Psalm 119:1-40.
Heb 4:12-16
Heb 12:18-29
Do you fear God? Do you fear Him? The Lord, the Lord, the gracious and compassionate God, who does not let the guilty go unpunished.
Exodus has shown us God, God in all his terrifying glory and holiness. He is the reality, real reality of the world we live in.
It is not our world. It is His.
God is not a figment of our imagination. He is real. All we see around us shows us his power, his glory, his majesty.
And if philosophy pretending to be science has put doubt in your mind that maybe all this just randomly happened, that design without a designer, that order came out of chaos, if you’ve been made uncertain by loudmouths with degrees talking about things they know nothing about and aren't qualified in – well, let history put your mind at rest. Because God has made himself known at various times and in various ways. Like in Exodus, in a BIG way!
When scientists run tests, they record the unusual events – the outliers, because if there are many of them, unexpected results, then it can mean their initial hypothesis is wrong. This book, the Bible is in a sense, a record of outliers, unexpected results, which prove wrong our hypothesis that there is no God.
There is a God, and this is His world. And each of us were made by him and for him. That is our purpose. That is who we are. We are made to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
We are much more that “bags of meat, breathing, eating, and defecating”, as a leading psychologist described us. Who will you listen to? Him? Or God? What’s his track record? What is God’s?
Today as we look back over what we have seen of our awesome God through the pages of Exodus, I want to focus our attention on four big questions. These are the Highlights in Exodus
1. Who is God? The power of our God
2. How do we know Him? The wonder of his living word
3. Who are we? The sinfulness of humans
4. Can we know God? The grace of God who makes a way of salvation – but that way of salvation is his
Now, I’m not going to start at chapter 20 and go through to 40. I’m going to pick up some of the big themes throughout.
First question, then:
1. Who is God? The power of our God.
Ex 20:18–19 When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram’s horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear. 19 And they said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us, or we will die!”
Have you ever been so afraid of God you thought you would die? Ever been terrified to open your Bible because He will speak to you! You know, we’re so used to the happy smiley Jesus. Our brother, our friend. And he is that. But He is more than that! He is the Living God, the consuming fire.
Remember the building of the Tabernacle? How it was built in layers. Do you remember why?
Not to protect God from us but to protect us from God.
What does that tell us about God?
Exodus opens with the people of God in slavery. They are oppressed by state power. The government in Egypt was misusing its power. Everywhere they looked they saw the power of Egypt. They saw their fellow believers enslaved, beaten, mocked, by those who believed themselves superior. They saw them bowing down to their idols, their idols which had brought so much success. Oil. Trygd. Democracy. Moral superiority. Sexual freedom. Waving the rainbow flag as they rejoiced at their victory over God. Oh, sorry, I mean the gods Ra and Osiris and Hapi, the god of the Nile.
You see, Egypt, like secular Norway, set themselves up against the God of the Universe. No god would tell them what to do.
Turn to Ex 7:4 Even then Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you. So I will bring down my fist on Egypt. Then I will rescue my forces—my people, the Israelites—from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment. 5 When I raise my powerful hand and bring out the Israelites, the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.”
The Egyptians lived in peace and security, patting themselves on the back for their own cleverness. The God of the Israelites, Yahweh – what a joke. They gave him no thought. These weak and puny slaves. These backward, sexually frustrated, women-hating, fools. Who needs their God, their Jesus? Secure in their own wisdom. Until the hammer falls.
If you’ve given no thought to God, this true story is given for your warning.
If you know God, this true story is recorded for your encouragement.
Ex 13:14–16 “And in the future, your children will ask you, ‘What does all this mean?’ Then you will tell them, ‘With the power of his mighty hand, the LORD brought us out of Egypt, the place of our slavery. 15 Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, so the LORD killed all the firstborn males throughout the land of Egypt, both people and animals. That is why I now sacrifice all the firstborn males to the LORD—except that the firstborn sons are always bought back.’ 16 This ceremony will be like a mark branded on your hand or your forehead. It is a reminder that the power of the LORD’s mighty hand brought us out of Egypt.”
Do we teach our children to fear the Lord?
Because he is mighty to save, yes, and in saving he will judge everything else. All the false gods of this world will fall before his awesome and terrifying power. He judged the gods of Egypt, they fell before Him. As we read on we see he judges the gods of Canaan and the surrounding lands. They fell before him. He will judge the gods of Norway too. And they will fall before him.
And he will judge his people. Because when He rescued them, He brought them to himself, to a fearful sight. To thunder and smoke and fire and terror.
Do you fear God? You should! He has terrifying power. Awesome power.
Who is God? Quite simply, he is One to be feared. He is immensely powerful. We forget that. The holy God. But if we fear him, then our fear is in the right place. Because he holds all things, rules over all things, controls all things. Why be afraid of anything else?
Because people are afraid of many things. Particularly death. People fear death. Psychiatrists call dealing with death “terror management theory”. Death is terrifying. And it is right to fear death. But the one who holds life and death in his hand, the one who can breathe through his nostrils and cause a hurricane. The one who, at a word can take the life of every firstborn in Egypt. He should be feared.
What are you afraid of? Think about it now.
Now think about the terror of the Holy Awesome God. What is that thing compared to him?
The second verse of “Amazing Grace” begins like this: “Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear”.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” says Proverbs.
Who is God? The one who is to be feared. And therefore we need fear nothing else!
And that brings us to our next question
2. How do we know him? Power of his word
Ex 20:1–2 Then God gave the people all these instructions: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
Ex 34:5–7 Then the LORD came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh. 6 The LORD passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. 7 I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations.”
Why are you at church? For a good social event? To have your worldview confirmed? To be looked after? To have your preconceptions affirmed? To not be lonely?
Now some of those are good, but none of those are why you are here. You are here for the same reason that you sit down at the dinner table every day. For without church, you die.
God’s word is our lifeline. How do we know God? We know god only through his word. He tells us who He is. “Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.” That’s who he is. We know God because he tells us who He is.
Imagine if He never spoke. Things just happened. No explanation. That’s the way of pagan religions. That’s the way of evolutionary psychology. Things happen and then you manufacture an explanation afterwards. “Yes, people developed compassion because the people who didn’t work together all died out.” It’s guessing in the dark, on the level of “Thunder is Thor’s hammer striking the anvil!”. If God never spoke we would still be in darkness.
Have you ever thanked God for speaking to you? That He relates to you, person to person. Remember how we read in 33:11 the people were in awe that Moses could speak to God face to face, as one would a friend. We have that same privilege!
Do we treasure that? We can know God because he speaks. And his word is powerful. His word is authoritative.
I want to show you something that I have found particularly helpful through the years. It is the four sources of authority. What is the highest authority in our lives, that everything else must defer to. Is it tradition, reason, emotion, or the Bible. We can probably identify certain church groups on this scale. But what about us. I think if we’re honest, most of us aren’t here. When God challenges us through His word the Bible how do we respond? We are lead by our feelings (that feels wrong, I won’t believe it), our mind (that’s illogical, I don’t believe it), or our traditions (that’s not what my mom said, or my pastor said, or that guy on TV). Now that’s partly good: we must think and feel and remember what others have said about the Bible – but at the end of the day who are we going to believe? God. Or our tradition? God. Or our own thoughts? God. Or our feelings.
A lot of this can be traced back to how we were saved. If you were saved through reason you are more likely to be in this box. Or through an experience – in the emotion box. But however we were saved we are all lead back to God’s word. Like the Israelites were saved dramatically through miracles and then came to Sinai where God spoke to them.
We need to train ourselves to move into the Bible box. His word is truth. True truth.
So that’s why we’re here. We go to church first, primarily, to hear God’s word. Everything else: friendships, service, compassion, affirmation, having a good time whatever – that’s all secondary, a by-product. This is central: we are here to hear from God. Because we want to know him. We’re gathered here to know GOD.
We learn that from Exodus. Because this gathering around the mountain is the first church. The word church simply means a gathering. “Let my people go, that they may worship me” was the command given to Pharaoh. And what is the worship we see? Not singing, dancing, sacrificing, doing things for God - but listening.
Church is the gathering of God’s people – but not just for anything. Church is the gathering of God’s people to hear God’s word.
Who is God? The powerful one who should be feared.
How do we know God? We know him through his powerful word.
3. Who are we? The sinfulness of humans
Ex 20:1–3 Then God gave the people all these instructions: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. 3 “You must not have any other god but me.
Ex 33:4–6 When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stopped wearing their jewellery and fine clothes. 5 For the LORD had told Moses to tell them, “You are a stubborn and rebellious people. If I were to travel with you for even a moment, I would destroy you. Remove your jewellery and fine clothes while I decide what to do with you.” 6 So from the time they left Mount Sinai, the Israelites wore no more jewellery or fine clothes.
Who are we? Well, we learn very quickly from Exodus, we are not God. Our words do not have the power to bring life. Our actions are limited. In fact, we find we are just like the Israelites. And they were slaves. Slaves physically, yes, but also in their minds. They thought like Egyptians. Moses was gone a bit long, so they made a Golden Calf. Seemed like a good idea. Logical. Something they’d seen their “betters’ doing in Egypt. Oops. And we too are slaves. Slaves to sin. And sin affects every part of us, also our mind.
There is a helpful doctrine called “total depravity”. And you need to know this about yourself: You are totally depraved! I am totally depraved.
Now that does not mean you are as evil as evil can be. But it does mean that sin has corrupted every single part of you. There is no area of you that is not corrupted by sin. Even our minds. Our thoughts are darkened. The Israelites thought the Calf was a great idea!
An example of this is when Petter went through some of the laws God gives Israel. Some of them seem barbaric, wrong. But as Petter explained and we could see how they would work out in practice, how they are given to protect the weak and uplift the poor – and then we see the kind of laws we make with our wisdom which seem to be so good but all too often end up oppressing the weak and poor. We are not as wise as we think. And it’s because we forget about sin. We are not good people altruistic going through life spreading joy, and we do not live in a world full of those people!
For example. There is an “epidemic” of loneliness now in the UK. 9 million people are lonely. They are raising funds! They have a minister of loneliness! This is the result of selfishness - sin. Your own selfishness and the selfishness of those around you. As we move further away from the gospel we see the effects. People can’t live together any more. Can’t be bothered to look after each other, bear with one another. Sin is always the problem. The root cause of all family breakups, of divorce is sin. There is no great mystery here why things go wrong. People are sinners.
There is a way that seems right to a man. It builds a Golden Calf. We laugh. We read chapter after chapter about the Tabernacle, its layers, its altar for sacrifices, the barriers, the washing, the blood, oh goodness, the blood! And it all seems a bit much! It’s illogical – wrong - to our minds. It feels like overkill. Why? Because we don’t really believe we’re all that bad. We don’t actually believe we’re sinners.
Four areas of authority. Which one do you trust? ACTUALLY.
Do you realise your heart and mind is corrupt, broken, in darkness?
For if we had no sin, why would blood sacrifice be necessary. If we had no sin, why would the Son Himself come out of Heaven, subject himself to becoming man, be scorned, mocked, beaten and crucified, and then to die. Look to the Cross, and believe.
Who is God? The one to be feared, yes.
How do we know Him? Through his powerful living word.
Who are we? Sinners. Corrupt and foolish
But, can we know God? Yes. Remember his words.
Ex 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
He is mighty, powerful, the God to be feared. “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace that fear relieved”. Because He is also the God who saves sinners. He is the God who comes to live with his people! Not just in a tent! But he became one of us. Fully human. Fully God. In Jesus Christ our Lord. And Jesus is our mediator. Moses was playing his role when he ran to the Lord to plead for the Israelites after their sin. And Jesus is now pleading for us to the Father, our high priest who has offered the perfect sacrifice on the Cross. His death means that we can be free.
God is terrifying. But to fear him drives us to him, and we find that fear relieved. There is a way to be made right with God, and his name is Jesus.
So let us draw near to our great God. Let us not fear any frightening thing, because what is that next to God? Let us throw aside any other voice and trust his word because there is power. And let us love one another with his love. No loneliness epidemic here. God does not just bring individuals to him, but forms communities. The gathering at Sinai was the first church. The way we love and care for each other is a witness that will shine all the stronger. Because our relationships are based on God’s love. Not our selfishness.
Who is God? Awesome. Powerful. Terrifying. Wonderful. Love.
Don’t be afraid of anything. Don’t listen to anything above him. He is the Ultimate Reality.
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