In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the need for a radical transformation of character through the power of God. He uses the example of the Israelites in the wilderness, who were still enslaved in their minds and thoughts despite being physically redeemed from slavery in Egypt. The preacher highlights the importance of moving forward and enjoying the blessings that God has provided, rather than dwelling on the past. He also references the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses instructs the people to observe God's statutes and judgments in the land they were given. The sermon concludes with a message of encouragement and the promise of peace from the Lord.

Those that I gave you last evening, you'd probably stay home and do the cards. But, uh, great to see you, and I appreciate, on a blustery night, that you have come to join with me as we explore together, again, in the Word of God. There are quite a number of you tonight who will be here for the first time. So, just this, uh, very brief word of recapitulation to bring you into the picture. The King David called a great convocation of his people, and the proposition that he put forward to them was this. Let us bring again the ark of our God to us. That was the proposition. Let us bring again the ark of our God to us. Because the ark had gone out of context. The place where it should have been, was in the holiest of all, behind the second veil, and beneath the mercy seat, that once a year was sprinkled with blood, in anticipation of that redemptive transaction, of which it was foreshadowing, when the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Word, would give his life upon the cross, a ransom for many, to reconcile us to a holy God. And the ark, with its content, some of which we're going to examine tonight, represented God's covenant, God's pledge to his people. It represented the spiritual content of that salvation that is to be ours through the Lord Jesus. But the content of which is only valid in context, beneath the mercy seat, sprinkled with blood. But the ark was out of context, and last evening we spent some time seeing how it happened. At a time of great spiritual decline, when a man called Eli, a pathetic old man, who had judged Israel for forty years, settled for something less than God best. He came to be acclimatized to the social conditions of his day, and he learned to live with sin. Ritual had taken the place of reality, and token obedience had taken the place of total obedience. The priesthood was in a state of apostasy. And because ritual had taken the place of reality, and token obedience had taken the place of total obedience, the ark, with its contents, had taken the place of God Himself. And it became the object of their idolatry. And it fell into the hands of their enemies. And Eli, as we saw last evening, when his sons slain and the bad news came to him that the ark of God's covenant was in the hands of those who were God's and their enemies, fell backwards off his bench and died of a broken neck just before he could die of a broken heart. And the ark of God finally found its place in the house of Abinadab, in Curjeth Jerusalem. And there it remained. And during the reign of King Saul, the first of the kings, who superseded the judges, David says, we never inquired of it. Because, you see, the ark was to be in the holiest of all, where God would meet His people, and by His presence fill His temple with glory. It was to be the place, not where they came to it, but where they worshipped and communed with Him. And there had been aroused within the heart of King David a holy ambition to get the ark back to where it belonged, that once more, in context, they might meet with their living God in the place where He would once more speak and commune with His people. Now, that's the background of the story. Now, the content of the ark. How is it that its content represented the spiritual content of that salvation that God has provided for you and for me in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus, who is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, was to shed His blood as the Savior foreshadowed by the splinting of the blood by the high priest once a year upon the mercy seat in the holiest of all. So, will you turn with me to the ninth chapter of the epistles of the Hebrews. The epistles of the Hebrews and chapter nine. And here the apostle says, in the second verse of chapter nine, there was a tabernacle made, the first wherein was the candlestick and the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. Now, you get the picture. There were two tabernacles. The first was called the sanctuary and the second was called the holiest of all, the holy of holies. And there was a veil between the two. And just to remind you, it was this veil, that forbade entrance into the holiest of all, that was rent in swains, ripped in two, from the bottom to the top, when the Lord Jesus accomplished His redemptive work in that He died for you and for me and rose again from the dead. And that, of course, was gloriously symbolic of the fact that when the Lord Jesus, in the sinlessness of His humanity, when He died upon the cross and paid the price of our redemption, the door was flung wide into the presence of the holy God to every boy, to every girl, to every man, to every woman who pleading His name received forgiveness and would be accepted by a holy God as one cleansed in His blood and clothed with His righteousness. Beautiful picture that God gives. And that's why this veil was actually ripped in two at the time that the Lord Jesus rose. After the second veil, verse 3, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid around with gold wherein was the golden pot that had manna, an errant rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. Now those were the three items that were contained within the ark. The golden pot that had manna, errant rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. Those three things. And over it, verse 5, the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat. Because the content, the golden pot with manna, errant rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant, and all that symbolically they represented, all this was valid only in content beneath the mercy seat sprinkled with blood in the holiest of all. Its fulfillment to await the coming of the Lord Jesus as the ones whom some of us this morning reminded ourselves was the seed promised to faithful Abraham when God preached before the gospel to his faithful servant Abraham saying, in thy seed shall all the fams of the earth be blest. And in the meantime all this that was pictured so beautifully in the temple was a foreshadowing of his coming. When these things were thus ordained, verse 6, the priests went always into the first tabernacle accomplishing the service of God. But into the second, the holiest of all, went the high priest alone once every year and not without blood which he offered for himself for the errors of the people. Because you see, he too was a sinner. The high priest who was allowed on pain of death only to go into the holiest of all once a year first had to offer blood for himself and then for the errors of his people. The Holy Ghost, this signifies, verse 8, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manageable. While as the first tabernacle was yet standing which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the cause. Because that first tabernacle simply represented the law that foreshadowed the coming of the Lord Jesus in whom the second and greater covenant was vested in God's promise to Abraham saying in thy seed shall all the famines of the earth be blessed. The Old Testament simply foreshadowed the coming of the Lord Jesus in fulfillment of the New Testament. For the law, chapter 10, tells us in verse 1 having a shadow only of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. This is what the law as we saw some of us this morning cannot do. It cannot make anybody perfect but it can prove us guilty in need of the one who does make us perfect. The Lord Jesus. So you see the Old Testament is characterized by the fact that it cannot. The New Testament is characterized by the fact that he can. For every priest verse 11 of chapter 10 standeth daily ministering and offering often times the same sacrifices which can never can never take away sin. But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever forever the tables of the law these represented a salvation process that God enacts in the process of getting his people out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. And that story God's dealing with his people Israel and bringing them out of Egypt into Canaan is one of the most magnificent pictures that's given to us in the Bible of God's redemptive and regenerative purpose in your life and mine which he fulfills in the person of his son the Lord Jesus. But remember the ark with its content with its content is only in context beneath the mercy. There must be the shedding of blood to make it valid in your experience or mine for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. So the beginning of that process that represents God's salvation made available to you and to me in Christ began with what is described as the Exodus 12th of Exodus which we shall turn to beneath the shadow of the shed blood of an unblemished lamb. That's where the story begins. And we'll turn to that. Exodus in chapter 12 the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt saying this month shall be unto you the beginning of month. It shall be the first month of the year to you. In other words something is going to happen this month which will be so significant that it'll be as though you had never lived before. It's going to be the beginning of month and it will become the first month of the year. Now this is precisely what God says about that personal encounter with the Lord Jesus that we call redemption that introduces us to a peace relationship with God our maker who thereby on the grounds of redemption can restore to us that life in which you and I were created which was forfeited in Adam. So that if any man by an act of faith stepped into Christ he becomes a new creation. All things have passed away everything has become new. New birth. That spiritual regeneration whereby a boy a girl a man a woman becomes a new creation. That was certainly true in my experience. I was converted as a boy of twelve. But quite frankly as I look back now I can hardly remember anything that happened to me before the age of twelve. I can hardly remember anything that happened to me before quarter to nine Saturday night 13th of August 1926. That was the beginning of months to me. And it became to me the first month in the year. That's when I began to live. And this is what God said to his people Israel something is going to happen of such amazing sickness that from now on life for you will never never never be the same again. Speaking unto all the congregation of Israel saying in the tenth day of this month shall they take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers a lamb from her. Your lamb said he verse five shall be without blemish a male of the first year. It's got to be perfect. Without any blemish whatever. Of any description. This is particularized for us. Don't bother to turn to this allow me to read it to you. From the 22nd chapter of the Division. He shall offer at your own will of your own free volition a male without blemish or of the bees or of the sheep or of the goats but whatsoever hath a blemish that shall you not offer for it shall not be acceptable for you. Whosoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord to accomplish his vow or a free will offering in bees or sheep it shall be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein blind or broken or maimed or having a wen or scurvy or scab you shall not offer these unto the Lord nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the Lord. You shall not offer unto the Lord that which is bruised or crushed or broken or cut neither shall you make any offerings thereof in your land. It must be perfect. I don't have to tell you that this picture the coming of the Lord Jesus has the incarnate word of whom the Father could look down from heaven and say this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. For God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. He suffered the just without blench for the unjust that he might bring us to God. The lamb shall be without blench a male of the first year and you will keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening and they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it and thus shall ye eat it Exodus 12 11 with your loins girded shoes on your feet staff in your hand and you will eat it in haste if the Lord's part of you and of this unblemished lamb in verse 46 neither shall ye break a bone thereof not a bone of its body should it be broken why not? Well you see because when the Roman soldiers came out at the request of the Jews lest the Sabbath should be contaminated by bodies still hanging on a cross to ensure that those who were being executed were dead they smashed the legs of this one and they smashed the legs of that one the thieves who on either side were crucified with God's dear Son but when they came to smash his legs they found that he was already dead for he lay down his a ransom for them and that unblemished lamb the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world died on that cross but not a bone of his body was broken and it was to be eaten by them with their loins girded with shoes on their feet and a staff in their hand and I like the the German translation here Aus die, die in Betz Island that means it was to be eaten as those who were just on the point of hurrying away it was the threshold of a journey at this point they were going to turn their back upon the past and they were setting their face toward the future this, said God is how you are to eat the Passover as those who are saying goodbye to the past and saying good morning to a future that will be so fantastically different that it will be as though you had never never lived with it now that's the picture given to us here of God's plan of redemption that when you and I enter into a faithful relationship with the Lord Jesus and come to him as the one who is the Lamb of God laid down his life and shed his precious blood that our hearts might be cleansed from sin it is as those who are embarking upon a journey who say goodbye to the past and who say good morning to the future as those who have become new creatures in Christ Jesus and for whom life now can never never be the same again and I will pass through the land of Egypt God said this night and I will smite all the firstborn of the land of Egypt both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment I am the Lord and the blood shall be for you a token upon the houses where you are and when I see the blood I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt in other words the blood is going to protect you and when my judgment rests upon this land those who are beneath the sprinkled blood painted upon the doorposts and the lintels will be preserved I will pass over you and God says those who claim redemption through the blood of Christ and by faith paint his blood upon the doorposts and the lintels of their hearts I will remember your sins no more I have blotted them out as a thick cloud though your sins were as scarlet they will be white as snow though red like crimson whiter than wood accept it accept it in the blood that's redemption and that's where the Christian life begins has it begun to you? can you remember the day when conscious of the fact that you are a sinner you humbly said thank you Lord Jesus for dying for me thank you for the blood that was shed as of a lamb without flesh in that day when dying on a cross not a bone of your body was broken but they pierced your side and pressed a crown of thorns upon your brow thank you Lord Jesus I'm stepping out into a future at peace with God my maker knowing now that I have boldness of access into that holiest of all through the blood of Jesus because by the breaking of his body the veil of the temple has been rent into now as well you know it was from this occasion that there was introduced what we celebrate today as the communion or the breaking of bread the Lord's Supper it was at the commemoration of God's intervention in bringing his people out of Egypt through the Red Sea that he might lead them on and into the land of Cain that the Lord Jesus gathered with his apostles at the Passover Supper and it was no coincidence that the Lord Jesus was crucified on the occasion when the whole of Israel were remembering in obedience to God's command that occasion when beneath the shadow of the shed blood of an unblemished lamb painted upon the door post and the lintel of their homes they were led out of slavery to begin a new life was that a coincidence? this is why in the first of Paul's epistles to the Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7 Paul says Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us and as he took the bread and broke it this is my body broken for you as he took the cup and passed it this is my blood to be shed for you the Lord Jesus knew that that moment he in his own person was to become the substance of which that Passover lamb had been but the shadow this day said God in the 14th verse of Exodus 12 shall be unto you for a memorial you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever it shall come verse 25 of chapter 12 it shall come to pass when you be come to the land which the Lord will give you according as he had promised that you shall keep this service and it shall come to pass when your children shall say to you what means by this service that you will say it is the sacrifice of the Lord's passers who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smoked the Egyptians and delivered our houses and the people bowed their head in worship God said to Moses this is a service that is to be kept by my people when they enter into the land to which I lead them from this place of slavery and when their children ask what are you doing why is the little lamb being slain why shed its blood you'll say because there came a day when God intervened into our unhappy lot and beneath the shadow of the shed blood of an unblemished lamb he led us out of Egypt Moses said chapter 13 and verse 3 remember this day in which you came out from Egypt out of the house of bondage for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place and it shall be verse 5 when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites that thou shalt keep this service in this month verse 8 and thou shalt show thy son in that day saying this is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt he redeemed me and it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand and for 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 thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season and from year to year it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand it shall be for a memorial between thine eyes that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth in other words when you keep the Passover it is to indicate the fact that on the basis of that redemption that God wrought when he brought you out of Egypt through the Red Sea and poised you upon the threshold of a new life that it would change everything you do a sign upon thine hand it will change all the things you think a memorial between your eyes that the Lord's word may be in your mouth it will change all the kinds of things you say it will change what you do it will change what you think it will change what you say in other words it's going to precipitate a radical transformation of character now this was the purpose that God had in mind when he brought his people out what actually happened after God by the hand of Moses led them through the Red Sea and they went through on dry land which the Egyptians are saying to do were drowned so that their enemies were left buried in the place of death while they by God's miraculous intervention were brought out of the place of death upon the threshold of a new life what actually happened during those first forty years in which they wandered in the wilderness it is to be a sign upon thine hand that everything you do has been changed it is to be a memorial between your eyes that everything you think has been changed that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth that everything you say has been changed what actually happened well if you turn to the book of Deuteronomy in chapter twelve Moses said these are the statutes and judgments which you shall observe to do in the land which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it all the days that you live upon the earth there verse seven of chapter twelve in the book of Deuteronomy you will eat before the Lord your God and you will rejoice in all that you put your hand unto you and your households wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee everything to which you put your hand will be a source of unparalleled joy and blessing to you you will not do after all the things that we do here this day every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes for you are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth Moses said you're not going to do there in the land what you're doing here in the wilderness a redeemed people but what were they doing in the wilderness verse eight every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes everybody was still pleasing himself because Moses said you haven't yet entered into that rest which God redeemed so we have a redeemed people who have come out but who have not yet got in and it hasn't changed what they're doing because every man still does what is right in his own eyes he claims the right to exercise jurisdiction over his own life that was the first thing they did in the wilderness they did as they pleased since you became a Christian since you claimed redemption through the shed blood of Christ since you made your profession of faith who's been calling the shot has it changed the things you do have you come to the place where you've recognized that the Lord Jesus who died to bring you out is the one who by his indwelling presence through the Holy Spirit alone can bring you in to that relationship to God that allows God to be king in his kingdom so that every morning when you get up and say Lord Jesus thank you so much you not only died for me I know that you rose again from the dead to come and indwell me by your Holy Spirit that every part of my being body, soul, spirit mind, emotion and will the totality of my personality my body shall be yielded to you a living sacrifice not conforming to this world of aping its patterns but being transformed by the renewing of my mind having that mind which was in Christ Jesus adopting that attitude towards you Lord Jesus that you was a man constantly adopted towards your father allowing your father to be who he is in you in action I'm happy now to allow you to be who you are in me in action my hands are yours to work with my feet are yours to go with my lips are yours to speak with all that I am and have this flesh and blood to clothe your divine activity I'm so glad that when the blood of that unblemished lamb was slain upon the cross it was that he who died for me risen from the dead might come and take up residence within me and give to me the priceless unspeakable privilege of being that humanity on earth today in which he again in the 20th century incarnate can walk the streets of this city is that your Christian life or do you still say I'll do as I please even Christ Roman 15.3 could not please himself what were they doing in the wilderness pleasing themselves what were they thinking about in the wilderness well in the 11th chapter of the book of numbers it says in the 4th verse that the mixed multitude that was among them fell alasty and the children of Israel also wept again and said who shall give us flesh to eat we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic but now our soul is dried away there is nothing at all beside this manner before our eyes what were they thinking about in the wilderness Egypt 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 strange that they should remember these things and somehow forget the lash of the Egyptian past master strange that they should go alasting after these things and forget that they were an enslaved people what were they thinking about in the wilderness they were thinking about in the wilderness as a redeemed people the things that they had left behind in Egypt since you became a Christian what preoccupies your mind what fills your imagination what is the kind of literature that you read what is the kind of program that you watch what are the things that fascinate you and amuse you Egypt God said when you remember as you keep the Passover it's going to be a sign upon your hand that everything that you do has changed it's going to be memorial between your eyes your thoughts and your mind and your imagination the things you think about have been completely changed quite frankly since you became a Christian have you lost an appetite for the things that were characteristic of that unregenerate life that you left in the day that you claimed Christ as your redeemer or quite frankly is your salvation simply a date on a calendar all that you can say about your conversion is that such and such a day yes I walked the aisle or I put my hand up or I knelt by my bedside or I counselled with a man and I received Christ quite frankly that's all you can say about your Christian life if I were to ask you are you saved that's really what you would understand me asking you have I made a decision for Jesus and that's the content of your salvation just a date on a calendar a decision that you made an occasion in the past when you claimed in receiving Christ as redeemer to escape hell and have assured the fact that one day you'll get to heaven that's your salvation that it should change your appetite change your ambitions completely revolutionize and transform the things that preoccupy your thinking and your mind never dawned upon you what were they still doing in the wilderness they were still enslaved within their minds and their imagination and their thoughts by those things that were characteristic of that slavery from which they had been redeemed they were still in their minds enslaved to that which God had buried in the Red Sea why? well because they'd never got to Canaan they'd only heard about it it was a land flowing with milk and honey with the new corn in the land and the pomegranates and the grapes but you see if you don't go on and get in and enjoy what God has provided for you on the other side of Jordan living in the wilderness you'll feast upon the memories of the past and everything that was characteristic of Egypt the land of your captivity there's one thing absolutely certain if you won't go on to enjoy Christ you'll want to go back to enjoy the world what were they doing? pleasing themselves what were they thinking about? Egypt what were they saying? in the wilderness Numbers chapter 16 16th chapter of Numbers now Korah the son of Israel the son of Kohath and a few other folks and Dathan and Abiram and on they verse 2 rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel 250 princes of the assembly famous in the congregation men of renown I want you to notice that these who were named were identified with 250 princes of the assembly famous in the congregation men of renown in other words those whose names made news those who held office those who considered themselves to be of some personality and influence those who considered themselves to be the pillars of the church men of renown they were the ones whom they considered should be consulted and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and they said this you take too much upon you seeing all the congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord you see because what Moses and Aaron had to say to this people was this God never brought us out of Egypt to dump us here in the depths God never brought us out of Egypt to stay in this place God brought us out to take us in God brought us out to enjoy the land God brought us out that we might enjoy the golden corn and the milk and the honey and the pomegranates and the grapes and they said get off our backs get off our backs you take too much upon you seeing all the congregation are holy every one of them where in the wilderness how holy holy enough by whose standards God no by their own you see you can always be holy enough by your own standards and by and large as evangelical Christians we have settled for the standards you attend church once a time you may or may not tie the income tax deducted you witness to a few folks and support a few missionaries the rest of the time is my own the rest of my money is my own what I spend my vacation how I spend the rest of my money what I do with my home what I do with my life is nobody's business but mine and having established this as a pattern and the standard we are holy enough every one of them how many members of churches that would claim to be redeemed saved have settled for once a week in church and would feel almost entitled to launch a libel suit if you were to suggest that they were less than holy enough what were they saying in the wilderness what were they saying in the wilderness these who worship the golden car and who Moses found half naked and half drunk as the tables of stone were shattered at his feet do you know what they were saying we're holy enough every one of them get off our back in the wilderness say excuse me may I ask you how holy are you you're holy enough by who stands God said be ye holy even as I am holy those are God's and you and I can be holy only as he is holy as we allow him to be who he is in us not once a week but 24 hours a day seven days a week that's holy enough for God when you and I can say I for all that I am apart from all that he is and crucified with Christ because that's all I'm fit for nevertheless I live yet not I Christ lives in me because he's the only one who can he's the only one of whom the Father can look down from heaven and say this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased he is the only man that ever walked approved of God since Adam fell into sin so I know now if I am to be holy even as he is holy all I can do is to bow myself out and take my place on that rugged Roman gallows where God sentenced him for what I am for what I deserve I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I as I bow myself out I bow him in Christ lives in me and the life it is now my privilege to live is the life of Jesus Christ to whom I have presented my body a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God it is my reasonable service he is the only one who can so he is the only one who must and any measure which you may recognize in what I do or say or am his righteousness please bear in mind that there is only one person to be congratulated Jesus Christ because he is the only one who can and he is the only one who must to me to live now is Christ because you see God has not appointed me to wrath he has appointed me to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ because he died for me that whether I live on earth or live in heaven whether I am physically alive or physically dead whether I wake or sleep whether I am here or there whether I am earth or in heaven I am to live every moment together with him in that identity that is made possible alone by the gracious presence of his divine spirit through whom he has come to take up residence within my human spirit that from within my human spirit he might have unchallenged access to every area of my soul to think through my thinking to love through my loving to decide through my deciding so that controlling my mind and my emotions he may control my will and control my behavior so that my humanity may give a valid expression of his invisible person and others in my presence may know that Jesus Christ is Lord that he dwells within my heart and that he is king in his kingdom that is holy enough for God when your holiness is Christ himself who of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption that is why you see in the twelfth chapter of the book of Exodus God made it abundantly clear to Moses that this day the day of their redemption when they were to be led by the hand of Moses through the Red Sea and out of a place of death be poised upon the threshold of a new life this day was to be remembered in a land to be possessed it was a not it was not a day that they could legitimately remember in the wilderness and in point of fact after the second year the Passover was not celebrated for thirty-eight years until finally by the hand of Joshua they were led through the Jordan and at last with their feet in the land for the first time in thirty-eight years they celebrated the Passover and had the right to remember what for thirty-eight years they had forgotten that redemption is calculated not just to get a man out of hell and into heaven it's calculated to get God out of heaven into a man that he may be king and his king well what is all this to do with the golden pot with manna well quite a lot and for our encouragement because you see hardly had they been led by the hand of Moses through the Red Sea and arrived in the wilderness on the threshold of that journey that was ultimately to lead them on and in to the land of Canaan the true content of their faith not heaven but Christ they began to murmur and to grumble look at Exodus sixteen they took their journey from Elim and all the congregation of the children of Israel came into the wilderness of sin which is between Elim and Sinai on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing of the land of Egypt they had hardly been redeemed before the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and they murmured against Aaron in the wilderness went to God they said we died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh part and when we did eat bread to the full for you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger which of course was utter nonsense God brought them out to bring them in it was an eleven days journey from the borders of Egypt to the borders of Canaan they could have done it in eleven days and it took them forty years and they grumbled all the way then said the Lord to Moses behold I will rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day and when the Jew verse fourteen of chapter sixteen 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 whisked not what it was and Moses said unto them this is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat manna the word manna means literally translated what is it never tasted this before something entirely new they said it is manna for they whisked not what it was now what is it that any boy or girl or man or woman receives the moment they are redeemed through faith in Christ and cleansed in his blood and accepted in the beloved that they have never never never tasted before what is it if you want the answer you will find it in the 14th of John John 14 said the Lord Jesus verily verily I say unto you verse 12 of John 14 he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do because I am going to my father and I will pray the father verse 16 and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither nor knoweth him you know him for he dwelleth with you and he shall be in you I will not leave you comfortably I will come to you the Holy Spirit is that which the world cannot receive it sees him not and knows him not the presence of the Holy Spirit the experience of his indwelling is open only to those who claim redemption in the blood of Christ no boy girl man or woman ever born in this world or ever yet to be born will ever or can ever receive or experience the presence of God the Holy Spirit unless they first have been redeemed through the blood of Christ but the first thing that happens when any boy girl man or woman convicted of their sin in humble repentance toward God puts their faith in Jesus Christ is that instantly they receive what only God can give life and that life is imparted by the gift to them of the one who was forfeited in Adam when he fell into sin the Holy Spirit so if you turn to the Ephesian epistle and chapter one Ephesians and chapter one and the sixth verse to the praise of the glory of God's grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved and this of course is written by the apostle to those who have already entered into a redemptive relationship with Jesus Christ they have been converted they are genuinely redeemed and of such the apostle says we have been made accepted in the beloved we have been credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the father God accepts us as those who washed in his blood now have boldness of access into the holiest of all for we enter through the veil of a temple that has been wrenched from top to bottom because our high priest has already gone ahead who died for us and who rose again from the dead he has sprinkled the mercy seed with his blood in whom verse seven we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace the lamb that was slain in whom you also trusted verse thirteen after that you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation first of all you had to hear clearly enunciated God's terms upon which he as a holy God would be prepared to receive back to himself a guilty sin and when you heard the word of salvation you believed Paul said in repentance toward God you put your trust in Jesus Christ in whom verse thirteen continuing also after that you believed not after time wise but actually literally translated when in consequence of as an immediate consequence of your faith in whom also when you believed in consequence of believing you were sealed with that holy spirit of promise the moment any boy girl man or woman conscious of their sin turns to Christ and claims redemption God immediately accepts that individual in honoring his son accepted in the beloved when he receives you he does not honor you he honors his son for the moment you call upon the name of Jesus who saves his people from their sins God the father is in honor bound to God the son to accept you otherwise he would betray the Lord Jesus he cannot and he will not and the moment he accepts you in the beloved instantly that redemption transaction is sealed by the restoration to you of the holy spirit of promise the one who was forfeited in Adam when falling into sin he died for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us that we might receive the promise that God pledged to faithful Abraham through Jesus Christ that is that we might receive the promise of the spirit Galatians 3 13 and 14 so when you believed upon the Lord Jesus and claimed him as your redeemer you were sealed instantly with the holy spirit of promise whose presence within you is the earnest or guarantee or hallmark or stamp or down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession under the praise of his glory that word earnest is an old English word it means guarantee it's still used in cattle markets in the north of Ireland if you want to buy a cow then you bargain with the man who wants to sell you a cow he asks for 70 pounds you offer 50 pounds and finally you settle on 60 pounds and the moment you've agreed on the price he claps his hands that means the deal is done and immediately then you pay him what's called the earnest which is the down payment and that seals the transaction and the earnest that seals the transaction when a sinner is redeemed in the blood of Christ is the gift by God of the Holy Spirit restored to the human spirit by whose presence who is the other self of the Father and the Son in co-equality with the Godhead in total trinity in whose presence a guilty sinner receives life the life of God restored to the soul of man by the presence of the Holy Spirit restored to the human spirit and the manner in the golden pot is a picture of the gift by God of the Holy Spirit to every boy girl man a woman who has been redeemed in the blood of Jesus see by the Holy Spirit if you have never received the Holy Spirit you are not yet a Christian period if you have never received the Holy Spirit you are none of his if you are son then God has given to you the spirit of his son for when the fullness of the time was come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons and because you are son because you are son God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your heart crying Abba Father testifying to this new relationship how do you become a son of God John 1 12 as many as not one more not one less exactly as many as receive him believing on his name Jesus to them gave he power to become the sons of God and because you are the sons of God he has sent forth the spirit of his son to live within your heart crying Abba Father Romans 8 verse 16 tells us that self same spirit bears witness with our spirit that we have become the children of God and this is the feeling of the Holy Spirit and it's the first content of the art divinely sealed just only a word or two more then we finish you've been very patient but I want you to notice what it tasted like Moses said unto them this is the bread which the Lord have given you to eat in the wilderness and in the 16th of Exodus and the 31st verse it says the house of Israel called the name thereof manna what is it something entirely new never tasted this before and it was like coriander seed white and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey so it had a double taste first of all it was like coriander seed when the children of Israel in the wilderness thought back and lasted after the things they had left behind in Egypt they said 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 but now our soul is dried away there is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes and the manna was as coriander seed numbers 11 and verse 8 and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil say what does oil speak of in the Bible always Old Testament and New Testament the Holy Spirit always and the taste of manna was as the taste of fresh oil for by the coming of the manna God daily stamped this people as a redeemed people as the Holy Spirit comes the moment you claim redemption to seal you as a redeemed child of God but it not only tasted of oil the Holy Spirit but it was like wafers made with honey in other words tasting as it did of oil that spoke of the sealing by the gift of God of the Holy Spirit to those whom He redeemed it gave a foretaste just a tiny thin wafer foretaste of the land of Cain it wasn't honey in itself because that was reserved for God's people in the land to which He would lead them but the Holy Spirit in the wilderness gave them just the tiniest foretaste just to arouse their appetite for what God could only give them in plenitude on the other side of Jordan now every redeemed sinner has received the Holy Spirit by whose presence they are sealed as those redeemed to become the children of God and the office of the Holy Spirit within the human spirit of the redeemed sinner is to introduce that sinner to the plenitude that God has provided for them in the fullness of Christ but you can never enjoy it in the wilderness you can only have your appetite arouse that's why it says in the eighth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy concerning God's people in the wilderness He humbled thee verse 3 of chapter 8 He suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna that's a strange thing to say isn't it? in the wilderness God suffered them to hunger but fed them with manna in other words what God gave them as manna in the wilderness was never designed to satisfy them it was designed only to sustain life until they were prepared to get to the place for which God had redeemed them out of Egypt in other words God sealing you by His Holy Spirit will demonstrate the fact that you have been redeemed by His immutable promise He will never forsake you He will never leave you but He will never satisfy God did not satisfy them in the wilderness because the table was laid on the other side of Jordan He simply sustained them and the tragedy is that the vast majority of those who claim redemption through the blood of Jesus are on a starvation diet wandering around in the wilderness what they do unchanged what they think unchanged what they say unchanged holy enough never to be satisfied always grumbling always complaining always saying get off my back because God refuses to satisfy His people in the wilderness He simply sustains until they get into the place where they belong thou gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst and promised them that they should go in to possess the land which thou had sworn to give them but they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their necks and they hearkened not to thy commandments they refused to obey neither were they mindful of thy wonders that thou didst demand them they hardened their necks in their rebellion they appointed a captain to return to their bondage but thou art a God ready to pardon gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and you forsook them not numbers worshipping a golden cask saying this is the God that brought us out of Egypt he never forsook them never forsook them and do you know on the very morning they worshipped that golden cask and the shattered tablets of stone with the demands of God's righteousness in pieces on the ground that morning there was no man in the world for you see when God redeems you other foundation can no man lay than that is laid of course let every man take heed what sort of a building he builds thereon gold silver precious stone wood hay stubble every man's work will be tried in that day any man's work abide of course the gold and the silver and the precious stone he'll receive a reward any man's work be burned out because he lived all his life as a redeemed sinner in the wilderness doing as he pleased dreaming of Egypt holy enough God says he will suffer loss he'll stand in that day eyes cast to the ground in utter shame in the presence of his redeemer in a heap of ashes but he himself one Corinthians three he himself shall be saved so as by fire sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of Jesus Christ by God who refuses under any circumstance for the sake of his dear son to forsake any whom he redeems and may divinely see yet now be strong O Zerubbabel saith the Lord and be strong O Joshua son of Josedek the high priest and be strong O ye people of the land saith the Lord and work for I am with you saith the Lord of hosts according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt so my spirit remains among you fear not and the glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former saith the Lord of hosts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of hosts Haggai chapter two and verse five the golden pot with manna valid beneath the mercy seat sprinkled with blood that tells you that if there came a moment when in genuine repentance toward God you claim redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ though you worship the golden coffin throw it all back into his feet there'll come a day when you'll stand before your saviour and he'll show you his hands and his feet again and will remind you these are the hallmarks of my saviourhood you asked me to redeem you and I did and I sealed you by my indwelling spirit and you wandered in the wilderness I brought you out to bring you in to share my life on earth twenty hours twenty four hours every day but you got stuck in the wilderness you did as you pleased in your heart you still lived in Egypt though I pleaded with you you were always holy enough but I never forsook you never because you asked me to redeem you and I think in that day your eyes will fill with tears as you look back over a wasted life and stand empty hands in the presence of a saviour with whom you are going to share his kingdom forever and of which place he says I hath not seen nor heard neither hath it entered into the heart of man the thing which God hath prepared for them that love him you'll almost wish you had never got saved when you realize how little you deserve what he so graciously provided the golden part with man divinely sealed all right let's have a word of prayer