Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 17, 2024 | Deuteronomy - A Bad Compromise

Transcript

March 17, 2024 | Deuteronomy - A Bad Compromise · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Good to be with you.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Always is.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I wanted to make a quick comment about one of the announcements that was made.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we talked about ShareFest.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sharefest is a really wonderful event that Fellowship Bible Church puts on where churches from around the city go out into the community and do things for them.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh to make a long story short, we haven't always done it, always been a part of it.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And uh last year we didn't, and they said why?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I'd really love it if we had a place close to our church uh that we could go out and serve.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um, lo and behold, this year we have Lowman Hill, which is across the street.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um I checked this morning and we've got 64 spots available uh at Lowman Hill Elementary, and I would love it if every single one of those was filled by TBCers.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I've already signed up.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, our staff has signed up, and so I hope that if you're available that Saturday morning for a couple hours, you'll take some time to sort of invest uh back into our immediate community, our neighborhood.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So um we are continuing.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: You said, are we still going through Deuteronomy this morning?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: We are.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're still going through Deuteronomy.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be actually through the end of May.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh this morning we're gonna be in Deuteronomy chapter 7.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh as we get into this chapter, there's for those of you who have been following along and are reading the the book of Deuteronomy, um boy, there's a huge section this morning that people must have been terrified, right, in the front row.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um way to go, Larry.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Second row, run on.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um sorry.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So in chapter seven, um, we get into a really hard text, and it's a text that uh actually we've we've talked about similar things before, and in fact, as we as a church continue to go through the books of the Bible, the next two years as we go into Joshua and Judges, we'll continue to encounter um these uh verses, these passages about Israel going to war.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so this morning we're going to talk a little bit about that, um, but really the purpose is to kind of get through that because every time Israel goes to war, we don't need to break down the whole thing, um, but to see how God is teaching Israel a lesson through uh this encounter that they're about to have about what it means to um stay away from compromise, right?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So when I went to college, uh part of my studies was in conflict resolution.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of the things that I studied there.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean I'm good at it, uh, but it does mean that I read quite a few books on about how to reach compromise.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, there are a lot of things in our life where compromise is necessary.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: You you're finding a uh negotiating the price on a car, you're figuring out what restaurant to go to after church, you're um figuring out what we need to watch on Netflix or something like that, as don't just endlessly look for new things, right?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Compromise is a really good trait to develop.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but sometimes in the Bible, um, God instructs us that compromise is actually it can be a destructive thing.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And as we look in Deuteronomy chapter 7 this morning, you're gonna see that in this particular case, uh compromise with the nations around Israel was something that would lead them down a path of apostasy, of polytheism, ultimately where they would walk away from God.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've been with us for the last few weeks, uh you know why that's a really bad deal.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not just because we shouldn't walk away from God, but because Israel is a covenant people where their relationship and their success in the old covenant, under the old covenant, was based upon their faithfulness to God.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where we'll be this morning.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7, that's where we'll begin.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And um it starts out, it says, When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and he drives out many nations before you, the Hethites, Gergeshites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them, make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, yeah, let's talk about the obvious thing there, which is the extreme language.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we get to passages where Israel is going to war, um, there are normally sort of two qu or certainly with this passage, two questions that we can ask ourselves.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is who is Israel to sort of move out these nations from the promised land?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why do they get to do it?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And second of all, why is this sort of moving out of the nations and the destruction of them, why is it so complete, right?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they unable to make treaties with these nations?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Two questions, right?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the first to the first one, why why is it Israel that gets to do it?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things about reading our Bible that we have to understand, bless you, is that in the Old Testament, ancient Israel really operates as a unique nation, unlike any other nation that has ever existed before or after them.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and ancient Israel specifically has this relationship with God where they are his chosen people.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is more and it is deeper than just that they worship him, but rather that God extended through no action on Israel's part his loving grace and chose them, this nation of shepherds and slaves, to be his people.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And in ancient Israel, and through ancient Israel, we see that God is carrying out his will, sort of using them kind of as a proxy.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to like diminish the relationship, it's love and it's covenant and it's beautiful.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: But when is ancient Israel acts and moves in the Old Testament, right, this is God moving and acting.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so one way to say it is that if you oppose ancient Israel, right, if you oppose them, uh then you are opposing the creator of the universe.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that is something that is unique to them and unlike anything else.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you can't compare war in the Old Testament to war today.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um and furthermore, it's even unlike some other sort of religious war that somebody, like the Spanish Inquisition or the Crusades or something like that.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like nobody is able to just go out today and be like, we're doing this for the Lord and just destroy people, right?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: This was a specific situation here.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: But also, and this is important, it's more than that.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's more than just that they were sort of acting on God's behalf, because as an instrument of the Lord's will, it was not their destruction of the nations, these seven, right?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's later on in the Bible that some of the names will change, right?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's all sort of the same situation.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um as these, as Israel goes out and goes into the promised land and conducts warfare, right?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they are not just receiving the blessings of God as they inherit the promised land.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just a matter of God's faithfulness, but also it's a matter of God handling the nations that are wicked.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's a matter of his judgment as well.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you read passages like this, your mind probably isn't in this space, but you should sort of have the same mindset as you would in the book of Revelation, when we're talking about sort of end times and judgment and those who are against the Lord and those who are for the Lord, and it's kind of this very clearly divided line that that's the same situation that's happening here.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as Israel is doing this, um, really it's the physical embodiment of spiritual warfare that God and Satan are on opposite sides here.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so, if you can hear my summary, what I'm trying to say is to this first question, why does Israel get to do it?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because Israel is unlike any other nation before or since, and because they are acting on behalf of God as an instrument of his mercy and his justice.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: But the second question, though, that comes up, especially with this passage this morning, and this is where we'll stay for the rest of our time together, is why is it so complete?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Why does it say, like, and when you destroy them, you must completely do it, make no treaty with them and make no mercy?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, kind of clutch the pearl sort of thing.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why is this part of the command?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the other part of this is that um, again, as we've talked about the last couple weeks, right, Israel is in a covenant relationship with God.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there are a lot of things tied up in Israel's faithful dedication to the Lord.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it is one part God's reputation that is here being sort of seen through Israel.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Israel is going to reflect back upon who God is and what he does, their actions.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: It is one part covenant relationship and the fact that they have this agreement, sort of, um, that if Israel is faithful, that God will do these things out of his love.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then it is one part that Israel is supposed to be a sign unto the other nations of God's power.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so there are a lot of things that are happening here that when Israel does the thing that they're supposed to do, that they will reflect back upon God.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And even the language in Deuteronomy 7 here, when it says, make no treaty with them, that language the Hebrew word there is the same one used for covenant.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so you get this idea that God's saying, okay, you have a relationship with me, right?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: This goes back to the Shema a few weeks ago, love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so God says, like, as you're going out, you have a treaty, you have a covenant with me, you aren't allowed to do this with other people.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And what this introduces in this whole theme of sort of no mercy, what it introduces is this idea that the nation of Israel is not to make compromises with the other nations, that they might be tempted as they go in to say, well, hey, like, you stay on your side, we'll stay on our side.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And what God is saying is, because of the nature of these nations, what they do, um, and by that I mean that they are not just um rejecting God, but the wicked and vile practices that they keep, the false gods that they worship, that there is a danger for Israel as they head into this promised land, that if they fail to eliminate those who are there, the the objects of God's justice, then they will begin to adopt those same practices for themselves, and just like sort of an infection, it will take over the whole body of Israel, that they will begin to go down this dangerous path.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so, why is it complete?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because they must deal with the people completely, or else they will be drawn into the same sins in the future.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's one of these deals where it's like you don't have to say, I would be I would be kind of alarmed if somebody's like, you know what my favorite passage in the Bible is?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like Deuteronomy 7, just the way he says, destroy them.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: I would be a little scared, to be honest with you.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of other passages that you could probably pick.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, as a people of God that believe in his word, like there should be an understanding of these passages where we're not, if somebody has a problem, like we're not afraid to discuss it.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: We can say, look, I mean, I get it, it's alarming, but here's why, and here's the reason, here's the justification.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And there's an element there where you say, well, ultimately it's God, and so the justification is sort of a moot point.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, he is God, he gets to do what he wants.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is his land, he is the creator, he chose these people.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, but as we want to endeavor to understand these things, and God's grace is revealed, ultimately what he's doing is he's protecting Israel.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then, as we'll move forward into verse three here, we're going to see that he continues to give them reasons and ways that they are to avoid this kind of compromise, because it's not just about war.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So in verses three through six, God says, You must not, or Moses says to them, um, using God, you must not intermarry with them, and you must not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord's anger will burn against you, and he will swiftly destroy you.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their ashera poles, which was a false god, and burn their carved images.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all of the peoples on the face of the earth.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So let me throw a question at you, maybe you haven't thought of just yet.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: If verses one through two said the uh destruction of all the people in the land was to be complete and they were to show no mercy, how is it that there are still people that they can marry when they go into the promised land?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay So this is um we'll talk about this actually more on the podcast.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of a debate, what what's going on here?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: But really what is good for us to understand this morning, think of it like this.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um maybe you were you in when you were in high school or you had a high schooler, uh, you said something or heard something like this.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you go out with your friends, I don't want you to drink.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um but if you end up in a situation where you are, I want you to call me so that I will drive you home.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: The the situation, the underlying situation is I want you to be safe.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the plan A is that you don't do the foolish thing and go ahead and drink with your friends, right?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um But uh the plan B there is, but most of all I am concerned about your safety.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's sort of this backup plan that if you still decide to do the thing that is unwise, right, drinking underage with your friends in this situation, uh then I at least want you to be safe and call me.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: What God is doing here for the people is he is providing a situation for them where even as they go into the land and for various reasons the former instructions were not entirely carried out, that they would continue to be able to protect themselves and their hearts from false gods.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things that he says is that you are not to intermarry with them.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know if it's funny, but what is interesting is that the like what God says and the stories through the Bible reveal is that when it comes to sort of relationships that bring people away from God, it is always the men who are far more um swayed by what their wives are doing than it is the other way around.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see this over and over again where it's like if you send your sons to their daughters, they're gone for.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if you bring their daughters to our sons, they're gone for.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it has very little to do with the gender and more to do with the fact that uh the sons are going to be the ones here who are going to fall away.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: The ladies apparently have a bit of a stronger spine.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as we like, let me give you one example here, right?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because what God is saying, I don't want you to just think these are good ideas.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: What God is doing is he is preempting some of the sins that he knows that Israel is going to want to commit.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: So look ahead with me.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is 1 Kings chapter 11, and we have King Solomon.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: King Solomon loved many foreign women, in addition to Pharaoh's daughter, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, this should sound familiar, you must not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: To these women Solomon was deeply attached in love.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: He had seven hundred wives who were princesses, and three hundred who were concubines, and they turned his heart away.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Wolomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Solomon, not the best example of what covenant marriage should look like, uh, but also not the best example of following what God had commanded, that his heart was torn in apparently a thousand pieces, but his heart was torn in all of these directions because he had begun to marry these other women who were worshiping these false gods and were drawing him to do the same.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And what you end up seeing is through the rest of Solomon's reign, kind of the back end especially, um, that he, his decline is sort of in conjunction with this action or these actions.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens is the entire nation of Israel begins to follow after him.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: So much so uh that later on in the book of Kings and as we hear about sort of the kings that come after Solomon, that one of the greatest things that can be said about them when we finally find a couple that do the right thing is that they tore down the ashera poles and they got rid of the high places.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, they did the things that God had instructed them to do at the very beginning, and their hearts were not torn in these other directions.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so what this is, and what God is doing with them, is he's providing them with warning signs, right?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: This idea of compromise is not one that just has to do with marriage, but rather God is showing them these signs that they can look for to see.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, your heart is being drawn away from me.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I what you're hearing me, what I'm instructing you to do, is to be faithful and to do it complete and to not go halfway and don't compromise.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: But as you look for the specifics, one of them that you hear is not intermarry with the other nations who don't believe in me and think that I am just one of many gods.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's a story you might remember back in uh 2004, there was that tsunami uh in Thailand, and it killed 178,000 people, which is a number that is sort of defies understanding.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um and one of the stories that came out of that was this little girl, her name is Tilly Smith, and she was 10 years old when she was at a Marriott in Fouquet uh with her parents, and Tilly in her class in England, two weeks before, had learned the warning signs of a tsunami.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so what Tilly did was as she saw the surf uh receding far out, almost a I mean, some of the places around Thailand were up to like a mile, it was going back, um, preparing for this huge swell.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Tilly began running around the beach telling everyone uh what was going on and how they needed to be afraid and and they needed to run away because a tsunami was coming.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And because of Tilly's actions, uh that little strip of beach near the Marriott in Thailand was the only location where people were not seriously injured or killed as the tsunami came because the entire beach had been evacuated.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so this little Tilly, right, she is warning people, she's giving them the signs of what is coming.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the exact same thing that God is doing, right?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like we're we're with Marty McFly and we're in Back to the Future.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like the events that we read about, like what happens with Solomon, in the context of where we're reading in Deuteronomy, they have not happened yet.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: All of the disastrous things, all of the like the Israel going into exile, it has not happened yet, even though we read it, and so we have to look back with the lens of those who are hearing Moses, and the instruction is if you would follow these things, then you would avoid the calamity that is coming.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, that what they're supposed to do is that they are not supposed to think, and this is reiterated in the Old Testament and the New, that we are strong enough by ourselves to avoid the temptations of the world and to think that we can coexist with them and to sometimes even allow them to be in our lives and in our homes, and that we would not eventually fall prey to them.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Israel is what they are going to do is they're gonna go into the promised land and they're gonna start off strong, and they're gonna go in and they're gonna see these high places in the asherpoles and the gods who are worshiping, you know, the gods of fire and thunder and fertility and all of these things, and they're gonna be like, I mean, we've got the Ark of the Covenant.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I know I'm secure, right?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm steady in what I believe.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to go ahead and do all of these other things.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens is that as they then begin to live next to and near all of those things and intermarry and mingle with people who think that they're good ideas, um, what happens is not just in year one, but if you look in that longer-term perspective, right, is like as that life goes on, and then even as those generations go on, those things just begin to consume the nation again.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: God says, do not think that you are strong enough.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be fooled into thinking that you are somebody who can withstand these pressures.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Get rid of them.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do not compromise, do not strike any deals with them.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: God says, For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're reminded of this sort of covenant language as God is drawing them deeper.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: But as Israel goes in to the promised land, they are going to have these different excuses, right?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to have all these things that they say as they go in, because compromise is not something in this situation that they are necessarily seeking out.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's once they are faced with the temptation, they see that there are things about it that they enjoy, right?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Or it's Things that they're about, they're gonna talk with themselves.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be like, it's not that bad.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, there are parts of it like, yeah, we okay, we're not gonna do that.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: But like, there are these other elements that we don't really need to go all the way.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to begin to give sort of these reasons or these excuses or these fears.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna say things to the Lord that He addresses later on in chapter 7 about going in and handling this warfare the way God has commanded.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: They'll say, We've failed before.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: We've failed before to do these things.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And God's response is, yes, you have.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Your parents failed to do this.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: But remember Egypt.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Remember some of the nations that you've already fought.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can do this because I'm with you.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: They'll say, it's a difficult task.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like what you're asking us to do is not easy to not compromise.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, Right, yes, I am.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: But there's nothing that you're going to encounter that you can't conquer because I'm with you.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a single thing that you're going to experience that by relying upon me and leaning upon me, we can't do together.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to say, we're not strong enough to do it.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have the power.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And God's going to say, uh-huh.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I am, though, and I will go before you.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, I already have in all of these situations.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: God says in 76, says, I'll confuse the nations, I'll send hornets after them.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Debate about what that is.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Is God sending bugs?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is he referencing something else?
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's sending proverbial hornets in front of the nations before them so that the work that they do will be more like cleanup.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Your strength in battles like this doesn't come from numbers or weapons, right?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: So often we want to rely on ourselves, the data points that we have.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, Lord, we're smaller than they are.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: As nations, they're far bigger than we are.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're more seasoned in battle.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: They've got these strongholds, and God says, Yeah, but that's not how my math works, right?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: As you go into them, it's not about your size, it's not about your weapons.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's me going before you.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then they'll say, Lord, but the future is uncertain.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when we get there and we don't know what to do?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you can almost hear God going, Okay, I understand, but why don't we just begin before we need to get everything figured out?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we begin the journey and trust that I will be with you as I have been for these last 40 years, for hundreds of years, but I will continue to be with you as my people, even though you're heading into an uncertain future.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: God says, I'm going to continue to be there.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of chapter 7, though, a very similar reminder comes from Moses that we've already heard, almost as if Israel needs to be reminded once again.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this is going to attack sort of the heart issue that's at play here.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just about obedience per se, but it is more about why compromise is something that God's people find themselves doing all the time.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of chapter seven.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's the end.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Don't look.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Burn up the carved images of their gods.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Don't covet the silver and gold on the images and take it for yourself, or else you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the Lord your God.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: You are to abhor and detest it utterly, because it is set apart for destruction.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that's very clear about any of the passages related to warfare with Israel is that it reveals the character of God in such that he is a one who despises and does not make any compromise against his judgment of wickedness.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so when it comes to these acts of warfare, they are total, they are extreme, but like I said at the beginning of the message, it's reminiscent of the end of the Bible, where we have uh those who are rising up against God and saying they are against him, and this destruction is kind of a binary uh function where God says, There are those who are with me and there are those who are against me, right?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we get to even something like the minutiae of when you go into the land and you find their carved idols and they're made out of gold, and even if you don't want to worship them, um, you think though that like maybe you could um either hide it or you could boil, you know, you could melt it down and turn it into something else.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: God's like, don't even, don't even like touch it, don't even get close to it, don't even bring it into your house.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Don't even think that you can handle it, because you can't.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, as it says here, right, that our heart, they will be ensnared by these things, right?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Don't covet them.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: That there are elements of what they're heading into that are attractive to the eyes.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is why sin is so captivating in all of its different ways that Satan brings it about, is because we look at it and we don't, for many things, we don't automatically go, oh, well, that's bad.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of things in it where there can be pleasure or there can be sort of some short-term happiness that comes from pursuing these things that are all about ourselves and in our rebellion against God.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's a reason that our hearts are sort of structured this way, that from the womb we have come out desiring to rebel against the Lord and not understanding, except for the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit, that that's a bad idea.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: That we should be people who are dedicated to God.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: But instead we often fall back into these habits and these spaces where we think that sin, at least maybe part of sin, is a good idea.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that there's an element of it that we can, and because we've figured it out, we can do both.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: We can have our cake, we can eat it too, right?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: We can worship the Lord with obedience, we can be faithful to him, but also on the other side, like we can pursue these other things.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Things that are not honoring to God, things that are not honoring to our bodies, things that are not good for us and are not God's best for us.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's even probably some people right now who are listening to me who don't like this message of noncompromise because we just love to protect that part of ourselves that has autonomy.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like as people who are chosen and set apart and holy, the nation of Israel, as people who are chosen and set apart and holy, those who follow and know Jesus Christ, we have to understand that part of that, right?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Part of that relationship is that we submit to the Lord, that we give ourselves over to him, that we say that he is the master, he is the creator, we admit truth.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And as we do that, the part of our lives, and it doesn't always come all at once, right?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's this gradual process of sanctification, as we're slowly handing over to the Lord the elements of ourselves that we have wanted to hold on to for a very long time.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: But as we are refined into the image of Christ, as we begin to look more and more like our Savior, these things need to be handed over.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as we do that, what we find is not that we are a people with loss, right?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Israel did not, was not facing loss because they should not pursue the false idols, right?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: They had everything that they needed in the Lord.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we end up finding as well, is that true life and a fulfilling life is found in the love and forgiveness of Christ as we hand these things over to him.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: But to think, though, um, that God still doesn't care about compromise is false.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: I want to point you to a final passage this morning, and um as Jesus um speaks about the necessity for uh avoiding compromise and what to do when we find it.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if your hand causes you to fall away, cut it off.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to hell, the unquenchable fire.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I watch depictions of Jesus or read about quotes of Jesus or things that he liked to say, this is normally not in the list of them, right?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we sometimes forget that uh while also being, as all things, right, while also being uh the God of mercy and grace and forgiveness, all of those things still being held up, uh Jesus also had a great zeal and passion for seeing that people would follow after him and him alone.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus did not uh broker compromises with the world.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is why he says that I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: That is a statement that does not allow compromise.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: And as we look at these things, you say, well, okay, this is different than warfare.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is different than warfare, but now it's our lives, right?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we're looking at our lives and our relationship with Christ, and we're saying, like, are we an obedient people?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Are we an obedient?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying obedience for the sake of like the Mosaic law or things like that, but I'm saying, out of the purpose of not allowing compromise, after following after God with our whole hearts, are we a people who are dedicated to God?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's passages like this that we go, okay, well, I don't see too many people running around.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus never instructed his disciples to cut off their feet, okay?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: They were not hobbling around, but rather it is a revelation of the intensity for God's desire for us to be a people who are removing any and everything in our life that is drawing us into temptation, so that we might be able to pursue him with whole and full hearts.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: We aren't in danger of marrying a thousand women and um or men and uh being drawn away into false gods.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even logistically know how he made that work out.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but instead, what we have is a life where we are all the time being invited uh to be drawn away and to effectively marry uh sort of uh husbands and wives who are going to eventually draw our hearts away.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, Solomon thought it was a good idea to worship God.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: You see that even as he continues in his reign, these things are a good idea to him.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um but what he did was allow sort of this, he opened the door for this infection to come in.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the things that God had done to protect him and to provide for him and to warn him were things that he did not heed.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I would assume, considering he is a man who is given the wisdom of God, that if he had known the way that things were going to end, he wouldn't have begun down that path.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: But rather, this is the insidious thing about compromise, is that it starts small.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, you look at somebody who is trying to be adamant about removing compromise from their life, and people look at them and they go, like, why are you being so intense about this?
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: And what I would love for us to get to in the last few minutes we have here is that we would arrive at a point that is not legalistic, that we are not pursuing obedience to God because we have been told to do it, or furthermore, that we think that when we fall short of obedience to God, that he is somehow uh moving past the blood of Christ, which has cleansed cleansed us of all of our sins and is now going to treat us terribly or something like that.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Then we must be kicked out because we have fallen short.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody falls short, everybody makes mistakes.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: I compromise in my life all the time.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: But as I'm going through this passage this week, I'm saying, but Lord, where are the areas of my life that I must continue to address?
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: And there is absolutely this space for us that sets aside sort of hedonism, that sets aside sort of just the pursuit of whatever because we are covered by the blood of Christ.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Paul talks about that in Romans.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it also sets aside sort of the legalistic sort of focus on the law that we are also warned against.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: That because we are not a people of the law, we're a people of grace under the blood of Christ.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: So in that space, though, there is still this idea where Jesus says, yes, but you should not compromise.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: That the kingdom of God is not one that invites compromise or even allows it and merits it.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is one of those deals where you know the application better than I could give it, uh, because there are areas of my life personally where I think about where I am compromising and in even small things.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: And normally what is happening in my mind is I go, I ask the question, where in my life am I doing things that I know are sinful and yet I continue to do them anyway?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, where do I have a callous relationship and sort of a numb relationship with the sin in my life where I'm not doing anything to address it?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see the distinction there between the two?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like there is one where we go, this is the thing in my life that must be removed, and we go full bore at it, and yet sometimes it persists and remains.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: And by the power of the Spirit and the grace of God, we continue to overcome it, or eventually we will.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are these other areas of our life where we have sort of just like allowed them to fester in the backgrounds.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: And these are the areas of that we want to focus on this morning and say, like, where have we continued to willingly ignore the things that God has called us to?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, why have we not removed the problem yet?
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: So why is that app still on your phone where you look at things unfit for your eyes?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you continue to submit reimbursement expenses at work that are minor but intentionally inaccurate?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you still keep alcohol in the house when it's a temptation for you and you have a history of abuse?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you still talking to the person who gives you butterflies and isn't your spouse, right?
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like there are a lot of things that you can keep going on because we are beautiful people with endless sins.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the reasons why we need the blood of Christ to cover us.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but as we continue to go forward in that, right, there is this constant reminder that we should also be a people who are trying to eradicate them from our lives.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not for the purpose of being seen as righteous by other people, but because that is what God has called us to do in our relationship with Him, right?
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this morning as we uh close in prayer, what I would like to do, we don't often do this, but I would like us, our sort of all of us, to have this posture and our hearts of not only submission to the Lord, but of confession, um, that I'm going to pray here and we'll kind of have a little bit of a quiet time.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that this would be a wonderful moment for you to sort of go before the Lord and say, like, Lord, you know the sins that are in my life.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know the areas of my life that are not right.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know the areas of my life, furthermore, that I have not decided to address and thought that I could coexist with them, where I've compromised.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: And God, by the power of your spirit, which is the only way that I can conquer it, might I do these things?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, continue to remind me, if I've trusted him as my Savior, that you forgive me for these things.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, before we pray, that we remind ourselves too that there will always be the questions that Israel had about going into these problems, right?
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, Lord, this problem is huge.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Yeah, but I can take care of it.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I am weak.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Yeah, but I'm not, right?
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, Lord, what about the future?
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: What will happen when I address these things?
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, why don't we address that when we get there?
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how about we start walking down this path first and trust that it will be okay?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: There will always be fears and excuses, but we are called to be a people without compromise in this regard.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: When you're negotiating a car price, go nuts.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when you're following after Jesus, stay on his side.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go ahead and pray.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll begin, and then we'll have a kind of a quiet period, and then I'll close this in prayer.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let's bow our heads.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you as a people who are filled with sin.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: I am, and uh Lord, based upon what your word says, so is everybody else.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, God, we we recognize this sin.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: And God, we uh at times we can even feel ashamed of it because there are parts of our life where we continue to do the things we know that are not good, that are not life-giving, that are not Christ-like, um, just because we want to, and because it makes us feel good.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I ask that you would come into this space as Lord, you're already here, but that we might feel your presence and know, Lord, that you're hearing these prayers and experience, Lord, the forgiveness and that feeling of satisfaction that comes from offering up a secret, Lord.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not it's never a secret to you, Lord, but Lord, offering up these things that are hidden in our lives and knowing that the blood of Christ covers that sin and that you forgive us, and that God, you just call us into a deeper relationship.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I also pray that as we consider these things, that God, we would take it seriously as you say, Lord, as if we were cutting off our own limb, because it's better to do that than to not.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so, God, hear hear our prayers, Lord, hear us as we confess these things to you and we desire to do them.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they are many.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: We will experience new ones tomorrow.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: But God, we confess to you as people who trust in Christ, Lord, um, that we are sorry.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: And God, as we ask for your forgiveness, we are thankful that you are faithful to give it.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: And God, that you would help us to be people who are not racked by guilt and shame, but live in the freedom of the cross.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: And God, desire to not um broker compromise and treaties with the world around us, but rather to be lights that shine for your glory.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: And God, uh, when we stumble, that you would remind us of this, and Lord, when we are um faithful for a time, that you would remind us that it is by your power that we are doing that.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, God, we are people who are weak, but with you we are strong.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we thank you for these things, Lord.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, guys, listen.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: The the slide that I missed that you saw earlier.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you didn't get what I was saying, that's what I was trying to say.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I love you.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: See you next time.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: See you next week.