Please turn to the book of Exodus.
Exodus chapter 3.
We'll read a very, very familiar portion.
Exodus chapter 3, we'll read from verse 1
to verse 6.
And Moses planted the flock of Jethro, his
father-in-law, the priest of Midian.
And he led the flock behind the wilderness,
and came to the mountain of God to
Horeb.
And the angel of Jehovah appeared to him
in a flame of fire, out of the
midst of a thornbush.
And he looked, and behold, the thornbush burned
with fire, and the thornbush was not being
consumed.
And Moses said, Let me now turn aside
and see this great sight, why the thornbush
is not burned.
And Jehovah saw that he turned aside to
see.
And God called to him out of the
midst of the thornbush, and said, Moses, Moses.
And he said, Here am I.
And he said, Draw not, neither, lose thy
sandals from of thy feet, for the place
whereon thou standest is holy ground.
And he said, I am the God of
thy father, the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And Moses hid his face, for he was
afraid to look.
Then we'll turn to the New Testament.
2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians chapter 4.
We'll read from verse 7 through verse 12.
2 Corinthians chapter 4.
Verse 7.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassingness of the power may be
of God, and not from us.
Every way afflicted, but not stricken.
Seeing no apparent issue, but our way not
entirely shut up.
Persecuted, but not abandoned.
Crashed down, but not destroyed.
Always bearing about in the body the dying
of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus
may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are always delivered unto
death on account of Jesus.
That the life also of Jesus may be
manifested in our mortal flesh.
So that death works in us, but life
in you.
Near the hall where we meet in New
York, there is a Jewish synagogue.
And you know there are lots of Jewish
synagogues in New York City.
And on the wall of that synagogue, there
are three pictures.
One is the two tables of law.
The other is a candlestick of gold.
And the third one is a burning bush.
Now to the Jewish people, to Judaism, these
are the three most important symbols.
These are the important symbols of Judaism.
And then, nearby, another synagogue is almost finished
building.
And at the entrance of that synagogue, above
that entrance, two tables of law.
In other words, to them, you enter into
Judaism by the way of law.
I don't know whether this is the best
way.
If you have ever been to New York,
you know in New York City, near Columbia
University, there is the largest Jewish theological seminary
in the world.
That's in New York City.
And above the entrance of that theological seminary
is a picture.
It is a picture of the burning bush.
To the Jews, to their theology, the burning
bush is most significant.
Now I do not know how much they
understand the spiritual significance of that burning bush.
But at least they know that to their
theology, the burning bush is the basis of
their theology.
Dear friends, we know that all the things
in the Old Testament are baptized.
They are for our admonition.
The reality is in Christ.
Therefore, we need to fellowship together tonight as
to the spiritual significance and application of the
burning bush.
If to the Jewish people, the burning bush
is so important, and it is but physical
to them, how much more it must be
important to us who are the real children
of God.
Before, of course, we look into the significant
spiritual meaning of the burning bush, we have
to go back to a little background.
Now, I suppose that you are all familiar
with the story of Moses.
I will just say this much, that Moses
was brought up in the Egyptian palace.
But he was nursed by his own mother.
Even though the time of his nursing was
short, yet somehow the mother, and maybe with
the help of the father, they had instilled
into his little mind that he was one
prepared by God to deliver his own oppressed
people.
In that little mind, he was conscious that
he belonged to God in a very special
way.
That he had a divine commission, a divine
appointment.
And even though for 40 years he grew
up in the palace of Egypt, he was
the adopted son of the daughter of Pharaoh.
And he learned all the learnings of Egypt.
He was mighty in words and in deeds.
And tradition told us that he was a
great general at that time.
And he had every hope of being the
Pharaoh of that Egyptian empire.
Because his adopted mother was a great queen.
And yet with all the luxury, all the
ease, all the positions, all the power, all
the learning, all the success and achievement in
the royal palace, he never forgot that he
had a divine appointment.
When he was 40 years old, he could
not withhold himself any longer.
This sense of divine appointment grew steadily year
after year, and it increased to such a
degree that he couldn't hold back anymore.
He thought that he must go out and
visit his own brother.
He went out.
And you know the story.
He saw a Hebrew oppressed by an Egyptian.
So he looked to his right and to
his left.
He saw nobody there.
And he was mighty in deeds.
So he killed that Egyptian and buried him
under the sand.
The next day, he went out again to
see his brother.
He saw two Hebrews were fighting against each
other.
Now he was mighty in words.
So he stepped in and tried to reconcile
these two brothers.
He thought that surely they understood.
Surely they knew that he was a man
sent by God.
Surely they will listen to him.
Surely they will follow him.
But to his surprise, they pushed him aside.
They rejected him as their leader.
And the news of his killing an Egyptian
reached the ear of Pharaoh.
And you find Moses fled to the wilderness.
And he became a shepherd.
Now if you know anything of Egyptian background,
you know that to the Egyptians, the profession
of a shepherd was the lowest of all
professions.
The Egyptians will not become shepherds or cataracts.
They will take other professions.
But they left such professions to foreigners.
Do you remember the story of Jacob and
his sons?
When they entered into Egypt, Joseph had to
warn them and told them that shepherd is
an abomination to the Egyptians.
They looked down upon the shepherds.
Now Moses was brought up in the royal
palace.
Somehow, no matter what you know, if you
have been exposed to certain circumstance, environment, ideas
for 40 years, you are brainwashed to a
certain extent.
Even without your knowing it.
We are all brainwashed one way or the
other.
So surely Moses was brainwashed.
For one who was destined to be a
pharaoh.
And now he was degraded to such a
degree that he became a shepherd.
If you know Moses' inward feeling, you will
sympathize.
He had fallen so low as to be
a shepherd.
Well, in the very beginning it wasn't too
bad.
Why?
Because he had hope.
Oh, I was a shepherd maybe just for
a few months.
And surely God will open opportunity for me
to go back and deliver my people.
So he was supported by a vote.
But one year passed by, nothing happened.
The second year, nothing happened.
As the numbers of year increased, his hope
decreased.
And surely after 40 years, there was no
more hope.
No more interest.
Remember, Moses was 80 years old now.
Of the 150 songs, you know that at
least one song was written by Moses.
Song number 90.
A song of Moses.
And some people say song 91 is also
by Moses.
It is a continuation.
Now if you read song number 90, what
do you have there?
Moses himself declared, that the days of our
years are 3 score and 10, 70.
And if by reason of strength they may
be 4 score.
40 years.
80 years.
In other words, to Moses' judgment, if anyone
should reach the age of 80, he was
at his end.
That was the end.
And even though one may reach 80, he
said when he looked back, all that he
could boast was labor.
And vanity.
Now this can describe the life of Moses
up to that.
Moses had the best opportunity that anyone in
this world could ever have.
He was reared in the palace.
He was at the very center of the
highest civilization in the world at that time.
He was in touch with the best culture
of his days.
He learned everything.
He was mighty in words and deeds.
Now what more could you have?
He had the best of everything.
And yet he ended up with a total
defeat.
He said, as if he said, I am
80 now.
And who am I and what am I?
And what am I doing?
I am a shepherd.
The lowest of all professions.
And all my years are characterized just by
labor and vanity.
Vanity of vanities all.
This is the life of Moses.
If the life of Moses should end there,
it is a tragedy.
A real tragedy.
He came to the end of his own
self.
The sense of divine appointment was completely lost.
Even when God called him, he wasn't interested.
He had lost all interest.
All hope.
He couldn't even speak.
Why?
Now suppose you are shut in with a
few sheep for 40 years.
You will lose all your eloquence.
The sheep couldn't hear your lectures.
And so you will lose your skill.
He lost all his self-confidence.
While he was young, he believed in himself.
He believed in his divine appointment.
He was a man of destiny.
And he was to do a great thing
for God.
But now, nothing left.
Nothing left.
Everything had come to its natural.
But it was at that moment that God
showed him a great sight.
The sight of the burning bush.
And that vision of the burning bush was
the turning point.
A real turning point of his life.
From a tragedy to a success.
From a defeat to a victory.
From a vanity to a purpose.
The whole life of Moses afterwards was a
different life.
And you can find, it can be traced
to this vision of the burning bush.
So you see the importance, the significance of
that vision.
The Jews understand that very much.
It all begins with that burning bush.
Now dear friends, in the wilderness, nothing can
grow but fungus.
And because in the daytime, the sun is
so hot.
It is a common sight in the wilderness.
For some fungus suddenly tingled itself.
Under the scorching sun, the fungus can become
so dry that it can ignite itself.
And burn out in a few minutes.
It is gone.
Now during the 40 years of shepherding in
the wilderness, Moses has witnessed such scenes thousands
and ten thousands of times.
It was very common in the wilderness.
He must have seen it again and again
and again.
And he paid no attention to it.
But that day, something different happened.
A fungus was burning.
But it was not consumed.
Now this was strange.
So when Moses saw such a strange sight,
he said, I will go and look at
it.
Why is it that the fungus is burnt
but not consumed?
Why?
This is not natural.
He turned aside.
And the angel of the Lord called him
in the midst of the flame in the
burning bush, saying, Moses, Moses.
And Moses said, Here am I.
The Lord said, Take off your shoes.
This is holy ground.
And the Lord declared himself to Moses, I
am the God of your fathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob.
And Moses hid his face.
He was afraid.
Now dear friends, let me ask you a
question.
Did Moses know God before this incident?
Do we have any record in the scripture
that God had appeared to him before this
incident?
Can you say that Moses did not know
God before this incident?
Surely, Moses knew God.
Even while he was sucking from his mother's
breast, the very name of God must be
in the milk.
It was raining his veil.
It was in his blood.
Nobody can take that out.
Not even the luxury of the royal court.
Not even all the learnings of Egypt.
Nothing can take away that idea of God.
That belief of God, of one God, the
Creator.
Nothing can take away from him.
It was in his very blood.
And not only that, he not only believed
in God, but he knew he was called
by God.
How did he know?
His parents told him.
And during the first 40 years, he must
have pondered upon this again and again.
He compared the riches of Egypt and affliction
of God's people.
He weighed these two things.
It wasn't an easy decision.
But as he weighed and weighed and weighed
and weighed, he came to a conclusion that
he was called of God to be with
the people, to be afflicted with the people.
He despised all the riches of Egypt.
He not only believed in God, but he
acted on his belief.
And he suffered for his faith.
You cannot say Moses did not know God.
And in the wilderness for 40 years, he
was in close touch with the nature.
And surely he had lots of time to
meditate.
He was very close to heaven, we will
say.
Moses knew God.
But how?
His knowledge of God was indirect.
Impersonal.
Informational.
External.
He knew God, yes.
He even knew God's purpose.
He even knew his place in God's plan.
And he acted for God.
He suffered for God.
We will say he must be one who
knew God very well.
No.
All his knowledge of God was external.
There is no record that God has ever
appeared to him.
Can it be possible that we may believe
in God?
We may even know something of the will
of God.
We may even act for God.
We may even suffer for God.
And yet we do not have a direct,
intimate, personal, inward knowledge of God.
Is it possible?
If this is the case, then no matter
how much you know of God, how much,
how good is your intention, how much you
try to serve God, it will end up
in a failure.
God, after
80 years, when Moses came to the end
of himself, then you will find God appear
to him in the burning bush.
This is the first record that God has
spoken to him directly.
God said, I am the God of your
fathers.
Yes.
That is what he knew.
He knew God was the God of his
fathers.
The God of Abraham.
Wonderful.
God as the God of Abraham is really
wonderful.
Think of that.
Abraham was an idol worshipper.
And yet the glory of the Lord appeared
to him and called him to leave everything
behind and to follow the Lord, to go
out without knowing where.
And God led him into Canaan and promised
to give that land flowing with milk and
honey to him and promised him a seed
when he came to the end of his
natural life.
Everything about Abraham was wonderful.
It was the wonderful God of Abraham that
made Abraham wonderful.
Oh, the God of Abraham.
Wonderful God.
Moses knew that.
God was the God of his father Abraham.
Oh, he was a wonderful God.
The God of Isaac.
Wonderful.
Think of that.
God is the God of Isaac.
Isaac came by promise.
Isaac came by a miraculous act of God.
Isaac inherited all the inheritance, the promise of
Abraham.
Oh, how God was good to Isaac.
Wonderful.
Moses knew God as the God of Isaac.
The God of his father Isaac.
Very good.
And Moses knew God as the God of
Jacob.
Oh, a most marvelous God that had turned
a Jacob, a twister, into Israel, a prince
of God.
Oh, that is wonderful.
Moses knew God as the God of his
fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob.
But what God?
Can he say, God is my God, the
God of Moses?
That's different.
We may know God as the God of
our fathers.
It's a good heritage.
But unless we know God as my God,
He is my God, in a very personal,
direct, inward, special way.
Dear friends, our life with God has not
begun.
You may accumulate all the knowledge about God,
and good knowledge, but if you do not
have a personal touch with Him, and He
with you, it's all awkward.
Nothing comes.
That might be the reason why Moses failed.
He thought he knew everything.
He thought he could act now, but he
failed.
So you find that it was in the
wilderness that Moses get the first, I am
the God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob.
I am your God.
And you remember, to Moses, the name of
God was in the next chapter.
What is your name?
God said, I am that I am.
That's my name.
That's Moses' God.
Moses' God is the great I am.
Later on you will know how important this
is.
Anyway, here you'll find God, for the first
time, revealed Himself.
And it is on the basis of this
revelation that transformed the life of Moses, that
characterized his life.
What is this great sight?
We want to see it.
You know this great sight is composed of
three parts.
Or, let us say, three elements constitute that
great sight.
First, the bush, the thorn bush.
Second, the flame of fire.
And third, the angel.
These three factors combined, made up the great
sight.
If it is only the thorn bush, it
is not a great sight.
It is a very poor sight.
You don't like to look at the thorn
bush.
Nothing to look at it.
If it is only a flame of fire,
it is terrible.
If it is only the angel of the
Lord, I don't know what effect will be
upon you.
But when you find these three elements combined,
it becomes a great sight.
A great sight not only to Moses, but
will be to everyone of us.
Let us look at them one by one.
Moses saw, it is very common in the
wilderness.
What is that thorn bush?
I wonder.
If in the Garden of Eden, there was
thorn bush.
I wonder.
I suspect there wasn't.
Because the Garden of Eden is a garden
of pleasure.
So when you pick the rose, you won't
be pricked.
It is a garden of pleasure.
There is no sign.
There must be roses there, but no thorns.
Wonderful place.
It was after man had seen.
And God said, The earth shall be cursed,
and out of the ground shall come forth
thorns and thorns.
What is a thorn?
A thorn is an abnormal, arrested, abortive growth
of a leaf.
It should be leaf, but its growth is
arrested.
So it becomes a thorn.
It is the result of sin.
It is the sign of curse.
That's a thorn.
God took the earth and formed it into
the form of a man.
We are made of earth.
Now the earth produces thorns.
There is a meaning in it.
It means that we are all children of
earth.
We are all the product.
We are all our growth are all arrested
somehow.
Abnormal.
That's what we are.
You know in the Bible, as I mentioned
this afternoon, the Bible usually use trees to
represent mankind.
The humanity.
Trees.
When it speaks of noble man, all seed
of love.
But when it speaks of mean and base
and degraded man, the depravity of human nature,
it uses a thorn.
I will not go over the Bible with
you because you can find many instances.
But I will just mention one instance to
prove it.
You remember in the book of Judges?
In the book of Judges, Gideon had 70
sons.
And he had another son through a concubine.
So when Gideon died, Jeroboam died, the son
of the concubine as an elector.
He went to his own city, Shechem, and
persuaded the citizen there to support him.
He said, do you want 70 men to
rule over you?
Or just one man to rule over you?
And don't forget, I am blood of your
blood.
I am your nearest of kind.
So the men followed him.
They killed all the sons of Gideon.
69 of them.
But the youngest one, Jotham, escaped.
You remember the story in Judges?
Now when they went to Shechem to crown
Abimelech, Jotham heard of it.
So he climbed to the top of a
mountain overlooking that city and he cried on
Mount Gerizim.
He used a parable.
Now listen to it.
Hearken to me, ye citizens of Shechem, that
God may hearken to you.
The trees once went forth to anoint a
king over them.
And they said to the olive tree, reign
over us.
And the olive tree said to them, shall
I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they
honor God and men, and go to wave
over the trees?
And the tree said to the fig tree,
come thou, reign over us.
But the fig tree said to them, shall
I leave my sweetness and my good fruit
and go to wave over the trees?
Then said the trees to the vine, come
thou, reign over us.
And the vine said to them, shall I
leave my new vine, which hears God and
men, and go to wave over the trees?
Then said all the trees to the thorn
bush, come thou, reign over us.
And the thorn bush said to the trees,
if in truth ye anoint me king over
you, come, put confidence in my shadow, but
if not, fire shall come out of the
thorn bush and devour the cedars of Nebuchadnezzar.
That's clear.
Thorn bush here represents Abimelech, a depraved
person.
Can a thorn bush produce fruit?
You remember in Matthew our Lord Jesus said,
can you pick the fig from the thorn
bush?
The thorn bush does not produce fruit, but
it inhibits, In Matthew chapter 13, our Lord
Jesus sent some good seeds, all sown in
the thorny ground.
Now these seeds grow up, showing the stem,
but it never bears fruit.
Why?
Because all the nourishment are taken away from
them by the thorns.
They are squeezed by the thorns.
So it is not fruit producing, it is
fruit inhibiting.
Can you use a thorn bush to make
any furniture?
Never.
What is the use of a thorn bush?
Can you burn it to warm yourself?
Strange to say.
All the travelers in the wilderness, when they
are caught in the cold of the night,
you know in the wilderness, in the daytime,
it was most hot, but in the night
it could be very, very cold.
Now suppose you are caught in the wilderness.
You had to warm yourself by something.
What will you do?
No traveler will collect thorn bush and burn
them to warm themselves.
Why?
Because the thorn bush burns and consumes too
quickly.
Before you get the warmth, it is gone.
It is no use.
No use trying.
There is absolutely no use of a thorn
bush.
Yes, there is one use.
A misuse.
You remember that story.
That is the only record in the scriptures
of any use of a thorn bush.
And that is when our Lord Jesus was
mocked by the soldiers.
They made a crown of thorns.
That is the only use.
They beat him.
Beat his head.
With the thorn crown on him.
Yes, after they finished mocking him, they took
off his purple garment, but the Bible never
says they took off his garment.
It remained on his head.
That is the only use you find of
thorns.
Misuse.
Isn't that very revealing?
As if God was speaking to Moses.
Moses.
You all thought God had to wait 80
years before he could say this to Moses.
If God should say this to Moses while
he was in the royal palace, could Moses
take it?
Oh no.
He considered himself as a sinner of Lebanon.
Quite a few years ago I was in
Lebanon.
I purposely went to the top of the
mountain.
It was in the summer.
But there was snow there.
You know they cut down all the cedars.
The kings, the nobles, the rich people.
Throughout these centuries they cut down all the
cedars to build buildings, palaces and so forth.
So there was almost nothing left.
The whole mountain was barren except on the
top of the mountain there were, at that
time several years ago, 300 trees.
That's all.
Of course they were starting to plant new
trees at that time.
They were thinking of making the whole mountain
covered with cedars.
Well, we took a car and drove up
to the top of the mountain.
High up in the mountain 300 cedars of
Lebanon.
Big, sturdy, straight, full of leaves.
Moses considered himself as a sinner of Lebanon.
Well, humanly speaking he had every right to
think that way.
He was mighty in words, mighty in deeds.
He learned all the learning of Egypt and
yet he had a divine appointment.
What more do you want?
Can you have it?
But God allowed him to suffer defeat.
God put him in the wilderness for 40
years.
But not in the beginning of 40 years.
Because there was still hope in himself.
God let time worn him out until he
came to the end of himself.
He was 80 years old.
To his own judgment.
And when he came to the end of
himself God stepped in and said, Moses, you
are but a thorn bush and Moses an
ant.
Please turn your cassette over at this time
for the continuation of this message.
We are expecting God to show us something
great, spectacular, noble, glorious.
And by seeing such we become great.
But do you know?
There is a basic revelation that we must
see.
If we do not see this basic revelation
God can never use us.
A very common sight.
Are you ready for that?
You say, surely God will show me something
great.
Something thrilling.
Exciting.
Here you are.
A thorn bush.
You are a good former.
All you can do is to hurt and
to harm.
How much does God suffer in your hand?
That's all your usefulness.
That's all.
It's humiliating.
Can you take it?
How many years?
It takes Moses 80 years to accept this
verdict.
May the Lord shorten the day that it
may not take us 80 years.
But dear friends, this is the first part
of the great sight.
One day, by His grace, and this does
not come suddenly, throughout the years, God is
working and working and working in you and
in your environment.
He is bringing you to the end of
yourself.
When you are brought to the end of
yourself, you have no more confidence in God.
You have no more interest in yourself.
You consider yourself as finished.
The end.
Thank God.
That's where God begins.
I'm nothing.
Often I say, Oh, I'm nothing.
I'm nothing.
As if I'm quite humble.
But suppose you say that I'm nothing.
I cannot take it.
Dear friends, are you angry because somebody says
you are good for nothing?
Don't be angry with me.
I dare not say that to you.
The Lord alone can say that.
Should the Lord say to you, so and
so, you are but a dumb bush.
Can you accept it?
Can you bow before God and say, Oh
God, how right you are.
Yes, I am.
I was born in sin, as David said.
As Paul the apostle said, in me, that
is in my flesh, I'm good for nothing.
A dumb bush.
Well, there was a fire.
Fire in the Scripture can represent several things.
But we will limit ourselves to just one
thing.
And that is the holiness.
You remember, after man had sinned, God drove
man out of the garden of Eden.
And there on the east of the garden,
God set up cherubim with sword of flaming
fire.
In other words, the holiness of God judges.
No one can enter into the presence of
God.
No one can approach to the tree of
life, but be smitten to death.
The fire will consume him completely.
The holiness of God will consume anything and
everything that does not meet his quality.
Fire.
God is a consuming fire.
If it is not for the mercy of
God, we shall all be consumed.
Well, the thorn bush is just good for
the fire.
You cannot put thorn bush and fire together.
Once they come together, the fire will consume
the thorn bush.
There will be no more thorn bush.
That's our condition.
That's our situation.
Who can see God?
Who can approach God?
Who can dwell with God?
Nobody can.
If you try, you will be smitten to
death.
You will be totally consumed.
It is the holiness of God.
The fire is not only negative.
You remember that?
After Solomon has finished building his temple, he
put a sacrifice on the altar and fire
came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice.
What was that?
It wasn't negative.
Fire could be condemnation.
But it couldn't.
On the one hand, it can be punished.
Consumed.
On the other hand, it can be purified.
Satisfied.
The second element.
Now, ordinarily, when the fire burns the bush,
the bush is burned in a fume.
That's the answer.
But the strange sight was there was a
third element.
Now, remember, without the third element, nothing would
happen.
It wasn't a great sight at all.
Who are we?
We are the thorn bush.
Nothing too good to look at.
Nothing good to look at.
The holiness of God is a terrifying thing.
We are good for nothing but to be
consumed by the holiness of God.
This is what we are in ourselves.
An ugly sight.
But thank God there is a third element.
The angel of the Lord.
In the flame of fire.
God was in the thorn bush.
And that was the reason why the thorn
bush was not consumed.
By the fire.
You know, God has a special name.
If you read Deuteronomy chapter 33, you'll find
God has a very special name.
He is called One who dwells in the
thorn bush.
And you know the word dwells means He
makes His home in the thorn bush.
If anybody should push you to a thorn
bush, you will be pricked by the thorns
and you will hurriedly flee.
Is there anyone who make thorn bush?
It is too painful.
Too painful to do that.
But think of that.
Our God.
The heaven and the heavens cannot contain Him.
And yet He makes.
Do you think we make Him very confident?
How we must have picked Him?
But He said I will never leave you
nor forsake you.
You may grieve me, but you cannot drive
me away.
You may quench me, but I will speak
again.
God in His great love and mercy and
compassion, He is willing to make His home
in man and woman.
I think this is the love.
God dwells in man.
And you know this is God eternal.
Because of His great love, He had even
before the foundation of the world, before the
creation of man, He had this longing in
His heart.
He wanted to.
He wanted to make man His home and
let man make Him their home.
To be united.
He created man.
He put man in the garden of Eden.
He paid them a visit.
But do you think this is the purpose?
God made man not just paying them visits.
I do not know how many of you
enjoy your visits to your mother-in-law.
You have to visit her.
But it is just a visit.
You comfort yourself and say, Well, it is
just a visit.
Now suppose you live together with her.
Remember dear friends, It is not God's purpose
that He would just pay us some visits.
God created man, put them in the garden.
Yes, God visited them.
But God's original thought was not just visits.
He was hoping that man may eat the
fruit of the tree of life.
And by doing that, God came into man.
So you find that in the very beginning,
God's thought towards man was to make man
His home, His dwelling place.
He wanted to be united with you, to
live in you.
And if you read from Genesis down and
down to Revelation, you will find this thought
continues all the way.
God never gives up.
So when you come to the last two
chapters, the New Jerusalem, what is that?
The tabernacle of God.
That is God's thought.
Even though we are but thorn bush, we
are not fit to be His dwelling place.
Yet He comes in to us.
He is willing to dwell in us.
He is willing to suffer because of us.
Until He is able to transit for His
dwelling place.
Now dear friends, maybe you say now, if
God should dwell in the thorn bush, then
there should be no fire.
Isn't it a popular prevailing concept of Christians?
Before you believe in the Lord Jesus, oh
you had many problems, you had many difficulties.
But after you have believed in the Lord
Jesus, surely He so loved you and gave
Himself to you, surely He will take all
your problems away, He will take all your
difficulties away, He will not allow you to
go through any trials.
Your life afterwards will be just a smooth
sailing to heaven.
No more fire but water.
Everything is water.
No more fire.
But be careful, if it is all water,
you will be drowned.
The wonderful thing of God's working is here.
You are but a thorn bush, and yet
He is willing to dwell in you, but
He does not take away the fire.
After you have believed in the Lord Jesus,
is it true you have no more problems?
Is it true you have no more difficulties?
Is it true there is no more trial,
no more fiery trials?
As Peter said, Oh no, you have more,
if not less.
Then why is it?
Why is it?
Why is it that God allows a fire
to burn and to burn and to burn
you, and He does not let the fire
consume you?
Now what is the fire for?
It seems purposeless.
Many Christians ask this question.
What is the purpose?
Why does God allow me to suffer?
Why does God allow me to have such
testings and trials?
Why does God allow me to be sick?
Why does God allow certain things to happen
to me?
If God loves me, He should show His
love to me, and not deal with me
in this way.
What is the purpose of all this?
If He wants to burn me, all right,
burn me up, but He does not consume
you.
Why is this at all?
Remember, the fire is supposed to come down,
but because of the presence of the Lord
in you, instead of finishing you, it appears.
Does it change you from a corn bush
to a cedar?
No.
You remain a corn bush.
When you look at yourself, but thank God,
with a fire burning, and the Son of
God in the mist, you know what?
This thorn bush, have you ever seen a
thorn bush shine?
Not physically, naturally, but dear friends, I have
seen it.
You see a brother or a sister in
the Lord, who have been under great trials,
burned by fire, and yet, after He has
gone through all these trials, yes, He remains
a human.
He knows He is but a man, a
woman.
He is nothing but a thorn bush, and
yet in that brother and sister, you see
the glow, that thorn bush, that is.
In ourselves, we can never shine.
There is nothing in us to shine, but
with Him dwelling in us, it is the
fire that brings out.
Now let us use the New Testament.
Paul tells us exactly the same thing.
We have this treasure.
You see, the earthen vessel is the equivalent
of the thorn bush.
Common, cheap, fragile, opaque.
But we have the treasure in the earthen
vessel.
Treasure is the equivalent of the angel of
the Lord.
Nobody puts a treasure in an earthen vessel.
They do not fit.
But God always does what men do not
do.
Thank God He put this treasure, which is
our Lord Jesus, that can be none others.
God put the Lord Jesus in us.
Christ in you.
What is it?
The hope of glory.
How?
By fire.
So here you find, Paul says, we have
this treasure in the earthen vessel, that the
surpassingness of the power of God, that the
surpassingness of the power may be of God,
and not from us.
Dear friends, if the Lord Jesus is not
in us, when we go through these fiery
trials, we will be consumed long.
But thank God He is in us.
Therefore, when we go through the fire, it
is not our power.
We have come to the end of our
power.
Again and again, Paul's experience is, every way
afflicted.
You may be surrounded again and again, and
yet there is hope.
You may be beaten again and again, but
you are never crushed.
This is the wonder of a Christian.
So far as we ourselves are concerned, that's
the end.
The fire will burn it, consume it in
a few minutes.
But, still there.
Still there.
And the wonder is, instead of being consumed,
the life of Jesus works in us.
Do you know?
This great sign of the burning bush, the
burning bush, represents.
Moses is a burning bush.
Oh, look at Moses.
He is a burning bush.
When the Israelites murmured against him, Moses said,
don't do that.
Who am I, that you murmur against me?
I am an avalanche.
Why do you cry, avalanche?
I am nothing.
But, he prostrated himself before God.
And you'll find the glory of God, a
burning bush.
Oh, even today we light it, a wonderful
sign.
Dear friends, this is what God, this is
what He, this is what God is doing
in your life.
If only you, sometimes we do not understand,
we are but dumb.
Sometimes we do not understand the fire.
But, dear friends, God wants to bless it,
and you need it.
He wants to transform you, to glorify you.
And that is the reason why He goes
through all your trials and mania, that He
might make you shine.
Today, we all shine.
And may the world see many burning bushes.
Burn, our
Heavenly Father.
We do praise and thank Thee that it
is Thy eternal purpose to dwell with us,
to make Thy home.
Oh, Father, we know that.
How unsuitable we are to Thyself.
And yet, Thou art willing to come to
take up upon Thyself the form of a
man.
Thou art willing to go all the way
to the cross, that Thou mayst dwell with
us, thank Thee.
Oh, Lord, how we praise and thank Thee
that Thou dost not only dwell in us,
but that Thou dost dwell in us with
a purpose to transform us by fire that
we may be glorified.
Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that
Thou art the hope of glory.
So we do look to Thee that all
that Thou hast done, and Thou is doing,
and are doing, and are going to do
to us, we may heal ourselves to Thee
and cooperate to Thee.
That what Thou dost desire to have may
be had.
Oh, Lord, we praise and thank Thee that
Thou wilt do this not only individually to
each one of us, but Thou wilt do
it as a covenant that we together may
be that earthen vessel to contain the treasure
and to manifest.
Oh, we do commit ourselves afresh to Thee.
May Thy blessing be upon every child.
And yet the day is to come.
Work hard.