For the 19th, 1973, in Richmond, Virginia, ministry is being given through Brother DeVern Fromke.
I’d like for you to turn tonight to the book of Hosea, please. Hosea.
I have been opening my heart to the Lord in a portion here for the last few weeks, and it seems as though the Lord has been speaking to me about Ephraim. Have you ever had a name sort of jump out at you for a while, and you long to get into it and study it? Then all of a sudden, some things begin to unfold. Well, that’s been true as I’ve been looking at God’s word to Ephraim.
In Hosea 6, it is interesting how He speaks of the latter days. We might read just a few verses.
Come, and let us return unto the Lord;
for He hath torn, and He will heal us;
He hath smitten, and He will bind us up.
After two days will He revive us:
in the third day He will raise us up,
and we shall live in His sight.
— Hosea 6:1-2
I don’t know which Bible you have, and I don’t totally go along with all the Scofield Bible says, but I have been interested in the caption just above this chapter. It says, “The voice of the remnant in the last days.”
I believe with all my heart that God is calling out a remnant today—a people whose hearts are wholly toward Him.
There is a sense in which this applies very directly to Israel. You know, a day is as two thousand years with the Lord. Israel has, so to speak, been set aside for two days, or two thousand years, and the third day is about upon us: the third day when God will once again restore Israel and begin to reign through His coming back to set up the throne of David.
But to the remnant here, there is something rather interesting. I believe that everything God has been doing on a natural plane has its spiritual counterpart. Some people take everything only for Israel, and they do not see anything else. Sometimes people spiritualize it and only see the spiritualization of it.
I am open for adjustment, but I have had the most ease about seeing that God can work on two planes. That surprises everybody; it sort of gets things together. What He has been doing here in a natural way has its spiritual counterpart as He works through the church.
So if there is a remnant in Israel that will be expecting, there is certainly a remnant today in the midst of the church whose ears God is tuning. There is an expectancy.
What are His words regarding Ephraim as we read on? Verse 3 says:
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord:
His going forth is prepared as the morning;
and He shall come unto us as the rain,
as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
— Hosea 6:3
I do believe there are drops of rain. There is a moving of the Spirit of God in various places. I marvel at the people who are very sovereignly being saved. Every time I turn around, I run into a businessman, somebody who has been mixed up in the church world for years, and then they find out they have never known the Lord Jesus. It is quite wonderful. God is moving.
But here He comes now. In verse 4, He says:
O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?
O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?
for your goodness is as a morning cloud,
and as the early dew it goeth away.
— Hosea 6:4
What significance does Ephraim have? Where does Ephraim fit into all of this?
Well, you remember that God, from the time of passing on through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has been passing blessing on through birthright. Out of the loins of Abraham there came Isaac, and it was Isaac upon whom the right-hand blessing was placed.
Ishmael, you remember, though he was firstborn, was not after the Spirit; he was after the flesh.
Then out of the loins of Isaac came who? Jacob and Esau. You remember the awful turmoil that took place in the womb. It is an interesting story; we cannot go into it.
Esau is the elder, so to speak, and yet he sells his birthright for a mess of pottage. Jacob comes into line. Of course, his mother has to help him; it seems for a moment that she is afraid things are not going to work out. God was going to give the birthright to Jacob in due time, but I think his mother was trying to help. Jacob has to flee, you remember.
But in mentioning this, I want to draw your attention to the fact that there is something quite significant about the blessing and the birthright as it passes on. So Jacob comes in line for the blessing, and Jacob has twelve sons. Which is the oldest son? You remember?
In Genesis 48 and Genesis 49, Jacob calls all the sons in to give them blessing. But just before he prophesies and gives indication to these twelve sons, Joseph hears that his father is sick.
Now you know what has happened. God has gotten the whole family down into Goshen, in Egypt. Joseph has been the premier and has been in blessing. The family is all there. But now Joseph comes down into Goshen to visit his father, and he takes his two little boys with him.
Remember what their names are? Manasseh and Ephraim.
It is sort of interesting how, all the way through, you have the human mentality trying to maneuver things. When Joseph comes in before his father, he steers his two little boys, Manasseh and Ephraim. He deliberately steers them so that Manasseh will be at the right hand of Jacob, and Ephraim, because he is the younger, will be at the left hand.
After all, the blessing, the birthright, is to go to the elder, which would be Manasseh.
You remember it says Jacob was getting old and he could not see, and here is Joseph helping things along. Ever help things along with the Lord? We mean well, don’t we?
I cannot read it tonight because it is not our lesson, but here he is helping the Lord and helping his father. He steers the two little boys, Ephraim and Manasseh, so that they will be in the right place for the blessing. And you know what the elderly father does: he crosses his hands.
When Joseph sees what he is doing, he says, “Father, you’ve got the wrong hand.” And what does his father say? “No, son. I know what I am doing.”
The younger is the one who is to have the birthright blessing.
I do not understand election. I do not understand God’s sovereign working. But you know, it does one thing to me: it causes me to tremble. It causes me to stand with awe toward the Lord.
Here you have Ephraim, quite unexpectedly—the younger this time. Jacob crosses his hands, and he blesses him. Ephraim, it seems to me, in all the line of birthright and blessing, is the one through whom fruitfulness is to come. If I understand the name Ephraim, it means, in the Hebrew, fruitful.
How wonderful, then, that when God has reached down and, in His own way, put His hand upon a life, the privilege is there.
I just pause along the way tonight to say this: Have you felt God’s hand on your life? Have you sensed something? It could just as well have been somebody else out here. Why did He do this? Why did He do it, Mike?
I do not know, but I know one thing. The fact that I have a sense of God’s hand has caused me, in a whole new way in recent days, to stand with a great sense of, “Oh, dear Lord, why did You do it? Millions of others—why did You tell? How come I was the one You called, the one You touched?”
Has He touched your life tonight? Don’t take it lightly. Don’t take things for granted. Thank God. Thank God.
But here is Ephraim now: great expectations. To whom much is given, much is required. I keep having a sense as I move among some of God’s people—I believe some whom He has been touching—that it must be encouragement and yet exhortation. Let us be careful.
Let us walk before the Lord so that He will not have to say, as He did regarding Ephraim, that the one who was in the line seems to have come short.
O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?
O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?
for your goodness is as a morning cloud,
and as the early dew it goeth away.
Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of My mouth:
and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
— Hosea 6:4-5
Then He gives us a verse that is rather interesting, Hosea 6:6:
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
— Hosea 6:6
Now, my burden tonight, just for a little time to fellowship with you, is to speak essentially on this. If we have sensed God’s hand, if we know that God is longing for those whose lives can be a deep thing, fruitful unto Him—and that is what it means—the question is: How?
How are we to be fruitful? What cautions, what guards, what guidelines can we take so that we can assure ourselves before the Lord that, even though His hand has touched Ephraim, we will not come short of God’s expectation?
Here is this little verse, and we just read it:
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
— Hosea 6:6
That verse, as you recall—if you would like to turn to Matthew—is recorded by Jesus with quite a bit of significance.
Turn to Matthew 9. If you have your Living Bible, look at it. I do not like it all the way through, but now and then it gives a little light.
In Matthew 9, beginning with verse 10:
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house,
behold, many publicans and sinners came
and sat down with Him and His disciples.
And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto His disciples,
Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
— Matthew 9:10-11
They really did not understand His Teacher. “What’s wrong with Him?” You see, they had a real religious mentality.
But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them,
They that be whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick.
But go ye and learn what that meaneth,
I will have mercy, and not sacrifice:
for I am not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance.
— Matthew 9:12-13
Turn over to Matthew 12, and you have almost an identical thing.
At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn;
and His disciples were an hungered,
and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto Him,
Behold, Thy disciples do that
which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
— Matthew 12:1-2
But He said unto them:
Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered,
and they that were with him;
how he entered into the house of God,
and did eat the shewbread,
which was not lawful for him to eat,
neither for them which were with him,
but only for the priests?
Or have ye not read in the law,
how that on the sabbath days
the priests in the temple profane the sabbath,
and are blameless?
But I say unto you,
That in this place is One greater than the temple.
— Matthew 12:3-6
Then He gives them the same thing:
But if ye had known what this meaneth,
I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,
ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
— Matthew 12:7
I do not know how to say this, but it seems that Jesus sums an awful lot up. He does not do a lot of answering. He just seems to say, “Look, when you discover this little secret, you will not have any trouble with Me. You will not have any trouble understanding.”
And what is it?
Let me read it here out of the Living Bible. It says this:
“Why does your teacher associate with men like that?”
“Because people who are well don’t need a doctor;
it’s the sick people who do,” Jesus replied.
Then He added,
“Now go away and learn the meaning of this verse of Scripture:
It isn’t your sacrifices and your gifts I want.
I want you to be merciful.”
He uses the same thing over in Matthew 12.
There is so much that hangs on this. Jesus pulls it out, and we will see as we go on into Hosea now that so much hangs on this.
What does the Lord mean? I have been crying out. I am not sure I have the answer tonight, but I would like to suggest something that I believe might be helpful.
Beloved, one of the greatest dangers and one of the big problems Jesus was always confronted by was the religious establishment—the people of that day who could not understand why He ate, why He did what He did.
It seems to me He sums it up this way: Oh, if a few folk could move out of outwardness into inwardness.
Now, it is not just subjectivity, but if you can move out of merely outward acts and outward things, and you can see inward reality—what is mercy? He says, “I desire mercy. I want mercy.” What is sacrifice?
Let me see if I can take you back to the thing that God keeps driving home to me all the time. I do believe, beloved, that in our spirit God has designed a way by which He can maintain an intimacy and a fellowship with us as His children.
Here is our spirit, but it is so easy for us to live out here in the realm of our souls. We live in our mind; we have religious conceptions. We live out here in our emotions, or we live in our will—the realm of the soul.
The mind can be very sacrificial, and the feelings go right along and say, “I’m going to give something for the Lord.” We build up all of our conceptions of what we think will please the Lord. It is sacrifice. It is an outward thing, and yet it can be totally void in our spirit of what God really wants.
What is it that God is after? Well, pardon me again. I am sure I have been through this every time I have been at Richmond; I do not want to disappoint you.
I am absolutely convinced, every place I go, that if people do not understand the livingness of the spirit and fellowship with God by the Spirit, nothing else matters.
I feel like Jesus saying, “If you do not know anything, go learn this: I want mercy and not sacrifice.” If we want it, I have just seen the transformation that brings in lives once we discover that our spirit, with this open door of conscience—honesty, openness, transparency before the Lord—there is no other way to maintain fellowship.
The Lord keeps pressing me continually to walk before Him with complete openness, honesty, and transparency. You know how easy it is to become a little opaque towards somebody, or a little translucent. You let a little light get through. But transparency—what is it? Utter openness.
This is what God requires: with Him, that kind of openness. You can be sure that, just as surely as that openness is maintained this way, the Lord will help us to maintain it this way.
So the doorway of our spirit is an open conscience—an openness and honesty before God. That makes possible in our spirits what we call fellowship.
I believe, brothers and sisters, He has not called us to activity. He has not called us to religious performance. He has not called us to doing. He has called us first of all to fellowship with Himself, and out of this fellowship everything else ought to flow.
Out of this kind of living, just with Him, all our doing should come. Fellowshipping with the Lord is the highest calling. Worship—I have shared so often with the Lord’s people that the highest occupation we can enjoy is our spirit attuned and worshiping the Lord.
To begin each day, to make this the constant note of my spirit—open and alive for the Lord.
When there is this openness and fellowship with Him, then God, in turn, shares with us the things that we need to know: the inner knower, the inner knowledge. “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.”
Of course, we call this our intuition, or our inner discerning.
Now, the reason I say that God is after an inwardness: “I desire” what? “Mercy.” Mercy is a quality of the spirit. It is a fruit out of our spirit.
I can be so right, so sacrificial out here, and God is all the time dealing with the inwardness of the spirit.
David learned this. I believe he had gone through all the ritual and ceremony of sacrifices, and yet was caught in sin. One day God exposed his heart, and he says:
Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
and in the hidden part
Thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
— Psalm 51:6
What is the hidden part? Our spirit—your inner knower.
Your mind understands things that are enlightened. The word of God is illumined, and you come to understanding. But it is the inner registration in your spirit: checks or release, peace or heaviness, darkness or light.
Oh, how we need, in our walk before the Lord, to maintain this continual openness in our spirit. Is there peace about it? Is there a lightness in it? Is there a release about it? Or do I have a check?
I believe that this ought to be the normal life of God’s children. Again, I do not like to call it super-spiritual or deeper spiritual or anything else—just the normal life that God wants: our spirit attuned to His.
David gets to say:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
Thou wilt not despise.
— Psalm 51:17
It is not all our doing, but it is a quality. It is something of the spirit.
I believe this is why Jesus turns these ones who come. They have got a head problem. “Why does Your Master do this? Why does He allow His disciples to eat from the grain field on the Sabbath day?”
Can you see how religion—how man, with all of the theological interpretations—builds up the whole system? We have it today, just as they did in Jesus’ day, and yet miss the very heart, the inwardness of the reality: mercy. Mercy. Something of the spirit.
I feel that what the Lord is saying is, “If you folk go and learn what it is to maintain openness with Me, fellowship with Me, then you will know.”
It is another way of saying mercy: inwardness instead of just outwardness.
Back to Hosea again, and you will notice:
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
— Hosea 6:6
What do burnt offerings represent?
When the burnt offering was given, it was the whole burnt offering presented unto God. It is a type of the dedication of oneself completely unto the Lord.
I wonder if you have seen any folk who are dedicated to a cause—a religious cause. Oh, the dedication of some folks! They wear me out, watching them. The dedication of some individuals to the program, the cause, the thing that has caught their life—usually religious, you see.
But what is He saying? It is not the dedication of the mind that is caught, the emotion that is gripped, and the will that is set. It is not this kind of outward dedication, so to speak. It is what? The knowledge of the Lord.
Oh, to know Him.
The life that comes in the inwardness of fellowship with Him comes to know the Lord. To know the Lord.
The key to fruitfulness, then, first of all, is inwardness that produces an outwardness. What really is in the spirit—mercy—will demonstrate itself. It will sacrifice, but it will not be just sacrifice. It will start with a broken heart, a broken and contrite spirit.
Move on now through Hosea, and let us see what else He says in Hosea 7.
When I would have healed Israel,
then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered,
and the wickedness of Samaria.
— Hosea 7:1
Jump down to verse 8:
Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people;
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Strangers have devoured his strength,
and he knoweth it not:
yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him,
yet he knoweth not.
— Hosea 7:8-9
Just look at that verse with me for a little bit. I would like to think of some things here that He speaks of Ephraim, which I believe picture why Ephraim did not really become fruitful for the Lord.
He says, first of all, “Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people.” I would just say: mixture.
God hates mixture. One of the things I believe is happening today all over is the breakdown of delineations, or the things that keep matters in their proper order and character. God hates mixture. He has set boundaries. He has made distinctions, and I believe He wants us to honor and recognize some of those distinctions.
I do not want to go into it, but I think I see mixture on every hand. It gets so that I have to look three times to see whether it is a man or a woman down on the street. That is a mixture. I am not sure which is to be which, but I know one thing: they are not to be alike. I believe it is mixture. I really do.
I began to weigh this because my heart is set, beloved. My heart cries out, “Lord, I do not want sacrifice. I do not want just a lot of dedication. I long that I might really know how to be fruitful.”
Is there any lesson, anything You want to say, that can be a safeguard in bringing a life of fruitfulness to what Ephraim was supposed to be?
As I began to consider this mixture, the Lord took me back to Deuteronomy. If you would like to turn there, please: Deuteronomy 22. You get a little picture here of God’s carefulness to keep us from mixture.
Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds:
lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown,
and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.
— Deuteronomy 22:9
No mixing up of seeds. What is the spiritual picture in this? I believe it is very clear. God wants a pure message. He wants a pure seed.
It is so easy to speak out of one’s own heart instead of sharing, “Thus saith the Lord.” It is so easy to mix—to mix. I believe God is very careful. First of all, we would say, there must be a pure message so far as what we share.
John, in the second epistle of John, says that if any man comes to you and does not share with you the doctrine of Christ, do not receive him into your house, and do not bid him Godspeed. Why? The man has mixture. Mixture.
Lord, You are careful. You are careful.
But hasten on. I do not want to stop there, because I believe the next verse gives us something we need a little more presently. Verse 10:
Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.
— Deuteronomy 22:10
First of all, He is careful in what we sow. Then He is very careful in our serving together.
What does the ass represent in Scripture? Something unbroken and unclean. What does the ox represent? Something clean for sacrifice and broken.
So He says, “Do not put an ass and an ox in the same yoke.” In the natural, I can see how both would have rough times. They do not have the same gait. They just could not walk together.
I believe the Lord is saying, “Do not get mixture in service, thinking you can be yoked with someone who is not broken.” In your service, someone who is not broken.
I think I have seen some asses around. I use that in a gentle way. What do you mean? Everything about their makeup is, “Let’s get up and go and do it.” They do not know what it is to be broken.
You see, in our service, He is saying: no mixture. You cannot put the ox and the ass together. The ox, of course, is clean, and it is for sacrifice; it is for service.
So in our mixture, then: not only a pure message, unmixed, but in our serving we are to be yoked in the right way.
The next verse, verse 11, says:
Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts,
as of woollen and linen together.
— Deuteronomy 22:11
Well, you know that when you put wool and linen together and wash them, there is no compatibility. One shrinks terribly. The natural reasoning would be, “Do not put it together.” But what is the spiritual significance of it?
I believe that anything woolen always speaks of that which produces sweat, or comes from sweat. When they went back into the holiest place, they wore only a linen garment.
What is linen a picture of? I think it is something of life. The strands of the linen come right out of life. It is really clothing that He is speaking of here.
What is clothing? It is the energy for your service. “Be clothed upon with the Spirit,” you see. It is not to be a mixture of flesh and Spirit.
What is your clothing? What is the source of whether we are endued? Oh, how much sweat there is! Dear Lord, let me know Your garment. Not by might or by power, not by something woolen, but by My Spirit.
I believe God is saying these things to my own heart: Be careful of mixture. How much sweat there is today.
Then I went one step further. I was thinking of this portion over in 2 Corinthians, where he deals with mixture. Second Corinthians 6, verse 14:
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial?
or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?
for ye are the temple of the living God;
as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them;
and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing;
and I will receive you.
— 2 Corinthians 6:14-17
So I would like to add: not only in our sowing is there to be a pure message; in our serving, a proper yoking; carefulness in our service to be sure it is not the sweat of wool, but the clothing of the Holy Spirit; and in our fellowship.
I am open for adjustment. I have maintained this for years: I fellowship with the Lord’s people. I may not get in a yoke to serve with some, but I fellowship with them insofar as possible.
The five things that are mentioned here all refer to the believer and the unbeliever. Darkness and light—what is that? Light is the Christian; darkness is the unbeliever. You take all five of these, and I do not find any real room here for much separating or dividing, as it were, from those who are the Lord’s.
I have said for a long time, if a brother or sister will fellowship, I will fellowship. I believe God will fellowship. We may not be able to yoke in our serving—follow me—but fellowship insofar as possible.
I think we need to keep this openness: “Lord, to fellowship with Your people.” You go through and carefully consider.
Now we ask, what is a yoke? I have studied lots of definitions of yokes. I like the one G. H. Lang gives you. He says, “It is such a connection as suspends individual freedom and compels united action.”
Did you get it? Let me read it again. What is a yoke? It is such a connection as suspends individual freedom and compels united action.
Just to make an application: when you two got married, was that a yoke? Should it have been one? Was it? Yes, it was, brother. I am kidding you now. Yes, it was.
Marriage is a yoke. Some people today, I do not think, have gotten that far, but it is supposed to be. I will read it again: it is such a connection as suspends individual freedom, and it compels what? United action. Let’s put the emphasis there. That is a yoke.
Two individuals go into a business partnership together. Is that a yoke? I would hope so. It suspends individual freedom and compels united action, you see.
Walking down the street, I say, “Hello, brother. Haven’t seen you for a long time,” and we take a whole block together in fellowship. Is that a yoke? No.
I am trying to make a little distinction. I believe fellowship is something we ought to maintain insofar as possible with all of the Lord’s people. I call it contact, but not complicity—not getting involved, as it were, in any kind of a yoke.
When I go out to serve with someone, as the ox and the ass would be put together, I tell you, that yoke that holds the two together suspends individual freedom, does it not? And it compels united action.
God says that Ephraim has mixed himself among the people. We are in the world, but I believe, as the Living Bible says, Ephraim had gotten too much involved with the world and had taken on the evil ways of the world.
I could plead with us tonight, beloved, as those upon whose lives the Lord has put His hand, to be very careful in our window shopping.
You know what window shopping is? I say to so many folk, “You do not really have time for a lot of window shopping,” because you stop and look in the window. The first thing it says is, “I look nice, don’t I?” Then the next thing it says, “You really need me, don’t you?” The next thing, it says, “Well, I’m cheap. Come and get me.” And you get caught with so many things that you really do not need.
This is what I mean. We walk in the world, but we stop to gaze and long, and pretty soon we get captured.
I believe God wants a people who can walk uprightly and forthrightly, and yet not be mixed and take on all the ways, the fashions, the passions, of all that this represents.
I just plead with us tonight. I believe God has been quickening to my own heart the need to call out those who want to be, as Ephraim, fruitful to the Lord. That mixture.
I do believe, as it was with Abraham and Lot—remember Lot, just Lot, came out of Chaldea—and they got to a certain place when they were in the land. The herdsmen of Lot and the herdsmen of Abram began to quarrel. The herdsmen wanted the best watering places; they wanted the best grassland.
In due time, Abram turned to Lot and said, “This isn’t right. There should not be any quarreling.”
It is interesting: the very next verse reads, “And Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom.” Nobody ever moves right down into Sodom. They do not do that in one big move. The first thing anybody ever does is just sort of look.
The tent gets pitched, and it is not very long before Lot is mixed up and becomes one of the great men in Sodom, apparently.
I believe, while the Scripture says they separated themselves, there was no division at this point—difference of goal, difference of vision. Abram’s heart was wholly toward the Lord. Lot’s heart was toward things. The two necessarily were having a difference of vision.
But I do not believe, while it says they separated, that there was division as we would think of it. The reason is in the very next chapter. When Lot gets taken captive by the kings of the valley and word comes back, what does Abram do?
If there had been division, I think he would have said, “Good enough for him. He got into his mess.” That is the spirit of division.
Separation is sort of a necessity because there is sometimes a difference of vision. Abram arms his household, goes down, and liberates Lot out of his captivity. That is the heart of one who is set toward the Lord.
So we have, first, mixture that hinders fruitfulness. The third thing He says in Hosea is, “Ephraim is a cake not turned.” A cake not turned. I wonder what that is.
Well, I think first of all it is basically unbalanced. I think I have seen an awful lot of this. It really is somebody who is baked—or let us say, all right, half-baked. They are raw on one side and burned on the other.
What this really speaks to me of is people who get into the outwardness of things without the inwardness of fellowship. I believe, beloved, you cannot live in real fellowship and walk with the Lord without the Lord having a way of turning your sides so that you get balanced.
Every time I have gotten hold of a mental conception and run it to an extreme and got fried—burned down one side, raw on the other—it was something of the soul. You follow it? You just follow a thing to its extreme.
You can rejoice and thank God tonight: He has destined you for balance.
Men will try to get hold of you and use you for their little kingdom and carve out something for themselves, and you can get awfully unbalanced. Oh, how many groups there are today—rigid, strong in one thing, completely blind to something else.
I am so glad that what God is doing today is balancing some things up. He says, “I am seeking to turn this around by the Spirit,” and some of the sides that have been so raw—so raw, so raw.
I do not want to imply tonight, because I am emphasizing the inwardness and the subjective work of our spirit being attuned, that there is nothing objective or outward. What really starts inward will manifest itself outwardly.
Thank God. When you are really led by the Spirit, He will turn your sides. You have experienced it, haven’t you?
So fruitfulness comes, then, by inwardness and God keeping the balance working—not raw, not burned, but He is dealing with all our sides.
Fourth, He says, “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not.” I think we can best call this dissipation.
What is it? It is so easy for us to get caught in our soul, to get caught with a project, to get caught with our energy extended.
The Lord keeps saying to my own heart, “You walk with Me. I will help you to understand the priority.” First things first. What really is most important?
“Lord, I cannot evaluate. I cannot establish out of my own reasoning. I would think this.” How many times He has had to readjust me.
But dissipation: I believe that lots of God’s children have sinkholes for their strength and their time. I have been saying to the Lord the last few days, “Lord, what are strangers? What are strangers? Give me an interpretation, a definition of a stranger.”
A stranger. I would like to believe I know what a brother is—those who need help—but strangers.
This has been something I have been aware of for years. I know what it is to have someone come into your life that you think you can help. I have spent hundreds and hundreds, sometimes maybe over a thousand, hours on a life—way into the night, all night long—until after three, four, five, six months, the Lord would say, “You face that person with the issue. Bring some things to a finality.”
Suddenly I would get a release.
But you see, my feelings, my sympathies in the natural, would be drawn by affinities. Are you following me?
God will have to interpret for you yourself the dissipations. I do believe there is something about putting first things first and a sharpening of our vision.
There are so many good things that can be done. I remember back in earlier days in the meetings, a Presbyterian lady was meeting God week after week. One night she came up to me and she said, “Well, praise the Lord, today I got rid of three clubs: the culture club, the—I forget what the other two were.”
I said, “Tell me.” She said, “They were just dissipation.”
Is there something wrong with the culture club, the garden club, the flower club? I guess not. But I kind of believe that God’s children who have that hunger within—“Oh God, first things, first things first”—are you following me?
“Lord, I cannot reason it out, and I surely cannot sit in judgment on anyone else. Everyone walks before the Lord. But Lord, deal with all these strangers.”
Your mind can try to figure it out. Your emotions can get all fired up. You can say, “I will go out tonight to get rid of some strangers.” But I believe, once again, with all of this, we are shut up: “Oh Lord, only You know who a stranger is.”
Honestly, we live way out about thirty miles. It is very hidden, and if anybody gets there, it is a miracle. We just had to sort of get away.
About every other day, a car rides in, and somebody says, “We were going by the interstate, and we saw Cloverdale, and we decided we’d stop and pick up some books and get acquainted.” When I look out the window, the first thing I say is, “Lord, another stranger.”
Now, I do not mean that in the wrong way. They are strangers, first of all, because I have never met most of them. Secondly, I ask, “Lord, are they a stranger that is going to…” You know.
So often, I have to admit, I walk down to the barn where we have our mailing, inwardly grumbling a little bit. When you leave a chapter or something you are studying or working on, you can murmur a little.
Only to get down there and find the Lord has sent someone along who is not a stranger—someone who, just at that time, needed an hour. There was such a flow and such a refreshing, and I went back really encouraged, really strengthened.
I have had to say over and over again, “Lord, only You know the strangers—what a stranger is. Only You know.”
There is that continual being shut up to the Lord. It is the only way. You can set out a little rule for yourself and get very legal about it, but “strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not.”
I believe we can say that Ephraim is one who is going to know a sharpening of focus: What is God really after? So many good things, helpful things, important things.
I have to thank the Lord for the increase of open doors. It seems like every week, almost every day, somebody phones long distance and wants a meeting someplace. Once the meetings were always small, and now they are getting big. It is such a temptation.
The Lord has been holding me to some of this. It is very personal, very real. Mixture. Dissipation. Knowing the sharpened thing that God is really after.
Well, finally, He says, “Gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.” I am glad this is not literal. I hope not. Gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
I have been saying, “Lord, what do gray hairs really mean? What does it mean that he is not aware of?”
I think maybe the Lord will interpret it differently to you, but He is saying to me it is just plain oldness, and he does not know it.
You know what I mean by oldness? Oldness is when you have lost the touch of freshness and livingness and that instant supply that the Holy Spirit gives.
I know what it is like through the years, at times, to open up the Book and say, “Oh, I read that chapter. I read that chapter. I think I know all that. I read that chapter.” Pretty soon you just go from page to page.
How many of you know what I am talking about? I am afraid you do. Oldness.
But I know what it is like to have the Holy Spirit quicken until the chapters you have memorized and know so well—when the Holy Spirit puts a quickening upon it, you wonder if you have ever really known it. That is newness, you see. That is freshness.
I believe God wants to give His children the spontaneity, the freshness, of a spring in our spirit. It is something to behold in some ways. No matter when you meet them, there is something fresh about them.
I have always marveled at some folk who seem to know that kind of intimacy and life with the Lord, that there is a freshness about them.
But I also know what it is like to just sort of go along in the oldness of things, and to have gone along so long that you do not know any different or any better.
Well, my burden for us is this tonight, and then I close. Beloved, God wants fruitfulness in our life, and I believe that fruitfulness can come if we will be careful with these things.
As Jesus put it in the beginning, if you will just go and learn this one thing: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” If we can get that across, then the rest becomes meaningful.
It is learning what? The inwardness of a life that is in fellowship with Him.
Tell Him tonight, “Lord Jesus, I want to walk with this kind of openness before You—a conscience cleansed by blood.” The enemy will always be coming in to accuse, but you can know the privilege of a conscience cleansed by blood, a heart that is not condemning, and honesty before Him.
I have been telling folks so much these days to be honest with the Lord. Is there a sense of failure today? Tell Him: “Lord, I failed You. I did not fly my flag that time. I had a real opportunity. I really did not stand and speak as I should. I have been ashamed.” I need to be open and honest—really open before the Lord.
I believe that He longs to be loved, and He wants that fellowship. Nothing else is more important. Nothing else.
When this is maintained, all fellowship, all service, all sacrifice flows out of this. It is something in the spirit before it is anything else.
When we learn this, He will keep us balanced. He will keep us from dissipation. He will keep us from oldness. I believe He will keep us from mixture.
Thank God, He is pruning and digging all around us to bring us to fruitfulness. I would like to believe it is harder than you think to miss it.
But I have to say there are so many of God’s children who get caught in just doing, working, sacrifice, burnt offerings, and He has called us to something else.
I pray that this is not just some knowledge tonight. In the next chapter, He says Israel is an empty vine. He comes to His vineyard and says, “What more could I have done to My vineyard that I have not done? I have digged, I have pruned—I have done all these things that I might have fruit.”
Let us make it personal for a little bit as we bow together.
Lord, I know in Jesus Christ You have touched Your Son, and we are in Him. He is at the right hand, in a privileged position of authority, even as Jacob touched Ephraim. All the prophecy of blessing was that there was to be fruitfulness through him. But Ephraim failed, and we see why.
Father, how we thank You that Your word comes to us with clarity. It comes to us with warning. It comes to exhort us, that we might be other. We just want to receive it tonight, Lord.
We want to know the inwardness of reality. We want to know mercy.
Lord, I think I have been so often like the priest and the Levite who looked at the poor fellow who was by the wayside. The good Samaritan came along—not professional at all—but he showed mercy.
Lord, when we read that as he was on the way, he saw, we just marvel that in our daily course, as we are in the way, You can help us to have a heart of mercy. Take away our professionalism.
All the religious world is full of professionalism today—those who are professional in their sacrifice, professional in their dedication. We despise it. We do not want to be a part of it.
We pray, Lord, that You will keep us from mixture. Whatever that means, interpret it to our lives in an individual way. We want purity. We want to be used. We want contact, but not complicity in the things of the world.
Lord, I pray that You will make it real, and You will spare us from our extremes. Lord, You know where we are raw tonight, where we have not really allowed the word to come in and search, and the word to really quicken and make us balanced.
We have all had certain sides of the word that we liked and other sides that we sort of bypassed. Oh, turn the searchlight of Your word tonight upon us, that we can be a cake in Your hands that is balanced.
You know what dissipation means to us. We pray for us, dear Lord. There are so many things we can spend our time on. We say we do not have time to read the word, but we read a lot of other things. We do not have time to pray in fellowship, but we spend so much time around the television or just waste it with unnecessary, frivolous things.
Lord, we want You to put the want within our hearts tonight. Forgive the bondage of just the law—what we ought to do. We are weary of that, but we want the wanting within. Oh, draw us, that we might come after Thee as we run.
Draw our hearts tonight, Lord, that there will be no dissipating our energies and our strength, but that we will be wholly drawn to Thee.
Keep us in freshness. Whether the gray hairs that we do not know about, dear Lord, we just claim that You will erase the oldness, that we can be without spot or wrinkle. We do not know what wrinkle really means, but Lord, we do not want the oldness of wrinkle. We want to be presented before You with the freshness of a bride for the Bridegroom.
So, Lord, make it very personal. Thank You for speaking to my own heart again tonight. Thank You, dear Lord. Seal it now. We give You the praise, the honor, and the glory.
We just wait. Maybe a couple of others would like to seal it in prayer with your own heart toward the Lord.
Praise the Lord.