All right, so we're dealing with
our second point in our outline. We dealt with last week at length
the whole concept of the Jewish synagogue. And we spoke to the
strategy of the apostle Paul and Barnabas as they were beckoned
upon to speak as we read in verse 15. And then in verse 16, we
are told with regards to what the apostles did when Paul stood
up and beckoning with his hand He said, men and brethren, having
made that statement, he is acknowledging them when he says, men and brethren,
men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience, or that is,
listen to us. That would have been a signal
for a disarrayed congregation that would have broken up for
a few minutes for some coffee, some tea, some crumpets, some
falafel bread, or whatever they were doing in the first century.
now they would be called upon to focus on the speaker for this
part of the worship. And we talked about the uniqueness
of that and how that it had its sort of framework affirmed or
echoed in 1 Corinthians 14, didn't we? In 1 Corinthians 14, we talked
about how that the structure of worship was organized by the
apostle. And he told the church at Corinth
If there be any word of proclamation, any prophecy setting forth, let
it be by most three, that is two or three, and then let one
interpret if we're speaking from the gift of languages, and if
there's just a prophecy taking place, only three. And then you
and I talked about why we have moved from a sort of loose, not
prescriptive, but descriptive sort of pattern in giving given
in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 where that happens. In some churches
you have models of church government where there will be multiple
elders and maybe two elders will speak and sometimes even three. I don't know if you guys know
any of the churches called the brethren churches. Anybody know
any of our brethren churches? So some of our brethren churches
are multiple elder churches and depending on the strength of
the leadership at that time, So my laptop just died if you
want to come get it, Rick. I'm not seeing what you see. They would have two or three
men speak. That could be a positive and it could be a negative. We
talked about that at length last week. If one of them is moved
and guided by the spirit and they've studied their word and
they are good exegetes, the people are going to be blessed. But
if somebody gets up there saying that, you know, I waited on the
Lord to give me a revelation. And he just gave me one. And
then they go to talking, as you guys know, and he talking out
of the side of his head, then we know the Lord didn't give
him a revelation. And one of the reasons why at present what
you have in our present churches, this will help you because we've
got Christians who will Um, say, well, why do you do it this way?
Why do you do it that way? Why do you do it the other way?
And some of them mean well, particularly if they are, uh, newer in Christ
and don't understand why we have sort of honed in on certain patterns
of worship. They mean well, but other people
are simply asking, why don't we do it a different way? Because
they just basically like doing things differently. Now that
kind of attitude is probably not safe to yield to. And so
when you go to a church and you meet a group of leaders who will
be elders and therefore governors of that local body, and they
don't quickly jump to change policies in the church just because
you want it changed, they're probably solid men. Your church
is in danger when anyone rises up and wanting to just change
something for the sake of change. Your church is in danger. Every
church should be able to defend its practice, its protocol, biblically
and soundly, but it certainly does not have to change its practice
because one or two or a few other people say, you know, it would
probably be better, you know, more people can get involved
and we think it would have a more equitable impact if you would
decide to kind of open the floor up for people to talk. You guys
can see that danger, can't you? And so what the, Western churches
have discovered, and I think this probably also proceeded
out of the Eastern church, is that it would be wiser for the
local church to have one central teacher who is committed to the
task of biblical exposition to be the primary, not exclusive,
but primary teacher setting forth the word of God to the congregation. With that model, the congregation
is more likely to be on the same page. And unity in the church
is critical. Where you have four or five Indian
chiefs, you're going to have problems in the church. So a
solid church that is theologically sound, it has a good ecclesiology,
We'll have a head pastor. These days we call them senior
pastors and associate pastors and all of that. Those are unbiblical
terms. He's just a pastor. And there
may be elders ruling with him co-jointly. But in your wiser
churches, there's one teaching pastor and all the other ones
are teaching in conjunction with our concert with his primary
teaching. And when the other elders decide
to start teaching something different, than the main pastor's teaching,
it's time for that elder to go start a church. You hear me? If, in fact, he feels compelled
to actually teach contrary to that which is, first of all,
laid down in the policies of the doctrines of the church,
and then also in the main teaching ministry of the head pastor.
You guys can see how division can crop up real easy, where
the leadership is not of one mind and of one message. You
guys can see that. So this is to quell any notion
that the idea of having one pastor teaching as a primary pastor
is questionable, not a good idea. I think it's a great idea. In
fact, my experience is that churches that are best served and most
healthy are churches where there is strong leadership, starting
with the pastor, who has a comprehensive understanding and sensitivity
to the whole scope of the ministry. so that even though he is the
head pastor, he understands delegation of authority and the application
of those delegated authorities for the purpose of the unity
and the strength of the local body, but certainly, and more
importantly, for the witness of the church outside your four
doors, or your two doors, or your 10 doors, whatever the doors
there in that local church is. I say all that as we are moving
now into what is really a unique framework for the apostle Paul
and Barnabas as they're speaking in this congregation. He's standing,
he's not sitting, but that's not what we call a prescriptive
role. I told you last week in certain
parts of Israel, some men sat. One of the most prominent emphasis
of the sitting position, the seated position, the seated in
a position of authority and teaching is given to us in Luke's gospel
chapter four, where we have our Lord's first sermon recorded. where the minister of the church
stands up and reads the scripture. And then, rather he, sorry, the
scriptures are given to Christ to read. The minister takes the
scriptures and then sits down and Christ sits and starts teaching
the word. That's your typical synagogal
structure. And primarily throughout the
whole of Christ's ministry, he sat and talked. And I already
told you, Maybe in about three years, that's what I'm gonna
be doing, sitting and teaching. I roam around now, but as these
bones get to aching a little bit, I'm gonna have me a Beamer
seat. All right, let's go to work.
Point number two, this is really interesting. The Apostle Paul
now sets out to deal with the history of Israel. So we're gonna
do a little bit of exegesis, but we're gonna run through our
PowerPoint. So our second point speaks to the history of redemption
And what? The history of redemption and
failure. What a big topic that the apostle now is dealing with
as he speaks to this one synagogue up in the area of Pisidia, which
is the Antiochian area of Asia Minor. The historical or history
of redemption and failure. He's getting ready to chew off
a lot of information, isn't he? He's getting ready to talk about
the whole history from Abraham all the way up to Christ. And
so under that statement, the history of redemption and failure,
verses 17 through 19, I'm gonna read them and we're gonna go
back and draw out the fundamental doctrinal truths consistent with
it. Notice what he says, once he
says, give audience men of Israel and ye that fear God. So the
implication of the last part of verse 16 is what? There are
Jews and Gentiles in that audience, correct? He says, give audience
to the men of Israel and ye that fear God. What's the distinction?
You got Jews and Gentiles. Verse 70, the God of this people
Israel chose our fathers and they exalted the people and exalted
the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt
and with an high arm brought he them out of it. about the
time of 40 years suffered he their manners in the wilderness
we're gonna talk about that here shortly and when he had destroyed
seven nations in the land of Canaan he divided their land
to them thus is the reading of God's Word right there is where
I want to stop the history of redemption and failure what Paul
does is given a short terse sort of commentary and this is Luke
under inspiration of the Spirit. He starts off when he gets the
audience of the men, both Jews and Gentiles, he starts off in
verse 17 with who? God. Do you guys see that? He
starts off with God. This is Elohim. This is the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He starts off the way the Bible
starts off. In the beginning, what? God.
He starts off the way the Hebrew writer starts off. God at sundry
times and sundry manners spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son. This
is a tactical device on the part of Paul. Why? Because the people
to whom he's speaking largely are Jewish and they are identified
with the true and the living God. And for them to hear the
speaker starting with Elohim or Jehovah is for them to know
that the speaker knows who they are. This then also is a very
important device when it comes to teaching and preaching because
shouldn't you know your auditors when it comes to how you're going
to address them? Shouldn't you know the people to whom you're
speaking? If you are speaking to a room full of people and
they are all pagan, unbelievers, and maybe professing agnostics
or atheists, do you think it would be practically wise to
start your message off with a concept for which they are alien? The
answer is no. How do we know that? Because
in other approaches of ministry, the apostles would use different
tactics. This is something I learned long
ago about ministry. When I was a new Christian, I
didn't distinguish that concept when I was dealing with people.
You know how we zealous Christians are? We talk about God everywhere
we go, right? But what we get surprised about
is that everyone does not respond to the God term the way you thought
they would, right? And it was because we were making
an assumption that everyone who heard the word God even believed
that there was a God. But when you live in a culture
like we do, a very pluralistic culture, a very relativistic
culture, and people are very educated in their several worldviews
today, are they not? We're not living in a culture
where people are vulnerable to information no matter from whom
it comes. We're living in a culture, particularly
if you're dealing with your Gen Xers and your Millennials, and
maybe even some baby boomers who were exposed to unbiblical
ideologies over the last 30, 40 years. When you say God, certain
people will say, what gives you the right to even assume that
there's a God? Right. And see, so what we tell
people in evangelism is, if you're going to evangelize somebody,
you better actually know what worldview they hold. You need
to be very clear on how they think and what is the foundation
of their thought process, their prism of interpreting life. Because
if they have been educated out of their minds by college or
high school, so as to believe that it is not only just archaic
to believe in a God, it's rationally implausible. If they hold to
the implausibility of belief in God, the first hurdle you
have to overcome is their prejudice against the plausibility of a
God. Otherwise, you don't know this, you're gonna be talking
apples and oranges. You're gonna be wondering why
they're not filling you and why you're not filling them. Because
you didn't discover that at the foundation of your discourse
that they don't even believe that it makes sense to believe
in a God. That means you've got your work
cut out in terms of demonstrating to them the rationality of believing
in God. That it is not only rational,
it's sane to believe in God. That's an argument in itself.
Well, Paul doesn't have to deal with that. And what we would
call that, that is what Paul is not having to deal with, is
this. Most of us have the comfort of singing to the choir. And
most of us have had the experience in our walk as a Christian in
this American culture of speaking to people who have been exposed
to the Bible and exposed to church and exposed to God. So our discourse
with people around God is fairly easy. Isn't that true? But if
you were living in certain parts of Europe or France or England
or other parts of the world where they have made it their business
to put God out of their minds, you would have a hard task engaging
them rationally and propositionally about God. So Paul gets to speak
to the congregation and he opens up by saying, the God of our
fathers, the God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and
exalted this people when they dwelt in the land of Egypt. And
with a high arm, he brought them out. He did three fundamental
things. He said, God chose them, God
raised them up, and then God brought them out. God chose them,
God raised them up, and then God brought them out. So under
the heading of the history of redemption and failure, there
are three things that I pull out of verse 17 through 19 that's
just worth marking. God is the one that chose Israel. You guys got that? So this whole
matter of the existence of Israel, as is the whole matter of the
existence of the church, is a consequence of who's choosing. This whole
matter of the existence of Israel And this whole matter of the
existence of the church is a matter of God's choice. God chose us. We didn't choose
him. You guys got that? God chose
us. And you and I, if we're believers
today, are precisely in the same position that national Israel
is in terms of a history of God working in our life with our
forefathers up to this present time with us. The New Testament
Church is the Israel of God. When you allow the New Testament
to speak, all of the nomenclature and titles and phrases that apply
to Israel apply to the church today. For we have our roots
in Father Abraham, do we not? And as a consequence, when we
talk about things like Elohim or Jehovah or the Lord Jesus
or the triune God or the Word of God when we talk about Synagoguing
as we talked last week The same thing is true of the Ecclesia,
that is the church of the living God. When we talk about worshiping
God and sacrifices and all of the nomenclature that goes into
what the gospel of redemption is, we know that language, we
understand that's how God worked in history to call a people out
of darkness into his marvelous light. Israel would know that
by reflecting upon what God had done from the time that Paul
is talking in about AD 37, AD 39, right about now, going all
the way back to the days of Moses, 1500 years before Christ. So it's a 1500 year history that
Paul is talking from up to their present time, 1500 years. For
you and me, it's been 2000 years since the days of Christ. But
time is relative, is it not, when we're talking about the
work of God? 3,500 years for the Jews, and especially for
the Christian Jew, when they listened to the message of redemption
of the people of God from the days of Abraham to the present
hour, 3,500 years. And so we quickly affirm this
by Amos chapter three, verse two. Do you wanna settle a fundamental
truth? God chose the children of Israel.
They didn't choose him. And God specifically speaks to
this in the little book of Amos chapter 3 verse 2. And just mark
the terminology. Some of you guys already know
this theology and know even the doctrine of election and the
doctrine of God's choice. But I want you to mark this in
a historical context. The literal children of Israel
were God's people exclusively distinct from all the other peoples
of the world. And here's how God puts it in
Amos chapter 3, verse 1 and 2. Hear this word that the Lord
has spoken unto you, O children of Israel, against the whole
family which I brought up from the land of what? Right, so the
context is the same. Saying, you only have I known
of all the families of the earth. See that first line? When the
term you only have I known is used, the word known in this
context is not referring to prescience or information or data on a cognitive
level. In other words, when God uses
a term, no, in the context of his people, it's a covenant knowledge
that is exclusive to his knowing them in a particular way, different
than all the other people in the world. You guys mark that.
All right. So particularly that's important
because when we're dealing with the new Testament concept of
knowledge, it is fundamentally the same. We get into areas of
election, predestination, or foreknowledge. Sometimes the
terminology kind of gets lost in the fog because we don't understand
its use contextually. The word know is a word that
has many meanings behind it, as you know. Gnoskis is a common
Greek term that fundamentally means an experiential knowledge
of something that is unique to the subject-object relationship.
and experiential knowledge that is unique to the subject-object
relationship. And that's why the word Gnoskis
is often translated to know in the intimate sense. Joseph did
not know Mary until after Jesus was born. Well, he knew her before
Jesus was born. But you guys know what I'm talking
about, right? And see, now I'm using know in a different sense,
am I not? So this is a universal. the kind of terminology that
a work can have multiple meanings in its context. When God says
here in the mouth of Amos, you only have I known of all the
families of the earth, he says, he's saying that you only have
I brought into a covenant relationship, a covenant bond, like a husband
is brought into with his wife. And even though a lot of people
might know your wife, sir, they don't know your wife like you
know your wife, not even your wife's parents. know your wife
like you know your wife. This is the privilege of that
intimate relationship language. And this is certainly true when
it comes to a believer. Think about this child of God.
No one knows you like your savior knows you. Do you got that? And
this actually is designed to bring comfort to us in the midst
of everybody thinking they know you when they don't know you
like your savior knows you. You know, sometimes you have
to say to people, you don't know me. You think you know me, you
don't know me. But the Lord knows you, doesn't
he? The Lord knows you. And in this context, it's important
for us to understand that he's saying to them, now, because
I know you the way I do, and this knowledge involves a level
of sacrifice and purpose and determination and objectives
and goals for which I have committed myself to you, I have to discipline
you. because you have violated the
terms of the covenant. You guys see that? It's in that
latter part. Therefore, will I what? Punish you for all your
iniquities. Isn't that crazy? You only have
I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, will I
punish you for all your iniquities. Now, that doesn't make sense
to a person on the outside of the covenant. But for those who
are on the inside of the covenant, it does make sense, doesn't it?
Now watch this. All whom the Lord loves, he what? Now does it make sense? because
it was written specifically in the covenant, both in the Old
Testament, that is in the Torah, as well as throughout the whole
of the Tanakh, that if you disobey my commandment, if you break
my covenant, I will chastise you. I will discipline you. I
will cause brass to fill the heavens and your ground will
turn to dust and you will experience famines and pestilences. And
ultimately, if you disobey me, I will bring in other nations
and they will take you out of this land and drive you far away.
And did not God do all that? Yes, he did. That's basically
where we're going in our outline as Paul continues to develop
that. Well, so God chose them according to Amos 3, 2. And then
secondly, God also redeemed them. Redeem them the people that God
chooses he chooses for the purpose of redeeming So if you and I
tell someone I'm chosen of God You have to also say that I'm
the redeemed of God Because there's no one that God has chosen that
he also has not redeemed You guys follow that logic now. This
again is laid out in Exodus chapter 20 verses 1 through 3 Let's go
there for a moment and look at that language just to underscore
it Now, what we're doing is we're just basically regarding the
implications of Paul's opening comments around the historicity
of national Israel. He's leading them to a place
that he knows they're not going to like, but they're not going
to be able to deny the tenor of the history and the consistency
of the relationship between them and God during the tenor of that
history that leads up to Jesus, and so he has to do it. This
is a roundabout way of Paul getting to a point that he knows they're
going to ultimately reject. We read in Exodus chapter 20,
verse one, two, and three. Are we there? And God speak all
these words saying, I am the Lord your God, that is Jehovah
Elohim, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of bondage. You guys see that language? Now,
God says that a lot in the Old Testament. He reminds Israel
over and over and over again, I brought you out. What he's trying to get her to
understand and get Israel to understand, remember the three
covenant models? The first covenant model is the
father-son paradigm. The second covenant model is
what? The king-servant, king-servant paradigm. The third model is
the husband-wife paradigm. Those are the three primary paradigms
that run through the scriptures and dominate our world, right?
I keep laying that out. You and I are the product of
a sonship paradigm where we all have fathers, and we are the
children of the fathers, the patriarchal model. Obviously,
mothers are there. That's how children are born,
right? So the father-son paradigm is there. And then we have the
king-servant paradigm. That's where we are right here,
the king-servant paradigm. This is the king-servant paradigm.
Exodus 20 describes your treaties of covenant between a people
who have been redeemed or purchased or claimed through war by a king
who has brought them out from under the power of another sovereign
nation and then owns them as his. This is God speaking to
them as God, but also speaking to them as their redeemer. And
when he's talking to them as God, he's saying, I am your king
and therefore you are my servants. I purchased you, I redeemed you. I bought you out of the house
of bondage. You were a slave in Egypt. I
purchased you. You are my slaves now. You guys
follow the logic? And then he moves on into verse
three when he says, You shall have no other gods before me. See it? You shall have no other
gods before me. A strong treatise covenant language
that identifies God as their ruler, the God King, the God
King. And he reminds them that the
basis upon which he is the God King is because of what he did
in delivering them out of Egypt by an outstretched arm and a
mighty hand and then bringing them through the Red Sea. These
people are free from Egyptian bondage and they have been purchased
by a power greater than themselves. And they have been now named
after that king now being called Israel, the Israel of God. They
are at this point now being made a people of God. Mount Sinai
is the place where Israel officially becomes the people of God. Prior
to that, all they are are Hebrews. You know what Hebrews are? Vagabonds, travelers, meandering
up and down the desert lands from Babylon, hithering yon,
waiting for God to show up to do something that their fathers
told them that God had told their original father Abraham he would
do. So they find themselves in Egyptian bondage in a situation
that was horrible in his predicament, and they're crying out. They
don't know the truth of the living God from the man on the moon,
but God knows them. And at the appointed time, even
as he had told Abraham, this is where Paul is going, I will
bring your children out in four generations, and I will bring
them into the land which I have shown you. And what they are
experiencing in Exodus 20 is God fulfilling his promise to
Abraham. But they don't know him personally,
yet he knows them. And what they're experiencing
is deliverance and liberation from a captivity and bondage
that they could never have delivered themselves from, not on the basis
of what they have done, but on the basis of a covenant made
between two other people. And that is God and Abraham.
And the parallel is this to you and me, if you don't get it.
You and I were slaves in bondage to sin, hell, and death, and
the devil ruled our life. But because of a covenant made
between two other persons, God the Father and God the Son, God
in his mercy brought us out in the appointed time, having redeemed
us by the blood of the Lamb, and brought us as it were through
the Red Sea of the crosswork of Jesus Christ, and he made
us his sons and daughters by faith in him. You see the parallelism?
So here, you and I, and I've said this before, the New Testament
church is going through the wilderness itself right now. The New Testament
church is passing through the wilderness of this world. And
God is constantly saying to the New Testament church, I am your
God. You are my people. Therefore,
act like it. You shall have no other gods
before me. Let's go back to our text and consider one last point
before we move forward. Acts chapter 13, notice how Paul
tersely addresses this language. This is interesting. He says
in verse 17 and 18, the God of this people Israel chose our
fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers
in the land of Egypt and with an high arm he brought them out. And about the time of 40 years
suffered he their manners in the what? That's a very nice
way to put it. For about the space of 40 years
suffered he their Manners So let's look at our PowerPoint
for a moment. I just want to call your attention to something and this
is a chain-link connection from the purposes of God in eternity
practically worked out in the choice that he made in Jesus
Christ and Then the outcome of that choice that in time he redeemed
us but the redemption process that God engages us in as his
people Requires God to be towards us long-suffering So I want to
make sure that we understand it contextually a little bit
But also definitely want to make sure that the application comes
home to you and me Because sometimes we will act like We are different
the national Israel Can I tell you something? It's not true
we are just like them in so many ways. Now, Mark, what I say,
God chose them, God redeemed them, and God what? Suffered
them. Now, that little, not adjective,
but that little pronoun them can be removed and the pronoun
us can be put there. God chose us, God redeemed us,
God suffers present tense us you believe that he suffers us
He suffers up. He suffers us just like any parent
suffers their children That's true he suffers us Now in my
outline I have Psalm 78 now Psalm 78 is the whole history of God
suffering the children of Israel Psalm 78 is connected to New
Testament commentary and that's Hebrews chapter 3 go there for
a moment I will show you what the Hebrew writer says around
this commentary and we'll we'll get the gist there Now in the
New Testament, there are a couple of terms that are used for how
God deals anthropopathically with his children anthropomorphisms
are Human-like attributes by which God displays his interaction
with his people Because God is spirit an infinite, pure spirit. Intrinsically, his characteristics
are not necessarily in relationship to the objects of his love and justice. They are not
necessarily proceeding from his ontological perfections. I say
necessarily, because when we are talking about God in his
pure essence, we have to admit that God is not like a man, right? He's not like you and me. So
in the pure ontological nature of God being pure spirit, he
is transcendently removed from any intrinsic necessity to be
moved by, or perturbed by, or controlled by, or influenced
by anything that the creatures do. That would make him limited
in his sovereignty and in his transcendence if he were necessarily
affected by his creatures. Do you guys follow me so far?
I'm gonna say it a little bit differently if I can help make
it come home just a little bit. There are two sides to God. There's
the side of God that describe his attributes and characteristics
that are non-communicable to us, incommunicable to us, that
is we can never ever understand or comprehend The impeccableness
of God are the perfections of God in his uniqueness as being
holy, as being pure spirit, as being infinitely intelligent
with all of the what we call omni-attributes. Omni-potent,
omni-present, omni-knowing, and every other omni where God possesses
within himself full powers of intellect, full powers of knowing,
full powers of being, and he is free from, necessarily so,
the influences that the creature might seek to impose upon him.
But that's not true for you and me. You and I are creatures ourselves.
That means when we have children, we are necessarily influenced
by them because we are ontologically connected to them And their problems
become our problems even if we don't want them to. You know
how you say sometimes, I'm not going to let that boy bother
me. It only lasts for about a minute. And then it comes back. Is that
true? I am not going to let that child bother me. She's on her
own. I've told her 100 times. I've
told him 1,000 times. I'm just going to leave him to
the Lord. That lasts about five minutes. And for some strange
reason, you're drawn back in to contemplate their plight.
And on a good day, they can get inside your head and get what
they need. Isn't that true? Now, God does that with us. Are you ready? Simply because
he wants to, not because he has to. You got that? That's where
the word suffer comes in. Suffer. He suffers us. Here's
how the Hebrew writer put it. So I want you to understand suffering
is a good word. Okay. Suffering is a good word.
Cause if God didn't suffer us, we'd have real problems. So the Hebrew writer tells us
in Hebrews chapter three, I'm going to start at a verse 16
and go through verse, uh, 18 really is verse 17. This is the
commentary, verse 16. For some, when they had heard,
did provoke, albeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but
with whom was he, that is God, grieved 40 years? See how the
New Testament writer uses the word grieved? With whom was he
grieved 40 years? Was it not with them that had
what? Sin, whose carcasses ended up falling in the wilderness.
Going back over to verse seven of chapter three, notice what
it says. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost said, today, if you will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the what? And the
Hebrew writer here is using this word provocation to denote the
whole period of time when God had brought Israel out of Egypt
until he had brought them into the land of Canaan. That whole
40 year period was a period of provocation. This is remarkable. The description of Israel is
like a son or a daughter, a bunch of kids who are totally ungrateful
to God, provoking Father God. And in the context of the covenant
that we saw in Exodus chapter 20, provoking the king as a slave
against the clear prescriptions that he laid out, you shall have
no other gods before me. The first thing that Israel did
was make molten images and created a God. But if this king, if this
king ruler did not also view them as a father to a son, he
would probably had no disposition of suffering them. You guys follow
the logic? As a king, not having any kind
of ontological relationship to them, he could have easily dispatched
them. But as a father, he's going to
be obligated to suffer them because he has a larger purpose for them
that transcends their rebellion at the present time in the wilderness.
Now that's good pastoral and good parenting counsel. This
is how this works. And I know what a group as large
as we got in here, right now, the Lord's speaking to you about
some of your knucklehead kids. Because who doesn't have knucklehead
kids at one stage of their life or another, right? So now you
can act like a king over your children being servants but that's
a very flawed relationship dynamic. And earlier on in your naivete
as a husband, you will act like the king of the house over all
the children, right? Of all the children. But what
you're going to be doing is creating mutiny on the bounty when you
do that. That's right. Am I telling the
truth? Uh, then I go smile and they go suffer you. But you're
going to be creating mutiny on the bounty if you're just a king
and not a father. This is what I love about the
multifaceted offices of God in relationship to us. He is our
king, but he's also our father. This is what I love about it.
This is why it's so important for you to know the fullness
of the offices of Christ in relationship to his relationship to you, because
he's going to exercise all those offices. And when you understand
them collectively as a whole, you find comfort. Because when
he has to discipline us or deal with us as a servant in rebellion,
he will deal with us firmly, but he hasn't taken his hat of
fatherhood off either. Am I making some sense? Right.
And so in this context, what we see is Israel's disposition,
which is where Paul is going. The history of Israel is a shameful
history for Israel because their rebellion against their heavenly
father was consistent. Their rebellion against the king
was consistent. Harden not your hearts as in the Provocation
in the day of temptation in the wilderness and just for those
of you who may be inclined to a more literal Interpretation
that term in the day is not one literal chronological day in
the season that Israel went through in the wilderness That's important
to know and notice what he goes on to say in verse 9 when your
fathers tempted me proved me as and saw my works. Wherefore,
I was grieved with that generation and said, they do always err
in their hearts and have not known my what. So I swear in
my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. And so many
of them perished in the wilderness. This is where he suffered them.
Going back to our Acts account then. So we can kind of trek
with the Apostle Paul as he's opening up his argument for the
claims of the gospel and the person of Christ. So verse 17,
Paul says, the God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers. He
exalted the people when they dwelt in the land of Egypt. And
with the high arm, he brought them out. Before I go on to verse
18 and 19, when it uses the term, and he exalted the people when
they dwelt as strangers in the land of Israel. Do you know what
that means? If that's a strange term for
you, let me help you understand it from the vantage point of
God's objective. When Israel went into Egypt,
It was about 72 souls. Remember the forerunner who went
in before them? Who's the forerunner? Joseph.
And Jacob and the family go in as 72 souls. They are nothing. They are not a nation. They are
not even a large tribe. They are just a small people
group. But over the several hundred years subsequent to that, they
grew into millions. This is what God meant by exalting
them. They became a massive nation
that became formidable to Egypt, for which the kings of Egypt,
who did not know Joseph, now became real concerned about the
possibility of Israel taking over Egypt. You guys got that? Now, all God did in making Israel
to grow, because the people can't grow unless God gives growth,
right? I mean, even in a spiritual sense, there is no growth to
be had. You can labor all day. One can sow, another can water,
but unless God does what? Give the increase, nothing's
happening. This is true in your life individually. This is true
in my life. This is true as a church. And
growth, therefore, has to be an evidence or a function of
God's intervention to make that people grow. And when God increases
to the point of growth, it's always for a purpose. Now watch
this, I just have to make this application. God doesn't grow
things or allow things to grow for no reason. You got that? When riches increase, when knowledge
increase, when skills increase, when influences increase, when
understanding increases, when blessings increase, when God
increases you, It's always for a purpose. You gotta know that.
He doesn't just increase you so that you can live large and
walk around like a peacock with your feathers flowing. Look at
the Lord. You know how the peacocks do
it? Look at the Lord. No, it's always for a purpose.
It's always for a purpose. A lot of times we fail to understand
that. We fail to understand the end and objective for which God
increases us. Now think about that for a moment.
I know this is an aside, but it's important to know, because
every one of us in here who are interested in the things of God,
don't you want God to increase you, to strengthen you, to grow
you, to mature you, to develop you, to be able to enlarge your
borders in the deepest and most Christocentric way? You guys
understand what I'm getting at, right? I'm not preaching a prosperity
gospel. I am preaching the prosperity
of a walk with God. You guys follow that a walk with
God and therefore we would want that experience because God promises
it But we have to know that growth has an aim and an objective to
it And so if God's gonna grow us it's gonna be for a purpose
Israel did not know that the reason why God allowed those
women to be so lively Told you about that right lively women
The Israelites husbands would just walk by their wives. They
get pregnant Just walk by. I've talked about this for years.
That's how vital the vitality among the Israelites was like
the paladin flying in the air. You know how it just flies from
one flower increasing. Just walk by your wife. She gets
pregnant. And then remember the King that didn't know Joseph
tried to put a hit out on all the children and they dropped
more children in spite of it. The midwives would say, man,
by the time we caught up with those sisters, they didn't already
had the baby cut the umbilical cord, clean the baby up and was
cooking dinner. Remember that? That was God increasing
Israel because God's purpose was to deliver Israel so that
Israel could be a trophy of his grace to the whole world. So
God increases us with the objective of delivering us into situations
where we can be a platform for his glory. Did you get that? It's very important to know.
Why would God increase us? To give us a platform for His
glory. To give us a platform for His
glory. That's the only purpose for which it's done. And so if
we cry out for and pray for increase, we want to cry out and pray for
character simultaneously. I want character if God's going
to give me increase because I want to be on the proper side of the
blessing so that people are not looking at me stumbling and falling
all over the place in the midst of the blessing. As we know,
lots of people who have been blessed exceedingly with things
who for them, it only became a temptation and a fall, right? So when the apostle Paul says
he exalted the people that dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt
and he delivered them out, verse 14, and he suffered their manners. There it is in the wilderness.
for 40 years. Now, mark what he says in verse
19, which is going to move us to our third point. This is quite
interesting. And when he had destroyed seven
nations in the land of Canaan, he divided them their inheritance. What's missing in that narrative
that we're dealing with there? I want you to think about it.
Say it in your head. I'm going to tell you here in a moment.
But I want you to think about how how biblical texts or even
preaching or even any kind of dissertation or commentary can
be intentionally avoidant or absent of certain facts that
are constituent to the testimony that you would wonder why would
he have said it this way. Why did Paul in these three verses
Acts chapter 13 say this starting at verse 17 and God and the God
of this people Israel Exalted them and then he brought them
out of Egypt and the God of this people Israel He suffered them
in the wilderness and the God of this people Israel He brought
them into the land and divided their inheritance unto them by
lot Why is Paul talking like that? when in fact You and I
deal with the actual history There were certain factors that
actually were used to bring about these outcomes that he is not
bringing our attention to. When I say certain factors, here's
what I'm talking about. It's true, and this is the way
we're supposed to talk as God's people. God is the first cause
of everything. This is how we talk when we are
theologically minded. And this is a critical truth
to own and maintain, but we want to make sure that we don't do
any violence to this, this perspective that God is sovereign and all
of the events of life that transpire only transpire as a consequence
of his permission and his action. That is true. Is that true? right? And you are not a biblical Christian. If you don't believe that, if
you don't believe that God absolutely controls every molecule in the
universe, every sub atomic particle in the universe, and unseen things
are held together by His sovereign power and divine fiat. That is,
the expression of the power of His Word is upholding all things
presently right now. There is an active agency consistent
with who God is that's maintaining all things. God's upholding all
things by the power of His Word right now. You believe that?
All things. And even you and I live and move
and have our being in God, both the saved and the unsaved. You
guys believe that, right? As the prophets would say, the very
breath in your nostrils is from God. As the psalmist would say,
God opens his hand and he blesses creation. And when he closes
his hand, he takes his spirit away and they wither. This is
great, again, analogical language that describes the involved action
of God in creation. And this is a biblical worldview
that Christians have to have. Christians are not to think that
God is somewhere so far off that he's not dealing with his creation
in a very meticulous fashion. We're not on autopilot. God's
involved all the way through. He's involved with every hair
on your head. You know what his son said? Our
father knows when you lose a hair on your head. Now you don't,
but he does. Does he not care? He knows, he
knows every hair follicle that drops. That's crazy, isn't it? That's how infinitely aware of
and involved God is with everything that's going on in your life.
Now I'm saying that to say this, that God is infinitely involved
in everything that's going on in our universe, down to the
most minute detail, does not negate secondary and tertiary
causes by which they occur. It doesn't negate the fact that
God uses means. So follow this, in Paul's argument,
thus far as he's building his case, he's chosen not to talk
about Moses. He's chosen not to talk about
Joshua or Caleb, are none of the critical components by which
Israel is brought, watch this, out of Egypt into the promised
land. But they have to be understood
as being essential components to the advancement of God's purpose.
Is that true? All right, so if you and I are doing biblical
theology, as we talked about last week, and biblical theology
is history according to whom? You guys got that? Psalm 40,
verse seven. Pull that up on the screen just
for a moment. We call it biblical theology, and that is in a sense
what Paul is doing, a bit of biblical theology. albeit he's
starting with the children of Israel, biblical theology affirms
for us in Psalm 40 verse seven, that Jesus is the subject of
scriptures, all right? Jesus is the subject. And therefore,
when we talk about redemption, we are talking about redemptive
patterns that flow from the text, patterns. redemptive patterns
or redemptive pictures that speak to the person of Christ
who is the subject of scripture. I want to address that here briefly
for you before we move on. So if I'm reading Paul and I'm
taking him in a very wooden literal fashion from verses 17 through
19, God chose them, God exalted them, God brought them out, God
suffered them, God brought them into the land of Canaan, God
divided their inheritance unto them. I might fall prey to believing
that God was there personally acting as an individual in every
aspect of that without anybody else. And I would be totally
wrong. Wouldn't I be totally wrong? I'd be completely wrong.
So what I am not wrong about is God being first causes. And
see, we can make the mistake of, overemphasizing first causes
to the absence of secondary causes and tertiary causes and remote
causes or what we call immediate causes, immediate instrumental
means by which things get done. So we're not talking in religion.
We often do this. Well, the Lord blessed me with
this and the Lord blessed me with that. Lord blessed me with
everything. We're supposed to say that, but when it's time
to say, he blessed me through this means say that. Am I making
some sense? He blessed me by this person. You say that. You give honor
to whom honors do. You give benevolence to whom
benevolence is due. You respect the mechanism by
which God did what he did. God's people have to do that
because in honoring the methodology, you are honoring God. So like,
God would be very displeased if a man or a woman was used
by God mightily, who failed to honor their mother and their
father who brought them into the world. God would be very
displeased if a man or a woman become successful in any venture
of life, and therefore set on a platform to honor God, who
would consistently fail to acknowledge all of the necessary means that
brought them to that place of success. your parents, your teachers,
those ministers who faithfully expounded the word, the people
that poured into your life, the people that helped you get out
of trouble, that shaped you, that directed you, all those
means came from God. Is that true? Earlier we talked
about increase being the consequence of two prerequisite factors. We said that God gives the increase,
did we not? But we said that first someone's
souls, Then someone what? Waters. And then God does what? That's right. So if I go around
talking about, look at how God increased me to the exclusion
of the methodology, I'm still in God's glory because how God
works is just as important that God works. How God works is just
as important as that God works. You guys are hearing what I'm
saying. Especially when you're teaching biblical doctrine. So
let's just consider a few things. When I quote Psalm 40 verse 7,
then said I, I is in the first person singular. Who is the I
speaking in this? You guys are gonna learn this
if you take my summer study in the Psalms. We will be richly
exegeting how the Psalms work. But if we ask the question, who
is the I here? Who is the I here? Without a
doubt, isn't it? But if I ask you, who is the
human author, who would you say? Whoever the human author is,
right? It may be David, maybe Korah, maybe Asa, maybe Moses,
maybe Solomon. We'll learn all that. Got a lot
to learn. But the human author becomes
the mouthpiece by which Christ is speaking. Is that true? So
we say the human author is David, but the divine author is Christ. And Christ is speaking through
the human author in the first person. And here's what he says. Lo, I come in the totality of
the book. This book called the Bible is
about who? Jesus. And when you and I establish
that fact, whenever you are in Bible study or in the sermon,
you better be led to Christ in the preaching and the teaching,
or it is not Christian teaching and preaching. Are you hearing
me? Christian teaching and preaching
always points to Christ because he truly is the subject of the
story. This is why I'm taking the time
as we are dealing with the two verses in Acts chapter 13, verse
17 through 19, to nurture your sensitivity in the area of biblical
exegesis so that when you're reading statements, be aware
of not only what's in the text, but what's not there. Because
what's not there will give you an opportunity to both examine
yourself in terms of how sound you are in your abilities to
properly interpret scripture. If you know the totality of the
redemptive story, you know how to read within those three verses,
the things that are not there. Isn't that true? We know that
God didn't just talk to a million and a half people while they
were under the hard task mastery of Egypt, just from the sky.
He didn't just speak from the sky and say, hey y'all, time
to go. No, we know. that there was 80 years where
God was preparing a servant whose name was Moses. 80 years. The man was 40 in Egypt. He was
80 outside of Egypt. And then he did another 40 years
leading those knuckleheads right to the brink of the promised
land. That's how God works. Martha's then. God works through
human instrumentality to advance his people in the cause of Christ.
If you and I are going to be sound and faithful representatives
of the biblical testimony of God, we are going to acknowledge
that God uses means. Is that true? Otherwise we can
throw out stuff like, you know, I don't need anybody to teach
me. God teaches me. You've heard that many times.
God's my teacher. It's true. God's your teacher.
What's not true is that God is your teacher alone. Are you guys hearing me? What
is not true is that God exclusively by himself, apart from methods
and means, is your teacher alone. Well, I just read my Bible and
me and God, you're guilty right there. Anybody following me? So when
we actually teach bibliology, this massive miracle that we
have in our hands, See this thing we call our Bibles? This is a
massive miracle. Do you guys understand that?
A lot of people don't understand this miracle. But this is a miracle
of God's sovereign power and grace to supervise and orchestrate
the gathering together of the codifying of His revelation. The Bible is the codification
of His revelation. He patiently suffered His people
for thousands of years in order to put together in a coded fashion
his revelation. This is what we call the code.
He codified his revelation in a book. You guys following me?
And this book gives us the full testimony of the works of God
from the beginning of time to the end of time. But this book
didn't just fall out of heaven. This book came as a consequence
of the primary cause, God, working through secondary means, men,
to breathe out scripture by the third person and have that scripture
written down and preserved and protected and passed down from
generation to generation until we have been able to collect
the whole of God's testimony up to this point, including the
suffering and dying of all of the parties that were engaged
in that process. Not just the prophets who spoke,
but the scribes who wrote, wrote it down and codified it and made
multiple copies. And then the people who protected
the scriptures, Not only individuals, but couples and families and
whole tribes protecting the scriptures, committing themselves to the
preservation of the text and dying for the text. Am I making
some sense? Dying for the text of scripture.
Oh, no, God teaches me all by himself. You knucklehead. By
the time you hear from God, there have been thousands and thousands
of people that God has used for you to even hear his word. It's true. Other men have labored
and we have entered into their labors. This keeps us humble. And this keeps us making sure
that we respect God and the totality of his person and his work, because
that's critical to the process. Because what people will do is
they will acknowledge God, but they won't acknowledge his means.
And one of the things we have to do in discerning whether or
not individuals are authentic Christians, is to whether or
not they submit, not only to the person of God, but to the
work of God, right? Well, I'm saved, but I don't
have a pastor and I don't have a church and I don't submit to
leadership. I kind of do my own thing. Then you know what we
ask you? We ask you really what evidence you have that you're
saved. I know that stuff, but it's very
important to contemplate. If you meet Christians who are
just, absolutely hard-pressed against submission to any kind
of leadership, the likelihood is they're not saved. Because one of the critical evidences
of being born again is submission to the will of God. Submission
to the, are you hearing me? Submission to the will of God.
When you are born of God, he calls you his sheep. And to be
his sheep is to be those who obey his voice. And when you
obey his voice, he's going to tell you to sit under his shepherds
that are going to feed you with knowledge and wisdom and are
going to guide you into the green pastures of his grace so that
you can feed and enjoy and know God. Now they're nothing but
under shepherds. They're not the shepherd of your
soul, but they become the mouthpiece for God to speak to you. And
I mean, acutely, are you hearing me? I've been doing this business
a while. It amazes me. how God works through
his leadership to speak acutely to your souls. You know, you think you're hearing
from God and then all of a sudden you come to the Bible study and
God speaks so crystal clear to your soul. You wonder whether
or not Pastor Jesse was in the bedroom with you. in the shower
with you, at the job with you. How did he know? How did he find
out? Well, what we simply call that
is authentic Christian ministry. This is this is not a big thing.
This is how God works. So if you actually believe in
the third person who is the resident Lord. Remember, we've learned
that father's on his throne. The son's the mediator. The third
person is the E-mediator. You got that? He's the immediate
presence of the son and the father. I'm going to talk about that
on Sunday. It's the spirit of God that brings the reality of
those other two into our life in an everyday circumstantial
way where we know them to be present. Is that true? We know
the father to be present. We know the son to be present.
And we know that because the third person makes them a reality
in our life. And God deals with us through
this means of preaching and teaching where he speaks to our soul to
nudge us in directions to hedge us in, to stop us from foolish
things, or to give us affirmation to go. Is that true? And we have the confidence because
we are operating according to the mechanism that God sets up.
Israel was not going to leave Egypt on time, at that time,
apart from Moses. Do you hear me? Israel wasn't
gonna leave Egypt. They weren't gonna look up and
read their little watches, their time x watches. You know what?
It's time, let's go. No, they were only going to go when God
was finished with Moses, humbling Moses, preparing Moses, and then
showing Moses his glory. And then saying to Moses, I've
raised you up to go deliver my people. Now go get my people
and bring them out and let them know I sent you. And here's the
mechanism or the methodology by which they'll know I'll be
with you. I'll show myself mighty in signs and wonders. I will
deliver them, but I'm going to do it through you. And they come
on out of Egypt, don't they? And all during their walk through
the wilderness, they're struggling with secondary causes, aren't
they? But y'all don't. Y'all don't struggle with secondary
causes. But they're struggling with secondary causes. Aren't
they constantly mad at Moses? Constantly mad at Aaron? They
get out one week later, you brought us out of Egypt. I'm like, folks. Was that Moses who separated
the Red Sea? Who brought the 10 judgments
upon Egypt? Was that Moses? Of course it
wasn't. And so even God's people struggle
with secondary causes if we don't understand this is how God works.
So I'll give you a blessing before I open the floor for some questions
before we close tonight. This is a blessing for you, because
I've observed this in my life. If you want to experience the
blessings of God, Don't be naive. Be discerning. Make sure you're
under good teaching. Don't be naive. Ignorance is
not bliss. That's not bliss. Every sheep
is to be a discerning sheep. Didn't we learn that last week?
Every child of God is to be a wise and prudent child of God. They
should be able to know that they're under sound teaching, shouldn't
they? So be sure that you care enough about your soul to be
under sound teaching. But when once you have secured
the teaching, submit to it. Submit to it. Because what I
see among Christians, particularly today, is I see a curtailing
and minimizing of the blessings in many professing Christians
lives because they really do not listen. to their shepherds,
to their overseers, to the people that are called to watch for
their souls. You guys hearing me? Let me just say it a little
bit one more time another way, and then we'll go to some Q&A,
and then we'll get out of here. If God works through leadership
who has been qualified to actually watch for your soul and to pray
for your soul, and God works through them dynamically, infusing
within them a spirit to give them the ability to explain the
scriptures in a way that you see the glory of God fully and
clearly for your edification. When they speak to you, whether
in exhortation or in rebuke or in instruction, that is God talking
to you. And when you don't listen, you
put your own soul in jeopardy. Are you hearing me? You put your
own soul in jeopardy when you think you can separate yourself
from what you are hearing coming out of that person's mouth. Especially
when you know it's resonating with your issue and you haven't
talked to that man in a year. That's God talking to you. And
I see Christians whose lives are more than raggedy and definitely
fruitless because they failed to listen to God in the normal
means of the teaching and preaching of the Word of God. They fail
to. On the other hand, just as a
word of encouragement, I'm telling you the honest goodness truth.
Because see, we got to meet God on Judgment Day, don't we? I
have to meet God with thousands and thousands of professing Christians
that I have known and ministered to over the years. Thousands I have ministered to.
So I've been pastoring now this church, 19 years going on 20,
been part of other churches for six years subsequent to that,
involved in a lot of ministerial work. And sometimes I'll just
kind of sit up and think about all the years I've been involved
in people's lives and all the people that are baptized and
all the people I've been in council with and all of the different
pastors I've been in association with working with churches and
people and how many people have died, but many people have just
walked away from the faith and how many people's lives are just
Messed up. And it's easy for me to see the
reason why their lives are messed up. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? It's largely due to the warning
that Proverbs 4 gives us. When Proverbs 4 tells us to listen
to our teachers and when we don't, our lives are going to be so
bad that we will cry out that I was in almost all evil. in the midst of the congregation
and the assembly because I did not listen to my teachers and
I did not listen to those who were instructing me. I was in
almost all evil. Mr. Cry of the proverb about
the soul that regrets neglecting to listen carefully to the preaching
and the teaching because that's how God speaks to us. On the other hand, I have seen
the blessing that God pours out on people's lives. I could talk
for hours about the blessings of the sheep that love the Lord
Jesus and love the Lord Jesus through the under shepherds.
The blessings. I'm just talking about blessings.
I'm not talking money blessings. I'm talking character blessings.
I'm talking about the blessings that come with such a profound
knowledge of their God in the area of God walking with them
and them walking with God. I'm talking about people who
will just come up to me and tell me what the Lord has done for them. What
the Lord's doing, how he opens doors and shuts doors and protects
them and how he raises them up from the dunghill, how he delivers
them out of the pit, how they were in a stressful situation,
but they waited on God. and they stay committed to the
principles of being under the word of God. And how God comes
through every time because God will never change. He will never
lie and he will never fail. And they come to know that because
they operate out of those principles. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And see, so the Hebrew writer comes to mind. It's a joy for
leadership when they think about people and how God has blessed
that life. And it's a grief to leadership when we think about
the people who reject. to teaching, because we see the
negative consequences of thinking that they can avert the methodology
that God uses to bless. Y'all understand what I'm saying?
All right, let me open the floor for a few minutes. Anybody got
any questions? I need you to run, Stephan. You can use this
mic right here. Cut it on, and we'll start right there. Anybody
else? I got two runners here. Anybody else got another question?
OK. Craig, Craig, come run for me. Take it over there to Ms. Guidry. You take yours to Ms.
Guidry. You go to Philip right over here. Philip, Philip, Philip,
Philip, Philip. I'm sorry, Patrick. Patrick,
sorry. Forgive me, son. Forgive me. Right here. What? But I know why that happens.
You got issues, girl. OK. Did you just cut it on? If you'd have cut it on, it works.
So it's talking to it, talking to it. Y'all got the mics up
over there, Rick? Rick, we got the green mic up?
Are we talking? The middle mic, that mic, just walk over there
towards it. No, leave that mic alone. Leave that mic alone.
It's already on. Leave that mic alone. Just talking
to it. There you go. See, he was talking. It's up
there. It was up there, Stephan. We'd be ready to wake up in the
morning by the time this gets going. All right. Come on, Ms. Kitchin. My question
is, I hear a lot of preachers say that they've gotten words
directly from God. And I know scriptures that would
refute that, but I'm not sure if there's anything I could say
to them or if I should just pray for them. Right. Because that's
the dilemma. Because There's a way in which
God talks to all of us that are his. Is that true? Please hear me
now because if he's not talking to us, we in trouble, right? There's a way in which it has
to be true that God is talking to us. And that's the privilege
of every child of God to have got talking to us. But what we
mean by God talking to us is the familiarity of our walk with
God being such that we know his ways. And the accumulative evidence
of a circumstance bringing about a revelation or an insight that
is so impressed upon us that it's as if God has spoken almost
audibly to us in that situation. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And that's what we mean by God spoke. See, especially if the
Christian is reading their Bible. See, this is the voice of the
Holy Ghost. Y'all got that? This is the voice of the Holy
Ghost. And when the Christian has this on the inside of them,
God's talking to us all the time. Is that true? And especially
when situations come up, it's easy for the soul to say, Lord,
I got it. I got it. And if that's what
they mean, We understand that. We don't have to admonish that
or rebuke that. I fully got that. I fully got
that. But now, you know, if they talking
about God's opening the heavens, Jesse, this is what I want you
to do. Hitherto, that's a problem. You understand that? That's a
problem. Next, next one. Who has the mic? Put it here. Hand up. Hand up. Because we got one over
here. Come on. OK. Over here. Yeah, see now that
should be for married people and post-married
people, because we've got some folks in here that's through
with it, and they're a blessing too. Now, am I telling the truth,
Mother Banks? Sister Nancy, you guys done with
marriage? You did your 40, 50, 60, 900
years of marriage? Y'all know. Right. Here's the
point. Here's the point. This is a very
prudent question this man is asking. Do couples know God in
a different and deeper way than a single person would know God
within the framework of covenant conjugal relationships. If they
don't, they missed the blessing of it. Are you guys hearing me? If a couple who are both Christians
are missing the blessing of the Coram Dale and the vertical relationship
that individually they have, as a unit if they're missing
that as a unit if they're not entering into the deep unity
and conjugal oneness and experience of the same god as a husband
and a wife then they're missing that blessing and they're no
different than a single person you guys are hearing what i'm
saying right we're missing that blessing because like if i'm
doing it over here you're doing it over there we're just two
single persons That's what it amounts to because we're failing
to make the correlation between the deep profound unity that
the two have on the horizontal level with the one God who has
actually brought us together as one. God made them one. God made them one. And so a husband
and a wife should be able to tag team, talk, to people who have not entered
into that or fresh into that to let them know this is how
God works in the lives of couples. That's good. That's good. That's
good. And this is where couples need
to be put on notice. Your job is to know God together
and to be able to do the tag team, to bless people in and
up and out of trouble who want that. My brother. Good evening,
Patrick. I, um, I was saved July 12, 1989. And my first verse that I was
taught was Matthew 633. And I read it, and I studied
it, and I did all this. And the Lord started blessing
me. But I didn't know what was going
on. And it scared me. Is that natural? I mean, does
it happen to everybody? It's not prescriptive. The Lord doesn't say, I'm going
to save you, boy. And I'm going to post so many blessings on
you, I'm going to scare you to death. No. And I think we're all different
children, right? I was talking with my sister
today about large families. And everybody different in the
family. aren't they? Everybody's different. And so
the Lord's going to deal with us uniquely, differently, not
so radically different that we can't identify, but it's not
a cookie cutter pattern. And I can't speak to how profoundly
he had blessed you through that text. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and all of his rights and everything else will be added.
This I do know, that text is for every one of us. That's for
the whole family. Right? That's for the whole family.
So I would say to brothers and sisters, when God blesses you,
don't necessarily turn around to see if he blessed everybody
else the way he blessed you. Just enjoy your blessing. All
right, what's the next question? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Bruchette. Yeah, you've been coming here
for a minute. I have, and it's funny because
the topic that you're talking about, you know, with you should
become a member of this church. And I've been attending this
very large church here in the Bay Area, and faithfully, but
I have not become a member. It's been a few years, and I
was talking to one of my girlfriends, and she said, you know, the number
exchange is really, you know, stinky. Look, I understand why. She said, you should join because
there's, like, a special covering, or, you know, that the pastor,
you know, has, you know, he can, I guess, bring it to me. Now,
that's a problem. And, but, you know, even though
I've been attending this church daily, God hasn't told me to
join this church. This is a prosperity church.
If you want the gates of heaven to open, you have to open up
your wallet and walk down to the altar and sort of, you know,
put your money down. Yeah, especially if you want
the covering. If you want the covering. But for the longest
time, I thought that this is what you do. It's a very showy
church. It's a beautiful church. Everyone
there, they seem to be stable, financially stable, have a lot
of money. And you look at it, and you think
that this church is blessed. And you want some of that. I'm learning now that that's
not the case. And if I have to check the church's
calendar of events to see what guest pastors are going through
to decide if I want to be under his covering, then I may want
to think about attending that church. And I haven't attended
that church It's very difficult and very hard for me because
there's plenty of good that has come out of that church for me. But it's hard. Yeah. But you
didn't ask a question. My question, I guess what my
question is, do you have to hold up your offering That's not your question That's
a question, but that's not your question, but let me let me be
presumptuous. Okay, I'll be presumptuous Did
somebody else who got who has another question anybody got
another question? Okay, so Craig Craig come up for I got one more
person I'll take anybody else got another question before we
wrap up. No other questions. Okay, okay Craig up back here
back here up front All right, so I'm going to answer her question
for the whole of us, then we'll answer two more. So just from
my experience, young lady, if you were my daughter, I would
say to you, hurry up and get out of there. So I deal with young ladies like
they're my daughters. If I don't, I'm not going to
be as helpful to you as I should. Because I don't think any father
would want his daughter trapped by any system that is false. And so I'm not going to be politically
correct with her and not love her like I would love my daughter.
Because I already know the church she's talking about. Okay? So we don't have to go into names
and all that. What I do know is I would never advocate my
kids to be in any kind of system that is fundamentally driven
by wealth and prosperity, ever. Not for five seconds. I'd rather you stay at home and
watch television. I'd rather you play golf on Sunday.
I'd rather you go swimming on Sunday. Go hunting or something. Learn how to kill something on
Sunday. Then to go to a false church. And do good things come out of
them? If we use the word good with
the adjective relative, yes. Otherwise, often the apparent
good that comes out of it is no good at all because of the
central error that brings people into bondage, focusing on a man
or a people group or some special prophet or some special anointed
person, which is blasphemous to God. I wouldn't spend five
minutes in a church that didn't exalt Christ, preach Christ,
taught Christ, carefully expounded the scriptures and shut people
up to Jesus Christ for five seconds. Keep your money in your pocket
and understand that all of those people that's looking good, perpetrating
a fraud. Let's see, right here. So I guess
this is my question about some of the things you talked about
Israel being in bondage and coming out of the valleys or the deserts. And it's just something that
I have a question personally about. Having gone through those
experiences and coming out of those experiences, I feel oftentimes
that the Lord was closest to me in those experiences. And
like he's revealed certain things for me to do. And like. I don't
know, I feel like I have to continue to press into the text to feel
his presence because what he's revealed to me, you know, is
it's not like before, like before I felt like he was, you know,
guiding me. He's always there. And now like
he's told me what he's had to tell me. I kind of have an idea
of what I need to be doing. And oftentimes I feel like, like
he's a little bit more distant from me. You know what I mean?
Like, um, I don't know if that's a natural experience or how that
plays into, you know, So I guess my question is, is
it natural for God to often be silent after he pulls you out
of wilderness experiences and things of that nature? No, no.
And so I'll say it like this. While you're talking, I was trying
to frame it for everybody else's edification. So life with God is a continuum. from the time he reveals himself
to you until you see him face to face. It's a continuum. But
that continuum includes periods of ebbs and flows. You guys accept
that? Yes. And that's because of our
weakness. It's also because of our personality
and because of our inclination to certain things
that can be impediments to a sustained growing increasing awareness
of his presence in our life. So I would be speaking to my
brother Carlos about asking God to reveal to him the other ways
in which God draws near to us apart from coming near when we
are in trouble. So I'll speak to Carlos as if
he's part of the family, okay? And I'll talk to him as if we
both know the same father. And I'll be speaking to him as
a big brother. Can I do that? So this is how father works with
his children. This is what I meant earlier
that, you know, when you have large families, like I have a
large family, all my kids are different. All your kids are
different. And you have to deal with your kids differently. You
don't deal with all your kids the same way. Is that true? And
see, the reality is you love some of them more than you do
the other ones. See, I love them all the same. No, you don't. No, you don't. Now, our Heavenly Father loves
us all the same, but differently. You guys got that? He doesn't
love us the same way. I mean, the Lord Jesus pulled
out 12 men and only really kicked it with three. He only kicked
it with three. Didn't mean that he didn't love
the rest. He loved them. But now suppose the other nine,
just from a human vantage point, wasn't feeling Jesus. You with me for a minute? I mean,
cause you know, he was a human being. Suppose they weren't feeling
Jesus, you get what you asked for. Stay
with me now. I know this is going to hurt.
This is important. If you draw near to God, he draws
near to you. I have yet to hear the sermon
that raises the question, where are the nine at? Right? So many texts, and he
was with the three. He was with the three. He was
with James, John, and Peter. Where these other nine dudes
at? This is God, right? They've been called, why aren't
they on the mountaintop? Why aren't they at the Decapolis?
Why aren't they at the gravesite? Where these other nine dudes
at? What we learn is even with God, We will get prejudicious,
prejudice and judicious, and we'll get comfortable with God.
Yes, we will. Do you believe that Jesus would
have rejected those other nine from going with him everywhere
he went? No, he wouldn't have. No, he wouldn't have. But it
was three that he kicked it with. Is that true? Now you can get
mad all you want to. I don't believe in egalitarianism
like that. He chose to have those three
in his company almost all the time. But all 12 of them were
his boys with the exception of the devil, right? So I'm saying
that he deals with us slightly differently. And what Carlos is describing
is something that a few of you might be aware of, not all of
you, because we have different temperaments. What Carlos will be describing
are patterns that happen in some of our brothers lives where things
are exciting when we get in trouble. And it's great because all of
our senses are firing and we are more acutely aware of both
the trouble and God's presence And we'd much rather be in that
situation where we are more sensitive to his presence than in the normal
staple of life where we're going to work every day, doing our
nine to five, and kind of just the mundane everyday stuff. Well, these are the children
in the family that don't even feel like they're alive unless
they're getting in trouble. I'm telling the truth. We're
in the family. Life's normal. It's different.
I got the struggle. I feel his presence. But it's
like I was so used to being in that environment, highly alert
and aware of both the presence of evil and him pulling on me. So now that I've gotten far removed
from that, it feels different. I'm not used to it. I'm always
alert looking for the storm. Right. Right. And that's a character
issue. Not bad, it's just a character
issue. Like we have to be able to, I'm so glad that God has
given me grace to use these little terse phrases I've used over
the years. You have to be able to appreciate God in the calm. You have to appreciate him in
the mundane. You have to be able to see God
and understand him when the sea is as calm as glass. He's mighty
when it's roaring and he stands up and say, shut up. And it all
settled that who look at God came through for a brother, didn't
he came through for a sister. That's all great. But God is
the one that's causing your boat to float every day. God's the
one that's keeping your boat every day, every day that you
and I wake up and go to bed and God kept us is shouting time. Hallelujah. The Lord kept the
brother that day. He watched over me. He delivered
me from evils that I did not even see. He sustained me in
the midst of temptations I wasn't even aware of. Lord, I know you
kept me this day from things I didn't even see. Thank you,
Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. So on that side of
the equation, we are supposed to be practicing, practicing
Coram Dale, practicing the presence of God, practicing, knowing he's
there when we're not feeling him there. The just shall live
by faith. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, not seen, not seen,
not felt, not perceived, not there. Knowing that the word
of God says, Lord, I'm with you always, even to the end of the
world. Because I'm one with Christ and he's one with me, I can't
go anywhere that he's not. I can't do anything that he's
not there. Now, do I want to have him talking more profoundly,
more deeply to me? Yes. but sometimes he's left
us with that last word. They say, that's enough, right? Then we got our brothers
and sisters that love to just talk all the time. That's not true, I'm just talking
about other brothers and sisters. The Lord ain't talking to me, cause
the Lord ain't like you. You like talking all the time. Then we got some some things
like that love and talk if you learn how to be quiet Jesus might
talk every now and then but see he know you actually doing all
the talking He suffers us Only one more thing
before I answer my last question the only thing that I want all
of my brothers and sisters to pray for in the family here with
regards to Carlos is the Things that he is not saying that I
know he's saying because I've been pastoring a long time. Will
you hear me? Ask the Lord to keep him from
temptation, okay? Because that's what we need every
day when we don't have a sense of purpose. And because right
now what the Lord is doing with you, he's putting you in a situation
where there's some learning that has to take place much more deeply,
much more profoundly before he dispatches you. And so that interim
period is a period of temptation, isn't it? Oh yeah, it does for
all of us. But I really do mean that. So
when we're being sat down to be educated in establishing new
paradigms to go deeper, because remember, increase always is
with the objective of purpose, right? But before that increase
comes, we have to be humbled and be taught and that means
sit for a season. And that can be so challenging
because we like to be where the action is. G.I. Joe for the kingdom. But part of spiritual boot camp
is really grinding down and holding our position and learning deeply
things that are critical to that next stage of activity. It's
like the external he's restoring work work in favor and things
of that nature family, but it's just I feel like I Feel like
I want to go deeper and I feel like there's always been something
there that and the preparation and everything else has been
I but you're right. Okay. Okay. So now you guys got
him. He's not already acknowledged all the Lord's blessings. Did
he got a job and things are lining up, getting ready to get married,
all this stuff coming together and his soul is yearning for
more. And that's where you want to, that's where you want to
ask God to give you the gift of patience and temperance. More
of him. I mean, everything else is just
a by-product of, I appreciate all that, but it's, hold on,
hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Y'all get what our
little brother just did? This is my point. This is my point. So what God
is gonna teach all of us is to just be, I'm just talking about
excited for beans and corn bread. I'm just talking about excited
for just some rice. Excited for a good night's sleep.
I mean, jumping up, thinking about, you know what? I still
got feeling in my hand. Hallelujah. Look at God, look at God. I still
got a job today. Hallelujah. I'm still in my right
mind today. Man, the people that loved me
yesterday, love me today. God is good. So that we don't
start presuming upon his blessings in that normal state. Cause we
can do that. Don't put the butt in front of
the blessing too quick. Right? All right. One more, one
more right there. So I wanted to make sure I didn't
presume on something that I didn't quite get. And whether or not
I know it or not, you had mentioned that we are the New Testament
church is the new Israel. Galatians chapter 6. No, keep
talking. Keep talking. Yeah, because we
have our roots in Abraham. Yes. So I wanted to see if you
could expound on that for me. I have that. I own that. Right. Right. Right. So how do we have our
roots in Abraham? Abraham is said to be the father
of all the faithful. That's Ephesians chapter. I mean,
Romans chapter two, three and four. Right. Romans four opens
up and says he is the father of all the faithful. Are you
a child of faith? Then you and our children of
Abraham. Right. the Bible tells it tells us in
Galatians chapter 326 through 28 that if we be Christ and are
we Abraham see and heirs of the promises of God Abraham see these
are literal texts and What Paul says in Galatians chapter 6 is
very clear when he speaks concerning the people of God verse 15 of
chapter 6 for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything
nor uncircumcision but a new creature and And as many as walk
according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy upon the
Israel of God. And when he uses that language,
he's talking about the Jew and the Gentile because he's defending
the Gentile's right to be in the kingdom with the full blessing
of the Jews in the book of Galatians. And so he closes out talking
about the Israel of God. The Israel of God is always Jews
and Gentiles in the person of Christ. And so the church of
the living God in these last days is the final expression
of the Abrahamic covenant. the combining of both Jew and
Gentile. Am I making some sense? In one
person, Jesus Christ, who is the quintessential Jew. So we
are Abraham's seed in that sense, in that as he walked by faith,
free from the law, under the grace of God, apart from human
works, so we do too. As he walked looking to Jesus
Christ, the seed that the father had promised him, so we do too.
You guys follow that logic? All right, let's close in prayer.
Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for granting everyone
here patience tonight. Give them traveling mercies and
let their sleep be extra sweet tonight. Prepare us to worship
you on Sunday. Father, answer all of the heart
desires of everyone that's yearning tonight to know you better, to
know you deeply, to know you in a more profoundly important
way to them and meet their needs as only you can meet their needs.
You know the obstacles, you know the battles, you know the struggles,
They're not saying it out loud, but we know, oh God, that all
of your children go through trials. And if there be any here tonight
that are suffering extra measures of difficulty, enter in like
the strong man that you are and deliver them from anything that
would hinder them from their walk with you. Give us direction,
give us guidance, clarify for our souls what you have called
us to do and be, So that we give you glory in all that we do and
we pray it in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you guys