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Thank you very much for your patience and tolerance and your perseverance, uh, and your strength of willpower and, uh, and divine grace, of course. I don't propose to extend this session, just one or two things that I'd like to cover. First of all, have you understood what I was trying to say? Or does anybody say I couldn't make out head and tail of what he was saying? If it was bad as that, we'll reserve the question for next time. But if there's some particular point that you think I didn't explain as I should have done, um, good, so long as there's no immediate question outstanding.
Now, you may disagree with my views, that's another story, and we can find time on another occasion to to think about that. Uh, a few things I want to say now. One is the provision that God made, uh, for these people. Admittedly, they had now been out of Egypt for about a year, so that this would have been the second Passover that they were to celebrate. But through the years, there would be a Passover every year, and you see the importance. It comes in the sit- in the section where it's regulations for the journey.
It was so important, said God, that you free- keep the Passover, that if they couldn't keep it on the precise day because they were unclean or on a journey, keep it they must, then they must keep it in the second month, but you must keep it. How would that help? Well, every time they kept the Passover, as to this present day when Jews keep it, they remember how God brought them out of Egypt. And why they needed to be brought out of Egypt. And what it cost God to bring them out of Egypt. If they had really got that into their hearts, they wouldn't have talked here about going back to Egypt.
And their memories of the, of the li- of the onions and all the nice fish they ate, they said they got it free. What? But they were slaves. If they had remembered the Passover, they would not have been got their memories of Egypt so warped and unrealistic. It's easy sometimes for believers to think the world is more attractive than the people of God and the things of God. They forget what it means to be in the world, absolutely lost, under the dominion of the prince of this world, and subject to the wrath of God.
Secondly, the Passover remembrance would have spurred them on to the inheritance that lay ahead, the whole point of their redemption. Now, this is true of us, of course. It was at the Passover festival that our Lord introduced the Lord's Supper. We should attend it, you know. It is not optional. Not the Lord's Supper isn't. He commanded us to keep it. This do in remembrance of me. It is a dangerous thing not to do it, because as we remember the Lord, we remember how we have been redeemed, why we needed to be redeemed, and what it cost God and our Lord to redeem us from this present evil world with all its evil.
And so remembering it will help us on our journey and stop us from turning around and thinking we would be better back in the world. Among the other provisions were the guidance by the cloud. They had to follow the cloud, the outs emblems, the visible emblem that God was with them, and God was been with them through the tabernacle journey, and God would have been with them into the, into the inheritance, that they didn't seem to believe it didn't count with them. And then there was the business of the ark.
When they first set out, the ark went before them to seek out the resting place. The presence of God going before them, not only with them, but before them, to meet the enemies. And when the ark got up, uh, uh, uh, do you see, uh, Moses would say, rise, Lord, against your enemies. They were God's enemies, and God was going to destroy them. He would use Israel to do it, but it was God that going to destroy it, and God was in the vanguard. But no, they refused to go in. And then when God said, all right, I'll give you what you ask. You say we, we don't want to go in. All right, says God, you don't have to go in.
You won't go in, in fact. I'll give you what you ask. This is not God being thievish. I didn't want to go in. All right, says God, don't go in. I tell you something, there'll be nobody up in heaven, you know. You'll never come across anybody, this I think I can say for sure, that when you speak to them, will say, you know what, I never did intend to come here really, but my parents badgered me into it, and now I'm here and I didn't want to be here. Really? No, you'll never be meet anybody like that in heaven, you know. I know. And, uh, uh, you see, uh, um, uh, God merely said to them, right, you refuse to go in, you don't want to go in, right?
Don't go in. Well, that's very serious, isn't it? God takes our free will seriously. Now, as to the fighting, do you see, we need to get this clear in our minds. Why the, one of the reasons why they refused to go in is because they saw it would involve a lot of fighting. Mm-hmm. And they were scared, you may think. So what is this business of our fighting as Christians? We have to fight. We have to fight the good fight of the faith, don't we? We wrestle not against principalities, powers, mights, and dominions. So we can make a good distinction, practical distinction, if we listen to the history of Israel.
When they first came out of Egypt, re- uh, uh, preserved from the wrath of God by the blood of the Lamb, and they stood by the Red Sea, Pharaoh came after them with all his mass might, and Israel panicked. They had come out armed for war, but this time they panicked. Poor Israelites, you see. Because after all, they'd been for centuries in Egypt as slaves. They didn't say boo to a goose. It's like in the concentrations under the right, con- concentration camps under, uh, Hitler and the Russians. It's not only what you did, but if you looked at the guard the wrong way, he could give you an enormous great beating.
So perhaps all those years they had dele- developed a slave mentality. You do your best to submit rather than risking the punishment you'll get if you try to revolt. And not being used to fight, you see, when the Egyptians came after them with all their mass military might, they panicked, of course, and said it would have been better, Moses, why did you make us leave? It would have been better to s- live there, even in slavery, than to get massacred here. And God told Moses in his mercy, well, tell them, uh, Moses, they don't have to fight. Just stand still. I shall fight for them. They won't have to fight. For being delivered from the wrath of God through the Passover lamb and being delivered from the power of that evil tyrant Pharaoh, they were both gifts of God's grace.
Israel didn't have to fight for either of them. That is true of our salvation. You don't have to be fight to be forgiven, and you don't have to fight to get the power of the Holy Spirit. Colossians celebrates that we have redemption through his blood, and God has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son, free and for nothing. We didn't have to fight for that. That is important to see. We don't gain that a- a- a part of our salvation through fighting. But once they were out, and now out of the dominion of Pharaoh, on the march, then came Amalek to oppose them, and God called on them Mm.
to begin to fight. Ladies and gentlemen, we're not to remain slavish forever or have a slave mentality. It is important for our character that we learn to grow up and learn to fight. I don't mean with fisticuffs or with guns. I don't mean that kind of fighting, but with good warfare. That is a spiritual warfare. We have to take the armor of God, according to Ephesians, and fight. We have to fight the enemy, and having done all to stand. We have to fight in the practical things of life to maintain the service of God and find time for it, time for his word.
We shall have to fight to do that, else the modern world will overwhelm us and leave us no time for God at all. Yes. So we have to fight. Notice at the end here, when God said, oh, you won't go up, then they said, oh yes, we will. And Moses said, no, don't go up, for the ark isn't going before you. Ah, they didn't bother the ark. They were going up, and that expresses their whole attitude. They had no faith in God. Whether the ark was there or not meant nothing to them. It was merely their self-determination that kept them going. That is vital. But now look at this. Uh, after this, the sacrifices. So at this point in the narrative, you see the Israelites, they've attempted to go up against the enemy, and the king of Arad with his forces has come aga- uh, against them and chased them.
And there they are. Can you picture them? They're running down the hillside or mountainside, running away as fast as their hairy little legs will ca- ca- carry them, you'll see. Running away with their backs against the promised land. And the next verse says in the Bible, tell them, Moses, when you be come into the land. Cool, that's marvelous mercy of God's grace, isn't it? In the midst of that defeat. Yes, to encourage those under nineteen— anybody here under twenty?— Uh, to encourage those under twenty who would go now for forty years in the wilderness, and God is saying to them, yes, but you will get in, you know. You're going in, by my grace, you're going in.
When you become into the land, do you see, and reap the harvest, then you shall give God, uh, a part of the, your, uh, crops as a cereal offering, do you see? How do I maintain loyalty to the Lord? Not only by remembering in the Lord's Supper what he's done for me. I get into the habit of realizing everything I have is from God, Amen. that's worth having, and he expects me to give him his creatorial and redemption rights. Get into the habit of doing it.
For our redeemer expects it. And one final thing, uh, the end of this, we can't go into it all, but the end of it says a very interesting matter of tailoring, you know. Mm-hmm. I noticed the proliferation of shops. I didn't know ladies had to have so many shops, but down the Lisbon Road there are about uh twenty shops, I should think. All got different styles of dresses in the true choice is marvellous, you see. Yeah, uh, well, uh, yes. Anyway, um, so you'll be interested in this, but this is for the gentlemen.
There's only about two gentlemen's shops and there's these 40 other ladies' shops. I don't know why that is, but anyway, this was what the people were told. You shall have blue tassels on the end of your garments and a cord joining them. So they wore largely white, and then they had these blue tassels. And here was a good gentleman going along, or good lady, you see in the hem of her garment, she's got blue tassels on it. Every time, I don't know if you practice that kind of, you know, walking in a thing that looks like a nightshirt, you can't run. You see, you'll get your foot in the hem and go on your nose, you see.
You've got to sort of step out like this. It's good for the deportment. As you go like this, the old hem would flick up, you see, and there would be the boot. What for? So that you don't go lusting after evil things. Do you see the chapter that ends with this sorry rebellion begins by telling us that on the journey the people lusted after evil things. Now this is to be a reminder to them they're very dressed, blue tassels, that they don't go lusting after wrong things. And it's good for us too as we walk through life, isn't it?
If we've got the heavenly blue, so to speak, as tassels on our, not only on our trousers, but as we walk, to remember our heavenly destiny, lest we allow our desires to drag us out of the way. And Peter says the same thing. He says, you've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, and you've got an inheritance ahead. Where- wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, start to do some rigorous thinking, and let your hope be perfected, so you work out the logical implications of your Christian hope, and be not conformed to your former desires in your ignorance.
Yeah. Because, you see, desire in the human heart is a very, very powerful. When I think of it, I think of those missiles that were sent a- against the airplanes, you see, and they were got a thing inside the missile that responds to heat. So if the pilot of the aircraft tried to maneuver his plane, the old missile followed the plane because it was homing in on the heat of the engine in the fan. Our desires, ladies and gentlemen, will home in and drag us towards what we desire.
And if our basic desire is garden setting, our desires will draw us there. We're not careful about our desires, and we let them go after wrong things, the desires which draw us away as surely as they. We need the blue tatas on alkanes to remind us of our heavenly call, and that our desires should be so controlled that they pull us heavenwards instead of dragging us earthwards. Thank you for patience. Just let's commend ourselves to the Lord.
Father, we thank thee for treating us like grown up sons and daughters and talking to us bluntly and seriously. Amen. We thank thee that we may trust thee that thy word is for our good. So give us good understanding of it, we pray. And then beyond that, the understanding by thy gracious spirit, apply to our minds that we think straight, and to our emotions and desires that we desire right things. And all thou who hast redeemed us by thy blood, keep us by our thine intercessions, we pray, and by the grace and power of thy spirit, walking steadfastly along the road that leads us daily near our God.
So we thank thee and ask thine evening blessing through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
