Dennis Gillett - Class 4: Man Does No Live by Bread

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

1. 0:00

   Bible exhortations are sanctified by the fatherhood of God. When the Bible takes the natural things of life and uses them to unveil the truth of the spiritual life, we ought not to suppose that thereby the natural things are in some way degraded by the comparison. All Bible comparisons reveal to us the hidden harmony between the spiritual and the natural. When the Son of God is compared to bread, it is to teach us that he is to us truly and substantially what bread is to us, relatively and imperfectly.

2. 0:38

   And as I've once said already, I think, in this Bible school, when Jesus said, I am the true vine, he did not mean to teach that all other vines growing in the field are false. He was teaching us that the vine growing in the field is a wonderful replica of himself. He was the first vine, the original, bearing fruit for the life of men, and the other vines are patterned upon him, doing imperfectly what he has done to perfection.

3. 1:08

   Observe then, observe then, how ordinary things in the family of God become holy, because of their association with the relationship. And I can tell you something, bread is one. I know we take it for granted, but bread is the gift of God. We call it earthly, but the manner reveals to us really where bread comes from.

4. 1:34

   Heaven is the birthplace of all earthly gifts. We say that not to reduce high things to the lowest level, but rather to endow common things with the grace of God. Now, we read Deuteronomy chapter 8, and there's a verse in there, and I wonder really whether we've all together, I know this is going to sound a bit pompous, I hope it won't.

5. 2:00

   I wonder whether we've always understood it rightly. Could we have a look? Deuteronomy chapter 8, please. Now, it's that rather well-known verse 3. Deuteronomy 8, verse 3. That, of course, is the crucial verse. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that's proceeded out of the mouth of God, does man live.

6. 2:57

   The new look on it is this. You see, in Egypt, these people to whom Moses spoke those words, had flung their seed corn upon the rich deposit which the Nile had left. As you know, when the Nile floats, the deposit is very rich, very fertile, still is, though not as much I understand.

7. 3:21

   But in those days, the deposit of the Nile was very rich, they flung their seed corn upon it, and they had gotten them bread in easy abundance. That is, it seemed they got it so easy, in a sense, apart from God. But when they were in the wilderness, now, where there is no river Nile, and there is no means of cultivation, God wanted them to understand that they'd never got their bread from the Nile, really, nor by their own toil, nor by their own skill.

8. 3:53

   He wanted them to know that they obtained it from Him. Hence the sentence, by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord. Now, when our Lord was tempted in the wilderness, and indeed tempted to get bread in an unlawful way, He fell back on this very sentence in Deuteronomy. Now, the point I'm trying to make is, that word, word, by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God.

9. 4:26

   I think when we read it, we tend to think, by every word, meaning the whole revelation of God, or, well, we should say, the Bible. Men live by that. By every word that proceeded from the mouth of God. And no doubt, when our Lord used it in the wilderness when He was tempted, that would have been its implication.

10. 4:48

    Because He had expanded it, as it were, in the context of His own experience. But in its original intention, in Deuteronomy chapter 8, consider this. I don't think, when Moses said that they live by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God, not by bread only, but by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God, He didn't mean the printed word, the great revelation which was to come eventually, but it was a special word.

11. 5:20

    The original word which was spoken and said, Let the earth bring forth grass yielding seed. It was that word that gave them their rich bread. It was that word that produced the things they needed, and they'd forgotten it. And He was reminding them, it's not, it's not by the simple fact of bread only, but it's by that solemn word of God that it comes about.

12. 5:49

    Now, it's still true. It's still true. It's spoken again and again, every time there is seed time and harvest. We don't hear it, but we see the proof of it thankfully. The word of God, which was spoken there. Producing bread, let the earth bring forth grass yielding seed. The thing is that bread, you see, what I'm trying to stress is, bread is the gift of God, and He is the provider.

13. 6:20

    Men sometimes blame Him for, well, because of human incompetence and human greed. Hardships are created where there should be plenty, but when Jesus taught us to pray, give us this day our daily bread, He was not leading us to ask for the impossible. We are right to interpret the word bread, I think, in this prayer, as the synonym for all the necessities of life.

14. 6:52

    It constitutes a promise that we shall have enough. Jesus said, your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things. Now, I dare not say it constitutes a promise that we shall have an abundance and luxury. That is not to say that sometimes God does not give us an abundance and does not provide us with luxury, but there is no promise that He will do so.

15. 7:12

    Luxuries and necessities, of course, are relative terms, and in so many cases our luxuries very soon become necessities. If we could cultivate it, I suppose, the wisdom of Agur in the Old Testament is a very good guide, but it's difficult truly to say it. Give me neither poverty nor riches, is feed me with the food that is needful for me.

16. 7:37

    Now, my next point is, I want you to think about the word daily. Give us this day our daily bread. You might not think it, but it's a difficult word, and if we had time, I believe we could have a good, long theological discussion about what it really means. But there isn't time for that, you'll be glad to know, I swear.

17. 7:56

    Now, I notice, brethren and sisters, that in the revised version, margin, daily bread is given as bread for the immediate future. And it does seem that it's God's will to provide for our needs a step at a time, as He did with the manna in the wilderness. And by such means, God's people may learn to have a daily dependence upon Him.

18. 8:22

    And therefore, they will seek Him continuously. Let us understand that in praying for daily bread, we are praying for something which is good and holy and sacred. Observe where the petition comes. It comes right next to the kingdom of God and heaven on earth. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth.

19. 8:44

    Give us this day our daily bread. The kingdom of God and your daily bread, right next to one another. So earth and heaven, as it were, are linked in the very centre of the prayer. Now, the infant ecclesia, before it was marred by impurity and division, was the realised idea of what God intended the ecclesia of Christ to be.

20. 9:06

    And that is, it was holy in conformity with His will. As you remember, they had all things common. And there was peace and purity in that ecclesia. Now, notice one thing the chronicler of Acts says about that holy society. He says, they did eat their bread with gladness and singleness of heart. Or can I remind you of Acts 14 verse 17?

21. 9:31

    God gives us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And when you begin to read the gospel story, and watch the Son of Man linking arms with his companions and taking them, taking them off, where? Where is he taking them? To a monastery? No, not to a monastery, no.

22. 9:54

    To a wedding feast. To a wedding feast where there is bread and wine and joy and the common things of life are declared to be sacred. And the very life of God, in a sense, is brought into the heart of man. So, this little sentence, give us this day our daily bread, is to garrison our hearts against the fever of speculation and anxiety, and that unreasonable worry that we might have about tomorrow and the next day.

23. 10:27

    And if the answer to your prayer is abundance, and it could well be, if the answer to your prayer is abundance, and if you are provided with rich blessings, luxurious blessings, well, don't be afraid, don't be ashamed, learn how to be in need, and learn how to abound. That was the Apostle Paul's advice.

24. 10:46

    Learn the gladness which comes from the Lord's bounty. Learn each day that he is your provider. Our Father who gives, because he caries for you, and he gives you bread, and all things. I'm bringing you now to a touch of sadness.

25. 11:13

    Do you not think there is a touch of sadness about that little conjunction, and, which connects the petition for pardon with the petition for your daily bread? Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. On the face of it, it's rather strange to join daily bread with the petition for pardon.

26. 11:44

    You might have expected the conjunction and to have been omitted altogether, because there are two separate things here, quite distinct. But, as you'll pardon me for saying again, in the Bible, every word is important, and, this is important, because, could it be there, do you think, to remind us that, as our daily bread comes every day, so do our sins.

27. 12:12

    As we need to petition each day for earthly needs, so we need daily to petition for forgiveness. and the prayer for forgiveness, tells of our weakness apart from God, and the prayer for forgiveness tells us of our shame in the presence of God. It also tells us not only that he is a giver, but a forgiver.

28. 12:33

    He gives most when he forgives us. Said Jesus, I am the bread of life, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. This was the bread which God gave once, and the cost of giving it cannot be calculated in terms of human arithmetic. And it's that which daily sustains the broken hearted and the undenourished.

29. 12:57

    Pardon is not the only thing which comes to us from the cross of Christ, but it is the deepest thing. Every day as we live our lives and see more clearly the absolute purity and the utter peace of the man of Nazareth, do we not also know in our deepest heart that more surely we need pardon for our failure.

30. 13:17

    As we know him better, is it not true that our consciences become more sensitized. At the end of the day as the sun is westering and our spirits are hushed in the last minutes of our waking time, we ask for his pardon. And do we not know that our wounded heart is healed and our withered soul is renewed and our broken humanity is remade?

31. 13:44

    So are we not constrained, brethren and sisters, to thank God for this grace which flows out every day over the life of his children? One day I came across an old hymn. It's not one of ours, but I had to admit when I read it that it expresses what I wanted to say about this plea for pardon.

32. 14:04

    You may know it well, I didn't know it well, but listen. Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from the riven side which flowed, be of sin a double cure, save from guilt and make me pure. As sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly.

33. 14:30

    As we draw near and petition for pardon, there is one tremendous thing we must remember. The high priest knows us through and through. I may have said this before, you'll have to be patient. The high priest knows us through and through, he knows about the fire in my blood and yours that drives us against our will, he knows that we have blundered, that we didn't want to blunder, he knows that our aspirations are always better than our achievements, he has been touched with the feeling of our infirmity, he suffered being tempted.

34. 14:59

    One of the wonderful things about the kingdom of God, you know, will be the fact that the king will not judge by the sight of his eyes nor by the hearing of his ears. That is the method of human judgment that the king will judge according to the underlying facts and forces, not merely by the circumstantial evidence.

35. 15:21

    As it will be, so it is now. There's an old saying that to know all is to forgive all. I'm not quite sure that it's always used properly, but there's an element of truth in it. What I mean is this, that if we could really know all about our brethren and sisters, if we could really know their deepest feelings and the forces which sometimes underlie their failures, then perhaps we would be far more likely to forgive them than to condemn them.

36. 15:52

    When we say, our father, forgive us our trespasses, we are shut up with God and the high priest of the universe and the all other judges are excluded and we are pardoned and cleansed through the blood of the Lamb and through the incredible mercy of God. And the pardon is given and upon the petitioning one is pronounced the verdict of the guiltless.

37. 16:12

    And in a moment, without delay, as swift as lightning, as gentle as the first breaking of the sunlight, without sign or signal from heaven, no one is consulted and those who fill their mouths with other men's faults are silent. no one, the one in need of mercy finds it and he is able, she is able to lay down to sleep in peace.

38. 16:38

    Of course, there are some words which we cannot pass over as we forgive them that trespass against us. We dare not pass those words over, dare we?

39. 16:59

    I want to tell you a story. There was a man once condemned to God because he had murdered many people. Now this condemned man had a brother and he was a hero because he had saved many lives. And so the brother who had saved many lives, he went before the high court and pleaded for pardon for the condemned brother in the cell, in the death cell.

40. 17:23

    And for the sake of the brother who had saved many lives, the court granted a pardon to the man who had taken life. So the brother who had achieved the pardon, he went to the prison with the pardon in his pocket to break the good news to his condemned brother. And he said, my brother, if you at this very last hour were pardoned and set free, what would you do?

41. 17:43

    And he replied with hatred in his heart and his eyes, I will find the judge and the chief witness and I will kill them.

42. 17:52

    And the brother kept the pardon in his pocket. And he never breathed a word about it. And he destroyed it. And he left the man where he was. And everybody in this house knows that he did right. Because pardon is for the man who, given the power, is ready to quit sinning and seek righteousness.

43. 18:16

    pardon today for a man who insists and intends, and I use the word carefully, who insists and intends, who intends tomorrow to persist in sinning, he is asking an impossibility. God will forgive us if we forgive them, he says. Our trespasses will be pardoned if we pardon the trespass of our brother. It's essential.

44. 18:38

    The qualification cannot be overlooked. That's why we dare not sweep it under the carpet, as we forgive them that sin against us. Now I've already mentioned guile in this Bible school. In Psalm 32, David says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord granteth pardon, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

45. 19:04

    Now what is guile? Well, it's hiding things. It's cloaking over things. We might say, of course, it's no good trying to practice guile with God. That's no good. That's what we say, but we do it. We say it's no good, but we go on doing it. I mean, do we not sometimes argue that some evil thing is not so very evil?

46. 19:30

    Not bad. Do we not seek to make plausible the doubtful things so that we can retain them when we ought to shame them? Do we not give suspicious things new names to make them more acceptable? Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. Blessed is the man whom the Lord pardoneth, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

47. 19:57

    Guile is part of the thing which is an impediment to real pardon. You see, today's pardon is for the person who will at least repudiate the wrong, not secretly persist in it, not nurse it, not keep it for the next day, but who will at least try to repudiate the wrong, and in whose heart there is a genuine desire that tomorrow shall be a day of amendment.

48. 20:27

    Amen. That's all I want to say about pardon. Protection. The person who is really cleansed from sin is striving to avoid recontamination. Therefore, they say, Lord, lead us not into temptation. I think what is intended in those words could be expressed in this way. Lord, lead us not where there are snares and pitfalls because our vision is poor.

49. 21:12

    Lead us not where there are strong enemies for our strength is impaired. Let not such circumstances as may be for our probation become too powerful for us. But of course the question that arises immediately is, would our heavenly father lead a disciple into the occasions of sin? Well, the Bible affirms positively, categorically, and emphatically that he would not.

50. 21:41

    God tempteth no man, says James. Now, there are two kinds of temptation. The temptation to sin and the temptation to refuse and do good. Have you thought of that? God sometimes tempts people to do good. When God tempts, he does not tempt men to sin, but to do good. What the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says, provoking unto love and good works.

51. 22:11

    Now, God did tempt Abraham, but it was a temptation to engage in a great act of faith. But of course, it's also true to say that God does expose people to situations and to circumstances where they will have to declare themselves, that is, where the inwardness of them is to be brought out, where people are shown to be externally what they are internally and perhaps secretly.

52. 22:38

    I mean, a good example of this is Judas. He's a very good example. Now, they made him the Lord's treasurer and consequently that gave him a wonderful opportunity. God was tempting Judas. He gave him a wonderful opportunity to exercise sympathy and generosity and honesty. He was tempted by God to do good with the Lord's wealth.

53. 23:02

    But he was tempted by his own lust to be covetous and mean and dishonest. And this he did. Now, in 1 Corinthians 10 13, God has promised that we shall never be tried above that which we are able to bear, but always there will be provided a way of escape. So, you see, in the final analysis, brethren and sisters, when all is said and done and every extenuating circumstance has been taken into account, we are obliged to face it.

54. 23:29

    When we do sin, it is our responsibility. responsibility. We cannot blame God. We know it is the will of God that we shall be put to the proof, but when we are put to the proof, it is for our salvation and not for our condemnation. God's way with Israel was a very good guide and that's why we had read Deuteronomy chapter 8.

55. 23:55

    You read it well, how he led them through the wilderness and tried them to see what was in them, whether they would obey him or not. The words were spoken by Moses when Israel really was at the parting of the ways. Changes were coming and he would soon depart and he was giving them the final charges to the people.

56. 24:14

    Can I remind you of verse 2, Deuteronomy 8 again. It went like this. The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee and to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. God was seeking to bring outward what was inward.

57. 24:32

    They were to be unveiled, exposed, to know themselves. In that proving God so to speak came into visibility. They were tempted as a result to trust in him more and more and serve him better. Let me illustrate what I mean. There was no bread but it rained from heaven. There was no water but it gushed from the frinty rock.

58. 24:57

    There was no way in the worldly wilderness but he went before and found a place to camp and to rest. So he exposed them to these circumstances to reveal themselves to themselves, to correct them and to redeem them. Now such is always the purpose of the temptation that comes from God. That is why James says, and I expect like me you have often pondered these words in James, my brethren, he said, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptation.

59. 25:30

    And that of all we don't count it joy at all, do we? But listen, my brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptation, knowing this, that the trial of your faith worketh endurance, but let endurance have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Good can come of the right temptation.

60. 25:51

    So this kind of temptation, in the end you see, is a blessing and not a curse. But, the temptation we are concerned with in the pattern prayer, is not that kind. We are concerned in the pattern prayer, from being delivered, from temptation to sin. Now the Bible teaches that the grace of God will keep a man from being overwhelmed by temptation.

61. 26:15

    We've already alluded to this. God promises that he will not allow his children to be tempted above that which they're able to bear. But we should be wrong to think that the grace of God will keep a man if that man is flirting with temptation willfully. That's another matter altogether. If you willfully flirt with temptation, seeking it when you could avoid it, then the grace of God will not keep him.

62. 26:46

    I wonder if you ever heard the story of the boy who was forbidden by his father to swim in the river. Well, one day his father came home and looked at the boy and he suspected that he had been swimming. His hair was, you know, hair gets when you go swimming. And if you've got any, that is.

63. 27:12

    Yes, the father looked at the boy and he said to the boy, have you been in the river? And the boy said, yes, father, I have. I was walking along the bank and the temptation was so strong I just had to go in. Then the father said, well, anyway, you should never swim in the river without a costume.

64. 27:31

    And the boy said, that's all right, dad, I took my costume in case I was tempted. Well, I know it makes us laugh, but it enforces the point. Perhaps you'll remember it next year. Flirting with temptation, you see. That's what the boy was doing, and that's what we do sometimes, and when we do it, I don't think there's any promise that the grace of God will keep us.

65. 28:02

    Lead us not into temptation implies that we shall flee from it ourselves. Do you see that? If we're asking God to lead us not into temptation, it tends to reason we ourselves must avoid it if we can. No point in asking God to lead us away from it if we insist on moving towards it.

66. 28:21

    It implies that we shall flee from it. Joseph did this, as you know, in the house of Potiphar. When he was confronted with Zuleika, the wife of Potiphar, it says he fled and got him out. There's a splendid old English sentence. He fled and got him out. Jesus counsels us to be wary of temptation.

67. 28:41

    He says watch and pray that she enter not into temptation. Paul says, flee youthful lust which war against the soul. When you think of how temptation is personified in the Bible, you will see at once that you, why you ought not to be flirting with it. Think of these ways in which he's described to us.

68. 29:00

    It's said to be a serpent, skillful and insinuating, a lion, strong, bold and roaring, an adversary, full of devices, allurements and lies. things. So, it is good to be able to pray in faith, Lord, lead us away from temptation that is devilish and deceitful, lest we be overcome. Now, I believe that God does deliver from those circumstances, and I say that out of my own experience, because looking back in my own life, I can see that if I had my way on one or two occasions, it would have been a disaster, and a danger, that somehow my steps were directed elsewhere.

69. 29:43

    And, you know, we ought to be surprised at this, can we? Because this is what we pray for. This is what we're asking for. That is, that the Lord will do this. He will lead us away from the temptation which is devilish and diabolic. This is what we're asking him to do. This is what the Lord wants to do for us.

70. 30:00

    Lead us not into temptation. Again, Jesus is not teaching us to pray for the impossible. When God leads, he leads us through the temptation to victory.

71. 30:15

    Now then, we come to the last heading of deliver us from evil. I think here, there is a proper recognition that evil is everywhere and it can be complicated and multifarious. Listen to the king praying for his friends in John 17. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

72. 30:50

    And the men for whom he was praying then were exposed to all kinds of evil, but they were not mastered by it and consequently, they were delivered from it. But, we must not let the optimism of our faith lead us to wrong conclusions. We are not immune from danger or pain or adversity, but because we are the children of our Father in heaven, whatever happens to us happens within the orbit of his carefulness and in the realm of his control, because all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose.

73. 31:30

    I fear I shall have to go over a bit of territory which I have gone over before with the brethren and sisters in Durban, sorry, but there is a saying that the Lord tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, that means that the Lord will change the circumstances for those who need it.

74. 31:49

    Now, that is rarely true. The Lord does not temper the wind to the shorn lamb, but instead the wind remains as it is, that God gives the shorn lamb a good thick coat to stand against it. As a rule, God's children are not shielded from the hazards of life, but they are equipped by God to stand against them and to rise above.

75. 32:10

    So I exhort you brethren and sisters to take your stand upon the naked word of God in Hebrews 13 verse 5, The Lord hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do unto me.

76. 32:26

    Now, this is the word of the living God, and either the word is true or else this living word has deceived us, we don't believe that, we put our faith in it, we stand on its naked promise, remember the promise of Proverbs 3, acknowledge him and acknowledge him in all thy ways and he shall direct thy path, and if he is directing, it will be for the very best purposes, always to save and never to destroy, and if we have to pass through the valley of the shadow, we will fear no evil, for he is with us, and he will direct their paths, and we are comforted by the emblems of his presence, the rod and the shepherd's star, and then, there is another passage I want to remind you of because I think it is most moving, I hope I shall be able to give you some sense of its wonder, I am thinking now of Deuteronomy 33, and the great song of Moses, the last words of Moses as it were, it is in verse 27, would you like to look at that?

77. 33:32

    Deuteronomy 33, the last words of Moses, in verse 27, it is a short sentence, but, the eternal God is thy dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms, now the word underneath, have you got it? You look perplexed, have I made a mistake? No, well that's a blessing, you've got it, it's Deuteronomy 33, verse 27, the eternal God is thy dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms, now the word underneath, in the Hebrew language, means bottom, that's what it means, that is the deepest part, that means, when you have reached rock bottom, when you have to say, I was never more down, than this, listen to this, underneath, underneath, lower than that, are the everlasting arms, whatever the abyss, however much it may seem to be a dark emptiness, Moses is saying, be not afraid, however much it seems to be hopeless, Moses is saying, dare it, have faith, you will find that you are falling through the abyss, into the arms of God, underneath, lower than the lowest, are the everlasting arms, you will find that you are falling into when it says, the eternal God is thy dwelling place, literally the Hebrew says, the God of the beginning is thy dwelling place, he is your father, the God of the beginning is thy dwelling place, and he is your father, you may say, deliver me from evil, and underneath, in the fulfilment of that, underneath are the everlasting arms, now if you think I've overstated it, and if you think I was carried away a little bit, you tell me, what do you think Moses meant then by that?

78. 36:09

    the eternal died is like dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms, what do you think it meant? It's there on the parchment of the Old Testament, it must be something wonderful I think. Finally brothers and sisters, may I ask you to notice one thing about this pattern prayer,

79. 36:30

    the pronouns, notice the pronouns, our father, us, lead us not into temptation, we, there is not a pronoun in this prayer in the first person singular, a man may pray it quietly on his own, but he cannot pray it alone, as soon as he speaks the words, he brings others into his thoughts, when we pray, we pray it with God's other children on our heart, think of this, if our praying was in the spirit of this prayer always, would not some of our praying have to be changed, I mean this prayer was new for those who first heard it, and one time between them there was rivalry and strife, but afterwards all their divisions were healed, and they continued in one accord in one place, the privileges which were new to them are with us still, we have the same father, we have the same high priest, we have the same promises, in the pattern prayer every fervent spirit may draw near in worship and every troubled heart may cast its burden upon the Lord, every reverent and hushed spirit may touch the deepest things in the purpose of God as they pray this prayer, every soul conscious of need and receiving so much care and solace may cry out in thankfulness and hallow the blessed name of God who is the becoming one, every burdened soul may find acquittal and hope, every weary head may rest here in perfect assurance, every beleaguered spirit may find grace to help in time of need, every son and daughter may be certified of their place in the family of God, our Father, which art in heaven.

80. 38:44

    So you see, upon the pathway of prayer, what a splendid milestone it is. condition condition