Joel Menges Testimony

A Memorial to the Lord

11And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’S passover. 12For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 13And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. 14And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

25And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. 26And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? 27That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. Exodus 12

And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, 2Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, 3And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. 4Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: 5And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: 6That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? 7Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. Joshua 4

Exodus 12 we find the LORD's Passover to not execute judgment upon those who obeyed His command to sacrifice the lamb and sprinkle the blood upon the door post. The feast of the passover is a memorial a remembrance that God did not bring judgment upon His chosen people because they obeyed His command.

Joshua 4 the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord passed over the Jordan. This signified the chosen of God passing into new life in Canaan. Here too we find a memorial, a reminder unto the children of Israel that the God of the Covenant keeps His covenant forever.

If you have passed from death to life we practice baptism as a memorial to the Lord of our entrance into Canaan. We celebrate the Lords Supper as a memorial to the sacrificial Lamb who bore our sin and the judgment of our sin. Communion is our memorial to the Lord, our remembrance.

The regenerate, blood bought, born again believer has not only the memorials of the Lords supper and Baptism but we also have a memorial in the testimony of Gods grace wherein He saved us. The moment that the grace of God was appropriated to your sinful soul and cleansed you of sin is a testimony of the Lord. Its the Lords passover for you that can never go away what ever you may do. No matter how far you may stray. It is the Lords memorial that you can never deny nor hide from. For many years, up until recently, I thought that I had damaged the testimony of what God had wrought in my life. I felt that my backsliding negated what God had done in me 35 years ago. God never breaks His covenant. We do. It is that memorial, that testimony that kept me from going further away from the Lord than I did. And its that testimony, the memorial of my conversion that ultimately brought me back into the way. Throughout my backsliding years I could sometimes hear the voice of God say, “I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Why have you returned to bondage?”.

Testimony is a powerful weapon against Satan, Rev. 12:11. Never forget that moment that God spoke peace to your soul through the blood of Christ and brought you into the kingdom of God.
Please listen to the podcast message to the right of this post. This podcast is the actual message I preached at the Bible Methodist Church of Salisbury, NC on January 17, 2016. If the link does not appear you can access the podcast here: http://cryinthewilderness.podbean.com/e/joel-menges-testimony/?token=f7bc4f19476d4d0637cd20d70a220869