|
| |
|
|
Sound of Liberty
7286 Hwy 53 West
Dawsonville,
GA
30534
|
|
|
|
| |
The Rule
Book and the Ox in the Ditch
|
|
Message Transcribed From
Audio Tape 421
Preached On February 09, 1992
By Brother Ben Howard
I will begin in Deuteronomy, Chapter 23:2. The
title of the message is “The Rule Book and The Ox in
the Ditch”. You will see as we go along why we are
entitling it what we are.
Now, when the Ox gets in the ditch that’s when grace
takes over. I heard one of the politicians on the
news this week say, “The ox in the ditch (concerning
the economy), something has to be done. In other
words, they had to do something besides the normal
trend of things. So that is going to be the title of
our thought. Just before reading in Deuteronomy, let
us bow our heads in a word of prayer. “Heavenly
Father, in the Name of Jesus, Lord, we thank you for
your love, goodness and mercy upon us. We thank you
for your power, your blessings, and for saving us from
sin. I pray God, that you will just bless each one of
us, and may we receive that which you’ve carefully
prepared and ordained for us to receive. I pray
Lord, that you will anoint me to speak the Word, and
anoint the ones that will hear and read this message.
We give you praise for it in Jesus Name. Amen.
Now let me say this before reading. The Ox got in
the Ditch in the Book of Genesis, just when God
started this thing out. He gave man rules to live by,
whereby men could live forever, but it didn’t go that
way very long until ole slewfoot, satan, came by in
the serpent, and caused Adam and Eve to sin. Ever
since then, we have had to rely heavily upon the grace
of God, even though God has a Rule Book. He has the
Bible, and He lays out what would please Him, the way
that man should live to please Him. What I want you
to note is that most of the time man never did live
after the principles and laws of God for a certain age
very long, until it got all out of kilter, and God had
to reach in and use divine intervention. God said in
Genesis, “The day you eat thereof, that day you shall
die” (speaking of the forbidden fruit). Well, satan
got Adam and Eve to sin, but he could not see the
grace of God. They did not fall dead immediately,
because God had said, “The day you eat thereof, that
day you shall die.” We want to note, that in the Word
of God that one day with the Lord is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day. Nobody has
ever lived a day yet since Eden, because God said,
“The day you eat thereof, that day you shall die.”
Methuselah lived to be 969 years, but there is coming
a millennia day when man will live that one thousand
years. He will live that full day. Christ will rule
for one thousand years and no one will die except
those that disrespect God’s ways. In the eternal age,
after the millennium, there will be no curse or death
to anyone, because we are back into eternity again.
I want you to notice in the Word of God how God
laid down certain rules, and then certain conditions
came up, and God’s grace caused that to be
overridden. He would move in a special way, even to
override the Rule Book. Now this is something I want
you to see, because in this hour and in this day it’s
always been that way. You know, Paul taught in the
Word of God, “If we be circumcised, we are fallen from
grace. If you be circumcised, Christ will profit you
nothing.” But the same man, we find him having
Timothy circumcised because of the unbelieving Jews.
(Acts 16:1-3) We want to watch this, and it will help
you see the grace of God in your own life, because you
can get yourself in a straight jacket. You’ll start
thinking you’ve got to do this way or that way to
please God, to walk with God. Then all of a sudden,
you’ll begin to see failures in your life that’ll
cause you to stumble and fall, and it will cause you
to frustrate the grace of God. Paul said, “We do not
frustrate the grace of God.” You are a human being,
and you are in this flesh, and you are going to make
mistakes until you leave here. As far as the fleshly
realm, sure, there’s going to be sin, because the very
thoughts of foolishness is sin. So what I want you to
see is—God’s grace overshadowing you, and you, as an
Ox, fall in the Ditch every now and then. He has to
reach and pick you up.
Now here in Deuteronomy I want to read a rule, and
then read where the Ox got in the Ditch, and God had
to set aside that rule to do it a different way. It
reads like this; Deuteronomy 23:2, “A bastard shall
not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to
his tenth generation shall he not enter into the
congregation of the Lord.” Then He gives us a lot of
different illustrations in this particular chapter.
We could say, in modern days, an illegitimate child
shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. I
want you to look, though, a few years later, after
this, what God did. He didn’t destroy His Word. See,
God lets us see what His original plan is. The
original plan is for a man and woman to marry and live
together until death do you part, but many times we
see conditions that don’t work out that way. Then in
that, we can see God’s grace many times how that He
overrides. Divorce is not in God’s original plan, but
we know a lot of people who do get married and get
divorced, and still have the blessings of God.
Apostle Paul made some conditions where the grace of
God overrides. The original plan of God is for man to
be born (man and woman to be born), every child to be
born and have eternal life, and never die. That’s the
original plan of God, but the Ox fell in the Ditch.
The reason I am saying Ox in the Ditch—we all know the
story where Jesus said, “If an Ox falls in the Ditch
who would not get it out on the Sabbath?” Showing
where it’s better to break the Sabbath than to leave
the Ox in the Ditch. Sometimes it’s better to do what
needs to be done, than be in a straight jacket, and
try to go by some rules that won’t work any way.
Click here for the full text
|
|
|
|
|
