Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Promises, Promises Pt.7

Amen. Let's turn back to Romans 4 and just continue where we left off this morning talking about the inheritance of the great promises of God. What we're looking for is to see that all of these promises culminate in the promise of the finished work of Jesus, and in His presence in our life. What does it matter if we have all of these other quote "promises" like prosperity, and health, and happiness, and many of the things that people are actually selling their souls out for, and don't have the presence of God, and the relationship? What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? You know when life boils down to that simple question it makes things a lot more easy in discerning what our decisions should be and what some of us would call important issues of life. What is the eternal perspective? We get caught up in the hustle and the bustle in our day, and in this generation, and we have to ask the question that was asked by the wise man, what is the whole duty of man. Why are we here really?

Many people—it's amazing to me how many people are on the great emphasis today, and the belief in extra-terrestrial's and that surely in a universe as vast as all of this there's other life out there. And that's the assumption of course that there is no purpose, that everything is chance. You know, if it was just chance, if there was just a big bang and everything came out from chaos into order, the second law of thermal dynamics would not agree, but if this is where we are then there would be a good chance that there is life out there somewhere. But if you believe in a creator and you understand that man has a purpose, and that we're not egocentric, and that we're not making our decisions based upon this introspection but we believe that we are a created being created in the image of an Almighty Ruler of the universe then it causes us to have to pause and look at things from a different perspective. If we are God's representation created in His likeness for His eternal purposes then we have a duty, and the whole duty of man is to do what? Fear God and keep His commandments. So this love of God and the obedience is what our lives are all about. If we have that kind of an eternal purpose, if that's the reason for our existence then it should give us a little different perspective of these promises, and why God made certain promises, and it would really help us realize then that they're not for the temporal they are for the eternal.

The question asked, "Is there other life out in this vast universe?" You know the universe really isn't all that big it's only about that big. Of course the span has to do with how large the person is, and God cannot be defined in time, and space, and so He gives us references. But He's just saying, "You think this universe is big? It fits in the span of my hand, the oceans in the hollow of my hand. I'm that big and I know your name. I know everything about you. I know the amount of hair upon your head. I've created you and I know all that you are in that frail body of flesh and dust. But I've invested my life into you, and my eternal power to bring you into fellowship with myself so that this relationship that I intended through Adam your father could be fulfilled in the last Adam in the person of Jesus Christ. The plan's bigger than your aches and pains. The plan's bigger than the amount of zeros in your worth. If you really want to know what your worth is I'll tell you it's one zero." So we realize then that when we look at it from the eternal perspective it brings things into being tolerable. When we realize that even in the greatest oppressions and trials our lives are just a vapor, it's going to be here today and gone tomorrow. We'll have finished the test, and we'll have had the eternal inheritance that we talked about in 1st Peter today. It's just a moment. All that we're going through, beloved, this whole life that you and I are involved in, this is not, listen, this is not the time of reward it's the time of testing. The reward is yet to come. Some of us are blessed with good health, and some of us are blessed financially, and some of us are blessed with an abundance of friends, and some of us are here. But the rewards are yet to come. Everything that we have in the temporal here it's going to pass. It's how we use these. It's how we perceive all of these other issues of life that begin to determine then who we are, and what our final reward is going to be.

So we're going to look at that over in Deuteronomy in just a second. In Romans 4 we see that Abraham, the father of faith, was a man who was not governed by the temporal. I think that's why he could become the wealthy man that he was. This was obviously not a man who was controlled by natural circumstances. From the very moment of the call in his life that Hebrews 11 speaks toward that gives us an understanding of who he is, a guy that's willing to walk from everything that everybody else is trying to hold onto, and walk in obedience to the mandate of God. Leaving family, leaving friends, leaving all that's secure. We like home, we like roots. We have to remember that in this patriotic society that Abraham walked out of when he walked into this new land he wasn't just going to live in a new place, and eventually dad was going to die, and the inheritance was going to be faxed out to him. He was leaving the homestead. He was leaving everything that was known as security. All of the foundational wealth that one generation passes on to another generation. He walked away from that not knowing where he was going. That became the catalyst of God being able to prosper him.

How loosely are you holding onto the things that everybody else has a death grip on? It determines the amount of faith that's working in our lives. Where are the real treasures in your life? You know to such a small extent many of us have made those decisions in having to walk away from families, and friends, and certain vocations. I'm so thankful for the experience that I was able to walk through just as a brand new believer, just a kid twenty years old getting saved. A person who no question steeped in lusts of the flesh, and eye, and the pride of life. Everything that could hold you in bondage had my life with a death grip. Willing to invest whatever was necessary for that goal that was before me. Fame, money, and pleasure. At twenty years old it was there, and I was getting the taste of it as I've shared the testimony with you. As a twenty year old kid just leaving the house, and in 1966 rolling into town man cruising in your souped up 1965 GTO, radio blasting, "Little GTO, you're really looking fine." I had the one with three deuces and a four speed just like the song. I was bad. Twenty years old not sharing a bunk with kids in a dorm but walk into a three-bedroom home provided by the University. Full ride, books, tuition, housing, spending money. I was on my way I could taste it man. I could see the bonus money coming, it was right there.

I walked into Northeast Assembly of God, and encountered face to face the Creator of the universe, and it's amazing how small you become in your own eyes. As you fall at His feet as dead, and everything that was a treasure now becomes a weight, and a sin that tries to beset you. At regeneration when old things pass away and all things become new, and I've shared with you my testimony. I'm telling you man, I am absolutely telling you and some of you have experienced it, the next day man when I woke up I'm telling you, when I parked that car I can see it like it happened a few minutes ago, I can remember exactly where I was parked on Black Stone Avenue as I pulled up to the campus, pulled up got out of my car started the walk across the campus, the grass was greener, the birds sang better, praise God. Now I had to make a decision. What God was asking of me was to walk away from all of that, all that I had, and all that was in my grasp going into a country not knowing what it would consist of. Moving out of the three-bedroom house into my car. No money. No place to lay my head. Twenty dollars to my name. I had one treasure and that was to know Him, and walk into that book store, and buy a Thompson Chain Bible for eighteen dollars and change, and my net worth was a dollar something. I began to devour the Word of God. Just to know more about this one that had given His life, and who I could obviously feel calling me in another direction. Couldn't wait to go to church. Couldn't wait to be around the people of God. So all I did was go hang out up at the church, and Janet was up there, and so I fellowshipped with her, and she bossed me around. The stuff she didn't want to do she'd send me on errands. Things haven't changed. Actually I'd be lying if I let that go so they have somewhat.

But what an exciting time, and just wanting to know more about Him. Abraham, one who staggered not, verse 20, at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith giving glory to God. Beloved that's how we start this journey. Are you looking for one thing and one thing alone? The glory of God? Don't get caught up in all the promises and the benefits. The decisions that we're making are to bring God glory. I had no idea what was going to happen in my life at that juncture. I knew only one thing, I wanted to be used of God. I wanted somehow for my life to glorify Him. Something that would count for eternity. I had no ambitions of going and trying to be some kind of a great preacher somewhere or to be known or recognized. I didn't even know that was something that existed. That became a temptation later. You know what I saw myself doing? My vision was if God could somehow count me faithful. The greatest goal I had was somewhere pioneering a church out in the San Joaquin valley out there in the tumbleweed section with a little water cooler on top of a one room church where you lived off of pennies and the sick chickens. As I've shared with you some different stories over the years one preacher friend that I knew came to me—and you know little kids just always tell the truth and the little boy came up to the preacher, and he said, "Preacher we was going to bring the chicken and put it in the offering, but it got well." That's pretty much how you lived back in those days. No fancy cars and fancy clothes and big bank accounts. Beloved there was no way that I would have considered going back to the other. Look what Hebrews 11 says about this as we're talking about men of faith inheriting the promises of God. We're talking about being candidates for the promises and how to lose them if you're not careful.

In Hebrews chapter 11 it talks about Moses in verse 25 and it says, "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Let's call the pleasures of sin something else just to help us in our understanding this evening in the definition. The pleasures of sin—how about this—the misapplication of promises—the misunderstanding of what a blessing is? I want you to understand something: a blessing is a curse if you haven't appropriated it properly. If you did it in your own strength, if you did it for your own glory, for your own pleasure, it becomes a weight and a sin that besets you and not one of the great mercies of God and blessings of God. Moses, the scripture says had to make that determination "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." We're talking about not a guy just here being successful in business, this man was going to inherit the wealth of the wealthiest country in the world, not just a little fraction. He wasn't going to be some kind of pauper like Gates. Did you know that Gates doesn't even have a fraction of the money of this nation? Moses was in line to get it all. Does that help put things in perspective? You see he was going to be put into that role of Pharaoh. He was going to himself be a deity worshipped, absolute totalitarian rule, and he chose the reproach of Christ esteeming them as greater riches than all that Egypt could afford. Look what it says, for he had respect unto to recompense of the reward. What's it talking about? He held natural wealth, gain, reward up against the eternal, the riches of the relationship, the presence of Jesus in us, Christ in us the hope of glory. There is no comparison when you get that eternal perspective. "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible." This tells me that if we're going to be appropriating the promises, if we're going to be successful, there's going to need to be an endurance. There's going to be the times in our lives when we're pressed out of our own strength and the question at that time is going to be, can you endure not seeing? Job said I heard but now my eyes have seen. You see, one glimpse of God is all you need for a lifetime. Some people want God visiting them everyday in their prayer room showing up at prayer time, patting them on the back encouraging them, giving them audible voices, visions, words jumping off of pages. I want to tell you something, one genuine visitation of God will hold you for your life if you never see Him. You follow the invisible one because you've counted Him faithful.

Moses had a few more encounters than that. Moses had a bigger job to do than you and I. It's amazing to me how many people want to have the encounters of a Moses or a Paul, and you don't have anything to do but keep yourself out of trouble. You're not going to write the majority of the New Testament. You're not going to become the lawgiver and the leader of a people into the promise land. We don't need the visitations they had but we need the faith and we need to see them as the great cloud of witnesses and let their lives and their visitations become our hope. That then is culminated in being followers of those who through faith and patience are inheriting the promises. You're not going to get all these visitations they've already been given, and we, beloved, have received a more sure word of prophecy, amen? Do you believe these stories you're reading? Is this or is this not the Word of God? If it's the Word of God then God has spoken, His promise has been fulfilled, His promise has been fulfilled in Abraham, it's been fulfilled in Moses, it's been fulfilled in David, it's been fulfilled in Paul, it was accomplished in Jesus Christ, it's a reality, and if you never experience it our witnesses have, praise God, and we say it's true. I believe that and if I never have it in this life I will receive it in the eternal realm, and that's where my hope is.

Now in the process there's a lot of other things that will manifest based upon, of course, the diligence of our pursuit, our trust in God, our purity of pursuit, and many of these other things. So we find that this is what is God is calling us to. Now let's go back for just a second to Romans or go to Hebrews 4 for just a second since we're in Hebrews. In Hebrews 3 and 4 we find the children having received the promise and God's speaking in chapter 3 verse 7 it says, today if you will hear His voice. "…Today if you will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:" Now what is this hardening of heart? Today, today if you will hear His voice. Every one of us here tonight has the voice of God in our hands sitting in your lap right now. Today if you will hear His voice. Let's say it another way. Today if you believe this is the more sure word of prophecy, more sure than audible voices, more sure than miraculous confirmations. What God has spoken is true. The assurance that He will administrate it for our eternal good, and the fact that we will not, as those in the day of provocation, harden our hearts against the promise of God. In other words judge the promise based upon our experience.

You see the whole thing in the provocation was this, God promised to bring them out and do what with them? Bring them in. He brought them out for what purpose? To bring them in. God has brought you out through redemption of Egypt. Egypt's a type of what? The world. It's a type of the bondage of sin of the flesh. Now have you, or have you not been brought out of Egypt through the redemption of Jesus and His blood? If you have then how dare we in the transition period of being brought in accuse God of forsaking us and failing us and letting us be overcome of our enemies, and die of thirst, and die of starvation? Well you say I would never do that. How many times have you said, "Oh God you promised Lord where is the answer to prayer, Lord why aren't you—" the hardening of our hearts against the promises of God. Now isn't it interesting that there was a provocation in the day of temptation. When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Now when you go back and read the account in Deuteronomy, and you read the account in Numbers guess what was supposed to be happening? The Bible refers to it this way: God had them in the wilderness for a purpose. What was it? To test them. But in fact, what happened according to this Hebrews passage? They tempted God or tested God. They thought that the wilderness was a test on God and it's supposed to be a test on them. This is going to test whether God's faithful or not. God is faithful, the test is whether you're faithful.

Who's on trial here in these advertises that you're experiencing? You're sick in your body and yet the Bible says by the stripes of Jesus we're healed. You're not paying your bills and yet He said if you tithe He'll open the windows of heaven, and pour out blessings that you can’t contain. Who's on trial here? Is God on trial? Is He either going to meet our needs financially or He will have failed? I'll either be healed or Jesus’ promises in the Word of God have failed. He doesn't fail, His words are yea and amen. God's not being tested here, beloved, you are. Did you know that the healing of one person fulfills the promise? Did you know that if one person in the history of the church has been supernaturally healed through the effectual work of Jesus, the prayer of faith, the laying on of hands, do you know that God's promise has been fulfilled? And do you know what? I read about it, it's already happened. His promises are yea and amen. Yeah but I haven't experienced it. What does that have to do with anything? We serve a healing God. We serve a God who has faithfully confirmed His Word in our midst with signs following. Yeah but I didn't get mine. Oh, so it's about you? So it's not about God and His glory, it's about you? It's about you feeling better, your aches and pains going away. That's what this is all about. Okay, then let's put God on trial. Let's put Him on the witness stand and ask Him why He hasn't produced. "When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not [say it with me] know my ways." They don't know me. They don't know me, they don't know my love, they don't know my desire for them. I brought them out to do what? Bring them in. Well I don't see a whole lot of bringing in going on, we had it better in Egypt.

Now turn over to Numbers for just a moment and we'll be right back to this Hebrews passage. Turn over to Numbers, if you would, in Numbers 14, and let's look at this just a little bit in more detail. "They do always err in their hearts they've not know my ways, so I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. Now take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." So that's what the Hebrews passage says. Let's look at this Numbers passage for just a moment. We know the story, the end of chapter 13 we find the reports coming back of the spies. Here's what's said verse 27 of Chapter 13. "And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whiter thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it." So they bring back the fruit. The fruit is evidenced big grapes. Clusters of grapes so big that it takes two men to carry them on a stave. Sweet, juicy, seedless, cold. You can eat those things till you get sick. Had a friend do that one time, we were over at some go-cart races in the valley in the vineyards there, and he was just stuffing grapes man. I don't have a clue how many he ate but I just know they came up. Big grapes, gigantic clusters of grapes and here's the fruit of it. But there is a problem, you see the 28th verse starts with this-nevertheless. Isn't it interesting when the buts come in-the neverthelesses. The testimony goes on, there's walled cities, there's the Amalekites, Hittites, Amorites, the children of Anak, there's giants over there. Verse 30 says, "And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." He doesn't say there wasn't going to be opposition. He didn't deny walled cities. He didn't deny all of these other peoples. He didn't deny the giants. He just said, yeah look there's all of these trials that we're going to encounter but let's go at once for we are well able, because I believe God brought us out to bring us in. The issue here is not how great is our faith, how strong are we, how big are they, the issue is God said I brought you out to bring you in. It doesn't matter what the opposition is. One puts a thousand to flight two put ten thousand to flight. Do you believe that tonight? You better start believing it because I'm going to tell you in the nation for us to survive we're going to have to walk in that spirit. If we're going to live in this generation that you and I are walking into beloved we're going to have to have the heart of Caleb. We're going to have to know that unless God's for us we're going to be a people destroyed. Every value that we hold to is being mocked and opposed by the masses.

All of the things that we've placed our trust in as signs and wonders man is trying to reproduce in opposition and mockery of God. Medical science boasting in their great technology. All of the genetic engineering that's taking place. Don't even think for a moment that scientists are not going to put themselves in the place of determining who is fit and who is not fit to be born. Don't you think for a moment that all of this genetic engineering that man is becoming capable of is not going to be implemented to make a greater society. You know, tragically, you look around this room most of us would have been left out. Duh. Everything that has always been in the heart of man is culminating in this last hour to where the tower of Babel has been erected, the confounding of languages has now been transcended, and we can sit at a computer and even now they're to the place were you can audibly speak, and into this situation the person on the other side hears it in their own language. You speak in English they hear it in Japanese. You type on the internet in English and they receive it in Swahili. Man stands on this tower to boast against God and in the process elevate man to ascending above the throne of God, and any of us who are his ambassadors to be persecuted, mocked to the place where the two witnesses who lie dead in the streets cause a world-wide celebration. That's the spirit of the world, that's where it's going and we're going to taste of that. And don't you think for a moment that we're not going to have to be a people finishing this race by faith, and finishing this race in hope, and understanding that regardless of how adverse things may come that we may be living, beloved, in caves, and we may be dressing ourselves in animal skins, and I'm not talking minks. And are we going to lose our joy, or are we going to see ourselves in Hebrews 11 as champions of God, a people who have received the promises of God, and the greatest treasure of all the privilege of representing Him?

You see, if you don't have the right understanding of what His promises are and what our purposes are, then in the midst of these circumstances it's going to be God on trial and not us. So here's the issue, Caleb stilled the people and said, we better go up here at once. The men that went with him said, we are not able. So they brought an evil report of the land. It's really not that good. It's really not worth it. They embellished the ability of the inhabitance, their strength and minimized the promise of God. The hearts of the people become discouraged and they say in chapter 14 verse 2, "would that we had died in Egypt, or would that God had allowed us to die in this wilderness. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." We can't trust this guy Moses and the fables that he's brought us from that mountaintop. It's obvious what we're facing here and our only hope is to retreat back into the solace of Egypt, the world's methods. There's no way that we can inherit this promise. Now in our lives, beloved, these are the places that God will bring us to try our hearts and to prove what's in us. Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb, of course, stand and oppose that spirit and they say, it's an exceeding good land verse 7. The issue comes down to verse 8 look at this, "If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with mild and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us; fear them not."

The enemy, whether it be Satan, principalities and powers, or the hosts of the world that he manifests himself through. The enemy whether it be death that causes people to be paralyzed in fear. The power of lust that draws upon the hearts of each and everyone of us. Don't be afraid, it will not overpower you for God's with us. If the Lord delights in us He'll bring us in. Joshua and Caleb's faith was all based upon the promise. If this is what God's promise was, if He delights in us who can keep us from experiencing God's best. Yes there may be some adversity, trials. There may be some fatalities but God's bringing us in. It's about His glory, not about our privileges. But all the congregation said let's stone these guys. Then I love this next phrase, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle the congregation. God's presence will always settle the matter. The Lord spoke to Moses and He said, how long will this people provoke me? Now remember we're talking about the passage out of Hebrews 11 or out of Hebrew 3. They always err in their hearts for they've not known me, they've not known my ways. How long will this people provoke me, and how long will they believe me for all the signs, which I have showed among them? Now the interesting thing here is that they're not even having to look back to a preceding generation they saw it with their own eyes. These are a people, beloved, that watched the water turn to blood that saw the frogs and the lice and the flies. These are a people that knew of the death angel coming through the streets of Egypt. These are a people who saw the blood put upon the door post. When in faith you read Hebrews 11, Moses brought them into the Passover. The death angel passed over them and now they think God's going to kill them, that He's not going to fulfill His promise. Did God save you to destroy you? Is everything that God's done in your life and in your midst some kind of cruel joke so that God could bring you into this place, and torment you for His own sadistic purposes? Is that the God that we serve? Do we err not knowing His ways? His heart’s desire is to do us good all the days of our life. Are we judging Him unfaithful who promised because of these momentary obstacles?

The obstacle we face the Red Sea, oh it's obvious that God showed His arm strong in the midst of Egypt, destroyed the first born, manifested His power to bring us up here and allow the armies to kill us. Nobody could have even imagined that He was going to divide the Red Sea. Regardless of whether you can see how God's going to do it, beloved, He brought us out to bring us in, amen? God doesn't expect you to be able to just discern everything that's happening and say, "Well here come the armies of Pharaoh I know what we'll do, we'll speak, and this great pillar of fire will come and hold them at bay and I'll lift up my rod and the sea will be divided and we'll go across on dry land." That wasn't authored in the heart of Moses, it came from the heart of God and Moses was then let in on this thing. You see the power and you get on the other side and God's delivered us just as He's delivered you at times in your life. When God has healed your body, healed your children, brought peace in the midst of turmoil, a word spoken in season to lift up your hands, you get to the other side, the timbales break out, people begin to dance and shout, "We worship God," for a day until the next trial, until the next time there's no water, the next time there's no food, and we begin to murmur that God brought us out here to kill us. Oh how they err not knowing my ways. They won't believe me for all the signs that I've showed among them. Some of you have not been privileged to see a lot of the things that we've been able to see over the years. Beloved I've seen so many demonstrations of God's power. I mean there is absolutely not a question in my mind of God's insertion of His power into our life. The healings that we've experienced in our own bodies, in our own house, in the ministry over the years. I couldn't even begin to recall the great things that God has done with my own eyes having seen through the laying on of my own hands and the declaration of the words spoken from my mouth with power like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, watching the dead rise, and blind eyes open, and the deaf hear, the lame walk, watching organs be recreated, and growths instantaneously dissipate. Then in the midst of adversity have to war again asking, "Lord we've seen all of this and now here we are." "Father I don't understand that at one moment I can speak and see this creative miracle and here's someone that's in need, and here's someone that we love, and here's someone at this moment that we can place our hands on, and see the growths disappear, and the pain leave their body, and in the name of Jesus we've obeyed your word, and we don't have the immediate response." Oh the temptation to put God on trial instead of realizing that we're on trial.

The issue isn't can God, will God; He has. How are we going to respond to His moment of testing in our lives? Are we going to judge Him faithful or guilty of respect of persons? O that they would believe me. I'll smite them with the pestilence. God's ticked okay. "I'll smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." One time in my life I experienced something similar to this. It was a number of years ago, we were still meeting in the gymnasium I won't go into all the details. There were people that were opposing what we were doing at that time, opposing the direction that God was taking us, and God spoke to me as clear as I've ever heard Him speak. A number of times over the years that God has spoken directly to me and He said, "Didn't I promise to be an enemy to your enemies?" He said, "I'll kill them to protect my purposes." When I heard that I fell to my face and I began to weep and cry out for the protection and the salvation of these people's souls. Some to this day hate me. My name would be a by word. I'm sure they're raising their grandchildren instead of saying the boogie man will get you they'll say Pastor Scott will get you. But I know what this is all about and He said, I'll kill them, I'll take them out and start it all over. Moses, on a number of occasions was able to intercede for the people of God. Father's not opposed to starting again. Case in point, the flood. How arrogant we can become sometimes in thinking that God needs us and that this is some kind of irreversible situation that God will have to contend with.

Moses says, Lord not so, the people then that are opposing you will think in their minds that they've won, and somehow you were not able to bring this people in. "And now, I beseech thee, [verse 17] let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." There's no question that justice is going to be served, the truth is going to prevail. But Lord, for your own glory, let it be seen among the nations that you can take a stiffnecked people, and can form your image in them. Verse 20 says, "And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word." Now beloved, I want you to understand something real clearly, some of us are walking in the grace of this intercession right now. There are people in this room that are being preserved not because of your worth but because of someone's intercession for you. Because of the fact that somebody wouldn't turn loose of God on your behalf. But God is not always going to strive with man. The fact that you're still in existence doesn't mean you're being approved of. The fact that you're still experiencing the knowledge, the presence, and some of the blessings of God does not mean that you've been approved of. There's still a testing that's taking place. There's still going to have to be the individual contending with these trials, and these experiences. Moses’ intercession then saves the community but each individual is now going to be responsible for inheriting the promise. They got a second chance. They got another chance as a community to inherit the overall promise. As individuals they could reconcile with God but as a people look what's happening to the older generation. "Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt. [You remember we were just talking about Egypt they saw it yet they're doubting God? The ones that saw it, the ones that understood the blood on the doorpost, the ones who danced with joy on the other side of the Red Sea, those that knowingly partook of the water from the rock] those which have seen my glory, [verse 22], and my miracles which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not listened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it."

Go back to Hebrews. Keep your finger right there and go back to the Hebrews account in Hebrews 3 verse 11. "So I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of [the promise] Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto he end. While it is said, today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation." Verse 19, they were not allowed to enter because of unbelief. Now you need to get serious. Sober up because a promise has been left to you. Don't come short of it, chapter 4 verse1. The reason they didn't partake is because the word preached to them was not mixed with obedience, faith, reliance, assurance. Now how do we know whether we're partaking of these promises or not? I don't mean whether they're manifesting, I mean whether we're candidates for it to manifest at God's good pleasure. Have you entered into the rest? Read the chapter on in chapter 4. Have you ceased from your own labors? Have you judged God faithful? Is His word true? His promises sure? Back to Numbers. None of them are going to enter in except my servant Caleb because he had another spirit with him and he followed me fully. "Say unto them, [verse 28] As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me." Only those from twenty years and upward will experience this judgment. Only the teenagers are going in. A generation who's not judged me guilty having seen my great provision. You said your little ones will be a prey. They're not going to be a prey, verse 31. Them will I bring in and they shall know the land which you have despised. That's some strong dialog that's taking place. Despising the promises by judging God unwilling or unable to bring in.

Now Deuteronomy says this, and we're just about out of time for this evening, but turn over to Deuteronomy for just a second and keep your fingers here in Numbers 14 and go over to Deuteronomy chapter 6 into chapter 8. The 6th chapter of Deuteronomy has to do with the people's testimony of God delivering them from Egypt, verse 21. "Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand." Verse 23. "And he brought us out from thence, that the might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers’ Four hundred years earlier to Abraham. He brought us out to bring us in. Now what all of this wilderness experience, chapter 8, of Deuteronomy says this: Don't you remember he says that I commanded you this is in verse 1, and reiterate to you to observe to live and multiply and go and possess the land. The admonition, verse 2, remembering all the way which the Lord God led you as a people these forty years in the wilderness. Now read the next phrase, to do what? To humble thee, and to prove thee, and to know what was in your heart. Do you feel like you're in the wilderness tonight? Maybe God is wanting to humble you. Are you wondering why the promises seem to be withheld and restrained and you could so use the visitation of God now. I'm so thirsty, I'm so hungry, I'm so afraid. Is God proving you to know what's in your heart whether you will keep his commandments or not? Look at verse 3. "And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live."

Is it more important that you get fed or that you know God cares and He is our provider? Is it more important to you tonight to have the pain taken from your body or to know for a fact that God lives and is alive in you, and has an eternal purpose, and that we're not body conscious so we don't fear those who can kill our body, but we fear Him who can take body and soul, and cast it into hell. We don't become time- and space-oriented but an eternal loving Father that we count the reward, the treasure, that we despise the treasures of Egypt, and embrace the reproach, the Christ. That's what trials are all about and that's why promises don't always manifest when we think they should.

Father, make it real to us in the name of Jesus. Help us to understand the proving, the testing that's taking place in our own hearts. You're not on trial here we are. You're not being tested we are. You've already been proven faithful. You've already been proven true. Your love is without question in the great unspeakable gift of Jesus to us. Forgive us Father for our doubts and our fears we ask you Father knowing our frail frames of dust. We've spoken these ten times foolishly and we choose to put our hands over our mouths and we ask you to be merciful to us and show us again your grace as our eyes are opened once again, and we confidently can say, I believe God brought me out to bring me in. I don't know all the circumstances, I don't even know what this is of what I'm partaking, this manna but it's sustaining me, and I thank you for your faithfulness, and I thank you for the revelation of yourself to me that causes me to know if you’re for me, nobody can be against me. I answer the question that you ask. It's not going to be natural food anymore, you guys have eaten and your bellies have been satisfied, but if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood you can't have anything to do with me. The masses left him and he turned and said, will you go also? They said where can we go, you alone have the words of eternal life. It's settled in our hearts Father in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord tonight. As Gary plays for us and we'll just do a quick survey of where we are tonight in this journey. Where might you be tonight? Are you on the other side of the Red Sea with your tambourines playing and you're rejoicing and worshipping God and can't understand why your brothers' continence is cast down? We're not all in the same place in the journey. Don't despise that brother who's cast down. I want you to know something we've danced that dance. Are you that one who's cast down and you're wondering when will God's presence manifest? I'm here and I'm tired and I'm weary. God's humbling you now, let your brother's lift up your hands and don't despise the role of intercession and communion in your life to where a word is being spoken to you in season. And as we forsake not the assembling of ourselves together. We can speak words of edification, and we can comfort one another with the same comfort. Don't despise the counsel and the comfort of those who've been through this fire and trial and have been successful but rejoice in the great cloud of witnesses that's gone on before you and says, yeah God's faithful, I just want to tell you brother God's faithful. I've been there. I've danced and sung with Miriam. I've experienced the hunger pains and the parched lips of the wilderness. But my eyes have seen the promise and here's the fruit of it and we're well able, let's go up at once and possess this land. I've been there, brethren, and I'm telling you He's well able. Our God is for us and nobody can be against us. Regardless of where you are in the journey the promise is the same to all of us. He brought us out to bring us in. We declare you faithful Father. We thank you for you mercy and we see Him that is invisible and the finished work in Christ. Let's sing it together worship Him tonight.

Sing it again. Just rejoice in Him. He's brought us into this place to humble us. O hallelujah. We worship you Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. O Father we count you faithful who's promised who will do it. Father we don't deny that it hurts. We don't deny that we're anxious. We don't deny that we are a people in need but we acknowledge that you know that we have need of these things. You've said if we would seek the kingdom first and your righteousness that all of these necessities would be added to us. You're proving to us that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of our God. Man does not live by the manifest promise but by the declared promise every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Your word is our meat; it's our strength, the source of our hope, the strength of our hearts. So again we climb this mountain Moriah, and our comfort, and our strength is in your presence. We're not caught up with the ram caught in the thicket our eyes, and our hope is in the lamb slain from before the foundations of the world. That sacrifice inserts the rams into our lives provides water from a rock. That presence sustains us for forty days and forty nights as it did Moses and Elijah. That presence alone as we embrace you in our garden of Gethsemane and know our own personal debts enables us to say not my will but thy will be done. Make it real to us Father in Jesus name. Amen. Before you go turn to somebody and say, God's not on trial. Go in peace God's love go with you.

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