Exodus - Don't Compromise on God's Commands - Exodus: 21-23

Welcome to the roots, where it's all about Jesus.

We love God, we love people, we reach the lost,

and we make disciples.

It's been a good week. It's good to see you guys.

Me and my family.

We've been watching the Olympics and you guys been following

those Olympics.

It's crazy. I think it's the first.

Time that we've ever watched the Olympic or the Winter

Olympics this closely.

But I'm just gonna say it. Figure skating is pretty cool.

It's not.

Yeah, it's impressive, all right, That's all I want to say.

It is very impressive. And whether or not you have.

Been or haven't been following the Olympics, maybe if you've

been scrolling on your social media, you still see things

about the Olympics, whether it's a scandal here or or

or some kind of crazy situation that's going on or

kind of big upset.

Is when we open our phones.

Very often we find that not only just when it

comes to Olympics or sports, but there's all kinds of

of polarizing things out there in the world. We open

up our phones, we read the or watch the news,

listen to the radio, whatever. However you get your information

about what's going on in the world. Very often it's

never everything's great and everyone's getting along. It'd be great

if that was the case, but most of the time,

it's here's this issue, and here are the different sides

of this issue. Here, here's this problem, and here's what

these people are saying versus what these people are saying.

So many different sides of different issues, debates and topics.

Everywhere we look, whether it's immigration, taxes, abortion, economy, healthcare, sports,

on and on we go. Everyone has an opinion, everyone

has a side, everyone has a take, and in most cases,

in our fallen world, the only way that we can

really come to some time hype of agreement is to

try and find somewhere where we can meet in the middle.

We try and find some place where you can reach

across the aisle, or maybe we can find compromise, especially

if it's on some kind of social issue. If you're married,

you know exactly what I'm talking about. Compromise is a

necessary component. And if you're married and you don't know

what compromise is, then any of the pastors here would

love to do marriage counseling with you. And here, spouse

is because it will serve you and glorify God. There's

a famous TV show that describes compromise as halfway happy.

But compromise isn't always a good thing, not only because

you end up halfway happy, but usually it's because something

had to give in order for you to meet in

the middle on something. Something had to give in order

for you to have compromise. So my question to you

today is what gives? What are the things in your

life you were willing to diminish for the sake of compromise.

Sometimes it's good things.

Sometimes it's selfish desires that maybe you're like, I need

to lay these down, I need to die to self

in order to serve another person. One of the big

reasons that serves really well when it comes to relationships.

Sometimes it's watching that movie that your kids want to

watch for the thousandth time, Like I've seen this, I

really want to watch that show.

But you're like, you know what, We'll compromise and do

it your way.

But for every single one of us, there are things

in our life that we feel like maybe we need

to lower our standards or our principles in order to

make other people happy. And like I said, Sometimes that

is okay, sometimes that is necessary. But what are the

things you're unwilling to compromise on? What are the things

that you are not willing to compromise on. Maybe it's

that you want to make sure that your kids get

a good education.

Maybe you refuse to take on debt.

Hopefully it's it's you will not compromise your your faithfulness

towards your spouse. Maybe it's other things, like maybe you

refuse to marry a guy who isn't over six feet tall.

Maybe it's that you.

Won't let other maybe you won't let other things take

priority over worshiping the Lord on Sunday with his people,

go hawks. What are the things you are unwilling to

compromise on? Here's the deal, guys, here's the deal. Let's

just put this all out there. Last Sunday was the

Super Bowl, okay, and last Sunday we looked at in

our text about how the Lord said, you shall serve

no other person but me, you put me first. And

now this week we're talking about not compromising. And I

didn't write this book. I'm just telling you what it says.

So the Lord has message a message for you today,

and I just I really hope that you were listening.

Like I said, we have lots of places in our

life and we feel like we have to compromise. And

sometimes that's okay. But what sets the standard for what

can be compromised and what can't. Well, as believers, we

know that there is one authority that sets the standard

for us, and that is God.

God is that authority.

God has spoken and in his word told us He's

set a standard for us. And as we're going to

see in our text today, God calls or God's call

to his people is clear. God is clear when he

speaks about the expectations that he has for his people,

and it's very clear that we can never compromise when

it comes to him.

Or his word.

So we're gonna read our text, pray, jump right into it.

We're gonna be covering chapters twenty one through twenty three

of Exodus. If you turn there with me now, we're

only going to actually be reading the tail end of

these texts. It's a lot of text to cover, so

we're just gonna read the end of it before we

get into it. We have bibles in the back. If

you don't have one, please go grab one out.

On the lobby.

It's table for you to keep. But Exodus twenty three,

we're gonna be starting in verse twenty this is Behold,

I send an angel before you to guard you on

your way and to bring you to the place that

I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey

his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will

not pardon your transgression, for MY name is in him.

But if you carefully obey his voice and do all

that I say, then I will be an enemy to

your enemies, in an.

Adversary to your adversaries.

When my angel goes before you and brings you to

the Amorites and the Hittites, and the Parizites, and the Canites,

and the Hiptes and the Jebusites, and I blot them out,

you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them,

nor do as they do. But you shall utterly overthrow

them and break their pillars and pieces. You shall serve

the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread

and your water. And I will take sickness away from

among you. None shall miscarry or be bearing in the land.

I will fulfill the number of your days. I will

send my terror before you, and will throw into confusion

all the people against whom you shall come. And I

will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive

out the Hies and the Canites and the Hittites from

before you. I will not drive them out from before

you in one year, lest the land become desolate and

the wild beast multiply against you. Little by little, I

will drive them out from before you until you have

increased and possessed the land. And I will set your

border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philipstines,

and from the wilderness to the Euphrates. For I will

give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and

you shall drive them out before you. You shall make

no covenant with them in their gods. They shall not

dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me.

For if you serve their gods, it will surely be

a snare to you. This is God's word. Let us pray, Lord,

we lift up this time to you. We just asked

that as we look at your commands, as we look

at your laws, that we would see them for the beauty,

the beauty that they are the instruction and help that

they are meant to be.

Let it.

Just ask that your word would pierce our hearts today,

it would be planted and start to take root and

bear fruit in our lives because of it. Help us

walk away with conviction, Help us walk away with a

renewed mind after the pattern that you set for us.

In Jesus name, we pray Amen.

So in our text today, we're going to see that

God is going to tell his people to obey his

voice and not compromise on his commands. God's going to

tell his people obey my voice and do not compromise

on my commands. If you're taking notes, the title and

main point for today's text is short and straight to

the point. Don't compromise on God's commands. Don't compromise on

God's commands.

And if today is.

Your first day joining us, we've been going through a

series in the Book of Exodus where we see God

delivers God demands and God dwells with his people. And

so far we've seen God powerfully save his people out

of Egypt where they were enslaved, that they were in

bondage and oppression, and God saved them out of Egypt

provided for them while they were in the wilderness to

spite their grumbling, and as we looked at last week,

God brought them to Mount Sinai, where he showed his glory,

that of a consuming fire coming down in a cloud

that completely engulfed the mountain, where God spoke audibly like

thunder the Ten Commandments before the entire congregation. And the

sight and sound of this was so terrifying that the

people told Moses, can we just make sure that never

happens again? We would much prefer it if you talk

to God for us, and then you and then you

just tell us whatever he says. So God was going

to speak to Moses only now, and Moses was going

to now relay the message. God had put the fear

of him into the people, and he told us that

he did it on purpose, that he had put this

fear in reverence into the people on purpose so that

the people would not sin.

Last week.

Our main point was that if we don't fear God

as we should, then we won't love God as we ought.

So the people tell this to Moses, and Moses we

see at the end of that whole interaction he draws

near to God's presence, and now God's actually going to

give Moses a bunch more commands. Those ten were kind

of setting a foundation as we looked at last week,

but there's a lot more commands of an instruction that

God wants to give to his people so that they

know what it looks like to be God's people. As

we looked at last week, the ten commandments, which can

be summed up by loving God and loving people, are

the basis for all the other commandments. And today we're

going to see that God is very clear on what

he commands his people to do. So there's kind of

three ways that we're going to break up today's text. First,

we're going to cover that God's commands are clear. God's

commands are clear. We're going to see that God calls

us to obey, and finally we're going to look at

God warns us not to compromise. So at the end

of chapter twenty, we see Moses enter the cloud and

God kind of just gets right to it. He's like, hey,

remind the people when you go back down there and

talk to him that they heard me speak. Remind them

that they heard me and they were witnesses of that,

And how they're.

Not to make idols.

And when they make alters to me, they're not to

use any tool on them. They're just supposed to make

them out of rocks. Don't shape them, just build these

altars out of rocks. And then we get to chapter

twenty one, and for three chapters, God is going to

give command after command, with caveat after caveat, with clause

after clause, of these many different situations. So Exodus twenty one,

Verse one says, now, these are the rules that you

shall set before them. So he takes a pause and

he says, these are all the rules moving. These are

the rest of the things that I want you to

tell the people. Say, God's commands are clear. God commands

are God's commands are clear. It's funny because often when

we read our Old Testament, this is the hard part.

These are some of the hard parts of our Bible reading.

We get through these lists of commands, and sometimes it's

actually hard to feel like it's clear.

Our eyes glaze over.

As we read command after command, clause after clause, case

law after case law. And sometimes that's just because we

don't know what we're reading. We have no idea how

what we're reading could apply to us. You're talking about

what happens with your OX. I don't have an OX.

How does this apply to me?

Or maybe when we're reading it we're offended by the

things we're reading. We're going like, I do not get this.

I don't understand how this is a good thing. I

don't understand what's going on here. It's very confusing. You

can feel that way. But there are a couple things

I want to address at the outset that I think

will be helpful for when we approach these parts of Scripture,

Because first off, we might be thinking, aren't we Christians,

aren't we free from the law? Aren't we done with

this whole commandment thing? Those a bunch of random things

that God wanted them to obey at that point in time.

And yes, we're Christians. Yes, in a sense we're free

from the law. And they weren't random. They were not

random laws. There was a very specific purpose that God

had in giving these commands to the people. Yes, we're Christians,

but we are not supposed to be lawless. God has

always had clear expectations for how his people ought to live.

God has never left his people in the dark on

what he expects of them. I mean, if you think

about it, Jesus himself, So before you start getting mad

at me, if you're talking about the law or commandments

or anything like that. Jesus himself, when he sends out

his disciples into the world to make more disciples, baptizing them,

what does he tell them to do. He tells them

go into the nations, make disciples, baptize them, and teach

them to obey everything I've commanded you. Jesus has absolutely

no problem with saying you're gonna go and you're gonna

make disciples of me. You're gonna go make other Christians,

and you're gonna teach them not only about the saving grace,

the repentance, and the faith that we can put in

Jesus and be saved from our sins, but you're gonna

teach them to obey me. And you'd be like, well,

that was just one time that Jesus said that, So

maybe that means something else. Okay, Well, let's look at

a couple other ones. John fourteen fifteen. This is pretty clear.

Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Oof.

How about this one John fifteen fourteen. You are my

friends if you do what I command you. The apostle

John even writes in his letter, he says, by this,

we know that we love the children of God when

we love God and obey as commands our commandments. For

this is the love of God that we keep his commandments,

and his commandments are not burthensome. So we're told that

if we actually love God, we will obey God. To

love God is to obey God, which is funny because

first and foremost of God's commands.

Is what that we love them.

God starts off with, hey, love me, You worship me alone,

You serve me alone, You put me first. You don't

worship idols, you don't worship created things that I made.

You worship the creator. And that's me. He's revealed himself

to the people.

But this brings us to our first problem, and it's

actually the first purpose of the law, and that is

that it reveals that we are sinners. We're given commandments,

we're given law, and in the first purpose of that

thing is to reveal that we are sinners. Look at this,

Romans seven seven says, what then shall we say that

the law is sin by no means?

Yet, if I had not.

If it had not been for the law, I would

have not known sin, for I would have not oh

my goodness, for I would not have known what it

is to covet. If the law had not said you

shall not covet. Romans seven thirteen says, did that which

is good then bring death to me? By no means?

It was sin producing death in me through what is good,

in order that sin might be shown to be sin,

and through the commandment, might become sinful beyond measure.

Thanks Paul.

Paul is saying here is that we are given God's

commandments to see how far we fall from God's standard.

That God set a standard, and he says, this is

my standard. And very quickly we're not like, oh sick,

I already fall in line with that perfect We go

like oh snap. And then there's another law and we're like,

oh snap, I fall short of this. It shows us

that we're sinners, sinners who can't save ourselves, because if

we try and save ourselves by works, we realize that

before we've ever started, we've already failed the test, We've

already failed the metrics. So good news is you can't

work your way to salvation. But it doesn't make you

feel kind of stuck. And that's why we have the

good news of Jesus, because Jesus is the only one

who ever came, who perfectly obeyed the law, who perfectly

walked in accordance with all that God would have. But

not only did he perfectly obey, but he also came

and died in our place for those who don't perfectly obey.

So Jesus lived the perfect life and died the death

in our place, and he raised on the third day,

showing his proof and victory over sin and death. That

if we put our faith in Jesus and his finished

work on the cross, that we will be saved by

the grace of God. Because we can't save ourselves. We

just read it the law and we go, oh, well,

I am in trouble. I don't measure up. So if

we put our faith in Jesus, Christ's obedience is credited

to us, and being in Christ, we will have died

with Christ to our sin and will one day be

raised with him. So it's interesting that this first purpose

of the law is to reveal our sin. So you

might be like the sin I don't like these commandments,

but really, the first purpose of these commandments is to

show us that we need a savior. They reveal our

need for a savior. So what about once we do

put our faith in Jesus. A lot of us sitting

in this room, we're like, all right, I'm a Christian,

I'm a believer, So now I don't have to do

anything with the law. Right, Okay, I get it. I'm

a sinner. Now we're all done with the law. Right,

what are we to do with it? Well, there's some

more things to consider. This is what Second Paul writes

in two Timothy. He says, all scripture is breathed out

by God, improfitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and

for training in righteousness, that the Man of God may

be complete equipped for every good work.

All scripture.

There is actually not on the screen. But I wrote

this in my notes. It's Romans fifteen four says for

whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,

that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures,

we might have hope. So the things that have been

written beforehand, we're written for our instruction. And it's crazy

that Paul's writing this, because it's the early Church where

at best, the letters are just starting to circulate. If

you're lucky, you might have an apostle or a disciple

of an apostle at your church to teach you what

the Bible says. But primarily what they have at their

disposal is the Old Testament. Paul, when he shows up,

he's not like, Hey, I wrote these new letters that

you should check out and they'll really convince you about Jesus.

He's like, no, let's go to the Old Testament. Everything

we need is in here. And a lot of the

New Testament is either showing how Christ fulfilled the Old

Testament or explaining how the Old Testament was either fulfilled

in Jesus and applies it to us today, or how

some of the Old Testament things are still for us today.

It's basically saying like, you can't get rid of the

Old Testament. It is still scripture and it's still useful

for Christians today. And all scripture does include the commandments.

But secondly, as we looked at last week, all the

laws can be summed up by two commandments. Look at

this Matthew twenty two, and he said to him, you

shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the great and first commandment. And a second

is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And listen to this.

On These two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

He's saying, your entire testament can be summed up in

these two commandments. And even Paul tells us in Romans

writing to Christians, he says, Oh, no one anything except

to love each other.

For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall

not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet

and any other commandment are summed up in this word.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no

wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of

the law. Now, why all of this is so important

is because as Christians, we know that we're still called

to love one another.

We know that we don't.

We're like, I'm Christian, I get to be lawless now

and I don't have to love anybody.

We don't believe that we know.

Jesus very clearly tells us that we are to love God,

and we are to love our neighbor. And it's funny

because all Paul is saying is, you're so worried about

the law, but if you just love your neighbor, you're

fulfilling the law. You're doing exactly what you ought to

be doing in the first place, which is hard. A

lot of times we're just like, well, I'm trying to

dot all my eyes and cross all my t's to

understand that I'm doing all these things to be right

with God or get perfect how I'm supposed to be

following him. But really, what he wants to do is

love your neighbor. And if you have any question about

what exactly that looks like or the extent that that

looks like, we have examples in his word. We're not

fulfilling this law in order to be saved, but now

as a response to the great work that God has

done in saving us, that we now live for him.

Remember what Romans twelve tells us. He says, I appeal

to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to

present your bodies as a living sacrifice wholly inacceptable to God,

which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to

this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,

that by testing you may discern what the will of

God is, or what is the will of God, what

is good and acceptable and perfect and Funny enough, that's

exactly the same pattern that we're seeing here in Exodus.

God redeems his people out of slavery and then shows

them what it looks like to live.

As a holy people. It's really not that different.

Now, again, this is important that we read through these

laws that we have ringing in the back of our ears.

This will be kind of helpful. This is just a

useful tip. You're reading the laws of the Old Testament

in the back of your head.

You should have this understanding.

These laws are either based in loving God or loving

your neighbor.

Some way.

This is teaching me to love God or love my

neighbor better, I think, and I hope that is helpful

as we look through these laws again, because if there

are things that feel like they don't directly relate to us,

there are principles that really if it doesn't directly relate

to us, I don't have an ox and it hurts someone,

and I should find a way to make restitution depending

on how the situation came about. Okay, I don't have

an OX, but I do have a car, and there

is a proper way to love my neighbor with my

car to make sure that, depending on how the situation

came about, whether it's my fault or their fault, that

we can properly find a way to love my neighbor

as I should in having a car. Does that make sense?

It takes a little bit of work to kind of

think through that, but there's lots of commentaries and there's

lots of even study Bibles that can also kind of

help connect what is the principle in this law, even

if the direct thing doesn't apply to me, there's a

principle that's trying to be taught. It's very interesting because

even as in the New Testament, when Paul's talking about

like paying ministers he talks about he brings up a

law from the Old Testament about not muzzling an OX.

They're like that seems.

Random, but he goes like, no, no, no, no, no, there's

a principle here that the one who's working shouldn't be

kept from being taken care of.

Now, to actually talk about these laws there's probably.

About thirty five plus different covenant laws here, laws that

were to set God's people apart from the way that

the world did things, some ranging from protections and provisions

for the vulnerable. There's punishments for crimes, including the death

penalty for certain acts, laws about restitution from cases of

physical harm done by humans or animals, restitution done in

cases of theft, and regulation for keeping God's feasts in

his Sabbath. And it's interesting because actually, as we see

at the beginning, there's it starts.

It kind of starts off right with a heavy hitter.

The chapter twenty one starts off with laws concerning Hebrew slaves,

which that alone can sometimes just make us like urge,

Like I knew these things were hard to read, but

now I really don't understand what I'm reading.

But basically it was that if you found yourself.

As an Israelite who was some kind of servant or

slave within that community, there were certain protections given to

you or provisions so really quickly to rattle them off,

that after six years of service.

You were to go free on the seventh.

So there was no lifelong service, there was no just

like you were just stuck in the way you were at.

That if they happened to be killed by their.

Master, that actually that was considered murder, and the person

who was their employers should not get away with that.

They didn't get to treat them however they wanted to.

If the people happened to be severely crippled by the

person that they were serving, they were to be like

immediately set free. It's important to note that the slavery

of this time was very different from the slavery that

we think of in our own countries past history. And

we see that by protections like this, by specific prohibitions

and what that looks like and how it operates. Because

you have to remember, God just freed them from terrible

oppression in slavery from Egypt. He didn't say, now, go

do the same thing to other people or your own people.

Many of the cases were more of a servant that

was maybe paying off debt that he owed.

We're working as an employee for a contracted amount of time.

But once again, these laws that we see are actually

it's actually crazy. I wanted to point it out. It's

in the twenty first chapter, verse sixteen. It says, whoever

steals a man and sells him, and any and found

a possession of him shall be put to death.

It's a good law.

That's a great law that actually would have that probably

would have helped out a little bit if.

People had lived by this.

A long time ago, there was a capital crime to

steal someone and sell them, that anyone who did such

a thing was to be put to death.

And it almost seems to implies that if you found

to be.

In possession of a person who had been stolen or yes,

stolen and sold, that you could potentially be liable as well.

And that law alone clearly distinguishes it from the slavery

of our own country's past. And I bring this law

up because as we read these laws, or even when

critics of Christianity bring them up about God's law, it's

important that we understand that these laws were not were

meant to be put in place so that you wouldn't

have tyrannical bosses or tyrannical.

Basically slave owners.

People who could just do whatever they wanted without any

consequence or without any accountability.

They couldn't be tyrannical bosses.

But actually there was laws put in place to protect

those who would find themselves for whatever reason as a

servant or a slave of another person. There was all

these protections put in place, and there's many more laws

that are are here in place for that same purpose.

Not showing favoritism against the poor. James picks up on that,

like widows and orphans, not oppressing the sojourner much like

Egypt had done to them, not exacting interest from the poor,

and not distorting justice, dealing with issues of like how

to reconcile people who are caught in primarial sex. Like

there's all kinds of laws for how they're to order

themselves as God's people. There's even examples of seeing your

enemy's ox wandering away, or your enemy struggling with his

own ox and a pit, and he's you're told to

actually go help them.

They're supposed to love your neighbor.

So all those principles that Jesus picks up on are

right here in these texts. All of these laws are

there to teach us to love our neighbor and love

God and how we can do so in specific circumstances.

And it's this same law that the writer of Psalm

nineteen says this, The law of the Lord is perfect,

reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure,

making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right,

rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure,

enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,

enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous,

all together to be more to be desired. Are they

than gold, even much fine gold? Sweeter also than honey

and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them, is your

servant warned? In keeping them there is great reward. This

is a much different attitude than Christians have about God's law.

This is a much different attitude than Christians have about

the commandments that we read in scripture.

But it's all.

God's commandments throughout the entire Bible that are teaching us

to love God as we should and love our neighbor

as we should. And God is very clear on the specifics,

and we could spend the rest of forever going through

each and every single one, but we're not going to

do that.

You can go read it, and you should go read it.

I think it will challenge you, but is available to you.

We all have to go get a Bible. If you

do not have bible. Go grab a bible. It is

available to you, and then when you take it home,

it's available to you day and night. Which is actually

an example set for us of what it looks like.

Oh, what we ought to do. Look at this.

Psalm one through two says, blessed is the man who

walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands

in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat

of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of

the Lord. And on his law he meditates day and night.

He actually spends time thinking about this thing that we

were like, I don't want to go in.

I'll skip the next couple of chapters.

Say God's commands are clear. Say God's instruction is available.

We need to read God's word daily.

No, you're not. You don't repeat that's sorry? Sorry I didn't.

I should. I should.

Yeah, it's true, though it is true. You repeat that

to yourself. You know you need to be in your

Bible daily. Read your New Testament, read your Old Testament.

Read how other Christians lived and were instructed to live

in the situations they found themselves in.

You're growing up.

I grew up in church, but I never read my Bible,

and so people would be like, you're not supposed to curse,

You're not supposed to cus, you're not supposed to have

filthy talk, and I'm.

Like, whatever, it's a little relative, and you know.

Like it, I was silly and I started reading my Bible.

And guess what, guys, The Bibles so clear. The Bible

is so clear. It said let no unwholesome talk come

out of your mouth. I read that line. I was like, well,

that about palms up everything I could have tried to

explain away.

It is clear.

And many people wander around in life wanting to know

God's will for their life or what are they to

do with their life? And God gives you the answer

written down for you in this book. He hasn't hidden

it from you. But we need to not just be.

Hearers of the word.

Because somebody were like, all right, but I read my Bible.

I read my Bible, Okay, I read it. Okay, sick

we hear God's voice. And so the second part of

today's text is God calls us to obey, and this

should be a nice, short and sweet God calls us

to obey his voice.

Look at this Verse thirteen of Exodus twenty three.

Says, pay attention to all that I have said to you,

and make no mention of the names of other gods,

nor let it be heard on your lips. Going down

to verse twenty, it says, behold, I send an angel

before you to guard you on the way and to

bring you to the place that I've prepared. Pay careful

attention to him, and obey his voice. Do not be

against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for

MY name is in him. But if you carefully obey

his voice and do all that I say, then I

will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary

to your adversaries. So God didn't just save the people

from slavery to wander in the desert and then just

get a bunch of laws.

But God has actually.

Save these people to himself and given them instructions of

what it looks like to live as this holy people,

to actually transform them to look more like him, and

he's taken them to a land he's promised to give

their ancestors long ago. What's more is he's sending this

angel ahead of them to prepare the way, and there

He's like, listen, listen to this angel. He's going to

speak for God. And God makes something very clear that

people need to pay careful attention to obey his voice.

They're not to rebel against him. Well, it's not going

to go well for them, but instead they're to obey

God's commands and then God will fight for them instead

of fight against them. God says, I'm leading you, so

I need you to listen, which makes sense. If we

claim to follow Jesus, we should probably listen to the

one we're following, the one who's giving us instruction.

Don't rebel against me in my words, but listen to

me and live.

We really need to hear what God is saying, which

is pay attention, pay attention to what God has said.

God didn't give us instructions and direction for no reason.

That'd be like, I don't know how you guys do

with directions, but that'd be like if you really struggle

with directions and someone's like, here's the deal, I bought

you this GPS or I'm gonna least show you how

to use it on your phone, and you're like sick,

and then you just never use it and stay lost.

Just choosing to stay lost. You have it right there,

and many of us are choosing to stay lost as

Christians because we won't open the map, We can't obey

because we don't even know what it says, or we

do read it, and instead of obeying, we try to

find our own way, like we know better than the GPS.

And here's the deal.

You might know better than the GPS, but you don't

know better than God, which leads to the last and

most crucial part of the text. If we don't know

what God says or don't obey and live how God

calls us to, how can we claim to be his people.

God has laid out in his word clearly what his

people are to look like, and there's definitely a contrast

between what God's people looks like and what the.

World looks like.

There are ways in which God's people aren't to look

or do the things that the world does. But how

would you know which one is which? How would you know?

How do you know the difference? God has set a

standard for his people to live by, and he tells

us so we need to know it, obey it, and

never compromise on it, which leads us to the last part,

and I need the band to come up.

Verse twenty three.

When my angel goes before you and brings you to

the Amorhites and the Hittites, and the Parizites, and the Canaanites,

and the hip Bites and the Jebusites, and I blot

them out. You shall not bow down to their gods,

nor serve them, nor do as they do. But you

shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.

You shall serve the Lord your god, and he will

bless your bread and your water. And I will take

sickness away from among you. None shall miscarry or be

barren in your land. I'll fulfill the numbers of your

day or number of your days. I will send my

terror before you, and will throw into confusion all the

people against whom you shall come. And I will make

all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I

will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the

hip Bites and the Canaanites and the Hittites from before you.

I will not drive them out from before you in

one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild

beast multiply against you.

Now listen to this really closely. Listen to this, God says.

Little by little, I will drive them out from before

you until you have increased and possessed the land. And

I will set your border from the Red Sea to

the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to

the Euphrates. For I will give the inhabitants of the

land into your hand, and you shall drive them out

before you. You shall make no covenant with them and

their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest

they make you sin against me. For if you serve

their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.

So what is God saying here? God says that you're

going to go live in a land where God is

going to slowly, little by little, bit by bit, drive

the wicked inhabitants out of the land. But while that's happening,

his people is going to be living in proximity with

these wicked people.

And so God warns them and says, do not.

Take on their customs, do not become like them, do

not look like them, don't serve their gods, don't conform

to their culture. God's people cannot afford to compromise. He says,

it will surely be a snare to you. If you

follow them, it will cause you to sin against me.

Don't become like the wicked people around you. Don't compromise

on the covenant you've made with God, and instead make

a covenant with the world in its ways. And it

makes sense to God is to warn them, because like

you said, they're going to be warned living amongst these

wicked people, that these people are to live as a

holy people and not compromise and be corrupted by those

around them. And I hope that you are starting to

see how very clearly this is something that is written

for our instruction and applies to us today. It's a

clear example for the same call for us as Christians,

as we live as foreigners in this world, that as

the Kingdom of Heaven works its way like yeast little

by little through the dough, that we do not compromise.

And this language is used all the time in the

New Testament First John two fifteen. Look at this, do

not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father

is not in him. For all that is in the world,

the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes,

and the pride of life is not from the Father,

but it's from the world. And the world is passing

away along with its desires. But whoever does the will

of God abides forever, who's saying it's not gonna be

around forever. Those things are passing away, so don't fall

in love with them. Look at James four to four,

you adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with

the world is enmity with God. Therefore, whoever wishes to

be afraid of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

God says to his people in his I'm driving you,

I'm driving out my enemies in this promised land.

I'm driving out the Pagans. So don't go in there

and build a relationship with them, one Peter.

We looked at this last week because God used the

same language of his covenant people, but we didn't read

the second half last week, which is very fitting for

the same flow of Exodus. God calls these people his

people and then gives them the way to live.

And look at what Peter does here.

But you were a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a

holy nation of people for his own possession, that you

may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out

of the darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were

not a people, but now you were God's people. Once

you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved,

I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to do what

abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war

against your soul.

Keep your conduct amongst or among.

The gentiles, honorable, so that when they speak evil or

against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds

and glorify God on the day of Visitation Romans twelve.

We looked at it earlier.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed

by the renewal of your mind. God has called us

to live as his people. He has left us clear

instruction on what that looks like. So my question to

you is are you going to compromise? Will you diminish

God's word?

Have you been compromising God's commands doing.

The thing you ought not to, letting the world shape

your priorities instead of God. If you think about it,

the Great commission Jesus told them to go out and

teach the world to obey him. But the scary thing

and the unfortunately thing that happens as Christians as we

go into the world and.

We start obeying the world.

We start obeying what the world tells us to do,

and we're like, oh, I don't really think they'd like

it if I told them that what Jesus said, And

so instead we start to compromise.

And conform to them. So do we look more like

them or do we look more like Jesus? Do we

look more like the world around us than God's sultan light?

Have we been softening the truth and the name of

tolerance when you need to stand firm where God has

spoken clearly.

All kinds of topics I said earlier.

We talk about abortion, homosexuality, divorce, or how we prioritize

our lives, how we prioritize our Sundays. And we're called

not to compromise, but instead listen and obey what God

has made clear. And the first and primary reason we

do this is because we want to love God. Well,

we want to love him and look like his people.

We want to love him and do as He's directed

us to do. But then secondly, we don't want to

compromise because we also love our neighbors. We need to

tell our neighbors the truth. We can't soften the truth

for them. We need them to know what God has

clearly said, just like we need to know what God.

Has clearly said.

We need to truly love them as defined by God,

not defined by how they would say, this is the

best way you could love me is just let me

do whatever I want.

Well, then we're just letting everyone go to hell. That's

what would happen.

God's word must be our ultimate standard, and God hasn't

hidden it. So I pray that we would hear this

as a wake up call on our own walk with

Christ to pay attention. It's only February, so we can

start our Bible reading plan. We can start being intentional

in how we're reading and handling the word that God

has given us to obey and understand and walk in

and find.

Life in and freedom in.

And we would pay attention we obey his voice that

we would not compromise, compromise to the ways of this world,

because God has clearly warned his people here there is

a blessing that if they obey God, it would go well.

But if they follow the ways of the nations and

obey the false gods.

That surely that.

That was going to cause them to sin against God.

It was going to be a snare for the people.

So we need the sobering warning not to compromise, not

to be ensnared by idols and our culture, but truly

be devoted to the word of the living God and

live according to it. God tells us to serve Him alone,

not to serve the false idols of our culture. And

we can't kid ourselves and think that we can serve

two masters. We can only serve one. And so really

the question would be who are you going to serve.

You're going to serve our culture, its idols, You're going

to serve the Lord.

And to just give this other than just me telling

you to listen to Jesus and read your Bible, which

you should do, it's very important.

I had this. It kind of threw me off a little.

Bit because I was almost like, am I about to

rewrite my entire message for Sunday? But I didn't because

I didn't have that much time when I was thinking

on this text. I had kind of this other point

or application that struck me. How much of this this

text tells us to stay away from idols, don't worship idols.

And so this thought struck me and I realized that

it has kind of a double meaning. But it was,

don't be an idle worshiper, don't be an idle worshiper,

do not worship idols.

And when it comes to God, don't be idle in.

Your worship of him. And actually it's funny. If you

aren't idle in the way that you worship Him, you

won't worship idols. It works both ways. And so if

we're intentional to make sure that we're active in how

we want to live our lives as living sacrifices unto

Him as spiritual worship. If we're being intentional to live

as He's called us to do, well, guess what, We're

not going to follow idols. We're not gonna worship idols

because we're focused on living for Him and following the

ways that He's given us. So I realized I could

just share this at the end rather than rewrite an

entire message. So thank you for.

Hearing that.

But if we need to not be idle worshippers, have

we've seen in our text that God's commands are clear?

He calls us to live them out, to listen to

his voice, and he warns us not to compromise. So

God's message for us today is very straightforward, but it

is something we need to hear. It's something that we

need in our life, and we need this warning, We

need this reminder to not compromise on God's commands.

Amen, would you please stand