Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleChaste Before The Jealous God
Bible TextExodus 34:10-17
Synopsis God’s name is Jealous: therefore we must keep covenant with God in perfect chastity in faith and love, without even a thought of another god. Listen
Date15-Nov-2020
Series Exodus 2016
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Chaste Before The Jealous God (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Chaste Before The Jealous God (128 kbps)
Length 41 min.
 
Title: Chaste before the Jealous God 
Text: Ex 34: 10-17 
Date: Nov 15, 2020 
Place: SGBC, NJ 
  
Exodus 34: 10: And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible [amazing, astounding] thing that I will do with thee. 11: Observe thou [do thou] that which I command thee this day:
  
The LORD God of heaven and earth is a covenant God, he deals with all men in covenant relationship.  In the day of judgment all will be found under one of two covenants: either the covenant of works in Adam or the covenant of grace in Christ.  This was a covenant of works.  God promised what he would do and God gave commanded what they were to do. For his side God said:
 
Exodus 34: 11:…behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. [the Girgasites also]
  
For their side of the covenant, God commanded: 
  
Exodus 34: 12: Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 
 
They were not to enter any covenant of any kind with the enemy—and the law is spiritual; it reaches the heart; so they were not even to think about it.  But it was not enough to be neutral, God commanded:
 
Exodus 34: 13: But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: 14: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 
 
God’s name is Jealous.  His bride must be chaste in faith and love to him alone. God will allow no rivals.  He alone must have all the glory, praise and devotion.  We cannot even have a curious thought about this world’s idol gods.  This is what the Jealous God calls it if we do:
 
Exodus 34: 15: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16: And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. 17: Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. 
 
Subject: Chaste before the Jealous God 
  
Proposition: God’s name is Jealous: therefore we must keep covenant with God in perfect chastity in faith and love, without even a thought of another god. 
 
Divisions: 1) Who is represented by these enemy idolaters 2) Who conquers these enemies 3) What is the result 
 
THE ENEMY
 
Who is represented by these enemies?  We could say the devil or sin, death and hell.  But the enemy is us.  Every sinner fallen in Adam is the fallen idolater, including you and me.     
 
We are born in the state the children of Israel were already in when God gave this law.  They were already guilty of breaking God’s law in Adam when God made this covenant with them.  The children of Israel were already guilty of making an idol with their own hands.  And so were we.  So what was God’s purpose in giving a law that they had already broken?
 
Romans 3: 19: Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20: Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 
  
God says of you who believe, you are not under the law but under grace.  But to all who are under the law, the law says you are guilty. And we see our depravity in the children of Israel 
  
Shouldn’t the word of God, God who cannot lie, be enough to make men worship and obey God alone? The children of Israel had the very promise of God.  God promised he would work unprecedented miracles never before seen in the earth, destroying all their enemies in Canaan.  Shouldn’t that be enough to cause chastity to God?  It wasn’t enough for us either. 
 
They had God’s word that, as they destroyed the enemy idols, God would destroy the enemy under their feet.  Shouldn’t that be enough to make them obey God?  It wasn’t enough for us either. 
  
Like all God’s law—like every word that comes from God—this word was for God’s glory and their good.  Those were enemy combatants, idolaters, God-haters.  God told them clearly that these enemies would lead them and their children into idolatry.  This word was for their good.  Shouldn’t God’s word be enough to make them obey God?  It wasn’t enough for us either. 
  
Seeing and hearing with the carnal, sinful nature is not enough either!  They had seen God deliver them out of Egyptian bondage through the Passover lamb and destroy Pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea.  They had seen God’s very presence leading them in the pillar and the cloud providing their needs the whole way to Sinai.  They saw with their own eyes as God began to drive out those nations.  Shouldn’t that have made them obey God’s covenant? It wasn’t enough for us either. 
  
Was it enough when men saw and heard Christ? Was it enough for us to behold all the witnesses of God’s power and Godhead in creation?  Was it enough for us to hear the amazing wonders of God’s grace preached in his gospel?  Having the covenant word of God, they broke God’s covenant and made covenant and went whoring after their gods.  So did you and me? 
  
Romans 3: 9: What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10: As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12: They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
  
God’s name is Jealous.  We must be perfectly chaste before God in faith and love without even a hint of covetousness in our hearts or God charges us with unfaithfulness.  But by Adam and by our own sin-nature that is all we are: base, idolatrous harlots!  
  
THE CONQUEROR 
 
Who must conquer the enemy for God’s elect, covenant people, his true, spiritual Israel?  
  
One day Christ made an unimpressive nobody cross our path.  He was just an earthen vessel.  There was nothing appealing about him.  But God had filled his vessel with unsearchable riches.  He came preaching the gospel of another covenant, God’s everlasting covenant of grace. 
  
Still, God found us enemies in our minds, unchaste, idolaters, worshipping our idol SELF! So we heard the amazing work God has done, which has never been done in the earth before or since, but we heard the everlasting covenant of grace the same as the children of Israel heard the covenant of works.  We heard with natural ears, with enmity in our hearts, which we called faithful obedience, love and tolerance. 
  
Some of us went on whoring after our idol self in sin and unbelief.  Others boasted that we were actually chaste to the jealous God because we imagined we kept the law of Sinai.  But in reality our striving to come to God by the law was only whoredom.  We worshipped the idol SELF.  Some got a head full of true doctrine.  But our arguing over election and predestination and limited atonement was only more whoredom-worship of the same idol SELF.  Our dead letter theology made us imagine ourselves superior to others.  We were fault finders.  We considered ourselves chaste before the jealous God while others were  beneath us.  We had an intellectual superior idol called SELF. 
  
All of us who sit here now rejoicing in this message were, at that time, ignorant of the perfection of faith and love which the jealous God requires to be chaste before him.  But thankfully, God’s name is Jealous.  He chose a bride for his Son.  HE will have his Son’s bride united to his Son through faith.  So God would not take “no” for an answer. 
  
By his grace he made us hear with spiritual ears.  We began to hear how the Son of God came down and took flesh under this very law, this covenant of works.  We heard how he served God under the law in place of his people that he might honor the first covenant of works and take it away that he might fulfill the second covenant of grace and give us the good news that we are not under law but under grace! 
  
So under the law as our Head, Christ was perfectly chaste in faith and love to God our Father the whole time he walked this earth.  As our Head, the last Adam, with us in him he walked in perfect faith and love before God under the law. 
  
He was perfectly chaste in faith and love to God, not only when things were peaceful, but even when God lay our shameful iniquity on him.  He had no thought for any other but God. 
  
Be sure to hear this: our Substitute was perfectly chaste in faith and love to God even as God in holy jealousy viewed him as the unchaste idolater and poured out fury upon him, in our place, as the one who had broken the whole covenant of works.  As he bore separation from God he remained chaste: in perfect faith and love he looked to the Father who had forsaken.  Just think of how easily we are turned aside and murmur and pity ourselves when God only lays on us light affliction!  Yet, our Redeemer was perfectly chaste before the God whose name is Jealous. 
  
He was perfectly chaste in faith and love to God even as he suffered the wailing and gnashing of teeth of an eternal hell which his people owed to God’s justice. 
  
Our Savior was perfectly chaste in faith and love even to the end when he cried, “Father, into thy hands  I commend my Spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” 
  
That day as we heard this gospel preached, Christ conquered the enemy of our sinful flesh.  He created a new man by his presence within us.  For the first time, we found ourselves believing he did it all for me!  
  
THE RESULT
 
What was the result of Christ’s finished work on the cross! 
  
Through faith he made us know that on the cross, our whorish idolatrous body of sin was crucified and died and was buried forever.  We are dead to sin and dead to the law.  At the same time, we arose to God’s right hand perfectly, eternally chaste before the Jealous God.  
  
We know something of the wiles of the devil.  He sends his preachers as preachers of righteousness.  But they do not preach Christ our Righteousness.  They preach a righteousness that you must add to Christ, by your obedience to the law.  But the Jealous God requires his Son’s bride be perfectly chaste.  That is why Paul declared, 
  
2 Corinthians 11:2: For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 
  
In Christ we are perfectly chaste.  His bride has been perfectly chaste in faith and love by the doing of our perfect Lord Jesus Christ.  One day our Husband will present his bride to himself a chaste virgin without spot or blemish. 
  
Oh, brethren, get this: in Christ, the Jealous God beholds us perfectly chaste.  In the new heart we delight in every command of God, especially Christ’s command to believe on him and trust him to present us faultless. 
  
Christ keeps us in love to him by constantly hearing of his love for us in his great sacrifice.   By his constraining love we do not unite with idolators.  The jealous God makes us jealous for our Husband to have all the glory due his holy name. 
  
Christ broke down the images, altars and groves in our sinful hearts.  So we know our weapons are not carnal.  Christ is the Power of God who came to our Jericho-heart walled up to heaven, sounded the trumpet and broke down the stronghold.  He breaks down the images in our hearts by this gospel. 
  
But the Lord left some enemies in Canaan.  True believers know from painful experience, God has left an enemy in us called our sin-nature.  He did it to prove to us that we have no righteousness but Christ at God’s right hand.  We cannot put confidence in anything we do because that would be unchaste before our jealous Husband. 
  
He proves to us that except Christ keep our new man pure and sanctified unto him we would fall away in an instant.  Even our sins, he uses to keep us at his feet.  We cry out in confession to him while begging he deliver us from us—"O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord!”
  
Our loving Husband continues to deliver through the Spirit giving us strength to mortify our flesh by setting our affection on him above.  He makes us endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace because by our own sin, we know we cannot claim we have been chaste and faithful in ourselves.  We cannot exalt ourselves over anyone because, in our sinful nature, we are the worst idolater of the lot. 
 
Brethren, true worship has to be spiritual.  It cannot be in the letter of the law by our works from the strength of our flesh.  The letter killeth.  It not only kills us but it is also cruel to everyone around us—biting and devouring one another.   
  
Christ must conquer all our enemies within and without.  Christ alone fulfilled the old covenant law, as well as the everlasting covenant of grace.  Oh the sweet word, ‘Ye are not under the law but under grace.”  
  
Now, by the Spirit’s regenerating, sanctifying work we have a fear of God in our heart born out of knowing his name is Jealous.  He gave us a new will to confess that all our so-called righteousnesses are idolatry.  We are the enemy.  But all our hope is in Christ under his everlasting covenant of grace with the full assurance that “WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH CHRIST THAT LOVED US”
  
Amen!