Exodus (Lesson 69)

Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delante, Florida.

Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

Hope you'll stay with us for the full half an hour as we continue making our way through the Bible Book of Exodus.

And we are in the 34th chapter.

We've been studying this book now for so long that uh few can remember when we began.

But it's sure been worth the time and sure been worth the journey.

Been enjoying every single verse of this great, great second book in the Old Testament.

Exodus 34.

We're going to start today at verse number nine.

Exodus 34 and verse 9.

Hope you can follow with us.

Get your Bible, look in, if at all possible.

Now, Exodus 34, 9.

The Bible says Moses talking to God, and he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord.

And he had.

God been very gracious to this man, but he didn't want to presume anything.

God didn't know us anything.

O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us.

Now God had said he wouldn't.

He said he would send the people into the promised land, but he would not go with them because of his great disappointment and disgust over the golden calf affair.

My Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

Now here's an amazing thing.

And we see this in all godly men, all great men.

They have risen above the sins which so easily beset their brethren, and yet their love for their brethren compels them to associate themselves with the needs of those whom they love.

Moses was not part of that stiff-necked crowd.

Moses had not participated in the making of an idol, a false god.

Moses had not been dancing around the golden calf.

And the Lord said that people stiff-necked, because they're a stiff-necked people, I don't want to go among them.

And Moses says, Lord, that's exactly why we need you.

Lord, we need you because we're everything that you say we are and worse.

If you abandon us, we'd have no hope.

If you leave us to ourselves, it'll just be destruction and ruin and misery.

Lord, if if we're this bad with you in our midst, how awful would we be if you left us?

Please, please go with us.

But notice he doesn't say pardon their iniquity.

He says pardon our iniquity.

He doesn't say pardon their sin.

He says, pardon our sin.

That's how Daniel prayed in Daniel chapter number nine.

The Lord Jesus Christ, though he knew no sin, yet he humbled himself and was made sin for us, the just, taking the place of the unjust that he might bring us to God.

Humility is always so pleasing to the Lord, because pride, pride is what has wrought so much damage.

And then he asked God, Take us for thine inheritance.

And surely it was so.

Now that that part there's no question about.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 10, Deuteronomy 10 and verse number 9, that Levi, wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren, the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him inheritance, a powerful thing in the Bible.

Deuteronomy 10 · chapter mention

The Lord is Levi's inheritance, Deuteronomy 10 9.

The land of Palestine is Israel's inheritance, Deuteronomy 12 9, Deuteronomy 20, verse 16.

Deuteronomy 20:16

The millennial reign is the Christian's inheritance, Colossians 3.24.

Israel is the Lord's inheritance.

And this prayer of Moses answered many, many times.

Deuteronomy 32 9, Psalm 78 71, Isaiah 19 25, Jeremiah 10 16, Jeremiah 51, 19, Ezekiel 48, 29.

At the second advent, Judah is added as the Lord's inheritance.

Zechariah 2.12, Isaiah 65, 9.

And of course the millennial reign is also the inheritance of Israel.

Ezekiel 47, 14, Psalm 105.11, Isaiah 54.3, and many, many other places.

Now this explains why a Christian is a joint heir.

Romans 8, 17.

And why the near kinsman of Ruth 4.6 could not redeem Ruth, a type of the body of Christ, for he would have marred his own inheritance, which in type is Israel.

So God takes the Israelite people for his own.

He'd already called them his people.

But this idea of inheritance ongoing, please, please, Lord, don't ever change your mind about that.

Don't put us away.

Verse 10, and he said, Behold, I make a covenant.

Before all thy people I do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation.

And all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord.

For it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.

Terrible, not terrible unto thee, but terrible with thee.

That is, my work on your behalf will terrify your enemies, your adversaries.

Observe thou that which I command thee this day.

Behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebzite.

Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee.

Don't, don't be merciful, don't be tolerant.

Don't enter into leagues or agreements or covenants with these people.

I want to exterminate them.

You know, I in my life I have I've said some things that better judgment, had better judgment prevailed, I probably would not have said them.

And I believe the Lord has spared me on many occasions when I've just spoken up and spoken out and put myself in peril.

One afternoon I was in between services.

I'd preached a morning service and was going to preach an evening service on a Caribbean island.

I was by far and away the outsider by nationality.

I was the outsider by race.

I was the outsider by religion.

But as I walked throughout that island and its villages and distributing gospel tracts and seeking to speak to people about the Lord, I ran across the group of marijuana-smoking Rastafarians.

They began to tell me about the Emperor Haile Selassie, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Ethiopian monarch, whom they believed to be their Christ, their Messiah, their Savior.

As we were discussing the virtues of Haile Selassie versus the virtues of the Lord Jesus Christ, I quickly settled upon the one thing that sets our Savior apart from all those worshipped by men, other men, unbelieving men, and I pointed out that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, and that Selassie had rotted in the grave, never to be heard from again.

Now, what I said was absolutely true, but it enraged and infuriated those with whom I was speaking and brought me within an inch of grave danger.

Another similar incident, back in 19, oh, I don't know, 97, 98, somewhere in there, uh my wife and I were privileged to take a trip for a week to the land of Israel.

And we saw the sights and witnessed to the tour guide and witnessed to the bus driver and witnessed as we could uh throughout that uh that uh trip.

And uh the last day of that adventure, the tour guide took us to the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

And it was a very moving experience.

Think of all those people who had died and and why they died and how they died and so forth.

It was it was a very uh touching scene.

As we stood in the in the out out outdoor display there, the uh tour guide, Jewish man, talking about the Holocaust, said, I defy anyone to prove to me that any such thing has happened to any other people as what happened to the Jews in Germany when they were the victims of genocide and attempt to exterminate their race.

And I said to him after afterward, as we were walking along, I didn't say it in front of the entire group, but after we were walking along, I said, Sir, genocide has been part of human history for a long, long time.

In fact, it was the nation of Israel that exterminated seven nations of people to gain control of this very promised land.

Now you know something what I said was absolutely true, and I could back it up from the Bible, but it it was probably a very bad idea to say it where and when I said it.

They're a little touchy about those things over there.

Believe me.

Believe me, it didn't it didn't go well.

But that's what God told them to do.

Take out these Canaanite peoples.

Don't make any leagues with them, don't don't make any agreements with them, don't spare them.

In fact, verse 13 ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves.

That's what God thinks about religious tolerance.

I'm glad we have freedom of religion in America, or I'd probably be in jail.

I'm glad we got freedom of religion in America, but it it's it's it's not a good thing spiritually.

It might be a good thing socially.

The Lord said destroy their altars, break their images, cut down their groves, for thou shalt worship no other God.

So get rid of every single thing that pertains to their God and gods and their religion and their religious practices, get rid of all of it.

For the Lord, whose name is jealous with a capital J, is a jealous God, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat his sacrifice.

You see what the Lord said there?

I don't want you.

I don't want you in an ecumenical worship service.

I don't want you joining hands and sharing meals and having common prayers with people who worship other gods.

It is whoredom.

You are being unfaithful to the one true God, to your God.

Don't do it.

No religious tolerance whatsoever.

Look, the the Muslim who can pray with a Christian is a compromiser, he's denying his religion.

The Jew that can have a meal with a Muslim or a Christian is a compromiser, he's denying his religion.

The Protestant who can fellowship with a Catholic, the Catholic who can fellowship with the Protestant, neither are true to their principles.

People are amazed and disturbed when they see uh Sheikhs and Hindus fighting it out in the Far East, and when they see Muslims and Roman Catholics killing one another in the West.

And they say, well, how can that be?

That's how it that's how it's supposed to be if those people follow the principles of their religions.

Now, as Christians, we don't we don't kill anybody.

We don't wage physical war against anybody.

We're spiritual people, and we worship God in spirit and in truth, and the weapons of our warfare are spiritual, not carnal.

But we're not going to hold hands with people who worship other gods, or people who claim to worship our God and say there's a way to heaven besides faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

If you think you're getting to heaven by turning a cookie into a human body and then eating it, by turning wine into blood and then drinking it, we're not marching arm in arm down the street to show our unity.

We're not unified.

If you think you can get to heaven through immersion in the city water system or sprinkling with uh holy anointed super spiritual tap water, we are not gonna hold hands and pray together because one of us believes the Bible and one of us an infidel.

Now that's that's that's principle set forth in both the Old Testament and the New.

Then what else happens?

Verse 16.

God's worried thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go ahooring after their gods, and make thy sons go ahooring after their gods.

You said, Well, we just, you know, we're in love, and she's pretty, and he's handsome, and uh, you know, he'll worship his God and I'll worship mine.

Well, no, God said no, absolutely not.

Absolutely not.

Uh which God are the children gonna worship?

Which God are you gonna pray to over your meals?

You know what you'll do?

You'll both abandon your gods, or the one who worships the true and living God is gonna sell out every time Samson did, Solomon did.

The Lord said, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

The Lord said, Light has no communion, no fellowship with darkness.

What he said, do you believe that?

What are you gonna do?

Marry Marry somebody doesn't believe the Bible?

Marry somebody doesn't believe in Jesus Christ, and hope, and hope they change?

That's forbidden in both testaments.

Verse 17, thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

Verse 18, the feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep seven days.

Thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib.

For in the month Abib thou cameest out from Egypt.

All that openeth the matrix is mine, every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.

But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck.

You're not going to give it to God, you don't get to keep it yourself.

That's for sure.

All the firstborn of thy sons, thou shalt redeem, and none shall appear before me empty.

You come to God, you come to worship.

You come to worship, you bring sacrifice, you bring offering.

God's worthy of it, he's deserving of it.

I don't have to give.

What do you mean you don't have to give?

You don't owe God anything?

You feel no sense of duty or gratitude or obligation or desire to give to God?

What's wrong with you?

Verse 21, six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest.

In earring time and in harvest thou shalt rest.

See, verse 21.

Well, but what about what if we got a lot of work to do?

What if there's more work than we can get done in six days?

What if it's the time of the year we make the most money?

What if we're getting overtime and it helped pay the bills?

The Lord said, I don't care, I don't care when it is or what it is, or how much money you're giving up, or or how much what what season, don't do it.

See, that's man's problem.

He wants to obey God to the extent he considers it necessary.

And then when he's worshipped God to the extent he considers it necessary, then he he imagines that he's obeyed God.

Well, I did what God told me to do halfway.

I did what God told me to do 25% of the way, I did what God told me to do 90% of the way.

That's man.

That's man.

God says, I want you to work six days and rest on the seventh day.

And then he adds the rest of the verse.

I don't care what time of the year it is or how much you've got to do.

22.

And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks of the first fruits of the wheat harvest and the feast of in gathering.

At the year's end.

That is, I want you to stop and give me thanks for what I've given you and the blessings I've bestowed upon you.

Thrice in the year shall all your men and children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

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.

God said, No, they won't.

Because the enemies were there and I drove them out.

And the people were there and I gave you the land.

Now I can handle those people for you if you will worship me as I tell you to worship me.

But if you don't trust me, well, we can't go worship God, because if we go worship God, the bad guys will come in and take our farms and take our homes and overrun our towns.

The Lord said, No, if you'll come and appear before me all the males, every man, three times a year, while you are gone, I'll look after your property.

That's what he said.

Now either they trusted him or they didn't.

When they didn't trust him, when they didn't obey him, guess what happened?

Enemies came in and overran their land and took their property.

When they did trust God, guess what happened?

He fought for them against all their enemies.

Verse 25.

Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.

Corruption.

Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning.

The first of thy of the first fruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God.

God doesn't want the leftovers, he wants the best.

God doesn't want what you didn't want.

He wants the best.

See Malachi chapter 1 for that.

Malachi 1 · chapter mention

The first of the first fruits of thy land.

The first of the first, not just the first fruits, the first of the first fruits.

Thou should not see the kid in his mother's milk.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words.

After the tenor of these words, I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.

And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights.

He did neither eat bread nor drink water.

You say that's impossible.

No, it's not.

It happened.

Several times.

So the man can't live forty days without food.

Moses did.

Jesus did.

So the man can't live 40 days without water.

Moses did.

Jesus did.

You say, well, if I tried to do that, I'd die.

Well, okay, if you're ever up on a mountain with God, God's there.

God comes down from heaven on a mountain and meets with you.

You probably live forever without any food or water.

You just look, you're either going to believe the Bible or you're not.

So I believe parts of it, then you don't believe it.

Who are you to decide which parts to believe, which parts not to believe?

And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

And it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount that Moses wished not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

Now that could be while he, God talked with him Moses, or while he, Moses, talked with him God, but he didn't know.

Change had taken place in his appearance.

The glory of God had so fallen upon that man, he'd been in the presence of God for so long that he took on God's likeness.

And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him.

Somebody spends so long in God's presence that they take on God's likeness is frightening, is frightening to people who don't spend any time in God's presence and have taken on none of his likeness.

Now, we don't have time on the program today, but next time, God willing, we're going to start out talking about those shining faces.

So you want to be sure and tune in for that.

And Moses called unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him, and Moses talked with them.

And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai.

Until Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.

A veil on his face.

So a head covering is not a veil, and a veil's not a head covering.

A veil is for the face.

And Moses put a veil over his face.

The people they just they couldn't handle that, that radiant glory of God that shone from his face, and so they asked him to cover it.

But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out.

God could handle it.

God likes to see his glory reflected in the face of his people.

And he came out and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.

And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone, and Moses put the veil upon his face again until he went in to speak with him.

Now I don't know about you.

I know a lot more about God than what I've appropriated, put into practice in my life.

How about you?

I probably know a great deal more about God in an intellectual way than I do in a practical or experiential way.

I'm not a mystic, I'm not for moving into a monastery and sitting alone in silence.

God never ordained that.

He never told uh never told us to do that.

But it it's it's a wonderful thing to think that a man in just forty days, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks, just less than six weeks, that a man could abide in God's presence for that length of time.

And when he left the presence of God and entered back into communion with his fellow man, that it was evident to all that he had indeed been in the presence of the Lord.

I guess we've all got a long way to go, don't we?

I guess we've all got a lot to learn about worship and communion and fellowship and holiness, dedication, consecration.

I'd say we've all got a long, long way to go.

Alright, next time, next time, God willing, we'll talk about shining faces.

We'll talk about veils, and we might even move on forward into chapter 35.

But until then, you've got time to write to us.

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