Covenantal Victory Exodus 23 Vs 20 33

Well, good morning. Good morning and welcome to Faith Bible Church. If you're here for the first time, we're pleased that you're here and just pray that the Lord would bless you with the word and lifting our voices and also fellowshipping and just being together.

It's a gift that God has given us as a body and we thank the Lord for that. Announcement-wise, there's a prayer meeting this evening at six o 'clock. The pastor is continuing his Bible study on Fridays at 530 through the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians.

I hear that's a very rich and wonderful Bible study. So that's 530 on Fridays. There will be no men's Bible study this coming Saturday due to the baby shower and that is next Saturday, this coming Saturday, July 30th at one o 'clock and that's Pastor Ilgen and Lauren's baby shower.

So as we've shared before, please RSVP that if you haven't already and it's just going to be a blessed time of celebration and being together and to celebrate a new birth, new life. There's a whole bunch of birthdays, boys and girls out there, so I'm just going to say happy birthday to all of you because if I got most of them, I'd miss a couple.

So I'm not going to do that, so I don't offend anybody, but happy birthday and we trust you've enjoyed your birthday past or if it's coming up, we just wish you the best. Thank you to Pastor Ilgen this morning.

He went through 2 Samuel 11 and there's a trend in modern evangelical churches to allow our current modern culture to interpret scripture versus scripture interpreting scripture and it's kind of almost a hard left turn to try to make the scriptures fit into a social agenda and it's not good and it's coming from folks that you would ordinarily trust and rely upon and you just have to be discerning.

Even with the way he put it, celebrity theologians, you know, they're still men and they're still fallible and we still have to hold on to this to know what is the truth. And so study for yourselves, but pastor's got a pdf of what he shared this morning, kind of an outline talking about it's the story of David and Bathsheba and what scripture says it is and then applying other aspects to that and if you want to hear more about it, pastor would be happy to share with you after the service today.

So I think that's it for announcements. I was thinking this morning about how we can stand on a mountaintop and we can look out and see the valleys and see God's glory all around us. The heavens declare the glory of God and it's so evident to our eyes and what we see.

We're doing that really when we come to gather together as believers at church, that we are proclaiming his word. We are glorifying God and declaring that to him and to one another and the first, but before that in order to do that we have to be looking at our own hearts that we have to make sure that we're not the one sitting on the throne looking down at God, but God is on the throne and we're looking up at him.

We have to get that perspective right because if we're sitting, we're the ones sitting on the throne, we don't have the blessing of really magnifying Jesus and commuting with him. Revelation 19, 6 through 8, it's a beautiful picture of heaven at the marriage supper of the lamb and I'd like to read that, 19, 6 through 8, and I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering saying, Alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteousness, righteous acts of the saints.

So one day all of creation will see God for who he is and in the meantime we can give him glory now as we worship him. So let's please join with me as we go to hymn and prayer. Lord God we thank you that you have gathered us together Lord when we can lift our voices Father in proclamation of the mighty God that you are full of grace, full of love, full of righteousness Lord.

God may we be impacted by the truths of your word today Father as we hear the truth of maybe things that we've heard over and over again Lord but that we would allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in us to to guide us and to to show us Lord what we need in our own lives.

Father we pray for those today that are that may be hurting that have or have challenges that are just having difficulties in life Lord may they find rest and peace in you Lord that you would allow others to come alongside those folks to to help to for them to bear the load and bear the burden of of life's trials but God we know that ultimately you are the Lord over all that you give rest and peace that you have victory over the circumstances that we're involved in so God we thank you that we can rest rest in you so God be with us today bless pastor as he shares from the word and Lord we thank you that we have the musicians that are that are here to to help us in our worship of you so God bless our time we pray in Jesus name amen David.

Good morning.

I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

And let's stand and sing to our Lord thank you. Please be seated at this time now scripture.

Reading. Morning everyone. Good morning. Today's scripture reading is going to be on Galatians chapter 3 10 through 14. Galatians chapter 3 verses 10 through 14. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.

For it is written curse be everyone who does not abide by all all things written in the book of the law and do them now. It is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith but the law is not of faith rather the one who does them shall live by them.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the.

Promised spirit through faith by grace you are saved through faith not of yourselves. It is the.

Gift of God not of works lest any boast. And let's stand and sing to our Lord. Children are dismissed.

To children's church and please be seated and I hand it over to pastor Iljin Cho. I really like.

The last hymn because the melody is actually the same as the German national anthem so if you normally sing the German national anthem you'd be familiar with that hymn. Please turn with me to exodus 23 verse 20 to verse 33.

Exodus chapter 23 verse 20 to verse 33. Behold I send an angel before you to keep you in the way and bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice. Do not provoke him for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him.

But if you indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak then I will be an enemy to the enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For my angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and I will cut them off.

You shall now bow down. You shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them nor do according to their works but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars. So you shall serve the Lord your God and he will bless you your bread and your water.

And I will take away from the midst sickness away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send my fear before you.

I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you which shall drive out the Hivites the Canaanite and the Hittite from before you.

I will not drive them out from before you in one year lest the land become desolate and the beasts of your field become too numerous for you little by little. I will drive them out before you until you have increased and you inherit the land.

And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the Sea Philistia and from the desert to the river. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand and you shall drive them out before you.

You shall make no covenant with them nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in your land lest they make you sin against me. For if you serve their gods it will surely be a snare to you. This is the word of the Lord.

Let us pray father we are thankful for your word and how your word applies to us so well even thousands of years later. Father we pray that you would prepare our hearts to humbly listen to what you have to say to us this morning.

We pray that you would break down any barriers break down any preconceived notions that we may have but that we would silently and humbly listen to your word and be willing to be changed by in Jesus name.

Amen. Today we get to the end of a major section in exodus which is uh the covenant giving from chapter 20 through 23. From 20 to last text last week's text we have learned what is expected of God's people what God's people must do what they're required to obey how they're required to obey this text we actually get a glimpse of what God will do for his people in the covenant relationship in both sections they are divided really nicely from 20 to verse 26 and 27 to verse 33 because they both start with God sending in advance to prepare the land for his people.

It is God's prerogative to prepare his promised land for his people to keep his promise with his people. And this text is to encourage encourage Israel as they are geographically nearing the promised land.

Of course we know that Israel will rebel so the journey will actually extend for 40 extra years. But at this point of the journey Israel was getting very close to the promised land and they expected to arrive soon and they were about to face some very strong enemies yet they were still weak.

Remember at this point in the journey Israel were just former slaves. They didn't have military training they didn't have military weapons but yet they were going to face the Canaanites who had hundreds of years to prepare in the land and they were strong nations.

So what the Lord does is he encourages his covenant people by sharing with them how he will deliver them into the promised land and warns them what is required of them. And this is important. God graciously fulfills his promise to his people but his people are responsible still to obey.

It's not just one way or the other right. I think we do a disservice when we just focus on oh this is what God will do and what God has done. And yes we need to focus on that but we totally don't talk about the human responsibility what is expected of God's covenant people.

And this is important for Christians today although we're not headed to a literal physical promised land. This is an important lesson for us because we are God's promised covenant people whom God is leading and delivering away from sin but to and to life to himself.

And as you know just as Israelites the ancient Israelites faced great difficult challenges of enemies and even natural disasters. Uh Christian life is difficult it is full of challenges. Anyone who's telling you otherwise is uh trying to sell you something here.

Christian life is hard every day. There is your personal sinfulness. You make choices in your words or in your attitude in your mind or in your action. That is just so self-centered and self-focus. There's there's grappling with that and then over time it bogs you down.

It's overwhelming. Then there's also the world and it seems like media and social media they're only too happy to attack Christian beliefs and Christians for some reason they let other religions who are just as conservative they let them up they let them go they get a pass.

Then there's the spiritual evil satan and his angels and they personally want to see you stumble in your faith and will put obstacles in your lives so that you turn away from Christ. There's a huge amount of difficulty there.

And and the important question for us this morning is how will God deliver his covenant people the promised people through all of this all of the difficulties. Right. And so the text that this text the question this text asks this morning is what are the implications of having a covenant relationship with the Lord.

What are the implications of having a covenant relationship with the Lord. Right. Israel at this point have learned what they're required to do how they are to obey. And the question is what does that covenant relationship with the Lord.

Look like what will the Lord do first. If God's people exclusively trust the Lord he will deliver his people to an Edenic blessing. If God's people exclusively trust the Lord he will deliver his people to an Edenic blessing.

After commanding Israel that how they must keep the covenant through the law the Lord starts out with what he will do for his people. The Lord doesn't just require his people to obey but he graciously delivers.

Behold I send an angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared God will send his representative that's his angel for Israel. And the angel has two purposes to keep and bring Israel to the promised land.

To keep means to guard to protect. God intends to protect his people through the journey. Not only that the Lord will see to it that the journey will be completed. Israel will be brought to the place that God has graciously prepared beforehand.

When Israel was free from the enslavement of Egypt they weren't just on their own. They didn't have to figure it out themselves. God like a loving caring parent was looking after them the whole time and he promised to see that fulfilled.

And verse 21 states the conditions for God's people. Beware of him the angel and obey his voice. Do not provoke him for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him. God's people must be careful to obey his messenger obey every word that God has to say through him.

And they're not to provoke him. They're not to rebel against him because the Lord's name is in him. The Lord's name represents who the Lord is. So God's divine will and presence dwelt and were manifested through the angel of the Lord.

So if Israel ever had a problem with the order of the angel well they actually had a problem with the Lord. So if Israel ever rebelled against the angel of the Lord who was guiding them they're effectively effectively rebelling against the Lord himself.

The Lord's covenant deliverance is dependent on the devotion and trust of his people. And verses 22 to 23 share the result of Israel's obedience. But if you indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

If God's people obey him then God will personally battle against your enemies. Any adversary of God's people will have a bigger problem to deal with. It's not just Israel but God himself. And verse 23 specifies what that entails.

For my angel will go before you and bring you into the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and I will cut them off. God will not depend on Israel but his angel will go before them as God's presence goes before them and he God himself will cut them off.

This verse clarifies that the angel of the Lord represents the very presence of God. All of a sudden the pronoun switches from he to I. Whatever the angel does God will do the covenant. Lord will not only be with his people but will go before his people.

He is a king who leads not from the safety of his throne but charges ahead for his people's sake. He is that kind of general not leading from the back but charging ahead so that his people would be delivered.

And verses 24 to the first part of 25 share Israel's obligation to the Lord. This does not mean Israel is passive. This does not mean Israel does nothing. You shall not worship their gods nor serve them nor do according to their deeds.

The first requirement of God's covenant people was exclusive worship of the Lord. God's people were forbidden to have anything to do with false gods or any of the pagan worship. The second half of verse 24 goes further.

But you shall utterly overthrow them and break their memorial stones in pieces. It was not sufficient for Israel to not associate with the pagan religions but rather to eliminate any remnant of idolatry in God's land.

The memorial stones were giant pillars of stone that pagans believed that their gods were residing in and in God's land. Such a vile reminder had to be destroyed. How can the false gods be dwelling in those stones in God's land when it is specifically the land of the Lord.

God will not compete against any other. And this may sound harsh to the modern minds that are taught tolerance and post-modernism from cradle to grave. You may have heard something like this. Well all cultures are equal.

Why would you destroy a cultural heritage like that. However for Christians we have to accept the fact that not every culture is equally righteous in history. There have been and currently there are cultures that are that align better and closer to the biblical worldview biblical morality.

And not every culture is equally good. For example a nation that lawfully murders the disabled the mentally ill and the unborn is not morally equal to a nation that protects them and views them as people made in the image of God.

There's an inherent difference in those two cultures. One is more righteous than the other. The latter is much better than the former objectively and biblically. And on the judgment that God will judge the wicked culture more harshly than the culture that is more righteous.

And in a similar sense God was using Israel to eliminate and judge any evil cultural remnants that remained in the promised land. God was using Israel as an instrument of judgment against the false gods and the pagan religions.

And before a holy God those idols were not acceptable. They were vile and disgusting and God used his people to remove them. And verse 25a tells us what Israel must do instead. It is not okay just to get rid of the evil things but rather they also have to serve the Lord your God.

And you shall serve the Lord your God. Right. It is not enough to eliminate the false gods but God's covenant. People are marked by whom they trust. Israel was not created to be a secular nation but a nation under the true God.

And what will be the result with Israel. Met these obligations. The rest of verse 25 to 26 tell us a series of blessings. And he will bless your bread and your water. And I will remove sickness from your midst.

There will be no more miscarrying or unable to have children in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days. First it is important to note that these verses cannot be used to promise Christians of our days that they will be healthy and wealthy.

The this promise was conditional to Israel upon their faithful obedience which we know they failed. This promise does not carry to the church and we cannot read the church back into the nation of Israel.

That causes a lot of problems. This is why many Christians falsely believe when they get a terminal illness they start to question their faith. And that's spiritually abusive when you're living in a fallen sinful world.

If you get cancer that's not because your lack of faith in Christ. It's the result of living in a sinful world. And if any church or pastors make you question it's because I've done something wrong or my faith was not strong enough that I'm not healed.

You have to flee from those false teachers. And that goes the same way for wealth poverty exists because of the fallenness of the world. It's not a direct result of your lack of faith in Christ. Now let's go over what would have occurred if Israel had faithfully fulfilled their covenant obligations.

Right. It shows that God will bless them. And this is not just any blessing. Right. The word for blessing and blessing in the Old Testament has an impactful meaning than the modern use today. For one thing it wasn't used for an Instagram post for a daily coffee with the cream of heart.

Blessing came from God and it hearkened back to Genesis 1 after God created all things right he blessed them to be fruitful and multiply. God's blessing represented the wholeness of good. There was no lack there was only abundance of good things.

And of course Adam and Eve's rebellion shattered all of that. When it brought the curse upon the world instead of life there was death. Instead of health there was illness. Instead of fruitfulness there was futility.

However for Israel if they exclusively worshiped the Lord they would get another glimpse not a total return to the Eden but another glimpse a sample of the Garden of Eden the paradise that was lost. Of course sin would not be completely gone but the effects of sin would be greatly reduced among God's covenant people if they obeyed God.

And we read the series of blessing with that mindset the Jews the ancient Jews were longing to go back to what they lost from the garden. When God blesses his people in the promised land he will dramatically reduce the futility and toil to bless them with bread and water.

Right after sin there was toil there were thorns and but in the promised land if God's people obeyed they would have bread and water. When God blesses his people in the promised land he will remove illnesses that hasten death.

When God blesses his people in the promised land he will eliminate any obstacles against being fruitful and multiplying right. No miscarriage no barrenness that was not intended in the Garden of Eden.

When God blesses his people in the promised land he will eliminate premature deaths. And premature deaths bother us a lot because that's the result of sin. No parent were to experience loss of his or her child.

That is not normal. That's why it shakes us. It shakes the whole community. And if God's people remained exclusively faithful to the Lord they would experience a taste of the Garden of Eden a taste a sample.

And that enough would. That would have been a tremendous blessing. Indeed because America doesn't have that blessing. America has never had that blessing although we are blessed by God for all the freedom we have.

But man Israel was promised with that blessing a whole nation with no miscarriage no barrenness no illness. People living to their full days. Wow. Now although the church is not the recipient of the promise the principle of this text still applies God's covenant.

People even under the new covenant under Christ must only trust the Lord for deliverance to an Edenic blessing. Edenic of course means related to the Garden of Eden. How is this. So. Did you not just say that this promise does not apply to us.

Well it does not directly apply to us because the church is not delivered into the promised land. We're not all headed to the land of Israel. However we still worship the same God who undoes the effects of sin for his covenant people.

For Christians we have a greater promise than the ancient Jews did in the wilderness. While the ancient Jews were promised a blessing of undoing the effect of sin Christians are promised with the blessing of the undoing of sin itself.

And God nullified the power of sin over us by bearing our sin on the cross. When Jesus lived a perfect life in full obedience to God fully trusting God the Father and died on the cross and faced the wrath that we deserved he canceled the power of sin over his people.

Not only that death the sting of sin was conquered by Jesus when he resurrected on the third day in Christ. We see not a sample of Edenic blessing but the fullness of it the fulfillment of the Edenic blessing.

For those who are in Christ death is not delayed as this text in the old covenant shows. But death is destroyed. When we physically die we actually live to God. We're actually freed completely from the bondage of sin.

All those nights you stay awake regretting and thinking how sinful you are. The sins you've committed. That will be no more when you physically die. Because you'll be living in Christ fully. Sin will be just a distant memory no longer a reality.

And for those who are in Christ sin's grip is not loosened as promised in the old covenant but completely unraveled. We're no longer enslaved by sin. We're freed in Christ. The apostle Paul in first Corinthians did not look back to the old covenant promise of Edenic blessing in the promised land but rather he looked forward to the Edenic blessing fulfilled in Christ.

In first Corinthians 15 he has this triumphant song. He says. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. Then the saying that is written will come true.

Death has been swallowed up in victory where oh death is your victory where oh death is your sting. The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Only Christians can mock sin and death because we are in Christ because we trust Christ not in our own strength not in our own good deeds but in Christ's perfect righteousness. Second how will the Lord deliver his people from their enemies.

If God's people rely on the Lord only he will win the battle for his people. If God's people rely on the Lord only he will win the battle for his people. The following seven verses describe how God will deliver his people despite such great enemies.

Remember that Israel was not a military superpower. They were former slaves. They had no training they had no advanced weaponry nor tactics. They did not even have the boldness even when the pharaoh's army came after them in order to encourage his weak fragile people.

God shares his battle plan and it does not depend on his people's strength at all. Verse 27. I will send my fear before you and I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come and will make all the enemies turn their backs to you.

First God himself will go before them to divinely overwhelm Israel's enemies. For those who have served in the military warfare is more than just physical. It's psychological. In fact world war iii probably will show the prevalence of that for Israel.

They don't need to overwhelm their enemies with a show of strength. God will do it. They don't need to show off their weapons and skills. They have God on their side. That is enough. Israel did not need an intelligence agency to create a psychological warfare.

God was enough. They did not have to trust in their own strength whatsoever. Second God will recruit his creation to fulfill his deliverance of Israel. Verse 28 is rather curious because it says. And I will send hornets before you which shall drive out the Hivites the Canaanite and the Hittite from before you.

Hornets usually are not used in warfare modern or ancient. But God was willing to use that. And when viewed from another angle we can see that even God's creation will wage war against a godless nation who stands in the way of his will.

That's powerful. And now this is not a war propaganda that Israel believed in but never saw the hornets. It was actually fulfilled in Joshua 24 12. I sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you.

Also the two kings of the Amorites. But not with your sword or with your bow. In this case Israel did not have to use their sword or their bow because the hornets did it. The hornets were sufficient. God's creation under God's command was more powerful than any nation that stood against his people.

They only had to rely on God and his methods no matter how different it is. Now after sharing his battle strategies God informs Israel of his timing. I will not drive them out from before you in one year lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field become too numerous for you.

Little by little. I will drive them out before you until you have increased and you inherit the land for the sake of weak Israel. God will drive out the sinful nations gradually because God compassionately takes into account that Israel was not even strong enough to protect themselves against the fierce wild animals that would repopulate the emptied land.

It was not because God couldn't do it in one year. Oh he could have but it was for Israel's sake. They would not be able to tame the land in a year. And verse 31 shares the goal of the battle plan. And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea Philistia and from the desert to the river.

For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand and you shall drive them out before you. The Red Sea here is the Gulf of Aqaba which is on the east side of the Sinai Peninsula or the west side of the Saudi Peninsula.

And the desert would encompass the vast land of the wilderness that they're going through. And the river is the Euphrates River. And we we can get that from the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 15.

The boundaries are shown there as well. The sea of the Philistines would be the Mediterranean Sea along the west coast of Israel. This was a vast amount of land. In fact Israel never occupied all of this land even to this day.

They don't. And this is because they failed to obey the requirements of the covenant in the following two verses. Verses 32 to 33 say you shall make no covenant with them the pagan nations nor with their gods.

Here God forbade Israel from making covenant treaties with the pagan nations and their gods. And he also prohibited pagans from living in his land because they would lead Israel uh astray from God. If Israel made a covenant with any powerful nations God's people would not solely be trusting in the Lord but rather in addition they would be trusting in the powerful pagan nations.

Translation would be God is not completely trustworthy to us. So we have to make other political alliances. Thus God's people were mandated ordered to rely on the Lord only no other beings no other religions by not making any covenants with any political forces or spiritual forces.

And furthermore verse 33 warns against the practicality relying on practicality. They shall not dwell in your land lest they make you sin against me. For if you serve their gods it will surely be a snare to you.

This presumes the conquest of the promised land is indeed successful. Now after such a military success the temptation would rise just to let the pagan people who surrender live in the land. Right. Why do the extra work.

They're no longer threats to us. Right. Why kick them out. That's more work for us. We will let them stay. And maybe they can even serve us. Right. They can be our slaves. That's added benefit. That's extremely practical.

But God in his divine wisdom knew that in the end their pagan influence will actually compromise Israel's faith in the Lord. And because of that no pagans may stay in the promised land. Now this is not to say no foreigners could stay in the promised land.

After all we just went over many laws protecting the rights of the strangers and foreigners. It's that those strangers and foreigners better worship the Lord. That was presumed. And in fact we have great examples of Ruth and Rahab foreign women who became Jews right and serve the Lord.

Both of whom are mentioned in Christ's genealogy here God did not allow practicality from leading Israel astray. If God's people had the utmost loyalty toward the Lord God will defeat all their enemies himself.