Marcus Mecum - Do Not Disturb - Part 2
See, bones are the structure of the body. Bones are the foundation of the body. You cannot have a body without bones. And the scripture, when it speaks of bones, it's symbolic of this book, of God's word, it's symbolic of truth. And so, in serving God, what we learn is there is some things that are temporal. You go to a grave after very long, the flesh is gone, the organs are gone, but the bones are there. Because the bones represent something that's eternal. They represent things that don't change. They represent things that are the same, yesterday, today and forever. These are the non-negotiables, these are the absolutes, these are the inherences of God. And they're bones you do not disturb, they're sacred, they're divine.
And throughout all generations there are bones that God teaches each generation, "You do not disturb these bones". Deuteronomy says that you do not add or take away from this book. Revelation 22:18 and 19, warns of adding or taking away from the prophecy there. That if you add to it, the Bible says, "God will add to you the plagues that were in that book". And if you take away from it, "He'll take away from you, your name in that holy city". Psalms 119, the Psalmist discusses how we're to look at this book. And he says, you love it, you respect it, you regard it. Verse after verse about cherishing it, studying it, delighting in the bones.
When Moses would die, the Bible says in Jude 9, that satan would actually come down and he would contend for the bones of Moses. Why would satan want anything to do with bones? Because Moses's bones were very powerful, and the devil was in a battle the Archangel Michael over those bones. The Bible actually says that the bones of Moses were so powerful in Deuteronomy 34, God came down and grab the body of Moses and he buried, God himself buried the body of Moses. Because God was saying, "You don't disturb those bones". In Ezekiel, God would take the prophet over a valley, and he would ask him, "What do you see"? And he would say, "I see a valley filled with dry bones". And God would say, "I want you to prophecy to these bones. I want you to prophecy to that which has been and gone before you".
And God can bring it back to life and he could stand it back up on its feet again. The Passover lamb, of course was what God had given Israel to celebrate the fact that God would cause death and destruction to pass over God's people's homes. And when he said, "You eat the Passover lamb, you are to eat all of it. You're to leave not one bit of it not eaten". But then in numbers 9:12, he says, "But don't break any of its bones. Don't disturb the bones".
I'm going somewhere with this. Jesus is also now dying on the cross, who is of course our perfect final Passover Lamb. In the Bible, it's clear that they did not break any of his bones. We have explicit details of the way Jesus would suffer and die. The way that they would beat his body. The way that they would rip the flesh from his back. The way that they would beat his face. They way that they would nail, of course, his wrists and his feet to the cross. And the suffering and the beating was so savage towards Christ that the Bible says he didn't even look like a human being, he looked more like an animal. But in all of those beatings and every beating he endured, not one bone was broken, which is quite miraculous. Because it was a priority to God to not disturb the bones.
You could go to the crucifixion scene, and you could go to the thief on the left, who we would know represents Lucifer who had fallen from heaven. And we know that because he there hanging on the cross, offers the same insult towards Christ that the devil offered towards Jesus in the dessert. And that was, "If you really are the Son of God". And that thief's legs were broken to accelerate his death. And immediately the soldiers went from that cross to the soldier on the right who we would know represents Adam, because Jesus said, "Today, you'll be with me in paradise".
And that word paradise is the same word as eden, and that soldier we know represented Adam. Adam fell from temptation and he left paradise because of his fall, and so, that soldier's legs were broken. And then the soldiers come to Jesus and they're there to break his legs like they broke the thief and the criminal on the right, and the one on the left's legs. But the Bible says, the soldier does something unknowingly, that would fulfill Psalms 22. And that's the prophecy that none of the Messiah's bones will be broken. And instead of breaking his legs, he goes and he pierces his side, not knowing he's fulfilling Psalms 22 and the prophecy that none of his bones will be broken.
You see, unlike the thief on the left, Jesus never fell from heaven. And unlike the thief and the criminal on the right, Jesus in no way, shape or form ever fell at the temptation. He came down from paradise and he overcame all temptation. He came down willingly, he gave his life willingly, he became a human being willingly and he laid it down for us. And so, they would pierce his side and blood and water would come out. And we would know that to have a birth, it has to have blood and water. And so, when the soldier pierced Jesus's side and blood and water came out, in the same way that God would reach into Adam's side, pull out the rib and create eve, Adam's bride, when blood and water flowed out of Christ's side, God would reach into him and create the church, which is the bride of Christ.
So, we take, I'm showing you something, if you'll just watch it for just one more second. So, they take the body of Jesus off the cross and they lay it in a tomb. And three days later, the tomb becomes a womb. And the very first person to come out of the tomb that became a womb, we know, would become the head of the church, which is Jesus Christ. When a baby is born, the first thing to come out of the body is the head. You're in trouble if it's a feet first baby, the head comes out first. Do you know what they call that when the head comes out? They call it crowning. So, when Jesus came out of the tomb that had become a womb, as the head of the church they crowned him, God crowned him with all power and authority to be the head of the church.
And then after the head comes the shoulders, which was the apostles. And then comes the arms which is the early church fathers. And then comes the torso, which was the saints of old and the prophets and the generations that would come after that. And then came the hips and the legs, which would represent the John Wesley's, and the Calvin's, and the Martin Luther's and all the men of God that had been raised in the generations of old. Maybe it's your great grandma or your great grandfather, your mom or your dad. The saints of old, maybe they all, the Billy Grahams of the world, they represent the ankles, that had gone before us.
And then you finally when the baby's completely out, the feet are last, which is us. That represents us. We're the feet generation and we know this because all the generations who have gone before us, they're no longer touching earth. The feet, gravity forces the feet to touch the earth. We're the feet generation because we're still here. And we carry the head, and we carry the shoulders and we carry that which has gone before us. And we cherish that which has gone before us, and we care for that which has gone before us. And the Bible says, what every generation has to be careful of is that one part of the body doesn't say to another part of the body, "We don't need you".
This generation can't go back and say to that generation, "We don't need you no more. We're gonna do it our own way. We're gonna do it a better way". Every generation has to come to a place where they look back and they say, "I appreciate the new move. I appreciate what God wants to do through us in our generation and our future". But I've gotta take a moment, pause, and stop and go back and ask the question, "What has gone before me? How has God moved in past generations? How has God moved historically"? And I've got to honor that as I move forward. You see the point is, we're all connected, you don't disturb that. And this book is what contains the bones.
Notice when Josiah goes and he asks about the tombstone, they don't teach him about the specifics of what makes up a bone. They talk to him about a person, because the point wasn't to get Josiah to know that there are bones there, the point was to get to know the person that had been a part of carrying the message to his generation. And because he was faithful to do it to his generation, now that enable Jeremiah to carry it to his. And so, it was to get, and so the purpose of you getting to know the bones is not for the bone's sake, it's not so you can know this is a sin and that's a sin and this wrong and that's wrong, I should do this, and I shouldn't do that. It's to get to know the person of Jesus Christ who loves you and wants a relationship with you.
Really, the point of the Bible, that is the point of the Bible, if you didn't know the point of the Bible, is it's really, the point is to show you of how a God that created us desires a relationship with us and pursues us, and has always pursued us in spite of us. So, the goal of loving the scriptures, and reading the scriptures, and asking God to speak to you through the scriptures is relationship. I would say that part of disturbing the bones would be, you could do it many, many ways. But one of the ways to disturb the bones that I see happen sometimes in church life is we under emphasize the point of the scriptures. The point is to introduce us to a relationship with God.
The point of the scriptures is not to point out what's wrong with everybody, right. "Oh, well, you know, I heard that they're an alcoholic. How can they be a Christian? I don't know. They got a drinking problem". "Oh, that one over there this, there's this. And that one over there is this. And that one over there got an abortion and how can they be in church? They shouldn't be able to be in church. Don't they know you can't have that God thing because of that"? When the point of scripture, the point of scripture is that God is pursuing a relationship with us of all kinds of us with all kinds of different flaws. And the truth is, he shouldn't with any of us. Okay, he shouldn't. And when you start pointing out that you should and someone else shouldn't, you're disturbing the bones by the way. You're disturbing the bones.
What you should say is, "Hey, listen there's probably a lot of things and it says, 'don't do this, don't do that,' that you're gonna have to ask God to work on your heart in those things. Because they're specific to your leanings, they're specific to maybe the way the enemy's worked on you and cultures worked on you and your family and your upraising, or all kinds of things may be working on you in that way". But guess what, they're some things as I go through it, is it working on me, too? It's talking to me about some things that I wish that it wasn't talking to me about. All kinda things I wish would just, the Bible would blink at that when it comes to me, but it doesn't blink at that with me either.
But what I know is, I'm learning how a relationship with God through the scriptures as God through my relationship with him will begin to say, "Hey, this area of your life, it's time to maybe let me work on that area. I got something better for you. You picked that up in culture. You were abused. I'm sorry the culture was just too dominant UN your life and it influenced you too much and it lied to you, and it's deceived you, and it's blinded you. I've got something greater for you, I've got something higher for you. And I want to show you how I can free you from the things that the enemy has used to lie to you about those things".
And the point is, as we encourage people to go to scripture, and we encourage people to dig into scripture, not to find out what's wrong with them but we encourage them to do it so they can have a relationship with a God that in each of our lives knows how to personally do the surgery on us, right. The Word of God is living and it's sharp and it's more powerful than a two-edged sword. But that two-edged sword is not used to people's heads off right. Jesus rebuked Peter when he used the sword to cut the guy's ear off, right. And Jesus healed the guy's ear. What's he saying? "Hey, the sword is not used to destroy people. The sword is not used to cut people. The sword is used by God to do surgery on people so he can heal them and make them stronger and healthier as a result of his words".
Don't disturb the bones. There is something that tries to keep you and I away from loving and cherishing and having a regular relationship with the scriptures. There is something. And I'm trying to get to something about that. Have you ever met somebody that, somebody introduced you and you didn't know this person, you had never known this person before. But the person that introduced this person to you maybe had told them about you. And now you meet them and you're hearing that, you almost feel like a closeness like you've known them for a long time, even though you just met them. But you're connecting the dots just because of what this friend of yours has told them about you guys. And now you seem to know stories and things about one another. Where they work, who they are, where they're from, what their favorite football team.
All this stuff you seem to know even though you've never met them, you know about them through somebody else. And then as great at that is, many times, sometimes you have the unfortunate experience where you meet someone through someone that you've never met before. And maybe you can pick up on the fact that the things that that person told them about you are not so good. And immediately, that person is maybe shutting down on you, being cold on you, being awkward with you, being hesitant with you. Maybe not even interested in you, not because they know you, but because of what someone they know told them about you, right. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Anybody else lived life?
Okay. And so, sometimes people avoid the church, and they're hurt by church, and they avoid the scriptures and they avoid these things. And they have all these questions that precede relationship. Like, "If I'm gonna have a relationship with God, I need to know, does it say this and does it say that? What about this? What about that"? That's not how you pursue a relationship with God. You just decide, "I want to get to know him. And I'm gonna trust that as I get to know him and through relationship, I need to make the call for myself, right". And so, some of you I'm here to challenge you to be willing to take the time to stop and pause and not just be carried by the culture, and not just be carried by the popular trends of our day about things like truth, and about the gospel and about these bones that we're to honor and to cherish.
Not because I'm asking you to, but because there's a God in heaven that desires to have a relationship with you. And one of the best ways he can form that relationship with you is not by you just going to others to hear about this God, but it's to open up this book and say, "God, I want to get to know you myself. And would you speak to me about being? Would you speak to me about life? And would you speak to me about friends and relationships? Would you speak to me about culture? Would you speak to me about decisions? Would you speak to me about you and who you are? As I open up this book, would talk to me about these things"?
Jonathan Edwards said, "Let not this treasure lie by you neglected". It's the Word of God. The phrase there is interesting because word actually translates breath. When you hear some say, "This is the Word of God", "Word," speaks of "Breath". Which is what Timothy actually said, or Paul told Timothy that this is inspired or God breathed. And know this, that every single part of this book was God breathed and God did not waste his breath. The Bible is something that you should pick up and every time you turn to a passage, you're meant to hear, "Thus says the Lord to me". When you read this book and the scripture speaks, you should know, "It's God speaking to me".
And you should also know that God speaks to each generation and that's generation's ways. God never ask, if you are consistent wit the scripture, God never ask one generation to go back and do everything like the previous generation, because God is always moving. What he does, is he says, "I want you to go back and learn from that generation what they did, and I want you to maintain anything that is consistent and faithful with the scriptures. And then I want you to let God move through you to your generation in a way that can be affected to your generation, but honor and not disturb the bones". Every new move of God as it unfolds should pause and consider, "What has the church always believed"?
The Bible has always had primacy, it's always had the final decision, and all things have their final rest with scripture, and there is a reason for that. And the reason isn't to be old school, and the reason isn't to be irrelevant, and the reason isn't to be uneducated and not intellectual, or not a thinker, that's not the point of it. Martin Luther said in his work, the bondage of the will, "That satan has used unsubstantial specters". I looked that up and it means, in essence, satan has used a fake boogie man. So that little boogie man under the bed with your kids that they get all worried about, that little boogie man in the closet that you have to tell 'em "Don't worry about it, there's no boogie man".
Martin Luther said that "Satan uses a fake boogie man to scare men and women off of reading the sacred text". This is the reason, to poison the church. "Well, I know that that's what they say the Bible says but I feel this, and I think that". No, it's not our job, it's not our job. Our job is to humble ourselves and say, "You know what? I'm the feet and I'm not gonna say to this part of the body, 'I don't need you'". And the body of Christ is 2000 years old. And I gotta honor the head and I've gotta honor the shoulders.
And I've gotta honor the early church leaders. And I've gotta honor those who gone before me. And yes, I'mma let God do a new thing in me, but not without stopping and pausing and considering the way God has always worked. And this is the bottom line, satan hates this book, satan hates these bones. Satan will do anything he can to talk you and I out of loving and cherishing these bones. He'll do everything he can to scare us away from it. Tell us, "We'll never understand it, we'll never get it, that's for just the super spiritual people. That's for overly religious. That's you know, that's the Jesus freak stuff".
Listen, satan does not want you in the book because he knows who it will introduce you to. He knows that through this book, you can have a thriving, close relationship with the God who breathed on those who wrote it. You see, the bones may not look like much, but if God will breathe on 'em as you read it, you'll find yourself maybe even experiencing more might than a fierce army. It's amazing to me to watch, and I watch it all the time, how someone dead in their sin can walk into a church service, and they didn't even know when they were walking in, but they touched those bones, and resurrection life changes everything they've ever known.
It's amazing to me, because this is not an ordinary book. In this book are the bones of our faith, the bones of truth, not my truth, not our truth, not a 7 hills truth, truth, eternal, never changing truth. In this book is the power of God. The Bible actually says, "You shouldn't even be ashamed of it, because it's the power of God and the salvation for all those who believe". This is a powerful book. This is a special book, and their bones you do not disturb.