The Assembly of the Lord
Deuteronomy: Changing Times and Our Unchanging God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 57:06
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Why can we gather in God’s Name?
Why can we gather in God’s Name?
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Read:
1 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.
2 “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.
3 “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever,
4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.
6 You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.
7 “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.
8 Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.
The Assembly of the Lord
The Assembly of the Lord
What is the Assembly of the Lord?
The only other reference to this is when God calls the people to stand before Him at Horeb and to hear the ten commandments and establish his covenant with them.
I will define this as:
A gathering of God’s chosen people for the express purpose of entering into worshipful relationship with God.
When they gather, we know that certain things can prevent a person from entering into that time:
We will be looking at some specific cases of things that would prevent someone from joining in the gathering of the Lord’s Assembly.
Who is Excluded?
Who is Excluded?
Men whose reproductive organs have been destroyed.
Men whose reproductive organs have been destroyed.
1 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.
Levites
Levites
16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
17 “Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God.
18 For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long,
19 or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand,
20 or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles.
21 No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord’s food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.
22 He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things,
23 but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.”
24 So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.
Why would anyone do this?
Why would anyone do this?
Career Choice
Religious Practice
Accident
Why are they excluded?
Why are they excluded?
This act is a denial of God’s design for life and it shows disregard for the covenant promise of God to bless his people with offspring from whom would come the Messiah.
Who else is to be excluded?
Child from a forbidden sexual union
Child from a forbidden sexual union
2 “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Why are the excluded?
Why are the excluded?
This act denies the natural order which God has created and puts a stain on the holiness of God’s chosen people. This becomes a perpetual blemish on this persons household.
Who else is excluded?
No Ammonite or Moabite
No Ammonite or Moabite
3 “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever,
4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.
6 You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.
Who were the Moabites and Ammonites?
Who were the Moabites and Ammonites?
30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.
31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.
32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.”
33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.”
35 So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.
37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38 The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
What did they do?
What did they do?
4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.
This reminds us of God’s promise to Abraham
God’s Covenant with Abraham
God’s Covenant with Abraham
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Why are they excluded?
Why are they excluded?
The cursed the people of God and refused to aid them.
Who is not excluded?
Who is not excluded?
7 “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.
8 Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Why aren’t these excluded?
Why aren’t these excluded?
Edomites are the descendants of Esau so they have familial ties to the Israelites.
Egypt welcomed Isreal and his children in during the famine and blessed them.
Do we ever have to exclude someone from our gathering?
Do we ever have to exclude someone from our gathering?
The Unrepentant
The Unrepentant
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Brother or sister living in sin
Brother or sister living in sin
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—
10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
6 Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.
Those following and teaching of false doctrine
Those following and teaching of false doctrine
17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.
3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,
20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Those who are divisive
Those who are divisive
9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,
11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
What is the goal of exclusion?
What is the goal of exclusion?
Reconciliation
Reconciliation
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Even the Eunuch and the Foreigner will be reconciled to God:
Even the Eunuch and the Foreigner will be reconciled to God:
1 Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant,
5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”
What reconciles us to God?
What reconciles us to God?
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.