In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of living in the realm of God's gifts and abiding in Him. He references the story of Caleb and Joshua returning from Canaan with a foretaste of the promised land, highlighting the excitement and anticipation they felt. The speaker also discusses the concept of abiding in God, drawing from John 15 and emphasizing the need to rely on Him completely. Additionally, the sermon touches on the idea of timing and waiting for God's perfect timing in our lives, using the example of the astronauts needing to press a button at the precise moment to return to Earth.

This morning we open our spirits, our hearts, our lives to you. We thank you for that washing, moving, stirring of your spirit, of your presence, preparing, opening our being, enlarging our capacity, and granting us truly, Lord, spiritual eyes that we might see and understand. For you've said, Lord, within your word that there's a people to whom it's given to know the mysteries of the kingdom. Lord, we would know the secret of the Lord, that which you have, that you greatly desire to share with your people. And I ask this morning for that abiding anointing that will release, Lord, that depth of word, not just information, but a flow of spirit and life moving out and touching us, changing us, opening us up, Lord, and enlightening our understanding. I ask, Lord, that abiding prophetic anointing as our brother comes, quicken, bless, and anoint. And in all, Lord, we give you the glory in Jesus' name. Amen. And God has a way of hiding truth from the wise and the intellectual as far as attainment in this world is concerned, and to reveal it unto babes. Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit one day as he thought of that. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. And so it's very true what Brother said, that if we're intellectually minded, if we put a lot of emphasis on the scholastic and the academic and our ability to comprehend, we miss out, because God reveals his secrets to babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. And so we thank the Lord for his ways and for the truth that he is pleased to make known to the humble, to the meek, to those who come to him as babes. And even though we talk about coming to maturity, there is no maturity that takes us beyond the realm of babes when it comes to the love of God. So in understanding, be manifest, Paul, but in malice be as babes. And that should be a characteristic that remains with us all through life, as far as attitudes of forgiveness and mercy and love and things like that, always to be tender as babes. And that's what real maturity is. However, in understanding, God wants to change our minds until we comprehend, even with our minds, the things that God has been pleased to reveal to us by his Spirit, even the hidden wisdom. We talked about the manna that was given to the Israelites, and then we talked about the special food for the priests in the holy place. But there is still a further realm, and no doubt you've all had a certain amount of instruction in the tabernacle. There was the holiest of all realms, where I believe God is seeking to lead a people in this hour, a holiest of all realms, outer courts, the cross, the atonement, also cleansing by the water, the labor, then coming into the holy place, where the light of that realm was the candlestick, a new realm. I believe it's more or less this Pentecostal era that we've known the last 50 years, 100 years, the realm of the Spirit, which we rejoice in, which we are thankful to God for, but there's another realm. I remember one teacher wrote, drew a little diagram of the tabernacle and had the three realms, and he said, some say there's still another realm. He said, don't they know the veil was rent there, all one realm? Yes, in God's provision. But even though the veil was rent, it doesn't mean that you and I go in there. The veil was rent when Jesus died on the cross, and there stood the priest before a rent veil and saw no glory there. He wasn't smitten. We don't read where he was smitten, because the glory of God had long departed. And so you see, it's true, God rents a veil at the cross, but Paul speaks about another veil. Remember how Paul put a veil over his face, so that the chonavisual could not step back but behold the glory that was on his face, which glory was being done away. And he put the veil there, and I just say this in passing, so that the chonavisual would not see the fading away of the glory. He didn't put it there to hide the glory. When everybody was squinting because they couldn't stand the glory coming from his countenance, he didn't grab a cloth and hide it. He beckoned to them, come near. And fearfully they drew near, and he gave them the instruction that God had given him in the mount. And I know it says in our version, till he had done speaking, he put a veil on his face. But every other version of it says when he had done speaking, he put a veil on his face, which is confirmed by the Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, when he said that Moses put a veil over his face to the end, that the chonavisual would not see the end of that which was abolished. One translator said in an older translation, I mean, as far as generations go, the Weymouth translation, so that the chonavisual would not see the last rays of that fading glory. It was a fading glory. And as it faded away, Moses recognized that glory is departed. He covered his face so that the chonavisual wouldn't see the last rays depart. But Paul says, not as Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the chonavisual wouldn't see the departure of the glory. But he was unveiled faced, holding within a glass the glory of the Lord, or changed into the same image from glory unto glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, clearly telling us that we've got something surpassing what Moses had. Wouldn't you and I settle for what Moses had so easily? But not as Moses. You see things like that. We're considered to be far out. I figure we're still just in the shallows. We're still just getting our feet wet a little bit. I have not seen nor heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed unto us by his Spirit, that the Spirit searcheth all things, ye the deep things of God. So in the holiest of all there was another food, hidden manna, which is in a golden vessel. As God told Moses, take a vessel of this manna and put it in the Ark of the Covenant to be kept for your generations. Be kept there. They never ate it. No priest ever ate it. Be kept for their generations. It's, I think, kept for this day and hour. That hidden manna. Incorruptible. If it had lain out in the ground, it would have disappeared by noon when the sun got hot. But because it was in a golden vessel and in the presence of God, it was kept, intended of God to be kept throughout their generations. I think as a reminder to them what God would do in the fullness of time, we don't read what happened to the Ark of the Covenant. They're still hoping they'll find it over there somewhere. It's too bad that so often ministry that goes to Israel goes along with all these carnal, natural things that they're so excited about over there. Because when Messiah is revealed to Israel, it's going to be the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in a people who know him and who walk with him. And Jesus said, you shall not see me until you shall say, blessed are these that come in the name of the Lord. And that's when they'll see him. When Gentiles or Israelites from all nations, a man from Kenya or Nigeria or India or Africa comes to them in the name of the Lord, they'll see Jesus and they won't see him until he's revealed in that people. And then they will see him. And to them it will be life from the dead, as Paul said. But the casting away of them meant reconciliation for the world. What shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? And so we know we're in a very wonderful hour, a very tremendous hour. We anticipate as we come into this holy realm, this holiest of all realms, to begin partaking of the hidden manna, that incorruptible food, Christ, the resurrection and the life which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. The hidden wisdom, this is what he's talking about when he says, as it is written, that these things of the hidden wisdom are things that I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. This is the hidden wisdom that God has been pleased to make known to his people, which I believe God will continue to unfold in this hour as the people come into the holiest of all realms. Isaiah cried unto God for God to come forth and do something, for it is a time of great need. He cried unto God, and he says, God, when we weren't looking for you to do anything, you came forth mightily, we weren't hardly expecting it, and you did it. Now, he says, if ever we need it to, it's now. And why don't you do something about it now? And that's the cry of many of God's people throughout the land. God, we need you far worse now than they needed you 50 years ago when you moved by your Spirit, or 100 years ago when you moved by your Spirit. You came forth very sovereignly, but suddenly the prophet was caught away in revelation and declared, Since the beginning of the world, man hath not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, besides thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. And Paul quotes that verse here, except that instead of saying that he's prepared for those that wait for him as Isaiah did, he says the things that God has prepared for them that love him. So what's really the difference? That waiting for God and loving God is one and the same thing. I know it's a day when we don't like the word wait. I mean, you just can't wait. I mean, they've got escalators, you know, and get off the plane, get on the escalator, so you get on and you have a ride. But this one is for those who are standing there, this one is for those who are walking. I mean, it's carrying you, but you've still got to walk, you've still got to go faster. It's a day when we just can't wait. And we can't wait because time is so short. And yet, I think 50 or 100 years ago, they had much more time for God than they've got today, with all our fast things. I think they had more time for God back then than they do today. So waiting for God isn't just sitting around filling in time. Waiting for God is just what it says. God, we just have to wait for you. We can't do it without you. And it seems a noble thing to be always ready to do anything that needs to be done. Always ready to minister, always ready to preach, always ready to travel, always ready. But Jesus said to his brethren, who didn't really believe on him, your time is always ready. My time has not yet come. And so let's not think that always ready is a good attribute. Sons of God who seek to move in the realms of the Spirit have a time. They wait for God's time. They move in God's time. And I believe that's going to become increasingly more important. As we come to this hour when God is going to so coordinate his mighty workings and his people, that timing will be so important. I thought of this when they landed this man on the moon. And on their way back, they said, now, any moment now, they'll press the button that will put them in the proper orbit or whatever to get back to earth. It had to be right specifically at a certain split second when they press the button. Otherwise, they said, if they miss it, they go off in orbit, perhaps around the sun. How important in this day when everything is geared to a vast, intricate machine, the whole society is just geared to a...the whole society almost, the whole realm is like a computer, as it were. Everything is coordinated. So timing is very important, and it's no less important in things of the Spirit, especially when God's mighty movements begin to take place in the earth in a greater way than we've known. And that's why when God was to give Ezekiel a very profound word for the children of Israel, he first of all gave them a vision of heavenly things. He did the same with John on Patmos. I believe he's doing the same with us. He's giving us a little understanding, a little glimpse of heavenly workings, because unless we have that, unless we know that God has it all planned and everything is intricately planned and woven together in his purposes, we'd be apt to just strike off to do anything that seems it should be done, seems it's the right thing to do, so we'd do it. But when you come to recognize that we can do nothing, and I mean thoroughly understand that we can do nothing of ourselves, which I pray God will bring us all to that, for even his only begotten Son came to that. Think of it, that he came to the place because of his covenant relationship and walked with the Heavenly Father. He realized, I cannot do anything of myself, but only what I see the Father doing. And so he lived in that heavenly realm. He lived in that realm. For no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. Jesus said that while he was here on earth. And we must come into that, only God can do it. Remember, in all that we're saying, in all that we're teaching, in all that we're exhorting unto, we realize only God can do it. But the thing that encouraged me when I realized I was going to be a teacher, I didn't ask for it, didn't want it really, because I grew up in Pentecost, and the only minister that was really effective in the work of God was the evangelist, or a miracle worker. So you wanted something pertaining to something in that realm, and not just to be a dry teacher. And I made it dry. If God doesn't send it forth as rain, it's dry as dust. So it's essential that in this hour when we believe God is doing a new thing, and I'm persuaded of it, if it isn't now, when's it going to be? We know we've come to the end. And the prophet said, and Paul confirmed it, that the hidden wisdom that God is making known to his people concern things which eye has not seen, and which ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the hearts of men. And entered into your heart. So what's God going to do? Well, you ask me, I say, well, I don't know, great thing, a new thing. But if it hasn't entered into our hearts, or into our minds, then don't expect us to try and tell you precisely what it is. Nor should we, I don't think we should be so ravenously hungry that we just want to eat for the fun of eating. If you've found honey, don't gorge yourself on it till it makes you sick. He says, eat so much is sufficient for thee, lest if you eat too much you'll vomit it. And so we like honey, and honey in the scripture speaks of wisdom and knowledge. But you don't gorge yourself on it because it's so sweet. You take a little. And so we pray, as Jesus bid us to pray, give us this day our daily bread. Which means, give us today what we need today. Give us that portion we need for today. We don't need any more. We try and get any more and store it up like the manna, it stinks and brings worms. Wormy. We need that fresh manna every day. We need that fresh oil every day. Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor. David said, Lord, you have anointed me with fresh oil. We need that fresh oil, that fresh anointing, that fresh manna, that fresh bread. Like we mentioned, that bread that was in the holy place, there are six days still in our way of thinking because it is in the presence of God. I'm sure it was fresh and meant something to those priests. They alone in Israel could eat of it. Nothing wrong with the manna, but here is something special for them. God has something beyond that for us. The time will come when we will not speak like we're speaking these days, for God will have taken his people on and there will be new realms to talk about, new areas of truth. We don't delve into it too much. We don't pry into it too much, I say too much, but God wants us to have a spirit that reaches out. We just know, we ought to know, we must know, that coming into this new realm, it's a realm that no man can go in and appropriate on his own. From the time that the children of Israel gathered together and ate the Passover lamb with bitter herbs, as we mentioned yesterday, because their journey was to be a journey that would involve much bitterness, nevertheless God's intention was, in every place he led them, was to lead them to a place of refreshing and rest. But the Ark of the Covenant went before them to search out a resting place for his people. Isn't that tremendous? The Ark of the Covenant went ahead, searching out a resting place for his people. And they said, there the cloud is moving, we must move on. God's gone ahead to search out a resting place for us. And when they would get there, they murmured, they complained, this is not what we thought, this is not Canaan, this is not a place of rest, no figs here, no pomegranates, no fruit, no water. Because of the murmuring of their hearts, what God intended to be a resting place became a place of murmuring and complaining, disappointment, because they hadn't come to know God. Their hearts were not prepared, the psalmist said. They said not their hearts are right, or the margin says in some Bibles, they prepared not their hearts. Nevertheless, God was preparing their hearts, unknown to them, and he desired that they would understand that the way in which he was leading them was preparation for that land. God never told them that that next stopping place would be Canaan, or the one after that, or the one after that, or the one after that. Forty-one times he led them in the wilderness. Never once did he indicate, now this is final. But we always want it to be final. Whenever something great happens, the old slogan comes out, like he muttered in the early days of Pentecost, this is that, and if this isn't that, I'm going to hang on until this, until that comes. Forty years later, God moved again and they said, this is that, if this isn't that, I'll hang on until this, until that comes. But the trouble is that when the time comes for God's people to move on, he takes away the first that he might establish the second. He takes away the first that he might establish the second. And we try to hang on to it and lament the fact that somehow it's not there the way it used to be 40 years ago, 100 years ago. And the reason is God's taking it away, because he's got something better. He's got something better than eight or ten great healing evangelists going around the country, setting up their tents and praying for the sick. God took it away. He's got something better. He's got something better. And what God has in mind, and that's just in one area, of course, the physical healing, a renewing of the covenant with his people who walk with him, that healing will flow through the body. It will just flow through the body. Without a great healer, someone in need, you just go over as God leads them, lay your hands on them and they're healed. And God is going to do that more, not only in healing, but in other areas of ministration, that all members of the body of Christ might have a very vital function. And that will do away with the schism in the body of Christ. For God give us more abundant honor to those parts which lack, that there be no schism in the body, but that the members have the same care one for another. I never saw that until a year or two ago. Striving to set up some kind of a structure, some kind of a system, so that there be no division in the body, get into this system, this structure, under this covering, under this apostolic order, eradicate the schism. Paul says it's because this honor that God has for all members is lacking. And God give us more abundant honor to those parts which lack, that there be no schism in the body, but the members will have the same care one for another. So that if there are 100 people here, you've got 99 people concerned about your welfare. But if that honor is not there on the body of Christ, you've got yourself to worry about. As members of this glorious body, you've got every other member of the body concerned about your welfare. In a very real vital way, as truly as when you cut your finger, everything gets working there to heal that cut, whatever comes, the body sends out the necessary life to heal that injured member. How much more in the body of Christ, the body of our Lord Jesus, a body hast thou prepared for me. Jesus, we hear him saying, coming into the world, you're not interested in sacrifice and offering anymore, God, and he quoted from the Psalms, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared for me. In burnt offering and sacrifice for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, so God, you don't want all these goats and bullocks and pigeons, you don't really want that? Then what do you want? Then said I, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. That's what he wanted. That was the commitment of Jesus when he came. That's why he didn't go forth throughout the land in virtue of his Messianic office, in virtue of the fact that he was a healer or because he was an apostle or a prophet or a teacher. But that great one that Moses spoke about who would come, he never went around. I'm the one that, you know, I'm the prophet, I'm the evangelist, I'm the teacher. And everything that he did, every work he performed, everything he spoke, he only required that people would receive it because he was saying words from the Father. And he himself, taking that position as that one dwelling in this body that God had prepared, had one commitment. I come to do thy will, O God. In the role of the book it is written of me. But he went away. That's all he had to do was live here on earth 33 years, to do everything that was required of him as far as his work on the earth is concerned. Then he went away into a higher ministry in the heavens, a higher priestly ministry than could ever have come about on earth. He couldn't have even been a priest on earth because he wasn't from the right tribe. For our Lord sprang out of Judah concerning which nothing is said about priests. But having gone to a heavenly realm, God gave him the priesthood that God conferred upon him a priesthood of a higher order than the Aaronic priesthood, confirmed by the scriptures. It's right there in the Old Testament, but there wasn't enough scriptures to make any impression on the interpreters of the Word in that day. Because you know how you're supposed to interpret scripture? You get a doctrine, get all the pros and cons on it. Fifteen scriptures against, fifteen for. Maybe you can find a few more pros and cons, and that becomes good doctrine, because you've got piles of scripture for it. But there are only two scriptures in the Old Testament that confirm the Melchizedek order of Jesus, two scriptures, literally hundreds that speak of the priesthood after the order of Aaron. And yet the Holy Spirit is able to take those two passages and show from the scriptures that the time would come when God would completely do away with the old Aaronic order and bring in a new order after the order of Melchizedek. You see, only the Holy Spirit can do that. That's why it's so essential that you and I come to a place where we not only have this Spirit dwelling within us, where we have him, but where he has us. We've got to come to not only where we have him, and we thank him that he has condescended to come and abide in these temples which we are, but God bring us to the place where we belong to him, that these temples which we are are temples that belong to him, the Holy Spirit. Come, possess this temple to thine, from it let thy glory shine. And God wants to possess this temple. He wants to possess this temple. I don't know what kind of dealings God must yet do in each one of us to bring us to that place where we recognize, not just with our minds, but with our hearts and our whole attitude, our whole way of life, we just know we are not our own. We are bought with a price and that we are his. God help us to continue to recognize that we have no rights. We have no rights anymore. We belong to him. He wants to possess us through and through. I believe that's also part of the holiness of all realms, where we come out from the realm of gift and ministry into a realm of his abiding fulness, going out of one realm into a greater, not forsaking what we have, but seeing it swallowed up in something greater. It's not always easy to explain, because people get a little concerned. You mean something beyond gifts, that we don't need the gifts then anymore? In him, in Christ Jesus, are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It's all in him. And what we have in his gifts is a little portion that he gives, a word of wisdom. You could stand and say, God said this, God showed me this. That's very precious. It's a word from God. But there's something higher, and that is to walk in wisdom. Because you can stand up and give tremendous words of wisdom and go out and do some very foolish things. And so God gives a portion. Really, the gifts are that. It's a portion of God's own nature that he distributes upon his people. And we thank him for that. But he wants to bring us into a realm where we live in that realm, we abide in that realm. That's John 15, which you can't help but read it and not just appreciate the tremendous truth that's there. And I'm sure we recognize that we're far from experientially really knowing any depth of it. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch can do nothing of itself except it abide in the vine, so no work in you except you abide in me. It's all very simple, very beautiful. Herein is my Father glorifying that you bear much fruit. If you abide in me, my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done. You know, we try to make that work so often. Lord, you said, we quote the scripture of God, if God forgot, that you said now, and now. We try to make it work. But there is coming a day, I'm confident, where God's people are abiding in him, and he's abiding in us in such fulness that anything we ask him, he does it. But you see, God could hardly just answer all our prayers now. We would ruin God's work in our lives. Because on that day, abiding in him, your thought has been taken over by the mind of Christ. You ask, what is the will of the Father? You ask according to his will. And God says, anything you ask, he'll do it. I'm not saying we don't have a foretaste of all these things we're talking about. I'm sure that somewhere in the Church, God has given a foretaste of all these wonderful things that we're talking about. But let's remember, it is a foretaste. So that when Caleb and Joshua came back from Canaan with a few pomegranates in their hands and grapes, carried the grapes on a big branch on their shoulders, what a tremendous thing it was when they landed back home in the camp there, and they said, look at it. That's the land that God has for us. Isn't that tremendous? So all we're doing really is trying to show God's people a little bit of the fruitfulness of Canaan, to cause us to see and understand, yes, it is, it must be a wonderful realm. And they recognized that. But they saw other things that terrified them. And because of the fear, they did not appropriate that land. It's well and good that you and I sing about Canaan now, but when we come to the doorstep of Canaan and God says, now is the time to go in, our hearts better be prepared right now. Because on that day, and when we begin to see the might and the power that's arrayed against us in heavenly places, our hearts would melt, too, if they're not established now steadfast in him, in the manner in which he was in Caleb and Joshua, who saw the fruit of the land, but who went with a different spirit. The Bible says they had a different spirit. Paul says, writing to the because it was not mixed with faith in those that heard it. It was not mixed with faith. The word was not mixed with faith. There's different ways that some translators bring it out. Their hearts were not united in faith with those who brought the word. Those who had the word, those who had faith, Caleb and Joshua, they declared what they saw. And God's intention was that their hearts would be joined unto those who brought that good word. Because like we mentioned, faith is in the word that goes forth to do whatever God wants to accomplish. Faith is there in that word. Not in heaven that you search out the heavens to try and get the faith for it, or not in the deep that you would say, who can go down there and bring us up that power to do it. But the word is neither even in thy mouth and in thy heart, even the word of faith which we preach. And so there is faith in an anointed word to do whatever God's intention is in sending forth that word. I say the anointed word. I mean the word that comes forth by the Spirit, from the Spirit. And so these hidden things, Paul says, God has prepared for them that love him. He hasn't entered into a heart and mind, but God has prepared for those that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. We can't see it. We can't hear it. With our natural eyes, our natural ears, our natural understanding. But God has revealed it by his Spirit. And so if God doesn't reveal it by his Spirit, I think we better leave it alone. No doubt there are many, many wonderful things there yet that God would reveal. But if he is not revealing it by his Spirit, we better leave it alone. For the Spirit is searching. The Spirit searcheth all things. Yea, the deep things of God, literally the depths of God, the deeps of God. Deep things, then you're thinking of maybe gifts and things that God has to dish out to his people. But it's the depths of God, the deepness of God, the deeps of God. It's God himself that the Spirit is searching out. These deep places in God, the Spirit is searching that out. The Spirit is searching. Paul says right into the Romans that he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. God is a searching God. He's searching out. The Spirit is given to search out those depths in God. I wonder, we're inclined, you know, I think, to take a lot of things for granted. We receive God's Spirit. We get the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Maybe get a gift or two. And we're inclined to feel, well, now, you know, we're all prepared now for whatever he wants us to do. We're ready for it. Instead of realizing that there's vast depths in God that we know nothing about yet, and that God's purpose is really to search out those depths in God and to bring them unto us. Before we continue a little with that matter of searching, let's read verse 11 and 12. For what man knoweth the things of man save the spirit of man which is in him? Simply saying that only mankind can understand the things that relate to mankind. An animal, a bird, they have very little concept of human nature because they're of a different kind. Only those of the human family can really understand things that pertain to the human family in any degree of fullness. And so, he says, it's the same with God. If we have the spirit of man, then we can relate to mankind and understand what man's all about, how he thinks and feels and understands. But he says it's the same with God. So, only the spirit of God really knows God, really understands God, and really relate to God. Only the spirit of God can do that. And so, he goes on to say, now, we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. So, that's why God gave his spirit. Because the spirit alone knows God. And with God's spirit, then the spirit of God is faithful to reveal unto his people in our total helplessness. Having a natural mind, we're totally helpless to come to know God. Totally helpless. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You understand? Take it slowly. In the wisdom of God, God says he let the world go on in its own way, trying to discover God by their own wisdom. After that, in God's wisdom, the world by wisdom never did discover God. It pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to save those that believe. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unless which are saved, it is the power of God. And no man can come to know God, except he comes to the cross, which is so stupid in the eyes of the intellectual. But there, a man who hung there 2,000 years ago, God was revealing in that one hanging on the cross, the depths of his wisdom. The depths of his wisdom. That in that man hanging on the cross, God was condemning the sin that has afflicted the human family. That having dealt with sin, we might partake of a new law, the law of life, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, to bring us back to God and to cause us to draw nigh unto God. Wisdom of God is revealed in the cross. It's wisdom. And the world by wisdom never did find God. And now it has pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching of the word of the cross to save those that believe. But the Greeks seek after wisdom. The Jews require a sign. They seek after power. We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, the stumbling blocks, unto the Greeks, foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. So then he gives us his spirit then to know these depths in God. And we settle for talking in tongues or having a gift of healing. Precious gifts from God. You see, eye hasn't seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love him. And the spirit is in our hearts to bring those things that he's brought to us true. But that's not the end of it. To search out all things, yea, the deeps in God, to search it out, search out the heart of God. Deep calleth unto deep. I'd rather quote it this morning. Let's just turn to that a moment. Psalm 42. I was reading that not too long ago and I thought, now listen, now, we've been quoting that verse, deep calleth unto deep, and referring to when our hearts cry calling unto God and God calling unto us and that fellowship and that relationship, but read it in the context. And he says, verse 7, deep calleth unto deep, but the noise of thy waterspouts, thy cataracts, all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Then you go back and you read, as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Here's a man longing for God, longing for a drink of the river of life. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat, day and night, while they continually say unto me, where is thy God? David, I assume it's David here, is in a place of exile. He's rejected. He's chased from the house of God. He says, when I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me. How I had gone with a multitude. I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holy day. Now his soul is cast down. He remembers the good times in the house of God. Now he's rejected. He's dejected. He's cast down. And I suddenly realized that was God's dealings with him to make him hunger and thirst after God. It's not within you and I to seek after God. There's none that seeks after God. It's just not within us. You say, I've been seeking after God. Well, then God did something to cause you to do that. God did something to cause you to seek him. God did something to cause you to thirst. And recognizing that, we no longer condemn those who don't thirst after God or hunger after God. We thank him that somehow, Lord, you were faithful to lead us in dry places, to make us hungry, faithful, doing it with us as he was to the children of Israel. He led them in a wilderness, caused them to hunger, fed them with manna, that you might know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. That's why he led them that way. He didn't tell them that until they'd gone through. But after they'd gone through the wilderness, and that first generation had failed God by not having set their hearts aright, because their spirit was not steadfast with God, nor did they set their hearts aright, they were overthrown in the wilderness. And the reason they turned away and did not go into Canaan was an excuse that they came up with that was not valid. We can't grin because our children they couldn't stand it. We could stand it. We're grown up, but they couldn't stand it. And God swore with a nose, as I live, I will bring your children in that you feared for, and you'll die in the wilderness. And so they said, we can't grin because we love our children so much. God says, I swear, I'll bring your kids in and you'll stay out. So let's remember that, and the kids can't take this. You better go God's way. God knows how to look after your kids. And there's terrible times coming in the earth. Some awesome times. Could be very close. Who knows? But the new generation was prepared of God to go in. And it's to them that he said, I have fed you with manna and I caused you to hunger, that you might know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, that man lives. The old generation was dying off and just about the whole generation was to die off before the new generation went in. So that which was judgment for the old generation was preparation for the new one. For there they were eating of the manna, drinking of the water, going along their weary way with the rest of them with their adults, except that they had a hope. God swore he's going to bring us in. But the older generation had no hope. They were going to die in the wilderness. I don't know if it bothered them too much. Because when you look at the old generation in the church today, you don't see them lamenting that somehow we missed it. Because if you don't know what you missed, how can you lament about not having received it? But if God gives an expectation and a hope and a desire, then there's a certain fear, a certain godly fear. God, we see what you're doing in measure. We don't want to miss it. And so we're going to need vision. And I think I could very easily have made total shipwreck if it wasn't for that little glimmer of expectation, vision. God, you're going to do great things. It wasn't a case of I hope when I die I'll go to heaven. That never bothered me from the time I was saved. But in this life, God, you've got great things for your people. Tremendous things. So when you're tempted to grow weary of it all and to give up, may God have established in your heart at least a vision, a hope, an expectation. I want to go into the conquering generation because hope purifies. Not any kind of hope. The hope of seeing him. And it all comes down to that. Whatever our expectation is, whatever the inheritance is, and there are many aspects of it, it all comes down. Finally, Christ Jesus is our hope and our expectation. Although along the way he gives you gifts and blessings and promises you a certain ministration and gives you a certain vision of what he wants you to do, let there be no vision that God gives us that will crowd out or be cloud the one and only vision of coming to see him. For any other vision he gives is just something that he gives along the way to help us along the way, to encourage us along the pathway, to encourage God's people along the pathway, until we come to see him. And we want to see him. I'm not particularly speaking about the second coming because I don't believe that there's no seeing of the Lord until he comes in clouds with power and great glory. I believe that we should be anticipating seeing him constantly, daily. In the Old Testament, they believed that Messiah would come. But before he came, David longed for him. David sought his face. The children of Israel, the elders at least of Israel, saw God. Moses talked with him face to face. One occasion Moses said to the people, sanctify yourselves. The Lord's going to appear tonight. This afternoon he's going to appear. Prepare your hearts. But now we've got the notion, don't talk about the appearing of the Lord because it's going to happen in a split second. That's way down the line. Jesus can appear any time. And I anticipate seeing him appearing in the midst of his people. And I hope it happens many, many times. And Paul saw him after Jesus went away. You say, well, it's sort of a vision. It's a sort of nothing. He says James saw him and Peter saw him and John saw him and the twelve disciples saw him. Well, yeah, they walked with him. They saw him. He says 500 brothers saw him and he says, I saw him. And the revelation of Jesus to Paul was just as real to him as the revelation that the others had who walked with him three and a half years. And Paul used that incidence of seeing the Lord as a qualification for his apostleship. Because the apostles were those who had been with the Lord and seen him and walked with him. Paul says, I saw him too. My apostleship is just as valid as theirs. It wasn't the first coming. It wasn't the second coming. What was it? It was Jesus. We make the second coming to be an event. It's an event, but it's more awesome than that. It's the Lord of glory appearing. God desires you and I. He wants us. He needs us. There's an old slogan they used to have in the church. You're saved to serve. God needs servants. And you're saved to be a servant, which is not right. It's like someone you just got married and you say, well, why did you marry her? I needed a slave. Oh, is that right? Yeah. It's not really that way. But I think a good wife will be a good servant. But that's not why you married her or shouldn't be. And Jesus didn't just save us so he'd have some servants. Because he's got 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands and thousands who wait upon him day and night. They need no rest. I mean, just a moment's beck and call and they can go to the ends of the earth. He doesn't need servants. He needs friends. And he has very few friends. And so Jesus called 12 apostles to preach, I know, but something additional to that. Something first, something that preceded that. He called 12 apostles that they should, what? Be with him. And that he should send them forth to preach. Because if you're not with him, I don't think your preaching will amount to very much. You're not spending time with him. Learning his word, yes. But also learning his ways. For Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. We want life, that's our pursuit. Jesus is the truth, but he's also the way. And only as we come to walk in the way, the way, his way, do we really come to truth. You can have the doctrines of truth without walking in the way. But you and I won't come into living truth until we walk in his way. Because it's walking in his way that equates us with him. And so we love the word of God. We love the Bible. Here's one I typed out just to have a study Bible. I love it. But you know, it's not enough there. It's got to come within. I worked with an architectural firm one time, not as an architect. I'm not an architect, but doing book work. I remember this one big project they had to the college. And you'd be amazed at the blueprints. I think we probably had about six inches with the structure of it and the electrical and the plumbing and mechanical. And that wasn't the college, but there'd be no college without it. Everything was arranged there, and I know there's mistakes in it because they're fallible. Everything, every detail was there and given to the builders to go by the blueprint. And one day there was the college and they opened the door and they had me make a walnut key to present to the representatives of the college board, the key to the college. And there was the building. Very beautiful. The blueprints were necessary. They had to go by the blueprints. But the intention was not the blueprint. Their intention was the building. This is God's blueprint. Very important. So we might look up a Strong's Concordance or another version. Maybe this isn't quite clear, so we look up another version. Because we want to know what God said. I think that's good. But it's the blueprint. It's what God is building because of this. That's the reality. And that which God is doing because of what he said here is building into his people. That living word. So ministration must be by the Spirit, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth. The Spirit giveth life. But that doesn't mean like some interpretive, oh yeah, you've got all those scriptures and that, but the letter killeth. They despise the letter. No. I know it killeth. So is God. The Lord killeth. The Lord maketh alive. Don't worry if it kills. Look for the Lord to give life. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Jesus, the words that I speak into are Spirit. And God must bring ministry to that. The words that are spoken are not just the letter that we read. But as the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the steps of God, he searches it and brings it out in Spirit. So that Paul said, which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So back to Psalm 42. David was longing after God as the heart panteth after the water books. How did he get that way? God had led him in a wilderness, causing him to thirst. That's what the wilderness was for, to prepare the hearts of their people that they might long after God, that they might come to realize that their very life depended upon hearing from God. And so he fed them with manna, which didn't satisfy their appetite, didn't satisfy them. It met every need, but it didn't satisfy them. It left them hungry. Why? I fed you with manna, and caused you to hunger, that you might know that man doesn't live just by bread, but by every word that proceedeth. Out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. And so the wilderness way is intended to cause you to seek after God. And if your heart's right, it'll do that. If you prepare your heart, it'll do that. If you set your heart aright, any trouble that comes will drive you to God. And so David's troubles drove him to God, and he found himself longing after the water books. And so, O my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. God, I'm swept away with your judgments, with the troubles that have come upon me. They just sweep over me like billows. These troubles, they sweep over me, but it causes a deep to call unto deep. There was a depth that God was forming in David, which he can only do, I believe, as he leads us into difficult places, wildernesses, trials, tests. God, I'm in trouble. I must fly unto you. You're the only one that can help. And God is faithful to come forth, and the Spirit searches the deep things of God. He searches the deep things of God, and he's been searching your heart, searching out your heart, searching out God's heart. And he finds something there. I can bring these two together. There's something in God that you need at this moment of your trouble. You've got a deep cry there for God, and God has this for you. And so he says, comparing spirituals with spirituals. It literally reads that way. Comparing the spirituals with the spirituals. And comparing, understand, can mean not only setting the one here and the other there to judge between the two, but literally bringing them together, combining the spirituals with the spiritual, joining together the spirituals with the spiritual. And so it's the ministration of the Holy Spirit. If you have those depths in God, crying out unto God, the Spirit says, this is what you need, and there's something compatible there. And so he's able to join you, join that spiritual that's in God with that spiritual that's in you, so that there's a participation in the life of God in a more meaningful way than there was before. And we were totally helpless in ourselves to come to that. The troubles come, wildernesses come, disappointments come. We say, why God did you do that? Why? Why? Why? And the Psalmists are full of questions to God, and we're full of questions. Why, Lord? What's all this about? And it's part of the wilderness way, it's part of the effect of the manna, which means why, when, what, what's it all about? It means that. Why? What? Just be thankful when those questions arise. That perchance God is feeding me with that heavenly food. We rejoice in the eating of it, but we don't always rejoice in the effect that it has upon us. We don't attribute it to what we have eaten. We don't attribute it to our desire for God. We attribute it to the devil. In many cases, when we should be attributing it to God's desire for his people. You desire God so much, the only reason you desire God at all is because he desires you. That's why he created man. Because God was alone and he desired fellowship. Not just the fact that he was alone, but the fact that God, as one who was alone, had dwelling within him the fullness of love and mercy and truth and compassion and long-suffering and patience and kindness and grace unspeakable. It was all there in God, but nobody to share it with. He had to have a man in his image. He had all kinds of angels and celestial beings, great and wonderful and beautiful, but no fellowship really. No real fellowship, because they weren't like him. God had to make someone like himself, but how can God make himself? But he made a man in his image, in his likeness, not totally like I think I said yesterday, because Adam was of the earthly. He had a temple in the Old Testament, but not the fullness of the temple, but he did have a temple. He had sacrifices, but not the fullness of it. They were types of the real sacrifice. And the first Adam was just a type of the last Adam who was a figure of him that was to come, even Christ, a figure. So that it's not a case of God in bringing us into his image, bringing us back to that state that Adam was in, for he was just a type. It's bringing us back into an image far beyond what Adam had. But as we have borne the image of the earthy, so must we bear the image of the heavenly. For he that is of the earth is earthy, he that is of heaven is of heaven. See in the resurrection, I know, but before then. Adam did not die and go into the grave in order to reach the fullness of sin. He reached it in his lifetime. When he sinned, the rain of sin began to rule within him. He didn't have to die to see the fullness of it. That was the natural end of it all. You don't die and go to heaven to be like Jesus. It starts now. And the culmination of it will be that resurrection day. But the life begins now. And you got Adam's sin because you were born in Adam, as simple as that. And you grow in sin because of that seed that you inherited from Adam. And so in the last Adam, it's because you were born in Christ that you inherited his righteousness. And you continue to grow in righteousness because the seed of his life is within you, born again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Never forget that. There's two Adams. And our Lord is the last Adam. And as we are born in the image of the earthy, so much we bear the image of the heavenly. So God wanted a man in his image because if he didn't have a man in his image, he would not have real relationship with anything. Real fellowship. So he made a man, giving him the potential to communicate with him, fellowship with him, walk with him, be one with him, be his expression in the earth. God never forsakes his plan. When man spoils it, God doesn't give it up. When God gives a promise, he doesn't draw it back. We don't appropriate it, it stays there in the earth. He doesn't take it back. Well, I tried to do it anyway. He waits for a certain time when that which God planted in the earth, he says, now this time, now it'll come forth. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and watereth the earth, that it might cause the things that are sown in it to spring forth and ripen, that it might give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void. It shall accomplish the thing that I please. So if he sent it forth into the earth, it stays there till it is fulfilled. I take a thousand years, two thousand years, it's in the earth. God says, I won't take it back till it accomplishes the purpose for which I sent it forth. And in this day and hour, God is beginning, I believe, to cause life to spring forth from seeds that he sent into the earth. Years ago, centuries ago, millennia ago, God said to Israel, you shall be unto me a holy nation and a peculiar people and a kingly priesthood, a kingdom of priests. Never happened. Never happened until Jesus rose from the dead and ascended. Oh, he had a priesthood. It's not a whole nation. It's one tribe. God is going to keep alive his intention in keeping a priesthood in the earth. But it stays there in the earth until it springs out of the earth. It will not return to me void. It shall prosper in the thing wherein I sent it. So that once you really see that and know that, as you read the scriptures, you read it, and you're quite convinced that no, we don't see that in any sense of fullness. It remains a promise. Used to be, well, I know that's what God said and that's what God wanted, but somehow it hasn't happened. It doesn't look like it's going to happen. But now I see it and read it and, oh, that's still future then. Father, the glory thou has given me, I have given them, that they may be one as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they may be one in us. You see what God wants now? God wants us to be one. So come on now. We've got to be one. Forget your doctrines. Forget everything that you're taught to believe in the church and that. Just flow together in love. Be one great big ecumenical church embracing all who call upon the name of the Lord. Nonsense. Jesus didn't pray for that. He prayed for a people who would be one with him as he is one with the Father. And as one with the Father, he spoke clearly the words that the Father gave him to speak and come to such commitment to the Heavenly Father that he would speak nothing except what the Father gave him to speak.