Lassen Pines Family Camp: 1996
Table of Contents
The Mystery of God #1
Address—Doug Buchanan
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let cleave and mystery. What do those 3 words have in common? Ephesians that Andrew read to us this morning, Chapter 6 and verse 19.
And for me, this is praying Paul.
Speaking And for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
This is amazing for the teacher of all teachers.
To express himself this way, to be able to explain something.
To give utterance.
And I believe it was so because of the greatness of the revelation that was given to him.
In view of the greatness of that revelation that was given to him, he felt so insignificant, so unable to make it known.
And this is our challenge here too. Let's pray.
Mark on.
As mentioned, we would like to speak.
On the subject of the mystery.
The mystery of God.
What is the mystery of God?
The Apostle Paul largely is the one who has brought it to our light, but all the apostles in the New Testament.
And so in this first meeting, I would like to give maybe just a little overview. We'll probably turn to quite a few scriptures and with maybe not quite so much explanation. And as the Lord gives the ability later, we might look at a little more details.
I'd like to start out with a verse in Colossians chapter 2 to introduce our subject.
Colossians, chapter 2.
Verse two and verse 3.
That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Christianity.
Is not a code of conduct.
It's not an organization, it's not a group of meetings.
What Christianity is really all about is it is a person.
Revealed to us.
The Lord Jesus Christ has chosen to reveal Himself.
To.
In him are hid all the treasures.
Of wisdom.
And knowledge.
This is what we want to bring before our hearts, a person.
We want you to know, really know, the Lord Jesus.
It will change your life, just like it changed the Apostle Paul's life. He's a dramatic example of it. He was so zealous in his cause before he was saved.
Thankfully, he was zealous in his cause afterwards too.
Thank God for a faithful man like Paul who in all opposition to Satan.
Made himself bold at all costs. It cost him a prison sentence.
It cost him much persecution of the Jews.
Because it was different than the old traditions that the Jews had had from years and years that had degenerated.
And just become like a sect of Pharisees and Sadducees and so on.
Christianity Today, I'm sad to say, is also degenerated.
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And it's considered a whole group of vast denominations where you can choose which one you'd like to go to according to your banter, according to where you think might be the most agreeable.
Oh, that's not God's thoughts of what the Christian testimony was to be. That's not what makes our life what it is. It's a person. It's the Lord Jesus. In him are hit all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Outside of Christ, we have nothing if we pretend to be Christian.
It would be better to be non Christian.
And go out and enjoy whatever you could get out of life than to be Christian, pretend to be a follower of the Lord, and really not lay hold of what he really is and what he's made unto us.
Now I'd like to go back to the Old Testament for a verse that might sum up the Old Testament in Deuteronomy chapter 29.
Deuteronomy 2929. I'll expect you to remember that 2929.
Where this verse is, it's a wonderful verse.
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Now turn over to 1St Corinthians chapter.
Two verse 9.
But as it is written, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yeah, the deep things of God.
This is the Old Testament and this is the New Testament.
The Old Testament are the secret things are known to by unto God.
There were many revelations in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament or Covenant?
Went for a long time, many thousands of years. In different way. God tried man.
But the true revelation of God didn't come out in the Old Testament. It all. It says the secret things belong unto God.
But God has chosen to reveal the secret things. That's the mystery.
And that's what's for us.
It has been revealed.
For us.
God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yeah, the deep things of God.
Why do we preach the gospel?
Is it just that sinners be delivered from hell? That's pretty good reason to get saved.
There's somebody here.
That has Hellfire before them. That's a good enough reason to get saved.
I remember hearing my brother tell me that that's why he got saved, because he didn't want to go to hell and he knew he would go to hell if he didn't accept the Lord Jesus as his savior.
But that isn't all what the gospel is about.
God has wonderful thoughts, deep thoughts.
Councils.
It was unknown in the Old Testament. It couldn't be known until the Lord Jesus came down.
In the Old Testament, they looked forward to having a keen reign.
A king of righteousness and peace. They look forward to Jerusalem being the center of it.
And like the 12 apostles, look forward to sitting on 12 tribes, judging the 12 tribes of Israel and having a reign of peace here in a relationship with a man that God would set up as a good king and would deliver them from all their enemies.
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And that's wonderful.
But God's thoughts are higher than that.
Who in the Old Testament ever thought that God would become man and then that God would make it so men could become like him and have relationship and a nature like God?
It's far beyond anything in the Old Testament.
No wonder it couldn't be revealed.
No wonder it's called a mystery.
And so when we consider this word mystery.
Usually we think of it in the sense of it's something secret or unknown or known by an exclusive group of people, but in the New Testament it also has the meaning of that which is made known to us.
Now today we have men like to copy God's things in a lot of ways. We have what they call secret societies today. And in those societies, maybe it's a club or a sorority or a or something, they will have secret initiation rights and only the initiated understand and are supposed to know and understand what those things mean. Maybe they have some kind of a significance. I understand that those things are even.
Convey sometimes in a handshake. I've seen it done where two strangers will meet that belong to the same secret organization and they will give a little signal that shows each other that they both belong to something secret.
You know, I can look back on my boyhood days and I think most of us can relate to this, that, you know, we like to have secrets and maybe we'll form our own little clubs or a little small group of boys or girls and they'll call ourselves a name. If you went back to the farm where I live, you could look back in one of the little building over there and you could see a name written over.
A little Playhouse there that some children used as their secret meeting place.
And over that is written the word your boys. And that was the name of their little secret.
Clubhouse.
Well, God has something like that, but far better.
And God has chosen to reveal Himself to a special people.
In the Old Testament, blessing only flowed to people in the world through the Jews. The Jews were the only people that really had any relationship whatsoever with God, the true God, Jehovah.
There was a place for blessing for everybody at all times. There always has been.
But all the other nations had already given up the knowledge of the true God and gone off into idolatry and so forth. But God in his grace called of Abraham and his seed, and he maintained a relationship with them through the Old Testament, the Old Covenant.
Now God has chosen to reveal himself to us in a new way, in a fuller way.
And it's through the Spirit you have to be born again. You have to have the Spirit of God dwelling in you.
To enter into this mystery that God has made known.
Let's look at a verse, a few verses in the end of Romans, just back a page or so. Last chapter of Romans. Romans chapter 16.
Verse 25.
Now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest.
And by the scriptures of the prophets.
According to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations.
For the obedience of faith to God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.
Here we have Paul telling us a little of the mystery, the introduction to it. It's a part of the gospel, the mystery.
So God doesn't just intend to deliver us from hell and Christianity. The gospel isn't just to get saved. And so you live a better life and so you don't beat your wife or your children, or you don't, or you're a better neighbor, or you're a good citizen in the country you live in. That isn't just what the gospel is about. The gospel is to bring us into the thoughts that God himself wants to share with us.
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God wanted to have a people with himself.
Not only here on earth, but in heaven.
All this is a part of the mystery.
Kept secret since the foundation of the world.
That is, it wasn't revealed to the Old Testament prophets. Here where it says the scriptures of the prophets, it really means the New Testament prophets, the prophetic scriptures. We could read it. The New Testament prophets are the ones that revealed to us the secret.
And it could only be made known to us after a man had come and died, paid the price of redemption, redeemed a people so that that people could be in relationship with God, in peace and in joy.
To go to heaven in your sins would be the most horrible thing that could ever happen to anybody because they would be so uncomfortable.
And God doesn't ever make that possible.
No, when God brings the people around him, He brings the people around him so they can be at peace and joy and at happiness with Him. I think it's lovely to consider. I'll just throw this out of our meditation for you to study sometime.
The life of in the life of Joseph, the way that Joseph after he was in prison and released, how he made himself known to his brethren, is a beautiful story of how the Lord Jesus desires to make himself known to us. Well, I believe it applies principally to the Jews in the coming day, but in principle it applies to us also.
And how he deal, how Joseph dealt?
With his 10 brethren that had so evil and treated him and he was hard on them in certain respects and he accused them of certain things because he wanted to get them to the bottom of their problem and confess it and get it out in the open so they could have a normal relationship.
Again, and God has made provision for us so that we could be together with Him in a normal relationship, at peace and joy.
Is it true that some of you young people feel uncomfortable when you go to meeting? Why is that?
I believe there's probably something unconfessed in your life, something hidden, something covered up that hasn't been made known to the God, to the Lord. And God intends us not just to be inside heaven as a poor beggar sitting there looking off at a distance to all that's going to be going on there.
Oh no, He wants to be us. He wants us to be in full.
Participation.
You know there's two ways to go to a wedding.
Some of you have just come from a wedding. I understand that was a very nice wedding, and of course that comes from a biased party that I heard this from. But I believe that I've been to weddings and I've enjoyed them.
There's two ways to go to a wedding. There's there, there is a. You can go to a wedding as a observer.
And sit in the chair and watch the ceremony and those that participate and the marriage union that takes place there and the vows and so on. And it's a beautiful because it's also a picture of heavenly things, too.
But you can also go to a wedding and be the bride or the groom.
And isn't that better? No, it is. It's wonderful.
That's what God intends for us in heaven.
He doesn't just intend that we go there and observe all the water. He chose us as his bride.
Out of the Gentiles, out of the nations? You, dear young people, are you one of those chosen ones? Is that why you're here? To learn what God has chosen you for?
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Do we have to wait until we get there to begin our enjoyment of it?
No, I do not believe so. I believe that God intends us for us to enter into it, starting now, starting the day you get saved.
Let's turn over a verse comes to mind in Ephesians chapter one, and it's in the book of Ephesians and a Colossians especially that we get the mystery of God unfolded to us. There's many scriptures that refer to it and we're going to turn to several of them, but let's just read a little bit here in Ephesians chapter one.
Beginning with verse 3.
I'm going to go ahead and read this whole portion, although we'll probably only comment on the a verse or two down at the bottom.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.
That's the Lord Jesus, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will according to the His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times.
He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the council of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory.
Who first trusted in Christ?
And I'd like to read that as the new translation.
Who pre trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation? In whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory.
Now we've got a big topic here and we're not going to be able to touch on it very much. I want to call attention to verses 10 and and 12:00.
Verse 10 it says that in the dispensation of the fullness of times.
Thy word dispensation.
Refers to a way of dealing that God is going to have the last age. We call it the Millennium or the Kingdom. It is the last of the dispensations or the last of the ways that God will deal with this earth.
During that time He is going to head up all things in one man, the Lord Jesus. Two spheres are there spoken of, the heavenly sphere and the earthly sphere. The earthly sphere is going to be the place where all the Old Testament prophecies and promises are going to be fulfilled.
The New Testament and the Christian position and all those who die in faith are all, and all those who are caught up at the rapture, which is also a part of the mystery that was given to Paul, are going to be caught up to be with Christ.
In glory, participate there in the heavenly side.
One with Christ the Church is going to be the bride of Christ, which is his body.
We learned that through earthly relationships of marriage that we were Speaking of a beautiful picture of how closely we are to be united to Christ.
One with him. And so you notice in this chapter, one in Christ, in him over and over again, in nearly every verse. It's there. Everything we have, dear believer, is in Christ. Outside of Christ, we have nothing.
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So often our practical experience and growing in these things is learning this. We seem to get the idea that we have attained it after we've lived a few years of the Christian life, that we have attained certain things on our own.
Oh, dear young people, it's all of grace. It's all of God. All things are of God. He's the originator of all this. He's done it all through the Lord Jesus, and he's brought it to us and offered it to us in the gospel.
And we believe it.
Oh, how humbling.
How provoking to respond in worship and praise. And so how often Paul, when he gets into describing these things, he can't contain himself and he breaks out in a doxology. And we almost ought to stop this meeting and sing a hymn right now.
We have a short time and so we'll postpone that maybe till the same tonight. I'm going to ask one of you young people to give out a hymn of praise tonight sometime or other for what you have enjoyed this day.
God has brought you into you see, that's the proper response of our hearts.
The Lord said ye are the salt of the earth.
Also says ye are the light of the world. If salt doesn't have any saltiness, what good is it?
If Christians don't realize anything of what God intends us to be, what good are we?
We're worse than a than a non Christian because we pretend to be something that we're not.
All this.
Is in Christ.
That makes it secure to how wonderful it's hid with Christ and God as Ephesians, as the Colossians says, oh, it's all in Him, it's ours. How is it ours? By faith after you believed you were sealed.
The new born Christian, as a wealthier Christian, as the oldest disciple of the Lord that's walked many years in the earth. We're all equally blessed with all blessings. We don't all enter into the same account, same amount. And the measure that we enter into will show your young people how much we appreciate of Christ.
It will show in our lives.
Not that that's the primary motive for for entering into these things. Paul could say that. I may know him.
He wanted to know Christ, to learn to know Him.
Our practical experience of life can help us teach us that we go through experiences and God proves himself faithful to us in those experiences. And sometimes it's a breaking down of the flesh and so that we don't trust in ourselves and so we look more to the Lord.
And some of you young people have have already passed a few bump, bumps and bruises, and we're sorry about that.
But sometimes, you know, we need things like this to get us to thinking what is really good for us to think of the Lord. Thanks. So the God is faithful. Now I said I would comment on verse 12 Those who pre trusted or who first trusted.
Now I believe that applies to all those who believe that now at this time, since the the cross of the of the Lord Jesus and the day of Pentecost when the church was formed here on earth, when the Holy Spirit came down to unite a body here on earth with Christ in heaven, it's by the Spirit that we are united to Christ.
And that's the vital link that is maintained.
We speak of the one body, that is what maintains the one body. We don't maintain it, the Spirit of God does. And when we believe we are sealed with the Spirit of God also. It's the earnest for that to show us what is it before us when our bodies are also changed. But the pre trusters are those who first trusted are all those who believe now at this time.
Before the Kingdom is manifest.
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And before the world sees Christ and the Church openly on display in the Millennium.
And that's what's going to take place.
The Mystery of God. Do people about us know and understand that? No.
Turn back to a verse.
In First Corinthians chapter 2.
Interesting verse here.
Verse six First Corinthians 26.
Albeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the Princess of this world that come to nought, But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the Princess of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
What a thing those leaders of the land missed.
When they rejected the Lord Jesus.
Here I take this and I'm subject to correction on this, but where it says they would not have crucified the Lord of glory isn't so much that the Lord came from heaven, but when they crucified the Lord, they actually sent him back to heaven and made him Lord there, because that's what God did to him when he died and rose again, and he became the Lord of glory as a man there in heaven.
Tareen, the head of the Church, which is body, to whom we are united when we believe the gospel, the Lord of glory.
Do you think the Princess of the world realized that? No, they didn't realize what was going on. And how many around us today are oblivious to what God is really doing in the world? God is now calling out a secret society, if we might call it that way. That way, in respectful terms, the mystery, the church.
Of all the nations he's gathering together a people.
Who pre trust in him before he's revealed?
And it's only by faith then, that you can enter into this.
We can't take out a picture and show physically any of these things other than the written word of God. It's only by faith that we can lay, hold and enter into this. And so it's important for us to believe God.
The Gospel.
And Speaking of this by faith, I'd like to go back to Matthew's Gospel and.
Though in Matthew 13, though this doesn't really, I believe, refer directly to the mystery that we're Speaking of. There is more than one thing that is called a mystery in the Word of God, but it's the principle I believe we have here of faith being the means of laying hold of this.
In Matthew 13. Let's just read a few verses here.
Beginning with verse 10.
And the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away, even that he hath.
Therefore speak I to them in parables because they seeing see not.
And hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Verse 16 But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear. Those are the eyes and ears of faith. And it's by faith only that we can enter in and lay hold. That's how we get saved. By faith in the Lord we commit the salvation of our souls to the Lord Jesus.
And believe that he will take care of us.
And washes from our sins.
And give us all that is His good pleasure to do, because God's thoughts are so much better than anything we could ever imagine or plan out for our own lives.
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So many of the difficulties we have in knowing the Lord's will is simply just learning to set aside our own will, to lay hold of what is His will in our lives, His will. We've read about it in Ephesians one, the good pleasure of His will. What is that?
It's the whole mystery. It's to make us enter in and to share with Christ.
Everything that he has.
Now we have quite a few more scriptures we could go over.
I'd like to read a little bit from Colossians chapter one, beginning with verse 24.
The last part of verse 23 says Paul. I Paul, and made a minister who now rejoice in my sufferings for you to fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body sake, which is the church whereof I am made a minister.
According to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill or fill up or complete the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid from ages, from generations, but now is made manifest to His Saints, to whom God would make known. What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles?
Which is Christ in you?
The hope of glory.
Christ in you the hope of glory.
We have a living hope.
Glory is before us.
And it's Christ in us when we get saved.
The Holy Spirit seals us, unites us to Christ, indwells us.
Will never depart from us. He shall remain with you forever, says in John.
And that is our union with Christ, Christ in US.
Now the practical.
Display of it is another matter.
We would like those two to be the same, and that's what Christian life is about, making our.
State the same as our standing.
Making what God has purposed us for and made us.
In Christ, a reality in our daily lives.
It's not hard to look at a Christian who's walking with the Lord and enjoying the Lord going on reading his Bible and in prayer.
Showing the fruits of the fruit of the Spirit in his Christian life. It's not difficult to identify that kind of a Christian and to see that he has something, he's real, he has Christ, to see Christ in him.
The world rejected the Lord when he was here and cast him out.
But they didn't really get rid of the Lord, because he's still here in the believer.
And the Spirit of God came down to make that good. So Christ is in the believer. And that's one of the first things that Paul learned when he was on the road to Damascus. And he was a persecuting the Christians even unto death.
And the Lord brought with a great light from heaven, shone, and down there on the road, and blinded Paul, and told him, Why persecutest thou me?
You see, Christ was owning the living link right between him and the church, and so Paul was persecuting not just Christians, believers on the earth, but Christ felt it in heaven, a proof of the link.
So Christ and we are livingly linked. Christ in US, the hope of glory.
And so the Christian life is not just to fix this world up and make it a better place to live. No, it's not that at all. That may be a byproduct of living a good Christian life like Christ. I think it will make you a better neighbor, a better husband, a better father, and a better child and so on, if we live the real Christian life. But that's not the real in purpose.
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The in purpose.
Is to know, learn to know Him. And so Paul speaks that way, filling up the afflictions of Christ. And so we're still here in the world, young people, where there are afflictions and difficulties, and that's part of them.
Learning to know Christ.
That he may be magnified in US.
Now, just in closing, I'd like to refer to one other scripture, because we might not have occasion to do so in the Book of Revelation.
We'll close with this thought. Chapter 10.
We have the mystery there spoken of.
And what may seem to be a rather difficult portion.
Revelation chapter 10.
We'll read beginning with verse 5.
These are the Speaking of the angels that are sent out from God in heaven.
To judge in judgment upon the earth. And this is the last of all the angels, the 7th Angel.
And he sent and this is going to conclude those judgments.
Verse five. And the Angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and swear by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are in the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are in the are therein that they should.
There should be time, no longer or no more delay as the margin says, but in the days of the voice of the 7th Angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished.
As he hath declared to his servants the Prophets.
Now here we have it said. The mystery of God is finished. Now I understand it this way at this time. This is the the last of the judgments before the Lord himself comes to display himself with His people here on earth, when it will no longer be as it is said the mystery.
The mystery now is.
Openly known and revealed. And so it's on display and therefore it is not the mystery any longer. It's finished. It's brought into reality really what it is publicly in display and not just for the pre trusters.
We are now the pre trusters, those who believe and we enter into that relationship and ought to enjoy.
What the mystery brings us.
Then it's going to be made manifest. How wonderful.
There won't be any.
Feeling sorry for anything that we've done for the Lord at that time. It's all going to be revealed at that time. We wouldn't want it necessarily. All things set right and straightened out right now before Christ. It wouldn't be right that we got all our just desserts in life right now without Christ.
So much better to get everything set right when He also gets his right place here on earth as in Heaven. And that's when the mystery is going to be finished or completed.
That's going to take place at the beginning of this dispensation of the fullness of times.
Shall we disclose with prayer?
The Mystery of God #2
Address—Doug Buchanan
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
They have opposite meanings. Let means both to give permit permission and also to hinder. Cleave means to separate, like you cut wood, you cleave wood. It also means to hang together or to be close. That's opposite meanings, and mystery is that way too.
Mystery is something secret that unrevealed.
Also something that is revealed, known maybe to some special people, so maybe you can remember.
The the meaning, that way, the mystery, what we're speaking about.
Let's.
We, some of the young people were just singing #4 here and it goes along real well with our subject. So maybe we could sing to Kim in the Little Flock hymn #4 This last, the whole hymn is very beautiful, but this last verse?
Touching to our hearts.
And could still be delighted with creatures such as we who when we saw thee.
Slighted and nailed it to a tree. Unfathomable wonder and mystery divine. The voice that speaks in Thunder says Sinner, I am thine, let's sing #4.
Well, yesterday we sought to go back and show how in the Old Testament the mystery was unknown, secret things belonging to God. And then we sought to trace it through a little of how all who to whom it was revealed the mystery.
He made it known by revelation something that had not been in the Old Testament.
It comes from God himself. And we also noticed the end in Revelation when the mystery would be finished or completed. That is, it's no longer in its hidden form or hysterical form. It's revealed and openly displayed. And that will take place when after that last Angel sounds and the Lord is revealed from heaven.
Also to be here on earth and reigning.
To fulfill what we read in Ephesians 1 to head up all things in Christ.
God waited 4000 years before he brought that now brought that out. He tried men in different ways, tests dispensations we call them sometimes that is God is was dispensing.
His ways and his thoughts to man in different ways, starting out with innocence and so on.
Giving the law to as a help and all the ordinances.
Then, after all, that proved unfruitful.
God, as it were, says now.
Since I've given you all 4000 years to try it, you all settled the Riddle in in one day or less, but God gave me in 4000 years.
Under different tests. And then he says, as it were, Now I'm going to show you what my thoughts are about it all and how I'm just going to give you the blessing on the basis of grace, on the basis of the Lord Jesus, my Son. He is going to die for you and wash your sins away so you can be capacitated to enjoy it and be redeemed. And then not only am I going to gather around me, but I'm going to take you home to heaven.
The verses were read on Lord's Day morning from John 17.
That prayer that the Lord prayed there before he was going to the cross, and when he said, Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.
That's the only time in the Bible you really hear the Lord Jesus expressing his will, I believe.
And how wonderful it is that He did express His will. Of course, it wasn't independent of the Father. It wasn't independent of God's thoughts from eternity. It was fulfilling it. But He asked for it, and He asked for you and me, the redeemed ones. He was about to go back to heaven.
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And he didn't want to go back alone.
It's nice to see the young boys and girls sitting together, as well as the husbands and wives. We enjoy that relationship.
And when the Lord Jesus was contemplating the cross going back to heaven.
Because the cross was the way of going back to heaven, He was going to be exalted beyond the power of death to separate, because death separates us for a time.
He was about to go back to the Father and he didn't want to go alone. The Lord could have died for us, you know, and redeemed us, washed all our sins away. Then he could have gone back to heaven and said, now I'm going to live here on high.
I'm going to let all these human beings have been saved. I'm going to let them have the earth and they can, they can live in peace. I'm going to make a Kingdom for them here on earth, but I'm going to be in heaven. But he didn't do that.
No, He loved us so much He wanted to have the people there. This is a part of the mystery. God intended that and he he revealed that.
To us.
It that is the mystery and there's many, there's many facets of it. There's many parts of it. And I don't know that we'll be able to touch on it. And I can't don't think I could explain it all. I don't understand it. I don't comprehend it all. But maybe we can at least get out an idea that it grow in our hearts as we read our our Bibles.
I really appreciated what.
Brother had to say to us this morning here in prayer. It really, really, really encouraged my heart.
How it must encourage the Lord's heart to see the ones for whom He died with the desire to respond.
Some of you have perhaps had then said.
Occasion of a broken up relationship.
Broken up a courtship of some kind or maybe some other broken up relationship. And they're hard things to go through because they deal with the the inmost feelings of our hearts. Well, you know, God made us that way. He gave us those feelings and God made us.
Purposely, I believe distinct from angels and other creatures, because he knew that he was going to have human beings as those that would be united with Christ for all eternity to share with him in all that God enjoys and delights in.
And so God needed an object to share it with. To me, one of the one. When you read the book of Genesis, you get a glimpse of it there. When Adam was first created, he didn't have a helpmate. He was put over the head over all that creation, and he gave everything its name. Everything was under his control.
And Dominion.
But he's alone.
No one to share it with.
And that's when God made the woman the purpose.
That's what the one body truth involves, united to Christ.
We are called now the pre trusters and Ephesians one. Well, let's get let's let's get into the Scriptures here and I'd like to continue on in the book of Ephesians a little.
We read the 1St chapter, a beautiful description there, a wide view of the purposes of God. It's been said that this book Ephesians doesn't give us so much responsibility and.
But it gives us the counsels of God, His thoughts beforehand, what He purposed back in eternity. Just like we were singing our God built the mountains. God had this plan and nothing is ever going to frustrate it. He's going to be fulfilled no matter what it cost, at all cost. God is going to see it through.
Now let's go on to the third chapter and begin reading a little.
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Ephesians 31.
For this 'cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which has given me to you, word, how that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery.
As I wrote afore in few words, whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and.
Of his promise in Christ, by the gospel whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God-given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me, who am less than the least of All Saints. Is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles?
The unsearchable riches of Christ.
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places.
Might be known by or through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.
According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But just read that far for submit it some thoughts here.
Paul, here a prisoner, was writing this mystery, unfolding it to the Ephesians. He could unfold it to the Ephesians because he didn't have to get bogged down with them with.
Problems of legality and other moral problems like he had to and other epistles.
It's wonderful, you know, when God can take us to the good things.
Along that for you young people too.
We don't want to be here at Lassen all the time calling you up short for things that doesn't give us any any thrills, doesn't give us any joy at all. We don't like to have to be calling down the ones on the back row and so on. And.
Those things sometimes are necessary because if you don't pay attention, you're not going to get up to the real worthwhile things that God has for us. So it's in this book of Ephesians that Paul could unfold some of those things, whereas in other books he doesn't get too much back past getting them out of Judaism.
Well, God is faithful. Paul was a prisoner. He wrote this out of prison. He paid a price to make this known. The Jews no doubt would have let him alone had he just simply stuck to the old ordinances that been given to them and handed down which they had corrupted a lot.
But Paul was true to his calling. He was God preserved, and we know it was of God, but it cost Paul something and so he was in prison when he wrote this.
It had ought to mean more to us that, and it tells us that in itself tells us, you know, that this is not an accepted thing in the world today, nor is it accepted in the Christian circles around us today.
Many of the truths that Paul brought out that involve the true Christian position in the world as those that are called out. There are many circles of fellowship that are so-called Christians to day that will embrace many New Testament truths, but to separate unto Christ the heavenly men in glory.
And to lay aside all that this world strives after.
The materialism and benefits.
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Is not appreciated.
So there is a practical result, dear young people, from laying hold of these truths. It ought to make us different, like we were just heard, like Caleb, a different attitude. That difference ought to be noted among us. And don't feel bad if you're looked at as a little odd because of your Christian testimony.
There's such a thing as being odd in other ways too, but for Christ's sake.
We ought to be willing to be looked at as anything that anybody ever wanted to make us, as long as we're like Christ.
Oh how, how wonderful to be like him. That's what Paul is really praying for here, for the believers.
Like Christ?
Verse three. How that by revelation He made known unto me this mystery?
It was God revealing Himself. This was not in the Old Testament covenants and relationships, and I would like to divert just a little bit here to explain a little bit of the difference in the covenant relationship, or as we call it, the Old Testament and the New Testament.
That what is a covenant?
A covenant is an agreement between 2:00 and I look in it a little bit like a bridge, a go between a bridge. A bridge has two sides. Usually they do anyway. And it's in order to maintain that bridge, you have to have both sides upheld the foundation of some kind to hold up the bridge. And that's what a covenant it's like. It's an agreement between 2:00 and in order for that covenant to maintain.
Valid and good, Both sides have to be maintained. And so God made a covenant with his people. In the Old Testament it was the covenant between God and Israel.
And it included the law and all the ordinances, many other things supportive of it, and ceremonial ways. And now, of course, we know they have their spiritual significance and we learn a lot by them. But for them it was a thing that in order to get to cross the bridge, both sides needed to be maintained.
And so if one side failed.
The covenant would fail itself. What good would it be? And that's the law in all of it. That's those first 4000 years, The Old Testament, when God saw that that failed says when the fullness of time came, that means when God was finished trying man under those relationships, those covenants.
God sent forth his son, born of a woman.
Now that's Christ come down, what for?
All because he was to become the mediator of the new covenant. And so in the New Testament, it's not in a covenant like that old covenant was between Israel and God. It's not a covenant between God and us. It's a covenant between God and the Lord Jesus.
Is that covenant going to maintain? Is it going to stand?
Forever can it breakdown? Never. Let's look at a verse in in Hebrews to show this.
Chapter 12.
Hebrews, chapter 12.
We'll just read the 24th verse, but it's beautiful. Consider the two preceding verses because it really brings out that what Christ is brought out to us and the various spheres their blessing. But verse 24 says and to Jesus the mediator.
Of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Jesus, the Lord Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant, and he maintains it.
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The Mediator. There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He's our Savior, and he's the one that shed his blood, and that blood is the new covenant. And that's what God looks at and sees and is satisfied as to all that's here in sin and corruption, and that God can still maintain and keep his side.
Of the covenant and bless us. That's the source of all blessings.
That's the reason that God can forgive sinners, receive them into His house, give them all favor and blessing, and still be just and holy.
These are simple gospel truths. It's all part of the gospel that we preach.
So the new covenant is not exactly between God and us. It's between God and Christ. And we are the beneficiaries, yes, And we come under the shelter of that new covenant, but it doesn't depend on us to maintain some covenant, no.
That's where the mystery is so different, and the whole real character of the New Testament is different in that regards. That's why we cannot lose our salvation, because God maintains us. Christ died for us, and He can't become undead or refuse us when once he has completed the work.
So we.
Are blessed through the new covenant and when we remember the Lord in his death.
We do have that cup there, which the Lord said this cup is the blood of the New Testament. Yes, that that is the symbol of it, that the Lord gave us redemption. He died and he maintains then that covenant and so blessing comes out. But we don't preach the gospel strictly on a responsibility side alone.
Though man is responsible, but we also preach God's purposes and blessings.
And so now God can be just and holy, and he can reveal something to sinners. He can bring them into blessing.
Bring them into his presence. And there's so many beautiful examples of this in the Gospel gospels, how the Lord called the sinners and he ate with them and so on. We we were noticing that on Lords day.
People couldn't. The Jews, the religious Jews, couldn't understand how the Lord could do that. They didn't realize what redemptions work was about to do, what an open door it would make for blessing, how it would open up the doors, and so God could then reveal his thoughts and purposes towards us.
So that brings us up to the mystery that God now.
Can bring out the as it were, secret and manifest.
So it is the revelation.
Paul got that revelation. He was also in another place, caught up into the 3rd heaven and saw things unspeakable.
God, as it were, this seemed to want to confirm it to Paul because he was going to be the message bearer, and so he gave Paul a little glimpse of it.
And Paul was a different man from that day on.
When Paul got a glimpse of heaven.
He there was number danger of him ever becoming worldly minded again. I don't believe in a certain sense now we still have the flesh in him, but think you know what I mean. That is his heart was captivated by what God had shown him there and he then tries to bring it out and he writes of it. And this is the purpose of our being here.
Discover these things of the mystery of God's thoughts, what He purposes for you and for me.
I think of an example in the Old Testament. You remember the case of the unnamed servant in Genesis 24 that was sent to get a bride for Isaac.
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And he took with him on that long journey out of the treasure houses of his master, riches, jewels of gold and silver, and so on. And when he found that bride, Rebecca.
He took and opened up those treasures just there.
And he put them on Rebecca.
And then Rebecca went back to her brother and her family, her father perhaps, if he was there, and they.
Were testimonies.
To the riches of the man to whom she was to be united to and marriage.
Now that's a picture of what the Holy Spirit is doing for us today.
The Holy Spirit has been sent here into this world to get a bride for Christ.
That was God's purpose and he's doing that now, and the world doesn't notice that it's going on and one day they're going to discover when it's all finished.
What God was really doing during this dispensation of the of the grace of God when the bride is being formed, the heavenly bride for Christ. And so one of those things then that that we see in that chapter 24 of Genesis was that he took those.
Jewels and that gold and silver, and put them on Rebecca. Those were testimonies to her and those about her of the wealth and the glory of the one to whom the servant wanted to take her and and make her the bride. And Rebecca was agreeable to that, and she went.
Having never seen.
That man, none of us have seen Christ with our physical eyes. It's by faith. But the Spirit of God reveals him to us in their treasures. And these are the things in the New Testament, in this book of Ephesians, for example, that the Spirit of God would get your soul occupied with so that you would be willing to forsake all around.
And devote your life.
To the man who died for you, and who wants you in heaven with him.
Oh, dearly beloved, if that gets ahold of your soul, you will have no trouble leaving aside the things of the pleasures of this world and things that the enemy has brought, particularly here in the Americas, North America.
To imitate the copy.
That are growing and advancing.
And are going to.
Head up what is called Babylon the Great, and it's interesting that that word mystery is also used there in Revelation. Concerning that false church mystery, I believe Satan has copied God and he has a mystery too. It's also called the mystery of iniquity.
In Second Thessalonians.
And it works. It already works, and it's going to deceive the world.
Or Christendom, Really. It's deceiving Christendom. People are getting carried away with materialism and things of the false church.
The true church, a worldly system, that is. Is it of this world, or is it of heaven?
Are we chosen to be of this world and live forever here and reign here alone?
Or are we chosen for heaven?
It's quite clear. I think we have accepted most of us that in doctrine, but do we accept it in practice?
I know oftentimes I don't. I'm caught up with things about me. I know they are to be used. Yes, we can't get along without the things of this world. We do have to work, and there's nothing wrong with games and physical activities and when they're done in the right way. But if they become the sum total of what we live for, and our thoughts don't rise above those as just a means of other things of more importance.
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Then we've missed the boat somehow.
And we often do.
Let's go on with Chapter 3 a little farther down.
Verse six that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs.
And of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.
This was something totally new. Gentiles. Gentiles were looked down on. They had no relationship with God.
God hadn't formed any covenant with them. They had been given up way back before the days or in the time of Abraham, and since that time God had maintained no relationship with them of any kind other than that they could come along by means of what the Jews had had still of those ordinances and so on. But now?
The mystery comes out and.
God says, as it were. Now I've tried this special people of the Jews and you know, they are quite a smart people, intelligent and they have a lot of gift. And I believe God knew what he was doing when he chose them to be his special people. They are, as it were, the cream of the crop.
But there's something wonderful here for us as Gentiles to see that God tried the Jews to prove to the whole world that no one could keep the old ordinances in the covenant. He used them as a training time. Really. That wasn't God's purpose. Eternal purpose was just to choose Jews and to give them certain covenants and so on and let them.
Try to maintain it. No. And we read in Romans that through them he proved the whole world guilty. Why?
So that God could come out then afterwards and bestow His goodness, His purpose, unconditionally on the basis of love and grace to everyone.
And that's the gospel.
It's better to be a Gentile now. Oh, it's for the Jews too. And Jews do get saved in this day. But they get saved just the same way as Gentiles do. And they're not brought into another different sphere of blessing or higher blessing, no.
This is God's way of doing it. How wonderful is God after everything fails of man, Then he says, now I'm going to show you how I can do it my way, the best way. And so he unfolds the mystery.
And His blessing to us, and it's ours.
Nobody can take it away from you if you belong to the Lord Jesus, but the enemy can take away from you the joy and the good of it practically in your daily lives. And so in this book of Ephesians we have a lot of practical exhortations. And Lord willing, maybe the following meaning will deal a little bit more along those lines. Some results and some practical examples.
But first of all, we have to understand what is ours before we can enjoy it.
And before we can live it. And before we can display it.
Now if we'll go on down a little farther here in verse 8.
Says unto me, Who am less than the least of All Saints, Is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ?
Paul considered himself the last of the least of All Saints, or less than the least.
Of All Saints.
He had persecuted the church. He had opposed directly God's purpose until God revealed himself to him on the way to Damascus.
But Paul was true to what God revealed to him, and he changed. He turned around and he was just as zealous afterwards for his cause as I believe he was before. And God used him as a pattern for us.
To make this known. How wonderful of God to do it that way.
You see, if if God had chosen, let's say a moral good, upright man that had never done anything outwardly wrong and had was very noble and everything, and if God had chosen a vessel like that to make this known to us. Some of us might have rightly asked, well, where am I going to fit in then? Where is there going to be a place for me? Or how could I give a witness to that? If it's if it's only those that.
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God could entrust such wonders with, but no, God takes the less than the least of All Saints and says, now I'm going to make this 1A testimony to my love and grace and my purposes and blessing. And so Paul is an example.
That's what we are called to also that all of us how do we get saved? When we get saved, we don't come bringing anything at all to God.
As one preacher put it when he was asked.
He was asked, well, God has done his part, but don't we also have to do our part? You know, that's a common saying today.
The preacher in an agreeable way said yes, we have done our part. Our part was doing all the sinning and God's part is doing all the saving.
That's the way God has chosen it to be, or that to such class of people He has chosen to bring into blessing.
I'm going to go back and draw a kind of an illustration picture here.
Few years, several years ago.
Before Prince Charles was married, there was a lot of speculation went on about who might become his bride, who might become the future Queen of England.
And he lived quite a long time before he got married. He wasn't that young of a man and so there was a long time went on.
People would speculate.
And people would wish for I even knew a man who had a daughter about that eligible age.
And belong to a same club where there was a possibility of meeting Prince Charles that envied a possibility that his daughter could even beat the future.
Princess.
Well, that is a picture to us of something that our hearts aspire to sometimes.
God also had purpose to bribe for His Son, the Lord Jesus.
And throughout the ages it was not known what was going to, what God was going to do.
That God had a plan.
And this was his plan, that Christ should be united to the church.
That would be his pride and that is our position.
It's something worthwhile. It's something that any heart would.
Would delight in well.
If we could only get a hold of those thoughts, then of God towards us, the reality of it.
I want to make it vivid before our hearts what this really is. This is not just a theoretical thing that you talk about when you go to meeting.
This is a living reality in our lives from day-to-day.
The fact that we don't really enjoy it manifests itself in how little we really walk like the Lord.
You know when when a couple make take the marriage vows, those marriage vows are very exclusive.
Can't repeat the whole phrase, but it's something like this. Wilt thou, forsaking all others, be united unto so and so, and to cleave only unto Him? It's very exclusive, the language.
And.
Nobody has a difficulty with that.
When they love their spouse.
They delight in devoting themselves exclusively and only to their spouse. They don't have a problem taking that.
Marriage vow.
And that's what the Lord wants out of us.
And when we realize who we were and how he picked us up out of the dust.
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Sinners, and brought us into this blessing.
Wow.
Doesn't it thrill your heart?
I don't want to deal in emotionalism here, but this is not just emotions.
This is a reality and the Lord loves us and he wants our affections.
Now in verse 10.
And our time is up, but we'll finish here and the 10th verse.
We'll read 9 and 10 again. And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who create all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. Now this verse brings in another sphere, brings in the heavenly sphere.
And I just want to call it to our attention because we are not aware of this many times of how there is a heavenly host.
Observing all that God does.
And those first 4000 years when God was dealing with men on the earth, they observed all that. And then when Christ died, and then he unfolded the mystery that the Church should be united to Christ, they observed that too.
And I don't want to say they looked on with envy, but I think they looked on with delight.
The heavenly hosts learn in us the manifold wisdom of God. They notice how that God has chosen us to be the bride of Christ.
Wonderful.
They've never been made that offer.
They have a different place in glory. They're going to be blessed, the unfallen angels, those superior, those spirits in heaven. We don't understand too much about it, but we have little practical exhortations that are in view of that. The head covering of the woman, for example, it says it's because of the angels, because the angels observe submission and if they were ever once in submissive.
They would lose their place.
In God's presence forever.
As many have.
And so the church plays the role that is its place as the submissive one. We weren't the one that called the shots to unveil this mystery and to make it known we didn't earn it. God purposed it and has given it out to us.
And now those heavenly hosts there behold, and they learn what God is like in the way that He has made known to us, blessing to Gentile sinners and bringing them into blessing, raising them up to enjoy heavenly things.
And being united with Christ.
O mystery divine, only God could think of a plan so wonderful and great.
May it sink into our hearts.
Shall we close in prayer?
The Mystery of Godliness #1
Address—Doug Buchanan
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Today we'd like to get into some more of the practical aspects of.
Mystery the results the corresponding.
Reaction. There ought to be in our hearts the exhortations that the Word of God would give us. We're in the New Testament. This is the general principle. In all, the New Testament is, first of all, God.
Gives us His blessings, pours it all out to us on the basis of grace, freely to everyone.
Equally.
Christian Every believer is equally blessed with all spiritual blessings.
But then in the latter part of the epistles, usually we have some words of exhortation, and we'd like to take up some of those verses, particularly perhaps in Colossians.
But before we do so, I'd like to briefly mention a few other scriptures where we have the mystery mentioned. Might just look 1St at First Corinthians 15.
Might just help to put it in perspective.
In First Corinthians 15.
Verse 51, This chapter deals with resurrection and the new bodies. This was a special part of the mystery, a special revelation that was given to Paul and it's called here a mystery.
It's a special part of it. The mystery in general, I believe, as we've seen it in the Scriptures, is that plan that God had to unfold, a blessing to Gentiles to bring them in, unite them to Christ by the Spirit, and to take them home to heaven to be with him. In order for that to be possible, possible, one of the things necessary is a new body.
Oh, it's been wonderful to have new bodies.
I think there's some here that can relate to that and this year, Lassen, that have suffered some accidents and there's others here that are aged and have infirmities and we all do. It's a part of this groaning creation and we haven't been given our new bodies yet. We have the new life, but the bodies are coming later and this.
Chapter explains that we'll just read verse 51 beginning with verse 51.
Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
And so forth. And incorruptibility and mortality are swallowed up. The Lord is going to finish what he's begun, and that includes the new body. And for those of us, and I like to think that the majority of us.
Are probably going to experience this change I don't expect.
That death will be the means of ushering us into the presence of the Lord. I expect it to be the rapture, the change of the new body. There's one of our older brethren here.
Amening that he's looking for it too. Oh, how wonderful. We ought to not to be pessimistic, dear believers. Optimistic.
What a glory, what a plan God has.
To take these bodies, change them, to make them suitable to His presence there in glory. We have the life now if we believe, but the body is waiting to change, and those that are in the graves will be caught up first, then we which are alive and remain also, it says in Thessalonians. So this is a special part included.
Another verse in Ephesians, just to briefly touch on that chapter 5.
We, I don't believe we read this verse in the course and so I'd like to read it.
Without too much comment, Ephesians chapter 5.
Verse 30.
For we are members of his body, that's Christ, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh.
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This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.
This is really a part of the mystery, the union with Christ that we have and I just wanted to call attention to this verse. One body with Christ. The one body is used in different ways to express our oneness together in Corinthians we have about.
When one member suffers, all members suffer, and that's another view of the oneness that is enjoyed and experienced by all believers. We are one body members, one with another, but here it's more particularly our oneness with Christ, the head in heaven and Mary. The marriage is an example to us in a practical way that we can learn to know it experimentally in a natural way.
So is the spiritual.
One body in Christ. Then we'll turn on to First Timothy.
Chapter 3, Something a little different, and this will introduce us into our subject this morning.
Paul is writing to a young man, Timothy, here, and he's speaking about the House of God. That is the church. That is the house aspect of the church. The house aspect of the church is where order and government authority is carried out in a house.
And so we'll read from.
Verse 15. Chapter 3. First Timothy 3. Verse 15.
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, and without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit.
Scene of angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world.
Received up into glory.
The mystery of godliness, and I believe this brings in the practical part for us that we want to touch on today.
That mystery of godliness, here it is its source, its origin.
God manifests in the flesh. That's what starts it out. When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman.
God manifest in the flesh. The mystery of godliness is coming down to give us.
The demonstration of what it is, and it's in the Lord Jesus himself. He is that mystery of godliness impersonated here on earth. He came down to show it to us. And so we have it in the life of the Lord Jesus. He perfectly demonstrated to us what the mystery of godliness is. And that's the beauty of reading the Gospels.
And we see in there all these things.
Of godliness demonstrated for us, and it's given to us here as the example for us to imitate in the Church of the living God.
Christ is no longer here to demonstrate this, but His body is here, or as it's viewed here, the house. The church is the house, and it's in this house where this mystery of godliness is demonstrated and ought to be seen.
The church is to be that here on earth. We are the only Bible that a lot of people read.
We God's people are the House of God here.
The place where that order and government of God himself is demonstrated. And so we ought to function in that way.
If you really want to get to know someone, the best way to do it is go and live with them in their house.
And you will see what people really are. That's good. We can really get acquainted that way. And so it is in the things of God, the House of God, that is the demonstration where this mystery of godliness is seen and demonstrated.
And so now it's not the counsels of God in coming out like in Ephesians, and showing us what He purposes and has done and is doing and what will do forever.
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But it's a practical thing that's shown out the mystery of godliness.
It started out with God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, and so the Lord Jesus in all his actions, the Spirit of God could justify it is of God. There was no flaws, nothing there.
To contradict everyone who came to the Lord.
To find fault or to accuse was turned away in total.
What is the word total exposure to the reality of what they really their purposes really were. The light of God exposed it.
The Lord Jesus seen of angels, the angels for the first time saw their creation creator when he was born in Bethlehem. And you get them there singing or praising God rather in in that, in that, that humble scene there God come down here on earth. I can't help but think that if it were possible, the angels would be envious.
Humans, because God became a human being like us.
Scene of angels. Not likeness of angels, but seeing of angels. And so, as we had the other day, they behold in us the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.
Because God. Because God has expressed all this to us.
And so, like we said, when we come to this marriage, we're not the audience. No, we're the participants with God.
But they are there observing, seeing of angels.
I like what the John the Baptist said in John's Gospel chapter 3.
When it was, the Lord was brought before them and he said, well, let's turn just to read it to get it exact. I might misquote it. John's Gospel, chapter 3.
Verse 28 and 9:00.
Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom. But the friend of the Bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly, because the of the Bridegrooms voice this. My joy therefore is fulfilled.
John the Baptist was not in the intelligence of the relationship with Christ.
That we are. He was the friend. He knew the relationship with Christ as the friend of the bride, of the bridegroom, and that was as close as he knew and had been revealed to him. And that's true. There are going to be those in heaven that enjoy that relationship, but he that hath the bride is the bridegroom.
Beautiful. We enjoy that at every wedding that we go to.
We can see the joy of the young man's heart there in getting his bride. Oh, Christ is going to get his bride too, and we are going to be there, young people.
Those that are of faith. And so there is a distinction here in these things.
Preached unto the Gentiles and we're back in First Timothy 3. And so that's the bride, where it's particularly God purposed to choose from the Gentiles. That was new at that time, only the Jews.
Had been those to receive blessing in such a favorable way believed on in the world the extension of it.
There's no limitations to that outpouring of God's grace today. No exclusion. It's to all.
Received up into glory the mystery of godliness.
Doesn't in here on earth the Lord Jesus was received up into glory and had those leaders of the Jews known, they would have done that to the Lord when they crucified him. It says as we had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But they did and he has been received up the Lord of glory. He's there waiting to receive his bride.
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That's the mystery of godliness.
That's what the Lord Jesus wants, to be seen practically demonstrated in our lives. And so if it involves being different, let's be different, dear young people.
Like Christ, that mystery, let it be seen in our lives. Now we'll turn to Colossians to look at some practical ways that I believe it really can be seen. Colossians chapter 3, verse one.
If he then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.
How beautifully this fits in with our subject of the mystery as revealed in Colossians 2. Christ ascended up in heaven, and that's our life. You see you as a Christian, you can't take out of your pocket some tangible demonstration of what your life is. We don't even have the practice of giving certificates of such and such, of even a baptism or or of entrance into.
Assembly. No, these things would give the wrong impression totally. Where is our life if with Christ and glory, He has ascended there, and it's not going to be made known publicly to the world, at least until He comes. But it's secure there. No one can destroy it and touch it.
We can lose the enjoyment of our real Christian position.
And we can become earthly minded and that is the great tendencies. And I speak here as one who has traveled to other countries where Satans world is hasn't been dressed up to the same extent as it is in this country. And I see, dear young people, how that Satan is dressing up a present world particularly to distract Christians.
That's what we're up against, young people.
And that's the tactic of Satan to keep us and to rob us of what is really ours in a practical way.
May his purposes be frustrated.
May we lay hold of our life. It's only young people. As we lay hold of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, what He has done for us, His calling us out of this world to be a special, unique people with Him in glory, it's only as we lay hold of that.
That we'll be able to lead a separate heavenly life here on earth, heavenly minded. As you read the Book of Revelation, you notice how over and over in that book it speaks about them that dwell on the earth, the earth dwellers. I want to turn to another verse 2IN Luke chapter 22 to to show you how this is a particular Luke 21.
Sorry, a particular snare that Satan is using at our time.
Luke 21, verse 34.
Take heed to yourselves, lest at anytime your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life. And so that day, the coming day of judgment, come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come, all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. What she therefore, and pray always.
That you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
The Lord tells us here in this verse that it is going to be a particular snare to entrap people to become earthly minded.
We see it all about us, we experience, we're in it. We can't remove ourselves from these circumstances.
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But we can become victorious, We can live separate lives. We can be heavenly minded Christians.
And that doesn't mean setting yourself up to be somebody better.
Oh, that to have that thought totally.
Is totally contrary without what we see that we were and how God picked us up when we were sinners and brought us into this favor.
Now where his special chosen people, he called us particularly for this purpose, to call us out to be that treasure, to be that bride of Christ with Him in glory.
Set your mind, our affections as it reads here on things above 1 Brother said we are what we think about, just as physically we are what we eat. You eat poorly and your work, your body becomes weaker, you eat good nourishment and you become strong and so forth. So in the spirit, spiritual things.
We need to occupy ourselves with our blessings.
You can't expect to have a life of a demonstration to the godliness.
And justice, a pity diet of a verse or two every day of the Scriptures to become heavenly minded. Oh, we need that at the minimum. But dear young people, we need to really get into the Scriptures in more depth if we're really going to lay hold of these things to get our minds focused on what is really our possession in Christ.
And that will change us. Our life is there.
And.
We are called to that.
A special people unto the Lord. Let's demonstrate it, dear young people, in a practical way in our lives.
You are dead, your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye appear with Him in glory. And it's only those pre trusters, as we were noticing in Ephesians that are going to enter in.
I believe you have a little picture of that in the Old Testament, in David, in his reign. You remember those mighty men and that and also his brides, they, the wives that David took as king. He got them mostly when he was in rejection, those mighty men that participated in the Kingdom. I believe that all that I could tell.
Became associated with Christ in the time of his rejection.
They didn't wait till David was on their throne and then aligned themselves publicly publicly with him. They trusted in him while he was still in rejection, and then when he, the throne became his, they reigned with him.
And so I believe it is in in the in this mystery.
Those who wait to believe.
Until Christ has come are not going to enjoy that portion that we have. They're not going to be the bride. There will be a place for those and it would be a terrible day, a terrible error to wait until that time because we were told in Thessalonians that all those that heard the gospel will be deceived by that deception, that mystery.
Of iniquity that works to believe a lie and they'll be deceived.
There will be no second chance to enter into the Kingdom if you reject God's offer now.
To become the bride of Christ.
You'll be deceived.
Don't play with God, young people, you once particularly that have been raised in Christian homes as most of you have and have heard these things.
Don't play with God on these things.
Now we'll go on in our chapter verse 5 Mortify. Therefore your members, which are upon the earth were in Colossians 3.
Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection.
Evil, concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them, but now ye also put off all these things.
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I'll just stop right there to speak a little bit. Mortify or put to death.
Therefore, your members, it's true, we still have our old nature, our atom flesh that we were born with.
They haven't been taken away. There's no such thing as.
Getting rid of the old nature, we're going to have it along with us, but we put it to death. We do not obey its suggestions, its temptations, its desires.
Fornication. My brother was speaking about that the other day.
All these things are here with us in our bodies. These are things that come from within to try us and to test us. And it's in the measure that we do that that we will then practically young people.
Show forth.
The mystery of godliness in our lives.
It's those things that bring down the wrath of God on the unbelievers. But think how sad it is when a believer falls into these things. What a dishonor to the Lord.
What a disgrace to receive the blessing of God and then turn around and commit one of these sins.
In the light.
It's one thing for the unbelievers to do these things, but it's more serious for a believer in the light, in the blessing, in the favor of God having received all that he pours out to us to commit these things. Serious business, serious business.
The love of Christ, the blessings that He has outpoured, ought to be and is sufficient to keep us from all these things. But then we have another list.
Of what we might say are not so serious of things.
Verse 8 But now, but now ye also put off all these things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out of your mouth lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds.
I believe that if we check ourselves up in these things.
We will not fall into the first list of things. God is gracious to show us how these things get started. Such a thing as anger.
As a parent, that's one of the things that we must train our children to overcome our own anger, passions. Learn to to dominate that, not let it rule your life. You see, it's in the little things that the enemy begins working and gets a hold of us and later they become vices.
And then more serious still. And it's through those things that Satan drags down the unbelievers, and they cannot get free from them. But we as believers have the secret to be overcome to put off these things.
They're not of God.
Then we have what to put on.
Verse 10.
And have put on the Newman, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. That's Christ, that mystery of godliness that came down and has gone up, back up into glory.
How is it demonstrated it's true? The Newman in Christ, Everyone of us as a believer has a nature, a life and a nature that delights to please God and to walk in these things.
Sometimes we look at one another and we wonder.
But never, never.
Give up the truth that God has given us that. And sometimes, maybe because we become impatient with one another, it's because we forget that.
Every true believer does have a desire to please God.
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He has put that in US.
What are What a beautiful list here.
Verse will drop down to verse 12 put on. Therefore, as the elect of God, we're elect, the chosen of God, holy and beloved. We are a holy people. God has made us that way.
Beloved, the loved ones of God, bowels of mercies.
The inmost feelings of Mercy's, I think is the thought here.
Oh, you know, when you lookout in the world and you see the great needs that exist, the need of mercy, you know I.
Just as a way of an example, sometimes I when I walk down the street in Central America.
And it's hot down there, hotter than today. You walk down the street and it's not. It's very common to see a poor drunk man and occasionally even a drunk woman.
Dead drunk on the street, in rags.
And degradation. Totally unconscious.
Bowels of mercy.
What a pity, what a destruction, what an opportunity to show the kindness of God.
That's what we're here for.
And among ourselves.
I want to speak out one word against cutting up one another, making fun of each other. This may be more particularly some of the younger ones, something that we can easily fall into.
Don't degradate your brethren.
Your friends don't cut them up. Don't make fun of them.
Bowels of mercies.
In this way the mystery of godliness is made known. In this way people get a hold of it.
Kindness.
Humbleness of mind.
Oh, pride is such a destructive thing. The Lord has brought this particularly before me.
He showed me how, in a larger extent, how proud my heart is and how pride keeps me from so many things. I didn't realize it was there so much. As we grow older, I think it becomes aware, becomes aware, made known to us. Humbleness of mine.
We were just sinners, we were just the Gentile people without any hope.
Just because our parents were saved and our grandparents were saved many years before and we were sheltered from all those evil things and lice of degradation, doesn't mean that we are any better beloved. We can look back and see our own history told out.
Humbleness of mine. We didn't merit any of this. We didn't deserve it. We didn't get it because we're better. We never will be better in our nature, fleshly nature.
God has picked us up and made us what we are.
Humbleness of mine.
Meekness. long-suffering.
Sometimes we get tired, perhaps long-suffering, forbearance, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
I think of the parable of the man who was forgiven the 10,000 talents in Matthew 18.
If if you're having any difficulty getting along with one of your brethren.
Forgiving or bearing a grudge, or if you find a bitterness growing up in your heart, read that chapter.
We are all those who owe that 10,000 talents a debt of way over $1,000,000 in today's terms, which none could ever pay because only Christ could pay that debt.
He paid that debt for us. He forgave us all our sins.
00:35:04
Then we can forgive one another the petty little things that don't really amount to very much.
Oh, when we look back to Calvary, we find how forgiveness can come in when you look at Calvary and see what was forgiven you.
It makes it easy to forgive another.
Sets it in its proportion.
Forgiving one another.
Even as Christ forgave you.
It's not. The measure of forgiveness is not how they treat us. The measure of forgiveness is how Christ forgave us. And that's why we don't have rules and regulations today in Christianity, the measure of everything for us is Christ.
Above all these things, put on charity or love in demonstration, which is the bond of perfectness. Oh, love cinches it all together and makes it wonderful. You know, you can forgive kind of in a begrudging way, but love?
Takes care of it all, the bond of perfectness.
To read in First Corinthians 13 how that anything done without love.
It really has no real benefit.
You add love to it, and God is love. It is to be the motivating power and force of everything we do love.
And we do. We love because He first loved us.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which ye are also called in one body, and be thankful.
It's as we lose sight of what Christ has done for us that trouble and.
We get troubled and lose our peace. He has called us to peace.
How wonderful. The assembly is a place where.
Peace can reign. It ought to be. Our homes ought to be that way too. There ought to be a place of peace.
Everybody needs that to grow the animals. No, when I was a boar, we had we had cows and I wasn't very good with those cows. I wasn't very patient with them. I never liked milking cows and I can remember when there were some stubborn cows that kicked.
And all the easiest thing to do was to haul off and hit them when they did that. And of course it didn't help, it just made it worse. Peace. Even the animals react to it. And our brethren too, they need peace. We need to give that, and we ought not to introduce things that disturb that.
There is a basis for peace among us.
The peace of God rule in your heart. Well, that's also as to circumstances too. Sometimes things look awful or out of whack, it looks like, and they are in a certain sense, but God is in control.
Knowing God is in control can bring peace. We have those lovely verses in Philippians about peace.
Maybe we ought to just read them.
Philippians 46 Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Committed to the Lord. Leave it with the Lord. We can't straighten out all the problems. It's probably some of our own pride that really makes us think we can be helpful. Oftentimes the Lord may choose to use us, but the Spirit of God is in control. Be at peace. Let it rain, let it rule in our lives.
Let and back in Colossians 3, let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which ye are also called in one body, and be ye thankful.
Be ye thankful.
Oh, brethren, we are thankful.
I think it's nice to have. We have those things at the end of each day. And I appreciated what our brother said about singing last night, I really did.
We ought to be thankful. I remember hearing a brother down in South America speaking to a speaking.
00:40:08
And I think in this country we tend to be unthankful more than in other countries.
And we. And yet we have so much.
We tend to spoil our children. We tend to give them too much as they grow up of material things. I guess it's because we think that happiness may come through those material things. But you go to a poverty stricken country and you will realize or you will see demonstrative practically that.
It's not in those things that happiness really comes, and those people, I believe in a general way, are more thankful than we are.
And yet we have so much thankfulness.
God has given us these things.
His grace, His love.
Let's appreciate it. The brother spoke about giving thanks here in prayer and, and it's mentioned there and what we read in Philippians to give thanks. Don't forget to give thanks to the Lord. So it really helps us to give the credit to where it's due. You know, when you ask, you have a prayer and you ask the Lord for something and then the Lord answers you. I know unconsciously, maybe in our minds, we say, Oh yes, the Lord gave that.
But when you audibly thank the Lord, it reinforces it in your own heart and mind, in your life and with others, and it gives the Lord credit. I wonder sometimes that if the Lord doesn't give us things simply because we forget to give Him thanks afterwards.
Be thankful.
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace.
In your hearts to the Lord. And this is where the singing comes into teaching ourselves and monishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And so we have great collections of psalms and hymns and these give expression to us and they teach us. And so it involves.
Singing involves, you know, our souls, and it's right that our souls are involved in it. Not that we let the souls just totally take control over us. No, it's in the spirit too. We sing it in the spirit and with the understanding. But it's right that our affections, our feelings get involved in these things. And it's not wrong to cry with joy.
Or cry with sadness. It's right on certain occasions.
And it is right to laugh and to praise and to sing. And God intended us to be that way. I know of a brother that was led to the Lord down in El Salvador simply by a little girl that was singing Jesus loves me with a happy voice.
And very young child happy in the Lord and singing. How many unbelievers in the world?
Notice that when they see a happy Christian expressing it. I appreciate our brother Bob Brimlow over. He has a gift to do it that way. And we're not all made the same. And we show our Thanksgiving and our praise in different ways. But let the Word of God dwell in your hearts and let it come out in singing.
Whatsoever you do in Word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him, well, it all goes up to Him, the God and the Father, the source of the doll, and then we become the compliment. The church is the fullness of Him that filleth all things, All in all. That's in Ephesians chapter one.
And so, brethren.
When we practice these things, we become a living demonstration of what God intended us for.
We give expression to it in our lives practically, and that's what God intended this for. The Lord died on the cross, and He didn't die there and with just the expectation that one or two would get to heaven, or maybe none at all. No, the Lord wants it to be effectual and it's going to be heaven is going to be filled. And so may our lives give a demonstration to it here.
And then that is the fullness.
The Church is the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
00:45:04
May the Lord make it so practically to us. I'd like to sing to Him in closing here, where it was sung earlier. 46 in the appendix.
Have I an object, Lord, below verse three, be thou the object, bright and fair, to fill and satisfy the heart. We sing #46 in the back.
The Mystery of Godliness #2
Lessons from Moses #1: A Turning Point
Address—Dave Spence
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I had desired.
Beloved friends, to express a little of what was on my heart concerning lessons from the life of Moses.
And a few short little talks. The first one has to do with his decision.
The second one has to do with his Commission.
And the third one that we selected has to do with intercession, a very important subject for us as believers, And in that particular one he is a picture to our hearts of none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, who maketh intercession for us.
And the last one, separation. So first of all, let's turn to Hebrews Chapter 11.
For four short verses.
Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 23.
By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child.
That means that he was beautiful to God.
Do you ever look at yourself like that, beloved friends?
I know sometimes we may stand in front of the mirror and we think about how we look to other people and we're very much concerned about that in the day that we live. Perhaps maybe a little more overly concerned than we should be, but we're we're all like that. But have you ever thought?
How beautiful you are to God.
Just think about that as we read down through these few verses.
They were not afraid of the King's commandment.
By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter.
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches.
Than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
Now let's turn to Acts Chapter 7, and then we'll turn back here in a few moments.
Acts Chapter 7.
Verse 20.
In which time Moses was born and was exceeding fair again second time repeatedly.
He was beautiful to God, and that does not necessarily mean in physical appearance. We believe that all babies are charming and lovely and beautiful in their own way.
This has something I think a little deeper.
To our hearts than just a physical appearance.
He was nourished up in his father's house three months and when he was cast out.
Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son.
And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
And when he was full, 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them suffer, wrong, he defended him, and was avenged, and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not.
And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove.
And would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren, why do ye wrong one to another?
But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee A ruler and a judge over us?
Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? Then Moses fled at the same, and was a stranger in the land of Midian.
Where he begat two sons.
The first verse that we read in Hebrews Chapter 11 has to do with a choice that Moses parents made. And it reminds me, beloved friends, of the choice that your parents have made for you.
And you know, I used to look back on at my life when I was young and and backwards as I thought of my previous experiences growing up in a Christian home as though I was being cheated.
And deprived of much that some of my friends and associates at school were not deprived of. And I think perhaps we've all felt some of those feelings.
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And Satan would like to make us feel that we have been cheated, we've been shorted, something that the world is enjoying.
But I look at it a little differently today.
And I know someday as you grow up, if we're left here, you will look back with Thanksgiving on the choices that your parents made for you.
Choices that were according to God and his will and word.
Not something they just felt that would be good for you or not something that they just felt that you wanted to do.
Choices that would affect your lives for not only time, but for all eternity.
And I know you look at them as sometimes fairly rigorous and legal as we might use the expression and very hard to deal with.
Some of those choices didn't make sense.
Well, Moses, when we read of the choices that his parents made for him, was too young to even realize what was going on. He was hid three months of his, of their parents, of his parents, and didn't really understand, of course.
He was hid from.
The king who was slaughtering all of the male children.
There is a lesson in that I think I would like to share with not only the young men but the young women here too.
In Scripture, the man speaks of testimony.
And Pharaoh wanted to take those boy babies and cast them into the river of Egypt.
You see, they would be lost, so to speak, to the to the to the world as we would look at it, do away with the male children.
And the testimony would be destroyed.
How many lives today of Christian young men and women are being lost to the world?
And the testimony thereby being destroyed and ruined and quenched.
I'd like to ask each one of you in my own heart this very searching question. Is this what's happening to you?
And is this what is happening to me?
Moses was exceeding fair. He was beautiful to God.
And he looked down upon Moses as he might, we might say, looks down upon you and me. We were reminded this morning that we've been chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world, that we might be holy without blame before him in love.
Brother Steve reminded us last night. I am my beloveds and he is mine and his desire is towards me.
He lives for you and me. His thoughts, according to Psalm 139, are towards us, are more than the sands of the seashore.
And he lives constantly, as we'll have a little later, Lord, willing to make intercession for us because he longs to have us in his company. And not just that, but to be a testimony.
A testimony individually and concerning the testimony of Christ in the Church in this world.
That our brother Doug is bringing before us the mystery.
The mystery We have a vocation, and many times we we put more concerted effort and time and energy into our vocations here, and there's nothing wrong with that beloved young people.
Than we do.
The vocation that we've been called to by God.
A far more superior vocation than just a vocation in this world. So certainly the vocations that we all strive for and are being trained for and educated for our secondary to the vocation for which we've been called. And Satan is seeking to throw you into the stream of the world, to destroy and ruin the testimony in your life.
So that you will no longer reflect the glories of Christ and express them verbally to those that you live with and have to do within this world.
You remember that little donkey, that Jesus?
Rode into Jerusalem on, he told his disciples to go into a certain city, Bethpage, as I recall.
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And he told his own Tell the master of that little *** the ***** colt, that I have need of them.
Jesus has need of you.
And our brother St. Steve expressed that I believe quite well that he desires to have our company, to refresh his heart with our fellowship and our presence and our worship, and just to have us as companions not only in this life, but in eternity. Beloved.
How exceedingly fair you are to God. And your parents have looked upon you in that light, I believe, through the eyes of God. They've looked through his eyes at you.
And have sought the very best for you. And as I say, it seemed hard to me and it may seem very difficult for you.
To have tight boundaries and restraints and restrictions on your life as you grow up in this Christian environment.
And it doesn't mean that your parents haven't made mistakes. They they make mistakes. My parents certainly made mistakes.
But I believe when we put it all together, they are seeking your happiness and God is too.
Moses then of course, as we we well know here by reading this portion, was that full 40 years of age as we had before us too in Acts Chapter 7 when he made a choice, and I believe that his parents faith affected him. He had 40 years to think about it, but you don't have to be 40 years of age to make a decision.
You don't have to be 40 years of age to be happy. And some of us think, well, I'm going to grow up as a Christian and the older I get, the more I mature and the happier I'll be. And someday I'll be as happy as my grandfather when I get to be his age.
It really isn't true. Beloved young people. Some of the happiest young people of people that I have ever seen have been young people.
Whose hearts and lives have been glowing and burning with first love.
We had that brought before us at the sink last evening.
You know the world is not big enough to fill your longing heart.
But he satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. He is big enough, his love is great enough, His mercy, his glories are great enough to fill your heart to overflowing as our brother Doug brought before us this mornings person that's before us.
If we were to look at the New Testament person that is most prominent on the pages of the New Testament, it probably would be the Apostle Paul.
And he considered himself to be the wise master builder.
And he looked at the whole structure before it maybe was all put together, and looked at it by faith, and looked at this glorious building that God was going to make the church.
And he could label it with one word.
And it's only one word that we have to think about, and that is Christ.
In the Old Testament, if we were to be concerned with the great personality on the pages of the Old Testament.
As to.
A very prominent servant that God used. Who would it be? It would probably be this man that we're reading about today.
Moses.
The man of God says in Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse one.
He also was, you might say, an architect, because at the Mount Mount Sinai, God gave him instructions for building the Tabernacle and laws and and regulations to govern that structure and how it should be used. One word, beloved, could be written over that structure that he was so occupied with.
And that is Christ.
One word that can be written over our lives.
That would bring happiness, unspeakable joy, into our hearts and lives. And that is Christ oh Christ.
In thee my soul hath found and found in thee alone the peace, the joy I sought so long.
That happiness.
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Unknown. Unknown to the world.
But found in Christ if I gained the world and lost the Savior.
Were my life worth living for a day?
And you know that, beloved friends. And I knew it too. As I was growing up in a Christian home, I knew all about these things intellectually.
Very little did my heart lay hold of them and enter into them.
Little did I walk in the good and the joy of them, but you're not too young.
You're not too young.
Christ is enough to fill your heart to overflowing.
And you will find when he is everything to you and the object that is set before you, and you're in love, so to speak, with him, the world dissipates into insignificance. And you don't need those things that you really hung on to. I confess things that I hung on to, I really thought I needed that could make me happy.
The enjoyment, the enjoyment of the love of Christ is the secret of all true devotedness.
And it is a secret for separation from all that is around us. And once your heart is brought into that sphere of enjoyment, you will find.
No need for those things that you were once taken up with.
Moses came to a point in his life undoubtedly affected by the faith of his parents. We don't really know how old he was when he was taken into Pharaohs home or the home of Pharaohs daughter and adopted by her. We know that he was taken care of and nursed in his mother's home.
Providentially arranged by God, and all of our circumstances are. But maybe he was old enough to hear about the name of the Lord and to have that impressed upon his little heart. I don't know.
But as he went through life and all the training in the schools of Egypt.
And it was a good long while this man was an accomplished.
Middle-aged, as we would call him, Man ready for the service of Egypt.
He was learned in all the wisdom as we read together all of the wisdom of Egypt.
And he was mighty in Word and deed.
He was ready to serve, he was in line for the throne, and he have surveyed the world in all of its power and prominence in the position that he would occupy in it as something no doubt to be very important.
And, naturally speaking, incomparable with anything that anyone else in the Kingdom in his day could ever strive for. Here he was ready to step into that throne of power. Now stop and think of it, young folks.
Do you have an opportunity in the world like he had?
Do you have that power of control over your heart from the world and the opportunities that are presented to you from day-to-day to pull you away from the path of Christ like he had? Oh, I know there are things that do control our thought processes, the way we think and the way we act and the way we do things.
But here is a middle-aged man that came to his full senses and realized it was in the language of the Apostle Paul. It was done refuse.
He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Refusal means there was repentance and oftentimes we we speak of faith 1St, and in this case I think it's repentance.
Oh, it's true that he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. So faith chooses. That's true. But in Hebrews it's refusal to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Identification with the throne of Pharaoh, so to speak, or even the home of Pharaoh was.
Immaterial any longer as he surveyed the great blessing that would be his and not material.
He had all the material world at his fingertips and he was no doubt a veteran as as far as martial arts were concerned.
His ability to stand up against he was eloquent, mighty in Word and deed.
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Learned in all the wisdom.
He knew about engineering, no doubt. Engineering feats and that day that makes some of our engineering feats today look very insignificant in building those monuments, the pyramids, tremendous engineering skills.
He was equipped, ready to go.
But he refused it all, beloved.
And there was one name that is significant in this verse brought before us, as we had in the few comments that we've made already.
He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, because he restrained he esteemed the reproach of Christ. There it is.
And yet the Lord had not come as Christ, the anointed of God the sent one of God. But yet the Scripture brings it out this way to show us the same person.
The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New and vice versa, and he knew him by faith even before he came into this world.
It is faith, beloved, the gift of faith, that will deliver you from this world.
Even your faith which overcometh the world, and no matter what dispensation you live in, and where in the last before the Lord, comes the dispensation of grace.
It's the same faith that overcomes the world. Oh, we have far greater knowledge of Christ now and what He has done. We look back to see the burden that he bore for us on the cross and his resurrection, his living force and the glory, and the fact that he's soon coming to take us home.
We have it all, the mystery of God, of Christ in the church. What does that mean to us all? We trust that we might enjoy these things a little more.
And as we walk in communion with him, the enjoyment of his company, we will find our hearts starting to to burn within us about all the great things that have been done for us.
But he gives us the power to daily to live in the good of these things, and we'll talk about that in another.
Session.
But he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, and that simply tells me that he looked into eternity.
Do you look into eternity, beloved, and consider the great contrast between time, the world, the material world that we live in, and all of your experiences that you could ever have here compared with eternity?
He did.
And he chose rather.
To suffer affliction with the people of God, than the pleasures of sin for a season. He chose rather to suffer. Now it doesn't say that he chose the blessings of God. There were blessings connected with taking a stand for the Lord. There's no question about that. But he said it to me. I would rather suffer affliction.
With the people of God, then, to enjoy all the pleasures of sin for a season. Sometimes we say, well, I want all the blessings of God. But he said, I'll suffer affliction, esteeming the reproach of Christ being persecuted and afflicted because of my Lord, so to speak. I would rather have all of that.
Than what the world has to offer me in my life. And he may have reasoned that through being the king of Egypt he could deliver his people. We've heard that before, I know.
He could deliver his people by being king and lead them out that way and all would be well. And I'm sure he thought about that perhaps for many long weeks, months and years.
But when faith is operative in your life and mind, what does it do, beloved? It separates us from the world.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Galatians chapter one, verse three and four, who gave himself for us that he might deliver us from this present evil world, and he was connected with an idolatrous world in that day, a world no doubt, that began to have a control over him and an effect upon his life. We don't know all the of the details, but he refused it because he chose by faith.
To follow Christ and to be identified with His people, no matter what persecution they went through. And He looked upon them, no doubt as he looked out in the land of Egypt and saw the taskmasters quipping those poor Israelites. And that's what led him to try to deliver one of his brethren being so maltreated.
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That he killed the Egyptian, buried him in the sand.
He saw his people suffer and it wasn't just sympathy. Oh, there was that, undoubtedly. But it was taking a position in the world that he lived of great opportunity and advantage.
A position with Christ.
He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches.
Than the treasures of Egypt we read together this morning in him, or in whom are found all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And the more you become acquainted with that blessed one.
The more you will find.
Your treasure above.
Where your treasure is, there will your hearts or your heart be also.
But he'll walk with you, beloved, through this world, a brother said. I would rather go over a rough Rd. with Christ.
Then a smooth Rd. without him, and that's the road that Moses chose.
And he had a rough Rd. He looked out upon his people that were enslaved.
By the power of King Pharaoh.
They were controlled by him, day after day in the hot, dusty sands of Egypt. There they were making bricks for Pharaoh, beaten perhaps, some days, coming home, bleeding and unhappy and thirsty.
Couldn't hardly go another day, but the next day, all over again in Moses heart went out to his people.
He had a burden for them.
And the Lord wanted to use him.
But he saw two of his own brethren striving, as we read together in Acts Chapter 7, and he tried to to make them at peace with one another.
And his brethren didn't understand how that he by by God would by his hand would deliver them. They didn't understand that.
And Moses did try to deliver his people, but it was through his own strength it came into his heart. It says in Acts Chapter 7 that he might deliver his people. You see, he was ready to decide for Christ. He made a decision because he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
But he wasn't ready to deliver his people. It wasn't God's time. It was His time. It came into his heart. And the Lord wants to use you. But first of all, a decision is necessary. Beloved friends, and maybe you have really wanted to be happy in your life.
You have gone down a road that has LED you to unhappiness. You've tried to live on both sides of the fence and the scripture says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Man or woman makes no difference. A double minded person unstable in all his ways. No man can serve 2 masters.
He will either hate the one and love the other, despise the one and hold to the other. You can't serve 2 masters. And Moses came to that conclusion and that's why he made a decision. He had to leave his home.
He left home.
He didn't want to be identified with Pharaoh's household any longer, no matter what great earthly treasures were in view, and that he was partaking of and the things that he had learned and all of that wisdom, He no doubt looked at it as a great opportunity at one time in his life to advance in this world.
Beloved friend, the decision time is now for you.
And me.
You will never be happy in this world.
If you don't make a choice.
For the Lord Jesus Christ.
No matter what talents and abilities you have, no matter what kind of an intellectual giant you might be and you might be.
Moses, no doubt, was that.
But he surrendered at all.
Surrender.
The king of Sodom came to Abraham, and you've read that story before in Genesis chapter 14. And he said to Abraham who had had conquered his army and took his people captives. He said, give me the persons and I'll give you the goods.
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Abraham said. I don't want the goods.
He said. I won't even take a thread to a shoe latch it from you, lest you will say that you have made me rich.
And in the very next chapter, chapter 15, the Lord said to Abraham, I am thy reward.
I am thy shield and exceeding great reward.
Joseph refused also. And you know the story of Joseph beloved young people.
And he was prompted by Potiphar's wife to enter into an illicit.
Relationship.
With her.
And he said, my master has committed the whole house to me, his whole home, home and household to me. And how can I do this exceeding great wickedness before God?
And it said she continued to speak to him day by day. And it's just like the world, just like the enemy.
It might be a relationship of one in your life seeking to bring you into that kind of an illicit relationship, I don't know.
But I know the enemy will never give up.
He'll never give up. Day after day, the feelings and those desires that are of the flesh and of our natures beloved young people do not change.
They do not change.
But it says of Joseph he desired to not even be with her.
In other words, separate yourself from that relationship young person that's going to lead you down the wrong Rd.
And spoil your life for Christ and your testimony.
Every sin that a man doeth, the scripture says, is without the body. But he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body. I want to tell you something, young people, that sin has a power over your life.
In most of those that Christians that I have seen and folks that I've met with in the world too.
It goes on and on and on.
You know what's been said We sow a thought we reap enact.
We sow an act.
And we reap a habit.
We sow a habit and we reap a character.
And we saw a character, and we reap a destiny.
And I have seen young people, and no doubt you have to raised in Christian homes in the assembly and they've gone with some of these sins and habits where their lives now are characterized by those very sins, look like a very minor thing in their young lives to go out with a young lady.
And to become involved.
They're still going on.
20 years later.
30 years later.
Because it's a character and I do not know if they belong to Christ or not.
I don't know if they could sing to him that we sing thine, Jesus thine.
They say they believe.
One brother married three times, raised in the assembly, and another brother I knew in the assembly married three times.
Another he became addicted to alcohol.
We could go on and on.
We say it's just a simple little thing. A habit, however, is formed out of those simple little things and relationships. Joseph refused it.
He walked away from it. He desired to have companionship with his God.
Daniel. Likewise he.
He turned away from the portion of the King's meat, and he purposed in his heart not to eat of it, nor the wine which he drank. He belonged to God. His life was for God. He was also a man greatly beloved of God, because he he he walked with God, and he desired to continue to walk with God and serve him. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego the same. They refused to bow down to the idol, they said.
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We are not careful, O King, to answer thee in this manner.
They took delight to answer him. Our God is able to deliver us.
But if he doesn't, we will not bow down to thy gods, or to the golden image without which thou hast set up. And we know. We know what happened. They were thrown into the furnace, but they refused.
The idolatry that was so characteristic all around them that was going on. There was a young man here about 10 years ago and I'll just mention this for.
Relating to you the power of music, and I know something of that, some of you do too.
He said to me these very words, he said. Music has more control and power over my life.
Than Jesus Christ.
It's a powerful instrument. Satan uses, I believe, beloved young people to keep your mind and the horror of the world.
Keep your thoughts occupied with lustful world, earthly things that sensitize your heart and my heart to the things in the world relationships here that are wrong, the scripture says Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against God, bringing every thought into the obedience of Christ. That's where it all begins up here.
Our brother brought that before us the other evening.
Every thought Bring it into the captivity of the obedience of Christ. Don't even let that thought permeate you. If it's wrong, doesn't matter what it is.
And we know that in Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's case, there was lots of music being played.
And they were to bow down and worship the image and the music that was associated with it. We don't have the idol today, I know that, But we have the music.
And we say it's OK because we don't have the idol. No, beloved.
It takes our hearts away from Jesus.
It's not that we have to go down the list and check off everything that we know that's wrong, but those are the things that are keeping my heart and your heart from walking with Christ.
As the Father hath loved me, Jesus said, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love, if any man love the world.
The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The love of the Father is not in him.
And these things sensitize our hearts. For the love of the world, make a decision for Christ in your life.
If you're not saved, make a decision for him to be saved and he'll blot all of your sins out from as far as the east is from the West, and they're gone in the blood of Christ.
But if you haven't been following him, walking in his footsteps, owning his lordship, do so today.
He wants your young wife.
Your heart.
You belong to him. You're not your own. You're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit. Oftentimes we think well as long as I keep myself outwardly clean and separate. No, it all begins in the spirit, the mind. Let this mind be in you. We need the mind of Jesus, the mind of Christ. While Moses had respect unto the recompense of the reward. And what was the reward, beloved young people, the reward was.
We see in Luke Chapter 9, Matthew chapter 17 where he was in the glory with Christ.
Where Jesus was transfigured and there was Moses and Elias, and there are only two men in Scripture that I know of whose lives are traced from babyhood all the way through manhood to the glory Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, well, Moses was a great man of faith. You know, it doesn't take much faith to walk with Christ. It doesn't take much faith to be saved because it's who the faith is in.
And Jesus told his own faith is the grain of a mustard seed could remove this mountain and be cast into the sea. If you use the faith that you have, it'll overcome the world because it has Christ in view. Remember Christ.
In whom are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and enjoyment?
I believe some of us know little about.
Communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and the enjoyment of walking with him and the burning.
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Full heart that he can give as a result of that.
I've heard young people say I've never been happier in my life. My wife told me of a man who was striving to become a millionaire by age of 40, and in six months he lost everything.
You know what he said.
He said I've never been happier in my life because now he said I'm walking with Christ.
That's the answer, dear young people. Make a decision for him. Choose this day whom you will serve.
For Israel, it was bail. For us, it's materialism. The God of materialism and all of those things have such a tremendous magnetism in it and influence over our lives. We want to attain to a certain level of living in this life, and we'll do anything to get there.
And Moses had all of his fingertips, and he gave it all up.
And Paul said, whatsoever things were gained to me, I counted lots for Christ, and I count all things lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ. There he is, Christ Jesus my Lord, And to count them but dumb, that I may win him, that I may win his approval, that I may win his company, that I might be able to walk with him through this life. Then I have everything, because Christ is everything.
Could we sing?
In closing two 83283.
Perhaps just the last verse?
Lessons from Moses #2: Submission
Address—Dave Spence
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Could we open our Bibles to Exodus chapter 2, where again we will seek or attempt to take up the story?
Of Moses and Glean a few lessons from his life.
Yesterday we spoke concerning the decision that he made and the wonderful turning point that he came to in his life.
After he had surveyed and pondered the great opportunities and the future of his position in Egypt.
He, no doubt on the one hand, weighed this great opportunity that lay before him.
And yet as he thought of the affliction of his people, and his God connected with them, and his interests associated with his people.
He had a greater desire to turn from everything that was.
Natural to his senses.
And that was invigorating to him, naturally.
And to the natural eye, and all the glory of that place.
He sought.
To turn from it all. But he turned to God, we might say from idols to serve the living and true God. We don't know that he was ever connected with idolatry. I don't believe that he was, but that was a state of the Thessalonians. And to turn from something to God is probably not the right statement. But to turn to God from idols. There he fills and satisfies our hearts and our longings, and fills our hearts to overflowing.
And then we walk away from those things that we we knew were so wrong. Oh, it's true. There should be repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Godly repentance.
Godly sorrow, which worketh repentance not to be repented of a brother, was telling us the other night. So let's take up the story in Exodus chapter 2.
And verse 13.
This is after the turning point in his life, when he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
And behold, he went out the second day. And when he went out the second day, behold, 2 men of the Hebrews strove together. And he said to him, that did the wrong Wherefore smidest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a Prince and a judge over us? Intendest vow to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known.
Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian.
And he sat down by a well.
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to.
Water their fathers flock.
And the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
And when they came to rule their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon today? And they said an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? Why is it that ye have left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man. And he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom.
For he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
Chapter 3. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert.
And came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a Bush. And he looked, and behold, the Bush burned with fire, and the Bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight. Why the Bush is not burned.
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called him out of the midst of the Bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
And he said, Draw not nigh, hit her, Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where on thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have seen, surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
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And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large.
Unto a land flowing with milk and honey, under the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hibites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come up, come unto me.
And I have also seen the oppression where with the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee. And that's the keyword, beloved young people, I will send thee.
I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go into Pharaoh, that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. And he said, Certainly I will be with thee.
Just a couple of verses in chapter 4 verse 10.
And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore.
Nor sense thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am of a slow speech.
And of a slow tongue.
And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or death?
For the scene, For the blind? Have not I the Lord?
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, O my Lord.
Send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt sin.
The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee.
And when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.
And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth, And I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he and he shall be thy spokesman under the people, And he shall be even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, but thou shalt be to him instead of God.
Well, we certainly don't have time, nor could I take the time to speak.
Upon all the verses that we've read together, but just to glean a few thoughts, dear friends, concerning the life of this dear man, we read in Acts Chapter 7 again that this was.
The escape, we might say, of Moses from Pharaoh when he fled.
Because of fear having the news spread around in the Egyptian Kingdom that he had killed a man.
And Pharaoh sought his life, and even his brethren, when he sought to deliver them from strife, he was not understood by them.
And he wondered, because he thought that they should have understood that he by God by his hand, would deliver them.
But we also considered in Acts Chapter 7 the verse that says it came into his heart.
But it wasn't from God's heart or it was not God's time.
For deliverance.
And the experience here that we read of the burning Bush was 40 years later. We read of that in Acts chapter 740 years later.
But it's interesting that when he came into the land of Midian that he sat down by a well. Does that remind you of anything, dear young folks?
Does that remind you of anyone? He sat down by a well.
Well, we heard this morning about Eliezer Abraham servant who came to a well and there he found the bride for Abrahams son Isaac.
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But in the New Testament we read of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being weary with his journey, sat thus on the well. Scripture seems to be full of experiences relating to the Well, the Well.
And perhaps that draws us to see that.
It's the Holy Spirit that he may be Speaking of here.
Because the Holy Spirit is in the world today drawing out a bride for the Lord Jesus Christ, and there the Lord Jesus as he sat weary upon the well.
He finds just one needy heart burdened with her sin.
And he draws her to himself and brings her into eternal relationship with him. She left her water pot on the well, Speaking of her earthly toil and burden. And she went back into the city, and she said, come and see a man that hath told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?
And no doubt, beloved young folks.
She is part of the church.
The Holy Spirit having come down on the day of Pentecost.
Entering into the lives and hearts of all the believers. And she no doubt is just a little token of what the Holy Spirit is doing in the world today, drawing out a bride for Christ. And here Moses sat on the well or came to the well.
Sat down by a well, discouraged and tired, no doubt. Maybe thirsty, because that's why he came there.
Seeking a drink.
But he finds through this experience.
That he is connected with someones household and he finds no doubt a wife.
That comforts his heart in a strange land, and even in Midian, the land of Midian, where he is a stranger, he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and his strangership in this world. He came unto his own, and his own, and his own rejected him.
They received him none.
But through him being cast out by the religious system and the world in general, he finds a bride.
And that bride you and I are a part of, if we have received him.
Well, Moses life no doubt was somewhat changed from what he was used to in the land of Egypt.
Having been in the household of Pharaoh and used to and accustomed to all the niceties and comforts of life, and suddenly to find himself in a strange land where he knew no one, and now in a household that he was simply going to be an employee.
And a shepherd of sheep.
This was a great adjustment for him to make. And I would just like to say this dear young folks, that you know the the word in the religious world today is we are saved to serve. And when we think of Moses decision and the great turning point he came to in his life and all of the godly energy so to speak, that he had pent up in his heart to deliver his people.
We would say.
Surely it.
It must have been difficult for him to suddenly become so discouraged and fearful in his heart. Now he has to take up another occupation totally, completely different from what he had in mind. And many young folks today become discouraged because they they hear the message, they are saved to serve. And it is true.
We may be saved to serve.
Because he has purged our conscience from dead works to serve.
The living and true God.
But some of us were sitting at the table, and we were talking about that woman at the well whose heart was filled to overflowing because she had in just a moments time received the Lord, you might say by faith, and she became a worshipper. Undoubtedly her heart was so filled up she even forgot about her natural thirsts and appetites.
She became a worshipper, but she became a servant.
And those two things go very closely together.
And we read of on Lord's Day Morning, Mary the sister of Martha, who sat at the feet of Jesus.
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And she no doubt became.
A very faithful servant scripture is silent as to these things.
She poured out that expensive, costly ointment upon her beloved Savior, and she no doubt served him faithfully in the days remaining in her life. Her heart was caught away, was raptured with her relationship with her Lord.
Well, the.
The other side of the story is.
Seen here in the life of Moses, and we call it the backside of the desert experience. And we don't like to hear it perhaps, and we don't like to think of it because sometimes the road gets a little rough and the thorns and briars across the road are a little bit disturbing.
And painful.
But it's interesting that God does not go into detail concerning the 40 years that Moses spent on the backside of the desert, because every two true servant of the Lord.
Brother. Sister.
Must have that silent time with the Lord that is between he or she and her Lord.
And not expose perhaps to anyone else.
It's the time of grooming. It's the time of learning, It's the time of growing, It's the time of emptying, so to speak. And it was a preparatory time the Lord had for this beloved servant of God, this man of God, we read in Deuteronomy chapter 33. It was very necessary for him to go through this period in order to become a servant, and we, when he, by his own hand, sought to deliver his people.
It was not God's time, because his servant wasn't ready for one thing.
And it wasn't his time to come down to deliver his people when it was in Chapter 3, it says I am come down to deliver them.
Verse 8.
He had heard their groanings, He had looked upon their burdens.
And the pain that they were going through came up to him, and all he needed now was a servant who had been prepared and was ready for the service that he had been called to.
There may be a lapse of time or period of time between your desire to serve and a decision that you make in your life to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and the actual time of your service to take place or to be initiated.
I don't know that we can point to one another and say, well, now it's not your time, but it's my time or vice versa. That's the work of the Spirit of God. It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. But it is very satisfying and rewarding to know this beloved friends and that is God is so interested in your life and the potential that you have for His service.
And the way that he wants to use you in a way that he could use no one else, because there's no one else that would be able to fit into your footsteps or your shoes, so to speak, that he.
Wants you simply to submit to the circumstances in your life.
And I would ask you the question, and I've asked myself the question many times. Are the circumstances that you are confronted with ordered by the Lord and only arranged by him? Are they pleasant?
Do they make you happy? And some of you can say yes to that and I am so thankful.
That many of you have been raised in circumstances that you appreciate with a Bible being opened and read to you. From the time that you were very small and young, you've heard the word of God read.
But there may be some here that find the circumstances that they are in very difficult to deal with.
There may be affliction in your family.
Affliction.
There may be sorrows that are very difficult for you to bear in pain that it's difficult for you to go through.
And many Christians ask the question, why is it that I have to go through these problems in my life? And I look at the household of other Christians and they seem to just float through life on a a bed of feathers and things are very, very pleasant.
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And they never seem to have any problems. Everything seems to be so comfortable.
I don't know.
I do not understand the ways of God, but I do know this, beloved friends that.
God's way is perfect. Now. It does not say, does not say that you will not suffer pain, You will that you will not become discouraged. You may but remember this, that if you are discouraged in those circumstances, that discouragement is never faith. Now you can imagine Moses, as he is on the backside of the desert for 40 long years, that he thought back undoubtedly numerous times to his experience when he had the turning point in his life.
Decided he was going to deliver his people and serve the Lord, and his heart was just bursting at the seams to do that.
And you don't maybe wonder if he didn't think he made a mistake? I don't know.
But I don't think so.
I'm sure he was discouraged.
But maybe he thought that he would never be useful because he made a mistake and he he acted in the flesh and he killed this Egyptian.
And then he had to flee from Egypt, and there he was, just a shepherd. Now it wasn't a week or two or three or a month or two or three. It was 40 long years.
And justice, a little foresight of what was going to happen to the people that he was going to lead through the desert for 40 long years, but you see, he had to be trained to do that.
Thus, I would would like to encourage anyone here.
Who may find themselves thrust into circumstances that they do not understand. You do not.
Comprehend and maybe a little root of bitterness has grown up in your heart, growing in your heart about them that you would simply submit.
To God, because this man of God did, and this is what made him a man of God, the Scripture says in James chapter 4. Submit yourselves therefore unto God, and then resist the devil. You can never resist the devil without submitting yourself unto God.
And then it says for your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Because if there's no submission on our parts, we have an adversary that is seeking to devour your life and to destroy your testimony.
A sister was telling me just before this meeting.
Concerning a family.
A broken home.
Father left the mother years ago.
Gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we say, How can these some of these things come among us?
Why does the Lord allow these things among such privileged ones as we?
Because Satan is operative in all of our lives, and seeking, especially in the place of greatest blessing, to bring the greatest discouragement and sometimes.
Cheryl.
She said the mother did not know what to do when she was faced with raising five or six children.
Father left.
She said all that she could do is release.
This burden to the Lord.
Casting all of your care upon him for he careth for you. And she did that. She released it, and she submitted to God.
All of those children are at the Lord's table.
Today. And they're not children anymore, married and have families.
One of them is here.
Now, beloved friends, no matter how difficult and painful and confusing, are the circumstances that you may be faced with, That's just one little illustration of what God can do when there is submission in your heart and mind concerning the circumstances that we are raised in.
And we speak about broken hearts. We look all around us and Christendom and in the world we see broken homes and broken hearts and kids being raised with with this set of circumstances, with no God to turn to.
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No one prevailing, so to speak, that hat they can look to that has providentially ordered their circumstances that we can.
Did blessing come as a result of this sister submitting to the Lord? In her very difficult circumstances? Indeed it did.
There's a young man among us today.
And I hope he doesn't mind me mentioning his circumstances.
He lost his mother.
A short time ago.
We do not know the ways of God. And when a mother or a father may be taken from the midst of a very happy family environment, it seems like this cannot be of God.
His mother was used. She had leukemia.
In a very wonderful way, before her being released from her body.
To lead a precious.
Young lady to Christ.
This young girl heard about this sister or this lady suffering, but she was found out that she was happy in just about being ready to be released from her body or released from the world, to go home to be with Christ. She could not understand this, and she went to visit with her, and she heard the happiest, the most wonderful gospel message she'd ever heard in her life from the sister who was dying.
Heaven will be filled with.
The children of God, whose circumstances were ordered by the Lord.
That there was a place in heaven for them at that period in their life to be taken at that moment that they alone could fill and no one else.
Even children born.
Still births.
Children taken out of the world, they don't even have an opportunity to to enter into life like we have. There was only a place in heaven for them to fill.
As for God, his way is perfect. Again the family concerning the loss of of this mother submitted.
To the Lord.
And submission in all of our circumstances is the healing principle that will bring peace. And when we struggle and fight against what God has ordered and allowed in our lives, it brings confusion, It brings bitterness, and sometimes a departure from following Christ. Moses was no doubt vulnerable in this area of his life when you stop and consider all of which he left and gave up for the service of Christ.
And he finds himself for 40 long years on the backside of the desert. But at that end, the end of that period, he came to a very wonderful.
Point in his life that he never forgot.
He no doubt was on the backside of the desert with his flock.
Looking around and perhaps maybe it was late in the day, I don't know. May have been early, who knows. But as he was walking along with his flock, he noticed a Bush that was burning, that he had never seen anything like before because the Bush was not consumed.
And then the voice spoke to him out of the book. The Bush draw not nigh hit her, Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
And then the Lord introduced himself. I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face where he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction.
Of my people and so forth.
Moses had caught a ray of the glory of Christ in Egypt, but he had never seen anything like this in Egypt before.
He had to be outside, so to speak of the world, in an environment where he was alone with God, where his life, so to speak, had been emptied, where he had submitted himself in very untoward and difficult circumstances.
There he found himself much of the time, no doubt on the backside of the desert, communing with God.
In prayer, no doubt, and justice, learning, dependence, learning himself and all of his.
The evils within the human heart, if we can put it that way.
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The imaginations and all the things that we're confronted with, those things have to be confronted in his life. Because he was going to be a servant of God. He didn't fully understand it. And you may not fully understand what the Lord is doing in your life, but all of your circumstances have been ordered by him, by a God who loves you with a perfect love and orders everything in your life. Because He loves you perfectly. And He knows that if you will submit to these circumstances that are very difficult and very painful.
You can become that that he has ordered you to be. He is the Potter that molds the clay, so to speak, spiritually speaking. In Jeremiah chapter 18, the Potter molded the vessel that was on the wheel until it became.
Just like the image he wanted it to be, which was a reflection, we might say, of himself.
All things work together for good to them that are called according to God's purpose. Called you are called according to God's purpose. You may not understand His purpose and His orderings for your life, but His way again is perfect. He's called you by His grace, and He has predestinated you to become conformed to the image of His Son. And we begin that conformity in this world. In the coming day there will be perfect conformity.
But the time of conformity has begun in your life, and may there be a turning point.
With you, as we said yesterday, a decision that you will submit to the circumstances of your life, they may cause tears to flow.
The afflictions that you see in your family, the very difficult.
Things that your family has gone through. Maybe there is a broken home experience here, I don't know.
They have caused tears and you wonder why. And you compare with others why, Lord, they have it so happy and we don't. And you say it's unfair and that's the word of the devil. It's unfair. It's unfair.
In God's school, his way is perfect.
All things work together. All things beloved, All things. There isn't one exception. He doesn't make a mistake. The circumstances are from that divine heart of love.
But Moses came to this burning Bush, and what did he see?
He saw the glory of the Lord.
And when we submit to these difficult and untoward circumstances in our lives?
Maybe a broken relationship in your life, I don't know.
The Lord wants to fill up.
Your heart.
That was left broken from that relationship.
He came to heal the broken hearted.
He came to release the captivity of your thoughts concerning yourself. Occupation. This is what Christianity is by the Holy Spirit, to deliver you from yourselves. And this is what Moses had to learn on the backside of the desert.
Maybe you've been sick, you know, of those that have been sick for long periods of time, and there seems to be no answer, and it seems like they're sinking. Or you may be sinking lower and lower in the problem. There's no answer for it. God is the answer. He loves you. He wants your fellowship. Release it to him.
Release it.
If you have the opportunity to order your life for one whole week, would you say, Lord, I can't cast all my cure upon you? I want to rearrange my circumstances. That would suit my own way of thinking and my own comforts and my own planning.
I just want one week to do that.
Excuse me for justice a week.
Would you do that?
Stop and think, beloved friends. Would you do that? Would I do that?
No.
Because Moses was brought to a point that he now beholds, we might say in our language today the glory of the Lord.
Never to be seen in Egypt. He caught a rabbit in Egypt, and that delivered him, so to speak, from Egypt. But he finds it now after having been emptied. And it doesn't have to be 40 years in your life. It can be a very short time when you submit to the Lord and you've emptied yourself of your own ideas, your own intellectual planning.
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And your own.
Will about anything, Let go of it. Let go of it. That's the secret to a happy life. And Moses did, and he saw the glory of the Lord.
This was a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who came into the world, and it was said of him. I came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Our God is a consuming fire, but the Bush was on fire but wasn't consumed.
Because when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and this is a picture of Jesus.
He wasn't a consuming fire in that character.
He was a God of love.
A God of grace, the law, came by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, and he came to dispense his love to those who were in need. And that's why he sat with publicans and sinners and ate with them, so that he could fill up their broken hearts and heal their broken lives and forgive them, and give them a new life and a New Hope and new desires.
The Bush burned but was not consumed. The Lord Jesus Christ veiled that glory of judgment that is his and that will be his. In a coming day he will exercise judgment, for all judgment is committed unto the Son.
And he quickeneth whomsoever he will as well.
Moses saw this glory.
And he heard the voice of the Lord. And then he hears the Lord speak about his people, who he had come down to deliver, because he had seen their groanings and their oppressions. Did he love them? Yes, he did. And now he says to Moses.
I will send thee. It's time, Moses.
It's time.
What does Moses say?
Does he answer in the character that he was in Egypt, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians?
A man mighty in Word, indeed, quite the contrary, he says. Lord, who am I?
I don't have it anymore, Lord. I have no strength.
I can't deliver these people.
You've called me. I've been with these sheep for 40 long years.
Who am I?
And then we read over in chapter four that he was not eloquent when the Lord asked him to go deliver his people and to speak to them, tell him who he was, and that the Lord was going to deliver them. I am a of a slow tongue and slow speech.
Couldn't even speak after he had been so eloquent.
In the land of Egypt, so well trained, he left all of the art and the science, all of that.
Study behind and all that he was had to go.
And now he is emptied, and in another scripture it says he became the meekest man in all the earth.
This is the Lord's training for you as a servant.
Dear brother, dear sister.
And he comes to it in your life by way of your circumstances and no other way.
Your circumstances have been ordered by a God who.
Who doesn't duplicate designs like we see? We notice with the snowflakes there is no design that is exactly alike and there is no design in your life that is exactly like someone elses.
It is perfect according to his heart of love for you in what he wants you to be. The sad part is, so many Christians miss the path and go astray because they become unhappy and uninsubmissive to the circumstances that he orders.
They missed the path.
The Scripture says, lest any root of bitterness springing up in you trouble you, and many thereof be defiled thereof.
You will see the glory of the Lord.
And there is nothing like it. It may not be in a burning Bush form.
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But we all with open face, beholding the glory of the Lord, it says in 2nd Corinthians 317, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God where.
In the face of Jesus Christ.
And when we become empty and broken because of our circumstances, it may be that a sin has come into your life. It doesn't make any difference what it is. God can use that beloved friend.
To bring you into his presence so you can look up into the face.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ and behold his glory. And then it says that's what will bring transformation in your life.
Moses was on the backside of the desert, and he no doubt was in contemplation of God.
And humiliation, because he became a very meek man.
But he was also in transformation. His life was changed because he submitted to God's ways.
John Le Ben told me that he was coming down into Las Vegas.
As they came down from the Aberdeen area into.
That plane, as many of you know.
Coming down the hill there you see if it's morning or evenings, a very beautiful sight, the lights of the city.
Or over that the horizon there as they glow up into the sky.
We might say it's the glory that we see in this world and these things attract us, they charm us and we may want to go after some of these lights and glories that we see out there, that we feel we're suited for and we're gifted for to go after and enjoy and have pleasure in.
But John said that something very interesting happened.
As they went down closer to the city.
The sun began to rise.
And it became brighter. The clouds began to be illuminated with the glory of the sun.
And it was so eclipsing to all of the glory of Las Vegas.
That they were spellbound as they looked upon the glory of the sun.
And it took away all of the desire to look upon that city.
That at first had enchanted them.
This is what Christ has for you, Jesus.
Who has all the glory and deserves all the glory, and is the glorified one at God's right hand at this present time?
And the Excellency of the power that we have is not of ourselves, it is of God. Moses did not have the Holy Spirit living in him. We do. And the Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ as we have this morning presented to us, and makes them precious to our hearts.
And we see the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. And when we do, we will never, ever find anything in this world that will ever compare with that glory, beloved friends, ever.
It'll deliver us from all of the enchantments of this world.
Just one thing lacking in our lives.
That Moses life so beautifully exemplifies, and that is.
Surrender. Surrender.
Surrender.
Will you surrender?
Will you submit?
Have thine own way, Lord, we were singing the other night. Have thine own way. Thou art the Potter.
I am the clay mold me, we sing those words mold me and make me after thy will while I am waiting.
Yielded and still listening that before we close.
Lessons from Moses #3: Intercession
Address—Dave Spence
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Could we turn to Exodus Chapter 6, Chapter 17, Exodus 17 and we'll read down through verse 14.
And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin.
After their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord.
And pitched in, reffered him.
There was number water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses.
And said, Give us water, that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why Chidee with me?
Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children, and our cattle with thirst?
And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smote us the river, And taken thine hand, and go, Behold, I will stand before thee thereupon the rock in Horeb thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come out water, water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so on the side of the elders of Israel, and he called the name of the place Massa.
Because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?
Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rafidim. And Moses said unto Joshua chooses out men and go out fight with Amalek to Morrow. I will stand upon the top of the the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek and Moses. Aaron and her went up to the top of the hill.
And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
But Moses hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereon. And Aaron and her stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek with and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book.
And rehearse it in the ears of Joshua.
For I will utterly put you out, put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
So this particular chapter has to do with Moses.
Leading the people of Israel. And here he is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ and his intercession for us. Here he was interceding for the people of Israel.
And this is some little time now from where we left off in Exodus chapter 2.
And as we've had him before us, and the steadfastness of his faith.
And the endurance of his faith. It seems, as it says in Hebrews Chapter 11, that he endured because he saw him who was invisible and beloved young people. I would like to encourage you to look on not at your circumstances as he could have done, and he probably did, and become somewhat downcast.
And perhaps very discouraged at times, but I want you and me and each one of us.
To look at him who is invisible by faith.
And if we do that, we will endure, beloved.
Because we get our eyes above the circumstances on him who is ordering our circumstances and it makes all the difference in the world. And when we can do that, it delivers us from self occupation. And this is one of the enemy's greatest tools to drag us down, to discourage our hearts and to turn us aside from following Christ self occupation in any form.
Is introspection. That is, it's looking inside.
And there are some groups in Christian circles that would encourage you to do that. In Christian Psychology is 1.
It is very dangerous.
Because it deals with the inner man, yourself, the me, and it's the me first.
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I'm sad to say that, but from what I've heard and know about it, it sets you as #1 treat yourself right.
Put yourself first. Oh, they associate it with Christianity. But the thought is to promote yourself and your feelings and your abilities and your self esteem and all of that. And Christianity has nothing to do with that side of things at all, because it has to do.
With the Natural man and it's revising his abilities. It's adjusting him to be able to function, to conform as a Christian should walk, and it's impossible.
The Scripture says whatsoever is born of flesh is flesh, and whatsoever is born of spirit is spirit, and you cannot sublimate the flesh to become spirit. It won't work.
And the idea of Christianity, or I should say the force of Christianity, the beauty, the blessed principle of Christianity, is to deliver us from ourselves. And so at a very young age, you can turn your inner vision, your eye, towards Christ.
And no matter what your feelings might be about something that you're going through or about someone who has offended you and treated you maybe maliciously, you don't need to be occupied with that. And that's the beauty of Christianity. It delivers us from ourselves and our self occupation and all of those thoughts that would tend to turn us inward and make us feel very sad. There were those in Luke 24 that felt very sad as they walked away from Jerusalem because they didn't really understand what was going on.
They said to the Lord, not knowing who it was that they were speaking with. As he journeyed with him, we thought that it was he who would have delivered Israel, so they were confused.
And their faith had turned inward to themselves. So Satan doesn't care what he uses to turn your eye from Christ, he just succeeds many times in doing that.
And he knows your weaknesses. He's followed you ever since you were a baby. He knows exactly how to trip you up. And he's far wiser than you are. He's far. He has far more wisdom than I have. But there is one thing he cannot deal with, and this is what we have in Chapter 17.
Of Exodus. And that is the power of communion by the Spirit of God in the believer.
Yes, he can fight with us and we fought with him.
And we have been overcome.
Instead of overcomers, but here we find that in chapter 16 and 17.
We have three things very beautifully brought before us and that is in 16 we find that Christ is the food of his people. In chapter 17 we find the Spirit of God is the power of the Christians or the believers life.
And then we find that we have victory over Amalek.
By this power, and likewise we have the smitten rock Christ smitten on the cross for us, just to say a word about the man of which fell from heaven. It came as the result of their murmuring and complaining that they had nothing to eat, just as much as the water came here because they were murmuring and complaining, because I think our brother Doug mentioned this or someone mentioned this, that they were still on the ground of grace at this point.
They had not said, give us a lawn, we will keep it yet that's yet future here. And the Lord graciously gives them the manna from heaven when they complain. And it's interesting when he speaks of the manna in chapter 16, He speaks of his glory thereto verse seven. In the morning ye shall see the glory of the Lord. That's His grace Moses sought on the backside of the desert beloved Saints. And we see it as we're journeying through the wilderness in the measure that we behold His glory.
By faith.
And the measure that our vision and our eye is single towards him, we'll have a glory set before us that will deliver us from every glory of this world. And let me say this, that one ray of the glory of Christ will quench and extinguish every glory of this world that you could ever, ever have.
Any position that you might have, or all the wealth in the world that you could get, could never ever satisfy you like 1 ray of the glory of Christ. And Moses got a little ray of that in Egypt. But then he saw the glory of the Lord in that burning Bush, the full blaze of it, we might say, in the Lord speaking to him. And he speaks of that five times over in his ministry through the wilderness, because it had such an impact upon him. And the Apostle Paul likewise.
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We remember that he was stricken down on the road to Damascus, and he saw that light from heaven. And then he speaks of it the second time as a bright light, and the third time a light above the brightness of a noonday sun. The more that we contemplate the blessed glory and person of Jesus, the more our hearts will be raptured and taken out of this world. Paul lived in spirit outside of this world, and so he could say for me to live is Christ.
We say, How could I ever attain to that? We can. We can't attain to that naturally. It's only as we are delivered by the Spirit of God from everything around us, as we behold the glory of the Lord and walk in communion with Him, and we have a single eye for Him.
And so the manna came as the food for God's people. And we know and have read many times what happened was as they fought upon the foods of Egypt, their appetites were dulled. In fact, they were almost eliminated for the manna.
Because they fought on them. The melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic, cucumbers, fish, and so on. Those foods of Egypt and beloved young people. Have you ever come to to this sad discouragement in your life of waking up in the morning and not having an appetite for the word of God?
I really don't feel like reading it. And when we don't feel like reading it, we should read it anyway.
Because the Lord, by His word, will use His word to speak to you in some way. It may not be that day, but down the road as to something in your life that is an impediment that's hindering your fellowship with Him, and he wants to cleanse you from that.
That's where we have power is in the cleansing process because it removes the hindrances and the defilement.
So you become discouraged because you don't have the appetite for the word of God.
But it's because defilement through occupation with the foods of Egypt, so to speak, have affected that appetite. And when that happened to the children of Israel, it said that they loathed this light bread. They called it light bread. It really wasn't. It wasn't worth anything to them when they were in that state of soul. It wasn't, it wasn't a desirable for food. In other words, plainly speaking, beloved young people, they got tired of Christ.
And the flesh always tires of Christ. The flesh will never turn spirit and it will never desire to live for Christ. It can't. And sad to say in Christian circles today, I believe that much of Christianity has been wrapped up with.
Bringing the flesh and the Spirit together, so to speak, to live for God and it can't happen. We have to be delivered from ourselves.
O wretched man that I am, the Apostle said, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? You see, he need needed deliverance, and he knew that no kind of commitment on his part or code of ethics or conformity to principles would ever do it Old Testament or New.
Of course, the New Testament hadn't been completed, but he had light.
What we need is the person and that's why he says Who shall deliver me, And it's Jesus, is Jesus the Lord Jesus.
He will deliver you, no matter how young in the faith you are if you simply apply that verse to your lives.
He will deliver you if you own your wretchedness, your inability to deliver yourself.
Perhaps more of that later, but the thought is with the manna. We must keep our lives judged from the defilements of this earth in order to maintain an appetite for the precious manna. And that is how Christ lived when he was here.
How he walked in grace while he was here. How did he walk?
Never man spake like this, man.
They marveled at the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that came from his lips.
When he suffered, he threatened not. When he reviled, he reviled not again. But he committed himself to him who judges righteously. That's how he walked.
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When he was smitten, as they were taken into the cross, he didn't strike back. He never fought back.
He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That's the manna.
In the third chapter of Philippians we have Christ as the object, and that's the old corn of the land in the in Jordan as they cross the river. Speaking of the death of Christ, they were occupied with a glorified and risen Christ. We need both beloved the manna and the old corn of the land, Christ as the object that gives us power and our ability to be bold for him in the gospel and sharing Christ with other people that we meet in the world. But the manna humbles our hearts as we behold the glory, the moral moral glories of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What does it do?
It just makes our hearts melt.
We say I am so unlike Jesus, I want to be more like him.
Never had a home.
Never had anywhere to lay his head. The foxes had holes, the birds the air had nest, but he had nowhere to lay his head.
When he needed a boat, he had to ask Peter for a boat to stand in to preach from.
And when he entered into Jerusalem, he asked for someone else's coat that he could write upon.
And he had no money because.
He was from the glory, and he had come here.
To bless men and women so he needed a penny. He told Peter to go take a penny out of the fishes mouth.
And on and on and on. He had nothing here.
That's how he lived. It's not that we should not have anything here, but the point is, that's how Jesus lived. Humbled, loving, kind, always thinking of others. And Mr. Darby said when you read about the life of Jesus, you read about the life of a man who never did anything for himself. It was always for others. And if you can find one verse, tell me about it. Beloved friends, where Jesus did something.
To satisfy himself.
It's not there on the pages of Holy Writ.
When you come to chapter 617, we find that Moses must smite the rock.
The smitten rock speaks of that rock which followed the children of Israel in First Corinthians chapter 10. And that rock was who.
Christ.
And so for the Holy Spirit to be sent forth, Christ must be stricken, smitten, and afflicted. Oh come thou stricken Lamb of God, who sheds for us thine own life blood, and teach us all thy ways. Then pain in life were sweet, and death were gain.
With the mana its life. We have life in Christ and how that life is sustained. He is the bread which came down from heaven, that if a man eat thereof, he should not die. That's how we have life. But that life must be sustained by feeding upon Christ as the manna.
And if we're undernourished and we have no strength, and we soon find our vision and our desires and thoughts turn again to the beggarly things of this world, and we begin to feed on all of those things, and I'm just as guilty, perhaps, if not more than you are.
It has to be daily. It must be every day in the morning before the the.
The things of life lay hold of our hearts and our minds begin to work. And this pretty soon we're so taken up with what we have to do. We put down the scriptures and we go outside to get busy, or we go to work or school or whatever it is.
But in chapter 17, it's the Holy Spirit given after Christ suffered and returned to the glory.
Because, he said, I prayed the Father to give you another comforter.
He was the first one.
He was returning to the glory, and he had comforted their hearts. And he said, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
But he was going away and their hearts were broken.
So he said, I prayed to the Father that he will give you another comforter.
And he said, Ye shall not be orphans, I will come to you.
Did they understand? I don't know. But we understand. And if you don't understand or you haven't up to this point, beloved young people, it means this that he came back in the form of the Holy Spirit and he lives in your heart and mind.
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Christ in You is the hope of glory. Colossians One verse 21.
He lives in you in the power and the form of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit of God came not to speak of himself, but to glorify him. And we hear so much today about the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God, and the power of the Spirit. And do you speak in tongues? And do you have the gifts of the Spirit? And and so forth.
The greatest gift of the Spirit is to bring Christ to me and to you.
And to occupy my heart with him, because he would bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever things I have spoken unto you, Jesus said.
Of His love He would remind them of His grace and of His kindness, of his companionship by the power of the Holy Spirit, once the Spirit King, And they were to wait in Jerusalem until they were endowed with that that power from on high. But we have the power within us. The full potential of the power may not be expressed, but the power is there. And the the Apostle Paul said that you might know the exceeding greatness of his power.
They'll never be deliverance from any habit.
From a character that we've developed because of the habit in our lives, or a relationship that we're unhappy with and something that we're going on with that's caused a double heart until we come to the point where the spirit of God is in control. Now I know that happens by measure, but that's our deliverance, beloved young people.
The Spirit of God.
Having control, maintaining communion.
With Christ.
Jesus cried on that great day of the feast, he said, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
And it's as we get into the word of God and we begin to read the precious things of Scripture Christ has brought before us. And the Spirit of God feeds us and refreshes our hearts with the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't speak of himself. He glorifies Jesus.
Well, something happened verse eight. They then came Amalek and fought with Israel in refident. What happens to the believer is this It beautifully brought out in picture form in Exodus 17.
Once you possess the Holy Spirit and you belong to Christ.
You're going to find one thing that will characterize your life, and that is conflict.
And that is one of the signs that confirms or should confirm to your heart that you are real, beloved young person. I had struggles with this when I was young, but finally when I I realized that through the teaching of my beloved brethren from the pages of Scripture.
On that very point, because I had conflict, it made me feel better about my position. My condition, because my intellect was at work and I tried to figure things out and understand things and feel for my faith rather than simply.
Trust and not look inside again, all of our problems seem to spring from.
Looking inside or depending on what we are.
Instead of what he is and what he has done for us.
And let me ask you this question.
Do you depend upon what you ought to be for peace?
Rather than what Christ has made you.
Stop and think about that. Do you depend upon what you ought to be?
For your peace and feeling your acceptance before the Lord, or what He has made you accepted in the Beloved 1.
He offered one sacrifice for sins, and he forever sat down. God is not only satisfied, but He's glorified and it takes just a little speck of faith to trust him for your salvation.
And you can rest in Christ. You have peace with God.
But what happens, it says in Ephesians chapter One, after having believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession.
And that simply means the Holy Spirit we now possess as believers. And he that hath not the Spirit is not of Him. Don't ever let anybody tell you you'll get the Spirit by degrees. It may be true. You get power by degrees, and you'll have the enjoyment of His love and communion with him by degrees. But not the Spirit of God. You have all of the Spirit. And if we could turn this group of believers, wonderful young Christians and older ones too into.
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Fully developed power for the Lord by the Spirit of God.
What kind of what kind of worship would we enjoy? What kind of ambassadorship would we be executing in our lives for the Lord Jesus Christ? What kind of of energy we would express for the vocation for with which we have been called, that is to manifest that we belong to the body of Christ, of which Christ is the head?
We often think of our happiness, but there is the Lord's side and what brings him joy. Because our brother expressed the other day, he rejoices in our love and worship. The expression of our praises to him and our communion and fellowship He feeds among the lilies.
He feeds among the lies.
You're one of his lilies.
It's what he has made you.
The bride and the Song of Solomon, she said. I'm black, but comely. She looked back at what she was naturally. But she says I'm comely. That's what you are in the sight of Jesus.
You're everything to him, beloved young people. He loves you.
And any little thing in our lives that becomes a deterrent to our hindrance, to our fellowship with him.
We might say it brings sorrow to his heart because he has a claim upon you.
In glory we will be what He wants us to be, but He wants us to be conformed to His image here.
To a very large degree, because he has such a claim of love upon us.
He deserves it. He's worthy of that vessel, that life of yours, and you only have one chance to give it to him.
And that's this life.
So the children of Israel fought with Amalek, that is, Satans working upon the lusts of our flesh. Do we know anything about that beloved young people?
Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.
You see, there is conflict, but the victory does not come through our conflict.
Moses told Joshua to choose out men and go down to down and stand in the plane.
And fight with him while he would go up to the top of the mountain.
And Aaron and Moses and her went up to the top of the hill.
And Moses held up his hands.
And as long as Moses could hold up his hands, there was victory.
Christ's intercession for us.
But there was Joshua down in the plains, and he is a type of the risen Christ in the energy, not of the flesh, but of the Spirit.
Moses was doing his part. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he was last seen, went into the glory with his hands held up.
And if that were not the case, if he were not interceding for us, there would be no victory for us.
I don't understand at all. I believe it though. It's by faith we understand, it's not by reasoning and figuring it all out.
But that's why we can say he lives for us.
And he will save us to the uttermost, the scripture says from the gutter most to the uttermost that come unto God by him, because he also liveth to make intercession for us.
But here is our part, beloved young people, and that is.
That I grieve not the Spirit. Because remember, Joshua is a picture of the energy of the Spirit in the risen Christ, and we behold Christ in glory. He is the object of our hearts.
And we live for him, to him, through him.
And all that he has done for us, and is to us, but the moment that we.
Grieve the spirit failure comes in.
The Moses could have held up his hands all day, and perhaps this in fact he did. And this is what happened. Victory was the outcome.
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Victory was the result.
Because Joshua here is doing his job.
But we might say, are we doing our job by living a judged life?
In the presence of the Lord. Wherefore grieve not.
The Holy Spirit, the scripture says Ephesians 4, I think verse 12.
The Holy Spirit of promise.
The moment that we grieve the Holy Spirit, we become occupied with ourselves. Do you know anything about that? You look inside.
When you realize that you had gone on for a period of time and you were beholding the Lord, you were looking upon him because it says.
And Hebrews chapter 12 Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, So the eye had been upon him. But now your eye is turned inward upon yourself. Do you ever remember a joy in your life that surpassed any joy that you had in this world?
I'll have to be very honest with you young people.
I was raised in a Christian home like most of you are or were.
And I knew nothing.
About joy because I was so occupied, preoccupied with myself. I'm being very honest with you.
I had things fairly well confused in my mind as to what Christianity really is.
And to me, one of the most beautiful verses that expresses Christianity is John chapter 14, where it says, if a man loved me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him. That is Christianity in the fullness of its power, because he's speaking in those verses. That's about John 1423 after he promised the Holy Spirit to come. And the Holy Spirit is that which the power and the person which brings Christ to us.
And.
He abides in us, we abide in him.
As my father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue.
In my love. And that's why we keep His commandments. He goes on to say, if you keep my commandments, you shall continue in my love. Now here is a common fallacy in our thinking as Christians. We believe that if we are obedient and we read the word of God and we pray enough, we'll finally earn communion.
And a power to live for Jesus.
That isn't really what the verse says, because that's our attempting to gain something he's already given us by the Holy Spirit.
He says. As my father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue in my love. That's normal Christianity.
If you keep my commandments, he says, you shall abide.
That's why we obey, so that communion can be maintained in our lives.
And that's what he does. As our great high priest, he maintains our communion. But there is our responsibility as well to keep our hearts clean and our hearts judged. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, the Psalm said.
And renew a right spirit within me. That was after he had sinned, and he acknowledged his sin under the Lord, and confessed his transgression.
And he was Clint, he said. Cleanse me with, purge me with hyssop.
And wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. We need the washing of the water by the word, the foot washing. Yes, perhaps we'll say a word on that just before we close as to the advocacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it's different as.
In contrast to his being our high priest.
He maintains our communion. In other words, it's not so much the thought of.
Sin coming into our lives, but keeping us from sin.
Could I repeat that one more time, not only for you, but for me. I need it to be lovely young people.
He holds his hands up in intercession for me.
To keep me from sin.
And in communion through the power of the Holy Spirit is how He effects this in our lives.
He has sent forth the Holy Spirit into our hearts, crying ABBA Father. But it says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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And you'll find that affection and relationship somewhat hindered to towards the father because sin has been allowed.
Because the love of the world has come in and defilement.
And contaminations, contaminants. And Satan knows how to work upon the lusts of the flesh in order to affect this. The lusts of the flesh are real and were to abstain from those lusts, not to regain communion, but to maintain communion.
Now, when we sin, when we fail, that's another subject. We need restoration.
But I just like to say this concerning what we had a little bit yesterday pertaining to.
The wilderness journey.
And his care for us along the way, and our casting all of our care upon him.
Young folks, he was here in this world.
He knows.
The sorrow of the path.
It says in Hebrews chapter 2 That he took not upon him the nature of angels, but he took upon him the seed of Abraham, and wherefore it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. Why?
So that he might become a merciful and faithful High priest.
We have a high priest that is not touched with the feeling of our infirmities. We have not in high priest, which is not touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tested, like we are, except without sin. Wherefore let us come boldly under the throne of grace that we might find.
Mercy and grace to help in time of need. It's a throne of grace, and when you pray, when you're tempted, he will be faithful if you submit to His Lordship.
I walked by the shower stalls up in the boys area the other day and there was the most wonderful duet being sung out of those showers that I'd heard while I've been up here. We haven't had too many duets, so this is a wonderful male duet.
I guess one was singing from one shower song and one the other, I don't know, but the song was this yield not to temptation.
For yielding his sin, each victory will help you.
Some other to win, Fight prayerfully onward. Dark passions subdue. Look ever to Jesus. There's the key. No confidence in yourself, no trust or strength in yourself. And that's the secret of deliverance from yourself. You finally realize the conflict is not you with the devil. It's the Spirit of God occupying you with the blessed person and the glory of Christ. And your heart is taken up with him. There's no conflict on your part.
The power and the for the conflict is on the part of our great high priest who holds up his hands for you and for me. And he's holding them up now. Beloved. That was a beautiful song, fellas. Thanks for singing it. It just blessed me. I don't know who you are, but it blessed me and others that were walking by that heard it beautifully. Sun, we should have them sing it tonight.
But this is the blessed portion of Christianity I feel that we are getting. At least I got so far away from when I was young. I really didn't know how to maintain myself in the circle of Christians that I was identified with and in my own individual life. For the Lord, I had no power.
But I had conflict.
And that comforted me. And I believe so many Christians get so far away from the Lord that the conflict is there, but they begin to doubt their salvation because they almost feel an enmity towards the things of God because you're walking in the flesh. And the carnal mind the scripture says in Romans chapter 8 is enmity against God.
Sold under sin, I mean, it cannot love the Lord. And so you feel when you're walking in the flesh, that enmity. It's there. You feel a a division, a distance between your soul and the Lord. And you say, I can't be a Christian, but yet you know you have a love for Christ. It's there.
And so there is this conflict. It's because you need to be restored.
You've gotten away from the Lord. Sin has come in. It may be an intellectual thing. You may have gotten into some doctrinal errors or departure from the Word. It may be just contamination, lust of the flesh as we have in Amalek.
By the way, Aaron speaks of the high priest.
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Moses as Christ interceding for us according to Romans 834.
And her as light. And if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. Think of what our fellowship would be would be if we walked in the light.
How blessed it would be.
But I just like to say this that the Lord sympathizes with you when you go through this world and meet with all kinds of discouragements or sickness and afflictions.
And problems in your home and all of those things he sympathizes with you.
He has felt the road. Beloved friends, he knows it.
That's why he can sympathize with you. He sympathized with Mary when her brother had died, and in fact, so much so that he wept.
Jesus wept.
And he walked with her. And that's the kind of comfort that he gives us as our great high Priest. He wants to bear you up above the storm. He wants to hold you, so to speak. The last word. Some of the last words of Moses were these. The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
But as our advocate, could I just say this before I close?
If you have sinned or there is something dividing your heart with Christ and the hymn We we sang.
46 In the back of the Have an eye, an object, Lord below, that would divide my heart with thee. Something's come in between your heart and Jesus.
If you ask him, he'll lead you to what that is, what the problem is. It's not worth going on with to be unhappy, to continue on in the past.
It could be you may get further and further away and we may not even see you here next year. I don't know because the enemy's tactics are are tremendously powerful and he knows how to deal with you. But it says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us.
Our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I'd just like to repeat what our brother Gordon said the other day.
We'll never really judge those that problem or sin in our lives thoroughly until we do it in the light of Numbers 19. And it's just as simple as our brother conveyed it very beautifully.
The ashes in the water, the death of Christ.
Directed by the word of God to our hearts, tells us what it cost him.
To bear that sin.
And we have added to his suffering on the cross.
And dear young folks, as you go through this life and you think about doing something that's wrong or saying even a bad word, evil communications.
Lusts.
If you think about it, adding to his sufferings doesn't make a difference.
You say. Oh Lord.
I don't want to add to your sufferings.
Please deliver me from this temptation as those boys were singing. Yield not.
Because it costs him will have cost him more suffering.
And the scarlet and the cedar and hyssop were added there. The glory of man, the greatness of man, and even our discouraged lives. The Lord put them all into one pot, and we're condemned. He doesn't even look at us as to what we were in the flesh.
And when we apply that to our lives, we simply say I am gone in the sight of God as a man.
For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness.
Of sinful flesh and for sin.
Condemned sin in the flesh.
And by the Holy Spirit now living in us, we are free from living unto the flesh, and the lusts and desires of the flesh.
So maybe you confess the same sin over and over again, and you've gotten no deliverance from it. But it's because perhaps it has never been judged in the light of his suffering and agony for you upon the cross.
Just like to read two or three verses to a poem and then we'll pray.
This is a Roses poem written about two weeks before she went home to be with the Lord, and it's available back there on the shelf.
Two or three verses. It seems as though she must have known something about the Lord Jesus Christ as her high priest, and knew the comfort of his love and the joy of his companionship. And she went through some troubles, difficulties.
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And she knew that this was worth more than anything she could ever get in all the world. Here's what she said.
Give God thanks in times of trial.
Give him thanks with a smile. Remember his great love for you.
Give him thanks in all you do. He never promised a bed of roses, but he our every tear feels and knows he will give strength through every trial. Give God thanks with a smile.
Give God thanks When things grow go wrong. Give God thanks. When against you rages A worldly throng, stand firm and do not give up. So our verse here on the wall. Stand fast in the Lord beloved and the enjoyment of His love.
Constantly thank him with an overflowing cup. Shall we just close in prayer?
Lessons from Moses #4: Separation
Address—Dave Spence
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Could we turn to Exodus again? Chapter 33?
Exodus 33 verse 7.
Today, Lord willing, we are going to speak a little bit about separation.
And this verse brings it clearly before us as to Moses separation.
And it was amidst very sad circumstances. Dear brethren, dear young people.
But Moses, remember, was a man of God. He was faithful. He was not guiding or steering his life according to his own thoughts and ideas. And so often we get caught up with that.
And we become familiar with things around us and places and events and even religious things that are very appealing to us.
And they seem to be that which stimulates our minds and our actions sometimes. Well, Moses was not a man like that, remember?
He was a decided man.
He was a man of decision.
And when we become men and women of decision, we become principled in our walk.
And we don't desire to walk according to the one that we made the decision for.
So let's read verse 7. Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp afar off from the camp and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation.
Now this, remember, was probably not the Tabernacle proper that we think of when we say Tabernacle. This was probably Moses own tent. It's not known for sure.
And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the Tabernacle of the congregation. Interesting statement.
Very interesting statement.
When they sought the Lord, it wasn't seeking him in the camp of Israel. It was outside where Moses was.
Which was without the camp.
And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the Tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses until he was gone into the Tabernacle.
And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the Tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the Tabernacle. In the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillars stand at the Tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshiped every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face.
As a man speaketh unto his friend, and he turned again into the camp. But his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tabernacle. Well, just to make a few comments before we speak on this most wonderful part of the life of Moses. And when I said that we plan to speak about the life of Moses, it was not taking up Moses life from beginning to end in detail.
And trying to bring out what Moses experiences were, that was perhaps a very great part of it.
But the primary thought that I had in mind beloved friends, is this.
Moses life significantly brings before us.
Four points to my own heart that were very valuable to me. And there are many more, of course, and the first one being his decision. He was a decided man, and it may have taken him a long while to become that way. But he did decide, and that's the important issue. Can you say from your heart? I have decided to follow Jesus as a result of being under the sound of the precious word of God here this year?
And if that is your experience, it was worth it all, no matter what it has cost you, perhaps to come.
One brother, and perhaps there are others here. I think there may be two quit their jobs to be here at Lassen this year. Now that is a sacrifice.
That is something that.
Was very heavily upon their hearts to be here with you, dear young people. And they're your age, of course.
To have fellowship together, and to be under the sound of the word, they felt it was important in their life enough to cease with their employment.
And take up with the employment of these precious things.
So the sacrifices you make to be here perhaps will be worth it to you. We trust and pray that will be the case in each one of us, because we're all the benefactors. Moses life changed from that 40 year mark and he never went back. He never went back to Egypt the same way he came out or the same way he left. In Hebrews chapter 12 it says that he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, but he endured as seen him who was invisible. We mentioned that verse yesterday.
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Now that pertains to his delivering the people out of Egypt.
When the Lord with a strong hand took them out, first of all the sprinkled blood was upon the doorposts and the lentil, Speaking of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, pertaining to the cleansing of our sins, to deliver us from judgment, the judicial side of things. Then He took them through by the Lord's power, glorious power, and they saw this power manifested all the way through as Moses was communicating with the Lord.
And communing concerning the way that they should be taken care of and the things that should be done. But as they were taken through the Red Sea, they simply went from one sphere to another. They went out of Egypt, or the world, so to speak, into the new position before God and.
God looked down upon them as His own people. Now they were redeemed. So the word redemption brings before us not only to be cleansed from our sins and the payment that has been made for us regarding our sins.
But to be set free from the enslavement of them #2.
And that is one side of the death of Christ, the Red Sea that brings before us. They were set free from Pharaoh and the Egyptians, the power of Satan and the world over them, influencing their lives and holding them in *******.
And there's only one thing that can deliver you from that beloved, and that is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gave himself for us, yes, to save us from eternal hell. But it says in Galatians 1 to deliver us from this present evil world, He wants to set us free. And thirdly, the word redemption means that we have a new owner, new ownership. We do not belong to ourselves anymore.
We should not be enslaved to our own desires and our own self will and the power of Satan over our lives.
New ownership is in view and that's why they sang on the shores.
Of the Red Sea, they were a redeemed people. They were in triumph and victory, but you follow their pathway as they go along from Exodus 15 and on. It was not a very victorious pathway that they were on. They murmured and complained only three days from the shores of the Red Sea because they could not find water to drink.
And then we know that Moses cast the tree in the water, and the bitter waters were made sweet, beloved young folks, If you were saved here this year, your life will never be the same when you go home again. You may try to drink of the streams of this, of water, of this life, but they will be bitter to your taste.
My son-in-law was here.
Many years ago.
He sat in the meeting just like you're sitting today.
He came up here a very unhappy.
And enslaved young men.
But through the course of the week he heard the word, and little by little that stubborn and hard heart. And he heard the gospel. Many years, dear young folks, many years.
Hours on end, but the word of God came home and broke down the heart.
And he was weeping. At the end of one of the meetings, he walked out and began to speak with. I think it was my wife at that time.
And he said I met Jesus here.
Well, he wasn't the same when he went home.
He went home with the same companions that were waiting for him, the same habits that he had formed prior to his being here. But when he got home, he found that when he did things or said things that were patterned after the old life, that unhappiness bitterness.
Sorrow was a result because he had a new master.
Remember when Martha waited at the sepulchre of Jesus?
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She was searching for her Lord.
And she wanted him because he, of course, he had died, but he wanted to take his body, take it away.
She wanted just to be wherever Jesus was and when the Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to her heart.
She said. Master or rabona, that is master of my heart.
And if we went home with that kind of a heart, dear young people.
We would be the happiest Christians on the face of the earth.
And that means that we would desire to always be in his company. This was the kind of man Moses was.
And so the decision making in your life brings you to the submission submissive part.
Of the program that God has for your life. And that's where Moses ended up, on the backside of the desert and he learns submission. He was broken down totally, so much so that now he was a yielded vessel. He had no will of his own, so to speak, if we can use that language.
And may we take the word home with us, and say, Lord, I humbly bow, as we were singing together. Have thine own way, Lord.
Have thine own way, thou art the Potter, I am the clay mould me, and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.
And so he was a broken vessel. But his vessel was filled, we might say, with the glory of the Lord as he viewed the burning Bush. And we have this treasure in broken in earthen vessels, I should say they should be broken too. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Second Corinthians, chapter Four, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Now some have thought that may be the Holy Spirit, and that may well be, but I believe it's.
A little different than that.
It's the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ, and all of us who have been here at Lassen this year have seen the glory of the Lord.
I've seen it in some of your faces.
And that glory is to shine out, and so the vessel has to be broken.
In order for that to happen. And that's what happened to Moses.
It happened in type with Gideon too, you know, with his the the, the pitchers and the lamps inside, and they broke the picture, the pictures and the light shout shone out of the pictures. This is God's process with you and me in order to make us happy. We think of broken vessels as worthless.
Well, it's not so. Not in the things of God. In the things of of this world, a man has to be trained properly.
And influence with all the good things that he has for them to be prepared for service in this life. And that's what Moses had before.
But it couldn't be used in the service of Christ.
It can be used in an occupation, thankfully, and we need that. But here's the occupation. The Lord wants us to diligently be concerned with our occupation. In walking with Him, the time is so short and may there be meaningfulness to our steps from this point forward. Dear young folks, what a lovely hymn we just sang. The bridegroom and the Bride in heaven will be together to forever share that sphere.
And the Lord will share his glory with us, and we will come back with him to be admired in all them by all them here on the earth, because we will have His glory.
He'll share it with us as man. And so the next step was the intercession of Moses. And I brought that out because the spirits power in our lives is so valuable. It's invaluable that we might say we cannot do without it. It's indispensable to us if we're to be guided according to his word, according to the truth, and to walk in it. And what will happen for us today just a little bit, is to be gathered to his precious name. And that's where separation comes.
In and that word, dear young folks. To me, it used to be a hard word to deal with.
But remember, here Moses was a man of God, and at the burning Bush the voice out of the Bush told him who it was. I am the God of thy Father's, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on. And the ground whereon thou standeth is holy ground.
He was a holy man, and if there's going to be service in the things of the Lord, there must be holiness, young people.
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Holiness. Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And that's another aspect of our Christianity. If we really want to behold Christ in our lives, to have a single eye for Him, there must be holiness.
There must be.
And Moses after the sin of Israel. And you know what this verse follows, I'm sure.
Was the golden calf that was made.
By Israel, the Children of Israel, and in conjunction with Aaron too, sadly.
When Moses was gone, almost 40 days on the Mount, and the Lord tested them and found out that their hearts were still idolatrous in spite of the influences of the journey thus far, they had witnessed miracles that you and I might say. If I would have seen things like that, I would have, I would have been faithful to the end.
And yet when we see in our own lives miracles, and we see in the lives of others miracles.
And we have. We have had the joy of the Lord in our hearts, a miracle that no person in the world could ever have treasures like we have in our hearts, yet we fail miserably. The only difference is those things that we have are by faith, and there's were much by sight, and yet it took faith in order to be.
Consistent concerning the pathway through the wilderness.
So Moses separates himself from the camp that had been engaged in idolatry.
And it's interesting to think of it this way.
There was to be a feast of the Lord.
And they still called it the feast of the Lord, even when they had made the golden calf.
They didn't change it to the feast of Moloch, or the feast of Ashtaroth or Baal or something like that, because they said they they still wanted to connect the Lord with it. But they said these are the gods that have brought us up out of Egypt. Oh how deceitful the heart is to be turned from the glorious power of the Lord, so wondrously manifested in their lives and in their midst for 3 million people.
And yet.
They made calves and said These are those which have brought us out of the land of Egypt.
So Moses separates himself from that, we might say. Why did he have to be so critical?
Why is he pointing the finger at those people? He wasn't. He was honoring the Lord.
And the glory of the Lord, the cloud, the cloudy pillar, came down upon him to show the Lord's approval.
And those, even in the camp of Israel, look to where he was and recognize that he had made a right step.
You know the golden calf.
Is apparent in many ways in the New Testament. Oh, I know that the golden calf in the work as we speak of it as the work of man's hands, was not seen visibly but insidiously. It worked its way into Christian circles, for example.
With the Galatians. Now if any of you dear young folks have read the Epistle of Galatians, you know very well.
Some of the sorrowful error that came into that assembly.
And it's spoken of like this. Are you so foolish that ye that have begun in the Spirit are made perfect by the flesh?
I do not frustrate the grace of God.
The apostle said, In other words, if if eternal life could come by the works of the law, then the death of Christ.
Is in vain.
And you are now turned to the beggarly elements, where you you observe days, and months and times and years, and so forth.
The golden calf, the idolatry, or the works of man's hands came into the Christian testimony.
Is it all around us today? Is it in Christendom today, which is another word for Christ's Kingdom? And again to say that, are we being critical?
Or are we being faithful if that kind of thing came into the assembly where you are, where the assembly finally decided that a man could be justified by works?
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And not by grace alone would you stay there.
If the idea that Jesus Christ himself could sin.
The assembly supported that idea. Would you stay there?
And yet, dear young people, I am saddened to hear remarks made.
That are like this, we are being critical when we point the finger at some of the things that go on all around us that Christianity is identified with.
That's being critical. No, it's not being critical. It's seeking to guide our young people, our children, in a path as is, according to light and not darkness, in a path that honors the Lord and not our own will, our own ideas.
A brother told me about a man who preaches predominantly on the radio.
And from what I've understood, his ministry seems very clear and very fundamental.
But he was asked if Jesus Christ could sin, and he said this I will have to wait till I get to heaven to find out.
And beloved young people, if you heard this man speak, I'm sure that you would be influenced by his ministry.
There was the golden calf that came into the circle of Colossi.
The Colossian assembly.
And it says there to beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy or vain deceit.
Through the rudiments of the world and not Christ.
But all the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwelleth in him, the Scripture says.
And they weren't maintaining their union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was an external moral code, so that they would live by the letter of certain rules and regulations, and they might walk around all humbled over as though they were very humble people. And they were very they were very disciplined in their lives.
A voluntary humility. A put on humility. Something that wasn't real. You see how that dissects us from the head, which is Christ. They weren't holding the head.
And there was the golden calf, the works of men's hands that came into the circle of the Hebrews, the Jews.
The Jews.
They didn't go along with the fact, perhaps, that the Lord Jesus Christ as the High priest has gone into heavens, and so they came up with all kinds of laws and ceremonies to govern them. There were still identified with the temple worship.
And they had things, objects that they could see, things that look good to their eyes. Very fancy.
Objects connected with worship.
Those things, dear young people, may not appear to be a golden calf to you, but they are the works of men's hands that came into Christian contact and Christian circles.
One more is the Corinthian church where they were giving place to gift and crediting men with gift and and ability.
And the apostle said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That there be no divisions among you. For some say I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, and there were others who said I am of Christ, and they were all wrong. Schisms and party spirits came in. Men, so to speak, were looked to to beheading these groups, even though they may not have been.
And they want to follow men. Does that ring a bell as to what we know is so rampant and characteristic with Christendom today?
And we say, well, let's not be too critical.
Let's not be too critical.
Could we turn to Hebrews for a few verses?
Hebrews chapter 13 Hebrews 13, verse 10 We have an altar.
Whereof they have no right to eat. That is the Jews who serve the Temple worship, and that line of things they had no right to eat.
Which served the Tabernacle For that the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high Priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him.
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Without the camp bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one.
To come.
We have an altar beloved young people that says very clearly the Jews possess the altar at one time.
The altar of approach to the presence of God. But they could never bring a person within the veil. There was only one who went in there one time a year within the veil.
What does it say in Hebrews chapter 10? Having boldness, therefore brethren, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he have consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh. We have access to the presence of the Lord, beloved young people, and thus the altar transferred from Judaism, which became a dead system to Christianity. So the altar here is really Christ, or where he is honored.
Where the center the true center is where his table is.
And while the bodies of those beasts in the Old Testament were being burned outside the camp.
The blood of that beast was being sprinkled in the holiest.
And the Lord Jesus in verse 12 it says of him that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, and so he suffered without the gate.
Have you ever looked at the blood of Christ this way? We were speaking this morning and a brother was speaking to us about.
Cost.
How much have we paid for the truth?
What kind of cost is it to us to walk in the truth and buy it and sell it? Not, but here's what it costs Jesus, beloved friends.
It cost him his blood not only to cleanse us from all sin.
But to put us in a sanctified place, that is a place of separation from religion all around us. And I believe from what I've been taught, this is what is meant there.
He sanctified us with his own blood. Now the Jews in this particular period of time were six years away from the destruction of Jerusalem in the Temple, and that is when Titus came in with his armies and leveled the place.
Including the temple. However, he didn't want to burn the temple down, but a drunken soldier happened to cast a firebrand into the temple.
And it burned to the ground. And of course they gathered up all the molten gold and everything they could to take it out of out of there.
So they looked, you might say, forward to just a few years before this awful destruction. 70 AD would come. This was about 64 AD. This was written.
And the beloved apostle.
Is saying to them.
Let us go forth.
Therefore unto him to Jesus without the King, they were continuing in their temple worship. If you read Acts chapter 2, breaking bread from house to house and continuing in the temple, worshipping and praising the Lord at the same time they were living a dual life, walking in two paths in two places, and the Apostle is coming to them through this letter of love and entreaty. And he's saying not commanding because this is privilege.
Dear young folks, we're living in the day of grace, which is privilege. Not just not the legal side, period, but privilege. Let us it's a privilege. There is liberty.
There is encouragement. This is the place of blessing. Let us.
Go forth therefore unto him without the can.
So it is separation from what existed that became dead and God could not recognize anymore at once as a very very appealing and God ordered ceremony where the the the priests in their beautiful gowns and robes.
We're performing the sacrifices, and the singers were likewise robed and singing these glorious psalms.
And songs that they had, it was a glorious affair. And when you read of the Queen of Sheba when she thought all there was number, spirit left in her.
We little realize how glorious this whole thing really was, how appealing it was to the natural eye because it was a service that could be enjoyed by the flesh, music and all of these things that were very influential.
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But that system deteriorated and it was something God could no longer recognize. And finally, in the New Testament, it was simply called the Jews Passover, not the Lords.
But what happened was, and what we see all around us today is from that system of things all around us in Christendom we have evidences that that old system, the old covenant, those things were not set aside totally in fact. Have you ever thought of it this way?
A building, a glamorous structure that has all of the the furniture and the gold and the brass and the rails, the altars and and the curtains. All of those things simply signify they may not mean it this way.
That Christ has not passed into the heavens.
He has not passed into the holy place made with hands, but the Scripture says he has passed into the heavens.
Signifying a finished work. That's Hebrews, Chapter 10, Chapter 9.
It signifies that it's no longer a worldly sanctuary that's needed. We're not looking for a building because Christ has finished the work of which which the building spoke of, so to speak, and all of those sacrifices spoke of.
He's passed into the heavens. We don't need that anymore. And now Christianity.
Is worshipping God in spirit and in truth.
He is not a God that says in Acts 17 that needeth to be worshipped by men's hands.
How are we to worship by an overflowing heart?
If there has been decision in your life and in my life for the Lord Jesus Christ.
If there has been submission affected by being here this year.
In your heart to follow him, regardless of what your own ideas are about the path that you wanted to follow.
And if you found the Holy Spirit's power working in your heart and life?
What should be the next step?
Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Where two or three are gathered means that it is a power outside of those who gather together that gathers them together.
It is the power of the Holy Spirit that gathers together, because that word in the Greek means to be guided together or to lead together. It's like if there were a group of apples laying on the floor and someone picks them up and puts them in a basket. It's a power outside of themselves that gathers to the precious person.
It's not a place any longer like it was in Jerusalem.
It's a person.
Person.
And by 1 Spirit we are all baptized unto 1 body. But what's happening all around us today is.
We're each going our own way and doing our own thing regardless, we've become some have been identified with the assembly they've left, and now they're identified with groups that hold doctrine like we spoke of a little while ago. And I do not know, dear young folks of any churches around me. And I do not speak critically. I'm speaking, I trust, to enlighten our hearts concerning the pathway of His choice, not ours. I know of no.
Systems around me.
That do not hold some error pertaining to the person and work of Christ.
Whether it be baptism and it could be the Eternal sonship issue, and one of the largest groups in our area embraces that doctrine, at least the pastor of the church.
Now we know if we've been in the assembly anytime at all.
Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. In fact, in Galatians it says a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. If the assembly that you're connected with embraces evil like that, it becomes a leavened in 11 Condition.
And according to Scripture, you should not continue there.
There would be others, no doubt. As a brother once said, that would be exercised about not continuing thereto, so you have to be careful. But if it's a clear cut issue where evil has come in and it been embraced, whether it's moral or doctrinal, that assembly becomes.
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Evil, 11 Lump, and the moral side of things for in Corinthians.
If moral evil is allowed, it may sound harsh. It may sound very.
Very hard for someone to be put away from the Lord's table for moral evil.
But it has to be that his table, Christ's table, the Lord's table, the glory and the holiness of it might be maintained, and that is the responsibility of the local gathering.
It is a privileged place to walk in, and yet when you see and I'm sure you experience what some of us see. Just before we came here, we were gathered together remembering the Lord, and a dear brother came in and sat down.
We visited with him after the Sunday School and he sat down for the morning meeting to remember. As we sat around to remember the Lord, 5 minutes passed and he was gone.
Why did he leave?
Partly #1, because there is a pattern of things that they expect to see and hear. They come to hear a message. We didn't have a message that morning, so to speak.
Secondly, they have no idea as to what the scriptural.
Pattern is according to First Corinthians chapter 14.
Where not one presides, not one, but there are several.
Or many who may participate. A brother came into the assembly one time and he said, well, who presides here?
And he said, well, we don't have a pastor. The Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst. He presides. And that's the truth. That is not being funny. That is the truth.
Going forth therefore unto him without the camp, when someone asks you what is the name of your your group.
And you say, well, we don't have a name. You don't have a name. You mean you don't have any name at all?
And you say, well, you know, we're brethren. Oh, oh, brethren, Oh, I've heard of brethren.
I've heard of brethren. Or maybe you use the number?
Plymouth Brethren #5.
But what does it say here, beloved young people, going forth therefore unto him without?
The.
Could we just say that we are gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ? That is the truth. But there's reproach connected with the truth going forth there unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, And when he removed from the camp a far off from the camp, it was perhaps reproachful.
But he bore it for the Lord.
He accepted that place of reproach for the Lord.
Will we, in the day of his rejection, be willing to take that place with him outside of all of man's system of things and organizations and be gathered to his name alone? And that is really beloved young people, not critical. That's not being critical. Organization is a worldly principle. It's a worldly principle in itself.
Any organization of men and of man is a worldly principle.
Godly principles are from this book that show us how to be gathered as we go forth. Therefore unto him it's not according to our own planning.
It's by the Holy Spirit's power, and if the Holy Spirit is operative and power and in power, working in your lives, he can direct you and convince you as to the place if you're not walking in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It could be your mind will be clouded, very clouded as to the truth of that wondrous position.
Because the two disciples who went according to the Lord's instructions, not their own.
To find the place where the Last Supper would be held, they found the man bearing the pitcher of water.
Or I might say, he found them.
And they followed him, So we go forth therefore unto him. And this man took them in the upper room, where Jesus was going to be.
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Make no mistake, if you are willing to submit to the will of God.
And be led by the Holy Spirit. And you say, Lord, I want to know what the truth is. I want to be gathered on the ground of the truth of the word of God. He will show you, make no mistake about it.
A brother called me about two weeks ago, maybe 3 weeks ago.
Who was here probably 10 years ago.
And he introduced himself and I said, well, it's been a long time since I've talked with you and very happy to have you call me. And I said, where are you, what are you doing and what is your line of occupation and.
And then I said.
Are you meeting with any particular group or where you go? I really didn't know.
He said, Well, David, there was one of the reasons I wanted to call you and let you know that I am gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said.
Some months ago in my life for I guess it was years ago, three years ago, he said. Three years ago in my life.
I was faced with a decision.
He said I was into music pretty heavily and he said I ordered this real expensive instrument, real expensive guitar.
And he said while it was being shipped to my home, I was under conviction as to whether or not I should take my place at the Lord's table or be taken up.
With a line of work of being a musician that I had planned to do for so long.
He said. When the guitar arrived, he said. I sent it down.
To a friend of mine and I said here you can have this.
I want to take my place at the Lord's table.
There is a cost. There is a price connected with the truth.
He was willing to pay the price by the truth.
And sell it not.
Will this be the exercise of your heart? And leaving the meetings this year to simply answer to the Lord's request, take your place at his table.
To not just be separated from what is of man. That's not the idea. It's who we are separated unto. Going forth. Therefore unto him without the camp, Moses found that his life was taken up with a person, and our lives are taken up with a person beloved young people. And it's the same person that we walk with in our daily life that we are gathered to corporately.
That can satisfy our hearts. And may I say this before I close, I know some of us live from.
Year to year, so to speak.
Thinking about Lassen coming here next year and and that's wonderful and we get our hopes up and we make plans to do that and I hope that if the Lord does not come that you will come back and we'll all be able to be here again.
But I believe that you will have a real victory in your life.
By going home to your assembly and having the truth laid hold of your heart to the extent.
That you will see the Lord Jesus Christ by faith in that little gathering where you are so much so.
That it will satisfy your heart to be where he is. And you know if you're walking with him, truly walking with him, and fellowship with him, you will be dissatisfied everywhere else.
Only Christ can satisfy and when those disciples who?
Followed the man with a pitcher of water that entered into the guest chamber.
It says they found it exactly as he had told them. They were not disappointed. Why? Because he was there.
When the hour was come, he sat down, and his 12 apostles with him.
He is the focus of our hearts. He is the enjoyment of our lives.
He commands our presence, so to speak.
And our eye and our walk and our talk.
And may he be so to our own hearts, to captivate them.
Not just to say I'm going to go down and really live for the Lord Jesus Christ. When we do that, we'll fail. But I'm going to live for him, and I want to be where he is gathered to his precious name. Let's not be critical to those in other places because they're doing a work for God that we perhaps could never do. May we pray for them. May we love them. They're seen in the loaf on the table. They are precious to the heart of Christ. He's bought them with his own blood. But we are responsible for the truth.
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That we've been raised with, that we have been taught and we know it, but the problem that we see is so many times when problems come like the late division.
We see so many disappear and we say. Why could we say or ask the question? Is it because that we have not been walking in communion with the Lord and the power of the Spirit? Thus the Spirit cannot communicate the truth with us and our minds are clouded. We lose our discernment. I was standing with about 20 people, primarily family members.
Maybe I shouldn't say this by about 20 people about 3 weeks ago.
And those 20 people?
Comprised 5 different places where they attend worship.
Over two years ago, we were one.
A dear young folks, those are solemn considerations to my own heart. I know the tendencies of my own heart.
To let these precious things slip, I may not be here next year, except it be by the grace of God.
And you may not be either, because you say, well, my gather, my assembly is so small and there's so few there, but may it be that you will see Christ in the midst. Remember when Thomas wasn't in the midst of a few just gathered together? They went to him and they said, we've seen the Lord Thomas. They weren't critical. They didn't slap his hands. They said we've seen the Lord.
They encouraged him that the Lord's presence was real to them, and the next Lord's day he was there, and he got blessed.
He got a blessing, and he worshiped the Lord, He said, My Lord and my God. And when you, when you go home, may you have that spirit that will appreciate the company, the divine presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and be willing to bear his reproach and name, so to speak.
Being gathered to his name and express that to others, share it with others, May he give us all courage.
And willingness to do that, shall we pray?
Psalm 139
Talk—Bob Brimlow
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The 139th Psalm David had been through.
Great experiences.
Some of us have been through great experiences. We're going to review a few of those things this morning, but let's read this, some of this Psalm together. I'm going to skip. Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me.
Thou knowest my down sitting in mine uprising.
Thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou cup assist my path of my lying down on art acquainted with all my ways.
For there's not a word in my tongue.
But lo O Lord.
Thou knowest it all together.
Thou hast beset me behind than before.
And lay thine hand upon me.
Maybe I shouldn't read the next verse yet.
Laid down hand upon thee.
You know, beloved, you and I have been searched.
This week, together, we've been searched by the Word of God. We've been searched by the ministry that the Lord has provided for us.
And what is his purpose in searching you and me?
Sometimes we don't like to get searched because we get found out.
And that hurts.
O Lord, thou has searched me. That's the way it starts out.
Have you and I've been searched?
You know, the prophet Jeremiah gave a very startling verse.
And it's my privilege to go to the woman's prison. And here are these poor girls, many of them young girls, their teens, some of them. Some of them are older. My heart goes out to the McCallum ladies because they are treated like a number and they are treated with disdain and contempt by the staff at the prison.
And one day I found out that I could have lunch with them. You know, that was great. You know, the lunch was good, seven course meal every time I'd go through the child line. And I don't have a wife to cook for me anymore. So, you know, it was pretty good.
And I get acquainted with them at the lunch table a little bit. That was wonderful because they would kind of tell some of the troubles they got. You know, when you're in talking to them in the, in the Bible study, you can't talk individually, but at the lunch counter, sometimes you can hear things that you know, they, they, you couldn't hear it in public.
But one of the things that I wanted to bring before them every time that I would visit was the Jeremiah 17 and verse 9.
It says there the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. And who can know it?
Who cannot? I don't know my own heart. I might look like, And I'm telling you young people the same thing I'm telling them at the prison, You know, I might look like a nice old grandpa up here. You say, oh, that brother Bob, he's a nice guy. But you know, I've got a heart that's just as bad as the worst woman in this prison.
That's what I tell him.
And another thing I tell them, most of you ladies here have been betrayed by a man and you know, they start nodding the head.
I said, I want to tell you about the man that will never betray because he loves you so much that he did this on the cross. He went to the cross and there he gave his life because he loved sinners like you and me. I don't want to tell you about that man. He's now in the glory, and in his hands and his feet and his side he bears the marks of this world.
Hatred because they crucified him and set away with him. We will not have this man, but I want to present this man to you, that you can have him. And the verse comes to mind in the first chapter of John's gospel. To as many as received him, to them gave he the right or the power to be called the sons of God. Even to those that believe on his name. Have you believed on that precious name?
I know you're familiar about it, but you know, Have you received him?
You know, we've been talking all week about the Gospel. One question comes up. Have you received him? Have you received Christ? You know, it's it's not some great big.
00:05:03
Magna Carta that you have to sign or read about or hear a whole bunch of words. It's just a simple, it's a simple transaction. It gets back to this, this verse. It says, Oh Lord, thou hast searched me. The Lord knows all about you.
It was all about me. Another word that I want to say before I forget it is that I tell those women at the prison something else and say, you know something. My heart is just like your heart.
And I'm going to give you the verse for it, Solomon said. As face answers to face in water, like the reflection, so is the heart of man to man. And my heart, if if you knew how bad my heart was.
I wouldn't want to be standing here in front of you.
If all of my heart was written on the side of the wall in this building, I would want to flee.
Because I got some idea how bad it is. But you know, that's not the end of the story. I got to save you that loves me in spite of the heart how bad it was. And he did this on the cross. He says, Bob, this is what I did for you on the cross. All our sins so great, so many and his blood are washed away. Is that the confidence and peace that you have this morning? I trust and I hope it is.
But what does the Lord do? There's two ways to look at this verse. You know. Oh Lord, thou has searched me. He searches the Sinner.
And speaks to the conscience and the conscience is I'm bad, I'm bad before God. I'm I'm desperate, desperately wicked. That's the kind of a heart I have. And the Lord says, look, I want to give you a new heart. So you know what he says in the big appeal. He says, come unto me only that labor and are heavy laden.
And I'm going to give you something.
Rest, rest. What do you need? Rest the conscience.
The conscience.
And then the peace. But look at this in our in our Psalm, the psalmist says, thou hast known my down sitting mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought afar off.
The Lord knows every thought that you have. You can't. You might fool me, you might fool other people. There's an old saying you can have. You can fool half the people half the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. I want to tell you something what it says here. You can't fool God. This first 7 verses of this chapter, this first six verses about the is about the omniscience of God.
Omniscience. He knows everything. He made the world, and he made you and me.
But he knows your heart, and he knows my heart.
And he loves this, it says, For God so loves, For God so loved the world, that he gave us only begotten Son, that whosoever believes that him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It says, For God sent not a son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be what?
Saved through him. Are you saved yet?
Well, I'm going to talk to both sides. You see, we've got some. Most here are saved, but there might be someone hiding in the group. You know, they don't they know what they are. They're not saved. They maybe they're not sure, but the Lord wants you to be sure that you're saved. He wants you to be in the enjoyment. So he says come unto me only that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest, rest of soul, rest of heart, rest of conscience.
And then he says, take my yoke now. Wonderful.
Some of us haven't taken much of the yoke yet. I remember when I was a boy, I didn't know too much about taking the oak. It was a little bit at a time. You know? That's the way the Lord does. He gives us a little at a time. Just like when you're babies, you know, Mom gives you the when you're hungry, she feeds you.
And then we grow like little babies in the family of God, and we start to learn about walking with the Lord Jesus for this world. There's a little song comes to mind. I'm going to sing it for you. Sometimes, you know the music gets through. My Redeemer will walk with me all the way. Our lives trouble, see sin and doubting. I need not flee for Jesus.
Will walk with.
Me. Could you sing that song this morning? That's what he wants you to do. That's the second part of that verse in the 11Th of Matthew.
Take my yoke, then what? Learn of me. That's what we're here for.
You know why He wants you to learn of Him? Because it's going to be a display in the glory very shortly that He's going to show you and me all the way that He kept us and walked with us through this world.
00:10:05
And so this 139 Psalms says, Look what it says, Thou compassed my path, and my lying down, and not acquainted with all my ways. The Angel of the Lord campeth about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
And I'm going to tell you a story about the tidal wave. We haven't got that far yet, But it was something about this, this second verse, a third verse. Thou compasseth my path. You mean even when I'm out in the boat, the Lord is going to take care of me. You know, I don't think I ever told this story before. Some of my friends have said, oh, well, you know, you told us a lot of stories. Even my wife used to say you told him that story before. That's all right.
Somebody didn't hear this story?
But it has a it has a bearing here in the 107th Psalm. Just to make this a little more effective, we need to read the a verse in the 107th Psalm about this story that I'm going to tell you. It's about people going down to the sea and ships. Where is it?
They the verse 23 Psalm 107 and I got to watch the clock.
23 they that go down to the sea and ships.
That do business in great waters. Have you ever been on a boat that's doing business in big waters? Maybe you were in a boat and behind the boat they had a rope, right? And you got on the water skis and you were doing business on the water skis, right? You know you do business in great waters all right.
I was doing some business in great waters. My neighbor, I used to have a 14 foot rowboat and I bought an outboard motor for it. And when I was this is when I was a kid, you know, I was about 15 and that.
My brother and I, my brother Ken and I, we were, we, we, we were good. We were good buddies for fishing. My other brothers, they didn't care so much about the fishing, but Ken was my my buddy for fishing. And we used to go out on the boat and I named it because we always had the odd board motor apart on the back seat. I named it Nuts and Bolts. Say what a name for a boat. Why didn't you get a better name than that? Nuts and bolts a boat Anyway, there's a guy at the art club that had a, a big boat and he would go out into the big ocean because my dad restricted me.
Brother to the Bay. This is back in Long Island, New York, where I came originally from. We would go out fishing in the boat and we would troll for fish and one morning we went out and we got 5055 blue fish. And all the guys at the Yacht Club, they said wow, where did you get the fish out there? You know, you know, you try to be very modest about such a catch filling a boatload of fish. We had more fish to learn what to do with.
It was Thursday morning too, so, you know, for all the Catholics, Friday, that's when they ate fish in those days.
So we we sold all the fish and we had enough money to pay for the gas for the outboard for a long time. Anyway, the man, one of the men at the Yacht Club, he kept noticing, noticing, he called me Bobby. He says, hey, Bobby.
Would you like to go out blue fishing with me in the ocean?
Nothing. Wow. I can't go out there in my boat, but there's a man with a boat that was 24 feet long with a motor in it. It was a converted lifeboat and this guys name was George Ackerson. I still remember his name, you know, after all these years. Wonderful. Once in a while you get a little flashback. So the day that I got on the boat with George Atkinson and another fellow that he worked with, he was a producer with Warner Brothers Movies.
And that's another story. But.
Anyway, he was talking business with this fellow and the boat and the boat he had a he had a 4 cylinder Red Wing engineers to remember the engine is a Red Wing engine force on that but pushed that boat along. Chuck Chuck, Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck out and out in the ocean we went.
And all of a sudden, as we were coming out about three or four or four, maybe four or five miles out into the Atlantic Ocean, I saw a sight that I'll never forget in my whole life. It's strange that I forgot it though, to tell anybody, but I want to tell you about it because it applies in this verse. What does it say? Psalm 107, verse 23, that they get down to the sea and ships that do business in great waters. These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.
For he commanded and raised at the stormy wind which lifted up the waves thereof, they mount up to the heaven.
They go down again to the depths.
Their soul is melted because of trouble.
They're real to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man on earth. Their wits end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet. So he bringeth them into the desire to heaven. All that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. Let them exalt him also.
00:15:13
Of the people and praise Him in the assembly of the elders.
All of a sudden, I looked out in front of that boat about 1/4 of a mile away. There was a wave that I'd never seen before or since in my whole life.
It was towering up a wall of water 30 or 40 feet high.
From 1 horizon to the other.
And I'm sitting in the back of the boat and George and this man, they're talking in the front of the boat.
And I see that thing coming fast, like tumbling. Just one big wall of water tumbling.
And three words that George said. This is it.
This is it.
And the two of them are looking transfixed and I'm thinking.
What does it mean? This is it.
I had peace in my heart. No Fear. No Fear. I was 17 years old. No Fear. I wonder how many of you here this morning are 17 years old. You have some fears.
The Lord says my peace.
I give.
Unto you 14th chapter of John.
He said, let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also on me in my Father's house or many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, or come again, or receive you unto myself, that's where I am there. And maybe also, why would He want me there? Because He loves me. He loves me and He loves you. And that's where the peace comes.
And then he says, My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. I experienced it.
And you know that their brother was mentioning in two of the meetings, you know, he got delivered. So our brother was telling us about the car spinning out on the freeway on his way over here.
And it didn't give thanks.
You know he didn't give thanks, but you know something was in his heart. Peace.
You know, looks back on the piece and what does he find?
Then they are glad because they be quiet. So you'd bring it them into the desired haven. You know, I'm sure that the brother was glad in his heart when that car stopped and they weren't killed.
You know, I got to tell you what happened. That wave kept coming. It got about 200 yards away and all of a sudden it disappeared. Flat, flat, flat.
And I didn't feel any different.
I just thought, well, I'm in this boat and because I'm in this boat, the Lord made the way go away. I had that thought when I was 17 years old.
What would give you or me such a thought in our heart that we would have peace? Peace with God is real.
And you know, the wonderful thing is what is my response to the goodness of God? I could have been taken home to be with the Lord in that occasion.
Could have, and I knew it in my heart, but I had peace.
At peace, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you have that peace today?
You know the Lord is going to rebuke you sometimes that you don't trust Him more. That's what this Psalm is about.
In the first part of the Psalm, he's telling about the Lord searching him. Get back to the 139th Psalm.
But verse six, you know, I didn't read verse 6 yet. I want to read verse six because it's so special. You know, we saved the best. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain to it. Why did the Lord make the way go away? I've often pondered that.
But he did.
And such knowledge is wonderful for me, this world, not only to grow up from 17 years old, but now to be 75 years old.
And I look back, you know, I look back with wonder and praise.
And I trust is some response in my heart that I brought back to give to the Lord. You know what it's called. It's called the response of worship and praise to his name. Praise the Savior. We sing he who know him who can tell how much we owe him gladly. Let us render to him all that we have and our everything David says I all that I have, I have from God.
00:20:18
I've received.
He's the one that is the giver. Now we get another verse, verse 7. See, I didn't tell you what happened after I was 17. I got to be 18.
Yeah, then something else happened, some different things. I forgot about the wave. I should have thought about the wave and the deliverance. God brought me a deliverance that day. But you know, the apostle Paul says we had the sentence of death.
Let's turn to it. Second Corinthians. I think it's chapter 2.
Romans. Corinthians.
Come on, little further up.
You might find it.
Here it is chapter one, Second Corinthians chapter one, the apostle Paul verse nine. He says, but we have the sentence of death and ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.
Who delivered us from what?
From what so great a death? What was the great death so great a death?
The Lake of Fire, that's what was delivered from. Have you been delivered from the Lake of Fire?
Apostle Paul was rejoicing, he said. Who delivered us from so great a death. Now I'm sure there's other things he would deliver. It was delivered from.
I could say it was delivered from a great death by that tidal wave. You know what the word tidal means and it's way back in the book of Genesis with Abraham title. You know they got another name for those waves. Now they call them tsunamis. How do you say tsunamis? See that's the Japanese word. They got so many title of these kind of waves over there. They give it a different name because they all come from Japan.
But anyway, this one was right from from the Atlantic Ocean, who delivered us from so great a death. Now look, something else. There's a comma there. Yeah, a comma. And it's his. And doth deliver. That's the present, beloved.
Are you praising and thanking him for the present deliverance?
Then what?
In whom we trust that He will yet deliver us. When's that all the way home to the glory. You know, beloved, we have an all the way home Savior and He wants you and me to be in the enjoyment of it. He wants us to to have that joy flowing from that new nature, that new life that we have in Christ. He wants you to and me to be in the enjoyment of it. Who delivered us from so great a death.
And death deliver in whom we trust He will yet deliver.
I'm going to skip down at the end of this chapter while I got it open.
In the 23rd verse, the apostle Paul says, moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you, I came not as yet in the current. He told him some pretty strong things in the first Epistle of Corinthians. In the 5th chapter he told him some pretty strong language about judging evil. You know, we don't like to judge evil. We don't like to call black black, and we don't like to call it sometimes white and white. We'd like to have the Gray.
Area.
For our conscience.
And what does the apostle say? Not that we have dominion over your faith, but our helpers of your joy. For by faith you stand. This is the verse I want to make an emphasis right here. This portion. We don't have dominion over your faith. Who has dominion over your faith? The Lord that gave it to you and he wants to enlarge your faith. He wants to increase your faith. And you know the man that cried out, he said, Lord, help my faith. I don't have much.
You know what the Lord says if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, not the mustard seed itself. Listen, every time that you smear some mustard on the hot dog, you think about the grain of mustard seed, will you? And God gives you faith like a grain of mustard seed to believe Him. You know what He says about that faith? He said if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to the mountain be removed.
And it would be removed. You and I have mountains in our life.
Of trouble.
Sometimes they linger for years. Say, Lord, take away the mountain, he says, not yet. I want you to learn something.
00:25:00
You know, one thing that God says, and I want to say this, it's in the 101St Psalm and we're going to read it. This is one of the problems we have sometimes and we get into trouble about it. You know, I want to tell you what he says in the 101St Psalm. I think I could, I think I could find the verse because it sticks out in my mind right on the side of the page here. Where is it?
Verse 7.
Verse 6. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me.
Mine eyes shall be upon the faith of the land, that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way, He shall serve me. The Lord wants you and me to not only walk with Him, but He wants to give us the privilege of serving with Him.
But some stuff has to be taken away that we still got, you know what I mean?
We're talking about the deceitful hearts. Still got it? Lord help me, let's read the next verse. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.
Does that cut close this morning?
You know, we get away with nothing. We get away with nothing. Oh, Lord, thou hast searched me. That's grace. Why would the Lord want to search you, you bum?
That's me, the bomb. Why would the Lord want to search me? You know, because not I'm not a bum anymore. I'm one of the Princess, I'm one of the kings, I'm one of the priests of God. And you know, he looks on you and he says I love you. That's what the Lord Jesus wants you and me to know more than anything else, that he loves us. But he's going to be faithful and he's going to tell us the truth. If you and I are going to be telling lies and using deceit, what's going to happen? He says you're not going to.
House, that's the bottom line. You know, the apostle could say the Psalmist could send the 23rd Psalm. Something is very nice.
The Lord is my shepherd.
The Lord is my shepherd.
Maybe you would just whisper to say the Lord, as I think the Lord is my shepherd. Is he your shepherd this morning?
Is my shepherd. When I was in that boat, the Lord was my shepherd.
When I was on the motorcycle and the motorcycle smacked up, how the Lord was my shepherd.
When the car was coming the other direction at 70 miles an hour and I was going in this direction 70 miles an hour.
This is another story, See, about the deliverance. Who hath delivered us? Who doth deliver us. The brother was telling us about being in the car. I'm going to tell you about a car.
I was with the family was back. I had a 57 Ford station wagon that had the the nice fast engine in it. I forget what was the number on the engine, but it was that car would roll 70 miles an hour just like nothing. Even nowadays. It will make them so good that that that Ford station wagon we're down, going from San Jose down to Pacific Grove along the California coast. And the road was built on the sandy once it goes up and down.
And the kids said, make it go fast, dad. It's like a roller coaster, you know?
We were going fast enough and we had just had supper and I was coming down the freeway. It's a freeway. It's four lanes, and there's a big median in between you can't even see. They got bushes between the other side of the median. And we're coming 70 miles an hour over the hill. And I'd come over the top of a hill and a policeman had pulled a man over his, giving him a ticket, but there was no traffic, No traffic.
And we come over the hill. And so to give him a wide berth, I swung to the left lane. You know, the two lanes going the same direction going South.
And as I went down the hill.
In a split second, a car coming head on in that the wrong way on that lane that I was in as I swung the wheels a split second there wasn't even time to say one if I was going to count.
Who hath delivered us?
Who doth deliver us?
Who made me turn the wheel?
Who made me turn the wheel?
You know who made me turn the wheel with the Lord?
Days of the Lord encamped around about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
Did I get searched?
We get searched, O Lord, that thou hast searched me, Thou art acquainted with all my ways.
Thou hast laid thine hand upon me. Thou hast beset me behind them before, and laid down hand upon me.
00:30:03
God laid it on my mind, in my heart, just to turn the wheel. Whose hand was on me was the Lord's hand. Do you have the confidence of faith today? You know, you look back and you, you, you say, Lord, you've been so good to me. You say, you, you preserve me. You've saved my life.
And, you know, in the woman's prison, I tell him there's not a woman in this place that hasn't been close to death. Am I right? And they're all nodding their head. I think I could almost say that here this morning. And you ought to be all nodding your head. Yeah, we had some close calls. We call them close calls. But the Lord brings close calls that he might search you and me to see how real we are in bringing him into the circumstances. I like to use that expression. Bring the Lord's. Bring the Lord into your circumstances, and he'll give you joy.
He wants you to have joy. The apostle John says these things. Have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that your joy may be half full?
The brother shaking his head. What's the matter?
Awful, not half full. The Lord wants your joy and mine to be full.
Can it happen? You know the Psalmist, he could say my cup runneth over. That's in that same Psalm, you know, the shepherd Psalm, Psalm 23 My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And then what? I shall dwell in the house. I shall dwell in the house. What house? House of the Lord forever.
You know you and I earned the Lord's house today. It's called the household of faith, and it's a wonderful place to be, and it's a place of privilege and blessing and the world. We can worship the Lord, but you know He wants to search your heart and mind with His Word.
And so on that 107th Psalmist, he did some searching there. They either get down on this in the ships, the, the, the sentence, the waves and the ship rocks pretty bad, you know, and the men the real to and fro and, and they're like, they're like they're in the wits end.
This is it.
This is it. That's what the man said.
There's two brothers, the Kilco brothers. Years ago, Chick Chick Kilcub told me the story. There were fishermen off the coast of, of up there, Nova Scotia.
There are out one stormy day and the waves kept coming up, kept coming up, kept coming up.
And as they brought that boat around, somewhere near the coast, the rocks were near, they had to be very careful where they took that boat. And all of a sudden they saw one of those big waves. They call them out West. They call them a sneaker. The Coast Guard calls them unusual.
The Kilcup brother says So this sneaker came, a great big wall of water ready to cover us up, and I don't know what they said.
You know, sometimes you don't have time to say anything. It happens so quick, Chick told me. Bob, that wall of water came and we knew this was the end.
This was the end for us.
And I think he said to his brother, he said look at that.
And just as he said, look at that and that wall of water is coming and opened up, and it was flat in the middle of that wave.
And they passed through and he lived to tell me the story, he said. We the spirit of our life in a moment. This is it. What about you?
If you came to a point like that, you didn't even have time to say it. In an instant your life could be taken away to as many as received him. Have you received him? That's the point. You know, I don't have to say a lot of words about the gospel. Have you received him? I remember the time when I was 14 years old and the preacher said as many as received him. And he says.
Who would like to receive him tonight? There was a night.
Raise your hand and I did a raise my hand. I said, Lord, I want to receive you. I know all about the Lord, but I'd never made the commitment to receive him. Have you made the commitment to receive him? But you know, then here, then it really got to be a test. I got searched. Oh Lord, thou has searched me. I'm not going to search you. I'm going to let the Lord search. He says, if you really mean it, stand up and be counted.
And somehow I stood up. I've been standing up ever since. I want to be counted.
Have you stood up for Jesus?
The little song says stand up, stand up for Jesus. You soldiers of the cross. The Lord wants you and me to be soldiers of the cross. You know, we didn't get very far in this chapter, but let's skip down. I want to get you how the what? I want to leave with you a Psalm 139.
00:35:17
Verse 17.
Here's the verse. Here's the verse. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me. Oh God, how great is the sum of them.
You mean when the time that I steered the car, yeah, that was just part of it, you know, and the glory is going to show me a lot more than just the time that I steered the car away from my head on collision.
The closing speed, 140 miles an hour, my wife and five children. You know what would have happened a split second later? We would have been in eternity.
He spared us, but you know He spared us from that great death, that death of judgment of God against sin, because I was a Sinner. How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is this. Some of them, if I should count them, they are more in numbered than the sand. When I awake, I'm still with thee. Here's the whole story in a nutshell. You know it's wonderful, the nutshell stories that we get in the Bible.
I hope you can take it home with you. In a nutshell, put them in both pockets. Put them in your purse, ladies.
Put it in your heart, that's better. What does it say? How precious are thy thoughts unto somebody else? No, me, me, that lovely 2 letter word me, bring me into the circumstance of this verse. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me. O God, what should be the response of the knowledge of this?
The Lord says I'm looking for worshippers. I don't need servants. I don't need preachers.
I'm looking for worshippers in the Lord. Jesus told the woman in the 4th chapter of John. The Father seeketh such to worship him, and they that worship him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. We have a lot of people that talk about worship. They don't know what it is. I think it's preaching the gospel. It's not preaching the gospel. It's the appreciation of a soul to know that they have peace with God and the peace was made through the precious blood of Christ and the cross of Calvary.
And he says, How great is the sum of thy thoughts unto me, O God, if I should count them, they're more than numbered in the sand. You take a handful of sand and tell me how many numbers in there.
More than the sand? What? How much sand? The sands of the seashores of the world.
They'll never tell out how precious the thoughts of God's love is. That's the that's the adjective that God uses here in this with the psalmist, his thoughts to you and me and then an Ephesians. We were just reading it in the age that in the ages to come.
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. And what is my response now?
In closing, I want to read about it Romans chapter 5. Look, I turned right to it.
I want to read about it.
Verse 11.
Not only so it says here, but God verse 8 But God commends his love toward us, and that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Not only so, verse 11.
Oh, I hope this goes deep into your heart into mine. But we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. We joy in God. Let's read one more verse in I read it already in the first John, I quote it. I didn't read. I didn't. I want you to read it first John chapter one. This is the verse that Brother Hayhoe used to tell us about.
Bless the remembrance of a brother that tells you such wonderful things, but he makes them emphatic.
Verse four, no. Verse three, first John one that.
And was manifested unto us, that we have seen and heard declare within you that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son Jesus Christ. And these things right we unto you, that your joy might be full. Psalms 43.
The clock's ticking. We're getting close.
Psalms 43 I want you to remember these lovely verses.
Psalms. I think it's 43. It better be Yes, here it is.
00:40:03
Let's read the chapter, it's only a few verses. Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation, or deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man you know. And it might be the man that doesn't want to talk about grace.
He might be next to me in the meeting. He might be occupied with something else than the grace of God.
For thou art the God of my strength. Why dost thou cast me off? Why go I mourning? Because the oppression of the enemy. You know you and I are embattled with an enemy, beloved.
But the apostle Paul says fight the good fight of faith. That's the only good fight there is. You know any other fight that's we don't, it's beneath our dignity. But there's one fight. We're in the fight of faith, all Sunday light and thy truth. Let them lead me, let them bring me into thy holy hill to thy tabernacles. Then will I go into the altar of God unto God, my exceeding joy.
God by exceeding joy. There is no higher joy, beloved. The apostle Paul could speak of it.
We joy with joy in God.
For our Lord Jesus Christ, no higher joy. And what does it say? The result. Yeah. Upon the heart will I praise thee. Oh my God, upon the harp. You know, you and I have got harps. Harps tuned for endless days to sing his praises in the glory in the Father's house. That's what we're heading for.
But it was all came from the cross, because when he hung there, he wanted you to know.
And he tells you and me individually, this is how much I love you.
This is how much I love you.
In whom we trust He will yet deliver us. He is going to bring us safely to the Father's house. Shall we just close in the word of prayer?
Let the words of my heart, the words of my, and the thoughts of my heart.
And my heart be acceptable to the acceptable in my pride alone.
For the Lord is my strength and my Redeemer. Yes, the Lord is my strength and my Redeemer.
Let the words of my mouth bring honor to thy name. Let the words of my mouth.
And the thoughts of my heart, of my heart be acceptable to the acceptable to me. And my sight alone in my sight alone for the Lord is my strength and my redeeming.
Yes, the Lord is my strength and my Redeemer. Let the words of my mouth sing praises to Thy name.
The Widow's Two Mites
Talk—Steve Bambauer
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Mark, 1241.
And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people.
Cast money into the Treasury.
And many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a Farthing.
And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury.
For all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had given her living.
And I'm interested this afternoon in the 2nd M2 mites she had and I'm thinking about that second life.
All her living.
You might say, well, what is living? What is life?
What are we here for? What is the purpose of all of this?
And you know the answer to that.
Communion with God.
To enjoy God, to be brought back into His favor and answer to His desire for you.
In Communion.
Things come in and spoil that.
Yesterday afternoon.
We had some at our house and they got in the car and they started to come up here and Ernie was there in the driver's seat. They were about to leave and I said no Ernie.
You have 4 precious articles in this vehicle.
And to purpose to get from here up to last and Pines and I would sure like to see you get there safely.
I want you to be sure to obey the speed laws and the traffic laws, and I want both hands on the wheel and I want 100% attention to what you're about to do is get this cargo up to lasting times.
And when any calls from the Highway Patrol this afternoon.
And we're on a journey. Sometimes we get careless.
No, I'm always telling my.
Driving children. They're all driving now.
Driving us crazy, I suppose.
I say get both hands on the width. You know how you just drive? You put two fingers up there and the other one on the window sill, kind of looking around, listening to other people. You get distracted.
How long does it take for a distraction to get you into a lot of trouble?
Till there winds up a heap of grief.
And life is like that.
One time I was flying home on my second cruise from Vietnam and our ship was about 1000 miles out to port and we were going toward Miramar, San Diego and they launched the aircraft off to come back into Miramar and the ship comes in later on. 5000 men on there, but the pilots and aviators, we got to go off 1St.
In the aircraft and we would beat the ship home by several days.
Because we could fly that 1000 miles in a few hours, whereas the ship would take three or four days to make it, driving day and night. And our captain of the ship, the Constellation.
He had a friend who was the captain of the Bonhomme Richard, which was another aircraft carrier coming home from Vietnam that was homeported in Alameda Bay Area. So he wanted the air group as it launched to come together and form a formation and go up and over fly.
The Bonny deck, we called it, and give them a flyby and give greetings from Captain Townsend, our CEO, to the.
Captain of that carrier.
But we had to fly 3/4 of the way up to San Francisco.
To make this fly over and then everybody would head for their home port and the A Sevens went to Lemoore and the A Sixes went up to Whidbey Island and the F Fours went to Miramar and so on.
And the squadrons would scatter at that point. Well, I knew Patty was waiting for me in San Diego, and she had a little bundle in her hands that I hadn't seen yet that was about two months old.
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And I just really wasn't that interested in flying halfway to San Francisco. I would have just preferred to get right straight to San Diego at that point.
But you obey the captain. And so we formed our formation and we flew up and we made our overfly and we communicated with the captain of that ship by radio and sent him greetings from Captain Townsend. And then we all went our ways. And there were two F fours in the unit that I was in that we turned around and headed back for San Diego. And so we're flying down.
Through California on our way back at about 25,000 feet and we were here and our wingman was just right about here.
Maybe 40 yards off and to pass the time he inverted the aircraft and he was flying along like this as we were heading for San Diego. And he was flying like that for about a minute and I was just sitting there in the seat of the aircraft watching him.
And.
Watching him, pretty soon, just out of the corner of my eye I saw.
A 727 fly right over the top of him. I don't think it missed him in the space between the floor and the ceiling, no.
Oh, my pilot, Jeff says. Jeff, did you see that?
He said Huh?
He never saw it. So we're flying at 600 knots and this, this airliner is flying at 600 knots. And that's a closing speed of nearly 1500 miles an hour, which is about.
A mile every five seconds, and you can see this airplane off maybe 10 miles, but you see, you're only talking about less than a minute. And he's a speck out there and he's flying upside down, enjoying the scenery.
And that was 26 years ago and I still see, I can still see that scene is it just flashed right through my consciousness.
I can see it like it happened a minute ago. Was that close? We got back to San Diego, landed, and I asked Dad, the guy in the other airplane piloting, I said.
Did you see an airliner go by about 500 miles down the road? Nope, never saw it.
So close and so much can go wrong in just a moment.
When we're not paying attention and I I tell that little story because, you know, sometimes we play the game of life. All her living here.
Kind of like the way we play capture the flag, and that's a fun game. In this game, you have boundaries and they've got a flag over here and a flag over here, and you have your area and they have their area and there's a boundary.
And to get the flag, to get that, you have to go into, you have to cross that boundary and you could be in trouble over there. You know, you can get captured over there.
No, I'm not denigrating that game. It's a lot of fun. But I'm I'm speaking to you in similitudes.
That sometimes we cross boundaries in our indifference and in our carelessness.
And sometimes we get captured over there. We may chase something that's over there across the boundary that we think that we have to have, that we would like to have. Yes, I, I think I'd like to go do this. I would like to go see that. I would like to read this. And we perhaps don't ask the Lord about it.
And I'm not going to give you a list of rules say, well, you can't go there and you can't do this. I, I wouldn't say that. I'm not going to put it that way.
But I know that you know what I'm talking about and the things that we read and the things that we see that we do, oftentimes voluntarily thinking that there is something across the boundary that we want to get.
And a few years ago, my wife and some of the children went down to a picnic day at University of Davis, where my son was going to college.
And they came back and told me about this race that they had there, and it was a race for dachshunds. That's that long, skinny dog with short legs.
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And it was on the gym floor, and the gym was a hardwood polished floor like this. So they get all these toxins lined up and a few feet ahead of them, they've got this rabbit tail hooked on a string on the other end of the gem that got this great big pile of mattresses and the skies on the string with the reel. And he starts reeling this thing in and the dogs take off after that rabbit tail.
And they said it was just a sight to behold. They're spinning out because the floor is slick and they're going and they run into each other and they're going after that rabbit's tail.
And when they get down to the end where all these mattresses are, they never get that thing, you know, And he flips it up over the mattresses. And these dogs just piled up into these mattresses. They're all arms and legs.
And I am speaking to you in similitudes.
You know, she said one time the guy's lying, got caught up in the reel so he couldn't reel it in, and the league dog jumped on this rabbit's tail. He caught it. Life is that way. We're chasing things that we think we ought to have, and sometimes when we catch them, we find out that they really don't satisfy after all.
That's not really what's going to be all our living.
And that's the way it is. It's a race, It's a race. And Jesus sat over against the treasury.
What's that?
Well, you know, this whole creation belongs to him. He's the author of all this. He sits in power and authority as the one who spoke all things into existence.
And now he sits over against the treasure. He's looking at it. This is Jesus that's looking there.
I'm going to set this forth in a picture and he beheld how the people cast money into the treasury. And how are you casting what you have into the treasury?
The treasury that he's looking at now is your life.
This is a treasury to God.
You're precious to God.
And you're precious to yourself. You're a treasure.
He sees the treasure hidden in the field, and for the desire for that treasury binds the field.
He gave himself a ransom for many. He gave himself. He buys the field. He can show mercy to the whole world, but he has in mind his elect, the treasure in this world, the field.
He sees you as a treasure.
And if you flip on the radio and listen to music today that is of the Christian orientation, often I find that the theme of all that music is, is how we're going to please the Lord and how faithful I'm going to be to the Lord and what I'm going to do for the Lord. And I'll continue on and.
Sight is lost of what the Lord is about in His faithfulness to us and His desires for us. His desires toward us because He, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. He's the one who sees the fruit of the travail of his soul in Isaiah 53.
He sees the fruit of the travail of his soul, and he's satisfied. And what is the fruit?
Of the travail of his soul, it's you, It's me.
For whom he died a treasury. Now what is the response? And that's what's coming to here. And.
And the Lord is watching all this, sitting over against the treasury. He has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And high doesn't mean elevation, it means power.
It's not out on the edge of the universe, somewhere beyond our reach and beyond our scope of thought high. It's the place of power and authority and the but God is very near. God is 9.
And the Lord is taking these things in.
And watching us, how the people cast money into the Treasury.
Than many that were rich cast in much. But here's a certain poor widow, And she threw in two mites, which make a Farthing.
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And the first one, of course, is we might say for forgiveness, but the second one?
Is our life. Remember the story where the Lord.
A man was brought to him in this cot and he says to the man, thy sins be forgiven thee. And the people quarreled about that with him and said who can forgive sins but God only? And the Lord Jesus response to them was whether is it easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee or take up thy bed and walk.
So that she may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive.
He says to the man, take up thy bed and walk. Those are the two mites, and really which one is the easiest to accomplish. Thy sins be forgiven thee. He died on the cross for that. That is a tremendous work.
But in company with that is another tremendous work, the high priesthood of Christ to to maintain and sustain his own through the path here that we can take up our bed and walk for the Lord, because great is the mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh.
Here's Peter walking on the water, and that's unnatural. Do you know that it's unnatural to take a fallen helpless?
Individual and set him on a course through this world to glorify God and to live for him to manifest God in the flesh. Do you know that it's impossible for you and for me to do that? Just as impossible as it is for us to forgive ourselves of our sins. This is a work of divine power.
In both works, I don't know the answer to the question.
Which is easier to say, but there are two mites involved here, the saving of the soul and the preserving of the life for God's pleasure. And the Lord is watching, sitting there as He is this very afternoon and watching you in your life day after day to see what you're about, to see, what you're going to do, to see what you're going to do with your.
Two mics.
He called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I send you that this poor widow has cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury, because she gave all that she had. And perhaps you think, Well, you know, I, I threw in the first light, I'm holding back a little on the second mite for myself.
I know my sins are forgiven. I've heard the gospel enough to know that it's a finished work.
God owes me salvation. Now you see, if you were going to get married and you went and you signed this contract, this marriage contract and you came back to your husband and you said, now, now look here, I, I signed that contract. I'm your wife. Now I would like for you to go out and earn a good living and bless me, I want a nice house and a nice car. I'd like some clothes. I would like to go places where I would like to go.
I want to do what I want to do and I don't want to be brought up short about it. Thank you. Just be sure that the paycheck gets here and I'll I'll keep house and I'll I'll cook dinner and so on. This is my obligation. But as far as.
A real relationship. Why you just let me go my way and do what I would like to do now? Is that what you have in mind?
Maybe you've never thought about it before, but is that what you have in mind when you start thinking about such a relationship as that? And how do you think that would work out?
Do you think that that would build a good relationship?
Now realize that God has taken this relationship of marriage and He has used it again in a language of accommodation to teach us concepts about our relationships to Christ as the bride of Christ now, just as you would never think.
I hope that you would enter into a relationship that way between husband and wife, that you wouldn't either enter into a relationship with the Lord Jesus on the same basis. But what are we doing?
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Going to say doing. When we go places and we see things voluntarily, we go out of our ways and cross these boundaries to do things that we know very well. If we really ask the Lord about it, he wouldn't be pleased about it.
And the Lord had a complaint with his people Israel that Hosea mentions. He says they did not frame their doings and there's a frame as a boundary around something. They would not frame their doings to know their God. I think that's in about the 5th of Hosea, somewhere in the middle of Hosea. They wouldn't frame their doings. There's such a thing as boundaries. When I talked about the captured the flag, their boundaries. There's a framework.
These things have to do with a lot of issues in our lives, and you don't want to be out there crossing boundaries lest you get captured.
We live in a day when when the when the framework that society itself used to have has disintegrated.
Because God has been given up. And so a lot of people enter into relationships with the idea of what's in this for me? What am I going to get out of this? Can that person provide for me what I want from them? And if they enter into that relationship and find that they're not getting a return on their.
Investment, they bail out of it, or maybe they try. They think, well, if we live together for a while, we'll see how that works out.
And these experiments are tried.
But they don't work.
Because there has been a flagrant crossing of boundaries that God has established.
Now God does not condemn sex, but he condemns fornication.
God does not condemn eating, but He condemns gluttony.
The Lord Jesus in the second of John turned the water into wine. I don't see that God condemns wine, but he condemns drunkenness.
And we want to be careful.
In communion with the Lord that we understand these boundaries.
And don't cross them. And it's been on my heart to expound on these things a little bit this afternoon because.
We live in a day that's just very, very loose.
And the consequences?
Of carelessness are devastating.
She cast in all her living, she says. This is where I'm going to put it all.
Have you done that? Now? Come on, let's make a conscientious, purposeful.
Decision. Let's not just waddle through life.
Doing what we want to do without facing these things, because that's usually why we cross boundaries and go out of the framework. I'm saying we, I'm not just speaking to you. I know very well what's in my own heart. And we do these things without.
Reference to the Lord.
Without a conscientious.
Conversation with the Lord Jesus about these things, because we know that if we did.
We would have a bad conscience.
We would not have the liberty to do a lot of the things that we do.
Now we'll talk about another widow in First Kings Chapter 17.
And this widow cast in her two mites as well.
Just as the other one did.
Now if you're not casting in both mites and you're only giving out of the abundance you've signed the contract you you perform certain duties that you feel are requirement and after that?
Your life is your own.
What's going to be the result?
You're saying I'm going to hold back a certain amount for myself?
I'm not going to put it out there where I might lose it. I want this for myself.
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The Apostle Paul said I know whom I have believed and that.
He is able to keep that which I have committed.
That's all he had.
Both mites, his life, everything, his living.
That's eternal life she cast in all her living. That's what eternal life is. It's everything committed to Christ. That's what is the laying hold of that which is really life is all about. It's not holding back something for ourselves to do what we want to do in self will.
And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead senede, have, as the Lord God of Israel, liveth before whom I stand. There shall not be due or nor reign these years, but according to my word. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hints, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook, Kirth, that is before Jordan, and it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the Ravens to feed thee there.
So we went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the Brooke Kirith, that is, before Jordan, and the Ravens brought him, bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening.
And he drank of the brook.
The Raven wasn't a clean bird, you know.
But God was going to provide for him, and God is.
Preparing Elijah for this meeting with the widow of Zarath Zarephath.
A lot of times in Scripture we find that there is an awful lot that goes into the preparation of whom God is going to use for blessing.
You know that Peter, for example, in Acts 10, he wouldn't have thought to go up and and bring the blessing of God to Cornelius, a Gentile Roman soldier. So God had to prepare him for that. And he has a vision and this sheet comes down and it's full of unclean things. And God says, take a need. And Peter says, I've never eaten anything unclean before.
I can't eat that and God says don't call unclean what I have called clean.
So Peter takes and eat and he goes home and he ponders this and then these men knock on his door and they ask him to come up and speak to Cornelius, which he wouldn't have otherwise done. But then he sees that the dream or vision that God had given him about this sheet full of unclean things was for the purpose now that he would take the keys of the Kingdom of heaven and take them out and and open the door for the Gentiles to come in.
Which to the Jews were considered unclean?
Now, before God, there is no difference.
And all of us are lost and guilty before God, and unclean in His presence in our sins. But God prepared an offering that we might be cleansed and be brought into His presence, cleansed every wit and fit for His presence.
Now the gospel goes to whosoever will. And I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men to me, not just Jews as it was in the first three gospels, but now in John's Gospel. It's unto all, all men. For God so loved the world. No distinction. And we find that we're all unclean. And you know who is the object of God's love? It's you and it's me.
So now this work is going to be done and Elijah is going to go out.
From this place, he's not going to stay there. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise gifty to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zaidon, and this is outside of Israel, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath, and the Lord Jesus and the 4th of John is taking this journey, and it must needs that he goes through Samaria, and he meets this woman at the well of Sikar.
And he asked this woman for a drink of water.
This woman has something to offer to the Lord Jesus that he has need of because he is thirsty. God, if I can put it reverently and in this way in in the picture that is presented, God is thirsty for communion with this creature because that was the very purpose of all of it's the whole show. It's what God is about in creation.
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In eternity past he dwells in eternity. There's nothing there but God, but he brings all things into existence.
And he, he puts on this little, this little planet down here Earth of people for the purpose of communion with himself.
So we arose and went to Zarephath, and he's looking for one who can give him a drink. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering sticks.
And so he meets the woman at the well in John 4.
He's thirsty and this woman has just what he needs and he says, give me a drink. And she is there with her water pot as this woman is here gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink.
And Elijah has need of a drink from her and the Lord Jesus.
If I may put it affectionately, has need of a drink from you and from me and I believe he got one this morning.
But it's not just the breaking of bread.
It's our life daily.
That we may give him to drink.
In answer to all that he has done for us.
And as she was going to fetch it, he called her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruise.
Then that's just a picture of us in life.
A little oil and a little meal.
A body holding a soul.
God takes from the dust of the ground, and he forms man, and he breathes into his nostrils the breath of life, and he becomes a living soul.
Unlike any other creature on the face of the earth. Now, because of the breath of God doing a work that brings life into this dust that's been formed into a body and a breeze into his nostrils, the breath of life, he becomes a living soul.
And that's what I see in a handful of meal and a little oil.
Man is a peculiar instrument, the soul.
So much different than any other creature on the face of the earth.
And she's gathering 2 sticks.
That I may go in and dress it for me and my son. That we may eat it and die. And what a picture of man and his struggles down here. 2 sticks gathering sticks.
And what's it all about? More sticks. More sticks?
Is that all we're here for? More sticks.
Bigger sticks, better sticks, more sticks in our bank account.
Fancier sticks around our house, whatever it is.
That is the end of man in the flesh as to what he can accumulate here.
Gather sticks as fast as he can go.
And then it says and die.
I may address it for me and my son. And she brings her son into this and she's a widow woman.
So there's nobody to gather sticks for her and she's got a son. And this young son, I, I don't think that he's much help in gathering sticks. He probably.
Has to be cleaned up after you know, and she's got to care for him and.
He's not much help around the house, he's young and maybe leaves his room a mass and she's got to care for him.
I suppose this sun's probably about 17.
For me and my son.
And Elijah said unto her, Fear not.
Go and do as thou hast said, but make me there a little cake 1St and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and thy son.
Well, what would you make of that if you were this widow woman?
And you didn't have enough to sustain yourself, and you knew that. And I don't think a lot of people know that that Deridder don't have enough to sustain themselves. They're like those dachshunds chasing the rabbit's tail.
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And I think it's there and they're doing their best to scratch and claw and get ahold of it.
And it always leaves their soul in a vacancy.
And along comes this man and says, give me first.
Now the Lord Jesus is speaking to you.
In that way.
You belong to me, if I can say it that way.
You're the Lords by creations rights, and I believe that most here are the Lords by redemptions, right?
And he says.
Make me thereof a little cake first. Well, this is just the woman that we read about in Mark that cast in the two mites.
And bring it unto me, and after make for thee and thy son. If we give the Lord his rightful place first, all the rest of these things are going to fall into place. And if we don't give the Lord his rightful place first, then all the other relationships, this mother and her son.
Between a man and a wife, a wife and a man, and parents and children, none of these other things fall into place.
If the Lord is given his place first, this is the key. And that's really what it means in the 14th of Luke when it says, except you hate your father and mother and brother and sister and daughter and your own self also, you cannot be my disciple.
Are we going to put natural relationships before the Lord's claims?
Even between a man and his wife, are we going to put that relationship before the Lord's claims?
And we have seen quite a lot of compromise in this matter where people.
Left the place where the Lord has his rights as authority, as head over the church, as the Son over God's own house.
In they left that place in deference in many cases. Many, many cases.
To natural affection, to natural relationships. I've seen it over and over.
And that verse is there, written for us, because if we do that, we're going to lose.
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, and he's telling her.
You know as much as you give, you will receive.
You're not going to run out. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. That's our consolation is the Lord Himself, if our life is full of covetousness after things that have taken preeminence over the Lord.
We're going to lose that consolation of himself and we will be the losers.
The barrel of meals shall not waste. You'll take care of us. Neither shall the crews of oil fail.
In Second Timothy 110 it says life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel.
Life.
For the body and immortality, life for the soul and immortality for the body.
Not dying until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.
And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. That's obedience. That's all she might have said. How can this fellow do it? How can he ensure that the.
Meal won't waste in the cruise of oil, won't fail. I'm not sure I understand that.
But she goes in obedience nevertheless. And there will be a lot of things that you won't understand in life. There will be a lot of circumstances. There will be a lot of things that happen that you just won't understand.
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And the Lord Jesus is saying, nevertheless, trust me, I understand and I will provide.
So she did, according to the saying of Elijah and she and he and her house. That's communion.
Did eat many days.
That's the communion that Elijah enjoyed with her. It's the communion that the Lord Jesus.
Desires with each of us individually personally in our life and how long many days in the barrel of meal wasted not neither did the cruise of oil fail according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. That's eternal life. This barrel of meal wasted not the cruise of oil did not fail. It's the provision of Christ.
Enjoyed in the obedience of faith.
And it's for each one of us. And it says.
According to the word of the Lord, and this is what we have, and this is our length.
Now what I'm going to say now.
In view of what I have already said, in encouraging each one of us to lay hold of that which is really life in the obedience of faith, and to make conscientious decisions in our life and bring them before the Lord and ask Him about the things that we do.
That we don't do them in indifference, as we are often prone to do, but do them in the conscious presence of the Lord. I challenge you to do that when you go home from here. Now, there aren't all those temptations here at Lassenus, one person said years ago. Up here, this isn't, this isn't real life. Up here, real life is. You're going to get back to school and you're going to get back to work and you're going to get back to where.
Facing the issues day by day and the temptations press in and all of these things that clamor for your might.
And that's when you're going to be tested. And that's why I'm challenging you to make a conscious decision about the things that you allow.
That they have the approval of the one who gave himself.
For you, the one who wants your communion.
And what I'm going to tell you is the thing that is vital for the sustenance of that eternal life that I want you to embrace and lay hold of that communion before the Lord.
According to the word of the Lord.
That's it.
If you don't take the scriptures for yourself on a regular, disciplined, habitual basis.
And read this with the intent of obedience, of faith in submission to Christ, in desire for communion with him. If you don't do that on a regular basis, if you are indifferent about the Scriptures, if you are indifferent about the Word of the Lord, you can not make it.
It's the reading of the Word of God and prayer that will sustain you in your life. And if you get careless about that and you can form habits now, you can form good habits and you can form bad ones. Be sure that you conscientiously form good ones, and read the scriptures and read them to see who God is and what His thoughts are toward you and what your response ought to be.
In the obedience of faith to Christ, read the Scriptures daily. Pray daily.
Now I know that there are times when you get up and and you get up at 5:00 in the morning and you have to land the running and there are urgencies of the day and perhaps something will come in or something.
Unexpected. Something spontaneous that may crowd in.
To this time of communion, this time of reading and prayer before the Lord.
And I'm not talking about failure and when things like that happen. What I'm talking about is, you know, sometimes I get up in the morning and I have to be to work early. If I work a day after the holiday at the post office, I have double mail and I have to get up early and get in your swamp. You go in there and there's mail all over the place. You have two days mail. You've got to sort out and deliver and it's hectic and you get up a run and land a going.
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But.
If you if you form the habit of reading and prayer daily, you will find time for it. You'll miss it on occasion. There are times perhaps when it just you won't have the opportunity, but form the habit of doing this on a regular basis. So if I get up early in the morning like that, sometimes I I don't even have a chance to get anything to eat.
But I wouldn't want to do that day in and day out because you know very well what will happen. And if you're trying to live the Christian life according to the natural diet of the all American boy, the breakfast is a Pepsi and a Snickers bar. And you live that way day after day, you're going to be anemic. You cannot sustain be sustained in the path.
Of faith.
And make it to the end. If you don't read and pray now. I've said that I think 3 or 4-5 times because it's so important and I'm going to leave it there. I'm going to disengage now.
And close, because that's the thing. I want you to remember two things as the widow put in her two mites. Commitment to the Lord, all that you've got. Don't hold anything back. Lay it all before the Lord conscientiously.
Come on now, play the man. Quit you like a man, it says in First Corinthians 16.
Don't shuffle through life in indecision. It's the only life you've gone. And the second thing is read the scriptures and pray independence to the Lord.
Special Singing 1
Hebrews 12
Nehemiah Repairing Gates of Jerusalem