FBC Daily Devotional – June 11, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good Friday to you. Last workday of the week, I trust, for you anyway, and looking forward to the weekend.

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Hope you have some plans for some rest, and as well,

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I'm sure you've got projects to get done. We usually do on Saturday, you know, the things we've got to do.

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Part of the chores of life, part of the six days you shall labor, but also trust you're looking, you're anticipating and planning on some rest time, some refreshment time.

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You know, the Lord established the Sabbath to be a time of rest, to cease from all the labors of the rest of the week, and you know, just to get physical rest even, and that's also a good time for us to get some spiritual refreshment.

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So I hope that you take advantage, full advantage, of your weekends and not get caught up in the trap of so, such busyness that every moment is packed with stuff to do.

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You end up going back to work Monday exhausted because of the weekend. Shouldn't be that way. Should be refreshed after the weekend, and I hope yours will be a refreshing one.

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But anyway, so today we read in our Bible reading Numbers in chapters 33 through 35, and one of the things

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I wanted to point out is the Lord's instructions on what to do, what the children of Israel were to do when they got into the land of Canaan.

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You read that at the end of chapter 33, and this may seem a little harsh, but think it through.

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So he tells the Israelites, when you cross into the land of Canaan, verse 52, he says, you shall drive out all the inhabitants of land before you, destroy all of their engraved stones, destroy all of their molded images, demolish all of their high places, and dispossess the inhabitants from the land and dwell in it, for I've given you this land to possess.

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Now, what's at the root of all of the eradication going on in verses 52 and 3 is idolatry, pagan idolatry.

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The children of Israel are to worship and serve the one true God, Yahweh, and him alone.

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He is the only God. And so the the problem with the Canaanites and those who dwelt in the land at the time was that they were strongly committed to and embraced their various forms of idolatry.

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They had no use for the God of the Hebrews, none whatsoever. And their idolatry was not only spiritually corrupt, but it also incorporated all kinds of moral corruption as well.

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And so what God knows is that if that idolatry is tolerated and in any measure embraced, it's going to destroy his people.

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That idolatry will take their hearts and their minds away from the one true God, because here's why.

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Idolatry is the the kind of religion where you can see your

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God. You can see what you're worshiping and it's always done very attractively, and it's very sense -oriented.

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So sensual in that in that regard. Not sensuous, but sensual.

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It appeals to the senses, and that appeal to the senses is very appealing.

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And in contrast to that, the worship of the Lord is not sensual. It's not focused on us.

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We don't see the God that we worship. We don't see a representation of the

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God that we worship. And our worship is in spirit and in truth.

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Well, it has always been that way. The true worship of the

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Lord, it's always been that way, worshiping him in spirit and in truth, even though there was a temple to go to and sacrifices and all the rest of that.

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They were sacrificing to the God they could not see. They were worshiping in spirit. So here's the point.

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They go into the land of Canaan, and they keep the idols and the engraved stones and all the rest of that stuff.

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It's not gonna be long before they start worshiping the stones and worshiping the engraved things. So the

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Lord says, eradicate those things. Get them out. Why dispossess the people? Because the people who are the idolaters, they're going to entice you to idolatry.

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And they saw this already in with the Moabites, right?

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They've enticed them to sin in worshipping their false God with immoral behavior.

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So they're going to be very vulnerable to that thing as human beings are.

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It's our human nature. Alright, so where am I going with all this? Well, I think the application of this to us is we need to be careful about tolerating idols in our lives.

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You know, John Calvin very aptly said, the human heart is like a, I'm paraphrasing, but it's like a perpetual idol factory.

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It is keep manufacturing idols. And we can be very good at that. And our world is still filled with all kinds of idolatry.

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And here's how you can know if something has become an idol to you. What happens when that pet thing or subject is attacked, you see?

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So a lot of people are so, so, they've made an idol out of, for example, sports.

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Out of sports. So if, you know, here comes the Lord's Day. It's a day that should be set aside for the

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Lord. And if there's anything said against, you know, said something like, you know, don't be in such a hurry to get out of church and rush home to watch a football game.

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Turn on a football game. Don't do that. Focus on fellowship. The person who's made an idol out of a football team or a football game gets miffed by such things.

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Ah, there's his idol. There's his idol. The Lord says we need to eradicate those kind of idols.

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What conquered in the New Testament, what conquered does Christ have with Belial?

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See, what fellowship does the Lord have with idols?

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None. And so even as New Testament believers, watch for that which is becoming an idol in your life and eradicate it.

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Cut it out. Rather to go without the idol than to have it remain as a thorn in your side.

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And the Lord said that at the end of this chapter, didn't he? In verse 55. He said, but if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell.

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The idols that you hang on to. Be careful. The idols that you hang on to will, they will hurt you in the end.

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So, but let this be a warning to all of us, all of us. We are still inclined to idolatry.

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That's why Paul tells us to flee from it in 1st Corinthians chapter 10. So, all right.

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Well, I trust that'll be a challenge to us, and I hope you have a good weekend. And I hope you'll make it a priority to get together with God's people in the

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Lord's house to worship the one true God on the Lord's day. So, Father in heaven, deliver us, we pray, from the idols of the heart, the idols of the life.

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And may we be reserved in our worship to you only and for you only.

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We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right. Have a good weekend.