Hebrews
3:1, “Wherefore, holy
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
Apostle and High
Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” Holy brethren,
that is what we
are, that is what we should be. Later, we read that the holy
brethren weren’t
so perfect, but at least that could be our aim. Purity means
separate from
everything else, not adulterated. We heard in prayer that this
is holy ground
and it is, at least for these four days of the year. Maybe we
could include the
time of preparation as well. Sometimes, they are not so holy
days but for these
four days this place is holy ground. The rest of the year all
the dogs and cats
in the world can run through here but in these four days, this is
holy ground
because God is meeting with His people here and He wants us to
be holy people. The
children of Israel were brought
out of Egypt, came through the wilderness those forty years. It
was really only
a journey of about twelve days, maybe two weeks at the most, but
because of the
condition of the people, God led them through that wilderness
for forty years.
He was seeking to make a holy people for Himself. There
was a great cry from the
children of Israel when they were in Egypt. We have heard about
cries today.
Amy was telling us she was brought up in the truth, but there
was something
lacking and God can supply the lack. We can see that lack was
supplied years
ago. We are here because we want to be here. We are God’s chosen
people, that
is true, but when we listen to the Gospel, it is our choice. God
wants everyone
to have salvation, but He doesn’t oblige anyone, it is our
choice whether we
walk with God or not. The very fact that we are here indicates
that. There is
no point in complaining in experiences, because we chose to
follow Jesus. When
God was speaking to Moses out of
the burning bush in Exodus 3:7-8, it says, “And the LORD
said, 'I have surely
seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have
heard their cry
by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And
l am come down to
deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring
them up out of that
land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with
milk and honey;
unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the
Amorites, and the
Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.'” God
said, “I saw,” and, “I
heard.” God responded to that cry. God responded to our cry, too.
Some would say
they didn’t really feel their need, but after God had shown them
their need,
the cry went up and it is still going up. I hope we will always
feel needy
until the last day of the
journey. “I have seen . . I have heard .. I know their
sorrows.” How did
God know that? Who was ever a taskmaster over God, to know the
situation? God
has had an adversary, long before we ever had one, Satan. Satan
is our adversary, but he was
God’s adversary long before he was our adversary. He rebelled
against God and
wanted to sit on the throne of God. In a sense, God knew the
hearts of the
people. It is a wonderful thing that He saw and heard the need
of His people
and it says, “I am come down.” That was our experience.
God came down to
be a help to us. He drew the children out by the hand of Moses.
That hankering
for Egypt, as we read through the history of God’s people, it’s
like a cycle.
God did a work and God raised up prophets to be a help to His
people and guide
them into the way of God. After a generation or two, there was
another falling
away. The
gospel came to Venezuela in 1980
and already there are wee signs of things creeping in. We can
ask ourselves the
question, is the return to captivity more advanced that we
realize? Things
weren’t very settled. They entered into the Promised Land, God
gave them all
those riches for which they never laboured. There
just seemed to be a lack in so
many, captive to their own thoughts and desires, memories they
had of the past,
things they had been forced to give up in the journey through
the wilderness.
But there was a hankering in their hearts. We want to be pure;
the first pillar
is purity. We would like to have no part dark but have the heart
full of light,
His presence, that our hankering and desire would be to be over
the other side,
to be in full fellowship with God. A mixed bag came out of
Egypt. It took years
to get Egypt out of the children of Israel. Hebrews
3:1, “Wherefore, holy
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
Apostle and High
Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” The heavenly
calling that is our
calling. In Matthew 5:48 it says, “Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect.” He didn’t say, “Be
ye perfect as My
Father is.” The only desire in the heart of Jesus was that we
would have
fellowship with the Father, and of course, it comes through
Jesus. That was
Jesus’ desire. As His disciples were walking with Jesus, it must
have thrilled
the heart of Jesus to begin to see His Father in them, to see
little signs of
the life of His Father in His disciples. That was His mission,
to be like the
Father. We must be like Jesus. It must have been a real joy to
see His
disciples acting and reacting just as His Father would have
done. This is the
whole purpose of salvation, to save our soul that our soul would
have the
likeness of Christ and of the Father. We
think of the judgement day. It’s
not going to be such a long drawn out process like judgments in
this world.
It’s not going to be like that on the judgment day. God will be
looking into
our spirit and all He will be looking for is the likeness of His
Son, purified
in spirit, in a fit condition to dwell with Him for all
eternity. Jesus was the
postman, He had the message. A postman takes a message and
delivers to another
person as it has been given. Jesus had a message from His Father
and He is
still giving it to us. The message has not changed. Maybe, we
still don’t like
it, but we are satisfied the message has not changed and that
gives us hope. I
am a slow learner. I know I am a
slow learner because I have not been willing. That is the bottom
line, because
God is giving us every provision: grace, strength, power to
change, the
faculties, to learn the lessons. All we have to do is reach out
and accept
these things. We are thankful that God has patience and gives us
time. We might
be a slow learner at school. It is not that way in the Kingdom
of God, it is
lack of willingness. I would like to be willing to learn from
the messages. He
is our High Priest, He makes intercession. Jesus came with the
message and
showed us how to get the virtues, the strength necessary to
carry out the message.
He left us with the message and, with His Father, is watching us
trying to put
into practice the message of Heaven, trying to be lively sons.
He sees our
struggle, He knows. Hebrews
3:15, “For we have not an
high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities; but
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus
was
tempted in all points. He must have had a terrible nature. You
are not tempted
in all points, but Jesus was tempted in all points. He knows
what each one of
us goes through to try to get His likeness into our lives. He
knows the
struggle and is well able to intercede for us and asks that His
Father have patience.
“I was through that experience and it was a terrible
experience.” God is being
patient with us, because He believes His Son. Hebrews
3 speaks of unbelief and even
going back. A companion I had, about the same age as myself, in
Scotland. One
year we got together in the Isle of Lewis. We enjoyed our year
together. He was
eight years in the Work then He got married and things seemed to
go all right.
He went to England to live, and then he left the Truth and the
overseer in
Scotland was having a conversation with him. He said, “I don’t
believe.” How is
it possible? When we spent a year together, he obviously had the
Spirit of God.
I wonder how people can get to that stage. Moses
was up the mountain and God
told him to get down, because the people had quickly turned out
of the way.
Even God Himself used that word ‘quickly.’ These things don’t
happen quickly,
but the decision is made quickly, and there is always a reason
for it. Hebrews
3:13, “But exhort one
another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be
hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin.” The first thing was getting
into sin. Sin comes
through disobedience, knowing the will of God and not being
willing to fulfil
it. If we keep doing that there is a hardness of heart from it.
It speaks of an
evil heart of unbelief. After the hardening of the heart, comes
unbelief. It
has made me sad since I came here to Australia, hearing of
people who have left
the Truth, people who seemed to be so hearty in the Truth.
Things seemed to be
fine, but they turned quickly out of the way, soon going into
things we should
not. It leads to hardening of the heart, turning to other
things. It
was the besetting sin of God’s
people, their own human nature. We don’t believe that what God
is offering to
us through the Gospel is any better than what we can have in the
world and
because of that, there was this hankering after the things of
Egypt. The
passing of time is a test unto us, quite apart from experiences
that come, the
length of time, day after day, can wear us down. That is why it
is so vital to
make sure we are in touch with God every day through prayer.
Taking time to
read and pray so that God can keep us with strength in His way.
Jordan
opened up and they went in,
but so few really had the Spirit of God. In all the nations of
this world, when
Jesus came, there just seemed to be a handful of people. There
were plenty
keeping the law, but nothing of God in their hearts, just doing
things the way
they wanted to do it There were just a few who were obedient to
Him. John
6:30-31, “They said
therefore unto Him, 'What sign shewest Thou then, that we may
see, and believe
Thee? What dost Thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the
desert; as it is
written, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat."'” They
followed Him just to
get bread. The wonderful provision in the wilderness was just
for the body. So
many of them were partaking of the provision God, Himself, made
for them, that
came down from Heaven, but they still died. The
Bible can be like manna or bread.
I say to myself, “Johnnie, what are you going to get out of this
Convention?
Are you going to just be feeding on the manna or the Bread and
body of Christ?”
People in the world come rushing to Psalm 91. You see a Bible
covered in dust,
opened at Psalm 91. When there is a death, the first thing they
start reading
is the Bible. They get consolation from it, help from the word
of God, get a
certain solace from reading the Bible, a kind of peace in times
of trouble, but
they still don’t know God. “Are you still going to be feeding on
the nice
messages, or on the broken body of Jesus, the Bread from
Heaven?” God wants a
pure people. I need to do my part each day to make my calling
and election
sure. I don’t want to be superficial, want to really make the
sacrifices
necessary to be like Jesus.
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