Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the deep dealings of God in our lives, focusing on the necessity of knowing the Lord through a profound process of divine separation and heart transformation. He reflects on the Apostle Paul's journey, illustrating how true knowledge of Christ requires counting all things as loss and being stripped of self-righteousness. Beach encourages believers to embrace the trials and challenges as opportunities for deeper intimacy with God, highlighting that the desire to know Him is a sign of His grace at work in our hearts. He draws parallels with Abraham's life, showing that hearing God's call leads to a journey of faith and separation from worldly attachments. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a commitment to seek God above all else, allowing Him to establish His lordship in our lives.

Thank you, Gary, for moving the blackboard. Appreciate it. Praise the Lord. Okay, this morning we want to continue, by the help of God's grace, the deep dealings of God. And this is going to be part three. The deep dealings of God. Father, we thank you and praise you today for your presence. We thank you, Lord, that you lowered yourself. Oh, so low, Lord, you came. Leaving the corridors of heaven, the place of perfection, the place, Lord, where nothing but what is wholesome and nothing but what is lovely and nothing but what is like you. You left that place, Lord, and came to a sin-cursed earth where there was every abominable and detestable deed that could be imagined in operation. Lord, that's way too big for us to touch. We don't know of such love, Lord. We talk about it, but we don't know of it. We pray, Lord, that you would be gracious to us this morning, and teach us something of that love, where you were able to walk among us, became vulnerable, and suffered the pain and the sorrow of all the curse in your own person, so that you could lift us out of darkness and bring us into fellowship with you. Lord, help us along these lines, Lord, to see the depths of your work in our life in order to accomplish your end, that being a place where you're welcome, a place where it's all about you. So, we commit these next few moments into your hands, Lord, and do pray for divine help and revelation. Beloved, we're touching on those things that are beyond our grasp. We're touching on things beyond our ability to understand apart from the Lord, apart from His grace, apart from His dealing in our life. And so, we walk softly in this area, because these are things that God Himself is doing, that God Himself can secure, that God Himself alone can make real in our lives. We began in Psalm 39, then we moved on to various other different Scriptures, and now we're being brought to the place where we're looking at the deep dealings of God in our life as they relate to enabling us to come to know the Lord in increasing measure. So, this can be entitled the deep dealings of God, knowing the Lord. If you remember, beloved, the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 3, you can turn there. I'm going to read just a few verses from there. Here was a man who had been on the way, and when the term is used, on the way, it refers to having been a Christian, having been apprehended. He'd been on the way a few decades already, yet remarkably, because he heard the call, and he was apprehended by God, many, many, many years later, this was the testimony of his soul. And this is, again, very big, very vast, something that we're just scratching the surface on. Philippians chapter 3, beginning in verse 7, but what things were gain to me? What things were gain to me? Those I counted loss for Christ. We're touching something really way too big for us now. Those things that were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. We're touching something here of a deep, deep dealing of God in the life of Paul. A very deep, heart-searching dealing of God. Beloved, it's not a light thing for a man to be able to say. The things that are dear to me, I count loss for Christ. It's not something we can say lightly. It's not something that we can just wake up one morning and decide, well, the things that are dear to me, I consider loss for Christ. Such a confession necessitates, such a confession requires, and all so deep, deep dealing of God in our life. Can that be said by our own hearts today? But the things that were gain to me, the things that were to His advantage, His reputation, His religious heritage, the things that would enable Him to have confidence in the flesh, His credentials, His gifts, the things that might allow Him to trust, His circumcision, He being of the tribe of Benjamin, His standing in the religion of the Pharisees, being a Pharisee, touching the righteousness which was by the law, He considered Himself blameless. That meant He did everything He was supposed to do. He lived very faithfully to a law of obedience, a law of conforming to regulations and codes, and He looked so good outwardly. He looked so perfect outwardly. But the things that were gain to me, I count loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. Now there's that, the loss of all things again. Verse number 7, I count loss. Verse number 8, the loss of all things. And do count them as dung, or refuge, or trash, or that which is worthy of being thrown away. Again, we're touching something here of the deep dealings of God. We're touching something about the deep dealings of God regarding God working within our heart a passion of wanting to know the Lord. Paul knew the Lord. He had known the Lord for several decades, but yet he was a man that was still apprehended, still after, still pursuing, still desiring to know the Lord. You see, our going on to know the Lord is directly related to our capacity to count all things as dung. Our going on to know the Lord is in direct relation to God's work in our life, enabling us to count all things but refuge. You see, one cannot go on to know the Lord without having come to the place where we are growing more and more and more in our capacity to say, I count all things a loss. Because going on to know the Lord and finding Him in the capacity of Lord and Master means that all rivalry is put down. Anything that would compete with Him. Anything that would compete with Him. And so the deeper dealings of God in our life are those things that God brings into our life, allows to come into our life, that work in us a two-fold process. And we can't forget about this two-fold process. Number one, it's the knowing the Lord. It's a good thing if today you are aware inside the depths of your being an ever-growing passion to know the Lord. It's a good thing. It's a blessed position to be in. Brothers and sisters, those who are in the world who don't know of God's dealings don't wake up morning by morning with a passion to know the Lord. Just the fact that we desire to know the Lord, just the fact that we desire after Him proves that His grace is working in our life. But all this is a searching thing. It's a deep thing. This is something that goes beyond the surface and goes into the depths of our being. And so the two-fold process of the deep dealing of God has to do with knowing the Lord, but along with that, we are being enabled in an ever-increasing manner to count all things as done. Now notice carefully, if this process somehow stops, this process stops. Okay? If in our dealings with God, in His dealings with us, we begin to stumble over this issue of counting all things but lost, and we're going to only begin today, and we certainly won't get through it, but we're working our way toward Abraham because we're seeing how in Abraham God secured a picture of the intention of His harp, how He put within the desire of a man to know Him. Abraham lived in the midst of a godless culture that they were worshiping many different gods. They were worshiping all manner of gods. Now I don't want to get ahead of myself, but the whole process began when Abraham heard the Lord. The whole thing began with Samuel, David, when he heard the Lord. The whole thing began with David when he heard the Lord. The whole thing began with Isaiah when he saw and heard the Lord. The whole thing began with Peter when he was just an old fisherman and he heard the Lord. Hey, Peter, come, follow me. The whole thing happened when Paul heard the Lord. He was on his way. He thought he was doing God a favor by correcting these heretics, but lo and behold, on his way, on the road, he heard the Lord. It all begins when we hear the Lord. So this is where we're heading. But not to jump ahead of ourself, in hearing the Lord and that birthing in us a desire for the Lord, there is a corresponding work in our hearts that goes hand in hand with our desire to know the Lord, and that is the counting all things as done. And in the life of Abraham, we see a vivid picture of God putting in a man the desire to know Him and then a corresponding work in that man, stripping him from all things that were dear to him, so that at the end of Abraham's life, he stood as an old man, truly, truly, having been proven through life itself to be a man in whom the grace of God secured a testimony where he could say, it is God alone that I'm after. It is God alone that I'm after. Oh, the depths of these things. The depths of these things. Brothers and sisters, this is where we're heading if we follow on to know the Lord. As our brother Alan was praying, oh God, help us to respond to the grace of God. This is where we're heading as we respond to the grace of God. Brothers and sisters, this is where you're going to head if you follow the heavenly path, the heavenly vision, the heavenly voice, the heavenly word. If you continue along the heavenly way, you will experience both the insatiable passion to know the true and living God, and at the same time, you will experience a painful and deep feeling of God stripping you and severing you and divorcing you from every and anything so that your heart is truly committed to Him alone. It is not something that you can conjure up. It is not something that you can work up by legalism or by law or by trying to follow codes and rules. It is the work of God and it is perfected in our lives as in brokenness we cooperate with God with the testimony, yes Lord, have your way in my life. Yes Lord, have your way in my life. And so this is where we're heading as a company of believers. And we see in Paul this utterness. We see in Paul this incredible work of grace. May I ask you a question? Are you experiencing, have you experienced, and are you experiencing right now this incredible two-fold work in your life where you want to know the Lord, but at the same time, you seem to be in a crucible. You seem to be in a furnace. Why? Because God is doing the second part of that work in your life. It's not only just about saying, I want to know the Lord more than anything. It's about a deep heart-searching, heart-wrenching, heart-revealing work of God where the Lord has given you an opportunity to truly know Him and to truly have Him as your King of Kings. And so right now in our lives there's deep works going on. There's deep dealings going on. There's deep searchings going on. And God is giving us opportunity to let go. He's giving us opportunity to recognize, hey, I've got to count this as done. I've got to let go of this. This was important to me at one time. Hey, this thing I really had a hold on, but now God is requiring me to let go. It might be your reputation. I don't know what it is, but God is going to work this two-fold process in you and I as we follow on to know Him. Verse 8, Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law. A righteousness which is of the law. My own righteousness. There is that righteousness which is our own, and then there is that righteousness which is of God. And God is stripping us from our own righteousness. He's stripping us from being able to glory in anything or anyone other than Him. That's the work of God. He's stripping us from all the things that we can trace back to something we've done, or something we can boast in, or something that we can brag in. Let me tell you something, beloved. If there is any kind of idol in your heart this morning, I don't care if it's a career, I don't care if it's a dream, I don't care if it's a person, I don't care what it is. God will make you to see that that idol has clay feet. He's got to do it. He's got to, because He alone is the one that we can glory in. He alone is the one that we can truly, truly lay our life into, and lay our life on. He alone. And so the searchings of God, and the depths of God's work, is the process of releasing our heart, releasing our hold from anything, so that in the midst of life we are truly strangers and pilgrims. We're looking for a city, but it's not made with the hands of man. Our dream is not something that can be realized in this world. Let me tell you, if the extent of your dream, if the extent of your desires are those things that can be realized in this life, then there's a need for further readjustment, for further work. God doesn't want His people to have dreams that simply amount to something they can see with their eyes, and touch with their hands, and be able to point toward and say, look what God gave me. He wants us heavenly minded. And this is the way of the deep dealings of God in our life. Verse 10, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. There in verse 10 we have a statement, and do you know everything in that statement has to do with one thing? Jesus Christ. It has to do with knowing Him, it has to do with the fellowship of His sufferings, it has to do with being conformable to His death, that I might somehow know the resurrection out from among the dead. You see what God is doing? He's bringing singleness, singleness of heart into our lives. He secured in Paul a man that had singleness of heart, that here is a man full of aspiration, a gifted man, a tremendously gifted man, tremendous history, tremendous religious history, sat under the feet of Gamaliel, a great teacher of the law, a great future in the religious world, a man esteemed by men, a man that had a great future, and where does he end up? Where does he end up? All that is dung to me. All that is refuge to me. All that is rubbish to me. All the work of God in the heart of this man, all the work of God, all the depths of God's work, how can we be released from the very passions of our soul? How can we be released by God alone? And here's a man, here's a man who had so much going for him, so much to boast in and to brag in, so much to talk to people about. Oh, how telling it is what we talk to people about, or should I say who we talk to people about. How telling it is, how tempting it could have been for Paul to just occupy his time talking about himself. My, my, did you sit under the feet of Gamaliel? I did. Were you a Pharisee among Pharisees? I was. How was your status in relation to the law? I was blameless. I was faithful. But all the depths of God, the depths of God's work in Paul's life, stripping Paul from talking about himself, stripping Paul from his thoughts preoccupied with himself. Oh, how we have this chronic, deadly condition. You know what that is? We're preoccupied with ourselves, aren't we? Oh, our thoughts are so often on ourself. But here's a man, here's a man who had so much and he was reduced to so little. And he sums it up in one sentence, and every phrase and word in the sentence has to do with Jesus Christ. All the deep works of God to take something so vast in man's eyes, something so, so relative to himself, and to reduce him down to that I might know Him. Wow, I trust this stirs the depths of your being, the depths of your being. Oh God, touch us. Let us hear the call. Let us hear the call. I need the Lord to get at us in this way. Get at us. So don't despair now. Don't despair when you find not only the desire to know the Lord. You might tell your brothers and sisters, your husband, wife, your close friends, oh, how I long to know the Lord. That's good. But don't despair. Don't despair now when the other part of this kicks in. And you find the Lord's got you in a furnace. He's got you cooking. What's wrong? Nothing. That's what the whole meaning of the New Testament is. That's what the words of James and Peter, think it not strange concerning the fiery trials. Think it not strange. Count it pure joy, brothers, when you find yourself in the midst of all kinds of tests and trials and tribulations and afflictions, knowing, knowing that the trying, the testing of your faith, what is God doing? He's giving you the desire of your heart to know the Lord as Lord and Master through giving you opportunity to count all things. That's inclusive. You know, the word inclusive means it's all-encompassing. As we walk through the life of Abraham, we're going to even see God, if we follow on to know Him, will require us to lay at His altar the very thing that He promised us, Isaac, the son of promise. Okay, let's begin. Let's begin this process. Let's walk together for a few more minutes. Okay? Let's walk together for a few more minutes. Now, don't forget, don't forget this all-important process. Mark it down in your Bibles. Do something. Never forget, two sides to the same coin. If I desire to know the Lord, if I wake up morning by morning and I'm just apprehended with a passion to know the Lord, along with that will come deep dealings of God in order to get in us the same heart that Paul had, that Moses had, that Peter had, that Abraham had, that Isaiah had, that Jeremiah had, and that is, on this road, on this journey, God is bringing me, God is bringing me, and we can't forget Job. Actually, as soon as we get done with Abraham and Moses, I'm looking to the Lord to touch on Job, because Job teaches us something so important. Do you know that the double blessing came to Job after he came through, not before? And so many Christians want the double blessing, and the double blessing speaks of that birthright that was promised to Christ as the firstborn, the heir of all things, the place of authority and power. That's what Job got at the end. He got twice as much as everything he had. But see, that blessing comes after Job went through this process of deep dealings, after Job came through the furnace, and he stood on the other side as a man stripped of self-righteousness, stripped of everything. He had heard of God in his ears. But after he went through this process, he saw God face to face, and what does it say? He abhorred himself. He abhorred himself. We sort of have a love affair with ourself. Job abhorred himself. And so don't be surprised, beloved, if God works in your life like Job. But we won't go there now. We won't go there now. What we want to do is we want to remember this two-fold process of knowing the Lord and being stripped. And we're going to begin by looking in Romans. I just want to coin a phrase here that's found in the book of Romans to help us as an introductory thought to the man called Abraham. It says in verse number 17 of Romans chapter 4, as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. A father of many nations. A father is a beginner, someone who begins something. We have sung songs as kids, Father Abraham had many sons. Father Abraham. There's significance why God calls Abraham Father. Because in him, in Abraham, God patterns. God pictures. God uses Abraham as a type of the dealings that He wants to bring to Abraham's children. Abraham's children are we who are born of God. And so in Abraham we see a very vivid picture of God's heart regarding the journey that we are to be on as Christians. And so it's important for us to understand in the life of Abraham we see a picture. Let's begin in Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. Now remember what we're doing. Listen closely. We're not giving information out. We're not just simply preaching a sermon, an interesting sermon. We want to show in a very living, real way the actual kind of dealing that you will experience. You may have already experienced this. You may be along this journey. This might be the first time that you're coming to hear such dealings that God would want to work in your life. Wherever you are, this is applicable to you. This is applicable to you. So we're looking here at Father Abraham who is a picture or a type. A picture or a type of the way God wants to deal in your life and my life. And all of these different kinds of dealings in the life of Abraham represent and teach us something of the deep dealings of God. And the end, the purpose of the deep dealings of God is to have a people where Christ has all the rights, where Christ has all lordship. You see, God's passion, and this is why God revealed Himself to Abraham, because God's passion from the beginning, and we touched on this several weeks ago, was that He wanted to find a home. He wanted to find a habitation, a place where He could live, a place where His rights were honored. You see, the whole world, listen, the whole world is under the power of the evil one, beloved. The whole world is engaged in doing all the evil imaginations of their heart, but yet the earth is the Lord's. Can you see it? Do you see this revelation? The earth is the Lord's, the fullness thereof. Everything in the earth belongs to God. Listen, the earth was created by God and for God's glory. The earth was created because God wanted a place to establish His honor and His glory and His lordship, but yet what happened? We know something of that in the beginning of Genesis, where a great war took place, and Satan came and seduced God's creation, man. From that point on until this present point, there's been a horrendous conflict, and do you know what this conflict is all about? It's more about us. This conflict has to do with the rights of God, the rights of Christ. It has to do with the rights of Christ in this world, in this universe, and in particular, in your life and my life. God's rights in your life and my life. That's what He's after, you see? And so when we see the work of God in Abraham, we see God taking meticulous effort to secure His rights in a man, so that in the midst of foreign humanity, in the midst of perverse hearts, perverse desires, perverse aspirations, God has a man whose name is Abram, whose name was changed to Abraham, and God says to all heaven, hey, everybody hush up, and everybody hushes up, because in heaven, people listen to God. Everybody hushes up, and God says, everybody peek over the corriers of heaven and look down there in Canaan land, and everybody looks, and God says, no, no, no, you're looking at all the sin, you're looking at all the ego, you're looking at all the vanity, look in, zero in on that man called Abraham. What do you see? And all the angels begin to cry, and all heaven begins to just look in marvel, and they see a man. They see through the man. They see through him. God lets them see the heart of the man, and there in the heart of that man is a sanctuary, and God is sitting in that sanctuary. Jehovah, as opposed to the gods that were in the land of Canaan, the gods of earth, and the gods of immorality, and the gods of greed, Abraham had a sanctuary where Jehovah was sitting, and God says, that pleases me. That's what he's after. That's what God is after in your life and my life today, and of course, this is turned into the corporate picture. That's what the body of Christ is supposed to be. A place where God's rights are seen. Chapter 12, Genesis, Now the Lord. That's significant. That's significant if you go to chapter 11, because chapter 11 tells us the condition of the world, and the whole earth, chapter 11, was of one language and of one speech. This is a unity. This is a oneness, but it was not a unity and a oneness for God, for the true Lord of heaven and earth. It was a unity and a oneness with the intent to accomplish every evil desire of man's heart. So you see what God was dealing with on the earth. He was dealing with the world being united. The world coming under a one unity, but it wasn't for Him. And so God had to react to that. Look at what the condition of the land was. Verse number 4, and they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name. Let us make us a name. You see the controversy God has with mankind? Let us make us a name. God doesn't want us to make us a name. God wants His name to be the thing that has got our attention. And so we see a movement here. We see a whole movement that's touching the whole earth. And it's a movement of man to unify and to strengthen himself in order to dispossess finally, to throw out finally all that has to do with the Lord God, with His moral perfections, with His eternal ways. Throw Him out. Let's rid the name of God from earth, and let's make us a name. Oh, the danger of that lurking sin within us. But here's God's reaction. Chapter 12, Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, the first step in this heavenly journey, and this is the all-important step because this step repeats itself over and over and over again. And here's the first step in this heavenly journey. If we're ever going to satisfy God's heart by becoming vessels in whom His lordship is evidently seen, we've got to come to this crisis, and that is this, hearing God's word. Now, beloved, this is not hearing God's word with these ears. It is hearing God's word in the ears of our harm. As we earlier mentioned, everyone's life is changed when they hear God's word. We look at Isaiah in chapter 6, and he was a prophet. He was a young prophet, but he had gotten all his hope in the King Uzziah. He had hope that King Uzziah was the answer to deliver Israel from all of the... It wasn't until Isaiah died that King Uzziah saw the Lord. It wasn't until Uzziah died that Isaiah saw the Lord. Now listen, listen carefully. In seeing the Lord, he heard the Lord, and Isaiah's ministry was transformed from that moment on. When he heard the Lord, that began a stripping process in Isaiah's life. He stopped looking to Uzziah. He stopped looking. He was weaned. He was delivered. His eyes fell upon the Lord. We see this in the life of Peter as a fisherman. He was just living his life, good fisherman, had dreams and aspirations, but everything changed when Jesus walked by and said, follow me. The beginning of the deep dealings of God within our life happens when we begin to hear God's Word. In Acts, I'm not going to go there, in Acts chapter 7, verse 2, Acts 7, verse 2, the writer Stephen identifies this experience with a heavenly vision. He says that Abraham had a heavenly vision. When we hear God's Word, we are lifted out of earth. We are lifted out of the limitations of earth in our own understanding, and we're brought into a heavenly vision of the heavenly Savior, the heavenliness of God, the heavenliness of our calling. We need to hear God's Word. Listen, we need to be lifted out of the earthliness of being bound to our natural thoughts and our natural understanding. We need emancipation so that we can see something of the depths, the height, the width, the length, the vastness of this heavenly call that we've been called into. Oh, how we need God to do this. How we need God to do this. So, first comes the call, the Word. Have you heard the Word of God? Do you hear the Word every day? Are you waiting before God, listening for Him to speak? But now remember, with this Word, Abram was awakened. He was awakened to wanting to know God. But right with that Word, remember the full process? An awakening to know the Lord, and then a stripping, some kind of a stripping. Every time you awaken to a deeper desire for the Lord, you will be brought to a position where you're going to have to be stripped more deeply. Watch what happens. Genesis chapter 12. We see not only the hearing of God, the awakening to know God, but we hear, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. Divine separation. As soon as Abraham heard the Word, God began to separate him unto Himself. God began to separate Abraham unto Himself. Remember what God was looking for. He was looking for a sanctuary in the heart of Abraham. And in order to find that sanctuary in the heart of Abraham, God had to awaken Abraham's ears to hear, but He also had to begin the process of divine separation. And likewise, beloved, as we are made subject to the dealing of God, we're going to experience the divine separation in our life. Psalm 45. We're going to be closing in a few minutes. Psalm 45. This is a psalm about the work of God in His bride. Verse number 10. Psalm 45. Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear. Forget also thine own people and thy father's house. Forget also thine own people and thy father's house. Here is a call of the Spirit of God to this bride, telling her to forget her father's house. That is, turn your eyes from that which is Turn your eyes from that which you are accustomed to in your natural life, in your natural world. Turn your eyes from that which is simply from this world, and turn them toward Me, and I will begin to show you something of the heavenliness of who I am and who I want you to become. Oh my Lord. This severing and separation will be from the world. 1 John chapter 2, 15 through 17. James chapter 4. Friendship with the world is an enemy of God. This separation will have to do with not only the world, but it will have to do with our very life, the dealings of God going into the very depths of our being and detaching us from things that we may hold too dearly so that He is all and all. We're on a journey, beloved. We're just touching it now. We're just touching it. We're going to stop now. We're going to give a few moments where we can just meditate on the Lord, meditate on His Word, and in these few moments I want to encourage you to just hide these things in your heart and patiently look to the Lord to work these in your life. We're moving toward God's end, a place for Himself in your life and mine. Father, we thank You for Thy presence and oh God, how we feel so inadequate to touch these things and we feel so inadequate. But nevertheless, Lord, it's Thy work. Overrule our weaknesses and may we hear Your voice amidst our words this morning and may an awakening occur in our heart, helping us to see the deep dealing of God in our life, leading us toward the vastness of Christ, the beauty of Christ. We commit these things into Your hands, Father, as You alone can do it. Thank You, Lord. Search our hearts, oh God, and encourage us. Encourage us, Lord, today. I just want to encourage you in the midst of this dealing of God that's here now. Do spend time, beloved, listening. Do spend time waiting on God. Oh, do spend time, beloved. There is such a passion within our Father in heaven to make known to us these things and they all begin. They all begin and are perfected as we learn to listen and wait. And so, Father, we do look to You. We thank You for this wonderful visitation of Your presence here. The searching, oh, the searching of Your Spirit, the confirming of Your Word, how thankful we are. But God, I do pray that this would not be something we only experience on Sundays, but that this would become customary, something that occurs in the homes, that we would be sensitive to these times when in our homes we would just quiet everything down, turn off the television, the VCR, the radio, forget about the things that may need to be done and just wait on God. God, rescue us from this fast pace. Make our homes, Lord, places where we hear Your Word and are instructed by You. Oh, God, please, please, Lord, do this work. Let's listen, Lord. Help us to listen and obey You.