G.W. North emphasizes the significance of the Covenant in his sermon, particularly focusing on God's relationship with Moses and the Israelites. He illustrates how God initiated the Covenant with Abraham, demonstrating His love and grace by approaching humanity unasked. North explains the importance of obedience to God's will, as seen in the lives of the Israelites, and how the law was given to guide them in their covenant relationship. He highlights that despite their failures and murmurs, God's faithfulness remains, and He desires a personal relationship with His people, ultimately leading to the New Covenant through Jesus Christ.

Then just for a moment, to say that our theme during these days, and I felt this to be of God that we should do this, is to dwell upon the Covenant. And last evening we just about introduced ourselves to it. And God is going to minister, I'm sure, to all our hearts as we go through, just because he loves to do so. And to teach us more and more of his great love and grace to us. I must say that it's been a renewed blessing to my own heart to go back into something really quite familiar. Go over the old ground again. And find new and wonderful blessing for it, from it, in my soul. It is true as our brother has said that we saw that the end as the beginning is God. And last evening we commenced by looking into the last book of the Bible and went back into the first book of the Bible. And we'll catch up our thoughts, shall we, there. That we saw in the 15th and 17th chapters of the book of Genesis how that God came himself and made the Covenants. Nobody prayed to God to ask him to come. Nobody approached him. He approached them. He approached Abraham. Reminding ourselves, as we thought in Acts chapter 7, although we didn't turn to it, that Abe, that Stephen, when he was on trial for his life and his face was shining like an angel's, he said that the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham. That's it. It started with God coming. God appearing. God unasked. Coming voluntarily. Coming with all his heart. Coming into the darkened conditions of earth. Coming unto the ignorance of man. And calling Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. And directing him to do things. And Abraham believed God, and believed in God. And how that this man was approached by God, as we saw in the 15th chapter. Originally, that God said in verse 1, he came and said, I am thy shield Abraham, and thy exceeding great reward. And then in the 17th chapter, so that we might get this thing in true perspective, he came and said in verse 1, and Abraham at this time was 99 years old. And Abraham said to him, I am the almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee. And will multiply thee exceedingly. Praise God. And we saw how that in chapter 15, and in 617, there are really the two parts of one whole. That God cut the covenant with Abraham. And it's a marvelous thing to notice something in this 17th chapter before we leave it. Let us then look at it together again. You will notice in this first verse, that God comes to Abraham and he says, I am. I am. And upon this basis of who he is, the Lord comes out with a perfect expression of his will. In that there are seven references to the will of God here. Eyes down on the book and you will see it. I am in verse 1. And in verse 2, I will. And in verse 2 again, and will. And if you go further down, verse 6, and I will. Lower down, and I will. Praise God. And verse 7, and I will. Verse 8, and I will. The end of verse 8, and I will. Glory be to God. That's the way you'd expect God to talk. I am, and I will. What a precious thing this is. You know, it's good, you haven't got a God you can push around. That you can do what you want. Twist him around your finger, or anything like that. He comes and he says, now I am God, and I will do this, and this, and this, and this, and this. Why, bless God, this is what he wants us to understand about himself. And it's all so precious. See what glory it is then, to know that God comes in this way. All right then, having seen this, God appearing, making himself known, saying, I am, and I will. We'll move on then, out of Genesis, and we'll come into Exodus, and we'll look into Exodus chapter 2. When you've turned it up, put your finger in Exodus chapter 2, and go back again to Genesis 17. Genesis 15, I beg your pardon. In Genesis 15, God, speaking to Abraham, says this, verse 13 of chapter 15 of Genesis. Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age, but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And so we pass on, and between that statement by God there, and Exodus chapter 2, where we catch up the story, the four hundred years have passed. Four hundred years, praise God. Can you remember another place like that, that between Malachi and Matthew, there are four hundred years of silence. When God stopped speaking in the old covenant, through Malachi, he never spoke again, through an inspired prophet. You have apocryphal and that kind of statements, you know, imitation gospels and writings, uninspired ideas of men, like many things that come through in prophecy today. They're not inspired, they're very good thoughts, they're apocryphal. They're not inspired of God. You may have heard many of them, posing as being operations of the gifts of the Spirit. They are the operation of the human spirit. And they can say very lovely things, you know, you must read Bell and the Dragon, and you must read the stories of things that have been, like Ezra, and Esdras, and all this business. Nothing to do with us at all. Very fine ideas, but no good at all to base your life on. This is the great misuse of the gift of prophecy. You may find them. In its lesser sense, it's misused. I mean, tongues of interpretation as well as prophecy. Perhaps I ought to talk to you about the gifts I was very much tempted to tonight. I'd set my bow at a target. So I must go on. But, beloved, we've got to see what God is saying. And God lets this 400 years elapse. You may know that 40 in the scripture is the number of probation. And that you have 10 forties. It's really rubbed in. And God moves in His power. It seems that things come and things go. You know that Isaac came, and Jacob came, and the children of Israel came, and Joseph came, and the years went and the centuries rolled by. And all sorts of things took place. And then there was a man born whose name was Moses. He was a baby. You know the story of Moses. And you know how that Pharaoh's daughter found him floating on the Nile in an ark of bulrushes, watched by Miriam, his sister. And how God named this man Moses because he was drawn out of the water. At least he overruled that it should be done. And how Moses sought to be a deliverer to his people. Forty years old he was. Forty years old. When certain things happened in his life. That he had to flee from Egypt. Instead of being a young prince of the realm, he had to go and be a shepherd in the backside of the desert. And in verse 23 of Exodus 2, it comes to pass, in process of time, that the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried. And their cry came up unto God by reason of their bondage. And God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them. And so after the passage of these hundreds of years, God remembers his great covenant with Abraham. The thing that we were looking at together last night. He remembers it. It comes into his heart. And he moves toward these children of Israel. Now I'm not going to do this for you tonight, because I'm not going to be your Bible student. You've got to be one for yourself. If you look down through the third and fourth chapters, and the fifth chapter too, of the, mostly the third and fourth of this book, you will find that God comes out with another seven I wills. And it is based upon the 14th verse of the third chapter, where God says, I am. I am that I am. That's who I am. You want to know who I am? I am that I am. That's me. That's God. When Moses says, what's your name? Praise God. So if they say God's name is Jesus, you know it's not right. It's the name of one person in the Godhead. That's all. Keep that very clear when you're getting baptized. God says, I am. Amen. That's a very thing for you, a very great thing for you to understand. And he bases it, and you'll find the seven I wills. I'm not going to do that for you. But if you'll read your Bible, you'll find them, because that's how I find them. They're there all right. And God wants you to start to be your own Bible student, and not import books or anything like that. To really get down and rear and read this book, beloved. And God moves in very, very precious ways during these times. And he introduces himself to Moses in the burning bush. Moses sees this bush aflame. And he draws nigh to see what it's all about. And then God speaks to Moses out of the bush. Notice this, beloved, that whenever anything is going to be done for God by any man, it isn't done upon traditional believing received from your forefathers. It's done because a person has a personal, frontal meeting with God. That's how it's all done. And it starts from there. Without that, all effort is wasted. It will lead into stagnation. It will lead into mere traditionalism. Glory be to God. Isn't this exactly why perhaps some of us are here tonight? Because God has moved us out of that ruptualism, in which we once gathered, so that we've had a first-hand, up-to-date, face-to-face, spirit-to-spirit meeting with God. That's what it's all about. We're not just believing what a denomination puts out. We're not believing what a sect puts out. We've come to testify that we know this glorious God, that He's come and met us. And amen. And Moses could only meet Him because He came down in a particular fire in a bush. But we met Him because He came in the general fire on the day of Pentecost. Amen. That's right. And He baptized men and women in the Holy Ghost and fire. But that's a little later on. We're not going to get there yet tonight. But here is the great and wonderful truth that we have to see. And Moses goes through an argument with God. As usual, he puts up all the sort of objections why what God said should be done couldn't be done. That's right. But you see, God is not the God of the impossible, like people say. He's only the God of the possible. For all things are possible to Him, He says. I mean, preachers stand up and talk nonsense. They say He's the God of the impossible. Of course it's not. That's because they're talking from their human level. God's the God of the possible. Amen. Praise God. He said, nothing's impossible with me. What a precious thing that is to realize. So, Moses puts up all the impossibilities and all we like sheep follow Him. That's right. And God says, no, no, no, no. He says, I can't talk. Well, He said, who made man's mouth? And He said, I'm this and I'm that and I'm the other, as though God didn't know. You know, beloved, when God calls to you and speaks to you, don't start telling God all the things He knows. You know, I'm this, I'm that, I'm something else. When Jesus says, come, rush into His arms. Don't say, oh, I'm too bad, or I'm too good, or something like this. It's got nothing to do with it. He knows that. That's all taken into consideration before He calls you. Hallelujah. He's got a cross behind Him 2,000 years ago. He's got the bloodshed all behind Him. It's all over. He comes and calls you, get up and go. Don't start arguments with the Lord. Don't come down onto your own littleness. God knows men are prone to do this. That's why He came to lift Abraham right up out of his own littleness. Remember it last night, when He took that man out and He said, look at the stars, Abraham. Look at the stars, Abraham. Now He said, that's what I'm going to do. Isn't this a precious and marvelous thing. In chapter 16, He lapsed and He looked at Himself again. That's why Ishmael was born. In chapter 17, God came and pulled him up out of it again. Said, now then Abraham, you'll be perfect. None of those other lapses, looking at yourself, how you're going to do it, how I'm going to do it. I know what I'm going to do with your life. I know. Isn't that a precious thing. I am. I will. This is the way He goes. We'll find it in the sixth chapter. And the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall he let the children of Israel go. And with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses and said unto him, I am the Lord. I appeared. Amen. You see there it is. I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, El Shaddai. But by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers. And I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage. And I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord. Glory. And I will. Praise God. Now this is a precious and marvelous thing for us to understand. He doesn't say now go unto the children of Israel. You are told in chapter two, we read it, that the cries and groans and moans of the children of Israel had ascended to heaven. He didn't say now go and tell them that I'm very sorry for them. He didn't start there. He doesn't start on our conditions ever. He's moved by them. They reach his heart. But he always starts with himself. Go and say to them, I am. I haven't changed. I haven't broken my word. I haven't turned back from my eternal purposes. I am. Go and say. And this time he expands the I am to three times. We've already read two. The last one is in verse eight. I am the Lord. So in between those great I ams, he sandwiches another seven I wills. Have you read them? My. Glory be to God. You know, it shows you that God is moving to a pattern. Even his speech is on a pattern. He expresses himself and his glorious and perfect will. I will. I will. I will. I will. Praise God. Do you know why God comes like this to us, beloved? He comes to challenge us. So that we should say, alright Lord, if you will, then I will. And unless he will, you can't. Amen. Let's get that firmly fixed in our hearts. You can't do anything effective. You can't do anything that counts. You can't do anything of one moment's eternal worth. Unless your will is responding to the will of God. God comes and he says, I am. I am. I am. Bless the name of the Lord. And I will. Let's read those I wills, shall we? Let them sink deep down into your hearts, beloved. Let the Lord do something to you. Verse 2, I am the Lord. I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name Jehovah. But by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah, was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers. I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage. And I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore, say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord. And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will rid you of their bondage. And I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. And I will take you to me for a people. And I will be to you a God. And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And I will give it to you for an heritage. I am the Lord. Praise God. Hallelujah. You've got those great I wills down in your heart, beloved. For if they were true under this great move of God of old, they're still true. For remember, as yet, the old covenant, although this, the book of Genesis, and this part of the book of Exodus, is included in the old covenant, it wasn't the old Mosaic covenant at all. They were the writings given under the old covenant when the old covenant had been established. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. Moses did it. Praise God. You know, somebody once said, well, Moses couldn't have written the first five books of the Bible. I mean, for instance, he wrote in one of the books that Moses was the meekest man in all the earth. Well, a man would never write that about himself if he wrote it. No, he wouldn't. Unless he was a man of such grace and brokenness that he could. Then he can. God can come on record and say, I am. Moses could write that he was the meekest man in all the earth. And if you've read the book of Exodus, you'll see that if ever a man was meek, it was Moses. He was a doormat. That's the only way anyway you can ever be any use to God, really. They did what they liked with him. Moses. But oh, God used him. God filled him. God did tremendous things with him. Don't you see, beloved, how easy it was for Moses to write the first five books of the Bible? He spent 80 days and 80 nights in the presence of God without food or water. And God just, he just dictated to him. God dictated to him. It's easier than doing shorthand. Easy. God just told him. Say, Moses wasn't there at the creation, but God was though. Don't you see? He told Moses. Simple. 80 days. It was marvelous. Fancy being secretary to God for 80 days. Didn't take God 80 days to write ten commandments on two tablets of stone. It wouldn't have taken a decent mason to have chipped them in all that time. Hallelujah. Oh, God just opened this man, Moses, up to himself. And opened himself up to Moses. And in the melting fires on Sinai, we'll come there in a moment in our course through the Scripture. In those melting fires of Sinai, God brought Moses through to such a transparency. He so melted him. He so caused him to run in the Spirit and in the ways and in the glory of God. He so aligned his being that God could send the words, give the Spirit, make the impressions, impart the knowledge. Because when he came down out of the mountain on the 81st day, he had 80 days up. And God with a slight break in between, his skin was translucent. He shone, incandescent, radiated with the presence and glory of God. Praise God. What a thing. Of course Moses could do that. Haven't you had moments of inspiration? I tell you that God opened up to me the great truth of the new covenant. In perhaps a half an hour's inspiration, lying in his presence in that room there behind you. When my soul went aglow with God and my spirit went a-winging right out of it. And my thoughts were changed and I was charged again with new things. That's right. I know a little bit of how it happens. And if you know a little bit of how it happens, fancy spending 80 days up with God on top of a mountain. When you don't have to eat and you don't have to sleep and you don't have to drink and you don't have to breathe. For the mountain burned with fire. No wonder Moses was the mediator between God and men for that dispensation. Hallelujah. What a glorious thing. Now see what God is moving to. Oh beloved, let the Lord reveal himself to your heart. He's going to do things. God says, I will. I will, Moses. Praise God. You know, beloved, God is crying out to be believed. Crying out to be believed. There are some things he's done whether people believe him or not. But there are some things he can't do until people believe him. Things in your life. Things that affect you. Things that are so intimately personal and definitely you. He will not do against your will. He cannot do against your unbelief. This is the tremendous thing. And so he comes, he says, now Moses, I will. And look at the response of the children of Israel. Look at verse 9. Moses spoke unto the children of Israel, but they didn't listen to him. That's right. They didn't hearken to him. They were so full of their troubles. So full of their sores. So full of their griefs. So full of their disappointments. So full of their unbelief. They didn't listen to him. God didn't start out to punish them because of that. God knew that 400 years waiting is a long time. 400 years. But nevertheless, because God had set his heart on an objective, he waited so long, but he comes, he always comes. And if he doesn't come, he doesn't blame you because he hasn't come. Unless it's into your own soul, in personal things, then he does blame you for he's so willing to come. But in the matter of moving in the revelations of his plans in the ages, of which we are told in Hebrews 11 that by faith God fitted the ages together. That's right. He's fitted the ages together. It's in the authorized version. It's by faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God. But the Greek is, he fitted the ages together. Glory be to God. And all the dispensations in those ages as he's moving on to perfect his will for mankind. Anyway, just because these people were disappointed and grieved and unbelieving. Oh, bless God for this. I do bless him for this, beloved. If a man is an unbeliever, if a man is an unbeliever, God moves to him. If a man's an unbeliever, he's an unbeliever. It's no good running around saying, well you ought to be a believer. We all know that. But lots of us don't know the reasons why some people are unbelievers. We don't know the tragedies in their lives. We don't know the disappointments. We don't know perhaps the hypocrisy they've seen. The sham Christianity under which they've been dragged up or conditioned. We don't know. But God comes, and when God comes and starts to speak to a heart, from that moment their responsibility begins. They're not held responsible for what their mother did or didn't do, or what their father did or didn't do, or what governments say or what they don't say. A man or a woman is held responsible from the moment when God directs his word to that heart. Amen. For he appears by his word. So we read in Samuel. And it's a tremendous thing when this starts in our lives. But he didn't wipe these people off. He comes to them. And oh, he says, now I've remembered my covenant. That's why I've come. I've made a covenant with Abraham. I made these great promises to Abraham. And all that seemed against the purposes of God, all that seemed to make it of none effect, really only worked for God's glory. For they went down into Egypt under Moses, when Pharaoh was king there, and they were seventy souls. But whilst they were in Egypt, under all their affliction, glory be to God, lay this to your heart, they can't kill the seed of God. The devil can't overcome what God's going to do. For all their affliction, for all their hardship, for all their sufferings, for all the hatred that was heaped upon them, they grew and grew and multiplied. Hallelujah. And by the time God had let four hundred years go by, he proved his word in alien circumstances, under the hardest conditions, under the worst avarice and malice of men. And he brought out over a million people. How about that? Oh, glory. He'd done what he said. Praise God. Isn't it an amazing thing? Give God the worst conditions, give him the hardest cases, give him the most serious things, and he just shows his power. He just revels in it. Amen. My, God's tremendous at taking punishment. That's what Calvary's all about. Amen. Bless God. And so, you know what happened. The great signs, the wonders, how God visited and judged Pharaoh and his people and his land in that, in Egypt. And I suppose you know, don't you, that, as we were thinking last night, the whole idea is that God must be all in all to us. When God judged Egypt, he judged the ten basic false gods of Egypt. Pharaoh's firstborn was the potential human god of Egypt, the king, so he killed him. The Nile they worshipped, so he turned it into blood. He was against all the false gods. The scarabs or the flies, they worshipped the scarab, the beetle. And so you go all the way through, beloved. God, God judged their gods. He judged all the false gods of Egypt in those ten signs. He wasn't just displaying power, saying, look at me, I'm God Almighty. Do this. He's not a showman. Amen. He always moves with power. There's nothing that God does but what there's a purpose in it. And he's moving to an end. There's nothing haphazard about it. But human eyes don't see it, and so they don't think it's there. But it's there all the time, beloved, as God moves in these great ways to deal with our hearts. And he brings them out of Egypt on that final judgment when they, with the blood upon the side posts and upon the lintel of their houses, and they inside eating the lamb with their loins girt and their shoes on their feet and a few sticks of their belongings bundled up on their shoulders. Nothing of the world at all. Just their kneading troughs. I'm going to give you bread and I'll supply you with water too. This is what old David said. If God loves you, your water will be given you and your bread will be sure too. So they just brought their kneading troughs out in which they made their bread, beloved, and out they went with God. Not a stick, nothing out of Egypt. God brought them out as clean as a whistle. You see? And he's leading them on until we go on to the 19th chapter. We referred to this chapter last evening. In chapter 19, in the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched in the wilderness. And there Israel camped before a mount and Moses went up unto God. And the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. God had kept his side of the covenant, you see. We had it with Abraham. God had kept his side. He'd come in and he'd brought them out. Hallelujah. Now he says, I want you to keep your side of this covenant. I want you to do your part. We know what's going to happen because in the 20th chapter, if you were as old as I, you will have learned it when you went to school. But, of course, I can see that some of you aren't as old as I am. I can see that there are some older. How dare they. But they also must have learned it if they went to school. The 20th chapter of Exodus. The Ten Commandments. And that's what he's leading to. He's leading to something. I want you to keep your side of it. You see, he says, I want you to be a holy nation. I want you to be a peculiar treasure unto me. I want you to be a kingdom of priests. That's what I want you to be. Amen. A kingdom of priests. What a precious thing God wanted for these people. They were going to be God's kingdom on the earth. He set his eye on the land of Canaan for them. It was called the land of promise. The land that he had promised to them. And he brought them out, not just to rid them of their bondages, not just to free them of their misery, not just to get them out from under this awful domination of this Satan-like Pharaoh. He wanted to bring them into this glorious land. He says in Deuteronomy chapter 11, make a note of it, we won't turn to it now. But he says, I've had my eye on it. I had my eye on that land, he says, from the beginning of the year to the end of it. And I'm going to bring you into that land, and when you're there, I'm going to make your days like the kingdom of heaven on earth, like the days of heaven on earth. And I expect their hearts would leap, because they've been in Egypt, and their days have been like hell on earth, in all the misery of it. Been like hell on earth. No, God does not intend anybody to live in that state of hell on earth. God had a place for his people, these people that were brought out under the blood of the Lamb. And he said, I'm going to make your days there like the days of heaven on earth. Glory be to God. Ooh, if we spent our time tonight going through all these precious things that God had planned, and certainly did for these people, when he got them into this land. We know, of course, those of us that are Bible readers, that they wasted yet another 40 years before they got in, because of their unbelief. It wasn't that God wasn't willing to do it for them. It wasn't that his intentions weren't to bring them in. It wasn't God's fault at all. It was their fault. Their fault. You see, beloved, we are told why this great Old Covenant was instituted. For you will know that the Ten Commandments were the basis of kingdom living under the Old Covenant. How they were to live as a kingdom of priests in the land of Canaan, and have all the promises of God made to them in Abraham, or way before Abraham, in the intentions of God, fulfilled in their own experience. But beloved, on the way, let's go back shall we now, on the way out from Egypt, you know what happened? Even at the crossing of the Red Sea, in chapter 14, they couldn't understand what God was doing. And in the 15th chapter, even when they sang their great songs of deliverance, it says this, in verse 22, Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they couldn't drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? That's all you read there. In 27, they came to Elim, and there there were twelve wells of water. I should think that the denomination that's called by that name would like to think that they had the springing living waters welling up in the denomination. I would think that was something behind the idea of calling themselves Elim, four square. I would think so, and I believe at one time they had it, if they haven't got it now. But now, I don't know. But, beloved, God leads these people on from there, they take their journey, and the whole, verse 2 of the next chapter, the whole congregation of the children of Israel is murmuring. Again, see, they say to Moses and Aaron, would to God, in verse 3 they say, we died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full, you brought us forth into this wilderness to kill us, kill this whole assembly with hunger. See it? This is their heart. They'd had a mighty, mighty miracle wrought on them, but sin had never been dealt with, their hearts had never been touched, God had kept his covenant, but here they are murmuring and complaining. And what a tremendous thing, in verse 7, this is what Moses says, in the morning you'll see the glory of the Lord, for that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord, what are we that you murmur against us? Oh, look at the next verse, Moses said, this shall be when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full, for that the Lord heareth your murmurings, which ye murmur against him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. Think of this, they murmured and grumbled and complained against God, and what was his answer to them? Give them quails to eat and bread. That was his answer. What a tremendous thing. He never came down and argued with them, he never disowned them. When they murmured, when they kicked, when they were hard against God, and when they were against the mediator of the covenant, and against their leader, God just came down and blessed them. What do you think of God? And what do you think of those people? Now let's go on a step further. And it says in verse 22, it came to pass, God supplied them with manna in this, and in verse, it says on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses, and he said unto them, this is that which the Lord has said, tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which ye will bake today, and sieve that which ye will sieve, and that which remaineth over, lay up for you to be kept unto the morning. And they laid it up till the morning as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, eat that today, for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord. Today you shall not find it in the field. God wants you to find it in your pots today, in your homes, not in the field. Praise God. You see, bigger blessing for the Lord's day, didn't have to work for it. Hallelujah. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it you shall find none. It came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh or Sabbath day, for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Abide ye every man in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. And so it all goes on. And look at the chapter 17. We're doing this with a purpose in view. We're going to see why God gave the law. Here it is. All the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin, after their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in refuge. And there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? And look in verse 3. The people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us with our children, and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. That's why God gave the law. Why was there an old covenant? Why was there? Because of this very thing. I told you last evening, that rather than preach to you in these days, we were going to do Bible studies. So that we know what this Bible says. God had got great plans in his heart for this people. What he wanted for them. But at the drop of a hat almost, they were ready to start groaning and grumbling and murmuring. Where did it all come from? Weren't they grateful when they'd been brought out of the land of Egypt? Ah, they were grateful. But a man can't build anything on a moment of gratitude. God doesn't build anything on the thanks of a man. How can he? Because a man's heart changes more than English weather. Yes, it does. There's nothing in him upon which God can build. No wonder he comes and says, I am. I'm going to build on myself. Praise God. But nevertheless, he'd got great plans for these people. Wonderful plans for them. But we've gone over the ground that gives the reason for these things being said in the New Testament. Now let's go over into the New Testament. And we're going to find the reasons, seven of them, in the New Testament for the giving of the law. We're going to look first of all into the Roman letter. Paul wrote this letter to the Romans. And in the fifth chapter, we find this. At the end of the chapter, verse 19. As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offence might abound. Now that's why the law, actually the Greek there is the law came in by the way. God was really moving on. He hadn't come to a stand still at Sinai. That wasn't the end in view. A legal code for people to try and live by. He was moving on. He'd made great promises in his grace and love to Abraham. And he'd got his eye on the day of Jesus Christ. But as he was moving on through the centuries, four hundred of which had already passed, he paused at Sinai and it says that God brought in the law by the way. I'm really moving on. I want all you people to know, and here's his testimony. I, it wasn't my first intention to give the ten commandments and force these on people as a pattern of life. Now know that, take that into your heart. That wasn't my first intention. I did it for these reasons. Let's have a look in Galatians chapter 3. We'll gather up the great truths of the New Testament. In the third chapter of Galatians, we're told in verse 17, the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was four hundred and thirty years after, that it should make the promise that God made to Abraham of none effect. If the inheritance be of the Lord, it is no more a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. That's right. It was added. It was an addition. It wasn't the fundamental thing. God had to bring it in as he was moving on. It was added. And it was ordained by God, by angels, in the hands of a mediator. The mediator was Moses. All right. Let's take the next great truth. This time into first Corinthians chapter 15. You know, beloved, if we'll only read and study our Bibles, we'll know exactly the whole truth. We'll know it's all in the book. You needn't even go outside of it. It's all here. 1 Corinthians 15. And in the 56th verse we read this, The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. How strong is the law? How strong is sin? You want to know how strong sin is? Study the law and you'll know how strong sin is. God had to say about sin, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not do any murder. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, ass, servant, ox, anything. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not have any other gods beside thee. That shows you the power of sin. Sin will make you do all that and a lot more besides that we can't mention. That's how strong sin is. Oh praise God. We've got a measure of sin in the law. That's our powerful sin. Is that your Greek word? Dunamis actually. The dunamis of sin. The one in Acts 1.8. So know it's for more than speaking in tongues. This word dunamis. Praise God. He says the dunamis, the power, the ability of sin to ruin you. Crush your life and send you to hell. Measure it. It was added because of transgressions. We looked at some of them in chapters 15, 16, and 17, and 18 of Exodus. That's why God added the law. You see beloved, sin was never dealt with. Let's go back into Romans again. You know this is a blessed book. It really does tell us the truth. This is why people don't read it. Most people. They don't like to be told the truth. And Christians often are too lazy to read it. So they don't know the truth. And in Romans chapter 7, this is what we're told in verse 9. I was alive, says Roman, Paul now. I was alive without the sin once. But when the commandment came, sin revived. And I died. Why sin brought... The law brings about a revival of sin. That's what the law does. Revived it all up in them. As soon as God did this, you see. It shows what sin really is. And it's all revived. It all comes up. As soon as you say, you mustn't. Somebody says, I will. That's right. That's why God's taken off today. This wasn't the covenant. It's only an in-between covenant. He's taken it all away now. He's not saying to people, you must not. Praise God. He's come to people and says, I love you. No, I don't want you to do it. No, don't do it anymore. So you say, oh Lord, I won't. Thank you for loving me. Forgive me that I did it in the past. That does it, doesn't it? He only had to do that, beloved, because the old covenant couldn't deal with sin. Couldn't deal with sin. Or, let's have a look in Romans chapter 3 a little earlier. And this is what you'll read in Romans 19. Chapter 3, verse 19. We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, shall no flesh be made righteous in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. If I understand verses 19 and 20, the law shuts your mouth and opens your eyes. That's right. Stops every mouth. Amen. Says you mustn't do this. And unless you're as hard as rock, you'll shut your mouth because you know you've done it. See? But you know people can get so hard that they'll even come up against it. That's what sin does. That's what it'll do, is it'll blast you, damn you, make you harder than adamantine stone that we sing about in the hymn. That's what it'll do. If you keep on with it, God will have no alternative but to judge you for it. If you keep on with it. What a tremendous thing. Let's go on, we're not finished yet. Go back into, go on into Galatians again. Chapter 3, again, where we were before. Verse 21. Is the law then against the promises of God, all the promises that God made to Abraham? God forbid. If there had been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness would have been by the law, you see. That was one of the things why God removed the law, it couldn't give anybody life. No life, if you kept the Ten Commandments in tact. From this moment on, or from the moment of being born or coming to an age of responsibility, to the moment you dropped into your grave or burned in the fires, it would never give you eternal life. Can't be done. This is why God's got rid of it, you see. It was only an interim period, praise God, for the moment that that Lamb of God Jesus hung on that cross and shed his blood for sinners because he had kept the law and was perfectly righteous. That's why God had to become a man, because a man couldn't rise to God and live on the law of God and fulfil it. God became a man, blessed be the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and kept the law and shed the blood of perfection that we defectors and sinners might be washed clean of this damning, hellish thing, a glorious thing. Amen. Oh, the law couldn't give life. That's what old Paul said, he said, as soon as the commandment came, I died. I was having a great time, I was enjoying myself. And then, woof, when God brought a commandment against me that I shouldn't lust. You see, God was dealing with sin. You won't find one commandment against lust in the Old Testament. You won't find thou shalt not lust. But adultery is lust, you see. What underlies adultery? Lust. What underlies covetousness? Lust. What underlies murder? Lust. No commandments against lust. Lust is sin. Lust is what made Lucifer try to be God and turn himself into the devil. That's right. That's why God got rid of the law, it only dealt with the fruits of lust. That's right. Why do you want to be the top dog? Why do you want this and why don't, why don't you want, why do you want that? Because of lust. Lusting for power, lusting for money, lusting for sex, lusting for politics, lusting for somebody's blood, lusting for somebody's jobs, lusting to get into somebody's shoes. That's right. I know a name that covers that. I know one being in whom that was all brought to its worst state. His name is Satan. This will show you what seed you're of. This will show you whence you come and where you're going. Understand this. Oh beloved, God wants to give you life. Amen. A life that's free of this thing, this working power inside you that makes you do the things that oft times you hate and God won't have. But this whole country will put up with it and the multitudes of human beings will because they're all the same. Except those who've been washed free of it in the blood of the Lamb. Oh, what a glorious thing. Look at Hebrews chapter 7. Let's get this work right out for us in the New Testament tonight, shall we? In Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 19, it says, made nothing perfect. That's why God got rid of it. He didn't want the law. It didn't make anything perfect. God got rid of it. It's no good to me. Well, why did you institute it then, Lord? Because of the wickedness and the sin in the hearts of the people to whom I'd been so kind. I wonder if God's saying that about you tonight. What is your response to his grace? You know this works out in society. Why do we have prisons? Why do we have a criminal code? Eh? Why is it they're always having to add new statutes to the law book? Eh? Because you can be as kind to some people and you can let them earn 30, 40, 50 pound a week and they'll rob the income tax people. Now, won't they? I'm not saying you do, but I mean we all know this is right. You can be as good as you like. You can give them the top tycoon jobs and they'll fiddle it. They'll have a car given to them. They'll do anything. Any moral thing. They'll do that. You've got to have prisons. You can be as good as you want to people. But what makes them like this? Sin. Sin. Oh, we call it penitent names. We call it all sorts of things. But God, God had to do something about the wickedness of men's hearts to contain them. As he says in Galatians chapter 3, he had to keep them under the law. He had to contain a nation, one nation on the earth at least, until he could bring in his precious son to make a redemption so that there could be those that could be free of it all. Free of it all. By his grace. One last reference then, and then we'll go back. Acts chapter 7. This time, it's Stephen talking. He's shortly going to be murdered in the name of religion. Just like Jesus, so far as man was concerned, was murdered in the name of religion. So far as God was concerned, he was sacrificed for sin. So far as man was concerned, he was murdered. And all the humanists put up a big wail about it, about this lovely character that was murdered by mankind. But only the real saved people say that he was sacrificed by God for sin. Only the people that know the reality of it, they stop bleating about the humanitarian sides of it and the nice ideas that Jesus brought and the Christian, this, that and the other. Hallelujah. We know that in his blood there's redemption, don't we? Do we know it? An utter buying back from all this that God doesn't want. And in this great chapter, as this first martyr of the Christian church is going to lay down his life, he looks at those people and he says in verse 51, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom you have now been the betrayers and murderers, who received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. The law was received, beloved, by the disposition of angels. Amen. All those angelic beings live a life that fulfills that law. Let that sink in. Let that sink in. Yet God didn't send an angel to be our saviour. He came down and did it himself. What's wrong with the law? It's only the disposition of angels. You receive the law by the disposition of angels, but you receive grace by the disposition of Jesus. Hallelujah. That's his disposition. Amen. Grace. Grace. Grace. Hallelujah. All the angels have to live according to that law. They don't find it difficult. They don't go committing adultery and having other gods beside God. They don't sell lies and cheat and steal and covet one another's positions and possessions. They haven't got sin. They don't lust after things. The law, by the disposition of angels, but Jesus, the disposition of grace. Oh, glory be to God. That's why he did away with the law. That's why this great covenant that we call the new covenant, because the Bible calls it the new covenant, is the everlasting covenant. Amen. And this great thing in between that we call the Old Testament, the Mosaic covenant, is not the real one. God just had to do it because of sin. He just had to do it. But even so, look what he said to them at Exodus 19 where we were reading. He said, I know you've murmured against me. I know you've cursed me. I know what's in your heart. He knew that before Moses got down from the top of that mountain, those people would be going to Aaron, Moses' elder brother, and say, As for this man Moses, what's become of him? Went up in the mountain into the fire. Come on. Come on. Make us gods. Let them go before us and lead us back into Egypt. There you are. And Moses and Aaron made a golden car. He knew it was in their hearts. God knew it. That's why he put bounds round. That's why he put limitations. He said, If I don't give these people some kind of commandment, they'll all be living in lust. They'll all be living in sin. They'll all be liars, robbers, rapers. They'll all live in incest and adultery. They'll all be cheating. That's what they'll be doing. Because of the sin in their heart and there's no way of escaping it. They'll all be fighting, warring, murmuring, telling false tales about their neighbours. That's what they'll all be doing. I'll make a law and tell them they mustn't. I want them to possess my possessions. I want them to live in the glory of what I have for them. He said, Look Moses, tell them, tell them I want them to keep my covenant. I want them to keep the covenant. Ask them if they'll keep the covenant. If they'll keep the covenant, Moses, they'll be to me a people, a holy people, a peculiar treasure above everybody on the earth. I'll make everyone a king, everyone a priest. They'll be a kingdom of priests. I'll be the great king over them. Now you see it's where we were the other night. I'll be their great god. I'll be their great king. Go down and tell them this, will you? Will you? He said, Look, don't go down there, Moses, and say, You murmured at Mara. You grumbled at somewhere else. You wanted to stone us at somewhere else. Forget about it, Moses. Turn the other cheek if you care. Listen, Moses. Go down. Don't you tell them they've been a worry to me. Don't you tell them that they've been a trouble to me. Go down and tell them that I've borne them on eagle's wings. That's God. Hallelujah. That's God. Go and tell them I've borne them on eagle's wings. And you know what I said? Eagle's wings. Look at this. Look at that. Look at the other. Move. Do you ever see a person like that when you look in the glass? Or when you really face yourself? Do you? Do you? God's got a better covenant than all that for us. Wonderful. I'm going to close tonight on the plan that was in the heart of God. And then by the time we've got through tomorrow, we've got Monday night and Tuesday night ahead of us, we'll be right swimming away in the new covenant. I hope. I jotted down 14 things. I know that I have them in my head because I've repeated them to myself, but never mind. I'll read them to you as I put them down. If you've got pencil and paper, get them out. Fourteen things, two sets of seven. To see the intentions of God. You didn't know you were coming to Bible school, did you? Fourteen things. God's intention. Here they are. We start in the first book of the Bible and we get right through to Exodus. This covers Genesis and Exodus. Fourteen things. Are you ready? This is how God moved. First, in creation, the universe. Then, the heavens. Then, the seas. Then, the earth. That's four things. All right? On the earth, nations of men. Five. Then, six, a special country called Canaan. And in that country, a special nation called Ephraim. That's your first set of seven. Within that nation, a certain tribe. The tribe of Levi. Within that tribe, a family, or a house, called the house of Aaron, the house of Moses. The priestly house. All right? Within that family, or what the family was for, was a tabernacle where God was going to live. God's house. Within the tabernacle, the holy of holies. A special abiding place. Within the holy of holies, the ark. Within the ark, the covenant. The two tables of the covenant. Above the ark, the throne of God. There it is. Got it again? The universe. God's great creation. But you see, he was moving, beloved, to a place where he wanted to be right down there with the people. It's an amazing thing that God should love men and women. The universe. The heavens. The seas under the heavens. The dry land appearing up out of the seas. Human life created on the dry land. And then on that land, a special country. And in that country, Canaan, a special people called Israel. That's your first step. Within those special people, a special tribe, the Levites. Within that special tribe, one family or house. The house of Aaron that were to be priests. They were to serve in the tabernacle. The God's house. This is the plan he got in his heart. Amen. Tremendous. Inside that house, the best room, the parlor if you like. The Holy of Holies. Where God was going to live amongst men. In there, an ark. And inside that ark, that wooden chest made of gopher wood, covered with gold. The two tables of the covenant that God was asking them to keep. And on top of that covenant, a throne. Called the mercy seat. Where God was going to live. Now this is what he got in his heart. Praise God. Do you see what he's moving to? You do know, don't you? That Moses was called up by God to the top of that mountain. And God started to give this nation their side of the bargain. I've done all this for you. I've appeared in grace to you. I am. I've made great promises to you. I will do this. I will do that. I will do this. And I will do the other. I'll bring you into that country. You see? But he says, now look. When they started to murmur and complain and groan. And their sinfulness and their lust and their murder. And their murmurings came out of them. He gave them the law. He knew he'd have to do it. Didn't catch him by surprise. Now look. I want you to keep your side of the bargain. Moses, go down there. Make a box. It was a wonderful thing this box called the Ark of the Covenant. It was made of gopher, acacia wood. It was glorious. And it was, you know, it was covered in gold. Special box. The most magnificent thing they had. On top of it this great thick slab that was going to be the throne of God. Called the Mercy Seat. Beaten out of one great slab of gold. And at either end the cherubim as they looked down over the place where God was going to dwell. In manifested glory amongst his people. And do you know what this magnificent box was all for? To keep two pieces of stone inside. Their most treasured possession. That's all. It wasn't full of diamonds. It wasn't full of rubies. It wasn't full of plutonium, plutonium or whatever it is. It wasn't filled with this, that or the other. It just had two slabs of stone in it. Written by the finger of God. They actually had God's writing in stone. In that box. Their most sacred treasure. Guarded, guarded, guarded. God there. You keep my covenant. My covenant is with you. And I'll dwell among you. I want to be there. I want you to be my people. I really want to be your God. Will you have me? Do you want me for your God? Now I know I won't have sin. If you want sin, you can't have God. Amen. I bless God he won't have a mixture. I bless God that there's something pure and holy for a human heart to fasten onto. I bless God that there's a height, that there's a standard. I bless God that he ministers his eternal truth to my heart. And I trust in yours. He wants to come and live right in the very center. Right in the center. Amen. See, see. You want to look back over the years and say, oh, but this, that and the other. Never mind. You haven't known this. But all the time I've been bearing you on eagle's wings to myself. Do you want me? Do you want me? I know you had a hard time in Egypt. I know the world's a rotten place. So do you. You all know it. I know that they have certain fancy things that they can offer you. But I offer you purity. I offer you holiness. I offer you God. I offer you eternal life. I offer you myself. I know you murmured. I know you groaned. I know some of you went out and broke myself. I know all that you did. I was trying to bless you. I wanted you to see that the Sabbath was a day of the double portion. I always like to give the double portion. That's the portion of the firstborn. You see. And that's what he said. If you don't let my firstborn Israel go, he said to Pharaoh, I'll slay your firstborn. And Pharaoh wouldn't let God's firstborn Israel go. So God moved in and slew Pharaoh's firstborn. That's eye for eye and tooth for tooth. That's the old system of the law. But God still called his people. He said, I'm going to be gracious to you. I'm going to be gracious to you. Come on. Will you? Listen to me. I've borne you on eagle's wings. And you ask anybody that knows you. You know what they'll say. Yes, and he wanted a bit of putting up with too. See. You ask anybody that knows you. Anybody that really knows you. Oh, no. God says, never mind. I've borne him on eagle's wings to myself. Ye people are so stubborn. You take old Saul of Tarsus. When Jesus came to get near to him and really talk to him. He started to talk to him through Jesus Christ his son. And he talked to him through the early church. And then he talked to him through two people that he was putting into prison. And then he talked to him through Stephen the martyr. And he kept on going and kept on going and kept on going. Until at last the Lord came. He said, don't be silly, Saul. It's hard for you to keep kicking against the pricks. Come on. Surrender. I love you. I brought you to myself. Come on. Give it up. Come on. That's God. You see, beloved. He started off in grace. When he came to Abraham. He didn't make any conditions to him. He said, just come on. Now look how I am. Come on. Respond to the call. That's how he wants to deal with you. He doesn't want to put you in chains. He doesn't want to put you in legal bondage. He doesn't want to say, this, that, not that. Thou shalt not. You mustn't do this. You mustn't. Boop, boop, boop. It's one of that. He was longing for the day when he could end that system of government. Amen. And he sent Jesus into the world to deal with the sin that he had to contain by the law. To set people free so they wouldn't commit adultery because they hadn't got it in their heart to do it. They wouldn't go and covet somebody else's husband or wife or gear or job. They wouldn't go lying and cheating because they hadn't got it in their heart to do it. See? Yeah. It's lovely. Somebody said to me, don't you go to the pictures. Don't you do this. Don't you do that. Don't you do the other. They thought it was the most miserable thing there was. Oh, why don't you then? And they thought, well, my church won't let me. I said, no, I just don't want to. You see? He takes it all away. You don't want to do it. This is the magnificence of Jesus. This is the glory of God. This is his excellence. But I've run a little bit ahead of our study. Well, I hope you'll come again. I hope you'll come again. Tonight we're going to finish on this great thing of God. That even though things went wrong, and men and women got their lines crossed, and sin came in, and he had to bring in the law, but it was only by the way. It was still moving on. Moving on. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. Are you afraid? Are you the Lord's? Are you in this great covenant of grace? Let God be good to you. Amen. Let God be gracious to you. You know you've sinned. He knows you've sinned. But he's not writing up on the wall for everybody to see. He wants to get rid of it. It hurt him. Hurt him. So he died for it. Glory. You know the story of the oyster, don't you? He was scuffing about on the ocean bed one day, and he opened his big mouth. He opened himself wide like that, and a grain of sand came in, and it hurt him. So he kept on with it, and kept on with it, until he turned it into a pearl. Yeah. Turned it into a pearl. It came out of his pain. All this is already written in nature. It's there if you've got eyes to see it. God opened himself up, and he got hurt. In the great sea of humanity, in the oceans of the dark ways of men, he opened himself up, and he got hurt. Hurt in his spirit. Not merely hurt in his body. Calvary was perhaps about a second in eternity. That was soon through the physical pain. Hurt him. But out of his pain, he'll make something beautiful of you. Out of the pain he caused you. If you'll let him. Isn't that marvelous? Come on, let's pray.