God has called us to be like the Levites. We as believers in Christ are to spread out and share our faith. We are to lead people to salvation in Christ. He has given us a great way to show people their need for God in His Law. (1 Timothy 1:8; Romans 3:19-20)

Speaker(s): Pastor John Hadley, Pastor Muhib Khalfalla
Sermon 11814
6:30 PM on 1/5/2020

P. Muhib –

Good evening. Happy Blessed New Year. P. Hadley asked me how is married life? It’s good. Everywhere you go
people say “newlyweds.” It’s good. God gave me a vision to be newlyweds for life. If you’ve
been married for a long time, you are newlyweds. It’s an honor to be here before you. This
pulpit is an amazing place. From here the Word of God will be sounded out. I also said to P.
Hadley it is an honor to share the pulpit with him tonight and share the mind of God, to be
edified. Let’s pray and see what God has for us.

Are you ready for a journey? I love biblical journeys. This book is amazing. This is the mind of God. Genesis 18, God visited Abraham. I love this portion. In the garden, when God made Adam and Eve, he made them not to be earners but to be reflectors of truth. God did not design man to earn things. Man cannot earn. He will always
come short. God said I will make you in my image and you will reflect glory. We know the story.
Man fell into sin. God made the angels to be ministers. One-third of them fell. They wanted to
earn what they were not supposed to earn or get.

The devil wants to be above God. He is trying to be an earner, so he lost God. God is trying to tell us do not try to be an earner. It is given to you. Grace is free. God came to Abraham in Genesis 18. I would like you to be in the family. I’m going to reveal my heart to you. I’m going to give you insight. I can’t do things without revealing my
heart to you. There is something about to happen in Sodom and Gomorrah. It is not about what
is about to happen, but it is about me, God, the God of the universe revealing to you and having
you partake in this divine nature knowledge.

You’re not a common man. You are a human being made in my image. And now I’m revealing to you so you can be on the inside. I’m not making you a god; I’m making you a partaker, a reflector of truth. Let’s read the verse. I’m so excited about it, I got to read it. Here is the reasoning of God. God is saying to him, I’m revealing this to
you. Genesis 18:18-19. I know your potential to reveal my mind to your family. God is saying we
have the potential to reveal his mind to ourselves and our families and neighbors. You got this
Abraham. Abraham did a good job.

We have a written testimony. Romans 16:4 it’s written for our learning. Genesis 25, Abraham advanced in age and also in wisdom. In Gensis 24, he sent a servant to bring a wife for his son and that happened. Ge. 25 he sent all his children away and gave all he had to Isaac. There is so much wisdom here. There is this picture I am emptying myself. I’m giving you what I have as my son. We have families and we have little ones and they’re
precious. We give them all we have. This picture of the God of the universe who gave the Son.
We see this picture here.

Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. Isaac being like a picture of the church that receives and learning and growing in grace and knowledge. In Genesis 25, I’m seeing glimpses of Isaac getting the message. He said, Rebekah, my wife, you are barren. You are not able to bring forth children, but we can pray. Let’s read it. It’s beautiful. Vs. 21. “Pleaded,” the verbal from of the word is the word worship, to ask for grace. Isaac knew how to approach God.
He was asking what was rightfully his, grace. Isaac got it. The church got it. We have this inner
knowledge and we can ask for grace.Without grace, we cannot survive. He asked.

Genesis 25:22, I’m reading from NKJV. She’s a submissive wife, a receiver of love, a responder. She got the
message if all is well and God is answering our prayers and I’m having these two nations within
me and they are causing me sickness and suffering, I’m going to go back to God because he’s
the only one who can heal me. God giving Abraham inside knowledge, revelation. Abraham is passing the baton of faith to Isaac. He’s asking for grace. Rebekah gets the message.

She’s also asking God. A spiritual seed and the family gets bigger. Now we have Jacob and Esau and Jacob
has 12 sons. Let’s focus on Levi. Behind it all, God has a plan, a deep spiritual plan for us and it
has so many applications. Levi, violence dwells in your tent. God is saying I’ll call out Levi. Joshua
21:41, it’s amazing to discover the mind of God. To get that insight. God, where are you going
with this? What are you aiming for? Joshua 21:41. God is saying my mind is not given to just one
family. I have a plan. Vs. 41. Forty-eight cities.

The Levites were called out by God to minister before him. They were given authority to look in the book and reveal truth and explain the book. Nehemiah 8 Ezra did it. They were given authority to explain the Bible, to be a mouthpiece of God, to communicate truth. Forty-eight cities. In New Testament language, 48 churches or
congregations. God wants to spread them out among his people. He would like his mind to be
revealed in every corner. That is what is happening right now.

You might not think it, but you are doing it. You’re revealing the mind of God at your job place. He would like them to be living among the people and speak the gospel, spread the mind of God. It continues. They do a good
job and sometimes they fail. Nehemiah 8 Ezra opened the book and revealed truth. The other Levites
helping Ezra. We can claim that too. This is a spiritual application. It is happening in our lives
now. Thank you, Lord. This is amazing. In the beginning of our Bible, we have this exchange
between God and Abraham.

And in the book of Malachi, there is an exchange. If one book reveals the flesh of man, it’s the book of Malachi. Why do we have it in the Bible? God wants to reveal to us you do have flesh. The Levites were supposed to be in 48 cities and reveal the mind of God, but we see in Malachi their failure. God and Abraham in Genesis 18, I would like to reveal to you my mind. In Malachi, there is another exchange with God and the priests and the
governors. God, you haven’t loved us. There is this dispute between God and the people and
that grieves God. God spoke to me.

Where do you fall between the two exchanges? Are you the first one or the second one? For a second, I got worried. Where do I fall? God gave me comfort. He said you are my friend. You are like Abraham. Not just me. It’s all of us. Malachi 2, this is beautiful because it reveals the mind of God. Malachi 2, years of silence upon the nation. God
wants to reveal to them the flesh. The book is written after the exile, after they rebuilt the
temple. They did not learn from their cycles of discipline.

The flesh doesn’t learn. Only one answer is the cross. I’m going to be patient with you. I’m going to reveal the problem, your flesh. Are you willing to apply Galatians 2:20, not I but Christ in us. This is a vision God had of Levi in
vs. 5. God envisioned the Levites would be this way. You failed. There is only one high priest
who can fulfill this, Jesus Christ Jesus said you can claim what is rightfully yours. Open your
mouth and I will fill it. For the lips of the priest should keep knowledge. You open your mouth
and he fills you.

You’re capable of keeping the knowledge and sharing it. Vs. 7. This is what people are looking for. They are looking for truth. They are looking for friendship. I am the ultimate friend. You’ll never find a better friend than me. The theme is about being spiritually awake. God visited Abraham so he could be spiritually awake and share it and he did. Spiritually asleep when walking in my flesh. God is saying I’d like you to be fully awake so you can receive
and share.

This verse reveals the ultimate spiritual awakening we will ever experience. There is
no beyond it. Psalm 17 don’t you love the Bible, how God takes you and reveals things to you. Psalm 17, I love this verse. If you are to experience awakening, this is the ultimate one. Vs. 15. This is
heaven. Absent from the body, from this tent, present with the Lord. This is the ultimate
awakening. We share glimpses of little awakenings throughout our life, but this is the ultimate
one. We look forward to it. We don’t know when it’s going to happen.

The Levites, Abraham, Isaac they live their lives and had their portion in life. Just to encourage us, we are already
awake because we have the Holy Spirit. Walk in the Spirit and we will not fulfill the lusts of the
flesh. We walk by faith. Galatians  2:20 it’s not I, it’s Christ in us.

P. Hadley –

I know it’s Sunday night and you don’t want to stand but let’s stand and have a
prayer with someone.. Do we need revival? Come on. We need revival. Lord, send revival. Have
a New Year’s – today is the 5 th. It’s John 20:20. It says when the disciples saw him, they were
glad. We got to pray again. I want to talk about evangelism tonight. Evangelism. Say
evangelism. Say soul winning. Say passing out tracts. Say reaching out to someone. Walking on
the water and take a risk.

How are they going to respond? We don’t know but it’s always an adventure. Acts. 1:8, is the Holy Spirit. come upon you? He’s come into you, right? You shall be witnesses unto me everywhere. When is the last time you were able to share your faith? You don’t have to tell me. Just ask yourself. If you’ve gone soul winning with P. Scibelli, he’s a
colorful soul winner. You’re never sure what he’s going to say but he always has an answer,
something on target.

I have found soul winning sometimes to be challenging because all most
everybody is saved. Have you noticed? That’s the problem. It was a few weeks ago, I was on my
chaplain duty and we had a call. It ended up in a parking lot. These two guys were walking
through and I started talking to them. I told them I was a chaplain and we started talking about
church and spiritual things. I asked, are you believers?

Yes. Do you believe Jesus Christ died for your sins? Yes. So you’re going to heaven when you die? Yes, we’re going to heaven. Then it was why don’t you push it a little further. I said on what basis are you going to heaven? They
said basically I’m not perfect, but I do a lot of good things. I help people and help my neighbor.
Then they started talking about good things they did. I said Houston, we have a problem! You
don’t know the person so what are you going to say. God has given us a means by which we can
go where no man has gone, right into the heart of the matter.

It’s not like we have a spiritual stethoscope or x-ray machine. Actually we do. Talk to your neighbor. Way back in Proverbs, Proverbs 16:2 all the ways of man are clean in his own eyes. Pat yourself on your back! Most men
will proclaim his own goodness. So how can we do this? I think those in my class know the
answer. Don’t give it away. I’ll give you a hint. 1 Timothy 1:8, we know the law is good if a man uses
it lawfully. We know how it’s used unlawfully. It’s used unlawfully if I use it as a means by which
I think I can go to heaven.

The law saves nobody. The law is used lawfully when we use it as a
mirror to show people what they look like through the divine lenses, through God’s eyes. If we
go to the book of Romans. I’ll do this quickly. From 3:19-20, Paul lays this out how we can be
effective soul winners. We are frustrated so many times when we share the gospel. Yeah, I
believe, I sing in the choir. How can we get beyond that?

We can use what we have in our spiritual toolbox, the law. Romans 3, now we know, vs. 19. It’s written in our conscience, in our hearts. The law was given that every mouth may be stopped. What’s another word for stopped? Shut. Shut up. Who does it say shut up to? For example, the two guys I talked to in
the parking lot. I’m a good person and I do this or that. The law says be quiet. The law was given
to stop, to close every self-righteous mouth. That’s why it was given. That all the world, not just
Jews, all the world may become guilty before God.

The law is not the way to heaven. It’s to show us we are not making it. In particular, what part of the law? The moral law, the Ten Commandments, the decalogue. You can use one of those laws. It only takes one. Or you can
use many to ask somebody regarding those laws. I like to talk about this. What is the most
common one? I’m a good person. What do we call it? The good person test. You can ask them.
Can I give you the good person test. Usually they say sure, no problem. This is the best one to
start with. Have you ever even one time in your life told a lie?

They say and you can say don’t lie! They say of course everybody lies. Okay. Have you ever taken something that doesn’t belong to you? What do you call that? Stealing. You know how it goes. Have you ever taken the
Lord’s name in vain like oh my God or worse than that. I can’t lie. I’ve done that too. You can
give back to them the information they told you. You are telling me you’re a good person but
then again you are a lying, thieving, blasphemer. That is the purpose of the law. The law
worketh wrath.

All we can do is accumulate the wrath of God by breaking more of his laws. The law was given only to make matters worse. Can you believe that? It was given to make it really bad. Romans 7:7, the law woke up something in me. I thought I was a pretty good guy until the more I looked at the law, the more I saw myself. Romans 7. Working death by that which is good that sin by the commandment, the law, might become exceeding sinful. We got resources. Why not use the resources when needed. If someone is humble and ready very aware of their
sinfulness, there is no need to use the law. It’s done it’s work.

But the people who are stuck on “I’m a good person,” we have a tool we can use, and we should use it. Talk to your neighbor. What do you think about it? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:7, do you know what Paul called the law, the
administration of death engraved on stones. And it was glorious because it was a manifestation
of the holy standard of God. Moses’ face was shining like the sun and had to put a veil over his
face because he was freaking out the Israelites when he came down the mountain.

So, if the funeral is that glorious, what is the wedding going to be like? It’s going to be amazing. Galatians 3:23,
the law had us in custody. It wouldn’t let us go. The law was our school master to bring us to
Christ that we might be justified by faith. Lord, thank you for the law. The law condemned me.
The law showed me how wicked I was and that in no way shape or form could I please God. We
are no longer under a school master.

We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Spurgeon said there is no point on which men make greater mistakes than on the relation which exists between the law and the gospel. They go together. If we don’t need the law, we don’t use the law. If the job requires a bigger tool, take out the sledgehammer in love. Use the
law to show people how God sees them. They are already under the wrath of God. John. 3:18,
3:36 Martin Luther said the true function of the law is to accuse and kill but the function of the
gospel is to make alive.

George Whitfield, “Sinners must hear the thunderings of Mt. Sinai before we bring them to Mt. Zion.” Every minister must be a son of thunder as well as a son of consolation.” Wow. Right. D. L. Moody said the law can only chase a man to Calvary. No further.That’s the work of the law. Can we thank God for the Law? We are not under the law. We are under grace. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Psalm 19:7, The law of the Lord
is perfect, converting the soul. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you Lord. Being a soul winner, you go to Costa Rico. I saw P. Brent’s face somewhere. That brother is so faithful. If you went to Costa Rico, you better put your soul winning shoes on every day. Out there in the park doing his magic tricks and preaching the gospel, I was really touched by his faithfulness in evangelizing.
We’re not perfect at it. Just the other day, I was at the tractor store. Let’s hear it for the tractor
store! I love the tractor store. Something about tractors and nuts and bolts and grease guns.

I was in there getting something and I come out and there was this 1951 Ford, mint condition,
license plate on the front, all you former marines…. I’m out there looking at it and this older
man comes out. This farmer kind of guy and I’m lining him up. I’m going to share the gospel
with him. I kept saying something and he would cut me off and then talk. He gets into the car,
starts it, and drives off. I’m there, okay, Lord, I really wanted to talk to him. I’m on my
motorcycle.

I go next door to McDonalds. I’m going to have a senior coffee, 95 cents, tax included at McDonald. I’m in there drinking and I have my little counseling book. This is McDonald’s senior coffee and a book, a real book with pages. I’m in there reading it. The guy comes up to the end of the table. I see him standing there and he goes, is that your bike? He said that’s a nice bike. He said I had a – and he told me what he had. I’m there, okay. Cool.
That’s great. He’s talking a little more and then walks away.

Then it dawns on me. John, you are a knucklehead! Here’s this guy a half hour ago, and you’re trying to talk to him, and he drives off and you are there, Lord, give me another chance. I sent someone to you, and you didn’t give
him the time of day. That didn’t make me feel so good, but it happens, doesn’t it? I’m saying we
are a church known for evangelism. Let’s make 2020 a great year for evangelism. God is all over
it. That’s why we are here. We are witnesses and have been given power to give the gospel. If
need be, use the tools because God has provided.

Amen.

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