Good morning, shabbat shalom, and welcome to this assembly and live broadcast in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Grace, peace and mercy be unto you all.

A.W.Tozer once said that he had preached the same sermon 33 times and each time it had had a profound impact on his listeners. His thesis was that if a sermon had the unmistakable imprint of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) on it, powerfully moving the the people the first time he delivered it, then he would know it had Yahweh Imprimatur or 'spiritual stamp of authority' on it. I also knew a Scottish lay-preacher who likewise preached the same sermon several times during the three years I was acquainted with him and each time I started falling asleep. So what was the difference between the two? I am sure there were many and I don't want to offer trite explanations other than to mention a couple of salient points.

Firstly, Tozer always soaked himself in prayer before undertaking the preparation and delivery of a sermon, And secondly, he insisted that preaching had to be the present voice of Elohim (God) to a particular people. If I don't have a particular group of people in mind before I start preparing for a sermon, I can't write coherently and I certainly can't deliver it live effectively either. I have to know who it's for - for a particular congregation, a particular country, a particular denomination, or a combination of any number of factors. In most cases I know who I am trying to reach. One thing I emphatically agree with Tozer about is that a sermon that does not originate in prayer, however learned the speaker, is most unlikely to be from Yahweh. At the best, it will emerge from the flesh, and at the worst, the Enemy might sneak through a door causually left open unawares.

You may be wondering what today's message is all about and I assure you it isn't just a word to preachers and pastors. Indeed, I know there are some who aren't too keen on the idea of pastors and preachers for a variety of reasons, not least because people have been burned by them when false doctrine has come out of the pulpit or, in the case of my Scottish friend (and he was a lovely man - he just was not called to be a preacher, which you could tell because he hated preaching), the sermons have been dry, stodgy and uninspiring. Whatever mankind gets his hands on he is liable to corrupt unless very circumspect and careful, a reason I love reading Tozer because he was a master preacher and nobody fell asleep when he preached.

No, he wasn't a charismatic who got up to antics or spoke wild prophecies - he did none of these things - but he was exceedingly well prepared intellectually, spiritually and even physically. You have to remember that PA systems weren't around in most places in those days (nor indeed for centuries before - we have become spoiled and lazy because of them) so ministers addressing a large congregation needed powerful lungs. And Tozer was not a man of great physique, but rather spindly like myself, in fact. Do you know what he did? He used to carry around a handfull of baloons in his briefcase and regularly blew them up to exercise his lungs - you know how much hard work it is blowing up balloons for parties! Indeed, I often wondered why some ministers shouted when I was younger and now I realise it was, in many cases, because they were unaccustomed to microphones and amplifiers. And in many places in the world ministers still preach in the old-fashioned way.

So, to repeat, Tozer thought preaching was the most important thing a minister could, and should, do, so he devoted hours of preparation each day. That is, in part, why he was so successful both as a preacher and writer. Now I agree that a minister should be prepared to preach at a moment's notice - at the drop of a hat - if needs be, but even then he will be reliant to a very large extent upon a body of pre-prepared, experiential knowledge if he's to do his job well. And, yes, the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) can, and does, fill and lead ministers who have had no time to prepare and who are called to just go and preach ex tempore. Yahweh can, and does, use whomsoever He wishes. It is, in any case, the Ruach (Spirit) that convicts the spirits of men and women to repentance and salvation, not us.

The trouble is, what we sometimes think is the Ruach (Spirit) - because the preacher has charisma and passion...what very loosely one can call a 'presence' (whatever its origin may be) - can frequently turn out to be born of the psychic nature. The Ruach (Spirit), when it operates, has to pass through the human psyche and thence through the physical body - the lips, tongue, larynx, lungs and various limbs if the preacher gesticulates a lot. What you preach or teach always passes through the filter of the invisible matrix of your being and character. What you say, and how you witness, is affected, modified, focussed, dispersed, concentrated or jumbled up by what is already in your mind and heart. And that is why Tozer, whose preaching few would ever deny was excellent, always filled his mind with writings containing elevated things - he was an avid reader of theology, history, poetry, philosophy and literature in particular. That is why he, though a formally uneducated man, always preached most eloquently. He worked hard to educate himself.

Now I mentioned earlier that Tozer always had a group of people in mind when preaching. When Paul wrote his pastoral epistles, he had specific groups of people in mind too: Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Thessalonians, Colossians and Philippians, to be precise. These consisted primarily of diaspora Judahites (Jews), Greeks and Romans but also others. The issues that he had to tackle, which had been raised beforehand (for example, we know there was an earlier exchange with the Corinthians which has been lost) had a very specific historical and cultural context. If Tozer had known what we now know I don't doubt it would have informed his sermons even more than they already were!

Paul was converted during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberias, around 33-34 AD, but he didn't start writing until the reign of Claudius (41-54 AD) - he was out in the wilderness alone with Yah'shua (Jesus) during the reign of the mad and depraved Emperor Caligula (37-41 AD). There was political turmoil during his ministry that deeply impacted both his writings and the lives of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones). Herod's Temple wasn't finished until 63 AD only to be permanently destroyed 7 years later by Titus, the son of Emperor Vespasian (69-79 AD). In the short span that the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) cover, there was utter chaos politically and religiously, with Jewish political factions waring as much among themselves as with the Romans, not to mention the strife that existed between different Jewish religious groups. Not a lot has changed, has it?

Then some of Paul's letters were personal (as to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon) and others were of a general nature - whoever wrote the Book of Hebrews was writing only to Israelites and not to Gentiles. As you read the nevi'im (prophets) in the Tanakh (Old Testament) you find exactly the same sort of thing, with some prophecies of a general nature and others directed at particular nations and tribal groups. When we read ancient biblical prophecies we must always be conscious of to whom they were originally addressed. And whilst prophecies and revelations addressed to specific individuals or groups of peeople may be said to contain valuable counsel for everybody in every age, we do have to be very careful about that so that we don't claim revelations for ourselves that were never meant for us.

Some things are obviously common sense. Prophecies about the destruction of the Second Temple at Jerusalem, fulfilled in 70 AD, obviously do not concern any future temple(s), even though (amazingly) there are plenty of those who apply prophecies given to Ezekiel about a 'Third Temple' to the current activities of Talmudic Jews in the Rosthschild Republic of 'Israel'. Yet careful study of Ezekiel's prophecies reveals, unambiguously, that a Third Temple, and the repentance required to obtain it, was rejected by the then exiles in Babylon (and earlier, Assyria) and so they no longer have any application today or in the future. It is the careless and irresponsible exegesis of passages like this that have led to whole prophetic theologies (see Zionism, for example) that are completely wrong and misleading millions who are looking in all the wrong places for the fulfillment of end-time prophecies. That is why we have to be very careful when we examine the Scriptures and not get carried away by well-meaning but ignorant preachers and teachers following 'pop theology', who are often lawless, who, thinking they are following the Ruach (Spirit), are deceived by their own hearts, mistaking passion for spiritual power. And as you know, I have been warning people for decades about such things. The Dunning-Kruger effect, a well known cognitive bias in which people assess their cognitive ability as great than it is, is as applicable to poor educated preachers as to anyone else (such as those caught up in the delusion of flat-earthism or evolutionism).

Now as you have probably by now realised, I am a great admirer of A.W.Tozer and appreciate his recorded sermons. I am sure that you, like me, wish you could be a preacher like him or a good many others. We all have our favourites. But we are not them. They are unique to their time, their place, and their denomination even. We can never be them. I don't know who your favourites are - evangelicals like Francis Chan, Ravi Zacharias, John MacArthur, Benny Hinn, or messianics like Michael Rood and Jonathan Cahn. Maybe you particularly like old-timers like Smith Wigglesworth and Charles Spurgeon, or maybe you like reading even older divines like Charles Wesley, Martin Luther, John Calvin, or ones even older than them - church fathers like Origen and Augustine, for instance. Maybe you're one of those people who has a taste for non-canonical works like the Book of Enoch or the writings of T.Favius Clemens. Whoever you read or listen to and believe, shapes you in some way or another. We are shaped by what we believe and that 'shaping' acts as a unique character-prism on the Ruach (Spirit). When the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) enters you, that character prism splits up, selects, concentrates and scatters the Ruach (Spirit) acting on you to some degree, so that we pick up 'bits' of the Ruach (Spirit) and miss others. That's why no two people entirely agree on everything. It's why the Body of Christ remains so hopelessly divided still.

We are gathering together in about 5 weeks for the Second Dedication of the Final Exodus. What we bring to such sacred assemblies matters. It matters because what has shaped us will either agree with the Ruach (Spirit) that Yahweh wishes to impart to us, or it will distort or even block that Ruach (Spirit). We realised, I think, the last time we assembled 5 years ago, that in spite of the extraordinary outpouring of holiness and shalom (peace) then, that there was still a lot dividing us, a reason we have had to wait half a decade before being called together again. Heaven's mills turn exceedingly slowly, but then they have to, because they grind exceedingly fine, and were we to be reduced to spiritual flour all in one go to a point of complete submission to the Father we would almost certainly be destroyed in the process. We are complicated and sensitive spiritual, mental and emotional mechanisms and we require time to change which is why we can't afford to postpone what Yahweh wants to do in our lives. One thing I do want to make abundantly clear to you today is this: Yahweh's people cannot follow a multitude of voices and emerge whole.

A.W.Tozer was most particular about telling his students - prospective ministers - to devote a lot of attention to the way they used language, in his case, English. English is a very fine language, to be sure, but it is not the language in which Yahweh gave us His primary revelation (and I say that knowing very well that I will upset the King James Version-Only crowd who think that's the 'only' real Bible and give the impression, if you follow their logic through, that Jesus and the Apostles spoke Jacobean English). I'm not sure Tozer had in mind what I am about to say, but I can certainly see how what he said is applicable. (Incidentally, like me, he used about 40 different English versions of the Bible!) Like it or not, as Tozer would say, the tools of the preacher (and indeed, of anyone bearing his or her testimony) are words. He used to instruct his new students to write down the words they most commonly used to express the Gospel and then told them never to use them again. His purpose? To get them to think about what they were saying, to avoid clichés and to make sure that what they got across were accurate concepts rather than words, phrases (and today, 'memes') that have multiple theological meanings depending which tradition people buy into. You can, for example, have two people talking about something like 'salvation' who mean quite different things by it (like Provisionists and Calvinists). We use the same vocabulary but different theological dictionaries. That's why I am at pains to use both Hebrew and Greek (and sometimes Aramaic and German) words to express complex conceps - some of them new to us (like 'phronema') - and to avoid words heavily saturated with centuries of Catholic and Protestant theology that have bent the original concepts completely out of shape, words that are used differently by the several denominations. We have a lot of work to do in this area and that's why we have our large website to thrash things out.

We need, Tozer said, to meticulously define the words we use, and then use unusual or unfamiliar words to express the same concepts in order to get people to think and so become aware of the original scriptural concepts. That's why I like N.T.Wright so much because he does the same thing. His goal, rightly, as ours must be, was to get his listeners directly into the presence of Elohim (God). He hated, and avoided, artificiality. He didn't want his sermons to sound like sermons so he structured them in such a way that he would end up teaching spiritual principles rather than doing detailed verse exgeses (in the manner of the Baptists, for example). Not that there is anything wrong doing expositional preaching - that's really the work of the Gospel Teacher - but we must remember always that the goal of preaching and witnessing is to teach living truth principles. Our aim is to get people into the Sacred Story which leads us into the Ultimate Reality of Elohim's (God's) presence.

When the Messiah is described as the Davar, Logos or "Word", it is not Bible 'words' that are the main thing. Words, whether true or false, can be equally dead or alive, depending what spirit suffuses them. They are primarily vessels, carrying a substance, and it is that substance that converts, sanctifies and edifies souls. The words give the substance mental and theological shape so we can relate to them with our minds, feel the principles they are conveying with our hearts, and respond with our spirits leading to Kingdom works. The Davar (Word) is the substance, power, life, love and salvational spirit that is in, and of, the Son, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). Be careful of translations that try to 'under-interpret' the word 'Davar' to simply mean the 'Torah' or the 'Son'. It's both of these to be sure but a lot more too:

"In the beginning was the Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word, and the Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word was with ('close beside' - KNT) Elohim (God), and the Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word was Elohim (God). He was in the beginning with ('close beside' - KNT) Elohim (God)" (John 1:1-2, NIV).

John expands upon this in the opening verse of his first epistle when he said:

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have gazed at, and our hands have handled - concerning the Davar Chayim (Word of Life)! That life was displayed, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and we announce to you the chayim (life) of Elohim's (God's) coming age (æon), which was with the Father and was displayed to us. That which we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). We are writing these things so that our simcha (joy) may be complete" (1 Jn.1:1-4, KNT).

And then the apostle goes on to announce the Saviour's message. John has heard Him, seen Him, gazed at Him, and touched Him: this Word, this Being, is both a manifestation and revelation of Elohim (God) - to be exact, a unique and unrepeatable incarnation, Elohim (God) in the flesh, and later goes on to expose the gnostic spirit of the Antichrist which actively denies this (1 Jn.4:1-3).

So, as you just heard (or read), John is further expanding on the introduction to His Besorah (Gospel), telling us what this central revelation of Christianity is. He's telling us what this 'Word' actually is - substantially. He identifies the Word as a Divine Being who beings him joy, a Being who is "with" or "close by to" Elohim (God) the Father.

Different New Testament writers stressed different aspects of what is in effect a New Covenant Creation narrative, an expansion of the opening verse of the Book of Genesis:

"In the beginning Elohim (God) created the heavens and the earth" (Gen.1:1, NKJV - Evidence Bible, p.3).

You may remember that Mark started his Gospel with his own 'beginning' narrative too:

"The beginning of the Good News (Gospel) of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), the Son of Elohim (God)" (Mk.1:1, NRSV)

And then, finally, in the Book of Revelation, we go from 'beginnings' to the 'ending' of the age:

"The revelation of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), which Elohim (God) gave him to show His servants what must soon take place; He made it known by sending His malak (angel) to His servant John, who testified to the Davar Elohim (Word of God) and to the testimony of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near" (Rev.1:1-3, NRSV).

A preacher should study for a purpose and read with a purpose, as he should preach with a purpose. In this matter, the New Testament witnesses are no different. They clearly state their purpose, don't they, in the opening words of their books, as we've just read. Tozer believed that the neglected truths of his day should be stressed, and he did so. Every inspired witness must stress what is neglected in his own day. For Tozer it was world missions, prophecy, divine healing, separation from worldly things, the work of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), heart purity, personal victory over self and sin (overcoming), the indwelling Christ, and the importance of worship. I'm sure you'll agree these need stressing in our day too, only the urgency is ever the greater now, because sin and impurity have multiplied exponentially. But there are other things - new things - that also need emphasising - again, nothing really new yet long-forgotten truths.

Thus David said:

"I patiently waited, Yahweh, for You to hear my prayer" (Ps.40:1, CEV)

"[Ritual] sacrifices and offerings are not what please You; gifts and payment for sin are not what You demand. But You made me willing to listen and obey" (Ps.40:6, CEV).

We must ever we willing to "listen and obey" and indeed Yahweh has caused us to emphasise neglected truths and to so preach with purpose in our own generation. For years we have taught and preached Torah-obedience as a necessary pre-requisite to the prophesied "restoration of all things" (Ac.3:21, NKJV). And we have by no means been alone in this task - hundreds of preachers have been doing it. We have been commanded also to preach the restoration of the Divine Tavnith or Pattern, using new words so that the talmidim (disciples) can better grasp the concepts, including the restoration of patriarchal toqef (authority), the eternal echad order of sacred marriage, and now the FINAL GATHERING for the LAST EXODUS. Tozer stressed again and again the importance of courageously adhering to the New Testament pattern. We have been very, very, busy over the last (nearly) 40 years doing these things, getting little response, though we are beginning to witness an upsurge in interest as the hard times escalate and people thirst for truth and purity. It is this time we have been awaiting for so long.

I've talked a lot about Tozer today because he has inspired me so much over the years. And whilst our calling and his overlap to a very great degree, we are called to do other things for which there are no mentors to whom we can go for counsel. Yet we have learned from, and been blessed by, so many people in different ministries, and we will doubtless continue to do and be so. But there are things we are called to do which no one else can do because no one else, that we yet know of, has been on this exact self-same path. This is a unique spiritual mix. Lots of people know that Collapse is coming and that Judgment has already begun. Lots know that Yahweh is gathering out 'Remnants' from the main denominational bodies - indeed I came across a Catholic 'Remnant' only the other day. There are Remnant Baptists, Remnant Messianics, Remnant Catholics, Remnant Pentecostals - you name it, they are there. They all have the general idea but they are still weighed down and hampered by false traditions. Nevertheless, Yahweh can still do much - and has already done a lot, and is continuing to act unbeknown to us and others - to lots of faithful believers who want the emet (truth). What a motley lot we still are but there is one thing that unites us all across the denominations - a true heart.

Brethren and sisters, I cannot stress enough how important this spring Dedication of the Melchizedek Priesthood is to those who have been called to this work. Like the previous Dedication, it won't be repeated again. It will not be a public assembly but is extended only to those who are called. What Yahweh speaks must be obeyed for as it is written:

"For,

'Human life is like grass,
and all its splendour is like the grass's flower.
The grass withers; the flower fades;
But the Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word of Yahweh remains for ever.'

"And this Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word is the Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word of the Besorah/Gospel/Good News which has been preached to you" (1 Pet.1:24-25, Barclay).

And when this Davar/Miltha/Logos/Word comes, it will come with power, just as five years ago His holiness or set-apartness came came with great shalom or peace. This will not be the counterfeit 'power' that you see manifested in the charismatic churches - there will be no babbling in gibberish or tongues, no rolling around on the floor, no being 'slain in the spirit' so-called, no psychic manifestations of any kind, and if any of these things manifests in anyone who attends, they will be driven out by the Ruach (Spirit) with their tails between their legs, for El Elyon (the Most High) will not suffer the blasphemy of impurity in His Presence. He will not be mocked. This is an assembly for the Sons of Rechab, and of Zadok, and of Malchizadok (Melchizedek). It is for those who love purity (Jas.3:17-18) and who hate the world system with its lusts and abominations. Those who are willing to cast themselves before the Master's feet, those who follow after covenant-faithfulness, who desire the righteousness of Heaven, these are they who alone shall once more enter into His Presence, but this time in the innermost chamber of the Heavenly Tabernacle. This will be a solemn assembly. May Yahweh bless you as you prepare.

Once more I cannot say when next we will be broadcasting for we will only do so as directed. So until next time, whenever that may be, may Yahweh bless you and give you His shalom (peace) in Yah'shua (Jesus) our Messiah. Amen