Perpetual Fire

So today I want to talk about how do we keep that vision alive? How do we keep that fire burning? How do we keep that zeal for God's way going, even as we come back into the world and deal with these situations that we might deal with at home, with family, with jobs, with schools, with neighborhoods, and certainly with the society that we live in that moves ever and ever further from God and more and more toward that vision that we see of what the world will be before Christ returns.

Not a very good world at all.

So let's talk about that a little bit.

You know, God gives us the answer of what we need to do to keep that fire burning.

If you will turn with me back to Leviticus.

And I mentioned the law of the temple during my Sabbath address last week. The law of the temple, you know, is there where God says, teach them everything, look at everything, and perform what is there. Make sure they know all the laws of the temple because, as we know, we are the temple of God today. In Old Testament times, God dwelt in the temple among his people. And there were laws that they had to adhere to, and God watched what they had done. Today, those laws of the temple, we may sometimes just discount and think that was for Old Testament times. But God provided some keen instruction for us that could keep us alive and well. You're in Leviticus already. I'm going to Leviticus 6. Leviticus 6.

And in verse 9, as God is giving instructions to Moses and the priests there about the burnt offerings and the sacrifices that would be offered in that tabernacle. And then later the temple. In verse 9, he says, The fire shall be kept burning on it. Drop down to verse 12 after God gives them specifics of how they dress, what they do, and as they offer that offering. In verse 12, he says, The fire must continually stay lit, God said.

In that temple, perpetual fire. It will never go out. And when God says something even once, we pay attention. But when he says it three times in four verses, we better pay attention because the law of the temple applies to us as well. The fire should never go out. It should never be allowed to evaporate. It should never be allowed to be doused. We have to be conscious about that fire that's within us. Now, if we look at the physical properties of fire, we know much about it. It's one of those, you might say, even like one of the miracles of physical existence. Fire can be very beneficial or fire can be very destructive, can't it? It's very beneficial because it does warm us, warms humanity when it's cold outside. We use it to cook food. That's a benefit. It's comforting to us. When we have a fire and sit around the campfire, it can enhance camaraderie and the discussion of things. Fire can be very beneficial, but fire can be destructive as well. We know that fire can consume homes. It can consume people. It's been used to put people to death simply because they didn't agree with the powers that be. Fire can be purifying, too. Fire can be purifying.

You know, we hear about forest fires every year, but those forest fires can purify the land and make it ready to progress in ways. So, fire has a number of benefits to it. As we read about fire in the Bible, you can think of some of the areas where God has used fire to get the attention of people. I don't think we need to turn to the example of Moses. You know when Moses was walking in the wilderness and he saw the burning bush. There was that burning bush and it caught his attention. Here's the fire over here. Fire alone would just catch your attention, but this bush was burning, but it was never consumed. It was just burning, and that bush should have been consumed completely, but it wasn't. So, Moses would look at that, and in that burning bush that never got consumed, there are lessons that we can learn about us because God puts a fire in us. He doesn't put a fire in us to consume us and to destroy us. He puts a fire in us that we might burn brighter, that we might shine brighter, that there may be a miracle in us just like that miracle of the burning bush. What is going on in that life? What's going on in there? Because the fire that God brings down ignites us, it stimulates us, it helps us to become different people that the world would marvel at. What makes them different? What makes them different than everyone else?

In a fire, God used fire, the pillar of fire, by night to lead Israel. All those years as they wandered through the desert. The pillar of fire by night to cloud by day as He led and directed them.

So every night when they looked up, if He wanted them to travel at night, He led the way.

The fire led the way. It illuminated the path. This is the way to go. And it was God with them.

I know the Israelites would have taken extreme comfort in the fact that every time they saw that fire at night, God is with us. He's here with us. Every time they saw that cloud during the day leading them, God is with us. When the fire is with us, when the fire that talks about in the in the New Testament, the fire that's in us, it's God in us. It's God with us. He is ever with us. He will never leave. He will never forsake. He will show the way. He will lead the way. He will illuminate the path. We just have to be cognizant of it and make sure we always have our eyes on that fire and God who will lead and who will guide us. A fire that you felt that will bring to our memory the comfort that God gives, the truth that He gives, the direction that He gives. Because it will only be as we follow that fire that He ignites in us that we will ever go to the place that He wants us to be. Just as with ancient Israel, they would never have gotten to the Promised Land without following God and the law of the temple, keeping that fire ever ignited.

Let's go chapter forward here in Leviticus while we're still here. In verse 16, after God gives these instructions to Israel about the fire should always be lit. It should never go out. Don't let it become extinguished ever and use that fire. Every offering, every sacrifice was to be fueled by that fire once it was ignited to stay lit the entire time that Israel was traveling. The entire time perpetually. Just like when God puts His fire in us, don't grieve, don't grieve it, don't douse it, don't do the things that would put it out. Keep it alive. In verse 16 of chapter 8, we see Moses light this fire after he receives his instructions from God. Verse 16, it says, Moses took all the fat that was on the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver and those two kidneys with their fat, and he burned them on the altar. He lit that fire. And then as you go through chapter 8, you see Moses' sacrifice and offering after offering after offering and Moses killing the sacrifices, offering the sacrifices on that same fire. Once it was lit, once it was lit, it wasn't extinguished. And for seven days, they continued this as God prepared His priesthood. As they got the message, as He could see, they understand they're doing it. And I'm pleased with them. Verse 35 of Leviticus 8, it says, verse 35, it says, therefore you shall stay at the door of the tabernacle of meeting day and night for seven days, and keep the charge of the Lord, so that you may not die. Do what God said.

His fire isn't designed to consume you, but it will consume you if you don't follow the commands of God. Stay at the door of tabernacle for seven days, and keep the charge of the eternal, so that you may not die, for so I have been commanded. So Aaron and his sons did all the things that God had commanded by the hand of Moses. They obeyed Him explicitly in detail. They kept the law of the temple. They listened to the statutes, the ordinances. They listened to everything God said, and they did it exactly the way He said. And He was pleased. He was pleased. In verse 9, you come to the eighth day. We just celebrated what the holy day that we call the eighth day, after the seven days. And God can see they've done exactly what I have asked them to do. It came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, and He said, take these offerings. Prepare them again, just as they had been doing for the last seven days. We drop down to verse 22 of chapter 9. You can read all the ensuing verses there yourself and see what they did. They continued in the way that God had said. Verse 22, Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting and came out and blessed the people. Then when God saw they were doing what He had said, then the glory of the eternal appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offerings and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

God validated that fire. It was His fire from then on out, the fire that should never be extinguished. When He told them what to do, when He instructed them what to do, when they kept everything that He had said, He blessed their efforts with that fire that was initiated by Him. And it was a beautiful thing to have happen. It was never to go out again.

You can read chapter 10, or look at verse 10. Verse 1, you see that there were two young men there who decided fire is fire. What's the difference between the fire on the altar or whatever fire we decide to start? What's the difference? They learned a hard lesson, Nadab and Habai who, when they offered profane fire, not the fire that was ignited, that would perpetually burn, God immediately had them die. Keep the fire. Keep the fire going. Keep the law of the temple clear in your hearts and follow that. That fire will continually stimulate us, motivate us. Keep us close to God and keep us on the path that we had just experienced here at the Feast of Tabernacles as we got, I hope, a very clear vision of what the kingdom would be like, the joy that would be there. Being with people of like mind every day, leaving the world behind, just completely leaving it behind. What you felt there as you immersed yourself in the feast and embraced the Feast of Tabernacles is what just a foretaste of what it will be like when the whole world knows God's way. And the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea, and it isn't so foreign. You know, when people see, oh, what are you doing on the Sabbath day? Why don't you eat this food or that food? What are you doing on this holy day and keeping these laws? The whole world will know it at that time. I don't think we can even possibly describe what it will be like when everyone is doing the same thing. But you know that fire? That fire throughout Israel's history and the temple, the sacrifices were offered on it. Sacrifices, so many of them, were just there to remind the people of God, to let them to be remembered, this is the God we serve. This is what He asks us to do. And so there were burnt offerings and sin offerings and thanks offerings and peace offerings and everything around, always to keep God in the mind of the people.

They didn't have the Holy Spirit in them the way you and I do, but they had the offerings that they had to do to keep them mindful of God. As we come to the New Testament, you know, we see fire is a very important part of that first Pentecost after Christ ascended into heaven.

And in Acts 2, we remember the sound of the rushing mighty wind that came. And then tongues of fire appeared to them on everyone's head. That fire that God lit on them, that fire that would be part of them, that would descend and become part of who they are. As God called and as God calls us and as we yield to Him, as we commit to Him to, as Paul says in Romans 12, 1 and 2, offer our lives as living sacrifices, not just the sacrifice of animals as they did in the Old Testament, but you and I as living sacrifices. The fire of God in us, the Holy Spirit, God's presence with us, and our commitment to Him to do everything He asks, that it changes us. The old person dies. The new person continually progresses from the purification of that fire that God has in us as we go through things. Let's, in Leviticus, let's go forward in the Old Testament to Psalms for a moment. Psalm 40. Psalm 40 in verse 6. You know, God set that up in the Old Testament, sacrifices, where people would be mindful of Him and look to Him, and even on the Day of Atonement, to look to Him to cover their sins as they offered all those sacrifices and went through the ceremonies that they did at that time. And in verse 6 of Psalm 40, you know, David writes, as God opened his mind to what is it He really wanted? Did He really want just it? Was it just the physical sacrificing of animals? God wanted their hearts to come to them. We know that. In verse 6 of Psalm 40, it says, sacrifice and offering you didn't desire. My ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you didn't require. Well, He did require it, but what God wanted was the hearts of people. He wanted that internal fire, that sacrifice that we would offer as the fire in us consumed the old man beautifully, but from it came a new man.

Then I said, behold, I come. In the scroll of the book, it's written of me.

I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is within my heart.

There's that miracle of the burning bush. There it is again in the fire that God instills in us when we are led by God's Holy Spirit, when we look into the law and we become different people, completely different people than we were at the time of baptism, when we grow closer and closer to God, looking at every word that He says, growing closer to obeying everything that He says, we become new creatures, as He said in 2 Corinthians. That fire in us, God's Spirit in us, purifies and cleanses, and we offer sacrifices, not animal sacrifices anymore.

David, as we move over to Psalm 51 in his prayer of repentance, we see those sacrifices that God wants of you and me. Not sacrifices of animals, but sacrifices of us, who we are, the carnal mind that has no affinity with God, that is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. All of us are destined for just death without the Spirit of God, eternal death without the Spirit of God or yielding to it. In Psalm 51 verse 6, he says, Behold, you, God, desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, you will make me know wisdom. Down in verse 14. Oh, I'm sorry, verse 16. Verse 16. You don't desire sacrifice of animals, or else I would give it. You don't delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.

Pride of man, gone. Pride of man, how great we are, gone. Replaced by how great you are, God.

The spirit of heaviness replaced with a garment of praise. As we read in Isaiah 61.

Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, oh God, you won't despise.

That sacrifice of who we are, becoming the people that God wants us to be, completely different than what our natural inclinations are. Completely yielding to Him. Something we can't do by ourselves, but only by that fire that God puts in us. That energy, that power that gives us the determination to overcome self and become like Him. We go over to Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 13.

And verse 14.

Hebrews 13.14 says, here, in this world and this life, here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore, by Him, by Him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Don't forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Our lives is a living sacrifice, developing that agape that Jesus Christ had, doing what's best for others, using that fire to direct and guide us and to refine us.

Let me take a little bit of time on refining us, what the fire does. Let's go back to the Old Testament for a second in Zechariah. Zechariah 13. Natural forest fires can have a beneficial effect on the environment. The God uses fire to purify us as well in Zechariah 13. And verse 9, he's talking about the end times there and the end Israel. He says, I will bring the one-third through the fire. I'll bring them through that fire. I will refine them as silver is refined. I will test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer them and I will say, this is my people. And each one will say, the eternal, he is my God.

Will the fire test us and try us? When we feel that heat of the fire, what will we do? Will we give up? Will we recognize it as God perfecting us? Because his will is that every single one of us will be in his kingdom. But every single one of us still has dross. Every single one of us still has self-interests. Every single one of us still has pride. Every single one of us has our own ideas that we would like God to accept rather than us accepting God's will. Every single one of us have yielding yet to do to God to completely submit to him and trust in him and rely on him. When those fiery trials come, what will we do? Will we give up? Will we say, that hurts too much?

What will the choice be? Certainly there isn't a choice to go back to the world. We know what the end of it is. The world is passing away. There's no future there. There's only one way, and we have to keep that in mind. And that when God puts us through these fiery trials that Peter talks about in 1 Peter 4, they're fiery trials, but they're designed to perfect us, to improve us, to give us the motivation to overcome the things that will hold us back, that will not be part of the kingdom. It wasn't the sacrifices of the animals that the Israelites were going to get them to the Promised Land. It was God who was leading the Promised Land. It's not just the attendance at Sabbath services or at the attendance at the Feast of Tabernacles that will get us into the kingdom. It's not us who get us into the kingdom. It's God who gets us into the kingdom. It's the complete yieldenness of our heart.

Now, the failure to be at Sabbath services and the Holy Days, that can keep us out of the kingdom because that is disobedience to God. Completely yielding to Him is what we need to do.

But the fiery testing, the fiery testing of what God has in mind for us. Let's do turn over to 1 Peter 1.

You know, I won't take the time to turn to the Leah to see in church, but here's a church that is complacent. Here's a church that's just kind of along for the ride. They're kind of going about saying, ah, what I do is good enough. You know, I know God. I have everything and I'm doing what God wants me to do, but they're not really letting God lead them, change them, and mold them into who He wants them to be. They're just kind of going along for the ride and thinking, as long as I do this, and as long as I can check a box here and check a box there, I'm okay. That's not at all okay. That's not what God is looking for. He wants us to do those things. We need to do those things, but it has to be the heart. It has to be the complete submission to God, the complete adherence to all the ordinances, statutes, laws, and will of God, a complete submission of our will to His will. Peter says it here in 1 Peter 1 verse 7. Well, we'll pick it up in the beginning of the sentence in verse 6. In this he says, you greatly rejoice. You see that? Because we remember, what is God doing with us? He's not willing that we perish. He wants us to be in His kingdom, but it has to be His way. We have to become the people He wants, who He can completely trust to lead, to teach, to follow His ways, teach His ways, and set the example of His ways exactly as Jesus Christ set the example for us. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been greeted by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That fire may get a little hot sometimes. That fire may make us a little uncomfortable at times, but if we remember and be comforted by its God with us, He is always there. He is always leading us. He wants to lead us to the Promised Land, and if we don't give up, if we let that fire continually go and remember who we are, what we are, and what we committed to when we were baptized, reminding ourselves, I said, no matter what, God, no matter what you lead me through, I will choose you and not allow the cares of the world, not allow the cares of family, not allow the cares of employers to stand between you, between me and what you desire. So, if we don't follow what God says, if we continue to do things our own way, if we continue to follow our own will, if we continue to beseech God, how about my way? Isn't this good enough? Rather than teach me to do your will in every aspect of your way. Show me my heart. Show me my motivation. Show me where I'm falling short of what your will is. Show Him that you really do desire to follow that fire.

He'll do it. He'll do it, and that fire will not consume you, as it will those who refuse, reject God, as we read about at the end of the book of Revelation. That fire has many benefits.

At the end of the sermon, I'll talk about another one of those benefits of fire, but let me move on to another law of the temple that can help us as we continue here after the Feast of Tabernacles, to continue to let that feeling, that praise, that beauty for ashes, that oil of joy instead of mourning, that garment of praise instead of the Spirit of heaviness continue to lead us and guide us and be part of our lives.

Let's go back to the Old Testament again and look at another one of the laws of the temple, Exodus 30. Exodus 30. Then in verse 7, and in verse 7, God again commanding El Moses. He says in verse 7, Exodus 30, Aaron shall burn on that altar sweet incense every morning.

When he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, so morning and in the evening, he shall burn incense on it a perpetual incense before the eternal throughout your generations. Perpetual. Every single day burned this incense. As you go down through chapter 30, you see God is pretty specific of what that incense is supposed to entail. In verse 34, God instructs Moses to take sweet spices, stacte, and onyka, and galvanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices. There will be equal amounts of each.

Make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy, and beat some of it very fine. And put it before the testimony in the tabernacle of meeting where I will meet with you, it will be most holy to you. Here's how the incense is supposed to be. This is exactly what you do with it. It's supposed to be beaten fine, not just thrown together in haste.

Take a preparation, make some time when you prepare this incense that's going to be burnt before me. Morning and twilight is a perpetual incense before God. If we move over to Leviticus in the Atonement ceremony, we see incense appear again. In verse 12 of Leviticus 16, as the high priest is going through the ceremony that God prescribed for the Day of Atonement observance in those days, of course, I'm sure you rehearsed and reminded again of how that applies to us today, in Leviticus 16 verse 12, it says, then, after he prepares all these things, he shall take a sensor full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the eternal with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine and bring it inside the veil.

We see beaten fine again, and he shall put the incense on the fire before the eternal that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony lest he die. Do it this way, exactly this way. Beat it fine. Put it there to make sure that incense covers the mercy seat. Of course, the mercy seat is symbolic of where God was residing, that only Aaron, only one day a year, could go in and do that. Let that incense arise before me. Now, I don't think it's any stretch for me to remind you of Revelation verses where it talks about as the time of the return of Christ returns.

Revelation 5 8 and Revelation 8 verse 3. It talks about these prayers of the saints arising before God as sweet incense, a sweet aroma to him. No stretch of the imagination there, and even if you think it is a stretch of the imagination, the Bible tells us when we read of incense and God set this law of the temple, the incense shall burn perpetually every day, twice a day, priests and priests in training.

Let that come before God. Now, we find that direct interpretation of what incense is back in the book of Psalms in Psalm 141 and Psalm 141 and verse 2. Now, we don't have to go to outside sources to see so many of the things that God says. We just have to know the Bible, go through the Bible, and God always interprets and gives us the answer of what it is that he is looking for.

What do these things mean? How do we mold and meld the Old Testament laws into the New Testament guidelines that we have today? Psalm 131 verse 2, David again, a man after God's own heart, who learned so much about God and yielded himself to him and God revealed so many things through the writings that God inspired, David dutifully wrote them down in verse 2. He says, let my prayer be set before you as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Let my prayer be set before you as incense. Well, let's talk about that a little bit.

It seems very easy to just have some incense and to put it on the altar and light it.

But remember, God did give specific instructions about the incense. This is exactly the recipe for the incense only to be used for me, not to be used by anyone else. Don't make some for yourself.

It's supposed to be beaten fine. Beaten fine. Now, if you look at beaten fine, it's a detail, right? It isn't just do all these things. It's like just hammer it. Be detailed. And then we see prayer. We see prayer as related to the incense. What does God say about prayer?

We know the fire that has to be in us. It has to come from God. If we're going to follow God, if we're going to continue the attitudes, if we're going to continue the commitment we have, if we're going to continue to hone the vision that we have of the kingdom, if it's going to grow brighter and brighter in our eyes, this incense has to be there. Remember that incense of the saints comes up before God. He remembers those prayers of his saints who are committed to them.

They're giving him prayers. They're asking God, not just saying words that have empty meaning, thy kingdom come, repetitively. Certainly pray thy kingdom come, but asking God, help me to say with sincerity, thy kingdom come. I know what's going on before. I know what's prophesied. You can admit to God, I'm a little frightened about what's going to happen between now and then, and without you, I cannot possibly survive that time. You know, beat and fine, when Christ gave the model prayer, he gave the ingredients of a prayer, right? He said, this is the model prayer. He didn't say repeat it as some religions just say, just repeat that Lord's prayer, and that's all you have to do. Absolutely not. He said, those are vain repetitions. They don't come up before God is pleasing at all.

But the prayers are supposed to be beat and fine. Detail prayers to God. You know, when they prepared the incense, one of the commentaries as I read through it, and I looked at the Greek words, it was like, it was prepared. Our prayer should be prepared before God. Sometimes we pray very quickly with God, but as we pray to him and we come before him to prepare our prayers, you know, the Young's Literal Translation of 141 verse 2 says that my prayer is prepared as incense. That's the Literal Translation from the Hebrew. My prayer is prepared as incense. It took time. It took thought. It wasn't just, I gotta get 15 minutes in or 30 minutes in or whatever it is you think you have to do. It has to come from the heart. Thinking about it. What do other people need us to pray for? What does God want us to pray for? Are there things we don't understand that we can go to God and say, I want to understand. Help me to understand. Beat those prayers down. Make them detailed. He wants to know what's in your heart. The questions are okay.

Beat and fine. Looking to God and making those detailed prayers to Him that shows your heart really is with Him. That your heart really is with people who need our intercessory prayers for healing, for problems that are going on in their lives. It helps bind us together. Not just sleepy times prayers, not just general repeating of the things that we do. God wants to see us before Him, but we develop a relationship with Him as we are specific with Him. If you had a boss and you were really trying to impress that boss on a physical level, and you really didn't get some of the things that you really wanted to understand, teach me to do this job the way you want it to.

I just want to please you. You wouldn't just go in and tell Him, yes, okay, I get it, and then go about it and have Him find out. Your heart wasn't in it at all. You were just kind of doing what you thought best. Why didn't you ask me questions? Why didn't you see what I wanted to do?

God wants those prayers beaten fine. Sweet incense, arising before Him, the prayers of the saints that aren't just the same old, everyday prayers in the same manners, helped me to overcome. I've got this situation I just can't seem to get a hold of. And I know I can't do it. I don't have the power in me. I want to, but without your power, I cannot possibly overcome this. It's been part of me forever. God will answer those prayers.

He might not answer it the first time, but He wants to see what's in our hearts. That's the sweet incense, beaten fine. You know, as we talk about coming before God, this incense that was burned before God, night and day, that He says it's a perpetual law of the temple. Again, the temple that God is dwelling in today is you and me, individually, and as His church. Fire must be part of it. We must not neglect the fire or do anything to douse the fire or minimize it. Certainly not to extinguish it, and we know the things that we could do to lead to its extinguishment.

And the incense and the prayers of God arise before Him. It is key to keeping the vision alive. It's key to growing in God. It's key to keeping the zeal and the excitement and the commitment that He wants us to have. We look on the New Testament in Luke 1. Luke 1, we see the example of this priest of the Lord named Zacharias. He was the father of John the Baptist, and he was a priest who went through the priestly duties of the temple that they have at that time.

If we look at Luke 1 and verse 9, I guess verse 8 is where the sentence begins. You remember the story of Zacharias? He and his wife had no children. They come before God, beseeching him, etc., etc. Luke 1 and verse 8 says, So it was that while he, Zacharias, was serving as a priest before God in the order of his division, they had their times of duty that they came before that. According to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

His lot fell to him that he had the opportunity to go in and burn this incense. Now we might read right over those things, but again, when you look at some of the commentaries and you look at some of the associated verses, you learn that to have that opportunity to go in and burn that incense was a great blessing. To have the opportunity as a priest to go in and burn that incense, to prepare it, to light it before God, to follow his way in the example that he set exactly was a tremendous thing.

One of the commentaries, the people commentaries, said, It was such an honor for the priests to do that. They didn't even allow the same priest to do it twice in a row, because they all wanted that opportunity to come before God and to burn that incense, to please him and to prepare it in the way that he wanted so that they had the opportunity to come before him. We know that that incense that is offered before God now is our prayers. How excited are we? What an honor do we think it is to be able to come before God every day and offer our prayer to him.

Do we think of that, or has prayer become just one of those things that are just part of our lives? We may do it. We may put it off. We may not know what to say. We don't really put maybe the time into it that we should. What do I need to pray for? Who do I need to pray for?

What do I need to ask God? What do I need to understand more of his way? What do I need to change and yield in myself so I become more the way he wants to? Detailed. Opportunities to come before God. He's always there. He's given us a tremendous opportunity when Christ died and that veil was torn in two, giving us access to the throne of God. Do we see how important that is? The priests of old counted it very important and a tremendous honor to go in and offer that incense.

Do we consider it an honor to come before God and to beseech him?

In all the various things that we can, Christ gave us the model prayer, not just repeating what he said, but actually coming before him. Thanks. Praise.

Questions. Deliver us from evil. Deliver us from the evil one. Keep Satan away. Help us to overcome. Help me to see myself.

Lead me to repentance. Give me that vision of repentance. Let me choose you and acknowledge that without any of that, we won't be where we just pictured God's people to be.

As I mentioned, the judgment is now on the house of God. Now it is on you and me. There is no tomorrow. There is no millennium for those who have God as called today who fail to yield to him the way we would be teaching the people in the millennium. Yield to God.

Follow him, giving them every detail when something comes up, tapping him on the shoulder and saying, no, no, no. That's not the way. Walk you in it. God will do the same thing for us if we're cognizant and if we follow him and pay attention to him.

Incense. Perpetual incense. Fire. Perpetual fire. Perpetual incense.

One more. Let's go back again. See another law of the temple in Exodus 27.

Exodus 27 verse 20. God, again speaking to Moses instructing him, And you, Moses, shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light to cause the lamp to burn continually.

Another continual thing, this light that would be there that would burn continually. But in that verse, before we go on to verse 21, where God, again, repeats that this light that's going to be in the temple would burn continually, notice that it wasn't just the priests.

It was the people of Israel as well. Command them to bring you oil for the light. Not just you do everything, they have a part in it as well. This is a together. Everyone together as God builds that into his plan and a part of how we keep the fire, the incense, and the light burning.

Verse 21, In the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the eternal. It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel.

Keep that light burning. Children of Israel, you bring oil to the praise that that light can be continually burning. It should never go out. Now again, I don't think I have to take you to where I think your minds already are. We have the direct correlation of oils and lamps that are allowed to go out in the New Testament in Matthew 25.

So let's go back there.

And in a very, I guess, sad situation, when we look at these ten virgins that are there in Matthew 25, we see that we have again oil and lamps.

And remembering the law of the temple, the lamp should never go out. There has to be oil to fuel the lamp. There has to be oil to fuel the lamp.

It's not just a matter of flipping on a light switch. It has to be the pure oil that God commanded in the law of the temple.

The same oil that today we recognize as the Holy Spirit. That's what fuels us. That's what will create the light in us.

Matthew 25. I'm going to read through a few of the verses here. Because these virgins were allowing this lamp to go out.

They were disregarding what God had said. Keep that lamp burning. Half of them, it had gotten pretty dull, but it was still burning.

But the other half allowed it to be extinguished. They weren't paying much attention. They forgot the oil that they had to do. They got too involved in the things of the world. Got too involved in their everyday activities.

No time to create that oil and that commitment and that connection to God and the attention to the Spirit that God gives us.

It has to be exercised. It has to be used in order for it to grow that God will give us more. Chapter 25, verse 1, the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegrooms.

Five of them were wise, but five were really foolish and really sad that they allowed this to happen to them.

Those who were foolish took their lamps but took no oil with them. How silly can you get? If you understand God's law, if you believe what He says, if you believe Christ is returning and that He wants us to be part of this kingdom, and that He has given us that opportunity to do that, and you just kind of, oh, I forgot that. I forgot the oil. I forgot that. How silly and how foolish is that? I hope none of us would find ourselves in that and put anything else, anything else, before the importance that God has given us to obey Him and follow Him completely.

Verse 4, but the wise did have oil in their vessels with their lamps, and it took a while.

The bridegroom didn't come as quickly as they thought He would. It kind of tarried and it was like, well, okay, it looked for a while like it was going to come, but then things got okay again, and whatever, and we just kind of went about our business and forgot, you know, forgot who we were, what we were supposed to be doing, how we were supposed to be perpetually on fire before God, perpetually connected to Him through the sweet incense of prayer, perpetually connected to Him through obedience of His Spirit, because remember Acts 5.32 says that He gives His Spirit to those who obey Him.

To those who obey Him. And so the bridegroom comes unexpectedly.

The foolish are like, whoa, whoa, we didn't expect that. We let ourselves fall asleep. We have no oil in our lamps. Hey, can you give us some? No, you can't share it. It's part of the individual temple that God is doing. It's part of our individual responsibilities. Have that oil there. Have that light burning in you. Collectively, as the church as well, that that light is burning brightly, fueled by God's Holy Spirit.

They lost sight of who they were. The light that guided them, they kind of let it go out. They kind of forgot everything, and they had become blind spiritually. They had become Laodicean spiritually. Maybe they had become really cold spiritually. Either one of those means, well, not a good thing, as we know. Now let's go back a few chapters to Matthew 6 and see where God talks about light in our eyes.

Now, I'll just reference John 8, verse 12. Of the many things that Christ said, He is. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. He also said in John 8, 12, I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world. You could read John 1 and see that the light came into the darkness. In Matthew 6, 22, God says some interesting few verses here.

He says in verse 22 of Matthew 6, The lamp of the body is the eye. Eyes are very important, aren't they? With our eyes, we can see where is the path leading? What direction should we be going? Is this the correct path or the right path? What's on the side that we should be aware of that might interrupt the journey that we have? Our eyes are very important physically. Spiritually, wide-open eyes are very important as well. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. How does our eye become good? How does our eye become good?

Keep your finger there in Matthew 6. Let's go back to Psalm 119. We'll see how our body, our eye, becomes good. In Psalm 119, verse 105, we have this lamp appearing again. As God does throughout His Scriptures, He uses the same analogies to lead us to what we need to be doing.

Your word, Psalm 119.105, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Now we can ask the vision or we can ask the question, through what do you view the world? If our eye is good, if it's full of light, we'll view the world through the Bible, through the Word of Truth. When we see the path ahead, we will be able to see where is that straight and narrow path I need to follow.

When we view the Bible, or we view life through the worldview of the Bible and the truth of God, the Word of God, the truth of God that is in our hearts, we'll see the way. We'll see the dangers along the way. We'll be able to discern good from evil because our body, our mind, our eye is full of good.

When our body is full of good, what does it become full? How does it become full? What do we eat every day? The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth? Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. I'm just going to take the time. I'm going to go a little bit over time, but forgive me, but I'm now only here for today. Then we're going back.

Verse 106, I have sworn, David says, and confirmed that I will keep your righteous judgments. Haven't we all done that if we've been baptized? Didn't we say, God, whatever you say, I'll do. Even if something I don't want to do, I'll offer my life and my will as a sacrifice to you. I've sworn and confirmed that I will keep your righteous judgments. I'm afflicted very much. Revive me.

If our light is going out, if our eye isn't all good, if we don't have that worldview through the Bible to see where we're going, what we are. And believe me, if you don't see where the world is going in the world today, you might want to go back and read God's Word. You might want to open eyes and see where are we headed, because where the world is headed is absolutely not what some people think it is. Absolutely, you can see the evil and discern the evil from the good.

You can perceive things that are out there that are absolutely on the way of life that is absolutely horrific for mankind. Because Satan, where he leads, and an eye that doesn't see good that would follow him, absolutely is going to be leading to a time that is tremendously awful for people.

Satan has absolutely no good in mind for everyone or anyone. Once it all destroyed and will lead to society, down that path he'll make it look good. But if your eye is full of good, you'll be able to discern the evil from the good. You will see the spirits that are out there and think they are not of God. They are satanic. Verse 8, well, he says, Revive me, O Lord, according to your word. If you feel that way, go back to God's Word. Eat it. Eat that book. Digest it. Make it part of you. Accept, I pray, the free will offerings of my mouth, O Lord. Teach me your judgments. My life is continually in my hand. God lets us make the choices. He will give us the light. He will give us the way. But he lets us make choices. That's why Jesus Christ said, in Deuteronomy, you know, choose life. Choose life. It's ours. What do we do with it? He'll give the tools, but we have to use them. My life is continually in my hand, yet I don't forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me. They've lured you away. They're trying to get me to say, okay, that's not important if you do that. This is more important than what God would say. God would say, do this, but you know what? Yeah, I mean, humanly speaking, it would be better for me to do this. This isn't better. No, it's always better to do God's way and not let things, events, companies, schools, family lure you away from what you know to be the truth of God. If he says, do this, do that. Always God first. David says, they've laid a snare for me. We'll find snares for us. There are sometimes going to be some difficult decisions. They really want me to do this, but God says this. What do you do? You build character by doing what God says, not giving in to self and not giving to others who would lure you away from what you should know is correct. The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I have not strayed from your precepts. My worldview was through your word, which is a lamp unto my feet. I saw it. I saw it and I rejected it and I chose you. Your testimonies I've taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart. I've inclined my heart to perform your statutes. Ezekiel 43, when he talks about the laws of the temple, they have to know them, but they have to do them. And here David is saying, I've inclined my heart to perform your statutes. I know them. I've got to make the choice to do them. Not hearers of the law, but the doers are justified, James says, forever. I've inclined my heart forever to the very end.

So, when your eye is good, it's full of the truth. We know how to receive the truth. It's God's Word. We're guided by truth. David said, what you desire is truth in the inward parts. You know, that truth is everything in every aspect, even a truth of looking at ourselves and asking God to allow us to see ourselves as he sees us.

That can sometimes be a difficult truth. When God lets us get a glimpse of ourselves, and we're kind of embarrassed and ashamed to think, was I doing that all the time?

He'll give it to us, but what we do is repent. Repent and let God lead us. One chapter back in Matthew 5, verse 14, talks about light again, that ever-burning light that should be in us, perpetually fueled by the Holy Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit, comforted by the Holy Spirit, led into truth by the Holy Spirit. Verse 14, corrected by the Holy Spirit. Matthew 5, verse 14, you, that's you and me he's talking to. It was his disciples he was talking to him to hear. You are the light of the world. A city that's set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men.

Well, we always think that that's the world he's talking about, and certainly by our examples at work and in the community and how we are with people, you know, our light would shine. Bosses will say, they're a good employee. They give me a good day's work for a good day's wage. They're honest. I trust what they do. I know that they're going to do me right and not wrong. If they have an issue, they're going to come and talk to me. They're not going to talk behind my back. They're not going to try to sabotage anything, promote themselves or anything else. They will be good employees. They will be good neighbors. They will be good in every sense of the word. But he says here, let your light shine for all who are in the house.

You know, we let our lights shine for each other. When we come to Sabbath services or we don't come to Sabbath services, our lights are shining or they're not shining.

When we allow this or that or whatever to keep us from what God wants, our lights become a little dim. We kind of lead people to think, well, it must not be that important. But if our lights are shining bright, we are an encouragement to each other. We recognize that we help each other have that light.

If we see people, when we take Matthew 18, I won't take the time to go through Matthew 18, you know it's talking about how we would work with one another. If we see someone falling by the wayside, missing, you know, for a while, that we might go to them and in love gently, try to ignite that fire again and let that light be where God wants it to be.

We are lights to one another. We encourage one another. That oil of the congregation that keeps the light burning, we need to shine it for each other. We need to be examples. Not to look down on each other, never to compare ourselves to one another, but always compare ourselves to the standard that it is Jesus Christ, who was a light and continues to be a light to the world. No matter what others around us do, but always comparing ourselves to Him, letting that light shine brightly. Ever more so as God's Spirit is in us. Ever more so as we make the choices in our life to follow Him and deny self.

So as we go from here, remember, ever burning perpetual fire. Keep it burning. Know that God is with us. Know that God is here with you. If He wants you to be in His kingdom, you need to want that too. And that fire of the Holy Spirit that gives us the zeal, the commitment, the desire to choose Him and go forward, and not to worry, not to give up when we find that heat to the fire when God is trying to get our attention. You need to change. This is no longer the way it needs to be. Reading those trials for what they are, a call to change. To change and become more like Him, asking Him through those sweet prayers of incense that are beaten fine. Show me your way. Teach me your way. I pray for others. I bond together with them because as they're hurting, I'm hurting, and we know you have the answer. Help us to trust. Help us to rely. Help us to pray with the sincerity that Jesus Christ did. Thy kingdom come. And that light that has to burn brightly, that only can come as we let that word of truth be in us, and we feed on it daily. Nothing new here, but God gives us those eternal laws that were there for the temple that are examples for us, in whom He is building a temple today, individually and collectively.

I kept the lamp last because we need the fire and we need the incense, and then that light can burn quickly. Let me close or burn perpetually and more and more bright. You know me, I'm not much for stories or little quips or things like that, but there's a few that I've read over the years that have some deep meanings.

When I look at them, they put the word of God into a nice way that we can relate. So this is one you've probably heard before. I have a few of them that I've repeated over the years. But let me read this one that I think shows how important it is and how the fire, and we can help, and what has to happen, too, for all those things to happen in us, individually. Here's a story. I'm just going to read it as I read it several years ago. It says, the story is told of a man who dropped out of church. He figured he could be just as faithful, worshiping God on his own. And aren't there a number of people who think, just between me and God, who needs the church? I hope you've been listening to some of the sermons and how important the church is. The weight of the kingdom of God is through the body of Christ. It's not individually. It is through the body of Christ. It is His body. Jesus Christ is the head of this church, and He is leading us. The story is told of a man who dropped out of church, had his own ideas, his own ways of doing things. He figured he could be just as faithful, worshiping God on his own. A few weeks went by, and the minister came to visit. It was a cold and blustery day. They sat in the living room by the fireplace and made small talk. Then the minister took the fire tongs, picked up a glowing ember, and placed it to one side of the hearth. The two men watched without saying a word. In no time, it began. That ember began to cool. You've all done that. Set that ember off. The fire goes out. The heat goes out. A few minutes later, the minister picked up the dead ember with his fingers and pitched it back into fire. Immediately, it sparked back to life. Without a word, the minister put on his coat and started to leave. The man got the message, looked at him and said, That was one of your best sermons. I will see you in church from here on out. Don't ever discount the assembling of yourselves together. It's a law of the temple. It's a law of God. It's a command of God. Don't ever take it lightly. Yield to him, and let's all commit to keeping that fire burning, that incense burning, and that light burning ever more quickly. It's been a pleasure being with you here today. I wish you all very well. We'll see you, I guess, on the Bible study, some of you, hopefully all of you. We'll look forward to seeing you again in a few months.