By the way, when we get through Exodus 24, we'll be moving over a lot of territory to the much later parts of Exodus. There's a lot of repeated material, so we won't repeat it. We will move through it, explain it, and we will be concluding Exodus in a fairly short order, so don't think that we're going to be in Exodus forever. Exodus 23, this has been four sermons in 23, but we won't do that the rest of the way, so, okay? Exodus 23, 20 through 33. No, 1 John 5, 1 through 21, thank you. 1 John 5, 1 through 21. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, and we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. We receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God, that He is born concerning His Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony that God gave us, eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of Him. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will forgive him and give him life. to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is a sin that does not lead to death. And we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. We are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for this portion of your word. This narrative from Exodus 23, the things that you promised to your people as they were considering and they were waiting to enter the promised land. We pray that you'll help us to understand them and apply them spiritually. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, this passage begins with a discussion, the announcement that God is going to send an angel before Israel, an angel. It says in verse 20, Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and bring you to the place that I have prepared. Lately, there's a lot of fascination with angels. In art, if you think about it, think about it with me for a second. In art, angels are usually depicted in feminine form with wings. Now, the Bible does say something about wings in Isaiah 6, but the feminine form, I don't think so, except we see angels also depicted sometimes as cupids, little chubby babies with wings. Now, there are pins that people wear with angels on them. There are figurines that people have in their homes. If you have these, don't worry. I'm not worried about that. I'm not troubling you. Have all you want, you know. But we are supposed to think biblically about angels. And the angels of the Lord usually appear as male-form messengers. I don't know that there are any female-form messengers. This is not against women. It's not being anything against women, but it's just a fact. What are they supposed to do? They're supposed to be guarding their charges. And in the popular culture, they are often seen as kind of personal assistants, teachers, friends. And they're usually serving in television series and so forth under an undefined generic deity, not the God revealed in Scripture. So let's kind of put that aside, put those pictures, those images, and those ideas aside, and think about the biblical idea of angels. Verse 20, behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. And then verse 22, but if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. Okay, let's gather that data and ask the question, who is this angel that's being promised here? Literally in the Old Testament and the New, the word angel means messenger, messenger. So we find out that this messenger described here is closely identified with God because it says, pay careful attention to him and obey his voice. Do not rebel against him. And then in verse 22, be careful to obey his voice and do all that I say. So it sounds like what the angel says is what God says, very close identity here. And then we get his name. It says he has God's name, for my name is in him. There's another very close identity with God here. God's name is God's very character. So that's why this angel won't pardon sinners. Because God is a God who's holy and he doesn't just willy-nilly pardon sinners. There has to be a basis for any pardon. And if they've heard this angel's voice and they just disobeyed him, he wouldn't pardon them. He wouldn't pardon them. Now, a lot of times people will feel easy towards someone who makes a mistake or who fails to listen or something like that. Parents will have to do this with their kids, right? They will pardon them. But this angel, because he has God's name and God's character and he's got God's word, he won't pardon anyone who disobeys him. So that is another strong identifier with him. He is God himself. He is associated directly with God. And if we study the whole Old Testament, we would find that at the end of the Old Testament, there's a promise of the angel of the Lord who appears in Malachi 3 as the messenger, see that word messenger again? That's what an angel is, a messenger, the messenger of the covenant. And if you've heard Handel's Messiah, you know that one of the arias talks about, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in, Malachi 3.1. Well, that's this messenger, this angel, the angel of the Lord. And what else do we learn about him? Well, he's going to lead God's people forward. He's going to guard them and guide them if they will obey his voice. And there's a promise in verse 27. God says, I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come. And I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. In other words, running away, right? People turn their back, they're running away. And I will send hornets before you, and you shall drive out the Hivites, or Hivites, I don't know which it is, Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you." Now, what are these hornets? Well, scholars say it could literally be hornets, you know, the bees that come. But it could also be symbolic of an attack from Egypt. God might send Egypt, because one of Egypt's royal symbols is the hornet. So God might send Egypt up to scare the wits out of these Israelites, these Canaanites, I mean, and get them on the flight. And then God's people could come in. So God might scare them away with another army. Or it could just be plain old hornets. You know how people are at picnics. I've been on my deck with us eating, having our burgers and chips and pie and stuff, and a bee comes around, and my attitude is, you know, go away, bee. Other people go, ah, and scream and run. So it could be a huge amount of hornets were sent by God to scare away these Canaanites, to get them in terror. I don't know. But we do know this, that when God's people did finally go into Canaan and they went to the town of Jericho, there was a woman there named Rahab, a harlot, a prostitute. And she had come to believe in the God of Israel. And here's what she said about what happened before the Israelites got there. She says, For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard of it, our hearts melted and there was no spirit in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, He is the God of heavens above and on the earth beneath." They were scared. Somehow God scared these Canaanites and scared this woman into faith. Well, the point of all this about the angel is that God would do this work in advance. God would confuse and defeat and scatter their enemies if they would believe His Word, the Word of this angel who was sent before them. For you and me, faith in God's Word, the Bible, and God's Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, is always and only the way to victory. Always and only the way to conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil, which constantly conspire against us. Faith in God's Word puts to flight all the things that otherwise terrorize us and scare us. And that's all he read from 1 John. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. And then at the end of that, who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? The Word of God made flesh. That's the key. to having the angel of God go before you. Believe the word of God that he has given. The second point I want to raise is the victory requires a policy of no compromise. Listen to these words of no compromise, verse 23 and 24. When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do as they do. There's a great danger of going into this beautiful land of Canaan This beautiful upslope land downwind from the Mediterranean with beautiful weather and great lush gardens and fields and all. There was a great danger because these people were idolaters. Their idolatry was gross. And it was going to be a temptation. You know, anything that's kind of fantastic or captures the imagination can be a temptation. especially if it's in the religious vein, and especially if it's being empowered by false spirits, by evil spirits behind it, to give it strength and power over the hearts and minds of those who encounter it. And I was thinking about this, and I was thinking about what is the current religious climate that tends to tempt us, that tends to persuade our children, brothers and sisters, from walking away from God's church and doing other things and believing other things. What is the current spirit of the age? And I've talked about this before, so please forgive me if you've heard this before. but some sociologists of religion did some studies of youth and what youth are thinking, and they defined the religion of youth these days in terms of something they called moralistic therapeutic deism. moralistic, therapeutic deism. And they say this, it's very much like the deistic God of the 18th century philosophers. This is not the God who thunders from the mountain, nor a God who will serve as judge. This undemanding deity is more interested in solving our problems and making people happy. In short, this God is something like a combination divine butler and cosmic therapist. He is always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process. Obviously, moralistic therapeutic deism is not an organized faith. This belief system has no denominational headquarters, no mailing address. Nevertheless, it has millions and millions of devoted followers across the United States and other advanced cultures, where subtle cultural shifts have produced a context in which belief in this undemanding deity makes sense. Furthermore, I read on, this deity does not challenge the most basic self-centered assumptions of our postmodern age, particularly, listen to this, particularly when it comes to so-called lifestyle issues. This god is exceedingly tolerant and this religion is radically undemanding. And then, The authors of the study go on to say this has also infiltrated Christianity, so that now there's something that could be called Christian moralistic therapeutic deism. This is distortion of Christianity. It's taken roots in the minds of individuals, but also within the structures of at least some Christian organizations and institutions. And they ask this final question. I'm almost done with this part. How can you tell if your church has been affected by this Christian, moralistic, therapeutic deism? Here's the answer. The language and the experience of Trinity holiness, sin, grace, justification, sanctification, church, heaven and hell appear at the very least to be supplanted by the language of happiness, niceness, and earned heavenly reward. Here's what. The angel was saying, here's what God was saying, you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. This is one of their pillars. This false religion that's invaded like weeds, like kudzu and grown everywhere. Reichen, Philip Graham Reichen says this, God adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward the Canaanites and their gods. Their worship was vulgar. It often involved sexual promiscuity, child sacrifice, and the worship of wood and stone pillars. The land must be rid of these things because God was in an exclusive relationship with Israel. Remember he said, I am a jealous God. That means he's in an exclusive relationship. So zero tolerance, no treaty, no pluralism. How can we apply these concepts, these principles that are listed here in verses 25 and 26 and 32 and 33? How can we apply them? Well, are we Israel? Are we Israel? Is the United States Canaan? No. Both answers, no. USA is not the nation of Israel, and this is not Canaan, so it doesn't exactly apply. Although many temporal blessings come with godliness, we do not have the blanket promises of health and wealth that are listed here. Our situation, brothers and sisters, men and women, children, is much more like the situation of Daniel. You know who Daniel is? Daniel. And where was Daniel? He was taken off to Babylon. Our situation is much more like Daniel in Babylon. So that if you think about the story of Daniel, the book of Daniel, sometimes we are ruled by an arrogant Nebuchadnezzar who thinks he's in charge of everything. but ends up being humbled. Sometimes we are ruled by a fierce Belshazzar who ignores God and is destroyed by God. Sometimes we are governed by a more benevolent Darius, the Mede, or Cyrus, the Persian, who allows the church to function But whether it's Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar or Cyrus the Persian, we need to be faithful no matter who's running the country. The early Christians were persecuted and crucified or thrown to lions by the Caesars like Nero and Domitian. But later there came Constantine who was converted and made the Christian faith the favorite religion of the empire. The call of this passage to us, no compromise, is to do our best to live for Christ, whatever the political environment. Some of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East are getting envelopes tucked into the door of their home, and they open the envelope and it says, you, as a Christian, must convert to Islam. And the passage in the Quran is cited as says that you must convert or we will kill you. And you have until tomorrow morning to flee or convert. And if you flee, you leave everything behind. Brothers and sisters are being told those things. We have to have some backbone to stand up against falsehood, whether it's of a benign sort that allows us to function but slowly overtakes us, like moralistic therapeutic deism, or whether it's militant Islam. We have to be prepared. This is not a game. Zero tolerance must be the policy of the Christian church. and of the Christian family, and of the Christian individual in the church. We must insist on pure biblical doctrine in the church. The Reformational cry was Semper Reformanda, which means always apply God's word in each changing situation. Always Semper Reformanda, always reform, always bring God's word to bear. Pure biblical doctrine in the church. And godly order and life in the family is essential. We must be careful how we raise our family. And then, on the personal level, we need to have zero tolerance on the personal level. As I was thinking about this, I remember a short sermon that I heard years ago addressed to young people, and so I want to just reiterate a little of that. It was based on 2 Peter 2.22, which says this, So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. That's the passage, and there were three points. The three points were alliterations, heart, head, and heels. Heart, head, and heels. The heart point was this. With your heart, don't try to conquer with your heart of love for God when you're tempted because you might temporarily lose your heart of passion to your flesh passion. So, don't try to use your heart when tempted. Your head. Don't depend upon your logical mind to lead you to do what is right under such pressure because the power of reason may be suspended by your passion. Instead, use your heels. Get out of the situation. Get away from the source of temptation. Then your head may return to a more logical understanding, and your heart may be reignited with love for God, and you will be able to be thankful to God's word, which said, flee, use your heels. So there must be no compromise and it's applied to the church, to the family, and to the individual. Third point, the victory is progressive. We need to have a long-term perspective. Listen to these words. Verse 29, God says to the Israelites, I will not drive them out from before you in one year. lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Verse 30, little by little I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and possessed the land. And then verse 31, and I will set your border from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness of the Euphrates. For I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you." Now, how long, brothers and sisters, did it take for these borders to be filled with God's people, Israel? How long did it take? It took a thousand years, a thousand years. for the kingdom to reach these borders. That is described in 1 Kings 4, in the reign of Solomon. It says, Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates, from Typsha to Geza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates, and he had peace on all sides around him. It took a thousand years. And still in Israel's history and in Solomon's reign, There were sinners, and the seeds of apostasy were present, and they would spring up and eventually end in division and civil war, in the Assyrian destruction, and in the Babylonian exile. How is it that Christ's kingdom will take root and rule? How is it? First, offensive gospel weapons. the long-term strategy of multi-generational faithfulness. Parents, it's hard work raising kids. It's hard work educating children. It's hard work guiding them and keeping them on the path. But this is the way. Psalm 8 says, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes. Did you hear that? Because God has foes, because there has to be a world that needs to be conquered, God gives babies. And those babies need to be brought up and they need to be guided to still the enemy and the avenger, Psalm 8 says. That's why Jesus, when he left, said, go therefore and make disciples. It's a long-term project. of all nations, not just this nation right here in Palestine, but all nations. And he says, do it by baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. The end of the age is a long-term perspective. And so we need the spiritual weapons of faith and truth and believing the angel of God, word of God. And we need the spiritual weapon of salvation, and we need to root out the fallen seeds of sin and death, which eventually spoiled Solomon's kingdom. We need to root it all out. I was working in my yard, and I was thinking about these things. My sermon preparation spans all kinds of, you know, experiences for me. And I was out there, and I had this instrument. It's on a wooden handle, and you poke it into the ground, and you do that. What is it? It's a dandelion getter. It's a dandelion getter. Because dandelions, they're nice. I know that you can make salads out of them and all that stuff. I don't do it. Dandelions will spread everywhere. They will take over a nice, green, beautiful lawn. Because, you know, all at once, after they've got that cute little yellow flower, they stick up that... head and it makes these fuzzy little round fuzzy things and then the wind blows and those dandelion seeds go and they fly all over the place. And they land somewhere and they go down to the ground and they make little tiny plants. First year, not very big, but that thing can stay there year after year and it goes down, it goes down like that deep into the ground sometimes. And you can say, well, I'm going to get rid of the dandelions in my lawn. And you can go out and you can twist off the greens and twist off a little. You haven't got it at all. You haven't got it at all. You need to dig out the roots. Dig out the deep roots in order to kill a thing. I know we have chemicals now that can do that. But you have to root out. You have to destroy things like this or they will take over. Why doesn't God just sanctify us completely as He does when He justifies us? When He justifies us, He applies the death of Jesus to us and declares us to be 100% righteous before Him so that we could die at this moment and go directly to heaven. No need for any intervention. God has already declared us righteous, but He doesn't do that when it comes to our sanctification. Why not? Because it's not always God's plan to give us instant and total victory, Ryken says. Usually our spiritual progress comes little by little. However, even this can be for our benefit. We would prefer to be sanctified right away without any struggle. But for many merciful reasons, God does not allow this to happen. He wants us to learn how to depend upon him in ways we would never do unless we had to persevere through the gradual conquest of sin. It drives us to our knees in prayer and refines our character in more perfect detail. And the bottom line is this. In the process of sanctification, the long-term process of personal holiness, God wants the final result to be a relationship with us. He wants us not just to want him because we're afraid of hell, or not just to want him so that we can get stuff from him, He wants us to cherish him, not merely for the stuff, but for him alone. Illustration, a good rich man who marries will give his wife great gifts, but does not want her to marry him for his riches, but for himself. We are driven to love God for himself. in the process of sanctification. We learn to love God Himself, God who forgives us again and again and again, and who receives us as we are, who wants us to be healed and whole. And the process of that struggle is the process that drives us to love God, our Father, our brother, our friend, our divine spouse. That's why. The victory, as we said at the beginning, is God's victory. He goes before us. He gets all the glory. The victory requires that we not compromise in church or in family or in personal life. The victory is progressive. It's slow, but sure, leading to a sweet dependence upon God. knowing and loving God for God's sake. Trust the word of God, the angel who goes before you. Live in the light of his truth. Follow him and you and I will arrive safely in God's promised land. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, we do pray that you will Help us to focus intently upon living for you. Focus intently on what matters. Put away trivia that doesn't matter, things that are wasters of our time and our energy that take us off focus. False ideas that beguile us and lead us astray. Help us to want You more than anything else. Amen.