"Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister (serve to bring up) questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith " (1Tim. 1:4)

Invisible Struggles - April 6, 2023 - Dr. David Antion

You know, in life, in my practice, I have seen people struggling with certain issues, struggling, of course, in my ministry. I've seen people hovering over, struggling with a loved one. I myself did it.

Struggling for healing, struggling for the answer. Which way do we go? Do we do this or do we that? Do we do that? If God would just tell me which way to go, I would go in that direction. If God would tell me what to do, I would do that.

And then they want an answer, some kind of, well, miraculous thing. Against all odds, against everything else, can God perform some kind of a miracle? And so on. We all like that.

And of course, miracles in the first age of the church were done to conform, to make God's private onto those who were carrying his message. If you remember, the disciples of John came to Jesus and they said, are you he that is to come, or should we look for somebody else? And Jesus said, you don't want us to go tell John what you've seen here the lame walk, the death here. That wise, see? And the Gospel is being preached to the poor.

Why don't you tell them what's happened? And blessed to see that's not offended in me. So they were going to go away and talk about this. And yet we know in the book of Isaiah, chapter 45 and verse 15, god speaks to Isaiah.

And Isaiah said, truly, you are a God who hides Himself. O God of Israel, Savior, you hide yourself. Yeah.

Oh, God. We don't see God. We don't walk around and shake hands with God and put our arms around God.

Let's go take a walk. Let's go have lunch now. God is a God who hides himself.

And therefore a lot of what we are asking for is really invisible to us. And yet God did enormous things. Enormous things.

And this is what Moses said in a rehearsal of Israel's. Mistakes and sins and troubles and rebellions. I want to read it to you.

It's only a few verses in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter one, dropping down to verse 29. This is what Moses said to the people. Then I said to you, do not be shocked nor fear them.

The Anakin, remember, were supposed to go in and take the land and they were afraid. These people are really big. These people are really strong.

I don't think we could do it. And then Moses said, the Eternal, your God who goes before you will himself fight on your behalf, just as he did for you in Egypt. Right before your eyes, these people saw the plagues.

They saw everything. And in the wilderness, where you saw how the eternal your God carried you, just as a man carries his Son in all the way in which you have walked until you came to this place. But for all of this, all the miracles, all the things you did.

Listen, this is really a condemning verse. Deuteronomy One, verse 32, but for all this you did not trust the Eternal, your God, who goes before you on your way to seek out a place for you, to encamp in fire by night, cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. So they still didn't trust God.

And you'll remember on this day, the first day of Passover, the first day of unleavened bread, prior to this day, prior to last night, god brought all kinds of plagues. If you read from chapters one through twelve of Exodus, you'll see the Nile was turned into blood. They had fish die, the water was unfit to drink.

There were frogs, then there were insects, then there were gnats, and then there were lice, and then there were flies, and then there were swarms of insects. Then there were diseases of the cattle, then there were boils, then again there was hail, then there were swarms of locusts. And finally, there was darkness.

And following all that, here came the death of the firstborn which God predicted. They were through all this. Now, during all those times, what did God say about Pharaoh? I will harden Pharaoh's heart.

He will not let you go. He's going to see one thing after another and then we're going to relieve it. And then it's not going to happen.

Then he's going to go to the next thing, okay, you can go. And then it stops. And then he says, oh well, no, I've changed my mind.

The guy's got to clean up all this stuff. And then he said, okay, next thing you know, every time. But I'm going to propose to you something else.

Who else was being hardened? Pharaoh was hardened. Who else was being hardened? The children of Israel were having hardened hearts. One Corinthians, chapter ten, verse eleven, said, now all these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

So they saw the miracles. They even saw the greatest one, which I usually attribute to the last day of unleavened bread. But they crossed the sea, they were delivered from the Egyptians.

They saw that the waters were swept back. It's incredible things that they saw. And in Deuteronomy chapter nine, verse 29, he talks about, you brought them out with your great power and outstretched arm.

God brought the children out of Egypt. So not only did they come out of it, but they actually heard God's voice, heard it. You see it here in Exodus chapter 19, verse nine, the Eternal said to Moses, behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear what I speak with you and may also believe in you forever.

Then Moses told the words of the people to the people. That's Exodus 19, verse nine. In Exodus 20, verse 18, all the people perceived the thunder, the lightning flashes, and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood in the distance.

Well, I think I would too. I probably would just say, Man, this is scary. This whole mountain is quaking.

This whole mountain is on fire. It looks like it's scary. John, in the Book of Revelation, every time the angel spoke to him, he was just he was like terrified.

He wanted to fall on his knees toward the divine. And then the angel would say, stand up. Don't worship me.

Worship God. So they saw this. They perceived this.

Moses said to the people, do not be afraid, for God has come in order to test you. This is Exodus, chapter 20 and verse 20. He's come in order to test you and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you so that you may not sin.

This is Exodus 20, verse 20. So they saw it. They saw the plagues.

They saw things happen. They now saw, you know, they're being, you know, taken out of Israel. They, you know, they got what they wanted.

You know, they asked the Egyptians, and God granted them a favor. They got all the stuff. Now you come to Deuteronomy.

We're going to read Deuteronomy Five, beginning in verse 23. So here's Moses again, talking to the people here, explaining to them what they went through and how important it was that they believed in God. But here's what he says in Deuteronomy five, verse 23.

When you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me. All the heads of your tribes and your elders, all got together in this voice, speaking these words, and they go to Moses. And what do they say to Moses? You said to me, behold the eternal.

Our God has shown up us his glory and his greatness. And we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire. And we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he lives.

Man lives. Now then why should we die? They're still afraid to die. God's going to kill us for this great fire will consume us.

How misinterpreting they are of this situation. They totally misinterpret. God.

Here. God's going to kill us. God's going to destroy us.

And he said, Why should we die? This great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the eternal, our God, any longer, then we will die. After all that God did, I'm going to save you.

I'm going to bring you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. I'm going to sever you from the plague, spare you from the firstborn, spare you from this.

But if we hear God's voice again, we're probably going to die. I mean, you talk about misinterpreting. So in verse, chapter five of Deuteronomy, now dropping down to verse 26.

For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire as we have today and lived? Now, what? Where did they ever get anything at all about anybody dying from hearing the voice of the living God out of this fire? Where did they ever get that? Where did they ever see anybody die from hearing God's voice? And yet they were convinced that they were going to die. Verse 27 Deuteronomy 527. Go near and hear all that the Eternal, our God, says.

They're telling Moses, and speak to us all that the Eternal, our God, speaks to you, and we will hear it and do it. You go, Moses, you go up and you get it. Come back and tell us, and we will do it.

Okay? The eternal heard the voice. Now, verse 28. The Eternal heard the voice of your words.

Now, Moses, recounting this. He's going back in time. When you spoke to me, and the Eternal said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this person which they have spoken to you.

They have done well in all that they have spoken. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep my commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons, their children forever. Now, that was Deuteronomy, chapter five.

They totally misunderstood, and completely exaggerated the dangers of hearing God's voice. They told Moses, we don't want to hear it. How many people would just give everything if God would say to them, this is God speaking, and just do this? They had it.

They refused it. They didn't want it. They turned from it.

Now, notice Deuteronomy, chapter 18. It talks about verse 15. There will be a prophet like unto me.

This is Deuteronomy 18. But the main point I want to make is in verse 60, the Eternal, your God, will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen. You shall listen to him.

Deuteronomy 18, verse 15. Now, notice verse 16. This is according to all that you asked of the Eternal, your God in horrible on the day of the assembly, when God spoke the Ten Commandments, on the day of the assembly, you said, he's telling you here's what they were saying.

Let me not hear again the voice of the Eternal, my God. I don't want to hear it. Let me listen again.

Two things. I don't want to hear God's voice again. The other thing, I don't want.

I don't want to see this great fire anymore. I don't want to see the fire on the mountain. And what were they led by cloud, by day, what did they go by night, pillar of fire by night?

I don't want to see it. Anymore. I don't want to see this miraculous God manifesting himself to us.

I don't want to see it anymore. Most people would say, Man, I would love to see it. I would love to be there.

I would like to hear God's voice. I would like to hear this would be one of the most unbelievable situations in my life ever for me to hear the voice of God, for me to see the fire of God, to see his awesomeness. They said, no, don't let us hear it.

Don't let us see it. Yeah, so many people. I wish God would tell me what to do.

I wish God would show me. I wish God would manifest himself. I wish I knew that I was on the right track with God and so on.

And they would like to have external signs, but they're not going to get it. Okay? Yeah. Many of us, look around the world, we see evil, we see injustice, we see hate, we see racial prejudice, we see animus against one group, against another, even against genders, and so on.

We see all this stuff and we say, well, why doesn't God punish these evil things? People who molest little kids and people who rape women and people who take advantage of others. There are some bad people running around, okay, not many, but seems like the bad people get around a lot, but they're always around. Why doesn't God punish them? God should punish them, right? God says he does.

Deuteronomy seven and Verse ten. But God repays those who hate him to their faces. This is Deuteronomy seven, verses ten and eleven.

God repays those who hate him to their faces to destroy them. He will not delay him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.

Therefore, you shall keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today to do them. I'll drop, all the way down to chapter seven here in a second, too. God's going to retain them.

We wanted that. Everybody wants that. But then they rejected God's presence, rejected his voice.

Deuteronomy seven, verse 19. The great trials which your eyes saw that's an amazing statements. The great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the eternal your God, the ever-living God, Yahweh, brought you out.

You saw it. So shall the eternal your God do to all the peoples of whom you shall whom you are afraid God will do it to them. God loves you.

God's going to take care of you. God's going to be with you. But they said no.

How do we know? Wouldn't you like to be able to have a situation where, you know, this is the guy that this is the person you should listen to? They were there. Who should we listen to? This guy? Should we listen to this person? Should we listen to that person? In Jesus' day, there were so many false messiahs, false prophets, and so on, and Jesus warned them, don't go wrong running off to every false prophet. But in Moses' day, he said this.

Do you remember Aaron's Rod? Aaron had a rod. And what did it do? It blossomed. It budded, rather.

First had buds on it, then it blossoms. And what was that about? That was to show whom God had chosen. So they even had proof.

This is the person don't turn away. This is the person, Aaron's Broad, that butted. This is numbers.

Now, 17, I'm just going to read verse five. And the rod of the man whom I choose shall sprout thus I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the people of Israel, which they murmur against you. I'm going to cease them.

So here's Moses, they're murmuring against him. They're murmuring against them, and God's going to give them a sign. This is the person that you're going to listen to, the person who's Aaron's rod that's butted, listen to that miraculous.

I want to read that in the new international version. The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites. He's talking to Moses.

Talking to Aaron. He'll sprout. And you'll say, this is the guy that we're supposed to listen to.

Did they listen? So during the time that Pharaoh's heart was being hardened by seeing these plagues and one after another, the Israelite's hearts were being hardened. Now, can you imagine? You would see this great fire, you would see this pillar of fire by night, this great fire on the mountain, and you say, I don't want to see that anymore. I don't want to see that.

Stop it. So God said, okay, you don't want a miracle. You don't want to hear.

You don't want to see this. Well, stop it. People would give everything today.

You say, well if I could have been there, I wouldn't have felt like that. Are you sure? Are you sure? Are your emotions sure? Are you sure? No, we're not always sure. Okay? Not always sure.

Now, at the end of Moses' time, he wanted to warn the people. So you see this big warning, giant warning in chapter 31 of Deuteronomy. Here it is, Deuteronomy 31.

I'm going to drop down to verse 16. The Eternal said to Moses, behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers, and the people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land. Now, that's got to be one of the most discouraging things in the world.

Moses fought, working, trying to show them who God was. The ever-living God speaks to me out of the burning bush, and then I follow his laws and follow his ways, and he released us from Egypt. And I had to go through all this with you and now at the end of my life, all that I've done to serve you people is what Moses is saying at the end.

Here's. What God's saying? Okay, let me read it. The eternal said to Moses, this is Deuteronomy 31, verse 16.

Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Happens to all of us. Arnie just lay down with his fathers.

And these people will arise and play the harlot with strange gods of the land into the midst of which they are going. And they will forsake me, meaning God, and they will break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them on that day.

And I will forsake them and hide my face from them. And they will be consumed. And many evils and troubles will come upon them.

So that they will say in that day, is it not because our God is not among us? Because that these evils have come upon us? But I will surely hide my face on that day because of all the evil which they will do, and they will turn to other gods. Now, therefore, write this song and you see the song of Moses in chapter 29. I won't read it.

It's all Hebrew poetry, but it's beautiful. It's talking about how they will they have forsaken the rock, the rock that followed them, the rock that was there. They forsake it.

They don't want that rock. They don't want it. They want to go to other things.

And now Moses writes in chapter 31, dropping all the way down to verse 29. I won't read it all, but just verse 29. You'll see it.

Here it is. Deuteronomy 31 verse. For I know that after my death you will act corruptly.

You will turn from the way which I have commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days, for you will do that which is evil in the sight of the eternal, provoking him to anger with the work of your hands. Wow, what an indictment and a prediction that they are not going to stay faithful. They are not.

They're going to depart. After all the miracles, after all the signs, after all, that they've been through, after the terrible slavery, after God's appearing and wanting to take them out, they're going to leave. And so what happened to them? Well, within a couple of generations after Moses, what happened? The people had descended into anarchy.

You remember these phrases and there was no king in Israel. And everybody did that which was right in his own eyes within a couple of generations. Didn't take very long.

They did pass along all this miraculous stuff. Did they pass it on? How could they not tell their kids and tell the generation, you never saw anything like this? You never saw a mountain glow.

The voice of God's, voice of God to us talking to us. You never saw anything like it. You kids.

We have to stay with this. We can't leave god. We can't leave the way God is.

So evidently you have a holy God, but you don't have a holy people. How can a holy God live with sinful people? But then we reverse it. How can sinful people live with a holy God? They're incompatible.

If you're going to go and pursue the way of sin, how are you going to live with this holy, almighty God, this figure of so much truth and righteousness and holiness? How can you live with that if you're an evil person? But also so you have this passage in Isaiah, chapter 33, dropping down to verse 13. You who are far away, hear what I have done and you who are near, acknowledge my might. This is God speaking to Isaiah.

Sinners in Zion are terrified, trembling has seized the Godless. Who among us can live with a consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning? And this is the kind of God that he is. He's got so much zeal, so much power, so much force for the right.

So we can't something has to happen. Oh, that there was such a heart in them that they would love me and keep my commandments. Something had to change.

Either we have to change or God has to change. Okay, I'll put up with evil, do whatever you want. Go to other gods, do everything and don't, and don't worry about it, it'll be okay.

Or we have to change. Something has to happen in us. You read it in One John, chapter three.

One John three, verse two. Beloved, now we are the children of God and it has not yet appeared as it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when he appears this is One John three, verse two.

We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. We will be like him. How are we going to get there? How do we get there? We are fallible.

Well, we have to have been covered with God's mercy and grace. That has to change us. And God has provided a way through the legal system, through the legal way of a forensic system that we now come under a certain thing, a certain way.

And God is willing to do that because there was no heart in them that they would do it. He has had to change our hearts. He's given us a new heart.

He's giving us a new spirit. He makes us different from the way we were. And this is what is embedded in what we call Christian conversion, Christian newness of life, a Christian change of life.

I commit to Jesus Christ and have given him my mind and my soul, my heart, and I become a new person. We become people that have been made new, not the same people that the Israelites were not the same people that we were at one time in our lives. So we have to be changed, and we are.

And so we read this passage from the book of Romans. It's a very important one, but let me read it. You are not under the law but under grace.

Okay? Now, when you say that phrase, this is from the book of Romans, you are not under the law. Now, we had a terrible misunderstanding of that statement. We thought it meant you are not under the penalty of the law.

That's not what it means. You are not under the law. You see, you can have two different masters.

Who's your master? When we use the word, Lord Jesus, what does that mean? It means he's our master. He owns us. And the word Lord in Greek is the word curios.

Curios. But it means the owner. He owns you, he's your Lord.

And Jesus said, even at his time there in the Gospels, why do you call me Lord? Lord? You keep calling me Lord. Lord. You won't do what I say.

What was the point? Don't call me Lord if you're not going to do what I say. And then he said another phrase. Not everyone that calls me Lord will enter the kingdom of God.

That doesn't count for anything. So when you say he is our Lord, we mean he is our owner. He owns us, he purchased us with his blood.

We are now people made new to Him, and through conversion. Okay, so you are not under the law. The law is over here.

That's one master, Christ is over here, that's another master. It doesn't mean you don't have to do the law. I'm just saying you're not under the law.

The law doesn't direct my life. Jesus Christ is the one I want to direct my life. He's my Lord, he's my master.

So you read here the apostle Paul's writings, and let me read it in the book of Romans. Romans, we live in a world of evil, but God made a rainbow. Do you remember the rainbow thing? That shows that he is bound to continue with human beings and regardless of their evil.

That's what that rainbow did. If God then in all his holiness, can live with us, can't we live with one another? That's the other thing. So what it means here's reading Romans, chapter six, verses twelve through 15.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust. Don't let it. And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead.

You've come back alive and your members as instruments now of righteousness to God. So whatever we are, our hands, feet, toes, genitalia, everything, everybody, brain, lips, mind, nose, ears, our members are they represented to God as instruments of righteousness. We're not using it for evil.

And then there is verse 14, Romans six. For sin shall not be master over you. For you are not under the law, but under grace.

That's the only way that you can come before a holy God and stand before him is that you have to stand under that grace. You're not under that law. The law is not your master.

Jesus Christ is your master. He bought you back from your sins, which are your broken laws. What then shall we say? Shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? Paul said, well, of course.

Don't be silly. Of course not. May it never be.

But here's what happens. Let's suppose you made a very big mistake in the Old Testament time. You decided you were going to go out and pick some firewood.

It was the Sabbath. You were cold. You thought I'd do it.

They caught you. What did they do with you? Stoned you? I was against the wall. Do you get another chance to observe the Sabbath? Right? No.

You're a dead person. See you. Tough luck.

We didn't do it for you. We did it for the first people around you. They don't want him.

Henry was out picking wood on the Sabbath. I better not do that. They killed him.

Too late for Henry. He didn't learn a thing. He doesn't do anything.

He doesn't come back. You and I have made mistakes, but we are under grace. We have a shot.

We have a chance to say, no, I'm not going to do this. Not going to do it anymore. I'm going to quit.

I want to stop this. I want to change my way. I want to change my attitude.

I want to change my life. I want to change my mind. I want to change my heart.

I want to change who I am. And I can't do it except under God's grace. God's grace gives you another shot, another chance to be what you were, not to be what you would want to be, but have not been so far.

That's what it means. You are not under the law but under grace. God's covering you so that you can be what you might never have been.

The Israelites never had covered with grace. They were not, so they left. They went this way and that.

But we now know that because of God's wonderful grace. And didn't we sing that song just a few minutes ago? Amazing grace changed our lives, made us into something completely wonderfully different. And the fact that God could use that grace to change you and your mind and your heart.

Today, I am a tribute to his marvelous glory and his eternal planning.