Address—Mark Rogers
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Well, I'd like to talk about his sweet name tonight, so let's ask.
Father our God, for the help that we need tonight, our Father our God, we now lift up.
Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, and we're thankful that we can sing about his name. And now we ask for help our Father and our God for the time here that we have before us to take up the scriptures. Thou has given us thy holy word in our in our laps here, and we just ask that the Holy Spirit also help us as we take up.
Our blessed Lord Jesus.
And Lord Jesus, we're thankful too for the lovely time we've had here at camp and the measure of safety and health and the encouragement. We have so much to be thankful for during this week. But most importantly, Lord Jesus, for that name that we can take up and thy precious name we pray. Amen.
Well, I.
Had some thoughts happening in the last SO eight weeks or so in light of some questions that.
You probably have heard as well.
From time to time from various ones and at their fair questions.
And the question has to do. The questions may say something along these lines. Is this the place for me to gather? Or another question maybe is there more than one place?
And my intention is not to answer that question directly tonight. I believe that we start with the Word of God and we stick to the Word of God and let your conscience and the Holy Spirit guide and direct you on the matter. But I believe it's important to see.
What the Scriptures say about this matter, we're going to look at what his heart is like.
We're going to look at what his principles are.
His Holiness.
And his desire for me, and his desire for you.
So let's start in the very beginning of the book, shall we? In the book of Genesis.
We're going to look at as we go through for the time that we have here, we're going to concentrate on his desire.
And as we go along, we're going to find out that there's something else that comes along and may contradict his desire. Sometimes it's called my desire.
And every one of us will have a struggle. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
When we have to recognize, am I in tune with his desire? Do I have my own desire going on?
And so as we go through the scriptures here, we're going to find out clearly what his desire is. And then in some instances, we're going to see where I'm going to use the word my desire because I will identify I'm no better than those that we're going to read about in the scriptures that failed and took up their own desire.
Because our hearts are the same today.
So we all know the story. Even the youngest in this in the room know the story about.
Let me ask the question why did God create man? And may give me an answer younger ones anyone Why did God create man?
What's that?
Be a companion for himself, Absolutely. He had the angels, He had the angels, they're all lined up. We know that there's myriads of angels. He had all the angels, but he created a man in a garden for a purpose to be a companion and to have communion with him. So we see here in verse one of chapter one, verse 26, it says, and God said, let us make man in our image and our likeness.
And then we can jump down over to the second chapter for the 20.
20.
Where it says.
He breathed air into his nostrils. So he tenderly created man. But what was the problem with just Adam living? Anybody else like. Yeah, well.
He got lonely, absolutely. He got lonely. And so God says in chapter 2 verse 18, and the Lord God said it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. So now God created man to have communion with him and then he finds out. He sees, he didn't have to find out. He sees that Adam is lonely and he creates Eve. It's a beautiful thing. So now they have communion with one another.
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And we also see here too.
That in chapter 3.
Verse 8 very lovely verse here 8 verse chapter 3, verse eight and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves in the present Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. So Adam and Eve are created and God is now enjoying the company of these two in the garden that he just created. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing because apparently.
What I take from it is that he cannot disclose all of his purposes and all of his counsels to an Angel.
And so we have God Elohim, walking in the cool of the garden, communing with a man and a woman.
But this is our first example where a man and a woman's desire over and I don't want to use the world override. I'm coming trying to come up with a word with it, but it contradicts his desire. His desire says you shall need of the tree of the garden right now you this tree. And obviously their desire was the opposite. And so now they find themselves as he's walking through the garden.
They're hiding themselves. Their desire overrode or circumvented his desire to have communion that evening, and he finds them hiding in the bushes.
He wanted to have communion that evening with him and he finds him hiding in the bushes.
Can we not take that away to where sometimes my desire?
Overrides his desire for communion and he misses out on the communion that evening.
So we have a way verse chapter 3, verse 21 unto Adam also and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. He came with a remedy. He says, I would still like to have communion with you and he creates coats of skin. He had to kill some sheep or kill some goats and create clothes for them. And now they can have communion. But the problem is, is now their communion is going to be severed to some degree because they're cast out of the garden. Can you think of God Almighty creating this world, creating all the, I mean, you sit out here and just we, I think there's a fair amount of us that are admiring the natural beauty all around us down to the increase. If we brought a microscope in here, we could see the details.
Of just what we're seeing right out here in front of us. He does all this, but he also creates man for communion.
And man decides to stop that commune that evening by eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And he has that nakedness. He's conscience is on board and it's a sad thing to see. God, Adam, where art thou?
They're afraid the communion is dropped, but he establishes the communion. And so his desire to have communion is well exemplified here in the early parts of Genesis. So let's continue on to the next book to see what his desire is. And we're not going to. There's just too many scriptures to go through, and I don't have all the scriptures anyway. We could turn over to that. Let's just put our fingers on the 25th chapter of Exodus right now. We're all caught. We're all.
We all remember the Scripture well, that now there is a earthly people. What's the earthly people, young people again, What's the earthly people that that that came out of Egypt, whether they what are they called earthly people? Israelites. Yeah, Israelites, children of Israel. And So what does he do in Egypt? He purchases them away. He put, we have the the blood is laid on the doorpost. The Passover is given. He purchases a lamb has to be killed that night.
He takes them out of Egypt, purchase them, buys them back out of Egypt, and then out there on the sea of the Red Sea, he also protects them.
And he saves them from the enemy, right? The enemy was falling up behind them, right? And they had the ocean in front of him and they had the enemy behind them. And he saves them as he opens up the the floods and they walk right through on dry ground.
So he redeems them out of Egypt, saves them from Egypt, and now he's out in the wilderness. And there's a particular desire that he has now. And we see this in the 25th chapter. It's all over, but I we don't have all the time. It says in verse 22, now he makes the ark of the Covenant and he's telling Moses.
He says in Exodus 2522. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat and from between the two cherubims, which are above the ark of the testimony of all things, which I will give thee in commandment under the children of Israel. And then we can turn over to the 30th chapter, chapter 30, Exodus 30, and then verse.
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Six and he's talking about the staves of Shittimwood, so he's going into the art, the altar of incense there, but in chapter.
30 verse 6 And thou shalt put it before the veil, that is by the ark of the testimony, so you can put that incense altar right there, but before the veil, before the mercy thee that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. It's very clear that back in that backroom, the holy of Holies, he wants to Jehovah wants to meet with Moses.
So now we have him wanting to meet, not just the communion, but he wants to meet with them and then we have here too.
Look over here on the 29th back to the 29th chapter here verse.
43 verse 43 is the prior chapter. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the Tabernacle should be sanctified by my glory. And I will sanctify the alt, the Tabernacle of the congregation and the altar. I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons to minister me and the priest office. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will be their God and they.
Shall know that I am the Lord their God. And brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. Now he has another desire. The desire is not only to meet and talk with Moses. We find him talking directly with Moses, but he wants to dwell with them. His desire is to dwell with a people. Consider it. Put your eye on a telescope. Look out into the vastness and to think.
He created all this and yet He wants to dwell amongst this earthly people called Israelites out in the wilderness. And we find out where was the position of the Tabernacle relative to the whole big company of 600, seven, 100,000 people out there. Where was that Tabernacle? Is it in? Was it at the 12:00 position or the 6:00 position or you know, where do you know where that was?
You know what a bull's eye is.
Anybody know how to shoot out a target?
Right in the Max smack in the center that was to be where the Tabernacle was. And that's where he wanted to dwell with the people that precious. And so they could be looking back. The big massive company. They can look back. Then we know later on there's a there's a Shekinah glory that comes in and fills it and there's a funnel that goes on up that that that shows. And that funnel would would, would direct them out as to where they go. But you could wake up in the morning. You can look out over the tents. You can see out there. There was the funnel. That's where.
Jehovah was dwelling in the midst. That's his desire, right? We don't have him dwelling with them before this time, but now he wants to dwell with the people.
Let's turn over the 40th chapter.
For one more, here the very, very last verses of the Book of Exodus.
Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the Tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken up, then they that journeyed not till the day that it was taken out. For the cloud of the Lord Jehovah was upon the Tabernacle by day, and a fire was on it by night.
In the sight of the House of Israel throughout all their journeys. Is that beautiful or what to see a company of his earthly people out there in the desert not how does not have all this beauty that we have and there he is abiding with them. Now this very same portion we can see a likeness too. I'm not going to read it tonight. Later on when they get in the land, Solomon builds a temple and the same cloud comes in and just fills the temple to the maximum. They couldn't see. They couldn't work because God put his.
Blessing upon being able to dwell in the midst of this people.
That's his desire.
For these people is to dwell in the midst of them, but they did not understand and they did not appreciate the fact that he was wanting to dwell because we see the failure that sets in. One of the things we're not going to take it up as well. We, we took up, we touched it in Aberdeen a little bit as well. But we have and we took up numbers 19 for those that weren't there. But it's very, very clear when we read the book of Numbers, book of Leviticus.
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Defilement could not be in the camp. Chapter after chapter after chapter is written about defilement in in his earthly people and what to do about it. In fact, there is a time when the when it was so defiled in the camp that the Tabernacle had to be moved outside the camp.
And so there are principles associated with God when he wants to dwell or meet with the people. Is there has to be holiness involved?
And if the holiness fails, there's a remedy to regain holiness before him. And that's the Pentateuch, right? It's a beautiful thing.
And so this is what's being overlooked today in all of Christendom is the fact of holiness.
When, when, when meeting with God in a collective manner, not to mention in a personal manner as well. But my primary, my primary burden is the thought of God and His desire to meet with us.
In a collective manner which obviously has to be laid out from what what the personal manner is throughout the week.
Well, now we get so we have the desire to be in communion with man. We have the desire to dwell with a people. And then there is also another desire and that is he wanted to be recognized to be when he gets in, when they get into Jerusalem, into the in the land that he appoints Jerusalem to be the center. And there's many portions for that. But let's just turn over to Zachariah. Just we don't have so much time, but let's just look at Zachariah, one of the prophets.
They're at the end of the Old Testament.
Zachariah Chapter.
8.
And again, this is just a prophet speaking, repeating what the Lord tells him, and it says in verse one Zechariah 81 Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, Thus said the Lord of hosts, I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy. Zions, as I understand it, is Jerusalem there. And I was jealous for her with great fury. Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion. I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of the hosts.
The Holy Mountain and now we have not this now and Zacharias Day. It happened before this. God is showing His desire that Jerusalem is now going to be the center of the earth and he wants to dwell there. And today is it not? Is not Jerusalem in the surrounding areas the hottest bed of the world? It is the most amazing thing to see a little strip of land being so hotly contested for so many thousands of years.
And more importantly, even right now, you know, if these people that don't believe in God or any kind of spiritual movements of anything, they, they must, they must have to consider why is a piece of land, which I understand doesn't even have oil on it is so hotly contested. It's a divine thing. It's a spiritual warfare going on. And here we have in Zechariah the the thought that he would like to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
And then one more here. Let's turn over the book of Joel.
Yeah.
Little tiny book here. I'm having a hard time finding it. There it is.
Didn't even have a bookmark. Hosea, Joel Joel Chapter 3. This is one of these.
3 sixteens in the Scripture that says in chapter 3 verse 16, the Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord Jehovah will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel. And then the 17th verse. So shall you know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her anymore.
Again, another small example of Jehovah putting his stamp on Jerusalem, that his desire is to be in the center in Jerusalem, the center of the world. Isn't it nice to look at the desires of God over the course of time and they don't change.
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They don't change, these desires are still the same may not apply to me as we can move into a new dispensation because an earthly people sitting here and God would like to dwell and be the center of his earthly people, which is a coming day, but nonetheless, can I not rejoice in these things?
Will do these things give me guidance as to how to Live Today. We're going to find this out as we move along here.
But before we go too far, let's look at it. The most amazing thing, I think when we see man's desire usurps his desire has let me know. Let's turn back to first Kings. First Kings. This, this section, this this portion to me, First Kings Chapter 12.
This is the most it's just some for me is most astounding.
Thing and the children of the history Israel we have here first Kings 12 and verse 25. I'm going to read from the 25th verse down to the end of the chapter. Now we have the the just the premises for for everyone is that we have the king Solomon has died and now we have his son Rehoboam and we can read before the chapter before Rehoboam is not being the nicest man. He doesn't necessarily have the mind of God on things. Jeroboam is a is a is a.
Is a competitor and he decides to split the Kingdom and here's the methods of what she does and 1St kings 1225. Then Jeroboam built Shechem and Mount Eve Freeman dwelt there in and went out from thence and built Penuel and jeroboam setting in his heart.
Now shall the Kingdom return to the House of David. If this people go up to sacrifice in the House of Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of the people turn again in the Lord, even under Rehoboam, king of Judah. And they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one even unto Dan. And he made a house to of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the 15th day of the month, likened the feast that is in Judah. And he offered upon the altar. So did he and Bethel, sacrificing under the calves that he had made.
And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the 15th day of the 8th month, even the month which he had devised of his own heart, and ordained a feast in the children of Israel. And he offered upon the altar and burnt incense. Well, you can see here that in the heart of man his desire to say, I can't have him going to one place, so let's make it convenient, and let's have a place in Dan, which is the very, very top of the land.
And let's make it in Bethel, which is further down, all the way down at the bottom almost. Let's make two other places to go and you can choose which one you want to go to. And oh, by the way, and you can read through here, he made that. He made a feast that's similar. He made sacrifices that's similar. He set up a priesthood that's similar. He put so much stuff that's so similar there because he had his own prerogative. His own desire was to create his own worship places.
For a specific reason. The reason was I don't need him going to Jerusalem.
Well.
Now we've got two places. God says come to Jerusalem and man says no, I got two other places for you.
And not only does he do all that, but he introduces idolatry into the mix.
And so obviously, as we know the story of Israel, what actually drove? Another question for the young people, what drove?
The people of Israel out of their land. God was fed up with something. What was it?
What was God fed up with? With Israel and with Judah? And they both got carried away.
Idolatry. Do we have idolatry today?
Yeah, idolatry is alive and well.
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Idolatry is alive and well.
Satan keeps throwing the same tool at you. He might pull a little electricity on it, but he's got the same tool for the people every age. He's got the idolatry that's sitting there, and it's solemn to see that. Now not only does this Jeroboam build a complete two centers of worship, and it has all the likeness of Judaism that was given, but he introduces idolatry into it as well. That's man's desire.
Well.
Now sorry, we're skipping ahead, but we can't take too much up here. Let's just turn over to the first. Actually, I'm going to aim to take the next 6 verses of the following chapter here. Chapter 13. Behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord, and to Bethel, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burning. Since burning incense, he's doing exactly what the priests were ordained to do. He's doing the same thing. And he cried against the altar and the word of the Lord, saying, oh altar, altar. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a child shall be born in the House of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priests.
Of the high places, and burn incense under thee, and men's bones shall be burned upon. He and he gave a sign the same day. This prophet is really coming out at him, saying, This is the sign which the Lord has spoken. Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.
And it came to pass, when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried upon the altar of Bethel, They put forth his hand upon the altar, lay hold on him, and his hand, which was put forth upon him against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it again to him.
The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign of the man of God had given by the word of God. And the king answered and said into the man of God, And treat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the King's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. So the judgment of God comes down and overrides for this little situation here.
The the idolatry was was so much that God had to work with Jeroboam in such a manner but.
What's solemn about this we now have, We now have Israel, 10 tribes in Judah and Benjamin, 2 tribes. We have now two separate locations, 2 separate nations, and we now have multiple centers of worship going on. Let's turn over to the 18th chapter.
The 18th chapter that sin that went on here in and one thing I'm and I'd be I'd be happy to hear this from others as well. Just a little notice and meditating upon these things is the sin that we just had of Jeroboam creating these two these two places of worship. We don't have a record in the book of the Chronicles.
Thought that was interesting. You read the book of Chronicles and you see a lot of things.
Are duplicated more or less there's a reason for that because there's actually several reasons for it man we're seeing the depravity of man but you might see it in chronicles from the heart of God type of thing and so and so it's just interesting to see unless I missing it that this account of Jeroboams situation not mentioned in the chronicles because God sees these things he's got to be hurt to see such a man creating two places now dividing his people but we turn over to the to the 18th chapter here and I'm just going to read one verse I'm going to give the preface for this.
This is where in verse I'm gonna read 2 verses verse 21 and a light. Let's see here. This is verse 20. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and he gathered the prophet together unto Mount Carmel and and Elijah sending all the people and said how long halt you between two opinions. If the Lord be God, follow him, but if Baal then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
Now we have Mount Carmel, all the people are coming to Mount Carmel and we got 400 prophets of Baal sitting up there. We have Elijah sitting up there and that's a tremendous scene as they go head to head to altars. But the one thing I wanted to focus in on is on the 31St verse and Elijah took 12 Stones.
According to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name.
And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. It's precious. That's a divided Kingdom. And God says I still see one, and I want 12 Stones on that altar.
And today, he still sees the church as one. Yes, we are divided, but he still sees the church as one. That's why we have one loaf. We don't have a bunch of crackers out here. We have one loaf.
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Because the church is one and Israel is divided, they're in a problem. Problematic thing here. And the 12 Stones are put together to make this altar.
And we can read earlier too, when God ordained as the children of Israel came up into the land of Egypt and they bore the ark on their shoulders and they went through the Jordan River and they come up out of the other side. And they took 12 Stones out of the out of the out of the river, put it up there, put 12 Stones from the out there, put it inside the Jordan River as a testimony that there are 12, just like today, there's a testimony of one body.
Well, so this is this is a beautiful snippet here about the 12 Stones. Now let's turn over to a consequence of all of the sin of man overriding God. If you could say that God's got his purposes in it, but he's overwriting his desire. Let's turn over to the book of Ezekiel.
And this is another solemn, solemn little picture here Ezekiel chapter.
10.
Ezekiel is writing and he's in the he's in Babylon. Why were they carried away into Babylon? Because they were idolatrous, right? They didn't bow to God. God puts them overnight into Babylon. Ezekiel is writing, and this is the solemn little vision picture here that is just really unbelievable.
That says here in verse.
Oh, I'm going to read verse 18 for brevity sake. Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house. His He's seen a vision here and stood over the cherubims, and the cherubims lift up their wings and mounted up from the earth and the site, and they went out. The wheels also were beside them, and everyone stood the door of the Eastgate of the Lord's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. Above this is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar, and I knew that they were the cherubims.
And then come on down to the next chapter, Chapter 11, verse 22. Then did the cherubims lift up their wings and the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city. Afterwards the Spirit took me up and brought me in a vision to the Spirit of God, into Chaldea. To whom? To them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from the ME. Then I spake into them in the captivity of all the things the Lord had showed me.
He just saw a complete vision of the Shekinah glory lifting up from the temple in Jerusalem.
Waiting.
And then departing.
God's desire was to be amongst his people.
But the wickedness had continued so long that finally that's what Ezekiel sees. He sees the glory of the Lord depart. Even after we saw the portion there. That was the very end of Exodus. We saw Moses, how the Shekinah glory come in and fill the Tabernacle. We didn't read it, but we've talked about it where Solomon builds the temple and the Shekinah glory. God wants to dwell with His earthly people, and then the Shekinah glory left.
Well, good news is, is that he's going to dwell with his earthly people again someday, and that's a whole another topic.
But he still is going to dwell with his people in the Millennium.
So God will still have his desire.
Man may have his own desire and try to railroad things, but God still has a desire. So that's a wonderful thing to look at in the Millennium. Well, now let's turn over to where? Where do you and I fit in terms of gathering with Him? And I just want to pull out. We know these portions. Well, let's turn out where we're going to be if the rapture happens tonight. How's this going to work with me being with Him? Let's turn over to the last book, Revelation.
Revelation and verse chapter 4, verse one. And after this I looked, and behold, the door was open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was as were a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up, hit her, and I will show thee things which must be thereafter. And I immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven. One sat on the throne, and he that sat was to look upon like a Jasper and a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne.
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In slight, like an emerald.
And round about the throne were four and 20 seats, and upon the seats I saw 4 and 20 elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And then we have in the first verse, the next chapter. And I saw on the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within on the backside, sealed with seven seals. Verse 6. And I beheld, and low in the midst of the throne of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb has been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
John gets the look up through a little door here, verse one of chapter four. He looks up and he sees this immense scene there. And we have all this massive company centered around someone. And we see here in chapter 5, the picture is a line of the tribe of Jude in verse five, but it's in the midst of the throne. And one thing if you want to, and I've enjoyed this, I've shared this before and I've picked it up from others, is see where you see in Revelation where it says the midst of the throne versus before the throne.
Midst of the throne means everyone is gathered around him.
That's where you and I get to be right if we're taken.
Will be face to face with the man in the glory that sits there right now. Sits there right now.
You know, he was standing in Stevens Day as they were throwing rocks at him. Brand, the first martyr that we read about, and he's standing ready to His desire was to come back to Israel and to take care of himself. Oh, Jerusalem. Jerusalem wasn't like a hand gathers her chicks, right? That's his desire for his earthly people and they still stone Stephen. Now he's sitting on the throne. We see this now.
And we see him now in revelation, in the midst of the throne. That's where he wants to be. That's his desire.
Well, and then one more portion here in the 19th chapter, jump over to the 19th chapter of Revelation.
You want to know what his desire is. He's looking and anticipating this anxiously. Revelation 19, verse seven. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honor to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be a raid in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of Saints. And he said unto me, Right blessed are they which are called under the marriage supper of the Lamb, and he set them to me. These are the true sayings of God.
Do we get the sense of his appreciation and his?
His his anticipation of this marriage supper of the lamb. Does it grab ahold of your heart?
Anybody that's been married or will be getting married understands what the sense of that anticipation of the marriage and the marriage supper of the lamb or marriage in a natural sense, the anticipation of it is incredible. And here He is right now waiting for us for the right time for the father to give him the signal to come and get us.
And there he is, sitting in the center.
Well, let's just let's continue on here.
How about his desire when he was on Earth?
Well, let's turn it back to 2nd Corinthians. So now let's jump back to when He was walking this earth, because we need to walk to. We need to walk up to where. What does this mean for you and I today? Second Corinthians chapter 8. What was his desire?
2nd Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. His desire was to lay it all aside in glory and come down and die for us. We appreciate this.
But that's his desire.
That's his desire to become poor for me and then we have that portion in Philippians 2, right? Let this mind be in you that which was also in Christ using that he may have formed God thought not robbery to be equal with God, correct center. He took the steps downward. He takes the steps over. That was his desire for you and I is to come out of heaven and come down and become the lowest of the lowest as given in that portion. That's his desire.
And then now let's look at another desire that he had that he gave us in John chapter 10.
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Oh, this is beautiful. We're not doing any justice for the time here to understand what His desire is. John 10 and he's talking to his disciples here in verse I.
Umm 16 Another sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. And there shall be one flock and one shepherd. His desire is to be. I'm going to be leaving the sheepfold, going out the pasture, and there'll be those that gather unto me. There's going to be 1 flock and one shepherd. That's his desire.
But old man wants to create mini flocks.
And many shepherds.
Let's turn over now to Luke 22.
Let's look at another desire. And I've just enjoyed this desire.
He's anticipating that night before he goes to the cross.
Verse 14, Luke 2214 And when the hour was come, he sat down the 12 apostles with him. He said to them with desire, I desire to eat this Passover with you before you suffer. So with his disciples, He's anticipated the time to have the Passover. The Passover was happening all over Jerusalem and He had a specific spot versus disciples and He was there.
And he was passionate about that fervency to be there. I have desired eat this Passover before I suffer. He was looking forward to it and he did it. Now let's turn over to, well, we kind of get it here.
Let's for clarity sake, let's turn back to Matthew 26 because it's a little bit more clear as to what he also does here to Matthew 2626.
Annie's as they were eating, so they're either Passover. Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to his disciples, said take, eat. This is my body. And he took the cup and gave things and give them saying, drink ye all of it. For this is the blood of my new test of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink of it new with you in my Father's Kingdom.
So while they're having Passover supper, it says verse 26 and as they were eating, he now takes what's on the table and institutes a brand new feast. We can read in first Corinthians 11 where apostle Paul got to have a very good glimpse or the the Lord himself showed him the scene and he says this I received from the Lord, 1St Corinthians 11, right? This I received from the Lord and it says this do in remembrance of me.
Desire or what he's got a desire this do in remembrance of me.
A new feast.
And the privilege it is to partake of that feast on a weekly basis on the first day of the week.
Well, we've had a lot of desires, right? We've had the desire of communion in the Garden of Eden. We had the desire to dwell with the people in Exodus. We had the desire to be the center of the earth in, in Israel and Jerusalem particularly. We have his desire. We're going to see him someday. It could be very soon in, in the heavens with him in the midst. This is where he should be.
Let's look at now.
What his desire for me could be. Let's turn over. Just going a few items here and there's many more. 1St Corinthians 10, First Corinthians 10.
A little snippet here of a desire. It's taken up elsewhere.
I.
But one verse, First Corinthians 10, verse 21, Apostle Paul is going through the the dissertation here of the Lord's table. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of Lords Table and the cup of devils. Well, he's instituting now this one term called the Lords table. And he's introducing the fact that you can't be sitting here, coming off this table over here and coming over to this table here. It's called contamination.
You know, in the medical world.
Contamination is a big deal.
So much so that they've now got a discipline where now they have special people trained specially to come into a surgery room to get the thing absolutely clean. And then they, and then they after the room, they tear down the room and sterilize it again. Contamination is a big day. The Seattle Children's hospitals, the surgery rooms have been shut down here for a couple weeks. It's probably up now. Mold was in there. And so they've lost some children in the past because of mold and contamination in the surgery rooms.
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Contamination is a big thing. And here, in this portion, here we've Apostle Paul is exhorting the Corinthians. Contamination is a big thing. Holiness is paramount.
So his desire for me is to be holy, right? First Peter, be holy, for I am holy, right? Peter brings that out. Oh, struggle with it though, but that's his desire.
His desire. He's got the highest desire for me and he's got the highest desire for you, and sometimes my desire circumvents that.
And then of course, the next chapter here, we've mentioned it already, first Chapter 11 very into verse 24. This do in remembrance of me.
As often as you drink it in remembrance of me, can you can consider the fact that the Lord Jesus going to the cross and he's telling his disciples and Paul gets a glimpse of it here and he's recounting this because it says in verse 23 for I received the Lord, that's what I deliver unto you. He's recounting this, that the Lord Jesus going to the cross. He says this in remembrance of me. That's his desire.
Well, let's look at another desire that he has for us back in the Gospel of John. Again, tremendous little thing here in the 14th. It's in. It's in a couple other spots here, but let's just look at the 14th chapter.
And.
14th chapter.
And verse 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Isn't that beautiful? The Lord is leaving, and He's like, I'm not going to leave you an orphan.
I'm going to send you a comforter. The world's not going to be able to see him, but it's going to be in you. And we see that in the in the second chapter of Acts, right? The Holy Spirit comes down and indwells the whole company now called the Church. That's his desire. His desire was to tie all the beliefs together with the Holy Spirit with him still in the head in the heaven, waiting for us. Get a hold of his desire.
And then?
Then over here, as you wind down here, Revelation 3, all this, this desire.
Revelation 3 We use this verse in the gospel, but you know, this is actually meant for those that are professors and believers and all alike. Revelation 3 Behold verse 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will Sup with him and he with me. You know, we've all had, we've all enjoyed the the opportunity to have company over to the house, haven't we?
In fact, it's even beautiful if you give us a heads up because now we can prepare the house, but we can also anticipate you coming, right?
Beautiful thing to anticipate company coming to the house. It's nice to have drop bys as well, but I don't get the ability to enjoy the anticipation of so and so coming, right? And here he is. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And so he's knocking at the door and it's got to be you that opens him up and brings him and Sup with him. We're coming. If you're coming over, you're going to have a meal, right? That's typically what happens is when someone's coming over, we're going to share a meal together. That's his desires to come in and Sup with you.
And you with him, that's his desire.
And then we have back here in First Thessalonians 4. We have also a desire well known for Sessions 4.
Bursa.
Verse 14 for if you believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so them which sleep and Jesus will God bring with him so he has a desire to bring the company of Saints that's in the glory right now. We all have loved ones in the glory right? He's going to bring them back for this we sand you by the word of the Lord that we Paul saying we and if we can say we today that we which are alive and remain under the common Lord shall not prevent them which were asleep for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God.
And the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which were alive and remain, shall be cobbed together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord the air, and so shall we ever with the Lord.
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There's the anticipation of uniting the Saints that are in glory, bringing the Saints up out of the graves, reuniting the bodies and the souls together. You and I are not going to prevent them. We're not going before them. Or for if he's coming while we're living.
We're going to be caught up to meet with him. One big reunion. That's his desire.
This has been lost largely in the body of Christ, in the world today. We've gone to sleep on this matter, the anticipation of his coming back to ****** us away.
And then also now we have Matthew 18 verse 20. You know, when I the assembly I grew up in, this was read very, very frequently. And I can say that needs to be read more. Matthew 1820. In fact, we had a text on the wall there.
For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. You know we've taken on his name, have we not? Right. Every bride takes on the name of the husband. We've taken on his name. He says, You're gathered unto my name, you're going to have the premise of being unto my name.
I will be in the midst.
Now, this comes down to a very solemn subject, because oftentimes it says that if I gather into his name that he's going to be there. Let me give an example. In the world of fast food, there's a franchise called McDonald's. McDonald's is a very, very efficient franchise. In fact, if you want to buy a franchise, as I understand it, you have to go back to the Hamburger University, as they call it, and you have to learn everything that McDonald's does.
And he's put down a pretty penny for a franchise. They give the OK, you've got to learn all the techniques. That's why today when you go into a fast food burger joint, right, you typically find that McDonald's kind of moves you faster than some of the other guys. My observation, right?
Very efficient on what they do it's because they have an entire process sitting there to be followed and you can it's apparent when I go into other franchises of other of other hamburger places, the process is falling apart they don't have the same process and I wait longer for my food now I say all this because.
If I decide to open up a burger joint and let's just put it down here in the grand for a moment, I open up a burger joint and I call mine McDonald's.
But the McDonald's truck that brings the hamburgers doesn't come to my place.
I'm pulling the hamburgers from somewhere else. I color it yellow inside.
I try to do what I can do to make the burgers happen. The process I don't have that. I didn't go to the hamburger university.
Can I technically call myself McDonald's?
No, I can't. I don't have the material in there to call McDonald's. I don't have the process of anything. And most importantly, I don't have the blessing of McDonald's to open a franchise and they will shut me down.
McDonald's is very, very protective of everything that they do, and that's for a reason, because there's a standard that they set to such a degree when it comes to hamburgers. What if I have my little franchise down here and I decided to open up and I decided to offer Chinese food inside there?
It doesn't work. It's not one of McDonald's offers in the United States. They may offer that in other countries, but in the United States, we don't offer Chinese food inside of McDonald's.
And yet today the analogy I believe will launch out is that we'd like to set up a table or some institution somewhere for a place of worship. And all of what we've talked about tonight of all of his desires of have communion, to have him be in the midst, to have holiness, to have his name on there gathered unto his name, everything there and yet it's not there. How could it be?
It's a solemn thing to think I cannot order have McDonald's a franchise or a burger joint and call it McDonald's. I can't unless I go through and look at everything very closely and be approved by McDonald's to open a franchise.
And so it's a solemn thing to do. Jeroboam did the exact same thing. He opens up two places, has the likeness of it all, of all the priesthood, everything we've talked about.
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In God and we find out that the 10 tribes were the first to be carried off.
In fact, the solemn thing about this too, one of them is set up in the right one of his locations up in the in Dan, right. And the solemn thing about it is when you read Revelation with all the list of 144,000 Dan's not there, it's a solemn thing.
God sees Dan and says because of adultery, you're not going to be in that list.
And so idolatry is alive and well today as well, but yet his desire was is so precious. And so the question is.
Do I see that His desire of His communion with me? Do I see that He wants to dwell with me? Behold, I stand the door and knock. Do I see that He wants to be the center?
Do I see that he wants me to be associated with his name?
That he I can take his provision if I sin, I can take his provision to to come back into fellowship with him with the means that he's given me. First John chapter one and other places the feet washing. We talked about that at at Aberdeen conference about numbers 19. He has given provisions that I can come back into fellowship with him again because I will sin.
Do I see his desire to have that fellowship with me?
And so as we wrap up right there on the hour.
The question is asked, is this the only place? Is there more than one place? Well, look at his desire. Start with his desire and start from one end of the scripture. Go to the let in the scripture and you're going to see there's a common theme throughout.
And I trust.
That I see the Lord in the midst.
And appreciate him for who he is, but also that I walk circumspectly to so that I can see him in the midst and apply what was given to us, numbers 19 in first John, et cetera. That I comply. The washing in the water of the wood, we can wash each others feet too. Is that beautiful? I love it. I love it when someone else can come and wash my feet because I need feet washing too, right?
Some are faithful to come and wash my feet.
And I appreciate that, but he has a tremendous desire and he wants to be with you and me and to dwell with us face to face. Maybe tonight shall we commend ourselves.
Our Father, our God, we've opened up the scriptures and we've went cover to cover here and now we see the Lord Jesus, the anticipation to see the face to face, and we have the privilege to remember the Lord Jesus.
And we also have a responsibility.
And so we ask that we may be pricked in our heart, that we may see these things and realize that our wills may mold with thy will, Lord Jesus.
That we may be one with Thee in our actions. And so we wait for the Lord Jesus. Tonight we would even cry even. So come Lord Jesus, and take Thy waiting people home. So we ask all this as we seek Thy blessing and Thy guidance in our walk here on this earth. And Thy name we pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.