Preparing a Sanctuary for God — George Warnock

From Doctrinal Skeleton to Spiritual Life

The New Covenant is considered to be a set of doctrines, and we've got to get this doctrine straight. If you have the doctrine right, then, you know, we're on the way. And as one teacher said, I remember hearing some years ago this statement that the doctrines are like the skeleton of the human body, and I think there's a lot of truth to that.

We need that. We need the skeleton. But God forbid we should stop there, because God's plan goes far beyond that. When Ezekiel prophesied the dry bones, there was a wonderful ministration. Bone came to bone, but we're told there was no life in them.

And I know God's been doing a great work in his people, bringing together a people for his name's sake. And though many times we see a people coming together, the first thing you know is they're scattered again.

From our viewpoint, we see them scattered. God is nevertheless bringing together a people unto his name. And if God scatters, it's only because it's something that man has done, and God scatters it again.

Because it must be a coming together by his Spirit and unto him. For unto him shall the gathering of the people be. And the prayer of Jesus is not fulfilled when we get 10 ,000 Christians of all denominations in a big auditorium singing his praises.

That's nothing to do with the fulfillment of Jesus' prayer that they all may be one. As our Father argued, me and I indeed, that they also may be one in us. That's what Jesus prayed for. God is doing that, and there is a body.

Oftentimes they don't come together in one place. They're scattered far and wide. But nevertheless, God is uniting and joining them by his Spirit. And if you are joined unto the Spirit in your own lonely little place, and you lack fellowship, be encouraged to know there are others all over the world who are cherishing the same hope, the same desire, the same longing to be one with Jesus and with his people.

The Creative Word and the Moving Spirit

And so let's be encouraged to know that God is, the time has come, I believe, when in the ministration of the Word of God and his people, there's an actual impartation of that which the Word is saying.

I desire that in my own life and the lives of God's people everywhere. Otherwise, it's not really the new covenant. God wants to impart, even as the Word goes forth, that God's people will receive, that there will be a creative work in their hearts and lives.

Expect that. Look for that. Because God's desire is that in the Word going forth, it does that which the Word says. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. God said that there'd be light, and there was light because God spoke. Nevertheless, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The waters are dark once again.

Once again, there's darkness in the face of the deep. But once again, the Spirit of God is moving on the face of the waters. And once again, God's going to speak, this time with such creative power that the Apostle Paul said, he will speak and he'll shake not the earth only, but the heavens also.

The Shaking of What Can Be Shaken

The purpose being that all things that are shakable will be removed, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. And I know when God begins to speak, people are going to be terrified as they see institutions, all institutions of man crumbling.

But let's not be terrified because God is shaking only those things that are shakable, those things which cannot be shaken. They remain firm, steadfast. I wanted to pursue a little the thought we spoke on last evening about pursuing that which is excellent, setting our hopes upon that which God evaluates of importance in his eyes, recognizing he does many, many good things, that he gives us what we need, he supplies every need, but that he has a certain ultimate purpose in mind.

If we fail to recognize that, then we get bogged down in what God is doing rather than having the hope of his intention in doing what he's doing now. Therefore, Paul said, thou abidest faith. Hope, charity, and the greatest of these is charity, love, that's the greatest.

And so Paul takes a whole chapter there to explain what he means by the excellent way, by pointing out first that it's greater than wisdom, it's greater than knowledge, it's greater than charity as we know it, being charitable and giving, bestowing our goods for those in need, it's greater than that.

So that if you gave everything you had to feed the poor, to help those in need, and didn't have love, it profits nothing. You say, well that is love, isn't it? Not necessary. Paul says you can do all that and still not have love.

And he goes on to show the greatness of love, and that's what Paul says we're to pursue. We need these gifts, we need these ministries, we need to have that ministration of the word, but God's intention is to bring us under the desire of his own heart, to make us to be a people compatible with his own heart, that he might find a dwelling place in us.

Preparing a Sanctuary for God

Because until God finds a people that have been tuned and recreated, I should say, perhaps recreated and tuned to his own heart, he can't find a dwelling place there. So we say, Lord prepare us to be a sanctuary, and that's God's whole intention in this whole matter of redemption, is to have a sanctuary for himself, a place where he might dwell.

And furthermore, when God does a great work, when God begins to do a great work in his people, he's always careful to point us to his purpose in doing it, lest we get bogged down in what he's doing and feel that's it.

As long as God's working, that's ultimate. That's the way it's become pretty well in the church, get God working. Somehow, if we can get God working in our midst, what more do we want? Instead of realizing what's he working towards, what's he working for?

People don't seem to care. If I get healed, then that's fine. If God's healing people in the congregation, great. What more do we want? If there's prophecies, well, we had a wonderful meeting. You know, there was five prophecies, and there was tongues and interpretation, and what did God say?

Well, I guess I don't know, but it was wonderful. And God wants to speak to his people. Clearly, he wants to send forth a clear word to his people, and he wants to bring us out of that short-sightedness that we have, and to enlarge our vision, that we might see what God is really leading us unto.

From Egypt's Deliverance to Canaan's Purpose

And it was so with his people when he brought them out of Egypt. He told them he was going to bring them out to bring them in. I have brought you out from thence, and I might bring you in. But somehow, if we come out and we sing the victory song like we did on the other side of the Red Sea, we somehow feel that this is it.

This is the victory that overcometh the world, and we've found it, and here we are, and we're going to walk in this victory, only to be disillusioned a little while later when we discover that this doesn't seem to line up with that revival God started.

Somehow things are petering out. Things aren't the way they should be. God promised to bring us into Canaan, and this is not Canaan. I can't sense that this is Canaan. What's wrong, Lord? And so, as surely as God moves his people forward and does great and mighty things in their midst, right there in the midst of it all, he reminds us of his intention, lest we get carried away with the great victories given us and fail to realize that's just the first step.

So when God brought them out of Egypt with a mighty deliverance, opened up the Red Sea and brought them across on the other side of the Red Sea and destroyed the enemy in the Red Sea, then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and Spake sang, and Spake sang, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.

The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. I remember that little charismatic group in the town we're in. When we first come there, we started to go there. This was their song. They sang it.

The Lord hath triumphed gloriously, and yet somehow most of them, it seemed to me, had no vision beyond that. We've got victory. We're charismatic. We talk in tongues. We prophesy. God's healing his people, and everything's lovely.

Needless to say, that fellowship soon disintegrated. Because God's intention is to take us beyond that into something greater. If we don't see the greater intention of God, we get bogged down in the wonderful things God is doing.

If we don't see his intention in doing, because God will cause it to dry up. He loves us too much to just let us carry on with present victory when we're far from God's ultimate intention. So the next verse, the Lord is my strength and my song.

He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation. They sang that without knowing what they were talking about. Just like we sing many songs. Sounds good. It rhymes. It's good poetry.

And there's truth, wonderful truth in it that God grants. Yet the truth we know in our hearts, let me put it this way, the truth we know in our minds will penetrate our hearts. Because there's a vast chasm, it seems to me, between the truth we know and the truth we have become.

Faith, Hope, and the Excellent Way

God's intention is that the truth we know becomes activated within us. God says, I desire truth in the inward parts. That's where God wants truth. And until truth becomes inward in the heart and the inward parts, it might be there in the mind, that's good.

But it's not enough until it becomes part of us. And I believe this is the day when God wants that which he has given us by way of hope becomes actual. Now abideth faith, hope, faith to believe what God says even when it's not there.

But then that develops into hope, which implies expectation of that which God has promised. Hope is not in the Bible. Bible hope is not the way we use it, where we say, yeah, I think so, I hope so. That's not the kind of hope the Bible talks about.

Bible hope goes beyond faith, goes beyond faith. For that which we see, why does a man yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it? So hope brings us into a realm of patient waiting and expectation for that which God has promised.

I am disturbed about a lot of the doctrines that are in the church, end time doctrines many of which may be right and good and all that, but lacking that living hope of becoming what God has in mind in fulfilling these doctrines.

And people ask me, do you know of an end time church in our locality? I'm living up here in this area and do you know anyone up here that has the kingdom truth, kingdom doctrine? And I generally write and say, well, no, I don't.

I'm not familiar with what's going on everywhere. But I'd like to point out that it's not end time truth that we need or kingdom truth or kingdom teaching. We need to come to the place where the king is king of our hearts and minds.

We need to come to the place where we're poor in spirit. You might have the kingdom doctrine, but are they poor in spirit? There are many churches teaching kingdom truth and end time truth and very eloquently, very fluently, but they're not meek and lowly.

A lot of them are high minded. A lot of them are kingdom building. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. So is there a place here where they have this kingdom doctrine?

Well, I would like to say, well, seek out that person who is meek and humble and lowly and of a contrite heart and you'll find true fellowship. Because theirs is the kingdom. Theirs is the kingdom. He is my God and I will prepare him a habitation right in the midst of the victory song where they just crossed the Red Sea and they landed there on the eastern side of the Red Sea, safe from their enemies, delivered from our enemies.

Learning Through the Wilderness and Marah

You couldn't help, couldn't help but sing and shout and dance with Miriam and the rest. But that dance soon faded away when they went three days into the wilderness and found no water and they were famishing for water.

Suddenly they saw the pool in the distance. Oh, they ran to it rejoicing because they were three days. That's a long time to go without water. And they stooped to drink and the waters were bitter. And so from that day on, the victory that they sang about seemed to fade away in their minds, seemed to fade away to the point where many times they said, let's go back to Egypt.

I know we were in bondage there, but at least we had lots to eat. At least we were, our physical needs were taken care of. Come to Moses, Moses, you brought us into a wilderness. Did you bring us out here because there weren't enough graves in Egypt?

So you brought us out here where there's more room to dig graves? I mean, that was the attitude that developed when for three days they went without water. And when their food supply ran out after maybe a few weeks or months, then nothing to eat.

God, what are you doing? And they complained and they murmured against God. Failing to understand what God did in that mighty deliverance, failing to realize how God by a mighty hand had saved them from Pharaoh and all his hosts.

Even though he had done that, they never come to know that God. So we look back and oh, how stupid they were. Isn't that awful the way they treated Moses and God? Failing to realize that we do the same thing.

We do the very same thing. As long as God is working and rolling back the sea and giving us a way across, everything's lovely, we sing the victory song. But when God leads us into a wilderness and we complain and blame God or blame our brother, blame our wife, blame our husband, blame our kids, blame our employer, blame our situation, blame our country, blame our government.

The government gets an awful lot of blame, you know. Everything goes wrong with the government. Like one of your newly elected presidents, I think it was Bob Hope, said to him, now from now on, Mr. President, every trouble in our country now, you're to blame for.

He knows that's the attitude of people. And the trouble is not your government, not your president or your congress. Don't try to change them. God set them there. Trouble is God's people. It's supposed to be the salt of the earth.

We've lost our savor. So blame the government, blame the congressmen, blame the senate, blame everybody but ourselves. God wants a habitation for himself and his people. And God will go to any length to deal with his people.

To bring them to that place where he can find that habitation. And he can't find the habitation until he finds one who is akin to his own heart. Patient, long-suffering, merciful, kind, gentle, meek, humble, lowly.

God's all of that. As well as being righteous and powerful and mighty. We like to see the display of his mighty power out there. Dealing with those things we don't like. But God wants to prepare for himself a habitation in your heart and mine.

We don't realize those tremendous powers that are working in us to prevent God from having that habitation for himself. But we see those evil powers out there in the government. God wants to deal with that.

God wants to deal with those evil powers working in the heart of the church to make us to be a habitation for himself. So he brings them to Mara, but Lord, why don't you bring them to fresh water? Sooner or later, along this way, we begin to understand that we are the wilderness that God seeks to bring us through.

We are that wilderness. Then when you understand that, then you realize, oh, it's not out there after all. It's in you and I. And that's the first lesson they had to learn. The problem is in them. The bitterness was in them.

Because we're born in bitterness. We're born in a world of bitterness, which became that way because of the fall. We inherited all. We're born that way. Born in bitterness. And so God wants to bring us out of all that old life and into the new.

And so he gives us a great victory. And we come to him and receive him as our Savior and Lord. Sure, we sang the horse and his rider as they thrown into the sea. But many a young Christian has been discouraged and disillusioned when a little while later he discovered that there was fountains in his own life that he couldn't drink from.

And he wonders about it. He gets discouraged until somehow if his heart is bent toward God, he realizes the trouble is in himself. God wants to bring us to that. Whether we've come to recognize here's where the trouble is right here.

Oh, but they did this and they did this and somebody did that. I know. But if this was right in the inward man, then we would truly be able to say, God, I know that all things are working together for my good.

Because I know I love you and I know I'm called according to your purpose. I'm not saying that's easy. I am praying, though, that in this great hour, every ministration of truth will bring about an impartation in the lives of his people, because that's God's intention.

That in the ministration of truth, there's an impartation of that truth in your life and mine. So take heed how you hear. Hope you haven't come just to hear some new teaching. I don't think I have any new teaching as such, but I do desire and I believe God has been faithful to do it in part, to send forth that word in a living way that will bring an impartation into the hearts and lives of his people.

That that which God desires will begin to happen within us, to change us. To bless us, yes, but to change us. I suppose the vast majority of people will run here and there and everywhere, wherever God is blessing, and we thank the Lord for his blessing.

But God wants to do more than bless. He wants to change. So we'll run where the rain is falling, but we'll run away from the fire. God wants to burn up in the day of harvest. He wants to burn and consume the chaff as well as the tares.

The tares, those seeds planted by the enemy, those weeds that grow. He wants to burn that up, I know, but he wants to burn away the chaff, which was once something that God nourished, that stock that brought the fruit, something that God nourished one time with rain from heaven and sunshine.

But when the fruit comes, he doesn't want that, it's chaff. I wonder how much chaff there is in our life. If you follow on to know the Lord, you'll discover it. As God begins to burn the chaff, you say, what are you doing, Lord?

You did this, you gave me that, you blessed me with that. Now you're taking it away? You're burning it up, consuming it? Because God just wants the fruit. And we have yet to discover what God calls fruit.

Discernment Beyond Miracles and Religious Activity

Because anything, anytime God is working, we say, well, that's the fruit. Not necessarily. People say, well, I know that man must be of God. I see healings, I see miracles, I see wonderful things happening.

What then did Jesus mean to say when he said, in that day, many will come to me saying, in thy name I have cast out devils. I've prophesied in thy name, I've done many wonderful works. And I will say to them, I don't know you.

Do you know the context of that scripture? Previous verse says, by their fruits you shall know them. For many will come in that day saying, I've done this and that. I've seen healings and miracles and all these wonderful things.

Preceded by the word that Jesus said, by their fruits you shall know them. So that's not fruit then. God does it, doesn't he? Yeah, but that's not the fruit he's looking for. That's not the harvest fruit he's looking for.

He blesses us along the way. Well then, who does these healings? I believe God is probably doing it. Remember William Brown used to say, only God can heal all healings of God. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the man who is ministering it is of God.

God help us, God give us great discernment in this hour. To know the difference between works, good works, maybe even works of God. But the difference between that and the fruit that God is after. Therefore, as I read last night, Paul prayed for the Philippians.

That your love might abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all discernment. That you might approve the things that are excellent. Set your heart upon the Lord Jesus Christ and love him more and more and more.

And you'll come to a place of discernment and knowledge that goes far beyond anything you'll discover in textbooks. Far beyond anything that you'll discover in reading books on deception. And our Christian bookstores are getting quite a supply of books on deception.

Christians are reading them. I'm not saying it's wrong to read them. But you won't come to this spiritual discernment that God wants you to have until you come into that area where you love God with all your heart, mind, soul and spirit.

Because when you come to love God with all your heart, you'll know what God loves and you'll love that. When you come to love God with all your heart, you'll know what God hates and you'll hate that. But you can dig it out in books and this thing is wrong and this is deceptive and this is deception, this is delusion.

All kinds of scripture for it, perhaps. Failing to realize that it's a deception on the church of Jesus Christ. Thinking that they're ready for rapture when God lifts down and says, you're miserable and wretched and poor and blind and naked.

The greatest deception I know that's on the church today. Not denying that there's a lot of deceptive doctrines out there. But if you love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, love Jesus with the passion of love that he had for the Father, you'll be free from deception.

John says, you have an unction from the Holy One and know all things. And that same anointing that God has given you teaches you all things and you need not let any man teach you. Because the anointing is truth.

The same anointing that Jesus had is on his church. To keep us in the truth, to help us to walk in the truth and to discern all things. I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all discernment.

That you might approve the things that are excellent. We might see through the eyes of Jesus, hear through his ears. Because our Lord Jesus, when he walked this earth, did not discern or judge by what he saw or by what he heard.

But you say, what have I got to go by? I either see it or hear it and that's all I have to go by. Jesus didn't go by that. He did not judge by the seeing of the eye or the hearing of the ear. But with righteousness, he had that divine knowledge of the Father within him that caused him to discern that yearning in someone within his heart.

He just knew because of his walk with the Heavenly Father. Everything that he did and the way he judged and discerned was because he was in tune with the Heavenly Father. You say, we've got to have the Word.

Of course, we do. But recognize, first of all, that Jesus is that living Word. And what we call the Bible, the Word of God, is the letter of the Word. Which is good and I love it and I memorize it and read it over and over again.

Because in it, we are shown the way. But only as you walk in the way will you come to living truth. Only as you walk in the way. Peter said, he that lacks these things is blind and short-sighted and cannot see afar off.

They don't see properly because they lack these things. What things? Haven't read the Bible enough? Haven't memorized the Scriptures enough? Haven't gone to Bible school to know truth and error? Haven't studied theology well enough to understand the doctrines of the Scriptures?

I'm not despising any of those things. I'm saying those are not the things that Peter says leads to short-sightedness and blindness. What are those things that are necessary so we won't be short-sighted and blind?

The Virtues That Produce Spiritual Sight

Peter said, add your faith, virtue. The virtue, knowledge. The knowledge of God. Any knowledge that doesn't bring us to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is not true knowledge. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Add your faith, virtue. To virtue, knowledge. To knowledge, temperance. Control of your own spirit by the Spirit of God. Add your faith, virtue. Virtue, knowledge. Knowledge, temperance. Temperance, patience.

Patience, godliness. To godliness, brotherly kindness. Brotherly kindness, love. If you don't have those virtues, if we don't have those virtues, Peter says we're blind and short-sighted. I don't care how many DVDs you can put after your name or doctors of theology.

If you don't have these virtues, you're blind and short-sighted, Peter tells us. Then let's pursue these excellent things. We're not going to have those excellent qualities that God sees, that fruit of the Spirit that God's looking for, until God deals with the inner man.

The first stopping place through the wilderness was just one of many stopping places that God would lead them through, 42 of them, in which God would prove and test and try the hearts of his people to prepare them to be that which they sang about, a sanctuary for the Most High God.

That's all God wants. And all that we're doing is teaching and evangelizing, preaching, prophesying. The ultimate is that God might have a dwelling place for his people in your heart and mine. He might dwell there, that you might be God's home.

The True Temple and the Antichrist Spirit

Where is the house that you're building for me and where is the place of my rest? They're still trying to build temples for the Most High God, like Israel did. God ordained it for a season, just as a picture of the ultimate home he had in mind.

Don't get excited if you hear about they're going to build a temple in Jerusalem. I guarantee that if they sent out the word they're going to build a temple in Jerusalem, you'd have millions of dollars sent from this country to help them build it.

The world's excited about the temple they're supposed to build over there. When they had such a temple one time, they couldn't begin to build one like it's Solomon's temple. The ceilings and even the floor plated with gold.

Billions and billions of dollars in our money today. And yet Solomon himself, God, you can't dwell here. There's a place for your name and God has transferred his name from all earthly temples to a people.

That's the temple where God's dwelling. That's why Antichrist wants to sit up in the temple, which is the church. Forget about some Antichrist over there in the Arab world. He's rising up in the temple in the church of the living God.

Wherever God's people are, that's where he's rising up. To rob God of his glory, to push God out of his temple. Not going to do it, but he's going to do it in the nominal church where God's people are today.

For Jesus recognizes the temple as the place where God's people assemble. Even in his day, he called the temple my father's house because that's where God's people were assembling. But he forsook that and left it desolate and began to build a temple not made with hands as a sanctuary for himself.

And we read in the end time, there's going to be such apostasy that this visible temple, this visible church, Antichrist is going to set up his seat there. He started in the days of the apostles. John says there's many of them now.

Paul says that infiltration of Satan into the church will continue, that mystery of iniquity would continue to work all through the church until the end time when it would come to fullness. The mystery of iniquity would come to fullness in the midst of a God's people.

And one day he'll shine forth from his people and the Lord will destroy the man of sin by the brightness of his appearing. Time we began to realize where Satan wants to set up his throne. Not over there in a temple that God forsook centuries ago.

It's right in the midst of his people. Wherever God's people are, that's where he wants to set up his throne. God purge our hearts that there'll be no place for that Antichrist spirit because he's taken over in the ecumenical church.

There's a great movement back into the old apostate religions of the past. In the name of ecumenicism, in the name of unity, in the name of forgetting your doctrine, but just love one another because we're all God's people.

And Satan is already well on his way to establish the man of sin in the temple. But there is a true temple. There is a true temple in the midst of it all. God is going to purge out that Antichrist by the brightness of his appearing, that his people might become that true habitation of the Most High God.

Marah, Bitterness, and the Sanctifying Cross

Coming back to what we're talking about. ...that he might prepare for himself a habitation, because he declared that to be his intention even in the victory song. They sang, I will prepare him a habitation.

And then the prophecy came forth right in the victory song, thou shall bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.

That's God's intention. And so the first place to come to was Marah, because Marah means bitterness. And God was saying to them, I want you for my sanctuary. Soup and drink now, I've blessed you with this pool of water.

They stooped, they drank, tasted of it, just bitter. They couldn't digest it, they couldn't drink it. And they murmured against God, God, what are you doing? Haven't we asked God so many times, God, what are you doing?

God, give us all grace. To know that no matter what bitter experience comes across our pathway, God is dealing with us. I know somebody else is used. I know Satan is used. I know evil men are involved.

I know all that. But if you've been redeemed, you're his. You're no one else's, you're not even your own. You're not your own, you're his. God's dealing with that Marah in your own life. That is where he's dealing.

And because of the Marah in the church, oh, bitterness. And I don't mean just you're mad at somebody, but that bitterness that you're just dissatisfied with life, with everything that happens to you, granting that many wounds have developed because of the thoughtlessness of others, or the iniquity of others, or the bitterness of others.

Aware of that. But God wants us to know that if he purifies and cleanses and sweetens the inner man, the salty waters are overwhelmed with the waters of life and there's nothing can harm us. Peter says, who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good?

But they crucified Peter. Didn't that hurt him? He said, I've been crucified. I've known the cross so many times. I know, but God wants to bring us to the place where even the bitter becomes sweet. And he shows us the way.

They murmured against Moses. They murmured against God. God was saying, that's just the state of your own heart that I'm dealing with. Moses cried unto God and God showed him a tree. Which when he had cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

That's the secret. That's the secret. And I know it's not easy to discover the secret. I know in proclaiming it doesn't necessarily mean we've got the secret. But if somehow God by his spirit will cause us to know that there's nothing can harm me.

Because he bought me and paid for me and I'm his responsibility and I'm not my own. And anything God allows, he allows it according to his own infinite wisdom. And as we draw near to him and love him more, draw near to him in the time of trouble.

We're going to discover those bitter fountains will be sweetened. I know there's a lot of it. I know the church is full of it. You know it. You know it in your own life. I know this one dear friend of ours who suffered I think nine years when her husband for no reason bought off her with bitter suffering.

I don't mean she was bitter towards God or even her husband. But an inward bitterness that she couldn't rid herself of. For nine years until she found that God sweetened the waters. And I'm not saying how long it's going to take.

But I do encourage you to seek God. Not to attach blame anywhere but to yourself. Not in accusation either. Not in self-accusation. But in recognizing it's the hand of God and he will make the bitter to be sweet.

Because there's bitterness in the church and the church is full of it. That inward bitterness. Not necessarily everybody's against God or man but there's an inward bitterness because of bitter situations.

Because we have not learned that bitter situations are intended to sweeten us. That's why in the Passover lamb they ate it with bitter herbs to make them better known to sweeten them. God sends the bitter things in life to sweeten the salty waters.

How does that work? It's the truth of the cross. Jesus hanging on the cross in agony and in that deep bitterness that he had drunk when he drank the cup. Not an inward bitterness against God or man but that inner struggle in his own heart as he partook of the bitter waters of humanity.

Out from that there has flowed a river of life. Out from the cross. Why? Because Jesus knew the pathway of victory. Which the church has yet to learn. That we overcome evil with good. We overcome darkness with light.

We overcome deceitfulness with truth. We overcome hatred with love. And you could go on and on. We overcome the negative with the positive. You don't overcome evil by letting that evil bitterness within war against that other evil thing.