Lesson 122 - Junior

Memory Verse

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful" (Psalm 1:1).

Notes

A Separate People

The Children of Israel were God's chosen people, separated from the other nations among whom they lived, and the special object of His care. God loved His people, "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3). God wanted to keep His people a separate people, and He pled with them again and again not to mingle with the people of the other nations who would lead them into sin and bring judgment upon them.

There were people living in the Land of Canaan who would have to leave when the Israelites came there. God did not want to destroy them before the Israelites came, because then all Canaan would look as a house does where no one lives. The grass would grow tall; the weeds would overrun everything; wild animals would multiply in the cities and farms; and it would be hard to bring civilisation to the land again.

God's plan was to have the Israelites move across the border and battle with one nation at a time as they met them, utterly destroy all the heathen, and take their land. Perhaps we think it was cruel to take their homes from the inhabitants of Canaan, but they no doubt had all been given an opportunity at some time in their history to serve God, and had refused; so God was letting judgment come upon them.

Iniquity of Amorites

God told the Israelites they were a "stiffnecked" people, and it was not because of their goodness that He would drive out their enemies. His reason was the promise He had made to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ([DEU:9:6]). God told Abraham that the Amorites were one of the nations that the Israelites would destroy; but they were not overthrown at that time because, God said, "The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full" (Genesis 15:16). He gave them about four hundred years to repent, but instead they became more wicked, and so were doomed to utter destruction.

God is merciful to people today and gives them all a chance to repent, but if they refuse to serve Him He will let judgment come from which they will find no escape. He will not always strive with men. When final judgment comes there will be no more hope for forgiveness.

God gave the Israelites definite commands as to how to treat the Canaanites: "Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them. . . . For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." Above all the people upon the face of the earth! That is what God thinks of His people. Today the true Christians are His children, and He considers them above all the people in the world. They are the royalty of the heavenly Kingdom, ambassadors for the King of Glory.

God's "Princes"

Sometimes the sinners do not recognise God's "princes in disguise." They make fun of the person who lives for God and who has no part in the worldly amusements. But God is watching His own and He is happy to see His children keeping themselves from sin, living holy lives. He makes His people happy, too, right in the midst of the trouble that surrounds them.

The Psalmist answered the question, "Who is the happy man?" He said, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night" (Psalm 1:1, 2). The Psalmist said that the man is happy who is not mingling with sinners nor doing as they say, but who loves God, and enjoys doing what He tells them to do.

The Christian continues to live in this world with the sinners. Jesus does not take His people to Heaven as soon as they are saved. When He prayed for His disciples, He said, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shoudest keep them from the evil" (John 17:14, 15). It is possible for the children of God to live in this world amidst all the sin and wickedness and yet be kept separate from the evil that contaminates sinners. The secret of being a Christian is being in the world and yet not of the world.

Divine Fellowship

God's people have a unity and fellowship among themselves that the people of the world know nothing about. There is inspiration in speaking of the things of God, and there is a love that binds their hearts together. "Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name" (Malachi 3:16).

Many so-called Christians seem to feel perfectly at home in this world. They get along well with everyone, and think they are going to be a help to the sinner by associating with him. We hear the expression, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." But that is not God's Word. Rome was a very wicked city; one of its poets said, "All evil flows to Rome." Yet Paul could say when he wrote to the Christians in that wicked city, "Beloved of God, called to be saints"; not sinners -" but saints, separated from the ways of the sinners. The spirit of the world is enmity against God; and we cannot feel at home among sinners unless we have some of their spirit in us.

No Sinning-Christians

Some people call themselves Christians and admit that they are sinners. They enjoy the amusements of the world. The Bible says, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (I John 2:15). Many will pray to God, "Our Father," but He will not own them as His children if they are committing sin. When the scribes and Pharisees, the religious people of Christ's day, came to Him and claimed God as their Father, He told them, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do" (John 8:44). If they were the children of God they would obey all His commandments.

When a sinner repents of his sins and is saved, sin goes out and Jesus' Spirit comes into the heart. Jesus will remain as long as that heart stays clean; but should the convert go to a theatre or a dance, Jesus will leave, and there will be no more Jesus in that person's heart.

God wants His people to keep themselves unspotted by worldly things. If a church tolerates sin, God says to the Christian, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." Touch not the unclean thing! God's people are clean, and in order to keep clean they must draw themselves apart from sinful things.

Sins we call "little sins" may creep into our hearts if we do not watch and pray always: a little pride (pride is an abomination in the sight of the Lord, Proverbs 6:17), envy (thou shalt not covet, Exodus 20:17), hatred (he that hateth his brother is a murderer, I John 3:15), telling or acting little untruths (he that speaketh lies shall not escape, Proverbs 19:5). Those sins do not sound so little when we compare them with the Word of God, do they? When such sins come in, Jesus goes out; and though a person has been a Christian, he is no longer one when he disobeys the Word of God. The only way he can again gain God's approval and have eternal life is to repent of his sins and ask forgiveness as he did when he was first saved.

We find that the Children of Israel did not obey God and keep themselves from the sin of the Canaanites. The sin they allowed to remain tormented them, and the former inhabitants of the land became "thorns in their sides." Instead of enjoying a land free from their enemies, they suffered the judgments of God, and finally were carried away captive out of what good land.

Questions

1. Why were the Israelites God's chosen people?

2. Who are God's people today?

3. How can you know who is a real Christian?

4. What things do Christians enjoy? What do sinners enjoy?

5. What were the Children of Israel to do to the inhabitants of Canaan? Did they do it?

6. Do Christians commit sin? Quote [1JN:3:8].