Basic HTML Version
them out of it." In this passage I want you to notice that Paul
always bases his ministry on the plan of God. Verse 17 talks about
how God has chosen a people for the outworking of his purpose. He
brought them out of Egypt by many wonderful, powerful miracles and
he began guiding them and teaching them in the way they should live
their lives. In other words, teaching them how to be in the world
but not of the world. A large portion of scripture is devoted to
the recounting of the way in which God labored to prepare his
chosen people for his plan, for his purpose.
We never want to forget that God has a purpose being worked
out here below, that he has a plan. We need to remember that God
calls a people to himself for the working out of his purposes. He
always has. And God has predestined a people to himself in this
end time to be the very basis of his divine work on earth. For
that people to be effective, they must be a people who are
convinced of his plan, who are solidly committed to and supporting
that plan, and who are diligently preparing themselves for the very
next step in that plan. And it also must be a people who are fully
convinced that God is totally and utterly able to carry out the
entirety of that plan and purpose to the nth degree.
Through God's Church we've come to understand that God
brought ancient Israel out of Egypt, a type of sin, to make of them
a society to show other people how to live. So today he is calling
his Church, spiritual Israel, out of this world, to show and to
teach people ultimately how to live in God's kingdom. God led
ancient Israel through Moses teaching them, preparing them, showing
them his way. So God today is leading us through his apostle for
the working out of his purposes. And just as his purpose was
rooted in ancient Israel then, so is it rooted in us today.
It's very important that we understand this duality. God
began his purpose from the day he breathed air into the lungs of
Adam. And of course, he continues that work today right through
his Church, the Body of Christ. As long as we can keep this
clearly in mind--that we are the ones whom God has called out and
through whom God is working out his purpose in this world today--
then we're less likely to let the world get to us with its message
of permissiveness, because we're so wrapped up with and committed
to the task of getting God's message to the world. When we lose
sight of the purpose, then we begin to get ourselves into all kinds
of trouble.
Paul was quick to point up the plan and the purpose that God
is working out through his chosen people. But now I want you to
notice something else, the second thing that he speaks on, which
concerns the patience of God. Look at verse 18. "And about the
time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness."
Now this concerns the tremendous patience of God. Any of you who
may have young children and had guests over to eat with you can
understand what this statement means: suffering their manners.
[Laughter] Because it seems that young children want to slurp their
soup, and put their elbows on the table, and perhaps eat with their
fingers when there are guests. They assume if there are guests you
won't correct them, and so they can go ahead and do what they would
like to do and somehow get away with it. That is, of course,