Zeal for the Lord - Life of Moses Part 61

Well, as you know, we are involved in a study of that great man of God, Moses, but today we want to actually look at another wonderful man of God, a fellow named Phinehas, and we find his story in Numbers chapter 25.

But before we look at him, let me give you a little bit of background into this chapter. You'll remember that here at the end of the book of Numbers, the Israelites are coming to the end of their 40 year wandering in the Sinai wilderness. Let's show you a map and you'll see where they were wandering. And so God commands them to head up the east side of the Jordan River to Mount Nebo. There was a famous highway that ran along the east side of the Jordan River called the King's Highway running through the land of Edom.

However, the Edomites would not allow the Israelites to pass on this road, and so the Israelites were forced to take a 180 mile detour way to the east. But here in Numbers 25, after that detour, they have finally arrived at Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, and that's where we pick up the story. So here we go, Numbers chapter 25, verse 2. And while the Israelites were staying in Moab, the men of Israel began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women who had invited them to the worship of their gods. So the Israelites joined in worshiping Baal-Piorr. Now Baal-Piorr was the chief god in the Moabite pantheon. He was the god of nature. He was the god of fertility and as such, sexual relations were an integral part of the worship of this god. In fact, the priestesses of Baal-Piorr, these women who had invited the Israelites to come worship with them, were really nothing more than temple prostitutes whose primary act of service to Baal-Piorr was to have sacred sex with all of the worshipers there, doing things so debauched that in the book of Hosea, Hosea 9, verse 10, God refers to these actions as, quote, shameful and vile. Verse 3, so the Lord's anger burned against these Israelite men.

And you can understand why. I mean, God delivered them from Egypt. He met their every need for 40 years in the desert. He's brought them right here to the very edge of the promised land about to give it to them.

And then they go pull a stunt like this. Verse 4, so the Lord said to Moses, take the leaders of this group that have gone off and done this and kill them in broad daylight so that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel. So Moses said to the judges of Israel, each of you must put to death those men from your tribe who have joined in the worship of Baal-Piorr. Now, many commentators have suggested that these judges wouldn't do it, that they refused to carry out this death penalty against members of their own tribe, and that this was the reason why God sent a plague on the nation of Israel, a plague, as we're going to see in verse 9, that ended up killing 24,000 people. I'm inclined to agree with these commentators that this is what explains this plague. Verse 6, and while Moses and the whole assembly of Israel were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting, you got the picture here now, this plague is sweeping the nation, immorality is out of control with some of the Israelite men, and some of the God-fearing Israelites have gathered around Moses and they're here outside the tabernacle and they're on their knees praying and on their knees asking God for mercy.

You got the picture, right? As that's going on, an Israelite man brought a Moabite woman, one of these temple prostitutes, to his tent right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel. Hey, remember now, up to this point, the immorality, all this immorality had been going on outside the camp. Now this guy, in an act of brazen contempt, he has the nerve, he has the audacity even while Israelites are falling to their death in this plague, he has the nerve to walk one of these temple prostitutes right into the Israelite camp, right by the tabernacle, right by Moses and all these other godly Israelites on their knees praying and take her into his tent to continue his immorality with her. Well, when Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the high priest, here enters our man Phinehas. The Bible tells us is the grandson of Aaron, the original high priest. He was with these people who were gathered on their knees praying, okay, when he saw what this Israelite man did, folks, Phinehas blew a semiconductor.

You understand what I'm saying? All right, now watch. When Phinehas saw what this man did, he left the group. You say what group?

The group on their knees praying right outside the tabernacle. He left the group. Look what he did.

And here's what he did. He picked up a spear in his hand, and he followed the man into his tent. Then he drove the spear, picture this now, through both of them and into the ground, first through the Israelite, and then through the woman's body as well. He said, Lon, wait a minute. How could you call this man a wonderful man of God?

I don't get it. The man just committed double homicide. How could you refer to him as a wonderful godly man? Friends, you got to remember all Phinehas did is obey exactly what God told the Israelites to do.

He didn't commit murder, and he didn't commit homicide. He carried out the command of God that every Israelite man doing this should be killed. Now, verse eight, then the plague against the Israelites was stopped.

But those who had died in the plague numbered 24,000 Israelites. Then the Lord said to Moses, Phinehas has turned my anger away from the Israelites, for he was zealous for my sake among them. Therefore, tell him that I am making my covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a lasting covenant of priesthood with me because he was zealous for my honor. Notice here that Phinehas's actions produced a double blessing. Number one, it produced a blessing on the nation of Israel because God halted the plague in response to his action. And number two, it produced a blessing on him and his descendants forever in that God promised that he would show eternal favor to Phinehas's family and that he would grant them the priesthood of Israel to his family forever. You know, it's interesting. That's what really happened when David made Zadok, the high priest of Israel.

Zadok was a descendant of Phinehas and the Kohanim, the priest of Israel today, are still able to trace their lineage back to Zadok and back to Phinehas. God kept his word to this man. Now that's as far as we want to go in the passage today because we want to stop and ask our most important question and you know what this is. So we're ready. Yes. All right. Nice and loud. Here we go.

One, two, three. Yeah. You say, Lon, so what? Say, you know, God doesn't want me picking up spears and running out and hurting people with spears.

I mean, what difference does any of this make to my life today? Huh? Well, let's talk about that.

What was it? My question is, what was it about this man Phinehas that God loved so much? Well, God tells us twice right here in the, in these verses. He tells us in verse 11 and again in verse 13, God says he was zealous.

There's our word. He was zealous for my sake, for my honor. Now, what does it mean to be zealous?

Well, to be zealous literally means to be ardent, to be fervent, to be on fire for something. And you know, folks, people can be zealous about, well, almost anything. I mean, we can be zealous about advancing our career. We can be zealous about acquiring lots of money and lots of power and lots of notoriety. We can be zealous about excelling in sports or in music or in the arts. We can be zealous about getting married. If we're single, we can be zealous about having children. We can be zealous about getting into a good college or getting into law school or getting into medical school. Folks, we can be zealous about our lawn and about our flowers and about our dogs and about our cats and about our gerbils. We can be zealous about a lot of things. But you know, none of these kinds of zealousness are what Phineas had.

And I'll tell you why. It's because all of these things we've just named are examples of human zeal, that is zeal that is driven by personal desire, zeal that is driven by personal likes and dislikes, zeal that is driven by the personal ambition to achieve something. That is not what Phineas had. Phineas had a zeal that was not me centered.

It was not self-centered. He had a zeal that was God-centered. He had a zeal that was based upon loving what God loves, a zeal for righteousness, a zeal for holiness, a zeal for biblical obedience. And he had a zeal against what God hated, this immorality that was going on in the camp.

And friends, listen, Phineas had a zeal that caused him to be willing to stand up and be counted publicly for Christ, to take a stand and to back it up with his actions. Now what Numbers 25 tells us is that God loves followers of Christ like this. God doesn't want us going out with a spear and harming anybody. He doesn't want us having that kind of zeal. He wants us to have a spiritual zeal that's conspicuous in our life, that people around us can sense and feel and see, and that we're willing to stand up in zeal for the things God loves, and we're willing to oppose the thing God hates, and we're willing to take a stand and be counted. That's what God loves. And what I want to talk to you today is about four areas in life where God wants us today in the 21st century as followers of Christ to demonstrate zeal for God the way Phineas did.

So here we go. Number one, the kind of zeal that God wants us to demonstrate today, number one is a zeal, first of all, for personal holiness. Folks, we have to understand that zeal for the Lord must always start with our own walk with God. That's why speaking to the lukewarm church at Laodicea, the very first thing God said to them was be zealous. Listen, but he didn't say be zealous about this or about that or about doing this other thing. The first thing he said to them is be zealous and repent. Personally, get your own life in order.

Look at the man or the woman in the mirror and get them where they need to be. Because folks, this is where it all starts. You can't have a zeal for the Lord coming out of a dirty life. You can't do it. This is why the Lord Jesus said Matthew seven, verse five, first cast the beam out of your own eye. You say, but Lon, as a follower of Christ, we all know, don't we, that none of us, none of us, no matter how hard we try, none of us can get this right 100% of the time. None of us can achieve 100% personal holiness in our life. Absolutely correct.

You are so right. And you know, when it comes to this issue of a zeal for personal holiness, I've got some good news for you. God doesn't expect you and me to get it right 100% of the time. He doesn't expect us to be perfect. Listen, but he does expect us to be zealous.

He does expect us to be serious about it. And what does it mean to be zealous for personal holiness practically? Let me tell you what it means.

Three things. Number one, to have a zeal for personal holiness means that we begin every single day, totally committed to obeying God in every nook and cranny of our life. We wake up in the morning and we say, Lord Jesus, to the best of my ability, I'm going to obey you and everything you tell me with everything I got in me today. Number two, it means that we're brokenhearted when we fall short, when we go out and say something or do something or look at something that we got no business doing, that our heart, our heart is broken that we let God down. And finally, it means that right then and there, we repent before God for our failure and we recommit ourselves to 100% obedience.

In other words, friends, we know God will forgive us and we go to God and ask to be forgiven. But at the very same time, we never lower the bar or shoot for anything less than 100% obedience to God, just because we can't always live up to the bar doesn't mean we lower the bar. This is what it means to have a zeal for personal holiness.

And folks, when a follower of Jesus Christ becomes zealous about personal holiness, that is when the power of God really begins to be turned loose in that person's life. Number two, to have a zeal like Phineas today means that secondly, we have a zeal for serving the Lord. I love what the Apostle Paul said, Romans 1211. He said, when it comes to serving the Lord, do not be lacking, never be lacking. Here's our word look in zeal, folks, every great man or woman of God who has ever lived as different as they may have been in so many areas, there was one area where they were all in agreement.

And that is they were all passionate about serving Christ with their life. David said Psalm 116, Oh, Lord, surely I am your servant. Samuel said, First Samuel chapter three, Lord, speak for your servant is listening. The Apostle Paul was talked about God and he said, God whom I serve with my whole heart, I give it everything I got. Mary after Gabriel announced to her the virgin birth, she bowed her head and said, I am the Lord's servant. Peter refers to himself second Peter chapter one as a servant of God.

So did James and Jude and Daniel and Isaiah and Nehemiah and Elijah. And I love what what what Joshua said, Joshua 24 verse 15. He said, You guys can go serve anybody you want to serve. You can serve other men, you can serve yourself, I don't care. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You see, friends, all of these men and women serving God became the defining issue for their entire life.

Let me repeat that serving God became the defining issue for their life. And as followers of Jesus Christ today, this is the way it ought to be with us, folks, just like all these great saints of old, we have to understand as well that once we come to Christ faith in Christ, there is no reason why God should leave us on this earth other than to serve the Lord. God doesn't leave us here to a mass money or to a mass power or to become famous and be a big shot. He leaves us here so we can use every talent we have every gift we have every ounce of energy we have to serve the living risen Christ. And you know, the man who led me to Christ, a fellow named Bob Eckhart, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1971. When he led me to Christ, he drilled this into my brain from the day I came to Christ, he said to me, Son, he said, The only reason you're still here and not in heaven today is because God left you here to serve God. Now do it with all of your heart.

And for 38 years, that's what I've tried to do is to serve Christ with everything I had inside of me and friends, I'm here to call you to do the very same thing that Bob Eckhart called me to do. You say, but Lon, well, you're on a roll up there, son, but wait a minute. It's different with you, Lon. It's different with you. You are a minister.

It's different. I'm not a minister. I mean, you know, this is your job.

I mean, you do this. This is not me. No, I'm sorry. I don't buy that for one bit. Survey says, I don't buy that one bit.

No, no, no. Friends, I didn't start off as a minister. I wasn't born with a little white collar hanging around my neck. Listen, when I came to Christ, I served God for years as a volunteer. I went and taught a Bible study at Montgomery County Jail every Sunday. I taught a Sunday school class for college age kids. I went down to rescue missions in Washington DC and shared my testimony.

I, I, I handed out tracks on the streets of Alexandria and I did these things as a volunteer. And you know, I think I can honestly tell you if I wasn't in full time vocational ministry, I would still be out to serve God with everything in me because it's not about a vocation. It's about a calling on our lives. Once we come to Christ, we are called to serve the living risen Christ who died for us. Paul says, and who rose again. And I have to tell you friends, it's very disheartening for me as your leader to so often be up here and be asking for your help in areas where we need volunteers.

And after asking for that help, not to get it. You listen to me, if every single person in this church simply took one area of service to Christ and threw themselves into that one area of serving Christ with zeal and fervency and all of their heart, we would have more than enough manpower to blow this city up for Jesus Christ. And so my call to you today folks is this, come on now. We need to get our focus off of serving ourselves. We need to get our focus off of caring about ourselves and we need to move our focus like Phineas did on to serving the living Christ. That's the kind of zeal God wants us to have. If we're going to walk in the footsteps of this man. Can I get an amen to that?

All right. Number three, if we want a zeal like Phineas, then we need to exhibit in our world today a zeal for opposing unrighteousness around us. This is what he did when he was face to face with overt sin. This man walking right in the camp with this prostitute, he couldn't take it any longer. He just didn't stay at the tabernacle and pray. I mean, praying is wonderful. Don't get me wrong, but this man got up and did something about it. This man took a public stand against that unrighteousness and as followers of Christ in the 21st century, I believe God calls us to do the same.

Ephesians five verse 11 says, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness. Watch, but rather reprove them. Take a stand against them, resist them, push back against them. Now we need to do this at work where we need to take a stand in our offices against cussing and dirty jokes and lewd comments and unethical actions and sexual harassment.

This stuff goes on in offices. We need to be known as people who say, well, we don't agree with that. And in school, we need to take a stand against people picking on the underdog and against violence that's carried out on the weak and against cheating and against bully-ism. These things go on in schools and we need to take a stand and say, I'm against that. Don't you do that to him or her. And in our society, we need to take a stand against racism and against the exploitation of the poor and against the marginalization of people with disabilities and as Christian citizens. We need to take a stand against abortion and against gay rights and against pornography. Now we can do this respectfully, my friends, and we can do this courteously, but we need to do it fervently and with zeal.

And you say, well, Lon, you don't understand, man. If I do this at school, I might lose some friends. I mean, if I do this in my family, I'm going to make some relatives really mad at me. If I do this at work, I might lose my job.

Friends, what a great reason to lose your job. Besides, don't worry about that. God says, first of Samuel chapter two, verse 30, those who honor me, I will honor says the Lord. Friends, listen, you stand up for righteousness. Do it courteously, do it respectfully, but do it zealously. You stand up for righteousness and the righteous God of this universe will stand up for you.

You don't have to worry about that. Number four, and finally want to have a zeal like Phineas, the number four, we need to have a zeal for sharing Christ with lost people. Listen, having a zeal for the Lord will always mean having a zeal for lost people. And let me tell you why it's because having a zeal for the Lord means loving what God loves and God loves lost people. God has a zeal for reaching people outside of Christ. He loves them with an everlasting love. I love in Luke chapter 15, when Jesus told the story of the shepherd that had 99 sheep and one got lost, he had 101 got lost.

And here's what he said. Jesus says, Does not the shepherd leave the 99 sheep and go looking for the one that is lost watch until he finds it. That's the language of zeal there, folks. That's the language of fervency there. Many shepherds would say, Well, I got 99. I mean, well, you know, what's one? I'm gonna have my cup of coffee.

I can make it with 99. No, no, no, not God. God has a zeal for the one that is lost. And anybody who has a zeal for the Lord will have a zeal for those lost sheep as well. I'm always amazed at people who tell me what a zeal for God they've got, but they don't seem to have any concern to step out and try to reach lost people. Friends, there's a disconnect there.

I'm sorry, something's wrong. And you know, when you look at the great men and women of God in the Bible, they had this zeal. You know, Peter and John, you remember them Acts chapter four, the Sanhedrin brought him in the Jewish High Council said, If you don't do this anymore, we're gonna put you in jail. You need to stop talking about Christ.

You need to stop sharing Christ. And you remember what they said to him? They said, Go jump off the bridge, so to speak. Go jump in the lake, so to speak.

They said, We're not doing it. And they went right back out, walked right out of the chamber and went right back out to share in Christ again. You remember the Apostle Paul, he had this zeal. He said in Romans 1 15, he said, I am so eager to preach the gospel to you and Rome.

What drove this man through or through the whole Roman world, huh? It was a zeal for souls. The entire early church had this zeal, which is why they turned the whole Roman Empire upside down with the message of Jesus Christ. And if we're going to make this kind of impact on our world, friends, if we're going to reach this city for Christ and make a difference in this town, we've got to have the same zeal that the early church have. I want to just share one example of this zeal, as I hope it will be a challenge to your life and to my life. His name was George Whitfield. And I'm not sure there's ever been a man since the Apostle Paul that's had a zeal for souls like this guy. He just one example.

I don't have time to give you more. In 1737, Whitfield set sail from England on his way to the colony of Georgia. He was on a ship called the Whitaker.

It was part of three ships, a little flotilla that was crossing the Atlantic full of British soldiers. Well, Whitfield made up his mind and set out that he was going to reach every single person on all three ships for Christ before they reached America. And so every morning and every evening, he began walking up on the deck of the Whitaker and reading prayers on the deck all by himself.

Nobody could attend it. He was all by himself. After a few days, he started visiting the ill and the seasick. He began feeding them. He began reading the Bible to them.

He began praying for them. He would wander the deck at all hours of the night, witnessing to the crew, witnessing to the soldiers. Before long, a few people started showing up on deck in the morning to attend his Bible readings. Before long after that, the captain ordered that benches be set up on the deck in the morning so that the gathering crowd would have a place to sit. Whitfield organized some of the soldiers attending into a male choir.

You get this now? He's got a choir on board this boat going over. He traded them Bibles for their decks of cards. And after seven weeks, Whitfield wrote this in his journal, and I quote, he said, Having begun with a scornful and cursing group, now the soldiers stand like little children to say their catechisms.

Most read their Bible daily, and virtually all attend services morning and evening, seven days a week. Now it's not over. Before long, the other two ships began pulling up alongside and tying up in the morning. And Whitfield held a service for all three ships on board the Whitaker in the middle. One soldier wrote, It is wonderful. All three ships clustered together, decks ablaze with the red coats of the soldiers, while Mr. Whitfield preaches with a voice so strong that it can be heard clearly on all three decks, leading services replete with him singing and a choir.

These people are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. You understand this floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, folks by the time the voyage ended in Georgia, Whitfield had led virtually every single person on all three ships to Christ. And when he got ready to leave them, British soldiers, people who had been in battle battle hardened men, grabbed him and fell to his feet and grabbed onto his legs and wept like babies, because of the impact that he had made on their life. In fact, many of these soldiers subsequently left the military and went into the ministry and became pastors and evangelists themselves. Brother, this is what you call having a zeal for souls. This is what you call having a zeal for lost people. And this is what having a zeal for the Lord looks like in our lives. Friends, God wants us to catch Whitfield's back. He wants us to catch Whitfield's zeal for souls.

And he wants us to have that same zeal in our lives today. You say, well, what do you want me to do? You want me to stand up on the Metro in the morning and start reading the Bible on the Metro? I don't know what to tell you to do. Yeah, sure. If God leads you to do that, why not?

You might develop a little choir on that car every morning going in. Who knows what difference does it make? We're not here to serve ourselves. We're not here to worry about our own reputations. We're not here to be concerned what people think about us. We are here to serve the living Christ. We are here to exalt the living Christ. We are here to have a zeal for the living Christ. What difference does it make what people think about you? What makes a difference in what they think about him?

Because you tell him about it. All right, let's conclude. As followers of Christ today, what have we learned? Well, we've learned that God wants us to be zealous for the Lord, just the way Phineas was.

And we've learned that the way we do it in our modern world is four ways. Number one, with a zeal for personal holiness in our own life. Number two, with a zeal for serving the Lord and not serving ourselves. Number three, with a zeal for opposing unrighteousness. We do it respectfully and we do it courteously, but we do it fervently. And number four, with a zeal for sharing Christ with lost people who are outside of Christ.

Friends, you know what? As followers of Christ here at McLean Bible Church, I'm here today to call you and myself to a greater zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. I'm here to call on you and me to stand up and be counted for Jesus Christ everywhere we go. Listen, friend, God will give us the courage if we will give God the zeal.

Let me repeat that. God will give us the courage if we will give him the zeal. And so I hope you'll walk out of here today saying, Lord Jesus, here's my prayer. Make me a Phineas for your glory. Lord, make me like that guy and give me a zeal for Christ in my life that is conspicuous. Give me a zeal for Christ in my life that people can see and that they can experience and that they know is there. Lord, may I be known as that guy, that gal who was zealous for Christ everywhere I went. What a great prayer. And you know what?

Let me just tell you, God will honor and bless your life like he did Phineas. If you'll just do this, friends, let's rise up. Let's rise up. No, no, no.

I don't mean stand. No, no, no. Good for you. Well, well, bless you. God, I appreciate that.

I got to be careful. Let us rise up spiritually. No, I'm serious, guys. Let's rise up spiritually and be the people God called us to be. He didn't call us to be bumps on a log and he didn't call us to live in the shadows.

He called us to step out of the shadows and go take a stand for Christ in our lives. That's what Phineas did. That's what God wants us to do. Let's do it. Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for challenging our lives today with the example of this wonderful man, Phineas. And Father, we pray that you would motivate us to rise up in our schools, in our office places, in our families, in our neighborhoods, wherever we go to rise up and have a zeal for God in our life. Lord, I pray we would have it in a way that is respectful and courteous and kind, but Lord, that it would be fervent and that people would sense it and know it when they meet us and that it would be a witness for Christ and for what he's done in our life. Lord Jesus, use us in this town and give us the courage we need. And Lord, we'll seek to give you the zeal by your grace in our life. Change our lives because we were here today, God. Make us different people because we sat under the teaching of the word of God. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's people say? Amen.