Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20090823.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part I: God's Deliverance Of Israel From Egypt, Exodus 1:1-15:21
I. The Removal Of Israel From Egypt, Exodus 12:37-15:21
1. God's Antidote To Israel's Ungodly Peer Pressure
(Exodus 12:37-13:22)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    We face great ungodly peer pressure today at various levels:

    (1) On July 23, 2009, House Republican Leader John Boehner and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter issued a statement on the House health care bill warning that its section on end of life treatments may lead to " . . . government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law." (www.republicanleader.house.gov)

    In contrast, the President who supported the bill reacted, saying on August 11, 2009 that " . . . he is 'not in favor' of so-called 'death panels' in which the government would decide who does and who does not qualify for care to keep them alive." (www.cbsnews.com)

    However, "Talk of Connecticut" legendary local radio talk show host, Brad Davis, then reported that a Senate version of the bill omitted reference to end of life treatments because the House version could be interpreted to support government-encouraged euthanasia!

    Lots of Americans thus suspect dire incompetence or sinister motives in their elected officials, and this along with the "poignant and unscripted personal tales that explain their distrust of proposed reforms" ("Friend or foe?", The Economist, p. 24-25, August 15th-21st, 2009) has scared and infuriated many voters into pressuring officials at town meetings not to support a government-run health bill!

    (2) We face errant peer pressure from evangelical leaders, too: the August 10, 2009 issue of USA TODAY, p. 7A, ran the article, "We believe in evolution -- and God" by two Nazarene college professors who critiqued our pure creation view of Genesis 1. They hold "'the science' undergirding this 'young earth creationism' comes from a narrow, literalistic and relatively recent interpretation of Genesis . . ."

    Actually, our interpretation was the first one in Church History, and we hold the Bible was meant to be interpreted just as "narrowly" as any scientist would want his own writings to be read! Yet, the pressure continues for us to abandon the pure creationist view as if it were false!

    (3) Ungodly peer pressure affects us personally: my wife and I recently received news of the wedding of a "conservative" Christian we know that was so unbiblical on several counts, we cannot respond to the news positively, and thus risk offending longtime associates! It left us respecting the similar peer pressure some in our Church often face!

    Thus, we ask, "How do we handle ungodly peer pressure in the culture and in our personal relationships?!"

    Need: "How may we deal effectively with ungodly peer pressure we face both in the culture and in our personal relationships?!"

  1. Israel faced cultural and personal faithless peer pressure from the "mixed multitude" that left Egypt with her, Exodus 12:37-38:
    1. When Israel departed from Egypt, a "mixed multitude" accompanied her, a group of culturally fellow but godless Semites and Egyptian sympathizers who later led Israel to lust for Egypt's food instead of accepting God's provision of manna, Exodus 12:37-38 with Numbers 11:4-6; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Exodus 12:38.
    2. This lust grew out of unbelief in God when He humbled Israel with a meager provision of manna to develop her faith in Him, cf. Deut. 8:6.
  2. Thus, to COUNTER the "mixed multitude's" influence to distrust Him, God showed His faithfulness from the START of the exodus:
    1. God evidenced His faithfulness in the speed by which He delivered Israel, Ex. 12:39: Israel was thrust out of Egypt in such haste, she had to bake her bread dough before its leaven could make it rise.
    2. God evidenced His faithfulness in the timing with which He delivered Israel, Exodus 12:40-41: Israel left Egypt 430 years to the day after God had promised Israel's patriarch, Abraham, that He would deliver Israel from foreign bondage and bring her to inherit Canaan. (Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 370 in citing Harold Hoehner, "The Duration of the Egyptian Bondage," Bib. Sac., 126. Oct.-Dec. 1969:306-16)
    3. God evidenced His faithfulness in how He protected Israel while delivering her from Egypt, Exodus 13:17-18: God led Israel into the wilderness for the maturation of her faith and not up the coast of the Mediterranean Sea lest she faithlessly flee in soon facing war there.
    4. God gave evidence of His faithfulness in supplying the tangible evidence of His past deliverance of forefather, Joseph, Ex. 13:19:
      1. Moses took Joseph's mummy with him in line with Joseph's dying wish that his body leave Egypt for Canaan at the exodus, 13:19.
      2. In the context, this was a great tangible sign of God's faithfulness:
        1. God had delivered Joseph out bondage in Egyptian to rule under Pharaoh in blessed fulfillment of God's prophetic dreams to Joseph, cf. Genesis 37:5-11 with 37:28 and 42:6-9a.
        2. For Israel then to take along Joseph's body prepared as an Egyptian official's mummy was great evidence that God Who had kept His Word to Joseph would keep His Word to Israel in not only delivering her from Egyptian bondage as He had Joseph, but to bless her as He had him in giving her Canaan!
    5. God dramatically evidenced His faithfulness in the means by which He guided Israel in delivering her, Ex. 13:20-22; Gen. 15:15-21:
      1. God led Israel in a pillar of cloud by day (smoke) and a pillar of fire by night (fire) all during her journey to Canaan, Ex. 13:20-22.
      2. These symbols recalled God's two symbols of His presence in the smoke and fire in His 430-year-old Genesis 15:15-17 promise to Abraham. These symbols stayed with Israel all during the 40 years she spent on her journey from Egypt to Canaan, revealing God was faithfully focusing all those years on fulfilling that promise He had made to Abraham, Gen. 15:18-21; Ex. 40:38 and Ex. 16:35!
  3. God EMPHASIZED His FAITHFULNESS in the ORDINANCES He gave Israel to COUNTER the faithless "mixed multitude":
    1. In the Passover ordinance, God emphasized Israel's need to stay true to Him opposite the "mixed multitude's" influence, Exodus 12:42-51:
      1. In giving the Passover ordinance in view of the "mixed multitude" (Exodus 12:38, 42), God worked to exclude those who were NOT qualified from keeping the ordinance, Exodus 12:43-45, 47-49.
      2. Thus, He urged Israel to separate from those not dedicated to Him so as to check the "mixed multitude's" bad influence of unbelief!
    2. In the ordinance of the Redemption of the Firstborn, God emphasized the power of His deliverance of Israel from Egypt to counter the unbelief in Him as stirred up by the "mixed multitude," Ex. 13:1-16:
      1. In instituting the Redemption of the Firstborn, God repeatedly said it would recall His power in delivering Israel, Ex. 13:9b, 14b, 16b.
      2. This ordinance was to be heeded particularly for instructing future generations of Israel to trust in God's power, Ex. 13:8-9, 14. This way, the future ungodly influence of the "mixed multitude" was to be countered so that future Israel might trust in God's provision!
Application: To handle ungodly peer pressure, may we (1) trust in Christ as Savior to be saved (John 3:16) and (2) rely upon the Holy Spirit for behavior control, Galatians 5:16-23. (3) Then, may we (a) SEEK for God's encouraging EVIDENCES of His FAITHFULNESS (b) that He ALWAYS SUPPLIES (c) to KEEP HEEDING HIM versus the PRESSURE of our ungodly PEERS!

Lesson: Israel was to HEED God's CONTINUAL EVIDENCES of FAITHFULNESS to OVERCOME the UNBELIEF of godless PEERS!

Conclusion:

 God wonderfully illustrated this lesson in our summer vacation:

(1) My wife and I had traveled one day to the Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, to view its dinosaur tracks. There, we heard an official talk to some park visitors and claim that hundreds of millions of evolutionary years had elapsed since the tracks were made.

We recoiled at such error being stated as factual to the public, but were appalled to see a mother point to some exhibits and tell her toddler, "Look, Honey, these tracks were made 200 million years ago!"

Then, amid all this disheartening peer pressure, we noticed that one of the exhibits to which this mother had pointed was that of fossilized raindrop tracks! Whitcomb and Morris in their book, The Genesis Flood (1978), p. 166-168, claim the fluid environment involved makes the fossilization of raindrop tracks impossible unless "(s)ome sudden and catastrophic action" of the earth occurs just as the raindrops fall, action that Genesis 7:11-12 literally describes occurred at the 4,000-year-old Genesis Flood! Yet, raindrop tracks and ripple impressions are "preserved in such great numbers and in such perfection" unlike what occurs today that it provides significant evidence of the worldwide catastrophic Genesis Flood! (Ibid.)

I recalled and told these facts to my wife, and we realized God had arranged for that raindrop track fossil to be formed 4,000 years ago at the Flood, then to be found and put at that spot in the Dinosaur State Park to encourage us that day to adhere to the literal view of Genesis!

(2) Later, we saw another exhibit in the dome of a complete fossil of a dinosaur with its long tail curved up to point toward its curved neck and head as it had died apparently writhing in agony like any other reptile! Its stomach held the bones of a smaller dinosaur, evidence it had been buried rapidly and catastrophically in the Flood!

(3) We also saw a sign in the dome indicating the dinosaurs had died out quickly from an undisclosed cause! The Genesis Flood and climate change after it would explain that fact, Ibid., p. 279-280!

Thus, God had arranged for the evidences we needed to lead us to keep trusting His Word versus the errant peer pressure we faced just as surely as He had given ancient Israel the evidence she needed to trust in Him versus the peer pressure of the "mixed multitude".

May we trust God to give us all the evidence we need to counter godless peer pressure, and may we heed it to do His will!