Love Series # 4 - Part 2

And even though we want to do what is right as parents, a lot of times we don’t do what’s right with our children, and that causes additional problems too. But God, even in spite of all this, said, “I want it to go well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you possess” (Deut. 5:33, paraphrased).

Chapter 6:1, “Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: that thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.” Every time God in His love says, “Look, I want it to go well with you, I want you to live long, I want you to have healthy lives. In all of this I’ve given you these laws for this purpose and I want to have a relationship with you.” Now therefore, “Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee,…” Look at that, chapter 5:29, “…may be well with you…”, verse 33, “…that you may live and be well with you.” We come down here to 6:3, “…may be well with ye and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey” (Deut. 6:1-3).

Now I remember one time I checked a book out of the library. It was called Botany of the Middle East. And it said that from all the layers of soil they’ve dug down in, in the Middle East, they knew that in the time that the children of Israel went into the Promised Land there were trees, there were brooks, there were flowers, there were animals. It was just a wonderful place. Not like it is today - barren, hot, desolate, stony, cursed. It is. The Middle East is cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed. It wasn’t originally. “…Land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel:…” Now this is what Jesus quoted when He was asked what is the great commandment. “…The LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:…” (vs. 4-6). Even then, God wanted them to know them so well they would be in their hearts. Not that they would cast them away but remember them, and do them, and keep them. But you know there’s just something about a carnal mind and God, that’s almost completely incompatible, isn’t it. What does it say of the carnal mind Romans 8:7, “the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (paraphrased).

And I remember when I was - let’s see I must’ve been 10 years old at the time, and my folks wanted me to be confirmed in the Lutheran Church. Now we were not churchy people. Now there’s some people are churchy people. We were not. Now my old carnal mind really was rebellious, and sneaky, and devious. So my folks would drive me up to the house of the pastor and let me off. I’d wave bye-bye (laughter). And it was understood that when I was done I could go downtown - this was in Poulsbo, Washington - and I could go fishing afterwards, because you could walk down off the pier and fish and catch pogies, and perch, and all that sort of thing. I loved that and used to do that. So as I was waving bye-bye, I made sure the car went and I would walk up on the porch and very quietly so you couldn’t hear. When I knew the car was gone I jumped over the side of the porch on the other side and ran off and did my fishing. They could not get me to take confirmation. It was an impossibility, because I exercised my choice not to. That’s just the way it is. But you know, my folks were trying to do the best they could for me, see.

Now God always wants it that we love Him. He always wants a relationship based on love. Relationship based on obedience is better than no relationship at all, but He wants that relationship based on obedience to grow into a relationship of love, and that it is with your whole being. Verse 7, “…And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,…” Kind of like going into the Kingdom of God, isn’t it? What did Jesus say? “…I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go I will come again…” (John 14:2-3, paraphrased). They walked in and inherited crops, houses, cities, animals, everything, all prepared.

And in preparing it I’m sure that all these heathen thought all the time that their gods were blessing them with all of this, but they weren’t. The true God was preparing for the children of Israel. So you see, sometimes not everything is how it appears on the surface. “…And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged,…” Now if you’ve ever dug a well you know that’s a big job, ok. “…Which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; [and] when thou shalt have eaten and be full;…” And this is always the problem with love, isn’t it? This is not talking about being overweight, as some of us may find ourselves in that category. This is talking about taking God for granted. “…Then beware lest thou forget the LORD,…” (vs. 7-12). And that’s what people do because they don’t love Him. Now notice He said first, “Love Me,” didn’t He? And what kind of love? Total dedicated love, so then you’re not going to forget. That’s why it’s so important that we understand that there is nothing we haven’t received. We can’t go around this world and claim how great we are.

Let’s come over here to chapter 7:6. Here again is the kind of relationship that God wants. Now what I want you to do is magnify this with our understanding of the New Testament. “For thou art an holy people…” What did Peter say in 1 Peter 1:16? “…Be ye holy; for I am holy,” says the Lord. You’re a holy people. Are not those in the Church of God today holy? What makes a person holy? The Spirit of God, because the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit which sanctifies you. Now God doesn’t want us to get all lifted up and think we’re better than other people, because I’ll tell you what, there’s one thing that’s very, very, very true. Once you enter into a relationship with God, when you rebel against Him, you’re going to be in worse shape than the people in the world. And unfortunately the people in Pasadena did not learn the lesson of Jerusalem, which is this: if God places His name somewhere because He loves the people and loves them in the relationship into which He has called them, if they rebel against Him, and reject Him, and His Word, He is going to scrape the earth clean. He is going to send them off into exile. He is going to send them off into their own devices. And that’s exactly what is happening. And God is going to clean out Pasadena, and Big Sandy - everything is going to go brethren, because they haven’t learned how to love God. Now I’m not saying that, that I delight in it. I don’t. But it’s going to go, because we are a holy people. “…[And] the LORD thy God hath chosen thee…” Now this is New Testament doctrine. Hold your place right here, and let’s go to 2 Timothy 3 for just a minute, so that we can understand what the apostle Paul was saying when he said this, for all of those who want to throw away the Old Covenant and say, “Oh we don’t need that, that was for those people there.” Do you know that they’re even saying now that you don’t even need baptism? Some are even saying, “Well once you have Christ in you, you don’t even need the Bible.” You know, spare me. You know, coming out of the Church of God. Can you believe that? Out of the Church of God - you don’t need the Bible - that’s nonsense. The Bible is the greatest thing that God has ever given us aside from His Holy Spirit, ok.

2 Timothy 3:15 - most of you probably knew exactly where I was going, so in a sense what I’m trying to do here is reconstruct one of the sermons of the apostle Paul. Because I’m sure that he must have taught in the way that I’m going to teach here in just a minute. “…And that from a child thou [you Timothy] hast known the holy scriptures,…” We’re reading them - the book of Deuteronomy. That’s what was called the Holy Scriptures: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. That’s the law, and then you have the Writings, and then you have the Prophets - all the Holy Scriptures. “…Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith…” So you have to add the ingredients of faith and love. “…Which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine [which is teaching], for reproof [which is to straighten one out], for correction [which is then maybe a little severe correction], for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:15-17).

Now let’s go back to Deuteronomy again where we left off last time there in verse 6, special people, has chosen you. Now we know that God the Father Himself has to draw everyone, correct? Yes. The church in Greek is called, “hee ekkleesia,” and it means, “the called out one’s” or, “the chosen ones”. Same thing here. “…Chosen thee to be a special people…” So therefore we need to change our whole attitude in relationship to things, right? What is wrong with so many churches of God is that they don’t teach the love of God, so therefore they have these high exalted mucky-mucks that run around thinking that they are the greatest thing that has ever been. And they are to be teachers of the Word of God. God is the one Who is the high exalted Being, not us. “…A special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. [God] The LORD did not set His love upon you,…” So here again God’s love expressed to Israel, right? “…LORD did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:…” (Deut. 6:6-7). What did it start our with? Isaac {Abraham}. And what did God promise him? “Step out here and look at all the stars, now if you can number them that’s how your seed is going to be” (Gen. 15:5, paraphrased). And it hasn’t stop since then. And remember, that’s not just Israel, all the descendants of Ishmael, correct? All the descendants of Esau, even our antagonist, correct? Yes. All the descendants of Abraham by his second wife Keturah. They are all the descendants of Abraham.

And when Abraham is resurrected and God standing alongside of him, and He says, “Now Abraham we’re up here on the sea of glass. Now you want to see - here’s all of your children right here that have been resurrected in the first resurrection.” Why? Because, “…if you be Christ’s then are you Abraham seed and heirs according to the promise…” (Gal 3:29), right? So even our calling is based upon Abraham. Is that not correct? Yes. And Abraham is going to be overwhelmed. And then when God says, “I want you to look down here on the earth Abraham. We’re going to have to have a little war here, but unfortunately a lot of these are your children. As you know, not all your children worked out just the right way that we wanted. But at the end of the millennium I have the second resurrection, which we’re going to give them all a chance to enter into the kingdom of God, and the family of God, and eternal life, so I can keep My promise to you.” And Abraham’s going to be overwhelmed. Yes, he will be.

Verse 8, “But because the LORD loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers,…” Did we not see where He said that “…I swear by Myself that in multiplying I will multiply, and in blessing I will bless…” (Gen. 22:9, paraphrased). “…Which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him…” Again, there it is right in the Old Covenant - the love of God and loving back to God. “…That love Him and keep His commandments…” Well I’m going to put John 14:15 there too, because that’s exactly what Jesus said. This is New Testament doctrine brethren, ok. “…That love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations;…”

Now then, there needs to be a little hearing and fearing also added in there that if you reject this love of God, and you reject what God has commanded you - verse 10, “…And repayeth them that hate Him to their face,…” Now I imagine there were quite a few sermons given on the lake of fire right out of this one verse, right? God Himself is going to make the judgment, God Himself is going to execute it, God Himself will determine it, and He’s going to do it face to face, “…to destroy them: He will not be slack to him that hateth Him, [and] He will repay him to his face…” (vs. 8-10). So always in the midst of everything that God says, there’s always a warning.

So He says, “Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them. Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which He sware unto thy fathers: and He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee:…” Now let’s think of that in terms of spiritual blessing, spiritual love, multiplying our relationship with God, greater than just the physical blessing of what they would have, where He would multiply them, “…He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks…”, and so forth. How much better is it going to be with God’s love and blessing to us if we really now understand the fullness of the New Covenant, that it is based on love - not only just obedience - but love that is so profound that the obedience you do is to fulfill. Your keeping is fulfilling the fullest extent. Verse 14, “Thou shalt be blessed above all people: [and] there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee” (vs. 11-15).

Now let’s go to chapter 10. Let’s stop here in chapter 8 for just a minute, and let’s understand that even in the trials that we go through, even in God loving us, He’s going to let us go through trials and difficulties, and most of them we don’t like. I don’t like trials. I don’t like difficulties. I have never yet seen one that was one I thought of that I figured in my own mind ahead of time that I can handle. You ever done that? You ever figured out this trial or that trial? Nonsense. You know those are never going to come upon you. They’re always going to come in a way that you don’t expect. But there’s a reason for it.

Now let’s pick it up here in Deuteronomy 8:2. “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,…” Boy, and I bet they were just so ready to get out of that wilderness, right? Now what if you were nineteen and a half when God gave the judgment, ok? Thirty-eight and a half years you’d be sixty-nine years old entering into the Promised Land. Boy, you had seen heat, and scorpions, and death. And how many people did you have to bury because they died because of the cursing. And all you had was manna all this forty years, you know. No meat, no bread, you know manna. Maybe there was a goat you could kill once in awhile, but all manna. And now you’re standing here ready to cross the Jordan River, and you look over there and you see all these grain fields, but God said, “Now, you can’t eat any bread or grain until you wave the sheaf of the wave offering after you come into the land.” And here God says, “Now you’re going to go in there. Now I want you to remember all this desert that you walked through.” You’re thinking, “Man, I don’t want to remember a minute of this.” Ok, no, you don’t.

“…These forty years [here’s why] … to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart,…” That’s what God wanted to know. Because you see all human beings are, in effect, heart cases before God, because He wants what you do to come from the heart. “…Whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and [allowed] suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna,…” Which you didn’t really ever understand except you went out and gathered it. “…Neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know [here is the whole purpose of it] that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live…” (Deut. 8:2-3). That’s the whole purpose in it. That’s the whole purpose in any life, “…Not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” Now this ties right in with what we’ve already seen, to obey the voice to the Lord your God, right? “If you will indeed obey My voice,” correct? Always goes back to that, doesn’t it? Yes.

Now we have printed here all the words of God, that if He came down to earth He say the same thing again. Because human experience is no different than it’s always been. Human nature is no different than it’s always been. A lot of people will say, “Well I’ll believe it if God will come down and tell me.” No you really don’t want God to come down and tell you, because if He did you might not be alive, you see. He’s done it nicely, He’s done it easily. You don’t have to worry about standing before God, flaming God. You just go get your Bible off your shelf and read it. Isn’t that easy? And then when you read it you believe it, because these are all the words that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Are they not? Yes. So if you want to know how to live that’s how do it, it’s right there. So He even led them forty years, even though their shoes didn’t wear out, their clothes didn’t wear out. You know, how would you like that? Well, here’s a forty year-old pair of shoes, you know, pass them on down. Their feet didn’t swell. God still loved them. Even in all the punishment God still loved them. He just wanted to get rid of the rebels, ok.

Then He also gives a warning now and He says, “Now when you get in there in the land with all of these good things here”, and so forth. Let’s continue on, verse 4, “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart,…” Now this is… I remember in Spokesman’s Club we always had a speech which was the last one, remember that? Number 12, and it was to be a “heart to heart”. Now a “heart to heart” meant that you kind of bear your soul a little bit. Well, no one really ever did but at least they tried, you see. Because if you really told what was really in your evil old heart you wouldn’t want anyone to know that, because then you would have no one liking you, ok. So what God says is this, He says He wants to know your heart, and He wants you to know His heart. That’s what He wants. So this in a sense is a “heart to heart” from God to us. “[And] Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to fear Him…” (vs. 4-6). Then He says He’s bringing you into this fantastic land you’re going to lack nothing, you can even dig brass out of the hills, verse 9.

Now verse 10, “When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which He hath given thee.” Now I remember one time…and this was good, and it was well intentioned at the time. I remember we sat down to eat, and you know how it is sometimes when you’re around people you haven’t been around for quite awhile, or maybe you haven’t known. And we sat down, you know, and generally the blessing is going to be asked. Well this person said, “God knows we’re thankful. Let’s eat.” (Laughter). So anyway, that’s right - God wants to know that we are thankful. But it was true, and he was and he was a real humble man and he didn’t say it in any way that was not the way it should have been. But any way, that’s really something, ok. “…Thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which He hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command thee this day:…” (vs. 10-11). It’s amazing isn’t it, how many times it says, “Beware, don’t forget, do this, keep that, the other thing.” And then all religionists come along and say, “Forget it, you don’t have to do it, God doesn’t require it.” You know - it’s unreal.

Now, “…Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;…” Now what I want you to do is think about Pasadena and Big Sandy when I’m reading this, ok, because it is all going because they forgot God. “…And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;…” (vs. 10-14). You forget the calling of Christ Who brought you out of sin; you get all involved in politics, and numbers, and money, and people, and doing good, and all this sort of thing, and you forget God. That’s why God has to recycle things a lot of times, ok. Because when people get to this point there’s just something that happens, that He’s got to do something to break it down and start again, because people have forgotten God. Says now, “you need to remember.” So whenever you think things are so great, think about what your life was before God called you, spiritually speaking. “…He led you through the wilderness,…” (Deut. 8:15, paraphrased), and so forth. “…Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, [now] that He might humble thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;…” (vs. 16). That’s why we’re going through all of these trials and tests. And I know I’ve had some brethren that I’ve just had to go God and just say, “I don’t have a clue.” I didn’t. I did not have a clue. But I knew God was there, I knew God is true, and right, and loving. But I needed to learn some things. And so in all of our lives we need to learn some things, and the whole thing is to learn the love of God.

Now let’s come to Deuteronomy 10:12, and again we’re going to be amazed how much of this is really New Testament doctrine. “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,…” Boy, that’s New Testament doctrine, isn’t it? Yes it is, it sure is. “…To keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.” God is saying, “Look, I own everything, and if you do this you are really connected with Me. Nothing else will connect you with Me unless you love Me.” Isn’t that something? That God is going to grant us all of these things and eternal life. “Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.” Verse 16, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (Deut. 10:12-16). That’s all God ever wanted from anyone, and that’s the whole purpose of the New Testament.

Now He’s not only just saying do it, He saying, “I’ve given My Son Jesus Christ, because I love you, to make that possible; I’ve given My Holy Spirit to make that possible.” And that’s the whole purpose of the New Covenant. I wonder how many sermons Paul started out with Deuteronomy 10? They knew from right here that the ultimate circumcision was of the heart. That’s why there was such a fight in the New Testament church over physical circumcision. They knew that. “For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:…” (vs. 17). So what does God think about all of our stupid little games we play down here? Huh? Oh my. Politics we play? Oh forget it. You’re not going to impress God. God owns everything. He controls everything. I mean, what are we going to do with it anyway? Can you build a Church of God on all that kind of stuff? Will it succeed? No, God has to open the way. What did Jesus Christ say back there to the Philadelphia church? He says, “I open and no man shuts, and I shut and no man opens.” (Rev 3:7, paraphrased). So if God now is shutting the door on something, then you’re not going to go back and reopen it by doing the same thing. He wants you to learn.

“He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger,…” And what was Judaism based upon? Hating the stranger, right? Anyone who was not a circumcised Jew was absolutely an anathema. “Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; Him shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou cleave, and swear by His name. He is thy praise, and He is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.” Now He wants to know where they started from. “Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.” (vs. 18-22). Then He continues. Read all the rest of the way through the book of Deuteronomy: love God, keep His commandments, love God, keep His commandments all the way through.

Let’s go to Psalm 91 just to show how the love of God is. As a matter of fact this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ and God the Father, when you come to understand this. And let’s think of it this way: in our loving of God, we have to understand how much God has loved us coming back, then we can really begin to really understand the love of God, which we will as we get into the New Testament a little more next time. But I just want us to all know, for us to all realize, that even dealing in the carnal world God still expresses His love to them. God still provides food for them. Believe me, a nice steak tastes just as good to someone uncalled in the world as it does to us. And God provided for them too, right? Yes.

Psalm 91:14, “Because he hath set his love upon Me,…” Now I’ll expound a little bit more about this will we get into the section concerning the love between God the Father and Jesus Christ. “…Because he hath set his love upon Me,…” Now therefore I want you to take this personally to yourself, because God has called you because He has loved you. And He set His love upon you in a profound, and a peculiar, and a direct way. But we have to be responsive to that, and how many years did we go around with all of our Gestapo tactics for years, and years, and years and pushed away the love of God because we wanted to be right, we wanted to be all this sort of thing?

“…Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him:…” Notice that, He, individual, personal, one-to-one relationship, correct? You call upon God and sometimes you don’t even know how did do it except, “ Oh God, here I am. I don’t know what to do.” He’ll answer. “…I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.” Did not God the Father honor Jesus Christ? Did He not say, “This is My Beloved Son in Whom I’m well pleased”? (Matt. 3:17) Did He not give Him a name which is above every name? Is He not at the preeminence of everything that’s going to be in the resurrection? Absolutely! “With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” (Psa. 91:14-16). Now He has eternal life. Here, just hold your place and let’s go back to Hebrews 5 for just a minute.

Hebrews 5:7, because as we have covered before when we went through whole series, “Who Is Jesus”, which has been years, and years, and years ago. And by the way, we’re sending out tapes - just so many that it is really something. I mentioned about the “Colossians”, and I mentioned about “Covenants”. We’ve been sending those out to a lot of people. I have one letter from someone who wrote in and said, “Thank you for the tapes. I listen to them two or three at a time. I’m really learning from them, but that’s not enough. I need some bulk shipments. Please send me more tapes.” Ok, well we’re happy to send them, but you know all of those of you who love God and want to see it increase, then in order to help, we also need the help and response in the way that we need to, ok?

Now back to this concerning salvation to Jesus Christ. Hebrews 5:7, “Who in the days of His flesh, [and that’s what we just read about there in Psalms 91] when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death,…” Jesus Christ needed the spiritual salvation from death that only God the Father could give. “…And was heard in that He feared; [and] though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him;…” (Hebrews 5:7-9). Oh my, there’s that little word again in the New Testament - obey. Isn’t that something? If you think you’ve had a trial, how would you like to have a trial like Jesus Christ? I’ll let you think on that because we’ll talk about that because He did it because He loved us. Every once in awhile you may find yourself in a situation where everyone is your enemy. Please understand Jesus Christ lived His whole life that way. Because He knew what was in man, didn’t He? Yes. How would you like to spend thirty-three and a half years in the midst of your enemies because you loved them, and you knew what they were going to do to you? And yet at the end, the profound love that Jesus had He said, “Father forgive them they don’t know what they are doing.”

Ok let’s come to Zephaniah. You go Matthew, Malachi, Zechariah, Haggai, Zephaniah. Zephaniah 3:14, “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The LORD hath taken away thy judgments [that is the judgments against you], He hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.” Now that’s got to be some sort of an anthem for us at the resurrection. It’s got to be. “In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing” (Zeph. 3:14-17). So there is the whole purpose and modus operandi that God wants. Isn’t that something? That’s going to be a time. Why can’t we have church and church services more like this? I think we do here, but I’m saying in general to the whole Church of God everywhere. That would be nice to have church like this? Come together and God’s Spirit is there. We’re fellowshipping with the Father, we love Him, He loves us, we love each other. Solves all the hassle doesn’t it, ok?

“I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly,…” So you see, that does have to do with assembling together doesn’t it? “…Who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out [that’s talking of the church]; and I will get them praise and fame in every land...” Are we not going to be given a new name? Yes. Are we not going to be worshipped as God? Yes. Will we not have praise in every land where God sends us to help rule as kings and priest under Christ? Yes. Why? Because He loves us. Now then, also this has to do with Israel, because when you get to these Old Testament prophecies many times there are many things that are in there that have to do with the church as well as Israel, because the church in fact is Israel. So when you carry them out to the spiritual fullness of it, it’s talking about the church in the state of resurrection, ok.

“…Every land where they have been put to shame.” (Zeph. 3:18-19). Oh isn’t that going to be nice. Think of that. God is going to send us to where we have been given the most trouble. And guess what? It’s going to be just like Mordecai and Haman, right? Remember that? Mordecai was hated and despised by Haman. Now he would not stand and rise when Haman came by, the Agagite. And he was the big pope over there in Persia with king Ahasuerus. And Mordecai was just, you know, wasting away. And one night the king was reading an old left-over newspaper. It was called the chronicles of the kingdom, right. We have a paper over here called the “San Francisco Chronicle”. And he read where that Mordecai saved the king from death. So he called in Haman the next day, and Haman was expecting this great promotion, right? Yes, yes. So Ahasuerus said to Haman, he said, “Now tell me Haman, I need your advice. What do you think that the king should do to the one he wants to honor?” And Haman said, “Boy it’s me.” And he says, “Well put him on your horse and have someone take him around and say, “This is the one whom the king favors.” And so he said, “Haman that’s a good idea. You take my horse and you lead it with Mordecai sitting on it, and you go through the whole city and say, ‘This is the one whom the king favors.’” (Esther 6:1-11, paraphrased).

That’s exactly what God is going to do with us when we rule in the Kingdom of God. So don’t worry about all those troubles and difficulties. Well, we’ll continue on, and next time we’ll finish up what we need to here and then get into the love of Christ that He had for us.