Exodus 23–24

Hello, welcome to Calvary Chapel. Why don't you go ahead and find your seats and stand with us as we praise the Lord today. Can't be plucked from your hands, nothing we can do can take us away from you for all these things.

Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 23. Exodus 23. We've been going through the law. Moses had been given, actually all of the children of Israel were given the Ten Commandments. But when God spoke from heaven, they said, hey, you talk to God, tell us what he said because he's scary. And so Moses went to talk to God and God began giving them what we refer to as the judgments.

In other words, these would be the guidelines that the judges would use in order to solve disputes among the people. And so tonight, as we move into chapter 23, we're going to look at the last section of the judgments. But then we move. Even further, and we see Moses not only ratify the covenant with the people, but we see him go up on the mountain to talk with God.

So we pick up in chapter 23, verse one, and this is what it says. You shall not bear a false report. Do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute. So as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert judgment. Nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute.

If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. If you see the donkey of the one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him. You shall surely release it with him. You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. Keep far from a false charge and do not kill.

The innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty. You shall not take a bribe for a bribe blinds the clear sighted and subverts the cause of justice. You shall not oppress a stranger since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger. For you also were strangers in the land of Egypt. And so these first nine verses give us the last of what we would call the judgments.

I call them the last of the moral laws that he gives to us. And really, I think we can sum them up in four ways. Number one, he says, don't follow the crowd. Notice what he says here. Verse one says, you shall not bear a false report. Do not join your hands with the, with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. And you shall not follow the masses in doing evil,

nor shall you testify in a dispute. So as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice. In other words, don't go along with everybody else just because it's the popular thing to do, especially if it's wrong. Now, growing up and then working with youth for a very long time, you're always told the same thing. We always tell kids the same thing.

Don't do something just because all of your other friends are doing it. Right. And we know that that's the common advice that we give to kids. But I'm here to tell you, don't do something just because all of your friends are doing it because, you know, as well as I do, you may not want to admit it, but just because you become an adult doesn't mean that you're not prone also to the same sort of pressure that other people around you put on you.

If you don't believe me, just ask anybody that gets elected to a public office because they all face pressure. Unless we give them too hard of a time, you and I would face the exact same pressure and would struggle with the exact same thing. That's why God has to tell us in the law here not to follow the crowd and do what everybody else is doing, not to do what everybody else is doing and being dishonest or joining with those that are doing evil or being partial to someone, whether they're poor or because they're poor. He says, he tells us, don't be that way.

Don't follow what everybody else is doing. Stand on the truth and stand on what you know God is calling you to do. The second thing he tells us in these last of the moral laws is that we're to love our enemy. He says it in an interesting way, but that's the point he's getting to. Look at what he says in verse four. If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away,

you shall surely return it to him. If you see the donkey of the one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it. You shall surely release it with him. I think I could sum those two things up by saying, show kindness and love to your enemy. Those that would mean you ill, those that would be those that you would consider an enemy,

whether you hate them or they hate you, however it is, we should continue showing kindness to them. That's the exact same thing that Jesus tells us in the New Testament, correct? That we are to love our enemies. And in so doing, we heap coals of fire on their head. Now that doesn't mean that what we do is we burn them. It means we actually are a comfort to them.

That's the idea of that saying. He tells us, hey, if you see your enemy's animal causing problems and having an issue, stop and help them. We might say this. If you see somebody that hates you and their car is broken down on the side of the road, stop and help them, right? Don't just pass right on by. That's the idea that's being given to us there. He goes on from there to say,

you shall not take a bribe. Look at what he says in verse eight. You shall take no bribe for a bribe blinds the clear sighted and subverts the cause of justice. I think about half of our legal system could be affected by this one verse alone, right? Because whether it's a settlement or whether it's some sort of a bribe or payoff money or keeping somebody silent,

it's always wrong. And he says, he says, don't do that. And then in verse nine, he says, you shall not oppress a stranger. Since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt, two chapters in a row. Now he's told them to be kind to strangers. Now somebody asked me after last week's message, they said, so does this mean there shouldn't be immigration laws?

And I said, absolutely not. Because if we go on in the law, we're going to see that there were things that people were to do if they wanted to come and be a part of the nation of Israel. There were laws that had to be followed in order to consider themselves a part of the nation. Of Israel. This is not an abolishment of law. It is a rule for us as believers that if somebody is living among us,

that is different than us, they are still our neighbor and we are to show them love and kindness. And quite frankly, even if somebody was here illegally, I should still show them love. I should still show them kindness because they're still created in the image of God, right? Just like if somebody committed any other crime, I wouldn't want to make sure that they still knew who Jesus was and I would still want to show them love.

I would show them love and mercy. Correct? So that's the idea that's being given to us there. Now he finishes up those moral laws that we started back in chapter 21 and now he picks up on the Sabbaths and the feasts that they were to pay attention to. He's going to give us a base for these that he will then later on in the book of Exodus as well as in the book of Leviticus go into detail about.

But let's take a look at what he says here. Verse 10. He says, you shall sow your land for six years and gather in Israel. It's yield. But on the seventh year, you shall let it rest in life fallow so that the needy of your people may eat and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove six days.

You are to do your work. But on the seventh day, you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of your female slave, as well as, your stranger may refresh themselves now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth. Now, God now gives them a law that has to do with the Sabbath. Now, remember the Sabbath has been something that was established since creation, right?

This is an intention that God has six days. You work, then you take a day off. We've said that it's spiritually healthy. We've said that it's physically healthy. Plus, it gives us a picture of Jesus, our ultimate Sabbath rest. But here he gives them another law that has to do with the Sabbath. And he tells them to take a Sabbath year. He says, I want you to work for six years.

And in the seventh year, leave your fields alone. Don't do anything to them. Whatever grows up on their own. If you're a gardener, you know that those are called like volunteer. Like perhaps you grow a garden, you know, when they come up on their own, they're called volunteer tomatoes or, or whatever it is that you grow. Whatever grows up of itself, allow the poor within your community to harvest.

That so that they have something as well. As a matter of fact, you can let your animals graze on that. Now there's several layers of what's going on here. First of all, this was God's economy for social security as well, as well as dealing with the poor in the land. It is, if you will, the welfare system that God had established for the nation of Israel. The welfare system there was that you still had to work even if you didn't have a field,

but you were given an opportunity to glean or to harvest in somebody else's field. As long as you were the one, the one that did the work. This has come up several times with things that I've dealt with because one of the issues we deal with in our culture today is that people want things handed to them. And the problem is when we hand things to people, when we just give things away to people, they begin to expect it.

And that's what's happened in our culture right now is we have a group of people, not only in this town, but all over the place that are expecting things just to be given to them. And that's not at all what God intended. As a matter of fact, if you move into the new Testament, what everybody considers the book of grace, Paul says, I believe it's in first or second Thessalonians that if a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat. As a matter of fact, Paul in, I believe it's second Timothy says, Nope, excuse me.

I think it's first Timothy. He says, if a man doesn't take care of his family, he's as bad as a heathen. So God really takes work seriously. And so he has this welfare program that's established. Now, the other thing is that this is supposed to be a time, to not only allow the land to rest. In other words, replenish itself because of all the nutrients that are stripped from it,

from being able to plant and harvest, but it's a time for you to rest a time for an individual, just to say, you know what? I'm going to take this year, this sabbatical year, and I'm just going to reevaluate everything that I do. I'm going to get myself set up to work for another six years. But that brings me to another point about this sabbatical year. Can you imagine the amount of.

Faith in God that it takes to obey this? Have you ever thought to yourself, I'm just going to take a year off and do nothing and trust that God's going to provide because that's what he called us to do. That's a difficult thing to do, is it not? It's hard to trust God in those situations, but we're going to find out later that God's going to make a promise.

He says, if you will test me in this and be obedient to me, I will provide for you, not only, in the seventh year, but also in the eighth year. And you won't need the new produce until the ninth year, because that's how much I want to take care of you. And so it was a real lesson in faith for the people. We're going to find that the children of Israel don't keep this law.

And because of that, they ended up going into captivity for 70 years because of the 490 years that they didn't keep this law. And so God tells them, this is what you're going to do. Six years. You work, take the seventh year off and allow your fields to do their thing. And then he goes on to reiterate the Sabbath law for, I can't remember how many times now he says in verse 12,

six days you are to work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger may refresh themselves. I don't know if it can be overstated the importance of the fact that Jesus is our ultimate Sabbath. Rest. I enjoy the language that you use there because it's different than just taking the day off, he says, you shall cease from your labor.

You ever thought about why that verbage is used. Do you remember what it says on the seventh day with God, that God ceased from all of his labor on the seventh day? Why? Because God didn't have to do anything else for creation. It is finished. Remember what Jesus said from the cross. Remember the last words he uttered right before he gave up the ghost? He said,

It is finished, and he ceased from his labor. In the book of Hebrews, it says that he is now seated at the right hand of the Father because he no longer needs to make atonement for sin because he has ceased from his labor. And I think sometimes for us as Christians, we can't be reminded enough that our labor is complete, that Jesus has done it all, and we can rest in him. And so he gives them this command once again about the Sabbath, and then he gives this interesting warning in between the Sabbaths and these national feasts that they're supposed to take.

Notice what he says in verse 13. He says, Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard, and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth. I don't know about you, but those three, four words stuck out to me. Be on your guard. As a matter of fact, if you're somebody that likes to underline in your Bible,

that would be a really good thing. That would be a really good one to underline because it's really a phrase to pay attention to because that's something that we as believers should constantly be. We should be on our guard. And what does he tell them to be on guard about? The idolatry that would be all around them. He says, With all of these things that you've heard, be on your guard.

Why? So that you don't mention the name of another god. You see, we have to constantly be on guard because we are naturally prone to idolatry. We're naturally prone to idolatry. We're naturally prone to idolatry. We're naturally prone to idolatry because our flesh wants a god that mimics us. And what mimics us is something that pleases me. Therefore, all of the idols in the world are something that pleases all of my flesh.

Therefore, it comes naturally to us to give in to idolatry. Therefore, the children of Israel, as well as all of the believers living here right now, need to be on our guard because idolatry is all around us. It's given to us in every email that you receive. It's given to us in all of the social media that you look at. It's given to us on every commercial that you watch right now.

It's given to us in every store that you go into. You please you. If it feels good, do it. Or as Nike did, just shorten it by saying, just do it. Right? What was Sprite's slogan? Obey your thirst. Right? What's McDonald's slogan? Our ice cream machine is broken right now. That has nothing to do with anything. But that's the idea, right? Right? Right? Right?

Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? We're prone to idolatry. Therefore, we must constantly be on our guard because we can slip into it so easily. He says, be on guard against these things. And then he goes on from there to talk about these feasts that they're supposed to keep.

He says, three times a year, verse 14, you shall celebrate a feast to me. You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days, you're to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you at the appointed time in the month of Abib. For in it you came out of Egypt, and none shall appear before me empty-handed. Also you shall observe the feast of harvest of the firstfruits of your labor from what you sow

in the field. Also the feast of ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the fat of my feast to remain overnight until morning. You shall bring the choice fruits of your soil into the house of

the Lord your God, and you're not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. We'll deal with that last one here in just a minute. That just seems to randomly be thrown in there. So three feasts they're supposed to keep. The first one, of course, is the feast of unleavened bread. Now you may be thinking, what happened to Passover? Well, remember Passover starts the feast of unleavened

bread, right? Like that's the very beginning of it. It's interesting to pay attention to because what does Passover and the feast of unleavened bread represent to us? Well, it represents the death of Jesus Christ that took away our sin, right? That allowed judgment to pass over us. The second feast that we come to is what's referred to as the feast of the harvest. In the New Testament, we would call it either the feast of weeks

or we would call it the feast of Pentecost. What does Pentecost represent for us? Pentecost represents the birth of the church. Right? When the first fruits of Christ, those disciples began to spread the word of God and the Holy Spirit came and Pentecost came and the church was born, right? So what does the feast of the ingathering represent? Well, it represents when Jesus takes us home to be with him. And so he

says, these are the three feasts that you're supposed to celebrate. Three times a year, all the males shall show up to Jerusalem. Well, he doesn't say Jerusalem here. That shall show up to the tabernacle. And that's the, those are the feasts that you're supposed to celebrate. And so these are the three feasts that they're going to celebrate. Now, of course, God in his mercy

allowed exceptions. Those that were sick, those that were too elderly, or those that were unable to make it in some physical way, shape, or form were exempted from this. But if you were at all able, you were supposed to show up to these three feasts. And then he gives a couple of other rules that go along with them. The first is that you shall not offer the blood of the sacrifice with

leaven bread. Why not leaven bread? Because leaven is representative of sin in the scripture. Therefore, there was to be purity. There are sacrifices. The second thing was that they were supposed to not leave any of the fat until morning. All of the fat, everything was to be consumed, either eaten or burned up. Why? Because atonement is a complete work. What Jesus did for us is a complete work, not something that

needs to be dealt with the next day. And so there was this beautiful picture of the completion of the work. He said, you shall bring the choice of your fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord, your God. That's the idea that we're to give God our first and our best. And then he gives this really odd next little statement. He says, and you're not to boil the goat in the milk of its mother.

Just seems to be randomly thrown in there for no good reason. The idea is this. There was a pagan ritual that would take place, and it was a ritual of fertility. And what they would do is they would take a young goat, boil it in the milk of its mother, and somehow that was supposed to promise fertility to the people for the next year. And so they were to bring the choice of your fruit into the

year. God says, I don't want you doing that because I'm the one that brings the increase. I'm the one that provides. I'm the one that takes care of you. I am the source of life, not some pagan ritual. Why God chose there to throw it in, not real sure. But kosher Jews today actually won't eat a cheeseburger because that's the idea of combining milk and meat together. So not exactly

what God had in mind there, but hey, they take it really seriously. So he gives them these feasts that they're supposed to follow. And now he begins to give them a principle for the taking of the land. Notice what he says in verse 20. He says, Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice. Do not be rebellious

toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression since my name is in him. But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies. And an adversary to your adversaries. For my angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Jebusites. And I

will completely destroy them. Now remember, the children of Israel were making this journey because they were going back to the land that God had promised them. And while these judgments were going to be important in their time in the wilderness, they were also supposed to be what guided them to the land of Israel. And so they were going back to the land of Israel. And so they

moved into this land. But now God begins to talk to Moses just a little bit to give him a foreshadowing of what God is going to do to provide for them when they come into the land. And the first thing he says is, I will send my angel before you. Look how he describes this angel. Behold, I'm going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way, to bring you into the

place which I have prepared. It will be a complete work of this angel leading and guiding them. But he says, be on your guard before him and obey his voice. Do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression since my name is in him. Now, there's something to pay attention to about this angel. As a matter of fact, there's three things that you need to pay attention to about this angel. This angel

was commanded obedience. In other words, they were supposed to be obedient to this angel. This angel was given the power to judge. And this angel has the name of God in him. Now, I believe that as this angel is being referred to, it's none other than the angel of the Lord, which we would also refer to as the angel of God. And so this angel is being referred to as the angel

of God, which we would also refer to as an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ among the children of Israel. That's who I think is being referred to when he says this angel of the Lord is going before them. Why is that important? Because God has just promised his presence to be with them. God has just promised that he was going to be the one who would go

before them. And he, through the presence of this angel, would be the one who would drive out the inhabitants. Why does that matter? Because as we talked about on Sunday, the promised presence of God is the thing that always allows us to know, I am not alone. This is not my battle to fight. This is not my responsibility. This is God's battle. This is God's work. This is God's dealing. And I can rest in this presence of God going with me and going

before me to do all of the work. Think about what they were facing. They were facing the fact that they were going to meet God. They were facing the fact that they were going to meet God. They were going to meet all kinds of enemies that they were going to have to drive out of their own land. In other words, they had home court advantage. And the fear that would have been in the children of

Israel in dealing with this would have been a nerve wracking thing. And so God lets them know my presence is going with you. Just like he told Abraham, just like he told Isaac, just like he told Jacob, just like he promised Moses, just like he told Joseph, I will be with you. And whatever it is that you're facing, whatever, conquest you have in your life that God is calling you to do, God is going to go before you. God is

going to drive out the inhabitants and God is going to be the one that gives you the victory. And we can rest in his presence in our lives. He goes on from there to tell them what they're supposed to do with these inhabitants of the land. Verse 24, he says, you shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to the law of God. You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to the law of God.

You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to the law of God. You shall not worship their deeds, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars and pieces. You shall serve the Lord your God and he will bless you and your bread and your water. And I will remove sickness from your midst. There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.

He gives them three things that they're supposed to, that they're not supposed to do, or two things they're not supposed to do and one thing they're supposed to do. do among these inhabitants of the land. Number one, they're not to worship their gods. Why? Because the gods of the land were heinous and required heinous things of the people. Number two, they were not to follow their deeds. You ever wondered why God told them they had to

go in and completely do away with all of the people of the land? That just seems so harsh, right? It's because the people of the land had become so corrupt that they were actually destroying themselves. And so God was going to use the nation of Israel as his hand of judgment on the people of Canaan. He says, don't do the things that they do. And may I say, as I look at the world around us, I'm reminded of these two things. Number one,

we shouldn't worship their gods. We've already talked about how idolatry is something that can infiltrate our lives more quickly than we realize. And we must pay attention to what the gods of the land are and not worship the gods of the land. But number two, we're not to worship their gods. And so God was going to use the nation of Israel as his hand of not to do the things that they do. I have a question for you. If your life was lined up

against somebody from the world, how different would you look? This isn't a question I want you to answer right now, nor is it intended to be condemning in any way, shape, or form. It's just simply a question that should allow us to search our hearts a little bit and say, Lord, how is my life different from the people that are around me? How is my life different from the world? Or am I

doing all of the things that God has done for me? And I'm going to ask you, Lord, how is my life different from the deeds that they do? Am I living just like the world that's around me? Because I'm here to tell you right now that we may have liberty in Christ. You show me your liberty and I'll show you how strong your walk is. Because our lives are intended to be different

from the people that are around us. Our lives are intended to be a witness and an example to the holiness of God and the work that Jesus Christ has done in our lives. And so he says, don't do the deeds that are around them. Instead, what are they to do? They are to utterly overthrow and break their sacred pillars in pieces. Oh, that sounds so mean. He says, you are to completely do away with all of the things that are in this land that you're

about to move into. Now, you and I are not now to go out and start breaking down sacred pillars everywhere that we go. That's not our idea. However, in your own life, in your own heart, there are sacred pillars that need to be torn down. There are idols that need to be torn down. There are inhabitants of the land from your previous life that need to be utterly overthrown. And you should not make a covenant with them. You should

not make a treaty with them. Do you remember a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about climbing a mountain and what it looks like to fail climbing a mountain. And one of the biggest things that I faced in failing to climb a mountain is that I gave myself an option. And when we decide that we're going to make a treaty with them, we're going to make a covenant with them. And when we

decide that we're going to make a treaty with the inhabitants of our own land, in other words, the deeds of your flesh, we give ourselves an option. God says, don't give the inhabitants of the land an option in your life. Drive them out completely, even if it takes the rest of our lives. He says, you're to drive them out. He says, but you shall serve the Lord your God,

and he will bless you. There was great blessing that would go into serving the Lord. In the same way that obedience is like a safety net for us as believers, is it not? I know I've repeated that several times over the past few years, but that's been one of the most foundational things I've ever heard anybody say, is that obedience is the safety net of the believer. Now, I don't curry more of God's favor by obeying him. God doesn't necessarily bring

good things into my life because of obedience and bad things because of disobedience. Sometimes good things happen and sometimes bad things happen, but I'm here to tell you right now, if I live a life of obedience and something bad happens in my life, I know it is for my good and for his glory because I'm living a life of obedience. That means that I could be in the most desperate situation ever, but if I know that I've obeyed God, I know that he's going to bring something really good out of it. I know that he is going to do something amazing with it.

And so he says, there's this blessing that goes along with obedience. He goes on from there in verse 27 to say, I will send my terror ahead of you, and I will throw into confusion all the people among you who come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you. I will not drive them out from before you in a single year that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

I will drive them out from before you little by little until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. God says, slowly but surely, I'm going to drive the inhabitants out. Here's how I'm going to do it. First of all, I'll send my terror before you. Now, if you want to see a perfect example of this, if we were to jump ahead to the book of Joshua, when the children

of Israel came into the land with Joshua, they sent spies into Jericho. And what did the spies overhear while they were in the land of Jericho? They overheard that all of the people were, all of the people of the land were fearful of the nation of Israel because they knew how powerful God was. And so God sent his terror before the people. And God also sent hornets to drive the

people out. There's actually a story where hornets actually win a battle for the nation of Israel. God does all of these things. God says, I'm going to do all of these things to drive out the inhabitants of the land. But then he tells them something very interesting. He says, I will not drive out all of the people of the land. I'm going to drive out all of the inhabitants of the land.

I'm going to drive out all of the inhabitants in one year. He says, I'm going to do it slowly, but surely. Little by little, I will drive out the inhabitants of the land. Why? He says in verse 28, so that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I remember the first time I really paid attention to the scripture where God really spoke to me.

I was sitting on a golf course. Now, I'm not a golfer, but when I lived in California, a friend of mine's dad put me to work as a golf club representative, and I would set up a hole-in-one contest on a par-3 hole on some golf course in Southern California. I had no idea what I was talking about, but I talked golf to the best of my ability, and I signed people up to win a free driver, at which point in time, they probably got a call from Giant Golf asking them, remember that time you missed that shot? Let me help you with that with a brand new golf club. Anyway,

but I would set up this hole-in-one contest, and I would have a lot of time at these tournaments in between groups that would come through, and so I would sit back, and I would read my Bible, and it was in between me living in California and me moving back here,

and as I was reading it, I remember God speaking to me clearly that that was the message for me, that my walk with him was going to be accomplished slowly but surely. You see, none of us like to hear that, do we? We want everything to happen, right now, right? I want everything to happen at this point in time. I don't want to have to wait. I want to be perfect now, right? But God works much differently than that. God works on his own

timetable, and he drives out the inhabitants of the land. In other words, we win battles with the flesh slowly but surely. He conforms us into his image slowly but surely. He makes us into who he wants us to be slowly but surely. Why? Because if he didn't, he wouldn't be able to do it. He wouldn't then the beasts of the field would become too numerous. What are the beasts of the field that

you and I deal with? I'll give you one word, pride. You see, if all of a sudden I woke up tomorrow, and I didn't have any issue with anything in life, do you know what I would then do? I would write a book about how I overcame every issue with life, and if you will just follow these four steps, then you'll overcome every single issue that you'll have in life, and none of you will want to be around me, because I'll be so full of pride. I'll be so full of pride. I'll be so full of pride.

I'll be so full of pride. I'll be so full of pride. I'll be so full of pride. I'll be so full of pride. And you know what? If the same thing happened to you, I wouldn't want to be around you either, because you'd be telling me how you figured it all out. Now you're perfect. You see, if we did it all in ourselves in one day, then the beasts of the field would become too numerous. And so God says,

slowly but surely, I will overcome the enemies in your life. Slowly but surely, I will drive out the inhabitants of the land. Slowly but surely, you will overcome that depression that you're battling. Slowly but surely, you will overcome your problem with telling the truth. Slowly but surely, you will overcome that habit that you have in your life that continues to drag you down. Slowly but surely, you will once again become someone who

is full of peace and joy instead of somebody who is full of anger and resentment. That's what I will do, but I won't do it all in one day. I won't even do it all in one year. Slowly but surely, little by little, that's the work that I will do in you. Now, sometimes we don't like to hear that, right? We're like, no, let's do it all right now. And God's like, no, little by little,

I'll do this work. That's why I like to keep a journal, because it's really fun to look back from a couple of years, two or three years ago, four or five years ago, and see the things that I was battling with, and see that while I still fight the battle, I fight the battle with the battle in a more mature way than I did then. I have some victory in my life that I didn't have then. And as I do that, I say, Lord, it's only by your grace. It's only by your grace that I am what

I am, because slowly but surely, he's driven out the inhabitants of the land. May I say, time and time and time again, God brings me back to this point right here and says, Ryan, you have to be patient, because I'm working hard. I'm working hard. I'm working hard. I'm working hard. I'm working at my own speed. I'm working at my own pace. And so if you find yourself a little

impatient with the process right now, if you find yourself going, Lord, I don't know why it's taking so long, take comfort in the fact that everybody is having their lives worked with by God, slowly but surely. And so he says, little by little, I will drive out the inhabitants of the land. And then in verse 31, he says, and I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Danes, and from the wilderness to the river Euphrates, and I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and I will drive them out before you. And you shall make no covenant with them or their gods. They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against

me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. And so God wraps up what he says to Moses before it's time for Moses to go back and talk to the people. And so as we pick up in chapter 24, verse 1, this is what it says. Then he said to Moses, So God gives Moses one final command before he goes back and talks to the people. He says, when you're done talking to the people, I want you guys to come back. You, Aaron, Nadab,

Abihu, and the 70 elders, you'll come up on the mountain. But then you, you will come up by yourself, and I'll have a conversation with you. So Moses goes back to the people, verse 3. Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances. And all the people answered with one voice and said, All the works which the Lord has spoken we will do.

Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord, and he rose early in the morning. Kind of wonder how long that took. Not the rising in the morning, but the writing on the words part. Then he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. And he said, He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed

young bulls as a peace offering to the Lord. Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, took the other half the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant, read it in the hearing of all the people, and they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient. So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.

Okay, so paint the picture in your mind of what's going on now. Moses comes out of this cloud, and he comes back to talk to the people, and he tells them everything that God had to say. And the people with a resounding yes said, We will do everything that God has told us to do. A bit of overconfidence on the people's part, but that's neither here nor there. They said, We'll do everything that God said to do.

And so then Moses had them build this altar at the foot of the mountain, and he had the young men and the old men, and he said, We will do everything that God has said. And then he took some of the blood of the sacrifice and basically divided it in two. And then he took probably hyssop, like a brushy sort of a thing, and then sprinkled it on the altar. Why did he sprinkle it on the altar? Because he was sanctifying the altar.

Then he took the blood and went back to the people and read the covenant to them, read all of the words to them again, and again the people with great confidence answered, We will do everything that God has said. And then it says that, Moses took the other part of the blood and he sprinkled it on the people. Why did he do that? Because they were being sanctified by the blood.

That blood was to show that they were set apart unto God. That blood was showing that they were now set apart unto God as his own special people. And so while the old covenant was established in blood, not only the blood of bulls and goats, but the sprinkling of blood as it talks about in the book of Hebrews. So the new covenant was established in blood, but not the blood of bulls and goats.

But the precious blood of Jesus Christ, which is not only applied to the doorposts of our heart, but is now to justify us, but is now sprinkled on us because of the work of Jesus Christ to the Holy Spirit in our lives as he continues to sanctify us and set us apart unto him. That's why it says in the book of 1 John, that if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then the blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanses us, from all sin. Same idea given to us there. So Moses does this, establishes the covenant with the people.

Everything is good, sanctifies them through the blood. Now it's time to go up on the mountain. Verse 9. Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, 70 elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And under his feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky, by itself. Yet he did not stretch out his hands against the nobles of Israel,

and they saw God, and they ate, and they drank. Anybody else have a problem with this? I have a problem with this section of scripture, right? Like, I don't have a problem with God. I have a problem understanding this particular section of scripture. First of all, I remember the first time I paid attention to this, which was probably five to ten years ago, and I'm going,

whoa, an entire pavement of sapphire was laid out there? I couldn't remember what sapphire was, and at first I thought it was green, and then it talked about the sky, and I was like, huh, green sky. And then I realized sapphire's blue, because I'm not that smart. Anyway, paint this picture in your mind. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, they go back up, and the 70 elders,

they go back up the mountain. Now remember, what's been on the mountain this entire time? A cloud and fire and smoke, right? I don't think that's changed. I don't think God's just like, hey, let's not do that now. No, because the presence of God's a consuming fire. Right? And so that's what they're walking up into. He's like, hey guys, want to join me up on the mountain?

Remember what the entire congregation said? You go, we'll wait. So they have little nerves on their part, right? But as they go up the mountain, what does it say they see? They see God. Now wait a second. Scripture says, no one can see God at any time, lest they die. In the book of John, it says, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten, who's in the bosom of the Father,

has declared Him, or explained Him, or revealed Him. So what did they see? My best guess, is it much like Ezekiel and Isaiah saw a vision of God? And even John in the book of Revelation saw a vision of God? I think that's probably what they saw. They saw some sort of a vision of God because I have to compare Scripture with Scripture. And if I compare the two,

I say they could not have actually seen God. Or, much like Moses later is going to see the afterburners of the glory of God, they saw some form of the glory of God because you'll notice they never look up. All they see is the sapphire road underneath of them. That's what they see. But as they come, it says they saw God. And underneath of God, at the footstool of His throne,

they see this sapphire, kind of like a glassy sea. Sound familiar to you? You see, when you get into the book of Revelation, it says that there was the throne of God and underneath of the throne was a glassy sea. I think they have a similar vision. Isn't that amazing that here God is, the exact same God from the New Testament as He is in the Old Testament, revealing Himself to Moses, Nadab, Abihu,

the 70 elders? And what does it say they do with God? It says they eat with Him. It says they saw God, and then they ate, and then they drank together. Why? Did they eat with God? Well, there's probably a very theological reason, and that's that when covenants were ratified at this point in time, a meal was always shared. We remember that from Abraham and the covenant that was given to Abraham, right?

But I think there's something deeper that goes into play here. You see, at this point in time in culture, when somebody shared a meal with you, they were calling you their family. There was deep fellowship that took place. As a matter of fact, there's going to be a sacrifice that God gives them. It's called the fellowship offering, and the fellowship offering was to be consumed

in the tabernacle. Why? Because it meant fellowship with God. And so I think as God brings them up on this mountain to give them the covenant, He first of all shares fellowship with them. Why? Because we were created for fellowship with God. And as God gives them this old covenant, He reminds them of why they were put on earth. And so they share this meal with God.

And now it's time to thin the herd. Notice what it says in verse 12. Now the Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and remain there. And I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction. So Moses arose with Joshua, his servant. Moses went up on the mountain of God. But to the elders, he said,

I will give you the stone tablets, but to the elders, he said, wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a legal matter, let him approach them. He leaves Aaron and Hur in charge. Seemed like a good idea. Then Moses went up on the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain. I want you to pay attention to a couple of things here.

The first is that notice as Moses gets closer to God, the crowd gets smaller. As Moses gets closer to the top of the mountain, the crowd starts thinning out a little bit. And may I say, it's very true in our relationship with the Lord as well, that as we get closer to the Lord and start getting a little radical in our following of him, sometimes the crowd begins to thin just a little bit because, I mean, I want to follow God, but let's not get crazy with it, right? Let's not get too extreme in the way that we obey God, right?

And so as he moves up, the crowd begins to thin out a little bit. But the second thing I want you to take note is what God tells Moses to do. Verse 12, he says, Now the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give the stone tablets with the law and the commandments which I have written for their instruction. Okay, so Moses is supposed to go up there and he's to receive the two stone tablets.

They won't last very long, but he's going to receive them, right? But what does God tell him to do when he gets to the top of the mountain? He says, I want you to come up there and take note of what it says. I want you to remain there. If you're reading the New King James, it says, I want you to be there. Now, the idea behind that word, it's not just a passing presence.

The idea behind that word is literally to stay in one place. Why does he tell him to do that? Because Moses is going to be there a while, but God wants him to be there. I feel like the Lord spoke to me earlier this year about this because when you think about it, what do we struggle with as people? We struggle right now mentally with being there. We struggle with remaining there.

Why was Moses to remain there? He was supposed to be 100% present on the mountain, because God had something to tell him. But what God had to tell him was not something he could get in 15 minutes. It was not something that he was going to get in a day. It was going to take time. And God said, I want you to remain there. I wonder how many of us are willing to remain there

in our time with the Lord. Now, listen, there's no condemnation. God loves you if you spend five minutes with him or three hours with him. God's love for you will not change, but the depth of your relationship will. The depth. The depth of your knowledge of God will change if you're willing to remain there. You know what God told me at the beginning of this year

when I was reading in the book of Exodus and it said to be there, God said, Ryan, sometimes you're not being there. You're having your time with me. You're reading your Bible. You're praying, but mentally you're not remaining there. And sometimes I need you to lay aside all of the things of life, all of the distractions, and I want you to be there. 100%. And we struggle with that.

I struggle with that. So God calls Moses up on the mountain, and not only is the crowd going to get thinner, but it's going to mean it's going to require a little more focus. So he takes Joshua with him a little bit further. He tells Aaron and her, you guys are in charge of things till I'm gone. If anybody has a legal matter, you've got the rules. Explain it to them.

Verse 15. It says, Then Moses went up to them, and he went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. And on the seventh day, he called Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop.

And Moses entered the midst of a cloud as he went up to the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. So as Moses moves his way up the mountain, and he moves into the cloud, the cloud of God's presence, what he sees is the cloud of God's presence. But what does the entire nation of Israel see? They see a consuming fire. You see, what to Moses was a place of comfort

was to the people around them a place of fear. And may I say, it's not a whole lot different in our own walks with the Lord. What to us can be a place of salvation to the rest of the world, can appear to be a place of judgment. Because Jesus will be one of two things for us. He will either be our savior or he will be our judge. Either way, we'll stand before him.

And as Moses moves up the mountain, he leaves Joshua even a little further behind and he goes up on the mountain. I want you to take note of how long he's there in the midst of the cloud. Anybody else take note of that? He was there for six days. What was he doing? He was remaining there. You see, Moses went up to the mountain and God didn't speak to him for six days.

It was not until the seventh day that God began to speak to him. Now, I don't know about you. I have a hard time waiting 15 minutes for God to speak to me, let alone six days. Can you just imagine it? After day one, he's like, he'll call. I know he's coming. After day five, he's like, man, I'm pretty sure he said come up here. I think this is the mountain. I mean, I see the cloud.

It feels like this is where he should be. Day six, he's going. Definitely thought he'd have been here by now. Can you imagine if Moses would have given up on any one of those days? Can you imagine if on any one of those days, he said, I'm tired of waiting on God. I'm just going to figure it out myself. I'll write it myself on tablets of stone. And you know what?

I'm tired of waiting on God. I'm just going to go back down the mountain and maybe I heard him wrong. Now, what did Moses have to do? He had to wait. He had to wait. The book of Isaiah says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not be faint. And if you know the old song we used to sing here at Calvary,

it finishes with, teach me, Lord, teach me, Lord, to wait. See, brothers and sisters, there's things that we learn in the waiting time that we don't learn in any other way. The waiting time is the most important time and the waiting time is what we're not very good at. The waiting time is something that doesn't come very naturally to us. It doesn't come very naturally to us right now.

And so I think now more than ever, God is saying, I want you to wait. I want you to take time just to wait on me. I want you to take time for the waiting of the moving of my Holy Spirit. Don't make that decision right now. You've got all the time. In the will of God, you have nothing but time. Wait for God to speak. I know that sitting and reading and, oh, I haven't heard anything yet.

We just say, oh, let's give up and come back another time. Maybe God just, maybe God just says, wait. Sitting in a time of prayer, you say, oh, I can't even come up with what to say. Oh, well, I'll just go on with my day. Maybe God's saying, just wait. Wait and let my spirit do what it wants to do inside of you. There's a song that's on my running playlist.

It probably doesn't make a lot of running playlists, but it makes mine. It's a song by Leland. It's from their Life album. And it goes like this. Come on, let's wait upon the Lord. He will renew our strength. That's the entire song. Because it was a spontaneous song that they did in this live concert. And it's amazing how when I'm running, that song will just, it swells.

The song itself swells. If you know what I'm talking about with music, how it starts off real soft. And then all of a sudden, it's like the entire, you can tell the whole crowd picks up because those are like the easiest words ever. That picks up on what they're singing. And everybody's singing this out loud. And every time I run to that song, I'm reminded,

I need to wait on the Lord. I need to wait on the Lord.

Waiting's not easy, but it's what God calls us to do. And think about what came about in the life of Moses because he was willing to wait on the Lord. Because waiting those six days was nothing compared to 40 days and 40 nights with God, receiving everything that God had for him. But it all started with him. It all started with waiting. Brothers and sisters,

if we could just learn to wait on what God wants to do in our lives. I found it kind of interesting as I was preparing this study today. Every now and then while I'm studying, I just have to stop, let my mind catch up and just kind of walk around a little bit and then sort of let God's word marinate in my mind a little bit. And as I did so, I thought, this entire study is about waiting.

This entire study is about waiting. It's about waiting on the fact that God moves in our lives slowly but surely. It's about waiting because there was a covenant that was to be given to them and they had to wait for it. It was about waiting because that's what Moses had to do for six days in order to hear from God so that he could begin receiving the covenant.

And really it's about waiting on the part of the children of Israel because what did they have to do at the base of the mountain while he was up there for an indeterminate amount of time? They had to wait. This whole thing was about waiting. And it's about waiting. It's almost like God said, that's what you need to learn. That's what our culture needs to learn

is to wait on the Lord. Amen. Father, we come before you and I just thank you, Lord, for how good you are to us. Lord, I just want to confess my potential to rush you, to rush your work, to rush your word, to rush your spirit, to rush your faith. I just want you to say, I just want you to say, I just want you to say, because in the waiting time, there is great joy.

And in the waiting time is where we receive from you. And so, Lord, give our hearts the grace. Give our hearts the patience that we need to sit and wait, to allow you to search our hearts, to allow you to cleanse our minds. To allow you to speak to us through your word. To allow you to guide us in our prayers. To allow you to move and not to move in our flesh.

Lord, give us the grace to wait. I thank you, Lord, that you are so full of patience. I thank you that you are so full of goodness. And Lord, though you are a holy God, as exampled through your law. Because of Jesus, we can be made right with you. And we can have fellowship with the creator of the heavens and the earth. Who is holy beyond our understanding.

And we just thank you, Father, for who you are. And ask that you would continue to do your work in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.