PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 186: FIVE NECESSARY QUALITIES FOR END TIME LIVING - PT 8
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 186: Five Necessary Qualities for End Time Living – Part 8
What is your greatest reason for building your home? You'll hear Solomon's answer in Point 10! We also complete our series today speaking on the last letter of F F P P and K which is KEEPING God's commandments. How do we keep them?
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Now, when you get this, it will be January 4th. Well, you may be listening to it later than that, but it does come out every Tuesday morning. That is January 4th. Happy New Year to you today!
I do trust that you have a wonderful year this coming year. Of course, as we face every New Year, we never know what the year is going to bring forth. We have no idea. But the wonderful thing is, we know that we can trust Him. We can trust God who is in control of all things.
We can put a big smile on our faces knowing that we can trust Him. So, keep your heart trusting in the Lord, looking to Him, always praying, always praising, always trusting, and always looking up to Him. Amen?
All right. Now, I think this will be our last session on the F F P P and K, the five things God wants us to establish in our lives as we prepare for end times.
THE REASON TO BUILD THE HOUSE
We are continuing today our last point on the altar of incense. That is point number ten. We’re going to go to 2 Chronicles. This point is this is the reason to build a home. We see this in this passage. It’s the chapter about Solomon building a temple for God.
Solomon wanted to build a glorious temple. It was glorious. 2 Chronicles 2:5: “And the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful, great.” In another passage, he says it’s “for fame and for glory” (1 Chronicles 22:5). So, this is what he wanted to do.
But there was something even bigger, even bigger than making a house that would be wonderful, and great, and glorious, and famous. There was something more. And we read about it in 2 Chronicles 2:4: “Behold, I build an house to the Name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to Him, and to burn before Him sweet incense, and for the continual showbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.”
Solomon is speaking here. “I am building this wonderful, great house for God. But the reason I’m doing it is so we can do all these things to Him.” The first one he mentions is the altar of incense that we’ve been talking about for the last couple of sessions. It’s the altar that speaks of coming into the Throne Room. It speaks of prayer, and intercession, and praise, and worship.
You see, this is why I want to build a home, so I can offer sweet incense unto the Lord. We’ve talked about how it is a sweet ministry. The incense they had to burn was a beautiful, sweet incense, made of sweet spices. God wanted that aroma filling the Holy Place, filling the house. He wants it to fill our homes, too.
We go down to 2 Chronicles 2:6. Solomon talks about what he wants to do again. He says: “The only reason I’m doing it is to burn sacrifice before Him.” “But who is able to build Him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I then, that I should build Him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before Him?” That was his reason.
Dear ladies, this should be a huge purpose of our homes. Oh, yes, I’m establishing a home. I do want it to be glorious. I want it to be beautiful. I want it to be wonderful. But my whole reason is that it will be a place where we, as a family, can meet with God, where we can meet with Him every morning and every evening.
We can gather our families together, and we can burn incense before Him. Yes, we’ll read His Word, but we’ll burn incense. We’ll pray. We’ll all pray together. Mummies, Daddies, children, right down to the little ones who are just beginning to talk. Yes, as soon as a child can talk, we’re teaching them to join in that prayer, in that beautiful offering of the incense up to the Father in the Throne Room.
That was King Solomon’s highest purpose. This should also be our highest purpose, to establish this altar of incense in our homes. Now, we’re not going to have a literal altar, of course, as they did back in the Old Testament. But we don’t need to have that. We are even more blessed, because we can come into the Throne Room at any moment, any time, wherever we are in our homes, wherever we are, outside our homes. We can do that.
But I do believe it is very important to establish the morning and the evening principle, because that’s what they had to do. God established that. They had to light it, morning and evening. That was an established principle that God gave, because if they did it twice a day, that incense would keep going. If they only did it once a day, it would fade out. They needed to do it two times a day. This is what Solomon established in the home that he built for the Lord.
Before we go on to our last letter, I thought I would give to you, and remind you, about the six different pieces of furniture that were in the tabernacle, and then, later in the temple. Because, ladies, every single one of them affects us in our lives today. They reveal the gospel. They reveal the revelation of God for us in our relationship with Him.
It is important to know them. They reveal the full gospel. Because we often don’t know them, we don’t really understand the fullness of our gospel. We have a very shallow understanding. You see, the believers in the early New Testament who came to Christ, they had a greater understanding of salvation than we have today, because they knew all the laws, and all the patterns of the tabernacle, and the sacrifices, and everything that they did.
It was all just tradition, most probably meaningless to many of them. But when Christ died and rose again, and they saw that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of everything that happened in the tabernacle and the temple, it was such incredible revelation to them.
It must have just about blown their minds to see it all actually fulfilled in Christ because everything that was written . . . You read through the book of Exodus and Leviticus. It may seem boring to someone not understanding. But every single thing is revealing Christ. It’s so wonderful.
When we understand the foundation of it, we have more understanding of our salvation. I think back to Luke 24:27. In that beautiful story of when Jesus had risen from the dead, and He was going to Emmaus. There were two disciples going to Emmaus, along the road, and He caught up with them. As he talked, they were so sad, because Jesus had died, and they didn’t know He had risen again. They were all forlorn. Jesus came along and asked them, “Why are you so sad?” They said, “Don’t you know that He that is going to redeem us and deliver us has died? That’s it. That’s the end.”
But then Jesus began to speak to them, and it tells us here, Luke 24:27: “And beginning at Moses,” that means beginning at the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament, including Exodus and Leviticus and all the revelation of the tabernacle. So “beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, He expounded unto them all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
They didn’t have the New Testament back then. They only had the Old. But Jesus revealed Himself from the Torah, and from the prophets. Do you remember in John 1:45? When Phillip found Nathaniel, both of them were disciples. He said to Nathaniel, “We have found Him, of Whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
So, they knew! Wow! When He came, they had a revelation that He was the One. Paul also shares. Romans 15:4: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
1 Corinthians 10:11: “For they are written for our admonition, upon Whom the ends of the world are come.” So, all these things that were written, they are for us now.
All right. There were six pieces of furniture in the tabernacle.
Number one: the brazen altar. When you came into the tabernacle, the very first thing you saw was the altar, the brass altar where they sacrificed the animals. They sacrificed a lamb every morning and every evening, every single sacrifice pointing to the Lamb of God who would be the sacrifice for the sins of the world.
When Jesus died, there never had to be another sacrifice for sins, for He was the one sacrifice, the only One Who was worthy. That was a picture of Christ.
Then the next thing you came to was the brazen laver. It was a brass laver filled with water. It speaks of baptism and the washing of the water by the Word of God. When you first came in, you had to be at the brazen altar where they sacrificed. That’s where you start. You can’t even go any further until you’ve been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Then they came to the water, where it speaks of baptism. Also, as I said, we get washed as we read the Word of God.
Number three: OK, that was the outside. Now you go into the inside, to the Holy Place. On the left was the golden lampstand. That speaks of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, shining His light on the Word, which was the table of showbread.
On the right-hand side there was the table of showbread. On the table were 12 loaves of bread. They were called the Presence bread, speaking of the Presence of Christ, and speaking of Christ as the bread of life to us, and how that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And how all our sustenance, all our strength, and our salvation, and our healing, and our help, and our sufficiency, is all found in Christ. That is found in His Word. We find the revelation of it is in His Word. Then we experience it as we feed on Him and fellowship with Him.
Then the fifth one was what we’ve been talking about, the golden altar of incense. The prayer, and praise, and worship, and intercession. As you’re saved, and baptized, and you move into the feeding of the Word, you come into prayer and praise.
Then, of course, in the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant. The shekinah Presence of God, which we now have the privilege of coming into every day through the precious blood of Jesus. Amen!
That was just a little quick sharing. Of course, if we had time to really look into them, we would be having to spend a couple of sessions on each one. But we won’t do that, because we want to go to our last point and finish that today.
KEEPING GOD’S WORD
We’re up to letter K, aren’t we? We’ve talked about FEARLESSNESS, FAITHFULNESS, PERSEVERANCE, PRAYER. And now it’s KEEPING THE WORD OF GOD. Let’s look at Revelation 1:3: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”
Revelation 12:17 talks about the remnant “which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” In this Scripture it says that it is the remnant who keep His commandments and keep their testimony. My. Is it only the remnant? There is a remnant, you know. That’s not everyone who thinks they are saved. The remnant are the ones who endure to the end, the ones who keep His commandments, and keep their testimony to the end. I pray that I will be part of the remnant.
Revelation 14:12, we’ve shared this Scripture: “This demands the perseverance of the saints who keep God’s commandments, and their faith in Jesus.” Now, this word “keep,” what does it mean? The Greek word for “keep” is tereo, meaning, “to watch, to guard from loss or injury, to keep your eye upon.”
In Revelation, we are commanded to keep the words of the Lord. We’re to keep the words of the prophecy of Revelation. That’s something, because at the moment, we are reading through Revelation in our evening family devotions. We don’t always understand everything that is going to happen. But it is such a powerful book. We’re reading it through for the second time. We just couldn’t take it all in one time. Maybe we’ll do it a third time!
But it’s good to read through Revelation. If you haven’t done it yet while we’ve been doing this series, take time to read it. Let it fill your soul. Read it personally, but you may like to do like we are doing, do it in your family devotions. Do a chapter each morning or each night, or both, whichever you would like. I know it will be blessing to you.
So, how can we keep the Word of God? Three points I have here.
No. 1. YOU MUST KNOW IT TO KEEP IT
1 John 2:3: “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” Yes, we will know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. You’ve got to know the Word.
Just a casual reading of the Word is not enough. It’s not enough to keep us from deception. To keep us from deception, we’ve got to really know the Word. We get to know it by pursuing it, and reading it, and studying it.
I believe we would most probably have more Bibles in this country than at any time in all of history. I mean, there are millions of Bibles in the USA. But how many of them are being read? I always love that quote by Horace Greeley:
“It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people.”
And yet, we saw last year, and this year, many of God’s people have been enslaved. They have caved into tyranny. They have caved into whatever the government says.
Oh, by the way, I was just reading yesterday how that it is now completely proved, and a known fact, that our government, along with the vaccine manufacturers, own these vaccines. They are all part of the great money-making deal of these vaccines and are part owners. So many have caved into this tyranny.
Dear ladies, we can’t be people who just go along with the crowd, or what everyone’s saying. We’ve got to get into the Word. We’ve got to know it, know what God says. I am amazed. Every day I open the Word, I find God showing me understanding about the very everyday things of life. In just the little interesting things that we face, oh, I’ll find an answer in His Word.
I noticed some. I didn’t bring them with me, or I would have shared them with you. Maybe another day. Just some very practical things. I’m always discovering these practical things. They’re in the Word. Sometimes they’re hidden away, but you find them, and it’s just so exciting. It’s like finding gold, like finding treasure.
But let’s be people who know the Word. Because when we do, we won’t be enslaved, and we won’t be deceived. The Word of God is what keeps us from deception. It reminds me of that dream I shared with you last session, how that I was being led into the dark with a group of believers. But how I had to run from it! We’ve got to run from darkness and run to the Light! Amen?
No. 2. YOU MUST SPEAK IT TO KEEP IT
Oh, I’m a great believer in this, dear precious ladies. If you don’t speak the truth, you’ll lose it. You speak it, you’ll keep it. The Psalmist said in Psalm 116:10: “I believed, therefore have I spoken.” If you believe what God says, you speak it, even if you haven’t got anyone else to speak it to. Just speak it out loud.
But mothers, you can share it with your children, share it with your husband, share it with friends. But that Scripture is not only in the Old Testament, it’s in the New. 2 Corinthians 4:13, It’s repeated: “I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.” If we truly believe, we will confess. When we confess, the truth becomes stronger in our hearts and lives.
I find myself, it’s the truth. It’s the Words of the Lord that I speak about. I am blessed to speak to women, because the more I speak the truth, the more I experience it. The more I share it, the more it becomes part of me. It is so true that what you speak is what becomes part of you. You can read something, and you can affirm it, and even nod with your head. But it is truly only what you speak that you will keep. Can I encourage you to do that?
Actually, you’ll soon be getting the new Above Rubies. It is printed. I am so sorry that everything takes so long. Even now it’s printed, I’m waiting now for the company to send it out. Now at this stage, wow, well, perhaps you’ll have it by now, seeing you’re in the new year. I do hope so.
You will see in this magazine that I have advertised my two new devotional books. I have written previously 100 DAYS OF BLESSING, Volume One and Volume Two. And now I’m publishing Volume Three and Volume Four. I know you’re going to be blessed, so blessed.
In Volume Four, I have a little study there that goes on for a few days. I found, can you believe it ladies? I found 75 different things that God wants us to do about His truth and His Word—75 different attitudes to it. Oh, it’s unbelievable! He wants us to be truth-confessors, and truth-continuers, and truth-declarers, and truth-speakers, and truth-readers, and truth-heralders. And it goes on, and on, and on.
And, of course, truth-keepers. Yes, that’s one of the biggest ones. Truth-keepers. I read here in the Word . . . go back to the Old Testament now. We learned about the Greek word. Well, the Hebrew word for “keeping” the word in the Old Testament is shamar It means, “to guard, to protect, watch over, take heed, observe.”
I found a number of things of how we’re to keep the truth. I won’t give you the references, but when you read the transcript, if you get around to reading it, or if you need to check it, I’ll put the references there for you.
But God’s Word tells us we are to keep God’s truths always, not only when it suits us. Not only when it fits in with our ideas, or with our circumstances. No, always.
The Word reminds us to keep God’s truth diligently. Three references for that one. It reminds us to keep His truth to a thousand generations. We’re passing it on from one generation to the next.
It reminds us to keep God’s truth unto the end. Remember, those who endure to the end shall be saved.
It reminds us to keep His truth with our whole heart.
It reminds us to keep His truth continually forever and ever.
It reminds us to be a companion of those who keep God’s truth. We hang out with those who love the Word of God. We make sure our children, that their friends are those who love the Word of God. We’re to be a companion of those who love it.
And even for the nations. Isaiah 26:2: “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.”
Let’s be keepers, ladies, keepers of the truth. You’ll be able to enjoy those beautiful devotionals, Volume 3, and Volume 4, when you get them.
Isn’t that amazing that I found 75 different things about keeping God’s Word? Maybe I didn’t exhaust them all.
No. 3. YOU HAVE TO OBEY IT TO KEEP IT
This of course really means much the same thing, doesn’t it? Yes, we do keep it when we obey it. Just a couple of Scriptures now, as we close.
Let’s go to John 14:15: “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.”
John 14:21: “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.”
John 14:23: “If any man love Me, he will keep my words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Isn’t that amazing Scripture? Oh, the ones who keep His commandments, God says, or Jesus is speaking here. He says: “We will come unto him, and will dwell with him.” Do you notice it says “we”? Not I. Jesus didn’t say “I.” He said “We,” the triune God. “We,” the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, “will come unto you and dwell with you.” How absolutely glorious!
Revelation, over to the last book that we began with and the last chapter. In the very last chapter, we read again about seeking God’s words. Revelation 22:6: “And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”
Verse 8 tells us how John fell down to worship at the feet of the angel, but in verse 9, the angel says to John, “See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book.”
One last Scripture, 1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” Amen.
So, of course, we’re now going to practice getting God’s Word into our hearts, and into our minds, and into our mouths. We’re going to be speaking it forth. We’re going to keep the sayings of God’s Word right unto the end.
“Dear Father, we thank You so much for your precious Word, and how You show us the way. Help us to be keepers of Your Word, and Lord, all the 75 other things that the ladies can find out about when they get 100 DAYS, Volume 4. Oh, God, there is just so much, so much. And Your Word is so precious, that you have 75 things You want us to do about it. I can hardly believe it. Oh, it’s amazing.
“And Lord, I pray that, as I pray for each mother, and each child, and each young person listening today, that You will, Lord God, You will make them people of Your Words, lovers of Your Words. Oh, Lord, that they’ll just love it, and they’ll want to explore it, and study it.
“Oh, God, I ask, Lord, that You will mightily bless them. I pray that you’ll make each family so strong, Lord God, as they prepare, Lord, for whatever we face ahead. Here we are, speaking at the beginning of this new year. We don’t know what is ahead, Lord God, but we pray that You’ll make us strong, You’ll make us ready.
“We pray that You will, oh, God, give us these wonderful qualities of fearlessness. Fill us with faith and strength and courage, in the Name of Jesus. Lord God, help us to be faithful, to persevere, to become prayer warriors, and keepers of Your Word. Lord God, I know that strong families like this will make such a powerful, strong nation. This is the only way to make a strong nation, is strong families. So, strengthen these precious families today, I pray, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org
Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
P.S. January 4th is my daughter, Serene’s birthday, 45 years today.
It was also my mother’s birthday who would be 106 years today if she was still living.
And I also had a new grandbaby born today, baby Ezra to our daughter Mercy.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES FOR TRUTH KEEPERS
Deuteronomy 5:29 reminds us to keep God’s truth “always,” not only when it suits us.
Deuteronomy 6:17; 11:22; and Psalm 119:4 remind us to keep God’s truth “diligently.”
Deuteronomy 7:9 reminds us to keep God’s truth “to a thousand generations.” We must be
faithful to pass it on from one generation to the next.
Psalm 119:33 reminds us to keep God’s truth “unto the end.”
Psalm 119:34 and 69 remind us to keep God’s truth with “my whole heart.”
Psalm 119:44 reminds us to keep God’s truth “continually, forever and ever.”
Psalm 119:63 and 115 remind us to be “a companion” of those who keep God’s truth. We make
friends with those who keep God’s truth.
WE HAVE NOW COMPLETED EIGHT SESSIONS ON THIS SERIES, THE FIVE NECESSARY QUALITTIES FOR END TIME LIVING. DID YOU GET THEM ALL?
DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THIS PODCAST, “LIFE TO THE FULL” WITH NANCY CAMPBELL.” DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.