appearing before the Lord. Our text is in Exodus chapter
34, but I read that verse of Scripture in 2 Corinthians chapter
5 verse 10, but we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the things done in this body according
that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now, I wonder
how many of us read that Scripture and thought, what in the world
does that mean? That doesn't sound very good. It is in this body that we either
believe or do not believe. It is in this body that we either
love or do not love. What I thought about was that
passage of scripture in Matthew chapter 25. Would you turn with
me there talking about Judgment Day? Matthew chapter 25, verse 31,
When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy
angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory,
and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats
on the left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Now he says to these sheep, This
inheritance that you're getting was prepared for you before time
ever began. You're certain for it. It's given
to you. It's your inheritance. Verse
35, For I was an hungred, and you gave me meat. I was thirsty,
and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took
me in. naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited
me. I was in prison. You came unto me." Now, you can
go on reading in that passage of Scripture, but here's the
point I want to make. He said, this kingdom has been prepared
from you from the very foundation of the world, and the evidence
that I did this for you is seen in what you did here on earth. Now, he's saying nothing less
than that. Now, I think it's also very interesting that their
reply is, Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when
saw we thee and hungered, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave
thee drink? And you can go on reading that passage of Scripture,
but here's the point I want to make. After I said that, somebody says,
well, great! I've got works that give evidence that I'm saved.
I feel so good about myself. This is really wonderful. You've
missed it. If you see in yourself works
that prove to you that you're saved. I have no doubt that you're
not saved. I have no doubt about it. Does
that take away from the importance of these works? No, there will
be works done in this body that will prove whether or not the
Lord's ever really done anything for me. James said in James chapter
2 verse 19, show me your faith without your works. I'll show
you my faith by my works, by what I do. Show me your faith
without your works. Okay, I'm just going to sit here
and do nothing. I'm not going to do a thing. Oh, that's very
impressive. That means you don't really have
faith. James says, I'll show you my
faith by my works. And I think we're going to see
that in this passage of scripture in Exodus chapter 34. Would you
turn with me there to Exodus chapter 34? Verse 23, thrice in the year
shall all your men children appear before the Lord God, the God
of Israel. Now this is a reference to the
three feasts that the children of Israel were called to travel
to Jerusalem for. Three times a year they were
to leave whatever they were doing and they were to appear before
the Lord. Look in the last sentence of
verse 20, and none shall appear before me empty." Now, in appearing
before the Lord, we do not appear before him empty-handed. Now,
I realize there's a sense in which we do. Nothing in my hands
I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. That's part of appearing
before the Lord, but here he tells us that none shall appear
before me empty-handed. Now, there's something we bring.
We do not come, we dare not come empty-handed. Now, let's go on
reading. Notice the grace of this journey. He says in verse
24, For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy
borders. Neither shall any man desire
thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord
thy God thrice in the year. Now, I think this is glorious.
They were called upon to leave their property, to leave their
stuff, to leave their family, and go up and appear before the
Lord. Now this left everything vulnerable.
I mean, their enemies could come and take over everything. But
the Lord promises them here, in obeying me, nobody's even
going to desire your land. You know, I thought of that in
light of all the economic unrest going on right now where everybody's
just scared to death, everybody is afraid you're going to lose
everything, and I understand everybody's fears. But the scripture
tells us that nobody's even going to desire our land in the sense
that the Lord's in control of everything. He controls all things. And He even controls the desires
of everybody. And you think, I'm afraid I'm
going to lose this. Well, you might do it, but if you do it, it's
the Lord's will. It was best. And if you don't remember, He
controls even the desires of everybody. I like that, don't
you? I'm glad it's that way. Thank God it's that way. Whatever
happens, He's in control of right down to the desires of men. So
we see this as a very gracious journey. And you can't be hurt
in obedience to Christ. You're never going to hurt yourself
by being obedient. Now understand that. It's only
safe in obeying. Anything apart from obedience
exposes us to all kinds of problems. But the grace of this journey,
and he gives in verses 25 and 26, remember they don't come
empty. They don't come empty. He names
four things that are involved in this coming and appearing
before the Lord. Look in verse 25. He says, Thou
shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven. Neither shall the sacrifice of
the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning. The first
of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house
of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe or boil
a kid in his mother's milk. And you know that's repeated
three times in the scripture. You shall not take a kid and
seed or boil it or cook it in its mother's milk. Now here's
four things to do. I'm to bring his sacrifice without
leaven. I am to eat all of it, leaving
nothing. I am to give the first of the
first fruits and I'm not to boil a kid in the milk of his mother. That's an interesting commandment,
isn't it? What all is involved in that. Now, what I believe
that these four things show is what true faith is and what true
faith does. Now that's interesting, isn't
it? What true faith is and what true
faith does. Now, in appearing before the
Lord, I do not come empty-handed. There's something I offer. What
does he say in verse 25? Thou shalt not offer the blood
of my sacrifice with leaven. Now here's what I bring. In coming
into the Lord's presence, here's what I bring. And I dare not
come any other way. I bring His sacrifice. There's an understanding of this.
I understand I really do. I understand that the only way
I can come into God's presence, the only way I can be accepted,
is through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I come
saying, hear me for the sacrifice of Christ's sake. Let me be viewed
in Christ. Hear me for Christ's sake. That's the way I come. I don't
come empty handed. I understand the same thing that
that Publican understood in the temple when he said, God be propitious. That word merciful is literally
propitious. God be propitious. Be appeased
through the blood of the sacrifice. Be friendly to me. Don't be angry
with me simply because of the blood of the sacrifice. Now,
I'll tell you somebody who understood this was Abel. Listen to this
scripture from Hebrews chapter 11. By faith, Abel offered unto
God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts,
and by it he being dead yet speaketh." Now what's he saying? He's got
something to say to us today. It tells us that the sacrifice
of Christ makes us righteous. You're looking at a righteous
man, an altogether righteous man. That is true of every single
believer. The sacrifice of Christ makes
them righteous. Now, to be righteous, you have
to have never done anything wrong and always done that which is
right. That's what righteousness is.
You must have never done anything wrong and you must have always
done that which is right. Now here is the glory of the
sacrifice of Christ. Did you notice how it said, by
faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than came
by which he obtained witness that what? He was what? Righteous. Not simply that righteousness
was charged to his account, But he really wasn't a righteous
man. Everybody realizes that. He was a sinful man, but righteousness
was charged as a count. That's not what it says. It says
his person was righteous. Now here is what the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ does. It washes away my sins to where
I have done nothing wrong. I don't have anything to feel
guilty about. I have done nothing. Got no sin. It's been washed
away. His obedience is my obedience. I've only done that which is
right. I'm a righteous man. His righteousness
is not something that mine's just like, no. His righteousness
is my righteousness and I stand before God righteous. That's what the sacrifice of
Christ does. And that's the way I come into
God's presence. I'm coming into God's presence right now pleading
one thing, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I come no other
way. Now he said, when you bring my sacrifice, notice what he
says in verse 25, thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice,
Remember, old Cain brought his own sacrifice, the fruit of the
ground. He brought a sacrifice, but it
was his. We only offer up the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We wouldn't dare offer up anything
else. But notice what he says. Thou
shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven. Now, in the Scripture, leaven
represents basically two things. Works. It's always evil. Works. Remember Galatians 5,
a little leaven leavens the whole lump. You put one work in salvation
in the beginning, middle, or end, you make the whole thing
of works. If you make any aspect of salvation
dependent upon, contingent upon something you do, you make the
whole thing of works. A little leaven leavens the whole
lump. And leaven represents hypocrisy. Do you remember what our Lord
said in Luke chapter 12, verse 1? Beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, or acting. Now, in offering the
sacrifice of Christ, we are careful to offer it alone. Not Christ and. Christ only. Not Christ and anything I would
do, but Christ alone If any part of my salvation is by works,
I make it all of works, and the sacrifice of Christ will not
do a thing for me. Now, this is the way we offer
it, not with leaven. We realize this is all we offer,
and in offering the sacrifice of Christ, I don't offer it hypocritically. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, you know what a hypocrite is? It's an actor. It's an actor. And I, you know, I don't know
how many times I've, I said to somebody recently, do you believe
the gospel? And it was obvious to me they
didn't. Or it appeared that way. I know
I can't see into anybody's heart, but it certainly appeared that
way. But they said, well, sure, Christ is my only hope. But everything
about him was contrary to that. Everything about him. And I thought,
well, it's one thing to say that. It's another thing to really
believe that. Now, this thing of being a hypocrite. every time
i talk about hypocrisy you know the first thing i think uh...
period that's the first thing i think that i mean i know i
am i know i am i uh... everybody is to some extent i
realize that but i'll tell you what in this thing coming into
god's presence this is no act this is no act i bring christ
alone because i know i've got nothing else to bring that's
not an act i really believe the sacrifice of christ is my only
salvation. I believe that. You believe that?
And that's the way we come into God's presence when we appear
before Him. We appear with this sacrifice without leaven, without
works, without acting. We really believe what we're
saying we believe. We really believe Christ is our only way
into the presence of the Father. We have no other hope. And look
what he says next. Verse 25, neither shall the sacrifice of the feast
of the Passover be left unto the morning." Now, in appearing
before the Lord, they were to appear having eaten all the Passover
sacrifice. If you had anything left, you
weren't allowed to appear. You had to appear before the
Lord having eaten the entire sacrifice. Now, eating the Passover
represents faith in Christ. Our Lord said, except ye eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no
life in you. Turn back to Exodus chapter 12. Here's the instructions regarding
eating the Passover, eating the lamb. And they shall eat the flesh
in that night, roast with fire. It has to do with Christ roasting
under the wrath of God. Here's our faith. We believe
Christ crucified. They shall eat the flesh in that
night. Notice they eat at night. You know, you can't see at night.
Faith is believing what you cannot see, isn't it? I cannot see. I've been talking about me being
righteous before God. I can't see it by looking at
myself. I can't see it looking within. But I believe I am through
the testimony of the gospel. Faith is believing that which
you cannot see. They shall eat the flesh in that
night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread, and with bitter
herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it wrong. You see,
I trust the person of Christ, but I don't trust the person
of Christ apart from the work of Christ, apart from the death
of Christ. I find my only salvation in his death. God forbid that
I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. We have
confidence in Christ and His death. Christ crucified, nor
sardine, verse 9, eat not of it raw, nor sardine at all with
water. That's watered down. You know,
watered down gospel never saved anybody. A watered-down atonement
never saved anybody. The only gospel there is, is
the pure. Don't water it down. But roast
with fire. His head, I think this is interesting,
His head with His legs with the pertinence thereof. His head
and His legs. His head, the doctrine of Christ.
His legs, our walk. A faith that does not affect
our walk is not saving faith. Now, understand, we come into
God's presence only in Christ. I plead nothing else, but a faith
that I possess that does not affect my walk is not saving
faith. We eat the head, we eat the legs. The doctrine, the walk. Now,
the gospel we believe, listen real carefully, the gospel we
believe is made of many truths which combine to make the truth. The Gospel is union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel is chosen in Him. The Gospel is redeemed by Him. The Gospel is justified by His
righteousness. The Gospel is called by His Spirit. The Gospel is being given a new
heart, a clean heart. The gospel is faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The gospel is repentance. Now,
which one of those things can you leave out and it still be
the gospel? The gospel is made of many truths which combine
to make the truth. And if you leave out one of those,
you no longer have the truth. I preached the message a few
weeks ago. The things which are most surely believed among us.
The Bible is the Word of God. God is, as the Bible declares
Him to be. Man is, as the Bible declares
Him to be, dead in sins. Therefore, since God is, as the
Bible declares Him to be, and man is, as the Bible declares
Him to be, salvations of the Lord, of the triune God, of the
Father in eternal election, of the Son in redemption, and of
God the Holy Spirit in regeneration. And when God saves somebody,
they really are saved. It's real. Now, which one of
those things is okay to leave out? You see, the gospel is many
truths. A beautiful, many-faced diamond. You know, all the different...
What do you call it? Facets? Faces? Whatever. Facets.
And you leave out one. You no longer have the truth. Now, back to our text in Exodus
34. First, in coming into His presence, number one, I come
pleading only His sacrifice and that without leaven. That's my
only hope. And I come having eaten all the
Passover. That's faith in Christ. I don't
leave anything out. I eat every bit of it. I believe
everything God says. And by His grace, I bow to everything
He says. And I don't understand everything
he said, but I believe it all. I really do. We eat all of the
sacrifice. That's our attitude. Now look
what he says next, verse 26. Exodus 34, verse 26. The first
of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house
of the Lord thy God. Now in coming into the Lord's
presence, in appearing before God, he says you're to bring
the first of the firstfruits of the land. Faith in Christ
works. It does something. It makes somebody
bring the firstfruits. Now, faith in Christ is faith
in Christ alone. But do you know faith is never
alone? It never is. Faith worketh by love. That's what Paul says in Galatians
chapter 5 verse 6. Now, in appearing before the
Lord, you bring the first of the first fruits. Now this was
the feast of Pentecost, 50 days after the Passover, and you would
appear before the Lord with the first of the first fruits. When
the first of the crop came up, you were to give it to the Lord.
And by that act, you were saying you trusted the Lord to take
care of everything else. I mean, here it comes up, the first of
the first fruits. You take it up. There's nothing left. You
give it to the Lord. You don't give it to yourself. You give
it to the Lord. And you trust the Lord to take care of everything
else. Now, this thing of giving the
first fruit shows something about faith, something about dependence,
something about love, something about trust. Now, the faith that
we have in the sacrifice of Christ does something to us. It causes
us to love the Lord Jesus Christ. We really do. We love Him. We love Him as He's revealed
in His Word. And what does love do? Love gives. We give the firstfruits. We say by that in this typical
thing, we give him these first fruits and we trust him to take
care of everything else. Now, give the first fruits to
the Lord. And when I thought about this,
you know, giving to the Lord, it's not like he needs anything.
You think he needs anything you have? I mean, he said the cattle
on a thousand hills were mine. If I were hungry, I wouldn't
tell you about it. It's not that the Lord needs anything, but
this thing of giving is a blessed privilege. that the Lord would
allow us to give to Him. What a blessing, what a privilege,
and He accepts what we give for Christ's sake and is pleased
with it. But to do good, Hebrews 13, 15 or 16 says, to do good
and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God
is well pleased. Now, in giving the firstfruits,
what I give, comes first. This is true. What I give comes
first. I don't wait till the bills are paid and find out how
much I have left. And if I have a no, what I give
comes first. And everything else is adjusted
after that. God will not bless it if we're
just waiting to see what we have left and then we give like that.
He's just not going to bless that. As a matter of fact, when
there's financial difficulties, you can just, you can almost
bank on it. Somebody's not being generous. That always happens. You know, people say, I can't
afford to give. You can't afford not to give, in reality. That's
the truth of the matter. Now, he says we're to give the
firstfruits. And there's three things involved
in giving the firstfruits. First, dependence. Dependence. In my giving the firstfruits.
And this is a very practical thing. You know, my faith will
produce this. In me giving the firstfruits, I prove by that
I'm dependent upon the Lord to take care of me. Isn't it wonderful
to just be in His hands? Isn't it wonderful to be like
those Israelites going up? They weren't worried about their
stuff because they know the Lord would even take the desire of
their enemies away from having their stuff. They were dependent
upon the Lord. And in giving, what I'm doing is I'm showing
I'm depending upon the Lord to take care of me. Turn with me
to Deuteronomy 16. Verse 9, he's talking about the
same thing here. He says, 7 weeks shalt thou number
unto thee, begin to number the seven weeks from such time as
thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn, and this is when
you come in to bring the first fruits, and thou shalt keep the
feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a free
will offering. of thy hand. You're not being
coerced into this. You're not being guilted into
this. You give it freely because that's
what you want to do. A free will offering from thy
hand which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God according as
the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. How much should I give?
Well, however much he's blessed me. That's how I give. And that's
what giving is. Now he says give the first fruits.
And this is a love issue. It's a dependence issue. It's
a freedom. Isn't it joyous to give when the Lord gives you
the grace to give? It's a pleasure. It's more blessed to give than
to receive. It's a pleasure. It's a joy to
give to Him whom we love. Now, we appear before Him pleading
only to sacrifice. We appear before Him believing
all the gospel, eating up every bit of it. And it's obvious that
our faith has affected our walk because we give the first fruits.
Now look at this fourth thing that he says. Thou shalt not
seethe a kid in his mother's milk. Now like I said, that's
repeated three times in the scripture. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in
its mother's milk. When we appear before God, we
appear not having boiled a kid in its mother's milk. Now you
think of that act. You milk a goat with the intention
of using that milk to boil that mother goat's kid. That's pretty heartless, isn't
it? That's pretty cruel. That's pretty manipulative. Upon the very surface, we see
the cruelness. You milk the unsuspecting mother's
goat with the intention of using the milk you get from her to
cook her own child. How cruel! Now, what is the principle
here? Now, I've read all the commentators
I could find on this, and they all pretty much said the same
thing. They said this was a heathen practice, and that's why God
was commanding against it. It's what the heathen did in
order to to ensure that they would get a successful harvest.
Now, where they came up with that, I don't know, but I know
this. I know that I never think that I need to understand a scripture
based upon something that's not in the scriptures. We're never
told that this was a heathen practice. It just says, don't
see the kid in its mother's milk. Well, I see a lot of problems
with that. Now, for one thing, there's nothing
wrong with milking a goat. Goat milk. Goat cheese. I love
goat cheese. I'm glad people milk goats. I like them. I like
goat cheese. I like all the benefits of that.
There's nothing wrong with killing a kid and eating it. Rise, Peter. Kill and eat. I'm not a hunter. I shot a bird once and that was
all I could handle. It just killed me. I never will
forget. I can remember that. Very acute,
it destroyed me when I saw that little thing flapping its wings
and I felt so bad. I don't hunt. Someone said, you
ever like to hunt? No. But I got no problem with
somebody that does. That's fine if you want to hunt.
So there's nothing wrong with killing the kid and eating it. But if you manipulate that situation,
what you're doing, milking that goat with the intention
of using it to boil that mother goat's child. That's cruel. It's manipulation. Now here's the point I want to
make. A faith that leaves me, a faith that
I possess, a grace that I say that I have, that leaves me to
where I'll do something like that is not the faith of God's
elect. It's not real. A grace, I say,
that will leave me like that. That's the example the Lord used.
And like I said, this was repeated three times. That will make me,
that doesn't deliver me from that kind of action. It's not the faith of God's elect.
It's not real. You see, grace does something
for somebody. When I appear before the Lord,
I appear only pleading the sacrifice of Christ. And I come before
the Lord believing everything he says. I believe the whole
gospel. I eat it all. I might not understand
everything, but I swallow it whole. I believe everything He
says. I believe the Bible is the Word
of God. I believe everything in it. I believe every doctrine
of the Scripture. There's no doctrine of the Scripture. I
say, well, I don't believe that. No, I believe everything God says.
And I'm so satisfied to believe everything He says as He said
it. I don't need to explain it away. No, I believe everything
He said. I believe it's great. It's glorious. It can't be improved
on. We believe the whole Gospel. There's no believing Him apart
from believing the whole Gospel. If you look to Christ only, you'll
believe the whole Gospel. And if you believe the whole
gospel, you'll have a faith that works. You'll have a faith that
does something for you. You'll have a faith that causes
you to give Him the firstfruits. And love doing it. And you wouldn't
want it to be any other way. And if you have this faith that
looks to Christ alone, it'll keep you from milking a goat
and using that milk to boil its child. There's a cruelty in that
that's just, no, a believer is a kind, merciful person. I think of that, that's so manipulative. You know, people manipulate situations. I'm trying to manipulate this
in order to get my end. That's not the way a believer
lives. Not trying to always manipulate things to get my end. Lord, thy
will be done. Whatever thy will is, thy will
be done. order my steps in your word,
let no iniquity have dominion over me, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven." That's the cry of a believer. So if
I come into God's presence, if I appear before Him, I'm going
to appear trusting only Christ, believing
the whole gospel. But faith always works. That's what the Bible teaches.
Faith always works. That doesn't mean I'm bringing
my works and say, look what, no, I've come believing Christ
only, looking nowhere else. But I think of that scripture
in Revelations 14, 13, where it says, blessed are the dead
that die in the Lord. They have rest from their labors.
And their works do what? Follow them. They follow them. There will be works done in this
body. that prove whether I really believe
what I said I believe. That's what that means. We must
all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. That's a sobering thought, isn't
it? We must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ and everyone will receive for the things done
in this body. In this body I believe, in this
body I repent, in this body I love, and there will be works that
evidence whether I really believe what I say I believe. Now, go
back to what James said, show me your faith without your works. Try. I'll prove I don't believe,
I'll just sit here and do nothing. I believe in the sovereignty
of God, therefore I won't do a thing. You know, I think it's
interesting the way some people will twist things like that.
You know, If you believe in the sovereignty of God, does that
mean you won't go out and plant your garden? If God's sovereign,
it'll grow. If not, it won't. I won't do
anything. You know, we don't do anything
that stupid in real life, do we? Yet the things people do
to abuse the truth. Know thereby the grace of God.
May God make this so. I want to do these four things.
I want you to too. May the Lord enable us to do
that. Let's pray together.