Treasures In Wisdom - Part Eleven

Treasures in Wisdom

by Gene Hawkins

Part 11

transcribed & edited by larry2 from CD's at Living Waters Tabernacle Church Youth Camp 1997

Now we're going to close with this thought. I'm giving you just a little bit of time so you can meditate on this before we come back, and then hopefully I will be able to expound on it a little bit more tomorrow.(Romans Chapters 6, 7 & 8) are such a wonderful expression of what we are talking about here. (Romans Chapter 6) gives us the truth of our death, burial, and resurrection with Christ, and so God says to us in (Romans 6:11), "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin." You see the word "Likewise" is used there." Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin." What the word "Likewise" means here is that you are to reckon like God does. God says this is true and your responsibility is just to believe it. You may not feel it, and you may not understand it yet, but reckon like God does that you have died unto sin. That’s a fact as far as God is concerned, so accept God's fact.

Then you go to (Romans Chapter 7) and you ask, what in the world did I do wrong? Here is Paul and He reckoned with God in (Romans Chapter 6), then in (Romans Chapter 7), oh my word, the good that I would, I do not. Whatever I didn't want to do, that’s exactly what I do. We have this awful battle, and we think we are going backwards. No, you see God is simply processing that in our lives.

Then in (Romans Chapter 8) we read how that (1) "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." (2) The law of the spirit of life has made me free from the law of sin and death." What Paul believed in (Romans Chapter 6), and had a battle with experimentally in (Romans Chapter 7) became a reality in (Romans Chapter 8), and that’s the pattern that God uses throughout our lives. Don't be surprised whenever you accept the truth of God's word, if the next experience you're going to go through is what I refer to as a battle royal. I've known some that have accepted the truth of rock music, and some of these other things that we have noticed, and the next step was they had one tremendous battle on the inside, but the next step is like Paul says in the last part of (Romans Chapter 7). "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord," and I believe I'll try to expound a little bit more tomorrow in (Romans Chapters 6, 7, & 8), but you have that little outline (Included here as you read through this booklet), so hopefully we can go forth rejoicing in the wisdom of the Lord.

We are just finishing up man's spirit and wisdom, as the key there is (1 Corinthian 1:30). "Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and (Even) righteousness (Which applies to the spirit), and sanctification (The soul), and redemption (The body). God must work directly in our spirit because that’s where everything begins. I said what we believe will ultimately be translated into our lives, and so God wants us to believe that which is right.

(Romans 12:2) is the reference: "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed (How?) by the renewing of your mind," and of course our mind before we are born again, before we yield to the Lord, and before we learn the word of God simply runs in the channels of the world. That’s the reasoning, and so if God is going to change us, He doesn't just reach down and zap. Sometimes people like to think that you know, just zap me, but God's changing is a process. (Ephesians 2:10) We read that we are "Created in Christ Jesus," and so God took seven days to create the world. Well, you see He also takes a process of time to create us spiritually, and so He is doing that throughout this church age. He's making this spiritual creation, and it begins by renewing your mind.

I want to stop here just a moment, and speak a little bit to those who feel like that God has called them into the ministry, and I constantly tell our people at home that there are no useless members in the body of Christ. God has a ministry for every one of you, and so what I'm saying here is actually going to apply to everybody, though all may not minister officially, so to speak in a pulpit or something like that. There are three things that you need to remember. God calls to the ministry, God prepares for the ministry, and then God sends to the ministry. Now, the great problem that people overlook, is they want to jump over from the call part to the sent part, and the part that we're talking about today is the prepared part. You are going to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is the preparation and there is no substitute for any of us, there is no substitute for learning God's word. This is the way God renews our minds, and I do not care who we are talking about. Whether we are talking about personal lives, or whether we are talking about ministries or what, we are only renewed, changed, and transformed as God renews our minds. I want to give just a few examples here of those that were called, but we see specifically that God prepared them before He sent them out. In other words, God transformed them by the renewing of their minds.

Moses had a desire to deliver the children of Israel the day he killed the Egyptian, but that wasn't God's way. God took him to the backside of the desert for forty years to prepare him, and then He sent him back. You see the call, the prepared, and the sent.

David was anointed to be the king of Israel at sixteen or seventeen years old, but you see he suffered many years in the wilderness before he was finally exalted to the throne. Called, then prepared in the wilderness, and then sent to the throne.

Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul. We read his testimony in the book of Galatians. He was saved, he was called and God told him that, but then he went three years into the wilderness into Arabia, and learned a new message before God sent him to the ministry to the Gentiles.

Peter was called of course, but God had much work to do in him as he walked with Jesus. He had some personal things that had to be worked out, and then he was sent.

And then there was Joshua. I want to bring out a couple of points here, because they tell us of the tremendous things that God wants to do, and how He wants to do it in our lives. (Joshua 1:5-8) We're not going to cover all of that, but I just want to notice a couple of specifics. (Joshua 1:7) This is God speaking to Joshua after Moses is gone, and God is saying to him, (Joshua has already been called, and prepared in great measure) "Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee," and I want to notice how personal God got with that. He doesn't say the law according to what Moses, my servant commanded Israel, but what Moses, my servant commanded thee. Joshua had the benefit of a one on one experience with Moses down through these times, but now God speaks directly to Joshua. Yes, Moses had given the law to all of Israel, but we are speaking just specifically of Joshua. What I'm talking about here is that when God prepares for the ministry, he speaks to the individual and it's not just a general thing. It is a personal thing where that if I'm going to be used of God, I'm going to have to set up as though the only ones around were me and God, and He is instructing me. Again I say, there is absolutely no substitute for that structured disciplined study of the scripture.

God uses many things in many people for this preparation. I shall ever eternally be grateful for my mentors, as I'm speaking of brother and sister Smith who were so faithful to their calling. They were teaching when they didn't even know they were teaching. God was transforming me through their lives, when they didn't even know it, and the eternal reward for that belongs in the hands and the mind of God, but I personally feel such an appreciation. I know others have had people that they have that kind of a tie to, and you'll find here that Moses was Joshua's personal mentor, and he learned those lessons well. There are others that God has used in my life. I had teachers who were faithful to teach the word of God without charge the way we continue to do today, and they rejoiced in what they were doing, and then I had a family, and I shall ever be grateful for that family.

I received the call of God when I was seventeen years old. I knew that God had given me a gift of preaching, and other people knew exactly the same thing. Some had the idea that well now, with a gift like that you don't even need anything else. Don't ever fall for that foolishness and I began to preach the gospel, and back in that day the more nervous I became, the faster I talked. You can check this out with former synthesis students and you'll find that to be true. When I began and nervous as I was, I could probably give you a fifteen minute sermon in two and one half to three minutes. Well, at that time, I didn't have fifteen minutes worth of material, and so I would give my message and then realize, neither the preacher nor the congregation wants to go home after this, so I'd say the same thing in a different way. I'd build these people up to make the point, and the point was always the same, and I was feeling a little insignificant, inefficient and so forth. When you do that, then you try to seek compliments, or reinforcement from someone else, and so I went to my little brother and asked him, what do you think of these messages? Gene, all you do is preach around in circles, and that isn't what I wanted to hear, and so I decided to go to a higher authority. My brother don't know anything anyway, so I went to my dad and said, Jerry tells me that I just preach around in circles almost in tears. Well, you sure do repeat yourself a lot! Now, I say that because that is exactly what God used to prepare and tell me young man, if you're going to preach the word of God, you're going to have to know the word of God. There was the commitment to go to bible school and to learn God's word, and once again there is no substitute for that.

And so, we find that Joshua received this one on one experience with Moses, then you will notice in (Joshua 1:8). "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night," and there is no substitute for that kind of meditation if we are going to be prepared for what God wants to do, both in us and through us. Take it seriously when God says that (Romans 12:2) "We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds." What He does is reveal that message and truth to our spirit, translates that into our everyday lives and experience, then "We can prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." That simply means that we graduate as we learn this message and He reveals it to our spirits, then we prove outwardly, we prove in experience, and we prove by actual putting it to the test, "The good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." It’s a matter of growth, and no one is just going to go from the very base to the absolute perfect. We learn as we go along, and we prove it by experience.

In Jesus' name - larry2

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