Looking in every nook and cranny of your home for crumbs, you might feel good about removing all the leaven, associating it with the effort to remove sin from your life. And, considering that overcoming is a 24/7/365 activity, you might say to your Master in the process, “Look, Lord, what I have overcome!” Or, you might even say to Him, “Thank you, Lord, for helping me overcome!” But if you don’t first understand the foundation of the relationship God has offered you, you could be worthy of the guilt proclaimed of Laodicea.
Rev 3:17 Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—
Rev 3:18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
What truly brings us to a right relationship with God? Is it seeing all the sins of the world and not wanting to be a part of those sins? Is it understanding prophecy and knowing how to escape tribulation? Is it wanting to heal and build relationships in a godly way?
None of those things BRING us to a right relationship with God. Those things are helpful for turning us to God and His way, but they don’t BRING us to God, Or, should I say, God does not come to us with those things, initially.
We are given a strong example in the Exodus story that we can equate with being called out of a world of sin. I will not review, today, how the Exodus story equates the nation of Egypt with sin, except to mention that of all nations they were the greatest on earth at the time and were a prime example of worshiping just about everything but the true God. When someone or a nation lives without knowledge of God, sin will rule.
Exo 1:8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
Exo 1:9 And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we;
Exo 1:10 come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land."
Exo 1:11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Exo 1:12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.
Exo 1:13 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.
Exo 1:14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
So, Israel went from living a normal life in Egypt to suffering BITTER lives of hard bondage serving with rigor. They had become slaves.
Exo 2:23 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
Exo 2:24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Exo 2:25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.
And we can have no doubt that Israel KNEW they were slaves… but they didn’t know what to do. They had as a people lost the knowledge of God’s promises to Abraham and did not even seem to know God at all. All they knew was that they were suffering and had no way to make for themselves a way of escape.
You and I don’t come to Christ, because we have figured out the Ten Commandments subject. The Jews know this! You and I don’t come to Christ, because we realize God wants us to obey and observe all His Holy times. We don’t come to Christ, because we are careful to only consume that which the Bible declares clean.
The only chance we have to come to Christ is, that with the knowledge of the Bible, our eyes become open to the FACT that we are slaves to sin, and it is nothing less than bitter bondage. And we realize we have NO WAY of escape. We don’t entreat the true God to save us, because, until He approaches us, we don’t know how to escape or who to turn to.
Act 2:36 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Act 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
Peter answers…
Act 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
With this recognition of sin comes the opportunity for repentance and conversion. But it’s more than just the fact that we realize we’ve done something dastardly. We have to also understand FROM WHAT God is leading us.
Let’s turn to Romans to reflect on our origins and how we escape them.
Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Rom 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Rom 5:15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.
Something important is clearly revealed in Romans, chapter 5, that may not be as clearly revealed in the story of Israel’s slavery in Egypt and God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt.
As Paul reveals, all enter into the world under the condemnation introduced through Adam, but all can live through Christ.
What can be missed from the Exodus account is that Egypt was also suffering under rigorous and bitter slavery. And the first generation of Israelites to leave Egypt remained in the same kind of slavery, barring Joshua and Caleb.
Mindset for DUB…
Maybe what would help Laodicea is to remember from what God delivered them. Maybe, if they were in better touch with God’s miraculous intervention to free them from slavery, they could humbly cherish the power of God to lead them to righteousness, instead of seeing themselves as their own deliverers.
Jhn 8:31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.
Jhn 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Jhn 8:34 Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
Jhn 8:36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
I will take you out of this slavery. I will free you.
