In this sermon, the preacher reflects on the Israelites' journey in the wilderness for 40 years. Despite witnessing numerous miracles and provisions from God, the generation of Israelites during that time did not truly know God or understand His ways. The preacher emphasizes the importance of genuine worship and praise, rather than using it as a form of entertainment. He also highlights the faithfulness of God in providing for His people, such as giving them manna from heaven and water from a rock. The sermon concludes with a reminder of God's power and victory in the story of Gideon and how God fought for His people.

Well, first, I want to say it's been very precious for Ruth and I to be here with you people. We see the hunger and desire and longing and expectation for something different than we generally see in the world about us. There's a hunger. There's a new hunger developing in God's people. I think I mentioned the other night there are two things that can cause a hunger. I don't know if I fully explained that, but a famine will cause it, of course. And God said, I will send a famine in the earth, not of bread and water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. That famine will cause people to search and to go here and there looking for the word of the Lord. But the manner that God sends will also cause us to hunger. I think I saw that there in Deuteronomy, I think it is, where God said to the new generation. He was going over a lot of the experiences that they had gone through and their fathers. And they were going to go into the land their fathers were not because of their rebellion when the time came for them to go in and they refused. God said, well, you're using your children as an excuse for not going in. They couldn't stand the warfare that would take place in that land. They couldn't stand up to the enemy. God said, I'm going to bring them in. I'll swear I'll bring them in and you'll perish here in the wilderness. So Moses in Deuteronomy goes over a lot of the experiences that they had gone through. And he said, I'm just trying to get the beginning of the passage there, where the Lord thy God, he says, has led you these 40 years in the wilderness. There seemed to be too much guidance in it, going from this place to this place and to another. But God was leading them. What they didn't know and what we often don't know is that God does lead us through a wilderness. I used to wonder why until I realized we're that wilderness. God causes us to go through wilderness experiences to test and prove and try our own hearts, to prepare our hearts. So he says, I led you these 40 years in the wilderness. And I fed you with manna and caused you to hunger, that you might know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. He gave them manna, but he didn't remove the hunger. Because the manna didn't satisfy their appetite, but it met every need. He did it that way, leaving that vacancy, leaving that vacant, that empty heart, leaving that lack of feeling satisfied, totally satisfied, yet not appreciating the fact that that manna kept them healthy and strong and vital. No sickness, no problems. They're trapping through a dirty, rocky wilderness no doubt many times, and their feet didn't swell, their very shoe leather didn't wear out. So that manna left the hunger there, that they might know that man does not live just by what you eat, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, that proceedeth, a living word. God wants us as we stand to minister the word of truth, to be in such harmony with himself and in tune with his spirit that the word that proceedeth out of our mouths will be a word from the heart of God, not just things that we've learned and studied, though all that is vitally important as we get the word in our hearts and minds. It does the work that God intended, that out from that word God might bring forth a living word that will be profitable and will impart something to God's people. The new covenant is importation. It's not just a new set of doctrines. It's importation. It's called a ministration of the Spirit. It's called a ministration of righteousness. In contrast to the law, which Paul was bold to say was a ministration of condemnation. And yet it came with glory. So glorious that when Moses came down from the mount with the tables of the law, the glory was radiating from its countenance. And they were afraid to draw nigh because of that glory. They kept looking away at this. Oh, like if you held a mirror up to the sun and shone it around, you're really seeing the reflection of the sun and you can't stand it. But Moses beckoned to them, and they came nigh. And he spoke unto them the words that God had given him in the mount, and they listened. And then he sensed the glory was departing, and he put a veil over his face until he went in to speak to the Lord again. Then when he talked to the Lord, he took the veil off. And that glory came back, and he'd go down, and the glory would be there. And he talked to them with the glory radiating from him. But it would fade away. He put the veil on again. Now, I never always knew that, and most people think, as soon as they said, Oh, Moses, your face is too bright, he grabbed the veil. No. He must minister because of that anointing, because of that glory. And God doesn't hide the glory. He shines it forth, and God grants that our minds will be unveiled, that we might receive what God would say through his anointed word. Paul explains. It's all explained there in 2 Corinthians 3. He put the veil on his face so that the children of Israel would not see the end of that which is of ours, that they wouldn't see the last rays of that fading glory. He didn't want them to see the last rays. Cover his face. Nothing to say to you until I go into the presence of God and come out again. And Paul shows very clearly that the veil was on their heart. It seemed to be on Moses' face, and it was, but really it was there because the veil was on their heart. For he says, Until this day the same veil remaineth untaken away at the reading of the old covenant. But when they shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And his final commentary on the whole thing, he says, But we all with open face, and the word is unveiled, and there's different translations. The holy is in the glass, the glory of the Lord. Some say reflecting like a mirror, the glory of the Lord. We all with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are changed. Metamorphosis, well metamorpholo or something, I'm not too familiar with Greek, but the change, transfigured, the word from which we get metamorphosis, the same word in Romans where it says, Be transfigured by the renewing of your mind. The same word used for the countenance of Jesus when he was up on the Mount of Transfiguration. His countenance was changed, transfigured. Used three times in the New Testament. Complete change. We all with open face, unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror, that glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory unto glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It's God's intention for His people as we gather together in His name, every one of us, by His grace, by His anointing, by His gifting, partake of His glory, that there might be a ray of glory from everyone. Each one reflecting the glory of Jesus to someone else. That everything in the temple of God might speak of Him. Go forth in His glory. I think David said, Everything in thy temple doth say glory or doth speak of His glory. God's plan. Because God's intention, His desire, His purpose is to put His glory upon His people. What kind of glory? The same that was on Jesus. The glory which Thou hast given me, I have given them. The same glory. Oh, there's so many things about the glory of God. We just know so little about it. But the shining forth of God's presence is the reflection of His own glory shining forth in the midst of His people. It's God's intention for a new covenant people that we partake of the glory of Christ. The same glory that Peter, James and John saw up there on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus chose Peter, James and John to go with Him on this occasion. Sometimes we think, I wonder what the other disciples thought when they heard later. He told them not to tell anybody and they didn't until Jesus was glorified. What did they think? He left us out. Somehow, they had been so disciplined of the Lord that they knew what He did was right. But the Peter, James and John that were up there on the Mount of Transfiguration also went with Him into Gethsemane. So let's never forget that. As we speak of the glory, yes, I want that. I want everything God has for me. Good. The further we go with God in realms of glory, the further we must go with Him in realms of suffering for His name's sake. And I know there's a lot of talk about what we're going to do when we take the kingdom. But be reminded, let us be reminded again and again, if we suffer with Him, that shall we reign with Him. And to suffer with Him doesn't just mean, well, yeah, I'm sick, I'm suffering all the time. I've got this ache and pain. It's not that kind of suffering. It's the dying of the Lord Jesus. It's what's bearing about in my body, the dying of the Lord Jesus. And the dying of the Lord Jesus is something we only partake of as we walk in obedience. He shows us our cross and bids us take up our cross and follow Him. Promising reward for those who follow Him, yes, but promising also that we're not above His Master and we can't expect that we're going to have a life that's above that which Jesus had. He laid down His life for us. Then John says, you be prepared to lay down your lives for the brethren. Not by way of atoning for their sin, but by way of loving them so much that we're ready to give our lives for their sake and for their benefit. If so, be God leads us in that way, in that pathway. To learn that kind of obedience that we're ready also to lay down our lives for the brethren. So we appreciate this time we've been here and we pray that there will have been a deposit in the hearts of God. Deposit of truth and truth is living and if there's a deposit of truth, it will bear good fruit if the soil is good. That was a good word, brother. Well, I hope it is. But I hope it's good soil, brother, sister. Hope it's good soil. And I know there's lots of good soil here and we just pray the Lord will continue to root out every weed, every evil seed. Break up the ground within us and remove the stones and do what He needs to do to make this earth which we are to be the garden of the Lord because that's what God calls it. The husbandman is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. Have long patience for it till it receives the early and the latter rain. Have long patience for it. God. Patience is considered, you know, something we all have to go through, but it's sort of an evil thing that we just don't like. And I'm not talking about grinning and baring at that kind of a thing. I'm talking about the fires that God sends to purge your faith from all presumption till it comes forth as gold. But we don't like it. One preacher said, the guy that told me about it, said he meant it. Yeah, he thought it was a good word. Tribulation works with patience. I'll say it does. It works it to a frazzle. We don't want that stuff. I mean, it works its patience within us. And the trial of our faith works its patience. And the trial of our faith brings forth something more precious than gold that perishes. Why? Because you want to be like Jesus. And you sing the song. We sung it on Sunday school days. Oh, to be like Jesus. So meek and holy, so... I forget the words now. I want to be like Jesus. And then just 32, three years later when I remember in this move of the Spirit, which I was associated with in those days, the message was coming forth, God's going to have a people in the earth like Jesus. We were blasphemers almost saying that. They'd been singing it for years. To be like Jesus. To be like Jesus. All I ask is to be like Him. No big deal. Nothing too great. Just to be like Jesus. That's all I ask. To be like Him. But you know, God takes wonderful truths and puts them in song. Almost like He's atomizing the truth so that we can breathe it. So it doesn't have to penetrate our minds too much. Song sometimes is almost like something you can breathe. You don't have to really know the depths of it. But you know it's from God and it does a great work. Just the fact that we're singing it with open hearts unto Him. And many songs are like that. Full of truth. Many of the old hymns in the church are full of tremendous truth. A lot of that truth beyond what even the songwriter knew or understood. And that's not unusual because even in the Psalms they would be singing these beautiful Psalms that Esau or David or some of the others composed and they'd sing them in the temple. And they were appointed for that purpose. They were musicians appointed of God to do that. It was a ministry. Oh, there's some ministry of song around today I know, but so much of it is commercialism and you've got to have the right kind of a tune that you can get people excited by it and keep your feet tapping to it. And those musicians in the temple were prophetic. They prophesied on instruments of music. And it intermingled throughout with Silla. You often wonder if they could even wedge a Silla in these days with some of those songs they sing. Sing beautiful songs on Silla, which seems to me, as far as I can gather, Pause a moment. Think this over what we've said. So they'd be singing, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, But a body is now prepared for me While the priests out in the outer court Would be slaying the oxen and the sheep And the doves and the musicians were singing Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not. It didn't penetrate, but that's alright. They were singing for truth. Even back there because there were prophets. God was still accepting those sacrifices. But it wasn't that he delighted in it. It was a means of grace whereby they could approach God. Because of their failure and their sins, they could come and bring their offering to God and God would be well pleased. Not because of that bullet and that turtle dove, but because they came in obedience. Sorry for their sin. And God saw the sacrifice of Christ. And so God justified them. Freely by His grace. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Though it had not yet happened. Justifying them by His grace. Way back there. In view of the sacrifice that would yet come. The true Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. And so when it became a ritual, when it became something they were doing for God, God hated it. Behold, heaven is my throne, said God to the prophet. Earth is my footstool. Where is the house you're going to build for me? Well, God ordained the buildings of temples in the Old Testament. He ordained it. The greatest temple of all. I mean, fabulous in its wealth and its silver and gold and precious stones and in the architecture. When Solomon finished it and dedicated it to the Lord, he knew it wasn't God's dwelling place. He says, Lord, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, how much less this house that I have built for You. But he said, let it be that when Your people, perhaps they're in a time of famine, perhaps they've been persecuted, perhaps they've been taken away from their homeland and taken into captivity, let them turn, as they turn their face, towards this holy temple and cry out to You, then hear from heaven Thy dwelling place and answer their prayer. For it is a place where God put His name. And so it never was intended to be God's dwelling place. Just a place where God would draw nigh to man and provide a place where they could come and seek God and pray unto Him. God's intention being that that temple would be a house of prayer for all nations. And when it ceased to be that, God said, go away with your temple. I don't need your temple. Heaven is My throne. Earth is My footstool. Where is the place that You will build unto Me? And Your sacrifices, they're an abomination unto Me. He went on to say, bring a pig and offer that on the altar. It's just the same to Me. If your hearts are in that condition, where you come in your rebellion, I don't need your sacrifices. The cattle on a thousand hills are Mine. How are you going to feed Me? But, he says, to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and has a contrite spirit and that trembles at My word. So God's still seeking for that habitation that He desires, that He longs for, that He requires, that He needs. He needs a home. He needs a family. He needs a dwelling place. It's in His heart. It's inherent in Him. He could never find a real dwelling place in all the beautiful things He had created. Angels, cherubim, seraphim, whatever other orders there are, it was never a dwelling place for God. They all showed forth their wisdom and knowledge and beauty and all that, but they never became a suitable habitation for God because they were not in His image and likeness. How could God find true fellowship and true and meaningful home anywhere but in someone who was like Him, in a place where He had sons and daughters like Himself? So redemption was not just an afterthought in the heart of God. God needed redemption to fully show forth and to satisfy the desires and longings of His own heart. Now don't bring up too much theology on this. Well then, God planned the fall and God made Adam so he could sin, so He could redeem him. I don't understand any of that mystery at all. I just know that redemption was not an afterthought. From the foundation of the world we're told that Christ was seen as the Lamb that was slain. Without trying to get into mysterious things that we can never solve anyway, we glory in the fact that God from ages, eons past, anticipated the day when He Himself would come to earth and He Himself would bring about the redemption of man. That in that redemption He might show forth the fullness of His glory. He showed a lot of it in the first creation. That there were attributes in God that still needed to be shining forth to satisfy God's own heart. God is light. You cannot confine light. It must shine forth. God is love. There must be an expression of that love. And He could show some of it. Yes, in making the creation, in making angels, but the depths of it must be revealed. The fullness of Godhead must be revealed and manifested. If God was going to find a suitable home for Himself, He must find people in His image with whom He might dwell, communicate, have fellowship. He had a taste of it in Adam. That's true. And when that fellowship was marred by Adam's fall, God did not forsake His intention. He knew that that would happen. He went about the task of bringing forth redemption in the fullness of time it happened. All through the Old Testament we have examples of redemption, of the atonement, all looking forward to the great masterpiece of God's works, the work of redemption. When God most high would receive, would manifest and show forth the other side of His being, the other side of His being, He showed wisdom. He showed knowledge. He showed power. He showed all those things, but there was another side of God. He was patient, long-suffering, merciful, but nowhere for these attributes to be revealed until Adam fell and the world became full of rebellion and iniquity. And God was then able to show forth patience, long-suffering, bring forth vessels of mercy. Don't try to analyze this too deeply. Just know that God is a God of great humility and meekness and patience and long-suffering. That's why you want to be like Him. God will do things to destroy your own plans, to disappoint you, to cause you to be discouraged. Not that He wants you to be in that condition, but He wants you to learn patience. The trials that He sends your way. You might learn patience and long-suffering and show love and mercy. And then of all mysteries, He shows us that by doing these good things, we literally defeat the evil about us. Do not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. You can't do that, but Jesus did it, you see. He showed that it can work to overcome evil with good, to overcome hatred by loving His enemies and laying down His life. Overcome all the lies and deception of Satan by living the truth and being the truth. Overcame darkness by shining forth as the light in a world of darkness. The earth is still full of evil and God is preparing a people who will walk in the light and glory of Jesus. Out from that light will shine love and mercy and truth and long-suffering and patience. And so don't despise this trial, this test that requires that you show patience and long-suffering. If you want to be like Jesus, we must have that. To be like Him. Because in the midst of all the evil that's going on, God is showing long-suffering. And in the midst of it, God is preparing vessels of mercy. Oh, there's that persecution going on all through church history against God's people as the enemy rises up to wipe out this people known as the church. All through church history it keeps coming up again and again. For Satan still seems to have the idea that perhaps he will eventually triumph. And he seems to get things going his way until God somehow comes on the scene and manifests the glory of the cross. Something that Satan could never understand. He continues to persecute the saints of God not knowing that as they're doing that, as they're destroying God's people and persecuting them, they're producing this life and this power and this glory in them that will one day cause Satan to slay himself. That's why all through the Old Testament we read how when the battles of the lords, God simply puts confusion into the ranks of the enemy and they destroy themselves. I know in Sunday School days you read that David killed Goliath with a stone, but he didn't. He stunned him with a stone and he took Goliath's sword and he slew Goliath with Goliath's sword. And in that little simple illustration, God is showing us that the devil, if we walk God's way, the devil slays himself. When he killed Jesus, that death on the cross was Satan's destruction. Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death. That is the devil. And when the battle of the lords, the victory is so simple because God turns the enemy against Himself. Oh, there's many illustrations of that. Gideon's noble 300. Wonderful power they had. The fact is they were so weak. Gideon didn't even give them swords as far as I know. He sent home all the ones that were afraid and then he sent home all the ones that would take the glory for themselves. Why do I say that? Because God said, if I use these 10,000, then the people will say by their own arm they have done it or worse to that effect. So he sent those home who he knew would not give him all the glory. He found 300 men that would. So prepared for discipline that they would sit there on the hillside at midnight, 300 men with nothing but a lamp and a pitcher and a trumpet. 300 men with something like 135,000 on midnight down in the valley below as grasshoppers for a multitude. Gideon was so prepared of the Lord that he was ready to take that chance. No, he was ready to obey God in spite of the fear that would grip him at times to think of 300 men going against probably something like 135,000 well-equipped soldiers. And so God says, well, Gideon, go down the hill there and listen to what's going on down there. And he went down the hill in the darkness of the night and came to this tent. This guy wakes up. He had a nightmare. What's wrong with you? You've got to go to sleep. What happened? Oh, I dreamed a loaf of bread rolled down the hill and smote the tent and destroyed the camp. Oh, the other guy says, I've got the interpretation. That's Gideon in his past. The Lord has given us into the hands of the millionaires. I'll tell you when that rumor spread around the camp. And when the men sat there on the hillside, 300 in number, separated into three companies, there was nothing but a pitcher and a lamp within the pitcher and a trumpet. And Gideon said, don't do anything until I do it. Then do as I do. I mean, the simple words of Jesus. You can do nothing. He Himself could do nothing. As I hear what the Father says, so I do it. I can do nothing of myself, the Son of God said when He was here on earth. I can do nothing of myself. But powerful preachers can do so many wonderful things through a great temple. As I hear, I judge. He said, I won't do one of those things. He said to the Father, you do as I said, Gideon said. And so Gideon, at the right moment, blew the trumpet, took the lamp, crashed the pitcher. And the people all did the same, the 300. And they shouted, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon and God did the rest. They just started beating down one another, fighting one another, running away in confusion with the people of God running after them. God did it. In the battle of the Lord, God does it. I'm not going to go any further along that line, but take note, when the battle of the Lord, God turns the enemy into confusion. Such confusion they destroy one another. And so knowing that He's defeated that way, He's, as the Prince of Darkness knows, how to put confusion amidst God's people. Get them all confused, fighting one another. Because He knows it works. And we, because we have not been disciplined enough of the Lord to know His tactics, we're part of the confusion, jostled with one another. But God knows all about it. He knows that carnal nature within us is still very strong. And He has a plan to rid us of that. And that plan is to arrange our pathway for those who truly want to go God's way all the way. God arranges their pathway to conform them to the image of His Son, but in so doing, the pathway that leads to the cross where He bids us along the way now take up that cross and follow Me. Because He wants a lamb-like people just as He was. God is going to destroy all evil in this world by a lamb people who overcome evil with good, who overcome darkness with light, who overcome hatred with love, who overcome deception with truth. And so Paul says, what of God willing to show His wrath? Oh, you say, God won't show His love. I know, but in showing His love, in preparing to show His love, He must show forth His wrath against sin and evil. What of God willing to show His wrath and to make His power known? Endured. Endured with much longsuffering. Oh, God is God. He couldn't suffer. He could and He does. He endures with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction that He might... I noticed that one time. He endured them that He might make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy which He hath aforeprepared unto glory. Satan rises up to do his worst against the church. He's preparing vessels of mercy. The wrath of man upon them brings forth patience, longsuffering, kindness, mercy, love. Satan can't understand that. He has no defense against the cross of Christ. There Jesus defeated him. And now the preaching of the cross, he has no defense against it. So I think this morning, I mentioned how Paul the apostle went forth preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ, causing men who were blind to see the mystery of the Gospel which God had given him to the intent that now unto principalities and powers and heavenly places might be made known the manifold wisdom of God. That when Jesus died on the cross, the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the cross, is something that God wanted all angelic principalities and powers to know about. Those who are allied with truth would be warriors in our behalf. Those who are allied with evil, they must know about it. Because when the mystery of the cross and of the wisdom of God in the cross penetrates the heavens, they're weakened. Oh, you say, I just want to go and preach a simple Gospel? So do I. But I want heaven on my side. I want to be on their side. Whoever you may, look at it. Because until the Gospel goes forth with power and with anointing, and the message of the cross is not just a story, but it's something that happened when Jesus died and something that's very much alive. The Gospel that goes forth from those anointed lips will cause the principalities of evil to fear and tremble because the story of the cross is being broadcast into those heavenly realms. And they can't stand it because they know that's where they were defeated. And though the sentence hasn't been fully executed, whenever the mystery of the cross is broadcast into the heavenlies, they tremble and they're afraid and they flee. They can't stand the message of the cross. They've been impacted by the Holy Spirit. So Paul says the intention of the Gospel he preached was that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known through the church the many-sided aspects of God's wisdom. Paul already pointed out in 1 Corinthians that the wisdom of God was revealed at the cross. That Christ crucified is Christ the power of God and Christ the wisdom of God. The ultimate of God's wisdom was revealed when Jesus died at the cross. That His Son who went there in obedience to the will of the Father willingly gave Himself to be a sin offering in the hands of men. Turned Himself over as it was for Satan to deal with. Growing up there in a country that was under Roman captivity where the Romans were using the worst form of capital punishment known crucifying people on a tree. Jesus became so low, so humble, so obedient to the will of the Father, became by His own volition a bond slave having nothing to gain for Himself. He was totally committed to do the will of the Father. God says He will be that sacrifice for sin because the Father would lead His pathway in a way that would find Him on the cross because of the hatred in men, because of the darkness in men, because of the jealousies in men, because of the covetousness in men. He was the one who was the total antithesis of all life. And there had to be confrontation. God's preparing a people who are going to come into broadside confrontation with the prince of darkness. The darkness is getting ever more severe. Ever more encroaching upon us. Changing of the governments won't do it. God has already changed the government. He's got a king on Zion's Hill already. He cries out in mockery to the heathen. Why do the heathen rage and people imagine vain things? The Lord has set His king on the holy hill of Zion. The Lord in the heavens will have the enemy in derision. He set His son there. He conquered. A lamb conquered. Rules in heaven. I know I say this almost every time I stand before you. But we don't realize that. Still thinking somehow I'm going to take over the kingdom and get it in the hands of the church. The time comes when the saints are the most I take the kingdom. They're going to take it the way Jesus took it. Like walking in obedience to Him. The same obedience. The same measure of obedience. Totally committed to do the will of the Father. And that will lead us to our cross as surely as it led Jesus to His. When all hell breaks loose against the church of Christ in this country, it won't be because somehow we've lost the democratic system of government. It will be because there will be a people rising up in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and walking in the light. Jesus is in the light. Darkness can't stand it. Even now the little bit of light that's here, they hate it. You know that. What's it going to be when the light shines forth with a brilliance like the brilliance that's shone forth in the face of Jesus? It can't stand it. Oh, God, we thank You, Lord. We praise You that we have people here on earth sometimes not knowing what's going on. Somehow, Lord, You take away the veil from time to time to see a bleeding lamb who is triumphant and who rules in the throne of glory with all power in heaven and in earth. Read about the day of wrath that is coming when the Lamb Himself will show forth His wrath against evil, against sin, against the workers of iniquity. That the righteousness of God might shine forth in this world of sin and death and sickness. Oh, we hardly pray for Your judgments except in this sense, Lord, send forth Your righteous decrees in the earth. For You have said that when Your judgments are made manifest in the earth, all nations will come and worship before You. It's going to happen. Only as the overcomers that God has been waiting for and preparing are disciplined with the discipline of the Son of God and stand with Him on Mount Zion having overcome the beast and the false prophet and anything else that pertains to the realms of evil. Overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and by their word of their testimony and loving not their lives even unto the death. I thought we might have gone on with what we started this morning, but that will have to wait for another time, if the Lord will. But I want to read one psalm here slowly, trusting the Lord will... Oh, what shall I say? Speak to our hearts from it. These were prophetic psalms sung by prophets not to make an impression on the people because of the beauty of their singing. They might prophesy in their hearts and their symbols the word of the Lord. God preserved them in here and left them there in the authorized version at least which is uncopyrighted. So we're free to read it, sing it, project it on the screen. It's not copyrighted. Isn't that wonderful? We've still got a version, at least one, that's not copyrighted. Oh, come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. There's three messages. Three different aspects of the word of the Lord that comes forth in Psalm 95. The first one encourages the people to exalt the Lord of hosts. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. The Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth. The strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His and He made it. His hands formed the dry land. So God calls upon His people and other psalms. He calls upon all creation to give praise to the great Creator. It becomes something we like doing and becomes a source of entertainment many times. Because you can take these songs of praise and use it to entertain the people. To glorify God. Sad to say, how wonderful when that one who truly loves the Lord picks up that instrument and thoughtfully and meditatively sings forth the praises of the Lord unto Him who has loved us and redeemed us to be His own. Beautiful ministry of music. I think it's a beautiful song that Brother Bob put together here and sings before the meeting. I think it is something by way of preparing the atmosphere, we can call it that. Spiritual atmosphere. For the word that goes forth later as we lift our hearts in praise and adoration to the great King. But then it changes a little. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. If we start with praise, that's good. But if our hearts are truly ended, it brings us to the place where we realize the awesomeness of our God and we cannot help but bow down before Him. And worship really has that connotation. The context of worship in the Bible always has that connotation of bowing down, humbling ourselves, falling at His feet, falling on our face, kneeling. It has that thought of total surrender to God of all that we are. Worship has that. And so Job had no worship leader to show him how to worship God. And when God took away everything he had, we're told that he worshipped God and said, Blessed be the Lord. The Lord give us. And the Lord take us away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And he worshipped God. Abraham. God says to Abraham when Isaac was a young man, the promised seed, the one through whom God said He would bless all nations. God said, Take thy son Isaac, thine only son, whom I lovest. Yet another son Ishmael, but in this context God was saying he's the only one that I have promised through whom the nations would be blessed. Take him now and take him up into a mountain that I will show you and offer him there for a burnt offering. Abraham went looking for the mountain. I don't know how long they traveled, but he lifted up his eyes and there it was. God had showed him the mountain as truly as He had showed him Canaan. Now he was in Canaan living in the land of promise. The land that he had wandered around in for many years. The land that he hadn't found for many years. He didn't know where to go. All he knew was God told him to leave his country and his kindred and go into a country that He would show him. And by faith he went out not knowing where he was going. God could have said at least, you know, how far away it was. He just kept going. I don't see in the life of Abraham mighty operations of faith from my limited understanding of seeing things. I don't see those mighty operations of faith that we see in Moses or David or Enoch who walked with God and God took him or Noah who killed Anarchus. But Abraham was a man that God said would be the father of all that believed. His faith was something different. He didn't have anything to show for it. But in the sight of God he saw a man who was prepared to walk in obedience. Abraham obeyed so clearly, so beautifully. Oh, we have the story of the struggle of his faith. I know we have all that. God would appear on occasion. Sometimes we get the idea as we read the Scriptures, you know, you read something that might transpire over 50 years and you might think, oh, this man had constant revelation from God, but there were seasons there that Abraham went through and he wondered, Lord, what are You waiting for? You told me to go out and You showed me the land of promise. Here I am now. I'm in the land of promise, but there's still something more. He gave him Isaac. Ishmael first, I know. Yeah, he missed a little. Paul says he wavered not through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Because he was a New Testament person. When we come to the New Testament, God doesn't magnify the mistakes of His saints. He doesn't talk about David's sin or Noah's sin or Abraham's sin or failure. They're men of the New Covenant now. We all have our failures, but God sees it through those eyes of the New Covenant. When God does the work and we're just the recipients of the Covenant, makes us to be partakers of the Covenant, not by anything we do, but by, what do I say, walking in faith, which produces works of obedience. But that's all. He must do the work. Abraham knew that Isaac was a miracle child. That it's impossible for him and Sarah to have a son. He knew that. God gave him a son. So he knew the God of resurrection life even as Isaac was born. So now that faith was so strong that when God said, go take him up into one of the mountains there, He said, I will show you. And offer him for a burnt offering. He was ready to do it. So that at the foot of the mountain, he left his servant. And he said, you stay here while I and the lad go yonder to worship and we will come back. Went up there fully intending to slay his son. The Apostle Paul tells us in the figure. He slew him. He'd done the act. Being assured that God would raise him from the dead. And having that kind of resurrection faith that God would do it. So he has become the father of all that believe. He says, I and the lad will go up yonder and worship. Takes his son. Son at first, of course, questioned him. You've got the wood. You've got the fire. Where is the burnt offering? He said, God will provide himself an offering. And then he had to tell him. Began to bind him with ropes and cords. Laid him on the altar. The wood under. The fire was there. Ready to light the wood. You see, how cruel can God be? God wouldn't let it happen. But intent. In Abraham's heart, he did it. God wouldn't let it happen. There was a ram there in the bush. God said, hold your hand, Abraham. I know now that you've got the faith that I'm looking for. I'm just illustrating the full depth of worship. It's giving back to God everything he's got now. O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the martyr maker. For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. And then he utters in prophecy what Paul calls the day of rest that replaces all other Sabbaths. For though God rested the seventh day because he'd finished the work of creation, that was short-lived Sabbath. Adam sinned. We don't know how long he lived in sinlessness. God went to work. Flew an animal and clothed our foreparents who had sinned. Teaching them right in the very beginning the necessity of sacrifice for the remission of sin. And God never ordained a Sabbath for any people until he brought them out of the wilderness. Out of Egypt into the wilderness. He tells them in Ezekiel. In Egypt you worship your gods, he said. But for my holy name's sake I brought you out. And I brought you into the wilderness and I made known unto you my Sabbath. It was never imposed on the race until that time. And then it was only on that nation. And then it was incomplete. It wasn't the real Sabbath. But we have indications of God's rest all through scripture. And Paul goes on to talk about the Sabbath. How God rested the seventh day. And how that became the Sabbath for Israel. Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Although they were finished from the foundation of the world it wasn't until God got Israel a people unto himself that he placed upon them this matter of Sabbath keeping. To be a sign between he and them. And then he brought them down to Sinai and taught them his holy judgments and laws that imposed the Sabbath upon them. That one day in seven, the seventh day to be holy unto the Lord. And they were compelled to keep it. And they did. They were compelled to have a Sabbath of the land which they might have done for a short season but were not told too often that they had the Sabbath of the land. And it became a ritual. It became another ritual. And so when he had his people there in Canaan he said I'm going to lead you into a land of rest. Emphasize all these Sabbaths because Canaan was to be a land of rest. And it does say that when Joshua brought them in he gave them rest. God gave them rest from all their enemies. But Paul says in Hebrews 4 if you want to go into it tonight that if Joshua had really given them rest God would not have spoken of another day of rest but he did speak of another day of rest. And Paul quotes this scripture. It's today. If you can hear his voice. Read that carefully in Hebrews 4 sometimes. If Joshua had given them rest God would not have spoken afterwards of another day as he said in David so many years afterwards. Today if you hear his voice harden not your heart. That's when we enter into God's rest. When? Today if you hear his voice. And so they came to the doorstep of Canaan and they disobeyed, they refused to go in because of unbelief. So God waited for another generation to grow up to fulfill that promise that God had made because no matter how man may fail God's promises do not fail. God's purposes will not miscarry. They might be delayed but when God declares His intention He will do it. He swore with an oath to the new generation that they would go in and He brought them in not because they were better because He told them plainly you're just as bad as your fathers but God swore with an oath He would bring you in and He's going to do it. And it says there in the Old Testament that God gave Joshua rest gave them rest for a moment randomly. But Paul tells us they didn't enter into the final rest. If Joshua had given them rest God wouldn't have set apart another day for His people. God arranged a new Sabbath for His people. And Paul says it was today. If you hear His voice harden not your heart as in the provocation as in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me proved me, saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and said it is the people that do err in their heart and they have not known my ways unto whom I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. So Paul says as long as it's today let us hear His voice and do His will. That's the rest. We're doing what God says. Every day is the rest of God. Oh I know we need a day of rest. The man who walks in the Spirit he won't wear himself out working for himself or for God. But he'll find rest in doing the work that God gives him to do. So Jesus would break the Sabbath in the minds of the people because He said God's working these days. This Sabbath day God's working so I'm working. I'm just working in harmony with God. God's working today. I'll work today. God would delight it seems in causing Jesus to do the Father's work on the Sabbath day. It wasn't that Jesus was deliberately trying to antagonize the people. God was doing it. Going on the Sabbath day and tell the man who was sick to take up your bed and walk. You're not supposed to do that. Well, how come you're doing it? Well, I couldn't walk. This man came along and told me to take up my bed and walk. I took up my bed and started to walk. Who was it? Well, I don't know. Anyway, they found him. You know the story how they had conflict with him for abusing the Sabbath day, misusing it. Today is the Sabbath and every day. You have to go to work. Let it be the Sabbath of God. I know I can say that standing here speaking it. I know what it is to work and earn my living and earn a living for my family. And I did that most of my life. I haven't been in ministry all these years. I'm not in ministry now, of course. I just spent my life carpentry. And yet there were times when you just knew you were in God's will and you rejoiced in that rest He gives you just knowing you're in His will. Other times you get under condemnation. You get under condemnation yourself and others will put you under condemnation. You know, you've got to work for the church. You've got to get out there. They need that word, George. I know, I guess they do, but they've got to know they need it. Anyway, again I say don't try and get God to show you too much of His plan for your life because He doesn't show you too much of His plan for your life. If He did, then you'd be working on it trying to get everything together to make the plan work properly. I wanted to be a full-time minister in the gospel all the days of my life from as far back as I can remember. Whenever I'd take a job, I'd say, well now, thank you for the job, but I might not be here too long. Well, I'll probably be in ministry. Oh, well that's all right. I did that until I was close to 60 years old. I thought, goodness sakes. How stupid can I be? I said, Lord, You have my address. You know where I am. And I shouldn't say that. It's kind of a threat or anything. God does know where I am. And I thank Him for that. Then I found out that God is out searching for people. While we're searching for Him, He's out searching for people whose hearts are right toward Him. Not with two eyes like we have, but with many eyes. Oh, I think it's pictured there in the cherubim. Eyes within, eyes without. Eyes of the Lord running throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on the behalf of them whose hearts are perfect toward Him. Don't go anywhere looking for God, but get your heart right on this Sabbath day, which is today if you can hear His voice. Harden not your heart as in the provocation and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your Father's tempted Me, He proved Me and saw My works. Forty years long was I grieved for this generation. But God, for those forty years, You gave them man every day from heaven. You gave them water out of the rock. In dry places, You caused them to dig the well. You led them to one place. This is the well that God told us about. What well? Get your staves and start digging with their sticks and whatever they had. They started digging. It wasn't long until the water touched up. The cloud stopped there. Moses, this is the well. God was faithful. Miracle after miracle after miracle. Every day there was a miracle. Many miracles. I remember this woman, Evangeline, who says, Expect God to do a miracle every day. Well, that's wonderful. They had many miracles every day for forty years and never come to know God. Manna from heaven every day. Fresh from God. Angel's food. Water whenever they needed it, whether it was out of Horeb or out there in the dry desert where it would bubble out of the ground as they sang. Rise up. Sing unto it, he said to the Noah. Sing unto it, people. Sing unto it while they were digging it. Water gushed forth. A cloud leading them wherever they went. And then stopping and pausing where they were to pitch their tents. At night, as they traveled at night, there came a pillar of fire. Every day, every night. And God said, Forty years long I've been doing this and I'm grieved with this generation and they have not known my ways. We've got a charismatic church going anywhere, everywhere, seeking out the miracles. They have something to see and to talk about. Are they hearing God's voice? Are they learning to know Him? Or are they content in seeing the mighty works of God and grieving God's heart all the while they're doing it? God says, I was grieved with this generation for forty years and to whom I swore in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that hath ceased from his own works has entered into this rest, ceasing from their own works as God did from His. Now God is restless again. Oh, I know He found total rest in His Son. That'll never change. But His desire is unto His people that He might have a greater fullness of rest. He's working towards that end. He will do it. God's love has so permeated the church of Christ. We're told God will rest in His love. He will joy over His people with joy. He will rejoice over them with singing. You want everything God has for you? Trust we do. But God wants something from you. He wants everything that you have for Him. I used to think I was the ultimate of Christian desire. To desire everything that God has for me. I've come to realize that there's a greater emphasis that God gives. I want everything for me because God needs you. He needs us to satisfy that eternal love that's there for Him. Fellowship with the people in His image. You can't find it in creatures that He created by the breath of His mouth. He created Adam in His image and there was a limited fellowship. But God's purpose was in the last Adam, that in man's failure, God would be able to show forth the other aspects of His nature. Aspects of patience and long-suffering. Forgiveness. Gentleness, kindness, mercy. God's preparing a people who will manifest those things through the light of God's heart. And when the fruit of the Spirit is fully revealed in God's people, God will rest in His love. Joy over His people with joy and rejoice over them with singing. But God does have a foretaste of this rest from time to time. Let us give Him a foretaste of it by walking in obedience and asking God to search out every evil thing within us and to consume it with the breath of His mouth to purge us from every idle, every evil thing that we might be a whole burnt offering unto God that God might find His resting place in His people. Jesus, if you love me, my Father will love Him and we will come unto Him and make our abode, our habitation, our home in Him. If you do what? Love Him. Yeah, do love Him. Maybe not with that intensity that God has in mind. But God, we pray that You will bring forth in our hearts that desire to walk with You and obey You with all our hearts that we might be a habitation fit for Yourself. That You might come and dwell in us in the fullness of Your presence and glory. I appreciate being here. I appreciate the reception, the receiving of these words, the awareness that you're receiving. God loves you. He wants His Word to become abounding in your heart and life. The Word of Truth, the Word that brings obedience. If our hearts are set on obedience, He will show us what He wants us to do. In the meantime, rest in Him. Rest in His love and truth. That we might have a hearing ear. An ear that we can hear with such keenness that we'll know the voice of the Father and be quick to do what He says. God bless these people. The blessings of heaven. The blessings of truth. Blessings of obedience, Lord. We want to be an obedient people. For the earth has seen and witnessed the great work of redemption which was accomplished by the Only Begotten Son who walked in perfect obedience to the will of the Father. And the world has yet to see the outworking of what Jesus did at the cross here on the earth in a greater measure than the earth has ever known. God finds for Himself an obedient people following the Lamb, whithersoever He may lead them, and loving not their lives unto the death. Oh God, I know there is much suffering amongst Your people, even in this land of plenty. A different kind of suffering in many cases. There's broken homes and broken families and wounded sons and daughters and parents. Much havoc, Lord. The enemy is wrought in the families of God. But Lord, You said You were going to raise up an alleged voice that would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. Otherwise, You'd have to come and smite the earth with a curse, and You don't want to do that. But Lord, send forth, we pray, the living truth in this day and hour and give Your people ears to hear, eyes to see, heart to perceive, Lord, what You have in mind. That we might cooperate with You, Lord, in the simple matter of obeying You and doing Your will. So now Your blessing be upon Your people. Brother Bob, Lord, and Brother Bill who have been writing, corresponding, getting some of these writings. Thank You for their testimony, Lord, that it has helped them. Many others, Lord. We thank You for that, Lord. Even though I know these people not, some of You have seen fit, Lord, to send forth these writings, Lord. I don't know how long You want to do that because, Lord, I know Your purposes. The people of God will come to know You so well that they won't need the teacher anymore. They won't need the prophet anymore. They won't need the apostle anymore. Because in the fullness of the new covenant, You said, also know me for the least of the greatest of them. We don't know how long it's going to take and it's not our business in the meantime. Keep us faithful in whatever ministration You put in our hands to do. Give us grace to be faithful and to be true to You. Bless our brothers and sisters, dear Lord, wherever they go, to their homes, gather in different assemblies here and there, wherever. We pray, Lord Jesus, that words of truth will remain with them and make an impression in their hearts and minds that will be eternal. That the mark of Christ might be on their forehead. That the mind will be renewed until it is indeed the mind of Christ which You've designed us to partake of by new birth and regeneration and by walk of obedience. Oh, Lord, let Your grace and mercy be upon these people, we pray in Jesus' name. So many things I didn't say. Thinking of that confrontation that Jacob had with the Most High God. A man after God's heart, you might say. God picked him and chose him. He was always striving to find God or to somehow become successful. Yet God loved him. God led him in ways that he was required to go back and face his brother that he had injured so tremendously by stealing his birthright. God had it for Jacob, but still he stole it because he didn't get it God's way. He didn't change God's plan. The time came when God said, I'm going to come down and I'm going to meet that man face to face. By the wonderful vision he had of Bethel, his heart had not changed. But he came back to Bethel in the will of God in a moment of frustration when he heard Esau was heading for him with an army. He cried out unto God and we're told that the angel of God came down and confronted him and wrestled with him all night long. All night long and he could not defeat him. The angel of God who was really God in angelic form. The prophet said he wrestled with God. God can't defeat us because he wants to deal with us in mercy. So he's long suffering with us. Finally he struck Jacob in the hollow of his thigh and Jacob went away a cripple. As far as I know he walked as a cripple the rest of his life. That's the mark of God upon us. We need that confrontation with God. God's going to confront his people if he believes. Ask him to come and when he comes we're going to fight back. God is faithful. If it takes God fighting with us all through the night he'll do it. So the moment comes when he smites us with that fatal blow and Jacob arose limping. He's limping his way along the mark that God has put upon him. Let me wrestle with an angel. Let me halt upon my side. Not any angel. This angel of the Lord who later took on a body of flesh. I don't understand all that. I'm not saying an angel took it on but God who revealed himself in angels in many ways finally revealed himself in his son. The Lord made flesh.