He will do great things for them

"He will do great things for them" - Exodus 23:20-33 Here God promises to send His Angel (the Lord Himself) ahead of the Israelites, to lead them to the Promised Land and to drive out the pagan inhabitants. If these people would turn away from idolatry and obey the Lord, "He would do great things for them."

I. The boundaries would extend "from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines and from the wilderness to the Euphrates."

A. Let us look at the commandment to drive out the inhabitants of the earth from before them.

1. These people had to fulfill their duties to God.

2. If you love God with all your might, this is your truth too.

3. Notice the commandment to drive out the inhabitants of the earth "from before them."

4. Any alliance union, idolatry, or intermingling (mixing one thing with another, confounding) was forbidden.

5. God was going to deliver them from all their enemies, but they had to help.

6. This highlights an important spiritual principle: God gives us victory over our enemies (the world, the flesh, and the devil), "but expects us to fight the good fight of faith”.

7. The verse Exodus 23:33 is complemented by 2 Corinthians 6:14-18:

a. Paul (2 Corinthians 6:14) tells you to be open with Him in your affection.

b. Now he explains to them that one way to do this is to separate themselves from all kinds of sin and unrighteousness.

c. No doubt he is thinking of some of the false teachers who had invaded the assembly in Corinth.

d. It is a clear instruction that the believer must separate himself from unbelievers, from "iniquity," from "darkness," from Belial, from idols.

e. A Christian should not marry an unconverted (unbeliever) person (does not believe what you believe).

f. In business, the same.

g. A Christian should not partner with someone who does not know the Lord.

h. Where the partner wants nothing to do with the Lord, much less is faithful to the Lord, there is no purity, nor does he obey what is pure.

i. One should not be a partaker of their worldly pleasures.

j. The ungodly, unbeliever is not a member of Christ's church.

k. What fellowship justice has with injustice describes the whole sphere of moral conduct.

l. Light and darkness have to do with the knowledge of the things of God.

m. Christ and Belial have to do with the realm (space and set of persons) of authority, in other words, the person or thing whom one recognizes as master in one's life.

n. Believer and unbeliever have to do with the scope (space, perimeter limit of a site) of faith.

o. It is God or idols, that should be worshipped at all.

8. Justice and injustice cannot have communion: they are moral opposites.

9. Nor can light have communion... with the darkness.

10. When light enters a room (from being or staying, coming), the darkness vanishes.

11. The two cannot exist together at the same time.

12. (v. 15) Belial’s name means "unworthiness" (unworthy, mean, low, bad) or wickedness. (an evil).

13. Here we have a name of the Bad One.

14. Can there ever be peace between Christ and Satan?

15. Of course not!

16. Nor can there be fellowship (union, bond, link, connection) between a believer and an unbeliever.

17. To attempt to do so is to commit treason against the Lord.

18. (16) Idols have nothing to do with "the sanctuary of God."

19. That being so, how can believers maintain contact with idols, when they are the sanctuary of the living God?

20. You are the sanctuary of the living God.

21. It is to be known here, idols refer not only to carved images but to everything that stands between the soul and Christ.

22. It could be money, pleasure, fame, or material things.

23. The apostle finds abundant evidence "that we are" the temple of the living God: Exodus 29:45; And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God; Leviticus 26:12: And I will walk among you, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Ezekiel 37:27: My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: here is Jesus and the Church.

24. Paul expects Christians to be as zealous as Jews in keeping the holiness of God's house inviolate; And now he tells us that this house is us; It is we ourselves who are to "keep ourselves unspotted from the world."

25. (v. 17) Paul makes a defiant call to come out.

26. Quote Isaiah 52:11.

27. Here we have God's plain instructions to His people about separating from evil.

28. Christians are not to stay in the midst of it, as part of it (Isaiah 52:11 unclean), in order to remedy it.

29. "God's program is to go out."

30. In this verse, the unclean is primarily the pagan world, to be sure, but it also applies to all forms of evil, whether commercial, social, or "religious."

31. (v. 18) It is often "very difficult" for believers to sever ties that have existed for years in order to "be obedient to the word of God."

32. And I will be your Father, and you shall be my children, saith the Lord Almighty.

33. The way to stay in communion with Christ in this wicked world is to maintain communion with the Father.

34. How do you stay with Christ?

35. We must leave that circle of communion in which Jesus is not honored and exalted as the well-beloved Son of God and Savior of the world.

36. They will be able to do more for God outside of such a circle of fellowship than they will ever accomplish within it.

37. (2 Corinthians 7:1) The promises (2 Corinthians 6:17-18); I will welcome you... I will be your Father... You will be my sons and daughters.

38. In view of these wonderful promises of God, we should cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit.

39. The defilement of the flesh includes every form of physical impurity, while the defilement of the spirit encompasses the inner life, "motives," and thoughts.

40. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

41. Be afraid, give up haughtiness, arrogance and believing that you can destroy the Church of Christ, washed with His blood; here, pursuit and holiness of years.

42. It is not just letting go of evil, it's being able to be molded to the Lord Jesus Christ in our daily lives.

43. Practical sanctification is a process that continues throughout our lives.

44. We grow in the likeness of Christ until that day when we will see Him face to face and then we will be like Him for all eternity.

45. (McCheyne) “Lord, make me as holy as possible to someone on this side of heaven.” Amen.