084: Brian Armour - Exhortation: Thirst in the Wilderness

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. Thank you so much for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help each one of us get the Bible in our daily news feed. And we post at the start of each week for you to listen with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to hear.

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   And now let's hear more about this week's talk. This week, we're listening to an exhortation by our brother, Brian Armour, that was given in 1985 at the Emu Park Bible School. And in his exhortation, brother Brian is looking at the wilderness wanderings of Israel. And specifically, he's focusing a lot on their reaction to Moses and Aaron right at the end of their wilderness wandering, just before they cross into the promised land.

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   And when Moses gave, through God, gave Israel and their cattle water. And the title of his exhortation is Thirst in the Wilderness. And what I kind of found interesting about this exhortation is if I hadn't told you that it was from 1985 and that it's a 35-year-old exhortation other than one reference to potential nuclear war that was going on at those times, the rest of the concerns sound very, very similar to what's going on right now.

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   So, Brother Brian looks at the difference between physical thirst and spiritual thirst, and that fulfilling the first doesn't satisfy the second. He just makes a really good argument with the way he's looking at this, talking about that using the example of Christ with the Samaritan woman, and talking about the water that will make you thirst again, the living water that will well up within us.

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   He also makes a mention to something that I know a lot of people have been struggling with, with not being able to meet together. Instead, he's saying, you know, we're one or two are gathered together. Christ is with us. And I truly feel that even now, in a virtual sense, he is still with us right now.

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   So, this was a really good exhortation. It's crazy to think that this was 35 years ago. It doesn't feel like it was that long. But this is a good exhortation. I thought it was an interesting one to share. Hopefully, it is encouraging to all of you. Thank you for all the suggestions for other exhortations and talks that people have been sending in.

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   We've got some more that we have lined up, so we'll be continuing to do an exhortation late Friday night or early Saturday morning. So, those of you who are unable to attend a live stream of a memorial service at that time will have something they can listen to at your own schedule, as well as posting a class Sunday for you to listen to during the coming week.

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   With that, stay safe and God be with you. And we'll turn it over to our brother, Brian Amor, for his exhortation on Thirst in the Wilderness. Oh, it's good to be here, brethren and sisters, is it not? And I doubt whether there is any sort of disagreement in your minds as you sit here in this meeting place here in Emu Park on Sunday, the 30th of June, 1985.

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   There is no disagreement with that statement. It is good to be here. And we could ask the question, why are we here? And we could think about that question for some time and examine our minds as we think about it. Would we be saying something like, well, it's nice to get away from the hurly-burly of everyday life, of our jobs, and the cities we live in?

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    Perhaps we might say it's nice to come down to the climate, the beautiful climate of Emu Park. But these are not the reasons, are they?

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    I could give the reason by asking another question. Yes, it's good to be here. Why, for example, do thirsty travellers gather around an oasis when they've been travelling through a desert? That explains why it's good to be here. Because we are thirsty travellers travelling through a desert, and we've found an oasis. We've found a fountain of waters that spring up so that we may slake our thirst.

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    And that reminds me of a journey that we've just done. And most of us have done a journey of some, well, probably hundreds of kilometres. In some cases, like we heard last night, thousands of kilometres to this place. And if you've got children travelling with you on the journey, probably you've had an experience as we have had as we've travelled up here.

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    Every so often, and it seems to be very frequently, the children are saying, Mum, I'm thirsty. Will you give me a drink? And Mum, of course, being the kind Mum that she is, gets out the flask of cordial and pumps out a glass full of cordial and hands it across to the thirsty youngster.

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    Of course, every now and then, Dad says, he's thirsty too. And she probably pumps out a cup of tea and hands that across. Of course, I stopped driving at that stage and have a rest to have a cuppa. But we say we're thirsty as we travel along. But are we really thirsty?

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    Or is it just that we're bored with a journey and we'd like a break? Is it perhaps that we have pampered Western appetites? That, you know, we can't go one hour without having something to drink, something to eat? Or perhaps a cup of tea?

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    Then we come to passages in the Scriptures that talk about thirst. And this gives us pause for thought. And we read from Isaiah chapter 35. We read in verse 1 the call that Isaiah gives to those that thirst.

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    Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And that's what we've done. And that's what we're continuing to do. We've thirsted and we're continuing to come to the waters.

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    You see, the thirst that Isaiah speaks of is not that sort of thirst that we were talking about as we contemplated the journey to this place. The thirst that the children and I felt as we were bored with the journey. The thirst that Isaiah speaks about is a much more acute thirst than that.

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    It's analogous, it's similar to the sort of thirst you have when your mouth is really parched. When your tongue is so thick with dryness that it's difficult to speak. When even a glass of water, just plain water, not cordial, not something that's heated up and sweetened with sugar and to which milk is added.

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    When even just a glass of water is an object of great desire. It's that sort of thirst he's talking about. Being really thirsty. And also he's talking about that condition of thirst. When you realise that of yourself, of your own resources, you have no way of getting water to slake that thirst. You're in a situation where there's no water around.

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    You are so thirsty that indeed you fear you will die. You look to your own resources and you cannot meet the requirements of that thirst. That's the sort of thirst that Isaiah is talking about there.

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    And we know that the thirst we're talking about here and that Isaiah is mentioning is not the thirst really that is associated with the bodily needs. It's a thirst that's associated with our spiritual needs. Where to thirst means to desire greatly beyond all other things. That which will save us from our mortal, death-fated condition.

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    That spiritual thirst in which we are desperate because we cannot of our own resources find a way out of it. We have to look to the mercy of someone else. To see our need and to respond to it. And of course we know that he who has seen our need, our spiritual need of refreshing waters, is our Father in Heaven.

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    And he has provided that water through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is symbology that we understand well. And there are verses that we often turn to. Let's turn to them now. John 4 verses 13 and 14 for example. And you know the occasion when Jesus was travelling through Samaria and he paused beside the well and the woman offered to give him a drink or he asked her to give him a drink.

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    And then Jesus speaks about another sort of water that he alone can provide. Verse 13. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. The water that he's talking about there of course is the water in the well and he'd probably indicate that with his hand. Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.

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    But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. And again in John, a couple of chapters over, John 6 and verse 35. Another passage that we refer to often.

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    And often it's read at the breaking of bread by the presiding brother. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. So the thirst, this spiritual thirst that we're talking about can be satisfied by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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    And that water that he provides, as he pointed out to that woman in Samaria, that water that he provides will sustain us eternally so that we do not thirst again.

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    As we think about this and think about the similarity between the spiritual thirst or the conditions of that spiritual thirst and the conditions of physical thirst we have from day to day, we see that discernment is required at two levels. Discernment, the ability to examine that condition, to see what it is and what is required to satisfy that condition.

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    Discernment is seen at two levels. At the physical level, when you say you are thirsty, you say that because you feel if your mouth is dry, your throat is dry, your tongue perhaps is even cleaving to the top of your mouth and you have trouble speaking perhaps.

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    But also a part of that discernment when you are thirsty is then to recognise what will overcome that condition of thirst. And we've got that off pat, haven't we? We've got that recognition as a sort of second nature. We know that when we're thirsty if we reach for a glass of water or a hot cup of tea that we'll get rid of that thirst.

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    That's part of our discernment of that condition and that which is required to satisfy it. When we come to the spiritual thirst we also need discernment there too. We need to know what our thirst is caused by. And then we need to know and discern that which will satisfy that thirst. And we see that our thirst is really caused by our mortal condition.

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    That condition that we're locked into at this stage in our progress. That condition which can be sort of summarised as follows. Condition in which we are tempted to sin every day of our life.

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    That's not a desirable condition for us. That condition in which we have limited understanding. We don't really understand very much about ourselves about the functioning of our brains the functioning of our body about nature either even though the scientists have been working upon that for many years. But in this mortal condition we must realise that we don't understand much.

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    We need to have much taught to us. In this mortal condition we must discern too. And we do readily discern this because it's always present with us. That we are subject to sickness and disease. And already in the announcements we've seen that that is so even here in this city of Rockhampton. we must also discern that in this mortal condition we are fated to die.

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    But more than that that we are fated to die and remain dead evermore unless there is some way of getting out of this situation or this condition. So it's like the thirst isn't it? We have a thirst we must look around to see how we get out of that condition of thirst. With spiritual thirst we must look around and see how we get out of that condition.

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    And of course our answer has been given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ by believing on him. And that's saying a lot isn't it? It's easy to slip those words off the tongue. We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's too readily done by some of the evangelists of the world around about us.

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    It's too readily said without full understanding what those words believe on the Lord Jesus Christ mean. I'd like to take you back into a situation that the Bible portrays for us. A situation that occurred some 3,000 years ago. when the Israelites were wandering they were in a desert place they were wandering in the wilderness and at two places in that wilderness at Rephidim and some 38 years later at Kadesh.

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    And I'd like to take particularly the record of their being at Kadesh in Numbers 20 verses 1 to 8. The 20th chapter of Numbers starting at verse 1.

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    Then came the children of Israel even the whole congregation into the desert of Zin in the first month and the people abode in Kadesh and Miriam died there and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and the people chode with Moses and spake saying would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord.

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    And why have you brought us brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have you made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us unto this evil place? It is no place of seed or of figs or of vines or of pomegranates neither is there any water to drink.

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    And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and they fell upon their faces and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying take the rod and gather thou the assembly together thou and Aaron thy brother and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes and it shall give forth his water and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

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    And as you read the record through you realise that God wasn't pleased with the Israelites he provided water for them for their physical thirst at this stage but he wasn't pleased with them. Wherein why wasn't he pleased with them? Perhaps there's instruction for us here in this situation not perhaps by the way but certainly there is instruction for us here.

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    Well let me number off a few things I think that indicate that God was or reasons why God was not pleased with them. First of all they were angry you notice how they chided Moses and Aaron as the representatives of God they chided them because there was no water for their thirst. It's almost as if they were saying to Moses and Aaron look we've got a right to water we've got a right to well-being physical well-being and you've got to supply it.

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    Secondly it seems to me that they doubted the loving kindness of God as a provider for their needs. They said is the Lord among us or not? A challenge so to speak. They doubted his goodness and they seemed to doubt too the third point I'd make they seemed to doubt the promise of God that he'd made earlier to them through Moses that he would lead them to a land flowing with milk and honey.

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    And here they are in the wilderness coming to a stage where they're thirsty and they're saying look let us go back to Egypt they're doubting that God would keep his promise to lead them forward onward to a land of milk and honey. Fourth point I'd make seems to me that they had not learned at this stage to run with patience the race that is set before them.

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    You'd recognise those words from Hebrews 12 verse 1. Others had learned that and others would learn that after them but they hadn't yet learned to run with patience the race that was set before them. The last point I'd make about the reason that God was angry for them is that they as a whole I'm not talking about individuals there must have been individuals there who realised what God was doing but they as a whole did not discern the symbolic presence of Christ with them in the wilderness.

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    You see as Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 let's go to that 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 1 to 5 Paul writing to the Corinthians in his first epistle chapter 10 and verse 1 moreover brethren I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ but with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness so that many with him that God was not pleased did not discern the spiritual nature of God's providing of that water at Rephidim earlier on and at Kadesh Barnea later on didn't discern the saving work of God that was symbolized by the providing of water do we discern it it's important for us you know I could go on and say well they didn't discern the saving work of God either in the Lord Christ Jesus that spoke in the provision of manna that spoke in the design of the tabernacle and the appointments of the tabernacle and the various sacrifices and rituals many of them didn't discern Christ in the law itself that schoolmaster that tutor that should bring them to Christ many of them didn't discern Christ in the healing of those in the wilderness who looked up at the brazen serpent in faith they didn't discern Christ in that so God as Paul

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    pointed out was not well pleased with them and probably even they didn't discern the meaning of the baptism that they had had in coming through the Red Sea and in the cloud that God provided that they might come through but was an excluding factor to the following Egyptians they didn't discern Christ in all of those things you know later on in that same chapter of 1 Corinthians at verse 11 Paul says now all these things happened unto them for in samples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come and how how acutely that hits home at us now in this 20th century he was talking to those who were at the end of a dispensation yes that ended about AD 70 we're now coming to the end of a world too and these things are admonition for us let us take that admonition to heart and let us discern Christ where he may be discerned and we read we sang last night that he may be discerned in all things did we sing that with conviction last night you see the Israelites were angry in the wilderness because they thought they had a right to water and it wasn't being provided fast enough for them you know there was a spirit abroad not among us but around us and I hope it's not among us but around us these days called human rights movement which says that we as human beings by the very fact of being human beings have certain rights that we should expect rights that we should expect of other human beings rights that

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    we should expect of the government even this movement seems to be suggesting rights that we should expect from God now that is a counterproductive attitude we cannot come to God and demand benefits from him all we can do is throw ourselves upon his love and his mercy knowing confidently that he will provide but not demanding not chiding as Israelites chode with Aaron and Moses the representatives of God in the wilderness the second point we made was they doubted the kindness of God they didn't think he would look after them as he had promised the second and third points and there are those in our world today who claim that God must hate mankind or at least be indifferent to the needs of mankind because he allows so many to suffer there's not time to look into that but again it's the wrong attitude we mustn't question God and his motives we know as Peter tells us that he is long suffering and is waiting for many more to come to a knowledge and understanding of the truth that they might be saved we cannot question him and call him indifferent and the doubting of God's promise we know that Paul in Acts 17 on Mars Hill said that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has appointed but the answer that the modern world gives to that sort of claim is as was written in the second epistle of Peter chapter 3 and verse 4 where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were

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    from the beginning of creation and I know brethren and sisters that even some of our own number have fallen upon that rock that they feel that Christ's return is hasn't happened yet and they begin to think well will it ever happen it's not long before they're saying no it won't happen and the Bible doesn't give us truth anyway and that's a very poor state of affairs and remember we said that the wilderness the Israelites in the wilderness weren't running with patience and the spirit of our modern world again tells us enjoy here and now the gifts that you have here and now because it won't be long before the world is going to be destroyed and of course that attitude has been given impetus and strength because of the nuclear threat that overshadows this world but we have greater understanding of what is to come so let's not fall into that trap we said also that the Israelites did not discern Christ in the things that were happening to them and around them that is they did not discern how these things symbolised God's plan of salvation for mankind and there are many in our world today who take the teachings and the findings of science erroneously in error and think that those scientists prove that there is no God that there is no God as a creator much less as a saviour of mankind that's the spirit that is particularly in academic circles these days let us beware of it and there are many too so called bible believers who do not rightly divide the word of truth who do not discern Christ as he is

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    portrayed rightly truthfully in the scriptures and not having discerned him truthfully and rightly they teach others and they guide others down a path that leads to destruction so there is admonition for us as we contemplate the Israelites wandering through the wilderness it applies to us here and now and how do we avoid these examples of poor discernment in our own lives how do we avoid these things well I know for a fact that the major way of doing it is to continue reading rereading and searching and studying and discussing the scriptures Christ said to those in his own time who were leading others down the path to destruction he said you do err not knowing the scriptures the converse of that is you will not err if you know the scriptures and he said and I'm quoting from the revised standard version here in John 5 verse 39 you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and he was applauding their thought he was agreeing with them yes eternal life is in those scriptures and he said and it is they that bear witness to me but they weren't discerning Christ in the scriptures where he could be found if they were only looking with an honest heart and we know other passages like 2nd timothy 3 verse 16 all scripture is given by inspiration of God and you know how that goes on it's profitable for all sorts of things that we might be throughly furnished thoroughly furnished as workmen who work for Christ so that's obviously the major way in which we can protect ourselves against that

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    spirit which is abroad around about us and would lead us astray but there is this other thing this other way of protecting ourselves that is by meeting together as we are doing here meeting together with those of like precious faith and that term those three words like precious faith they tend to roll off the tongue perhaps too easily and we should pause and think about them very often like precious faith we're meeting together with those of like similar faith why similar because we've all gone to that fountain head of truth and we've all imbibed of it and we've come to a similar understanding and that similar understanding has led us to a position of faith and that position of faith is precious to us precious above all things because we know that that's what slakes our thirst above all other things everything else is sludge everything else is dishwater the word of life is pure clear water that slakes that spiritual thirst that we have and of course that meeting together that we're having here really it seems to me is a sort of a microcosm an enactment in miniature of that calling out of Christ's faithful ones when he returns that come out of the world to him to be with him we've come out of the world to be with Christ here and how is Christ here is Christ here in the singing ship that we see on the hill in the rocks around us in the trees in the wind is Christ in those things you know the answer is Christ in the emblems before us well you could say there is bread

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    across the road in the shop there there's bread here there's Christ in this bread and not in that bread there's wine in the hotel and I guess there's a hotel somewhere around here there usually is in one of these sorts of places there'll be wine in the hotel is Christ in this wine and not in that wine we could say that Christ is in the Bible but there are many Bibles in the bookshop in town the British and Foreign Bible Society or whatever the bookshop is here is Christ in those Bibles the point you'd have to make brethren and sisters in answer to those questions is that it's our discernment it's the condition of our mind as we examine ourselves in relationship to these things it makes us see these things as a symbol of Christ and having seen them as a symbol of Christ having partaken of the bread and wine as symbols of our identification with his body and with his life and with his death and with his resurrection and with his situation before God at this moment having seen these things as a symbol of that condition it is then that our thirst and our hunger is satisfied and we look forward to a situation when we can say to Isaiah as he calls us saying come you who thirst to the waters we can say to them yes Isaiah we've found out what those waters are it's because we've found out what those waters are that we're here today partaking of this wine partaking of this bread it's because that we have this relationship with Christ too we could say

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    to Isaiah that we can confidently say as we were saying last night to those who look upon us in the world around about that when you look upon us in our gathering you will see Christ among us Christ has said that where two or three are gathered in his name there would he be in the midst and here we are 250 or so gathered together is he in our midst too how is he in our midst he's in our midst brethren and sisters because having partaken of the water and the wine and the bread Christ is in our lives Christ is in our words Christ is in our very ideas the very ideas and attitudes that infuse our lives that make them what they are so those people around about us can't help but seeing that we are different and hopefully we can point out to them we are different because Christ is in us let us help them discern Christ in us thank you for listening to the good Christ Delphine talks podcast please subscribe for new episodes and leave a review on apple podcasts or whichever service you are listening from to help people find the show when they search for it if you enjoyed this talk share it on social media so other people can find it too for show notes and links to the talk that you just listened to we want to encourage everyone to share their thoughts from the talk this week on facebook or instagram where we are at good Christadelphian talks or on twitter where we are at gct podcast if you know of a great talk

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    we want to know about it too send a suggestion to good Christadelphian talks at gmail.com or message us on any of our social media platforms thank you for listening god bless and talk to you next week a