Brethren, let's turn in our Bibles
to Exodus chapter 40. We read in verse 34, well let's read the end of verse 33. So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent
of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the
tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter
into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the
cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children
of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud
were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that
it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was
upon the tabernacle by day, and the fire was on it by night,
in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their
journeys." Now this cloud is the presence of God in spirit. It represents an emblem of and
a visible manifestation of the presence of God in spirit. Now, the cloud was visual to
them. We don't see the cloud in our
day. It was visible to them to give
us an understanding of the spirit of God. And it abode on that
tabernacle. and the glory of the Lord entered
the tabernacle. The glory of the Lord is Christ.
He's the glory of the Lord. This is the Spirit of Christ
and the glory of Christ. Now, Christ is the tabernacle. He's the tabernacle. He himself
is the tabernacle. The Spirit abode on Him. The
Spirit came upon Him without measure. He is the glory of God. And the whole church of God's
elect, the mystical church, His elect, the true church, is His
tabernacle. And the Spirit of God abides
on the whole church. He sent the Spirit in a one-time
act, and it abides on the church of God. I know that's hard to
understand, but it's so. It's so. And when born again,
Christ makes each believer a tabernacle. and the Spirit of God enters,
the glory of Christ enters, and He abides with us and upon us. You get that? It's Christ the
tabernacle, it's His church that's the tabernacle, and each individual
believer is His tabernacle. That's what we have pictured
here. Now first notice when this took place. It's said in verse
33 at the end, so Moses finished the work, and then. Then the
cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of
the Lord filled the tabernacle. It was after Moses finished the
work, after he built the tabernacle. He finished all the work God
gave him to do on the mount. It came down, he finished it.
And when he finished it, the cloud came on the tabernacle.
The glory entered the tabernacle and filled it. Now Christ is
the tabernacle. He's the builder. He's the builder. We know from Hebrews 8.1 it says,
we have a high priest. a glorious high priest at the
right hand of the throne and the majesty in the heavens. And
it says of him, he's a minister of the sanctuary. He's a minister
of the true tabernacle, which he pitched, which the Lord pitched
to not man. He's the true tabernacle. What
Christ did, his people did in him. And when Christ cried, it's
finished. It says here, when Moses finished
the work, when Christ from the cross cried, it is finished.
The whole work was finished. The tabernacle was built. The
church was built. The church was justified, made
righteous by Him. All the sin of His people was
put away. We were reconciled to God. We
were redeemed from the curse of sin and the curse and condemnation
of the law. We were complete in Christ. When
He said it's finished, the whole work was done. It was done. It
was finished. And that's how God saw it. But
then on the day of Pentecost, on the day of Pentecost, after
Christ had arisen, he promised he'd send the Spirit. And on
the day of Pentecost, when Christ was arisen, the cloud covered
the tent of the congregation. The Holy Spirit came upon the
church. He poured out the Spirit. He
came upon the church like never before. It had never before come. Now, people before were born
of the Spirit, but never like this. After Christ finished the
work, then the Spirit was given like never before. And the Spirit
abode on His church, still abides on His church, because Christ
finished the work of redemption. Now, from His throne in glory,
He poured out the Spirit. And this is a, what I'm talking
about here is a one-time act. He did it on the day of Pentecost,
on the Jews and he did it later on the Gentiles to show his church
is made up of Jew and Gentile. And when he says, you're not
in the flesh but in the spirit, truly brethren, the whole church
is the cloud, just like it covered that tabernacle, the spirit of
God covers his people. Before we ever know him, his
spirit is protecting his people. And the Spirit was poured out
to protect His people, to protect His church. And the glory of
Christ entered. The glory of Christ entered.
But now, when you're born of God, this is how we know about
it. When we're born of God, the Spirit of God enters. And we're
born again. We're quickened. We're born again.
And the glory of Christ enters into us. That's sanctification.
That's what sanctifies, when the glory of Christ enters. Christ
is our righteousness and holiness. When He enters, just like He
abode on that tabernacle and He entered, that place was sanctified.
Made holy, pure by His presence. That's what it is to be sanctified.
When Christ enters His child, we're sanctified by His holy
presence. When he does this to you, he
regenerates you. He gives you life. On the day
of Pentecost, as those men were able to preach in languages they'd
never heard because the cloud was on the tabernacle. The Spirit
of God was in them. And it was what Joel prophesied
of, that the Lord said, I'll pour out my spirit and all types
of people are going to prophesy. They're going to know me. And
so they preached in languages they had never learned before.
And whenever the Spirit entered and made those elect, redeemed
children hear the gospel, it pricked them in their heart,
made them to see the glory of Christ, and made them cry out,
what must we do? What must we do? What did that? The glory of the Lord filled
the tabernacle. What made you cry out to God?
What made you behold the truth of the Gospel and know Christ
is all? You beheld Christ's glory because
the glory of the Lord, Christ Himself, entered into you. He entered into you. He's the
brightness of the Father's glory. He's the Shekinah. And He entered. He entered. In Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You remember when the Lord, you
know, He typifies the tabernacle. And you remember when the Lord
was baptized, He said to John, it behooves us to fulfill all
righteousness. And when He was baptized, He
typified by that baptism, showed it in picture and type, exactly
what He accomplished on the cross for His people. He pictures the
death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. And that's
what he pictured. And when he was baptized, the Spirit descended
on him. And God bore witness and he declared,
this is my beloved son. He said, you are my beloved son,
in whom I'm well pleased. And is that not what happens
when you're born of God? The Spirit comes upon you, the
glory of Christ enters you, makes you behold the glory of God in
the face of Christ. And God speaks into your heart
and says, you're my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. In
Christ, by Christ, He says, you're my son in whom I'm well pleased.
And you see Him and you know Him and that's what makes you
believe on Him. That's what makes us believe
on Him. That's sanctification of the Spirit. Remember, Paul
spoke to the Galatians. He said, I travail to Christ
be formed in you. That's why we preach. It's prevailing. We want to see
Christ formed in His people. We want to see the cloud, the
Spirit come upon and come into His tabernacle, His child and
the glory of Christ enter and bring us to believe. Bring us
to believe. When the Spirit enters a dead
sinner and we behold His glory. Go over to Acts 2. I want to
show you this. This is what they did. Look at
here in Acts 2. It says, verse 33, this is what
we're made to know. This is what they were made to
know, and this is what we're made to know. Now Peter's declaring
this, but that wouldn't have done them any good. But because
the Spirit had entered into their heart, they heard the Lord speak
this to them. And they knew this was so. They
saw Christ. truly saw Christ by faith. Look
at verse 33. Peter said, therefore being by
the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost. There's the cloud, the Holy Ghost.
He has shed forth this which you now see in here. He's made
this cloud come upon the tabernacle. He's made this cloud enter into
you, Peter said. David's not ascended to the heavens,
but he said, thee, Lord, said to my Lord, sit there on my right
hand. The Spirit speaks and makes you
know he's the Lord. He's the Lord. Until I make your
foes your footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly. How you gonna know assuredly?
when the cloud enters, when the Spirit enters, when the glory
of Christ enters you, you're gonna know assuredly, this is
the Lord. Look, God has made that same
Jesus who you crucified, both Lord and Christ. That's what
he makes us know. I crucified him, my sins put him on that
cross, and he's Lord and Christ. He finished the work, he built
the tabernacle, he's redeemed me, it's done. And the Spirit
makes you know this. You see the glory of God in Christ.
And he says, now, when they heard this, They really heard it. They heard it with spiritual
ears by the Spirit of God. They were pricked in their heart.
And they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men
and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said, Repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for, because
of confessing what Christ has done, that He has remitted your
sin, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise
is unto you and to your children, to all that are far off, even
as many as our Lord God shall call. What does that mean, you'll
receive the promise of the Holy Ghost? Hadn't they already received
the Holy Spirit if they were born of Him? They had to be regenerated
to know Him and call on Him. Hadn't they already been born
of Him? Yeah. So what's this gift of the Holy Ghost that He
gives you when He's brought you to believe on Him? Go to Ephesians
chapter 2. Here's what it is. Ephesians
2 and verse 13. I'm sorry, Ephesians 1 verse
13. When you receive the Holy Spirit,
it's not that you allow Him to come into you. It's like when
water was poured in that glass, that glass received that water.
What did the glass do? Just received it. That's what
we do when the Spirit enters. He just fills us. Like that cloud,
that tabernacle didn't do anything. The cloud came on it and the
glory filled it. Well, that's what happens. But when He brings
you to believe, what happens? Here's the gift, verse 13. in
whom, in Christ, you also trusted after you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And it became
the earnest of your inheritance. He made you know. He sealed you. He preserved you. He made you
know. You have an inheritance in Christ. You're saved. And
He, until the redemption of the purchased predestination, we're
waiting for that day we're going to be redeemed fully into glory.
But we're already purchased. And He makes you know that. This
is the earnest. This is the foretaste to make
you know this is a done deal. You're going to enter into that
inheritance. And it's to the praise of His
glory. That's what Peter was telling them. He said in 1 Thessalonians
1.5, Our gospel came not unto you in word only. It came in
power. It came in the Holy Ghost, and
in much assurance. That's what the gift of the Holy
Ghost is. It gives you assurance. From that day forward, you begin
to know more and more, more clearly, Christ is everything. That's
what we're learning, aren't we? As we go through life, we're
learning nothing's in us. We can't contribute, and we don't. We're learning more and more,
little by little, Christ is really all. He's all. And he gives you
much assurance that way. Look at Ephesians 1. Ephesians
1 verse 17. Here's what he makes you know
by this earnest. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, gives you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling,
what's the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints.
The exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe. It's the same power He worked
mightily in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, set Him at
His right hand in heavenly places. Look down at chapter 2 and verse
4. He makes you know this. When you were dead, before you
ever knew Him, now this is not specifically talking about regeneration
right here. Listen to what it's telling me.
This is what you find out after you've been regenerated. Listen.
Verse 4. God who's rich in mercy for his
great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in
sin. quickened us together with Christ,
by grace are you saved, and he raised us up together and made
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." At the end
of chapter 1 he said, this is the power that made you to be
born again. He said, God in power raised
Christ from the dead. And He says here in chapter 2,
and when He raised him, He quickens you with Him and raised you with
Him at that time, and you sat down in glory with Him. Now when
you're regenerated in your experience of it, this is what He makes
you to know. You're seated with Him. He's
already quickened you and raised you with Him, and you're in Him.
Your life is at God's right hand. The more we can get that, the
more we can come into the realization of that, the less we will put
the emphasis on us and our brethren, and the more we'll put it on
Christ. And the more comfort we'll have, the more assurance
we'll have, the more peace we'll have, the more love and faith
and understanding and assurance we'll have, because we see Christ
is everything. And we're there, we're with Him.
This is the only way the flesh is mortified. The only way. So that's the gift. Now go back
secondly. Let me show you this. So the
picture. You get the picture now. The
Spirit. It's a picture of the Spirit coming upon a child of
God. It's a picture of the glory of
Christ entering into you who are the tabernacle of God. It's
a picture of us collectively as His church. Now look here.
When the Spirit enters a believer, when Christ's presence and glory
enters in, The blood of Christ purges our conscience from dead
works. And he makes us know Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. In
other words, he makes you stop working to try to get to God. He makes you stop working for
acceptance. We're going to see more about
this in the second hour, but look, we have it in type here,
verse 35. And when this cloud entered and
this glory entered, Moses was not able to enter into the tent
of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon and the glory
of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses couldn't go in. Now Moses
represents the law here because it was through him that God gave
the law. Now, when Christ enters in glory, he makes you see he
truly is your righteousness. He truly is your holiness. He
truly is Your completion in Christ and with God. When He makes you
see this, you're accepted. He makes you know there's nothing
else to be done. You are accepted. This is not
a one-time thing. This is what our whole message
in the second hour is about. It's not a one-time thing because
we still have this flesh. He has to constantly purge our
conscience to remind us Christ is your righteousness. But he
does this, he makes you know this, and Moses and the law can't
enter the house so as to declare us guilty. The law can't enter
anymore and condemn you. It can't. The law's fulfilled
its work. It shut our mouth in guilt. That was its work. It shut our
mouth in guilt, made us see we can't come to God by the works
of the law. But when Christ has entered, the law has to step
aside now. Can't enter. Christ has the rule,
our righteousness. Paul said in Hebrews 10.2, he
says, all those dead works we engaged in, they ceased to be
offered. Why? Because the worshipers once
purged, they have no more conscience of sin. Once you know that you're
righteous and God receives you, Your conscience is cleared now
and you're gonna stop working to try to find acceptance with
God. That's what the Hebrew writer
was saying. If those works would have ever purged their conscience
under the old covenant, they'd have stopped offering them. They
never did. But when the spirit of Christ
enters and Christ in glory makes you see he's your righteousness,
the law can't condemn you anymore. The law can't enter anymore.
The law can't run. It's rough rule over you anymore.
Now you see I'm redeemed. And all those vain works stop.
They stop. If Christ entered in to everybody
that professes to know him in this country, just say in this
state right here, if he entered in everybody that professes to
know him, the majority of what you see in religion would stop.
It would just end. And there would be some good
works that was done from a motive of love and not from this motive
of trying to impress people and impress God. Listen, by one offering
He's perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now listen, whereof
the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. When that cloud enters and
that glory enters, just as the Lord promised, He enters in and
He says, this is the covenant I promised I'd make with you.
This is the covenant. I've written my gospel on your
heart. The Holy Ghost bears witness
in your heart. And he says, because of Christ's
blood, he said, your sins and iniquities, I will remember no
more. When we see our sin and we start
wrestling to try to do something about it, what's going to make
you stop that? When He speaks to you in your heart and makes
you know, I don't even remember your sin anymore. That's when you'll stop that. Where remission of these is,
there's no more offering for sin. That's when we start really
worshipping God. When we're trying to do something,
we're not worshipping God, we're living to our self. We're serving
our idol, self. When he enters in and makes you
see, the law can't enter in and condemn you anymore. I don't
even remember you sinning anymore. They've been washed away in the
blood of Christ. When he makes you know that, all that vain work stops. Now
you start really worshipping and living to God. Free from
the law, that's a happy condition. Christ is bled. There's remission. I was ruined by the fall. You were ruined by the fall.
But Christ makes you know, he's redeemed us once for all time. It's done. It's done. And that's
when we serve him from a pure, holy heart. Now, we're gonna
see next hour, this continues to be done. Continues, we have
to have it be done. But He never stops letting you
know it's done, it's finished. Now look at this last thing. The Spirit of God, Christ's presence
within, leads us and protects us all our days. He never stops. Look at verse 36. When the cloud
was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward
in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken
up, they journeyed not to the day that it was taken up. For
the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire
was on it by night. This fire that was on it was
the cloud. It was not cloud and fire. It
was the cloud. It was a cloud, appeared as a
cloud by day to shade them. But at night, there was a pillar
of fire that was coming out of the cloud. It gave them light
and warmth. And it says, and it was in the
sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
They beheld it by day, they beheld the cloud, at night they beheld
the fire. And this was from this time on, it was on that tabernacle. It never left that tabernacle.
That's a picture of, you're gonna behold God in Christ. They beheld
him in the tabernacle. You're gonna behold him in Christ,
the tabernacle. But he comes upon us, he never
leaves us, and he's in his church, he's upon his church. Our Lord
said to his people, lo, I'm with you always. Just like this cloud
and fire was with him always. He said, I'm with you always.
Let's not live in this world covetous. This is the heart of
all our idolatry, is covetousness. If you think about it, that's
at the heart of every sin, is covetousness. wanting something
besides what we got right now. He said, be content. Whatever state you're in, be
content. Paul said, I've learned this. How'd he learn it? God
shut him up in a prison and he couldn't have any other circumstance. Sometimes God shuts you up in
a prison to make you see you're not going to have any other circumstance.
Why does he do that? To make you not content with
your circumstances because your circumstances are not contentment.
If that's my contentment, I don't know Christ. What's my contentment? Whatever circumstances I'm in,
I got Christ. That's my contentment. That's
my contentment. Let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things that you have because
he hath said, I'll never leave thee, I'll never forsake thee.
So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I'll not fear
what man shall do to me. It doesn't matter what my circumstances
are. You may mourn your circumstance,
you may be sad for your circumstances, and you may be being chastened
by the Lord and buffeted for our faults for our circumstances.
or maybe just be that the Lord put us in our circumstances to
see our contentment's Christ and not in us or anything in
us. Whatever it is, though, our contentment
is not our environment and the things that he's given us. It's him. It's him. The cloud led them all the way
to the promised land. So when we're born of the Spirit,
we're in Christ and Christ is in us. We're in the way of holiness. Remember he talked about how
he's going to bring his people into the way of holiness? And
nobody's going to err into this way. No enemies are going to
err into this way. And his people are not going
to err when they're in this way. Oh, we commit a lot of errors,
but he's not going to let you get out of this way. He's going
to keep you. It's like him putting you on
an interstate that's taking you to glory through this wilderness,
and he's not going to let you get out off of it. And he's that
way. He's going to keep you in this
way. The way of holiness is to be taken out of this world and
put in Christ. That's holiness. Separated from
the world and be in Christ. Surrounded by his spirit. Protected
by his spirit. So you can't get out of him.
That's being in the way. And he won't let you falter from
that way. When the cloud was taken up from
over the tabernacle, they went forward in their journey. When
the cloud was on the tabernacle, they didn't go anywhere. How
often do we desire something to happen right now? What is
that? Not being content with Him. Not
being content with where He's put us and finding all our contentment
in Him. We've got to change the circumstance.
Christ makes His child know when to move and when to wait. Somebody will come and they'll
say, well, I don't know what to do. Here's the thing, do you
think God has a trouble making you know what to do? He doesn't. When he made you know, cast all
your care on Christ because you're a guilty sinner and you can't
save yourself, you knew it, didn't you? It was irresistible. When
he gonna make you move and make you know what to do, it'll be
clear as spring water to you. You'll know, this is what I'm
gonna do. And if you don't know what to do, wait on him. Wait on him. That's all you can
do. Sometimes we try to do something
when the cloud hadn't moved. What's going to happen? Come
back here, my child. Sit down. Wait on me. Now, that
little process I just illustrated by that is sometimes very painful
and hard and humiliating. But he's going to accomplish
that and say, wait right here. I'm not moving yet. You wait,
and he'll make you wait. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Why? He makes me to lie down
in green pasture. When he makes you to wait, he
makes you wait in a green pasture. He'll make you content to wait.
He'll make you know he's the green pasture. Just sit here,
I'm feeding you with manna, I'm feeding you with the living water.
You're good, just right here, everything's fine. He makes it,
you're just happy to be waiting on him. And He leads me by the
still waters. When it's time to move, He leads
me. He restores my soul. When I'm sitting, waiting, when
I've erred and He's brought me back to wait on Him, He restores
my soul. He makes me see He's my all.
And then when it's time to move, He leads me in the path of righteousness
for His namesake. That's so of His people. That's
so of you. That's so of you, brethren. If
we could get that, brethren, It's what I'm saying, when we
see our brethren do something that's, you know, wrong, wait
on the Lord. The Lord's gonna correct His
child, and He's gonna correct us, and me, and He'll make you
content, and He'll lead you in the way you should go. He always
does. He always does. Thus saith the
Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord thy
God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way
that thou shouldest go. That's Isaiah 48, 17. We want the nearest way. We want
the fastest way, don't we? But in His good providence, God
doesn't lead us in the way that we think we should go. Back in
Exodus 13, 17, it said, God led them not through the way of the
land of the Philistines, although that was near. He could have
took them straight into the promised land, but they'd have had to
go through the land of the Philistines. Why didn't he take them that
way? For God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they see
war, and they go back to Egypt. But God led the people about
through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. Now, get this. Get this. Think, well, he's not
going to lead me in the way of the Philistine because I might
see war and I might go back to Egypt. But you know, that way
of that wilderness was a waste howling wilderness. He didn't
mean he spared them from trouble. He didn't mean that at all. He
took them in the right way because it was His way. But what did
He do by taking them that way? He made them ever dependent on
Him. He made them dependent on Him.
Made them trust Him, but it was the way that they should be led.
And by the presence of Christ, as He leads us, we find out we
have constant protection. He said in Isaiah 4, 5, the Lord
will create upon every dwelling place of Zion and upon her assemblies,
where he's assembled his people, a cloud and smoke by day, and
a shining of a flaming fire by night, for upon all the glory
shall be the defense, his glory. He can't lose one, his glory's
at stake. That's our defense. That's our
defense. There shall be a tabernacle for
a shadow in the daytime from the heat, He's our shadow. He's our, that's why this, he
shadows us from the burning sun of trial and the wrath of God.
He's our covering under his shade. And there's a place of refuge
and a covert from storm and from rain. He's that place of refuge
to protect us in all the trials, the storm and the rain and the
heat that was all in that wilderness. He didn't lead them into the
Philistines way, but he led them through the wilderness and there
was heat and there was storms and there was rain. What does
he teach them? I'm your refuge. I'm your shadow.
That's what he's teaching us. That's what he's teaching. The
angel of God went before them and this is our protection. Remember
this, when they're at the Red Sea, what happened? What protected them? We know
he led them through the Red Sea. But what happened once they went
through that Red Sea? Before they went, what kept Pharaoh
and his army from just pouncing on them? And after they went
through, what kept Pharaoh and his army from getting to them
and just killing them? If you and I had our eyes open
to see what's real, the eternal things, we would see, number
one, that there are enemies around us that we have no idea about. We're afraid of things that,
really aren't much, but they are to us and we're fearful of
them, but there is evil principality, things we can't see. But we'd
also see this, God's got us protected. He got you, he got his angels
have charge to protect you, he's protected you. You know what
happened at that Red Sea? The angel of God went before
the camp of Israel and he removed and went behind them. He's our
rear ward, scripture said. That means our rear guard. He
went behind them. And it says the pillar of the
cloud went from before their face and stood behind them. And it came between the camp
of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloud
and darkness to the Egyptians. It was just darkness to them.
but it gave light by night to Israel, so that one came not
near the other all night. He's not only protecting the
enemy from coming near you, he's protecting you from going near
the enemy, joining with the enemy. That's protection, brethren.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. Psalm 121.3. He keeps
thee and will not slumber. He keeps thee through. He shall
not slumber nor sleep. The Lord's your keeper. The Lord's
the shade upon your right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He'll preserve thy soul. The
Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
time forth even forevermore. The devil don't believe that.
And his seed don't believe that. So they raise railing accusations
against God and against his people. Let them do it. Let them have
at it. Christ said, I'll protect you. I'll protect you. They're
not going to succeed. I'll protect you. That's true
of you, brethren. Dread not, neither be afraid of them, he
said, Deuteronomy 129. The Lord your God which goes
before you, he'll fight for you according to all that he did
for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where
thou hast seen how the Lord thy God buried you as a man bore
his son, and all the way you went till you came unto this
place. See, we're going on our way to the promised land, and
we gotta go through this wilderness, and there is no strength in you
to protect you. The strength is Christ. He's
the power. There's no wisdom in us to know
the way. He's our wisdom. But here's the thing. He gonna
bring you into the promised land. He promised the father he would,
and he will. He brought them into the promised
land. Those he promised he'd bring in, he brought in. The
rest of them, he dumped their bodies in the wilderness. But
he brought his people into that promised land, and that's what
he's gonna do for you, believer. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then you shall appear with him in glory. Job, you read Job 19, Job is
so hurt by his friend, so-called friend. God had touched him. But here's where he came to at
the end of that chapter. He said, I know my Redeemer lives. And He'll stand at the latter
day upon the earth, and though after skin my worms destroy this
body, in my flesh I shall see God, whom I'll see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold Him and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me. I'll be satisfied when I awaken
His likeness, when I behold His face in righteousness." Listen,
after that, When he beheld that, that was the turning point of
Job's trial. And when he was brought to remember
that, you read the rest of the book, Job's whole attitude and
spirit changed. He sure did. He saw Christ, he
was comforted, and he didn't much care what else went on. In that day, brethren, this is
what we all say. He's going to show you. He's
going to show you what he did for you. I don't know what that's
going to be like or how he's going to do that, but I believe
it's so. He's going to show you things you just couldn't even
have seen and things you didn't know he was doing for you. That
thing that you saw that hurt you so bad and you thought this
could not be any good thing, he's going to show you. Here's
what would have happened if I'd have let you go on in that way.
Here's what it did for you by saving you out of it. And here's
what we're gonna say. Psalm 107. He led us forth by
the right way that we might go to a city of habitation. He led
me by the right way. You believe that? You believe
that? I believe him. That's so. That's so. All right,
let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
Word. Oh, how we need this Spirit comforting us and need to be
made to see Your glory continually so that we rest, content, whatever
way You lead and what You do. Lord, make us know this. Make
us see how fully redeemed we are, how complete we are, and
how protected we are, and how wise and good your providence is for
us. This will be the comfort of our
heart. This will be the faith of our faith and the love of
our love toward each other and toward you. Lord, help us see
that. Don't let us get all stirred
up in our flesh and start trying to do things out of covetousness. Keep us, Lord, content. Keep
yourself our contentment. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.