“Be ye separate”
We have many teachers to teach us the details, but I have been called upon to be one who asks ‘Why does the bible say what it says?’
I look for precepts and concepts that explain the reason for certain statement and not just the statements alone.
In the tremendous passages of scripture we will be looking at today, I see precepts and concepts that transcend time and create bridges between the Old law and New Covenant grace.
The Old Law foreshadows NT precepts.
Definition of a precept: A commandment or direction given as a rule of action or conduct.
Let’s turn to Ex. 23: 1-19
This chapter in Exodus lays out many commands that where part of the OT covenant. It also lays out what God would do in response to the people’s obedience. Now I realize this is OT law. Yet I also believe that in the OT law there are principles that apply to NT covenant relationships with God: Precepts or concepts that apply throughout the time of man.
Make a mental note of the “thou shalt” statements. These “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not” declarations where binding law upon ancient Israel. God expected these commandments to be obeyed.
- Vs. 1 “Thou shalt not…false report”
- Vs. 2 “Thou shalt not…follow…evil”
- Vs. 6 “Thou shalt not…(trouble) the poor”
- Vs. 8 “Thou shalt take no gift”
- Vs. 9 “Thou shalt not oppress”
- Vs. 15 “Thou shalt keep the feast”
- Vs. 18 “Thou shalt not offer the blood”
- Vs. 19 “Thou shalt bring”
Now let’s focus on vs. 20-31
Exodus 23:20&21
Vs. 20 “Behold, I Send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.”
Vs. 21 “Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.”
This “Angel” is the Lord himself. And the Lord has set before us many things that we are to adhere to in principle. Make note of “hear his voice” “provoke him not” and “he will not pardon your transgressions” in a New Testament sense “unconfused sin”.
Exodus 23:24
“Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works”
This vs. embodies one very clear points that we today should hear. God commanded His people to not adopt the morals of the society around them.
Israel, as the biblical narrative shows us, failed to adhere to this command fully and in turn lost much of their protection from God.
Let’s look at the flip side of obedience.
Exodus 23: 25-31
Notice the “I will’s”
- “I will take sickness” away vs. 25
- I will fulfill “The number of thy days” vs. 26
- “I will send my fear before thee” and destroy “your enemy” vs. 27
- I will send your enemies running vs. 27
- “I will send hornets” to trouble those who trouble you vs. 28
- “I will not drive them out from before you” quickly least the ground suffer (i.e. NT parallel: not removing the tares from the good wheat until it is the right time).
- “I will drive them out from before you” vs. 30
- “I will set thy bounds” vs. 31
Wow, when God’s people are obedient God is a busy God. Do you see the amazing amount of cause and effect in these passages? If my people will obey, I will do many good things in return.
This is the principle and or the precept that I’m trying to help you to see today: the precepts of cause and effect that are an active ingredient in our walk with God during any age or under any covenant Old or New.
I would like to suggest to you today the follow precept!
- Could it be, under the New Covenant, that believers who conform to the ways of the world will lose the protection of God over their lives, not to mention restrained access to the promises of God?
We cannot, in New Testament faith, have God’s blessing and presence in our lives while we are at the same time participating in the sinful ways of the world around us. If we are not set apart unto His glory then we are separated apart from His glory. If we believe we can maintain worldliness within our relationship with God then we diminish our doctrine of God. Is He not immutable – which means unchangeable? If we create a doctrine that changes God then we err, because God is unchangeable, and God will not be among us as He intends to be until we get our theology straightened out.
Remember Ex. 23:21 “hear his voice” “provoke him not” – “he will not pardon your transgressions”.
Someone once said “A Text without a context is simply a pretext.” So let’s search for New Testament context to show you what I’m trying to communicate.
2 Corinthians 6: 17-18
Vs. 17 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
Vs. 18 “And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”
Wait a minute; is this Old Testament or New? This is just the point.
Precepts are embodied principles that transcend dispensations.
The concept of separation from evil is essentially an Old Testament concept and is an underlying principle throughout the Old Testament.
Yet the precept of separation from sin started in the Garden of Eden and is an inherent part of our right relationship with God, a natural law that governs the spiritual realm.
As best as I can tell there are at least 2 dimensions to this precept of separation. One is a negative and the other is a positive (cause and effect).
- The negative – We must separate ourselves morally and spiritually from sin and anything else that is contrary to Jesus Christ, His righteousness, and the Holy Word of God. I called this a negative because it is the “thou shalt” aspect of this percept of biblical separation. It is our responsibility – that which is commanded of us if we are to receive the reciprocal blessings of what God “will do”.
- The positive – As we separate ourselves from worldly influence and compromise – we will draw even nearer to God – ever increasing in our close fellowship with the Lord through prayer, worship, reading and studying the Word, and serving the Lord daily. This spiritual law becomes written in our hearts as our hearts become fully given to God.
This two fold separation concept results in a relationship with God like unto the Sons and daughters of a heavenly Father.
Consider the following 5 points:
In the Old Testament God called his people to be holy, different and separated from all other people, literally.
In the New Testament God calls believers to be separate:
- (a) from a morally bankrupt world view and ungodly compromise.
- (b) Withdraw fellowship from those in the church system who sin and refuse to repent. This would include withdrawal from false teaches that deny biblical truth.
Our Attitude – as we adhere to this biblical principle of separation we should:
- Hate sin
- Disdain any measure of social unrighteousness
- Stand firm against corrupt world systems
We have been commanded by God in both the Old Testament and the New Testament to oppose false doctrines so that’s a given.
Lastly, on this point of our attitude; we must pursue, and earnestly seek after holiness in the fear of the Lord.
The Purpose of Separation – This separation precept for us as God’s children will cause us to:
- Preserve in faith, purity and godly love
- To love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength
- To walk rightly and therein let our light shine in a dark world full of corruption, testifying in that world about the truth and blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and benefits of walking rightly with Him.
If we function rightly – in this precept of separation, God Himself rewards us by drawing near to us. Remember the “I Will’s” in Exodus?
God, through Christ Jesus will become our protector, our provider and our heavenly, Fatherly, care giver.
God has promised in His revelation to us to be everything that a good Father should be. He will be our councilor and guide if we will listen. He will love and cherish us as His own children if we do not disown Him.
I Stand in Fear and trembling to consider this fact:
Our refusal to separate ourselves from evil will eventually result in the loss of our fellowship with God – What does it profit a person to save others if they loss their own soul in the process.
We can lose our right standing with God if we refuse His truths. If we lose our right standing with God then we will also lose access to the Fathers “I will’s”.
Now, going back to Exodus:
Exodus 23: 25-26
God connects, in our text, the blessing of bread, water and the removal of sickness from among His people to their wholehearted devotion to Him and their separation from ungodly influences.
We need to exercise great caution here because we should not conclude that sickness of an individual necessarily indicates he or she has conformed to the wicked ways of society. That is simply not what I am trying to teach you. I am trying to suggest that sickness is among us because many within Christianity are compromising holiness. Hence – bad things happen to good people because of the overall state of Christianity in the world and particularly the state of Christianity in America.
It seems to me that the principle here that transports from the Old Testament into New Testament theology is that worldliness among God’s people, as a whole, will cause God to withdraw a portion of His divine protection and even His healing power from the corporate church body.
If we as a people become a compromising bunch – the withdrawal of God will effect even the most righteous among us.
I am willing to be challenged on my thinking here, yet without that challenge, I see this not as a New Testament or Old Testament concept but as a first truth, if you will, that governs our relationship with God.
I see a basic biblical principle that transcends testaments and in fact pre-dates both clear back to the Garden of Eden.
Our Hope
Psalm 65: 4
“Blessed is the man…to approach unto thee…dwell in thy courts…satisfied with the goodness of thy house”
Our greatest joy is to be near to God and enjoy close fellowship with Him through Jesus Christ; this closeness has been made possible for all true believers through Jesus Christ the righteous and His completed work – Remember He said “it is finished”.
In addition to the finished work of Christ that secures us by faith there is also the continuing work of the Holy Spirit. The bible in Hebrews 4: 16 & 7: 25 exhorts us to draw near to God continually, so that in that drawing near we might receive His mercy and strength to help us in the times of trouble and need.
One very important point here is our human tendency to base our relationship with God upon our performance of religious duty and or adherence to religious disciplines. It is unfortunate for us that we do this because it is not the things we do that secure us as much as it is why we do them. In the New Testament Covenant we do what we do because we are changed from the inside out.
My motivation to read my bible, or pray, or reach out to the lost is not to earn points with God or to adhere to some religious discipline that secures my good standing with a church. I do these things because I Love Jesus and in building my relationship with Him I then do these other things as part of that relationship building process.
If we are not careful, we can go through the motions of religious activity and decline in our personal relation with Jesus until we no longer know him. God forbid that any of us would ever stand before Him and hear him say “depart from me…for I never knew you”
It is, in my estimation, one of our greatest points of shame in this life: to treat this blood bought nearness to God; this amazing privilege we have as New Testament believers; lightly.
By treating this great privilege lightly we are saying to God that maybe this great privilege is just not as important to us or is somehow unworthy of too much of our time or consideration. ‘Because, Lord, don’t you know how busy we are down here and we can only give you so much of our time.’
This is shameful – This is wrong – This is dangerous!
My mind leaps at this point to a New Testament story of a very self willed person; “The Prodigal Son” parable of Luke 15.
He journeyed into a far country, and there wasted his substance. But in Luke 15: 17 “he came to himself”.
Before the church or a sinner can come fully into God will, they must see their true state, be it slavery to sin on the part of the sinner, or be it man made religion on the part of the church, both result in certain levels of separation from God as opposed to separation from evil.
The sinner is separated unto damnation and hell fire, and the willful church unto destruction of its work because it was not the Lords will.
Our Father longs with great love and compassion for His prodigals to return unto the fold of His leadership. Each need’s to change their mind about what constitutes obedience, and confess, “I have sinned” or “I have departed from the Lords perfect will”. Our confession demonstrates our humility.
The only power that I know of that is a great enough power to save a sinner or straiten out a misguided church is the power of the Holy Spirit. This is why I am so radical about promoting the work of the Holy Spirit in the church and in the world. Neither has a chance of walking rightly with God without this mighty power working in us and through us.
How do Christians from many different Christian back rounds resolve their differences? By arguing, hissing at one another and/or butting heads with one another – this may be what we actually do but it is not the preferred method!
More likely, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can be brought to a level playing field.
Are we willing to:
- to come to our senses
- separate ourselves from evil
- separate ourselves unto God through Jesus Christ
- and let God lead us into whatever it is that He wants to lead us into.
If we ever get to the place where we can attain these basic percepts into our faith I cannot even image what might happen among us, in us and through us.
Some things I can imagine however would be things like the following:
- Greater release of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
- The convicting power of the Holy Spirit, to confess un-confessed sin, to confess secret rebellion, or to confess a lack of love for those we disagree with.
- A release of healing Power: Body, Soul, and Spirit.
Do you obey “his voice” or have you “provoked him”?
Have you bowed down to worldly influence?
Have you separated yourself from the ways of the world while letting your light shine in that world?
If we seek God first, our “thou shalt”, God will meet with us!
He will:
- Release His Spirit
- Heal Us
- Secure our days, good or bad we can walk rightly in saving grace
- Protect us while we are in the storms of life
- Set our bounds – in other words secure our lives in this life and in the hereafter
Amen