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First
of all, I’d like to say good morning and welcome.
It is certainly good to have everybody with us this morning.
If you’d be opening up to Exodus Chapter 24.
That is where we’re going to begin this lesson, Exodus Chapter 24.
I did want to say that we do have several visitors with us this morning.
That is always good to see. I
know, with the holidays, there are many who are traveling, and so we welcome you
here and invite you back at any opportunity.
We also have some of our own who are not here, because they are
traveling, and so let’s continue to keep everybody in our prayers, that their
travels will be safe.
With
the end of the year upon us, we are about to entire into the year 2002, and in
many ways, that is hard to believe. But
it is at this time of year that many people begin making their New Year
resolutions. Now, I do think it is
important for us to set goals for ourselves, and then we should challenge
ourselves to reach those goals. And
then once we obtain those goals, we make new goals and we challenge ourselves to
reach them. But perhaps there are
some things that there are folks that want to change, and maybe there are some
things that they want to improve upon and some things that, perhaps even, they
want to correct. And so some are
formulating their New Year’s resolutions.
However,
the bad thing about the New Year’s resolutions is that oftentimes, they
don’t make it very far into the new year.
By March and April, many who have made those resolutions, they have
completely forgotten them. And so
when it comes down to it, we certainly are creatures of habit.
Oh, we can develop good habits, and we can also develop a poor habit.
But once something becomes a habit, it is hard to change.
Once we get our habits established, we then find ourselves in a routine,
and our routines also are hard to change. If,
perhaps, we want to add something to our routine, sometimes we have a difficult
time doing that. If we want to
change our routine and leave something out of our routine, we also can have a
hard time doing that, because that routine is our habit, and it is hard to
change.
But
this morning, the reason I am giving this particular lesson, the purpose of this
lesson, is to put forth a particular challenge.
Because there is something that we should have as a part of our routine,
something that should be a habit that we have developed, and it is a good habit.
Now, there are some here this morning that I am certain already have this
as a good habit in their life and as part of their routine.
Perhaps there are some here who need to have this as more of a part, a
larger part of their routine, and perhaps there are some here who, at this
point, do not have this in their routine, this is not a habit that they have
developed yet. And so I’m putting
forth the challenge that we create or maintain as a habit and a part of our
routine, the regular reading of the scriptures, that we develop a habit of
opening our Bibles and reading God’s word.
In
Exodus Chapter 24, I want to begin reading in verse 3.
It says, “And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord,
and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All
the words which the Lord hath said will we do.”
What
a wonderful attitude to have towards the commandments of God.
Saying we will listen to those commandments and we will do those
commandments.
In
verse 4, “And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the
morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to
the twelve tribes of
Israel
.
“(5)
And he sent young men of the children of
Israel
, which offered burnt
offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord.
“(6)
And Moses took half of the blood, and put it
in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
“(7)
And he took the book of the covenant” — and what did he do(?) —
“and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath
said will we do, and be obedient.”
And
so again, we see the same attitude... and the attitude that we should have also
when we read God’s word, that we should have the attitude that, as we read
God’s word and learn more of what God expects of us and commands of us, that
we will do those things.
If
you turn to the book of Deuteronomy Chapter 6, we’ll begin reading in verse 1.
“Now
these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the
Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
“(2)
That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his
commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all
the days of thy life; ...that thy days may be prolonged.
“(3)
Here therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it;
that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord
God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and
honey.”
Here
we see the word ‘here’ being used, and now today we are extremely fortunate —
and I’m afraid we take this for granted many times — that we have the
completed written scriptures at our fingertips.
The folks in this day and age when Moses was giving that word, did not
have that luxury. And so they were
to hear the word.
We could substitute the word read
the word.
But
notice in verse 4, “Here, O Israel: the Lord our God is
one Lord:
“(5)
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy might.
“(6)
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.
“(7)
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them
when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when
thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
And
so we see that God’s word was to be heard, and today, it is to be read.
And we see, throughout the scriptures, that God has always wanted His
commandments to be heard and to be read.
And
we see here that the word of God is not to be kept within ourselves, but it is
to be shared with others and we are to teach it within our own homes.
And we are to teach our children diligently.
Here is a question, then, that I want to pose to you.
How are we to teach God’s word if we first don’t learn about it
ourselves, and how do we expect to learn about God’s word if we do not read
God’s word? So please, make it a
habit, put it in its place as part of your routine, the time necessary to read
God’s word.
In
Deuteronomy 31 — if you’ll turn over there, please, Deuteronomy Chapter
31 — we find that Moses knows that the time is now coming in which the
children of Israel will go into the promised land.
Moses knows, however, though, that he will not be crossing the
Jordan River
with the people, he
would not enter into the promised land. And
so he gives them words of comfort and words of encouragement — to the
people as a whole and, in particular, to Joshua, because Joshua now will be the
one to take the lead of the people.
You’ll
notice in Deuteronomy 31, in verse 7, “And Moses called unto Joshua, and said
unto him in the sight of all
Israel
, Be strong and of a
good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord
hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit
it.
“(8)
And the Lord, he it is that doth go
before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee:
fear not, neither be dismayed.”
So
again, words of encouragement from Moses to Joshua.
“(9)
And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi,
which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of
Israel
.
“(10)
And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every
seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of
tabernacles,
“(11)
When all
Israel
is come to appear
before the Lord thy God in the place [that] he shall choose” — what was
it that they were to do? — “thou shalt read this law before all
Israel
in their hearing.”
“(12)
Gather the people together....” Well,
which people? All
of the people. Notice, he goes on to
say, “...men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy
gates....”
The
men, the women, the children, those who are strangers in the land were to be
gathered together. This was to
include everybody, that they were to be gathered together.
And what was to take place? The
reading of God’s law.
You’ll
notice, then, verse 13, that their children — well, let’s back up and
read verse 12.
“(12)
Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that
is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the
Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law”
“(13)
And that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as
ye live in the land whither ye go over
Jordan
to possess it.”
Now,
notice in these verses, that there is a process that is indicated.
First of all, that they were to hear the word of God.
As they heard the word of God as it was read, they would learn, and as
they learned, they would fear God and observe to do all the words of His law.
Notice that, they needed to read or hear God’s word.
When they did that, they would learn.
And
today, as we read God’s word, we will learn.
There is no doubt about it. Now,
there are those who look at God’s word and say, “I read it, but I just
don’t understand it.” And yes,
in a casual reading of God’s word, there are some things that we will not
recognize and things that we will not notice.
But there are those things that we will.
And just in the casual reading of God’s word, we will learn.
But
if we want more in-depth knowledge, more in-depth understanding, then along with
our reading, we’re also going to have to do some studying. But the fact of the
matter remains: we will learn. So we
need to read God’s word so we can learn more about God and His will for us.
And as we do that and we understand more about God, we will fear God.
That doesn’t mean that we cowardly hide and are afraid.
That word ‘fear’ means that we will develop respect and reverence and
awe toward God. In the reading of
His word, as we learn, we grow in respect for God and have more reverence for
Him. And as a result of that, the
process continues; we will then be better motivated to serve God and do all that
He has commanded.
You’ll
notice, that process begins early in our lives (verse 13).
It mentions, specifically, the children: at one point, didn’t know
anything, but they can learn. That
shows us and gives us a wonderful example and teaches a wonderful point, that
the process of learning about God’s word is to begin early in our life.
And we, as parents, have the responsibility, to see that that process
begins, that we are to teach our children diligently, meaning that we put forth
an effort so that they may learn and the process can begin in their life at an
early stage.
If
we go to Joshua Chapter 1, let’s notice God’s instructions to Joshua.
Joshua Chapter 1. I want to
begin reading in verse 7.
“(7)
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do
according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from
it to the right hand or to
the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
“(8)
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate
therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is
written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous....”
So
again, Joshua was to turn to God’s word, he was to learn God’s word and he
was obey God’s word. He was to
observe, to do those things that were contained in God’s instructions.
How could he observe those things if he first didn’t learn those
things? How could he learn those
things if he did not read or hear those things.
The
question remains the same for us. God
wants us to obey Him and we should want to obey God.
So in order to observe the things that God wants us to do, we need to
have respect for God, and that’s going to grow as we learn of Him.
And if we’re going to obey Him, we need to learn how it is that we need
to obey Him. How are we going to
learn those things if we first don’t read His word.
So
please, let’s develop the habit, a very, very good habit, of reading God’s
word. We find, throughout the
scriptures, that when God’s people failed to read His word and they strayed
away from His word, then they also strayed away from God.
When they separated themselves from God’s word, they then separated
themselves from God, because they stopped the process of learning.
And they lacked the motivation to do that which was right, and therefore,
they turned into sin and God was left out of their lives.
Actually, what happened is they left God out of their lives, and the
results were never good.
If
you’d turn to II Kings Chapter 22, we find an example of how good things then
happen when people turn to God’s word, and we see an occasion of both here.
This was at a time in which Josiah was king.
And we looked at this passage some time ago in our lesson on the need for
a restoration in this country and in this world today.
We talked about the fact, in that lesson, that restoration is not a new
concept, but it is something that has happened on a number of occasions and
dates back many, many years.
One
such example is here, with King Josiah in II Kings Chapter 22. We find that the
people had strayed away from God, and we find that the temple was in need of
repair. And so King Josiah orders
that the temple be refurbished. And notice in verse 8, “And Hilkiah the high
priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the
house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave
the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
“(9)
And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and
said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have
delievered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of
the house of the Lord.
“(10)
And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath
delivered me a book. And Shaphan
read it before the king.
“(11)
And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law,
that he rent his clothes.”
It
had an impact upon the king. But
we’ll find that this book of the law had been left alone, had been discarded,
left in the ruins of the temple to the point that the people didn’t even know
that it was there. And so they had
strayed away from the reading of God’s word and, as a result, had strayed away
from obedience to God.
Notice
in verse 13, “ Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for
all
Judah
, concerning the words
of this book that is found: for great is” —
notice this — “for great is
the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not
hearkened unto the words of this book....”
Because
they had turned away from the words of the book and didn’t obey them, they
were subject to the wrath of God. Now
notice that he said that they were to — concerning the words of this
book, regarding the words of this book — “...to do” — notice
how that ends, verse 13 — “...to do according unto all that which is
written concerning us.” And so the
king realized that the words contained warnings about the situation of failing
to obey God.
Notice,
then, what happened, in Chapter 23, verse 2.
“And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of
Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the
prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears” —
notice that — “he read God’s instructions — “and he read in
their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the
house of the Lord.
“(3)
And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk
after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his
statutes with all their heart and all their
soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this
book....”
And
we know that the instructions of God were that we are to love God with all our
soul, with all our might. And the
king said, That’s what we need to do. And
so they read the word, they learned, and we see that the reverence to God was
growing and they were motivated to follow the plans of God.
And notice how verse 3 ends, “And all the people stood to the
covenant.”
And
so we find good occasion here in this account in which the people turned back to
God, and they stayed that way for a little bit.
But unfortunately, once again, they repeated the process and turned away
from God’s word and turned away from God.
Now,
then, let’s direct our minds to the New Testament.
And notice, in the teachings of Jesus, as he went about, there was a
question he asked on several occasions. Let’s
turn to Mark Chapter 2 — Mark Chapter 2 — and notice in verse 23,
“And it came to pass, that he went through” — ‘he’ referring to
Jesus — “he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his
disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.
“(24)
And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that
which is not lawful?
“(25)
And he said unto them, Have ye” — now, notice this question—“Have
ye never” — done what? — “Have ye never read
what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were
with him?
“(26)
How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and
did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave
also to them which were with him?
“(27)
And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
“(28)
Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”
Jesus
brings to their memory the account of David when he went into the temple and ate
the shewbread. And he uses that as
an example to show that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
In other words, man ranks above the sabbath.
And so if a person is in need on the sabbath day, they have a right to
get food for themselves. And
that’s what was taking place and the reason that Jesus and his disciples were
called into question. But again, the
point here is to notice what he says — or what he asks.
“Have ye never read....”
If
you go to Matthew Chapter 21 — Matthew 21 — following the parable
of the wicked husbandman. Remember,
there was a person who had a vineyard and he left and left some husbandman to
take care of that vineyard. When the
man sent servants to the husbandman, they abused those servants.
Notice in verse 35, “...the husbandman took his servants, and beat one,
and killed another, and stoned another.” And
that process continued. Eventually,
the man sent his son, thinking that surely they won’t do anything to the son.
But of course, we know that it was done otherwise: they killed the son
also. Now, listen to verse 41 —
well, actually, let’s begin in verse 40.
“(40)
When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those
husbandmen?
“(41)
They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the
fruits in their seasons.”
Now,
of course, Jesus was giving this to teach that God has sent forth his messengers —
included in that, the prophets — and that the people had rejected those
prophets, had abused those prophets, even killed those prophets.
Now it is at the point where God had sent His son, and what were they
going to do to the son? They were
going to kill the son also. Notice
in verse 42,
“(42)
Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read” —
here’s that same question — “Did ye never read in the scriptures, The
stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner:
this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
“(43)
Therefore say I unto you, The
kingdom
of
God
shall be taken from
you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
“(44)
And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it
shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”
And
the chief priests and the Pharisees are upset here, because they realize now
that Jesus is directing this toward them, and they seek to kill Jesus.
But notice here the question, “Did ye never read....”
In other words, Jesus is saying, Don’t
you understand, in having read the scriptures, if you would read the scriptures
and focus on the scriptures, you would have better recognition of the things
that are happening, because these things that are happening are the very things
the scriptures have spoken about. But
see, they didn’t have that recognition, because they were not focused upon the
things that were happening, truly. They
were, instead, focused upon themselves, the position that they held among
mankind, the fact that they liked the glory of men, being exalted by men.
And Jesus threatened that, and they didn’t like it.
Now,
earlier in this chapter, in verse 12, we find that Jesus goes into the temple
and casts out those that were using the temple as a place of business.
And he says, in verse 13, “...It is written, My house shall be called
the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
“(14)
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.
“(15)
And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and
the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they
were sore displeased,
“(16)
And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say?
And Jesus saith unto them” — and guess what question he is about
to ask them — “Yea; have ye never read,
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?”
And
again, these were things they should have recognized based upon the reading of
the scriptures. Well, the same holds
true today: there are things that we should recognize because we have read, and
are reading, the scriptures. We
should be able to recognize those things that are right and those things that
are wrong, those things that are in accordance with God’s word and those
things that are not, and then be able to know what it is that we are to do, how
we are to live, how we are to be obedient to God, the manner in which we are to
come together and worship God, how we are to know to worship him in spirit and
in truth. And then to serve Him in
obedience. I’m afraid that there
are many people that will stand on the judgment day, and Jesus will be able to
ask them the exact same question. Have
you not read.... Did you not read.... In order to learn, in order to fear God,
in order to keep his commandments?
Jesus,
in Matthew Chapter 7, in verse 21, said, “Not every one that saith unto me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will
of my Father which is in heaven.” And
hopefully, each and every one of us have the desire to do the will of the
Father. But how are we going to know
how to do that? Well, we must read
the word so that we can learn God’s word, so that we will grow in our
reverence to God and be better motivated to follow His commandments.
So that we can stand on the day of judgment, being obedient in our lives
and having the grace and the mercy of God and being invited into a home in
heaven, rather than Jesus being able to look us right in the eyes and ask, Have
you not read....
Jesus,
in John Chapter 5, in verse 39, simply said, “Search the scriptures....”
Are you searching the scriptures? The
challenge set forth this morning is a simple one, that we read God’s word,
that we develop that as a habit and that we have it as a part of our routine.
And within families, God’s word needs to be read together.
There’s a saying that says, “If families pray together, they stay
together.” And to some extent,
that is true; it certainly does help. But
I take that a step further and say, “People that read God’s word together
and pray together, stay together.” It
certainly does help.
But
in order to develop a habit, it is something that we need to do regularly for
some time. At first, it will not be
a habit, but it will develop into such. And
so with the challenge this morning, I hope that you will set aside a set time,
that you will pick and consciously decide, that from this time to this time,
from a beginning point and an ending point — and there needs to be both
in the time that you’re designating — that that is the time that you
will set apart, daily, for the reading of God’s word.
Now, you may adjust that time as you go, and I will tell you, as you read
God’s more, the ending time will surpass that on a number of occasions.
And that’s wonderful. But
you do need to have that set time and you do need to set it apart for the
reading and studying of God’s word. As
you do that, you will learn.
On
contrast
(phonetic) in the scriptures, and in Jeremiah Chapter 6, we find
that King Jehoiakim is sent a message by Jeremiah.
And when he receives this scroll that the words are written upon, he does
not like that message and he takes that scroll and he discards it, throwing it
in the fire. Please, don’t be like
that. When we read God’s word, we
need to understand that there may be times when we come across something that
doesn’t quite match our lives, and perhaps we realize something that we
hadn’t realized before. Don’t
discard the message of God’s word, but conform our lives to fit His word.
We
also find in Acts Chapter 8, the Ethiopian eunuch traveling down the road.
He didn’t understand, initially, what he was reading.
Philip helped him. And when
he understood God’s word, he did not discard it at all, but instead, he
responded to it immediately.
That’s
what we need to do. We need to know
what it is to do the will of God, and the will of God, according to I Timothy 2
verses 3 and 4, is that we be saved and come into the knowledge of the truth.
That is an ongoing process that never stops.
But
the question this morning is, have you responded to God’s word so that you are
considered ‘saved’? We find, in
God’s word, the steps that are revealed, and we need to learn those steps and
we need to obey those steps: that we
are to believe in Jesus as the son of God, John Chapter 3:16.
“For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
We
need to have the willingness to confess that belief.
That’s what we are told in Romans 10:9.
As Jesus said in Matthew
10:32
— paraphrasing here — he said that if
we confess him before men, he’ll confess us before the Father in heaven.
We
are to repent of our sins, as Jesus said in Luke 13:3.
Using some as an example, he said, if
ye don’t repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
The message that he went out preaching, Matthew
4:17
, “...Repent: for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand,” meaning that we make the necessary changes in
our lives to conform to God’s instructions.
The
first word that Peter said, in Acts
2:38
, when he was asked, “...[W]hat shall we do to be
saved? he said, “...Repent....”
and then he went on to say, “and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins....”
Galatians
3:26 through 29, tell us that we are baptized into Christ, that we put on
Christ, and at that point, that we become the children of God.
We then have an inheritance that awaits us, and that inheritance is what
is promised to us, eternal life in heaven with Him.
As
Ananias when he came to him, he said, “...[W]hy tarriest thou” — in
Acts
22:16
, he said —
“...[W]hy tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash[ing] away thy
sins....” It is only through the blood of Christ, thanks to His sacrifice,
that our sins are washed away.
But
then we are to continue to learn of God’s word and live accordingly.
Perhaps you’ve gone through those steps of obedience to the gospel, but
you haven’t been reading God’s word, and maybe because of that, you’ve
allowed sin back into your life. You
can take care of that; God provides the avenue.
That if we will confess our sins and pray to Him and ask forgiveness, He
will forgive us of those sins. In I
John Chapter 1, verses 7 through 9, we’re told that the blood of Christ
continues to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Please,
make the reading of God’s word a habit, a very good habit, and learn of
God’s word and obey God’s word.
If
you are not an obedient Christian at this very moment, we urge you to change
that, encourage you to do so, by coming as we stand and sing.
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