You know, there's something very
powerful about meeting with a group of people who want to worship
the Lord Jesus Christ and hear the gospel. That's a powerful,
supernatural thing, and I feel so blessed and privileged to
be here. I've entitled this message Blessings
and obedience. Now note the order of the title. I didn't call it obedience and
blessings, but blessings and obedience. Our blessing does
not begin with our obedience. Our blessing begins with his
blessing. And obedience comes as a fruit
of his blessing. Now, let's read this passage
of scripture together in Luke, I mean, Exodus chapter 23, beginning
in verse 20. Behold, I send an angel before thee. And the angel that he's speaking
of is not the angels that we just heard sung about. This is
the uncreated angel, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you're going
to see that as we read this passage of scripture together. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is God's blessing. Behold,
I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring
thee into the place which I have prepared. Now, there's God's
blessing in it. And next we have obedience. Beware
of him. And obey his voice. Provoke him
not. For he will not pardon your transgressions. For my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey
his voice and do all that I speak, then here's the blessing, I will
be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine angels shall go before
thee, and bring thee into the Amorites, and the Hittites, and
the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
and I'll cut them off." Now here's the blessing, the obedience. Thou shalt not bow down to their
gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works. But thou shalt
utterly overthrow them and quite break down their images, and
you shall serve the Lord your God. And here's the blessing
in that obedience. He shall bless thy bread and
thy water, and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.
There shall nothing cast their young nor be barren in thy land.
The number of thy days I will fulfill. I will send my fear
before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt
come, and I will make all thine enemies to turn their backs unto
thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive
out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee.
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest
the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply
against thee by little and little. I will drive them out from before
thee until thou be increased. and inherit the land, and I will
set thy bounds from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines,
and from the desert unto the river. For I will deliver the
inhabitants of the land unto your hand, and thou shalt drive
them out before thee. Now here is obedience. Thou shalt
make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not
dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me. For
thou shalt serve their gods. It will surely be a snare unto
thee. Now, this passage of scripture
begins with God's blessing. I'll send my angel before thee. And he then tells them of the
temporal blessings that they will receive in obedience and
the trouble that they'll bring upon themselves in disobedience. And indeed, throughout the history
of Israel, if you read the Old Testament, you know this is so.
When they obeyed God's commands, he blessed them temporally, materially,
in a miraculous way. And when they disobeyed God's
commands, he brought great trouble into their lives. You cannot
read their history without coming to that conclusion. But how clearly
we see the gospel in this passage of scripture. This is about something
much greater than temporal blessings. Now, I like temporal blessings. I'm thankful for them and I want
to have them, but it's OK if I don't. But I must have spiritual
blessings. And those are the blessings that
in reality, I'm most interested in. The spiritual blessings that
there are in Christ Jesus. Now look at verse 20 once again. Behold, I sinned. an angel before thee. Now, this
angel is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you go on reading in verse
20, Behold, I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way
and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware
of him and obey him, his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not pardon your transgression. Now, who's the only one who has
the right to pardon transgression? Christ himself. Remember when
they said, who is this that forgives sins? Only God can do that. They
were right. Only God can do it. The Lord
Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. He's got the authority
to forgive my sins. Look what it says in verse 7, the last
part of verse 21, for my name is in him. God's name is all
that he is. All of his attributes dwell in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God. So this angel, this
blessing he's speaking of, this angel he sends is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, he says, behold, I send an angel before thee.
And isn't it great having him before us? Every aspect of salvation,
every doctrine, I don't care what you're talking about, Christ
always comes first in it. He is before all things. And
by Him, all things consist. Every blessing we have has Christ
before it. Election. Isn't it wonderful
to be chosen by God? Why did He choose you? He chose
you in Christ. Christ is before. He's before
all things. You know, one of these days,
we're going to learn real clearly that salvation was all together
for Christ's sake. We believe it now, but you know
what? I'm really going to understand it. I'm going to understand it
when I hear my name called on Judgment Day and He goes before
me and answers for me, present and accounted for. I'm going
to understand real clearly at that time that salvation was
holy for His sake. And I love it that way, don't
you? He'll go before you. My angel shall go before thee. Isn't that a blessing to have
Christ before you? My angel shall go before thee
to keep thee in the way. Now Christ is the way. He said,
I am the way. He didn't say, I'll show you
the way. He said, I'm it. I love that. Only the Lord can speak
like this. I am the way. I am the truth.
I'm the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. He is the way and I stay in the
way because he keeps me in the way. That's the reason I persevere. He keeps me in the way. Why haven't
I fallen away? One reason He's kept me. We're
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. I'm kept
by the great angel, the Lord Jesus Christ. He keeps me in
the way to bring me into the place which I have prepared.
He will bring us into heaven, the place that God has prepared.
Believer, you'll get there for one reason. He brings you there. He brings you there. I love that. He brings me there. There's no
way that somebody that Christ died for will miss heaven. Christ
brings him in. How certain is this? Well, according
to scripture, I'm already glorified. I'm already there in the person
of my great Redeemer, the one I'm united with. He's already
in heaven, and as He's already in heaven, I'm already there,
I'm already glorified. That's how certain this is. Now,
this is God's blessing. I'll send an angel before thee
to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which
I have prepared. Now, that covers every aspect
of God's salvation. This is a great blessing, isn't
it? Now, let's go on reading what he says next. And I think
this is so interesting because the natural man objects to this
and they think it will lead to indifference and spiritual sloth
and fatalism. You're not giving people a motive
for obedience. I mean, if they're already in heaven, why obey? Why worry about anything? That's
the way the natural man responds to this kind of teaching. But
look what the Lord says, verse 21. Beware of him and obey his
voice. Provoke him not, for he'll not
pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. Beware of
him, be afraid of him, obey his voice. Now, listen real carefully. Faith. Now, I'm not going to
be saved without faith. You know that. Faith is obedience
to his command. We are commanded to believe the
gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's God's command to you. And thou shalt be saved. And
faith is obeying that command. Repentance is obedience to the
command of God. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. When I repent, I'm obeying his
command. I'm obeying his voice. Love to
Christ is obedience. He that keepeth my commandments
He is the love of me. You keep the commandments of
the gospel. You believe the gospel. You love his people. It's not
just admiring his commandments or knowing what they are, but
it's actually keeping them. Keeping them. I keep his commandments
when I believe the gospel. I actually keep his commandments.
When I love you, I keep his commandments. That's the person who will be
saved, the person who obeys his commandments. As a matter of
fact, worship. Worship. What's the best definition of
worship? Obedience. You want to know what
worship is? It's obeying his voice. We will not be saved apart from
obedience to his voice. I said, provoke him not. If we
fail to beware of him and obey his voice, and if we provoke
him, it says he will not pardon our sin. Can you see that? If I don't obey the gospel, my
sin will not be pardoned. There's no forgiveness of sin
apart from obedience to the gospel. And the person who does not keep
his commandments will not be saved. Now, I believe. In the eternal security of God's
elect, everybody that Jesus Christ died for, they must be saved
and they cannot fall away. It's impossible. And does that,
do I use that as a springboard for disobedience? No. No, I know I'm secure in Christ. And that makes me give myself
to him. I want to be obedient to him,
don't you? I want to obey everything he
says to me. He says, obey his voice. Don't
provoke him for he won't pardon your transgressions. My name
is in him. Verse 22. But if thou shalt indeed obey
his voice, and that's believing the gospel, and do all that I
speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary
unto thine adversaries." Now, in obeying the gospel, we have
this blessing. He says, I'm going to be an enemy
to your enemies. Now, I've got enemies. I've got enemies. You know who the first one that
comes to my mind? My sin. My sin. My sin is my enemy. My sinful nature is my enemy. I could go on and on about my
enemies. Death is my enemy. But He's going
to be an enemy to my enemies. My sin, in believing the Gospel,
He puts it away. Death, He's overcome it. He's destroyed it. And anybody
that's an enemy to me, the Lord counts that person His enemy. That gives you some confidence,
doesn't it? This is true of every believer. If I'm a believer,
anybody who's an enemy to me, the Lord counts that person His
enemy. Remember what He said to Saul
as he persecuted believers, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now, Christ was at the right
hand of the Father. He couldn't do anything to Christ, but if
He touched His people, He was touching the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. That's how real union with the Lord Jesus Christ is.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? You see,
God's elect's enemies, all of them are going to be destroyed.
Now, look at verse 23. He says, For mine angel shall
go before thee, and bring thee unto the Amorites, and the Hittites,
and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
and I'll cut them off." Now, the promised land had these people
in it, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of God, will cut off
these enemies that are spoken of. And he'll separate you from
them, and he'll cut them off, and they will be no more. Now,
these six nations represent our enemies, and there's a meaning
to every one of these names. And you want to know who my big
enemies are? Well, here they are. Amorites.
Now, that word is taken out of the word that means to boast
self. That's an enemy, isn't it? I
tell you, even now, the pride and self-righteousness that's
in my heart, some of the thoughts that pass through my heart absolutely
scare me to death. How could I be so proud and self-righteous? That's an enemy. But he's promised
he's going to cut him off. Hittite means terror and fear. That's talking about the fear
of unbelief, the fear you have when you can't just trust the
Lord. And you're afraid about what's going to happen. You're
afraid about what this person is going to do or what that person
is going to do or what's going to happen to you. You're afraid.
What's going to happen? That's the opposite of faith. You see,
faith believes God. Faith rests in God. The outcome's
in His hands. But when I'm scared to death,
that's the fear of unbelief. What an enemy that is. The parasites. That means unwalled. No restraints. You want to talk
about an enemy? The thought of not having His
restraining grace? The thought of not being restrained?
You know, I want the Lord to restrain me, don't you? I want
Him to hedge me up. I want Him to keep me. I want
Him to not let me... I want to be a robot. I really
do. Somebody says, what you believe
makes robots into people? Well, I think that's a good thing.
I'd like to be his robot, wouldn't you? Programmed to do his will?
I want to be restrained. I don't want to be left to myself.
I need his restraints. It scares me to death to think
of not being restrained. Do you have any idea how wicked
you would be right now if God removed the restraints? You and
I would both be as bad as Satan himself. Do you believe that?
It's so. And we need his restraining grace
that, oh, unwalled. That scares me to death. Canaanites. That means a merchant. Or a peddler. Somebody who sells something.
It has something to do with salvation by works. Salvation by works
is my enemy. My enemy. I can't be brought
into heaven if I'm going to be saved by my works. Salvation
by works is my enemy. A Hivite means a villager, a
part of this world. Don't you? You know, I hate the
world. I do. I hate this present evil
world. And I hate my flesh that loves
it. This is my enemy. This is my enemy. And I need
it cut off. And then Jebusites means trodden and polluted. Trodden
and polluted. Now you can see why these are
our enemies. Look down at verse 29. Look what God says. He says, I will not drive them
out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate
and the beast of the field multiply against thee. Now, he says, you
go into this land and I'm not going to drive them out all at
once. They're still going to be there,
he says, by little, look in verse 30, by little and little. I will
drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased and inherit
the land." Now, we still have this flesh. After they entered
the promised land, they still had to battle these enemies.
And God said, I'm not going to drive them out all at once. Now,
don't you find you still have to deal with the Amorites in
your own heart and in your own soul? You still have to deal
with the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites
and the Jebusites. Yet the Lord God in wisdom for
our good, for our good, does not get rid of them immediately.
You know, the Lord could make it to you never sinned again,
couldn't he? He surely could. He could make it to where you
never even had another sinful thought again, if he was so pleased to
do it. But somehow it would not be for our benefit just yet. There would be no need for faith
believing what you cannot see. Now understand this. Faith is
believing what you cannot see. It's the evidence of things not
seen. Now I was thinking about that.
Hold your finger there and turn with me to Romans chapter 6. Verse 11. Likewise. Romans Chapter 6 verse
11. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be. Dead indeed. Truly. Unto sin. But alive unto God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you reckon yourself to be
dead to sin. Sin has absolutely nothing to
say to you. You're dead to sin. Seems like if I was dead to it,
I wouldn't be so sinful. Seems like if I was dead to sin,
I wouldn't have these sinful thoughts. I wouldn't be dealing
with the Amorites and the Hittites and the Jebusites and all these.
Seems like if I was dead to sin, that wouldn't be the case. If God says you're dead to sin,
are you dead to sin? You're called upon to believe
it. You can't see it. But do you
believe it? You know, that word reckon, reckon
yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, truly to sin and alive
and to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That word reckon is the
word impute. Impute. God imputed my sin to
the Lord Jesus Christ. It became His, truly and really. He died for it. God took the
righteous obedience of His Son and imputed it to me. And it
is mine. It is mine. And in light of that,
I can impute myself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And I might not be able to see
it, but I believe it. You know, we walk by faith and
not by sight. So this is actually a blessing
that the Lord allows the Amorites and the Jebusites and the Hivites
and so on to be in our midst, but they'll be done one day.
They'll be gone one day. He's promised I'll cut them off.
Now, be patient with me. Be patient with me. I'm a work
in progress. I still have those Jebusites
running around, and I've got those Amorites, and those Hittites,
and Hittites, or however you pronounce them, Perizzites. I've
got them, so do you. You know that. The Lord said,
I'm not going to take them all out. I'm just going to take them
out little by little. But one of these days, He's going to
get rid of all of them. So be patient with me until then.
And by the grace of God, I'll be patient with you. Ought not
we to be patient with one another? Surely we should. Let's go back
to our text in Exodus 23. Verse 24. Now, he's talked about these
blessings. Now, here's another act of obedience we're called
upon to obey. Thou shalt not bow down to their
gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works, but thou shalt
utterly overthrow them and quite break down their images. There
is no room for the toleration of false religion. He that does not hate the false
does not love the truth. David said, I esteem all thy
precepts in all things to be right, and I hate every false
way. Ye that love the Lord hate evil. Do not give a false gospel any
religious respect. Now, don't do it. It's anti-Christ. It's anti-God. And I'm not going
to respect that. You know, a lot of folks, they
get upset about somebody who's intolerant of the false gospel. Well, you see, we take it personal
because this is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ we're speaking
about. That's why we get so upset over that which is contrary to
him. Now, do not tolerate that which is contrary to the gospel. It says don't adopt their methods.
Don't do after their works. Don't be conformed to this world.
I was talking to a preacher recently. And he was talking about, maybe
you've heard of that book, The Purpose Driven Church and The
Purpose Driven Life and all that kind of stuff. But that's taken
the country by storm. It's becoming very popular. And
I remember the preacher said, now I know that their theology
is wrong. I know their theology is wrong, but perhaps we can
adopt some of their methods because they really work. Don't do after their works. What
if they do work? That's taking that the end justifies
the means mentality. Don't pay any respect to a false
gospel that's anything contrary to the gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Christ Jesus. Don't adopt their methods. If
the methods are wrong, the message is going to go out the window.
You can just count on it. No utterly overthrow and break
down their images. Verse 25, and you shall serve
the Lord your God and he shall bless thy bread and thy water,
and I'll take sickness away from the midst of thee. We're servants
of the living God. Isn't it wonderful to be his
servant? You know, my bread is blessed. My water is blessed. Everything in my life is a blessing.
Everything. Verse 26. There shall nothing cast their
young, nor be barren in thy land. The number of thy days I will
fulfill. I'll send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the
people to whom thou shalt come. And I'll make all thine enemies
turn their backs unto thee. And I'll send hornets before
thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the
Hittite from before thee. I'll not drive them out from
before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate. See,
it would not be for their benefit for them to take them all out
at once. And the beasts of the field multiply against thee by
little and little. I will drive them out before
thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land." Now, here
we have God's providence. What a blessing that is. He says,
I'm going to send the hornet before you. I'm going to drive
them out before you. Now, here's a precious verse
of Scripture. Everybody in here knows. Would
to God that we could hear it like we've heard it the first
time. And we know that all things work together for good. To them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. You know that was true
yesterday. Everything that happened to you yesterday. And last year. And ten years
ago. It was all part of God's purpose.
No accidents with Him. Doesn't matter what it was. All
things work together for good. To them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. It's true right now.
And beloved, it'll be true tomorrow. I'll drive them out, not all
at once. That wouldn't be for our good.
Listen to this, and I want to say this carefully, but I want
you to hear what I'm saying. Even our sin. Serves its purpose. It forces us to look nowhere
but Christ alone. And it keeps us looking to him
only as our only righteousness before God. Your sin does that
to you, doesn't it? Now, this is not looking for
excuses. You know, Paul knew when he said,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, and they said,
what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace
may abound? And I'm sure an unbeliever will hear that and they'll say,
well, if that's the case, sin all you want. Grace is going
to abound. But that's not going to be the believer's response
to that. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? I am not in any way
giving an excuse for anybody's sin under any circumstance, but
it's still true. My sin makes me really trust
Christ only as the only righteousness I have. It really does. And I rejoice in Him. And here's
God's promise, verse 30, by little and little, I'll drive them out
from before thee, until thou be increased and inherit the
land. And I'll set thy bounds from the Red Sea, even to the
sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river. For
I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and
thou shalt drive them out before thee." Now, verse 32, he's talking
about this blessing, and here's obedience. Thou shalt make no
covenant with them, nor with their gods. Now, what's a covenant?
A covenant is an agreement. between two parties. Make no
covenant with the men of this world. The covenants, well, if
you do this, I'll do that. If you do this, I'll do that.
No, I'm not to make any covenant with this world, evil communications,
corrupt good manners. Be not conformed to this world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you
may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God You remember what James said?
Whosoever is a friend of the world is an enemy to God. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world, for all that's of the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passes
away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God
abides forever. Now, we're not to enter into
covenant with the religion of this world, with the maxims of
this world, with the principles of this world. It's corrupt. Whoever's a friend of the world
is the enemy of God. Now, does that mean we walk around
with our noses up in the air and say, stand by thyself and
come not near unto me? I'm holier than thou. And we
just stay away from everybody and try to keep ourselves in
some kind of insulated little environment. No, this world is
also the world that God so loved that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. This world is the world we're
called upon to be a light unto it. Ye are the light of the world. We're to go into all the world
to preach the gospel to every creature. Now, we're not trying. Listen to me real carefully.
We're not trying to reform worldly religion. We're not trying to improve worldly
religion, just let it go. Let it go. But we are seeking
to be a witness to this world concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And we certainly want to preach
the glorious gospel to them that saved us. We want to preach the
gospel to those people, the same gospel that has saved us. I want
everybody to hear the gospel, don't you? May God enable us to be a blessing
to this world in that sense. Let's pray together.