Do you know why Christians sing such hymns as "I Am Bound For the Promised Land," or "To Canaan's Land I'm On My Way," and other such hymns about the Jordan River and the land of Canaan? There is good reason for it, and that's our study today. We are glad you have joined us.
How happy we are, friend, that you have invited us into your home by television or radio or even by the internet to study the Scriptures In Search of the Lord's Way to become and to be a Christian. We pray we'll both be blessed by our study today.
The term "printing" can be applied to any process by which a print is obtained, but for many years it was generally called "letterpress printing." It has been said that the craft of "letter-press printing" is that medium that brought light to the period of the "dark ages." At first the type was hand-carved of wood. The printing was done by applying the ink to the "type", then pressing the "type" to the paper-- or the other substance on which the printing was done. And the impression might be-- and sometimes has been called the "antitype." That, in spite of the fact that I can't find the word antitype in my dictionary anywhere. Well, of course modern technology has changed the way printing is done. However, even with the modern off-set method of printing, the process is basically the same.
I have ventured into all of that by way of introduction of the message that we are studying today, titled: "I Am Bound For the Promised Land." If you think you might want, or have need of, a printed copy, an audio cassette tape or a CD of it, please send your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. And our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. You won't need to send money now. They're free.
Oh yes! And we want to encourage all our viewers to be daily Bible readers in the year 2008, and that time is soon approaching. So, we have prepared a Bible reading calendar by weeks. And we'll send you a copy absolutely free. It is nothing big or elaborate; but it is attractive. And the advantage that we have with it over some of the others is that it's small and it can be kept in your Bible. That way it is always with your Bible ready for you to read. So, order yours today so as to be ready to start January 1. It's free. If you didn't get the address a while ago, we'll give it to you again at the end of the program. As always, Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us as we sing, and then, I'll be back for Bible reading and we will pray together.
Our Bible reading today will be from the book of Hebrews, the eighth chapter; and we will read the first six verses. “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: we have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, see that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.” Now let us go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we thank You for the privilege of prayer and the blessings that we derive from it. And we pray Your presence with us and Your blessings upon us as we study about these Old Testament shadows and the reality of the things in the New Testament. We pray Your blessings upon us to a better understanding of Your will. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen!
There are matters of the Christian's faith about which some talented men and women have written long-lived and greatly loved hymns. I can remember when I was a small child, hearing my dear mother sing as she went about her daily farm work. No, she didn't sing, "You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog"-- or that kind of stuff. She sang "I Am Bound for the Promised Land, O who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised land." Others of her favorites were, "To Canaan's Land I'm On My Way" and "Shall We Gather At the River?" Well, what river? "The Promised Land;" what land is that? "Canaan's happy land?" Well, we still sometimes sing those hymns in our worship assemblies in churches of Christ. They are favorites of a lot of people. Some of the youth nowadays don’t find them that meaningful. They don't "like" to sing them, because they don't know what they're about. It is no fault of theirs at all. They have just not been taught, either by their parents at home or the church. And they might wonder: Well, why is the Land of Canaan so important to Christians that they sing about it? Most of the youth have no plans ever to go there. Why is the Jordan River so important to Christians that they should be singing about it in their worship?
Well, those questions are relevant all right. I mean, God promised Abraham, and his son Isaac, and his son Jacob or Israel-- and their seed-- the land of Canaan for an inheritance. However, He did tell them they would have to sojourn in a strange land, and be slaves to the people there four hundred years. That is Genesis 15:13. We know now, that that land was Egypt and they would be in bondage there. You can read about it in the closing chapters of Genesis and the beginning of the book of Exodus. Other than historical, what meaning does that have for Christians, to sing about today?
In Exodus you also read about their miraculous Red Sea crossing-- by which God delivered them from Egyptian bondage or slavery,-- and then their forty years of wilderness wanderings. And that area was called "The Wilderness of Sin" in Exodus 16 and 1 and even other passages. They lived in anxious expectations and hopes of the promised land-- the land of Canaan. However, all that generation but two men (and we might assume, maybe, their wives) died without ever seeing the land that was promised them.
Those events-- using the printer's vocabulary-- are "types" of things about Christianity that what we might be-- and sometimes are called "antitypes." That is why I introduced this study with a little about "letter-press printing." The Bible doesn't use the words "types and antitypes." It speaks of "shadows and substances" as we read in our text. For example in Colossians chapter 2, verse 17; and another example I should say and this passage speaks of things "...which are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance is of Christ." And that is a quote, you see. Well, there's a lot we can learn from studying "types" and "antitypes" and "shadows" and "substances" in the Word of God. We might even learn to love to sing those old hymns if we understood them. Let's just see what we can learn, OK?
First, Israel would sojourn in bondage as slaves to the Egyptians four long centuries. That's a shadow or a type of our bondage or enslavement to sin. Friend, I am not being "judgmental" when I say all of us have sinned. The Scripture, the word of God says, "All have sinned..."(Romans 3 and 9). That puts me right there amongst them, the sinners, you see! I'm one of them. Who am I, then, that I can say that I am innocent? No, no, now no one of us was born guilty of Adam's sin-- or anybody else's sin for that matter. We are sinners because we sin. God says, "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." That is Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 20. To say that babies are born with the guilt of sin is as laughable, as ridiculous, as saying, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge." And God's message to Israel was that they were not to use that proverb again in Israel (Ezekiel 18 and 1).
The commission of sin is a human choice, friend. To the Christians at Rome God asked, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. And having been set free from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6, verses 16, 17, and 18). So, Christians, though they were once in bondage to sin-- slaves of sin, like the Israelites were slaves in Egypt,-- have been set free, just as the children of Israel were set free from the slavery to Egypt. Do you see the "type" and the "antitype," the "shadow" and the "substance," the reality? You cannot have a shadow without a substance to cast the shadow.
But before we leave that: You remember the story of their deliverance, don't you? The Red Sea crossing? It is in Exodus 14. After much preparation, verses 21 and 22 say, "Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left." Wow! What a miracle that was!
And centuries later the Holy Spirit said by the pen of the apostle Paul, "Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 10, verses 1 and 2). Verily then, there is a type and another type or "shadow" and a "substance"-- another one. The Bible teaches that as the Israelites were delivered from bondage in Egypt to their baptismal crossing of the Red Sea, Christians are delivered from their bondage to sin at their baptism into Christ. Yes! Peter preached to the Jews on Pentecost. He said that the same Jesus whom they had crucified was raised from the dead. Thousands heard him. They penitently cried out, as it were in one voice, "What shall we do?" Peter-- now that's the apostle Peter, to whom the Lord had said, "...whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven" (Matthew 16:19). He said, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts chapter 2). Oh, well that has been bound in heaven as well then, isn’t it? Just as when Israel was baptized in the cloud and in the sea, they were freed from Egyptian bondage,--so those in sin today are freed from sin by their Deliverer, Jesus Christ, when they are baptized into Him.
Well-- Oh yes! I was about to pass over another very significant "shadow" and its "substance." It is found in the seventh chapter of the book of Acts. Stephen was preaching; and it's the only sermon we have recorded of Stephen's. You see, the Scripture says he angered his audience. Oh me! Well, modern preachers wouldn't understand that. They would never, never, never, never do a thing like that. "Stephen, you should have known, you can't build big churches by making people angry." Well anyway, the Scripture says, "...they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth." They stoned him to death, friend. Read about it in the seventh chapter of Acts. Stephen had early on in his sermon, spoken of Moses; and he said, "This is he who was in the congregation-- (or the King James says the church) in the wilderness..." That is verse 38. So, those people who were "baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" constituted "the church in the wilderness" as they made their way to the "promised land." Just as those people today who are baptized into Christ, Christians, saved people, are the church today marching through the wilderness of Sin-- on their way to Zion-- their heavenly estate.
After forty years of struggle, suffering and trials, forty years of wandering around in a hot dessert area, living in tents, after numerous attacks by enemy nations, sometimes without water, only manna for food, and after the death of many of their loved ones, they arrived at the Jordan River. God promised the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the land of Canaan for a "homeland." And He fulfilled that promise. Now some self-styled "prophets" are saying in this 21st century A.D that He did not fulfill the promises. It's a promise yet to be fulfilled, they tell us. But Joshua 21:43 and 45 say, "So the Lord gave to Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it...Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass."
Now, they must cross the River Jordan to occupy the land. Now don't miss this: that Jordan crossing is the shadow of the death of the Christian. Can you visualize this event being one of great sorrow? Oh no! Absolutely not! Quite to the contrary; it's a day of great joy and gladness! T.B. Larrimore, one of the great pioneer preachers across this land in the pioneer days, as he approached his own death, wrote to his sons, and here is what he said. "I dread not death, but dying." He said it well, didn’t he?
Finally, we must know by now that "Canaan," the land of Canaan we sing about, is a type or the shadow of the Christian's home-- in Heaven. So, is Heaven a real place? Is it really fifteen hundred miles long, fifteen hundred miles wide, fifteen hundred miles high, made of pure gold like glass? Is it really surrounded by a wall of jasper seventy-two yards wide? And does it actually have twelve gates each one made of pearl and streets of pure gold like transparent glass? And does it actually have a beautiful river right down the middle of the street, flowing with the water of life, as clear as crystal? Well, that is a part of the description of the heavenly city that's in Revelation 21.
Yes, Heaven is a real place, friend. Heaven is a spiritual place inhabited by the spirits of God's saints. God was using terminology there in Revelation that earthly man could understand to describe a spiritual place. He is telling us Heaven is a beautiful place that defies description in human tongue. In John 14:2 the writer says that Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you." In Acts 1:9 to 11 He was with those same men to whom He spoke those words (with the exception of one-- Judas had betrayed him). And there it is written that "...while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen Him go into heaven." So, Jesus went to heaven and he is there preparing a place for you and me. Oh say! We must prepare to go there, too. And more about that after the hymn. Let us pray. Holy Father, we thank You for the types and the shadows that you give us of the things that are real to us in this age of the Christian. And in the name of Jesus, we thank You. Amen!
My friend, do you believe Jesus when He said, "I go to prepare a place for you?" Oh, I'm sure you do. Then you believe in Heaven as a place, don’t you? Let me ask you, then-- are you prepared to go there? No? Oh, it would be extremely unwise for you not to prepare this very day. Not everyone is going to go to Heaven. Not everyone who believes in Christ and in Heaven is going to go to Heaven. Jesus Himself said, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven." That is Matthew 7:21.
Well, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." That is 2 Peter 3:9. Simply stated, repentance is a change of a person's will that always results in a change of his behavior or lifestyle. Have you repented? Do you now repent? Then, you need to be baptized to wash away your sins in the blood of Christ and give you a new start in life. (Acts 22:16; Revelation 1:5). What are you waiting for? If we can be of assistance to you, call us. We want to see you in Heaven, friend.
A free printed copy or a CD or an audio cassette tape of this message can be yours, free, simply for the asking. Address your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083-- or by e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. Our toll-free telephone for your use is 1-800-321-8633. You may hear it, read it, view it-- the entire program again on our website: www.searchtv.org. We're glad you were with us today. We plan to be back next week and we hope that you can be with us again. Maybe you can invite somebody to see the program with you next week. We hope you can. We hope you will be back. God bless you now. We love you.
|