April 30 2000 Morning Service — David Ravenhill

Of people that can play and especially the violin. I went week after week after week for several years and took our middle daughter to violin lessons and invested an awful lot of money that I wish I still had.

It never paid off like that but anyway praise God when I get to heaven I'm looking for some Stradivarius hidden away up there and with my name on it and the first thousand years or so just leave me alone I'm gonna make up for lost time.

Amen, can't wait. Let's just pray again shall we? Father once again we turn and gaze upon you Lord. We say you and you alone are the author, you're the finisher. Father come and have your way in this meeting this morning.

Father we acknowledge these are your people. They don't belong to man, they don't belong to a denomination, they were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Father they're your sheep, you're their shepherd.

You know every need that is represented here this morning. As the Lord minister to each and every one we pray in Jesus name. Amen. I want to speak to you this morning on the presence of God. My wife and I raised our family.

The Presence of God and the Parts of Faith

We have three daughters and we raised them in the city of Christchurch in New Zealand. If you know anything about New Zealand, very beautiful country made up of two islands. The largest city in the South Island of that nation is called Christchurch.

That's not the name of the church but the name of the city and it is a city of about 300 ,000. Very beautiful city. The River Avon flows through it. There's mountains not too far away and right in the very hub of that city there is an old Anglican Cathedral.

Beautiful old stone building dating back to the turn of the century and just a couple of blocks away there is a museum called the Canterbury Museum. Canterbury is a sort of a province that Christchurch is in.

Again it's an old building. Stone, beautiful old building, gardens outside and as you go in the main entranceway of that museum there is a verse of scripture taken from the book of Job. Job chapter 26 and verse 14 and it says, Lo these are a part of his ways but how little a portion do we hear of him.

Let me say that again. Lo these are a part of his ways but how little a portion do we hear of him. I've often wanted to find out who was responsible for that verse of scripture being there. Number one it's taken from an obscure book.

Not everybody's into the book of Job and here is this verse that has been sort of hidden away and obviously somebody knew the Word of God to be able to take that verse and apply it to a museum. I've spent hours in that museum with the children, with my wife, going down all the corridors looking in all the display cabinets admiring all of God's handiwork.

I've seen children take the hand of a parent and you know point to some animal or reptile or some other thing and just you know ask mom or dad what it is. They've never seen that sort of animal before and never seen the size of some snake or other thing.

There's drawer after drawer that you can open. There's birds nests from around the world and birds eggs and bugs and butterflies and all the other things that God has created. And yet in all the hours that I've spent in that museum I don't ever recall anybody attributing all of that handiwork to God himself.

And so that verse is a fitting verse. These are a part of his ways but how little a portion do we hear of him. And while that may be a good verse to put over a museum it's a tragic verse to put over the house of God.

And yet I think that we could put it over many many many congregations not only in this nation but other nations that we hear all about the parts but we hear very little about him. I picked up a book a number of years ago in fact I think my father had sent it to me by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones on the Sermon on the Mount.

And in the preface of that book he makes a statement that I have said is worth one semester in any Bible school in America. And that normally gets the Bible school students attention I hope. But the statement he makes is this there is nothing so likely to lead to error or to heresy as to begin with the parts rather than the whole.

Let me say that again there is nothing so likely to lead to error or to heresy as to focus or to begin with the parts rather than the whole. I was in India about 13 years ago now ministering at a Bible college outside the city of Hyderabad.

A friend of mine was looking after it for a number of months and invited me over and it was my first real experience there in India apart from touching down once in Bombay but to spend a little bit of time at least in that country.

And one afternoon we were taken in this jeep that belonged to the director of the school and shown around a little bit but I noticed that the students were always eyeing this man's Jeep. It was a brand new Jeep there in the compound of the school and every time there was a break you know the students and especially the guys you know it's a guy thing I guess but looking at that car and you know sort of drooling a little bit thinking boy wouldn't it be great to be behind the wheel most of these students obviously couldn't even afford bicycles.

But using that Jeep as an analogy trying to get across the importance of that truth I said to those students I said suppose I came to the school and for one entire year all I do hour after hour day after day week after week month after month they stress the importance of the carburetor on that Jeep.

I never talk about anything else other than the carburetor and I go into great detail about the carburetor. I talk about the the whole evolution of the carburetor you know all the different types of carburetors single barrel, two barrel, four barrel, six barrel if you like drag racing.

I talk about all the components that make up the carburetor. I talk about the Greek word for carburetor and the Hebrew word for carburetor. I give you a assignments on you know carburetors and you've got to do research about carburetors and so on and so forth and so day after day after day week after week month after month an entire year all those students hear about is the carburetor.

At the end of that year of course are all enthused about going out and now all over India you have carburetor churches and carburetor churches perpetuate again the teaching on the carburetor because all they've ever known and all they've ever studied is carburetor theology if you like and then another lecturer comes to that school and he has a revelation on the distributor and like the carburetor man all he does he talks non-stop about the distributor day after day and hour after hour and week after week a month after month again talks about all the different components in the distributor what the distributor does and so on the great distributor developers and you know the evolution into electronic ignition and so on and so forth and once again the Greek and the Hebrew word and now a new class and all over India you have now the distributor movement and then another man comes takes out of his pocket a little thing the following year about three inches long white at the top black at the bottom he's from Tulsa or Detroit and he says without this it's impossible to start the car.

And he takes out a spark plug and he says listen you can have a brand new Ferrari can cost you three four hundred thousand dollars may have beautiful leather seats Pirelli tires Bose stereo system everything that you've ever dreamed of in a car.

But if you take out this little plug of these little plugs that car will not go anywhere it can have all the horsepower in the world the biggest engine of e12 engine. But if you remove these plugs that car will not even go.

Therefore this is the most important part of a car engine. In order to get across his point of course he says there are some people of course I think that the carburetor is the most important. There are other people I've heard that are stressing distributors.

I don't know what those are but he says I'm here to tell you that what God is saying to the church right now is right here. Without this it's impossible to start the car. And so once again hour after hour day after day and week after week a month after month they have a constant diet of spark plug theology.

And now you have another graduating class and all over India you have the spark spark plug movement. And of course spark plug churches have spark plug conferences and they fly in spark plug teachers or preachers.

And across town you have a distributor conference and they have some you know big shots that are going on about the latest development in the distributor. Meanwhile next month there is coming this great carburetor conference.

That's what we've done. Unfortunately with the word of God I lived for 17 years overseas after my wife and I graduated from Bible school 15 years in New Zealand three years in New Guinea and periodically I would come back.

And during that course of time there was always a new emphasis. One year it's discipleship. The next year it's faith. The next year is prospered. And next year it's prayer. The next year it's the family.

The next year is church growth. The next year is pageantry. The next year you know it's a prophetic. The next year is the apostolic. And all you got to do is take back issues of charisma magazine and you can thumb through.

And you know one year it's worship. And one year it's this. And one year it's that and one year and there's nothing so likely to lead to error or to heresy as to begin with a part rather than the whole.

You see if you put all of those parts together you have a person his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the way the truth not a part of the truth. I am the truth and the life. And we are complete in him.

We're not complete in faith. We're not complete in prosperity. We're not complete in this or that or the other. We're not complete with a part. It leads to very serious error. But we are complete in him.

Paul says we are complete in him. He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and all these other things. And as I've read the Word of God over the years and studied the lives of great men and women of God I've come to this conclusion that there is one common denominator and that is that all of these men and women had an insatiable hunger for God himself.

They may have been men of faith women of faith. They may have operated in the miraculous and so on but at the roots and the crux of their lives if you like was this longing for the presence of God. We see it in the life of Paul that I may know him not that I may know about him.

Paul knew about him still sort of baffling the experts with his writings Book of Romans and so on. What did he really mean by this and that and so on. But Paul says I'm not. I know what I have believed.

He knew that. But he says I know in whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able. And Paul has this longing again to know him forgetting all those things which are behind he says pressing on.

That's the cry. The longing of my heart look is to know you. Jeremiah says if you boast about anything he says don't boast about your might don't boast about your wisdom don't boast about your riches.

And I think if it was around today he'd say again don't boast about your faith and don't boast about this. And that he says if you boast about anything boast in this that you know and you understand me said the Lord only one thing he says worth bragging about only that one thing worth knowing about and that is that intimacy that knowledge of God himself.

Longing for God’s Presence in the Psalms

You go through again this wonderful word and you see men repeatedly crying out to God like David. One thing if I desire to the Lord that will I seek after I may dwell in the house the Lord all the days of my life simply to behold the beauty of the Lord.

David had as somebody said this magnificent obsession with God himself. All he wanted was God. Who have I in heaven. But thee very easy to agree with that isn't it first part of that verse doesn't really challenge me that much.

Who have I in heaven. But thee I can say that and mean it. But the second part of verse is the tough part. And there is nothing on earth that I desire beside thee wonder how many of us can honestly say that this one right from the very depths of our being Lord as I look around this earth with all that the world would say I need that new car that bigger house this and that and so on and so forth look there's nothing that I desire.

But thee here was a king had all the power all the resources of the throne could have had anything he wanted as he looked across that vast empire. If you like he says Lord there's nothing on earth. It takes my attention nothing on earth Lord that I desire other than your presence a day in your courts is better than a thousand outside rather be a doorkeeper the house of law than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

In other words the world has nothing. I'd rather just serve in the house of God and dwell in all those tents with all their lavish items all the gold and the silver and everything else Lord just to be in your presence.

Another place. And we sang about it this morning. David says there is the heart of the deer pants after the water brook so long as my soul after thee O Lord my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

I was with a gentleman a number of years ago man by the name of David Minor out on the West Coast as an East Coast David Minor and a West Coast David Minor both older men both the real fathers in the faith.

But this was the one on the West Coast and he was administering as we were in this conference together. And he touched on that verse in a way that I don't think I will ever forget. He said you know David was a shepherd and he would watch as the deer would make their way in the early hours of the morning at daybreak down into the water brook and there they would drink their fill and then they would sort of saunter away into some thicket and hide out.

But he said on this occasion as David is watching the deer the deer is panting. He says there's only one reason the deer is panting and that is the deer is being pursued. It's being chased and the deer goes by just flying by him and he can hear the heaving and the panting of that deer trying to escape from the one that is determined to bring its life to an end.

And he says that deer knows instinctively that there is only one place of protection and that is in the water brook because if it can find its way into the water brook there the predator cannot pick up the scent of the trail of that deer and it can find its way down the riverbed and be able to get away.

And so he says the water brook became a place of protection. But he says not only that but the water brook is also a place of satisfaction because there that deer can replenish that tired and exhausted body.

And he said I believe David wrote this when he was being pursued by Saul and day after day he's fleeing and one night in one cave another night in another cave and running here and running there because Saul has made threats on his life and his men are hounding him they're after him.

He never knows when his life is gonna be brought to an end. And David just said Lord there's only one place of protection as the hard pans for the water brook. Lord it's to come in to the river of God that is full of water.

It's to come in Lord into your presence. And in your presence is that place of protection. But not only that in your presence is that place of satisfaction. It's there I can be restored. It's there Lord you can touch me again.

It's there I can feel again your embrace and feel the security and the comfort of just being alone in the presence of God. So many times David expresses again this deep deep longing that he has for God's presence.

Moses Chooses God’s Presence Over the Promised Land

If you have your Bible this morning if you turn with me to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 32. And here we have another man Moses. And Moses has this deep longing after God in this chapter. Of course he is in the presence of God already.

He's seeking the face of God. God is revealing to him the tabernacle all the various parts of the tabernacle of furniture and so on. In the meanwhile the children of Israel have become restless. Not only restless but rebellious.

And they go to Aaron Moses brother. And they say to Aaron listen we want a God that will go before us a God that will lead us. Obviously our leader is gone. We haven't heard of of him for weeks. Now something's happened.

We need a we need another leader. We need another God. And of course Aaron bows in that moment of pressure to the demands of the people. He gathers together all the jewelry from the women throws it into the fire and out pops the golden calf.

That was his explanation wasn't quite that simple. But they fashioned a golden calf. And around that golden calf is really nothing less than a sexual orgy that has taken place. If you understand the gods of the nations in those days were fertility gods.

They weren't agricultural nations. I mean they were agricultural. They weren't industrial nations like many of our nations are today. And most of their gods again were gods that they relied upon in their mind anyway to be fruitful fruitful in the fields and fruitful here and fruitful there.

And they were basically fertility gods. I've traveled a little bit. I've seen some of these idols that literally are made in the form of sexual objects. And around that of course was all of this passion that was just given over to the flesh.

And God sees what is going on. He's angry. He's angry at the idolatry is angry at the immorality is angry at everything. And in verse 7 he says to Moses I want you to go down at once. Moses for your people that you brought up from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.

They've turned aside from the way in which I commanded them. They've made for themselves a molten calf. They've worshipped it sacrificed stood it and said this is your God of Israel who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

You know God the Bible says is a jealous God. It's a righteous jealousy. But there's nothing that makes God angrier than to have all of his great attributes and all of these great miraculous events attributed to something that they've made with their own hands.

This is the God that brought you out of Egypt. This is the God that brought about all those miracles. This is the God that brought about all those plagues. This is God that parted the Red Sea. This is the God that drowned the horse and the rider.

This is the one that has been responsible. It's this God right here that did all of those miracles. And God is angry. And he says in verse 10 to Moses let me alone. Moses just leave me alone that my anger may burn against them that I may destroy them and I will make of you a great nation.

Moses don't try anything forget about prayer forget it. But just leave me alone. I'm angry. And he says I want to start all over again. I'll wipe out every single one of them. I will make of you a great nation.

You know this is every pastor's dream. Hmm. God comes. You know it's been one of those rough weeks where the complaint box is full and the phones been ringing off the hook. And you know music's too loud or temperatures too cold or the service is too long and the lights are too bright or whatever it is.

Or you know they weren't consulted when the color scheme went in. You know all those things. And God says listen I've had enough as well. Pastor I finally agree with you boy they are a cantankerous rebellious stubborn obstinate people aren't they.

And I've got this brilliant idea pastor I'm sure you'll like it. When you're out of town on vacation there's gonna come this virus and every single one of them will be gone by the time you get back and you won't have a thing to do with it.

You'll be out of town and then pastor I will make of you a great nation. God was in the cloning back then. And he says they'll think like you. They'll act like you. If the temperature is right with you it'd be right for everybody.

If the music's right with you it'd be right with everybody. If you like the color scheme they'll like this color. I mean they'll. They'll be clones. They'll have your DNA. Moses I will make of you a great nation.

You would have thought Moses would have said God this is the best news I've ever heard. After all they complained about his wife. They complained about the lack of water. They complained about the lack of food.

They complained about the fact that they had as much power and authority as he had. I mean they were always complaining. But Moses is a shepherd and he loves the people. In verse 13 he begins to pray and he says remember Abraham and Isaac and Israel thy servants to whom you did swear by yourself.

And you said to them I will multiply your seed as the starvations of heaven and all this land that's I've spoken. I will give to you and your seed and they shall inherit it forever. In other words what Moses is doing here says hey God.

What. Just a minute now what about those promises. About the promise you made to Abraham. What about the promise you made to Isaac. What about the promise you made to Jacob God. I thought you were a covenant-keeping God.

I thought you were the original promise-keeper. I thought you said let God be true in every man a liar. I thought you your word says that your word is steadfast in heaven that heaven and earth will pass away but my word will never pass away God.

Are you going to give us promises and then renege on those promises. Are you a sort of a fickle God. Is that the God we have. You say one thing one day and change it the next day. You make promises and then you just break those promises.

You don't follow through. I thought you were steadfast immovable. I thought there was with you no variableness no shadow of turning. I thought you were constant God. I didn't think you told lies. We've got promises that go back that have kept us going hundreds and hundreds of years 400 years you made promises to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob that have kept us going.

The promise that one day we will go in and possess our own land. One day you would bless us. One day you would make up for us or to us all those years that we were never on salary when we were exploited by the Egyptians and so on.

What about it. God. God says you've got me. Verse 14 the Lord changed his mind about the evil that he said he would do to his people. And then you go into the next chapter. And now it is God's turn to remind Moses that he is a covenant-keeping God.

And verse 1 it says the Lord spoke to Moses depart or leave here you and the people that you brought up from the land of Egypt to the land which I swore to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob saying to your seed I will give it Moses.

This is the day I will keep my promise. I remember those promises. I want you to remember that I made a covenant with Abraham with Isaac with Jacob that I would give you your own land the land that flows according to verse 3 with milk and honey a land of blessing a land of prosperity a land of abundance.

And I want you to blow the trumpets. I want you to rally the people. I want you to tell them to get their belongings packed because I want you to take them in and possess the land. This is the day we're going in to possess the land that was good news here was a nation of slaves a nation that had suffered incredibly.

The Bible calls it the iron furnace of affliction. 400 years of servitude 400 years of bondage 400 years of pain and sorrow and hardship. When God came to Moses at the burning bush he says I've seen their suffering.

I've seen their affliction. I've seen their oppression. And you look into the sort of the root meaning of those words. And it seems to imply that one is physical one's emotional one's spiritual. You see there was an oppression over that nation.

Why. Because they were involved in the occult. They were involved in witchcraft. When Moses threw down his rod. Pharaoh wasn't especially impressed. He just called some of his men and they threw down theirs and they had incredible power.

There was a darkness over that nation. And then they had the physical suffering as they were beaten day after day after day in order to raise the production of bricks in order to build the cities for Pharaoh.

So there was physical pain. In fact the psalmist talks about I have relieved your shoulder of the burden. They were stooped over as they carried these bricks. Men and women young men and the whole bodies just bent down again under the load.

God says I've seen the torment of all of them. But then there was the emotional suffering. You have a generation who remembers little boys and little girls ripped out of their arms and thrown into the Nile.

You have mothers and fathers that watched as their daughter began to mature and the taskmaster began to look at her. And honey you're coming home with me never knowing where that girl went never knowing all the abuse that she was subject to.

Physical sexual. Can you imagine the emotional pain. The Bible calls it the iron furnace of affliction suffering hardship. And the one thing that kept them going through all those years was the fact that way back in the history God says one day I'll bring you out.

One day you'll have freedom. One day you'll have your own land. One day you'll no longer be under the taskmasters. You'll have houses vineyards olive trees all of these things that you've longed for that you were deprived of for all those centuries.

I'm gonna make them up to you. In fact you can read about it there in Deuteronomy chapter 6 just very quickly. Let me read you a little bit of God's description. Verse 10. It shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you swore to your fathers to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to give you great and splendid cities.

PS. Which you did not build. Boy was that ever good news. Listen these cities you don't have to build. They'd spent their life building cities. That's all they remember. Cities cities cities building cities for the Pharaoh.

And God says listen I will make up to you great cities splendid cities that you don't have to build. Houses he says full of good things. Not just empty houses. Not houses that are full of stuff that should be carted off to.

You know goodwill. Give them the teen challenge. They get all. You know they get all the bad stuff. Unfortunately you know as much as you've done it unto the least of these. No we won't go there. But houses full of good things that you didn't have to fill.

And then he says not only that but hewn cisterns which you did not dig. Vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant. I mean this was good news. God says Moses this is the day I'm gonna fulfill my covenants.

Can you imagine the children of Israel getting that message again. Finally we're gonna hunt. You know some father gathering the kids. Guess what. We're gonna have our own house. We're gonna live in a beautiful city.

And that house is gonna be full of all the things you've ever wanted. You know bicycles and rollerblades. If we modernize it you know it'll have a computer and a television. You know everything we've ever wanted.

Darling's gonna have the most incredible kitchen. And God then says to Moses. PS. I have no plans on going with you. Notice there in verse 3 go to a land that flows with milk and honey. For I will not go with you because you're an obstinate people unless I destroy you along the way.

God is still angry. God says listen I will keep my covenant. But you're not having my presence. I'm a covenant keeping God. But I'm not going. If I go I'll destroy you. I'm still angry at what you've done.

You're still stubborn and obstinate. But I'll keep my promises. Now what would you do if you were in this situation. Here is Moses. Now he has a major choice. One of two things he can do. He can go in.

After all he's got around a million people that have longed for this particular day. And he can go in. And he can possess the land. I mean really this is the American dream here. Isn't it. If we modernize it isn't the American dream to have your own land a little few acres.

Maybe have your home paid for again. No mortgage payments in the back of that house. To have some vineyards and olive trees. To have your well in case Y2K kicks in a little late. I mean this really is the American dream isn't it.

And not only to have a house but a house loaded with good things. I mean that's the American dream. You know the kids have grown up now we paid for the college and we've still got a little bit of a nest egg.

We've made some good investments or whatever. And you know now we can refurbish the house the way we want it now that the kids have gone and you know we can put in the carpet and you know get the piano.

We always want to get that stereo system and you know update this modernize that a little bit. And we can travel now you know because retirements coming in a couple years. I mean that's the American dream isn't it.

And here now they are faced with that but no presence of God. On the other hand choice number two is to stay where you are. Let me describe where you are. The Bible calls it a waste howling wilderness dry barren arid.

Nothing grows there. There's no olive trees there's no vineyards there's no wells. The water was supernatural. The food was supernatural. Apart from that as far as the eye could see it's just sand dry barren wilderness.

So a documentary recently in that part of the world where it says the temperatures can soar to a hundred and thirty degrees. That's why the Bible says the Sun will not smite thee by day nor the moon by night.

It can drop to extremes. You can have such a incredible diversity that you can freeze together. Freeze rather at certain times no wonder God provided a canopy over the children of Israel as they wandered through it a divine umbrella.

It wasn't just a cloud that went up it was a mushroom if you like. And they were under the shelter of that thing. Otherwise they'd have fried to death. And then I believe the fire was not only for light.

I believe the fire was for warmth but nothing else. Not exactly the American dream. It's not the thing that you want to do is you know go out there somewhere where you can buy land for $100 an acre out in the you know deserts of New Mexico somewhere miles from anywhere else.

I mean that's not exactly a retirement place. But they had one other thing presence of God. What would you do if you had that choice. You had to cash your ballot on the way out this morning. You could have the house that you've always longed for full of everything you've ever desired.

You say well this is Sunday morning and we're doing our best to be spiritual. You know we're carnal the rest of the week. Give us a break. You know don't stir up those carnal desires those fleshly desires.

We're just trying to at least for an hour or so this morning we're just trying to you know be spiritual. And you're messing around with our minds here getting us to think about the world and all the things we think about the rest of the week and all the things that we put in so many hours of work to get well let me sweeten the deal for you.