In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: We've come that far. We’ll pray and get into it. I want to get through Chapter 19 tonight, and I hope to get through most of Chapter 20. We’ll see how it goes. We have interesting things before us this evening, so let’s pray and dive in.

This has been a strange night. It just seems like everything is out of balance. We had poor Bill up here, and he just face-planted during practice, just went out. That was kind of odd. We were hoping it was in the spirit, but we found out it was in the flesh, and he just went out. So, just be praying for him. They’re taking him now. Tracy finished worship, and I’ve asked them, as stubborn as men can be, to go to the doctor to see what was going on. We don’t know. He may just take him home.

Father, we thank You tonight for Your Word. We’re going to get into it tonight. Chapter 19 is a lamentation, it’s a funeral dirge. There’s a reason for that. It’s You mourning over the failure of Israel for a distinct purpose. We’ll see that. Then as we move into Chapter 20, Father, we’re going to see that sometimes we can be so dense as Your people. We can think that we can seek Your counsel at the same time we’re serving idols and think that You’re going to hear an answer.

Chapter 20 just reminds us that when we approach You, when we come before You, when we seek You and seek Your wisdom, we have to do it with our whole heart, not half-heartedly. We can’t do it with rival thrones in our hearts. It has to be, as it were, all or nothing. I want You to know tonight that for me, at this stage of my life, it is all. It’s either Your presence is with me every moment of the day or just take me home. It’s got to be that kind of a deal. So, Lord, just speak to us tonight as we study out these two chapters, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

When we come to Chapter 19, we’re still in that section from Chapter 12 to Chapter 24 where God is giving reasons—as though He needs to be that way, but He’s a reasonable God. He tells us that in Isaiah Chapter 1, "Come let us reason together." So He’s laying out His reasons, and He’s justifying, in giving out these reasons, the necessity of disciplining His kids. Sometimes we need to be disciplined. Amen?

God only disciplines those He loves, and He only disciplines those who are His. Discipline is not punishment. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: you’re not being punished, you’re being corrected. There’s a difference. The moment that you repent, the correction has done its job and it’s over. God stops right then because the thing that He was trying to do has been accomplished.

Now, that doesn’t say that consequences don’t keep coming. I was talking to a guy the other day about this. I said, "If you had a bad day and let’s say you just lost it and you went out on the way home and you bought a fifth of Jack Daniel's and you got drunk and you wrecked your car and you rolled it, and you cut your arm off. The next day when you woke up in the hospital, you could say, 'Father, that was stupid. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m asking You to forgive me. That was just wrong in every way and every fashion and form.'" God would forgive you immediately. Forgiveness is quick. But you’re going to live the rest of your life without an arm.

So there are consequences that follow our behavior that are just consequences. Once you repent, it’s over with, but there can be some consequences to our stupidity. Amen?

As we come now to Chapter 19, it’s written in a Hebraic form that is like a funeral dirge. It actually has a rhythm to it. We won’t see it in the English, but it has that music you hear when something is about to happen. Well, it’s written in a rhythmic form like this, and it’s a lamentation, which is a woe. God is pronouncing a woe in Chapter 19.

The lamentation is for a purpose. God’s plan for the nation of Israel was to be His people. You can read it all the way through the Old Testament. His plan as He called Abram out of the Ur of the Chaldees and entered into the Abrahamic Covenant with him was that God would bless him despite him. He called him as an idol-worshipping pagan out of the Ur of the Chaldees, and then He fills him with the Spirit. When the 'H' is added to his name and to his wife Sarah’s name, it’s the sound of breath in the Hebrew. It’s the Ruach, the breath of God. So it’s not Abram, it’s Abraham. When you hear the Jewish people talk and they’re speaking ancient Hebrew, it’s almost like they’re trying to cough something up. That’s what it is; it’s the sound of breath.

God made a promise to bring life to Abraham, and not just life to Abraham. The nation of Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, a light to the nations. Just like in the New Testament, the church is to be a light to this world. In fact, Jesus called us that. He said, "You are the light of the world. You’re the salt of the earth. You are what keeps this world from absolute putrefaction. You have that antiseptic effect." As you shine, as you hold forth this word of life, the truth, you dispel darkness. That’s your purpose as the church: to go out into all of this world. As Jesus is leaving, the final instruction, that final commandment, imperative, is "You go out into all the world and you preach this gospel to every living creature. And then when they get saved, you clean the fish that you catch, you disciple them. And lo, I’m with you always to the end of the earth."

The purpose of Israel in the Old Testament was to be a light to the nations, but they sinned worse than the nations around them. They were sinning in light. There were things that they were practicing that even the heathen were looking at them saying, "What are you thinking? People don’t behave that way."

Because you failed to be what I called you to be, what I purposed you to be, there are going to be some consequences. From this point on, the Davidic Covenant, as it were, the line of the kings from David on down to the Messiah, is going to cease. This is what Chapter 19 is about. It’s about three of the princes, the last three kings of Judah. He doesn’t call them kings; he calls them princes because they were corrupt to the core. At this time, the nation of Israel, under the last of these kings—this is what Chapter 19 is about—will see the destruction of Jerusalem.

From that moment on, when you study through the history of Israel, they were subservient to the Gentiles through the rest of their existence until the last days when the root of David, the offspring of David, will come. He will rule from Jerusalem from the throne of David, which is the Messiah. After this event, the Babylonians dominated Israel. After the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians dominated them. After the Medo-Persians, the Greeks dominated them, and then finally the Romans. Finally, during the Roman time, after they crucified Jesus, they were cast to the wind.

But there’s a promise as we walk our way through this. Although you’re unfaithful, God is saying, "I’m going to remain faithful. Because I raised my hand, because I could swear by no other, and I made an oath. In fact, I made an oath that you are going to be My people whether you like it or not. I’m going to do what it takes to get you to the place you need to be."

That’s why I want to get through Chapter 20, because Chapter 19 is a funeral dirge, it’s a lamentation. It’s God saying there are going to be consequences, and part of the consequence moving forward is like what Daniel saw in that vision when he sees in Chapter 2 and then in Chapter 7 the statue of these kingdoms: the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, the Roman. At this time, the nations are going to dominate Israel when they should have dominated the nations. It will be a consequence.

But God’s not going to leave them in that condition. The Messiah will come. Israel is being raised to the fore now. That’s how we know we’re living in the last days because there’s a promise. In the last days, "I’ll put a new heart in you." He’s speaking of Israel. Aren't you glad that Israel rejected so that we could be grafted in? But He said there’s a day coming. That’s why we know the church is winding down, because the church and Israel are mutually exclusive. They are two different covenants. You’ve got to understand that. You cannot apply the prophecies that are given to Israel to the church or the church to Israel, or you get really confused in your eschatology. You have the church going through the tribulation if you mix them up.

Both are called saints. But Jesus, at the Last Supper, took the third cup and said, "A new covenant I make with you." We’re living under the Covenant of Grace. We’re the church. We’re the Bride of Christ. Israel is the wife of God. Both are God’s people. They are two different covenants. Both have the same purpose. Israel was to be a light to the nations in the Old Testament; we’re to be a light to the world in the New Testament. Still the purpose, but different covenants.

Because of Israel’s disobedience, there won’t be a king any longer in Israel that will have the reign over Israel. They’re going to be subservient to the Gentiles as part of the consequence. So what He says is, "Moreover, take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel." Notice He doesn’t call them kings. The last king, as far as God is concerned, of Judah—Israel has already gone into captivity, the ten northern tribes, under the Assyrians. The two southern tribes are now in the process of going into captivity, as it were, into Babylon.

Josiah was the last righteous king that God recognizes as a king of Israel. Josiah dies in 609, just before the King of Egypt, Pharaoh Necho, comes down and fights against Jerusalem and takes Jehoahaz captive. Jehoahaz was a wicked king, followed by Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. We’re going to see this as we walk through this. They’re only recognized by God as princes. They weren’t kings because they didn’t fulfill the role of a king, which was to be a spiritual leader of Israel. They’re on the decline and God says, "I am mourning over the fact that what I designed you to be, what I called you to be, the reason I lifted you up, was to be a light to the nations, and you have failed in that. Not only have you broken My heart—we got that in Chapters 16, 17, and as we came into 18—not only have you broken My heart, you misrepresented My name. I’m not going to let that happen."

How many have ever thought or been told or taught, or maybe even had a sermon preached, that cursing—which is wrong—is taking the Lord’s name in vain? That’s not taking the Lord’s name in vain. There’s a whole other commandment against that. No corrupt communication should come out of your mouth. Taking the Lord’s name in vain is when you call yourself a follower of Christ, when you call yourself God’s people, and you act like the world. You’ve taken His name in vain. In those days, you were associated by name. You were the "son of." You took the name of your father. So names meant something. If you take the name of your father, and my father is God Almighty, and you misrepresent Him, then you’ve taken His name in vain. We would say in the New Testament you are a hypocrite. You are a play-actor, you’re one who puts a mask on.

Now, the Lord has no problem with repentant sinners. In fact, He shows great compassion on honest, broken, contrite, repentant sinners. You never see Him rebuking one of those. When they came to Him, He accepted them, He forgave them, He was very compassionate and gracious toward them. You don't ever see that in the New Testament. But those Pharisees that put on the mask, that played the act, He had nothing good to say. He said, "You are a bunch of whitewashed sepulchers. You look good on the outside, but you’re full of dead men’s bones on the inside." That’s taking the name of the Lord in vain.

God wants us to live out our faith. He wants us to put off the old man, as we studied there in Ephesians, and put on the new man. He wants us to put away the practices of this world, and the main thing is this: idolatry. That means while you’re saying you’re serving the true and living God, you’re serving other things.

He’s saying, "Because you haven't been what I purposed you to be, Ezekiel, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel." Now there’re going to be three princes mentioned here. I want you to see that the mother, the lioness, is Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the City of God. Jerusalem is the apple of God’s eye. His focus is upon that. She was supposed to be, as it were, a city upon a hill. She was supposed to be the light of the nations. It’s the City of the Most High God. It’s the place where Jesus will ultimately be crucified for the sins of the world. It’s the place that bore His name. It’s the place where the Tabernacle rested and eventually the Temple was built. It’s God’s city, it’s God’s presence that’s in that city. You go to it today, you can sense it.

We’re going to see the lioness is Jerusalem that was supposed to produce godly kings who listened to the prophets and the priests and directed the people in holiness and in righteousness before the Lord. She failed in her mission, Jerusalem did.

So he says, "What is thy mother? A lioness." This is speaking of Jerusalem. "She lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps," these are the princes, "the young lions. She brought up one of her whelps, and it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey and devour men." He became corrupt. This is Jehoahaz. Now, Jehoahaz, when the Egyptians showed up, they led him away. He dies in Egypt.

You raised him up after Josiah had passed away, after Josiah, the last of the righteous line of kings, passed away. The next in line, Jehoahaz, was corrupt. He did evil in the sight of the Lord. Jerusalem, you produced an evil king. God said, "I’m not even going to call him a king. He was just a prince. He was a punk, and you produced him, and he was a destroyer of men. And the nations also heard of him, and he was taken in their pit and they brought him in chains unto Egypt." That’s where Jehoahaz dies. You read it in 2nd Kings, Chapter 23.

"Now when she saw that she had waited and her hope was lost," she was expecting Jehoahaz to be delivered from Egypt. The false prophets were saying that would happen, that he would come back and rule over Jerusalem. It didn't. What happens after King Pharaoh Necho takes him captive? Here comes Nebuchadnezzar and besieges the city in 605 BC.

When she saw that her hope was lost for Jehoahaz, that is Jerusalem, "she took another of her whelps and made him a young lion. And he went up and down among the lions, and he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey, and he also learned to devour men. He also did what was evil in the sight of the Lord." This is Jehoiachin. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, "and he knew their desolate places, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate and the fullness thereof by the noise of his roaring. Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces and spread their net over him, and he was taken in a pit."

So he’s captured now by Babylon, by King Nebuchadnezzar. He will be taken to Babylon. He will die in Babylon. Again, the false prophets raised up, but Jeremiah corrected them. They were saying, "Oh no, no, Jehoiachin is coming back. All the instruments of worship are coming back. God’s going to destroy Nebuchadnezzar." God says Nebuchadnezzar, through the Prophet Jeremiah, is My servant to discipline My people. He’s My servant. I sent him to Jerusalem because you are doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord to discipline you. Jehoiachin ain't coming back.

He sets up Zedekiah. This is the third of these princes. Nebuchadnezzar besieges the city in 605, sets up Jehoiachin. When he rebels, he destroys him. He sets up Zedekiah. He comes back and has to take care of that in 597. He thrashes the Temple; actually, in 586, he burns it on the third time there.

Listen carefully to what he says. Verse 9: "And they put him in a ward in chains," that’s Jehoiachin, "in Babylon, and brought him to the king of Babylon, and they brought him in holds, and the voice should no more be heard in the mountains of Israel. Thy mother," Jerusalem, "is like the vine of thy blood," the bloodline is what he’s talking about here. These were supposed to be of the bloodline of David. The Davidic Covenant said that there would be a king in Israel through the bloodline of David. Because of their sin, that bloodline was broken here. From this point on, the reason God is saying, "Woe, send a lamentation, a funeral dirge to Israel," is they will no longer be the light of the nations. In fact, they’ll be subservient to the Gentiles until the root and offspring of David shows up, the Messiah. We’re seeing the preparation for that today.

"Your mother, Jerusalem, is the bloodline planted by the waters. She was fruitful and full of branches by reason of the waters, and she had a strong rod for a scepter of them that bear rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in the height and of the multitude of branches." What he’s saying: remember your history. You had some righteous kings. You had David. You had Solomon. You had Joash, Josiah. You had some strong kings, righteous kings that ruled over the people.

Now, look what's happened. "But she was plucked up in her fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up the fruit. Her strong rods were broken and they withered and the fire consumed them. And now she is planted in the wilderness in a dry and thirsty place." She’s been taken to Babylon. Before Jerusalem was besieged and all the instruments of worship and the priest Ezekiel was part of that was taken to Babylon along with Daniel, he sets up Zedekiah. This is the third of these princes he’s talking about. Zedekiah rebelled. You know the deal. Nebuchadnezzar has to go back up in 586. This time he burns, as it were, the place to the ground, Jerusalem. He levels it.

That’s why in Verse 14 it says, "And fire is gone out from the rod of her branch." Zedekiah presided over this because of his rebellion. They were unwilling. When you go through and read Jeremiah, Jeremiah is saying, "Listen, this is God’s messenger. Nebuchadnezzar is God’s servant to discipline us. Submit to the discipline, repent, be broken and contrite." Isaiah said the same thing.

When God disciplines, what He’s looking for is brokenness and contriteness, not rebellion against the discipline. Not hardening your hearts and stiffening your faces, as it were, not turning a deaf ear. God will continue to do what is necessary to get our attention. How many have been there? I’ve been stubborn a couple times in my life, my Christian life. And I didn't win. If you think you can be stubborn against God’s discipline and win, you’ve got another thing coming. Amen? You’ll walk with a limp.

Saturday morning we had our prayer breakfast. I think there were 22 or 25 guys here. We got the wonderful privilege of listening to Charles’s testimony, the guy that comes with both of his legs missing from the knee down. Some of you have asked, some of you ladies have asked for the CD. Well, we made a copy of it. We’ll get it to you. We have it recorded, so we can give it to you so you can make some CDs.

The gist of it is that he was in U-Turn for Christ. He got upset at one of the Calvary Chapel pastors over there and just got stubborn and rebellious and left. He went up, he was homeless and camped out up in the mountains above Placerville. He got back on heroin, got back on alcohol, got back on drugs out there, still holding a job, but out there. A freak storm came in, and he was so stoned he didn’t realize it until it enveloped him and he had to walk out in this storm. He got frostbite on both of his feet and ankles, and they had to remove his legs below the knee.

When you hear his testimony, you’ll just weep over it because he said, "I thank God for that because that broke me of my rebellion. God broke me. And now I walk with a limp, as it were, but I walk with Him."

So we said after the testimony, man it was powerful, we went up and prayed for him because there’s an opportunity for him to work with people that are stubborn like he was down in Southern California. We said, "As far as we’re concerned, this day forward, we’re going to name you Jacob." Jacob wrestled with the Lord, and from that day on he walked with a limp, but then he became Israel, he who is ruled by God.

Listen, God specializes—listen to me tonight—God specializes. One of the great titles in the Old Testament for God is that He is the God of Jacob. After God wrestles with Jacob and He finally breaks Jacob, and Jacob surrenders because his name means "dirty rotten thief," "heel-catcher." He is a manipulator, he is a deceiver his whole life until finally God wrestles with him and touches his thigh and it withers. For the rest of his life he walks with a limp because he’s broken now. God gives him a new name, Israel: "he who is ruled by God."

As you read through the rest of the Old Testament, sometimes he’s called Jacob and sometimes he’s called Israel. Guess what? Although God has redeemed you, sometimes you’re a Jacob. Can I get an amen? And sometimes you’re an Israel. Can I get an amen? You need to be Israel more often than you are a Jacob. But the fact of the matter is we have those tendencies. When we act like a Jacob—because He’s still the God of Jacob—when we act like a Jacob we need to learn to repent quickly, confess and agree with God that He’s right and we’re wrong. Amen? May God keep us on a short leash. Can I say that tonight? Short leash. We don’t get out there too far.

God is now going to deal—He’s saying, "I’m dealing with you guys." Part of the consequence of this is that from this point on, what I purposed you to be is not going to happen, not until the Messiah comes. Then as we get to Ezekiel 36, 37, on into 38 and 39, then we’re going to see God will stand them up again, as we’ve already seen it, 1948, give them possession of Jerusalem again, 1967. That’s the first part of Ezekiel’s vision, but the second part He’s going to put His Spirit back in them. In the last days He’ll send 144,000 of them, special prophets in that last seven years, and God will cause Israel to be what He meant her always to be, just like He’s going to cause the church to be what He always meant us to be.

Now when we move into Chapter 20, listen to what He says. Here’s the deal: a number of the leaders of Israel are going to come to Ezekiel. They recognize him as a priest and a prophet. They understand that his visions are from the Lord. They’re going to come and seek counsel from Ezekiel, but they’re going to come and seek counsel from Ezekiel while they’re still involved in their idolatry. God is going to give them a history lesson as to why He’s not going to listen to them until they come with their whole heart. And by the way, He’s going to say, "And you will come with your whole heart because I’m going to make sure you come with your whole heart. I’m going to take your knees out from underneath you, and you’re going to walk with a limp, but you will come and you will serve me."

Isn't that great? I will say to you tonight if you are being a Jacob, stop it. Stop it. The Lord is going to continue and amp up your discipline until you become an Israel. He’s not going to give up on you. It’s not going to—stop fighting. It’s not going to be easy for you. Just give it to the Lord and quit. You’re not going to win in your rebellion against the Lord. How many have ever won? Any of us older saints that have walked long enough with the Lord, how many of you have ever won a fight with God? Any of you? How many are fighting with God? And I would say stop it.

His ways are right. He’s good. What He has for you is the best. You’ve got to let go of the idols. Not till God is my witness, the thing that I desire more than anything right now, nothing of this world has an attraction on me. I love—we sang that song—I love His presence. I want to be able to approach Him with a single heart, no rival throne, no idols. I struggle with the flesh, but there are no idols. He is my Father and I am His son. Nothing else matters. Nothing. Nothing. Amen? Nothing. There’s nothing that even comes close. There’s nothing that even rivals or draws my attention away from Him.

Because I have a relationship with Him, He tells me the second most important relationship is my marriage. After that, He says unless you hate your father and mother, your brother, your sister, your children, even your own life, you can’t be my disciple. What He’s talking about is unless those things are so much less than your love for Him. That’s what He’s after because He’s after relationship, He’s after our heart. Do you love the Lord your God? Do you love your Father? Do you love your Savior, your Redeemer, the Messiah? Do you love His presence with all of your heart?

It’s not a religion. It’s not looking good on the outside and being dead on the inside. It’s about relationship. When you’re drawn into that, man, there’s nothing you want more than that relationship. God says, "I’m going to do what it takes to get you there."

So He says here in Chapter 20, Verse 1: "And it came to pass in the seventh year," that is the seventh year of their 70-year captivity in Babylon, "in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord and they sat before me," Ezekiel says. Then came the word of the Lord unto me saying—then God spoke to me as these men are sitting before me, Ezekiel said—"Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel and say unto them, thus saith the Lord. You tell them what I have to say. In fact, He says, you tell them 'Thus saith the Lord: Are you come to inquire of me? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.'"

You’ve got idols in your heart and you think that you can come and inquire of me? No, He’s going to tell us as we walk through this chapter, go get rid of those things, then come and seek me. Get rid of your idols. You’re not going to seek me and find me, the Bible says, until you seek me with your whole heart. If you seek me with your whole heart, I will be found. But you’re not going to seek me with part of your heart. You’ll never know me, you’ll never experience me, you won’t hear from me, other than repent. All you’re going to get from me is discipline and correction until you come with your whole heart. He’s going to tell us if you’ll come with your whole heart, what you’ll find is mercy and grace, restoration and forgiveness. But if you don’t bring your whole heart, don’t come.

That’s what He’s going to say. Listen careful. That’s what He says here. In Verse 4 he says, "Wilt thou judge them, son of man? Wilt thou judge them? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers." Give them a history lesson. You lay it on them, man. You don’t pull any punches. Man, you straightforwardly, you tell them, just like Peter on the day of Pentecost. When Peter got done with that short little message cobbled together from a few verses under the power of the Holy Spirit, the men cried out, the women cried out, "We are cut to the core, we are pricked in our heart, what must we do to be saved?" He laid it on them. He said, "Listen, you crucified with your wicked hands the Son of God, but God has raised him from the dead." He cobbled together some scripture speaking of the Messiah and the work of the Messiah and he said, "What you need to do is repent."

And they repented. I’m going to tell you right now, do not serve the Lord half-heartedly. If you’ve got a heart issue, lay it on the altar until you can say and it rings true in your heart, "There is nothing more important to me than the presence of Almighty God, to have a right relationship with Him, to be at peace with Him and Him to be at peace with me." That’s the all of it. That’s what God is after.

He will not be inquired of men until men are willing or women are willing to come with that attitude. So He says, "You lay it on them, give them a history lesson." He starts in Verse 5, "And say unto them, thus saith the Lord, in the day when I chose Israel, when I called Abram out of the Ur of the Chaldees, when I chose Israel."

Listen, six times he’s going to say that. Three times in Verse 5 and Verse 6, but three more times as we walk through this chapter, he’s going to use this phrase, "I lifted up mine hand unto them." That is to swear an oath. That’s to enter into a covenant. So God said, "When I chose the land of Israel—when I chose Jacob—when I chose Israel, when I chose these My people, I lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob. I made a promise to the dirty rotten thief that I chose, to Jacob. And I made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt. I made myself known to them when they were in the world. I raised my hand and I swore an oath." God swore an oath to the dirty rotten thieves, to the sinners, to the broken, to those living in Egypt. That’s where He found us.

But God made an oath that He wouldn’t leave us there. If we would respond to His call, He would drag us out of that place. And then He says, "I lifted up my hand to them saying, I am the Lord your God. I am the God of Jacob. I’m the God of Jacob when he’s still living in the world. I’m the one who has chosen you and I’m the one who’s redeemed you. I’m the one who’s called you out from among the world. I called you from darkness into light. I’m the one that did that."

God says, "You know, we’re not here tonight because one day we woke up and said, 'Man, my life is bad and I just need God.' No, God broke you, man. He broke me. Did He not break us? Did He not break us until we figured it out and understood that there’s nothing of this life that’s important but serving our Maker?"

There’s the second time, in Verse 6, "In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them," I swore an oath, "to bring them forth from the land of Egypt. Not only did I choose you in the land of Egypt, not only did I call you in the land of Egypt, not only did I tell you when you were a Jacob in the land of Egypt that I am your God, I also lifted up my hand and swore an oath to bring them forth from the land of Egypt. I wasn’t going to leave you in there. Not only will I justify you, I’m going to sanctify you. I’m going to call you out of the land of Egypt into the land that I had espied for them." The land that I have spied out for you.

Listen to the land that He spied out for us: "It’s a land flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands." I’ve got the best for you. I have chosen a land—I’m going to take you out of Egypt—I’ve chosen the best for you. And this land that I’ve chosen you, milk and honey doesn’t mean that the rivers were full of milk and the trees were dripping with honey. I heard a sermon one time a guy saying that. Really, dude? Where’d you get that? When He says it’s a land flowing with milk, that means it’s good for your cattle. It’s pastureland where you can raise your cows and produce your milk. How do you get honey? It’s not a trick question. How do you get honey? Bees. What do bees do to crops? Pollinate. So what happens to crops that are properly pollinated? They grow. He said your ranches and your farms will prosper. It’s the best land.

In 1st Corinthians Chapter 6, God says, "Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing. I will be your God, you will be my sons and daughters, says the Almighty." Ten times in the Bible that word for Almighty is used. It means that "I will put my hand of protection, I will put my hand of blessing, you will prosper under my wing." God said if you’ll come out from the world and be separate, if you’ll give me your heart and all of it, then I’ll put my hand of blessing upon you.

In Deuteronomy 28 we read there, "Now listen, if you serve me, if you keep my precepts, if you follow my ways and keep my commandments, then these blessings will overtake you." You get the picture in your mind, you’re getting blessed so much you’re trying to outrun the blessings. "I don’t want any more blessings!" And you’re trying to run away from them and they just tackle you. Every part of your life will be blessed.

But then he gets midway through 28, "But if you don’t, if you serve other gods, then I will curse you." Everything about our life would be cursed. And then he says things like, "Life and death are before you. Choose you this day whom you’re going to serve."

I made my choice. I made my choice to the degree that there’s nothing of this life that’s going to hinder me. My wife and I were talking about this just on our way to church Sunday. There’s nothing in our lives that are going to hinder us from finishing this race well. We’ve rounded the last corner and the finish line is just there. We’re going to run like we’ve never run before. We can’t afford to let anything come between us and our God. We’ve taken serious the responsibility He’s given us. He’s entrusted us with the care of His sheep. You’re not my sheep. I’m glad I can say that; you’re not my sheep. You’re His sheep. My job is to feed you. I’m telling you right now: don’t live a half-hearted life with God. Don’t have one foot in the world and one foot in the church. Get all in.

And listen, if it doesn’t seem right, as Joshua said, to serve the true and living God, then go serve the gods of this world and see how it works for you. If you’re not all in, then what you’re looking for is not here. You will become disgruntled because what’s here is all in. Amen? I’m not here to tickle your conscience and make you feel okay about yourself. I’m not here to have the largest church in town. In fact, I’m here to have the emptiest church in town one nanosecond after the Rapture. I’m here to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God, so that you can walk with your Father, you can know your God, and you can serve Him wholeheartedly. Amen? Amen?

So let me move on. We got time. We’re going at a pretty good pace. He said, "Then said I unto them, Cast ye away"—this is interesting. It’s the only place in the Bible that we find out that while Israel was tucked away in Egypt, some of them fell into idolatry. For years I had in my mind, until I read this particular verse, that when He had tucked them safely away because they were the Hebraic people, they were the shepherd people, that Egypt thought that they were beneath them. That’s why they put them in the land of Goshen, and they wouldn't intermarry with them, they wouldn't intermingle with them. For years I thought that God had protected them in that way. Yet we find that even though God had put them in the land of Goshen and put a kind of a barrier between the Hebraic people, later became known as the Hebrew people, the shepherd people, and Egypt, that still some of them entangled themselves with the idolatry of Egypt.

Listen to what He says here. "Then I said unto them, Cast ye away every man the abomination of his eyes that defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." He took 70 people in there, and we know that when they left, the Bible says there were 600,000 fighting men. That’s from the age of like 20 to like the age of 50. 600,000 fighting men, not counting women and children. Most scholars think that there were between two and three million people that came out of Egypt. 70 went in, God blessed them and they came out a nation. But not all of them came out.

I can’t prove this in Scripture, but I think that when the last plague that Moses presented, when you had to take the blood of a perfect lamb, look at it for five days, then take it and slaughter it at the doorpost and put the blood over the lintel, I think there were some Hebrew people, Hebraic people, who did not do that. And they stayed in Egypt and they lost their firstborn. Just because you call yourself a Christian, doesn't matter what you call yourself. Doesn’t even matter if you’re living in the land of Goshen with Christian people. The question this evening would be: do you have the blood of Christ applied to your doorpost and to your lintel? Have you been obedient to take that lamb, place your hands on it, confess your sins, let its throat be slit and apply the blood? Did you consume it? And did you consume it ready and willing to leave Egypt, to get out of that place, to go to the place that God promised you? Because you could be calling yourself a Christian and be too tangled up in this world.

This is what He’s saying. Watch Verse 8. "But they rebelled against me and would not harken unto me. They did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I will pour out my fury upon them." This is why I think that many of them who were Hebrew people of the Hebraic died in Egypt during the plague with the firstborn because they didn't repent. This is God giving a history lesson. "But I will pour out my fury upon them to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt." They didn't make it out.

I want every one of you to make it out. How do we make it out? You give your whole heart to the Lord, you put the blood of Jesus Christ over the doorposts and the lintel. It forms two crosses, by the way. Jesus bore her cross for the sins; now we bear our cross and follow Him. We consume Jesus, as Jesus said to His disciples, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you can’t be my disciple." Many didn't walk with Him from that day forward, and Jesus had to look at His own disciples and say, "Are you leaving too?" And Peter said, "Where are we going to go? Only you have the words of eternal life." We have to have all of Him, ready to leave Egypt. Are you ready to leave? Are you ready to leave? I mean, are you counting down the days? Are you saying, "Could I wake up today and find out that Israel and Iran got into it and we’re going home?" I’m ready to leave Egypt.

This is what He’s saying. Now listen. Verse 9. "But I wrought for my name’s sake that it should not be polluted before the heathen." Here again is that reasoning I’m telling you: Israel was supposed to be a light to the nations, and they sinned like the nations instead of shining God’s light to the nations. He said, "But I wrought for my name’s sake that it should not be polluted before the heathen among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt." They saw those things that I did. "Wherefore," now watch when He gets to this. This is interesting and listen carefully, "wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt."

Listen, the only way we’ll ever leave the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life, is that God causes us. See, we have to come broken and contrite and ask for the strength, and then God causes. It’s a causation, it’s us coming broken and saying, "Lord, there are things in my life. You delivered me from Egypt, but now You’ve got to take Egypt out of me. You took me out of Egypt, but now You’ve got to take Egypt out of me." How many know what I’m talking about? You got saved, God took you out of Egypt, but now He’s got to take Egypt out of you. You got programmed with some of the worldly things.

He’s saying that it is God that will cause that, the Egypt to leave you. But you’ve got to come and ask. "Wherefore I caused them to go forth from the land of Egypt. I brought them into this wilderness on this journey to the Promised Land, as it were. I gave them my statues, I showed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths." Notice there’s an 's' there. Notice that Jesus never propagated Sabbath to the New Testament. In fact, what He said is, "I am your Sabbath, I am your rest."

I know there’re some people, and I don’t doubt their salvation, that are kind of messed up to look down on us. The church, if you study through the New Testament, the church always worshipped on the first day of the week, the Resurrection, Sunday. Never, because we’re not under the Sabbath law. But notice He didn't just give one Sabbath to them. You know, the 7th Day Adventists say, "You know, six days shall a man work and the seventh she shall rest and you guys are sinners because you’re actually out there worshipping on the first day of the week when you should be resting. Sabbath is the day to rest. You shouldn’t be resting on Sunday." Well, then you better be working six days a week. Are you working six days a week? Because that’s part of their Sabbath law. Six days you can work, the seventh you rest.

Oh and by the way, you can’t kindle a fire on Sabbath. How many cook a meal or start a car or drive to church? Can’t travel more than two-thirds of a mile. Ladies, you can’t pluck your eyebrows on the Sabbath or you’d be guilty of harvesting. Seriously. You can’t spit on the Sabbath because if your spit rolls and it causes a little furrow, then you’re plowing on the Sabbath. 600 commandments, 24 chapters they turn into keeping the Sabbath. All God says, "Listen, I just want you to make your living on the six days, but one day a week needs to be given to me."

Then there was Sabbath years. Every seventh year you let the ground lay fallow, you don’t plant. You don’t plant. Now I will give you enough on the sixth year, twice the amount, God says, if you trust me, and it will take you through the seventh year. They didn’t do that. All the land, the 490 years they were in the land before the Babylonians came, they never kept the land fallow on the Sabbath. They never kept it. So they owed God how many years of Sabbath? 70. How many years were they in captivity? 70. God will get His Sabbath.

Oh and the one I really like is seven sevens, 49. On the 49th year, which is the Year of Jubilee, all debts are forgiven. So you go out the 48th, 49th year and buy your new truck. Just kidding. Because on the 50th year all debts were forgiven. All property and land went back to the original owner. You talk about stimulating the economy.

Now we were in Belize and we went over to the border of Belize and Guatemala, and we got to see the Mayan ruins when we were because we have a church plant down in Belize. We’re surveying the Mayan ruins, and the guide says, "How many of you guys know, take a shot, I bet you nobody knows why the Mayans just disappeared. You know, we really don’t know why they left all of these cities they built and went away. Why do you think the Mayans just disappeared?" I raised my hand and he goes, "Well, take your best shot." Crop rotation. "How did you know?" Well, I studied agriculture. They kept planting and they used up the ground. Why do you think God says six years, the seventh it lays fallow? Because it regenerates itself. The stuff we do today with chemicals and engineered seed that can’t even reproduce—but if we’d follow God’s ways.

He said, "You didn’t follow my ways. You thought you’d be smarter. You didn’t keep the Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord their God that sanctifieth them." You couldn’t trust me. "But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They walked not after my statues and they despised my judgments, which a man do he shall even live in them. And my Sabbaths they greatly polluted. Then I said I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness to consume them." Listen, if you don’t, I’m just going to wipe you out, I’m going to smoke you. You are going to be the burnt offering.

But, watch Verse 14, "But I wrought for my name’s sake that it should not be polluted before the heathen in whose sight I brought them out." Yet also I lifted up my hand—this is the fourth time—"I lifted up my hand to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, because they despised my judgments and walked not in my statues but they polluted my Sabbaths, for their heart went after idols."

I’m not going to consume you, but you’re not going into the Promised Land. 40 years they wandered until the next generation came up and it went into the Promised Land. He said, "I’m not going to just send fire down from heaven and rain on you, but because your hearts went after your idols, you will never know my promises, you will never taste of my blessing, you will never experience the land that flows with milk and honey because your heart went after your idols."

"Nevertheless, my eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness." I had mercy on them. They just wandered around. Their shoes didn’t wear out. A rock followed them producing water. Manna was there every morning. God sustained them. But listen, Christian, don’t live low, don’t live in the wilderness where God is just sustaining you. Man, cross over the Jordan into the full walk of the Spirit where you get to experience the land that God spied out for you, the Promised Land, the land that flows with milk and honey, the blessed place. God may not be destroying you, but you may not be experiencing His best because it’s on the other side.

Oh and by the way—and we’re going to have to stop here tonight—that hymn, the hymn "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," how many know that one? "Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home. I crossed over the Jordan, what did I see?" See, in our hymnology, crossing over the Jordan is entering into heaven. Wrong. Wrong. Crossing over the Jordan is leaving a walk with God that is carnal into a walk with God that is in the Spirit. It’s leaving the minimal walk with God where He is your God, He is protecting you, He is providing for you, but you’re in the wilderness, you’re in the desert, and you’re just going in circles, to crossing over into that full walk of the Spirit where your enemies fall before you, where you eat clusters of grapes that it takes two men to carry, where it’s a land that flows with milk and honey.

And you get to choose. I’ll leave you with this tonight. You get to choose, Christian, how low you live in your Christian experience or how high you live. You can be a Christian, a follower of Christ, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and live very low. Or you can be a born-again Christian that is baptized in the Spirit, that’s walking in the Spirit, whose God is his strength, whose heart is singular, whose eye is singular, who loves the Lord their God with all their heart and they experience His presence 24/7. And the Bible says in Psalms, in His presence is fullness of joy.

I find very little joy in this world today, I’m going to tell you. How many are with me? There’s not much to look out across the horizon of this world and be joyous about, is there? But in His presence, there’s fullness of joy. At His right hand are pleasures evermore. That’s what God offers, but He offers it to the one who is willing to give his whole heart, that pursues the presence of God, that the Lord is on his heart, the throne of his heart, and there are no rival thrones. He’s their master passion. There’s nothing more pleasant to the believer than the presence of God. Amen?

And by the way, He said if you will seek me—somebody says, "Well, I’m not getting any of that." Well, let me tell you how—how many want to know how to get it? Anybody? It’s free. I won’t charge you anything for it. The Bible says if you will seek me with your whole heart, you will find me. He’s not hard to find. If you will seek me with your whole heart, you will find me. Amen? Seek Him with your whole heart. Make Him your master passion. May everything else in your life look like you hate it compared to your love for Him. Because the Bible says if you seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, all these other things will just be added to you. They’re just icing on the cake. Amen? Amen?

We are not religious here at Gold Country Calvary Chapel. And if you’re looking for a religion, you’re still looking, because we’re not. Look around. You cannot accuse us of being organized religion because there’s nothing organized about us. We love Jesus, our Messiah, our Savior, our Redeemer. We love our Father, our Creator and our God. Amen? And we love the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives that empowers and strengthens, leads and guides, convicts, rebukes, corrects, does all those wonderful things for us. Amen? That’s who we are. We love Jesus.

Do you love Jesus? You know, I’ve got a college education; I know it doesn’t look like it and sound like it sometimes. Not only that, I graduated valedictorian of the Bible college I went to, and I got to give the commencement speech and I was invited back to teach at the college. I wrote a doctrines course. You guys, some of you had to labor through it for nine months on a Monday night. It’s being used around the world to train pastors. But I’m going to tell you, all that aside, there’s the greatest thing I’ve ever learned, the greatest theological statement I can give you tonight is this: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me when I’m good, when I do the things I should. Jesus loves me when I’m bad, even though it makes him sad. Jesus loves me. I just want to stay there. I just want to stay there. Knowledge puffs up. I’m not interested in arguing with anybody. You know, the Bible says let the ignorant be ignorant still. I just want to know Jesus.

And I want to know, do you want to know Him? Do you want to know Him? Do you want to experience Him? Do you want to sense His presence, do you want to feel His love, His compassion, do you want to hear His voice? It’s so simple. Seek Him with your whole heart. Let go of everything but Him and hang on with all your heart, and you will find Him. Amen? Let’s stand.

I’m going to close you in a last song because Tracy—and let’s be praying. Tracy, I hope, took Bill to the hospital. They took him home? Okay, well, she’ll work on him, I guarantee you. So it’ll be like going to the hospital. So let’s stand and let’s pray.

Let me ask you this. Let’s just close with this question, and it needs to be answered after a message like this. How many want the presence of God to be overwhelming, the Bible calls it overshadowing in your life? How many want that? How many want it with their whole heart? Then you will have it. You will have it.

Father, thank You this evening that You love us. Thank You that You manifest Yourself to us in terms of relationship, Father, Son. In the Old Testament that God the Father was the husband, Israel was the wife. In the New Testament, Jesus the Bridegroom, we are the Bride. It’s relational. Lord, You want us to come to You with our whole heart. There’s nothing You can’t fix in us that’s broken if we simply give You our whole heart. The problem with depression and discouragement, the problem with fear and all of these things, Lord, You say that perfect love casts out all fear. That we’re to be anxious for nothing but all things through prayer and supplication make our needs known to You. That’s intimacy, and You said that the peace of God would rule our hearts. It’s relational. Father, draw us into a deeper relationship with You because in that place is our rest, it’s our peace, it’s what our souls long for, it’s what our spirit needs. And so help us we pray in Jesus’ name. And all God’s kids would say, amen. Amen.