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Good evening, everybody. Good
to be here with you. I hope you're energized and get
ready to worship the Lord by receiving the Word. I know that
you would like to really meditate and some of you like nod, yes,
amen, while you're hearing the Word of God. And that's how I
would like to think of it. But if you get super tired and
you need to take a nap, it's okay. I won't be offended by
that. I'm excited to share God's Word with you tonight. But before
we do, as we normally do, we have a lot of things to bring
up before the Lord corporately in intercessory prayer. So would
you join me in a moment of prayer as we bow our heads together?
Father in heaven, we give you thanks and praise for gathering
us together, keeping us safe and secure in your sovereign
love and provision. We know that the world is chaotic
and things are spiraling out of control into prophetic proportions
and yet you are sovereign. You reign over all the affairs
of the earth. We are like grasshoppers before
you. We thank you that you are a mighty God and we serve an
everlasting God who is our Abba Father. We come before you to
the throne of grace through our Lord Jesus Christ and His finished
work on the cross. We recognize His high priestly
intercessory role As we come before you with prayers and petitions
of our hearts to you, we ask that you would strengthen our
brethren, that you would keep them from the attacks of the
enemy, that you would encourage the saints and help them to look
upward and help them to have an eternal perspective in all
that they do. Help them not to get sidetracked and distracted
by the temporal things of this world. Help them to rejoice in
their salvation. Help them to daily count their
blessings and not look to the world and somehow fall prey to
the deception of the enemy and to be envious or covetous or
take their eyes off the cross. Lord, I pray that you would cause
all of us to commit to prayer of the things that really matter
for time and for eternity, your kingdom and your righteousness
that we would commit to seek first before anything else. And
so as we see your glory, that is, displayed here in the church,
we ask that you would also use us to display your glory among
the nations. We thank you for the gospel ministry
you've given to us to share not only on the campus and in the
workplace, in this community, but also to the outermost parts
of the world. We thank you for the opportunity
for us to share the good news of the gospel. We thank you for
the opportunity for this congregation to plant churches and We continue
to ask that you would open opportunities for us to do greater things for
your great honor and glory. As we submit our brothers and
sisters to you who labor diligently and joyfully both here and abroad,
we give you thanks and praise for the kingdom that you are
building even in the midst of us. We are expectant of what
you will do in the fall semester as you will impart the gospel
and the training and equipping of men and women for gospel proclamation
through our brother, J.M., we ask that you would keep him safe
and secure, vigilant in prayer, humble in disposition, and joyful
in his attitudes as he continues to yield his life to be molded
by you. We thank you for our brothers,
Ben and Dennis, who are coming back and rejoining our fellowship
on the 20th of this month. We expectantly await their return,
we ask that you would give them a good and safe transition. And we thank you for our brother
Matt and his ministry at EBCT. And we continue to look to you
for a brother who would co-labor besides him. We ask for your
sovereign provision and protection for EBCT, that you will hold
that church together in biblical unity and love. We ask for your
spirit of humility and spirit of cooperation and unity in the
heart of our brother Leo and brother Jeff and sister Estella
and others who are visible and who are the older members of
the church and you would minister to them in their spirit they
would yield themselves in humble service to you and co-laboring
along with Matt and with Sani. Lord, we give you thanks and
praise for our tent makers. We thank you for your faithful
work and our brother Scott. And we thank you for our sister
Hazel. We ask that you would keep them
and guard their hearts, help them to to always be focused
on the eternal things of God, since they have tasted that you
are good and help them to apply themselves on to our service
in your kingdom. We thank you for our sister Jen
Lau, who has served so faithfully in Taiwan and is now taking a
short excursion here. We ask that you would just richly
bless her and enrich her life with the joy of your salvation,
of knowing that none of our labors is in vain, but all is accounted
before you. Would you richly bless her, pour
out your blessing. shake and stir, press down overflowing
that even she cannot contain it and she would have to overflow
in the lives of others for your glory. We continue to lift up
our sister Gina and Clara to you and ask that you would continue
to strengthen them and help them to have a solid year of service
and lift up their spirits that they would see themselves as
ministers of your love and as short-term missionaries there
edifying and encouraging the saints through their labors and
their service. Father, we give you thanks so
much for your work in Taiwan. We know that you will do mighty
things. And as we look to you for a mission center in the future,
we believe and trust that you would continue to raise up men
and women for the work of the ministry, that you would provide
a place for worship and for housing our short-term missionaries.
And we just ask that you would, in due time, in the right way,
that you would provide. We continue to ask that you would
open doors in Korea, that we would continue to send teams
toward a church plant. We know that a nation has a lot
of cultural churchianity, but very few biblical Christian churches
and where so many people are running to and fro without a
shepherd. Lord, we know your heart and
you desire for them to be in a community of love and biblical
church where they can grow and serve and reach the lost. And
we ask that you would allow our church to be part of that. And
we continue to look to you in prayer. We ask that you would
give us the nations and so many of the people, the billions who
are in Asia. Lord, we ask that you would grant
us the opportunity to plant churches that honor and glorify You, that
win souls, that bring the saving knowledge of Christ. We give
You thanks, Lord, for our church here, our 150 or so members who
faithfully love You and serve and give and grow, who desire
to be used by You, who desire to even raise their children
here in the fear and admonition of the Lord. While You are building
Your church, Lord, would You build their lives that we would
continue to maintain unity in the bond of peace, and that we
would also use our corporate unity to continue to thrust into
the world where the gospel is not reached. Would you strengthen
our mission's zeal as you strengthen our unity, that our members would
not be scattered, but that we would be united and continue
to build upon what you are doing here. We pray for the campus.
We pray for this fall, as you would bring many new students,
freshmen, incoming transferring juniors, and others grad students
and many others that you would allow us to share the good news
of the gospel. You would allow us to equip the saints. You would
allow us to continue to reach out to that mission field that
the campus is. And we ask for your rich blessings
upon ECF and all the instructors as they prepare for another exciting
semester of ministry. Lord, we pray for pregnant moms.
We give you thanks and praise for our families and the family
ministry here that is burgeoning, that is growing. We thank you
for our sister Tammy and her pregnancy. We thank you for our
sister Kathy and her pregnancy. We continue to look to you and
ask that you would richly bless these moms, keep them healthy,
and that the baby and the mother would be safe and sound, and
that you would continue to knit these beautiful human beings
in the womb that you would bring forth so that they would be able
to hold and love and disciple. deliver them and render them
unto you as living sacrifices for your glory in the next generation
as we wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to return. Father, we
come before you with excitement in our hearts for the Word of
God. We know that we're privileged
people, but we know that many generations have desired to know
your Word, and they have not. Many people have hungered for
the things above, and yet they went as paupers. And yet, Lord,
we are filled, filled to the brim, and you deliver to us rich,
deep things of God so we may understand the God that we serve
and that you may richly bless those who hear and who submit
to your word. Would you bless this church?
Would you bless this congregation? Would you bless the saints in
their hearing as they put them into practice and they become
vessels of blessing in your honor and for your glory? We commit
ourselves to you and ask your spirit to be the teacher tonight.
Would you hide your servant behind the cross? Would you cause all
of us to rejoice in your salvation as we revel in your grace? It's
in Jesus' precious name we ask and pray all these things. Amen. Amen. Would you have your Bibles
open to Exodus chapter 23 and would you stand with me as we
read portions of God's word together? It is a long chapter, there's
33 verses. I would like to just highlight
a few passages for the sake of time and then we'll read the
rest as we exposit through this chapter together. Our goal is
to get through the whole chapter. And as you've already seen in
the previous sections of scripture beginning with the Ten Commandments,
God is displaying His character through His law. And in this
section of Scripture, from verses 1 to 19, we find God is displaying
something about the compassion in His heart, that even His justice
is encompassed with His compassion, His love. And verses 20 to 33,
we find that He makes a divine a powerful conditional statement
that if you obey my word and my commands, I will bless you.
If you disobey, I will curse you. And I want you to know that
that conditional component of the Mosaic Covenant was for Israel. Here's where many, many Christians
make a mistake. They think that they are Israel.
We will never be Israel. We have never been Israel. We
are never going to be Israel. So let's put that aside. And as New Testament Christians,
we have something to learn from the Old Testament saints who
received and accepted the Word of God. Why? Because the moral
commands of God are eternally binding. And it is the same because
God's character doesn't change. And so we need to separate the
ceremonial from the moral. And I want us to clearly see
that as we go through this section of Scripture together. For the
sake of time, let's read a few passages together. Would you
focus your attention on chapter 23? Let me read the first three
verses. This is the reading of God's
Word. You shall not bear a false report. Do not join your hands
with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow
the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute
so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice.
Look at verse 9. You shall not oppress a stranger,
since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger. For you
also were strangers in the land of Egypt. Look at verse 12, 6
days you are to do your work but on the seventh day you shall
cease from your labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest
and your sons of your female slave as well as your stranger
may refresh themselves. Now look at 14, 3 times a year
you shall celebrate a feast to me. Look at verse 18 and 19. You shall not offer the blood
of my sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the fat of my feast
to remain overnight until morning. You shall bring the choice first
fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God. You
are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. Look
at verse 20. Behold, I am going to send an
angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you
into a place which I have prepared. Look at verse 29. I will not
drive them out before you in a single year, that the land
may not become desolate, and the beasts of the field become
too numerous for you. I will drive them out before
you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession
of the land. Look at verse 33. They shall
not live in your land, because they will make you sin against
Me. For if you serve their gods,
it will surely be a snare to you. Amen. Please be seated.
Every passage that we read thus far displays God's compassion
and His justice. And these two themes are interwoven
through all these passages. And so in this section of Scripture,
we're going to look at three major components. The compassion
that God has, His holy compassion that He wants us to implement
in our daily lives. And then secondly, holy consecration. God wants us to be separate from
evil unto righteousness. A holy consecration in our daily
lives. And then finally, divine compensation. For being faithful and obedient,
God is going to divinely compensate with blessing. For being unfaithful
and disobedient, God will bring chastisement. And so there's divine compensation
at the end of this section of scripture. Your Bible and the
NASV should have a heading of chapter 23, sundry laws. That
means that there are laws that are not interconnected. There
are various and diverse laws. And I'm going to try to weave
these three themes into this section of Scripture so that
the themes will help you guide and see God's character. And
that's what God's commandments portray. God's commandments show
us God's holy character. We can never meet and fulfill
all of His commandments because we're sinful. But thankfully
our Lord Jesus Christ did fulfill. He died for us on the cross.
We're covered by His grace. Therefore, we enter into heaven
by faith, based on the finished work of Jesus, not by obeying
every one of these laws, because we can't. If we can obey God's laws perfectly,
why do we study them? Because our hearts that is regenerated
still want to obey. Even though we can't obey perfectly,
we rejoice in God's laws and we want to obey them. And there
is a wonderful tension here, that the desire of our heart
is to obey, but in reality we find ourselves falling massively
short of the glory of God. And that's where we experience
the great grace of God, the rich compassion of God, that His righteousness
still shines pure. We still long for it, and yet
it seems unattainable. And God uses that to further
fuel the desire in us for more righteousness, for perfect righteousness,
and for perfection. This is the path of sanctification
that the Old Testament saints went through when they cried
out, Lord, how I love thy law. And he wanted to be dwelling
in the house of the Lord forever, just like David said. That's
where we're going to be perfected. So really, these things portray
the heart of God, and then we desire to be where God is. We
desire heaven. We desire the eternal destination. And so that's what the law of
God is designed to do, is to help us to know God's perfect
law, tutor us to show our imperfections and our sinfulness, to get us
to Christ and to see that He has fulfilled the law and He
promised to take us there, right? So every day we live in the joy
of His salvation, and in the meanwhile, we rejoice with God's
laws. We say, thy law is perfect and
sure. So much of the laws that related
to Israel as individual commands for them to check themselves
and their hearts also became a family dynamic because the
entire family is held accountable before God. But more than that,
for Israel, it was a civil law that was supposed to be enacted
because they were under a theocracy. God was the king, they were the
subjects, they were under the law of God. So the entire nation
was to function this way. Contrary to what many Muslims
in Islamic countries go through, that they're forced to pray five
times a day, they're forced to fast in the month of Ramadan,
they're forced to wear the burqas, they're forced to behave in a
certain way, and inside their hearts are unchanged. But the Christian is very different,
right? God gives us the Law, but He transformed the heart,
and we desire to worship Him. We desire to obey His Law. Our
hearts are anxious until we find our perfect place in God. We
feel unright and uneasy when we don't meditate on the things
of God. We cannot rest in peace when we have bitterness and anger
and unconfessed sins in our hearts. It's because God has given us
a new heart and the Holy Spirit is teaching us to be like His
people. So as Christians, we are to learn
several things from God's law. First, God's unchanging character
demands that we apply the very principles into our lives. The
eternal principles are always binding on everyone at all times
and all cultures. Changing times and conditions
do not excuse us from neglecting God's eternal character exemplified
in His laws. So God's moral laws are binding
on every believer, both the Jew and the Christian. The Jewish
saints recognize God's perfect moral character and so must the
Christian in every generation. To avoid confusion of the Old
Testament Jew and the New Testament Christian while clarifying God's
perfect moral will for both the Old Testament Jew and the New
Testament Christian is the art that we must develop as we study
God's law. Not neglecting God's millennial
program for restore Israel where God's law will be perfectly enacted
and perfectly practiced albeit with help from the Lord Jesus
Christ as their King by faith of a redeemed people. So God's
law will be enacted, will become again part of the theocratic
kingdom in the millennial kingdom when Christ will reign and rule
and the redeemed Israel will rejoice once again in these laws
and it will keep them. Many people make huge mistakes
in this area. Case in point, the Seventh-day
Adventists. Even though they're Gentiles,
They're led to believe that they're the Jews. They're the New Covenant
Jews. So they need to keep a kosher
diet. They worship on a Saturday, not on the Sunday. They have
all these legalistic things and many of them have erred because
they set a date for the Lord's coming. Now if you get some parts
of the doctrine of your Christian life wrong, chances are other
parts are going to suffer too. And many of the Seventh-day Adventists
are full-blown cults while others still remain Orthodox. To a lesser degree, the Reformed
Covenantal Brethren, they confuse the Old Testament law and they
only extract the blessings, the positive things, and they apply
it to the Church. Well, if you look at it very clearly, there
are clear consequences of rejecting and disobeying God's law. You
can't just take the positive and neglect the negative. That's
poor exegesis. So, it's important for us to
get this Jew and Gentile, Church and Israel dichotomy right, because
it's very clearly laid out in Scripture. And so, what applies? Eternal principles and God's
moral character and moral law. The ceremonial and the civil
and the cultural do not apply to the New Testament Church.
Jesus fulfilled all that, and only in the New Covenant era
in the Millennial Kingdom, in the future 1,000-year reign of
Jesus Christ on earth, over His subjects in the theocratic kingdom,
where Jesus is the King of kings, Lord of lords, and the redeemed
Jews that pass through the tribulation period, that are refined, are
going to keep these laws. Both the ceremonial minus certain
components that are already exactly fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the civil and the cultural, the Jewish
aspects. So we'll see that. But right
now, let's study God's law as we understand His character.
The first component is the compassionate component of God's justice. God's
justice is not cold, blind, uncaring justice. It's a compassionate
justice. Look at verse 1 and verse 7,
what God thinks about a malicious witness. It's basically a reiteration
of the ninth commandment, do not bear false witness against
your neighbor. You will see a consistent pattern
that this is a second-person singular noun and is a second-person
singular verbs. Therefore, it is supposed to
be heard and applied by the individual person. It is not a general principle. And he gave these commands as
a motive to check the people's hearts to see if there's any
malice there. A malicious witness is literally
a witness of violence. It's interesting that the Hebrew
is witness of Hamas. It's kind of interesting. I don't
know if Hamas is an Arabic term but that word in the Hebrew means
violence and so that's the name of a terrorist group you know
very well in Palestine. Either driven by personal profit
or for revenge or even out of fear, out of fear of retribution
or negative consequences. A malicious witness can be fatal
to the defendant and a corrupt judicial system will allow malicious
witness. So it is expressly forbidden
and God holds the court system, the individuals, and all the
nation accountable against malicious testament. Look at verse 1 and
verse 7. You shall not bear false report.
Do not join your hands with the wicked man to be a malicious
witness. You've seen God's character.
What's the application therefore? God hates malice. He sees all,
and He will bring all to account. Therefore, we must never practice
malice, nor should we vouchsafe for someone else's malice, and
we can certainly, therefore, not be an accomplice in someone's
malicious motives. And that is eternally binding.
Look at verse 7. Keep far from false charge, and
do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit
the guilty." Do not take God's graciousness and His compassion
for granted. There are some boundaries that
one must never cross because there is no remedy. Someone who presumptuously assumes
that God will forgive him for any kind of sin and based on
that presumption sins maliciously with full awareness of God's
omniscience and His omnipresence is himself testing God and is
in thin ice. He is before the Almighty Judge
and if such a man does not have fear, he is either a fool or
he is a wicked, satanic man. God speaks clearly, I will not
acquit the guilty. Then God warns those who may
fall under public pressure. This may include all leadership
including both public and political leadership, as well as in the
home and in the business sphere. Verse 2, You shall not follow
the masses in doing evil. The majority do not make right.
Nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude
in order to pervert justice. Public pressure is often what
corrupts leaders. No God-fearing Israelite is to
follow the public sentiment in doing evil. This requires individual
conviction and discernment. Regardless of public sentiments,
God says the godly must not buckle under pressure to do evil. No
excuse for pressure. Verse 3 and 6, God says no partiality. Verse 3, Nor shall you be partial
to a poor man in his dispute. Verse 6, You shall not pervert
the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. It's
easy to become partial for various reasons. In verse 3, it is economical
reasons. And you know the old adage, we've
been all brainwashed and bombarded by our socialist training in
the university. The rich are always crooked.
Therefore, they must pay. Isn't that the typical class
warfare? The poor are always oppressed,
so they need to be rewarded. That's the typical socialist
dogma, isn't it? We tend to be biased when we
fit in the class that is being mentioned. But we must not be. Why? What is at stake? Nothing
less than the very character of God exemplify in the individual,
in his family, in the society, in a nation. As people become partial and
biased, there goes the nation. Leviticus 19, verse 15 and 16,
the Word of God says, You shall do no injustice in judgment.
You shall not be partial to the poor, nor defer to the great.
But you are to judge your neighbor fairly. You shall not go about
as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against
the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord." Verse 6, it is not economical
partiality or bias, it is familial. It's easy to be biased when someone
is close to you. My friends can do no wrong, while
my enemies can do no right. It's the typical bias. God says
no such thing can be a part of His people. And that is the character
of God because His justice is fair and impartial. He is no
respecter of persons. He cares not for a person's position. He only cares about the condition
of their heart which He is going to judge ultimately. And so His
people must reflect that character in all areas of witness. Verse 4 and 5, God says you must
be responsible. If you meet your enemy's ox or
his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. And a biased person may say,
well that's my enemy's, now it's mine. Or that's my enemy's, I'm
not going to do anything to it, I'll let that property perish,
burn, die. suits him right, my enemy. Verse
5, if you see the donkey of one who hates you, by the way, donkey,
ox, you can imagine this to be like a pickup truck or your sedan. Very important commodity back
in those days. It's equivalent to that kind of possession today.
If you see the donkey of one who hates you, lying helpless
under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him. You shall
surely release it with him. You know, it's such a bogus thing
for the Jewish leaders to teach their people, you can love your
neighbor but hate your enemy. No such thing is found in the
Old Testament. They did that because they were under the pressure
under Rome. And it's easy to pick on your enemy. That comes
naturally. But our Lord Jesus said in Matthew
5.44, But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you. The character of the Lord does
not change. God always desired that His holy people live in
a completely different manner and with higher standards, standards
that reflect His perfect and holy character. Willful and deliberate
negligence is abhorrent to God. God demands that His people live
in a holy way, even caring for His enemies' welfare. Now it's
easier to say that than to actually practice it, right? How many
of you have disputes among your roommates? They're your roommates,
they're not even your enemies. And you have disputes. Married people have disputes.
Family members have disputes. And it's hard to practice this.
Even caring for your enemy's welfare? Yeah. This flows from
the heart of God. Because why? While we were yet
enemies, God sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to die for
us. He cared for His enemy's welfare. That's why He can demand
this, because it flows from His character. But you know, by the
power of the Holy Spirit, we can do this. And that's what's
exciting about Christian life, is that what is impossible for
us in the flesh, what was impossible for our ancestors, it is possible
for us who are in Christ Jesus. And when this comes, it is nothing
but supernatural. Where in the world did John Shim
get this heart of compassion to forgive and to love and care
for his enemy? It is certainly not from within.
It is alien. It is foreign. Righteousness.
Where did that come from? It came from the Lord. When it
does happen, it is marvelous. And when that witness is exemplified
in lifestyle, it is super marvelous because that witnesses, that
testifies to the Lord whom we worship. And this honors the
Lord when we are responsible people even toward those we do
not even like. This is the will of God for us. Skipping over to verse 8, bribery. You shall not take a bribe. Oh, it's easy to take a bribe,
isn't it? As a matter of fact, I was told, I never experienced
this, but I was told that in South Korea, people violate traffic
laws so regularly and the police, especially the traffic cops,
are so frequently receiving of bribes that in many parts of
the city, in many districts, that the motorcycle, typical
motorcycle cop is replaced after three months. because if he's
not replaced from that same position, he will learn to manipulate his
position to be in a place where he can ticket most amount of
people and every motorist knows that you slide a $10 or $20 bill
right underneath your license as you give it to the officer
and he takes the money and he returns the license and says,
be careful next time, sir. and he drives off. That's how
he makes his fortune. And I was told this while I was
traveling in Korea. It's easy to take a bribe. I
think we would be very naive to think that the judges of our
nation don't take bribes. It would be so foolish to think
that the politicians of our nation do not take bribes. Why else,
why else would they leave their multi-million dollar business
to run for an office that only pays him $80,000 or $120,000
or the president's salary, $220,000 a year. Why else? Because there's
a lot more money to be made elsewhere and a lot more power. And it
corrupts the nation. It corrupts people. Look what
the Word of God says in verse 8. For a bride blinds the clear-sighted
and subverts the cause of the just. This bribe comes in subtle forms
and it comes in overt forms. It can be as just as simple as,
let me buy you lunch. And then slide in unrighteousness
and try to convince that person to be complicit in injustice
and unrighteousness. It could be as simple as, here,
I got a nice gift for you. Take this. And all the while requesting. that the person looked the other
way. The godly prophet Samuel had two sons who did not follow
the path of their father. Prophet Samuel was one of the
godliest leaders in Israel's history. Yet God's word says
very clearly, unequivocally and unbiasedly, 1 Samuel 8, verse
3, His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned
aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice. God says it like it is, right?
Just because the Father is just and upright and godly does not
mean necessarily that His sons will be. And God says it just
like it is. And it can impact even family
relationships. Sin can. Unrighteousness can. God forbid that we train our
children to be unrighteous and neglect compassion, pervert justice,
God forbid. Who are you today? Are you biased
men and women? Are you people prone to flattery?
Are you easily swayed by public opinion? Do you turn a blind
eye to justice? When some Calamity evil happens
to someone as your heart aches with compassionate concern. We cannot neglect compassionate
justice. It's in the very core of the
heart of God. Look at verse 9. We must not
take advantage of those who are vulnerable. Verse 9 says, You
shall not oppress the stranger, since you yourselves know the
feelings of a stranger. For you also were strangers in
the land of Egypt. You know. You were once an unbeliever,
weren't you? And even if you say that you
were raised in a Christian family, when you start living for the
passion and glory of the Lord, you know. You know what it means
to feel alienated, to be rejected by those people who think that
you're just too much. Right? Are you too saintly? You
don't have to push your religion that much, and you're automatically
alienated. You feel like a stranger. You
go back to some sort of reunion, and everybody is doing their
own thing, and you feel like a stranger, and they isolate
you because of who you are. And if you all sense that kind
of alienation as being strangers, the Israelites, no doubt, they
knew clearly. They were captives, enslaved,
and racially prejudiced over because of their Jewish condition
in Egypt. So loving a helpless alien in
their midst is what God wants for His people. Why? Because
there is a common bond between the stranger and me. And that common bond is that
both of us experience a deep fellow feeling of alienation
and we have both experienced, or we long to experience, the
saving grace, if we haven't already. Because I have experienced saving
grace, I need to extend that kind of compassionate grace toward
those who are in places of disenfranchisement. Godly people must sympathize
and help, not take advantage of and exploit people. Put yourself
in other person's shoes. That's a good paraphrase of verse
9. And this comes from the heart
of God. This is God's compassion. God's compassion is not devoid
of truth. God's compassion is not devoid of purity. It includes
that because it is necessary to His compassion. So we've seen
God's call to holy compassion because He is righteous, just,
and compassionate. We must also be that way. Now
let's look at verse 10 to 19. God calls us to daily consecration,
a holy consecration in daily life. Let's take a look at verses
10 and 11, God's ecological system. That's what I call it, ecological
system. Verse 10, you shall sow your land for six years and gather
in its yield. But on the seventh year you shall
let it rest and live follow, so that the needy of your people
may eat, and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat.
You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove."
Now, the field, vineyard, olive grove were places of business. It's an agrarian economy. This
is where they made their livelihood. This is the place where they
made money. In other words, our equivalent would be the place
of business, your job, your business, your livelihood. What is the
Lord saying? He's saying that He's given Israel
an ecological system. If they obey Him, He would bless
the land. They would be richly blessed
if they just follow Him. This command, however, required
that every one of the Israelites to keep this command, live by
faith. Work for six years in the land and the seventh year
just leave it alone. Let all this precious crop just
grow and not harvest anything and give it to a bunch of strangers
who didn't do any days of work and come and the beasts of the
field. That's exactly what God demanded.
The poor had no means of making a living in that agrarian economy.
So the Lord graciously made a way for them to be helped. And He
also wanted to take care of the animals, the wild animals. And
it came in the form of the sabbatical year, where the poor will be
helped, and they can help themselves, and perhaps as a means of helping
themselves, they could get out of their poverty. God would also
take care of some of the animals and provide for the land to enrich
itself. We all know that consistently
farming the same land over and over and over again would require
tremendous amount of fertilization. The very precious topsoil in
our rich land is slowly disappearing because, of course, we have done
what God told Israelites not to do. For our profit, we have really
been poor stewards. Well, God says to Israelites,
God will take care of them. Our Lord Jesus said in Matthew
6.26, look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than
they? Also in Luke 12 verse 24, consider
the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, and they have no
storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them. How much more valuable
you are than the birds. Jesus uses common experience
in nature as illustrations to teach very important spiritual
lessons, and that is that God is the ultimate provider. You
need not worry. You don't have to worry or hoard
or take unspiritual methods because God will take care. This was
God's ecological system for His people. It was only possible
if the people directly obey God's Word and His laws. They had to
be filled with trust in their hearts to receive this great
provision. The 70 years of captivity in
Babylon was a direct result of Israelites disobeying this command
for 490 years. God's provision or man's choice
or methodology. And this was what God laid before
His people. It was a very unique way of ruling
his people. I think you would have to agree
with that. God chose a very unique way to test them to see if they
would truly submit to his laws. So this was a test. Verse 12
we see his benevolence reflected here. Six days you are to do
your work but on the seventh day you shall cease from your
labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of
your female slave as well as your stranger may refresh themselves."
And that key word there, refresh, you see, this is God's benevolence.
God says, leave the land alone because it will refresh itself. It will become more valuable
and more precious without all these fertilizers that we use
today that may be ultimately harmful for our consumption.
God had a very sound ecological system that He gave to His people
for the land to refresh itself. He also gave a day of rest within
a week so that they can refresh themselves. Notice who benefits.
The laborer, the owner-master, the animals, and the employees,
and the foreigner. Everybody benefits from a God-centered
work week. To finish work by the Sabbath
would mean that everyone needed to work around the Sabbath to
make sure that their work week ended before the Sabbath so they
can take a day off. So they have to work around the
worship schedule, not around their self-schedule. Again, this
was to get Israel to dwell on eternal things, that they can
trust in God. It's to live by faith, not by
sight. This is where most Christians fail too, because God tests us
too, you know. God tells us to seek first His
kingdom and His righteousness. Our Lord Jesus Christ told us
that. Then He will supply all that we need. And yet we don't
want to seek that first. We want to seek that second,
third, fourth, tenth, last, not first. God's benevolent system
would bless the obedient people, not just for temporal things
like jobs and money and house, but for eternal things, eternal
joy. God's system of ecology and economy
and the financial dealings flowed from His very character. You
see, God works and yet He also rested. So He will provide a
pattern for us that we would desire to enter into His eternal
rest. See, this sabbatical year and
sabbatical day idea all comes from the eternal rest of God.
God wants us not to toil and labor under the sun of this fallen
planet. He wants us to be prepared for
the new heaven and new earth, His kingdom. He told us to pray
that His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. He told us to seek first that kingdom, His rule over our
lives, over everything. And I tell you, Christians, this
is an area where many of us fail. But His desire is that we would
submit under His benevolent system. Verse 13. God's protective system. Look at verse 13, Now concerning
everything which I have said to you, be on your guard, and
do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from
your mouth. You see, the blessing of God
is directly tied with God, not apart from Him. You can't be
blessed apart from your worship and your allegiance to God. The
Lord knows that the greatest danger for us is in spiritual
danger. And that spiritual danger comes
in the form of Satan's deceptive system versus God's protective
system. Satan's deceptive system comes
through, primarily, false religion. False religion is anything that
says that this is more important than God. The surest way of receiving
God's judgment, rather than His protective blessing, is to fall
prey to false religious system, idolatry. And this is how Satan
deceived Israel to depart from their sovereign and supernatural
origins through marvelous miracles through the Exodus, God's protective
provision through the wilderness journeys, and the promised land
all prepared for them. They forsook all that and did
exactly the opposite of what God told them to do. So the best
way to revitalize and rejuvenate one's spiritual walk is through
consecrated worship. See, worship is the perpetual
rejuvenation system for our soul. And as our soul is well, it flows
with joy, so everything else will fall into its place. Verses 14-17, God's gracious
system. God's gracious system. Here you
will find in these verses three major feasts. They all flow around
the calendar system. The two are in the spring and
one is in the fall. The Feast of the Unleavened Bread
follows. It's a seven-day feast right
after Passover in our March-April season. And the Feast of the
First Fruits is what we would call Pentecost. It's 50 days
after Passover. And the Feast of Ingathering,
which is what we call a feast of tabernacles or booths that
happens in the September October of our month so it's the fall
season so with that let's read verse 14 three times a year you
shall celebrate a feast to me notice it is to God Israel is
to remember God in their economic system Again, agrarian economy,
verse 15, You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For
seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you at
the appointed time in the month of Aviv. For in it you came out
of Egypt, and none shall appear before Me empty-handed." So the
Feast of the Unleavened Bread was to celebrate God's historical
redemptive act in history and they are not to come to the Lord
empty-handed. They're supposed to bring a thanksgiving
sacrifice commemorating what He has done. Verse 16, Also you
shall observe the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of
your labors from what you sow in the field, also the feast
of the ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in
the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year
all your males shall appear before the Lord God. Why all your males?
Because they're supposed to be the head of the house. and they're
supposed to set the pace for everybody else. These feasts
were to teach Israel that there is a direct relationship between
Israel's worship and her economic prosperity. The first mandatory
feast, unleavened bread. Why unleavened? Signifying no
sin. Get rid of all the leaven, you
clean up your life and get ready for the rich blessings of God.
It's exactly what happened at Pentecost. Who came in the New
Testament era at Pentecost? The Holy Spirit of God. The blessing
whom Jesus our Lord promised. Who will be indwelling, who will
be our teacher, our comforter. He came to permanently indwell
every believer. What a blessing. The richest
blessing. A second mandatory feast is the coming of the Holy
Spirit here. Pentecost or the first fruits.
Third mandatory feast is the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles
to celebrate God's protection and provision during the wilderness
journeys. All three of these feasts highlight the fact that
God provided for His people. God provided for His people. This was completely different
from what the Canaanites did. They lived for themselves and
when they offer sacrifices and did things of religious rituals,
it was to enhance their lives. It wasn't a feast unto the Lord,
it was feast for themselves. It was usually a fertility rite,
a ritual that is followed by horrible acts of immorality. It was all for them. Me, myself,
and I. That's the reason why they worship. You see, Satan has a wonderful
way of deceiving the people who fall away from God. tells them
that they're the most important people, not God. God is not the
most significant, real, and important individual, but they are. The
Creator is more important than the Creator. He flips that around
and then he says, you need to watch out for number one, numero
uno, because who else will? And yet, the people of God says,
God is the most significant, He's the most real, the ultimate
reality, and He is the greatest, I live for Him. And then we say,
I don't live by sight, I live by faith, I know that God is
my provision, He's the provider, I live in faith. The secular
man is the complete opposite. So were the Canaanites. All the
religion was just a sham to celebrate themselves and to ask for more
blessing for themselves that had nothing to do with honoring.
and glorifying God. And after all, they did it before
demons, not before God. I skipped a few verses. Verse 18 says, You shall not
offer the blood of my sacrifice with unleavened bread, nor is
the fat of my feast to remain overnight until morning. The
corrupting influence of leaven must be gone, or the neglected
articles that are unfit for sacrifice used in worship. Again, it exemplifies His holy
character, not like the Canaanite worship. You can do whatever
you want. Verse 19, You shall bring the choice firstfruits
of your soil into the house of the Lord your God, and then there's
a separate commandment, I'm going to just pause here. Notice the
Lord demands the best of the best. It's ultimate test of our
fidelity. In an agrarian economy, you'd
save the best of the best for the next year. That's what you
use to harvest. That's what you use to do animal
multiplication. The strongest, the healthiest.
Those are the animals that you make. And that's what's going
to make you money for the next year. God's saying, hey, give
that to me. That's the ultimate test, isn't
it? The Lord doesn't need anything. Everything is His already. The
reason why He demands it from His people is to bless them,
strengthen their faith, and get their mind off of the temporal
things and help them look at the eternal things of God. Not
to just be enamored by the provision, but to love the Provider Himself.
That lesson had to be learned through economics. You see, God
always tested His people through economics. As the Lord Jesus
said in Matthew 6, verse 24, No one can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will
hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
You see, when God gives you money, that's a test. What are you going to do with that
money? Is it your money? Or is it God's money? Has it
ever been your money? Has it always been God's money?
That's a test. Sometimes it's a pop quiz, sometimes
a midterm, sometimes it's a final exam, but it's a test. And it
comes in the form of economics. So the call to Israel to participate
in acceptable sacrifice was God's extension of His wonderful grace
to invite Israel to the place where God's blessing was dispensed,
at the very place where the worshipper and his God meets. And in that
relationship of faith is where God dispenses His eternal blessings. That is perhaps the most pivotal
truth that we must never, ever forget. Let me tell you why. And here's a marvelous quote,
and I want you to hear it. Out of worship comes love, and
love is a genuine response from a free heart. Then it can never
be coerced. It is the supreme ethic, love
of God and love of your fellow man. I love that quote. Let me read
it again. Out of worship comes love, and love is the genuine
response from a free heart. Then it can never be coerced.
It is the supreme ethic. Love of God and love your fellow
man. When God demands that you give
up your best of your possessions, God is saying, do you love me
more? And we say, yes, Lord, I do. I give joyfully to you.
And we say, if you love me, then I want you to love your neighbor.
I want you to love even your enemy. How do you do that? Practically. Beloved, let us not love with
word or speech, but with indeeds and in truth. Let us love. And then the second part, you
are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. This
esoteric passage, first appearing here in Exodus 23, later on appears
in Leviticus and Numbers, I believe, this esoteric passage is what
the Jews take to justify their kosher diet. That's why still
today Orthodox Jews would not have a cheeseburger because it
has meat and a milk product in it. They will not mix the two.
They believe that this is what God's Word says. And they're
so meticulous to keep the letter of the law in that sense, well,
they neglect the weightier matters of the law. about justice, righteousness,
compassion and mercy, right? That's the kind of stuff that
God hates. It's ritualized worship and religion that is devoid of
a heartfelt, heart-led commitment to loving God and loving our
fellow man. Boiling a young goat in his mother's
milk was a pagan fertility ritual by the Canaanites. Canaanites
believed that the milk in the milk, in the mother's milk was
the seed of life. So they took a baby goat, basically
the goat's produce or procee, and took that produce, boiled
it in the mother's milk, so doubly exemplifying this soup here,
is brimming with life, it's boiling with life. This is the life source
that came from this mother and this milk is the life source
that comes from the mother. We just boil it together and
they took that extract and they took it and they sprinkled it
on their plants and on their trees and served it to their
gods as a fertility ritual so that they would have an abundant
harvest for the next year. It was dripping with demonic
and satanic, sadistic religious ritual that is dripping with
superstition. This is how Satan deceives people.
There's absolutely no bearing on it whatsoever. There's no
scientific data whatsoever, but this is what they believe. I
believe that the Lord said, don't do this for two reasons. Number
one, basically don't copy what the pagans do. No matter how
sincere they may be in their religion, don't do it. And secondly,
look at the act itself. You take a young goat and you
boil it in the mother's milk. And you keep doing that, there's
something going on spiritually where you're neglecting the very
source of life. You take the life, the product
of this mother, and the milk, and you boil it, you kill the young goat in its mother's
milk. You neglect life. You exalt death. There's a massive
confusion here. The Canaanites celebrated death. God's people
must celebrate life. That's why God says, don't do
it. Something happens when you do something like that. Your
heart becomes callous to life. Something happens when you look
at horrendous things and you just kind of, hmm. And it doesn't
bother you. It doesn't grip you. I believe
that that's the second reason why God says don't do it, to
protect the heart of His people from becoming calloused to such
pagan rituals that does not celebrate life but destroys life. So we've
seen God's call to holy compassion, holy consecration, that they
must be completely separate, do things differently, set apart,
and submit themselves under God's protection, His grace, His benevolent
And finally, holy compensation for daily living. This section of Scripture contains
comforting promise about God's blessings of the promised land
for Israel. At the same time, it contains
promises of curses for disobedient people. Let's look at verses 20-23, the
angel of the Lord. Angel of the Lord. You know,
in so many passages of the Old Testament, specifically Genesis
16.10, the Angel of the Lord said to her, I will greatly multiply
your descendants so that they shall be too many to count. Now
who's saying this? Angel of the Lord, Malach Adonai. I say Adonai out of respect,
just like the Jews, but it's Yahweh. Malach Yahweh. This is to Hagar and her son
Ishmael. So the Malach Adonai, Malach
means literally a messenger. Here it says Angel of Yahweh.
This angel, this messenger, takes on a first personal authority.
He says, I will multiply your descendants. That's interesting. He doesn't say the Lord will
bless you, he says I will. Genesis 22, 12, you know the
context. Again, Angel of Yahweh, Malach
Yahweh. from heaven says, do not stretch
out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him for now
I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son,
your only son, from me. It clearly says Malach Yahweh
and then it says, now I know you have not withheld your son
from me. Again, this angel of Yahweh, this angel of the Lord
in the English translation, takes on the first person position. And to Balaam, same thing. Malachiahweh,
Numbers 22, 32. Because your way was contrary
to me. And the angel rebukes, not contrary
to the Lord, contrary to me. Judges chapter 2. The context
is, of course, the book of Judges. And Malachiahweh shows up and
he just takes on a first person role again. It just appears like
that all the way through the Old Testament. You see, this
angel, I believe, is the pre-incarnate theophany of the second person
of the Holy Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, before his incarnation. And notice what he says. This
angel of Yahweh says, Behold, I am going to send an angel before
you, to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place
which I have prepared. He will be a guardian and He
will lead you. He's a leader. Verse 21, Be on
your guard before Him and obey His voice. Do not be rebellious
toward Him. Obey His voice. That means Malachi,
that means the angel of the Lord, this messenger, will speak, will
give commands. Obey His voice. And notice what
it says, Do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon
your transgression." Oh, there it is. That's the mark of deity
right there. He will not pardon your transgression. Somehow this
angel has the ability to pardon somebody's sins. Now we know
this can't be a human leader because Moses is the human leader.
This angel is some divine force. Since my name is in him, you
and I know that the biblical term name represents the entirety
of the inner character. And so the Lord told us to make
disciples and baptize them in the name, singular, of the Father,
Son, and the Holy Spirit. But if you truly obey His voice
and do all that I say, 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 Hivites, the Jebusites, the Mosquitobites,
the Termites... No, they're not there. There
are so many of the Ites there. and I will completely destroy
them," the Lord says. Angel of the Lord. Now, that's
just a long teaching on that section. We can go on and on.
But I just want you to know what God says He will do. That this
angel will be primarily a guardian and a leader. That our Lord Jesus
Christ, He said that I am the Great Shepherd. He is the Good
Shepherd. He is our guardian and He is
our leader. We need to follow His voice. It's the Lord's intimate
presence and leadership and guardianship. When people arrived in the land
of Canaan, God promised to wipe out our enemies. He said He will
completely destroy them. Look at verse 23. Then he said, But while I am
destroying them, I will protect you. Look at verses 24 to 26.
You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according
to their deeds, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break
their sacred pillars in pieces. Verse 25, But you shall serve
the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water,
and I will remove sickness from your midst. Verse 26, There shall
be no one miscarrying or barren in your land. I will fulfill
the number of your days." What a marvelous promise. Protection,
provision, rich blessings while he is wiping out, completely
destroying the enemies of God. Pagan, immoral people who are
crying out for judgment like people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Worshipping and obeying God will result in their health, wealth,
prosperity, bounty. Let's look at his provision,
verses 27 to 30. I will send my terror ahead of
you and throw into confusion all the people among whom you
come. Notice, there's a psychological
operation going on here, even before the physical. And I will
make all your enemies turn their backs to you. That means they're
flying, they're flying away from you, they're escaping, they're
flight, I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive
out the Hibbites, the Canaanites, the Hittites before you." Hornets is an insect that stings. So God is saying that he's going
to take care of the people that's there. Now notice how benevolently
he does that. He does this By judging the nations
who are begging for judgment, incidentally, if you think that
the idolatrous, immoral, materialistic, godless nations are being preserved
for future blessings, you're gravely mistaken. One person
asked me, well, what about Japan? I mean, they're number two in
the world in the economy. They have a thriving economy.
They live really well. Their citizens make more money
than the citizens here in the United States. They seem to be
really being blessed and they're all like they have 5,000 plus
gods in that nation. They're ungodly people. Why are
they being blessed? Another person asked me, what
about China? These people are communist, atheistic. Russia,
their economies are growing. Ah, but you fail to recognize
biblical history. The reason why the Philistines
and the reason why the Midians, the reason why the Assyrians
were so-called blessed, and they weren't blessed at all. They
were given much resources so that it can be used to chastise
God's people, Israel, for their disobedience. No, no, no. This is a false comparison when
we look at the pagan nations, including ours, and we expect
there to be further blessing. God says no. You see, when we
understand about the eternal character of God, and governments
and nations that beg for God's judgment will get it. And we
are begging for His judgment. And so were they. Canaanites,
Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, all these pagan nations, verse
29, I will not drive them out before you in a single year.
Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? Why not,
Lord? You're almighty and powerful.
You just crushed Egypt in a single year. Why not these people? That
the land may not become desolate, and the beasts of the field become
too numerous for you." You know why he's doing what he's doing?
He's doing it so that he will provide and protect his people.
He's going to drive them out in phases, in steps, in several
waves, so that as they are driven out, all the infrastructure is
left untouched. so that his people can just come
in and occupy. So the vineyard is not devastated,
but is ready for harvesting and planting the next year. So the
olive groves are not devastated, but they can be harvested and
planted the next year. They do no work and they have
all this blessing. God says He's going to do it
that way. Verse 30, I will drive them out before you little by
little until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. That's the Lord's marvelous provision. I think we can understand a little
bit about the Lord's strategy when he tells us to go and make
disciples. Why isn't there an all of a sudden worldwide revival
all at the same time? Why is there a soul-by-soul,
person-by-person, city-by-city, country-by-country evangelization
so that through these people, God's elect can understand the
protection, the provision, and the joy of the Lord. Because
when all the people have been reached for the gospel, then
what must come? Matthew 24, 14, then the end
must come. And the end must come. So how will those people in God's
sovereign plan, who must be reached, will be reached, when the Gospel
all of a sudden reaches all the nations all at once. Little by little, phase by phase,
then we can understand a little bit. Verse 31, I will fix your
boundary from the Red Sea to the Sea of Philistines and from
the wilderness to the River Euphrates, for I will deliver the inhabitants
of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before
you. Now, imagine those of you who went through walk through
the Old Testament. Imagine now, Red Sea, that's
North Africa near Egypt, the Sea of the Philistines, that's
above that, that's the Mediterranean, the wilderness, the river Euphrates,
where that is, that's Iraq today. And so we're going from the Mediterranean
to the Red Sea to Iraq. You see the west, east, north
and south boundaries. God says I will give you all
this land to you. Verse 32, you shall make no covenant
with them or with their gods. Notice, they and their gods are
inseparable. They shall not live in your land. Notice, it's now their land,
because God gave it to them. Who owns everything God does?
Because they will make you sin against me, for if you serve
their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. That's exactly
what happened, isn't it? The boundaries that God laid
out were given technically, territorially to Solomon. However, they were
never occupied by Israel completely. 1 Kings 4, verse 21 says, Now
Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the river, that's Euphrates,
to the land of the Philistines, there it is, Mediterranean, and
to the border of Egypt, there it is, Red Sea, Egypt. They brought
tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. You see,
Solomon went into an international treaty with these pagan nations,
but he never occupied these lands with his people. What does that mean? That this
covenant promise will not be fulfilled until the Millennial
Kingdom. Today's Israel, who is now fighting
with Hezbollah in Lebanon is not in an obedient state with
God. They do not submit to the Messiah, Lord Jesus Christ. God
is not blessing their military effort. They are a humanistic
and secular Israel. However, that nation is what
God is going to reprove, rebuke and redeem and purify. Only a
remnant from that nation will be left for the tribulation and
through the tribulation for the millennial kingdom. So right
now that Israel nation is an apostate state in a relationship
with God and yet they are being prepared
for the future tribulation where God will refine them as gold
is refined in fire through the tribulation. So as we pray for
Israel, we pray for their redemption. We don't pray that that secular
nation of Israel right now will be prosperous and they will conquer
their surrounding lands and live. This prophecy will not take place
until the Millennial Kingdom. And yet the presence of these
enemies in the land at that time, and even now, is a constant menace
to Israel. as God had predicted. Joshua
chapter 9. It's very clear that they are not to make a treaty,
and yet Solomon did, and so they are now. The people are inherently tied
with their gods. Exodus chapter 34 verse 12. And
we'll conclude with this. Watch yourself that you make
no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are
going, lest it become a snare in your midst. failure to drive
out the enemy would result in their causing of Israel to sin
primarily through their idolatry. And Israel's later history proved
that to be true. Israel won't occupy the land
that they desperately want until the Lord returns and redeems
Israel first, get them ready spiritually, and then He will
give them their land. They will not occupy their land
on their own. It will be given to them by their King. Only when
they say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Only
when they say, The Prince of Peace cometh. Only when they
say, Rejoice, O daughters of Zion. Your King comes on a foal
of a donkey. That was already fulfilled when
Jesus went in their triumphal entry in Jerusalem, yet they
rejected Him. Only when they say again, Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord, will they receive their
land back. One final application before
we wrap everything up. Worldliness and worldly people
have always been detracting God's people from being faithful to
Him. You see, when God's people accommodate
evil and sin and unrighteousness, false religion, false views,
worldliness sets in. That's what destroys God's people's
effective witness. You know, the reason why Israel
became such a poor testament to the world of who God really
is, is because they accommodated the world and its people around
them, instead of being a separate people, set apart for God. And the same danger eludes us
today. The same danger knocks on our
doors and says, I want to come in, would you entertain me? Worldliness
and the relationship of the world. What must we do to remain faithful
to God? How do we want to finish our
life? What will the history of you and your family and this
church look like in a few years if the Lord so tarries? Will
we be known for our accommodation of the world and worldly lifestyle
and a horrible and poor testimony to the world of who God really
is? or will we remain faithful to the Lord by being holy, set
apart, consecrated unto Him, living life by faith and not
by sight, and yet refreshingly attractive to a pagan world that
has lost its meaning and its purpose, its destiny? And we
have all those things, and yet will we taint our testimony through
worldliness? God can't bless a worldly people.
He can only bless the consecrated people. And brothers and sisters,
we must become committed to a holy life and a consecrated lifestyle
because those are the only people that God can bless and that God
can use to testify of His greatness in the world. And it is my desire
that as you learn about God's character, both in the Old and
New Testament, that you would want to be more and more like
Him in all your ways and that you would reflect Him well. When
the world sees you, they'll see you as a wonderful mirror that
reflects their own sinfulness that they are driven toward a
humble, repentant attitude toward the Lord that you, my brothers
and sisters, will be used by the Lord in this generation as
a holy consecrated mirror for this world to see of their moral
and spiritual bankruptcy that the Lord Jesus could pour out
his blessings through us to them for his glory. Let's pray together. Father, we give you thanks and
praise for reflecting your character in your law and teaching us that
you are a compassionate God and you desire us to be compassionate. You are a holy God and you want
us to be consecrated and separated, and that you are a just God who
demands that we obey what we know we ought, and that you are
a just God who must punish sin. You will not leave the guilty
unpunished. You will not acquit the guilty.
And we know your perfect moral character. Lord, help us to live
in, therefore, humility and in fear, and in love and in adoration,
and in that perfect harmonization between the love of God and the
fear of God, where we find our great joy. And may our hearts
overflow with joy and thanksgiving for your salvation that comes
so freely through Christ. And may we become your adequate
witnesses into this dark world where they need to know who you
are, that they may worship you as they ought. As in Jesus' precious
name, we ask it. Amen.
Exodus 23:1-33
Series Exodus
| Sermon ID | 52124202746781 |
| Duration | 1:23:21 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Exodus 23 |
| Language | English |
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