Exodus chapter 12 And the LORD spake unto
Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
saying, This month shall be unto you the
beginning of months.
It shall be the first month of the
year to you.
Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel,
saying, In the tenth day of this month
they shall take to them every man a
lamb, according to the house of their father.
A lamb for an house.
Verse 5, Your lamb shall be without blemish,
a male of the first year.
He shall take it out from the sheep
or from the goats, and ye shall keep
it up until the fourteenth day of the
same month.
And the whole assembly of the congregation of
Israel shall kill it in the evening.
And they shall take of the blood and
strike it on the two side posts and
on the upper door post of the houses
wherein they shall eat it.
Verse 11, And thus shall ye eat it,
with your loins girded, your shoes on your
feet, and your staff in your hand.
Ye shall eat it in haste.
It is the LORD's Passover.
Now these words in this passage will be
familiar to you as it reminds you of
the day that God, by the hand of
Moses, led his people out of Egypt beneath
the sign of the shed blood of the
unblemished lamb of whose body not a bone
was to be broken.
That beautiful Old Testament picture of the sinless
Lord Jesus made sin for you and for
me, who was born uninhabited by sin, inhabited
only by God, and who died as the
lamb that taketh away the sin of the
world, whose legs the soldiers did not break.
He was the lamb without blemish, not a
bone of whose body was to be broken.
But says Moses, this month shall be unto
you the beginning of month.
It shall be the first month of the
year to you.
This is going to mark an entirely new
chapter in your life history.
He said you are to eat this, with
your loins girded, your shoes on your feet,
and your staff in your hand.
In other words you are to recognize that
this crisis whereby God will intervene and redeem
you out of Egypt is but the threshold
of a process, of a new walk, and
you are to eat it with shoes on
your feet.
It is the threshold of a journey.
Now that is of course what we always
need to remember when we think of our
redemption through the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus.
Wonderful as it may have been on the
day that you put your trust in Christ,
remember that wasn't the end of the story.
That did not constitute your salvation.
It constituted your reconciliation to God through his
death.
The act of faith that exposed your guilt
as a guilty sinner to the adequacy of
his atoning death.
A wonderful day but not the end in
itself.
For the Lord Jesus said I am come.
Not that you might have forgiveness.
Not that you might escape hell and one
day get to heaven.
I am come that you might have life.
The process of a lifetime.
The walk of a lifetime.
And when you shelter beneath the shadow of
the cross it is but to poise you
upon the threshold of a new walk.
For you will remember in Romans chapter 8
and verse 1 it says there is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in
Christ Jesus clothed with his righteousness imputed righteousness.
No condemnation.
Reconciled to God by what he did because
of what you have done.
But then the same verse goes on to
say there is therefore now no condemnation to
them who are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh but after the spirit
the new principle.
For what the law could not do nor
even the life of Christ that he lived
then through the weakness of the flesh for
your flesh could neither satisfy the demands of
the law nor could your flesh imitate the
life of Christ.
What the law nor the life of Christ
could not do through the weakness of the
flesh God sending his own son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned
sin in the flesh that only his life
can fulfill that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not
after the flesh the old principle but after
the spirit the power of an endless life
the life of Jesus Christ.
So when you are redeemed through his death
because of what you have done you are
qualified to receive the life of the Lord
Jesus in the person of the Holy Spirit
who fulfills in you today the righteousness of
the law as he fulfilled it then.
So we are back again to our old
basic principle that the life he lived qualified
him for the death he died there is
the shed blood of the sinless unblemished lamb
the life he lived qualified him for the
death he died but the death he died
qualifies you and me to receive the life
he lives as the Holy Spirit comes to
dwell in us clothe himself with our redeemed
humanity and fulfill in us now the righteousness
that he fulfilled then.
So the Christian life is the life that
he lived then lived now by him through
his spirit in you.
Now that is simple isn't it?
And I trust that by now if we
have gained nothing else we have grasped this
principle for this is the very heart the
golden content of your faith the Lord Jesus
in you.
Now it all began in the day that
the precious blood of the lamb was sprinkled
upon the doorpost and the lintel of your
heart and you were poised upon the threshold
of a new life and the beginning of
a new walk.
So Moses says in verse 3 of chapter
13 remember this day in which she came
out from Egypt out of the house of
bondage for by strength of hand the Lord
brought you out from this place.
He says remember this day don't forget it
always look back to it with profound gratitude
to God.
It is a day to be remembered the
day in which you were cleansed from your
sin reconciled to God and numbered amongst the
redeemed and your name was written in the
Lamb's book of life.
He says remember this day it is a
day to be remembered.
But I want you to notice this that
he went on to say something else.
It shall be verse 5 of Exodus 13
it shall be when the Lord shall bring
thee into the land of the Canaanites which
he sware unto thy fathers to give thee
a land flowing with milk and honey that
thou shall keep this service in this month.
Seven days thou shall eat unleavened bread and
in the seventh day shall be a feast
to the Lord.
Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days.
This feast of unleavened bread this Passover feast
when you remember the day was a day
to be remembered listen in a land to
be possessed.
A day to be remembered but a day
to be remembered in a land to be
possessed.
Says Moses to his people because God brought
you out in order to bring you in
the only place where you can genuinely legitimately
remember the day and celebrate the day is
in a land to be possessed.
Now you can remember the day maybe when
you were redeemed but tell me this have
you ever been able to celebrate that day
till now in the land to be possessed
Canaan not heaven some day but Christ in
the power of his indwelling life his resurrection
victory now for only as you live in
the power of what he is today can
you really celebrate the blessedness of what he
did then when he redeemed you but to
be redeemed by what he did without enjoying
the fullness of what he is is to
miss the whole point of your salvation miss
the whole point of the cross is to
cheat him of that for which his blood
was shed for he came that you might
have life his life his abundant life his
superlative quality of life that you might be
more than conquerors through him that loves you
with joy unspeakable and full of glory peace
that parteth understanding and joy that parteth knowledge
so his life without his death would have
been inadequate but his death even if it
redeems you without his life in you now
and enjoyed by you now is inadequate both
are necessary for us to satisfy the heart
of God and for the Lord Jesus to
see in us of the travail of his
soul and be satisfied it's a day says
Moses to be remembered but it is a
day to be remembered in a land to
be possessed how often was this celebration to
take place well on each anniversary they were
to remember their spiritual birthday when God redeemed
them out of Egypt I always think back
with gratitude to God to the day when
I was born again 13th of August I'm
sure I've never told you before it was
a quarter to nine Saturday night 13th of
August I can't forget it it was the
biggest thing that ever happened to me I
don't remember living until I was 12 I
think I must just have existed but I've
lived ever since just glance with me for
a moment to the 23rd chapter and here
it says chapter 23 in verse 14 three
times thou shalt keep a feast unto me
in the year thou shalt keep the feast
of unleavened bread that was to remember the
day thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days
as I commanded thee in the time appointed
of the month Abib and then for in
it thou camest out from Egypt that's when
you were converted that's when you put your
trust in Christ and you were redeemed and
you came out of Egypt and you became
one of God's own people and then secondly
verse 16 the feast of harvest the first
fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown
in the field thirdly the feast of ingathering
which is in the end of the year
when thou hast gathered in thy labors out
of the field these three feasts were to
be observed year by year by year in
the land to be possessed how could they
keep the feast of unleavened bread in the
desert in the wilderness there was no corn
in the wilderness the only way they could
ever keep the feast of unleavened bread in
the wilderness would be by the resources that
they brought with them out of Egypt I
may be wrong and I'm subject to correction
but I can't find a record of any
other occasion that they kept the feast of
unleavened bread in the wilderness but on the
second year of their pilgrimage and after that
silence because you see after the second year
all that they brought out of Egypt with
them ran out and the tragedy is that
all too many Christians who don't recognize that
the Christ who died for them rose again
to live in try to live the Christian
life with the resources that they bring with
them out of their unregenerate condition the energy
of the flesh instead of the power and
unction of the Holy Spirit and so long
as it lasts the enthusiasm the novelty lasts
all goes well but then you settle down
to the somewhat boring routine of wilderness wandering
is that what happened to you?
the dull monotony of a desert diet after
the first flush of enthusiasm wore off and
what about the feast of harvest the first
fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown
in the field they sowed nothing in the
wilderness if they had it it wouldn't have
grown and there was no feast of ingathering
because there was no harvest to reap so
it means for forty years they were unable
to celebrate the mighty thing that God did
when he brought them out of Egypt what
a sad thing of this celebration of the
day to be remembered in the eighth verse
of Exodus 13 Moses says thou shalt show
thy son in that day when you celebrate
the day to be remembered show your son
this is done because of that which the
Lord did unto me when I came forth
out of Egypt when your small boy comes
nosing around and he says dad what are
we doing this for?
you must tell him it's because God God
reached down from heaven and he brought us
out of Egypt he saved us we're his
redeemed people can you imagine the bewildered look
on the boy's face as he gazes into
distant space and sees nothing but the vast
arid dried up desert he says I don't
see anything particularly to be enthusiastic about to
be honest I'm pretty sick of the desert
what have we got to celebrate about being
here don't you think it would be better
to go back to Egypt from what I've
heard of some folk who lived in Egypt
once it was a better place than this
and I think the small boy would be
very unimpressed if his father had tried to
celebrate the day to be remembered if he
still lived in the wilderness I wonder Christian
why some of your friends are unimpressed by
your Christian life Christian parents I wonder why
it is perhaps that your children are unimpressed
by your Christian life or the faith of
their father could it be that you've lived
so long in the wilderness and never never
had cause genuinely to celebrate the day to
be remembered because you've never lived in the
land to be possessed can you imagine the
parents of this small boy egging him on
to be a little bit more evangelistic in
his outlook and telling him to invite one
of his unconverted boyfriends to come and spend
the weekend with them in the desert well
he works up a bit of enthusiasm he
says I suppose I'd better be evangelistic dad
says so and so off he goes and
he finds some poor kid and brings him
home and do you know what they have
for lunch manna do you know what they
have for tea manna do you know what
they have for supper manna and the small
friend says I say what are we going
to have for breakfast told shamefashedly he says
well I think it'll be fried but it'll
be manna sure as eggs sure as eggs
it won't be eggs it'll be manna can
you imagine it manna for 40 years of
course they got sick of manna tired to
death of it but God never intended them
to have manna for 40 years they said
the manna they said now is our soul
dried away there's nothing at all beside this
manna before our eyes yes manna was the
most monotonous diet that you could imagine it
was miraculous it was the witness of God
to his redeemed people that God was still
in the midst but manna manna was never
designed to satisfy God's people we're told in
the book of Deuteronomy and the eighth chapter
and the third verse he humbled thee and
suffered thee to hunger Deuteronomy 8 3 he
humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and
fed thee with manna that sounds like a
contradiction doesn't it he fed thee with manna
and suffered thee to hunger while God was
feeding them he was letting them hunger but
God says I never designed that you should
be satisfied in the desert I'll sustain life
but I'll never satisfy your souls why should
I satisfy you in the wilderness when I
have laid the table in Canaan Christian you
will never be satisfied in the wilderness you
may try to remember the day but to
be quite honest after the first flush of
enthusiasm and the first novelty and the first
love has worn off you will settle down
as a Christian to the dull monotony of
a desert diet that's a fact and you'll
wonder why it is that your Christian life
has so little luster and you'll wonder why
it is that your friends and relatives neighbors
maybe or colleagues in business are so little
impressed by your testimony of what God has
done for you they see so little of
it in the drabness the colorlessness of your
own Christian life no no the desert was
not the place to celebrate the day to
be remembered for Moses said in verse 9
of chapter 13 this celebration shall be for
a sign unto thee upon thine hand shall
be for a memorial between thine eyes and
that the Lord's law may be in thy
mouth for with a strong hand hath he
brought thee out of Egypt in so many
words Moses was saying this when you remember
the day and it is a day to
be remembered in God's economy it was designed
to be a sign upon your hand that
an entirely new chapter in your life's history
was to open and everything that you do
would be revolutionized it would change the things
you do secondly it would be memorial between
your eyes it will change the things you
think it will be the Lord's law in
your mouth it is designed to change the
things you say when you celebrate the day
in the land to be possessed the things
you do the things you think and the
things you say will be completely changed gloriously
revolutionized for this you see is a picture
of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus re
-established by the Holy Spirit in the area
of your human personality so that your mind
your emotions and your will would be brought
under the Christ rule so that you would
do with your will everything that your mind
declares with the full affirmation and consent of
your emotions now that is soul peace the
peace of God that passes all understanding it
is the peace of God that God gives
to those who walk in the Spirit who
with their shoes on are stepping out each
step at a time and you only walk
one step at a time in the Spirit
your mind your emotions and your will handed
over without reserve for the exercise of the
Lordship of the enthroned and living Christ within
your redeemed humanity so that you can say
to me to live is Christ He has
changed the things I do completely He has
changed the things I think completely He has
changed the things I say completely He has
filled my life and flooded it with God
now that is the Christian life the life
that He lived then lived now by Him
in you and through you now what happened
in all the time that they were in
the wilderness they were a redeemed people no
question of doubt about that that's how they
are described if you turn with me to
the book of Psalms and you'll discover that
this is a story more quoted in the
Bible in the Old and the New Testament
than any other that's why I wanted so
much this weekend to introduce it into this
little series to whet your appetite to discover
more of what God the Holy Spirit has
to teach you about this lucid illustration that
God has given you of the true implications
of your conversion it says in Psalm 106
verse 7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders
in Egypt they remembered not the multitude of
thy mercies but provoked Him at the Red
Sea they weren't particularly willing even when Moses
led them there but he taught them the
faith that appropriates he taught them how to
take God's word as His word and they
learned to say thank you and they stepped
out of Egypt in spite of their unwillingness
because they learned to take He saved them
for His namesake for He's as good and
as great as His name that He might
make His mighty power to be known He
rebuked the Red Sea also and it was
dried up so He led them through the
depths and through the wilderness and He saved
them from the hand of Him that hated
them and He redeemed them from the hand
of the enemy and the waters covered their
enemies there was not one of them left
they were taken as they were baptized into
Moses through the place of death raised by
God out of the place of death and
leaving in the place of death buried to
a man the old tyranny the Egyptians then
believed they His words verse 12 and they
sang His praise they had enough faith to
get out then they got dumped in the
desert for the daily diet in the dumps
they soon forgot His works they soon forgot
His works they lost the first principles they
forgot how they got out and they waited
not for His counsel but lusted exceedingly in
the wilderness and tempted God in the desert
and He gave them their requests and sent
leanness unto their souls did it change the
things they did in the desert you look
in Deuteronomy chapter 12 Deuteronomy 12 verse 1
Moses writes these are the statutes and judgments
which ye shall observe to do in the
land which the Lord God of thy fathers
giveth thee to possess it all the days
that ye live upon the earth it was
a land to be possessed on the earth
on the way to heaven verse 7 there
in the land to be possessed ye shall
eat before the Lord your God and ye
shall rejoice in all that you put your
hand unto ye and your households wherein the
Lord thy God has blessed thee it's going
to be a land where you'll rejoice evermore
you'll rejoice without ceasing ye shall not do
verse 8 ye shall not do after all
the things that we do here this day
in the desert every man whatsoever is right
in his own eyes that's what you do
when you're a wilderness Christian it doesn't even
say that you do what is wrong in
your own eyes it says you do what
is right in your own eyes you have
your own ideas about how you should live
your Christian life for Christ instead of allowing
the Lord Jesus to implement His ideas as
to how He's going to live His life
through you every man does what is right
in his own eyes I don't know whether
you've ever served on a committee but if
you've got six people all of whom insist
on doing what is right in their own
eyes and they're serving on the same committee
you're going to have a few sleepless nights
for says Moses verse 9 notice this very
particularly for you are not as yet come
to the rest and to the inheritance which
the Lord your God giveth you you've come
out but you haven't got in you haven't
come to that kind of rest which has
taught a man the total sovereignty of Christ
so that He no longer does what is
right in His own eyes He lets Christ
do what is right in His eyes the
total capitulation to the utter jurisdiction of the
risen Lord Himself the rest of faith for
He that has entered into this His rest
has ceased from His own works just look
for a moment in Joshua and glance at
the third chapter it shall come to pass
verse 3 after three days that the officers
went through the host you remember the resurrection
morning the first Easter Sunday in the Old
Testament picture they commanded the people saying when
you see the ark of the covenant of
the Lord your God and the priests the
Levites bearing it then you shall remove from
your place and go after it yet there
shall be a space between you and it
about two thousand cubits by measure come not
near unto the ark come not near put
a space between it and you to one
end that you may know the way by
which you must go keep well back let
the ark of God go before you then
you'll know the way do you see the
principle involved Christians recognize that the Lord Jesus
is the only one who has the right
to exercise sovereignty in your life and stand
well back stand well back so that he
can lead the way give God room and
give God time for maneuver all the biggest
blunders in the Bible have been committed by
good men of good sincere intent who were
in a hurry they didn't give God time
for maneuver they didn't stand well back Abraham
did it God said in your seat all
the families of the earth should be blessed
and he wouldn't stand back he didn't give
God time he hustled round and he thought
God was behind schedule and he had a
committee meeting with Sarah and they decided they'd
have to get God out of the awkward
predicament in which God had got himself for
God somewhat absentmindedly had overlooked the fact that
Sarah was an old woman had never born
and Abraham was an old man and they
said dear dear dear what will God do
when he discovers what he's done he's promised
us something that he can't implement we must
hustle along and present the solution to God
we must get him out of his dilemma
now wasn't that nice of him and of
Hagar the bond woman Ishmael was born father
of the Arabs and if Abraham is able
to look down from heaven now and see
what's happened as a result of his enthusiasm
the Jewish nation surrounded by the Arab countries
for the Arabs are the seed of Ishmael
oh we've seen it happen so often some
of us a little while back saw how
Moses rushed in didn't give God time became
a murderer instead of a missionary motivated by
a sense of the need of the hour
and there are some of you been doing
the same some of you professed yesterday your
willingness to go to the mission field may
I urge upon you give God time don't
rush off in a hurry stand well back
for you see if they'd all rushed ahead
of the ark they wouldn't have known the
way you had to have had ten sub
-committees to decide which way to go and
one committee said this is the way and
the other said no that's the way there
have been a few exclusive people who say
no we know the way we're the only
ones who do what a
mess no God said stand well back it
isn't now good enough to do what's right
in your own eyes stand back and let
the ark of God go on ahead you
haven't been this way before it's a new
way but every man was still doing what
was right in his own eyes in the
wilderness perhaps you have until this weekend so
it didn't change what they were doing did
it change what they were thinking well I
think we got the answer to that on
Saturday night in Numbers 11 do you remember
Numbers 11.4 the mixed multitude that was
among them Pellelusting and the children of Israel
also wept again and said who shall give
us flesh to eat we remember it's with
your mind and with your imagination that you
remember this is the thing that they were
thinking about the things that pertain to Egypt
no no alas for forty years although God
had buried their enemy to a man they
lived under the subtle influences of a defeated
foe and their minds were filled with the
thoughts of Egypt and where your treasure is
there will your heart be also I wonder
where you live in the area of your
mind where do you go to in your
imagination is your body here at the Narrawakia
convention you've propped it up on a bench
would you tell me this even since you've
been in this tent this afternoon where have
you been where have you been how far
have you been I say who have you
been with tell me this what have you
been doing since you've been sitting there you
thought you deceived me you propped yourself up
and stuck your back against the bench and
kept your eyes looking moderately in my direction
and you thought I'd think that you were
there you weren't you were miles away I
say supposing I had accompanied you would you
have considered me to have been an intruder
would it have embarrassed you where have you
been back into Egypt have you nice bit
of cucumber for
40 years that's where they were living in
their imagination back in Egypt even though their
bodies were numbered amongst the redeemed it didn't
change the things that they thought I wonder
if the Lord Jesus has been allowed to
establish his supremacy in the area of your
mind so that your imagination now instead of
being an art gallery you are ashamed is
an art gallery of beautiful things of which
you are unashamed you remember what Paul says
in his epistle to the Philippians finally brethren
whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest
whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are poor
whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of
good report if there be any virtue if
there be any praise think on these things
allow the Lord Jesus to fill you with
his thoughts Philippians 4.8 that is in
other words allow the Lord Jesus to be
what he is in the area of your
mind and your emotions and your will for
he that is truly spiritual hath the mind
of Christ 1 Corinthians chapter 2 remember this
if you are legitimately to remember the wonderful
day when you were redeemed it can only
be to God's satisfaction when you are in
the land in the promised land a land
to be possessed because the things you do
have been changed and the things you think
have been changed what did they say in
the wilderness you look in number 16 and
see the things they said they were very
pious it is described in the new testament
as the church in the wilderness it is
a special denomination but it is interdenominational for
there are many churches in the wilderness they
gather themselves it says number 16 verse 3
they gather themselves together against Moses and against
Aaron and this is what they said ye
take too much upon you seeing all the
congregation are holy every one of them and
the Lord is among them wherefore then lift
ye up yourselves above the congregation of the
Lord that is what the church in the
wilderness said they said we are perfectly satisfied
with ourselves all the congregation are holy every
one of them and the Lord is in
our midst what more do we want to
know than that can you imagine it these
people half naked who half drunken had worshipped
a golden calf again and again in whose
hearts they said let's get back to Egypt
let's get rid of this man Moses let's
create our own captains let's establish a form
of religion that excuses from any sort of
holiness any sort of consistency we are holy
enough they said I say you can always
be holy enough by your own standards but
how holy were they by God's standards God
said you are so holy enough by your
own standards that I have no option but
to bury you in the wilderness and I
want to tell you this that if this
is your standard of holiness that's where God
will bury you you'll get to heaven you'll
be redeemed for you're out of Egypt but
if you're not prepared to accept God's standards
he'll bury you by your own standards in
the wilderness but don't complain if your Christian
life is boredom don't complain if you wander
through time a spiritual non-entity don't complain
if you have no cutting edge to your
testimony and the world around you is left
unimpressed they said in the wilderness we are
holy enough all this stuff and nonsense that
you talk to us about Canaan it may
well be that Satan himself may have initiated
just such a complaint within your own heart
all this business about a grain of wheat
dying to itself letting go of what it
is so that it can become what God
wants it to be stuff and nonsense I'm
good enough for what I am all right
you will be but not for God and
he'll bury you in the wilderness but there
were those who weren't satisfied to live in
the wilderness Caleb and Joshua are described in
God's words as those who followed God fully
men of another spirit who said the God
who brought us out is the God who
can bring us in and we will not
we cannot we dare not stay here we're
going on and we're going in and on
that wonderful third resurrection morning in they got
and as our closing word I want you
to turn with me to the fifth chapter
of the book of Joshua and it describes
what happened it describes what happened on the
day that they got in as they got
out you remember how they got in they
got in exactly as they got out they
got out by standing still and allowing God
to do his own work faith they stood
still and by faith released divine action that
redeemed them out of Egypt and they got
in by standing still by faith releasing divine
action for their sanctification they stood still in
Egypt and God opened the Red Sea they
stood still in the desert and God opened
Jordan and they scratched their heads and say
is it as easy as that to get
in the way we got out what have
we been doing for forty years fancy taking
all that time to find this out that
as I have received Christ Jesus the Lord
so I am to walk in him by
faith remember as you have received act of
faith so walk one step at a time
attitude of faith but it's all faith the
faith that recognizes your own inability and his
utter ability your confidence in his competence first
to redeem you and now to fill you
with himself an act of faith redemption an
attitude of faith step by step sanctification what
he did redemption what he is sanctification isn't
it simple and how complicated we make life
for ourselves if only God could bring us
back to the simplicity which is in Jesus
well when they got into the land it
says this verse nine God said to Joshua
Joshua five nine this day have I rolled
away the reproach of Egypt from off you
at last for forty years I've been waiting
to do it but you wouldn't let me
but now at last I have rolled the
reproach of Egypt the defeated foe that I
buried forty years ago his subtle influences at
last have been broken wherefore the name of
the place is called Gilgal unto this day
and the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal
and listen they kept the Passover on the
fourteenth day of the month and even in
the plains of Jericho they were in the
land and they did eat of the old
corn of the land on the morrow after
the Passover unleavened cakes and parched corn in
the cells same day there was a day
to remember in the land to be possessed
and for the first time in thirty-eight
years they had joyful legitimate grounds to celebrate
the fact that God had brought them out
because he had brought them in and I
believe there are some of you going away
from this convention this weekend and from this
camp saying thank God it's taken him an
awful long time and it's all my fault
but now I'm going away from this place
believing that I'm going to walk by faith
in what he is as once I trusted
him for what he did in the measure
in which I have appropriated my Lord Jesus
to be my life from now on instead
of the diet in the desert it's going
to be the plenitude of God's bountiful provision
and it says verse twelve the manna ceased
the manna ceased not even fried not even
minced once and for all they said goodbye
to manna not that they were not to
be fed but God was going to relieve
them of their hard rations and give them
a full diet the manna ceased on the
morrow after they had eaten of the old
corn of the land neither had the children
of Israel manna anymore no more boredom their
life was no longer a burden a weary
wandering in the wilderness they were now going
to rejoice in everything that their hand was
given to do they did eat of the
fruit of the land of Canaan that year
now I want you to know this that
the Lord Jesus cannot give you more than
He is and you already have what He
is what He is you have in Him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead body
the full balanced diet that God has provided
for every redeemed sinner He wants you to
say thank you for what He is and
enjoy what He is don't ask Him for
His strength He is your strength don't ask
Him for His wisdom He is your wisdom
don't ask Him for His power He is
your power don't ask Him for His victory
He is your victory believe it and thank
Him for it and act on the assumption
that is true don't ask Him to help
you win souls you can't it's His business
thank Him that He's the one in you
and through you who will win souls and
live hilariously by faith in the future and
say Lord Jesus horizons of blessing thank you
for people I've never seen whose names I've
never heard but to whom you're going to
be a blessing through me because now I'm
at your disposal and as you died once
to redeem my soul from the penalty of
sin I thank you now that you fill
me with the power and fullness of your
resurrection life but remember it is a walk
one step at a time and the faith
that you apply to what He is in
you for this step is not enough for
the next step as you thank Him for
what He is now you must thank Him
for what He is then and remember this
that at any given moment you can take
a step other than independence upon what He
is and if you do that it will
be dependence upon what you are and that's
bankruptcy the Lord Jesus said men ought always
to pray and not to faint always to
pray and not to faint what do you
do when you faint?
you fall back on nothing that's a faint
now when you pray you fall forward on
Him you see that's praying praying isn't begging
and asking praying is just reckoning upon Him
exposing every situation laying the table with your
need and then standing back and saying my
need your riches thank you very much that's
praying and men ought always to pray pray
without ceasing maintain as a relentless attitude this
dependence upon the one who being in you
is adequate now if you don't depend upon
Him in any situation by failing to depend
forward on Him you'll depend backwards on yourself
and that's nothing you'll faint so men ought
always to pray and not to faint so
go out of this tent today not saying
to yourself well I shall never sin again
of course you can sin again if you
live to be a hundred you'll be just
as wicked as you are now for what
you are without Christ it's only Christ who
is in you who is victory it's only
Christ who is in you who is righteousness
it's only Christ who is in you who
is your purity and your power and your
wisdom and your knowledge the moment you cease
to depend moment by moment step by step
joyfully hilariously saying thank you on Him you're
thrown back upon your own bankruptcy recognize the
symptoms it'll happen don't bury your hand head
in your hand and weep your eyes out
and say all is lost it isn't the
devil's just cheated you for a little while
of what you have he hasn't robbed you
of what you have he's cheated you of
the enjoyment of what you have he can't
rob you of your victory because Christ is
your victory but he can rob you of
the enjoyment of your victory if he can
persuade you to depend upon yourself instead upon
him will you recognize the symptoms instantly confess
it say so sorry Lord it grieves me
as it grieves you I've depended upon myself
instead of upon you look at the mess
I've made I don't even know how to
clear up the mess but I thank you
Lord for cleansing all I can do with
the sorrow of my heart is to ask
you and trust you to clear up the
mess I've made thank you very much now
you're back you've rebounded to your true position
of faith don't let Satan capitalize upon any
occasion when he causes you to relax into
self confidence defy him to his faith and
say you haven't robbed me of Christ you
haven't robbed me of victory you haven't robbed
me of strength you can't for Christ is
this and all to me and then turn
your back on him and your face to
Christ and thank him that he's still there
just the same as ever this is the
plenitude of God's provision and it came to
pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he
lifted up his eyes and looked and behold
there stood a man over against him with
his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua
went up unto him and said art thou
for us or art thou for our adversaries
whose side are you on are you on
our side or are you on their side
and he said nay but as captain of
the Lord of the host of the Lord
am I now come and Joshua fell on
his face to the earth and did worship
and said to him what saith my Lord
unto his servant a man a man with
his sword in his hand and Joshua went
up and said whose side are you on
our side or their side he said no
I'm not on your side I'm not on
their side I haven't come to take side
I have come to take over that's Canaan
not God taking your side you don't have
a side to take you were buried nineteen
hundred years ago God doesn't take the side
of the dead he doesn't come to take
side he's come to take over isn't that
wonderful and this was the beginning of a
new chapter in the history of Israel in
the land to be possessed what saith my
Lord who comes not to take side but
to take over what saith my Lord to
his servant my sole responsibility is to be
available and the captain of the Lord's host
said to Joshua loose thy shoe from off
thy foot for the place whereon thou standest
is holy you are in the presence of
God and Joshua did so and I suggest
that in these closing moments we recognize that
we are in the presence of God of
the man with a sword in his hand
who hasn't come to take side but who
has come to take over will you bow
and worship him and say Lord what saith
my Lord unto his servant let bow our
heads in prayer this
day have I ruled the reproach of Egypt
come off maybe you'd like to make this
the language of your heart Lord Jesus I
see it now I never knew that I
was so wealthy forgive me for having lived
so long in self imposed poverty the monotony
of the wilderness and the dullness of the
diet had been provided as I have trusted
thee for thy redemption I trust thee now
for thy indwelling gracious presence thy life that
imparts to me thy victory thy strength thy
righteousness in quiet submission I place
my redeemed humanity at thy disposal not to
take my side but to take over to
be to me life itself from this time
on thou art for me every step of
the way the will of God take me
where it will for I know that for
every step of the way in the will
of God thou thyself wilt be adequate true
to thine own will equal to thine own
will I am more than conquered through him
that loves me henceforth it is for me
to reign in life by one Christ Jesus
the man God's man with the sword in
his hand thank you Lord Jesus for horizons
unlimited filled with the fullness of God for
thy name's sake