Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Preparation for Preservation Pt.3

Let's turn to Hebrews and pick up where we left off this morning. I don't know about you, a visit over there [Africa] is fine with me, then to come back here and take our chances with abundance. That's really what it is, a chance, because there isn't any stronger spirit than what we're contending with. The Scripture doesn't ever show any greater danger to man than prosperity. We can't take that lightly. We hear it, and we say, "Amen! Yeah, I understand that doctrine." We talked this morning about the fact that we're living in Sodom, being vexed every day. If we don't cleanse ourselves with the washing of the water of the Word, if we don't discipline ourselves (as we were talking about) taking control of our flesh and "bring our body under," as the apostle said, then we are going to be seduced by this covetous spirit and this discontentment. There's always more, isn't there? There's always bigger; there's always better. Though our tastes individually might be fairly moderate, we all still have the same thing working in our members, the same sin, and it's something that we have to be aware of.

So in this thirteenth chapter of Hebrews, where we were this morning, we were talking about the need to, "Let your [our] conversation [lives] be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he [the Lord] hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Hebrews 13: 13). So we got to study the lives a little bit of those who failed. We talked some about Esau this morning and what it was in this man that caused him to transgress. Listen to the indictment that the Word of God puts on him. We've studied the life of Esau and we see in Romans 9 that the Scripture starts off and it says, "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated." (Romans 9:13). That's not good, to start off with God hating you. How many of you have felt that way at times? It's an interesting thing. In the context, what is Romans 9 speaking of? That ninth chapter of Romans is talking about the sovereignty of God.

Remember, sovereignty is not something that negates the free moral agency of man. God is just. We realize that God, in His sovereign ability to govern as He wills (nothing can thwart the will of God), also moves in the attributes that we can't even comprehend. Much of God's sovereignty, or irresistible will, is the consequence of His eternal being, His foreknowledge. It's not a situation where indiscriminately God just sends one to heaven and another to hell, or loves this one and hates another.

He's was able to see, then, the beginning to the end before it ever came into existence. "Eternal" doesn't mean from point A to Z; it means at all times. He was before point A, and will be after point Z--no beginning, no end. In this being as God is, creation was an expression of His will. Having seen the beginning to the end of the material, to the continuation of the spiritual, He then governs by His sovereign being, power, and justice; and uses these things to His own purposes. Having known the hardness of Pharaoh's heart, He used it for His own glory Romans 9 tells us.

What we have to be very careful of is that we don't start judging God on what is right. "That doesn't seem right. That person seems to have gotten a raw deal." You'll always hear this from people who are discontent. There's always a murmuring, and they always feel, "I wasn't treated right. That wasn't right. I didn't get treated right. I didn't get what was rightfully mine. They didn't understand. I was misunderstood. I was abused." That's the lack of contentment, because it begins to say that God isn't in control. So, listen to yourself and find out whether you're always murmuring and complaining about circumstances and your lot in life. "I never get a break, and everybody treats me bad. Nobody loves me; everybody hates me. I'm going to eat a worm." We can look at our own hearts and ask how content we are in (as you look at the context here) "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." The heart of discontentment doesn't believe that God is in control of its life. We can identify that.

The indictment against Esau isn't based upon his action. Esau did not receive a judgment that came upon him because he made a mistake. He made the wrong choice because his heart was evil. His heart was evil from the beginning, and these circumstances just exposed who he was. In chapter 12, we hear the Holy Spirit say this about him. Look back to the twelfth chapter of Hebrews for just a second. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God" (verses14 and 15). That's an interesting statement. To wear out the grace of God is pretty tough, isn't it? He's merciful; He's longsuffering; He's not willing that any should perish--but He will not always strive with man. "Ten times have you said that I brought you out here to kill you. So die." God will let you die. If you keep insisting on dying, God will let you die. He will not always strive. He's merciful; He's longsuffering. Many of us seem to think that because God hasn't wiped us out, maybe He approves of what we're doing or how we're handling this; but there's a course of obedience and contentment that we need to be on. If we're not, then guess what? He's using us as vessels that are fit for destruction.

It's important that we understand where we are in the plan of God. Make sure, He says, that you "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." God's grace is sufficient. We experience adversities in life. God's trying us; He's testing to see where our hearts are. In the midst of that, one of two things can happen: you can either be broken and be purified, or there begins to be a root of bitterness. You begin to resent brothers and sisters always wanting to speak into your life. "Go talk to somebody that cares. Why don't you take care of your own life? Why is God always allowing this to go on? How come I'm not blessed like everybody else? Why am I not the most popular? How come nobody understands me?" A root of bitterness begins to trouble you.

Look what it goes on to say. "Lest there be any fornicator [that spirit of fornication], or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright" (verse 16). He didn't really sell it for that morsel of meat. The problem with Esau was he was a fornicator--spiritual idolatry. The love of self, gain, and ease meant more to him than the eternal and the spiritual. The Scripture calls him a "profane person." One who is "profane" is one who really just doesn't count holy the things of God. So the question we have to ask is, how holy are those things? Are we beginning to count common the things that are holy--the privileges of prayer, of community, of loving one another, of having someone sow into our lives and speak the Word of God to us, of giving of ourselves and preferring others better than ourselves, of offering up our lives and lifting up hands that are hanging down? Are all of these privileges that we have becoming mundane to us? Are these things beginning to become profane? Are we counting common the things that God calls holy? That's something we have to ask.

It begins to happen when we get seduced over into the other things--the other treasures, cares, and all that glitters in the world's system. You begin to hold up what's in the natural and say, "Okay, now we have a choice. We can minister and care for this uncomely member of the body of Christ, or we can take our free cruise to the Caribbean. Let me see now...uncomely brother/Caribbean...uncomely brother/Caribbean. I'd better pray. 'Lord, give us good weather in the Caribbean.'" Where are we, really? Do we even, does it even factor in? Are we even giving time? Are we pausing at these junctures to ask what we're going to do with our gifts, our strength, our time, and our ability; or are we already on a course, just rolling along, doing what comes naturally? We begin to pray and make sure that we are constantly hearing, ready to be moved out of our comfort zones. We can be easily seduced and we can lose sight of where the real treasures are.

That happened to Esau. As he wore himself out doing that he wanted to do, he was offered the morsel. We can't even comprehend this, can we--fooling around and getting to a place where you would give up your birthright for just a momentary bit of pleasure and physical nourishment? I wonder how many of us have put our birthrights in jeopardy for less than that. Yet God is merciful, isn't He? So as we look and we study the Scripture, we find out is that Esau just wasn't interested in spiritual things. Therefore, the Scripture says that before they were born God said, "Esau have I hated."

We've had a number of people, here over the years come and say, "I really think I'm one of those vessels that is just fit for destruction." It's perceived kind of like the unpardonable sin. What I've counseled them (either personally or through one of the deacons) is to make sure you ask them the question, "Does the fact that you think you're a 'vessel fit for destruction' bother you?" "Yeah, that bothers me." "Then you're not." If you were one of those, you wouldn't realize it and it wouldn't really matter to you. You don't see yourself that way. You see yourself as someone deserving to be the exception. "I deserve to be able to give up my birthright, eat and satisfy myself temporally, and now come back and assume my birthright. Surely there's no consequence." Beloved, there are consequences to these wrong choices.

Someone asked me concerning the life of Esau, "Didn't he eventually seem to get it together? When he confronted his brother (after wanting to kill him), wasn't he able to welcome him back in and embrace him?" Yes, he did, but it's interesting as you read the narrative that he was only able to do that after he had--if you read it--prospered. It specifically says that Esau was prosperous. Because of that, as his brother came, he didn't need anything from him. Now, he had his own. He had acquired it in his own strength and in his own way. Jacob says, "Here, I have an offering for you." Esau says, "No, I don't need it. I'm set." Jacob says, "I see that and I'm glad, but please receive this at my hands." Esau, the supplanter, had become the prince of God. Jacob, Israel, was now free from all of his manipulation. If you really look at these guys, Jacob was a conniver, and a deceiver; but from eternity, God is looking at two people and what does He see? One that has a heart for the eternal, and one that doesn't. God can get you through all of those character flaws and make you a prince if you'll stand up under the trials that are to come.

We don't have time to go into Jacob's life right now. We're familiar with that somewhat, and how he himself then was deceived and manipulated; yet God sustained him. What we want to do this evening is compare our lives with the heart of Esau--a profane person "who for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears" (Hebrews 12:17). What do you think allowed the deception of Isaac? Surely, God could have opened his eyes. We've seen the miraculous. The intention was always to get the blessing to Jacob. In studying this, I think that's a strange way to get it over there, but aren't the dealings of God a mystery? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have done it that way. I look at that and I go, "What's that all about?" I'll tell you what it's all about. There are a lot of us in life that say, "That doesn't seem fair; that doesn't seem right; that doesn't seem just. That poor person got ripped off." We don't know the wickedness of that "poor" person's heart (that poor, innocent person that didn't seem to be treated justly). How dare we judge God and His orchestration of His kingdom?

What we're learning from that is that God is able to take all of these different areas in life--even the things that are evil--and turn them around for good, the Scripture says. The Scripture says to bless our enemies. "Yeah, right!" Our trust is in God's ordering of our steps. We're looking at the character of our hearts and we see the judgment that came upon Esau. We were sharing this morning that commentators disagree some on what we're referring to in Esau's life today, when we talked about him going and marrying into Ishmael. Some commentators believe that he actually married Ishmael because he thought it would please his father. He had already married some Canaanite daughters, and then Dad said to his son, "You're not going to marry them!" Then Esau said, "Hey, maybe that's what ticked him off. Maybe I can get his favor by marrying a relative." If you're going to marry a relative, don't make it Ishmael, okay?

We know who came of these descendents, don't we? Edom. The Edomites are the ones that opposed Moses when he was trying to come through and receive the curse of God. It doesn't seem that anything he touched prospered. I wonder why. Even the desire to please Dad (if that's the way you want to interpret that) was done in his own strength. What have you done in your own strength? Ishmael was conceived in a man's own strength. Esau married in his own strength, in his own understanding: "This will please God. This will satisfy Him. This is what He really wants." He has already revealed what He wants in our lives. What He wants is for you and I to be content in what He's provided us, not thinking that we have to add to the justice, mercy, prosperity, or ability of God.

In the midst of all of that, we begin to examine our own hearts and our own contentment. The Scripture says as the apostle speaks, "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6). What is that telling us? It's just telling us to be satisfied with what our pursuit of the eternal affords us in the temporal, or the natural. Another way of saying it is just like Jesus said it, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you," and, "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content." Let's say that again: "Having food and raiment, let us therewith be content." How much food, do you think? What does the Scripture say? Give us this day our daily bread. Okay, having sufficient for the day then (the biscuit in hand), let us be content. Having the raiment (coat and cloak), let us be content. A lot of the world lives that way. Can I ask you a question? How many of you have more than the morsel at hand, more than the shirt on your back, and you're not content?

To not be content with food and raiment means discontentment comes into what? This other word that we've been talking about, what is it? "Covetousness." The Scripture says that covetousness is idolatry. When we begin to see the progression of this discontentment, and what our society is breeding in us, we need to become aware, concerned with how we're perceiving our lot in life. Godliness with contentment is great gain. How many of you know that, as the song says, "Earthly things have left you dry; only He can satisfy. All I want is more of You." How many of you have experientially found that? How many of you are the happiest, most content, feel the safest, your mind feels whole, there are no distractions at those moments of prayer, of intercession, of praise--when you know the presence of God? How many of you know what I'm talking about? How many of you wish you could keep that awareness twenty four hours a day? Do you? How many of you don't?

So the moment we move out of that presence, what do we naturally gravitate to? The moment we're out of His presence, what do we naturally gravitate to? We're gravitating--anytime we're out of that awareness of God's presence--toward what the lusts of the flesh want. They may be limited; they may not even be immoral. It may be something that's just amoral, but it is not that presence, the awareness of that godliness. We can be aware of His presence on the job. We can be aware of His presence going down the road, or whatever it is. But let's discipline our minds to be aware so that we can hear that voice when it's time to speak to this person, so that we're in a position where it's very natural for us to just forsake everything and follow Him, so that we would never question the biblical principles.

Someone was telling me just the other day--it was in the deacon's meeting--that they had heard a testimony. I don't remember what the whole story is. They had either heard a testimony, talked to the guy personally, or whatever. There was somebody in the ministry had prayed and was seeking God (I believe for a wife), and the Lord led him to an unsaved person. They married this unsaved person and left the ministry. I think this is how the story goes. The story's not that important; it's the point we're going to make here. I hope the facts are accurate. There are no names to protect the innocent, and we'll do the best we can. My understanding is that as time went on, the wife got saved and they went back into the ministry; or he went back into the ministry with an unsaved wife, and then she got saved. One of those two things happened. Anyway, she got saved. "Hallelujah! It's the will of God!" Can I ask you a question? Is that the will of God? "It's got to be! It turned out good. Great testimony, they're both saved!" How many of you know that God can take evil and turn it for good? The whole point is that you can sin (you can follow your own appetites) and God can turn and bless you in the end--but don't call it the "will of God." The will of God is the end result, but not the course. There was no guarantee that this would end this way. Maybe within these persons and God's foreknowledge, He saw, preserved, and established; but beloved, that is not the established will of God.

So we're saying all of that to say this: what are we doing with the known will of God? Many of us want to pray, "What does God want me to do in this area? What does He want me to do here?" What are you doing with the revealed will of God? What are we doing with being witnesses on the job right now? What are we doing with caring for one another and lifting up hands that are hanging down? So many of us are praying for guidance in the unknown. What are you doing with what you know to do this evening? Are you content with where God has placed you?

Many of us are praying, "Lord, what do you want me to do? Oh God, what do You want me to do?" He wants you to do what He's put you here to do. It's only discontentment that has you looking out here for what else He wants you to do. He wants you to do what's at hand. We seem to think that's spiritual: "I'm looking for something bigger and better to do for God!" Why don't you do what He's called you to do? Why don't you be a faithful wife, an obedient child, or a diligent, caring husband. Because we don't do what we've been called to do, we try to come up with these other testimonies of something we did for God while we weren't obeying Him. God will not always strive, the Scripture says.

As we end for this evening, the thing that I want to encourage us in tonight is the only time we know that peace is in those quiet times with Him and the fruit that follows, the obedience that comes with that. Stop and think about it. That is my own personal experience. That's the only time that I'm perfectly at peace. Whatever that course is that He sets for us from that time, of being able to go and die to self and serve someone else, to go into areas that are not your comfort zone and, as Paul said in the Timothy passage that we were reading, "I'm here for the purpose of conveying the gospel." Even though the circumstances aren't comfortable, you're content. I've shared with you before that some of the greatest times of contentment in my life have been in some of the most physically uncomfortable times. In different outreaches--whether in India, the times in Africa, or here in the States--different things we've done, the confrontations, even things we've had to face here through the years, those times of knowing that you were following the will of God at personal cost; "This is not me. I have died to myself to pursue the purpose and the glory of God." Then why would we think and why would we believe the lie that those other things will satisfy us? Why will we believe the lies of discontentment when godliness with contentment is the only gain? We all have the right doctrine; we all gave the right answers and responses tonight. We asked the question, "Do you want it twenty four hours?" "Yeah!" It's available. It's available at a price. What's it going to cost you? I don't know. I can't answer that for you. You have to get in that place with Him and say, "Father, I just don't want to have anything but this awareness of being about Your business." Like Joshua was, to where you don't want to leave the tabernacle. That presence is the only thing that satisfies.

We're going to talk about that in our next session, entering into the presence of God and the drawing of strength. That's all that will preserve us in this last day. If you can't taste that and you're not aware of it, you will be seduced. The enticement will be beyond the natural ability to stand. We must learn that life in the spirit so that we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God. As we look at the lives of these men like an Esau, who wasted his life as a profane individual, counting common the things that were holy, help us, Father, to be aware not only of Your presence, but to be in pursuit of Your presence. If we don't acknowledge it, Proverbs 3 says You can't direct our path. We can count it so common (thinking that it's ours anytime that we want it) that we become as deluded as Samson, playing little games with the temptress. Satan will gladly play little games and let you think you're winning. He'll set you up. When the tempter finally wears you down and says, "What is this your power?" "I'm a Nazarite, and a razor [because of the covenant] has never been put to my hair." It wasn't the hair; it was the covenant. It was the covenant that he despised. It was the covenant that he opened up to this vile woman. It was the covenant that meant less than his own natural gratification and lust, and he despised the covenant for the temporal pleasure of this harlot. He became the same fornicator as Esau.

How valuable is the covenant that you've cut with Jesus in redemption and regeneration? Is it a profane thing? How much do you appreciate the privilege of being able to boldly access His presence? Beloved, this cannot be taken as common. Not all men can do this. We've been given the privilege of coming into the presence of God by the blood of Jesus Christ. Men can't just come to God. We've been called, the access is by grace and faith, and we enter in boldly as sons of God. What a privilege! Do you hold that more valuable than anything in the natural? If not, then you're a candidate for seduction. You're prey for the roaring lion. Have you withheld nothing from yourself like Solomon? Then you're becoming weaker with everything you taste, every appetite you fulfill. Every time you refuse to deny yourself, you become weaker. While men call you great and kings come to look at your treasures, you became poorer and weaker, crying out "It's vanity and vexation. It's evil under the sun. Everything you gain you leave to another, and you have no knowledge as to how they will use or abuse it."

It makes you wonder sometimes if it wouldn't be wiser to tell our children that we're going to leave them nothing in the natural, that we're only going to leave them a spiritual heritage and everything that's material at the end will just be given to God; and let them see what the real treasures are. Scripture allows us to do other than that, and we do lay up for the children as the Scripture says. Beloved, you've done them no good to leave them something that's temporal if you haven't left them the character, the heritage, and the understanding of how these are memorials to where God has brought us from. If we have ears, let's hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

Let's stand in His presence tonight. As Janet plays for us, we'll take a moment and just rejoice in that privilege we have as sons of God to access the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus. Some trust in horses and some in chariots, but our hope is in the Lord our God. Do we look to the hills from whence comes our help? How content do you find yourself this evening? Does He totally satisfy you? Are you one of the murmurers in the wilderness? Every time things get a little tough, "There's no water, and there's no..." and you begin to murmur. "God brought us out here to kill us. This doesn't seem fair. I never get a break in life." Then you've got the heart of an Esau. "Things aren't real comfortable now, but we're not in Egypt, praise God! He's brought us out and He said He'd bring us in." "Yeah, but this is tough. It's hot out here, and there's no water." "He said He'd bring us in, praise God!" "Yeah, but it's going to take a lot of work and I'm going to have to pray, and fast, and forsake all of the pleasures that everyone else is enjoying." "Yeah, there are walled cities. There are giants, but let's go up at once and possess it, praise God!" Let's be of another spirit, like Caleb, and "apprehend that for which we are apprehended," the apostle said in Philippians. It's not going to be without a cost. There's nothing easy about it, and this world is trying to seduce us with ease and equalities, the spirit of socialism (the most damnable spirit; it's anti-Christ). I don't mean just political socialism. Answer the question. "I deserve better than this." You deserve hell! That's what you deserve. Everything beyond hell is the gift of God. Are you thankful tonight? "But I don't have a great job." Are you thankful for the unspeakable gift? "I don't have a spouse." Are you thankful for the unspeakable gift? "My body is in pain. I have this physical problem. I have this sickness." Are you thankful for the unspeakable gift and the great gain of godliness? "Behold, what manner of love has been bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God."

Oh, we're so thankful, Father! How can we stand in the midst of all of this abundance in the natural and feel sorry for ourselves? What a shame; what a reproach. Even beyond the abundance that You've given us in the natural, we've forsaken the real treasure and even been totally blinded to it when our thoughts are taken up by those temporal things. So we ask You to redirect our course, to open our eyes, for a broken and contrite heart You will not despise. As David cried out in his Psalm, "Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence. Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." When that's the cry of our heart, we're preparing for the preservation of the presence of God. Make it real Father, we ask. In Jesus' name. As we prepare to sing this chorus, let's become that vessel to honor. "Change my heart, oh God. Make it ever true..." Oh Lord, as we're free from this vexation we can set our course on the things that are above. Hallelujah! Don't say, "Why have you made me thus?" Vessels of honor. Hallelujah! It's our heart's desire, Father, and we ask that in the midst of this warfare You would give us eyes to see. Father, in this hour of deception that we would be a people that have ears to hear; in this environment of vexation that we would be washed with the water of the Word. As Peter cried out, "Wash me thoroughly!" the Lord said, "No, you don't need it thoroughly, but you do need your feet washed. You do need to be cleansed by the water of the Word. You've been regenerated, but you need to be refreshed." We ask, Father, that we be aware of that daily, and that we'd refresh ourselves, that the vision would be new and fresh, and we would seek Your will. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Hallelujah! Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Godliness with contentment is great gain." Praise God.

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