Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: So no matter what day you worship—you worship on Monday, it’s unto the Lord. You sleep in on Tuesday, it’s unto the Lord. You go out and shovel on Wednesday, it’s unto the Lord. You come to Bible study, it’s unto the Lord. If you choose to say the most important day for me is Sunday, the first day of the week, as it is given in the scriptures, great. It’s unto the Lord. You want to worship on Saturday? We have a Saturday service. You’re more than welcome to join us. You can worship on Saturday. But the key is be fully convinced and make sure you’re doing it unto the Lord.

Guest (Male): Hey, welcome to another Abounding Grace online at aboundinggraceradio.com. Today we come back to our study of Exodus and have a peek into chapter 23. Pastor Ed Taylor will encourage us to follow the Lord closely. To do that, we’ll need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Here he is to explain.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Exodus chapter 23 is where we are. I’ve entitled our study today, Follow the Lord Closely. In order to do that, you need to keep your eyes on him, just really looking to the Lord, looking to what he desires, asking him for wisdom. Recently I had this deep prayer on my heart and just thinking, "God, I want the wisdom that you gave Solomon. I feel the weight of what you have allowed in my life and I sense the difficulty of making a decision and which way should I go: to the left or to the right?"

One thing I’ve noticed in my own life, the more years that have been added to my life—people call that getting old—the slower I am to react. When you’re younger, you’re so sure and you’ve just got it all figured out. You read a scripture so you’re going to apply it to every single situation in your life. Over the years, through much error and a few successes, the Lord has revealed to me that he's going to give me wisdom, and he's going to give it to me at just the right time.

Until he gives it to me, I've got to stay close to him. You’ve got to stay close. And so I’ve been praying that. Perhaps you’ve been praying that in your own life. For the nation here, they need the wisdom of God. They need help to understand what their future is. We read the Bible and we get all of the teaching looking backwards, which can be a disadvantage because we know the end. We know how it’s going to end. We know some of the stories already. We know what God has done.

Whenever you’re reading the Bible, please keep it at the forefront: they don’t know, just like you don’t know. The book is not written for you yet. The story of your life, the different chapters, the different volumes, it’s not written yet. You’re living your life looking to the Lord, wondering and wishing and praying and desiring and thinking and all of the real-life experiences. That’s where they’re at. They have just been miraculously delivered from hundreds of years, generations of slavery, generations of bondage.

God is laying out for them these rules. As we’ve learned in previous studies, rules in and of themselves are not bad. They define relationship, the boundaries. These are rules they’ve been given to cover their conduct, their relationship with God, to love the Lord God with all their heart, soul, and mind, and then how to love one another, how to relate to one another.

The prevailing theme we saw last time, notice in chapter 21 in verse 34, it’s important that the owner of the pit shall make it good. Remember that phrase, make it good. Again in chapter 22 in verse 13, it says if it’s torn to pieces by an animal, he shall bring it as evidence and he shall not make good what was torn. But if a man borrows anything from his neighbor and it becomes injured, the owner of it not being with it, he shall surely make it good.

Again in verse 15, he shall not make it good. The whole idea is that things would be good, fair, and right. These were given for protection and also for peace. When you and I know the boundaries and we live within the boundaries, there’s peace. We just know where we are and where we belong and the place of safety. God wanted his nation to thrive and enjoy life. They weren’t used to the freedom.

In order to reign in the freedom, what they were used to was being oppressed and taking advantage of each other and trying to just make it through a day and make it through a moment. It didn’t matter if you were my blood. It didn’t matter if you were my relative. I just needed to make it through. He wanted them to enjoy this freedom. Now, it is easy before we jump into the text to get bogged down with the law, to get bogged down with all of the different insights.

It’s often in this general area—and it’s so perfect timing for this—because it’s often in this area of the Bible that if you choose to read through the Bible in a year, this is the time where people drop off. Right now, if you’re following our plan, you’re in Leviticus. It would just be really easy to say, "I don’t know, I’ll just catch up somewhere else." On the app, it says "catch me up," I think. I'll just click that after a month. But the law is important.

God has a purpose. You ask, "What does this have to do with me today?" That’s where the Bible teaching comes in. While I may not be able to explain every single point and there may be some things I’m still figuring out, there’s a lot that I can share. There’s a lot that I can give, inspired by God as I’m studying and preparing for you. It’s interesting, someone put it this way: as you’re reading through the scriptures, somebody counted throughout the Bible and came up with 365 negative laws, laws in the negative, and 248 laws in the positive.

So that when you start in the Psalms, in Psalm 15, there are basically 15 principal commands that sum up the law, the law of Moses. Then you move forward a little bit in the Bible, you come to Isaiah 33, summarized in just six. Then you move a little further in the Bible, in Micah chapter 6 verse 8, there’s just three. Micah 6 says this: "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you? To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

If that’s all you had, you would be walking within the boundaries of the Lord. Then you fast forward, as we learned recently as we opened up Galatians, when we come to Habakkuk, it’s just one: the just shall live by faith. You live by faith, the Lord will lead you. And so it seems the closer and closer you get to Jesus, the old covenant seems to be fading away. We’re going to learn that it’s just a tutor. It has a purpose.

It’s holy, right, and good, Romans says. Romans chapter 7 verse 12 says, "Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good." If it was just for that point alone, it would be worth reading through Leviticus and going through the challenging reading because you get to a few genealogies and you’re just like, "What do all these names matter?" I’ll tell you how they matter: if your name was in the Bible, you’d read it.

If you knew, "I’m on page 1665 and there I am, there’s my name right there." But we learn in genealogies, not only is God wanting to be careful to reveal to us the lineage of Messiah, very important, but also to see that throughout all of history and the billions of people he's related to, he knows you one by one by name. You’re important and your family’s important and your generations are important. They’re all valuable before God.

The just shall live by faith. So today in chapter 23, the first few verses speak about social love, the Sabbath, all expanding, remember, on the Ten Commandments. Verse one: "You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness." So let me summarize that one for you: don’t sin with your mouth. Tell the truth. Be honest. Be truthful. Be trustworthy.

In James chapter 1 and verse 19, it says, "So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God." It makes sense. Use your mouth in a truthful way and be slow to speak. Give time for the Holy Spirit to lead. Verse two: "You shall not follow a crowd to do evil." Can I get an amen on that? This is super important here, simple stuff.

But it's also a part of the original law given, the Mosaic Law given to the children of Israel. Do not follow a crowd to do evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. This is very relevant to us today. The Bible would say in another place, evil company corrupts good habits. But very important in a society that we have been raised, whether you realize it or not, to make decisions based on the majority.

Now, you may not always be kind of a contrarian and you find out the majority and you're always going to go against that. But generally, there is great comfort when you are with the majority. That’s why a lot of people make incorrect decisions because the majority is making an incorrect decision and there’s a place of safety. But God says right after he says be truthful, he says watch out for the crowds. Watch out for the many. Watch out for what’s popular.

From an early age, it’s ingrained in us that the majority rules and since everyone agrees, it must be right. But we know that’s not to be the case. Truth is outside of numbers. What I mean by that is it doesn’t matter minority or majority, the truth stands on its own. Whether you agree with it or not, whether I agree with it or not, the truth doesn’t need our agreement. It exists.

And if truth exists, then you and I have a choice to agree with it or disagree with it. But it doesn’t need our approval. It is truth in and of itself, self-evident. Now, it is true it's easier to follow the crowd than to resist. Peer pressure is incredibly powerful. Not just for kids, though. You think of peer pressure, you think of kids on the playground, you think of kids in the neighborhood. It’s not just for kids.

There’s a whole source of pressure among us as adults. God just says here: here's the answer. We don’t need to go deep on it. We don’t need to sit down for counseling. Just don’t follow a crowd to do evil. Don’t do it. Don’t go with those that are going to sin. You’ll see later on in Exodus 32, just a few chapters later, everyone that assents to this law will then be making a golden calf and start worshipping it because of the crowd, because it was the popular thing to do.

Notice in verse three now, "You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute." Again, the theme of fairness, honesty. "If you meet an enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again." Now think about this. You were taught something as a kid. You probably still say it at least once a year. If you know it, finish it with me. Ready? Finders keepers, losers weepers.

If you find your enemy’s ox, you’re supposed to give it back. That’s what the Bible says. Of course, there’s always Christians like, "Well, I haven’t found an ox lately." Apply it. It’s not finders keepers, losers weepers. The more you read the Bible, the more you allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you, the more that you find and that I have found that I have held to beliefs that are not consistent with the heart of God.

I have held to beliefs that don’t please God. This is one of them. Everybody that spoke up, you know. What a feeling it is to find something. But then the next thought should be: who does this belong to? I want to give it back. That’s what the Bible says here. Notice in verse five, "If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it."

"You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute." Social standing, rich or poor, like or dislike, shouldn’t change justice. Leniency should be shown because a person is hurting. Special treatment shouldn’t be given to one who’s rich. Justice must be fair across the board. Even to the one that’s your enemy, you have an obligation in the Lord to help them.

Notice verse seven: "Keep yourself far from a false matter. Do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not justify the wicked. And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous. Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt." So stay out of issues you know to be wrong.

Don't take bribes. Don't get paid off. Why? Because you will not be honest and fair in your judgments. You will lean toward the person that bribed you. Be kind to strangers. The stranger, the person that’s different than you, the one that’s not from around these parts, be good to them. Why? Because you know what it’s like. You remember, he tells them, you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

In Hebrews, we learn in chapter 13 verse 2: "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for in so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels." Then he says, "Remember prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated since you yourselves are in the body also." I just learned today, we received a voicemail looking for a Bible study to be forwarded. It was a mom. A mom called in, left a voicemail in our media department asking for a Bible study to be forwarded to her.

It was a mom of a prisoner headed to go visit her son in prison down south. So it was shared with me because we’re still knocking on doors to see if God will open, get a station down there for all the prisons. It just keeps coming up and we keep knocking. We’ll see what the Lord has. But it was interesting because I was thinking, "How do you think that mom feels visiting her son in prison?"

That’s no ordinary prisoner. That’s no ordinary person. That’s her boy. All the hopes and dreams and love and care that she has for her boy. What does the Bible say? Remember the prisoners like you’re with them. Or I would even add this illustration, as this mom is like, "You know what? I want to bring the word of God to my boy in jail." Remember them like you’re their mother or their father or their brother.

That’s what he’s telling the nation. Be merciful and kind and fair. It’s not all about you. It never has been. Don’t forget, even though we’re just days from the deliverance in Egypt, don’t you ever forget Egypt. You don’t have to live there and you don’t have to condemn yourself and you don’t have to beat yourself up. That’s not what he’s saying.

But he says, "Remember what I delivered you from because it will burst forth in your heart a place of worship and you’ll remember the suffering as well." You’ll remember people that are maybe a few steps behind or a few years behind or a few thoughts behind or a few decisions behind where you are. Don’t forget, because you were strangers. Use your testimony as a way to remember what God has done in your life.

Notice verse 10: "Six years you shall sow your land and gather its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner, you shall do with your vineyard and with your olive grove. Six days you shall do work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and that the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed. And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth."

Six and one, that’s the pattern. Six and one. So even with your land, give it rest. With your animals, give them rest. With those that work with you, the strangers, let them be refreshed. Now you’ll notice throughout the Bible as we’ll study through that there are many Sabbaths, many Sabbaths. The Sabbath day gave a man a day of rest every week, and now the land gets it.

The animals get it. Farmers will tell you that it’s good to rest the land and to give it a rest before you till it again and plant again. There was the Sabbath day, there was the Sabbath year, and then we learn in Leviticus there’s the Jubilee year. There was the Year of Jubilee where possessions were returned and slaves were set free and there was great rejoicing. We’re not going to cover it in depth today.

But remember, there are those that would come alongside of you and try to impose upon you the Sabbath as the way of the only day that you can worship God. I’ve taught this in much depth. You can go on the website or on the app and just put the word Sabbath in. I’ve taught in depth on this. This is not an obligation when you run into folks that will condemn you for what day you worship.

To some degree, they may condemn you for worshipping on Sunday and say that you’re worshipping the mark of the beast. It’s not true. You don’t need to be afraid or you don’t need to be stumbled by that, although it probably is a little intimidating when some stranger comes up, "What day do you worship?" "I worship on Sunday." "You’re worshipping the mark of the beast!" I’m like, "Bro, I’m just trying to get my French fries. I don’t know what you are doing. Why are you sharing this?"

So I’ve done a Bible study in depth if that’s a question. But if in-depth is not what you need, let me give you two verses if that’s all that will settle your heart tonight on this topic. Romans chapter 14, let’s turn there. Romans chapter 14, notice with me verse five. You might want to mark it and circle it, maybe even write in the margin there "Sabbath," just so you can automatically remind you.

Verse five of chapter 14: "One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks." Why?

Verse seven: "For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord." So no matter what day you worship: you worship on Monday, it’s unto the Lord. You sleep in on Tuesday, it’s unto the Lord. You go out and shovel on Wednesday—oh, that was today, wasn't it? You go out and shovel today, it's unto the Lord. You come to Bible study, it's unto the Lord.

If you choose to say, "Hey, the most important day for me is Sunday, the first day of the week," as it is given in the scriptures, great. It’s unto the Lord. You want to worship on Saturday? We have a Saturday service. You’re more than welcome to join us. You can worship on Saturday. But the key is be fully convinced and make sure you’re doing it unto the Lord.

Guest (Male): Today on Abounding Grace, we’ve listened in to a portion of Pastor Ed Taylor’s study in Exodus. If you joined us late or would just like to give this a second listen, go online to aboundinggraceradio.com or listen to Abounding Grace wherever you get your podcasts and at oneplace.com.

By the way, have you had a chance to download our app? This is another great way to take in the teaching of God’s word. Download it for free today by searching for Ed Taylor. Well, we enjoy hearing from our listeners, even just a quick hello telling us the station you listen to means a lot.

Maybe you don’t realize it, but Pastor Ed reads these. Let us know how we can pray for you too. You can email us through the website at aboundinggraceradio.com. And please remember, Abounding Grace is made possible through the support of our listeners. We look to the Lord to guide and provide, and when you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you’re invited to request a copy of "Anger is a Choice" by Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips.

This is a must-read for anyone who struggles with anger or is dealing with someone who does. You’ll come to understand where anger comes from, how it does or doesn’t show up, and what you can do about it. You’ll go through an anger inventory and other helpful exercises that offer healing for damaged relationships.

To order a copy today, call 877-30-GRACE. That’s 877-30-GRACE. Ordering resources like this is also super easy through our online store. Check it out at calvaryco.store. And be sure to join Pastor Ed Taylor next time for more teaching from the book of Exodus. That’s right here on Abounding Grace. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.