Routley, Ray: Week Of Meetings 02 ~ Provisions And Titles

The Lord Jesus, but humbled himself, made himself of no reputation so that he might bring many sons into glory. You know, the Lord left that high and that exalted place that he might come here, and that he might gain sons, and that he might take us back to glory. God never had a desire to live in the eternal ages just as the person of God. As I said last night, I thought that he wanted men to walk with him and to have fellowship with him. Many times people would say, well, why did God ever create man and, and let him sin in the way he did? And I often respond, God got far more through man sinning than he ever would have had from man if man hadn't have sinned. Because now, through the eternal ages, God will have perfect individuals, individuals that are made after the image of Christ, conformed to his likeness. They will be eternally without the ability to fail. They will be to his glory. And you know what? The angels are going to look on this being one day, and they're going to praise God for God's salvation and his grace showed to this sinner. You know, it's precious that we can sing here of all the glory that's going to be ours one day, all because of that lovely person, the Lord Jesus Christ. We read last night in the book of Proverbs, chapter eighteen and verse ten, that the name of the Lord was as a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe. And we just took a look at some of the names of our Lord Jesus Christ, names that were prophesied, names that went all the way back into Genesis, where he was called the seed of the woman, and then that he was called Shiloh, or peace bringer, that he was to be the scepter that would come forth out of Judah, that he would be the star that would arise out of Israel, that he would be a sign and a son and a sovereign, that he would be the child that was born and a son given, and yet that he was to be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. My, uh, how, uh, oh, the depth of the knowledge of God, of his wisdom and knowledge, when we try to reach out, as we're going to do this week, to these names that give us a little understanding of the magnitude of our God. We feel so finite when it comes to reach out to the infinite, and that's what he is. He's infinite God. But God had a desire that man would know him, and he revealed himself to man through his name. If you begin in the book of Genesis again, the first word that we read, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That word God there is Elohim. God had a desire that we would have some understanding of him, and as he begins with that, we get the idea of a God who was singular in name, and you know, that's the greatest piece of theology. I think Moses gave it to us in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter six verse four: the Lord our God is one Lord. And yet, when we look at this name, it's singular, it's Elohim, and yet it's plural in meaning. And you go to verse twenty six of Genesis one, and there, when the Lord spoke, he said, and God said, let us make man in our own image. Plurality of person. In our language, that's pretty hard to come up with, with a description of it, and it's pretty hard to understand it. Sometimes boys and girls say to me, Uncle Ray, do you understand God? I say, bless your heart, no, I don't understand God. If I could understand all about God, then I would be like God, and I would be God. So it wouldn't be possible for a man to understand all about God. But God does want us to know something about it, and so that is why he sent his son. God manifest in the flesh. But before he ever sent his son, he began building, just as he did here. In Genesis one, it was Elohim, a covenant of God. You'll notice as God made covenants with various ones, the title God, Elohim, was used. But when we get to Genesis chapter two, there God is created man. He's recapping a little of that creation, and now he enters with a new title for himself, and there it is, Lord God. Now he gives us, and in your King James, that would be in caps, LOR, in capitals. If it's Lord in the little letters, then that is Adam or Adonai. It's a word that means sovereign, master. But the word that he gives here in Genesis chapter two is Lord God in caps, and what he's saying, the word Lord there is the word Jehovah. So if we took it in what it was given as, it was Jeho- Jehovah Elohim. Now God, in dealing with man, is going to seize the need for man to have a redeemer. He sees the need of man to have a go-between. And as, uh, Jehovah, that's what he was. We see the fullness of Jehovah in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is Jehovah manifest, the one who was to be the redeemer and the savior of the world. Now, sometimes we get people who come and say to us they are Jehovah's Witnesses. I remember a lady, uh, stood outside my door one time talking about some things, and so I finally decided to pin her down, and I said, ma'am, who are you with? And, uh, she said, well, I'm a Jehovah's Witness. I said, that's interesting. I'm a Jehovah's Witness. And she said, no, you're not. You're a witness for Jesus Christ. I said, amen, ma'am. Jesus Christ is Jehovah. Jesus is Jehovah. And when he gave the title, the Lord God there, he was expanding the view of man, knowing that man had one there that was a covenant God, and yet a God that was to be a redeeming God, a God that could supply the needs of men. When Abraham comes onto the scene, and God wants to reveal himself to Abraham, God does reveal himself in some lovely titles. In, uh, Genesis chapter fourteen and verse eighteen, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. He was the priest of the Most High God. There we have the title that's given to him, El Elyon. He is Most High. It's interesting to take that title and go through the Psalms with it and see the expression that's used of the Most High God. You get an idea, uh, when Abraham takes this word and he uses it back. See, first it came from Melchizedek as to who he was, then Abraham picked up this word or this title, and he uses it to the king, uh, of Sodom who wanted to make him rich. Uh, we read in verse twenty one, and the king of Sodom said unto Abraham, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. And Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, unto Jehovah, the Most High, or El Elyon. And he said, he's the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread even to a shoe lachet, that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abraham rich. Abraham learned that Jehovah was the Most High God. He was the one who is the possessor of heaven and earth. In other words, what Abraham's understanding came to be, that it all was the Lord. We sing that s- little chorus, don't we? Uh, the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth of every mind. You know, God owns it all. It's all his. You know what? You can't make God one little bit poor withholding from him, nor can you make God one bit richer by giving to him. It's all his. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth of every man. It is all his, and Abraham got that understanding. He said, look, to the king of Sodom, you're not gonna make me any richer. He said, I wouldn't take a shoe lashing from you because here's the Most High, and I've lifted my hand to him. You know, beloved, it's a good thing in our lives when we come to that place of an understanding of the Most High. Know that he is the one who possesses all, and what he gives to us, he expects us to be stewards of. And in that stewardship, all he requires is that we be found faithful. No more, no less. Only that we be found faithful with what he's given to us. You know what that means? That means my children. That means my home. That means everything that he's entrusted me with. It's not only the dollars and cents, it's all of it. It's all his. Now, in chapter fifteen, Abraham grew again in an understanding, and God appears to Abraham now, and we read this. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceedingly great reward. And Abraham said, Lord God, will what, what will thou give me? You'll notice he refused everything from the king of Sodom, but he was willing to receive from God. His desire was to have an heir, and God gave it to him. God gave him right then and there the promise of that heir. Want you to remember that. We'll get back to it a little later. Now, chapter seventeen, we read, and when Abraham was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect. Now he gives Abraham a re- a realization or a revelation of another title, Almighty God, the El Shaddai. The El Shaddai. He's the Almighty God. Now, Abraham learned of him as the Lord God, Jehovah Elohim. J- uh, Abraham learned of him as the Most High, the El Elyon, and then Abraham learns of him here as the Almighty God. He knew him as the one who possessed heaven and earth, but now he's learning of a God who is all powerful. A God that can take one who is dead, and through that one that's dead, as far as reproduction is concerned, and bring forth life. You'll notice, and I just threw this out lightly to you, I don't want to dwell on it, but if you'll take up a study of the names of the Lord, you'll notice how you can grow in your understanding of God. As God carried his servants along, revealing to them bit by bit as to who he was. And you know, when you view the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus walking here, he could associate with the Father in the sense to say to those with him, uh, one day, he that has seen me has seen the Father. He said, have I been with you so long and you still don't recognize me? He said, he that has seen me has seen the Father. Previously he has said, I and the Father are one. And as the Lord Jesus went along in this scene, especially in the Gospel of John, he revealed himself through title after title. Look, uh, if I can recall him to mind fast enough, in the Gospel of John, in John chapter six, and I believe it's verse thirty five, he said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh unto me shall never hunger. He that believeth in me shall never thirst. It was a revelation of who he was, of God as Jehovah coming as the bread of life. When you go to John chapter eight. there he's revealed as the one who's the light of the world. He said, I'm the light of the world. He that followeth after me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. In John's gospel in chapter ten, he said, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. He said, I'm the good shepherd, and the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. In John eleven he said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, uh, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. And then he comes to John fourteen and he said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And then in John fifteen he gave us the revelation, I am the vine, and you're the branches. And he brought the tie. The Father is the husbandman, and he was the vine, the believer the branch, and he brings us into that oneness with him. But you know, even in John eight, he stopped there, uh, when the des- or when the Jews were saying to him, our father is Abraham, and he could say, before Abraham was, I am. I existed back there, and he gave him that title, I am. That's who he was. You see how Jesus Christ even revealed to his own who walked with him that day, and even to those who objected to what he had to say, who he really was, the I am. And you know, there's some pretty strong words he said, unless you believe that I am, you shall die in your sin. The word he in that verse is in italics, and I purposefully let it out. He said, unless you believe that I am, you shall die in your sin. You know, it requires every believer to know who he is. Now, in the Old Testament, when he revealed himself as Jehovah, he did it in some com- compound titles, and I want to take one that was used to Abraham in a further revelation of who God was. Let's go to Genesis chapter twenty two. This is a portion of, of scripture that's very dear to many a saint's heart. It's a portion of God's word that is there giving us that picture of the Heavenly Father as, uh, he would give his son, only it's given to us in the sense of the earthly father required to give his son. And you read that, uh, God had told him that he wanted him in verse two, take now thy son, thy only son, uh, whom thou lovest, and get thee to the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains I will tell thee of. God wanted him to go to a specific place, but first there was a price. I just want to throw out quickly a, a little, a guideline to worship, if you'd like it, here. First of all, there was a price. He said, thy only son. And you know, when it comes to the price of redemption, my, what a cost to God. He gave his only son. And he never required that of Abraham. He did require it here to try Abraham. But when it come- came down to the, the trial, God provided the land. So there's first of all the price, and then secondly, there was a place. There was a specific place that Abraham was to offer his son, and that was Mount Moriah. There was a preparation, and that was the cutting of the wood. You know, when an o- an offering is to be made, there had the need of the fire and the cutting of the wood, and that young lad took the wood and he carried it with him where he went. But that had a purpose, and in verse five you read Abraham said, I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to thee. The reason for the requirement for that sacrifice was for worship, and I can't help but think of Ephesians chapter five and verse one and two, where the Lord Jesus gave himself as a sweet smelling savor, and a sacrifice and an offering to God as a sweet smelling savor. Did you ever think of that? You know, we often think of the requirements of God, and then of Christ giving himself for us. But have you ever thought about Christ's part, coming specifically to do the will of him that sent him, but offering himself as a sacrifice, as an offering, and a sweet smelling savor unto God. Because that's what he did, in his total obedience. But you know, the provision was needed for that sacrifice, and Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And God made that provision. Abraham went to that place in total obedience, and he finally came to the place of presentation where that, that boy had to be taken and bound and laid upon that altar, and then he lifted that knife to take his life. Knowing and having that faith, even though that that life would be taken, that God could raise him up again because he brought him as one from the dead in the beginning. And you know, as we view that, we see the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus in the sense of the expense it was to God. When God gave his only begotten son, when God gave his unique son, when God gave all that he had, and he gave him in that sacrifice there on Mount Calvary for us. God offered his very best. But you know, in studying the title of the Lord, one reason, one thing that's good to do it is because it draws you to worship. And if you look at this little lesson, you know there's a price to worship. There's a price to worship. We're going to see that in a little bit, in a little illustration that we're going to look at. But it costs something. Worship does cost something. It costs the time, the time and the meditation with the Lord until that heart is so moved by the Spirit that it begins to overflow, and you've learned of God, and you can attribute to him his value, his worth, his attributes, and all his name. That's worship, but it costs something. Costs the relationship. There's a preparation for worship. That's cutting the wood. That's going to the place and making the effort to get those things that re- are required for the sacrifice and the sweet smell to God. There's a purpose in it, and that's that God would be glorified in his saints, because he is that. Worship is something God desires. You know, I've often said God could make the stones to cry out. Today, men think God's looking for pastors, teachers, evangelists, and all the rest. What God's really looking for, first of all, is worshippers. That's what he seeks. The Father seeketh such to worship him. They that worship him must worship him in his spirit and in truth. And that comes through his spirit. And when it's presented to him, there has to be a time when the provision is all made and God comes moving in our own heart, and our hearts are so stirred that we can bring to him his value and his worth. Abraham went there to worship, and he did. He offered it all, and it was a price to him. But you know, when Abraham was about to lift that knife, he heard that voice speak, and in verse twelve he said, lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou has not withheld thy son, thy only son, from me. And Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horn. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh, as it is said to this day in the mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. You see what sometimes when you emphasize one word, what a thought it puts to it. It shall be seen. It reaches out to the future. But Abraham saw, hear, and learned of a God who does, makes all provision. Now it was a God that Abraham believed in, and Abraham went in that God's way in full obedience. That's the proof of faith, beloved. That's the proof of faith. It's obedience. Obedience is proof of a heart that worships him. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Make no mistake, the path of, of disobedience is not a path that brings to worship. A path of disobedience is a path that leads to affliction and difficulty. But Abraham obeyed God. Abraham went in the way of the Lord. Abraham pleased God, and God provided the ram, and Abraham spoke of him as the Jehovah Jireh, or the Lord that provides, or in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Perhaps we could say, and paraphrasing this, even as God provided the ram for Abraham, he will provide a lamb in the mount for sin. It shall be seen. Moriah is an interesting place, and God has provided on Moriah a number of times. Let's take a look at some of them. To Abraham here, it was a ram provided for him that his son was spared, and that his son was able to go on and take up the covenants that God had promised him. But I'd like you to go to First Chronicles chapter one— uh, 21, if you will, with me, please. In order to fill you in on the story, to help us save a little time, you remember that, uh, you read in verse one of that chapter, and Sta- Satan stood up against Israel and enticed David to number the people. We read in, uh, uh, Samuel that it, that God didn't entice David, but he incited David to number the people. Now you can see God using Satan here as an instrument of his, but at any rate, David went and numbered the people. And because he did this, this was against the will of God, but God wanted to bring a judgment upon Israel, and that's what he brought to pass. And now a number in Israel have been judged because of the avenging angel went through and the plague that was being brought to the, to the nation. And God had given David a choice in verse eighteen. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set an altar upon unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord. And Ornan turned back and saw the angel and his four sons with him themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out of the threshing floor, bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. And then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshing floor that I may build an altar in it to- unto the Lord. Thou shalt grant it to me for the full price, that the plague may be averted from the people. And Ornan said to David, Take it unto thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Lo, I give it thee, the oxen also for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments for the wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all. And King David said to Ornan, nay, but I'll barely buy it from, for the full price, for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan the price. And then you read down in verse twenty eight. and at that time David saw the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Then he sacrificed there for the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that season in the high place at Gideon, but David couldn't go there. And so here we've got a place now where God provides an altar, and it's on Moriah. We'll see that in the next step. Ornan's fle- threshing floor was on Mount Moriah, and because of Israel's sin and God's judgment against them, God again wants to spare. And so God says to David, go to Ornan's threshing floor. He gave him a definite place, and he said, build there an altar. We're going to find that God had placed his name there, and that's where he wanted that altar. And you know, because David did as he said, the altar was provided, the sacrifice was made, and I want to emphasize something again. David did not take a free sacrifice. David did not take something for nothing and give it to God. David took a sacrifice that cost something. Ornan said, here you are, David, take the oxen, take the threshing instrument, take it off. David said, no, I won't do that. Not gonna offer to God that which cost me nothing. And he paid the full price. He made the sacrifice to God, and God was pleased. God was pleased. The altar was built there. God provides an altar for Israel. It was a ram for Abraham, but here it's an altar for Israel. Now I'd like you to go to two Chronicles, if you will, chapter three, just over a couple pages. And you read in chapter three, ver- uh, verse one: Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, in Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. He began to build in the second, uh, day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign. Now, in that same place on Mount Moriah, God wanted a place of worship. There had already been a sacrifice, a temple, but now God wanted a dwelling place amongst his people. Remember when he spoke to Moses the first time regards to the tabernacle, and he gave him three reasons why he was to build that tabernacle? He said, I want it as a dwelling place that I might dwell amongst my people. I want it as a sanctuary. A sanctuary is a resting place. And he said, there I will meet with thee between the cherubims on the altar where the blood is applied, or, uh, pardon me, between the cherub on the mercy seat, between the cherubim where the blood is applied. That's where God said he would meet with his people, and you know that's where he met with them there in the days of the tabernacle until sin entered in. But he came now, and through Solomon he's going to build a temple, and so in this temple God's going to dwell amongst his people. That was God's desire, and so he pro- provided it there on Moriah. Now, it was all there for the worship of his people. God was there in their presence. He wanted them to be with them, that he might dwell with them. And yet, as I reminded you last night, there was a day coming when Ichabod came, the glory was departed, when it went to the door and to the wall and to the mountain and left. A glory departed. But Moriah still existed even though the temple was taken down and destroyed. There was a diamond Herod's day when I understand he, he, he leve- somewhat leveled off the top of Mount Moriah, and perhaps that's what built up around the temple area. If you've been over there, I'm sure you've gone to those places where you could look down thirty five feet from where the ground layer was that we stood to where the foundation of the original temple was, but it was built up again. But the Lord Jesus comes on the scene now, and he said, tear down this temple, and I'll build it again in three days. And they thought he was talking about the temple that stood there that was built by Herod. They didn't know he was speaking of his father. And they tore it down, and God allowed men to do it. They took them to a hill called Calvary. Now, Calvary is well part of Moriah. It's called Golgotha, the place of the skull, and I remember riding, uh, in the bus as we came into Jerusalem, and I just got a glimpse of it fleeting by in, in the bus window, and I said to my wife, there's Calvary. That place that I had seen in picture before was so embedded in my mind, I viewed it so many times because of the love and the mercy of my Savior, that it just stood out in a moment to me. I remember of standing below that place and hearing that hymn run through my mind. Calvary, oh Calvary, mercy's vast unfathomed sea. My, what a sea of God's mercy. That Dutch man that ran, uh, Gordon's Calvary in the garden around us said that if you were to draw a line, you could take, uh, a direction, uh, straight north of where he thought the altar was in the temple area to where Gordon's Calvary was. Uh, that was the place beside the altar. You know, God did what he didn't require of Abraham. He gave his own son, of God. He was the Jehovah Jireh that provided so completely and so perfectly that you and I have a need fulfilled in a savior for sin. And that this individual one day will be with him and like him forever. But God goes in his provision way beyond that point. The clock don't provide me the time, even though God provides the word. But you know, God's desire was to give everything to us, and so I got time enough to take you to one verse, okay? I'd like you to go to the book of Romans with me, to Romans chapter eight. And Romans eight thirty two, it ties us again to the sacrifice on that mount, and he says, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us what? All things. You know what that means? It means comfort. It means wisdom. He said, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally and upbraideth not. Boy, you know how I like that verse. I'm a pretty simple fella, and I came from pretty simple people. But I'm glad that God gives wisdom. You know when he gives it, beloved? If you're in a trial, and I think in context, that's specifically what it relates to in James one, because he speaks of count it all joy, brethren, when you enter into different kinds of trials. And then he said, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally. He gives it freely. He gives it abundantly. He said he doesn't give stinging words. That's what it means to abrade. Doesn't give stinging words. How great a God. You lack wisdom, he'll give it to you. You need help in trials, there's no temptation taking you, but of such as common to men. But God is faithful, who will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear. Uh, he'll give that too. He'll give that too. He gives peace too. If you look at these next th- few verses that are given here in Romans. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Shall God that justifieth? Ah, no. He's justified us. He's declared us not guilty. Is he gonna lay something to our charge? Never. He's a true God. We're free. Who is he that condemneth? Shall Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, and who makes intercession for us? Is Christ going to condemn us after the work that he's done, dying for us, and there standing before the throne of God, day by day, making intercession for us? We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity, but in all points was tried, like as we are, sin apart. Perfect Perfect sin. will be. Perfect Perfect intercession. is respect. Jehovah Jireh. In the mouth of the Lord it shall be seen. The Lord will provide. He does. I see so many gray heads out in front. Mine's pretty gray itself, but not all the way yet. Maybe I got one or two left. And I'm sure that in your lifetime you've seen the provision of God so great, so full, so free, and you rejoice even as you sit there in a good and a gracious God. Shall we thank him together? Father, we are so thankful this evening.