"Rock of Ages" By Chris Ulrich March 13th,
2016
Remain standing please, as Brother
Jason comes to lead us in a word of prayer.
Jason: God, my words as like
rags before your feet, Lord. We humbly
come before You, God, open ourselves up, God, submit ourselves to You. God, peel back whatever you’ve got to peel
back. Lord, speak to us. God, let us just take a moment of silence to
reflect on You, God. Give us spirits to
do Your will, today. Give us spirits to
do Your will. Amen. God, we come before You, God, and just thank
You, God, for Your will, Your servant, who pored over these scriptures, God,
that took time out, God, he’s got a busy work schedule, like any of us, God,
but, Lord, he collaborated with brothers, and agonized over Scriptures. Lord, he went back and forth trying to make
sure that he had whatever it took to bring it before Your people, God. There’s people with needs, God, that Chris
doesn’t know anything about. Lord, even
if people explained it to Chris, he wouldn’t know. But, God, You know. Your Word is prepared this day, so that
people will know that You know, and that they know that You love them,
God. You love them with a deep love that
even their mothers didn’t have for them, God.
Lord, You want to speak words of life into us, today, God. Lord, words that our fathers could never tell
us, Go, blessings that our mother never gave us. Lord, when we just receive cursings from
our—from the society that we’re in, from our workplace, all the drama, just
wash all that away, God, so that we’ll be able to receive what You have for
us. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Remain up here just for a second, Jason. That’s right.
You may be seated; thank you.
But, when I think of Jason, I think of, “I don’t want to work all day; I
just want to bang on the drums all day.”
I don’t know, I mean, I’m sure everybody saw this up here. But, I want to show one other thing that I noticed,
sitting here in the front row, that I don’t that everybody could see, but, why
don’t you just come out here and pull up your pant-leg just a little bit. Just take a look at that. There you go.
There you go. I want everybody to
see that (When Jason lifted up his pant-leg, we could see that he was wearing
turquoise and orange argyle socks). Now
I know that many of you know that Jason and I are Patriots fans—I’m not going
to stay long on this, but—those kind of look like Miami Dolphins colors. I’m just going to let you go with that,
though. But I appreciate it. That’s it; you can go ahead on back there. Good to see everybody this
morning. Our theme for the month has
been on the Word of God. Our Scripture
for the month, I’m just going to read it briefly, it simply says: Matthew 24:35 Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. There’s going to be a couple of
main points to the message this morning, and the first one is going to be that,
“We Need to Love the Word of God.” The
second one is, “We’re Not Going to Understand Everything in the World or in the
Bible.” These are going to be the two
points that we’re going to focus on today.
There’s a couple of other points that I feel like God was dealing with
me about, but, as I was putting it together…
There’s a verse that talks about there’s a famine in the land for the
Word of God, found in the Book of Amos (Amos 8:11). There’s a Scripture that talks about the
letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life, found in Corinthians (2 Corinthians
3:6). But, these were the ones that God
really dealt with my heart about, and these are the ones we’re going to focus
on, today. I’ve got to say, Mike A. sent me a
text this morning that said, “Happy Daylight savings Time!” and I appreciate
that. Andy made mention of that, and I
got to thinking about it, and I’m not going to dwell on this, either, but, what
are we more likely to be late to, when we turn the clocks forward, or when we
turn them back? When we turn them
forward, because now we’re losing that hour.
So, for everybody that made it this morning, thank you for coming. It’s good to see everybody this morning. And, I know--I’m sure there’s some that
didn’t remember that, but again, Happy Daylight Saving Time! Now, I know that not everybody
likes to read, and I reckon, for those of us that do, there’s a lot of books
out there. There’s a lot of different
types of books, I mean, you can have action, you can have history, you can have
historical fiction or fact, there’s romance, there’s tragedy, there’s drama, there’s
just about everything, there’s enough to occupy us between here and
eternity. Then there’s the Bible. It’s a stand-alone; there’s nothing else like
it. It’s a beacon of hope, a scared
book, and it’s our ticket out of here.
That’s why we use it. For that
reason, it will always be our point of reference of truth. We’re talking about the Word of God this
month, and even when we read something in the Bible that convicts us, or rubs
us the wrong way, or makes us think twice about what we’re doing, we need to
remember that God’s ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9). But, I was thinking a little bit about this
last night, too: we’re not up here talking about something from the Chicago
Tribune, or Mad Magazine, or Sports Illustrated, or anything else out
there. We’re not up here trying to quote
from something that was written by, you know, Shakespeare, or whoever
else. I’m not saying—there’s a place for
those things, there’s an understanding.
Those things are taught in school, and I know that some of those things
are important to learn and have a point of reference. 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 For
the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let,
until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom
the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the
brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the
truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. So, receiving not a love of the
truth. How does that sit with
everybody? Because I know—Ashley, I
appreciated what you shared—that’s Jason’s wife, for those that don’t know—but,
you know, as you were talking, there was a song I heard years ago, and it
relates to what you were talking about, about seeing ourself in every
stranger’s eyes, about seeing ourself in somebody else, and I believe that
gives us mercy; I believe that gives us compassion. But, one thing you highlighted was about how
you felt like, kind of like, maybe, a stranger yourself, or you felt like there
wasn’t really any place, and you sought in a lot of different ways to find
answers, or to find love. I can relate
to that, and I believe a lot of us in this room can relate to that, too. The Bible talks about that we’re pilgrims,
we’re strangers, that we’re wanderers in the wilderness, and that’s the way it
is. When you find the Truth of God, it’s
unlike anything else that’s out there. I
mean, it’s not just—we’re going to get more into that, as the message goes
along, but I wanted to start with that Scripture, and I know that we need to
cultivate a love of the Word of God, and a love of the Truth, because, if we
don’t, this passage says that God is going to end us a strong delusion that we
would believe a lie. So, what are the
options? The Bible also talks about,
when we go back, that seven other spirits more wicked than the first will come
and occupy that house (Matthew 12:43-45).
It says this—and I know this is blunt, but this Bible—it says, “The sow
that was washed to her wallowing in the mire, and the dog returns to his own vomit.”
(2 Peter 2:22) I mean, these are blunt
expressions, but this is Bible. I’m not
going to try to, like, dumb it down, or try to, like, explain it away, or try
to justify it, “Oh, no, that’s a little bit too harsh.” Well, this is what the reality of it is, and
it’s not always an easy pill to swallow.
But, it’s important to know that the Word of God is precious, and it’s
not just a bunch of random words in a book.
And this is not, again, this is not something that we’re going to read
in the newspaper that they’re trying to churn out to make a buck or
whatever. I believe that the media has
polluted and corrupted in so many different ways, as far as their stances have
changed over the course of time. I’m not
looking for answers when I go to Yahoo; I’m not looking for answers when I go
to ChicagoTribune.com or wherever else, I’m not looking to find the answers of
life. But, when I open this Book, this
is where we’re going to find it. And,
again, we’re going to go into that a little bit more in the message, but, it’s
not something that we can take lightly, and, even though it might seem like a
technical manual at times, or it might seem even a little boring at times,
because it doesn’t have any pictures, we have the understanding that, searching
the Scriptures, it’s going to put us in a position to receive goodness and
mercy and eternal life. This is talking about Christ, and
it’s talking about that the Word was made flesh. John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father,) full of grace and truth. This might sound a little strange,
but I can’t think of any other way to express this point: The Word of God and God Himself are
synonymous. It’s the same thing. I’m not talking about, “Is God in here
somewhere?” Well, that’s because the
letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.
That’s because the Spirit behind the writing of these words is where God
is. There’s a Scripture in the Old
Testament, in Kings, it says the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain
God (1 Kings 8:27), because David talked about building a house to God, and
that was God’s response back to him. But
we also know that in God we live and we move and we have our very being (Acts
17:28), we have our breath of life. And
God does inhabit praise. And, if we look
again, it flat-out says the Word was God, and that the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. That’s pretty easy to
understand, I believe, even for the youngest child, that that was Christ! That the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father. And we’re looking at it like,
this is our opportunity, this is our way of escape. I read a book years ago, and, I’ll just say
who it was, there was a guy, name of Jim Morrison, he was a rock star from a
group called the Doors—this is going back quite a ways—but, the title of the
book was, “No One Here Gets Out Alive.” And,
you think about that from the standpoint of, no one here gets out alive, that’s
true in the sense of, okay, everybody’s going to see an end, unless the trumpet
sounds, and God comes back and takes those of us that remain, but that’s a
pretty sad, depressing, discouraging outlook.
I mean, if that’s all I have to look forward to is just death, or ashes
to ashes, dust to dust, that’s not a very hopeful future. But, in God, God has promised us something
nobody else can promise. Nobody else has
the guts to promise it, because they know they can’t back it up, and that’s a
fact. And that’s how seriously we need
to take the Word of God, and we’re talking about loving the Word of God. It’s something that has to be initiated by
each individual. It can’t be something
where it’s, like, force-fed. I know
there’s many young people here, and many that’s in with the Children’s Church,
that have been brought here by their parents and they’re going to have a
crossroads to make a decision at what point do they want to live this life or
not. And it’s not something, I mean, you
get to a point of eighteen, or whatever age it happens to be—it can vary from
house to house, I suppose. But, it’s not
the kind of thing where we can force it on people, but, if they see that
there’s genuinely something that we like about living this life, they’re going
to want it too! It’s going to be something
where they’re going to look and say, “You know what? I don’t know everything about it—“ and we’re
going to get into that a little later, because the second point is, “We’re Not
Going to Understand Everything in the World or in the Bible,” but we’re still
talking about needing to have a love of the Word of God. But, one of Parrish’s main point
last week that I really appreciated was that the Word of God has been under
attack since the beginning of time. And
another statement that he made that I had to give an amen to was, it alluded to
all the different denominations and all the different versions of the Bible
that are out there. I mean, I remember
hearing back when I first got baptized that there was at least, over
two-thousand—and you had the numbers.
I’m not trying to re-preach what you shared, but, he had the statistics
to back it up, and, if you go beyond the borders of just this country, you go
to all the religions of the world, Buddhism or Islam, or Hinduism, or Atheism,
or whatever else is out there. How many
splintered factions of different groups—is what they call them—is out there,
too? Probably millions! But, you know, we have to look at it like it
says in Ephesians 4:5, it says, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” That doesn’t mean that we’re all a bunch of
clones, or a bunch of robots, and we’re going to get into that a little more,
later on. But, I can tell you that, my
own personal testimony, not a very religious upbringing, and I really didn’t
know any Bible verses at all, none.
None. I’ve shared this before,
but, at sports events, back in the seventies, a lot of people remember there
was a guy that had “John 3:16” and he had, like a rainbow afro—white guy, and
it was like, this guy would wave it around, and he’d be, like, behind that
backstop or he’d be at the Superbowl, and it’s like, “Wow, I don’t even know what
that is.” He certainly—not that he was
an attention-getter, but I think he’s trying to, like, “Hey, everybody: John 3:16, ‘God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.’” I didn’t
learn that until after I came to this ministry. Until after I came here. And I know that we have a lot of people from
a lot of different backgrounds. Some
were more religious, some not at all, some in between. But I will share this, when God dealt with
me, when I was invited here, and I was taught—I didn’t do the teaching, I was
taught—studies using the King James Version Bible, I can tell you with a clear
conscience, it wasn’t difficult to understand.
It wasn’t as though I was baffled by the Old English language, the
doeth, the speaketh, the sayeth, the heareth.
I mean, just chop off the ‘eth.’
I’m just being honest with you.
I’d read books of Shakespeare, I’d read books from other authors of that
time. Chaucer, hat was kind of written
in that tongue, if you want to call it that.
So, it actually seemed natural.
It seemed like, given the fact that the translation from Hebrew and
Greek was done in 1611; this wasn’t something that was done last week. I mean, that’s the thing we need to
understand, so, using that version has been a foundation principle for my life,
and, I believe, many others here, as well.
But, again, it’s like having children that are brought up in the faith,
they’re going to make a decision at some point, of their decision whether to
follow Christ or not, we can’t force people to use the King James Version, and
I’m not making a pitch for it, but I’m going to tell you this, it’s something I
was raised using, and, because it was the original translation, and this is
going to tell us a lot more than just me ranting about it: Revelation 22:18-19 For I testify
unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man
shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are
written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book
of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out
of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. So, any God-fearing person who
believes in the sanctity and the perfection of the Scriptures knows that, no
matter how we look at it, we can’t tamper with the Word of God. It is, after all, our Rock of Ages. And that happens to be the title of the
message today: “The Rock of Ages.” It’s something that’s for all time; Christ
Himself said, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation
1:8, 1:11, 21:6, 22:13) When God was
speaking to Moses, and He was telling him to go down to the Children of Israel,
he said, “Who do I say that told me?” He
just said, “I am. Tell them that I am
sent you.” You can’t argue with that, I
mean, if you do, you’re fighting with God.
But it really comes down to, “I am,” and that’s it. That’s the Word of God. And we’re going to look at our
second point today, and it’s going to be a little bit lengthier, but it’s not
going to be overly lengthy. Point 2: We’re Not Going to
Understand Everything in the World or in the Bible I want to just share that
again. We’re not going to understand
every aspect of life, and every profession, and every bit of history, or
technology, and that goes for the Word of God, too. And the different ages that we go through, they’re
often characterized based on major events that occurred. For example, we’ve probably heard about the
Renaissance, how many here have heard of the Renaissance? Okay, well, it was a time period that
followed the dark ages. So, the thing
about the Renaissance—I don’t really know a lot about it—but, I know that,
during that timeframe, one of the major discoveries that was made was that the
world was not flat; the world is round.
And, I got to thinking a little bit about that, so, if you go back many
years prior to that, I mean, the world wasn’t completely populated with people
at that time, either. Vince, I don’t
know if you remember this, but there was a Bugs Bunny cartoon, years ago, where
it was Bugs and Christopher Columbus, talking to the king, and Christopher
Columbus says, “The world, it’s a round, it’s a round, it’s a round, like my
head.” And then the king hits him over
the head with a big mallet, and says, “It’s flat, like your head.” Vince, do you remember that?
Okay, that just goes to show you that, okay,
you go through the dark ages, you go through the Renaissance, then you go into
what now is the Industrial Revolution, which, in a lot of ways, I would have to
say carries on, even into the Modern Day.
The invention of the airline, the invention of the automobile, the
invention of the lightbulb… There were
discoveries in the medical profession that were breakthroughs, like, penicillin
was another one. I’ve got to say that—I
fly for my job, occasionally, like every month or two—and, when you’re up at
night, and you look down, and you’re like, “That’s a long way down, like
thirty-five or forty thousand feet up,” and I don’t like it. I don’t like it. Like, “God, I’d hate to fall that distance,”
but here’s the point: there’s certain
areas that you fly over and there’s lights, street lights, car lights, house
lights, and it’s incredible. I mean, you
just see it, and then you go back a hundred and fifty years, and there would
have been nothing. There would have been
no plane, there would have been no lights, probably kerosene lanterns or just
bonfires, but the Bible says that every good and perfect gift cometh down from
the Father of lights. It’s like God
gives us, man, the ability to create something like that, and it’s
remarkable. And I look at that, and
that’s part of the Industrial Revolution.
I know that, then we went into the Space Age, where, the dawn of that—we
learned this in school, there was a guy by the name of Robert Goddard, that, he
launched a liquid-fueled rocket, back, I think, in 1921. But, there’s a picture of him, you know,
they’ve just got this picture in these schoolbooks, and he’s standing there,
and he’s, like, lighting it off, and it was like, it went up maybe three or
four miles, something like that. But it
was like that, then, gave dawn to the Space Race. That, then, gave dawn to the landing on the
moon, and, you know what? I know that
not everybody believes it, “Oh, we didn’t land on the moon. We really didn’t.” Okay, believe it or not, here’s the thing: We can see that when they’ve launched the
space shuttles, they use those liquid-propelled boosters, and then it goes up,
and it, you know, orbits the earth, at something like 17,000 miles an hour, so
it orbits the earth at like, faster than the day could go by. So, if you don’t believe that we landed on
the moon, obviously, they have pictures of the space shuttle that prove that
there is some space travel. So, to go
from a guy that’s standing there, lighting off a rocket, to that, in sixty
years? That’s pretty incredible. But, to me, that is the ingenuity that God
has given us. We’re talking about not
understanding everything in the world or in the Bible. And here’s my last point on that point: Now we’ve arrived at the computer age, and we
could also call it the information age, so it’s just an overload of
information. You know? It’s like, in the IT field, with all the
spats of information that they’ve got, we’ll be obsolete within this many
years, and then they’ve loaded this many gazillion bytes of information, and if
you look at old Twilight Zone episodes from the sixties, and they show these
computer rooms, and it’s like, one computer, that’s probably less than what’s
on your smartphone, it’s about as big as this room. I mean, those things are incredible. But, again, where am I going with piece of
history, that snapshot of history? We’re
so bombarded with so much information every day, that it’s hard to keep up. Even though there’s facts that are just a
click away, there’s also a lot of questions.
How far away is the nearest planet?
How long has the earth existed?
Are these dinosaur bones for real?
Why is the sun this color? Why is
the sky that color? I mean, it’s just on
and on and on, to the point where it’s like, “Why do I need to know that? What difference is it going to make?” What difference is it going to make, when I’m
standing here, knowing that one day I’m going to be judged, but I also have a
walk with God, where I can hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,”
and not just have it be a bad judgment? Now I want to segue into talking
about the challenges of Moses and the Levitical priesthood—so we’re going to
bring it a little bit closer to home, here—and the things that they were
willing to take responsibility for, and I’ve been reading about, personally,
and kind of had difficulty comprehending it, but here’s what I’ve
realized: I’ve been a Christian for
about twenty-eight years, and, of the course of time, I’ve read through the
Bible probably seven or eight times, which, some might say, “Well, that’s not
much;” some might say, “That’s a lot.”
Either way, it’s not a competition. Really, it’s for our own benefit, and it is beneficial
to be able to share, and to be able to uphold, and to defend the Gospel. But, we also have to look at it like, you
know what? We have to have a love of the
Word of God. I enjoy reading it. I look at Sports Illustrated at times, of
course, but… So, I’m overwhelmed by some of the
information—I’m going to ask Donna to come up, she’s going to share
something—I’m overwhelmed by the information that the priests needed to keep
the laws of God and the sacrifices. Because,
from the many types of sacrifices, the sin atonement, they types of animals
that could or could not be eaten, laws concerning the birth of children, laws
concerning marriage, laws concerning the Tabernacle, laws concerning diseases,
and on and on and on and on. It’s an
incredible talent. But, here’s an
opinion, and then she’s going to come up.
This is not a doctrinal matter, this is just an opinion, because this is
something that, as I’ve been going through it this past time, I would rank what
the priests had to retain, as far as knowledge, right up there with the highest
level of skilled professions in the world.
And I’m talking about neurology, I’m talking about architects,
mechanical engineers, airline pilot, whatever is a skilled position where it’s
not like just turn this over, or just do this, or just turn a key, or
whatever. I’m not trying to criticize or
downgrade those professions, those things are needed, too, but there’s many
professions where there’s years and years of training required. So, Donna, if you could come up, and she’s
going to talk—she works in the medical field at Vista West, and she’s going to
talk about neurology. She’s not a
neurologist, but she’s worked there for a number of years, and… Go ahead. Donna: Good morning. I’m going
to talk just a little bit about neurology, and it is overwhelming. It’s overwhelming in a lot of ways, so, what
I did was I just started with the definition of neurology: The branch of medicine or biology that deals
with the anatomy, functions, and organic disorders of nerves and the nervous
system. That’s overwhelming. Some of the areas that neurologists deal
with—not neurosurgeons, but neurologists deal with—are Parkinson’s disease,
muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, restless leg syndrome,
vertigo, stroke, concussions symptoms, and there’s about thirty more. And those relate in all different areas. Neurology breaks up the body in four distinct
areas it breaks it up into the cranial nervous system, the central nervous
system, the peripheral nervous system, and the anatomic nervous system. They look at the body from the inside
out. I anybody overwhelmed like I
am? And I was like, “How can I break
that down? How can I understand
that?” And some of us have family members
who are going through some of those things.
When I was in my teens, when I was in my twenties, I hate to say, in my
thirties, these things weren’t as specific to me, but, as I get a little
older—not much, a little bit—and I start to work with people and see people,
some of these family members and friends, some of these things become more
personal, so how do I understand this neurology area? Basically, it’s the body’s electrical
wiring. It’s how to understand all the
different areas that that goes into. So,
yeah, that’s very, very overwhelming.
It’s a complex, highly specialized network; it organizes, explains, and
directs interactions between you and the world around you. So, it is overwhelming, but, when you break
it down into smaller pieces, you can make it more personal, you can have a
better understanding of it. Thank you. I’m going to—give the Lord a praise—I’m going
to ask Rob to come up. Rob’s going to
talk about another field that deals with I.S.O.
I.S.O. is a manufacturing process, and I wanted to do a couple of
relatively diverse fields, because we’re tying this into, what’s it like
understanding the Word of God. This
isn’t about neurology, and it’s not about I.S.O., it’s about understanding that
there’s complexities, there’s skills out there, and learning the Word is not,
“Oh, I got it!” in one day. So, Rob, go
ahead, please. Rob: I.S.O. is an international standards organization, and what
that is a body, a governing body, an international body that comes together,
and they sit down and they say, “Okay, we’ve got environmental systems, we’ve
got management systems, we’ve got quality, all sorts of different areas which,
automotive, per se,” they sit down and they say, “What does it take to have a
quality management system, what does it take to run a company?” So they come up with these standards, called
I.S.O. standards, standards that cover a lot of different areas. I am an auditor, and internal auditor, and I
do quality management systems, and I do environmental health and safety. So, the international body says, “We’re going
to create all these standards,” and companies all over the world say, “We only
want to buy from companies or work with companies that are certified by the
International Standards Organization.”
So all these companies set up quality management systems based on what
the I.S.O. standards are. So, to get
certified, a company has to decide, “Okay, give us the standards that we’re
going to be accountable for,” and then they write up their quality manual based
upon the International Standards Organization, what they’ve set forth, and
then, you know, it goes down the line, so each department comes up with a
standard of procedure, then work constructions, and the whole works, and so,
ow, a company is saying, “Okay, we want to be certified, we want to be I.S>O.
certified so that we can do business with, you know, other companies across the
globe,” and so, they say, “We want to get this certification, so, here’s our
standards, here’s our quality manual. We
are going to do what we say, and we say what we do.” And, so, an auditor will come in and say,
“Okay, let’s check it out.” And, so,
they look and they say, “Okay, so you claim that you’re employees are going to
be well-trained, your training systems are going to be above and beyond. How do you do that?” And I start asking questions: “How do you know that your employees are
trained? How do they know that they’re
doing the job right? How do you test
them?” Or someone might say, “Oh, we’re
going to create an environment that, you know, is safe and clean.” So, an auditor might walk into the plant, and
if he discovers, “Gee, there’s a lot of junk all over the floor, and the
machines are dirty. Well, how are you
maintaining a clean and healthy environment?” that auditor will ask. The evidence is not there, or the evidence is
there. If not, then the auditor will
say, “You have a couple of findings.
There’s a couple of places where you violated what the standard says, so
we’re going to give you some findings.
However, we think, overall, you’re maintaining, so we’re going to go
ahead and certify you, and then we’ll keep you on watch or whatever.” But, that’s what I.S.O. is, it’s standards
that each company will agree to adhere to so that they can do business with other
companies around the world. Thank you, Rob; thank you,
Donna. I appreciate both of you taking
the time… This is going to be a little
bit more of a rapid-fire fashion in which we do this, but, I felt like, to do
it justice, to read, just the tip of the iceberg, here: Leviticus 11:1-8 And
the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, Speak unto the
children of Israel, saying, These are
the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is
clovenfooted, and cheweth the
cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat
of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the
cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is
unclean unto you. And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not
the hoof; he is unclean unto
you. And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the swine,
though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh
shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you. Leviticus 12:1-6 And
the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel,
saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be
unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity
shall she be unclean. And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be
circumcised. And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three
and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the
sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled. But if she bear a maid
child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall
continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days. And when the
days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall
bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a
turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation, unto the priest: And, this will be the last passage
that we read in here: Leviticus 13:1-7 And the LORD spake
unto Moses and Aaron, saying, When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a
rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the
plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one
of his sons the priests: And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of
the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in
sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the
priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean. If the bright spot be
white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and
the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that
hath the plague seven days: And the priest shall look on him the seventh day:
and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not
in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more: And the priest
shall look on him again the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague be somewhat
dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him
clean: it is but a scab: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean. But if
the scab spread much abroad in the skin, after that he hath been seen of the
priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again: You know, like I said, that’s just
the tip of the iceberg. I know that’s a
lot of reading, and I know that’s a lot to absorb, and, now, here’s what it
ties into, and here’s how it connects to us, here in the modern day: We shared that I believe that anybody who’s
been a Christian for any length of time, may have felt at times that we weren’t
knowledgeable enough about the scriptures, or about the world around us, to be
an effective testimony. Or that we
weren’t knowledgeable enough about other religions. Or that we don’t hold a Master’s degree in
Seminary, or philosophy, or some other field of expertise. It’s true that we have to have some
knowledge; the Bible talks in Hosea about, “My people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge: Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee…” (Hosea
4:6) But we’re not going to know
everything. And that’s something that we
have to admit, and understand that it doesn’t…
I think maybe, early on, maybe you feel like, “If I tell them I don’t
know, then they’re going to think, ‘Oh, well, then, you’re not saved,’ or, ‘You
don’t know the Word of God at all.’”
It’s just like, okay, it’s like what Donna and Rob shared, if you look
at complexities of certain professions, how is the Levitical Priesthood—we just
read just the tip of the iceberg—can you imagine trying to remember that? I mean, that’s why it was written down,
because it’s just a mountain, or a boatload of information to retain. So, just imagine, now a young guy is coming
into the priesthood, and it’s like… I
was talking to one, and, I think it was 30-50—I may not have that correct, but,
here’s the point: Somebody was much more
experienced said, “Well, you’ve got to remember to do this. And, if this happens, you’ve got to do
this. If this guy has leprosy, or this
condition, or somebody needs this or this sacrifice has to be made, these are
done according to the Word of God.” So
it’s not done haphazardly. This isn’t
just, “Ah, who cares? Just throw it
around, it doesn’t really matter. Yeah,
well, it doesn’t matter if you get that right or not,” because it does
matter. Now I’m going to bring that one
more step to something personal, just in the last couple of weeks. I lost my grandmother a couple of weeks ago,
and she was ninety-one. I know there’s a
lot of people my age that are losing their parents, so the fact that she was
still alive is miraculous. I was talking
to my mom, and my uncle was here in the last week or so, and they asked me
about doing the eulogy. My mom was like,
“Oh, Chris is an ordained minister, and we could ask him.” And, at first, honestly… But then I thought, “Okay. Okay, I’ll do it.” But, then, now I’m sort of putting together
some different things. Now, here’s
something that, over the course of many years, I haven’t saved—I’m not what
they call a hoarder, not by any stretch.
Ask Brent. Is he in here? No, he’s not, but Amy’s here. She knows I’m not. So, anyway, but I do save some things that
I’d say are kind of sentimental. I saved
some bulletins from some funeral services that we’ve had, and, many people, you
probably remember Martha Allsop, Pastor Saniatan, Bob Granberg, Pastor Davis,
Sister Hardy, Christine Schultz, you know, over the course of—why did I save
them? I didn’t just like, well, someday
I’m going to use them, but, I’ll tell you what, when I was getting this
together, I referenced those, but, still, everything wasn’t sitting completely
right. And, I felt like God was saying,
“Why don’t you just contact Pastor Paine?
Just see if you could talk to him for a few minutes.” Now Pastor Paine’s
been in the ministry many years. He’s
done those things; he’s done funerals and weddings and so on and so forth. So, I asked him; he said, “Yeah, call me
Friday morning; we’ll talk.” Right off
the bat, he just gave me some instruction and some things. He said, “You know, when I did my father’s
funeral many years ago; one thing we did, we got together as brothers and our
sister, ‘What are some of the things that we remember dad—what are some
one-word things, like honesty, trustworthy, hard-working?’” He said, “Now, is it going to be a funeral and a wake? Is there going to be a committal of the
ashes?” “Oh, I hadn’t thought of
that. Yeah, that’s a good idea.” So, here’s my point, to tie into
the Levitical Priesthood: Lean on those
that have the experience. Those that
have the years of experience that would know…
And, like I said, I don’t think I’ve been around a real, real long time,
but I still felt like, “You know what?
I’ve never done a eulogy. I’ve
done some weddings, I’ve done some services, but I’ve never done a
eulogy.” And it makes me respect that
office, it makes me respect what the priests did, and had to know that much
more. We’ve got two more verses we’re
going to look at. A very simple verse,
and one that I feel like I’ve used in my tool box many, many times in my
life. It just says: Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret
things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong
unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. So, whenever you feel like the
devil has you backed into a corner, this is one of the best verses to get him
off your back, because it shows that we will never know everything there is to
know, and neither will anybody else. And
there’s times people will say that they feel like, “Well, nobody really knows
God,” or, “Nobody really knows how to be saved,” or, “Nobody really knows if
there’s life after death.” Well, God’s
given us the words to show those things, to prove those things and it’s all
based on faith. I mean, I’ve never been
to Heaven. There’s a commercial out, and
maybe some of you have seen it, and this was something that—probably a little
bit more during the football season, but, there was a guy who played for the
Bears for many years, Walter Payton.
Many of you know who he was, but, they did a commercial. There was a guy named Eric Dickerson; he
played in the NFL, you know, right around the same time. Ad, in the commercial, you have Eric
Dickerson saying, “You know, when I asked Walter,” you know, he had gotten liver
disease, and it was imminently fatal.
And Dickerson had asked him, “Are you afraid of dying?” He said, “Yes, because I’ve never died.” And I’ve got to say, that to me, it’s like,
“You know what? Saved or not saved, I’ve
never died.” None of us, here, have ever
died. We’re all still here. So, am I going to sit here and say, “Oh, I
know what’s going to happen! You’re
going to go in this light, and you’re going to walk down this hall, poof! And then you’re going to land in Abraham’s
bosom.” Really? I don’t think so. The secret things belong to God. But the things that are revealed are enough
for us to know the Law and do it. This is going to be our last
passage, but, before we start, don’t let the challenge and the difficulty we
sometimes face understanding the Scriptures deter or cause you to quit, because
there’s going to be plenty of things that are going to come along,
professionally, Biblically, but… 2 Peter 3:9-17 The
Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is
longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the
night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are
therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be
dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and
godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein
the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing
that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace,
without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is
salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given
unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them
of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they
that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures,
unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things
before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall
from your own stedfastness. I really want to highlight that
part where it talks about our beloved brother Paul, speaking those things which
are hard to be understood, but they that are unlearned and unstable wrestle to
their own destruction. If you don’t know
something, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
If we don’t know something, still we speculate—Rob, you talked about
I.S.O., and, Donna, you talked about Neurology.
Just because I don’t know about it, or I’m going to scoff at it, or just
act like, “Ah, so what? It’s no big
deal. Anybody could learn that.” I don’t think so. I don’t think so. That takes a long time to learn a skill like
that. And that’ talking about the Word
of God, whether it’s talking about the Levitical priesthood, or whether it’s
our modern-day people in the faith who labor in the Word, who study, that can
maintain a testimony, that can impart that wisdom and that experience. Because we don’t want to hear that
expression, “Oh, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” I mean, how many’s ever heard that
before? I hate that. It’s like you get to start talking, and it’s
like, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” And then it’s like you know that they know
that you know that they’re right. So
it’s better to say, “I don’t know.” And
there’s times we’re going to say, “You know what? There are things that are in the Word of God
that are very complex, very hard to be understood for anybody.” “Oh, I know it all, I’ve got all of
them.” Okay, I really have to be
cautious and leery of anybody who makes those kind of boasts. But, I’m going to wrap this up in just a
moment here, but, I wanted to share one last thing. This was something that I heard probably
twenty-five years ago. I don’t know
whether he said in service; I don’t know the details surrounding the statement,
but, it doesn’t really matter, but, our General Pastor, Pastor Paine made this
statement, he said, “You know, the older I get, and the longer I live, and the
more I learn, and the more I know, the more I realize how much more I don’t
know.” And I thought, “Wow!” I heard that when I was a pretty young
Christian—how many remembers him saying that? I mean, that, to me, that came back to
remembrance, putting this together, and I hadn’t thought about that in a long
time. But, it’s stuff like that, where
there’s wisdom in that where it carries on.
It keeps us going another day, another week, another month, another
year… Again, it’s true professionally, it’s
true historically, it’s true Biblically.
The secret things do belong to God, and we’re not supposed to know
everything. But the things He hath given
belong to us and to our children that we may do all the words of His law. And this is our promise for being
obedient: Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath
heard, nor have entered into the heart of man and women, what God hath prepared
for those that love him (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Thank you very much for your time.
God bless you.
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