Leave No Stump

As I mentioned during announcements, we've learned a lot during this time. Been refreshed and remembered, been reminded of many things, hopefully learned some new things too. Every time we go through a holy day, we should learn something new about it if we really are focusing on what God has called us to.

And we learn more and more about His plan every time we go through a holy day and understand the meaning of it. One of the challenges that we have as we leave the days of Unleavened Bread is not to forget what we've learned, but to continue living it throughout the entire year. There are seven days of Unleavened Bread. The reason there are seven days of Unleavened Bread is because it's the rest of our lives we're supposed to be practicing and observing the things that we've learned during this time.

The repentance, the turning to God, the striving to live in accordance with His commandments diligently and carefully, and loving Him with all our heart, mind, and soul. As we're here on this last day, let's turn over to Daniel 4 and talk about one more thing that we would learn from these days of Unleavened Bread as we exit it.

In Daniel 4, we have the interesting story of Nebuchadnezzar. You know, Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the first world-ruling kingdom, Babylon. God interfaced with Nebuchadnezzar quite a bit during his reign. Daniel was there. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were there. So, Nebuchadnezzar became quite familiar with the God of Israel. He never fully committed to the God of Israel, but he knew who he was. In Daniel 4, we have one of those situations where he is having a dream and he has no idea what it means. And just like in Daniel 2, when he has the dream of the statue and, you know, what does it mean? And Daniel comes forth and God shows him what the meaning of it is.

And Daniel 4, Daniel interprets for Nebuchadnezzar. This dream he has about a tree, a tree that is cut down to the stump and then is allowed to grow back again. Let's pick it up in verse 20 of Daniel 4. As Daniel is beginning to interpret it, we see in verse 19, as God gives Daniel the interpretation of this dream, he's a little troubled that he doesn't really want to tell King Nebuchadnezzar about the dream because it has to do with him and something that God is going to teach him about himself.

Then in verse 20, he explains. He says, And in as much as the king saw a watcher, we've talked a little bit about God watching over us, and as much as the king saw a watcher, a holy one coming down from heaven and saying, Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its stump and ruts in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him graze with the beasts of the field till seven times, or seven years, pass over him.

This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King. He goes on and says, They shall drive you from men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you eat grass like oxen. They shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses.

And as much as they gave the command to leave the stump and root of the tree, your kingdom shall be assured to you after you come to know, after you come to know that heaven rules. Therefore, O king, let my advice be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by being righteous.

Break off your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity. Quite an interesting dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. Quite an interpretation that Daniel gave him. Nebuchadnezzar was one who was just prone to pride. We know about Nebuchadnezzar, and sure enough, a year later, all these things happened to Nebuchadnezzar, because you read down through verses 29 and 30, you see, there's Nebuchadnezzar, who the interpretization of this dream might have had a temporary effect on him as he listened to Daniel's interpretation, and it might have thought, yes, it is God who gave me.

It is this God of Daniel who has given me this kingdom, and I need to recognize him. But as time went by and he got further and further from the dream, we find him boasting about himself. I did this. It's because of me. All these things happened because of me. And sure enough, when we get down to verse 31, God says, the kingdom's being taken from you, Nebuchadnezzar. Now what you were told is going to come to pass. He and Nebuchadnezzar lived as a beast for seven years.

His mind disappeared. His kingdom was given to someone else. But the stump was left in the ground. The stump was there. God could have made some kind of move to take that stump and take the roots completely out of it and say, Babylon, I'm just completely wiping it out.

But he left the stump there. And after seven years, Nebuchadnezzar understood what he had been through. Nebuchadnezzar came out of that seven years with a different attitude, as we read down here in verse 36 in Daniel 4. He says, as he's come out of it, At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me.

My counselors and nobles resorted to me. I was resorted to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, all of whose works are truth and his ways justice, and those who walk in pride, he is able to put down. Those who walk in pride, he is able to put down. Nebuchadnezzar learned a lesson, a very tough lesson. Pride has to be eliminated from us.

Now what happened later on in Nebuchadnezzar's life? I don't know. It's obvious that he knew who God was. But one thing we know about Nebuchadnezzar in the kingdom of Babylon is, while they may have known who God was, they never let go of the other gods they worshipped either. They knew who he was, but they never committed to him with all their heart, mind, and soul. They never put out all the other gods of Babylon. And so Babylon's legacy is a mixture.

We believe God. There's a God in heaven, but we also believe these other gods. We have these idols that we continue to worship. And Babylon, while the stump grew back, that Nebuchadnezzar could retake that throne. We know, as we live here in the 21st century, thousands of years from the time of this event, Babylon grew back as well.

And Babylon figures heavily in end-time prophecy. You turn over to Revelation 17. We see this kingdom, the first of the world-ruling kingdoms that God revealed in Daniel 2, had a legacy of mixing. We read in 2 Corinthians 17 when they mixed religions. We'll please the God of Israel, but we're also going to worship these other gods and not let go of them. And so there's this legacy of, we know who He is, but we're going to do things our own way.

We're not going to completely eliminate these other gods. Revelation 17, we see that God talks about this end-time beast power that's on earth, and He calls it in verse 5, mystery. Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. That stump was left there. It grew. And that kingdom never wiped out the sin that marked it. Nebuchadnezzar never totally gave God credit and eliminated all the other gods in his life. And it grew back into something that will bring the world to its knees as the year goes ahead.

That stump was left there. It wasn't eliminated, even though Nebuchadnezzar knew that it was God. It was the God of Daniel who had chastised Him and He understood the lesson. As we're here on this last day of Unleavened Bread, there's a lesson in that for us as well. We all know that there's sin, attitudes, faults, an attitude perhaps of resistance or rebellion that's in us. We all still have carnal nature in us. Romans 8-7 is clear when it says that the carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be.

We know there's an element in us and there's things that we just want to do, don't want to do. There are things we just don't want to accept among all of us. None of us are perfect yet. Are there some in our lives that we just allow there and we haven't learned the lesson of what God wants us to learn through these days of Unleavened Bread?

There's other examples in the Bible, too. Let's go back to Exodus. We will learn as we look at some of the examples in the Old Testament that God's calling in our commission is to completely and His will for us is to completely eradicate sin, completely eradicate the faults in our lives, completely convert to Him, completely to become the way He wants us to be. In this lifetime, we will spend the rest of our lives doing that.

It won't be until Jesus Christ returns and He raises us in perfection in alliance with the character that you and I develop as we consistently march toward the perfection that God has called us to. Here in Exodus 17, as Israel is coming out of Egypt, they've come out of Egypt.

Now they're here. In the beginning verses of chapter 17, we see that they're crying out for water. God brings them water at this place called Raphidim. In verse 8, we find that they're challenged. They're challenged by an enemy, if you will, as they're out in the wilderness. Exodus 17, verse 8, Amalek. Amalek came and fought with Israel in Raphidim. We know this account.

Moses said to Joshua, Choose us some men and go out. Fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and he fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Herr went up to the top of the hill. And so it was when Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

But Moses was human. His hands became weak, so they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat on it. And Aaron and Herr supported his hands, one on one side, the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until they're going down to the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And then God said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in the book, and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

I will utterly blot out Amalek. You've defeated them today. Look at the audacity of this people who came, and as they knew the story of God bringing Israel out of Egypt, they knew the miracles that were occurring. They'd already crossed the Red Sea. This was knowledge in that land, and yet they had the audacity to come and challenge the people of God.

Something about that people. And God made a pronouncement, I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Notice God said, He will. He did give Israel the opportunity to blot out Amalek. We go forward to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 15. In verse 1, Amalek was a consistent enemy against Israel, always a thorn in their side. And as Israel had their first king, God gave him a command. 1 Samuel 15. Samuel said to Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint you, king, over his people, over Israel.

Now, therefore, heed his words. Listen to what he says. Follow him implicitly. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go, Saul, and attack Amalek.

And utterly destroy all that they have. Do not spare them. Kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. Utterly wipe them out. Destroy Amalek. Now, people would read these verses, and they would say, That is a cruel God. Who would say, Just completely wipe out that people.

We have to bear in mind, Amalek was a symbol of an approach or a reproach against God that they did. And we always have to remember that there is a time where people become so perverse, so evil, that God says enough is enough.

And there is the opportunity of the second resurrection. We know that everyone who has ever lived and died will live again. There is the first resurrection for the first fruits that God has called in this day and age.

And for everyone else who has ever lived, there is the second resurrection where they will have the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, to repent of their sins, and to choose to follow God's way. Sadly, the Bible tells us not everyone will do it. Some people in Amalek may be so thoroughly, their hearts so thoroughly turned against God and Israel, that they hate them so much that they will not be able to bring themselves to repentance. But they will have the opportunity to do it. So God said, God tells Samuel, we can look at when we read a couple of these things, what he's saying is blot out this sin from your lives.

Blot this Amalek out. What he did against me, what he did against Israel, wipe them out. Well, we know the story, but let's read through it. Saul gathered the people together, and he numbered them into lame 200,000 foot soldiers, 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and he lay in wait in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenites, who were there, Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.

The Kenites knew, this is a God who means business, the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul attacked the Amalekites from Havola all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. We could put a but in verse 8.

But he also took Agog, king of the Amalekites, alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

God said, wipe it all off. Don't keep anything for yourselves. Let's not even have the remembrance of Amalek. What they have done is so heinous and so against God, their memory shouldn't be on the earth and shouldn't be part of you. Saul went there. He did destroy a lot of the people, but he spared the king. And they kind of reasoned among themselves, what's the harm with these sheep and the socks and livestock?

They're not the ones who did anything like this. Used some human reasoning there and thought, okay, this is good enough. This is good enough. Even though God said, utterly destroy it all, Saul left the stump in the ground. He left Agag alive. And so later on in the Bible, in Esther, we see Haman. You remember Haman. He was an enemy. He hated all the Jews that were there in the kingdom. And he devised a plan that they would all be destroyed. And the Bible tells us in Esther 3 verse 1, Haman was a descendant of Agag. There he was.

And in David's time, we see the Amalekites. And there's many, many in the world today who believe the Amalekites still exist, the ones who have an inordinate hate of the Jewish nation, an inordinate hate of the Jewish nation. And all they want is to see that nation destroyed. And they mince no words about it. A stump was left by Saul. He didn't utterly destroy. And so that plagued him the rest of the life. And we see in verses 10, 11, and 12 there that God said, Saul displeases me. I'm sorry I made Saul king. He didn't listen to what I said.

I gave him a command to utterly destroy, and yet he didn't do it. He left some alive using his own reasoning. He wasn't willing to utterly wipe out what God said needs to be wiped out of Israel's existence. Look at another example back in the book of Joshua. This is actually a Days of Unleavened Bread example.

In the Bible study last week, we looked at Joshua 5, and we looked as Israel came into the Promised Land. How God prepared them. They hadn't been circumcised during the times that they were in the wilderness. And so God said, you know, you've got to have the sign of the covenant.

So they were circumcised, and they did that before they could keep the Passover, because they couldn't keep the Passover before that. We talked about the wave-sheaf offering. That was done there in Joshua 5 verse 11. Before they were able to go in and take the land, they had God was instructing them, this is what you must do. You must be in line with me before you go in and start conquering the cities. So tradition has it, and as we look at the timing here in Joshua 6, Jericho.

It is there, the first city that Israel is going to conquer in their conquest of the Promised Land. In the verses leading up to chapter 6, we see the commander of the army, the one who became Jesus Christ, who is there to lead the army, to lead Israel into the Promised Land. Just as Jesus Christ will lead us into the Promised Land if we follow Him and we worship Him. So in Joshua 6, we have the story of the conquest of Jericho.

Let's pick it up in verse 14. As you read through there, it appears that they began their first march around Jericho on the first day of Unleavened Bread. It appears that the seventh day around Jericho was on this seventh day of Unleavened Bread that we are observing here today. Let's pick it up in verse 14 that kind of recounts what's going on. You know the story. God told them, march around the city once. For the first six days on the seventh day, march around the seven times.

Verse 14. The second day, they marched around the city once and they returned to the camp, so they did that six days. But it came to pass on the seventh day that they arose early about the dawning of the day and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only, they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time it happened when the priest blew the trumpets that Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city, and the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction.

It and all who are in it, only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And he cautions them, you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it.

Watch what you're doing. Jericho's a rich city. But, you know, God had said back in Genesis 17, I think it is, that he would give, some 400 years before this, he would have said, I'm going to give you the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Parazites, the Jebusites.

I'm going to give you all this land. But it's going to be centuries down the road when the iniquity of the Amorites is complete. Remember that? We've talked about it several times. There comes a time when the people become so corrupt, so perverse, so far away from God that he knows they will not turn back to him, and then God takes their land away from them. It happened to all those countries. It was about to happen to Jericho. So we might look at Jericho, and we don't have any idea what was going on in there, but you can guarantee.

The perversity and the sin in that city was great. There was probably child sacrifice going on in there. There was probably perversity that would still, in the world we live in today, that has become so perverse, might still make our hands here stand up on end and think, whoa, they were doing that. There comes a time when God says, enough is enough. It happens to all nations. It happened to Israel. It happened to Judah. It will happen to this country as they move further and further away from God and become more and more perverse, where God knows they will not ever come back to me.

The tale is told. So Jericho, Jericho, we can say whatever we want, but their iniquity was complete. They had become a very perverse people that no longer deserved the blessings that God was giving them. And God said, march in and take them. But He said, don't take any of the things. I don't want any of the remembrance of Jericho there. Verse 19, He says, the silver and gold. You can take that and vessels of bronze and iron, but consecrate them to Me. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. I don't want them up on your knickknack shells.

I don't want you having them in your cabinets that you look at. They'll come and they'll become part of the treasury of the Lord. But everything else, destroy. So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. It happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpets and the people, and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. The people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city.

Both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword. Verse 24, they burned the city, and all that was in it was fire. Only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. They did what God said.

Under the leadership of the commander of the army that day, under the leadership of Joshua, don't let anything tempt you. And as they went into that city, they did exactly what God said. There will be no remnant of Jericho to tempt us. No stump will be left that may grow back again. Nothing that Israel would do as they came in there would be a reminder of Jericho. It would be completely eradicated, and the sin that was part of that city. Israel obeyed God. But we find, a chapter later, that there was a man who took a few matters into his own hands. Achan. Achan was there, and he decided, as he looked at the prizes that were in Jericho, can it really matter that much if I just take a few items and hide it for myself?

Does God really care if I keep some of these things? What harm is it if I do that? He learned a very tough lesson. We learn a tough lesson. God is looking for us to completely eradicate sin out of our lives. We can't do it without his Holy Spirit. We won't do it in this lifetime, but we are to consistently be striving to do that. Israel did it, but God knew there was something in the congregation of Israel that was holding them back. There was something because, as they went to march into AI and conquer that city, it was a very different result than Jericho.

The people of AI sent Israel running because God doesn't bless when there's sin in the midst. And so this man, Akan, you know the story. Let's look at it in Joshua 8 or Joshua 7, I'm sorry. As they go through, God lets them know there's sin in the congregation. Not everyone, but there is one person in the congregation that isn't pure. One person has violated my law. There is sin in that congregation, and it needs to be wiped out too because I'm creating and building a house individually, and I'm building a house collectively too. I want all of you to be pure, but I want the church, the body, to be pure too.

We all have a responsibility to each other. Akan would learn a very tough lesson, as would Israel. Everyone, all of us, are here for the same thing. They go through the whole process that they went through. And here in Joshua 7 and verse 19, we see Joshua giving a very difficult statement to Akan. Joshua said to Akan, My son, I beg you, give glory to the God of Israel. Make confession to him. Tell me now what you have done. Don't hide it from me. And Akan answered Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the God of Israel, and this is what I've done. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them, and I took them. And there they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it.

I've sinned. I disregarded God. I coveted it, and I could not overcome my own covetousness. And even though I knew better, I did it. And now it's troubled Israel. You read down through that, and what God's pronouncement on Akan and his family was, they would be stoned to death as an example. The same law for individuals and the church, the church, the body, the congregation, must be pure. That's what God is looking for us all to do. He wants us to become pure. 1 John 3-3 says, if we have the hope of the kingdom, if we have the hope of Jesus Christ, if we have the hope of the life that we've talked about even during these days of unleavened bread, we have to become pure. You know, God told Abraham in Genesis 17, verse 1, He said, Be perfect. Walk you before Me and become perfect. He tells you and me in New Testament times, Jesus Christ, in His words, Matthew 5, 48, Become perfect. Walk before Me and become perfect. It's a constant process. It's one of the things we learned during the days of unleavened bread. We have to continually work on it. We have to continually work on the sins that do so easily beset, the attitudes that do so easily beset, the resistance that may come up when we're told to do something, we just don't want to do it. Or we see something and have this other little God that's still in the world, and we say, you know what? Is it that big a deal if I do that? Achan thought about it. He reasoned to himself, is anyone going to know? I'm going to hide it? No one will know what's going on. He learned God will do it. God will reveal what is hidden and what is troubling Israel.

The church in Corinth learned it as well. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul, who writes a letter to the Corinthians, he wasn't there, even present in the church. But he said, there is the sin in your church. There's a sin that isn't even named among the Gentiles of sexual immorality. And what he told them during the days of Unleavened Bread was, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

There's a little stump there that still is there that hasn't been completely eradicated. And a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Put this man out. Show him the love of putting him out so that he understands the importance and the significance of doing things God's way. And so they learned a lesson, a very pleasant lesson, because in 2 Corinthians 7 they saw the results of someone turning to God and understanding the concept.

The sin can't be tolerated. The sin isn't tolerated by God. God's not going to, when Jesus Christ returns, saying, well, okay, I see that you had this little problem. That's okay. That's okay. It's not that big a deal. No. Never says that. He says, become you perfect. It's a process through our lifetimes. And as these things that we see in our lives that God reveals, he wants us to keep working on that stump.

Maybe you've had a tree, a large tree, in your yard. It's pretty easy, comparatively, to cut the tree down. But if you have to cut the stump out, it's a pretty hard process. It's not fun at all. It takes a long time. And those roots go out far, far, far. And if you just leave that stump there, all of a sudden, green leaves come out of it again. Trees start growing again. Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, that stump was there. We see what it grew to or grows to at the time of the end.

God says, get rid of the sin. Get rid of the sin. Put it away from you. Get rid of the stump. Get rid of the stump as well. We could go on and talk about many more examples. We could talk about Korah, right? The examples that we can... Korah. You know, he had this jealousy against Moses. He had this attitude that, you know, Moses, why did God pick you? Who died and left you, boss? Right? He couldn't overcome that and just accept what God had. He's always had a question always there. And he just couldn't overcome that attitude.

We saw what the pronouncement of on Korah was. Let's go back and look at some of God's directions in the Old Testament. And then the New Testament, as we're here on this last day of unleavened bread, Deuteronomy 7, as God takes...has brought Israel out of Egypt and on the eve, if you will, of them entering in the Promised Land, as Moses is talking to them, he reminds them of what they need to do when they go into the land. We've recounted this, but let's read his word again because it's a consistent message that God gives.

Verse 1, chapter 7, Deuteronomy, When your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Parazites, Hivites, Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them, and don't show any mercy to them.

Again, sounds like cruel words when you hear God talking about people in this way. The symbolism for us is the sin that's in our lives, the sin that is around us, the sin that's in us, the sin that we are so surrounded by and so easily attracted to. God would say in the New Testament, get rid of it. Separate yourself from it. Destroy it. Whatever it is that you need to do, get rid of those things. In a while, we'll go to the New Testament and see that. Here it is again. Remember these people.

God said their iniquity was complete. The judgment had been made. They were so perverse, so corrupt, that there was no reason for them to live any longer. There was no chance of them turning back to God. Again, they'll have that opportunity in the second resurrection when all mankind, the rest of mankind who aren't the first fruits, are resurrected. So, destroy them. Make no covenant with them. He talks about even making marriages between them and them.

So, we even will talk about that. Be aware of what you're doing. Make sure that who you are aligning with. It tells us in 2 Corinthians 6, don't be unequally yoked. Make sure you're with someone who believes what you will, because God makes that provision for people to understand. And it is such a blessing to have everyone in our families know the truth of God, especially our spouses, and to be living the same way.

Verse 5, Thus you shall deal with them, these nations you will dispossess, you will destroy their altars. Notice, God could do all these things, but he'll lead. He'll provide the opportunity, but it's us who has to do it. You, he says, you shall destroy their altars. You shall break down their sacred pillars. You shall cut down their wooden images. You shall burn their carved images with fire. I'll give the land to you, but when you go in there, you need to clean it up.

It has to be your effort. I could do it all for you. God doesn't do it all for us. He needs to know where our heart is, and where our energy is, and what our commitment to living his way is. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

Quite something that God said to Israel. Quite something that he says to us today, the same words. The Lord didn't set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people. You were the least of all peoples. But because he loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, King of Egypt.

Chapter 9, verse 5.

It is not because of your righteousness, he reminded them, he reminds us, it's not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go into possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations, that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, that he may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Chapter 10. Again recounting the sin, the depravity of those nations they were dispossessing.

Chapter 10, verse 11.

God said to me, Moses speaking, arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command you today for your good.

That's what he required of them on a physical level. That's what he requires of us, physically, and now with his Holy Spirit, to do those things spiritually as well.

Well, as Israel marched in and dispossessed those lands, and God told them, utterly destroy them, don't leave any remnant that might tempt you. Do it around in Psalm 12, where he says, don't run around and look and see how did they worship their gods? How did they do those things? You live by the words that I tell you. Don't add to them, and don't take away from them.

Let's go over to 1 Peter 2 and verse 9.

New Testament, people of God today, people of every tribe, nation, tongue, ethnicity, everyone that God would call who are now a family, spiritual Israel, we might call it, God's chosen people. He says to you and me, you are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

You once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not obtained mercy, but now you have obtained mercy.

And he reminds us that we're not in the land he promised us. Behold, I beg you, with surjourners and pilgrims, abstain from lusts, freshly lusts, which war against the soul.

Fight those enemies. Destroy them. God will reveal, but your job is to utterly destroy those with his Holy Spirit leading us, guiding us. His Holy Spirit is the spirit of power, so we have power over self, power over the world's influences if we use it. Power and love. We have the power and God's Spirit in us that helps us to love the way Jesus Christ loved, agape loved, and a sound mind. And a sound mind to see things the way he sees things. A sound mind.

So important in the world today, and so many things in the world today that people will do to try to say how you have a sound mind for you and me, the spirit of God will give us a sound mind if we are using it, and if we are living God's way, and if we are allowing him. And we are making the effort to consciously put the sin out of our lives, constantly overcoming, constantly asking God, purge me with hyssop, as David says in Psalm 51. Make me whiter than snow, my heart whiter than snow. Let me be unadulterated as I come before you. Let me be to you with no sins. Blot out my sins.

God will do that, but it's our job to make the effort to overcome and develop the character that God wants us to overcome.

Romans 8.

Romans 8 and verse 13. God tells us about those things that are alive in our lives, those sins, those attitudes. And it's not just sins. It's attitudes. It's moral faults. We talked about sin. We talked about iniquity. We talked about transgressions, all those things that David mentions in Psalm 51. Sin is the transgression of the law, but there's attitudes. There's faults. There's the pride that can manifest itself. It's oh, slow, slight ways when we just have to do our things. In Romans 8 verse 13, Paul gives us a very succinct command and goal for us. He says, if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if you are living by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body. You will live. Put to death your old way. Put to death the way you used to do things. When we were baptized, when we took God's name upon us, when we were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, we told God, we will do it your way. And it takes a lifetime to do it his way completely. We don't wipe out a Malek, a Mab Malek. We don't conquer Jericho in one day. We spend the rest of our lives doing it. Without God's Holy Spirit, it's impossible. With God's Holy Spirit and our attention to it and our commitment to becoming perfect and not just going back a month from now, forgetting the things that we've talked about during the days of Unleavened Bread. Kind of like Nebuchadnezzar, he heard the interpretation of that dream for a while. It must have had an effect on him. And he recognized, yes, it's God who gave me this kingdom. But after a year, he was back to his old self.

Look at my hand of done. Look what I'm doing. And the old Nebuchadnezzar came back and he learned a tough lesson. He learned a tough lesson. God says, put to death those things you're doing, do it his way. Yield to him. Follow him. Understand what it is that we are striving for.

And that is, he tells us, perfection, purity, wiping out everything in our lives that is contrary and adversarial to his nature.

That is such a big, such a big command. That is such a big purpose in life. We can never lose track of it. And we will. We will fall back. But as we come to our senses, we should repent before God and determine. We will march forward. We will work with him and ask him to help us in the constant struggle to put away ourselves. Overcome ourself, overcome the world, overcome those things that are there in the world that are continually there. The less of the flesh, the less of the eyes, the pride of life. 2 Corinthians 6.

Let's pick it up in verse 11.

Paul writes, O Corinthians. O Corinthians, we've spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. You see up in verses 1 and 2, he's pleading with them. Do things God's way. Yield to him. We as workers together, he says in verse 1, plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. You know, that third commandment is so all-encompassing. Don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. We maybe sometimes just focus on taking, literally taking and saying God's name in vain and using all the euphemisms. But it means so much more than that. That's certainly part of it. But when we do things contrary to what God would have us do, then we're taking his name in vain. When we say that we're members of his church, that we follow the Bible, boy, we'd better be very careful about what we're doing, that we are striving to live by every word of Jesus Christ. We'd better so people see when they see us say, indeed they are. Indeed, I don't see the faults in them that I see in the people around me. Our people that we work with, the people that we serve, the people in our neighborhoods, the people that we go to school with, they should look and see in us something different.

Not like everyone else. They march to the beat of a different drummer. There's a different spirit in them. I can trust them. I can rely on them. They're good, hard workers.

What they do, and when they say they're going to do it, they do it even if it's not convenient for them to do. In their mouth is no guile, no deceit.

Not too many characteristics in the world that we see that way anyway.

So Paul is pleading, don't take the grace of God in vain. For he says in an acceptable time, I've heard you. God has called us. God wants us to be in his kingdom. God will give us whatever we want when he sees that our heart is committed to doing his will.

And in the day of salvation, I've helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now is the time. It's been the time ever since we've been called, ever since we committed to God. Today really, really is the time. Because the time does grow short.

You can see what's going on in the world. It's time for us all, if we haven't been at business in getting God's, in doing God's will and letting him mold and develop in us who he wants us to be, now is certainly the time. The time for sleep is over. The time to wake up is here. The time to be putting sin out of our lives and putting to death those things in our lives that keep us from doing God's will. Now is the time to do it. No one knows how much or how little time we may have left. All I know is you look around and you see things happening at warp speed. Warp speed. Whenever God is ready, whenever God says, I hope we are all ready. So Paul says, now is the day of salvation. Verse 11, Corinthians, we've spoken to you. Our heart is wide open. You're not restricted by us. We're not holding you back. God's not holding you back. He says in verse 12, you're holding yourselves back. You still have these affections. You still have these little gods that you won't let go of. You still won't trust me with all your heart. You still won't believe that I can take you into the promised land. You still won't let go of those sins. You still think it's okay to do things my way. I'll use my own human reasoning. I will do it my way and God will be okay with that. You don't get it. All your heart, all your mind, all your soul diligently and carefully obey God. Don't show him a lack of faith. Don't show him a lack of trust. Don't show him that you're like Achan hiding something in the back, thinking you're hiding it from everyone else. You can't hide it from God, and he will not be mocked. Don't leave any stump in the ground. Keep working on it. It takes time to get that stump out, but don't give up. With God's help, that stump will eventually be dug up, but only with God's help. Let's go down to verse 14. Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. While we're in the world today, we work with people who are unbelievers, but we can't let them affect what we do. We may have family members who are unbelievers, but we don't follow what they say. We don't kowtow to them. We kowtow to God. We yield to him.

Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Is there some kind of compromise going on between Christ and Satan? He made it crystal clear in the Great Temptation, there will be none of Satan.

He tells us in John 14 or 15 where he says, Satan has nothing on me. He has no control over me. He still has control over me and you. I hope. And as each year goes by, less and less, as God's Spirit in us and gives us the power over him, because as Christ overcame, so can we, if we follow the same path.

What agreement has the Temple of God with idols? There's nothing from our past Christian life or whatever religion we were in that we should be bringing in. This is God's way. This is the way we live. We don't care what the other churches say and what they do. We do it God's way. We don't let those little things come in just because someone else calls themselves Christian if they're not doing what God said to do. They are not the Christians that God says are true Christians. What agreement has the Temple of God with idols? You, you and me, you are the Temple of the Living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them. I will walk among them. I will be their God. They shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them. Be separate, says the Lord. Don't touch what is unclean and I will receive you. As they marched into the Promised Land, God said, don't even touch those things. Get rid of it. Get rid of it. I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. What he wants of us is to give it all up. Give ourselves up. You know, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ had one of his disciples. He was such a tremendous example of this, a tremendously bad example of this as well. Judas walked with Jesus Christ for three and a half years, Judas of Iscariot. Judas Iscariot is a testament that he would not let go of the fault that he had that he just loved money. Right? In John 12, verse 6, it tells us, you know, he was the treasurer and he used to just take some money from there. He just couldn't get over. He would not let go of his love for money. So in the end, what did it do? It killed him. It killed him because he was willing to sell the Savior, betray him, for 30 pieces of silver. He regretted what he did, but it killed him. Are we gonna let some stump in us? Kill us? If we're mindful of what we're doing, if we're mindful of what the promises that God has, if we're mindful of the God that you and I serve, what is it that would separate us from him? 30 pieces of silver? An attitude? Pride? What are we—what would we not be willing to give up for God? Philippians 1—you can write down Philippians 1, verse 6. I won't turn there. Jesus Christ says what he has begun in us, he will finish. He will finish. He'll complete the work that he has in us individually and in us collectively. We have to work with him. He's not gonna do it all. He'll give us all the tools. He'll be there every step of the way. He'll reveal. He'll give us the strength, and we'll remember to call on him and not just fall down every time or give up digging that stump. He'll continually do it. And he will provide what we need in order to get that stump dug up during our lives so that we become pure and unadulterated in his eyes. In Exodus 14, another seventh day of unleavened bread event, God gives us the words of encouragement that we need to remember all through our lives. And on this day, as he was bringing Israel out of Egypt, I think I said earlier in the feast, he brought him out of Egypt on the 15th. He brought him out of the city they were in, into the wilderness to worship him. They actually left Egypt on the seventh day of the days of unleavened bread. In Exodus 14, you remember the situation. They had their backs against the wall of the Red Sea.

Pharaoh was bearing down on them. All they could see was death. He's going to catch us. He's going to take us back to Egypt, probably going to kill us. And they panicked. They feared. They didn't know what to do. And as Moses saw this panicked people, and if you and I were in the crowd, we would have been just like Israel then. And as we stare down, whatever it is we're staring down between now and the return of Jesus Christ, we can remember these words so that we don't panic. Well, remember who God is and what he's doing in us. Verse 12 or verse 13, God gives several points. Moses said to the people, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. He will give us little tests along the way. What are we afraid of? We should fear no one except God the Father. And Jesus, we shouldn't fear anyone but God. Don't be afraid. Stand still. See the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. God will fight our battles. You know, Israel did nothing except march around Jericho seven times and march for seven days. Israel did nothing except watch God bring them out of Egypt and deliver them from slavery. He'll fight our battles. We have to believe. We have to trust. We have to look. We have to ask. For the Egyptians, whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. They are behind you once and for all. As we leave the days of unleavened bread, we have to be committed to keep working, and that the Egyptians, the sin in our lives, we have to keep working on, that we will never see them again. It's not going to happen today. Not going to happen tomorrow. It's something we do for the rest of our lives. But on this day, God said, these Egyptians are behind you. They are behind you. We continue to look for the day.

God will do that. Verse 14, for us, and our fight against the attitudes, faults, sins that you and I have will be over. God will fight for you. Hold your peace. What he tells us, go forward. Go forward. Follow him. Commit to him, submit to him, and continually fight to eliminate those stumps from our lives.