Burning for God — G.W. North

And as you see I have some water brought to me tonight. Somebody took pity on me. I think I do hope that I don't get so carried away. I forget to drink it. It's in a max flask. But it didn't come from there.

I'm sure I want to say how blessed I've been to be among you. Of course it isn't just the lovely warm weather that I've enjoyed. Um I was saying this morning uh we were out for lunch. And as we were driving back I was saying in the car well we've had fellowship.

Fellowship in the Triune God

I hope you've discovered that. That is the great way that John saw God. You understand that uh John never saw God. At least he never projected into the scriptures as a trinity you know father son and holy ghost.

He thought of God as a fellowship of three beings in one person. That's what he said. Our fellowship is with the father and with his son. It's a marvelous statement of truth it's. And what a glorious thing it is to know what fellowship is.

It isn't just coming together and having a meal together and drinking a cup of cold tea or what it is. You drink. Um it isn't that. It's that blessed union in God. That's what fellowship is. And it's a glorious and wonderful truth.

And I thought it was most wonderful upon the occasion when God showed to me who is this that says our fellowship is with the father and with his son. Who is the only one that can speak like that. It's the holy ghost.

It's the holy ghost who has fellowship with the father and with the son and makes up that blessed fellowship. And so John was saying the holy ghost. And I were one praise. God the church is the product of the holy ghost through the virtues of Jesus and the sacrifice of Jesus.

And it comes into actual life union with God the father and God the son. What a tremendous thing that is to understand what it's all about. Words have meanings in scripture very carefully chosen by God the holy spirit.

And we don't want to be carried away by paraphrases and all kinds of modernistic approaches to it. He helps us best who takes us back to what God said originally not giving us a modern paraphrase. And God wants to take us into these great things more and more.

And I am sure that there may be some time in the future if God tarries when I may come and have another taste of your sunshine. I asked brother today whether it was time for mangoes. He said he thought it was but nobody's produced any.

I thought I might get a mango when I came down here but he wasn't at all sure whether they were coming or whether they were in season or whether they'd gone. But never mind my great disappointment when I first bit into a mango was I found a great hard lump at the middle.

I thought they were all nice all the way through. But I discovered that the real purpose of fruit is to produce seed. You say you want the fruit of the spirit. God wants the seed of the spirit. And we were talking about that a bit last night.

One of the modern wonders of men is that they can produce oranges as you say we say oranges. But anyway that they can produce oranges without seeds in them. People mock them up say marvellous discovery.

It's a bastard thing. God wants fruit with seed in it. Now I'm talking about spiritually. Of course the Lord is after great truth the reproduction of itself in mankind. What a precious thing. I'm tempted to follow that line except that God has laid on my heart a theme that I want to take with you.

Solomon, David, and the Temple of God

And I want to commence in the old testament. Please turning first to the second book of chronicles. You will know as you approach this book that it is the commencement of the great reign of King Solomon great David's greater son.

He was a wonderful man and he did many wonderful things. Chiefly I suppose we know him because he built the temple of God. That was Solomon's great purpose. His great move was to shift the impermanent to the permanence.

He wanted to move that which was movable into that which was static. In other words until his day the children of God worshipped in a movable tent. It was impermanent. It was here or it was there or it was somewhere else.

God raised up Solomon and he made the great temple. And it was permanent. It was a fixture. There was a specific center of the worship of God a place for the house of God. And it was very very wonderful.

You might have thought that Solomon was most famous for his wisdom. And truly he did do some wise and marvelous things. But you know at the end of his life his wisdom slipped away from him. He did some very stupid things.

But the temple he built remained permanent. He had a great father David. And David was the most romantic figure in the old kings of Israel. Oh everybody wanted to be a David. They didn't particularly want to be a Hezekiah or a Saul or even a Solomon.

They loved David. And indeed Jesus is never called Solomon's son. He is called David's son. And what a glorious truth it is. David was a tremendous beginner of new things in Israel. You will know that he did things.

He moved from the old traditions into the new. He did things that nobody else would ever dare to have done. I don't mean just that he went out with just a stone and sling to kill a giant. That's the famous story about David.

I mean this that he was the one who dared to put the ark of God in a different tent from the tabernacle. He got it out of the tradition. He was the one who dared to eat the showbread which he should have died to eat because it belonged to the priest so long and God never smote him down.

He was the one who dared to build an altar of God different from the altar that was at the tabernacle. And he got away. Amen. But that's the pattern that's set in the bible. But he saw that biblical patterns could become mere traditions.

He saw that even though it be given of God originally. I mentioned this the other night about the great what Paul called the jews religion. It was the living vital new revelation the true revelation when it came.

But by Paul's day he says it's the jews religion. That's what he said. And David did such tremendous things. Let's turn back from second chronicles for a moment into first chronicles and see this great and marvelous truth.

It's right toward the end of David's life. For if you drop your eye on the first verse of chapter 23 as you're passing back you will see that David was old and full of days. And he made Solomon his son king over Israel.

But in chapter 21 David himself went under a very severe test from satan. One of the tests which he failed. Listen at this juncture let me point out that the mistakes and failures and sins of some of the old people are not put in the bible for you to make an excuse for making sins.

For doing sins and making excuses. They're there to warn us and point us to truth. One of the things that leave me aghast at times is people who will take God's word and make things that are in this bible an excuse for their own sinning like in Africa for instance.

But then they don't know so many of them. They will have perhaps four five six wives. And the reason they'll call themselves christians. And the reason i'll give for it was well uh so-and-so had lots of wives.

You know david had a wife and some concubines and so on. Hallelujah. The bible is given for a different reason. From that you won't find anybody in the new testament who had more than one wife. You'll find that very clear.

You've got to know whether you're living in the old testament or whether you're living in the new. Alas alas i find too many people are living in the old covenant and don't know it. And calling themselves christians.

The coming of jesus christ was to destroy all that old and finish it and start something new. You know i know people i'm going to be a long time tonight. So settle down and get comfortable. At least i've got that feeling about me.

Why not. How many times have you been out and wasted hours of your day on pleasuring only or something like that. You know i know plenty of testaments. Read the old testament stories about david and goliath and daniel in the lion's den and the three hebrew children in the furnace.

And i'll read the mighty things that elijah did. And you'll have somebody making up a song. They're saying lord send us more elijah's. And i say oh no god we don't want any more elijah's. Please. We want more christ's.

Or elijah was christ's forerunner. John baptist came in the spirit and power of elijah. He didn't come in the spirit and power of christ. Note it. And what a tremendous thing it is. They say oh i love the old testament.

You know it's so human and i love the new testament. I'll tell you why it's so divine. They can't take the new testament. They can take the old because he's got a lot of failures and sins. And i don't know what.

They can't live with the new. But you and i are new covenant creatures. Amen. Amen. That's tremendous. And that was all in the blood of christ. Well let's drop back then shall we to this great theme. We're on.

And uh david fell to a temptation of satan. Um he fell to head counting. You know lots of people like that. I want to say how many members they got head counting. They can't see. It's a subtle temptation of the devil.

Seems a common sense way of saying well we we had a hundred people. We had a thousand people in last night. It doesn't half time go to the flesh. We can't see the temptation with the devil in it. But anyway he got through it all.

Bless him. He was a great man of god. And he got through it all when um he went to the threshing floor of orman the jebusite. And there the angel of god came sword in his hand. He was going to destroy jerusalem.

And uh one man's sin mark can destroy a city when you see the spiritual power of sin and what sinning does. And also see the spiritual power of holiness and righteousness. And what that can do. Amen. Well the angel was there and david wanted to build the altar at the threshing floor.

Here we go. Verse 21. David came to ornan. Ornan looked and saw david. I'm at the end of chapter 21 starting in verse 21 and went out of his threshing floor and bowed himself to david with his face to the ground.

Then david said to ornan grant me the place of this threshing floor that i may build an altar therein unto the lord. Thou should grant it me for the full price that the plague may be stayed from the people.

And ornan said unto david take it to thee and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. There was a tremendous step for ornan. He knew as well as david did that israel was supposed to sacrifice at the brazen altar and build no other altars none to sin in the beginning when the people who lived on the wrong side of jordan couldn't get up to jerusalem they built an altar of witness and they called it ed.

And the rest of israel were going to wipe out. They were going to slay the rest of those two and a half tribes that dwelt on the wrong side of jordan because they had dared to erect another up. And here is david saying i'm going to build another altar.

And ornan oh he. He didn't know whether he ought to be in it wash his hands on it or what he ought to do. But david was the king. And this is what he said. I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings and the threshing instruments for wood and the wheat for the meat offering i give it all.

And king david said to ornan may. But i will verily buy it 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 all men for the place 600 shekels of gold by weight.

And david built there an altar unto the lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and called upon the lord. And he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar a burnt offering and the lord commanded the angel and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

At that time when david saw that the lord had answered him in the threshing of all men the jebusite. Then he sacrificed there for the tabernacle of the lord which moses made in the wilderness. And the altar of burnt offering were at that season in the high place at gibbon.

All the way through david had known that these high places were the places where the heathen used to build their altars in canaan. And he'd never been quite comfortable about that. David could not go before it to inquire of god for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the lord.

Then david said this. And i do beseech you not to stop your reading because the chapter says end it murders the truth often. Chapter division. Then david said this is the house of the lord god and this is the altar of the burnt offering for israel.

Hallelujah. What a man. He. He moved the ark and put it in a tent that he made without all the elaboration of all that stood in the old tent of moses. He ate the bread of the priest when he was not a priest.

This man no wonder he said i'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the lord than dwelling in the tents of wickedness. If he if only he could see the priests in operation. He knew that it was greater to be a priest than a king.

Take that into your heart son. Greater to be a priest than a king. You understand that in ancient israel when the priesthood was established the only man that wore a crown was the high priest. No one else.

No one else. This man was a tremendous man. He established another altar. He saw something. He was a man who immediately he repented. Let you and me understand this clearly and understand what can happen in any heart in this room tonight.

Immediately he repented of his sin which arose from pride. And may i remind you that that was the first great sin. It was the sin of lucifer. Pride is worse than adultery. Pride is worse than murder. Pride is worse than fornication.

Pride is worse than lying. Pride is worse than anything. It was the sin of lucifer. He exalted or wanted to exalt himself up. Hallelujah. And god thrust him down. Yes. And david's sin had come from pride.

You proud of yourself. You're proud of your figure proud of your face proud of this proud of that proud of your possessions. Are you. You're a sinner to the core of you. And you're a deceived sinner too.

I don't know you are. But immediately you repent of your sin. You can be in the holy ghost by the grace of god. For this man stood there on poor man's fleshing floor. And he says this is the altar. For he was standing on the precise spot where where abraham his father in the face had built an altar.

He was standing on the precise spot. It was mount moriah where the father had taken the son and had put him on the altar. Amen. And they got the knife above him to slay him for god. When the angel of the lord said stop.

Amen. And they found the lamb. The ram caught with his horns in the thicket and he was put there. And in a figure the father received the son isaac back from the dead. And david sensed it. He knew he was there.

This is the altar of the lord. He said. This is the altar of the lord. It was a place for burning. And it's that which i want to talk to you about tonight. I want to ask you. Are you burning for god. Now listen.

Burning for God Instead of the World

It's not possible for you to live in this world but that you're burning for something. You're burning with something. You're burning in something. Let me show you what i mean keeping your finger in the second.

In the second book of chronicles turn with me into the roman letter. And in the letter to the romans and in chapter one not one of the nicest sections of scripture but one of the truest. And as you come toward the end of the chapter you read about people who did not glorify god.

Chapter 1 verse 22. Even when they knew god they did not glorify him as god. Now you see you see the significance of this. They knew god. Do you know god. They're asking you whether you know about him.

Do you glorify god. I don't mean stand up and sing. Glory glory glory. And you think that's glorifying god. That's a lot of nonsense. Glorification is something you do not something you sing. They wouldn't glorify god as god it says.

They weren't even thankful. They became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was dark and professing themselves to be wise. They became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible god into an image made like a corruptible man.

And to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore god also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of god into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. For this god cause god gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use under that which is against nature. And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned there.

It is burned in their lusts one toward another. And then they talk about the gay people winning in lust one toward another. When i went down to san francisco some years ago someone said to me this is the gay capital of the world the miserable sodden sinners.

That's right. And no such thing as a gay christian the most miserable creatures you ever did meet. Listen. God didn't burn sodom and gomorrah because they had some psychological problem. He burned them because they were sinners.

You read your bible. No you listen to these psychologists even when they speak from pulpits. They're liars every one of them. They don't even read the bible and believe it. Do you. You're burning for something son.

You're burning for something woman. For someone you're burning. You're burning hot. May i tell you beloved that life can only exist in heat. Did you know that if you sat there in your seats now you had room and you just put one leg over another.

I got this from my doctor. Friends you go to consult a proper doctor and you sit down in front of him where he can see you. And he may tell you to cross your legs. And you know why. He'll watch the tip of your toe.

And he'll tell your basic metabolic rate from it as it moves. Now of course you sit a while i'll keep mine rigid. But when you're not thinking all right and he can tell your basic metabolic rate. Now the metabolic rate in the human body is a process of breaking down and burning up.

And that's the way you live. Take the take the heat out of your body and you're dead. You feel a dead person. They're cold. You are only on this globe because there's a fire at the center of it that keeps it habitable.

That's all. You're a fireman. You're a fire woman. And when the fire gets a bit too hot physically you're in fever. And you're going to die unless it's something's done about. So you see the lake of fire is quite consistent.

It's quite sensible. In fact in my bible our god according to the writer to the hebrews is a consuming fire. And isiah asks the question and who should dwell with the everlasting burnings. You remember you're going to go and live with everlasting burnings all right.

You keep that clear. And if you can't live with that everlasting burning now you'll go to hell to the other everlasting burning called gehenna of the lake of fire. You've got to live in fire somewhere somehow to someone for some reason i told you last night how that i was taken across to the west to the to palm beach.

I don't know whether i should call it west palm beach or east palm beach or just palm beach or what it is. But never mind. I'm only an englishman you people know. And while we were there i was just rejoicing in the sort of lovely sunshine.

And brother uh said to me he said oh i said we're kept a bit cool here because of the gulf stream he says it runs a mile offshore and the wind's created by the heat of course and the other cold currents.

It sets up movement of air which has only wind air in motion. All right. And it comes over onto your beach here and you can lie there and not fry even when you're trying to get your skin dry. You see.

And i said but we like the gulf cream front stream for another reason. You think of this mighty miracle of god. It starts here. We're very grateful to you. It starts in the gulf and it comes around there and it moves right up across that mighty ocean.

And it keeps our little british isles from freezing up. Did you know that. Oh good. There's something we know in common amen. We don't get icebound ports. We don't get anything like that because of the water you supply.

Well if you think you do. But but but here it is it comes out there. It's a miracle isn't it. It's the heat. This i would have been born in an igloo. It's. It's a wonderful thing beloved. You've got to be on fire.

Keep that absolutely clear. And i want to tell you whoever you are you are on fire for something. But you're used to the fire that has been you and you've been living in it. So you don't think it is fire.

But you're doing the days when you rage and your blood boils in you. You know something stoked it up. They say the adrenaline flows. Yeah. You did when you were lusting after some woman's flesh or lusting after some man's flesh.

You knew you were fire then. You know when you're lying in your bed and burn. You know it. Now listen god ordained it all in fire. They tell me that that sun that's in the sky. They say that the flames leap from it about a mile from its circumference.

They leap up. And it's what keeps this old earth of ours habitable. Yes. And so i want to turn you then with this thought in mind to this second book of chronicles. What an impression that great man david had on his son solomon.

What a tremendous impression. David prepared with all his might for the temple. He wanted to build it. He saw that the end of the of the the tabernacle. It was all over the tabernacle era. The great truths of it were not going to be lost.

But the form of truth was going to be swallowed up in the greater thing. He saw it. You know he planned the temple. And if any of you have any trouble with people who say that the bible is not the inspired word of god.

And you wonder sometimes how it could be the inspired word of god. And you play about with so many translations. And i don't know what this that and the other of it. You don't quite know where you are.

If you read how david received the plans of the temple you will know he said all this god made me know in writing by his hand upon me. That's right. The hand of god was on him. And when he wrote it was the hand of god writing.

You're not asked to find out about inspiration this good book. This book was god breathed in the beginning in this original when it was given. I don't want too many men fiddling about with it. Here is the tremendous truth.

And david wanted to build the temple. God wouldn't let him. And you know why. Do you know why. And you better take this into your heart all you men and women. God wouldn't let him build the temple because he'd been a soldier.

You're a man of blood he said because he'd been in the army and led the army and was the great champion the great fighting man. God said then you can't build my temple. You take that right to heart every one of you and understand it.

He couldn't have this great desire because it's good. That's in your heart david. But you're not going to do it. I'm not going to have hands that have killed others. Build my temple. I didn't write the bible.

It's here if you read it i believe it. Do you do or don't you. You don't say you don't. That's the trouble. But what are you going to do about it. Your knowledge will bring your own blood upon your own heads.

If you're not careful you've got to move in the revelation of god. Amen. And so solomon that mild pacific king that's nothing to do with your ocean. Pacific means peace. I don't know whether that ocean is an ocean of peace.

That great man of god solomon came on the scene and he got something from his old dad. Bless him. Let's start solomon. Chapter one. Verse one. The son of david was strengthened in his kingdom and the lord his god was with him and magnified him exceedingly.

Then solomon spake unto all israel to the captains of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every governor in all israel the chief of the fathers. So solomon and all the congregation with him went to the high place that was at gibeon.

And there was the tabernacle of the congregation of god which moses the servant of the lord had made in the wilderness. But the ark of god had david brought up from kirjath jerim to the place which david had prepared for it for he had pitched a tent for it at jerusalem.

Moreover the brazen altar that bezalel the son of uri the son of her had made he put before the tabernacle of the lord. And solomon and the congregation sought unto it. And solomon went up visitor to the brazen altar before the lord which was to the tabernacle of the congregation offered a thousand burnt offerings upon it.

And there's your introduction to this great man of god. He got the secret. The secret was burning. You may not have thought so but it was. He found it blessed be the name of the lord burning. And from there i'd like to stop on more of the detail.

We'll go into chapter two. And in the second chapter verse one solomon determined to build an house for the name of the lord and a house for his kingdom that is solomon's kingdom. And solomon told out three score and ten thousand men to bear burdens and four score thousand to hew in the mountain and three thousand and six hundred to oversee them.

And solomon sent to hear him. And so we could. Well let's read it anyway. It's only one more verse. He sent to hear him the king of tyre saying as thou didst deal with david my father and did send him cedars to build him an house to dwell therein.

Even so deal with me the whole. Now listen to him. I build a house to the name of the lord my god to dedicate to him and to burn before him sweet incense. And for the continual showbred which i want to point out had been through the fire.

And for burnt offerings morning and evening on the sabbaths and on the new moons and on the solemn feasts of the lord our god. This is an ordinance forever to israel. And the house which i build is great.

For great is our god above all gods. And who is able to build him in house seeing the heaven. And the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. Who am i then that i should build him in house save only to burn sacrifice before him.

The only reason for building the house of god which was to be a house for his name was to burn. That's all. That was his purpose. That was the first purpose. It wasn't to go there to worship primarily.

It wasn't to go there to sing songs primarily. It wasn't to go there to have the law taught them. For the priests taught the law as you will know. It wasn't for that. It was to burn. Amen. Would god. You saw that.

You'd seen it. Would god. You'd understood this. Would god. The whole church understood this. It wasn't to sing. You don't come here just to sing hymns. You don't come here just to worship. If you don't come here to burn and burn unto god you're wasting your time.

You understand that let this great man solomon teach you hallelujah. Because you can't help burning for something you've got to burn now here then is the great and wonderful truth. I only want this temple lord that i should come here to burn.

Oh my to build the temple of the lord. He'd seen something he'd seen into this great secret. And when solomon began to build the house look at chapter three solomon began to build the house of the lord at jerusalem in mount moriah.

Abraham had offered his son in jerusalem so far as god was concerned. And when david this will give you a clue to the reading of the psalms. And this great man david excuse me when he said let's go to jerusalem.

Let's walk about zion. Let's market bulwarks. Let's do this. And when they count up the names of your elect count that this man was born there. That's what david said. But he was born in bethlehem at judaea.

What did he mean. He saw into the great spiritual jerusalem. That's where abram and isaac acted. I know it was a hill called moriah. I know there was no city called jerusalem there. And he saw into it.

That's what jesus said make. When he said your favorite father abram rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it and was glad. He said they said you're not 50 years old. You're greater now father abram. He said before abram was i was i am.

He said i want to tell you before jerusalem was on this earth there was a jerusalem in heaven. And every man a woman that's the only man a woman on this earth that has a right to call himself a christian is the one that's been born from the jerusalem above onto this earth.

Nobody else is only those who are born of god in the manner i was speaking last night from the seed of god jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all said paul. And you will be born of the holy ghost that came on mother mary for the physical birth of jesus.

And you look the holy ghost has to come on you. And all this nonsense about the holy ghost only comes on you after you're saved. And all that nonsense has come out of the pit that teaching it's not come from heaven.

You have to get born of god by the holy ghost coming on you hallelujah. And your life on this earth is cut off and all that you've lusted and burned and sinned after before is cut off by the cross and you're slain dead.

And then you're born from god onto this earth again and you have resurrection life. That's the truth that so-called christianity is so marred and played around with and obscured it and nobody knows the truth anymore much.

What a marvelous thing it is. I only want to build this temple to burn to burn. And if you think you are going to be in that heavenly temple and you're not going to burn you'll be deceived under god. And the whole coming of the holy ghost is to teach you how to burn down here.

Burn under god where you used to burn after sin and burn after some woman. Or burn after some man. Or burn in your temper. That's right. Oh glory be to god. This is the whole revelation of the book. Amen.

Amen. He said that's all i'm building it. For if we'd have gone on he could have said i learned a lesson from my old dad you know when he came to moriah. When he came to moriah he sensed in the spirit that he was at the place of the sacrifice the death and the resurrection in figure he was standing on the sacred spot he was standing there the place where god had foreordained before the foundation of the world.

No wonder the great prophets of old used to say that when god divided the nations he divided and kept israel for his people. And he said i've had my eye on that from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

You're to go there and you're to go out to jerusalem. Hallelujah. And that's eventually where the temple was built. David was going to build it. And david and god said no no. Hands off. Hands off. David hands off.

We're gonna have the man of peace the prince of peace who later became the king of peace. Even solomon. For solomon was the prince of peace. And he built the temple. Hallelujah. I could turn over with me into chapter five you know i want to encourage you people if nothing else comes out of this week i want to encourage you people to be bible readers.

If you just keep reading this bible in the power of the spirit you'll know it all. Not that the written word is the word but you've got to read the written word. And sometimes i say oh this bible is so wonderful it lives that if i didn't love and worship jesus i'd be an idolater.

Worship this book. It's all in here. Amen. What a tremendous thing. We come into chapter five. The temple has been built throughout chapter four. And would you believe it. David the great innovator had even changed things of the outlay of of of the tabernacle.

He changed them. And you remember there was no sea in the tabernacle. But solomon brought a great big sea. It was what paul would have referred to in the new testament as the labor of regeneration there was.

There were 10 other labors where they sort of washed them in. And all the priests after that washed not in the labor where they did in moses day. They washed in the sea. It would tell you if you read it they washed in this great sea.

Amen. It was born on the backs of these 12 oxen. And you know that the oxen was the great burnt offering to god. And in a figure it speaks of christ that the labor or great sea of regeneration was upon him.