Dwell Deep
by Dr. Tom Malone
Dr. Tom Malone was greatly used of God and well-loved across the nation. He was the pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac, Michigan, and founder/president of Midwestern Baptist College. He graduated to glory in January 2007.
“Concerning Edom, thus saith the LORD of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished? Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him. If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough. But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not. Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me. For thus saith the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. For I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. I have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men. Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD. Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.” (Jeremiah 49:7-17)
You’ll find that there are six whole chapters in the book of Jeremiah that have to do with the same subject -- the judgment of God upon the enemies of Israel. To understand how it’s going to be in the end times, I think you have to realize what God is doing. This is one thing God is going to do before it’s all over. He will judge the people who are enemies against the Jews. God said to Abraham when He called him, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.” (Genesis 12:3) These chapters have solely to do with the judgment of God in the end time upon the enemies of Israel.
But in the midst of all this, there is a verse of Scripture that God used to speak to my heart, and I need Him to speak to me so much. In verse eight we read, “Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.”
God said to a certain people, the inhabitants of Dedan, not to Esau and his descendants, not to Edom, whom He’s going to bring judgment upon, but to a certain group of people, “Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan.” When you find out who the inhabitants of Dedan are, you see a wonderful picture in the Bible of yourself.
The people of Dedan were called in Isaiah 21:13, “O ye travelling companies of Dedanim.” Edom was not their home. The judgment of God is going to come upon Edom. But God sees these people travelling up and down in Edom, who were merchants, and God said to them, “I don’t want to bring judgment upon you. You’re not an inhabitant of this land. No judgment shall come to you. “Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan.”
In other words God is saying, “You need to find yourself some deep place in a cave or in the woods, some deep, safe place, and when judgment comes, it will over pass you, because you’re not a citizen of this country I’m going to judge.”
I can’t help but say I see you and me in this wonderful picture. This world is really not our home. Like the old song says, “We’re just passing through.”
I read of wonderful Abraham in the great faith chapter, where it says Abraham sojourned in the land of Canaan. Think about it. God said, “I’m giving you this land. Abraham, this is your land.” But the Bible says Abraham sojourned. That means he never felt at home there. The next verse or two says he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.
Paul said our citizenship is in Heaven, from whence we look for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall change our vile bodies and make them like unto His own. This is not our home. We’re just travelers here.
I think God looks upon us as traveling merchants, merchandising, so to speak. Occupying till He comes. Giving out the Gospel. Using the Gospel of God to get people saved. We’re just traveling people here. This is not our home. I thank God for that.
I love my country. I love the home that I share with my dear wife. I’d rather be there than anywhere else in all the world. But it’s really just a ‘home away from home.’ Heaven is our true home. We’re foreigners here. We’re not like the Edomites. We’re like the Dedanites, who traveled up and down through that country and sojourned there.
Abraham never built a house. He lived in tents. He never felt at home in the land God gave him. God said, “It’s yours.” But he said, “I’m just a sojourner here.” He never built a permanent dwelling place.
Oh, how the child of God ought to think, “This is not our home. We’re just traveling through.” And as we go through, we have something to give, thank God.
I want to take this little expression, “Dwell deep,” and talk to you about it for a little bit. I’m not talking about anything that’s beyond myself. I have to understand it myself. It’s not beyond you when I talk about “dwelling deep” in God. It’s possible for every one of us to do this.
The Bible says, “Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.” (Isaiah 37:31) You’ll never bear any more fruit for God than you have depth of root in the things of God, in spiritual things, and in the Bible, and in God Himself.
Take root downward. That’s the unseen part. You see me in the pulpit. But I thank God it’s talking about something else. It’s talking about dwelling deep in God. I want to suggest some ways that I believe God wants us to dwell deep in Him.
We need to dwell deeper in the Bible. I believe with all my heart that all of the Bible is for you and me. All of it is not addressed to me, but the Bible makes it clear, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” This is not just “a Bible;” this is my Bible. I feel like the Psalmist who said, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103)
It’s the Christian who’s dwelling deep in the Bible that God can put His hand on and lead and teach and train. It’s the child of God who dwells deep that God can use. Dwell deep in the Bible. Make the Bible a daily habit, to seek the face of God in His holy Word.
I’m not talking about profound, theological things. I’m talking about a Christian with his soul and his heart and his spirit dwelling deep in the Word of God daily, letting God speak to you.
How sweet is this Bible? It’s sweet to me when I know I’ve sinned. God has a remedy. Who has not sinned since they’ve been saved? I’m not talking about before hand; I’m talking about since that day when you were born again and given a new nature and washed in the blood and indwelt with the Spirit of God. Since that day, you’ve sinned against God. There is no man on earth that sinneth not. How sweet it is, when conscience convicts and sin makes us miserable; there is a remedy in the Bible. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
This precious Book will keep you clean. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” (Psalm 119:9) This Book is precious when you’ve sinned against God. Here’s where you come and get it all straightened out.
For years, my wife and I wouldn’t have a microwave oven in our home. I can see myself putting my hand inside one of those things, closing the door, turning it on, and my hand be gone. I said, “I never want one of those things in this house.” I think I scared my wife about it, too. So everybody else talked about how you could heat a cup of coffee in a minute, and bake a potato and pop popcorn and all that kind of business, how convenient it was, but I said, “Not in this house.”
But one day, when we bought a new stove, it came with a beautiful microwave oven as a part of it. So we have a microwave oven in our house. I never will forget the first time I tried to use it. I’m just like you men. I don’t like to ask Joyce, “How do you do this? How do you do that?” I want to make her think I already know how.
I like popcorn, so I put some in, and I touched the buttons and dials, and I set what I thought was four minutes like it said on the box. I stepped back and waited. I noticed the popcorn was getting black. It’s not supposed to. I discovered I was going to cook it 40 minutes if I didn’t do something in a hurry. I looked on the dial and there was a place that said “Clear.” That is, you push that button and everything goes off, and everything changes.
God put such a thing in the Bible for the Christian. When you know there is sin in your life, just confess it, and He’s faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How sweet is this Bible! Dwell deep in the Word of God.
How sweet it is to those whose minds are confused. The Bible says, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” (Psalm 119:165) If you dwell in the Bible, it will change your whole thinking. You’ll think right. You’ll think about God and heaven and souls. You’ll think about your church and the work of God, and what you can do and how the Lord could use you. Your mind won’t be filled up with all these things that don’t mean a thing in the world.
Most people are living in the area of trivia and of things insignificant, but those that dwell deep in the Word of God will have comfort in their minds and in their hearts from this wonderful Book. It’s a Book that brings peace to your mind when you’re troubled. It strengthens you when you’re weak. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13)
I’m going on 80 years of age. Sometimes I think, “Lord, I don’t think I can make another step or put one foot in front of the other one.” But I have a wonderful verse. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” I often say to the Lord, “Lord, thank You. You didn’t say, ‘As thy strength, so shall thy days be.’ “ My, what a mess I’d be in!
No matter what comes tomorrow, God will give me strength. That’s what He promised in His Word. That’s what I get out of the Bible. Dwell deep in the Bible. God will say so much to you.
Some people, the only time they ever hear the Bible read is when they come to church and hear the preacher read it. Read it yourself! You have a better Teacher than the pastor. You have the Holy Spirit of God in your life who wrote this Book and knows how to tell you what it says. Dwell deep in the Bible.
It’s a wonderful Book for those who are broken hearted. This world is filled with broken hearts. What great comfort comes from this Bible. All of us know what it means to have a broken heart. I’ve had my heart broken many, many times since I’ve been saved. I’ve had to go to my Bible. I could not get the comfort I needed from my wife who loves me and would give her life for me, and I would for her. But a person can only go so far in drying the tears and healing the wounds and helping the broken heart, but God can go all the way. You take this old Book and get alone with God, and God will put the balm of Gilead on your wounded soul, and God will help you. Dwell deep in the Bible.
We need to dwell deeper in the knowledge of Christ. You say to me, “Preacher, I know the Lord.” I know that you know the Lord. But the Bible says, “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD...” (Hosea 6:3) I would like to talk to you about some people in the Bible who seemed to know the Lord. Job said, “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.” (Job 22:21) We need to get better acquainted with Jesus. I know Him as the Saviour. I want to know Him as a Shepherd all the way. I want to know Him as the Sanctifier. I want to know Him as a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. I want to know Him as my Advocate at the throne. I want to know Him as my coming King. I want to know Him as my Priest, who represents me to the Heavenly Father. I want to know Him as a constant Companion, who will never leave me nor forsake me. There’s a lot I could say about knowing Christ.
Thomas Brooks, over four hundred years ago, said, “Study four things. Study the Bible daily. Make a search of the Bible. Make it the point of your life to study the Word of God. Know the wiles of the devil. We’re not ignorant of his devices. Study Christ.”
I get into churches where I don’t see Jesus too much. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. I believe when we come up to the house of God, we come to lift up the Lord Jesus, to praise His holy Name, and hold Him up until people see no man, save Jesus only. Lifting up the Lord. When we come to know Him so that we can lift Him up in all of His glory and His power and His ability to save, how wonderful it is to lift up Christ, and to hold Him up. Oh, God, give us a burning heart just to show Christ to the world, and know Him with all of our soul and heart and mind, and love Him more than we love anything else in all the world. Dwell deep in the knowledge of Christ.
I believe we ought to dwell deep in soulwinning. I think our generation has been deceived about soulwinning by some people. A lot of people say, “You can’t win souls now. People have changed. This is the last days.” I think that’s one of the dumbest expressions I’ve ever heard by so-called theologians. And they can say it differently than anybody in the world. Theologians don’t talk like us. They say, “Brethren, we’re in the last days,” and I want to vomit when I hear it. We’ve been in the last days for two thousand years! When the last days started, they started with an old fashioned revival with three thousand people saved and baptized!
A lot of churches don’t magnify their people getting baptized anymore. A young man came to me recently and said, “I won eight to Christ yesterday.” Good. That’s the sweetest news I ever heard. Eight people saved. Isn’t that wonderful? I said to him, “Did you get their names?” “No, I don’t know their names.” I said, “Did you talk to them about coming to church and getting baptized?” “No, I never thought of that.”
A lot of deacons, Sunday School teachers, born again Christians, people who know the Lord and believe the Bible, they don’t ever think of it, either. But I want to tell you, God thought about it! It’s part of the Great Commission. Matthew 28 speaks of baptizing people after they get saved.
I’m studying the Book of Acts and trying to teach the Book of Acts from my heart, instead of some old, cold, dead outline. In the Book of Acts, God’s pattern is (1) get saved, and (2) get baptized. That’s what God said. “...and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.” (Acts 18:8) Time after time in the Book of Acts when people got saved they got baptized. If people don’t see a new convert walk in that pool every Lord’s day, if they don’t see someone who has been saved follow in obedience to Christ and be baptized, and see the death, the burial and resurrection of Jesus pictured, which is the Gospel of our Lord, they’re missing something. Churches need to see people baptized regularly.
People say to me, “Don’t you think being saved is the important thing?” Why, certainly it is. But we don’t baptize goats. We get people saved to be baptized.
I have some people in my church, God bless them, they think they’re the only ones in the world that can show somebody how to be saved. They want to go over it with a guy five or six times, just to be sure that he “means it.” They want to scare somebody to death, because they don’t care whether they believe or get baptized. I want to tell you, if you believe in Christ, and His work on the cross and His resurrection from the grave and His power to save you, accept Him, a Person, you’re saved.
You say, “Well, that little boy is only eight years old. I don’t know if he understands or not.” Jesus talked like they did. He said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)
I don’t mean to get off on this, but a lot of people don’t like bus kids running around. I had a fella in my church. He’s gone to heaven, so he has it all straightened out now. I loved him. He was a head shorter than me. He came to me one Sunday morning and said, “Brother Tom, if you don’t do something about these bus kids, they’re going to tear the water fountains right off the walls, so help me.”
I said, “We’re going to do something about them.”
He didn’t know what I meant. I meant we were going to keep bringing them. We’re going to keep winning them. We’re going to keep baptizing them. We’re going to keep our Sunday School teachers teaching them the Book. We’re going to keep trying to win their parents to the Lord.
But so help me, I tell you the truth; I lie not. The next Sunday morning they tore one of the water fountains right off the wall. It was lying in the hallway and the water was running everywhere. He came to me and he said, “I told you they were going to do that, and you wouldn’t listen to me.”
I said, “We’re going to do something about it.”
I get so sick of these people who wonder whether a person is saved or not according to how they got to church; whether they rode an old yellow bus, or came in a Cadillac Seville. I’ve never owned a Cadillac in my life. I’ve often been jealous of people who have them, but I’ve never had one.
What difference does it make to Jesus how you get to church? Ride a donkey. Ride a mule, like I used to. Walk. Come in a Cadillac. But coming to Christ is something else. We need to win people to Christ and get them baptized. That’s what the Bible teaches.
I preach this same way in my church. I was out of it for seven years. It’s awful what can happen to a church in seven years. Twenty-one people baptized in that church in the whole year of 1993. Twenty-one people. I remember the day we averaged 30 per week. No credit to me. I had people who would shake the bushes and comb the woods. They’d come with more people than they could lead down the aisle to be saved and to be baptized. Thank God for such people.
Churches are dying in America, because they’ve departed from what’s closest to the heart of God. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) That’s what it’s all about.
There were 91 people there on the first Sunday of January, 1994. I was not there. I was on the road traveling for seven years, gone every week. When I was asked by a little group of bleeding, broken hearted people, “Brother Tom, will you please, please, take us back?”
I knew just that quickly. I didn’t have to pray. I just knew what God wanted me to do. I said, “Yes, I will.”
About the third week of January, 1994, I became the pastor once again. The baptistry had no water in it. It was muddy. It hadn’t been used. I’m not belittling anybody. I made up my mind, if I’m going to let God use me, I’m not going to be able to have something in this heart of mine against someone, no matter what they’ve done, or how wrong they are. I can’t hold a grudge. You’d be better off to have a cancer in your body than a grudge in your heart.
I’m not criticizing, and I’m not boasting; I’m just praising the Lord. By the help of God, I’m determined. In the first 11 months we baptized 106 people. It took three weeks to get the baptistry clean and fixed where it wouldn’t leak. Thank God we see people saved and baptized all the time. I’m not talking about something big. Last Sunday six people were baptized. Twelve people were saved. Six people joined the church. It’s happening that way. And I want to tell you, it has to happen that way in your church, too. If it’s not happening in your church, you’re not pleasing God. We need to go deeper in soulwinning.
I want to tell you a wonderful story. There are a lot of old people in Emmanuel Baptist Church. I’ve seen one whole generation, thousands of people, go to heaven. I visited in January of this year 40 homebound, older people. I visited them two or three times. I keep up with them all the time. In 1994 there were 37 homebound people I visited all during the year. Seven of them died. About one out of five went on to heaven.
There’s an old couple in the church I visited two or three times. They were members of the church for years. She was saved. He was raised a Catholic and would always say, “Yeah, I’m alright. I’m alright.” He came to church with her as regularly as our deacons come.
People talked to him. They’d go to him. “Be sure you have Christ in your heart.”
“I’m alright. I’m alright.” But he really wasn’t saved.
He was 93, and she was a year or two younger. His hands were stiff with arthritis. At home she didn’t have her shoes on, and her toes were curled back under. She tried to walk across the floor in great pain. The two of them were trying to stay in their home, they’d been there so long together.
He got sick and went into the hospital. She loved Jesus. She had somebody take her up to the hospital. One of our workers was up there visiting her husband. There was a Catholic nun in the room, a sister, they’re called. This worker from our church said to our dear sister, “Take this lady (the Catholic nun) out in the hall and talk to her. I’m going to get Bill saved.”
He’d heard men preach wonderful sermons, and never got saved. He’d had dozens of people witness to him, and he never got saved.
So she took the nun out in the hall. You know, God shows some people some things that the theologians don’t know anything about. That old woman standing out in the hall said to that Catholic nun, “You know, you folks departed from the teaching of Peter.” I wouldn’t have thought to say that.
She said, “What do you mean?”
“Well, Peter said, ‘There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved’ except the name of Jesus.”
She said, “What do you mean, being saved?” I’m talking about a poor, Catholic nun, learned all the catechisms, and the false history of the Catholic church, and falsehood about Mary and about the pope, and about Peter.
She said, “What do you mean, being saved?”
“Well, I’ll show you.” So an old, 93 year old woman who could hardly stand on her feet, said, “Getting saved is trusting Jesus Christ. He’s the only Saviour, the only way to heaven. He died for you. He bore your sins on the cross. Being saved is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.” And she got saved. She not only got her saved, she got her stirred up.
Up there in the thumb of Michigan where she was raised there were three Catholic churches. She knew all the priests. She went to one and said, “You know, we’ve departed from the teaching of Peter.”
He said, “What do you mean?”
She said, “I mean, Peter said, ‘There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,’ except the name of Jesus.”
He said, “You know, I thought that. I’ll tell you what. I believe I’m going to search that out, and I’m going to preach on that next Sunday.”
She was 93 years old, all crippled up, never saw a day in Bible school, but loved God and loved His Word, and knew what it meant to be saved, and wanted to get people to Christ.
That nun calls her all the time and says, “I believe that God wants me out of this.” I believe one day she’s going to take off that habit and throw it away, and she’s going to look like the rest of us, because the Lord is the one who saved her. She’s one of the happiest women that you could ever imagine, and talks all the time to this older lady.
She called me a few nights ago and said, “Brother Tom, don’t you think you ought to write this story?”
I said, “Yes, I believe I should, but I don’t think it’s over yet. Let’s wait a while and see what happens to the priests.”
There’s an old crippled woman bringing folks to Christ. I have people who are able bodied, even athletes who could jump over these pews, but they won’t knock on any door, because it’s not in their heart, and they’re not right with God. That’s disobedient to Jesus and the Bible. We need to dwell deeper in winning souls to Christ.
I believe we need to dwell deeper in prayer. “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jeremiah 33:3) You can’t pray too much. Little prayer, little power. More prayer, more power. Much prayer, much power. We need to pray for the power of God.
Prayer is such a wonderful thing. It’s a power bringer. It’s a victory giver. It’s a holiness promoter. It’s a dispute adjuster. It’s an obstacle remover. It’s a sin killer. It’s a heart warmer. It’s a soul cleanser. It’s a Christ revealer. Oh, how we ought to pray. Dwell deeper in prayer.
I believe we need to dwell deeper in the power of God. I feel somewhat intimidated when I think about the power of God. Dwell deeper in the power of the Spirit. Jesus said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me...” (Acts 1:8) A woman said, “You know, I don’t need all this fullness of the Spirit business, because I’m not an evangelist. I’m not going to be a missionary. I have six children to raise.”
Someone said to her, “If you want to raise six children like God wants them raised, you’re going to need the fullness of the Spirit of God.”
In these last days, the world is gone crazy, and we may yet see God’s judgment being poured out upon the enemies of His people. But we’re just passing through this old world. Our home is in Heaven. God says the judgment will pass over us if we’ll dwell deep.
Dwell deep in the things of God. Dwell deep in the word of God. In the knowledge of Christ. In soulwinning. In prayer. In the power of God. There is protection and comfort for you there, and safety in the midst of the storm. Dwell Deep.
You’ll find that there are six whole chapters in the book of Jeremiah that have to do with the same subject -- the judgment of God upon the enemies of Israel. To understand how it’s going to be in the end times, I think you have to realize what God is doing. This is one thing God is going to do before it’s all over. He will judge the people who are enemies against the Jews. God said to Abraham when He called him, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.” (Genesis 12:3) These chapters have solely to do with the judgment of God in the end time upon the enemies of Israel.
But in the midst of all this, there is a verse of Scripture that God used to speak to my heart, and I need Him to speak to me so much. In verse eight we read, “Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.”
God said to a certain people, the inhabitants of Dedan, not to Esau and his descendants, not to Edom, whom He’s going to bring judgment upon, but to a certain group of people, “Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan.” When you find out who the inhabitants of Dedan are, you see a wonderful picture in the Bible of yourself.
The people of Dedan were called in Isaiah 21:13, “O ye travelling companies of Dedanim.” Edom was not their home. The judgment of God is going to come upon Edom. But God sees these people travelling up and down in Edom, who were merchants, and God said to them, “I don’t want to bring judgment upon you. You’re not an inhabitant of this land. No judgment shall come to you. “Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan.”
In other words God is saying, “You need to find yourself some deep place in a cave or in the woods, some deep, safe place, and when judgment comes, it will over pass you, because you’re not a citizen of this country I’m going to judge.”
I can’t help but say I see you and me in this wonderful picture. This world is really not our home. Like the old song says, “We’re just passing through.”
I read of wonderful Abraham in the great faith chapter, where it says Abraham sojourned in the land of Canaan. Think about it. God said, “I’m giving you this land. Abraham, this is your land.” But the Bible says Abraham sojourned. That means he never felt at home there. The next verse or two says he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.
Paul said our citizenship is in Heaven, from whence we look for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall change our vile bodies and make them like unto His own. This is not our home. We’re just travelers here.
I think God looks upon us as traveling merchants, merchandising, so to speak. Occupying till He comes. Giving out the Gospel. Using the Gospel of God to get people saved. We’re just traveling people here. This is not our home. I thank God for that.
I love my country. I love the home that I share with my dear wife. I’d rather be there than anywhere else in all the world. But it’s really just a ‘home away from home.’ Heaven is our true home. We’re foreigners here. We’re not like the Edomites. We’re like the Dedanites, who traveled up and down through that country and sojourned there.
Abraham never built a house. He lived in tents. He never felt at home in the land God gave him. God said, “It’s yours.” But he said, “I’m just a sojourner here.” He never built a permanent dwelling place.
Oh, how the child of God ought to think, “This is not our home. We’re just traveling through.” And as we go through, we have something to give, thank God.
I want to take this little expression, “Dwell deep,” and talk to you about it for a little bit. I’m not talking about anything that’s beyond myself. I have to understand it myself. It’s not beyond you when I talk about “dwelling deep” in God. It’s possible for every one of us to do this.
The Bible says, “Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.” (Isaiah 37:31) You’ll never bear any more fruit for God than you have depth of root in the things of God, in spiritual things, and in the Bible, and in God Himself.
Take root downward. That’s the unseen part. You see me in the pulpit. But I thank God it’s talking about something else. It’s talking about dwelling deep in God. I want to suggest some ways that I believe God wants us to dwell deep in Him.
We need to dwell deeper in the Bible. I believe with all my heart that all of the Bible is for you and me. All of it is not addressed to me, but the Bible makes it clear, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” This is not just “a Bible;” this is my Bible. I feel like the Psalmist who said, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103)
It’s the Christian who’s dwelling deep in the Bible that God can put His hand on and lead and teach and train. It’s the child of God who dwells deep that God can use. Dwell deep in the Bible. Make the Bible a daily habit, to seek the face of God in His holy Word.
I’m not talking about profound, theological things. I’m talking about a Christian with his soul and his heart and his spirit dwelling deep in the Word of God daily, letting God speak to you.
How sweet is this Bible? It’s sweet to me when I know I’ve sinned. God has a remedy. Who has not sinned since they’ve been saved? I’m not talking about before hand; I’m talking about since that day when you were born again and given a new nature and washed in the blood and indwelt with the Spirit of God. Since that day, you’ve sinned against God. There is no man on earth that sinneth not. How sweet it is, when conscience convicts and sin makes us miserable; there is a remedy in the Bible. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
This precious Book will keep you clean. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” (Psalm 119:9) This Book is precious when you’ve sinned against God. Here’s where you come and get it all straightened out.
For years, my wife and I wouldn’t have a microwave oven in our home. I can see myself putting my hand inside one of those things, closing the door, turning it on, and my hand be gone. I said, “I never want one of those things in this house.” I think I scared my wife about it, too. So everybody else talked about how you could heat a cup of coffee in a minute, and bake a potato and pop popcorn and all that kind of business, how convenient it was, but I said, “Not in this house.”
But one day, when we bought a new stove, it came with a beautiful microwave oven as a part of it. So we have a microwave oven in our house. I never will forget the first time I tried to use it. I’m just like you men. I don’t like to ask Joyce, “How do you do this? How do you do that?” I want to make her think I already know how.
I like popcorn, so I put some in, and I touched the buttons and dials, and I set what I thought was four minutes like it said on the box. I stepped back and waited. I noticed the popcorn was getting black. It’s not supposed to. I discovered I was going to cook it 40 minutes if I didn’t do something in a hurry. I looked on the dial and there was a place that said “Clear.” That is, you push that button and everything goes off, and everything changes.
God put such a thing in the Bible for the Christian. When you know there is sin in your life, just confess it, and He’s faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How sweet is this Bible! Dwell deep in the Word of God.
How sweet it is to those whose minds are confused. The Bible says, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” (Psalm 119:165) If you dwell in the Bible, it will change your whole thinking. You’ll think right. You’ll think about God and heaven and souls. You’ll think about your church and the work of God, and what you can do and how the Lord could use you. Your mind won’t be filled up with all these things that don’t mean a thing in the world.
Most people are living in the area of trivia and of things insignificant, but those that dwell deep in the Word of God will have comfort in their minds and in their hearts from this wonderful Book. It’s a Book that brings peace to your mind when you’re troubled. It strengthens you when you’re weak. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13)
I’m going on 80 years of age. Sometimes I think, “Lord, I don’t think I can make another step or put one foot in front of the other one.” But I have a wonderful verse. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” I often say to the Lord, “Lord, thank You. You didn’t say, ‘As thy strength, so shall thy days be.’ “ My, what a mess I’d be in!
No matter what comes tomorrow, God will give me strength. That’s what He promised in His Word. That’s what I get out of the Bible. Dwell deep in the Bible. God will say so much to you.
Some people, the only time they ever hear the Bible read is when they come to church and hear the preacher read it. Read it yourself! You have a better Teacher than the pastor. You have the Holy Spirit of God in your life who wrote this Book and knows how to tell you what it says. Dwell deep in the Bible.
It’s a wonderful Book for those who are broken hearted. This world is filled with broken hearts. What great comfort comes from this Bible. All of us know what it means to have a broken heart. I’ve had my heart broken many, many times since I’ve been saved. I’ve had to go to my Bible. I could not get the comfort I needed from my wife who loves me and would give her life for me, and I would for her. But a person can only go so far in drying the tears and healing the wounds and helping the broken heart, but God can go all the way. You take this old Book and get alone with God, and God will put the balm of Gilead on your wounded soul, and God will help you. Dwell deep in the Bible.
We need to dwell deeper in the knowledge of Christ. You say to me, “Preacher, I know the Lord.” I know that you know the Lord. But the Bible says, “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD...” (Hosea 6:3) I would like to talk to you about some people in the Bible who seemed to know the Lord. Job said, “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.” (Job 22:21) We need to get better acquainted with Jesus. I know Him as the Saviour. I want to know Him as a Shepherd all the way. I want to know Him as the Sanctifier. I want to know Him as a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. I want to know Him as my Advocate at the throne. I want to know Him as my coming King. I want to know Him as my Priest, who represents me to the Heavenly Father. I want to know Him as a constant Companion, who will never leave me nor forsake me. There’s a lot I could say about knowing Christ.
Thomas Brooks, over four hundred years ago, said, “Study four things. Study the Bible daily. Make a search of the Bible. Make it the point of your life to study the Word of God. Know the wiles of the devil. We’re not ignorant of his devices. Study Christ.”
I get into churches where I don’t see Jesus too much. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. I believe when we come up to the house of God, we come to lift up the Lord Jesus, to praise His holy Name, and hold Him up until people see no man, save Jesus only. Lifting up the Lord. When we come to know Him so that we can lift Him up in all of His glory and His power and His ability to save, how wonderful it is to lift up Christ, and to hold Him up. Oh, God, give us a burning heart just to show Christ to the world, and know Him with all of our soul and heart and mind, and love Him more than we love anything else in all the world. Dwell deep in the knowledge of Christ.
I believe we ought to dwell deep in soulwinning. I think our generation has been deceived about soulwinning by some people. A lot of people say, “You can’t win souls now. People have changed. This is the last days.” I think that’s one of the dumbest expressions I’ve ever heard by so-called theologians. And they can say it differently than anybody in the world. Theologians don’t talk like us. They say, “Brethren, we’re in the last days,” and I want to vomit when I hear it. We’ve been in the last days for two thousand years! When the last days started, they started with an old fashioned revival with three thousand people saved and baptized!
A lot of churches don’t magnify their people getting baptized anymore. A young man came to me recently and said, “I won eight to Christ yesterday.” Good. That’s the sweetest news I ever heard. Eight people saved. Isn’t that wonderful? I said to him, “Did you get their names?” “No, I don’t know their names.” I said, “Did you talk to them about coming to church and getting baptized?” “No, I never thought of that.”
A lot of deacons, Sunday School teachers, born again Christians, people who know the Lord and believe the Bible, they don’t ever think of it, either. But I want to tell you, God thought about it! It’s part of the Great Commission. Matthew 28 speaks of baptizing people after they get saved.
I’m studying the Book of Acts and trying to teach the Book of Acts from my heart, instead of some old, cold, dead outline. In the Book of Acts, God’s pattern is (1) get saved, and (2) get baptized. That’s what God said. “...and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.” (Acts 18:8) Time after time in the Book of Acts when people got saved they got baptized. If people don’t see a new convert walk in that pool every Lord’s day, if they don’t see someone who has been saved follow in obedience to Christ and be baptized, and see the death, the burial and resurrection of Jesus pictured, which is the Gospel of our Lord, they’re missing something. Churches need to see people baptized regularly.
People say to me, “Don’t you think being saved is the important thing?” Why, certainly it is. But we don’t baptize goats. We get people saved to be baptized.
I have some people in my church, God bless them, they think they’re the only ones in the world that can show somebody how to be saved. They want to go over it with a guy five or six times, just to be sure that he “means it.” They want to scare somebody to death, because they don’t care whether they believe or get baptized. I want to tell you, if you believe in Christ, and His work on the cross and His resurrection from the grave and His power to save you, accept Him, a Person, you’re saved.
You say, “Well, that little boy is only eight years old. I don’t know if he understands or not.” Jesus talked like they did. He said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)
I don’t mean to get off on this, but a lot of people don’t like bus kids running around. I had a fella in my church. He’s gone to heaven, so he has it all straightened out now. I loved him. He was a head shorter than me. He came to me one Sunday morning and said, “Brother Tom, if you don’t do something about these bus kids, they’re going to tear the water fountains right off the walls, so help me.”
I said, “We’re going to do something about them.”
He didn’t know what I meant. I meant we were going to keep bringing them. We’re going to keep winning them. We’re going to keep baptizing them. We’re going to keep our Sunday School teachers teaching them the Book. We’re going to keep trying to win their parents to the Lord.
But so help me, I tell you the truth; I lie not. The next Sunday morning they tore one of the water fountains right off the wall. It was lying in the hallway and the water was running everywhere. He came to me and he said, “I told you they were going to do that, and you wouldn’t listen to me.”
I said, “We’re going to do something about it.”
I get so sick of these people who wonder whether a person is saved or not according to how they got to church; whether they rode an old yellow bus, or came in a Cadillac Seville. I’ve never owned a Cadillac in my life. I’ve often been jealous of people who have them, but I’ve never had one.
What difference does it make to Jesus how you get to church? Ride a donkey. Ride a mule, like I used to. Walk. Come in a Cadillac. But coming to Christ is something else. We need to win people to Christ and get them baptized. That’s what the Bible teaches.
I preach this same way in my church. I was out of it for seven years. It’s awful what can happen to a church in seven years. Twenty-one people baptized in that church in the whole year of 1993. Twenty-one people. I remember the day we averaged 30 per week. No credit to me. I had people who would shake the bushes and comb the woods. They’d come with more people than they could lead down the aisle to be saved and to be baptized. Thank God for such people.
Churches are dying in America, because they’ve departed from what’s closest to the heart of God. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) That’s what it’s all about.
There were 91 people there on the first Sunday of January, 1994. I was not there. I was on the road traveling for seven years, gone every week. When I was asked by a little group of bleeding, broken hearted people, “Brother Tom, will you please, please, take us back?”
I knew just that quickly. I didn’t have to pray. I just knew what God wanted me to do. I said, “Yes, I will.”
About the third week of January, 1994, I became the pastor once again. The baptistry had no water in it. It was muddy. It hadn’t been used. I’m not belittling anybody. I made up my mind, if I’m going to let God use me, I’m not going to be able to have something in this heart of mine against someone, no matter what they’ve done, or how wrong they are. I can’t hold a grudge. You’d be better off to have a cancer in your body than a grudge in your heart.
I’m not criticizing, and I’m not boasting; I’m just praising the Lord. By the help of God, I’m determined. In the first 11 months we baptized 106 people. It took three weeks to get the baptistry clean and fixed where it wouldn’t leak. Thank God we see people saved and baptized all the time. I’m not talking about something big. Last Sunday six people were baptized. Twelve people were saved. Six people joined the church. It’s happening that way. And I want to tell you, it has to happen that way in your church, too. If it’s not happening in your church, you’re not pleasing God. We need to go deeper in soulwinning.
I want to tell you a wonderful story. There are a lot of old people in Emmanuel Baptist Church. I’ve seen one whole generation, thousands of people, go to heaven. I visited in January of this year 40 homebound, older people. I visited them two or three times. I keep up with them all the time. In 1994 there were 37 homebound people I visited all during the year. Seven of them died. About one out of five went on to heaven.
There’s an old couple in the church I visited two or three times. They were members of the church for years. She was saved. He was raised a Catholic and would always say, “Yeah, I’m alright. I’m alright.” He came to church with her as regularly as our deacons come.
People talked to him. They’d go to him. “Be sure you have Christ in your heart.”
“I’m alright. I’m alright.” But he really wasn’t saved.
He was 93, and she was a year or two younger. His hands were stiff with arthritis. At home she didn’t have her shoes on, and her toes were curled back under. She tried to walk across the floor in great pain. The two of them were trying to stay in their home, they’d been there so long together.
He got sick and went into the hospital. She loved Jesus. She had somebody take her up to the hospital. One of our workers was up there visiting her husband. There was a Catholic nun in the room, a sister, they’re called. This worker from our church said to our dear sister, “Take this lady (the Catholic nun) out in the hall and talk to her. I’m going to get Bill saved.”
He’d heard men preach wonderful sermons, and never got saved. He’d had dozens of people witness to him, and he never got saved.
So she took the nun out in the hall. You know, God shows some people some things that the theologians don’t know anything about. That old woman standing out in the hall said to that Catholic nun, “You know, you folks departed from the teaching of Peter.” I wouldn’t have thought to say that.
She said, “What do you mean?”
“Well, Peter said, ‘There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved’ except the name of Jesus.”
She said, “What do you mean, being saved?” I’m talking about a poor, Catholic nun, learned all the catechisms, and the false history of the Catholic church, and falsehood about Mary and about the pope, and about Peter.
She said, “What do you mean, being saved?”
“Well, I’ll show you.” So an old, 93 year old woman who could hardly stand on her feet, said, “Getting saved is trusting Jesus Christ. He’s the only Saviour, the only way to heaven. He died for you. He bore your sins on the cross. Being saved is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.” And she got saved. She not only got her saved, she got her stirred up.
Up there in the thumb of Michigan where she was raised there were three Catholic churches. She knew all the priests. She went to one and said, “You know, we’ve departed from the teaching of Peter.”
He said, “What do you mean?”
She said, “I mean, Peter said, ‘There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,’ except the name of Jesus.”
He said, “You know, I thought that. I’ll tell you what. I believe I’m going to search that out, and I’m going to preach on that next Sunday.”
She was 93 years old, all crippled up, never saw a day in Bible school, but loved God and loved His Word, and knew what it meant to be saved, and wanted to get people to Christ.
That nun calls her all the time and says, “I believe that God wants me out of this.” I believe one day she’s going to take off that habit and throw it away, and she’s going to look like the rest of us, because the Lord is the one who saved her. She’s one of the happiest women that you could ever imagine, and talks all the time to this older lady.
She called me a few nights ago and said, “Brother Tom, don’t you think you ought to write this story?”
I said, “Yes, I believe I should, but I don’t think it’s over yet. Let’s wait a while and see what happens to the priests.”
There’s an old crippled woman bringing folks to Christ. I have people who are able bodied, even athletes who could jump over these pews, but they won’t knock on any door, because it’s not in their heart, and they’re not right with God. That’s disobedient to Jesus and the Bible. We need to dwell deeper in winning souls to Christ.
I believe we need to dwell deeper in prayer. “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jeremiah 33:3) You can’t pray too much. Little prayer, little power. More prayer, more power. Much prayer, much power. We need to pray for the power of God.
Prayer is such a wonderful thing. It’s a power bringer. It’s a victory giver. It’s a holiness promoter. It’s a dispute adjuster. It’s an obstacle remover. It’s a sin killer. It’s a heart warmer. It’s a soul cleanser. It’s a Christ revealer. Oh, how we ought to pray. Dwell deeper in prayer.
I believe we need to dwell deeper in the power of God. I feel somewhat intimidated when I think about the power of God. Dwell deeper in the power of the Spirit. Jesus said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me...” (Acts 1:8) A woman said, “You know, I don’t need all this fullness of the Spirit business, because I’m not an evangelist. I’m not going to be a missionary. I have six children to raise.”
Someone said to her, “If you want to raise six children like God wants them raised, you’re going to need the fullness of the Spirit of God.”
In these last days, the world is gone crazy, and we may yet see God’s judgment being poured out upon the enemies of His people. But we’re just passing through this old world. Our home is in Heaven. God says the judgment will pass over us if we’ll dwell deep.
Dwell deep in the things of God. Dwell deep in the word of God. In the knowledge of Christ. In soulwinning. In prayer. In the power of God. There is protection and comfort for you there, and safety in the midst of the storm. Dwell Deep.
