The Providence Podcast: Exodus

Priest

Chris Oswald — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Priest

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 8th December 2024

Passage: Exodus 40:12-15

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Text: Exodus 40:12-15

“Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall wash them with water and put on Aaron the holy garments. And you shall anoint him and consecrate him, that he may serve me as priest. You shall bring his sons also and put coats on them, and anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may serve me as priests. And their anointing shall admit them to a perpetual priesthood throughout their generations.”

The OT priesthood is central to Christianity all the way into the New Creation. If you’re a Christian, God has big big plans for you. And those plans are intertwined with the priestly role.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Revelation 1:6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Not only that, but Jesus is called the Great High Priest. To understand Christ, we need to have some understanding of the OT priesthood.

So what shall we say about the priests? There’s a lot of material here, and even more in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Three basic ideas represented in three words:

Priority, Protection, Presence

Priority – They were uniquely the Lord’s.

Deuteronomy 18:1-2 “The Levitical priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.”

Protection – They were to guard and keep the temple.

It would not be surprising if, when thinking about a priest, to find your mind going to some kind of effeminate man in a collar. But the Levites were chosen by God explicitly because that particular tribe had a history of violence. As the great patriarch Issac issued blessings to each of his 12 sons, Levi was singled out as being a man of war.

Zach Garris writes, “The Levites were not just priests—they were warrior-priests. Their priestly origin is based in righteous violence. But God put the violent nature of the Levites to good use. Not only would the priests among them slaughter animals on a regular basis for sacrifice, but also all the Levites would guard the tabernacle/temple and the cities of refuge. Yahweh ordained and scattered the Levites throughout Israel in order to guard His worship.”

Numbers 3:5-10 “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, as they minister at the tabernacle. They shall guard all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, and keep guard over the people of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle. And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are wholly given to him from among the people of Israel. And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall guard their priesthood. But if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death.”

Presence – They were responsible for entering the presence of the Lord. Which, under the old covenant, was a very risky mission. They were appointed to do the very thing the rest of the people feared to do. Remember Exodus 20

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

When you search the word “die” in Exodus you wind up with a bunch of instructions for the priests:

Exodus 28:35 – And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the Holy Place before the LORD, and when he comes out, so that he does not die.

Exodus 28:43 – and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die.

Exodus 30:20 – This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him.When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the LORD, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die.

Echos of Eden

While we’re thinking about these things, I want to take a bit of a side quest into once concept I feel it is important for you to understand….

I don’t think most Christians understand that the tabernacle/temple were in some respects, designed by God to be an echo of Eden.

Work & Keep

I mentioned a moment ago that the Levites were supposed to guard and keep the temple. The phrase in the Hebrew is “‘ābad and šāmar” – which is exactly what Adam was charged with in Genesis 2:15: “And the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Eden was the place of God’s localized presence. The place where God dwelled among men

Flaming Cherubim

The tabernacle/temple was exactly that. And as the high priest went beyond the great veil hung at the entrance to the holy of holies – he would pass two flaming cherubim embroidered in the veil. Which brings to mind Genesis 3:24, when after the sinned, God drove out Adam and Eve from the garden (from God’s localized presence) and “...He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Clothed in Jewels

When the high priest entered the holy of holies, he was made ceremonially sinless – he took on Adam’s original splendor. In Ezekiel 28:11-14, God, in a round about way, tells us how he viewed Adam before the fall…

Thus says the Lord GOD: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.

That description maps on pretty well to the priestly garments prescribed in Exodus 28.

28:2 – And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. 28:15-20 – “You shall make a breastpiece of judgment, in skilled work. In the style of the ephod you shall make it—of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen shall you make it. It shall be square and doubled, a span its length and a span its breadth. You shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row; and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree.”

I wanted to take a moment to discuss this because I think it is hard to understand what we, as human beings, were before the fall. We were, in God’s eyes, bejeweled beings. Perfect in beauty – covered in precious stones. The crown of his creation. When he made man and said, “this is very good” – he really meant it.

So when God appointed one man to enter the Holy of Holies once a year – as a kind of symbolic Adam – we are able to see the heights from which we’ve fallen. The jewels and intricate clothing is just an external way of revealing the inherent splendor of our original sinless state.

But you also have what is essentially a very brief imaging of curse reversal. What if none of this had happened? What if man was not cursed with sin? What if he was still able to commune with God?

Which of course brings us to Jesus

He is the new and better Adam. And he is the great high priest. And John 17 is a pretty good passage to reveal some of that.

John 17:1-5 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Priority – “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” (17:4)

Jesus only did the Father’s work. He had no other mission. No inheritance. He did not take a wife. Etc…

Protection – In John 17, we see the guard and keep language. Look at vs. 10-11: “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Now pay attention to what he is guarding and keeping. The Levites guarded the Old Testament temple – Jesus is guarding and keeping the New Testament temple – which is the church – where each individual believer has become the dwelling place of God.

He isn’t guarding a place. He is guarding a people. Specifically, he is guarding his people against the three great enemies to our soul. The world, the flesh, and the devil. Look at vs. 14-17

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Presence – What about the presence of God? Well, there’s too much that could be said! Remember how the Old Testament priests were symbolically glorious – symbolically sinless – and all of that was reflected by the splendor of their physical appearance.

Well in the New Covenant, God flips the script a bit. Jesus comes as externally inglorious. No form or majesty. First as a baby born in a manger, then as a servant. Outwardly he is a carpenter. Inwardly, he is pure glory, a kind of glory that would make diamonds and sapphires look absolutely dull.

In the Old Covenant, the garment was passed down from priest to priest, year after year. They put on an external form that represented sinlessness. But Jesus has an inherent glory. And this is the glory he is passing on to his people.

Look at vs. 22 – “The glory that you have given me I have given to them…”

And all of this is leading to a great great future for those who are in Christ. Look at vs. 24 – “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

And so in the end, Jesus is the curse reverser. He is not just the redeemer of many souls, but he is actually redeeming mankind’s original dignity and destiny. And all of this will lead to our great future described in Revelation 5:9-10

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Now, in the meantime, we, being made into a nation of priests, have a clear sense of what our life is supposed to look like. All of my life belongs to the Lord

In his classic work entitled Practical Christianity, William Wilberforce writes..

It is the grand, essential, practical characteristic of true Christians, that, relying on the promises to repenting sinners, of acceptance through the Redeemer, they have renounced and abjured all other masters, and have cordially and unreservedly devoted themselves to God.

Christians are become the sworn enemies of sin; they will henceforth hold no parley with it, they will allow it in no shape, they will admit it to no composition; the war they have denounced against it, is universal and irreconcilable.

 But this is not all—it is now their determined purpose to yield themselves without reserve to the reasonable service of their rightful Sovereign. ‘They are not their own:’ their bodily and mental faculties, their natural and acquired endowments, their substance, their authority, their time, their influence; all these, they consider as belonging to them, not for their own gratification, but as instruments to be consecrated to the honour and employed in the service of God.

This must be the master principle to which every other must be subordinate. Whatever may have been hitherto their ruling passion, or leading pursuit, whether sensual, or intellectual, of science, taste, fancy, or feeling…must exist only at the pleasure, and be put altogether under the control and direction of its true and legitimate superior.

I am called to guard God’s temple-people Prayer is supposed to be a big part of my life

Spurgeon: “If any of you should ask me for the epitome of the Christian life, I would say that it is in one word-prayer.”

Why do I say that? Because as priests, you are meant to spend time in God’s presence. This is what Jesus has paid for. Hebrews 4:14-16

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

COMMUNION:

One way to think about the cross is that in a spiritual sense, Jesus entered the Holy of Holies with your sin on him… and this is why he was destroyed. But now you get to enter the holy of holies with his righteousness on you

Money & The Mission of God

Chris Oswald — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Money & The Mission of God

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Podcast

Date: 1st December 2024

Passages:

Exodus 35:1-36:38
2 Corinthians 8:1-9:15

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Title: Money & The Mission of God Text: Exodus 35-36, 2 Corinthians 8-9

One great privilege of preaching through the Old Testament is that we have the New Testament.

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus talked about a scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of the house, bringing out of his treasure both what is old and what is new. (Matthew 13:51-53)

That’s what we’ve been doing throughout Exodus. We’ve been taking hold of a text there and then running around the rest of the scripture, pulling out other things that go with it. Today, we have two main texts:

Firstly, Exodus 35-36 Secondly 2 Corinthians 8-9

Both having to do with generosity.

Exodus 35-36 The context: building the tabernacle and really the entire physical infrastructure of their worship.

Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “This is the thing that the LORD has commanded. Take from among you a contribution to the LORD. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD’s contribution… (35:4-5)

And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the LORD’s contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments. So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects, every man dedicating an offering of gold to the LORD. (35:20-22)

And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the LORD has commanded us to do.” So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more. (36:2-7)

Now 2 Corinthians 8-9 The context: Paul spent a considerable amount of his ministry raising funds for the saints in Jerusalem who were undergoing a famine and also extreme persecution.

Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction. (9:1-5)

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! (9:6-14)

Some fundamental truths about generosity that shine through both texts:

Money makes a difference in the mission of God.

God has chosen to advance his mission through expressions of financial faith.

Illustration: Josephs in the Bible

I was thinking about some of the Josephs in the Bible. OT Joseph Joseph the father of Jesus Joseph of Arimathea Joseph in Acts — which was Barnabas’ given name

How each of them were essential to particular moments in God’s unfolding mission.

The emphasis is always on voluntary, heart-based, cheerful giving

In both covenants, the emphasis is mainly on voluntary generosity. Of course, the tithe was written into law in the OT. But even in the OT, the vibes lean much more toward volition and non-compulsion. We see that in this particular text.

35:5,21,22,29 & 36:2 – willing heart, free will offering

35:5 - Generous heart 35:21 — Everyone who’s heart stirred him, everyone who’s spirit moved him 35:22 — All those of a willing heart 35:29 — All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the LORD had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD. 36:2 — And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning…

Even in other passages dealing with the tithe, there is a clear sense of God honoring human reason and will.

Take Malachi 3:8-10. God says, Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Now how does he speak to them about obedience? Look at the way he talks to them. This is reasoning, enticing, not simply “because I said so.” Look at vs. 10, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

When we turn to the New Testament passage, we see the same emphasis on freewill generosity…

1-2 — Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them.

5 — So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

7 — Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Generosity is not an expression of elite Christianity.

Both of our subjects are infamous for their immaturity. For their suspicion toward leadership, their carnality, etc… In one sense, it is safe to say that the majority of people in this room are more spiritually mature than both the Hebrews and the Corinthians.

It is not a sign of vigorous spiritual health. Rather, generosity is a basic vital sign that proves you are spiritually alive.

Nowhere in the bible do we see any kind of pattern that suggests people grow into generosity. What we do see is a pattern that suggests generosity is just an early sign of life — like the first gasp of a newborn baby.

In Luke 19:9, Jesus says of Zacchaeus — “Today salvation has come to this house…”

What prompted this declaration? Luke 19:8 — “And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”

In Acts 16, the first European convert, a merchant named Lydia… the first work of her faith was generosity.

In Acts 2, Barnabas moves from conversion to costly generosity in a single verse.

Generosity is more like a basic vital sign — more like a pulse — than a feat of strength

It simply shows that you understand the nature of the story that you’re in.

Illustration: Signs

And what is the story we’re in?

There’s a latin phrase that will prove helpful.

Sui-Generis

Which means one of a kind, totally unique, completely unclassifiable.

A generous Christian is aware that he is the eternal beneficiary of the Sui-Generous gift of God.

2 Corinthians 9:13

By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others,

Their generosity comes from their confession of the gospel of Christ.

That gospel being described quite succinctly in 2 Corinthians 8:9

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Generosity is sign that you understand the Sui Generous grace of God.

Luke 7:41-47

“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

Generosity does not leave you poorer

Why? Because what Jim Elliot said was true. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” Friends, generosity does not leave you poorer. At the very worst, it stores up treasure for you in eternity. ETERNITY! And that’s the worst case scenario. It is more than likely that in this life, God will bless you in various ways so that when all is said and done, you will be able to see that what Paul says in 9:6-11

Friends, I take my responsibility to care for you and build you up very seriously. I would not tell you this unless I was sure — generosity will not leave you poorer — not according to any meaningful measurement.

Generosity is not usually spontaneous

Because of point 3 — that generosity needs to be non-compulsory, I probably tend to lean more toward under emphasizing it than over emphasizing it. But another thing we can see from these two texts is that some leadership in this area is necessary. In the Exodus, God repeatedly tells Moses things like:

25:1 — The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.

And in 2 Corinthians, we see Paul dedicating a decent portion of his letter toward leading this offering. Look at 9:1

Generosity is usually contagious

9:1 - “and your zeal has stirred up most of them…”

It isn’t explicit in the Exodus story but I think we have good reason to believe a similar dynamic is at play.

Generosity should be stewarded with transparency and integrity

People ought to have reasonable confidence that what they’re giving is going to be used for the purpose their giving toward.

In the Exodus story, that was pretty simple. I gave ya’ll some acacia wood… yup — there it is in the table. But notice the integrity on behalf of the workmen…

And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the LORD has commanded us to do.” So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more. — Exodus 36:3-7

The Corinthian situation is more complicated. There’s distance involved. And we’re not dealing with commodities anymore. This is just currency — which is easier to subvert.

And the same kind of thing is at work in the Corinthian text:

Look at 2 Corinthians 8:16-21

But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord. With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us, for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our good will. We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us, for we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of man.

Leaders should be above reproach

Both Moses and Paul were, by the manner of their own actions and life choices, above reproach on this issue. Look at Hebrews 11:26, “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.”

And Acts 20:33-35

I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Communion:

“Do you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” – 2 Corinthians 8:9

Aaron's Failure of Nerve

Chris Oswald — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Aaron's Failure of Nerve

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 10th November 2024

Passage: Exodus 32:1-35

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Title: Aaron’s Failure of Nerve Text: Exodus 32

The Golden Calf story is a leadership story. Everything pivots around the action/inaction of Aaron and Moses.

While we can clearly see that the people hold significant responsibility for their actions, Aaron is singled out as uniquely responsible.

In vs. 21, “And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?”

In vs. 25, “And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies),”

Some of you are positional leaders. All of you are relational leaders. Somebody out there looks to you.

Some of you are positional leaders: Husbands, fathers Mothers, household managers Leaders at work, or in the church…

All of you are relational leaders in one degree or another. If nowhere else, you are supposed to be leaders in this local church.

Pastor Jonathan Leeman says the following to those who join his local church:

“Friend, by joining this church, you will become jointly responsible for whether or not this congregation continues to faithfully proclaim the gospel. That means you will become jointly responsible both for what this church teaches, as well as whether or not its members’ lives remain faithful.”

Now if you absolutely refuse to think of yourself as a leader, I still think this sermon can help. Because by the end of it, you’ll have learned a great deal of detail about the fear of man — which the bible says is a snare — and which experience says is a very very common snare.

The Basic Problem

When it comes to leadership, the main problem is something the poet Milton called Effeminate Slackness.

“The real problem of leadership is a failure of nerve. Leaders fail not because they lack information, skill, or technique, but because they lack the nerve and presence to stand firm in the midst of other people’s emotional anxiety and reactivity.” – Bob Thune

That’s exactly right. That’s the situation Aaron has found himself in.

Aaron has found himself leading in what Edwin Friedman would call an unhealthy emotional system. Among other things, Friedman was a family therapist and over time he observed that the families who had the most troubles had certain things in common:

Unhealthy emotional systems are marked by reactivity. Unhealthy emotional systems are marked by a herding instinct. Unhealthy emotional systems are marked by blame displacement. Unhealthy emotional systems are marked by a quick-fix mentality; relief from pain is more important than lasting change.

In these kinds of highly charged environments, a leader is greatly tempted to sin in one of two directions. He either becomes…

The bully The bullied

The Bully

Our primary focus will be on #2. That’s the loss of nerve. That’s effeminate slackness. That’s the sin of Aaron.

But as is often the case, there is a ditch on the other side of the road. I want to ensure that nobody responds to this message by saying, “yes, Aaron lost his nerve, and in order to avoid that, I plan on becoming a grade A jerk.”

There are instances of that kind of thing in the bible and even in the Exodus story. That has something to do with the sin that disqualified Moses from the promise land. Where he let his anger get the best of him.

That’s found in Numbers 20. The passage begins like many others – with the people grumbling about the lack of something – this time water.

Moses does what he normally does. He goes to the Lord. God tells him to go to a rock and speak over it – and that when he does that – the rock will split and water will come forth.

But on his way back to the people and rock, something happens in Moses’ heart. His anger gets the best of him.

“Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.” – Numbers 20:10–11

God had his back. In his mercy, he caused the water to flow. But privately, God told Moses in no uncertain terms that he had sinned.

And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” – Numbers 20:12

Many of you are leading something. A wife, a home, a team at work, a church – watch your anger. Don’t let the sins of those you lead – lead you into sin. Whatever we mean by backbone, nerve, etc… must be harmonized with 2

Timothy 2:24-26

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Ok, that’s the other ditch. When the people sin, when the environment is highly charged, some leaders become the bully. Don’t do that. The Bullied

Don’t become the bully. But also, don’t become the bullied. I would say that problem, of becoming the pushover is the deeper biblical problem of leadership. That’s what we see in…

Saul (1 Samuel 15) Peter (Antioch) And many others.

Look at Exodus 32:1-2

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”

So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” Baptizing Unbelief: Failure of Nerve & Sin Management

Now I want you to notice one feature of Aaron’s failure. Namely that he attempted to split the difference between the people’s pagan urges and true religion.

When the 2020-21 race riots took place all over the country. Plenty of prominent Christian leaders tried to baptize the sin of rioting, looting, etc… by appropriating biblical categories of social justice.

When the government massively overstepped their authority, shutting down churches, mandating masks and later vaccines. Plenty of prominent Christian leaders tried to baptize those sins with biblical categories like loving our neighbors and Romans 13.

You see the mob wanted to run in a particular direction and many evangelical leaders did a bunch of biblical gymnastics to endorse the mob’s anxious passions.

We see Aaron doing something similar.

In verse 1 the people say, “make us gods who shall go before us.” They’re ready to completely abandon Yahweh all together.

Aaron concocts a scheme involving constructing a golden calf.

In verse 4-5 we see Aaron splitting the difference.

And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”

He didn’t completely vacate his leadership. He is still in charge. And he is trying to minimize their sin rather than confront it. Friends, much of our failure of nerve comes, not so much in going along with the crowd 100% but in going along with the crowd 50%. Rather than speak openly and honestly to those in sin, we try to manage them, manipulate them, and mitigate the trouble the people we love will get themselves into.

Our main question is why? What motivates this kind of leadership meltdown? Making Sense of Aaron’s Meltdown

Why did Aaron fail? We can’t trust Aaron’s account. Aaron is an unreliable narrator here.

Look back at vs. 21

21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

We can’t rely on Aaron’s assessment. He’s not being honest with himself.

This leaves us to run through other biblical data about the same kind of thing and make some educated guesses. False Humility

In 1 Samuel 15, Saul succumbs to similar pressures as Aaron.

After being confronted with his sin. Saul said, ““I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.”

Why did he fear the people? Earlier we are shown the heart issue at play. That’s in vs. 17,

And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel.

That’s pride masqueraded as humility. His view of himself is not in line with God’s view.

Maybe Aaron suffered from the same kind of insecurity. He was after all, clearly the number 2 man. Why should the people listen to him? Who was he to lead?

Emotional Blackmail

When people get into this state of highly charged anxiousness, they are prone to leveling a very specific charge against any leader who stands their ground. Namely that the leader is being a bully and that he thinks he is better than everyone else.

We see that in Numbers 16:1-3

16 Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”

An anxious people want you to make their anxiety your agenda. And if you resist this, refusing to be the bully or to be bullied…. if you resist this emotional sabotage, the next step will almost always be an accusation of arrogance.

And if you are not careful, you will go out of your way to show how reasonable you are. How you are the opposite of a tyrant, you’re a servant leader, you’re an empathetic leader, a consensus builder!

And what you really are is being bullied. Love of Position

Another possibility is that Aaron would rather be an ineffectual leader than to lose his position all together. Plenty of leaders choose self-preservation in these kinds of situations.

They feel they must give in to the sinful desires of those they lead or they won’t have anyone to lead. Love of the People

Here’s the trickiest motivation.

God has programmed good leaders with deep feelings for those they lead. In Philippians Paul talks about longing for the people with the very affections of Christ. We see throughout the Pauline epistles that Paul is walking around with a deep emotional burden for the people.

“…imprisonments, countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” – 2 Corinthians 11:23-28

Good leaders carry deep feelings for those they lead.

Illustration: Greg Dirnberger (when one church is not doing well, he is not doing well)

If we aren’t careful, the flesh will hijack those deep feelings.

This is a very very old sin.

In 1 Timothy 2:12-14, Paul gives some apostolic insight into the fall of Adam and Eve.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Ok. So if Adam was not deceived, then why did he partake? Why did he follow Eve into death? And the answer appears to be wrongly ordered loves.

One early church father said something to effect of, “Though believing death would ensue, he partook of the fruit knowingly so that he would not be separated from his bride.”

In Paradise Lost, Milton handles the subject of the fall of Adam.

“Adam, at first amazed, but perceiving her lost, resolves through vehemence of love to perish with her, and, extenuating the trespass, eats also of the fruit

He then writes a section in which he imagines Adam’s inner dialogue…

“However I with thee have fixed my lot, Certain to undergo like doom: If death Consort with thee, death is to me as life; So forcible within my heart I feel The bond of Nature draw me to my own; My own in thee, for what thou art is mine; Our state cannot be severed; we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself

Once again, this is so easy to do. God gives us deep feelings for those we’re supposed to lead. But those deep feelings must never go deeper than our feelings for God. We have to watch out for instances where our love for others is more pronounced than our love for God.

And this isn’t purely a male and female thing. It is unfortunately routine to see older saints, who hold a God-given mantle of leadership over younger saints, choose empathy over exhortation.

Plenty of instances where older women disobey the mandate in Titus 2 by choosing empathy over exhortation.

So many young men struggle with sins of the flesh, in part, because older men choose empathy over exhortation.

Again, this is not only a male or female thing.

In Paradise Lost, when the angel is showing Adam the future of the human race. When the angel shows Adam the future seduction of men by the “daughters of men,” Adam’s initial response is to blame the women involved—”Man’s woe holds on the same, from Woman to begin.” The angel contradicts him. That is not it at all: “From Man’s effeminate slackness it begins.” Conclusion: How should have Aaron responded?

To which Aaron ought to have said – I don’t work for you. I don’t work for you.

I work for the Lord. And he has made it clear what we are to do. I hope you’ll join me in trusting him. But if you won’t, then I will, with great sorrow, need to show you the door.

The solution to effeminate slackness is something Edwin Friedman called “self-differentiation.” Which is just another way of talking about holding your ground.

In this story, there are three leaders. Moses, Aaron, and in vs. 17 Joshua is mentioned. Joshua would eventually become the people’s leader as they entered the promised land. And while Joshua would make plenty of his own mistakes, he did not succumb to a failure of nerve. He was a properly self-differentiated leader.

That’s what motivates his famous speech. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

That’s how Aaron ought to have responded.

I don’t work for you. I work for the Lord.

Mothers and Fathers must say to their children, “I don’t work for you, I work for the Lord.”

Husbands must say to their wives, “I don’t work for you, I work for the Lord.”

Church leaders must say to their congregations, “I don’t work for you, I work for the Lord.”

God’s Self-Differentiation

In verses 7-14, we see that the only thing that keeps God from completely destroying the people is his motivation for his own name.

9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

God doesn’t save us because he must. There is nothing in his nature that requires him to save us.

God doesn’t save us because he needs us. He is able to raise up a people for himself from the stones.

God certainly doesn’t save us because we are deserving.

In the end, God saves us for the sake of his own name.

Look at vs. 11-14

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

God saves us for the sake of his own glory.

Pastor Mike Fabarez writes,

While most people believe God saves people for “people’s sake” (i.e., because of his attraction to them and his inner compulsion to promote and honor them), Psalm 106:8 tells us that God is in the business of saving sinners for “his own name’s sake” (i.e., for his own honor, promotion and glory). In considering his grace and mercy toward his people, God repeats through the prophet Isaiah: “For my sake, for my sake, I do this” and “I will not yield my glory to another” (48:11).

Conclusion: The world is in urgent need of leaders who are (to quote the meme): Unbothered. Moisturized. In Their Lane. Focused. Flourishing.

That only happens when the leader is more concerned about pleasing God than anyone else.

That is the cure to effeminate slackness.

Friends, you are servants of the most high God. Be done with the prideful insecurity. You are what God says you are.

You are servants of the most high God. Do not be intimidated by emotional blackmail. Who can bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

You are servants of the most high God. Your position is given to you by God. The favor you have is given to you by God. Honor and serve the one who gave it to you.

You are servants of the most high God. It is good to feel a deep love for those you lead. But if you let that love eclipse the love you have for God, you do nobody any good.

We have got to move away from a people-centered religion and back to a God centered religion. And that starts by seeing that our very salvation was worked out by God as a service to God.

Psalm 106:8 – “Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power.”

All of the fundamental good that has been done in Christendom. All the human flourishing it has provided. Came into the world through God-centeredness and not people centeredness.

So fellow leaders, would you join me in resolving to trust in the Lord with all our heart and leaning not on our own understanding. In all our ways let’s acknowledge him and trust that he will direct our paths. Illustration: Latimer & Ridley

Under the cruel and violent rule of Queen Mary, two godly men named Latimer and Ridley were arrested as heretics. Their offense? Proclaiming protestant doctrine. On their way to being burned at the stake the following words were recorded.

“Be of good heart, brother, for God will either assuage the fury of the flame, or else strengthen us to abide it.”

“Be of good comfort, Mr. Ridley, and play the man! We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust never shall be put out.”

Communion:

The Lord Jesus was the king of self-differentiation. In John’s gospel we are told:

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. – John 2:23-25

In John 5:19,

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

And it was this purity of purpose, his singular service to the Lord that secured our salvation.

No failure of nerve on Jesus’ part. No effeminate slackness. And that is why you and I are saved.

On Covetousness & Contentment

Providence Community Church — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 10:00:00 +0000

On Covetousness & Contentment

Series: Exodus

Sunday Morning

Date: 27th October 2024

Passage: Exodus 20:17

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Our text for today is the 10th commandment which reads:

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Coveting could be defined as “an inordinate, ungoverned, selfish desire for something.”

Someone once said that all too often, we want the wrong thing, in the wrong way, at the wrong time, and for the wrong reason, and this is what the tenth commandment rules out.

I’m really more interested in what it commends rather than what it forbids.

The Westminster Larger Catechism explains this command:

The duties required in the tenth commandment are, such a full contentment with our own condition, and such a charitable frame of the whole soul toward our neighbor, as that all our inward motions and affections touching him, tend unto, and further all that good which is his.

What are the sins forbidden in the tenth commandment? Answer: The sins forbidden in the tenth commandment are, discontentment with our own estate; envying and grieving at the good of our neighbor, together with all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.

I want to focus on contentment for a number of reasons:

Pastorally, I know some of you need it now and all of you will need it eventually.

Culturally, we live in a world that runs on discontentment and consumerism. The media you consume is designed to stir up discontent and sell you things.

And oh my do we have enough things.

In his book “Self-Renewal,” John W. Gardner wrote that if happiness could be found in the comforts and pleasures money can buy, then “the large number of Americans who have been able to indulge their whims on a scale unprecedented in history would be deliriously happy. They would be telling one another of their unparalleled serenity and bliss instead of trading tranquilizer prescriptions.”

Textually, the story of Exodus ends with its finger on the final commandment.

Almost all of them wound up being disqualified from entering the promised land. And not for breaking the 5th or 6th or 7th commandments. But for breaking the 10th.

They were constantly grumbling and believing the worse about God. They were constantly pointing out what God hadn’t done for them.

But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. – Numbers 14:20-24

Friends, contentment is key to finishing well.

We’re in this period of time where we see leaders dropping like flies – and it is always related to a lack of contentment.

Some men cannot be content with their own wives – and so they take on sinful relationships. Some cannot be content to endure the disfavor of the world – so they take on false doctrines. Some cannot be content with what they have – so they take what doesn’t belong to them.

And it isn’t just leaders. How many deconstruction stories could be summarized as:

“I used to be a faithful Christian until God did something I disagreed with. Then I freaked out, threw myself down an internet rabbit hole custom built to fan the flames of my anger with God”

God did something I disagreed with. God took something that I wanted. Or God refused to give me something I wanted.

Discontentment is exceedingly dangerous. It will take you into places you’d never thought you’d go. And may, in the end, disqualify you from receiving the promise.

Contentment is a prerequisite for finishing well.

Let’s spend the rest of our time considering Christian contentment.

It is a difficult virtue to obtain:

Turn in your bibles to Philippians 4:10-12

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

The language here shows that this was a difficult lesson. The word for learned means “initiated” or “graduated” — like he had enrolled in a school of contentment.

The word secret further emphasizes that this lesson is not one that comes easy.

When he says in vs. 12, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” — that’s not the kind of thing you say when you’ve just done something relatively easy. You don’t bend down and tie your shows successfully and say, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

It is different than other versions of contentment:

Christian contentment is not like the Buddhist version.

When you talk to adult converts to Buddhism, they will often tell you the main feature, the thing that drew them was the idea taught in Buddhism that nothing really matters.

Buddhism teaches that nothing in the universe is essential, and that everything is in a constant state of change and impermanence. This concept is called śūnyatā, and it means that all things are empty of intrinsic existence.

Buddhists believe that everything comes to an end, and that things are constantly changing. They say that human suffering is caused by our attachment to impermanent things, but that it can be freeing to know that suffering is changeable.

Those who understand impermanence detach themselves from all that exists and stop seeking anything.

That’s not Christian contentment. The same Paul who wrote, “I have learned the secret to contentment” wrote “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

Thomas Watson writes:

A true Christian is a wonder; he is the most contented—and yet the least satisfied. He is contented with a morsel of bread, and a little water in the cruise—yet never satisfied with his grace; he pants and breathes after more.

Indeed you will not be able to grow in Christian contentment without some significant appetite for God and for growth in godliness.

The book of James tells us to count it all joy when you face various kinds of trials. Why?

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2)

Again from Watson:

“Every man complains that his estate is not better, though he seldom complains that his heart is not better.”

One way to think about contentment is to describe it as a self-conscious participation in and celebration of the accomplishment of God’s promises.

Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

2 Corinthians 4 says that this light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory.

These promises are always true for the Christian. But not always evidently true or experientially felt.

Let’s think about that for a moment. Suppose we’re going through some kind of hardship. Romans 8 is happening. 2 Corinthians 4 is happening. How can we have in those moments, the feeling of improvement? How can our feelings join the facts of God’s promises?

That’s what happens when you learn contentment. You see “all things working together for good” through the eyes of faith. You know it is true. No matter the circumstances, you are aware of God’s hand working on you and working for you.

Christian contentment is not like the Stoic version.

The Stoic view of contentment is closer to the Christian one. Indeed, many of the same virtues expressed in the stoic view are present in the Christian view.

Stoics believe that people can find happiness by living a virtuous life. The four Stoic virtues are courage, justice, moderation, and wisdom.

And they could see that adversity produced these things. The main difference between the Stoic and Christian view is that Stoic is in conversation with himself.

As Marcus Aurelius wrote, “Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil.”

Stoicism is comprised entirely of logical self-talk. Christian contentment is conversational. It is rooted in your relationship with the Father.

Take a look at Psalm 131:

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.

There are some potential translation issues here.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Could mean – a child who is able to be with his mother and enjoy her without seeing her mostly through the lens of what she has to offer.

Could mean – a child who has just finished nursing and is full and satisfied.

Either way, the main thing to grasp is that David is finding contentment in the presence of God. He is with God like a small child is with his mother.

Christian contentment is highly concentrated on prayer and the presence of God.

And perhaps here we can see why the original Exodus generation never managed to attain true contentment and were in the end, disqualified by their own disquietude.

Look back at Exodus 20:17

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

When the book of Hebrews says that the old covenant was lacking in various ways, it is referring in part, to the inability of the old covenant to produce conditions where sinners could freely and joyfully commune with God.

The mountain was shaking and smoking and God is present in a thick darkness.

But when Jesus Christ gave himself for us, he cleared all the smoke and stilled the shaking mountain. He has created conditions whereby we can draw near to throne with confidence and in our drawing near, find true contentment.

The creator and sustainer of the universe is smiling upon us. It our job to cast cares, it his job to take them.

This is our Reformation Sunday celebration. 507 years ago, Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door.It is a good thing that we wound up discussing contentment on the Sunday we celebrate the Protestant Reformation.

Contentment is the heartbeat of the reformation. Specifically the contentment of God. Catholicism, along with every other world religion, tells a story of a discontented God. Only by the repetition of various ceremonies, sacraments, and rites can God become temporarily satisfied and contented.

Protestantism presents a God who has been fully propitiated, fully satisfied, fully contented by the offering of Christ.

As Martin Luther put it,

Now, we are sure that Christ pleases God, that he is holy and so on. Inasmuch, then, as Christ pleases God and we are in him, we also please God and are holy.

Although sin still remains in us, and although we daily fall and offend, grace is more abundant and stronger than sin. The mercy and truth of the Lord reign over us forever. Therefore, sin cannot make us afraid or make us doubt God’s mercy in us. For Christ, that most mighty giant, has abolished the law, condemned sin, and vanquished death and all evils.

So long as he is at the right hand of God making intercession for us, we cannot doubt God’s grace and favor toward us.

Communion Prayer:

I doubt there is anyone here who has learned the secret of divine contentment as deeply as we ought. I know I Lord have much to learn. But I want to learn. I can see that the contentment presented in scripture is a great prize and a golden shield.

There are some saints here who are right now judging you by what you have withheld rather than what you have freely given.

There are some saints who mistake their circumstantial sweetness for contentment. They do not know they do not have true contentment. And I am afraid they will not learn it until they suffer – which is a terrible time to learn it. So Lord, please stir up the self-satisfied hearts and do the work only you can do.

Matthew 26:26-28:

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

When a Snake Takes the Stand

Providence Community Church — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 10:00:00 +0100

When a Snake Takes the Stand

Series: Exodus

Sunday Morning

Date: 20th October 2024

Passages:

Exodus 20:16
Deuteronomy 19:15-21

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Title: When A Snake Takes The Stand Text: Exodus 20:16, Deuteronomy 19:16-21

This week, I was browsing through a collection of essays written by the great Sinclair Ferguson. And landed on an essay on Satan entitled: Naming the Enemy

At the beginning of that essay, he talks about the three dimensional work of the cross. The cross of Christ deals with:

Sinfulness – sin as a power that holds us Sins – the various sins that we commit that bring guilt upon us Satan – the enemy of our souls

Or to put it another way, the Root (sinfulness), the Fruit (sins), and the Brute (Satan).

Today we’re talking about lying. Our text simply reads:

“You shall not bear false witness about your neighbor.”

And it seems like the right place to start, when talking about lying is to talk about the brute – the devil – who Jesus says was a liar from the beginning.

Almost every name for Satan is connected in some way to his deception.

Deceiver: self-explanatory

Accuser: self-explanatory

Devil: This name (from a compound of the Greek verb to throw) conveys the idea of slandering, of throwing falsehoods against someone; “mudslinging,” we might say.

Satan: Some commentators suggest that the root idea here includes attacking someone from an ambush. The attack is unexpected and the attacker is hidden.

All of these names were manifest in his initial appearance in the story of the world.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” – Genesis 3:1-5

There you see Satan bearing false witness about God.

“You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

I suppose you might say that the first sin to ever be committed on the face of the earth was committed by the devil.

And then the second sin to have ever been committed on earth was Eve’s. And it was to believe it.

That’s where I want to spend the majority of our time today. On that second sin. We live in a fallen world where even our saints are still sinners. Even if you and I refrained from ever lying in any way ever again, we would still be surrounded by lies, false witnesses, and slander.

So I’d like to deal today with discerning and dealing with slander. This seems to me to be essential. After all, slander is as harmful as it is believed.

There are many companion texts for each one of these ten commandments. And one of the companion texts for Exodus 20:16 is found in Deuteronomy 19:15-21. So turn there with me now…

“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.” – Deuteronomy 19:15

So the most literal application has to do with their system of justice. Upon which our system of justice was built. You could not find a person guilty without at least 2 witnesses.

The temptation to frame someone would be high. You and a friend could agree to take out any of your enemies simply by accusing him of some capital offense. And so a provision for this kind of thing had to be included in the law.

That’s what we see in vs. 16

That’s the aim for this sermon. To help you become a priest and judge. To arm you with some discernment so that you can inquire diligently.

And let me tell you, the stakes with this sort of thing should be very high. Go back to vs. 16

16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. – Deuteronomy 19:16-19

How many of you have read To Kill a Mockingbird? Do you remember the name of the accused man? Tom Robinson. And what was the name of the malicious witness? Mayella Ewell. What should’ve happened to her if they were following God’s law? She’d be in jail at minimum. May have been executed.

And as a result, the next time someone thought about making a false accusation, they would’ve remembered how it turned out for ol Mayella. Which is what we see in vs. 19-21

20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. – Deuteronomy 19:16–21

Notice the words describing the false witness: Malicious (16), Evil (19), Evil (20), and your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

The command is to be totally merciless with the false witness. If a snake has dared to take the stand, you must crush it.

The Court of Public Opinion

So those were rules for formal court. But the same principles apply to the informal court of public opinion. In that court, false witnesses are referred to as slander.

In Leviticus 19:16 we read, “You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD.”

Definition of slander:

“The intentional or unintentional spreading of falsehoods that threaten damage to another person’s reputation.”

Error – you have the wrong facts

Embellishment – spicing up the story

Confabulation – interestingly enough, advanced alcoholics can get this due to a Thiamin deficiency. I read somewhere that during certain ancient periods of time, lots and lots of people were drunk like most of the time. When the bible talks about being sober minded…

Assigning Motives – You did this because X

Recategorization – lumping a whole bunch of behaviors into a particular category or pattern that is not actually true.

The big idea is that though the setting changes (from the formal court to the court of public opinion), the sin does not. Whether in a courtroom or a chatroom, this sin is seen as a great evil.

The Puritan Richard Baxter wrote, “It is forbidden of God among the heinous, daming sins, and made the character of a notorious person. He’s talking about how this sin appears alongside many other sins which we all consider to be truly evil.

Take Romans 1:28-32 for instance,

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Indeed, in almost every church Paul writes to, we see slander addressed: 2 Corinthians 12:20, Colossians 3:18, Ephesians 4:31, 1 Timothy 3:11, 2 Timothy 3:3, Titus 2:3.

Slanderers often present themselves as Mayella Ewells – victims. But they are villains. Villains against the fundamentals of civilization. No matter helpless or broken or confused they appear. The truth is that slanderers are, whether intentionally or unintentionally, pulling at the very fabric of society.

That is because the whole world runs on trust. “All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.” – James Matthew Barrie. Trust is the base layer of all human relationships. Without trust, nothing gets built or maintained.

Success is replaced with suspicion. Progress is replaced with paranoia.

And if someone is eroding trust in someone or something that ought to be trusted, then they are real and present danger to human flourishing. Again, I want to be transparent in my aim. I want to stir your zeal against slander. I want you to become diligent judges who discern rightly.

Here are 4 Things You Can Do:

Cherish your neighbor’s reputation

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. Othello, Shakespeare

Proverbs 22:1 says, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.”

So slander is in essence, the defrauding of a brother or sister’s reputation – which is nearly priceless.

Show no partiality

Check your own quiet biases Leviticus 19:1 says, ““You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” Are you more likely to believe a man or a women? Are you more likely to believe a leader or a non-leader?

Expect biblical order God is not the author of chaos… Let all things be done decently and in order Matthew 18

Look for elements Error Embellishment Confabulation Assigning motives Recategorization

What should be done to the slanderer?

You shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother.

In the formal legal court – if a slanderer falsely accused someone of a capital offense, the slanderer would be put to death. If it was for a lesser crime, the slanderer would pay whatever penalty that was prescribed for that crime.

What should be done for the slanderer in the informal court of public opinion? At minimum, the reputation of the slanderer should be significantly diminished. He or she should not be trusted.

Church discipline may be appropriate. Severing the relationship may be appropriate:

Titus 3:10-11 says, “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.”

But what is most appropriate is to pray diligently for this individual. God is not going to let that rest…

Psalm 15:1-3 O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;

Psalm 101:5 Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.

Slander is pride. And God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So pray for humility and repentance.

II. How to Respond to Being Slandered

Which brings us to a final objective – in addition to helping you handle slander when you hear it, I also want to give you some biblical counsel on how to respond when you are the object of slander.

The more you grow in Christ-likeness, the more you will be persecuted. And the vast majority of persecution that happens in the world is verbal. Something Jesus himself predicted in Matthew 5:11-12

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

We want each of you to become more and more like Jesus. And if that happens, you’ll be singled out more and more for slander.

Anglican bishop: “You know, wherever the apostle Paul went, there was either a revival or a riot. Everywhere I go they serve tea.”

As Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26)

Hopefully you and I will have more in common with the prophets than the false prophets. Which means slander is on its way. How do you handle it?

Well the first thing to ask is – is this true? And you can use all of the diagnostics presented earlier to hopefully arrive there. But I warn you of this… yes, God can use crooked sticks to draw straight lines – but, I will warn you of this. God is not in the habit of using the accuser to edify. He doesn’t send a liar to teach you truth. If there is something going on in your life that needs attention, he will send people into your life who aren’t liars to tell it to you.

But even if it not mostly true, I would warn you. Slander can be utterly disorienting. I was reading an article on gaslighting, slander, etc… and found the following to be spot on.

The consequences might be depression, anxiety, self-destruction, the broken mirror syndrome (deformed picture about oneself, internalization of abuser’s negative emotions and thoughts, mind knots, destructive self-criticism, low self-esteem, strong inferiority complex, strong somatization of emotional pain, increased suggestibility), suicidal ideation and suicide.

I know one example from history. John Calvin

When Theodore Beza broke the news of Calvin’s death to the Geneva Academy students, he said, “Having been a spectator of his conduct for sixteen years, … I can now declare, that in him all men may see a most beautiful example of the Christian character, an example which is as easy to slander as it is difficult to imitate.”

And Calvin writes,

Godly men, even when they do well, must be exposed to evil reports. By these strategies Satan attacks our faith and unjustly slanders us among men. The temptation to be terrified by such reports is highly dangerous, for we want our integrity to be well known. When we are well disposed, we take it ill if other men put a different interpretation on our conduct. Satan tries by slander to overturn all that we have done out of a good conscience. Or he accuses us of something that we are not at all guilty of. Or he loads us with unfounded slanders or contrives what never came into our minds. – John Calvin

And so we wind up where we started. The beginning of slander is Satan. We must never forget this! Not only so that we have zeal to discern false witnesses against our brothers, but also so that we can do so when the snake slithers into the courtroom of our hearts.

Communion:

For Communion today I want to reflect on the last line of Paul’s Communion Text.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

When I used to travel around the world, I was surprised to find so many countries where littering is not considered a moral wrong. There is trash everywhere.

Then I would return to certain parts of America and see basically no trash whatsoever. There was something so calming about the cleanliness. All the trash in those other countries was like visual noise, detracting from the beauty of creation. And then to return home, to parts of this country that see litter as a morally bad thing – and to feel a kind of peace and order.

Friends, if we are in Christ, we are going to spend eternity in a place entirely free of lies. No more lies anywhere. Just truth, goodness, and beauty.

Jesus made that possible. We all deserve a harsh sentence for the various ways we have misrepresented God. But Jesus took our place, receiving the wrath of God on our behalf so that we could be forgiven, adopted, and rooted firmly in eternal truth, goodness, and beauty.

Today when you come to the table, perhaps you ought to take a minute to grieve over the state of this fallen world. It is littered with lies. Very few places or people seem free of that litter. But this life will not last very long. Eternity is coming. Unpolluted truth is coming.

Thou Shall Not Steal

Chris Oswald — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Thou Shall Not Steal

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 13th October 2024

Passage: Exodus 20:15

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Introduction:

What do we make of the relative agreement across cultures time and space on the 2nd tablet? That the world is built on universal moral laws that are as fixed and unbreakable as the physical laws.

The second table (commandments 5-10) is simply the codification of the nature of reality. This is the way the world works — there is no other sustainable way…

There are two types of laws: “stop sign” laws and “fire” laws, as explained by Dorothy Sayers. “Stop sign” laws are arbitrary rules created by humans for various purposes. Examples include traffic regulations, curfews, and minimum wage laws. These laws can be negotiated and changed with the agreement of relevant parties. Individuals may choose to disregard them if they disagree with them.

In contrast, “fire” laws are inherent laws of nature that are discovered rather than created. These laws, like gravity and inertia, cannot be altered by human intervention. Attempts to defy them will inevitably result in consequences. For example, touching fire will burn you, stepping off a roof will make you fall, and trying to stop a moving car with bare hands will be futile. These laws operate independently of human desires or opinions.

The 5th commandment — honor your father and mother that you may live long in the land — that promise is implicitly extended to all the commandments. For later God will command the parents to teach their children these laws. And if the children obey them, they will live long in the land.

Today we’re going to look at theft in three directions:

Stealing from Yourself Stealing from Others Stealing from God

I. Stealing from Yourself

Here’s a category I wouldn’t have thought of. Listen to the WLC:

The sins forbidden in the Eighth Commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are, theft, robbery, man-stealing, and receiving anything that is stolen; fraudulent dealing, false weights and measures, removing land marks, injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man, or in matters of trust; oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust enclosures and depopulations; engrossing commodities to enhance the price; unlawful callings, and all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbor: What belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves; covetousness; inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods; distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them; envying at the prosperity of others; as likewise idleness, prodigality, wasteful gaming; and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate, and defrauding ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God has given us.

I was surprised to find that in the older literature, stealing from oneself came up time and time again. How do we do that? The WLC lists various ways but for the most part, it all falls into the category of wastefulness.

Buying stuff you don’t need Not taking care of the stuff you already have.

“…we must render to every man his due. In substance, then, the commandment forbids us to long after other men's goods, and, accordingly, requires every man to exert himself honestly in preserving his own.” — Calvin

And the primary expression of wastefulness in the old world was laziness — which is wasting of your life.

“He is a thief to himself, by idleness, when he misspends his time. He who spends his hours in pleasure and vanity robs himself of that precious time which God has given him…” — Watson

Proverbs 25:28 says, “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”

Explain

Proverbs 18:9 says, “Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.”

You have one life (picture)

Protestant work ethic… Puritan work ethic.

It boiled down to seeing time like CS Lewis saw people. Some of you may remember that statement from Lewis, that there are no ordinary people.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

Just as Lewis saw that are no ordinary people. No unimportant people, the Puritans realized there were no unimportant moments. Every moment of every day was pregnant with possibility. They sought to live each one of those moments with a kind of happy sobriety. They sought to do what Kipling described — “to fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds run.”

So in order to obey the 8th commandment, we must stop stealing from ourselves. And almost all self-theft comes down to waste. And the most common kind of waste is expressed in various kinds of laziness.

It is in this way that the sluggard becomes a companion to him who destroys.

II. Stealing from Others

From there we move on to the more traditional form of theft. Namely stealing from others. This is wrong, in part, because there are no ordinary people.

Our sister church in Sioux Falls is going through the book of Judges right now. I was listening to the sermon on Gideon. The preacher brought out something I had never noticed — the similarities between the call of Moses and Gideon.

Both were in pretty low positions. Moses is out in the middle of nowhere. Gideon is hiding from the bad guys in the land. God appears to both and speaks to them. He promises both that he will be with them. They both ask for signs.

But most importantly (for our purposes today) both of these men are called to be instruments of judgment against a people who were committing systemic theft against another people.

That is of course with the slavery we see in Egypt is. It is the theft of a man’s life energy. In his 2nd Inaugural address, Lincoln describes slavery as “wringing your bread from the sweat of other men’s faces.”

And then in Judges, we might forget the context in which Gideon was called…

For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. — Judges 6:6

And it was in this context that the Lord was aroused to bring the Midianites into utter ruin.

I bring this up for two reasons. Firstly because I’m not sure we understand how much God hates theft.

Proverbs 11:1 — God abhors a dishonest scale Proverbs 23:10-11 — Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.

God isn’t playing. Very few things stir his anger like theft.

In his second inaugural, Lincoln understood that divine judgment had fallen on America —

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Why? Because when we steal from others, we indicate a sense of superiority over them. And not only them but also God.

“For we must consider, that what each individual possesses has not fallen to him by chance, but by the distribution of the sovereign Lord of all, that no one can pervert his means to bad purposes without committing a fraud on a divine dispensation.” — Calvin

Theft in all forms is committing fraud on divine dispensation. And sometimes, like in the case of slavery, society legalizes it — which changes absolutely nothing. Write the law however you want, “wringing your bread from the sweat of other men’s faces” is always wrong.

And of course, it is quite easy for us to be against something in our distant past that absolutely everybody disagrees with. But there’s a modern issue that bears many similarities…

Benjamin Franklin wrote, “When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

How exactly to they vote themselves money? By electing politicians who promise to give them stuff. And where does the stuff come from? It either comes from selecting one part of the population and forcing them to pay more — or it comes from indebting our children.

I won’t go into all of this in detail. But I’m against “taxing the rich” for the same reason I’m against slavery. That’s not my stuff. I don’t have a right to it simply because a majority of my fellow citizens have decided it is so.

The founders foresaw this kind of thing quite clearly. This is a primary theme of Madison’s thinking in Federalist #10.

III. Stealing from God

The most obvious application has to do with generosity. Where Jesus says, “if you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it unto me.” But also, if you haven’t done it to the lest of these, you haven’t done it unto me.

In Luke 12:16–21

16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

The basic idea here is that God owns everything you have. He owns it, you’re just borrowing it. And while it is in your possession, he commands you to be generous.

Any plan to accumulate meaningful wealth that does not include meaningful generosity is a plan destined to fail.

Proverbs 13:22, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, And the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.”

Though he heap up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay, he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. — Job 27:16

Proverbs 28:8, “Whoever multiplies his wealth by interest and profit gathers it for him who is generous to the poor.”

“I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.”

Any plan to accumulate meaningful wealth that does not include meaningful generosity is a plan destined to fail.

And let me be clear, this is not a law of the stop sign kind of thing. This isn’t the kind of law you can break. This is the kind of law you break yourself against.

What does that look like? Well, I would point you to something else Lewis said, “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.” But I don’t want to camp out on this subject too long. The truth is that financial generosity is just a subset of a larger thing. Just like laziness is a subset of wastefulness, generosity is a subset of the broader concept called stewardship.

We owe God our lives. He is our creator, sustainer, and redeemer. Our lives are not strictly our own. They belong to God. Same with our bodies. Same with our brains. Same with our time, talents, and treasure.

In 1 Corinthians 4:7, the apostle Paul provides three simple questions wind up being absolutely devastating to human pride and human stinginess toward God.

For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

The rhetorical questions in verse 7 are meant to devastate prideful stinginess. Especially the various forms of glory stealing that we commit against God.

Here’s the answer. You did not choose to be born and almost certainly, you will have no choice over when you die. Your whole life is a product of divine activity. Even if you devote yourself with puritanical diligence to hard work, thrift, and enterprise, we find that the conviction and energy to live that way come from God.

As the Apostle Paul writes elsewhere, “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” — 1 Corinthians 15:10

The truth is that in a very real way, all the sins we commit are fundamentally acts of theft. And this is not a perspective restricted to Christianity. We find this kind of thing clearly stated in various novels.

In the Kite Runner, “There is only one sin, only one, and that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right of a husband, you rob his children of a father. When you lie you steal someone's right to truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is no more wretched act than stealing.”

And many years before that, Stephen King wrote the following:

“The father of sin was theft; every one of the Ten Commandments boiled down to “Thou shalt not steal.” Murder was the theft of a life, adultery was the theft of a wife, covetousness the secret, slinking theft that took place in the cave of the heart. Blasphemy was the theft of God’s name, swiped from the House of the Lord and sent out to walk the streets like a strutting whore.”

Communion:

So in the end, we find that sin is simply theft. And I think that’s remarkable when you consider the cross.

What is God’s answer to a world that has broken itself by taking what did not belong to it? All sins comes down to stealing from others, from stealing from God, from stealing from ourselves. What is God’s answer to all of this wrongful taking?

God’s cure for our wrongful taking, is a great merciful giving.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

It is no coincidence that Jesus is crucified between two thieves. For at the end, that is the state of humanity. And the only question is how we will respond to the great giving of God’s great son.

Will we be like the thief on his left — unrepentant all the way to the end. Or will we see the great gift of God’s only begotten son and say to him — remember me, represent me, forgive me!

You Were Made For Love

Chris Oswald — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 10:00:00 +0100

You Were Made For Love

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 6th October 2024

Passage: Exodus 20:14

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Title: You Were Made For Love Text: Exodus 20:14

Introduction:

This week I was thinking about Faraday cages. Einstein had three pictures of three scientists in his study, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, and James Clerk Maxwell. Faraday was a great experimental scientist. And I suppose these days he is best known for the Faraday cage. Which is an enclosure meant to protect an object from electromagnetic fields.

And the reason I was thinking about Faraday cages is that as I pressed into our text, I began to realize how much misinformation about the subject is buzzing around in the world.

Our text is Exodus 20:14, “You shall not commit adultery.”

Back in 1943, an academic named Walter Langer was tasked with writing a psychological profile of Adolf Hitler. And it is in those writings we find a phrase that has gained some popularity:

“People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one, and if you repeat it frequently enough, people will sooner or later believe it.”

The world is full about big, bold lies about sex. We are living in a psy-op. Propoganda is buzzing all around us. And that’s why I began thinking about a Faraday Cage. I wondered – how do we protect people from all of the misinformation?

Now, I want to concede on the front end that to the outside world, any effort to “protect yourself” from the world’s lies about this sin is going to appear crazy. In other words, to the world, your faraday cage is going to look like a tinfoil hat.

Which is what the word of God predicts.

1 Peter 4:4 reads:

With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

In a world gone crazy, sanity appears to be insanity. I said a moment ago that the world is filled with sexual propaganda. We’re being played.

So that’s what I think the Lord would like us to do today on this subject. Let’s put a stake in the ground and discern truth from lies. Let’s deprogram and perhaps even develop some protection against the world’s lies on this subject.

Before I do that, I want to show you this kind of sermon is biblical. Let’s take a look at 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

Many of us are familiar with that phrase, “take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.” But we might not realize that Paul is not talking about individual believers. He is talking about his own ministry. One thing Paul does with his ministry is he tears down intellectual strongholds that are raised against the knowledge of God. He invades the castle of bad thinking and captures thoughts and forces them to obey Christ.

You can feed a congregation on these kinds of sermons alone. But from time to time, people need help seeing through the lies that surround them in the popular culture. So that’s what we will do today.

Sexual Heroes & Villains

Almost all of the heroes are villains

This week I was reading a book entitled Hoodwinked: How Intellectual Hucksters Have Hijacked American Culture. The book details various pseudo intellectual cons run on the western world.

“In the worldwide culture war, our progressive friends honor no conventions. Unchecked by God or tradition, largely unedited by their peers in the academy or the media, they fall back promiscuously on the one weapon that their opponents are loath to use: fraud. As weapons go, however, it is no match for the truth. At the end of the day, one prays, it is the latter that goes marching on” – Cahill

This makes sense. As Jesus said to the Pharisees in John 8,

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” – John 8:44

The last section of the book deals with the various cons associated with the so-called sexual revolution.

Going from Sanger, to Margaret Mead (boy what pieces of work). You know, many years ago in the late 1600s, the so-called Salem Witch Trials took place. In which, we called some women witches who were not witches. But the more I learn about Sanger and Mead, I now see that we sometimes make the opposite mistake.

Anyway, he finally lands on Alfred Kinsey – who has had an enormous influence on how the western world thinks about human sexuality. The short version is that Kinsey was a total fraud. And an avid champion of and participant in pedafila, etc…

At least some of the villains are heroes

How did these people get away with all of the lies? They used Christianity as a foil. They suggested that repression was dangerous. Kinsey in particular spent his entire life opposing Christianity labeling it as prudish, puritanical, etc…

There was, in the early 1900s a whole propaganda campaign against the puritans. We see it in statements like HL Mencken’s hilarious: “Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, might be happy.” Truly funny, but not all factual.

So we’re living in a world in which almost all of the heroes are actually villains and some of the worst villains are actually heroes.

That is certainly true of the Puritans and how they viewed human sexuality. CS Lewis once wrote,

Relief and buoyancy are the characteristic notes . . . It follows that nearly every association which now clings to the word puritan has to be eliminated when we are thinking of the early Protestants. Whatever they were, they were not sour, gloomy, or severe; nor did their enemies bring any such charge against them . . . Protestants are not ascetics but sensualists

On many questions, and specially in their view of the marriage bed, the Puritans were the indulgent party;

You need to understand that the world you’re living in has been propagated with lies. Many of those presented to you as heroes are villains and many presented to you as villains are heroes.

The Worldview Divide

When it comes to establishing sexual sanity, I suggest you start with this piece of fundamental first principle thinking.

You need to decide which came first – lust or love.

Do you understand that for the Darwinian, lust is undeniably more natural and more fundamental than love. We are, afterall, just animals.

And so as Kinsey said, the only unnatural sex act is the one you can’t physically do.

This seems undeniably important… The Darwinian propaganda beaming all around you believes lust has existed far longer than love. Indeed, they would be hard pressed to explain love at all.

On the other hand, Christianity asserts that love came first. It does not deny the existence of lust, but it sees it as an unwelcome intruder, a kind of parasite on the human spirit.

Can you see why this is so important? We need to ask fundamentally, was a human being created for love or for lust? And again, the Christian story is that we were created first and foremost for love.

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. – Genesis 2:21-25

Yes you are fallen, yes sin has entered the world. But you need to be fully convinced that most fundamentally, you were made for a monogamous, one-flesh relationship with a member of the opposite sex – that is provided by and blessed by your creator.

Every other sexual arrangement: Hook-up culture, self-pleasure, polygamy, etc… is fundamentally anti-human.

So in 1 Corinthians 6, when the apostle Paul makes statements like,

“the body was not made for sexual immorality”

“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

He’s making those statements with this insight — you were not made for lust – you were made for love.

Illustration: Lust is like a cancer cell

Lust is like a cancer cell. Is it organic? Yes… in one sense. Does it have our DNA? Yes… a cancer cell is “you” – but on the other hand it is not you. Cancer cells are evidence that something has gone wrong with nature. They are technically natural – but it is obvious they are mutations of something more natural. This is how Christianity views lust.

Meanwhile materialistic Darwinism views lust as more natural and actually sees love as the mutation.

I cannot overstate how central this one perspective is in explaining the way of the world vs. the way of Christ.

And this is all evidence in in the created world as well…

Francis Bacon, another preeminent Christian scientist once said,

“God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation.”

We do not need to rely only on scripture to show that in regards to sexuality, human beings were made to behave differently than other created organisms.

Sexually transmitted diseases Sins against his own body Receive in themselves their due reward

Bonding chemicals / oxytocin Brain development Children need both mothers and fathers

If you repeat a lie often enough… And so it is with the truth. Here’s the truth…

You were made for love. You were not made for lust. You were made for love. You were not made for lust.

You were made for covenantal love. What is covenantal love. It is love with full commitment and full passion. There is no necessary division between those. We can trace the idea all the way up to God himself. He is fully committed to us. He also fully loves us. That’s what you were made for.

For many of us, the covenantal love of God, the steadfast love of God – needs to land on this very issue. The world is full of sexually wounded people. Some were wounded by their own hand. Some were wounded by others. For 2000 years, the gospel of Jesus Christ has healed all sorts of gaping wounds – but it has in reality, for a very long time, specialized in healing people broken by sexual sin.

It starts with Jesus sitting with the Woman at the Well. It continues all the way into Paul’s ministry where he writes to the Corinthians…

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

– 1 Corinthians 6:9–11

God has healed countless sexual sinners. And he can heal you. He can pull you out of the psy-op. He can purge of the propaganda. He has paid the price to redeem you fully from any and all stronghold.

Illustration: Man in an orchard

Here is an image of man standing in a orchard of some kind. I want you to imagine that all of the fruit above him (apples) are just outside his reach. And all of the berries and stuff on the ground are all obviously within his reach – but all slightly poison. Not enough to kill him in the short term, but enough to make him sick and eventually kill him.

So he’s faced with a problem, his appetite and his reach.

Friends, all the sexual sin you can think of is like those berries. Their main virtue is that they are low-hanging fruit. You can reach them without any effort, commitment, prayer, faith, etc…

Meanwhile, over your head, and out of your immediate reach is the fruit you were really created to eat. And it is healthy for you. You can eat as much of it as you want. But it is much much harder to get.

The world is full of people who have learned to subsist mostly on the low hanging fruit. Yeah it makes them sick. Yeah, it leads to death. But we have these appetites – and that fruit way above our heads is too hard to get!

So they stoop down one more time to eat the low hanging fruit of self-pleasure, hook-ups, etc…

Christ has come to save people from this very thing. Please hear me brothers and sisters. Christ did not die only to offer you forgiveness. He also died to give you freedom.

2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:1-10

There is a whole other life available to each person in Christ. That’s the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This table stands before us as God’s offer:

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. – Isaiah 1:18

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” – Isaiah 55:2-3

Come and partake of the table that stands for life…

Life & Death: Motive, Means, & Opportunity

Chris Oswald — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Life & Death: Motive, Means, & Opportunity

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 29th September 2024

Passage: Exodus 20:13

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You shall not murder. – Ex 20:13

If you ever have the power and the desire to take someone’s life unjustly, do not do it.

There are various pieces of this we could talk about.

For instance, the word “unjustly.” If you ever have the power and the desire to take someone’s life unjustly… As you see in the text itself – if you’re using the ESV anyway – the verse does not say, “you shall not kill,” rather “you shall not murder.” That’s a wise choice on the part of the translators. You have various texts in the New Testament that do warrant certain kinds of killing. Just War. Capital Punishment. Self Defense.

But I want to talk about the first part – “If you ever have the power and the desire…”

This is an important aspect of the conversation. It isn’t like everyone has the ability to kill someone. Especially not back then. The detective shows talk about motive, means, and opportunity. The means of murder isn’t evenly distributed across all people everywhere. Not everybody has the physical strength, etc…

And that’s interesting insofar as we’re thinking about motives. Because there are plenty of temptations that never even occur to us if we don’t have the opportunity. There are plenty of sins we feel rarely drawn to because they’re not really legitimate possibilities.

The means and the opportunity to murder someone is really an interesting issue.

So please trust me for a moment. You might think this is a strange line of thought. But I believe it warrants some discussion.

Some people have more opportunity to murder than others. Historically, that would’ve come down to size and strength advantage.

But also technological advantage. Technology winds up being a key part of this conversation. Because there you get force multipliers. Take a 265lb UFC fighter and a 100lb woman with a shotgun. Who you picking? Take away the shotgun and the answer is easy.

Technology winds up being a really key idea. This is what’s really going on with abortion. Which is by far the most common kind of murder that takes place in the United States. A group of people, “expecting mothers” have been given an opportunity they did not widely have before. To murder their own unborn children. Abortion technology is a force multiplier. A group of people who did not have the means now do.

And remember the connection between means and temptation. Because what’s happening now is especially concerning on this front.

Abortion has been a possibility for some time. There were certain poisons you could take for instance. But these had a real possibility of doing the mother harm. So many women were not tempted by that route because after all, the only reason they want the abortion is because they’re narcissistic or fearful or both.

Not to mention it has often been illegal.

But over time, it has become legal and even worse – somewhat safe. Now here’s the thing… its only getting easier and safer.

The latest abortion pills are force multipliers – giving people an opportunity to murder who never had it before. A temptation has come along with it.

Because God Said So 

So that’s the introduction to the topic. And now I’ll show you all my cards. This is going to be mostly a sermon about loving God’s word. How can I turn Exodus 20:13 (Thou Shall Not Murder) into a sermon about God’s word?

Because under certain conditions, all that will keep you from doing a terrible thing, is simply the fact that God told you not to.

In a lot of situations, motive doesn’t exist. Means doesn’t exist. Opportunity doesn’t exist. In other situations, one of the three does exist but not the other two. But there are moments when all three are present – and then what? All you’ll have is God’s word.

That’s the situation we find ourselves in regarding abortion.

Not many women would ever be tempted to take a poison that could also kill them.  

Some but not many women would ever be tempted to get a back-alley abortion that could give them sepsis, etc… 

Many women, but not the majority, would ever be tempted to drive to a Planned Parenthood and have a procedure. 

But what about a couple of pills shipped to your home that you can wash down with a nice Rose while sitting on your white couch underneath your live laugh love sign? 

In a lot of situations, there would be no other reason to not take those pills – other than “because God said no.”

So we’re not really talking about murder today per se. We’re not really talking about abortion. We’re really getting at the following:

Under certain conditions, the only thing standing between you and a disastrous decision are words written in an ancient book. There are plenty of moments when literally all the other reasons not to do the thing disappear.

SUICIDE

Let me give you another example. As I started to think about this motive, means, and opportunity dynamic, I began to think about the role technology has played and continues to play in creating force multipliers that allowed people who previously had no opportunity to murder – the opportunity to murder.

And I began to ask myself, are there any kinds of murderings, that pretty much everybody has pretty much all the time. And of course there is one. Taking your own life.

Most people have power over their own lives. If you use crime data as your guide, you will see that there are twice as many suicides last year than murders. Now before I go any further, I promise you two things:

I won’t be talking about this for very long at all I will be very very careful.

Beside abortion, suicide, (or as they called it in the deep past, ““Felo De Se” which is translated “Felonizing Himself”) is the most common form of murder in America (so there’s a good statistical reason to briefly discuss it).

And there’s a few philosophical/logical reasons to think about it. It is the one form of murder that almost everybody has the opportunity to commit.

And it allows us to explore this very real territory of “sometimes the only reason not to do something is because God said not to.” Let me explain…

We all know the various reasons given to those who are considering taking their own lives.

You have so much to live for. People love you and depend on you.

These are front-line, common grace reasons for people not to commit self-murder. And they’re all subjective. And may not be true. And they may not be true to an extent sufficient to ward off the darkness.

There are plenty of people who can get into such a dark place that they have only one reason that isn’t subjective, doesn’t move around on them in their squishy minds, that simply is what it is – Thou Shall Not Murder.

And again, I want you to see that this is true in all kinds of ways in your life.

In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, God calls out to his people:

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

In Deuteronomy 32:46

“Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life…”

All we’re seeing here is a very literal visceral example of this. The word of God is life. It really is, in some very fundamental way, the only thing standing between you and darkness.

I know all of this is morbid. But friends, sin is morbid!

Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death.

Violating the 6th commandment leads to death. So does violating the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th.

Perhaps one of the most unique things about murder is that for that crime, motive, means, and opportunity rarely all line up at the same time. For basically every other sin on the tablets, the opposite is true.

You will frequently have the motive means and opportunity to violate the first commandment — to serve God only — and when you violate it — a kind of spiritual death takes place.

You will frequently have the motive means and opportunity to violate the sabbath commandment — and death will ensue there.

The motive means and opportunity to violate the command to honor your father and mother is always knocking on your door — violate it and get the inversion of the promise — you won’t live long in the land Violate the commandment against lying and you’ll see the death of your word.

Violate the commandment against adultery and see the death of your spouse’s trust.

Violate the commandment against covetousness and you’ll see the death of your joy!

Its all death all the time. And very often — the only thing standing between us and this buffet of decay is the word of God.

How much death is in your life… really?

The answer is simple — how true is the following for you?

“Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from God.”

The more you walk in your own wisdom — the more death. The more you walk according to the word — the more life.

Walking in your own wisdom is sin — and “the wages of sin is death”

BUT — Romans 6:23 continues…

The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rest in a Busy World

Providence Community Church — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Rest in a Busy World

Series: Exodus

Sunday Morning

Date: 8th September 2024

Passage: Exodus 20:8-11

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The Revolutionary Nature of the 10 Commandments

Because the 10 Commandments have become so ingrained in Western civilization, it is difficult for the modern reader to grasp how different this all was. This is a key burden of Joy Davidman’s book about the 10 Commandments, Smoke on the Mountain. I think she puts it perfectly.

Everyone knew that the universe was a wild and chaotic thing, a jungle of warring powers: wind against water, sun against moon, male against female, life against death. There was a god of the spring planting and another god of the harvest, a spirit who put fish into fishermen's nets and a being who specialized in the care of women in childbirth; and at best there was an uneasy truce among all these, at worst a battle. Now along comes a fool, from an insignificant tribe of desert wanderers, and shouts that all these processes are one process from a single source, that the obvious many are the unthinkable One!

Today we’re looking at the 4th commandment which reads:

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

And everything in this would’ve been controversial. Here are four revolutionary ideas in this one commandment:

The Modern Week

I mean these people didn’t even know what a week was. There is no natural reason why they would. A day is a natural division of time. Months are essentially lunar in character. But a week? What is a week? It is more or less artificial. That’s why throughout history, you’ll find a wide variety of practices.

Rome practiced an 8 day cycle. The French Revolutionary calendar ran on a 10 day cycle. The Han Dynasty ran on a 5 day cycle. And most relevantly, ancient Egypt practiced a 9 day cycle with the 10th being a day of rest.

So right away there’s an upgrade. They are moving from a rest day every 10th day to a rest day every 7th. Which is a lot more rest days over a lifetime.

Equal Rights

Not that they would’ve had them. They were slaves. That’s another revolutionary thing about this passage.

10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

The notion of equal rights is completely monotheistic. It is rooted in the notion that all people were created by one God.

Faith to Rest

Here’s another revolutionary idea. The idea that you and I could survive working only 5 days a week is historically novel. The world has changed very dramatically in the last 1000 years. The more we move out of the pagan swamps, the more efficient we become, etc… So now for most of us, we can work 5 days and have the weekend. And we also get holidays, vacations, so forth.

But back in the time when the 10 Commandments were issued, people had to work all day every day just to survive. We have a problem of too many calories (of calorically dense food). They had just the opposite problem. The hours of labor to calories consumed ratio was very different back then.

So the very notion that the entire economy would shut down every 7 days, would’ve appeared extremely risky.

And I think there’s a lesson here. Most of the time, God calls us to be practical. To do the obvious thing. Which is work. But there will always be some instances where God calls you to do the impractical thing (or the seemingly impractical thing). That’s what we see here when it says, “6 days you shall do your labor but on the 7th day you shall rest.”

That’s a good principle to keep in mind. It shows up all the time. That’s what is going on with the tithe. 90% of your money ought to be put to obvious practical uses, 10% should be declarative – I am dependent on God…

Aseity

And then you have this idea of serving God by doing nothing. Which is an extremely profound and provocative concept. What kind of God asks you to worship him once a week by doing nothing? A God with Aseity. Which is Latin for “from self.”

We were all created. We came from somewhere. God did not. He has always been. He is not dependent on anything or anyone.

This is a key part of the Psalm of Moses (Psalm 90): “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

It’s what Jesus means when He says in John chapter 5, ”The Father has life in himself.”

It’s what Paul says to the men of Athens in Acts chapter 17: “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

Isaiah 66:1-2 – “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

This is in stark contrast with the pagan deities of the day. Their idols were thought to rely on the sacrifices and rituals that their followers gave them.

And again, the 10 commandments are truly revolutionary. Especially the first four.

Our very means of marking time flows from this. The notion of equal rights is rooted in this commandment. And most revolutionary of all, we are presented with an entirely different kind of God. A God from self – eternal and self-sustaining. And this idea is completely different than anything else going on at the time.

Back to Davidman,

Belief in one God slew a host of horrors: malignant storm demons, evil djinn of sickness, blighters of the harvest, unholy tyrants over life and death; belief in God destroyed the fetishes, the totems, the beast-headed bullies of old time. It laid the axe to sacred trees watered by the blood of virgins, it smashed the child-eating furnaces of Moloch, and toppled the gem-encrusted statues of the peevish divinities half-heartedly served by Greece and Rome.

The old gods fought among themselves, loved and hated without reason, demanded unspeakable bribes and meaningless flatteries. While they were worshiped, a moral law was impossible, for what pleased one deity would offend another.

Then came the knowledge of God. An almost unimaginable person-a single being, creator of heaven and earth, not to be bribed with golden images or children burned alive; loving only righteousness. A being who demanded your whole heart.

Some Sabbath Keeping Principles:

Now that we know what the Sabbath is meant to teach us (to trust God, to be reminded of his self-sufficiency and aseity), I think we can see the wisdom in observing it. I have been a Christian for most of my life, and I still help learning to trust God (to be still and know that he is Lord) and also need frequent reminders that the God who is, is not dependent on me – but in some way is most glorified when I simply rest in his self-sufficiency.

In other words, it is as Jesus said – the Sabbath is made for man. Why? To rest and recover? Mostly to rest in God and recover true things about God.

I guess what I’m saying is that the Sabbath is didactic. It teaches.

So let’s talk about some practical measures for observing the Sabbath. These are things to build toward:

The Sabbath is a full 24 hours. At some point on Saturday evening, you ought to try to be home and begin to get into Sabbath mode. Don’t routinely stumble in here after a long Saturday.

The Sabbath is for everyone. Even unbelievers. Is my rest built on the backs of others?

The Sabbath is a kind of stewardship. Where you choose to be impractical, etc….

The Sabbath is meant to teach you about God’s self-sufficiency. God to church! Encounter God.

Again, my main concern is that you understand what is supposed to be happening.

II. The 10 Commandments Reveal the Contour of Salvation:

Now there’s another angle I’ve been wanting to hit for the past few weeks. It is another way of looking at the 10 commandments. Namely, that the 10 commandments reveal the nature of our salvation.

The bible explicitly describes conversion (salvation) as God writing the law on our hearts. Listen to Jeremiah 31:31

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

In some way, every believer has stood on the mountain of the Lord with smoke and fire and thunder and lightning and in conversion had God write his law on your heart like he wrote on the tablets.

What does that even look like? Like, what exactly happened? Well that’s what I’m getting at when I suggest that the law shows us the contours of conversion. Meaning, what changes when a person is born again?

Take the first commandment – you shall have no other gods before me. God has imprinted himself on the hearts of those he has saved. Do we need to be reminded to do it? Of course. But there is indeed an impulse amongst the converted to love God and get rid of all the idols.

Speaking of idols, consider the second commandment – which forbids making images of God. How can I worship and love something I cannot see? But after conversion? Well listen to what Peter says in his first epistle: "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory." – 1 Peter 1:8

We love his name of God. We feel a real sense of conviction over misusing it. We feel a real sorrow for hypocrisy and so forth.

And what about the fourth? What about the Sabbath? How has this law been written on our hearts?

Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. – says the Lord Jesus.

Illustration: Riding bike without hands // Duck - peaceful above the water…

This is the state of the world today. Recreation abounds. Self-care is everywhere. But behind all the smiling selfies and spa days – souls are not at rest.

To be sure, the cure for most kinds of poverty is work. But there is an exception to every rule. Yes, work will fix most forms of poverty – but not spiritual poverty. Spiritual poverty will only be fixed by resting in what Christ has done.

In fact, I can confidently tell you that the more you try to work your own salvation, the poorer you’ll become. You’ll only mess it up. There are certain jobs too difficult for us. And gaining acceptance with God is like that. We must put down the tools and step back and let Christ do this.

As Jonathan Edwards wrote: “The only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary.”

So like it says in Hebrews –

9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

And earlier he says, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…”

Christianity isn’t a call to abandon works all together. Christianity is actually a very works oriented religion. But it begins with the works of Christ. As I said before. We are all saved by works — but it is the works of Jesus that must save for only he is capable of doing what must be done for our sin and guilt.

So again, today if you hear his voice do not harden your heart. Enter spiritual rest. Come unto Jesus and he will give you rest.

Verbal Vandalism & The Third Commandment

Chris Oswald — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Verbal Vandalism & The Third Commandment

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Podcast

Date: 1st September 2024

Passage: Exodus 20:7

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Introduction:

“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” – Matthew 12:36-37

How does that make you feel?

I mean a few of you are on the quieter side. So maybe your response to that verse is pretty neutral. But some of you are not on the quieter side. Some of you (including me), sometimes find themselves talking just to talk.

Turns out there are three categories of speech. We know about good speech: Praise, instruction, encouragement and admonishment… We know about bad speech: Mean things meant to inflict harm, lies, etc… But we might not know about vain speech. And honestly, it would be good for us to think about it. Careless talk causes more problems than we realize.

I’m sure some of you have had date nights blown up with careless speech…

Good speech, Bad speech, Vain or Careless Speech – and the headwaters of that category is the third commandment. If you can understand and apply the third commandment, you’ll be well on your way to…

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

Learning how to control your speech in general begins here… As well it should. God deserves to be honored most of all.

When you use God’s name in vain… you’re really telling lies about God.

Verbal Vandalism

Why? Because we have a word-based religion rather than an image based. As Dov mentioned last week, we’re a word based religion. We aren’t an image based religion, we’re a word based religion. And this means that our vandalizing is verbal.

How is God represented to us? Listen to this quote from an old baptist pastor with the last name Pepper - and yes he had his doctorate - so…

“His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” In like manner we, conceiving God as having certain properties, characters, methods, and so forth, call him Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, King, Judge, the Eternal, the Almighty, the All-seeing, the Heavenly Father, Immanuel, Holy Spirit, and the like. On the other hand, when we give the Supreme Being no specific title, the general phrase “Name of God” stands as a compendium of our conceptions of God, a human epitome of Deity.

When we use God’s name, we’re not just using a name.

God’s name not only signifies all his various titles—that were little to say: it also signifies his nature, his attributes, his character, his authority, his purposes, his methods, his providences, his words, his institutions, his truths, his kingdom; in short, all that God is, all that God says, all that God does, all that God bids. Thus comprehensive is the phrase “Name of God.”

Boardman, George Dana. The Ten Commandments: A Course of Lectures.

God’s name is more than just a name. God’s name is the representation of all that he says, does, and commands.

So taking God’s name in vain is verbal vandalism.

And your messing with the fundamental ingredients of Christianity.

So what does this look like? How does one take the name of the Lord in vain?

Your understanding of this text is going to depend on your understanding of the word vain. It has traditionally been quite broad. Here’s the Westminster Catechism:

The sins forbidden in the third commandment are, the not using of God’s name as is required; and the abuse of it in an ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane, superstitious, or wicked mentioning or otherwise using his titles, attributes, ordinances, or works, by blasphemy, perjury; all sinful cursings, oaths, vows, and lots; violating of our oaths and vows, if lawful; and fulfilling them, if of things unlawful; murmuring and quarreling at, curious prying into, and misapplying of God’s decrees and providences; misinterpreting, misapplying, or any way perverting the Word, or any part of it, to profane jests, curious or unprofitable questions, vain janglings, or the maintaining of false doctrines; abusing it, the creatures, or any thing contained under the name of God, to charms, or sinful lusts and practices; the maligning, scorning, reviling, or any wise opposing of God’s truth, grace, and ways; making profession of religion in hypocrisy, or for sinister ends; being ashamed of it, or a shame to it, by unconformable, unwise, unfruitful and offensive walking, or backsliding from it. (WLC 113)

Let’s take one particular motivation: When the name of God or the word of God is invoked to establish improper authority, credibility, power, etc…

Just to give you a sense of what that’d look like, I’ll take three areas that won’t be so convicting.

Perjury You swear to tell the whole truth so help you God. The invocation of God’s name is meant to communicate, “I fear God – he will not hold me guiltless if I swear by his name and then lie.” This is intended to get others to trust that you’re telling the truth. And in many respects, you can’t have a high trust society if you don’t have a reverent society. If people don’t fear God…

Chesterton - “If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments.”

Remove the fear of God and you’ll wind up with a low trust society. Low trust societies need a billion more rules.

Diversity is our strength. Not in this respect. You can’t have a nation with multiple versions of God. That’s going to lead to the state taking the role of God.

If you want to understand the end game of religious pluralism, look to the Roman Empire. When the empire is comprised of many religions, caesar emerges as the unifying religion.

Imagine a world where people just told the truth in court and in congress.

Politics Invoking God’s name to support their agendas

Preaching Binding people’s conscience to things God would not have them be bound by Knowingly or unknowingly preaching false doctrine Misrepresenting God by emphasis (gentle and lowly, etc…)

One of the easiest ways to take the name of God in vain is to have the wrong ideas of God in mind. Suppose 100 people are taking the pledge of allegiance – one nation under God… – how many of them have the right conception of God when they say that?

Now let’s move on to some areas that do affect us:

Performative Pietism Pietism has to do with holiness, but here I’m talking about a kind of performative pietism.

Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's Chosen People.

Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian church.

Baptists do not recognize each other in the liquor store.

Some Christians turn up their “Jesus speech” to an 11 when in the company of certain Christians.

And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” – Mk 12:38-40

Another example would entail invoking the name of God at strategic moments to appear more spiritual than you really are.

Saying you’ve prayed for someone but haven’t – that’s

Prophecy & Promptings High: The utilization of God’s name (Thus sayith the Lord) Low: I prayed about it. The Lord is leading me. Etc…

“Many [Christians] now rely far more on inward promptings than on their Bible knowledge to decide what they are going to do in a situation.” – DA Carson

I . . . know by experience that impressions being made with great power, and upon the minds of true saints, yea, eminent saints; and presently after, yea, in the midst of, extraordinary exercises of grace and sweet communion with God, and attended with texts of Scripture strongly impressed on the mind, are no sure signs of their being revelations from heaven: for I have known such impressions [to] fail, and prove vain.

Profanity (high / low) High – using the name of God as a swear word If you are a gosh person – you’d better go out of your way to hit that SH Low – being a Christian and doing sinful stuff. Jesus loves you bumper sticker – driving like crap

Publicity If people know you as a Christian and you misrepresent him.

Parenting I’m not putting this here because I have ever seen any Parents in Providence do this. I’m actually putting this here because I wonder if there are any adults here who had an authority figure twist God’s name, God’s word, etc… to get something they wanted – which wasn’t at all what God wanted.

Conclusion:

This isn’t one of those things where we would join the Jews and say, “Keep God’s name outa your mouth.”

Like many things, the best way to avoid the negative behavior is engage in the opposite positive one.

Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved Pray to the Father Openly praise God

Two Mountains: One Mandate

Chris Oswald — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Two Mountains: One Mandate

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 18th August 2024

Passage: Exodus 19:17-20:3

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Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.” And Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’ ” And the LORD said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest he break out against them.” So Moses went down to the people and told them. And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.

Notice the…

The mountain was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire.

And listen to v.12-13

12 And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. 13 No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.”

From 20:1-17 we have the giving of the 10 commandments.

Then in vs. 18, we read…

So what does all of this mean? Well, as was the case last week, we have a New Testament passage that tells us what to make of it. Look at Hebrews 12:18-24

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Section 1: The Two Mountains

Two different mountains

Two different mountains. Sinai and Zion. One outside of the promise land. One inside the promise land. One represents the Old Covenant and the other the New Covenant. One law. The other gospel. And the quality of these two covenants is reflected in the names for the mountains.

The Old Covenant Mountain: Sinai – thorny or even hateful, harsh Horeb - to lay waste, be dried up

The New Covenant Mountain: Zion - monument, maker, permanence Salem - peace

Moving from one mountain to another

God has designed the story of Exodus to reveal some deeper theological truths. The Jews were headed into the promise land – which was a place of unmerited favor. It was given to them. Cities they did not build. Vineyards they did not plant. Wells they did not dig. The promise land represents gospel peace. But to get to mount Zion, they had to first stop at mount Sinai.

We move from the law into the gospel. We are given awareness of sin in the law and the solution to sin in the gospel. Nobody ever arrives at the peace of Salem without feeling the thorns of Sinai.

Two different mediators

What accounts for the difference in the mountains? God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. One of the early church age heretics, a man named Marcion, could not reconcile the God of the OT and the God of the NT. He believed that the God of the OT was a lesser god, a gnostic demiurge and that the God of the NT came to set the record straight. But what Marcion failed to understand is that God appears differently from the OT to the NT because Christ is a better mediator than Moses.

The virtue of the mediation affects the vibe of the mountain.

When Moses, a mere man, mediates between God and man, we feel terror, fear, woe, etc… When Jesus, the god-man, mediates for us, we feel joy and peace.

Moses has to say, “don’t get too close…” Jesus is able to say, “draw near…boldly approach the throne of grace.”

What accounts for the difference? The writer of Hebrews says that the Old Covenant has something to do with the blood of Abel and the New Covenant has something to do with the blood of Christ.

See that in vs. 22-24

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

What does that mean? Two men who had unique favor from God – killed by their jealous brothers. Abel killed by Cain. Jesus killed by his fellow Jews. But Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance. Abel’s blood is all accusation. But Jesus’ blood cried out for forgiveness. Abel’s blood is accusation. Jesus’ blood is reconciliation.

So the reason for the different mountains is not different gods. Rather different mediators. One representing the need for justice. The other representing the accomplishment of justice.

Something like that.

The same mandate

Now what’s interesting is that in spite of the fact that you’ve got two different mountains, and two different mediators, the mandate from both mountains is the same.

Yes, the second mountain is mediated by a superior mediator. Yes, it is a place of joy, peace, and welcoming. But there is no relaxation of God’s righteous requirement.

In Hebrews 12:18-24, we have the better mountain and the better mediator. But in vs. 25-29 we see that the mandate, the righteous requirement of God remains.

25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

Now look back at Exodus 19:21-20:3

21 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to look and many of them perish. 22 Also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.” 23 And Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’ ” 24 And the LORD said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest he break out against them.” 25 So Moses went down to the people and told them. 20 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

See the same mandate?

Hebrews 12:28-29 – “thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire.”

Exodus 20:3 – “You shall have no other gods before me.”

Puritan Thomas Shepard "the gospel requires believers to be holy and perfect... The law and the gospel each require as much perfection as the other in the matter of holiness." (p.51)

The swiss reformer Johanne Wolleb, “It is not that the law is strict and the gospel is lax. Rather, both law and gospel require “perfect obedience.”

So whichever mountain you’re standing before, the mandate is the same. All human beings everywhere are commanded by God to worship and serve him alone.

And the cross does not change this requirement at all.

So why then, are the mountains so different? Or why is the New Covenant better?

Section 2: The Two Law Givings

There’s another theological connection to Sinai that I want you to see. You know a little while back, we saw the very first Passover. A feast that was celebrated every year by the Jews for thousands of years that followed.

But in Exodus 19, another feast is initiated. This one called Shavuot (shuhvooowt). The Feast of Weeks. That takes place 7 weeks after passover. And Shavuot commemorates the receiving of the law.

Btw, this is also right around the time the final grain harvests are coming in. Which was also celebrated. So when Jesus quotes “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from God’s mouth” – there was a very deep cultural connection between bread and the law.

Anyway, this receiving of the law that we see in Exodus 19 was, thereafter celebrated as Shavuot – seven weeks of seven days (7x7). So the passover winds up being correlated with the cross and resurrection. Do you know how this appears in the New Testament? We don’t have the word Shavuot, we have the word Pentecost. Which means 50. It is the same thing. The more hellenistic Jews call Shavuot Pentecost.

So turn with me to Acts 2:1-4

2 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Do you see the similarities between this passage and Exodus 19? God descending via fire.

Only in Pentecost, the men are the mountains. At Sinai, the law was given externally, on tablets of stone. At Pentecost, the law was given internally, on the tablets of their hearts.

Now in explaining this phenomenon, Peter cites from a series of Old Testament scriptures including Ezekiel 36:28

22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

So the mandate remains the same. It is your absolute duty to love God and worship and serve him only. But the means of obeying that mandate has been given to you and I in a way that it was not given to the people who stood at Sinai.

We have been given the Spirit of God – the law of God written on our hearts – and he causes us to walk in God’s statutes and be careful to obey his rules.

Application:

Now we all know this isn’t a fully automatic thing. The will is still involved. So my question is simply this. How does the Spirit work on our will to lead us away from idolatry and into “acceptable worship with reverence and awe.”

Let me just give you one key idea. It isn’t the only one but it is key. And it ties in with what we talked about last week (grumbling).

Look at Exodus 19:1-3 – “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”

And now look at Hebrews 12:28 – “28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.”

In both texts, prior to the command, we are given a justification for the command. Namely, God has done great things for us.

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of slavery – therefore you shall have no other gods

Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and therefore let us offer to God acceptable worship.

How does the Holy Spirit work in our hearts to drive out the idols and energize real love for God alone?

He uses gratitude. I don’t think that’s a very remarkable idea. I think it is very obvious. I think we all understand that…

Gratitude fuels loyalty. Grumbling fuels disloyalty. But gratitude fuels loyalty.

And we’ve seen, on several occasions, we’ve seen that the Hebrews had a very hard time conjuring up gratitude – which of course – is connected in fundamental ways to remembering God’s past faithfulness.

So the Old Covenant is inferior in this respect. It depends on gratitude and godly memory – but fails to offer the spiritual power we need to overcome forgetfulness, pride, presumptuousness, forgetfulness.

And the New Covenant is superior in this respect. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, godly memory and therefore gratitude are furnished.

Acts 2:5–11

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

Illustration: Polycarp “Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior?

The Lord is a Man of War, Part 2

Chris Oswald — Sun, 04 Aug 2024 10:00:00 +0100

The Lord is a Man of War, Part 2

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 4th August 2024

Passage: Exodus 15:1-27

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Call to Worship: Palm 52

Text: Exodus 15

“Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’ You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them

Introduction: No Problem Passages

I have resolved to have no “problem passages” in the Bible. This is because The Bible isn’t the one with the problems… I am.

By “no problem passages” we mean I am not embarrassed by any part of the bible. Let it be true and every man a liar.

We’ve been examining a period of redemptive history where God is very hard on his enemies. He is said to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart – all so that he might destroy him and his armies in the Red Sea.

And this is an opportunity to learn to take the bible straight with no mixers. Whether we realize it or not, we sometimes expect the preacher to be a college bartender – cover up the taste of the hard stuff with a bunch of sugary mixers. Sure God seems awful hard on Pharaoh, but let me cover up that hard stuff with a bunch of qualifiers and sentimentality so that the truth doesn’t burn your throat.

But if we’re going to really advance in Christian maturity, we have to learn to take God as he is. We have to resist the temptation to remake or remix God in manner that is more pleasing to our tastes.

Today we’ll be in Exodus 15. The song of Moses and Miriam. What did they do when they saw the wrath of God poured out on their enemies? They rejoiced. They worshiped.

So that’s the basic goal today. Take God as he is. And not only be ok with what we see – but praise God for who he is.

Illustration: Catfishing

I watched this documentary years ago called Catfish. Have ya’ll seen that? It is, in my opinion, mesmerizing. A young man strikes up a conversation with a young single woman on the east coast. They chat for months. Grow close. And then Nevim, the guy, decides to make the trip out east to surprise her in person.

Turns out the woman wasn’t who she said she was. She was an older woman, married (if I remember correctly) and had fabricated this online persona.

I have this theory that a lot of so-called deconstruction is really just the final act of a catfishing story. People were presented with a false view of God. Usually a super sanitized soft version of God. And then either their lives get hard, or they start reading the bible and find that they have been tricked. God wasn’t as one dimensionally nice as they were led to believe. . This is a normative bible song

It is said that Exodus 15 is the first song in the OT. But it is not at all unusual. It is very much like so many other songs.

Psalms review: I ran a word search of the Psalms for two words: Enemy and Foe. Those two words appear 86 times. And some Psalms are very militaristic but do not include those specific words. The majority of the Psalms have this kind of language in them.

The truth is that the modern church has a problem. 99% of our songs follow the themes of about 10% of the bible’s songs. Sure there are some bible songs that feature only redemption and do not include any kind of militaristic or judgment language. But those are the exception and not the rule. The normative bible song includes the themes of judgment and destruction of God’s enemies.

Our guys are really trying to change this. But it isn’t easy. Super thankful for our guys and all the efforts their putting into our singing in general.

II. Moses’ and Mariam’s reactions are normative Christian reactions.

We have Moses’ reaction in vs. 1-18 that include:

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name. “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. (1-7)

And Miriam’s in vs. 21-22:

Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

They are reacting rightly. If we are don’t respond to this data with worship, then it is we who are abnormal.

2a. Bible women love this about God

I sometimes hear that the church’s neglect of the militaristic side of Christianity is owing to the church being feminized. As if all of this worshiping God’s warrior personality is something that really grabs the male heart but not so much the female heart. That sounds plausible until you start looking at the bible. When you look at the bible, you have to say that women weren’t always so offended by this kind of language.

Hannah’s Song:

And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. (1 Samuel 2:1)

The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. (2:6-7)

The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” (2:10)

Lady Wisdom: In the book of Proverbs, wisdom is personified in various places as a woman. In chapter 1, Lady Wisdom says the following:

If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. (Proverbs 1:23-27)

Mary:

“for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;” – Luke 1:49-52

So if modern women find this kind of stuff objectionable, I don’t think it is their femininity that is the problem but rather their modernity.

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.” Who said it? It was a popular girl song in David’s day. Compare that with women sing about today.

Women in Church History:

This is not only true of women in the bible but also in church history. I was reminded of Julia Ward Howe’s song – the Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword His truth is marching on Glory, Glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on

That didn’t strike anyone as odd or unfeminine. Women have often written these kinds of things. Take the hyman written by Ellen Gates:

This is war in earnest Not a childish play Swords and martial music On a festal day Oh thou christian soldier To the cause be true In the day of battle There is work to do.

We need to raise our young girls to love justice and praise God for it – otherwise they will seek men who are meek in the wrong ways.

And more generally, the church needs mothers who expect their men to fight and to win.

So we’ve said that Exodus 15 is a normal Christian song. And we’ve said that Moses and Miriam’s reactions are normal Christian reactions. Now let me add a third idea.

III. God’s work revealed in Exodus 15 is normative. This is how he normally acts. This isn’t merely an Old Testament thing.

Genesis 3:15 - the very first gospel promise is a violent one

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

The most quoted and alluded OT verse in the NT is Psalm 110:1

The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Mt 22.44; 26.64; Mk 13.36; 14.62; 16.19; Lk 20.42-43; 22.69; Acts 2.34-35; 5.31; 7.55-56; Rom 8.34; 1 Cor 15.25; Eph 1.20; Col 3.1; Heb 1.3, 13; 8.1; 10.12-13; 12.2; 1 Pt 3.22

The great work of God throughout all of redemptive history involves both the saving of the chosen and the destruction of the wicked.

Last week I read from Colossians 2:13-15:

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Hebrews 2:14-15 — Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

3a. He causes his enemies to perish by their own pride

Psalm 7:12-16 — If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

Psalm 9:15 — The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.

Psalm 57:6 — They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves.

As Merlin says in That Hideous Strength:

“Their own strength has betrayed them. They have pulled down Deep Heaven on their heads. Therefore, they will die.”

3b. He uses his people as bait

This is what he does with Job. Have you seen my servant Job? In the end Satan is humiliated.

He does this with Lot. Allowing him to be captured by the four kings of Dan in order to destroy them.

This is what he does with Joseph. He gives the young man dreams which enticed his brothers to sell him into slavery so that he winds up in Egypt and eventually becomes the agent of their salvation.

And most importantly, he does the same thing with his only begotten son.

Augustine wrote, “The Redeemer came and the deceiver was overcome. What did our Redeemer do to our Captor? In payment for us He set the trap, His Cross, with His blood for bait.”

The Father put a target on Jesus’ back and sent into Jerusalem where all those under the power of Satan — Pilate, Herod, the priests, Judas — took the bait and crucified the Lord of Glory.

God is able to walk and chew gum at the same time. He is able to accomplish salvation for his people while also accomplishing judgment for the wicked.

See 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

What is not normative

We’ve said that Exodus 15 is a normal kind of bible song. And that Moses’ and Miriam’s reaction is a normal reaction And that the work of God shown in Exodus 15 is his normal work. To execute judgment on the wicked and redemption for those whom he has chosen. Very often through the same action.

Now let’s conclude with what is not normal. Or what you might say is the New Covenant surprise.

Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, God has made it possible to simultaneously save and destroy his enemies

Listen to 2 Corinthians 5

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come

That’s what salvation is. It is the voluntary identification of with the death of Christ. A choice to be united with him in his death so that we can also be united with him in his resurrection.

So that you can join Paul in saying,

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20

In the cross, we see God’s preferred way of destroying his enemy. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32) but all of heaven rejoices when a sinner repents (Luke 15:7).

So we can say to the world – God’s judgment has come. This only ends one way. All the wicked will perish.

Jesus now sits at the right hand of the father, working through the church to make all of his enemies his footstool.

Choose your means of destruction. Either repent and be identified with the death and resurrection of Christ – or go on living as God’s enemy and face the natural consequences for your sin.

And oh it would be so much better for you – to face God’s wrath at Calvary, than to face it in eternity.

We cannot be faithful gospel witnesses if are ashamed of God’s wrath. Rather than being embarrassed by it, we must exalt in it.

Everybody must stand before the judgment seat of God. God will spend eternity doing two basic things. He will pour his love out in one place and his wrath in another.

But at the cross, we see him doing both.

The Lord is a Man of War

Chris Oswald — Sun, 28 Jul 2024 10:00:00 +0100

The Lord is a Man of War

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 28th July 2024

Passage: Exodus 13:1-15:27

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Title: The Lord is a Man of War Text: Exodus 13-15

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space is reported to have said, “Oh my, its blue!”

O course, the blueness of the earth would’ve been known, in a theoretical way, for many many years prior to this. Everyone knew the earth was covered in water, and that water refracts sunlight in a certain as to make it look blue.

But what was known in theory had yet to be seen in reality and totality. In 1961, that changed.

Let me ask you a question. How did you get your theology? Some of it may have been delivered by your parents, Sunday School teachers, and the various pastors you have had. Some of it has come directly from the word of God. Some of it has come from good books, podcasts, etc…

But what if I told you that the greatest theological breakthroughs, the highest visions of God have to come through risk, suffering, and adventure? And that the view of God you gain from these experiences make the trip worth it.

We are on our way to becoming a nation of “skimmers,” living off the risks of previous generations and constantly taking from the top without adding significantly to its essence. Everything we enjoy as part of our advanced civilization, including the discovery, exploration, and development of our country, came about because previous generations made adventure more important than safety. – Edwin Friedman, Failure of Nerve

The church of Jesus Christ is regularly at the risk of various theological downgrades. Keeping good theology is hard. Various false teachers, cults, and liberalizing forces constantly threaten the church’s fidelity to sound doctrine. But today we’re talking about a different source of threat. Namely, that our preference for safety and comfort will keep us from seeing certain aspects of God that can only be known through Godly risk and adventure.

Not sure how many of you know that the entire framework for the Lord of the Rings universe came to Tolkein as he fought in the trenches of WWI. There have been books written about this — including John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War.

“The war imposed urgency and gravity, took [Tolkien] through terror, sorrow, and unexpected joy, and reinvented the real world in a strange, extreme form. Without the war, it is arguable whether his fictions would have focused on a conflict between good and evil; or if they had, whether good and evil would have taken a similar shape.”

Even CS Lewis, who as also a WWI veteran, spoke about the connection. Speaking about how realistic he found the LOTR battle scenes to be, Lewis said

This war has the very quality of the war my generation knew. It is all here: the endless, unintelligible movement, the sinister quiet of the front when 'everything is now ready',[b] the flying (fleeing) civilians, the lively, vivid friendships, the background of something like despair and the merry foreground, and such heavensent windfalls as a cache of tobacco 'salvaged' from a ruin.

I know many of you have read quite a bit of Tolkien. If you’ve ever wondered, how did he dream up this world, these characters, those battles — the answer is significantly related to his time spent in the trenches.

Over the next two weeks, we’re going to work through Exodus 13-15 and the title for these two messages will be, “The Lord is a Man of War.” We get that from chapter 15, commonly referred to as the song of Moses. It is the first song in the Old Testament. And it is full of deep theological insights about the nature of God.

Listen to the first few verses:

How did Moses gain these insights?

He was a man who was mostly cut off from a sound theological upbringing. His parents were unable to raise him beyond the age of his weening. He had his Jewish mother only as a kind of nursemaid. As soon as he was ready to eat solid food, he was shipped off to Pharaoh’s house. There he was no doubt catechized in the Egyptian religion. How would the mighty Moses, the prophet, priest, and king of the Hebrew nation, receive his theological education? Like Tolkien, Moses received a key part of his education in the trenches.

There are many truths in the Song of Moses that can only be learned by going on an adventure with God. A life centered around safety cannot fill our hearts with the glories we see here. This is not a song written by a man dedicated to safety.

We will hold 15 for next week. Today we want to spend our time in chapters 13&14 and see the struggle that spawned these insights.

Look at Exodus 13:17-18

17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” 18 But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.

Let us see that even as God is going to lead them into some risk and danger, he is also shielding them from other trials. When some difficulty enters our lives, we are often so focused on what the Lord has let into our lives, that we forget to ask what God has kept out of our lives.

We have to remember that God dispenses our difficulties in perfect wisdom and care.

Charles Spurgeon, who knew suffering quite well once wrote,

It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by His hand, that my trials were never measured out by Him nor sent to me by His arrangement of their weight and quantity.

As Psalm 103 puts it, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” We are going to see that the Lord is a man of war. Yes and amen. But he is also a tender father. He is both at the same time.

I wanted you to see the struggles the Lord was withholding. Now let’s see the struggle he is allowing:

Now turn to chapter 14:1-4 where we see him set the people as a kind of bait for Pharaoh.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.

And in vs. 5-9 we find that Pharaoh takes the bait. His addiction to the free labor of the Hebrews causes him to repent of his repentance. He rouses his army and chases the people all the way to their encampment.

Look at vs. 10

10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. — Exodus 14:10–12

Now here we find two things:

We see how perfectly God sees things. He knew Pharaoh would take the bait. He also knew that his people were, in their present state, unable to endure much difficulty.

We see how poorly man sees things. The Hebrews are leaky buckets. They had just gone through 40 days of witnessing the shock and awe of God at work in Egypt. And we how Pharaoh, in the exact same way, failed to let God’s past performance be indicative of future results.

Putting all this together, we see a huge gap between human beings and God. Pharaoh and the people of Israel are more like one another than they are like God. God is just different.

That’s the message of Isaiah 55:8-9

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Now look at the comfort Moses is able to provide in vs. 14:13-14

And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

The Great Eucatastrophe

Going back to Tolkien again, one of the things he is most known for is the idea of eucatastrophe.

In essence, a eucatastrophe is a massive turn in fortune from a seemingly unconquerable situation to an unforeseen victory, usually brought by grace rather than heroic effort. Such a turn is catastrophic in the sense of its breadth and surprise and positive in that a great evil or misfortune is averted.

Tolkien himself described it as — a sudden and miraculous grace

And that’s what we see here. He puts his people in an impossible position. Which makes them an irresistible target of his enemies. And then delivers them in a way nobody saw coming.

And so God tells Moses to, “Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” — Exodus 14:16-18

The people pass safely through the divided sea and Pharaoh and his armies follow.

And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.” - Exodus 14:24-25

26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. 29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses. — Exodus 14:26-31

Application:

Why does God allow us to get on the edge of destruction? Why does our loving father allow the darkness to threaten us and unnerve us?

We See God

Well, we’ve already provided one answer. Namely that God has certain things he wants to teach us about himself. He wants us to be like Israel in vs 31

31 Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

This is information we have to learn in the trenches. We like Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin might have certain theoretical knowledge about God prior to the adventure itself, but only when we actually take the trip to the edge of darkness do we really see him as he is.

That what ol Job said at the end of his adventure:

“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” – Job 42:5

Proverbs tells us that we are to buy the truth and sell it not. Get also wisdom and understanding. – Proverbs 23:23

Some truths are more important and therefore more expensive than others. There is some knowledge about God that can only be seen from the trenches.

Proverbs also says “One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.”

The next time God leads you to the edge of the Red Sea, and allows some frightening hardship to befall you, consider this. If you are hungry enough for the knowledge of God, even this bitter thing will wind up being sweet.

So that’s one reason God brings us to the edge. He has things to teach us there that we cannot learn anywhere else.

Others Gain Strength from Our Story

There’s another thing God is doing with the Israelites’ hardship. Namely he is going to use your story of struggle to teach and comfort others. Think about what we’re doing right here right now,. We are reading about someone else’s struggle. And we are getting comfort from it. And not only us, the people of God have, for millennia returned to this story for instruction and inspiration.

Try to remember that the next time God puts you in the trenches. He is going to use your struggle to support some other saint down the road. As a result of Tolkien’s time in the trenches, the world was blessed with some of the most stirring storytelling that is known to man.

Likewise, God intends to use this or that crisis – not only to teach you about himself, but also to teach others.

That’s exactly what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:6 – “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation”

By the way, this includes your struggle against sin. Some of the fiercest Pharaohs we face do not come from without but from within. Our own battle against various sins can feel at times to press us up against the edge of spiritual extinction.

Sometimes our Pharaohs have to with circumstances and sometimes they have to do with sin. In both cases, the Lord God is your deliverer. He will redeem you. And in your redemption you will learn things about God that you wouldn’t have been able to see in any other way. And so will others.

We’ve been talking a lot about repentance this week. And in those conversations have made various references to David’s great sin in which he lay with Bathsheeba and had her husband killed. We’ve mentioned that his repentance, unlike Pharaohs was genuine. And thanks to God, we have the 51st Psalm as a record of his repentance.

Listen to a small section of that Psalm:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

See that the end? What was the ultimate result of his struggle with sin and his salvation from it? “He will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.”

Oh how prophetic was this statement. Think of how many sinners over the centuries, have turned to Psalm 51 and repeated David’s very own confession as a blueprint for their own repentance.

Now truly David’s role in redemptive history is bigger than ours. But it is not fundamentally different. To paraphrase something said of David elsewhere, “You and I will teach our hundreds, and David will teach his billions” – but the lesson is the same.

Even in our struggle with sin, the Lord is a loving fatherly man of war. He will fight for us and will deliver us from both inward and outward enemies and in the end, we will have something to teach others.

The Destruction of His Enemies

There’s a third thing God is doing in all of this. And here we will only touch on this topic and hope to return to next week and discuss it more fully.

It is very difficult to make sense of your suffering without understanding the following: God is both a saver and a destroyer.

One great danger of portraying God as an artificially sweetened father, is that we cut off a whole dimension of his personhood and motivations. Namely, that as the title says, The Lord is a Man of War.

Yes, he has saving purposes, but he also has destroying purposes. Look back at vs. 26-31

In addition to teaching Israel, and many through Israel, God has a third purpose – the destruction of the wicked.

This is something we will expand upon in much more detail next week, but for now let simply say that you won’t be able to make total sense out of your struggle until you remember that the Lord is both a savior of the humble and a destroyer of the proud.

In other words, your struggle isn’t completely about you. It is also about your enemies. He is bringing judgment to some and joy to others. This is his perfect and just will.

On this subject, my mind often turns to the song of Mary, the mother of Jesus in Luke 1:46-53

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

And indeed God did this very thing through the cross of Jesus Christ. Through the one thing, he has accomplished two things. The redemption of his chosen ones and the destruction of the proud.

“He brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.”

The gospel message became the aroma of death to those who were perishing and the aroma of life to those who were being saved.

Conclusion:

Why does God have you in the trenches, fighting for your life. He wants to teach you things and turn your theoretical knowledge into direct knowledge.

He wants to teach others through your story. Finally, and do try to remember this the next time your in the trenches – at the end of this story – you will be saved and some enemy will be destroyed.

And he wants to use your crisis in the very same way he used Israel’s and Jesus Christ – the true Israel.

Listen to Colossians 2:13-15

The Lord is a Man of War

Pharaoh & the Problem of False Repentance

Chris Oswald — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Pharaoh & the Problem of False Repentance

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 21st July 2024

Passage: Exodus 9:1-35

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Today we’re going to talk about repentance.

In his book, Repentance: The First Word of the Gospel, John Owen Roberts notes:

The ﬁrst word of the gospel is not “love.” It is not even “grace.” The ﬁrst word of the gospel is “repent.” From Matthew through the Revelation, repentance is an urgent and indispensable theme that is kept at the very forefront of the gospel message.

He then goes on to show that repentance was the primary concern of John the Baptist’s message. He was a voice crying from the wilderness saying, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:1-3)

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight” (Matthew 3:1-3).

Not only is the word repent the dominant note in John’s message, but he made the concept of repentance absolutely clear. Repentance makes the path straight between the Lord and the repenting person. Repentance is like clearing a highway of holiness to and from God.

And not only was it John’s first word, it was also the Lord Jesus’ first word. Matthew 4:17 says that Jesus settled in Capernaum and from that time began to preach, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

And not only was it both the first word of John and Jesus, but it was also the last word of Jesus. In Luke 24:45

45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem

It is impossible to be a gospel centered church, let alone a Christ centered church – without making repentance a central issue.

Now what exactly are we talking about? What is repentance? Well, we saw one definition. It is the clearing of the highway between us and God. Or as the writer of Hebrews might say, it is casting aside of every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles.

Thomas Watson suggested that repentance “...is a spiritual medicine made up of six special ingredients: 1. Sight of sin 2. Sorrow for sin 3. Confession of sin 4. Shame for sin 5. Hatred for sin 6. Turning from sin. If any one is left out, it loses its virtue.”

There’s a reason we are talking about it. We’re going to cover the 10 plagues today and observe that at various times, Pharaoh exemplified a false repentance.

Illustration: Disease

I thought I might walk you through all of the mistakes Pharaoh made.

Repent before the repercussions come. Don’t wait until your sin goes to seed In the early stages of any sin, though the seed may’ve been planted, the consequences have not yet appeared. This is the perfect time to repent. Waiting until after the consequences appear puts you in a situation where it will be difficult to sort out your sincerity. Was Pharaoh truly sorry, or did he just want the storm to stop? The human heart is a confusing place. It is actually very difficult to sort out one’s motives.

Look at 9:13

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.”

And again in vs. 22

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt.” Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.

It was in these desperate circumstances that Pharaoh said the following:

Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. (9:27-28)

There is nothing obviously problematic with this statement. Matthew Henry says,

Pharaoh humbled himself to Moses. No man could have spoken better: he owns himself wrong; he owns that the Lord is righteous; and God must be justified when he speaks, though he speaks in thunder and lightning.

And yet we know that this repentance was not sufficient. As soon as the hail stopped, his heart grew hard again.

I think he thought he was sorry. But it was the hail that had him sorry. Allowing our sin to go to seed, to begin to wreak havoc on our lives puts us in the difficult position of potential self-deception. It is far better to repent before the consequences come. It is far easier to sort out our true motives.

This is one reason why we impart knowledge of God’s law to our children. When they sin, or even when they get close to sinning, we want them to feel a storm in their conscience and act on that.

If you are suffering consequences, make good use of them Supposing you do not cut off the sin in time to forestall physical or relational consequences, and you begin to suffer external consequences, do not be in a hurry to chase them away. Don’t be like Pharaoh – who tied the terms of his repentance with the removal of the consequences.

See that in vs. 28?

“Plead with the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.”

That’s a bad idea. God has brought them into your life to teach you the sinfulness of your sin. Pray to God, “please do not fix this until you fix me.”

Don’t Negotiate with God Further back in the story, We see Pharaoh repeatedly attempting to negotiate a partial obedience with God.

The fourth plague (flies), Pharaoh tries to bargain with Yahweh. He makes a counter offer. “Offer your sacrifices here in Egypt.” Moses refuses to make that concession. Then Pharaoh counters — “ok, leave Egypt, but do not go very far away.” And then he asks Moses, “plead for me.” Moses says, ok we’ve got a deal, but do not renege. Moses pleads for Pharaoh, the flies stop, and once again when the relief comes, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened.

And then again in the eighth plague, Pharaoh makes another attempt at negotiating.

He is willing to let some of the people go but not everyone.

But he said to them, “The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. No! Go, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence. (10:10-11)

The ninth plague is darkness. Pharaoh concedes a little ground. Ok ok, you and all the people can go, but you have to leave your livestock behind.

Don’t do that. Go in the other direction. Build a fence around the sin.

Don’t get addicted to the benefits your sin provides Pharaoh became dependent on a lifestyle that was made possible by his sin. So that even when he knew he was in the wrong, he found it too distasteful to lose the benefits his sin was bringing him. He was addicted to the free labor. He is afraid to lose something that only his sin made possible.

During the final plague, Pharaoh appears to have had enough. All of the first born of Egypt are dead. Pharaoh calls Moses to him at once and says, “leave…right now…all of you.”

But then we read the following in chapter 14,

5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” – Ex 14:5.

And so he and his armies chased the Hebrews to the Red Sea and there met his maker. The message of Pharaoh’s story arc is clear. While true repentance leads to life, false repentance leads to death. That’s the scariest thing about false repentance, you eventually run out of time to get it right.

Now what could Pharaoh have done to handle the problem of having grown addicted to the so-called benefits of his sin? Well he would’ve had to reconfigure the entire Egyptian economy. Building projects would’ve had to been scaled back. Egyptian workers would’ve had to pick up the slack.

This is a very important idea because there are plenty of people who are addicted to a particular fruit of their sin. This is a very common problem for people caught in various dopamine seeking sins. Also with lying.

What can be done? We must understand that repentance is not only the recognition of your own sinfulness, but also a recognition of God’s goodness and kindness.

What Pharaoh ought to have done is say, “I’ve put myself and my country in a bad situation where we have become addicted to free labor. Now we’ve got to go through some uncomfortable times of adjusting to the way we should’ve been living all along. But the same God has visited us with plagues, will visit us with blessings when we obey. He will see us through this change.”

Friends, your flesh will try to convince you that while full obedience is obviously preferable, it is just not possible in your case. You’ve gone too far down the bad road, built too many bad habits, etc…

But the same God who shows you your sin is also eager to show you his faithfulness. Choose to do things his way, knowing that he will be with you.

It is true that being rid of a particular sin will bring a certain kind of austerity into your life. You had been cheating the system, printing your own money as it were. And now you must learn to live honestly and yes, that will be harder.

Think of Paul’s injunction in Ephesians 4:28,

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Outwardly, the repentant thief’s life has gotten harder. He used to have it easy. He did not have to invest his own blood, sweat, and tears into work. He could simply steal the fruits of someone else’s labor. Now in order to repent, he has to do honest work with his own hands. Something he’s probably not used to doing. And just wait until he gets a bad boss!

In order for a thief to leave his old lifestyle, he must believe God will bless his new one. Even though he has never done an honest day’s work in his life, he must enter the workforce and trust that God will give him the humility and the energy to live in this new way.

What he is going to find is that yes, his life is harder, but his heart is sweeter. If he can keep his eyes on the Lord while his calluses develop – calluses he should’ve earned a long time ago – if he can walk in this harder pathway for a bit, God will meet him and bless him in both internal and external ways.

Summary:

So there’s a brief rundown of the inner workings of Pharaoh’s false repentance. Now you know how to avoid that disease.

Repent before the repercussions come If they are already upon you, let them have their full work on you Don’t try to negotiate with God - give him full obedience Don’t get addicted to the fruit of your sin – but if you do, trust that God will help you through the withdrawals.

Conclusion:

For the past few months, as I have typed out these sermons, I have misspelled the word Pharaoh approximately 1000 times. I’m really tired of typing that word. To make matters worse, John has me feeling insecure about how I say the word. I’m kinda done with Pharaoh!

What is the purpose of this man in this story?

God is showing us two things in the life of Pharaoh. Firstly, he is showing us who we are. Or at least who we have the capacity to be.

But he is also showing us who He is.

Exodus 7:5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

Exodus 7:17 Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood.

Exodus 8:10 And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.

Exodus 8:22 But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.

Exodus 9:14 For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.

Exodus 9:29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.

Exodus 10:2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.”

Exodus 14:4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.

Exodus 14:18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

He is the LORD – there is none like him in all the earth. He is the LORD of all the earth.

This knowledge tells us why we should repent. He sees us. He cares what we do and do not do. As our creator and king, He deserves our obedience. This great God over all the earth is surely able to punish our disobedience.

But he is also willing and able to empower our obedience.

Around 1600 years ago, St. Augustine had, in his youth, developed a very promiscuous way of living. He knew the Lord was commanding sexual fidelity. But he felt like he had zero shot of obeying the Lord in that respect.

Eventually he learned to pray, “command what you will, only grant what you command.”

And the Lord did just that.

He was seeing 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 in action.

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

That You May Know

Dov Cohen — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 10:00:00 +0100

That You May Know

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Dov Cohen

Sunday Morning

Date: 7th July 2024

Passage: Exodus 7:1-13

Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience To God

Chris Oswald — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience To God

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 30th June 2024

Passage: Exodus 6:6-8

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Introduction:

It could be said that the church exists as a love training center. The church exists to teach God’s people what to love, how to love those things, how much to love those things.

Including love of nation.

It is good to love your spouse. Your children. Your job. It is good to love the Chiefs. Chik fil A. Etc… So long as those loves are properly ordered according to God’s word.

It is good to love your nation. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be loved. Your spouse, children and football team aren’t perfect either.

I was rereading the book of Empires of Dirt this week. I think around chapter 5, I found a statement that made me want to stand up and clap:

“We are constantly and regularly subjected to a false alternative. Either we must believe that America is the last best hope for mankind, or we must be muttering ingrates who don’t recognize or appreciate any of the advantages of living here.

America is emphatically not the last best hope for mankind. What perfect nonsense. Jesus is savior. He is the last savior, he is the best savior; he is the blessed hope.

But America is emphatically not a dingy little tawdry place to live in, either. It is a great nation and has accomplished many great things–as other great nations have before us as yet others will after us.”

Martin Luther once wrote, "Ministerial work is to make saints out of sinners, living souls out of the dead, children of God out of servants of the Devil.”

Ministerial work is to turn both national idolators and national ingrates into Christ-loving patriots who have a properly ordered love of God and country.

And our particular location in Exodus lends itself to this aim. For two reasons:

Firstly, we are invited to look back and see how the Exodus story has been interwoven into our national history. Secondly, we are able to see what role Exodus must play in our future – if we are to have one.

So those are the two points we’ll examine today.

The Exodus in America’s Past The Exodus in America’s Future

The Exodus in America’s Past

Our national story is interwoven with the Exodus story.

There are three phases of American history where Exodus became really the central story:

The Pilgrims: 1620

“When they embarked on the Mayflower in 1620, they described themselves as the chosen people fleeing their pharaoh, King James. On the Atlantic, their leader, William Bradford, proclaimed their journey to be as vital as ‘Moses and the Israelites when they went out of Egypt.’ And when they arrived in Cape Cod, they thanked God for letting them pass through their fiery Red Sea.” – Bruce Feiler, How the Story of Moses Shaped America

William Bradford:

Our fathers were Englishmen who came over the great ocean and were ready to perish in the wilderness, but they cried to the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity…. Yes, let them who have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He has delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered forth into the desert-wilderness, out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness, and His wonderful works before the sons of men.

Indeed Bradford became popularly known as “Moses” and Plymouth as “Little Israel.”

In his book, The Bible and Civilization, Gabriel Sivan writes:

“No Christian community in history identified more with the People of the Book than did the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who believed their own lives to be a literal reenactment of the biblical drama of the Hebrew nation.”

The Patriots: 1776

More than a century and a half after the Pilgrims’ arrival, the American colonies went to war against their British colonial masters in a struggle for independence, and the revolutionaries were also very much stirred by the story of the Israelites.

In his pamphlet Common Sense, which was published in January 1776 and had a galvanizing effect on American public opinion, Thomas Paine described King George III as the “sullen tempered pharaoh of England.”

On July 4, 1776, the declaration of independence was ratified but before dismissing, the Continental Congress conducted one final piece of business. The following resolution was passed:

“Resolved, that Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams, and Mr. Jefferson, be a committee, to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America.”

August 14, 1776 letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams recounted some of the debate. Benjamin Franklin, Adams wrote, suggested “Moses lifting up his wand, and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharoah, in his chariot overwhelmed with the waters,” and the following motto, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” Thomas Jefferson imagined Americans as “the children of Israel in the wilderness…led by a pillar of fire by night,” alongside representations of early Britons “whose political principles and form of government” the United States assumed. Adams concentrated on Hercules, the mythical figure of strength, “resting on his club,” gazing towards a figure of virtue, and impervious to sloth and vice.

Jefferson was so taken by that phrase that he had it developed into his own seal.

The Slaves: 1775-1870

Now simultaneous to this, going back to right around the same period of time, slaves in the south began using the Exodus as a metaphor describing their own plight. This kind of rhetoric was used by both the slaves and the abolitionists going all the way up through the civil war.

One of the most famous songs amongst the slaves:

The Lord, by Moses, to Pharaoh said: Oh! let my people go If not, I'll smite your first-born dead—Oh! let my people go Oh! go down, Moses Away down to Egypt's land And tell King Pharaoh To let my people go

II. The Exodus in America’s Future

Here we are in 2024. 164 years from the Civil War 248 years from the Declaration of Independence 400 years from the Mayflower.

What relevance should the Exodus story play in our national identity? Can we return to the well one more time and use this story to guide our next step as a nation? I think so. But only if we apply it internally.

Let me explain what I mean.

John Adams wrote:

“...we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

The most pressing and I would argue most patriotic application of the Exodus story would also be the one most supported by the New Testament – namely the spiritual one. The one in which people enslaved to various sins and vices are set free to worship God.

I do believe the Exodus story may be used politically, collectively, externally. But it must be used spiritually, individually, and internally.

As one commentator puts it, “The book is not about liberation in general or about political and religious freedom in particular, but about deliverance from bad servitude to good servitude. The Israelites served Pharaoh but were called by God to serve him instead.”

The main problem with liberation theology is not that it expects the will of God to manifest in politics, systems of power, etc… That’s not the problem with liberation theology. The problem with liberation theology is that it relocates sin, out of the soul and into political systems. The problem is always “out there.” It never helps a people deal with the problem “in here.”

I know there are still great injustices out in the world – various political Pharaohs to oppose – many in our own government. But before we can do any of that we’ve got to lay hold of internal freedom.

So let’s walk through that. Look at Exodus 6:6-8

Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’ ”

As mentioned last week, we have seven “I Will” statements from God.

The first two have to do with liberation: I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians I will deliver you from slavery to them

The third has to do with redemption: I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment

The fourth and fifth “I will” has to do with adoption: I will take you to be my people I will be your God

The final two statements have to do with possession: I will bring you into the land I will give it to you for a possession

There are obvious gospel connections to all of this.

We are liberated from sin and satan. With the precious blood of Christ, we are redeemed from the guilt we incurred through our sinning. We are adopted into the family of God. We are given possession of the kingdom which cannot be shaken. A kingdom which is not of this world but is absolutely for this world.

We won’t have time to explore all of this. But I want to be sure to cover the concept of liberation.

Here we are discussing liberation in its deepest sense. All other expressions of liberation are mere echos or implications of this fundamental liberation.

Pharaoh = Satan Egyptian bondage = slavery to sin and Satan

The Bible teaches that slavery to Satan is:

Natural – this the default state of the human soul (Ephesians 2:1-3) Invisible - it isn’t something you see (2 Corinthians 4:4) Vocational - you work for him (2 Timothy 2:6) Unfruitful - you get only death in return for your efforts (Romans 6:20-21) Formidable - there’s nothing you can do about it (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Natural

The bible teaches us that all people, by virtue of their own choice to sin, are caught up in slavery to Satan.

Thomas Watson writes,

See into what a wretched deplorable condition we had brought ourselves by sin. We had sinned ourselves into slavery, so that we needed Christ to purchase our redemption: But by sin we are in a worse slavery, slaves to Satan, a merciless tyrant, who sports in the damnation of souls. In this condition we were when Christ came to redeem us.

The New Testament talks about Satan capturing people to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:6

Invisible

The bondage is perceptual in nature. Their hearts, minds, and souls are blinded both to the realities of their enslavement and the means of their freedom.

2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

In Egypt, the people recognized their slavery. But in this greater spiritual slavery, the recognition of enslavement is often hidden from the slave. His mind is blinded. He does not see his enslavement. He is in Plato’s cave.

We live in a time with increased sensitivity toward corrupt systems of power. Everywhere we look, we see strong evidence that the game has been rigged. The great irony is that so many of the people who see this externally fail to see an even worse oppression at work internally.

Vocational

And Ephesians 2 tells us that in this state of being, individuals, no matter how well meaning, no matter how legitimate their external grievance – are actually pawns of the devil. Unless you have been liberated from his kingdom, you work for him.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” – Ephesians 2:1-3

Unfruitful

Romans 6:20 says of those who are slaves to sin and satan

“what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”

So that even actions we think are good tend to lead to either pride or other unforeseen problems.

And this is one of the reasons why America’s future depends on recovering the spiritual meaning of Exodus. No form of government is immune from being hijacked by Satanic schemes.

Listen to how Screwtape puts it…

“And is it not pretty to notice how “democracy” (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient Dictatorships, and by the same methods?”

Formidable

This situation is incredibly dire. In the first chapter of Exodus, Pharaoh sets out to deal shrewdly with the Hebrew people. He was indeed a formidable opponent. And Satan is even more so.

Previously God told Moses that Pharaoh will not let you go unless compelled by a strong hand. This is even more true of this deeper enslavement.

2 Timothy 2:24 talks about people captured by Satan to do his will.

How does one get free?

This is why Christ came.

“The Son of God … was made man to share the same state and nature as us.… He put on our nature in order to submit Himself to the state of death.… He has freed us from a diabolical tyranny.… The devil himself has been laid low as to be of no more account, as if he did not exist.” – Calvin

He came to deliver “...us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” – Colossians 1:13-14

So this is the role Exodus must play in the immediate future of America. Too many of its citizens remain in bondage to the devil. What kind of external freedom can we expect to manifest when the majority of our citizenry is in bondage to the devil?

We must double down on gospel sharing. We must proclaim freedom to the captives.

God told Moses to tell the people: “‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.”

God tells us to tell our neighbors: “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8)

And of course you think, they won’t listen! Well that’s not what Jesus said. In John 16:7-11 he says,

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Illustration: I think of our friend Brandon. I won’t use his last name because he’s in a position of some prominence and I didn’t ask permission to talk about this. I just thought about him this morning. He and his fiance attended Providence for a while until he was moved for his job. But Brandon was a political conservative who had a front row seat to some of Antifa’s hijinks back in the summer of 2020. Suddenly Brandon realized he was on the front lines of a spiritual war. He saw the fundamentally religious nature of the militant left. And he also realized that while he was politically on the right side – he was spiritually lost, without God, dead in his sins and trespasses. He asked a Christian friend on his team, “what must I do to be saved?” And he put his faith in Jesus as the true liberator of the soul. Brandon’s a Christian now – experiencing the fruit of God’s fundamental liberation.

Freedom Comes from Freed Men

The final thing to notice is that God used a free man to pronounce freedom.

Moses had freedom the others did not. He had escaped Pharaoh’s tyranny previously, and God miraculously kept him free throughout his interaction with Pharaoh.

This is of course most fully represented in Christ. But there is also something here for us.

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. – 1 Peter 2:16

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. – Galatians 5:1

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:20-23

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. – Ephesians 5:11

Live a free men proclaiming freedom to a world enslaved to Satan. Obviously the devil doesn’t want you to do this. So you can expect opposition, temptation, distraction.

But rebellion against this tyrant is indeed obedience to God.

Communion

Consider Luke 4 for a moment. It begins with Jesus being sent out into the wilderness to do combat with the devil. There he is offered enslavement at a cost. All of this can be yours if you worship me. Jesus overcomes the devil.

In the next verse we see, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.” (Luke 4:14-15) And in the next section, we are told what he taught in those synagogues,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This whole work amounts to an undoing of Satan.

They are poor because they are oppressed by the devil. They need liberty because they are captured by the devil to do his will. They need recovery of sight because the God of this world has blinded them.

Mountains of Assurance for Molehills of Doubts

Chris Oswald — Sun, 23 Jun 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Mountains of Assurance for Molehills of Doubts

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 23rd June 2024

Passage: Exodus 5:2-6:30

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Title: Mountains of Assurance for Molehills of Doubt Text: Exodus 5:20-6:30

We’re going to cover a very large portion of scripture today. And the first thing I want you to notice is that the whole section is bookended by people doubting God.

You can see that in this first slide. We have the people’s doubts and Moses’ doubts – which we read last week. Then in 6:2-8, we have a section where God reassures Moses and tells him to go to his people once again.

Then in vs. 9 we have the people unable to hear or believe because of their broken spirits.

God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh, and again Moses doubts. Verse 12 – But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”

Then in verse 14, we have a genealogy dropped on us. That continues through vs. 27. This is followed by more doubts.

In vs. 28 – On the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the LORD said to Moses, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.” But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”

I’ll bet every one of us has some doubts about God. I find that my doubts are usually hidden from me. I don’t even know they’re there until the Lord shows me. I’m assuming the room is full of various kinds of doubts.

And the main point today is as we will see in our text, our doubts are like molehills compared to the mountains of assurance God offers.

I want to broadly cover this whole section. Let’s start with the genealogy.

What is a Genealogy For?

Even the genealogy is a kind of assurance from God. And you know, there are 25 of these genealogies in the bible. I think the average Christian gets to those sections and thinks, “um, what am I supposed to do with this?” So let’s talk about that.

God communicates assurance through three categories: I am, I will, I have

Personality (this is what I’m like) Past Performance (this is what I have done) Promises (this is what I will do)

And genealogies fit in the “Past Performance: This is What I’ve Done” category of assurance.

You can think of genealogies as brushstroke theology. Here is a painting by Van Gogh, I chose it because the brushstrokes are very visible – and also because this is likely Van Gogh’s attempt at the Last Supper. You have Jesus in the center waiting on the tables. 11 disciples seated. Judas in all black lurking at the door. The window directly behind Jesus has a cruciform pane structure.

But my main point is to suggest that you can think of the people who appear in the biblical genealogies as brushstrokes. God is painting a masterpiece and he uses people.

I actually wrote out a little prayer that you can pray when you come to a genealogy in the bible.

Lord, you knit each one of these people together in their mother’s wombs - cell by cell. You knew every hair on their head. You knew every thought in their head. You knew their goings out and their comings in. These people were, without exception, sinners and by nature, wanderers going their own way. And yet, in a level of orchestration that goes beyond my ability to conceive, You providentially directed their lives in such a way as to accomplish Your particular purposes and tell Your story. The names on this list are like brushstrokes that you perfectly laid down on the canvas of history in order to show the world that you are God.

So that’s a quick comment on genealogies. God exhibits his trustworthiness in three categories of evidence. I am. I have. I will. And genealogies are part of God’s “I have” category of evidence.

Now let’s get into the main part of the text. Verses 2-8

God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ”

You can see all three categories of evidence here.

We have multiple “I am” statements – usually appearing as “I am the Lord” or more specifically, I am Yahweh.

We have multiple “I will” statements – 7 of them actually.

And then you have several references to God’s past faithfulness. Several “I have statements.” Let’s stick in that category – let’s keep talking about God’s past faithfulness. I said a moment ago that there are 25 big genealogies in the bible. But you know, the phrase “Abraham, Issac, and Jacob” is also a genealogy – a very short one – but a genealogy nonetheless. And it appears hundreds of times.

When it appears, the point being made is almost always something to do with trusting the Lord. We are called to review God’s past faithfulness to these patriarchs and infer God’s present trustworthiness based on his past performance.

This seems to be a formula understood by saints throughout the Old Testament. For instance, when Elijah is having his showdown with the priests on Mt. Carmel, he prays –

36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. – 1 Kings 18:36.

Psalm 105:5-15

Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered, O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones! He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.” When they were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it, wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account, saying, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!”

And then when we get to the New Testament, we learn two surprising things about Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

New Testament Developments:

Firstly, when God says, “I am the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob” he isn’t saying, “I was their God.” He is saying, “I am their God.” That would never have occurred to me if Jesus didn’t explicitly point it out in the gospels. In Mark 12 we find Jesus talking to the Sadducees. They don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. Jesus corrects them by saying the following:

And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” (Mark 12:26-27)

Again, God didn’t say, “I was the God” of these fellas. He says, “I am” the God of these fellas. And Jesus’ point is – these guys are still alive.

And I don’t know if that does anything for you. But it kinda hits differently when you realize that even as God is reassuring Moses about his past faithfulness to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob – that Abraham, Issac, and Jacob are there in God’s presence as he is saying these things.

And as he works to free the people from their enslavement and send them into the land flowing with milk and honey, he is keeping a promise to these patriarchs who are right then in his presence.

The second surprising development we find in the New Testament is who God counts as descendants of Abraham. Who stands to benefit from God’s promise.

And then when we get to the New Testament, we learn two surprising things about Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

Namely that God was counting who belonged to Abraham, not by blood by by faith. This is forecasted early in John 1:9-13 —

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. How are they his own? This is according to the flesh, their Abrahamic genes.

But then there’s a second kind of belonging found in the subsequent verse.

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The first kind of belonging has to do with having the Abrahamic genes. The second kind of belonging has to do with having the Abrahamic spirit. The one that believes God. The spirit that is made righteous by faith.

So you have in John 1 the old way – physical descendents. And also the new way – spiritual descendents.

And the apostle Paul sharpens this revelation when he simply says –

For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. (Romans 9:6-8)

And in Galatians 3:24-29

24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

And so put together you have something pretty remarkable. Firstly, God made promises to Abraham. Even right now, Abraham is in the presence of the Lord. He is watching God fulfill his promise. Those promises are extended to all who are in Christ.

The thing God is doing in Exodus for the ethnic people of God is but a whisper and and a shadow of the thing he does for the spiritual people of God in the new covenant.

Going back to our main passage, we have the 6 “I Will” statements made by Yawheh in Exodus 6:6-8

Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ”

Those I Wills have greater fulfillments in the New Covenant than they did in the Old. We are redeemed from a greater slavery for a greater freedom in a greater land. And maybe we can talk more about that next week – but for now we need to begin wrapping up.

Intelligent Design: The Bible’s Architecture

Now before we move on from the “what God has done” section — I want to draw your attention to something else in this section that speaks to God’s sovereign power and perfect skill.

I noticed the other day that Brett Weinstein — who is an evolutionary biologist conceded that the field of intelligent design is cutting edge science and that it has raised questions that evolutionists have been unable to answer. And he’s referring specifically to Stephen Meyer — who did the Joe Rogan show some time ago. Intelligent design in the biology is based on the observation of irreducible complexity within living organisms. A complexity which cannot be explained by randomized mutations — no matter how much time you give to the process.

Most people don’t know that all over the Bible — all over this very ancient book (with the newest sections being 2000 years old) — all over this ancient book we find literary architecture that appears to have been designed by a highly advanced mind.

I am by no means an expert in this stuff. But our text today affords an opportunity for me to try to explain a little sliver of this textual architecture or design.

In vs. 2-9 we have what is known as a chiastic structure. Let me try to explain chiasms to you with a series of visuals.

Look at this pattern. What’s going on here? What order are the colors arranged in?

Let’s add numbers to it. So you have 1-6 and then you have 7 in the middle. Then 6-1. This is also called introverted parallelism.

Now let’s look at the text.

A. God spoke (2) Moses spoke (9) B. I am the LORD (2) I am the Lord (8) C. I appeared to Abraham, to Issac, and to Jacob, as God almighty (3) I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob (8) D. But by my name the LORD (3) and you shall know that I am the LORD (7) E. I also established my covenant with them (4) I will take you to be my people (7) F. I have heard the groaning of the people… whom the Egyptians hold as slaves (5) I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery (6) E. The central truth usually stands alone, here is the repetition of the 1st and 6th — “ I am the LORD”

Here’s a cleaner visual depiction. Here’s the another way. Here’s another way.

This kind of thing happens hundreds and hundreds of times in the Bible. the Bible text itself has a temple structure — always progressing into the holy of holies.

Can I ask you something? Is your faith a little stronger than it was 35 minutes ago?

Brushstoke theology – God’s perfect use of imperfect people throughout history to paint his picture

God’s ongoing fulfillment of promises he made to Abraham – who is even right now in God’s presence watching him fulfill the promises made to him so long ago?

Your inclusion in those promises in Christ?

The masterful orchestration of God – not only in history – but in the actual architecture of the biblical text.

We’ve all got our own molehills of doubt. But consider the mountains of assurance God offers. And we’ve only looked at one tiny sliver of one category of God’s evidence – his past faithfulness.

Let’s close by looking at vs. 2

God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.

I never told them this special name — Yahweh. They only knew me as El Shaddai. There’s a good chance that means, “God of the mountains.” But the point I want to leave you with is that when he moved through Abraham, Issac, and Jacob — he gave them one name. El Shaddai. And now that he’s about to move his people out of Egypt, he’s revealing this new name, “Yahweh.”

Now this isn’t a situation where God is saying, some people call me El Shaddai, others call me Yahweh. No, he is progressively revealing himself. God is more clearly seen as Yahweh than he was as El Shaddai. And this all terminates in the New Testament with Yeshua — Jesus.

He is the full revelation of God.

Hebrews 1:1-4

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

I’ll leave you with something Jesus said in John 8:55

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.

Leadership and the Crisis of Confidence

Chris Oswald — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Leadership and the Crisis of Confidence

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 16th June 2024

Passage: Exodus 5:1-23

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When I started working on this text, I thought there was a sermon on busyness in there. After all, Pharaoh’s basic strategy is to keep the people so busy they lose all spiritual ambition. Which reminded me of an old saying from Corrie Ten Boom, “If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.”

But as I pressed into the text further, I saw a more prominent theme. Something to do with leadership.

Now you may remember a number of weeks ago, we talked about the Exodus pattern in scripture. God moves people out of a bad situation into a better situation. And that there’s usually a middle situation – the wilderness.

Now in chapter 5-6 we see the basic leadership pattern that is related to the basic exodus pattern. And this is going to repeat over and over again in Exodus, in the whole bible, and in your life as you attempt to lead those God has called you to care for.

Six C’s of Leading Through Change:

This is going to help you lead your families. This is going to help you lead in church contexts. And it’ll make you a better church member. But even in work contexts – you’re still God’s leader even there. So that even if the change isn’t explicitly spiritual in nature – this is all still going to apply.

Call – the leader receives a plan from God Change - he begins to lead his followers into the new state Conflict - the “forces” who prefer the status quo are provoked Cost - the followers feel friction Complaints - the followers blame the leader Crisis of Confidence – the leader questions everything

In this story –

Moses receives God’s call (Exodus 3-4) He initiates the change (Exodus 4:29-5:1) This change is in conflict with Pharaoh’s need for the status quo (5:2-5)

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” (5:2)

But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” (5:4)

Pharaoh fights back inflicting a great cost on the followers (5:6-19)

“You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves.” (5:7)

The people grumble and complain to Moses (5:20-21)

They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (5:20-21)

Moses has a crisis of confidence (5:22-23)

Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.” (5:22-23)

Now this one goes well. God responds to Moses with kindness.

In fact we get this structure chiastic structure in chapter 6

Development of Yahweh’s response (6:2–8) A. I am Yahweh (2) B. I appeared to … Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (3) C. I have established my covenant (4) D. I have heard the groaning in bondage (5) E. I am Yahweh: I will liberate you; I will deliver you; I will redeem you (v. 6) D′. I am Yahweh who redeems you (7) C′. I will bring you to the promised land (8) B′. To give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (8) A′. I am Yahweh (8)

I’ll return to this in a moment.

He brings this word back to the people. But they don’t believe him. Look at vs. 9 –

“Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.”

The people have been effectively demoralized. Moses and Aaron have nobody with them but the Lord. This is the loneliness of leadership. They are sandwiched between Pharaoh’s hard heart and the people’s broken spirit. But they press on.

Now there are other times when this same pattern plays out but it doesn’t go well.

Exodus 20-32 – all happening at the foot of Sinai. Moses is up there with God for 40 days and 40 nights. Aaron is down there with the people. The people grow restless, Aaron violates his own calling, they make the golden calf, etc… Aaron’s failure of nerve.

Call is to wait Conflict is with their own lack of peace and patience Cost is that they’re supposed to refrain from sexual relations and remain in a “consecrated state.” Complaints Crisis of Leadership – Aaron folds

This is similar to what we see in 1 Samuel 13. And I think also in the matter of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar – if you’re familiar with that story.

And the thing to understand as a leader is that sometimes you’ll have no choice other than to be at odds with the God you love or with the people you love.

There is so much that can go wrong for the leader at this final point.

God doesn’t let squishy leaders off the hook. He calls Abrahm out for listening to his wife. He cuts Saul’s reign short and says, I’ll bring in a guy who wants to please me. Who is after my heart. And in the case of Aaron, Moses held him responsible saying, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” – Exodus 32:21

So I think that is probably what we should talk about.

II. Three Common Complications:

A leader’s own insecurity – We know from chapter 3 that Moses is far from confident that he is the right man for the job. This is common. Very few men feel up to being the spiritual leader of their homes. Very few pastors feel like they should actually be in charge.

A leader’s love for the people. Good leaders actually love the people they’re called to lead. And so when they see them going through trouble – trouble that appears to be downstream of their leadership – well this really gets to a person. We see going all the way back to chapter 2 that Moses identifies with his people. And he doesn’t like to see them get hurt. That’s one reason he killed the Egyptian. This is huge for evangelism. Can you imagine sharing the gospel with someone in the first century knowing that if they believe it, they’re almost certainly going to suffer for Christ?

A leader’s own limited faith. God rarely gives the leader a lot more faith than his people. He gives them more faith but not usually a massive amount. So the leader has his own doubts about God, etc…

III. Three Things to Do During a Crisis of Confidence

Set your mind in the right direction

Now what Moses does with all of this is crucial. Look at vs. 22

This is far from a perfect prayer. He is accusing God of sin. This is not a model prayer. But the thing that is a model for us is that he turned to the Lord.

With Abraham, Aaron, Saul – these situations that didn’t go well – you don’t see this part. The faithless people get the last word. The leaders don’t do what Moses does here. At least he goes to God.

So that’s a good thing. People ask, what good does prayer really do? Well it has a wide variety of benefits – but in these kinds of situations where you’re one bad decision away from really screwing everything up – from losing your nerve – from compromising – prayer is a kind of decompression chamber. It is always better to pray a dumb prayer than to make a dumb decision.

Prayer has the effect of deflating anxiety. Philippians 4:6-7 says,

“do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Now let’s start layering in some real world application:

Call: God shows you a vision for the people you’re leading. We’re going to give generously. Open our home to hospitality. We’re going to church. We’re going to start praying together. We’re going to share the gospel with our neighbors. We’re going to expect our little kids to obey the first time.

Change: You, perhaps quite hesitantly explain the plan to the people you lead

Conflict: Some part of the status quo is challenged

Cost: Something goes wrong that either is directly connected to the change or “feels” connected to the change.

We start giving and the car breaks down. We open our home to hospitality and have a big fight right before the guests arrive. We share the gospel and someone gets offended and calls you a bigot.

Complaints: The people paying the price complain.

Crisis of Confidence: You’ll doubt yourself You’ll doubt the plan You’ll doubt God

What you do next is key. And we’ve already seen the most important thing. Then Moses turned to the Lord. When we look through the biblical data and separate all of the instances of this pattern between the ones that went well and the ones that went poorly – this “turning to the Lord” is one of the most decisive factors.

Prayer is the place you go to cool off. To get recentered. To let the peace of God overcome the anxiousness of man.

We mentioned Isaiah 26:3 last week. “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

Get your heart settled on the right devotion

It is hard enough to lead people when your motives are pure. We said a moment ago that the crisis of leadership is magnified in some sense by the leader’s love for the people. He hates to see them suffer for something he’s initiated. True enough.

But the heart of the leader is never pure. No doubt he is in part motivated by true love for the people, but there’s a second sinful motive marbled in there.

Yes he loves the people. But he probably also loves to be loved by the people.

If his love for them is pure, he can, by talking to God, fortify his confidence in the plan, in God, in his calling, etc… and stay faithful. But he’s got to expunge this darker motive that has crept in. Namely that he loves to be loved by his people. If this motive is present, he will almost surely fold.

Where did all of the pastors go on the controversial issues of our day? Why have so many abandoned God’s clear biblical teachings about human sexuality and gender? Why has the rainbow mafia been so effective in moving pastors, churches, and entire denominations off the clear teaching of God’s word?

John 12:43 has the answer, “for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.”

Back in Exodus 4:29-31,

Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Would anyone be surprised if Moses thought to himself, “well now, I could get used to this.”

I could get used to being the good new guy. The encouragement guy. The guy who makes people feel good when he enters the room.

But in 5:20-21 – all of their goodwill toward Moses is completely reversed

And to be honest, this is more representative of how the people will think of Moses throughout the entire Exodus.

If you want to be a good leader, you’ve got to get use to periods of unrequited love. You’ve got to get used to giving love to people who will not recognize your efforts other than to say your causing them trouble.

Fill your soul with the right doctrine

Look back at 5:22-23

“O Lord, why have you done evil to this people?

Well this is just plain wrong. James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”

But Moses’ theology isn’t as refined and sharp as ours. He is asking, “why” and doesn’t fully get an answer.

We have an answer. By the time the New Covenant is in full swing, the spiritual leaders of God’s people no longer ask “why” in the same way Moses did.

Peter is able to say to the believers he’s addressing in his first letter – “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” – 1 Peter 4:12

And again in chapter 5 – “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Don’t be surprised – this isn’t strange. The same kinds of sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood through the world.

So to review.

Point your mind in the right direction Get your heart settled on the right devotion Fill your soul with the right doctrine

Trials are a part of the Christian life. When we follow God, we find opposition

All who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted – 1 Timothy 3:12

Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God – Acts 14:22

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they keep my word, they will also keep yours. – John 15:19

Sometimes it will be because we upset the world. Sometimes it will be because we upset the flesh of our followers. Sometimes it will be because we’ve stepped on Satan’s tail and reminded him that his time is short.

But when we lead people through a godly change, there’s always going to be a cost.

Last week I posted a chronological timeline of all the church history biographies John Piper delivered over the span of about 20 years.

Let me read you what he wrote as he introduced the biography of a pastor named Charles Simeon:

I am, in great measure, a child of my times. And one of the pervasive marks of our times is emotional fragility. I feel it as though it hangs in the air we breathe. We are easily hurt. We pout and mope easily. We break easily. Our marriages break easily. Our faith breaks easily. Our happiness breaks easily. And our commitment to the church breaks easily. We are easily disheartened, and it seems we have little capacity for surviving and thriving in the face of criticism and opposition.

When historians list the character traits of the last third of twentieth century America, commitment, constancy, tenacity, endurance, patience, resolve and perseverance will not be on the list. The list will begin with an all-consuming interest in self-esteem. It will be followed by the subheadings of self-assertiveness, and self-enhancement, and self-realization. And if you think that you are not at all a child of your times just test yourself to see how you respond in the ministry (leadership) when people reject your ideas.

We need help here. When you are surrounded by a society of emotionally fragile quitters, and when you see a good bit of this ethos in yourself, you need to spend time with people — whether dead of alive — whose lives prove there is another way to live.

And so he introduces Pastor Charles Simeon as one such model. Simeon served as a pastor for 49 years and almost all of it was marked by opposition. Yet he remained faithful. And also joyful. In large part because he had mastered everything I’ve described to you today. But I want to draw one particular thing to your attention. When asked by a friend how he had endured so well he said,

My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for Christ’s sake. When I am getting through a hedge, if my head and shoulders are safely through, I can bear the pricking of my legs. Let us rejoice in the remembrance that our holy Head has surmounted all His suffering and triumphed over death. Let us follow Him patiently; we shall soon be partakers of His victory”

The word picture is of someone pressing through a hedge – which in Simeon’s England, serve as fences or barriers marking one field off from another.

And so he says that one key to his enduring joy and faithfulness was to understand that Christ, his head, the head of the church, has already poked his face through into the promise land. The hard part is already done. Indeed in some respect, it is all done. But he acknowledged that there is still more of the body to push through the brush and thorns. But that was ok – the head is already through.

How does God respond to Moses’ very imperfect prayer. He provides a very perfect promise.

Namely the threefold assurance found in 6:6-8:

6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

Now as I mentioned – these words of assurance were not enough for the people.

Verse 9 – “Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.”

But they were enough for Moses. Humanly speaking, the whole Exodus project depended on whether Moses would trust the Lord.

Brothers, leaders –

We must not mind a little suffering.

When we lead toward the light, the darkness will react. We must not be surprised by the fiery trials that follow.

Let us set our attention on the Lord through prayer Let us purify our own motives – getting rid of the love to be loved nonsense Let us fill our soul with sound doctrine – trials are expected – God remains faithful.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Monotheism Made Our World

Chris Oswald — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Monotheism Made Our World

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 9th June 2024

Passage: Exodus 4:29-31

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Call to Worship

96 Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! 4 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! 8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! 9 Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! 10 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”

Text: Exodus 4:29-31 Title: Monotheism Made Our World

Last week we covered Moses’ calling. Though initially unwilling and argumentative, Moses ultimately obeys.

He obeys as a result of God’s assurance that he will not do this alone. God himself will be with him. And Aaron, Moses’ older brother will join him on his mission.

That gets us to the end of chapter 4 where we see Moses and Aaron going to the elders of the Israelites and disclosing God’s plan. And we will look at that text in a moment.

29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped. (Exodus 4:29–31)

My aim for today is to show you why we’re about to spend 9 chapters watching God contend against Pharaoh. I have identified at least 2 very big reasons, one theological and the other political.

I’ll discuss the theological reason today and the political reason in a podcast later this week.

Look back at that text and focus on that phrase, “visited the people of Israel.”

This is the same word God uses in the previous chapter when he tells Moses – “Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Exodus 3:16-17)

The Development of Monotheism

This reminds us that at the time, the theology of the Hebrews was not as developed as it would eventually be. They still had a lot to learn about God. At this time, ancient people thought of gods in a regional way. Certain gods occupied certain places.

The concept of monotheism is still a long way off from being fully revealed.

At this time, I suspect the majority of the Hebrews were henotheistic. Henotheism is the belief in many different gods for many different people – with no clear sense of superiority between one god and another.

The Hebrews knew they were to worship Yahweh. But probably assumed that the Egyptians were free to worship their own gods. And they probably also assumed that the Egyptian gods were really in charge of Egypt.

God is speaking to them in their flawed theology category. He says “he visited them.” And maybe he did visit them in a physical way like he did with Sodom. But he didn’t need to “visit” them to see them.

From henotheism, the Hebrews will progress into monolatry. What is monolatry? This is the belief in many gods connected to the conviction that one god is superior to all others.

This theological category was hard for the average hebrew to shake. I don’t think you see complete progress in this area until much much later in the history of the Jews. Probably not until after the babylonian exile. So about a thousand years after the Exodus.

Then we arrive at the theological position we now assume – monotheism. Not merely the preference for one god over another. Or the superiority of one god over another. But the conviction that there is but one God. And that he reigns over the whole earth.

Now it is widely accepted that monotheism is a very important milestone in cultural development and stability. The idea is simply that with monotheism comes a belief that the whole cosmos is created and governed by a single entity. Though Christians believe in spiritual warfare, we do not believe the war is a match between equals.

Monotheism, Science, and Human Flourishing

Monotheism is in many sense the mother of science. As CS Lewis says,

“Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator.”

John Hedley Brooke, who is a historian of science, says the same thing. “The quest after the laws of nature can also be seen as a quest to uncover the divine legislation that lies behind nature’s regularities.”

In this way, monotheism has become an absolute boon to human flourishing.

And this is one of the purposes of God’s judgment on Pharaoh. Something God himself explicitly states in chapter 9.

“But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” – Exodus 9:16

And when it is all said and done. When Egypt lies in ruins. God says to his people,

‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; (Exodus 19:4-5)

So again, we’re about to walk through 9 chapters of God’s judgment against Pharoah. Why? What’s the end game?

Well on the one hand, we would say the purpose is very personal. He is redeeming a certain people. But why the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart? Why the prolonged back and forth?

God is revealing himself to the world. He is picking on the strongest so-called gods of the time. He is working in a territory in which the popular theology of the day believed he had no dominance.

In the next 7 chapters, God contends with Pharaoh. This culminates in the seven plagues. Now the thing to remember about the plagues is that they were not arbitrary. Each plague that God brought to Egypt amounted to a targeted strike on a particular Egyptian deity.

When he turns the Nile into blood, he is targeting three particular deities closely associated with the Nile.

When he fills the land with frogs, he is targeting the Egyptian frog-deity known as… wait for it… Hopi. Yes, the Egyptians worshiped a frog named hoppy.

With the lice is he attacking Seb. With the flies he is attacking Uatchit When he afflicts the cattle, he is targeting four Egyptian gods associated with cattle When he brings boils upon the people, he is confronting Imhotep and Serapis (gods of healing) With the hail comes an attack on four other Egyptian deities including Isis and Seth Then he brings the locusts. The Egyptians worshipped the god Serapia specifically to prevent plagues of locusts. With the darkness plague, Yahweh is targeting some of the most important gods — the sun gods. And with the plague on the firstborn God is targeting the entire Pharaonic system.

All of this led Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law to conclude, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” — Exodus 18:11

And this revelation is, in due time, going to be an absolute boon to human flourishing. I wrote this part of the sermon at Revo Cup in the Lenexa City Center area. What a beautiful place. And so close to my house! I sat there with jazz playing on the overhead speakers, electricity, beautiful buildings, fountains, law and order — all of that is downstream from the wide acceptance of monotheism.

You don’t get there without these chapters.

So that’s a little something about the theological purpose of God’s opposition to Pharoah. In this story, God began sowing seeds of monotheism into the world. And today we live in kind of unparalleled bounty that in some very real way, came from this contest.

The Incarnation & The Global Spread of Monotheism

Now before we move on, I do want to stipulate that the Exodus story was not enough to move the world into monotheism. It was a huge leap forward, but there was still one more massive development needed.

And here I am thinking about the incarnation of God. Look back our text. Chapter 4:31

31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped. (Exodus 4:29–31)

Remember what Paul tells us about the covenants. The Old Covenant had some glory. The New Covenant has much more glory. When you read that from the perspective of the New Covenant, you think – well yes, that is glorious but we know about a better visitation.

John 1:14

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:16

16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

See this is a better visitation. God took on flesh. He dwelt among us. And he who knew no sin became sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles

And this is really the moment monotheism takes hold. Up till this time, it was only a Jewish thing. But after this, it starts to become a global thing.

Nations everywhere walk away from their polytheism and all the chaos created by that system. And begin to worship Christ – the one true God.

And again, this development has fundamentally changed the world.

Dr Mark Worthing, author of Unlikely Allies: Monotheism and the Rise of Science puts it this way:

If a single divine being was responsible for the whole of the created, natural order, then all knowledge about the natural world must be fundamentally interconnected. Monotheistic thinkers not only tended to ask after natural causes and explanations (without rejecting God as the ultimate cause of all things), but also to view these causes as fundamentally linked – having a common ground in the one creator God.

Application:

Now before we move on from this topic, let’s take a moment to make a personal and spiritual application.

Is your heart a peaceful place? Is it an ordered place?

I know you are – at least intellectually – all monotheists. But we’re always creeping back toward Henotheism. God is the best god, but there are also a few idols out there that seem worthy of our trust.

Well, in the same way that monotheism brought intellectual stability to the world and with it science and with science human flourishing, I want to encourage you today to ask the Lord to clear your head, your heart – of all the other lesser gods that seem to clutter up the sanctuary of our hearts.

What the Lord says of Israel in Jeremiah 2 can also become true of us.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:12-13)

“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” – Joshua 24:14-15

This choice leads to human flourishing.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. – Isaiah 26:3

Paleo-Evangelism

Chris Oswald — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Paleo-Evangelism

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 2nd June 2024

Passage: Exodus 3:10-4:17

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God’s concern for sinner (7)

Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings…

He saw a people enslaved to a great tyrant. More broadly, he sees the lost in a worse condition

God’s choice to save some (8)

and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

While he sees them in their terrible state, he has a plan to transform them. So it is with the lost more broadly. God has chosen to save some of them. And he made that choice before the foundation of the world.

So right now, God looks into the world and sees people who are at this time his enemies, but in the fullness of time will become his sons.

He sees people right now in the world who are at this time, dead in their sins and transgressions, who will in the fullness of time, be raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenly places.

At this time their sins are like crimson, but at his appointed time, they will be white as snow.

God’s certainty of success (8)

Notice the certainty of his language. “I have come down to deliver them and bring them up to a good and broad land.” God is not making a proposal here. He is making a promise.

“…observe the definiteness and positiveness of Jehovah’s assertions. There were no “perhaps” or “peradventure’s.” It was no mere invitation or offer that was made to Israel. Instead, it was the unconditional, emphatic declaration of what the Lord would do—“I am come down to deliver.” So it is now. The Gospel goes forth on no uncertain errand. God’s Word shall not return unto Him void, but “it shall accomplish that which He pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto He sends it” (Isa. 55:11).”

We don’t believe that God tries to do things and sometimes fails. We believe that all God determines to do will come to pass. Including saving those he means to save.

Or take Acts 13:48 — Paul and Barnabbas are preaching to a great crowd of gentiles. And vs. 48 says — “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

Which brings us to our fourth parallel between this passage and God’s larger evangelistic purposes.

God’s concern for the sinner God’s choice to save some God’s certainty of success God commissions a shepherd

In this story, he literally commissions a shepherd. That’s what Moses is doing at the time. That’s what Moses has been doing for the last 40 years. His vocation is no accident. God sees his people as sheep without a shepherd. Sheep that have been stolen by Pharaoh. Sheep that will need to be tended to and herded out of Egypt, through the wilderness and into the promise land.

When we look at evangelism more broadly, we see that Jesus saw those sinners whom God has chosen to save as lost sheep. Harassed and confused. And in the great commission he sent his people out as shepherds into the world.

How would they know which sheep were his? They were to speak the gospel message with the assurance that Christ’s voice would come through their voice.

As Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28)

A lost person is not saved simply because a saved person shared the gospel with them. Its a little more magical than that. A lost person is saved because Jesus speaks through those he sends. And his sheep hear his voice.

In his book Finally Alive, John Piper tells the story of a young lady who joined their church.

A young woman told the story as she was joining our church of how Christ saved her. She said that she knew a good bit about Christianity because of her parents but had thrown it all away as a teenager and was on her own. One day she and her friends were walking down the beach as several handsome guys approached. Her thought was to impress them and be thought attractive and cool. As the guys passed, one of them called out, “Praise Jesus!”

Now probably later that night those guys said to themselves, “That was a lame witness. Why didn’t we stop and talk?” Little did they know that this simple word, “Praise Jesus,” pierced her heart and sent her later to her knees and to the Savior. There are no wasted testimonies.

When that young handsome beach Chad, with his Vineyard and Vines trunks and completely undeserved six-pack said “Praise Jesus” this confused lost girl heard the voice of God.

The point is this. God does his delivering work through people. In this story, he is using Moses and in the larger redemption story, God uses people like you and me.

“God’s way then, is God’s way now. Human instrumentality is the means He most commonly employs in bringing sinners from bondage to liberty, from death to life.” (AW Pink)

This is what Paul is talking about in Romans when he says,

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:13-15)

But at this point in the story, the plot thickens. Which brings us to our 5th point.

God’s Chosen Spokesperson Sins

Look at verse 10-11

Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

God has shown his concern for the lost. He has stated his choice to save them. He has made it clear that this mission will be successful. He commissions Moses to go. And Moses says no.

Exodus 3:7-4:17 have a very simple structure.

Commission: 3:7-10

Moses’ Objection: 3:11 God’s Answer: 3:12

Moses’ Objection: 3:13 God’s Answer: 3:14-22

Moses’ Objection: 4:1 God’s Answer: 4:2-9

Moses’ Objection: 4:10 God’s Answer: 4:11-12

Moses’ Objection: 4:13 God’s Answer: 4:14-17

We will get into some of the details of that conversation in a moment, but first let us establish some of Moses’ mindset.

Distant Deliverance — God had delivered him from Pharaoh. But that was a long time ago. Moses’ deliverance is far back in the rearview mirror. The reality of his own salvation is not front and center. If it were, he might have more faith to follow God into the fray. But that was a long time ago. And most of it happened in his childhood.

Domestication — He’s gotten old, and grown comfortable. He’s got a job that keeps him busy, a wife and two sons to greet him in the evenings. An awesome father in law.

Disappointments — You know a long time ago, he had tried to help his people. He struck down an Egyptian who was striking a Hebrew. That didn’t go so well.

Disability — I believe he really did have some kind of speech impairment. Josephus tells us that when he was still in Pharoah’s household, Moses was known as a military man, a successful warrior. I think Moses was most naturally a man of war and not a man of words.

Danger — And besides all of this, and perhaps most obviously, the whole thing looked like a suicide mission.

Now I don’t know about you, but there’s a lot there that I resonate with.

One commentator puts it this way:

Were it not that we were acquainted in some measure with our own desperately-wicked hearts, it would appear to us well-nigh unthinkable that Moses should continue objecting and caviling. But the remembrance of our own repeated and humiliating failures only serves to show how sadly true to life is the picture here presented before us. The Lord had favored His servant with the awe-inspiring sight of the burning bush, He had spoken of His tender solicitude for the afflicted Hebrews, He had promised to be with Moses, He had expressly declared that He would deliver Israel from Egypt and bring them into Canaan. And yet all of this is not sufficient to silence unbelief and subdue the rebellious will. Alas! what is man that the Almighty should be mindful of him! Nothing but Divine power working within us can ever bring the human heart to abandon all creature props and trust in God. (AW Pink)

Distant Deliverance: I was saved a long time ago in my childhood. It is easy to forget. Domesticity: I have a happy home life. It is pretty sweet to hang out with your soul mate. Disappointments: I have tried to share the gospel before and it didn’t go well. Disability: I don’t have a speech disability, but I can feel socially awkward at times. Danger: And add this the likelihood that when I share the gospel, I could very well be rejected, scoffed at, etc…

Now I want to stress this morning that this 5th point — when the sent spokesperson sins and tells God “no thank you” is a normal part of God’s redemptive working. It shouldn’t be. We should respond with faith. But we don’t. And this isn’t surprising to God.

One of the things we see in this passage is God working on both ends. He is with the people in their bondage. He sees them. He is working in their lives to prepare them for salvation. He is also working on the other end — dealing with the inevitable hesitancy, rebellion, and sin of those he is calling to speak for him.

God is dealing with sin on both sides of the story. The same God who will deliver the lost out of their sin will deliver those he sends from their unbelief.

If God were to wait until He found a human instrument that was worthy or fit to be used by Him, He would go on waiting until the end of time. God is sovereign in this, as in everything. The truth is that God uses whom He pleases. Not yet was Moses ready to respond to Jehovah’s Call. There were other difficulties which the fertile mind of unbelief was ready to suggest, but one by one Divine power and long-sufferance overcame them. Let us take this lesson throughly to heart, and seek that grace which will enable us to place God between us and our difficulties, instead of putting difficulties between God and us.

Let’s spend the remainder of our time observing how God deals with Moses’ unbelief. Firstly, it might be edifying to point out how God does not deal with it. Remember the details of this particular scene. Remember in 3:6 that “Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

When I was younger, I read a lot of books on revival and I suppose you could say, “powerful personal encounters with God.” And I think I came to assume that if I just had a very powerful encounter with God, that I would instantaneously become more inclined to obedience and specifically more bold in evangelism.

Well, our passage with Moses pushes against that way of thinking. He’s right there in God’s presence — about as close as you can get — he is standing on holy ground, his face is warmed by the fire of God. His ears are full of the audible voice of God. And yet he’s acting just like you and I would act — just like we do act.

We love the quick fix. And it is pretty easy to think that there’s some religious experience out there that’ll burn away all of our unbelief. But that’s not what we see in the Bible. Even the mighty Paul, the man who encountered Jesus on the road and Damascus and later caught up into the third heavens is still self-consciously struggling with boldness.

At the end of the book of Ephesians, Paul calls the people to pray for him, “that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:19-20).

And my mind sometimes turns to old Elijah. Coming off the heels of a miraculous showdown in which God used him mightily, he almost immediately consumed with defeatism. “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” — 1 Kings 19:4

It is unlikely that some future power encounter with the Lord is going to permanently fix our unbelief. That’ll come later — when the Lord Jesus returns. But in this life, we’re stuck with a basic pattern:

God has people he wants to save. He wants to use you and I to effect their salvation. You and I will often resist this call.

Now we know that Moses eventually did obey. And we’ve seen what didn’t do the trick — mainly a power encounter with Yahweh. So what did work?

Well, I think the answer is simply sanctification. God patiently and progressively moves Moses’ eyes off himself and on to God. A lot of attention gets paid to pronouns these days. One article describes this cultural moment as “the pronoun war.”

Friends at the very foundation of this fallen world is an original pronoun war. And we see it in this story. Moses is focused on the wrong “I”

3:11 – “who am I” 3:12 – “I will be with you”

3:13 – “if I come to the people of Israel and they ask me what is your name…” 3:14 – “I am”

4:1 – “they will not listen to me” 4:2-9 – “I will make them listen you”

4:10 – “I am not eloquent. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 4:11-12 – “I will be your mouth and teach you what to say.”

4:13 – “Oh Lord please send someone else.” 4:14-17 – “Go find your brother Aaron. I will be with your mouth and his mouth.”

What we’re observing here is just plain old progressive sanctification. A doctrine that is alway summarized by our decreasing and his increasing.

When Paul says in Galatians 2:20 — he is talking about this dynamic. Likewise when he tells the Romans to not be conformed to the pattern of this world.. (Romans 12)

Think about it this way, While not every evangelistic encounter ends with salvation, they all start with sanctification. In order for the message to go forth, the messenger has to get over himself. He has to be freed from his unbelief and filled with faith in the Lord.

We’re living in an era of pronounced evangelistic disobedience. How do we change that? God must change us. And that change will not be quick and painless. That change takes place over the course of a conversation with God. Progressively, over time, God shifts our focus from “I” to “I Am."

And it is a conversation many try to avoid. And I guess a main application for this message is that we need to stop avoiding the conversation. We need to let God convince us. We need to let him work on our hearts.

Now I want to leave you with one piece of outstanding hope.

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul teaches us that the glory of the New Covenant far exceeds the glory of the Old Covenant. That’s the real challenge of preaching these old testament passages. We need to demonstrate both the continuity of the covenants and also the differences. We have to keep on saying, “our situation is like theirs — only better.”

Now look at 4:10-17

This is the final series of objections and answers. What happens here seems to push Moses over the edge from disobedience to obedience. So let us pay careful attention to this section.

Beginning in vs. 10,

But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

And in vs. 13-14, But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses…

Firstly, let us understand that our dullness and disobedience in this area — Our constant leaning on our own understanding is frustrating to God. Yes, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ has placed in permanent relationship with God. Yes, he is our father. But don’t take that to mean he doesn’t get frustrated with us. He does.

But he is kind and patient. Somehow this final answer gets Moses over the hump.

Look at vs. 14-17,

“Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”

Two points emerge.

Firstly, you do not have do this alone. God gave Moses his brother Aaron, and he has given us many bothers and sisters to help us out. Some in this local church. Some in the larger invisible church.

Bring your unbelieving friends into your home. Surround them with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Invite your unbelieving friends to church. Let them see the family of God at work. In his book Finally Alive, John Piper writes:

In your relationships, invite people to church even before they are Christians. Some of the sheer strangeness of what it means to be a Christian can be overcome by a growing familiarity with how we sing and talk and relate in church. And the preaching of the word of God has a unique power. Every kind of speech is unique in some way. Preaching is not the only or the main way that we communicate. But it is appointed by God for a special effectiveness. Or, nowadays, with the Internet, if they are hesitant to come to church, invite them to a website where they can watch or listen to your pastor or some other teacher.

And you have brothers and sisters, co-laborers in the gospel who are not in this church. They may not even be alive. But they have written books, recorded podcasts, etc… The point is that God has surrounded you with many Aarons. Many people whom God will use to compliment your own efforts.

There is a reason Jesus sent out his disciples in twos.

We need to encourage one another in this regard. Consider again what finally did it for Moses.

Was it a face to face encounter with God? Was it assurance that his mission would be successful? Was it the strange signs of the serpent and the leprous hand?

In the end it was this — you won’t have to do this alone.

If we’re going to change in this area, we’re going to have to change together. The old management consultant Peter Drucker is perhaps best known for one particular quote.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

We have seen

God’s concern for the sinner God’s choice to save some God’s certainty of success God commissions a shepherd

Is in some way bottlenecked by our fifth point:

God’s Chosen Spokesperson Sins

Overcoming that seems to be a matter of developing a community-wide culture of gospel partnership. Where we lean on one another, challenge one another, and work together to bring God’s saving purposes to pass.

The Great I Am

Dov Cohen — Sun, 26 May 2024 10:00:00 +0100

The Great I Am

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Dov Cohen

Sunday Morning

Date: 26th May 2024

Passage: Exodus 3:10-15

She Did What She Could Do

Chris Oswald — Sun, 12 May 2024 10:00:00 +0100

She Did What She Could Do

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 12th May 2024

Passage: Exodus 2:1-10

Exodus: The Serpent & The Seed

Micheal Meador — Sun, 05 May 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Exodus: The Serpent & The Seed

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Micheal Meador

Date: 5th May 2024

Overview: Israel in the Exodus

Chris Oswald — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0100

Overview: Israel in the Exodus

Series: Exodus

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 28th April 2024

Passage: Exodus 1:1

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I. Exodus

Let’s start with the title of the book: Exodus

Most people don’t know that there’s an actual exodus pattern that shows up over and over again in the bible.

First, let me define the word Exodus.

James B. Jordan says that “Exodus is a movement brought by God from an old place to a new place. From a worse place to a better place.”

In broad strokes, the pattern has three phases:

Old state - Egypt (slavery, sin, stuck) Middle state - Wilderness (waiting on the Lord, struggling, enduring) New state - Promise Land (resolution, strengthened, confirmed, established)

We see two Exoduses in Adam’s story.

Adam 1: Old state: Adam’s creation Middle state: Adam watches God create the garden New state: Adam is moved into the garden

Adam 2: In Genesis 2, God looks at Adam and says, it is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper for him. And he caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. And when he awoke, Adam was in a new place (or a new state).

Noah: Noah moves from an old world to a new world. And probably the most famous thing about Noah is his ark. The ark is his middle state.

Abram: From there we could talk about Abram. Leave your father’s household and go to the place I will show you. And as we know, Abram moved out of the land, along with a substantial amount of wealth, and entered an in-between state. There was a famine in the land.

This in between state is almost always testing and trust oriented. It often looks like death (or flirts with death). There’s usually an opportunity to get into trouble, to doubt God, succumb to some kind of temptation, etc…

Now Abraham goes through multiple exodus. And we begin to see another them in the exodus pattern. Deception and plunder.

Abraham went into Egypt, the Pharaoh attempted to conscript Sari into his harem. There’s some deception going on in this story. Abram tells Pharaoh Sari is his sister. Pharaoh gives him a whole bunch of livestock. But Pharaoh is in the wrong, he’s holding someone that isn’t his to hold. Plagues befall Pharoah’s household. Pharaoh sends Abram and Sari out of the land.

Same thing happens in chapter 20 with Abimelech - another king. Takes Sari into his harem. God visits him in a dream tells him he’s dead if he doesn’t return her to Abram. Abimelech gives Abram a bunch of livestock and servants and sends him off.

By the time we get to Jacob, the pattern is very developed.

Jacob goes through multiple Exodus. He uses deception to plunder Esau’s blessing and birthright. He moves out of the inferior state into the superior state.

He then goes to Laban’s household. And becomes a slave. Jacob is a prefiguring of the nation of Israel. Laban is a prefiguring of Pharoah. Laban deals treacherously with him. He keeps renegotiating their deal — why? Because Jacob gets winning. He is more and more fruitful (And there’s some deception going back and forth). All of this comes to a head when God tells Jacob to take all of his wealth and his wives and flee the land of Laban. Rachel plunder’s Laban’s idol. Laban pursues him. God meets with Laban and tells him, “let my people go.” Laban listens. Jacob flees into the wilderness.

So that’s the Exodus pattern. God moves a person from a bad place to a better place — and there’s always some time spent in a middle place. Sometimes there’s deception involved in leaving the bad place. There is almost always plunder of some kind.

Now here’s why I think its important for you to know about this. That pattern is core to our Christian experience. God moves us from one place to another place with some middle place playing a key role.

As we know, the Exodus is a picture of salvation. The movement out of slavery to sin and into Christian freedom. Ultimately into the New Heavens and the New Earth — the promise land of promise land. And what happens in-between? Sanctification. Testing. Purification. Battles.

We live in the Exodus pattern. Not only in a broad sense but also in countless micro-narratives. God puts his finger on something in your life he wants to change. You have to put off the old way and put on the new way. There’s a middle place, some kind of wilderness, hardship, and usually and opportunity to cheat your way out of the wilderness (which is always a trap). But, if we endure, we wind up on the other side. And not only do we wind up in a better place, we’re richer in wisdom. We take lessons we learned as a kind of plunder.

A lot of times, the plunder is turned into worship. When Adam awoke from his deep sleep, he had a new wife. That was his plunder. He immediately worships the Lord for this gift.

Noah emerges from the ark with the animals (plunder), he sacrifices some of them. When Israel flees Egypt with a bunch of their gold, they use some of that gold to make the instruments used in the tabernacle.

You're going to go through many Exodus in your life. Some of them you’ll ask God for, some of them will happen without your permission.

Some of them will be rather dramatic. Some will happen almost without your noticing.

You’ll start off as an angry person, or a lustful person, or an addicted person, or a controlling person, or a lonely person. You’ll start to see this isn't sustainable. You can't go on like this forever. You start crying out to the Lord like the Jews cried out to the Lord in Egypt. And in a variety of ways, you’ll move into an in-between place. A place where you learn a new way of thinking, feeling, or acting. This is the hardest spot. This is the wilderness. And eventually, once you’ve learned what you're supposed to learn from the wilderness, God strengthens, confirms, and establishes you. You’re in the new place now. But you’ll probably have some lessons from that old place that you take with you. And you'll worship the Lord with that plunder.

So that’s a little bit about the title of this book. That’s the Exodus pattern.

II. Sons of Israel

Now let's move on to the first verse.

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: — Ex 1:1

I want us to focus on this phrase, “sons of Israel.” It is used 169 times in the book of Exodus.

John Calvin begins his institutes by writing, “Nearly all wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves”

If you want to know who you are, you have to know about this name Israel. Do you know where that name came from and what it means?

Remember old Jacob fleeing from Laban? He's in the wilderness. He’s anxious about having to face Esau. Who, as far as Jacob knows, wants to kill him. So he’s all alone in the wilderness and he cries out to God for deliverance.

And how does God answer his prayer? Genesis 32:24-28

And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

So the name Israel means “wrestles with God.” Isra comes from the Hebrew word for strive, contend, wrestle. El means God.

Who are you? You are one who wrestles with God.

To some extent, the whole Exodus pattern is one big wrestling match. But especially the middle portion — the wilderness. The in-between place.

Think of the Joseph story. He starts off with a promise from God that comes in the form of two dreams. Both dreams mean the same thing. Joseph will be the head of his household. Everyone in the household will eventually serve and obey him.

But the bulk of the story is Joseph bouncing around in the in-between state. This is where Joseph does his wrestling with God. As a slave, in Potiphar’s house, in the prison. Only at the very end of the story do we see the promise come true.

The middle state is where you learn to trust God. And where you become qualified to enter into the promise God gave you. That’s the wrestling time.

That’s the time where you begin to doubt the whole plan. That’s the time where you can be tempted to accuse God. That's the time where you begin to wonder if the old place wasn’t so bad after all.

Most of the Exodus story takes place in the wilderness. By the end of chapter 12, they're out of Egypt. For the remaining 28 chapters, they’re in the wilderness wrestling with God just like their father Jacob did.

But unlike Jacob, who endured through the struggle, the people kept wanting to give up.

In chapter 14, Pharaoh pursues them to the Red Sea. They appear stuck.

They say, “Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (14:12)

In chapter 15 they arrive at a place with bitter undrinkable water.

“And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” (15:24)

In chapter 16 they have no food.

“And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (16:2-3)

In chapter 17 they have no water.

“Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (17:2-3)

Each time they were ready to give up. When they should’ve done what Jacob did, saying, “I will not let go of you until you bless me.”

Turn with me to Hebrews 10:32-39

Here the writer of Hebrews is trying to keep these new Christians on track. He wants them to keep hold of God and not let go, not shrink back to their former state.

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened… (leaving the old place)

, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. (Wilderness)

They held on to God.

For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

And the writer of Hebrews is trying to encourage them to keep doing so…

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Throughout the Bible we see the distinction between false Israel and true Israel. False Israel lets go of God in the wilderness. True Israel endures and says, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”

What’s going on in your life? See any Exodus patterns there?

Addiction to get rid of? Desire to marry or build a family? Struggling with your health? Working hard and still struggling financially? Raising a child with special needs?

You could give up. You could grumble. Or, you could grab hold of God and say, “I won't let go until you bless me.”

You have need of endurance.

Moses and Our Better Mediator

Now in the Exodus story, the people of God would’ve gotten nowhere without Moses serving as their mediator and intercessor.

It was always Moses who pleaded with the Lord on behalf of the people. He fought against Pharaoh to secure the people's freedom. He interceded with them when they were backed up against the red sea, when they came to the place of bitter waters, when they ran out of food.

Moses’ mediatorial role is best pictured in Israel’s first battle. There they encountered Amalek, kind of the Amalekites. Exodus 17 tells the story

Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. -- Ex 17:8-13

Christ is now our better mediator and intercessor. And unlike Moses, he never grows weary in interceding for us.

Hebrews 7:25 says, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

Moses was a good mediator. But he could do nothing about the people’s hearts. He couldn’t deliver them from their spiritual amnesia. They kept getting delivered and they kept forgetting that God had been faithful to them. He couldn't give them faith.

But the lord Jesus has free access to your heart. He can teach you how to wrestle. He can teach how to hang on to God.

After all, Jesus underwent the ultimate Exodus. The cross being the ultimate kind of middle-place. Suspended between heaven and earth. There he refused to let go of God. He endured the cross, forsaking its shame for the joy set before him.

He bound the strong man and plundered his house.

And we are his prize. We who were once in the domain of darkness have been brought into the kingdom of light. We who were once enemies have become true sons of Israel.

And it is through Christ that we enter the promised land.

So whatever you’re going through now. Or will go through in the future. Understand this.

You have need of endurance. And Christ will give you strength.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. — James 1:12

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. — Romans 2:7

I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. — Revelation 3:11

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, — Hebrews 12:1

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. -- Galatians 6:9

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. -- 1 Peter 5:6-10

Don’t grumble. Don’t give up. Grab hold of God.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.