| Introduction Last Sunday in our adult Sunday school, we learn that Matthew Henry was after evangelical holiness. Evangelical holiness is that holiness that is not self-righteous. It is that holiness that follows and is grounded in the evangel, that is, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Evangelical holiness is that obedience that a Christian renders to God because God saved him/her in Jesus Christ. And evangelical holiness is of the essence of being a Christian. Heb. 12:14– Pursue peace with all people,and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord…. The people of God have been set up apart for his glory (we saw that in chapter 10). And they have been set apart to be different than all the other peoples of the world. One of the ways that they display that holiness is the worship of God. We see that in Nehemiah 13:1-3 (READ). God separated a people to himself in order to worship him. As the Lord Jesus said, "God isSpirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Yet, the people who God separated are now mixed with the vilest worshippers: the Moabites and the Ammonites. As we will see later in chpt. 13, these people weren't just living among them. They were their spouses and children (13:23-24). They were coming to worship God without being converted to Israel's God. They were trying to worship God without evangelical holiness. I. No Evangelical Holiness, No Worship, 3. A. We see that is the case in that "they separated all the mixed multitude" from the assembly of God. B. You have heard Charlotte Elliot's famous hymn Just as I Am. "Just as I am, thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; because thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come." 1. What this hymn says is absolutely true. 2. We come to God through faith in Jesus Christ just as we are without bringing anything with us and without changing anything before we come. 3. But there is a sense in which we cannot come to God just as we are. C. You cannot worship God just as you are. 1. You can only worship God if you come as a perfectly sinless person. Ps. 15:1-2– Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart…. Mt. 5:48– Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. 2. So, you can see that there is a problem here – you can't come just as you are to worship God. D.You have to come as Jesus is by believing in him. 1. When God changes your heart (new birth) and you believe in Jesus Christ all your imperfections (the guilt for all your sins) are now counted as Christ's. 2. When God changes your heart (new birth) and you believe in Jesus Christ all his perfections are counted as yours. 3. You are united/hidden in Christ. Eph. 1:3-6– Blessed bethe God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly placesin Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. E. The mixed multitude in Israel were attempting to come to worship God just as they were: Moabites and Ammonites. 1. The Ammonites had refused to help Israel while they were wandering in the desert. Dt. 2:26-30– And I sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, 'Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the road, and I will turn neither to the right nor to the left. You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on foot, just as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord our God is giving us.' But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it isthis day." 2. The Moabites hired Balaam to curse Israel and when the cursing failed, he tempted Israel to sin with the women of Moab. Num. 25:1-3– Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. Num. 31:16– Look, these womencaused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. 3. Not only what they did to Israel, but who they were was a problem. a. The Ammonites worshipped Molech and the Moabites worshipped Chemosh. b. A common feature of their worship was offering their children as burned sacrifices. "Extensive archaeological evidence of the burning of thousands of young children has come to light in the Phoenician colony of Carthage." Edwin Yamauchi 4. They wanted to keep their gods and be part of the worship of the true God. 5. God is not willing to share people with false gods. F. Evangelical holiness means that God's people are set apart from the rest of all other peoples for the sole purpose of worshiping him. 1. They are objectively different than those who don't belong to God. 2. Jesus referred to that when he said that his disciples live in this world, but they are not of this world. a. Saying the same thing with different words, Jesus's disciples live in this age, but are not from this age. b. They are from the age to come. c. Paul says the same thing when he contrasts the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of the people of this age with those from the age to come. Eph. 5:1-13– Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you arelight in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit isin all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 3. So you can see that there is us over here and them over there, and they who are over there should be over here. G.Why is God so particular about this? Because you become what you worship. Ps. 115:8– Those who make them are like them; so iseveryone who trusts in them. H.Are you here today in evangelical holiness? Or are you here with divided heart? II. The Reading and Preaching of the Word of God Is Essential for Evangelical Holiness, 1. A. At this point in the book, the chronology becomes a little difficult to follow. 1. It seems that v. 4 happens before v. 1. 2. "On that day," may refer either to the dedication of the wall or the preaching of chpt. 8. 3. It makes sense that it refers to the closest antecedent and that when they gathered at the temple at the end of the procession they read from Deuteronomy. B. The particular passage they came across is Dt. 23:4-7. Dt. 23:3-6– An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendantsshall enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever. C. One thing that we can learn from this passage is that people who have been set apart by God get together to hear from him. WLC 155 – How is the Word made effectual to salvation? The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners; of driving them out of themselves, and drawing them unto Christ; of conforming them to his image, and subduing them to his will; of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions; of building them up in grace, and establishing their hearts in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. III. Evangelical Holiness Shows Itself in Obedience, 3. A. What we see here is that the hearingof v.1 showed itself in the doingof v. 3. B. They heard that Ammonites and Moabites were supposed to be part of the church, so they excluded them. 1. I want you to notice that this was not something easy. 2. The mixed multitude weren't just people who were strangers to them or distance acquaintances. 3. The mixed multitude was made up of spouses who did not follow Yahweh and children who did not follow Yahweh. 4. They were excluding from church their own spouses and children! 5. Why? Because God is holy and will not be worshipped by unholy people. Lk. 14:26– If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. IV. God Blesses Evangelical Holiness, 2. A. When Balaam was cursing Israel, Israel was obeying God. B. God turned the curse into blessing. Dt. 23:5– Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. C. I understand that the following passage was given to Israel as they were about to be taken into captivity, but I think it applies in principle to the church. Jer. 29:11-14– For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me,when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. D.God rejoices in evangelical holiness. As we come to a close and we see that evangelical holiness is just really another way of saying plain old biblical Christianity, let me ask you a question. What is it for you? You have come to worship God today, but how did you come? Why should God accept your worship today? Why should you come to the table in just a few minutes? So, how is it with you? Is it Jesus plus absolutely no one else and nothing else? Or, is it no Jesus at all? These are the only two choices we have. I understand that we are not burning our children to Molech and Chemosh, but what sacrifices are we offering to the god that entrenched in our hearts? Gods of arrogance, gods of self-sufficiency and self-centeredness, gods of comfort, gods of list, gods of control. Is there that one thing that we are keeping in our heart as the most sacred thing, that we have told God that that's the one thing we are going to hold on to instead of him? "God, I will hold on to you with nine fingers, but this one pinky finger I will keep wrapped around this thing."
What will it take for us to let go of whatever that is and for us to embrace Jesus with all ten fingers? The answer is faith – faith in Jesus.
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