We're gonna go ahead and get started this evening.
If you would turn in your hymnals to song 126.
Song number 126, what a wonderful savior.
Song 126.
That's what
evening service. We've had a kind of a hectic day, but a good day. We are on June 22nd,
our Sunday morning service is at 10.30 a.m. Sunday evening, 4.30 and then Wednesday service
at 5.30 p.m. Soul winning time is 2 p.m. And then the memory chapter, Soul 23. So I know
Your kids will get a award if they quote the verse to someone who's not a non-family member at the end of the week
So after this week, we're gonna actually be going into Psalm 234
And then I think I mean it's six verses and then if they can quote the whole thing whether you're an adult or a child
then at the end of that period you'll get a special prize and
Right there at the left souls one to date a hundred and forty seven
And then June happenings.
Well, Christian's birthday is this week.
We saying happy birthday to her.
So make sure you wish her a happy birthday
on the 28th of June.
For the fifth Sunday dinner,
this will be the last time where we order in.
And then we have the sides after this,
coming up in August, we'll put it on the bulletin.
We're gonna do a potluck. I think we have enough people now that we can have a really good potluck
And so I'm looking forward to doing that again. Those are always good times
It's always nice for everybody to showcase what what they do really well like chili and beans or
Just chili alone either one. I'm happy with both of them
Or just beans or just beans, you know, my wife knows me very well. I love beans just by themselves
Man's Retreat with a steadfast Baptist is August 14th through the 16th if you need more details if you want to join
Let me know and the same thing for the fire breathing Baptist Fellowship August 27th through the 31st
I believe I'm preaching one of the Spanish services. I don't know. I don't have all the specific details
But I'll get those to you guys at the end of that and then
On the back is the prayer list just pray for
Everybody, specifically the Bostics, where the James has now gone into hospice, and Sister
Mary is going to be in assisted living.
And then the Fitz family, they lost their nephew, Sylvia lost her nephew, the funeral
was this last week.
The Longoria family, well, the Fitz in the church, but the Longoria family, yes.
The Longoria family, she lost her nephew.
Jesse Boteo and family and Christians back here Christian and Jesse Jesse texted me that they
Their grandfather went on to be with the Lord. So just pray for the family anytime. There's death in the family
That's just tough and then just
Thank you to everybody that went so any we got drenched today. That's why you see me without a coat
I'm still a little wet. You can't see it probably the cameras
But I'm just gonna refuse to put the coat on because we're we literally had a like a shower shower
Like we came back drenched drenched and so but it was worth it, right?
I mean it we go out and plant the seeds other than that if there's nothing else. Let's turn our himmels over to page
for
91 for 91 and we'll have brother Mollie the next the next time
All right, we're there on page 491, one Jordan Stormy Banks, that's page 491.
爽
Exodus. Exodus chapter 20. We'll read there in the Bible Exodus chapter
number 20, where the Bible reads, and God spake all these words saying, I am the
Lord thy God, which I brought thee out of 19. Oh, we're actually in Exodus 19, that's
Exodus 19 where the Bible reads in the third month when the children of Israel were gone
forth out of the land of Egypt the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai for
they were departed from Rephidem and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched
in the wilderness and there Israel kept before the mount and Moses went up unto God and the
out of the mountains saying,
Thus shalt thou say it to the house of Jacob
and tell the children of Israel.
You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians
and how I bear you on eagle's wings
and brought you unto myself.
Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed
and keep my covenant,
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me,
above all people, for all the earth is mine.
And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation.
These are the words which thou shalt speak.
unto the children of Israel.
And Moses came and called for the elders of the people,
and laid before their faces all these words,
which the Lord commanded them,
and all the people answered together
and said all that the Lord had spoken, we will do.
And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Lo, I come unto thee, and a thick cloud
that the people may hear when I speak with thee,
and believe thee forever.
And Moses told the words of the people and the Lord said unto Moses,
Go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes,
and be ready against the third day. For the third day the Lord will come down
in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round
about saying, Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount, nor touch the border of it.
There shall not in hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through, whether it be beast or man.
It shall not live. When the trumpet sounded long, they shall come up unto the mount.
And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.
And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day. Come not at your wives.
And it came to pass on that third day in the morning,
that there were thunders and lightnings
and a thick cloud upon the mount.
And the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud
so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp
to meet with God.
And they stood at the nether part of the mount.
And Mount Sinai was all together on a smoke
because the Lord descended upon it in fire.
And the smoke there out ascended
as the smoke of a furnace
And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake
and God answered him by a voice.
The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses
up to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the
Lord, to gaze, and many of them perish, and let the priests also, which come nearer to
the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them.
And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for thou charge doth
sing.
Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
And the Lord said unto him, Away, and get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou
and Aaron with thee, but let not the priests and the people
break through to come up upon them. Come up unto the Lord,
lest ye break forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the
people and spake unto them. Let's have a quick word of prayer.
Dear Father God, thank you for this day. Thank you for
gathering us all here together, Lord. Thank you for the rain
that you provided us today. I know that we need it even though
it drove us out.
From soul winning today of Lord, but I just pray that we were able to plant the seed out there Lord
And I pray that you feel pastor Enrique with your spirit helping to preach a bold and accurate sermon Lord
And I pray that you prepare our hearts today to receive the message of gladness and I pray that we all get home safe
Jesus name I pray amen
All right, we're there next that is 19
We did get drenched
the last time that I got drenched like that. Usually I like to preach with a quote on Sunday,
but my neck tie right here, you guys can't see it, but I'm still really, still pretty
wet. So I'm just going to let it dry out. But we're grateful to be able to go out there
and do that. But we're there in Exodus 19. And we're going to continue in this overview
As we're going through the the book of Exodus last week we we saw a little bit about the you know the
The manna and just the different things that the children of Israel are already murmuring about and experiencing
But today we're gonna see a little bit of a shift and we see that in Exodus 19
God prepares the people so that he can talk to Moses and some of the priests
But he also gives this strong warning about coming near him, especially even even if they're sanctified
There's some people that just aren't able to come to the mount or they'll die anything that touches them out
he shows himself by fire. So the title of the sermon today is Fire, Fear, Foundation of the Lord.
And what we're going to do is we're actually going to cover a bunch of chapters in this overview.
And the reason for that is number one, I think it's interesting in chapter 19, there's this like
sanctification moment. There's this moment where the Lord's going to speak to Moses. And we know
Versus is where we get the Ten Commandments, so we'll cover that, but then shortly after that
He also gives them a ton of laws about different topics
And it's almost a preparation because then at the end of I think it's 22 or 23. We'll get there
They they the Lord prepares them for a battle, right? And so
What are we tying here? What are we looking at is the fact that the Lord always wants us to be
sanctified and prepared in His Word before we go out into battle, right? We need to be purged
with the fire. We need to be purified in the fire. We need to have a fear of the Lord,
but we also need to have a foundation in the Lord, right? We can't just sometimes we have
too much fire and no foundation, right? You know, young Christians do that. They get all on fire
And they don't even know why they're doing it. They just it's usually an ego thing
I've been I've experienced that in my youth, you know, where when I first got saved
I mean even when I first found out that the Jews were bad guys that they're not even
Biblically the Jews that we're supposed to back, you know, I'd get in people's face and be like you don't understand
But you know, that's not the way to approach things, right?
And I think a lot of that is also because we just we might get a little bit overzealous
And then we forget we have to fear the Lord there's consequences for that
and really it all comes down to what? The foundation or the fundamentals of the faith, right?
We need to be founded in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look, this morning I talked about impregnatory
prayers and I thought about it as we were reading this and just as you go through it,
Moses is really not one to do that. Moses always fought for the people. I mean to the point where
he asked God at some point and I'm pretty sure either we've covered or we're going to cover it,
as long as we spare the people and you know Moses really was someone who was really meek
who cared for the people of Israel in spite of all their downfalls he really loved them
and he really wanted to help them and I think that's why the Lord leaned on Moses
for leadership because Moses was just above the fold right he had an ability to lead the people
but also be really fearful of the Lord be humble and meek before the Lord and that's why the Lord
prowess or power. But let's focus right there. In Exodus 19 and verse 16, the Bible says,
and it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings
and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the
people that was in the camp trembled and everybody trembled. We know that in the New Testament,
I didn't put those verses here, but it says that Moses trembled.
Right. I mean being in the presence of the Lord is a fearful thing
Right. I don't care. I know that I touched on it this morning. I'm probably gonna touch on it again, but
Trump got up there and he's basically trying to strike the fear, are you trying to tell me, oh, I'm sorry,
and he's trying to strike fear into the heart of the so-called enemy and kind of get them to tremble and let them know that they're
Basically, they shouldn't mess around with the United States, right?
But some people might tremble, but some people might not, but you know what?
We all should tremble at the sight of the Lord. We all need a fear
the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is God that created everything.
He's all God. He's God Almighty and says,
And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God.
And they stood at the nether part of the mount and Mount Sinai was all together
on smoke, on a smoke because the Lord descended upon it and fire.
And the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace and the whole Mount quaked greatly and when the voice of the trumpet
Sounded long and wax louder and louder Moses spake and God answered him by a voice
And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai and on top of the Mount and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the
Mount and Moses went up and then we're gonna see here shortly
What's gonna transpire but the very first point I have for you is that meeting God
We got to meet God and we got to realize and we meet with God
It's not this kumbaya moment, when we're coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, of course we have His mercy and His grace,
and we can come boldly into the throne of grace, but we also got to be reminded that God is a consuming fire.
And that he created everything and, you know, I know it's probably not popular today, but I grew up watching the Cosby show and, you know, I know he's got a bad reputation now.
But I just remember this one line, this line always sticks to me because my dad used to quote it to me and now I'm sometimes tempted to quote it to my kids as a joke.
But in one of the scenes, he turns around to his son, he's like, I brought you in this world, I could take you out this world.
That's not the truth, you know, that's just ingest, but God brought you into this world.
You know what? God can take you out this world. That's the truth. That's not even funny because
we need to fear the Lord knowing that He can take you, He can let you stand or He can let you fall.
Right? And so God is not to be approached lightly or casually. You know, even today I was talking
about prayer and when we, even if I wasn't talking about impregnatory prayer, you shouldn't come to
you know, it should be a somber, serious thing. You know, he demands sanctification and obedience
and fear before him. One of the things that the modern church has gotten away from
is the fact that God is a serious God. This is a serious thing. Like, we're not playing church.
We're not going through the motions. Even if nobody was here and I and anybody who's been here
you know anybody who's been here will know that we're not playing church you know I go through
the motions whether it's 10 people in church or one person in church because I'm not doing it for
you all I'm doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ and you shouldn't be sitting in here because you're
going through the motions or because I'm preaching here or a guest preacher's here you should be
doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember telling my wife and I had this mindset even
before I got saved when I was in Seventh-day Adventist because people look drama and church
It doesn't matter what church you go to even if it's a false religion
There's always drama and people would be like
I don't want to go to church because of so-and-so or because people do this and I always told people this has been a consistent thing in my life
I'm like I go to church for God, you know
I don't care who goes to church and what whether I like them or not or they like me
I go to church for God right you need to come to church for God because honestly we're growing
And it's a huge blessing, but you know the only I guess downfall of growth is that there's gonna definitely for a fact
Without a shadow of a doubt put it in your notebook write it in stone
You're gonna not like somebody in church. That's just life
Somebody's gonna rub you the wrong way or vice versa, but his brothers and sisters in Christ
We show up to church for for God not for anything else
You know Moses is showing up to the Mount and it's a serious God's like hey
You need to sanctify yourselves for three days. He's like don't even be with your wives
like you need to be focused on that and and
You need to be focused on being ready to meet the Lord
If we go to Exodus 19 there in verse 10 it says,
and the Lord sent unto Moses,
go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow
and let them wash their clothes
and be ready against the third day.
For the third day, the Lord will come down
in the sight of all people and to Mount Sinai.
And then in verse 12 it says,
and thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about,
saying, take heed to yourselves,
that ye go not up into the mount
or touch the border thereof, there of it.
whosoever touches the mount shall be surely put to death.
Right? I mean, it's a serious thing. Now, thank God we live in the New Testament church and we don't have to do that anymore, right?
And so we just need to remind ourselves that we need to be serious, though, about this thing that we call church and this thing
that we call living for the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're not like the modern church that, you know, they pretend and it's all pomp and circumstance.
right? You've never seen me blow a shofar in church because that's just about the dumbest thing.
Plus, I mean, those things stink. I've somebody bought a shofar one time and I was like, oh,
this is really cool. Let me see. And then it's like, I don't know, they're disgusting, but
that's just my personal opinion. Go over to Psalm 33. But Hebrews 12, 29, I already gave you that
verse. But again, you know, for our God is what a consuming fire.
I've brought this up. I don't know if I preached the sermon or if I've just brought it up in points
But when you think of fire, it serves only two purposes in my opinion
I mean it's heat or purification or to clean something up, right?
If you in the olden days, right? If you or even I remember growing up
Who who had a dad or mom who did this like you'd get a splinter that was too deep and what would they do?
They take a lighter
in the needle remember and they they burn that needle make it hot red so that it all that bacteria
was off yeah and then you take out the then you shove it into the kids and
Finger or hand or whatever and then you take out that that that that's splinter and if you've never done that
It's not that bad, but it's just scary watching your parents grab a needle and light it on fire. They're like, all right
Come here son. Let me let me stab you in the hand, right?
But it's for purification purposes, right? But the other purpose of fire is that it's gonna just destroy
right? It's just going to consume and it's never ending just like we've talked about like
the California fires or forest fire or even just the house burning down.
Go to Psalm 33 in verse 8 the Bible says,
Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the council of the
He make it the devices of the people of non-effect.
The counsel of the Lord standeth forever.
The thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Blessed, man, we ought to take note.
Donald Trump needs to read Psalm 3312.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord
and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
Let me tell you what, it's not modern-day Israel.
It's not.
I know that the land itself, like that region, has a significance, but not the people.
You know who has a significance? Who's God's people?
Those that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Period.
Now, if somebody comes to me and they... Honestly, I wouldn't even fight him.
But if somebody said, hey, I'm of the tribe of so-and-so,
and whatever, I can prove it to you with, like, you know, DNA tests and all that stuff.
But they said they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's all they did.
I'd be like, all right, well, you believe it's a little weird that you think you're part of a lineage,
but you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? I actually wouldn't care.
But that's not how the modern day Jewish state is, right?
They not only think they're the lineage, but they think that they can reject the Lord Jesus Christ.
They think they're still waiting for the Messiah, and they don't even have to respect the King James.
All they care about is technically, and I don't even know if they really even care about...
the actual Torah, but that's what they call it, the first five books of the Bible.
But even there, if they just read them, you know, there'd be a lot of things that point them in the different direction.
Proverbs 9 verse 10 says,
The second point I have for you today, go to Exodus 20, go to Exodus 20, we're going to cover three or four chapters today in this overview, is that we have shortly after the sanctification, the purpose is for what?
To give them the Ten Commandments, right?
This is probably the most famous set of commandments that were given to not only Moses and the people of Israel
But even to our generation
I mean the Ten Commandments are
Posted at some of our government buildings throughout the country not all of them because people fight about all the time
But a couple of things I do want to point out number one
I agree we should listen to the Ten Commandments, but I just want to remind you there's not just Ten Commandments
These are just the Ten Main Commandments it kind of
simplifies the law. But there's a lot of commandments. There's a book called Leviticus,
where God just goes through, you know, just law after law. And even here we're going to see this.
But we're going there in verse one of Exodus 20. It says, In God spake all these words, saying,
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
Obviously this is where we begin, right? So what's the very first thing? We need to not have other gods
I mean have no other gods before God meaning we don't want to just have idol worship
We were we talked about this morning how a lot of and there was a theme with the imprecatory prayers
Which was that a lot of the people that hate God have not only they hate God
But they're not technically even atheists. What are they? They're worshiping false religions. They have a God
It's just not the God of the Bible
Right the false religions of this world worship a God. It's just the vain God
It's a God that can't do anything for anybody right and God is a jealous God
He does not want us to have other gods before him verse 4
That shall not make any unto the any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above or that is in the earth
Beneath or that is in the water
under the earth thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me,
and keep my commandments." And if you notice there, but I always point that out, it says,
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that what?
That hate me that's important because I I can't tell you how many times when I when I in the
Adventist and as a new Christian in the old FB people would be like hey if you if you commit certain sins
It's gonna carry over to your family for generations
Like they teach this stuff in churches and they kind of almost make it work salvation
You're like man, I don't know how how to be a better person like I'm gonna ruin my children
But that's not true those that hate God it'll carry through to those generations
But he says showing mercy unto
Thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments
And let's go on to the next one. I says thou should not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
For the Lord will not hold him guiltless to take it his name in vain
And then this one's near and dear to me because this is exactly what I came out of
This is the fourth commandment remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. There's literally an entire religion
Actually, there's several religions, the Jews being one of them, but also the Seventh Adventist that literally based their entire doctrine on the fourth commandment.
You know, it's funny, when I first started kind of questioning this, I was like, well, I know it's an important commandment because it's one of the commandments, but what about the first three?
Well, no, you got to keep the Sabbath. I'm like, yeah, I know, I get you, we got to keep the Sabbath, but what about the first three?
The fourth commandment is the main commandment, and the Seventh Day of Venice and the Jews, all of them do this stuff. It's just interesting.
It says, 6 days shall thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
In it thou shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger, for that is within thy gates.
That is within that gate for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all them that in them is and rest at the
Seventh day
Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it and the Lord's I mean Jesus said he the Sabbath is for the Lord
not for man
He said that in the New Testament. I mean, that's an easy argument
You can go I think I always I always get it wrong. I need to memorize it
But he's either do around me 32 or Leviticus 32 where it's a whole chapter dedicated to the different sabbaths
And some of them are like on the ninth day and on the eighth day or a whole week
It says as a Sabbath to you because it's just a celebration of the rest that the Lord's given us
Right, that's a whole other sermon, but then we see what the first commandment with what?
promise the Bible says not here but in other chapters honor thy father and thy mother
that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee man it'd be good
if we could just get some people to actually even just listen to that commandment
people don't honor their father and their mother anymore
you know uh it's just
I know I know of families where like the mom is in her 90s and
Like the the person who married into the family is taking care of that lady because the own children won't want don't want to take
Care of their mom and they rather put her in like a nursing home or an assisted living
That's like a run-of-the-mill thing
you know
I think that was one of the challenges that some of our church members called me about
They were like my children just want to throw me in an assisted living
Hey, you know nobody who wants to struggle and deal with stuff anymore my I'm picking on my son a little bit
But and I didn't ask him for permission as he gets older. I might do that
But we were out soul winning and before we got drenched it was really hot wasn't it like who who greased with me
I was like I was actually really it's weird because it was really really hot and then it got really really cool
Because we got drenched but my son was complaining about you know, just how hot it was you know
and i'm like you need to stop complaining that you know it's life like everything's just
and society's gotten so bad they just complain about their parents too oh i've got to take care
of my parents oh i've got to do this well let me remind you children just in case you don't know
your parents change your dirty diapers and your poop and your throw up and your snot for many years
So it wouldn't hurt you a little bit to just help your parents out when they get older, right?
Like my goal is not to have my parents in an assisted living if they ever need that.
My wife and I have discussed it. If my parents ever need it, we'll just move them in with us.
And I know it's not going to be a fun time, but I watched that my mom and my dad took care of my grandma
Actually, both grandmas it's so they're dying breath at home. That was the thing that you did
You didn't throw anybody in and and sure it's kind of not the best idea and it's not the best in the world
Like sometimes it's gross
I remember as a kid like having to change out the bucket where my my my grandmother was going to the restroom because she was a stump
And it's not like, you know, I mean
Nobody wants to change that out. It's not fun, but that's what you do. You take care of your family
You know you honor your father and your mother and I'm glad that my parents left that legacy because when that time comes
Whether it's whether it's gross or not. It's independent like where you've got to be there for your family. I'm that's biblical
You know, there's two industries that are huge in the United States
the and it's all for the baby boomers the
it's called, I know in Florida they call them snowbirds, but here we call them winter Texans.
I grew up in the valley and there was winter Texans every six months.
We get a crop of like 200,000 gray heads, you know, they come down and then what's the other trend?
In the same area, you have a bunch of assisted living homes. I mean, even within here, there's
probably like 10 or 15, they make a ton of money because they charge people an arm and a leg to
you know the kids aren't willing to take care of them because you know they want to have their
perfect little life for travel that was not part of the sermon but i just that really gets my like
it really bothers me that people don't want to take care of their parents right they'll take
them somewhere and those people will abuse them and mistreat them and just treat them bad and then
you know and then they find out and they feel all like guilty about it we if you just took care
of your parents you wouldn't feel guilty about it plus you know one day they're not going to be around
right? I mean, it doesn't matter. Then verse 13, thou shall not kill. And again, that just means don't murder.
Right a righteous government will take out the enemies, you know, so we do believe in capital punishment
But we don't believe in murder. Let me just clear that up. Thou shall not commit adultery
Thou shall not steal. Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house
Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife
Nor his mate man servant nor his mate servant nor his ox nor his ass nor anything that is thy neighbors
Hey, stop being so envious and greedy.
Just put your head down, be thankful for what you have,
and that's that, right?
So, I mean, those are the 10 commandments.
In Romans 3.20, we see, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight,
for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
What's the purpose of the law according to Romans?
To let us know we're sinners, right?
We're not justified by the deeds of the law, but we do obey the law.
There's a big difference right Jesus came to fulfill what the law and the prophets Moses representing the law
Elijah representing the prophets right just because we're saved by grace doesn't mean that we don't follow God's law
Right, we're not vigilantes here. This is not anarchy. We are not Antifa, right? Like I just we're not those people like
We believe in law and order there are certain things we do here in this church like before the service
I asked you guys hey help me do this or that in the church you know why it's not gonna
I'm trying to be a taskmaster because we just want law and order you know you ever been no place that
doesn't have law and order like Washington or Antifa rains it's disgusting my wife and I went there
a couple years ago for for a vacation for our anniversary and as you're driving from the airport
to like over into the Washington area from Portland there's like this
Long park and it's just full of tents, you know where people are living homeless and it's gross
It looks like a dump, you know why because there's no law and order
Matthew 22 verse 37 and by the way, I'll have you turn because I do want to cover quite a bit today, but it's I think it's important
But well actually just stay in the book of Exodus. We'll jump around but Matthew 22 verse 37
The Bible says Jesus sayeth unto him thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind
This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself
on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. See, God, even Jesus,
even though He came to fulfill it and free us from sin, you know, by paying our sin,
still gives us the law and He gives us commandments. In 1 Timothy 1-9, the Bible says,
knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for what? For sinners.
For sinners and let's go there because I think you cut off on me, but first Timothy 1 9 or I'll go there real quick
First Timothy 1 9
In case you want to go there, it's where all the Ts are after the
Philippians and God and all that stuff that the low first Thessalonians second Thessalonians
first Timothy
One nine
The law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly
and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
for manslayers, for hormongers, for them to defile themselves with mankind, for men stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound
doctrine according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to
and then we you know we could continue on but the law is made for but I like that part for sinners
because there is a group of people out there not only you know former preachers that maybe hung
out with us but really the contemporary movement teaches this thing called hyper grace where you
know there's so much grace in our life that nothing ever applies to us nothing you know but
Yeah, but I'm saved by grace. Yeah, but you're still a sinner. The Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God
For there's not one righteous. No, not one, you know, it's not that difficult
But you know, these are the important things we need to still go over because apparently it is that difficult
Let's go to point number three
We want to look at so the next points are I'm going to go through them fairly quickly
But I do want to touch on them because it feels like there's a build-up before this big battle and
In this in the next chapters what we see is God giving laws about certain things right in here
He teaches the simplicity and the sanctification of worship or you know
It's talking about the laws of altars right when they come to him and they build an altar
You know God demands that this that they worship them in spirit and truth
He doesn't really want this showmanship.
And what I mean by that is in Exodus 20, in those verses,
he talks about when they make an altar,
that they should just make it out of stone,
but not hewn it down or build it of man.
It's not for man to show off, right?
And today, what do we see?
Like these really ornate buildings and ornate, you know, uh, pulpits and you know, the super nice everything's super nice.
You know, I mean, whether it's contemporary church or the Catholic church or the Presbyterian church.
I mean, I would venture to say that 90% of churches in Houston are way nicer than our church is just by nature of the fact that everybody wants to show off.
You know, they probably hire an interior designer.
You know, they think it through.
We're just glad to show up to church.
I don't know that we put a lot of thought
into the interior design of the church lately,
but go over to Exodus 20.
And we won't read all the verses because we're going to go through these fairly quickly, but they're in Exodus 20 in verse 25
The Bible says and if that will make me an altar of stone that should not build it of huge stone
For if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou has polluted it, you know in the New Testament
This is a spiritual application. God doesn't care about the way we look outwardly. You know what he cares about the inward man
All right, we don't want to pollute the outward man and sacrifice the inward man
Right now that doesn't that's not to say that we don't look presentable, but he doesn't care
Right. So if you notice I wear suits when I preach or a tie
But let me guarantee you, you know, I buy they're like the I don't buy I do not go to the
the good cheap or the salvation army. I do buy new suits but for me I have to buy
new suits because I'm foot five foot five and a half and I've tried going to
the Salvation Army but there's very few people that are five foot five and a half
and that look or have my build so it's really hard to buy I just look like I'm
wearing a clown suit and which I don't mind but I mean I just don't want to look
like it just makes you look way anyways that's a too much explanation but I do
buy just like all my suits are peri Ellis
because that seems to be my fit. They're really cheap and inexpensive. And then I just wear them
until they wear out. I usually have two or three suits. That's it. And if I can buy stuff like
the shirts, I'll wear them until they wear out. And then that's it. I'll just get a new set of
shirts and then move on with my life. But the reason is because I don't, you know, I'm not buying
a $3,000 suit. I don't want to look like Joel's team because I don't really care. You know,
I mean, Joel Osteen probably has somebody to make their suit custom, a tailored suit
with his cufflinks and his initials and all that stuff, and God's like, you polluted it.
You've polluted the temple of God, right, but what's the other ways that we pollute it?
You know, we polluted by lusting we polluted by committing adultery or fornication by drug
You know by doing drugs or drinking all we need to stop doing all of that and not pollute the temple of God
Right in John 4 verse 24 the Bible says God is a spirit and then they worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth
Psalm 51 verse 17 says the sacrifices of God are broken or broken spirit a broken and contrite heart
Oh, God that will not despise
Isaiah 66 to says for all those things
Have mine handmade. Well, let me go there. Like I said, I don't know why my notes cut off this time
But sometimes these things happen
I used to get more stressed out about stuff like that.
When you're a new preacher, you want everything to be perfect.
And then after you preach awhile, you just realize,
you have to be human from the pulpit
because you're gonna make mistakes.
I don't worry too much about it anymore,
but I guess 662 says,
for all those things hath mine handmade
and all those things have been sayeth the Lord,
but to this man, will I look even to him that is poor?
and of a contrite spirit, and I love this,
trembleeth at my word.
You ever just read something
and you just kind of get a little chill?
When I was reading for the impregnatory prayer sermon
that I preached this morning,
I made it a goal to just read every one of those chapters.
I wanted to just make sure that I wasn't preaching
something out of context,
because I know there's different thoughts on it.
I wanted to be as sure as I could.
For the most part, I try to do that, but I don't usually, if I'm quoting a lot of scripture,
I'm not reading every chapter of that, because I also have my regular Bible reading.
But as I was reading through some of that stuff, I was like, whoa, I better clean up
some stuff and get right with God.
Lord forgive me if I didn't hear this area Jeremiah is getting on the people
You know Isaiah is getting on the people has the kai is like
Sat cloth and praying Lord forgive us for anything just take care of us like it's it's serious, right?
This is a serious thing
The next one that we see is the laws about like
slaves and restitution. So he's kind of giving all these rules along with the
Ten Commandments. And that's found like Exodus 21 through Exodus 22, the first
chapters. Right there in Exodus 21 verse 16, and that's my fourth point, justice
in society, slaves and restitution. Exodus 21 verse 16 says, and he that
stealeth the man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely
slavery. But the Bible did address slavery. Those are two different things. Look, God's
not going to miss words. He knows that there's a real world where real things happen and
He addresses how to deal with these things. Just like when we read Judges 19, you know,
that's not necessarily a fun chapter to read, but it's a necessary chapter because we need
I know that most people won't agree, but what happened yesterday is evil.
When we're meddling in other countries and just sticking our nose in things that don't belong to us, that's evil.
Right? If my neighbor came over and was like, Hey, I was looking through your window and I saw that, you know, how you treat your family, that's evil. I'd be pretty mad about that. I'd be like, dude, what are you doing? Like, why are you looking through my window? And, you know, why are we worried about what other countries are doing? And vice versa, if any country, like, you know, because also America has this bad rock, people would be like, oh, you're American, you do this and that'd be like, where about your country?
You know just like worry about your house worry about your own church
You know the you know the only problems that I really stress about are the problems at Spring Crest Baptist Church
Right. These are our problems. I really need to take that seriously if I hear of other things
You know, I might have opinion. I might not I might think about it. I might not but it's not my church
It's not my problem
And it's oh that sounds like a little dismissive. No, it's just not but at the same time we do need to address things
slavery was real
Time out. Slavery is real. Israel is real. I don't know. Maybe maybe there's something there. Don't read too much into it, but slavery is real, right?
Today in America and in the entire world, we call it human trafficking. No, it's slavery. There are people who are under oppression, who have literally masters who run their lives.
So why wouldn't we want to read the Bible and what the Bible says about slavery because people get all oh you read
That Bible that condone slavery. No, the Bible just addresses slavery
But you want a God that just turns a blind eye aren't isn't aren't you the same person that complained that why does God let bad things
Happen to good people. Well, which one is it? You know make up your mind
Right. I mean either he addresses it, you know, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't type of thing, right?
but
Exodus 22 verse 1 also talking about just like restitution
Because he jumps from slavery to restitution in verse 1
He says if a man shall steal an ox or sheep and kill it or sell it
He shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep and in the restitution
What God's really just saying just to give you a synopsis is that?
You know we shouldn't take other people's stuff if we do we give back to them
And he goes so far as to say that if we're in charge of something and we lose it
It depends on the situation, but we either restore those people we make them whole
We're not just like
guiltless about those things which in a spiritual application makes total sense, right?
We are in charge of the church of Jesus Christ and with that we shouldn't just squander it and if we squander it
Then we need to give back
Twofold threefold fourfold the things that we've messed up. That's why we're serious about like the things of God like you know
We have people count the money and we try to be as transparent as possible about finances
Or if there's something going on in the church an issue we address it from the pulpit
Like I'm not trying to hide anything from anybody. God's always been transparent. We need to be transparent. I'm I'm an open book
I mean obviously to to to a
Like a manageable or
Common sense degree, right? I mean if somebody just comes and constantly drills me about something after I've answered their question
I might not be so apropos to want to answer those questions
But I'm an open book you can come to me and ask me anything and I'll just be really honest with you
Sometimes I give you a great answer and sometimes I'm just like, you know what I don't know
You know when when a lot of you guys that came over and I know now you're spring crest
But when you came over from pure words, there were some people that came over that necessarily weren't
Part of your group, but they were part of your group
Everyone one guy came yeah, I've told you the story, but I just thought it was interesting and he like asked me if he could
Be a member of the church and I said yeah, and he's like why don't agree on this doctrine about Jesus going how I was like
Okay, it's like we can agree to disagree
I was like as long as you don't you know
That's not the doctor to the church
But you can you can talk to whoever and he like for 30 minutes
He just kept asking me the same questions like so can I come to church here?
I was like yeah, you can come to church here brother. Don't worry about it
I was like just don't spray your doctrine because it doesn't line up with our doctrine
But I mean you can have your own opinion. What can I come to church here?
Yes, you can come to church here man like what point of you know yeah and then at some point I was like
I've known you for five. I've literally told it to the guys like I've known you for all of five minutes
I don't know anything about you. I can't make a decision about whether you're a good guy
Or a bad guy within five minutes unless you pull a gun on me or try to stab me. I don't know
Right because sometimes we can jump to conclusions somebody that rubs you the wrong way could actually be a really good guy
Who's ever done that?
Where you meet someone and you're like, oh, I don't like that guy and then later on they're like your best friend
I've had friends like that one of my longest friends before you know, obviously no longer friend
When we first met we didn't like each other
And then he was like my best friend for like ten years. I mean this guy was like he was like my right hand now
I mean we hung out we traveled together
Life happened, but when I first met him, I didn't like him. I was like, I don't like this guy
You know, so obviously you can't make a judgment call just because you just met someone
So we needed, you know, when it comes to these things of like restitution and how to deal with people that and
Covetiousness it's on a case-by-case basis, but the Bible gives us clear guidance for all that
You know if you look at the book of Luke in verse 19 and Luke 19 verse 8
The Bible says is that he is stood and said unto the Lord be horde Lord behold Lord
The half of my goods I give unto the poor and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation
I restore him for four fold what he's trying to do is he's trying to prove the law, right?
But he is following it in Proverbs 6
Verse 30 the Bible says men do not despise the thief if he's still to satisfy his soul when he is hungry
But if he be found he shall
Restore sevenfold. He shall give all the substance of his house
Even when it comes to something like that, I mean you hold him accountable
But it's not the same thing as if someone stole and killed, right?
There are different ways to address different things, right?
The Bible gives us like for example clear indication in 1 Corinthians how to deal with certain sins
that require like kicking them out of the church.
But for the rest of the stuff,
I mean, we just deal with it and move on.
You know, I have this thing with my kids
and I do this constantly.
And it's a, you know, I don't know if it's a good thing
or a bad thing, because everybody's a parent,
but I think it's a good thing based on the Bible.
I'll spank my kids or I'll get onto them.
And then after we've addressed it, I'm like, all right,
it's over, next.
Like, we're not gonna think about it anymore.
We move on.
There's no point in harping on and just feeding someone down because of the mistake they made 10 years ago, you know
Romans 13 7 the Bible says render therefore
To all their dues tribute to whom tributus do custom to custom fear to whom fear honor to whom honor
So we just need to do it in the right context, right?
We do we we need to
Take care of people socially the right way
Which leads me to my next point, which is social justice or social righteousness, right?
And in Exodus 22 through Exodus 23, God is
Going through the laws where he demands them, you know to stand for truth. It's not a popularity contest
You know, some of our politicians could stand to learn something from the Bible and
Exodus 23 verse 2 if you want to turn there says thou shall not follow a multitude to do evil
Neither shall thou speak in a cost to decline after many to rest judgment man
I'm telling you I didn't do it on purpose, but these are applicable for what's going on. Look, I'm not gonna follow the multitude
I don't care if it's popular for the majority of Americans
We are I am not for war
I'm not and I'm going to continuously address it because I don't want to be tied with Fox News Baptist
These guys are like just ready to war
They're ready to just beat the drums. I mean Ted Cruz literally said that his sole purpose as a Republican representative of our state
13 years ago was to just be a the number one defender of Israel
Good for you, buddy
You know what my strict goal for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ is to be a defender of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ
I pledge allegiance to God Almighty
Above anything else, I respect the laws of this country.
I learned the Pledge of Allegiance, the national anthem.
I think we have a great history.
I was talking to someone earlier.
Even with all that's going back, this is still the greatest country in the world.
But I think it's the greatest country because it's still the greatest light of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world
There's still no other country that preaches as hard the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ
Then in the United States of America as a matter of fact some of the greatest preachers
Not only in our modern time, but in just history have come
from the United States of America.
Literally, you have periods of time where you just don't,
you know, you don't have, but in modern times,
in the 19th and 20th and 21st century,
America has been the forefront leader of missions,
of spreading the gospel, of preaching the truth.
And as long as we still do that,
I still think we're one of the greatest nations in the world.
But that doesn't mean that I'm just gonna follow
a multitude to do evil.
You know, that's why you don't see me protesting on No Kings Day or whatever stupid protest is
I'm pretty sure there's a protest every weekend for something, you know, I mean, it's a free country
So people can protest wherever they want
Right Micah six verse eight said he that showed me. Oh, man
What is good and what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to what and to walk humbly
with thy God
Proverbs 24-23 says these things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.
In Leviticus 19-15 the Bible says, ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor,
no honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbors.
So we see this interesting thing, right? He sets them up. He sanctifies them.
And then he starts going through the Ten Commandments and then he goes through all these laws that even now we get to verse 23
I mean the chapter 23 and the next point I have for you is that now he's explaining how to act in the Sabbaths
and in the feasts, right?
And these ceremonies, obviously,
we don't follow any more ceremonial laws,
but the moral laws were enhanced,
but these feasts were for that purpose of sanctification
and remembrance and thankfulness to the Lord, right?
In Exodus 23 verse 12 says six days shall do thy work.
And on the seventh day thou shalt rest, that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son
of thine handman, made, and the stranger may be refreshed."
And you know, let's just give, I'm going to take a step back and let's just give a worldly
application to this based on the Bible.
In the 1980s, because my kids have been talking about the 1980s a lot, they keep referencing
how daddy grew up in the 1980s.
You had to wait at the door at Walmart because it wouldn't open till after church you remember that I remember I hated it
because my my you know moms
would do their shopping on the weekend and
Sometimes they needed there was all the only day to go shopping was on Sunday
And there was after church and there you know we grew up in the valley where if you think it's hot here
It's way hotter down there
And so I guess maybe my son gets it from his dad because I remember beat thinking the sun's beating down on you
We'd go there early like 10 minutes early and you're just looking at the door
And you're kind of knocking hoping and it's like 12 and then you always have that one jerk employee remember that?
the one that wouldn't open until like 12.01 because his clock didn't say 12.
And you know, there was no digital clock. So everybody had a different time, right?
Everybody would base it on like some atomic clock with, you know, it could say 12.01 on your
clock with somebody else's clock would say 12.05, right? And we had a country that would rest on
Sunday. Like you couldn't really find things open on Sunday. And then Walmart decided to open, what,
And then you have gasoline stations that are open 24 seven and then you wonder why our country is the way it is
We we don't we don't trust God enough to provide on the day of rest
I mean, that's really what the day of rest signifies, right?
That it's not of works, but of grace, right?
Even the man who was like, hey, six days you gather,
and on the sixth day you gather double,
because you're gonna rest on the seventh day.
It represents Jesus Christ, he's our spiritual rest.
Yet, today, all we have is spiritual works.
I mean, sorry, fleshly works that think are spiritual, right?
People are just trying to do all the...
It's the New Testament, right?
Didn't we do all these great works for you?
And in thy name do this, and in thy name do that.
And he says, turn for me, I never knew you.
I mean, the Sabbath is exactly to remind us
that Jesus is our rest.
And if you don't think that they didn't know
that Jesus was the rest, then you just not read the Bible
because Moses literally tells us,
and the Bible tells us that Moses in Hebrews 11,
it says that he knew, he forsook the sins of pleasure
for a season.
Because he regarded the recompense of the reward much better, and I might have butchered that we will go there
but
You know the fact of the matter is God is our rest Jesus Christ is our rest in Leviticus 23 verse 2
The Bible says speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them concerning the feast of the Lord
We just shall proclaim to be holy convocations
Even these feasts and by the way the feast were there. It was a ceremonial thing
He, in those chapters, in those verses, he's going through three feasts, right? The harvest
feast, the end gathering, and I forget the other feast. It's not necessarily as important to the
sermon, but the feasts were there, what? To sanctify them, because they were going into a land, and
even in the wilderness, they were surrounded by what? By heathens, by the world. How do we celebrate
Right in this building. We're different than the world
right the fact that
We go out into the world and you know women are actually dressed like women and men are dressed like men and our kids look like
normal children
That's our sanctification. That's our feast to the Lord. That's our sacrifice.
The fact that our speech is different and that we don't just agree with her, you know,
somebody comes up to you and says, hey, hooray, hooray, we're going to war and you're like, I'm not excited about that.
That makes you look different. That's how we sanctify ourselves, right?
We don't just believe everything that everybody says, oh, you know, God's gonna come at any moment.
Actually, I don't think God's gonna come at any moment. God's gonna come when these things happen in the Bible.
or you know the Bible is very clear on certain things right or you all these people are special
no it's by grace not by race like literally this is the stuff that we need to you know pay attention
to that's how we sanctify ourselves probably where was i i'm just trying to find oh okay don't
you don't have to turn back uh joshua 1 verse 9 the bible says have i not commended thee be strong
Thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whether so ever thou goest."
Really, our only concern should be to have God on our side.
I thought about it, I was like, I'm so glad I'm saved, because if this would have happened when
I was a seven-day Adventist, I probably would have just like lost all sleep last night.
I really would have, because it's all doom and gloom.
Think about how many people actually lost sleep because we're about we're on the verge of baby world war three
You know what? I did I looked at that video on my phone with my wife for four minutes
You know where Trump's telling us how wonderful he is and how perfect he is and how wonderful he is with his friend
Beebe and yahoo and then I turned it off. I prayed and I went to sleep and you know what?
I slept like a baby. I woke up this morning and you know
We're on the verge of war, but
the Lord cleared my conscience. I don't have anything to worry about. I'm saved by grace.
Because, oh, my wife did ask me, I mean, we're just talking. She's like, well, what, you know,
she's like, what if they drop a nuclear bomb? I was like, why do I have to wait? That's the
least of my problems. If a bomb drops in Houston, by the time we figure out a bomb drop, we'll be
dead. Like, we'll be in heaven. You know how we'll figure it out? Because we'll be in heaven. We'll
Oh, they dropped them, you know, because it's that quick.
Actually, you know, as long as you're in the epicenter of that thing, it probably wouldn't
affect you.
I'm not saying you should be.
I'm not for it.
I'm just saying, why stress about it?
You can't do anything about that anyways.
Romans 8.31 says, What shall we say to these things if God before us, who can be against
us?
2 Corinthians 6.17 says, Wherefore come out from among them and be separate, saith the
The unclean and I will receive you. I don't know. I think I skipped some stuff
But it doesn't really matter. All this stuff is really good. I think I went to in my other
Point which is the promise of victory, but either way we're good because the conclusion of the whole thing is
What I'm trying to get get you at here is that I've got a couple minutes
The whole purpose of what we just read is that God is not just going to do things willy-nilly
Right if you look at Exodus 19 just to slow me down a little bit
He prepares them and he sanctifies it. You could almost make a case that it's a foreshadowing of Christ
He said on the third day you'll come to me which represents what Jesus rose on the third day
What did Jesus do? He basically when he paid for our sins. What does he do?
He makes us white as snow the Bible says he has cleansed us from all our sin
Sin is not the problem to get into heaven anymore, because we're saved by grace.
Sin is the problem here on earth, and he says, even with all this sanctification,
what's the next thing he does?
And this is why it's important to be a proper Christian, balanced out.
I believe 100% salvation is by grace through faith.
It's not of works, lest any man should boast.
I can go and murder someone today, and if I die, I'm going to heaven.
But don't get me wrong. There's a bunch of laws if I murder someone today
There will be consequences for that sin
But I when I die, I will go to heaven if you look I mean it's it's exodus 19 and then 20
21 22 and almost to the end of 23 all it is is just love and love and love
You go to church today. You think that God never gave out a law. I'm talking about like the modern church
Where's the preaching on exit is 21 and 22 and 23 at 24 and the book of Leviticus. Nobody wants to talk about it
There's been like a couple I guess people are finally waking up
I've seen a couple of clips where people are wearing the cameras, you know now you can sneak a camera in anywhere
They've gone to Joel Olsteen's church
To call them out
Because they're like, Joel, you don't preach on sin.
The Bible says, and you know what's
been his response in the incognito?
He's like, well, that's not for me.
I'm here for positive reinforcement only.
And then we wonder why America is the way that it is.
We wonder why our children are the way that they are.
We wonder why we're so happy to be going to war,
because there's no law and order.
I got ahead of myself.
In chapter 23, I did want to close out with that so
I'm in numbers Genesis Exodus
Let's go there. I've got five minutes
Because he he let me just make sure I got my notes here correct
Yeah in verse 19
And then right there, so Exodus 19, he sanctifies them.
And then you got verse chapters 20, 21, 22.
And then almost through the end of 23, it's just laws.
It's like the law of the altar, the law of the Sabbath,
the laws of the fees, the laws of social justice,
the laws of slaves.
And I'm just paraphrasing, right?
These are the laws that he's covering.
They're a little bit more detailed.
And then you get to the end of chapter 23,
you get to the end of verse 19.
And in verse 20 says,
Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions for not my name is in him."
Isn't that interesting? He's like, I gave you all these things, and I've given this angel authority that if you mess up, he's not going to be as nice as I am, right?
And this says, But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies.
and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
For mine angel should go before thee,
and bring thee in unto the Amorites,
and to the Hittites, and the Parasites,
and the Canaanites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off.
Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works,
but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and ye shall bless thy bread and thy water,
and I will take thy sickness away from the midst of thee.
There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren in thy land,
the number of thy days I will fulfill. I will send my fear before thee,
make all thine enemies to turn their backs onto thee, and I will send hornets before thee,
which shall drive out the hivite, the kinglinite, and the hittite from before thee.
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate
By little and little I will drive them out from before thee,
until thou be increased and inherit the land.
And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea,
even unto the sea of the Philistines,
and from the desert unto the river,
for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land
to your hand, and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
They shall not dwell in thy land,
lest they make thee sin against me,
for thou serve their gods.
it will surely be a snare unto the... I think it's pretty clear what God wants.
And in today's America, this is the kind of preaching we need.
We are not for religious freedom. I know the country has that law and it's to our advantage
so we can continue preaching, but as Baptists and as Bible-believing Christians,
we don't just accept every religion. We just don't.
But that's why we're not Catholics. We're not Presbyterians, you know
I've been responding slowly to that sermon I preached a couple months ago about the Catholics and I mean
There's so many comments on there
And so every once in a while I get and I think it's just funny because they're like, you know
Get this Protestant from off the pulpit. I'm like, what's a good thing? I'm not a Protestant because there's nothing for you to worry about
We're not Protestant
We don't sprinkle babies here. We don't believe in works sanctification
We don't none of that. I mean sanctification of works after salvation. We believe but not to salvation
We're here on a clear gospel message, but also we're not just here to just tell you hey
Father Jesus loves you kumbaya. Let's all hold hands and everything's gonna be no. It's also
Jesus is a judge
And he's judging this country, and he's judging us, and we need to be solely focused on the Lord Jesus Christ
and his laws and his sanctification. Look, he doesn't want us to mingle with the rest of the world.
We're not gonna hang out with the Catholics or you know, the Muslims or whatever.
I what what's happening in in the Middle East is horrible, but we're not gonna mix with them.
You know what we want to do is just preach the gospel to them.
Israel's wrong and I and the Muslims are wrong. That's that's the way I look at it from the Bible
If you don't agree, then you're not reading your Bible. So in closing
I just think it's interesting how God says things up, right?
Before he sends them out and he starts giving them all this victory first of all
He says I'm not gonna give you the victory right away
But let me just sanctify you and then let me give you all these rules to follow
They were like, I don't like going to church because there's too many rules. That's God for you
You better start liking coming to church and have all the rules. You know what? I love rules
Not all the time because I'm human, but I like rules
I like that people drive on the right side of the road and that there's a speed limit so that you know
You just don't crash into anything
You know, I like going to a restaurant and not having to worry whether that guy washed his hands or not
Because there's rules like hey, you should wash your hands before you cook
Right you go to India. You ever seen those videos. Let me I'll close it
I literally have one minute you seen those videos
They make fun of them where the guy have you seen that one video where that guy sitting barefoot and
Then the food's like right there and his feet are literally next to the food
And he's grabbing it with his dirty hands and he's putting it on there
And he's grabbing the bread and the flies are flying around and he's like here you go
You know why because they have no God
Because there's no law and order
I want law and order in my life.
I want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, you know, if we could end with anything,
you have the victory, but that doesn't mean
you just get away with everything willy-nilly.
Let's close in order to prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for today.
Thank you for your blessings Lord. Thank you for just letting us go out soul winning and also for the good rain
I mean we did get drenched
But you know everything dries and we can wash it and we'll be fine
I just appreciate all the people that showed up
We had a pretty big group today, and I think even though we didn't get anybody save we made an impact Lord
And that's the most important thing. I appreciate the family that came to visit
I appreciate all those that are faithful every Sunday everybody here right now
And Lord, just help us to have a good week, sanctify us, remind us that there's rules
and laws that you want us to follow. Not to oppress us, Lord, but just to help us to stay
in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Thank you, Lord, for who you are. And thank you for the book of Exodus.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.