Exodus Lessons

[Music] well greetings to all of you this is a most unusual way to conduct services but we're very thankful that we can assemble in this particular way otherwise we would be halt on our own hope all of you had a wonderful Passover and night to be much observed I know that in some cases the parents were with their children and that's all that they had and gave the parents an opportunity to talk to their children about the meaning of it in a way that sometimes when we get together in larger groups the parents are one place the children are another part of the table and they don't have the opportunity to talk so much about the subject and so I know that for some this was a special occasion for them and they had the opportunity to talk about the very meaning of the occasion during the whole meal so they're good things that happen even when circumstances are not as not as typical as they might otherwise be I received an interesting email that I from a member up in Ontario and she wrote have you noticed how much in common this particular Passover has with both the Old Testament and the New Testament the is rice were told to stay in their homes because of the death angel we were told to stay in our homes because death is outside and then she goes on to explain that the Passover and the New Testament falls on the same day or fell on the same day of the week as it did this year a Tuesday evening well we don't want to try to make too much of some of these things but the pattern that we find this week with Passover on Tuesday evening night to be observed Wednesday evening and here's the first day Thursday is a very common pattern that we find with the Passover in fact if you go back to the very first Passover we can show we can prove that it happened the very same way that Passover that first year was a Tuesday night and then the the Passover day was the day that they were going to Ramsey's so that they could gather together and they left on Wednesday evening last evening for us we know that because in Exodus the sixteenth chapter it says that it was the fifteenth day of the second month and when we read the chapter we realized that that day was a Sabbath day very clearly that's when the man who was doing was to come the next morning and it would come for six days and then the seventh day would be the the next day so we know that it was a Sabbath day that year on the fifteenth day of the second month and since the first month is thirty days we can count back and when you count back you come to the very same sequence that we have here I'll let you figure that out on your own if you'd like to go through that exercise if you have any questions if you can't figure it out we'll try to help you but that is the way that it was that year so this is a very typical one so the first Passover was as it was this week the Passover of Jesus day was of the final Passover that he kept with his disciples the one in which he changed the symbols was as it was this week so there's a lot in common in that way again we don't want to try to try to make too much of that but it is curiosity and it's interesting to think about and certainly as we are held in our homes because death is out there they were huddled in their homes knowing that if they went out the Death Angel will strike the firstborn that year our lives have been turned upside down in a shockingly rapid fashion or quick fashion no doubt about it when you look back a month ago the economy of the United States was going along wonderfully we had unemployment down below four percent somewhere around three and a half percent or even a little bit less perhaps one of the best economies in our history we hear that it was it is the best or was the best I don't know there's a lot of hyperbole that comes out of the White House and there's no doubt about it though it is certainly one of the best economies that this country has ever known when you get down around three and a half percent unemployment that is that's really full unemployment in fact seven million jobs were going without people to fill them at least at one point in time and all of a sudden now we have ten percent unemployment or higher this last well just today I guess this morning it came out another six point six million people filing for unemployment that's on top of the nearly ten million from the two previous weeks and so things have turned around in very rapid fashion and I think it's really important for us to realize just how fast things can happen god says when this country goes down when Israel Falls when Jacob's trouble comes it will happen suddenly and in many respects that's what's happened here very very suddenly so our lives have been turned upside down and in shockingly short order but think about the children of Israel and how they their lives were transformed they have been slaves all their lives they were serving with rigor and hard bondage and that a man by the name of Moses came into town and for most of them they wouldn't have known who he was they may have heard reports of someone leaving 40 years earlier but for most of them this was a stranger that walked into town came out of nowhere so to speak he told them that God was leading them out of their bondage and they're kind of excited about it but they were a little bit skeptical no doubt and so he showed them a few miracles that someone might have thought were just a good magician tricks but he showed them a few miracles there and then he went into pharaoh and pharaoh wasn't too impressed his magicians could pull off certain tricks even though they could bring out a snake or their snakes moses rod swallowed up theirs showing that it was far more powerful but nevertheless we find that aaron did not was not impressed with Moses and his request for them to go out into the wilderness to worship God and so he took away the straw that the Israelites needed for making bricks and told them that they had to find their own straw which really was enough to be stubble they had to gather that and they could not decrease the amount of bricks that they produced each day which when you had to go out and find your own straw obviously that was a serious problem and so instead of getting better life got worse suddenly but then we have the plagues that came on the nation of Egypt and the first three struck the Israelites as well as the the Egyptians but after those plagues came through eventually you have the Passover and the children of Israel did escape from the land of Egypt that eerie Passover night that was there certainly was you know it was eerie to say the least when they may have heard cries that were going out now how long did these plagues take to be poured out we don't know exactly for sure there are some Jewish sources that say that it was about a year but we also see an exodus of seventh chapter and verse seven that Moses was 80 when he and Aaron spoke to pharaoh when they went into farrell so he was 80 years of age erin was 83 but Moses was 80 and over in Deuteronomy the 34th chapter I'm not going to take the time to turn over there but you can look this up Deuteronomy 34 and verse 7 it says Moses was 120 years old when he died we know that the children of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years and so when you start adding all those things up very clearly it could not have been more than a year and must have been less than a year many sources believed that it was approximately four or five months that those plates were poured out and that was pretty rapid fashion when you think about it it was not all that long of a period of time when one plague after another after another after another and so their lives were turned upside down in very short order the Jesus disciples also had their lives turned upside down in a very short period of time if we look over in John the twelfth chapter for example John 12 we read here in verse one says then six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus who had been a dead whom he had raised from the dead so it was six days before the Passover and then over in verse 12 it says the next day a great multitude that had come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him and they cried out Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord the king of Israel and Jesus when he had found a young donkey sat on it and as it was written fear not daughter of Zion behold your king is coming sitting on a donkey's colt and so his disciples didn't honor did not understand these things at first but when Jesus was glorified then they remembered that these things were done so here he came into Jerusalem and this was the it's called the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem so this was approximately five days before the the Passover and yet just a few days later after various events took place and after he sat on the Mount of Olives and gave them the prophesies of things to come and all the various other things that took place in that very short week or so that was there described we find that he keeps the Passover with the disciples and that must have been an unusual Passover for them because he was talking about things that they had a hard time understanding but nevertheless he kept the Passover and they went out that evening after the Passover after singing a hymn as we did the other night and they went out to the the Mount of Olives the Garden of Gethsemane he was taken into custody he was brutally beaten that night in the early morning hours and then he was crucified about 9 o'clock and he died about three o'clock in the afternoon and was put in the tomb just as the Sun was setting so a lot took place in a very short period of time so here were the disciples and here's this triumphal entry into Jerusalem where it's like the whole world is is accepting him and then all of a sudden a few days later he's dead and they were shocked by all those events so when we think of what's happened with us how in the last month or so our lives have been turned upside down we're not the first ones to experience that and many millions and billions of people down through time have found that their lives can be quickly turned upside down so we need to consider that a Passover for us as for the children of Israel as for the disciples of Jesus signaled not the end but a beginning and it's important that we understand that oftentimes we think of baptism as as an end in itself I think especially newer people they look at it if I can just be baptized then everything is fine I've got it made but it's really a beginning it's the beginning of a new life in Christ the seed of God being placed within us and starting that process so that we can eventually be born into the very family of God today we're going to look back on Israel's journey to the promised land and we're going to see what lessons we can learn and if you want to tie before this I'll just give it to you as Exodus lessons but we're going to see what lessons we can learn and history shows that many forgot these simple lessons that we rehearsed from year to year we go through these lessons year after year during this period of time I don't know how many sermons I've heard and how many sermons I've given on the lessons of the Exodus one way or another the sermons may not be exactly the same every year but we cover much of the same material and yet when we look over the history all the way from the children of Israel and what happened to them and how so many of them were left in the desert as dead corpses or the wilderness there or whether we look at the New Testament church and how there was a tremendous falling away even in the first century or whether we look at the 20th century and what happened with the Church of God and how we sat next to so many thousands of people over the years and the majority of them fell away so we have to realize that this is just a beginning and these are lessons that we rehearse year after year but somehow people just don't get it they forget these lessons they all pray to the very things that God said to watch out for so it's important that we do review these lessons year after year go back to Exodus the first chapter we're not going to spend a lot of time in Exodus today but we're going to spend a little bit of time here a notice Exodus the first chapter and beginning in verse 13 it says so the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor and they made their lives bitter with hearth harsh bondage or hard bondage and mortar in brick and in all manner of service in the field all their service in which they made them serve was with rigor so it was a very hard life for them and anyone who's worked in concrete and brick and this sort of thing can tell you that it is a lot of hard work I've not done that sort of work I've done physical labor cutting down trees one summer up in Oregon doing a lot of other things over the years but I've never worked in concrete and I understand that it's a very hard hard thing to do it's very back-breaking as it were and so they were having to work under the authority of the Egyptians as slaves and no doubt were not treated all that well as is very clear from verse 14 but then it says verse 15 then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives of whom the name of one was a Chiffre when they Mar the other pure and he said when you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stools if it is a son then you shall kill him but if it is a daughter then you shall or she shall live now that was quite a command coming from the peril a command that to go against could mean their own death and it is interesting that we read something here that I think is very helpful when we look at life circumstances and situations for example if you lived under the Nazis in Europe and World War two what do you do when you might be hiding somebody or protecting some someone and someone comes to your door well says the midwives feared God they feared God more than they feared the Pharaoh and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them but saved the male children alive so the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive and their response was really not exactly being truthful on this they said so the king of Egypt he called them and verse 19 and the Midwife said to Pharaoh because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women where they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to that come to them now it's speculation we we cannot know for sure but notice that it says that they responded the Hebrew women not we and they said for they so it may be that the midwives were not Hebrews but they may have been Egyptians again it's a speculation we cannot know for sure you could take that in more than one way you can read it more than one way but it says that so they said they're lively and they give birth before the midwives come to them and notice verse 20 therefore God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew mightily so God honored them as they served God over Pharaoh and so it was because the midwives feared God verse 21 that he provided households for them so God honored or blessed them for the fact that they saved the male children and then it says so Pharaoh commanded all his servants or all his people saying every son who is born you shall cast into the river and every daughter you shall save alive how many of the children of Israel were cast into the river to drown we don't know but the indication is just from what a stated there and looking at the facts in the way that would have been that a number of male children were thrown into the river you know it's no is no coincidence you might say that the Nile being turned to blood was the first plague because there was a lot of blood as it were on the hands of the Egyptians for throwing the children of Israel into the river to drown it's just interesting that it was turned to blood that was one of God's plagues in the very first one well those plagues continued eight more of followed that and then the Passover the the tenth plague and the night to be much observed and when we look at the children of Israel they went out with a high hand notice over in the fourteenth chapter and verse eight since 14 and verse 8 it says and Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he pursued the children of Israel and the children of Israel went out with boldness they went out with boldness now the old King James says this and is really more literal this is the literal translation the children of Israel went out with an high hand and you look that up and it has do with boldness or confidence or defiantly but it literally means with a high hand and so they went out with great confidence to say the least with great boldness but when they saw Pharaoh's army coming down upon them they lost that confidence that boldness didn't they a notice verse 10 when Pharaoh Jew near the children Ezra lifted their eyes and behold the Egyptians marched after them so they were very afraid and the children of Israel cried out to the eternal then they said to Moses because there were no graves in Egypt have you taken us away to die in the wilderness I think about all that they had experienced and the the death of the firstborn in Egypt and how God took them from being slaves one day to within a matter of just a few months to actually leave that slavery and yet they lost all that confidence and boldness and a heartbeat as soon as they saw the armies coming down upon them the Egyptian army and so they said why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt is this not the word that we told you in Egypt saying let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians or it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness it's amazing how our human nature can flip-flop so quickly a change so rapidly you we noticed that they had a problem even though God brought them through the Red Sea that was the next event their God brought them miraculously through the Red Sea and if you if you want to look at a miracle that should be the miracle of all miracles I think that would certainly be it at least from a human perspective of what you can see this was an incredible thing that occurred there some of you might have been watching the the movie The Ten Commandments here recently it comes around this time of year and as the sea parts whether it looked exactly like that it's hard to say but it was more than just a shallow read see that they often talked about because the Egyptians drowned in it so it must have been more than just a few feet of water and it came and crashed down on a mightily but we find that they came through the Red Sea and it wasn't long before they lost confidence in faith once again in the fifteenth chapter and verse 23 it says now when they came to Marah they could not drink the waters of Marah for they were bitter therefore the name of it was called Marah and the people complained against Moses saying what shall we drink they lost they they they got thirsty now when we think about it we complain let's be honest with ourselves and let's let's repent of some of the things that we complain about it's not because we are going without water we're out in a desert and we come to a place where there's water but it's bitter it's it's undrinkable and our water supplies are beginning to leave us the canteens are becoming empty that was something that you could see why they would be concerned in spite of the fact that God had brought these brought them through all these miracles that would be something that you could say that humanly speaking would be to complain about but when we look at what we complain about in our day and age if we you know that the store is closed before we get there or the price of gasoline or you name it whatever it is we as Israelites and as spiritually Israelites and as human beings are a bunch of whiners and complainers were like little tiny infants or children who whine and complain about everything I was walking the other day and somebody had this child in a stroller and the little boy was was screaming his head off and I looked over at the parent and I said life really is rough and he kind of smiled and and oftentimes when I see a little infant crying I'll I'll just look at him to say cheer up it gets worse it's not what they want to hear not what they even understand sometimes but the fact is that we are like those little children whining and complaining about everything you know God is not pleased with that as we shall see but this is what happened to them but they had a reason you might say if they really didn't if they trusted God but the fact is that this was something that was far more scary than the things that we face in today's world at least right now in the sixteenth chapter and verse 1 it says they journeyed from Elam and all the congregation that children Israel came to the wilderness of sin well named in a sense which is between Elim and Sinai on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt I pointed that out earlier that was fifteenth day of the second month then the whole congregation verse two of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness and the children of Israel said to them all that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger God was incredibly patient with them he gave them quail that evening after sunset because very clearly this was a Sabbath because the next morning was the first of six days where they would get manna so at twilight after the Sun had gone down he brought quail up upon them and they had plenty of meat to eat and God gave the manna and that continued for forty years so God was very patient very caring just like a parent of seeing a small child complaining or whatever but you know there's a point in time where I can remember my father saying if I was crying over something he said you know stop crying and I'll give you something to cry about and that's the way that God was eventually with Israel he tolerated this for a period of time but eventually they should have grown up and they didn't and sometimes that's what happens with us we we have to grow up well let's continue in the seventeenth chapter and verse one says then all the children of a--the of the cognition the children of Israel set out on their journey from the wilderness of sin according to the commandment of the Lord and they camped at reffered him but there was no water for the people to drink so they'd been through this once before therefore the people contended with Moses and said give us water that we may drink so Moses said to them why do you contend with me why do you tempt the Lord now the first time when they were without water a God gave them water he's going to give them water again but you would think that they would have learned from the previous situation but they didn't and this was only a very short period of time still less than about a month or there abouts maybe a little bit more than a month and they'd already forgotten the lesson live notice down in verse four says so Moses cried out to the Lord saying what shall I do with this people they are almost ready to stone me verse five and the Lord said to Moses go on before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel and and take in your hand your rod with with which you struck the river and go behold I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water will come out of it that the people may drink and Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel so he called the name of the place known as verse 7 masa and at Meribah because of the contention of the children of Israel and because they tempted the eternal saying is the Lord amongst us or not is Lord among us or not so he calls at NASA and murabba this is an interesting incident because it was really a seminal incident in the lives of the children of Israel when they're coming out of Egypt they haven't even gotten to Mount Sinai yet but noticed there was another occasion when it was called maribo that's over in numbers of 20th chapter numbers 20 and here we find it in verse 13 it says this was the water of Meribah because the children of Israel contended with the Lord and he was hallowed among them now let's go back to verse 10 Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock and he said to them hear now you rebels must we bring water for you out of this rock now this was quite a bit of time later and they're still worried about water to drink and so Moses goes up on another rock here and he lifts up his and he struck the rock Christ with their his rod but notice that said you rebels must we bring water for you out of this rock verse 12 then the Lord spoke to Moses there and because you did not believe me to hallow me to give God the credit and the eyes of the children of Israel therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them and then it was called the water of Meribah because the children of Israel contended with the Lord and he was hollowed among them also over in the twenty now in this same chapter chapter 21 and verse 24 says Aaron shall be gathered to his people for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel because you rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah so it's a reference to that this was a contentious issue not only for the children of Israel but it became a problem for Aaron and Moses because it kept them out of the promised land neither of them were to enter the promised land because of this particular incident so even with Moses and Aaron there came a point of going beyond the point of no return with God and this rash acted was committed there the 27th chapter of numbers numbers 27 and verse 14 says for in the wilderness of zin during the strife of the congregation you rebelled against my command to holla me at the waters before their eyes these are the waters of Meribah at Kadish in the wilderness of zin so there was more than one occasion where it was called murabba or contention over in the book of psalms the 95th psalm Psalm 95 and we have a reference to this incident and I'm going to start reading in verse 6 some 95 verse 6 he says oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our maker where he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the Sheep of his hand and truly brethren we are the sheep of God the Lambs that he is working with and that's a wonderful wonderful blessing and I hope that we can appreciate the calling that God has given to each and every one of us and each one of us God called separately in some cases he called us through a parent or he called us out of the world directly but God is working with us and we should never take that for granted and so he gives a warning here in the latter part of verse 7 he says today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion as in the day of trial and the wilderness when your fathers tested me they tried me though they saw my work for four years I was given I was grieved with that generation and said it is a people who go astray in their hearts and they do not know my way so I swore on my wrath they shall not enter my rest now when it says they were agree he was grieved with that generation when he tried and tested them and in verse 10 I'm sorry verse 9 I'm well I'll get to it here I'm getting ahead of myself here but when it talks about how they grieve that generation in the day of rebellion and that's in verse 8 it says murabba or literally strife or contention and that's the word for rebellion and it says end of the day of trial in the wilderness and that is masa so the words that we read of there in the 17th chapter of Exodus are given here in the book of Exodus and it's a reference to that occasion there in Exodus of 17th chapter but notice that this this particular in in verse 11 so I swore my wrath they shall not enter my rest and that brings us to another passage of Scripture which is found over in the book of Hebrews so let's turn over to Hebrews and we'll notice a little bit of the context of the book of Hebrews before we get to the immediate passage that we're looking for but if we start out with Hebrews the first chapter and verse one it says God who have various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the father's by the prophets has these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the world's and what follows here he is showing that it was the one who became Jesus Christ who has our Creator he was the God of the Old Testament he was greater than any angelic being you know to which the angel said he thus and such as we read there in the first chapter then in the second chapter it continues but it introduces a down in verse 6 he says but one testified in a certain place saying what is man that you are mindful of him and so it starts out talking about the greatness of Christ and then it moves in chapter 2 to the the reason that we were born and I would recommend the book on your ultimate destiny if you haven't read that one lately it's a tremendous wonderfully encouraging booklet to realize what God is doing through us and what he has in mind for you and me and that all these trials that we go through are absolutely nothing compared to what he has in mind for us it's like again going back to a little child who's always upset always crying falls down and doesn't even hurt himself but he he thinks he hurt himself you've seen that with children they they fall down and they start crying well we do that too don't we and yet God has a mind for us to be full born sons of his and how different that's going to be we're not going to be children anymore at that point in time we may be in a sense children newborn children but there'll be a tremendous transformation that takes place and we can only imagine what that would be like and our imagination fails us in so many ways so we find here that he describes the fact that we can be born into his very family that he has his producing sons and his second Corinthians the sixth chapter verse 18 and 2:20 show that were sons and daughters of God and you can also put Romans the eighth chapter in this and bring that all together as is brought out in that booklet on your ultimate destiny but when we get to chapter three it says verse we'll start out with verse 1 therefore holy brethren partakers with the heavenly calling consider the Apostle and high priest of our confession Christ Jesus who is faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was faithful in all his house verse 3 for this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who built the house as more honor than the house well the one who became Jesus Christ was the one who who built the house so to speak for Moses for every house is built by someone but he who built all things is God now down in verse 7 therefore as the holy spirit says today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the Meribah or the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tested or masa me they tried they tested me tried me and saw my works 40 years therefore I was angry with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart and they have not known my ways so I swore on my wrath they shall not enter my rest a direct quote here from the 95th song and the 95th Psalm was going back to Exodus the seventeenth chapter of how the children of Israel tested and tried and contended with God and so here's a warning for those of us during the New Testament era as we would call it not to make the same mistake he goes on to say beware brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God and so he begins to explain what the problem was here an evil heart of unbelief a lack of faith or confidence in God the children of Israel looked at Moses they look to Aaron they saw the physical they saw the shortcomings of Moses remember Aaron and Miriam saw the shortcomings of Moses and so they they contended with with him but they really were contending against God and so he says beware lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief so to lack belief to lack faith God describes through the Apostle part as an evil a heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God but exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin sin is so deceitful it could look so good at times but it's very very deceitful we take two young people a boy and a girl young man and a young woman sin can look pretty good at a particular time in in their relationship it's deceitful and there is a consequence for it and you may not realize what the consequence is right away but there is a as a consequence and sometimes it's an immediate consequence sometimes it's not but it is a sin it is a violation of God's law he says for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end so notice all through Hebrews he's talking about holding tight holding on to the truth that we've been given not letting it go he goes on to say while it is said today if you will hear his voice again quoting from Psalm 95 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion don't be like the children of Israel for who having heard rebelled indeed was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses now with whom was he angry 40 years was it not with those who sinned whose corpses fell in the wilderness and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who did not obey those who did not obey but notice the last verse here verse 19 so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief so an unbelieving heart leads to disobedience when we don't have faith then we don't obey a person who doesn't have faith is not going to faithfully tithe they're going to cheat on tithing who does not have faith when threatened with the loss of a job over the Sabbath or the holidays is going to cheat on God's law of the Sabbath or holy days it goes all through our whole life in every aspect of it it takes faith without faith it's impossible to please God as it says there in Hebrews 11 verse 6 we have to have faith in order to please God because otherwise we're not going to be faithful in obedience to God so verse chapter 4 and let's go to chapter 4 and verse 1 it says therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest or the promised land we refer to here let us fear lest any of you seemed to have come short of it for indeed the gospel is preached to us as well as to them but the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith and whom are in those who heard it we who have believed do enter that rest as he has said so I swear and my wrath they shall not enter my rest so it's speaking of another people that must enter into the rest and that is hopefully you and me but it's going to be the people of God whoever they are at the the end of all things that are going to enter into God's rest and many of our brethren who have gone before and our sleep and the earth are going to enter that rest someday let's notice verse 11 I says let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience or the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints Amaro and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and we have very encouraging words that follow here notice verse 14 oh I let leave goes verse 13 he says and there is no creature Sharon from his site but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account so we must give account to God but notice it says naked and open and those words mean head back and neck or head back and then neck back kind of like opening ourselves up to have our throats cut as it were when you when you have an animal sometimes but lays over on his back he's saying I give up to a stronger creature and this is describing a very vulnerable position that we have before our God and our Creator and he says there's no creature but are hidden no creature hidden from his sight but all things are naked and open to his eyes the eyes of him to whom we must give account so we are very vulnerable to God in that sense but then he gives us this encouragement it says seeing then that we have a great high priest who is passed through the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our confession let's not give up let's hold fast our confession but we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin and so he says let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need so we must come boldly before God and claim his promises as mr. Aames always says he says that so many times claim God's promises we have that telecast we have an article coming out on that subject in the next tomorrow's World magazine and we need to learn to claim those promises especially when we're in times of trial or difficulty we need to claim the promises that God has given to us okay let's move over to back to well let me just refer to it here I don't want to take time with it but remember when Moses went up into the mount to receive the Ten Commandments he was gone how long 40 days and what happened of Israel got impatient they thought that well as to this Moses what's become of him and they went right back into idolatry making themselves a calf now I just bring this little point out in the sermon because how long has it been that we've been under this shelter in home or stay at home order I think it's less than 40 days it's significantly less and it's a little different because we can go out we can walk we can we can do a certain number of things we can move about but as time goes by people become impatient and I think that as we go this this time that just seemed like it was an eternity ago but it's only been a very short period of time we need to recognize as we go through these days maybe we can think about the lesson of the children of Israel and what they experienced when their leader was gone from them and they didn't know what was happening and they were out there in the wilderness and they just went right back to their old ways so we need to be careful that we we don't do that and I don't I don't think any of us are going to do that but let's notice over in Hebrews a tenth chapter in this regard Hebrews 10 and verse 35 it says therefore do not cast away your confidence which has great reward where you have need of endurance so that after you after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise if there's one lessons that we could learn I mean there's so many lessons here from the children of Israel they lacked endurance they lacked patience they lack faith all these lessons that they could have learned but they didn't but here are the Apostle Paul speaks of this that we are to that we need endurance so that after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise verse 37 for yet a little while and he who is coming will come and will not tarry our lives are running down and those of us who are a bit older we realize that that we only have a short time left and with this coronavirus it could be even shorter than we would hope for but we can have heart attacks we can have other things happen to us we can get in an accident even a few younger a car accident or some other accident so many things can happen in life and our lives can be cut short but the day is coming when Christ will return the dead in Christ be resurrected those who are alive and remain at that time will be caught up together in the clouds we've got to keep that as our goal we've got to understand that that is what God is holding out to us that we can become the very children of God and and dwell with him for all of eternity that cannot be forgotten during this physical existence that we're going through and we need to look past this physical existence he says now the just shall live by faith if we are just we're going to live by faith if anyone draws back my soul has no pleasure in him God is not pleased with us drawing back he is only pleased when we move forward with him but we are not of those who draw back to perdition but of those who believe to the saving of the soul so that's what he says to them and let us let us you know be confident that we are also of the kind that will draw close to God the saving of our soul the saving of our lives and Paul is you know saying we're not of those who draw back so brethren let us make sure that that we are in that category let's move on let's go to 1st Corinthians the tenth chapter how could we speak of this subject without going there and I'm going to give you six quick lessons from 1st Corinthians 10 first Corinthians 10 we'll begin in verse 1 he says more of her brethren I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea obviously crossing the Red Sea this is it goes right back to our subject today the Exodus and they all ate the same spiritual food and they drank of the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ as we have this passage and several other passages that show us that Jesus Christ was the person age the person of the the God of Israel the one that made a by hew and Moses and Aaron and seven to the l/70 of the elders saw on Mount Sinai and ate a meal and they could see the God of Israel's it says there this was not the father it was one who became the son and so it says in verse 5 he says now these things became examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted so we find here that God was not verse 5 I was what I meant but with most of them God was not well pleased for their bones or their bodies were scattered in the wilderness verse 5 I read that wrong God was not pleased with them and so the first lesson that we could learn from here is that in spite of a miraculous baptism the opening up of the Red Sea what a powerful baptism that was and our baptism seemed pretty mundane in comparison but our baptisms have our sins forgiven our past way of life totally forgiven and by the laying of hands which follows we receive of God's Holy Spirit which is far more miraculous in that sense and to have a truly converted life to put our past life away is certainly a very great miracle in every sense of the word but when we think of just physical miracles they certainly had a powerful miracle so in spite of a miraculous baptism that they had they failed they failed and one lesson we can draw from this is that miracles do not last in the minds of men it was not that long before they forgot it they didn't get to Mount Sinai before they forgot about God is the the one that protected them and from all those planes that they had that brought them through the Red Sea in a miraculous way they forgot all those lessons and all the lessons of of manna for 40 years and God caring for them they forgot about water from time to time that God could provide it for them even though he did on at least about three different occasions that we read of and maybe more God did those things for them but they quickly forgot that's a powerful lesson from the Exodus is that miracles are not going to save us I'm reminded of one of our ministers up in Canada who who's not only he's not a wimp by any means be I think of it as pretty masculine guy and he was visiting with a goto in a Tim Horton's one day and this fellow asked me wouldn't even look at him he just kind of looked straight and he said do you believe in miracles course minister said yes and he said I want to see one he said well you know God will show you miracles he said no I want to see one right now and he doesn't say it a very nice way and he had just gotten out of prison that day or that week I can't remember for sure but it was just it just basically just gotten out of prison and our Minister realized that this is kind of a tough character here to deal with and he was able to get out of that circumstance and but this man wanted to see a miracle right then but you know if that man had seen a miracle it wouldn't have saved him many people have been healed miraculously as some of the more spectacular healings but I can think of over the years have not kept people in the church they've actually left a church even in hospital the church at one time or another miracles do not save us so that's one lesson that we can learn from that from this and Hebrews the eleventh chapter verse 1 it says now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen and I've hammered this point at this point several times but the point that I want to hammer home again is that faith is the evidence that's what the scripture says that faith is the evidence of things not seen it's a substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen so while our faith is based on evidence we don't have a blind faith we understand that but nevertheless it must go beyond what we can see we must live by faith not by sight and and living by sight it can be either things that that are frightening or things that are wonderful and great like miracles we have to live by faith not by sight in Galatians the second chapter verse 20 I'll just quote the Oh King James Version mister Meredith's favorite scripture I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not i but Christ liveth in me the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me it is Jesus Christ faith in us we need to cry out to God to give us that faith not our own human faith only but the faith of Jesus Christ must be in us and in Romans 10 I won't turn there but Romans 10 verse 17 it says so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God as we read this book as we study this book that we know of is the Bible that's that's how God you know develops that faith within us the faith of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit and by working with us as we read this book so those are things we must have so miraculous baptism miraculous events do not save us it is faith that we need notice verse 5 again in 1st Corinthians 10 says but with most of them God was not pleased for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness and the next point is that without faith without following through and obedience to God then our bodies could be scattered in the wilderness of this world when you think about it consider all those who are baptized in our former Association or former former Association the Worldwide Church of God there were at one time over 150,000 people at the feast of tabernacles now some were children so they weren't all baptized but the majority of people have dropped by the wayside in one way or another or part of some kook church that calls themselves Church of God I'm not saying all of them are the coots but there are some real coops out there and so many of these people have fallen away they've lost the way in the wilderness unless they change unless they come back then they could be lost entirely now that doesn't mean that we are there they're judged because we don't know how many were truly converted and how many just followed others into the church and everything like that so I'm not saying we're judging them but it's clear that there were many thousands who did get it at one time and actually have turned against the church and ridicule the church and what we believed in the Bible and this sort of thing so yet God was not well pleased with many even in that organization and their bodies litter the sands of recent history let's notice verse 6 verse 6 it says now all these things were examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted now lusting or coveting is one of the 10 commandments but Israel didn't get it they heard the Ten Commandments scared the daylights out of them even Moses says his knees shook or smoked one against the other when God Thunder those Commandments from the top of Mount Sinai but they didn't get it did they they didn't get any of the commandments in reality they coveted they lusted a John strain encouraged us to review each of the 10 commandments in his sermon that he gave last week and be up there on online eventually here and hope that you will review that if you especially if you didn't have an opportunity to hear that but do we still have that I've got to have that certain thing mentality that we think that things are going to bring us happiness but the abundance of things is what life is all about do we lust after evil things when we look back on the children of Israel when God was really upset with them they were lusting for meat and God brought them quail on this was on a separate occasion from the first time but when he saw how they were just gorging on them and everything then he plagued them even while the the meat was still between their teeth as it's called because they were lusting after those things they were coveting those things God did not like what he was seeing in the people there verse 7 says and do not become idolaters as were some of them as there's written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play well that idolatry kind of bled over into other actions as well but idolatry is one of the two Commandments among the 10 that more time is spent on than any others because it is one that not just having another God before the true God but using images and idols and setting up even idols of the heart sermon that we had by mr. McNair I think it was mr. Carl McNair many years ago if you can still find that I would encourage you to to look for that but idolatry is a major problem uh notice Deuteronomy the twelfth chapter I'll just quote it here in verse eight says you shall not at all do as we are doing here today every man doing what whatever is right in his own eyes that's in Deuteronomy of the twelfth chapter this is at the end of the 40 years and he's saying you are still doing the things that you think are right in your own eyes now the older generation died off so this is a new generation that he's talking to now when we place ourselves above God we're worshipping the self and in many ways we're worshipping the image of who and what we think we are but we are some great authority on something we see ourselves as God we put ourselves in the place of God in other words when we disagree with the Word of God but God says don't complain and we complain when God says remember the Sabbath day but we rationalize around him somehow when God says to parrot eyes faithfully and we rationalize around that we're saying that I know more than God or well God will understand though he'll understand the way I see things as opposed to the way that he sees things and the way that he is directed and so when we do that we are seeing ourselves with God able to determine what is right and wrong which reminds us of Adam and Eve how they chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the tree that said I can I have the right to determine what is good and what is evil how often do we say something like here's how I see it here's how I see it or here's what I think about subject well if what we think about it is what God thinks about it that's one thing but so often we and I put myself in this category we say something and we assume that God thinks this way as opposed to us in other sweep we make God in our own image rather than making ourselves in the image of God and seeing it as he sees it we see this with the whole my truth is as good as your truth philosophy that is so present in our world today a whole generation of people are being taught in academia and in popular media and amongst themselves a very different way of thinking than the way that many of us grew up I mean we were just as carnal but we saw things as being soundly true there was there was applying truth as mr. Armstrong in the magazine named it we saw that there were absolutes but today in the postmodern era there are no absolutes Saul Alinsky is an individual who was a community organizer in Chicago he was a radical he wrote a book called rules for radicals and at the very beginning of it he praises Lucifer as the first radical who took on the establishment interesting and why is this important well it's important because a number of politicians one former president and one former president's wife were heavily influenced by Saul Alinsky and there's I mean that's just been reported in many different sources and that philosophy is infiltrating pay a whole political movement in the world today and when you think about it someone who would praise Lucifer as the first radical you begin to see who is working with that individuals mind and how that could spread to other individuals as well No politics is a bad thing I don't care what side of the aisle you're on but it explains a little bit about what's happening in our world today especially here in the United States and the politics of our nation day you know Adam Nev would be the heroes of today instead of praising Lucifer many people without realizing it are praising Adam and Eve because they chose to determine for themselves right wrong don't let anybody else tell you what's right or wrong you determine for yourself and so we would praise them and Adam and Eve set us down the wrong track and we've continued to go that way verse eight says nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did in a one day 23,000 fell sexual immorality in first Corinthians a sixth chapter verses nine through ten it says Gillis people who would not be in the kingdom of God and enlist fornication that's sex before marriage and adultery and various other forms of sexual immorality says that they're not going to be in the kingdom of God now older people today I've seen this in the church sometimes older people think well that law against adultery not so much adultery but fornication that's just for young people but we know what we're doing and young people simply think that they know more than God but there's a penalty for that and we have become so accustomed to sexual immorality that when two people are going together as a couple at least in the world you just assume that they're sleeping together and sadly that's too often in the church that needs to stop I can't stop it only you can I can speak out on it and I think that we need to recognize that you know it's not what I think is what God thinks you can come up with well this is my truth or here's how I look at it but you know the only one that it counts for is God God is the one that can resurrect you to life or can put you to sleep forever God is the one who can bless you in your marriage or remove those blessings and say oh well you're on your own you think you can do it on your own you're on your own unless there's some real serious repentance so I think we need to think about those things it says flee sexual immorality verse 18 of first Corinthians the sixth chapter let's move on to verses 9 and 10 normally this temp Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents nor to complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer notice over in numbers the 21st chapter numbers 21 and verse 4 numbers 21 and four through six says then they journey from Mount hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of edom and the soul of the people became discouraged on the way they became discouraged and discouragement is something that can set in with you or me anybody at any time and the people spoke against God and against Moses why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness for there is no food nor water and our souls load this worthless bread so the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and many of the people of Israel died that's the example that it's referring to there in verses 9 and 10 of first Corinthians first Corinthians 10 verse 9 and 10 the murmuring and the complaining but it was just one incident of many that we're warned against I said that I'd give you six but I want to give you two more in conclusion let's go back there to first Corinthians 10 and go back to verse six once again says now these things became our examples to whom to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted these things became our examples and then notice verse 11 now all these things happened to them as examples and they're written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come they're written for you and me especially at the time of the a the end of the ages as they come on us so that's a seventh lesson you might say that these things all that we've been reading today were written as examples for you and for me and then in verse 12 it says therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall so we cannot sit back and be confident that we've got it made even the Apostle Paul said that he could be disqualified if he fell away so not only we find that these are examples for us but we also see that we must not become overly confident we are to have our confidence in God we're not to be fearful we are to be bold as the Apostle Paul told us there in Hebrews but nevertheless we should not become overly confident because we can fall just as the children of Israel fell in the wilderness but then he encourages us in verse 13 the no temptation has overtaken you such accept such as is common man the God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it so that's a promise and we need to claim that promise as mr. Ames so often tells us that's just one of the many we must persevere to the end however long that may be for each one of us and as I said my update yesterday life is made of choices and when difficult times come we can view the circumstances we're in is this is awful this is terrible and build it up in our minds as being even worse than it is or we can see difficult times as opportunities or learning or growing or growing than strength endurance and patience so let us go forward confidently in the faith of Christ faith of Christ in us all the way to the promised kingdom of God [Music] you

Channel: Living Church of God

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Length: 77min 45sec (4665 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 12 2020