I didn't come with a list of teachings
or sermons or anything like that.
I really believe that the Lord just wants
to begin to minister into our heart that
which we have known.
I think often in the church we emphasize
what we know with our mind above that
which we have experienced in our heart.
I think that's probably true of all of
us.
I believe that the Lord really wants to
cause that word to come down and be
a living word within us in a far
greater dimension than we have known.
And I believe that that is really the
ministration of the new covenant.
Not ruling out the knowledge part of it,
but as God said, this is the covenant
that I will make with them.
After those days, saith the Lord, I will
write my laws in their hearts and in
their minds also will I write them.
And I will be their God and they
shall be my people.
Paul also said, With a heart, man, believeeth
unto righteousness.
And I believe there's a terrible imbalance there
between what we know, not only in just
general forms of knowledge, but what we know,
what God has spoken and what we know
because he's spoken it.
Tremendous imbalance between what we know and what
we've become because of that word.
So I trust that the Lord and I
have prayed that the Lord would really begin
to minister to our hearts the truth of
the new covenant.
Because that's what the new covenant is.
It's an importation.
It's not just another set of plans and
purposes and laws in the new covenant.
It's an importation.
It should be an importation.
We'll just read a few verses from 2
Corinthians 3.
Paul says, Do we begin again to commend
ourselves?
Or need we, as some others, epistles of
commendation to you or letters of commendation from
you?
Ye are our epistles, written in our hearts,
known and read of all men.
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be
the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written
not with ink, but with the spirit of
the living God, not in tables of stone,
but in fleshly tables of the heart.
So the apostle Paul emphasizes that God's people
are to be a people in whose hearts
God has written his covenant.
And I believe, I don't think we have
any idea of the implications of that.
What God has written there, and we read
it, and I think in perhaps most of
these wonderful truths, though we might sense there's
a measure of it in our hearts, we
just feel the Lord was so far short
of that.
There's so much there, Lord, that I know
I haven't grasped.
And yet the new covenant is the importation
of it.
A year or two ago we were out
at Pinecrest Bible School, Bible Training Center in
New York State, where they have this vision,
I believe, and I'm not too much for
Bible schools as such, but I believe it's
a little different, no matter what you call
it.
They give a lot of emphasis to the
moving of the spirit, and that's the important
thing.
And it was a vision that God gave
Brother Wade Taylor way back, and it worked
out that he got this complex there that
was once a hospital for Bible Training Center.
And so we enjoyed our time there, but
what I was going to say, while we
were there, we sat in on one of
the teachings of a man who was teaching
there, and he mentioned something that I suppose
many would hear it as a tremendous miracle,
but to me I saw what God was
really saying by way of establishing the new
covenant.
This particular man, he said he knew of
back in the days of Latter Rain, who
was a prophet, but he said he wasn't
necessarily very spiritual.
I know that sounds a little strange to
a very carnal, and he said he wasn't
really a spiritual prophet, but he did have
true prophetic utterances.
And one time God said something to him,
he wasn't quite sure of the passage, but
that doesn't alter the story to something like
thinking better of others than of yourself.
And he said to God, God, that's not
possible.
He said that's kind of a man he
was, he didn't even tell God, he didn't
know what he was talking about.
And he said he was driving along a
busy highway out on the eastern coast, and
as he argued with the Lord this way,
God put him in that verse, I think
it was Philippians 2, and we could turn
to it, this is the one that he
was speaking of.
In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other
better than themselves.
And he said God put him inside that
verse, literally in it.
He doesn't know how long, but in the
meantime, while he was driving along the highway,
he went over a hundred miles without even
seeing the highway, in busy traffic, and he
said God put him in that verse and
kept him in it for a week.
And I know that's a great miracle, but
what I saw in it was this.
God is able to take the new covenant
and to cause it to be written on
our hearts.
And that's what he wants.
I've heard it said, and even recently, that
I expect too much of people, or that
God expects that he gives the impression that
God has given a standard that's too high,
beyond us, beyond our ability to attain.
Well, I know they haven't heard what I
said, really, but you get that impression.
And for one week, this man said he
couldn't feel any ill will against anybody.
He couldn't argue against anybody.
Anybody would bother him, he'd fly off the
handle.
This time, it just didn't affect him in
that way, for a week.
But I thought, God, I don't know if
I'd want that experience.
You know, a week and then come out
of it.
But it was a foretaste, and I believe
God had that first, people.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly in all wisdom.
I mean, we can read these scriptures, yeah,
we try to let it happen, and I
know we do.
And I'm not denying in anything I teach,
I'm not denying that we have a portion
of these things.
But Paul's constant, and the Holy Spirit's constant
desire for his people, is that we don't
draw short of what God has in mind.
It's good that he's given us, he's given
us many precious things, and we must always
be thankful for that.
And in our desire to appropriate more of
him, let there never come into our thoughts
anything that, God, you haven't been faithful in
giving us enough.
If God never did a thing more for
us the rest of our lives, and of
your lives, you young people, he's done enough
to cause us to totally give him our
lives for the rest of our days without
any other reward.
That's right.
But if God desires that we should, God
says something, he desires us to appropriate, we
say, Lord, I thank you for what you've
given me, and I don't want to be
greedy, you know.
And then God's displeased.
God is offering so much, and we say,
Lord, you've given me so much already, and
I thank you for that, but no more,
Lord.
I think God is displeased with that.
And so, Paul, when I say Paul, or
Peter, or Isaiah, or John, I'm always reminded,
it's the Holy Spirit speaking.
It wasn't just an idea Paul had, or
John had, or Isaiah.
Paul says, Brethren, I fear less a promise
being left us of entering into his rest,
and if you should seem to come short
of it.
And that's the burden of God's heart, to
come short of it.
It seems that, by and large, in Christendom,
I don't care where, where they are, there's
a tendency to come short, and not realize
they're coming short, and sad to say, in
many cases, not caring.
And God doesn't want his people to come
short.
And so it isn't a case of desiring
something God doesn't want to give.
And I know sometimes, as we continue to
seek God, and crying to God for things,
and we think God's so tardy, so slow
about it.
And it seems that way, I know.
And like a nephew's little son, when he
was, you know, I guess, four or five
years old, he was in great trouble.
They can get into great trouble, too.
It might not seem much to us.
But pray, pray to God about it.
He says, God's so slow.
And I know it seems that way to
us.
It isn't that God is slow, but we
don't understand the necessity of our hearts being
prepared, and opened, and dealt with, that God
might lead us further than we have come.
We're trying to say, Lord, I'm ready.
Why don't you take us on, Lord?
Why don't you send that mighty power that
you've got there in the word portion?
Lord, we're waiting.
We want that glory of God.
And I wonder oftentimes what God really thinks,
you know.
Are we ready for that?
Are we ready for that mighty presence of
God to come into our midst?
Moses said to the children of Israel on
occasion, prepare your hearts.
God is going to appear this afternoon.
Get ready for it.
The Lord's going to appear.
And so you see, if God's going to
appear, there's need for great preparation.
All Christendom, all evangelical Christendom is talking about
the coming of the Lord and saying we're
looking for his appearing.
And there's no thought of preparation.
We don't need to be prepared.
Ain't I saying?
Am I not washed in the blood?
Am I not redeemed?
Come, Lord, any time, rapture me.
I mean, that's the thought.
Isn't it an awesome thing to stand in
the presence of the holy God?
It shows they don't know what the appearing
of the Lord is all about.
The holy man of God fell on their
face in torment when the Lord of glory
appeared before them.
Isaiah, that prophet, cried out, oh God, I'm
unclean.
I'm a man of unclean lips.
And I dwell in the midst of a
people that are unclean.
And John of Patmos, the beloved apostle, when
he saw that one like the son of
man, with his face shining as the lightning
and the eyes of fire, he fell down
as one dead.
And yet Christendom can say, oh, the Lord
can come any time.
We're going with him.
We're all ready.
The second coming has become a doctrine.
And those who have the doctrine, it's another
event in history.
And so they're trying their best to figure
out the date.
And they come up with a date and
write books on it.
He's coming September 1988.
All down here in the south, right down
this far, they're excited about it.
And this is a fact now.
A friend of mine told me, who was
down here, they were using their credit cards
up to the limit.
The Lord's coming soon, so we've got a
$3,000 limit on our credit.
We might as well use it up.
What kind of a concept of the second
coming is that?
Live it up, eat, drink and be merry.
Jesus' coming is all going to be over
and we'll be raptured to heaven.
I mean, talk about false doctrine.
I'm telling you with that doctrine that we're
going to be raptured to escape great tribulation.
I'm seeing it as deception.
Paul said you're appointed unto tribulation, even as
you know it, even as it came to
pass.
God wants his people to be prepared for
great days of trouble and darkness.
They're going to go through it.
That's God's way of purifying the church.
People say we're not subject to the wrath
of God.
We can't go through it.
To the world it's wrath, but to those
who know the Lord, it's cleansing and it's
purging.
I didn't intend to get into that.
Paul said I don't want you to come
short of it.
They used to have two experiences that people
strove to attain to.
Once is just the one experience.
You get saved.
You're born again.
Wesley and others came along with the doctrine
of sanctification.
There's two experiences.
Then, of course, Pentecost comes along and they
said, well, no, there's a third one.
It's the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
You could go on in that.
I attended the Holiness Church one time for
a while when we lived in Calgary.
Occasionally they'd ask me to speak.
I said, people, don't settle for one experience
or two or three or four or five.
There's any number of experiences in the Lord.
I mean critical experiences.
I mean vital experiences.
But you get the one, two, three and
you got it all.
But if you see God's way for his
people, it's not a case of one, two,
three or four or five experiences.
It's a case of the path of the
just being as a shining light that shineth
more and more and more into the perfect
day.
So that every day ought to be a
new day, a new experience.
I'm not saying it is an experience very
often, but I believe God wants that to
be just that way.
And I believe it's going to be that
way for that people who will come into
that abundant life that the Lord holds out
for his people.
He doesn't want us to come short.
Let us go on, Paul said, not laying
again little foundations.
Which is necessary.
It's necessary to have those solid foundations.
I'm not saying that you don't need the
foundation.
But he says having those foundations, then let's
go on.
Not laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works and faith toward God and the
teachings of baptism and of laying on of
hands and of resurrection of the dead and
eternal judgment.
Let's go on.
One day going through that list, I thought,
wait a minute now.
God sent a mighty revival to reestablish those
foundations in the church.
Repentance from dead works.
Mighty revival came to reestablish that.
Faith toward God tended by mighty revivals.
All over Christendom, after Luther's time and Wesley's
time and on down to modern times.
And the teachings of baptism.
God gave great emphasis to the teachings of
baptisms.
Not only in water, but in the spirit.
And in the body of Christ, into the
body of Christ.
And of laying on of hands.
With the revival that God sent.
Centered around that doctrine.
Laying on of hands.
It became known as Ladder of Rain, but
that's how it started.
Centered around that, as it were.
As God began to minister the gifts of
the spirit through prophecy and laying on of
hands.
And then, as I read this one day,
I read the next one.
Laying on of hands and resurrection from the
dead.
And I believe we're yet to see a
mighty revelation of the resurrection life of Jesus.
Going through his body.
People being raised from the dead, yes, but
I think there's much more to it than
that.
That we who are still in many respects
dead.
In other words, there's many areas of our
beings that are not in vital contact with
God.
In vital relationship with God.
And if that be so, those areas are
dead.
Because he'll own his life.
And so let's go on.
And there's always a tendency after God sends
a mighty move of his spirit.
And brings forth, we might say, a revival.
It might have different terminologies about it.
There's a tendency for it to be so
wonderful, so great.
Something, Lord, we've got weary asking you for
it.
We've been fainting along the way because of
our lack of it.
And now we thank you, Lord, for sending
this mighty move of God.
And there's a time of rest.
And I think God will give that.
As he led the children of Israel out
of Egypt and on into the wilderness.
Down to Mara where they suffered those bitter
experiences.
Tried to drink of the bitter waters.
The next place was Elam.
The next resting place where they camped and
they rejoiced.
Oh, the fruitfulness of this little area.
And the palm trees and the rivers of
water.
The wells.
Twelve springs of water, I think it was.
And so God gives them a time of
rest.
And God says, no, you've got to move
on.
Shrath.
Hallelujah.
You've got to move on.
So he moved them on.
And I can just hear them grumbling.
It was good back there in Elam, you
know.
Here we are out in a barren and
waste desert again.
And because it seems that their hearts never
did come to the place.
Throughout all those years of wandering in the
wilderness.
Their hearts never really came to the place
where they really recognized that God was leading
them.
Shrath.
Hallelujah.
And God said with a Psalm 95.
I've led them this way and I've been
gracious to them and I've blessed them and
I've provided everything they needed.
But God says that they did not know
my ways.
Amen.
And I swear in my wrath they shall
not enter into my rest.
They did not know my ways.
And I pondered that one day.
You read the first part of it.
Oh, it's praise and worship, adoration to God.
Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.
And then suddenly.
Today, if you will hear my voice, harden
not your heart.
But Lord, we're happy, we're rejoicing, we're worshiping
for your mighty goodness to us, Lord.
Right in the midst of it.
Today, if you will hear his voice.
Harden not your heart.
As in the provocation.
As in the day of temptation in the
wilderness.
For your fathers tempted me, proved me, and
saw my works.
Forty years, God says, I was in grief
over this generation.
And I swear in my wrath they shall
not enter into my rest.
But Lord, you led them into forty-two
different resting places in the wilderness.
Forty-two of them, I believe it was.
Resting places.
The ark of the covenant went ahead of
them to prepare out a resting place for
them.
And God has been faithful in his church
to lead us into many areas of true
rest in him.
And the church said, this is fine.
I long for this rest, now I've got
it.
You say, how much more of wilderness is
there to be for us?
I don't know.
But God will not be satisfied until you
would come to that ultimate rest that he
has in mind.
Which is finding our home in God.
As God finds his home in his people.
At the final rest.
Amen.
And so I think you and I have
to be the judge of our own hearts.
Concerning whether or not we've attained.
To what we desire, to what God desires.
That you and I be the judges.
Someone says, I don't believe that.
I'm saved and filled with the Spirit.
And I've got gifts of the Spirit.
And I'm not interested in all these other
things.
Hard for me to argue with them.
Trust.
They've found their rest.
Not to say that God cannot, will not,
later on.
Cause them to realize that there must be
something more.
As many are to this.
Let's not argue with them.
And try to make them see things.
That their hearts are not prepared or open
for.
Trust.
So it is true that God has been
faithful in doing all that.
But you be the judge of your heart.
I have my heart.
I haven't attained.
I feel I fall so far short of
God's provision for us.
And if that be so.
This is what the Lord encouraged me on
one time.
I didn't develop that hunger.
Myself.
God put that desire there.
And let's always realize that.
Any virtue you ever think you see in
yourself or in others.
Any enablement, any gift, any quality.
Let's always learn to give Him the glory.
Cause it's not in any one of us.
To long for God or to desire God.
It's not in us.
No man is seeking after God.
I'm seeking after God.
Is the scripture true or false?
Well then if you and I are seeking
after God.
Be assured because God's been seeking after you.
Causing you to seek after Him.
What I'm saying is I talked about this
rest.
And you be the judge of whether or
not you've entered it.
If you still feel that earnest longing.
For far greater fullness.
Of His abiding presence than you have known.
Be assured.
Because God has that longing for you.
And as you have sensed to draw near
to Him.
Some of that longing that's in God's heart
has rubbed off on you.
And you say I long for God.
Because He brought you to a place where
you were longing for Him.
For the simple reason that He longs for
you and I.
He's longing for you and I.
Me.
God doesn't need me.
And that's the whole concept all over Christianity.
We need God but He doesn't need anything.
The cattle in a thousand hills are His.
Where's the house that you were building to
me?
God doesn't need anything.
That's not really the thought that God was
trying to bring forth there in Isaiah.
They were doing something for God.
They were trying to build a house for
God.
They were bringing lambs and goats to try
and please God.
And God said He only knew it.
If I was hungry I wouldn't ask you.
I don't need the beasts of the field.
Cattle in a thousand hills are mine.
If I was hungry I've got all kinds
of that.
But to this man will I look?
What's he saying?
Yes I am hungry.
But not for the fruit of your hands.
Not for anything you can bring me.
Not for any house you can build for
me.
Not for any temple you can build me.
I'm not looking for that.
Heaven is my throne and earth is my
footstool.
Where is the place that you will build
unto me?
Where is the place of my rest?
But to this man will I look?
Even to him that is poor and of
a contrite spirit tremble at my word.
Do you see what God is longing for?
He isn't saying He doesn't need us.
He's saying I don't need the works of
your hands.
I'm looking for that heart in which I
can dwell.
I want to find a resting place.
And I think the reason we don't appreciate
that is because we don't know Him enough.
We don't know His heart enough.
But think that God wants to find a
resting place in this world.
When He's got the heavens and the heavens
of heaven.
Galaxies.
Every time they build a bigger telescope for
it these probes into space reveal further secrets
than the universe.
It becomes more and more boggling to the
natural mind.
And more and more boggling to the most
capable scientists on earth.
They can't comprehend it.
Whenever they make some great breakthrough and discovery
we never thought of that.
We never expected that.
Beyond them.
And it will continue to be that way.
So certainly God doesn't need any place of
rest if it's a case of a structure
of some kind.
What does God mean by finding rest?
Delight.
Satisfaction.
A place where He can settle down.
Finally I found that one thing that delights
my heart.
So that in God's extravagance in creating the
universe as we see it you wonder what
it's all about.
And David said, what is a man that's
not mindful of Him, God?
God's mindful of man because in man alone
did God place His image.
One like Himself.
How can God find rest in anything that's
not like Himself?
How can you find any real delight in
that?
Even the lower forms of creation.
Or the higher forms of creation.
God made mankind as a people that can
only appreciate their kind.
I know we study the animals and birds
and fish of the sea.
But only with another man is man compatible.
That's right.
Because we were made in His image.
And we know we lost that image and
we know everything that I said isn't practical
now.
Men hate one another.
But God made man to be a social
unit.
Man would delight in man.
There'd be brotherhood.
There'd be a family.
There'd be relationship.
He made us that way.
Why?
Because we're made in His image.
Well then, God, are you like that?
Yes, and that's why Jesus came to earth.
To reveal the Father.
Notice the emphasis that Jesus placed upon God
Almighty in the Gospels.
It was always the Father.
My Father, the Father.
He talked about the Father because God is
Father.
And because there's a family on earth and
we appreciate family relationship, it came from God
because God is Father.
God's after a family.
So that's what creation was about in the
beginning.
And we know Adam foiled it.
But God does not give up the purpose
of His heart regardless of what man does.
His purposes go on.
Unknown to us.
Unknown to original man.
God had a plan whereby in redeeming that
man, He would restore him to that quality
of life He knew before he fell.
But in restoring him, He would take him
far beyond what the first Adam ever was.
Because certainly in Adam, God revealed His attributes.
A man who was wise, knowledgeable, a man
with love, mercy, compassion.
We know He must have had these qualities
because they're in God.
But there were things in the heart of
God that He could not have revealed in
fullness in that first man.
I know theologians might talk about what if
Adam hadn't sinned, that God's purpose would still
have to be fulfilled.
Whether he sinned or not.
We're not getting into all that.
But there were attributes in the heart of
God that only redemption could bring forth.
Love in Adam, yes, and in the world
about us.
In the original creation you can see it.
But only in redemption could that full measure
of love that's in the heart of God
be revealed.
Only in redemption could the full measure of
God's mercy be revealed.
Only in God's great long-suffering over rebellious
men for thousands of years, only in God's
great long-suffering towards them could His mercy
be seen in fullness when He poured out
His grace in redemption.
So that in restoring man from the fall,
it wasn't just he fell down, he picks
him up and puts him where he was
before.
He restores him into the real image of
God.
You say, wasn't Adam in the real image?
I wouldn't want to contradict the scriptures.
Maybe that terminology isn't totally correct to say
in the real image.
Because it says Adam was made in the
image of God.
But he was not in the image of
God in the sense that Jesus was.
Because Paul tells us that that first Adam
was a type, a figure of Him that
was to come.
You know, the type or the figure of
something else is far below the quality of
the real thing.
So we're not contradicting any scripture when we
say that the image that was in Adam
is far below the image that was in
the last Adam.
In quality.
The first man was of the earth, earthly.
The second man is the Lord from heaven.
As is the earthly, such are they also
that are earthly.
As is the heavenly, such are they also
that are heavenly.
The first man was made of the earth,
earthly.
The second man came from heaven.
But because redemption was God's plan, when he
came from heaven, he identified himself and was
born into the family of the earthly.
Not only the family of the earthly, but
the family of earthly rebels.
Born into the family of sinners.
But had to have been conceived by a
seed from heaven that he might be our
redeemer.
Hallelujah.
Why?
Because God's looking for a home in man.
That's right.
Amen.
Thank you, Lord.
Hallelujah.
Restoration of man.
I just read it the other day again.
A statement of Augustine, I think it was.
That man was made to fellowship with God
because man cannot rest until he finds his
home in God or something like that.
Because we were made to find that habitation
in God.
We can't rest.
I first read that some years ago.
I think the Lord just quickened it to
me.
Yes, that's true.
But man was made in the image of
God.
God made him that he might have his
habitation in this man whom he made in
his image and his likeness.
Because God cannot be compatible with any other
creature that he's created.
Because none of the others are in his
image.
God made a man in his image.
Man can't be satisfied until he finds his
rest in God.
God can't be satisfied until he finds his
rest in his people.
Amen, Lord.
So there's a place for a sanctified restlessness.
A holy restlessness.
I was reading a little article by A
.W. Tozer.
He said, God bring us into a holy
discontentment.
Because he saw the falseness in the church
that intrigued his heart.
That people could be so content with the
little we have.
He said, I don't remember his words.
Bring about a holy discontentment in his church.
When that comes, we're hoping God will do
it.
I believe he will.
He's doing it in some already.
Can't be satisfied.
Thankful, yes.
Never grumbling about anything because God's been gracious
to us.
But if he puts that hunger there for
something better, then it's a sign of health.
If the appetite of hunger that we have
remains.
But when you're sick and incapacitated and you
don't want to eat, there's something wrong.
You're not hungry.
And I realized one time that God made
the vegetables and the fruit trees and the
berries and all manner of good things to
eat on this planet before he made man
to partake of it.
That when he made man in his image,
he put him in the garden and told
him he could eat of the bountiful things
that he provided.
God made the bountiful supply before he made
the man.
And all the hidden riches of God are
in Christ Jesus.
Stored up in Christ Jesus.
They've been there through the centuries and little
by little we're so delighted.
From the storehouse of God's wisdom, he's fit
to reveal it to you and I.
Give us a little portion of it.
He gives us that portion.
He's developed an appetite in us for it.
And therefore we receive because we have an
appetite for it.
Hallelujah.
And if we don't have an appetite for
it, we walk away.
Don't they know?
We've got all that they're talking about.
They're striving for something.
They haven't got faith.
They're striving to give them something that they
already got.
I wish I could tell them you've already
got it.
And then puffed up in pride, we've got
it.
Thinking because they have faith for it that
they've got the substance.
And in a measure they have because faith
is the substance of things hoped for.
But there's a fullness to faith and that's
when the thing hoped for is appropriate.
It's the substance of it.
Of what you're hoping for.
So God keep that hope lively within us.
Hallelujah.
The hope of better things that the epistles
of Hebrews is all about.
Better things than we've known.
Knowing that we have Christ and we have
him.
We have all the treasures of riches and
knowledge for it's all in him.
That's right.
But it's one thing to have the faith
of it and it's good that we must
have that before we can begin to walk
in it.
God appeared to Abraham one time and God
said, Abraham, give him a promise.
And he said, come outside and look at
the stars.
You can count them?
Can you count them?
So shall thy seed be.
Consider the sand and the seashore.
Can you count that?
So shall thy seed be.
Abraham believed in the Lord.
And God counted unto him for righteousness.
God changed his name from Abram to Abraham.
Which means father of a multitude, father of
many nations.
From that day on, Abraham has to walk
around confessing something.
I don't think he was ashamed of it.
But he was making a confession of his
faith.
Hi, Abram.
Good to see you.
Pardon me.
My name is no longer Abram.
My name is Abraham.
Oh, big joke.
Maybe not when he was younger, but he
gets up to be 90, 95, 98 years
old.
And what's your name?
Abraham.
Father of many nations, eh?
Big deal.
What I'm saying is this.
When God changed his name from Abram to
Abraham, Abraham didn't take Sarah by the hand
and said, we've got it now.
Let's just go back and just forget this
journey in this strange land and live it
up.
We've got it.
God says I'm a father of many nations.
God declares a new covenant.
It's true because it's from his mouth and
we must embrace it by faith.
You read a scripture, has it happened yet?
I say no.
Oh, you're an unbeliever.
The Bible says I am perfect in Christ.
I was as he is, so am I
in this world.
That's true.
Are you really living like this?
No, no, no.
But he says it and so I believe
the word.
Instead of recognizing, if your heart is the
judge of your own heart, and if your
heart is right, it will be.
Believe it.
God, I know it's not that way in
my life.
You said it.
I look for it.
I embrace it.
I anticipate it.
Abraham, where's all your family?
I don't have any.
That's my name anyway.
God said it.
It's true.
But he continued to walk by faith until
it happened.
He died without seeing the fullness of it.
Say then, is faith failed?
No.
Recognize this.
The faith that you and I have, the
faith that he would increase within us, that
he would bring us to, and the hope
that he generates with that faith, and the
trial of patience that is generated by that
faith and by that trial that God brings
with the faith, it's not in vain if
we die without seeing the fullness of it.
Many in the Old Testament embraced the things
that we're embracing.
Abraham embraced it.
And though he didn't live to see a
large family, I don't know how many sons
he saw, he had the first fruits of
it at least.
And even though he had the first fruits
of it, by that time, the promise in
Abraham's mind had become enlarged to embrace something
far greater.
Just a word concerning the promises that God
has given us.
And I won't go into any detail trying
to bring out the promises in the Word
or in your own experience.
But there's promises.
There's things that we know God has promised.
And God is faithful to fulfill every promise.
But as, little by little, he leads us
on, and we see a promise fulfilled, and
the promise takes on enlargement, and then we
wait for a greater enlargement.
And maybe that's fulfilled.
And as soon as it's fulfilled, somehow we
realize there must be more to it than
that.
And he leads us on, and we seek
to embrace what he reveals and what he
would have us embrace.
Until the time comes when you realize that
in the, inherent in the promises of God,
is something far greater than the letter of
the Word itself.
To illustrate, God said to Abraham, I have
made thee a father of many nations.
You will be the heir of the world.
Moses didn't write those exact words in Exodus
or Genesis.
But Paul wrote it by the same Holy
Spirit that was in Moses.
That God gave Abraham a promise that he
should be the heir of the world.
Far beyond the letter of the promise that
he had received from the mother of God.
Yet it was inherent in this.
Abraham would be the heir of the world.
So it became so vast that finally Abraham
realized the promise didn't just embrace what he
could see in this old world, but God's
goodness.
It was beautiful, no doubt.
I know that Canaan must have been a
very beautiful place.
It went desolate through the ages because of
their disobedience.
But it must have been very beautiful.
God himself said, The land that the eyes
of the Lord your God are upon day
and night is watered with the water of
heaven.
There's flowing rivers to the land.
There's fruit trees.
There's abundance of fruit.
God said that and they found that to
be so.
Abraham lived there many years.
Abraham wasn't satisfied with Canaan.
That's right.
The Christian church is over there in Jerusalem
comforting the Jews that you're going to get
this land back again instead of telling them
God's got something far greater than you.
That's true.
Abraham saw something far greater than Canaan.
He saw the whole world.
Not this old world, but the new heavens
and the new earth.
He saw the new heavens.
He saw the holy city.
Paul said so.
Moses didn't say so.
God said so.
Through the apostle Paul, he looked for the
city which had foundations, whose builder and maker
is God.
Hallelujah.
The holy city he looked for.
I'm not denying that God may well give
Israel their land.
I'm not denying that.
It seems that there's a parallel running between
what he does in Israel and in the
church.
But the time must come.
Someone will go there and tell them, God
give me this, but there's more than this.
The heavenly city that your father Abraham longed
to see.
Hallelujah.
God has a vision of it.
That's right.
Because he died with the faith for it,
and the hope for it, and the vision
for it.
He's there now.
Amen.
And he's waiting for it, and we're waiting
for it to come down to earth.
Amen, Lord.
We've got to wait for you and I,
because God said his city would be as
the sands of the sea, and as the
stars in heaven for Moses.
It's not quite made up yet, because God's
still waiting.
Hallelujah.
God's waiting patiently, James tells us.
And then he says, be also patient.
We think patience is the grievous thing we've
got to go through.
Turn up the nose.
Got to be patient, I guess.
And God looks upon it as a great
value.
At the trial of your faith.
He says, patience is more precious than gold
that purses.
Thank you, James.
So we go through a trial, and patiently
endure, and we grumble under, thinking it's an
evil thing.
And all the while, you're praying for the
fruit of the Spirit.
God, give us the fruit of the Spirit.
You don't know what you're praying for.
You really want it?
You're here, ready?
Huh?
So through that, you'll have the fruit of
patience.
What about the other fruits?
Well, he's got ways of doing that, too.
Some through the fire, some through the water,
some through the wilderness, some through the flood.
You say, but no, wait a minute.
I want all that God has for me.
I don't know if I want all this.
Right.
Well, may the Lord bless you.
Lord, we just pray that you, we know
you're doing it, we know you've been doing
it for 2,000 years, but Lord, we've
come to end time.
And someday that trumpet's going to sound where
you declare that the mysteries of God are
going to be finished.
Thank you for the finished work that you've
had there.
The mystery of God is not yet finished.
It's going to be finished.
You're anticipating that, and so we're anticipating that.
Lord, you would complete that good work that
you've done.
We thank you for your manifold goodness, your
church, these 2,000 years.
And so much that many in the church
feel that Christ has given us everything now
that he has.
He can come back any time.
Thank you, Lord.
Lord, we read in the Scripture so many
things about the new covenant that we haven't
even hardly touched on it tonight.
And we just know, Lord, that there's many
riches there that you've declared that are yours
that you've given us, but which we haven't
yet been able to appropriate.
And we believe you're going to do it.
We believe you're going to stay at God's
right hand until all that the Father has
decreed for your church will be administered, imparted
to the church of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
That the church of Jesus Christ will be
that compatible bride for the Son.
Amen.
Because the Son delighted your heart so much,
you promised him the greatest treasure that he
could ever have created.
And you'll never be able to create a
greater for the simple reason that all that
Christ was when he was here on earth
was poured out for our redemption.
Amen.
And that you poured into him all that
is in your heart and that when he
was enthroned in heaven you gave him everything
that you have.
All that the Father hath is mine.
Therefore said I, he shall take of mine
and show it unto you because he has
everything that the Father is in the Father.
He says, therefore said I, he, the Holy
Spirit, will take that which is in me
and show it unto the church.
And through it there's a picture that we
cannot partake of it.
But as that divine light springs forth from
heaven and the Holy Spirit illuminates that light
in our heart, the light and the glory
that's in Christ Jesus is going to be
kindled in the hearts of your people.
Yes, Lord.
So, Lord, we look for that greater shining
forth of the light of God in the
midst of your people.
Make this shine out of darkness, you declared.
Shine in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Lord, for bringing us here.
And we just pray, Lord, that piece to
piece while we're together that there be an
impartation of the Spirit of God in every
heart and life.
Yes, Father.
Make it real to us.
Yes, Father.
Show it to us.
Bring it down into our midst.
Shine on us, Lord.
Shine in our hearts.
The light of the knowledge of the glory
of God might shine forth upon your people
from the face of Jesus Christ.
Changing your people, transfiguring them into your image
of glory unto glory even as by the
Spirit of the Lord in
every heart.
Praise you, Lord Jesus.
Hallelujah.
We thank the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Bless you, Lord.
Hallelujah.
We thank the Lord for this word, what
it's ministered to our hearts.
It's not alone.
It's been worth it all.
We look to the Lord for this gift.
We do have some tone shift and we
do have some cookies in the kitchen.
If you'd like to give towards the expense
of this week or whatever, we're not going
to make a big deal.
We have a basket on top of the
piano.
The Lord has been really providing splendidly.
If you feel like to contribute, the opportunity
is there.
Hallelujah.
The Lord bless you and your family and
fellowship.
We will have services tomorrow morning at 10
and at 7 and then again on Sunday
at 10 and at 7 and then 7
o'clock Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
Brother Warnock and his wife are flying to
Springfield, Missouri on Thursday.
We want to really be focused not to
strain at this.
We're not going to strain at the Lord's
table.
We want to keep our focus.
We want to watch our mouth and stay
in the spirit of these things.
The Lord bless you.
I'm glad everyone's come.
Just be encouraged in the Lord.
Amen.
Could we end with a chorus that we
know for a long time not my will
but somebody's done.
Let the fullness of the sun look on
me.
You know that, look on me.
I can't see better standing up than I
can sitting down.
Hallelujah.
Let my will but on me done let
the fullness of the sun dwell within this
heart that I have offered to thee.
And may everything I do become.