Continue our work there. We will be again in the 23rd chapter. In 1773, a young man fearing another bout of darkness and depression was coming upon him, raced home, and penned these words. God approves, and they make his wonders to perform. He treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, the clouds ye so much dread. are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. His purpose will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain." William Cowper, in writing these words, gives encouragement to the believers regarding the experience and the certainty of the work of Christ in their lives And this encouragement, this certainty is a certainty and encouragement that comes not from any worldly source, but is only found in the true promises of God. And the understanding that not only is he the promise maker, he is also the promise keeper. In John chapter six, verses 26 through 40, Jesus speaking to his disciples says the following words. Jesus answered them and said, truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on him the Father God set his seal. Therefore they said to him, what should we do so that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him, what then do you do for a sign so that we may see and believe you? What work will you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And Jesus replied to them and said, truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but the Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. But I said to you, you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. Now this is the will of Him who sent me, that of all that He has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise Him up on the last day. if you'll notice the authoritative statements made by Christ, specifically in the final two verses of this passage. We read all of it to gain the context and understanding of what Christ was leading up to, but the picture at the end, the promise that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life. What a beautiful promise. And a promise that millions of people who profess to be Christians would gladly proclaim. But the reality is that a promise is only as good as the promise keeper. And so for many, although they will gladly state that those who profess and believe will have eternal life, they lose and find a little comfort in the real truth, because at the end of the day, they are not relying on the promise keeper, but on themselves to keep the promise. The thrust of this passage, the point that Jesus is making, is that in all of these things, It is not the work or the effort or the faith or the belief that you and I have, but it is the work that the Father is doing. and has done through Christ. Note in verse 637, all that the Father gives me will come to me. In 39, that all that he has given me, I lose nothing. And finally in John 640, that he himself, Christ, will raise him, being those who believe, up on the last day. Note that it is God who gives us It is God who keeps us, and it is God and God alone who will raise us up. The only thing that truly helps us find beauty in a promise is the certainty and reliability of the promise keeper. All of us sitting here this morning can think of times in our life where people have made promises to us that they didn't fulfill. We begin to, as people, have a lack of belief in promises because we are expecting the promise keepers, the people who have made the promise, to actually hold up to their end. But there's a difference between worldly, earthly people as promise keepers and God as a promise keeper. So in our text this morning, in the 23rd chapter, beginning in the 20th verse, we are going to be looking at the conclusion, or as some would list it, the epilogue, to the book of the covenant. So if you remember as we entered into this, the book of the covenant is written immediately following the 10 commandments. It is the civil laws or it is some explanatory laws that go along with the 10 commandments to give a little bit more situations. But in understanding what exactly we're looking at, we need to first understand exactly what a covenant is. Now, for many people, they hear the word covenant and they go, okay, well, it's an agreement. But the reality is, is a covenant is more than just an agreement. A covenant is a legal binding agreement that is under a seal or an attestation of an assurance that it will be kept, that it will be enacted, that it will be taken care of. Now, in the ancient world, it was common for covenants to end much like the text for this morning with promises and warnings that deal with the responsibilities of the parties involved and the failings of the parties to uphold their end of the agreement. Now, in our wonderful legalese of today, we would say something along the lines of the party of the first part fails to uphold the promise to the party of the second part, then this would be the repercussions that the party of the first part would receive. Basically, what this means is that each party that is entering into the covenant has a responsibility. And as we find ourself here in the book of the covenant, in the covenant of the law, the covenant of works, the responsibility is that the people of God would do something and God does his part. And so think about it. If you are shopping in a store, and you go and pick out an item from the shelf, you and the store have now entered into a form of a loose covenant. For example, you have loosely promised to pay the asking price for the item, and the store has promised that if you pay the asking price for the item, the item becomes yours. Now, if you walk out, and you don't know broken promise, broken covenant, and ultimately can be prosecuted. God and the Israelites have entered into a covenantal relationship. Now, please understand this covenant really goes all the way back to creation. These laws that God has given, the moral law, has been in existence before time began. but God is giving his people clear directions, clear promises that will be received, that they will have entrance into the land of promise, and that is conditioned upon... of the covenant. So these words, this promise warning passage to Israel, is for us a shadow of the new covenant promises and the certainty of the promise keeper. So let us stand as we read the word of God together, beginning in the 23rd chapter, the 20th verse of Exodus. Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to keep you along the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Keep watch of yourself before him, and listen to his voice. Do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since my name is in him. But if you truly listen to his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For my angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Jebusites. And I will annihilate them. You shall not worship their gods, you shall not serve them, and you shall not do according to their deeds. But you shall utterly pull down and shatter their sacred pillars into pieces. But you shall serve Yahweh your God. And he will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst. There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come. And I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you. I will not drive them out before you in a single year lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little until you become fruitful and take the land as an inheritance. And I will set your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines. I don't understand. You're doing your whole effort. It would not be uncommon to find some discussion regarding supernatural beings, one of which is angels. Biblically speaking, there are many accounts and mentions of the commonplace practice of exalting these things. Created beings meant to worship and serve the Creator. Angels mentioned in scripture are always subservient to God. They are his messengers. They are sent to do his will. And so why do I even bring up angels? Well, I bring up angels because right here in verse 20, we encounter what God tells the Israelites is his angel. In verse 20, he says that he is sending his angel. He says, behold, I'm going to send an angel before you. Now this angel that he is sending to them has a very specific set of commands, a very specific set of purposes. First of all, the angel will be there to keep the people along the way. The word that is translated here is keep. used in the sense of keeping watch over or guarding the people against danger or against outside influence. The role of the angel of God would be to cover and protect Israel until they entered into and settled into the promised land. with keeping the angel is also told here to bring them or they are told that the angel will bring them he says behold i am going to send you an angel before you to keep you and to bring you into the place which i have Now, what is interesting about this action here regarding the angel is that this is an action that has absolutely no foundation in anything or anyone other than God and the angel itself. The angel will protect, bring them safely. In verse 21, we also see additional promises. The first direction here, the instruction in verse 21 here is for Israel to keep watch. Now this verb, this word here carries the same root as keep in verse 20, but there is an addition to it. In other words, it is being used here in the sense of making sure that someone makes a point to act in a very purposeful and intentional way. So what the command to the Israelites were, Although the angel is going to guard you, keep you, and although the angel is going to bring you, your responsibility is to watch yourselves, to be very intentional that you are being obedient to the commands that I have given. And if you notice, it says, if you keep watching yourself, you can't listen to his voice. So the statement is made. that they are supposed to listen and obey intentionally and with purpose the words of the angel. Now, a normal individual reading this particular thing, and maybe they've been listening here and gotten to this point and go, well, if we're supposed to listen and obey the angel, who exactly is this angel? And so there are some theologians that would say that this angel is Moses. The problem is Moses doesn't enter the promised land. It specifically says here, the angel will bring you into the promised land. And so those people who have said it's Moses then say, well, if it's not Moses, then obviously it's Joshua. Joshua is the one who leads ultimately the people of Israel across the Jordan River and into the promised land. But even this carries with it some problems. And especially as we look at how the angel itself is described in the text. And so if you'll notice, the next statement in the verse, I believe clearly answers the question. The next clause of the verse states that the messenger will not pardon the transgressions of the people, but it gives a purpose or a reason for not pardoning these transgressions. The angel will not pardon the transgressions. The angel will not pardon the sin of the people because the very name of God is in him. Now, if you remember, as we have studied through Exodus and as we have talked about the name, the covenant name of Yahweh to the people of God, one of the understandings of names as we look at them is that they carry with them the very attributes and the very essence of who the being is. And so by making the statement that my name is in him, God is equating the angel with himself. Now this verse seems to give us this picture. They're to obey him. The angel has the same strength. In other words, he has the ability to guard, to keep them. He has the same power of deliverance. If you remember earlier in the book of Exodus in the third chapter, as we journeyed with Moses, he encounters something at the burning bush. In Exodus, verse three, the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of the bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, and yet the bush was not consumed. Now, in our understanding and in the way we have come to study and be awakened to scripture, we know that this is a theophany, an appearing, or a manifestation of God in the burning bush. Yet scripture, again, attributes the title, angel of God, to this occurrence. What's interesting, though, is that later on in the book of Judges, There's a story regarding a young man named Samson. Some of you may remember that person, Samson. He did a couple things. But coming after or during his story, we find in Judges 13, chapter 17, verse 17, we find these words. Then Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, what is your name? so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you. So notice, the question directly deals with the question we're asking. Who is this angel? Who is this thing that is being described as the angel of the Lord? Now look at the response. But the angel of Yahweh said to him, why do you ask my name? Seeing it is wonderful. So Manoah took the young goat and the grain offering and offered it on the rock to Yahweh. He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on. Indeed it happened when the flame went up from the altar. The angel of Yahweh went up in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife saw this, so they fell on their faces to the ground. Now the angel of Yahweh did not appear to Manoah or his wife again, but Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh. So Manoah said to his wife, we will surely die, for we have seen God. Now, a couple of things that I want to point out in that passage. First of all, the way in there, obviously he's saying, he is giving us the truth that this is also a theophany that has occurred to Manoah. But there's even another occurrence in this passage that hopefully you caught as we were reading down through it. Let me remind you, verse 18. Verse 18 says, but the angel of Yahweh said to him, why do you ask my name? Seeing it is wonderful. Now, Maybe, just maybe, when you hear that statement, your mind goes to Isaiah chapter nine, verse six, where it says, for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. John Calvin answering this question stated this, but let us inquire who this angel was. The ancient teachers of the church have rightly understood it to be the eternal son of God in respect to his office as mediator. So what we have, what we see, what we're looking at in chapter 23, verses 20 and following in the book of Exodus, dealing with the angel of the Lord is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ. who truly fills and is the only one who can truly fill this role of keeper, guide, and deliverer in his role as mediator. He truly is the one who goes before. The full weight of verses 20 and 22 are felt as we reach 23. Notice what he says here in 23. He says, for my angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now, before we go any further, what I want to make clear here is this is not an exhaustive list of the people in the land of Canaan. All of these people were Canaanites, and all of these people were from different villages. But listing the six here and the three further down is simply a way that is used in scripture to encapsulate all of the land. So they're saying everyone within the land, all of the people within the promised land fit into these categories. Now look at what he promises. The angel will go before them. He will empty the land, He will bring you into the land, and God is going to annihilate the people of the land. But this is done in response to a command given to the people. If you look back up in verses 23 and 21 and 22, the command we see continually is to be obedient. Keep watch of yourself before Him and listen to His voice. Do not be rebellious toward Him. But if you truly listen to His voice and do all that I speak, That I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. I will bring about this thing I will deliver the angel of God the pre-incarnate Christ will proceed the people of God into the land of promise he will bring the people into the land and he will completely deliver the land to them and The ultimate promise of God to the people of Israel was full and final defeat of their enemies, but it was done and accomplished through the work of God alone. Now, a little bit later on, we're gonna run into a passage that talks about the Israel getting rid of them and being the people that they are the ones, but if you recognize what happens up until that point, you'll see that it is all the hand and the work of the Almighty Father. and the acquisition of the land which he has promised through his power. This should sound very familiar to you and I, to us as believers today. The message is not to follow God to have your best life now. The message is surrender all to me, place all your faith, all your hope, all your trust in me, and I will fully, finally, and wholly deliver you into the eternal presence of myself. Now the beauty of this, the beauty of this, the promise that God has made to the believers is this full and final eternal deliverance, but it is built on faith that He gives, hope that He gives, strength that He gives. All of it is based off of Him and Him alone. The promise is truly being kept by the promise keeper who is God. Now for Israel, the commands that are found in these verses constitute their responsibility in keeping the covenant. And overall, the covenant language from God was, if we were to sum it all up, if you will obey all that I command and worship me alone, then I will be your God and you will be my people, and I will fulfill all the promises that I have made to you. That was the covenant between God and the people of Israel. Now that's obviously a very broad command. And so God in his gracious love and mercy teaches his people, he gave his nation the covenant laws which were designed to teach them how to please the covenant sovereign. The next few verses, next two verses specifically, God once again reminds his people of their responsibility to him. If you look at verse 24, we see four specific commands, four specific clauses here that deal with the response of Israel towards all other gods. Look at this, you shall not worship. their gods. You shall not serve their gods. You shall not do according to their deeds, but you shall utterly pull them down and shatter their sacred pillars. So they were not to worship, not to serve, not to obey them. This word worship here, we tend to hear the word worship and our immediate thought goes to singing songs in church. Word is actually this humbling of yourself, this submitting of yourself, this bowing down of yourself before these gods. And so the command here was that they not bow themselves before and submit themselves to these gods, to serve as the actual work for the gods of the people of the land. And the obedience speaks here to participating in the rituals that exist for the purpose of worshiping and serving their God. So we talked about a couple of those last week, specifically, as we were looking through the text. If you remember, the one that was really the odd one was about boiling the baby goat in the mother's milk, right? That was all a part of a ritual of the people surrounding the Israelites. And so this is a command, again, not to participate in those kinds of actions. Now, if you take this verse and you only focus on the first three statements, you only look at God's command not to serve or not to obey these gods, you do not get the full picture of the command. Unfortunately, in today's world, this is exactly where we sit. In today's world, this is exactly what has occurred. They have taken those three commands, and they have said, OK, well, then if that's the case, we can go along to get along, or we can tolerate. That's our word of the century, right? Tolerance. We can tolerate other beliefs. But if you'll notice in the last calls of this verse The totality of his expectation Goes way beyond just going along to get along Now when we read this in the English language We lose some stuff But you shall utterly pull them down and shatter their sacred pillars to pieces. I Now we get that that says that you should pull down the idols, that you should break them apart, but there are some emphasis here that is found in the original language that we lose trying to translate into the English language, and the best that we have been able to do is the addition of the word utterly in the beginning of this clause. So if you look here, it says, but you shall utterly pull them down. Now, the actual language behind this is that you shall pull them down, pull them down. Or pull down, pull down, and shatter, shatter. The emphasis being that there is to be an intentional effort being made by the people to go and remove these idolatrous and false religious practices in the land. In other words, they weren't to just come into the land. allow God to remove the people of the land and just be okay with the rest staying. They were supposed to work to remove every single influence in their life of this stuff happening in their life. It was not to be a passive role in the belief system of others, but to seek and destroy the places and means of worship of the people. And there are a couple of reasons here. The basic reason that we find in the last two verses that we're gonna talk about in more detail in a few minutes, but the danger is that these people would tend to adopt the practices of the religions around them. And so the reality, is that this is exactly what happens. As we study further into the history of Israel, as they move into the promised land, this is the exact occurrence that we see. They are disobedient to God. They did not seek and destroy these places and items of worship, and later they adopt them, rebel against God, the very one who delivered them into the land, and ultimately, as we should know from our study of the word of God, are expelled. from the land of promise. Now, with all of that being said, it is very important for us today to recognize that these commands are to a specific group of people at a specific point in history for a specific purpose. This is not a command that we should walk away from here and go, okay, well we need to tear down all the mosques, synagogues, and all those churches, right? That's not the command that God is giving us. The command that God is giving you, the principle that we find here, the biblical principle that stands behind this, that has to be understood and applied in the life of a believer, is that were the people were to be obedient in order to receive, first of all, you have already received. We're doing this in order to receive the land. They were to go and remove all of these things so that God would deliver the land to them so that he would give them the land holy and that they could be God eternally you and I as believers have the exact reverse of that He has already given himself to us. He has already promised us. He has already made us his people eternally We will inherit the land we will obtain this but As a response to that, as a response to what we have already received, we are called and required to be obedient. The principle in question here is the reality of the utter and total destruction of sin in our lives. You want to talk about seek and destroy mission, you should go on a seek and destroy mission of the things in your life that are the flesh. that are still waging war. Romans 8, beginning in verse 9, Paul writes to the church at Rome, however, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. I love that first statement. Paul's not making any assumptions here. Preachers in every church in America today stand up in pulpits and they make assumption that the people they're talking to are all saved. Paul does not make that assumption here. Paul says, if you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. In other words, you could not have the Spirit of God dwelling in you. You could be sitting here, listening to my voice, reading this letter as Paul was writing it, and be lost. But Paul says, I'm talking to those who the Spirit is within. Now, you could be hearing this, and the Spirit is not within you. That doesn't mean you shut up and don't listen. It's just not gonna make nearly as much sense to you. I'm paraphrasing, Paul didn't talk like that. Okay? That's good old Southern English. But the reality is, he goes on to say, but if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. He is not one of Christ's people. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness, But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, this is the part. This is the part where we as churches fail repeatedly. Because what we have done is we have softened the impact of the statement that Paul is fixing to make. Because what we have said is, listen, we all know that we're sinners, and it's okay if you sin. That's not what Paul teaches. That's not what God teaches. Look at the words. Sinners, it is your obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live. In other words, you are not in obligation any longer as a believer. If you are a believer in Christ, if you are one of His children, if you are His and His Spirit dwells in you, then you are no longer under the obligation of the flesh. You are no longer under the obligation of sin. You are Obligation of the spirit and you would be seeking to put at the practices of the body For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God These are the sons of God listen and I and every believer are Called or commanded to have an active role against Sin not just sin and other people even though that's where we like to go first, right? the first responsibility we have is to be fighting and working out and Removing the sin in our life. Listen, we have been empowered by the Spirit of the Living God to fight and fight we must. The King James Version translate the text here as mortify the deeds of the body or be putting to death sin in our life. Effectively getting rid of it. We are not called to sit back and just, okay, well, we're a believer now, and yeah, we're a believer, but we're still a sinner, so it's okay if we sin. We are called to pursue righteousness, pursue holiness, only being done and accomplished through his power. As we look at verse 25, back in Exodus, It begins with a command here, but you shall serve Yahweh. And so it commands a conjunction, but it's a conjunction pointing out that the next command is in direct opposition to the preceding commands. In other words, instead of worshiping, serving, and working for the gods of the land, they are commanded to worship and serve and work for the one true God. Now, as we begin to look at the second half, verses 25 down through 31, or the next section, this is what God will do for the people in the land if they are obedient and if they follow his commands. He gives us a promise, and that promise is that he will accomplish it amongst them, and it will be for their good But just as us, it will ultimately be for him. We made a comment earlier that there was at the end of verse 23, the statement that God would annihilate them. In the original language, this statement is delivered with a force that, again, we lose in the English language because contrary to our popular belief, the English language is not a perfect language and it loses much. in its translation, but we lose a beautiful picture here of force behind this, and we get it a little bit in the English language with I will annihilate them, but what is really being conveyed here is it is an utter and total destruction that is done by the power of God alone. Now, the truth is, in many of our churches, We don't have that picture that it is God working any longer. But beginning in the second half of verse 25, so if you look at the second half. He says, you shall serve Yahweh your God, and then we get these two clauses, and he will bless your bread and water, and I will remove the sickness from your midst. Now, these two terms, food and sickness, are antithetical. In other words, they are opposites. Okay? In the original language. Now, they're not necessarily opposites in our world. I get that. But in the original language, these were opposite words. And the idea here is that this covers the whole gambit. It is a promise that he will cover and take care of the health and prosperity of his people. So it demonstrates a range. In other words, if you think about this, compare it to God's description of himself in Revelations as the Alpha and the Omega. It doesn't mean he is just this point and that point. It means he is everything in between. Again, the same thing carries here in Exodus when he says food and sickness is that he is dealing with and taking care of everything in between. It is a full provision by God. Verse 26, God demonstrates that he, to the watching world, that he is Lord over all. Now, we read this passage, and this is dangerous, of reading the Old Testament and not really understanding what you're reading. Sometimes we read the Old Testament and go, oh, well that sounds great, like Jeremiah 29, 11, right? For I know the plans I have to prosper you and keep you. But you're not, Israel and you're not in bondage to another country and and been kicked out of your homeland Okay, so the promise is different. It doesn't work the same so we can't read this and we go Oh, well if we believe God if we trust God if we if we have faith in God if we are saved by God Then this will apply to us. It doesn't work that way this is again a very specific set of commands to a very specific set of a people at a very specific point in time for a very specific purpose and that does have implications, but the implications are not directly equal to what we read here. And so what we see, this picture here in verse 26, there shall be no miscarrying or bearing in your land, actually deals not so much with not losing children as it does with fertility as a whole. And that being fertility in the family, that being fertility in the land, that being fertility and prosperity from one end to the other. And so, when we look at this, one of the things that would happen, and one of the things that went on in the cultures that surrounded the Hebrew people, is that in order for their prosperity and fertility to be blessed, they would have to complete these complex Rituals, right? We go back to last week and I was talking about not boiling a baby goat in its mother's milk, right? It's complex ritual that was designed to foster this fertility. And so God is telling not only Israel, but all of the people around Israel that they have no need for this because their God is the God of all things. And that just as he did in Egypt, that he is the Lord of all and his people have no need to perform these pagan worthless rituals to dead gods to gain their favor. That He is telling them to continue worshiping and serving the God who lives, the God who speaks, the God who hears, the God who delivers. That He and He alone is sufficient for all their needs. And then in verse 27 and 30, we're gonna come back and kind of parse out some of this stuff and understand the application to your life in a minute, but we wanna look at the whole picture and then come back and understand the specific points. In verse 27 to 30, we see a progression of the work of God in the land to remove the inhabitants and prepare the way for his people. Now he begins this by literally telling his people in verse 27 that he will make their enemies turn tail and run. That's the literal translation given to us from a Jewish version of this text and their understanding. And so through the next few verses, he is going to elaborate on this effort, this move. So if we begin in verse 21, or 27, excuse me, we're not gonna back all the way up to 21. If we begin in verse 27, and we look at the original language, the original text here, the way the sentence is structured is different than what you see in the English language. verse 27, it says, I will send my terror ahead of you. In the Hebrew language, the word that we found at the beginning of the sentence, and it's there to highlight or to point out or to make sure that it is seen. We want to understand that there is an emphasis on this terror. Later on in the book of Job, in Job 41, 14, the same word is used in the description of the teeth of a crocodile. Who can open the doors of its face, talking about the crocodile, around its teeth there is dreadful terror. A little earlier in 39 verse 20, it says, do you make him leap like the locust? His splendid snorting is terrible. Talking about the snorting of a war horse. Each one of these images and the word here in Exodus is to give us this understanding of how great and mighty and fearsome this terror truly is. Now, what I find interesting about these pictures that God gives his people is, if you'll remember, it hasn't been very long ago, in fact, right here back in verse, in chapter 20. Immediately after the giving of the Ten Commandments, Moses records these words in verse 18. And all the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, and the people perceived it, and they shook and stood at a distance. Now I like the word trembled rather than shook. I just think it conveys a little better the fear that people felt, the fear that they said to Moses in verse 19, and we will listen, but do not let God to speak to us lest we die. This is the terror that they are feeling. And so now as God describes what he is going to do in the land as he precedes them, he is going to strike the same fear, the same terror and even greater terror into the people so much so that they will turn tail. And then in verse 28, he continues this imagery with this word hornets. Now, the interesting thing about this particular word is it's actually an obscure word, and there is some discussion and debate about the actual translation of this word. And the word can also be translated. It can be translated not just hornet, but terror, fear, Dejection. Discouragement. And Shane's nodding his head. And thinking, you talk alright. There are also experts who believe that this word in the Hebrew language is related to the Hebrew word for leprosy. Now, if you read the book of Leviticus, And you read the laws around swords on people in the book of Leviticus, you get a really good picture of just how terrifying the disease of leprosy was for the people in biblical times. And so you begin to draw and understand this picture that exists, and the thrust is, in both of these verses, of the languages, is that the terror is going to be so great that the inhabitants are going to hate it. They're not going to want to stick around. They want to get out of Dodge. And then in verses 29 and 30, he finishes his thoughts regarding the emptying of the land. He gives us two things here about the emptying of the land. First of all, he tells them that he will not do it in a single year. He will not do it in a single year. And the purpose of that is that the people of God here were not nearly as numerous as they would need to be to truly care for the land. And so to protect the land, care for the land that they had been given, he would need to do it over the course of time. And so the next verse in verse 30 says, actually, literally, little by little by little. And so it's elevated to the third level, that little by little, saying how slowly this is going to happen, that it will be a gradual, and so the progression will be gradual. And secondly, that the emptying of the land would be to the highest degree. In other words, it would be absolutely, totally, completely empty. Now, as people of God, today, to be reminded of something else. Again, these are specific commands to a specific people at a specific point for a specific purpose. But the principles that lie behind these should literally almost jump off of this page for believers as we think about the work of the Spirit within our lives. the way that the Spirit seeks out and destroys sin in our lives. Again, we are to have an actual part in that. But it can only be accomplished through the power of the Spirit. In other words, I can't white-knuckle and just make it happen. We go through a process of sanctification. Paul writing to the church at Philippi regarding salvation and sanctification says, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence only, but also much more in my absence, work out your own salvation. Now, that passage has caused people trouble for thousands of years, but if you study the word of God, if you read the word of God, it becomes very clear that this is part of the human responsibility of putting to death sin in your life. You have a role to play. Now you can't do it on your own, you can't do it through your own power, you can't do it through your own strength. How do I know? You do it with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work with you, in you, both to will and to work His good pleasure. He changes that desire within you, making you hate the sin in your life, making you want to be away from the sin in your life. Peter in 1 Peter 1, 13-16 says this, Therefore, having girded your minds for action, be sure to place your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As a weak children, not being conformed to the former lust, which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. In John chapter 15, one of the, Our Lord speaking to his disciples nearing his final moments says the following in the first 11 verses of John 15. I am the true vine and my father is the vine grower. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he cleans it so that it may bear more fruit. Now, I wanna speak on that verse for just a minute because I have seen this verse used to say, oh, well, you can lose your salvation. That's not what he's saying. Again, this is another instance of someone who is not truly a believer being removed from the midst of the believers because all believers will bear fruit. It's not a you might bear, you will bear. That's the result of being a believer. It says, you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. There is no fruit in the life of a believer apart from the work of Christ in the life of a believer. I am the vine, and you are the branch, and you abide in me, and I in him. He bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do all things. Nothing. Right? It doesn't say you can do all things apart from me. It says you can do nothing apart from me. And I love these people that want to argue, oh, well, that, that, no, nothing means nothing. Period. End of sentence. There's nothing that you can do apart from him. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up. And look at the branches. What happens to them? They gather them up. They throw them into the fire. And they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My spirit is glorified by this, that you are approved and approved to be disciples. My father has loved me, I also have loved you. But if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you so that my boy may be complete. Israelites, apart from the working of God in our lives, into the land of promise. Unfortunately, over the last 150-ish years, there has been a gradual increase in the church of teachings that ignore the progressive work of the spirit and life of a believer. From hath-truths meant to subtly undermine the teaching of scripture to outright contradiction of the word, this danger is very real and very much within the church today. Stemming from concepts such as easy-believe-ism, to prosperity teaching, to the idea that we have the power to stand in direct opposition to the will of God, the church is under the attack from the enemy. And the greatest threat is not from the outside world. It is from within the church of God. I was a kid who loved Greek mythology. And in studying Greek mythology, I am recalled to mind the Hydra, where when you remove one head, two more spring up in its place. And it seems that every time People stand up and they strike down one of these heads of the enemy, two more pop up, but that doesn't mean that the work is over. We continue the battle, we continue the fight, we continue moving. No wonder from the outcry of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelations, from the beginning to the end, the command is to keep watch of ourselves. In verse, like verse 21, the same truth applies directly today. We are to keep watch, we are to stand fast, we are to be firm on the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit protected by the armor of God. Jude 3 says, contending earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. Listen, we cannot just sit back. The call is to stand on the word of God and to call people out. Listen, to be crystal clear, crystal clear, so that there is no doubt, no mistakes, no misunderstandings. The people of God, the elect, the believers, have a responsibility and obligation that stems from the saving work of Christ in our lives and the influx of the power that comes from the indwelling of the Spirit to boldly proclaim the truth of God's Word. Look at the promises right here and in front of you. First of all, God will guide you, protect you, and deliver you into the land of promise. That's no different than the promise that he gives us. He will guide us. He will deliver us. He will protect us. Now that protection may not look like what you think. It may not be that you have a life of ease and a life of luxury. It may mean that you go through hell to get there. But what you understand is that there is a protection and a guidance and a delivering that will happen. Secondly, He will utterly annihilate your enemies. Not a little bit. Not partially. He will move them out of your way. He will literally destroy them. Jesus tells the disciples, right after Peter has his revelation from God of who Christ is, And Christ makes the statement that he will build his rock, he'll build his church on this rock, not Peter himself. You need to read the text and understand the text. It's not Peter. Peter's not the rock of the church. Christ is the rock of the church. He's the foundation. The church is built on him. And by His power, by His strength, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the gates of hell cannot prevail. Now, what most Christians to do today think that, oh, that means as the gates of hell come at us, we shouldn't be, we're gonna win. That's not what the words actually say. This is actually an offensive, in the sense of playing ball, an offensive movement. In other words, we are to aggressively take the word to the gates of hell, knowing that it will not and cannot stand against. Third, the promise here, he will thoroughly prepare you for the land that you are about to enter. Listen. We have a beautiful and full promise found, Romans chapter eight, verses 29 through 30. We talked about this the other night. Because of those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. The work is done. The promise has been delivered for those who believe. And then in the final verse here, we see a reminder of the ultimate promise, deliverance into that land. of promise. As we've been working through the book of Exodus, we have been talking about the fact that God was not just delivering his people out of the bondage of Egypt, delivering his people out of the bondage of Egypt, but he was also delivering and preparing to deliver them to a promised land. Much like us, he has brought us out of the bondage of our sin, and he is preparing and delivering us to the promised land where we will ultimately be glorified. Now, the rough description we have in verse 31 will actually not be fulfilled and to be specified until the time of King David. And the reason is, it's because of the disobedience of the people. As we read these verses, it is imperative that we recognize that the people of Israel failed to live up to their end. And in doing so, they never received the promises that we find here. But the people of God, the people of God, we rest in the promise keeper. The reason that the covenant of grace is so beautiful is because it entirely rests on We have one final warning to the people of God, both the Israelites and to us today. In 33, the covenant with the inhabitants and with the express purpose and the express reason that the land with their gods so that they would not sin. Note the last line, for if you serve their gods, It will surely be a snare to you. Compromise is a dangerous proposition. Because in order to compromise, you have to give up something. In fact, if you look up the word compromise as a verb in the dictionary, it is used in this sense, to make a concession. The Christian compromises with the world. The world does not look more like the Christian. The Christian looks more like the world. That's what it means to compromise as a believer. So as we close, through the promises of Scripture that God's promise is ever present. Even in the most difficult, we are reminded, taking back to the words of Calvary's hymn at the beginning, God moves in a mysterious way. That no matter what the trial, no matter what the situation, no matter what we are up against, God is moving and working and His hand will be for our ultimate good and His glory. Same truth was powerfully echoed in John 6, when we are assured that Christ not only draws people to himself, but that he will lose none of those that the Father has given him. Certainty of our salvation, the certainty of our ultimate deliverance, the certainty of our place in the promised land lies not in our own strength, but in the faithfulness of God, who is true promise. So as we continue to reflect on this journey of the Israelites in Exodus, we see how God's promises are fulfilled through his sovereign grace. And just as Israel was commanded to trust and obey God without compromise, we too must stand firm on his promises, resting in the assurance that God is our ultimate refuge, that he alone guides us, that he alone protects us, and that he alone will bring us fully into his presence. Let us trust his sovereign will, knowing that he who promised is faithful and will accomplish all that he has declared. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is truly a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We thank you that your promise is secure, not because of anything in us, but because of you, the true promise keeper. the one who holds all things together by the might of his word. Father, we pray that your word would dwell richly within us. And we ask all of these things in your precious name. Amen.