The Church In The Wilderness

and we're going to turn to his word i want to read a couple verses from acts chapter 7. acts chapter 7 we're going to join right in the middle of someone else's sermon with this text man steven is preaching hopefully i'll get a better result than he did because when he got finished they picked up stones and killed him i think i'm safe here this morning all right acts chapter 7 i'm going to read verses 37 and 38 man good to see everyone in the house of the lord this morning man so glad to see all your smiling faces and those of you online i can't see your smiling faces but i'm glad you have joined us amen as my cousin connie has done this morning amen acts chapter 7 verse 37 this is that moses which said unto the children of israel a shall the lord your god raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me and there he was talking about jesus he said him shall you hear then he goes back talking about moses he said this is he that was in the church in the wilderness which the with the angel which spake to him in the mount sinai and with our fathers who received the lively oracles given unto us now i said we caught him in the middle of his sermon he was he was laying out a history of israel and how they had continually rejected god and so he's talking about moses but i want to lift one phrase out of that second verse that we read there and that is this for the title of my message the church in the wilderness the church in the wilderness why don't you lift a hand and thank him for his word amen this morning so thankful god for the word of god and how it impacts our life lord jesus whether it's written and we read it on a page or as we're going to hear it this morning lord let it do what you said it would to go forth to accomplish where unto you send it we pray in jesus name thank you savior thank you savior hallelujah hallelujah and you may be seated

we often speak of being a book of acts church amen we are the apostolic pentecostal church for those of you that are online if you're joining us if you not here in the building we are apostolic pentecostal church we believe in the apostles doctrine and we believe in the experience of pentecost so we are an apostolic book of acts church after jesus was resurrected he instructed his followers the followers this he said and behold i'm sending the promise of my father upon you but tarry ye in the city of jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high of course we know that power from on high came just as he promised on the day of pentecost acts chapter 2 and verse 1 says this and when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind it filled all the house where they were sitting there appeared into them clothes and tongues like as a fire it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy ghost man they began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance amen and we are i'll say again a book of acts church because we believe amen we have experience and we know that the holy ghost is still being poured out as it was back then amen i said it's still being poured out it's available for you today furthermore the book of acts church prayed for and they saw many great healings they saw signs they saw wonders they saw miracles and we're a book of acts church in acts chapter 4 they said this and now lord grant unto your servants that with all boldness we may speak your word stretch forth your hand to heal and knew that signs and wonders may be done by the name of your holy child jesus and when they had prayed the place where they were in was shaken and they were all filled with the holy ghost and they spake the word of god with boldness god answers their answer their prayer he still answers prayer i'm thankful to be a book of acts church amen amen

but long before the book of acts was pinned by luke god was providing a pattern for what the church would look like this wasn't just some afterthought or some later idea he came up with that suddenly he said you know what this isn't working let's just start over and i'll start a new way of doing things this is a pattern that we see throughout the scripture it is true the word church is not used in our bibles in the old testament if you do a search for it it is not there and in fact the first time we actually see the word church in our bible was when jesus used it after peter's great confession it's when jesus said i say unto you you are peter upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it however even though the word church in english word church is not in our present day bible in the old testament the concept was introduced many a couple thousand years earlier in fact the greek word that was translated church refers to a called out assembly or a people that have been called out and gathered together in and implicit in that is the idea of they called together for a reason or for a purpose not just get a crowd together and see what happens but there was a purpose or function behind that and we see this in type in god calling israel out of egypt to be his chosen people the hebrew word translated congregation shares much of the same concepts or the the same ideas as the greek word for church that idea of being called out now when you do a study on it there are actually three hebrew words that we see in our bible translated congregation in the old testament the first one and you see it most often simply means a group of people a group of people a flash mob just a group of people you go to walmart there's a group of people you go down here there's a group of people a group it really has no other connotation than just a whole bunch of us all got together at the same time and so we see that quite often in the bible where it talks about a congregation of people the second word is most often used in describing a place such as the tabernacle of the congregation in other words a place where people gather so you could say the crowd at walmart and that would be that type of word or that designation that word that is translated congregation but there is finally a third word which is the most significant for our sermon today and that word that is translated congregation it's seldom used alone but it is used as a sense of belonging or it is put together with something else we see it in phrases like the congregation of israel not just any group of people but specifically israel the congregation in another place of god not just a group of people if you will god's people another place the assembly of the congregation of israel and they put those words together congregation and assembly in another place the assembly of the people of god and most importantly we see several places 13 in fact where the word is used as the congregation of the lord or the congregation of yahweh and it's that last phrase that is the nearest equivalent of our new testament word the greek word that is used for church in fact when the old testament was translated into the greek language and became the bible that jesus and the disciples used in those places it was translated in from the greek with that same word where our word church comes from so although israel was most often referred to as just a group of people yet there are occasions when god referred to them specifically not just a group of people but my people or his people that were specifically his own and that word congregation or sometimes assembly first time we see it we see it as israel is getting ready to leave egypt at the first preparing for the first passover and so there are many great lessons that we can learn from this church if you will in the wilderness and if we are going to be the church god wants us to be if we're going to be the church in this state and in this age then i think we should take a few moments to see what we can glean from this old testament type

the first thing we see is that god's church is called out we just sang about that he called my name amen he called my name we just said israel was first called a church as they were preparing to leave israel or preparing to leave egypt egypt was a biblical type of sin egypt represented slavery egypt represented bondage but god miraculously brought them out the bible says with a mighty hand and he called them out to be set free from that bondage that they were in in the prophecy that was both forth telling or proclaiming something and foretelling hosea said it this way when israel was a child i loved him and i called my son out of egypt so there is a calling that god gave and said israel you've been in egypt long enough i'm calling you out of what you are in i am calling you out of the bondage that you lived i'm calling you out of the land of egypt so first it was a declaration of what god had done for israel moses wrote in deuteronomy he said and then my when your son asked you in times to come what's this all about what are the statutes what's the ten commandments what are the judgments what are these things that god commanded you then you shall say to your son we were pharaohs bondmen in egypt and the lord brought us out of egypt with a mighty hand and the lord showed signs and wonders and great and sore upon egypt upon pharaoh and all our household before our eyes and he brought us out from hints that he might bring us in and give us the land which he swear unto our father so there is a calling that is coming out of bondage in egypt into what god has prepared for people second matthew uses hosea's words and he sees it as a prophecy concerning jesus in matthew 2 and 13 he said and when they were departed behold the angel of the lord appeared to joseph in a dream saying arise take the young child and his mother flee into egypt and you stay there until i bring you word because herod is going to seek to destroy the young child and when he arose he took the young child departed by night into egypt and there he was until the death of herod that it might be fulfilled so he looks back at this prophecy that was spoken by the lord of the lord by the prophet saying out of egypt i have called my son but finally in what really applies to us today we see in hosea's prophecy a call for the church of being called out of a sinful spiritual egypt and being called out of sin paul said it this way in galatians even so when we were children we were in bondage we were under elements of this world but when the fullness of time came god sent forth a son made of a woman made under a law and here's why to redeem them that we're under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons this world lives under the bondage of sin we see it in our society we see it in the news headlines we see it around us in different things but god has called his church out of a sinful world he called my name amen he said you don't have to live in the sin that you're in you don't have to live in the situation that you are in peter reminds us this way he called you out of darkness into his marvelous light aren't you thankful he called your name this morning aren't you thankful for the call of god that reaches down to where you are and brought you out of sin and that will lift you out of that it is only by the miraculous saving power of god that fell at pentecost that we can be set free it is the same mighty hand that brought israel out of egypt that can bring you out of sin today and that has brought many of us out of that we can never save ourselves there's not enough good you can do there's not enough you but when god calls you and you respond to that call he will bring you out of the situation you're in and i'm thankful it doesn't matter where you're at in that situation it doesn't matter how much in bondage you are you can be the lowest slave to sin as you could have been the lowest slave in egypt but when god called and when god's mighty hand got involved amen he lifted them out and he brought them out of egypt and he can bring us out i'm thankful to know the one that is the word of god said he is mighty to save well you don't know what i've done he's mightier than what you've done well you don't know how far in sin i've gone you don't know maybe you could even say i used to live for god and i went back and i went back the other direction i can tell you this morning he is mighty to save he is mighty to save hallelujah and tied closely to that truth about being called out is the fact that it was only through the blood that israel was saved before leaving egypt god gave these instructions he said in exodus 12 and 3 speak ye into the congregation of israel and say unto them in the tenth day of the month every man will take a lamb according to the house of their fathers a lamb for your house verse 5 says your lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year you shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it into the 14th day of the same month and here it is and the whole assembly of the congregation that's that word church of israel shall kill it in the evening and they shall take of the blood and strike it on the posts of the up of the doors and the upper doorposts of the houses wherein they eat it and the blood shall be for you a token upon the houses where you are and when i see the blood i will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when i smite the land of egypt we here we see the first time that hebrew word later translated from the greek as church that called out assembly is used for the people of israel i don't think it's an accident that it was used in conjunction with the application of blood i don't think that was a mistake he had called them a congregation before he had called him a group of people before but he never said you're the church or you're my called out assembly of god but when he did he ties it directly with this application of the blood the writer of hebrews remind us this and almost all things are by the law purged with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no remission without blood there would have been no church in the wilderness had they not obeyed god and put the blood upon the households they would have never gotten out of egypt and even so today without the shedding of blood there would not be the church as we know it there would be no apostolic pentecostal church there would be no book of acts church when god called us out of sin amen he washed us in the blood of jesus christ aren't you thankful for that sin saving fountain aren't you thankful for the blood that was applied to your life aren't you thankful that when you left egypt not only did you leave sin but it was washed off of you amen and you came out with no sin as you stood before god peter said for as much as we know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things you didn't buy your way here you didn't get it with silver you didn't get it with gold but it was the precious blood of christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot the church cannot exist without the blood i'm thankful we still preach and we still believe in the blood of jesus we believe the power of the blood to wash away your sins we believe in the power of the blood to protect our households and our families and if we're gonna be the church that god wants us to be then we will proclaim we are a blood blood-bought people and the old song used to ask this are you washed in the blood in the soul-cleansing blood of the lamb i'm thankful today i can say yes i've had his blood applied to my life i'm not standing here buying my way to heaven with silver and gold i'm not buying it with good works or anything else but it is because he hath covered me with his blood giving thanks unto the father which has made us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light he had delivered us from the power of darkness he hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sin again we are called out of darkness we are delivered from the bondage of sin and we are translated in the kingdom of jesus christ how through the blood of jesus aren't you thankful this morning for the blood why why don't you give him a thanksgiving why don't you give him a praise so thankful god that you have called us and i'm thankful god for the blood of jesus christ that has been applied to my life hallelujah it helps me stand free from sin in our text stephen called the church israel the church in the wilderness now this is where it gets a little bit dicey for us sometimes i think when we are called out of egypt when they were called out they embarked on a journey toward the promised land i don't know if you ever looked at a map but egypt's about right here and i'm looking at it from the opposite direction as you are so i'd say egypt's here and israel's right here see that you can't see it can you you see me mooking hand motions but it was from here to here and if you took an arrow a ruler and drew it you can take a straight line right up the coast around by the mediterranean straight from egypt right into israel and that's the way they headed and you know what that is an easy journey you can go along by the sea it's flat it's well watered there's a lot of food there's everything else and it's just a straight journey right in to the promised land probably wouldn't have taken more than a few weeks and they started out that direction and they didn't go very far in exodus 14 1 says this and the lord spake unto moses speaking to children of israel and here they go they're heading that way that they turn and go a different direction that they turn and encamp by the sea now not the mediterranean sea which would go right on up in israel but by the red sea which was down in the sinai peninsula god literally turned them around and he sent them into a wilderness where there were mountains where there was a rugged terrain where there was little food where there was no water and what first appeared to be an easy journey suddenly became infinitely more difficult well wait a minute moses the promised land's right over there and you're telling us to go this way no god's telling us to go this way what should have been a few short weeks would now take them many months and even years what would have been out through well-watered planes and abundant food and water now became a journey in the desert with less food and even less water no wonder stephen called them a church in the wilderness when god calls us out of sin we begin a journey to a promised land yes we are looking for a city whose builder and maker is god and we quickly learned that the journey is not always easy amen there are times when it's hard to keep on walking this year's been one of them it's been different it's been difficult there are times when resources may seem scarce there are times when heaven may seem a far off dream but keep walking child of god amen keep going child of god god's church will be victorious amen the one that said i will come he said the one that shall come will come god will see us through paul reminds us let's not be weary in well-doing in due season we shall reap if we faint not now i don't understand why sometimes he turns us around and he takes us the difficult way other than he's saying well just trust me on this one amen but if you'll learn to follow as the church in the wilderness did amen god will bring us through now i don't believe god did that for no reason he had a purpose in taking them in the direction in the midst of their wilderness experience they learned to depend on god for water there was no water and they complained and god said moses stretch forth your rod smite that rock and he did in water flowed and they were able to drink they said there's nothing to eat out here he said don't worry about it tomorrow will be plenty woke up the next day and there's manna on the ground pick it up and eat all you want today just don't take some for tomorrow don't worry about that god will take care of it tomorrow the next day the same thing until it came down day before the sabbath now you get twice as much because you're not going to go out on the sabbath and there was food to eat took them a little bit to learn that lesson some of them the first day went out and grabbed it come back and got enough for tomorrow just in case just in case god you're not going to do it again got up the next morning is full of worms learn a lesson wilderness does us good doesn't it we learn to trust god the lesson that the church can learn and that no matter what we face no matter what we go for god is with us he said i'm gonna supply all your need according to my riches in glory by christ jesus

he led them for three months until they reached mount sinai it was there he met with them he gave them the law and he made a covenant with them exodus 19 says this in verse 3 and moses went up to god and the lord called him out unto the mountain saying thus shall you say to the house of jacob and tell the children of israel you have seen what i did to the egyptians i bear you on eagle's wings i brought you to myself now therefore and here he's making an agreement with them if you will obey my voice indeed if you will keep my covenant then you'll be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the earth is mine and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to be the church means more than just coming out of egypt to be the church means more than just being filled with the holy ghost god desires a relationship with his people he asks for obedience to his word and being the church means holding up our part of that covenant or that agreement agreement so now it was a great experience it was an awesome experience can't really even describe it in exodus moses tries in verse 16 he said it came to pass on the third day in the morning there were thunders and there were lightnings and there was a thick cloud up on the mountain there was a voice of a trumpet exceeding loud so all the people in the camp trembled moses brought the people out toward the mountain said okay come out here we need to see this this is god getting ready to speak said and mount sinai was altogether on a smoke because the lord descended upon it in fire and the smoke ascended as a smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain is quaking and shaking and the voice of the trumpet sounded long and got louder and louder and moses spake and god answers him by his voice hear a voice of god out of the mountain the people fall back and they're afraid and they don't know but it was god showing his might to them and showing them it was the initiation if you will of the covenant it was god getting ready to say i'm going to bring this covenant before you but before you do i want to show you my power i want to show you what i can do and if repentance is leaving egypt and forsaking sin then pentecost is our sinai experience pentecost as we read in the opening that rushing mighty wind that cloven tongues like as a fire was the spiritual equivalent of the my sinai experience it was god is shaking the house it was god confirming the new covenant and saying here it is i'm going to send it with power i'm going to send it so you can see what i can do in a life and it was the beginning of that new covenant it was the fulfillment of the prophecies of jeremiah and ezekiel where he said but this shall be the covenant that i will make in those days he said i'm going to put my law in their inward parts i'm going to write it in your hearts and i'll be your god and you'll be my people a new heart also will give you i'll give you a new spirit within you i'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh and i'll give you a heart of flesh and i will put my spirit within you but he didn't stop there and i will cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my commandments my judgments and you will do them the key point to emerges out of this is the powerful experience of pentecost just like mount sinai was the beginning and not the climax of god's dealing with his people it was the initiation it was the beginning not the consummation god met with israel to have a relationship with him and he fills us with this wonderful pentecostal experience not just so you can sit back and say now i got a ticket to heaven but no so that you can enter into a relationship and a covenant with him the pentecostal experience is a necessary beginning but keeping his covenant and walking in his law is the key to making it to the promised land not only do we learn that from that passage but we also learn from the church in the wilderness sinai experience that once in covenant with god they became his peculiar treasure they were his people in the passage we read earlier he said now therefore if you will obey my voice if you will keep my covenant you will be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for the earth is mines and you will be a kingdom of priests unto me in a holy nation and borrowed from that exact language from exodus and from the example of that church in the wilderness peter writes of us but you are a chosen generation you're a royal priesthood you're a holy nation you're a peculiar people that you will show forth the praises of him that brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light which in times past you were not a people but now you are the people of god which had not obtained mercy but now you have mercy what sinai i failed to do and that it was weak through the flesh god sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and condemned sin and flesh why that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us israel never got to that point because they couldn't do it and couldn't walk after the commandments the way god required them to do but because of the spirit being placed in our lives god empowers us to live in that right relationship with him while the church in the wilderness might boast in their flesh that they were sons of abraham those in this filled with the spirit can say behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us and that's what we can say church that we should be called the sons of god beloved now are we the sons of god amen why because he has called us into a relationship with him there are many more lessons we could learn from this wilderness church there's so many there's so much detail if you got into it time doesn't allow us to explore all of them but there's one more lesson that i feel compelled that we have to have today moses knew that he could not lead the children of israel alone he couldn't do it by himself he understood that it wasn't just him as a man in all his experience 40 years living in egypt in the pharaoh's palace 40 more years in the wilderness surviving by himself on the back side of the desert those were all good lessons that he learned to be able to go in the court of pharaoh and ask for the release of israel and to be able to lead them through a wilderness time but he also understood i can't do this alone in fact he said in exodus 33-15 he said if your presence doesn't go with me god if you're not with me don't even take us there carry us not up hence don't even try but god answered moses prayer and he led israel with a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day following the cloud was following the leading of god

it's a little bit lengthy passage but i just want to show you the repetition in this numbers chapter 9 beginning at verse 15. and on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle namely the tent of the testimony and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire until the morning so it was alway the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night and when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle then after that the children of israel journeyed hold what happened there the cloud was taken up off the tabernacle and the children of israel journeyed go on and in the place where the cloud abode there the children of israel pitched their tents clouds stopped and they pitched their tents at the commandment of the lord the children of israel journeyed and at the commandment of the lord they pitched as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents and when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days then the children of israel kept the charge of the lord and journeyed not and so it was when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle according to the commandment of the lord they abode in their tents you see sometimes god just says just stop just slow down clouds stopped been a few days you've been walking he knew when they were weary he knew he knows more than we do right and he stopped and he said we're just going to stay here for a few days okay put your tents we're going to a boat abide right here according to the commandment of the lord they journeyed then and so it was when the cloud abode from even unto the morning and that the cloud was taken up in the morning then they journeyed one night stopped that night time to stop for the evening get rested up morning he gets up the cloud goes they journey whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up they journeyed or whether it were two days or a month or a year that the cloud terried upon the tabernacle remaining thereon the children of israel abode in their tents and journeyed not but when it was taken up they journeyed and at the commandment of the lord they rested in the tents and at the commandment of the lord they journey they kept the charge of the lord at the commandment of the lord by the hand of moses

the lesson for us is we have to have the leading of the spirit how many times did they use the word journey when the cloud moved they journeyed when the cloud moved they journeyed when the clouds stopped they abode when the cloud stopped they rested it moved they journeyed one day two days a month a year it didn't matter whenever the cloud went they went we have to have the leading of the spirit just as the church in the wilderness would follow the cloud we must follow the spirit the bible says there's no condemnation of those who are in christ jesus who are walking after the spirit who walk after the spirit when the spirit bids us go we must go and when the spirit says stop you must learn to stop it's so easy to get out in front of what god wants to do i mean when god is leading and all of a sudden he stops and we say you know what this is just too good let's just keep going no god said stop we got to learn that but then here's the hard part oh now it's time to go again are you sure that's the voice of the lord cloud's moving our ear must always be tuned to the voice of the spirit one man preached a sermon that he titled don't kill your preacher and he wasn't talking about a pastor he was talking about the voice of the spirit of god that he has placed in our life paul said it this way in a very concise but powerful verse he said quench not the spirit amen listen to the voice that he has placed in your life listen when it says go be ready to go and when it says stop be ready to stop it's time for me to stop