Mid South Conference 1981-03 the People of Israel — Aldy Fam Fanous

Well, what shall I say after what you have already heard? He said most perhaps equal to what I wanted to say. Therefore, I'm going to take some time to read to you some of the letters that we received, I promised last night to read them to you or rather yesterday afternoon.

But I am just going to read one or two excerpts from the letters we received from listeners in a minute or two to give you just an idea of how well the broadcast is received throughout the Arab world.

And don't forget there are 140 million people who speak Arabic in the Middle East and who listen to the broadcast four times a day. And they estimate that through the broadcast from Cyprus alone at least 5 million people listen to each and every program.

5 million people listen to each and every program. And if you believe, and I know you do, that God's word is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, you know the implications and the potential that we have at our hand.

Praise God for radio, especially the one on AM Standard Band. This letter comes from Saudi Arabia, from a Muslim, from a place called Medina if you've heard of it. Dear Hawla Al-Alam, which is the Arabic for CWR, France World Radio, greetings.

I've been listening to your broadcast for some time. Your broadcast led me to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have received him as my saviour and my Lord. Yes, I have committed my life to him. And no person can change my faith in him, for he is my beloved Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. This is from the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. How I praise thee, Lord, thou Redeemer of mankind. Thou who didst give thyself for the salvation of the world. Hawla Al-Alam broadcast has shone with the light of the Lord Jesus on my lost soul.

My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, thou hast saved me by thy death upon the cross. And I do accept thee as my Redeemer. I do now put my hand in thine, and I promise to be ever loyal to thee. This is the prayer that I lifted to the Lord, and I do wish to be in the service of my Lord and Saviour.

The writer was a Muslim, and his letter is in full eight pages length. Baghdad, Iraq. I am Muslim lady, one of the many people who listen to you daily. Your beloved broadcast is dear to the hearts of all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have been listening to you for a long time, and I wish to tell you that your broadcast is the best to me. Before I got acquainted with your broadcast, I was living in a state of despair and confusion.

I had never before heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. But one day a lady friend of mine recommended your broadcast to me. And so I heard of the Lord Jesus for the first time. He entered my heart and has given me peace and assurance.

I am now a believer in him, and he has filled my heart with joy and peace. How I thank him for his grace to me, and I thank you for you have been instrumental in solving all my problems. I am surely a friend of your broadcast.

Egypt, for a Muslim engineer. You may not believe it, but I am one of the thousands, yea the millions, who listen to you daily. And I wait patiently until it is 11 p .m. at night in order to listen to a program which tells me of real faith.

Yes, I am one of the millions of Muslims who hear you daily and who wish to know more about Christ and about the many prophecies mentioned in the Old Testament about his coming into this world. You cannot imagine how happy I shall be if you could send me a copy of the Bible.

A thousand, thousand thanks. So many, hundreds, literally thousands of these letters. This is just a sample to let you know what we feel like when we receive these letters. And don't forget, each letter from Egypt costs the sender 28 loaves of bread for the postage.

Election and Free Will in the Gospel

Praise God for his grace. Well, we come to the very thorny, sizzly topic. Election or free will? Election or free will? Am I free to choose the course I follow? Or am I following because I am predestined to follow that course?

Well, I don't propose I am going to solve the question for you. I would have told you 50 years ago when I knew everything. Now I don't know anything, therefore I am trying to deal with the question. Well, the Lord Jesus taught us both sides.

There are today some people who put all their eggs in the basket of election. Others who put all their eggs in the basket of free will. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ put both sides of the coin before us.

All that the Father gives me, come unto me. That is election. The Father elects them and gives them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. That's free will. And both are in God's word and taught in God's word.

Please turn with me today to a verse in 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2. And the verse is verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.

I will read again. Please note every word there. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.

All right. What does sanctification mean? Sanctification means setting aside. The spirit of God has set you aside. This is definitely election. Why? Why has he set you aside? Because you are beloved of the Lord.

That's all. God so loved the world. Because you are beloved of the Lord, the spirit of God has set you aside for salvation. Why? There is no reason. I like the Arabic way in which this is expressed. Read John 3 .16.

When you don't have any reason to give for what you did, you just say so. And this is exactly the same word in John 3 .16. For no reason that I can give, God loved me. God loved me not because I was lovable.

In fact, God loved me when I was never lovable. Christ loved the church when the church was not to be loved at all. They all left him and ran away, and his love never changes. This is election. Let my people go, the Lord said, Moses said to Pharaoh.

Let my people go. Why are they your people? So, no reason. Because he is loved. All right, this is the sanctification of the spirit, putting you aside, setting you aside. Marking you aside for God. The second half of the sentence says, and belief of the truth.

On whose side? On your side. You believed the truth. There you see the word of God. You believed the word of God. The two sides of the coin again. Election and free will. The spirit of God elected you, set you aside, sanctified you, set you aside for God.

And you believed the word of God. The same thing that the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus. Born of the spirit and of the word. Born again of the spirit and of the word. The spirit of God set you aside, and you accept the word of God.

Salvation as the Obtaining of Christ's Glory

But wonder of wonder, why did God choose us? For what? What did God choose us for? Number one, for salvation. What is salvation? Wonder of wonder. No mind can think of. No language can express. No tongue can say the greatness of what God has for you.

In the next verse it says, Whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is salvation. You are chosen to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Can you think of it? Can you imagine that? Can any mind comprehend of it? Can you exactly understand what they mean? Oh help me understand it. Help me to take it in. How is it that I of the dust can share, obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ?

This is what you and I are called to my friend. We are called to obtain the glory of Jesus Christ my Lord. Sometime ago when we first came to this country, I watched once or twice some programs on the TV.

And I don't know what you call it. They win money and they win $10 ,000. And they jump and they cry and I can't describe it. They are so happy because they won $10 ,000. I don't know how real this is but I had my doubts anyway.

But they win $10 ,000 and they just lose their mind because they won $10 ,000. Friend, it is not $10 ,000 you are called to win. It is not a million dollars you are called to win to enjoy for some time here and leave it behind, all of it.

Friend, you are called to eternal glory. To obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The glory that shall never fade away. Sometimes we wonder what this will be. I look at my brother and say, is he going to obtain the glory of Jesus Christ?

He doesn't show it. Or he looks at me and says, he doesn't show it indeed. But I don't know. Just let me give you a simple illustration. My wife is a good painter. I am not making any publicity here. But she is a good painter and you ought to see her when she paints a picture.

She gets a piece of cardboard or canvas, whatever it may be. She has a brush in her hand. She makes a few strokes. To me they look nothing. Absolutely nothing. But she has something in her mind. She just waits.

She says, just wait, just wait. And a few hours later or a day or two later, you see the most superb picture. What happens? What is the difference between my look and hers? I look at things as they are now.

But she looks at the thing to be. She looks at the picture how it would look when it is going to be completed. I look at you, you look at me and friend, we see nothing in each other. I think you are justified, I am not.

But look at the picture as it will be when the Lord Jesus Christ comes to earth. Friend, you and I are to show the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this can appear in two phases, in two ways. Here and now and later on.

We can show, we must show the glory of Jesus Christ while we are here on earth. And our brother drew a very very important point before us now. It is as much as you spend time with the Lord in fellowship with Him day by day that you are able to show His glory.

Bearing God's Image Through Fellowship

You and I are created in God's image. And I told some of you some time ago what I understand by this. I know exactly there are many interpretations of this, how it is that we are created in God's image.

But let me give you another one, it will not hurt you to have another one. Supposing I have a mirror in my hand here. And I look at the mirror, what do I see? I see my own image, exactly my own picture.

There is nothing to write home about, but it is my picture. It looks exactly like me, my hairdo and my eyes, my glasses, exactly like me. But what is the most outstanding characteristic of that image?

It's obedience. If I smile, it will smile. If I frown, it will frown. It will not frown when I smile. Neither will it smile when I frown, unless there is something wrong. But it will exactly obey me, exactly as I look.

And do you know that Adam fell exactly in the very same thing for which he was created? He fell in disobedience. He fell in disobedience. And because of the disobedience of one man, all were made sinners.

But praise God that image you lost in Adam is restored in the second Adam, Jesus Christ our Lord. Who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Even the death of the cross. And through him you regain the image of God, you mirror back his image.

If you obey him day by day, as you fellowship with him. How much time do you take with the Lord in prayer today? And every day? You know prayer is not a monologue, believe me, it is a dialogue. It is a talk between you and the Lord.

You talk to him and he talks to you. You talk to him and he talks to you. And he reveals his mind and his will to you. Well, when he reveals his mind and his will to you, you learn a few things. We have been thinking of Moses yesterday and we have beautifully thought of him this morning.

Moses' Rod, Hand, and Feet Surrendered to God

There are three things that had to change in Moses. And he had to come into contact with the Lord to have those three things changed. First of all, his rod. He depended too much upon his rod and he had every right according to the flesh.

But the point had to come when his rod had to appear before him as it was. And you know when he threw it to the ground and he saw what it was. Something happened to it, it became God's rod. It says in the same chapter, take God's rod with you.

It was Moses' rod before but then later on it became God's rod. It became God's rod. Friend, according to the flesh you can do nothing. You can do nothing. Your ministry to him will just avail nothing.

But I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. How would you find this out? You find this out as you come into his presence day by day. Secondly, his hand had to undergo a tremendous change.

He depended too much upon his hand. With one stroke he killed an Egyptian. It's not easy to kill an Egyptian, you know. You try it. But with one stroke he killed an Egyptian. Something had to undergo a change there.

It has to be surrendered to him, to God. To be used by him. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. No good thing. But praise God when he lives in me. Christ lives in me. When he lives in me I can love my enemies.

I can't love my enemies according to nature. But when he lives in me I can love my enemies. You know, man they say is 99 habit walking on his two feet. Habit. And habit is a very very powerful binding thing.

You try in your own power to get rid of it. You cut off the ache you still have the bit. You cut off the HIV you still have it. It's most difficult to get rid of the habit. But I can do all things through Christ.

Who strengthens me. Then a third thing in him has to change. His feet. Take off your shoes, off your feet. This old walk of philosophy of the Egyptians and the knowledge of the Egyptians. Everything they've learned has to change.

You have to stand barefooted before him. You have to come to him as you are. And have your feet shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace. This has to be changed. And friends, Moses was never the same man after he came in the presence of God.

You too today. I have been praying that this might be a horrid to you and to me. We come in his presence and listen to the still more voice. This is the here and now. Please turn with me to a verse in 2nd Corinthians 3 .18.

2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18. You know the verse by heart I'm sure. But let us remind ourselves of it. But we all with open faith beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

With an open faith as you come into his presence day by day and commune with him as friends to a friend you are changed from glory to glory. What happened to Moses when he was with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights on the mount?

What happened to him? The skin of his face shone. And he didn't know it. He didn't know it. Oh, sometimes we are too cocky. We are too proud when we have some personal experience with the Lord. And remember friends, pride goes before a fall.

Pride is an insidious enemy to you and to me. The pride, race pride. Faith pride. Place pride. Grace pride. I'm holier than thou. Friends, it is a terrible enemy that spoils my relationship with man and spoils my relationship with the Lord.

Learn humiliation. Learn of me to the Lord for I am meek and lowly of heart. The greatest testimony uttered by any mouth was the testimony uttered by the Lord for John the Baptist. He was a shining light, the Lord said.

No man born of a woman was greater than John the Baptist. If he heard that testimony, what was his answer? They came to ask him who he was. He didn't say, listen to this testimony. If you heard the same testimony from the Lord about yourself, what would you have done?

I know what I would have done. I would have it printed and enlarged and blown up and hung in my living room and made copies of it, sent to my friends, to the newspapers. It's the Lord who said it. Mind you, it's the Lord who said it.

And I would have found a hundred and thousand and one excuses for doing so. But no, not with John the Baptist. Who are you that we might give an answer? I'm a voice in the greatest cathedral. No. On the mightiest pulpit.

No. I'm a voice crying in the wilderness. I'm a voice crying in the wilderness. No wonder he was praying. Friends, I wish you and I would learn this lesson so we can mirror back the image of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Taking Time With the Lord in a Hurried World

Day by day as you are found in his presence. This is the need of the hour, friends. We need to learn this. There's this hurry, hurry, hurry I told you about last night. Hurry, hurry, hurry. But this is not the need of us.

Though I know there's so much hurry in this. I have never seen anything like the highways you have here in this country. They are beautiful, wonderful highways. But if you miss the exit, you've had it.

And I've had it many times. You have to hurry and hurry and read the signs. And this has crept into our lives. We eat fast, we talk fast, we drive fast, we die fast. My goodness. Oh, when the Lord calls your name once, there is something very important for you to learn.

When he calls your name twice, my word, better listen. Samuel, Samuel, there is a very important announcement that is going to follow. Abraham, Abraham, Moses, Moses. But you know, at one time, he called the name of a person twice.

And what the need was, you know? You listen to it. Martha, Martha. Now trouble it and worry it and think it and hurry it about many things. But you need to take time. Take it easy. Cool it. Cool it. Take it easy, my friend.

This fever has to subside and die down and take time with the Lord. Take time to be holy. Take time with the Lord in prayer every day. This is your strength. This is how you are able to mirror back his image to a world that is dying without Christ.

The trouble of our trouble today, the reason of trouble in our campuses, the reason because we have trouble in every phase of our society is because we don't know how to pray. We don't know how to take time with the Lord day by day in communion and fellowship with him.

He has not changed. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Then there is a phase of the glory that is to come. Turn with me please to a very important passage in Philippians chapter 3, Philippians chapter 3 and verses 20 and 21.

For our conversation is in heaven. For whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body or the body of our humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to even to subdue all things unto himself.

Yes, the time is coming when I will be changed to have a body like his own glorious body when he comes again. And his coming again is not far away, my friends. The more I read of God's word, the more I see the news of today, the more I see of what is happening around us today in the world, the more convinced I am that it cannot be far away.

I can't fix the time, but I know it cannot be far away. And what will happen when he comes? One day, I'm not looking for any more signs, I'm looking for the sound of trumpets. Come up hither. The trumpeter sounds in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye.

How long does it take you to twinkle an eye? Try it. That's right. It takes exactly a twinkling of an eye. And all will be over. We shall see him as he is. Praise God. The dead shall rise incorruptible.

The living shall be changed. And there will be a wonderful, wonderful song. You know what the song will be? Those who are alive, they will cry, Oh, death, where is thy sting? I'm not going to die here.

You are not going to sting me. Those who will be raised, Oh, grave, where is thy victory? You can't hold me back. And we shall all go to meet the Lord in the air. Glorious day. Glorious hope. Blessed hope.

No more sickness. No more disease. No more wounds. No more trouble. We shall see him as he is. We shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. This is glorious. This is the salvation that you and I are chosen to.

Chosen unto salvation. This is the first thing for which you are chosen. He has chosen you unto salvation. Secondly, please turn with me to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. And verse fourteen.

Holiness and Separation Unto God

One, verse fourteen. Which is the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the person's possession unto the praise of his glory. I meant verse four, please. I'm sorry. My eyes are playing tricks on me.

According to as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. I'll read again. According to as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

He has chosen you and me to be holy. To be holy. And holy means separate unto himself. You and I are saved to live a separate life. And friend, this is also the need of the hour today in our assembly.

In our churches. The current, the tide of the world is so strong. But you and I are called to say no to the world and yes to the Lord. I wish our young people learn the lesson, or our old people too. Anything defiles, anything stands in between you and the Lord, you have to deal with it.

We are saved to be holy. I told some of you some time ago about Genesis chapter one. What was the thing that God created on the first day? You remember? Genesis one. God created the first day what? Light.

Let there be light. This is the most essential thing. And so it is also in the spiritual world. There must be light first. Let there be light. Because he who has commanded light to shine out of darkness has shined in your heart and my heart to give the glory of the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord.

He has to shine in your heart. And praise God I can say I hope I am right, I think I am right that he has shined in every heart here this morning. We have known him who is our life, Jesus Christ our Lord.

But what did God create on the second day? Which comes in importance secondly immediately after the light. Which comes, which is it? What did God create the second day? We read in Genesis chapter one that he created the firmament.

What is the firmament? A blue sheet? No. The word in Arabic and in Hebrew too means expand. Expanse, the void. The expanse. In other words God created the expanse in the second day. And the expanse has a very, very important function in God's creation stated also in Genesis chapter one.

Let it separate. Divide. The waters above from the waters below. The waters below are the rivers, the lakes, the seas, the oceans, the waterways, all these are the waters below. And the waters above are there.

Is there a water above? Oh yes. Tons and millions and billions of tons sailing in the sky. Sailing in the sky. And the firmament, the expanse is to separate, divide. The waters above from the waters below.

I know the firmament is important for us to see. You cannot see without the firmament, the atmosphere. You cannot hear without the atmosphere. You cannot do much, you can't live without the atmosphere.

A few minutes even. But the most important function given in God's word for the atmosphere is to separate and divide. Is division so very important that it comes immediately after new creation? Yes. Yes.

We hear a lot today about salvation by grace and praise God because so it is, by grace are you saved. Through faith. And that's not of yourself, it's the gift of God. Not of work which any man should boast.

But we wish to hear more about separation. A separated life. This is what we need to hear today. Friend, how many times have you spent before the TV? And what do you watch on the TV? What do you hear?

What do you read? How we need to think of these things before the Lord. A separated life unto Jesus Christ. You know, Moses had a tremendous message to give to Pharaoh. Let my people go. And Pharaoh tried very hard to put obstacles in the way.

And he suggested some very strange suggestions. You want to go? You worship God in the land. You cannot worship God in the land. They had 400 years in Egypt and they tried to worship God but they couldn't.

They were worshipping the gods of the Egyptians. How many altars did they build in Egypt? Not one. Not one. We don't read of any single altar built in Egypt for the people of Israel. They were not worshipping God.

They worshipped the gods of the Egyptians. When in Rome, do like the Romans do, unfortunately. Yes, they did not worship God. And Moses said, no, we shall go the distance of three days journey in the wilderness.

Three days journey. Death and resurrection. Death and resurrection in the wilderness to worship God. And friends, praise God, we don't worship in the rituals of a dead religion. Christianity is not a religion.

The vast, vast difference. Religion is man's search after God. Christianity is God's search after man. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. We have a risen Christ. My religion or my worship is the worship of a resurrection morning.

The Resurrection Hope and the Call to Go Far From the World

I beautifully, I read a beautiful picture in Psalm 22. You know, Psalm 22 speaks of the death of Christ. Death, night, suffering, woe, thoughts of my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But there is a beautiful picture in that psalm.

The introduction to the psalm says, to be sung on the ajeles shahar. This is again Arabic and Hebrew. Ajeles or ayeles is the singular in Arabic for deer or hind, h-i-n-d, gazelle. And shahar is also Arabic and Hebrew which means dawn or morning.

In other words, the psalm speaks of death and of sorrow. But the instructions that David gave to the one who is going to put it to good use would be this. Although the psalm speaks of death and sorrow and suffering, yet put it please to the high end of the morning.

The gazelle of the morning. Up to today in Arabic literature we speak of the sun as the gazelle. We say the sun rises in the east. The gazelle rises in the east and the gazelle sets in the west. The gazelle rises in the east, speaking of the sun.

And the sun is feminine and the moon is masculine, quite the opposite from the English. Why? Because the sun is beautiful and the moon is not dark. However, this is what we call the sun of the morning, the gazelle of the morning.

In other words, the psalm speaks of death and sorrow and suffering, but it will be put to the music of the rising sun in the morning. It is not the end, the cross is not the end. There is a rising. There is a rising sun, a beautiful morning.

Praise God for the hallelujah chorus of the resurrection morning. We have a risen Christ. So Pharaoh tried to put obstacles in the way of Moses and the people of Israel. But the most insidious temptation, the most subtle obstacle that he wanted to put in the way of the people of Israel was this.

Go out, go in the wilderness, three days I don't mind. Take your flock with you, take your sheep with you, take your ladies with you, take your children with you. Go out all of you, but don't go far away.

Stay on the border. And the borderline Christian is not a help to himself, is not a help to the assembly, is not a help to the world, is not a help to anybody. He is not mirroring back the image of Christ.

The trouble he tries to find with the assembly, but the trouble is not with the assembly my friend, the trouble is in you. The trouble is in you. The trouble is not in the pastor, is not in the elder, is not in the brother, is not in the sister, the trouble is in you.

There is a verse in Galatians chapter 6 verse 1. If any of you is taken in a sin, ye who are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of weakness. And the word restore in my language meaning put back in place in the medical sense.

If a bone is out of place, a joint out of place, this is exactly the picture there. I had the same experience once. I had a dislocated elbow. I was rushed to the hospital. And the doctor blessed his heart.

I was going to say blessed his gizzards. But he put it in place without the use of anesthesia. And I couldn't cry. Because there were two nurses standing by. It's a painful experience. It's a very painful experience.

But blessed be the name of the Lord. It is possible to have your fellowship back. There is no rest for you. No rest for the congregation. No rest for the assembly. Until the dislocated elbow is put back in place.

Come back to fellowship with the Lord. Come back to fellowship with the Lord. Yes, we are called to be holy. Turn with me again please to Ephesians 2, verse 10. Ephesians 2, verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. You are called to do good works. So people may see your good works and what happens after that? Glorify your Father which is in heaven. They may see your good works and give the glory not to you, but to God, your Father who is in heaven.

And praise God this is possible. It is not possible in his own sense. I am crucified with Christ. Your worst enemy we heard this morning is yourself. I am my worst enemy. But this worst enemy is crucified with Christ.

I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. This solves what I call the Christian dilemma. What is the Christian dilemma? I am called to love my enemy and I cannot do it.

In my own strength I cannot do it. But when Christ lives in me, I can. I can do all things through Christ who lives in me. Think of Stephen please. He is being stoned to death. He knew very well he had only a few moments and he would be done with this life.

And he is praying. For who? For himself? No. For his enemies. What is he saying in his prayer? God paralyzed their hands? Wiped them off existence? Taken them away? Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.