If you will, make your way to Exodus chapter 23. And as you make your way, I wanna just draw attention this morning to a couple of things. First of all, the fact that as we have worked through the law of God, we have seen how the law requires of us today, that we live in a manner that is holy and pleasing before God. That not only do we live in a manner that is holy and pleasing, but that that manner, that life is marked with justice and truth. In Paul's letter to the church at Rome in the 12th chapter in the first verse, He writes this, therefore, I exhort you brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. specifically in this short verse, which is truly packed with amazing theological truths that we could quite honestly spend a couple of Sundays on just unpacking this one verse. The command to present our bodies comes from a Greek word. It's a technical term that describes the action of a priest placing an offering upon the altar. And so the idea that is carried behind that is this yielding or giving up of our bodies to Him. Paul instructs us as believers whose soul already belongs to God by the grace of Christ to give ourselves wholly and completely to Him, to be willing to commit all that we are, all that we have to Him. An example of this is the complete and total surrender that we see of Abraham recorded for us in Genesis as he takes and obeys the command of God to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Hebrews 11, 19, he considered that God, he being Abraham, considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead. from which, figuratively speaking, he also received him back, saying that Abraham was so willing and so certain that God would keep the promise that he would literally raise Isaac from the dead in order to fulfill the covenant promise that he had made to him. John MacArthur made this comment about our living sacrifice. The living sacrifice we are to offer the Lord who died for us is the willingness to surrender to Him all our hopes, our plans, and everything that is precious to us, all that is humanly important to us, all that we find fulfilling. This living sacrifice is to be a holy sacrifice, one set apart for God. We discussed this truth a couple of weeks ago in the last part of chapter 22. But when we present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, Paul describes this as our spiritual service of worship. The word translated spiritual is also translated in other texts as reasonable. And so the understanding that we come out of from this is that this is in light of all that God has done for us. If you go back up to Romans 11, 33, it says, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. In the 36th verse, it says, for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. And the mercies that it describes in 12.1, these mercies of God that we have received as believers, our only reasonable response, our only spiritual response to the things that God has done for us is to submit to Him forever. This is our service of worship. Now the Greek word here that is used and translated in 12.1 as service of worship is actually Latria, which is only service. We add worship here because of the context in which we find the verse. But the picture that is painted for us is that the worship that we find, the spiritual service of worship that honors and pleases God is sincere, loving, thoughtful, heartfelt devotion and praise of his children. In our text today, we are going to be looking at a couple of set of rules that are specifically around and regarding the worship of God. But these two sets of rules bracket a verse that really sets the tone and the command that the worship, our worship, is to and for God and God alone. And so as we prepare to turn to our text, would you please stand with me as we read God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. Beginning in the 10th verse of the 23rd chapter of the book of Exodus, Moses, being born by the Spirit, writes the following. Now you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its produce But on the seventh day you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat, and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. Thus you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days are you to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your maidservant, as well as your sojourner, may refresh themselves. Now concerning everything which I have said to you, beware, and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth. Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to me. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before me empty-handed. Also you shall keep the feast of the harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field. Also the feast of the ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year shall all your males appear before the Lord Yahweh. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the fat of my feast to remain overnight until morning. You shall bring in the choice fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, as we pause before your throne of grace and mercy this morning, we lift this time up to you. We ask that your spirit would illuminate this text and that you would receive all of the praise, the honor, and the glory here today. We ask all of this in the name of your precious son, Jesus Christ. Amen. The five solas of the Reformation are a great summation of much larger theological truths, truths that ultimately point to the fifth of the five solas, and that is soli deo gloria, to the glory of God alone, that all things that we do are to be for his glory. Colossians 3.17, Paul tells us, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Here in Exodus 23, Moses is gonna write things a little bit different. We're gonna jump actually to the 13th verse. We're gonna come back to 10, 11, and 12, but I wanna deal with the 13th verse first. And the reason I wanna do is because this sets the tone for the entire passage. In fact, this particular verse reverberates all throughout the covenant giving and understanding that we have that it is to be for the glory of God alone. And so if you look at the verse with me, it says, now concerning everything which I have said to you, beware. and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth. Now, the first thing you may think of is the command that thou shalt have no other gods before me. In fact, this is quite simply a repetition of the command, but it is also a repetition with a statement or a addition given to it, and that being the command of not even containing the words or having the words be heard or in your mouth. So first thing that I want to note here is in the translating of this text, we run into a little bit of a, not an issue, but a little bit of a differing of opinion on how we can translate the words I have said. And the reason we run into this, it is not one of those things where it's a, It's a contradiction. It's an understanding that we can have that this command is not only a past tense command, as it is written here, but it can also be translated in a future tense. In other words, instead of saying I have said, it can actually be translated, not the future tense, but the perfect tense, saying I am saying. In other words, it is a continual statement of God that we are not to have this situation going on, and that is namely not to even have the name of other gods in their mouth or our mouth, and this is a way of saying that Israelites at that time were prohibited from all exercises of religion of any other god. Why is this important? Well, it's important for the Israelites because they were surrounded by cultures that were polytheistic. And every culture had a plethora of gods that they worshipped. And every one of these cultures and all of the gods that they had, they would speak those names of those gods as a form of blessing. And so what would tend to happen is you would adopt the cultures of those that you would come into contact with. All throughout the Old Testament, God continually reminds His people that they are to be set apart, that they are not to intermarry with the other groups, and all of this has that same connotation of being spiritually pure. Now we would think that it would be very odd to remind us of this great sin of idolatry, But the reality is the sin of idolatry is one that both the Israelites and us today are very addicted to. Matthew Henry wrote this, he said, since idolatry was a sin to which they were much addicted, and would be greatly tempted. They must endeavor to blot out the remembrance of the gods of the heathen, and must disuse and forget all their superstitious forms of speech, and never mention them but with detestation. Now at the beginning of the verse, God gives us a statement. He says, now concerning everything which I have said to you, we are commanded to take great care, he says to beware, to ensure that what we do, that the events that we are involved in, the words that come out of our mouth, the worship that we are a part of is for God's glory alone. In the Hebrew lifestyle, in the lifestyle of the Israelites and the Jewish people even to today, there is a practice of reciting what's called the Shema. The Shema originally was found in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 through 9, and as time in history passed, and by the time of Christ, it had actually been expanded to include a couple of other passages. And so the Shema went something like this, and it was recited during morning prayers, and then again during evening prayers. And it said, hear, O Israel. By the way, Shema literally means hear. Hear, O Israel. Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your head and they shall be as phylacteries between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. The whole point of this particular passage is a reminder of God's absolute sovereignty and God's absolute love for his people. But then they also would recite Deuteronomy 11, 13 through 21 as an instruction to accept the command of God, the providence and the provision of Almighty. And it says, and it will be that if you listen obediently to my commandments, which I am commanding you today to love Yahweh your God and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul, that I, Yahweh, will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and the late rains. that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle and you will eat and be satisfied. Beware lest your hearts be deceived and you turn away and serve other gods and worship them. And the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain on the ground and the ground will not yield its fruit and you will perish quickly from the good land which Yahweh is giving you. You shall therefore place these words of mine on your heart and on your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as phylacteries between your eyes. And you shall teach them to your son, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them as long as the heavens remain above the earth. And then finally in Numbers 15, 37 through 41, God gives us a constant reminder of our obligation and their obligation. And he said, Yahweh also spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel. and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue, and it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of Yahweh, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes after which you played the harlot, so that you may remember to do all my commandments and be holy to your God. I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God. I am Yahweh, your God. This Shema, this resuscitation, this hearing of the Word of God, reminding the people of God, of the things of God, are preceded by verse two of Deuteronomy chapter six, in which God says that the purpose is that you might fear Yahweh your God. I am afraid that we have lost the fear of God today. We have lost it in our homes, We have lost it in our workplaces, we have lost it in our community, we have lost it in our relationships with others, and in our churches, and more specifically in our churches, in our acts of worship. Unfortunately, this loss of a fear of God leads to a loss of true worship. And this is true both of the private worship that we have within ourselves and with ourselves and our families and the corporate worship where we have placed our submission before God and humbly coming to him, trusting him for our provisions, our praise to God and the glorifying of his name for his continual presence among us. We've exchanged all of that with a vapid, vapid pursuit of a fresh encounter, a new feeling, a better experience. And our pursuit of Him through His word, we no longer desire to seek Him in His word, even as people who profess to be believers. There is no longer a thirst and a hunger. We no longer approach, as the psalmist did in 42.1, as the deer pants for water, so my soul longs or pants for you, O God. Interestingly enough, over and over and over in God's word, he instructs the Israelites very specifically in their worship. He ensures that there is no question left. He ensures that they know exactly how they should behave, the what's that they should do as they gather to worship Him. And the first and most important of those truths were that they were to come before God alone. No other God before me. He continues in the second and third command. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them for I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands. to those who love me and who keep my commands. All of these truths point to the centrality and sole focus of God and on God in our worship. And then as a reminder to the Israelites, after God gives them this reminder here that he is to be the central focus. He gives them some additional instructions regarding worship. The first is we begin in our text this morning in the 10th verse. So as we look at the 10th verse through the 12th verse, we will see that this is a repetition of the command regarding the Sabbath. Now. Again, there are some additions, specifically here, the addition of what is the Sabbath year. In other words, not just one out of seven days, but one out of seven years. And if you continue this on through the thread of scripture, you find what is called the year of Jubilee, which is one out of 50, which is after 49 years, then the year of Jubilee occurs. Now obviously, again, these are laws regarding specifically the Sabbath. And in Exodus chapter 20, you may remember that he said to the Israelites, remember the Sabbath day. Keep it holy. And again, this is a reminder of the original law that dates not only back to the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, but literally all the way back to creation. When God created the heavens and the earth in six days and on the seventh, he rested. And then it's also an exposition of that law by giving further details and expectations, specifically here, the Sabbath year. Now, you can go to Leviticus chapter 25 and read all about the Sabbath year. It was a command that God expected his people to obey. The interesting thing that I find about this command being given here is this is a command of God to observe something that would not be observed until they reached the promised land. So this understanding here of observing the seventh year wouldn't actually begin until they entered the promised land. And so in Leviticus 25, 19 through 22, we get a little more details. I would invite you to read all of 25 just to get the full picture. But it says in 19 through 22, then the land will yield its fruit so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. But if you say, what are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our produce? then I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the produce for three years. So you shall sow the eighth year and eat old things from that produce, eating the old until the ninth year when its produce comes in. What I think is funny again about this particular response of the Israelites is it is reminiscent of when God began to provide manna to them. Remember their concern was, well, what do we eat? You said, don't gather anything on the seventh day. He says, okay, well, on the sixth day, you're gonna get double. I'm gonna take care of you. I will provide. There will be provision for you. But these verses also contain a reminder of the weekly Sabbath. That Sabbath God instituted at time of creation included in the Ten Commandments, the one in seven concept that very clearly not only provided a time of refreshment and rejuvenation for the people, and actually the servants and sojourners and the animals, but was also a day that was dedicated to God. Note the command to keep it holy or set apart for him. Douglas Stewart says in his commentary on Exodus of the repetition of this command, that in a culture based heavily on the written word, such a repeated law might wrongly not be thought entirely necessary. But in the ancient world as well as the modern, the repetition of a law so easily broken in language slightly different from the original on which it was based has the benefit of reinforcing the import of what is commanded and of showing us as well its relevance to living out Yahweh's covenant in all its details. So what are these two commands, the Sabbath year and the Sabbath day? or truly this singular command that is expanded have to do with us today. Now there are those within the church and there are those within the Christian community who would argue that as this has been fulfilled in Christ, we no longer have a responsibility, we are no longer bound by the moral law to observe the one in seven day. There are some who would say that we don't have to obey any But then there are some who would say, specifically in the church, that this one. But to make this statement, to make this statement undermines the very principle, the foundation of God's intent in the law regarding the keeping of the Sabbath, the principle of the Sabbath, in which one day in seven was dedicated to resting in the finished work of Christ. In Mark 22, 27 through 28, Jesus said to them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Consequently, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Now this story, if you'll remember, is Jesus and his disciples are walking through a grain field on a Sabbath, and they're hungry, and so they pick some heads of grain. and they consumed them immediately to be attacked by the Pharisees who were watching and saying, oh look, you broke the law. They're looking for anything and everything that they can. And then this is the response that he gives to them. And he reminds them, or rather teaches them, because they obviously never got it, that the purpose of the Sabbath was to help the individual, not to burden him. And by the time Jesus was born, the Israelites had so contorted the law of the Sabbath that they sought to define it in every possible capacity. For example, walking 99 steps was not work, but walking 100 was, or carrying anything heavier than a cup of tea was work, or writing anything that was permanent was considered work. And they so detailed everything that they did They had lost sight of the fact that it was made to help men by providing a day of rest from your labors. Ultimately, we recognize that the Old Testament principle of the Sabbath does find its fulfillment in Christ by accomplishing everything necessary for our salvation, we can rest in Him knowing that we are fully and completely saved to the uttermost. There is nothing that's left to be done for the sake of our salvation. And unfortunately, this is the argument that is made regarding the strict keeping of the Sabbath, that we don't have to do this. And while I wholeheartedly agree that our everyday lives should be filled with constant worship of him, that's part of the argument, that now that because of this fulfilling of the Sabbath, that our everyday life is now filled with the Sabbath, and so the Sabbath becomes this spread out idea of being fulfilled every day. I don't think, and I don't believe, and I don't agree that God removes the biblical principle of the Sabbath. Look at, just follow with me for a moment. Everything that God does, everything that God does is ultimately for His glory. And because it is for His glory, then it is also for our good. We have a hard time reconciling that sometimes. But the truth of the matter is that because it is for His glory, that it is for our good, which I believe means that we have to alter our understanding of the biblical principle of the Sabbath slightly. Now I'm not saying, don't misunderstand, I'm not suggesting this principle is not fulfilled in Christ because it is absolutely fulfilled, but what I am stating, emphatically stating, is that actually because the principle finds its fulfillment in Christ, then that is all the more reason to set aside a day to Him, to glory and honor Him, to devote to worshiping our Lord, not out of a white-knuckled obligation to have a strict and staunch thing like a pharisaical response but out of a desire to gather with the saints of God to praise and honor and glorify the one who saved us. Absolutely on that seventh day we should rest from our physical labors. But we do so because we understand that this is a good gift from God, that it is for our good And that even in this resting, we bring glory to him because we honor him. One more comment before we move on to the rest of the text. The very end of verse 12 contains a clause that talks about refreshing. The Hebrew language here actually can be translated to breathe in. And so this idea, this concept that we find is that this breath, this concept is a refreshment from a weary state. And I don't know about you, but the life we live in our fallen, broken, destitute world is not only physically, mentally, and emotionally draining, but is also spiritually damaging. that by the end of the week, we are so devastated, we have been so bombarded with what Paul described as the flaming arrows of the evil one, that we need a time of refreshment. Hopefully all of you spend time studying God's word, you study on a daily basis, you seek his wisdom, his guidance, his discernment, his direction, his protection, all of those things. But there is something to be said about coming to the house of the Lord, of joining together with the people of God in worship and in fellowship that brings about true spiritual rejuvenation. Hebrews 10, 24 through 25, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Listen, the reason that we have the Lord's day is for the Lord. And let us rejoice and be glad in it. Ultimately, truly biblical worship. is the gathering of God's people in corporate worship. Now, don't misunderstand me. That is not to take away the responsibility of us as individuals and as men leading our families in our private worship. And it's absolutely necessary to the kingdom. But when we look at truly biblical worship, it always involves this coming together of the people of God. And we just looked at the writer of Hebrews encouraging us to do this. But that concept is not new. In fact, if you look at our text for this morning, we have twice within our text that we are commanded to come together three times a year. Both verse 14 and verse 17, we are told three times a year. Now the first one says, three times a year you celebrate my feast. The second one says, three times a year the men are to come before the sovereign Yahweh. Now these three times are the same three times, the events and the actions are the same actions. The point, the command is that in both of these, that is before God is a staunch reminder that you are conducting yourselves in the presence of the almighty God. Listen, when we gather as the church of the living Christ, we are conducting ourselves in the presence of the almighty God. And so often we fail to behave as if we are. And we've talked a lot in the past weeks and we'll discuss it more as we come into the next weeks because very soon we'll be discussing all the implements and the tabernacle and trust me, those are all instructions around worshiping God. And so we'll talk a lot about this worship of God, these rules and how we worship God rightly. But the other thing that we've got to remember is that in God's specificity on how to worship him, he deals swiftly with those who worship wrongly. Maybe to put this in a frame of reference that would help us understand, Paul said earlier that we are to present our bodies as a sacrifice. Now when you think about that word sacrifice, it should recall to you the Old Testament times, and we're fixing to talk more about sacrifices here in a few minutes, of literally giving everything to him. that old hymn had it just right. I hear the Savior say, thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all. And everybody knows the chorus. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. All to him All to Him. That is our responsible and spiritual act of worship. But that act of worship, that event of worship is done in the very presence of the Almighty. And if we do not worship rightly, we are not worshiping at all. At least we're not worshiping Him. But thanks be to God to have a right understanding of the way that we worship is not dependent on us. We don't have to think about it. We see all of these things. My inbox and my email gets filled up every week with emails trying to get me to buy into some new church building program or some new way to get people engaged. new songs for your worship, or here's some new things that you can do. Here's how you want to set up your coffee bar so that you make people all comfortable and they'll come into the house because they're not really here for God, they're here for the coffee, they just stay for the rest. But if you can get them in the door for the coffee, and you keep them there for God, then maybe you can convict them. But the problem is, you're never giving them God. I have the word of the living God that gives me instruction, that teaches us, just as he taught the Israelites. In fact, in these verses regarding the feasts, we will see that there are principles that we can direct our worship. So first of all, as we have already noted, they are specifically commanded together as a nation three times per year. Now, the text uses the word men in verse 17, but the understanding here should be that this is all people gathering. Now, the men were the only ones that entered into the tabernacle, into the courtyard, as a representative of their family, before the door going into the tent. but the entire family would make this pilgrimage or physical journey marking a spiritual goal to the center. Later, it would be to Jerusalem to experience these celebrations. And part of these commands look forward to the time when they would inhabit the nation of promise. But it's also worth noting, these are what are known as apodetic laws. Apodetic laws are laws that are to be applied without exception to all of Israel at all times. These are absolute commands to Israel. And what does that have to do with us? By implication, the command as it implies to our life and applies to our life today also means that it is an absolute command. I'm not saying that we celebrate the feast. We'll talk about that in a minute. But the purposes and the reasons that come out of these things are what we are required to do. Each of these three feasts, over the passage of time, became associated with additional celebrations of God, but there was a two-fold primary purpose in instituting the feast, and that is, first, to commemorate the events of the history and the life of Israel. but not only to commemorate them, in other words, not only to mark them, but to remind the people of Israel, this is the second purpose, is that God was the one who made these events a reality. Consider this, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This feast was seven days immediately following the Passover and was designed and existed to commemorate the deliverance of God's people from the bondage of sin and slavery. That's the purpose for it existing. Now it coincided with the spring, so what happens in the spring of the year, it actually happens to coincide with the taking in of the barley harvest, which was the winter crop, and the planting of the rest of the crops. But the idea here is that they are to take this time and set aside seven days to remember this deliverance. They eat unleavened bread because there is not to be found within them sin. There is this desire to be holy. Then there's the Feast of the Harvest. Now, as you study through scripture, the Feast of the Harvest actually is also known as the Feast of Weeks. And then later, in late Old Testament period, early New Testament period, actually began to have the word Pentecost ascribed to it. Now, the meaning of the word Pentecost is very simple in the Greek. It means 50 days. That's literally what Pentecost means. And it marked the 50 days between the Israelites leaving the land of Egypt and the giving of the law. Later, it would mark the event after Christ's ascension to the giving of the Spirit. What a way to help us remember and help them remember the gracious deliverance of God, His covenant faithfulness to them, His covenant faithfulness to us, and the provision of God. And this feast would occur immediately after the first grain harvest, which was typically the wheat harvest. And it was a way to remember that God would provide in the coming rest of the harvests. There was a wave offering that was to occur at the very beginning of this. It was actually the only offering that was to occur with something that contained leaven. There were two loaves of leaven bread supposed to be baked as a wave offering in this particular feast. And then there's the Feast of the Ingathering. Now you may recognize the title Feast of the Booths or Feast of the Tabernacle or Sukkoth. This is all the same feast. And it was done to be reminiscent of and to remind them and commemorate the way the Israelites had lived since they had come out of the land of Egypt. And unbeknownst to them, the way they would live for the next 40 years as they were disobedient to God and weren't allowed and to, they had to move around and they would literally live in tents. That's what the booths translates to. These were tents that the people would reside in. But it would be about their departure. And each of the feasts, all of the feasts contained their own offerings and sacrifices. But this particular feast, which occurred five days after the Day of Atonement, was filled with sacrifices. You can read for yourself the account in Leviticus describing the number of sacrifices, but ultimately for an eight-day period, 192 animal sacrifices occur amongst the people of Israel for the purpose of reminding them and demonstrating to the Israelites the true cost of their sin. Much as we should be reminded. especially when we partake of the Lord's Supper, the only supper feast that we are commanded to continue. That we are to be reminded of the true cost of our sin, which was the blood of Christ on Calvary's cross. So we no longer do any of these feasts, right? But the significance of the feast, the reason that they existed was about the saving work of God. And ultimately, that saving work was found in the person of Christ. In Hebrews 9, verse 23 through 28, it says, therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, mere copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy places year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once, at the consumption of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. the single sacrifice that covers all sacrifices, and inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once after this comes judgment. So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await. Since he, Christ, himself, was the one sacrifice to bear the sin of the elect, we are no longer bound by sacrifices, but each gathering of the people of God. Which, by the way, the three-time repetition in the Old Testament reminds us that this should be repeatedly. that this celebration, this time of gathering should be done often. And it should be a celebration and a reminder that the once-for-all sacrifice that brought us out of the bondage of sin, of the sanctification that He will sanctify us with, the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land for the Israelites. That's the picture of our sanctification and the full and complete welcoming into the presence of the Almighty God as we are glorified. In John chapter seven, verse 37, we find these words. Now on the last day, the great day of the feast. Now I want you to notice the words the feast. This specific feast that he's talking about here is the feast of the ingathering. And so at the end of the feast of the ingathering on the last day, the great day, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Now remember, this feast, this feast of the ingathering, once again commemorating the journey from Egypt to the promised land, one that is marked with shaking water for life, Jesus identifies himself as the fulfillment of that by proclaiming that he was the water of life. Philip Rykin rightly says regarding us gaining a true understanding of our salvation through events and feasts of the Old Testament, that Jesus is the source of our sanctification, the first fruits of our resurrection, the Lord of the harvest, the water of life, and the sacrifice for our sin. This is the gospel according to Moses as recorded in Exodus chapter 23. Now here we don't only just find reminders that Christ is fulfillment of all the law and the prophets. We also get specific instructions regarding worship. Here we have commands. I'm gonna read the commands to you that are found in verses 16, 17, or excuse me, 15, 17, 18, and 19. First is that none should appear before him empty-handed. Second is that you shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. Third, you shall not leave the fat of my feast till morning. Fourth, you shall bring in the choice first fruits of the ground. And number five, you shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. We'll get to that one in just a minute. Each of these things teaches us something individually regarding our spiritual service of worship. Each of these has an impact on your life as a believer here today. The Greek word, remember in Romans 12, 1, the Greek word used there is service. We add the word of worship to bring out the context because worship has to be defined as all the actions of our life bringing glory and honor to God. With this in mind, notice the command that we see here in verse 15. And none shall appear before me empty-handed as one who is bought by the blood of Christ and comes before him daily giving your life. You never come before him empty-handed. You are simply every single day turning everything that you have over to him. Now, this is not an effort to win salvation. This is not an effort to work ourself into salvation. This is out of a response to the salvation that he has given, that we surrender everything, moment by moment, our full life daily to the living God. Then secondly, the second statement that we find, the second command that we find here regarding you shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. There's a couple of different ways that this particular statement is understood. First is, it is understood that blood represented the cost of salvation and that the leaven obviously is the sin because it describes throughout scripture. Leaven is used as a description of the pervasiveness of sin in our life. But if you compare that, and if you compare that command to Romans, and you begin to understand that we are not to devour salvation that has been purchased by the precious blood of Christ. Paul in 6, 12, and 13 describes it like this. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust, and do not go on presenting your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. The blood of the sacrifice was for God and God alone. It was placed on the altar and it was not to be mixed with the leaven." In other words, that the sin in our lives was to be pulled out, that we were to continually seek to do right as a result of the work of Christ. on Calvary's cross. The second understanding of this passage actually deals with pagan practices of the people surrounding the Israelites. In many of these pagan religion, these practices that they had, we would define today as something called sympathetic magic. That is a ritualistic use of an object to gain influence over the object or the event that you're trying to. And so in this case, using the example of blood, blood was considered life, and so the consumption of blood by either drinking it or cooking it into food or baking it into dishes, hence the mention of leavened bread, would be able to strengthen or prolong the life of an individual. And so the idea here is that this prohibiting would directly, again, deal with idolatry and lack of faith in the people of God as they came before God. But either way, both of these contain merit, and in the final analysis, both point to a prevention of sin continuing to reign in the life of a believer. In other words, that as one bought by Christ, we are not supposed to continually put Christ to death on the cross with our sin. We're not supposedly to continue in our sin. We are to seek to live holy. And then we come to the command regarding the fat not being left. Now this was a specific command given to the people later on in Leviticus regarding sacrifices, but the idea and the understanding was that that fat belonged to God. It was the choicest, juiciest portion. It was, even though we don't like it today, most people, it was a desire for the people back then. And so to give that to God, would be that you were giving him the best of your life. And if you allowed it to remain until morning would mean that you were holding something back from God, which actually ties in to the next command we're giving regarding the offering. Now this specific one, you shall bring the choice firstfruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God, ought to recall to your mind the historical event surrounding, or the historical narrative surrounding Cain and Abel. And it has to do with properly honoring God and our inward attitude towards that honoring. The problem wasn't what Cain brought, the problem was the heart with which Cain brought it. It wasn't that he desired to honor God. This is why Abel's was acceptable in the sight of God. The command here is not that we are just to give the first fruits, but the best fruits. God in everything we do, in everything that we are part of, in all of our worship, in our daily worship, in our daily spiritual service of worship, as we gather corporately, it is to be the best of what we have to offer. But if you think about our life, how often do we really offer Him the best of our time, of our efforts, of other things we desire? We will simply push Him to the side for those purposes. And then the last statement, which is probably the most unique statement, it's actually only found three times in scripture. dealing with this understanding of boiling a kid goat, a young goat in the milk of its mother. Now, again, this is one of those points that they have not fully realized the significance of, that the best that they can come up with are a couple of different things. It's been used by Jewish people as a command not to mix meat and dairy. It is that one of the other two times that it's found in scripture actually does deal with the dietary laws of the Jewish people. There is also people who have thought it had something to do with not taking the pascal lamb and its mother at the same time. In other words, killing a goat who was actually having more goats. You wouldn't want to do that because that's going to affect your farm later down the road. It's foolishness. But I believe, and as I work through all of these different explanations, I think the one that most appropriately aligns with the theme of the text has to do with, again, the practice of sympathetic obedience and proper, sympathetic magic and proper obedience to God in covenant because the Canaanite text of that day, there was a description of this being done and the purpose, what they would do was they would slaughter the young goat, boil it in the milk of its mother and the hope was that once they did this, that it would do a couple of things. One, that it would strengthen and make the herds more robust. And then secondly, they would actually sprinkle this cooked mixture on the plants and the trees and the crops in an effort to make the harvest more bountiful. Either way, the danger again is that the trust that is placed in anything other than God for provision is sin. In our lives, we tend to look to God or look to other things for provision in our life versus trusting God who has commanded us. Now, all of these things, again, individually, they each speak to specific things, but collectively, they still teach to us a truth about proper worship before God. They talk to us about that proper worship, that we should take great heed, that proper and true and right worship before God is an absolute requirement of worshiping God. Hopefully you've seen some of the posts we have put on Facebook regarding the regulative principle of worship. That's a very important truth. because it talks about that we don't worship God in any way other than what is specifically prescribed in the word of the living God. We don't add to it. We don't do excess. We don't put on dog and pony shows. It is according to God's word and God's word alone, the singing of psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, prayer, and the proclamation of the word of God. And that is the right way to worship. So as we bring this thing to a wrap, the concept that you've probably forgotten by now of sola deo gloria, to the glory of God alone, is the heart of our Christian walk. Life, faith, practice, and reminds us that everything in our lives, including our worship, has to be focused on God. Again, we're reminded Paul writes Colossians 3, 17, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. reflecting a life fully surrendered to God, echoing the scripture's call to worship God alone without distraction, without idolatry. Exodus 23, 13, again, reinforces us this by urging us to not even mention the name of other God, to completely keep them out of our mouths, to focus all of our worship and all of our trust on Yahweh alone. As we understand God's glory, it changes our approach to all of our worship. We begin to understand them as acts of devotion to the Almighty. And God has called us to gather with his people, to offer our best, to remember that Christ has fulfilled all of these sacrifices. When we observe this through this lens, we are continually reminded that everything we do is a response to God's unmerited grace, designed for his glory and our good. It is my prayer that we live daily in light of this truth, seeking to glorify God in all things. Let's pray. Most gracious heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your truth. We thank you for the opportunity and the honor to bring you glory in all things. We pray that as we prepare to depart from this place today, Father, that all that we do in our life would be in devotion, in supplication, in obedience, in order to bring glory and honor to you. Father, we love you, we thank you, we praise you, we give you the honor, we give you all of the glory, asking all of this in your most holy and heavenly name. Amen.