Thirty-Fourth Meeting
(March 3, 1964 P.M.)
We turn
to the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter four, verse one
through three, "Let us therefore fear, lest, a
promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of
you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the
Gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word
preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith
in them that heard it. For we which have believed do
enter into rest, as He said, as I have sworn in My wrath,
if they shall enter into My rest: although the works were
finished from the foundation of the world."
Chapter
six, verse one through three, "Therefore leaving
the principles of the doctrine of
Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying
again the foundation of repentance from
dead works, and of faith toward God, of
the doctrine of baptisms, and of
laying on of hands, and of
resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And
this will we do, if God permit."
In our
first series of special meetings, the Lord led us to be
occupied with the matter of His Presence with His people.
I think every one here will agree that the most important
thing for us is the Presence of the Lord. I expect, when
we gather together like this, our prayer in the first
place is for the Presence of the Lord. And probably those
of you who prayed at the beginning of the day, will
always pray for the Lord's Presence. We realize that the
all-important thing in our lives and in the lives of
God's people is His Presence with us. We should all be
afraid to go on unless the Lord was with us. We cannot
think of life without the Presence of the Lord. The
Lord's Presence means everything to us.
Now you
will remember that we pointed out that this is the
greatest desire of the Lord Himself. He said to Moses,
"Let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell
among them." The greatest desire of the Lord is to
be amongst His people. But there are some conditions upon
which the Lord is with His people. The Lord has His own
terms upon which He will be with us. You will notice that
this letter to the Hebrews from which we have read is all
the time referring back to the life of Israel in the
wilderness, that period which was covered by those words
to Moses, "Let them build Me a sanctuary." It
was the period from the Red Sea to the border of the land
to the river Jordan.
Now
during that period of forty years, although there were
many difficulties, and the Lord had much trouble with the
people, the Lord was with them. There were, as I have
said, many difficulties during those forty years. There
were many very serious times. We read of Amalek coming
out to fight against Israel. We remember the story of
Balaam, the false prophet who was hired by Balak to curse
Israel. These were some of the very critical times during
that journey. There was the crisis of bread and the
crisis of water. There were the crises of enemies. But
through all that time the Lord was with His people. He
did not allow Amalek to succeed in their war against
Israel. He turned the curse of Balaam into a blessing.
The Lord was with them. That meant victory, that meant
support, that meant the supplying of all their needs,
that meant that the Lord helped them in spite of their
own weakness, the Lord was with them.
There
was one reason why the Lord was with them through all
their troubles and difficulties. The Lord was with them
because of one thing: They were a people who were going
on. They had set out to go to a certain goal, and in
spite of many hindrances, they were a people going on.
Sometimes their troubles just stopped their progress for
a little while, but then they went on again. And the Lord
was with them, because they went on. When they went on
with the Lord, the Lord went on with them. And that is
one of the fundamental terms upon which God is with His
people. They had started out with a vision. Perhaps you
will remember that when they had crossed the Red Sea, and
Pharaoh's army had been drowned in the sea, then Moses
and Aaron and the people of Israel sang a song. And in
that song, the vision arose. They said, "The Lord
has brought us out in order to take us in." The Lord
has brought us out, not to let us die in the wilderness,
that is not the Lord's idea for us. The Lord has brought
us out of Egypt in order to take us into the land. They
put it this way - "to bring us unto His holy
hill" (Psa. 43:3). That was the vision with which
they started. And while they kept that vision before them
and went on, the Lord was with them.
The Lord
gave them that mighty victory to begin with in order to
encourage them to go on. The victory of the Red Sea
corresponds to the victory of the Cross - the victory of
death, and burial, and resurrection with Christ. That was
the great foundation. And with that foundation behind
them and under their feet, they went on. But there came a
time when they stopped going on. You will remember that
the tabernacle was constituted for transit; it was not a
building to be put down in one place and to stay there
forever. It was all made so that it could go on. And the
tabernacle was the place where the Lord was. So that the
Lord's idea for them was to go on.
I wonder
how interested you are in the Book of Numbers. The Book
of Numbers is a very wonderful Book. If you have not
studied it, I advise you to study it. It can be called
the Book of the Goings-On, the Book of progress with the
Lord. And you will come to one chapter, chapter
thirty-three, and in that one chapter, you will find one
phrase used forty-three times. Now if one thing is
repeated forty-three times in one chapter, it must mean
something. Numbers, chapter thirty-three, and in that
chapter, this phrase occurs forty-three times -
"And the people of Israel journeyed." It
says, forty-three times the people went on. They took
their journey. And that is the Book in which you find the
Lord so mightily with His people.
Now you
know that when they came to the other side of the
wilderness, they came to Kadesh-barnea, they came to the
border of the promised land, they stopped. You do not
read again - and they journeyed. They stopped. And you do
not find the Lord with them. All, but two men, of that
whole generation died in the wilderness. That is not the
idea of the Lord for His people, for His people to die in
the wilderness is not the Lord's idea. The Lord is not in
that. Indeed, as we have read in Hebrews, the Lord is
against that. So the term on which the Lord is with His
people is that they keep going on. We have read in
Hebrews, chapter four, the terrible warning that the Lord
gave because they did not go on. He said, "I swore
in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest."
They lost everything because they did not go on. So we
read in chapter six, "Let us go on." Do
not let us stay with our beginnings, but let us go
on.
Now what
does going on mean? Well, of course, for us it is a going
on in a spiritual way. We are in a new dispensation, and
this is a spiritual dispensation. But there is one thing
that I want to suggest to you as meaning our going on. It
is true of Israel in the wilderness, although it was an
earthly thing with them, the same thing is true with us
in a spiritual way. If you look again into this letter to
the Hebrews, you will discover this, THAT GOING ON
SPIRITUALLY IS A MATTER OF PUTTING INTO PRACTICE WHAT THE
LORD HAS SAID. Do you realize that we never go on by
being told things by the Lord? Now that sounds like a
very strange thing to say. The Lord can speak to us
Himself. We may have His word, we may have all the
teaching that He can give us, we may know all the truth
of God, we may have had it all for many years, and yet,
although we may have had it all, we may be standing
still. No, it is not a matter of knowing what the Lord
has said. It is a matter of putting that into practice.
Doing what the Lord has said, that is the only way of
going on.
How are
we to go on then? We are to sit down quietly and say,
"Now what has the Lord said to us?" Perhaps it
may be over these past four or five weeks, or it may be
over years past. The Lord has spoken in this place, or to
you through the ministry of His many servants. Now
through the reading of His Word you may have a great
mountain of truth, and yet you may not be going on, and
the Lord may not be with us, as He wants to be with us.
The Presence of the Lord is power, the Presence of the
Lord is life, the Presence of the Lord is holiness. Oh,
the Presence of the Lord means much, but it is all very
practical. The Lord does not believe in theory. He does
not believe even in textbooks. The Lord is a very
practical Lord. And His attitude toward us is this: Look
here, I have said this to you, you have heard it. Perhaps
you have rejoiced in it. Perhaps you have believed it to
be true. Perhaps you thank the Lord for it. But what have
we done about it?
Have we
taken each thing that the Lord has said, and brought it
up and said, 'I have got to do something about that. We,
as the Church, have got to do something about it. We have
got to put that into effect. If we do not do that, we
will not make progress. And the power of God will not be
manifested among us.' We may go on for years, and we may
fill the years with teaching, but we may still be years
behind. We may not be coming into what the Lord means
that we should be in. Why all these exhortations in the
New Testament to go on? Why is the New Testament just
made up of exhortations and encouragements and warnings
to the people of God about going on? And why is the New
Testament such a practical Book? Because real spiritual
progress and the Presence of the Lord depends upon
bringing everything that we know right up to date.
I wonder
if you could tell me the number of times in the New
Testament that that one thing occurs. It is a quotation
from Israel's life in the wilderness. And it is this:
"Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your
heart." Again and again, those words are put in the
New Testament. Today! Today! Today! You see, all this has
got to be brought into NOW. All our progress for
the future depends upon what we are doing with what we
know NOW. So the Lord says to us, I am with you
if you are going on. And going on means putting into
practice and effect all that I have said to you. Our
growing knowledge of the Lord depends entirely upon our
daily obedience to the light which we have.
Now we
want the Lord to be with us, and we want Him to be with
us in fullness. Our hearts are really set upon that. I am
quite sure I am speaking for everyone here tonight. If I
were to come to every one of you personally and say, 'Do
you want the Lord to be with you? Do you want the Lord to
be with you as fully as He can?' I do not think there is
anyone here tonight who would say, 'No, I do not want the
Lord.' You would say, 'Yes, that is one thing for which I
pray and long, the Presence of the Lord in fullness.' And
that is what you want as a company of the Lord's people
in this place.
So when
the Lord speaks, and we bring that which He has said, and
we say: There is something to be done about this. I do
not just put that into the store of my knowledge. I do
not just add that to all that I know. I look to see what
that requires of me in a practical way. And when I see
what that means, then I get to the Lord to have that made
real and living in my life. Brethren, the people who do
that will be going on. They will be entering the promised
land. They will be entering into His rest. They will be
entering into the joy of the Lord. Because that is what
the Lord wants - people who take hold of everything that
the Lord says, and make it practical.
So the
writer of the Hebrews says, "Let us go on." In
what other way can we go on? We are not on a literal
journey on this earth. Our promised land is not somewhere
on this earth, in this world. No. Christ is our promised
land. Christ is God's fullness of purpose for us. So, we
have got to take everything that has been said to us
about Christ, and put it into practical effect. That is
what it means to go on. And that is what it means to have
the Lord fully with us!