We'll go back and visit the Book of Numbers 19th chapter for one verse this morning. We were talking last week about the clean and the unclean. About how that life was set over against death in these things. I want to revisit that a little bit in the ninth verse of this nineteenth chapter. It said, And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the count in a clean place, and it shall be kept. for the congregation of the children of Israel, for a water of separation. It is a purification for sin. This separation, if we dig into it a little bit, we find out that it is one of the most things for the life of Christian people is separation from the unclean. Always unclean. And then when I think upon that, what is clean and what is unclean? In our day, it is primarily anything or anybody that God hasn't said his grace upon. We'll go back then to the book of Exodus, 33rd chapter. I guess we'll begin here in the 12th verse, read a few verses here and consider them. It's said in Moses, it's said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace. in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest.' And he said unto him, If thy presence go with me, go not with me, cares not of hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken. For thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And then Moses went on to ask the Lord to show him his glory. When reading here, Moses seemed like he wasn't too sure about these things. First thing, he wanted to know who he was going to send with him. Then he wanted to know if the Lord was going to go up with him, and he was doubtful. It seemed like to the point that he had decided for sure that if the Lord didn't go with him, it would be better just to die where he was at, in the wilderness and not go any further. But he had found grace. Something else I find interesting here is that he found it. It was kind of like he just stumbled up on it. The Lord had spoke to him, warned him to go lead the people out, carry them out, strangely, into the wilderness. You know, we may find grace in the eyes of the Lord, but we're kind of like Moses, we don't see everything. And I find that the way we get it in our life, in our time, especially as we get it line upon line and precept upon precept, And we grow, and we're challenged to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Now Moses got several things here he wants. He wants to know for sure that the Lord is going to go up with him. If it doesn't go up with him, he don't want to go. He knows this much. So he continues on, and if, he said if, also I have found grace in thy sight. It seemed like also he had an assurance there, though that he would, because the Holy Spirit even in his day had touched his whole heart and conscience and said, the Lord will go up with me. But here's another thing he wanted to know. Lord, how will we know and how will they know? He was concerned about the people of Israel, but not only that, he was concerned about the other people that they might not know that it was the Lord that was leading them up. that they might not know why they were a separated people. You know in our day, I hear little rumbles back behind me all the time that those folks have got strange religions. What they're saying is strange doctrines. This was one of Moses' concerns. It looked like it was going to be a strange thing. The people that were around him, he was concerned that they were going out into the wilderness. And what were these people going to say? Their God must not be real. And we have that same problem today. That's what they say. They've got a strange or funny religion. Now, the reason that they say that is they haven't found grace inside God. And thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me yet, Thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me thy way." Now, the people of God are always concerned about the way we might say today the will of God. Over years I've heard a lot of discussion about what is the will of God. It's pretty hard to know sometimes, isn't it? But you know the way we know it? It's line upon line, precept upon precept, and we know His will. Now our concern is if we have found grace. Sometimes that's kind of hard to know. That's the reason so many people out here say they've found it. But they've found it in their head and not in their heart. They don't have that confirmation that Moses was seeking here, confirmation, What is the way that you want me to go?" Certainly Moses wasn't left without knowing that way. But I think Moses also understood that he is up against a stiff neck and a hard-hearted people here, and he needed help. consider this nation, that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." I can understand why Moses is feeling concerned, because people are just constantly rebelling against him for years. They said, Who made you to rule over us? And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up thence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight. Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated." Now, the only way to be separated in this world is the Lord go with us. If the Lord doesn't go with us, we won't be a separated people. Back in Numbers we just read that we ought to be a separate people. Separated from what? From sin and all of its dealings. We need to be stripped of that. And if the Lord's grace go with us, we surely shall be someday. But again, I go back, we learn. We learn about the grace of God day by day, line upon line, precept upon precept. You know the first thing when these churches out here that are about us do when they get a new convert, they won't set him up. being some teacher or something. Give him a job, get him busy, and puff him up a little bit. They don't look to see if he's found grace inside of God. They're more worried about getting him or hook him and lead him astray. Now those are the things that we need to safely separate from. I used to kind of let it worry me that they said, oh, he's got a strange religion. Don't worry me about it anymore. Because I know the Lord is not going up with them. And the separation that it speaks of is not necessarily to separate ourselves from the individual, but from his doctrine. You know, if we separate ourselves totally from this world, we'd have to go out, as Apostle Paul said that, we'd just have to get out of it. But there's no just getting out of it, so we must be separated another way. These right people, in going through it and looking at it, you'd wonder how in the world, with all the miracles they had seen, and all the God's judgment that had fell upon them. You ever go through there and try to figure out how many of these people died in the wilderness? I don't know, just in figures it's something over 600,000 of them. A whole generation passed away in the wilderness because of their hard-hearted and stiff-necked dealing. With God, they went after every old religion that there was and remained unclean. They didn't wash themselves. Especially not with the Word. It wasn't any clean enough. They just continued in the same old fashion. In Psalms 106, the psalmist So going back and looking at these things, we'll read a few verses here. I guess to begin back at verse 26, we won't read this whole thing. Therefore he lifted up his hand against them to overthrow them in the wilderness. because they were a stiff-necked people. It wasn't if they didn't know the will of God. You understand that, because Moses had read the whole law to them over and over. And they had seen all of the commandments with their eyes, all the offerings. And especially this one, a sin offering. The atonement. It wasn't any secret to these people. Just as it isn't any secret today, but they cannot get a hold of it because they have not found grace in the sight of God. And they will not separate themselves from it. They run to it, trying to hang on to something. He said to overthrow their sin, also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands. Now here we have a turning, not a separation, but we're going to scatter them out. And that's what happens when people go a-whoring after this old false religion. Lord let them go. They joined themselves also unto Baal Peor and ate the sacrifices of the dead, that they had just been warned to stay away from the unclean. Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions, and the plague broke in upon them. Then stood up Phinehas and executed judgment, and so the plague was staged. And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations forevermore. Here is another thing that the Lord had given that they might see. They angered him also at the waters of strife. So it went ill with Moses for their sakes. Moses, instead of speaking to the rock, he struck it with a rod. And he said, do you want us? Will it be that we have to do it? That was Moses' error. The Lord done told him, just speak to it. But in his anger, he didn't follow the will of God, because they provoked his spirit so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. They did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them. They didn't separate themselves, but were mingled among the heathen and learned their words. Did you know, if you mess with fire, This religion out there today, it can sound so good, but it comes on exactly like the grace of God to his people. It comes on to them, line upon line, precept upon precept. here a little and there a little, but they don't learn. And they serve their idols, which were a snare unto them. That's what it would do to you. It would get hold of you. Better watch out. You go out there and go meddling with those people out there. Next thing you know, they'll convince you that what they're doing is right. the Lord, unless we find grace in his sight and he will go up with us, we will go their way. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent Even the blood of their sons and their daughters whom they sacrificed under the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with the blood. It had become totally unclean, polluted. Thus were they defiled with their own works, went a-whoring with their own inventions, Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he had whored his own inheritance." It's a pretty bad place to get here. They were his people, his chosen people. And now they'd come to the point that he just turned from them and said no more. In other terms they had become reprobate. No use talking to them anymore. I've shown them all the miracles. I have brought judgment upon them and killed them by the fowls, and still they love the world more than they love me. They worship the creature more than the Creator. Listen, we're in that same state today that They were right here. God's people are just a little old handful. Very small numbers. Just a remnant. A little remnant. That's all there is. And it seems like sometimes that some of them don't want to separate themselves from that worldly idea. that you can worship God any way you want to or anywhere you want to. You don't have to look unto the sacrifice, all you have to do, all you have to do, that's what to say, is decide. Well, a man might decide in his old head, but he won't never decide in his heart. He will keep on running after the unclean, unless he finds grace in the sight of the Lord. He will keep going that way. 2 Corinthians 6, we have I guess we'll begin in verse 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers? For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with I? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them. He's going to go up, you understand? He's going to go up and lead. I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons, daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." So the charge here is to separate ourselves and be holy. And don't touch the unclean things. If it hadn't found grace inside God, it is unclean. But if God shows mercy upon a man, then he will make him clean. The offering has been made for sin forevermore. So our challenge is to come out from among them. The people of that region over there must have really thought those people of Israel were a bunch of kooks wandering around out there in that desert and really going no place. Just kind of spinning their wheels out there. Curious bunch of people. But we are a peculiar people, are we not? And people think the same thing of us. But it's always been that way and always will be that way. If you don't join them, they think you're strange. But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption." Isn't that amazing? You just can't help but marvel at it. Peter says also, for the time past of our life may suffice us to have brought the will of the Gentiles. When we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange. that you run not with them to the same excess of right speaking evil of you. Are you crazy? But as God is strange to this world, So also his people are strange to the world and we are strangers and pilgrims for sure in it.