Are You Going In or Going Back?
Dr. Dennis Corle
Dr. Corle is the Editor and Publisher of Revival Fires
“And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes: And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.” (Deuteronomy 6:20-24)
I want to talk to you for awhile on this subject: “Are you going in, or are you going back?” In Deuteronomy six verse twenty it says, “The time will come when your children will ask questions like… why do we have all these testimonies, statutes, judgments? Why do we have these rules? Why are we commanded to do these things? Why do we have these standards? Why do we have restrictions?” He said when they ask that question, you tell them that we were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt. Pharaoh is a pretty good type of Satan, Egypt is a pretty good type of the world. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, doing miracles, signs, and wonders upon the land of Egypt.
Then he tells us in verse 23 what God had in mind. “And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in...” He did not bring us out just so we could be out, He brought us out so that He might be bring us in. It was impossible to bring them into the Promised Land if He did not first bring them out of Egypt. This was not about escape it was about possession. It was about inheritance. It was about communion with God. I’m afraid too often we view everything as escape rather than something beyond that,
God brought us out, not so we could be out, but He brought us out that He might bring us in. He said to tell your children that every standard, every precept, every rule, everything God does and all that He commands from us is for our good always! It is for our good always. But God brought us out that He might bring us in.
Let me remind you of a few things, When they practiced the Passover feast in Egypt, they slew the lamb, shed the blood, and applied the blood to the door post and lentil of the house and stayed inside its shelter. They escaped the judgment of God when they applied the blood. There was redemption in the blood and they escaped the judgment of God.
So hear me, the Passover did not get them out of Egypt when they were redeemed from judgment. They were still in Egypt, but God never intended for them to be delivered from judgment and then stay in Egypt. So after they were redeemed by the blood of the lamb, the Bible says that the Lord had Moses to lead them out of Egypt. Of course, after they began their journey it wasn’t long until Pharaoh had a change of heart and hotly pursued them, trying to recapture them and bring them back into bondage. The children of Israel ran into a problem. They got to the Red Sea and it blocked their path. Their progress was halted and they began to murmur and Moses cried out to God to find out what they should do.
God said “What is in thine hand?” You know, maybe instead of us complaining about the circumstances and complaining about what we don’t have, you need to use what you do have in your hand. What you have in your hand and in God is enough. The Bible says that Moses lifted the rod and God parted the Red Sea. The children of Israel crossed on dry ground, and the Egyptians, assaying to do so but attempting to do the same, they got in the middle of the Red Sea and God closed the water on them. He destroyed the entire Egyptian army and now Israel is not only redeemed, they are also separated out of Egypt and the Red Sea is behind them. It stands between them and Egypt. Stop and think about the fact that what had been their greatest obstacle, the Red Sea, God turned it into their greatest deliverance!
Now they have crossed on dry land, then God closed the waters to destroy the enemy, and God’s people are now separated from Egypt by the Red Sea that is between them and going back to Egypt. You know, you better have something that stands between you and the world. It’s one thing to come out from among them, but it’s quite another to have an obstacle in place to prevent you from going back, standards to protect you and keep you from going back. You need that wall of separation between you and the world.
Understand that when they crossed the Red Sea, that was a picture of separation from the world, separation from Egypt. But when they separated from Egypt, they still weren’t in the Promised Land. They were now in the wilderness. You realize, according to Deuteronomy chapter one and verse two, it was as an 11-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea. These people wandered in the wilderness for 40 long years when they could have been in the Promise Land in 11 days. God did not bring them out so they could be out of Egypt. He brought them out so He could bring them IN -- into the Promised Land. The primary type of the Promised Land is the perfect will of God. There were still battles to fight in Canaan and enemies to drive out, but it was the land that flowed with milk and honey, promised to them by God.
Now when they left Egypt behind and got to the wilderness, God still provided for them, even though when they came to Kadesh they refused to obey God to cross the Jordan, which is a picture of the crucified life and consecration to God. If they crossed Jordan they were determining to drive out God’s enemies, committing to fight God’s battles, but in the process they would seize their inheritance and enjoy that sweet communion with God and the fullness and blessing of God that awaited them in Canaan.
While they were in the wilderness God did rain down manna, but you do understand that manna was meager provision compared to the milk and honey that awaited them in Canaan, but they refused to enter in. They had practiced the Passover, experienced redemption, they came out of Egypt, but they stopped following God’s direction. They didn’t want to be under the rule of Pharaoh, and they didn’t want to be under God’s rule either. They wanted to run their own show, and for that reason they were held up in the wilderness and that wore on them and they began to complain and murmur after a short time.
You understand, a preacher can bring you out of Egypt, and at least to some degree, your parents can get you out of Egypt through standards they have in the home, the preacher can to a certain degree bring you out of Egypt by the standards that he preaches in the pulpit. But understand, if you’re going to consecrate, no one is going to do that for you and no one CAN do that for you.
In Exodus 32:29 when Moses came down from the mount where he communed with the Lord and received the Ten Commandments, the people at the foot of the mount had promised: “You go talk to God and find out what He wants and come back and tell us and we will do all that the Lord commands you.” They made that promise then wouldn’t even behave until he got back from the mount.
In Exodus 32:6 Moses was in the mount and God said, “Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:” God said, “They’re your people, not Mine.” He sent him down from the mount, Moses knew that judgment was determined and he was pleading their case all the way down the mountain. In Exodus 32:32 he got so urgent in his plea, he said… “Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin--” and then there’s a line, as though he broke down mid-sentence. Then he picks up and says… “and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” Friend, that was a pretty earnest and serious prayer to pray when God was angry! Now let me remind you of something, God does use men. But God got along pretty good before Moses showed up, and He got along pretty good after Moses was gone. God does use men and blesses them, and it is our privilege to be used of God. But He doesn’t need us. We need Him and we have the pleasure and privilege of being used by God. So for Moses to pray that prayer and put his own life on the line was a pretty bold move and intercessory prayer.
God told him in Exodus 32:29, “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother.” But please get this, consecrate yourself. Your parents can’t consecrate you. They can lead you out of Egypt. They can influence you and pray for you. But they cannot force you into the Promised Land. “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1 Peter 3:15) Sanctify the Lord God in your heart always. You decide whether or not you set your heart apart to God as a place of communion, fellowship, worship with God. You decide if you just come out or whether you also come into the consecrated Christian life and enter into the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey.
Now there are a lot of people who get redeemed, they are saved, and never do come out of Egypt. They spend the rest of their lives making bricks for Pharaoh without straw. He’s a hard taskmaster. They’re as saved as I am. They’re going to Heaven when they die, but they spend their whole life making bricks for Pharaoh. Their life doesn’t make a difference for God and eternity. All their effort and time goes to the temporal and worthless. How sad is that!
Then of course there are those who come out of Egypt, but they don’t want to go too far. “I don’t want to sell out to God completely. I don’t want to consecrate my life to God. I’m glad to be out from under Pharaoh’s thumb, but I don’t want to really be under the authority of God, I don’t want to fill the hand of God.”
The word ‘consecrate,’ the primary definition, is ‘to fill the hand.’ There are those who don’t want to be under Pharaoh’s oppression, but they don’t want to be under God’s authority either. They don’t want to be controlled by Pharaoh but they don’t want to fill the hand of God and be an instrument in the hand of God. They want to run their own show and think they can be their own boss. So they get to the wilderness and here they are, living on manna when they could be enjoying the milk and honey. They are not enjoying the sweet fellowship that was intended. They have not laid hold of their inheritance because they didn’t go far enough. You’ll find after awhile they began to murmur and complain and they wanted to go back to Egypt.
Their problem was not that someone took them too far for God and ruined their life. The problem is that they didn’t go far enough to get a taste of the milk and honey. They didn’t go far enough to enjoy the sweet communion and fellowship with God. They didn’t go far enough to lay hold of their spiritual inheritance, and for that reason they continued to wander in the wilderness.
We have a lot of saved people wandering in the wilderness tonight. Its because they heard the truth but they didn’t buy the truth. “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.” (Proverbs 23:23) When I buy something, it all of a sudden becomes mine. This is not my daddy’s truth. I didn’t borrow it from my dad. This is not just my pastor’s conviction. I didn’t borrow this standard from my pastor, I saw it in the Bible.
Yes, somebody taught me, but the Bible says… “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go:” (Proverbs 4:13) When someone gives me sound biblical instruction I’d better lay fast hold on it and not let anyone take it from me. I better not let it slip from my hand.
But he said, “Buy the truth, and sell it not;” If I bought it, now this is not my dad’s standard; it’s my standard. I bought it. I took possession of it. This is what the Bible teaches, and it’s now mine. I assume responsibility for it. I understand and I paid the price for it. I know the value of it. So he tells us that we need to lay hold on truth.
This is not the only place in the Word of God that we find this teaching that God did not bring us out so we could be out. He brought us out that He might bring us in. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (II Corinthians 6: 17-18)
But he said, “Come out from among them.” We have a wall back there at the back of the auditorium. What does that wall do? It actually separates the vestibule and the hallway from the auditorium. Wait a minute, could we not designate hallway space and vestibule and designate auditorium space without walls to separate them? We could do that, couldn’t we? The only problem is that everything that happens out there bleeds over into here and destroys the sanctity of this, so we have walls to protect the sanctity of the service to prevent that from happening.
God tells us we are first suppose to come out from among them. That’s the initial decision. Then He said, “Be ye separate.” That’s putting the Red Sea between me and Egypt. Do you remember when Peter said, “I go a fishing.” He got discouraged. He didn’t say, “I’m going to go wet a line for some R&R.” No, he said “I’m quitting the ministry and going back to my fishing business.” You know, he couldn’t have done that if he had gotten rid of his boat. Too many of us leave a bridge to the past, and if you leave a bridge to the past and don’t go far enough to cut your ties, you will, at some point, determine to go back to your own detriment.
That’s why he said, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;” You understand, you are never going to keep from touching the unclean thing if you don’t first come out from among them and have standards to protect that, a wall of separation, that sanctity. I see people all the time that are struggling and laboring, trying to keep from touching the unclean thing, when they won’t first come out from among the wrong crowd. They have no standards to protect themselves. You’re only kidding yourself. It’s not ‘if’ you touch the unclean thing, not ‘if’ you go back to the world. It’s not if but it’s ‘when.’ It’s just a matter of time. You have to first come out, and then put that wall of separation in place.
Jesus told the disciples, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation:…” (Matthew 26:41) Isn’t temptation at least one step from sin? I wonder why Jesus taught them how to avoid temptation? Why did He do that? Because He knew a bunch of sinners could not live in constant temptation and avoid sin.
By the way, you may need more standards than the Bible demands -- some extra layers of protection. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:1, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,…” Everybody in this room has ‘the sin which doth so easily beset you,’ The one you can’t believe you did it again. “Thought I had that whipped,” but here we go again. Do you understand that whatever you lack in spiritual fortitude and character must be compensated for with standards of separation? And no one can set standards for you-- you have to be concerned enough about your walk with God to protect it. It’s your responsibility.
There are certain standards that are commanded in the Bible that every Christian ought to abide by. They are standards that we are supposed to have because I am a sinner and I live in flesh, and my flesh is the Benedict Arnold that will betray me every time. If I don’t have the standard then it exposes my weakness.
But there are things I just don’t do, rules I’ve made for myself. For instance, I don’t go to professional sporting events or college sporting events. You say, “Why?” Because there are too many foul mouth drunk idiots there that have no respect for anybody. Truly. And when I get there they inflame me, and my temper gives me a fit. Somebody probably ought to punch them in the mouth, but it probably doesn’t need to be a Baptist preacher! Its not a mystery to me, I already know what they are going to do and I know how its going to affect me. Am I so dumb I can’t figure it out after 14 times? I don’t think it’s sinful to go to a game, But I don’t do it because it exposes my weakness. That’s not my strength, its my weakness. That’s my besetting sin that gets me in trouble over and over. I don’t want to expose my weakness and then try to control it. If you’re smart, you don’t either.
So He said, “Come out from among them (get away from their influence), and be ye separate (have a standard, put the Red Sea between you and them), saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;” And then you’re free, right? No, He said, “... and I will receive you,” This is not just about escaping their influence. It’s about getting to God’s presence and communion. He said, “And I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you,…” A father’s primary responsibilities in the life of his child is to protect and provide and to guide.
Hey, let me ask you a question. When the Prodigal Son was in the far country, did he have a father? Yes, he did. Absolutely. Was he enjoying the benefits of a father in his life? No, he wasn’t. You know the primary functions of a father are to protect, provide and to lead, and here is a boy who has a father. You understand that everyone who is alive has been fathered by somebody. Are there some folks that have been fathered by somebody who don’t have the benefits of a father in their life? Oh yes!
This Prodigal Son had a father, but he wasn’t enjoying the benefits of a father. And who’s fault was that? Was the problem with the father? Was the problem that the father stopped loving the son? No. But I do want you to understand that the father did not finance his son’s sin. I also want you to notice he didn’t follow the prodigal to the far country, and he didn’t go half way to the far country. He stayed put right where he belonged and kept the home fires burning. Some of you, if you’re not careful, your kids will break your heart and you will give up and move to the far country with them. Or you will finance their sin and make it easy for them to keep doing wrong. If they ever got their heart right and came back home, they wouldn’t be able to find you, because you moved. They are expecting you to be in the same place, holding the same position. Just keep standing for what’s right and doing what’s right and praying for them.
But when this boy returned home this father was right where he was when he left. The father still loved him and welcomed him back home with open arms, but the boy had to return home to experience that leadership, that love, that benefit. When he came back to the father he was well received.
God knows that you and I are imperfect, and we wander and stray, but we must come home, come back to the Father. He brought us out, not so we could be out, but He brought us out so that He might bring us in to His perfect will, into a consecrated Christian life and blessing. He said if we will come out from among the world and be separated to Him, “I will receive you unto Myself, and be a Father unto you.”
Let me ask you a question. What’s more important to you than your relationship with your Father? What would you sever ties with your Father for? An article of clothing, some kind of music, some worldly friends, some petty sin? You mean you would give up your father for that? But people do it all the time. He said, “I called you out, not so you could be separated from, but so you would be separated unto Me. It was necessary for you to come out from among them so that you could commune with Me, but the object was always to have communion and fellowship with Me.”
Remember Genesis 7:1. “And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou...” Did He say, “Go thou and all thine into the ark? No. “Come thou and all thy house into the ark.” If God said, “Come thou and all thine into the ark,” then where was God already? In the ark. This wasn’t about wasn’t just about escape from judgment -- this was about communion and fellowship, being in the presence of God. It was not just about getting away from the flood, it was about getting to God. Certainly they escaped judgment and when God closed the door of the ark, He sealed them in and sealed the world out. Judgment was without and communion was within. But He didn’t send them into the ark. He invited them to Himself in the ark.
God invites us to Himself. Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” That rest is from the consequences of sin, the burden of sin, the guilt of sin, the penalty of sin, the oppression of sin. He invites us to Himself, but He didn’t invite me to rest so I could just rest. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) and then He gives a second invitation to those who have rest in Him in salvation. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30) He said, “I didn’t bring you out so you could be out, I didn’t get you out of the unequal yoke so you could have none. You can only be in one yoke at a time. I got you out of the unequal yoke spoken of in II Corinthians 6:14 so you could get in My yoke, so we could commune and walk and work shoulder to shoulder.
Think about what He said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.” The closest fellowship you’ll ever experience is in the yoke. If you’re going to get to know Him, it will be in the yoke. The closest fellowship is in the yoke. I have to cross the Jordan. He didn’t bring me out to wander the rest of my life in the wilderness. He didn’t bring me out to just escape Pharaoh. He didn’t bring me out so I wouldn’t have to deal with that. He brought me out that He might bring me in.
He had so much more in mind than the average believer ever lays hold of. If you come out and don’t come in, then you’re stranded in the wilderness. Now let me help you with this. If you’re stranded in the wilderness tonight, you’re too far from Egypt to enjoy the leeks, the melons, the onion and the garlic of Egypt. And you are to far from Canaan to enjoy the milk and honey of the Promised Land. The problem is not that you went too far. The problem is that you didn’t go far enough. You stopped too soon. The problem is that you came out, but you didn’t come in.
Di you ever notice that everything Egypt has to offer might taste good but it makes you smell bad? Leeks, onion, garlic. Everything the world has to offer will gratify your carnal appetite and make your testimony stink in the nostrils of people. I hate to tell you this folks, but lost people expect a lot more of you than you’d like to believe. Remember before you got saved, do you remember how critical you were about Christians? How you picked them to pieces over every little thing they did, and you knew everything that was wrong that Christians shouldn’t be doing. And then you got saved and got amnesia! Huh? Now you can’t quite remember all that stuff you use to know so well.
I got saved on a Sunday night in my bedroom after the Sunday night service. I got saved out of the drug scene, I was a bouncer in a bar room. I’m not proud of that, but that’s who I am. So the next day on Monday, (I got saved on Sunday) I went to a gas station in the morning and ran into one of my old buddies. This guy was a drug dealer, but he was also a holiness preacher’s son and his daddy was a good man. So this guy is familiar with Bible terminology because his dad is a preacher. He said, “Hey man, lets go party.”
I said.. “Nah.”
Well, he knew me enough to know I never said no to that. He said, “Come on, we’ll smoke my dope.”
I said, “No, I don’t want to.” He asked me three or four times and then he looked at me and said, “Did you get saved?”
I said… “Yeah, yeah I did.”
He said, “Well, don’t be ashamed of it!” I’m being rebuked by a drug dealer less than 24 hours after getting saved for not speaking up! He expected me to speak up. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;” (Psalm 107:2)
Another day I was still a brand new convert, saved for a short time, and I was zealous. I’m up there witnessing and smoking my cigarette. Some guy looked at me and said, “I don’t want to hear none of that while you’re puffing on that weed.” He was smoking one too, so what was the big deal? He expected more of me, and he knew a Christian is not suppose to do that.
I pulled in to a gas station, had my rock music blaring, you could hear the bass vibrating from three blocks away. I pulled in and started pumping gas. One of the guys I had witnessed to repeatedly and I had only been saved a couple of months at the time, he came out and said, “Hey! I thought you got saved?”
I said, “I did get saved! What do you mean, you thought I got saved?”
He said, “If you got saved, then what are you doing listening to the devil’s music?” It was the same music he was listening to! By the way, he knew what he was listening to, and he knew a Christian shouldn’t be listening to it. Now if you think preachers are tough on you, I’ll turn a couple of these sinners loose on you, and you’ll be glad to get back to me!
But everything this world has to offer may excite your carnal appetite, but it will destroy your testimony and make it a stench in the nostrils of people who desperately need to hear the Word of God. But this person in the wilderness is too far from Canaan to enjoy the milk and honey and too far from Egypt to enjoy the leeks, melons, onion and garlic of Egypt. One problem is that he’s never ever tasted the milk and honey, he didn’t go far enough to get it. But he has tasted the leeks, the melon, the onion, the garlic of Egypt and it tasted better to him after awhile than the manna, the monotony of the manna day after day. Oh yes God is providing and no its not bad. It had a good flavor, but no variety.
If you only come out from the world and never go on to the consecrated life, if you’re not careful you’ll put yourself in a position where you start yearning to go back to oppression and put yourself under Pharaoh again. Separation without consecration, standards without a devoted walk with God will make you feel oppressed in time. And the problem is not, “The preacher’s the standards are too high, he got me to quit doing this and got me out of that and now I don’t have anything.” Your problem is not that you went too far. The problem is that you didn’t go far enough. It’s not that the preacher took you too far, he took you as far as he can and you didn’t finish the journey, you didn’t cross the Jordan. You didn’t do for yourself what he couldn’t do for you. You didn’t consecrate yourself, and for that reason you’re missing out.
Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,...” He’s not just talking about my soul and spirit that nobody can see. He said I’m suppose to give my body as a living sacrifice. The difference is that you offer a dying sacrifice one time. You must offer a living sacrifice every single day. He said I’m to give my body, “...a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God...” Only what is holy is acceptable to God.
To consecrate means ‘to fill the hand.’ God is very particular about what is in His hands. I dare say, ladies in particular, and men too, there are some things that you would not permit someone to put in your hand. You would not have it. I’m here to tell you that God is not going to have His hand filled with worldliness, carnality, sin, pride and selfishness. It’s not going to happen folks.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2) Don’t miss this, He said it is my “reasonable service” to give my body a living sacrifice, to be holy so it’s acceptable, and then to give my life, my body as a sacrifice.
It’s my reasonable service. Do you know why? Because I’ve been purchased with blood. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19) So he said we’ve been redeemed by blood. You know what that means. It means God paid more for me than I’m worth, even on my best day, and you only have one best day. All the rest are inferior.
God paid more for me than I am worth. He’s talking to these carnal Christians in I Corinthians 6:19-20. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Wait a minute, we’ve been purchased with blood. We are the property of God legally. At salvation I became the property of God. At consecration He gets in His hand to use what He has purchased with blood.
Let me ask you a question. How many of you have ever purchased something? So when you make a purchase, whether it’s food, clothing, fuel. Did you purchase a car just so you could say “I have one of those”? No. You purchased it so you could... what? Use it? Oh, I see, when you purchase something with money you purchase it so you can use it, right? And you think God purchased you with blood just so He could say, “I have one of those.” You think a lot of yourself, don’t you?! Hey, God intended for us to fill His hand, to be available, to be used. God intended to use our lives, but it is in consecration that we make ourselves available to Him.
Now let me illustrate this for you, Suppose you purchase a used car from me. I sell you my personal vehicle. You pay me in full, I give you a bill of sale, dated and signed that says paid in full. And we go together to the notary where I sign off the title, and you sign on the title. The notary notarizes it and sends it off to the state capitol. I have the money and the notary gives you your temporary owner’s card, pink or yellow slip, whatever you get in this state.
Let me ask you a question. At this point in the transaction, who does the vehicle legally belong to -- the seller or the buyer? The buyer. I have the money, you have the bill of sale, I signed off the title, you signed on. It’s notarized and on the way to the capitol, and you have a temporary owner’s card. The car legally belongs to the buyer, you. The only problem is that we did all this transacting of business with the vehicle sitting in my driveway, which wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.
So a couple hours after we do the business end, you come by and knock on my door. I come to the door and say, “Yeah, what do you want?”
You say, “I came to get my car”
“What do you mean your car?”
“Well you said you wanted to sell it.”
“Yeah I wanted to sell it because I need the money. But I want to keep driving it, too.” What do you call a guy like that? An independent, funda.... I mean, a crook! But isn’t that what you want to do? You wanted to be purchased with blood out of the slave market of sin, never to return. And then you want to keep on living your life like you are your own.
Hey when you live like you’re your own, you spend your life in the wilderness and never cross the Jordan. He said, “I brought you out, not so you could be out, but I brought you out that I might bring you in. This was not just about escape. This was about inheriting and about communion with Me. I brought you out that I may bring you in.”
By the way, we have people today who describe themselves as ‘recovering fundamentalists.’ They claim they’ve been damaged by some preacher who had too many standards. The truth damaged you? The Bible tells us that Moses had some of those, too. Look at their accusation. Exodus 16:2-3 “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Wait a minute, not only is what they said inaccurate. These people are delusional! They’re remembering things that never happened! “When we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full...” They didn’t sit by the flesh pots and eat bread to the full! They were driven by hard task masters and made brick without straw for Pharoah. They were so heavily oppressed that their cry came up to Heaven before God. You better be careful! If you wander in the wilderness long enough, you’ll start to become delusional and start remembering something good about Egypt, when there wasn’t anything good about Egypt. You’ll start yearning to go back to Pharoah’s bondage.
But listen to their accusation against Moses: “You brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole congregation or this whole assembly with hunger.” He didn’t bring them forth into the wilderness to be in the wilderness. He brought them out that He might bring them in, but He wouldn’t force them to go in. They’re in the wilderness by their own choice, but it’s the preacher’s fault, because he should have left us in Egypt where we were so happy. Yeah, right! That’s why you were begging God for deliverance. “He should have just kept letting us make brick for Pharaoh, even though we’ve been redeemed by the blood of the Son of God. We’d rather make brick for Pharaoh.” The truth wasn’t how you remembered it in your delusional state, just because you have a few hardships. But people remember things in Egypt as if they were wonderful. They did have the leeks, melon, onion and garlic, but they didn’t sit around and eat bread to the full like they said they did. They were enslaved and driven and beaten and abused. You’re remembering things that never happened!
You know, there is the pleasure of sin for a season, and when you were lost you experienced the ‘pleasures of sin for a season.’ The Bible tells us in Luke 8:14 that those carnal, temporal pleasures choke the Word of God. But He brought them out, not to kill them in the wilderness, but to bring them into the consecrated, blessed life of fellowship and service to God.
They accused Moses, the leader, of having ill intentions or at least an ill impact on them. Remember in Luke 9:54, when Jesus was rejected, and His disciples said, “...Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them...” (Luke 9:55-56) God didn’t bring us out to destroy us. It was ‘for our good always.’ He didn’t give us standards to oppress us, it is for our good always. He didn’t try to bring us in so He could enslave us. It was for our good always.
Everything God does is for our good always. He proved His unselfishness at Calvary when He gave His only begotten Son to die as our Substitute. The problem is that people who have never been consecrated and have never tasted the milk and honey, they have no clue what they are missing in consecration. The only thing they know is what they left behind in Egypt, and now they’re wandering in the wilderness too far from Egypt to have the leeks and onions, and too far from Canaan to have the milk and honey. But since they haven’t tasted this in Canaan yet, they have no way to compare how much better it is than anything the world, the flesh and the devil have to offer.
Psalms 34:8 says, “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” You know, there’s a certain element of commitment to tasting. If I’m going to taste something, I first have to put it in my mouth. A lot of us, spiritually, are like little children who come to the table and see something green like broccoli. They look at it and say “Ugh, I don’t like that!”
“Have you ever tasted it?”
“No! I don’t like it!” Once they ever get a taste, they lick the bowl clean.
Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, its hard to be a Christian. It’s hard to live a consecrated life.” You wouldn’t know if you make that statement, because you are making a judgment without ever trying it. You’ve never tasted.
Proverbs 13:15 says, ”...the way of transgressors is hard.” He told Saul of Tarshish on the road to Damascus, “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks...” hard to fight Holy Ghost conviction. It is hard to live in sin and transgression. Its not hard to live for God, not hard to fill the hand of God, not hard to be in the Promise Land, not hard to enjoy the milk and honey of Canaan, not hard to commune with God and lay hold of my inheritance. That’s the purpose for which I exist. You stop short of that and you missed it all. If you don’t go in to the Promised Land, you’re going to end up wanting to go back at some point,.
You know, there are pleasures you know nothing about unless you’ve been ‘in.’ “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalms 16:11) Yes, there is pleasure of sin for a season, there is pleasure of this life that chokes the word. But there are eternal pleasures at His right hand, pleasures for evermore. You say, “What does that mean?”
Have you ever heard someone say, “This guy is my right hand man?” You’ve heard that statement. “This person is my right hand, this is my right hand man.” It is the person who is near at hand, available, usable, that does the bidding of the one speaking. That’s my goal. I’d like to be God’s right hand man. God said that’s the place of eternal blessing and, by the way, there is room for all of us there at His right hand, where there is pleasure for evermore. There’s that milk and honey, there’s that communion, that spiritual pleasure.
You know, the reason we can get so content with the world and looking at it so favorably is because we never tasted the real stuff. If the only thing you had ever tasted for milk in your life was powdered milk, then you might actually develop a taste for that stuff! But I could cure you of that in short order. All I would have to do is give you a drink of the real stuff with the cream on it, and you’d never have any hankerings for powdered milk again. Once you tasted the real stuff, you could never handle the powdered milk imitation.
Friend, if I could ever get you to cross over into the Promised Land, into the consecrated life of filling God’s hand and being used by Him, if I could ever get you in, you would find real pleasure in life, spiritual pleasure that lasts. But you have to make that choice. Somebody can tell you where Kadesh is, somebody could lead you to the brink of Jordan. But you have to be willing to cross over, you have to be willing to fill the hand of God. You have to be willing to reckon yourself dead indeed to sin, and alive unto God. Nobody can do that for you.
Just remember that Egypt is a type of the world and when God talks about the world, He doesn’t talk about it in good terms. First John 2:15-17 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
Hey listen to me folks, in those few verses He tells us the world is a thief that attempts to steal your affection away from God. You know the first and great commandment is, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” (Mark 12:30) The world wants to steal that affection away from God.
You can’t love the world and love God at the same time. Too often, instead of setting our affections, we allow it to be stolen. You know if you take a thermometer and put it in the deep freeze, it lowers to the temperature of the deep freeze. If you take the same thermometer and put it in a oven it rises to the temperature of the oven. It adjusts to whatever it’s exposed to. But you know, we have these things in the building called thermostats. They’re not thermometers that respond to everything and adjust themselves to the temperature around them. No. The thermostat, once you set it, it controls and dictates the temperature and the atmosphere around it.
We have way too many thermometer Christians and not enough thermostat Christians. “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:2) You’re suppose to ‘set your affection’ and impact the area where you live and not be impacted by the world, but have a impact on it for the glory of God.
The second thing He tells is in those verses is that the world is a set of carnal appetites to corrupt you, the lust of the flesh -- that’s an appetite, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Those are all carnal fleshly appetites. Then He said the world is a promise without fulfillment, the world passeth away and the lust there of. The world promises all kind of things, but once the world passes away, it cannot keep its promise, the world cannot deliver. It’s a cloud without rain. It’s a promise without fulfillment.
You know, if you separated from the world and then stop short of consecration, you are stranded in the wilderness. You’ll either die in the wilderness or you’ll go back to Egypt or you’ll let somebody help you get across the Jordan to the intended goal.
He brought us out, not so we could be out, it wasn’t about escape. He brought us out that He might bring us in, in consecration. Psalms 78:41 tells us about the children of Ephraim, how they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy one of Israel. “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” You do not want to do that. If you stop in the wilderness that is where you will die. You don’t want to spend the rest of your life wandering in the wilderness. They spent 40 years, a whole generation, wandering in the wilderness. Too far from Egypt to have what the world offers. But too far from Canaan to enjoy the milk and honey. They could have crossed over in about 11 days, but instead they spent 40 years murmuring, complaining, yearning for something substandard, because they never went far enough to get a taste of the fullness of the blessing of God.
Let me ask you a question. Do you even have a Passover, a time and place when you applied the blood to the door post and lentil of your heart and experienced the new birth, deliverance from the judgment of God? If your answer is a confident yes, then wonderful!
Have you come out of Egypt or are you still in there making brick for Pharaoh? Never did quite get out, never did cross over the Red Sea in separation from the world. Have you crossed over and put the world behind you, or are you looking back? Are you still in the wilderness?
You need to go far enough to enter into the fullness of the blessing of God, far enough to get a taste of the milk and honey that the consecrated life has to offer. He brought us out that He might bring us in. The Bible tells us about people who turned back and it can be very dangerous. In John 6:66, (I always thought that was an interesting reference) Jesus had made a statement and they said, “This is a hard saying, who can receive it?” And it says, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” The tragic thing is they went back and never returned, walked no more with Him. You better be careful about going back to Egypt -- you may go back permanently and never return. They went back and walked no more with him.
You can decide what you’re going to do. You can spend your whole life in Egypt. You can spend your whole life in the wilderness. Or you can come out from the world in separation and come in to God’s fullness of blessing in consecration. Come out in separation, come in in consecration, and enjoy the fulness of the blessings of God. Maybe you like the wilderness, maybe you like making bricks for Pharaoh, but I doubt it.
I’m telling you there’s something better if you ever go far enough to just get a taste. All the yearnings you have for the world and sin would disappear, because what God has is the real stuff. “O taste and see that the LORD is good:...” (Psalms 34:8)
I want to talk to you for awhile on this subject: “Are you going in, or are you going back?” In Deuteronomy six verse twenty it says, “The time will come when your children will ask questions like… why do we have all these testimonies, statutes, judgments? Why do we have these rules? Why are we commanded to do these things? Why do we have these standards? Why do we have restrictions?” He said when they ask that question, you tell them that we were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt. Pharaoh is a pretty good type of Satan, Egypt is a pretty good type of the world. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, doing miracles, signs, and wonders upon the land of Egypt.
Then he tells us in verse 23 what God had in mind. “And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in...” He did not bring us out just so we could be out, He brought us out so that He might be bring us in. It was impossible to bring them into the Promised Land if He did not first bring them out of Egypt. This was not about escape it was about possession. It was about inheritance. It was about communion with God. I’m afraid too often we view everything as escape rather than something beyond that,
God brought us out, not so we could be out, but He brought us out that He might bring us in. He said to tell your children that every standard, every precept, every rule, everything God does and all that He commands from us is for our good always! It is for our good always. But God brought us out that He might bring us in.
Let me remind you of a few things, When they practiced the Passover feast in Egypt, they slew the lamb, shed the blood, and applied the blood to the door post and lentil of the house and stayed inside its shelter. They escaped the judgment of God when they applied the blood. There was redemption in the blood and they escaped the judgment of God.
So hear me, the Passover did not get them out of Egypt when they were redeemed from judgment. They were still in Egypt, but God never intended for them to be delivered from judgment and then stay in Egypt. So after they were redeemed by the blood of the lamb, the Bible says that the Lord had Moses to lead them out of Egypt. Of course, after they began their journey it wasn’t long until Pharaoh had a change of heart and hotly pursued them, trying to recapture them and bring them back into bondage. The children of Israel ran into a problem. They got to the Red Sea and it blocked their path. Their progress was halted and they began to murmur and Moses cried out to God to find out what they should do.
God said “What is in thine hand?” You know, maybe instead of us complaining about the circumstances and complaining about what we don’t have, you need to use what you do have in your hand. What you have in your hand and in God is enough. The Bible says that Moses lifted the rod and God parted the Red Sea. The children of Israel crossed on dry ground, and the Egyptians, assaying to do so but attempting to do the same, they got in the middle of the Red Sea and God closed the water on them. He destroyed the entire Egyptian army and now Israel is not only redeemed, they are also separated out of Egypt and the Red Sea is behind them. It stands between them and Egypt. Stop and think about the fact that what had been their greatest obstacle, the Red Sea, God turned it into their greatest deliverance!
Now they have crossed on dry land, then God closed the waters to destroy the enemy, and God’s people are now separated from Egypt by the Red Sea that is between them and going back to Egypt. You know, you better have something that stands between you and the world. It’s one thing to come out from among them, but it’s quite another to have an obstacle in place to prevent you from going back, standards to protect you and keep you from going back. You need that wall of separation between you and the world.
Understand that when they crossed the Red Sea, that was a picture of separation from the world, separation from Egypt. But when they separated from Egypt, they still weren’t in the Promised Land. They were now in the wilderness. You realize, according to Deuteronomy chapter one and verse two, it was as an 11-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea. These people wandered in the wilderness for 40 long years when they could have been in the Promise Land in 11 days. God did not bring them out so they could be out of Egypt. He brought them out so He could bring them IN -- into the Promised Land. The primary type of the Promised Land is the perfect will of God. There were still battles to fight in Canaan and enemies to drive out, but it was the land that flowed with milk and honey, promised to them by God.
Now when they left Egypt behind and got to the wilderness, God still provided for them, even though when they came to Kadesh they refused to obey God to cross the Jordan, which is a picture of the crucified life and consecration to God. If they crossed Jordan they were determining to drive out God’s enemies, committing to fight God’s battles, but in the process they would seize their inheritance and enjoy that sweet communion with God and the fullness and blessing of God that awaited them in Canaan.
While they were in the wilderness God did rain down manna, but you do understand that manna was meager provision compared to the milk and honey that awaited them in Canaan, but they refused to enter in. They had practiced the Passover, experienced redemption, they came out of Egypt, but they stopped following God’s direction. They didn’t want to be under the rule of Pharaoh, and they didn’t want to be under God’s rule either. They wanted to run their own show, and for that reason they were held up in the wilderness and that wore on them and they began to complain and murmur after a short time.
You understand, a preacher can bring you out of Egypt, and at least to some degree, your parents can get you out of Egypt through standards they have in the home, the preacher can to a certain degree bring you out of Egypt by the standards that he preaches in the pulpit. But understand, if you’re going to consecrate, no one is going to do that for you and no one CAN do that for you.
In Exodus 32:29 when Moses came down from the mount where he communed with the Lord and received the Ten Commandments, the people at the foot of the mount had promised: “You go talk to God and find out what He wants and come back and tell us and we will do all that the Lord commands you.” They made that promise then wouldn’t even behave until he got back from the mount.
In Exodus 32:6 Moses was in the mount and God said, “Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:” God said, “They’re your people, not Mine.” He sent him down from the mount, Moses knew that judgment was determined and he was pleading their case all the way down the mountain. In Exodus 32:32 he got so urgent in his plea, he said… “Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin--” and then there’s a line, as though he broke down mid-sentence. Then he picks up and says… “and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” Friend, that was a pretty earnest and serious prayer to pray when God was angry! Now let me remind you of something, God does use men. But God got along pretty good before Moses showed up, and He got along pretty good after Moses was gone. God does use men and blesses them, and it is our privilege to be used of God. But He doesn’t need us. We need Him and we have the pleasure and privilege of being used by God. So for Moses to pray that prayer and put his own life on the line was a pretty bold move and intercessory prayer.
God told him in Exodus 32:29, “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother.” But please get this, consecrate yourself. Your parents can’t consecrate you. They can lead you out of Egypt. They can influence you and pray for you. But they cannot force you into the Promised Land. “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1 Peter 3:15) Sanctify the Lord God in your heart always. You decide whether or not you set your heart apart to God as a place of communion, fellowship, worship with God. You decide if you just come out or whether you also come into the consecrated Christian life and enter into the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey.
Now there are a lot of people who get redeemed, they are saved, and never do come out of Egypt. They spend the rest of their lives making bricks for Pharaoh without straw. He’s a hard taskmaster. They’re as saved as I am. They’re going to Heaven when they die, but they spend their whole life making bricks for Pharaoh. Their life doesn’t make a difference for God and eternity. All their effort and time goes to the temporal and worthless. How sad is that!
Then of course there are those who come out of Egypt, but they don’t want to go too far. “I don’t want to sell out to God completely. I don’t want to consecrate my life to God. I’m glad to be out from under Pharaoh’s thumb, but I don’t want to really be under the authority of God, I don’t want to fill the hand of God.”
The word ‘consecrate,’ the primary definition, is ‘to fill the hand.’ There are those who don’t want to be under Pharaoh’s oppression, but they don’t want to be under God’s authority either. They don’t want to be controlled by Pharaoh but they don’t want to fill the hand of God and be an instrument in the hand of God. They want to run their own show and think they can be their own boss. So they get to the wilderness and here they are, living on manna when they could be enjoying the milk and honey. They are not enjoying the sweet fellowship that was intended. They have not laid hold of their inheritance because they didn’t go far enough. You’ll find after awhile they began to murmur and complain and they wanted to go back to Egypt.
Their problem was not that someone took them too far for God and ruined their life. The problem is that they didn’t go far enough to get a taste of the milk and honey. They didn’t go far enough to enjoy the sweet communion and fellowship with God. They didn’t go far enough to lay hold of their spiritual inheritance, and for that reason they continued to wander in the wilderness.
We have a lot of saved people wandering in the wilderness tonight. Its because they heard the truth but they didn’t buy the truth. “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.” (Proverbs 23:23) When I buy something, it all of a sudden becomes mine. This is not my daddy’s truth. I didn’t borrow it from my dad. This is not just my pastor’s conviction. I didn’t borrow this standard from my pastor, I saw it in the Bible.
Yes, somebody taught me, but the Bible says… “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go:” (Proverbs 4:13) When someone gives me sound biblical instruction I’d better lay fast hold on it and not let anyone take it from me. I better not let it slip from my hand.
But he said, “Buy the truth, and sell it not;” If I bought it, now this is not my dad’s standard; it’s my standard. I bought it. I took possession of it. This is what the Bible teaches, and it’s now mine. I assume responsibility for it. I understand and I paid the price for it. I know the value of it. So he tells us that we need to lay hold on truth.
This is not the only place in the Word of God that we find this teaching that God did not bring us out so we could be out. He brought us out that He might bring us in. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (II Corinthians 6: 17-18)
But he said, “Come out from among them.” We have a wall back there at the back of the auditorium. What does that wall do? It actually separates the vestibule and the hallway from the auditorium. Wait a minute, could we not designate hallway space and vestibule and designate auditorium space without walls to separate them? We could do that, couldn’t we? The only problem is that everything that happens out there bleeds over into here and destroys the sanctity of this, so we have walls to protect the sanctity of the service to prevent that from happening.
God tells us we are first suppose to come out from among them. That’s the initial decision. Then He said, “Be ye separate.” That’s putting the Red Sea between me and Egypt. Do you remember when Peter said, “I go a fishing.” He got discouraged. He didn’t say, “I’m going to go wet a line for some R&R.” No, he said “I’m quitting the ministry and going back to my fishing business.” You know, he couldn’t have done that if he had gotten rid of his boat. Too many of us leave a bridge to the past, and if you leave a bridge to the past and don’t go far enough to cut your ties, you will, at some point, determine to go back to your own detriment.
That’s why he said, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;” You understand, you are never going to keep from touching the unclean thing if you don’t first come out from among them and have standards to protect that, a wall of separation, that sanctity. I see people all the time that are struggling and laboring, trying to keep from touching the unclean thing, when they won’t first come out from among the wrong crowd. They have no standards to protect themselves. You’re only kidding yourself. It’s not ‘if’ you touch the unclean thing, not ‘if’ you go back to the world. It’s not if but it’s ‘when.’ It’s just a matter of time. You have to first come out, and then put that wall of separation in place.
Jesus told the disciples, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation:…” (Matthew 26:41) Isn’t temptation at least one step from sin? I wonder why Jesus taught them how to avoid temptation? Why did He do that? Because He knew a bunch of sinners could not live in constant temptation and avoid sin.
By the way, you may need more standards than the Bible demands -- some extra layers of protection. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:1, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,…” Everybody in this room has ‘the sin which doth so easily beset you,’ The one you can’t believe you did it again. “Thought I had that whipped,” but here we go again. Do you understand that whatever you lack in spiritual fortitude and character must be compensated for with standards of separation? And no one can set standards for you-- you have to be concerned enough about your walk with God to protect it. It’s your responsibility.
There are certain standards that are commanded in the Bible that every Christian ought to abide by. They are standards that we are supposed to have because I am a sinner and I live in flesh, and my flesh is the Benedict Arnold that will betray me every time. If I don’t have the standard then it exposes my weakness.
But there are things I just don’t do, rules I’ve made for myself. For instance, I don’t go to professional sporting events or college sporting events. You say, “Why?” Because there are too many foul mouth drunk idiots there that have no respect for anybody. Truly. And when I get there they inflame me, and my temper gives me a fit. Somebody probably ought to punch them in the mouth, but it probably doesn’t need to be a Baptist preacher! Its not a mystery to me, I already know what they are going to do and I know how its going to affect me. Am I so dumb I can’t figure it out after 14 times? I don’t think it’s sinful to go to a game, But I don’t do it because it exposes my weakness. That’s not my strength, its my weakness. That’s my besetting sin that gets me in trouble over and over. I don’t want to expose my weakness and then try to control it. If you’re smart, you don’t either.
So He said, “Come out from among them (get away from their influence), and be ye separate (have a standard, put the Red Sea between you and them), saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;” And then you’re free, right? No, He said, “... and I will receive you,” This is not just about escaping their influence. It’s about getting to God’s presence and communion. He said, “And I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you,…” A father’s primary responsibilities in the life of his child is to protect and provide and to guide.
Hey, let me ask you a question. When the Prodigal Son was in the far country, did he have a father? Yes, he did. Absolutely. Was he enjoying the benefits of a father in his life? No, he wasn’t. You know the primary functions of a father are to protect, provide and to lead, and here is a boy who has a father. You understand that everyone who is alive has been fathered by somebody. Are there some folks that have been fathered by somebody who don’t have the benefits of a father in their life? Oh yes!
This Prodigal Son had a father, but he wasn’t enjoying the benefits of a father. And who’s fault was that? Was the problem with the father? Was the problem that the father stopped loving the son? No. But I do want you to understand that the father did not finance his son’s sin. I also want you to notice he didn’t follow the prodigal to the far country, and he didn’t go half way to the far country. He stayed put right where he belonged and kept the home fires burning. Some of you, if you’re not careful, your kids will break your heart and you will give up and move to the far country with them. Or you will finance their sin and make it easy for them to keep doing wrong. If they ever got their heart right and came back home, they wouldn’t be able to find you, because you moved. They are expecting you to be in the same place, holding the same position. Just keep standing for what’s right and doing what’s right and praying for them.
But when this boy returned home this father was right where he was when he left. The father still loved him and welcomed him back home with open arms, but the boy had to return home to experience that leadership, that love, that benefit. When he came back to the father he was well received.
God knows that you and I are imperfect, and we wander and stray, but we must come home, come back to the Father. He brought us out, not so we could be out, but He brought us out so that He might bring us in to His perfect will, into a consecrated Christian life and blessing. He said if we will come out from among the world and be separated to Him, “I will receive you unto Myself, and be a Father unto you.”
Let me ask you a question. What’s more important to you than your relationship with your Father? What would you sever ties with your Father for? An article of clothing, some kind of music, some worldly friends, some petty sin? You mean you would give up your father for that? But people do it all the time. He said, “I called you out, not so you could be separated from, but so you would be separated unto Me. It was necessary for you to come out from among them so that you could commune with Me, but the object was always to have communion and fellowship with Me.”
Remember Genesis 7:1. “And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou...” Did He say, “Go thou and all thine into the ark? No. “Come thou and all thy house into the ark.” If God said, “Come thou and all thine into the ark,” then where was God already? In the ark. This wasn’t about wasn’t just about escape from judgment -- this was about communion and fellowship, being in the presence of God. It was not just about getting away from the flood, it was about getting to God. Certainly they escaped judgment and when God closed the door of the ark, He sealed them in and sealed the world out. Judgment was without and communion was within. But He didn’t send them into the ark. He invited them to Himself in the ark.
God invites us to Himself. Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” That rest is from the consequences of sin, the burden of sin, the guilt of sin, the penalty of sin, the oppression of sin. He invites us to Himself, but He didn’t invite me to rest so I could just rest. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) and then He gives a second invitation to those who have rest in Him in salvation. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30) He said, “I didn’t bring you out so you could be out, I didn’t get you out of the unequal yoke so you could have none. You can only be in one yoke at a time. I got you out of the unequal yoke spoken of in II Corinthians 6:14 so you could get in My yoke, so we could commune and walk and work shoulder to shoulder.
Think about what He said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.” The closest fellowship you’ll ever experience is in the yoke. If you’re going to get to know Him, it will be in the yoke. The closest fellowship is in the yoke. I have to cross the Jordan. He didn’t bring me out to wander the rest of my life in the wilderness. He didn’t bring me out to just escape Pharaoh. He didn’t bring me out so I wouldn’t have to deal with that. He brought me out that He might bring me in.
He had so much more in mind than the average believer ever lays hold of. If you come out and don’t come in, then you’re stranded in the wilderness. Now let me help you with this. If you’re stranded in the wilderness tonight, you’re too far from Egypt to enjoy the leeks, the melons, the onion and the garlic of Egypt. And you are to far from Canaan to enjoy the milk and honey of the Promised Land. The problem is not that you went too far. The problem is that you didn’t go far enough. You stopped too soon. The problem is that you came out, but you didn’t come in.
Di you ever notice that everything Egypt has to offer might taste good but it makes you smell bad? Leeks, onion, garlic. Everything the world has to offer will gratify your carnal appetite and make your testimony stink in the nostrils of people. I hate to tell you this folks, but lost people expect a lot more of you than you’d like to believe. Remember before you got saved, do you remember how critical you were about Christians? How you picked them to pieces over every little thing they did, and you knew everything that was wrong that Christians shouldn’t be doing. And then you got saved and got amnesia! Huh? Now you can’t quite remember all that stuff you use to know so well.
I got saved on a Sunday night in my bedroom after the Sunday night service. I got saved out of the drug scene, I was a bouncer in a bar room. I’m not proud of that, but that’s who I am. So the next day on Monday, (I got saved on Sunday) I went to a gas station in the morning and ran into one of my old buddies. This guy was a drug dealer, but he was also a holiness preacher’s son and his daddy was a good man. So this guy is familiar with Bible terminology because his dad is a preacher. He said, “Hey man, lets go party.”
I said.. “Nah.”
Well, he knew me enough to know I never said no to that. He said, “Come on, we’ll smoke my dope.”
I said, “No, I don’t want to.” He asked me three or four times and then he looked at me and said, “Did you get saved?”
I said… “Yeah, yeah I did.”
He said, “Well, don’t be ashamed of it!” I’m being rebuked by a drug dealer less than 24 hours after getting saved for not speaking up! He expected me to speak up. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;” (Psalm 107:2)
Another day I was still a brand new convert, saved for a short time, and I was zealous. I’m up there witnessing and smoking my cigarette. Some guy looked at me and said, “I don’t want to hear none of that while you’re puffing on that weed.” He was smoking one too, so what was the big deal? He expected more of me, and he knew a Christian is not suppose to do that.
I pulled in to a gas station, had my rock music blaring, you could hear the bass vibrating from three blocks away. I pulled in and started pumping gas. One of the guys I had witnessed to repeatedly and I had only been saved a couple of months at the time, he came out and said, “Hey! I thought you got saved?”
I said, “I did get saved! What do you mean, you thought I got saved?”
He said, “If you got saved, then what are you doing listening to the devil’s music?” It was the same music he was listening to! By the way, he knew what he was listening to, and he knew a Christian shouldn’t be listening to it. Now if you think preachers are tough on you, I’ll turn a couple of these sinners loose on you, and you’ll be glad to get back to me!
But everything this world has to offer may excite your carnal appetite, but it will destroy your testimony and make it a stench in the nostrils of people who desperately need to hear the Word of God. But this person in the wilderness is too far from Canaan to enjoy the milk and honey and too far from Egypt to enjoy the leeks, melons, onion and garlic of Egypt. One problem is that he’s never ever tasted the milk and honey, he didn’t go far enough to get it. But he has tasted the leeks, the melon, the onion, the garlic of Egypt and it tasted better to him after awhile than the manna, the monotony of the manna day after day. Oh yes God is providing and no its not bad. It had a good flavor, but no variety.
If you only come out from the world and never go on to the consecrated life, if you’re not careful you’ll put yourself in a position where you start yearning to go back to oppression and put yourself under Pharaoh again. Separation without consecration, standards without a devoted walk with God will make you feel oppressed in time. And the problem is not, “The preacher’s the standards are too high, he got me to quit doing this and got me out of that and now I don’t have anything.” Your problem is not that you went too far. The problem is that you didn’t go far enough. It’s not that the preacher took you too far, he took you as far as he can and you didn’t finish the journey, you didn’t cross the Jordan. You didn’t do for yourself what he couldn’t do for you. You didn’t consecrate yourself, and for that reason you’re missing out.
Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,...” He’s not just talking about my soul and spirit that nobody can see. He said I’m suppose to give my body as a living sacrifice. The difference is that you offer a dying sacrifice one time. You must offer a living sacrifice every single day. He said I’m to give my body, “...a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God...” Only what is holy is acceptable to God.
To consecrate means ‘to fill the hand.’ God is very particular about what is in His hands. I dare say, ladies in particular, and men too, there are some things that you would not permit someone to put in your hand. You would not have it. I’m here to tell you that God is not going to have His hand filled with worldliness, carnality, sin, pride and selfishness. It’s not going to happen folks.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2) Don’t miss this, He said it is my “reasonable service” to give my body a living sacrifice, to be holy so it’s acceptable, and then to give my life, my body as a sacrifice.
It’s my reasonable service. Do you know why? Because I’ve been purchased with blood. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19) So he said we’ve been redeemed by blood. You know what that means. It means God paid more for me than I’m worth, even on my best day, and you only have one best day. All the rest are inferior.
God paid more for me than I am worth. He’s talking to these carnal Christians in I Corinthians 6:19-20. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Wait a minute, we’ve been purchased with blood. We are the property of God legally. At salvation I became the property of God. At consecration He gets in His hand to use what He has purchased with blood.
Let me ask you a question. How many of you have ever purchased something? So when you make a purchase, whether it’s food, clothing, fuel. Did you purchase a car just so you could say “I have one of those”? No. You purchased it so you could... what? Use it? Oh, I see, when you purchase something with money you purchase it so you can use it, right? And you think God purchased you with blood just so He could say, “I have one of those.” You think a lot of yourself, don’t you?! Hey, God intended for us to fill His hand, to be available, to be used. God intended to use our lives, but it is in consecration that we make ourselves available to Him.
Now let me illustrate this for you, Suppose you purchase a used car from me. I sell you my personal vehicle. You pay me in full, I give you a bill of sale, dated and signed that says paid in full. And we go together to the notary where I sign off the title, and you sign on the title. The notary notarizes it and sends it off to the state capitol. I have the money and the notary gives you your temporary owner’s card, pink or yellow slip, whatever you get in this state.
Let me ask you a question. At this point in the transaction, who does the vehicle legally belong to -- the seller or the buyer? The buyer. I have the money, you have the bill of sale, I signed off the title, you signed on. It’s notarized and on the way to the capitol, and you have a temporary owner’s card. The car legally belongs to the buyer, you. The only problem is that we did all this transacting of business with the vehicle sitting in my driveway, which wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.
So a couple hours after we do the business end, you come by and knock on my door. I come to the door and say, “Yeah, what do you want?”
You say, “I came to get my car”
“What do you mean your car?”
“Well you said you wanted to sell it.”
“Yeah I wanted to sell it because I need the money. But I want to keep driving it, too.” What do you call a guy like that? An independent, funda.... I mean, a crook! But isn’t that what you want to do? You wanted to be purchased with blood out of the slave market of sin, never to return. And then you want to keep on living your life like you are your own.
Hey when you live like you’re your own, you spend your life in the wilderness and never cross the Jordan. He said, “I brought you out, not so you could be out, but I brought you out that I might bring you in. This was not just about escape. This was about inheriting and about communion with Me. I brought you out that I may bring you in.”
By the way, we have people today who describe themselves as ‘recovering fundamentalists.’ They claim they’ve been damaged by some preacher who had too many standards. The truth damaged you? The Bible tells us that Moses had some of those, too. Look at their accusation. Exodus 16:2-3 “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Wait a minute, not only is what they said inaccurate. These people are delusional! They’re remembering things that never happened! “When we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full...” They didn’t sit by the flesh pots and eat bread to the full! They were driven by hard task masters and made brick without straw for Pharoah. They were so heavily oppressed that their cry came up to Heaven before God. You better be careful! If you wander in the wilderness long enough, you’ll start to become delusional and start remembering something good about Egypt, when there wasn’t anything good about Egypt. You’ll start yearning to go back to Pharoah’s bondage.
But listen to their accusation against Moses: “You brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole congregation or this whole assembly with hunger.” He didn’t bring them forth into the wilderness to be in the wilderness. He brought them out that He might bring them in, but He wouldn’t force them to go in. They’re in the wilderness by their own choice, but it’s the preacher’s fault, because he should have left us in Egypt where we were so happy. Yeah, right! That’s why you were begging God for deliverance. “He should have just kept letting us make brick for Pharaoh, even though we’ve been redeemed by the blood of the Son of God. We’d rather make brick for Pharaoh.” The truth wasn’t how you remembered it in your delusional state, just because you have a few hardships. But people remember things in Egypt as if they were wonderful. They did have the leeks, melon, onion and garlic, but they didn’t sit around and eat bread to the full like they said they did. They were enslaved and driven and beaten and abused. You’re remembering things that never happened!
You know, there is the pleasure of sin for a season, and when you were lost you experienced the ‘pleasures of sin for a season.’ The Bible tells us in Luke 8:14 that those carnal, temporal pleasures choke the Word of God. But He brought them out, not to kill them in the wilderness, but to bring them into the consecrated, blessed life of fellowship and service to God.
They accused Moses, the leader, of having ill intentions or at least an ill impact on them. Remember in Luke 9:54, when Jesus was rejected, and His disciples said, “...Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them...” (Luke 9:55-56) God didn’t bring us out to destroy us. It was ‘for our good always.’ He didn’t give us standards to oppress us, it is for our good always. He didn’t try to bring us in so He could enslave us. It was for our good always.
Everything God does is for our good always. He proved His unselfishness at Calvary when He gave His only begotten Son to die as our Substitute. The problem is that people who have never been consecrated and have never tasted the milk and honey, they have no clue what they are missing in consecration. The only thing they know is what they left behind in Egypt, and now they’re wandering in the wilderness too far from Egypt to have the leeks and onions, and too far from Canaan to have the milk and honey. But since they haven’t tasted this in Canaan yet, they have no way to compare how much better it is than anything the world, the flesh and the devil have to offer.
Psalms 34:8 says, “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” You know, there’s a certain element of commitment to tasting. If I’m going to taste something, I first have to put it in my mouth. A lot of us, spiritually, are like little children who come to the table and see something green like broccoli. They look at it and say “Ugh, I don’t like that!”
“Have you ever tasted it?”
“No! I don’t like it!” Once they ever get a taste, they lick the bowl clean.
Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, its hard to be a Christian. It’s hard to live a consecrated life.” You wouldn’t know if you make that statement, because you are making a judgment without ever trying it. You’ve never tasted.
Proverbs 13:15 says, ”...the way of transgressors is hard.” He told Saul of Tarshish on the road to Damascus, “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks...” hard to fight Holy Ghost conviction. It is hard to live in sin and transgression. Its not hard to live for God, not hard to fill the hand of God, not hard to be in the Promise Land, not hard to enjoy the milk and honey of Canaan, not hard to commune with God and lay hold of my inheritance. That’s the purpose for which I exist. You stop short of that and you missed it all. If you don’t go in to the Promised Land, you’re going to end up wanting to go back at some point,.
You know, there are pleasures you know nothing about unless you’ve been ‘in.’ “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalms 16:11) Yes, there is pleasure of sin for a season, there is pleasure of this life that chokes the word. But there are eternal pleasures at His right hand, pleasures for evermore. You say, “What does that mean?”
Have you ever heard someone say, “This guy is my right hand man?” You’ve heard that statement. “This person is my right hand, this is my right hand man.” It is the person who is near at hand, available, usable, that does the bidding of the one speaking. That’s my goal. I’d like to be God’s right hand man. God said that’s the place of eternal blessing and, by the way, there is room for all of us there at His right hand, where there is pleasure for evermore. There’s that milk and honey, there’s that communion, that spiritual pleasure.
You know, the reason we can get so content with the world and looking at it so favorably is because we never tasted the real stuff. If the only thing you had ever tasted for milk in your life was powdered milk, then you might actually develop a taste for that stuff! But I could cure you of that in short order. All I would have to do is give you a drink of the real stuff with the cream on it, and you’d never have any hankerings for powdered milk again. Once you tasted the real stuff, you could never handle the powdered milk imitation.
Friend, if I could ever get you to cross over into the Promised Land, into the consecrated life of filling God’s hand and being used by Him, if I could ever get you in, you would find real pleasure in life, spiritual pleasure that lasts. But you have to make that choice. Somebody can tell you where Kadesh is, somebody could lead you to the brink of Jordan. But you have to be willing to cross over, you have to be willing to fill the hand of God. You have to be willing to reckon yourself dead indeed to sin, and alive unto God. Nobody can do that for you.
Just remember that Egypt is a type of the world and when God talks about the world, He doesn’t talk about it in good terms. First John 2:15-17 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
Hey listen to me folks, in those few verses He tells us the world is a thief that attempts to steal your affection away from God. You know the first and great commandment is, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” (Mark 12:30) The world wants to steal that affection away from God.
You can’t love the world and love God at the same time. Too often, instead of setting our affections, we allow it to be stolen. You know if you take a thermometer and put it in the deep freeze, it lowers to the temperature of the deep freeze. If you take the same thermometer and put it in a oven it rises to the temperature of the oven. It adjusts to whatever it’s exposed to. But you know, we have these things in the building called thermostats. They’re not thermometers that respond to everything and adjust themselves to the temperature around them. No. The thermostat, once you set it, it controls and dictates the temperature and the atmosphere around it.
We have way too many thermometer Christians and not enough thermostat Christians. “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:2) You’re suppose to ‘set your affection’ and impact the area where you live and not be impacted by the world, but have a impact on it for the glory of God.
The second thing He tells is in those verses is that the world is a set of carnal appetites to corrupt you, the lust of the flesh -- that’s an appetite, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Those are all carnal fleshly appetites. Then He said the world is a promise without fulfillment, the world passeth away and the lust there of. The world promises all kind of things, but once the world passes away, it cannot keep its promise, the world cannot deliver. It’s a cloud without rain. It’s a promise without fulfillment.
You know, if you separated from the world and then stop short of consecration, you are stranded in the wilderness. You’ll either die in the wilderness or you’ll go back to Egypt or you’ll let somebody help you get across the Jordan to the intended goal.
He brought us out, not so we could be out, it wasn’t about escape. He brought us out that He might bring us in, in consecration. Psalms 78:41 tells us about the children of Ephraim, how they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy one of Israel. “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” You do not want to do that. If you stop in the wilderness that is where you will die. You don’t want to spend the rest of your life wandering in the wilderness. They spent 40 years, a whole generation, wandering in the wilderness. Too far from Egypt to have what the world offers. But too far from Canaan to enjoy the milk and honey. They could have crossed over in about 11 days, but instead they spent 40 years murmuring, complaining, yearning for something substandard, because they never went far enough to get a taste of the fullness of the blessing of God.
Let me ask you a question. Do you even have a Passover, a time and place when you applied the blood to the door post and lentil of your heart and experienced the new birth, deliverance from the judgment of God? If your answer is a confident yes, then wonderful!
Have you come out of Egypt or are you still in there making brick for Pharaoh? Never did quite get out, never did cross over the Red Sea in separation from the world. Have you crossed over and put the world behind you, or are you looking back? Are you still in the wilderness?
You need to go far enough to enter into the fullness of the blessing of God, far enough to get a taste of the milk and honey that the consecrated life has to offer. He brought us out that He might bring us in. The Bible tells us about people who turned back and it can be very dangerous. In John 6:66, (I always thought that was an interesting reference) Jesus had made a statement and they said, “This is a hard saying, who can receive it?” And it says, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” The tragic thing is they went back and never returned, walked no more with Him. You better be careful about going back to Egypt -- you may go back permanently and never return. They went back and walked no more with him.
You can decide what you’re going to do. You can spend your whole life in Egypt. You can spend your whole life in the wilderness. Or you can come out from the world in separation and come in to God’s fullness of blessing in consecration. Come out in separation, come in in consecration, and enjoy the fulness of the blessings of God. Maybe you like the wilderness, maybe you like making bricks for Pharaoh, but I doubt it.
I’m telling you there’s something better if you ever go far enough to just get a taste. All the yearnings you have for the world and sin would disappear, because what God has is the real stuff. “O taste and see that the LORD is good:...” (Psalms 34:8)
