
And Joseph overcame. What did he do? He avoided the situation and when it came to it, confront him face to face. Notice what it says here.
It says here as she spoke to Joseph day by day, this is a habitual thing. And by the way, it's very similar to what the experience that Samson had. Delilah was after him day after day. And it says he succumbed, he gave up.
And he lost his eyesight.
Joseph didn't give up.
What did Joseph do?
Came to pass day by day that he hearkened not to her, to lie by her, nor to be with her. In other words, he made deliberate, deliberate.
Efforts to avoid this.
This temptation, and it came to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to do his business, and there was none of the men in the house there within. And she caught him by the garment saying, Lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out. He ran. It was the right thing to do. Timothy was told. Flee youthful temptations. Wait a second. Was Timothy as young as Joseph? Probably not. It may surprise.
Some of you younger brothers to know that the older brothers are subject to the same temptations.
And by God's grace, we've been given grace and we've taken.
The opportunity to run.
On a number of occasions.
Joseph Rand.
You sell well. Just piece of his history. It was the deciding point of his life. If he hadn't run then everything would have been different in his life. It was. It looked like a cowardly thing. It was the best thing he could have done.
He was a he was, well, he wasn't even at the bottom there. He ended up in prison because of this. It was misunderstood. It was misinterpreted, but God.
Came in for Joseph.
And then period of two or three years, I believe he was head of the land. This was a deciding point in Joseph's life. He resisted temptation. You and I don't know which little circumstance may be a deciding point.
Where our lives turned the corner.
So often we miss opportunities because we're careless. Joseph was not careless. He did the right thing. He ran.
By the by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil.
You know, we're lazy sometimes.
Turns me to.
To uh.
Second, uh, second Samuel.
Second Samuel.
Chapter 17.
Moreover, Isabel said unto Absalom, let me now choose out 12,000 men on our rise and pursue after David this night, and I will come upon him while he is weary you just one of Satan's favorite times to attack us, this one retired.
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There's two good things to do. Retired, the Lord Jesus said. Come to me, all ye that are weary.
Pray the others go to bed.
But I want you to be especially warned. Be aware that Satan attacks, particularly when we're weary.
They skipped it, you know, And common, common wisdom is forewarned, is forearmed.
So be especially careful when you're weary. Satan attacks, particularly when we're weary.
You know, when it's, it's, it's interesting. And Joseph's case, this thing came on gradually. Most things in life do come on gradually. It built. She's this woman spoke to him repeatedly and.
I'm sure that that Joseph was dreading the time when he had to go into the house and discover there was no one there, no other man there but himself and this woman.
He was. I believe Joseph was prepared to run.
And so often we lose in the battle because we're not prepared. God has given us His Word so we can be prepared.
Uh, turn to back to Isaiah.
I'm just going through these in scripture order.
Isaiah chapter one verse 16. This is the word of God to his people. Wash you, make you clean.
You know the we have a verse that says the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. That's true.
But each one of us is also responsible for our own moral cleanliness, our own practical cleanliness.
Wash you, make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well.
Why do I mention this? Because there is a moral order here, and you find it all the way through Scripture.
There are some here who want to serve the Lord.
We read that verse. We may serve the Lord acceptably with reverence and godly fear, and we want to serve the Lord. We want to be of some use to the Lord, but we'll never know how to do it right.
Until we're pure.
Cease to do evil, learn to do well, God.
Does not want to use.
Impure vessels.
If you want to be used of God.
You need to get ready.
We'll see more of that later. We're willing.
Ceased to do. We've learned to do well. This is a principle.
What's the secret of knowing God's mind?
It's being in communion. You can't be in communion with God if you're indulging in sin in your life.
Turn to Malachi chapter one again.
Malachi chapter one verse.
6.
God draws a natural example. He says. It's natural for a son to honor his father.
But you know, we harbor sin in our hearts. It affects even our natural affections. We find that in Scripture.
A son honors his father, and a servant his master.
These are normal, natural responses and God says.
If I then be a father, where is my honor?
Let me ask you a question.
Do you want to enjoy the communion of the Father and the Son?
There needs to be honor in your life.
Honor in your heart, in your attitude, that we're talking about attitude, and somebody who's playing with sin has a wrong attitude.
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Yeah, bye.
Then be a father, where is my honor, and I may be a master. Where is my fear? The fear of God relates to service. We'll see that later too, Lord willing. The fear of God is more connected with service and reverence with communion.
Where? Where in a society where people talk, take everything casually, we have what we're called seeker friendly services and churches and so on, where the natural man can feel comfortable.
God says where is my reverence? You know, I learned this long ago.
I was raised in a Christian home and my parents were reverent.
But I had also was among some other people that worked and umm, I learned to be careless in the use of the word of God. In some ways I was visiting up in the home of Ruth Smith. Ruth and Albert Smith up in Ottawa some 484546 years ago.
And visiting with Harold and Clifford. A few of you may remember them.
Having a good time and to be funny I casually.
Made a joking reference to a phrase in Scripture.
And Ruth Smith.
Rebuked me.
And I took it to heart.
And I've been thankful ever since.
There are so many that today that just.
Treat the Word of God as some other book.
The way you reverence God's Word is the way you reverence Him.
Do you take his word lightly? You say, Oh, I reverence the word of God, Yes. How often do you read it?
If you're indifferent to the word of God, is that reverence? No.
The psalmist, Psalm 119 says, Oh, how I love Thy law. It is my meditation all the day. That's reverence.
It means something to you.
And so the Lord here says this was his last communication to Israel.
Before the Lord Jesus came, for 400 years, God had nothing more to say, so to speak. He'd said it all, he said.
If I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my fear? Saith the Lord of Hosts to you.
You take it personally, take it to heart. One more thing, look at the end of this first chapter of Malachi, verse 14.
But cursed be the Savior, who hath his flock of male, and voweth and sacrifices unto the Lord.
A corrupt thing, for I am a great king.
That was my hope, and I see we're gonna run out of time. It was my hope to.
Turn back to two passages in the Old Testament where we see how people behaved in the presence of the King.
We'll have to save that for some other time. It's very instructive.
People are reverent.
When they recognized the king on the throne.
It it's appropriate.
Turn now to I'll go back to First Timothy, Chapter 3.
First Timothy, chapter 3.
Verse 15.
But if I carry along with thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house God.
It's one thing to know how to behave yourself.
And our behavior changes when we go into a house.
We do things outside the house, so we don't do anything do inside the house.
And this is the House of God.
It's got the highest standards.
And you're in it. If you're the Lord, you're in it all the time. How do I, why do we say that?
In the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the Church of the truth, you're in the House of God all the time. Yes, you're in the world, but you're also in the House of God all the time.
How are you behaving? How am I behaving in the House of God? I'm in that house all the time. I belong there.
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Am I dragging things into that house that don't belong there?
Starting to Psalm 93, verse 5.
Psalm 93, verse 5.
My testimonies are very sure. Holiness becometh thy house, oh Lord.
Forever, Holiness.
That's a challenge. We won't find it in the world. We only.
We only get it from God.
God furnishes his house.
Holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, forever.
Like I say, I I wanted to take time to.
Look at some passages in the Old Testament that showed the illustrated proper behavior in the House of God. It's really a a fascinating subject.
We won't have time for that because I wanna finish up with this.
This verse in Hebrews 13. I want to talk about a little bit about Hebrews 13.
Verse 2628 wherefore we receiving, oh, you know, we're not worthy. He was 12. Thank you. Hebrews 12. Verse 28.
We receiving, we are privileged.
We are infinitely gifted and we're so ungrateful.
And so responsible we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, you know.
We look and see, we get distracted by this world. It's change all the time and.
People chasing rainbows.
A running down rabbit trails and they're getting excited about this and that into something new every every month.
We have something that lasts.
Something that's substance for eternity. We receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace. Let us have grace.
You know, we can have as much as we want, Grace.
And I want to point out something about grace.
God's grace, like every other thing that He has, is alive. It's something that reflects His nature. I want to point out what grace does. Let us have grace. Let's turn to Titus chapter 2.
Titus, chapter 2, verse 11.
The grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men.
Or the grace of God that brings.
Umm, salvation to all men has appeared, teaching us, teaching us. God's grace teaches us. Are we teachable?
Are we teachable? Are we willing to be taught?
And God's grace can teach us. Remember what that, what that.
Servant asks how shall we do? How can I deal with this?
Great host. How can we deal with this? Great host that comes against this?
Here's the answer. God teaches us how to do it, teaching us that denying ungodliness is willing us. This is responsibility.
Denying is not.
Well understood these days.
Denying.
Umm, people sometimes say, well that's just denying reality, you know? No, it means to say no. That's what dying means. They're going to read this in another translation.
It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions.
Why do people follow these their passions? Why is it that we so easily slip into sin because we follow our feelings?
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We are so hindered. I see. I see young Christians, men and women both.
Waste their lives going in circles like a dog chasing its tail. Why? Because they're chasing their feelings instead of acting responsibly in the fear of God.
It teaches us.
It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self.
Controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. That's what grace does.
Let's have grace. Let's have it in our lives.
Let's turn back to Hebrews 13.
There's a lot more to it. I'm just touching the surface of these things. I, I really pray that some will go home and meditate on these things. There's so much more. Wherefore we're receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
Serve God acceptably.
You know, it's a great privilege to be used by God, and he does use us.
God doesn't have anything, Uh, any any anything. How do I put it? God is not wasteful.
Remember when the Lord fed the 4000, the 5000 He said gathered the fragments.
That nothing be lost. God is not wasteful. He uses us in ways that we don't know we're going to find out.
But it says they may serve God acceptably.
Acceptably.
I hope we want to serve God acceptably.
Not just acceptably to our brother, but acceptably to him. And it says with reverence and godly fear.
Now wanna just say a few words about reverence and God affair and I'll be done. Although I'm only half with you, my subject.
Reverence is the respect we owe him because who he is. I hope we take these words to heart.
There is.
The the reverence, the respect we owe God is unlimited because he is unlimited. He is infinite.
We may serve God acceptably with reverence. That is whatever God says.
That's gold.
It has authority in my life. I can't be indifferent to it.
It's the Word, the living word of God. It lasts forever.
The may serve God acceptably with reverence.
Respect.
An indifference is not respect.
You and I know the difference between respect and indifference, and God knows it even better.
Let me serve. God accepted you with reverence and godly fear.
And now, for years, I wrestled with this idea of godly fear.
And I don't think I've encompassed the thought.
We haven't exhausted any truth here at this conference.
But I'm gonna share with you something I've enjoyed in the and and then it's helped me and my understanding Godly fear. Godly fear has to do with.
God's ways, His purposes, and His power.
The fear of God. You know, I've come across people who don't reverence God.
But they fear God. They recognize there's somebody out there and they may joke about him, but they it's interesting. I read an article recently by Charles Krauthammer, who's a famous commentator, and a few people may have heard of him. And he's was raised a Jew. And he says, I don't know God, but he says I fear him.
He recognizes that God involves himself in man's affairs.
That the universe was created by God.
Ron Hammer says I feel sorry for an atheist. He has nothing to live for and nowhere to go when he dies.
I'm not quoting me exactly, because I don't know if Charles Krauthammer knows where he's going either. But my point is.
The fear of God recognizes God in our circumstances and in our in creation. This is what motivated UMM.
At least part of what motivated Joseph.
He recognized his responsibility to God in the circumstances.
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And Proverbs says we should live in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
Let me illustrate.
I hope it sticks with us. I've got a heavy Bible case here. I'm going to place it on the edge of this table and say that's not a very smart place to lay. That's the point of illustration. Now suppose that we're a baby lying there.
I can just see some others getting UN nervous.
If that were a baby lying on the edge of that table, you wouldn't be just sitting there. You'd think I was crazy and you'd be doing something about it.
Why? Because a baby does not respect gravity.
We grow up.
Dealing with gravity? Get out of bed and the first thing you do is you put your feet on the floor so you don't fall on the floor, because you know that if you don't put your feet down first, you're gonna land there anyway.
We deal with gravity all the time. That's why we have belts in our waist so that the pants or or skirts will hang properly. This whole this whole building is designed to take gravity into account. Gravity pervades everything in this world.
And that's.
The way God is.
He is active, He's involved in every circumstance of life. Remember I quoted that verse in Hebrews 13 and quoted that phrase God dealeth and Ephesians chapter one. You find God work. God works all things.
Gods involved in every circumstance of our lives.
And we need to take that into account. That's to live in the fear of God, to know that God's in my life. Joseph recognized that. He says, I, how can I do this sin against God, God.
You know I share that woman thought he was crazy.
But Joseph recognized that God saw what he did. He lived in the fear of God.
Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
For our God.
He's as big as he ever was. He's as great as he ever was. Our God is. This is present tense.
A consuming fire?
He's all powerful.
And he's, you know, a fire is hot.
God is involved and he is not indifferent. He hates indifference because he is interested beyond our belief.
And that's why it says here in the next chapter.
Verse five, let your conversation this Hebrews chapter 13. Verse five, let your conversation be without covetousness.
And be content with such things as you have or present circumstances. Christianity deals with the present right now. God's involved in the present, and we are to be content with the present circumstances. Be content with the circumstances God has given. Why? Because he makes up all the difference, it says here.
Be content with such things as you have, for behold, for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Now what's the point of that? Well, the first thing is he says I, he's there.
And, you know, as you and I separate and we go home, we can take this with us, he has said, well, you know, it's, it's, it's sometimes discouraging to go home from a conference.
But God has said I will never leave me nor forsake thee, and God is not redundant here.
God never leaves us. That's physical presence.
There've been times I've been with my wife sitting right beside her and she's talking and I'm offensive. My mind is elsewhere. I'm not attentive. I've I'm not laughter, but I've forsaken her.
And that's the point here. God is always there, always with us, and He is always attentive to us. Always.