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This morning, gentlemen, by reading certain excerpts from Old Testament and New, beginning in the book of Judges in chapter four. The book of Judges chapter four and verse one. And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord when Ehud was dead. The Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor, the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. The children of Israel cried unto the Lord, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. Verse twelve. And they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was- was gone up to Mount Tabor. And Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the river Kishon. And Deborah said unto Barak, Up, for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand. Is not the Lord gone out before thee? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him. The Lord discomforted Sisera and all his chariots and all his host with the edge of the sword before Barak. And Sisera lighted down from his chariot and fled away on his feet. Chapter five, verse four. Lord, when thou wentest forth out of Seir, when thou marchest here out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, yea, the clouds dropped water. The mountains flowed down at the presence of the Lord, even the one of Sinai, at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel. Verse twelve: Awake, awake, Deborah. Awake, awake, utter a song. Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinua. Now Psalm sixty eight. Psalm 68 and verse 7. 7. O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness, the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God, yon Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Verse eleven. The Lord giveth the word. The women that publish the tidings are a great host. Kings of armies flee, they flee, and she that tarrieth at home divideth the spoil. Verse seventeen: The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them, as in Sinai in the sanctuary. Thou hast descended on high, thou hast led thy captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts among men, yea, among the rebellious also, that the Lord might dwell with them. And then the epistle to the Ephesians in chapter Ephesians four. Ephesians 4. But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now this he ascended. What is it but that he also des- descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended, far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in craftiness after the wiles of error, but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, which is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body, fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their mind. We are especially favored by the inspired historian when we come to consider the third captivity in Israel and the third deliverance. For he has given us two accounts of it, the first one in prose and the second one in poetry. The prose gives us what the historians like to call the sober facts, but why facts should be sober as distinct from poetry, I know not. The sheer facts may be. The second one in poetry, uh, in poetry is not less true than the first one, but it gives us a description of the captivity and of the deliverance in terms that appeal to our imaginations as well as to our intellects, and help us therefore to grasp more clearly the great dime- dimensions, great dimensions of the battle and the struggle that took place between Israel and these Gentile nations at this time. Notice, therefore, to begin with, the setting of the whole affair that is given us by Deborah's poetic song in chapter five. Begin, if you care, at chapter five, verse four, where Deborah gives us a flashback into history in order to give us the appropriate setting for what subsequently happened. She refers to that great, astounding, world-shaking event that was the theophany, the appearance of God upon Mount Sinai in the desert. When the transcendent Lord, creator of the universe, of space and time, was pleased to come down and presence himself on Mount Sinai. Such was the glory and the magnificence of the appearance of the transcendent Lord, that Sinai and the little planet Earth shook under his feet, as the flames of his glory appeared like a devouring fire upon the top of Sinai. The significance of Sinai, of course, can never fade. Here was the self-revelation of God to Israel that marked Israel out as a special and unique nation amongst all the other nations, and began that distinction that survives to this day when we put Israel on the one side and lump all the other nations as Gentile nations on the other. The distinction Gentile given to the other nations is a distinction which I say separates them from Israel, the nation favored, as Romans, uh, nine puts it, with the very glory of God and the self-revelation of God made to them on Mount Sinai and encapsulated in the law given by God through Moses, summarized on the tablets of the law, themselves housed in the tabernacle, where from Sinai onwards God deigned to presence himself as he marched with Israel, the people of his choice, the people of his revelation, marched with them as He then conducted the conquest of Canaan. This is the picture that Deborah is conjuring up in her poetry as the framework of the conquest, then of the captivity, then of the subsequent deliverance. We have, therefore, to picture in our minds the glory of this wonderful thing, that after the revelation of Sinai, God went forth with his people, leading the armies of Israel to the conquest of Canaan. Joshua may have been his lieutenant. It was the living transcendent Lord that went before his people to conquer Canaan and to subdue the Gentiles who lived in that country. What a sad thing now has happened. Since that initial glorious conquest led by the God of Sinai, God of revelation. When now the Canaanites, particularly of the northern confederacy, who had risen up against Joshua and the people of God in the first phase of the conquest, and who had been destroyed. Now another Jabin, with his confederates, has managed to subdue Israel and bring them to the sorry state when there was scarce to be seen a shield or a spear among forty thousand in Israel. You may say that's a little poetic hyperbole, surely. Well, perhaps it is. The situation has now arisen when the Gentiles have so suppressed and oppressed Israel that Israel are virtually defenseless. There was no shield, and robbed of their weapons of attack, there was scarce a spear to be seen among the forty thousand of Israel. Intercourse and fellowship between the tribes had been virtually cut off. People didn't go down the main highways and were reduced to sneaking through the byways if they wanted to have fellowship, the one with another. For these many years, twenty years, Jabin king of Hazor of the Canaanites, with his general and the armies, Sisera of Harosheth of the Gentiles, mightily oppressed the children of Israel. What an ironic thing it was. Once Israel had been slaves in Egypt. They were a very technologically advanced nation, as you know. But the Egyptians, using all their technology, made Israel slaves to their technology. Making the bricks, build the storehouses of Egypt. What for the Egyptians was a delightful and beautiful and advanced civilization, full of marvels of technology at which we wonder in awe at this present day. While on the Egyptian side, it there was a wonderfully advanced technology for the people of God in Egypt. It proved an absolute servitude. The multitudes in Israel almost lost the knowledge of the God of Israel, so that when God would deliver them, he had to come down to the burning bush and once again reveal himself to Israel and declare his name as the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The great I am that I am come down to deliver them from this oppression. There had then followed, as I say, the great self-revelation of God at Sinai. God had then moved at the head of his armies, leading Israel to the destruction of the Gentiles and the occupation of the Promised Land. And now, they're virtually back where they started. The high, the, the, the Canaanite nations with their high technology and their nine hundred chariots of iron, have reduced Israel to groveling slaves. They oppressed them mightily. What's the point of being out of Egypt and in the Promised Land, if in the Promised Land you are once more under a mighty oppression. How did it all happen? Well, Deborah explains, doesn't she, in her song, chapter five, verse eight. They chose new gods, did the Israelites. Then was war in the gates. You will at once perceive, of course, that the enemy that now oppressed Israel was a very different enemy from the Moabites whom we met in the previous captivity. The great Moabite culture, as described consistently throughout scripture, was a self-indulgent culture, very much given to the sins of the flesh. Their king Eglon was a very fat man, and God had him killed through his belly. The culture of the northern Canaanites was very different. They were, as I say, an advanced technology, as you notice the s- the awe of the historian as he records for you that these northern Canaanites had nine hundred, if you please, nine hundred chariots of iron. They were the leaders in tank production, gentlemen. For they had learned the secrets of smelting iron, a tremendous advance in ancient civilization. And they had the factories that could produce iron chariots, if you please. Advanced technology. So what's wrong with advanced technology? Nothing. Ha. I ha- I have my little Volkswagen, and you have your Cadillac, and we are both of us very grateful for advanced technology. So are your wives, gentlemen, how grateful we are to the Japanese for sending us our dishwashers and, uh, clothes washers and other such things. Who would want to go back to the primitive days of the horse, uh, the primitive days of, uh, Duno the horse and, uh, pre-industrial revolution days. What made this such an oppression to Israel? Why? Because behind this industrialized society were its basic presuppositions, its ideals, its ideologies, they were Gentile. And being Gentiles, they did not know or worship or care about the one true transcendent Lord. They had long since ditched belief in the one true God, as Romans chapter one subsequently explains to us. They worshipped their false gods, largely deifications of the forces of nature. When Israel, in their folly, chose new gods, themselves compromising the God of Sinai with the gods of the Gentiles, or even abandoning the God of Sinai and his revelation to accept the ideologies based on an idolatrous interpretation of the universe, they naturally fell under the domination of the Gentile. You will see again that the enemy on this occasion was different, very different from the enemy of the second captivity. God had Eglon, I remind you again, God had Eglon killed through his belly. God had Sisera, commander in chief of these Gentiles, killed through his brain. So you're not suggesting, are you, that the brain is a very bad thing? Not at all, gentlemen. I have a little one myself. Ah, do see. And for that matter, being converted, I thank God, not in any sense of pride, but for his great mercy, that when I was converted, I had a brain that could read and write at least, and so could read his written revelation, as distinct from some who, being converted, can neither read nor write, nor do they have the written revelation of God in their own language. God save us from becoming anti-intellectual, from boasting, as some do, in their lack of education, and supposing that ignorance is a great virtue. The command of the law repeated in the New Testament is this: We shall love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our intellects. We all have varying brain power, but devotion to God demands that we use every ounce of brain power and intellect we have. Wherewith to love God and to understand his self-revelation to us. Or should we drive some artificial gap between studying God's wor- works in nature, his self-revelation in the universe around us, and studying his mind as revealed in his word. The universe is God's universe, and as Kepler put it, as he was making his glorious scientific discoveries, he felt he was thinking God's thoughts after him. God, give us a few more Christian physicists and cosmologists. There's nothing wrong with the human brain. God gave it to us and expects us to use it. But... when the human brain is informed and motivated by the presuppositions of Gentile idolatry, then it becomes an enemy of God and his people. Or it becomes an enemy of God's self-revelation. And you will observe, gentlemen, how true that is and how widespread the danger. When men with mighty brains have become or never been anything else but sheer, pure gentiles. They start their investigations of the universe on the presupposition that there is no transcendent law. That being their presupposition, it is natural that the evidence as they see it and assess it, uh, should, uh, by them be interpreted in line with their presupposition. They also choose to neglect, if not to despise, and positively to reject the idea that the transcendent Lord has revealed himself directly through his word, given on Mount Sinai, and in more recent times, given to the full extent through Jesus Christ, our Lord, God incarnate. It was then this enemy that at this time overcame Israel. And it is understandable, gentlemen. Because if believing people compromise their belief in the transcendent Lord and his self-revelation, and start to worship Gentile gods and think like Gentiles. It will be no surprise, will it, to find that they lose their grip on God's self-revelation, be it Old Testament Sinai or New Testament Calvary, and adopt the worldview of the Gentile, and develop a mindset that is not truly Christian, but Gentile. Which moves me at this point to leave our ancient story with its description of the oppression by these Gentile, this Gentile king and his Gentile commander who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles, and turn to the New Testament a while to notice how the New Testament, here and there and all over the place, warns us against a gentile attitude to life. Let's look at Ephesians chapter four, the passage from which we earlier read. We shall notice, and the paragraph that we read contained an echo of the song of Deborah. She sang, awake, awake, Barak, lead captivity, captive. And now here in the paragraph we read comes the echo, wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive. There follows later in the paragraph a description of a great warfare. But let's notice at the moment the exhortation that is built upon these observations. Verse seventeen: This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart. You will notice that the term that Paul uses here about the Gentiles are terms to do with the intellect, the mind, the understanding, and the perception. It is no accident, perhaps, that the king of Hazor had the name Yabi, which means he perceives. May have been a tribute to the wisdom that his parents hoped would, uh, show itself in him. It may be that as a king, it was a claim that the gods of Canaan had given him special perception and wisdom as a king, that by the by. Now Paul here, warning us against the Gentile attitude to life, chooses to point to the Gentile mindset. It's the Gentile understanding, mind, perception, which because alienated from the life of God, are vain, empty, frustrated, darkened, ignorant. It is therefore interesting, gentlemen, to notice that this ancient distinction between Israel, the nation to receive and to bear the self-revelation of God from Sinai, and the Gentile is a distinction that the New Testament preserves. Warns us believers to be different from the Gentile in their mindset. It follows, of course, from basic principles, doesn't it, gentlemen? That if the Gentiles, as Paul says in Romans one, have rejected the truth and the fact of the Creator, and have turned to giving an idolatrous interpretation to the universe, likening the ultimate power to storm and wind and rain and animal and psychological urges, and thus... it is stands to reason that their brain, their perceptions, their interpretation of the universe is going to be frustrated. It will be vain. This isn't Paul indulging in a little rudeness for the sake of blackening the characters of his opposite, of his opponents. It is the fact that if you take the gentile interpretation of the universe, in the end it is empty. If there be no sovereign Lord Creator, if the ultimate powers that control our universe are nothing but the impersonal forces of the universe, basic energy, matter, the weak atomic force, the strong atomic force, electromagnetism, gravity, anti-gravity, if there is anything of the sort, the physiological processes, all of them impersonal. If there is no personal creator who made them and controls them and gives their existence meaning and purpose, then in the end there is no purpose to life. Not even old Beldame Evolution, goddess worshipped by millions, is a person. She's a process, actually, though they dignify with the status of a goddess and ascribe to her all kinds of purpose, because a tiger needed to develop strong legs to run, evolution. Oh, I see. She was very foresighted, was she, evolution? But in the end, there's no purpose. And as the same scientist will tell you, one day, when the sun explodes, as it must, Earth will evaporate. That will be the end of all progress, all that men's brains have labored to achieve. It will be the end of human life on this planet as we have known it. It will end in nothingness. That is vanity, gentlemen. The Gentile mind that refuses God's self-revelation, the Gentile idolatrous interpretation of the universe that is all around us, and in many our university, the dominant view, is vain, says Paul. And if adopted, will in the end rob you of all ultimate purpose and hope. Will in the end frustrate your very intellect. Won't it? Because it manages to hold, I know not how, that that which you call your intellect, that amazingly complicated, marvelous, ingenious thing called intellect, and the reasoning that goes on inside it, is simply the end result of ten billion billion accidents of chance. There never was any purpose behind its design. There never was any purpose in its making. It's a little bit like a pot of jam. Fell on the floor and accidentally got all mixed up. And in the end, for you personally, one of these days, perhaps a little virus, without two penny worth of cents in its head, will enter your body and will tear your brain to pieces. It will make a mock of all your intelligence. You'll have enough intelligence to see what it's doing, and not enough intelligence to stop it doing it. And the final irony will be that when it's done it, it won't even know it's done it. That's what your atheist asks you to believe as the direct result of his interpretation of the universe. That's what Paul is saying. The vanity, the emptiness, the final meaninglessness of the Gentile mind undercuts the very intellect in which the Gentile so prides himself. It is a serious matter, therefore, when true believers allow themselves to compromise the God of revelation with the gods of the Gentiles and allow their redeemed minds to be shadowed and perhaps brought into bondage by the Gentile interpretation of the universe. But it is not merely in intellect that we are warned not to follow Gentiles. Let's turn to to listen to our Lord in his sermon recorded in Matthew six. He exhorts us, verse seven, in praying, use not vain repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him. So here we are to avoid the Gentile attitude in our prayer life, in our spiritual exercises. The Gentiles, when they pray to their gods, suppose that prayer is a form of twisting the arm of their gods. And the more you pray, the more pressure you bring to bear upon the deity, be it Baal or Zeus or whoever it is, and force him to do what he wasn't thinking of doing anyway, to grant you your request. It is possible for true believers to fall into that Gentile attitude towards prayer, isn't it? That the object of prayer is to put pressure on God, to twist his arm, to make him give us things that he never did intend to give us, to make him love us and bless us in a way that, left to himself, we not, we would not have done. It is not the object of prayer, said our Lord Jesus. Your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask him. Why then should we bother to ask him? Let's ponder that a moment. Here's a mother who has designed all sorts of delectable treats for her child, six years old, namely great large tubs of ice cream. Mother has foreseen the child's desires, and she's provided for the child. The tubs are at this moment in the fridge. Uh, being a sensible mother, teaching the child what is right and proper, true values in life, she doesn't let the child go and grab the ice cream out of the fridge. The child is taught to ask. And then the child is taught how to ask. Doesn't come and demand ice cream, and if he doesn't get it, put on its parts and howl and cry and kick his mother's shins. So he knew better than mother and would force mother to give him what she never intended. That would be ruinous, wouldn't it? The child is taught to come and make his request known to mother. Mum, I'd like some ice cream. When mother decides the right time has come, out comes the ice cream that she has already provided, anticipating the need. She knows what needs little Tommy has need of her. She's anticipated it. And in request- in answer to the child's request, I'd like some ice cream, mother is delighted to give him the ice cream. Say, what's the point of the operation? Well, there's more to ice cr- uh, to life than ice cream. When, in response to asking his mother, Johnny gets the ice cream, he's not only got the ice cream, he's now received in his little mind some concept of what motherhood is. Received a revelation of what this wonderful person, mother, is. And the impression made on his mind as he comes asking and mother gives will survive him throughout life when he's long since lost his desire for ice cream because he's grown up. Might even survive into eternity itself. Why pray? To get what we need. Yes, in one sense, yes. But don't be like the Gentiles, think you have to kick God's shins and bring pressure to bear on him to force him to give things. If you had to do that to God, it'd be a sorry God, wouldn't it? Why do you need to ask at all, seeing he knows in advance what we need? Because in our asking, it sets up a relationship, sets up an experience that God is prepared to listen to the enumeration of our needs, and as he sees fit to grant them, be it ice cream or bread and butter or a new suit of clothes or whatever it be. Beyond the things we get is the marvel of our coming to know the character of the God who designed to give them and prepared in advance to give them, and thus sets up a relationship between us and him. Some men pray, says our Lord, to be seen of men. And there as they stand with their eyes three quarters closed, but looking under their eyelashes at to who might be admiring them. Well, they have their reward, the praise of men. What is the reward of praying? It's not simply the thing you get, is it? Final reward of praying is an experience of God himself as the giver. But not only must be we, must we be warned of adopting a Gentile attitude in our religious and spiritual exercises. At the end of chapter six, our Lord warns us against adopting a Gentile attitude to our daily work. Look at verse thirty one of Matthew six. Be not therefore anxious saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles. For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things. But seek you first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. So we're not to have the same motivation, the same seeking as the Gentiles. Our motivation must be different. We are to seek first the kingdom of God. Now, in my youth, I used to think that that verse meant as follows, that before you set about your own interests, your daily work, the acquiring of food and clothes, you should put God's interests first. Give out a few tracts, maybe. Read an odd bit of the Bible, perhaps, but certainly put the Lord's interest first, and then when you put his interest first, go after your own interests. That surely is not what the passage means. It's not telling you what to do before or after you go to your daily work. It's telling you what your motivation must be as you go to your daily work. Now, when they go to their work, the Gentiles seek, what is their motivation in going to work? Their prime motivation in going to work is to seek food and clothes. After these things do the Gentiles seek when they go to work. Say, wait a minute, what are you saying? Why would anybody go to work? Is the reason I go to work, good man. I go to work to get the dollars to pay for food and clothes. Of course I do, of course a car and a record player as well, but, you know, basically food and clothes. Um, why would anybody go to work? You say, goodness me, if I didn't have to earn the money to get food and clothes, I wouldn't go to work. Is that really true? Well, you old gentile. Pray, what different are you from all the other old gentiles? Why they go to work? You say, what other reason is there for going to work then? Well, there could be the kingdom of God, gentlemen. Meaning the rule of God. The rule of God and his righteousness. Meaning that when we seek the rule of God in our lives, the constant seeking the rule of God in our lives builds up a righteous character. The kingdom, the rule of God, and his righteousness that comes by submitting oneself to the rule of God. So that, says the Lord Jesus, when you go to work, don't let your prime motive be getting food and clothes. That would be a Gentile attitude. Let your prime motive seek first the rule of God and his righteousness. What does that mean? Well, let's examine some elements in righteousness that build up a righteous character. I must be unselfish. I must be patient. I must be kind. Ah. I read it in the Bible and I say, amen, that's marvelous. It's also marvelous. And I say to myself, well, I know that now, I am, I am all that. I am patient and kind, loving. No, I'm not. You just learned it in your head. If ever you're going to be patient and kind and loving and concerned for others, you must now learn to practice it. It's by practicing these things that you become patient and kind and loving, not by just knowing them in your head or by reading them in the Bible. You'll have to have some practice. Where would you get practice so that you be- can become kind in actual fact and loving and concerned for others? Well, God sent me to teach in a university. I- I see the point. You have to look after a whole host of students, and you'll soon see how admirable an opportunity that is to learn and practice patience. Oh yes, I got paid for it and got food and clothes out of it. Because our father is a realist, and he knows that we have need of food and clothes. And normally, going to work is a way of providing food and clothes, but gentlemen, it must not be the first motivation. And it is, if it is the first motivation, it can lead people into serious trouble. Here's a high executive. He's going to work, of course. And his motivation is to get food and clothes. He has a very expensive wife and a half a dozen children. Quite a grand house to keep up. Takes money, you know, money doesn't grow on trees. Uh, it takes money. And a sizable and beautiful car. Hmm. So he's prospered in business, and this was his motivation to get a good job, to get good rewards, you see, food and clothes. The directors suggest a shady insider dealing on the share market, and they ask him as executive manager to put it through. It could be very profitable. If he doesn't put it through, he'll be fired. Now what's he going to do? Well, he says everybody does it, and... and the mortgage has come due, and it's a horrible big mortgage. And there's the bill for my children's education coming through. It's an enormous, and I got two grown-up children at university, and the expense is crippling me. And I must have the money. So, because his first motivation is the food and the clothes, he goes ahead and does the shady deed. And has lost the very reason for which God sent him to work in the first place. For he was sent to work as a practice ground in which he might seek the rule of God in the affairs of daily life, and by deliberately following the commands of the Lord to be utterly honest and truthful in his business, and by repeated truthfulness, build up a character of honesty and truthfulness. That's why the Lord sent him to work, not to get the food and clothes in the house and all the rest of it. But in making food and clothes his prime motivation, prepared in the last analysis to do a bit of shady dealing to get the food and the clothes, he has lost the very reason why God sent him to work. Poor man. Food and the clothes, if he got them, would be but temporary things. The character that is formed is going to be eternal. Seek you first the rule of God and his righteousness. Say that's impossibly high standards. No, it isn't, gentlemen. You see, said our Lord, you'll be a slave to one or the other. You'll serve God and his rule in the affairs of daily life, or you will serve mammon. You'll be a slave to one or the other. And if you serve God, there is freedom. You serve mammon, and he'll enslave you. He does, doesn't he? I hope I'm not too much of an unrealist. My childhood memories are of the depression in Great Britain and the misery of multitudes of men that were out of work for ten years in abject poverty and virtual famine. I know that to get food, you have to work long, long hours. I know all that. I know that some people, many people, cannot possibly have the opportunities that God has given me for study of his word. And yet, gentlemen. If we serve man, he will enslave us, either by too much work or too little. Yeah. Here's a chap who's crazed out of his mind. He hasn't got work. He can't get work. He's unemployed. Where's the next loaf coming from? And it distracts him from spiritual things. Yet it could be a marvel exper- marvelous experience, couldn't it? Of the rule of God in one's life. I lived among the miners in Northeast England at one stage. I used to recall the terrible days when men were out of work for ten years on end. I remember one woman telling me, David, she said, it was often the case that when the next meal time was coming round, we hadn't anything to put before the family, and we got down on our knees and asked the Lord for our daily bread. She said we were spiritually minded then. We had time for God, his work and his word. Now, she said, we're rich. Our husbands in the mines are earning fantastic salaries with endless overtime. We're not so spiritual now as we were then. Old mammon, if he can't distress you by too little work, wor- uh, work and too little goods, he'll distress you by too many. His grandfather, he had very little education, so he was content with some humble job. He couldn't have got a better. He had the ability, but it was never developed. There weren't the opportunities. And he gave himself to the word of God. Though he had to work at physical labor, it wasn't stressful. He was able to study God's word. Became an elder in his church, and not only arranged the electricity and the heating, but had something to give to the Lord's people, to feed them. His grandchildren, inheriting his brain, went to universities. They're holding down very high-powered jobs now, so stressful, so long hours. They consume every minute they've got. They have no time for serious study of the scripture. And the men whose brilliant minds should be used of God to feed the church have nothing to give. And as for leading God's people into the enjoyment of the great self-revelation of God, be it it's Calvary, uh, uh, Sinai, Calvary, or Pentecost, they're veritable babes. The only answer they can think of is to hire a professional to come and do the work that they should be doing for them. That leads to further poverty. Nothing wrong. The church is so large that to care for it properly needs men giving their full time. Marvelous. Should be supported by the church, says Timothy. That's a very different thing from men who should be doing the work, but because they're so busy seeking food and clothes when they should be seeking the kingdom of God and have no time to develop their spiritual lives and have nothing to give, they take the easy way out and pay somebody else to do the job that they should be doing. Gentlemen, this comes down to exceedingly practical things. Serve mammon. Adopt the standards and the motivations of the world in our daily work and education. And sure as the proverbial eggs are eggs, it will lead to a mighty oppression of the people of God. And rob them of their defensive shield and their attacking spears. God save us from the mindset of the Gentile. And if we have wandered, bring us back and raise up men and women who can deliver us. Show us again the glory of the wonder of Israel's distinctive role as the bearer of God's self-revelation from Sinai, and of the church's distinctive role, bearing witness to the incarnate Lord who died and rose again and has ascended up on high and taken captivity. But there, let's take a break in non-resistance.