Series:
Exodus
Title:
Worship as God Commands Us
Text:
Exodus 8: 25-28
Date:
November 5, 2017
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
Exodus 8: 25: And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye,
sacrifice to your God in the land. 26:
And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination
of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of
the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? 27: We will go three days’ journey
into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us.
28: And Pharaoh said, I will let
you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye
shall not go very far away: intreat for me.
God uses
this warfare between Pharaoh and the Egyptians verses Moses and the children of
Israel to picture our spiritual warfare. Pharaoh—typifies
Satan under whose power God’s people are born into this world. The Egyptians and their idolatry—typifies
unregenerate religious men. Moses and
Aaron and the children of Israel—typify Christ and his preachers and his
people.
Satan is
the strong man who refuses to let God’s people go. Satan uses all his
craftiness and strength to keep his people under his power in deception. But
Christ is the one stronger than he.
Luke 11: 21:
When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: 22: But when a stronger than he shall
come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he
trusted, and divideth his spoils.
Proposition:
Christ separates his people from this world and makes us come to God through
faith in him alone worshipping as God command us.
SATAN’S DEVICES
Exodus 8: 25: And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye,
sacrifice to your God in the land....28:
And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God
in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away
Satan has
many ways of deceiving sinners. One is obvious hatred of God—first Pharaoh
violently opposed Moses. Two is imitation—Pharaoh’s magicians imitated God’s
messengers. Our text shows us a third device: compromise.
2. If
Pharaoh let them worship God while in Egypt he could keep them in bondage…if he
lengthened the chain and let them go but not very far away—a lengthened chain
is still a chain.
Satan
loves for the sinner to become religious so long as he is not separated from the
bondage of his flesh and this ungodly world so that he tries to worship God
while continuing in the enjoyment of sin or
from the bondage of false works religion so that he mingles grace and works
Brethren,
the religious world around us built on compromise. They try to pressure all men
to compromise. But we cannot compromise! I have seen newly converted believers
think they can have a positive influence over their friends if they compromise
and go with them to hear a false gospel. How
much influence would a mother have turning her daughter from prostitution by
standing on the corner turning tricks with her? The same is true of a
believer who compromises and attempts to worship among will-works religion. Hear
God:
2 Corinthians 6: 14:
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with
darkness? 15: And what concord
hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16: And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I
will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. 17:
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and
touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18: And will be a Father unto you, and
ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
God help
us to say with Paul “The world is
crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
THEY WILL STONE US
Exodus
8: 26:
And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination
of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of
the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?
In
Genesis 46:34 we are told that “every shepherd is an abomination unto the
Egyptians.” Therefore, to offer a lamb in sacrifice to God would be equally
abominable to them.
The
Sacrifice required, if we are to worship God “in spirit and in truth” is
Christ our Lord, the Lamb of God; and Christ crucified is an abomination to the
world. “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.”
Self-willed religionists hate the Lord Jesus who said, “You did not choose me, I
chose you.”
Self-exalting religionists who think they deserve to be saved hate the Lord Jesus
who said “I lay down my life for the
sheep.”
Self-justifying men hate the Christ who by himself purged the sins of his
people and was raised again for our justification, apart from any work done by
us.
Self-sanctifying men hate the Christ who Sanctifies and is our Sanctification,
apart from man’s works.
Self-working men who boast in their good works hate the God who gets all
the glory for working in us both to will and do of his good pleasure.
Self-keeping men hate the God who keeps his people by his power through
faith in Christ.
Christ is
an abomination to will-workers because Christ takes all the work out of the
sinners hand and declares all man’s best self-righteous works sin! Christ said,
John 15:22: If I had not come and spoken unto them, they
had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
Therefore,
any believer who attempts to declare Christ in truth amongst will-works
religion shall be rejected even as
Christ—“and
will they not stone us?”
John 15: [The Lord Jesus says] 19: If ye were of the
world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I
have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20: Remember
the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If
they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying,
they will keep yours also.
TRUE WORSHIP
Exodus 8: 27: We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and
sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us.
“We will
go three days’ journey into the wilderness”—true worship is to be saved
from our sin out of this ungodly world—by Christ. On the third day, Christ arose from the grave to newness of life, separating
his people in him. On the third day,
Christ was raised for our justification—declaring that he justified his people from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses or your
works. Christ saved his people from our
sins, from the curse of the law by
his precious blood as of a Lamb without spot or blemish. The will of God is to
save his people from this present
evil world.
Galatians 1: 3: Grace unto you, and peace from God the
Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might
deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our
Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
In
addition to raising us with Christ, in regeneration, God resurrects his child
to newness of life. God delivers his child from
the power of darkness and translates us into
the kingdom of his dear Son. He sanctifies us from this world to newness
of life when he resurrects us in the new birth.
Redemption
and separation from Egypt were one and the same thing. God said, "I am come down to deliver them,"
but a redemption which would have left them in Egypt, could not possibly be
God's salvation. In fact, the children of Israel never sacrificed a single note
of praise to God until redemption was fully accomplished through the blood of
the Passover Lamb and they were sanctified by God to the other side of the Red
Sea. A sinner never worships God in
spirit and in truth until Christ has accomplished our redemption as well as resurrecting
us to newness of life to faith in him in regeneration.
Then
worshipping God in newness of life, newness of spirit is going three days journey into the wilderness—leaving this Egyptian
world and its idolatry, repenting from all our former works, worshipping God in
spirit and in truth, which is all the fruit of Christ works in us by
resurrecting us from the dead.
Romans 7: 4
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body
of Christ; [by his death our old man of sin died in him] that ye should be
married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. [by Christ’s resurrection and by him resurrecting
us in regeneration we are alive spiritually and bring forth fruit by Christ our
Husband] 5: For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were
by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6: But now we are delivered from the
law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of
spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
By going
three days’ journey into the wilderness—worshipping with God’s people under his
gospel we confess before this world that we are dead to the world and alive
with Christ; we are partakers of His rejection by this world and partakers of
His acceptance in heaven and the joy of the latter makes us count the former as
nothing. By God giving us a new heart and separating his people from this
self-righteous religious world, believers bear witness to Christ which we could
never bear while connected with it.
True
worship is to “sacrifice to the LORD our
God, as he shall command us.” Sinners only truly worship God when the
Spirit of God speaks effectually into our hearts commanding we cease from our
vain way and worship as he commands us. God
commands his child that the one and only sacrifice in whom he will accept us is
Christ Jesus his darling Son.
Acts 4: 12: Neither is there salvation in any other: for
there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved.
Ephesians 5:2…[Christ alone] hath loved us, and hath
given himself for us an offering and a
sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Hebrews 9: 25:
Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into
the holy place every year with blood of others; 26 For then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Hebrews 10: 12:
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on
the right hand of God; 13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. 14: For by
one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. [whereof the
Holy Ghost bears witness in the heart he regenerates saying]…17: And their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. 18: Now where remission of these is,
there is no more offering for sin.
DO AS MOSES DID
Do not
give heed to the many different strange doctrines of men—Hebrews 13: 9 Be not carried about with divers and strange
doctrines. For it is a good
thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not
profited them that have been occupied therein.
Never compromise with this ungodly religious world
but be ye separate saith the LORD your God—Hebrews
13: 10: We
have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. 11: For the bodies of those beasts,
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are
burned without the camp. 12: Wherefore
Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered
without the gate. 13: Let us go forth
therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. 14
For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Satan would rejoice,
at any time, by any means, under any circumstances, to get even the semblance
of divine sanction for the world's religion. And if a true child of God
attempts to worship among will-workers he gives credit to the religion of the
day.
Do as
Moses and offer to God come out and offer to God the one sacrifice with which
God is pleased—his Son—Hebrews 13: 15: By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually, that is, the fruit of our
lips giving thanks to his name.
Amen!