God Is Performing Miracles in Us

What is the greatest miracle ever? Was it creation when God stepped out and created all the billions of stars, suns, moons, planets? What about the creation of the angels? When there were millions of angels separately created by God. To be able to make a spirit being with all the power that angels have. What about the flood? To be able to flood the earth and cover all the mountains.

Possibly the resurrection of Lazarus. I mean, here was a dead man, no life. God resurrected him and he's alive again. What about the healing of the deaf, the dumb, and the blind? What about the protection and perpetuation of the true church down through the ages? Because God said that it would never end. What about God becoming human and dying for us? Was that the greatest miracle? What about all the events surrounding the Exodus? Now, every one of us here might have a little different answer as to what you think was or is the greatest miracle.

I think in order to understand this question that I pose, we need to look at the events surrounding the Exodus of Egypt or Israel from Egypt and what took place at that time. Let's take a look at some of the miracles surrounding the Exodus and see if there's anything that we can learn. Once we do this, I think we'll be in a much better position to be able to answer the question on what is the greatest miracle.

It took a series of miracles for Israel to be delivered from Egyptian slavery. And I think we're all well aware of that, but let's go back and review Exodus 12, verse 40. Exodus 12, verse 40. You'll find now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years. And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years on the very same day it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

It is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is a night of the Lord. A solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations. Okay, they were in slavery in Egypt for 230 years, but they had been sojourners for 430 years.

Now, had God forgotten them while they were in slavery, while they were sojourning, did God forget them, and they were just sort of wondering out there and he didn't know what was going on? Well, turn back to Genesis chapter 15. In Genesis 15, you'll find, beginning in verse 13, that God had actually prophesied how long they were going to be sojourners. This wasn't a surprise to him. God has a timetable.

He has a schedule on how he carries different events out. And this was working out according to his schedule. In verse 13, we read, then he said to Abram, Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them for a hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve, I will judge afterwards, they shall come out with great possessions. Now, as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace, and you shall be buried in a good old age.

But in the fourth generation, they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And so you'll find that God wasn't going to remove the Amorites out on the land just yet. Their iniquity had not built up to where God felt that he needed to do so.

Now, during this whole period of time, the Israelites cried out to God for deliverance. God didn't deliver them. They were still slaves. They were still in bondage. Humanity's been crying out to God for the last six thousand years, asking God, you know, how long? When is Christ going to return? How often do we pray, thy kingdom come? And we find the kingdom didn't come yesterday. It's not here today.

And it may not be here tomorrow. We keep looking for Christ to return and to set up his government on the earth. In Acts 7, verse 22, we find an interesting fact about what occurred at the Exodus. Acts 7, verse 22. We find that Moses, very early on, felt that he had a commission, had a job to do. And that was to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Now, where did he get the idea? Where did that come from? Well, let's notice what it says. Moses was learned in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians.

It was mighty in words and in deeds. Now, later on, you find Moses told God, I can't speak. And God had to provide Aaron as a mouthpiece. But here he was mighty in words and in deeds. Josephus, a Jewish historian, tells us that Moses was a general. He led armies. He was one of the leading military men. He was involved in logistics. He had this as a background. He had been educated and trained. And we find now, when he was 40 years old, he came to his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

Okay, so he knew what his background was. He knew that he was an Israelite. He was going to go visit them. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed and struck down the Egyptian. For he supposed, now notice the supposition, that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand.

But they did not understand. Now, what if God had delivered them by Moses' hand at that time? He's 40 years old. He's a general. He goes and he organizes the Israelites. And he says, okay, get your weapons. We're going to go. You know, if they try to stop us, we're going to organize this army. We're going to fight them.

And he would have been all ready to go. And how many of them would have been killed and slaughtered? Would they have won? What would have happened to them at this point? So you find that he thought that God was going to deliver them. Now, somehow the idea got into his mind that he had been placed in Egypt, had this background, had all of this training for a reason and for a purpose. So he thought that God would deliver them because of who he was, his position, his responsibilities, his duties.

And the bottom line was, God was going to have to do it in spite of all of that. Because God wasn't going to deliver Israel because of the abilities and talents of Moses. You might remember that Moses had to flee for 40 years. He's out in the desert for 40 years. Notice what the people say here. The next day, verse 26, he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, tried to reconcile them, saying, Man, you are brethren. Why do you wrong one another? But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday? Uh-oh! Words on the street. He's killed the Egyptian. Then at this saying, Moses fled. It became a dweller in the land of Midian where he had two sons. And when 40 years had passed, now he's 80 years old. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in the bush in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.

Now, we knew, we know here, that Moses was a changed man, wasn't he? 40 years later, he said, I can't deliver these people. I can't even speak, you know, choose somebody else. And God said, No, I'm going to use you. You know, 40 years walking behind sheep will do that to you. He became the meekest man on earth, the Bible says. And so, God was now able to use him because he wasn't relying on himself, his talent, his training, but he was going to rely upon God. Now, notice some of the miracles that God performed to bring the Exodus about.

If you ever stop to think about, categorize all of the miracles that took place. Number one, Moses was not killed as a baby. He is placed in an arkable rushes saved by the daughter of Pharaoh. Now, what are the odds that the daughter of Pharaoh would find a baby floating down the Nile River? He was reared in the Egyptian royal household. Moses, another one, was trained as a military leader. He was acquainted with logistic problems of moving masses of people. However, he had to rely upon God, not upon himself. God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. That was absolutely a miracle. God performed a miracle with Moses' staff. He turned into a serpent.

He appeared to Aaron and told Aaron to visit his brother Moses. Moses was a changed man by this time, as I said. He was the meekest man on earth. Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh and performed a series of miracles. Now, God performed a series of miracles that eventually led to the destruction and the downfall of Egypt and the power of Pharaoh. Remember, there were the plagues of blood, plagues of frogs, lice, flies, cattle dying in the field, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the firstborn death. Now, you can come up with different figures, and different books will tell you different things, but a conservative figure is that there was probably at least a million Egyptians who died first born.

How many firstborn do we have here? If you wag your hands around here, you'll look at all the firstborn. We had a much higher percentage in Rome this morning than that, but you find that Egypt, I don't know what the population of Egypt was, but probably one out every six or seven was a firstborn. And all the firstborn, not only of the people, but the firstborn of the cattle died at this time. Not all the cattle died that was out in the that was that they had the cattle out in the field died, but the cattle that was put up in the barns was still alive, and the firstborn of those died also.

Now, there were other miracles accomplished there. God put a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites after the first three plagues. Israel was protected, and the Egyptians got the plagues. The death angel did not strike the firstborn of the Israelites. There was a difference made between them and the Egyptians.

God gave them favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. Here they had been in Egypt for 230 years, had not been paid. Now they were given gold, silver, jewels, precious stones, back wages, 230 years salary. They collected as they were about to march out of the land of Egypt. There was one final miracle, though, that God had to perform before they were rid of the Egyptians. We all know what that was. That was crossing the Red Sea. The Israelites never deviated. They were always true to form.

You could always count on the Israelites. Let's notice Exodus 14.

You always knew what the Israelites were going to say. Exodus 14 verse 10.

Remember, they came out with a high hand. It was a night to be much observed. That's why we observe that night, because it reminds us of Israel coming out of Egypt, our coming out of this world. But when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, not just a little afraid. They had the verys, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, because there were no greys in Egypt. You've taken us away to die in the wilderness. Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, let us alone? That we may serve the Egyptians, where it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians. We should die in this wilderness. You just brought us out here to kill us off. And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid, stand still, see the salvation of the Lord.

So here you find the Israelites were true to form. They doubted. They didn't have faith. They complained. They grumbled. They cried. But God had told Moses ahead of time, look, it's going to work out. So you would think, would you not, by this time? That the Israelites, after seeing all the miracles, firstborn dying, all of this taking place, they come up to the Red Sea, that they come to Moses and they say, okay, Moses, what's God going to do this time? We know he's got something up his sleeve. We're just waiting to see him do it. What's he going to do? No, that's not their attitude. They were afraid. And they didn't realize that God was leading them. They should have had faith, but they didn't have faith. Notice here in verse 21, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea into dry land and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground and the waters were walled to them on the right hand and on their left. Now, Israel walked through on dry land. Now, this is a greater miracle than most of us realize. Now, it's a great miracle in one sense in that here's the Red Sea, God parts it, and here you have the waters just all piled up on both sides. And there they are, just like a huge Grand Canyon. And the Israelites were to walk through. There were approximately three million Israelites in a mixed multitude and much livestock. How much livestock did they have? I'm sure there was at least one goat, sheep, cow, or whatever for, you know, most Israelites. There were probably millions of herds that they were running through there. Now, if they went through in a narrow path a double file, now there's two by two, and they marched through, the line would be 800 miles long. It would require 35 days and 35 nights. It didn't take them 35 days to go through. Now, you say, where do you come up with that? Well, if you have approximately three million, divide that in half for their, you know, two by two. That's a million five hundred thousand. Give each person three feet. That's four million five hundred thousand feet. Divide that by five thousand two hundred and eighty. Because how many feet in a mile? You get eight hundred and fifty-two miles. That's where I came up with it. You know, all that figuring. If you travel 22.8 miles a day, it would take the last person 35 days to get across the Red Sea. Didn't take that long, did it? The space at the Red Sea could have been a mile, two miles. Who knows how wide it was? Because they had to go through en masse. Three million people. This is a city about the size of Chicago proper. Just think of evacuating Chicago. You're not on buses and cars. You're on foot or donkeys. You're hauling wagons along. Everybody's trying to get through this Red Sea. Hundreds and thousands of them had to go through simultaneously to be able to get that many people across. Remember, they had cattle and livestock.

These animals had to be herded. They had to be kept together. Now, let's notice in verse 27, chapter 14 here in the book of Exodus, verse 27.

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea when the morning appeared. The sea returned to its full depth. So the Israelites go through at night, next day. The sea returns while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh. They came into the sea after them, and not so much as one of them remained.

There was not a one of them left alive. So God said, you will not see these people ever again, no more. You won't have to worry about them anymore. And God saved Israel at that time, as verse 30 says. So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hands of the Egyptians. In verse 31, notice the people feared the Lord. They believed the Lord and His servant Moses. Now the question is, how long did they do that? Look at what God did to deliver the people. First of all, He destroys the army of Egypt.

They're gone. He destroyed the agriculture or the economy of Egypt. The grains, the grasses, the trees had been decimated by the hail. Most of the cattle had died. Probably over one million Egyptians, firstborn, had died the past overnight. The army of Egypt and Pharaoh was gone. Israel could not have delivered themselves from the hands of the Egyptians. They did not have the power. They did not have the ability.

And it took a series of miracles from God to be able to extricate them and bring them out of slavery and to break the grip of Pharaoh and the task masters. Now there were continual miracles that God performed for the Israelites to bring them into the Promised Land. Remember, coming out of Egypt, that was only the first step. We're out of Egypt. Now where are you going? God wasn't going to leave them in the desert. They were headed for the Promised Land, the Land of Palestine.

They could not make it to the Land of Promise on their own either, as I will show you. It would have been a physical impossibility for the Israelites to do that. Some of the basic needs all human beings have are food, clothing, shelter, and, I might add, also safety. You want to feel safe. God provided these for the Israelites. Notice chapter 16, verses 2 through 5. The Israelites are back in form again. Verse 2, the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. See where we get it? We inherit it.

They complained. And the children of Israel said, Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. We sat by the pots of meat and we ate bread to the full. For you brought us out in this wilderness to kill this whole assembly. Now how are we going to kill them this time? Well, with hunger. We're hungry. We don't see any food. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out, gather a certain quota every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not.

It shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. So here's a miracle that God performed for 40 years for the Israelites. Every morning, six days a week, they would go out and there was manna on the ground. Where did it come from? Who created it?

Why was it so nourishing? I mean, all they had to do was eat manna and they didn't have to worry about vitamin B, C, D, E, F. You know, all of the vitamin supplements, you, whatever it might be. They had a perfect food that God gave to them. But on the sixth day, God said what? Collect twice as much.

Tomorrow is not going to fall. If you go out tomorrow, you know, it's going to breed worms. Well, if you try to keep it up any other day, it'll breed worms. But on this day, it won't. So that was a miracle. You could test God. You know, Monday, you could save twice as much. Tuesday, it would be full of worms. Friday, you save twice as much. Saturday, no worms. You could do that for 40 years. And what did God say?

Well, He was going to test them to see if they would be obedient, if they would keep the Sabbath and do what He said. Now, they also wanted meat, so God gave them quail. So that, hey, you take this little herd they had out there, even though it was a few million, and you start killing it for 40 years, pretty soon you don't have a herd, because you killed all of them.

So God performed a daily miracle for them.

Feeding about three million people in their cattle requires a lot of food.

According to the quartermaster general in the army, it would take 1,500 tons of food every day to feed this many people. See, he would know because he moves armies, you know, and how many, how much food they'd have to eat. 1,500 tons times 2,000, that's how many pounds in a ton, gives you 3,000 pounds of food. So basically, we're looking at a pound of food per person per day, which is not a whole lot. Some of you may go out tonight and eat a pound of flesh. You'll get a steak that weighs, you know, that much. This would be a conservative estimate. How many livestock did they have? It must, again, have been millions. How much grain? How much grass? How much water would it take to feed them? Did they eat the manna also? You know, I don't know, but where do you find grass like that in the desert? You may come to an oasis, day or two, grass is gone. Where are you going to find all of that? This would be like feeding a city the size of Chicago proper for 40 years. That's a lot of feeding.

1,500 tons of food a day would require a freight train two miles long if you were freighting again. If they had to gather the food on their own, where would they have gotten it? I'll tell you, after a few days, they would have gone scarred. You know, the whole area wouldn't be anything left. It is estimated that it would take 4,000 tons of firewood just to cook the food. Where are you going to get all of the firewood? You see, there were miracles being performed here on a daily basis to keep the people alive. Now, how much water would the average Israelite use in a day's time? Sometimes they camped at water holes, sometimes they camped at an oasis. In chapter 17, verse 1, the Israelites are back at it. This time it's water. You see, they never seem to learn. Once it's an army, now it's hunger, now it's water. And they still keep saying the same thing over and over. Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the wilderness of sin according to the commandment of the Lord and camped and reffed them, and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people contended with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. So Moses said to them, why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord? Why are you testing God, tempting Him? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said, why is it that you brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? And Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, what shall I do with this people? They're almost ready to stone me. They're going to have a rock concert here, and He was about to be stoned. In verse 6, God said, behold, I'll stand before you there on the rock in Horem, and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so on the side of the elders of Israel. He called the name of the place Massa and Meribah, because of the contentions of the children of Israel, because they tempted the Lord, saying, is the Lord among us or not? Is God with us?

So, there were times when there was no water, God provided water in the desert. Again, this would be a daily miracle. Why would they ever doubt God? Why didn't they just eagerly anticipate? Wonder how God's going to solve this one? They've seen it done so often. You see, the Israelites never believed that God brought Him out. It was really going to take them to the Promised Land.

God wanted to take them right into the Promised Land. But you remember, they weren't obedient. And so, therefore, God made them wonder for 40 years. Now, if the Israelites only had enough water to drink and wash a few dishes, it would take somewhere around 11 million gallons of water. That'd be about four gallons per person. Occasionally, they might have to take a bath, and they might have to wash their clothes, you know, mixed in with that. How much water would a city the size of Chicago consume in a day? Well, it would take a train several miles long to be able to haul all that water in, if you were doing it that way. Every time the Israelites camped, it required a campground two-thirds the size of the state of Rhode Island. Now, Rhode Island is a small state, but it would take about two-thirds that size. The total is 750 square miles. I don't know how many tents you would have, but you'd have 500,000, 800,000 tents, cattle, all over the place. Israel, you have to realize, just did not travel on their own. God was with them all the way. You see, they could have doubted. They could have looked around and, Where's God? You know, we've got this problem. Where did God go? All they had to do is look up. Chapter 13, back up here, Exodus 13, verse 21. The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead the way and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. Now, Norm and I were talking about this in the car. I have no way of knowing this, but it makes you wonder if God, maybe in the daytime, being out in the desert, walking in the desert, it gets quite hot. Notice our troops over in Iraq, in that area. What if God provided shade for them during the day with cloud? And at night, lit the sky up so they would be like downtown Chicago, or downtown New York, where you could see what was going on. And God provided for his people. Every morning they get up, they see the cloud. Every night they see the pillar of fire. They don't have to worry about where's God. When the tabernacle was erected, God's glory entered into the tabernacle.

And God always led them, and he was directing them to the Promised Land. They could see him. I mean, they could see not his bodily, but they could see his glory and his power being demonstrated. They didn't have to guess where is God. In chapter 13 here, verse 17, It came to pass that when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went out in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.

So what you find is God was their leader. He led them. He knew the way he wanted them to go, and he thought, well, if they go up through here, they'll see fighting and they'll get discouraged. Let's go down this way. It's a little longer, but we'll still be able to get there. And God was leading them. And yet, do you think the average Israelite understood that? See, when the cloud moved, they followed it. When it stood still, they stayed. And so God didn't have to worry where to go. Clouds going over here, we followed over here. If the pillar of fire is going over there, we followed over there. When it stands still, we stayed. So it was very clear as to what they should do. Now, it's interesting in the book of Deuteronomy, another miracle that we may not think about. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 4. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your feet swell these forty years. They didn't have to worry about going to Walmart and buying a new dress, new shoes, new suit.

I mean, where would they have found them out in the middle of the desert? Anyway, for forty years, they wore the same clothes. Now, they may have had a change, but guess what? After forty years, you might have wanted a new robe. Or are you something else to be able to put on? But nothing. They didn't have to go shopping. God supplied all their needs. They basically wore the same clothes for forty years, and they held up. I would say that's a miracle. I've got some suits I've had for ten years, but I don't know if most of my clothes are going to last me forty years. Problem is, we change shapes, and something that fits today doesn't fit tomorrow. Those type of things happen. Now, in chapter 29, we find the additional fact added in verse 5 here. Chapter 29, verse 5, Book of Deuteronomy. I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. Immortal souls. And God took care of their feet. Now, how would you like to be able to get out and walk, and walk, and walk, and your ankles and your feet never swell? Well, see, that's what God did for them. Nehemiah chapter 9 summarizes what God did for them. Nehemiah 9, verse 19. Verse 19 here, Yet in your manifold mercies you did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way that they should go. You gave your good spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouth. You gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. See, that's why I said, even after they came out of Egypt, they could not have made it unless God was with them, and sustained them. You sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing.

That's an important phrase. They lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. God took care of all their needs. Food, clothing, shelter. Their needs were provided for them. He sustained them for 40 years till they came to the Promised Land.

So what was the problem with the Israelites? Why were they always complaining? Why was their contention? Why did they lack faith? Why did they doubt? Why didn't they obey God? Why was it that the older generation had to die in the wilderness, and it was only the younger generation, those 20 and younger, who actually ended up entering into the Promised Land, and their children? Well, I think there are lessons that you and I can learn from all of this. I want you to notice our calling.

It took a miracle for us to come spiritually out of Egypt. This world is comparable to Egypt. It has taken a series of miracles for God to bring every one of us out of this world, and to break the grip of Satan the devil that he had over us and his control and his influence. In Colossians chapter 1 and verse 13, Colossians 1 and verse 13, we read this, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. So God has had to deliver us. Just like He delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, God has had to deliver us out from the power of darkness. Satan is the power that controls this world. This is His world right now. Society and all around us. God has had to annul the whole of the Satan the devil, the grip that he's had over us. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14, we read here, Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy Him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. Now the word destroy there doesn't mean to annihilate, obliterate, to cease to exist. It means to render idle, unemployed, and active. To cause a person or thing to have no further efficiency. To deprive of force, influence, and power. So what we find, the power, the influence that Satan the devil has had over us in the past, that has been broken. He no longer has that same grip and hold over us like he does in the world. Brethren, there was a battle that took place when God had extended an invitation for you and for me to follow Him. To come, you know, come follow me, and to go God's way. He called you.

He had to open your mind. You had to be receptive. You had to believe and be willing to step out and to obey. See, that was the problem of the Israelites. God called them out of Egypt.

And, you know, well, I don't know if we want to leave Egypt. You know, we've got a pretty good here. We've got fish. We've got leeks. We've got onions. We've got garlic. You know, we got a pretty good here, even though they've been slaves and then bondage. And you and I had to believe what God says. And we had to be willing to step out in faith and to obey. Now, notice in verse 15, and He released those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. The word bondage means slavery, bondage, and the condition of a slave. Do you realize it's harder for us to come out of the clutches of the devil than it was for Israel to be delivered from the hand to Pharaoh? We're not fighting against flesh and blood, as the Bible says, but we fight against wicked spirits in high places. And so it's much more difficult for us to come out of this world and to stay out of Egypt. What were the Israelites always wanting to do? Go back to Egypt!

You know, you and I can look at that and you can say, that's crazy! Why would they want to go back to Egypt? Why would anyone want to go back into the world? Go back into the old way of life? Go back to the, you know, the customs and traditions that we've had in the past when God calls us out. But we know that people do. Why? Well, because that looks very appealing to them, just like Egypt did. When the going got tough, the Israelites want to turn around and go back. And sometimes when it gets tough, if we're not careful, we want to throw our hands up and say, that's it, and quit. But we can't do it. Romans 6, verse 6. Notice here, Romans 6, 6, that we've all been slaves, the Bible says. Romans 6, verse 6, talking here about baptism. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, and that we should no longer be slaves of sin. So you and I have been slaves, abject slaves to sin in the past. It's dominated us. For he who died has been freed from sin. So, brethren, when you're baptized, you go under the water. You know what that pictures? You're death and burial.

You died. You're down there. And a new man rises up. The old man is there. The new man comes up. And notice the analogy in verse 8 here. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead. See, he literally died. It was in the grave three days, three nights. He rose again. He dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. So you find that he rose from the dead. Now, you and I, I mean all of this is a figure.

That you and I are to no longer allow sin to have dominion over us. Let's go on in verse 11. Likewise, see, we've got a likewise here, or therefore, you also reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed, to sin. But you are a lie to God. In Christ Jesus, our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies. You should obey it in its lust. Now, the word reign here means to dominate or to rule over. See, at one time, sin dominated us. It controlled us. It ruled over us. It was a way of life with us. We practiced sin. Now, we don't. That grip of sin has been broken.

How did God do that? Well, we repented. We were baptized. We had hands laid on us. We received the Holy Spirit. The old man was buried. The new man rose up. God gives us his spirit, his power, his strength to be able to overcome. So, sin no longer is to dominate us, brethren.

We are no longer to be slaves to sin, but we're to be slaves to God. Verse 16.

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey? You're that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or obedience leading to righteousness.

But God befank that though you were slaves to sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, having been set free from sin. Now, that doesn't mean you never sin again, but we're free from its domination. You became slaves of righteousness.

So, brethren, you and I are to be a different person.

See, the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that a non-Christian is dominated by sin, dominated and controlled by Satan. When I say controlled, I'm not talking about possession. I'm just talking about influence. He's influenced in that way. He goes along with society. He goes along with whatever part of society he finds himself in. He believes in. But it's still Satan's society out there. It doesn't matter what part you might choose to say, well, you know, I'm a part of this. God has to call you and open your mind and show you the way to live. You and I have been called out of this world. As 1 John 2.15 says, 1 John 2.15, 2 John 2.15, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. The world is passing away. It's going to disappear. And the lust of it, but he who does the will of God, abides forever. So you and I have an opportunity to live forever. We've been called out of this world, out of its system, out of how things are done in society that are not of God.

You realize it's harder for us to overcome the influence in the world than it was for Israel to leave Egypt. It's much more difficult. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life appeal to us. It's the same thing that the Israelites had when they wanted to return to Egypt. Egypt had a powerful pull. That's all they had known for years.

The world or society around us has a powerful pull on us. It's difficult for us to overcome that pull. Egypt is always very appealing to go back to. Israel had food to eat, water to drink, homes to live in while in Egypt. But when the going got tough, when they were brought out, they always looked back to Egypt the way things were.

We can look at society around us. We can see the wicked prosper. We can see how people are living.

And we think, is it worth it? Look at all the trials I'm going through. They don't seem to have these tests. They don't seem to have these problems. Why am I going this way? And we can begin to doubt God, or the Word of God. But remember this. This world is passing away. And it's only the world to come that will last and exist forever. Man's governments, man's society is temporary. It will cease. It will cease. God's will go on for all eternity. Now there are continual daily miracles that God performs for us, just like He did for Israel. In Matthew 6, chapter 6, and verse 25, notice what God does for us. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, or about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? And it says, verse 31, do not worry saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek.

For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. Did God know that Israel had need of food, meat, water, in the wilderness? Well, sure He did. Does God know that you and I need food, clothing, shelter? Well, sure He does. But, see here's a big but, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added to you. God says He will give them to us. So, God promises to do just that. Remember that what God did for Israel as they traveled toward the promised land. All that He supplied for them. Their clothes not wearing out, shoes, ankles did not swell, and so on. God will do the same thing for us. He will provide and supply our physical needs. Now, what was the problem with the Israelites? Well, one of the problems is they didn't trust God. They didn't put God first. You and I have to learn to trust God. See, God led each led the Israelites in a way that didn't seem to them to be the right way. Well, it's shorter to go this way, the way of the Philistines. God says, no, we're going to go around this way. Sometimes in your walking a Christian life, God will lead you in a certain direction, and you will go through certain trials, certain tests. You'll have certain problems. You wonder, why is God leading me this way? It should be a lot easier if He would just do whatever it is that you'd like for Him to do.

But God knows what is best for us. God led them by a pillar of fire, a cloud. They knew He was there. They still rebelled. The difference with spiritual Israel today is simply this. God is in us. See, God was with them. They saw His manifestation out here, but He was not in them.

God is in us. Colossians 1, 27. Colossians 1, verse 27. We read this, To them God will to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The only hope we have of making it into the family of God is that Christ dwells in us. Galatians 2, 20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. You see, we are the temple of God today. We are the tabernacle of God as a church and as an individual. God's glory filled the temple in the Old Testament. The sheka, the glory of God, dwelled in the tabernacle later on in the temple.

God's glory, His Spirit, fills His church today. And if we say like the Israelites, is God among us? What are we saying? We're denying that God dwells in us because God is among us. God is in us. We are the temple of His Holy Spirit.

God supplies what we need to enter into the kingdom of God. James 1, God was leading them toward the Promised Land. The Promised Land was a type of the kingdom of God.

The rest to come. And here in James 1, verse 2, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall in the various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, then He said, ask God. But notice that we would lack nothing. What did it say about the Israelites?

They lack nothing. We lack nothing. God will supply everything spiritual. 2 Peter, chapter 1 and verse 2, says the same thing.

2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power is given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

And verse 4 says that we may be partakers of the divine nature. You and I can have the divine nature of God dwelling within us. What are some of the miracles that God performs for us on a daily basis? You ever stop to think about them? God has revealed Himself to us. We know the true God. The world believes in the false Christ and a false God. God has revealed His way to us. His purpose for life. The world does not understand because Satan is out there and he has a jamming device that blocks when God sends the signal out and he prevents them from understanding their minds are blinded. We know the plan of God. We know why we were born. We have daily direct contact with God.

You stop and think about that one thing is amazing that you and I can come and talk to the greatest being in the universe. Personally, every day through prayer. He is our Father. We are His children.

We come to Him daily through prayer and Bible study. Bible study He talks to us.

Since we study this Word, God's Spirit works with our mind and in conjunction with studying the Word of God. It opens our mind. It helps us to see. God reveals things that you personally need to know so you can grow and change and overcome. You and I eat of manna every day. We eat of Jesus Christ.

We eat of His Word. We partake of the bread and the body of Jesus Christ at the Passover.

We drink of the water of God, which is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. We are totally dependent upon God.

There was no way that you and I could come out of Egypt, out of this world, unless God performed a series of miracles to bring us out. And there is no way that we will get into the Kingdom, into the Promised Land, unless God leads us. That's the only way that we will get there.

We are totally dependent upon God. He is our leader. He leads us in the best way.

And He knows what is best for us. Now, again, what was Israel's problem?

Why did the older generation not enter into the Promised Land?

Well, you can summarize it very succinctly. They had a slave mentality.

God brought them out of Egypt, but they never changed their mind and their hearts.

Bodily, they were removed from Egypt. In their minds, they were not. They were still slaves.

They did not understand freedom. They were free, but they were still slaves in their minds.

And they constantly forgot what God did for them. Remember James 2.12 talks about God's law that it is a law of liberty. God's law is a law of liberty. It gives us freedom.

Now, God gives us His Spirit. He frees us from this world, from its grip on us, from Satan's grip on us.

He gives us His Spirit. That Spirit helps us to understand, gives us the power to obey.

God gives us His law, which is the way to live. And that way of life is a way of liberty. It liberates us from sin and from the wrong way. So we no longer have to be slaves to our own nature, Satan, and this world. Hebrews 3 summarizes the problem with the Israelites. If you might remember back here, beginning in verse 7, Hebrews 3.7, Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. So don't harden your hearts like the Israelites did.

In the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me, and they tried me, and they saw my works. Forty years they saw these miracles. Therefore, I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray where? In their hearts. That's where the problem is.

And they have not known my ways, so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. But, beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. The problem is a lack of faith, a lack of belief, a lack of trust in God.

Notice verse 18. To whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief.

What will keep us out of the kingdom? Unbelief, lack of faith, lack of trust. Now, going right on into chapter 4. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, remember the Promised Land was referred to as the Rest of God. There is a future rest that you and I are striving for. It is the Kingdom of God. To be a member and a part of the Kingdom of God. You realize that every Sabbath, when you and I rest on this day, we are typing what God is going to provide for us in the future. Six thousand years we work and then there will be a millennial rest, a time of rest for the people of God. We look forward to entering into that rest.

But every Sabbath, when we rest, we are typifying what God is going to do in the future.

So since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear, lest any of you seem to come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as unto them. But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. They did not have faith.

What was their problem? Deuteronomy 5.29 just jotted down. Deuteronomy 5.29, God said, Oh, that there was such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep my commandments.

What is God doing with us today? Isn't he creating a new heart? Create a new heart in me, O God.

One last scripture in 2 Corinthians 5.7 tells us where we stand. 2 Corinthians 5.7 Here's the difference between us and the Israelites. We walk by faith, not by sight.

They walk by sight, we walk by faith. Faith is much stronger, will motivate us much more than walking by sight. You could say, well, if I had a cloud out here, what if there was a pillar of fire over here? Every Sabbath, a pillar of fire shows up. I'm standing here speaking, and if I say something wrong, the fire gets a little hotter. You're thinking a wrong thought out there. You think, uh-oh, he's here, I'm out here, he knows what I'm thinking. It might create a different atmosphere, but what we need to realize is that the Israelites saw still disobey.

You and I have to walk by faith, brethren. It is a walk by faith. As we approach the days of Unleavened Bread, we must put leavening out. And all of you are probably very busy doing that.

One more Sunday, right? Well, Norm and I are unleavened, as far as we know. We've got it out.

We're observing two weeks of Unleavened Bread, or three.

But we know that putting leavening out of our homes pictures what? Well, putting sin out of our lives. But do you know that that's not enough? That's what the Israelites did.

The Israelites were real good in putting things out, following rituals, doing the physical.

They could do that. There is an opposite side to the coin, heads, tails. One you put out, the other you put in. We must put righteousness into our lives, into our hearts, into our minds, into our motivation. See, Israel never did this as a group, or collectively. They did the physical part of the ritual. They may have put the leavening out, but conversion never took place.

The hearts never changed. They still had the slave mentality. Israel would not enter into the Promised Land unless God brought them there. So what is the greatest miracle?

I'll give you my own personal observations on this. The greatest miracle is that man can become God. That we can become a part of the family of God. That God is reproducing himself.

That God wants us in his kingdom. That we can enter into the Promised Land.

That God can take bags of dirt, flesh, create a spirit within us, unite it with his spirit. And then we can change, develop character, and one day be born into the very family of God and become immortal. What gets any greater than that? We are the epitome of what God is trying to do. The miracle of conversion takes place in the mind and in the heart.

We need to change so that we can be like God. Remember Jesus Christ when he prayed to the Father? He asked the Father that he would glorify him with the glory that he had with him before the world began. He had with him prior to coming to the earth. Romans 8 tells us that you and I will be joint heirs with Christ. That we will have the same glory. That we will have that glory. We will be glorified. We will become the sons of God. So, brethren, you and I have a chance to enter into that rest. But the old man, the older generation has to die. The new man is the one who must enter in. Israel experience is written down for us to learn from. We learn from them.

We cannot come out of the world, sin society, or slavery on our own. We need the help of God, just like Israel needed the help of God to come out of Egypt. Our conversion is a daily miracle that takes place. God is daily changing us from human into more and more of his divine character and nature. We're growing in grace. We're growing in knowledge. Remember the miracles of the Exodus. It was more difficult, or it's more difficult for us, but we have the power of God in us, not just with us. God's Spirit imparts the fruit of the Spirit, imparts gifts of the Spirit, gives us power, love, and a sound mind.

So Israel did make it to the Promised Land, but the older generation died. The younger generation made it. And again, our old man must die. The new creation will enter into the kingdom of God.

God is in the process of reproducing himself. To me, conversion and entrance into the kingdom of God is the greatest miracle.