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Following God
Fully
Are you a confident
Christian? Are you confident in God and His ability to reflect Himself in
your life? Do you have the faith to fully follow Christ to the end?
Let's discuss these
questions in light of the Israelites under Moses.
The Israelites in
Egypt were enslaved with seemingly no outward sign of hope that they would
ever escape their taskmasters. But God hadn't forgotten them. He came down
to work
through
Moses and
for the
Israelites.
(Exo 3:7-8 NKJV) And
the LORD said: "I have
surely
seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their
cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. {8} "So I have
come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring
them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with
milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the
Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
If you question my
pronunciation of these names, let me give you the names in Hebrew.
Canaanites is Ken-ah-an-ee', Hittites is Khit-tee', Amorites is Em-o-ree',
Perizzites is Per-iz-zee', Hivites is Khiv-vee', and Jebusites is
Yeb-oo-see'. I don’t know if these Hebrew names are any worse than what
our English translators called them.
(Verse10 NKJV) [God
is speaking to Moses] "Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh
that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
(Exo 6:1 NKJV) Then
the LORD said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For
with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will
drive them out of his land."
And God did bring
them out of Egypt. But the Israelites did not do their part. They could
have gone into the promised land within twelve months but they did not
believe God and trust Him. They had to wait another 39 years.
(Exo 16:1-3 NKJV)
And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of
Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on
the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of
Egypt. {2} Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel
complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. {3} And the children
of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in
the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread
to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this
whole assembly with hunger."
The Israelites had
turned bitter toward Moses and God, not realizing they had brought this
trouble on themselves by their attitudes toward God and Moses when the
Egyptians pursued them before they crossed the Red Sea. Let's review their
remarks at that time:
Exo 14:10-12 (NKJV)
And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and
behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and
the children of Israel cried out to the LORD. {11} Then they said to
Moses, "Because <there were> no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to
die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out
of Egypt? {12} "<Is> this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying,
'Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?' For <it would have been>
better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the
wilderness."
Even after all the
miracles of the Red Sea, they still did not trust either God or Moses to
deliver them to the Promised Land. They had not learned to trust God. They
could not follow God fully.
At the end of the
forty years, Moses cautioned the Israelites to obey God to the full.
(Deu 29:1 NKJV)
These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make
with the children of Israel
in the land of
Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb [Sinai].
But it is to the
Sinai covenant that we want to address:
(Mal 4:4 NKJV)
"Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, Which I commanded him in Horeb
[Sinai] for all Israel, With the statutes and judgments.
(Deu 8:1-6 NKJV) "Every
commandment
which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may
live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore
to your fathers. {2} "And you shall remember that the LORD your God led
you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and
test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His
commandments or not. {3} "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and
fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that
He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man
lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. {4} "Your
garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty
years. {5} "You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son,
so the LORD your God chastens you. {6} "Therefore you shall keep the
commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.
(Exo 16:35 NKJV) And
the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an
inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land
of Canaan.
Now let's take a
short side-trip at this point and consider
why
the date when they stopped eating manna and began eating the food from the
land is significant. Let's turn first to Lev. 23 and read what God's
Holyday commands have to say about it:
(Lev 23:9-11, 14-16
NKJV) And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, {10} "Speak to the children of
Israel, and say to them: 'When you come into the land which I give to you,
and reap
its harvest,
then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the
priest. {11} 'He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on
your behalf;
on the day after the Sabbath
the priest shall wave it. ......{14}
'You shall eat
neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that
you have brought an offering to your God;
it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your
dwellings. {15} 'And you shall count for yourselves
from the day
after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave
offering:
seven Sabbaths shall be completed. {16} 'Count fifty days to the day after
the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the
LORD.
So God commanded
that they would not eat any new growth from the ground, nor bread, nor
roasted grain until after the waving of the offering of the first fruits
of the harvest to God. That waving was to be done on the first day after
the Sabbath - a Sunday. Now let's look at the observance of Passover by
Joshua:
(Josh 5:10-12
NASB)While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal, they observed the Passover
on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of
Jericho. {11} And
on the day after
the Passover [the 15th
of Abib], on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the
land, unleavened cakes and parched <grain>. {12} And the manna ceased
on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land [the 16th
of Abib].....
Lev. 23:14 said that
they could not eat roasted grain or new growth until it was offered. So it
had to have been offered by the 15th of Abib if Joshua was to obey the
law.
Joshua was zealous
about keeping all God's laws including Passover. He knew he needed God in
the great conquest ahead. The next day they ate grain. Could he have
ignored the wave sheaf offering command to not eat grain or produce before
the wave sheath offering, and thereby incurred sin? That seems very
unlikely. The answer is that Passover fell on the weekly Sabbath that
year.
Back to the main
subject:
What was it like to
be Moses? You can be sure Moses' faith was put to the test. Look at Moses'
reaction to the people's complaints even before he led them out of Egypt.
(Exo 5:21-23 NKJV)
And they said to them, "Let the LORD look on you and judge, because you
have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his
servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us." {22} So Moses returned
to the LORD and said, "Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people?
Why is it You have sent me? {23} "For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in
Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered
Your people at all."
Moses was defensive
of the people and complained to God about not responding to their needs.
Does it seem sometimes that God does not respond quickly enough to our
requests and needs too?
But God promised to
bring these people, who were still in bondage in Egypt, out of Egypt.
(Exo 6:6 NKJV)
"Therefore say to the children of Israel: 'I am the LORD; I will bring you
out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their
bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great
judgments.
In the same way, God
promises to bring people, who are still in the world, out of the world.
How many times have
you said, "World, I'm through with you."? At this point we are repentant -
repentant of our participation with the world - resolved to
leave
the life the rest of the world lives and change to the way of life
instructed by our Father; change our values to those of God. Notice the
similarity of the next two verses:
(Acts 2:38 NKJV)
Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit.
(Exo 6:7 NKJV) 'I
will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know
that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of
the Egyptians.
In both verses God's
people are taken out of a sinful life and into a God oriented life.
Yes, God promised to
take Israel to Him for a people. But in the future God will give true
Christians, Gentile and Israeli (both Jew and non-Jew), even greater
changes.
(Ezek 36:26 NKJV) "I
will give you a
new heart
and put a
new spirit
within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you
a heart of flesh.
God promised to give
us a new heart and spirit. Again, notice the similarity (perhaps you could
call it a parallel).
(Exo 6:8 NKJV) 'And
I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD.'"
God promised to give
ancient Israel the land of promise just as He promises to give committed
Christians a new heart and a new Spirit and take us to His Kingdom.
Exo 12:41 (NASB) And
it came about at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very
day, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
God had an exact
time schedule. He has an exact time table for His Kingdom too. Are we
ready for the events of His time schedule?
Let's read now the
song of Moses. As we read this, picture in your mind Christ's sacrifice. I
think you will also be able to see the parallel of committed Christians
putting the sin out of our lives even as Satan continues to pursue us as
we progress toward qualifying for God's Kingdom:
(Exo 15:1-18 NKJV)
Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and
spoke, saying: "I will sing to the LORD, For He has triumphed gloriously!
The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! {2} The LORD is my
strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I
will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him. {3} The LORD is a
man of war; The LORD is His name. {4} Pharaoh's chariots and his army He
has cast into the sea; His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red
Sea. {5} The depths have covered them; They sank to the bottom like a
stone. {6} "Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your
right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces. {7} And in the
greatness of Your excellence You have overthrown those who rose against
You; You sent forth Your wrath; It consumed them like stubble. {8} And
with the blast of Your nostrils The waters were gathered together; The
floods stood upright like a heap; The depths congealed in the heart of the
sea. {9} The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide
the spoil; My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, My
hand shall destroy them.' {10} You blew with Your wind, The sea covered
them; They sank like lead in the mighty waters. {11} "WHO
IS LIKE YOU O LORD, AMONG THE GODS? WHO IS LIKE YOU, GLORIOUS IN HOLINESS,
FEARFUL IN PRAISES, DOING WONDERS?
{12} You stretched out Your right hand; The earth swallowed them. {13}
You in
Your mercy have led forth The people whom You have redeemed; You have
guided them in Your strength To Your holy habitation.
{14} "The people will hear and be afraid; Sorrow will take hold of the
inhabitants of Philistia. {15} Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed;
The mighty men of Moab, Trembling will take hold of them; All the
inhabitants of Canaan will melt away. {16} Fear and dread will fall on
them; By the greatness of Your arm They will be as still as a stone, Till
Your people pass over, O LORD, Till the people pass over Whom You have
purchased. {17} You will bring them in and plant them In the mountain of
Your inheritance, In the place, O LORD, which You have made For Your own
dwelling, The sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands have established. {18}
"The LORD shall reign forever and ever."
But this song is not
forgotten on the ancient Israelites and Moses. Let's read about the saints
in God's Kingdom:
(Rev 15:2-3 NKJV)
And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who
have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over
the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.
{3} They
sing the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying:
"Great and
marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the saints!
The Old Testament
and Moses are not forgotten by God or His saints, even if today's churches
teach that all this passed away with the crucifixion of Christ.
Num 32:11-12 (NASB)
'None of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward,
shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob;
for they did not
follow Me fully,
{12} except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of
Nun, for they have followed the LORD fully.'
How do these verses
apply to us? Are some of us not going to be able to get into the Kingdom,
into the promised land, because we have not followed the Lord
fully?
Do we still carry some secret and hidden leaven in our lives, though
outwardly we removed it symbolically from our homes during the days of
unleavened bread? Or have we even done that
fully?
How many of us follow the Lord only to the extent that it is comfortable
and to the extent that we don't appear different to the world around us?
How many of us have rationalized around some secret sin on the spiritual
level, or leavening, on the physical level? How many of us will not make
it into God's Kingdom? Only two over the age of twenty, from the millions
of people who came out of Egypt, made it into the Promised Land.
Luke 14:27 (NASB)
"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My
disciple.
What can you claim
as your own cross? Is it a problem you have created for yourself or is it
a result of following Christ?
Heb 11:6 (NASB) And
without faith it is impossible to please <Him>, for he who comes to God
must believe that He is, and <that> He is a rewarder of those
who seek Him.
How much faith do we
have that we are applying every effort to please God?
(Josh 14:6-13 NKJV)
Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of
Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him: "You know the word which the LORD
said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. {7}
"I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from
Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it
was in my heart. {8} "Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made
the heart of the people melt, but
I wholly followed
the LORD my God.
{9} "So Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land where your foot
has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever,
because you have
wholly followed the LORD my God.'
{10} "And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as He said, these
forty-five years, ever since the LORD spoke this word to Moses while
Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day,
eighty-five years old. {11} "As yet I am as strong this day as on the day
that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength
for war, both for going out and for coming in. {12} "Now therefore, give
me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in
that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and
fortified. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall be able to
drive them out as the LORD said." {13} And Joshua blessed him, and gave
Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance.
So Caleb was blessed
materially and with a long, vibrant life because he followed God
wholeheartedly. Do we? What will our rewards be - to die in the desert or
to receive an inheritance?
(Deu 32:9-12 NKJV)
For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His
inheritance. {10} "He found him in a desert land And in the wasteland, a
howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as
the apple of His eye. {11} As an eagle stirs up its nest, Hovers over its
young, Spreading out its wings, taking them up, Carrying them on its
wings, {12} So the LORD alone led him, And there was no foreign god with
him.
We must follow God
all the
way to
gain God's promises. We don't know what trials we'll meet.
In conclusion, let’s
read from Rev 14:1-4.
(Rev 14:1-4 NKJV)
Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one
hundred and forty-four thousand, having
His Father's name
written on their foreheads. {2} And I heard a voice from heaven, like the
voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the
sound of harpists playing their harps. {3} They sang as it were a new song
before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and
no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand
who were redeemed from the earth. {4} These are the ones who were not
defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow
the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being
firstfruits
to God and to the Lamb.
We must follow
Christ wherever He leads if we are to be firstfruits as Christ was.
Do we have the faith
to follow
Christ to the end?
Sermon given by Wayne Bedwell
April 18, 2009
Copyright 2009, Wayne Bedwell
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