Part 1 - Bible Study - Exodus 12:29-33

0:00Hey, man, glory to God. Welcome to the program. Welcome to the cafe, Pastor Clark. Covington here are the another episode of KJV Cafe. As always, it is a blessed day to the cafe. The sun is shining. The weather isn't too hot, amen. I'm not quite reaching for the sweatshirt yet, but it's a little cooler, which I enjoy. Got my coffee here, which is black, and also a fast-food coffee, which is a really hit or miss category, and some will surprise you, and some will let you down. I don't really drink a ton of fast-food coffee, but I do enjoy trying them all when I get a chance, and this one I've microwaved twice. So, yeah, it's on a different level now, I guess, but hey, it'll do. Oh, man, just a blessed day. I'm just happy to be here. I usually don't go out to get coffee. I make it at home, but was running air in this morning, early this morning, and there we go. Ended up with that. So, and a biscuit. Both were pretty good. Anyways, that's neither here nor there,

1:01but it's just a blessed day. I'm glad to be here with you. On the cafe, we're going to try to tackle Exodus 12, 29, 33, 33 in three parts. Let's see, because we kind of went over and did four parts in the last series, and I feel like three parts will probably cover this, but you know, I can be wrong. It's Lord willing. That's what we always say here on the cafe. But we're in Exodus 12, and there's just so many lessons. They just pour out of the scripture. I'm telling you every time I pick it up, I say, okay, what are we going to talk about today? Lord, as soon as I, there it is. Oh, this lesson, oh, that lesson. They just jump off the page, amen. When I read the Bible, it's not always that way, but I'm telling you, when I prepare for these episodes, the Lord really guides and provides. So, let's get into it. Exodus 12, starting in verse 29. And it came to pass that at midnight, the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. All right. So we look at verse 28, and it said, and the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord had commanded Moses there,

2:03and so did they. All right. So 28, we have the obedience of the Israelites. And we talked about in the last episode, this idea of godly obedience leading to fruitful results, this idea of living like they weren't forced to take the hiss up and cover the door posts and the lintel and so forth with the blood, they weren't forced, they were asked, right? We're not forced to accept the Lord as savior, we're asked. We're not forced to live for him. We are requested, right? Now that Paul writes is our reasonable service to live as a living sacrifice for him, right? David writes about the sacrifice of praise. This idea that when we live for god, it is going against our flesh, against our nature, right? Against what we might want to do in this world. There's sacrifice in there. There's there's a commitment in there. There's fidelity in there. There's thoughtfulness in there, right? And there in a lot of ways it is like a marriage. You know, if you have a marriage,

3:05or you've been in a marriage, or you have a mom and a dad, you've seen a marriage good or bad, it takes commitment. It takes commitment. When things go wrong, you know, it's for sicker or poor, how many times do you forget that? Or for sick or healthy or for poor, I got to mix them in there. But you know, it takes commitment. You know what I mean, right? Hopefully. I'm just making sure you're listening. I could have stopped. I could have gone and cut that out and re-recorded it. You would have never done. But in all seriousness, it takes commitment, right? Like, if every time my wife got on my nerves, I just took up and left, that would be lacking commitment. And if every time I got on her nerves, she'd never be around if she took up and left because I'm sure I do. You know, it takes commitment, you know, in the down times, in the hard times, in the sickness, in the unexpected things, in the ways that that marriage might compromise your goals or your point of view, or your outlook, or your convenience, or your pleasures, they may compromise it by being married

4:08as somebody. This thing, that happening that you didn't plan on, it takes commitment, takes love. And most importantly, it takes God, by the way, that secret to happy marriage is God. You know, my wife, we've been married now. We got married in 2013. And so we're in 26 of 13 years, that's got the brain muscle revving up here. I always want to say 13, 14 years. So we've been married 13 years, little more. And in that time, my wife still says, now, oh, we're still in the honeymoon phase. Well, that's not me. That's nothing I did. That's not her. That's nothing she did. That's God. We put God first, literally. And he gives us a blessed marriage. So when you see the Israelites being obedient in verse 28, and then in verse 29, it says, and it came to pass. You see, the Israelites did their part. And then God did his part. The Israelites did their part. And God did his part.

5:09First, the Israelites had to go ahead and walk by faith before they saw the Lord move. They didn't have to wait for a sign. They didn't have to say, oh, this or that, by the way, they had enough signs and wonders already. But they didn't have to like say, God, you're required to do thus and such. They just listened and did all that Moses and Aaron had commanded them, which was from God. And then God moved and did his part. Take a break. And we get back. We'll talk about a little bit about how that relates to you today. Stay tuned. It's break time here at the cafe. As always, thank you for listening. I'm so blessed that you're here with me today. As we study God's work together, I pray that this program helps you and richly blesses you. You can learn more about us at kjvcafe.com. If you have kids, we have a kids ministry kids kjv.com. All right, back to the program. So how does that relate to you today? When we talk about this idea of obedience to God leads to fruitful results. Well, let's start with the polar opposite. Disobedience leads to separation

6:10from God. Sin separates. Okay. So remember that that's sin separates. You can't have a closeness with God and you can't be fruitful for God if you're living in sin. And by the way, God then calls everybody around you that's living right to get away from you. All right, to depart from the unclean thing, to not be yoked up with the things in ways of the world, to not love the things in ways of the world. So if you're a lover of the things in ways of the world, if you're yoked up with the world, if you're living in sin, number one, you're not going to be close to God. And then number two, don't expect the Godly to be close to you. Isn't it interesting? You know, and I've talked to people about this before, how you live for God and your blessed. And again, the blessing could be very unique. It could just be a the blessing of having a good sense of humor or having peace or the blessing of having a good marriage, like I was talking about, you know, it could be the blessing of having a business that does well or a career that seems to just not, you know, a falter. It could be being a great student. You can't put two and two together,

7:11right? Yeah, how are they such a good student or a good athlete or whatever. It's just God's abundant blessing on those that are living for him. Now, I know many that live for him suffer greatly. Trust me, understand that as well. But God's blessings are upon his people. I believe that and it shows and isn't interesting how the world wants those blessings and how the world will crowd around and try to get those blessings without living for God. In fact, they're opposed to God, but they want the blessing from God. It's like Esau when he says, Oh, Father, bless me to his father who had already given the blessing to Jacob, right? You had Abraham. Abraham has Isaac, right? And then Isaac has Jacob and Esau and Esau sells off his birthright, but then he wants to be blessed. Think of it. Our obedience predicates our blessing. Our obedience predicates our blessing. It proceeds, right? So when we when we go out and live a certain way, if we live for God,

8:19then we receive the fruit of that. We reap what we sow, right? If we live in sin, how can we expect the blessing? And so the sinner says, Well, I know I won't be blessed. Clearly, I have been profane and blasphemed in all the rest. So I won't be blessed. But boy, I could try to get in on their blessing and try to kind of get creep up close to them. Well, guess what? God protects his own by saying, stay away from those sinners, right? You give them the witness and then you get out of the way, you know, a great one. And it just comes to mind right here. And I was going to move on to the next point, but I'm we're not yet. Okay. Psalm chapter one, verse one. David writes, blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor siteth in the seat of the scornful. Blessed is the man that doesn't get around these sinners, these scorners, these ungodly, and then the people living on Godly, like, I just can't figure it out. Why don't they want anything to do with me? Now, I can't figure out why they have to be separate from me.

9:23Oh, what are they? Too good, right? Well, why do why does the sinner want to get around the same? Think about it. That doesn't mean Satan some kind of perfect fashion, like they don't sin or Christians don't sin or whatever. What I mean is those that are trying their level best not to sin, those that understand rightly divide the scriptures and are living for God with their whole heart, not perfect, but with their whole heart, which by the way, God would call perfect. Job was perfect before God. He wasn't perfect. You could read him not being perfect in the book of Job, but he was perfect before God because he tried because he cared because he had faith. So again, just think about it. Obedience leads to blessing, right? When we are living for God, we can expect the blessing of peace. We can expect the blessing of God's closeness. We can expect the blessing of God's calling, which by the way, is a great blessing. You know, I'll find myself to tell my wife or my kids, oh, I've got to preach. I've got to record. And then I'll stop. And I'll say, no, let me fix that.

10:28I have the opportunity to preach. I have the opportunity to record before we go do thus and such or before this is going on. It's an opportunity. It's a blessing. Now, how can this sinner expect that that blessing? If they are not, if they don't have enough faith to live for God themselves, why on his green earth would he use them to try to win others to him? It makes no sense. Jesus says a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. First, too, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in this law to the meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree. Oh, there's that tree again. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Now, I don't know about you and I don't know all about trees, but I know the trees they need nutrients. They need water. Okay. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in this season. You can just imagine the roots of that tree going right down into that water, having abundant water, having all the resources the tree would ever need.

11:32His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. I'm telling you, the Bible is so beautiful because if you walk with the Lord, again, though perilous, though strife filled, though, those stairs occur, though fiery darts are here and everywhere, as you walk with the Lord, do you not see his hand upon you? Do you not see the blessing? You know, it's like before what I would do, I don't do as much the consulting stuff that I used to do. I do a little bit, okay? A little bit. I cut back on it because of time. Before there would be a contract I would get were a presentation I would do. I tell my wife, I said, I don't know why they're so happy with this. I don't know why it's, they think it's good. Are they want me to do this or that? You know, well, that's God. That's God. That's his abundant blessing, whether it's in your workproduct or whether it's in your athletic performance or whether it's in your singing or whether it's in your dancing or whether it's in your design or whether it's in your service or whether it's in your ministry or whether it's in your

12:32mothering and Fathering or whether it's in your grand mothering or grandfathering or whether it's in your community service wherever it is in, God's blessings upon those that are living for him. Think of it, God was blessing the Israelites by now in this exact point in Exodus 12 delivering them. Verse 4 of Psalm 1, the ungodly are not so. And this is very troubling to the worldly Christian, to the, to like the, I don't know what you call it, okay? The modern quote progressive, liberal Christian, I don't know what you call it. And I'm not talking politics. I'm talking about someone that deals with the Bible loosely. The ungodly are not so. But are like the chaff which the wind drive it away. As I roast coffee, I have a little coffee roaster, a little chamber in there. And that chaff just burns off the bean as the, as the beans roast about. And that chaff all you, to get rid of it, even though it's dense in terms of how much is in that, in that chamber, especially certain coffees like Ethiopian coffees, you just

13:32open that chamber and you just go, and you just blow it away. And it, and you was so amazing about chaff is when you blow it away. I mean, you can't even find it 10 minutes later. You don't know where it went. That's who the ungodly are. And that's what happens to the ungodly. Think of it. Think of it. God's ways are perfect. Verse five, therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. And that judgment would be the bemeasee or the godly judgment. Verse six, a number of men here, for the Lord know at the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. God says, get out of the way. He's not a respecter of persons. And that's what we see here in Exodus 12 as we move down. And it came to pass that at midnight, the Lord spoke all the first born in the land of Egypt from the first born of Pharaoh. So this is still verse 29 of Exodus 12, our first verse in our passage year. God killed the first born of Pharaoh. All right. He said, okay, your king, your top dog, okay, your big cheese.

14:36That one's child is out. All right. That sat on his throne right there. That one's out until the first born of the captive that was in the dungeon. All the way down, that gives you the picture that God's not a respecter of persons. And we're going to talk about that in a very interesting light in the next episode. Tune in then. Thank you for listening. Thanks for listening to KJV Cafe. And we'll see you at the cafe tomorrow.