Alright, Brother Gary Shepard
is from Jacksonville, North Carolina. He's been here a number of times. And I keep inviting him back.
I don't know. Somebody asked me, why did I
get these two guys for our Bible conference again this year? And
I said, because they come the cheapest, these two. Oh, they're dear friends. We've
known Tim and Debbie a long time. Betty a long time. Unfortunately,
Betty couldn't come with Gary, and we miss her. But very thankful,
Gary, you're here. You come and bring the devotional
to us this evening. We're glad to have you. It's good to see each and every
one of you again. Some of you I can keep up with
a little bit. I'm sort of a half lurker on
Facebook. Somebody got a new hairstyle,
I understand. Kathy picked blueberries and
Dan said she ate too much. Things like, important things
like that, you know. All right, open your Bibles,
if you would, to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 5. And while you're turning there,
I'd remind you that this book of Exodus is a book about redemption. And it is the redemption by blood
and by power of the nation of Israel, God's people, who are
a type and a picture of His spiritual Israel, His church. And we know that this redemption
in so many ways pictures true redemption. But the question, as I've been
studying the book of Exodus, came to my mind when I read a
couple of verses here in these early chapters as to what is
the purpose of redemption. Or why is it that God saves us? And if He saves us from our sins,
if we in His righteousness are suited and fit in Christ to be
instantly brought into His presence? Why does He leave us here on
this earth? What is our purpose as a redeemed
people? Well, if you look here in Exodus
5, I believe by what the Lord Himself says when He commands
Pharaoh To release the people, he also gives us maybe a hint
about the reason why we are redeemed and left to live here for a period
of time on this earth. In the first verse of chapter
5, when God is giving to Moses these specific instructions and
commands, It says, And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told
Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people
go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And then just two verses later,
he restates it again in verse 3. And they said, The God of
the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three
days' journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our
God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. And then if you look over in
Exodus chapter 7, in Exodus 7, as Moses continues to get these
instructions, verse 16 says, And thou shalt say unto him,
The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let
my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness. And behold,
hitherto thou wouldest not hear." Well, all of this, of course,
has to do with worship of God. And the only people on this earth
that can worship God or ever do worship God is that people
who are redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
and liberated. Only a liberated people can really
worship the Lord God. And if you notice here, in all
these instances, they are to go out three days' journey, redeemed
three days' journey into this wilderness, and they're there
to do these things, which those three days seem to always speak
to me about the death and the burial and the resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a saved, redeemed, delivered,
set free people. But they are delivered as we
are. They are set free in order to do some things. And since
there are no accidents or no extra things in Scripture, the
way that all these three verses state this, it seems like they
kind of sum up the whole of it in three things. The first thing
it says that this redeemed people, this liberated people that they
are to do, they are to go out into the wilderness and it says,
hold a feast. unto God." Hold a feast unto
Jehovah God. And I thought about it, that's
exactly what we do. We gather together, especially
in those times of worship, to hold a feast unto our We come
together and through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
feed on that one that's the bread of life. We drink of that living
water that bubbles up in our soul. And we receive in that
picture, as that was said in John 6, when he told them, except
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me. And what he was talking about
there is the spiritual appropriation by faith of the things of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We gather, the Word is preached,
we read about the manna, we read about those green pastures that
the sheep feed in, we hear about Christ. And rather than coming
together for some kind of morbid, despondent, bringing kind of
an occasion, we come together to feast in this wilderness on
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He spreads a table
for us in the midst of our enemies. And we are strengthened and nurtured
and blessed and rejoicing. And of all the things that we
have this tendency to do, but always do it in the wrong way,
the one thing He says that we can do and do to the fullness
is, He says, let your soul delight itself in fatness. Finally, something I don't have
to be warned about, died over, but the feast of the Lord. We
are to let our souls delight itself in fatness. The fatness of the things of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And even when we gather together
for the Lord's table, We are not gathered together to have
some kind of a pity party for Jesus. We gather around these
elements that represent the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and through these things we are brought to the remembrance of
Him and what He has done for us, and we feast on that. I can remember in religion, when
they'd turn the lights low and they'd light the candles and
everybody would slip around and do these things thinking they
were so spiritual and pious, but it's a feast. He said, do
it even in remembrance of me till I come, till I come. And then it says, that they were
to go out into the wilderness three days' journey and sacrifice. Oh, you say, well, that's all
past. No, it's not. The sacrifice of animals and
animal blood, surely that is, and that one sacrifice for sins
forever, that has been offered in the doing and dying of our
Lord Jesus Christ. But he leaves this with us, that
we are left in this world a kingdom of priests unto our God. And the priests offer the sacrifice. So what is our sacrifice? Turn
over to Hebrews chapter 13, and look down at that 15th verse. We have a sacrifice to offer
to God, actually sacrifices to God. Verse 15, the apostle says, by
Him, we don't do anything apart from Christ, but by Him, Therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." This
people being redeemed would go out in the wilderness. They would
wander in that wilderness forty years, and there never would
be a day that went by that a sacrifice of some kind was not offered
up to God. And so he says to us, as a redeemed
people, that we offer up the sacrifice of praise continually. Now listen to this. That is the
fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. We are to continually, prayerfully
offer up to God praise for who He is and praise for what He
has done, thanksgiving. Let me read you a verse out of
Jeremiah 33. This is one of those prophecies
that God gave and He brings it to pass in His redeemed people. Jeremiah 33, verse 10, it says,
Thus saith the Lord, Again there shall be heard in this place
which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast,
even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that
are desolate without man and without inhabitant and without
beast. they'll be heard, the voice of
joy, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the
voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, praise
the Lord of hosts, for He is good, the Lord is good, for His
mercy endureth forever, and of them that shall bring the sacrifice
of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause to return
the captivity of the land as at the first, saith the Lord." There is an awful lot of murmuring
going on these days about politics, about the economy and all that.
But in Jerusalem, in the church, There is to be constantly going
up thanksgiving and praise to God. And if you do that, it just
surprises you how little time you have to murmur. God, we thank You. We are to
think about Him and rejoice in Him and rejoice in His covenant
mercies. Rejoice in the things that Christ
rejoiced in. Father, I thank Thee. That you've
hid these things from the wise and prudent, but you've revealed
them unto babes. That's all I am, Lord. I'm a
babe. But thank you for revealing to me the mysteries and the wonders
of your own self and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ." And then
there was a third one, wasn't there? He said, you go three
days' journey in the wilderness. You're a redeemed people, liberated. He said that they might serve
me. Serve me. Do you remember when people used
to talk about going into full-time service for the Lord? True believers don't do that.
They're already in it. All God's people are in full-time
service to the Lord. But how do we serve the Lord?
I mean, what is the most fundamentally basic thing that the Lord's people
do to serve Him? Well, in truth, we serve the
Lord when we serve His church. We are to do all as unto the
Lord. As a redeemed people who are
bought with a price, we are to glorify God in our bodies and
our spirit, which are God's. We are bought with a price, and
so he says, be ye not the servants of men. But I think most of all, we serve
the Lord when we serve His people, when we serve our brethren. Our Lord in Matthew 25 says, you come on in and enter into
this blessing prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Come in you who have gave me
water to drink, who gave me this and that and the other who visited
me in prison?" And they said to the Lord Jesus, Master, when
did we do these things to you? He said, You did them to me when
you did them to the least of these, my little ones. When we serve the Lord's people. And he said, the one that would
be chief among you, greatest among you, let him be a servant.
But when we bear one another's burdens and when we extend out
our hand to lift up and help our brethren, oh, I know we're
to do good to all men, but he said, especially those that are
of the household of faith. When we serve one another, we
serve him. And that's what a redeemed people
do. We feast. Have you ever heard
somebody say, you know, well, I believe the Lord saved me.
What now? Well, we feast. The Lord sets a table for us
and we feast. And we sacrifice to Him the sacrifice
of praise and thanksgiving. continually. And we serve Him. We can't go up before His great
throne and do anything for Him. But we ought to always remember,
as much as we do for His people, we do for Him. And we serve Him. But only a liberated people,
only a people set free from all their sins, Only a people redeemed
by the precious blood of the Lamb of God can worship Him,
feast in Him, sacrifice to Him, and serve Him. Our Father, we pray in this hour
that we might, as a redeemed people, be made to rejoice in
our God. Lord, we pray that we might know
that spirit of liberty whereby, being set free, we might,
out of grateful and thankful hearts, thank you in these days. That we might sit forth and also
receive. the things that your people feast
on. And we pray, Father, that you might
meet with us, that through and by the Lord
Jesus Christ and His precious sacrifice, that we might give
praise and thanksgiving to you. In these days, Lord, that you've
set apart, we pray that all honor and all glory might be to you. We have, as your people even,
many individuals and many situations, many problems on our hearts and
our minds. But make, we pray, these hours
to be a little oasis to our souls, that we might rest and be refreshed,
that Christ might be glorified in everything that is said, everything
that is sung. And we pray that you'd receive
our thanks. Thank you so much for everything
that you give to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for saving us by grace. Thank you as God for acting like
God, and in so doing, giving us every reason to worship and
to honor you. We pray for all these situations,
especially all these individuals, family and friends and people
all around us, Lord, that You made to become a part of our
lives. We pray for Your people everywhere. We pray for Your servants who
labor to preach the gospel of Your glory, who seek to comfort
Your sheep. And may everything, both now
and for all eternity redound to your glory, worlds without
end. Forgive us and help us, for we
pray in Christ's name. Amen.