When You Fast.. P2 / Derek Prince

 

When You Fast.. Part 2        Derek Prince              source

 

 

 

 Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a1YxamUyvY

 

 

 

So, let's look at just a few examples, just two as the matter of fact. First of all, the day of atonement. In Leviticus 16:29-31, now, this is a lengthy chapter and it is the ordinances of the day of atonement where the Jewish people call it Yom Kippur and this is the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar from then until now. And it describes the way that God ordained the sacrifice to make atonement for Israel's sins, and everything depended on that sacrifice.

 

 

 

The whole future and destiny depended on that sacrifice. But, in the midst of the description of the sacrifice, God also requires a response from His people, and the response He requires is that, they shall afflict their souls. That's the usual translation. But the word translated afflict is frequently translated "humble." So, God requires His people to humble their souls and this is a very significant truth.

 

 

 

The sacrifice was something they could not arrange, it was outside their power to provide, it came entirely from God's grace. But, they could not benefit from the sacrifice unless they met God's conditions and humble themselves, and it is true with us, Christians.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is complete, perfect. We can never add anything to it, we can never take anything from it, but if we were to benefit from it, we have to meet God's conditions just as surely as Israel did, and this is the condition that God's stated, verses 29 and following of Leviticus 16. "This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and so no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who sojourns among you. For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever."

 

 

 

Now the Jewish people have always understood quite certainly that the phrase, "to afflict your souls" means to fast, to go without food, as the matter of fact, on that day normally, they go without food or water. Let me define fasting as a matter of fact, just to be clear. My definition of fasting is abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. Often it's also from drinks, but generally speaking not so, and just how you abstain, it's up to you to decide.

 

 

 

But, what I want to point out to you is that, Israel was required to humble their souls in order to receive the benefit of the sacrifice offered on their behalf, and the Jewish people for about 3,400 years, have always known that "to humble their souls" meant to fast, and, as the matter of fact, this is an unbroken practice in the history of Jewish people from the time of Moses to this day, on the day of atonement, they afflict their souls by fasting. And in the New Testament, in Acts 27:9, "This day is called the fast," which is the New Testament confirmation that God understood that afflicting our souls is fasting.

 

 

 

It's bringing our souls into subjection. It is not allowing our souls to dictate our sores to God. It's submitting ourselves to God, and I pointed out in the last talk that God is down to earth. When He speaks about the response He wants from us to the message of His grace, it's present your body. It's not something high flying ethereal, it's something very down to earth and practical, and when God says, "I want you to humble yourself one way, not the only way by any means, but one way." It's by fasting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

▲And then, we read about the returning exiles after the Babylonian captivity in Ezra chapter 8. Ezra was assigned a task to leading a group of exiles back from Babylon to Jerusalem. It was a 4 month journey in those days, and it lay through territory where there were brigands and robbers and enemies of Israel, and not only did Ezra have women and children with them, but they had many of the most precious vessels of the temple to carry back. The question was, how was he going to get safe passage? And this is the solution of Ezra.

 

 

 

We read Ezra 8, beginning of verse 21, "Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions."

 

 

 

How did they humble themselves? They proclaimed a fast. You see, it was a public fast concerned of all the God's people, and then he comes out with this really interesting statement, "I was ashamed to request from the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the way, because we have spoken to the king saying, The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath against those who forsake Him."

 

 

 

You see, Ezra put himself in a place by his testimony where he had to prove that he really meant what he said. He told the king, "Our God is the Almighty God, He is the God of Heaven. He protects us." Then he was assigned the task of leading the exiles back to this very dangerous situation, and he said, "I could have gone to the king and ask for an escort, soldiers and horsemen, but how would that fit in with my statement that our God protects people?"

 

 

 

See, that also happens to us, we testify and we have to live up to that testimony. And so he said, "I didn't choose the common way, I didn't choose the world's way. I chose the spiritual way to seek God's protection, not from soldiers and horsemen, but by fasting and humbling ourselves before God and invoking His protection."

 

 

 

 

 

 

You read the story while he sums it up in the next verse, "So we fasted and besought our God for this, and He answered our prayer." And you read the rest of the story, they came through safely without a loss, without an accident, and in many, many situations we are confronted by two alternatives. Shall we take the carnal way or the spiritual way?

 

 

 

Now, it so happens that, I can testify from experience because I became the adoptive father of a large family in a very difficult situation, and we have moved from one country to country and place to place. I'd have to say that my first -- followed Ezra's example. While we had a journey to make, we fasted and prayed, and praise God our family survived intact in the midst of tremendously dangerous circumstances, in the midst of war and famine. We survived.

 

 

 

I want to testify God's way works. It's practical, it's not something theoretical. Alright now then, let's consider for a moment people under God's judgement. If the judgement of God were to be proclaimed upon the nation of New Zealand and we wanted to avert it, and that could easily happen, I don't believe it's far away. What could we do? We could fast and humble ourselves before God.

 

 

 

▲See, there was one outstandingly wicked king in Israel called Ahab. I don't know whether you remember the story of Ahab, but he married Jezebel and he led Israel into idolatry and every kind of wickedness. And in 1 Kings 21, Elijah had a confrontation with Ahab, and he pronounced God's judgement on him.

 

 

 

God says to him in verse 22, "I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah," "Every male and every female in your family will be destroyed." That's God's judgement, and then it goes on to say in verse 25, "But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wide stirred him up."

 

 

 

 

 

 

So he was the most wicked king and God has pronounced judgement on him through the prophet Elijah. But, "Ahab feared the Lord," in verse 27, "Heard those words, that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning. (28) And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, (29) See how Ahab had humbled himself before Me, because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days; but in the days of his son."

 

 

 

Now there is a man singled out as the most wicked king of Israel up to that time. God's judgement was pronounced on him and his family, but when he humbled himself with fasting, God said, "I won't bring judgement on his day."

 

 

 

Now, fasting could do that for Ahab, what could it do for you and me as children of God? You see the potential? And then, in the story of Jonah and his message to Nineveh, we read now and how he walked into the city, a very wicked, violent, evil city and he proclaimed that in 40 days the city would be destroyed. Now that was a message from God.

 

 

 

How did the inhabitants of Nineveh respond? It says in Jonah 3:6, "The word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes." He caused the whole city to fast, even the animals fasted, and it says in the end of that, "Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it."

 

 

 

A Gentile city, notorious for its wickedness, heard the message of one prophet, once, repented with fasting and mourning and God spared the entire city. And Nineveh was spared judgement for well over 100 years from that time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, if fasting would do that for Nineveh, what would it do for this nation? What would it do where people of God humbled themselves? Call out to Him?

 

 

 

▲And then to avert disaster, if you read the book of Esther, you read how Haman had succeeded in bringing a plot in which the entire Jewish nation in the territory of Kingdom of Persia was to be destroyed. And I suppose that every Jew on Earth on those days was in that kingdom because it consisted of a 127 provinces, extended from India to Ethiopia, and the decree had gone out. But there was in the king's palace, a Jewess, whose nationality was not known, Esther. And her cousin Mordecai sent a message to her said, "Don't think that you'll escape more than the other Jews in the king's palace because who knows, if you're there for such a time as this." And Esther rose to the challenge.

 

 

 

She said, (Esther 4:16) "Go gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!" You read the rest of the story at further edict was issued, the whole situation was totally reversed and it ended up in a triumph for the Jewish people, and the preservation of the Jewish nation.

 

 

 

What changed history? What was the turning point? When God's people are fasting. See, I think it would be almost impossible to exaggerate the potential for fasting, to change the course of history.

 

 

 

It's no wonder that satan tried to keep this key out of the hands of God's people. He's afraid of it.

 

 

 

▲Now, there are many examples in the New Testament of fasting. I just want to take 2 kinds of examples. I call it, the individual fast and the corporate fast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the ministry of Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:4-5, He gives a list of the ways in which proved himself as a minister of Christ, and in 2 Corinthians 6:4-5, "But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God," and then he lists many different ways in which he commended as a minister of God, and he says this, "In much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings;"

 

 

 

So Paul says, "One of the ways that I prove that I was a minister of Christ was by fasting." And then in the same epistle 11:23 and 27, he gives a somewhat similar list. He says, "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. (23) Are they ministers of Christ?-I speak as a fool-I am more." And then he gives a whole list of ways in which he proves to be a minister of Christ. And in verse 27, this is part of the list. "In weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness."

 

 

 

So he says, "I fasted often." And notice he says, "Hunger and thirst is one thing, fasting is another." Hunger and thirst is when you can't eat because you don't have anything to eat. Fasting is when you could eat but you deny yourself. That was one of the ways Paul proved himself as a minister of Christ, and I believe Christ ministers should prove themselves that way today.

 

 

 

▲I've spoken about my experience, but I'll just mention this, after all it's not much use preaching if you don't practice it. When I was saved, I was just, I had been a normal Christian, I've given up on Christianity. I've turned my back on the church. I was looking for the answers to problems in other places. But when I was saved and baptized in spirit, and I didn't even know the words of what had happened to me. I had to read the New Testament to find out what had happened to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing, within, or I think a month, God just made it clear to me that He wanted me to fast every Wednesday. I didn't read Wesley's journals in those days. I didn't have anyone preach sermons to me. I would've known where to find fasting in the Bible, but I just had this inner conviction that I was to fast every Wednesday. And for the next four and a half years, throughout the rest of World War II, every Wednesday, I fasted.

 

 

 

I was in the desert on alloy with 10 other soldiers and we were just thrown together. I mean, when you are in a desert, there is only one place for shade, you have got to be there whether you like them or not, and I lived with those soldiers.

 

 

 

You know, we were in Egypt and Muslims got a month of Ramadan, you know that, when they don't eat? At least they don't eat on the daytime, they eat up a lot at night. They more than make up for what they don't eat during the daytime. But, my fellow soldiers called Wednesday Ramadan because you can't fast in secret when you're just living with people continually all the time. I mean, you can never get away from them, and I would say that I would have never made the progress that I have made if God hadn't shown me that key.

 

 

 

There have been times, I remember in Kenya, I was there for educational work, I said "I'm too busy to fast, got too much to do." So, for a few weeks, I didn't fast. The results were so disastrous that I've decided I could never be too busy to fast.

 

 

 

I'm talking about something I have experienced in this stand. I believe passionately in what I'm telling you.

 

 

 

▲Let's talk about corporate fasting in the New Testament. There are two examples from the books of Acts, Acts chapter 13. This is one of the most significant moments in history in the books of Acts. People have called this the Beginning of A Missionary Program.

 

20:17~

 

 

 

 

Actually the word "missionary" is not New Testament. The New Testament word is apostolic, and this is the first sending forth of apostles in the record of the book of Acts, and it happened in the city of Antioch.

 

 

 

In Acts 13:1-4, we read this, "Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrach, and Saul." Who later became Paul.

 

 

 

So, there were five men who were recognized as prophets and teachers. The next verse says, "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted-." How did they ministered to the Lord? By fasting. By turning away from every activity and simply being in God's presence and waiting for Him to speak.

 

 

 

The New International Version says, "As they worship the Lord and fast." This is one of the most crucial points in the history of the church. How did it come about? Did they sit down and think of a plan or work out a system? No, they vocated from everything of their own efforts and waited for God to speak, and the way they vocated was to turn away from food. Who knows for how long, maybe a day, or two days, I don't suppose it was lengthy.

 

 

 

But, they just took time off from every other occupation and distraction in order to hear from God, and God spoke, it says, "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them."

 

 

 

So they heard from God His strategem. You know one of the great problem of the church today is very seldom does the church get God's strategem, very seldom. We have our own plans, our own programs, our own systems, and most of it God has not initiated. And God is only committed to finish what He begins.

 

 

 

 

Paul said in Philippians 1:6 being confident at this very thing, he who began a good work in you will see it through.

 

 

 

Jesus says, "I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end." What He begins, He'll ends, but what He doesn't begins, He has no commitment to end. The important thing is to find out what God is beginning. What is God's plan? How can we hear from God? And the early church set the pattern. They took time-off from everything, including eating.

 

 

 

They said, "We have to hear from God." And they heard God said, "I have a plan. I want you to take two men, Barnabas and Saul, send them out." They didn't send them out immediately.

 

 

 

Listen, it says, "Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away." So they fasted again. The first time they fasted, they find God's will. The second time they fasted to commit those two men to carry out God's will.

 

 

 

And then the next verse says, "So, being sent out by the holy Spirit," and the word sent out there is a beautiful Greek word which means sent and accompanied. The Holy Spirit didn't just say "Go," He said,"Go and I'll be with you." And that's the beginning of apostolic ministry.

 

 

 

At that time, they were called prophets and teachers, but in the next chapter of Acts 14:14 it says, "But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul-." When did they become apostles? When they were sent out by the church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You see, an apostle is a sent-out one. This is tremendously important because it indicates a scriptural way that we can institute apostolic ministry. How many of us can believe prophets and teachers? Can you believe that there are prophets and teachers in the church today? I certainly believe there are. If prophets and teachers wait on God in fasting, seeking Him, it opens a scriptural way for God to send forth the apostles.

 

 

 

How many of you believe there can be apostles in the church today? It's a good thing because they put in the church to perfect it. If they were withdrawn the church would never be completed. So the most decisive moment in that period was the sending forth of those apostles.

 

 

 

▲What brought it forth? Tell me in one word. I didn't hear you. That's right. Now, they won many people to the Lord in the cities they visited and then, they had to establish churches. First of all, they only had a group of disciples and then they needed to make churches. What was the point of transition from just a group of disciples to a church? What person had to be appointed? Tell me. Elders, that's right.

 

 

 

That's when disciples become a church when they had elders, when they had governed them, and so they did this, we read in Acts 14:21. "And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconuim, and Antioch." Cities that they already have preached in.

 

 

 

(22) "Strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. (23) So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord-."

 

 

 

How did they appoint the elders? How did they get the mind of the Lord to who is to be the elders, did they have an election? Yes, but it was God's election. How did they find God's mind? What was the key? I didn't hear you, fasting. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You see, the two decisive appointments in the work of the church are apostles and elders, and in the early church, both those appointments were arrived at through prayer and fasting. Why should we expect any other way in this age? Can we improve on those methods?

 

 

 

▲God has never asked us to improve, all He asked us is to follow. You see, here is a key and I'm placing it in your hands. What are you going to do with it? What are the Christians of this nation going to do with this key? What are the Christians in Australia going to do with this key? What are the Christians of Britain going to do with this key? South Africa, the other nations that are represented here?

 

 

 

Do you think God has changed? Do you think we have found a better way?

 

 

 

Alright, now let me just point you to two conclusions. The first is in the well-known verse in 2 Chronicles 7:14. I call this "Hope for a nation." How many of you know what 2 Chronicles 7:14 says? Many of you do, praise God. I could quote it by heart, but I won't.

 

 

 

God speaks, and He says, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

 

 

 

There are 7 steps, 4 steps that God's people have to take, 3 steps that God will take when we take the 4 steps. What are the 4 steps we need to take? What's the first one? Humble ourselves. Why? Because pride is a barrier to the answer to our prayers. The next thing is pray. God says, "Don't start praying until you've dealt with our pride." And then He says, "Seek My face."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's not just have a prayer meeting from 8 till 9:30, let's pray until you go into God's presence. And then it says, "Turn from your wicked ways." You say, "God, I don't think I have any wicked ways." God says, "Wait until you get into My presence and you'll find out." We experienced that in our church about 5 years ago.

 

 

 

One of the elder's wife had a word from the Lord, proclaimed a fast, but I'm not going to talk about it at the moment, a general fast, and it wasn't received with much enthusiasm. But eventually, I think the elders whom I was one was kind of ashamed in admitting what we have been to do something about this. And so we said, "We'll have certain period we'll fast and pray and we'll meet every morning 5 a.m."

 

 

 

Well, I wasn't there, Ruth and I were away when they started, and I understand that in the first morning, there were about 13 people. The congregation was about 500 at that time. The next morning, I think there were about 7, and it was going, the typical charismatic prayer meeting. The next morning there was about 4. But then, a brother, who is not an elder, got a burden from the Lord, and he spent 24 hours weeping and things changed.

 

 

 

And when Ruth and I got back, I said, "Whether we like it or not this is from God. We better get involved, we don't want to miss God." And I can't go into all details, but for the next, I think 6 weeks, we were meeting every morning at 5 a.m. and we spent most of the time on our faces, and the sins that were confessed were startling.

 

 

 

It was a nice, respectable church, but there were adultery, there was fornication, and there was alcoholism, didn't come out till we were in God's presence.

 

 

 

Don't say to God, "I have no wicked ways to repent on." That probably, simply tells you how far you are from His face and with the light of His countenance, things look different.

 

 

 

 

 

 

▲What does God ask of us? 4 things: humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, turn from our wicked ways. How do we humble ourselves? By what? (Fasting) You got the message. Now, you can fast and be very proud. Jesus said, "Don't fast that way. That's not the way to fast, that's the way the hypocrites fast." But He didn't say, "That's the reason for not fasting. He said fast the right way, not the wrong way."

 

 

 

Then God says, "I'll do 3 things if you'll do the 4, I'll do the 3. I will hear, I will forgive their sins, and I will heal their land." How many of you would like to see their land healed? Has God shown you a way? Is there a scriptural remedy? I believe there is.

 

 

 

Let's turn to one final passage in the scripture, Joel 2:15. This is the passage that a sister had in mind when she talked about a "Joel's fast." "Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes;" and incidentally, those days we had children and nursing babies in their meeting, almost every morning. And the little children were disappointed when their parents didn't wake them up to take them to the fast, to the prayer. I mean, it was a areal example of this.

 

 

 

Let's go on. "Let the bridegroom to out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, Spare Your people, O Lord. And do not give Your heritage to reproach. That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?"

 

 

 

Notice if you follow, there are 3 categories mentioned: the priests, the ministers and the elders, and here is a responsibility of leadership in the church. "To set the example," "To take the lead."

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know who the leaders are? They're people who go in front. Sometimes, the ministers are leading from behind, that's not leadership. Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, took His disciples with Him, and then He took three and they stop, and it says, "He went a little further." That's leadership. It's to go a little further.

 

 

 

I heard a pastor once say, "I have to run to catch up with my people" That's not leadership. Here's responsibilities of leadership.

 

 

 

Now, listen to the final statement, where in the same chapter, verse 28 (Joel). "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, our old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions;"

 

 

 

After what? After God's people have met these conditions. No, I know that Peter quoted that in the day of Pentecost and he said it took him to pass in the last days. But, that was not of total fulfillment, that was an anticipatory fulfillment, and it's very significant because in that passage in Acts 2, Peter quotes the Lord the same, "I will pour out of my spirit, some of my spirit." And that began on the day of Pentecost.

 

 

 

But in this passage, God says,"I will pour out My Spirit" not "Some of My Spirit." But, "I will release My Spirit on Earth on all flesh." Brothers and sister we haven't seen that, we've seen a sprinkling.

 

 

 

There are about 1 billion Muslims on the Earth that had never been touched by the Spirit of God. How are we going to reach them? What will release the Spirit of God?

 

 

 

I tell you, if you ever doubt with this now, it's an impregnable fortress to any natural approach. You have to meet it with spiritual means. What is God's program? Call a fast, sanctify an assembly. Let the elders, the priests and the ministers set an example, and God says, "In My time, when you've met My conditions, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh."

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe that's the solution and I don't believe there is any other, and I believe God has shown us in scripture the way.

 

 

 

When You Fast.. P1 / Derek Prince

                   

Psalm 35:13                 source  

 

Video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV_JSeZhE_U

 

In this session, I'm going to continue with some of the secrets of answered prayer. In fact, I'm going to deal with one specific major key to effective praying and although this key is clearly presented throughout the Bible from the Old Testament right through the New. I think the majority of Christians are unaware that it exists and I think the failure to use this key that I'm going to be speaking about it is one main source of ineffectiveness and the body of Christ. No doubt, you're wondering what the key is and let me say that when you hear it you are not likely to say "Praise the Lord."

 

 

I want to turn again to the sermon on the mount. When Jesus is giving instructions about how to pray, and I want to take two parallel passages. The first one is in Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 and 6 and Jesus says, "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites." And then He describes how the hypocrites act and then he says in verse 6, "But, when you pray, pray in this way." So, He uses the phrase, "When you pray," twice. The first time He starts with a negative, "Don't pray like the hypocrites." But He doesn't finish there, He ends with a positive, "This is how you ought to pray." And we have actually devoted the last session to analyzing the pattern that He gave us.

 

 

But now, I want to move on and that same six chapter to verses 16 and 17 and here He introduces another dimension of prayer and He says, "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites." But it never stops with the negative. A lot of people think that's where He ends. And He goes on the next verse, "But when you fast," and then it tells us how to do it in a way that's acceptable to God. Now, I think you can see there's a close parallel between what Jesus says about praying and what He says about fasting.

 

 

 

First of all He says, "When you fast," then He says, "Don't do it this way, do it that way." But to my way of thinking, the phrase, "When you fast," indicates that Jesus expects His disciples, did I say prop fast? When you pray, Jesus expects his disciples to pray. How many of you would agree that those words indicate Jesus takes it for granted that we as His disciples will pray? It doesn't say, "If you pray," but He says, "When you pray," and I imagine that most of us here tonight would agree that the Lord expects us as Christians to pray regularly. Isn't that right? Okay.

 

 

Now we go on to the next stage and it doesn't say, "If you fast," He says, "When you fast." What does that indicate? It indicates that he expects us to fast and just the same way as expects us to pray. Is that logical? Are you with me, even maybe reluctantly? But still you're with me? Well, don't be reluctant, I agree that the subject of fasting is not an easy to say, "Praise the Lord" about, but I want to tell you, when you discover what's in this subject, you will say, "Praise the Lord" you'll say, "Thank you God for giving us this key." See, Jesus' words about praying and about fasting is exactly parallel.

 

 

When you pray, don't pray this way, but pray that way. When you fast, don't fast this way but fast that way. See, Jesus puts praying and fasting on exactly the same level. My conclusion is that if He expects us to pray He also expects us to fast. I'm so glad that I have one great predecessor in the ministry that arrived at the same conclusion.

 

 

 

 

Actually, there were many of them, Luther arrived at that conclusion. But the one I have in mind is John Wesley and I've read John Wesley's journals years ago and they stirred me and stimulated me and he said, "Something that this affect, I am persuaded that if a Christian has understood the need to fast and does not practice fasting he will backslide just as surely as a Christian who has understood the need to pray, and does not pray." And John Wesley would not ordain to the Methodist ministry, any man who did not commit himself to fast every Wednesday and Friday until 4 p.m. That was at basic requirement for being ordained to the Methodist ministry.

 

 

You might say, “Well, what's the purpose of a fasting? Is it just to make life hard for me? To deny me of pleasure?" My answer would be, no.

 

 

Doubtless there are a number of purposes but I'm going to deal with only one, and that is, it is a God appointed way to humble ourselves and I will show you this very, very clearly out of scripture. See, the greatest single specific barrier to getting an answer to our prayers is pride and anything that will get that barrier out of the way will facilitate the answers to our prayers.

    

 

God has been speaking to me personally just lately about the awful dangers of crime and Ruth picked up a little book, she owned it but we really not paid much attention to it by Andrew Murray, who is one of those preachers of the previous generations who's still feeding the people of God today. How many of you have read at least one book by Andrew Murray? That's most of the people here. That's remarkable.

 

 

I don't know whether you know this but in the book it's entitled in the original, "The Humility of Our Lord." It's been republished with a simpler title. I think simply 'humility' and I read this just a few weeks ago, and it really spoke to me personally about my own life. I hated pride for years but I got a new vision of how vicious and how evil pride is and how it keeps us back from all the blessings that God intends for us. This message runs through the Bible. It's a universal truth. It was not demonstrated first on Earth.

 

 

 

 

You know the first demonstration of the evil of pride? What was the first sin in the history of the universe? Tell me. Pride, who committed the sin? Lucifer, that's right, an angel in heaven and if that pride is a sin and causes an angel to lose his place, how much more susceptible are we to pride as sinners here on Earth? Let me give you just but 3 passages or scripture that deal with pride and with humility.

 

 

The first is in Luke 14 and verse 11 and it's the end of a parable where Jesus speaks about how to act when you're invited to a banquet and note 14 and I mean we get to invited to banquets nowadays, sometimes, I was up one yesterday and Jesus said, always so practical, He gets that simple in the place. First of all I want to find out to you that God never says, He'll humble us.

 

 

He always tells us to humble ourselves. I tell people God can humiliate you, but only you can make yourself humble. Don't pray, "God make me humble," because it's not a scriptural prayer and furthermore, you probably regret the results of that prayer. A few weeks, a month later, when you find yourself in the most humiliating situation you think, "God, how did I get here?" "That's how you prayed", "You prayed".

 

 

So Jesus says, "When you're invited to a banquet, don't walk up to the head table and sit at the chief's place, because you would be embarrassed when somebody comes along and say, but the speaker is going to sit here. You take place over there in the corner." Then Jesus says, "When you go then take the lowest place, be wise. When you know the bottom there's only one way you can go, that's up. I don't know whether you know that prayer by John Bunyon. This has been with me for years. "He that is down need fear no fall. He that is low, no pride. He that is humble ever shall have God to be his guide." See, when you're on the floor you sink, there's no lower you can go, they rarely do.

 

 

 

 

I am a minister in a large public gatherings like this without first taking my place on the floor, on my face before God and I can tell you, before this meeting, Ruth and I were there for quite a long while. That's when I feel really safe, is on the floor. So Jesus said in the end of the parable, "If you don't want to be embarrassed, avoid the situation. don't sit at the top table, sit in the lowest place and there's only one way you can be ask to go, that is up." And then He sums it up with these words in Luke 14:11. "For whoever exalts himself, will be abased. But he who humbles himself will be exalted." That's universal. In other words, it applies through the universe and it applies in heaven, it applies on Earth. The great demonstration of this truth is Lucifer and Jesus. Lucifer was a created being reached for a quality with God, his slipped and fell. Jesus had a quality with God. He humbled himself even to the death on the cross and describes as God highly exalted.

 

 

It says in Philippians 2:9, "Therefore, God highly exalted." Why did God exalt Him? Because He humbled Himself and everyone who humble themselves will be exalted. I can promise you exultation if you humble yourself. There are no exceptions. I have a series of messages which has this title, "The Way Up is Down." The lower down you go, the higher up you'll end. There are no exception to that. But I want to speak about humanity as an essential condition for effective prayer. I want to take a number of statements to this effect.

 

 

Let's look first of all before we do that, in James chapter 4 verse 10 and just other two passages before that, James 4:10, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up." Notice humble yourselves. Don't ask how to do it, you do it. Bother up the lifting up if you do the humbling and then a very similar passage in 1 Peter chapter 5, actually I have proclaimed this before the previous message, verse 6. "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." And the previous verse says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

 

 

So if you are coming to God in prayer with your pride, God is resisting you and guess who can push harder. you cannot get close to God in pride. The book of Psalms says, "The Lord knows all the proud are far off," and that's where He keeps. There is no access to God with pride and so anything that enable us to humble ourselves is a priceless blessing even if it isn't always enjoyable at the time. And one of the biblically appointed ways to humble ourselves if by fasting. Now, I'm going to show you this right through the Bible.

 

 

 

 

I want to start with the statement by David, a very simple statement in Psalm 35:13, where he says, "I humbled my soul with fasting." I think modern translations mostly say, "I humbled myself," but the Hebrews says, "I humbled my soul." Why do you need the humble your soul? Well, your soul is an arrogant part of you. It's the self-absorptive part, the egoistic part. Your souls's got three main functions: The will, the intellect and the emotions and expresses itself in these places. I want, I think, I feel. And God says, "What you want isn't important. What you think is unimportant, what you feel is unimportant, what's important is my will and if your going to line yourself with that will, you've got to deal with your soul and one way to deal with your souls is to humble your soul by fasting."

 

 

I remember years ago, I preached this kind of message in Washington D.C. and there was a lawyer there, a Christians lawyer, and he got the message and he said, "I'm going to do it. So, tomorrow, I'm going to fast." And, when he did, he had a miserable day. Everytime he walked past the restaurant, he could smell the food. Everytime he walked past the confectionary, he would stop and look in the window. It was just a miserable day.

 

 

So at the end of the day, he gave his stomach a lecture, and he said, "Now stomach, you've made a lot of trouble for me today. You've caused me a lot of unnecessary discomfort, so for that, I'm going to punish you. I'm going to fast tomorrow as well." See, that is humbling yourself, it's bringing it into subjection. Let me say this, the stomach is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. Who's the master in your life? You, or your stomach? It's a good question. It's a question we all have to face.

 

 

Believe me, people in the ministry are not exempted from that question. I've fought the battle with my stomach many times. But when I get the victory, I get blessed. Not always immediately, not always dramatically, but in one way or another I come under the blessing of God and then when I become arrogant, God withdraws His blessing. I say, "God, what's happened?" And He gently indicates some way or other, "You've become proud and self-assertive again. You want your way, you're letting your will and your soul talk and it's got to be brought into subjection to my will and my word and my ways."

 

 

Exodus 2 / David Pawson

Exodus 2 (Unlocking The Old Testament)

 

David Pawson

 

Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQKwrPJlqio 

 

Well let’s go on with a study of Exodus and we walked to the fifth section of it delivered and drowned. I can’t resist telling you about the story about the liberate preacher. You know to liberal preacher is it’s a man of rich and bars and with a pair of scissors and he cast all the miracles and this liberal preacher was preaching about the Exodus and he said there is no miracle. He said at that time and in that place the Red sea is just a half meter deep. And the lady in that congregation shouted out Halleluiah! And he stopped and said why did you shout Halleluiah? She said its the great miracle. He said but I explained it was only half meter deep and they just waited the acrossed, what miracle? She said 'drowning the Egyptian army in a half meter water?' Whichever you look at it there is a miracle.

 

Having said that let’s look at the practical side of it and first of all the question of which was the route they took out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan. There were three possibilities which you will find in various commentaries in the Bible books.

 

The first is what is called the Northern route that they left Goshen and they went through this bare of sand banks. These are sand banks in the shallow part of Mediterranean and they cross the sea there, the Mediterranean they crosses, this is the theory, and couldn’t be followed by chariots across the sand bank. If you look at the map of Egypt you’ll find those sand bank marks. And this is called lakes of burns inside. And then they went on to Kadesh Barnea. That is one theory.

 

The second theory is that they straight went across to Kadesh Barnea, that is the middle theory, but here is a line of fortresses roughly where the Suez Canal is. The Egyptian has a very strong defense line here against an invasion from the east and they would have had to get through that line of fortresses which is I think unlikely. They went unarmed and they weren’t able to fight.

 

The third possibility which I believe is the right one was the southern route going to down to Mount Sinai. This was where Moses had been a shepherd for forty years. He knew this country and it was down here that I believe he led them uncertainly Gabal Musa, as the mountain is called today, is the one in long tradition where Moses received the Ten Commandments. As Sadat the president of Egypt wanted to build a building on top of Mt. Sinai a truth combined a Jewish synagogue, a Muslim mosque and a Christian church in one building but he was assassinated before that could happen. But all the tradition in the Middle East put say Sinai down here. But let’s look at this area in greater detail because this magic explains something.

 

The Bible doesn’t say that God divided the Red sea what it does say is that he sent an east wind which divided the Red sea. Now how could an east wind divide the sea? That is the question many of us. Let’s look at that are in a little more detail.

 

The great Bitter lakes were actually joined up for what we call the Red sea in the old days and they were joined up by a shallow sea called the Reed sea. And in fact the Hebrew is much more like it to be the Reed Sea than the Red sea. Here is what we now know as the great Bitter Lake but in those days it was joined up through this marshy channel called the Reed sea. The fortified line came right down to the Bitter Lake. The Israelites left Goshen and came south because Pharaoh won’t let them go into the desert thinking he could always bring them back from there. So you can imagine them, can’t hear hidden by a cloud. God sent a cloud to hide them from the Egyptian army approaching from that side. Now if this was where they across then two natural forces could have divided it. A strong east wind would drive the water of the Great Bitter Lake that way and at tide the water of the Red sea would be going that way so can you see a division coming rather than a to wars of water coming. Here we have it. But of course it doesn’t explain the miracle at all. Why did the east wind just happen to come at the right time? It is because God sent it.

 

So in looking at it in sort of down to earth way like this, we are not trying to explain the miracle at the very lest it is a miracle of coincident. But in the Bible there is no such thing as coincidence, it is only the providence. But I believe that is what happened and in fact a satellite photograph of this area reveals the channel that links up the Reed sea is still there but it is dry now. (Can you just see it? The great Bitter Lake) You’ll see the line from a satellite photograph you can see the old reed sea very clearly. Where it is on the ground it is so clear. You can just see joining up there so that I believe this southern route across this Reed sea and down to Sinai is almost certainly the right route. From there they headed north again to Kadesh Barnea. This way they avoided the fortified line on the eastern front of Egypt.

 

To me the striking fact about the crossing of the Red sea or Reed sea is the fact that it happened on the third day after the passover lamb was killed. Their liberation came the third day after the passover lamb died. Even most striking, this will cause you to think, the book of Exodus will tell us the very hour where the passover Lamb has to be killed. And that had to be killed in the midst of the afternoon on the day before the passover which is 3:00 PM, the midst of the afternoon. Are you following me? Passover lamb dies at 3:00 PM. On the third day (Jesus' resurrection) after that they finally escape and they are free of Pharaoh and they will never see him again.

 

(Well we’re beginning to see more as we go on.)

 

Let’s now move on to the next section. I have to go back to the original.

 

Provided and protected, they are now in a place where there is no support for human life except the few Bedouin. They descended on the place to take two and a half million people plus animals. There would be both external problems and internal problems which Moses had to face. The external one was food and water. Where do you get enough food and water? The answer is God has to provide it and He provided food for them in a form of little round form of whatever lying on the desert floor in the morning. And when they found it, they found it edible and they gave it a name, they call it ‘What is it?’ in Hebrew, Manna. But it means 'what is it?' What is the breakfast for me? ‘What is it’. What are we having for lunch? ‘What is it?' More for supper? 'What is it?', not again? And they live on 'what is it' for forty years. We call it Manna as if that is a beautiful name but that is what it means. But they then compare it for literary bread form heaven. That is picked up again later in the Bible but they live on bread from heaven.

 

They complain bitterly they weren’t getting any meat. They were used to a high protein diet in Egypt and they complain they weren’t getting enough meat. They are always tricky to complaining to God. He sent such a flock of quails that are lying 1.5 meters deep on the desert floor and they eat quails until they were sick. Don’t complain to God he might give you what you want. What about water? Well they have really problem with water. The first oasis which they came through was in Mara. They saw water there and they dash to it and try to drink it and it was brackish and salty, it was undrinkable. But through the miracles through Moses it was cleansed and they able to drink it. But you can almost see the brackish state of the water there that is taking out the very place. However the next place they got to has fresh water. The place is called Elim. So God provided when the water is bad God improved it and when it was alright they didn’t have miracle just water. So God provided for them, they protected them.

 

 

 

Do you realize they needed two million gallons a day for those numbers of animals and people? It is two million gallons per day. Later they got it from rock reservior fresh waters. For me that was one of the greatest miracles of their providential journey was that their shoes were never worn out. I have been in sandals climbing Mt. Sinai and it was wrecked by sharp stones quickly but it says their shoes never worn out. Now you either have to say this is true and that God did it. Or you have to dismiss all those legends, there is no in between stage when you read statements like this.

 

But they also have internal Problems. Can you imagine that number of people camping together? I mean sometimes it is bad enough just taking your family camping when you are all pushed together in that same tent of the same caravan. Can you imagine two million people? It is no wonder that one of the biggest problem that Moses had was actual dispute between the people and he have to be a judge. And the all came to Moses with those problems like in some large churches. Everybody wants to go to the pastor with that problem and that is what is happening. Unfortunately Moses’s father in law was good in more sensible on Moses, he is not one of God’s people and he said you need elders and Moses appointed seventy elders.

 

◑Well let’s go back and on to the sections. We are in to the second half now and the first thing that happens in the second half of the Ten Commandments written with God's finger on the rock, on two tablets of stone. Now every time you see a picture of those two tablets of stones you’ll see the first four commandments among the next six on the other. Ten were on one and ten were on the other. Why? Because this was a legal contract and one copy is of God and one is of the people. So do you understand now why it has two copies of stone? Because it is how it should be done. There should be two copies one for each party. But since is a covenant as much as a contract, God wrote them both. There was no bargaining went on. God says now this is how you to live.

 

And he gave them three legal collections. one we call the Ten Commandments, so that is Decalogue which means ten word. The second we call the book of the covenant which we found in chapters 20-23 and then we have another book of laws in chapter 25-31 or 32 which have laws of worship. Now all these make up the Law of Moses and more, there are more in Deuteronomy as well. But the Law is not just Ten Commandments; it is a whole lot more. There are 613 laws and regulation for the way on how to live right before God but let us start with the Ten Commandments.

 

 

 

◒There are three basic principles or two that I want to mention.

 

▲First of all, the principle of respect, all the Ten Commandments had based on that principle. Respect for God, respect for His name, respect for His day, and then respect for people, respect for family life (father and mother), respect for life itself (don’t murder) respect for marriage (don’t commit adultery), respect for people’s property (don’t steal), respect for people’s reputation (don’t bare false witness), respect, respect, respect. A healthy, holy society is built on respect.

 

An nationally known television comedian recently said, “We intend to live nothing sacred”. A TV comedy more than anything else is destroying respect, respect for the queen, respect for authority, respect for the police, and respect for the law. We can see in our society what happens when respect disappears. That God’s Law is based on respect. Loving God and loving your neighbor can be translated respecting God and respecting your neighbor. That is the basic principle behind God’s law. So Law of Respect and loss of respect for God leads you to idolatry and loss of respect leads you to immorality and injustice so that you can see how the law is made up. Its a good law. Most of the Ten Commandments are about acts and deeds or words but the last of the ten is about feelings, only one about the heart. And perhaps that is why Paul ones said that he kept all nine but he couldn’t manage the tenth and the tenth is don’t be greedy, don’t want what you haven’t got. That is the only one concerned with your inner life and the rest are all concerned with behavior.

 

15:30~

 

There is a principle about the ten laws which the Jewish boys and girls learn on their fingers. The principle is this, if you break one you have broken them all because they belong together like a necklace. And when you lady, it doesn’t matter where you break a necklace but if you break it, just one of the beads will all be lost. This is the profound principle, they are not tens separate commandments they are the law. They are not laws, they are the law. And if you break it at any point you have broken the law. If a place has stopped me from speeding it’s no use now saying I stopped at every red traffic light this afternoon. It doesn’t matter how many laws you have kept, you have broken 'the law' and God says this is a holy law, a holistic law, we would say today. You beak one you have broken a lot. It’s spoiled it is in pieces if you break it at any point. Respect you see is a whole thing and you can’t have some respect and not others. You are either that respecting person or you are not. And you’re sure are not if you break one.

 

 

▲The second principle is responsibility. And now we have brought up, I’m afraid, on psychology and sociology to believe that people are not responsibility for their actions. They are now even trying to say that wickedness is due to our gene. Well we know that original sin goes down to the genes but the idea that some people are more wicked than others because they have the wrong genes means they are not responsible for what they do. The law of God says you are accountable, you are responsible, you have chosen to break this and it holds us responsible before God, every one of us to live right before God.

 

So the two principles of respect and responsibility are written in and therefore a third principle is also written in, ▲the third principle of retribution. There are sanctions in this law, one of them is capital punishment. The death penalty is applied to 18 different sins regard God in the Law of Moses. Aren’t you glad you don’t live in the Law of Moses? Because breaking the Sabbath is death penalty. There is retribution here. There is punishment. And I notice particularly there is very careful distinction in God’s Law between intentional and accidental breaking. There are two sort of killing, there is intentional murder and there is accidental man slaughter that in every case it says, there is no sacrifice in the Mosaic Law for continued delivered intentional sin. And there is in the New Testament either. You read the letter to the Hebrews.

 

Well now this law is given in a context and the context is this, I brought you out of Egypt. I’m going to bring you into Canaan. This is how you to live now. That is an important point, it is on the basis of what God has done for them and what he’ll do for them that he appeals for them to live right now. And it is the same in the New Testament. Isn’t it? It is the basis of what God has done for you and what He’s going to do for you that He says, ‘now this is what I want you to live’. Now without that context the Law becomes a harsh, impersonal, horrid thing. But in that context it is a good thing. It fits. it’s the response of gratitude to God’s grace.

 

 

 

▲Then we come to the fact that God wants to live with them. He gave the ten commandments of the tabernacle in Mt. Sinai. Let’s look at Mt. Sinai perhaps and to face the mountain. This Mt. Sinai is an extraordinary mountain. I have climb that at 3:00 in the morning before the sun came up. I have found a little girl at the top, a little Jewish girl reading the Ten Commandments in Hebrew. I said what is your name? She said, “Merriam”. And I said, “My! You’ve been here a long time(humor)”. Anyway since Catherine monastery at the foothill. But I always wondered when it says in the Bible don’t touch my holy mountain. I thought how we can touch your mountain. It is ridiculous. Until I saw this picture you can actually walk up to the mountain and touch it because it rises here from the desert floor. Can you see that? It is like a cliff and they have to put a fence around it because God wanted them to realize He was a holy God and anybody can’t just come up and talk to God because He is holy. And therefore He said nobody must touch my holy mountain. So Moses sensible erected the fence around the bottom because you can just walk up, there are people there, and you can just walk up and touch the mountain. But God is going to communicate to them ** his utter holiness.

 

So Moses can come up, Aaron can come up but none of them can touch the mountain but now God says having given Moses the Ten Commandments up here in the middle of lightning, thunder and fire, awesome site, He said I want to come down and live in the camp with you. But if I do, it must be a tent that communicates my holiness. A tent that you must treat respectably, that you respect with all, a holy place. In fact, right at the middle of the tent will be the room where I actually live and that will be the holy of holies. And so God gave them specifications for His tent. You have a glimpse at it earlier but let us look at it again.

 

It had to be right in the middle of the camp and all the other tents have to be arranged around it in special order which will come to later. And immediately around it with the priest and the Levites so that they were between the ordinary people and the holy place and the tent itself had to be fenced off with only one entrance and then God’s tent was inside but that had two rooms and inner room is God’s room and into that only one seer, one man could go nobody else ever. And the whole tent is just full of detail. Let us look at some quick pictures of it. The beauty of it must be breath taking, yet most of beauty was hidden. Beautifully embroidered curtains and covering and yet they were all covered with the barge skin outer, other thing that would hide the beauty from the people. All they would see was this rough outer skin, only knowing that inside was golden pieces of furniture and beautiful curtains embroidered with heavenly colors. There is blue, color of heaven. There was red, the color of blood, silver and gold. Isn’t that magnificent tent with its high fence around it which you can’t see over? So that in a sense it was hidden there is a mystery attached to it. And here you see some of the priest of the outer veil and there is another inner veil before the holy of hollies.

 

 

 

▲So let’s go and see inside. Here you have the outer room. The kind of a best view, the room of God’s palace if you like. And here you have the table of the show bread, the seven candle stick, another little altar. (In fact let us go back to the other one). You see He wanted even the priest of approaching God had to come to an altar first and offer sacrifice, kill an animal and burn it. Then he moved on to a great big basin to wash himself clean. The whole thing is saying that if you’re going to come to God you’ll have to have sacrificed first and then you need to be clean. It is full of meaning isn’t it? In fact this is a copy of where I live in heaven. This is just a replica of a real thing.

 

So there is the **room and finally in the holy of hollies, one piece of furniture, a seat wood covered with gold, the mercy seat. The chams which inside some manna, they never saw it even when this tent was dismantled and moved somewhere else it is covered up. And the tent has to be carried by special people and the ordinary people have to keep a thousand paces away from it until it was erected again. The first thing erect God’s temple, tent and you could put around it at the proper place around it. It all spoke of God’s holiness and yet it also spoke of a holy God who was welling to live in the midst of His people. Amazing!

 

We have perhaps lost something of the oar and reference that is needed for the holy God. We got to pally with Him. We need to remember He is holy.

 

▲The high priest, even the closes of the priest was specified. They have to write. The high priest wore in his chest the twelve jewels which represented the twelve tribes of whom he is priest for. And those twelve jewels pomp up again in the last phase of the Bible in the New Jerusalem.

 

Well we can spend hours of it but you have to read on the books. It is full of meaning, symbolism. God says only special people can use this, priests. And only special people can build it and that when he gave them all this incredible skills. You just thought all that would really bring home to the people, God’s utter holiness.

 

 

 

▲But when Moses is on the mountain you know what happened. Aaron stayed down this time and the people came to Aaron and said ‘Moses is a long time out there, I don’t think he’s coming back’. We want a God down here. And so Aaron said 'give me your gold', and they gave him gold. And Aaron told Moses later I put it on a melting pot and out came this(golden calf). I mean, if you’re going to have an excuse you’ll think of a better than that. But that is what he had bare face to say Moses. ‘I’ll just put the gold in and then look what came out?' Now of course that photograph is of an Egyptian God. I told you about the bulls and the cows, it is simply fertility. And the bull is very common symbol. I’m told there is a golden bull like that outside the European stock exchange in French. It is a symbol of wealth and fertility, prosperity. And this comes out, said Aaron and because idolatry leads to immorality, because the loss of respect to God leads to the loss of respect to people. They had a wild orgy well you know the story, it is a sorted bit. And when Moses came down and saw what was going on, he broke those copies of the law and smashed them. He was only symbolizing what they were doing, they smashed it already and he said what are you doing?

 

And he went back to the mountain and said to God ‘I’m fed up with them’ and God said ‘so am I’. and God said I think I’m going to finish with them. I’m going to try someone else. That is when Moses has reached the heights of his career, I think. He took the form of the priest then and he said God if you are going to block the mountain block me out. I don’t want to be in a new one. And God replied I only block out of my book the names of those who standing against me and you haven’t.

 

And that thought is taken up all to through the rest of the Bible when David sins with Bathsheba he said ‘God don’t blot my name out of your book, please’. And in the last book of the Bible Jesus promises he who overcomes I will not blot out his name from my book. The most important thing in life is to keep your name in the book of life, believe me. God says I’ve blot out thy name from my book those who sins against me. It is a tragic story and when Moses insisted that the people was punished. Do you know how many died? It is three thousand.

 

▲Now I want you to bear in mind that the Law was given on Sinai, on the 50th day after the passover lamb was killed. (just let me put this together for you). The passover lamb was killed at 3:00 afternoon. on the third day after that there are liberated. on the 50th day after that, the day they called Pentecost, they were given a law and 3,000 people died through breaking it. Now does that put something together for you? Isn’t it amazing? The pattern of the old and the new, the letter kills but the spirit gives life. On that same 50th day centuries later when the Jews was celebrating the giving of the law God gave His spirit and 3,000 people got saved, same 50th day. How that Bible fits together.

 

 

 

◑Finally the last section in Exodus, construction & consecration, they build it

 

 

Where did they get all of the material, the gold for example. one ton of gold was used. Well it says that every man gave a fifth of an ounce or six grams of old each. Where did they get it from? The answer is that the Egyptians were so glad to see the back of them that they gave all their jewelry to get rid of them. Take it and go. After the ten plaques the ordinary people just wanted all the Jews to leave. They gave them all the money and their jewelry that they could give them to bribe them. So that is where they got it.

 

But it says that for the construction of the tabernacle the people gave spontaneously, thoughtfully, regularly, and generously. Now that is a sermon for somebody here as a preacher. It says they gave spontaneously. They did not have to be waddled or pressed unto giving. They gladly gave, they gave thoughtfully. They thought about a church would be, it wasn’t just a talk coin in that purse but they gave regularly. They went on giving. And they gave generously and it says they have to be stopped giving. Isn’t that lovely?

 

Pray and found People always give like that. You’ll have to stop through giving. Halleluiah!

 

And finally God takes up residence and consecrates the tent and they saw the glory come. And from then on they saw the flow of smoke. From then on they saw the pillars of smoke above that inner room. Now the inner room has no natural light forever nor there were candles but there is a blaze that lays the glory of the Lord. And when they saw that move they have to move. And when it stops they camp.

 

◑Now what is the Christian use of the book of Exodus?

 

Well it is the same God. He hasn’t changed. The God of Exodus is our God and we are his people. He has not changed and he deals with us in the same way as he did with them. That is why many of the words in Exodus are used again in the New Testament. Words like law, covenant, blood, lamb, Passover, Exodus, leaven. All these words in the New Testament get their meaning from the book of Exodus so we need to know this book. And yet it is different, we are not under the Law of Moses; we are under the law of Christ. That is very, very, important otherwise I’m breaking the Law of Moses now because he said no must not wear cloths of mixed material. It must be pure wool or pure cotton. I’m not under the Law of Moses. I’m under the law of the Christ.

 

Now in many ways that is harder and in other ways it is easier. But the first way that Christians apply to the book of Exodus is to apply to Christ and seek Christ in this book. Search the scriptures He said for it bear witness of me. Now the Exodus is central to the Old Testament. All the books after Exodus look back to Exodus as the redemption on which everything else is based. The cross is essential to the New Testament. In what way is the Exodus connected to the cross? Well, 6 months before He died on the cross, Jesus was on top of Mt. Hermon, that is the snow capped mountain of the north of Israel, 4000 feet high. And he talked with Moses. and Luke’s gospel tells us what they talked about. I wonder if you’ve ever notice what they talked about. It says they talked about the Exodus which Jesus was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. Isn’t that amazing? Moses and Jesus talking about the Exodus, that Jesus’s going to accomplish, that give us a clue.

 

Jesus of course died at 3:00 in the afternoon. At the very minute where thousands passover lambs were being slaughtered. That is why Paul says Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us. It is all there. So the angle of death came to passover. He rose from the death on the third day after that and it he’s resurrection that liberates us from death. He is the bread from heaven. The New Testament says He was the rock from which Moses drew the water for the children of Israel. John in his gospel says the word became flesh and tabernacle among us. What an interesting word to use. Literally pitched his tent among us for the tabernacle to us is Jesus, God (incarnated Jesus) dwelling in the midst of His people.

 

So we understand Christ much better now and he said I did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. So we apply the book of Exodus not only to Christ but to Christians, for example crossing the Red sea prefigures baptism. Paul says the children of Israel were baptized into Moses in the Red sea and you have been baptized into Christ. That crossing the Red sea was then your baptism is for you. Have you ever seen that link? Amazing link!

 

We too have a passover meal regularly for the Lord’s Supper simply is a passover. I we to a synagogue in Northeastern London and I was the only guest and sat next to the Rabbi for the passover meal. Wonderful privilege! And he took bread and he broke it, gives thanks for it, and gave to the people. Then he took cup of wine, give thanks and pass it to the people. Then he happens to look at me and he said "this is not a communion". He saw on my face what I was doing, what it meant to me because this is my passover meal. See I was remembering the setting free, the liberation of Christ. And Paul says "rise and keep the festival but not with the leaven of malice and wickedness."

 

 

There is an equivalent of no leaven bread in the Christian life. Leaven in the in the New Testament is usually a picture of malice and evil and bad thinking. And in the festival we have to keep without the leaven. But we’ll serve the Lord to keep in many ways the Law of Christ is much harder in the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses says don’t kill anybody well I haven’t known that to my knowledge. Have you ever wished anybody dead since Jesus? The Law of Moses says don’t commit adultery. Well I have done that but Law of Christ I have thought about it. It is much harder to keep the law of Christ than the Law of Moses. I rather try and keep the Law of Moses every day. Wouldn’t you? And it is much easier because we don’t need a lot of priest and a lot of ritual and a lot of special buildings. As one dear Scottish lady said, When I went to enter the holy of hollies I just shove my apron out of my head. We enter right into the holy of hollies. Whenever you pray you could enter the holiest place of all unhindered in the name of Jesus.

 

There is a big difference in between the new covenant and the old. Under the Law given at the Pentecost, a thousand died and of the spirit given at Pentecost thousand lived. I rather have the spirit than the law and the spirit writes the law inside.

 

But there is still a future deliverance for Christian’s equivalent to the Exodus. If you read the book Revelation you’ll find the place of pharaoh is going to happen once again. There is an astonishing correlation between the place of history and the plaque of pharaoh and those who remain faithful to Jesus, who comes through all that and be victorious. And you know what the book of revelation says that the martyrs and those who have overcome all the pressures of persecution outside and temptation inside will sing the song of Moses. Haven’t you heard the song of Moses?

 

If you go back to Exodus in chapter 15, the first song recorded in the Bible, is the song composed by Merriam to celebrate the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red sea. And when all this works this world’s trembles are over and we have safe and glory we can then sing the song of Moses. We shall not have a double Exodus, both the Exodus of the cross which has happened already and the escape from all the trouble that is coming through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.