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“The His-story of Those Who Believe: Part One” Ephesians 1:3-11

Love Made A Way

A Sermon Series on Atonement

“The His-story of Those Who Believe: Part One”

Ephesians 1:3-11

Introduction

This four-week series looks at four atonement images or metaphors in Scripture: adoption (family), redemption (marketplace), justification (legal), and rescue/victory (conquest). A well-rounded understanding of the ways God has provided our redemption inspires us to live well as redeemed, victorious, free children of God.

When I was a boy my favorite television show was “The Greatest American Hero.” It was a story of a man who was chosen by aliens and given a special suit. The suit had amazing powers only the hero lost the owner’s manual. He spends the whole season discovering new powers, new abilities that the suit had, while fighting bad guys of course.

In the Christian life many are like the Greatest American Hero. They never really know the extent of our abilities through Christ until their season is almost cancelled. The guilt of past sins keeps them from serving because they don’t understand the extent of God’s forgiveness. They try to work hard so that they can feel worthy of their salvation. They are insecure of their destiny, thinking constantly, “have I done enough, am I good enough?” “Does God love me?” They never see themselves as God sees them. They never know nor experience the power that is within them.

This morning we will look at the history of those who accept Christ. I have entitled the message The His-story of Those Who Believe because it is God who has designed our lives from eternity past until the future of eternity. How does this apply to my life? If we understand who we are in Christ it has a great impact on the way we live our lives, establish priorities, raise our children, relate to our spouse, and on and on.

God Has Blessed His Children In The Past (3-7)

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Spiritual Blessings

Paul tells us that God has blessed us with “every spiritual blessing,” and that these blessings are “in the heavenly places,” and these blessings are “in Christ.” The word for “in” as “in Christ” are like going into a door. Once I have crossed the door into a building, I am in the building. So a person who places their faith in Christ, has crossed over into a saving faith relationship. In that relationship, there are blessings. To be “In Christ,” is to have a saving faith relationship.[1]

“Many Christians continually ask God for what He has already given them. They pray for him to give them more: love – “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Rom. 5:5) peace – “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.” (Jn. 14:27) happiness and joy – “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” (Jn. 15:11) strength – “you can do all things through Him who strengthens you.” (Phil. 4:13)”[2]

God has given us everything that we need pertaining to life and godliness. We are complete in him. (Col. 2:10) We don’t need more from God, we need to make use of what we have already been given. Everything that God has, those in Christ have. Christ’s riches are our riches, His power is our power.

Chosen By God

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

(v. 4) Those who are followers of Christ has been chosen; “No one can come to Me,” Jesus said, “unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). Helkuo (draws) carries the idea of an irresistible force and was used in ancient Greek literature of a desperately hungry man being drawn to food.

“Salvage yards use large electromagnets to lift and sort scrap metal. When the magnet is turned on it only attracts certain types of metals, iron, steel, etc, while other metals are in no way attracted, aluminum, and brass. In a similar way, God’s elective will irresistibly draws to Himself those whom He has predetermined to love and forgive, while having no effect on those whom He has not.”[3]

My first response to election was “That’s not fair.” “Why would God draw some and not others?” “Why could he not just draw, and save everyone?” But these questions show a lack of understanding on three characteristics about God.

God is sovereign. He can do whatever He wants to do. (ex. Job 38)

“Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.”

Grace by definition is “mercy shown that is undeserved.”

Exodus 33:19 “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”

God allows Man’s Free (ex. Adam & Eve) God does choose us, and draw us, but there is also an element of free will. Somehow, we have a choice in the matter. There are multiple times when humanity is told to choose and to exercise his own will. Joshua 24:15 “. . . choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (paradox, like Jesus being fully God and fully man.)

Some Are Chosen By God While Having Freedom To Choose God

Our being chosen was “before the foundation of the world ,” The blessing those who are in Christ receive has been planned and established long before they are even born, even before time itself began. It was God’s plan, “that we should be holy and blameless before him,” God’s choice was for a specific purpose, there was a plan for those whom He elected unto salvation. “God’s work of redemption is for His glory, that this world that has fallen and rebelled against Him will be redeemed, and we who grovel in the dirt in the dust of this world will be raised to the heavenly places, participating in the glory of Christ.”[4]

Adopted

5 “he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, . . .”

In Christ we become citizens of His kingdom. He even calls us friends, He says, “All things that I have heard from My father I have made known to you” (Jn. 15:15). But in His great love we have been made more than citizens, servants, and even friends. He has made us His children. “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear,” Paul says, “but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:15).

Human parents can adopt children and come to love them every bit as much as they love their biological children. They can give an adopted child complete equality in the family life, resources, and inheritance. But no human parent can impart his own distinct nature to the adopted child. (illus. people calling to talk to my dad, I pick up the phone, and immediately they say, “Tommy . . .”)

That is what God does to every person whom He has elected and who has trusted in Christ. He makes them sons just like His divine Son. Christians not only have all of the Son’s riches and blessings but all of the Son’s nature. That’s why you see a change in a saved person’s life, they are becoming more like Christ.

(6) “. . . to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”

Why did God do all of that for us? Why did He want us to be His sons? 1) We are saved and made sons to the praise of the glory of His grace. He chooses, and predestines us for His glory. Philippians 2:13 says “God is at work in [us] . . . for His good pleasure.” Because of his love for His creation; John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

God Has Blessed His Children In The Present (7-11)

7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,”

Redeemed

Redemption is a legal term and referred to legal acquittal of a charge or paying the ransom in order to release a person from bondage, especially that of slavery. During New Testament times the Roman Empire had as many as six million slaves, and the buying and selling of them was a major business. If a person wanted to free a loved one who was a slave, he would buy that slave for himself and then grant him freedom, testifying to the deliverance by a written certificate.

Every person born since the fall has come into the world enslaved to sin, under total bondage to a nature that is corrupt, evil, and separated from its Creator. God says I want to pay the price to free my creation. What was the price? His Son’s blood. Death is the price that must be paid for man’s redemption from sin.

In the OT the blood of sacrificed animals was continually offered on the alters of the Tabernacle and then in the Temple. But that blood was never able, and was never intended, to cleanse the worshippers from sin. Those animals were symbolic, typical substitutes. Hebrews 10:4 “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” But through the shedding of His blood, (v. 10)“we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”

There is also, something else to consider: Paul has already established in the text that we were chosen, and adopted and made a part of God’s family through Jesus. In the OT there is a Kinsman-Redeemer. When a person sold themselves into slavery, indentured servitude, because they were unable to pay their debts. A Kinsman Redeemer was a blood relative who would pay the debt that was owed by the relative. Because the debt was paid the person was now free from the slavery.[5]

Two results of redemption:

Forgiveness – Israel’s greatest holiday is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On that day the high priest selected two unblemished sacrificial goats. One goat was killed, and his blood was sprinkled on the alter as a sacrifice. The high priest placed his hands on the head of the other goat, symbolically laying the sins of the people on the animal. The goat was then taken into the wilderness, so far that it could not return. In symbol the sins of the people went with the goat, never to return.[6]

Forgiveness means to send away. Through the shedding of His own blood, Jesus Christ actually took the sins of the world upon his own head and carried them an infinite distance away from where they could never return. Because we continue to sin, we need the continued forgiveness of cleansing; but we do not need the continued forgiveness of redemption. That does not mean we will no longer sin, nor that when we do our sins have no harmful effect. Our sin affects our growth, joy, peace, usefulness, and an ability to have an intimate relationship with our Father.

Jesus was trying to introduce servant leadership to the disciples at the Last Supper and Peter resisted Jesus washing his feet. Jesus responded you don’t need your whole body washed, just his feet. John 13:9-10 “Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean.” When we sin, we don’t need complete redemption, just forgiveness for where we have recently sinned. We continually seek forgiveness for sin, but we are not re-saved every time.

8 “. . . which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.”

Wisdom and insight

Sophia (wisdom) emphasizes understanding of ultimate things – such as life and death, God and man, righteousness and sin, heaven and hell, eternity and time. Phronesis (insight) emphasizes practical understanding, comprehension of the needs, problems, and principles of everyday living. We need both to live a godly life – understanding ultimate things lived out in a meaningful way.

(v. 9-10) “. . . making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.

Paul uses the word mystery to mean something that was once hidden but has now been revealed. The plan “to unite all things in Christ,” was once hidden, but in the fullness of time has now been made known to the world. The revealed truth is that the world will receive the gospel – the family of God is expanded beyond Israel and goes into the whole world (Col. 1:27).

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, . . .”

This mystery that Gentiles are included into God’s plan for the redemption of the world, was again, planned (predestined) – it has always been God’s plan, His will to redeem His creation “to unite all things in Christ.”

A story told by Paul Lee Tan illustrates the meaning of redemption. He said that when A.J. Gordon was pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, “Son, where did you get those birds?” The boy replied, “I trapped them out in the field.” “What are you going to do with them?” “I’m going to play with them, and then I guess I’ll just feed them to an old cat we have at home.” When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, “Mister, you don’t want them, they’re just little old wild birds and can’t sing very well.” Gordon replied, “I’ll give you $2 for the cage and the birds.” “Okay, it’s a deal, but you’re making a bad bargain.” The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue. The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ’s coming to seek and to save the lost — paying for them with His own precious blood. “That boy told me the birds were not songsters,” said Gordon, “but when I released them and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, ‘Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!”

You and I have been held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and set us at liberty. When a person has this life-changing experience, he will want to sing, “Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!”[7]

_________________

[1] R. C. Sproul, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Sanford, Florida; Ligonier Ministries, 2023) 11.

[2] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Ephesians (Chicago, Illinois; Moody Press, 1986) 8.

[3] MacArthur, 11.

[4] Sproul, 14.

[5] Sproul, 18.

[6] the “scapegoat,” see Lev. 16:21-22

[7] https://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/r/redemption.htm

“Living In Freedom As God’s Adopted Children” Galatians 4:1-11

Love Made A Way

A Sermon Series on

“Living In Freedom As God’s Adopted Children”

Galatians 4:1-11

Introduction

Have you ever had a time in your life to where you want to return to how your life was before Christ? Do you have a desire to return to previous sin, previous relationships, even previous ways of dealing with stress, disappointment, or loss? As you looked at the road before you, you thought it would be better to turn around and go back. To move forward is hard, to turn back is easier.

Exodus 14:11-12 “They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

There is always the temptation to return to the slavery we know than to step out in faith and move toward something we don’t know. For those in the Galatian church, they were at a cross roads of wanting to accept a self-righteous approach to religion (even though they had never been Jewish), than to seek through faith to build a close relationship with God. So this morning, I want to encourage you to keep pushing forward in your walk with God, and not turn back to a life that may feel comfortable and know – instead seek to know God differently than you ever have before.

Choose Freedom Because You Have Been Adopted and Are Spirit Filled (vv. 1-7)

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

In the family life of Paul’s day, a father would place his children under the care of a tutor. The tutor had complete control over the children. They were told when to get up, when to go to bed, what to wear, where to go, what to study, when to study, for how long to study – every part of their lives was controlled by the tutor. In that sense there was no real difference between the servants of the family, and the children of the family, even though, “though he is the owner of everything.”

The “elementary principles of the world,”[1] are what kept you from inheriting “everything.” The cost of being enslaved to the elementary principles of the world is everything. Elementary principles being religion and morality; “Compulsory obedience to definite rules of justice and order were necessary preparation for the freedom of the Spirit.”[2] Religions and traditions formed a valuable discipline for the education of the world. Elementary principles could also refer to sex, power, money, etc. – these are powerful principles that constantly seek to draw us away from God.[3] Enslaved to powers beyond our control.

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

In Paul’s culture, the father also set a date in the future when the children would be free from that control and inherit what belonged to the family.

Paul has shown earlier that the law was given to push people to understand their need for a Savior – the law explained what sin is, God’s standard of behavior, and how we are then imprisoned with no means of escape because of our rebellion against God, sentenced to death. God gave the law and then waited for it to have its full effect upon mankind. “the fullness of time,” refers to “the completion of the period of preparation in God’s sovereign timetable of redemption.”[4]

(v. 4) “God sent forth his Son, born of woman,” – Jesus had to be both God and man in order to live a sinless life, to completely and perfectly keep the standards and requirements to live a life out before God. He had to be human, born of a woman, to be the perfect substitute – so He could take our place. He came it into the world, and lived a sinless life so that He could, . . .

(v. 5) “to redeem those who were under the law,” – to redeem is to buy back; for the slave it would be to purchase their freedom. Jesus purchased us, He redeemed us by being our substitute – His life exchanged for our lives, our debt was paid by His life. Jesus became the curse on the cross so that our curse of sin could be removed.

“we might receive adoption as sons,” – God could have left us in that state of a freed slave – you are no longer a slave, but you also have nothing. So, He adopted us into His family, as sons.

In the Antebellum south during the time of Reconstruction immediately after the Civil War, the slaves were freed by the ending of the war and Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. But they owned no property, no capital, had no education, and with no means of providing for themselves became share croppers. Many previous slaves, as sharecroppers eventually had massive debts owed to the land owners and became essentially slaves all over again.

To prevent us, having been freed from sin, to be able to live a life free from bondage “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.” The Holy Spirit (God’s presence within us) is what enables us to now live a life pleasing to God. When God adopts us, He changes us from the inside out.

Romans 8:14 “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,. . .”

(v. 6) “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” – Notice in the Romans passage (8:15) and here in Galatians 4:6 “Abba! Father!” have exclamation marks, it is a crying out, a yell. Because the Spirit of God confirms with our spirit, that we are children of God, we cry out Daddy! Father! Words used by a child who loves their dad, and they are crying out for a response. We move from hopeless silence, to crying out to the Father who loves us – because the Spirit speaks to our spirit that He loves us and we are His child.

“Did you know that a baby’s cry matches its mother’s language? A newborn child, just two or three days old, cries in a distinctive way, mimicking the sound of the child’s mother. Researchers studied sixty healthy newborn children from both French and German families. They found that each newborn baby has its own “cry melody,” a specific pattern of sounds that is unique to his or her cry. But more than that, they found that babies will match their cry to the sounds and intonations of their mother’s voice.”[5] Our cry to God identifies who we belong to.

The Christian prayer is a child talking to their loving Father.

(v. 7) “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” An heir is someone that inherits something. What is it that a person who is a believer in Jesus will inherit? Jesus as the Son of God will inherit the Father’s estate, and we are co-heirs, with Jesus.

In the ancient world as a means of survival the father would pass on to his son an inheritance (which would pass from one generation to the next). If you became an orphan, you have no inheritance, no means to survive, and most poor people became slaves just to be able to eat and have some kind of shelter. So the chances of the orphan becoming a slave were very high. The inheritance provided the means to be free from slavery. So, when we become a child of God, and an heir to His kingdom, we can be free from slavery because God has all we need. The fear of starvation, freezing in the rain, dying of thirst, or any other horror that may come because I don’t have what I need to survive is gone.

“If you’re a child of God, it’s because He adopted you, not because you were born. This is the argument that Jesus had with the Pharisees when they claimed to be children of Abraham. Jesus said, “No you are of your father, the devil” (see John 8:44). The Scriptures teach us that we are by nature the children of wrath.”[6] We are not all children of God, only those who have placed their faith in Jesus, and are then adopted by God as His children.

Salvation has two things happening; 1) our sin is transferred to Christ and is done away with and, 2) the Son’s rights and privileges are transferred to us. “Not only did Christ remove the curse we deserved (3:13; 4:5a), but He also gives us the blessing He deserved (3:14; 4:5b). God’s honor and reward are just as secure and guaranteed as our pardon.”[7]

Jesus has not just taken us out of prison and death row, but as we are leaving, a medal of honor is hung around our necks and we are paraded through the streets as a hero. Our inheritance is not a prize to be won. It is a gift from Christ.

When Jesus was praying on the night he was betrayed, He prayed specifically for those who would place their faith in Him, John 17:21, 23-24 “ . . . so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” The Father loves those that believe in Jesus (adopted children) just like He loves His own Son. Jesus prayed that we would know and understand how deep the Father’s love is for us.

What is better than the Father’s love for us?

How deep the Father’s love for us

How vast beyond all measure

That He would give His only Son

To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss

The Father turns His face away

As wounds which mar the chosen One

Bring many sons to glory

“Though we are rich in the gospel, adopted children of God with complete and direct access to the Father, we can go back to relating to Him only through our record and moral merits.”[8] Paul warns that is we allow ourselves to go back to religious moralism we break a relationship that God gave His Son to establish.

Choose Freedom Because You Are Known By God (vv. 8-11)

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

“to be known by God,” – God is omnipotent – He knows everything. He knit you together in your mother’s womb, He knows the number of hairs upon your head. To be known by God is not your existence, it is about a relationship. David says in Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

There is a desire for a relationship where your heart is open to the Lord, you have a relationship with Him, and You know Him and His ways, and He knows you and in spite of our wicked hearts; We desire for Him as our Father to lead us “in the way everlasting.” But we get to choose what that relationship looks like.

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” When it’s all said and done, and we stand before God on judgement day, it won’t be about the things that we did, it ultimately come down to, “does God know you?” The Father knows His children.

Conclusion

Jesus told the parable of the unfaithful servants, and we are described as children of God, the principle is the same, Luke 12:48 “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” We are heirs of heaven, have been given “every spiritual blessing, (Eph. 1:3)” the Holy Spirit speaks directly to our spirit, and we are children of God (that counts as much), what will be required of us (if it is ultimately not about doing stuff?) You have been promised by God everything – what then as a child of God is required of you?

Seek to be like Jesus. Since God loves us as the Son, and has adopted us as a son, we should seek to be as much like Jesus as possible. We must consume God’s Word, and seek to be as much like Jesus as possible. It’s not so much about doing, as it is being.

Seek God Constantly. God gave His Son so that we can have a close relationship with God; are we then seeking to have that relationship with our Father? Are we acting like a slave who is afraid of God, or are we acting like a child who is assured of our Father’s love? Cry out to your loving Father in Prayer. God wants a close relationship with you – reach out to Him.

Seek to be Led by the Spirit. God wants us to be free, led by His Spirit. We are free from the law to worship God, serve Him, live For Him, — are our daily lives led by the Spirit of God which is rooted in a relationship, or are we walking through life enslaved to rules and man-made traditions that are rooted in trying to please God apart from a relationship? Are you returning to old sin because its’ easier than pursuing a relationship with God?

______________

[1] Colossians 2:8, 20

[2] W. Robertson Nicoll, The Expositor’s Greek Testament, Volume III (Grand Rapids, Michigan; WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1967) 176.

[3] Wilson, 134.

[4] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Galatians (Chicago, Illinois; Moddy Publishing, 1987) 107.

[5] Todd Wilson, Galatians, Gospel-Rooted Living (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2013) 133.

[6] R. C. Sproul, Galatians, An Expositional Commentary (Sanford, Florida; Ligonier Ministries, 2022) 86.

[7] Timothy Keller, Galatians For You (United States; The Good Book Company, 2013) 98.

[8] Keller, 97.

[9] Russell Moore, Adopted for Life, The Priority of Adoption For Christian Families & Churches (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2009) 46.

“In The Cleft of the Rock” Exodus 33:12-23

“Second Altars”

A Sermon Series on Idolatry

“In The Cleft of the Rock”

Exodus 33:12-23

Introduction

In the previous verses, God has told Moses that He will not be continuing with the Israelites (His presence would not be present with them). He will send an angel to get to the promised land, but because of there being so stiff-necked and rebellious it would be dangerous for them (because God is holy). The people repented of their sin, and are deeply remorseful of their making the golden calf. We are then told about Moses and the tent of meeting, where he would go outside of camp, pitch a tent, and meet with God. What follows is a conversation between Moses and God that more than likely happened inside that tent. Exodus 33:11 “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”

Three Rounds of Discussion; Round One (vv. 12-14)

Moses Asks Something for Himself

12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”

The conversation begins with Moses crying out the Lord’s Word back to Him – Lord you said, “Bring up this people,” that was God’s calling upon Moses’ life. You promised, “But I will be with you,” (Ex. 3:11), “and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Ex. 3:17) Lord you have promised in your Word . . .

“but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.” Moses has been asked to do a job, but finds himself without the resources to carry it out. To lead the people from slavery to the Promise Land is an immense task. He realizes that he can’t do this alone, in his own strength, God has to be with him (or just not go at all).

Then he says, Lord you said, “I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight,” At some time in their conversations, God had told Moses that He knew him, and that he loved him, so he is quoting those words back to God. “Lord you know my name, and that I have found favor in your sight.”

This is not a head knowledge or a person; in that sense God knows everyone. This is a knowledge similar to Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” To be known by God is about a relationship. That relationship is based on obedience to God, His Word, and a friendship.

Then based on what God’s Word says, Moses then makes a request, “show me now your ways,”[1] If Moses was going to lead the people, he needed to know the plan – the mind of God. He wanted constant communication between God and himself. We learn from Moses, that if we are to accomplish the calling upon our lives, we must pray as Moses prayed. “Lord, show me your mind, your ways, your plans, so that I may accomplish the task.” Jesus put it this way, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5).

We need to hear from God to make individual decisions in our lives, “but more than this, we need to know his divine character so that every day we can live in a way that is pleasing to him.”[2] When we pray, asking God to show us His character, so that we may please Him – these are prayers God loves to answer.

There is also a lingering in not knowing what the Lord is going to do, “but you have not let me know . . .” All of God’s people stood at their tents, staring in the distance at the tent of meeting, waiting to see how the negotiations between Moses and God were going.

(v. 13b) “Consider too that this nation is your people.,” Moses is still trying to persuade God toward being with the Israelites. He knows that he (Moses) and God are on good terms, “I have found favor in your sight,” and he wants to use that favor in order to restore the covenant between God and Israel. This is a foreshadowing (a type) of Jesus’ righteousness being used to restore God with a sinful people.

There is an intermediary between God and man, who uses his favor with God to restore the presence of God back into their “camp.” “Our salvation depends on the pleasure God takes in our mediator. That is to say, our salvation rests on the delight the God takes in the person of His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.”[3]

When we think about our lives, we say, “how could God ever love a sinner like me?” His love for you is not based on what you have done, but because you have placed your faith in His Son, He loves you. His love for you is based on how He feels about His Son, not you. If you want God to be pleased with you, then love Jesus, place your faith in Him alone.

14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

“the covenant bond has been restored.”[4] God now responds to Moses’ requests, in that His presence will go with Moses and he says “I will give you rest,” but it is singular, Moses is the one whom God will go with and Moses will receive rest. So, Moses still feels the need to connect God with the people.

Three Rounds of Discussion; Round Two (vv. 15-17)

Moses Asks Something for the People

15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

Moses has kept the mission of the people in mind, Exodus 19:5-6 “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’”

The nation of Israel would represent God to all the other nations (the nation that just made another idol and bowed down to it). Part of the restoration process is not just that they are forgiven of their sin, but their lives are put back on the mission that they were brought out of slavery to accomplish.

There is a restoration from their sin, and there is a restoration to their purpose.

God has already said that He would . . ., Exodus 33:2-3 “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; . . .” God told the people I will make your life comfortable, safe, and you will have power before you – but the presence of God would not be there.

You can have all that life offers, but there will be no God given purpose. If you pursue the pleasures of this life, without God’s presence or His calling upon your life – you will reach a point when you will ask, “what’s the point of all this?”

Ecclesiastes 1:3-5 “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.” What is the point of toiling, pushing? Life is fleeting, it comes and goes quickly – but what’s the point of it all if we all just die and turn to dust? What gives life meaning is that we are God’s “treasured possession,” we are His children, and He has given us a task to complete, “to be a kingdom of priests,”

Bellevue Baptist Church exists to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

(v. 16) “Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct,” Isn’t the point of all this, that God will be with His people? And those people accomplish what God has put before them to accomplish?

Our purpose is found in a relationship with God,

and the calling placed on our lives that He empowers us to accomplish.

“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.” It is better to stay where you are, not taking another step, and wait on the Lord. We are not going to go anywhere without God being with us. What is it that sets Christians apart from all other people on the earth? Is it not the presence of God in their lives? Other peoples of the world have wealth, health, power, safety, etc. We don’t point to our houses and cars, our jobs or bank accounts – no we point to the presence of God with us.

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”

Three Rounds of Discussion; Round Three (vv. 18-23)

Moses Asks Something As A Person Who Wanted to Know God.

18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”

Moses has seen God in the form of a burning bush where He revealed his name “I AM,” to him, He saw his mighty power in the miracles like the plagues of Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea. He saw God as a pillar of smoke and pillar of fire. The staff in his arm stopped the sun in the sky, and turned into a serpent if he threw it down. He experienced God on Mt. Saini as he received the law on the stone tablets. But now Moses asks, “Show me your glory.” Hasn’t God already done that? What is Moses asking God for?

Moses had always moved forward on the command of God, and an assurance that God’s power was with him. He was given commands, throw your staff down, and God’s power would be revealed. “Moses wants the essential being of God without any veil”[5] Because he is the intermediate between this stiff-necked nation, and His God, “he felt that the separation, which existed between himself and Jehovah, introduced a disturbing element into his office.”[6] It is disturbing to Moses that God’s presence would not be there.

Hebrews 3:5 “Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,” He didn’t want to be the leader to start with, but it was only on the condition that God would show up when He said He would.

19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

““I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’” What this reveals to Moses, has to do with the revelation of His name, “the Lord.” God does not have a hand, or a back, but this anthropomorphic language helps us understand what God is doing – what He wants Moses to experience.

If God were to truly show himself, mankind, even righteous Moses, would be consumed. So God has to protect him from direct contact. Being in the cleft of the rock and being covered by God’s hand is protecting him from the consuming nature of God – thereby revealing his name “the Lord.” God was completely perfect – for a fallen sinful man to fully experience Him was be deadly.

That hand of protection from the consuming of God is determined by His choice, (not the faithfulness of Moses acting as an intermediator.) (v. 19) Paul is discussing God’s grace and mercy quotes Exodus in Romans 9:15 “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”

(v. 20) “. . . I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face . . .” Even though we have received God’s mercy, there is a limit on how much we can experience God while we are here on earth.

What did Moses see? What is the glory that Moses encountered. Remember in the context Moses wants God’s presence with him. Moses asks to better know His ways, and to know the mind of God. He wants to serve as a better go-between for his people. In that context, God reveals His glory – what did Moses see? Somehow, he better understood what God intends to do with his people and it was powerful enough that if God removed His hand Moses would be destroyed. It was a glimpse of the God who would be with His people.

2 Peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” When we have been transformed (from this earthly body) to our heavenly body; which Peter calls our divine nature. Only then can we see God as He truly is.

Mankind has always wanted to know what God looks like, to know God, to see Him face to face, to experience Him – There is a conversation between Jesus and the disciples in John 14:8-9 “Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” If you want to know the God of limitless power and glory, perfect in every way, holy, and fully good then look to the gospels and see Him in Jesus.

In this life we will only be able to experience God “as a mirror dimly,” (1 Cor. 13:12), as Moses in the cleft of a rock covered with His hand, but in glory when we are freed from sin, we will be able to see Him face-to-face in all His glory.

____________________

[1] Psalm 103:7a “He made known his ways to Moses.”

[2] Philip Graham Ryken, Exodus, Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2015) 975.

[3] Philip Graham Ryken, 978.

[4] C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985) 235.

[5] C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, 236.

[6] C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, 237.

“The Presence of God In The Life of a Believer” Exodus 33:1-11

“Second Altars”

A Sermon Series on Idolatry

“The Presence of God In The Life of a Believer”

Exodus 33:1-11

Introduction

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UxVx0Nx9rsU

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.”

Israel has experienced the consequences of their making and worshipping the golden calf – and now it is time to move on. God is still going to keep his promise of giving them the promised land, and would drive out their enemies so they would be safe. There would even be the power of an angel that goes before them.

But now, after the people have sinned, God’s presence would not be with the people. It’s not that God will lose His temper, but He is holy and will always respond with righteous anger toward sin. The fact that the people were “stiff-necked” (they had broken the covenant); this made it dangerous for God to be close to them.

The whole Exodus story up to this point was God wanting to draw close to His people. The law would allow Him to settle right in the middle of their camp. 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.

Also, there is the issue of ownership. Remember earlier there was a discussion between God and Moses about who’s the people were, 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, . . .” God wants to be Israel’s God but instead they worship the golden calf. “To whom do the people belong? And to whom do they confess ownership? These are the questions of identity at the heart of the story of idol-making in Exodus 32. YHWH’s covenantal ownership of Israel is threatened by their attempt to grant ownership rights to the idols.”[1]

The law that Moses has received, much of it dealt with the tabernacle (God’s presence amongst His people). But, at this point, there would be no lampstands, no offerings, no pillar of smoke during the day, nor pillar of fire by night. There would be no place the people could go to interact or pray, or worship God, or have their sins atoned for.

God is offering them what they wanted when they made the golden calf – He was offering to bless them, “a land flowing with milk and honey,” to protect them, “I will drive out the . . .” to empower, “I will send an angel before you,” them, But there would be no relationship with Him. God was going to give them everything they wanted – except a relationship.

How Important Is It to You to Have A Relationship With God?

Do you expect Him just to take care of everything, give you everything, but to have no conversation?

If we go back to the opening video of the little girl seeing her parents at the show – this is the same saying, “I will take you to the practices, I will buy you the outfit, I will have your hair done, and I will make sure you get to the performance – but I am not going to attend, I will not be sitting in the audience” This goes back to ownership and identity – does it matter if strangers were sitting in the audience, verses your mom and dad sitting in the audience?

But isn’t this still true for many people? They want God to solve all their problems. They want God to give them what they want; they want to be protected from misfortune, and they will even pray asking for these things (“Lord give me, give, give me . . .”) – but they aren’t really interested in having a relationship with God. So how do you think the people responded?

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.”

This was a disastrous word that spread throughout the camp – “God is not going with us.” Their response is to mourn and to make an act of repentance. They took off all ornaments (earrings, jewelry, fancy clothes) anything that pointed back to their act of making the golden calf. Their response to God’s Word was “Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments.” They repented of making the idol, and they didn’t display anything that would point to that action, “from Mount Horeb onward.” This is similar to putting on sackcloth and ashes.

There is a similar situation in Genesis 35:1-4 where, “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.”

Jacob knew that if he were going to genuinely worship God, and to lead his family in authentic worship, the idols and the things associated with idols (ear rings) had to go. The earrings led to worship of an idol – get rid of the idol, and the things that lead to something becoming an idol.

If we are going to have a genuine relationship with God,

the idols (and the things that lead us toward idols) have to go.

We can tell there is a heart change in God’s people because three things happen. 1) They are truly mourning over how they have broken their relationship with God, and 2) they are taking actions of repentance to get rid of the sin. In order for our relationship with God to be restored – there must be remorse (brokenness over sin) and repentance (taking action to ensure that it doesn’t happen again).

Paul compares this in 2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” Godly grief is a brokenness and sorrow over our sin which leads to a turning from our sin. Wordly grief is a sorrow that you were caught. It is a displeasure at the circumstances that have resulted from the sin but you don’t actually change. Here are some statements to help us understand the difference:

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 has blessed us in countless ways, but the ability to experience His grace, and our ability to return back to Him through repentance and the forsaking of sin all of which leads us to know Him; to have a deepening relationship with Him, is priceless.

God’s most profound blessing to us to that he allows us to know Him. God’s presence in our lives means everything. God wanted to be at the center of the Israelite camp – God wants to remain at the center of our lives. If God is not present with His people – it is disastrous.

So what does it look like when we have a relationship with God?

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.

(v. 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.” Moses had a time and place where he would go to spend time with God. It was intentional, deliberate, and it took effort on his part. Today we call this having a quiet time. You intentionally have a time and place where you open up God’s Word and you communicate with God.

How do we know the Israelites were truly repentant? 3) “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.” There was now a desire to worship God that was not there before. Before the Israelites were interested in safety, material possessions, being provided for, prestige among the nations, etc. (what they would get from God). Now, after their repentance there is a desire for God Himself, and for Him to be with them.[3]

(v. 11) “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Moses talked with God at the burning bush, he spoke with God in Mt. Sanai, and he spoke with God regularly at “the tent of meeting.” Face-to-face doesn’t meant Moses could see God because a few verses down, God tells him that man cannot see God and live. It was a way of saying that there was communication between them.

Moses and God were friends, and no one had (since Adam) enjoyed this kind of relationship with God. And if you had a question you would go to the tent and ask Moses, who would then talk to God on your behalf, “And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.”

God desiring to be with His people has been a process; 1. His presence among the people (pillar of smoke and fire), Mt. Siani 2. The eventual tabernacle, 3. The temple, 4. Jesus 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,” 5. The Holy Spirit within the believer.

But today, through our relationship with Christ, we can have the same kind of relationship as Moses had with God (if not better). 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.” The conversation between the friend of God and God Himself involves knowing the plans of God. Today we have the Holy Spirit who is within us, so we become the tent of meeting.

God’s desire has always been to grow closer to His people – but there is sin that has to be dealt with. As a follower of Jesus, once you place your faith in Christ you are sealed for all of eternity. Your name is written in the lamb’s book of Life, and your eternal destiny is secure. Jesus died in your place on the cross, so that you sin can be forgiven.

So, with God having shown all through the pages of the Bible that God wants a deepening relationship with you – does it matter if I sin? Yes, Ephesians 4:30 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Paul is echoing an Old Testament passage in Isaiah 63:10 “But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; . . .” Isaiah is referencing our Exodus passage (ch. 33). Isaiah goes back to the Exodus account, how God brought his people Israel into a covenant with himself (v.8). v.9 states that it was the presence of God himself, not simply an angel, which saved his people in the wilderness. Israel then rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the Lord placed his Holy Spirit in the midst of his people to deliver them and to give them rest (v.14).

The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:1-11 uses the same language as Isaiah 63, to warn the new church not to grieve the Holy Spirit as Israel had done. To grieve the Holy Spirit in Ephesians deals with speech and not causing disunity within the body. But in a larger sense, “when His children refuse to change the ways of the old life for the ways of the new, God grieves.”[4]

When God’s people built a golden calf and proclaimed that this was what brought them out of Egypt – to abandon His Word, and to break their covenant with Him, he was grieved and removed His presence from them. Their repentance and willingness to obey God’s Word, God relented from destroying them and His presence returned.

For those who follow Christ, their souls have been secured – but sin in the believer’s life will grieve the Holy Spirit. “Grieving can lead to quenching (1 Thess. 5:19), and to a forfeiture of power and blessing.”[5] When the Christian sins, the presence of God becomes distant.

God will not dwell amongst an idolatrous people.

God is unwilling to empower the believer, so the believer then lives this life in their own strength, guided by their own foolish wisdom, and doing “what seems right to him.” The believer who does not have the presence of God in his life is disastrous because they cannot live the life they have been made and called to live (they are wasting their time).

If we are going to make a difference in this world, we have to take risks, pick up responsibilities bigger than ourselves, we have to carry loads beyond what we think we can carry, and do what only God can through us. In order to do this, we have to have God present and active in our lives – and He won’t be there if you are in sin. In time you become like the god/God you worship.[6] Holy, righteous, true, good v. stiffnecked, rebellious, hard hearted, ears but don’t listen, eyes but can’t see.

____________________

[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.

“You Are God’s Ambassador” Exodus 32:7-14

“Second Alters”

A Sermon Series on Idolatry

“You Are God’s Ambassador”

Exodus 32:7-14

Introduction

Genesis 18 – this is the passage of where Abraham pleads on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. God has told that He is going to destroy the cities, and Abraham says, “Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?” and God responds by saying, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Abraham responds by saying, forty-five? Thirty? Twenty? Ten?

What if the city had no one righteous – no not one? (Romans 3:10)? What if you are called to represent a people who you know are guilty and whatever punishment God is handing out – they are justified to receive it? Today Moses is commanded to return to camp from the mountain in order deal with the golden calf and their rebellion against god. How would you lead them? They are stiff-necked and wicked?

God’s Reveals His Heart (vv. 7-9)
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. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

“stiff-necked people,” – To be a stiff-necked person is to ignore all that God has done in your life, to reject God’s desire to be in your life, to resist submitting to His ways and teachings, and to even substitute known truth and to say you believe crafted lies.

They have been a people who cried out against God when the Egyptians increased their work load, they doubted God at the Red Sea, they complained in the wilderness for lack of food and water, they cry out against God in fear at Mt. Siani, and here so quickly turn from God’s Law after such a short time.

This sudden turning away[1], makes the sin all the more glaring – had they really ever even truly submitted to the Lord? There is no thankfulness or gratitude to Him for their freedom, His provision, or His wanting to have a relationship with them. God got His people out of Egypt, but getting Egypt out if His people was proving difficult.

These “stiff-necked people” would not bow down to God’s authority and direction for their lives, but immediately bowed to a golden calf. Why? The golden calf had no requirements, no commandments, no law to follow. Each person could whatever he desired with no fear of consequences. The fact that they so quickly turned to corruption shows that they never have truly followed. They seem to be a people who follow as long as they get what they want out of God.

God deliberately changed the possessive pronoun, thereby indicating that he was disowning Israel (in 3:10 “my people”). In Exodus 3:7 God says, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people,” and again, “”bring my people. The children of Israel, out of Egypt,” and in 3:10 before the pharaoh, “let my people go.” But here the pronoun has changed to, “your people,” as in Moses’ people. Moses responds back in (verse 11), “Oh no, these are your people, that you brought out of Egypt.” If the situation were not so serious, it would be funny. “Your people, oh no, your people.”

(v. 10) “I may consume them,” the word here is to completely destroy. Absolute destruction. God has shown the people nothing but love, provision, and His presence. It is completely justified and what they deserved was to be wiped off the face of the earth because of their being stiff-necked. This is true for all people, Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death,” and everyone who rebels against God is deserving of death. Romans 2:5 tells us, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

(v. 10) “in order that I may make a great nation of you.” God says that He will wipe out the Israelite people because of their sin, but keep His promise to the patriarchs by making Moses in a great nation. This was a great test for Moses, “whether he would be willing to give up his own people, laden as they were with guilt, as the price of his own exaltation. . . The preservation of Israel was dearer to him than the honor of becoming the head and founder of a new kingdom of God.”[2]

Forget the plagues of Egypt, the manna from heaven, the water from the rock, the gathering at Mt. Sinai – we will just start over. From now own you will have some kids and over hundreds of hears they will become the Mosesites. “To save Israel, Moses had to turn down the opportunity to make a name for himself.”[3]

Would he pray and stand in the gap and identify himself with the people or would he pursue making his name great? Moses puts God’s glory first, God’s name first, and responds by repeating the promises God had made, and how this would potentially affect God’s name.

God’s mediators always put God’s glory first, over their own.

Moses was called to be the mediator between God and Israel, not to build an empire in his name. He stays true to his calling – be mediates between God and the people. This is what God called him to do at the burning bush (Ex. 3). For Moses, what was more important; for his name to become great, or for the Hebrew people to remain God’s people?

Knowing Your Calling Keeps You From Giving Over To Temptation.

God does not call those who are fit and worthy in themselves, for the accomplishment of His purposes of salvation, but chooses rather the unworthy, and makes them fit for His purposes,[4] 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, . . .” One person said it like this, “God does not called the equipped, He equips the called.”

While Moses was on the Mt. with God, the teachings he was learning about was what a High Priest would wear, and what he would do. Aaron was going to be the High Priest, Moses was getting the instructions – The High Priest would stand before God and on behalf of the people present the people’s offerings.

Aaron failed the test of leadership, but God is a God of grace. Aaron wanted to be a leader, in front of God’s people – but he went about the wrong way; he made some really bad decisions. God was preparing for him to lead, but Aaron didn’t trust God, or His timing.

Moses Reveals His Heart (vv. 11-14)

11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.”

Moses is pleading with God on behalf of his people. Deuteronomy 9:25 says, “So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you.” Praying for 45 days to hold off God’s judgement. “And the LORD relented” The Lord relented from judgement because of Moses’ intercession for his people. Some will use this passage to argue that God changes His mind. So, can a man change the mind of God?

Verses like Psalm 139 tell us that God knows everything, including the future. But He makes decisions on what a person does in the present (not what something you will one day do). So, when He says that he is going to wipe out the people, He is responding to their present condition.

But even in this pronouncement, there are hints of grace. There is a plan in place for their salvation. It was never God’s purpose to destroy the Israelites, but only to save them.[5] How do we know this? 1) Why send Moses back down the mountain? – he could have just wiped them out without getting Moses (and Joshua) involved. They knew what they were doing was wrong, they had just received (and agreed to follow) the commands to have no other gods, and not to make a graven image.

God’s plan was to save them through an intercessor. Someone who would stand in between the wrath of God, His judgement, and the people who are deserving of destruction. Psalm 106:23 “Therefore he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.” Moses was not changing God’s mind; He was carrying out God’s plan.

2) There is a pronoun shift, Moses these are your people – God is helping the mediator to understand and to be reminded of his role as the go-between. But don’t miss that the people had been dismissive of Moses “As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, . . .” The one they showed disdain for is the only man who could save them. But the intercessor has to identify himself with those he is called to represent.

3) (v. 10) “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them,” – God has called Moses to be the intercessor for his people. So, he says to Moses “step aside,” and let me destroy them.” God can do whatever He wants, whenever and to whomever He chooses to do it – He doesn’t need Moses to step aside. But this really is a question – will you stop praying for your people. Will you give up on your community? This is to push his mediator to keep going – but the mediator must own it.

God’s mediators love their people.

Moses says, “Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.” . . . (He owns his role as intercessor, “these are the people you have called me to, and I don’t want them to be destroyed.”) “And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.” (enacting His plan for salvation, because He wishes to give grace).

2 Corinthians 5:20 “All this (meaning salvation) 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.” If you have received the message of God’s salvation, then you are also given the ministry of reconciliation, and you are Christ’s ambassador.

But in this role, God wants you to love the people you have been called to share Christ with. When God says, “let me alone,” It is a call to prayer, if my people will continue to pray, then God will hold back His destruction. The only reason you will pray for someone who has the wrath of God over their head is if you love them.

Conclusion

The prophet Jonah was given a message of reconciliation, but he hated the Ninevites – so he went in the opposite direction. He was swallowed by a large fish where he repented of his rebellion, and says, “Those who pay regard to vain idols

forsake their hope of steadfast love.” He was thrown up on the shore of where he needed to go. Then he went into the city, and spoke the absolute minimum required words given to him from God, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (A Hebrew 5 word sermon).

Then the entire city repents of their sin and turns to God, “And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.” The king demands that everyone put on sackcloth and ashes, and shows his faith in God by saying, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish. . . When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relentedof the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” God in his mercy and grace, opens a way for an entire city to be saved – Jonah and his message.

So what is Jonah’s response as God’s ambassador to what may be history’s greatest revival? Jonah 4:1-2 “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

You have been called to salvation and given the message of reconciliation – is your heart loving toward those whom you have been called to share that message with?

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[1] C.F. Keil and F. Delitzch, Commentary on the Old Testament In Ten Volumes, Volume I (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985) 223.

[2] C.F. Keil and F. Delitzch, 224.

[3] Ryken, 935.

[4] Keil & Delitzch, 224.

[5] Philp Graham Ryken, Exodus, Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2015) 934.

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