Mike Walker is from Millside
Baptist Church, and that's all you need to know about him. He's
going to come and preach, and may the Lord bless his message
to our heart. Mike, it's such a blessing to
have you back. Such a blessing. Come and preach
for us. There's your water. I'm too used to doing it with
my right hand. I've got to change. I'm not a fine mind drinking,
actually. Thank you, Brother Bruce. It's
such an honor to be here. You know, every time we gather
with the Lord's people, it's an honor that He would allow
us that He has preserved us and He has kept us and ordered and
directed our steps to this place right here this evening. And
I pray with God's help and strength that He would enable me by His
grace that He may speak through this vessel of clay and speak
to your heart. Oh, to hear from Him. Oh, to
hear from Him. Let's open our Bible to the book
of Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter
32. Let's go back and read verse
30 of chapter 31. And Moses spake in the ears of
all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until
they were ended. Moses is here in this song. He's
speaking to the children of Israel that have survived the wilderness,
that was all those 20 years old and up were died in the wilderness.
And these are the generation that God has raised up in Caleb
and Joshua to take them into Canaan. This is almost to the
end of the book of Deuteronomy. They're getting ready to go in.
And I think in these verses, He's reminding them of their
great God and all that He's done for them in preserving them and
keeping them. And He will always keep His people
through whatever they face. Can you imagine these people
seeing their parents and grandparents die in the wilderness? dying
the wilderness, and God has preserved them. And here it says in verse
1 of Deuteronomy chapter 32, give ear, O ye heavens, and I
will speak. And hear, O earth, the words
of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain. My speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain
upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. Because
I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto
our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all His ways are judgment.
A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. They have
corrupted themselves. Their spot is not the spot of
his children. They are a perverse and crooked
generation. Do you thus requite the Lord
of ye foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy father that hath
bought thee? Hath he not made thee and established
thee? Remember the days of old. Consider
the years of many generations. Ask thy fathers. It's like Frank
said about witnesses. He said, ask your fathers. They're
witnesses. Ask your fathers. And He'll show
thee thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High
divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated
the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according
to the number of the children of Israel. Everything He did
was because of Christ and because of His people. Everything. For
the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land
and in the waste, howling wilderness. He led him about. Then it said
he instructed him. And he kept him. Who did he keep? Kept Jacob, Israel. as the apple
of his eye. Here be our verse. As the eagle
stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad
her wings, taketh them, beareth her on her wings, so the Lord
alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. Here in verse 11, our Lord makes
reference or describes himself as an eagle. And we would never
use that term, but this is how he many times in the scriptures
uses things that we are familiar with. They knew what eagles were.
And in this verse, he's going to show how the eagle takes care
of his young, how God has preserved and keeps his people. And he
makes reference basically, this is what he did to Israel. This
is what he did to Jacob. This is how he brought them out
of a wild and wilderness, howling wilderness. Some things about
an eagle. An eagle is known for its great,
great strength. Every other bird is compared
to an eagle. It is known for its great sight. They say it's
the only bird that can fly directly and look directly into the sun. It's known for its swiftness.
They say it can see a rabbit, one of its prey, and fly within
about 200 miles an hour and grab its prey. It's not only known for its strength,
it's known for its tenderness. Imagine them talons that could
rip something to shreds. Those same talons can feed its
young. Wrath to one and mercy to the
other. This eagle, the eagle cares for,
feeds, protects, nurtures, and I said in verse 10, it instructs. It teaches His people. What did He do the whole time
that they were in the wilderness? I think exactly what He's doing.
He's teaching them. What does God do for us every day that
we that are His children? He teaches us. He instructs us. The Scripture said they shall
be all taught of God. Psalm 71, 17, oh God, that has
taught me from my youth. So how does the eagle instruct
his little ones? Here the first thing he says
is, as the eagle stirreth up her nest. Now you know what the
nest is. The nest is where the eagles
are born. That's where they live. God raised up a nation. Where
did He raise up a nation? He raised His children. He raised
up that church in Egypt. Egypt. That's where they were
at. That's where God brought them.
He told Jacob, He said, don't be afraid to go to Egypt. He
took them down there for a purpose. And while they were there for
400 years, we read that 400 years that they were there and what
was He doing? That's His church in a nest. What kind of nest
was it? A vile, wicked, it's called the
place of Ham. That's where they were at. Where
did God find you? That's exactly where you were at. That's the
nest you were in. A wicked, vile place. He raised them up in a nation
of Egypt. He said He found them in a waste
and howling wilderness. Israel was there for 400 years
in their infant state. But when it was time to leave,
what did he tell Joseph? And Joseph told him. They embalmed
his body. One day God's going to take you
out. What do you think they thought
for 400 years? Has God forgotten His promise? When it's time,
when it was time, now listen to me, when it was time for God
to bring out His little eagles, you know what He did? He stirred
up the nest. He stirred it up. There are so
many pictures here. We see a picture here of how
God saves a sinner. When God determines to save a sinner,
one of His chosen Jacobs, one of His chosen Israels, you know
what He does? He's got to stir up the nest,
because in the nest is where we're comfortable at. We'll just
stay here forever. That's where Israel would have
stayed. They lived in the land of Goshen, the best land in all
of Egypt. Who would want to leave Goshen? They liked being slaves,
and we did too. They were always wanting to go
back. You'd say, why would we like to be slaves? That's us.
We like the nest. He says he stirs up the nest.
The word stir up means to open the eyes and to wake them up. He wakes them up, these little
ones, because they are the apple of his eye. He stirs up His people. What's He doing when He stirs
them up? He's awakening them to see their need. That's us. You've got to see
your need. Got to see your need. How does
He stir them up? Well, sometimes the eagle, you
know what she would do? She would put sharp thorns and stuff in
that nest. She's going to make it uncomfortable.
She's going to make them want to leave. She's going to make
it very uncomfortable. What was one of the things that
God used? Turn with me to Exodus chapter 1 and I'll show you.
Exodus chapter 1. Imagine, things have went on
for years, 400 years. Israel is living in Goshen. Things
have went on like this for years. It says in Exodus chapter 1 verse
5, And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were
seventy souls, for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph
died, and all his brethren, and all that generation, and the
children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and
multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled
with them." Now here it is. Now there arose up a new king
over Egypt which knew not Joseph. He did not know Christ, had no
concern for Him. Why was this man born? For this same purpose have I
raised you up. God's getting ready to do something. And God's
raised up this man to stir up this nest. He didn't know Joseph,
and he said unto the people, Behold, the people of the children
of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal
wisely with them, lest they multiply and come to pass when they fall
without any war. They join also with our enemies
and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
Wherefore, they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them
with their burdens. Now things have changed. Why
is this taskmaster? Why is he afflicting me? Why
is there such a burden? You've got to see sin as a burden. You lived with it for years and
you were comfortable with it. But I tell you, when God begins
to deal with a sinner, it becomes a burden. He's stirring up the
nest. I'm not comfortable in it anymore.
I can't find any rest. Therefore, they did set over
on taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens, and they
built for Pharaoh treasured cities, Python and Ramesses. But the
more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. They said, we're going to stop
them. We're going to keep them from
growing. But the more they afflicted them, the more they grew. And
during this time, God's going to raise up a deliverer named
Moses. You remember, he was raised in
Pharaoh's house for 40 years. This is another 40 years. And
then God takes Moses to the back side of the desert for another
40 years. So this goes on for 80 years, this affliction and
this burden. And here's the second way God
stirs up His people. He will send Moses. He will send
the law. And when Moses came into Pharaoh's
presence, it stirred things up. It stirred it up. Who's God that
I should serve Him? You know what Paul said? And you
know what? Paul was comfortable in his little
nest too. He was in his little nest of
religion. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees until God one day
stirred up his nest. Didn't He? What did he tell Paul
on the road to Damascus? He said, Paul, it's hard for
you to kick against the pricks. Something's pricking him. He
said, I was alive without the law once, but when the law came,
sin revived and I died. You know what did? It killed
him. God sent Moses. God sent the Law. And He's stirring
this place up. He's going to bring His people
out. If God intends to bring you out, He will send the Law
to you. And the Law always kills. It never gives life. It just
slays. And that's what He did. You look at Egypt when they came
out of it. When God finally brought them out, man, it was nothing
but death. The last thing you remember He brought, He killed
the firstborn. the law entered that the offense
might abound. Men by nature, even as believers,
we're still prone to this. We want things comfortable, don't
we? We want to just lay down in the
nest and there's nothing to bother us, nothing pricking us, everything's
going fine. What do we have to worry about?
That's the way the early church was. Our Lord commanded them. He said, you preach the Gospel
to all the world. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and
then to the uttermost parts of the earth. God saved 3,000 souls
in Jerusalem. Who wouldn't want to stay in
Jerusalem? Boy, who would want to leave? That's the way they were. They didn't want to leave. But
this is not what God told them to do. He said, you're not to
stay. Those other people need to hear the Gospel. They don't
want to leave. It says in Acts 8, verse 13,
Before God saved Paul, He raised up Paul. And it said, and foresaw
He made havoc of the church, entering into every house, hailing
men and women, committing them unto prison. Therefore, they
that were scattered abroad, He created havoc. And you know what
this did? Therefore, they were scattered
abroad and went everywhere preaching the Why did they go preaching
the Word? Because he stirred up the nest. Uncomfortable. Then Philip went
down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. Where
did I tell you? Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. How are they going to
go to Samaria? They don't want to go. God is going to raise
up affliction, havoc. You remember that. God is in
control of all things and this is the first thing He does. He
has to stir things up. Our gracious Lord still causes
a stir in men's souls to cause them to come to Him. God must stir up His people.
Why? Because they'll never stir themselves up. You just think
about them little eagles that say, I'm just going to sit right
here. Isn't that us? We all want to get comfortable.
You remember that when you see the evening news, Let me remind
you, our God's in control of everything. Everything. Everything that's happening,
it ain't by accident. It's on purpose. You know what God's
doing? I believe He's doing. I ain't no prophet, but I believe
God's stirring the nest. Don't you think He is? If I ain't
stirring it, I don't know what it is. But I'm encouraged by
that. But God has a people He's going
to save. We sat comfortable for years, didn't we? Oh, we had
it made. And God says, yeah, you go on,
just keep going on. It seems like forever. And God says, now's
the time. I'm going to bring you out of Israel. God said,
you've been going the way you want to go. You've been laying
in your nest, comfortable for years, just like Paul. And God
says, now's the day of salvation. I'm going to bring you out. And He does. This world is not
our home. We're just sojourners in this
place. He must arouse us. Listen, if He doesn't arouse
us, we'll perish in our sin. Even today, even as believers,
if He left us alone, we'd just leave Him. I pray we've come here tonight
out of a need. A need. He says, and even in this chapter,
over verse 39, and Paul was talking about it this evening, He said,
see now that I, even I am he, there is no God with me. And
notice the first thing he says, I kill. And that's how he always
works. He's got to kill your high opinion
of yourself. I kill and make alive. I wound and then I heal. Neither
is there any that can deliver out of my hand. He stirs up the nest, makes it
uncomfortable. Then he says, he flutters over,
fluttereth over her young. That word fluttereth is brood,
move, and the song we sung, hover over me, Holy Spirit. It's the
same word in Genesis 1-2, you know, it says, In the beginning
the world was without form and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved. The Spirit of God brooded. The
Spirit of God hovered over darkness. That's what happens when He saves
a soul. He moves upon my heart. When the Spirit of God moved
or brooded up over the face of the deep, He brought forth life. The earth in that state describes
the natural part of every man without Christ. We are without
form and void. That's not how it was originally.
When they first made it, it wasn't without forming void. Something
happened. Something happened. Look at Adam in the garden. Look
at us now. Something happened. Void, emptiness, darkness, death. But out of the darkness came
forth life. Listen to what Pink said. This
blessed my heart. Out of the chaos, was brought forth the
cosmos, which signifies order, arrangement, and beauty. Out
of the waters emerged the earth, a scene of desolation, darkness,
and death was transformed into one of light, life, and fertility,
so that in the end, all was pronounced, it's very good. Someone else said, I can't remember
who it got it from, said, the earth, now watch this, you imagine
this, it was without form and void and it's spinning on its
axis. It moved in its orbit and rotated
upon its axis, but its motion could not mend it. We just spun on our axis and
could never mend it. It had to be moved upon by the
Spirit of God, otherwise it would have forever remained without
form and void. And unless, listen to me, unless
God moves upon us, even as believers were without form and void, and
it's nothing but darkness and death. But thank God when He
moves, fluttereth. I can see her moving
her wings. Can't you? I can see a little
breeze moving. What did he tell Ezekiel? He
said, pray to them bones. He said, preach to them. You
know what he said? Pray to the wind. What happened
on the day of Pentecost? It was like a rushing, mighty
wind. The wind moves where it will. It's sovereign. And he broods over whom he will.
That's a stirring. There's a movement. What was it David, he said, when
you see them moving in the tops of the mulberry trees? The eagle flutters over her young
ones. She could have left them to die in the nest, but she didn't. She broods. And the Spirit of
God broods over a man's soul. They get their life from her.
They must have life imparted into them. She comes to them
on purpose. You know why? They're hers. Look at the nation of Israel.
They were there. They can't set themselves free. But when He
wants to bring them out, He's bringing them out. And they was not a one of them
left. And it said, she spreadeth abroad
her wings. Can you imagine? You know what
he's doing? He's displaying his strength. That's what he's displaying.
You're not just saved by his precious blood, you're saved
by his power. It was his strong arm that brought him out, that
delivered him. This is his ability to soar into
the heavens. She spreads over all her wings
over the nest. Why? She's getting ready. Now listen to me. She's getting
ready to take them out of the nest. Can you not see her? Just reach.
You know what God does when He gets ready to save somebody?
He makes bare His mighty arm. He said, for this same purpose
have I raised you up, Pharaoh, that I might display My power
in thee. Forty years later, when they're
getting ready to take Jericho, Rahab the harlot said, we've
heard what your God did. We've heard what your God did
to Pharaoh. How did she know that? He revealed His mighty
arm. He spreads forth His glory, His strength, His sovereign power. Who can stop Him? No one! They
say, let God. Can't you see that little mother
sitting on her weekends, will you let me let you out? No, I've come to take you out. He stretched forth his arm and
smote Egypt. He said in Exodus 7, 5, And the
Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. When I stretch forth
my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from
among them, they'll know who brought them out. They can't
say, boy, look what we did. They say, look what our God did. And everybody that God saves,
they know who saved them. It wasn't your strength. It wasn't
your little free will. It was God. The same strength, that same
wing that can smite the enemy can carry its young. And God spreads forth His wings
just to protect His children. Remember what He did when they
come to the Red Sea? God brought them to this place on purpose.
And they said, we're hemmed in. But God went between them and
the Egyptians. Just naturally thinking, would
you like to crawl in that nest and touch one of them little
eagles with that mama around? She'd rip your head off. And
now that we've done red, God said his people are the apple
of his eye. He said, you've touched my firstborn. I'm going to touch yours. The Gospel is the power of God
into salvation. He must make the nest uncomfortable. He must reveal His might and
power. He must show it, display it.
He said in Deuteronomy 26a, And the Lord brought us forth out
of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm,
and with terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders. He revealed His power. The gospel is the power of God
and His salvation. If God's going to save your soul,
it's through the preaching of the gospel. What a mystery. It
goes forth in power, not just in word only. God speaks to a
man's heart and He delivers them. He brings them out. And it says He takes them. That
means He draws them. He fetches them. He seizes them. Like he did Mephibosheth. He
can't even walk. He said, go fetch him. Go get
him. And in the day of his father,
he says, go fetch him. And he reaches down and he takes
him. In his own time and in his own
way, God brought Israel out of Egypt. Then it says, he bears them on
his wings. Why does he have to bear them
on his wings? Because they can't fly. He said in Exodus 19, 4, you
have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles'
wings and brought you to myself. It's like she went down there
and just, you know what, every one of them, he just carried them
out. It's the only bird that carries
its little ones on its wings. Every other one carries them
in its talons. And you imagine that eagle carrying them little
ones. How are you going to get to them little ones? You have
to go through her. Isn't that a blessing? He takes them. He said, I took
you and I put you. And you know what He did? He
took them out of the nest. Where are they at now? They're on His
wings. There's no safer place. No one
can touch them. Pharaoh can't touch them. No
one can touch them. They're His. They're His. I love this in the book of Ruth.
It says, The Lord recompensed thy work, and a full reward be
given unto thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings
thou art come to trust. He came to us in our depravity,
in our sin, in our death, and He brought us forth. And He takes
us on His wings. And listen, He bears all your
weight. All your weight. But you know another reason He
put them on the wings? They can't fly. I said He's going
to instruct them. She's going to teach them to
fly. He taught you, He gave you faith to trust Him. But He'll
teach you to trust Him. You know what you should do?
She would deliberately dump them little eagles off her wings. Can you imagine that little eagle? He got scared to death. I'm going
to hit the ground anytime. Oh, that eagle ain't going to
hit the ground. Can you not see her just fly down and you just
grab it? He will teach you and he teaches
us to trust him. Listen. Isaiah chapter 40, verse
28. Hast thou not known, hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, He fainteth not, neither is weary? There
is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint,
and them that have no might, He increases strength, Even the
youth shall fain and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint." How do they soar? He gave them
the ability. If you saw an eagle walking around
on earth, you'd say something wrong. You, spiritually, were made by
His grace to soar above this world. Set my affection on things above,
not upon this life. And look straight into His face. That's what He's teaching us.
He has to keep teaching us. To wait upon the Lord is to see
your need of Him. To commit yourself to Him and
to depend upon Him for everything. In the book of Revelation, it
talks about when the enemy is persecuting the woman. Speaking
of the church, you know, he wants to destroy her. And if the world
had their way tonight, we wouldn't even be allowed to meet here.
Isn't that true? God has allowed this. He has
preserved this. And here's what it says, Revelation
chapter 12 verse 14. And unto the woman were given
two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness
and to her place where she is nourished That's where we're at right now.
For we're nourished for a time and times and half a time from
the face of the serpent. Lord, thank you for your tenderness,
your kindness, your love and your compassion for teaching
us every day to trust you. For bringing us out of bondage
and God give me faith to soar above this world. Amen.