If you would, to the book of Exodus, chapter 34. We'll begin reading where we concluded our message last week. We'll begin reading at verse 10. I'll just say a few introductory remarks, and then we will look at this portion of God's Word for just a while this morning. Wouldn't it be amazing if God were to speak to our hearts in such a way that we lost track of time? Wouldn't it be amazing if God were to meet with us in such a way that we forgot about lunch? Wouldn't it be amazing if God were to work in our hearts in such a way that we were so overcome with the joy of being in His presence that there was nothing outside of here that would be worth leaving for. That would be amazing, wouldn't it? That would be almost like a little bit of heaven here on earth. May God be merciful to us, and if not today, in days to come, may He come and work in our midst in such a way. Verse 10, And He, God said to Moses, Behold, I am making a covenant Before all your people, I will do marvels such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take care lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their ashram. Ashram were these poles dedicated to the worship of a false goddess. For you shall worship no other god. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and you are invited, and you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods, and make your sons whore after their gods. And you shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt. All that open the womb are mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep, the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, and if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and none shall appear before me empty-handed. Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. You shall observe the Feast of Wheats, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel, for I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders. No one shall covet your land. And when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year, you should not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened or let the sacrifice of the feast of Passover remain until the morning. The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk." And the Lord said to Moses, write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten Now, we'll stop there, and I would invite you, if you would, to keep your Bible open to this portion of God's Word, and we're going to, hopefully, the Lord being our helper, we're going to consider some things in this portion of the Scripture this morning. As I've said several times throughout the course of the last few weeks, whenever we come to a new text, week by week, I always try to point you back to the beginning of the context of these verses that we've been considering. And of course, the beginning of the context is in chapter 32, verse 1, where we have the unfolding of the story of the making of the golden calf, and the threat of God's judgment upon the people, and them being saved and spared from utter destruction by the mediation and the intercession of Moses. What you have there is that they, as soon as they had entered into this great covenant with God, They broke the covenant. They broke the covenant fully. They rebelled against God. They rejected God. And God tells Moses, while Moses is up on the mountain with Him, and God is revealing to him all of the aspects of how the tabernacle is to be built, God tells Moses that the people have corrupted themselves, that they have went into idolatry. They have already broken the covenant. And God tells Moses, let me alone. that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I will destroy them, I will consume them in my anger, and I will take you and make a great nation of you." But Moses, as the great typical mediator that he pictured, Moses did not leave God alone. Moses implored God. Moses stood between the people and God, and he pleaded the people's case with God. And God, through the intercession of Moses, determined that he would not utterly destroy the nation of Israel. And of course, we've considered how Moses in this is a picture of Christ, the only mediator between God and man. The next thing you see is that God threatened to withhold His presence from the people because of their sin. He tells them that He's going to give them the land of Canaan, but He's not going to go up in their midst because they are such a stiff-necked and rebellious people. And again, Moses, the great mediator, stands between them and God, pleads the people's cause before God, and God is merciful to the people again for the sake of Moses, and God declares that he will indeed go up among the people even though they are a stiff-necked people. And what we've seen is this is a picture of how we are saved merely by the work of Christ, His work on our behalf, His mediation on our behalf, His intercession on our behalf, and that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That's the only way any sinner is ever saved. That's the only way that we are spared from the wrath of God. That is the only way that we enjoy the presence of God, because were it not for Christ, we would be unfit to be in the presence of God. We could never enter into the presence of this holy God of heaven. At the end of chapter 33, Moses, with this awareness of his weakness and this awareness that he's going to lead the people through the wilderness to the land of Canaan, and this awareness that God alone can deliver them and bring them safely into the land of Canaan, Moses desires a greater revelation of God to his own heart. So he says, show me your glory. Show me your glory. How long has it been since the church in America has got on their face before God and said, Lord, more than anything, just show us your glory. Come and work in our midst. Come and reveal yourself to our hearts. Make yourself known to us. But Moses realized That if he was going to be successful in what God has called him to do, he would simply need God. There was no other answer, there was no other help, there was no other power. He just needed God. So he cries out, Lord just show me your glory. And the Bible said that God there promises that He would make Himself known to Moses. He said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim before you my name. Now when you come to chapter 34, the first nine verses tell of how God keeps this promise. God tells Moses to cut out two more tablets of stone because He had broken the others when He came down from the mountain because He found the people in their rebellion and in their sin. God tells him to cut out two new tablets of stone that God is going to rewrite the Ten Commandments or the Covenant upon these two tablets of stone. And he calls Moses back up to the mountain, back up, and we find out today in our text that Moses is up there again with him for another 40 days and another 40 nights while God makes Himself again known to Moses to a greater degree. And the Bible says in verse 5 that the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Moses and He proclaimed His name to Moses. He made Himself known. He revealed Himself in even a greater measure. Even though Moses had known God in an intimate way that most men never know God, here God makes Himself known in even a deeper and fuller way to Moses, and we considered last week what God revealed of Himself, and Moses' response to that was to quickly bow his head and to worship and to plead again for mercy that God had already promised in verse 9. And that's where we take up the narrative this morning is in verse 10. We're still in this meeting with God and Moses up on the mountain. God is revealing Himself to Moses. God is speaking to Moses. God has renewed in grace the covenant that He made with the people. And there are three things in our text this morning I want you to think about. The first one is found in verse 10, and that's the gracious promise of God. Notice what God says. He said, Behold, I am making a covenant. In other words, I am not going to forsake the covenant that I made with you even though you have broken the covenant. Abrogate or do away with the covenant even though you have already violated the covenant through the intercession of Moses through the mediation of Moses God is not going to forsake his people God is not going to destroy his people and God is not going to withdraw his presence from the people so basically what you have is God Renewing the covenant that he had made with the people and they had broken it and he can do this righteously through the intercession of Moses. He does it for Moses' sake, not for the sake of the people. Not because the people are a righteous people or a godly people, because the people are rebellious and a stiff-necked people. And what you have here is that God promises His presence, before all your people, I will do marvels such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And there's some disagreement by many about these marvels, but I think that what God is talking about is the marvels that He's going to do among them on the way to the land of Canaan. the marvels that He will do in bringing them into the land of Canaan, and the marvels that He will do when He gets them into the land of Canaan in driving out these seven nations of people before them. And what God is saying is, I am going to be present among you. Of course, this is an answer to Moses' prayer In verse 9, where Moses says, and he said, If I have found favor in your sight, please let the Lord go in the midst of us. Lord, if I have found your favor, if you are going to be gracious, Lord, grant to us your presence. I know it's the stiff-necked people, but pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance." And in response to this, God says, I am making a covenant before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. Notice the language of the verse. God says that He is going to go among them, but also God says He is going to do amazing and awesome things with them. God is going to be in their midst, God is going to be among them, but God is also going to not only work among them, God is going to work with them, and God is going to work through them. What you have here is this wonderful picture of the amazing grace and kindness of God. God, to a people that wholly are undeserving of this, God says to this people, I will be among you and not only will I be among you and you will witness My work, but also I will use you and work through you and I will do great and awesome things through you. And you know, that's God's promise to us, is it not? Are we not covenant breakers? Have we not broken our covenant with God time and time again? Have we not violated the Word of God time and time again? Have we not proven to be a stiff neck, a stubborn, a stumbling, a failing, a sinful, an erring, a wandering people time and time and time again? And yet through what Christ has done on our behalf, and yet because Christ is seated on the right hand of God the Father, ever living to make intercession for us, yet God says, I will go among them, I will dwell in them, and not only will God dwell in us and go among us, but God will do great things by grace through us. What an amazing thing. You say, I don't believe God does great things through his people. Listen, if God causes a hardened, wicked sinner to give a cup of cold water in true Christian kindness, that is a miracle of all miracles because it is not in our nature to do so. It is not in our nature to do so. Listen, if God takes a hardened sinner and changes that person's heart and transforms that life and makes them a vehicle for God to show His compassion and His kindness and His mercy through, is that not a miracle of all miracles? Is that not God doing an awesome thing through a frail human vessel and a frail human vehicle for God to work for the glory of His own great name. This is what God does. Listen, the reality is that God saves us merely by grace. And He saves us because of what Christ has done for us. And He keeps us because of Christ's intercession on our behalf. And then He takes us and He says, I will dwell with you, but not only will I dwell with you, I will work through you and I will do exceedingly great and mighty things. And I'm going to tell you, the church itself is a miracle. And when I say that, I mean the church of Jesus Christ around the world is a miracle. The work that God does in the sinner's life to change the sinner is an awesome thing. And when God gets a hold of a sinner's heart and transforms that heart and then sends them out into the world and makes them a vehicle that He can work through, that is indeed an awesome and an amazing thing that God does through a weak human instrument. This is the gracious promise of God. You've broken my covenant. You are totally undeserving. But because Christ has come and stood in your place, because Christ has borne your sin, because Christ is your great mediator and your great intercessor, even though you are covenant breakers, even though you are stiff-necked, I will go with you and I will work through you. Listen, if God doesn't work through sinful human vessels, well, God doesn't work through any of us. Because the reality is, that is God's work in the world, is that He takes sinful human beings, gives them a new heart, and then He propels them out into the world and uses them for the glory of His great name. Now that's number one, the gracious promise of God. Now here's the one I want to spend most of the time on this morning. And that is that in this text there is a solemn warning from God. There is a gracious promise of God, but there is a solemn warning of God. And I want you to notice some of the language that is in this text. First of all, in verse 11, they are warned to obey. Look at the language, verse 11. Observe what I command you this day. Observe what I command you this day." He is telling them to obey. Some of the translations use the word obey. Some of them use the word observe. It is essentially the same concept. What God is saying to them is, you are to listen to me. You are to submit to Me, and your life is to be governed by My Word and by My commands. You are to observe what I command you this day." Now why would he say such a thing? First of all, let me ask you this question. Have they already failed to observe what God has commanded them? Utterly, totally, and completely. God says, you are to have no other gods before me. God said, you are to make no graven image. Moses is gone for a few days and they come to Aaron and say, up and make us gods. Who will go before us? Because we don't know what's happened to Moses. They had utterly failed to observe the commandment of God. And understand that their failure to observe the commandment of God had nearly brought about their complete and utter destruction. had nearly brought down the wrath of God upon them. And were it not for the intercession of Moses, it would have brought down the wrath of God upon them. So God says to them, here's something you need to understand. You need to observe, you need to obey what I say to you. You need to listen to me. You need to hear me. You need to submit to me. Not just because I'm trying to somehow withhold some good thing from you, but I'm trying to protect you by the governing influences of my commands upon your life. This is one of the greatest fallacies that the devil ever puts in the mind of human beings. Is it somehow God is withholding something good from you when He says, Thou shalt not? When really what God is withholding from you is destruction. That's what God is doing. God is saying, I made you, I created you, I know you, I know exactly what you're to be, I know exactly what you were created to be. Do not do this for your own good. And by not doing this and by submitting to my Word and observing what I command, you will be protecting yourself, or really you will be protected by the command of God. Now notice what else we find in these verses. They are warned to obey. They are warned in verse 12 to take care. Verse 11, observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, The Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And then in verse 12, take care. Take care lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. In other words, he's saying pay attention. Be alert. Be careful. You remember in Ephesians 5, in the King James Version, it says that we are to walk circumspectly. You remember that word? We are to walk circumspectly. You know what that word means? To walk looking around. Pay attention. Be careful. Be on your guard. Be on the alert. This is essentially what God is saying. Take care lest you make a covenant with the people of the Lamb. What God is saying is you need to be alert. You need to be on the lookout. You need to understand that there are dangers that lie ahead. Yes, I am your God. Yes, I am with you. Yes, I am going to do awesome things with you. But understand that when you go into the land of Canaan, there will be dangers that lie ahead and you cannot afford to be careless. And how careless we live! How careless we live! Isn't it amazing, this is always amazing to me, that we can go to a doctor and the doctor can say, this is what you need to do for your physical health, and if he says, stand on one hand three hours a day, we'll go to our house and we'll try to stand on our hand three hours a day, and yet the living God says, this is what you should do for your spiritual health, and we go, well, it's not a big deal. Not a big deal. What God is saying to them is, listen, when you go into the land of Canaan, you better take care, you better pay attention, you better be on the lookout, you better be alert. There is going to be, with the blessing that I'm going to give you in the land of Canaan, there will also be attending dangers. So you can't afford to be careless. You can't afford to go into the land of Canaan without knowing that there are some things that you need to take care about. There are some things that you need to pay attention to and be on the lookout for. Because with all of the blessing I'm going to give you in the land of Canaan, there will also be attending dangers and possible pitfalls. So they're warned to obey God. They're warned to take care, to pay attention, to be on the lookout, to be alert, But then in verse 12 through verse 16, they are warned to separate from the people of the land. I want you to notice some of the things that we find in these few verses here in Exodus 34. They were to make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. They were in a covenant with a holy God in verse 10. God says to them, I am making a covenant. Making a covenant with them. Making a covenant with them as His chosen people. And yet God tells them that when they go into the land of Canaan, they are not to make any covenant with the peoples of the land. Now, look at verse 15. They were not to be closely allied with the people. Look at verse 15. Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they haul after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, you are invited and you eat of His, being their gods, sacrifice. So first of all, he says, whenever you go into the land of Canaan, make no alliances with the peoples in the land of Canaan. Because if you do, they will invite you to their idolatrous worship and you will be tempted to go to their idolatrous feast and to eat of sacrifices that were offered to their gods. Another thing that you have here is that they were not to intermarry with the people of Canaan for spiritual reasons. Look at verse 16. You are not to take of their daughters for your sons, And you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters go whoring after their gods, and they will make your sons go whoring after their gods. So what he's saying is you're not to intermarry with the people in the land of Canaan. It has nothing to do with racial anything. It has nothing to do with racial anything. It has to do with their spiritual condition and their walk before God. What he's saying is, if you let your sons marry the women of the land of Canaan, and the women of the land of Canaan go to worship their gods, you will watch your sons be led into idolatry by the women of the land of Canaan. Now, here's what you hear all the time. Well, maybe if we could just go into the land of Canaan, and we could marry all the Canaanites, we could win them over to our God, and then they would leave their idolatry, and they would come and follow the true and living God. No, that is not at all what God is... God is not saying that's the way to do it. God is saying, if you allow your sons to marry their daughters, their daughters will lead your son into idolatry. And can you wonder maybe that there was some Jewish boy that heard this and go, well, I would never be led into idolatry by the sinfulness of the women in the land of Canaan. But someone as mighty as Solomon was led into idolatry by his wives. To me, one of the saddest stories in the Bible. Solomon, that God appeared to twice at the end of his life, has built heathen temples around Jerusalem because of these foreign women that he married who led him into disobedience to God. They are warned to separate. They were not to intermarry with the people of Canaan for spiritual reasons, because God understands who made us, that that close tie of marriage has such a grip upon our hearts that it can lead us away from God. So, we have here God saying, don't intermarry with them. In verse 12, it's viewed as a trap. Look at verse 12. Take care lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go. Look at the next line. Lest it become a snare in your midst. It's like a trap, isn't it? It's like a, what is a snare? A snare is something you catch something in. And God is saying you better be careful when you go into the land of Canaan because if you Fall in with these people. It can become a snare to you. You can be entrapped in it. And it can bring much misery and much destruction upon you. Notice in verse 13, they were to have absolutely no mercy upon the idolatry in the land of Canaan. Verse 13, you shall tear down their altars, break down their pillars, and cut down their ashram. What God is saying is, Be unsparing. Be absolutely merciless. Be unsparing. Don't leave a heathen altar standing. Don't leave an Asherah pole standing. Anything that has anything to do with the idolatrous life of the Canaanites, you are to make no peace with it. Utterly destroy it. Every vestige of it. Tear it down. Wipe it out. Destroy it. Absolute, complete and total, merciless war against these false gods. And every vestige of idolatry was to be destroyed. Of course, the reason for this is, is the danger is that they would be led into spiritual adultery. All through Scripture, when the children of Israel would fall off into idolatry, God would view it and God would speak of it in Scripture as them being an adulterous bride, an unfaithful bride, being led off into spiritual adultery, corrupting themselves because of their worship of these other gods. Now, you know, we just have to address it. Because I know a lot of people come to things like this and they go, well, this is something that God said to them, but it doesn't really have anything to say to us. But it does have much to say to us. And I want to show you this in the New Testament. Lest if you're thinking, well, this is what God said to the Jews, but the principle doesn't apply to us. I want us to see what the New Testament says about this very subject. Now, go to 1 Corinthians 15. And while you're on the way to 1 Corinthians 15, I want to read to you a verse from the Proverbs. And you just listen to this verse as you're finding 1 Corinthians 15. Proverbs 13, verse 20. Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. That's good, isn't it? Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. But the companion of fools will suffer harm. Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. One little verse. I love the way it's put in the King James Version. It's the way I always remember it in my mind. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 33. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Do you want me to quote it to you in the King James? Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. In the English standard, do not be deceived, bad company ruins good morals. Go with me to 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Now I want you to listen to these questions that Paul poses. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of God, or we are the temple of the living God, as God said, I will make my dwelling among them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." And it goes down into chapter 7, verse 1, Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God." Go with me to Ephesians 5. I just want you to get the flavor of these texts in the New Testament so you understand that this principle is not just an Old Testament principle. It is also a New Testament principle. The believer is called to separate from the world in which we live. Ephesians 5 verse 1, Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. And look at verse 7, Therefore do not associate with them. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Look carefully, or circumspectly, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Now this goes to the very heart of the question, does it matter how a Christian lives? And the answer is an emphatic yes. We are not saved by works, but according to Scripture we are saved to do good works. And we are saved to live a life in accordance with the revealed will of God. The Bible still says, love not the world, Neither the things that are in the world, if any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him." And it also says that this world and its fashion is passing away. But he that does the will of God abides forever. Now, I say this because it needs to be re-emphasized in our day in the church. Because the church has become worldly and the world has become churchy. And yet the Bible calls us to live a life of separation from the world, a life that honors God for our good and for God's glory. For our good and for God's glory. Now understand, that the very word separation just causes the hair to rise on the back of some people's neck. Because they say, what in the world is he about to say, or what in the world is he about to preach? But the rule today, sadly, is careless Christianity instead of careful Christianity. And I say this with all the kindness I can possibly, and I say this to myself, I fear that in so many circles, the point has come down to this, that the church is trying to see how closely they can walk to the world and not defile themselves, instead of how pleasing to God we can be. I mean, it's just a continual thing that goes on in our lives and in our hearts. Now, I want to say just a few things about this and I'll move on. Number one, I don't believe that any church or anybody can legislate these things. These are matters of the heart. And that's why we don't in any way try to legislate things like that here, because it's what the Scripture says and it's your heart's surrender to God and you're applying in your own life of what the Scripture says. Another thing is, sometimes isn't it hard to walk down the middle of the road and not end up in one ditch or the other? You ever have any problem with that? By the way, it doesn't matter whether you're in the ditch on the right side of the road or the ditch on the left side of the road, you're stuck either way. I've been in both ditches. And what I mean by that is this. Isn't it true? I think it's true. When you're first converted and God has awakened you and God has convicted you and God has broken you, the first tendency of your heart is because your eyes have been opened to the evil of sin and the wonder of Christ's love and sacrifice. The first tendency of your heart is legalism. That's where it usually starts. That's where I started. I got rid of every record I had that wasn't gospel. and was almost scared to touch him to get rid of him. So what happens? You kind of start out with maybe The pendulum has swung way out here. You've just had your eyes open to the greatness of your sin. You've had your eyes open to the wonder of Christ's sacrifice and God's love for you. And you are grieved at what you have been and you're obeying against God. And your conscience, wonderfully, this is a wonderful thing, your conscience is so tender and so sweet. You just want to please God more than anything, which is good, and we should never lose that. Never lose that. Fight to keep it. But what happens is sometimes your opinions are wrong. And sometimes your opinions are influenced by other people or other Christians who are very sincere and they love you, but their opinions are wrong. So over time you begin to read the Bible, you begin to walk with God, and you begin to look at some of the things you believe and some of your practices and you go, maybe I'm a little extreme. Maybe I swung way out there. Maybe it's time that I come back here. to a place of biblical balance and sanity. But here's where the danger comes. If you're not careful, you won't stop at the place of biblical balance. You'll swing all the way back over here to a place of licensed and careless living. One is the person over here that says, I cannot go anywhere. I cannot do anything. I cannot be around anybody. And I cannot stand the way everybody around me lives. The other is over here and they're saying, hey, I'm saved by grace. Let the good times roll. Both are wrong. I'm not sure which one's the worst. But both are wrong. I know I've been over there. And I was glad to come back. Not a good place to be. And I fear that at times I've been over here, and it's hard to get back. Both are wrong. The thing is, you're not to live as a Pharisee in legalism, and you're not to live as a libertine in license, You're to live as a Christian in liberty who says, whatever God says, that's my standard. And the Spirit of God lives in me, guiding me, convicting me, teaching me, training me. And when He says, don't do that, I go, yes sir, that I will not do. And when He says, go do that, we go, yes, that's exactly what I want to do. That is the place of freedom and liberty and joy and blessing and happiness. But in either one of these other ditches, you just come out muddy. And we have to be careful. Now, can I tell you something? I don't know who will hear this, and I don't care. But I've been an independent Baptist. I've been everything. I was raised a free will Baptist. I became an independent Baptist. And I tried to become a Southern Baptist, and that didn't work out too good. Now, when I was an independent Baptist, I was over here. And this is not to be cruel. I'm afraid a lot of Southern Baptists are over here. And I guess it was the mercy of God I didn't end up in either camp. Because even though I've been over there, and even though I've probably been over here, God has a way of grabbing your heart and saying, now get back over here. This is where you belong. We need not try to see how closely we can walk to the world and not defile ourselves. Because I'm telling you, if you walk close enough to a muddy pond long enough, you'll fall in. You'll fall in. The point is simply this. Be more careful about how you live your life. And here's another thing, and I put this on something the other day, and I think we need to think our way through this. There is such a movement in the modern church to be non-traditional and casual and loose about everything, and loose about everything in the church. And we don't want to be stiff, and we don't want to be staid, and we don't want to be traditional. And there's such a movement and such a mindset of that. But here's the problem with that. You have to be careful about walls that you tear down because many times they were erected by people years ago who were much more wise than we were. And much more spiritual. And when sometimes, here's what I've discovered in my own life, sometimes when I tear a wall down, I don't realize how valuable the wall was until it's done down. And then I can't get it back up. For instance, I used to tell the kids, it's easier never to open a door in your heart than to get it back shut after it's been opened. And the thing about the modern church is, is we're walking around with just wrecking balls, destroying well-worn, time-honored things that have to do with the church and have to do with worship And we're not even taking the time to think, what will be the consequence if we tear this wall down? And then once we've tore the wall down, we begin to reap the consequences, which were like, you know, a government program, unintended consequences. And then all of a sudden, when the unintended consequences of tearing the wall come in, we go, man, I sure would like to get the wall back up. But then we've got two problems. Once you've got it down, you can't put it back together. And the other problem is, you have to admit you were foolish in tearing it down to start with. So we let the cat out of the bag, but because it's going to be messy to get them back in, we're just going to let them run loose. I fear that's happening so much. They were warned here that God is a jealous God. Do you know, I can't ever think about that until I think about, do you know that probably the greatest, most influential pagan religionist that has ever been visited upon our nation was affected by that truth? Did you know that Oprah Winfrey in an interview said that one day she was sitting in a church and a pastor was preaching on the truth that God is a jealous God and she said, I cannot worship and love a God like that. So she set off down her path of mysticism. and became the great pagan religionist and evangelist that she was, day after day, propagating Christ-rejecting, wicked doctrine upon America, day after day. Because when she heard the truth that God is a jealous God, she decided that she was God. And she would elevate herself above what God has said about Himself, and she would determine what God would be like. And not God. What does it mean? By the way, can there be any such thing as love if there's not an element of jealousy in it? Can God love a people that He's not jealous over? What it's saying is that God is jealous over His people's worship. He's jealous over His people's adoration. He's jealous over His people's obedience. He's jealous over His people's hearts. He's jealous over His place of preeminence among His people. And notice in the context what he's saying is, I'm a jealous God. You can't trifle with me. You can't commit spiritual adultery. You can't trifle with me. I'm a jealous God. My name is Jealous. You cannot reject me and rebel against me. You cannot go into the land of Canaan and take up with these idolatrous practices and worship these false gods and think that I'm going to look the other way and hold my nose and act like it never happened. I'm a jealous God. I love you. You're my people. You are to have all of your hearts allegiance set up on me. And if you commit adultery, I will not be trifled with. Now, he begins by warning them about idolatry. Isn't it interesting? You're to make no gods of cast metal. Wow! What have they just done? They just made a golden calf. And he says, you're not to make any gods of cast metal. You say, well, that doesn't apply to us. Little children, keep yourself from idols. 1 John 5.21, little children, keep yourself from idols. What God is saying is, I'm telling you, I love you. I'm going to be gracious to you. I'm going to work through you. I'm going to work among you. You're going to see things and you're going to witness and experience my presence in a way that no other people has experienced. But do not think you can trifle with me. Don't think you can go into the land of Canaan and join in with their idolatrous practices and don't think I'm going to look the other way. What he's saying is, your idolatry has just nearly destroyed you and yet I have been merciful to you. Don't go into the land and fall into that again. It's a warning to be separate. You say, what about all the rest of the stuff that you read about the keeping of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Sabbath and all of these feasts and all that? Well, I think that the point of this is simply this. God is saying that I have exclusive claim over your life. I'm the one that determines What you do and what you don't do. I have exclusive claim over you. You're not to be disobedient. You're not to be rebellious. You're to obey. You're to yield. You're to submit. You're to surrender. You're to worship. And I have exclusive rights over your persons. I have exclusive rights over your property. And I have exclusive rights over your priorities. He's saying, I don't care if you're in the middle of harvest and your fields need reaping, you are to not work on the Sabbath, because I say so and you're to obey me. I don't care what you're doing back home, your mails are to appear before me three times a year. What he's saying is, I'm your God, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to take care of you, I'm going to provide for you, but you better pay attention, and you better take care, and you better be careful, and you better remember that I have exclusive claim upon your life. And is that a New Testament truth? Is that not the language of 1 Corinthians? You are not your own. You are not your own. No Christian, hear me, no Christian has the right to say, I'll do as I please. Never! We have the right to say, not my will but thine, but not I'll do as I please. By the way, if it pleases you to please God, You can do whatever you please. And that's the real point, isn't it? It's not that, well, we go to this church and they've got this list and I have to keep the list. That's not the point. The point is, what pleases God? Can I be friends with this person and it pleases God? Can I go to this place and it please God? Can I participate in this thing and it please God? Can I pursue this career and it please God? Can I marry this person and it please God? Can I go to this school and it please God? Isn't that always the question? The amazing thing... Someone said one time, there was a guy, he was kind of a nut, up in Ashland, and he said a lot of crazy things. He just was crazy. He was a pastor of a church. He just looked crazy. He acted crazy. He kind of scared me. But here's something he said one time that I never forgot. He said, listen, you Christian young people out here, If you marry an unbeliever, don't be surprised when you have trouble with your father-in-law. This kind of flew right by. What he was saying is, if you marry someone that doesn't know Christ, and their father is the devil, don't be surprised when trouble comes. The point is simply this, God has exclusive claim over our lives. Whatever He wants is what we're to want. Wherever He sends is where we're to go. Whatever He commands is what we're to do. Whenever God says, Thou shalt not, we should say, That's all I needed to know. And whenever He says, Thou shalt, we should say, That's all I wanted to know. Listen, God's warnings are for our protection. God's commands are for our protection. They're for our good. And when God says you don't need to go down that road, He's not trying to withhold something good from you. He is withholding pain from you. Sorrow, grief, misery. That's what He's trying to protect you from. And nearly everybody in this room that has any age to them at all, if you'll think about your own life, you would have to say, had I listened to God at that crossroads and not taken my turn, I sure would have been a lot better off. I sure would have been a lot better off. One of the neat things about getting old, or older, is those rare occasions when your kids come and they never really aim to say it. They hate to say it. It kills them to say it. And sometimes they won't say it to you, you just hear them say it to others. When they go, man, daddy was right about that. Daddy was right about that. And I don't think I've ever told them, I told you so, have I? But I go in the bathroom and go, I knew I was. I knew I was. I knew it and I knew someday they'd figure it out. And our Father in Heaven says, don't go down that road. Don't go down that road. I don't care how saved you are, how spiritual you are, how much scripture you read, how much you pray. I'm telling you, none of us, none of us are beyond being influenced by the wicked world we live in. We better be careful. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we love your word. I pray that it will be helpful to us, that it will ride upon our hearts. Let it be a warning to us. Let us rejoice in the grace that you've shown us and the great sacrifice of our Savior, but also let us realize that we are not to live a careless life as a result of it. Help us to live holy lives. Help us to pursue you and to pursue holiness. Help us to honor you in what we think and what we say and what we do and where we go and who we associate with. Please put a guard on our lives. Put a guard on our hearts. Help us to be disciplined people because part of this is living a disciplined life. Help us to love you more than we love the smile of others. Help us to love you more than we love the pleasures of this life. And help us to realize that real joy and real pleasure is found in pleasing you. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.