In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He explains that the Holy Spirit's presence within us is a guarantee of our acceptance in God's eyes and the restoration of the life that was lost in Adam. The preacher emphasizes that the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of the fullness of God's provision for us in Canaan. He contrasts the wilderness, where people did whatever they thought was right, with Canaan, where they were instructed to follow God's commandments and rejoice in everything they put their hand to. The preacher challenges the notion that the Christian life should be monotonous and repetitive, highlighting that it is meant to be vibrant and full of joy.

Turn back just for a moment to the book of Exodus. We saw yesterday that the Passover service that foreshadowed the death of the Lord Jesus upon the cross and his resurrection was to be celebrated year by year by the children of Israel from the time of their redemption out of Egypt. That this was to be in chapter 13, you will remember in verse 9 a sign unto thee upon thine hand, a memorial between thine eyes that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth. For with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. It's to represent, in other words, the beginning of a completely different quality of life. It'll change the things you do, it'll change the things you think and it'll change the things you say. Now this was in God's purpose, in bringing them out in order that he might bring them in to that land that he had so graciously provided for them. A land which we have seen does not represent heaven at any time in God's word but represents only that quality of life that is made possible to you and to me on the grounds of redemption through the indwelling presence of a risen Lord in the person and power of his Holy Spirit as we yield our humanity to his fullness so that we may become bodies wholly filled and flooded with God himself. The real purpose which we preach the gospel. That man might, to God's holy satisfaction, be restored once more to that function for which he was created by what he does and says and is and thinks giving a valid expression of God's character. Remember, this is always to be the end product of our ministry whether it's in counseling your own children praying with them by the bedside whether it's teaching a Sunday school whether it's pastoring a church whether it's leading some youth organization whether it's in your evangelistic ministry or missionary enterprise it's not the method or the technique used that's relatively unimportant. It's the end product. What are you aiming at? What's the net result? Is it just reproducing youth? Then you can forget it. Is it just perpetuating your organization? Forget it. The end product must always be conformity to the likeness of God's Son whom he did foreknow, then he did predestinate to conform to the image of his Son. If my ministry is simply designed to make another one of me out of somebody else that has nothing to do with the gospel. If my ministry is simply calculated to perpetuate the organization that I belong to that has nothing to do with the gospel. The end product, the validity the only way in which I can ultimately evaluate the means, methods, techniques that I'm using is what is the end product? Is this giving the Lord Jesus the actual right as God now within this individual to reveal himself in their character through what they're doing, saying and are? That's the only basis upon which you can evaluate the validity, the legitimacy and the effectiveness of whatever means you may be employing. And if the end product of the technique, method operational plans that you have if the actual end product is the establishment of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in utter unchallenged sovereignty in the life of some boy, girl, man or woman then that's great. Praise God. You're on the ball. If it falls short of that whatever else you may be accomplishing to man's satisfaction you'll be accomplishing absolutely nothing to God's satisfaction. He is to be the firstborn among many brethren that bear his likeness. Would you be kind enough to shut the door behind you? It's coming. Somebody else is coming. And of course this is magnificently pictured here in what is one of the most important historical records preserved for us and authored by the Holy Spirit in the whole of the Bible. The story of God's dealings with his people in bringing them out of Egypt the unregenerate condition into Canaan, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The likeness of Christ in behavior on earth on the way to heaven. Now, only a brief reference to this in passing because it belongs to the backdrop the background of what we're discussing how far in point of fact did their redemption out of Egypt change the things they did while they were in the wilderness. Well, let's turn to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy and chapter 12 verse 1 These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do in the land which the Lord God of thy father's giveth thee to possess it notice this very carefully all the days that you live upon the earth the land was to be possessed and enjoyed all the days that you live upon the earth not heaven the days you live upon the earth there, verse 7 he says there in that land that you are to enjoy and possess on earth there ye shall eat before the Lord your God ye shall rejoice in all that you put your hand unto ye and your households wherein the Lord thy God has blessed you you're going to rejoice in everything to which you put your hand in other words, your activity and this of course is characteristic of a man filled with the Holy Spirit he's to rejoice evermore and again, says Paul, rejoice in everything we're to give thanks we're to be unshakably confident that we're in the place where God has put us doing exactly what God has told us and for this good reason the consequences are beyond all possibility of doubt because God knows His own business let me only know of course that I'm in the place where God has put me and I need never ever ask Him for His blessing that's a sheer waste of time that's to challenge God's integrity and to challenge His intelligence if I profess before God that I'm in the place that He put me I'm in the area of obedience and then to look up in God's face and say bless me and bless what I'm doing God is likely to say what do you think I put you there for? don't you credit me with any intelligence? but we don't credit God with too much intelligence sadly enough because although He, as I remind you came down from heaven though never ever less than God to behave as though He were never ever more than man we still never ever more than man always behave as though we were never ever less than God and by and large by our activity by our behaviour patterns by the way we organise things for Him we consider Him to be our poor relative so we keep Him business down here you see and He should be profoundly thankful that He's got such competent folk taking care of His insects this is really the condescending way in which we run the church and there's nothing that shocks us more than when somebody suggests that Jesus Christ really ought to be running the church quite fantastic we won't put it in those blunt terms we simply behave it we'd be shocked if we made it articulate but this is the way we behave all the days that we live on earth we're to rejoice in everything we put our hand to in that land which is ours to possess and enjoy now says He you will not do you will not do there verse 8 after all the things that we do here where's here? the wilderness halfway house between Egypt and Canaan He says you're not going to do there in Canaan what we're doing here you shall not do after all the things that we do here this day what were they doing in the wilderness? every man whatsoever is wrong so it says no every man whatsoever is right in His eyes His own eyes that's the characteristic of a carnal Christian never fancy that a carnal Christian is simply somebody who's on the bottle or has run off with his neighbor's wife that's one form of carnality amongst believers unfortunately and we've sort of learned in our permitted society to live with polygamy not concurrent but consecutive in other words changing mates at our convenience we settle to that now in a permitted society God has never given us a proof never will that's one form of carnality dishonesty bad temper greed selfishness, pride these are forms of carnality but don't imagine that that's the main symptom of carnality in the believer carnality in the believer is insisting on doing what is right in his own eyes running a show for God carnality is evidenced by what Abraham did when he insisted on producing Ishmael when God insisted on giving him Isaac and Abraham insisted on producing Ishmael because he thought it was right in his own eyes he was doing it for God carnality is represented by what Moses did when with the best will in the world and moved with sincere compassion he went out and tried to do forty years too soon what God intended forty years later and all he ended up with doing was murdering an Egyptian the taskmaster who lashed one of his Hebrew colleagues and was chased into oblivion for forty years useless to God or man that's carnality carnality is the pastor who runs his church as though he was responsible instead of God the missionary who enters the field rolling up his sleeves and takes over from God the responsibility is exclusively his it's the evangelism committee that launches a crusade on the basis of human promotion natural ingenuity publicity stunt that's all carnality and yet all these folk are not insincere tragically they've been house trained to this kind of procedure and do it believing it to be right in their own eyes but that's wilderness that's the wilderness it's the wood, the hay and the stubble that goes up in smoke one day to leave its perpetrator standing in a heap of ashes nothing of the gold the silver and the precious stones that derives exclusively from the activity of Jesus Christ himself as God released in your humanity and mine by virtue of a disposition that lets God actually be God as though he were God and finds he is he says you're not doing that lamb what you're doing here every man what's doing doing what is right in his own eyes for he says verse 9 you are not as yet come to the rest the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God gives you you see the fullness of the Holy Spirit is rest it's not inactivity but it's rest because it's Christ's activity when you know the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ and you're living through him every moment of every day you're not sweating it out you're not carrying the burden in all probability you'll do ten times more than most other people but you won't feel the strain you'll have no ulcers and it won't bring you to the verge of a nervous breakdown you'll carry an immense load ostensibly to others as they watch you they won't know how you do it and you chuckle at yourself because you know you're not he is all you are is the humanity with which he's clothing his divine activity as you allow him as then in the days of the New Testament early church he continues to do and continues to teach through you what he began to do and began to teach in his own body just a different body but the same person in action Jesus Christ that's the land that's Canaan that's Christ that's the fullness of the Holy Spirit so you see the wilderness for forty years didn't change too much what they were doing that's why they didn't celebrate the Passover there was nothing really to celebrate because that day of redemption was a day to be remembered not in the wilderness it was a day to be remembered in a land to be possessed and they hadn't entered in they were still sweating it out doing what they considered right in their own eyes but it was to change also what they thought a memorial between the eyes what were they thinking about in the wilderness how far actually did their redemption out of Egypt change what they were thinking their thought patterns what were they preoccupied with in their minds while in the wilderness number eleven it says in verse four and this is after their redemption out of Egypt they are a redeemed people he says the mixed multitude that was among them fell aloft and the children of Israel who wept again and said who shall give us flesh to eat we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic so what were their minds preoccupied with in the wilderness milk and honey pomegranate the rich ripening corn grapes that which characterized the land was that that after which they hungered and thirst and longed for and panted were they preoccupied with all the marvelous things that God had provided for them in the land of promise no that didn't preoccupy them what preoccupied their minds what filled their thoughts was the things they'd left behind in Egypt that's carnality that's the carnal believer although he claims redemption and tells all the neighbors that he's saved is still primarily preoccupied in his day by day living with what everybody else is unregenerate is enjoying in Egypt in other words although they were out of Egypt they were still living in Egypt where? in their minds in their thoughts in their ambitions in their desires that's a carnal Christian who claims redemption who says I'm saved who joins a church but is still really living in his thoughts ambitions activities in the land that he professes to have left now they said our soul is dried away there's nothing at all beside this manor before our eyes and they were sick and tired of it they said if only we could get back and enjoy the things we used to enjoy before we were converted that's why being a carnal Christian is so pathetically unsatisfying because you see you're spoiled for Egypt because you're out and you're spoiled for land because you want in so you get the worst to both worlds nothing satisfies you you can never be just happy now doing the things you used to do before you were converted because the witness of God's spirit is there that you're God's child you know you don't belong but you've never entered into that for which God has redeemed you and as I indicated yesterday nothing is more boring than having manor four times a day seven days a week 365 days in the year for 40 years of course that was never God's intention the Christian life was never designed in God's economy to be as colourless and tasteless and monotonous and repetitive as that and yet how often have we reduced the Christian life to the drab monotony of a repetitive procedure and we wonder why people get browned off I wonder if your Christian life has been reduced to the drab monotony of a repetitive procedure the nature of that procedure of course will depend upon the constituency you belong to the character of that monotonous procedure will depend of course upon under whose influence you have come but it will get pretty pretty trying you'll be tempted finally to say there must be something more to the Christian life than this and if there isn't I'm going back to where I belong to the leeks and the onions and the cucumbers way back in Egypt I'm constantly meeting folk like that it's great when they come and pour out their stories and shed their tears because you know at that stage having become thoroughly disgruntled and thoroughly disgusted with what God never intended for them the wilderness they're on the threshold of something better they'll either at that moment go right on or they'll go right back I remember a girl only just a few weeks back I was in Salem, Oregon speaking at the assembly of a Christian high school and when it was all dismissed and the few were on the stage doing some rehearsals or something a girl flipped back and because she was embarrassed to be seen blubbing she dragged me into the side wings burst into tears a girl of about 17 I said how long you been a Christian she said I don't even know now whether I am a Christian I professed to become a Christian when I was a kid but last night I told God that I was finished I was thrashed I was beaten I said if this is the Christian life I've had it so have you well I'd been talking that morning to the kids about the real Christian life I said did nobody ever tell you that when the Lord Jesus died to redeem you he came to share his life with you no she's never heard that have you never discovered that the Lord Jesus living actually within you is the only one who can give you what it takes to live the Christian life no wonder she was fit to quit and as the truth dawned upon her how wealthy she had been all those years living in self imposed poverty in the abysmal ignorance in which others who had instructed her had left her thinking that Jesus simply died two thousand years ago that historical act when Jesus did his thing and then left and went to heaven to leave us to sweat it out here on earth poor kid she'd been struggling she'd tried to conform to all the projected patterns under which she had been laboring until her heart was fit to break what a joy it is to introduce a girl like that to the fact that Jesus is alive not just in heaven but in her life in the same city I was entertained in a family and another lady was present who told me that eight years previously she'd given God an ultimatum one week earnest church worker genuinely converted part of an evangelical constituency she said I gave God one week I said if nothing happens in this week I'm quitting I'm finished but in the goodness of God she somehow got hold of the tapes of the series of meetings that I've given on the book of Esther and she listened to the whole lot and she said I don't know what made me do it but I switched the lights off the message penetrated I lay flat on the floor and I said God this this is the answer or nothing and I'm prepared to let you move into my life and demonstrate your deity you take over as from now exciting every Friday morning she has 350 ladies from the city of Salem that come to be taught the fact that Jesus is alive that only he can revolutionize human character as we leave Egypt go through the wilderness and finally arrive in Canaan and share the good things that God has provided after a series of meetings in Phoenix and Arizona I got a letter from the medical doctor when I arrived in California he'd just been able to come to three of those meetings he didn't belong to the church very courteously and graciously which I appreciated he thanked me for the ministry of those three days he said I've been an active Christian worker in my evangelical church ever since I became a Christian for 20 years but you're the first man in 20 years that ever told me that Jesus Christ has a role to play in the Christian life first man that ever told me that Jesus Christ has a role to play in the Christian life did he mean he didn't believe the Bible he'd been teaching the Bible for 20 years did he mean by that that he didn't believe that Christ died for his sins he'd accepted that fact when he was converted did he mean by that that he didn't believe that Jesus was risen from the dead had ascended to the Father of course he believed it and preached it did he mean by that that he didn't believe that Christ had gone to prepare a place for him that one day he'd come back he knew it he was waiting for it languidly but what he meant was that believing all those Biblical facts so far as he was concerned Jesus had done his thing when he died 2,000 years ago and was there in heaven and had no further role to play having redeemed him having by his blood shed upon the cross given him access into the presence of a holy God that was his thing and Jesus Christ now was in heaven not the origin of his activity on earth but simply the distant object of his activity he was the one in business for that person up there far away in the clouds and he up there had no role to play in his Christian life save to be the object of it but never the origin of it little wonder after 20 years he was weary but what an exciting letter I got when he told me the story of what happened when he let Christ loose to play that role which is rightfully his in the humanity of every forgiven sinner who died for us only that he might give himself to us so that we could let him loose now they were preoccupied with that's what they thought about and the manner that God provided for them as dull as ditch water and it is quite frankly it is the manner that God provides in the wilderness is as dull as ditch water often it's described as our daily bible reading never means that in the bible if I'm to assume that my daily manner is my daily bible reading then I got to settle for the wilderness was there any manner in the land of promise in Canaan none so if I'm to have daily manner which is my daily bible reading I've got to settle for the wilderness because that's the only place where they ever had manner the moment they got to Canaan as we shall see the manner ceased never never never to be had again which means either one when you're filled with the wilderness which you never again read your bible or when you get to heaven you never again listen to what God has to say which would be a quaint interpretation of the bible turn to the book of Exodus look at the 16th chapter middle of the first verse on the 15th day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt a redeemed people the whole congregation of the children of Israel stood against Moses and Aaron and the wilderness the children of Israel said would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pot when we did eat bread to the full we had full stomachs in Egypt for you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger this is a redeemed people whom God has marvellously brought out of slavery and in the sting and lash of the Egyptian taskmaster whip then said the Lord to Moses behold I will reign bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or not and verse 14 when the dew that lay was gone up behold upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing as small as the hoarfrost on the ground and when the children of Israel saw it they said one to another it is manna for they wist not what it was I wonder if you have a marginal translation in your Bible do you if so you'll notice that the word manna is a word which more accurately translated says what is it what is it the question manna in the German language it's man who what is it never tasted this before they wist not what it was Moses said unto them this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat this is something which you've never had before this is something which you've never tasted before this has never previously been in your experience now tell me there what is it you and I receive when we claim redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ in that we have repented toward God and humbly put our trust in him as our redeemer and God for his sake blots out our sins like a thick cloud and says I will remember them no more for my name's sake what's the first thing that God does the moment your sins are forgiven what was the promise which saith he the Lord Jesus speaking acts one four you've heard of me John indeed baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence said the Lord Jesus now that you understand the redemptive efficacy of my atoning death just as soon as I have gone back to be with my father I will send the promise of my father an experience that you have never had before you will receive the bread from heaven not the bread that Moses gave them in the wilderness which was but the shadow but the very substance itself for on the day of Pentecost you're going to receive somebody whose life you have never yet shared the Holy Spirit manna is a picture of the Holy Spirit in the wilderness it's the sealing with the Holy Spirit seal divinely seal keep the place there in Exodus 16 but turn to Ephesians Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 6 to the praise of the glory of God's grace wherein he God hath made us sinners accepted in the beloved 6 verse first chapter pistol to the Ephesians he God hath made us sinners accepted in the beloved verse 7 in whom the beloved that's the Lord Jesus we have redemption repurchased how do we have redemption in the beloved the Lord Jesus through his blood for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness that's where it all begins that's the first baby word of the gospel the ABC the criterion the first premise the threshold the door in in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of his grace that's why added to their new joy the disciples received a new bible and added to their new bible the moment it became sense to them in the upper room as some of us have been discovering in our evening sessions they had a new message repentance and remission of sin to be preached in his name the name of the beloved among all nations beginning at Jerusalem here is forgiveness according to the riches of God's grace that's redemption that's out of Egypt through the Red Sea baptized into Christ as they then were baptized into Moses but then verse 13 of the same chapter in whom the same beloved the Lord Jesus you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation you were first exposed to the fact somebody taught you then having taught you they exhorted you to mix those facts with faith teaching and preaching and exposed to the fact there came a moment in time said the apostle to these when you obeyed the gospel and you accepted redemption and when you believed and the word after there is not after in the sense that there was a time lag it's after as in the sense of in consequence of because you claim redemption in obedience to the gospel when that happened when you believed you were sealed sealed how were you sealed as those who had believed what's the only valid stamp and hallmark that god recognizes that characterizes you as a genuine believer the fact that a church has voted you into membership millions of people have been voted into church membership have never been redeemed have never been regenerated the fact that you've been baptized tens of thousands hundreds of thousands millions of people have been baptized never been one criterion the fact that you can repeat the doctrines or memorize whole chunks of the bible no all that's good but it doesn't prove that you're a believer what does prove that you're a believer the presence of the person by whom alone you're sealed sealed with the holy spirit of promise who verse 14 the holy spirit is the earnest guarantee an old english word stamp hallmark forte he is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession to the praise of his glory the redemption of the purchase possession in this particular instance refers to the coming back of jesus christ to take to himself his bride his church his redeemed people the lord jesus coming back to take to himself the purchase possession how will he know how many of those guilty sinners on earth have been purchased because as i indicated there are two guarantees one what sustains the life what produces the life what gives man the moral competence to reproduce the likeness of his creator the presence of the holy spirit restored to the human spirit allowed to function within the human soul and play that role in man that instinct plays in the animal so that the lord jesus by the holy spirit from within the human spirit can exercise his jurisdiction in your mind emotion and will and govern your behavior oil always the holy spirit and man had tasted of oil but he didn't only taste of oil if you go back now to that sixteenth chapter of exodus we read in the thirty first verse that the house of israel called the name thereof manna and it was like coriander seed white and tasting of oil but it says the taste of it was also like wafers made with honey so it was a mixture of oil and honey in other words it was oil first witnessing to the person of the holy ghost whose presence within our spirit is the only solid guarantee that we've been accepted in the beloved and on the grounds of redemption has been restored to us the life that was forfeited in adam but the holy spirit when he comes to indwell our human spirit is to give us a foretaste of that which god has provided for us in the fullness of the holy spirit in canaan but it was just a wafer just a wafer have you ever had a square meal on wafers in other words just as soon as they were out of egypt in spite of the fact they were grumbling grousing complaining disobedient rebellious still dreaming back to egypt graciously god gave them something they had never tasted before manna oil that gave them just the tiniest foretaste of what god had for them in canaan but only a wafer because god had absolutely no intention whatever of satisfying this redeemed people in the wilderness when he had heat the table with good things in canaan deuteronomy 8 8th chapter moses said all the commandments which i commanded this and to enter into that ultimate commitment during that period he humbled you and he suffered you in those 40 years to hunger but while god in those 40 years was suffering you to hunger he was feeding you with what manna which thou knewest not neither did thy fathers know it was something entirely new that he might make thee to know that man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the lord doth man live all those years god sustained life he fed you but he never satisfied you because although he gave you just enough to sustain life you were always hungry never satisfied because it isn't full stomach it's obedient to every word that proceeds from the mouth of god and in all those 40 years you were rebellious dissatisfied grumbling grousing disobedient harking back to egypt and god was waiting waiting to offer you true fulfillment in that land for which he brought you out of egypt god will never satisfy any christian in the wilderness he'll just leave you to hunger but he'll give you just enough to sustain life because he will never ever leave you nor forsake you for you see manner in the wilderness is a picture of the holy spirit by whom we are sealed divinely by the presence of god the holy spirit and that's the first picture and moses exodus 16 said to Aaron take a pot verse 33 and put an omer full of manner therein and lay it up before the lord to be kept for your generation as the lord commanded moses so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept divinely sealed for the moment a sinner is redeemed through the blood of jesus in response to their faith that allows christ to move redemptively into their experience they're sealed as his purchased possession until that day that he comes back for his own he'll never leave them nor forsake them even though for 40 years they grieve him every single morning they'll be the witness even after half naked moses with the tables of stone just received from the hand of god lay shattered in his seat and the people singing and dancing the next morning there was manna i can imagine with what fearfulness Caleb and Joshua the only two who were prepared to go on and in looked out and in the morning they probably said to themselves god will have forsaken us god won't stand by us under these circumstances he'll let us go he'll ride us off no there was the manna a testimony to god's fantastic faithfulness two passages only in that connection nehemiah if you're in trouble find psalms and turn left through job and esther and you'll find nehemiah psalms turn left and in the ninth chapter verse 15 thou gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger thou broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst promise them that they should go in to possess the lamb which thou hadst sworn to give them but they and our fathers dealt proudly hardened their necks hearken not to thy commandments refused to obey neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them hardened their necks in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage but thou art of god ready to pardon gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and what does it say forsookest them not isn't that amazing isn't that a comfort there was the manner every morning the witness of god's spirit to redeem people yea when they had made them from a molten calf and said this is thy god that brought thee out of the land of Egypt and had brought great provocations yet thou in thy manifold mercy forsookest them not in the wilderness they deserved it as you and I have a thousand times the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way neither the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way wherein they should go thou gavest them also thy good spirit to instruct them and withheld not thy manner from their mouth and gavest them water for their thirst yea forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness but you never satisfied because they didn't deserve it that's the faithfulness of god divinely sealed last reference Haggai that's a nasty one too you'll find that way back in the mine of prophet if you're in trouble find the last book of the old testament Malachi turn left through Zechariah and you'll be in Haggai the last but two books of the old testament verse four is it time for you to dwell in your sealed houses in this house thy way god's hour had struck after the Babylonian captivity to rebuild the walls of the city reconstruct the temple cleanse it and restore pure worship in the house of god Haggai was numbered amongst those whom god chose with Nehemiah and Ezra and Zechariah now therefore saith the lord of hosts verse five consider your way consider your way this is his message to a rebellious people a carnal church a redeemed people who have lost personal relationship to god he says you've sown much and you bring in little you eat but you haven't enough you drink but you're not filled with drink you clothe you but there is none warm he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes thus saith the lord of hosts you better consider your way does this describe somebody here you've been a christian many years may have been in the ministry assumed all kinds of christian responsibilities but quite frankly you've sown much you bring in little you eat but you're still hungry you drink but you're still thirsty you clothe you with god's promises you know them all by heart you can preach about them but quite frankly they don't warm you and when you look back after all your tedious labours the wages you appear to have earned have been put into a bag with holes and there's nothing to see for the harvest scarcely justifies the effort you made in sowing the seed on all hands there are rampant signs of spiritual undernourishment and those who drink go away thirsty and people continue to shiver in the threadbare promises of better times that never come you say my spiritual income is swallowed up constantly by the high cost of living in a troubled sin sick society where the demands made upon me always outmatch my spiritual output that's it poor crops malnutrition unquenched thirst lack of warmth and an overwhelming sense of futility God says maybe you should consider your way you look for much verse 9 lo it came to little when you brought it home i did blow upon it why saith the lord because of mine house that is waste and you run every man under his own house you're trying to reproduce yourself you're perpetuating your own institution my house the temple of the living God men women boys and girls the flesh and blood of my redeemed humanity fitly framed together to be a habitation of God by his spirit this you have neglected therefore the heaven over you is stayed from due and the earth is stayed from her fruit i called for a drought God says upon the land and upon the mountains and upon the course the rubber bell verse 12 Joshua the high priest with all the remnant of the people verse 12 continuing obey the voice of the Lord their God they considered their way and repent then verse 13 Haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message under the people saying I am with you sir the Lord now the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former says the Lord of hosts and in this place where I have been restored to my rightful place in sovereignty I will give peace says the Lord of hosts divinely sealed by the presence of God the Holy Spirit but just a portrait in the wilderness of all that God had provided in the land we've got to quit again I'm sorry to say and there's so much more to talk about what we're going to do tomorrow I really can't think unless you're prepared to bring a sack lunch but we'll just have to tie things up in a hurry we've discovered you may have noticed just in passing the first item of the threefold content of the ark in the holiest of all that was to be found beyond the veil beneath the mercy seat that was to be sprinkled with blood a golden pot of manna a golden the presence of the holy spirit within the human spirit of a redeemed sinner divinely eternally timelessly sealed not to be confused with the fullness of the spirit this baptism with the spirit whereby his presence stamps forever as his purchased possession God said put it in a golden pot and place it in the ark for a testament it's part of your salvation it is to be yours only because of the mercy seat sprinkled with blood whose blood his blood who died for us there that he might live in us now pray thanks again dear lord for all that you have to teach us in your word so clear so faithful so comforting in spite of its rebuke because you never leave nor forsake we're so thankful because we don't deserve it in your own precious name amen