Download... July 4, 2010. Sunday Morning Service. Bro. Dave Goble.
How glad we should be for the liberty God provides for us! Our nation was founded upon biblical principals. No question when studying God’s word, of it’s connection to America’s Constitution, which is intertwined with the principals of the christian life.
TEXT: EZEKIEL 37:21-28
21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
God still wants to gather, and cleanse souls so they may be a part of His more perfect union.
God wants to gather His people physically to a place where He can be seen by redeemed lives. God is still the author of His more perfect union. The above scripture is a picture of a people who had been divided,.. being gathered. Are you being gathered?
We owe our national independence from the price that many lives,.. paid with their blood. What a blessing we can be gathered to a more perfect union, of the constitution of America. Our ancestors were not content with the oppressive government that Britain afforded at that time. Consequently our constitution was created to establish independence, and how we will govern ourselves. There are many that have been ‘hunted”, hungry, etc., that have emigrated here , and are more grateful than some of our natural born citizens. Likewise those newly emigrated, are often more rightly concerned that we hold to those biblical principals, of our honorable beginnings. It is an easy conclusion then that often many of those immigrating and natural born, have different ideals of those principals. For all involved are, after all, humanly imperfect. They have a genuinely different view of the same “perfect union.” In less than the passing of a generation, this “perfect union” was fighting against itself (civil war,) because of their imperfect ways. The constitution notwithstanding, was still the most ideal worldwide, to form that “perfect union,” again even though inhabited by a imperfect union of citizens.
In like manner, many people do the same thing with our biblical constitution (the bible). “They” take the documents of that biblical foundation and “alter” it by adding and subtracting. They confuse imperfect lives with the perfect plan given to redeem us. They make unnecessary amendments that ultimately results in an error,.. causing spiritual death, in spite of the paid price of blood. The price of Christ blood as payment should cause every soul to appreciate the eternal value of God’s biblical constitution, of His more perfect union. In the temporal and natural sense this nation which is of course compiled of imperfect lives, is still the best country on earth to live. Many nations have many more stresses because of their lack of a constitution for a more perfect union.
Br Goble made reference to a book--”A Shepherds look at the 23rd Psalm” by Phillip Keller. This book tells how when one shepherd was feeding his flock in a fruitful pasture, there were neighboring flocks attempting to feed in barren pastures, causing them to be sickly. That book’s shepherd tells how some of those sickly sheep from that flock pressed their way into his fields because of their natural hunger for health. Gathered in for the benefit of their life. Likewise spiritually any soul that is in need and presses their way into the sounding of the pure gospel, will be blessed with the spiritual health they need. Similarly, I should not be looking elsewhere than being gathered to God’s one body and flock. God is looking for any just outside, looking in, so they can choose to also be gathered.
Br D Goble also gave the example of the natural life cycles of the penguin and of how God has instilled in them instincts to properly care for their young. It entails the adult male and female exchanging places traveling even 70 miles from ocean back to land to both hunt food and protect by nesting with their offspring. Those adult penguins that become lacking in their natural purpose, wander off, while those persisting to press their way into the flocks, maintain their place in their gathering. Br Goble again also shared how he was caused to press his way into where the truth was being preached amongst God’s called out body, for his salvation.
Likewise God’s body put all their efforts in keeping a perfect union, by leaving sin (wandering off) outside the union’s perimeters. Are you being gathered? Or, ..on the outside, looking in? The gospel won’t help people not willing to leave their sin behind. God is a God of covenants and agreements.
Genesis 1:28-30 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
God created everything for our physical good. God said everything in His word, for our spiritual good. It will be for our blessing or a curse. A blessing for obedience, and a curse for disobedience or insisting on your own way. God is a God of curses, as well as blessings! God warns souls, not to change His rules. He is still a God of rules and covenants!
Genesis 9:8-11 8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
11 And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
Because of Noah’s obedience, God blessed him with being spared. God will never by a flood, destroy the earth again.
Deuteronomy 11:26- 28 26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
Obedience to laws for a blessing, and a curse for disobedience to them. God gave Moses a covenant. God also had covenants that were broken by King Saul, King David, King Solomon, Israel, and etc. In the case of King David, although he was cursed for his disobedience, he found mercy and blessing for his true repentance afterwards.
Here God has supplied us with a covenant and agreement with Jesus, if we choose it.
Hebrews 8:10-13 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. In chapter 9 of Hebrews, all the benefits are linked for obedience, to this covenant. A covenant that is perfect without fault. It is people that have the faults and imperfections.
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
God, is a gathering God! Although only 2 or 3 required here, it is not limited by this small number. For He also through his apostle, instructs us to assemble ourselves more often as we see the day approach. Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Luke 17:33-37 33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. 34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. 35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
Where the body of Christ is, there will the gathering of other spiritually honest seeking souls to also be gathered.
God gave the inspirational leading of the marvelous constitution of this country, that still is relevant to our time. It is a dangerous thing to lean on your own understanding. All that go their own way will be gathered to spiritual death.
Matthew 23:37-38 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Those not pressing their way into God’s gathering,..will be of the gathering of the desolate.
Revelations 14:19,20 19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
The gospel is the sickle, which is cast into the fleshly conscious, to make those accountable. This spiritual “pressing” is going on today! The “grapes of the vine” here, are the people that are not “determined,” ultimately being pressed out by the gospel. Are you willing to be gathered? Are you willing to be pressed? God is pressing out those things He can’t use in my life. So that He can use me. Some being pressed, are not willing to stay in the press. If you persist in hanging on to things needing to be pressed out, your soul will also be pressed out.
Many other “gatherings” do not use the complete pressing of God’s word. When God presses out, there is no more “juice” left. Are you being gathered? Are you being pressed? If you want to be of God’s flock, you must be marked by God’s “brand.” Accept all His word and teachings. Be willing and ready to have yourself pressed out of your own ways. Are you being gathered to the body of Christ?
