"WALK, BUT WATCH HOW YOU WALK"

Exod 3:1-6  Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, [even] to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush [was] not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here [am] I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest [is] holy ground. Moreover he said, I [am] the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

Josh 5:13-15  And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, [Art] thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but [as] captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest [is] holy. And Joshua did so.

Eccl 5:1-3  Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.  Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter [any] thing before God: for God [is] in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice [is known] by multitude of words.

• Horeb means “barrenness”
• Moses had been forty years in the wilderness since he first presumed to deliver Israel from Egypt in HIS WAY.
• Forty years is the period of a generation.
• An “old” Moses had died.
• The presumptuous, immature Moses was now gone.
• He came to “barrenness,” so far as MOSES accomplishing anything on his own went.

Your wilderness period will be as long as it takes for you to see your “old” ways to die, and for as long as it takes for you to become barren in yourself, knowing you cannot conjure any of YOUR OWN plans that will ever work.

• When you abandon all attempts to do it the way YOU think it should be done, then you are ready to leave the wilderness and be used of God.
• You are ready to hear it the way God wants it to be.

• So that it would be said that this nation came about not by natural means but by God’s power.
• Until you are barren in yourself, and realize it, God cannot use you, because you would otherwise cause people to think YOU did the great work and not God.

• God told him to remove his shoes for he was on holy ground.
• He was to walk on this ground, but he was to watch how he walked.
• This was God’s House.

• Shoes protect us from common ground.
• But to be told to remove one’s shoes is to be told that one is not on just any old ground.
• This is clean ground.
• Do not insult the homeowner by wearing your shoes that you wear on an old, dirt road
• One cannot walk just any old way.

These men entered holy ground in which they would be directed to do things God’s way and not their own ways.

• Moses was filled with fear of God and would not even dare to look at God.
• God made him realize, when He told him to remove his shoes, that God was greater than Moses, and Moses would walk, but would walk God’s way.
• Moses was so presumptuous and crass 40 years earlier when he presumed to take Israel his own way.
• It did not even come to his mind that perhaps God will not accept any old way, even though it is done in sincerity.

• Watch the way we walk.
• Be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools.

Psal 14:1  The fool hath said in his heart, [There is] no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, [there is] none that doeth good.

• The sacrifice of fools is something done that looks spiritual.
• In itself, a sacrifice is a thing that God’s people did a lot of in the Bible.
• But since the fool says that there is no God, in his heart, it is a work done for God who really doesn’t exist in their hearts.
• Doing something for God as though He does not exist is doing something without caring how one should do it.
• It is done with the same spirit that there is no God, for if there was a God, then that means we do things HIS WAY.
• One thinks that so long as one is sincere, then it is all right.
• Forget about God, just be sincere.
• But God is God.
• That means He is Head.
• He is originator.
• He is creator.
• He is initiator.
• He is planner.
• ...NOT US.
• So we must b ecareful to do things His way.

Eccl 5:1  Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.

• It does not even come to them to even think that there is a certain way God wants something to be done.
• They did not even stop to consult God as to how He might want them to do it.

Exod 12:37-38  And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot [that were] men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, [even] very much cattle.

• Sloppy rabble of anyone unhappy with Egypt took advantage of the Exodus and escaped with Israel.
• But by the time they entered Canaan everything was well ordered.
1. 2000 cubits between the ark and the people.
2. Priests stand in the Jordan holding up the ark till all the people pass over.
3. 12 men get twelve stones from Jordan riverbed and set up a memorial.
4. Joshua replace them on the riverbed with twelve stones from dry land.
5. Encompass Jericho 6 days in silence.
6. Encompass it seven times on seventh day and blow seven trumpets and shout.
• WHAT A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOW THEY LEFT EGYPT AND HOW THEY ENTERED CANAAN.

• Not ritual.
• His way.
• DUE ORDER.
• Walk and work for God, but watch how you walk.

• Some people think to call themselves Christians but have nobody as a pastor.
• They belong to no congregation.
• God’s Word established that His people have earthly pastors (Eph. 4:11), and that we assemble together for teaching, as Jesus taught multitudes on the hillside.

Ephe 4:11-12  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

• Jesus prayed to the Father that people would believe upon Him through the words of the apostles.

John 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

• In other words, He put His seal of approval on what they taught, as contained in the Epistles and the book of Acts.

• Moses heard God’s Word at the burning bush.
• At a network of branches with God’s Spirit in the midst of it, with His fire, speaking forth His word to Moses.

• He saw Jesus in the midst of seven candlesticks.
• And the seven candlesticks were said to be the churches (Rev. 1:20).
• The candlesticks in the Bible with seven lamps were formed in the shape of an almond tree according to Exodus 25:31-37.
• So the candlesticks were seven BRANCHES.
• That means the churches are the branches of Jesus.
• A true church is not ritualistic, but rather is sensitive to the Spirit of God and speaks only what God’s Word would be to people.
• The branches are the churches themselves that are comprised not of just people desiring to be a church, but of people who have learned to not presume to do anything, but to hear from God as to what He wants to do.
• They are, like a bush, an organized network of members who know their places and their callings.

John 15:1-2  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every [branch] that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

John 15:5  I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. {without me: or, severed from me}

• Jesus said that we would be severed or broken off the vine of Himself, if we do not produce fruit.
• And then He said that when we are without Him, or are severed from Him, we can do nothing.

Reve 2:4-5  Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Reve 2:2-3  I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

• But Jesus said He would remove their candlestick if they did not do the first works.
• There are some FIRST works that we must do, or else we are useless in anything else we do.
• PRIORITY works.

Jere 2:2-3  Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land [that was] not sown. Israel [was] holiness unto the LORD, [and] the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.

• So many marriages turn cold after being passionately on fire with love.
• People try to “rekindle the flame” after years of coldness in their marriages.
• God was telling them to rekindle their flame, or else He would remove their candlestick.
• After all, what good is a candlestick if it won’t burn?

• And He said the candlesticks are the churches.
• And He said that if a branch does not bear fruit it will be severed.
• So the picture is clear.
• Jesus speaks from a church that is as intimate with Him as a branch is with a vine.
• And if a church loses that love, they lose the fruit.
• And they are not flowing with His Spirit, and are no longer sensitive to Him and do not speak forth His words.
• And He is not going to be associated with a Church that does not speak His words, but that speaks the words of human presumptuousness.

• God is no longer consulted.
• People do not even think that maybe they should seek God’s face and learn from His Spirit how to go about His work.

       Matt 7:15-24  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

• (Keep in mind what Jesus said about the branches that do not bear His fruit.)
• And He is speaking about FALSE AND TRUE PROPHETS.
• When Moses came to the burning bush, God was showing us that as His church, we need to speak forth God’s Word, and not just our own human ideas.
• Moses did not hear a false prophecy when He came to the burning bush.
• THE FRUIT REPRESENTS THE SUPPLY THE BRANCH GIVES TO THOSE WHO ARE HUNGRY FOR GOD.
• Jesus said that some branches bear fruit that are not the fruit we should eat.
• SOME ARE FALSE DOCTRINES.

• But Jesus said He never knew them.
• Sounds an awful lot like people who do not even think to consider that perhaps they should consult Jesus as to exactly what he wants THEM to do.
• Sounds like people who presumed too much.
• Sounds like someone walking but not watching how they walk.

• The word “knew” is a Greek word which implies intimate knowledge as when a man has an intimate relationship with a woman.
• “Adam knew Eve, and she conceived...”  Gen 4:1.
• They were not intimate with Him as a branch is intimate with a vine.
• What they did was not the result of His influence upon them.
• It was not His fruit they bore any more than a thistle is the fruit of a fig tree.

If it did not matter how we should do God’s work, so long as we’re sincere, why did God slay Uzzah when he steadied the ark as it slipped off the ox cart (2 Sam 6:6-7)?

If it did not matter how we should do God’s work, so long as we’re sincere, why did God remove the Kingdom of Saul when Saul offered a sacrifice when he was told to wait for Samuel to do so (1 Samuel 15)?

If it did not matter how we should do God’s work, so long as we’re sincere, why did God smite Uzziah with leprosy in 2 Chronicles 26 for acting like a priest and doing a godly thing when he was only called to be a king?

Eccl 5:1  Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.

That is the reason that after Jesus told the story of how He will tell those who cast out devils in His name “I never knew you,” that whosoever hears the sayings of Jesus and does them will be likened to a wise man who built his house on a rock.

Its not just doing something for God, but HEARING FROM GOD FIRST, AND THEN DOING IT THE WAY HE DIRECTED IT TO YOU.

The fool says there is no God.

• They act as though God is not here.
• Many would act differently as we gather to worship if they would consider that GOD IS HERE.
• If they really believed that God is here, they would change their attitudes.
• They would remove their shoes, so to speak, and walk, but watch how they walk.
• When God is here and we are in His house (not the “church building,” but a spiritual building of assembled believers worshiping God), we do things GOD’S WAY.

It is more conducive for you to listen up when you are in God’s presence.

• Unless you heard from God, mark it down that you do not know how to do what you feel you want to do.
• Fools go ahead without direction from God.
• You need to be given a fear of God.

• Uzziah = "my strength is Jehovah"
• When Uzziah was strong he contradicted his own namesake.

2Chr 26:16  But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to [his] destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense.

2Chr 26:18-19  And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, [It appertaineth] not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither [shall it be] for thine honour from the LORD God. Then Uzziah was wroth, and [had] a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar.

1Sam 15:17-23
 

• When Saul was small in his own eyes, God used him mightily.
• When he depended upon God.
• Saul or Shaul = "desired"
• Saul contradicted his own namesake, too.
• He was desired when he was small in his own eyes.
• He became undesirable in the work of God.

• Let us not contradict our namesake and try to make us a name for ourselves.
• We are here for His name’s sake.

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