Southern Salt Morning 2 — David Ravenhill

David Ravenhill actually spoke at a CHI Alpha meeting at USL about 11 years ago and was a tremendous blessing and I still have the notes from that particular meeting and have preached that message several times since and so, but I believe he's been a blessing to you and will continue to be.

Please give a good warm Southern Salt welcome this morning, Mr. David Ravenhill.

Well you can tell how good I was that this is the first time in 11 years I've been invited back. Well, wonderful. I understand last night's meeting was a tremendous time and praise God for what he's doing.

I've appreciated the times of worship. One of the things I've always been very grateful for are those that can lead us in worship. I do not have that ability. I am what somebody referred to as a prison singer.

How many know what a prison singer is? That's somebody who's behind a few bars and missing the key. And so I am part of the prison singing ministry and appreciate those that can get it right and get it on tune and so on.

Not that I could tell if they were off tune anyway. But anyway, praise God for those that have led us this morning. I want to share with you this morning on the purpose of God. The purpose of God, we've got a lot of ground to cover and so I'm going to try and reduce down about an hour and a half or thereabouts of teaching to the next hour so you can pray that I'll be able to do that so that you can get the essence of this message.

Understanding the Big Picture of God's Purpose

I want you to imagine this morning that you have in your lap a plastic bag. And in that plastic bag there are five or six hundred pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. And we are going to assemble that jigsaw puzzle.

You've all got the identical jigsaw puzzle. Now the problem is you don't have the box. Now imagine how frustrating that is to try and put all those pieces together not knowing where each piece goes because you don't have the big picture.

You don't know if the blue is the sky or if it's the sea or if it's a woman's dress or if it's a car. You don't know if the red is a rose or if it's blood or if it's some other thing. And here you've got all these unrelated pieces and you're not quite sure what they'll look like when they're all put together.

And I'm convinced that the average believer has, if you like, five hundred pieces of knowledge concerning the Word of God that you get by going to church on a Sunday morning and somebody hands you a piece.

In other words, you go on a Sunday morning and the minister is speaking about prayer and so you go away with your little piece on prayer. You come back the next week and somebody's speaking about the family and so you get another piece.

You come back the next week somebody's speaking on end times, eschatology, you get another piece. Somebody the next week is speaking about faith and so you get another piece. Somebody the next week is speaking about evangelism so you get another piece.

The next week somebody's speaking on healing, you get another piece. And you've got all these pieces of sort of unrelated information that you've accumulated over the life that you have spent in church, whether that's 20 years or whether it's five years or three months or whatever.

And what we're going to do at least this morning is try and place all those pieces together and give you something of the the big picture. Again I'm going to call it the purpose of God. God has got a purpose.

One of Paul's favorite statements writing to the Corinthians, he says, I would not have you ignorant brethren. And I think there's a tremendous amount of ignorance when it comes to understanding what God is doing.

And because we don't understand what God is doing, we don't get involved in what God is doing. How many of you know the Bible says we are to be laborers together with him? And most of us don't know what he's doing and so therefore we're not involved.

And the whole point of the message this morning is to get you involved in the purpose of God. To know what God is doing, where he's going. I was asked recently to teach one of the classes on leadership at our school there in Pensacola.

And I was just filling in as I do for most of my classes now because I'm on the road so much. But I said, you know, you need to know where you're going as a leader if you're going to be a good leader.

I gave them a poem that I heard many years ago. It's supposed to be a true story. I don't know if it's, I've never been able to validate it, but it was a story of a soldier in England that was passing a graveyard.

And as he was looking at the various tombstones, he came across one tombstone that sort of fascinated him. And it had this poem on it. Remember friend, as you pass by, as now you are, so once was I. As now I am, so soon you'll be.

Prepare for death and follow me. And so he read that and mused on it for a while and went back to his barracks, came back with a chisel and a hammer. And he put an extra couple of verses on it and he said this, to follow thee I'm not content until I know which way you went.

Now there's a lot of people that, you know, that don't know where they're going. And the first thing about leadership is you got to know where you're leading people. There's been some tremendous leaders in the world as far as their leadership.

Hitler was a great leader. He was able to take the whole nation basically and lead them. Unfortunately he was not leading them in the right direction. And so we need to have some sort of direction, a sense of destiny, a sense of vision as to what God is doing in order for us to be followers.

After all this is a, the emphasis of this group is discipleship and a disciple is a follower. We need to know what God is doing. Where is he going? What is the purpose of God? I read a statement a number of years ago from J. Sidlow Baxter's wonderful book called Awake My Heart.

If you want a devotional book I would recommend that. And he says in one of his devotional readings there, you can have a saved soul but a lost life. You can have a saved soul but a lost life. In other words you can know that you're born again of the Spirit of God and yet your life, at the end of your life, it has not counted for anything as far as God is concerned.

And how many of you know that all of us will stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ? The Bible says we will give an account of how we have spent our life. There is a judgment for believers. There's a judgment for unbelievers but there is a judgment for believers.

And the Bible says take heed how you build. In other words be careful how you build. You can build with gold, silver, precious stones or wood, hay and stubble. Wood, hay and stubble, when the fire tests it, it will be reduced to nothing but ashes.

Gold, silver, precious stones, all the fire does to it, it does one thing, it purifies it, it enhances it, it makes it better. But you can have a saved soul but a lost life. In other words your life is not counted for anything.

Somebody else says that as Christians most of us become so engrossed in the subject that we lose sight of the object. We get so engrossed in the subject matter we lose sight of the object. For instance somebody that goes into college and wants to become a medical doctor and so they get to a place where they finally got their GP, general practitioner, and then they decide to study one of the disciplines, another discipline, and they pursue that and then they pursue another one, another one, another one, another one, and here they are now 99 years of age.

You go up to this person and you you say listen I understand that you know everything about the brain. I understand you know everything about the intestinal makeup of the body. I understand you know everything about the skeleton makeup of the body.

You know everything about the circulation of the body. You know everything about the nervous system of the body. You know everything about the heart. You know everything about the lungs and so on and so forth and the man says yes I've got a degree in this and a degree in that and I've studied this thing and I've studied that thing and so on.

Then you say well listen have you ever delivered a baby? No. Have you ever fed anybody with a pair of glasses? No. Have you ever done open-heart surgery? No. Have you ever helped anybody that's had some some intestinal disorder?

No. Have you ever taken out somebody's appendix? No. Have you ever removed anybody's tonsils? No. And the man has become so engrossed in the subject he's lost sight of the object. And one of the great tragedies in the church is that we got become so engrossed in the subject of Christianity.

We read, we study, we look at you know books on the gifts of spirit, books on healing, books on you know eschatology, books on this and that and the other thing but we never really fulfill what God is wanting us to fulfill.

In other words all of that is to bring us to a place where we can minister to the needs of men and women. And so God has got a purpose. I want to just read off a number of scriptures. I'm out of time and you can either get the tape if you want all the the scriptures later.

But 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9 the Bible says he has saved us and called us with a holy calling. If I were to ask how many are saved here chances are that 99 of you would put up your hands. If I were to say how many of you are called, chances are some of you would have to think about it.

The Bible says if you are saved you are called. Every single person that is saved is automatically called with a purpose in mind. Acts 13 verse 36 it says David served the purpose of God in his generation and afterwards he slept.

In other words here was a man that understood what God was doing in his generation and he got involved with God in God's purpose and then eventually he died. I don't think there's anything greater than that.

I love that verse. It's got my name in it. You can put your name in it. But David served the purpose of God. My intention is that I am going to serve the purpose of God in my generation. I need to understand what you are doing Lord.

In this generation I want to be involved in what you're doing. There's no greater joy, no greater thrill than knowing that you're a laborer together with him. Acts 20 verse 27 Paul says I did not shrink or hold back from declaring unto you the whole purpose of God.

Paul says you know I made known to you that God has a purpose. Hebrews 6 and verse 17 talks about the unchangeableness of God's purpose. Somebody has made the statement that the instruments may change but the purpose never changes.

Let me say that again. The instruments that God uses change but the purpose never changes. The instruments change sometimes because of death, sometimes because of sin and disobedience, but the purpose remains the same.

For instance if my purpose was to build a house, in the process of building that house I'm going to use a number of instruments. I'm going to use a hammer, a saw, screwdriver and so on. Let's say I'm using the hammer and the shaft of that hammer breaks.

The instrument has failed but my purpose remains the same. I either replace the hammer or I repair the hammer but my purpose remains the same. And there have been instruments that God has again used that have failed and he's had to raise up other instruments but his purpose remains an unchanging purpose.

Romans 8 and verse 28 of course it says that all things work together for good to those that love God, to those that are called according to his purpose. Ephesians 1 and verse 11 it says having called us to his purpose.

So God has a purpose, he has got a plan, he's got intentions that he is wanting to fulfill. Now the purpose of God begins in a sort of a major way back in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 12.

And it begins by God appearing to this wonderful man Abraham. Abraham as you know is the father, the Bible says, of all those that believe. He is a prototype, he is a role model, he is an example for each and every one of us.

Fathers set the standard, they set the value system and Abraham is the role model for every single believer. Abraham is an interesting character, he is the father of the Jewish nation but he was a Gentile.

He was a Gentile that became a Jew not through works but through faith. The same way you and I become Jews in that sense. The Bible says he is not a Jew that is one that is circumcised outwardly but he is one that has had a circumcision wrought in his heart by the Spirit of God.

But he is the the father of every believer and what we see modeled in the life of Abraham, invariably we will see modeled in our own life. At least we will see principles that God is wanting to work out in our own life and that's a whole sort of message in itself.

But let me move on. God appears to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 and he makes a covenant with Abraham. And I'm sure that most of you are familiar with this covenant. Let me read it to you. The Lord said to Abraham, go forth from your country and from your relatives, from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and I will make your name great and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those that bless you and the one that curses you I will curse. And in you all the nations or the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So God says to Abraham, I am going to put a blessing upon you and because of that blessing you then in turn are going to bring blessing to all the nations of the earth. And we find here right in the very beginning of the Old Testament God's burden is for the nations of the earth.

God's longing again is for every single individual to be touched with the message of salvation. And so we find that God reiterates time after time after time this promise to Abraham. How many of you know that when God repeats something he is serious about it?

He comes to Abraham again in Genesis 18 and verse 18 and he repeats basically these same words. He says in you Abraham all the nations or all the families or all the ethnic groups if you like of the earth will be blessed.

Then over in Genesis 22 the same thing verse 17 and 18 says indeed I will greatly bless you and in you all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Now if God came to you on three occasions in fact more than that really but on three major occasions and he spoke to you with an audible voice and he said to you David or Sam or Joe or Mary or whatever it is I am going to bless you but through you all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed.

Once you take that seriously I think this is a very serious thing that God establishes here for the nation of Israel. In fact what you have here you have in seed form God's purpose for the nation of Israel.

This is a sort of a prophetic seed that God reveals his intentions for the nation of Israel here. That this nation is going to bring blessing to the nations of the earth and then God not only repeats it to Abraham but he repeats it to Isaac in Genesis 26 and verse 4.

It says by your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed and then not only does he repeat it to Isaac but he repeats it to Isaac's son Jacob in Genesis 28 and verse 14. He says and in you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

So here with this family and these incidentally these men Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are called the fathers. I'll deal with that a little later on but these are the fathers. When the Bible speaks about the fathers it always refers to three men Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and so these three fathers are told very clearly by God that they are going to be a means of blessing to the nations of the earth.

In Acts chapter 3 and verse 25 again we have the verse repeated and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Now what did God have in mind there when he spoke that to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob?

Paul gives us further insight in Galatians chapter 3. In Galatians 3 in verse 8 Paul makes reference to all these promises and he says this in verse 8 and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles or the nations by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying all the nation shall be blessed in you.

In other words what God was saying to Abraham to Isaac and Jacob is that you are going to be a means of bringing the gospel to the nations of the earth and so God again spoke he foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles and he preached the gospel to Abraham again saying all nations shall be blessed in you.

Now we need to understand what the word blessing means. We use the word blessing somebody sneezes God bless you you know some little kid runs up and we say bless you my child or whatever but what does the Bible mean when it says all nations shall be blessed?

In Acts chapter 3 we have the blessing defined. Let me read verse 25 and 26. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your father saying to Abraham in your seed all the families of the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

For you first God raised up his servant speaking of Jesus and sent him to bless you. Now notice Jesus came to bless us and now he defines what that blessing is. He sent his servant to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.

In other words the blessing was the blessing of repentance of justification of salvation that you and I have experienced. That is the ultimate blessing of God. It has nothing to do with your checking account and so on.

The ultimate blessing has to do with your spiritual bank account if you like your relationship with God. He sent us Jesus to bless us by turning us from our wicked ways. Now if you want further proof of that Romans chapter 4 verses 6 through 9.

Just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.

So you see again the blessing is the man whose sins has been covered. The man who does not have an account of his sin he's been forgiven. And so God said to again Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob I'm going to use you to bring blessing to the nations of the earth.

Israel's Calling to Bless the Nations

Now let me read to you a statement concerning Israel's role. This is so important that we get an understanding of this. This is by written by a man called G. Campbell Morgan. Some of you have read some of his books considered one of the great expositors.

And G. Campbell Morgan says this concerning the nation of Israel. It cannot be too often emphasized that it was not the election of a nation from among others in order that upon that nation God might lavish his love while he abandoned the others.

In other words he's saying God did not choose the nation of Israel simply to lavish his love upon them and not care about all the other nations. That was not God's intention. He says the purpose of God was far wider than that of the creation of this nation.

It was the creation of a testimony that through this nation the divine intention was for a people who under his divine government should reveal in the world the breadth the beauty and the goodness of that government.

A people who gathered about in their national life about his throne and his altar obeying his commands and worshiping him should reveal to outside nations the meaning of the kingdom of God. It was not the selection of a pet but the creation of a pattern.

Let me say that again. It was not the selection of a pet but the creation of a pattern. You see God's intention for Israel it was not that this was a sort of the teacher's pet. Here all the nations of the earth let's assume that these are all the nations of the earth here this morning and I select one of you and I lavish all my love and all my attention and all my goodness and all my favor upon that one person and I don't care about anybody else.

That was not God's view of Israel. God wanted to establish a pattern. In other words what he wanted to do with Israel he wanted to establish a pattern that all the other nations could follow. That all the other nations could look to and they would become caught up in what Israel was caught up in.

In other words it was to work this way. God selected the nation of Israel and he gave them certain laws. Judicial laws, dietary laws, governmental laws and so on. Those laws were all very unique because they were from the heart of God with all the wisdom and understanding that God had put into them and as a result if if the nation of Israel walked in obedience to God.

Now the key word is obedience. As long as they walked in obedience to the laws of God there was blessing upon them as a nation. They were blessed as far as their physical bodies were concerned. They didn't have the same diseases that the other nations had.

They were blessed in their social life and their family life because they didn't have the same rebellion with their children that the other nations had. How many of you know if you had a rebellious son in the Old Testament or daughter?

Took them out to the gates of the city and rocked them to sleep. And that was the end of that. But just making sure you're awake. I know the lights are low and it's very easy to fall asleep this morning.

And what was to happen then the other nations were to look on and they were to look at the nation of Israel and say listen what is it about you people? You know you don't have the same diseases that we do.

You don't have the same rebellion. You don't have the same divorce rate. You don't have the same amount of you know drugs that you know our kids are caught up in. Every time you go out to fight you win.

Your crops never seem to fail. You've always got the the rain of heaven that falls. There's always blessing and prosperity everywhere you go. And even when you're up against armies that are greater than you and more numerous than you, you still seem to defy the odds and you win every battle and so on.

All of that was contingent again upon their obedience. And in turn the nation of Israel was to say well listen it's nothing about us in that's special but we have a God that is a loving God, a compassionate God, a God of incredible wisdom, the God that made the heavens and the earth and so on.

And if we put him first in our life all these other things just automatically fall into place. And then the nations were to say well listen you know we are our gods we live in fear of our gods. I mean our gods we're always trying to appease our gods.

We bring them little bowls of rice. We even have to sacrifice our children you know on the altars and so on and so forth. We're constantly in fear never knowing if we're measuring up. We don't know anything about a God that loves us and so on.

And you know we've been devastated by famine. We've been devastated by wars. We've had plagues that have gone through our camp and so on and so forth. You guys seem to be immune from all of that. I mean is there any opportunity of us joining you?

And that of course was God's intention. The nation of Israel was to say haha you've got it. Yes come on in. Are there any requirements? Well you've got to be circumcised to identify with us. But apart from that you've just got to you know lay aside all your former gods and worship the living God and so on.

And you can become a part of us. You see Israel was never to have a monopoly on God. That was never God's intention. God was creating a pattern for the other nations to follow. They were to be a light to the nations.

Now let me give you some scriptures. And there are dozens of them. But let me just give you a few scriptures. Psalm 67 where the psalmist says God be gracious to us and bless us. And it goes on to say that thy way may be known upon the earth.

Thy salvation among all nations. In other words David understood God I'm asking you to bless me. But ultimately if you bless me I want to be a blessing to the nations of the earth. Isaiah 42 verse 6 and 7 I will appoint you as a covenant to the people as a light to the nations to open blind eyes to bring prisoners from the dungeon those who dwell in darkness and from the prison.

Isaiah 49 verses 3 and 6 he said unto me you are my servant Israel in whom I will show my glory and I will make you a light to the nation so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. In 1 Kings chapter 8 verse 41 to 44 Solomon is praying the great prayer of dedication at the at the temple there and he makes mention of the fact he says Lord even the foreigner is going to come and he is going to see what is going on here and he is wanting again to well let me read it to you because I can't quote it totally in 1 Kings chapter 8 verse 41 also concerning a foreigner who is not of thy people Israel when he comes from a far country for thy namesake.

In other words the name of God has attracted this foreigner from the ends of the earth and it says for they will hear of thy great name and of thy mighty hand of thine outstretched arm and when he comes and he prays towards this house hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place do according to all that the foreigner calls to thee in order that all the people of the earth may know thy name to fear thee to do as thy people Israel that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.

In other words Solomon says Lord answer their prayers that they may know again the greatness that we know. So they understood at least some of them understood let me put it that way some of the children of Israel in the Old Testament understood that God's reason for raising them up as a nation was that they would impact the nations of the earth.

Jonah, Israel, and the Consequences of Disobedience

Now the great missionary book of the Bible in the Old Testament is the book of Jonah and Jonah as you know was sent to that wicked place Nineveh. Now Jonah in a sense is a prophetic parable and I'm by parable I'm not saying it didn't happen obviously it did happen there was a literal Jonah he went to a literal Nineveh and pronounced judgment on it they repented and turned and the judgment never happened but it was also a wake-up call to the nation of Israel because initially when God sent Jonah to Nineveh what happened he disobeyed and he says I am NOT going to go to that wicked nation.

I'm not gonna go because somehow deep down in his spirit he knew that God may be compassionate. Now if God had not been compassionate he would have gone because he wanted to pronounce judgment. I mean there was nothing Jonah would have liked to have done more than take out his whip and sort of whip that nation say haha it's finally time vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord and now your time has come I'm gonna watch you squirm under all the judgments of God and you know that's what he really wanted to do but deep down in his spirit he thought you know I know something about God and the thing about God is he's compassionate and he may you know he may allow them to repent and so instead of going to Nineveh of course he gets in a boat going in the opposite direction and ultimately God gets his attention by taking him into captivity because of his rebellion and the captivity of course was this great fish whether it was a whale or whatever it was we don't know but this fish swallowed him and there in the belly of that whale or that fish Jonah repents he sees the light and he cries out to God basically you know I'll do it anything you tell me to do and the fish you know regurgitates and Jonah comes flying out and you know he says okay I better do you know what God told me to do and so he goes to Nineveh.

Now the way that God got his attention was bringing him into a place of captivity. Let me share with you something now concerning the nation of Israel in Jeremiah 51 and verse 34 and I said that Jonah really was a it was a prophetic statement concerning what would happen to the nation of Israel.

In other words Israel if you do not fulfill my purpose if you're going to rebel you're going to live in sin. You're going to you know worship other gods and so on and not fulfill my mandate I will bring you into captivity.

And in that place of captivity I hope to get your attention now notice what God says. Verse 34. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me and crushed me. He has set me down like an empty vessel. He has swallowed me like a monster.

He has filled his stomach with my delicacies. In other words the the Babylonian captivity was like this great fish that swallowed up the nation of Israel. And they went down into the belly of this great fish and his stomach was filled with all the delicacies of the children of Israel.

Verse 44. And I will punish Bell in Babylon and I will make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth. In other words God says there's going to come a time when you as a nation are going to go into captivity because you have not fulfilled what I want you to do.

And the day is coming when I can speak to that monster Babylon and it will release you. It will out of out of the stomach you will come and you will be free from your captivity. How many of you know that nation of Israel after they came out of captivity never went into idolatry again.

They'd still didn't fulfill their destiny. But at least there was a part of a correction that took place anyway we've got all these verses. Psalm 86 and verse 9 all nations shall come and worship before thee.

Psalm 117 praise the Lord all nations. And I could go on and on and on with the the fact that the nation of Israel was called by God to bring light to the nations of the earth. They were to be a testimony.

They were to be kings and priests. In fact the children of Israel asked a question when they came out of Egypt they said to Moses why have you brought us out here. Is it because there aren't enough graves in Egypt to bury us.

They were complaining. The question was a good question. The tone of voice that they asked it in was not good. But God responded to their question. He says I brought you out here that you might be kings and priests unto me saith the Lord.

Now a priest obviously has to have a congregation. And the congregation for the nation of Israel were the nations of the earth. They were to be priests representing God to the nations of the earth. That was their mandate.

That was the only reason God raised up the nation of Israel was to reach the nations of the earth. Now all of this was contingent upon one thing their obedience. And the reason that God chose Abraham way back in the beginning as the father of that nation was because there was something about Abraham that whatever Abraham got a hold of he would pass it on.

And God says in Genesis 18 I've chosen him because I know that he will command his sons and his daughters or his children after him and tell them to do the the will of God basically and several times God refers to the fact that because Abraham obeyed me I am able to fulfill my purpose.

In Genesis 22 verses 1 through 18 it says this because you have done this God tested Abraham recall you recall with Isaac his only son. And he says because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son.

Indeed I will greatly bless you and through you all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In other words obedience is the key to fulfilling the purpose of God. The same thing is true again in Genesis 26 and verses 1 through 5 because Abraham obeyed me therefore I can use him to bless the nations of the earth.

So obedience is the key. Now let me go over into the New Testament and start putting this together a little bit. In Romans chapter 15 and verse 8 it says. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers.