Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #10230 - God Will Do What You Can’t Do - Exodus 23:20 - CH24

Transcript

#10230 - God Will Do What You Can’t Do - Exodus 23:20 - CH24 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

0:03
Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
0:07
Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
0:11
To learn more about the many resources available through
0:13
Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
0:17
visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
0:22
Calvary Church app. Now.
0:24
Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
0:28
Amen. Take your Bibles, open them to
0:30
Exodus chapter 23. We'll pick up where we left off
0:33
last time. We'll start there in verse 20.
0:36
I've been titled our Bible study.
0:38
God will do what you can't do, and you might want to mark that
0:42
God will do what you cannot do. We see this in the life of the
0:48
nation of Israel, certainly all the way back from the
0:51
deliverance out of Egypt. God will do what you can't do.
0:55
We're following the nation of Israel as they pause along the
0:58
way, They're being they have they have left Egypt and they're
1:02
headed into the promised land and they pause along the way to
1:06
receive insight and instructions about their future.
1:09
God has laid before them the parameters of a relationship,
1:14
which includes some rules and regulations and includes his
1:18
promises. He's defining for them
1:21
relationship. They've lived as slaves in Egypt
1:24
for hundreds of years, generations of bondage and hard
1:29
labor. That's all they know.
1:32
But now they're moving into a new season of life, into the
1:36
promises of God. Last week we learned very
1:40
briefly that God gave him, gave the nation feasts or divine
1:44
appointments for worship and celebration and remembrance.
1:48
He says mark your calendars, make sure you understand this is
1:52
the new rhythm of your life. Appreciation, care, concern for
1:56
me, your God. He says, I'll meet you there and
1:59
I'll come down from heaven and we'll have fellowship together a
2:02
whole new life. Your salvation, you being saved
2:06
is pointing to an even greater rescue, the coming Messiah
2:11
providing salvation to all who believe.
2:14
Notice with me verse 20, chapter 23.
2:18
Behold, I sent an Angel before you to keep you in the way, and
2:23
to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
2:26
Beware of him, and obey His voice.
2:28
Do not provoke him, for he will not pardon your transgressions,
2:31
for My name is in Him. But if you indeed obey His voice
2:36
and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your
2:39
enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.
2:43
For my Angel who will go before you, will bring you in to the
2:47
Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the
2:49
Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, and notice I will
2:54
cut them off. If you're reading from the new
2:58
King James, you'll notice that the translators capitalized the
3:02
word Angel there on purpose. This Angel is a pre Incarnate
3:07
appearance of Jesus Christ. Now let's be clear, Jesus Christ
3:12
is not an Angel. He took the form of an Angel
3:16
prior to when he took the form of a human.
3:20
A permanent form. He took.
3:22
How I'm putting it this way, He took the temporary form of an
3:25
Angel on occasion prior pre taking on the permanent form of
3:32
a human being, God in human flesh in the womb of Mary.
3:37
That's why we use the phrase pre Incarnate.
3:40
The incarnation is God becoming man in the in the womb of Mary.
3:47
Jesus as an Angel capital. A appeared many times in the Old
3:51
Testament prior to the virgin birth.
3:53
He appeared to Abram, He appeared to Hagar, He appeared
3:57
to Joshua and Joshua 5 and countless other times to Israel.
4:02
You'll remember in John you can jot it down in John chapter 8 in
4:07
verse 56, the Bible says, your father Abraham Jesus speaking,
4:12
rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.
4:17
Then the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old, and
4:21
have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them most
4:23
assuredly. I say to you, before Abraham was
4:28
I am. Then they took up stones to
4:30
throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the
4:33
temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
4:39
They accused Him, equating himself with God pre a pre
4:43
existence to His human form. There they accused him of
4:46
blasphemy, and I believe that was the beginning of their
4:49
hatred that grew against Messiah.
4:52
Notice that the verse at the end of verse 21 it also says of this
4:56
Angel, my name is in him. You remember in Matthew chapter
5:01
1 and verse 23 it says, Behold, the Virgin shall be with child
5:05
and bear a son. They shall call his name
5:08
Emmanuel, God with us. Now notice in verse 24, you
5:14
shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do
5:19
according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them
5:22
and completely break down their sacred pillars.
5:25
So shall you serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your
5:29
bread and your water, And I will take sickness away from the
5:34
midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage
5:37
or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of
5:41
your days. Let's pause there for a second
5:43
and remember this important truth.
5:46
There are natural benefits that come with obedience.
5:50
Natural benefits that automatically come with
5:53
obedience when you choose to worship the one true God and you
5:58
turn your back on your sinful past and all of the idolatry and
6:02
false worship of your past. All the things you've learned to
6:05
lean on, all of your coping mechanisms.
6:08
The things that you would turn to instead of turning to God.
6:11
Even those things that you were so captivating to you that you
6:16
could say that you were worshipping them that you gave
6:19
yourself over to. Let me give you an example.
6:21
Because you listen to idolatry, you listen to little Pagan idols
6:24
and such, and immediately you're thinking, why?
6:26
Like this was 21st century. I don't have little idols.
6:28
I don't bow down to idols. I might walk into the Chinese
6:31
restaurant and see Buddha there, but I don't do anything.
6:33
I just walk right by it. It's just a little statue.
6:36
It doesn't mean anything to me. Oh, OK.
6:38
But some they don't worship little idols.
6:41
Some I know listening to me. You could say that you have
6:44
worshipped your career, that that has become something more
6:49
important to you than God. I mean, it may still be more
6:52
important to you and God's word would be here today.
6:55
Turn your back on it. There are conditions for
6:59
relationship. And you remember Jesus, He says
7:02
that we're to seek first the Kingdom of God, that that God,
7:05
he is to be singularly worshipped.
7:08
The Bible says in Isaiah that God would not share his glory
7:11
with any other. And you and I, this is a
7:15
singular choice to worship the Lord our God with our heart,
7:20
soul and mind and strength. I mean, we could think of a lot
7:24
of things that hobbies become something to worship, a
7:27
prestige. Some guys are all into, you
7:30
know, the way they look and making sure they look the right
7:32
way. Guys and gals for that matter,
7:34
there's just so much that would captivate a heart.
7:37
You have to guard your heart, don't you?
7:39
You have to guard your heart because out of it flow all the
7:42
issues of life. Men in my position taking on the
7:47
role of leader in the church or a pastor, they begin to worship
7:50
the pastor and in the leadership instead of worshipping the one
7:53
true God. I mean, you wonder, perhaps you
7:56
wonder, I know I have over the years where you see these men
7:59
that have been used so greatly from the for the Lord just
8:01
completely change and starts, you know, fall away into sin,
8:06
commit adultery, steal from the church.
8:08
You're like what happened? While we may not know all the
8:11
details and we don't need to be searching for all the details.
8:13
I'll tell you something that happened.
8:15
They stopped worshipping the one true God singularly.
8:18
I could tell you that they went back to some form of idolatry,
8:22
some form of some form of, of a impure worship.
8:28
And there are natural benefits to obedience for you and for me.
8:32
But the obedience of worsh of that the obedient, the benefits
8:35
of obedience had to come by making a stand.
8:40
The benefits came by making a stand for Him.
8:43
He commanded them. You must overthrow the pillars,
8:46
you must destroy the gods. Little G, you couldn't have
8:50
both. You couldn't have 80% God, 20%.
8:55
You had to get rid of the idolatry.
8:58
Today, how would we say this today?
9:01
We would say that a Christian cannot have one foot in the
9:05
world and one foot in the church.
9:08
That's how we would try to describe it for you today.
9:11
Or let me just be very clean. You can't have it both ways.
9:14
You can't live both for the Lord and for the world at the same
9:18
time. It's not possible even if you're
9:21
arguing right now. Well, no, and I've been going so
9:23
far. No, you haven't done anything
9:25
when you're half hearted like that.
9:27
The Bible says that when you know when you and I are double
9:30
minded, we are unstable in all our ways.
9:34
Did you know that? That double mindedness, faith
9:38
and self. The Bible says in Hebrews that
9:42
without faith, that's impossible to please God.
9:45
So when you and I are in the flesh leaning upon ourselves,
9:48
we're not pleasing to God. You can't have.
9:51
You can't have it both ways. You can't be dabbling.
9:53
I can't be dabbling. I can't be enjoying, I can't be
9:57
taking in those things that would hinder my singular
10:00
devotion to God. He requires it.
10:05
I hear God saying in the room today and on online and out on
10:09
the radio, I hear him saying today you have to smash the
10:12
idols church. You have to get rid of them.
10:17
You have to choose to worship me.
10:20
God says singularly, it's not a new I could go through the
10:23
Scriptures and I could share with you how God would send men
10:27
to the nation of Israel. God would send men, send Jesus
10:31
to the religious leaders in the 1st century.
10:33
Keep saying this, but let me give it to you.
10:35
I think from the one of the most strongest evidences or one of
10:40
the most strongest times this is shared.
10:42
It's in First Kings chapter 18. Turn there with me.
10:45
Would you hold your place in Exodus?
10:47
Go to 1st Kings chapter 18. First Kings chapter 18, just a
10:52
few pages over, and I want you to mark this if you haven't
10:56
already. We studied it not too long ago,
10:58
but here for your own study today, I want you to mark this.
11:03
This is an important question. It's going to hit the heart of
11:06
someone. It's going to hit the heart of
11:08
many, perhaps especially in the days in which we live and
11:11
especially in the condition of your life.
11:14
In First Kings chapter 18 verse 20, it says that Ahab sent for
11:20
all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together
11:23
on Mount Carmel and Elijah came to all the people and said, and
11:28
here's the here's the phrase you ready, mark it, circle it,
11:31
underline it, highlight it. How long will you falter between
11:36
two opinions? How long he says, if the Lord is
11:41
God and he is going to get an Amen.
11:44
OK, let me do it again. If the Lord is God, Amen, then
11:48
follow him. But if by all, then follow him
11:54
and the people didn't answer a word.
11:56
There's another place that just came to mind and Joshua, would
11:59
you turn over to Joshua with me now another place that God uses
12:04
to describe this. Joshua now will be back towards
12:07
Exodus toward the end. Joshua, he's giving the final
12:11
words after they move in, after they go and he gives them this
12:18
strong word to make a choice. He he gives them that strong
12:24
word to stand for righteousness in 20 chapter 24.
12:29
Joshua, pick up with me when you get there, verse 14.
12:33
This theme is throughout the Bible.
12:35
It's not only thousands of years ago, it is today to make this
12:40
choice now, therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and
12:44
in truth, put away the gods which your father served on the
12:49
other side of the river and in Egypt serve the Lord.
12:54
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for
12:58
yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods
13:03
which our fathers serve that were on the other side of the
13:05
river are the gods of the Amorites in the land whose in
13:08
whose land you dwell. And then Joshua says, hey,
13:11
whatever choice you guys make, here's what Josh Joshua says, As
13:14
for me in my house, we'll serve the Lord.
13:17
And it has to be you and me. That is the choice you can lay
13:22
before you got to put. And now you know, years later,
13:24
they're they're they're settling in the land they've gone through
13:27
after Joshua. They battled, they fought, they
13:30
they conquered the land, at least portion of the land.
13:32
And what is Joshua telling them exactly what Moses told them
13:35
earlier? Put away the gods.
13:37
What's your problem? It's going to ruin you.
13:41
It's going to constantly keep you in a state of flux and
13:44
weakness because idolatry and false worship keeps us in
13:48
weakness. Let me put it this way.
13:51
A divided Christian is never an effective Christian.
13:56
A divided believer is never an effective believer.
14:00
I gave you the reference or I gave you the verse, but in James
14:02
chapter 1 it speaks of asking God for wisdom and help, but not
14:07
without faith, because without faith with doubting.
14:12
The Bible says that the person that doubts is like a wave of
14:15
the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
14:17
Don't let that man suppose he will receive anything from the
14:20
Lord. He is double minded and unstable
14:23
in all his ways. So you hear this language,
14:27
repeat it. I'll use it a lot myself when
14:28
I'm teaching the other Bible teachers using it.
14:31
Well, we would refer to someone following Jesus with all their
14:34
heart to the best of their ability.
14:36
We might call them on fire for the Lord, on fire hot for the
14:41
things of God. We may call them sold out, just
14:44
sold out for the things of God. We may even reuse a more
14:49
familiar phrase, wholly committed.
14:51
There was one year in our New Year's messages that the Lord
14:55
had given me the phrase all in. It's another great phrase you
14:59
have to ask yourself today. You have to ask, am I really
15:02
sold out? Am I really all in?
15:06
Am I really wholly committed? Am I really on fire for the
15:10
things of God? I would say most believers start
15:13
there, but not all believers end there.
15:17
Most believers start there, but many believers don't carry on.
15:22
They fizzle out, they wander away, they have a slow leak in
15:27
their lives, or they run back to something, or they pick up an
15:31
old habit. This is the heart of God for you
15:34
to follow Him completely, to enjoy life through abiding and
15:39
obedience. Why?
15:40
Because there's natural benefits to obedience.
15:43
It's the right pathway to life and joy and happiness.
15:47
This is how I raise my kids. This is how I live my own life.
15:50
I would always tell them it's better to choose the
15:53
consequences of obedience any day and every day over the
15:59
consequences of disobedience. Because you know, sometimes
16:02
obedience hurts. Sometimes it's going to cost,
16:06
sometimes it's going to be very painful.
16:08
So therefore people leave obedience.
16:10
They do half heartedness. They they do things halfway or
16:13
you know, like, like the Lord's talking to you right now.
16:15
And then God says, I want you to pay restitution for the guy you
16:18
ripped off. And automatically you're
16:20
thinking, man, that's going to be really expensive.
16:23
I spent that money already. And so you're like, well, you
16:27
know, it's OK, God Forgives me. God Forgives me.
16:29
I don't need to show restitution.
16:31
And you just totally explain away not only what the Bible
16:33
clearly teaches, but the impression of the Holy Spirit.
16:36
And then you think that's better than obeying God in the moment,
16:40
but it's not. It's going to get worse because
16:42
that compromise will lead to more compromise.
16:45
Like you heard God clearly couldn't have been more clear.
16:49
You heard God, you knew who he was talking about.
16:51
You know the situation he's talking about.
16:54
You know how much money you ripped off.
16:56
You know how much money and whatever, whatever it might be,
16:58
whatever you ripped off, you know, you know, you know God has
17:02
it clear. And then to God, you say no.
17:05
Do you know it's going to be harder to hear the Lord next
17:09
time? It's going to be hard for him to
17:12
give you anything else when you haven't acted on the one thing
17:15
you clearly heard. That's one of the ways that
17:18
we'll often refer it. Somebody comes and says, you
17:20
know, I just really can't hear the Lord.
17:21
I don't, I just don't know what's happening.
17:23
We'll start digging a little bit and say, well, is there anything
17:26
the Lord told you to do that you haven't done yet?
17:29
You should really pray about that.
17:31
Wow, you know, I do remember. And I said, well then this is
17:34
what you need to do. Go back to that place the last
17:36
time you clearly heard the Lord and obey Him and then
17:40
automatically it's like, well, you don't understand.
17:42
That's going to be so hard. You know, if I, if I, I like, I
17:45
don't have, I don't have what's necessary to pay that guy back.
17:50
I don't have it says, well, it sounds like you have a
17:53
discussion coming up, don't you? Maybe you can get on a payment
17:56
plan. Maybe he'll forgive you.
17:59
There's so many other maybes, but they'll never happen.
18:01
Until you obey the Lord, you don't know what God wants to do.
18:04
Until you obey the Lord, you don't know how God wants to
18:07
heal. Until you obey the Lord, you
18:08
don't know half heartedness is not wholly committed.
18:12
This is God's will for the you, for the children of Israel and
18:15
for you and me to grow in those areas.
18:17
Again, the enemy would love to have you out, come out from
18:21
under this by simply saying, well, you know, I'm not perfect
18:24
pastor, I'm not perfect. Nobody's asking you to be
18:26
perfect. Jesus did he said be perfect as
18:29
your Father in heaven is perfect.
18:30
But what does that do? It reminds you that man, I need
18:34
the power of God in my I need the power of the Holy Spirit in
18:37
my life. If he's calling me to something
18:39
hard that's beyond God will do what I can't do.
18:43
And he is he is dwelling in my life through the power of the
18:46
Holy Spirit and I don't know what the future I can't control.
18:50
That's one of the things that happens with sin as well and
18:52
compromise. When you and I choose to sin and
18:54
compromise, we, we have given away the control of our lives in
18:58
that area. We've given it away to the
19:02
circumstances and to the situations.
19:04
And you know as well as I do those circumstances and
19:07
situations aren't always kind. They're not always helpful.
19:12
But if you would make the decision upfront, then you're
19:14
fully in the Lord. He'll lead you and guide you and
19:17
take care of you, choosing the consequences or the benefits of
19:20
obedience far more because you may be in a decision right now
19:25
that God has brought you to. And you know, if I go, if I make
19:28
decision left, it's going to hurt.
19:31
If I make decision right, it's going to hurt.
19:35
Then you have to just discern well, what's the obedience and
19:38
just obey the Lord and take it. Follow him.
19:45
And that's what he's telling him.
19:46
Look, you got to my Angel will go before you.
19:48
He'll be your victory. He'll defeat the enemies.
19:51
They'll turn their backs on you. But you can't bow down to the
19:54
gods. You can't have it both ways.
19:57
You'll experience victory as you yield to me, as you follow me.
20:01
Look at verse 27. This is so good.
20:03
I will send my fear before you. This is back in Exodus now.
20:06
I'll send my fear before you. I'll cause confusion among the
20:09
people to whom you come, and we'll make all your enemies turn
20:12
their backs to you. I'll send Hornets before you,
20:16
which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, the Hittite from
20:19
before you. I will not drive them out before
20:22
you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts
20:26
of the field become too numerous for you.
20:28
Verse 30. Little by little I'll drive them
20:31
out from before you until you have increased and you inherit
20:35
the land. I'll set your bounds from the
20:37
Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, from the desert to
20:41
the river. For I will deliver the
20:43
inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive
20:46
them out before you. You shall make no covenant with
20:50
them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in your
20:54
land, lest they make you sin against me.
20:56
For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
21:01
God promised to give them this land.
21:05
It was theirs, it was a gift. He is going to give it to them.
21:09
They didn't deserve it. They didn't earn it.
21:12
It is exactly what we're learning in relation to our own
21:14
salvation, that God has given it to us.
21:17
We didn't earn it, we didn't deserve it, and the Bible word
21:20
for that is called grace. Didn't earn it, didn't deserve
21:25
it. The grace of God, the grace of
21:28
God is throughout the Scriptures from Genesis 11.
21:32
Do you know that Genesis 11 in and of itself in the beginning,
21:35
God is a statement of grace. In the beginning, God didn't
21:40
have to reveal himself to us. He didn't have to create.
21:42
He didn't. There was nothing that he owed
21:44
humanity. In the beginning, God is a
21:47
statement of grace. None of us can say we deserve
21:51
what God has done and is doing in our lives.
21:54
And I love this battle. This is one of the things that
21:56
I'm reminded on a personal level so many times in my life where
22:00
he says I'm going to send Hornets verse 28, going to drive
22:04
these guys out. But then he says verse 20, I'm
22:06
not going to do it right away. It's I'm not even going to do it
22:10
in a year, which, you know, a year is reasonable.
22:14
Like you're going to give us the land in a year.
22:16
I mean, it's been a long time, but I think we can endure a
22:18
year. I'm not going to drive them out.
22:20
It's not going to be a year. But he has his reasons.
22:23
Do you notice that God has his ways, but God also has his
22:27
reasons. Sometimes He reveals those
22:30
reasons to us, and other times we don't.
22:32
We don't get them. We just learn His ways.
22:35
This. In this case, He tells him
22:37
exactly. He's not only the reason, but
22:39
also the way. He says I'm going to do it, but
22:42
I'll tell you why I'm going to do it the way I'm going to do
22:43
it. Because the land can't sustain
22:46
all of you coming in so quickly. It would be desolate.
22:50
You destroy it. You would get something and then
22:53
you would just destroy it. He says no verse 30 and this is
22:58
what I I don't have it marked, but I haven't marked in my life.
23:00
He says in verse 30, little by little I'm going to drive them
23:05
out until you have increased and you inherit the land.
23:11
This is where I make the mistake.
23:14
I make it over and over again. It's one of those mistakes is so
23:17
frustrating. I'm sure you have some as well.
23:20
This is where I make a mistake. I try to do things myself
23:23
quicker and different than God does, and that comes with
23:28
experience and walking with the Lord for a few years thinking
23:31
you have it figured out instead of just remembering God's ways
23:35
with His reasons or not are always better than my ways.
23:39
Even as we learn in another place in the Bible that God's
23:41
ways are not my ways, His thoughts are not my thoughts.
23:45
So if I want something fast and He wants something little by
23:48
little, it's wise to choose the ways of God.
23:53
The Hivites, the Hittites, the Canaanites, they're all a type
23:55
of the flesh. They're all a picture in the
23:59
Bible of our enemy. We have a threefold enemy, the
24:03
world, the flesh and the devil. And the ites in the Bible often
24:07
reflect the flesh, a type of enemy that's constantly
24:10
bombarding us, constantly after us, constantly pushing us,
24:14
backing it up against the wall. But God says, I'm going to drive
24:18
them out little by little, just like the changes that are
24:21
happening in our lives. Little by little.
24:24
God knows what he's doing with your life.
24:26
So what he's doing in your life, whether you like it or not, is
24:30
God's ways. So that when the ways, when we
24:32
certainly when we don't know and we don't like what God's doing,
24:36
we demand the reason. How do you demand the reason
24:39
why? And I don't know how you
24:43
approach God with the why, but he may or may not answer that.
24:51
And as we've learned many times before, even if he gave you a
24:54
detailed explanation what he was doing in your life, it still
24:58
would not satisfy you because you weren't made to be satisfied
25:01
with explanations and you weren't made to be satisfied
25:05
with reasons. And you weren't made to be
25:08
satisfied with a, you know, just write me the book.
25:10
Can you just add a book to the Bible about what you're doing
25:13
with my life? You, you weren't, you weren't,
25:16
you weren't made to live that way.
25:19
You were made to live by faith. You were made to live by faith.
25:28
And the way that your faith grows is little by little,
25:34
change by change, challenge by challenge, success after
25:40
success, failure after failure. You see, the Canaanites and the
25:44
Hittites and the Hivites are not going to give up so easily.
25:47
Your flesh doesn't. Your flesh doesn't die so
25:50
easily. We're to recommend the old man
25:52
dead, you know, and it doesn't die so easily, but daily, little
25:57
by little, your flesh needs to be dealt with and driven out.
26:01
I'm not going to do it in a year.
26:03
Some of you today, you just need to pray.
26:05
And I prayed over this service today for this one thought.
26:09
This one thought hit me today as I was reviewing my notes and
26:11
that is I'm praying. Patience over your life.
26:16
You'd be patient little by little requires patience.
26:20
I want it done in a year. What if it's ten years?
26:22
Do you still want it done in 10 years?
26:24
What if it's 20 years? Do you still want it done in 20
26:27
years? What if it's 30 years?
26:29
Do you still want it done in 30 years?
26:30
What's it going to take for you to say I don't want it then?
26:33
Well then you're simply don't want it in little by little
26:35
either. You don't want it in a year.
26:36
If you don't want it in 20 years, you don't want it in a
26:38
year. Because for you and I to say,
26:41
I'll take it however you give it to me, God, if it's a year,
26:44
little, whatever you have for me, you know what's best for my
26:47
life. But if you give up, you know
26:50
right along, well, I'll wait 20 years.
26:52
That pastor, I'll wait. I'm on, you're 19 right now, so
26:54
I'll wait 20 years and I'm done. Well, then you really don't want
26:57
the will of God. You've written that last chapter
27:02
of your life and God says, no, I'm going to do it little by
27:05
little. And that little by little will
27:07
remind us of the day by day trust that's required to follow
27:11
the Lord. And he's going to give them the
27:15
land. He set the bounds in verse 31.
27:20
He said it's going to be from the Red Sea to the Sea of
27:23
Philistines, from the desert to the Euphrates.
27:29
Some that do this kind of math when on a map say that this was
27:33
roughly 300,000 square miles of territory.
27:37
That was his promise. That's what he's giving them
27:40
little by little. Yet at the highest peak as a
27:42
nation, they only really occupied and controlled 30,000.
27:47
30,000 out of 300,000 makes the math really easy.
27:50
That's 10%. 10% is not on fire. 10% is not sold out. 10% is not
28:02
wholly committed or all in. And I wonder how many of that,
28:08
how many of how many of us that describes it may not be the
28:12
entirety of life. Maybe it's an issue in your
28:13
life. 10%, I got victory, 10%. That's all as far as I'm going
28:17
to go. I want I have victory, 10%,
28:19
That's all I want to do. I'm happy. 10 percent. 10% is
28:25
better than 0%. Yeah, but you got 90% on the
28:27
table. You're going to walk away from
28:28
90%, live the rest of your life and compromise the rest of your
28:34
life, handing over to the generations.
28:36
Compromise, compromise, compromise.
28:40
Notice what they say in verse 1 of chapter 24.
28:42
Now, now he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, You and Aaron
28:45
and Nadab and Abihu, the 70 elders of Israel, and worship
28:48
from afar, and a Moses alone came, shall come near the Lord,
28:52
but they shall not come near, nor shall the people go up with
28:54
them. So Moses came and told the
28:56
people all the words of the Lord, all the judgments, and all
28:59
the people answer with one voice.
29:00
Listen. All the words which the Lord has
29:02
said we will do. And then, you know, if it's a
29:06
movie, the music changes. Yeah, everybody, the curtain
29:09
comes down. We will do it, Lord.
29:11
I mean, this is not often the heart.
29:13
That's our heart. We will do it.
29:15
But we have to have that commitment in the right place.
29:21
We have to express that commitment as one of yielding
29:25
and surrender and submission, not self-confidence.
29:31
The nation is of Israel's now becoming a covenant people.
29:34
There's an agreement being made. Chapters 20 through 23 are
29:40
called by some the book of the Covenant.
29:43
Notice in verse 7 real quick it says, and he took the book of
29:47
the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people.
29:50
They're becoming a covenant people.
29:52
They ratify it, they agreed to it.
29:54
Notice all of us, we will do it. And Moses wrote verse 4, all the
29:58
words of the Lord and he rose early in the morning, built an
30:01
altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars
30:04
according to the 12 tribes of Israel.
30:06
He sent young men of the children of Israel who offered
30:09
burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings of oxen to the
30:13
Lord. The covenant puts them under a
30:16
theocracy governmental system that has God as supreme.
30:25
And the people are excited. This is the actually the second
30:27
time you know that you guys have been with us.
30:29
This is the second time they say this, that they're eager to do
30:32
all that God has told them, but they never do, and neither do
30:37
you. We never can provide 100%
30:40
compliance. They keep most of it, but their
30:44
history shows that in their own strength they couldn't keep the
30:47
laws of God. The law would simply show them
30:50
over and over that man fails, that you and I failed.
30:55
Desires are great, but they had no capacity to carry it out.
31:00
It takes more than just lip service to follow the Lord.
31:04
It takes more than just religious outward activity to
31:07
follow the Lord. It takes more than some of you
31:11
like some like just total fakery that is not following the Lord.
31:15
I've met people over the years, I'm certain you have, where they
31:18
spent so much energy being a fake and a fraud and everybody
31:22
sees right through them. But they, they, they either
31:24
don't care or they don't listen. And you walk away kind of
31:29
saddened and hurt by the whole situation.
31:31
And you have this thought, maybe you shared it, but I certainly
31:34
have. I, I, I would look at them and
31:36
go, if they spent that much time, as much time as they spend
31:39
being a fake and a fraud following the Lord, they would
31:44
be amazing for the things of God.
31:47
They, they, I've met people that have shared so many lies that
31:50
they're sitting next to me a week later lying to me and they
31:54
don't even remember what they told me last week.
31:56
And I'm just listening, listening, let him, you know,
31:59
just reeling him in, just reeling it in.
32:02
And like, you know, in my mind, I'm just thinking, they have no
32:04
idea that they were just, we were just talking in the foyer
32:07
last week. And I, and this is the exact
32:09
opposite of what they said last week, but they're so confident
32:13
because they've got this whole story and this whole narrative
32:16
and they got this whole life and they, they have this whole
32:19
appearance. They want to appear some way to
32:21
someone, but they got to bring somebody in their life.
32:23
They'll go, no, no, no, you're, you're a liar.
32:26
I'm not a liar. You're a horrible pastor.
32:29
I might be a horrible pastor, but you're definitely a liar.
32:34
Because we were just talking about this like you don't
32:35
remember. I remember sitting with someone
32:39
in particular where they just fought me and fought me and
32:43
fought me on what was said. And I pulled out my notes.
32:50
And when I'm in difficult conversations like this and I
32:52
know I'm going to need to quote something later, I will put
32:55
quotations on it as an exact or close to exact thing that was
33:01
said to me in that moment. And I can just scan through my
33:03
notes and go, I know you and I would read.
33:06
I read it to them from my notes of what I wrote down the
33:09
previous meeting. I didn't say that.
33:12
I mean, I guess you're going to live a life apart from God the
33:16
rest of your life because, you know, you said it and the Lord
33:20
put me in your life and another person in your life and another
33:23
person in your life. And I don't know if you've met
33:26
anyone like that, but I met quite a few that if they would
33:29
just spend the time, they're so wise and so smart, if they would
33:34
just yield themselves to the finished work of the cross.
33:38
And I and I, I believe I've met a few believers like this.
33:41
I don't think they're just unbelievers.
33:42
They're so compromised, so caught up in their flesh.
33:45
And it's just a reminder we don't want to be this.
33:47
We can't succeed and please the Lord in the flesh, in our own
33:53
wisdom, in our own strength. You go, Ed, come on, do you
33:57
really mean that? I do.
33:59
I mean it 100% because I'm quoting to you the Bible,
34:03
Romans, chapter 8, verse 8. You ready?
34:06
Here's what it says. So then those who are in the
34:09
flesh cannot please God. Let the Word of God just
34:15
permeate your heart, even you. Maybe you're not here right now,
34:19
but you're listening to me and you're just that.
34:20
You're that person that if you would just spend that kind of
34:24
energy diving into the things of God, you'd be so amazing for the
34:27
Kingdom. Just repent.
34:30
Give yourself completely to the Lord that when you say we will
34:34
do it, don't say it in a way where we can do it, but say it
34:38
in a way where we yield to you. Lord, we'll follow you.
34:42
We will follow the Hornets. We don't want to get in front of
34:44
the Hornets. Now if he's sending Hornets
34:46
before us, then we're going to let the Hornets do their job.
34:49
If he's going to send an Angel before us, we're not going to
34:51
get before the Angel. We're going to let him.
34:53
We're going to follow. We're going to take the position
34:55
of dying to self. Jesus said if you want to follow
34:58
me, you first need to die to yourself.
35:01
If you really want to be my disciple, you need to deny
35:04
yourself. Take up your cross, then you can
35:07
follow me. It's not just a declaration.
35:10
Here I am, I'm ready, but rather here I am, I'm ready to follow.
35:17
I'm ready to deny myself. You Fast forward into the time
35:23
of Messiah and the cross and the death on the cross and the
35:27
burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the ushering in of
35:31
the new covenant. The new covenant is not based on
35:34
my ability to perform. Grace is not based upon my
35:40
ability to perform. It's based upon God's capacity
35:44
to keep his word and keep his promise.
35:48
Some of you who've been around long enough, you might recall a
35:50
few years ago or many years ago, there was a dynamic men's
35:53
ministry that was vibrant for a while, that had a real catchy, a
35:57
real catchy theme to it. They were called Promise
36:00
Keepers. That was great Promise Keepers.
36:04
But to describe the men, the 30,000 men in a stadium hearing
36:09
Bible studies and worshipping and nothing like men coming
36:11
together and worshipping and it's just amazing.
36:15
But then to declare we will keep our promises.
36:18
It was a stadium full of 35,000 failures.
36:23
It's novel and it's great. And I do believe we should keep
36:26
our promises. But being a promise keeper
36:30
becomes secondary to the promise giver.
36:35
He's the reliable one. Promise keeper.
36:37
Not so reliable, but promise giver, 100% trustworthy.
36:43
That I can bring my desire to follow him.
36:46
I can bring my desire to worship him, to serve him, to be the man
36:51
that God wants me to be, to be the husband he wants me to be,
36:54
to be the pastor, to be the friend.
36:56
I can bring that to him and don't come to him.
36:58
I'm a promise keeper, God. I've made the commitment.
37:01
I've signed it. I got the book, I sang the
37:04
songs, I went to the conference. I'm a promise keeper.
37:06
God says that's great, but it's nothing like being a promise
37:10
giver because not only can God give the promise, He can also
37:14
give the power for you to keep it.
37:18
It can never be separate from Him.
37:21
The grace of God wasn't a gift to be given to us so we could
37:24
walk away and do it in our own strength.
37:28
We'll see in Galatians. Paul will ask them.
37:30
He goes, you guys are going to begin in the Spirit and then try
37:34
to perfect it in the flesh. No, don't do that.
37:39
You can't. Don't go backwards.
37:41
God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
37:46
He says, I'm going to write my will on the tablets of your
37:49
heart in the new covenant instead of tablets of stone.
37:54
I'm going to work on the inside of you, not merely the outside
37:58
of you. You can't wake up in the
37:59
morning. I mean, yeah, I mean, you can,
38:01
but it's not going to be effective.
38:02
You can't wake up in the morning, rush into the restroom
38:04
because you read a book. And they said, go in every
38:07
morning and look in the mirror and just look at yourself in the
38:10
mirror and go, oh, I'm going to do this.
38:13
You know, mirrors going to talk back to you.
38:15
Nah, man, that ain't going to happen.
38:17
You've been here every every day.
38:19
You've been saying that every day and nothing's changing.
38:21
I'm going to do this. I will never fail in this area
38:24
again. I will never get mad driving on
38:28
I-25. Then the mirror says, just
38:32
leave, bro, just go. You ain't that ain't going to
38:34
happen. I mean, seriously, it starts
38:36
with a great desire, right? I mean, that's not a that's not
38:38
a bad desire. I'm going to be better and I
38:41
want to be better and I'm never going to be mad.
38:43
I'm never going to get my kids. And again, I'm never going to
38:45
get upset with my wife. I'm never going to get mad at
38:47
him, my husband again, I'm never those are great desires.
38:50
But looking in the mirror and declaring it's not going to
38:53
change anything, but getting on your knees and praying it, that
38:56
changes everything. That was another Amen moment.
38:59
By the way, I heard people online say Amen louder than you
39:03
guys, but I know it hits different in the room because
39:05
you get it right. I had no smiley faces on this
39:10
message. You're just going to have to
39:12
deal with it. Is this the way it is?
39:14
You, you can't just stand up and declare you, you, you.
39:17
You need to understand that right away, all that day, you're
39:21
going to be tested on that one thing all day long.
39:25
Why? Because you're weak in the
39:27
flesh. Every single one of us, we're so
39:32
weak in our flesh. You're going to be testing and
39:34
testing until finally you break. And then what's the very next
39:37
thing? Condemnation.
39:40
You just set yourself up for condemnation, standing strong in
39:44
your own strength. I mean, there's even some false
39:46
theologies that teach you to do that.
39:48
Don't listen to them. Read your Bible and pray every
39:53
day and watch the internal work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
39:57
You come to the promise keeper and he'll make you or the
40:00
promise giver and he'll make you the promise keeper.
40:03
But you come to him as the promise keeper.
40:05
You may never get to the promise giver.
40:09
You don't start with self, you start with God.
40:12
You deny yourself. It would be better to get up in
40:17
the morning instead of I will never do this.
40:19
Just to look in the mirror and weep at the condition of your
40:24
life in the flesh, of the pain that you've caused, of the
40:29
difficulty. Humble yourself before the
40:31
mighty hand of God in what he will lift you up.
40:35
You go in the mirror a few times, weeping before the Lord.
40:38
You're going to find the comfort and the encouragement and the
40:41
strength of the Lord where eventually you'll just soak in
40:45
the forgiveness of God and the goodness of God that you won't
40:48
weep in the mirror anymore because you'll sense that it's
40:51
time to move on. But you keep coming to the
40:54
mirror and just standing there and demanding and just
40:56
committing and you, it's just an endless cycle of the flesh.
41:04
Right now, we're as close to God as we choose to be.
41:08
All of us are at different levels, different degrees of
41:11
closeness or intimacy. Basically, you are where you are
41:14
right now because that's what you've chosen to be.
41:18
We're gathered here in another Bible study as a church.
41:20
I commend you for the extra investment that you will benefit
41:24
by pressing into the things of God.
41:26
You will benefit taking in the Word constantly.
41:29
You, you don't know exactly how you walk away from Bible study
41:32
sometimes. I don't know.
41:33
I didn't get much from that. No, no, you got it all.
41:35
You just don't know how it's going to be lived out yet.
41:37
You got it all. What do you mean you didn't get
41:40
much? You got it all.
41:41
And even the worst Bible study, even the worst Bible teaching I
41:45
would ever give you, I read to you a whole chapter and 1/2 of
41:49
the Bible. You got it all.
41:51
The Lord's going to use that. He's going to use it all in your
41:54
life because he says he's got, He says I got a group here.
41:56
I got a group that says this is what I need.
41:59
I need refreshment, I need strength, I need wisdom.
42:02
I need my mind washed with the water of the Word.
42:05
I need to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.
42:07
So you press into the Word, every devo, every Bible study,
42:11
every Bible reading through the Bible, all of it is from the
42:15
Lord. And you're here because you
42:18
chose to be here. And you're in that place of
42:21
maturity because of a series of choices, some small, some big.
42:26
But as it's been said, you make your choices and your choices
42:29
make you so you choose that which is righteousness.
42:33
And today I want to encourage you to ask God for more.
42:37
More faith, more courage, more forgiveness, more help.
42:41
In fact, God wants us to ask more for more.
42:44
He wants us to seek, and He wants us to knock.
42:48
He wants us to be persistent. Here we are in the first few
42:51
weeks of a brand new year and you can still be asking God for
42:54
more. The New Year's already want, you
42:56
know, already wind down. We're already coming up on a
42:59
third month in the new year. No, no, no.
43:01
Every day is new. The mercies of God are new every
43:05
morning. You can keep asking and keep
43:07
seeking. He has new divine insights for
43:10
you. He has more glorious victories
43:12
for you. He has special strengths and
43:14
defeats for you. Are you ready?
43:16
Then we say, Oh yes, Lord, I am ready for all that you have for
43:21
me. Please don't leave here today
43:24
saying I'm going to obey everything it says.
43:28
Don't do that, but rather come to the door and go.
43:31
I'm ready for all that you have. Big promise, giver.
43:36
I'm going to follow you, seeking to please you, abiding in you,
43:40
keeping those promises through obedience.
43:42
Well, notice with me as we finish up the chapter, verse 6.
43:45
Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, half the blood
43:49
he sprinkled on the altar. He took the book of the covenant
43:52
read it in the hearing of the people.
43:54
They said all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient.
43:58
Moses took the blood sprinkled on the people and said behold
44:01
the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you
44:04
according to all these words again we're beginning to see
44:07
again. We saw it back in Genesis, but
44:08
blood, blood, blood pointing to what the blood of Jesus Christ,
44:13
the complete finished work. Verse 9 Moses went up also Aaron
44:18
and Nadab and Abaihu 70 of the elders of Israel and they saw
44:22
God of Israel. There is under his feet, as it
44:24
were a paved work of sapphire stone and it was like the very
44:28
heavens in its clarity, but on the nobles of the children of
44:32
Israel did not lay his hand. So they saw God and they ate and
44:37
drank. Then Moses said, or the Lord
44:39
said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and be there, and
44:42
I'll give you the tablets of stone and the law and the
44:45
commandments was I've written that you may teach them.
44:48
So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua.
44:51
And Moses went up on the mountain to the mountain of God.
44:56
And he said to the elders, wait here, wait here for us until we
45:00
come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and her are with
45:02
you. If any man has a difficulty, go
45:04
to them. And then Moses went up to the
45:06
mountain on A and a cloud covered the mountain, and the
45:09
glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud
45:12
covered it six days. On the 7th day he called to
45:15
Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
45:18
The side of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire
45:21
on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of
45:24
Israel. So Moses went into the midst of
45:26
the cloud, went up into the mountain, and Moses was on the
45:29
mountain 40 days and 40 nights. The elders were appointed to
45:36
meet the needs while Moses was away.
45:37
They didn't know how long it was going to be.
45:39
Moses didn't know how long it was going to be.
45:41
So in his wisdom, he set up the leadership.
45:43
We see this pattern throughout the Scriptures.
45:45
Exodus chapter 18 earlier, choose able men.
45:49
Acts chapter 6, Seek out from among you 7 men of good
45:52
reputation. The idea of shared leadership
45:56
within anybody of believers is biblical.
45:59
It's important. You want to be the godly man
46:02
that God chooses. You want to be the godly woman
46:04
God chooses in areas of leadership and service in His
46:07
church. But it says in verse 10 that
46:09
they saw the God of Israel. Verse 11 they saw God and ate
46:13
and drank. Verse 17, the sight was like a
46:16
consuming fire. And people get confused here
46:18
because the Bible speaks about no one seeing God and living.
46:23
John 118 even says no one has seen God at any time, but just
46:27
remember the appearances are not the absolute essence of God, but
46:32
what is surrounding him. Not only that, we're using
46:37
language to help us understand the spiritual into the physical
46:41
and we're the the appearance of you see something, you can say
46:45
you saw it, but then also mean you saw it fuzzy.
46:48
You may not include that, but like you saw it but you didn't
46:50
see it clearly, or you saw it but you saw the side of it, not
46:53
the full. And so the descriptions here are
46:56
not the seeing God and living. The Bible is righteous, true,
47:00
and just. But what God revealed to them,
47:04
what they were able to see of his essence and of his purity
47:08
and of His power, and even of His throne under His feet, I
47:12
should say, was this sapphire stone.
47:14
And what they could see absolutely clearly put a fear in
47:17
them, put a holy reverence in them.
47:22
And isn't that the case? Little by little you see more of
47:26
the word. You know how the Bible says we
47:27
see now dimly is in a mirror, but then face to face and then
47:33
you keep going and you see a little bit more and you use the
47:36
word see, But what you really mean is experience.
47:38
So I see now, but what you're really saying is I know now like
47:41
you're gaining and understanding, you're gaining in
47:44
growth, you're gaining and it gives you a holy fear and a
47:47
reverence for God. The Bible says that the fear of
47:50
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
47:53
And because of that, a good understanding have all those who
47:57
do His commandments. Wisdom begins when we understand
48:00
God, when we understand that God is God and we are not.
48:05
Or as I mentioned earlier, that God is the promise giver, but
48:08
He's also the promise keeper. We get everything is from Him to
48:14
Him and for Him. Everything.
48:17
It's all Him. And we have the benefit of His
48:20
presence in our lives. That the Lord would stir up a
48:23
healthy hunger and thirst for righteousness.
48:26
But when you're hungering and thirst for righteousness, you're
48:29
hungering and thirsting for God Himself.
48:32
You're in a battle right now in a deep difficulty.
48:35
God's moving you little by little.
48:36
It may not be as fast. You're seeing, You're seeing
48:41
what He's doing. You just don't have the reason.
48:44
And so it's frustrating and it's painful because pain is hard
48:47
enough when you don't even understand why is it happening
48:50
and why me and why now and why God has His ways and you're in
48:55
the midst of His ways. But He doesn't always reveal His
48:57
reason. And I believe personally, I've
49:00
seen this in my own life. I've been desperate for reasons
49:03
myself for some very important situations in my life that if I
49:08
got the reason, it would take away from my devotion to the God
49:12
of the reason. I just know, like if he gave me
49:16
a little bit more explanation, I would probably respond, oh, now
49:19
I get it. And I wouldn't be pressing into
49:22
God. I'm just speaking, Ed, here.
49:24
You can relate it in your own life.
49:26
You go, oh man, you're so weak in faith, Ed.
49:28
I'm not all right. That's fine.
49:29
Little by little. It's just where I'm at on my
49:32
walk that if he would reveal it to me, I'd be, oh, I get it now,
49:35
I get it now. OK, let's go.
49:36
I can get it now. And I just not even depending.
49:39
I'm not even pleading, I'm not even begging, I'm not even
49:42
pressing, I'm not even knocking because I got my reason when I
49:47
should just be following the way.
49:50
It's interesting, isn't it, that God would give me the phrase God
49:52
has his ways. Well, Jesus is the way, the
49:56
truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except
49:59
through him. So those of you with the ways of
50:02
God today that may not have the reasons, trust him and leave
50:07
here by faith. Amen.
50:09
Lord, we want to pursue you with our lives.
50:11
And I pray I just, I know there's pain in the room.
50:14
I know there's difficulty. I know there's probably some
50:17
anger and frustration, some unforgiveness, some fear and
50:21
anxiety. And you've been so good to us,
50:23
Lord, You've been so good to us and these things that are
50:29
hurtful and hard blind us to your goodness.
50:34
So forgive us, God, from the blindness that we have.
50:39
This is our pastor will always tell us we need to get our eyes
50:42
off the circumstances and get our eyes back on you.
50:45
And I just pray that over us today.
50:50
Some of these Bible studies or you know, my heart is I just
50:52
wish the whole church heard this.
50:54
I wish everyone that would be here, all three services, all
50:57
the Wednesday night, all the small groups would hear these
51:00
types of studies. God that would fill them with a
51:03
desire that yes, it's little by little, nothing's wrong.
51:06
I'm not a bad Christian because things are happening little by
51:08
little. You told the children of Israel
51:11
that's how it would happen because you would do it in such
51:13
a way that would give increase in room for growth and room for
51:18
dependence. So I pray for my brothers and
51:21
sisters today in the room, in the space that you would
51:25
encourage and strengthen them and give them hope.
51:29
Give them hope, God, as they look to the promise giver and
51:33
the promise keeper. You're both in our lives,
51:37
enabling us to follow you closely.
51:41
We pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.
51:45
We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study,
51:47
delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
51:51
For prayer, call us at 87730 Grace.
51:55
That's 8. 773047223 To listen to this message in its integrity or
52:02
to join us for our live stream services, visit us online at
52:06
Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary Church
52:11
app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
52:14
this week.