All right, if you wish to follow
along, turn to Exodus chapter 18. Exodus chapter 18. Now, as I have done on several
occasions, because some of these, some of my texts are quite lengthy,
I'm not going to actually read the text, but we will probably
read through most of it as we go along. We may not read it
all, but we'll read a lot of it. Exodus chapter 18. Exodus chapter 18 is the account
of Moses and Jethro his father-in-law meeting one another After God
had delivered Israel out of Egyptian bondage Jethro has both critics
and abusers There are those who criticize Jethro and Because
they say he was nothing more than a pagan king trying to interfere
in God's business. I Want to avoid that? Because
that's just not so but there are also those who Abuse the
account of Jethro And I'll try to give you just a couple of
examples and this is not my message but just a warning there are
those who use the account of Jethro to support their ecclesiastical
hierarchies They say we know these things are not actually
commanded in Scripture, but look what Jethro did Look what Moses
did there are those who use it to Justify their missionary boards
Sunday school classes and all sorts of other things the New
Testament tells us as believers Exactly how we're to worship
when we gather together It tells us exactly Paul even told Timothy
I wrote you this letter. So, you know how to behave yourself
in the house of God You know what he said so Jethro has his
critics and his abusers, but let us avoid both and I want
to give you seven observations. Let's get right to it. Number
one, it's not actually found in the text per se, but we see
in the account of Moses and Jethro, we see God's eternal predestinated
purpose. God ordained these events even
before the world began. Remember, Moses had to flee Egypt
Where did he flee to? The land of Midian. That's where
he fled to. He flees Egypt. He helps Ruel's
daughters. Ruel and Jethro are the same
person. Ruel, or Jethro, gives Moses
one of his daughters to wed. And even more than that, Moses
keeps Jethro sheep for almost 40 years In the desert Moses
and Jethro knew one another yes, sir Moses and Jethro was quite
acquainted with one another So much so and we're not given the
account of what happened or even why it happened per se but as
Moses then goes back to Egypt and To deliver Israel out of
bondage, he begins by taking Zipporah and his two children
with him. But somewhere along the line,
he sends them back to Jethro. But also, when Moses was with
Jethro in that wilderness for 40 years, Moses is encountered
by, he doesn't just encounter, he is encountered by a burning
bush. where I am resides. Does he not? Where I am resides, that's the
first thing. Secondly, let us see, Jethro
sought no self-glory. Verse 27, the last verse of the
chapter. And Moses let his father-in-law
depart. And he went his way into his
own land. Now, if you will compare that
with, I'm not going to turn back and read it or look at it, but
you compare that with numbers 10, 29 through 32, we find that
Moses pleading with Jethro to stay with them. Now, here's where
I'm talking about abusers. Some people say, well, I don't
have to really be a part of the people of God to be a child of
God. You'll either be a part of the
people of God or you are not a child of God. You remember the Gadarene demoniac?
Yes, sir. Christ saved him. Yes, sir. Saved
him from demons. Amen. And he wanted to continue
along with Christ. Did he not? Yeah. And Christ
said, no, you go back to your home. That's what he told him.
You know what he told him? Amen. You go back to your home.
He was not suggesting to the Gadarene demoniac that he not
be a follower of himself, of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there
are times when God Almighty puts people in specific places for
specific purposes, and this we see with Jethro. He shows back
up on the scene, brings Moses, his wife and sons back, and then
disappears back off the scene. Thirdly, Jethro had integrity. Look at verse two. Then Jethro,
Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent
her back, and that's all we're told about it. That's all we're
told about it. And her two sons, of which the
name of the one was Gershom, for he said, I have been an alien
in a strange land. And the name of the other was
Eleazar, for the God of my father said he was my help and delivered
me from the sword of Pharaoh. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law,
came with his sons and his wife into the wilderness where he
encamped at the Mount of God. And he said unto Moses, I, thy
father-in-law Jethro, am coming to thee and thy wife and her
two sons with her. You see, Jethro could have hung
around and gotten him great glory, because Moses said, you even
know this land. You could be a guide to us. And
Jethro says, no. How many preachers today would
not go for that deal? You see, it's amazing to me. You hear accounts or stories,
some of them may be stories, of how a preacher moves from
one place to the other. Pastors here for a while, then
goes to another place for a while. Pastors there for a while, goes
to another place for a while. Scripture never speaks in those
words. It just does not. And the amazing
thing is, usually when some pastor or preacher leaves one local
assembly and goes to another assembly, it's always one that
has more people and more money. I've never found one. I've never
found one. I'm not saying there are none,
but I've never found one. I've never met one that left
the big assembly and went to a small assembly where he even
had to work to help out pay the bills. How many? No. I think I mentioned this
to you the other day. I was online checking some stuff
for work on YouTube. And of course, sometimes when
you begin to look at YouTube, it'll give you things outside
of the category that you were originally looking at. Well,
I seen the world's top 20 richest preachers. And I said, I got
to check this one out. I want to let you all in on something.
I wasn't on that list. Here's number four though. Moses
had great respect for Jethro. Would you see that? Verse seven,
and Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and did obeisance. Do you see that? He showed him
profound respect and love and kissed him and they asked each
other of their welfare and they came into the tent. I know, as Earl used to say,
there's a naked savage behind every tree, waiting to attack,
waiting to stab you in the back. But let me tell you, we are all
naked savages by nature. We all, by nature, hide behind
the trees. We all are like Adam and Eve
and when our sin our rebellion is discovered We'll seek to cover
up our own shame and nakedness Moses was glad to see Jethro
was it not he was glad to see Jethro, but here's something
more There's something much more than these first four things Jethro Heard. When you read this, if you read
it, did you read that? Look at it, verse one. When Jethro
the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard. You see
it? That caught my attention as I
began to read this. Jethro heard. And what did he
hear? He heard what God had done. He didn't hear what God was going
to do. He heard what God had done. That's my title, and that's my
subject. Jethro heard. Oh, what a glorious
day it is if God gives you ears to hear. I'm talking about more
than just hearing a man preach the gospel. The apostle Paul
put it this way to some people, and he said, you can know whether
you're one of the elect or not. Isn't that what he said? He said,
knowing, brethren, your election of God. Now how in the world
can you know that? The election took place before
the foundation of the world. The names are written in the
Lamb's book of life. And we're not told that that
book will be opened until the final end of all things. How could you know you're one
of the elect of God? He said, four, our gospel came
not to you in word only. Now it must come in word. God's not gonna preach to you
the gospel in your bed while you sleep tomorrow night. He
gonna send the man that he's ordained and he gonna send that
man to preach to you the gospel. and you may hear it verbally,
you may see it written down in text, you may hear it on a tape,
somehow you're gonna hear, but it's gonna be more than word.
For our gospel came to you not in word only, but in what? Power. And in much assurance. Assurance
about who God is, not about myself. You know, we're, and I understand,
I don't, I'm not criticizing. I understand that desire. I need
assurance. I need assurance. My assurance
is seated at the right hand of God, the father. He is my forerunner
and he has entered for me or I will never enter at all. And
my assurance is seated there. Assurance is not how you feel.
And that's why We become so downtrodden and so long-faced is because
we look at ourselves for assurance. And we don't believe God that
the Son is seated, exalted at the right hand of God the Father.
They're making intercession for us. Jethro heard of all that
God had done for Moses and for Israel his people and that the
Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt The gospel is a message
of this ilk The work of reconciliation the
work of redemption The work of sanctification, the work of,
like I said, reconciliation, the work of perfection is already
accomplished. Jesus Christ did not die to make
anything merely possible. That is a message straight from
the lips of the devil and his minions. that says Jesus Christ
came and died to make something possible if you, or me, or you
will then do something. That is anti-Christ religion.
Anti-Christ religion is not against Christ, it just rejects God's
Christ. And even the Christ himself said
there gonna arise many Christ. and there are probably thousands
of them going to be preached this very day by that many false
prophets. Jethro heard. What did Paul say? Faith cometh by hearing. That's what he says. Now it's not faith comes into
existence because faith exists in God eternally. And faith is
God's gift to men and women at his sovereign pleasure. Faith
is a fruit of the Spirit because faith intrinsically resides in
God and in God alone. Therefore, this faith that is
connected to salvation must be given to an individual. But God
gives it in hearing the word of God. Faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. And the Greek is clear, it's
the word of God being preached. Well, I had faith before I ever
heard the gospel. Really? Now, how did you figure
that one out? Huh? No. Jethro heard I would not even
We don't he heard before he came He came because he heard You
see it, and that's the order You got a lot of people today
that come and come and come and they never heard anything yet
They're getting thousands to walk owls and pray prayers They've
never even heard who Jesus Christ is and what he accomplished at
Calvary Jethro heard Again, look at chapter 18 and verse seven. And Moses went out to meet his
father-in-law and did obeisance and kissed him. They asked each
other the welfare. They came into the tent. Now,
here they are in the tent. Now they're relaxing. Taking
it easy. And Moses told his father-in-law. Moses, you see, when God Almighty
saves you, you got to tell somebody else. You know, David mentioned, I'm
paraphrasing, but I tried to keep this in, David said, and
everything inside me just roared. Just roared. Moses told his father-in-law
all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians
for Israel's sake. Moses did not sugarcoat what
had taken place. Now you remember I told you this
a couple weeks ago, and never forget this. There were hundreds
of Egyptian soldiers drowned in the Red Sea. And probably
the greatest majority of them had wives and children at home. Now do you hear what I'm saying? Moses was not sugarcoating what
took place here. God drowned those men in the
Red Sea, and their families suffered the consequences of Pharaoh's
rebellion. Moses told his father-in-law
all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians
for Israel's sake. Let me tell you something. You
cannot start to read this Bible unless you already have preconceived
prejudices. You cannot read this Bible and
say that God treats all men equally. You cannot. Now God treats all
men fairly. He will either punish men and
they will suffer the fruit of their own doings or he punishes
men and women in the person of his son and they then will enjoy
the merits of Jesus Christ. But he does not do the same thing
for everybody. Yes, and some of us talked about
this a while back. People are looking for phrases.
We actually think we can come up with one or two words that's
really gonna explain God Almighty. That's what I've been talking
about. I say we come up with these words. We think, oh, I've got something.
Listen to me. It says, he causes the rain to
fall on the just and the unjust. But sometimes he drowns some
people with that rain. See, we're always looking for
that. Benevolent whatever gracious what sometimes the rain drowns
people Sometimes the rain floods fields and kills crops and people
die of starvation And then sometime God feeds us
and we don't deserve to be fed I God lets us enjoy the beauties
and the bounties of this world. Though it's tainted and marred
by sin, it's still a glorious place. Look around you at the
stars. Mars ain't like this. The sun
ain't like this. Jupiter ain't like this. And
God does this for us even when we spit in his face. Does he
not? Moses told his daddy-in-law everything. You see, my responsibility is
to tell men and women who God really is. If they do not like
it, that's their problem. If they take it out on me, that's
their problem. I may suffer the consequences
of it, you may suffer the consequences of it. If you lose your job because
of the truth of the gospel, that's their problem. They will give
an account to God one day. You see, Moses was, oh, God loves,
Moses did not tell the Egyptians, smile, God loves you. Because
God did not love the Egyptians. He loved Israel. He loved Israel. He loved Israel. You see, no
truth of God is taboo. You hear what I said? No truth
of God. I'm not saying there are many
truths. There is one truth, but there are many different facets
of it, but no truth of God is taboo Now it's on tape I think it recorded
but I mentioned something one Sunday said many many many many
Sundays ago The young man had been in our midst for several
months Not even baptized And I made a statement along this
line, and it's there, it's probably taped, you can go back and hear
it. I made a statement along this
line. I do not believe there's one single baby in heaven. That
started off a firestorm. I mean a firestorm. That young
man, to my own ears, Accused me said I heard you say that
God was stoking the fires of hell with the souls of little
babies. I Never said no such thing Now I could go on to say
I don't even believe there's not one not one not nary one
100 year old invalid in heaven Does it make any more sense to
you now, I don't believe there's not one crippled person in heaven
Does it make any more sense to you now? I didn't say babies
don't go to heaven. I said they ate one in heaven. Do you want to be that big for
eternity? But we hate the truth so much
that there are certain parts of God's truth that is taboo
to our religious natural minds. And when we hear a man try to
state it as honestly and straightforward as possible, we'll use it as
fodder against not believing what that man preaches about
God. And that young man, apart from the grace of God, will perish
without God. Now, number six, let's see faith
flourish. Flourish. Faith flourishes because of God
Almighty's power. Because of His graciousness,
because of His compassion, not because we're so good with faith.
It's not because we're so wise to take the faith God gave us
and really do great things. Christ said, if you had faith
as a grain of mustard seed, you could just say to this mountain,
be thou removed and cast into the sea. And I still haven't
been able to do that yet. I haven't been able to do that
yet. And he said, that's just the faith of the grain of a mustard
seed. But bless God at least, thank God I got some. But faith flourishes. And I will
show you how faith flourishes right here in our text. First
of all, verse nine, and Jethro rejoiced. That's where it's at. And Jethro rejoiced for all the
goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom he had delivered
out of the hands of the Egyptians. One thing that faith cannot help
but do, that's rejoice at God Almighty. And rejoice at God
Almighty as God Almighty is. Not as I want him to be. but
as he is. You know, most people in this
country, we are flooded with, we have, what is it, dish network,
whatever it is. And there are probably 50 channels
of religious shows, and we just got the cheapest package you
could get. And I've looked at a few of them.
And those people don't know who God is. They're not preaching
who God is. Therefore, the people that are
hearing them don't know who God is. And they cannot know who
God is because they ain't yet heard who God is. Oh, God calls
some folks to start to hear. To hear. To hear. Faith rejoices. And I go to this
passage, I thought, Walter, you can't go to that passage again.
And I said, well, wait a minute, it's God's word. We are the circumcision,
Paul said, that rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now, if you don't rejoice
in Christ Jesus, you don't know Christ Jesus. If you don't know
Christ Jesus, you are not saved. It is that simple. It is that
simple. We are the circumcision which
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and one other facet of it, and have
no, and have no confidence in the flesh. Now if you say you rejoice in
Christ Jesus, but you've got confidence in your flesh, you
ain't met the Christ of God yet. You haven't met, you haven't
heard, here and down in here, the Christ of God. You might
have heard the truth preached all your life. But if you think
there's one ounce of good in you, in your flesh, in your old
self, you don't know Jesus Christ yet. Now there are times when
even the believer may start to veer a little off course on that,
but God will quickly bring you back because he'll let you see
what your flesh is really like. He'll give you a Peter moment.
and he'll turn the devil or one of his minions loose on you.
They'll let you see exactly what your flesh is. You will curse
and deny that you even know the Lord of glory when you know you
do. He might give you a Job moment. Job was a man that feared God,
that avoided evil, but God will teach him some things. How proud
you really are down inside. Yeah. Because at the end, Joe says,
now, wherefore I hate myself. I repent in dust and ashes. Why? Because he said, I've heard
of you with the hearing of the ear. He don't bet his physical
on me. Him and his buddies knew about God, talked about God,
believed in God. But he said, now mine eye seeth
thee. In other words, God crossed his
path. and God showed Job what he was really like in and of
himself. Faith rejoices in Christ and is very, very careful to
rejoice in any human effort whatsoever. Yes, God works in his people
both to will and to do of his good pleasure, but sometimes
I don't know the difference. Because there's some time you
may think you've been the most compassionate person that ever
walked the face of the earth, and you did it out of pride of
heart. You ever witness to somebody
and then come away and thought, well, I did pretty good there. Oh, really? Oh, really? Faith rejoices, but
faith does something else, too. See it flourish. Faith blesses. And Jethro said, verse 10, blessed
be the Lord. Our blessing of God does not
even add one speck to God's glory. Our blessing of God is giving
God the rightful praise for who he really is. That's what blessing. He is God blessed forever. Amen. But Paul put it this way. Blessed
be the God and father blessed. Blessed be the God, why? Because
he chose us in Christ before the world began. I don't believe
that, then you don't bless God for who he is. You hear me? Well, he predestinated us in
the adoption of children. I don't like that. I've never
heard of that preacher, then you ain't heard the gospel yet.
You ain't heard the gospel yet. We bless God for his electing
love, his predestinating love. We bless God for his redeeming
love. And I mean real redeeming love.
I don't mean he died on the cross so you might be redeemed if.
I mean he died and redeemed the people at Calvary. Do you believe
that or not? He reconciled some people. He
has forgiveness of sin. He forgave their sins when he
died on that tree. Yeah. That's what Colossians
says. Now they come to realize it and
experience it in time by conversion experience. But he forgave me,
Joe, when he died on that tree. As a matter of fact, he forgave
me in Christ, God did, before the world began, based upon what
Christ would do in time. He did all that back in eternity.
God's never been angry with the elect of God. God's always been
on the side of the elect. Always. Between men and God, if it's
the elect you're talking about, was always coming from our side.
It wasn't coming from God's side. The elect have never been under
wrath. We are the children of wrath, and that means the wrath
comes from us. We're the ones that were angry with God. That's
what it is. Not only that, see faith flourish. Faith submits to sovereign authority. You know, look at it. Verse 11,
now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods. For, look, look,
for in the thing wherein they, he talked about the Egyptians
as the last mentioned phrase, where they dealt proudly, he,
that is God, was above them. Do you see that? Huh? He might
have just been an old heathen priest, but God had opened his
eyes and opened his ears. Do you see it? Do you see it?
Those that walk in pride, Nebuchadnezzar, a very proud man, learned that
lesson, as we might say, the hard way. But oh, thank God teach
me that lesson one way or the other. And he said this about
God. Nobody could stay his hand Nobody
could say in him. What are you doing God? And he
said this one other thing Those that walk in pride He is able
to abase Now that's that is a profound theological statement, but it's
as simple as could be I Those that walk in pride, he's able
to abase. So if you've got a proud man
or a proud woman still on the face of the earth, it's only
because God hadn't abased them yet. Because if he has purpose to
abase them, abased they will be. Why? Because he's able. That's the
one thing, you remember that leper? That's the one thing he
was not doubtful about was Christ's ability. He said, the only thing
he wasn't for sure about was his will. His will. He said, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. He did not doubt Christ's ability
to do it at all. He just did not know whether
Christ would be willing to do it or not. Now wait a minute,
shouldn't he have been taught all through the Old Testament
how God loves everybody? And God's willing to try to help
everybody because that God don't exist. that God is a figment
of men and women's imaginations, that God is the lie of Antichrist. In faith then, verse 12 acknowledges
substitution and satisfaction. In Jephro, Moses' father-in-law
took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. Aaron came and all the
elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses father-in-law before
God You see God's people. Let me tell you what God Almighty
saved you ain't gonna have no problem with the fact that Jesus
Christ didn't die for me I'm a goner And if he did die for
me, I'm okay And I will praise him I will bless him, I will
rejoice in him, I will submit to his sovereign authority, and
I will acknowledge his substitutionary satisfaction at Calvary. God
give me grace to do so as long as these lips are able to speak.
I'm not ashamed of the fact that Jesus Christ died for his sheep
and his sheep only. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. It says that God Almighty purchased
the church with his own blood. Now there's no need to say that
unless it's just the church. Yes or no? Yes or no? Paul puts it this way. God reconciled
us even when we were enemies. How? By the death of his son. That happened 2,000 years ago. It's a done deal. Now here's
the question. Do you believe him in that? Do
you believe he really did that? Does it rejoice you? Does it
cause you to bless God? Does it cause you to submit,
bow down to God's authority? Do you love to gather with others
and talk about it? Here's this old heathen priest,
now sitting down with Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel
before God. Mm-hmm before God here's number
seven Faith seeks relief from heavy bondage for anybody involved
in faith I'm not gonna read it. You'll see that in chapter 18
verses 13 through 26 If you go over to Acts chapter 15, you'll
find Peter calling the law this It was a bondage a noose Chains
that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. Jethro tells Moses, this is too
much for you. Now see why Moses was on that
mount and went up there and was holding up his arms. God had
just taught him that lesson, didn't he? Every time Moses'
arms start to come down, had that staff and he said, arms
start to come down, what happened? Israel would get whipped. Israel
be getting the getting the bass bat into the stick And what did
Moses have to have help? Did not Aaron and her and a stone
Now here his father-in-law could be and Moses is sitting there
all day long the next day judging one case after another Jethro
says, you can't do this alone. True faith acknowledges human
weakness and frailty. Even amongst those specifically
sent of God. Moses was God's man. As a matter
of fact, Moses, when he died, still could see just as well
as he could see when he was really young. And he still was a very
strong man. But Jethro knew human frailty.
Moses, you can't do this alone. Now some say this was bad advice,
but not according to Moses, because you go back and look at Deuteron,
go and look at Deuteronomy 1, verses 9 through 18, he really
reiterates, I needed this help. Notice they don't argue about
it. If you look at the whole context, after he told him this,
he said, Jethro, why don't you hang around? Jethro says, no. I'm going back to Midian. Now
you know what? The gospel went back to Midian with him. But
we don't know of one other person that it ever affected. I'm not
saying it didn't. Do we? The Midianites were still enemies
of Israel for years. But here's one old Midianite
priest that God had allowed him by his grace to what? Hear something. Let me close this up. Faith is
not rash. He watched Moses do this from
the morning till the evening. He watched all day. He didn't
just jump right in. Now, wait a minute, Moses, you
ain't doing this right. It's nothing like that. Faith knows
human frailty, but faith also seeks spiritual life. I gotta
read you this one. Verse 21. Moreover, thou shalt
provide out of all the people, able men, such as fear God. men of truth, and not looking
for something under the table. Hating covetousness. And place
them over. Do you see it? It wasn't just,
well, let's pick out the best looking one, the strongest one.
Uh-uh, had nothing to do with that, did it? What did it have
to do with? Fearing God, loving truth, and hating covetousness.
That's what faith does. That's what faith is. Now, yet,
Jethro tells Moses, y'all, you're not gonna make it. To the land,
you keep doing all this on yourself. Now what he told him, you read
it. You read the passage. But you know what? Moses never
did bring the children into the promised land. Two reasons why. One, the mount
of God intrudes into the account. Yeah, the Mount of God. It intrudes. We're going to see it in the
next couple chapters. The Mount of God comes in. God comes in
on that mountain, issues forth law after law after law. And the people immediately do
what? Worship a golden calf. But you know, they did not not
enter the promised land because of that. Do you know that? The
reason they didn't enter the promised land, it's called unbelief,
is when they came up to Kadesh Barnea and they sent them spies
in, 10 of the spies came back and said, we can't do this. Two
faithful said, we can do this, God's given this to us. Let's
go, let's move in on them. And the people rebelled against
God there in unbelief. And that's why they did not enter
the promised land. And Moses didn't lead them in.
Moses will never lead you into the promised land. the law of
God will never get you to the promised land. However you want
to symbolize the promised land, whether you symbolize it as salvation,
whether you symbolize it as struggle, no matter what you, God calls
it rest. Rest. You will never enter the
rest by Moses. You'll never enter the rest by
the law. You can only enter the rest by Joshua, Jesus, the fighting
savior. If we are to get to Joshua, the
book of Joshua, you keep finding this phrase over and Joshua whipped
this one. Now it's not the right, it's
not, I'm paraphrasing. Joshua won this battle. Joshua did,
wait a minute, he had all kinds of other men with him. But Joshua
gets the glory. Why? Because it's a type. God's
teaching us a lesson. Jesus Christ gets all the glory
because he's the head. He's in charge. Think about two
things. Faith never dictates God's eternal
predestinated purpose. There are people who think you've
got enough faith, you can move God to do this or whatever you
want. That ain't the way it works. Jethro told Moses, verse 23,
if thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so. He was bowing to God's will,
was he not? He said, now here's my advice, but this is up to
God. Ain't that what he just said there? If thou shalt do
this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to
endure, and all this people shall go to their place in peace. But they didn't. Not because
it was bad advice, but because faith, no matter how great it
is, and it is great, doesn't dictate God's eternal purpose.
Here's what faith does. It bows to it. It bows to God's
eternal purpose. And often God's eternal purpose
looks like how is the end ever going to be reached? Think about
it. Those Jews, those Israelites
went around and around and around and around and around for 40
years. And everybody 20 years and older as they were going around and
around and around and around. But Hebrews puts it this way.
Somebody must enter therein. I want to be one of those people,
don't you? The only people that we are are
those who hear and believe. But remember what believing is.
We talk about it over and over, over and over again. We talk
about what believing is. And somebody still said, well preacher,
just what am I supposed to do about this circumstance or this
thing? You know what you're supposed to do. You know what you ought
to do. You're just waiting for somebody to tell you you're okay
where you're at. And it just don't happen. It
just don't happen. You're waiting for somebody else
to come along and tell you what you want to hear. You know what
you're supposed to do if God gave you faith. So what do you do? Just do it. What about the circumstances?
What about not doing it? Think about the end of rebelling
against God in unbelief. That's far more dangerous than
what you may experience in this life because you stand up for
the truth of God and say enough's enough. Am I clear? Clear. Mac, would you close us in prayer
and give thanks for our food and stuff, please? Father, we
thank Thee for this hour being spent. We pray that You would
just give us strength to hold on to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Teach us how to love one another. Amen. You're welcome.