HGM FOR 18 OCT 16 (WITHOUT MARGIN NOTES)

WILDERNESS TRUTHS FOR MODERN TIMES-37
TEXT: "Let all things be done decently and in order." (I Corinthians 14:40)

I. DIVINE ORDER

       A. "Order" was God's delivery to the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Sinai. There God gave order to the worship and the life of these people. Order was given to their manner of eating, their traveling. It seems that in the Wilderness of Sinai everything was set in order. So it is true in our lives, that when the Lord leads us to the wilderness it is to set us in order. Not punishment, but order. There is a difference.
      B. Looking in retrospect from our time, we can see the New Testament set in order in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Redemption is set in order in type in the Tabernacle. This would not be difficult for God to do, since redemption was set in order before the foundations of the earth. Order! Order! Order! God is still pounding His gavel calling for order.
     C. Truth is not helter-skelter. Truth has as much if not more order and arrangement than we find in nature itself. And the truth, entering and working in our lives, will bring divine order to our living and doing. Truth regulates and relegates, adjusting each item and bringing it to its assigned slot.
     D. Truth makes us what we ought to be and puts us where God wants us to be. It is divine order and is often contrary to our own order. It's divine order, apart from which nothing endures.
     E. If our lives is to fulfilled with God's intention it must come under that which God has ordained or ordered. Our inner life cannot be in disarrangement and you still be effective in the service of God. When God first finds us we are out of order. He must take time to tear us apart, if we are not already torn apart. Next He must reassemble us in proper order, His order. He brings us to the wilderness for this job.
      F. It would make God's task of getting us in order much easier if we could learn well some of the principles of order from the revealed Word of God. For example, learn that evening comes before morning in God's arrangement. This is the first of God's order revealed to us. "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." (Genesis 1:5) Night comes before day.
     G. Joy does not come first in God's well-ordered truth. In God's order sorrow is before joy. Esther said, "As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into" (Esther 9:22) "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." (Psalms 126:5) Some may not be willing to learn God's proper order from the revealed Word of God. Maybe they will learn correct arrangement in the wilderness school. But even there some do not learn. This may lead to death in the wilderness.
     H. Disorder brings nothing but confusion, defeat, and ultimate death. Thus it is extremely important that we pay close attention to God's order. Learning God's divine order and adjusting to it will lead to victory and abundant living.
     I. Just because we are brought into the wilderness to learn, does not guarantee our success. Success is not guaranteed by any particular arrangement which God brings about.
     J. Jesus died for the world. Does that guaranteed by the world will be saved? That which God provides is absolutely necessary for success. But that which guarantees the success God intends is a person's relationship to God's provision.
     K. Obedience to the will of God guarantees success! Even though Israel was delivered from Egypt and called by God to possess the Promised Land this did not guarantee their success. Their obedience was lacking.
     L. God may call you into His service, but that in itself does not mean that you will fulfill it. This is why Peter urges us, "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things,[obedience] ye shall never fall[the guarantee]:" (II Peter 1:10)

II. PARTING THOUGHTS

    A. In our learning of God's arrangement we do not have to see the whole beginning to end in order to experience victory in our lives. But we must align ourselves to that which we know God is requiring and move with it in His timing.
    B. If we do not understand what order is we at least will have a great advantage if we become obedient to what we know and what God is requiring. If a child had to understand everything about his food and his digestive system before he could eat they would die.
    C. Although understanding in the spiritual realm it through obedience. Obedience not understanding is our guarantee for success.