The book of Numbers, chapter
20. We're gonna be here in verse one, but this whole chapter has
to do with the children of Israel as they approach what had been
promised them even in the days of Abraham, 400 more years prior
to this, had they been promised this. This chapter commences
the historical part of Israel, journeying through the wilderness
once again. We've had 38 years of stoppage,
38 years not a word is said about them or a record is made of them. We completed chapter 19 and we
saw the benefits of the ashes of the red heifer, all of those
pictures, types and shadows of our Savior that are pictured
there and we have now come close to the conclusion of their wandering.
When we started this book, we noticed that it took, at a slow
pace, about 40 days to get across the Red Sea over to Kadesh Barnea,
40 days of travel. Now, the Lord stopped them at
Mount Sinai. He stopped them there to give
them the 10 laws, the Decalogue. He stopped them there to build
a tabernacle. He stopped them there for those benefits. And
then he moved them on and they came up to Kadesh Barnea and
sent in those spies, and they came back with an evil report.
But you know, during these 38 years, we do have a record of
someone else that had some idea of what was taking place, even
though Israel did not. Keep your finger here in the
book of Numbers chapter 20, and just travel over to the book
of Joshua, would you? The book of Joshua, Joshua chapter
two. In Joshua chapter two, we have
some insight into the effects of the children of Israel on
people that were in the land where they were headed. Here
in Joshua chapter two, we're introduced to a lady by the name
of Rahab. It's very interesting that we
find that this lady is also in the lineage of our Savior, the
Lord Jesus. She is there on purpose at the
right time. There's probably no one else
that understood like she understood. You remember the woman that poured
the alabaster box of ointment upon the feet of Jesus? There
was one there that said, we should have saved that and sold it and
given the money to the poor. And Jesus said, she's done a
good thing for she has done this for my burial. She was one of
a few that understood the real purpose of Jesus Christ coming
to this world anyway. So here in the book of Joshua,
we're introduced to a lady by the name of Rahab, and there
in verse one, of chapter two, the scriptures share this. And
Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out of Shittim two men to spy
secretly, saying, now I've often wondered, he was one of the spies
that went in, he was one of the two spies that came back with
a good report, that he sent in two this time instead of 12.
Maybe he had some idea, we'll choose some people that will
come back with a good report. Well, anyway, they go. Go view
the land, even Jericho. And they went and came into a
harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told
the king of Jericho saying, behold, there came men in hither tonight
of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the
king of Jericho said unto Rahab saying, bring forth the men that
are come to thee, which are entered into thine house, for they are
come to search out all the country. And the woman took the two men
and hid them and said thus, there came men unto me, but I wist
not whence they were. And it came to pass about the
time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men
went out, whether the men went, I want not. Pursue after them
quickly, for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them
up to the roof of the house and hid them in the stalks of flax,
which she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued
after them the way to Jordan unto the fords, and as soon as
which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.
And before they were laid down, she came up to them upon the
roof, and she said unto the men, now notice this, this is what
someone else understood about the children of Israel crossing
over the Red Sea. This is what Rahab understood
about the children of Israel crossing over the Red Sea. I
know that the Lord hath given you the land." What a statement
for this lady to make with regard to the children of Israel. She
is an inhabitant of Jericho. She is one of those that God
has intended to destroy. and yet he is going to preserve
her life because once again, this word of God, the spirit
of God had come before and she had heard something that was
so valuable and that is Jesus the Messiah. Now, she didn't
know him as Jesus and she didn't know him as Christ, but she knew
him as Messiah. Messiah is the Hebrew word, Christ
is the Greek word for the same thing. We know that somebody
has been given to come and take care of the problem. She says,
and know, I know, that the Lord hath given you the land, and
that your terror is fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of
the land faint because of you, for we have heard how the Lord. Now notice this, this is 40 years
prior. Now how old Rahab is, I don't
think she's 40. Someone told her about this.
We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for
you when you came out of Egypt, and what ye did unto the two
kings of the Amorites that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon
and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these
things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any
more courage in any man." Can you imagine for 40 years, They're
ready for destruction. They're ready for the invasion. Because of you, for the Lord
your God. And she uses that word, did you notice it's capital L,
capital O, capital R, capital D, as it's been put into our
translation, which means Jehovah. Jehovah your God. He is God in
heaven above and on earth beneath. She makes a good confession.
She is sharing something that the Lord has revealed to her.
The natural man will not consent to that kind of language. especially
in front of other people. Now they may say it to themselves,
but here she makes a good confession and that the Lord is with them.
And then she says, verse 12, now, therefore, I pray you swear
unto me by Jehovah, since I have showed you kindness, that you
will also show kindness to my father's house and give me a
true token. And here we find that when Jericho
is destroyed, there are the inhabitants in the house with Rahab her parents
and family are spared because of a crimson rope hanging out
the window. So we have for these 40 years
that the children of Israel have been wandering around over here
in Jericho, which is the closest city to where they've been wandering,
they are in fear and trepidation because they have understood
that God is going to give these people that land. What a statement
is made here. Now, as we go back to the book
of Numbers, we find that the history of the Jews has been
stopped for 38 years, a record of it at least. We're gonna have
some words in Deuteronomy about this, but here in the book of
Numbers chapter 20, we have these words. Now there's several things
we're gonna find in this chapter. Number one, Miriam dies, verse
one. Verses two through nine, we're
gonna find that there's the waters of Meribah. The children of Israel,
after 38 years of wandering, bring up again an accusation
against Moses. We're gonna find that Moses asked
to speak to the rock, struck the rock twice. And we're gonna
find that they have asked, they will ask for permission to go
through the country of Edom. Isn't that interesting? I heard
about that this morning in a Bible class. The country of Edom, who
is this that cometh forth from Edom with dyed garments from
Basra? Well, the Edomites refused passage
through their property and then in the last few verses, we find
that Aaron dies. We're gonna find that Miriam,
Aaron, and Moses all die in pretty close succession prior to them
going into the land that God had promised Abraham. Now, why
is that, someone might ask? Well, we know with regard to
Aaron and to Moses, that they represented the law. And I have
come to the conclusion that's where we're going to find Miriam
too. They represented the law and God was not going to have
the law taken into the promised land. We're not saved by keeping
the law, we're saved by grace. And we're going to find that
a new commander is brought to the head, his name is Joshua.
And Joshua is the same word that we find in Greek as Jesus, savior. He shall save his people from
their sins. Joshua is going to be the commander.
He's going to represent grace as they get into that land. Now,
turn with me back, if you would, in the book of Numbers to chapter
13. As we notice here in chapter
13, we're gonna see this 38 years of division before we get to
that verse 20. 38 years in Numbers chapter 13
and verse 26. Now, we've gone over this in
the past and we'd like to look at it again just to set our parameters
here, to show what has happened. Now, a few things has taken place
since they've left Kadish and they've been told to wander around.
We have the institution of the red heifer, the ashes of the
red heifer. But here in verse 26 of chapter 13, the scriptures
say this, and they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to
all the congregation of the children of Israel unto the wilderness
of Paran to Kadesh and brought back word unto them and to all
the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. You know,
if we're just reading down through here and we don't know what's
going to happen, we say, wow, they're going to bring back a
good report. And they told them and said,
we came unto the land where thou sentest, and surely it floweth
with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. Wow, it's
getting better. It's getting better. This is
really a wonderful land, and it has wonderful fruit. Now,
the next verse, nevertheless, the people be strong and dwell
in the land and the cities are walled and very great. Moreover,
we saw the children of Anak there and the Amalekites dwell in the
land of the south and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites
dwell in the mountains and the Canaanites dwell in the sea and
by the coast of Jordan." You know what they're telling us
here? If you commit this sin, you're going to hell. I know
you're saved, but if you commit this sin, you're going to hell.
All of these different groups are sharing with us that if you
don't have Christ, anything can hinder you from going to heaven.
Everything will. You just cannot have faith. There
is no faith without the gospel, without Christ. And so there's
all of these obstacles, all of these obstacles. And preachers
today are sharing, if you do this, you're not gonna make it.
Well, that's not what the Bible tells us. The Bible tells us
that these are all things in the hand of an almighty God,
and he has the power and will demonstrate the power to overcome
all of these obstacles. And there were only two that
went in, two out of 12 that went in, that understood that God
was able to do exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or think. He was able to do this. They
believed it. Why? Well, we find out that these
two spies that came back with a good report, the Bible tells
us God gave them another spirit. They were able to see through
this, that this is a good land and God has given it to us. Well,
we find that in verse 30, Caleb stilled the people before Moses
and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well
able to overcome it. And that's Joshua and Caleb's
message to the children of Israel. And they didn't. And God said,
you will be wasted in the land. Now, turn with me to the book
of Numbers. Excuse me, not the book of Numbers,
book of Hebrews for just a moment. The book of Hebrews for just
a moment, and we have the Lord's commentary on these events. In the book of Hebrews chapter
11, verse 29 and verse 30, this is God's commentary on the travels
of Israel. Now the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy
and Exodus share with us what was going on during those 38
or 40 years. But this is God's commentary
on those who demonstrated faith. Notice here in Hebrews chapter
11 verse 29. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 29.
This is the great faith chapter. This is by faith Abraham, by
faith Sarah, by faith And here it tells us in verse 29, by faith,
they pass through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians
are saying to do, were drowned. By faith, they crossed the Red
Sea. The next statement by God is,
and by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed
about seven days. How long in between there? 40
years. By faith, they crossed the Red
Sea. By faith, they destroyed Jericho. Now, the works that
we find demonstrated there among those people are so representative
of what we find with regard to this in the book of Hebrews.
While you're there, turn with me to the third chapter of the
book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 3. In Hebrews chapter 3, And
this is a statement that has stuck with me for over 30 years. Brother Loren brought a lesson
one time and he used this term, heart check, heart check. And that's what we find here
in the book of Hebrews chapter three. In Hebrews chapter three,
beginning with verse five, And Moses barely was faithful in
all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which
were spoken after, but Christ as a son over his own house,
whose house whose house are we if we hold
fast the confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm to the end. Wherefore,
as the Holy Ghost saith today, if ye will hear his voice, now
notice this, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. in the days of temptation in
the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw
my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved at that
generation, and said, They do always err in their heart, and
they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath, they
shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God." Now, God Almighty has determined to save His people
and that with an eternal salvation. And yet we find that among the
children of Israel that were traveling, there was a host and
a host of people that went by the name of Israel, went by the
name of God, and went by the name that He has set them free
out of Egypt. But when they got there, they
demonstrated what they really were. Now, when I was in religion,
the preachers always taught that these people are only showing
us what backslidden Christians are. And you know what? They
never read the book of Hebrews. They never correlated the two
and said, these people are demonstrating that they don't have any faith
and faith is given by God. So God had not dealt with them.
We're thankful for the work that God did with those who knew faith. And we're going to find that
Miriam was one of those. And Moses was another one of
those. And Aaron was another one of those. But we find that
the host of them all died in unbelief. They had no knowledge
of a savior. They had no knowledge of a covenant
savior. They had no knowledge of the
truth about salvation. When he instituted those religious
forms in the tabernacle and so forth, many of them just turned
from worshiping the idols that they had down in Egypt to worshiping
these idols, some man-made instruments and said, this be my salvation. Well, as we go back to the book
of of numbers, let's stop by Deuteronomy for just a moment.
In the book of Deuteronomy, there in Deuteronomy chapter two, Deuteronomy
chapter two and verse 14, we have a little reflection about
what had happened there for those 38 years. Deuteronomy chapter
two and verse 14, what had happened during all this time? In retrospect,
it's no wonder that the Lord gave them the ashes of a red
heifer. If you touch a dead body, if
you're in a tent with a dead body, if you find a dead body,
if you're on a grave of a dead body, this is what's required
and you will be unclean for seven days. On the third day, you better
have this happen. You better be cleansed with the
water of the ashes of a red heifer. And if you're not, you will not
be clean on the seventh day. We brought out last week that
if you don't understand and you're not given the grace to understand
that death, burial, and resurrection is the gospel for us, that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried and
rose again the third day, we will have no part with him throughout
eternity. Well, here it says in the book
of Deuteronomy chapter 2 and verse 14, and the space in which
we came from Kadesh Barnea until we were come over the Brook Zerut
is 38 years. Why? Until all the generation
of the men of war were wasted out from among the host as the
Lord sware unto them. Now somebody may say, well that's
not fair. The answer is, God is sovereign. God is sovereign. God is able
to do what he said he will do. And that's what he said he would
do. You come back unfaithful, you will wander around till you
pass from this life. Now did God know about all the
things that were gonna happen in the wilderness there for those
40 years? Absolutely. He knew all things
from before the foundation of the world. Did he purpose them
to happen as they did? Absolutely. He purposed all things
from the foundation of the world. And he has purposed that those
who were of faith, God-given faith, would endure to the end. They would go through it. And
those who did not have faith would perish. And we find out
that those without faith They all died in the wilderness. All
right, now let's go to the book of Numbers, chapter 20, verse
1, and we'll notice here this event that took place. at the
very beginning of our picking up the history of Israel one
more time, and here Miriam dies. Verse one of Numbers chapter
20. Then came the children of Israel,
even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zion in the
first month, and the people abode in Kadesh. And Miriam died there
and was buried there. What a way to open again the
history of Israel, that Miriam would die there and would be
buried there. Now, just a little bit of history about Miriam,
we find out in the book of Exodus chapter two. Let's go back to
the book of Exodus chapter two, before the Exodus, before they
came out, before the Passover, before Moses was appointed by
God to lead them out. Moses is born, and it's a very
precarious time for male children to be born. There has gone out
an edict that every male child shall be destroyed. The king
said they're getting to be too many of them, and if they have
an opportunity, they'll overthrow us, so we're going to limit that.
Well, here in the book of Exodus, in chapter 2, verse 1, it says,
And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took a wife of the
daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bare
a son, and when she saw him, that he was a goodly child. Can
you imagine how many mothers said that their son was not a
goodly child? She saw that he was a goodly
child. Well, there's something about this woman that understood
God was in charge and this son must be delivered, this son.
How it came to her, how does the gospel come to us? Someone
tells us, someone brings it to our attention. We may not like
it at the time, but someone brings it to us. She conceived and bear
a son and saw that he was a goodly child and she hid him three months.
But when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an
ark of bulrushes and dabbed it with slime and with pitch and
put the child therein and she laid it in the flags by the river's
brink. And his sister stood afar off
to wit what would be done to him. She's been put on assignment. No one, the scriptures don't
tell us how much older she is than Moses, but some people feel
that she was from seven to 10 years older to be able to handle
this responsibility. Well, the daughter of Pharaoh
came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked
along by the riverside, and when they saw the ark among the flags,
she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she opened it, she saw
the child, and behold, the babe wept, and she had compassion
on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. Then
said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call
to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women that she may nurse the
child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said unto
her, go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. This
is an amazing story. It's just so good. But here's
Miriam. watching over her younger brother
who had been born. Now, when Aaron was born, this
edict had not been in place. When Moses is born, this edict
by the king has been in place that all the male children need
to be destroyed. There are getting to be too many
of them. And Moses' mother died. said, he's a goodly boy, I'll
take care of him and put him into an ark, put him in the Nile
River. And by the providence of God, Pharaoh's daughter notices
the ark and calls him out. And now we have Moses's mother
as his nurse. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto
her, take this child away and nurse it for me, and I'll give
thee wages. And the woman took the child
and nursed it, and the child grew, and she brought him unto
Pharaoh's daughter. And he became her son, and she
called his name Moses. And she said, because I drew
him out of the water." Now, it's not very long that Moses decides
that he is going to help the children of Israel out. Now,
we can think he's presumptuous about this, but Stephen, over
in the message he brought that Saul of Tarsus heard, Moses understood
that he was going to lead the children of Israel out. He supposed
they would understand it, but they did not. That's in the seventh
chapter of the book of Acts. Well, here we find that Moses,
now we find his life in three stages of 40. He's going to be
in Egypt 40 years. He's going to leave and wander
in the wilderness for 40 years. And then he is going to be called,
and he's going to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt and up
to Kadesh Barnea, and he's going to die, and he's going to be
120 years old. So it's stages, 40-year stages
in his life. Miriam is going to be about 127
to 130 years old when she dies, and we're going to find that
Aaron is in the middle there. Well, this all takes place, and we
find that Miriam dies. You know, as we think about that,
and as the farther I go along in life, I find that that is
just what's going to happen. I have some very, very close
friends. They're approaching that time. I've had very close
friends approach that time already. One of the saddest things to
me, and yet it should be looked at as promotion, is the sad thing
is you make good friends with older people and they die. And it strikes your heart. You miss
them, you miss them. But there is so much said in
the scriptures about Miriam that we need to take into consideration
prior to her death. Do you remember her rising up
with her brother Aaron against Moses? And she said that Moses
married the wrong lady. And she should be kept out of
the equation. What was wrong with this lady? She was colored. She was dark-complected. And
Moses, like our Savior, has married a very dark-complected bride. We, by our nature, are sinners
to the core, and to have the God of heaven, the Lord Jesus
Christ, have affection towards us is a miracle of free and sovereign
grace. It was gracious that Moses, second
or third in command in Egypt, sent out into the desert, marries
this woman and has children by him. This woman, we find that
Miriam spoke out against Moses, and then it tells us that she
was completely made white by leprosy. That's over in the book
of Numbers chapter 12 and verse 10. She's completely white by
leprosy and she is set aside without the camp for a season
and then she is taken care of. She is healed. She no longer
has the leprosy. Would you turn with me to the
book of Leviticus for just a moment? We think that's a, what a tragedy
that she would have leprosy all over her body. Be white with
leprosy. She just didn't have a hand or
a foot or an arm or a leg that turned white. She was white completely
all over. Well, the Lord is sharing with
us something very important about Miriam and about every believer
in Christ Jesus, that we're not partially sinners. that we're
not just sinners by doing something, or walking somewhere that's wrong,
or seeing something that's wrong, or hearing something that is
wrong, or taking knowledge of it, or smelling something that
is wrong, drinking something that is wrong. We are sinners
to the core. We have just the outcome bubble
out. Someday I want to go see Yellowstone. I've seen some wonderful pictures,
some wonderful video of Yellowstone, but you know when you see that
bubbling mud, that's only a reaction. The action is below surface.
Hot. Terribly hot rock. and it bubbles
up, there's the reaction. Well, our problem that we do
with our hands and our feet and our eyes and ears is just a reaction
of our heart. Our heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Now, here in the book of Leviticus
chapter 13, look there with me, Leviticus chapter 13. This is
the state that Miriam is in. She is covered with leprosy.
She has this terrible, terrible disease. And it's, in a sense,
it is judgment against her for her thinking that she would be
better to be the leader than Moses' wife. Well, notice here,
then the priest shall consider and behold, Leviticus chapter
13 and verse 13, then the priest shall consider and behold, if
the leprosy have covered all his flesh. What's to happen? This is just by grace. If it's
not just in the hands, if it's not just in the feet, if it's
not just in the eyes or ears, not just in the mouth, almost
everybody will admit that they've done a few things wrong. I'm
not quite as bad as my neighbor, though. But when the Lord convinces
us that we're a sinner by nature, a sinner by practice, a sinner
by choice, we're born that way, we will be remaining that way
unless the Lord intervenes. It says here, he shall pronounce
him clean that hath the plague, it is all turned white, he is
clean. He's an all the way sinner and
he's clean? The blood of Christ cleanseth
us from all sin. Everything. It's not what we
see or do. It needs to have a new heart. And that's what the Lord said
he does in the new birth. He gives us a new heart. It doesn't
make the old one clean. He gives us a new heart. So she
is demonstrated to be clean. And then she comes back into
the camp. We find that she is mentioned in the book of Micah
chapter six. Would you turn there with me?
The book of Micah chapter six. In fact, all three of these are
mentioned here in the book of Micah. Micah chapter six, and
there in verse four, we have these three, two brothers and
a sister, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. In age order, Miriam, Aaron,
and Moses. And it says here, and I brought
thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the
house of the servants, and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and
Miriam. Now they were leaders that God
appointed. Do you know, if we go back to
the book of Exodus chapter 15, Exodus chapter 15, now let's
notice the thing here that Miriam does, Exodus chapter 15. In Exodus chapter 15, verse 20,
Now we've just had, we've just had all of that host
of the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea. Moses
has a great song about this. And then we hear Miriam here
in the book of Exodus chapter 20. Exodus 15, verse 20. After that's all happened. Now,
we notice, we can just sum this up, not one Israelite died in
crossing the Red Sea, and not one Egyptian survived it. What
a division is made. And Miriam is going to rejoice
in this wonderful statement of the salvation of God's elect. She tells us here in verse 20
in Miriam the prophetess. She is the first woman in the
Bible that is mentioned as a prophetess. And today, Brother Loren read
there in the book of Luke about the last woman that was mentioned
as a prophetess. Her name was Anna of the tribe
of Asher. Miriam is a prophetess, and she
is of the tribe of Levi. The sister of Aaron took a timbrel
in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels
and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing
ye to the Lord. For he hath triumphed gloriously,
the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. What
is she saying? Saying, God has made a difference. God made a difference between
them and us. Not one of us died in the crossing
of the Red Sea. Nobody was left behind. Over
in the book of Exodus, when they left, not a hoof was left behind. Here, we find as they crossed
the Red Sea, dry shod, they came and protected, and God drowned
everybody that was an enemy, everyone. Separation of the nations,
as we find in the book of Matthew. You know, I saw that movie about
Yul Brynner riding away. They just hadn't read the Bible.
Yul Brynner would not have wrote away. The Pharaoh died with all
of his men there in the Red Sea. And Miriam sang that song with
the other ladies of glorifying God for his great work of mercy.
He could have just let them all die, but he didn't, he protected
them. Well, Miriam died. Not much of a statement made
there in Numbers chapter 20 and verse one, but we do find Let's just turn over to a verse
of scripture in Revelation chapter 14. Revelation chapter 14. Revelation chapter 14 and verse
13. Yesterday I was visiting with
a young man, turned out he's 63 years old. And I said, you
who got me by, I've got you by 10 years. He says, Norm, you're
doing pretty good for being 10 years older than me. As good
as we're doing, we're still heading for the long home. Death lies ahead of each one
of us. Now notice this verse of scripture
in the book of Revelation chapter 14 and verse 13. There's no doubt
gonna be many that mourn the passing of Miriam. When Moses died, they mourned
for 30 days. When Aaron died, God took him
up on a mountain and had Moses help take his clothes off and
put him on his son and he died and nobody knows where his tomb
is. Moses was the same way. God made
sure he buried him alone without anybody's help so nobody would
come and say, here's our God. He led us through the wilderness.
Well here, and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write. There's the record. We want this
record. This record. Right. Blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the
Spirit, that ye may rise, rest from your labors and your works
to follow them. Now, when could that have been
written? Well, we know it was written at the time that John
wrote the book of Revelation, but when does it reflect upon
Abel? Blessed is Abel. He died in the
Lord. Blessed are the saints who die
in the Lord. And then in the book of the Psalms, it says,
precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. And then we read in Hebrews chapter
11, verse 13, and these all died in faith. What a statement. God allows us to record. These all died in faith. And those who all died in faith
had a constant, continual, reminiscence, reminder that Christ died for
them. Not long ago, someone was mentioning
to me, you know, when we're baptized, it doesn't say as often as you
do this with baptism. We're not going down to the river
every other day or something. It's once. If it is a saved person,
God saves the person, and they're baptized, it's one time. And
that's just like salvation is. It's once. But how often do we
need to be reminded, He maketh intercession for me. He maketh
intercession for me. We're continuing to be sinners,
but He makes intercession for me. And then we're reminded of
that, as oft as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
do show the Lord's death. What? The cleansing power of
the blood of Christ on a continuous daily basis. I was saved, I am
being saved, and I shall be saved. It's an ongoing, continuous,
that God takes care of his children every day, even in the night
seasons, he takes care of his children every day. So we're
gonna remember today, as often as you do this, I'm thankful
it didn't say on every first Sunday or every third Wednesday
or whatever it says, you know, it was a beautiful, we heard
the lesson today, I told Mike, you know, we should have just
had the Lord's Supper, had you second and had the Lord's Supper right
after that. but we're going to have the Lord's Supper, observe
the Lord's Supper, so if Brother Mike and Brother Mike will come. The script is found in the book
of 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, that we're going to follow. And
we try to do it as close to what the Apostle Paul said, that which
was given to me I deliver unto you. It's the record that's given. So here in the book of 1 Corinthians
chapter 11, it says, For I have received
of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. Brother
Mike, would you lead us in prayer? that once again we can do this
in remembrance of those things that you've done for us.