Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20100321.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part II: God's Forming Israel To Heed Him, Exodus 15:22-40:38
H. God's Clarifications Of The Ten Commandments In His Exodus 20:22-23:33 "Book Of The Covenant"
4. Clarifications On Spiritual And Civil Accountability
(Exodus 22:18-23:9)
  1. In giving Israel His Ten Commandments, GOD CLARIFIED the REASONS behind these commands in the "Book of the Covenant" supplied in Exodus 20:22-23:33, Bible Knowledge Com., O. T. , p. 140; www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org, "Book of the Covenant."
  2. At Exodus 22:18-23:9, God revealed He intended that His Ten Commandments were to be heeded in accountability to HIM:
    1. In the spiritual realm, Israel was to sense her deep accountability to GOD above all other false religious entities, Exodus 22:18-20:
      1. The commands in Exodus 22:18-19 to execute witches and those who practiced bestiality countered practices in Canaanite paganism, and anticipated Israel's need to separate from it once she entered the Promised Land, Ibid., Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 143.
      2. The Exodus 22:20 command summed up this section, prohibiting all worship made to any god but the Lord as a capital crime!
    2. In the civil realm, Israel was to sense her deep accountability to GOD above all other entities, Exodus 22:21-23:9:
      1. God directed His people not to mistreat others whose station was BELOW their own in accountability to HIM, Exodus 22:21-27:
        1. Israel was not to oppress foreigners in her land, for she had known the pain of such a trial from which GOD had delivered HER; this implied that Israel's people were to have learned not to trouble foreigners, Exodus 22:21; 23:9 with Exodus 2:23-25.
        2. Israel was not to mistreat widows or orphans lest GOD hear their cry and take vengeance in their behalf, Exodus 22:22-24.
        3. God's people were to lend money to one another without charging any interest, and they were not keep needed livelihood items of the poor as collateral in loan agreements lest GOD hear their cry and take vengeance in their behalf, Exodus 22:25-27.
      2. Not only regarding those who were below them in station, God's people were to avoid mistreating those whose station in life was ABOVE their own in accountability to God, Exodus 22:28-31:
        1. Israel was not to curse the Name of God above her, Ex. 22:28a.
        2. Since human rulers were established under divine permission as well (cf. Romans 13:1-5), the people of Israel were not to curse their human rulers, either, Exodus 22:28b.
        3. In line with these duties to those above them in station, God called Israel to give Him the firstborn of her produce, her sons and her animals (Ex. 22:29-30), and to hold to high holiness in not eating animals slain by unclean animals, Ex. 22:31; Ibid.
      3. In summary, the people of Israel were to be IMPARTIAL to ALL other folk around them in accountability to God, Exodus 23:1-9:
        1. In keeping with the previous context, Exodus 23:1-9 (as noted by Exodus 23:7b) added an assortment of commands to be kept in accountability to the Lord.
        2. Specifically, Israel was to avoid spreading a slanderous report or join in supporting such a report to another person's harm, all in implied accountability to the Lord , Exodus 23:1.
        3. In accountability to God, the people of Israel were not to follow a crowd of wrongdoers to pervert justice, Exodus 23:2.
        4. God's people were to avoid showing unjust favoritism to the poor in courts of law in accountability to God, Exodus 23:3.
        5. If the people of Israel found an enemy's animal in a state of need, they were not to avoid helping the afflicted animal in accountability to God, Exodus 23:4-5.
        6. God's people were also not to pervert the justice due to the poor in their lawsuits in accountability to God, Exodus 23:6.
        7. The people of Israel were to avoid participating in the bringing of false charges, especially not to kill the innocent or righteous in accountability to God, Exodus 23:7.
        8. Israel was not to take bribes in courts of law as bribes distorted true judgment, and that in accountability to God, Exodus 23:8.
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Accountability, real accountability, is often sorely lacking in today's world, making living in it a perilous enterprise for many:

(1) The often politically liberal paper, USA TODAY, ran the editorial, "Obama promises openness, delivers a mixed bag" on March 15, 2010 (p. 22A), that noted: "When Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency in 2008, he repeatedly . . . promised . . . the most open, transparent and accountable government in U. S. history . . . [Yet] (t)he president's oft-repeated rhetoric about developing health reform in the open (even on C-SPAN) ran into the political realities . . ."

Indeed, "House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the [health care] measure without having members vote on it . . ." (Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane, "House may try to pass Senate health-care bill without voting on it", washingtonpost.com, 3/16/2010; brackets ours) The tactic employs a "self-executing rule" that lets officials permit the bill to pass indirectly so "nervous lawmakers would be given room to argue that they hadn't directly supported it." (3/19/2010, Republican-American, AP story, "Parliamentary tactic could give politicians some cover," p. 4A)

In light of such a raw lack of accountability to the voters and arguably to the U. S. Constitution, and as 1/6 of the economy is involved, many fear the future of health care and of the nation!

(2) The March 15, 2010 issue of the Republican-American, p. 5A, ran Stephen Ohlemacher's AP story, "Social Security benefits will outpace taxes later this year" that claimed: "Social Security's trust funds will shrink, running out of money by 2037 . . . [as] (f)or more than two decades . . . Congress has been accused of raiding the Social Security trust funds to pay for other programs . . ." (brackets ours)

With such a strident lack of accountability to the public on the part of Congress, many wonder how to survive in retirement!

(3) The mainstream media has a huge accountability lack with the public: even the USA TODAY issue cited above ran Rod Dreher's article, "Studying voodoo isn't a judgment" (p. 23A) that held: "Years of survey data show that U. S. journalists lean strongly to the left" and refuse to report on such issues as the impact of voodoo on Haitian culture and how some Muslim groups teach radicalism to their youth.

So, we ask, "In a world where real accountability to rightful authority or even to the public is sorely lacking, how can we live?"

Need: "In a world perilously lacking a sense of true accountability to authorities and to the public, how are we able to live well in it?!"

Application: To live effectively in a world that perilously lacks a sense of true accountability to proper authority, may we (1) trust in Christ as Savior to receive eternal life (John 3:16) and be indwelt by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). (2) Thus equipped, may we (a) rely on the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16-23) to (b) heed God's Word (c) as motivated by our accountability to God! (3) We will influence others as beacons of accountability to HIM!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 Our sermon introduction alluded to the peril of living in today's world as real accountability is lacking in key institutions, causing many fear on issues such as health care, retirement and social stability.

Well, in applying this message, even now, we can function well in each of these realms REGARDLESS of such problems (as follows):

(1) The July 29,1993 New England Journal of Medicine article, "Reducing Health Care Costs By Reducing The Need And Demand For Medical Services," by James F. Fries, C. Everett Koop, et al., cited the National Center for Health Statistics and the United States Department of Health and Human Services as claiming that preventable illnesses comprise around 70 % of our nation's health care costs! It added these illnesses arise from smoking, obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes, or from poor habits, especially a poor diet!

So, as with Paul's 1 Timothy 5:23 practical word to Timothy, we can avoid lots of health care troubles by use of GOOD HABITS!

(2) Regarding our vulnerability to a troubled Social Security system, we can minimize our vulnerability to that system by applying 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 as follows: (a) If we stick to good habits as suggested above, we will prolong our strength and our days so that (b) we can delay our need to draw on Social Security benefits to build up our long-term monthly income from it (that Congress will likely reduce to try to keep the system solvent), continuing to work to earn a living for as long as possible. (c) Besides, serving God should be our goal, not living in needless ease! (Philippians 1:21; John 21:15-17)

(3) On the issue of mainstream media misinformation and its negative effects on people, we can rely on the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16-23) to discern the truth about the world (John 16:13) through studying and applying God's Word to living (Isaiah 8:20; 2 Timothy 1:13-14). Then, we can share with others the truth, and the joyful hope of Christ's righteous, coming Kingdom. We can thus lead others to overcome their fears and anger over the failure of human institutions around them as we direct them to believe on and to focus Christ in heaven Who sits enthroned over the whole universe, Colossians 3:1-2!



In so doing, we will serve as beacons to a life that is stable and joyful before a world that desperately needs it!