Address—Steve Bambauer
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I just want to bring out.
This line in verse one, we're just going to sing verses one and two. Exhaustless spring.
The water is free. Think of that exhaust less spring thought that the first few verses.
We would look at.
In the book of Joshua.
Chapter 15.
And I'll start with verse 12.
Now I'll start in the middle of verse 13.
Even the city.
Of Arba, the father of Anak. Which city is Hebron?
Now go down to verse 15.
He went up thence to the inhabitants of De Beer, and the name of De Beer before was Kirjath Seifer. So these two cities had their names changed.
I understand that Kerja Seifer means City of books.
Before it was called De Beer.
And you know, if we're going to go to the world for our information, it changes.
Names change, concepts change, conclusions change.
Explanations change.
Time magazine comes out with a new magazine every single week, the newspaper every day.
Anything in the world is always changing.
Even what they're going to tell you as truth today.
Is different than what they told me when I was in College in the 1960s.
And a lot different.
Even some years before that.
Now in verse 16.
Caleb said he that smite a cure Jack Seifer and taketh it.
This is a tall order.
To be able to overcome all the whims and changes in ideas and philosophies that we hear at college from our neighbors.
In the publications.
Caleb one and somebody that got one foot in front of the other and kept going on a straight path.
He had a tremendous prize for a person who could do that.
He that smideth Kath seifer and taketh it to him, will I give AXA my daughter to wife?
We have a candidate.
Oth Neil, the son of Kenas, the brother of Caleb.
Took it.
And he gave them AXA, his daughter, to wife.
This is what you might call a good match.
Because they were of one mind, they weren't always changing their mind about everything. Axel was well taught.
Caleb never changed his mind when those seven, when those spies went into Canaan and came out with the report.
He gave the same report that God said he would take them up there and he would be with them and he would deliver them and the other boys came back with a different report.
Caleb was a man for all seasons.
Caleb believed God. That's exactly what he wanted for his son-in-law.
One that wouldn't just be coming and going back and forth, in and out, to and fro.
And he gives Amax to his daughter, to wife.
And now she shines.
And it came to pass, as she came unto him, she was number hindrance, doth Neil.
She was indeed a helpmeet.
That she moved him to ask of her father afield.
And I imagine that he did, and that it was granted.
And the Lord loves to give us what we ask, when we ask in His name.
With his mind.
So she lighted off her *** and Caleb said unto her, What wouldst thou?
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Sometimes when the Lord came to someone or someone came to the Lord, he would say to him like the blind man when he was going through Jericho.
What wouldst thou that I do for you?
And his answer was simply that I might receive my sight.
And the Lord granted that.
And sometimes we'll come to the Lord. He might say, in effect, what exactly do you want?
And what Axel wanted.
What wouldst thou? She answered. Give me a blessing.
For thou hast given me a Southland, this field that she motivated Oth Neil to ask for, and he got.
But anybody that's a farmer knows that if you have a field, you're going to need to irrigate it. You're going to need water.
And where these folks were there in Canaan is a, is a, a climate, a geography very similar to the great Central Valley in California where I live. And it's called a Mediterranean climate. And it's warm and dry in the summer and it's cool and wet in the winter. And you don't get any rain in the summer. You just don't get any rain in the summer. It's a fluke. Everybody will talk about it if 1/4 or 1/2 an inch.
Comes down, it's something everybody will talk about.
But that's when the crops are growing, that's when the harvest is at the end of summer, at the beginning of fall, and you have to get water to it.
And so we, being clever Americans, drill wells, build dams, make lakes, and have water supplied through canals all year long, so that the great Central Valley, because of its long growing season, its moderate climate, its rich soils, and its its access of water, is the richest agricultural district.
In the whole world.
So AXA realized that just the field wouldn't do. They had to have some water.
He came to pass. As she came to him, she moved to ask her father a field she lighted off her ***. Caleb said, Under what was thou who answered? Give me a blessing, for Thou hast given me a Southland. Give me also springs of water.
And he gave her the upper springs. Romans chapter 5 and verse 10.
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled.
We shall be saved by his life.
There is a man in the glory, and he's our advocate, He's our high priest, He intercedes for us, and he is an all the way home Savior.
It's the upper springs.
With a man in glory. That's for us who invested himself at Calvary.
To redeem us.
We shall be saved by his life, the upper springs.
And then she says in the Nether Springs.
John, 739.
I'll start at 38.
Well, let's take the red print in verse 37. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this is fake of the Spirit which that which they that believe on him should receive.
For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. And so when he goes up on high, he sends the Spirit of God to indwell every believer. The nether springs, water from above, water from below, a fruitful field, everything is in place.
Again, the fruitful field is the word of God. I take it as the word of God.
We should be reading it with diligence.
Having precedence over anything else that we read, whether it's professional journals.
The Daily News or whatever that we're interested in or needful to know.
This is the book that gets us through life step by step and brings us all the way home, gives us the information. It's the manual. It's the map.
For our journey.
But a field is a dry field without the Spirit of God.
To read the word of God by the natural man is fruitless.
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But to read the word of God with Christ in glory in mind, and the Spirit of God to make these things real to us.
We have all the tools. This is exactly what we need.
What we need to apply to this formula?
Diligence and purpose of heart and that it will keep us.
No matter what the circumstances are, will be kept.
They had just come into Canaan.
And this is the provision given at the outset.
You get saved. This is what you need, Word of God.
Occupation with Christ and glory.
Spirit within.
And here, Joshua, in the book of Joshua, at this point, they had just come into the land.
Next passage I'd like to read is in Judges, and it's in chapter one.
And it begins at verse 12. And Caleb said he that Smideth cured Jath Seifer. Nope, I'm going to start verse 11. And from thence he went against the inhabitants of De Beer. And the name of De Beer before was Kirjath Seifer.
And Caleb said he that smideth Kirjath seifer and taketh it to him. Will I give acts of my daughter to wife?
And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it, and gave him Axios daughter to wife. And it came to pass when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father afield. And she lighted from off her ***. And Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou? And she said unto him, Give me a blessing, for thou hast given me a Southland. Give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. And here we are in the book of Judges.
Well, it's not Joshua anymore. They're not fresh in the land.
History marches on.
Joshua there. That account was about 1450 BC. This is several 100 years later.
And now is the time of the judges.
And we see ups and downs, to's and fro's, backwards and forwards, 2 steps forward, one step back. It seems like in judges, or maybe 1/4 back and two forward. The Lord is good.
And he made provision, but the provision is the same for us now at the end of the day.
That's what I'm getting at.
Here we are toward the end of the day.
And we have the same provision. If I had read this back again in the book of Joshua, I don't think you would have caught it.
While you read along with me in the book of Judges.
We have the same needs.
At the end of the day.
As the believers at Pentecost had needle.
Now if you will turn to First Timothy.
Chapter One.
Unto Timothy verse two, my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
Things were in pretty good order here when he writes this first epistle to Timothy.
This is the instruction that he gives him.
Go to Second Timothy.
Also verse 2.
Now the apostles in prison.
He's coming to the very end of his course.
To Timothy, my dear beloved Son, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I noticed one difference in this anyway.
In First Timothy, it's Lord Jesus Christ.
But here Christ is put first, Christ Jesus our Lord.
What hope is there for this world?
Is there any hope for this world?
After 2000 years and here we live.
In the land of liberty, and I heard.
The songs that were sung the other night on July 4th up there.
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And we're so very thankful for the liberty that we have in this democratic experiment in which we live.
It's like walking a tightrope and you have your balance bar and you've got liberty on one side and law on the other, and it's a delicate balance, this democratic experiment.
To balance both liberty and law.
In an absolute despotism or monarchy, it's all law.
And you do as you're told.
And anarchy. It's all liberty and no law.
Well, what we see is the balance beginning to tip.
More toward liberty.
And less toward law. And it's becoming every man for himself.
Every man doing that which is right in his own eyes.
Because right is being lost sight of.
Truth has lost sight of as an absolute.
Right and wrong. Once truth is lost sight of this nebulous, it's up for grabs.
Purpose.
There's no meaning destiny, there's no destination, so you live for the moment.
And whatever tickles you, you grab with both hands.
Without any regard for anything else.
And even legislation has jumped into the mix.
And we know that well in California recently.
Well.
In Second Timothy, chapter 4.
I'll read verse three and verse 14. Second Timothy. He says continue thou.
Falls in prison. He's given instruction to Timothy. It's instruction to us.
Paul's doctrine.
Is isolated. It's marginalized.
By marginalized.
I mean, it's set aside. It's hardly known.
Even in Christendom.
To Paul, Paul is given the truth of the church, the truth of the one body.
But he says.
Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of.
What we learn from the field with the upper and nether springs is something.
You can bet your life on.
You can invest your life in.
There is nothing else.
Everything else is going down to judgment, and the Lord is coming back.
As Christ, and we look forward to that, He's God's anointed man, the Christ. And in the meantime we see all kinds of difficulties.
And God says in Ezekiel, I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more till I give it him whose right it is.
A Christ and it doesn't anybody elses, right?
The man of sin will try to take hold of it. He's the usurper and always has been.
We only.
As believers on the Lord Jesus have any hope and future and basis for how to conduct ourselves and purpose in this life, we only.
Anything else is just made-up along the way. It'll change probably before the next generation.
Then in chapter 4.
I'll start at verse 2.
He gives us something to do.
It's not that Timothy was to find a cave and living there.
Preach the Word.
Be instant in season, out of season, Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering, long-suffering.
And doctrine. That's teaching.
We can be certain of the doctrines or teachings of the Word of God.
We don't want to mix it up and call it one thing yesterday and another thing tomorrow.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. We're talking about Christendom now. In First Timothy. The problems are in the world, but now they're even in Christendom.
Will not endure sound doctrine.
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Time will come, here we are.
But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears?
And when I apply this to Christendom, I'm not. I'm not painting with A broad brush. There are many believers who love the Lord and want to please the Lord.
But Paul's doctrine is.
And it's considered a virtue.
To go out and start a church your own.
And build it as big as you can.
Why won't they endure sound doctrine after their own lust? Shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears? They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned.
Unto fables.
But watch thou in all things.
Endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, Make full proof of thy ministry. What a good word to us.
There's plenty to do.
Even in our own little corner.
And if we just sit back and let others do it or or think, there's nothing left to do.
You know what happens?
To the little boy that gets bored.
So when he starts to torture the cat.
It's fruitless.
Gets into mischief.
It's the same with a believer, you know.
By tomorrow at lunchtime, I could make a right turn into legalism, I could make a left turn into licentiousness, and everyone of us here could do the same thing. What we need.
Is diligence.
Paul's in prison.
I am ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand. He has a good conscience. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.
He represented the Lord Jesus with integrity.
In a place where he is despised.
When I was over in Vietnam, I was on a flight.
It was November 22nd, 1969 and I've told this story before.
Our wingman was shot down. We had gone in, rolled off the target, the wingman came in and he got shot down.
We called for a helicopter.
And we got the helicopter there, but it takes a while because he's not parked next door to the target. And it takes time and you have to evade a little bit. And Jim found a little Bush. Jim Bedinger was in the back seat, Herb Wheeler in the front.
And you hid under that. And he says I've talked to him on the PR2 radio from the airplane to him, his little handheld radio.
And about troop movements up on the hills he could see, and he realized that they had spotted him.
And we had to go back for recovery. We couldn't stay there. Another airplane took over while the helicopter showed up. I talked to Jim Bettinger was shot down November 22nd. They captured him. They took him to the Hanoi Hilton and he got there December 7th. He said he remembered that because it was Pearl Harbor Day.
I had a chance to talk to him about 30 years later after this. Found out where he lived in San Diego. Had lunch with him just a few years ago.
He hid out as long as he could, but they came in against him and they captured him just about the time the helicopter got there.
And he was about 200 yards from where Herb Wheeler went down in a patch of trees, was able to hide a little better, and the helicopter went to Herb and they let down the cable.
And they start to haul Herb up and Jim standing over there a couple of 100 yards.
He says they're closing in on me. It doesn't look like they're going to shoot. Looks like I'll be a POW click. End of conversation. They captured him and as they're leading him away, he's looking at the helicopter with the line down and the hoist and Herb is being pulled up and he can look in the Bay of that helicopter and see the fellow up there with his machine gun and he's looking and they're taking fire. There was fire all over around there. The reason they.
Crashed as they had taken a hit.
And as a helicopter gets Herbie out of the trees, it's out of there. And here's Herbie danging like a lure on the end of the line, and they're hoisting him up as they're taking off.
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And Jim is being LED away to the Hanoi Hilton.
And they take him up there.
Since November 22nd they get him there on.
December the 7th they put him in a cell.
Between James Stockdale and John McCain, who were also prisoners of war, into a cell with a fellow named Ernie Brace, who was also captured. We were flying in Laos and so was Ernie Brace, and they put those people together.
And so of course, the commandant came and talked to Jim. Jim wasn't very old, he was just out of a university up in.
Pennsylvania.
And his major was history.
And he graduated. He went into officer candidate school, graduated, went to training and hit the fleet.
By the time he cut loss shot down, he was only 23 years old. He was the youngest POW in the Hanoi Hilton.
So the command thought he had a chance here.
Commandant is going to try to separate Jim from the rest of the prisoners. The senior ranking officer, I'll call him SRO, is the one you answer to in prison, whether he's in the Marines, Navy, Air Force, everybody that's junior to him answer to him, answers to him. He gives, he gives the orders.
Doesn't matter whether you're black, red, yellow, white, American, European, African, We answer to the same sovereign. That's why we call him Lord.
And so in this prisoner of war camp.
And they took Jim out the commandant, and they said you're we're not going to treat you as a.
As a war criminal, we're treating all these others and recognize them as merely war criminals.
But we're going to treat you as a prisoner of war.
You're young, you don't know as much as these others. You didn't know any better. We will show you a little better favor.
Kim's not very big, about 5 foot eight. Of course the Asians went that big S he's looking eyeball to eyeball, he says now.
These men are not.
These men are prisoners of war. They're not war criminals. The Geneva Convention told you it was a history, Major says.
Gives us the instructions on how we're to treat prisoners of war in the common doctor. But Vietnam did not sign the Geneva Convention and Jim said well the communist Chinese did and the Soviet Union did and it is a document that is universally accepted as.
How warring nations will treat prisoners of war.
Well, he had something just a bit transcendent, if I can put it that way, on how we're to treat people.
This book is a lot about that.
And that's why I'm making some of this analogy, the commandant said. You have a bad attitude, I will punish you. And he turned on his heel and walked away and never came back.
So Jim spent the rest of the war there in the Hanoi Hilton.
And in 1973 Mr. Mr. Nixon had sent Henry Kissinger over to Paris for some Paris peace talks in trying to find some resolution to the war. It became evident because we got into that in 60 four there we had been for.
64 There's six, I mean nine years, no progress, no hope, Insight expensive 60,000 lives lost in that war.
People my age at that time.
Friends. Some of them were my friends. Some of them I knew.
No hope insight.
The American public was absolutely, almost unanimously against the war by that time.
So Kissinger went over and bargained or or negotiated with the North Vietnamese and told them that we would pull out of the war.
But what we wanted is our prisoners of war back.
All right, they were going to agree with that because they knew Nixon and Kissinger knew that the moment we pulled out of that war, South Vietnam would be over Iran.
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They were not able to muster a government and a military whereby they could protect.
Well, we pulled out in 73, spring of 73 and by spring of 75.
The Communist N Vietnamese had indeed overrun South Vietnamese South Vietnam and annexed them, annexed them all into one country.
But they agreed to let the prisoners go. There were little over 300 of them.
And they had them the day that the plane was supposed to come to pick them up. They told all the prisoners, shower up, get your best uniform on, stand out here in the playground in rank.
So here are all these 300 or so out here at parade rest.
There's going to be an airplane coming to pick you up.
Haha what do you think they were doing?
Reading the communist propaganda that they were handed.
Maybe a plane's coming. I don't know. I don't hear it.
What are they reading? What are they given? Not too many letters from home. Except Dear John letters. They got those all the time.
That means the wife is leaving.
Tired of waiting? They got those. Anything that would demoralize them, they got that news.
They're standing out here. An hour goes by number, plane.
One guy looks to the other. You think this is a hoax? Well, I don't know. We've been through hoaxes before.
I think this is for real.
I hope so. I hope so they continue standing out there.
Pretty soon.
With the trained pilot's eye, before they hear the sound, they see a little dot.
In the southern sky.
Almost as if it were a point of singularity in the southern sky.
And it emerges.
And it takes on the sound of an aircraft and it gets closer and closer and they see, I think it was AC130I may be mistaken about that. Had the Stars and Stripes on it. It's coming into the Hanoi airport. Can't land there in wartime, you know?
They see it.
Oh, you think they were happy?
The Lord is coming for us and we want to walk here in integrity in the enemy's land.
Under pressure and we're given all the tools for it.
Just read it.
Back there in Joshua and judges in First Timothy and Second Timothy.
He's given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us by glory and virtue all things we have.
So they came and they picked up these 300 or so prisoners, a little more than that, and they took them back and they.
I think they came to Travis first, Travis Air Force Base. They might have made some other stops in Germany to give the fellows a medical and quite a number of them got off at Travis Air Force Base is down in the Bay Area. Then they went to Los Angeles to a base there and let off quite a few more and then on to San Diego and that's where Jim and Jim's wife lived.
And there were only five of them left on the plane.
Didn't expect too many to be there, maybe the wives and some relatives.
And so they opened the door to the plane and put down the ladder and the first guy going out from the senior officer to the most junior, and that was Jim, he pokes his head out there and he ducks back into his.
There's at least 5000 people out there.
They're going to want to give on, want someone of us to give them a speech, I suppose.
Bettinger, get up here.
Junior officer there.
And he had about 5 seconds to figure out what he was going to say. He's a history major. Remember I told you that already.
He pushed him out there and he looks all those people out there. He knows his wife is there somewhere.
Better make this good.
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Sure, good to see you all.
You know, when I was a boy, I lived in Pennsylvania and sometimes my dad would take me down to.
Philadelphia. And there was this Liberty Bell there.
As a boy 10 years old, I got to that feeling.
Crap, I put my finger on that crack.
He says. I wonder if that thing will ever ring again.
And he says today, I know that it still rings true for freedom.
God bless our country. God bless our commander in chief.
That was his speech.
Went over quite well.
Well.
What do we make of that? There's a day when you're going home.
And what will be?
Or shout a picture.
God bless his people and God bless our commander and chief.
Lord Jesus Christ, what a reward at the end.
See another hymn.