In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of Jesus being led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The preacher emphasizes that this event signifies God's anger towards the desolation caused by the world and religious systems. God is determined to put an end to sin and crush it under His feet. The preacher also highlights the importance of being a holy and cleansed people in order to be part of God's conquering plan. The sermon references the story of Moses and the Israelites receiving manna from heaven, emphasizing the sufficiency and provision of God for His people.

Let's turn, first of all, to Numbers 9. I'm not going to speak of Sinai exactly, but they once tell us that they got to Sinai and stayed there, I believe, a year or so at the leading of the Lord. Sinai was a turning point. It was a turning point. Up till then, they'd been getting farther away from Jesus. After Sinai, they began directly towards Him. God's direct route to the land of promise is a roundabout way. God's direct route. I'd like a positive message, too. God says this, and I'm going to get it. God says we're risen with Christ and we're seated with Him in heavenly places. God says it's done. We're seated there now, so what's all this talk about going into it? God said to Abraham, Arise, Abraham, and walk through the length and the breadth of the land. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon shall be yours. And Abraham walked through the length and the breadth of it, and it is a beautiful land. And he was claiming it for himself, because God says it's yours. The fact remains, till the day of Abraham's death, he never possessed it as such. And the reason he never really possessed it and could make it to be his home, and would say, God called me out of the earth of the colonies and promised to give me a son, to make of me a great nation, and to give me this land. And the reason Abraham did not find it in his heart to claim the promise was because, in view of the way that the Lord had led him, and in view of the many offerings that he had offered unto the Lord, as he wandered through the land, to Shishun, to Bethel, down to the south. Down to the south, notice. Down to the south. Back into Egypt in the time of Sammon, but reproved of the Lord and brought back to the south land again. Back to Bethel. Circling down and up again. And then on to, I forget what was next, but everywhere he went. Erecting an altar unto the Lord, knowing that this is the land that God had given him. So finally he settles in Hebron, a very beautiful land, a very fruitful land. Made that his home. All the while cherishing the fulfillment of God's promise. Abraham, this is your land. Isaac, I have given you as the son through whom all nations shall be blessed. Still, there is something in Abraham's heart that says, I know, Lord, what you said is true. I believe it. But my heart isn't satisfied. There must be something better. How do I get that? Well, when Sarah died and he had to find a burying place for her, he went to, who was it he went to, to buy the plot of ground to bury Sarah in? Tamar? And he says, sell me a piece of land here. Now mind you, this was the country that God had given Abraham. Sell me just enough to bury my wife in. And he said, oh, go ahead, Abraham, you're a great man. We think a lot of you. Go ahead. No, but he said, I can't. And he didn't know why. But Abraham said, I can't do that. I've got to buy it. Because he says, I'm a pilgrim and a stranger here. And so the Holy Spirit picked that up. Something that no natural logic could pick up. But because Abraham and his future descendants, who were also men of faith, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth, that proved that they were looking for a better country. It was in the land that God had given him. But he says, I'm a stranger and a pilgrim in it because he says, this can't be all. There has to be more than that. And there was more than that. Abraham wouldn't see it yet until he'd gone all the way. I trust that in whatever state God finds you right now, you will find it in your heart to go on into the fullness. And that God will never let your heart be satisfied in any gift or any ministry or any blessing or any enlargement that God might give you until you come to the full intention of the desire of God's heart. And because that was the full intention of the desire of God's heart, he would give Abraham the final test. And if Abraham would pass this test, he would draw very nigh under the desire of the heart of God. It was grievous to Abraham when God had said some years before, send Hagar and Ishmael away. For Sarah, his wife, had said, pass out this bondwoman and her son. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. The thing was grievous in the eyes of Abraham, because after all, Ishmael is his precious son. And God had given him, but Isaac had come in the sea. And God says, it's not going to be in Ishmael, it's going to be in Isaac that I will fulfill my promise. Telling you, Eli, that whatever we set our hands to try and fulfill God's work, we're going to spoil it. That's why any altar that was built unto the Lord in the Old Testament had to be built of whole stones. You couldn't take a stone and chisel it nice so it looked nice. Just rough stones that they'd take and pile together, because God says, if you lift your hand upon it, you polluted it. Yet people tell me that the Great Pyramid there is a marvelous altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt, carefully chiseled by human hands. It's a polluted altar if it's an altar to the Lord. Of course, trying to find the word of God in that. One more test that Abraham had to go through. And God had given him everything. He appeared to Abraham and says, Abraham, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and take him up into one of the mountains that I will show you, and offer him there unto me as a burnt sacrifice, without question. The next morning, Abraham prepared for the journey, took Isaac, took the wood, put the fire for the burnt offering. We can't hardly conceive of that. And it's so difficult for God's people, I think particularly difficult for God's ministers, to think that God is saying to lay down something that God himself gave them in answer to his own promise, and perhaps in answer to the prayer of faith God gave it. You ask me to give it back to God. But let me tell you, it's going to take that if we're going to have that full revelation of Christ. So he went up the mountain. You know the story, how he laid out Isaac on the altar, and the intent and purpose to get actually slain Isaac, as the apostle Paul tells us, he had done it in his heart. The work was done, and he had a revelation of the Lord. He had a revelation of the Lord of glory, such as he had never had Shishun, Bethel, Zuniga, Hebron, blessed places that God had led them to. But he'd never had such a revelation of the Lord as the day when he gave back to God everything that God had entrusted to him. It's going to take that to come into that full revelation of the Lord. Jesus said, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. I don't know of any other mountain that Jesus was referring to, but Mount Moriah, and he'd given to God everything, and he saw something better, better than the land, better than Canaan. Better than the possessions that God had given him. For he'd caught a glimpse of the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But you can't really see that vision until you know your Moriah experience. And I'm not here to tell you that you've got to go out and lay everything on the altar, literally sell everything that you have and give to the poor, or whatever. I'm here to say that if you're going all the way with God, you've got to give him everything. If and when and how God might choose to ask you, that's up to him. And so they went south to Sinai. You can't go through that. The brethren have touched on many aspects of it. They were to go north from there, on to victory. But before they could go on to victory, they had to stop at Sania. They had to learn the ordinances of the Lord. They had to be a cleansed people. They had to be a prepared people. All defilement must be put away. Of course, God knew there were sinful people, and so he ordained sacrifices of atonement, that when they sinned, they could bring their sacrifices and be acceptable in the sight of God. God was requiring holiness of his people. He knew they couldn't give it, so he provided the remedy. Because it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin. It wasn't possible. But it covered sin for a season. The new covenant, Christ did what they couldn't do with all those sacrifices. So that that law, which they looked at and trembled when the sounds came forth from shiny eyes, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. There was darkness and blackness and tempest and smoke and fire and quaking of the mountains so that the people ran away. Even Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake that you come to a different mountain, Mount Zion, the city of the living God and the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable host of angels and to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel. To God the judge of all and the spirits of just men made perfect. God is speaking from Zion today. A better mountain, a greater mountain, a more gracious mountain and a more terrifying mountain. See that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refuse his voice who spoke from earth, how shall we escape who hear his voice from heaven? For yet once more saith the Lord, I will shake not the earth only, but the heavens also. Moses and the children of Israel trembled at the quaking of the mount. God says, once more he's going to shake. And this time there's going to be not only the earthquakes, there's going to be heaven quakes. And the purpose of the heaven quakes that are coming is to destroy everything that is shakable. People look at the great and terrible day of the Lord and all they see is the terror of it. It is terrible. It's full of terror, but it's also the great day of God Almighty. When God rises up and says, I'm going to put an end to the reign of sin. I'm going to crush it. I'm going to stamp it under my feet. God's angry. Do you know why God's angry? Because of the desolation that this world system and the religious system is made of God's temple. He says, it's the vengeance of my temple that I'm after. I'm going to avenge my temple. God awakes out of his sleep as a mighty man goes forth conquering, but he's going to do it through a conquering people. And the conquering people have got to be a holy people. A cleansed people. A people who have known and heard and partaken of the righteousness of God. Not at Sinai, but at Mount Zion. And when they go north, they go north with the tabernacle of God. For it was there at the foot of the mount that they received the instructions for the tabernacle that their brother spoke of. Moses told the people to bring something. Some scarlet, some wood, some cedar wood, some precious stones maybe. Bring some brass. And the only brass they had was the looking glasses of the women. So the women brought their looking glasses and they melted that down to make the luber. That instead of looking in the brazen mirror to see how pretty their face was, they would look into the mirror of God's word to see what God thinks of them. And they brought silver and linen. All these different things. And you know, it would take a month to go into it adequately, wouldn't it? But God says, let them build me a sanctuary that I might dwell among them. I know that there's a cry, there's work to do and the end is near. Let's get out there and fight the devil. Let me tell you, you're not going to make any great inroads against the powers of darkness in this world until you pause there at Sinai and learn the ways of the Lord and the judgments of God and the holiness of God. And a tabernacle is constructed for his glory. God is building a tabernacle. According to the pattern in heaven, that was just a very imperfect shadow. But the real temple is the temple that God has designed in the heavens, in which he's manifesting on the earth. A temple not built with hands. A temple composed of living stones of which you and I are the members. See, I don't have much. You don't need much, because this thing that God is going to do is not going to be in some great man. It's going to be in a corporate people. We had a warning of it when they were baptized in the cloud, that here was a people who were baptized in God's spirit. I thought that was Canaan too. It used to be Canaan in early Pentecostal song and testimony. I got the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and so that's Canaan. It was the first step of the journey. The first step of the journey. There had to be much accomplished after that. It was preparation. What a glorious feeling just to feel that mighty cloud of God, just to go right through you in that mighty baptism. And Israel received it in type, but with the most of them, God was not well pleased, and they were overthrown in the wilderness. And so Paul says, the reason I'm referring to that, and the reason I'm referring to the instances in the Old Testament where your fathers perished in the wilderness, was to the intent that you should not lust after evil things as they did, to the intent that you should not murmur as they murmured, to the intent that you should not complain as they complained. That's why it's there for you and I, so that we can learn from what happened to them. But God's commentary is, they didn't know my ways. Because they didn't come to know God's ways, they never come to know the heart of God. So I didn't know, when I mentioned before how I longed for God and wanted to know God, I didn't know it would take a lifetime to walk in His ways to come to know Him. And I don't know Him yet, because now I've discovered it's going to take eternity for me to know Him. But that doesn't discourage me, because God has put eternal life within. And instead of looking upon heaven as a boring place as I used to, goodness, nothing but to walk the golden streets, and I've come to see that this speaks of that city that Abraham saw, whose builder and maker is God. A people in whom God dwelleth, the tabernacle of the Most High, the Bride of the Lamb, the Body of Christ, the Precious Virgin without spot or blemish, that God made for Himself, making a sanctuary that I might dwell among them. Made it for Himself. God says, when you come into Canaan, you're to be a people of inheritance. You're to be my inheritance. Paul prayed that with this spirit of wisdom and revelation, we might come to know what is the hope of His calling. Not your calling. What is the richness of the glory of His inheritance? Not my inheritance. His inheritance in the saints. God's got an inheritance in you. He's got an inheritance in you. Do you know what it cost Him? Everything. Do you know what it cost Him for everything that you can see in the world, everything that you can see in the heavens? Do you know what it cost God? Was it a whisper, John? Whisper. A word. Let it be and it was. Do you know what it cost God to bring forth this creation that He's making out of you and I? Everything. I'm not theological when I mention this, but I don't like to look upon the concept of one, two, three persons. God says, Jesus, you go. So God stayed there, secure in the heavens, in a second went and did the work. And I know that when Jesus hung on the cross, that God the Father was there, feeling every anguish, feeling every pain of it. That the God who created the heavens and the earth says, I'll go down and I'll suffer myself. Because I'm a humble God. How can a humble God walk with a proud people? That's why He's out to make you and I humble. He wants to walk with you. He wants to dwell in you. He wants you to be the house in which He will dwell and live and move and express Himself in the earth and in the heavens. To the intent that in the ages to come, He should show unto the principalities and powers in the heavens. No. To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places, He might make known through the church. The manifold wisdom of God. So God's making a sanctuary. You're all a part of it. I don't care if it's just a piece of red thread or a golden thread or a piece of wood. For this body of Christ that He is making is likened unto the human body. You read 1 Corinthians 11, 12, 13 or 12, 13, 14. Hand can't save the foot. I've no need of you. Ears can't say I've no need of the eyes. The body that God is making. Don't ever think you're going to become this great and mighty Christ in the earth. God wants to join you unto Him and therefore unto one another until this mighty Christ is of a truth revealed and manifested in the earth in a corporate people. So you're the body of Christ and members in particular. And God has tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to those parts which lack. That there be no schism in the body. You know that the reason for schism in the body of Christ is not because you won't come in and form a New Testament church. It's because that people are sitting there in the congregation not being taught, not given the hope that they themselves should be a vital living member in the body of Christ. As long as they come and pay their dues and fill their pew, the preacher can be happy because he's got a whole bunch of people which he calls the body of Christ. And so that minister in his dedication to the Lord and in his commitment to the Lord, so seeks God that he's able to impart the living Christ into that member which is lacking. Try as you will, we're going to have schism in the body of Christ. But there'll be no schism in the body of Christ when every member comes to that place where Christ is enthroned in his heart and life. Where Christ is the sum total of his hope and desires and ambition. And Christ crowds out everything else. Then we're going to find this corporate people, which is the expression of the living Christ in the earth. Which expression is going to, until principalities and powers and heavenly places reveal the manifold expression of God's wisdom. It's no mean inheritance that God has in mind. It's a great inheritance. We call it ours, but it's really his. Because as God finds his inheritance in you and I, so do we find our inheritance in him. The tabernacle, and then on into the wilderness again. Let's turn to Numbers 11. Notice that before we come to Numbers 11, there's another reminder that the cloud of the Lord was leading them. Because we, like the children of Israel, as soon as we get off into that wilderness again, we say, well, what happened? That is so beautiful there, so wonderful. But from here you go into a wilderness. Verse 35, chapter 10. Exodus coming out. Preparation of the tabernacle. Leviticus, the divine order, the divine arrangement, the sacrifices, the manifestation of the holy sacrifices of God to purify and cleanse his people. And then Numbers, where the hosts were numbered for battle. They were all numbered and set in their place for battle. And therefore the cry was, as they marched forth from Sinai, going north to the land of promise, came to pass when the ark set forward, not just the cloud this time, but the ark of his presence, over which the cloud of God hovered, that Moses said, rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee. Let not him that girdeth on his armor boast of he that putteth it off. But we sing this song, and well, it sort of puts the feeling of victory in you, but that's not going to bring the victory. Rise up, O Lord, let your enemies be scattered. Rise, O God, let your enemies be scattered. It gets so faster sometimes I say, rise, scattered. The rest of you are all there, and I'm saying, rise, scattered. But it's a note of victory, because God was leading his people on to victory, but he's leading them into another wilderness. And the people complained, and it displeased the Lord, and the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them. It's a serious thing to begin to partake of the presence of God in the midst of his camp. That cloud becomes a fire. The darkness of your heart rises up against it. That cloud will turn to fire, start to consume the people. Moses prayed unto the Lord, and the fire was quenched. Numbers 11, chapter 4, and the mixed multitude that was among them. The American Spaniard, I think, says, the rabble, the rebellious ones, fell a lusting, and the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt, really, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. And now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all besides this man and before our eyes. I think some of those other versions say, Our soul is dried up and there is nothing at all left except this manna to look at. Nothing but this manna to look at. But the manna wasn't given to look at. The manna was given as God's provision for his people, and it was a provision that provided absolutely every need that they had. Every need that they had was in the manna. The manna was a coriander seed, a very small seed. The color thereof was the color of the delium, which I understand was white. People went about and gathered it, ground it in mills, beat it in the mortar, baked it in pans, made cakes of it. The taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. When the Jew fell upon the camp at night, the manna fell upon it. Another place it says it is small and white like the hoarfrost. The Jew would come down during the night and the manna would settle on it, and then the Jew would evaporate, and there was manna. He couldn't understand it. All it did was raise questions. Why? What? So they named it, what is it? That's what they named it, manna means what is it. But Dr. Strong says it also has the thought of how and why. And God's people in trial and testing and wilderness life are always asking questions. Why, Lord? How? Why did you do this? You told me you were leading me to Canaan. Why? How? Why are you so quiet, Lord? Why don't you answer my prayer? How long, oh Lord, David said, read the book of Psalms. Full of questions. God's people have not been able to understand the purpose of his leadings. So he gave them manna, strange food. Took a lot of work to gather it. It wasn't like popcorn that you could just gather. Like coriander seeds, very small. They had to stoop down to get it. And they'd get a couple of quarts of it, maybe, for one man. And some would get more than they needed, others less. So they would share it so that he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. So there was full, there was sufficiency for the whole camp. As it should be in the body of Christ. For they were now a corporate people, and God was taking the corporate people into the land of promise. That's why I'm identified with the corporate people. That's why I don't have a ministry when I'm not identified with the corporate people. I'd like to. I wanted God just by my own seeking. I would have got it if I could have. I tried. I like people, but not that much. I'd sooner find God for myself. God wouldn't let me, nor would he let me minister freely to a people who did not see or desire this vision. So it isn't that I just figured, well, I'll sit down, I'll wait, and somewhere down the line, maybe. No, I am as dry as a haystack if there isn't an anointing on myself or on the people to whom I minister. Strange bread. But Paul said it's a spiritual food. Spiritual bread. And that was wilderness bread. Turn to Deuteronomy 8. Can I borrow a watch? Mine stopped. I don't know if the Lord did it or not. Deuteronomy chapter 8. We've come to Deuteronomy now. Numbers, ready for battle. But Deuteronomy, Moses has to die because he had provoked the Lord himself. When on the second occasion where they needed water, God said to go to the rock. This time God told him to speak to the rock, not to smite it. And for that act of disobedience, Moses was barred from the land of promise. It was, he was baptized. The people of Israel were baptized unto him. And whatever happened to them, Moses had to share their fate. Not to say that he didn't deserve it. He did deserve it. Because he provoked the Lord. And God says, because you didn't believe me. The sins of those who stand in the place of leadership are much more serious in the sight of God than those who are partaking of ministry. Much more serious. God says, I'm barring you from the land of promise for that. That was hard on Moses. But he had a wonderful heart, you know. God says, you get Joshua, lay your hands on him and anoint him and encourage his heart to take the people in. But you go die. How would you like that? You can't go in, you've been disobedient. But see that young man there? You go and encourage him and teach him. You know God's ways. And how would you like that? Moses accepted it. I know it was a sin. But it was their sin that rubbed off on him. For Paul tells us that Moses was faithful in God's house. And God cherished in his heart a wonderful secret. That one day Moses would stand with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Along with Elijah on another mountain. Many centuries down the road. And would converse with the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the death of the Lord Jesus. What Moses and Elijah had anticipated all through their ministry. So he didn't actually lose out in the long run. He was faithful. Their rebellion rubbed off on him. Moses regretted that. He repented of that. He was sorry. But God said, I'm not changing my mind. But I'm not telling you, I've got something better. Deuteronomy chapter 8. So the key word of Deuteronomy is remember. Remember. Remember all the way the Lord has led you. Remember how when you came down to Sinai. And God says, now it's time to go up and take the land. There's only 11 days to Cades Barnea. That meant 12 days from Sinai. They could have been in the land of promise. We're not going to deal with that. But they failed God and murmured and complained. And their hearts were turned aside because of the report of the spies. And they wanted another 38 years in the wilderness. But they had to come back because God had already sworn with an oath. I'm going to bring in your children that you said you couldn't bring in because they weren't able to stand it. They wouldn't have the power. They wouldn't be able to stand up. God says, I'll make them stand and you die in the wilderness. And God did it. Not because they were better, but because God has sworn with an oath. If you people won't go in and you say, because your children, my children can't take it, my children can't stand it. God says, I swear by myself, I'll bring your children in. And you go ahead and die. He did. Moses says, remember. 8 verse 2, Thou shalt remember. All the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humbly led thee. A lot of it was wandering. But he's talking now to another generation. No man there over the age of 58, except Caleb and Joshua. It does all that we're 20 years old and under. 38 years before we're going to, 20 years old and over, 38 years before we're going to perish in the wilderness. And so there's a new generation that needed to remember some of these things. And God tells us why he led us in the wilderness. It was to humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether thou would keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and he suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna. Now that doesn't sound right, does it? He suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not. And so they called it manna, which means what is this thing anyway, that you didn't know, neither did your fathers know. He fed you with manna and caused you to hunger. And so what did they say to Moses when they came to this place which the Lord had sought out as a resting place? They said, our soul loathes this light manna. We can't stand it anymore. Our soul is dried up with nothing here but this manna to look at. God had provided everything they needed, but he did not satisfy a longing that God provided along with the manna. He did not satisfy their hunger. They ate it, they were still hungry. They'd fill up so they couldn't take any more. Two quarts of it every day. What's for breakfast? Manna. Dinner? Manna. Supper? Manna takes. Grind it in mortars, make meal, bake biscuits. Precious food. They'd fill up on it, but they were still hungry. Do you know why? Because God prepared it in heaven. Do you know the only thing that is hindering God's people from going on with him is the lack of hunger? That God has every provision for every longing of the human heart. But if there's no hunger, there's no way that God can feed them. And if they do not partake of the hunger that God provides in the manna, with rebellious hearts, they'll try to find it somewhere else instead of realizing, Lord, I know I'm hungry, but what's this all about? Do you know that this was corn from heaven? Do you know that this was angel's food? Which another one translates, the bread of the mighty. God said in heaven, I've got a people down there in the earth, and they're so weak and helpless and so insufficient. I'm going to feed them with the kind of bread that you angels partake of. And he sent some of it down to earth in the form of manna. They didn't know what it was. They didn't know what it was for hundreds of years until Jesus came in the scene and said, I'm the bread of life. Apparently, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven, that a man might eat thereof and not die. Prepared in heaven, corn of heaven, totally sufficient. Verse four, thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. What are we partaking of in the church? When we partake of the same diseases as they have in Egypt, the same afflictions as they have in Egypt, you say, well, of course, we're part of their society. God's people were called out of Egypt, and God says, if you walk with me and follow my ways, I will not lay upon you the diseases of the Egyptians. And there was provision for physical, spiritual health in the manna. But instead of deriving that strength that God had imparted from this bread of the mighty, they didn't allow the manna to fulfill its purpose within them. And in creating that hunger, they didn't know, they didn't learn that God created that hunger, that that hunger might reach out after God. He suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. They didn't learn that. They didn't know the manna. What is it? They never learned. They never discovered. God's provision for every need, but it didn't meet their carnal appetite. It didn't satisfy their carnal appetite. Give us flesh, they said. Give us flesh. God heard their crying and said, I'll give them flesh, Moses. I'll give them so much that they'll be a month eating it. Moses said, Lord, if we slew all the flocks and herds, you couldn't do that. God says, you're going to see whether my word will come to pass or not. God caused a wind from the east and the south and blew in the quail and surrounded the camp. It says two foot high, not meaning they were piled that high, but they flew two foot high, two cubits, about that height, three feet. Instead of stooping down for the manna, little grains and filling their little cartons, they just reached out and grabbed those quail, wrung off their neck and piled them up till the man who gathered the least amount gathered 65 bushels. While the flesh was still between their teeth, before they'd even swallowed it, the plate of the Lord fell and consumed them in the wrath of God. In this place, which God had ordained as a place for the resting of his people, for when they departed from the mount of the Lord, three days' journey, the ark of the Lord went before them in the three days' journey to search out a resting place for them. The place that God had designed to be a resting place became Kibra Hetava, the graves of longing, the graves of desire. And they were buried at Kibra Hetava. The manna will produce a crisis in your life. It's not going to meet every desire of your heart, either in the natural or in the spiritual. So, you're either going to run from the manna, that provision from God in the wilderness, Lord, I'm still hungry, but Lord, it's only you I want. Or you're going to learn that I don't want that stuff. I don't want to look at that stuff anymore. I want quail. I want something else to satisfy my hunger. The revelation of the heart of man, I'm telling you, is something that can be very fearful. You won't know it's in your heart until the test comes. When the test comes, you'll be afraid. You'll wonder, where did that come from? God says it was there, but you didn't know it. I don't boast that I've been waiting 30, 40 years for something. I could see how I could have so easily fallen at Kibra Hetava. Very easily. And there are many people today who are walking skeletons at Kibra Hetava, who once knew the power and the anointing of God, because when that desire was there, it was not purged and cleansed. Instead of casting away the enticements of the world, saying, Lord, I'm hungry, but I know I can only find it in you, and that's what the manna was intended to do. He desired something else and found Scripture to support it. For anything you want to do, you can do it. I mean, you can find Scripture for it. And God might let you do it. I remember this man, very notable, healing evangelist. When he came across that Scripture, he says, in John, where it says, above all things thou should prosper in being healthy. He said, that changed my whole outlook in life. And he claimed prosperity. Today, God forbid that I should judge, you see a walking skeleton in the great plots of Kibra Hetava, because he did not allow the Lord of glory to refine his desires and so purge them, that there be no place for fleshly desire, but only a desire for him. How many have fallen on Kibra Hetava because of unholy desire. I got your watch. I just want to bring out a few thoughts from Matthew chapter 4. Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Mark says he was driven into the wilderness. That he was literally thrown into it. Jesus, the Son of God, could not, though he was anointed with the Holy Spirit, come out of the waters of Jordan with a mighty anointing to go forth to heal the sick and raise the dead and cast out devils and loose the prison bonds and set the prisoners free. The Spirit thrust him into the wilderness. You can't go out and do that until you're in the wilderness. To be tempted of the devil. Because if you're not tempted of the devil in the wilderness, you're not going to survive the wilderness and you're going to come out opposed to God and his throne like Lucifer did of old, who, when once utterly dependent upon God, for he had no bread but the bread of the mighty, which meant utter, total dependence upon God, says, I'll cut that lifeline. I will be like the Most High. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he uttered, I'm hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, when you're hungry, the tempter comes. When you eat of the manna, you're hungry. It doesn't satisfy your hunger. It fills you up. You're still hungry. The tempter came and says, you're hungry? You're the Son of God? Take this stone and make it into bread. But he answered, and in his answer he quoted what Moses declared to be the intention of the manna, that God caused thee to hunger and fed thee with manna, that you might know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Jesus quoted that. When he was hungry, like they were in the desert, he could have done it. He could have taken that stone and turned it into bread. And who would accuse him? He was hungry and his fast was over. What would have been wrong? Only one thing. It wasn't the voice of the Heavenly Father, it was the voice of the tempter. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The devil takes them up into the holy city and sets them on the pinnacle of the temple and says unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone. He could have done that. He had power. He would be tempting God. I could cast myself down here from the wing of the temple and all the crowds milling around in the temple would receive me as the Messiah with shouts of triumph. Here has come our Messiah down from heaven. He'd be tempting God if God didn't tell him to do it. He'd be testing God. What some preachers are telling their people to do, to test God, you're not supposed to do that. Let God test you, don't you test him. And again he quoted a scripture from way back there at Massa and Meribah. Moses said, Thou shalt not test the Lord thy God. And he took them to a high mountain and showed them all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and said unto them, All these things will I give thee if thou will fall down and worship me. Then said Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Again, a quotation from Deuteronomy. For a people whom God would bring into this marvelous land, let me just say regarding this land, it's that area that God wants to develop within the wilderness of your life. God wants to so invade the wilderness areas of your life that in every faculty of your being, the living God is revealed and expressed, manifesting his glory. Not to make you someone great, but to humble you, to make you so small that except in union with the body of Christ, you're just a feeble member, but in union with the vast body of Christ, you're that new creation of God, destined of the Lord to be the greatest creative work that he'd ever performed. So, people talk about temples over there. Forget it. He's building a temple not made with hands. Stephen, we're stoned for saying something that I'm saying, that they wouldn't accept it. God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. You're the temple that God's going to dwell in. When God finds the temple that he wants to dwell in, it can't be anybody else, it can't even be angels, it can't be archangels, because you only are compatible with his nature, because you only are made in his image. One day God is going to put on display the crowning masterpiece of his creation, the church of the living God, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the inheritance of the most high, the people in whom he has desired to express the very fullness of God. May the Lord bless you today, if you will hear his voice. Harden not your heart. We thank you, Lord, for your precious word this afternoon. Our hearts are warmed by it. We're warmed and warned. Lord, we don't want to harden our hearts. We want to be drawn aside to you, how we love you, how we worship you. Thank you for having our brother deliver his soul. We receive it, Lord. We receive it. Folks, just stand a minute and receive his word right now, Lord. We've got to hear what you're saying today. There has to be a people today. Don't harden your heart. And Lord, that means don't let your heart drift, don't let your mind drift, but focus on this truth. Holy Spirit, I don't want to miss it. I want to move in on your heart. I want to know you. I want you to know me. Bring that out of this place today. A people who know you, the people who desire you above everything on earth. God bless you. Folks, will you be, will you come back tonight ready to, I mean, just have a glorious time with the Lord? You know what the Lord's doing for you? He's making you love his word more than you've ever loved it. Creating a hunger and a thirst for his righteousness too. Have a good meal. See you at 7.30, 7.30, right back here, Sharp, please.