In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the story of the four men who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus. He emphasizes the importance of having friends who believe and can take action on behalf of those who are unable to do so themselves. The speaker also mentions a time when he preached for nearly six hours at a conference, highlighting the hunger for God's word that existed in the past. However, he laments that nowadays people seem more interested in praise sessions and having God hear what they say rather than listening to what God says. The sermon concludes with a reference to Moses writing down the words of the Lord, highlighting the significance of the covenant and the commandments given by God.

I want to come with you into the book of Exodus again. You will remember that last night we finished up where we did, because we've been reading in that sixth chapter. I want to come into the chapter 24 this morning, and in the fourth verse you will notice that Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and so far as we know that was the first writing of scripture ever put down. When you open your Bible you start at Genesis, but Genesis was written, I am persuaded, much later, of course, during Moses' lifetime. He started not with the record of creation, but with the record of the covenant, which starts in chapter 20. God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Hallelujah. Praise the name of the Lord. They were the first words of inspired writ. God, Moses, wrote them down. Afterwards the revelation continued, and of course, Genesis was put in the place that it should hold, speaking of creation, bearing in mind an age of skeptics that would be born in the 20th century, and of course earlier. And it's a wonderful thing to read the revelation in sequence, but when it started, God didn't tell them about creation. I sometimes get a little bit worried when I hear so many choruses on about God being the great creator, and so on, and so on, and so on. Of course he is. Of course he is. But the greatest thing is, beloved, that he is a God who has entered into covenant with mankind, and that's the thing that Moses had to write. Amen. He wrote down the 20th chapter of Exodus, the 21st chapter of Exodus, the 22nd chapter of Exodus, the 23rd chapter of Exodus. Amen. That's a tremendous thing. But let's start at the beginning of chapter 24, verse 1. God says to Moses, come up unto the Lord. Oh, hallelujah. What an invitation. What an invitation. How about it? Are you coming up to the Lord this morning? No? Come up unto the Lord. Glory be to his wonderful name. Amen. It's all right to come out. I've brought thee out of the land of Egypt. I have brought thee out from under the burdens. I have brought thee out of the house of bondage. Glory be to the name of the Lord. They're all connected, burdens, the house of bondage, and the land of Egypt. If you're in Egypt, that is, in the world, you will be bound by the God of the world. It doesn't matter how you may think you are not, as surely as you are worldly in, to the degree to which you are worldly, to the degree to which you accept worldliness into your life and into your home, to the degree, degree that you copy the fans, the stars, the great ones of this world, in dress, in language, in decoration. If it be that, I call it distortion. If, as far as then, to that degree you are worldly, you and I are to be in this world. We can't be anywhere else, and thank God we are. This is where we had to come to hear the gospel. Amen. And remember, when the blood was shed, it was split shed in the world, in Egypt, when redemption was brought into being, it was brought in the world to bring them out of the world. That's fundamentally what it was all about. You say it was to bring them out of sin. Strange enough, you'll never find the word sin in Exodus 12. In Exodus 12 there's no talk about sin. Did you know that? It seems you didn't. It seems you didn't. That is because we follow the line of popular preaching and with a New Testament content in our thinking. But when you read through scripture, you will not find God mentions sin at all. So it seems that God says, I have come into the world to purchase you and bring you out of it. For as sure as you stay in the world, you're going to be in sin to whatever degree you're in it. I'll keep that clear. You are to be in it, but not of it to any degree. That's a tremendous sin. That's what the Lord Jesus says. That's not my idea. At least it has become my idea. I have adopted it since Jesus said it. And it's a tremendous thing for us to understand it. And it's a wonderful thing to be out in this degree. But beloved, you and I are to see that there are greater things even than that. How long we stop torturingly, taking our little steps, inwardly groaning, think we're doing something wonderful. An elder comes along, of course we all need encouragement, and they stroke the nice damn thing, you're doing very well lovey, you're doing very well, and of course we're needing that. But beloved, to be turned wholeheartedly onto the scripture, ah I fear this is where the lack lies. To be turned scripture into scripture loose, or to turn the scriptures loose on you, is the function of every true man of God. It is not to temporize with your foibles or ideas, it is to declare plainly what the truth is. Hmm, wonderful. The truth is here. This is the written truth of God, and God wants us to enter into it. And God is not satisfied just to get people out of the world, and just not satisfied to do miracles for them. Wonderful isn't it? God did miracles upon miracles, and still he hadn't talked to them about sin. You'll find it if you read through Exodus. This is because they were so embedded in sin, and sin was so much their nature, and this is why they groaned and moaned and told lies about God to redeemed people. Told lies about God, and they did all sorts of things. They didn't sort of willfully set out on a line of defamation of his character. It was stupid, because they lived in their circumstances, and everything got done. Of course, they were born in sin like the rest of us, and the revelation was coming very, very gradually unto them, step by step. And God did a miracle, but oh how deep they still were in sin. You know, it's like that today. God does miracles for people, and they can sing and dance and shout, and they're all encouraged to, and why shouldn't they? And still they find they've got this deadly thing inside. Sin. Sin. A miracle on your body doesn't get rid of your sin. You do understand that, don't you? A miracle of deliverance, say, setting you free from, let's say, the eagle of nicotine, which is an eagle, and you're destroying your body with it, doesn't get rid of your sin. It's just broken a habit. That's all it has done. The Lord wants us to see, and of course, by these things, as you, if you like to think of it this way, we are guided in a sort of assigned posts to a greater glory, a more wonderful demonstration of power. And God says, oh it's got to be more than this, more than this, more than this. Amen. And so God says, hmm, you come up to me, Moses. Hallelujah. Now Moses had had a wonderful revelation at the burning bush, where the glory of the Lord came down to earth. Do you know the story? He saw the bush flaming with the presence of God. Fire there, and how he had to come near, and God spoke to him, and all the rest that we referred to last night. But now God says, look, I've come down to you, Moses, now I want you to come up to me. All right? I've come down to you, now I want you to come up to me for a something more wonderful that I have in mind for my people. You'll excuse me putting words into the mouth of God, I am but a poor human being. I gather you up into my thinking, if you will come. And here then is the glory and the wonder of the Lord. He says, come up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship ye afar off. Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they, that is, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, they shall not come nigh, neither shall the people go up with him. God's very clear. Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments, and all the people answered with one voice, and said, all the words which the Lord has said we believe. Did he say that? More. We will do. Amen. Just to distinguish the great gap there lies between believing and doing. That's the present. It couldn't help thinking this morning when the requests were brought for prayer about dear old brother Love. I know what I mean by old, that's an affectionate term. I believe he's younger than some people in the room, but there he is. I taught us him, and we're well, well away from him. I don't immediately think that I'm going to say that God's power can't work from afar. Of course it can. We can pray for people here, and a miracle happens in Australia, or something like that. That's the great glory of God, because it encircles the earth in a flash. What a marvelous truth it all is. But my mind went to this, that great incident in the New Testament, you will know it, of those four men who brought their friend in a bed to the Lord, and it says that when he saw their faith, I'm jumping about in the story a bit, uh which, by the way, please don't only apply to the four that brought him. There was a fifth there he had faith too. It's great for a man who's poorly, and really unable to do something for himself, that he has some friends who believe with him, and aren't poorly, and can do things. Hallelujah! The infidels that can believe, and yet can't do anything, it's grand that they have friends who are potent, and full of power, and can do something. Amen! That all faith should combine, and things should be done, for this is what you read. At the moment when the bed came down through the roof to the feet of Jesus, listen, you may say, well how in the world could they break through a roof, and drop the bed right down to the feet of Jesus? Faith will always come to Jesus. It holds like that. True faith will reach Jesus wherever he is, even if you're breaking through in the dark. Even if you've got veils over your eyes, if you've got a roof between, or a world between, or the devil between, faith gets always on the spot. Amen. Right down to the feet of Jesus. The next word is this, when he saw their faith. Well it was all action, it's what they'd done. They did this, they did that, they did the other. He wasn't looking for their belief. Belief and faith aren't the same. We may think they are. I know that they're very closely joined in the truth. I know that. But this is where we get, get, we take a thing, and we believe, and they are furious, and they're all furious, until they're put into action, when he saw their faith. It was all work, work, work, work. They got hold of him, brought him, carried him, got up on the roof with him, saw the roof open, dropped him into the midst, and that's what Jesus called faith. His eyes weren't searching their hearts to see whether their motives were right, or this, which this, and that, and the other, of course, his eyes do see all our hearts. He saw what they had done. That's right. And uh, he did something then, and I thought about that this morning, that dear Burt Lowe, you know, we could just present him to Jesus, get hold of him. I wonder whether you did. Whether you got hold of his bed, or what it was, and you just brought him to Jesus. I wonder that you did. Jesus does arrest them. You're not struggling to hang on, I wonder if he will, I wonder if it will happen, I wonder if we'll have to carry him back home again on his bed. They weren't wondering about that. There were no wrists, and there were no butts, there was no alternative but healing. None, when they did the work. Alleluia. You know, you can read Paul's phrase, the work of faith. The work of faith. Not works, but the work of faith. Faith which makes you do something, and not sit there, or stand there, saying, I believe, I believe. You see, that's the whole thing, and it's a great and glorious thing to do. When you see, I know that we can bury this whole talk about faith, and get many aspects of it, but this is what got hold of my heart this morning, that brings dear Burt Lowe to Jesus. Amen. Wonderful, isn't it? All right. You see, you see, Moses was called out into the presence of God, and he said, you can bring all these others with you, Moses, you can do that. But you, because God wanted to give another revelation to his people, it's always like this. I want to speak to you, preachers, teachers, leaders, elders, you that stand up and give words, you have tremendous responsibilities. The people will never get revelation if you don't get it first. You understand that? The grinding repetition of the old, old thing. Now, I know that nothing gets old in eternity, and that the longest stored wine is the sweetest, or at least he has the greatest to pay, I believe. I am not an expert in that realm. I have never been wined and dined, and will never be, and I'll never take men out and wine and dine them in order to coerce them into my group. You know, in quotes. Here is the greatest glory of God, beloved, that we move without bribery, and we move on a line of set truth, and we don't hold faith hostage to worthiness. We move on the realms of God, and in the end you go along. That's why I ought to be preaching to the Brethren conference, it's going to follow this. I don't know. But here, then, is the truth. Moses had to grow up and get a fuller revelation of God's power. I say, oh God, give us men of this caliber. Oh God, give us men that would give up everything. Moses had long before the children of Israel given up their worldliness, and the world had to give them up. He had long ago forsaken the land of Egypt. Long ago. He may not have forsaken it in honor. He may not have forsaken it in the way that we should have liked. But he did it, and he chose rather than riches and money and prosperity. I hope you've all got your ears wide open. He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, and he wanted none of the treasures of this world. He didn't want its gold. He didn't want its silver. He didn't want its accolades. He didn't want its position. He didn't want anything that this world could confer upon him, for he knows that everything that comes along this line comes painted by Satan. All the lot of it. And it will destroy. It cannot help but destroy even inanimate things that are amoral and have no power, we think. There is a power that directs them. There is a hand that gives them to you. There is an authority under which all these things function. The powers that be are ordained of God, but the wrong people are occupying the power. That's the thing that's wrong. The very power that Satan uses was originally ordained and gifted by God, but he has prostituted his power. He has gone wrong, and he has not so much usurped the position as carried on in that thing, and he's using it to the destruction of himself and everybody else. That's what he's doing. I didn't intend to say all that. You see what I mean by people trying to get more from this side? Let's go on. Here in this great and glorious way that God has elected to lead his people, Moses, as you see in verse 2 as we've read, he had to go alone in the end. Brave soul that he was, I point it out to you presently, and it says that Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments, and all the people answered with one voice, and probably he would have been standing among them and said, oh hallelujah, we're all at one! Isn't it marvelous? Thank you, thank you Lord, you see. That's what you would have said. Tremendous emotional release, glory to God. Most people I know need emotional release. It's where it goes to when it's released. That's the thing. And it says this, they answered with one voice all the words which the Lord has said we will do, and Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. May I put in something that is not in the text but is manifestly true? That is that the words of the Lord had spoken to him so far. For you will know that the Lord spoke many, many, many more words to him. There's much more in the law than is contained in the 20th and 21st, 22nd and 23rd chapters of Exodus, as you will very well know. But he wrote it down, glory, and he did it with a purpose. I don't suppose, I don't know, I'll ask him myself when I see him. I'm going to see him, you know, one day, or one eternity, I'm not quite sure. But here is the great thing. I'm going to ask him a lot of things that I still want to know. I want to know more things than I know, but you may know better than the things I know. Let's, let's, let's go right on. And it says this, he rose up when he'd done that, when he'd done that. It says he got up early in the morning, fancy staying up all night writing that down, and then being up early in the morning. What a man he was. You're a dummy, aren't you? About when people say, oh dear, yeah, that's what you'll be saying, won't you? Are you a man or half a man? That's what I want to know. Praise the name of the Lord. You can train your body which way you want to train it, did you know that? I won't give illustrations, that wouldn't be fair. And he rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. What's he going to do with the other half? He put half of the blood on the altar, not all of it. Keep that clear. Not all of it. The other portion was reserved for another purpose, just as important. And we forget the importance of the other side, which in the end is the only thing that makes the blood on the altar useful to us. Leave out this part, and the other part is no good to you, will be your condemnation. Here then is the great and glorious truth. He took the book of the covenant, he stayed up writing it. He took it fresh, before may I say the ink was dry, you will understand what I mean, almost. And he presented it to the people, and he read it. First he told them in their ears, then he read it to them, and confirmed what he said. Glorious! And I want you to know this, that the written word was confirmation of the spoken word. You keep that clear. Since the word has been written, the spoken word has got to be a confirmation of the written word. Amen. That it works, and it is true. In the mouth of two witnesses, the written word and the mouth that speaks it, coming through from God. Here then is the truth. He read it in the audience of the people, and they said, all that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient. And be obedient. Obedience is something that's absolutely hated in these days. Greece even had it deleted from the marriage service. That's why our dad sent one, it'd go right there. I won't conduct a marriage service if you want that deleted, so don't ask me. Amen. Here then is the great and glorious truth, for it isn't only women who should be obedient. What a tremendous truth it is. This word obedience is obnoxious in the ears of so many so-called spiritual Christians. You see, the word obedience implies that you're doing as you're told. That's right. It implies that you have responded to a commandment, please take this into your heart, and not to a call. This magic word call. People say, well I don't feel called to do that. I asked you last night, did you feel called to watch out? It sounds funny doesn't it? But I mean it. I mean it. Every, you see, you elevate a person, you exhort them, if you give them a call, please will you come, would you like to come? You see, and in your majesty you like to say, oh yes, I'll respond to the call. You love it don't you? You're a king, you're a queen. Oh how you love it. Then you've never been reached yet. You're to do it as told. Everybody, it's a magic word. Do you feel called to the mission field? Do you feel called to this? Do you feel called to do that? That's why I like that verse, I like that hymn. You know, stand up for Jesus you soldiers. Now there's one thing that soldiers do not get. Calls. They get commandments. Where duty calls, or danger, I'm going to be there, I'm not going to wait for call, usually I should go there. Oh lord, oh I'm going to pray about it. Shittleskips. You don't know what prayer is, and you don't know the grounds upon which it exists. That's the tragedy. It might be the tragedy in every fellowship represented here. You don't feel called to clean chairs. You don't feel called to do this. You don't feel called to work with the baby. You don't feel called. Now, if you're not able, you're not able. That's understood. But don't hide behind this word called. Everybody that knows, including these, sees right through that. The art of success, I'll ask Norman, I'll ask every real man of God in this room. The art of success in the ministry is getting up and doing things you don't feel called to do. Am I right or wrong? That's right. Oh I'm called to wait on God, says a man, when there's so much work to be done. I'm called to get off into a quiet place. Yeah, listen, let me tell you a story. I recently, I don't know whether I'll get down to this, recently I was in Zimbabwe. Lovely place. I can't understand why everybody doesn't want to go and work in Zimbabwe. Great, marvellous place. All right. I was called to go out to lunch one day, away from the Miva farm. This sir was a call, an invitation. Nobody commanded me to go to the lunch. I went. There's one purpose in life, to have lunch. No, particularly to talk about the law. I went. Oddly, people that asked me to go, they were Christians. The only Christians in Zimbabwe do not live on a Miva farm, you understand that. They're dear ones, and we had a nice lunch, and at lunch the hostess said, I've got something I want to say to you. So, I said, well, what is it? She said, I'm ashamed really to say it. I said, never mind. She said it was quite public, and there were about six or seven of us around the table. I didn't think it was anything that shouldn't be said, at least in semi-publicity, and she began to say, well, it's about the farm. And away she went, and again she repeated, I'm almost ashamed to tell you about it, but I feel I must. So, I listened politely, and she said, you see, when your people, I don't know why they call them my people, but I suppose I'm sort of a reference point. She said, when your people came out here, they said that God had sent them, and they felt the call of God upon them, and she said, when we heard it, we said to one another, hmm, well, we'll wait and see. And she said, I'm ashamed to say this, but it's true. Didn't we refer to her husband? We said, yes. You see, we had so many people that come out here, being sent by God to do a work in Zimbabwe, from this place to some other place, and they got started, and then when the things got hard, and when the droughts came, and when the difficulties came, they got a call somewhere else. We admire your people, she said, unsolicited testimonial, someone who doesn't come to the farm much, but he said, if they could, they'd send all the children on their estate to be educated there. That's what they told me. She said, we admire them, they've gone through, they've stuck it, they live down there. It's ever so easy to imagine and conjure up a call to somewhere. These were people saying they were baptized in the Spirit, and filled with the Holy Ghost. So they are, till the difficulty comes. That's the prejudice. You see, what a tremendous seed it is. All right, we will be obedient, we will do what the Lord says, we will, every word we will. That's right, they were spelling out their own failure from a heart that was built up on miracle upon miracle, without their spirits being changed in them. This is the tragedy. Not that the miracles shouldn't have taken place, hallelujah, God did them. But what's the result when something wonderful happens in your life? Isn't an explosion into a great shout of hallelujah, praise the Lord, and we're all lifted up and excited by it, and we join in this yet another, or is it a heart, beloved, that's saying, oh God. I sometimes think that the mouth that says nothing is greater than the mouth that says a lot of things that they don't really mean, or things that they just speak out of momentary excitement. Bless the name of the Lord, amen. Even God had to do something greater than speaking. He had to make the word he spoke become flesh, he had to do it. That's God. The word had to be worked out in flesh. Glory be to God. Salvation came from that, it won't come from anything else, nothing. Now what a glorious thing it is. Let's go on. Here we're reading the truth. Moses, verse 8, took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which God hath made with you, not just out of the goodness of his heart, though it was that, but concerning all these works. That's the covenant. God's only made a covenant with you concerning all the things that he has said. That's all. Even the new covenant, God never changes on the basis of covenant making to whatever people he makes them, or in whatever form he makes them. Glory be to the name of the Lord. We can be sure of him. Then this great word, trust, came up this morning. Oh, trust, what a word is trust. Trust means that you're not struggling to believe anymore. Trust means that you're not always invading God's mind with this, that and the other, that you trust and you'll know. Hallelujah. Knowledge is beyond belief. Did you know that? It's beyond belief. Trust is beyond faith. Trust is that into which faith should bring you. Amen. Trust is rest. Trust leads me so that I don't fret anymore. Trust instates me in the security of God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Trust, trust leads me asking God for none of these things. Like Jesus said when he rose from the dead, or just before he went to the cross, he said, in the day that you see me, that's after the resurrection, you won't ask anything. How about that? Have you ever read John's Gospel? You will not ask me a thing. How about that? Well, how about it? In relationship to what you call your prayer life, what a wonderful and glorious thing it is to meet a trustful person, not just someone who can be trusted in, but are full of trust in their own estate. How worried I don't get at all. They don't keep badgering on any of these lies that are supposed to be a testimony of faith. They trust. Amen. Trust is something that somehow holds all the promises and commandments of God in its hands. It's wonderful. I can't explain it. If you can stand up, please, and tell me, and my heart will know whether you're saying the truth or not. Trust has no worry. Trust doesn't fret. Oh, we expect a bright tomorrow, don't we? Amen. Glory be to God. What it is? Substance. Reality. It's an impartation from God. It's of his being, of his inspiration, of his thinking, of his attitude, who and what he is. Trust. This is how Father and Son and Holy Ghost exist together. Word. Where is it? In the churches. Now may the Lord lead us on. He says this, this is the blood of the covenant. Behold it, he says. Behold it. Where? On the altar. Some of it. On me. Look, it's sprinkled on me. It's all over me. I've got the blood. See it? See it? Amen. Personal contact. The application of the blood pillar. Amen. Conscious of it. How can you not be? So that you don't have to plead it anymore. It's on your clothes, man. It's on your woman. How can you need to plead it? Plead it? There's one who's pleading. His name is Jesus. That isn't to say you shouldn't learn to intercede. That's another point we may come to at the I don't know. Here is the glory of the realization. Here is the confidence of prayer. Here is the confidence of intercession. Here is the knowing. Yes. Sprinkled on your man, on your woman. This will take panic out of your soul. This will take the threatfulness out of your being. This will bring you to rest. It'll shut your mouth and open your heart. That's what it will do until you can open your mouth in streams of living glory. Moving out of men and women. Bringing them the reality of God. Not imposing a new idea on them. Not just merely to give them a new insight into Scripture. So the Lord wants us to see the wonder of this thing. I know it was only in an old covenant, if I may say that, but I want to repeat the basis of the old covenant, of every covenant, is the same because both the old covenant and the new covenant are developments, adaptations, and applications of the eternal covenant. In the end there's only one covenant. It may sound strange to you when you've got a book in your hand that says old covenant and new covenant. What a marvelous thing it is. Only then it was outward. I said last night it was impossible for God to show some things under the old covenant. Amen. Can you look inside and see your inner man that never wears trousers or dresses? Can you look inside and see yourself sprinkled with that blood? Can you? Amen. Oh, it's a marvelous thing to know the purpose of God. And when he'd done that, old Moses, verse 8, it says, he went with Aaron, Nagab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they called the God of Israel, and there was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of a shot I suppose, as it were, the body of heaven in his clearness. You may have an inundation in the margin which gives you the very heaven. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand. Isn't that wonderful? Because you've read that no man has seen God at any time. Haven't you? Haven't you? Yeah, that's right. Well, you know, Moses did, only he saw his back part. Did you know that? Especially when you have to meet Jehovah's Witnesses on these kinds of things, all ginned up along their line, wanting to prove that Jesus Christ is God, you see, because men could see it. Simple as that it is, and as banal and ignorant as that. Here is the proof. They went up and they saw God. Now isn't this marvellous? I don't know where you are, to which point you've come. Thank God it lasts as according to last night, we're out of Egypt, and then the bonds have been broken, and you're not bearing the burden, bless God, if you're out. Hallelujah, that's wonderful. But I want to say, to where are you? You see, at the bottom of the mountain you know what was happening, and there are lots of people, they get as far as this. They build an altar, the word is written, they read the written word, there it is, or somebody reads it for them, perhaps half of them couldn't read anyway, perhaps 75%, perhaps 99% of them couldn't read. They hadn't had the education that Moses has had, how wonderfully God prepares a man for it. And then he saw through it all, and he thought it was all a load of rubbish, and thank God, I mean all the things in Egypt, he left those all behind. And he could write, he could read, bless the Lord, and he had done that. He was running, he got the written word, he could have that, you see, wonderful. He could stand around the altar and say, the sacrifice, thank God for the book, thank you Lord for Calvary. He got it, it's all there, bless the Lord to come as far as that. But God says, I want you to come higher. Upon the basis of the bloodshed, upon the basis of the sacrifice, that was all around the bottom, upon the basis of all your knowledge of the altar and everything that's connected with it, will anybody come up higher than that? Will they? You're expecting the elders of every group to go there, those who would be considered the nobles. And as for me, I wouldn't have anybody for an elder unless they did. Not me. You lad, it's surprising to what a low standard we're prepared to move, to drop in these days. Seventy of the elders, in other words there were more than 70, 70 of them, bless God, only as you will know, I don't know how many million or so people there were there, out of that lot, and he chose the 70, Nadab, Dihu, and the great high priest in Shil. And they went up, come on, come up, bless God for the blood, bless God for the blood. Now, I don't want you to see the blood of God, I want you to see the God of the blood, see? On the basis of the blood of God, excuse me using that term, it's upset lots of people, especially when it's been written. But here it is, he says, now upon the basis of the blood, I want you to see me. I touched it last night, remember? I've heard of thee with the hearing of my ear. Thou shalt have no other God before me. And the next thing, you are not to imagine me to be like this or that other. You're not to make a God out of your own heart, an STD of God. Many people are doing this in these days, it would be vain to have one little thing in their home that spoke of accepted idolatry. Now, this is what God is suffering from, wrong projections of him. Excuse me Lord, I know you're not suffering in this sense, but this is the whole truth. People's imaginations of him, what they think he's like, form their experience of him. Trying to size up their experience is what the Bible says, and they don't care. So we make a God of our own, fits into some snug corner inside, a thing we'd never have in the corner of our room in stone or silver or wood. I am unique, says God. You cannot imagine me. You can't. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I'm greater than you know. Here is the Lord, and this is the very place that the gospel comes from, beloved. Greater than we know, greater than I know. That's right. There isn't a person in this room that you think you know. Turn around and have a look at them, and I want to tell you he or she is greater than you know. Well, he's only my wife. He don't, well no, we won't say that. He's only my husband, we'll allow that. Here is the truth. He's greater than you know, man. He's greater than you know, woman. So long you think you know them. Too many people come to me. They've lived with a man or a woman for 10 years, and I thought this, and I thought that, and he was this, and he was that, she was this, he was that, and now, yeah, that's the story of the divorce court. He's greater than you know. On the basis of this, Lord says, thank you, thank you, Jesus, thank you, thank you, Jesus, and it's also wonderful we've never been able to thank him enough, and we don't thank him just by saying we thank him. That's the point. So it's good to teach us to be thankful. I taught my children, say thank you to money. That's right. My children, when asked to do this, they said, yeah, but they couldn't say, I want the jam, please. I said, please, you say, please may I have the jam. That's the way to train your child, and I understand that they put please first. If it comes at the end, it almost comes as a demand. You've got to get the spirit of your children into your hands. You've got to know the ways of the flesh. It's great to be thankful. Wonderful. It's wonderful to say that you're thankful. Where is he, God? He's there. I don't know where I'm going to place him. Let's place him halfway up the mountain, probably. You know, they're there, 70 of them. They saw the God of his wrath. Listen to this. I told myself I'd be through by the time some of you mums had to go out with their children. I'm not too sure. But anyway, there's another day. Here is the hint. This book's so full of truth. How can you read it? How can you read it? Do you know there was a time, I don't want to keep living in nostalgia, but I can remember a conference we had in the early days, no one will remember, when every time I tried to stop, they said, go on, go on, go on, and I finished up preaching for nearly six hours. I had to stop at one period so people could use the necessary places. And then we just started again. What a people. Yes. Amen. The appetite's gone. We want to have praise sessions now. We don't want to know what God says. We want God to hear what we say. That's what praise is. Didn't you know that? Should be. Here then is the truth. It says, they saw this, the streams that were under his feet, and it was clear, clear, clear. Clear. They saw. Knew what they saw. Yes. And it says, and upon these people, that word noble is a great word, means corners, you know. There are lots of cornerstones. All elders should be noble and be a cornerstone. I can't stop on that at the moment. He didn't lay his hand on them. He didn't lay his hand. And they saw God. And then, and then, he sat down on it. And that's as far as they got. Stomach won. Stomach won. The flesh won. God knew who he was speaking with. He knows what's going to win in you. It's all God. You'd have thought they'd have been trustworthy, wouldn't you? I mean, I imagine I really do. But when I see the Lord, I won't be skipping and dancing. I don't know why I do wrong. Perhaps he can correct me. Perhaps you've got, you've got better ideas. When I see God, I might spend the first half of eternity on my face. I don't know. But I see God. Like some of these old Church of England, them Newbellins, we do today, really. Father of Jesus, love's reward. What rapture it will be, prostrate before thy throne, the lion gazes, and gazes, and gazes, and gazes on thee. And your eyes will be the way your spirit is fed. You'll drink in and drink in, and you'll learn more from death than a thousand praise sessions. Let me tell you, that's what they used to write. Hallelujah. Well, they say God inhabits the praises of Israel. Well, of course he does. But do you think that's the only place he lived? That's the tragedy. Short-sightedness. Harping on one thing until the note comes and I get tired of it. You say, don't you like praising the Lord? Well, I hope you see I do. May the Lord open all our hearts and eyes, beloved. You see, they got there, they saw God and sat down in there. And we might read that and say, now, wasn't that wonderful? You know, they even sat down eating, looking at the Lord. Now, wasn't that marvelous? Absolutely marvelous. And so it is. And the Lord said to Moses, come on, Moses, you come up out of this. You come up to me. You come to me. Do you have to be a Moses? Do you have to be a mighty man to get something like this? No, listen. Listen to me. Do you remember what Jesus said about John Baptist? And this includes Moses. Now, listen. He said, a greater than John Baptist has not been born of women. And Moses was born of a woman. So was David. So was Solomon. So were Isaiah and all of them. They were all born of women. And he says, there's not been a greater than John Baptist. It was all focused into that one purpose, one person. And he said, he that's least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Do you think of that? Now, if Moses could have this thing, and this is right from the Bible, how much more will you, how much more come up, Moses, and say, come on. Moses, when you get up the mountain, I'll give thee tables of straw and a law and command that I may teach them. I'm not quite sure whether he's referring to the people or the things that he'd written. I'm not quite sure. Both, I guess. Has anyone really qualified to be a teacher, beloved? It's the one that's gone up to God. Did you know that? That's what it says about elders. Have to teach. And there were people down at the bottom of the mountain, and they said, oh, the blood, the sacrifice. Thank you, Lord, and I'm not mocking. So we should. And there are some people there saying, oh, we've seen God. We've seen God. We've seen God teach. It's all good as far as it goes, Moses. You come up. This is the trouble. So many people are good as far as they go, but, oh, to go beyond, into the beyond. Oh, to go into the higher than which you can go no higher. Here it is. Moses rose up, and his minister, Jesus. You will know Joshua is the Old Testament noun for Jesus. Jesus, in his minority, was under the law of Moses. You keep this very clear. Amen. Until he fulfilled it in his own wonderful way. I just give you preachers a lead for further thought. He went up with Moses. Yeah. So, they went up into the mount of God. They started at the bottom of the mount, which, if I may use the word, was awash with blood. And the smoke of the sacrifice was drifting around. And the twelve pillars stood immovable as stone. There they were. Yeah. That's where it all started. Up, up, up. The seven he said, sing the Lord. I'm hungry, let's have a meal. All right. Wonderful, isn't it? In verse 15, Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. There's a place, my precious brother, my sister, that's blotted out from your view, into which you cannot speak unless you will go. And no preacher can tell you about it, nor properly. The place where you go up into the mount. He was a brave man, for it says this in verse 17, the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of God. So, as though God was looking down saying, come up, Moses, I want to eat you. I want to eat you. I want to devour you, Moses. Oh, I want to fill you with my glory. I want you to be my food. Don't think I'm taking it too far, really. Here is the grave and gloriousness, and he goes up there. Where Joshua was at this point, I don't know. We lose sight of him, but God is telling you that Jesus in his minority was under Moses' law. He was circumcised the eighth day of the month. He went to the synagogue. He read from the prophecy. He went. He did all this. Hallelujah. It was his wont to go. He heard the reading from the Bemar judgment seat every Saturday. He fulfilled it. Glory be to the name of the Lord. And then, as you know, luckily, he comes out in all his glory. Amen. But we're concentrating on Moses at the moment. He's a man just like us. And up he went. Come up, Moses. Six days, the crowd covering the mount, and the glory abiding there. And reading verse 16, the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the crowd. Do you see when God called Moses at this juncture? When he had fulfilled his commandment. When he had obeyed. That's when the call reached him. That's when the glory was available. And he went up into it, and he was there 40 days and 40 nights. And he didn't call out to the elders, please bring me up some food. I'm hungry. I'm a natural man just like you. He left them with their food. He left them with. So many people are so content to be with the things and feed upon the things of their own making and production. Albeit starting from God's original provision, such as corn making bread from it. See, such as wine making drink of water, making wine from it. They're all content with that. It's wonderful. They see, but not beyond the cloud. They see, but not the glory. They think they do. Isn't it glorious that we've seen, we've seen. And they could come down as they did. They all descended the mount. The elders forsook it. You say what? Yes, of course they did. Moses was so long. And you can find them saying at the end, listen, they were all there. Aaron was down there. He'd forsaken his post up the mountain. He couldn't wait. So had her. They'd gathered at Bihu and all the nobles. They'd all forsaken the post and went down. And this was their cry, up Aaron, make us a God. For as for this Moses, we want not what's become of him. His hair, brain, skin, his talk about this. He's going up into the mount. What happened to him? And toward Joshua, who was carried away with his dreaming. But he wasn't dreaming. He knew God. He stayed with God. And when he came down, he found an idol. As for this Moses, we want not what's become of him. Where's he gone? He's gone away beyond us, beyond our sight. He passed into God. He passed into God. He reached the top. He didn't only forsake the treasures of Egypt. He didn't just run away from all worldly things. He wasn't content just to be a savior, if I may put it that way. You know what I mean, small s. He got something in him. I must go. I don't know what his wife thought. I don't know what his children thought. I don't know anything about that. There comes a time when a man doesn't know what his own flesh and blood thinks, or doesn't, and in a sense he doesn't care, or see. They may misinterpret. They may misunderstand. But there's a place I must reach. There's a goal I must attain unto. There's a top that's in the glory. I must go. I hear a call, but you'll never hear it till you keep the commandments. You say, we're not under the Old Testament. I know you're not, but Jesus gave a lot of commandments, didn't he? Oh Lord, is there one man here? Is there one woman here? Beyond the wish of the moment. No. More. No. I can't stay down here at the bottom and say, come to the altar, come to the blood, come to the sacrifice, and come to the sacrifice. Oh, I can't just stay. Demonstration of power. Oh, I can't just stay on that. Wonderful demonstration of. I can't just stay on that. Hallelujah for every. The glory of all what. Hallelujah for every evangelist that there is in the world. I may saw a signpost. That there is a signpost to a greater evangelist that there is in the world. I mean a true one. A man who says, I can't stay there, Lord. My feet are in it. I'm rooted in it. Bless God. I know whence I've come and what it's all about. Last night we sang, would you be free from the power of your burden of sin? There's power in the blood. There's power in the blood. And what I want to say, beloved, is that the power in the blood wants to bring you into the power of the glory and the knowledge of the Lord. You say same power. That's right. It was the same mountain. They were down at the bottom of the mountain and here are 70 or so staying halfway up. They say, we've got visions of God. We've seen this. We've seen that. And God says, come up, Moses. It's beyond all that based on it. But beyond it, and so true, there are who go there. And you've been bought for it. It's not finished. You've been bought for it. Don't you see? Don't make yourself content with this. You can if you want. But if I'm not a true child of God, he can't make himself content for long. God has to make you content with his glory. Change from glory unto glory. We know all the phrases, beloved, but who among us has gone up into God? Who has been gathered up there? I don't know. Not for me to judge. I wonder if I may tell you a personal incident. Excuse the eye. But if I don't say it, there are some here that will be thinking of it. I can remember a time many years ago now, when my daughter once remarked to some girlies with whom she was praying, when I left off working with my hands in the business that God allowed me to found, by his grace, many, many years ago, she told all the neighbor children that my dad don't do any work now. That's what she said. That was her concept of work. I think I've worked a lot harder since then. But nevertheless, I can remember a time even beyond that, and it was from these things that it all has sprung. I worked in a paper mills, where the noise was dreadful. If you know anything about paper making, I was in the paper making trade. I worked there, and the noise rolled like thunder in your ears, as they dragged out the fibers of the rag to make the best paper, such as this banknotes or napalm, that sort of thing. And, I was passing by this particular place. It was my duty to go and stand at a certain spot to watch the delivery of the drawn-out fiber, you see. And, I remember stepping down as clear as clear as some of you can remember the day you were born again. I stepped down and started to walk across and stopped. And, everything changed. And, I passed in. I passed in. I know that everything is nice and all sorts of things, but I heard the tinkle of the golden bell and the pomegranate, must have been the robes of our high priest in heaven. Don't tell me he's not wearing golden bells and pomegranates. Don't tell me that. I know, and I passed in. There wasn't any noise. There was a quietness and a hush on my spirit. How long it lasted, I cannot tell. A moment, two moments, three moments, and I was in the glory of the Lord and wrapped up in it. And, then I came to. I wasn't even kneeling. I wasn't fasting and praying. I wasn't doing anything. I was working about my ordinary business. And, I was through. I don't say that too often. But, as far as I know, it's the source of all the ministry that God gave me. At least to this day, the man sitting in this room was bold enough once to say to me, he said, I sit and talk to you, and all of a sudden you're gone. You go somewhere, don't you? He was the first man that had ever said it. And, I said, yes, I do. Is my spirit going out of my body? No. You may believe the Lord didn't want me to hear the man chatter. He used to shut up. And, I'd come out with the knowledge of the glory of God. Ah, that's all, he said that. Well, I know there's a place for your nefarious psychic. I'm as thick as two planks. Oh, nothing of that. God. God. I'm not careful. I'll go there now. I love the place of God for both. I love the joy of His presence. I love the wonder of the fellowship of the Father and the Holy Spirit with Christ, my King. Oh, come on, beloved, where are you? Don't strive to have what I had. I don't know how God will deal with you. I've never knocked it off the Moses experience. I wasn't thinking of it. Wonderful Lord. Do you believe that you've been godded with God? Do you believe you've been Christed with Christ? Do you know what the baptism of the Spirit is all about? Do you know? Do you know, beloved, the mountain's open. There's always room at the top. Downstairs, down below, there are pillars, all stone, of course. Down there, there's an altar, a stone, of course. Down there, there's fire, there's smoke, there's sacrifice, there's the written word, glory to God for it. Don't let anybody think I despise them. It's because of these things of Calvary and the blood of God. It's because of them that, oh, what a tragedy when men and women come thus far, say my burdens have been lifted, my bondage has been broken. I've come out, I'm hollering on, they call to know the Lord. You'll have to go higher. I heard a man say once about the ark, and I really must stop. Don't want to. I heard a man say once about the ark, it was three stories, and he said there's still plenty of room at the top, elephants in the bottom. They're in, they're saved. They're in on the bottom floor though. And when Moses let out the ark, the dog of the Holy Ghost, he let him out the window at the top. He didn't open the door for the gigantic animals to come through. They were saved. Saved for a different purpose. Saved to go through on another level. Oh God.