Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good to be back with you guys. Patrick did a phenomenal job. He did go on vacation after preaching last week's sermon, which I think was well deserved.
[00:00:09] I was also told I owed him a stake after making him preach that, so I'll pay up on that. But, yeah, it's such a gift to have people that can stand and faithfully just proclaim God's word and help us understand it. And so I am so thankful for the staff that we have, for the. The way that that happens in our children's ministry, the way that that happens in our student ministry, the way that that happens throughout our community groups through so many of y', all just faithfully looking at God's Word and saying, this is what God's word says. And so let's seek to understand it, let's seek to know it, let's seek to obey it. I was in Oklahoma last week, and my roommates from college came in, and so we got to hang out together. One of them's a pastor in Rhode island, one of them's a professor in Maryland. And we. We got together, and there were. And then our college pastor, there were four couples. And among those four couples, there were 18 kids.
[00:01:03] Yep. We took serious God's commands, but it really was just this incredible blessing of what community looks like when you're united to people. Not because you have the same hobbies, not because you live in the same place, not because you go to the same job, but because you have a bond of Christ.
[00:01:25] Because God has united a people to himself that then he wants to display his glory and his character through these people who gather together, united in Him. It's one of the things we're going to see in our text is that God is raising up a people. In the Book of Exodus, he gave a promise to Abraham and said, I'm going to make you into a great nation. That nation then moved to Egypt. It. It was a small family at that time. They go into slavery in Egypt, and God multiplies them into a nation. He rescues them out of that slavery, and now they're numbering in the millions.
[00:02:04] And he says, now I'm gonna take you to the place that I've prepared for you, this land I promised you. And you're gonna be a people who are gonna demonstrate and display my glory to all the nations around because of who you are, that you're united in me. And so we get these instructions. God's just been giving these instructions. He gave the Ten Commandments and said, how do you live with a holy God. And so we got these commands, how do you live among sinful people? So we got those commands of vertical commands of honoring God, horizontal commands of not killing or stealing. That's not loving your neighbor, right? And then we get all these commands that Patrick walks through that then go, how do you live among sinful people? Like, what does it look like to love your neighbor when your neighbor's ox kills your ox? Which most of us are like, I don't have an ox. Like, don't have to worry about that.
[00:03:02] But we learn the wisdom of, what does it look like? Restitution. And how do we navigate these things with one another as we live among sinful people together? And so this week, what we get to is, is then God's concluding kind of this charge that he's giving them as he makes a covenant with them. And so he's concluding it by this back end of reminding them what he's doing and what's required and what's at stake.
[00:03:31] And so I just want to walk through this text with us today. I think that one of the things we see in this is that Israel is preparing to leave Sinai as God's people.
[00:03:43] And so this is his commissioning of them, reminding them of what's true, that the redeemed people out of Egypt now enter into a covenant, and now they've got to live as his people in the promised land. And so we're reminded of this, which is good for us as we read a text like this, before we jump into it, I think sometimes we can read a text and go, okay, I don't really know how to do the Old Testament.
[00:04:11] Tracy taught in his class back there. He had said that nobody really reads Noah's Ark and goes, oh, I know what I need to do. I need to go build a big boat, right? We just don't read it that way of like, okay, well, this was God's instruction to a specific people at a specific time. And so I need to understand that. And then there's wisdom that we can then see within that as we see the character of God, because God doesn't change.
[00:04:36] And so we can see his wisdom in that. That same thing is happening here. God is giving this instruction to a specific people, the Israelites, at a specific time. They're leaving Mount Sinai before they're going into the promised land. And so we don't need to read this and go, oh, I need to do exactly what Israel was supposed to do. That's not the right way to read this.
[00:04:58] The right way to read this is to understand God's wisdom for Israel at this time, as the people of God, what was he calling them to?
[00:05:06] What was his character? What was he reminding them of? And so hopefully I'm going to demonstrate how we do that as we walk through the text that we go, okay, what is God saying? What does it mean? Then we go, how do I apply it? And so let's read our text and then we'll pray, and then we'll jump into this. Beginning in verse 20 of Exodus 23, God says this Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.
[00:05:38] Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice.
[00:05:42] Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for My name is in him.
[00:05:50] But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
[00:06:02] When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.
[00:06:22] You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water and your and I will take sickness away from among you none shall miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days I will send my terror before you, and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites and the Canaanites and the Hittites from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you.
[00:07:01] Little by little I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and possessed the land and I will set your border from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness of the Euphrates. For I will give the inheritance of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
[00:07:21] You shall make no covenant with them and their gods they shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me.
[00:07:29] For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. Would you pray with me, God? By your Spirit, would you guide us, Lord that there are things from your word this morning that, that we need your spirit to convict our heart in. We need you to open our eyes because we've been blind to it, Lord, we need you to open our ears because we've been deaf to hearing your voice in specific areas of our life. That we need you to correct us.
[00:08:05] And so, Lord, we ask that your spirit would do that. And yet, Lord, we also ask that there are areas of our heart where we are prone to despair, where we are prone to hopelessness. And Lord, we need you to remind us of that which is good and right and true and encourage us, Lord. And so by your spirit, would you work through your word this morning in our hearts we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:08:31] Let's look at this. I think there's two questions that I'm hoping to get at this morning. The first is this.
[00:08:39] How can a sinful people meet God's holy standard? How can a sinful people meet the standard that God has?
[00:08:51] The second thing that I want to look at in this text is how do God's redeemed people, his people that he's rescued and saved? How do God's redeemed people, how do they live faithfully in a fallen, sinful world?
[00:09:07] So how do we live in as God's people in a world that is riddled with sin? How do we do that? Those are kind of the two questions that we're aiming at. And so let's tackle this first one of how can a sinful people meet God's holy standard? Let's look at verse 20:26. This is where we see this happen.
[00:09:26] The way that he starts here is that God speaks to him and says, I'm sending an angel. Again, why we don't just read this and go searching for angels, right? Like we're not just out there looking for God's angel that's leading us. Especially not little chubby fat ones with little wings that are super cut and wear minimal clothing, right? Like that's not the angel that we see here.
[00:09:46] The angel that we see here is this warrior.
[00:09:50] I mean, he is a warrior. Look at the things he's going to do. God's sending his angel who's going to guard you on your way.
[00:09:59] Like, I don't need that little chubby fat angel to be my guard, right?
[00:10:05] This is a warrior angel who's going to guard, who's going to guide and who's going to protect. He is going to make war against their enemies.
[00:10:16] He's going to be an adversary to their adversaries that this is the angel that God sent. Commentators are a little bit all over the place on who is this angel? Some people would say that this angel is actually the pre incarnate Jesus, that Jesus is guiding them. That the reason they say that is if you look at the end of verse 21, then it says that his name is in him. What that meant is he carried all the authority of God, that he had the name of God.
[00:10:48] Well, that would make us think of Jesus, but yet at the same time it says, he will not pardon your transgressions. Well, that ought to make us not think of Jesus because Jesus actually pardoned people's transgressions. He said to someone, your sins are forgiven. And so he did pardon transgressions. And so I think that this is just an angelic being that is sent by God to. To do a task in a supernatural way for God's people to accomplish God's purpose.
[00:11:17] But let's look at what's the standard that God sets out for them. He says, I'm sending this angel who's gonna guard you, who's gonna guide you, who's gonna provide for you. And then what is your responsibility as the people of God? What Was their responsibility? 21.
[00:11:33] He says, Pay careful attention to him.
[00:11:37] So I have children. Many of you have children.
[00:11:41] Oftentimes I go pay attention because you're gonna be accountable for this. I'm telling you, go put your dishes up. Well, I didn't know. I didn't hear you.
[00:11:53] He says, pay careful attention. You're accountable whether you hear it or not, because I'm telling you.
[00:12:00] So pay careful attention to him. I'm sending him to guide you, guard you, provide for you. But you need to pay attention to, okay, so that's one. Pay attention. The second, this is incredible.
[00:12:14] Obey his voice.
[00:12:17] You need to obey him. This is not conditional obedience. This is not partial obedience. What is being told here is that whatever he says, obey, blanket statement, do what he says.
[00:12:32] Obedience is required. This is not sincere effort. This is. There is a right and a wrong. Did you obey or did you do not?
[00:12:41] Obedience was required.
[00:12:44] The third thing it says here is do not rebel against him.
[00:12:48] So we've got three things. You need to pay careful attention to him, you need to obey him, and then third, you need to not rebel against him. Well, why would God say this?
[00:12:59] Because as soon as someone tells probably about 50% of you in here to do something, the first thing that your heart and mind does is, I'm not doing that you can't tell me what to do, right? Like, you guys know yourselves that you have that in you, that when someone tells you to do something, there's a rebellious heart within you that you go, I'm not doing it.
[00:13:21] You can't make me, right? Like, we don't have to teach our kids this. They just have it in them. Like, no, you can't make me. And so God's telling them, do not rebel against my messenger who I've sent to you to guard you, to guide you, and to provide for you.
[00:13:40] He's requiring obedience.
[00:13:43] But look at the cost that if they rebel against him, if they don't pay careful attention to obey him, then it says he will not pardon your transgressions.
[00:13:56] That the standard is obedience and perfect obedience lest you transgress and there be no pardon.
[00:14:08] This is really a sad reality because if you've read much of the Old Testament, then you know that with this being the standard, no one measures up Israel very quickly. We're about to get to it in the next couple weeks. Israel very quickly. They don't obey, they grumble, they worship false gods, they rebel.
[00:14:32] They don't measure up to the standard that God has.
[00:14:36] And yet that's the standard that he requires for a sinful people to dwell in his presence is perfect obedience. And so what do we do?
[00:14:48] This is what the law, as Romans, tells us in Romans chapter three, which we began the service with. This is what Paul tells us, that the law is there not to justify us, but.
[00:15:00] But actually to show us that we all fall short, that none of us measure up, that no one's saved by keeping the law, your hope and your confidence doesn't come from saying, I did it all.
[00:15:12] And yet Jesus interacts with someone in the New Testament like that. A rich young ruler who says, what must I do to enter the kingdom of heaven?
[00:15:20] He says, keep the law.
[00:15:24] Rich young ruler says, I've done all of that.
[00:15:27] He was naive to the understanding of what it meant to keep all the law. And yet the law reveals that we can't measure up. And so Jesus just gently says, okay, go sell all the stuff that you have. And because his heart was greedy, because he didn't want to sell all his things and follow after Jesus, he went away. Sad that the law reveals our heart. The law shows all of us that none of us measure up. And so, so what do we do?
[00:15:57] We can't build our hope in our obedience. That was never the purpose of the law, See? But yet we try that, and it Oftentimes it's two sides of the same coin. It will end in pride. When we try to measure up based off of our obedience, we quit comparing ourselves to the standard of God and we start comparing ourselves to the standard of those around us. And we go, I'm better than them and I'm better than them and. And I'm better than them.
[00:16:24] And we start to justify our obedience based off of others obedience around us, not God's standard, because we can't measure up to that.
[00:16:33] And then we flip to the other side after we've tried that for enough time, and then we realize that we can't do it. And then so we flip to the side of despair where we go, man, why do I even try this? Why do I even try to obey or fight sin? I can't do it, forget it, I'm gonna go live it up.
[00:16:51] And we end in despair.
[00:16:54] And it's really the two sides of the same coin that we're trying to earn our acceptance.
[00:17:01] We're trying to earn an identity and an approval by obedience.
[00:17:09] When what we really need to do and what this text points us forward to, and it's what the whole Old Testament is pointing us forward to, is that that's why Jesus had to come.
[00:17:19] That's why the perfect mediator came and obeyed perfectly. Our hope was never on our obedience. Our hope is in Christ's obedience on our behalf.
[00:17:29] That he obeyed perfectly the law and yet he went to the cross and paid the penalty of not obeying the law for me and for you, for all those who would by faith believe is what Paul says in Romans 3, that we would be credited the righteousness of God. That we don't obey in order to earn God's favor. We obey because we already have God's favor in Christ.
[00:17:57] That we're accepted because of Christ, not accepted because of our obedience.
[00:18:03] That the law was never to produce a confidence of our salvation, but to produce a confidence of our Redeemer.
[00:18:15] That it was never to produce this confidence that I can obey and therefore I'm good.
[00:18:21] Maybe you've been trying that.
[00:18:23] Maybe you showed up this morning because it's a good thing to go to church, right?
[00:18:29] Maybe I can do a little more good and earn God's favor. And the reality of what the whole of Scripture says is that you can't.
[00:18:38] But God, right? We sang it.
[00:18:41] But God, rich in mercy, he sent his Son to do what we couldn't do on our behalf.
[00:18:51] God doesn't lower his standard, but he provided what was needed to meet it.
[00:18:57] The second thing that we look at in this is, so how can a sinful people meet God's holy standard? It it's by trusting in a perfect Savior who perfectly obeyed. The second thing that we see is, how do God's redeemed people live faithfully? I think that it unfolds these next verses. There's actually three things that I want us to see out of this. As we begin to see the wisdom of this. Look at what it says here, that how does a fallen people live, or God's redeemed people live in a fallen world? The first is, they've got to trust God's timing. They've got to trust God's timing. If you want to make it as God's redeemed people living in a fallen world, you've got to trust God's timing. Look at verse 29.
[00:19:41] It's such a unique verse. God tells the people ahead of time, hey, there's all of these people, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, you know, all of these people that are living in this land. But I've promised it to you. And so I'm going to drive them out. Verse 29, I will not drive them out from before you in one year.
[00:20:02] He's like, I'm gonna drive them out. But it's not gonna happen all at once.
[00:20:08] It's not gonna happen just like that.
[00:20:10] Why?
[00:20:12] Because it's best for you. Lest the land becomes desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you.
[00:20:18] He says, my timing is actually what's best. And yet you and I often probably get in situations where we go, God, if you would just show the next five steps, it would be a lot easier to obey the first one.
[00:20:33] God, if you'll just do a little bit more, then I can actually have faith to obey now.
[00:20:39] And God says, no, no, no, you gotta trust my timing, that my timing is perfect. My timing is right. My timing is never delayed. My timing is never wrong.
[00:20:50] He says, you gotta trust my timing going to drive them out.
[00:20:56] But it will be a little bit at a time, lest the land become overrun with wild beasts and it be detrimental to you.
[00:21:07] Have you ever thought that it would be harmful for you if God revealed everything to you?
[00:21:14] If God just brought about perfect sanctification all at once, would that be best for you? He's going to accomplish his sanctification.
[00:21:25] You're in a battle with sin. You're like, why won't God just take this temptation away? Why do I continue to struggle with this anxiety. Why do I continue to have this depression? Why these relationship issues? Why won't God just fix it?
[00:21:43] He goes, my timing's perfect.
[00:21:46] I'm working.
[00:21:48] Walk with me.
[00:21:49] Trust me that my timing's perfect.
[00:21:53] That in order to walk with God in a fallen world, we have to trust his timing is right.
[00:22:01] The second thing that we see in this text of how do we live in a fallen world is we see that we've got to reject compromise. In order to walk as God's people, redeemed people in a fallen world, we have to reject compromise. Where does this come from? It comes from verse 32, what we see here.
[00:22:22] You shall make no covenant with them and their gods, and they shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
[00:22:35] This idea of compromise comes about that when we start to compromise our belief, we then compromise our action.
[00:22:44] What do I mean by that? Let me give you an example. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they first compromised that they believed God's ways were good and God's ways were best.
[00:22:57] The compromise in their belief happened before the compromise in their action.
[00:23:03] Y' all tracking with that, you and I fall into the same reality that we compromise what we believe before we compromise what we do.
[00:23:13] And yet this compromise in belief happens because we either don't believe the consequences of God. God tells them here, like, they will make you sin against me, or we compromise in that we believe God is good.
[00:23:31] Well, God must be withholding something from me. His ways aren't right.
[00:23:36] Maybe you think like, well, I'm the exception. Those consequences won't affect me.
[00:23:44] That's the thought process of compromise. And yet I love the language he uses here. He uses the language of a snare. Sometimes I hide strategically how country I am. I am a country boy from Oklahoma.
[00:23:58] And my brother and I used to run around and we would set traps and snares and different things like that. I got to go on a mission trip into South Sudan and work with the Lewis's. And we get back out of the bush of Africa and their youngest son is there, and he's like tying these fishing string snares because he wants to catch some dove. And I was like, man, this is the best mission trip ever. I'm like, this is my thing.
[00:24:22] But. But when he's setting these snares, it's these fishing lines, so they're not real visible.
[00:24:29] But why did the dove keep coming? Well, there's a water tank right there that he's filled up, that the dove come there and there's something they desire, right?
[00:24:40] That that's how compromise happens is that there's something you desire. You go, I want that, right? That there's a desire that we would have something or get something. And so we go, I want that, so let me go get it.
[00:24:55] And there's a trap around it because maybe it's not good for you or it's the right time for you to have that, or maybe God's saying, wait on that. Or maybe it's just not good for you and yet you want it. And so there's a trap laid.
[00:25:11] The other way that a snare works is that you set a snare on a travel corridor that's so familiar.
[00:25:20] These dove have come and drank out of this day after day after day. There's no danger there. This is familiar until it's not.
[00:25:31] One commentator said it this way, that sin always promises coexistence before it demands surrender.
[00:25:41] That sin always promises coexistence. Hey, you can do this.
[00:25:46] This lust hasn't destroyed your marriage or your relationships yet it's familiar. We can coexist. This greed hasn't destroyed my family.
[00:25:56] We can do this. Not a problem. This unforgiveness in my life and anger and bitterness, it hasn't wrecked everything around me. Like, I can manage this.
[00:26:05] And we wear out a path of comfort, and yet Satan lays a snare that it would snare us. We see this actually in Proverbs that it says that I see a young man lacking sense, and he walks this certain path and he becomes familiar with it until all at once he's caught that that's the way a snare works. And so in order to be God's redeemed people, living in a fallen world and accomplishing God's purpose of imaging forth his glory to the nations, we have to reject compromise, compromise of belief, which leads to compromise of action.
[00:26:49] The thing with a trap, though, when you set a trap, if the animal knows the traps there, it won't get in it, right? Like when you go, hey, there's a trap.
[00:27:01] We joke about it in the office sometimes. And I'll hear somebody yell out some theological thing that can be debated for ages. And I'm like, don't start. That's a trap.
[00:27:10] Like, it's a trap. Don't go down that path. You know where it leads.
[00:27:16] I think there's a lot of wisdom as believers if we would just call out what it is that's a trap that does not have my good in mind.
[00:27:28] That's a trap. It becomes less deceptive.
[00:27:33] We're able to not compromise when we can call it what it is that Satan is laying traps of familiarity to sin.
[00:27:42] He's laying traps of things which where he calls into question God's goodness.
[00:27:48] He's laying traps when we think that we are the exception to the consequences of sin. He's laying traps which only seek to kill, steal and destroy.
[00:28:00] We need to reject compromise. The third thing that we see in this text, I think the wisdom that we see in this of as God's people were moving into this promised land, they needed to trust God's timing. They needed to reject compromise.
[00:28:14] And the third, they needed to depend on his presence.
[00:28:18] They needed to depend on his presence. Let me show you where I get this. If you read this text as a whole, what you'll find is that there's a shift which happens in this place where God begins to use a personal pronoun and he uses it over and over and over.
[00:28:35] He says, I have prepared this place for you. I will send my angel. I will be an enemy to your enemies. I will drive out them. I will take away sickness. I will provide for you. I will bless your bread, I will bless your water. I will send hornets. I will drive them out. I will drive them out. I will set your border. I will give the inhabitants to you. God promises that he is with them and he is the one working on their behalf.
[00:29:08] They just need to depend on him that we have to depend on Him. That nowhere in this text does God say, all right, it's up to you guys, go bootstrap it.
[00:29:21] Go figure it out on your own.
[00:29:23] Alright, I coached you up, now go get them.
[00:29:27] No.
[00:29:28] He says, I'm gonna guide you, I'm gonna guard you. I'm gonna lead you. I'm sending an angel to you that I'm going to be with you. We jump to the New Testament and Jesus says the same thing. He says, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. He says, I'm with you, just depend on me.
[00:29:46] He says that no temptation to sin is going to seize you, except what's common to man. But I will provide a way up or a way of escape.
[00:29:56] He says, I'm with you even in the temptations.
[00:30:00] I'm with you even in the midst of the fallen world. I'm with you even in the diagnosis. I'm with you in the temptation. I'm with you in the battle I'm with you.
[00:30:10] Depend on me.
[00:30:12] Look at what he's providing for him. He's like the very daily needs. I'll bless your bread, I'll bless your water. I'll be with you in the moments of fear when something is in front of you and you go, there's no way I can do that on my own. He goes, I'm with you, and I'm working on your behalf.
[00:30:30] If we're gonna be a people who live in this land, a fallen world, and demonstrate his glory to all the nations watching, if we're gonna be a people in our neighborhood, a people in southeast Shreveport who demonstrate the glory of God and the purposes of God, we're gonna have to trust his timing.
[00:31:00] We're gonna have to reject compromise.
[00:31:02] No compromise. His ways are good and his ways are best and the consequences are real.
[00:31:08] And we're gonna have to depend on him daily.
[00:31:13] Depend on him.
[00:31:16] Let me conclude with this. There's two questions I'd ask you in conclusion to hearing this. The first is just this.
[00:31:25] Where does your confidence lie?
[00:31:27] Where does your confidence lie?
[00:31:30] To stand before a holy God?
[00:31:33] Does your confidence lie in, I tried to be a good person? Does your confidence lie in I tried to obey?
[00:31:41] That's going to end in either pride or despair.
[00:31:44] The law was never meant to give us confidence.
[00:31:49] The law was meant to point us to Christ that our confidence would be in him, that I have confidence, just like we sang, to come into the presence of God because of what Jesus has done on my behalf.
[00:32:02] That's where our confidence lies, in Christ's perfect obedience credited to us.
[00:32:07] Where does your confidence lie? The second question is this.
[00:32:12] How will you live until Christ returns?
[00:32:16] There are some similar parallels. That Jesus ascended and said, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be also.
[00:32:27] And in that place, it's a promised land and new heavens and a new earth, and there will be no sin. We will not dwell in a sinful, fallen world when Christ returns.
[00:32:38] But we're in the in between.
[00:32:40] And so how will you live until he returns?
[00:32:46] Will you trust his timing?
[00:32:48] Will you reject compromise?
[00:32:50] And will you daily depend on his presence?
[00:32:54] You see, it's for his glory, but it's for our good that he laid this out and said, I know what's best.
[00:33:02] Walk with me and I'll walk with you. Would you pray with me?
[00:33:09] Lord, we thank you for your word that instructs us on how to live in a fallen world, that gives us your wisdom, that points us to Christ who provides us the access that we need.
[00:33:26] Lord, would you help us be a people who are united not because of the place where we live and not because of the.
[00:33:34] The economic status and not because of the places where we work and not because of our hobbies, but united because of what Christ has done in our life that live different.
[00:33:45] A people that trust your timing, a people that don't compromise on what you've called us to, and a people that daily depend on you. Lord, would you help us by your spirit we ask in Jesus name. Amen.
