Open—Enos McCavour
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O thou whose mercy all we can do is play.
Umm, where did you say Go ahead and close down your eyes. Great day in the morning.
Through the verse in Ezekiel.
Chapter 34.
On the third, sorry, the end of the second verse.
Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
Verse six. My sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill.
May my clothes were scattered upon all the face of the earth.
The non discern after that.
And then there's.
23.
I will set up one shepherd over them.
He shall feed them, and then my servant David, he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will be their God.
26.
There shall be showers and gluten.
This one.
Godfather we.
I'm so thankful that we have one who is our Shepherd, the Good Shepherd who gave himself to the flock.
We'll come down into this world.
Walk among the people right where they were understanding.
00:05:05
The daily tribulations and their hurts and their sorrows.
We choose to.
Not even staying at home, but sometimes the outside.
And he deeply cared and entered into what they were dealing with, and he wept over them too.
And we are so thankful that he is the one that desires this very day. Complete floss.
We surely are very, very much in great means this day.
Of two.
Like here. And we just would pray that the Word of God that is ministered to us this afternoon will be with great dependence and exercise.
With the true care and compassion for the flock.
For the bubble with a view to.
The One, the Lord Jesus, who alone is able to meet the needs of every person here today.
For our daughter, we cry out to thee for showers of blessing this afternoon. Jesus name.
Like it's turned to a few verses before I start.
That's a good look at that.
The book of Romans.
Chapter 15.
Hmm. Hmm.
Should have put bookmarks in here like Brother Paul did.
Anyway, and uh, Romans chapter 15.
Verse four says what for whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning that we through patience and comforts of the scriptures. Quite a quote.
In First Corinthians chapter 10.
Verse six. These things.
For our examples to the attempt that we do not lust after, you'll think that they also lost it.
It is pimp a theater verse. I'll just quote it. Uh, says there's a study that shows like self approved not to go out of Workman that he does not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
So God has given to us all His word help us to encourage us through the pathway here in this scene.
Wasn't always that way. God's word was limited. At one time they only had the Old Testament scriptures. And when the Lord was with his disciples on the way to Emmaus, he encouraged them in their hearts he take He took the the Old Testament scriptures and their hearts burned within them as He revealed himself.
To them the Old Testament scripture that he opened up.
Spoke with him and so the Old Testament scriptures can be a great encouragement to us, but we have to be careful that when we read them that we don't get the mixed up with New Testament truth. That is, they should be rightly divided as read the verse of Timothy.
Be a Workman rightly by God's word of truth. But there's so much encouragement in the Old Testament, so many principles, so much good things there, that we don't want to overlook it. Not just to say that some people heard say, well, I'm a New Testament saying.
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Does that mean New Testament say? It means that perhaps just looking at what's written in the New Testament and you're ignoring all the good things that God has given to us in the Old Testament. And so we're missing a whole lot if we think that way.
I had you before me. This thing here is not too stable, but I have before me that like that.
7:00.
#13.
Here we rate of account, uh, of, uh, children of Israel.
And they're going through the wilderness.
And we're going through the voters. So there is parallel example we can't ignore. We're strangers and pilgrims. We're taught in the New Testament, we're going through the wilderness scene and we read the First Corinthians that these things are written for examples, that we should not do the same things they did because.
Grief of the Lord or provoke the Lord into anger and so.
We have this.
Fact that we are traveling through the wilderness. The Old Testament St. had a destination that they were traveling to promised land. God has also given to us destination that we are we are going to be with Christ and glory.
The Old Testament Saints had a guide to guide them through that wilderness scene. Moses. We also have been given a guide to guide us.
I think it's a John 16 that when the horse book was Holy Spirit coming down.
On the day of Pentecost, he referred to him as a guide who will guide you into all truth and so.
God has sought our need in the wilderness pathway for us today, and He has given to us a guy to guide us. And umm.
There's also things in the pathway when we travel through the Wilderness Scenic and discourage us.
And there were things that could discourage us people at all we read this portion mentions about.
I'll read, uh, verse 17.
Moses said in the spy of the land of Canaan, said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain. See the land, what it is people with well, if they're in, whether they be strong or weak, few or many, what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be litter bad, and what the cities there be and dwell in, whether intense or strongholds, what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood there in or not.
Be a good courage, create the fruit of the land. The time of was a time of the first fruits first, right grapes.
It says umm.
Verse 23 they came onto the Eshkol cut down from that's a branch one cluster of grapes and they buried between two upon a staff. They brought also of the pomegranates and the figs. The place was called Eshkol broken Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from fence.
We don't have a very vivid imagination. One cluster of grapes.
Some grapes up here the other day and clusters there that they plucked off, they said one flustered grapes.
Zoom in, put ASAP of her shoulder. Next man in front of the sample over his shoulder. Same SAP hung in between 1:00.
Just what that's true? Grades.
That was a picture of the fruit of the Promised Land that God had promised the children of Israel He would bring them into overflowing with milk and honey.
And, uh, God brought that question of grapes back to his earthly people, the Jews, to encourage their hearts, to encourage them of what was ahead, to go in and take possession of the land.
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Well, the Lord has blessed us today. We have all the blessings of God as we journey through the wilderness because crisis companies will flee to the work of redemption for us. God has opened the storehouse of blessings and poured them all into us. We have them now, but we still need encouragement as we go through over the scene.
And so we mentioned that the Lord says Holy Spirit down and so on to help us.
To guide us and teach us spiritual truth.
Well, we need to focus on what's ahead of us, just like the children of Israel. God wanted them to focus and what light ahead for them. The land overflow of milk and honey place that was really spectacular, you know.
Speaking of a guy, I've got a little information. We're staying a couple of days, Lord willing, after the conference is over. I got a little information from, well, payroll, a little bit from, uh, brother Allen and, uh.
Things to do, uh, around here.
Over here just two days. And so in a way they're guides. They, they're guiding us to what's here, what's around. And so I've also, we also had trips abroad at times and foreign languages and not being there. You need a guide to, to guide you around. And so we're in a world where it's full of.
Booby traps, you might say. No matter what age you are, there's there's moving crops that the enemy has set.
Around the catches and uh, so we need a guide. God's word, Holy Spirit kind of play his word. You guide us around those.
Those things that would trip us up 'cause it's grief.
But he wants us to be encouraged and He wants us to focus on what is ahead of us, what's ahead of us, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. That's what lies ahead for us in the promised land. We're going to be with Christ for all eternity. But just as there was a responsibility with the Old Testament states.
To go in and possess the land God had given them. They were under the law.
For the righteousness they had responsibilities. We're not under Moses law, any sense of a word. We have a higher calling, a higher standard as Christians. And uh, if we have Christ before us as we journey through, he will keep us focused on what life's ahead. We are told a little bit about it.
No more crying there, no tears, no sorrow.
Everything will be so much different when we get to glory.
We won't even remember, I don't think much about anything that we were involved with down here. It'll be a whole new, whole new thing all together. But, uh, there was consequences for the children of Israel when they disobeyed and they, and they, uh, didn't do what God asked them to do. And there's consequences for us too, because it tells us in First Corinthians 3 that we're all going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
And, uh, it's not.
To receive any kind of a penalty there because crisis paid her debt full, but as the received rewards. So, uh, the Lord wants to reward us for faithfulness as we journey through this wilderness sea. And so he's going to review our lives and anything that is done for him is going to receive a reward, But things that are not done for him that those things will be burned up.
And so we have a lot of parallels samples when we look at.
The children of Israel and our own selves as we journey through the land, but.
They went up anyway. They looked at the this land and they brought back some fruit of it and, uh, says, uh.
When they came back.
Verse 27 They told him and said, We came under the land, whether thou sentence us. And surely it flowed milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. So they went and they got the fruit. They brought it back and they showed people what was there. What?
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Would lie before them and they had a boy to possess it. Though just just looking at it wasn't enough. We just hear ministry.
And it's encouraging to us, but we don't make all of it. It doesn't really do us a lot of good. We have to make it our own, lay hold of what God has for us in His Word.
Anyway, there were UH-12 men that were picked One piece cry.
Like to look at that verse one and two, the third chapter 13.
Perhaps, uh, three, uh, and the worst thing unto Moses, saying, Send thou man, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give on to the children of Israel, of every tribe of their fathers. You shall send a man, everyone a ruler among them. And Moses by the commandment of God, sent them from the wilderness of Grant. All those men were heads of the children of Israel.
So these were just ordinary, everyday working men that were picked.
To go into spy out the land, These were the leaders among the people of their tribes.
They went out of the 12 it went, it was only two that brought back the good report.
Why?
Thales and Joshua, Joshua, they saw God in the situation. They saw the Lord in the situation. And we sometimes are faced with situations and uh, if we don't see the board there to help us and get pretty depressing, we may, uh, find yourself discouraged. Well, 10 out of those 12 discouraged the people. Why they didn't, they didn't lie.
They brought back a report. The report was true, but they didn't see God in it. They didn't see God in it. They they called the people about all the negative things.
With the giants and everything that they saw in the land, they do so we can't overcome them. For too many, they just swallow up the earth and it's the spirit of people. They didn't want to go forward. They wanted to turn back to Egypt where they had come from, where they were suppressed under Pharaoh and and treated badly. They wanted to go back there. And how many, how many of us?
Maybe not in this room, but among the Lord's people.
Since the discovery of the truth have been discouraged by leaders.
Leaders that God had raised up.
And, and they've taken the word of God and what they've done is they've diminished all the wonderful truths of God, the revelations that God had given to us. And they've, uh, they've poisoned that fruit in a sense by discouraging God's people.
We might say, well, how can they do that? They've done it.
You might say that the things that we have been given today, Christianity through the work of Christ, Think of each one of what we of the apostles doctrine, think of each one of each state that we have been given by the impossible. When you went up in the glory and he saw things there that he couldn't even utter because we wouldn't be able to take in. We're going to that place.
We don't. We can't even possibly understand what lights ahead of us. It's so wonderful and great that the Apostle Paul himself wouldn't have put it into simple words for us to understand.
But he brought back revelations to us that the Lord Jesus had given to him. Many wonderful revelations in Scripture that we have today that we can hang on to and cling to. One of the big things is that we have a great block is eternal security. How many of us people a day?
You're Christians.
Worry I met some of them about their internal security.
They just don't. They haven't been able to grasp a whole of that truth, that they're eternally secure in the blood, in the blood of Christ, that every sentence from ever.
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Place away by the blood of Christ.
Knowing that people that.
I think they believe that their sins are forgiven, but then they don't understand when they send again that they need to confess it. But that's send to us and forgiven.
A lot of Jesus Christ has us from all sin, past, present and future, but uh, present sins can keep us from communication, but they, they're covered in the blood of Christ and nothing is able to disrupt that eternal security that we have in him in John's Gospel, chapter 10, the Lord Jesus.
Said himself. Let's read that because I just want to touch on a couple of these things today.
But this one is so important.
Something that you and I enjoy, perhaps, but many of us people don't enjoy this truth.
It says uh.
Verse 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give off to them eternal life.
Eternal life, We have that in Christ.
Realize it, but you have a crisis eternal. You cannot be taken away.
See, and they shall never perish.
No Fear of dying. Body may go into the ground, but the soul, the spirit is going to be with the Lord. Amen. It body dies.
They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them thee, is greater than all that. No man is able to pluck the mother like Father's hand. I have the Father of one. So the Lord Jesus has us in the palm of his hand.
And the Father's hand is over his hand.
Housing cure? Can that be?
And eternal life and no man is able to pluck but.
There's many other versions we can turn to not regard, but that's just one.
We have this wonderful blessing, but not all of God, God's people is enjoying it because somewhere along the line they receive that doctrine, but they haven't received the truth as it is here in the Word of God. And so read the Word of God. Read what God says. Don't take my word for it or somebody else's word for anything.
Proven in the Word of God.
Whether it's true or not, and that's another thing that.
That we, uh, we really enjoy and maybe maybe another, some other Christians don't enjoy it as well. Is that, uh.
Is that we have.
Peace with God, the subtle peace of God, because the work on Calvary's cross for our sins has been settled before God.
God is pleased with the work of Christ. He raised him up from the grave. He seated him at his right hand and glory.
He's all pleased with that work.
And, uh, because we are seeing in Christ.
Justified by faith there therefore be justified by faithfully and peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. When we go farther on in Romans that says we're justified by his blood. So that's what justifies us before God is the blood of Christ has been shed, covered her sins and because of that we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Another thing that we have, uh, the day that, uh.
It's a valuable thing, a wonderful thing, a purge much before an Old Testament St. and all he.
Yeah, obviously the conscience that the sins were never really dealt with entirely. He couldn't have that sense because Price had not yet come. The work on the cross was not yet finished, so.
He had a governmental forgiveness of God because he took the offering like he's supposed to take, but it never really gave gave us conscious peace.
Saying that himself.
Let's uh, give the conscious peace or wash away instead of staying.
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Let's look at that in Hebrews.
Chapter 10 and I'll just read a couple of verses.
So the law having a shadow of good things in common, not the very image of the thing, never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year, they can continually make the commerce there on to perfect. But then what they not have ceased to be offered, because of the worshippers, once purged, could have no more conscience of sin.
Sins, but no sacrifice. There's remembrance against sins every year.
It's not possible that the blood of bulls and gold should take away sin, so.
They never really had.
Approach conscious, but you and I, because of the work of Christ, we know they're conscious no longer condemns us because Christ took the condemnation of my sin, He was condemned for my sins and so.
There also is a oh, I get into that too much, but purge conscious. There's also the practical side of it too that we should actually exercise yourself. If there's something on our conscience. We know this is pleasing to the Lord, the purge it away, get rid of it.
Uh, to compassion, ask for the help with it maybe, but to get rid of it, we like, we like to have is a, is a good conscience when we pure conscience before God. The apostle Paul said he had a good conscience before God and man always he said, so that's important and.
Yes, not just one more we'd like to play hold up and uh.
Romans Chapter.
Chapter 8.
First one, it says there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
No condemnation. There's no judgment hanging over our heads. Prices war at all.
Well, some believers don't enter into this.
Because they have that teaching, that doctrine, they don't enjoy these things. We could go on to, uh, talk a little bit in their meetings about being children of God, being God's sons, uh, being heir, uh, with price to what he has won for us. We, we are before God as sons in Christ.
And uh, we inherited what he has won for us.
That's another thing we could dwell on and so we could take all these different rates of using this as a just as an example, but what we have is far better today than what the Old Testament says that the grapes of vegetable.
Is magnificent and is wonderful. Is that true look that was brought back with courage. The children of Israel take the session of the land to give them.
Some drive to give them some hope of what was ahead, to go in and take them. We have far more, better, greater, greater things because Price has come and finished the work of our redemption on the cross, and God has poured out all the sore hands and blessings for us. He wants us to lay hold of them.
He doesn't want any one of us walking around thinking that we're not forgiven internally or thinking that there's some condemnation still hanging over your head because of your sins. No, He wants you to enter in of the truth, what Christ has done and enjoy those truths. Enjoy the truth that they that was given to the Apostle Paul and then revealed to us.
Perhaps.
That's a few words I'd encourage us to. I know what encouraged me to, uh, say these wonderful promises that God has made for us in his word and give it to us to, to enjoy now this scene.