Bro Gary Sunday Morning 8/7/11
The various things in the tabernacle are symbols of Christ and our worship towards Him.
The 84th Psalm was written for the sons of Korah. There was a rebellion that their ancestors had been involved in and many had died because the earth opened up and swallowed them. Some survived and they were allowed to be around the tabernacle and to sing.
Psa 84:1 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
Psa 84:2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Psa 84:3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
Psa 84:4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
Even in this day there is a common need in man to long for God. He created mankind with a hunger for God and to be in His presence. This is what this song is about. The brazen altar represents Jesus Christ that gave His life as a sacrifice for our sin.
Remembering what God has done always brings us up to date. How amiable, how beautiful is the pattern that God gave to Moses. This pattern produces instruction and food for our soul. No one can redeem their own soul; it takes the precious blood of Jesus to redeem the soul.
There is a washing of the water by the Word of God represented by the laver that stood before the door of the tabernacle.
Hebrews 12 speaks of God chastening us. I’ve thought of chastening recently because I have a couple of grandsons. In this audience this morning we understand that children need to be corrected. I’d like to help my grandsons to know that correction is good and not bad. It is not in the thought that they mean to be naughty, it is that they need to be trained.
We will never reach the place where God doesn’t correct us. It is important to be corrected. God help us to understand that correction is good. Many times when people are corrected they act like little children. I had to correct my grandson the other day and he hung his head and wanted to cry. I told my grandson that it was ok that I needed to correct him.
We understand that we are going to need to be corrected. He that loves us is going to chasten us.
Often our chastening comes through the Word of God. We then go to the laver and say, “I want to be washed of everything that I need to be washed of. It is not wrong to have a spiritual need or to be immature spiritually; the thought is to take the attitude, “Wash me; I will go to the laver and there I will be washed and taught.”
Piousness and devout: outwardly we want to be reverent and that is pious. Inwardly we want to be reverent and that is devout. People may have a tendency to be light and silly and not take things as seriously as they ought. When we are corrected the thing to do is to go to the laver, Christ and the Word of God, and be washed.
How wonderful it is that there is a door to go through. This door is Jesus Christ. Karen and I have reached the place where we feel that our home is a wonderful place. Karen likes the doors locked at night.
As we go through the door Jesus Christ, He is a door and we go in and out and find good pasture. He leads us in the path of being thankful and being happy where we are. There are many things that we don’t have, but He has given us so much.
Many things this door opens to us and there are also things that this door closes to us. Aren’t you glad that the door shuts out the world. We go there and visit and then come back into Christ and are able to shut the door on the world. It is a wonderful thing.
I think of the mind:
Isa 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Aren’t you glad that you can have Him keep your mind? I like to think of Jesus controlling the door of my mind. We can be troubled by many things about the world today. I can do nothing about these things. I can put my trust in God and close the door on worry.
I went early Monday Morning in the cemetery. There was a lily that had been left on Dave’s grave and it was dead or dying. I didn’t have a right to take the lily and water it but I thought that I would call someone and let them know that I had the lily. I put it in good soil and watered and fertilized it. I took off the dead leaves and saw a bud. I thought maybe. When I got back from being gone I saw that it was blooming. God spoke to me, I take care of the lilies and I’m going to take care of Dave’s family.”
You may have had some hopes and dreams that do not seem like they will be realized this morning but there was a place that Aaron’s rod blossomed. The teachings of Jesus produce the fruit of the spirit in our lives.
If you are here and in your mind you see only disaster ahead, I invite you to have Christ as the door in your mind.
As we go through the door, Christ Jesus, as you and I enter into the closet and shut the door, as you pray and commune with God, God begins to speak to you and His word becomes alive.
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
The shew bread is Jesus. He is the bread of life. He is the bread that came down from heaven.
Joh 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
Joh 6:50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
Joh 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
There is something about closing out the world and eating something that satisfies the soul.
The candlestick gives light. I’m glad that it gives light on our pathway, on our circumstances. People may be in a hard place in their life and it may be hard to talk about it. If that is the case, go through Jesus and ask Him to shine light on your circumstance through His word. He has a way of helping the sun to shine through the clouds and creating a rainbow. This is how He is.
They would go to the golden altar to offer praise, sacrifice and thanksgiving.
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
When we enter into Christ, we shut the door on the world. You may think that the world doesn’t have anything to offer someone my age and it doesn’t but it says it does. It tries to offer many things to every age.
“Be not conformed but be transformed by the …”
Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
I thought of Noah when I read this. Noah was a righteous man and perfect in His generation. In the last days it is going to be as the days of Noah. He preached and saw his household saved. If we can do this then we will be a mighty happy people. If as it was with Moses and there is a deliverance of a million people we will be happy then too.
Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He may have been in line to be king because he was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. There was something in him that made him want to serve God. His parents were praying but God works on those that don’t have praying parents too.
There is a great cloud of witnesses. You may be in a very difficult place in your life but there have been people there before you. Lay aside every weight.
Cleaning house is hard, cutting logs is hard. Some think that serving God is hard. Serving God pays; the way of the transgressor is hard. When I see people whose eyes are glossy and I know that if they live then tomorrow there is going to be a hangover, when I see people with hangovers, that looks like it is hard. The couple that had been drinking and hit a young man on Brooks St, that is hard.
If you are weighted down with the thought that life is so hard, lay aside every weight.
The lot is cast into the lap of the Lord and the whole disposing of it is of the Lord.
Lay aside sin. Run with patience the race that is set before you.
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
I’ve never been to heaven but I believe in heaven and I believe in angels. I believe that the angels encamp about God’s people. Whatever God has called you to do, do it. Know your calling and do your calling with Joy.
Jesus for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame.
I was talking to a man that told me that people feel so sorry for him. I thought of the song, “Don’t pity me I’m richly blessed.” People feel so sorry as the lady did for the ditch digger in the song. The ditch digger digging the ditch had Jesus. He had great treasures. The treasure of faith: to know that you can pray to a God that hears and answers prayer.
It is wonderful to be able to supplicate that God will protect. They mocked and spit on him and he despised it.
He is sitting at the right hand of God making intercession for His people.
Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Dear children of God, when God corrects you then that means that you are His. He corrects you because He loves you.
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
When you override the correction of God then because He loves you He’ll come back and get stronger with His correction. Everyone that serves God is corrected. You don’t need to get down in the dumps; you don’t need to think that you are dumb. Just because you are wrong it doesn’t mean that you are dumb, it just means that you need to change. We all had fathers that corrected us, if you didn’t have a good father that corrected you out of love then you can have a good heavenly father that corrects you out of love.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Heb 12:10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Heb 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Chastening corrects us and is a good tool of God to help us to walk humbly with Him. How beautiful it is when God meets with us. If God meets with us and we need correcting or direction it is beautiful. When God meets with us and we see we have sin, is there anything more beautiful than the message that Jesus saves to the sinners this morning? Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood that we could be saved.
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