For the last year or two, I've been
more and more aware that the New Covenant
is to be, it is an impartation, not
just a new set of rules that God
established for the Church.
It's to be an impartation, and I believe
it will and can be and should be
an impartation.
It will be as we seek to let
the Holy Spirit be in control.
I really believe that the Lord will bring
us to the place as we seek to
follow on to know him where the Holy
Spirit will be in control of our individual
lives as well as of our gatherings together
in his name.
And that individually it's very important to seek
to come to that place where we give
the Lord the preeminence and all things, so
that when we gather together, the same thing
will be true.
And we can hardly have the one without
the other.
Nevertheless, we help one another so that we
gather together for fellowship.
If so be, we might be able to
encourage one another to come closer to the
Lord so that we help each other.
Nobody comes to the fullness by himself, but
little by little we seek to encourage one
another and help one another.
And I believe God's way is that there
should be a divine impartation to God's people.
Every time we gather together, not only as
the word goes forth, but as the Spirit
of God is in charge all through the
meeting, there should be an impartation of his
Spirit one to another, a greater measure than
we have known until we come to that
fullness that God has in mind.
The other night I read through three verses
from 2 Corinthians 3.
I think we'll just read those again and
maybe go on a little further.
Paul said, 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 on tables of stone,
but in fleshly tables of the heart.
And so it is evident that Paul, writing
to the Corinthians, is comparing the two covenants,
the one that came by Moses, which was
written on tables of stone, and the one
that Christ is writing upon the hearts of
his people, the fleshly tables of the heart.
And Paul says of the Corinthian church that
you are manifestly declared to be Christ's epistle,
ministered by us.
What a glorious thing it is to consider
that God wants His Word to be so
manifest in us, taking such root within us,
that we are manifestly expressed before the world
about us as God's epistle to them, the
epistle of Christ to them.
And when we understand that, we will understand
why the world is not too impressed with
what goes on in the church, not too
impressed.
Because they read the church.
They read it.
They like reading it.
And they see so much that doesn't line
up with their concept of what God's people
should be.
And God wants His church to be such
that as the world reads it, they'll read
something about Christ.
They'll see Christ manifestly revealed in His people.
God bring us to that place where as
God writes His holy laws upon the fleshly
tablets of our heart, we'll manifestly reveal that
to those about us.
And such trust have we through Christ to
Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves
to think anything as of ourselves, but are
sufficiencies of God, who also have made us
able ministers of the new covenant, not of
the letter, but of the Spirit.
For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth
life.
And we did touch on that a little,
showing how that we certainly desire and must
cherish and honor the letter of the Word.
And not as some say, well, the letter
killeth, so away with it.
But honoring the letter of the Word because
in the letter of the Word there is
the life concealed under the shell, as it
were, protected by the letter of the Word.
The truth is there.
But we can't eat the shell.
The shell must be broken open before we
find the life in it.
People say you're spiritualizing too much of the
Word.
No, we just want to open the Word
by the Spirit, crack it open that we
might find the life that's within it.
Otherwise, the letter will kill.
But the Spirit giveth life.
And so the Scriptures are, I believe, something
that God has given for us.
And Paul says to read the Scriptures.
And you know that in the Scriptures we
find a way of life, and we honor
the Scriptures and must read them.
But knowing that unless God reveals it, unless
God takes it and brings forth the living
truth that's there in the Word, we will
not be propheted.
And then he goes on to compare the
two covenants in greater detail.
And he calls the law the ministration of
death, written and engraven in stone.
And he calls the new covenant the ministration
of righteousness and the ministration of life.
So he compares the two.
But if the ministration of death, written and
engraven in stones, was glorious so that the
children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the
face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance, which glory was to be done away,
how shall not the ministration of the Spirit
be rather glorious?
He says the ministration of the law, which
he calls the ministration of death here in
this verse, pointing out that though it was
given by God, and God's intention was that
men would go beyond the law and embrace
his grace.
For even Moses said when he gave the
law, and when he reiterated the law in
the book of Deuteronomy, the word that God
speaks unto you, he says, is not far
off from you.
It's not up in heaven that one would
say, Who shall go up to heaven to
bring it down to us?
Nor is it in the deep that one
should say, Who shall go and bring it
to us?
But the word is nigh thee, in thy
mouth and in thy heart.
And Paul quotes that when he declares the
gospel of Christ to the Romans.
He says, as it is written, the word
is nigh thee, even the word of faith
which we preach.
The word is nigh thee, even in thy
mouth and in thy heart.
So hidden away even in the law was
the truth of the gospel.
It was there, but somehow it was sealed.
Paul says their hearts were hardened in unbelief.
Paul says that which is intended to bring
life, it brought death.
And God knew it would happen that way,
because the time had not yet come when
in fullness he would be able to reveal
the intent of the law.
Nevertheless, God offers it for those who have
eyes to see.
And I think Moses saw much in the
law and lived much in the realms of
God's grace.
He had a greater manifestation of the glory
of God, I believe, than we see today
in the church.
And it shouldn't be that way, as we
shall see as we go on.
But he had a great revelation of the
Christ.
He had a great walk in the Spirit.
He talked with God face to face as
a man speaketh unto his friend.
He saw God's glory, and yet God wouldn't
let him come into the fullness of it,
even then, because his ministration was to be
a ministration of the law which brought condemnation
and death.
And so Paul says the ministration of death,
or the ministration of the law which brought
death, which was written down in stones, was
glorious.
So glorious that the children of Israel could
not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for
the glory of his countenance, which glory was
to be done away.
So Paul is referring to the incident that
happened when Moses had been up in the
mountain commuting with God, and God wrote upon
the tables of stone his own holy law
and gave it to the children of Israel,
brought it down from the mountain to give
it to the children of Israel as the
law that they were to keep.
But even before he got to them, they
had committed to idolatry.
They had gone astray from God.
And as Moses heard the shouting and the
dancing going on in the camp, and what
it was all about, when he came around
a certain corner, I guess, on his way
down the mountain, he saw them.
They erected the golden calf, and they were
singing and dancing around the golden calf while
Moses was up receiving for them the ordinances
of God.
And oh, what anger arose up in Moses
as he saw that even before he had
given them God's holy law, they had violated
all the principles of it.
And he threw the thing down at his
feet and smashed the tables at his feet.
And then you know the story how he
had to reprove the children of Israel for
their sin and their error and chastise them.
How he took the golden calf and grounded
the powder, cast it into the water, and
made the Israelites drink of the water.
It was God judging them for their sin.
And God said to Moses, I will destroy
them.
Let me destroy them.
And Moses interceded as a faithful priest of
God.
For Moses was not an opportunist.
God had prepared his heart so well that
he had become priestly in heart.
He had become merciful in heart.
He had become meek and tender and broken
in heart.
And that's why God called him.
And I believe that's why God waited those
40 years to prepare that vessel for that
great ministration of bringing a people out of
Egypt who were not worthy of God's redemption,
never were worthy, and God knew that.
Nevertheless, for his own name's sake and for
the Father's sake, for he had promised that
Abraham's seed would be in a strange land
and would be in bondage, but God would
bring them out.
And God's always faithful to his promise, regardless
of man's unfaithfulness.
And so Moses interceded before God when God
threatened to destroy them.
And he would have destroyed them except for
Moses' intercession.
And he cried unto God and God spared
them.
And he said, I will forgive.
According to your word, I will forgive.
Nevertheless, he said, as I live, all the
earth shall be filled with the glory of
the Lord.
And I used to wonder why he made
that connection.
And I think I recognize why it was.
God said, I'll forgive your people.
I'll forgive the people of Israel.
But if I do that, I'm going to
fill the whole earth with my glory.
As if to say, if I forgive them,
they totally are undeserving.
Well then, if they're totally undeserving and I
forgive them, I'll have to fill the whole
earth with my glory.
And so God's purposes are never frustrated by
man's disobedience.
Those who are disobedient will fall short of
God's promise.
They will not enter into the thing that
God has promised.
But when God declares his purposes in the
earth, he doesn't change his purposes because of
human failure.
But he will wait until the time comes
when God will once again bring that promise
back and give it life and fulfill it
in some different way.
God doesn't abrogate his word because of man's
unfaithfulness.
And often, as we will discover as we
go through the Scriptures, man's disobedience opens up
the way for God to show greater mercy
to others who have not had an opportunity.
You've been disobedient.
You don't deserve a thing, but I'm going
to forgive you.
But if I do that, then I'm going
to open up a door of mercy to
all the earth.
It's really what God said.
So that in the fullness of time, when
God sent the ultimate promise, the ultimate hope
of Israel, and he was manifest in the
earth, even the Lord Jesus Christ himself, Israel's
ultimate hope, the thing that the nation has
been looking for all through the centuries.
And when he was rejected, and Israel thought
God had to come to us because we're
his chosen people, and he did.
He came to them and visited them.
But when they rejected him, God didn't say,
well, I guess I'll have to start all
over again.
Call another man like Abraham and discipline him
and train him and make a holy nation
that would receive me.
God has no problem along that line.
When Israel rejected Christ, God just took the
blindness off the eyes of the Gentiles and
grafted them into the tree.
We talked about it a little this morning,
grafted them into the olive tree of Israel
by breaking down the wall of partition between
Jew and Gentile, making one new man, grafting
the wild branches into the good olive tree
of Israel, the original branches being broken off.
Not all of them, but most of them
became dead branches so that the tree was
almost bare.
But God is not to be frustrated in
his purposes.
The olive tree was a good tree, and
so he grafted in wild branches into the
good olive tree of Israel.
The church doesn't see that as a whole,
but it's because they won't accept Paul's interpretation
of the Old Testament.
They won't accept the inspired revelation concerning the
Old Testament because it's so clear that as
many of you as have the faith of
Abraham, the same are the seed of Abraham.
Those of you who have the faith of
Abraham, you are Abraham's seed and further, you
are heirs according to the promise.
We who are Gentiles who at one time
were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, excluded
from the covenants of promise, God has torn
down the wall of partition by his cross
to make of the Jewish people and the
Gentile nations, to make one new man so
making peace.
One new thing by tearing down the wall
and bringing in Jews and Gentiles.
Not all the Jews, not all the Gentiles,
but and I might further say not too
many of the Jews, the most of them
being Gentiles because the Jews had rejected the
Messiah.
Nevertheless, the door was open because Paul says
God put the Jews and the Gentiles in
the same prison house.
He has shut up all in the prison
house of unbelief that he might have mercy
upon all.
I mean, it's so clear to me and
I don't see how anyone could read the
New Testament, especially Paul's epistles with an open
heart and fail to see that God has
one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and father of all, that there
is no difference between Jew and Gentile.
Nevertheless, God respects his own electing purposes.
And so in his electing purposes he sought
this to bring the Gentiles in and he
sees fit in the end of the Gentile
age to bring back the broken branches, the
dead branches according to election.
Nothing to do with merit at all when
you're talking about election.
As far as the gospel was concerned, they
were enemies, Paul said, for your sake.
Becoming enemies of the gospel had opened the
door to the Gentiles.
They're enemies for your sake according to the
gospel, but concerning the election, they are beloved
for the father's sake.
So election has nothing to do with merit.
It's simply a case, God said, I will
in the end of the times of the
Gentiles, I'll grasp back the dead branches.
Where?
Into the same olive tree that he put
us in.
And when that happens, Paul said, that means
life from the dead.
Life from the dead.
And so we're in the tree, but we
realize that fullness of life is not there.
But the time is coming when God brings
back the elect of God of Israel, of
natural Israel, and grasp them into the tree.
It's going to take a miracle which is
described simply as a resurrection miracle.
Life from the dead.
According to the working of the law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which
is our inheritance, but which we too have
not really seen functioning in any degree of
fullness.
So I foresee the next phase of the
church and the next phase when Israel is
grafted in to the same tree from which
they were cut off, the tree that we've
been in, but which has likewise become depleted
of the vitality of it.
And the Gentile churches are going to be
cut off.
Those who have not known Christ, not all
of them.
Paul says he didn't cut off all Israel.
He just cut off those who didn't have
faith.
And so he says the same will happen
to the Gentiles.
Those who don't really have faith, but are
called to church, they'll be cut off and
they'll give life to the dead branches and
bring them back into the good olive tree.
The same tree.
How can anybody miss that?
The very same tree that we're in.
That we got in by their default.
And they're going to get back in by
our default.
But we who remain and those who have
remained of the natural Israel will together be
in that same covenant tree.
Once strangers from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
from the covenants of promise, you who were
once afar off are brought nigh by the
blood of Christ and made to be fellow
citizens with the saints and of the household
of God.
And so God's purposes are never frustrated because
of human disobedience.
Because God knows how just to turn to
another people when his own people reject him.
And he's done it in the church.
Turn from a people who profess to have
been heirs of his promises and he'll move
in another people.
In the same stream, in the same river
of life, in the same olive tree.
But nevertheless, another people who were alienated from
that life before.
And he'll do it again.
And he is doing it again.
He's moving mightily even now in many of
those nations beyond the sea who have been
neglected.
Great revivals going on in Africa, China.
I hear reports of a tremendous moving of
God's spirit in China, I'm sure.
And we hear of those things going on
elsewhere and we wonder, well, Lord, what about
us?
And we should know the reason.
To him that hath shall be given and
to him that hath not shall be taken
away, even that which he seemeth to have.
When God brought the Gentiles into the commonwealth
of Israel and drafted them into the good
olive tree, Paul says, I'm just hoping that
when God does this, I may provoke my
people to envy.
When he sees Gentile dogs coming in that,
you know, they were far below them and
they come in and become heirs of the
promises which should have been theirs.
Paul says, I just trust that somehow I'll
provoke them to jealousy.
That's why God is doing it.
To provoke this people to jealousy.
You mark my word when God starts moving
on this continent.
He's going to move some through some of
them.
He's going to move in those areas where
they're rejected or neglected or very poor or
don't fit into society.
Watch him move amongst the colored people and
amongst the native people.
Watch him move mightily in some of these
areas because somehow it seems that there's a
feeling of supremacy, you know, in the white
races and we've got it.
We're God's chosen people and certainly God did
move mightily in those realms.
I talked to a man in Kenya.
He wanted to get a visa to come
over here and I told him to be
patient and let God send him.
He said God gave him a vision of
lights in Africa and God told him he
was going to send many lights to come
over to dark America.
We used to talk about dark Africa.
And now the Christian people in Kenya, this
man said God said he would send him
as a light to dark America.
God's no respecter of persons, but he does
respect his own purposes and he has purposes.
And when man in his influence and pride
somehow seeks to frustrate God's purposes, God is
not frustrated.
He goes on out and he fulfills his
promises in ways we never imagined.
And he'll do it again.
And as I live, saith the Lord, all
the earth shall be filled with my glory.
And so Moses broke the tables of stone
and that wasn't the end of it.
After God had reproved them, after he had
listened to Moses' pleas of repentance, after all
this, God said to Moses, come up to
the mountain and bring with you two tables
of stone and I will write upon them
my holy law, which I wrote upon the
first tables, which you broke.
And you will take them down to the
children of Israel, but you won't present it
to them as my law for them to
keep.
In so many words, I mean, he said
that because he said you'll put it in
the Ark of the Covenant.
Certainly it was for them to keep and
he expounded those laws to them.
But God was doing something in type here.
He says, take these tables of stone and
put them beside the Ark, the Ark of
the Covenant.
And in the Ark of the Covenant, there
was a mercy seat over top that covered
those tables of stone.
And the Ark of the Covenant was in
behind the veil in the holiest of all,
which was in behind the doorway to the
holy place, which was in behind the gate
to the outer court, secluded there in the
holiest of all.
That's where the tables of law were placed.
God telling us in type, that though we've
broken his law, that's not the end of
it.
God would have another covenant, which he would
write upon the fleshly tablets of the heart.
His holiness, which he required of man, he
would now impart to them.
There would be an impartation.
And God wants to do that.
I'm not saying we haven't had it, but
I'm trusting that there'll be a real measure
of it that we'll all recognize and know
that it's happening.
That in the ministration of the new covenant,
it's not just that our minds are getting
a little more knowledge, but there's an impartation
of what that word says.
There's an impartation of it.
Let's look for that.
Let's anticipate, expect it.
And as the word goes forth, which we
recognize to be from the Lord, let's have
open ears and open hearts to receive it,
that God might begin to write that word
upon our hearts.
And I know we've all had experiences where
he has done that in measure.
When we received him as our savior in
later times, we know that God quickened something,
made it alive.
But we're just encouraging you to believe that
this is the day for the unfolding of
the new covenant in fulness, that God wants
to bring it forth in fulness, in the
midst of his people, because we know, we
simply recognize that we're not that living epistle
that God wants the church to be.
I think we don't have any problem recognizing
that.
We're far from it.
And it's because that holy law of God
has not been written there to bring forth
that light that others will seek after and
seek to know what God has to say
to them as the living epistles of Christ.
And so when Moses was up in the
mountain receiving the tables of the law, and
where is that?
Exodus, I believe, 34.
He took the tables of stone up with
him for God to write upon them as
holy law.
And it says in verse 20 of Exodus
34, it came to pass when Moses came
down from Mount Sinai with two tables of
testimony in Moses' hand.
When he came down from the mount, that
Moses whisked not that the skin of his
face shone while he talked with him.
While he talked with him, while God talked
with Moses, while he talked with him.
It's, I guess, not clear there whether it's
Moses or God in the first instance.
But I understand that it's saying Moses whisked
not that the skin of his face shone
while God talked with him.
Either way, I suppose, it would be similar.
He didn't know that as God was talking
with him and as he was talking with
God.
For if you're talking with a person, it's
a two-way conversation if you're talking with
him.
Not talking to him, but you're talking with
him.
So, there's conversation.
And I believe true prayer ought to be
that.
Just tell him, God, what you want.
If God's there, anything you tell me, just
tell me and I'll be quick to do
it.
I know we have promises.
If he says anything you ask in my
name, I will do it.
But that's for a people abiding in him.
Don't forget that.
When you read John 14, 15, 16, it's
very clear.
It's for a people abiding in him.
They're not asking for their own benefit, their
own selfish benefit.
They're asking for the glory of God.
And because they're talking with God, God puts
it on their heart to pray for this
and to ask for that.
God inspires that desire that we have if
we're truly walking with him.
And then it will come to pass, ask
what you will and it shall be done.
And we know very well that I suppose
all of us have claimed that over and
over and it didn't happen and we almost
give up on it.
But let's just face up to it.
It's for a people who are abiding in
Christ and Christ is abiding in them.
And there's a great fulfillment of that scripture
yet to take place when God has this
people in union with him and he is
abiding with them and they with him and
they're one with Christ.
They ask what they will and it shall
be done.
It doesn't mean they're set free to ask
for anything they want because their wills even
have been changed.
Their wills have been centered around God's will.
Their heart is one with the heart of
God.
And so they ask what they will because
you're in a place where you will what
the Father will.
Your desire is what the Father desires.
So you ask whatever you will and it's
done.
I'm not limiting the scripture.
I'm enlarging it.
When you abide in Christ and Jesus abides
in you, you have God's desires.
You have God's mind.
You have God's heart.
You know what he desires.
You ask what you will and it shall
be done because your will has been so
completely transformed that you're one with the will
of God.
That's a tremendous thing but God wants to
bring his people to that.
And so as Moses talked with God and
God talked with Moses, the glory of God
was being transferred to Moses' continent by reason
of the fact he was talking with him.
So there was administration of the new covenant
but the new covenant had not yet come
and Israel was not yet ready for it.
And so to them it became administration of
condemnation.
Read on a little further.
When Aaron and all the children of Israel
saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face
shone and they were afraid to come nigh
him.
And Moses called unto them and Aaron and
all the rulers of the congregation returned unto
him and Moses talked with them.
And afterward all the children of Israel came
nigh and he gave them in commandment all
that the Lord had spoken with him in
Mount Sinai.
As he came down from the mountain they
were afraid of that light.
They were terrified.
They withdrew.
They squinted.
They tried to shave their eyes.
They would like to run away but Moses
called to them, beckoned to them, come.
And little by little they fearfully drew nigh
to Moses.
Now before we finish that part I want
to read on in 2 Corinthians 3.
The administration of death written and engraven in
stones was glorious so that the children of
Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of
Moses for the glory of his countenance.
They couldn't keep looking at him.
They'd glance and glance away quick like you
would if you're looking at the sun and
it's brilliant.
Just a quick glance and that's it.
Otherwise you'd be blinded.
You know you'd be blinded.
He kept staring at it.
Men have gone blind by staring at it
and they couldn't stand it because of their
sensitive eyes.
Paul says now if that glory was that
bright and the dispensation of the law how
shall not the ministration of the Spirit be
rather glorious, more glorious?
Would you and I settle if we had
the glory that radiated from Moses' face?
Would we settle for that?
I mean and Paul says that was the
ministration of death.
But he says it's glorious but he says
if that was glorious, the ministration of death,
ought not the ministration of the Spirit be
more glorious?
I mean you read 2 Corinthians 3 you
know tearfully like that and you just see
how far short we are in the glory
of God.
When the law that came with glory came
with a season and even as it came
on Moses' face it was just transient.
It was just for a few minutes perhaps
and it kept on fading away and fading
away, fading away.
How shall not the ministration of the Spirit
be rather glorious because he came to abide.
He came to abide in his temple forever.
God's plan is that unto him be glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout
all ages, world without end.
But somehow we expect that there should have
been a passing away of the glory of
God from the early church until now to
end up in total apostasy.
So we can justify our faith by saying
Moses said in the last days there would
be a great falling away.
And we know there's a great falling away
and we know it's there.
But unto him be glory in the church
and in Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world
without end.
And if the ministration of death came with
glory how shall not rather the ministration of
the Spirit be with an enduring glory.
It's as clear as can be.
For even that which was made glorious had
no glory in this respect by reason of
the glory that excelleth.
He's comparing the two glories, the glory that
Moses had and the glory that we have.
And he says that which came with glory
is somewhat glorious but nothing compared to the
real glory.
As if to say here's a dark room
and you light a candle.
Well it gives light.
You can see a little.
You can see where you're walking perhaps.
You turn on these lights and that little
candle could be burning.
You wouldn't even notice it.
It has no glory by reason of the
greater light.
That's what he's saying.
You compare it.
Then he says it didn't have any glory
at all.
And so the moon has glory.
It has a reflected glory from the sun.
And sometimes in full moon it has quite
a glory.
But when the sun rises it's still there
in the sky.
If you know where it is you could
find it.
But really it has no light at all
compared to the excelling glory of the sun.
So that's what he's saying.
So let's go on.
For that which is done away with glorious,
much more that which remaineth is glorious.
Paul says that which remaineth, that covenant which
abides, that covenant which remains in the church
throughout all ages, world without end, is glorious.
I've learned that when our experience does not
measure up to what the Word says, to
accept what the Word says and seek God
earnestly, why we come short of it.
Instead of explaining it away, Paul says there's
going to be glory in the church throughout
all ages and so we've got it.
It's there.
It's God's provision.
It's there in God's purposes.
It's there in the Holy Spirit.
And He abides within us.
So is our inheritance.
But let's face up to it.
We haven't appropriated that.
We've lost that glory.
God wants to bring us back to that
glory.
It's there in the church.
It's in the Holy Spirit.
But when we fall short of God's provision,
let's not take the theological stand.
The Bible says I've got it, so I've
got it, and forget the rest.
The Bible says we've got it that we
might nurture it, that we might seek after
that which He has given us as the
lost treasure which has been lost and obscured
under the many traditions and forms and rituals
of human tradition.
I know it's in the church.
It's in the Holy Spirit.
But we've lost it.
God wants to bring us back because it's
an abiding glory.
It remaineth.
The glory that remaineth.
Much more is that more glorious than the
glory that was done away.
And so having made that comparison, he says,
seeing then we have such hope.
We use great plainness of speech.
And not as Moses would put a veil
over his face.
I want you to notice why Paul put
a veil over his face.
That the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to the end of that which is
abolished.
He put the veil over his face so
that the children of Israel wouldn't be looking
on that glory that was fading away.
He didn't want them to see, as one
translator put it.
He put the veil on his face so
they wouldn't see the last rays of that
glory fading away.
That's why he covered his face.
And I never realized that until I read
this and other versions and then read it
back again in Exodus.
I thought when he came down and Aaron
and the children of Israel said, we can't
look at you Moses.
There's too much light there.
I thought Moses quickly pulled out a veil
and threw it over his face.
Okay, come on now.
I'll talk to you.
I've got my face covered.
He didn't do that.
He beckoned to them with that glory radiating
from his countenance.
He beckoned to them.
They came nigh.
And with open face he declared unto them
what he had heard from God.
Back to Exodus 34, verse 33.
Until Moses had done speaking with them.
Till is in italics, indicating the translators put
it there feeling it made a better translation.
Any of you looking at other translations at
this moment?
Exodus 34, 33.
What does it say?
And when?
When?
When Moses?
Anybody else got a translation?
Huh?
Someone else?
Verse 33.
When Moses finished.
That's the correct translation.
It gives you a whole different concept.
When Moses had done speaking with them, he
put the veil on his face.
Not before, but when he finished speaking.
And that's confirmed by the Apostle Paul when
he said, we don't have a glory such
as Moses had that faded away.
And therefore we have great boldness.
Because this covenant is not a covenant that
fades away.
It's one that takes on more and more
glory as we continue to walk in the
light of it.
And so he says, we have great use,
great plainness of speech.
He says, we're bold about the new covenant.
Not as Moses.
He's saying Moses wasn't too bold about that
covenant.
Because though he did not know that the
glory was radiating from his face when he
came down from the mount, he did, he
was aware when the glory began to depart.
God give us grace to recognize when the
glory departs.
Moses had that grace, that something that he'd
been in communion with God.
And though he didn't know his face was
taking on the brilliance of it, he was
aware of God's presence.
But to him it was invisible.
But he was aware of that presence.
And as he talked to the children of
Israel, aware of that presence and aware of
the glory, he began to realize that it
was fading away.
And he was ashamed of the fading splendor
of it.
That's what he was ashamed of.
That's what he didn't have boldness about.
And when he was aware that that glory
was fading away, when he had done speaking
with them, he put a veil on his
face.
And Paul says the reason he did it
was so that the children of Israel would
not be able to look to the end
of that which is abolished.
That they wouldn't see the last rays of
it going out.
Because he didn't have that kind of boldness
to think that he had the glory and
the presence of God as he gave to
them God's precepts.
And little by little, the glory was gone
because the law was not to be an
eternal thing in God's purpose.
It had to fade away to give to
the new covenant.
Nevertheless, it came with glory.
It had a brilliance about it.
And Moses refused to cover his face until
that glory was gone.
And then he shut up.
He put a veil over his face.
God help us to minister out from the
radiance of his splendor.
For that radiance is not imparting to God's
people the light that he wants them to
have.
God will not hide his glory just because
people don't want it.
What was the real problem?
What was really the problem there?
Why couldn't Moses go on speaking?
You know what the real reason was?
The veil was on the hearts of those
people before him.
And so there was nothing he could do
but put a veil on his own face
because the veil was on their heart.
So why should he go on speaking?
Why should Moses go on speaking with a
veil on their heart?
So he stopped speaking and he put a
veil on his face.
I'm going by what Paul said here in
verse 14.
But their minds were blinded.
For until this day remaineth the same veil
untaken away in the reading of the Old
Testament, which veil is done away in Christ.
But even unto this day when Moses is
read, the veil is upon their heart.
So the veil was really on their heart.
Both of the hearts are read from God's
people.
And so Paul says, unto this day the
same veil remaineth untaken away in the reading
of the Old Testament, which is done away
in Christ.
The reading of the Old Covenant.
In the reading of it, the veil is
on their heart.
And to this day when Moses is read,
the veil is upon their heart.
But what is the law?
Is it not the truth of God coming
forth in a command that the people could
not keep?
And has not the Church made of the
New Covenant and Old Covenant by organizing precepts
and doctrines and rituals that we're supposed to
keep by way of keeping the New Covenant?
So virtually we make an Old Covenant out
of the New.
And I can say, and I think we
can recognize, until this day all over Christendom,
when the New Covenant is read, they hear
only the letter of the word.
They're killing.
Because the veil is upon their heart.
But whensoever the heart shall turn to Christ,
the veil is taken away.
Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord,
the veil shall be taken away.
And so back to Exodus, when Moses went
in before the Lord to speak with him,
he took the veil off.
His heart was turned to the Lord.
He went in, took the veil off, talked
with the Lord.
And when he came out, he spake unto
the children of Israel that which he was
commanded, that glory had come back.
He went in, took the veil off, talked
with God, got into God's presence, that glory
returned.
And he went out and talked to the
children of Israel with the glory of God
radiating from him.
And then as the glory faded away, it
says, the children of Israel saw the face
of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face
shone.
And so Moses put the veil upon his
face again until he went in to speak
with the Lord.
And so that was the manner in which
Moses ministered the old covenant to the people,
with the glory of God, but a fading
glory.
But Paul says we have a ministration with
great boldness, not as Moses who put a
veil over his face so the children of
Israel would not see the departure of the
glory.
Isn't it true that the veil is on
the minds of many, many of God's people?
And they don't recognize that the glory has
departed because the veil is on their hearts.
And they don't see the radiance of God's
splendor in the new covenant.
So we look to the Lord for him
to remove that veil from our eyes, from
their eyes, that as we minister, it will
be a shining forth of God's presence.
Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord,
the veil shall be taken away.
Now Paul is summing up of all this
that we've said.
Now the Lord is that spirit.
Talked about Moses standing before the Lord for
taking of his glory.
With that glory, speaking to the children of
Israel, the glory fading away because the veil
was really, though he put it on his
face, it was because it was on their
hearts.
It's on their hearts and so the glory
wasn't penetrating and the glory faded away.
When the heart turns to the Lord, the
veil is removed.
Moses went in to talk to God, the
veil was taken away.
Now the Lord is that spirit and where
the spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty.
We all with open face, and that's the
same word again, refers to the removed veil,
the unveiled face.
We all with the veil removed, beholding within
a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as by the spirit of the
Lord.
Paul gives the means by which there is
to be a ministration of the new covenant
to his people in the church.
It's with the veil removed so that we
with the veil removed are able to reflect
the glory of Christ before whom we stand.
For we are to stand before him as
Moses stood before Jehovah God and partook of
his glory, so we are to come into
his presence and stand before him to partake
of the glory of Christ with unveiled face,
so that our face reflecting God's glory, we
all, he says, not just the pastor, prophet,
teacher, we all, because everyone in the new
covenant is to partake of this same glory.
And God has a ministration of glory for
everyone that we all, as we gather together,
there might be a radiation of that glory
from each one to everyone else.
We all with unveiled face reflecting like a
mirror the glory of the Lord.
It's another translation.
Anyone got that translation in 2 Corinthians 3
and verse 18?
We all with open face beholding as in
a glass or reflecting as in a mirror
the glory of the Lord.
So we're to be reflectors as a mirror
reflecting God's glory.
Individually we ought to stand before God as
believer priests partaking of his presence and then
individually reflecting that glory to one another, whether
it's when we come together or wherever we
are.
Paul says that we're to be living epistles
of Christ, known and read of all men
because of the presence of that glory.
Are changed into the same image, not all
at once, not a sudden transformation from the
old Adam to the new, but from glory
unto glory, even as by the Spirit of
the Lord.
But even though it's little by little and
even though it's from glory unto glory, let's
not lose sight of the fact that the
image is to be his image, changed into
that same image, not another, the same image
from glory unto glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord.
So we must come to that place where
there's an impartation, that presence of God radiating
from God's people one to another.
A word here, someone has a prayer he
feels to.
Let that glory lead him and go and
pray for someone in need.
Someone gives a word of prophecy, a tongue
interpretation or some manifestation of mercy or a
healing or it's a manifestation of the glory
of the new covenant that he has for
his people.
We all with open face holding from the
glass the glory of the Lord are changed.
The word is metamorphosis, metamorphosis from which we
get the English word metamorphosis, a change, a
complete change.
It's not just a complete changing from one
form to another.
And so it is that we as creatures
of the Adamic race, David said I'm a
worm and no man.
By nature, just totally helpless as a worm.
That worm will get into a cocoon and
if he is subject to the law of
nature that God has put there, he subjects
himself to that, he will get away in
a cocoon until he's changed, transformed.
And God has ways of transforming us, transfiguring
us, bringing about that metamorphosis as we obey
the law that he's put within us.
That poor worm of course has no other
option.
He's guided by an intuition sometimes, by the
law of nature that God put there.
But with you and I he asks us
to walk in obedience, to be led of
the Spirit.
And as surely as you and I come
to that place of commitment, we are coming
to that place where we will know what
the will of the Lord is.
Paul brings that also out in Romans 12
where he says, I beseech you therefore brethren
by the mercies of God that you present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable
unto God which is your reasonable service and
be not conformed to this world but be
ye transformed, which is this word also, the
very same word changed, be transformed by the
renewing of your mind that you might prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God.
And so in the presentation of ourselves to
the Lord as a living sacrifice, Paul tells
us that in that commitment there is that
divine importation of his will for us that
we will be able to prove what is
that good and well-pleasing and perfect will
of God.
So that the transformation of us into the
image of Christ is related to presenting ourselves
as a burnt offering before him, presenting ourselves
totally unto him as a living sacrifice that
we might prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God, not being
conformed to this world but transformed, this complete
metamorphosis, this complete changing of our nature, transforming
us into the same image even as by
the Spirit of the Lord.
What is it going to take, I've often
asked myself, what is it going to take
for this Spirit to do this work within
us?
We have his Spirit, we're born of his
Spirit, we drink into his Spirit and we
thank him for the measure of Spirit he
has given us.
But what is it going to take for
the Spirit of God to bring about this
transforming work, this transfiguring experience?
It's the work of God and I believe
that God will be faithful to, by his
Spirit, lead us into that realm.
I remember several times I have taught on
the book of Romans, two or three times,
verse by verse from chapter one on through.
And sometimes it seems that you delay first
season, things would come up and you'd miss
the thread of the teaching and I'd go
back to it and we'd get up to
the end of Romans 7 and I don't
think I ever got beyond that much.
Romans 7, not that I deliberately stopped there,
but it just seemed that circumstances or whatever
would come that we never got any further.
I thought the Lord reminded me it's because
that's where we have been, largely speaking in
our Christian experience.
We've known justification by faith.
In Romans 1, 2 and 3, first of
all the judgments of God declared on the
whole human family.
Coming into Romans 3, justification by faith.
But now the righteousness of God without the
law is manifested.
Being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God which is by
faith of Jesus Christ unto all, upon all,
and the belief, for there is no difference
for all that's thin and comes short of
the glory of God.
Being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
And we go on from there.
Romans 4, how Paul explains how that even
David was justified by faith and Abraham was
justified by faith.
And then in Romans 5, showing how that
coming into faith, God identifies us with the
last Adam as truly as in our natural
birth.
We were born into disobedience because of the
natural Adam.
We were born into a realm of disobedience.
And by new birth we're born into the
realm of obedience.
As is the first Adam, such are they
also.
The first man is of the earth, earthly.
The second man is the Lord from heaven.
As we've borne the image of the earthly,
so we shall bear the image of the
heavenly.
So we go into Romans 5 and it
compares the two men, the two acts, one
of obedience, the other of disobedience.
The two kingdoms.
One kingdom that reigned unto death, the other
kingdom that reigned unto life.
And five times in Romans 5, Paul says
much more, much more, much more.
If this is what happened because we're born
in Adam, much more there's righteousness if we're
born in Christ.
If disobedience landed us all in a state
of sin, much more does the obedience of
Christ bring us into his righteousness.
If there was a kingdom that started under
Adam, which Paul calls the kingdom of sin
and death, much more is there a kingdom
of life that comes upon us in the
last Adam.
Much more.
That as sin has reigned in death, even
so must righteousness reign through Christ Jesus unto
eternal life.
I mean it's so clear.
You can't escape the logic of it because
it's a divine logic that as sin reigns
in death, so righteousness reigns unto eternal life
in Christ Jesus because we're born into another
Adam.
We can't escape the logic of it, but
we look at it and we say, well,
I see very little functioning of that law
within.
And we recognize that is true.
And I believe it is true that there's
been very little functioning of the law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and
his people.
I believe God's going to change that.
I believe he will in his purposes.
He will change that till that law which
is there will begin to function.
As I read the story, the scientific report
of what happens, and this man experimented with
these silkworms over a period of years, he
discovered that it was at a certain season,
a certain season in the spring of the
year when God would cause this metamorphosis to
take place.
And I believe it is so in God's
purposes that he has seasons.
He has seasons when he will move in
certain ways.
And I believe we're at the change of
the seasons once again and that there's a
new season that God would bring us on
further.
So we go on Romans 5, Romans 6,
baptism showing our identification with Christ and his
cross, showing the way whereby we come out
of the old man into the new.
It's through baptism.
I don't say just water baptism, but the
real baptism which is one of the heart.
Pictured in water baptism, pictured in the water,
but the real baptism is the circumcision of
the heart.
And so he deals with that in Romans
6.
He says, As we have borne the image
of the earthly, so shall we bear the
image of the heavenly.
And we can read those things and cast
it off lightly.
Well, when we get to heaven, we'll have
the image of the heavenly.
But did you go to hell to bear
the image of the earthly?
You were born into it.
To bear the image of the earthly, you
had to be born into it.
To bear the image of the heavenly, you're
born into that heavenly family.
And so as is the earthly, such are
they that are earthly.
As is the heavenly, such are they that
are heavenly.
We can't escape them.
The only reason we deny it is because
we don't see it happening too much.
We've got to come to a place where
we recognize it when God declares it.
It is so because He declared it.
And even though it's not happening, we're not
going to be like the Christian science saying,
well, it is anyway, because that's just the
way it is.
But recognizing God declared it and therefore it's
so, but it might not be working that
way and find the reason why it isn't
working that way.
Instead of blindly going our way, he says,
By faith I declare that I'm a new
man in Christ Jesus and deceive ourselves and
everybody else.
Like the little boy who was schooled very
much by this friend that he used to
go and visit.
And she was a Christian scientist.
And how's your mother today?
How's your grandmother?
I think it was, as the story goes.
And oh, he says, Grandma's sick today.
He says, you go tell your grandma she's
not sick.
That's what they call a positive confession, you
know.
Go and tell her she's not sick.
And so he goes home and sure enough,
grandma's still sick.
And next day he visits this lady, neighbor,
and how's grandma today?
Oh, she's still sick.
Go and tell her she's not sick.
And trying to, you know, somehow by the
manipulation of your mind make it happen.
You can't do that.
And so he came back another day and
he says, how's grandma?
He says, grandma thinks she's dead.
But you see, there is a truth to
it, that God declares it because that's his
purpose.
And it's going to come to pass.
And it's so sure that God says it
is so.
But there's a working out of that in
experience.
And I think I mentioned this already.
God changes a man's name because God says
from now on it's going to be different.
And it is different.
But the fullness of it hasn't come just
when the moment God changes a man's name.
And so Abram, he got the promise from
God and of a son and a family
and an inheritance.
And it hadn't come to pass yet, but
God told Abram, you see the stars?
You count the sand on the seashore?
Can you do that?
Can you count the stars?
He said, so shall I see thee.
And Abram believed in the Lord.
And God counted unto him for righteousness.
And God says, thy name shall no more
be Abram, but Abraham, which means father of
many, father of a multitude.
God can do that.
And Abraham could bear that name.
But it would be as a reproach until
it happened.
Abram was ready to bear the reproach of
the name.
And there's many things concerning the truth of
God that God asks us to believe and
bear the reproach of it and testify of
it.
But we bear the reproach of it.
A glorious church without a spot or wrinkle
or any such thing.
A people joined unto the Lord as He
is joined unto the Father.
That's God's purpose.
And God's going to bring it to pass.
And one famous minister I knew, he scoffed
at it.
He says, the more you people talk about
the coming together of the body of Christ,
the more scattering I see.
And so you bear the reproach of it.
You can't help it.
But God said Jesus prayed for it.
So it's going to happen.
And so He changes our name and He
calls us Christian.
The name that came upon the Christians in
the Antioch church, they were called Christian.
I don't know if the Christians gave the
name or others that noticed that they were
like Christ that called them Christ ones.
I don't know.
But they bore the name of Christ.
And we bear the name of Christ.
We're not ashamed of Christ, but oftentimes I
think we're a little ashamed to identify with
Christians.
Because Christians are not that living epistle that
God wants them to be.
So sometimes we're a little hesitant to identify
with our fellow Christians even.
But God puts that name upon us.
He's put His name upon His people.
Because the time will come when the people
of the Lord upon whom He has put
His name will be a living witness of
the one whose name they bear.
We're called by that holy name.
We're baptized into that name.
Paul says we're baptized into Christ.
I know we think of water baptism as
being a ritual, but it ought not to
be.
It ought to come at the same time
as your conversion.
If you're converted and you receive Christ and
are baptized, it ought to be a living
testimony.
As Christ went down into death and rose
again, so I identify myself with Christ in
His death and in His resurrection.
I'm not saying that always happens, but it
should.
And I believe there will come a time
when God will give life to everything that's
in the New Covenant.
He'll give the life to it that He
intended should be there when the book was
written.
Because Paul says it's a ministration of the
glory of God.
It's a ministration of life.
It's not a ministration of condemnation.
It's a ministration of life.
It's a burden that the spirit whom we
have will become a law functioning within us.
Not a legal law, a spiritual law, a
divine principle that will function within God's people,
giving them total freedom over the law of
sin and death.
God's intention.
And so from Romans 6 we go into
Romans 7 and the agony of these two
men.
After the baptism, the agony goes on as
the conflict emerges between the flesh and the
spirit.
Between the man who's renewed by grace, but
who somehow has not learned the secret of
the law of the spirit of life in
Christ Jesus.
And I felt, as I was going to
say a while ago, that the Lord indicated
to me that we have gone through Romans
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
And that He was faithful to be with
us and making real to us these truths
in Romans 1 to 7.
And that He would be faithful to lead
His people into the full reality of Romans
8.
That there is therefore now no condemnation to
them which are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus hath made us free from
the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in
that it was weak to the flesh.
God sending His own Son in the likeness
of sin and for sin, condemned sin on
the flesh.
That the righteousness of the law might be
fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit.
It's the work of the spirit.
We struggle to make it happen.
We struggle to make many things happen in
the covenant.
We give up sometimes in despair we can't
make it happen.
But it's in God's purpose and it's in
His seasons.
The time is at hand when that spirit
whom we have will become a law functioning
within us.
And I know what it's going to require.
It's going to require that you and I,
individually and in corporate relationship one with another,
seek God earnestly for that manifestation of the
spirit of God in our midst where He
will be Lord in our lives and in
our gatherings together in His name.
And when we recognize that He's not Lord,
to confess it and to make way for
it.
When the Lord Jesus by His Holy Spirit
comes in to inhabit His people, not only
to bless us, to encourage us, to teach
us, to heal us, to manifest His gifts,
but to be the Lord in our midst.
For Paul says the Lord is that spirit.
When He comes to be the Lord in
our midst, He will cause that law of
the spirit to become operative within us.
Because He will teach us how to walk
in the spirit and to be led of
the spirit.
Whereas now we seek to be led of
the spirit, and sometimes we know we are,
but I think we're all ready to admit
that yes, we know we've had situations where
we know we're led of the spirit, but
oftentimes we're not sure, and God isn't condemning
us for that.
But He's working in us and in our
lives individually and in our walk with Him,
dealing with us in many ways to bring
about within us the functioning of that divine
law that we'll just move according to the
law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus.
And that's not a legal principle, it's the
functioning of a law of life.
I believe that's the law by which Jesus
moved when He was here on earth.
He said, I live by the Father, having
learned obedience.
I mean, all along the way He learned
obedience in such depth that it produced suffering.
Because He'd have to do so many things
that was contrary to the trend of society,
contrary to the trend of the religious system.
He had to be led of the spirit.
He was motivated by a different law.
The law of the spirit of life is
that which motivated Him.
And therefore, in order for that law to
function in Jesus, He had to diligently obey
the voice of the Father.
Let us not think that the Son of
God came and lived a life here on
earth as God the Son, half God and
half man.
He came as God and God emptied into
human flesh.
That emptied into human flesh.
His name was the Son of God.
His name was Jesus.
Emptied into human flesh.
He took a place of weakness, of humanity,
of poverty.
He became weary and tired.
He didn't know all things as a man,
but in union with the Father, He knew
all things.
He performed no miracle as a man, but
in union with the Father, He did all
that the Father showed Him to do.
He lived as a man in total union
with the Heavenly Father.
Why didn't He just live as God?
Because then of what advantage would that be
if God came and God went back to
heaven?
But He came as a man identifying Himself
with you and I, and that in His
redemption, He would take...
He being the federal head of a new
race of beings, would be able by regenerating
us, cause us to be born into His
family, that we might live as He lived,
walk as He lived, learn obedience as He
learned obedience, suffer in learning obedience as He
suffered in learning obedience.
And in so walking with God that the
Spirit of God would be able to lead
us in all His ways.
And in leading us in His ways, leading
us into trial and test and troubles of
various kinds to prove our obedience, to test
us concerning our faith and obedience, that we
too might find that law beginning to function
as a law within us and not just
as a spirit who comes in to bless
us.
I never knew that.
As I grew up in Pentecost, you got
saved, you got filled with the Spirit and
you had all there was for you.
Then realizing, yes, in a sense, yes, that's
all we want is God's Spirit.
But that God wanted to come in not
only to live there and bless us and
help us, comfort us, but be the Lord
in our lives, leading us in God's ways,
leading us by the Spirit, leading us out
of the realm of the carnal nature and
into the realm of spiritual life, ridding us
of that old carnal nature and by His
transfiguring experience, causing us to have the mind
of Christ.
Romans 8, that's the heritage that God has
received.
As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, these are the sons of God.
For you have not received the spirit of
bondage again to fear, but you've received the
spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit Himself beareth witness with us that
we are the children and heirs, heirs of
God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
So may God continue that good work which
He has begun.
Also, I've got confidence that He will continue
that good work which He has begun in
you.
In the meantime, let us patiently follow the
Lord and earnestly ask Him to allow that
Spirit to have full control in our hearts
and lives until we as a body, a
corporate body, know what it is to walk
in the Spirit.
Out of the realm of Romans 7, where
it's I, I, I, struggling against my own
impotence to do the will of God, 15,
no, I think 25, 27 times He uses
the word I, me.
The struggle that goes on when we come
into Romans 8 and it's a we experience.
It's an us experience because it's in the
body of Christ that we're able to reflect
the glory of God one to another.
We all with open face reflecting as a
mirror the glory of God are transfigured by
that same image, into that same image from
glory unto glory, even as by the Spirit
of the Lord.
I believe God's going to do something in
the body of Christ to bring about a
vital ministration in each life.
Yes, He sends pastors, teachers, prophets to nurture
His people in the ways of the Lord,
but that ministration by the Spirit is intended
to produce a living relationship in each life
with the throne of God.
No minister is to be another mediator, but
every ministry that God ordains as it functions
in vital relationship with the Father, with the
Son in heaven, is to be a ministration
that imparts that same life to God's people
that they'll have the same relationship with the
one mediator.
Never through a prophet unto God, never through
a pastor unto God, but every individual is
to have a personal individual relationship with the
one mediator, one mediator between God and man.
A ministry is never to become a mediator.
It's possible never to become a mediator, but
that's the way it has often happened, even
unto this day, so that the people by
and large are not looking for that individual
walk with the Lord where they can hear
the voice of God for themselves.
That must come, and God will do that
because He's tempering the body together, and the
tempering in the Old Testament was a mingling
of the oil with the meal.
For the meal offering, a mingling of it,
mixing it all up until the flour was
thoroughly mixed with the oil, and tempered, mixed
together, and God's doing that in the body
of Christ.
Not obliterating your personality or your individuality in
any sense of the word, but putting upon
each one such a ministration of His Spirit,
and another one a different kind of ministration,
and another one a different kind of ministration
according to the gifts which God has pleased
to give.
Then in the mingling together of the ministration
of the Spirit, there's a tempering of the
body of Christ that every individual has something
to impart to the body.
That there be no schism in the body,
but that the members may have the same
care one for another.
I've emphasized that already.
I believe I must continue to do so
wherever I minister.
That God tempers the body of Christ together,
giving more abundant honor to those parts which
lack, that there be no schism in the
body, but that the members may have the
same care one for another.
And you know the body is full of
needs.
There's many, many needs in the body.
There's many divisions, divisions, schisms in the body
of Christ.
We know that.
Do you know the reason?
Because each individual member is lacking.
And God gives abundant honor to those parts
which lack, that there be no schism in
the body, but the members would have the
same care one for another.
There's a great day coming when God imparts
that honor to every individual member.
When the schisms will disappear, because in this
body every member has care for one another.
Yes, that's right.
And there's healing, there's unity, there's one accord.
Oh, people say we've tried that and it
always busts up.
I know because that law of the Spirit
is not there in fulness.
But when He comes and functions in our
midst in fulness, we're going to see it
happen from glory unto glory, even as by
the Spirit of the Lord.
May the Lord bless this preaching.
Amen.
We thank God for the Word and we
have it in our heart and we believe
it will grow and expand that the Holy
Ghost will continually illuminate this in our hearts
and give reality to it.
Amen.
Oh, give reality to it.
We will have food after this service here.
We want to take an opportunity though to
thank everybody.
We appreciate the bond service ministry God's creating.
I think it's been so neat to see
people serving and helping and pitching in and
doing the thing that needs to be done.
The giving that's come has just been precious
in order to be able to do this.
It does take, not that we emphasize it,
but God knows it, but it does take
finances to do some things.
So we just thank God for you and
we bless you.
I really thank God, not to single her
out about anybody else, but I thank God
for me.
Amen.
You wouldn't have the food.
A lot of thanks.
God's a civil lady here.
And so we bless her and honor her
and all the ladies.
They've really pitched in and really helped us
so much.
So we appreciate that.
Amen.
All the tape people, the copying of the
tape, the reproducing of the tape and all
this.
And let's bless brother Scott Williams.
It's in his heart to go into these
tapes and transcribe them.
Okay.
And bless him and he'll be able to
do that.
We'd like to give, you know, even give
brother Warnock this on a disc so he
could actually put it in his PC and
do whatever he wants to it.
You know, so we'll give him the tape,
but we'd like to do this eventually, give
him this serious dish.
You might want it for your computer.
Amen.
So we thank you and we thank the
Lord for it.
And we believe to grow in the grace
of knowledge.
Line up on line, precept upon precept, hear
a little and bear a little.
And that's what we forget.
We get so impatient.
And it's like this nation's fast food.
Got to have it now.
If it don't happen now, we're frustrated.
But one of the qualities God treasures because
it's so much of his own nature is
what?
Long suffering perseverance.
Perseverance.
That's the key to a lot of what
I believe our brother's been saying.
It's not to put it before all and
not to say it's forever, but there's a
perseverance.
Amen to God.
I feel it in my own heart.
God's saying perseverance.
Go after this.
Don't get discouraged.
Don't faint.
Don't grow weary in well-doing.
And well-doing is not just doing things
for people in it.
Well-doing is thinking after God in it.
Well-doing is staying on the course God's
appointed it.
Amen.
So may none of us faint.
Amen.
Okay.
Lord bless you.
Enjoy each other in the Lord.