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 had done, whether it be good or bad. 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 divided 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 in hunger 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
for 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, 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. 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 a year. And 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
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'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 twenty five and twenty six. 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 twenty five. He
says, Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice. With Leavitt. Neither shall the sacrifice of
the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning. The first
of the first fruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house
of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not see the 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 see the boil it or cook it
in its mother's milk. Now, here's four things to do.
I'm to bring his sacrifice. Without living. 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's 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 gain, 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 righteousness. 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 accounts. 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 that 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 in 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 living, 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 just appeared that way.
I know I can't see 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 what the first thing I think of? You're a hypocrite.
That's the first thing I think of. I mean, I know I am. I know
I am. Everybody is to some extent. I realize that. But I'll tell
you what, in this thing of 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 until 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, 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 instructions regarding
eating the Passover, eating the lamb. And they shall eat the flesh
in that night Roast with fire. And 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 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 raw. 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 him 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're a
watered down gospel that 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? It'd 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 first fruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house
of the Lord thy God. Now, in coming into the Lord's
presence and appearing before God, he says you're to bring
the first of the firstfruits of the land. You see, faith in
Christ works. It does something. It makes somebody
bring the firstfruits. Now, faith in Christ is faith
in Christ alone. But you know, faith is never
alone. It never is. worketh by love. That's what Paul says in Galatians,
chapter five, verse six. 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 comes up the first of the
first fruit. You take it up and 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 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 are 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, 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've proved 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 nine, he's talking about
the same thing here. He says, seven weeks shall 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 firstfruits. 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 freewill offering from thy
hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as
the Lord thy God hath blessed thee." How much did 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 firstfruits.
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
see a kid in his mother's milk. Now, like I said, that's repeated
three times in the scripture. Thou shalt not see the kid in
its mother's milk. When we appear before God, we
appear not having boiled the 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 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 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 the 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. 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. I mean, that's rye feeder. 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 can remember that. very acutely it destroyed me
when I saw that little thing flapping its wings and I felt
so bad and I don't hunt. Someone said, you ever like to
hunt? No, but I got no problem with somebody that does. You
know, I mean, 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,
you know what you're doing, you're 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 all. 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 that
says, 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. 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, 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 come believing Christ only,
looking nowhere else. But I think of that scripture
in Revelation 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. sobering thought in it. We must
all stand for 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. 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. And 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 due
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.