What we've been dealing with in the morning
session, and perhaps Lord willing, in a way,
however he might please, carry on through most
of next week.
So, I'll just read a portion from Joshua,
chapter 3.
We've been talking about new beginnings.
We started with the Passover.
It was a new day, a new beginning.
This day shall be unto you the beginning
of months.
Emphasizing how God has new beginnings over and
over.
There are new beginnings, and that the order
is darkness and light.
Not light and darkness.
Darkness and light.
The evening and the morning were the first
days.
And just that one principle ought to fill
God's people with great hope.
If it's dark, God commands light out of
darkness.
That's where the light comes from.
God commandeth the light to shine out of
darkness.
Israel had been in darkness 400 years.
God commanded, and light shone, and God sent
a deliverer.
And they brought them out.
They crossed the Red Sea.
A new day for them.
But before they could come into the purpose
for which they came out, God must prove
them, try them, test them, which he did
through the wilderness.
The first generation failed God's testings.
Blamed God for their troubles, instead of recognizing
the evil of their unbelieving hearts.
Nevertheless, God was faithful to forgive them.
He brought them up to Kadesh.
Told them, now is the time to go
in.
They sent out spies, brought back the report
of what they found in the land, admitting
it was good, but we couldn't take it.
Too difficult for us.
And they made an excuse.
We couldn't take our children into such a
dangerous land.
And God took their excuse and made it
to be judgment for them.
And he says, I'm going to bring your
children in.
You're afraid that they can't come in?
I'm going to bring them in.
And you're going to stay here in the
wilderness and die here.
And God decreed that each day that they
spent spying out the land would represent a
year in the wilderness.
So that for 40 years they were in
the wilderness until the old generation was consumed.
And so darkness settled in upon them.
But God shines out of darkness.
And when the days of his judgment had
been finished, God was bringing the new generation
to a new day.
Joshua, my servant, is dead.
Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan.
So that which was the end of an
old day for the generation that failed God
was the beginning of a new day for
the new generation.
And that which was judgment for the old
day on the old generation was preparation for
a new generation.
And out of the darkness that was coming
over the old generation, God was beginning to
shine forth in a new day to a
new generation.
The sun was setting for the old generation
as the dawn was arising for a new
generation.
So it's wonderful when we recognize that.
But the sad part is that that for
which we hope and long for and desire,
when we come to that point where God
says now is the time, the difficulties seem
to be so severe, the trial so severe,
that if our hearts are not prepared, when
we come to the very day and hour
when God wants to bring his people into
a new way and the test comes, that's
where so many fail, God.
Hoping all along, God, that revival, we're seeking
revival, we're praying for revival.
God, we must have revival.
And the time comes when God says, now
this is the time.
And we fail.
Why not?
Because we want revival, don't we?
But we fail to understand that with every
new day, we call it revival and all
we think of is rain and blessing.
But God doesn't just look on it that
way.
It might be a revival of a new
day which brings sunshine and heat.
And that's what bothered me when what they
called rain in the middle of this century,
what was rain, it didn't last so long.
It just lasted a short time.
And it's devastating to many people to see
how quickly that which we felt was a
revival of the end time, the last revival,
it petered out.
And then came the heat and the sunshine,
the heat and barrenness.
We don't understand those things because we don't
understand God's desire in sending the rain is
to water the plantings of the Lord that
they might bring forth fruit.
And somehow we're slow to comprehend that.
Why should God want to send the barrenness
and the drought and the heat?
Because God's after fruit.
That's what he's after.
And so when he's blessing and there's revival,
we think, oh, wouldn't it be wonderful?
All ready for the Lord to take us.
But he wants the fruit.
And like we said this morning, the seeds
of what God will do and what God
has in mind, the seeds of God's intention
is right there in that movement of God,
that new thing that God is doing.
Right there in that new thing he's doing,
he plants the seeds of his intention for
the next thing he will do.
And in early Pentecost, there were many who
had a vision of a great harvest after
the image of Jesus.
Sister Amy Semple McPherson, founder of the Four
Square Church, had a great vision of the
end time that God...
And I don't remember it all because sometimes
since I read it, and I don't think
you'll find it in any of her books
today because I'm told that this part isn't
there.
She said God's looking for fruit, perfect fruit.
He's coming for the perfect fruit.
That's what he's after.
And he is.
He's still after it.
That's why he's waiting.
The husband's waiting for something.
He's waiting for perfect fruit.
The husbandman waits for the precious fruit of
the earth and has long patience for it
till he receives the early and the latter
rain.
He's still waiting.
We know the time is nigh at hand.
He's still waiting.
So I know that the fruit is going
to be perfect fruit that's going to be
better than any fruit he's found yet because
he's still waiting.
So you see, right in the seeds of
the Pentecostal revival, God was imparting truth to
prepare them for the next move of God.
You say, well, there's no time for any
more movements of God.
Well, God's judged, not you and I.
And they thought that in early Pentecost because
the burden of the Spirit was the Lord
is coming soon.
That was the burden of early Pentecost.
And that lingered on 30, 40 years until
people got weary of it and figured the
Lord's delaying his coming, not realizing that the
Lord comes in many different ways.
He comes in the rain.
He comes in his refining fire.
And I'm not saying there's two, three, four,
five, six different comings of the Lord.
There's one coming, but in that one coming,
there's the rising of the sun and the
dawn of the day.
He comes to us as the dawning of
a new day.
And I know there are sudden aspects of
it, and I know that the Bible speaks
of that sudden translation of the saints, and
we believe in that.
But there's the shining forth of his presence
before that.
And so we are very near to the
coming of the Lord, and God's going to
do a quick work in the earth.
He's not going to come just because somebody
figures out in the Scriptures that he's got
to come on a certain day.
You'd think people would learn.
You've all heard of that book.
There's another one out.
Of course, it's not 1988 this time.
It's 1996.
Well, it might be right.
Surely someone will hit it right.
But the point is, you and I don't
pay any attention to those calculations.
All we've got to say is, Lord Jesus,
you're coming for a people.
You're coming for a people who are expecting
you.
You're coming to receive the precious fruit of
the earth.
You're coming to receive a glorious bride.
So we know then if we're part of
that company, we know we will not be
caught unawares.
He comes as a thief in the night.
I know not to those who are watching,
for ye, brethren, are not in darkness that
that day should overtake you as a thief.
So to those who are walking with him
and walking in the light, they don't have
to bother with all these books because they
know the times.
They know the times that the Lord spoke
of.
And Paul says, you're not in darkness that
that day should overtake you as a thief.
The thief in the night is the way
he will come to those who are not
anticipating him.
But to them that look for him, he
shall appear the second time without sin into
salvation.
And we look for that.
And we must continue to anticipate his appearing.
But don't look for the second coming.
Look for the Lord Jesus.
The second coming is sort of a doctrine
that's in the church, and people are looking
for the second coming.
They're looking for him.
Let's look for him.
In a way, they had come to this
new day because the older generation didn't hear
God's voice when God spoke.
For them, there was no tomorrow.
But for the younger generation in their midst,
there was a tomorrow.
And as we hear God's voice today and
obey him today and hear what he says
today and seek to walk with him today,
then there's a tomorrow for us.
And I like to anticipate God's tomorrows.
But the only way we're going to really
appreciate and partake of the blessings of God's
tomorrow is when we are obedient to hear
what he says today.
So the new generation had a tomorrow to
look forward to.
The older generation didn't.
So Joshua chapter 3.
Joshua rose early in the morning, and they
were removed from Shittim and came to Jordan.
He and all the children of Israel had
lodged there before they passed over.
And it came to pass after three days
that the officers went through the host, and
they commanded the people, saying, When you see
the ark of the covenant of the Lord
your God and the priest of the Levites
bearing it, then you shall remove from your
place and go after it, after the ark,
not after the priest.
It's like they do so often.
They go after the man of God, bring
him to ruin, and they themselves are brought
to ruin, because God wants his people to
go after him.
And furthermore, I want to say, God wants
a priestly ministry that will be so dedicated,
so committed to God, that they'll bring into
the midst of God's people such a fear
of God that the people will long to
go after God rather than after that vessel.
We don't know who is really to blame,
but somehow or other, it seems when God
brings forth a great and mighty ministry, the
people go after him rather than after the
God whom he's supposed to be presenting.
I think we have to blame both the
people for their lack of vision and discernment
and understanding of what God wants, but the
ministry for not emphasizing these truths that God
is a jealous God, and not only emphasizing
it, but recognizing that as those who stand
before the people with a word from God,
they are under obligation to so seek God
that they will have words from God's mouth
by the Holy Spirit, because only the Holy
Spirit can glorify the Lord Jesus.
And if a man is speaking out from
his own heart, we're told, Jesus said, he's
seeking his own glory.
He that speaketh of himself, out from himself,
is what it means.
He that speaketh out from himself is seeking
his own glory.
So therefore, what a tremendous responsibility is laid
upon God's servants, all of us, that if
by the Spirit we are prompted to give
forth a word, it must be out from
the Holy Spirit.
For he it is who takes the things
of Christ and makes them known unto us.
He shall glorify me, for he shall not
speak out from himself, but whatsoever he shall
hear, that shall he speak.
That's the ministry of the Holy Spirit, to
speak what he hears.
And we always recognize that, but somehow a
few years ago I came to suddenly realize
that he inhabits this temple.
And when he speaks, he speaks out of
your lips and mine.
And I realize we're not allowing the Holy
Spirit to fulfill the ministry that God gave
him to fulfill, that he would not speak
out from himself, and he dwells within, but
that which he shall hear, that shall he
speak.
So it's his responsibility, but it's your responsibility
and mine, to be that temple of the
Holy Spirit, to be in such union with
him, to seek him somehow with the best
we know, that God, when we speak, let
us speak words out of your heart.
Otherwise the Holy Spirit is not able to
fulfill the function that God ordained him to
fulfill when he came to abide in this
temple.
So what does he do?
He withdraws.
When he is grieved, he withdraws.
And the holy presence of God withdraws, and
we carry on without him, not knowing the
difference.
So many times, God, where God moved mightily
in a person's life, we're in an assembly.
You go back there five, ten years later
and you don't sense any presence of God,
but the people don't seem to know the
difference or they don't care, because he's been
driven out.
You say, we want the Holy Spirit.
I know God's people want the Holy Spirit
for that great benefit he brings, for his
gifts, for his blessings.
But how many really want the Holy Spirit
to come in and to be Lord in
our gatherings together in his name?
We must come to that.
In all of these things that we're saying,
we're not ministering any condemnation to those who
know that we lack in these areas, but
that God might inspire our hearts to recognize
that we lack.
Because if we recognize that we fall short,
then God is pleased because he will lead
us.
The sad thing is that when we don't
recognize it, we feel we're doing all right.
That's the Laodicean spirit.
Where we say we are rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing and
don't know, thou knowest not that thou art
wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked.
We don't know it.
God has everything we need.
God has tremendous things for the Laodicean church.
As much for this church as any other
of the churches.
But because they don't know it, won't accept
the fact that they're in this need.
They're not open for it.
How can God give it?
I counsel thee.
And I don't know, I just stopped here
because the Laodicean church is getting so crammed
full of counselors.
I mean, it's another ministry now.
You've got to hire a counselor, maybe two
counselors to deal with the problems.
And they get a lot of their counsel
from books of psychologists that don't even know
the Lord.
Or you say, no, I get it from
Christian books.
You check in some of those Christian books
and you'll find that that author got a
lot of it from psychologists that don't even
know the Lord.
And so filling the church with counselors, when
God says, I counsel you, buy of me
gold tried in the fire, that you might
be rich, like Raymond, that you might clothe
yourself.
I shall unite your eyes that you might
see.
Good counsel.
God help us to accept his counsel instead
of running to all the other counselors, which
in most cases can't help.
I'm not denying that there is a place
for counsel in the church.
But like my brother back there, Brother Mount,
the Lord said he would have a ministry
of counseling.
And so he thought, well, I'll get these
books and counseling.
The Prophet comes along just before he had
time to buy the books, and he says,
I shall counsel my people, but you won't
get it out of books.
Counseling with the counsel of God.
He's the counselor.
He's got it.
He's got good counsel.
All we have to do is yield his
Spirit, and he knows what you need.
There's some counselor, let's see now, what about
your father, what about your mother, what about
your grandfather?
Did they have these problems that you got?
Oh, that's your problem, you know.
Goodness, I know it's your problem.
But go right back to Adam, we know
what started there.
God crucified us at the cross, and God
wants us to partake of the benefits of
the cross, not only for our justification, but
for the deliverance from the old life.
And that's what this second crossing was all
about.
They were delivered by the redemptive Lamb, but
now there has to be a deliverance from
themselves.
And so he said, tomorrow the Lord will...
They had a tomorrow because they were the
younger generation that missed out on that other
day.
But because of God's oath, God said, I'm
going to bring the younger generation in.
I swear, he said, I'll bring them in.
And he did.
But God said something else when the old
generation failed that I think is very significant.
Moses, a true priest of the Lord, interceded
for the people.
And God said, I'll have to destroy them,
Moses.
And Moses, as a true priest, interceded.
He said, Lord, how can you do that?
Don't you know what will happen when the
Egyptians hear that you destroyed your people, that
you brought out of Egypt?
What kind of a name are you going
to get?
And they all say, Oh, Israel's God.
Yeah, he brought them out, but he couldn't
look after them in the wilderness, so he
destroyed them.
And God said to Moses, All right, I
will pardon according to thy word.
But because God was more than gracious to
that generation whom he was pardoning, more than
gracious, there's something in his heart that caused
him to say, I'm going to pardon them,
but as I live, saith the Lord, the
whole earth will be filled with my glory.
Is this to say, if you failed and
I'm going to forgive you, I'm a just
God?
If I'm going to forgive you and keep
this nation alive and do great things through
them, I swear, he said by myself, I'm
going to fill the whole earth with my
glory.
Here we are today and all over the
world, the nations, the Gentiles.
You say, I think I'm an Israelite, the
tribe of Abraham.
Well, I won't go into that except to
say, those that are in Christ are Abraham's
seed.
And those who knew that they were of
the lineage of Abraham, Jesus says, you're of
your father the devil.
So we won't go any further than that.
All over the world there are Gentile nations
that are receiving and partaking of the gospel
of Christ.
You can look back and see the reason
for it.
The people whom he'd chosen to be his
own special people failed God, and God says,
my purposes will not fail.
I'm going to fill the whole earth with
my glory, reminding us that human failure never
does abrogate God's promises.
Those to whom the word comes, and if
they fail, that doesn't change God's promise.
And Israel got into that trap that we're
God's people.
To us has been given the glory of
God and the covenants and the law, the
service of God and the promises.
It's been given to us.
We can't fail.
So God had to send a prophet down
to the Baptists to prepare their hearts, because
they were just sitting there like the churches
today.
We're God's people.
Don't get excited.
He's coming, I know, but we'll go with
him.
Instead of realizing that it's an awesome thing
to stand in the presence of the mighty
God who is coming, he's coming to his
church.
Somehow it's never thought to be an awesome
thing.
Just have the best of God's good gifts
down here, and then some day he'll come
and take us up there where it's even
better.
Instead of realizing that he comes to purge
and cleanse his temple, to purge out all
the evil, all the dross, he says to
the church of Pergamoth, I'm going to come
with the sword of my mouth.
You see, it's not really the coming of
the Lord.
When he comes into the church with a
sword, a sharp sword to deal with iniquity
in the church, you won't say then it's
not really Jesus.
He comes.
He comes to his church.
I know he comes in clouds and translates
it, but he comes to his church.
He comes in refiner's fire.
He comes to purge out the doctrines of
Balaam.
He comes to cleanse unto himself a holy
people.
How many coming?
One coming, but he comes in all these
different aspects.
So they came to a new day and
to a new crossing.
As it were, another baptism, just as they
were figuratively baptized in the Red Sea.
So now, as it were, another baptism through
the Jordan.
Not really another, but another aspect of the
real baptism.
Paul says there's one baptism.
You say, what is it?
Baptism in the Holy Spirit?
Baptism of water?
Baptism in death that Jesus spoke about?
Do I have a baptism to be baptized
with?
Three baptisms?
One baptism, because each one is just a
different aspect of that one baptism.
So people get all mixed up on this
matter of water baptism.
Some say if you're not baptized in water,
you're not really saved.
And others say, well, it doesn't really have
any real significance.
It's just a figure.
But it's one baptism.
And I simply illustrate it this way.
You go to get married.
You stand before the preacher, and he performs
the ceremony.
Will you?
Will you take this one?
I do.
And so you're married then, aren't you?
Well, yes, you're married.
But then he takes you into a room
and you sign.
You sign for it.
You put your signature down.
The preacher came to me with that paper.
I said, listen, it's fine print there.
I want to go home and read that.
He says, you sign right there.
And I did.
Well, it wasn't that I was married twice
that day.
And so then we lived together, let's see,
happily ever since?
Yeah.
And that's the real marriage.
But there wasn't three marriages.
And so baptism speaks of that union with
Jesus.
The real baptism is when you begin to
walk with Jesus.
That's the real baptism.
It should happen at the same time or
maybe a few minutes after, whatever.
And so this crossing over, though it was
not spoken of as a baptism, when they
got on the other side, there was to
be a circumcision of the whole nation because
the former generation had been circumcised, but now
they were dead and the younger generation hadn't.
God says there's got to be now a
new circumcision.
And that's really what baptism is, circumcised with
the circumcision of Christ, but a circumcision not
made with hands, but buried with him in
baptism unto death that we might rise to
walk with him in newness of life.
And so baptism, you see, is that cutting
off of the old life.
Cut off from Egypt, yes, but there's an
extension of it.
Not another baptism, but bringing about the reality
of that which we had in measure, that
which we testified to in faith and obedience.
But just as it was with the children
of Israel, God had taken them out of
Egypt.
But in this new circumcision, God would take
Egypt out of them because the shame of
Egypt, the reproach of Egypt, all that that
pertained to the Egyptian life in which they
had lived, clung to them.
Even though they came out of Egypt, somehow
it clung to them.
You know what I'm talking about.
We come to know Christ and we're hoping
from now on it's nothing but total obedience,
total walking with the Lord, total purity, total
righteousness.
And we always get disappointed.
What was wrong?
Oh, someone says, you didn't understand what happened
when you were baptized.
You were buried with Christ.
Oh, no, I didn't understand that.
So then, well, we'll baptize you again.
And so someone will go through a second
baptism and a third baptism.
You know, like the man and wife say,
you know, we didn't really understand when we
got married what this was all about.
Well, you say, we're going to get married
again.
Maybe that will help things along.
No, it isn't that.
You made the commitment, maybe in your ignorance,
but God holds you to it.
Maybe in our ignorance, but nevertheless knowing the
call of God, we say, yes, Lord, I'll
follow you all the way.
He holds us to it.
Not with an iron hand, but because of
his love and mercy and grace lifts us
up when we fall, causes us to know
that he does love us, he understands our
weakness, he understands our frailty, he woos us
along.
To bring us to that day and hour
when somehow by the operation of his Spirit
within us, that which we bore witness to,
which God bore witness to as we were
baptized in water, signifying our identification with him,
somehow becomes more and more and more real.
We discover that the only way we really
come to that overcoming life is by coming
to such commitment to him that we truly
bear about within us the dying of the
Lord Jesus, which we can't do in our
own fleshly efforts.
But he tells us that as we obey
him, we'll be able to do it.
Because in obedience to the Lord, he leads
us through our wilderness and through circumstances, through
situations, he leads us to take out of
our lives all that old life of Egypt.
He leads us to Marah.
He leads us to Sinai, where he reveals
himself as the God of great holiness, reveals
to us the sacrifices, shows us how that
in those sacrifices, when we bring that sacrifice
unto Christ, he sees his sufferings.
And as we begin to identify with it,
then that which took place in Jesus when
he was nailed to the cross takes place
in us.
We don't like it.
We blame God and murmur for what he's
doing.
But didn't you marry him?
Didn't you say you wanted to be joined
unto him?
Then Paul says, if you're joined unto him,
you're buried with him in baptism into death.
That like as Christ was raised up from
the dead by the glory of the Father,
so we also are to walk in newness
of life.
And so I don't feel that that relationship
that we've had with him has really come
to fullness yet.
I know that.
But I don't go and get baptized again
thinking that that will help.
I want to draw closer to him.
I want to ask him, Lord, continue to
remind me of what baptism means.
Continue to remind me that it meant the
cutting off of the old life.
And this took place in a corporate manner
up there in Gilgal after they'd gone over
and camped on the other side.
And you know the story how the priests
stayed there in the bottom of the dry
bed of the Jordan while the people of
God went over.
Paul says, I think God has appointed us
unto death.
That you Corinthians, you've come to reign as
kings, but we are appointed unto death.
And our appointment is unto death.
You said that when you said I'll take
you in baptism, but you say I didn't
really recognize the implications of it.
But God did.
And he drew you, and you accepted him,
and you said in your baptism that I'm
being cut off from the old life.
And as you walk with him, you'll ask
the Lord to make that commitment that you
made to be actual in your life.
And God will be faithful to hear, but
he'll lead you in ways that you don't
like in order that this work of the
cross might become actual within us.
Knowing that if we're faithful in that, then
out of that working of the cross in
our lives will come forth his life.
So it's not that he leaves us there
in the bottom of the Jordan.
He leaves the old life there.
So 12 stones were erected in the bottom
of the Jordan representing the whole nation.
They were left there, and then they took
12 other stones and carried them on the
other side.
And there they erected them in Gilgal, which
means rolling away.
Because it was at Gilgal that God says,
I'm going to roll away the reproach of
Egypt.
And I believe in my heart that there's
going to be a corporate people.
Who is a corporate people?
God will bring them into a rolling away
of the old life.
Because I don't feel it's all gone, myself,
experientially.
I know we thank him for all that
has gone, but we still feel, do we
not, certain areas of the old life.
We get under condemnation over it, which God
doesn't want us to do.
For 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 me free from
the law of sin and death.
Paul says it has made us free.
And so I don't try to kid myself
like I used to.
Well, Paul says I'm free, so I'm free.
And Paul says I'm free, so I'm free
when I know I'm not free.
But it is true, from God's standpoint, we
are free.
But I've come to recognize when I read
scriptures and I say I don't measure up
to that, I've come to embrace that as
a promise rather than to try and figure
it out and say, yeah, I'm free.
It's not just the freedom that some speak
of, totally free from the law of sin
and death.
It can't be that.
So we water it down to fit in
with our experience.
Like in the old holiness movement where God
used to move Michael in cleansing waves of
his fire and spirit.
It's very real.
But in the process of time, that experience
became less and less obvious in their lives
and the lives of others.
So they began to major a lot on
sins and mistakes.
You sin, well, no, that was just a
mistake because my sins, I was sanctified 20
years ago, so I don't have sin anymore.
I'd sooner say, Lord, I know I've recognized
sin there, and you said I'm free from
it.
All I can say, Lord, I'm falling short
of what you provided.
I'm falling short of your promise.
Lead us, Lord, in a way that I
might experience the full measure of what you
promised.
Instead of kidding ourselves that we got it,
so we've got to explain somehow why we
haven't got it and still insist we got
it.
I guess I got you confused there a
little.
God means what he said.
The old life was crucified at the cross.
And as God leads us to the place
where he enables us to bear that cross
as he intended.
For there is a cross for us every
day.
We know that.
Jesus bore a cross every day.
But because he was faithful every day, the
time came when the fulfillment of all the
crosses he carried in his life was fulfilled
ultimately in the cross in which he died
and where we died with him.
So that there was an ultimate fulfillment of
it in that cross where Paul says, My
sins were crucified so that there is no
longer any condemnation.
And the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has set me free from
the old law.
The law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has set me free from the
old law of sin and death.
And when the Son sets you free, you're
free indeed.
When people insist, No, we've got to have
the working of the law of sin and
death in us as long as we live,
just because it's a theological concept and because
they insist that nobody can come to that
kind of cleanliness and perfection, they're saying to
you and I that God intends that the
law of sin and death will always have
more power in this life than the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Which is the most powerful?
Which do you think is the most powerful?
The law of sin and death that we
got from Adam or the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus?
Which do you think is the most powerful?
So when we look at it that way,
if we're saying that the law of sin
and death is more powerful, we're saying that
the power to sin, the propensity to sin,
the ability to sin, the drive towards sin
which we got from Adam is greater than
the propensity to righteousness, the new life that
leads to righteousness, the power of the Spirit
that comes from God's Holy Spirit and from
Jesus.
We're saying that that old law is stronger
than this new and higher law.
So to take it a little further, we're
saying that Adam's sin, which was partaking of
the forbidden fruit, that there's more power in
our lives because of Adam's sin than there
is power in our lives because of Jesus'
work on the cross.
For if by the disobedience of one we
were made sinners, so by the obedience of
the one we are made righteous.
It's simply Adam's disobedience that made him a
sinner.
Because of that, you and I have inherited
all that sin the last 6,000 years
or whatever because of Adam's disobedience.
Yeah, but how did I get it?
I was just born in Adam.
That's all.
Though you look at that little babe and
see an innocent little child, nevertheless, the seeds
of sin are there because he got it
from Adam.
And are you going to say that that
transmission of the sin of Adam to us
has greater power and authority and must always
have greater power and authority in our lives
than the seed of life that it came
through Jesus because of his obedience?
Has Adam's disobedience brought this devastation of sin
in the world?
So by the obedience of one, shall the
many be made righteous.
Read Romans 5 carefully, prayerfully, and it staggers
you that as it was in Adam, so
in Christ, only entirely the opposite.
As in Adam we die, in Christ we
live.
As we inherit his sins, so we inherit
Christ's righteousness.
As we are born in Adam, so that
sin is transmitted.
As we are born in Christ, so that
life of Christ is transmitted.
And so Gilgal speaks of the cutting off
of the old life delivered out from Egypt
by the crossing of the Red Sea but
in the crossing of the Jordan, the cutting
off of the old life of Egypt, the
reproach of Egypt.
That reproach that they carried all through the
wilderness is always there.
That shame of Egypt, they carried it.
Whenever there was any trouble, they blamed God
and said, let's go back to Egypt.
Still that desire to try and find some
satisfaction in the old life.
They didn't like this manna.
It was better back in Egypt because God
gave them this precious food and because it
didn't look good.
It wasn't substantial enough.
It wasn't like the leeks and the onions
and the garlic and the fish.
It wasn't something substantial.
It was, we're told, a light food.
They didn't want it.
And yet there was everything in that light
food that they needed to keep them healthy
and strong.
Several million of them kept healthy and strong
just by eating of that heavenly manna.
Excellences would come in times of disobedience and
God would heal them.
But he looked after them with that heavenly
food.
Something that we haven't experienced in the church.
But it's a covenant for God's people.
It's in the covenant.
Healing, health for his people.
We have to walk in obedience unto Him.
But God wants a ministry that will so
minister Christ that they'll come under His Lordship.
Let us beware anyone who has a word
of counsel or is a pastor or teacher
of the flock or prophet.
Let us always remember that we are there
to minister Christ.
That we're never to be a mediator.
There's one mediator.
And over and over again in this generation,
people have taken the place of a mediator.
Whether knowingly or otherwise.
People wouldn't do anything that God told them
to do unless it went first through this
prophet or this apostle or this pastor.
It went through them.
He okayed it.
Fine.
What have you got?
Two mediators.
And so the purpose of ministry as to
so reveal Christ, so impart Christ, so minister
Christ, that they come into a one-to
-one basis.
One-to-one relationship with the one mediator.
And so that doesn't absolve the ministry of
responsibility.
It increases their responsibility.
You've got to know the voice of God.
You've got to come to know what Jesus
says.
I might have a word from the Lord
that would turn him and all that.
But let it be a word from the
Lord.
Then it will be good counsel.
Then it will be Urim and Thummim.
And God is restoring Urim and Thummim into
the midst of his people.
I know he's going to do it.
In the midst of all the confusing voices
in the church and God's people don't know
where is that clear word.
God is going to bring forth that clear
word in Urim and Thummim, which simply means
the Hebrew words that were never translated simply
mean the lights and the perfection.
Something that Israel had.
Something that was in the breastplate of the
priesthood.
You say, what was it?
I don't know.
Nor does anybody else.
God didn't tell us what it was.
But something there, Urim and Thummim, that was
so effective, that standing before God when the
priest had a problem or he had to
bring forth a word to the people who
were waiting for him to come out of
the holiest of all, there was some need
that they had.
And yeah, I know they had the Scriptures.
They had some of them.
They had the law of the Lord written
down.
But this was not intended to take the
place of the word, nor is Urim and
Thummim.
But you know very well that in every
day of our life there may be things
that come up for which we can't get
the answer by summing through the Bible.
We might get some guidance there, but you
need some specific answers that the Bible was
not intended to give us.
Nevertheless, it does tell us if you'll bind
His Word about your heart and tie them
about your neck, that that will be an
imparted wisdom to you so that when you
go, it will lead you.
When you sleep, it will keep you.
And when you're awake, it will talk with
you.
So that's, I think, a picture, this Urim
and Thummim.
It was in the breastplate that was tied
upon the shoulders.
Tie them about thy neck.
And God is going to impart that hidden
wisdom in the hearts of His people who
go on with Him.
So that it's not saying that you will
always have the answer, but God will have
the answer that He wants you to have.
It's not to say that it will always
be easy, but somewhere in the body of
Christ, somewhere in that fellowship, there will be
the answer that that fellowship needs.
It might not be in everyone, but it
will be there somewhere in this corporate body
that there's a time when we have to
know the direction.
We have to know God's will in this
matter.
And with that Urim and Thummim abiding in
His people, whether it's in a prophet or
someone that is not recognized even as a
prophet, but someone says, I'm assured God is
saying this and there will be a confirmation
of it.
And that Urim and Thummim will be just
as clear and just as certain as was
the Urim and Thummim that was in the
breastplate of the high priest.
And that didn't last long in Israel.
It wasn't there too long.
Time comes, you don't hear of it anymore.
And I'm told that's why the builders of
the second temple were so disappointed because they
did the best they could and got the
temple erected and had the priesthood functioning and
all that.
But where's Urim and Thummim?
Not recognizing.
It was there in Zechariah.
It was there in Haggai.
It was there.
But God was beginning to put it in
the hearts of men.
And they had as clear a word from
the Lord as Aaron ever got from Urim
and Thummim.
God was beginning to put it into the
hearts of men.
Even in the days of the prophets, God
was beginning to bring about the new covenant
where no longer would they have to minister
in the old ways with an old temple
and an old sanctuary.
God was speaking about a new day and
a new sanctuary.
And though He authorized the rebuilding of that
one in Zechariah's time, and God encouraged them
in the building of it, He held in
His heart, He reserved in His heart and
only showed them in measure what He wanted
them to know and left them discouraged because
God said the glory of this latter house
is going to be greater than the former
and they couldn't see it.
It didn't look like it.
They did their best.
Urim and Thummim wasn't there.
The glory of God wasn't in the Shekinah.
And yet God said it's going to be
greater, but they didn't know and the prophets
didn't know.
And they searched, it says.
The prophets, they used to search and inquire
after God.
God, what am I talking about?
It doesn't seem to be here.
It doesn't seem to be now.
What am I talking about?
And to them it was revealed that not
unto themselves, but unto us they did minister
these things which are now reported unto you.
By the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven,
which things even the angels desire to look
into.
So God was beginning even back there to
reveal things.
Nevertheless, a lot of it was hidden concerning
that great day when Jesus would come, offer
up the perfect sacrifice, ascend to the throne
of glory, send forth His Spirit to abide
in His people to prepare in the earth
a temple not made with hands in which
would be the full abiding glory.
The same glory that led the children of
Israel out of Egypt.
That same glory would be in that temple.
The same Urim and Thummim would be there.
The glory of God would be there.
Far outshining anything that Israel ever had.
And so it was a new day for
Israel to cross over the Jordan and become
God's people.
Cut off from Egypt.
Cut off from the reproach of Egypt.
Get now ready for war.
Don't be too quick to think that we're
soldiers in God's army.
We want to be.
But let not him that girdeth on his
armor boast as he that putteth it off.
Because there's going to be some very strenuous
warfare in order to come into this life.
But we've got to know, we've got to
be assured that we cannot wrestle against flesh
and blood, with fleshly weapons.
We're wrestling against principalities, powers and spiritual hosts
of wickedness in heavenly places.
And God has provided everything we need for
that.
Everything we need for that.
And our weapons are not like the carnal
weapons.
Spiritual weapons.
Helmet of salvation.
I'm assured God's got a helmet, a priestly
helmet for His people.
But that mind that gives you so much
problem, it's going to be overwhelmed with the
mind of Christ.
We're going to have the mind of Christ.
Paul never said, I've got the mind of
Christ.
He said, we have the mind of Christ.
So we look forward to that building of
this body.
And I know we get tired of waiting,
and so we say, well, the Bible says
here what he wants, so let's do it.
And I know that.
But Paul says we're builders together with God.
He's the architect.
He's the builder.
Jesus says, I will build my church like
one minister said.
People read that Scripture where Jesus said, I
will build my church so we roll up
our sleeves and go to work.
Jesus is going to build His church.
And you and I are not going to
have too much to do with it except
that somehow He enables us to get under
His yoke and move along with Him and
His yoke.
So we feel we're maybe carrying a big
load sometimes.
Maybe it's because we're trying to carry His
part of the load.
For Jesus said, My yoke is easy and
my burden is light.
And so this new people redeemed from Egypt
and purified through the wilderness experiences and baptized
with this mighty baptism of circumcision, which meant
to them a crippling, a total crippling of
the armies.
But because they were walking in obedience to
God, the fear of God came upon the
inhabitants of Jericho and they locked the gates
because of this feeble, crippled army in their
midst.
God put the fear of God upon them.
And that becomes our victory.
Remember that.
We can't go against the enemy and try
and terrify them with any kind of antics
that we go through.
Antics or whatever the word is.
You can't terrify them with any kind of
loud music or rock and roll or drama
or presenting puppet shows and that stuff.
You're not going to scare the devil one
bit.
But when they see a people coming along
with a helmet of salvation, they won't see
it, but the hosts of evil will see
it.
With the breastplate of righteousness.
With the shield of faith.
The people girded with truth.
With shoes on their feet.
Shoes not of the Gospel, but shoes of
the preparation of the Gospel because these people
have been prepared of God.
When they see that kind of a people,
it doesn't look too impressive perhaps, but they're
impregnable.
They're impregnable.
But He's given them also a weapon whereby
they can be not only impregnable as a
fortress, but offensive as the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God.
That's the only offensive weapon you need.
But it's got to be that Word that
comes out of your mouth.
This Word here, but built within us so
that when we speak, the Word that's here
comes forth by the Holy Spirit out of
the mouth to slay and to kill any
destructive thing that comes against us.
By the sword of the Spirit, which is
the Word of God.
And so, yes, it's nice to come here
to learn the Word, to read it, to
understand it.
But until it becomes not only in our
minds and in our understanding, until it becomes
established and built within us, you cannot send
it forth out of your mouth.
So God is preparing that kind of a
people.
Isaiah said, God has made my mouth as
a sharp sword.
In His hand He hid me.
Hidden in God's hand.
When the day God decides to use that
sword, you can't do it.
Because you're in His hand.
You're helpless.
God takes it and sends it forth.
And it does what God wanted it to
do.
So let God continue to build His Word
within you.
And to keep you in His hand.
Keep you.
How long?
Just as He sees fit.
For only the sword that the Lord sends
forth out of your mouth is going to
do the work that God wants to do.
May God bless this Word to each one
of you.