If you cannot figure out, if you cannot put two and two together and deduce that you've simply created and invented a God to reinforce your own views and opinions, you're projecting yourself onto God. You're lying to yourself. You're willfully deceiving yourself. In our home group, a couple of weeks ago, we were discussing times when the Lord has spoken to us with real clarity. It was just a wonderful conversation.
And the question came up, how do you know if it's God who's speaking to you and not just last night's pizza? That's a good question, right? The consensus was that the biggest indicator is that when God speaks to me, it doesn't sound like my own thoughts.
The things God says, the things the voice of God calls me to do are far more gracious and humble and servant hearted and often much more difficult than any thought.
I would have any scenario I would dream up, anything I would choose to do, because as the word says, his thoughts are not my thoughts and his ways are not my ways.
But if your God is simply reinforcing everything you believe, everything you'd like to do, every choice you want to make, then you might as well bow down in front of a mirror. Because that's the God that you're worshiping. And by the way, you can look in the mirror to find out exactly how powerful your God is to there, exactly as powerful as you. Because they are you. Do not be a fool and deceive yourself and think that a God of your own invention, Is foolishness. 18 through 20 were covered back in Exodus 13, Verse 11 through 13 and Verse is 20 through 26 hours, a reiteration of Exodus 23, verse is 14 through 19. So we're going to skip down to 27. Then the Lord said to Moses, write these words for according to the tenor of these words, I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. So he was there. Moses was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights.
And he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments. These are the second set of tablets with the Ten Commandments upon them.
The first set, you'll recall, were smashed by Moses in righteous anger and rich symbolism when he descended from Mount Sinai and found the nation of Israel engaging in pagan worship rituals around the idol of the Golden Calf Verse 8 29.
Now, it was so when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses hand when he came down from the mountain that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him, while he talked with God.
You know, going 40 days without food or water does not usually improve the outward appearance of a man, especially when that man is 80 years old.
And yet we're told that while Moses was speaking with God up on Mt. Sinai, somehow God's glory had a physical effect on Moses and left the skin of his face glowing, sort of like a supernatural suntan or should I say son, S.A.M. tan.
Your move, B.J., if you're not aware when it comes to bad puns and dad jokes, BJ and I are constantly lowering the bar.
Anyway, Moses comes down Mount Sinai with the two new tablets, his face glowing and he doesn't even know it. Verse 30. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called them and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. I think with me in typology, Moses being a type of Jesus, a picture of Jesus.
What do you think that this scene speaks of prophetically?
Moses going up the mountain and coming down, his face, glowing. What do you think the speaks of in typology? It's the transfiguration of Jesus.
And I put the references on your outline. You can look them up later. When Jesus went up on the mount and was transfigured, transformed into his glorious state before Peter, James and John.
And Jesus said, enter by the narrow gate for why it is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it. God says that the things of this world, the things of the culture which are contrary to God's word and will are to be destroyed in our lives and in our families.
We're not to make peace with them or compromise with them, we are to destroy them in our lives and our families, there's no place for them in our lives. We are to do everything we can to remove even the option of sitting with them. I can't stop looking at pornography, Jeff, I've tried everything really. Have you tried putting accountability software on your devices? Have you tried making your wife your accountability partner? Have you tried not having a computer?
Have you tried switching to an old school flip phone that doesn't even have an Internet browser?
That's the kind of attitude God wants us to have towards sin in our lives. Write this down. God expects his people to war against sin in their own lives, to war against sin in their own lives, to do whatever it takes. We covered Verse 8 /14 when we went through Exodus 20, Verse is four through six, so let's pick it up at verse 15.
God says, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice and you take of his daughters for your sons and his daughters, play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.
What happens when you become friends with the world, when you embrace the culture? Or first you begin to embrace the values of the culture and then inevitably. You begin to embrace the gods of the culture, and before you know it, you're a Christian by name, but you're just worshiping the same gods as the culture.
When you look at your life, you suddenly find that you're worshiping money just like the culture your whole life is about that new vehicle, that new house, that next vacation, or suddenly you're worshiping your kids more than you worship God or you're worshiping sex or you worshiping a relationship, you're worshiping the same gods as the culture. First you begin to embrace the values of the culture and then inevitably. You begin to embrace and serve the gods of the culture, that's why God says there's no room for this, there's no room for this in the lives of my people.
Verse 8 /17, you shall make no molded gods for yourselves.
If that sounds a little specific, it's because Exodus 32 told us that the idol the Israelites worshiped was a, quote, molded calf.
This is, of course, still a wildly popular type of God, the kind that can be molded, the kind of false God that you get to make in whatever form you desire, with whatever values you want. If you can't find an established God that lines up with what your flesh wants, you can just make your own.
You can just mold your own God.
Or, like many churches and Christians these days, you can make a molded false God and call them Jesus and mold this Jesus into a God of your own making.
Israel tried to make your way into a god of their own making, what happened, God wasn't having it. And he was crystal clear that just because they made this idol and referred to it as your way, just because you create a God and give them the title Jesus. Does not make them yours. It does not make them Jesus, God says that was not me you were worshiping.
We've talked before about the folly of claiming that you serve a God who just happens to perfectly mirror the current values of the culture.
If you're worshiping a God who perfectly mirrors the current values of the culture, who mirrors the values that you believe God should have, you are an absolute fool.
He's already previously shared with Israel, but he will speak now with even greater intent, tenacity and urgency in light of their recent failure and the golden calf incident of Exodus 32.
And because I believe these are the things that will hinder Israel from experiencing God's blessings and presence.
You know, the sun is massive, it's massive, it is infinitely more powerful than any man, it is overwhelmingly bright, and yet I can block out the sun.
With my thumb. I can hold up my hand and make the sun. Disappear. I can let my flesh come between me and the sun and then find myself saying, who wears the sun?
Oh, it's gone, I'm not experiencing it. The sun isn't there. The sun has left me.
But guess what? If I just get my flesh out of the way. Suddenly the sun would be back, nor did the sun ever leave. Of course not. I just allowed my flesh to get in the way and stop me from experiencing the sun. If I choose to, I can block out all the sun's light. The sun's warmth, its life giving power, and then things get very, very dark in my life, not because the sun has disappeared, but because I chose to block it out.
That's why our brother Paul said the grace of God means that I'm free and I'm saved no matter what I choose to do, no matter what decisions I make. But not everything I could choose to do is good for me. Not everything I could choose to do allows me to experience the benefits of the sun. And so Paul said, I want to choose and do the things that will enable me to experience as much of God's presence, goodness and blessings as possible.
I can make whatever choice I want. I'm still saved. God loves me. But listen, not every choice I can make is good for me. And I want to make choices that are good for me.
Do you want to experience God's blessings in God's presence, or pay attention? Listen up. These are the things that will cause your flesh, your sin to get in the way and block out the experience of God's presence in your life.
Verse 8 /12. God says take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you're going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images.
Those wooden images were phallic symbols related to the fertility rights of the Canaanites.
God tells Moses that a surefire way to block out his presence is to assimilate into the world, into the surrounding culture. In other words, to view yourself as part of this world to such a degree that you not only accept the practices of the culture, but you incorporate them into your own life.
You watch what the culture watches, you listen to what the culture listens to, you live like the culture lives.
You view relationships and sexuality as the culture views, relationships and sexuality. And what's the inevitable result? Will you adopt the values of the culture rather than the values of God? And what else does the word say about this, I just want to read you some quick fire lines from Scripture to help us understand how consistent and how serious the Bible is about this issue.
These are all in your outlines. You can find the references on there.
I'm just going to read them without the scripture references. The word says, do not be conformed to this world. Do not love the world or the things in the world. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the Earth. Adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Our citizenship is in heaven. Beloved, I beg you, this is who you are as Sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.
It's because my first step towards salvation. Is the recognition that I'm a sinner and I need a savior. I'm broken and I cannot heal myself, and the more you and I buy into the culture's message of self-importance, the more difficult we find it to accept that first step toward Calvary. That we are indeed broken sinners in need of a savior. The Christian self-worth comes from the Lord, we're not valuable because we're so amazing, we're valuable because the Lord has loved us and placed the value of his own life on our lives.
The Lord assign that value to us. What are you worth? More than you could possibly imagine. More than you could possibly imagine. Because you're so incredible and perfect and powerful and amazing, no, no. Because Jesus has made you beautiful and God has assigned infinite value to your life, what's so incredible is that through Jesus we can know and understand that our value is priceless.
And yet we also still at the same time have to stay humble because the value assigned to us is a gift of God. It's entirely God's doing, and it's all the grace of God. It's not based on anything we've done.
We don't have to do anything to maintain it. Our value is not determined by what we do. Our value is determined by how much God loves us, and he's loved us with his own life.
So it's a wonderful, wonderful thing to be a Christian because you know that your life is priceless.
But at the same time, you have no choice but to remain humble about that because your life is only priceless because of what God has done for you. It's a wonderful thing.
And if you need a touch of God's grace today, let me invite you to come before the Lord in brokenness and humility and just share your struggles with him honestly, because honesty, confession and repentance release God's grace toward us.
I share this verse often and I will keep sharing it as long as I live, at least until every single one of us has has it memorized.
Hebrews four declares, We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We can come boldly before the throne of God because it's a throne of grace. Verse 8 10, and he the Lord said. Behold, I make a covenant before all your people, I will do marvels that just means wonderful acts such as have not been done in all the Earth nor in any nation.
And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. That's a high bar.
When you consider what God has already done in getting Israel out of Egypt. They've already seen the plagues. The Red Sea parted the glory of God at Mount Sinai and God says I'm going to do even more for you.
What's he talking about? Well, primarily. The land of Canaan, which he would give Israel in the future, the promised land, Israel's conquest of that land would indeed be miraculous.
And you can read all about it in the book of Joshua. You have to love a God who says, yes, you are a stubborn, rebellious and foolish people.
You sabotage yourselves repeatedly. But guess what?
I'm going to come and dwell among you anyway. I'm going to show you Grace anyway. I'm going to be kind and merciful towards you any way you and your people are going to see me move and work and do awesome things among you. I wonder how many of us can testify from personal experience that, yes, that is indeed what the Lord is like, that is who he is, that is what he does. And we've seen him do it in our own lives.
Verse 8/ 11. Observe what I command you this day.
Behold, I am driving out from before you the animal rights in the Canaanites and the Hittite and the parasite and the divide and the GEB. You say God will now reiterate commands.
When we take communion, we are brought face to face once again with the cross of Calvary, face to face, with God's mercy, God's grace and God's kindness.
And we're invited through communion to soak in God's goodness, to meditate on his grace, to be transformed once again by his mercy, and to be filled up again so that we can release it to others by having it flow through us.
And as we reflect on the cross, we experience the benefits of Jesus laying down his life for us.
And from that place we respond to his call to lay down our own lives, to love him and love others. You can try to give from a place of emptiness. But it never works real well, and it's not what the Lord is asking you to do.
Jesus said, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn for me, for I am gentle and lovely and heart and you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light, says the Lord. If I'm not experiencing the kind of rest that the Lord speaks of, perhaps it's because I'm ignoring the part where he says, come to me.
Come to me. And I'm trying to draw water from a well that is dry. Verse 8 seven is a reiteration of Exodus 25 through six, so you can go back and listen to that study, if you want that explanation, let's skip down to Verse 8. So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. That's always the right response to a revelation of God. Why do we worship after the message at our church services as well as before?
Because we want to do this. We want to respond in worship to the revelation of God that we've received through his word. It's always right to follow revelation with worship.
Verse nine. Then he that's Moses said, If now I have found Grace in your sight. Oh Lord, let my Lord I pray go among us. Even though we are a stiff-necked people, a stubborn people and pardon our iniquity in our sin and take us as your inheritance.
If I were you, I have it in my Bible, I would underline all verse nine because there's something here I really want us to notice and see. It's your next fill. Honesty, confession and repentance release God's grace.
Honesty, confession and repentance release God's grace, Moses's appeal to God is never listen, Lord, you're overreacting. We aren't that bad. Our sin isn't that big of a deal. We're still better than most of the other pagan cultures around us.
No. Most Gas is appeal is always. Lourdes, you're right. We are stubborn. We are sinful, we do mess up all the time, but we're your people and we're sorry. Please forgive us and show us mercy and grace anyway. The word declares, God resists the proud. But gives grace to the humble.
Honesty, confession and repentance release God's grace, and if you haven't noticed, that rule is generally true for human relationships, too.
We still see offenders even found guilty or innocent based on whether they show contrition.
We see sentences adjusted based on whether the offender shows contrition.
Why? Because we're made in the image of God, there's just something in us that responds to contrition and honesty, confession and repentance tend to release and activate grace even in us.
Why do you think Satan is constantly working in culture to inflate our view of our own importance? Why do you think our culture is constantly telling us that we need to view ourselves as mini gods for all intents and purposes?
Why do you think our culture is so obsessed with concepts like self-love and puffing up our self-image?
When we take communion, we are brought face to face once again with the cross of Calvary, face to face, with God's mercy, God's grace and God's kindness.
And we're invited through communion to soak in God's goodness, to meditate on his grace, to be transformed once again by his mercy, and to be filled up again so that we can release it to others by having it flow through us.
And as we reflect on the cross, we experience the benefits of Jesus laying down his life for us.
And from that place we respond to his call to lay down our own lives, to love him and love others. You can try to give from a place of emptiness. But it never works real well, and it's not what the Lord is asking you to do.
Jesus said, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn for me, for I am gentle and lovely and heart and you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light, says the Lord. If I'm not experiencing the kind of rest that the Lord speaks of, perhaps it's because I'm ignoring the part where he says, come to me.
Come to me. And I'm trying to draw water from a well that is dry. Verse 8 seven is a reiteration of Exodus 25 through six, so you can go back and listen to that study, if you want that explanation, let's skip down to Verse 8. So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. That's always the right response to a revelation of God. Why do we worship after the message at our church services as well as before?
Because we want to do this. We want to respond in worship to the revelation of God that we've received through his word. It's always right to follow revelation with worship.
Verse nine. Then he that's Moses said, If now I have found Grace in your sight. Oh Lord, let my Lord I pray go among us. Even though we are a stiff necked people, a stubborn people and pardon our iniquity in our sin and take us as your inheritance.
If I were you, I have it in my Bible, I would underline all of verse nine because there's something here I really want us to notice and see. It's your next fill. Honesty, confession and repentance release God's grace.
Honesty, confession and repentance release God's grace, Moses's appeal to God is never listen, Lord, you're overreacting. We aren't that bad. Our sin isn't that big of a deal. We're still better than most of the other pagan cultures around us.
No. Most Gas is appeal is always. Lourdes, you're right. We are stubborn. We are sinful, we do mess up all the time, but we're your people and we're sorry. Please forgive us and show us mercy and grace anyway. The word declares, God resists the proud. But gives grace to the humble.
Honesty, confession and repentance release God's grace, and if you haven't noticed, that rule is generally true for human relationships, too.
We still see offenders even found guilty or innocent based on whether they show contrition.
We see sentences adjusted based on whether the offender shows contrition.
Why? Because we're made in the image of God, there's just something in us that responds to contrition and honesty, confession and repentance tend to release and activate grace even in us.
Why do you think Satan is constantly working in culture to inflate our view of our own importance? Why do you think our culture is constantly telling us that we need to view ourselves as mini gods for all intents and purposes?
Why do you think our culture is so obsessed with concepts like self-love and puffing up our self-image?
It's because my first step towards salvation. Is the recognition that I'm a sinner and I need a savior. I'm broken and I cannot heal myself, and the more you and I buy into the culture's message of self-importance, the more difficult we find it to accept that first step toward Calvary. That we are indeed broken sinners in need of a savior. The Christian self-worth comes from the Lord, we're not valuable
I want to share with you a truth of the Christian life that is absolutely essential. It is foundational. This does not mean that it is only for those of you who are young in the Lord. Those of us who've been walking with the Lord for decades are still incredibly able to forget this truth with ease, myself included.
Here's the truth I'm talking about. It's the first fill in on your outline.
We can only love like the Lord loves if we're constantly experiencing the Lord's love. I'll say it again. We can only love like the Lord loves if we are constantly experiencing the Lord's love.
Because if we're not. Then we are indeed trying to draw water from a well that is dry and I hope you know this, the Lord doesn't ask us.
To give or pour out from a place of emptiness, now, let's be honest, we often try we often try to give from a place of emptiness, but that emptiness is never because the Lord is withholding anything from us.
It's because we haven't returned to him to be filled up again.
The Lord's invitation is always to first experiences goodness be filled with it before letting it flow out of you.
You see, that's the issue.
We do not intrinsically have the love of the Lord in us to pour out to other people. We can't produce it within ourselves.
The love of the Lord can only be found in one place and we can only be filled up with it again in one place.
The presence of the Lord, the presence of the Lord. And this is why we need to experience God's presence every single day. This is why we need to connect with the Lord throughout the day. And this is why our brother Paul exhorted us to pray without ceasing.
Because as we go through our day, God's love and mercy, goodness and grace are meant to be flowing out from us, meaning that we need to be filled up again over and over and over again. And I believe that's what Paul is talking about when he says pray without ceasing. He was just constantly talking to the Lord throughout the day, going into conversations, coming out of conversations, in and out of meetings and interactions with people, because he had this awareness that he needed to be filled up over and over and over again because he was constantly pouring out God's love to others whenever you feel like you're running low.
On some Christlike quality, the answer is to come into the presence of God and experience it for yourself again. So when he that's Jesus had washed their feet. Taking his garments and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I've done for you?
You call me teacher and Lord and you say, well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly I say to you a servant is not greater than his master. Nor is he who was sent greater than he who was sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you, if you do them.
Jesus didn't just say serve people. He himself served people and he himself served us, and then he said, now you know what it feels like, what it looks like to be served. So now go and do that for other people.
One, John for 19 tells us simply, we love because he first loved us. Jesus didn't just command us to love people. He loved us first, exorbitantly, extravagantly and ridiculously. Jesus calls us to love others out of our own experience of being loved by him in Ephesians.
Four thirty to Paul commands be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
We're not supposed to stir up forgiveness within ourselves.
We're to draw on our own experience and encounters with God's forgiveness toward us. And then we are to forgive out of that, out of our own experience of being filled with God's forgiveness. Being inundated with it were to pour out forgiveness from that place. This is one of the primary reasons for communion.
Passage: Exodus 34:1-35.....Speaker: Jeff Thompson
When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai the second time, his face is glowing. In this study, we'll look at how we can radiate God's mercy, grace, patience, goodness, and truth to those arou
We've been watching Moses intercede for the nation of Israel following their catastrophic fall into sin at Mount Sinai, where they forsook the true and living God in favor of worshiping an idol of a golden calf.
In our last study, we got to listen in on the conversation between God and Moses. We saw Moses acting as a type a picture of Jesus serving as a mediator between God and man. At the end of that conversation, Moses asked the Lord to show him his glory. And incredibly, the Lord did just that, showing Moses as much of his unrestrained glory as possible, which involved allowing Moses to see his wake as one would see the wake left by a boat even after the boat has turned a corner and disappeared from view.
And so now we pick things up in Exodus, chapter 34, verse one, let's dove in. And the Lord said to Moses, cut to tablets of stone like the first ones. And I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.
So be ready in the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. And no man shall come up with you and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain. Let neither flock's nor herds feed before that mountain.
So we cut to tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.
Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with them there and proclaimed the name of the Lord, and the Lord passed before him, and proclaimed the Lord the Lord, merciful and gracious in the Bible, names are significant because generally they reveal something of the character of the person God declares his name, literally Yahweh. Yahweh is how we think it was pronounced.
And then God speaks of his own character, explaining what your way means or part of what it means.
It means mercy not getting what we deserve, which is judgment, condemnation and eternity in hell. Yahweh means grace, receiving kindness that we don't deserve in the form of forgiveness, blessings, adoption into the family of God and eternity in heaven. God tells Moses my name.
Yahweh speaks of my mercy and it speaks of my grace. It also means long suffering. We would say patient.
Aren't you glad that one of our gods defining characteristics is patience, ma'am? Bless God for his patience with you and me.
One of the wonderful reassurances that Israel's story provides for us today is that we serve a God who keeps his promises and is incredibly patient.
And I'm so thankful for that reassurance. And then the Lord says his name also means that he's abounding in goodness and truth, abounding in goodness and truth.
So think of a fire hydrant that's just gushing out water. That's the way goodness and truth flow from our God.
There's an infinite supply of goodness and truth, and it's just constantly flowing from him, pouring out of him.
I want to pause here and ask you a question that I don't want anybody to ask me.
Do the people the Lord has placed in your life regularly experience God's mercy, grace, patience, goodness and truth through you? That's a painful question, isn't it? Do the people the Lord has placed in your life regularly experience God's mercy, grace, patience, goodness and truth through you?
And what are we supposed to do if we find ourselves trying to exemplify those Christlike qualities, but it's like we're trying to draw water from a well that's dry.
What Does the Bible Really Say? But is it really true that the Bible teaches we should execute homosexuals? Is that the biblical solution to an issue that has become one of the main subjects of discussion in today’s world—capital punishment for gays?
For those who want to apply Old Testament penalties to sinners today, consider the implications of such a practice. Do you want to put adulterers to death? Do you want to put sabbath-breakers to death? And what about blasphemers? Surely, they need to be stoned. Should the same then be true for rebellious children, witches, sorcerers, and idol-worshippers—execution?
For New Testament Christians, the purpose and meaning of Mosaic law is not the same as it was for Jews under the Old Covenant. For the Jew in ancient Israel, Mosaic law provided a blueprint for the civil order, a Divine directive to be carefully followed. For the New Testament Christian, Mosaic law provides types and shadows of Jesus whose life and ministry fulfilled those types and shadows.
The laws of the Old Testament are provisional and temporary. The revelations of the New are permanent and final. In fact, Hebrews 8:13 clearly spells it out, “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayed and waxes old is ready to vanish away.”
We should not execute sinners on the basis of a law that “decayeth and waxeth old,” or in modern terms, is “obsolete.” A Matter of Chromosomes God’s laws and standards are unalterable. There are males and there are females. It’s not a matter of choice but a matter of chromosomes. Is homosexual practice still wrong in God’s sight? Most assuredly, yes. Is there ever a circumstance in which God will approve of a “homosexual marriage”? Never.
Just because I do not believe that homosexuals should be executed “because the Bible says so,” does not mean I am soft on the sin of homosexuality.
By now the reader knows that I don’t believe that practicing homosexuals should be executed. Please don’t think that I am soft on homosexual sin nor that I deny that homosexual practice is sinful behavior. I don’t deny that.
What I do deny is that behaviors considered capital offenses in the Old Testament should be considered capital offenses in today’s world by those no longer living under the Mosaic covenant. All Scripture is given for us, but not all Scripture is about us. Old Testament law was given to guide the principles and practices of the Old Covenant community.
We must not ignore the big differences between a Jewish theocracy and the New Testament church. Today, Jesus is building His church. This group is no longer defined by political and ethnic unity and obedience to the laws of a Jewish theocracy.
On the contrary, the church is a worldwide gathering of people from all nations, all ethnicities, scattered among all different political and national systems, and not identified with any one of them, unified only by their spiritual connections to the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
As long as Christians keep claiming the Bible teaches that we must execute homosexuals, we will consistently misrepresent the Word of God, increase opposition to the outreach of the church, and be the architects of our own misery.
The natural man is innately hostile to the message of salvation. Why feed that hostility by claiming that “the Bible says” when it really does not?
Does the Bible Really Say “That”?....Larry Spargimino November 3, 202...The New Covenant Provides Contemporary Wisdom
Capital punishment for homosexuality has been implemented by a number of countries. The death penalty remains a legal punishment for homosexuality in several countries and regions, most of which have sharia-based criminal laws. In some areas, first offenses have a lesser penalty, such as flogging.
With the seeming acceptance of homosexuality and its rapid proliferation in many parts of the world, some professing Christians in America are claiming that the answer is to execute homosexuals, allegedly, “because that’s what the Bible teaches.”
The number of professing Christians in the U.S. who make this claim is growing every day. This American phenomenon has been credited with ultimately producing Uganda’s harsh anti-gay laws.
According to an article in The Independent published in March 2014 titled “How Uganda was seduced by anti-gay conservative evangelicals,” critics of Uganda’s harsh anti-gay laws blame the views of American Christian fundamentalists.
They argue that it is not homosexuality that has been imported from America but homophobia. Roger Ross Williams, director of God Loves Uganda, said “The anti-homosexuality bill would never have come about without the involvement of American fundamentalist evangelicals.”
One of the first to investigate links between American conservatives and the African anti-gay movement was a Zambian clergyman by the name of Kipya Kaoma. He explained that homosexuality was illegal in Uganda under existing colonial laws but, “Nobody was ever arrested or prosecuted based on those old laws. People turned a blind eye to it. Homosexuality was not a political issue.”
Is there any substance to these charges against American evangelicals? From my investigations, it seems that there is. There seems to be a growing movement among some Christians in our country to make the claim that, “the Bible teaches that homosexuals need to be executed.”
For example, a 2022 Newsweek headline read, “Pastor says ‘Solution’ to Gay People is Executions: It’s in the Bible.’ ”
The article says, “Pastor Dillon Awes said that the ‘solution’ to gay people is presented in the Bible: ‘They should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head.’ ”
Pastor Awes ministers at The Steadfast Baptist Church that moved this summer from Hurst, Texas, to Dallas. In a Sunday sermon focusing on the so-called “biblical solution to the problem of homosexuality,” Awes suggested that those who disagreed with his sermon were not real Christians because the execution of gays “is what God says.”
Tom Ascol, a well-known Calvinist Baptist pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., blasted U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, when the senator called Uganda’s new “Kill the Gays Law” “horrific and wrong.”
“Any law criminalizing homosexuality or imposing the death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality’ is grotesque and an abomination. ALL civilized nations should join together in condemning this human rights abuse,” Cruz tweeted.
In response, Pastor Ascol quoted the book of Leviticus, writing, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”
Ascol asked, “Was this law God gave to His Old Covenant people ‘horrific and wrong?’ ”
Two hours later, Ascol tweeted, “Amazing how many professing Christians, even self-designated ‘conservative’ ones, are embarrassed by God’s Word. Just quote some unpopular words of God & watch what happens. Many so-called Christians react the same way that unashamed unbelievers do. It’s a commentary.” What Does the Bible Really Say?
How precious also are your thoughts to me, oh, God, how great is the sum of them? If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I'm still with you. Paul writes this in Romans eight. Who is he who condemns so, in other words, who's condemning you? Who's making you feel guilt and shame? It's not the Lord. Here's what the Lord is doing. It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Jesus isn't condemning you.
He's praying for you. He's the one interceding for you and covering your sin who shall separate us from the love of Christ and who's going to separate you from God shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. I mean, after all, it's written for your sake. We are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter, but.
But. Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, what but how are we conquerors if we're killed and persecuted and targeted by Satan every day?
For I am persuaded that here's why we're conquerors. Here's the victory. Here's why we win no matter what. It's because neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, she'll be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We win. We win. Because no matter what we have Jesus, we have God's presence with us, and he'll never leave us.
So don't worry that the Lord will not be with you. It doesn't depend on you. It depends on Jesus and Jesus said, do not fear little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. If this whole thing rests on the issue of whether we can stay faithful to the Lord. That we have every reason to worry, we have every reason to be afraid. But it doesn't. This whole thing, our life here on Earth and our eternity, rests on Jesus and his faithfulness.
His righteousness, his goodness. I'm so thankful for that. You will fail. I will fail. But the Lord never will. So aren't you glad that you're in his hands? I know I am. Let's pray. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? Father, thank you for your presence through your spirit. Among us right now, we appreciate your presence among your people and we are grateful for your presence within us individually. Thank you.
That your world is filled with promise after promise that you'll never leave us. And command after command to therefore not be afraid of anything ever. And so in the name of Jesus right now, Lord, we just want to release any trace of fear or doubt or anxiety about the future. Because such fears are not fitting. For people who have the presence of God, which we do. So, Lord, forgive us for our insecurities. And help us not to be afraid.
Help our perspective to be consumed. With you, with your glory, so that it's all we see, so that it's all we think about, especially as we look into the future, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for the promises of your word and thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you. That we can depend on you. Amen....
But he is impressed with Jesus, and when we give our lives to Jesus, the Bible says Jesus robs us in his righteousness so that when the father looks at you and I, he sees a man or woman who looks like. Jesus. You see, Jesus has made us beautiful. Why did the Israelites have their sins forgiven? Why did they receive blessings from God instead of what they truly deserved?
It was because Moses linked himself to them. Moses said, Lord, I'm with Israel, I'm with them, and if you love me, you got to love them. If you want to bless me, you got to bless them. And that's what Jesus did for us. He linked himself to us by becoming a man. He bound himself to us.
Not only that, but he went through everything, the scourging, the beatings, the cross, the grave and the resurrection on our behalf so that our fates could be intertwined and connected forever. And because we are linked to Jesus. When he was raised, we were raised to new life to. Israel was blessed because Israel was linked to Moses. We are blessed because we are linked to our greater than Moses Jesus Christ. Can you imagine how wonderful it would have been to hear the Lord himself say, I will be with you?
You don't have to imagine because the Lord has given you that same promise over and over again in his word. Do not fear the future. Do not fear the future. God has promised to be with you, and he's a God who always keeps his promises. I want to close by just reading some scriptures over you, and you don't need to turn to any of these places in your Bible, the references are on your outline so you can look them up again later if you'd like to.
I'm going to ask that you would just still your mind and your spirit as best you can. Feel free to close your eyes while I read and just let God's word wash over you, let it counsel you, let it change your thinking as God's word fills you with his peace. Jesus said, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. Isaiah 41 10 declares God's heart toward his people fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Psalm 139 is famous, but let me read it for you, oh, lord, you've searched me and known me. You know, my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought a far off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways, for there's not a word on my tongue but behold, oh, Lord, you know it all together.
You've hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high. I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence if I ascend into heaven? You are there if I make my bed and she'll behold you're there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hands shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me. Even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness is not dark to you. But the night shines is the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you. For you formed my inward parts.
You wove me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. It literally means I will praise you. For you are fearfully wonderful. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. And in your book, they all were written the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them.
And Paul says not only do you have a new spirit, but your life is hidden in Christ as Moses was hidden in the cleft of the rock and the picture is your life being surrounded by Jesus on every side.
Now, think about this and all that. You can see from this place where you are surrounded by the rock that is Jesus.
The only place you can see out of that is where the glory of God is. And your view is becoming increasingly consumed by the glory of God. That's what happens to us as believers.
We get to grow more and more in our knowledge of the Lord. We get to see more and more of Jesus until we arrive in his presence and we get to see it all. Jesus is the rock in which we are hidden. The cleft of the rock is a place where a rock has been split, where it's been broken and it provided a place of shelter for Moses. Our lives are hidden in Christ because he was broken for us and when he was broken for us, he provided a place of shelter for us, a refuge for us.
How can we know our salvation is secure because our lives are hidden in the rock that is our savior Jesus Christ, who was broken for us, and he himself declared, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. Would you make a note of this? Our lives are hidden in Christ and our perspective is increasingly consumed by his glory. Our lives are hidden in Christ and our perspective is increasingly consumed by his glory.
For those of you who've been with us for several of our studies through Exodus, let me ask you. Who is Moses, a type of who is he, a picture of Sunday school answer again, it's Jesus. With that in mind, don't miss the picture that Exodus 32 and 33 paint for us using this typology when God's righteous wrath was ready to be poured out on Israel. Who stood between God and man who mediated who interceded on the behalf of sinners Moses?
It's a picture of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we were fully deserving of God's wrath because like Israel, we also rejected God and rebelled against him. We've also worshiped and served idols and false gods. But the man Christ Jesus, the son of God, God in the flesh served us by offering himself as the one and only mediator between God and man.
Even though the only acceptable terms. Were his body, blood and life. Hebrews seven speaks to us of Jesus's ministry, is our high priest, our mediator, it says, but he.
Because he continues forever. Has an unchangeable priesthood, therefore, he's also to save he's also able to save to the uttermost the actual term there is forever. So Verse 8 25 should really read, therefore, because Jesus continues forever.
He's also able to save forever those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them, the Ministry of Jesus on your behalf is covering you even this very moment. For such a high priest was fitting for us, in other words, a high priest like Jesus is exactly what we needed. Who's holy, harmless?
That just means innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners and has become higher than the heavens who does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the peoples for he this sorry for this.
He did once for all when he offered up himself. Jesus is our mediator, always, always. Now, did God relent and show Israel mercy because God was so impressed with Israel, of course not. God relented and showed mercy to Israel because God was so impressed with Moses. And Moses interceded on Israel's behalf. Israel wasn't faithful, Moses was faithful. God is not all that impressed with you and me. I'm sorry if that's shocking news to you.
God says you want my presence to go with you, Moses.
You got it. You got it. I'll go with you. Now, Moses can sense that he really does have the Lord's favor at this moment, especially at this moment of friendship and intimacy between them, Moses is also very Jewish and he knows how to negotiate.
And sensing a moment of opportunity. Moses says, one more thing, Lord, one more thing. Now, let me ask you this, if you had the Lord's ear, the Lord's heart, the Lord's favor, and you could sense that in a moment, you could ask for anything, the Lord would probably give it to you. What would you ask for? If you want to understand what made Moses so special, why the Lord loved him so much, why the Lord listened when Moses prayed.
Just listen to what Moses asks for In verses Verse 8 team. And he said, please. Show me your glory. Show me your glory, Lord. What I want, God, is as much of you as I can have. I'm not in this because of what you can do for me, Lord, I'm in this because I want you. You're the treasure. You're the prize I'm seeking, you're the reward I'm living for, it's you got.
Verse 8 19, then he that's God said. I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face for no man, she'll see me and live, and the Lord said, Here's a place by me and you shall stand on the rock.
So it shall be while my glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand while I pass by. Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back. But my face shall not be seen. God says, OK, I'll give you as much of me as you can take in your human form.
You see, our flesh cannot see God, it is his glorified state because we literally couldn't handle it would be overwhelmed spiritually, emotionally, mentally, would be vaporized physically.
This is one of the primary reasons we're going to need new bodies in eternity, our current bodies just don't have the capacity to handle the unrestrained glory of God's presence. We need an upgrade. My goodness, we're going to get one.
The Bible declares that when we see Jesus, we will be made like him, will be made like him.
Rather than you shall see my back, the Septuagint says you will see what is behind me, that's a much better way of putting it.
The idea is that Moses would see God's wake as you or I would see the week left in the water by a boat even after it had turned the corner and disappeared around a bend.
Now, what is God's work look like to humanize? There's only one man who knows, and I checked.
He's not currently available for comment. All we can say is that this experience would have been it would have been indescribable. Moses saw as much of the glory of God as is possible for a man to see in his earthly body what a blessing for Moses.
Verse 8, 22, tells us that in order to see the wake of God's glory, the Lord hid Moses in the cleft of a rock. Who is our rock? It's Jesus Sunday school answer. It's Jesus in Psalm 62. It's on your outline. David wrote, Truly, my soul silently waits for God. From a hymn comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation. How is it that we will be able to spend eternity in the unfettered glory of God's presence?
How is it that we could even have fellowship with God's spirit now as the church our brother Paul tells us in Colossians three three where he writes for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When we give our lives to Jesus, our our sinful spirits die, they're put to death and we receive a new spirit from God, his spirit, that's what it means to be born again spiritually.
You see, God is asking he's asking Moses in Israel, is it the prosperity gospel that you want or is it me? Is it me? Verse 8 15, then he that's Moses said to him, If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that your people and I have found Grace in your sight? Except you go with us, so we shall be separate your people and I from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.
This is why Moses was such a great man, this is why God loved him so much. Moses says, Lord, listen, if your presence isn't going to go with us, then just let us die right here at Mount Sinai. Because without you. It's all meaningless. Who cares if we make it to the promised land if we don't have you? Life is pointless. We don't care about being a free people or a prosperous people. We care about being your people.
When God looks at Israel, he saw a people who thought they didn't need him. A people who thought he could be replaced by an idol of a golden calf, but but when God looked at Moses, he saw a man who was incredulous at the suggestion that he and Israel could go on without the Lord's presence. And man, that just blessed the heart of God, I just love Moses's heart here so much because he asks rhetorically for how then will it be known that your people and I have found grace in your sight, except you go with us.
In other words, Moses says, how will the rest of the world know that we're the people of God? If your presence doesn't dwell among us, how will they know? There are plenty of other answers that people could have given, they could have said, well, Moses, a few clues that were God's people might be our miraculous deliverance from Egypt, the entire Egyptian army being drowned in the Red Sea after we walked through miraculously on dry ground or are prosperous growth as a people God protecting us from our enemies, our Sabbath, which is a distinct concept, our feasts, which are different to the pagan nations, are prosperous flocks and herds.
But Moses says, no, this is no, listen, forget all that stuff at the end of the day, the thing that makes us God's people. Is got. It's God, it's his presence among us. Nobody else has that and nobody else can have that. Would you make a note of this? The presence of God differentiates the people of God from the world. The presence of God differentiates the people of God from the world. There's so much more I could say about this, there's so much I could say about how Western churches try to attract people with community music, nice buildings, seemingly oblivious to the fact that you don't have to go to church to find those things.
The one thing the church has that nobody else has. Is Jesus, it's Jesus. So if people come to our churches, let's make sure they experience the one thing they can experience, no one else.
Let's make sure that when people come to our churches, they experience Jesus. And I pray that as we grow as a church, more and more and more, we would be known for God's presence being among us.
And I believe we will be known for that, because I believe that a gospel city church, the Lord is gathering a group of people who have a zeal for God's presence.
I see it. I feel it. I experience it when we're together as the church. And I want you to know that I'm so blessed personally by our churches. Collective passion for Jesus administers to me. It blesses me so much.
So let's be a people of his presence, of people, of his presence. Just one other quick note on these last few verses is, if you didn't catch it, they really reinforce that Moses understood that the angel Yahweh was promising in his place was not Jesus.
It makes it really clear after hearing Moses's heart, verse 17, says the Lord said to Moses. I will also do this thing that you've spoken for, you have found Grace in my sight and I know you by name.
He was a man who loved the presence of the Lord so much that he stayed in it as long as he possibly could. That's true, Joshua was first, and men especially, we need to hear this Amen, I need to hear this. Great men, great men, great husbands, great fathers, great leaders are formed in the presence of God.
Jesus told us this when in John 15, he said, guys, listen, if you just focus on abiding in me staying close to me, you'll be a fruitful person. And apart from me, you can't do anything. Write this down, truly great men and women are formed in the presence of God, they're formed in the presence of God.
When I look at these four men and groups of people, I'm reminded of a simple truth. Every single one of us is as close to God as we want to be. Every one of us is as close to God as we want to be. Every man had the choice to stay at their tent or make the journey with Moses far from the camp. Those who made the journey experienced more of God's presence and Joshua experienced even more because he stayed as long as he could.
Every one of us is as close to God as we want to be, spend some time thinking about that further this week, Verse 8 12 than Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, bring up this people. But you've got let me know whom you will send with me yet you've said I know you by name. And you have also found Grace in my sight. So Moses says, you're leaving me to lead these people without you, without your presence.
And you think some random angel is going to suffice in your place. How can you possibly claim that I found Grace in your sight if you're going to leave me Verse 8 13. Now, therefore, I pray if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way that I may know you and that I may find grace in your sight and consider that this nation is your people. God, there's only one way that I'm leading your people and that's with you, with your presence.
Because they're your people. They're your people. Verse 8 14 and he that's God said my presence will go with you and I will give you rest in the original text and language. The phrase with you is not included and should actually cross it out in your Bible. So what God actually says is my presence will go and I will give you rest.
And I believe this translation is correct based on the response we're going to see from Moses in the next two verses.
When God refers to you there, when he says, I'll give you rest, he's referring to Israel collectively, not just Moses. We know this from multiple other scriptural references to you when the promise of rest in the land is being given by God. So to summarize all these little academic points, God is saying here, I'm going to give Israel the promised land Moses, because I promised I would. I'll get you there. I'll give you the land.
But my presence is not going to dwell with Israel anymore. It's not going to be among Israel anymore. So what God does. By saying this is is he throws out the question, the question behind the statement. Is it really me that you want Moses? Israel, is it really me that you want or is it what I can do for you that you want? Is it freedom and prosperity that you really want? And I'm just the ticket you need to hold for a while to get those things.
And you kind of get the feeling that most of Israel would have said, well, as long as you crush our enemies and give us the promised land and bless our lives in material ways, we're kind of fine with your presence is with us or not.
You see, God is asking he's asking Moses in Israel, is it the prosperity gospel that you want or is it me? Is it me? Verse 8 15, then he that's Moses said to him, If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that your people and I have found Grace in your sight? Except you go with us, so we shall be separate your people and I from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.
If a man were blessed with the most faithful and committed wife in the world, he would still be a fool to think he could treat her like garbage and still expect to enjoy a wonderful friendship with her.
If you're a believer, the Lord is with you, but if you want the experience of his presence in your daily life, then you need to take holiness seriously. If you're watching this today and you'd say, man, I just don't experience God's presence like other Christians seem to, let me just ask you, are you taking holiness seriously or is there sin in your life that that you're not fighting anymore, you're just enjoying it and allowing it to be at home in your life?
Don't be fooled. There's a connection between holiness and experiencing God's presence in your life. The next group we see are the Israelites who saw what Moses was doing and said, I need to be as close to God's presence as I can. And so they got up and they made the journey with Moses. They walked with him far from the camp in order to be closer to God's presence. And their actions are more notable because of how they contrast to the rest of Israel, who stood in their doorways and watched as Moses left the camp and then worshiped at their own tents.
These were the Israelites who didn't want to be on God's bad side. They had enough sense to say, well, let's not test the Lord any further. They're like people today who want to make sure that they get into heaven, but they don't love the Lord.
They don't love the Lord. They don't love his presence. There's no passion for the Lord.
And it's interesting to me that a very, very similar scenario is playing itself right now out in many, many different churches due to covid-19 believers are being faced with choices like going to church at an inconvenient location outside, where it's probably always going to be too hot or too cold or the chairs are uncomfortable with it were the sound probably isn't great and the floor might sometimes be muddy or staying at home at their own tents in their PJs or sweatpants where there are snacks and you can watch the service online in the comfort of your living room.
There's no question which choices easier, more comfortable and more convenient. But those who show up for services in person do so because they want to be as close to the presence of God as they can. They want to be where the people of God are, where God is moving. Among his people where the worshipers are.
They want to be where the spirit is moving. I know some people are in situations where they can't physically join us, but if you can do it, do it. I know covid is wearing us all down. I know we're all tired. But but church, my exhortation to you is the same as it's always been. Be zealous for the Lord, be zealous for the Lord, the zeal I'm talking about is the difference between knowing about God. And actually knowing God.
In a church like ours who loves the word, this is always a danger, we can break down exegete and dig into the text, we can memorize the scriptures, we can learn all the answers.
We can listen to tons of messages, watch videos and read books about the Bible, all without ever actually entering in and experiencing God's presence. We can just stay at our own tent and say, I know all about God's presence.
I've studied it extensively. Be zealous for the presence of the Lord. The invitation is not simply to know about him. The invitation is to know him. And then lastly, we see the ultimate example of zeal for the presence of God. Joshua loved the presence of God so much that he simply didn't leave.
He didn't leave. I love that about Joshua. And most of us miss this little detail in scripture and in life.
Before, Joshua was the mighty warrior who led Israel through the Promised Land and had a book of the Bible named after him.
What we're seeing here is the reality that God's holiness. Cannot coexist with sinful rebellion, God's holiness, his presence cannot coexist with sinful rebellion. To be more specific, God's holiness cannot coexist with our sinful rebellion, because if you haven't picked up on it yet, we are the Israelites in this story. Yeah, it's us. Isaiah, 53 six declares the truth. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way.
Every one of us was born a sinner. Every one of us rejected Jesus in our own way. And every one of us who is a believer has sinned in egregious ways, even long after we understood the seriousness of our sin. It's a serious problem for every person that God's holiness cannot coexist with our sinful rebellion. How serious of a problem? Serious enough that Jesus, the only-begotten son of the father, came to Earth as a man to solve it.
Because we couldn't and it cost him his body and blood and life. Jesus was our mediator, he bridged the gap between us and God at the expense of his life and the telegraph where we're going, Moses is going to step into that role for Israel.
But if you're not a Christian, you need to know this. You have an appointment coming up that you cannot avoid. A day is coming when you will stand before God, and you do not want to stand before him as a rebellious sinner. You need a mediator, you need a mediator, and the only one who can fill that role is Jesus. Let's read together in verse seven. Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting.
So, just understand that the actual tabernacle has not yet been constructed in our chronology. They've received all the instructions on how to build it, but they haven't actually built it yet, Moses says.
I want to meet with the Lord, and I know where the Lord isn't. I know where he's not going to be right now.
He's not going to be among the camp of Israel. So I better move my tent far from the camp if I want to meet with the Lord. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting, which was outside the camp.
So it was whenever Moses went out to the Tabernacle that all the people rose and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass when Moses entered the tabernacle that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.
All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the Tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped each man in his tent door.
So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend, and he would return to the camp. But his servant, Joshua, the son of a nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. There's a lot here we could talk about, but I want to highlight four different people in four different groups in these verse is. So we read about Moses. You wanted to speak with the Lord, commune with the Lord.
And Moses understood that in order to do that, he needed to get away from the sin of the camp of Israel. This is a reminder that for us, even under the new covenant, there's a connection between experiencing God's presence. And holiness taking sin seriously, would you write this down? There is a connection between experiencing God's presence and walking in holiness.
So when I talk about experiencing God's presence, I'm talking about feeling that real sense that he's near you, having an almost tangible encounter with God where you can sense his presence.
There's a connection between that and walking in holiness. Yes, we're covered by the blood of Jesus. Yes, our sins are forgiven past, present and future. Yes, we're going to heaven if we've placed our faith in Jesus. But that does not entitle us to live however we please and expect God to bless us with his presence in our daily lives.
Series: Exodus... Passage: Exodus 33:1-23...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
As Moses steps into the role of mediator between God and the Israelites, we see an example of what Jesus has done for us. We'll also understand why God loves Moses so much, and grants his request for mercy toward the Israelites.
As we pick things up, we're in the middle of the fallout of the infamous golden calf incident, the Lord offered to wipe out Israel and restart the plan through Moses and his family. But Moses loved the people that God had given him to lead so much that he pleaded with the Lord on Israel's behalf.
He interceded for Israel and the Lord granted Moses his request. Israel had to deal with a plague sent by God as one of the consequences of their rebellion. And at the end of the previous chapter, at the end of Exodus 32, we learned of another consequence.
God would send an angel to guide Israel through the wilderness to the promised land.
But his presence would no longer go with them. Let's pick things up at that place. In Exodus, Chapter three will dive in at verse one. Then the Lord said to Moses, Depart and go up from here. You and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob saying to your descendants, I will give it, and I will send my angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amal right.
And the Hittites and the parasite and the heavy and the Gibby's. I go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst lest I consume.
That means literally lest I destroy you on the way.
For you are a stiff-necked....You're a stubborn people.
God says what Israel has done is so egregious, it's so awful that if my presence comes among Israel, I'll have no choice but to destroy everyone because Israel's wickedness is so extreme, my presence simply cannot be around it. Now, if you've been around the Old Testament for a while, you'll know that whenever the text refers to the Angel of the Lord, it's talking about Jesus. Now, even though many of your Bibles will capitalize the AI of Angel in this verse, it's a bit of a mistranslation because this angel is not Jesus.
In fact, the original language renders it an angel rather than my angel. Ditto for Exodus 32 to 34. We know this because if it were Jesus, then God's presence would still be going with Israel. Right. But from what God himself says and from the reaction of the people, it's clear that this angel is not Jesus, he's not God. The people of Israel know this, which is why they respond like this in verse four.
And when the people heard this bad news, it wouldn't be bad news if the news was that Jesus was going with them. When they heard this bad news, they mourned and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, say to the children of Israel, you are a stiff necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you now. Therefore, take off your ornaments, take off your jewelry that I may know what to do to you.
So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. The most likely explanation for this command regarding jewelry is that God was saying you should be in a state of mourning and grieving over your sin. Nobody should be getting dressed up nice and going about business as normal. And that leads us into our first fill in on your outline.
This would explain why the Levites were consecrated as the exclusive priestly tribe immediately afterward. The second judgment, this plague affects all Israel who participated in worshiping the golden calf. So for the sake of time, we're going to wrap it up here.
But this is really sort of halfway through a scene in our story, because Moses is not yet done interceding on Israel's behalf. He's about to enter into an incredible conversation with God.
And we're going to dove into that next week in Exodus 34. Church, listen. We serve a God who keeps us promises, we serve a God who keeps his promises. And here's the good news. You are not the one exception to that rule. You serve a God who keeps his promises to you. The day came when Israel finally reached and conquered the promised land and Joshua, 21/45, declares at that time, not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the House of Israel.
All came to pass. All came to pass. One day, those who love the Lord will find themselves looking upon him face to face. And in an instant. We will understand every twist and turn that our lives took. We'll see the full picture, will see the hand of God that was upon our lives from the moment we were born. And we'll say. Bless you, Lord, you were always good, you were always faithful. And all your promises came to pass in my life.
Let's pray. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? Lord, thank you for your word thank you for the example of our brother Moses and the lessons laid out for us in the scriptures, which are for our benefit. I am grateful for the glorious truth that we serve a God who keeps his promises, and for those of us who belong to you, not one of us is the exception to that rule.
You're faithful to your word and you keep your promises to us. So, Father, I prayed just right now for any among us who need to be reminded of your promises. Lord, would you just bring scriptures to mind right now that have been stored up in their hearts? And for those who are not deeply familiar with your word, would you lead them today, even tomorrow, Lord, to the place in your word that contains the promise that you want them to be aware of right now?
Thank you, Lord, that your word is just packed full of promises that reveal your character. They reveal your faithfulness.
And so, Lord, we just want to pause right now, and thank you for your faithfulness to each of us. Thank you that you've got you're a goddess who's proven himself over and over and over again. So, Lord, we just want to stop and say thank you. We look back and we see your hand all over our lives. And as we look ahead, we are absolutely confident that you will continue to be with us till the day we arrive in your presence.
We love you, Jesus. It's in your name. We pray. Amen.
Just kill me now, take me out of this Exodus story. He's not saying take my name out of the Lamb's Book of life so that I spend eternity in hell. He's not saying that. But Moses's heart is also reflected in Paul, who did say that he would be willing to spend eternity separated from God if it meant that his Jewish brethren at that time would be saved.
Paul wrote in Romans nine, I tell the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were but a burst from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen.
According to the flesh who are Israelites, Moses bound himself to the Lord, but in love. He also bound himself to God's people, the Israelites. Moses bound himself to the people that God gave him to care for. It's not a small thing.
They were not an easy people to lead. They were incredibly frustrating and difficult to lead. And God said to Moses, Moses, just let me kill them all and I'll start again through you. There were a lot of reasons for Moses to say, that sounds fantastic, lord No. One, he's done with these troublesome people and all of God's promises now become centered and focused on him and through him.
And his family becomes one of the most important families in Israel's history, a place of prominence. But Moses doesn't take the offer because he's bound himself to the people that God has given him to care for. And where to do the same? We are in a bind ourselves to our spouses, our children, our parents, our church, our brothers and sisters in the church, if they make a huge mistake, we don't say good riddance.
Assuming there's repentance, we join them on that journey of repentance, we walk with them on that journey, and if they won't repent, we pray for them.
We intercede for them until they do. Because that's God's heart for us. God bound himself to us, his creation. And when we went astray. He didn't abandon us. He laid down his life for us. Not only that, but he died for us. Because the moment he created us, he bound himself to us collectively. There are some who speculate that perhaps Adam did exactly this for Eve, his wife. Because if Adam hadn't joined, even her sin. It's a pretty safe assumption that God would have just dealt with Eve and created a new wife for Adam and started that over again.
Perhaps Adam chose to bind himself to Eve so that whatever her fate, he would be joined to her in it. And that's not scriptural, by the way. That's just an interesting hypothetical for those who enjoy discussing the scriptures, verse 33. And the Lord said to Moses, whoever sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book again in this case, meaning I'll kill them, I'll end their earthly lives now.
Therefore, go lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angels will go before you.
Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin. So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf, which Aaron made.
Scholars tell us that when the is when the Levites killed 3000 men in the camp of Israel, it seems that those three thousand men were likely involved in priestly duties in some way.
They were the elders and priests who are mentioned in scripture before Aaron and his sons were consecrated as the Lord's priest. And these 3000, it seems, were killed for leading Israel in these pagan rituals.
This would explain why the Levites were consecrated as the exclusive priestly tribe immediately afterward. In the second judgment, this plague, affects all Israel who participated in worshiping the golden calf. So for the sake of time, we're going to wrap it up here.
But this is really sort of halfway through a scene in our story, because Moses is not yet done interceding on Israel's behalf. He's about to enter into an incredible conversation with God.
Let me just read to you from the end of Peter's sermon in Acts Chapter two. He says, therefore, let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are afar off as many as the Lord.
Our God will call.
And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day, about three thousand souls were added to them.
Our brother Paul sums it up with these words in Second Corinthians three six, the letter that is the law, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. And John wrote, The law was given through Moses. But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Write this down, God's spirit changes us from the inside out. Our attempts to change our heart by changing our actions will always end in failure.
God's spirit changes us from the inside out. Our attempts to change our heart by changing our actions will always end in failure.
An exodus, the people heard the law and said all that the Lord has said we will do. Weeks later, they're in the worst kinds of sin. They can't follow God with just their sheer willpower. They can't change their heart by changing their behavior acts. Chapter two different story. God gives his spirit to his church and their change from the inside out and the spirit inside them. The living God inside them produces different actions on the outside never works.
When we try to change ourselves by changing our behavior, we have to be change from the inside out. Verse 8 twenty nine. Then Moses said to the Levites.
Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord that he may bestow on you a blessing this day for every man has opposed his son and his brother. From this moment on, the Levites become the only tribe involved in the priestly ministry.
So who did God handpick for the priestly ministry? Those who feared God more than men, those who were willing to obey God even when it was very difficult and would have made them very unpopular. Now, it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, you've committed a great sin, so now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. You see, unlike Aaron, Moses doesn't play down their sin or excuse it.
Moser says we need to deal with your sin. Perhaps I can cover for you Verse 8 31 than Moses returned to the Lord and said, Oh, these people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a god of gold. When seeking forgiveness, whether from another person from the Lord or on another's behalf, there is such power in naming the sin.
If you're married, you know this saying, hey, babe, I'm sorry for whatever made you mad is good because apologizing is hard, but whenever possible, especially when there's deep damage inflicted, it is so hopeful and so much better when the offender can show that they understand what they've done by naming the sin. But ladies, especially, please note this, God also told Moses what sin Israel had committed, even though it was obvious God made sure that Moses understood what the sin was Verse 8 32.
Yet now, if you will forgive their sin. But if not, I pray blot me out of your book, which you have written. I don't want to get sidetracked here. So I'm just going to give you the bottom line. What Moses is saying at the end, there is just God if you won't forgive Israel.
Let me just read to you from the end of Peter's sermon in Acts Chapter two. He says, therefore, let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are afar off as many as the Lord.
Our God will call.
And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day, about three thousand souls were added to them.
Our brother Paul sums it up with these words in Second Corinthians three six, the letter that is the law, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. And John wrote, The law was given through Moses. But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Write this down, God's spirit changes us from the inside out. Our attempts to change our heart by changing our actions will always end in failure.
God's spirit changes us from the inside out. Our attempts to change our heart by changing our actions will always end in failure.
An exodus, the people heard the law and said all that the Lord has said we will do. Weeks later, they're in the worst kinds of sin. They can't follow God with just their sheer willpower. They can't change their heart by changing their behavior acts. Chapter two, different story. God gives his spirit to his church and their change from the inside out and the spirit inside them. The living God inside them produces different actions on the outside, never works.
When we try to change ourselves by changing our behavior, we have to be change from the inside out. Verse 8/29 . Then Moses said to the Levites.
Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord that he may bestow on you a blessing this day for every man has opposed his son and his brother. From this moment on, the Levites become the only tribe involved in the priestly ministry.
So who did God handpick for the priestly ministry? Those who feared God more than men, those who were willing to obey God even when it was very difficult and would have made them very unpopular. Now, it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, you've committed a great sin, so now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. You see, unlike Aaron, Moses doesn't play down their sin or excuse it.
Moses says we need to deal with your sin. Perhaps I can cover for you Verse 8 31 than Moses returned to the Lord and said, Oh, these people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a god of gold. When seeking forgiveness, whether from another person from the Lord or on another's behalf, there is such power in naming the sin.
If you're married, you know this saying, hey, babe, I'm sorry for whatever made you mad is good because apologizing is hard, but whenever possible, especially when there's deep damage inflicted, it is so hopeful and so much better when the offender can show that they understand what they've done by naming the sin. But ladies, especially, please note this, God also told Moses what sin Israel had committed, even though it was obvious God made sure that Moses understood what the sin was Verse 8 /32.
Yet now, if you will forgive their sin. But if not, I pray blot me out of your book, which you have written. I don't want to get sidetracked here. So I'm just going to give you the bottom line. What Moses is saying at the end, there is just God if you won't forgive Israel.
How serious is sin? Well, just look at what it took for us to be forgiven of our sin. It took the life of Jesus, the son of God. So, yeah. Sin serious. Uncomfortably serious. Eternally serious. Deadly serious. This being a physical picture of a spiritual truth. What else are we to learn from it? I'd suggest that, yes, while it's a reminder of the seriousness of sin, it's also a picture for us that sometimes we must endure the pain of going to our close friends, our family members, our brothers and sisters, and confronting sin.
In truth and love, because love does what is best for the other person, even when it's painful. How did they deal with sin in the camp in this story, with the sword, with the sword?
I think what the sword is a picture of Hebrews four 12 declares The word of God is living in powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow. And there's a discernable of the thoughts and intense of the heart. That's how we deal with sin. That's how we confront sin by using the word we don't say, you know, I think that or well, I just feel that we say the word says the word says.
Because every believer is to submit themselves to the authority of God's word. This is huge, really understand this. Every believer is to submit themselves to the authority of God's word. If someone confronts us with the word of God about something in our lives, we don't get to say, well, that's my business. We don't get to say we're not good enough friends for you to do this.
We don't get to say I'm an elder, I'm a pastor. We don't get to say, oh, you're a woman or I'm older than you or I've been a Christian much, much longer than you have. It doesn't matter who the person is approaching us if they do so based on the word of God. We are obligated to listen, and if they are rightly pointing us to the scriptures, we are to respond and repent. We don't get to ignore it just because we don't approve of the messenger that God used.
It's not about the authority of the messenger. It's about the authority of the scriptures. It's not about your authority, it's about the authority of God's word, and if you love a brother or sister in Christ, you will not allow them to walk further down a path of sin and destruction. Without confronting them with the truth of God's word, in truth and love, write this down. The word of God has authority over all Christians. The word of God has authority over all Christians.
The Old Testament shows us life under the law, life under the Old Covenant, the New Testament shows us life under the gospel, life under grace under the New Covenant. And the difference is laid out clearly in the events of Pentecost. Pentecost was the Feast of Israel that marked the time when God gave the law to Israel at Mount Sinai.
The time we're studying right here in Exodus, each of the feasts of Israel given by God has either been fulfilled or will be completed. Every feast points ahead prophetically to future works of God.
For example, the most obvious example, Passover pointed ahead to Jesus, who fulfilled the feast by dying as our Passover lamb.
Pentecost pointed ahead prophetically to acts Chapter two, when God would give the Holy Spirit to the church.
So Pentecost has also been fulfilled. And here's what I love about the difference between the first Pentecost and the last Pentecost. Pentecost. Pointed ahead prophetically to Acts Chapter two and on the first Pentecost, which we're reading about an Exodus 32, when the law was given, three thousand people were killed.
On the last Pentecost, when the spirit was given, and that's Chapter two, three thousand people were saved. That's the difference. After receiving the Holy Spirit, Peter stands up and boldly preaches the gospel to the same men who had called for the crucifixion of Jesus.
And I need a savior. And the good news is that Jesus is a savior who forgives our sin, washes us clean of our sin. There's also a savior who heals. And Jesus can do what no one else can. Jesus can heal the soul. He can give you a new spirit. He can give peace to a troubled mind. And rest to a weary soul. Like Aaron. We love to blame everyone else for our issues and when we do when we refuse to take ownership of our own sin.
We give up the opportunity to be forgiven and we give up the opportunity to be healed of our sin. So if you're Aaron right now. Let me encourage you to stop giving other people power over your life. Give Jesus power over your life, you'll be astounded by what he can, he will. You will be astounded by what he can restore, even if you feel like you're starting 10 laps behind everybody else, you will be astounded what God can still do in your life.
Verse 8/ 24. And I said to them, whoever has any gold, let them break it off, so they gave it to me and I cast it into the fire and the scarf came out. We talked about the foolishness of that last week.
Now, when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained for Aaron had not restrained them to their shame among their enemies in the Septuagint, the word scattered or unrestrained sorry, the words scattered is used instead of the word unrestrained or even naked. As some of your Bibles will say, the idea is that children are misbehaving and then mom or dad walks in the room. Moses arrived back at the camp and suddenly, instead of naked revelry, they were all frantically grabbing something to cover themselves up and scurrying back to their tents in shame.
And however it happened, word of all this reached the surrounding pagan communities, who thought it was absolutely hilarious.
Instead of being the feared nation who had your way on their side, Israel was the laughing stock of the whole region, at least temporarily. Verse 8, 26, that Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, whoever is on the Lord's side come to me, and all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him and he said to them, thus says the Lord God of Israel, let every man put his sword on his side and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp and let every man kill his brother, every man, his companion, and every man his neighbor.
So the sons of Levi did, according to the word of Moses, and about 3000 men of the people fell that day. The Old Testament is packed with physical pictures.
Of spiritual truths, physical pictures of spiritual truths, you see, we read something like this and we think, oh, that's that's terrible.
But here's the sobering reality, it's justice. And I know that some of you are thinking, well, that doesn't seem like justice, Jeff, but what are we saying when we say that? What are we saying when we say that doesn't seem like justice? We're saying that we don't believe the punishment fits the crime, right? We're saying the punishment is disproportionate to the offense. What's the offense in this instance? It's rebelling against the God who miraculously freed you from slavery in Egypt.
It's going back on your promise to follow him that you made only a few weeks ago. It's spitting in the face of God, whose very presence is visible in front of you at that moment in the form of the cloud upon Mt. Sinai.
That's the offense. This is God we're talking about. It's got. Sinning against man is in no way comparable to sinning against God. The God of all creation, your maker, your savior, sinning against God is deadly serious and we're seeing that pictured here physically in Exodus 32. I please hear me on this because I know this is still difficult for some of us to grasp, but if this seems harsh to you, then you have not yet grasped the seriousness of sin.
And I need a savior. And the good news is that Jesus is a savior who forgives our sin, washes us clean of our sin. There's also a savior who heals. And Jesus can do what no one else can. Jesus can heal the soul. He can give you a new spirit. He can give peace to a troubled mind. And rest to a weary soul. Like Aaron. We love to blame everyone else for our issues and when we do when we refuse to take ownership of our own sin.
We give up the opportunity to be forgiven and we give up the opportunity to be healed of our sin. So if you're Aaron right now. Let me encourage you to stop giving other people power over your life. Give Jesus power over your life, you'll be astounded by what he can, do. You will be astounded by what he can restore, even if you feel like you're starting 10 laps behind everybody else, you will be astounded what God can still do in your life.
Verse 8 /24. And I said to them, whoever has any gold, let them break it off, so they gave it to me and I cast it into the fire and the scarf came out. We talked about the foolishness of that last week.
Now, when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained for Aaron had not restrained them to their shame among their enemies in the Septuagint, the word scattered or unrestrained sorry, the words scattered is used instead of the word unrestrained or even naked. As some of your Bibles will say, the idea is that children are misbehaving and then mom or dad walks in the room. Moses arrived back at the camp and suddenly, instead of naked revelry, they were all frantically grabbing something to cover themselves up and scurrying back to their tents in shame.
And however it happened, word of all this reached the surrounding pagan communities who thought it was absolutely hilarious.
Instead of being the feared nation who had your way on their side, Israel was the laughingstock of the whole region, at least temporarily. Verse 8, 26, that Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, whoever is on the Lord's side come to me, and all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him and he said to them, thus says the Lord God of Israel, let every man put his sword on his side and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp and let every man kill his brother, every man, his companion, and every man his neighbor.
So the sons of Levi did, according to the word of Moses, and about 3000 men of the people fell that day. The Old Testament is packed with physical pictures.
Of spiritual truths, physical pictures of spiritual truths, you see, we read something like this and we think, oh, that's that's terrible.
But here's the sobering reality, it's justice. And I know that some of you are thinking, well, that doesn't seem like justice, Jeff, but what are we saying when we say that? What are we saying when we say that doesn't seem like justice? We're saying that we don't believe the punishment fits the crime, right? We're saying the punishment is disproportionate to the offense. What's the offense in this instance? It's rebelling against the God who miraculously freed you from slavery in Egypt.
It's going back on your promise to follow him that you made only a few weeks ago. It's spitting in the face of God whose very presence is visible in front of you at that moment in the form of the cloud upon Mt. Sinai.
That's the offense. This is God we're talking about. It's got. Sinning against man is in no way comparable to sinning against God. The God of all creation, your maker, your savior, sinning against God is deadly serious and we're seeing that pictured here physically in Exodus 32. I please hear me on this because I know this is still difficult for some of us to grasp, but if this seems harsh to you, then you have not yet grasped the seriousness of sin.
There's a parenting angle in here that really craps it cracks me up to get that out. OK. And there's a parenting angle in here that really cracks me up. It's like when somebody else is telling a parent about their child's poor behavior and the parent is like, well, you know, just don't be too harsh on them. I mean, remember, kids are going to be kids. They're going to do dumb stuff.
But then when that same parent actually catches their kid being a little jerk, their reaction becomes, I am going to murder you when we get home.
It's easy to be gracious and patient when you're not face to face with your child's own wickedness.
Right. That was Moses. When he's up there with the Lord, he's like, oh, Lord, don't let your Rathburn hot. But then when he saw what Israel was doing with his own eyes, we're told that Moses, his wrath burned hot and he was furious. I'm going to kill you guys. Verse 8 /21.
And Moses said to Aaron, what did these people do to you that you've brought so the greatest sin upon them? So Aaron said, do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know, the people that they're set on evil for, they said to me, make us gods that shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Aaron's response is to blame, get this.
His response is to blame the culture. His environment. The people around him. You see, even today, thousands of years later. Our culture believes the most ridiculous thing. It believes that people are inherently good, and the only reason everybody isn't good.
The only reason anybody has any issues is that their parents weren't good, and their parents had issues. Their culture wasn't good, their community wasn't good. But if we could just get people to be raised in a good environment around good people, then people would be good.
What's the problem with that reasoning? Well, in the words of our brother, Paul, here's the problem. There's none righteous, no, not one, there is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God, they've all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none that does good. No, not one. The only perfect parent is our heavenly father, the rest of us, no matter how hard we try, are going to pass on some junk to our kids.
We just are we're going to mess up and slip up in ways that are going to profoundly affect our children, no matter how hard we try not to.
Yes, how and where you're raised makes a huge difference in your life. Huge, I'm not debating that. I'm just saying it's not the only piece of the puzzle and it's not the only reason for our issues and problems.
And I'm saying that even if you had perfect parents and were raised in a perfect world.
You'd still send. You still said, how do I know, because Adam and Eve did. And when Jesus reigns on the Earth for a thousand years during the millennial kingdom, there will be generations who are born into a world where things are right and Jesus is king.
But at the end of those thousand years, a group of those people who were raised in that environment are still going to side with Satan for one final rebellion. Aaron says it was the people, it was the people. To be a Christian. To be a follower of Jesus and receive the gospel. Means that we have to to humbly raise our hands and say, it's me, it's me. At the end of the day, it's not my parents that are making me send.
It's not my community that's making me send. It's not my past trauma that's making me sick. The issue is that I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner and need a savior. And the beauty of the church is that even if you had the most awful childhood imaginable. If you look next to you. You'll see someone like me who had a wonderful upbringing, but I'll be raising my hand to. And I'm right next to you also saying my issue is that I'm a sinner.
And what is going on here was God really about to destroy Israel, did God change his mind because of Moses's appeal? No, not at all. Listen, the Lord knows the future, nothing, nothing takes them by surprise. Check out these verse is there on your outline. Malikai three six declares For I am the Lord, I do not change.
Therefore, you're not consumed. Oh, Sons of Jacob. So when God made those promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he knew what the future held.
Numbers 23, 19. God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. That means change his mind. He doesn't change his mind because he's not a person. He's not bound like a person is to not knowing the future, has he said. And will he not do or has he spoken and will he not make it good? So what's going on? Why does God do this and why is it in the Bible?
Well, our brother Paul tells us this also on your outlines, whatever things were written before.
In other words, all the Old Testament scriptures were written for our learning, for our learning, that we threw the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
So the question is, what does the Lord want us to learn from this portion of scripture? And I suggest the answer is your first fill in. The answer is that we can petition the Lord.
That means we can make requests of the Lord, we can petition the Lord and intercede for others based on his promises.
We can bring our request to the Lord and we can pray to the Lord on the behalf of others on the basis of the promises of God. And when you take a step back and look at Moses conversation with the Lord, you can see that God is teaching Moses that he's a God who keeps his promises. He's teaching Moses that he can come before him on the basis of the promises he's made in the past. He's teaching Moses that he's a God who's faithful to his word.
And you can stand upon his promises as a sure foundation.
And I can tell you this, if you haven't learned this truth yet, God is working on teaching it to you right now. He's working in your life to prove to you that he's faithful and that he can be trusted.
It's one of the most foundational truths of the Christian life because it opens your eyes to the reality that God is a firm foundation. You can build your life upon him.
He's the rock of ages. Verse 8 15. And Moses turned and went down from the mountain and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand, the tablets were written on both sides, on the one side and on the other, they were written.
Now, the tablets were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. These, of course, are the two tablets of the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God himself, verse 17.
And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There's a noise of war in the camp. But he said, It's not the noise of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing, I hear.
So it was as soon as he came near the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing, so Moses, his anger, became hot and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
Then he took the calf, which they had made, burned it in the fire and ground it to powder. And he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it.
Moses comes down the mountain and he finds the children of Israel amid this massive pagan party engaged in pagan worship rituals that were really just an excuse for all kinds of perversion, worshiping the idol of a golden calf.
And Moses is, he's furious. He slams down the two tablets of the law, breaking them on the ground. Moses, his reaction, whether he realized it or not, was a prophetic act that showed what Israel had just done. They had broken the law of God in a catastrophic manner.
First 10 now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, God says, step back, Moses, I'm about to lay the smack down on these stubborn, rebellious children. I don't know how you were raised, but in my childhood, this was the moment when my mom reached down and started taking off her flip flop, that was the moment that I always knew I'd push things a little bit too far and I was now going to pay for it.
I know today's younger people can't relate to that story at all because our culture is so soft right now.
If a parent did that in public today, someone would call the police who would then call child services. But when I was a kid, a parent could do that literally anywhere. And if another parent saw it, they just give a thumbs up, which was kind of code for nice job, not raising a total brat. And of course, the scariest thing about my mom's flip flop was that it was always with her. It was always with her.
She didn't always have a wooden spoon, but she always had a flip flop.
But I digress. The point is, this is the moment God starts taking off his flip flop and says, stand back, Moses.
There's another truth on display here, and we mentioned it last week, we cannot worship the true and living God based upon our personal preferences.
God is to be worshiped according to his preferences and his commands. God didn't look at Israel and say, well, I mean, they're kind of still worshiping me. God's reaction here shows us that when we reject God's commands and worship him, however we choose, it's not actually him we're worshiping, it's ourselves. We're worshiping ourselves and our preferences. For us, this means that we can't read something in God's word and say, I don't really like that part, so I'm not going to make that part of my expression of Christianity.
We can't say I love Jesus, don't really like the church, though.
The church is kind of messed up. So I'm going to leave that part out of my faith. We can't say, well, you know, I I love Jesus, but I don't buy what the Bible says about sexuality and s*xual purity.
And so I've created a version of Christianity where, you know, doing those things that the Bible says I shouldn't is actually, in a way, part of my expression of worship.
Can't do that. God looked down on Israel and said, I don't care that they're referring to the idol as yours.
It's not me. It's not me they're worshiping. First, then again, God said now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. That just means destroy them. And I will make of you, Moses, a great nation. This is a big deal. God is saying, Moses, I'm done with Israel, I am done. Let me just wipe them out and then we'll just start this whole Israel project again with you, and I'll do it all through you and your descendants.
Then Moses pleaded with the Lord is God and said, Lord, why is your wrath burned hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Do you see what Moses just did there? He played the reverse card and gave Israel right back to God, my people, you mean your people, Lord, whom you brought out of Egypt.
They're your kids to Verse 8 12.
Why should the Egyptians speak and say he brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth, turn from your fierce wrath and relent from this harm to your people.
Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and all the land that I have spoken of, I give to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever. So the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people.
online today!bcjenny Blog Comments (4,299)
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
If you cannot figure out, if you cannot put two and two together and deduce that you've simply created and invented a God to reinforce your own views and opinions, you're projecting yourself onto God. You're lying to yourself. You're willfully deceiving yourself. In our home group, a couple of weeks ago, we were discussing times when the Lord has spoken to us with real clarity. It was just a wonderful conversation.And the question came up, how do you know if it's God who's speaking to you and not just last night's pizza? That's a good question, right? The consensus was that the biggest indicator is that when God speaks to me, it doesn't sound like my own thoughts.
The things God says, the things the voice of God calls me to do are far more gracious and humble and servant hearted and often much more difficult than any thought.
I would have any scenario I would dream up, anything I would choose to do, because as the word says, his thoughts are not my thoughts and his ways are not my ways.
But if your God is simply reinforcing everything you believe, everything you'd like to do, every choice you want to make, then you might as well bow down in front of a mirror. Because that's the God that you're worshiping. And by the way, you can look in the mirror to find out exactly how powerful your God is to there, exactly as powerful as you. Because they are you. Do not be a fool and deceive yourself and think that a God of your own invention, Is foolishness. 18 through 20 were covered back in Exodus 13, Verse 11 through 13 and Verse is 20 through 26 hours, a reiteration of Exodus 23, verse is 14 through 19. So we're going to skip down to 27. Then the Lord said to Moses, write these words for according to the tenor of these words, I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. So he was there. Moses was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights.
And he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments. These are the second set of tablets with the Ten Commandments upon them.
The first set, you'll recall, were smashed by Moses in righteous anger and rich symbolism when he descended from Mount Sinai and found the nation of Israel engaging in pagan worship rituals around the idol of the Golden Calf Verse 8 29.
Now, it was so when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses hand when he came down from the mountain that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him, while he talked with God.
You know, going 40 days without food or water does not usually improve the outward appearance of a man, especially when that man is 80 years old.
And yet we're told that while Moses was speaking with God up on Mt. Sinai, somehow God's glory had a physical effect on Moses and left the skin of his face glowing, sort of like a supernatural suntan or should I say son, S.A.M. tan.
Your move, B.J., if you're not aware when it comes to bad puns and dad jokes, BJ and I are constantly lowering the bar.
Anyway, Moses comes down Mount Sinai with the two new tablets, his face glowing and he doesn't even know it. Verse 30. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called them and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. I think with me in typology, Moses being a type of Jesus, a picture of Jesus.
What do you think that this scene speaks of prophetically?
Moses going up the mountain and coming down, his face, glowing. What do you think the speaks of in typology? It's the transfiguration of Jesus.
And I put the references on your outline. You can look them up later. When Jesus went up on the mount and was transfigured, transformed into his glorious state before Peter, James and John.