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Again, let me just give my personal welcome to Dr. John Oliver. When we were planning this service, I asked Richard Brook if there was someone he'd like to come and preach. And Dr. Oliver has been one of his professors at Charlotte at Reform Seminary. He's also well known not only to Robert, but maybe even more so to Jenny. But we'll ask Robert to come and introduce Dr. Oliver as he comes to preach. Having sat under Dr. Oliver for quite a number of years and having listened to everything he said, it's nice to have him have to sit and listen to what I say for just a few minutes. And Jenny has known him one year longer than I had. She came to faith under his faithful preaching of the word in 1977, and I, by God's grace, came under that same preaching in 1978, so it was a few years ago, 32 and 33 years ago. How does one introduce the Reverend Dr. John William Posgate Oliver, Sr., who is sufficient to these things? I could start by commending his good sense and insight into making Chris his wife. a godly and good woman, rearing two boys that are now grown men and have their own families and having six grandchildren and one on the way. We could talk about his long His association with the academic world, having gone to some of the preeminent Christian institutions, Wheaton and Fuller, in its better days. His long, long association with Columbia Bible College, now Columbia International University, being on its board and the chairman of the board for a number of years, I believe. adjunct professor and teacher, longtime Bible conference and missions conference speaker all over the country and around the world. Could talk about his work in the church. I'm sure very important to him, especially the work at First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia, where he was a senior pastor for almost 30 years. And under God's great grace, that church grew from a few hundred to over 2,000 members. A few thousand dollars of budget, I believe the last year there was about five and a half million dollars of which I believe about 60% went to Benevolence's admissions. I don't know the exact number, I'm not sure he does, the number of missionaries that our church in Augusta supported or that for other reasons are on the field this day or have been on the field because of John Oliver. I would suspect the number is approaching a thousand. No exaggeration. from the conferences he's spoken at, from the churches he's been involved with, just from First Presbyterian Church alone, hundreds have been on the field because of his work. I certainly, as I said, could give my own testimony. My wife was converted under his preaching. I came there out of college, a dispensational Armenian, wandering into a Presbyterian church. In fact, at one time, I considered asking him to immerse me. So never did that. I certainly learned Reformed theology under his tutelage. My children were born under his preaching. I came there in Romans 3, preached for over five years in the book of Romans. I came in Romans 3. I guess you were probably in Romans 1 or 2. She may have heard the whole series. I think Jeannie and I met in about Romans 8. We got married in Romans 11 or 12 and had our twins in Romans 15. I could say all that, but I think the two things that would commend him to you most is that his great heart for missions, to send the servants of Christ abroad, to equip them, to fund them, to support them, to get them to the field. And right alongside that is his love for the Word of God, to preach it, to expound it, that the people of God might know it and believe it and trust in it all the days of your life. So come, Father in faith, and preach to me once again. Obviously, Robert did not get my permission about the introduction. And I want to say in my defense, I never planned to preach all of those years in Romans. I thought, if they're weary after several chapters, we'll go somewhere else. But the crowds picked up. And so I went on a little bit. And then the elders had a complaint. Not that we'd been too long in Romans, but there are too many people crammed into our church. You've got to preach twice on Sunday mornings. And it was a wonderful time, wasn't it, bringing the whole of God's revealed truth into the people of God through the Book of Romans, and God built the congregation under that preaching. We didn't do it at night. They got a little relief in the evening service. We were a little more informal. We're not as high as you are at night. We sang gospel songs and raised the roof with a crowded congregation, and I rejoice in that. I didn't come to reminisce. Although I remember preaching a conference here, if my memory is right, it is when Paul Settle was the pastor. And we met in those days, and I believe had a morning and evening meeting through the week. And I have good memories of Second Presbyterian. Why did it take so long to invite me back? I direct our attention to Exodus chapter 19 and I'm reading in this Old Testament lesson from verse 1 through verse 9. Exodus 19 verse 1. In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, They came to the wilderness of Sinai. For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. And Moses went up to God. And the Lord called to him from the mountains, saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, tell the children of Israel. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and hear my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people. for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.' So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him. Then all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I come to you in the thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray. We would not presume to understand or write, O blessed Holy Spirit, apart from Thee. As thou didst move in days of old and upon Moses, move now upon us on this resurrection evening. And may we, by thy indwelling work and the fullness of thy favor, know burning hearts within as of old on the Emmaus road. These things we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. The Cross of Gold. William Jennings Bryan. The Iron Curtain. Winston Churchill. I Have a Dream. Martin Luther King, the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln. Speeches, phrases of men and movements that are markers in our history. So the speech of Moses, the eagle's wings speech, depending on the translation, in English fewer than six dozen words. It didn't take Lincoln many minutes at Gettysburg. And some of us can still quote it. eagle's wings speech at the mountain on the same day. There they are before the Lord. It moves men and nations yet. As God gave the speech to Moses to give to the people, succinct, sublime, pointed, powerful. Two parts in the speech. God speaks of his actions in behalf of Israel. And having reminded them with just a phrase of the momentous things of deliverance of the exodus, he speaks of his intentions in that redemption. Notice first, then, in the speech, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians. Just that much. What memories would have been triggered at the mountain? What led up to that miraculous deliverance? Slaves. Pitiable. oppressed. Their leaders, their rulers, piled on to them from Pharaoh's office. And as their numbers increased, despite the oppression and hard labor, the daily grind of their lives, the edict, if it's a man-child, you midwives, kill it. And then as the plagues began, and we read in the fifth chapter of Exodus that whole incidence of withdrawing straw, not lowering the quota, oppression, bondage, hopelessness, plagues after plagues. until finally you saw what I did to those Egyptians. And you remember the night of the Passover. I've often wondered, were there some Egyptians influenced by these Semitic slaves dispersed among them who dared to put blood on the post of their dwelling? Were there some of Israel, some of the Hebrews who scoffed at those rituals? Death? I think if you were there, you would have a keen sense of the glory of the blood. and its safety and its surety and its salvation. You saw what I did, God's actions, to the Egyptians because of you, for your sake. And the death angel did not come upon you. I like gospel songs sometimes. even some that aren't really good music. The organist used to play them anyhow down there in the Augusta church. I knew he'd been to Juilliard and he knew this was a little bit of a tent meeting tune, but I loved it when we sang on Sunday evenings, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Don't ever forget it. The trajectory of your life outside of Christ. I've looked back on occasion and wondered where would it have been by now. Not in this pulpit. Not under the blood. Maybe you were reared in a Christian home and the trajectory was right, but it had to become yours, didn't it? Remember what I did to the Egyptians when I was saving you? God's action in salvation. This is the speech I want you to give. Gather them together. They might have said, that's the shortest speech Moses ever made. but the sustenance of God's actions as well as the salvation of God's actions right here. You were safe in the morning, weren't you? Your firstborn lived. Amidst the wailing of Egypt, your child is alive. And I bore you on eagles' wings I love the picture. Not one of us, at least not us Presbyterians, can ride on eagles' wings. But don't you love the imagery, the beauty, the poetic phrase, I sustained you. I brought you right through the sea. These are my actions. This is who I am. This is what I am doing in your behalf in salvation and in sustenance. I want you to remember that because I have intentions about saving you. You and I are clear on those intentions of God in salvation, aren't you? Well, I'm not asking a theological statement. Sometimes I'm sort of glad to get away from all that theology and just have a little break. Go talk about other things. How the ball team is going. The students know my team won the National Basketball Championship. The nation may have been for Butler, but we won. Oh, bring our theology out of the seminar room and away from the concepts of mind and right down to earth. Did He save you to get you to heaven? Did He save you to make you happy? What are his intentions in redemption? And then the subsequent bearing us, sustaining us, supplying needs for us all along the way on eagle's wings, what is his intention? In this brief speech, there are three intentions God reveals, not just for Israel of old, but for Israel in the present, for God's people, for the church. If you will hear my voice, obey my covenant, hear and heed, then my actions will flow into my intentions." That's why we keep on preaching and preaching and preaching. That's why we put ourselves under the Word regularly, morning and evening on the Lord's Day and many, many other opportunities beyond that. Sometimes I don't hear so well. And I have a problem not only with hearing but with heeding. Oh, you see it right there, don't you? Verse 5, therefore, in light of salvation and sustenance, in light of my actions, if you will indeed obey my voice, keep the covenant here and heed, you'll be a special treasure. Now I part company with this modern, understandable translation. It's bland. Oh, it's understandable, all right, but the beauty is gone. It's really, you will be a peculiar people. I know that's out of fashion, but remember when the peculiar people were going around and the Jews for Jesus crowd, they came to Augusta. They looked pretty normal to me, these peculiar ones. I like the word. special, vanilla, peculiar, toffee. It just has a flavor to it. The old translations used peculiar, and it comes from a Latin word, really. And the usage is peculiar, special, portable. movable. You hear and heed in light of my glorious actions in the shedding of blood for your redemption, and you'll be a peculiar people, a movable, portable treasure to me. so that I can move you. I can transport you. I can relocate you. We've come to understand with the fullness of revelation and with common sense that is redeemed, not everybody is relocated. I never prayed for that. I had to keep the attendance up. But, O Lord, isn't some of this body portable that you could take by your Spirit and move them geographically, heart-burdened, relocate them? You see, Robert remembers we were supporting all kinds of missionaries all over the world, but nobody from our church. Not one. And I remember saying to the Lord in private, I didn't bargain for this. Did you really call me to supply the funds and all the outgoing expenses for somebody else's people? Nobody here is portable treasure. Students have heard some of these things. They're brave to come tonight. Then they began to kneel at the consecration service at the close of the Bible and Missionary Conference at the front, sometimes 75, 80, 100. Do you remember that? couldn't all get to the altar up the aisles. I'm never satisfied. Then I said, Lord, not that one. I didn't mean them. They were my portable treasure because of God's redeeming grace. And he owned them. And it was a real lesson to me. Oh, I had a list I'd have been glad to send, pay all the expenses to send them out, but not some of those people. I think of an inference of this maybe for us who will never relocate, who can't, who are not called of the Lord of the Harvest to relocate to Kenya. What about the whole idea of portable treasure? Is yours portable? The word apparently means not houses, not lands, jewels, stocks and bonds, modern terms, that can move with you. And I think of this, this Lord's Day night, As my student and his wife go out in two weeks, I can't move my house. I won't need it when we move yonder. But what treasure can you transport to heaven? Did the Lord Jesus speak of this somehow when he said, lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth? Moth and rust and it's a constant fight. Mildew and breakdown and just when we think it's all in top order. What can you transport through the gates of death? into glory. He that winneth souls is wise. They're transportable treasure. That's my intention, Israel. That's my intention, believers. A special treasure, a portable, peculiar people above all the people. All the earth is mine, but you're my peculiar treasure. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." A holy nation. If the first intention is their relationship to God, this intention, a holy nation, is their relationship to themselves. You shall be a holy nation. Saint Peter picks this up and speaks of the priesthood of believers, a royal priesthood, a kingdom, a nation. It's again in the apocalypse. Again, word roots. I don't know all that Greek and Hebrew. Ask the students to my right. They know everything. Holy and holy. H-O-L-Y and W-H-O double L-Y come from the same root in Hebrew and English. To be holy is to be holy. Yes. My intention in redeeming you is not to come alongside and make you feel good and happy and help you in crisis and difficulty. My intention is I paid for you and you're mine. Bought, bought, purchased with his blood. My intention in saving the folks of Second Presbyterian is wholly, wholly his. Not only should we ask ourselves, I think, as we listen to the eagle's wings speech, even as we reflect back to Winston Churchill in Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, his speech was really the sinews of peace, the phrase we all know, we all know, iron curtain. And so the eagle's wings speech, we must ask ourselves, am I holding out? Lord, it's all yours. It's more than an adage. It's a reality of surrender. What a speech God gave Moses. In this English translation, 67 words including the articles. If you hear and heed, you will be wholly mine. That's what the call is on missionary night. Why should Richard do what we don't do? It was a real lesson to me to lead a missions program as a pastor. You have devised a prayer cycle, haven't you? Go all over the world. I thought, how dare you, Pastor Oliver, have these people uproot themselves, their lives, and go out to Benin? and unpronounced tribes. And you can't even pray regularly? You do. Every person in the meeting tonight prays regularly all around the world in a week or two in the cycle, don't you? If not, don't hold back your time after tonight. How dare we send him? and not hold the ropes. You'll be a holy people, holiness fully His. Oh, I say, Lord do it. One more thing. I didn't tell you when there were three at the front. I didn't want you to count. But there it is, you will be a kingdom of priests. In that same passage, Peter in his first epistle, the second chapter, uses this imagery and he speaks of the great reformation truth. What's it mean to be reformed? It's more than a tulip. It's the priesthood of all believers. And to Israel, I want you to understand, remember what I did in Egypt, remember the Passover night, remember the blood for your souls. The priesthood of all believers, they were the mediatorial people God chose, not because there were more of them or mighty, but for reasons that reside in His own infinite mind and loving heart. So the priesthood of believers, we're all priests under the great high priest. But it's not just for our comfort, our access immediately into the presence of the Father through the blood of Christ. It is that, hallelujah. It is that we're to act in a mediatorial role for the nations. In their behalf, that's why we're sending the Brooks to Kenya. That's why the missionary list and the call to up the amount and strengthen and support and send, you're called to be mediators for a nation. You can't for everybody. But there are many God has assigned, God intends, His intention in redeeming you and collecting you together in an entity called Second Presbyterian Church. As there are language groups, eloquent groups, primitive groups, jaded groups, groups that have never heard. And somewhere in the God's plan of redemption, with his salvation and sustenance bearing you on eagle's wings, it is to be a kingdom of priests. And we learn for the nations, both from the mount and from the risen Christ. We used to sing a little chorus. It wasn't good music. I'm talking about all the bad music tonight. Lord, lay some soul upon my heart. We used to sing. Love that soul through me. May I nobly do my part to win that soul for some nation. Some tribe, will you say that to him? I've borne you on eagle's wings to this night for these intentions. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On Eagles' Wings
Identificación del sermón | 52102118425 |
Duración | 36:01 |
Fecha | |
Categoría | Domingo - PM |
Texto de la Biblia | Éxodo 19:1-9 |
Idioma | inglés |
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