Let's remember the Giants who once bought in the land on this edition of E-Life. Hello, I'm Mike Kellogg and this is E-Life, a program designed to tell Christians that God isn't mad at them. Bible teaching to help get you home. Here's Steve. Thanks Mike. If you have your Bible open into the book of numbers and we're just kind of meandering through the book of numbers, looking at a number of different texts, actually my favorite texts in the book of numbers, we took some time last week to introduce this book to you. It's the book and when God's people are in the wilderness, we saw why they were there and how God is faithful even in the wilderness. And they were looking just at some of the different texts as we go along. If you have your Bible open it to Numbers 21 and then I'm going to drop down to the 29th verse. And the people of Israel, the whole congregation came into the wilderness of Zinn in the first month and the people stayed at Cadish and Maryam died there and was buried there. And then look at the 29th verse and when all the congregations saw that Ayrin was dead, all the house of Israel wept for Ayrin for 30 days. One of the things that we don't do much is that we don't much remember the heroes, the mothers and the fathers of the faith who have been faithful in the past. Do you ever think that they are a gift that God has given to his church so that we might remember and be thankful and be glad for the giants that once walked in the land? There is great sadness here in Moses, isn't there? Moses is losing Ayrin and he's losing Maryam and the people weep because they're losing leaders, giants who walked in the land. I've often talked to you about Dr. Stanton who was my mentor when I was a young pastor. And I was with Dr. Stanton much of the last days of his life. But years before that he had been at this little church on Cape God. And I firmly believe that God had placed him there for my benefit when he was 60 years of age. He collapsed in the pulpit and the physicians told him that he would never preach again. And so he moved to Cape God. He lived in a big rambling Cape God sea captain's house and he poured his life into my life. And I can think of the hundreds of times sitting by the fire in his study on cold Cape God, winter nights and listening to Dr. Stanton talk. And sometimes Dr. Stanton would talk about the people that he had known. Those who had stood with him in the past, those who had died and gone to be a part of the communion of the saints in heaven. And sometimes when he would talk to me about those men and those women, tears would well up in his eyes. And there was an extreme kind of sadness. And when I came to numbers 21 and 29 and thought about Moses, I thought about Dr. Stanton and how he felt. And now that I'm getting older, I remember those who have affected my life and those who have held up my arms. And those who have made a difference in my life and there is a sense of sadness and loss. When I think of those giants who once walked in the land. To ever tell you I had opportunity to meet Cornelius Bantill at Westminster Seminary. To ever tell you that Dr. Harold John Ockengay was a friend of mine before he went home to be with the Lord. I could go on and on and on when I was a young pastor I had an opportunity to meet some great men and women of God. And recently my wife and I were on Cape Cod where we served that first church. And I thought about them and there was a sense of sadness. And at that point, I could identify at least there with Moses. They flip over it to numbers 27-18 through 20 and the Lord said to Moses, take Joshua. The son of none, a man in whom is the Spirit and lay your hand up on him. Cause him to stand before Elias are the priest. And all the congregation that you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority and all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey. Let me give you a quote from a Calvinist from John Wesley. John Wesley said so many things that are so good. He said, if thy heart be as my heart, give me thy hand. That's one of my favorite quotes. But let me tell you another one from John Wesley. He said this. God buries his workman and he goes on with his work. Hallelujah. Well, you find an example of that here in numbers. Moses was an old man. These closest lieutenants were dying away from old age. Moses knew that he wasn't going to make it into the Promised Land. And God said, Moses, you come on home but make sure you commission Joshua to carry on the work. Let me tell you something, guys, you're going to die and you're not even going to leave a hole. But that's okay. God's glory will not be affected by that because God buries his workman and he goes on with his work. Hallelujah. Very important that we recognize that those of us are getting older. That God's not going to leave this world without a witness. That the world is not rest on our shoulders and we aren't so wise that God could not do without us. They used to scare me to death. But as I've gotten older, the more I've realized that God really does bury his workman. And he goes on with his work. Hallelujah. You think about that? Amen. And no, don't rejoice. I'm not going to die anytime soon. I just want you to know that. I just wanted to point out that these books of the Old Testament have more meaning to me, the older I get. Hey, listen, if you haven't checked out our website, I wish you'd check it out. It's keylife.org. That's www.keylife.org. We're adding new stuff to it almost every week. And you can listen to this broadcast and you can listen to the previous 30 on that website. And there's lots of good stuff to get you and those you love home with freedom and joy and faithfulness to Christ as you're climbing achievement. I have a few minutes at the end of the broadcast and it's my practice on Wednesday to ask to answer a couple of questions. My pastor will be on Friday and we will answer some questions during that time. And you'll straighten out the things I said that were wrong today. At any rate, we'd love to get your questions, but you have to write them down. Send them to keylife. Post office box 5,000, Madeleine Florida, 32794. Or in Canada, keylife, Canada. Post office box 32150, Cambridge, Ontario, in 3H5M3. Or you can email us at steveatkeylife.org. But be sure and give us your regular mailing address. And don't use the one 800 number for questions. Where you can ask questions and won't get any answers. And you always do get an answer from me or a staff person or on the broadcaster in the magazine. But use the one 800 number to order Christmas meditations free, to become a part of keylife tapes free, to get the catalog free, to make a contribution or whatever. But you got to write the questions down. All right, let's get to a couple of these. This is an email, no state. Steve, what denomination are you? I'm reminded at the Promise Keepers rallies where they say for everybody to call out the church and the denomination that they're a part of. And you get these thousands of men all calling out their denominations and folks, it is absolute chaos. And then the leader will often say, now everybody say, Jesus, and they do in their unity. Well, I want you to know, the first denomination I belong to is the Christian one. In other words, I'm a Christian before I'm a Presbyterian, but I am a Presbyterian. And for those of you who aren't, when Jesus returns, you will find out that he also is a Presbyterian. Actually, I'm a member of the, and I wouldn't even joke if we were having a thunderstorm right now. I'm a member of PCA, that's Presbyterian Church in America, and it's a relatively small denomination. We are doctrinally pure, and we're sometimes very mean. But it's since you asked, now you know Presbyterian Church in America. This is from Florida, in the key life statement of faith, what is meant by the Bible being without era? One, absolute no grammatical structural era's discrepancy. Two, fully an errant and only the truths it presents, an errant and original manuscripts which have been slightly corrupted in translation over the years. Four, some combination of the above. One, no, two, no, three, yes, or yes. All right, this is another email. Well, maybe I better be a little bit more specific. We believe in key life that the Bible is fully authoritative, and we believe in revealed propositional truth. Cleanery, verbal inspiration, that is, that the Bible is true, and it's not just generally true, all of it is true. However, we do recognize that in the translation process, there have been some corrupting of the text, and so we're referring to the original manuscripts. However, we do believe that a sovereign God oversees even the transmission of the text to us so that in no significant place is their era even in a faithful translation of those original texts. Okay. It's another email, no state. What is the point of ecclesiastes that there is no point without God? I love the book of the ecclesiastes. You know I like it. I like it, and I can hardly wait in our old Testament survey to get to that book and study it for a little bit. The book of the ecclesiastes absolutely takes away the sham in the pretense, in the nonsense, and the cliches, and the silliness that you hear from a lot of Bible teachers and sometimes even from me. The book of the ecclesiastes says it's all vanity. You're going to die, so deal with it. You need to know that you can try everything, and it's not going to work, except God. God is the only reality in the only meaning, and so the book of the ecclesiastes is very pointed because it teaches the way the world really is without God. Before I was a Christian, I was an existentialist. I had a minor in college in philosophy and thought I was an intellectual in those days. An Albert Camus was my hero. Camus said the only question with which modern man must deal is the question of whether or not he or she should commit suicide. And many people who knew Camus said that shortly before his death, he was being drawn to the Christian faith because he realized that if there was a God, and if God had entered time and space in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, then they really was. Camus wasn't the first one to say that sort of thing. It is said also in the book of ecclesiastes. This is from Ohio. How can people say we bless God when it's really in blessing us? We are so infinitely small and stupid compared to God, so how can I bless or glorify God? Good question. I don't know, but you do. You know that he likes to spend time with me and is blessed with my presence and my praise? I don't understand that. And friend from Ohio, I understand your question completely. The Bible says, however, that God is blessed by us also. Folks, I'm out of time. Gotta get out of here. Whenever you're right or call, be sure and give us the call letters of this great station and key life is a production of E-Life Network.