3 Phases in God's Dealing with Us

[00:00:00] You're listening to a podcast by Lance Lambert Ministries. For more information on this ministry, visit lancelambert.org or follow us on social media to receive all of our updates. [00:00:11] In today's episode, Lance shares from Exodus 15 about the believer's position before God through the finished work of the Lamb. You can find the transcript for this message on our website, linked in the show Notes let's listen to three phases of God's dealing with us. [00:00:28] We're going to read the 15th chapter of Exodus. [00:00:37] Exodus chapter 15 from verse 1 then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord and speak, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. [00:01:05] The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation. [00:01:12] This is my God, and I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will exalt him. [00:01:22] The Lord is a man of war the Lord is his name. [00:01:28] Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea and his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea the deeps cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone. [00:01:45] Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power. [00:01:50] Thy right hand, O Lord, dasheth in pieces the enemy, and in the greatness of thine excellency thou overthrowest them that rise up against thee. [00:02:04] Thou sendest forth thy wrath it consumeth them as stubble, and with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were piled up. The flood stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. [00:02:22] The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil. My desire shall be satisfied upon them I will draw my sword my hand shall destroy them. [00:02:37] Thou didst blow with thy wind the sea covered them they sank as lead in the mighty waters. [00:02:46] Who is like unto thee, O Lord among the gods? [00:02:51] Who is like thee, Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, Thou stretchest out thy right hand. [00:03:03] The earth swallowed them. [00:03:06] Thou in thy loving kindness hast led the people that thou hast redeemed. [00:03:12] Thou hast guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation. [00:03:18] The peoples have heard, they tremble. [00:03:22] Pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia. [00:03:27] Then were the chiefs of Edom dismayed, the mighty men of Moab trembling taketh hold upon them all the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away. [00:03:39] Terror and dread falleth upon them. [00:03:45] By the greatness of thine arm they are as still as a stone. [00:03:51] Till thy people pass over, O Lord, till Thy people pass over that thou hast purchased. [00:04:01] Thou wilt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance. [00:04:08] The place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. [00:04:17] The Lord shall reign forever and ever. [00:04:24] For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and. And the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea. And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand. And all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. [00:04:49] And Miriam answered them, sing ye to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. [00:05:04] I read that wonderful psalm, really, of Moses and miriam in Exodus 15 because it sums up for us three vital and very real stages in God's dealings with his people. [00:05:27] Now, every single one of us, if we are a child of God, falls somewhere into one of these three stages. [00:05:36] We are either in the first. If we are a child of God, we are all in the first. [00:05:42] A number of us, many of us, may be in the second. [00:05:47] Some of us may, by the grace of God, have gone into the third. [00:05:52] I'm not going to try to work that out. I leave it to the Holy Spirit to apply it to every heart. But there are three absolutely clear stages in God's dealings with his people. [00:06:13] And these three stages are exemplified in the way he led his children from Egypt to the Promised Land. [00:06:24] Now, there's a great variety of interpretation about different symbols and different historical incidents that took place on that journey out of Egypt and finally into the Promised Land. [00:06:40] I can't possibly, this evening, in the little time that we have, go fully into it. So if you've got a piece of paper and a pencil and you think that this is not bringing coals to Newcastle, then you might like just to pop down these three stages and go away and pray about it. Because all I'm going to do this evening is to give you a. A bird's eye view, an aerial view of a kind of lunar view of the earth, a kind of view from above of this whole sort of panorama. [00:07:30] That's all we can say in the Old Testament. [00:07:36] The deliverance of the people of God from Egypt, from Pharaoh, their journeying through the wilderness and their entry into the Promised Land are a picture of God's purpose for every single child of God. [00:07:54] Now, God's purpose is not that you should just get out of Egypt, nor that you should get out of Egypt and feed on manna and water from the rock miraculously in the wilderness. God's real purpose for you is to get you right through the wilderness, out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the promised land. [00:08:16] For whilst God revealed the tabernacle, which was a pattern of his eternal purpose, of his habitation to the people of God in the wilderness, and whilst the tabernacle was set up there, it was very clearly revealed to Moses that it was only a temporary structure and that when they came into the land, God would show them the place where his house was to be built, and where and only wherein they could offer their sacrifices acceptably to God. [00:08:53] So here we have a most wonderful picture, and we see it in this psalm of Moses and miriam in Exodus 15. [00:09:03] You will see there are three things quite clearly. If you'd like to take your pencil, you have to do your own homework on this and go through it quite methodically. You will find that all the way through, these three strands are woven. Getting out Egypt. Oh, there's a lot in this, in this psalm about getting out of Egypt. How God delivered them, how he got them out, how he destroyed their enemies. When they pursued, when they said, we will destroy the people of God, we will capture them again, they got out, they were free. They got the victory. They were absolutely. The connection between them and Egypt was severed. [00:09:41] And then there's a lot about what they were going to find, that the Lord was with them, that he was providing for them, that he was leading them. And then, of course, there's this marvelous theme, really, of the whole thing, that the Lord is going to bring them into his sanctuary into, as it says in verse 17, bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance. The mountain of his inheritance, of course, is Zion. [00:10:08] Zion and the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. So we have an absolute panorama of the purpose of God to get us out of the world and into the fullness of Christ. [00:10:27] Out of the world and into what it means to be built together as the eternal home of God in the Spirit. [00:10:40] Now, in the picture we have in the Old Testament, as I've said, we have three clear stages. [00:10:46] The first I've entitled A people saved. [00:10:51] A people saved basically out of Egypt. Out of Egypt. Now, when God saved his people, he didn't give them a Passover lamb so that they might have nice little times in Egypt. That they might have little places of worship in Egypt, that they might somehow or other settle down in Egypt and have their sort of gardens and homes in Egypt. [00:11:21] He gave them that land with one object to get them out of Egypt and to smash the power of Pharaoh over them. [00:11:34] Now make no mistake about that. You'll find it everywhere in it, of course. I just hoping, I'm sorry if for those who don't know your Bibles too well, I'm hoping that most of you know your Bibles reasonably well. You know, there were 10 plagues and the 10 plagues showed just how strong Pharaoh was. [00:11:52] Now I would have thought after those plagues, one after the first nine, that it would have just, it would have killed anyone. Most normal people would have said, let's get this people out. [00:12:05] It's quite clear that these plagues, these, this judgment is connected with them because. But not Pharaoh. Now it says in the New Testament that God hardened his heart. [00:12:15] And this is a most wonderful comfort to every child of God. [00:12:19] For even if the power that holds us is strengthened a million times, no a billion times, the lamb slain smashes that grip so that anyone God saves, the connection between them and Satan is completely and utterly severed. [00:12:48] It's severed. Now we don't always realize that unfortunately this has to come by revelation. [00:12:55] We carry the things with us. But this is what we find here. A people saved. Now here is a New Testament scripture for you. [00:13:04] Colossians 1:13. [00:13:08] Colossians 1:13. [00:13:12] Who delivered us out of the power or authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. [00:13:25] Some of you will have. Who delivered us from the power of darkness, but literally out of the authority of God. It's the whole thought of being taken right from under Pharaoh's nose, torn out from under his nose. [00:13:43] When he said I will not let them go. [00:13:47] God just stretched as it were over and took them from under his nose and took them like out. [00:13:55] And when Pharaoh relented, having finally said all right, get out and went after them, God liquidated his crack core. [00:14:05] The sort of really elite troops of Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. A people saved. [00:14:16] Now, what does it mean to be out of Egypt? [00:14:20] It means that positionally you have been taken out of this world, out of a world which lieth in the evil one, and you have been placed in Christ. [00:14:39] That is what God has done. We call it redemption. [00:14:45] Redemption. Now the word redemption simply means freeing somebody, loosing somebody, that's all. The idea is one of being loosed. [00:14:55] So the whole thought is of prisoners, slaves, people who are under the authority of someone else, an alien form. [00:15:06] And these ones have been freed by some act of another redemption. [00:15:15] Now, if you look on, you will find it's exactly what it says, verse 14, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. So these two verses marvellously sum up this first, delivered out of the authority of darkness and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. [00:15:51] Now, this redemption is a complete answer to Satan and all the power of darkness. [00:15:59] Now, you may not know that it may not have sunk in yet by revelation, but all your dark moods and all your bondage and all the things that hold you down are not going to be solved by some future thing that God is going to do. [00:16:17] God has already provided for you in the Lambslay. [00:16:22] It's not something that he's going to now do as he's thinking in heaven. Now there's so and so, so bound. I must do something further for that one. Oh, no. [00:16:32] By the Lamb slain, whether you know it or not, by the blood of the Lamb slain, you have full redemption, full redemption. [00:16:44] Now, once you begin to see that, you realize that this thing that's sitting on you, this thing that's molding you, this thing that's binding you, has absolutely no power. [00:16:55] Legally. [00:16:56] Legally. Some Christians have got a kind of sneaking suspicion that God has sort of stolen them. [00:17:05] Well, they have at the back of their mind all the time they think, you know, really, I belong to Satan. Really, I belong to this world. God is sort of, sort of. There's a kind of tug of war. God's got one arm pulling this way and the world's got the other arm pulling that way. But really, I belong to the world God. There's a kind of tug of war going on. [00:17:25] Of course it's nonsense. [00:17:27] And the devil wants you to believe that because he knows that whilst you believe that practically what is yours, positionally, do you understand, cannot become true while you still think, oh dear, oh dear, I'll never be free of this thing. [00:17:46] You never will be. [00:17:49] It's according to your faith. [00:17:51] But faith rests on revelation. [00:17:56] So when you see it, faith is immediately born in your heart and takes hold of that fact. Now, it's so simple because we're all subject to bondage of one kind. I suppose the greatest problem amongst believers, and I'm saying this to some of the oldest folks here as well, all of us, we are all subject to bondage. It's an amazing thing. And the devil always wins us back, if you know what I mean. [00:18:24] By simply breathing into our minds and hearts that somehow or other we're not truly severed from Satan and from this world. [00:18:38] Now that is a lie. [00:18:41] It's an absolute lie. [00:18:45] And whilst you believe it, even partly, you remain bound. [00:18:53] But the moment you see that through the lamb slain and through the blood of the lamb, the connection between you and Pharaoh has been smashed into smithereens, not just practically. May I just say something here, legally. [00:19:11] Legally, so that your whole salvation and deliverance rests on an absolutely legal foundation. [00:19:21] It's not that God has stolen you. [00:19:24] God has reclaimed you, that's all. [00:19:28] He has taken you out from the one who has stolen this world and stolen mankind. [00:19:34] And he's done it by a redemption which is absolutely legal. So that God can say, I am his father and he is my son. [00:19:43] So that God could say to Pharaoh, let my son go, that he may serve me. [00:19:50] Don't you see? [00:19:52] You don't become a son by getting out into the wilderness. [00:19:56] You become a son through birth. [00:20:00] You're born of God. [00:20:02] So now, really, in this matter of this first stage, it's absolutely vital. Some people think that this first stage is all kindergarten stuff, you see, you know, when you're very young in the Lord. [00:20:13] And so we sail on believing that we know all about justification and all about redemption. Of course we know what redemption means. Of course we know what justification means. That's a good word for the young ones amongst us. [00:20:25] But that's nonsense. [00:20:28] Many of our problems, even those of us who are very old in the Lord, go back to a weakness in our understanding of justification. And I have seen more people come into deliverance and freedom through understanding what justification means than anything else. [00:20:44] How many times I've told people to read Luther's preface to Galatians? Rather weighty, but it's still one of the best things out for really smashing into smithereens the kind of wishy washy idea of justification that exists. That we've just made a decision for God and God's been pleased to accept us. [00:21:08] That's not the foundation of your salvation. The foundation of your salvation rests upon something which God has done. [00:21:16] God did is a lamb. And the basis of your getting out of Egypt and being delivered from the authority and power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son is not something that you were good, that you chose the best thing, that you signed a decision card, but the fact Jesus Christ died in your place. [00:21:42] Now that's the basis. Now you may have signed a decision. God. Nothing wrong in that. When you're quite clear that the basis of your salvation is Jesus Christ, the Lamb. [00:21:54] Now take a look at this Lamb. [00:21:57] We have some marvelous things in the story. At this first stage, there's the death of the Lamb. Now, the Lamb was not only without spot, it was perfect. [00:22:09] So you've got two things about the Lamb. One is negative, one is positive. One is that it is without sin. The other is that he's absolutely perfect. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ not only is sinless, he is absolutely holy. [00:22:25] Now this is the garment of your salvation. [00:22:30] What a joy it is just simply to see that. [00:22:33] That the Lord Jesus Christ has not only atoned for all that you have not done, or should we put it this way, has atoned for all that you've done wrong, all your sin of commission. [00:22:48] But isn't it wonderful to see that the Lord Jesus Christ has actually done all that you should have done in the sight of God. Now that releases us. [00:22:57] For many years I always looked upon justification as the fact that Jesus Christ died because I fell short. [00:23:04] And I fell short because I did this and I did that, and I thought this and I thought that. [00:23:09] But it was more than that. The Lord Jesus, when he died, was not only sinless and took my sin upon him in that way, but he actually, before God, did all that God ever required of me. [00:23:24] So when I put this garment of salvation upon myself, it's not only that I am covered for all my sin, but God looks upon me as someone who has perfectly done all that he's ever required of a man. [00:23:42] Now, that should make you swing in the air almost, or sort of just go mad with joy. If we only saw it. It's so tremendous. You see, God doesn't look upon us all and sort of say, oh, what a rotten lot. [00:23:57] I've saved them, of course, but they're a rotten lot. Look at that blemishes there, spots there. That's how we all look at each other. We sit there saying, I can't praise amongst this lot. [00:24:08] Some do. [00:24:09] I can't. I mean, look at so and so. Look at so and so. Look at so and so. And what does that. What does Balaam say? [00:24:17] Balaam said, I see no. The Lord says, I see no spot in Jacob. Now, we know very well from this book that there were a lot of spots in Jacob. They were murmuring, gainsaying, criticizing. [00:24:31] And God says, I see no spot in Jacob. [00:24:37] How do you explain such a thing? [00:24:40] Now someone will say, who's very Clever, knows their Bible well. But they all were overthrown in the wilderness. They died, yes, because of unbelief. [00:24:49] If those dear people with all their faults and failings had only believed, God would never have seen a spot in them. [00:24:59] They would never have seen a spot in them. They would have gone over into the land. [00:25:05] But they drew back onto another basis. [00:25:12] Well, I don't know whether that presents you with some problems, but the death of the lamb is the most wonderful thing. When God justifies a person, he doesn't justify them. [00:25:21] Half, half justify them or two thirds justify them. He completely justifies. And God always lives in the present. As far as he's concerned, your whole book is. Your whole life is an open book. He sees your birth, your conversion, your present experience, now, what you're going to do next year, and your death, your translation into glory. She's all just now. [00:25:47] And he looks and he says, I see absolutely no spot at all therein, my son, the garment of salvation. [00:25:57] Not only do I see that my son has atoned for all that they have not done, but I see every single thing I've ever required of a man in that dear one. [00:26:07] Now, can you believe that there could be such love for you or for me? But that is justification. You see, justification means it's just as if you've never sinned. But we tend to think of it negatively, just as if you've never sinned. We think of never sinning as a negative thing. But God means it positively. [00:26:25] Let me put it. It's just as if you are absolutely holy. [00:26:32] Absolutely holy. [00:26:35] Now, I don't think the work of sanctification can ever go on in any one of our lives until we've got our feet on the foundation of justification. In other words, God cannot start knocking us about, chipping off the corners, really, sort of showing us ourselves what we're like till he's got our feet on the foundation. Because otherwise we start to look in and say, oh dear, oh dear, how terrible. Oh, God has withdrawn from. He must have done. [00:27:03] But that's not true. God sees Christ when he looks at you. [00:27:11] Now, if once you see that, you begin to understand the love of God. [00:27:17] And then it's not just that we've got someone who's a taskmaster who whipping us all the time urging us on for something that he wants, but someone who so loves us that he's given us a salvation which is complete, covers the moment we were born, stretching right back years before our conversion, right to the last breath we breathe on this earth. [00:27:43] Such a salvation. [00:27:48] Death of a lamb. Blood of the lamb. Now, now, let me drive this home a little more. They took that blood of that dead lamb and they put it on the outside, not on the inside. They didn't put it up and then sit down, pass over and kept on saying, look, see the blood? [00:28:03] They never saw the blood. The blood was on the outside. They went outside as we. If we were doing it here, we'd go downstairs, outside the portal, and we'd do it on the lintel and the gate posts. Then we'd go in. We couldn't see the blood. The angel of death sees the blood as he goes over Egypt. [00:28:21] Now, the most wonderful thing is this. Are you going to tell me that every single person sitting under the roofs of those houses that had the blood on the. On the door were marvelously upright, good, decent people? No, sir. [00:28:36] I'm quite sure there were a lot of blackguards amongst them, but they got saved because they trusted in the righteousness of another. [00:28:47] And are you going to tell me that in every Egyptian home where the firstborn died, they were all blackguards? [00:28:53] No, sir. Many of them were decent, nice people. But they died the firstborn, because the blood was not there. Now, here we come home to the whole truth of justification. It's not what you are, it's what Christ. Christ is. [00:29:10] So when the blood goes on the door, the angel of death must pass over. [00:29:14] Even if the angel of death were to say, I know there's a blackguard in there, he can't do anything. [00:29:20] If the angel of death were to say, you know, think of so and so. It's disgraceful. He must, the Lord say, pass over. [00:29:28] The blood is there. [00:29:31] And if the angel of death said, I'm not going to touch that house, why, they're very nice people. They're so kind. No, the Lord says, you touch that house, there's no blood there. [00:29:40] That is justification. Now, of course, when you start putting it like this, people immediately get reservations. Oh, they say, this is going too far. [00:29:48] This is going too far. And you really shouldn't say quite like that, but it's true. [00:29:55] It's true. [00:29:57] But let me prove it to you. These same people who sat behind the blood that night and saw the deliverance of God were the very same people who said, let us stone Moses to death. [00:30:12] The very same people who murmured and murmured and murmured and murmured. As soon as God gave them manna, they said, they're tired of manna. When there was no water. We've got no water. When the Water was provided. They didn't like it there, they wanted something else. [00:30:25] They're very same people. [00:30:30] So much for their decent character. [00:30:34] They were a motley cruel, but by the grace of God they did one thing which meant their eternal salvation. They got themselves under the blood of the Lamb. [00:30:45] Now whoever you are, whatever you are, if you have put the blood of Jesus Christ on the outside of your life, the angel of death has to pass over you. The connection between you and Pharaoh is, has been irrevocably severed. [00:31:02] It's not half severed. It is completely and irrevocably severed. [00:31:09] God doesn't deliver you out of the power of darkness and translate you into the kingdom of His Son and then sort of say, oh, I made a mistake, back and then back again when you change your mind and back again. [00:31:23] God has put you into the kingdom of His Son under the kingship officer, under the rule of his. And that's your position. Oh, if you could only see it. What a glorious thing it would be for all of us if we were to see clearly it was the blood of another that counted. [00:31:39] And when that blood was on the door, the angel of death had to pass over. [00:31:46] Now all this hang dog expression, all this kind of self condemning, condemning business, all this running around in circles that we all go in for, it would all be finished if we saw this, then we would have the next problem, which is that some people would say, I've got the blood of Christ outside so I can live anywhere I want to. Aha. [00:32:08] That brings us to the second stage. But just before we come to that second stage, let me just say there are three other things. There's the lamb. Not only the death of the lamb, the blood of the lamb, but there is the lamb eaten. You must eat the lamb. It's no good just putting the blood of the lamb outside. You've got to get the lamb inside, so you have the blood of the lamb outside and the lamb inside. [00:32:28] What you do when you eat, you receive him to as many as received him to them gave me the authority to become children of God. So you must have the blood outside. [00:32:37] That shows that the connection between you and this world is severed, between you and Satan is severed. And now you must have Christ inside. You receive him. But then the next thing is an exodus. [00:32:48] Out, out. [00:32:52] You're on the other side. [00:32:56] Praise God for that. [00:32:58] Well, so you should be. You're on a resurrection side of the bank, the exodus. [00:33:04] No longer of the world, you're in the world, but no longer of the world. Something tremendous has happened. God looks upon you and says, that one's not of the world, world. That one's not of the world, that one's not of the world. [00:33:15] Their citizenship is in heaven. Am I? Says the Lord. [00:33:21] Oh, I think that's so wonder. Your Pharaoh's slaves no more. [00:33:25] Oh, so when that Satan comes, you don't have to sort of knuckle under, say, it's no good, it's no good. I'm so weak. He has no claim on you, no right to you at all. [00:33:38] He must steal you. And if you're so foolish as to let him do it, what can we do? [00:33:48] There's so much more. And of course there's the enemy overthrown. Well, of course, he went through the sea, and then Pharaoh went out full blast. Now, this often happens with us, not just once, but again and again. Every time we see our justification more fully, we turn around and there we see them charging at us. [00:34:07] Haven't you had that experience? [00:34:09] Suddenly you say, oh, I'm free. Thank God, I'm free. God has blessed you in some time, or touched you through the reading of the word, or met you in some way and always went. And then all of a sudden you look and you here they're coming, full pelt standards, flying bugles blaring, they're after you. And of course, the first thing you say, I'm finished, I'm finished. They'll get me. [00:34:33] But the lamb slain means that for you the sea is open, for them it closes. Now remember that every time you see the enemy, take a good look because you'll see him sink like lead in the sea. [00:34:48] Take a good look. [00:34:50] Don't, don't just say, oh, he's going to get me. He's going to get me. [00:34:54] You'll see him sink. Why? Because the lamb slain means the sea opens for the people of God and closes with the enemy. [00:35:03] So what he does for you, salvation for him, defeat you, deliverance him defeat. Now that's wonderful. And if you'd only just see that, you'd see that. What it means in Revelation 12, verse 11. They overcame him by the blood of the lamb. There it is. [00:35:23] So that you can say, the horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea. [00:35:30] Thrown into the sea, the enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake. With my sword I will destroy them. The Lord blew on them. [00:35:39] The waters closed over them. They sank. [00:35:45] No one ever saw them again. [00:35:48] All that crack equipment is still at the bottom, as far as I know of the Red Sea somewhere, waiting for some Archaeologist to drag it up. Well, now, that's the first stage, a people saved. Now the second stage, very swiftly, is a people whose life is Christ. [00:36:07] Now, this is the second stage of God's dealings with us, a people whose life is Christ. [00:36:13] If you want a little phrase unto him, Unto him, Everything unto him. Now, some Christians miss this stage. [00:36:23] We are so small in our mentality of mind that we think, oh, we should be in the promised land. We should be in the promised land. We shouldn't be in the wilderness. But just wait. [00:36:31] The wilderness is a correct stage in this journey. [00:36:35] Not 40 years, but there should be a wilderness journey because it has a vital lesson for us. What is that lesson? [00:36:44] Very simply, here. Here it is. [00:36:47] There is nothing but desert. [00:36:50] No sustenance, no water, no resources, no habitation, no inheritance, nothing but Christ. [00:37:08] Now, 1 Corinthians 10, 3, 4 says they all ate of the same spiritual food and they all drank of the same spiritual drink, for the rock which followed them is Christ. [00:37:24] Now, isn't that wonderful? [00:37:26] Because what God was teaching these dear ones is this. Look, before you can exploit what is yours in the land, before you can settle down and build your habitation, inherit your inheritance, possess your possession, possessions, you've got to learn that I am everything. [00:37:46] Now, some Christians never learn this lesson. They want to get so fast into the promised land, they don't want anything about it. And so there's a weakness. [00:37:54] Well, what is this lesson? Well, here it is. [00:37:57] Water. [00:37:59] No water. [00:38:01] Every time an answer in answer to faith, in the name of the Lord. The rod and the water flowed out of the rock. [00:38:11] Even when they came to Marah and the waters were bitter, Moses cried to the Lord, what could he do? And the Lord showed him a tree and he cut it down and threw it into the waters, and they became sweet. It was a picture of Calvary. It was Christ. Again. [00:38:26] We know, of course, that the manna speaks of the bread of Life. [00:38:30] Jesus said, I am the bread of Heaven. Come down. [00:38:36] So we know, you see. Oh, if you could only learn this. If I could only learn this lesson that the Christian life is Christ. [00:38:45] It's not Christ plus, you know, Now I'm a Christian. Christ has saved me. Now I must add holiness. I must add zeal. I must add prayer life. I'm sad by the week. I must add witnessing. I must add this and add that plus and plus and plus and plus. But it isn't plus. It's Christ. [00:39:07] Now then that's why some people, after a while, get a Christian life which is so Legal and so heavy and so tough. They throw the whole lot overboard. They say it's killing me, this Christian life. It's worse than living under the old covenant, driving myself to prayer, scourging myself to Bible reading. [00:39:26] But that's not the Christian life. Whipping yourself to witness to people. I did it. I will not go into it how I did it, but my word, I followed. Wesley's thing about one person per day frightened every single person in the whole college. [00:39:43] You see, the point was it was legality, it was Christ plus having got saved. My idea of the Christian life was it was all plus. Now I add. Now I add, I've got to do it, but just wait. Of course you should read the Word of God. Of course you should pray. Of course you should witness. Of course there should be holiness. [00:40:03] But how in Christ? [00:40:10] Read your Bible. In Christ by the Spirit at its transformation. Pray in Christ and its sweetness. Oh, you'll have battles, of course you will. You've got feelings. The enemy's against it, but it's the. It's. You know in your heart when it's the real thing and when it isn't. That's the point. [00:40:32] So if you are quite happy with your studies on, don't take this on. Don't be like flypaper. Let everything stick to you. [00:40:40] The fact is that if. If on the other hand, you know very well that your kind of Christian life is an awful heavy bondage. You know that I'm speaking to you. [00:40:48] You've got the experience I once had. That's Christ plus. [00:40:53] Now you've got to find Christ as everything. Not Christ. I've been saved. Now I've got to find water in this desert. Well, it's going to be a jolly hard job. [00:41:03] Even if you had modern drilling equipment. Be some hard work involved. But all the bliss of it. In the name of Christ. My, the water comes out of the rock just like that every time we need it. In the name of the Lord, out comes the water every single morning manna except for the Sabbath quails. When you get a bit tired of manna, it's a change of diet. [00:41:28] It's all Christ, Christ, Christ and more of Christ. Paul said, for to me to live is Christ another place. He said, christ who is our life. [00:41:40] It's a hard lesson for us to learn that the second stage is to get us to see that Christ is our life and that God has made him all that we need, who is made unto us. Redemption, Sanctification. [00:42:00] Righteousness. Sanctification, Redemption. [00:42:04] Oh, yes, wisdom to Start with, well, there we are. There's other things we could say. There's a pillar of cloud and fire, guidance and protection. Oh, how we all try to get our guidance when we're young. We're out of Egypt, we're out of Egypt. But oh dear, dear, dear, we get into a mess. Some people say, well, you must use your common sense, you know. [00:42:22] But common sense is a very rare commodity. [00:42:29] And there are other people who say, oh, but you must do this, you must do that, you must do the other. [00:42:35] Oh, it's so simple. When it's the pillar of cloud and fire, when the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night is resting, you rest. [00:42:48] And when it moves, you move. [00:42:51] That's why every single tribe was put round the tabernacle. And all had their, their tent flap, the door open towards the center so that anyone could look out while they were cooking or nursing the baby or reading or whatever they were doing. They could look out and see the clouds going. [00:43:10] And then everything was packed up, everything was put ready on the move. [00:43:15] And you know, that pillar of cloud and fire wasn't just guidance, it was protection. [00:43:20] When the Egyptian forces seeking to destroy the children of Israel, the cloud of fire just went from in front the vanguard and went to the rear. [00:43:32] It was like a big London fog between the Egyptian army and the children of Israel. They couldn't see them. But the most wonderful thing was the dear children of Israel couldn't see the Egyptians. [00:43:45] Now that's a wonderful thing. When we know the protector of God in such a way that he comes between us and bluff them out. [00:43:51] But have you not known that sometimes, you see, that's when you know Christ as your protection. When you're not just getting into a panic and rushing here, there and everywhere, but when you know that he is your protection. Well, you see, we could go on and we could go on. These people were in a covenant relationship with the Lord. [00:44:08] This just means that they were holy. Now, some people's idea of holiness is that you've got to wear black or gray or navy blue at the brightest, that you sort of look rather sombre. And that, that is holiness. [00:44:24] But holiness isn't that at all. [00:44:27] Holiness is a most wonderfully spontaneous and normal thing. [00:44:34] It is simply being like Christ. [00:44:38] Now anyone who attracted sinners and publicans to himself must have been a very normal person. [00:44:45] And that is holiness. So get rid of that idea that it's something sort of stiff and rigid and frigid and heavy and sort of very sanctimonious. That's not holiness. Holiness is something which is just. It's not, it's not that. [00:45:02] It's simply that you're doing the will of God and that Christ is radiating out of you. [00:45:11] A scripture that comes to my mind is that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. [00:45:20] Righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, joy and peace in believing the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. What a wonderful thing holy holiness is really just being Christ, like in that way. Now this is what God's idea was in this covenant between the people and himself. He said, I have married you. [00:45:48] And then he said, be holy, for I am holy. [00:45:53] That was his idea in this covenant relationship. [00:45:58] And then again in this stage, the tabernacle. That's a wonderful thing. That's really Christ. Come into the calm, just come into the outer court. And the first thing that blocks your whole view is the brazen altar. That's Calvary. [00:46:13] Go a little beyond it and the next thing that blocks your view is the labour. [00:46:18] New birth born through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus Christ from the dead. [00:46:28] The labour of regeneration. Now then, go into the tent of meeting. And what meets your gaze all around you, blue, red, white, purple. [00:46:40] Speaking of Christ. [00:46:43] See the lampstand, the testimony of Jesus. See the shewbread table, Christ as the bread of life. See the incense, golden incense altar, Christ as the intercessor. Isn't it wonderful? See the rent veil through his flesh, a new and living way through his flesh. [00:47:08] Rent veil. [00:47:09] See the mercy seat, the love, the steadfast love, the mercy of God forever for us. [00:47:16] See the ark of the covenant. And within it the law unbroken. [00:47:21] Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law and in it a little bit golden pot with it with manna, the bread of life again, eternal life. And our Aaron's rod, that budded authority, divine authority. Oh, it's absolutely wonderful, isn't it? [00:47:41] So much for all those dried sort of ideas about the tabernacle, which just nearly drove us potty when we were younger. [00:47:49] I remember once going to one of those things. Even though there was a most marvelous sort of plan of it all, it was still terribly dry. But when I began to see that it was Christ, then it was. Now it's more than that. It's Christ and you and me. [00:48:04] For it is not just Christ himself, but I and the children God hath given me. [00:48:10] That is God's hand. [00:48:12] Now that is Christ. And when we begin to see that the church is not Christ plus but Christ only. Oh, it's wonderful. When I say Christ only, I don't mean to take away from his unique glory and his unique sonship, but what I do mean is this, that the church is being in him and part of him. [00:48:32] Well, I must rush on the third stage. Oh, I hope everyone's in that second stage. It's a wonderful stage to be in, but it's a tough stage because God's always causing a hot desert wind to blow on everything we grow. We go scatter little seeds and we water them and then the desert wind, it's gone. [00:48:51] You know, all the time we're trying to sort of trying to get into the land before we're there and God's. The second stage is to cut us, take away all the props, destroy everything that is false and make us see that there's nothing in this desert. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing at all. But Christ. But Christ is everything. [00:49:11] Now you can live even for 40 years in the desert with Christ. And that's the lesson of this stage. You can go right the way through it with Christ as your only means of sustenance. But the third stage is a people possessing their possessions. Now when God has got us out of Egypt, he doesn't want us to see stage us there, nor does he want us just to go through the wilderness knowing Christ as our water, the water of life. Christ is the bread of life. Christ as our guidance, Christ as our protection, Christ as the habitation of God. [00:49:47] He wants us to go over another barrier, the Jordan and into the land. [00:49:55] Now here there's no desert. [00:49:57] This is a land flowing with milk and honey. Now we've learned our lesson. We have learnt that Christ is our life. So now we can start to till the earth because we do it through Christ. Do you understand? [00:50:13] We can now start to possess the land. We can have our own inheritance. We can have our own fig tree and sit under its shade and eat its figs. We can have the vine, our own vine and eat the grapes. We can have our own olive tree. That's what it says. Everyone shall have his own olive tree and his own vine. [00:50:34] Because now we've learned a lesson. [00:50:37] Christ is everything. Now I'm going to mix up all these symbols so I'm not just doing it to be funny, but it's as if we find our olive tree in Christ and our fig tree in Christ and our vine in Christ. It's all very biblical if you think about it now we begin to find that there is the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit in Christ. [00:51:02] There is a union with Christ, which means that we can be fruitful. All these things we can find in Him. It's a land flowing with milk and honey. [00:51:10] The resources in those hills and in those mountains which we have to exploit. Treasures of darkness, hidden riches, secret riches of hidden places. All these things are there for us to get. I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined in the fire. It's all there. [00:51:27] We've got to exploit it. That's the third stage. [00:51:31] Sometimes when people have gone through the wilderness, they get so used to the fact that I'm nothing in this world. Nothing in this world. Christ is everything to me. Christ is everything to me. And they sort of say, don't speak to me about anything. I don't want anything. [00:51:46] I've got him. [00:51:48] But you see, the fact is this, that's only the second stage. [00:51:53] The third stage is to get into the land and see the walls of Jericho fall flat. [00:51:58] God doesn't want you just saying, oh, the Lord's everything to me. The Lord's everything to me. Of course he loves that. [00:52:05] But he wants you to go over and walk around Jericho to the walls fall flat. There's a land to be possessed. [00:52:13] They want you to go in and take. There's a place called Jerusalem, and it's in the hands of the Jebusites. And he wants a David who'll get his men to go up the water channel and take it. [00:52:25] There they are, hanging over the wall and saying, david's blind men, David's lame men. [00:52:33] No one can take Jerusalem. [00:52:37] David showed them, put his feet down on it and said, this is ours 400 years. I think I'm right in saying after they should have done it, Joshua should have done it 400 years earlier. But of course he didn't. [00:52:49] Just like they didn't take the hills because there were chariots of iron, as Mr. Reese was always telling us, because there were chariots of iron in the plains. They said, leave it to him. Leave it to him. [00:53:02] And so it was never possessed. We must possess our possessions. It's not enough to know that Christ is our life. That's marvellous. Now we know him for guidance, now we know him for protection. Now we know him as sustenance for our perseverance and all the rest of it. [00:53:20] We know that he is the house of God. But now we've got to go into the land and possess our possessions. And so they went over the Jordan but In Joshua, chapter 5, I think it is, or yes, 5, 10, you will read that they kept the Passover. [00:53:36] On the very first night, just before they took Jericho, they kept the Passover. In other words, God was saying to them, the basis for taking this land is the same basis for getting you out of Egypt and through the wilderness. The Lamb. [00:53:54] So we don't take the land by something further, we take it by the Lamb. [00:53:59] And the Spirit of God comes upon us when we take the ground of the Lamb. [00:54:07] Do you understand? [00:54:08] Now, may God help us, because these are three very simple stages. [00:54:16] Every one of us is somewhere. If we're a child of God, that is. Every one of us is somewhere in one of these stages. [00:54:22] Well, thank God that the Lord so wonderfully can take us on. [00:54:31] What a salvation we've got. [00:54:34] And what a terrible thing to neglect it. [00:54:37] How terrible a thing it is to be saved and just sitting on the wilderness bank of the Red Sea. [00:54:47] But there are many believers stuck there, having meetings, fellowshipping. [00:54:55] Others have gone a little further into the wilderness. [00:54:58] Some are doing the journey round and round and round and round and round. [00:55:04] Thank God, the banner's still there. [00:55:06] Their shoes don't even wear out. [00:55:09] Their ankles don't swell. That's what the Lord promised in all those years. How gracious God is even where we shouldn't be. [00:55:20] That shows you what the justification of God is like. [00:55:24] You see, they die in the wilderness. They don't go in and they don't possess. But God is so gracious. He doesn't throw their salvation away. He keeps them right up to the moment they die. [00:55:34] Marvelous. [00:55:35] But that's not what God wants. God wants to get us over into the land. May we be those who are possessing our possessions, having learned the lessons of these great stages and moving on into all the fullness of God. Shall we pray? [00:55:48] And now, Lord, we pray together that Thou wilt really bless this little word to every one of us. And we pray, Lord, wherever there's bondage or wherever there's need, Thou wilt apply Thy word. May the eyes of our hearts be. Be open to see, Lord, what has happened when Christ died. And to see, dear Lord, the marvellous nature of Thy redemption. [00:56:11] And may we, Lord, be moving on with thee. If we're in the second stage, may we be really ready to move into the third. And if we're in the third, may we be possessing our possessions, Lord, more and more, O Father, may we know that being brought into the mountain of thine inheritance. Thy sanctuary, O Lord, the place which Thou hast prepared to dwell in. O Father, hear us then as we commit ourselves to Thee. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:56:44] Amen. [00:56:46] May you know the finished work of the Lamb. [00:56:48] May you know how to possess what is yours in Christ. [00:56:51] May you know that the deep, deep love of Jesus.