TRUE WORSHIP PART 2!!!!

Psalm chapter 95







Today we are walking in: True Worship Part 2!!!!







Today we look to the word-WORSHIP- H7812 shachah--to bow down; prostrate oneself before superior in homage; before the Most High in worship





The Torah testifies.........……




Genesis 24:26

And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped H7812 the LORD.




Exodus 4:31

And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. H7812





Exodus 34:14

For thou shalt worship H7812 no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:





Deuteronomy 8:19

And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship H7812 them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.





The prophets proclaim..................





Nehemiah 8:6

And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped H7812 the LORD with their faces to the ground.





Nehemiah 9:3

And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped H7812 the LORD their God.





Jeremiah 25:6

And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship H7812 them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.





Zechariah 14:16

And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship H7812 the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.






The writings bear witness............




Joshua 5:14

And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, H7812 and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?




1Chronicles 16:29

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship H7812 the LORD in the beauty of holiness.





2 Chronicles 7:3

And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, H7812 and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever





Psalm 66:4

All the earth shall worship H7812 thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.




So it's not worship, it's called repetition. Daniel came out knowing something about The Most High that no one else ever knew. He's a lion taming The Most High. Let's define worship in practical terms. Write this down. Worship is only reserved for the Lord. That is the key to worship. He is Lord. The word Lord means owner but it means legitimate owner. The one who legally owns it. That's the word Lord, you see those of you who rent from somebody the one you renting from is called the landlord. See the word Lord means owner. Very important word. When you see that word in the Bible it means mighty controller. Why? He is mighty because he owns and because he owns, he controls. That's why we call him Lord Almighty. He owns everything, so he could control everything. Worship is the acknowledgement and the ascribing of all things to the source. The Lord owns everything, why? Because he is the legitimate source of everything. Why? Because he created everything. Worship is a result of revelation of the source of creation. Worship is a result. True worship doesn't have to be generated, true worship is a result of something. It's a result of a revelation that you have about who is the source of everything created. When that gets to you when you understand it then his praise is continually upon your lips. The problem is they don't like The Most High. There's no revelation. When you get a revelation of the source of everything, when you get a revelation of it there's this consciousness of constant, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. When you understand where it all comes from you don't need no cheerleaders called worship leaders but your problem is you don't worship The Most High, you worship the worship leaders, and they worship their song that makes you sing and The Most High says I'm not in this. Worship is a natural response to an understanding of the source of all things. The largest book in the Bible is a praise book written by a politician who was the greatest king of the nation of Israel. How can this man who is a politician write the largest praise and worship book in the Bible? Because it's simple, he used to hang out in the hills and David realized that the mountains and the hills belong to him and the bush that he found with a sheep belonged to him. He understood that the tongue he used to sing that song the Lord is my shepherd came from The Most High. So David kept on writing his gratitude. We call them Psalms. And here comes a lion, David said I got a new song today lion. This lion today is bringing me a new song! Who's your lion?? This bear has come to take my sheep--no he comes to give me a new song!

And then the big day came with Goliath, David says I am gonna write about you. I'm gonna write about the Most High, who took your head off!! What you going through ain't nothing but a song!!! The Most High's gonna give you a song for what you are going through, that no one knows but you! They don’t know what you came out to come here, they don't understand but it's a song!! You cannot worship beyond what you know about the Most High, otherwise you're using other people's material. That's why it's important for you to read the Bible for yourself! We run out of things to say to the Most High, because we don't know nothing else!

Worship is total transfer of credit to the supreme source and the owner of all things!! Worship is bowing down to him and say it's all yours--including me!! That's why you prostrate, as a sign that I am yours too! See when you lay down before a king you tell, the King my body, everything is yours. As long as you are standing before a king, the king says--you don't belong to me. You are standing on your own strength--when you lay before sovereignty you are acknowledging that everything you are and have and is--is because of him and we call that worship.

There's a term that we didn't talk about earlier, the Most High is the supreme owner of everything there is a definition I gave you earlier to blow a kiss. Go in your dictionary, in Hebrew look up the word worship and you'll see that there to blow a kiss. Now that doesn't make any sense to us! You know we do it some time in the West, blow a kiss to someone. In the culture of the East, you don't blow kiss to just anybody! You only blow a kiss to somebody you totally depend on!! To worship means to look up and blow a kiss and say, you wonderful thing you!! And you do it all day!! It means I totally depend on you. The Most High is not making the angels bow--read the Bible! The angels bow because they have a revelation of who that is sitting on that throne!! They know in Him they live and move and have their very being!! How about you?? Can you blow Him a kiss? I dare you to blow Him a kiss--see you have never done that before in a worship service and that's exactly what worship means! The first thing in the morning when you wake up you should just blow Him a kiss, while you still in your bed, eyes just opened. Blow Him a kiss, He takes it because it means you are giving Him thanks that you survived the night by His grace! Why worship the Most High? You know whenever you see the word worship is usually followed by the word Lord, matter of fact the words of Yahusha will make sense in a minute. These are very powerful words. But let's look at Psalm 24:1-2 1 The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

The word Lord means owner so take the word Lord out and put that in. It makes a big difference all of a sudden. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness, everything on it and all they that dwell in it. For he founded it--it is His property!! Upon the seas and he accomplished the land out of the waters!! Not only does he own the world and the land but all that is in it!! That's you, your cat, your dog, your house, your CD player--He said look, everything you got--is mine and I made it!! Don't you dare tell me that it ain’t from me!! That's why you blow kisses that is why--you lay down on your face and you prostrate because the minute you think, you are too much to bow, and you too much to lay down--He started taking it back! It is His material! You come to worship service nobody wants to really sing a real song.

Exodus 23:23-24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

Look at the scripture, it says worship the Lord the Most High God. Worship who?? The Most High, the owner and creator of this world and all that is in it! He is the Lord--the owner who is your sustainer!! He is the self-sustaining one!! Worship the owner who sustains--everything!! That is who you worship--bow down to, lie prostate before and to blow kisses to--submit to Him, Why? Because everything I am, have or ever will get--belongs to You the Most High!! And the more you prostate, the more He gives you, because when you give gratitude you increase your latitude which improves your altitude!! When you get close to the Most High, He starts giving you stuff!!

The next part says, in Exodus 23:26 There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.

What He is saying is He will provide for His people who He loves!! His blessings will be on your food and water, I will take away sickness from among you and none will miscarry or be barren in your land--I will give you a full lifespan.

What's the key?? Worship the Most High! What is worship--ascribing and acknowledging that He owns everything!! You keep doing that?? I'll fix you up---overflow blessings!! You gotta give Him some praise!!!

What are we to do, shout unto the Most High for He is the Lord, the owner of all!! It is time to go back to worshipping Him again, not the music or songs! Stop worshipping your cars, your hairstyle, because not one of them could so what we just saw in scripture that He would do for His people! Can that thing that you are worshipping take away sickness from you? So stop going around looking for someone to heal you. That scripture told you how to get your healing!!

But you don’t want to do that, you want a shortcut, a gift--you don't want gratitude!! Why does it take sickness to make you finally turn TV off, get friends out of the room, shut the telephone off and sit there with your body wrecked with disease and you finally say Most High, you are the Lord of all!! See that is key, right there--know that if He doesn’t heal you or deliver you from this bed--No one else can! Now He finally got what He wanted from you! As you say, if You don't deliver me from this pain and He says--this is worship!! That is what worship is, submit!!

When you say to the Most High if you don't bring me out, I can't get out of this one!! That's worship! Don't wait till you have to do it, to do it! Bless the Most High our Lord at all times and let His praises continually be in your mouth!!

I take sickness from among you-- you'll live long. Imagine, long life is tied to gratitude--thank you the Most High!! Thank You Abba!!

We have to learn to say, to Him be the glory! That keeps us aware if we get blessed or something-- doesn't mean anything to me! To Him be the glory! If you keep that in your mouth, you'll keep getting blessed. Keep transferring the credit to Him, to Him be the glory!! Did you get a new house? To Him be the glory! A new dress? To Him be the glory! A new job? To Him be the glory! Healed from sickness?? To Him be the glory!! Just missed that accident, to Him be the glory!! Kids got into college? To Him be the glory! No more lump in your breast? To Him be the glory! Are you breathing and got oxygen? To Him be the glory!! Everything that uses His air, He says give Me thanks--gratitude! What do we use to worship? What do you use for material to worship? What are you bringing to worship before the Most High of the Universe?? In the book of Exodus, worship must be as a result of whatever He asked for including yourself. Worship--what do you bring to worship the Most High?? The answer is the Creator has the right to ask for anything He wants in worship. Why??? Because he owns everything!!! Do you know why He said for you to dance? That's His body!! You know why He tell you to jump--that's His jump! You know why He tell you to scream and shout? That is His vocal cords! He owns it, it owns it all--He is LORD!!! He says make noise and the noise is His, why the air that vibrates on the vocal cords is His, the throat, tongue and lips that help make that noise are all His!!

He says dance--the leg under the dance and the energy to make the leg dance are all Mine!! I want the dance!!

Exodus 10:8-11 (KJV) 8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go? 9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. 10 And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. 11 Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
Exodus 10:24-26 (KJV) 24 And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you. 25 And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. 26 Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know not with what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither.


You never saw that verse in the Bible before, did you?? They had to bring everything out to worship the Most High, but they did not know before what would be required! So what would be the modern day understanding? Bring all your money before you leave home when you come to the service--He might ask for it!!

Worship is submit to the lordship of the Most High! He has the ownership of everything. When you tell the Most High have Thine own way--That is a dangerous prayer this acknowledges that you know that all of this stuff is His and He may require you to give it all away.

Now you can finally understand the young rich ruler who came to Yahusha, Luke 18:18-23 (KJV) 18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

19 And Yahusha said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. 20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. 21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. 22 Now when Yahusha heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. 23 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

Look at that, Yahusha is trying to get worship from the guy. He's trying to get ownership of what he's still hanging on to--He said, take everything you have and give it to the poor and come follow me. The scripture says and he was very rich and he was sad. In other words he never worshipped, he kept ownership. If The Most High says I want everybody to lay on the ground today. If your first thought is in this dress?? It cost me $300!! You lost the Most High. Or maybe He will say for you to kneel but you say but my knee is hurting. What if your healing was in your kneeling on the floor? Remember the scripture that we read earlier, it said, if you worship Me I will heal you! Fiveamprayer we have to find out if there is anything that you have in your life that has more worth than the Most High!

We have to realize that what we were giving the Most High as worship is not what He calls worship!! Suppose you come in one Sabbath morning and He says all that you have been doing, I don’t want that. That He might say, I know that you spent all that time getting ready and I want you to lay out on the floor. Do what He wants, that is yielding to the Owner of all things--that is worship.

Could you imagine kings taking off their crowns I'm laying them down in submit to the King of All! To say that You the Most High have supreme authority!! Will you take off your crown and put it at His feet? That is worship! Suppose the Most High decides to take another offering--will you give in, submit His plan? When you understand that the first offering you gave was His as well as the second one, that He is the one who gave you the job to be able to have an offering to give. As is the car that takes you to the job, is His and the gas that you put in the car, is His!! So are you trying to keep from Him what is already His no matter how you look at it???

So if you are not got to give Him what is His, when He asks--He takes it all from you, destroys everything! So now you have to start over from the bottom and you ask why the Most High, and it is because you wanted to keep ownership!

We come to worship, ready to give all. The Sabbah should be the most wonderful experience in your tabernacle! You should not go into that meeting with any preconceived ideas or the way you expect it to be. Because He can ask for anything! Psalm 29:2 (KJV) Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Psalm 95:6-7 (KJV) 6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. 7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

We worship because we know from Whom everything comes!! That's why we worship!! Worship is a response of a revelation! The opposite of worship is, number 1 lack of gratitude. You may have thought it was hasatan--it isn't. The opposite of worship is lack of gratitude when you stop being thankful to the sustainer and the creator of all things, you are opposing worship. Another opposite of worship, is self praise when you start taking the credit for everything that you're doing you are self worshiping. Number three of the opposite of worship is self credit you are telling the world that it is you, who brought you, this far. Like that saying you have heard, I am a self-made millionaire. What are you talking you about?? You are about to be like Nebuchadnezzar--Daniel 4:30 King James Version (KJV) The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?

Daniel 4:33 (KJV) The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.

The Most High turned a king into a beast when he said that he made himself great! It's incredible when you start becoming self-centered!! Number four the opposite of worship is selfish pride. This is what Lucifer fell from. What made Lucifer fall, it is very simple he wanted self worship, he got fired! His job was to make sure everybody worshiped the Most High. He was in charge of the music department, the worship department. See you got to watch your job, because when you start wanting the attention on you rather than the one you're trying to get us to worship, you're about to lose your job!! Pride comes--just before a fall! What is pride, it is self-centeredness. This is about me, it's about me, it's about me! I practice all week and pastor tell me I cannot sing today, then you are angry for three months! This ain't about you remember? He could ask for whatever he wants! Remember? And He might not want your dance today. What He wants is your good attitude--today and it all belongs to him the attitude and the dance! Moses says we gotta take it all, because we don't know what He is gonna ask for. Some of us are being held up because we are not being obedient when He ask for what is His!

This lack of worship is getting in the way of what the Most High wants to do! He may tell you to go home and you give away your sofa. And you may say, that is my favorite place to sit. What you do not realize is that in giving away that sofa allowed Him to replace that sofa with more than that, it was for a new house as well!!!! This holding on to the sofa--means that you think it's yours, you're not worshiping!!!
Job 1:20-21 (KJV) 20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

Now you understand why Job got seven times back!! You finally understand that this verse shows that Job understood that the Most High is the owner and in control of everything! You can see the total worship Job gave. Job said look, the wife is His, the children is His, the cow and the goat is His, and the barns! That is, so whatever the Most High allowed to be taken was His anyhow!! If He took it, He took it--if He give it back, He give it back whatever--He want to do, blessed be the name of the Most High!!! See when you say that in the middle of the situation--you telling Him You own the situation!! That's worship!!! You don't just praise the Most High when things go good because, even the bad things belong to the Most High!

Job 1:22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Job understood all things came from the Most High, and he realized he was sustained by the Most High--the minute Job did this. The Most High turn the captivity. The Most High is taking you through and allows you to go through what you are going through--to see if you could sing in the middle of it? He is testing His lordship over your life--worship is acknowledging total dependency on the Most High! Can we fully say, to Him--everything is Yours?

Yahusha understood worship, Matthew 4:8-10 (KJV) 8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10 Then saith Yahusha unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

The worship is only to and for the owner--the Most High alone! How can hasatan offer to give to the Most High what is already His? How can hasatan offer to Yahusha, the Owner of everything His own stuff and also ask to have credit for creating it?? That is what he was telling the Most High. To tell him that he made everything. Listen to the words of Yahusha away from me Satan for it is written worship the owner-- stop right there don't go any further! He didn't say worship the thief!!! If you stole this from my kids how can you give me what is mine?! Only give credit to the owner who is the Most High, to him only do you submit!!!

Yahusha says hasatan you can't take credit for what belongs to me and you can tell me to give you the credit!! That was foolish, of hasatan trying to tell the Most High--to tell him you made all of this! Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

So don't you ever give a devil credit even for those things that ain't quite comfortable. What did Job say naked I came and naked I leave out! Which means whatever I got on He gave to me, whatever I live it in, he gave to me! All that I have He gave it to me!!

Job is saying to us if He give it or take it--He is the owner of it all!!! The Most High decides how and what to do with His property!! We see with Job that the Most High says I AM going to turn this man’s situation around now!!!

Fiveamprayer we have to fully realize that everything is from You, Most High! Everything we have--including us, is Yours!! He is the owner of it all your house, your car, your clothes!!! Everything!!!

We must get a revelation of Him being our Source and The source of all!! That is worship!

Luke 12:16-20 (KJV) 16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

The Most High was not against this young man's wealth read carefully, He was against this spirit of ‘mine’. All that we have claimed, give back to the Owner and Creator of it all!! He is the only one who can fix it! That is why you can not fix it, because you don’t own that person or situation! Lighten your load and understand that it all belongs to Him--give it all back to HIM! He alone can we submit to as the Most High, King and Ruler of the Universe!!

ECCLESIA VS CHURCH

Exodus chapter 34







Today we are walking in: Ecclesia VS Church







Today we look to the word-DECEIVE-H5377 nasha'-- to beguile, deceive to be beguiled









The Torah testifies...............




Genesis 3:13




And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, H5377 and I did eat.







The prophets proclaim..................





Jeremiah 9:5




And they will deceive H5377 every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.






The writings bear witness...........................





2 Kings 18:29




Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive H5377 you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand:







Let us make it clear from the very beginning that the established religious system, which manifests itself in the abomination called "church", is NOT of Yah. We intend to make it very clear, by studying the Greek words found in the New Testament, that the pattern which Yah intends His people to follow and live by is the ECCLESIA system, and is RADICALLY different than that which calls itself "church" in our day. As you hear this short study the truth will dawn on you that Hebrews today have been fed a LIE, and that they have been enslaved by the religious systems of men. If you truly love Yahusha and desire to follow Him in total obedience then you must seriously consider the facts that follow. We encourage each and every person who names the name of Hamachiach to PRAY AND SEEK Yah concerning the important differences between how the first Hebrews lived and how Hebrews live today.




THE CORRECT MEANING OF "CHURCH"




Let's start by defining the word. "Church" comes from the Old English and German word pronounced "kirche." In Scotland, it was "kirk."




The following entries are from the Oxford Universal English Dictionary:




Church [Old English cirice, circe; Middle English chereche, chiriche, chirche; whence churche, cherche, etc.: -Greek Kuriakon...]




Kirk The Northern English and Scottish form of CHURCH, in all its senses.




In the earlier Greek It was pronounced "ku-ri-a-kos" or "ku-ri-a-kon." As you can see, this word doesn't even resemble the Greek word "ecclesia" whose place it has usurped. The meaning of "Ku-ri-a-kos" is understood by its root: "Ku- ri-os," which means "Most High." Thus, "kuriakos" (i.e., "church") means "pertaining to the Most High." It refers to something that pertains to, or belongs to, a Most High. The Greek "kuriakos" eventually came to be used in Old English form as "cirice" (Kee-ree-ke), then "churche" (kerke), and eventually "church" in its traditional pronunciation. A church, then, is correctly something that "pertains to, or belongs to, a Most High."




Now, as you can see, there is a major problem here. The translators broke the rules in a big way. When they inserted the word "church" in the English versions, they were not translating the Greek word "kuriakos", as one might expect. Rather, they were substituting an entirely different Greek word. This was not honest! The word "church" would have been an acceptable translation for the Greek word "kuriakos." However, not by the wildest imagination of the most liberal translator can it ever be an acceptable translation for the Greek word "ecclesia." Are you following this? Consider it carefully. This truth will answer many questions you've had about churches, and the kingdom.




"Ecclesia" is an entirely different word with an entirely different meaning than "kuriakos." In fact, the Greek word "kuriakos" appears in the New Testament only twice. It is found once in I Corinthians 11:20 where it refers to "the Most High's supper," and once again in Revelation 1:10 where it refers to "the Most High's day." In both of those cases, it is translated "the Most High's..." - not "church." This word does not appear again in the New Testament. Nonetheless, this is the unlikely and strange history of the word "church" as it came to the English language. Eventually, through the manipulation of organized religion "church" came to replace "ecclesia" by popular acceptance. Again, we must emphasize the importance of knowing word meanings in order to know the intent of those who wrote the Scriptures.




THE CORRECT MEANING OF "ECCLESIA"




Now, let's look at the word, "ecclesia". This Greek word appears in the New Testament approximately 115 times. That's just in this one grammatical form. It appears also in other forms. And in every instance, except three, it is wrongly translated as "church" in the King James Version. Those three exceptions are found in Acts 19:32, 39, 41. In these instances the translators rendered it "assembly" instead of "church." But, the Greek word is exactly the same as the other 112 entries where it was changed to "church" wrongly.




In Acts 19, "ecclesia" is a town council: a civil body in Ephesus. Thus, the translators were forced to abandon their fake translation in these three instances. Nonetheless, 112 times they changed it to "church." This fact has been covered-up under centuries of misuse and ignorance. The Greek word "ecclesia" is correctly defined as: "The called-out (ones)" [ECC = out; KALEO = call]. Thus, you can see how this word was used to indicate a civil body of select (called, elected) people.




According to the Encyclopedia Britannica:




In the New Testament, "ecclesia" (signifying convocation) is the only single word used for church. It (ecclesia) was the name given to the governmental assembly of the city of Athens, duly convoked (called out) by proper officers and possessing all political power including even juridical functions.




Obviously, in Greece an ecclesia had no resemblance to a church. An "ecclesia" was a civil assembly in Athens even before the writing of the New Testament. In the Oxford Universal English Dictionary (considered the standard for the English language) the word "ecclesia" is listed in its English form as used by our English forefathers. (Nowadays, only forms of the word appear - like, "ecclesiastical").




Quoting from the Oxford Universal English Dictionary on the word "ecclesia":




Ecclesia [mediaeval Latin, and Greek - from : SUMMONED] -A regularly convoked assembly, especially the general assembly of Athenians. Later, the regular word for church.




Thus, two of the most prestigious word resources in the English language confirm the fact that an "ecclesia" was originally a select civil body, summoned or convoked for a particular purpose. What, then, did the writers of the New Testament mean when they used the word "ecclesia" to describe a Hebrew body of people? We can assume that they intended to convey the original Greek meaning of the word: a body of Hebrews called out of the Roman and Judean system to come together into a separate civil community. It meant a politically autonomous body of Hebrews under no king but Yahusha; under no other jurisdiction but that of Yahusha. No man ruled them! Only Hamachiach. And that was the reason these same Hebrews ran into trouble with kings and rulers; were arrested, crucified and martyred. They dropped Caesar as their King and took up Hamachiach.




In Acts 17, verses 1-6 we see that Paul and Silas had a reputation that preceded them. They were "turning the world (system) upside down." What was their inflaming message? Were they telling the people to find a minister and support him; go to church every weekend; be nice to their neighbors? Could this have been the message that set the city fathers against them? Or maybe they were asking people to send their tithes to them so they could build a nice church or develop a Hebrew recreation center? No? What then? What were these guys doing that was "turning the world system upside down"? The answer is found in verse 7:




"Whom Jason hath received (into his house): and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Yahusha."




Now is that clear? Do you see what they were doing? They were announcing ANOTHER KING! Not Caesar! This was a king who was bigger than Caesar. They were forming civil bodies that no longer looked to Caesar as their king. They were forming civil outposts for Hamachiach's conquering army! They were at war!




Paul and Silas weren't "church builders" like preachers today claim. They weren't proselytizing people from one church or synagogue to another. They were kingdom builders! They were dethroning rulers in the minds of the people and alienating them from the mental hold Caesar had upon them through heathenistic (central) government. They were teaching the principles of Hebrew government. They were putting forth the call of Yah to whomever would hear and obey, and those whose hearts responded to the call became citizens of Hamachiach's kingdom and joined themselves to the ecclesia, or community of believers.




CHURCH AND STATE DESTROY LIBERTY




The Oxford Dictionary also has an interesting entry under "congregation":




...used by Tyndale* as a translation of 'ecclesia' in the New Testament, and by the sixteenth century reformers instead of "church." (*William Tyndale was the fifteenth century reformer and Bible translator murdered by the church)




Tyndale was willing to die for Yah's word and truth. He didn't like the word "church." Instead, he used the word "congregation." Now that tells us something! Yahly Tyndale, and other sixteenth-century reformers who were more reputable, did not like the word "church." They used other words like "congregation," "governmental assembly," etc.




When you consider the fact that an "ecclesia" was "a civil body politic", this is strong proof that the Hebrew ecclesias we read about in the New Testament were independent civil bodies of Hebrews -independent from worldly kings and governors, ruled by the Theocratic government of Yah's Spirit. They wanted freedom to serve King Yahusha. They weren't building and attending churches! Please understand! The pattern laid down in the New Testament bears no resemblence to what we know today as "church". Yah's people are meant to live by the ecclesia pattern -together in communities, holding all things common, under the government of Yah through His anointed leaders. Quit saying "church" when it is supposed to be "ecclesia"! It's an important step in retrieving your brain from the trap of religious confusion.




HEBREW CIVIL BODY




Independent self-government under Hamachiach! That is what the ecclesia represents - not a religious organization for meeting on weekends. The Bible does not indicate that churches would eventually take the place of ecclesias. The change of words was not sanctioned by Scripture. There is NO Scriptural authority for Hebrews to build churches, attend churches, or support churches! Churches are unYahly organizations designed for and by the heathen.




We should be forming and defending ecclesias instead of the disgusting churches with their con games, entertainment, cultic mystery, childishness, and heathenistic worldly nonsense. We once used the word "church" to describe ourselves, but no more thank Yah. We're doing our best to break that image. It's a slow process, but we're putting the old church ways behind us.




THE IDOLATRY MUST STOP




If you profess to follow Hamachiach, then it's time you quit voluntarily feeding the anti-Christ beast. Men who want to sincerely follow Hamachiach must wean themselves from worldly governments and churches. It is the height of absurdity for a Hebrew to attend and support the very institutions which are destroying his relationship with Yah. Those who voluntarily support man-made religious church systems, by believing and teaching that they are good in any way, or that they help us, or that we need them, are still living in a dream world of deception. The ecclesia system, with it's Theocratic government and individual responsibility, is capable of freeing us from the bodage of religion. True peace and liberty cannot be found outside of Hamachiach. Hamachiach's system is the ecclesia system. Freedom awaits all those who will break away from the religious slavery of church and become a humble bondslave of Yahusha Hamachiach. We must stop idolizing men in their religious hypocrisy and let Hamachiach once and for all be our King!




So, there is really no other choice for those who would truly follow the pattern laid down for us in Yah's Word. We must do the same thing the apostles did. We must form ourselves into actual communities under the guidance of Yah's anointed and appointed leaders, called out and separated from the world, with none other than Yahusha Hamachiach as our ruler and King. In other words, ECCLESIAS!




As a whole, Hebrews have departed from the pattern laid down in the book of Acts and have built, according to their own wisdom, an artificial, phony, putrifying religious mess called "church". It's time to REVOLT against the wisdom of our religious flesh and get back to the wisdom of Yah. It's time to re-evaluate and re-examine everything about how you think the true followers of Yahusha should live. It's time for REVOLUTION against DEAD RELIGION! We are determined to change the way the world thinks about how true followers of Yahusha should live. We have been following the ecclesia pattern for over 10 years and have seen the blessings and power of Yah every step of the way. Yah does miracles for those who are willing to sacrifce ALL.

TRUE WORSHIP!!!!!

Psalm chapter 95










Today we are walking in: True Worship







Today we look to the word-WORSHIP- H7812 shachah--to bow down; prostrate oneself before superior in homage; before the Most High in worship







The Torah testifies.........……





Exodus 4:31

And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. H7812






Exodus 34:14

For thou shalt worship H7812 no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:







The prophets proclaim..................




Nehemiah 8:6

And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped H7812 the LORD with their faces to the ground.





Jeremiah 25:6

And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship H7812 them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.





The writings bear witness............



Joshua 5:14

And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, H7812 and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?






2 Chronicles 7:3

And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, H7812 and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever







True Worship of The Most High

We are going to focus on worshiping The Most High. I want you to listen carefully to why much of our so-called worship does not attract The Most High. First of all we want to note the importance of separating the means from the end. This statement is important to write down. When more worth is placed on the means than the end, then the means becomes an idol. It's like worshipping the hose instead of the water that's coming through it. The means for most of us has become our end. Number two any other worship than The Most High, is idolatry. Do you know what was Saul's failure? He worshipped, worship. Then he told The Most High how important worship was to him and he actually told The Most High that worship was more important to him than The Most High. He told The Most High that. Could you imagine telling The Most High I disobeyed you so I could use my disobedience to worship you. That's what Saul told The Most High. You told me to kill all the animals but I kept some, I disobeyed you so I could worship you with it. The Most High says are you crazy? You think that the sacrifice is more important than The Most High you are sacrificing to? He never survived his throne, he lost his kingdom. The Most High is not interested in your song if it's not to him. We sing to audiences, not to The Most High. Do you know how difficult it is to dance before the Lord with people watching? That's tough because you become people conscious. So you start wondering how does my dress look, wondering how this thing flows, am I keeping the beat? In other words, you got all this going on and you're trying to focus on The Most High and all these people are watching. How do you sing to The Most High while everybody's watching and suddenly the song becomes more important than The Most High you're singing to. The people who are listening to the song become more important than The Most High you’re singing to. So the song under the people have become an idol. When the means becomes more important than the end you have an idol and your first memory is I wonder if that was a good sound. I wonder if I did well. I wonder what people think. I mean when you finish the song, it's not I wonder how The Most High thinks, it's not I wonder how The Most High received me tonight. It is I wonder how they received me tonight. It's a tough thing. It happens even when you're teaching the Word of The Most High as a teacher. Many times I have to keep begging The Most High please don't make me say that, because I like to be liked by these people. He says if you don't say it you and I will have a private talk afterwards. I don't like The Most High's private talks because it’s always a one-way talk. You're laughing. You don't understand what it is to be in my position. It's easy to criticize people like me but you have never been in my shoes. That's why Moses had a lot of criticism from his people even his closest people, but they didn't understand what Moses went through. The Most High didn't tolerate anything from Moses. Nothing! That's why he never made it to the promised land. The Most High says you knew better. You shouldn't have cursed that rock. You’re too close to me. They could curse it and I still will take them in but not you. See it's a different relationship. The closer you get to The Most High the less leverage you have. Write it down please. Some of you want to get close to The Most High, you don't know what you're talking about. 37 years of trying to understand The Most High makes me more afraid of The Most High. Matter of fact the fear of The Most High is not just being scared of The Most High. The fear of The Most High is being aware of how dangerous it is to get close to Him. Getting close to The Most High leaves you no room for maneuvering. And you don't need no one to judge you when you are close to The Most High. The Most High does it himself. Write this down please. The Most High detests idolatry. Psalm 78 verse 58 says they angered the Lord with their high places, they aroused his jealousy with their idols. Two things about The Most High in this verse that normally is not associated with The Most High. What are they? Hatred and jealousy. These two things The Most High hates. The Most High hates for you to hate and he hates for you to be jealous. But here The Most High is expressing that he has these two experiences in his own experience when it comes to idols.Verse nine of Isaiah 44 write it down it says all who make idols are nothing and the things they treasure our worthless. 1st John 5 verse 21 says dear children keep yourselves from idols. He's not talking about the statues that you think. Some of you think of idols and all of a sudden you think about these big statues, that people are bowing down to or you know these big Buddha's or something. No, he's talking about a car that you worship, that you shine for hours but never read the Bible. He's talking about those five hours of television time and no time in prayer. He's talking about anything that becomes more worthy than The Most High is an idol. So our battle is between the Creator and the creation, that's our battle. In relationship with The Most High we have to constantly battle between keeping the priorities right. The Creator is more important than the creation. The Creator is more important than the creation, that's a tough battle. When the creation becomes more important than the Creator the result is misplaced worship. Let me tell you something and this is very very heavy but you are always worshipping. The only difficulty is identifying who you are worshipping. We are always making something more valuable all the time. When it becomes more important than The Most High you are a worshipper of whatever that thing is. That may even be a worship conference like this, it might be a song, it might be a dance, it might be an instrument, it might be a group that you're part of, it might be a dance performance or whatever. These can become more important than The Most High. Here's something you may want to remember. The greatest temptation in human experience is the elevation, the distraction by and the preoccupation with the creation more than the Creator. That's our greatest difficulty in life. I'm telling you this is not just for all of us it's for everybody. We are struggling with this. The value of all things are summed up in the manufacture of that thing. In other words, everything that exists gets its value from the one who made it. It is as valuable as the one who produced it. The value that they have in that, that's what it's worth. The source therefore is more important than the resource. Everybody said it aloud with me. The source is more important than the resource. When the resource becomes more important than the source you have an idol. Very important, when we acknowledge the source then that's when we begin to worship. Worship does not begin when you start singing. Worship does not begin when you start dancing or when you start making music on an instrument. That's not worship. True worship begins when you acknowledge the source. What is the word worship? It means first of all from our concept of worth-ship putting worth on someone. That's where the concept, the root word comes from, but it has a number of meanings in the Greek and the Hebrew language. The Hebrew word for worship actually means to esteem with worth, secondly it means to honor, thirdly it means to place the highest value on. When you place the highest value on something it's called worship. So you can put a high value on a TV show you won't miss any time. You placed high value on this TV show every week it has become now an idol. See, you can apply this list to anything. The worship means to bow down. To bow down means to bend yourself right? Okay so worship means you bend yourself towards something. You bend yourself toward your car instead of going to service. You've got to clean your car today so you bend your life toward the car. See that's why it's called bowing. You can bend yourself toward how good you sound rather than bend yourself to The Most High, who you sing it to. So now the song has become the idol that you worship, not The Most High that you plan to sing to. Whatever you bend yourself to, you are worshipping. Another meaning of the word is to acknowledge in all things. The word worship means to acknowledge in all things. Please write this one down. This is the center of worship, to acknowledge in all things. The next concept the word worship is the word perpetual gratitude. What is worship? Perpetual gratitude. How long is perpetual? All the time, constantly, everywhere, every time, all the time. You wonder why David says bless The Lord oh my soul and his praise shall continually be within my mouth?. Now the only way for that to be possible is for something else to cause it. You and I are struggling with praising The Most High every day. We even find a certain day that focus on him. We have some problems. We call that, you know, worship. According to scripture the weekly day to gather before the Most High is on Saturday. What did David discover that made him praise the Lord continually? See that's the issue. The word worship also means to prostate yourself. It also means to mingle. It's a deep word. When you worship your TV, you mingling with it. Whatever you worship, you like to do it in quietness. You know they require focus. Some people got secret sins that are idols and when they do that sin, they don't want nobody around. Am I talking to anybody here? Private deep intermingling, it's worship. Maybe the reality is you can't worship corporately. Maybe the reality is you can praise corporately. The best way to describe worship is like this. When a husband and a wife are apart in a small distance and the husband says, honey you are beautiful, you are lovely, you are glorious, you are kind, you are wonderful. Now what is he doing to her? Praising her. See but he’s far away, so praise is a sign that you aren’t close yet. The louder your praise is, is proof that you're still farther away than you think. Worship means to submit yourself to the person. The highest level of praise is the word tehila in Hebrew and it actually means spirit song. Now tehila is not a song you sing to him. Tehila is the song that he begins to sing with you, it's a spirit song. Barach is always right before tehila in the ascending praise. There are seven levels and the sixth level is Barach in Hebrew and it means to be quiet. Hallel is noise, hallel means to jump around wildly and make noise. Shabach means to shout. All those are lower levels. The higher you get, the quieter you get because you're going into the chamber. Barach is the last one before the song tehila and it means to be quiet. That means he's about to make love, you don't want to talk. David says, the Lord is in his holy temple. In other words, all the activity before that point was noisy and loud trying to get him there. When he arises and says now shut up. Come on, let the earth keep silent. When he shows up, he comes for intimacy. When we have a loud musical and worship experience, we think we had a big time. You can't quite go out dancing if there's a chamber experience. You go out pregnant. You can never get pregnant with The Most High's presence in the outer courts. You flirt with The Most High out there. Praise describes The Most High. Worship is to submit to The Most High. Intimacy. What does it mean to worship? To ascribe credit of all things to. It is not describe. Describe is praise. Ascribe is worship. When you describe someone, you talk about them. When you ascribe you always have to use the word too afterwards. I just said something so deep you got to hear it again. When you use the word describe you cannot use the word too afterwards but when you use the word ascribe you have to use the word too and that's where worship begins. Worship begins when you finally figure out everything is His. Ascribe is the key to understanding worship because when you ascribe to someone you are giving them credit. When you describe someone you are telling them how they look or how they are. Great is the Lord... That's not worship that's description. Oh Lord you are beautiful. That is not worship, that's description. The Lord is powerful, that's not worship yet, that's description. Thou are awesome, thou art worthy. No, no that is still praise. You're describing Him. Write this down please. Praise is what we do but worship is what The Most High receives and allows and accepts. If you get this you'll understand humility. Let me tell you what The Most High hates the most. The Most High hates idols. Anyone who you ascribe anything on earth to and they receive it, allow it and accept it, they are competing with The Most High. They are in danger immediately. I hope you hear me. If someone says you sing well, you better be careful how you respond. The Most High made Nebuchadnezzar king. The Most High told him I will bless your kingdom but Nebuchadnezzar began to think it was him. You know The Most High was fine with him until he started thinking, I am The Most High. The Most High says now you see I was being so nice with you let me tell you something, follow me carefully please. It's okay for people to praise you but don't receive it, don't accept it. Keep passing it on. That is called worship. You are ascribing your success to someone else. If you study Yahusha who was the most perfect human that ever lived on earth, what made him so distinctive was these statements. I can only do what I see my father do. I only speak the words I hear my father say. I only can do the work that my father does. He kept on transferring the credit to The Most High and that protected him and kept him in power. The power flow is tied to credit transfer. The danger of success is you receiving the credit and allowing others to give it to you and accepting it as if you deserve it. You are now in trouble with The Most High because now the people are worshipping you. Now don't get me wrong you should, Yahusha praised a lot of people he praised the Centurion. He praised a lot of people but you keep transferring it. You know what made David successful with Goliath? These words, you come to me with a sword and a shield and a spear but I come to you not in my expertise with a sling. See you could be a good singer, an expert on the piano, but you better be careful when you start talking. I don't come to you with a sling but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Israel. The Most High says that's what I want to hear son. I'm going to take care of this. I'm going to fix this sling good. Write this down please. Worship is only possible through the knowledge of the one being worshipped. You cannot worship beyond what you know about the person, your worship is limited to your knowledge of the person. I believe that's why we end up worshipping things. We know our talent real good but we don't know The Most High who gave it to us real good, so we worship what we know. You cannot worship what you don't know, so whatever you know you worship. The reason why The Most High keeps making you go through experiences so that you could have material to worship Him with. The Most High will bring you out of the fire because he wants you to know he's a fire surviving The Most High. So when you come out of the fire, you have something to say that's new about him. Again that's worship. You ascribe to him, my The Most High is inflammable. How did you know that? I've been through the fire. See he allows you to go through the difficulty to introduce himself to you in a new way again and every area he takes, it's a new introduction of The Most High. So now you see if you haven’t had an experience with The Most High, you can't worship Him. People say you don't know what I've been through so you don't know why I'm singing or dancing. That's important. When The Most High began to talk to an individual, he always brought up their past. Every time he rebuked them he'd say, don't you remember what I did? I brought you out of Egypt, I provide the food for you, I fed you in the desert, I gave you clothes, I gave you water out the rock. I gave you food from heaven. He said in other words, he began to say, look you've got enough material to keep ascribing the credit to me. There's a scripture in the Bible that you should even be singing. The scripture goes like this, sing to the Lord a new song. That is not a song, that is a command. The way you got what they call the song for the Lord is from experience. So if you had no experience with The Most High you couldn't sing to the Lord a new song. So they kept singing old songs. So you can tell where people are at by the songs they're singing. So if you sing a sixteenth-century song, which are great songs don't get me wrong, but if that's all the songs you are singing, that's the only experience you had. David says Sing the Lord a new song. Go get some new experiences, go through some more hell. Now that's an interesting request. Don’t sing someone else's song. You are supposed to sing to him based on what you just came out of. You don't need no worship leaders to get anything started. Worship is only possible based on the knowledge of the one you are worshiping. You cannot call great The Most High if he had never showed his greatness to you.

WILDERNESS HUNGER AND HEAVENLY MANNA PART 3!!!!!

Deuteronomy chapter 8







Today we are walking in: Wilderness Hunger And Heavenly Manna Part 3!!!!







Today we look to the word-PROVE- H5254 nacah-- to test, try, prove, tempt, assay, put to the proof or test










The Torah testifies.....................






Exodus 16:4




Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove H5254 them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.












The prophets proclaim..................






Daniel 1:12




Prove H5254 thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.












The writings bear witness.............






Judges 6:39





And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, H5254 I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.







3. But Yah has to prove by the wilderness, not only the truth and reality of his work upon the heart, but whether we will keep his commandments or not. It is not what we talk that Yah looks to, but what we do. "The tongue," says James, "is a little member, and boasts great things." To talk is easy enough, but to do is another matter. Talking brings with it no sacrifices, no self-denial, no crucifixion of the flesh, no mortification of the whole body of sin, no putting off of the old man, no putting on of the new. A man may talk and drink, talk and cheat, talk and lie, talk and live in all manner of unYahliness. But it is walking not talking, praying not prating, doing not daring, obeying not saying, which manifest whose we are, and whom we serve.




But what are we to understand by keeping Yah's commandments? It does not mean, I believe, as interpreted by the rule and spirit of the gospel, keeping the moral law, that is, the law of Moses in the ten commandments; but the preceptive part of Yah's word, as revealed and laid down in the New Testament, where everything that Yah would have us to do, and everything that Yah would have us not to do, are written as with a ray of divine light. It embraces, therefore, every gospel precept, every New Testament command and direction, in a word, everything which proceeds from the mouth of Yah as given by him in the last revelation of his own mind and will, as the guiding rule of our Hebrew obedience. For you will observe that this is the test laid down in our text, "whether we will keep Yah's commandments or not." And where are those commandments laid down in all their clearness and plenitude but in the New Testament.




Is he not our Master, whom we serve in Yahly fear and love, whose approbation we desire to win, whose favor we count better than life, and in the enjoyment of whose love we wish to live and die? Now with all the perplexity, doubt, or fear which may encompass your mind, through the worrying, distracting power and influence of sin, HaSatan, and self; if you possess the fear of Yah, there will be that honesty, integrity, uprightness, and sincerity wrought in your soul by a divine power, whereby you can say before Yah, "Most High, I desire to know your will and do it. However I come short, however I fail or fall, my desire is to be found walking in your ways and doing those things which are pleasing in your sight."




But HOW does the wilderness prove how far we are willing to do the things which are pleasing in Yah's sight, and how far we are willing to keep his commandments or not? Thus. Its trials and temptations, its sorrows and afflictions, its perplexities and the difficulties which spring from them, lay bare the real state of our hearts, and as they discover to us the weakness and wickedness of the flesh, so they also bring to light any good thing which Yah by his grace may have wrought in our soul. When we are in a smooth and easy path, flesh and spirit are alike hidden from view. Like the sea in a calm, the flesh is smoothed into smiles, and what it can be in a storm is hidden in the still yet deep water. Thus we know not what the flesh really is, until worked up into a storm by the winds of temptation. Then its waves roll and it casts up mire and dirt; and then we also know the mighty voice which can say to these winds and waves, "Peace, be still." It is thus that the strength of sin and the strength of grace are brought out, and we learn which is stronger, grace or sin, the power of the flesh or the power of the Spirit, the battlings of self or the victories of Hamachiach.




4. But to pass on. The Holy Spirit by the mouth of Moses goes on to unfold other reasons of these wilderness dealings, setting before us both sides of the question, that we may well ponder the path of our feet. The next point then which we have to consider is Yah's "allowing us to hunger." This, we know, was highly characteristic of the wilderness. No food naturally grew there. All the food supplied during those forty years was food from heaven miraculously supplied. But before that miraculous supply came, they were sharply hunger-bitten. Scarcely had they got into the wilderness before hunger pangs fell upon them, and they cried out, "Would to Yah we had died by the hand of the Most High in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger!" (Exodus 16:3.) They were therefore allowed to hunger that they might have a sharp though not long taste, of one of the severest of bodily pangs and human sufferings.




But this was typically instructive, and throws a broad light upon the teachings and dealings of Yah with the souls of his people in the wilderness now. He allows us to hunger. We cannot feed upon husks. Worldly things cannot satisfy the immortal desires of a newborn soul. We must have divine food; we must have heavenly realities. Whatever I am, whatever men may think I am, I feel this one thing, that I must have heavenly realities. I cannot do with shadowy appearances, with make-believes and make-do's in faith. I may have but little, but let that little be real, for all else is a mockery and a delusion. Let it be the pure work of Yah upon my soul; let it be the breathings of his Spirit into my heart; let it be the communication of his life and the visitations of his favor to preserve my spirit. I don't want much; I don't seek great things; but I seek real things. I want a faith to live and die by; I want something to save and sanctify, bless and comfort my soul for time and eternity. I have to die; I have to face eternity. My conscience registers many sins committed against a holy Yah. I cannot stand before him under the weight of these sins as thus manifested to my conscience. How, then, under the weight of all my sins, known and unknown, seen and unseen?




Nothing, therefore, but the manifested mercy, goodness, and love of Yah can speak any real comfort to my soul, can bear me up under any trial, support me under any affliction, comfort my heart when cast down, and speak a peace to my inward spirit which the world cannot give nor take away. Therefore I want realities. And this makes me teach them to you, and insist upon them both earnestly and continually. And I believe I have a witness in the consciences of those who fear Yah, that I am right in so doing, for Yah teaches all his people, be they strong and well established in the faith; or weak and feeble, the same lesson—he makes them all alike want realities. And the way which he teaches them to want realities is by allowing them to hunger.




Is not hunger a real thing? You who can always find plenty of food in the cupboard and plenty of money in the purse to go to market with, or who from various causes have but a weak and feeble appetite, perhaps scarcely for a day in your life know what real hunger is. But hunger is a reality, and you might get into circumstances to find it so. Say, for instance, you were on board a ship when provisions ran short, or on a long journey when food could not be readily obtained, or were so reduced in circumstances that you had no money to buy it, you would find hunger a reality.




So it is in spiritual matters. Hunger is a reality. And have you not sometime found it to be a reality? "As the deer pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O Yah." Is there reality in that panting? We read of the wanderers in the wilderness—"Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them." (Psalm 107:5.) Is there reality in that hunger and thirst, or the fainting of their soul in the very pangs of famine? "My soul thirsts after Yah, after the living Yah." Is there reality in that? If you say "No" it is to deny at one and the same moment, and in one and the same breath, that hunger is a real feeling.




Sometimes you can hardly get beyond the sigh, the cry, the longing desire, the hungering and thirsting after righteousness; but it is a reality, and a divine reality too, for it is not nature, but grace, which produces it. And Yah allows you to hunger that you may know hunger to be a reality. If you could feed upon husks, why need you hunger? If you could, as men often bid you, take Yah at his mere word, believe the mere promises, rest upon the mere doctrines, claim Yah to be your Father, and walk in all the arrogance of the children of pride—why need you hunger? What do these men know about either hunger or thirst? What do they know of David's feelings or David's cry? "My eyes fail for your word, saying, When will you comfort me?" Why need their eyes fail or their soul faint for Yah's salvation when they have it all locked up in the cupboard? Locked up, do I say? No! for their cupboard has neither lock nor key, but is open all the day long to all comers.




But it is because you cannot take blessings and favors Yah does not give; it is because your heart cries out for heavenly food; it is because you know there is a reality in the things of Yah, and that if Yah withholds them you cannot get them, that you cannot do their biddings, and steal their stealings. Yes, it is your hunger which teaches you what real food is. Perhaps you have come here this morning hungering. As you walked along there might have been raised up a secret cry in your soul, "Most High, give me something this morning. I need a word from you. It is a long time since you were pleased to speak to my soul. I am in trouble. My soul is deeply tried. I need something from yourself." Here is the hunger of which I am speaking and on which I am insisting.




Now Yah teaches you by the wilderness to feel this hunger—it is his work. The emptying us of self is his; the sifting of our souls in the sieve is his; the bringing down of our proud heart is his; the wounding of our consciences is his; the stripping of all our own goodness, wisdom, strength, and righteousness is his; the feeling of hunger then which springs from these dealings of Yah with our hearts is his. We know that, alike in nature and grace, hunger is not food, but it is next door to it. We know that a sharp appetite is not good food, or a loaf of bread; but what is good food or the best of bread if there is no appetite for it? It is a blessed preparation for a feast, if it is not the feast itself. For what is a feast to a man who has no appetite for it? What the smell of roast beef is to a sickly invalid—a subject of loathing not of longing, quenching the appetite rather than sharpening it.




5. But what other dealings of Yah with them in the wilderness does Moses bid them remember? The FOOD with which he supplied their hunger—"He fed them with manna, which they knew not, neither did their fathers know." Here was a provision. What a miracle, and what an undeniable miracle. How stupid, to say the least, must infidelity be to deny a miracle which was witnessed every day by a million people. Could you deceive a million of people for forty years? Could manna fall every day except the Sabbath for forty years and feed a people amounting to more than a million, and all those people be deceived in their eyes, in their hands, and in their taste? Why, the very little children would rise up and testify when they saw their mothers bring home the manna which they gathered every morning, that it had fallen during the night from heaven.




But as a standing and permanent evidence of the reality of the manna, was not a pot of it laid up before the Most High by the side of the ark to be kept for all generations, not only to bear witness to the miracle but to show what the manna was in itself as a visible substance? I know that there are great difficulties in belief, but I am sure that there are greater difficulties in unbelief. If to believe Yah's word is a difficulty, and to give full credence to the miracle of the manna seems at times to try our faith, what a much greater difficulty there is in disbelieving a circumstance which was evidenced by such undoubted proofs. If it had fallen once or twice, or in a very small quantity, there might have been more room for question; but to fall every day for forty years together and in such a quantity as to feed more than a million people—this seems to afford a whole army of proof against infidelity and all its host. Besides which, if once we admit a forty years' wandering in the wilderness, how could that vast multitude have been sustained in it except by a miraculous supply of food from heaven, for earth could not supply it in a waste, howling wilderness? The unbelieving Hebrews in our Most High's time believed what our modern infidels dispute and deny—"Our fathers ate manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat." (John 6:31.)







It was then food unknown by any, until Yah sent it. The fathers of those who daily ate it did not know it; but for their descendants Yah wrought a special miracle, and gave them bread from heaven—typical, as you know, of the true bread which Yah gives to his family, the flesh of his dear Son, as our Most High opened up the subject in those remarkable words—"Then Yahusha said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the true bread of Yah is he who comes down from heaven, and gives life unto the world." (John 6:32, 33.)




6. Now what was Yah's object in thus sending them manna from heaven? He could if he had pleased have sent them quails every morning; or created bread, as our Most High created it when he fed the seven thousand. He might have sent them flocks and herds innumerable. But such was not his will. He was determined to feed them by sending them a daily portion of manna from the skies, that they might learn this lesson, that "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Most High, does man live."




This, then, is the grand lesson, dear friends, which you and I have to learn in our wilderness journey—that man does not live by bread alone, that is, by those providential supplies which relieve our natural wants. Thanks be to Yah for any bread that he gives us in his kind and bountiful providence. An honest living is a great mercy. To be enabled by the labor of our hands or by the labor of our brain to maintain our families and bring them up in a degree of comfort, if not abundance, is a great blessing.




But Yah has determined that his people shall not live by bread alone. They shall be separated from the mass of men who live in this carnal way only; who have no care beyond earthly possessions, and the sum of whose thoughts and desires is, what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and with what they shall be clothed; who never look beyond the purse, the business, the daily occupation, the safe return, the profitable investment, and how to provide for themselves and their families. Yah has planted in the bosom of his people a higher life, a nobler principle, a more blessed appetite than to live upon bread alone.




We bless him for his providence, but we love him for his grace. We thank him for daily food and clothing, but these mercies are but for time, perishing in their very use, and he has provided us with that which is for eternity.




What then does he mean the soul to live upon? "Upon every word that proceeds out of his mouth." But where do we find these words that proceed out of the mouth of Yah? In the Scriptures, which is the food of the Ekklesia, and especially in Scripture as applied to the heart, in the words that Yah is pleased to drop into the soul by a divine power, which we receive from his gracious mouth, and lay hold of with a believing hand. That is the food and nutriment of our soul—the truth of Yah applied to our heart and made life and spirit to our souls by his own teaching and testimony.




And see how large and ample the supply is. Look through the whole compass of Yah's revealed word, and see in it what a store there is of provision laid up for the Ekklesia of Yah. How this should both stimulate and encourage us to search the Scriptures as for hidden treasure, to read them constantly, to meditate upon them, to seek to enter into the mind of Yah as revealed in them, and thus to find them to be the food of our soul. If we were fully persuaded that every word of the Scripture came out of Yah's mouth, and was meant to feed our soul, how much more we should prize it, read, and study it.




But how does the wilderness teach Yah's people this lesson? Do not trials and temptations make Yah's word exceedingly precious? Yah's book is written for Yah's people; and they are "an afflicted and poor people." When we are at ease, there is nothing in the word of Yah for us except indeed it be sharp rebukes and cutting reproofs. But directly we get into trial and affliction, there is something in the word of Yah at once sweet and savory, suitable and encouraging.




Thanks then be to Yah if we know anything of living upon Yah's word. How the prophet knew this—"Your words were found and I ate them; and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." But through what scenes of temptation and sorrow did he pass to find the word of Yah to be the joy of his heart. "Why," he cried, "is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed?" and this almost in the same breath with eating the word. (Jer. 15:16-18.)




By "the word," we may understand also Yahusha' Person, his work, his blood, his righteousness, his dying love, his sweet promises, his holy precepts, his kind invitations, and what he is as the Hamachiach of Yah. What food there is in all this to the soul. Paul could say, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of Yah, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Gal. 2:20.) And how blessedly did the Most High open up the whole mystery of the manna in the wilderness in those striking words—"As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father—so he who eats me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate manna, and died—he who eats of this bread shall live forever." (John 6:57, 58.)




This then is the effect, and these are some of the benefits and blessing of a wilderness pilgrimage. We learn it in the lessons which I have endeavored to unfold. Can you say, looking up to Yah with a honest heart, that you have learned any of these lessons in the days of your pilgrimage?—learned humility, learned the trial of faith, learned the reality of a hungering spirit, and learned the blessedness of living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Most High? Now if you can look back through a pilgrimage, be it long or short, and say, "Ah, if I have learned but little, I have learned that which has humbled me before Yah; if I have learned but little, I have had my faith tried to the core; if I have learned but little, I have learned to hunger and thirst after a precious Hamachiach; if I have learned but little, I have now and then tasted the sweetness of heavenly food; and if I do know but little, I still feel that my life hangs upon every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Most High." Then you can look back and remember all the way that Yah has led you these years, be they many or few, in the wilderness; and now that you come to look back upon it, you can see that goodness and mercy have hitherto followed you. Why then should you doubt that you shall dwell in the house of Yah forever?

WILDERNESS HUNGER AND HEAVENLY MANNA PART 2!!!!

Deuteronomy chapter 8







Today we are walking in: Wilderness Hunger And Heavenly Manna Part 2!!!










Today we look to the word-HUMBLE- H6031 anah' --to afflict, oppress, humble, be afflicted, be bowed down









The Torah testifies.....................




Deuteronomy 8:2




And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble H6031 thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.









The prophets proclaim..................



Isaiah 2:11




The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.









The writings bear witness.............



Proverbs 16:19




Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.




II. But I will now pass on to consider the BENEFITS and BLESSINGS which sprang out of their wandering in the wilderness, and which they were to remember as much as the wanderings themselves.




Though their wandering so many years in the wilderness was a punishment for their sins, and especially for that sin of unbelief and rebellion which they manifested on the return of the spies, when they murmured against Moses and Aaron, crying out, "Would Yah that we had died in the land of Egypt," and actually proposed to choose a leader and return, yet Yah took advantage, so to speak, of their sins and their rebellion to bring about the purposes of his own good pleasure. He did not create their sins; he was not the author of their rebellion; he did not foster their unbelief, for Yah cannot be the author of sin; and yet he could take occasion by their very sin to work out his own purposes.




We cannot have a more striking instance of this than the crucifixion of our dear Redeemer, in which Yah worked out his purposes by the hands of unYahly men. How plain is Peter's testimony—"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of Yah, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." (Acts 2:23.) It was by "the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of Yah that Yahusha was delivered," or as the word means, "given up" out of the hands of Yah into theirs; but it was wicked hands which took him, crucified, and slew him. Yah's determinate counsel and foreknowledge did not make their hands wicked; and yet their wicked hands brought about his holy purposes.




So it was with the children of Israel. It was their wickedness which was the cause of their long wanderings; and yet these very wanderings carried out Yah's purposes, and what is more, were overruled for their good. So it is with us in this wilderness world, of which that "great and terrible wilderness" was a representation. Yah had a purpose in permitting us to be what we are, to have been what we have been, and to have done what we have done. And what that purpose was, is beautifully and blessedly opened in our text. Let us see if we can trace out some of these designs of Yah, as laid open in the words before us; and let us bear in mind that they are as applicable to us now as they were to the children of Israel—for "whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."




1. The first purpose is to HUMBLE us. Our heart, at least mine, is desperately proud; and if there be a sin which Yah hates more than another, and more sets himself against, it is the sin of pride. Though some men are more tempted, perhaps, to that sin than others, and, like a weed upon a ash-heap, it may grow more profusely in some soils, especially when well fertilized by rank and riches, praise and flattery, our own ignorance, and the ignorance of others, yet all inherit it alike from their fallen ancestor, who got it from HaSatan, that "king over all the children of pride." Those, perhaps, who think they possess the least pride, and view themselves with wonderful self-admiration among the humblest of mortals, may have as much or more pride, than those who feel and confess it, only rather more deeply hid and buried more out of sight in the dark recesses of their carnal mind. As Yah then sees all hearts, and knows every movement of pride, whether we see it or not, his purpose is to humble us.




And if we take a review of all his dealings with us, we shall see that this is the end which he has ever had in view; for until that is done we may well say that nothing is done.




But how did Yah humble the children of Israel? By placing them in circumstances which manifested their real character. Yah, as I said before, does not put his hand to wickedness—Yah forbid! Yah does not stir up by his Spirit evil in a man's heart; but he finds it there. If a bee stings you, if a dog bites you, if you tread upon a serpent, and it turns round and fastens his poison fangs into your ankle, was it any act of yours which put venom into the wasp, sharp teeth into the dog, or poison into the snake? Was it not all there before? It was drawn forth, but there it was; and the occasion only drew it out. So if there be in the heart of man pride, as there is, and circumstances occur to draw it out; or if there be in men's hearts rebellion, and circumstances draw forth that rebellion; or if there be in man's heart unbelief and infidelity, and occasions arise to draw them forth, and those occasions occur in the providence of Yah, Yah does not create that pride, that rebellion, that unbelief, that infidelity, nor does he stir it up instrumentally; but he allows it to manifest itself for this special purpose, to humble the individual in whom the sin thus appears.




Mark my words—I am not justifying any kind of sin in thought, word, or deed. Sin, in my eyes, is exceedingly sinful. I would desire never to sin again. I would, if I could, live perfectly holy. I would not have a sinful thought, I would not speak a sinful word, and still less would I commit any sinful action. And yet I find sin working in my mind sometimes all day long. Now what do I learn by this? Humility. But if truly humbled I cannot raise my hand against Yah; I cannot lift up a rebellious tongue against him and say, "Why have you made me thus?" for were I to do so I should have against me the verdict of my own conscience. I must fall down, then, humbly and meekly before him; I must put my mouth in the dust; I must acknowledge I am vile, because I see his greatness, majesty, holiness, purity, and perfections, and see and feel, as contrasted with them, my own exceeding sinfulness before him. This, therefore, teaches me humility; at least if I don't get humility in this way, I don't know how it is to be got.




Now when I look back upon a long life of profession, how many things do I see—though with all my sins and follies, slips and falls, I hope the Most High has kept me from bringing any open reproach upon his name and cause, and Yah keep me to the end, for it would be a dreadful thing for me after my long and well-known profession to bring disgrace upon the truth in my last days, yet my conscience testifies of many things I have thought, said, and done, which grieve my soul almost every day in the recollection of them, and make me hang my head before Yah, put my mouth in the dust, and confess my sins unto him.




Nor do I believe that I am singular in this feeling, for I am well persuaded that there is not a single person in this congregation who possesses the fear of Yah in a tender conscience who can look back through a life, and especially a long life of profession, without many cutting reflections, many painful reminiscences, and many distressing recollections that humble him in the very dust before Yah. At least I have no communion, and wish to have none, with any but those whom Yah humbles. Men of broken hearts, contrite spirits, and tender consciences I would desire to have for my companions, if I have any.





2. But Yah had other purposes and other ends to accomplish besides humbling. He had "to PROVE them, to know what was in their heart, whether they would keep his commandments or not."




Every man has to be proved, and every man's religion has to be proved; for every man's work is to be tried with fire; and though the trial may be delayed—though the proof may not yet seem going on, yet if you make a profession, sooner or later the trial will come, and it will be made manifest in the fires of trial and temptation. Now the wilderness was meant to prove the children of Israel. They made great boasting at Mount Sinai. All that Yah bade them observe to do, they said that they would observe and do; and yet, when Moses tarried in the mount a little beyond their expectation, they made a golden calf. So much for the spirit of 'free will'; so much for the resolve of the creature to keep Yah's commands.




Now Yah is determined to prove what is in a man's heart, and whether he will keep his commandments or not. It is not for the purpose of proving it to himself, for Yah knows all things, but of proving it to us.




Where, for instance, he plants his fear, he will prove that fear. Circumstances will arise, various things will occur in business, in the family, in a man's situation, public or private, whereby it will be ascertained whether he is possessed of the fear of Yah or not. He may for a time carry on his crafty practices; he may wear a mask and may deceive himself and deceive others; but sooner or later, if the fear of Yah be not in his soul, if he be not a possessor of heavenly grace, and Yah has not wrought anything in his heart by his own divine power and influence, he will prove reprobate silver; he will not stand the test; his religion will be burnt up in the flame, and he himself be cast out as worthless dross. He may go on for many years, and yet the end will prove sooner or later what the man is, and what his profession is worth.




But the same fiery trial will also prove what a man has of the life of Yah in his soul. For though, through the power of temptation, he may often reel and stagger to and fro, and be at his wits' end, yet Yah will deliver him out of all his temptations, and manifest in him the power of his grace.




It is a day of great profession, splendid pretensions, loud talking, presumptuous boasting, and, as men think, strong faith. I do not think so myself, but just the contrary, for it seems to me to be a day of small things with the very best, and a day of no things at all with the most. But Yah best knows what the day really is. He sees all hearts, searches all thoughts. Nothing that we are or have is hidden before the eyes of him with whom we have to do; and it is to be greatly feared that much of this strong faith will be proved to be presumption, many of these boasting claims to be downright arrogance, and much of this loud talk to be that of "the prating fool," against whom, twice in one chapter, Yah has recorded this awful sentence, "that he shall fall." One grain of Yahly fear, one sigh and cry of a broken heart, one longing look of living faith, one tender feeling of love to the Most High from a glimpse of his beauty and blessedness, are worth all this loud talk of which the wise man truly says, it "tends only to poverty."

WILDERNESS HUNGER AND HEAVENLY MANNA

Deuteronomy chapter 8







Today we are walking in: Wilderness Hummer And Heavenly Manna







WILDERNESS








Today we look to the word-WILDERNESS-H4057 midbar--wilderness pasture; uninhabited land; a pasture (i.e. open field, whither cattle are driven)--an uninhabited plain fit for feeding flocks, not a desert--a pasture













The Torah testifies...............




Numbers 9:1




And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness H4057 of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,











The prophets proclaim..................






Jeremiah 31:2




Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; H4057 even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.










The writings bear witness...........................






Joshua 1:4




From the wilderness H4057 and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.







Wilderness Hunger and Heavenly Manna




"And you shall remember all the way which the Most High your Yah led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. And he humbled you, and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Most High, does man live." Deuteronomy 8:2-3




The book of Deuteronomy has been sometimes called the "Old Testament Gospel;" and with some reason, for it contains, perhaps, more gospel doctrines, at least more clearly expressed and more fully developed than any other book of the Pentateuch. It is true that in the latter part of the book of Exodus and throughout Leviticus we have, under type and figure, much blessed gospel preached; but the whole is deeply veiled by ceremonial rites, of which the spiritual meaning could not be fully understood until they were fulfilled by the sacrifice and blood shedding of our gracious Most High.




The book of Deuteronomy was, so to speak, the legacy which Moses left to the people of Israel before he resigned his commission and his breath, and in this respect it somewhat resembles the last speeches which our Most High made to his disciples, and of which they themselves bore this testimony, "At last you are speaking plainly and not in parables." (John 16:29.) It is filled, therefore, with holy instruction; and, while it abounds in promises, is replete with most powerful exhortations, mingled and thoroughly seasoned with earnest warnings, expostulations, reproofs, and directions; the whole forming what I may perhaps call a most blessed spiritual compound, precisely adapted to the state and case of the children of Israel, then upon the edge of the wilderness and upon the eve of entering into the promised land. The warm, tender, affectionate, fatherly, and mellow tone which pervades the whole book carries with it its own evidence that it was the voice of the man of Yah about to yield up his parting breath; and yet the earnestness, vigor, and power shining through the whole show that "his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated." It is indeed a book which demands and would amply repay our earnest and prayerful study; for it is as full of instruction, encouragement, and warning to us, as it was to the children of Israel to whom it was first delivered.




I shall not, however, elaborate any further upon the character of the book of Deuteronomy, but come at once to our text, in which Moses seems to sum up the dealings of Yah with the children of Israel in the wilderness, and the fruits which it was the intention of Yah that they should reap from them. He calls upon them, therefore, to look back and remember all the way which the Most High their Yah had led them forty years in the wilderness; nor would this retrospect be unprofitable if they could understand and bear in mind the reasons why Yah had thus dealt with them for so many years; that he had a certain object to effect thereby, and that this object was to humble them, to test them, and to know what was in their heart, whether they would keep his commandments or not. He tells them further that Yah allowed them to hunger, and fed them with manna, a food which neither they nor their fathers knew before them, and for this express purpose, that they might know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Most High, does man live.




I have thus in a few simple words outlined the subject before us, and now let us see whether, by Yah's help and blessing, we may be able to gather up something this evening for our personal instruction, edification, and encouragement; something which may communicate that spiritual, solid, and abiding profit without which all preaching falls to the ground like water spilt. I shall, therefore, view the subject as having a particular and personal bearing upon our own Hebrew experience; and, to facilitate clearness in treating it both for my own sake and yours, shall divide it mainly into two leading branches.




First, the injunction which our text contains, of remembering all the way which the Most High our Yah has led us in the wilderness.




Secondly, the benefits and blessings which spring out of the Most High's thus dealing with us, and which it is his revealed will and intention by means of them to communicate to us.






I. The INJUNCTION which our text contains, of remembering all the way which the Most High our Yah has led us in the wilderness. "Better is the end of a thing," says the wise man, "than the beginning thereof." (Eccl. 7:8.) This is often true in natural things, but invariably so in divine. Rarely at first can we foresee what will be the outcome of any matter which we take in hand. We may begin it with much hope, and find in the end, those hopes sadly disappointed. We may begin it with much fear, and find from the outcome, those fears utterly groundless. Whatever we take in hand it is very rare that our expectations are fully carried out, for we have again and again to learn that "man's heart devises his way but the Most High directs his steps;" and that there are many devices in a man's heart, nevertheless the counsel of the Most High, that and that only, shall stand.




But so far as we are among the family of Yah, and as such are under especial guidance and divine teaching and leading, whether our first expectations are accomplished or not, the end stamps wisdom and goodness upon all the dealings of Yah with us both in providence and in grace. However chequered his path has been; however his purposes have been broken off, even the thoughts of his heart; however when he looked for good, then evil came unto him, and when he waited for light there came darkness; whatever bitter things Yah seemed to write against him when he made him to realize the sins of his youth, yet sooner or later every child of Yah will be able to say, "O how great is your goodness which you have laid up for those who fear you;" and this will embolden him to add, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, as they have already followed me, all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Most High forever."




Thus it is good sometimes at the end, it may be, of a long profession; and there are those here who have made a long profession—I myself have professed, and I hope possessed, the fear of Yah for nearly forty years; it is good, I say, for such sometimes to look back through the long vista of many years, and see how the Most High has dealt with us, both in providence and in grace; yes, it is good to take a solemn review of what marks we can find of his favor, what testimonies of his teaching, what Ebenezers we may set up at various points in this path, as blessed memorials of his gracious and merciful help. We are, therefore, bidden in our text to remember all the way.




A. Now if this be so, the first point to fix our eyes upon is the BEGINNING of the way—the starting point. I have long contended for a good beginning; for I know well that where there is a good beginning there will be a good ending; and there will often be a satisfactory middle. But what do I mean by "a good beginning?" I mean for Yah to begin with us, and not for us to begin with Yah. By a good beginning, then, I mean a marked epoch in our life—what I have called in one of my early sermons "a beginning felt"—looking back upon which we can more or less distinctly trace the hand of Yah to have been made manifest in a communication of grace to our souls. We may be tried as to the reality of the work; and I am sometimes tried to this day whether I have a single grain of grace in my heart. But I have never doubted the time when, nor the circumstances under which it began, nor what my feelings were under the first teachings of the blessed Spirit in my heart; and I have come to this decision in my own mind, if that is wrong then all is wrong; if that be right then all is right. If I began with Yah then Yah may leave me to end with myself; but if Yah began with me independent of any will, inclination, power, or action of my own, in a way of sovereign grace, by the implantation of his fear in my heart and the communication of divine life to my soul—if Yah himself thus began a good work in me, I have his certain promise that he will perform and complete it until the day of Yahusha Hamachiach. (Phil. 1:6.) Upon this we sometimes hang amid doubt, fear, and perplexity; we hang, I say, upon Yah's work upon our heart as begun by himself.




We have then to remember this, and this is not very difficult, for the first work upon our conscience is sometimes as fresh in our minds as if it occurred yesterday. People tell me sometimes that I have a strong memory, but whether our memory be strong or weak, it is astonishing what an impression divine realities make upon our mind in their first communication. Often, too, Yah's dealings with us in providence were as marked as his dealings with us in grace. Do you think that Paul ever forgot his journey to Damascus, Matthew his sitting at the receipt of custom, Nathanael his kneeling under the fig tree, Zacchaeus his climbing up into a sycamore tree, or Peter and Andrew casting their net into the sea? Similarly with us. The providential circumstances under which the work of grace was commenced; the leadings of Yah to place us in a certain position, bring us into a certain state, and open up a certain path in which he fixed our feet, that he might prepare us for the communication of his grace, are usually so marked that they are fixed indelibly in our mind and memory.




And besides such general leadings, I have often observed—it was my own case, and I have seen it in others—some very marked intervention of Yah in providence, such as a change of abode, a bringing a peculiar affliction on body or mind, an opening up of some unexpected circumstance, which, if not grace, prepared for grace; and though had it been nothing but temporal and natural, would have died in the very birth, yet it so worked in the providence of Yah with his grace that, like links in a chain, the two were bound together. Thus the first link was a link in providence, say, for instance, some very deep and painful trial which seemed to cut the very heart-strings of life. Many perhaps have had deeper trials than we; but they only had with it the sorrow of the world which works death; but we had, we hope, with it the grace of life working with the trial, over-ruling it, and turning it into a gracious channel. Grace softened the heart; and though this very softening made the trial more deeply felt, yet it humbled and meekened the soul under it.




As then we lay hold of this first link we find it knitted on to a second. Call the first link, if you like, a link of iron, but call the next a link of gold, for if the first were providence, the second was grace. Then as we lay hold of the golden link its thrilling touch, as with an electric power, makes us remember how eternal realities first fell upon our mind, how the conviction of sin first entered our conscience, the guilt of sin, the burden of it, and the exercises connected with it; how the Spirit of grace and of supplications was communicated; the cries, sighs, tears, groans, wrestlings, in which we sought mercy at the Most High's hands; the separation from friends and associates which it entailed; the breaking off of sin and all connections contrary to Yah's mind and will, with the coming out of the world and everything worldly and the giving up of ourselves freely unto Yah, to be his in life, death, time, and eternity.




However the Most High may have wrought with different degrees of power in our hearts, yet we may lay it down as a clear and positive truth that the effect of his dealings with our consciences was to separate us from the world and bring us unto himself. Is not this Yah's testimony concerning his people Israel? "You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." (Exod. 19:4.)




B. But we have to remember as another bright waymark and blessed us on the road by which we have come, how the Most High was pleased to manifest a sense of his mercy, of his goodness, and of his salvation to our heart. There are two points which it is very desirable, if not absolutely needful, for a child of Yah to be very clear in—one is the beginning of the work of Yah upon his soul—to make clear work there; and the second is, to be able to trace out any application of the blood of Hamachiach to his conscience, any manifestation of mercy to his soul, any revelation of the Son of Yah to his heart, any knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins.




Now, though there may be in many cases doubts, fears, and questionings as to the reality of both these points, and especially the beginning of the work, yet I do believe wherever the Most High has begun a gracious work, there will be times and seasons when a sacred light will shine upon that beginning to make it plain and clear; and similarly, if the Most High the Spirit has ever revealed Hamachiach to our soul, and made him precious to our affections, a blessed light will at times shine upon that also, to make that plain and clear—for "in Yah's light we see light;" and we thus get a testimony in a good conscience, that we have been made partakers of eternal life by a spiritual, experimental knowledge of the only true Yah and of Yahusha Hamachiach whom he has sent.




There are times indeed when we can believe nothing, and there are times when, so to speak, we can believe everything. There are times when we have to say, "We see not our signs;" and there are times when we can see every waymark and every Ebenezer. But our feelings do not alter facts; and as seeing our signs does not make them, so our not seeing them does not unmake them.




C. But we have to remember ALL the way which he has led us in the wilderness. It is not only then the bright spots which we have to call to mind—there are the dark spots also on which we have to look and remember. The children of Israel were bidden to remember "all the way," and therefore all the temptations of the way, trials of the way, sufferings of the way, and I may add, all their own base, rebellious conduct in the way. If, then, in looking back to the way we see here and there an Ebenezer, a token for good, a bright spot, we see spots here and there on which darkness seems to rest, and from which we would gladly turn our eyes. Now this darkness may arise from two causes—first, lack of clear light; secondly, a painful recollection of our own sinfulness. Thus, as sometimes in nature there is a mixture of light and darkness, producing a dim and hazy twilight, and thus obscuring spots which might be otherwise bright, so it is in grace.




Let me explain my meaning a little more clearly. Upon some points of our experience we cannot be altogether clear, and for this reason, there was so much of sin and self mixed with them. Thus we can look back on various spots and places when certain sacrifices were to be made, certain things to be given up which we held very close, and to part with which seemed to cut very deeply into our flesh. It might have been an attachment, or a situation, or a prospect of getting on in life. We could not therefore through the weakness of the flesh make the sacrifice. Now this clinging to sin and self has thrown a degree of darkness upon those spots. And yet all is not dark; for a second look would enable us to view other spots and places where the Most High gave faith to make the sacrifice, come out of the world, give up everything that nature loved and cleaved to, and cast one's lot among the family of Yah. These would be spots in one's experience which one could look back upon with some degree of satisfaction as the Most High's work. Yet in all our movements there is so much sin, so much of the flesh, and so much of self mixed up, that though what we did was performed under a divine power and contrary to the flesh, yet in looking back upon it we cannot call it to mind with perfect satisfaction. Thus it is partly light and partly dark. But even where this is not the case, unbelief, infidelity, carnal fear, and a spirit of bondage will often so work together that the whole may first and last seem buried in confusion.




I cannot myself understand those people who are always ready to talk about their experience at any hour and at every hour of the day; so that if you were to wake them up at twelve o'clock at night, they would only have just to rub their eyes and they could tell you all their experience from first to last, between asleep and awake. I know myself that sometimes I have not a word to say about myself or my experience—good or bad—and am silent before Yah and man; but these men seem to have it all at their fingers' ends, and can wind it off from them as easily a skein of cotton, and pretty much, as harsh and dry. It is, I believe, by ourselves in silence, for the most part, that we can best look back upon all the way by which Yah has led us in the wilderness; and if he does not shine upon the way and bring it to remembrance, "we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness." And yet when the Most High is pleased to shine, how good it is to look back upon all the way.




D. Sometimes, for instance, we see what a Yah he has been to us in PROVIDENCE. We trace his outstretched hand again and again, with more or less clearness and distinctness, and as our faith sees this hand, we bless and praise his holy name for having led us so conspicuously by it. I have seen much of it myself, perhaps, as much as most men, and especially during these two last years of my life, and I desire to bless Yah for it; yet at times it is very hard to trace the hand of Yah distinctly, for as he works by instruments, we sometimes fix our eyes upon the instrument and not upon the hand which holds it; which is the sin condemned by the prophet, "as if the axe should boast itself against him that hews therewith, or the saw magnify itself against him that shakes it."




But another thing which confuses us is what I may call the zigzag of Yah's providence. Was not this the case also with the children of Israel? When the pillar of the cloud moved, they moved; by night or by day the camp moved, according to the movement of the cloud, as we read, "And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed—whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed." (Num. 9:21.) But in thus following the cloud, what a zigzag, in and out, backward and forward path they trod. If you were to see it traced out on a map you would wonder at the intricacy of the path and how they were directed from this station to that station, in a way which they could not comprehend, yet every step arranged by infinite wisdom. Thus we are to remember all the way whereby Yah has led us these many years in the wilderness by his wise and unerring providence.




E. But we have also to remember all his GRACIOUS dealings with us as contrasted with our own perverseness, rebelliousness, unbelief, and base requitals of all his goodness and mercy. And thus all our trials, afflictions, sufferings, exercises, snares, temptations, wanderings, backslidings, slips, and falls—we have to remember them all, think upon them, ponder over them, examine them, lament, bewail, and confess our sinfulness in them on our part; and we have to remember also all the patience, forbearance, long-suffering, tender mercy, and rich, superabounding grace on the part of Yah. We have to look at these things until they enter deeply into our heart, and sink and penetrate into our inmost conscience, that our soul may be like a newly ploughed field, open to sun and rain, and broken down into mellowness and softness, that we may indeed be "Yah's planting," and that the word of eternal life may be in our heart as the good seed which springs up and grows and brings forth fruit to his praise.