We now turn for our scripture reading, which is found in the book of Exodus, the chapter 34, reading from the verse 1 through to the verse 17. This is the word of Almighty God. May the Lord give us ears to hear and hearts to receive his precious word. And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables which thou breakest. And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount, and no man shall come up with thee. neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount, neither let the flocks nor the herds feed before that mount. And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first. And Moses rose up early in the morning and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, Let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.' And he said, Behold, I make a covenant before all thy people, I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation, and all the people among which thou art. See the work of the LORD, for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. Observe thou that which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves. For thou shalt worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one called thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice, and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a-whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. We'll end the reading there of God's holy, fallible, inerrant, and sacred word. We pray that the Lord might be pleased to bless that public reading, and then grant his enabling for the ministry of his precious word, all to the glory of his name and to the everlasting good of our very needful and never-dying souls. Congregation, turning once again your prayerful attention to those words which I read to you in your hearing in the book of Exodus, the chapter 34, and once again in complete dependence upon the Lord for any blessing, may the Lord be pleased to grant His enabling to minister His word and grant the blessing which maketh the soul rich and addeth no sorrows. May the Lord bless this word to us today. As a church we have been going through the book of Exodus week by week, verse by verse, line upon line, studying the Word of God. This is the best way to study God's Word, to preach through it consecutively, systematically, and praying above all for God's help. Now by way of introduction let me set before you the context of these words in which we find them in the chapter 34. God's people have been in slavery in Egypt for some 430 years in that land of Egypt under the tyranny of Pharaoh and many there. God now is fulfilling his covenant promise which he made to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to bring them into this land flowing with milk and honey. God has brought them out of idolatry As we have seen in the early chapters of the book of Exodus, when they were there in Egypt, how much idolatry there was, how they worshiped so many different gods, or so-called gods, fake, fictitious gods, phony gods, gods of cattle, gods of the Nile River. These are not gods. These gods did not make the heavens and the earth. And so, the Lord has brought them out of that land of idolatry and superstition, to the true and the living God, to a relationship with Him. And in so doing, He has put on display the fact that He has power over all the elements, the rain, the sun. Remember how He caused darkness to come over all the land? Remember how He sent hail? He has power over creation. He has power over the Nile River. This is the God of heaven and earth. that has made all things, the One true, the Living God. And furthermore, He has, by His gracious power and provision, sent manna from heaven every day, 4 omers per person, every day for the next 40 years. An omer is approximately 4 pounds. So when you do the calculations, there were over 2 million people that came out of Egypt, an omer a day, for two million people, that's four pounds an oma, that's eight million pounds a day. of manna that fell from heaven to provide food for these people. Extraordinary. 2,000 pounds to a ton, that's 4,000 tons per day, fell from heaven of manna. Furthermore, God provided water, friends, water for all these people. And furthermore, their garments never wore out. Throughout these 40 years, I see some of you sporting nice new clothes. Your clothes will wear out. But for 40 years, God ensured that his people's clothes never wore out. So that God will say to them in Deuteronomy 29, verse 5, And I have led you 40 years in the wilderness. Your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old. upon thy foot." That's an amazing, extraordinary thing that God did. Your clothes will wear out, but God, by the miracle which he performed upon his people, each and every one of them, caused their garments to survive these 40 years. Now, we are already in the fourth and the fifth month of their exiting Egypt, and they have received the moral law in chapter 20, and after that Moses went up to the Mount Sinai to receive further instruction from God with regards to worship. But no sooner does Moses ascend up to Mount Sinai again do they breach the first and the second commandments. Terrible. They worshipped the golden calf which they asked Aaron to make. And Aaron sinned in that he made it. As a result, 3,000 of the people were slain that day when Moses came down And then what God did is he plagued the rest of the people with a plague. And since then, Moses has pleaded with the Lord God that he would forgive them, that he would be merciful to them, and continue to go with them into the promised land. Because in that promised land, they would need all the help of an almighty God, because they were fearsome enemies, the Canaanites, the various tribes, wicked people who threw their children to the false gods, Molech. And God was bringing judgment upon these Canaanites, these wicked people who worship false gods and who sacrifice their children to these gods, who throw them in the fires. God is bringing judgment upon those people. But God will need to go with them. Moses has been pleading on behalf of the people that he will go with them. But as we saw in the previous chapter, the chapter 33, God will go with them, but God will be, as it were, outside of the camp. He will be a God that is far off from them. And we have seen in the previous chapter how God removes His Shekinah glory out of the presence of the immediate presence of the people. It descends each time and meets with Moses. So God will not be the same unto them at this point because of their sin. And there is times when we can grieve the Holy Spirit of God as God's people. When we can greatly grieve Him. Now God has revealed Himself to Moses in the verse 6 of our chapter 34, Remember Moses asked to see the glory of God, and God said to him, no man can see my face and live, but God had Moses hide in the cleft of the rock. And there the Lord passed, we read verse six of the chapter 34. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the name of the Lord, the Lord, the Lord, God merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and sin. But remember, God's mercy is a sovereign mercy. Remember in chapter 33, in verse 19, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. Nobody deserves God's mercy, friends. Do we realize that? None of us. We all. I deserve to be in hell today. You deserve to be in hell today. All have sinned and all come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin, as the children learnt this morning, is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, people don't want this mercy. When we speak about the mercy of God that is in Christ Jesus in the Gospel, sinners don't want it. They want a religion whereby they save themselves by their good works and their good deeds, so called. But would they see, as the Bible says, even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we cannot make ourselves acceptable before God. We must have the garment of salvation which comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is God that grants mercy. It's through the substitutionary life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ whereby God forgives the sins of his people. I will be gracious unto whom I will be gracious, and show mercy on whom I will show mercy. God is not merciful to all people, but he is merciful to those whom he reveals his mercy. None deserve it again, all deserve wrath. That is the plain, simple teaching of the Bible. By nature, none desire it, but God in his mercy opens eyes to see their sin, sinners to see their sin, and their need of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what God does in his mercy. We also see the severity of God in the verse 7b of chapter 34, and will by no means clear the guilty. This is the counterpart of salvation, isn't it? I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and yet I will by no means clear the guilty. Is God right? to judge the guilty, yes. Is he wrong to save some? No. It's of his sovereign grace and mercy. And we need to remember that. Now what we have here in the verse 10 to the verse 17, the verses which we'll consider this morning, is what God does is he renews the covenant promise to the people. And remember they broke the covenant, they've not kept his laws, but God in his mercy he comes and he renews the covenant which he former made with Abraham that he would give this land flowing with milk and honey to the people that he will bring them into this land and cause them to prosper. Now remember in this land, as I have intimated already and said in fact, that in this land of Canaan are living a wicked people, who are throwing their children into the fires, sacrificing to the false god, Molech. When we read here, God is a jealous God, we need to understand that word jealous is not our sinful kind of jealousy, but God is a zealous God. He is zealous for his glory. God is not jealous of other gods because there are no other gods. They do not exist. There's one God who created the heavens and the earth, but he is jealous. He is zealous for us to glorify him in this world. That is what God is jealous for. We are his creatures. And we are to glorify Him. And so we come to the verse 10. And here he is speaking to Moses. And he said, Behold, I make a covenant before all thy people. I will do marvels such as not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation, and all the people, among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord. For it is a terrible, or we should say a great thing. This is old English. For it is a great thing that I will do with thee. The Lord is going to do marvellous things. The covenant blessings are marvellous things. As the psalmist in Psalm 98 in verse 1 says, O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvellous things, his right hand and his holy arm. have gotten him the victory. And it's amazing how God will bring these people into this land and to overthrow these wicked people that are killing people, sacrificing their children, and teaching them all kinds of wrong things about who God is. And this is a terrible thing. It's happening today, even in our country, in our public schools, in our schools. You know what teachers are teaching children? That there is no God. We all came by some mere chance. And that is a terrible thing, to lead a child to believe the lies of man. It's an evil today to say that God is not. It's the greatest evil we can commit. The Bible says the fool has said in his heart there is no God. Said it in his heart, not his head. When the heavens and the earth declare the glory of God, day unto day they utter speech, night unto night knowledge. The flowers tell you that there is a God. The heavens above, the trees, the lovely fields, The things that God has made tell you that there is a Creator God. And to say that God is a stick, a stone, my friend, is the greatest evil that you and I could ever commit. To say that there is no God, that we came here by accident, by chance, is a great evil. So we see in the verse 11, this is God speaking here to Moses, observe thou, this is the conditional part of this covenant. Moses and the people are to do two things, to honor God and to keep separate from these people in this land. First of all, observe thou, verse 11, that which I command thee this day, behold I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land wherest thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves, for thou shalt worship no other God. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Now, there are always people who object to these things and say, who is God to drive out these Canaanites, these people already living in the land? Well, whose world is it, my friends? Is it not God's world? Has God not made the heavens and the earth? Is not life a gift? Is not land a gift? Is not everything we have from God And God has the right to will and to do as he so pleases. Who can slap the hand of the Almighty God and say, what doest thou? Now, before Israel went into this land, before they step one foot into this land, they are to remember, as we have read here, there is one holy living God. And God expects His people to be a holy people. Remember in the chapter 19, they were called to be a holy nation. Exodus 19, 6, Thou shalt be a holy nation. And here, as they enter into this land, they are not to fraternize with the people of those various tribes, lest they sin like these people, and worst of all, take on They're false gods. They're fictitious gods. These things are the not-gods. Now, there can only be one God. The question was asked to the little boy, how many gods are there? And he wisely said, there can only be one God. There can only be one God. Why? Because when you think about it, who would make the other gods? Simple, isn't it? Of course, men have made their own little gods, and they do every day. They make also idols out of things, and they worship, and they live for those things. They don't live for God. the God of heaven and earth. The Apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit, when he writes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15 and the verse 33, says evil company corrupts good manners. What he was writing in context with regards to that, there were those at Corinth that denied the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul warned the Corinthians that if these Christians mixed with those who taught error, taught error against what the Lord Jesus Christ taught, The Lord Jesus Christ taught about the resurrection. Christ, who is God, taught it. If we mix with those, if we are companions, close allies with those who do not walk in a relationship with God, that will adversely affect us. Now, of course, we are to live in the world as Christians. We're not hermits. but we are not to be of the world, are we? We are to be different, utterly different in this world. In the same way here in the verse 12, God's people are warned, take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. You see, evil company corrupts good manners, so they are to be careful as they enter into the land. They are to destroy these altars. They are to go into this land that God is giving and they are to utterly annihilate all these things that will war against the soul. The soul that is to believe in the living God. And so, when they went into this land, what were they to be? They were to be a holy nation. Exodus 19, verse 6. And Peter says that, doesn't he, in the New Testament concerning Christians. Peter takes those same words in 1 Peter and says, you are a holy nation. He's speaking to Christians. A royal priesthood. We are kings and priests forever after Christ. And so the question is asked for us as Christians, how are we to live in this life? The question is asked, how are we to live as Christians? What is our purpose? Well, first of all, we are to be a holy people. We are to be a people that glorifies God in this world. That's our purpose. To honor the one true God that has made the heavens and the earth. God who sustains this world right now. Who has created it for his own glory. God who has saved us. God who has opened our eyes to see our need of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to live godly in Christ Jesus. That is the purpose of the Christian's life. to live godly for Jesus Christ. We are to be a separate people. Again, as I said, we're not to be hermits in this life. We don't totally cut ourselves off from people, but we are to be very careful lest the world influence us and we make compromises in our lives. Sadly, these people did make compromises and they greatly grieved God and they paid heavily for it. You read your Old Testament, you read how they paid heavily for it. We are to be a godly people. Some supposed Christians say, well, what does it matter if we are like the people of this world? Well, it matters a great deal. Matters a great deal to God. When we compromise the standards of scripture in our lives, when we take on the standards of this world, we start to redefine Christianity. And we are never to do that. Christianity is Christianity. The Christianity of the Bible. Some of you are visiting us today and maybe you go to a different church, and I would say this, there's only one standard of Christianity. It's God's standard. And it's that standard which we must obey. What we obey is the truth. What makes the difference to any church is the truth of God's Word, the standards of the Bible. And if we don't, chastening will follow. One of the great chase things God can do, and sometimes people don't realize that, is He removes His presence. People can sing all day long, God is here, God is here, but He's not there. There's a great difference. To know the presence of God in your life and to know His power. Some people think they can do what they think is best, rather than obey God's infallible Word. Some people think that they have control over the remote control of the TV. But you know, you really don't. because the eye and the heart is so strong, isn't it? What we see on the television sometimes is so difficult to control. Some people, even though they have plaques on the wall saying, Christ is the head of this home, God is the king of this house, although they might comfort themselves with a little sign like that, Christ is the head of this home, and yet they watch things on the television that the Lord Jesus Christ is utterly disgusted with. My friends, don't ever take comfort in a little sign in your house saying God is the head of this home. Where people watch blasphemy and sex and violence and worldliness on their television and they allow their children to watch that too. Let me say God is very displeased. And the music of this world celebrates all those things. How can you possibly do that as a Christian? We are to be a separate people. Some people just say, well, you know, I just let it go over my head. Yes, I see these things, but I just let it go over my head. Well, friends, if you're such a person that just allows things to go over your head, I'm very concerned for your soul, and you ought to be very concerned for your soul. God doesn't call us just to allow things to go over our heads, but he calls us from his word to be separate, to come out from amongst them. In 2 Corinthians 6.16 we read, For ye are the temple of the living God. He's speaking here to Christians. As God hath said. I'm reading from the New Testament, friends. This is what the New Testament says. God says, For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you. And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. If you notice the verse 14, he says, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? As a Christian, if you are a child of God, and if you're born again, you should not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. We read in this very chapter, don't we, notice the verse 15 and 17, that these people of God were not to marry unbelievers. And as a Christian, If you say you're a Christian, you should not marry an unbeliever. The Bible makes very clear that if you are a Christian, you should never marry a non-Christian. Solomon did this, and it cost him dearly, didn't it? Solomon married ungodly woman, unbelieving woman, pagan woman. You notice in the verse 16, And thou, lest thou take of the daughters unto thy sons, I'll read from the verse 15 there. and their daughters go a-whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods." Again, I'll reiterate what the Bible says, not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, with the world. If you're a Christian, you should never marry an unbeliever. It's wrong. It's wrong. In 1 Kings 11-14 we read how Solomon, how he greatly strayed because he married an unbelieving woman. We read, for it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. Very solemn, isn't it? Are we a Christian here? We say we're a Christian? We're entertaining these things? My friends, these things are coming up as we systematically come up here in the Word of God, and it's a reminder to us all not to think that we are strong and we can stand against God's advice. It's not simply advice, it's a commandment. Be not unequally yoked. Don't compromise. It's the worst thing you can do. You've got children. You marry, as we reference here, thou shalt not take on these women. When you raise the children, what are you going to teach them? Are you going to teach them the fear of the Lord? Is your unbelieving wife going to teach them the fear of the Lord? No, they won't. They'll teach them the ways of this world. And God is saying this here because He's jealous for His glory, and He's jealous for our good. That's what God is jealous for, His glory. He is to be glorified in His people. You see, if we're a Christian, we're a new creature. It's what the Apostle says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. The old life is gone. You're a new creature. You are his. If we're born again, there's a new life. There's not a partial change, if you're a Christian. There's a complete change of life. If anybody's in Christ, he's a new creature. We must never say a little sin is troublesome for us. The Word of God reminds us that the little foxes spoil the tender vines and the grapes. We must watch. God warns, doesn't he, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. God's people here were not to compromise. God calls us to get rid of sin. He calls us to live a life of holiness and self-discipline, and to judge ourselves lest we be judged. Dear friends, are we doing this? You know, what I'm preaching today is considered by most churches as old-fashioned, but it's the Word of God. It doesn't change. The Lord says, I am the Lord, I change not. I am the Lord, I change not. Malachi 3.6. God doesn't change. The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament, friends. There's a kind of Christianity today that says, you know, well, the Lord Jesus is a lot lenient than God the Father. Not so. There's one Lord and there's one lawgiver. It's His law. And He says, be ye holy. For I am holy. And the Bible says, Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. If we're born again, there's holiness in the life. That's it. Holiness doesn't save us. But if we are born again, there will be holiness. There will be godliness in the life. And here what God is doing in Exodus chapter 34, is he's spelling out the narrow way, isn't he? to the people. And as his people, in the New Testament, the truth is just expounded. It's a narrow way. Remember what the Lord Jesus said, enter ye in by the narrow door. Now he is the door, isn't he? But the door, which is Christ, leads into a narrow way that leads into everlasting life. And he said, there are few that find it. My dear friends, don't be so deceived to think that everybody that says they're a Christian is a Christian. Only those walking in that narrow way. And we don't say it's us, but we say it's Christ in us that's doing this. Glory to God, not to us. This is the way of God. And now, there are always those that when they come to the verse 11, as I said earlier, they object. where God says, Observe thou which I will command thee this day. Behold, I will drive out before thee the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. But they forget that when they come to these verses, here are pagan inhabitants coming under the wrath of Almighty God. God said to Abraham that the iniquity of the Amorite had not reached its height yet. And God has so long put up with this. And now his wrath is coming. and it is going to be spent upon these people. And what is happening is these people that are throwing their children to child sacrifice are going to be judged. They are throwing their children to sacrifice to Molech to give them stuff in this world. If that's not wickedness, I don't know what wickedness is. You sacrifice your children so you can have a big house. So you can have this, so you can have that. But I tell you, people are doing that today. People are sacrificing their children today. You say, how? They're living for the idols of this world. And you know what? They deny the living God. The living God whom they're going to have to stand before one day. The Lord Jesus warns, doesn't he? If we cause the least of these, the little ones, Any one of these little ones to stumble, it'd been better that we'd have never been born. or to have an even better millstone tied around our neck and we'd be cast into the depths of the sea than to cause others to stumble and to pretend that God doesn't exist, that we can worship other things in this world but the living God who gives life, breath, air, everything, and God who sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for sinners, that sinners might be pardoned of their sin. and might have everlasting life in Him. That's the God whom we are to teach our children about. The God of heaven and earth. That is the God we are to adore. That is the God we are to honor. Now when we read here, God says, But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, cut down their groves. For thou shalt worship no other God, for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. Now, when we understand this term here, this word jealous, what does it mean? It's not the jealousy that is sinful. It's not the jealousy of envy and strife. It's not that jealousy. Neither is it the kind of jealousy that a man has for his wife, and that's a good and a proper jealousy, for love and desire of one's spouse. But this is a jealousy that comes from a holy God that is pure, that can do no wrong. The Hebrew word here is the word kanor, and it's only used of God. This God that cannot sin, what He desires is the rightful honor and the rightful praise of His name. What He desires above all is all that is not only good for us, but that which glorifies His name. He's God that made everything. And we are His creatures. Those who worship God cannot worship Him aright, who do not worship Him alone. So if you don't worship God alone as God, you can't worship Him aright. And this was the sin that they had already fallen into, remember? What did they do? They made a golden cuff, and they said, these be thy gods which has delivered thee from the land of Egypt. You cannot worship God aright if you don't worship Him alone, if He's not all in your life, if He's not everything, if He's not God. Of course, the good God, who's not a tyrant, but a gracious God, a merciful God, a God of loving kindness and tender mercies. To give Him the honor that is due to His name, He's jealous for that, He's zealous for that. That is what He is zealous for. The greatest sin, my dear friends, let me say, is this, to ignore this God, to pretend that He is not, to take a stone, as some people do, and to say that this is God. This is the God that made everything. What an insult! Just say with sanctified imagination for a moment, you are God. Pretend that, if you could. Of course we're not. But with sanctified imagination, you made the heavens, you made the earth, you made everything. and the creatures you made took up sticks and stones and worshipped cows and snakes and false gods and made their own idea of God, how would you feel? You'd feel most incensed, wouldn't you? God is jealous for the truth and for the honor and for the glory of his name. It is an awful sin to live in this world and to treat God as if he doesn't exist. Let me say the greatest sin is not sexual immorality, though that is most heinous. The greatest sin is not murder. The greatest sin is not theft. But all sins flow out of that one sin to not love God with all of our heart, our soul, and our mind, because that means to obey His law, doesn't it? It means to honor God and to glorify Him. All sins come as a result of our rejection of God. If you reject God, think about it, you reject God, you reject the morality of His Word, you reject the Ten Commandments, If you say there's no God, you've become an atheist. And if you're an atheist, you say, well, the world came about by chance. So you're no more than a monkey. You're no more than a cockroach. And so it's okay, as it is okay to stand on a cockroach and to kill it. It's okay to kill people. It's okay to kill babies. Because all we are are molecules. We just come by chance. You see, you can't be an atheist and have morals at the same time. The minute you become an atheist, you have no right to the morals of the Bible. You have no right to morals in God. One thing you do, you see, when you reject God, you hurt yourself. You harm yourself, because what you do is you cut yourself off from light. You cut yourself off from truth. Truth that God is. And God has made all things. You say, we're just an accident. So anything can go. You can kill a million people, and it doesn't matter. Because they're just like grains of sand, no different. But the God of heaven and earth says, when we read Genesis chapter 1, the verse 26 and the verse 27, that God made man in His image. He made man for His glory, to honor Him, to glorify Him. And you see, if you deny this God, you do yourself the greatest harm, and you do your children the greatest harm. The greatest harm parents are doing today is not coming to church with their children, not worshipping God, not teaching their children about the true, the one living God who made all things. That's the greatest harm being done in this country today because out of that flows every other sin in our society. The great sin is to ignore His Word, to ignore God, and to ignore His solemn warning to repent of our sins and to put our trust in the only Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. To be indifferent to this God. You know, God doesn't say when He looks at these people here in this foreign land, ah, you know what, some of these people bow down to me, some don't. God says go in and destroy everything. My dear friends, this is a solemn thing, to fall into the hands of the living God. He says to his people, for thou shalt not worship no other God, for thou shalt worship no other God, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. He's zealous for his name. for his glory. So if you're a Christian today, dear friends, you have peace with God through the Lord Jesus. You're trusting in him because you know you've not lived as you ought to. But let me say, if you're not a Christian today, you are an adversary to God. You're an enemy to God. This word jealous is used side by side with the wrath of God. In Nahum 1, verse 2, we read, God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth, the Lord revengeth, and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. My dear friends, the greatest sin is to pretend that God does not exist, and that you will not have to stand before him. The greatest good you can do today is to honor Him, to bow to Him, and to come through the one who is the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. You see, God's jealousy will lead to wrath, because God will not be mocked. The Bible leaves us no excuse. You know, when you read Romans chapter 1, we read how man becomes. He denies what creation's telling him every day, that the heavens and the earth declare the glory of God. And so Paul writes in Romans 1, 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. And this is what happens when men reject God. God, what he does is he gives men up to their sin. He removes his, as it were, his common influences of grace upon a society. And society waxes worse The church is removed from a land, and watch a country where the witness of Christians is removed. And what you see is man being left to himself, and God giving men over to reprobation. I say, dear friends, the worst thing a man can do is cut himself off from the reality of God. God is jealous to do His people good. He's jealous for that. To bring us happiness and contentment of life. To give us meaning and purpose of life. To make us to be satisfied in Him. Man really ruins himself when he walks away from his Creator. He brings himself great harm. The greatest harm. The Lord Jesus, remember, in his high priestly prayer said, and this is life eternal, that they may know the Son, may know the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. I tell you this, if you're not a Christian, you're not valuing the one thing most important, and that is this, your soul. You neglect one thing, you have a soul. You're living half a life. You see, you're living for the body. But the vorry's going to go to the grave. But the Bible speaks of the soul that never dies. And the soul that sins shall see everlasting wrath. Without God, dear friends, is a wretched end. There's no right to a moral compass or moral rectitude without God. Who decides what's right? Who decides what's wrong? That's why we've got problems in our country, in our parliament. Because you know what? There's no longer any absolute truth. Who decides? Who decides what's right? Who decides what's wrong? Anybody? Anything? God, God alone, is our hope. When his creatures deny him, they bring ruin upon themselves. And the great need today is if you do not know God, you're an adversary of God. The Bible says, kiss the Son, the Son of God who came into this world, who has lived the life that we have failed to live, who has died the death that we deserve. And there we begin to find peace and reconciliation with God. That's our only hope. You cannot make yourself right with God, but God, indeed, has made his people right with him, in that he has given his dear son to be their substitute. He lived that substitutionary life, a life that we haven't lived, and he died a substitutionary death. And all that come unto him shall be saved and shall have and experience life now, and every blessing that flows from a merciful God. Paul says this to the Corinthians. When some of them partook at the Lord's table, some were mixing with the world. He said, do you partake of the Lord's table and the table of devils or evil? 1 Corinthians 10, 21. And then he says, do you provoke the Lord to jealousy? If you're a Christian, we must be separate in this world. Get too close to the world. God is a jealous God. Be separate. God's name we read here is jealous. It's a zeal to preserve something extremely precious that is not only the honor of the glory of his marvelous and wonderful name, but he is God. And there is no other, no other God, but God has made his people for himself and for their good. God is jealous, not only for his glory, but for our good. Isn't that wonderful? How good is God! So loved he the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. My dear friends, if we say we're Christians we must be separate. God is jealous for his glory and he's jealous for our good. May we be jealous for that too, for his glory and for the good of our lives that will bring glory to his precious name. Let us never excuse sin and say little sin will be okay. Let us keep far away from sin as possible and near to God, all by His grace. May the Lord give us help. We're not sufficient for these things, are we? We're weak. We stumble, we fall. We're so prone to sinning. These people did. But let us take heed and let us take comfort in our God. Amen.