Do Not Run Ahead of God — John Follette

I think they're good. It's a good way to bring our thought and our need and our desire and our longings and all that crowds in upon our hearts, to bring them in song. It makes a good vehicle, it's a good way.

So I'm glad we've been able to sing these prayer hymns and as I've said so many times, let there be reality in all that we do. If it's a song, we'll sing it because it's real. So much anymore in our meetings, they lose hymns and things like that for padding, you know.

It's sort of a, it pads to padding and I would rather sing one hymn twelve times and have it with the Lord and in the Lord and twelve different hymns and none of them hit the spot. So if I think we move with the Lord, he sort of directs us that way, he leads us along that way.

Isn't that River of God prayer song?

Yes, that's prayer too. River of God. No. River of God. Somebody pitch it? How many remember how it goes? O 'er the parched ground where thirsty hearts are found. It sweeps everything before it. That's the power of the love of God.

That's why it's such a redeeming force, it's a redeeming factor. Our loving Lord, we thank thee for the privilege of song you put into the hearts of us, hearts of man that we might sing. It's always been down to thee, long periods, song has been immediate.

And now that you've brought us in touch with thee and our hearts are in touch with the things of God in the spirit, we love the thought that music can help convey it, express it, carry it out. So we thank thee for the hymns that we have to give relief and release to our spirits.

They can express so much and therefore we delight to sit before thee sometimes to sing to thee, to sing of thee and to worship thee. And so we receive our little songs this evening, singing from our hearts, a little group here among all the hundreds and thousands and millions of people.

And yet you hear these little songs coming up before thee, conscious of the individual, not only the great groups of people, but everyone who's named thy name, everyone who's opened the heart for thee to come in.

Thou art pleased to come and to dwell in us and make thyself known to us and to be concerned with us in our little needs and all that concern us. It's thy thought, it's thy purpose, it's thy plan. And so we thank thee, our Father, that thou art our Heavenly Father, not a great God, thou art God, creator and preserver of the universe, but thou art our Heavenly Father.

We are thy little children, redeemed through the blood of our elder brother, even the Lord Jesus, who has loved us and continues to love us. And as we sit here tonight to perhaps look into thy word for something more to instruct us or to inspire us or to help us, we pray that thou have thy way and bring the word which will be helpful to us.

And we'll give thee the thanks and the praise, for we want it all to return back again to thee with our love and gratitude for Jesus' sake. Amen. There seems to be no end, of course, to truth, and I don't know, perhaps I've touched on some of these things before, but as I say, I don't write out any messages, so I'm not guaranteed to tell exactly the same thing.

Here was this message this morning, and Bill said he'd heard me speak on that, how long ago? About 36 years ago, but I have never written it out, so I don't know if the blessed thing I said today was what I said then, and the slightest idea, but how you know truth can be repeated, and you have different approaches to it and different emphasis.

I just had that outline, that's all in the scripture verses, and I said today, nor do I have to fill all this in, I just have these verses. I didn't have an illustration or anything, I just had verses.

So I'm never guaranteed to tell the same thing twice, well I'm glad it works that way. I want to help you with this little bit of teaching, with some illustrations from the word. We learn, finally, in our walk with the Lord, and in this, what I would call, the process of our growing and of our building, that he uses certain basic principles, and certain laws, and certain methods and techniques.

It isn't just a haphazard growing, but everything that God permits and brings into our heart and life, from his side, has an objective. It has a reason, it has a meaning. Now we have to learn how to interpret him, and interpret his duties.

And what makes so much friction with Christians, especially young Christians, who have a desire to walk with the Lord and please him, they don't understand the ways of God, do they? No. Because if we understand the ways of God, how do we know we can interpret his dealings?

Now, with Moses, it said, with the children of Israel, they saw his works. That is, they knew it was God. They saw the miracles. They saw all this bleeding, thank you. That was for them. The children of Israel saw the wonderful works of God.

Wonderful. To Moses, he showed his ways. That's quite different. You can see some of the most wonderful doings of God, and trace them even in the Word, and trace them in history, without seeing the way of it.

Well, if we could learn, as beginners even, to teach the beginner these simple things, you know it would save so much trouble. They mean well, and not being taught or instructed to know how, they make a failure, or a blunder, or this thing doesn't work right, and that's how they backslide, as we say.

That is, they lose their interest. They don't backslide and go to hell. But I mean, their interest ceases. And they're thrown back among themselves in a little disappointment. It doesn't come out too clear, but how do you know it's a disappointment?

Because the thing didn't function as they thought it might. Now, that's why, if you deal with younger Christians, young people, try to help them over that difficulty. Teach them how, as far as possible, to interpret the things of God.

Then be careful, on another point in connection with that, not to interpret too much in the terms of our own natural disposition, or desire, or longing. Because it's quite possible to have God speak to us, or give us a word, or intimate something to us, then in our natural, we take it.

Now, how do you know? Interpret it, and walk out under the power of it, and find a disappointment. Because we don't interpret it correctly. That's often in the leadings of the Lord. He will give a dream, or a vision, or a message, or a hope.

And so many, many times, people receive it, and then they're so under the power of their own natural, that they bring it down to their level, and interpret it in their own terms. Now, that's in the scriptures.

You can find that in the scriptures, as well as you can find it in the history. Makes me think, just looking at, you'll understand this, of experience I had while I was in Rochester. God doesn't often speak to me through visions and dreams.

I've had very few, but sometimes he does. And it was when Mrs. Bruce Allen was very ill with peritonitis she had, and was, well, she was really on her deathbed. And she was one of our workers in the work, Mrs. Work's daughter.

And we were all very concerned. Of course, in that day, divine healing wasn't as popular as it is today. Pentecost wasn't as popular as it is today. The truths that we stood for were not always so popular.

And so, if anyone was sick, we were so desirous to have them healed when we prayed for them, for the reflection. Well, here she was, desperately sick. Well, of course, we all prayed, everybody prayed, and we all prayed, and we prayed together as we met.

And then we would pray in our rooms. But, you know, I don't know, I suppose it must have been an intimation of the spirit. I had no consciousness that she was going to get out of this. I just sensed all the time, her time has come, she wasn't so old.

But how do you know God can take even young people? Because they fit in his plan and let them be. Don't say, she or he is so young. Why couldn't they stay? If they're in God's hand, they are safer with him there than down here.

A young life, don't question God. Say, that's in God's hand. I can't see from his side, I'm looking from my side. Well, then if I do, I'll be filled with consternation and wonder. Sometimes doubt and sometimes fear.

So I can't do a thing with it, but commit it into the hands of God and know that God cannot make a mistake. He just can't. Well, here was this, so sick. I couldn't get any consciousness in my spirit that she was going to get out of this at all.

Well, then I didn't want to say that. Tom, you know, when you talk that, you're influencing somebody else who's trying to believe. You have to be careful. So I kept quiet. Well, she got very, very bad.

Mrs. Sue came to me and said, they all thought perhaps I'd get something. Remember, they're always asking to see what Flett says or see if Laura spoke. That was terrible. I said, what's he saying? Has he spoken?

Well, I had this strange dream. And I couldn't say no. I said, well, I've had some kind of intimation. I said, it wasn't a dream. I didn't make it up, I'm sure. Well, now, what was it? Well, then I said, well, if I tell the dream, how many will be 14 varieties of interpretation?

And as I dreamed, remember in the hall, that hallway, then you went upstairs and Mrs. Baker's room over there, well, Dave and Dolly had that room. Mine was opposite. And I dreamed I came up the steps and turned there in that hall.

And in the end of the hall, right by her door, oh, I saw the most beautiful light and flowers. Oh, just beautiful. They were so fresh. And as I approached, this spirit seemed like an angel, a messenger.

Came in the midst of it and pointed up and said, one more delivered. Well, now, when you're wanting a deliverance, how many would think the angel had come to deliver? Well, you see, how many could see right away?

So I knew inside what it was. And Mrs. Duncan was so pleased. Oh, she says, flowers always mean life. Well, the wonder of it, life. And the angel says, deliverance. Well, how many of them wanted to interpret that right away?

Well, I felt perfectly sick in my spirit, and I wanted to say, oh, Miss Sue, don't do that. But the desire of their heart governed their interpretation, didn't it? How many could see that? They just waited for the Holy Spirit to give an interpretation whether they liked it or not.

But how many know it's so easy to get a leading when you want it? You can hear the Lord speak about anything if you hold on long enough. And you can get the Bible and get verses to prove most anything.

You can prove most anything in the heavens in the Bible. But you see, our natural disposition. And so a day or two, she was gone. And what was it? It was God showing us, I thought, the flowers are what?

The resurrection and life and beauty. And the message of his deliverance was she was delivered from the tangle down here, this body of pain and illness, and she'd gone home. So what I had in my heart, I wouldn't dare to tell them that.

Well, then right away there's a blanket on them. And you don't want to thwart their faith. So sometimes I wish the Lord didn't speak to us all this. I told you the other day about John in the prison. But he wanted something.

He wanted the word. So he sends the messenger to Jesus. And what does he get? He wanted the deliverance, of course. So he says, you go and tell him what wonderful deliverance we're having up here. And left him in jail.

Well, sometimes I think, don't tease the Lord for something. He maybe has something he doesn't want to say. But if you persist, he might say something. Well, then sometimes you're worse off by him speaking than if you've been stale.

Now, you have to help young Christians with just such things as that because they don't know. Help them to see. We can't always interpret life or anything else from God's side with our natural disposition.

Do you remember Jesus when he spoke to the riddles? He said, beware of the leaven, of the parisees. What did they think? He was talking about bread, do you remember? And oh, we take no bread with us. Well, why?

They were bread conscious. And the needing of bread. And so that wonderful word was perfectly off-key in their idea of interpretation. And then he had to rebuke them. He said, I'm not talking about bread.

I'm talking about the parisee spirit. Remember? And he had to rebuke them because they had the wrong interpretation on the thing. And it's so easy to do that. Well, by and by we learn things like that.

Now what I want to speak about a little while here tonight is the fact that in our desire to walk with the Lord or to please him or to be obedient, especially in obedience, our natural impulse very often runs ahead of what the Lord would have.

Because it strikes us where we are living, in our natural. And we take that word from him, and the first thing you know, we're trying to interpret it and make it to work under the power of our own thought.

Not a bad thing at all, but of great assistance to the Lord, as we think. You'll see that all along. Well, that was so common in the word and in history that when Paul was giving that wonderful message in 1 Corinthians 15th chapter on the resurrection, and all of that, he was making them to see a difference between a natural realm and a supernatural spiritual realm, a natural body and a new spiritual body.

Remember, all that whole chapter in there is the differences on these two planes, these two levels. Then he says it wasn't always so, and yet it has been. He said in the first place it was a natural man.

And then the Savior, and then came Jesus, the new man. And all the spiritual consequences, but it was first the natural. So he made a statement in there as a principle, not merely to govern in the field of the resurrection, but a principle which we can carry with us in our daily living in relation to God.

Why did he say it? It's just stuck in there like a separate little word. That was not spiritual, which was first, but natural. But afterward, that which was spiritual. That was not spiritual, that was first, but natural.

Afterward, that which was spiritual. So he makes that as a principle. The first movement, the first urge, is usually a natural disposition, a natural urge. So he says, that which was first was purely a natural urge.

It was not spiritual. But afterward, after it's had its flame, and as I often say, it's exhaustion, how many know, then the Lord comes in. How many, many, many times he'll do that. He will let them exhaust themselves.

And after nature, and the plans, and the arrangements which we make, assisting the Lord, too. Assisting the Lord. How many of you can make a lot of natural machinery? And he just sits back, and he says, well, go on.

And then after the whole thing has ended in a mess, he says, are you satisfied? Yes, he does. Then he comes forth with some deliverance which he has in his own way. And now in history, I've taken some of these illustrations in the word of God to show you this principle.

That at first, it is not spiritual, but natural. Afterward, that which is spiritual. So, if you want to take some notes and look these all up when you get home, I'm giving you outlines and little suggestions here.

I'm not going to preach on them because it takes too long. But if you'd like to, take our first one. It's right in Genesis, in the very beginning. After Adam and Eve had failed, and they were conscious of their uncovering, they were conscious of their innocence sake, and all of that being stripped off of them through sin, it says they were conscious of being naked.

Not a physical nakedness, we're not talking about that. It was a moral and spiritual nakedness, which had come upon them because of the consequences of sin. Well, now they want that remedied and taken care of.

And so, instead of going back to God and saying, oh, we have made a mistake, we did wrong, we did what you told us not to do. He doesn't go by way of confession. He starts out covering himself with his own invention.

And what was it? Now, that's the symbol of a natural process. You can't remedy a spiritual trouble with a natural remedy. Now, he didn't know that. So he thought he would cover that spiritual lack. You see?

That spiritual need of something from God to take care of. He's trying it himself. And so God bless him. And so he makes these coverings, we say, of the leaves. Now, that is man's natural desire for the hiding and for the covering.

Will God bless him? That isn't the thing that God can do to a woman at all. But God doesn't have a flame. And after he does, God comes to him and begins to talk to him. Then do you remember what he did?

He takes them down and it says he clothed them with the skins of the animals. Now, how do you see this coming nearer to a spiritual thing that he's after? He says, those leaves are coming from the earth.

If you're going to persist in making a covering from what nature provides, the earth is cursed. All nature, do you know, is under a curse. Well, you can't get up anything out from under the thing that's cursed and make it a spiritual thing to receive, can you?

No, you can't. You just can't do it. But how do you see that was their first flame? So it was not a spiritual, lovely deliverance which came first, but a natural product of their own ingenuity, their own way of getting through.

And when God allows them to do this and he speaks to them, right there, conscious right away, this thing is all wrong. So it says he took the coverings, the skins of the little animals. How do you know that's the shedding of the blood?

That's the first intimation we have of the shedding of the blood. It was the blood that was shed from those little animals to make a covering. Well, that's the blood of Jesus being shed to make a covering of righteousness on the Father.

And so he says, you can only be covered with the covering which I can give, which is a law of offerings. And he starts right in the very beginning with a law. That was not spiritual, which was first, but natural.

Afterward, that which is spiritual. But God lets them all have their trial. Now we can spend an evening in there because I'd like to open that more to you about this life, how we see a life at the beginning.

And he takes the skins of the animals. Now, what relation has the skin to that animal? It is the complete covering. How do you know? The skin holds everything that is in you. That's what he thinks, but how do you know it?

Every last thing that's in you is held in the skin. You get that or don't you? So he says, I will give you something which is the most inclusive and all covering possible. I'll give you the hide, the whole skin of this animal.

How do you get all of that? The completeness that there is in Christ. And he says, that's the thing I can use for a cover. So if we want to go for an evening, we could have just a wonderful time just for that first illustration.

But I want to give you another one that's along that same line. Now in Genesis, here is still another illustration of it. Genesis 15 and 4. An old one which we know so well. What was the first one? Oh, I forgot to give you that.

I'm sorry. The first one was Genesis 3 and 7. Now he's only gone a little ways in Genesis and we have him choosing his people. Abraham and the hope of Isaac and then the Redeemer brought by way of Isaac and he's getting into focus.

The whole historic picture to be projected out there. But it all comes back again to the beginning with Abraham. Well, he's going to bring this through a type, a picture. And Abraham is to have this son, Isaac.

And how do you know it's prophesied? He speaks to Abraham, he calls him his own and how he brought him out of earth. It's a great proposition for him. Yes, the nations of the world would be blessed. And he gives him a very strange and wonderful prophecy.

And he says, Sarah will conceive and you're going to bring forth this child. Now isn't that all right so far? Isn't that a divine arrangement? Isn't that a divine prophecy? Well, then you better let it come by a divine arrangement.

Did Abraham? No, he did not. Abraham couldn't wait for that. How many see him conniving and arranging it by way of Hagar? And when you have Hagar, how do you know you'll get an Ishmael on your hands? You'll sure get an Ishmael right away.

You can't help it. And so Abraham can't wait. So that was not spiritual, which was first, no. What was it? A natural setup. And he got on his hands Ishmael. And Ishmael remains to be a tormentor of the spiritual thing that's going to come.

So you better not have any Ishmael. You had better wait. Because even if Ishmael comes and there is Isaac who does finally come, how many know that Ishmael will perform first and bag the life out of him?

And it says he tormented and teased and was mean and ugly to Isaac. But why? Well, Abraham had connived that. I call that almost his souvenir. But for that, when you think of Ishmael today, there are so many.

Yes, all the whole Mohammedan group. All the whole Mohammedan group are from that line. And look what they have now to torment Christianity. And that's the rest of it. It's still going. And he said so.

But you see, Abraham hasn't faith to stand still and see the salvation of God. Because often to see the salvation of God, you have to stand still.

He doesn't say, now help me out. Well, Sarah was the instigator in the beginning. Yes, she suggested it.

But she agitated Abraham. Yes. Abraham was very willing to fall in line like that son. The woman has always been. She got that with Adam too. So don't forget, we got a lot of women around here. But it's really true.

In both those cases, how do you know? Here's the woman. We don't like to speak of that. Sisters don't like that. But how do you know we are all now new creatures? We're not that at all. But it was very true down the line.

It's the poor woman. But you know there's something in there. If it had been directed correctly, it could be wonderful in God. Just that very idea. Abraham, I suppose, just stood her up. And she said, oh mercy, this is getting no child anywhere.

And so it was a conniving again of flesh. It was a conniving. It was a planning produced by flesh. And so they have on their heads Ishmael. That was not spiritual, which was first, but natural. Afterward, that would be spiritual.

So God had to let that come through with a terrific demonstration. I think they're all put in there for us. God didn't allow these things to be recorded just to make a Bible. He's recorded them and he says they are for our admonition.

For our admonition we should be admonished by such doings as that because they hold a very special line of teaching for us. So after Ishmael comes, he's just going to be a nuisance on my hands. He's a nuisance.

And today, as Bill says, you go over abroad there in Africa and some of those places where the Mohammedans are. Yes? We have a lot of Syrians now where we are, you know. And you just mentioned it, you boy.

They get madder than a horse. They just hate them. I've got a special hatred for those Jews, those Syrians have. See, they come with that same strategy. And with the Mohammedans, they are all from the line of Ishmael.

They're all his problem. Projecting themselves now for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years to be a nagger at the Christians. It's just Ishmael running around nagging Isaac. So we could go out with that one for the evening.

How many of you see you've got a good field and you've worked all your history in there and you've got your missionary problems going and you're going to have a fight in the evening. So I'm giving you a lot of material now for your homework.

But I want you to see that, how very clear that was. Abram and Sarah conniving, helping the Lord. He doesn't need so much help. A lot of people think I don't believe in works. But how many of you know I believe in works?

I believe in all those things with all my heart. But I'm so tired of the maneuverings of religious flesh that I just can't take much more of it. I just can't take it. It is a natural religious effort.

It's not born of the Spirit. But it is a religious thing. It's religious. Got a lot of religion in it. But there's no spiritual vitality. Well then that clutters the whole campus, we say. The whole campus is filled with it.

But you can't get too far. Now we'll take up another one. This is homework you can develop. Israel and Isaac, they're very interesting characters. Now we'll take another one. In Exodus. Exodus 2 and 3.

Now we have Moses coming out in the scene. Yes, Moses. And what is his destiny? To be a great deliverer, isn't it? He's to be a great deliverer. Now we don't know at the time how much of that had been intimated to him.

However, he has enough knowledge to know that those Jews in Egypt over whom he was ruling as an assistant there with Pharaoh on the throne, he had enough knowledge to know that when they were abused and like that, they were his people.

It says so. It says so. Now how much he had intimation in his spirit that someday he would get them out of this mess. Because he had authority in the throne next to Pharaoh, the ruler. We don't know what was working in his mind to know these are my brethren.

If it says so, it says he went out one day and saw the Egyptians overpowering and lashing and making these poor history hikes work and slaves and indignation rose up in poor Moses. Those were his people.

And it was a wrong thing to do. But now wait just a minute. How many know there are an awful lot of wrong things? There's none of our business to correct at all. Now sit still. Well, that's wrong. We all know, dear, it's wrong.

Has God given you a special direction to go in and correct that? If not, you just let that alone till God takes care of it. And when he wants to use you, he'll let you know. Otherwise, keep your fingers out of that.

Now Moses, we don't know how much he knew. Only he did know that that was a wrong thing to do. And they were his brethren. And, of course, with the natural reasoning, this horrible natural reasoning, that's wrong.

I'll correct it. And so he just gets out there and slays that man. Murder. Justifies himself, saying, well, that's wrong. They're doing the wrong thing. Makes me think of poor Carrie Nation with her hatchet breaking up everything she's trying to do.

Well, how are you not breaking all the beer bottles? Save it for later. But some people have to have these strange dramatic fashions, and they don't get very far with the natural. So he just slays this.

And he's justified, you know. This is wrong. These are my people. And that's a wrong thing to do. What is his reaction? He's got a dead man on his hands. Just like that Ishmael out there. He's got a dead man on his hands.

Well, now what does the heavens want to do with him? He's dead. He looks all around because he's going to get under conviction. This thing is wrong after all. How many of a lot of people are hunting sand dunes to bury their dead in?

There's a couple of us. Yes, there are. You try this. I'll tell you something. Do you know you'll have a dead man on your hands? You sure will. What about that man who was going to defend Jesus when he was going there?

He takes out a sword and cuts a man's ear off. What did he have? He had an ear on there. You always have something. Didn't he? Well, how do you know? It didn't please the Lord at all. He had to say, put the thing up now.

Now I've got to have a healing meeting. Start this thing all over and get the man healed before I forget. How many of the people do that all the time? All the time. I don't like it. I hope you won't blame me for wanting to stay home in the woods.

Nothing suits me better than to be in a place like that, in the woods, in a cabin where we pray and find God and something like that. Instead of trying to defend every cause and correct every issue and set the world right.

Well, the Lord has been all these thousands of years getting it set right and this is crooked as it can be now. So what are you going to do? Yeah, what are you going to do? It takes all there is of me just to walk with the Lord.

He keeps saying, stand still and see the salvation of God. But God, you need help. That is a wrong situation. If I could get in there, I'll get it right, I'll kill the man. He's got no business doing that.

And of course, everybody says, hey, you've been with him, and then he gets a whole gang. How many know how a riot can go? Then he gets the whole thing in a riot and half the people don't know what it's all about.

In Africa, how many of you think half of those Negroes down there know what this thing is about? That was the slightest idea in the man in the moon. Not at all. But it's a riot spirit. This is wrong. We're not going to be sent out anymore and I'll kill you.

Well, that's the way out of the arena. They're just brought to that. That won't help them any. So he's got a dead man on his hands. What will he do with it? Well, he's got to get it out of sight. But how many know somebody has seen him?

That's the bad part. Some Presbyterian or somebody else, I don't know, got wind of something. He saw something. And he said, oh, this is awful. That Presbyterian has seen something. How many know they're going to tell us?

How many know they're standing around waiting for a while? So we put it out of sight. He's buried in the sand, but he's being seen. And then he says, and go tell Pharaoh, how does Pharaoh feel about it?

It would have killed him. It says so. It would have killed him. Put him out of the way. So what does poor Moses have to do? Flee. For all those years on the back side of the desert to get something very quiet.

It takes time to do that. The quietness of the desert. Well, then, and finally the Lord speaks to him. I have a way to take care of those children. Now, Moses, I know that you wanted to help. Do you know, Moses, I saw you kill that man?

Oh, Lord, you did. Yes, I saw you kill him. But Lord, don't tell anybody. No, I'll help you with that. You follow me, and I'll make you a deliverer of a whole bunch of them. Not just killing them, or killing one.

But you follow me in my directions, and I'll make you a great deliverer to take all of them, right on out. How many of you see, that was not spiritual at first, but natural. Afterwards, that which was spiritual.

Did you get your principle? Now, that's all to the word of God, and it's all the time about us. All the time about us. That's a little principle. It's just like in mathematics, if you don't obey the rule, and have two times two make four, and keep it there.

But if you go and prove on it, and say two times two makes five, that's better than four, that's more than four. Two times two makes five, that's so much better, because five is bigger than four, we'll get farther.

How many of you know what I mean? Yes, you will, because you can't improve on that. That's a fact. Now, that's the way it is with these things of God. It's not as a rule, that we wait until the thing is born of the spirit.

Nature is too agitated, it's too concerned. It wants to help, it wants to get in there. No, we're too stupid. My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. As high as heaven is above the earth,.

So far are my thoughts, my ways from yours.

And we say, yes, Lord, wonderful. And by the end of the week, we're mixed up in something. Within a week. Within a week. Because that's the way we're made. How many times God has to reduce us to, as it were, absurdity, and a confusion, before we seem to ever learn the thing.

He says, no, that's a natural way out. I have my way, but if you don't want to learn it this way, learn it the hard way. But I'll stand by, and I'll direct you and help you. So, in Genesis and Exodus, we found where there was a display of a natural order.

Here is one in the New Testament. We have a couple of New Testament. Here's one that I like in the New Testament. I want us to look at it. It's in John 2, at the marriage in Cana. Second chapter of John.

This wonderful wedding feast. As I read it, I want to point out some things I wonder if you had noticed before. I hadn't until the Lord made me see it. And the third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.

The first, as we say, shot out of the gun. The very first thing is, and the mother of Jesus was there. Where is Jesus in the picture? Where are the disciples? But the mother of Jesus was there. How do you see that she's presented first?

Because she's going to be one of the main actors in the drama. This is a little drama. It's a little drama. It's a little drama. And it has actors with conversation. And here's something you must learn.