Today’s Sermon Notes: 8-9-2026
***You can also sign up for Pastor Drew’s podcast at Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
“Second Altars”
A Sermon Series on Idolatry
“The Presence of God In The Life of a Believer”
Exodus 33:1-11
Introduction
- What if we wanted God’s presence in our lives as much as this little girl wanted her parents to be at that show? And when we realize He is there, will we have the same reaction?
The Presence of Sin Prevents the Presence of God (Exodus 33:1-3)
“The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
Exodus 25:8 “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” But at this point the tabernacle, God being with His people – all of that was on hold.
Exodus 32:7 “And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” Then in verse 11 Moses says back to God, “But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, . . .”
How Important Is It to You to Have A Relationship With God?
The People Repent of Their Sin (Exodus 33:4-6)
“When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.”
Genesis 35:1-4 “God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. 3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.”
If we are going to have a genuine relationship with God,
the idols (and the things that lead us toward idols) have to go.
2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”
- Worldly grief hates the consequences of your sin. Godly grief hates the sin itself (see 2 Corinthians 7:9-11).
- Worldly grief is how sin makes you feel. Godly grief grieves how your sin makes God and others feel (see Psalm 51:4).
- Worldly grief hides sin until you get caught. Godly grief confesses sin before you get caught (see Proverbs 28:13).
- Worldly grief makes no plans to change. Godly grief actively and practically wages war against sin (see Acts 26:20).
- Worldly grief leads you to commit the same sin over and over again. Godly grief leads you to sin less over time (see 1 John 3:9).[2]
God’s most profound blessing to us to that he allows us to know Him.
God’s People Spend Time With God (Exodus 33: 7-11)
Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. 10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
1 John 1:1, 14 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us,”
John 15:13-15 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
Ephesians 4:30 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
Isaiah 63:10 “But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; . . .”
1 Corinthians 10:1-11
God will not dwell amongst an idolatrous people.
________________
[1] Richard Lints, Identity and Idolatry, The Image of God and its inversion (Downers Grove, Illinois; Intervarsity Press, 2015) 92.
[2] https://www.jordanraynor.com/blog/5-differences-between-worldly-sorrow-and-godly-repentance
[3] W. Ross Blackborn, The God who Makes Himself Known, The Missionary Heart of the Book of Exodus (Downers Grove, Illinois, 2012) 188.
[4] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Ephesians (Chicago, Illinois; Moody Press, 1986) 189.
[5] MacArthur, 189.
[6] Lints, 93.
[activecampaign form=1 css=0]
***You can also sign up for Pastor Drew’s podcast at Apple Podcasts and Spotify
*** Click Here to go to Drew’s sermon archive on various topics.
Click Here For Last Week’s Sermon Notes:
