|giv| Week 3
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
I am one of the pastors here. We are going to be in the book of Ecclesiastes today, specifically Ecclesiastes 5, as we are closing out week three of our Give Series. We pause every year for our Give Series because this is a season in America that gets quite overwhelming with materialism and consumerism. And we want to pause every year and be reminded of what biblical generosity looks like, what a biblical approach to money looks like with the backdrop of a culture and a time that is very much the opposite. So we're in week three of this.
We'll be in the book of Ecclesiastes, which is a book that speaks about the vanity of life. So vanity meaning vain, which is empty, conceited, worthless, pointless. It is a book that talks about how vain putting hope in this life is, and specifically Ecclesiastes 5 is the vanity of riches. How vain it is to put a hope and to get your life towards wealth and riches. And as I was preparing for this, there's a vivid picture from a novel that I read years ago that I just wanted to read that paints a very vivid picture of what it looks like to live your life for the sake of riches. It comes from The Testament by John Grisham in the very kind of opening scene of that book.
And it's a man who is very wealthy, has lots of money, and is on his deathbed. He is narrating what a life spent pursuing riches looks like. So I just want to read from this. So he says, on his deathbed, I'm an old man, lonely and unloved, sick and hurting and tired of living. I'm ready for the hereafter. It has to be better than this.
I own the tall glass building in which I sit, and 97% of the company housed in it, below me and land around half a mile in three directions, and 2,000 people who work here, and the 20,000 who do not. I own the pipeline under the land that brings gas to my building from my fields in Texas. And I own the utility lines that deliver electricity. And I lease the satellite unseen miles above my head from which I once barked my commands to my empire flung around the world. My assets exceed $11 billion. I own silver in Nevada and copper in Montana, coffee in Kenya, coal in Angola, rubber in Malaysia, natural gas in Texas, crude oil in Indonesia, and steel in China.
My company owns companies that produce electricity and make computers and build dams and print paperbacks and broadcast signals to my satellite. I have subsidiaries with divisions in more countries than anyone can find. I once owned all the appropriate toys, the yachts and jets and blondes, homes in Europe, farms in Argentina, an island in the Pacific, thoroughbreds, even a hockey team. But I've grown too old for toys. The money is the root of my misery. I had three families, three ex-wives who bore seven children, six of whom are still alive, doing all they can to torment me.
To my knowledge, I fathered all seven and buried one. I should say his mother buried him. I was out of the country. I'm estranged from all the wives and all the children. They're gathering here today because I'm dying and it's time to divide the money. And you hear that and you see a man that had everything that you could want in this life.
He had all. He had the hockey team. He had the thoroughbreds. He had the farm in Argentina. It's worth $11 billion. And at the end of his life, he's looking at everything that he's worked for in this life.
And he's showing how vain it is, how meaningless it is. Now, most of us are not going to own farms in Argentina. We ain't rolling like that. We're not going to own stuff like that. But I would argue that many of us have some financial goals, right?
Those financial goals involve building an amount of wealth so that one day you can have the security and the comfort, maybe the adoration that comes with that. There are reasons why we're building this wealth for our lives. And I want us to reckon with a picture like this this morning of someone who put all their hope in the riches of this life and realized it wasn't worth it. That we're in danger of falling into the same type of regret at the end of our lives if we spend it pursuing riches for riches' sake. So, we're going to look at Ecclesiastes and really sit in that picture of what it looks like to pursue riches and how vain that picture is.
And then I want to look at a better picture for us that paints a better life that does not worship the things of this world. So, let me pray for us and then we'll walk through this together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us buy into the biblical vision, the biblical approach to money, that we might see you as better for our sake. I pray you'd help us as we're in the midst of listening to this and thinking through our budgets and all the things we're doing in this Give Project, that we would listen and receive the word and respond how you would desire. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Alright, so, we're going to look at two experts today. Two expert opinions. The first is Solomon's. So, Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. And Solomon, in this section, is talking about the vanity of riches. And if anyone, if there's any expert on riches to listen to, it is Solomon.
Solomon was one of the richest men, one of the richest people that ever lived. They have done some calculations up from looking at the scriptures and seeing what his net worth would be in today's dollars. And it's anywhere from one to two trillion dollars. Trillion. One to two, that's, the state GDP in South Carolina is around 230 billion dollars. Okay, so Solomon was worth upwards of ten times the state GDP.
That's bonkers. That's a lot of money. And he had about anything you could possibly want in this life. So, we should heed the wisdom of his expert opinion. Because he had all the riches. And he's going to explain to us why it is so empty and worthless to bank your life on this.
He's going to give two overarching reasons for this. And the first is that wealth never satisfies. Wealth never satisfies. We're going to pick it up in verse 10. He says, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money. Nor he who loves wealth with his income.
This also is vanity. He comes out and says, Wealth is never going to satisfy. It's never going to satisfy. You'll come back to it over and over again. And it's never going to quench your thirst. It's like being on the open ocean.
Thirsting. And believing that the ocean water is below you. If you just drink of it, it will satisfy you. And it never will. It will leave you longing. And coming back for more and more as it dries you out.
Wealth never satisfies. But we believe that a little more might. If I just had a little bit more. I feel this, y'all. When my wife and I, we first got married. We moved to Louisville, Kentucky so I could start seminary.
And I think our first year's tax return was like $20,000. That's not a joke. It was like $20,000. I remember in that period thinking, man, if we could just, if we just made like $23,000. If we just brought in like $23,000 or $24,000, something like that. I just, you know, we're paying our way through seminary.
We might be able to do this. If we just made a little bit more, we'd be okay. And then the next year, we did make more. And the next year, we did make more. And the next year, we did make more. And what happens is every year you make more, you think, if I just had a little bit more.
Just, not a lot, but just a little bit more, I'd be okay. And that's never how it works. Because wealth never satisfies. You can want more and more and more. It's a bottomless pit. You will never get enough of it.
Some of the most miserable people that you'll ever meet are people that have lots of money. They've got it all. Everything that you think you could possibly want in this life, they've got it. And they are not happy. Wealth never satisfies. And he goes on further and unpack how it doesn't satisfy.
In verse 11, he says, When goods increase, they increase who eat them. And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? He says, you know how unsatisfying it is? The NLT says, the paraphrase says, the more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. There's one commentator that says that wealth attracts human leeches. Which I really appreciate the bluntness of that commentary.
And that's true. If you read biographies or watch biopics or documentaries of athletes or musicians who make it big, their stories are all the same. As soon as I got money, the people came out the woodworks. And they came to take because they had the object that everyone wants in this life. And they're coming for it. That's why in the NFL when they train rookies, they put rookies through these classes now.
Some of the classes they put NFL rookies through is you're going to have uncles and cousins and friends and that guy from high school that come out that want to start a business, that want to start a restaurant, that want to start a record label. You need to understand they're coming for what you've got. And we might think, well, I don't think I'm ever going to be on that level. That anyone's going to want what I have. But the principle still applies, right?
Because what happens is, is even the middle class life, is that you level up. You level up to a bigger house. And what happens when you level up to a bigger house? Things come in to leech the raise that you got to buy that house, right? You got a bigger power bill. You got to fill that house with more things.
You're now in a neighborhood where your neighbor is really, really particular about his yard. And your yard looks like a scrub, so you got to put money in that yard so you can compete with the neighbors. Like, that's life. You buy the car, and then you got to buy the things that come with it. The more expensive tires that come with that truck. They're things that continue to siphon off little by little to where you're finally saying again, oh, if I just had more, I'd be satisfied.
At the end of that verse, he just says, what's the advantage of when you finally get those things? You'll just look at them. Think about all the things that you accumulate every time that you so loved on Amazon, which is why you hit buy an hour. You're so saved up for it again. You end up just looking at it as it wastes space in your home. It doesn't satisfy.
He goes on to say in verse 12, sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. That's a poetic way of saying that you can go to bed with a full stomach, with a comfortable life, and still be wanting sleep that you cannot get. It doesn't bring the peace and the rest that you so desire. And some of us who are having trouble, you know, making sure that we're trying to pay our bills and save up for the things that we want to, we're like, we're losing sleep over what? Over money, over paying bills, over this, over that. And I think if I just had, if I just had a little more, I would not be so worried at night.
I'd just be able to go to sleep. It's all I'm going to sing. Wrong. No. I was once at a lunch with two businessmen who were worth eight figures plus. So these guys had ten plus million dollars.
And I listened to them both for about five minutes talk about losing sleep. I mean, they were like, yeah, I know, I've tried this, and I've tried this product, and I've done this, and the other one's like, yeah, no, I think I've tried that too. I want to try. They went back and forth for five minutes talking about how they're losing sleep. Why? Because the more you have, the more you have to worry about.
The more that you're going to lose sleep over. It does not satisfy. It does not bring the rest and the peace that you so desire. And Solomon continues to share the vanity of it. He says, verse 13, there is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun. Riches were kept by their owner to his hurt.
Or as the paraphrase in the NLT says, hoarding riches harms the saver. But there's this, what happens in life is there are objects and there are things that we so want. The things that we say, what are the things you've been saving up for? The things you've been wanting. It's the first couple things that come to mind. And once you get them, you grab hold of them.
Those become the most glorious objects in your life. The most beautiful, wonderful things that you've desired. You lay hold to them with a death grip. Not releasing your hands before the Lord saying, do what you want with it. But you just so badly want those things.
And it's to our own demise. There are people that catch monkeys for a living, which has a job. And one of the ways they catch monkeys is they find tree holes and they put shiny objects in those tree holes because monkeys love shiny objects. They put a little apparatus outside the hole. So when the monkey sticks his hand into the tree and grabs the shiny object, tries to pull it out and it can't because his hand and the object are too big.
But monkeys won't let the shiny object go. They won't release it. They'll let their hand out. The same works on children. They see them drop a toy behind the couch. They sit there for like a minute.
Just like, I can't get it out. And it's like, well, you've got to let it go. But that's us. Like to our own demise. We'll grab hold and lay hold to the object. Because we work so hard for this.
Do you know how hard I work? How many hours I put in? How much I sacrifice to finally get this life? And we cling to it thinking that's what's going to satisfy. But it's actually to our own demise.
Wealth never satisfies. Solomon drills that home. It never satisfies. And then he shifts into another major reason that we should not put our hope in riches. Why it is so vain. And the second reason is you're going to lose it all anyways.
Not only does it not satisfy. You're going to lose it all. In verse 14 he gives the first way. And those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is the father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. A lot of people make money and then they lose it.
That's life. It happens over and over and over again. There are a lot of young men across the world who this year has been a very bad year. Because they lost everything in the crypto markets. I mean they went hard. They put all their savings, their story after story.
And those markets crashed and crumbled. And they lost everything. That's life. Real estate. Businesses. Bad investments.
It's fleeting. You're going to lose it. And if you don't lose it in a bad business deal, you're going to lose it when you die. And that's the second point on that. It says in verse 15, As he came from his mother's womb, he shall go again naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. So if you don't lose it in bad business deals, you will lose it when you die.
Naked you came into this world with nothing. And naked you will leave this world with nothing. The old adage about a U-Haul. You don't see a U-Haul behind a hearse. Right? It's played out.
You hear it a lot. But it's true. We live our lives like that's not true. We live our lives for the things that we can accumulate on this earth. You cannot take it with you. And we're in danger of being just like that man in John Grisham's The Testament.
Working so hard for everything in this life and realizing what was it for. It's vanity. And Solomon closes out the section. And this, also verse 16, is a grievous evil. Just as he came, so shall he go. And what gain is there to him who toils for the wind?
Like a person outside is just trying to grasp the wind. And it's like, what are you doing? It's like, I'm trying to, I'm toiling for the wind. I'm going to harness it. And I get it. And it's like, you look like a fool.
Trying to grasp what will never actually satisfy him. And what you cannot take with you. That's Solomon, our first expert, giving us advice. And we need to heed his advice, y'all. We need to heed his wisdom. I mean, listen.
We will find expert opinions everywhere else, right? You will find mom blogs and Instagram pages, things. Where people, like my wife's Instagram, she's just going through it sometimes. It's just like the next one. Here's the next way to change your life and do this. And here's the next thing.
You want to build this. Next thing you want to, it's just like, or bro podcast or bro YouTube pages. Or it's just, I mean, there's advice and advice and advice and expert opinions and expert opinions. And we'll go everywhere else to find expert opinions. But the scriptures, when Solomon, who lived the life of having everything, and it's telling us it's not worth it.
It's vanity. It is striving after the wind. And it will not ever satisfy. And you won't take it with you when you die. So, that's the first expert opinion. Then we get to the New Testament.
We get the second expert opinion for today. And it's Jesus. And he builds on that vanity argument to give us some really good news. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, verses 19 to 21, he says this. Jesus says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. So, very reminiscent of Ecclesiastes.
Don't spend your life building treasures that will fade, that will rust, that can be stolen. But then he inserts the good news. But, verse 20, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. That we would be a people that don't work and strive to build wealth and treasures in this life. But we would look into the next life, into eternity.
And we'd send all of our treasures there. That all of our life is spent aimed towards eternity. Saying, that's what we're living for. I'm going to store up treasures and riches there. I'm sending it all forward. That's what Jesus is trying to paint for us.
Don't live looking down in this life. Look forward to the next and live your entire life in light of that. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. Those treasures do not fade. They do not rust. They are timeless.
They are kept for you, guarded. They will not be stolen. And then he ends with, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That if your treasure is there. If your heart is, if your treasure is there, your heart will live in light of eternity. Because that's where your heart is.
It's not in the things of this world. It is with Christ in eternity. So the way that you live your life in light of that looks different. Noticeably different. There are two different lives. There is a life that thinks that the here and now and the material that we have in front of us is it.
So you buy an American dream. You get stacks and stacks. You build it up. You maximize to live your best life out of this. And then there's a different life that lives with the light of eternity. It looks radically different.
It seeks to grow in generosity and obedience to God and what he calls us to. Those are two different lives. Now, if you've been here a few years, that doesn't sound unfamiliar. We say some version of that every year at Give. Some of you have been here one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight years. Which means you've sat through one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight different Give series.
Matthew 6 has shown up probably every other year. And some... None of this is new. We hear this over and over and over again. But there is a difference between hearing this and doing this.
James 1 will be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. And I feel this, y'all. I feel this as we prep every year to preach these sermons. That I just... I just... Okay, yep, we're doing Give.
Which means I've got to reorient my soul. Okay, I've got to look at my budget. Ugh. What can I do? Can I do just enough to get the Holy Spirit off my back? It's one of the things that Chet was hitting on last week.
Is that we... We hear this... But if it doesn't radically actually change our lives... If you've been through one, two, three, four, five, six different Give series. If you've heard sermon after sermon... That talks about the approach to money.
And your life has not grown in generosity. Your life has not changed. That's a problem. It's possible you're hearing this and you're not actually believing this. That it might live that out. But I feel this, y'all.
I feel this in the prep. Every year we do give... There's a part of me that's like, I don't want... I've got to do the tough soul work of looking in... And figuring out how I've got to repent. How I've got to grow in this.
And I also personally... I know the American church is known for talking a lot about money. So I don't want to fall. And it's like, no. Jesus cares immensely about this. It is so unbelievably important because our hearts are so tied to this.
And so captured by riches. That we need to actually release our hands before Him and say, what do you want to do with this? Because those are two different lives. Randy Alcorn in his book, The Treasure Principle, talks about how he visited two graves in Egypt. He went to King Tut's tomb. To that display.
And then pharaohs back then, they were buried with all of their riches. So they buried them underneath the ground and stored the riches with them. And there must be some part of Egyptian belief that you could take those with you into the afterlife. But King Tut's tomb has all his riches. And you can see the faded riches that over time that he had. But then he also visited a different grave.
He went to the grave of a man named William Borden. William Borden was the heir to a large family fortune and family business in the Midwest in the early 1900s. So he was set to be able to take over millions and millions of dollars. And he heard the gospel and he believed. And he said, no. Much to his family's dismay, he said, no.
I'm actually, I want to go on the mission field. Specifically, he wanted to go and reach Uyghur Muslims in China. Which if you've followed international news the last few years, you've heard a lot about the Uyghur Muslims because they're some of the most oppressed people in China at the moment. But 100 years ago, he said, I want to reach those people. I want to reach the Uyghur Muslims. And much to his family's dismay, he left that family fortune and business behind.
And he moved to Cairo, Egypt to learn Arabic so that he could take the gospel to China. And after a few months of learning Arabic, he contracted cerebral meningitis. And he died at the young age of 25. And he left. He didn't have his whole family's fortune, but he had $800,000, which is still a lot of money back then in today's dollars. And he left that all to Chinese missions.
And when you look at that life, it doesn't make a lot of sense. It doesn't make a lot of sense unless you know who he did it for. And that's why one of the things that's written on his tomb is this. Apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation of such a life. What a powerful message to Mark your life. That apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation for that type of life.
It doesn't make sense at all that you would leave the comforts of an American family fortune. All the comforts and things that went with that. To go to another country and die at 25. It doesn't make any sense. It's inexplicable. Unless you know who he did it for.
Unless you know his Savior. Unless you know Christ. Because with Christ, that absolutely makes sense. That's the most reasonable thing you could do. If you understand the gospel and what Jesus sets us apart for. And you understand this message that he teaches in Matthew 6.
And the message that Paul in Philippians 4 teaches. Paul in Philippians 4 is at the end of his letter in Philippians is raising support. He's raising support for the mission. And this is what he says in 417. He says, Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. Not that I seek the gift.
That's not the main point. I want to seek the fruit that is credited, as the NIV says, to your account. And when you put that up aside, Matthew 6. This idea of storing up treasures in heaven. And storing them to a future credit. When you understand those side by side.
It absolutely makes sense. With Christ, that's 100% understandable. We are called to live our lives with a future mindset. To believe that there are riches that we can store up for us in eternity. And I know when I say that, that some of us are like, oh man, I don't. Aren't we supposed to just want Christ?
Like, isn't it just enough that we want Christ in eternity? That we should live in light of that? And Jesus says no, actually. Which pushes back on something that for me is hard. No. There's a reason why he says, Store up for yourselves.
Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. There's a reason why Paul says, To store up these things to be credited to your account. There is this mysterious future reward. We don't really know what that is. We don't. We know what it's not.
That these extra riches in heaven, It's not the vain riches of this life. It's not gold. It's not jewels. It's not material things like that. The new heavens and the new earth, The picture that you get in the book of Revelation, The streets lined with gold. It's not that.
So I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's extra face time with Jesus or what. I don't know what that is. But that's held out in front of us. And it's certainly seen as unbelievably good. Jesus calls it treasure.
Whatever that is with Christ that we gain with Him, It is wonderful. And it comes to first believing the gospel through faith. Believing that Jesus died for our sins and our rebellion. And that He rose to new life. And gained us a new life in Him. And that it is every step of the way believing what Jesus says.
It is trusting Him at His word. When He says, Live your life in light of eternity. And store up riches there. It's believing that. And actually doing that. And it is the reason why, In this gift series, It's the reason why we're doing a gift project that we're doing.
It's the reason why we're getting behind Jamie Kerm. One of our church members who decided to leave the comforts of America. To go to Lebanon. A country that is falling apart right now. That has the highest inflation rate in the world. And is falling apart.
To go and take the gospel to the Kurdish people. To be a help. And to be a missionary. To learn the language. There's a, Y'all, She, One of the things, We talk about once a week. And it was just, About a month or so ago, She was talking about, How she, She left, When you're over there, You leave, Because you don't have long term permanent residency there.
So you gotta leave. She went to Cyprus, Which is an island nation right next to it. Went to Cyprus for a couple days. She'll have to do that in the future. To keep her visa renewed and what not. She went there.
And we talked about it. She's like, It just was wonderful. To go to Cyprus and to like, Take a hot shower. And to like, Have electricity that doesn't turn off in the middle of the night. And to not feel like I'm on edge all the time. Because Lebanon and Beirut right now, It's really intense.
And it's, It's not the safest. And, She was just good for a couple days, Just not experienced that. And she's saying, I want to go back to that. I want to be there. I want to help the church. I want to help make disciples.
I want to help disciple women. I want that. That's unexplainable without Christ. Now, She's believing in something that's more eternal, That's more valuable, That's more valuable than anything this world has to offer. And we're saying, Yes, Amen. And we're going to get behind that.
And as Chet opened up this morning, She got to raise about $2,500 a month to stay on the field. She's at $100 now. So we get to come behind that, And partner with her for something that is bigger than ourselves. Because this life, And the things in this life, And the things that you would give up in your budget, To get behind something like that, It's not worth it. It's two different pictures of what your deathbed could look like. You'd be on your deathbed, Thinking about all the things that you've worked so hard for.
The life that you put blood, sweat, and tears into, That you're getting ready to leave behind. Or, You could be on your deathbed, A few breaths away, Giddy, Excited. Because everything that you've worked for, Is just a few breaths away. Those are two different lives. And I so badly, As a Christian, I want to press into that second life. And I so badly for our church, Want us to press into that second life.
Because that life is truly better.
|giv| Week 2
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We're in the second week of our Give series. And every year around Christmas, we have, since we first planted this church in 2013, we have taken the time, 2012, taken the time to intentionally try to give some money away around Christmas to push back some on the, just kind of the cultural tone of consumerism that we're handed in life. And so we want to intentionally try to rally ourselves to be generous.
And last week, I got to say from the stage, one of the most exciting things that we can say as a church, which is a young lady from our church has committed her life to the call, at least committing for the next year. But she's devoting herself to mission work among an unreached people group in Lebanon amongst the Kurdish people. And so we are excited to get to support her in that and get to rally around her. Earlier this year, we showed you all this map. And we said that we live right now where there are more unreached peoples on the globe than ever before. At any time in history, there are more people who do not know Jesus than ever before.
And that the red is a bunch of unreached people groups. There has been no gospel penetration into their culture. And that's a problem. But that we're distinctly set up as a church to be able to participate in the work the Lord is doing. Because there are three, not one, but three mission organizations that actually are on the third floor of our education building over here. That are in the 1040 window and working among unreached people groups.
And this summer, Jamie Kern, who you all might know in life or you might recognize from this slide that you've been seeing, if you show up early enough to sit in here and see it. So all four of you know about that slide. And she did an internship between us and 1040 Hope. And she. Sorry. Do I have like a boom thing going on constantly?
Is it just getting on my nerves? Can you have your hand held? She. Oh, thank you. No, this is Spencer Carey. Thank you, Spencer.
Everybody give Spencer a hand. Is this better? All right. So I'm going to have to keep this on my ear because it's going to dangle and get on my nerves. So I'll just keep it on my ear.
And I'll have two mics. It's going to look awesome. All right. She. She did a joint internship between our church and 1040 Hope over the summer. And then she went to Lebanon for the past three months where she's been trying to learn the Kurdish language, where she's been working among the Kurdish people.
And she's been investigating the call to be a full time missionary. And she has committed to that. And so we get to support. And so what we said we're going to try to do is raise fifteen thousand dollars for a vehicle. There's a picture of her doing some work. Yeah.
Oh, there we go. For a vehicle. There we go. No, it's I don't know. Things are happening now. All right.
So we're going to fifteen thousand dollars for a vehicle for her to use for the next year while she's there and a year's worth of support. So we're wanting to raise fifteen thousand dollars now to buy a vehicle and we're wanting to pledge twenty nine thousand two hundred and twenty five dollars for a full year of support for her. And so we're going to get to talk more about exactly how to do that. But we're excited to get to do that, to get to participate in what the Lord is doing amongst the unreached people. And for her to be able to be over there and help get more missionaries over there. So it's an encouraging thing for us.
And so at in our gift series. We want to push back some by intentionally giving our money away. We want to push back some on what our culture tells us about how to think about money, because there's a couple of things that our culture gives us that it's just assumed. One of them is one of the ways to tell how well you're doing in life is how much stuff do you have? How nice is your stuff? So that when we picture ourselves in the future, a lot of times there's no like personal growth.
I just picture me, but richer. And that's like, yeah, look, I'm doing well. Like if you let me look ahead into the future, is my house bigger? I'm doing great. Like that's kind of how we've just been taught to think through life that we ought to have more money, more stuff, and that if we have more money and more stuff, then we'll be happier. This is like a cultural agreed upon reality.
The other one is that we are that what we consume defines who we are. So that this type of person wears this type of clothes. Real men drive this. Real men eat red meat. That there's some sort of like consumption turns us into things. Like real moms like you buy GIF or whatever.
Like we just have this. If you partake in our product, you make yourself into a certain type of person. As if somehow eating and wearing things turns us into a thing, develops our character. But we just have this as a cultural thing. And so what we do in our gift series is we say let's open our Bibles and let's see what the Lord has to say about how we handle our money. So grab your Bible and go to Luke chapter 3.
We're going to read a passage that I think you're probably familiar with. If you've read the Gospel of Luke, you certainly are. It's John the Baptist preaching. And I think in general we read this and we just keep on moving. It's like John the Baptist is the forerunner to Jesus. So run through what John the Baptist says and let's get to Jesus.
And I think there's potential for us to have read this, for you to have read this, for you to have heard this before, and for us to have missed one of the things that he says that I think is very important for us to see. So we're going to read through this. We're going to walk through it today. And we're going to stop in this section that I think maybe we've read before but haven't considered. And hopefully it's corrective and challenging and encouraging to us as we consider our finances and joining together to be a part of God's mission and giving some money away. So let's pray.
Father, we thank you for how good you are. Lord, we thank you for the love and the grace and the kindness that you've shown us. We thank you for your word. We thank you for Jamie Kern and the work of your spirit in her and all those like her who surrender to your call to go to hard places to deliver wonderful news. And so, Lord, we pray that you would bless her work, that you would bless our endeavor to raise support, and that you would call more people to go wherever you send them and surrender to you so that more people might proclaim the name of Jesus. And love you and be loved by you for eternity.
In Jesus' name, amen. We're in Luke chapter 3. We're going to go through the first 18 verses. In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip, tetrarch of the region of Iteria and Trachonitis and Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas. Okay, all of that is just to time stamp exactly when this happens. It would be like if you were talking to a Carolina fan a couple weeks ago and you asked them, you weren't familiar with the Carolina-Clemson rivalry, and you asked them, is Carolina any good?
Like, do y'all usually win this? And they had to answer, the last time we won this game was at the beginning of the second Obama administration. Like, you just time stamp things. Like, I remember what gas was during the Reagan administration. It's that sort of thing. And so, I don't, but people do.
That sort of thing. And that's what he's doing. As he's saying, it was during the reign of all these people at this time. And then he gets to what he's wanting to say, which is, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. Meaning that John becomes a prophet. He begins to speak God's word.
He begins to proclaim this. And he does this in the wilderness. He doesn't do this in a well-populated area. He just starts proclaiming it in the wilderness, which I always wondered how that started. Like, he's in the wilderness. Was he just going for it and then someone heard it and was like, I'm going to go get more people?
Or did he just find the first person he saw and start proclaiming the word? I don't know. It doesn't tell us. But he's in the wilderness. He begins to proclaim the word. But then people start to come to him.
And it says this. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So they had baptism. They had the idea of baptism as like an initiation, right? The Pharisees would baptize people. You would actually baptize yourself.
So you would go in. You would wash yourself. It was a baptism where you basically washed yourself and you said, I'm committing to this. But he does a baptism where he's baptizing people. And it's a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And this is new.
And it's wonderful. Because the Pharisees, who were the primary religious teachers in this area, their message was, be good. And if you're good, here's how to be better. Here's how to be intentional with your being good. But if you've been bad.
If you've sinned. If you've run away from the Lord. Sorry. It's over with for you. There was no real. Here's how to come back.
Here's how to get out from being cursed. Here's how to repent. Here's how to turn from that. And so when John begins to proclaim, have you messed everything up? I've got good news for you. You can repent.
You can turn from that. And you can be forgiven. And this is good news. And this is new. Not new. The Old Testament had times like this.
But this is new for these people. For them to begin to understand that what God wants from them is that they can turn away from their sin. And they can turn to the Lord. And so he begins to proclaim this baptism of repentance. And repentance is saying, what I've been doing isn't working. What I've been doing is sinful.
And I need to be changed. I need the Lord to forgive me. I need to. Basically, what I have is a bunch of mess. And I need that taken away. And I'm going to turn from it and start doing what I'm supposed to.
But this is opportunity for forgiveness and repentance. And so people start coming to him. That they could be forgiven of sins. It says, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet. So this is the fulfillment of prophecy that John's doing.
It says, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled. And every mountain and hill shall be made low. And the crooked shall become straight.
And the rough places shall become level ways. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. So John is proclaiming a baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sins. And he is the forerunner to Christ. And when Christ comes, he's going to proclaim repentance. And he's going to call people to faith in himself.
That he is the Christ. He is the one to come. And he's going to call people to believe and have faith in himself. And then Jesus is going to die to seal our forgiveness. And he's going to rise. So that he secures for us what John proclaims.
Which is that you can be forgiven of your sins. Jesus accomplishes that in his death. In his burial. In his resurrection. So that when the message of repentance and forgiveness makes it to us.
It's confirmed. And sealed. And made possible by the work of Jesus. Jesus. So that today.
If you have not repented. And been forgiven. You can be. The message still applies to us. That you can say. I've made a mess of things.
I am a sinner and deserving of wrath. And justice. If God brought justice down on me. It would not be good. It would be harmful to me. In my sin.
And I need forgiveness. And it's offered to you. The message of John is offered to you. And accomplished through Christ. So that's what John's doing.
Verse 7. He said therefore. To the crowds that came out to be baptized by him. You brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Which is bold strategy when you're preaching.
Maybe we should start starting off. Instead of when we stand up and say. We're so glad you're here. We believe Jesus is better than everything else. We say. You snakes.
Why are you here? Who told you to come here? It's like. And I feel like if I was there. I almost wonder if someone was like. You did John.
You're the one telling us to flee from the wrath to come. Right? Like that's why we came to you. But it seems as if there are some people. Who are coming out to see the spectacle. That there are people who are just showing up.
To see what he's doing. We know from other gospels. That there are Pharisees showing up. Just to kind of question him. Like hey what are you up to? And they're not actually there.
To flee from the wrath to come. They're not actually there repentant. They're just there to see what's going on. And so it says. That he says this to the crowds that came. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
And then he's going to give them. Two commands. One reason. He says this. Verse 8. Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.
And do not begin to say to yourselves. We have Abraham as our father. For I tell you. God is able from these stones. To raise up children. For Abraham.
So his command is bear fruit in keeping with repentance. So bear fruit would be. Have. Have. This show up. In your life.
So if you said. I've been working really hard. At learning a new language. And it's just now starting to bear some fruit. Or we've been really trying to crack into this new market. And it's just now starting to bear some fruit.
Or I've been working out and exercising for a year. And it's just now starting to bear some fruit. What you mean is. It's just now starting to show up. You can tell. It's beginning just like if I planted a tree.
And it's just now starting to bear some fruit. It's now doing what I wanted my apple tree to do this whole time. And so what he says is not bear fruit period. He says bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Meaning that. They genuinely turned from their sin.
Asked for forgiveness. That comes first. And if that is real. Then all he says is. Look like it. Look like you've actually surrendered to the Lord.
Look like you've actually asked for him to work in your heart. Look like you've actually turned away from your wickedness to him. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And then he says. And do not say to yourself. We have Abraham as our father.
I tell you the truth. God is able to from these stones raise up children for Abraham. He says. No. You repent. You turn from your sin.
And then you grow in light of that. And don't try to recount your record. As to why you're okay. So if we're bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. What we're doing is we're looking to God. And we're saying.
Because of who he is. Because of the forgiveness. Because of the grace. Therefore I live this way. But. If they're looking and saying.
Well I'm a son of Abraham. So I'm fine. I'm already in. Then they're looking at somehow their track record. Their place in life. And they're saying.
This is what makes me okay. And he just says. No. So. I think one of the ways that this might translate. To southern culture.
Is. I'm a Christian. I grew up in the church. I'm a Christian. I was baptized when I was like 11. 10 or 11.
But there's no. Evidence of. The work of Christ in our heart. There's no fruit. In keeping with repentance. I've had people.
Say before. Oh yeah. I'm a Christian. My dad was a deacon. Okay. Show me that passage.
I was talking to a guy. I played football. I was in high school. I said. We were talking about something. I said.
Are you a Christian? He said. Yeah man. I'm black. It's like. I might be in trouble.
But are we basing it off of something other than. I've surrendered to the Lord. And then. Out of that. It shows up. That's what he's saying.
So don't bank off of something else. Don't lean into something else. Other than. Looking to the Lord. And his grace. And his forgiveness.
So he keeps going. He tells them why. Verse 9. Even now. The axe is laid. To the root.
Of the trees. Every tree. Therefore. That does not bear good fruit. Is cut down. And thrown.
Into the fire. All right. He says. You don't want to get this wrong. And here's what we need to understand. This morning.
As we consider this. We are saved. By grace. Through faith. Not our own works. So that no one may boast.
That's our memory verse. This. This month. As a church. We're saved by grace. Through faith.
It's not our own works. So that nobody would boast. So what we have to understand is. It's not bear fruit. So that you might be saved.
It's surrender. And then look like that's happened in your heart. And that matters. It matters that we don't get that out of order. But it does matter.
If you remember us walking through 1 John. It does matter that it shows up. It does matter that it's actually real. It's not just something we say happened. Because if it actually happened. It begins to show up in the way we live.
And so one of the ways that we can know. Whether or not we're really in the faith. We can't get in the faith by bearing fruit. But we can know whether or not we're in the faith. By seeing are we bearing fruit. Am I growing?
Is my love for the Lord growing? Is my love for other people growing? And that's what he's saying. Don't trick yourself. Don't say well I'm saved by grace. Therefore I can act however I want.
Do whatever I want. It never has to show up. He's saying that's not how this works. Alright. They ask what I think is a very reasonable question to ask. Verse 10.
The crowds asked him. What then shall we do? Fair question. He says bear fruit. And I'm telling you if you don't. It's going to go bad.
If this isn't showing up in your life. If you're not actually repentant. This is going to go bad. So they say well what do we do? And he answered them. This is verse 11.
Whoever has two tunics. Is to share with him who has none. And whoever has food is to do likewise. Tax collectors also came to be baptized. And said to him. Teacher.
What shall we do? Which by the way. Tax collectors coming. Gives you an indication of how wildly wonderful this news is. Tax collectors are hated. They've committed treason against the people of God.
And repentance is open to them. It doesn't just mean people didn't like to have to pay taxes. It's way worse than that. They were helping the Romans occupy the holy land. The promised land. They were enemies.
And they're coming and being able to be forgiven. So if you've told yourself I'm too far gone. That is incorrect. This is wonderfully good news. Tax collectors also came to be baptized. Said to him.
Teacher. What shall we do? And he said to them. Collect no more than you are authorized to do. Soldiers also asked him. And what shall we do?
These are Roman soldiers. Getting to partake in repenting. And he said to them. Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation. And be content with your wages. Now.
Did y'all catch that? They ask. What does repentance look like? And he says. Let's talk about your wallet.
And I know some of you are like. Just like a preacher. But see. John knows something. As he's empowered by the spirit. That Jesus is going to say later.
Jesus says this in the Sermon on the Mount. This is Matthew 6.21 and 6.24. For where your treasure is. There your heart will be also. And no one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one.
And love the other. Or he will be devoted to the one. And despise the other. You cannot serve God. God. And money.
So they asked John. What does repentance look like? And he knows this. If you've actually surrendered your heart to the Lord. If you've actually turned from your sin. If he's actually going to work on you.
It's going to show up. In the way you handle. Your money. And your stuff. Because your heart has changed. Your treasure has changed.
Your allegiance has changed. John says. Faith. Shows up in your finances. Belief. Is in the budget.
Repentance. Has receipts. I had fun writing this. Just trying to help you remember it. That's what John says. That it's going to show up.
In how you spend your money. And what you do with your stuff. So all of these marks of repentance that he gives. Are possession based. So let's walk back through them.
And let's consider. What John is telling us. Crowd said. What should we do? Verse 11. He answered them.
Whoever has two tunics. Is to share with him who has none. And whoever has food is to do. Likewise. John says. Genuine repentance.
Genuine faith. Shows up in you being open handed with your possessions. That you would not. Accumulate a bunch of stuff. And that you would actually be intentional. About finding ways.
To get rid. Of a lot of your stuff. That's repentance showing up. That that's true belief showing up. Whoever has two tunics. He doesn't say.
You're not allowed to own a tunic. He doesn't say. You're not allowed to eat. He says. If you have enough food. Good.
Eat. And be generous to those who don't have enough food. If you have enough clothes. Good. Be generous to those who don't. Have enough clothes.
That. In some ways. You need to understand. That. You might be blessed. Beyond your ability.
Beyond your need. And that isn't so that you might have. More that just sits around. That's so that you might deliver it. To those who need it. That you've been entrusted to something.
That actually isn't yours. It's not for you to keep. It's for you to deliver. The. The grub hub guy. Is not supposed to eat your sandwich.
On the way to your house. The. The pizza guy. Can't be like. Here's your pizza. And thanks for the breadsticks.
That's not how it works. You're supposed to care for it. And deliver it. And there are things that you own. Part of your paycheck. Things that are in our closets.
That aren't ours. Aren't meant to be. That's what John's saying. That. As we believe. We'd set aside portions of our budget.
To just walk out the door for others. I think Jesus is going to talk about. That as our treasure moves. That we would care about the kingdom. And we care about the kingdom first. So I think this is generosity of the poor.
I also think it's. Intentionality in kingdom things. That Christians would find ways. To support missionaries. Christians would be supporting. Their local church.
But also. Christians would be. Helping things like. Goodwill. And his house thrive. Goodwill helps people get jobs.
They help sell things. At a lower cost. Because all of the. Stuff they get is free. Same with his house. His house helps.
Men in our area. Get over alcoholism. And have a place to stay. And so that. These are the sort of things. That we would be intentional.
About. That's his response. To everybody. He says that. Then he.
Verse 12. Says tax collectors. Also came to be baptized. By him. And said teacher. What shall we do?
And I love that. Because it's genuine. It's a genuine repentance. And a genuine. What should this look like? What do we do?
Not a. What do I have to do? But what. What does it look like for me? Have y'all ever been in a situation. With a new believer.
And you're just talking to him. And they're like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
What next? What else are we supposed to do? Hey. I was hearing this thing. I read this thing about. I'm not supposed to do that.
Is that true? Yeah. Okay. Cool. I'll stop. It's wonderful.
And that's what these tax collectors are doing. Okay. What does this look like for us? If I actually get to be forgiven. That's wonderful news. And what does that look like?
How does that show up? He said to them. Collect no more than you are authorized to do. Soldiers also asked him. And what should we do? Or by false accusations.
So I want to hold those together. Because I think they're kind of similar. He says. One of the ways that repentance shows up. One of the ways that faith shows up. And how we handle our money.
Is that we aren't doing things that are wrong. To get it. We should not be gaining money by sinful means. We shouldn't be greedy. We shouldn't be lying. We shouldn't be cheating.
Don't extort people. And I think in general we're like. Right. Yeah. Okay. Makes sense.
But I think one of the ways that we need to consider this. Is what are the things. In your industry. That are common practice. Because I think tax collectors would be able to say. Well that's just how collecting taxes work.
I collect the taxes I'm supposed to. But I also collect my own revenue. And I think the soldiers might go. Yeah but that's just how all soldiers. Make sure they can pay their bills. It's just normal.
And I know that every Job I've had. There were things. That to me seemed iffy. And everybody said. Oh no. That's just how it's done.
And I think that you ought to consider. Prayerfully. What are those things. I used to work in sales. I don't know if y'all know this about sales people. They lie to you.
If you meet a salesman. Who knows every answer to every question you've asked. It's likely that they are a liar. But you sell more stuff if you do that. He used to work in sales. And people ask you questions that you do not know the answer to.
Because the people whose product you're selling don't tell you that. Where is this steel manufactured? What's the horsepower on this Kenmore dryer? Was this Kenmore dryer made in Pennsylvania? I don't know. I work part time here.
But if you just say yes. Do you have family in Pennsylvania? Yeah. Well it's probably made right near where they live. Boom. Sold.
How are they going to look it up? If you don't know how to look it up. And you work here. What are the things? Does it have to do with how people clock in and clock out? Does it have to do with some sort of honesty thing?
Some sort of integrity thing? Is there something that everybody goes. Well that's just how real estate works. Oh that's just. Everybody knows that's how retail works. That's all the waiters and waitresses do that.
Everybody in finance does this. Because I think all soldiers did that. And all tax collectors did that. And John says if you're repentant you don't do that. And I think it's worth considering. Because I think a lot of it has snuck up on us.
You were trained to do it by the people who taught you how to do what you're doing. And you actually have to consider what are the things that are common practice that are normal that I actually can't participate in. But he says this to the. He adds a thing when he's talking to the. Soldiers. Verse 14.
Soldiers also asked them what shall we do? And he said to them do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusations. And be content with your wages. How much money do you make? Good. Be happy with that.
Are we all ready to go home and do that? Just how much money do you make? That's a good amount of money to make. Live off of that. Be content with it. Be thankful to the Lord for providing that amount of money to you.
Find a way to be generous inside of it. But. I think. We are trained in and all accept some level of perennial discontentment. I need. I need a little more.
Honestly. Most of us. And this was going to work better when I wasn't holding a microphone. I have to do it like this. Most of us make this amount of money. And if we're doing what we're supposed to.
As we're taught by. Everybody around us. We spend this amount of money. If you are currently spending this amount of money. We have a financial team that we'd like to let you talk with. They will help you with that.
But most of us. Make this much. Spend this much. We figure it out. You live here. Sometimes it's tight.
Sometimes it's harder. Sometimes there are things you go without. But you. In general. We live. Every once in a while.
You're in a spot where you can't. And inflation has been hurting us. And if that's for you right now. We also have. People in our care system. That will help you walk through that.
And we can actually help provide. And we ought to. As a church. It's not a bad thing to come and say. Hey I need some help right now. But in general.
Under normal circumstances. This amount. This amount. And what usually happens is. Over time. We start making this amount.
So we start spending this amount. Then we start making this amount. So we start spending this amount. And that's normal. And we're like. That's good.
That's how you're supposed to do it. He says. Be content with what you make. Not to say. I don't think this means. Christians shouldn't take promotions.
Or Christians should never swap jobs. But if that's all you're ever wanting to do. And if you're only content with a new promotion. For three months. Or five months. And then you got to get to the next one.
You got to get to the next one. And there's this general idea. That I'm supposed to just keep going. He says. Be content with your wages. Live inside your means.
And be fine with it. Now. What if. Because we're Christians. And we were making this amount. And we were spending this amount.
And we were living. What if. When we started making this amount. We just stayed here. Maybe moved up. But let me say.
I think it's okay to buy stuff. The Bible says you can't. It's not like you can't enjoy things. But what if. There was this gap. Where we were just freed up to be generous.
I think one of the questions. For us as we look at this. Is does all my income. Terminate on me. Does it all just come back here. Or did I set an amount of generosity.
A while back. And I just like. This is how much I'm going to give away. And that's just kept going. But my income has gone.
Way up. And my generosity level. Just kind of stayed the same. I hadn't. Taken advantage of the Lord. Giving me more.
So that I can give away more. It's just kind of. Been set. Does most everything just come back to me. Is it mostly just lifestyle upgrades. Every time the Lord blesses.
So I think we look at this. And we say. Okay. If my repentance is supposed to have receipts. If it. If belief is supposed to show up in my budget.
Then I think as Christians. We should sit down. And there's a couple of things. That should come out of this. I think we should review our budgets. I don't know when the last time you did that was.
I think you should look down. And try to actually figure out. How much money do I spend? What does that mean I really value? What does that mean I really love? I think we ought to.
Excitedly start making some decisions. And going. You know. Instead of getting in a $600 car payment. I'm going to get in a $300 car payment. Instead of getting in a $300 car payment.
I'm going to get in a. $200 car payment. Or I'm just going to keep the car I got. I'm going to pay to fix it. And then I'm going to use that gap. And I'm going to be a part of. Reaching people on the other side of the globe.
I'm going to get in. I'm going to take advantage of that gap. That I've created intentionally. And I'm going to help people sleep. Inside in downtown Columbia. Who this winter wouldn't have been able to.
I think we need to review our budgets. I think we need to revisit our closets. I think we need to just go in there and say. How many tunics. Is a reasonable amount of tunics. For me to own.
How much stuff should I really have in here. And resist the American urge. To when we've cleaned it out. Go. Ooh. Now I can put some more stuff in here.
But intentionally try to think through. What. What can I get rid of? What can I live on? How can I simplify some things? I think we need to consider.
How much money do I spend on entertainment? How much money do I spend. On extra things that I don't need. How much money was given away this past year. Versus how much money. Was just.
For me. To enjoy. So I think we should review our budgets. I think we should revisit our closets. I think you should ask. What are the common practices in my industry.
That I'm not allowed to participate in. That I ought not to. And I think we all need to check our contentment level. I think we need to take seriously. To be content with your wages. Take our heart before the Lord.
And go Lord. I make enough money to survive. Help me. With the fact that I don't feel like that's enough. Help me with the fact that I. I actually.
Inside of this should survive. And should give some things away. But I'm. I'm frustrated. All right.
Verse 15. As the people were in expectation. And were all questioning in their hearts. Concerning John. Whether he might be. The Christ.
John answered them all. Saying. I baptize you with water. But he who is mightier than I. Is coming. The strap of whose sandals.
I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And fire. His winnowing fork. Is in his hand. To clear his threshing floor.
And to gather the wheat. Into his barn. But the chaff. He will burn. With unquenchable. Fire.
When he says. He'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And with fire. I think. As he describes that further. That he'll gather the wheat.
Into the barn. And he'll throw the chaff. Into unquenchable fire. I think we're meant to understand. That we will be baptized. Either with.
The Holy Spirit. Or. With fire. That the eternal reality. Is one of those. For everybody.
And so. For Christians. Who know Christ. Who have repented. Of our sins. Who have been forgiven.
And who are filled. With the Holy Spirit. How much more. Generous. Should we be. Than just the tax collector.
Who walked away that day. How much more generous. Do we get to be. Than just the soldier. How much more content. Do we get to be.
Than the person. Who at that moment. Did not yet have the spirit. Who was getting. Only the beginnings. Of this.
How much more. Do we get to say. Lord. Work in me. I think there's a danger. For us as a church.
Because we do this. Every year. For us to start. Developing a pattern. Of paying the Holy Spirit. Hush money.
Around Christmas. Well. How much do I have to give. To get the conviction. Off my back. So that I can go.
Right back. To forgetting about this. And operating. Like all my neighbors. And the truth is. We're missing out.
On bearing fruit. That lasts. And enjoying. The gracious. Generosity. Of our God.
And getting to participate. In what he's like. As he gives to others. Through us. And how much joy. Do we miss out on.
And he says. His winnowing fork. Is in his hand. To clear his threshing floor. And to gather the wheat. Into his barn.
But the chaff. He will burn. With unclenchable fire. I think you need to hear this. If you believe. You are a Christian.
And that has not. Touched your wallet. You might not be a Christian. If you believe. You are a Christian. And that does not show up.
In how you handle. Your finances. You have to believe. That the Holy Spirit. Is at work in you. Because you're a Christian.
But he has no desire. To work in that part. Of your life. But I don't think. You can back that up. From the scriptures.
And if you have. 15 reasons. Right now. Why you don't have to give. To anybody. Well I give of my time.
I give of my energy. You know. I did this thing last year. Or I do this. Or things are tight right now. The reality is.
That if you talk to anybody. In America. Most everybody says. Things are tight. Because of how we do our budgets. We keep it tight.
And if we've gotten in the habit. Of just figuring out. Right around now. How much do I have to give. So that I don't have to feel bad.
And so I can participate. In whatever the thing is. And it's cool. And I'm excited about it. But really.
I don't really. I wouldn't do this. If it weren't for this. And if we weren't really. And I think we need to consider. The work of the spirit.
In our lives. And consider whether or not. Our hearts have actually been. Surrendered to the Lord. Because I think that's what John's telling us. Verse 18.
I love this verse. Verse 18. Verse 18. So with many other exhortations. He preached the good news to the people. I love that.
Because as an American. I kind of am going. What was the good news? Because that all sounded really intense and rough. And then the Bible says. Isn't that good?
And it actually is. It's wonderful news. That there's a savior coming. Who forgives sinners. It's wonderful news. That there's a savior coming.
Who will bring justice on the wicked. And it's wonderful news. That rather than him. Just bringing justice on you. He offers you repentance. And forgiveness.
And it's wonderful news. That he is then willing to use us. To be his agents in the world. To see wonderful things. Continue to take place. That's good news.
That we have a savior. Who will redeem sinners. Rather than crush them. And we have a savior. Who will crush. Sinners.
So that ultimately. We either receive grace. Or we receive what we deserve. And that there's an offer. Of grace to us. And then we get to participate.
In something that is eternal. And glorious. And beautiful. And last. And we actually get to bear fruit. That lasts.
That's good news. Let's review our budgets. Let's revisit our closets. Let's consider the things. That take place in our industry. That we probably should not participate in.
And let's see if we can get our hearts. To rest in the Lord. So that we might be content. With what we have. And look like absolute freaks. In the United States.
To the glory of Christ. And his eternal kingdom. Let's pray. Lord. Lord. Lord.
We pray that your Holy Spirit. Would go to work in our hearts. That we would bear fruit. In keeping. With repentance. To the glory of your name.
And your son. May you be at work in us. In Jesus name. Amen. Band's going to come back up. And we're going to sing.
And by the band. I mean. Raz and Isaac. Thank you. I mean. карт x dev. Greaks, that's true.achi, of zach.
Hand neg, the church. And I love you. Before this, I love you. I love you. And I love you. Yes.
So I love you. I love you. Well, you've got to like, this is a little bit of an anchor. I love you. Great to share you. Real laughter What a new thing or up. generator.
I love you. Ruby. I love you. Good. It's a little bit of passion. It's a little bit of emotion.
It's a little bit. It's a little bit easier.
|giv| Week 1
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Excited to be here with y'all this morning. We are in the first week of our Give Series. And every year, right after Thanksgiving, we pause in whatever we're normally doing and we begin our Give Series.
And we live in a place that is overwhelmed by consumerism. It's just that it's the air we breathe. So that as Christians and American Christians, it's possible for us to push back on some of the tides of our culture that are coming at us and things that we look and we say, no, scripturally, this is wrong. We can't participate in that. We can't live like that. And for us to completely miss consumerism.
For us to just walk along perfectly normal. Everything's fine with consumerism, but push back in other areas. And so we want to intentionally take this time every year to just say, hey, let's remember that we're eternal people and that our hope is not here. That the the American concept of I'll be more happy if I have more stuff is incorrect. Correct. And so let's pause and intentionally seek to be generous at this time.
Last year in our Give Series, we were able to give away twenty five thousand dollars. Yeah. And able to give away some man hours and some work to try to help at Bethel Christian Camp as they renovate as we help renovate space for a new family to move in as the director over there. And I'm excited to get to announce what our gift project is this morning. Later, turn to Matthew chapter 13. We're going to be looking at a very short parable in Matthew chapter 13 this morning.
On Christmas morning at my house, we have our bedrooms are on one side of the house and there's a hallway that leads to the main part of our house. And I build a barricade in the hallway and tell my sons on threat of death and the cancellation of Christmas that they are not allowed down the hall past the barricade. And this is done because I think it makes good sense. And also because my wife and her older brother every Christmas got up at three a.m., went and looked at everything they were getting. And then on Christmas morning, we're tired and unenthused. There's actually home videos of their parents looking at each other like the kids got a bicycle and they're looking at each other like, I don't know, I guess they don't care.
And it's because they they did care at three a.m. when you weren't there. And so we set this up and what I'll do is I'll get on the other side of it and I can see them and I can see into our living room area and I can and I'll stand and I'll go. Oh, oh, oh, oh, there's some stuff out here. Oh, it's going to be pretty good. I think, oh, I think we're going to have a good morning. I just try to play it up a little bit and make them wait a little bit and get them a little amped up.
And the passage we're going to read this morning, in some ways, I feel like Jesus is doing that, that he's standing in a position where he can see something we can't see. And he's trying to help us understand if you could see if you're in my vantage point and you can see what I can see. This is how you would live. This is how you would behave. This is how you would feel. And so Jesus, because he can see what we can't see, is trying to help us wrap our heads around something this morning.
So we're going to read just a very short parable to one verse. Matthew chapter 13, verse 44. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Let's pray.
Lord, this parable is simple, but it's profound. And Lord, I ask that by the work of your spirit, you would help us to believe this this morning. That this would go beyond a truism that is in our mind, but it would become rock solid truth that is in our hearts and that guides the way we live. And work and labor and spend our time and our money. And we ask for your help and your grace in the name of Jesus this morning. Amen.
Let's read that again. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. All right. So the first thing I think we need to answer.
Is what is the kingdom of heaven? Because he says the kingdom of heaven is like and he's going to tell us some aspect of the kingdom of heaven, but it would help us to have some understanding of the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus in Matthew has been talking about the kingdom of heaven nonstop. So I'm going to give you a quick definition and then we'll expand on it briefly. The kingdom of heaven is the effective rule and reign of Jesus. Or the kingdom of heaven is the applied rule and reign of Jesus.
So if you just think about heaven and your kind of concept from that, and hopefully it's got some biblical groundings, but if you think about heaven that you've got a good start. There's no sin. There's no pain. There's no death. There's no sorrow. There's joy and delight.
Love, pleasure, forgiveness, hope, love, relationship, grace. That it's the application of the work of the cross. It's all the good things that Jesus came to purchase on our behalf. So that when Jesus, we celebrate Christmas and we set up nativities and we see mangers. There's this picture of Jesus coming. He's God in the flesh coming to rescue us.
And what he did was he came to bring the kingdom. The first thing he preaches is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That God's kingdom is in breaking on the world. And so the kingdom of heaven is certainly our eternity. But it is also breaking in on us now.
And so what Jesus is saying is if you understand the kingdom, what I've come to accomplish, what my rule and reign is like, this is how you'll behave. Okay. So that's the kingdom. He says the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. I love the word treasure. Because it just, do you want treasure?
Yes. Like it just encapsulates. Like one of your goals forever has been to find some buried treasure. Or a map to buried treasure. Like ever since you watched the Goonies, you were like, this would be great. I want in on this.
I want some buried treasure. And you may be, as a child, were convinced that it was more likely to happen and that treasure was more likely to be found. But this is a thing, this idea that we want treasure. And that's what he's tapping into. He goes, you want treasure, right? And the answer is, yes, I'd love some treasure.
That sounds great. He says, well, that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. It's a treasure. So here's what he says. It's like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and he buys that field.
So there's this picture of this man. He's traveling through a field. It's not his field, but they didn't have the same kind of like trespass laws. He's allowed to walk through the field. He just can't be tearing things up or stealing things. He's walking through the field.
Maybe he's got a staff and he's walking and it's like sand noise, gravel noise, sand noise. He says, dunk, dunk. And he thinks, maybe this is treasure because that's what you think, right? If you find something buried, there's this moment. I don't care if it's in your backyard or whatever. There's this moment where you're like, treasure.
That's what he does. His little heart flutters. He lays the stick down. He starts digging. Wood. Wood.
It's a good sign. You know what you hide in wood? Treasure. He starts working his way around. He finds the edge of like a chest. What kind of chest?
Probably a treasure chest. He works his way around. He keeps digging. Now, at some point, he was like early, he was a little bit like he's, you know, trying to act a little nonchalant about it. As soon as he starts getting to the corner and this, I mean, this man's, he looks like a cartoon dog. Like he's digging.
He gets this, he finds it. It's the top of this thing. And now he's going to try to get to open. And it is a chest. And you know, his heart is beating because this is either the beginning of the rest of his life where he finds treasure or it's the beginning of law and order special victims unit. There's something, something's happening though.
You don't bury a box for no reason. Y'all, he opens it up. It's treasure. Gold. Gems. A lamp.
He rubs it. Nothing. Still expensive though. Treasure. And it apparently can kind of tell like this is some old treasure. They don't probably know this is here.
So what's he do? He stares at it. Is captivated by it. And then he slams it down, closes it up and buries it again. And like tries to Mark where it was, but also tries to, you know, he's like sprinkling like leaves and stuff on it or little bits of grass. Like nobody's been here.
Nobody dug. He goes over here and like scuffs up the ground. So it looks like this is just a thing people do around here. There's just spots like this, but he marks his spot and he hides it again. He leaves and we don't know. I don't know if he walked out and saw a for sale sign in front of it and was like, or if he just was like, I'm going to find out who owns it and I'm going to put an offer on this.
Just going to see if they'll take it. He has to try to maybe play it cool. Hey, I saw your trashy garbage field you had over there. And I'm assuming you're not doing anything with it or any crops over there. It doesn't seem like anything could grow. And I was thinking maybe I'd buy it from you to be nice to you.
And the person's like, I'll sell it. He sells all that he has. And how does he sell all that he has? In his joy. Now, if you knew him, he starts looking kind of crazy. He sells his house.
He sells everything in his house. He sells his little piece of property. He sells his new donkey he just got. He sells everything. Everything. Everything.
Like I almost picture this man barefoot walking over there with the stuff that he's going to buy this with. He sells everything. And if you knew him, you'd be going, what are you doing? He's like, I'm buying that field. That field? In this market?
You know why that's been sitting there, right? That field? But he knows something that they don't know. He knows that that field is worth everything. Because there's something there that they don't know about. And so in his joy, whistling, skipping, he goes down and he buys that field.
And Jesus says, if you knew what the kingdom was like, that's what you look like. If you could imagine what the kingdom is like, well, that's what you'd look like. Because the kingdom is worth everything. certainly this is salvation. Certainly it means that anything that would stand in the way of you surrendering your life to Jesus, get rid of it. This is not a call to earn your salvation. It's not at all.
And we understand that because Jesus came to earn our salvation through his death. But it is a call to value what Jesus has accomplished as the ultimate treasure. and to live our lives in such a way that the kingdom is advanced. That more people come to know Jesus. From the moment that man dug that treasure up and buried that treasure again, do you know what he thought about? That treasure. That was it.
He didn't go to work. He did not show back up and do his normal duties. Why would he? He has a treasure. What he did was he leveraged everything he possibly had towards that end goal. It captured his heart.
It captured his imagination. And the truth is everybody in this room has something that's captured captured our imagination. It's captured our heart. You have something this year that you daydreamed about that you look forward to. You have something that drove you forward to work, to labor. I don't know what it was.
I don't know if you dreamed about romance this year and you just kept thinking if I could just get this to work out, if I could just get in this type of relationship, if I could just have this happen for me, then I'd be okay. I'd feel good. I don't know what you treasured this year. I don't know if it was a promotion or just the idea of progressing in life. Just so y'all know, that's something that America has sold us and we have bought it wholesale. If you've ever said the phrase, I should be farther along by now and you are not talking about following Jesus, that's something America has sold you on.
I should have a little bit more money. I've been in this house for a while. I'd probably be in a bigger house by now. I've had this car for a while. I should probably have a new car by now. I should probably have learned how to make my clothes match by now.
Like, I should have just done some things by now. Should have just moved forward a little bit in life. I don't know. I don't know what you dreamed about, what you longed for. Some of you work really, really hard, but it's just because you love resting. I'm going to work so hard, I'll never have to work again.
I'm going to take so many naps. I don't know. But what Jesus says is, as he stands with a vantage point we don't have, he says, oh, if you knew what the kingdom was like, it'd be hard to think about anything else. If you knew what the kingdom was like, you'd give everything for it. And it's such a simple picture. If you thought, what would I do this week if I found out there was treasure buried in my backyard, but it was 20 feet deep?
Tell you, I'd figure out how to dig a 20-foot hole. Coming to work? I'm at work. There's treasure here. And no, not the job you're talking about. Like, that's how we would be.
Like, that's the concept he's getting after and he's saying, no, no, no. And I know I'm not supposed to say that because I'm a preacher and I'm supposed to treasure this more, but I'm just telling you, like, that's how it works with our hearts that we would want to find that. And that's what he's saying. That if you really knew what this was, you would give everything for it. You ever seen the show Storage Wars? Yeah, no battle in it whatsoever, just for the record.
It's people who bid on storage units, which is, again, a nice little American hallmark of consumerism. We don't have enough room in our homes to hold all our stuff. So we buy, we rent closets from people so that we can put our stuff in there and visit it from time to time. And it's a good industry. It's booming. But people periodically don't go back for whatever reason to get their stuff.
And after a while, they haven't paid for their units. It's forfeited over to the storage unit people and they have a TV show where they auction off storage units. Now, in the show, you're not allowed to walk into the storage unit. They just roll it up. It's an invisible barrier that you're not allowed to pass, but you can peek in there. And they can try to guess what's in there.
Is that the kind of stuff I'd like to sell? Is there going to be any? And these people are modern day little treasure hunters hoping that there's something in that box that's worth something. And the reason the show is fun is because we like treasure hunting and we're hoping that they bought either something amazing or nothing at all. That's the point of the show. I want you to open a box full of shredded paper or a Fabergé egg.
That's why I'm watching. But they're peeking in and they're trying to decide is this worth buying? And they put a valuation in their head and then they put where I'm willing to bid and then they auction it off. Now, the show would be ruined if they all got to show up with appraisers, walk into the storage unit and appraise everything. I think the whole process would be ruined, not just the TV show. This wouldn't work anymore.
But let's say you and I go on the show and we decide to cheat because we're like that. And we smuggle an appraiser in the night before, you know, like Ocean's 11 style, but it's like Ocean's 3 because we didn't have that many people. And we sneak them in, our appraiser appraises it and then hides in their forest and then we just peek in and they're just going to give us a little signal to let us know how much to bid. And let's say, no matter what the auctioneer's doing, our appraiser just keeps going. It's worth it. Can I get 200?
Yep. That's why you got to make noises. You can't just, you got to say, oh yeah, like that. I'll do that part because it's the funnest part. But they keep doing it and every time we look, he's saying up.
And y'all, that's what Jesus does with the kingdom. If you looked at him and said, is it worth this? He goes, more than that. If you looked at him and said, let me ask you a question, Lord. Is the kingdom worth instead of me treating my home like a retreat from the world, figuring out how to get to know my neighbors, even though I hate that? More than that.
Absolutely. Is the kingdom worth me showing up to work earlier or staying later so that I can get to know my coworkers? Is it worth me actually eating lunch in the break room instead of in my car listening to true crime broadcast? More than that. Is it worth me setting aside money every month and trying to work to increase that every year so that more and more of my money goes away to bless the poor and to work towards kingdom causes and to support missionaries and churches and wherever I see you at work? Is it worth that?
Yeah. More than that. Lord, if you call me to serve you and I've got to go overseas and I might not ever be able to get married, I might not ever get to live out what I thought my life was going to be, is it actually worth that? More than that. Lord, what if I have to give up on my career? What if I end up not really looking like a success?
What if I give away so much money or so much of my time that we live in a smaller house in a smaller place if I don't get to keep up with my peers? Is it worth that? More than that. Jesus is saying if you could see the kingdom it's worth everything and you'd give up everything for it. And so the two questions that I think are helpful for us to consider after we've thought through what has captured my imagination? What's captured my heart?
What am I actually pursuing? The two questions I think we need to ask is what stands in the way of me pursuing the kingdom? What stands in the way? I've had people before tell me I'll follow Jesus but I'm not going to give blank up and they'll pick a sin. I'm not going to give that up. I've just said well you're not going to follow Jesus.
This is not how it works. He's the king. You are not. The kingdom is his kingdom. You don't walk in and dictate the rules. What stands in your way?
Because if there's something that stands in the way of you following Jesus it's not worth it. Second question is what do I have that I can leverage for the kingdom? Because maybe you have relationships. Maybe you have some social capital. Maybe you live in a neighborhood and nobody knows Jesus. Instead of moving out of that neighborhood you just need to use your home as a beacon for the gospel.
There are some people who are medical doctors that need to not make a bunch of money in the U.S. and go overseas to be missionaries as Jesus commands. And there are some people who are medical doctors who need to be godly, Christian, humble, generous medical doctors here. Who love and serve and know their coworkers. Who share the gospel with them. Who share the gospel with those who are hurting and dying here. And who give away their money generously for the sake of the other people who need to go.
So what's in the way and what do I have that I can leverage for the sake of the kingdom? And y'all there's no blanket answer to that. That's submitted to Jesus. But you go to him and you say I value you above everything else. I value the kingdom above everything else. What do you want?
I had a pastor one time said that it's like you took a piece of paper that was a contract and you signed your name at the bottom of a blank sheet of paper and you slide it across the table. To Jesus and you say fill in the terms. My name's on it. I trust you. Fill in the terms. I want to read a quote.
It's one of my favorite quotes. If you've been around a while you've probably heard me read this before. If you stay around for the next five years you'll hear it again. This is a there was a missionary named John G. Patton who accepted the call to do mission work in the New Hebrides Islands. This was right around 1900s right before and there were some missionaries that had been sent to the New Hebrides that had gotten out of the boat were immediately murdered and eaten by cannibals within minutes of showing up.
And this was well known that the first missionary expedition to this set of islands had gone very poorly. There were some other islands around where things had been working and John G. Patton felt called and said I'm going to this island. And when he was talking it through some of the leadership in his church there was a man named Mr. Dixon who was an older gentleman in the church and one of the leaders in the church and he just at some point as they were talking it through he got overwhelmed and he just said the cannibals you're going to be eaten by cannibals. It was like he couldn't get through to John G.
Patton like this is what's going to happen to you. You're going to be eaten by cannibals. Like this is not safe. You cannot devote your life to this. This will just go poorly. You are going to be eaten by cannibals.
And we have John's response in a letter that he eventually wrote to Mr. Dixon. And I'll read this quote from his letter. He said Mr. Dixon you are advanced in years now and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus it will make no difference to me whether I'm eaten by cannibals or by worms.
And in the great day my resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer. I love that because I think John Patton understood what Jesus was saying in Matthew chapter 13 verse 44. it's worth everything. There's the kingdom is a treasure to be valued above everything and if I can but live and die honoring and serving Jesus what else is there? If you don't know Jesus then whatever stands in the way of that you need to get rid of it because his kingdom is wonderful and glorious and his forgiveness and salvation are graciously freely offered to you and if you know Jesus you will spend eternity loved welcomed cared for in a place where there is no sin and there is no pain and there is no discomfort and there is no relational strife we have a treasure and it's the kingdom and we're to live now leveraging everything for it earlier this year we stood up and we said that we thought we had rightly as a church we had rightly identified and understood the idea that we're missionaries wherever we are that if the Lord has placed you somewhere he's placed you there with intent and that you should not think that missionaries are only people who go overseas but they're there that you are to be a missionary in your neighborhood in your job and we're we're fine with that we believe that's true and we've said that over and over and over and over again but what we said earlier this year was that we had not done a good enough Job of helping our church understand that some of us are meant to be missionaries somewhere else that some of us are meant to surrender as John G.
And over and over again but what we said earlier this year was that we had not done a good enough Job of helping our church understand that some of us are meant to be missionaries somewhere else that some of us are meant to surrender as John G. Patton surrendered and go and that right now we live in a world where there are more unreached people groups more lost people than ever before and we showed you this map and we said that that red
Is bad that the green areas are reached areas the yellow areas are kind of in the middle and that the red is unreached areas and the reason the red is red is because it's hard to get there it's hostile to the gospel but that we're supposed to go because we have an eternal treasure that cannot be taken from us there was a young lady in our church Jamie Kern who began doing an internship with us this summer trying to discern
The call to mission work what we had said was that we were uniquely positioned as a church to try to get to that red area to that 1040 window to that section of the world that is hard to get to because there are three mission organizations that office in our building and so we said God by his grace has given us an on ramp to that area and that we need to take it
And there was a young lady who did a joint internship with our church in 1040 Hope during the summer and then she left and went to Lebanon for three months to prayerfully discern the call to missions she's been in Lebanon for three months and Lebanon is a more advanced country over there but is in turmoil right now their financial system has fallen apart American money
US dollars still do okay over there but everything else is millions of dollars to buy bread like it's there's rolling blackouts it's in a very bad state she went and spent three months there crimes on the rise it's a difficult place to be right now she went and spent three months over there prayerfully discerning am I supposed to be here learning Kurdish because she's been serving with a Kurdish church Kurdish speaking church in Lebanon
And the Kurdish people are an unreached people group that means there's almost none no no gospel witness among those people at all and so she's trying to learn Kurdish so that she can help this church that's trying to plant among the Kurdish people that church is a few years old it has like 150 people 100 of them have been baptized in the Kurdish that are Kurdish
People's placing faith in Jesus and Jamie Kern has committed felt called by the Lord and committed to stay in Lebanon at least for a year holding open handed to the Lord as what he has next and she's sorted through some of this we've had conversations through some
Of this I think I'm having to give this up I think I'm having to give this up and she keeps circling back around to I think it's worth it and so what she'll be doing for the next year in Lebanon is she'll be working with and for 1040 Hope continuing to learn Kurdish which by the
Way her Kurdish teacher is a Muslim and she's been able to build a great relationship with this lady and her family and be praying for that that she would have an opportunity as she learns Kurdish to share the gospel with this lady but she's going to continue to serve this Kurdish
Church and she's going to be a liaison for 1040 Hope to do in the field coordinator for internships and for missions teams so that when internships go and missions go and
Mission teams go that she's going to help them get on the ground figure out where they are get to the right place and
Help them overseas so she's going to serve the Kurdish church while she's there and internships because she said that she was praying through Lord what do
You want she just got stuck on the passage where it says the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few she said okay
Lord if I can be here and help get more laborers here that's what I want to do so our gift project this year
Is two fold the first thing we want to do is raise $15,000 right now for a vehicle we've been renting vehicles for her right
Now while she's been there originally we weren't but the state of Lebanon has gotten worse and worse and there have been more abductions
For people who are using Ubers and ride shares there have been more crime and stuff for people who are walking on the street
There's been some hairy situations when she's on the street for 1040 hope that she will be able to drive and that car will
Look something like this that's a car for sale in Lebanon right now I've been told to not guarantee you that we will buy
That car because we gotta get the money first and get it to Lebanon and buy a car and that might not still be
In that parking lot ready to sell but if you google it is about $15,000 to buy a vehicle in American dollars and so
We are trying to raise that amount of money to buy that car right now and this is for a couple of purposes it's
One so that she has safe transportation all the time it's also so that when interns go and missions teams go they have automatic
Transportation that's why we're buying something bigger than what she needs so that she can help get people around and use her car for
Some ministry while she's there and then it also helps the 1040 hope team because if after a year the Lord leads for her
To come back or to go somewhere else they still have a vehicle there that they can continue to use for the same purpose
And so that's our first thing that we want to do missionary in the Kurdish church and so among this unreached people group there's
A southern baptist pastor with them and she's able to serve them as well through 1040 hope so we're excited to be able to help
Her do this the second thing we want to do is fund her mission work for a year which is $29,225 that is for housing
All the necessities that she will need that's her salary she will have some basically like get out of the country money that's sitting there ready for
Her to go if she needs to be able to leave quickly so that's already built into how they fund and that's her insurance
That will be given in pledges so that we will commit to build it into your budget to raise support for one year for
Her to do the work that she's going to be doing that's our hope is that we will give $15,000 right now and $29,000
For one year of missionary support and that's a lot but we're trying as we follow Jesus to submit our lives to him whatever he
Asks and we're trying to intentionally in this moment take our wallets press on our heart a little bit and remind ourselves that our
Treasure is not here but that we have an eternal hope and an eternal home and it's worth everything and we're just trying to
Collectively as a church say we believe you we believe Jesus when he says that so let's follow him and we're excited to get the
Opportunity to do it and we'll celebrate however the Lord leads for us to be generous in this season let's pray Lord thank you
Thank you for the hope of salvation that we have we thank you Lord that your kingdom is truly valuable and that you came
To rescue and to redeem and to purchase us out of our sin and Lord we ask that we would live with eternity set
In our hearts so that our normal life would look crazy to the people who don't know the treasure but that it would make
Perfect sense to everybody who knows what your kingdom is like may we be a church that values you above everything else and in
Our joy gives up everything we can for your kingdom in Jesus name amen band is going to come back up we're going to
Sing and in a moment Spencer will give a few more specific instructions on how we get to participate in our gift project this year
But I'm excited for us to get to step out in faith in this way
The Red Sea (Exodus 13-14)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Exodus 13, 17, all the way to the end of chapter 14. I've had multiple people this morning ask me, are you going to work in the Gamecocks into your sermon? I will not pigeonhole it into the sermon.
I will say His mercy is more because I really thought that it was going to be really bad the rest of the season, but they gave us just enough hope to be crushed on Saturday. So, we're going to be closing up Exodus for the fall. We're kind of at the first, the conclusion of the first major part of Exodus. If you're going to film Exodus, you probably do it in two different movies. This is the end of the first movie right here. So, over the last month, we have watched as God has broken the Egyptians.
He has broken them. And we watched this. It's nine signs and wonders, nine plagues fell upon the Egyptians and the enslavers who oppressed the people of God for centuries. And then finally, the last couple of weeks, we spent two weeks in the Passover, looking at the story of Passover and the significance of Passover and how God finally brought Egypt to a total military defeat. And now, the Israelites are free. They're free.
They walk out of Egypt, not just with freedom, but they walk out with riches. God loots the enemy of the Egyptians. They walk out with gold and with jewels and they freely leave the land. So, we're at the end of this. And at the end of this part of Exodus, it kind of finishes like some movies do with the good guys and the bad guys. Every now and then, you'll see a movie where the good guys, they win.
Like, the bad guy loses. And all of a sudden, you think it's about to wrap up. But then, in a last-ditch effort, the bad guy changes his mind. And he says, I want him back. And then he comes, and then the good guy takes him and drowns him and kills him. Now, I haven't seen that movie, but that's what happens here.
Is that Pharaoh, his heart is hardened. He changes his mind. And he says, I want him back. And spoiler alert, it ends poorly for the Egyptians and for Pharaoh. So, we're going to witness this today. This is one of the most miraculous events of the Old Testament.
We're going to look at the Red Sea crossing. We're going to look at this. And I just want one overarching truth to sink into our souls as we finish out Exodus for the fall. And that is this. That our God is a God who completely destroys evil. And that is wonderful.
Our God is a God who completely and utterly decimates and destroys the power of evil. And that is wonderful news for the people of God. So, we're going to see that. And then we're just going to respond. So, let me pray for us. And then we'll jump in together.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you would open our hearts to receive your word this morning. That as we close up this part of Exodus, that we would just be able to worship. We're able to see how good you are. How powerful you are. How mighty you are. And we respond in faith and repentance and in worship and delight.
Because you are worthy. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, we're going to pick up a verse 17. So, some people will go when they encounter Exodus. Why didn't the people of God just leave Egypt and go straight to Israel?
So, this is modern day Egypt and Israel. Why didn't they just go straight there? So, if you go to the next slide. They were in Goshen. Just over here to the left. There should be a little dot that shows up.
There we go. My beautiful graphics. They were in Goshen enslaved for centuries. And they're going to the promised land. Which is up there. Okay?
So, a straight line should just go on up there. But that's not where they go. They actually wander south. And they spend a lot of time here. And some folks will go, why didn't they just go from point A to point B? And it's right here in the text.
It says, if they came by way of the Philistines, they have to go up through the land of the Philistines to get to Israel. If they went there, they would have to encounter war. And it says, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. That part of what's happening here is that they're not ready to settle in the promised land. God has fought on behalf of His people. Over and over again, we saw that.
God was the one who was working. He's fought on behalf of His people. He has not fought through His people. He's not worked through His people yet. And God loves to work through His people. And the Israelites aren't ready for that yet.
They don't have the faith for that yet. So, they're not ready to settle the promised land. So, they go a little further south. Verse 18. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea.
All right. So, let me orient ourselves a little bit again. Throw that map back out there. They, so the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba make up the Red Sea right below it. They are down in this area. We don't know where in this area they were.
Okay? We don't know, as we're going to see a crossing here in the moment of the Red Sea, we don't know where that is. There are a lot of Bible nerds that get really, really excited about this and will debate where the crossing was, debate where they want. We really just don't know. This is an ancient map with places that we don't know where they are anymore. We don't know.
But it's somewhere in this general area that they are being led to. So, but the people of God, verse 18, but the people of, but God led the people, verse 18, 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. Verse 19. So that phrase right there is directly out of Genesis.
Out of Genesis 50. Joseph made the people of God promise. Centuries before this. He said, you're going to be here for a while, but when do you leave, you are taking my bones with you. I will be buried in the promised land. And this is being fulfilled.
The bones of Joseph being brought back to the promised land. Verse 20. And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day and a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way. And by night and a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
So they're wandering in a place they have never been to before. They've been slaves in Egypt for centuries. They've never been in this area before. And God is leading them. The picture we get is a cloud by day and a fire by night so they can travel both day and both night. And the cloud, we don't know what that looked like.
A good guess would be that it was probably more of a smoke cloud because God is revealing himself by fire here. So a cloud by day, a fire by night. God reveals himself multiple times in Exodus in fire. We have the calling at Mount Horeb is through the burning bush. We have being led by the cloud and the fire here. Later on we're going to see the fire at Mount Sinai.
We're going to see the fire at the tabernacle. But he's leading them with this cloud and the day and this fire by night. And I just appreciate the picture of this. The fact that the people here are wandering in a place that they're not used to. And that right there in and of itself is disorienting. Like I've been in a foreign country where you're wandering through a place and you don't know the lay of the land at all.
You don't know the language and you get lost. It's disorienting. It's scary. I've also had someone who knew the language, who knew all the street corners that I did not know, and took us and led us to where we needed to be. And we looked at that person as our guide, as our hope to get us out of being lost, out of being disoriented and scared into where we need to be. That's what's happening here.
God is their shepherd. He is leading them through places they have never been to before. The picture here of God's shepherding, His care for the people, and leading them by day and by night through uncertain places is beautiful. It's a wonderful picture of our God leading us. And some of you may go, I mean, it's great that the Israelites had that. It's great the Israelites had a clear cloud that would lead them by day and a fire that would lead them by night.
But I'm just wandering right now in the wilderness. I just feel like I'm in the desert, that life is very hard. I don't have a lot of direction right now. I wish that God would give me something like that, that clearly would show me where I need to go. And I just want to say very clearly to you this morning, He gives us something so much better. That if you're in Christ, if you believe in Him, if you're a follower of Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you.
You don't have God leading you in a cloud by day and a fire by night. You have God within you. You don't just have the living God within you. You have the gift of His Word. The Word of God that leads us, that guides us, that reminds us of who He is. We don't just have the Word of God.
We have prayer. We have access to God where we can call out to Him in the midst of uncertainty, call out to Him in the midst of wandering. We have His Word and He has spoken. We have prayer. We have access to call out to Him. And then we also have the people of God.
We have the church whom God dwells in and the seasons of life that are difficult and the wandering that you may be in. You're not alone. You have other brothers and sisters who can point you to what is true, who can pray with you, who can open up the Word with you. We are not alone. We spent a whole sermon on that subject right there, talking about the cloud and the pillar of fire and how God leads us and guides us. But if we stopped at every place in Exodus that we wanted to preach a sermon, we'd be here for like two years.
And I've heard that that's frowned upon. We're in Matthew for like a year and a half, like Genesis for like a year and a half, and people are like, can we just finish? So we've got to keep moving. Then we're on to chapter 14, verse 1. Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pahiroth, between Migdal and the sea, in front of Belsiphon.
You shall encamp facing it by the sea. Okay, let me pause there for a moment. So, again, we don't know where Pahiroth and Belsiphon, we don't know where any of that is. Okay? We know it's next to the Red Sea, one of these bodies of water. And then he tells them to encamp there and wait.
And we're going to see why he does that. Pick up in verse 3. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, this is God talking to Moses, 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 hosts. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so. So, God tells them to encamp in this area by the sea for a reason. He's not done with Pharaoh. He's not done with Pharaoh and this evil regime that has ruled over the people of God for centuries.
He's not finished with them yet. And he's going to use the people of God as bait. And he's going to lure Pharaoh in to destruction. So, he says, you stay right there. So, then we get verse 5 over to Pharaoh. 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 that we have done? That we have let Israel go from serving us? So, he made ready his chariot and took his army with him and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. So, Pharaoh goes, No, I'm going to get them back. And you see a word that is repeated there multiple times. Chariots.
Chariots. Chariots. It's repeated actually seven times in this chapter. And that's supposed to stick out for two main reasons. First, having chariots makes you superior militarily. If you have chariots in this era of warfare, you have the unbelievable tactical advantage.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the flu, which, if you're thinking of holiday plans, I don't recommend it. It was terrible. But I had the flu and I was in bed. So, I'm going to watch something. So, I wanted something that was kind of encouraging. It picked me up.
So, I saw on Netflix, All is Quiet on the Western Front. And I hadn't read the book. I didn't know. I knew it was a war movie. I knew it was going to be super exciting. But I didn't know it was going to be two and a half hours of having just the horrors of war just pounded into your face.
I didn't know that. But it's World War I. And it's the horrors of World War I. And there's this scene where they're in trench warfare. And these guys are getting ready to hop the trench and storm the enemy. And then they do it.
And they storm into the fog, into the mist. And all of a sudden, they hear the machinery. And then what appears in the mist are armored tanks. And this is World War I. This is when tanks were introduced. And these guys had never seen tanks before.
And they have bayonets and a rifle. And there's a tank that is armored with machine guns and missile fire. How do you think that went? They were destroyed. That's what's happening here. Chariots, tanks, the people of God, a bunch of refugees, men, women, children.
This is supposed to convey, by human odds alone, they don't have a shot. They're about to get destroyed. But the second thing that's being emphasized here is that you have man's power and the mighty chariots versus the power of God. And that's what's being pitted against one another. It's the power of chariots versus the power of God. And this theme is going to be pulled throughout the rest of the Old Testament.
When you get to the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 20, when Moses is handing down the law, he says, when you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God is with you who brought you out of the land of Egypt. He's referencing what is about to happen. You may see chariots. You may see all kinds of mighty military men, but they're just men. And I am the living God.
Do not be afraid. I am with you. This is why one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 20, verse 7, says some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. It is a picture of trusting in your own strength. Trusting in everything that you bring to the table. Don't do it.
Trust in the name and the power of God. God is mightier than any enemy that you might face. You trust in His name because He is good and He is powerful. So when you hear chariots over and over again, that's what's being shown here. The power and the prestige of Pharaoh and his mighty army pales in comparison to the power of God. So, verse 8, And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.
Just pause there for a moment. They left Egypt and it says they left defiantly. I picture that as they left confidently. Confidently defying the enemy that God just defeated with a little bit of a swagger, a little bit of a step. And as we're looking at it this week, Chet, he had a different picture. He pictures actually that they, this is an emphasis on they walked out not just with confidence but with all of the gold and the jewels on them.
Like he pictures this more like a hip-hop video. Like they, they roll out, decked out, iced out, like they, and almost even still, like they're in the wilderness and they didn't put those jewels away. They are still defiantly, confidently, rocking with those jewels, rocking with that gold. Like even now, like a precedent, it's even now, like they're descending upon you. And they're little kids just with all kinds of gold and stuff. Yep.
It's like, alright, listen, you can choose your own adventure here. It's not going to violate the word of God. How do you ever want to picture this? You just got to understand, they left confidently or still confidently with jewels. But, that's important as we're going to see in a moment. It says, the Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army and overtook them in camp at the sea by Pihihirith in front of Bel-Siphon.
So again, they are pitted, they're pinned between the Red Sea and the army that's getting ready to descend upon them. verse 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. They feared greatly and the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They walked out of Egypt defiantly, confidently, with a swagger and the moment they see Pharaoh again, the moment they see his chariots and his army, they feared greatly. They have been conditioned to fear this enemy for centuries. They've been conditioned to fear the people that enslaved them for centuries that the very moment that they show up, they melt. and they melt so much so that it says in verse 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? Is not this where we said to you and is this, is this not 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. What an about face. I mean, they left confidently.
They left defiantly. And the moment they see Pharaoh, the moment they see the Egyptians. Why did you bring us out here to die, Moses? We could have just been slaves in Egypt. At least we'd still be alive. But now we're going to die.
Thanks a lot, Moses. And I love how Moses responds. Verse 13, 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.
Listen, I love the development of Moses. I mean, think back to how we were introduced to Him. Think back to He kills the Egyptians and He fears the Egyptians and He flees for His life. Think of Him being called at Mount Horeb and how self-doubting He was. I've got a speech problem. I don't know if I can do this, Lord.
Lord, Lord, fear not. Now the nation turns on Him in a moment and says, why did you bring us out here to die? And He just says, fear not. It just goes to show that God chooses the lowly and the weak to bring about His purposes. And I just, I so appreciate that about the Scriptures. Moses is not powerful in himself, but through the Lord He says, fear not.
That's a command. Don't be scared. Don't be scared of this enemy. Fear not. Stand firm. Straighten up.
Don't melt in fear before this enemy. No, stand firm. And you're going to see the salvation of the Lord. You're going to see what God's going to do because He's going to destroy the Egyptians and you're never going to see them again. You just need to sit there, watch, and shut up. That's what He says.
Because the Lord's about to work. Verse 15, the Lord speaks to Moses. He says, the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry out to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. The people of Israel may go through the sea on dry land and I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians that they shall go in after them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, 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. So backed up against the sea, He says, turn around. You're going through. You're going to stretch out your staff. You're going to divide the waters. Y'all are going to go through on dry ground to the other side and then I'm going to kill every last one of the Egyptians. that's what the Lord just declared to Moses.
And the Egyptians will know the glory of God and His power and how much greater it is than anything they bring to the table. And it says in verse 19, the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness and it lit up the night without one coming near the other at all. So God Acts in buying the Israelites time. The pillar of cloud and fire creates a barrier, creates a firewall, which I don't think that's where that term comes from, but it's computer nerds.
It's a good picture of it. Then it creates a barrier and it buys them time to be able to walk through this Red Sea divine. In verse 21 it says, And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided. You just got to sit in that miraculous event and picture it. Like imagine if you're standing on the dam at Lake Murray and then all of a sudden Lake Murray completely divides into two walls of water from the dam all the way to Saluda, which is long. And these two walls of water divide and it's not just that they divide, that the ground is dry.
Like I was, we were working on this this week and Isaac, who was leading worship here, he grew up on a camp at Bethel and they would drain the pond every once in a while and one time they tried to cross that pond after they drained it and they didn't get very far. This is because it's mud. It got waist deep and it was done. That's how miraculous this is that God with an east wind drives out every bit of moisture from the ground and moves it to the side so that they can walk through and dry ground to the other side. That's the power of God being displayed before the so-called power of the Egyptians.
So he divides it. Verse 22. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. I mean, just picture that. Like, it's nighttime. You are, it's a step of faith here, taking steps, with your wife, with your children, with your donkeys.
You're looking up and you see maybe the night sky just barely coming through and every step you just see these walls of water to your right and to your left. And the nation of Israel begins to cross to the other side. Verse 23. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea. all fear his horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. So this pillar of fire, God moves it and lures them in.
They move in with their strength, with their power, and then all of a sudden, verse 24, and in the morning, watch the Lord and the pillar of fire and of God looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. So they're in this Red Sea divine and all of a sudden, God stirs them into chaos. And they start getting their wheels and their chariots clogged. We don't know if the water is starting to come back underneath or what, but they are getting stuck. And then all of a sudden, they know they messed up. And the Egyptians said, let us flee from before Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.
They understand what has happened. They have followed Pharaoh, their king, their false God into the Red Sea divine. And they know who they are fighting against. They are fighting against the Almighty God. And this is not going to work out for them. They are panicked.
They are fearful. And they're about to be destroyed. Verse 26, it says, Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, for the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 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. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the hosts of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea.
Not one of them remained. So morning dawns, and the people of God are safely on the other side, and Moses puts his hand down, and the waters come crashing down on their enemies. And we know from Psalm 136, this is every single one, including Pharaoh. All of them have been killed. God completely destroys evil. And it says, But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right, and their left.
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 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 His servant Moses. So when the waters settle, they are completely, finally, utterly free. The very people that they've been scared of for centuries are done. Bottom of the ocean, bottom of the sea, floating on the seashore.
Their completely, the evidence is there. They can look back and see that evil has completely and utterly been defeated. Can you imagine how joyous that would have felt? How freeing that would have felt to finally look at the people who have caused so much pain and so much hurt for so long, and they're done. And you are completely free. our God completely destroys the work of evil. And that is wonderful.
Our God completely and utterly destroys the work of evil. He breaks the teeth of the wicked. He destroys its power over the grip of His people. And that is wonderful. And the picture of how this finishes is is they fear the Lord. Just a moment ago they were fearing the Egyptians.
And no, they fear God. And they trust God. And they worship. It is a powerful picture. This Exodus is a powerful story. And like so many parts of Exodus, it's not just about the redemption of the Israelites.
Exodus. Exodus is a story that points forward to the Exodus that we receive. It points forward to the redemption that we receive. That if you are a Christian, you walk the same Red Sea road. That's the truth of the Gospel. That if you are in Christ, the Red Sea event is your story.
That everyone in this world comes into this world a slave to sin. Slave to our desires. Under the power of the prince of this world, the enemy of this world. That's how we come into this. That's how we are outside of Christ. And then we approach the shoreline.
We approach the shoreline and God calls us into faith with Him. He does the work and He calls us into faith with Him. And don't miss this. The Israelites, they had to take, this was faith. Hebrews 11.29, looking back in this, says, By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry ground, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. He calls us to the shoreline and He does the work and He calls us to take a step of faith.
And then when you take the Red Sea road and you begin to finally trust God with your life, what you experience is the work of Christ. That when you step up the shoreline, what is offered to you is Christ crucified on the cross. Christ crucified for our sins, our sins placed on Him. And when you get to the other side of the shoreline, what you look back is you see the evidence of what the work of Christ does for us. Micah 7.19 says, He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast our seas into the depths of the sea. He takes all of our sin and casts it into the sea. That all of our sin was placed on Jesus. that He completely does the work for us on the cross. And by faith we trust His work with our lives. And when you come through the other side, if you're in Christ, you get to look back at it. And you get to see what happened to sin.
That the power of sin, the power of evil is completely destroyed. destroyed. If you're in Christ, if you believe in Jesus, if you trusted your life to Him, you can look back at all of it and see that it doesn't have the same power that it did anymore. That all of my sin was cast into the sea. All of my sin was put on Jesus at the cross. And I get to worship Him. I get to delight in Him because of what He has done for me.
That death doesn't have that grip on us anymore. That sin doesn't have that grip on us anymore. That's the point of Romans 6. In Romans 6, it says in verse 3, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Don't you see that it was a baptism of death when you come through the waters? Your old self is put to death.
It is crucified with Christ. It is no longer you that lives but Christ who lives in you. Don't you see how good that is? It goes on to say in verse 4, we were buried therefore with Him by baptism and death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in the newness of life. That when you come through the waters of salvation you see that the waters of judgment fell upon Christ. And when you come to the other side of the shore you walk in the newness of life that He provides.
And then in verse 7 and 9 He says, for one who has died has been set free from sin. Verse 9, we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Hear this last part. Death no longer has dominion over Him. And He doesn't have dominion over us either. But if you believe in Jesus and you belong to Him death doesn't have power over you anymore.
This fall we walk through recovery. We've had part of our church that's been going through the recovery process and tomorrow is the final night of recovery. And what I love about going through recovery is that you get to slowly begin to remember that the power of sin doesn't rule you anymore. It doesn't own you anymore. The enemy doesn't own you anymore. But you get to look back at the shoreline and see the you get to see the body of sin that was put to death.
And that sin doesn't have power in you anymore. And I get to watch brothers and sisters begin to realize how good our Savior is. Begin to realize what He secured for you. The freedom that He secures for us through His death. If you're in Christ that's offered to you. And you get to look back at the Red Sea Road that you traveled through and see all of the sin that used to haunt you.
All of the brokenness that used to hurt you. you get to remember it's not me anymore. That doesn't rule me anymore. That doesn't have power over me anymore. Christ does. And I will worship Him instead. That is the good news of the gospel.
We as Christians completely trust in the work of Christ that He's done for us. We're not like the Egyptians. We don't trust in chariots. We don't trust in our own work and our own effort and our own talents. We trust completely in the power of Christ. So brothers and sisters as we close out this part of Exodus this is our story.
You did take the Red Sea Road. God completely destroys the power of evil. And that is wonderful.
The Passover: Part 2 (Exodus 12:1-20, 43-51; 13:1-16)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles. Go to Exodus chapter 12. We are looking at the story of the Passover.
We're working our way through the book of Exodus, and we're taking two weeks to look at the Passover because in Exodus, when the Passover happens, it is an event. It is a historical moment. It takes place, but at the same time in the book of Exodus, God institutes a memorial feast and a practice that's going to take place throughout the life of the people of Israel, and so we've decided to take this in two parts. Last week, we looked at the event, and this week, we're going to look at this memorial feast that's instituted by God, this tradition that is given to them, this practice that's given to them to help them as they continue to follow Him that God puts in place in Exodus chapter 12 and chapter 13, and then we're going to hopefully see how it helps us as Christians and how we get to engage with the Passover.
I love musicals, and Spencer this week said, yeah, a lot of people looked at you and thought, yeah, this guy loves musicals, and they were right. I do. I love musicals, and there are some people who say musicals are stupid. You're stupid. Musicals are great. I mean, I wouldn't say that, but someone should tell you.
But my favorite musical is Fiddler on the Roof, and in Fiddler on the Roof, and I've seen it, I've seen the play, but I've specifically thoroughly enjoyed the 1971 movie, but in Fiddler on the Roof, the main guy's Topal, is the guy who plays it, but his name's Tevye in the play, and it starts with a fiddler on a roof. It's a bit on the nose. It shows a guy standing on a roof playing the fiddle, and then the main character, Tevye, who's also the narrator, looks at the camera, and he says, A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? I won't do the voice for the rest of the quote, but this is his start-off quote.
He says, but here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof. This story is about a Jewish family in a Jewish village in 1905 in Russia. He says, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous? Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home.
And then he says, and how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word, tradition. And then he bursts into song because it's a musical. They sing a song about tradition, and the whole point is that these Jewish people have tradition that helps them know who they are and what they're supposed to do, and that they use tradition to guide their lives. And that we're actually looking at, the Jewish people added a bunch of traditions, but they also were given traditions, given practices by God. And we're going to look at the first feast that God gives them in Exodus chapter 12, that he says, you're going to practice this.
You're going to institute this. And that happens throughout the whole book of Exodus. And so we're going to look at the first one today and try to help see how God gives this to help guide them, that they're going to have practices that help them know who they are and where they're going and help them find their way over time. And hopefully we'll see how we get to engage with this practice of the Passover for the same purpose, that it helps us to use the words of Tevye, be able to follow the Lord without breaking our neck, without losing our way. And so let's pray. And we're going to read starting in chapter 12, verse 1 together.
Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you institute practices for our good, that you help guide us in what we are to remember and what we are to hold on to. We pray that you'd help us to understand from the institution of Passover, how we as Christians get to engage in that in a blessed way this morning. In Jesus name. Amen. So what we're going to read in chapter 12, and we were in chapter 12 some last week, is we're going to read this institution of the first Passover.
So the first bit we're going to read is just for this first one, for the event. So it says, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. So he says, I'm changing your calendar. This is the first month of the year now, because this is when I'm rescuing you from slavery. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household.
And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat. You shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. So on the 10th day, they pick a lamb from the sheep or the goats with it's without blemish, a male, a year old, and they keep it for four days.
And then on twilight, when the sun is setting on the 14th day of the month, they slaughter it. Verse seven, then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lentil of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted its head with its legs and its inner parts. You're going to cook the whole thing.
And any part that's left, it says they're going to burn up. That's what it says in verse 10. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning. Anything that remains until the morning, you shall burn in this manner. You shall eat it. Now, this is for the Passover, the original one with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast and all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So he's going to come through and he's going to see the blood on the houses and he's going to pass over them and they're to eat ready to leave there to eat quickly.
They're to not put leaven in their breads because it won't have time for it to leaven there to make quick bread, eat quickly and leave. He's going to pass over the houses and then they're going to leave. That's for this original one. And then it says this in verse 14, this day shall be for you a Memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever. You shall keep it as a feast. So now he's turned, he's given him the instructions for the particular one.
And now he says, and this is going to be a holiday. You're going to have a feast every year. I'm going to do this this time and rescue out of Egypt. And then every year you're going to celebrate that I did this. There's going to be a feast. And are we just thankful that our Lord commands feasting?
I mean, we understand there are times to mourn and there are times to fast, but isn't it a joyous thing that God says, I want you to celebrate in recognition of what I have done. And you're going to do this every year. Seven days, you shall eat unleavened bread on the first day. You shall remove leaven out of your houses for if anyone eats, what is leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day, you shall hold a holy assemble and on the assembly, sorry. And on the seventh day, a holy assembly, no work shall be done on those days, but what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared for you.
And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread for on this very day, I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever. In the first month from the 14th day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening for seven days. No leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel. Whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land, you shall eat nothing leavened in all your dwelling places.
You shall eat unleavened bread. So it's the feast of the unleavened bread. They're going to have a Sabbath day. Then they're going to practice the feast of the whole week as a feast of unleavened bread. They're only going to eat unleavened bread. And then they're going to have another Sabbath day, another holy day where they don't do any work.
They're not going to continue to paint their doorposts. That was for the event of the Passover, but they're going to have the feast of the unleavened bread. And they do continue to have a Passover sacrifice in memorial to this. And they do often eat lamb and bitter herbs. But what is instituted is a feast of unleavened bread to remind them that we left quickly, that God's salvation was quick when he brought us out of the land of Egypt.
And to Mark that he did this with a strong hand is the way it's going to word it several times. Let's jump down to verse 43. So we read last week, the 21 onward, we read where they actually, this happens. And now we're going to look again as he's giving instructions about the perpetual practice of this. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is the statute of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it, but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him.
No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. It shall be eaten in one house. You should not take any of the flesh outside the house. So this is for the Passover feast that the night at twilight on the 14th day when they sacrifice and you shall not break any of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised.
Then he may come near and keep it. He shall be as a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There should be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you. All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day, the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts. So he draws this line and he says, those who want to participate in this have to belong to the people of Israel.
And the sign of belonging to the people of Israel is circumcision. That's the covenantal sign given to Abraham in the Genesis. And so he says, this is fenced off that the Passover feast is for those who belong to the covenantal people of God. That's really all that was getting at. And it says that they followed his command. Now in chapter 13, we're going to see him reiterate some of this and we're going to see that he institutes another practice.
And then we're going to get to talk through why is he doing this? Because we're going to see a little more of why God is giving this feast and this practice to the people of Israel. Chapter 13, verse one, the Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me all the firstborn, whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and beast is mine. Then Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery for by a strong hand, the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten today in the month of a bib, you are going out.
And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. And on the seventh day, there should be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. No leavened bread shall be seen with you and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. You shall tell your son on that day.
It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt and it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand, the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this statute as at its appointed time from year to year. So there's a couple of things he says in there. He says, we're going to practice this and you're going to tell your son what it means. Part of the reason we're practicing this is so that we'll remember and so that you'll explain it as you go.
That there's going to be times where you need to stop and say, Hey, here's why we're doing this. And I parents in the room. Do y'all do that? Do you take time when we do some of the practices we have like showing up here to sing and to gather? Y'all know that this is weird, right? The only other people who gather to sing together are at concerts.
We let y'all in for free. No, but we gather to make much of the Lord, to spend time singing together, to study the word together. We celebrate Easter and Christmas and communion and baptism. There's these different things that we have. And do you take time to explain? Here's why we do that because we're meant to, they were meant to with this.
And we're meant to with the practices we have to be able to articulate. Here's why we're doing this. And it says that it's going to be, he says this twice. So we'll talk about it again in a second, but it's going to be as a Mark on your hand or front lip between your eyes. And then he says, it's going to be that the word of the Lord, the law of the Lord might be in your mouth that we speak and eat out of our mouths. And that's part, kind of a play on words in this practice is that they're to partake in what God has done to help them remember.
That it's to be a physical thing that they partake in so that they might remember as they practice this and that they might tell it to the next generation. Verse 11, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord. All that first opens the womb, all the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons, you shall redeem. And when in time to come, your son asked you, what does this mean?
You shall say to him by strong hands, the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord, all the males that first opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons, I redeem. Now the first one he said, practice the Passover and you'll tell your son. And this one he says, when your son asks you, why are we doing this? Because if your son watched a donkey be born and then you snapped its neck, your son might say, why did you do that?
That this is meant to be a perpetual practice for them. And y'all, it's kind of heavy. And it's not like the Jewish people would have loved to do this. If you have flocks and they begin, they get old enough to be able to, to give birth to young, the firstborn all belong to the Lord of every animal that is a sacrifice animal. So that would have been their sheep, their goats, their bulls.
But then it says of donkeys, you don't sacrifice that the Lord. He doesn't belong to the Lord. You redeem it or it just has to die. An unredeemed donkey dies. A redeemed donkey gets to live. And it's a practice that teaches them over and over again as they redeem every son that they have.
That's the firstborn son. It's a practice over and over and over again that reminds them that God redeemed us out of slavery at the cost of a redemption sacrifice. And without a sacrifice, there is no redemption. Without a sacrifice, there is a death. All firstborn sons that were not hiding behind the blood of the lamb died. And so we remember perpetually, continually that if we don't have the covering of the blood and the sacrifice that God puts between us and his wrath, there is death.
And they practice this over and over and over again. And that's what he says in verse 16. It should be as a Mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes. For by a strong hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt. They're going to practice this so they would remember him. It's to be a Mark on their hand or a frontlet between their eyes.
My oldest son, and he was two, he was learning how to talk and he would say some words, you know, he'd say ball, probably said stuff like milk and no, you know, the important things that you need to know when you're two. And, but he really wasn't talking, talking. And you get kind of used to your kids not talking. And it's, you know, when they say the first words, you're really excited. And, but he just, he wasn't talking. And my, uh, my wife, uh, was watching him one morning and she had put, uh, like a green skin mask on her face.
And she came walking in the room with this and our two-year-old son was watching TV and he looked at it and he went, what's on your face? He was like, I'm going to need a full sentence for this. We got to no more, just one word stuff. I'm what is happening here. And that's what he says is that this practice, these practices are meant to Mark you in a startling reminder way that you can't get away from. It's meant to be a part of your life.
Like something attached to your hand or your face. That's what he's calling them to. And so they do this. The people of Israel practice this for 1500 years. They practice this. Now they, at times don't, there are times where they rebel, there are times where they're in captivity, but in general, the people of Israel, when they're being faithful, they're practicing the Passover.
They're practicing the redemption of the firstborn. And it's just part of who they are. And they remember, they remember the Exodus out of Egypt as the moment in their history when God worked in a mighty way to make them into a people and to redeem them out of slavery and to call them to himself. And they practice this over and over and over again. Go to Luke chapter 22. We're going to see Jesus and his disciples in first century Jerusalem in the Roman empire practicing the Passover.
This is Luke 22. We're going to read verse one. We're going to read verse seven, and then we're going to read starting in 14. Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover. Now, maybe you've read the new Testament and now we've gone through Exodus and you go, Oh, I know what that's talking about. Yeah.
We just read about the feast of unleavened bread called the Passover. We now know what that's talking about. Verse seven, then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So the Passover lamb is sacrificed at twilight because they won't their calendar sundown to sundown. So it's sundown.
It begins the next day. They sacrifice the Passover. They're going to have their Passover meal. Verse 14. And when the hour came, this is them celebrating the Passover meal together, Jesus and his disciples celebrating something they would have celebrated every year of their entire life. The whole nation would stop and celebrate the feast of unleavened bread.
If you didn't, you were cut off from the people. Like we don't have anything like that. I jokingly told one guy one time, I said, Hey, look, you've moved to the South and you don't understand this. You need to come to church with me on Easter because it's the South and everybody has to go to church on Easter. If you don't, the cops come by your house and check. And he went, really?
No, not really, but you should still come. But that's how this works. Somebody saw you eating leavened bread and it was like, Oh, you, you're not, you don't belong anymore. You're not welcome anymore. They practice this every year and it mattered. They're used to this, this Passover meal.
And it said, when the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him. I just want to point out he reclined at the table because this has gone from the first event, which was belt on shoes on staff in your hand to a feast to remember the glorious work that God has done. It's now like, it's like Thanksgiving belt off. We've got to make some room here. People they're reclining at the table, celebrating what God has done. And it says a reclining at table.
And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Okay. So Jesus is about to do and say some odd things. If you had been practicing Passover your entire life, he's about to do and say some odd things. The first thing that he says that is odd is I've earnestly desired to eat this.
I'm not going to eat it. I've earnestly desired to eat this Passover meal with you. I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Now, if you heard that and you're the Jewish person who's practiced the Passover, the past, the Passover is fulfilled. What are you talking about? I've longed to eat this with you.
I'm not going to eat it until it's fulfilled. Go ahead. That happened hundreds of years ago. Passover fulfilled. God's already done this. But he says, I'm not going to eat it until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
Verse 17, and he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he said, take this and divide it amongst yourselves among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. This is for you, but I'm not, I'm not partaking. And he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. They're practicing the Passover.
They're taking the feast of unleavened bread and he breaks it and he says, this is my body that's given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Break bread in remembrance of me. Practice the Passover in remembrance of me. You're not, unless you're Jesus, you're not supposed to do that. You don't get to.
I mean, you can try. I'd encourage you to try. The holiday season's coming up. Give it a shot. You got a few coming at Thanksgiving. Say, I'd like us to go around the table and everyone say a thing that they're thankful to me about.
Maybe a thing you're thankful for me or to me. Grandma, you want to kick us off? Thanksgiving's about me. I'm sorry. I don't know why y'all are looking at me like that. Do this.
Remember me. Just give it a shot. You can't, like at Christmas, go over to someone's house. Like if you get into DIY and you like make a little tree topper of yourself and you put it on their tree. You're like, Christmas is about me. When y'all open presents.
Think about how I'm a great gift to the world. The ball is dropping. They start counting down. You run over to people and you're like, we're counting down for me. And they're like, is it your birthday? And you're like, no.
Also, if y'all kiss, that's about me. What? Don't mind me. I'm just going to watch. You can't do this. You can't just co-op things that have been happening forever.
This one's been instituted by God. And Jesus just says, I'm not going to do this until it's fulfilled in the kingdom, which we would have thought it already had been that God had already fulfilled the Passover. This is an event that took place. But he says, no, the ultimate fulfillment of Passover is yet to come. And he says, this is about me. Verse 20.
And likewise, the cup after they had eaten saying this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. These are a covenantal people. There's a covenant with Abraham that's renewed with Isaac and Jacob, but it's the covenant to Abraham. There's a covenant with Moses. There's a covenant with David. They're covenantal people.
And he says, Passover is about me. It's going to get fulfilled. And here's a new covenant in my blood. And to institute a new covenant for them is like. Jesus says something's happening here. The fulfillment of the Passover is here.
And Passover is about me. That the blood of the lamb that stands between us and judgment is about to be fulfilled. The blood that isn't just for one household for one night, but a lamb that you know and then is slaughtered and you partake in it. That the blood covers you, but you also consume it. That's about me. And when you practice Passover, remember me.
That's what he says. So let's go to first Corinthians 11, because now we're in the church and we're seeing how Christians have taken this so that as we as Christians study the Passover, we see that Jesus says it's about me. In first Corinthians in chapter five, prior to this, Paul says, for Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. That Jesus is our Passover lamb. And then he talks about the Lord's supper and how we are to practice it. Chapter 11, verse 23.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, we just read about this, 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 you drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
So this Passover meal that was practiced every year, Jesus says, this is about me. And then the New Testament church starts practicing this on a regular basis. That everything that was built into the Passover, this salvation out of slavery, this protection from wrath, this divine judgment, but the death of an unblemished firstborn to redeem. All of that built in and rolling up. And Jesus says it's about to be fulfilled. And he fulfills it fully and finally and eternally through his death on the cross.
And the church gathers to remember and proclaim. That when we partake in communion, the Lord's table, we remember and we proclaim. Anyway, my wife and I went, we were in the mountains one time and we went to go see a waterfall. And there was this way to get down to the waterfall. You could stand up or you could try to, on this little perch, or you could try to get down to it. And on the way down, there was a rope.
It was tied off on one end and it ran down this really kind of awkward way. But it helps you know where to go. And if you followed the rope, you'd get where you were supposed to be. And it was something to hold on to. So that you wouldn't fall.
Because falling was a real possibility. And I think without the rope, we probably wouldn't have made it. We'd have gone a little ways. And then I'd have been like, Anna, go ahead and see how it works. And then I'll see if I can come later. I wouldn't have.
But anyway, it helped us get there. It helped us hold on. And that's some of what he's saying is these regular practices for us as a church. This regular practice of communion is tied to the death of Christ. That we're proclaiming his death. And it takes us until he comes.
We do this until. He's already died. And we proclaim it until he comes. And we hold fast. And so when we gather. And this morning we're going to take communion together as a church.
We're going to celebrate the fulfilled Passover. That there is blood of a spotless lamb that covers us and stands between us and judgment. And we're going to proclaim his death until he returns. And so there are a few things that happen when we take communion. We have bread that's been broken. We have the cup that we share.
And so there's a few things that happen. One is it reminds us that our redemption is costly. There's something that's proclaimed. Physically proclaimed to us. Every time we gather and we've got communion set up on these tables. You're a sinner.
Without a sacrifice. You're in trouble. You need to be redeemed. And if you've come in here this morning and your plan. Is to be moral and righteous and holy. In your own strength.
In your own name. By your own merit. May you look at that table and know you're a sinner who needs to be redeemed. But that table proclaims. That we have redemption. That there is forgiveness.
You need forgiveness. But there is forgiveness. If you came in this morning dragging. Feeling like you're going to be swallowed up by your sin. Wondering how on earth am I going to make it to the end. How on earth will I stand before a holy and righteous God.
And not just be crushed. The answer is. We hide behind the blood of the lamb. That there is forgiveness offered. And that we celebrate and remind ourselves. That I need forgiveness.
But I can receive forgiveness. Through the work of Christ. When we partake in communion together. We remember that our redemption is real. There's something about physically having to touch it. That when we take this in a moment.
And you dip it in the cup. And you. Every time I'm walking back. And it's kind of dripping on my fingers. Or on my hand. And I'm walking like this.
It reminds me that he really died. That his blood really spilled. That he poured it out. And it's a new covenant. That guards. And protects.
Just as the people in the Passover. When they slaughtered their lamb. And they were painting the blood on their doorpost. And they could see it. They could see the cost of their protection. They could see the cost of their redemption.
That we get to see it. And we get to remember that it really happened. That it stands as an event in history. That we proclaim. And look back to. And remember.
So that we know. That we have forgiveness. And we partake in it. That every time. I take communion. And you take communion.
You get this moment to say. Lord I need this. Without your forgiveness. Without your sacrifice. I am hopeless. And helpless.
And it helps us hold on. And then. It reminds us. That our redeemer lives. Because we proclaim his death. Until he comes.
And we have a certain future. Purchased. Not by our works. Our intelligence. Our effort. Praise Jesus.
Not by our works. Our intelligence. And our effort. But by his. And that we long. For the day.
That he returns. And claims us. And it helps us. Stay tied to him. That's why we practice it regularly. We practice this more often.
Than we used to. Because we need. More often. A reminder. That we need Jesus. That we're going to gather together.
That we belong together. That he's accomplished this for us. And that we need forgiveness. And we receive forgiveness. And we have hope in him. It's tied off.
To the death. Buried on resurrection. And it leads us. To his ultimate return. And we. Remember his death.
And we proclaim it. Until he comes. If we're not careful. We'll have a guiding line. But it won't be Jesus.
Some of us. If we're honest. If we really think about it. It's tied off. To I used to be poor. And it's tied up.
To I'll be rich one day. It's tied off. To loneliness. And it's. It's anchored up here. To romance.
If I can just work my way. I can make it. That's my hope. That's my future. And the problem is. We make all these decisions.
In our lives. That don't make any sense. Because we're supposed to be tied off. To a forgiveness. And a hope. Set secure in Christ.
And anchored to an eternal hope. Set secure in Christ. For the day that he returns. And claims us. We're supposed to live. Between those two points.
And we gather together. As a church. To proclaim that to ourselves. And to each other. I love. When I get to sit back here.
And watch our church family line up. And all of us remember together. And I need forgiveness. But I get forgiveness. And I'm proclaiming the death of Christ. Until he comes.
Because I have hope. And only in Christ. Oh it's a glorious thing. To get to participate. With a family of sinners. Redeemed by the blood of Christ.
With our hope anchored in Christ. Longing for the day that he returns. And claims his people for himself. It's a glorious thing. To get to partake in. To get to remember.
That we have a Passover lamb. We have blood that stands between us. And utter destruction. We have a redeemer. Who's died. Who's risen.
Who lives. And one day returns. To claim his people. And may we cling to that. Hold to that. Practice that.
Remember. May it be on our hand. And on our forehead. So that we can walk. This life. Between those two points.
The band's going to come back up. And we're going to practice the Lord's Supper. So that we might remember. There's going to be a moment for them. To play. And for you to pray.
For you. To remember. I'm a sinner. And I need forgiveness. Some of you need to ask for forgiveness this morning. But you need to know that you're given forgiveness in Christ.
That the purchase. The cost of your redemption has already been paid. That we have hope. Some of you need to talk to the Lord about longing for his return. Proclaiming his death until he comes. And recentering yourself on living between those two points.
With our hope fully in him. If you are not a Christian. Communion is not for you. Because it's a celebration. Of Jesus' blood on our behalf. And that we belong to him through his sacrifice.
Christ is for you if you're not a Christian. That you can come to him and ask for forgiveness. That you can ask him to redeem your soul. And he will. That you can say I need your blood to cover me. And he will.
And then you can take communion. For the first time as a celebration of what he's done. But if you're not a Christian. And you haven't taken that step. And we ask that you remain seated. Out of respect for Jesus.
And for our church family. But if you're a Christian. After a moment. Of praying. Of praising. Let's celebrate.
That we have a hope. And let's remember his death. And proclaim it. Until he comes. So you pray.
And when you're ready. To take communion.
The Passover: Part 1 (Exodus 11:1-10, 12:21-42)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Exodus 11 and 12 today, which is on page 31 in your Blue Bibles. We're actually going to be in this story twice when we're here this week and next week as well. So you can go ahead and flip there and follow along.
The text will also be on the screen this week. So I was told that when you get to your 30s that you get into one of two things. You get into smoked meats or World War II. That's what they say. And four years in, I've gotten into both of those. Not that World War II is something I was disinterested in.
I've always been interested in World War II. It was my family's war. So my grandfather, both my grandfathers fought in World War II. One was a Boilermaker in the Pacific Wars. The other one was actually an original member of Navy SEAL Team 6 in the Pacific Wars. He was pretty bad at the bone.
So both of them fought in it, and therefore I've always had interest in it. It's always been significant. And that's not just significant to me. It's significant to many Americans. I mean, we beat evil. We won.
It was a big deal. It was a big part of our nation's history. And there's a lot of significance for it us as a country. But what happens is I think oftentimes you get caught up in the significance of the story and how big and how weighty it is that you actually miss the details of the story. And for me, that was me. Like, growing up, I sat in history classes.
I watched Pearl Harbor and Saving Private Ryan. Like, I knew things. I knew the big events. I knew the significance. But I never actually sat in some of the story.
And over the last few years, like, I watched movies and look at documentary things and read about it. Just how the politics of how we got into the war in the first place. The fact that they're actually, I don't know, when I finally realized that there was a war before we got into it. Like, the war just kind of started for me when Pearl Harbor happened. There was a whole war that was going on before. Looking at the details of that.
Looking at that story. How we got into it. The different battles that were fought. The story itself is actually pretty incredible. And what can happen, what can happen is, is that you can be so caught up in the significance of it that you miss the story itself. And that is what happens with Passover.
Passover, I mean, it's one of the biggest events in the scriptures. I mean, outside of the creation and the fall, in Genesis 1 and 2 and 3, I mean, there's no other bigger moment in the Old Testament. I mean, Passover is huge. A lot leads up to this. And a lot flows out of this. And you can get so swept up in the significance and the weightiness of the Passover event that you actually miss the story.
So what we're going to do is we're going to take this in two parts. Part one is this week. And we're just going to look at the story and spend some time in the story. And then next week we're going to come back to it and look at the significance of how that flows into the rest of the scriptures. So we're going to look at the story today.
And then we're going to see why it's really good news. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us be immersed in this story and see you so clearly and so wonderfully. That it would compel us to worship, to believe, to delight in you who brings redemption and freedom. We ask that you go to work in our hearts and help us respond in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right. So in chapter 11, verse 1, The Lord said to Moses, Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. So this is it.
This is the final sign and wonder. This is the final plague upon the Egyptians. It's all going to end here. This is what God predicted when he called Moses at Mount Horeb in Exodus 3. When he told Moses, I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it. After that, he will let you go.
This is the end of the wonders. He does this. And then you are going to leave. And all of you are going to leave. Every man, every woman, every child, every livestock, everyone. One of our students was listening to Chet preach last week.
And she said, this is no hoof left behind. Like, this is everyone. And I thought, that is a fire dad joke. I'm saving that for when I teach this to my kids. But it is.
It's every single person is leaving once God finishes this. The time has come. Verse 2. Speak now in the hearing of the people. That they ask every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor for silver and gold jewelry. This was also foretold in Moses' calling.
That you're not just going to leave completely. You're not just going to leave completely. You're going to leave with riches. You're going to plunder the Egyptian enemy once I'm through with them. When the total war of victory is complete, you will leave with gold and silver and clothing. The Egyptians are going to freely give this to you.
Verse 3. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt. In the sight of Pharaoh's servants. In the sight of the people. Let's just pause for a moment.
Sometimes it's good to look at the Bible and look at the different figures in it. And just follow their story. If you look at Moses. At 40 years old, he kills a man and he's scared. So scared that he leaves Egypt.
And he goes away. And then at 80 years old, he's older. He's weaker. He has a speech impediment. He has self-doubt. He has all kinds of excuses why he can't be used by God.
He is not an imposing figure in himself at all. And that is exactly who God uses over and over again. He's so feared. So respected. This is the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt. In the sight of Pharaoh's servants.
In the sight of the people. I mean, Pharaoh's servants feared him. He was the king. One of the most powerful men in the world. He was a God to them. Moses.
Moses. And his weakness. He was great to them. Verse 4. So Moses said.
Thus says the Lord. About midnight. I will go out in the midst. Of Egypt. And every firstborn. In the land.
Of Egypt. Shall die. From the firstborn of Pharaoh. Who sits. On his throne. Even to the firstborn of the slave girl.
Who is behind the hand mill. And all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry. Throughout all the land of Egypt. Such as there has never been. Nor ever will be again.
But not a dog. Shall growl against any of the people of Israel. Either man or beast. You may know. The Lord makes the distinction. Between Egypt.
And Israel. So the final. Plague. The final sign. And wonder. Moses announces it.
To Pharaoh. This will be the devastating blow. That ends. Centuries. Of slavery. Centuries.
Of abuses. This is going to end it. God is going to kill. Every firstborn. Male. In Egypt.
And that's what's bound up in that word. Firstborn. This is the firstborn males. Every firstborn son. From Pharaoh. All the way down.
To the cattle. Everyone is going to die. There's going to be a weeping. And a wailing. That has never been heard. In the land.
And that never will be heard again. The grief. Is going to be. Deafening. And this final part of the plan. Was also foretold.
To Moses. In Exodus 4. When Moses was coming to Egypt. God made this clear. He said. Then you shall say to Pharaoh.
Thus says the Lord. Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you. Let my son go. That he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go.
Behold. I will kill your firstborn son. The Egyptians. Enslaved. The firstborn of God. That's what's being.
That's what's being shown here. The Egyptians enslaved. The firstborn of God. Israel. For years. Abusing them.
Forcing them to labor. Taking their very children. Ripping them out of their hands. And killing them. This is what the Egyptians did. To the firstborn of God.
And then. An ironic twist. God is going to bring that judgment. On their head. He's going to bring Pharaoh. And this nation.
To its knees. And he's going to bring judgment. To this false God. And this people. That has oppressed them. For so long.
And some may look at that. And go. Isn't that. Excessive. Isn't that a bit much. That God is going to end this like this.
By killing the firstborn male. In every household. Let me speak to that for a moment. And examine why. Actually God is just. In doing this.
First. God is God. He is a righteous judge. And if he deems this. As judgment. Then.
It is a righteous one. Now. I know that's not satisfying. I don't know how circular that sounds. To some of you. But it doesn't mean it's not true.
Second. There is a western. Kind of grimacing. To this story. That I would argue. Is a unique reaction.
When compared to other cultures. In this world. And certainly other time periods. That we just. As western Americans. Are largely insulated.
From injustice. We don't. Experience. The kind of injustices. That other parts of the world do. We don't know what.
Genocide is like. We don't know what mass. Murder. And rape. And all the. Horrible things that happen.
Under dictators. We don't know what that's like. We're largely insulated. From them. So we don't know what a real cry.
For justice is. There are moments. Where we see glimpses of it. In our culture. Saw it a couple of weeks ago. There's a man.
That was sentenced. For. For taking his vehicle. And running it through a Christmas parade. A couple of years ago. Killed.
Six. Seven people. Killed a child. Injured. Dozens. It was a terrorist.
An terrorist attack. Wanted to kill as many people. As he could. And that is sentencing. Someone. Yelled out.
Burn. In hell. You piece of. Fill in the blank. No one looks at what happened. With that event.
And looks at that response. And thinks. That's not merited. So we. We see a glimpse of it. There is.
There's a. There's a call. For justice. That we feel. That we tap into. A little bit.
We're just largely insulated. From it. Because other cultures. Have experienced. Horrible injustices. And you have to understand.
The Israelites. Have endured. Centuries. Y'all. Longer than America. Has been a country.
Centuries. Of abuses. Of oppression. Of enslavement. And had their children. Ripped out of their arms.
And murdered. They've endured. Horrible. They've endured. The worst. And they desire.
Justice. Justice. Other cultures. And other peoples. Who experience it. They desire.
Justice. They don't see that as a bad thing. They say. God is a good. Just. God is a.
Good thing. And they are longing. For this justice. To happen. There will be a painful. Grievous.
Wailing. In the land of the Egyptians. But not a sound. Not a sound. Will be uttered. Against the Israelites.
And Goshen. They're going to be. Okay. So Moses. Announces this judgment. And then he continues.
He says. And all these. Your servants. Shall come down to me. And bow down to me. Saying.
Get out. You. And all the people. Who follow you. And after that. I will go out.
And he went out. From Pharaoh. In hot anger. Moses. Moses says. All of this.
And again. The irony. Is unbelievable. Moses. Or Pharaoh. Was a false God.
To the Egyptians. They bowed down. To him. Fearing him. And Moses says. When this is done.
You're going to bow down. And you're going to beg. Us to leave. Then. We'll be free to go. It just demonstrates.
The power of God. Here. And then it says. He left in hot anger. Now. We don't know.
Why he left in hot anger. We don't know. If he is a prophet. Who is taking. The tone. Of God.
We don't know. If. At this point. Pharaoh has already. Said. You're not leaving.
And he's. Angry at this. We don't know. But he leaves. At hot anger. And then God gives.
Tells Moses. This in verse nine. Then the Lord. Said to Moses. Pharaoh will not. Listen to you.
That my wonders. May be multiplied. In the land. Of Egypt. Which was the plan. All along.
Moses and Aaron. Did all these wonders. Before Pharaoh. And the Lord. Hardened Pharaoh's heart. And he did not.
Let the people of Israel. Go out. Of his land. So. Pharaoh says. No.
Which is how. This is always going to be. Therefore. Judgment. Is coming. Now.
We're going to skip. Chapter 12. Verse 21. And we're going to see. How Moses prepares. The people.
For the coming. Judgment of God. And we're going to see. The redemption. That he offers. To his people.
So pick up. In verse 21. Chapter 12. And Moses. Called all. The elders of Israel.
And said to them. Go. And select. Lambs. For yourselves. According to your clans.
And kill. The Passover lamb. So. We're going to see. What Passover means. In a moment.
But he tells them. Go. According to your clans. According to your families. And kill. The Passover lamb.
Slaughter. This Passover lamb. Then he says. Take. A bunch of hyssop. Which is a bush.
They use for cleansing. Cleansing. Some cleansing ceremonies. It's going to be used. As a paintbrush here. Take a bunch of hyssop.
And dip it in the blood. That is in the basin. And touch the lentil. And the two door posts. With the blood. That is in.
The basin. So. This is what. This is what it looks like. You have a lentil at the top. Posts on the sides.
And he says. Slaughter the lamb. Put his blood into a bowl. To a basin. And you take that. With some hyssop.
And you go. And you Mark the top. And you Mark the sides. You Mark your door. With the blood. And every.
Israelite family goes. And they find. A lamb. And they start marking. The doors. He says.
None of you. Shall go out of the door. Of his house. Until morning. Because judgment is coming. You're not going to be out there.
For this. None of you. Shall go out. Of the door of your house. Until morning. For.
Verse 23. The Lord will pass through. To strike the Egyptians. And when he sees. The blood of the lentil. And on the two door posts.
The Lord will pass over. The door. And will not allow. The destroyer. To enter. Your houses.
To strike you. So when. Night. Falls. And the sun. Sets.
Get into your houses. Hide yourself. Behind the blood. Because judgment is coming. He says. The destroyer.
Is coming. So the destroyer. Some look at this. And say. It's the angel of God. Angel of death.
Some look at this. At Psalm 78. And say. This is a company of angels. That are doing this. But.
It seems to be angelic forces. On behalf of the power of God. They're going to come. To every single door. And if they see. The blood.
That is on the door. They're going to pass. Over. This is where we get the term. Pass over from. They're going to pass over.
Your. Door. And you will be saved. And judgment will go. To somewhere else. Verse 24.
You shall observe. This right. As a statute. For you. And for your sons. Forever.
When you come. To the land. The Lord. Will give you. As he has promised. You shall keep.
This service. And when your children. Say to you. What do you mean. By this service. You shall say.
It is the sacrifice. Of the Lord's Passover. For he passed. Over the houses. Of the people. Of Israel.
In Egypt. When he struck. The Egyptians. But spared. Our houses. And the people.
Bowed their heads. And worshipped. Verse 28. Then the people. Of Israel. Went and did so.
As the Lord. Had commanded. Moses and Aaron. So. They. Did.
So the people. Hear this. Response. Hear what they're called to do. And they're going to remember this. We'll look at this more next week.
This is going to be something. That they continue to remember. For years to come. And then it says. They worshipped. They worshipped.
When they heard this. You know why they worshipped? Because they've been slaves. For centuries. And they won't judgment. They won't redemption.
So they worshipped. God. And then they did it. They went. Just as they were told. They trusted.
Moses and Aaron. They trusted the word of God. And they went. And each clan. Slaughtered a lamb. Can you imagine.
The frantic energy. That would have been felt. On that day. After receiving this. Each family. Going.
And making sure. They find the lamb. Making sure they slaughter it. Making sure they get enough blood. To put on the doors. Each family.
Marking the doors. The sounds of. Goats. Being slaughtered. This would have been a frantic. Day.
As night began to fall. And as the sun set. The people of God. Hid themselves. In their homes. And they waited.
And as night. Got. Darker. Verse 29. At midnight. The Lord.
Struck. Down. All. The firstborn. In the land. Of Egypt.
From the firstborn. Of Pharaoh. Who sat. On the throne. To the firstborn. Of the captive.
Who was in the dungeon. And all. The firstborn. Of the livestock. Can you imagine. How intense.
That night. Would have been. The Israelites. Huddled in their homes. Waiting. For this force.
To come through. I can imagine. That they probably. Were huddled. As far away. From the door.
As possible. I can imagine. That they were huddled. Together. As families. Surrounding their kids.
I can imagine. That the firstborn. Was hugged. A little bit tighter. And they're looking. At the door.
And they're. Trusting. That the blood. Is going. To cover them. That the blood.
Is going to hide them. From judgment. That as long as. They're behind the blood. They're going to be okay. And they wait.
Until finally. Judgment comes. Over each. House. And the land. And then it finally.
Shows up to their door. And they wait. And then finally. Passes over. And then. And the darkness.
And the silence. Of the night. When it's all done. There's a cry. And there's another cry. And then there's a chorus.
Of grief. That goes over. All the land. Verse 30. And Pharaoh rose up. In the night.
He. And all his servants. And all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry. In Egypt. For there was not.
A house. Where someone was not dead. Every. Egyptian house. Has a dead boy. Verse 31.
Then he summoned Moses and Aaron. By night. And said. Up. Go. Out.
From among my people. Both you. And the people of Israel. And go. Serve the Lord. As you have said.
Take your flocks. And your herds. As you have said. And be gone. And bless me also. Pharaoh.
The most powerful man. In the land. A king. That is feared. Is begging them. Get out.
Leave. And he's so humbled. In this complete. Military. Defeat. That he is begging Moses.
For a blessing on his way out. Pharaoh said. Seven chapters before. Who is this God. And now he's saying. Please leave.
And bless me. By the power of your God. Bless me before you leave. This is complete devastation. Verse 33. The Egyptians were urgent.
With the people. To send them out. Of the land. In haste. For they said. We shall be.
All be dead. Amen. So again. The Egyptians. Were oppressors. The Israelites.
Feared them. And now. They're saying. Get out. Or we're all going to be gone. Leave.
So. Verse 34. The people took. Their dough. Before it was leavened. Their kneading bowls.
Being bound up. And their cloaks. On their shoulders. The people of Israel. Had also done. As Moses told them.
For they had asked. The Egyptians. For silver. And gold. Jewelry. And for clothing.
And the Lord. Had given. The people. Favor. And the sight. Of the Egyptians.
So that they let them. Have what they asked. Thus. They plundered. The Egyptians. So they.
Gather. Their unleavened bread. Their families. And they plunder. The Egyptians. Just as God said.
The Egyptians. Freely giving their riches. Gold. Silver. Clothing. Take it.
Just take it. And leave. This is a complete. Surrender. This is what happened. In military.
Victories. Once you surrender. You surrendered. All the loot. All your values. Get out.
Verse 37. And the people of Israel. Journeyed from Rances to Succoth. About 600,000 men on foot. Besides. Women and children.
They leave. Can you imagine. What that was like. To finally. Walk. Freely.
All they've ever known. Is slavery. All they've ever known. Is slavery. They've. They've been beaten.
They've been mistreated. They've been treated as property. They've had. Their babies. Ripped from their arms. All they've ever known.
Is. Suffering. Under this people. And not just them. Their parents. And their.
Grandparents. And their great grandparents. For centuries. This is all they've ever known. Is. To be slaves.
To a people. Who brutalized them. And they walk. Freely. Away. And as the sun rises.
They're free. They're finally. Free. Their redemption. Is there. They can taste it.
They can. Realize it. They're finally. Free. And they're leaving the land of sorrow. And pain.
This moment is huge. This moment is unbelievable. People are joyous. Verse 38. A mixed multitude. Also went up with them.
And very much livestock. Both flocks. And herds. And they baked. Unleavened cakes of dough. That they had brought.
Out of Egypt. For it was not leaven. Because they were thrust. Out of Egypt. And could not wait. Nor had they prepared.
Any provisions for themselves. Look at more of that. Next week. Verse 40. The time. That the people of Israel.
Lived in Egypt. Was 430 years. So centuries. Y'all. Of suffering. At the end.
Of 430 years. On that very day. All the hosts. Of the Lord. Went out. From the land.
Of Egypt. And hosts. There's intentional language. That's military language. They're military victors. Because of God's work.
Verse 42. It was a night. Of watching. By the Lord. To bring them out. Of the land of Egypt.
So this same night. Is a night. Of watching. Kept to the Lord. By all. The people of Israel.
Throughout. Their generations. And they're free. You got to sit. And look at the story. And you got to sit in it.
And imagine. What that's like. You got to put yourself. In their shoes. And imagine. How long.
And how desperate. They would have been. How hopeless. They would have felt. They heard about. That they were the people of God.
They heard all this. They had their. They knew. That they were. They were a part of. Of a people.
And they weren't always here. That. It's not the way. It's supposed to be. And they longed. And they waited.
For years. And for years. And for years. Hoping. And then finally. Someone came.
And they came. And they told them. You're going to be free. God is coming. He's going to free you. He's going to bring signs.
He's going to bring wonders. And they waited. And they watched. As the first sign and wonder. And then the next plague. And the next plague.
And the next plague. And the next plague. Each one. Showing the power of God. Each one. Showing.
Maybe this is it. All the way. To this final one. Can you imagine. What it was like. To be the people.
Who received this news. The judgment was coming. That very night. And to receive the instructions. For Passover. Can you imagine.
What it was like. To finally say. All right. We're going to be saved. We're going to be free. But we need to take a step of faith here.
We're going to trust. Moses and Aaron. And to find the lamb. And to slaughter the lamb. And to go to your door. And to paint the door.
And to sit there. In the darkness of the night. Hoping. Waiting for your redemption to come. Waiting. And then judgment comes.
And how terrifying that must have been. And to hide yourself behind the blood. Hoping that that blood is enough. To keep judgment at the door. And then finally judgment. Hits the lamb with a force.
That has never been felt before. And then finally. They're free. The hesitant step out of the house. The hesitant step. Towards the Egyptians.
Who used to be so scared of. You've been longing for change. You've been longing for a new life. You've been longing for this. And finally. It's there.
You take the riches. And you walk. Freely. To be with your God. Can you imagine what that. Felt like.
If you're a Christian. You don't have to imagine that. That is your life. If you're a Christian. That is your life. Because you.
Because you. Through faith. Received. A spiritual. Exodus. This story.
Is your. Story. Everyone. Comes into this world. A slave to sin. A slave to your desires.
Obeying the enemy of this world. The evil one. That's what the Bible. That's what the Bible clearly. Teaches. You don't come in this world.
Free. You come in this world. Slave. If you're in Christ. Especially. If you came to Christ.
Later in life. You can remember. What it was like. To be a slave to your sin. You can remember. What it was like.
To be. Longing for change. Longing for something. Different in life. Be longing. For something.
To be different. This can't be. All. That there is. Know what that's like. And then.
Someone came. And someone told you. The good news. Of the gospel. Someone told you. About the blood.
Of Jesus. Passover. Points forward. To. The cross. Jesus.
Became. Our Passover lamb. Someone told you. About the blood. Of Jesus. Someone told you.
That he died for you. Someone told you. That if you trust. In the finished work. Of Jesus. On the cross.
That you can hide. Behind the blood. That his blood. Will cover you. That judgment. Will pass over you.
And more importantly. It passes on to him. Because Jesus. Is the Passover lamb. That was slaughtered. On our behalf.
Judgment. Ultimately. Was not poured out. On any Pharaoh. It was poured out. On Christ.
And you heard. The gospel. And you believed. And trusted in Jesus. As your only. Hope.
And you pointed to the blood. As your only. Hope. And then you walked out. Free. For the first time.
You tasted. Freedom. The freedom. That is found. In the gospel. The freedom.
That is found. Is that I don't have to obey. My sinful desires. Anymore. That I actually can have. Freedom.
That I can taste. And see. That God is good. And choose. To follow him. And be with him.
Forever. And you. Got to experience. The riches. That come with that. That this military victory.
That Christ. Secures for us. Comes with. Plundering. Of riches. And it's not gold.
Or jewels. Or clothing. It is his grace. And his goodness. And his kindness. And his faithfulness.
And his gentleness. All of that. That resounds. Into eternity. You get to experience. All of that.
And what you get to experience. In part now. You get to experience. In full. Later. If you're a Christian.
This is your story. You know this story. You live this story. You know Passover. But some of you.
May not be a Christian. And some of you. Have not experienced this. But maybe you. Have always said. That you were a Christian.
Maybe you've. It was an intellectual belief. Maybe it's something. You just agreed with. But this.
Right here. This. This is not. Your life. If you trusted. In other things.
As your only hope. Maybe it's the things. Of this world. Maybe it's the riches. Of this world. Maybe it's yourself.
That you put. Hope. In other things. That you've never. So clearly heard.
The word of God. You've never clearly. Heard the gospel. And hidden yourself. Behind the blood. And said.
That's my. Only hope. That blood. Is my. Only. Hope.
Hope. And you've never. Experienced. What it's like. To walk in the freedom. That Christ provides.
You've never. Experienced. What it's like. To not obey. Sinful desires. You've never tasted.
And seen. That God. Is truly. Better. Than anything. This world.
Has to offer. That you've never. Walked. In the freedom. That he offers. And with him.
That if you're honest. You've never. Had this. And what I so. Desperately. Want for you.
This morning. Is to finally. Believe. Is to finally. Trust. In the Passover lamb.
As your. Only. Hope. To hide yourself. Behind the blood. That covers your sins.
To finally. Surrender. To this. God. We're going to do something. Differently.
That we. We don't normally do.
The Plagues (Exodus 7:14-10:29)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
This morning and we are not going to have it on the screen because I think it would break our computer. So there is a Bible in the little rack down in front of you. If you're on the front row and you need the Bible, just hold your hand behind your head like this and see if someone will hand you one from behind you. But grab a Bible, go to page 29 or Exodus chapter 7. Second book of the Bible, chapter 7, it's a big seven and then we're going to start in verse 14. And we are going to look at, we've been walking through the book of Exodus and we have made it to the plagues, what we often refer to as the ten plagues.
And it's what God has called his signs and wonders. And so to Egypt they're plagues, but to the world they're signs and wonders, a sign meant to point to something. So as we walk through this morning, we're going to talk about what is happening, but we're going to pay careful attention to why. Why is it playing out the way that it is? Because God is going out of his way to display something, to point to something. That's what the sign does, to display wondrously who he is.
And that's what he's doing. He is going to execute judgment on the false gods of Egypt. Pharaoh who was considered a God and there are 42 gods in their pantheon. He's going to execute judgment on the false gods of Egypt to display his glory so that the world might know him. He's going to execute judgment on the false gods of Israel to display his glory to the end that the world might know him. And so we're going to walk through, and we're going to walk through from chapter 7, back half of 7, all of 8, all of 9, all of chapter 10.
And you may be saying, it sounds like it's going to take a while. And it will only, I've timed it out, it'll only take about two hours and then we'll have a brief intermission. And if it's your first Sunday and you're laughing like, ha, this is really a joke, right? All right, let's pray. God, we pray that you would bless our time this morning as we study your word, that you would help us to see your glory reflected in your work. And we pray that you would help us to see the glory of Christ reflected in your work to redeem your people out of Egypt.
Lord, we ask for your help and your blessing this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. We're in Exodus 7, verse 14. In Exodus 5, Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? Well, he's about to find out. Chapter 7, verse 14.
Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile. The Nile was this massive river that is basically why Egypt exists is because of the Nile. It is their life.
As he's going out, stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, the Lord, the God of Hebrews sent me to you saying, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness. And we're going to hear this repeated over and over again. That word serve, that they may serve me. That word serve is the same word that is used when Pharaoh says, you've taken the people away from their burdens, tell them to get back to their work. It's that same word, that word for work or serve.
And so what God is doing is he's saying, they're not going to belong to you anymore. They're going to belong to me. They're not going to serve you anymore. They're going to serve me. And we talked about that a couple of weeks ago, how that's a wonderful thing that God is not just setting them free to be free, but he's setting them free to himself. And so we're going to hear that repeated as we go through this.
May serve me in the wilderness, but so far you have not obeyed. Thus says the Lord, by this, you shall know that I am the Lord. So this is why he's doing it, that 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. The fish in the Nile shall die and the Nile will stink and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, their ponds and all the pools of water so that they may become blood.
And there should be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile and all the water in the Nile turned into blood and the fish in the Nile died and the Nile stink so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. The Nile represents life to the Egyptians. It floods every year and it makes it possible for them to grow crops. It is where life comes from.
It's where their economy comes from. And they understood it to be a God. They understood it to be the blood flow, life flow of their gods. And they had gods that were gods of the Nile. Their system for how their gods worked, like I said, there's 42 of them. It's all over the place.
So the Nile is a God, but there's a God over the Nile and the Nile is the blood of the gods. And they were fine with that. But they didn't have it real orderly. But there's gods all over the place that are, there's like five gods of the air and a bunch of gods of the earth. It's, it's just, it's a bit all over the place, but they understood it to be deity. And it was a place of life for them.
But it's a place of death for the Israelites. For who knows how many years they were having to throw their sons into the Nile. And God strikes the Nile and it turns to blood. And all the canals and all the ponds and all the pools and all the basins that people had used filled with blood. So at this moment, there are people bathing in the Nile, using water from the Nile to clean clothes, to clean their hands, and it turns to blood.
This is the stuff of nightmares. They are marked by death. And God shows his imminent authority. Do you want me to tell you how they did that? Can't, it's a secret. We said, uh, about, uh, last week Spencer was talking through this and we said that we don't understand exactly how they are able to copy some of these signs that it could possibly be that they are illusionists.
It could also possibly be that there is some demonic authority in their pantheon, some evil spiritual power that allows them to do some of this. And the Bible doesn't go into it, but we do see that they're able to mimic this. So it says the magicians were able to mimic this. So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened and he would not listen to them. As the Lord had said, Pharaoh turned and went into his house and he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.
Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile. So they have to start scrambling to try to just find water. Some people would have scrambled to try to get themselves cleaned off, trying to find some water, but they spend the rest of this time. And for a week, the Nile is blood and it stinks. I don't know if you've ever been in an area of a city where it stinks, but it is oppressive and it wears on you and it stinks. Chapter eight, the second plague.
The Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me. But if you refuse to let them go, go behold, I will plague you. That word plague can also be used. It can be translated strike or smite you, or it's like a blow that's given. I will plague all your country with frogs. Frogs.
What? That's the immediate first response you have. At least I have. It's like frogs. Like if you were little kids and you're like, we're all going to be superheroes. It's like, all right, well, I have super strength and I'm super fast.
And one kid was like, I'm frog boy. Be like, good for you. Seems a little odd, but there's an Egyptian God known as Heket that had a frog's head or was represented by a frog. And it was the God of reproduction of fertility because frogs would mate and have all these eggs all in the, the Egyptian, in the Nile. And so it was this understanding that, that this God blesses and multiplies and God's saying, no, I'm the God that's in charge of that. I bless and I multiply.
And you're about to watch me multiply frogs. And y'all, this gets bad. Verse three, the Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. My wife couldn't cook a meal if we brought one frog into the kitchen. They're everywhere. Do you know how loud frogs are?
They're on your bed, in your bedroom. This is torment. And it is a display of the greatness of God. The frog shall come upon you and on your people and on all your servants. So it's verse four.
It's a verse five. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt. So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. So they're able to mimic this one as well.
But you'll notice something about the magicians. They're not able to stop God. They don't have the ability or the authority to send the frogs back. They just make more frogs. They took some good water that apparently hadn't come from the Nile and turned that into blood. Great.
Very helpful. Thank you. That'd be like if you and I were walking along and a bully came along. I mean like a bully and slapped me in the face. And then you said, don't be afraid of him. That's nothing.
Anyone can slap you in the face. And then you slapped me in the face. It would be not helpful. So they're like, look, we made more frogs. Thanks. So proud of you guys.
Verse eight. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, this is how you know this one is terrible. Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, plead with the Lord to take away the frogs for me and my people. And I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. It was a full week of the Nile being blood and he doesn't crack. He says, get these frogs out of here.
Plead. I'll let you go. This is what we want. He's going to get, he's going to let them go. So Moses said to Pharaoh, be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you, for your servants, for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.
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. If you said to someone who's playing baseball, you said, hit a home run for me. And they said, pick the inning, pick the pitcher and point which part of the wall you want me to hit it over. And then they did it. You'd be pretty well confident. They knew how to play some baseball.
He says, pray that these frogs will be taken away. And he says, pick a time so that you'll know he's in charge. He says, tomorrow, he says, tomorrow. Verse 11. Moses, uh, verse 10. 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, the frog shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people.
They should be left only in the Nile. So Moses and Aaron, went out from Pharaoh and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs as he had agreed with Pharaoh. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses, the frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards and the fields, and they gathered them together in heaps and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them as the Lord had said. Verse 16, the third plague. Then the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.
And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth. And there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. That's a lot of gnats. You ever get a gnat in your eye or your ear or your nose?
It's torment. And you look like a crazy person. You're talking to people and suddenly you're like, well, they're everywhere. And he strikes the dust to do this. He's showing that I'm the God of the earth. Y'all have gods that are supposed to be the land.
Boom. Gnats. It's a massive display of God's power and greatness. The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats. They were like, we can make it worse. Watch.
But they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said earlier. They mimicked it. And then it said, so his heart was hardened.
This time they were, they come to him and say, we, this, this is God's doing. And it says, but his heart was hardened and he did not listen to them as the Lord had said. The fourth plague, verse 20. Then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh as he goes out to the water and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me or else. If you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people and into your houses and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies and also the ground on which they stand.
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. Again, this is, he has a missionary purpose. I'm doing this to display who I am that you might know that I'm the Lord. So he says, I'm going to send flies, but there's a new wrinkle. They're going to stop around the land of Goshen flies, swarms of them on the ground in your houses, everywhere. You go to Goshen, no flies so that you'll know that I'm the Lord in the midst of the earth.
Thus, I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow, this shine, this sign shall happen. And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants houses throughout all the land of Egypt. The land was ruined by the swarms of flies. And I'm impressed over, as I read through this, how hungry my wife would have been because she can't eat of flies or all around her either.
She'd have really been struggling through this. You guys are 25. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, go sacrifice to your God within the land. So he says, okay, you can go, but do it within the land. Don't go anywhere. You can go, but don't go.
But Moses said it would not be right to do so for the offerings. We shall sacrifice the Lord. Our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We must go three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord, our God, as he tells us. So Pharaoh said, I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord, your God in the wilderness.
Only you must not go very far away. Plead for me. Then Moses said, behold, I am going out from you and I will plead with the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his people tomorrow. only let not Pharaoh cheat again, but not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. We've done this before. And Pharaoh did not hold up his end. Verse 30.
So Moses went out from the Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord and the Lord did as Moses asked and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his people, not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also and did not let the people go. So this is dragging out. They keep having these moments where Pharaoh says, okay, and then they wait and he doesn't. And God strikes them again. Chapter nine, the fifth plague.
Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds and the flocks. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die. And the Lord set a time saying tomorrow, the Lord will do this thing in the land.
And the next day, the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. And Pharaoh sent, you're thinking, sent the people out of the land? No, sent and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel is dead. He just went and said, see if that actually happened. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go.
Okay. So God is drawing these distinctions. He already had it to where swarms of flies, which, you know, swarms of flies wouldn't work like this, but they ran to an arbitrary border and saw a sign that said, welcome to the land of Goshen. And they said, oh, not for us. We're not allowed to go. And now he's got a pestilence that knows the ownership of animals.
This is not how this works, but it is if God's in charge and a wasting disease comes along and takes out the livestock of the Egyptians. And God displays his greatness. And he says, I'm going to do this so that you might know. The sixth plague boils. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, take hands of soot from the kiln and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. Pharaoh, it shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.
So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh and Moses threw it in the air and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians, the magicians who would have been able to supposed to be able to heal and protect. They can't even, they're not even, we can't even be there. They're so covered in boils, but the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he did not listen to them as the Lord had spoken to Moses. This one, Moses doesn't even say anything.
At least we're not told that he says anything. God says, go get soot from the kiln. Now these kilns were most likely the kilns they were using to make bricks as slaves. He goes and gets handfuls of soot, walks into where Pharaoh is, which is never a fun time for Pharaoh. Throws it in the air. Now you would think it would make kind of a cloud, be a little bit dramatic, I guess, and fall.
And then he might say something like thus is assigned to whatever, but he does it. He throws it in the air and it becomes a fine dust that just takes off. And then Moses doesn't say anything. He throws it in the air. And he just leaves and it becomes a fine dust that goes everywhere and covers them all with boils that turn into sores. So much so that the magicians can't even show up.
It's not like some boils and sores. It's like incapacitating. And God is showing his greatness and his sovereignty that he rules over the land of Egypt because they had gods that were over the air. They had gods that were over pestilence and disease. They had gods that could heal. No.
False gods. None are like the Lord God. Verse 13, the seventh plague. 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 yourself and on your servants and on your people so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. So what he's saying is Pharaoh, your gods aren't gods.
There's none like me. In some ways, this is an invitation to the people of Egypt to recognize, humble themselves and worship. He keeps going. Verse 15 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. In some ways, he's saying, have I proved my point yet? You're well aware I could have killed you if I wanted to kill you.
Killing you is simple for me. I could have just smudged Egypt off the map. If I can cover you in boils, if I can kill all your livestock, if I'm in charge of frogs, if I can make blood come up in the Nile, like, you know, I could just kill you if I wanted to kill you. But he's going to describe his purpose. There's a reason here. Verse 16, 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.
God said, I'm going out of my way to declare my glory so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. I want the world to recognize there is no God like me. I want humility and worship to run rampant so that I might be acknowledged as the one true God. He says, but you are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. I said that in some ways, this is an invitation and it is. And I want you to see this in your own life.
Pause for just one second. There are times where God in his goodness to you does not let your idols, does not let you have your idols, doesn't let them work out. You've got something that you say you worship, you serve it like they serve Pharaoh, that your time and your energy goes into that. If I could just have this thing, then I'd be happy. If I could just make this work, if I just get this amount of money, if I could just have this promotion, if I could just dress like this, if I could just look like this, if I could just date this person, then I'd be fine. Some of you are very frustrated with God because he will not let your other small G God work.
And it's graciousness that you might know there's no God like him, that you might know where true satisfaction and joy is, and that you might stop exalting yourself in your own wisdom, but humble yourself and come to him. It's good. It's a goodness to you that some of the Egyptians might actually surrender and believe rather than to follow false gods that seem to work for them unto the ultimate destruction. Verse 18. Behold, about this time tomorrow, I will cause very heavy hail to fall such as has never 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.
This is meant to be for crops. Get your livestock and your people and get them back in. The reason the fact that they have livestock is one of the things that makes me think this takes time. I used to think the 10 plagues were like 10 days, like the worst 10 days ever. But I don't think that's what that is at all.
I think it slowly is a crippling, debilitating thing over a nation that takes place over time so that they've actually replaced some of their livestock. They've traded, maybe confiscated some of the Israelite livestock, but they have some livestock now. And a little while we'll see again that there's a difference between when something happens in like a harvest time. And so that this took place over time. I just go get it in because it's going to die. Verse 20.
Then I love this part. Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses. But whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Some of the people around Pharaoh are starting to get this. Moses is leaving. Servant goes to another servant says, Hey, well, what did he just say?
Same thing. He always says, let my people go. Okay. We're going to do that. No. Okay.
Then what did he say is going to happen? Oh, a hell storm is going to come tomorrow. He said, get your stuff inside. Help. Get, get it inside right now. All of you, everybody inside, put them in the house.
I don't care. We don't have that many cows left. Just wherever. Just put them up. Some of them believed. And it says, but whoever did not pay attention, left it all out.
Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt. All right. I want to point out something to us. The magicians seem to have some power on their own something that they're doing. So in some ways they're more powerful than Moses and Aaron, because Moses and Aaron don't really have anything that they're actually doing.
Moses and Aaron are serving the Lord and the Lord does everything. The reason I find this really helpful is that God keeps telling Moses and Aaron to do things. He says, stretch out your hand toward heaven so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt. So that now I know us and I know how many of us would respond. God, I don't know how to make hail. I told you to stretch your hand out towards heaven.
I'm not in charge of the weather, God. Something I can't do. We'd have been doing this the whole time. Strike the Nile and turn the dust into gnats. I'm not in charge of gnats. I don't know how to do this.
I struck the earth. Did I say Nile? Yeah, just be fine. But we'd have been arguing the whole time. And what they have is faith and obedience and a very powerful God who does what he says he's going to do. And some of us need to walk into our offices and our neighborhoods with some faith and obedience.
Trusting that God is the one who redeems. God is the one who saves. And we actually get to step out saying, I don't have the authority or the power to see people repent and follow Jesus. I don't have the authority and power to make this conversation work. But that's not what I've been asked to do.
I just get to do the thing he told me to do, which is take this step in faith and obedience and watch him do what he's going to do. And understanding that, yes, Moses is not in charge of hailstorms. This isn't something God didn't look around and go, who's really good at hailstorms? Let me go find Moses. That's not how this worked at all. God said, obey with faith.
And he does. And then God moves. And we need to notice that. All right. We were in verse 22. So that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant in the field in the land of Egypt.
Then Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire ran down to the earth. And that's most likely lightning because they refer to it as thunders later. The Lord rained hell upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of Egypt. Oh, so 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. So basketball sized hail, I mean, like destructive murder hail, which by the way, later he's going to say that he's going to send something that never before and never after this one just says never before.
It's bad news for Egypt potentially in the future. All the land of Egypt since it became a nation, the hail struck down everything that was in the field and 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. So they just got to stand and watch this massive destructive storm that follows arbitrary map lines. 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. Plead with the Lord, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go and shall stay no longer. Wonderful. He says, I've sinned. Plead with him.
Y'all can go. Moses said to him, as soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hand to the Lord. The thunder will cease and there will be no more hail so that there that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God. Moses is summoned to Pharaoh. He says, I'm going to walk out of the city.
When I get out of the city, then I'm going to pray. It'll stop. And you'll know that he's the Lord, which makes me think, and the Bible doesn't say this. Y'all can ponder it on your own, but it makes me think that the hail swerved around Moses while he walked. I think Moses potentially walked in and stood before Pharaoh dry, walked out as the storm just curves around him, goes on the opposite end of the storm, walks out of the city, raises his staff. The storm stops.
He makes eye contact with Pharaoh in his castle or whatever he has, Pharaoh's house. Go past a palace. How about that? No, he didn't sound medieval. Turns around and walks off so that Pharaoh might know that there is no God like the Lord God. It says, when I get out of the city, I'll raise up my hand.
Verse 31, we get a little aside. It says, the flax and the barley were struck down for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud, but the wheat and the emmer were not struck down for they are late in coming. About half their crops are gone. Half are yet to come. So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, stretched out his hands to the Lord and the thunder and hail ceased and the rain no longer poured upon the earth.
But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants, so that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go, people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. That's a whole sermon. I've sinned when things are bad. I've sinned. Help me, Lord, please take this away. It goes away and we sin yet again.
Eighth plague, chapter 10. Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants that I may show these signs of mine among them and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that y'all, that you is plural, that you may know that I am the Lord. So he's been telling Pharaoh, this is so that you'll know. He says it's so that the ends of the earth will know. And then he tells Moses, it's so that the Israelites will know. So that you and your son and your grandson will know that you will repeat this and you'll know that I am the Lord.
It's meant to bring about humility and worship. So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and said to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country and they shall cover the face of the land so that no one can see the land and they shall eat what is left to you after the hail. And they shall eat every tree, a tree of yours that grows in the field. So I'm assuming this is the emmer and the wheat that have now come up.
So there's been some time here. He said, they're going to eat all of that. They shall fill your houses and the houses of your servants and all the Egyptians as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen from the day they came on earth to this day. Then he turned and he went out from Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh's servant said to him, how long shall this man be a snare to to us?
Let the men go that they may serve the Lord, their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined? His servants are saying, please, please let them go. So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh and he said to them, go serve the Lord, your God, but which ones are to go? And Moses said, we will go with our young and our old. We would go with our sons and our daughters and with our fox and our herds for we must hold a feast to the Lord.
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 amongst you and serve the Lord for that is what you were asking. And they were driven out from the, from Pharaoh's presence. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.
So Moses stretched out his hand over the land of Egypt and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locust. The locust came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt. Such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before nor ever will be again. They covered the face of the whole land so that the land was darkened and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field through all the land of Egypt.
Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, I have sinned against the Lord, your God and against you. Now, therefore, forgive my sin, please only this once and plead with the Lord, your God only to remove this death from me. So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord and the Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the people go. Then the Lord said to Moses, this is the ninth plague, last one we're going to look at today, stretch out your hand towards heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.
So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. The chief God amongst the people of Egypt was raw and they believed wrongly that he would put the sun in a chariot, ride it into the sky every day, take it back home and do it again the next day. And God says, no, I'm in charge of the sun. And he makes a darkness that you can feel. And they did not see each other for three days, which makes me think it was a darkness that actually conquered light, that if they tried to light something, the darkness swallowed it.
And so they just sit for three days. Now, I don't know about your mental state, but sitting in pitch darkness for three days is tough. Pitch overwhelming darkness, the thought process of what has happened to the sun and what does that mean? Three days. But all the people of Israel had light where they lived.
Verse 24. So then it ends and says, then Pharaoh called Moses and said, go serve the Lord. So it's not even going on anymore. It's over. It's already been relented of, but Pharaoh at this point says, we got to, y'all got to go, go serve the Lord. Your little ones also may go with you.
Only let your flocks and your herds remain behind. So Pharaoh still hasn't fully surrendered. He wants to have some reason they have to come back. You got to leave your flocks and your herds behind. But Moses said, you must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice to the Lord.
Our God, our livestock also must go with us. Not a hoof shall be left behind for we must take of them to serve the Lord, our God. And we do not know what we must serve the Lord, how we must serve with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there. Verse 27. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let them go.
Then Pharaoh said to him, get away from me, take care, take care, never to see my face again. For on the day you see my face, you shall die. And Moses said, as you say, I will not see your face again. Moses says, have it how you like it. If Pharaoh is going to have any hope, any chance, he needs Moses. He needs Moses because Moses is the only one through whom that he can get to God.
And he's going to have any hope, any chance. If this is going to get turned around, he needs Moses and he utterly rejects Moses. He utterly rejects God. He says, I better not see your face again because if I see your face again, I'm going to kill you. And God has purposed to put on display his glory. So that the Egyptians, the ends of the earth, the Israelites and all who hear of this might humble themselves and worship.
So if you said, what do we do with the 10 plagues of Egypt? What am I supposed to do with this? You're supposed to humble yourself and worship. You're supposed to be thankful for a God who does not allow idols to stand before him. And we're supposed to see in this, the reflected glory of Christ who also performs signs so that we may know that he is the Lord God. He doesn't strike the water.
He blesses it and turns it into wine where, where God is undoing Egypt, judging Egypt. Jesus comes, he says, not to condemn the world, but that through me, the world might be saved. He's coming to show a rebirth or re life. Life. He's bringing hope, not death. He's bringing life to the earth.
So Jesus comes. He doesn't curse the water. He blesses the water. He turns it into wine. He doesn't curse the crops, the food. He blesses it and he multiplies it.
There's more loaves and more fish with Jesus. He doesn't bring the storm. He calms the storm. He doesn't bring sickness and disease. He heals sickness and disease and he does not cause death and darkness upon us, but he takes death and darkness upon himself. So that we may know that he is the Lord in the earth, that he has come in the purpose, person of Jesus for the purpose of rescuing a people so that when he dies, we might understand that when he says that it's to pay for sin, that it is when he rises, we might understand that he has risen, conquering sin and death and hell so that we might humble ourselves and worship.
And Moses stood before Pharaoh that he might humble himself and worship and through the person of Moses come to know this Lord. And Jesus stands before you that you might humble yourself and worship and through the person of Jesus come to know the Lord God of all creation. And you have the option to utterly reject Jesus, to continue to exalt yourself or to look into the scriptures, see his signs and wonders and repent and humble yourselves and worship to the glory of God. Let's pray. Lord, there is no Lord like you, Lord. There is no God who rules over every aspect of creation.
There is no God who bends all of creation to your will that raises and lowers kingdom. And there is no God like you that humbles yourself to redeem sinners through your own blood. Lord, there is no God. And God, may you receive glory and worship and honor from us all of our days. Amen. The band is going to come back up and we're going to sing.
And I would invite you to accept the invitation that Pharaoh rejected. To know that he is the Lord God. To repent, humble yourselves and trust in this God who rules over all things.
Pharaoh's Hard Heart (Exodus 6:10-7:13)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 6 verse 10 through 713 as we continue to travel through Exodus together. So in college, my wife and I started dating our junior year.
So we were best friends before and we started dating February of my junior year. And it was taking a chance. Dating your best friend was serious enough. By the time the summer came along, it was even more serious. But that summer before senior year, we both spent the summer apart.
I was down in Myrtle Beach doing a summer beach project with a campus ministry and she was working for a camp. And we only got to see each other once in that period about halfway through the summer she came down and visited. That summer was big for me. I was thinking through a lot, processing a lot of bigger questions. And then about a week before she came down, I reached out to her and said, hey, listen, we need to talk. I've been thinking and processing some things and just we'll talk when you get down here.
And then the whole week, she was like, oh, no, this isn't good. Because back then, I don't know if it's still popular now, but like younger Christians would do the whole like breakup thing where it's like, I feel like God's just calling me to like a season of singleness. Or like, like over spiritualize that kind of stuff. And she's like, oh, has he gone down there for four weeks and God's worked in his heart and all of a sudden. So the whole week she's sitting on that.
And then she comes down and visits and I didn't waste any time. I said, let's go for a walk. So I went for a walk and I just said, listen, I've been I've been thinking a lot this summer and I finally have some clarity on something. For years, I've been wrestling with the sovereignty of God and man's free will. And I just I finally I don't know. I have a piece about it now.
And I just started to talk about how I got just been searching the scriptures and I finally had some peace. And she's like, what? Are you serious? She's like, I thought you were going to break up with me. I said, break up with you. Where did you get that crazy idea from?
No, I was falling in love with her. I was I was. No, that was not how that was going down at all. But I let her on and she was very upset. And it's been a joke ever since. We're a high loader with that.
But a couple of weeks ago, we were in Exodus four. And we came across this bigger theological question that showed up in 421 when it says, And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let you go. Let the let the people go. So that question I've been wrestling with is a question that many Christians have wrestled with.
When you come across passages like this, where it says he hardened the heart of Pharaoh. So what do you do with that? A couple of weeks ago, I said we didn't have the space to cover it that week. But we would in a couple of weeks. And now we are here. So we're going to take a look at this subject matter, what it means with this language of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.
Because many Christians have wrestled with this. That if God hardens the heart of Pharaoh, if he makes Pharaoh do a thing, does that make Pharaoh responsible for his own sinful actions? Like how does that work? People ask, how is that fair? Or how is that just? These are some difficult questions to approach in the scriptures.
And this phrasing of God's heart and Pharaoh's heart shows up over and over and over again in the first half of Exodus. So it's front and center of our passage today. We're going to take a look at it. We're going to look at this passage. And then I want us to, as we work through it, take a step back. And then approach this bigger theological question in light of the rest of the story.
Now, I don't promise to resolve all the tension that's been held for 2,000 years as the church has tried to understand this. But I do believe if we take a far enough step back, we'll actually see this as really good. And we'll be able to find some peace about all of this. So, let me pray. And then we'll jump in. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would bless our time.
And your word is sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces the division of soul and spirit, of bone and marrow. It reveals the thoughts and the tensions of the heart. God, I pray that you would use the word of God to do that in us this morning. And that we would respond in faith and worship and delighting in you. We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen. All right, so let's jump in in verse 10. So the Lord said to Moses, Go in. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 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. But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about king of Egypt to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. So as we saw a couple of weeks ago in Moses' calling, he has doubt. And this doubt seems to continue. He has a doubt.
He's like, how am I going to convince Pharaoh? I can't even convince the people. See, we left off in verse 9 of last week. And it said they had a crushed, a broken spirit. Because they first approached Pharaoh and then it didn't go as well. And Pharaoh afflicted heavy burdens on the people.
And now they're crushed in spirit. He's like, I can't even convince the people. He says, I'm a man of uncircumcised lips. Which is just a way of saying I have unclean lips. I'm not good enough. If I can't convince the people, how in the world am I going to convince Pharaoh?
Pharaoh. Now we know, as we're going to see next week, how God is going to convince Pharaoh through his wondrous, mighty Acts. He says, no, go to Pharaoh. And they're about to. And 10 through 30 is all one big chunk that's together. All of a sudden, it seems to come out of nowhere as a genealogy.
Which I know is everyone's favorite. It's a genealogy that just kind of shows up out of nowhere. I think a couple of reasons. I think it's there. I think it's to break up the story of Exodus. I think act 1 is the calling of Moses and him coming to Egypt.
And then act 2 is going to start with God performing his mighty, wondrous Acts. Also, this genealogy is Moses and Aaron centered. It doesn't go through all the tribes of Israel. It goes all the way up to Levi, which is the tribe of Moses and Aaron. And in a lot of Old Testament passages, it's told in the form of chiasm. That's a nerdy biblical word.
But what it is is basically this. This 10 through 30 section is Moses, then Moses and Aaron, leading up to the genealogy. Then it flows backwards, Moses and Aaron, and back to Moses, some of the exact same phrasing. So that's what's happening here in this genealogy. It's really legitimizing and verifying this is the Moses and Aaron who God used to do this. So, pick up in verse 14.
These are the heads of their fathers' houses. So, we've done genealogies before. We did it in Matthew. Genealogies are not like Ancestry.com. It's not catching every single person in the line. They're told thematically and theologically.
They're hitting major figures. And that's what happens in this because they're skipping lots of different people in the line. These are the heads of their fathers' houses. The sons of Reuben. Here's the first tribe. The firstborn of Israel.
Hanak, Paulu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the clans of Reuben. The sons of Simeon. Jemuel. Jamin. Ohad.
Jachin. Zohar. And Shaul, the son of the Canaanite woman. Which, that's some commentary. That Shaul's dad married the wrong woman. He didn't marry Canaanite women.
Canaanites were pagans. They did things like sacrifice their children to foreign gods. That's just some commentary there. The son of the Canaanite women are the clans of Simeon. Verse 16. These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations.
Okay, so this is where we get to Moses and Aaron, their tribe. Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The years of the life of Levi being 137 years. The sons of Gershon, Libni, and Shimei by their clans. The sons of Kohath, Amram, Mali, and Mushi. Sorry.
The sons of Kohath, Amram, Izahar, Hebron, and Uziel. The years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. Then verse 19. The sons of Merari, Mali, and Mushi. Which, those of you that want children's names and you want to alliterate your children's names. Those three are winners.
Okay. Keep going. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations. Verse 20. Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father's sister. And she bore him Aaron and Moses.
Okay. Let me read that again one more time. Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father's sister. And she bore him Aaron and Moses. Okay. A little gross.
Okay. The Bible is not. Just being honest. The Bible sometimes is descriptive and not always prescriptive. Okay. This is before the Old Testament law that prohibits ancestral relationships.
And that is what happened here. So for those of you that were like, oh, genealogy is so boring. I bet you didn't know that Moses' mom was his great aunt. That's a thing. Which also I feel like had to be a little bit awkward in Leviticus when Moses is receiving the law from God. And we get to Leviticus 18 and it forbids ancestral relationships.
And it specifically in there lists a bunch of them. And it says, don't sleep with your aunt. I mean, that's just probably just thinking, man, I'm glad mama's gone. But daddy's a little younger. So he's going to take it real hard when he hears this.
Anyways. The years of the life of Amram being 137 years. Keep going. The sons of Izahar. Korah. This is the Korah who leads the rebellion against Moses.
Spoiler alert. It doesn't end well for him. Then we've got Nephag and Zichri. The sons of Uziel. Mishael. Elzaphon.
And Sithri. Verse 23. Aaron took as his wife Elishabah, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nashon. She bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. The sons of Korah. Asir.
Elkanah. And Abiaseth. These are the clans of the Korahites. Verse 25. Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his wife, one of the daughters of Pudiel. And she bore him Phineas.
We'll later see that Phineas, he ends a rebellion against God with zeal and a spear. These are the heads of the fathers, houses of the Levites by their clans. All right. Now we're going backwards in the Chiasm. Verse 26. These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.
It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt. This Moses and Aaron. And then we end with Moses. Verse 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.
Here's that phrasing again. But Moses said to the Lord, but behold, I'm of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me? Okay. So that completes that section.
Then we move into chapter 7. Now, what I want to do first is I want to walk through the story. Walk through the story. Then we're going to come back and work through this bigger theological question of God's sovereignty and man's free will. So, verse 1. And the Lord said to Moses, see, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.
So Moses is the mediator, the prophet of God. And then he goes on to say, you shall speak all that I command you. And your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart. So there it is.
That's the phrasing. We're going to come back to that. And though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. So let me pause there for a second. He says signs and wonders. When you think about the ten things that happen that Moses performs to the power of God, what is the word that usually comes up in your brain?
Plagues. Plagues is only used once. That's more of how the Egyptians would have received them as plagues. It's more called five times wonders and then signs and wonders. It's just a very curious way we've learned that. Pharaoh will not listen to you.
And I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my host, my people, the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great Acts of judgment. So he calls them my hosts, which is military language, my people, my children. And he's going to bring them out by bringing judgment on the Egyptians. Verse five. 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. So God is going to have the showdown with Pharaoh.
With the king of Egypt. And as we saw last week, which was walking us through chapter five and chapter five, Pharaoh says this. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? He arrogantly says that. And as we're going to see, we know exactly who this God is. And fair, you are about to find out who he is as he brings judgment.
On you and your people. Verse six. Moses and Aaron did so. They did just as the Lord commanded them. And Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh. So I mentioned this a few weeks ago and I'll mention it again.
God doesn't raise up a young, valiant, strong warrior. No, he calls Moses, who's 80 at this point, Aaron, 83. He uses men who are in the latter years of their life to accomplish his purposes. Just a really beautiful thing. So, verse eight. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, when Pharaoh says to you, prove yourselves by working a miracle, then you shall say to Aaron, take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh that it may become a serpent.
So this is what happened at Mount Horeb. When God was showing his power to Moses. Through down the staff, it became a serpent. The serpent, which is going to be key, as it shows up here in a moment. The serpent is actually, the snake is actually a sign, a royal sign for Pharaoh. That's why sometimes we see Pharaoh tombs.
They have a snake here. This is part of the royal sign. And God is about to flex his power over this false God, Pharaoh. Verse 10. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded.
Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a serpent. So he cast it down before the royal court, before Pharaoh. And then verse 11 says, then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers. And they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down a staff and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.
So in every ancient Near Eastern royal court, a king would have different, different people in his court that had different arts. Magi, magicians, sorcerers. They had all kinds of people. And we were in teaching team this week. And Isaac, who's on our teaching team. He said, were these like, like sleight of hand?
Like almost illusionist type tricks? Or was this like dark, kind of satanic power they were tapping into to mimic, to answer what Aaron did with the staff? To which Chet said in true Chet form, it's a secret. Read the text. We don't know. We don't know if this was just sleight of hand or if this was deeper, darker satanic forces.
But they answer and counter with staffs that turned into serpents. And then as we're going to see in all of these wondrous works, God's power is greater. The snake swallows up their staffs. And then we get Pharaoh's response. Still, verse 13, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. And he would not listen to them as the Lord had said.
So, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. We are going to spend the rest of our time looking at that phrasing that shows up over and over again. So, let me state what I believe is the most biblical position on this. God, because he is the sovereign God and ruler over all things. God hardens Pharaoh's heart for his purposes. And Pharaoh is responsible for his own sinful choices.
That God, because he is the sovereign ruler over all things, God hardens Pharaoh's heart for his purposes. And Pharaoh is also responsible for his own sinful actions. Which in saying that, I know can raise some immediate questions. How do you reconcile those two statements? How does this work together? How do you understand this?
Another question that people ask is, how is this fair? How is this just? We can get to some of those questions. But in order to approach those, we have to do what we do with any question from the Bible. We have to look at the Bible and start there. What does the Bible say about this?
So, I first want to look at Exodus. And see what Exodus says. And then we're going to hopefully see what it means. So, let me put some back-to-back passages. 7.3 says, But I will harden Pharaoh's heart. That's God actively saying, I will harden Pharaoh's heart.
Then you get to verse 13 of chapter 7. And it says, Still, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. That's describing the passive state of his heart. And then in 15, it says, But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart. Now, that is Pharaoh actively hardening his own heart. So, that begs the question, which one is it?
Did God harden Pharaoh's heart? Or did Pharaoh harden his own heart? Now, folks that are uncomfortable with the idea that God hardens anyone's hearts, lean more into, no, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. That is something that I used to do for years. I was very uncomfortable with this idea that God would harden anyone's heart. That he would violate their will.
And for years, I leaned into 8.15. This passage, 8.15. It seemed to be the trump card here. But I came to realize this answer is incomplete. But there are Christians that hold to this.
The late, brilliant theologian, John Stott, once commenting on all of this, said that Pharaoh hardened his heart against God and refused to humble himself is made plain in the story. So God's hardening of him was a judicial act, abandoning him to his own stubbornness. What he just said was, is that, look, the text makes it plain. That Pharaoh hardens his own heart. So what's happening here is that Pharaoh, independent from God, is hardening his own heart.
And basically what God is doing in his justice is just letting him do it. It's pushing him into his own, let him go into his own stubbornness. And that is something that I would have defended years ago because that certainly fit the philosophical understanding of how God works with our will. But the problem is, that's not what Exodus says. That's not what Exodus says. And that argument ignores the rest of the scriptures because that's not how the scriptures treat Pharaoh.
Pharaoh certainly hardens his own heart. He does. Absolutely. But he does so because God ordained it to be that way. So to answer the question, did God harden Pharaoh's heart?
Or did Pharaoh harden his own heart? Yes. Both are true. But Pharaoh's hardening of his own heart doesn't negate the fact that God's plan was to harden his heart all along. But this is the plan from the start.
It was God's plan to bring judgment upon Egypt. He was not waiting for Pharaoh to make the first step. This was the plan all along. And we caught this as early as chapter 3 in Exodus in Moses' calling in verse 19 when it says, But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I, God, will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it.
After that, he will let you go. God says, I know that Pharaoh will not let you go unless compelled by my mighty hand. And when I've performed all of the wondrous Acts that I'm going to perform, I will make him let you leave. Then you will be free to go. And that picks up and continued in chapter 4. Verse 21.
And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. God is going to harden his heart. Now, some folks will try to play word games with that word harden. Some will say, Oh, that's just poetic language. It's not meant to be interpreted literally. Others will say, Well, actually, the Hebrew word for harden here, when it's used in other places, means to strengthen or to encourage.
So, for that first argument, this is not poetic language at all. That's the weakest argument there is. This isn't poetry. This is historical recounting. It is not poetic. And the second, it says, Well, the Hebrew word, when it's used elsewhere, means strengthen or encourage.
There are actually two Hebrew words for harden in Exodus. The way it's used in 7-3, but I will harden Pharaoh's heart. That word for harden only, always, means to harden, to stiffen. That's only how it's used. Now, the second word for harden, look at 7-13, it says, Still, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. That's the one that folks will play word games with because it is true.
When that is used outside the book of Exodus, it can mean to strengthen or to encourage. However, even if you take that meaning of strengthen or encourage and bring it into this passage and the other passages that's used in Exodus, what is Pharaoh being strengthened or encouraged to do? He's being strengthened or encouraged to disobey God's command to let the people go. That's what's happening here. That is why every single English translation I could find for 500 years of English translations, all of them translated the same. Harden.
Harden. Harden. Every single one. So, in 4-21, God tells Moses that he's hardening the heart of Pharaoh. That ultimately, Pharaoh's going to resist the command of God and he's going to bring wrath on and judgment on the Egyptians. And then you can go through the rest of Exodus and how this is used.
In 7-3, it says, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. That's God talking. In 7-13, it says, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. 7-14, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. Then in 8-15, it says, Pharaoh hardened, he hardened his heart.
That's Pharaoh actively hardening his own heart. Then in 8-19, but Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Then we get two more uses. We're in 8-32, it says, but Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also. And then it says in verse 34 of chapter 9, he, talking about Pharaoh, hardened, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart. So showing, Pharaoh hardening his heart, sinning against God.
Then, the rest of the story, 9-12, but the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. 10-20, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. 10-27, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. 11-10, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. 14-4, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. 14-8, the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
14-17, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so they will go in after them. So not just Pharaoh, but the Egyptians too. Only three times does it mention that Pharaoh actively hardened his own heart. The rest is a mountain of evidence that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh for his own redemptive purposes. God is in control of the situation and it is going to come out in the way that he ordains it to be. Over and over and over again, Exodus tells us that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
And then when you get to Exodus 9, as God is pouring out his judgment through signs and wonders on the Egyptians, this is what 9-16 says, but for this purpose, this is God talking, I have raised you up, to show you my power, show Pharaoh my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. God raised up Pharaoh so that God might display his power through judgment on a regime that has enslaved his people for 400 plus years. That all the earth would know the power of God. That's the rest of the Old Testament right there. Looks back to the event of Exodus. The surrounding nations of Israel and then the promised land, they know who this God is because of what he did to Pharaoh and to Egypt.
And that theme flows throughout the rest of the Old Testament. And it shows up over and over and over again. God, because he is the sovereign king, the ruler over everyone and everything, God hardens Pharaoh's heart for his purposes. And Pharaoh is responsible for his own sinful actions. And the Bible teaches that over and over again. Which can still leave us staggering, lingering with questions.
How do you reconcile those two statements? How do you reconcile those two truths? How does that work? Some will say, how is that fair? How is that just? And for many, that's not an academic question.
It's not. For many, that's not a question that gets debated in coffee shops and ivory tower conversations. There are real faces and real stories and real people attached to that question. You have sons and daughters and brothers and sisters. You have friends and neighbors and family and co-workers, people that you love. That's not an academic question for many at all.
It's a personal one. And when you have that greater theological question and you fast forward and say, what does that mean for our own salvation? What does that mean for us? Then you get to the New Testament. Then you get to the book of Romans chapter 9.
And in chapter 9 of Romans, God, through Paul, uses Exodus and Pharaoh to explain how this works as it relates to our own salvation. So what does all this hardening language in Exodus mean? And the New Testament gives the answer. Verse 14, chapter 9, Romans. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?
By no means. The forceful by no means. God is not unjust. And then he gives an example. 4, verse 15. 4, he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
So then, verse 16, it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy. Does it depend on the will of man? It depends on the mercy of God. Verse 17, 4, the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. That's quoting what we just read in Exodus 9. Verse 18, so then, he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens he hardens whomever he wills.
So what do you do with that unbelievably difficult teaching? I have four biblical truths to end with. I have four biblical truths that would be helpful for us to humbly submit to and believe in light of all of this in Exodus and all of this teaching in the scriptures. Here's the first. We are responsible for our own sin. The Bible makes that abundantly clear.
We are responsible for our own sin. Just because God is sovereign over everyone and everything and God chooses us to harden whom he hardens and give mercy to whom he gives mercy to that does not absolve us of human responsibility. We are responsible for his own sin. You saw that in Exodus 9. In Exodus 9, 34 it says, but when Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and the thunder had ceased he sinned yet again and hardened his heart he and his servants. It's taught in Exodus.
He's responsible for his own sinful actions. And then you get to the New Testament. James 1. James 1 says, let no one say when he's being tempted, I am being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted and he himself can't be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. And then he goes on to make it clear that each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire. His own desire.
We are responsible for our own sin. Our own sin tempts us. God does not. 1 John 1.5 says, this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. There is no sin in God.
And he does not tempt and lure anyone into sin. The Bible makes that clear and abundantly clear. We are still responsible for our own sin. God does not make us sin. We sin and incur condemnation all on our own. That's the first biblical truth that we should humbly submit to.
The second is this. It is God's divine right to be sovereign over us. It is God's divine right to be sovereign over us. God is God and we are creatures. He made us. He rules over us.
Now, as Western Americans who celebrate freedom, independence, autonomy, as a birthright, that's what we celebrate as Americans. It is a birthright that we are free, autonomous, independent, human beings. We don't like that teaching at all. It's not something we're naturally accepting of. But God is God and he rules over us.
We are not autonomous. We are not independent. We are not free. The Bible makes this argument very clearly. You are either a slave to your own sinful desires. That you either obey your own sinful flesh and follow it to where it goes or you are a slave of God.
That God is your master. And in servitude to God there is joy and gladness and unbelievable blessings. But there is no middle ground. You are either a servant of one or the other. You are not free. And part of us wants to object and say, how is that fair?
Some will even use the language, I can't believe in a God who would work like this. I can't believe in a God who would do this. How? How can these two truths coexist? And God's answer to that is also in Romans 9. Pick up where I left off in Romans 9.
This is how God answers that. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? Why does he still find faultness? For who can resist his will? That's the question that we have. Verse 20.
Here's the answer. But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Well, what does molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? So God answers us.
He says, who are you, a mere pot, to question the infinite potter? Who are you, limited by design, human, to answer the infinite God? the response here is humility, humble yourself, you are a pot. That's fairly blunt. And the reality is, and the Bible also teaches this, that if you want fairness, and I think fairness in the way that people mean nowadays, which there really means justice, you want fair. Fair is that everyone gets condemnation, and everyone gets the wages of sin, which is death. Everyone gets hell. because everyone is responsible for their own sinful actions.
And I know how that sounds to some of you. I know. Like, I know the part of you that's like, I just know. Like, I used to rage against arguments like this. I could not for the life of me reconcile how God could be completely sovereign and we're responsible for our own, how does that work? And for me, it was not an academic exercise.
In the slightest, I had family that did not believe, I had friends that did not believe. Like, I understand that the inner turmoil of the soul and trying to wrap our minds around this, and then something just clicked in a way that's not unique to me at all. It has clicked for millions and millions of followers of Christ when they finally have discovered this third truth that I would encourage you to humbly submit to, and that is this, God's sovereignty and man's free will is a mystery to behold. God's sovereignty and man's free will is a mystery to behold. So the question is, how do you reconcile those two ideas?
We don't have to. We don't have to. You know why? Because we're not God. We don't have to know how all this works. We don't have to know.
It is a mysterious paradox that we're never meant to understand. A paradox is two seemingly contradictory ideas, two seemingly opposed truths that happen to both be equally true. Both of those are biblically true. They may seem contradictory, they are not. We don't know how it all comes together, and we don't have to. It is not a puzzle for mere human minds to solve.
It is a mystery that we're meant to behold. And wrestling with it and trying to understand it is like looking at the sun and trying to behold the sun for all of its power. That's what J.K. Chesterton says about mysteries. Sometimes it's like you're trying to understand the sun and all of its power and you look at it and it's blinding you. It's too much.
You can't take it in, but if you just would look at everything else, the sun lights up. Just behold the sun for what it is and its power and just look at everything else, then everything else will be seen more clearly. If you try to understand this mysterious truth and behold it and try to quantify it, it blinds you. But if you just would look at the Christian life with that lens and just accept the mystery, everything else is more clear. It is a mystery to behold and if you can arrive at that conclusion, then I submit to you a fourth truth that I think is beautiful. The sovereignty of God is meant to lead us to worship.
Four, the sovereignty of God is meant to lead us to worship. We don't have to try to reconcile everything, we don't have to counter debates. And even for those of you that may accept this, there's an arrogance that comes with it that tries to dogmatically go after other people. That is not what this is meant for. It is meant to humble us in worship. It is meant to humble us in worship.
The opposite of a hardened heart is not free will or volition, it is God's mercy. It is the mercy of God. That's what Romans 9 taught for. He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy.
The opposite is mercy. And those that want to reject this, I just would humbly submit to you, we don't need free will, we need the mercy of God. And when you realize that beautiful truth, in light of our own salvation, that is when you see how merciful our God is. The path of redemption and spiritual Exodus was not found by God taking judgment on Pharaoh, ultimately it's found in taking judgment on himself at the cross. And then when he takes judgment on himself on the cross and he conquers death at the empty tomb, he redeems and he shows mercy over and over and over again. And he pours out mercy on those who don't deserve it by his own sovereign choice.
I understand how that's hard to hold in your head. I do. Let me ask you this. A lot of times you'll see Christian families. They're a wonderful, Jesus-loving husband and a Jesus-loving wife. And they have two kids.
And they raised those kids in the exact same Christian household. Those kids heard the same teachings. They sat under the same Bible stories at night. They sang the same hymns. They were part of the same kids' ministries, the same student ministries. Their mamas prayed.
Their mama prayed every day for both of them that they both might taste and see that the Lord is good and abide in him forever. They are raised in almost the exact same ways. And you will watch one who furiously follows Christ and serves the kingdom of God. Another one rejects him outright. What do you do with that? What's the difference?
Was the other one more, were they wiser? Were they smarter? Were they morally better? No. It is the mercy of God. And when you realize how beautiful that truth is and how merciful our God is, you just get to worship.
You stop trying to figure all this out and you just say, thank you, Jesus. I don't know why you saved me. I don't know why you showed me mercy, but I'm going to praise you and worship you. And that's what we get to do now.
Exodus 4:27-6:9
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles. Go to Exodus chapter 4. Exodus is the second book of the Bible.
If you grab one of these blue Bibles that's in the little rack under the chair in front of you, it'll be on page 28. The big number is the chapter. The little Numbers are the verse. We're going to start in Exodus chapter 4, 27. So where we're picking up today, God came to Moses in the burning bush and said, Go.
You're going to go to Pharaoh. You're going to proclaim that he's to let my people go. And I'm going to drive you out. I'm going to bring the people out. And he's going to send Aaron with him and he's going to go. And where we get to start today, we get to see the first steps in Moses' obedience to this call.
Spencer said a couple weeks ago that it'd be like if God came to you and said, Pack up. Go to Russia. We have a message for Putin. You're going to go stand before Putin and you're going to declare that this is over. And it'd be like that amount of intensity. But Moses is going and we're going to see that as Moses steps out in faith, that immediately everything gets worse.
Just way worse. And it's a little bit surprising. Like that's not how we thought this was going to go. It's surprising to them. It's surprising to Moses that this is like, Oh, they were doing what you said to do. Why has it gotten worse?
And if we're honest, a lot of us feel like that in our walk with the Lord. Why is this so hard? Why, when it feels like what I'm trying to follow you, I'm trying to read, I'm trying to do the things that I'm supposed to do. Why is this so difficult? Some of you are like, I became a Christian because my life was a mess. And I had in my head that after I became a Christian, it would be less like that.
But it's still extremely hard. In some ways, objectively worse. And so we're going to see as Moses goes to the Lord and says, Why? Why is this working this way? Why have you done this? We're going to see that God answers him.
And God does not tell him why. He's not going to answer that question. Why it's worked out this way. But what God is going to tell him is why it's worth it to keep going. And so for us this morning, I hope that's what we get out of this. Is that we understand, maybe we want to get all the answers to why has it played out this way.
Why has it been this specific thing. But why it's worth it to keep going. So let's pray and let's study this together. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your work of redemption among the Israelites. It gives us a tangible picture of your ultimate work of redemption from sin.
And we thank you, Lord, that you do work to redeem in the lives of your people. That you see them, that you hear them, that you know them, and that you come to save. We pray, Lord, that as we study this this morning, And that you would help our hearts be grasped by why it's worth everything to follow you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Chapter 4, verse 27.
The Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. Okay, so that and kissed him part, I'm going to cover that first because that's weird for us. It just means it was a very warm reception. It's an Eastern thing, a Middle Eastern thing to kiss in a greeting. They're excited to see each other.
They're brothers. Aaron is a couple years older than Moses. It seems like Aaron was born in the Shifra and Pua era of Pharaoh saying, kill all the babies, and then Shifra and Pua, the midwives, being like, Hebrew women have babies too fast. That zone. And then Moses was born in the, okay, throw all the boys in the river zone because that was what happened with him, and he was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. And so Moses grew up pretty much separate from Aaron, but he knew he had a brother.
Aaron knows of Moses. And God tells Aaron, go see Moses. And Aaron hadn't seen Moses since he killed a guy and ran away. And that's been years, 40 years or so. And so my first question when I read this, though, was how does Aaron just get to leave? Aren't they slaves in Egypt?
The text does not tell us, so I came up with two theories that I'm going to share with you now. Theory one, sneakiness. It's possible that God told him to leave, and so he just sneaked on out of there. I actually don't like theory one as much as I like theory two. Theory two, Aaron, this isn't a theory, we know this, is like 84 years old. So my second theory is that the Egyptians didn't care.
They were using slaves for manual labor. I think Aaron was past his manual labor days, and he was like, I'm out of here. And they were like, bye. Nobody minded. That's my second theory. All right.
Verse 28. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak and all the signs he had commanded him to do. Throw the staff down, turns into a serpent, stick your hand in your cloak, pull it out. You have leprosy. Put it back. No leprosy.
He also has a sign where he can take water from the Nile and pour it out, but I don't think he's able to do that one here because I don't think they're at the Nile yet. But it's possible they traveled some. 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 if you'll remember, that's what God worked out with Moses, which is Aaron's going to speak on your behalf. And the people believed.
Can you all feel this? Moses gathers them, shows them this sign, all the elders, and they believe. And they worship. And I can imagine that this news spread through the Israelites. Israelites, I mean, I bet there were people that couldn't sleep that night. I bet there were those that went to bed and just thanked the Lord that he was answering their prayers, that they had been begging him.
I bet there were those that went to sleep and they were saying, Lord, I'm sorry, I had lost heart. I had lost faith. But thank you that you hear and that you redeem and that you work. And I bet among the Israelites, it felt like it's just something in the air, the way it feels before a storm, that there's something going to happen. I bet there was giddiness. And it was the first time they ever woke up to go be a slave where there was a little bit of movement in their step that like, ah, not much longer.
You know, when you put in your two weeks notice and that's the best two weeks you've ever had at work. That kind of a thing. That feeling. God's working. They worship. And I know that some of you, as you have placed your faith in Jesus, you've had that.
That I see it. I know who he is. And I believe. And something happens in you that you can't explain. And sometimes your friends try to ask you to explain it. You can't explain it.
That something is happening to the Holy Spirit that's working you. And there's this moment of belief for them and excitement for them. And then we move forward. Chapter 5. Afterward, so we don't know exactly how long, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. Not be free forever.
That's not what they say. Let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. And they're going to say later to offer sacrifices. But it says, 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.
I appreciate this response for two reasons. One, he says, Who? I don't know him. And also, No. I just like that he says, And moreover, No. And also, on top of me not knowing him, No.
You cannot go. But his questions, Who is the Lord and why should I obey him? Those questions are going to be answered for him. He's not going to like the answers, but Pharaoh will get those questions answered. Who is the Lord and why he should obey him? But he says, No.
No. Not obeying him. Don't know him. Get out of here. Then they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us.
Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. They're saying, He's our God and if we don't obey, it might go poorly for us. 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. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land are now many and you make them rest from their burdens. This is how slavery works.
They are valuable to the Pharaoh for production. He says there's a lot of them and slowing down production is a bigger deal. Get back to work. And Pharaoh said, verse 6, The same day, that same day, so immediately, they go talk to Pharaoh and immediately, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past, you shall impose on them.
You shall by no means reduce it for they are idle. Therefore they cry, Let us go and offer sacrifices to our God. So I want to show y'all, yeah, let us go and offer sacrifices to our God. I'm going to make sure I hadn't jumped ahead of myself here. Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words. But I want to show y'all a picture.
This is a picture that was in a, these were on the walls of a tomb in Thebes. And it is pictures of people making clay bricks. So what they would do is they'd take, they didn't have stone to quarry, so they would take water, they had mud, they would make clay bricks. Straw was used, it's kind of like rebar, it helped it dry out and it helped it make more, made it more solid. So without straw, the bricks would break apart.
And you'll notice in a couple of the pictures, there's just a guy sitting holding a stick. Those are taskmasters. He's not working, he's just there to make sure you work. And so they would give the Israelites straw, they would bring it to where they were, give them straw to make bricks. And so now he says, well quit bringing them straw. They have too much time on their hands.
If they can have little get togethers where they talk about, hey, let's leave, they got too much time on their hands. So now, just quit giving them straw. And they still, but keep the same number of bricks. So if they had to make 500 bricks a day, they still have to make 500 bricks a day. But now, go get some straw and maybe you won't have times to get together and have little discussions.
Verse 10. So the taskmasters and the foreman of the people went out and said to the people, thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least. Okay. Moses and Aaron said, thus says the Lord. And they come out and said, you know, thus says Pharaoh.
It's a decree of a God. And if you're the people of Israel, one of those is having more of an effect on you right now. One of those feels more real. I don't know if you've ever felt that. You're like, I know what the Lord says, but man, does this feel more real. I know what he says, but this is the one that seems to work.
I know what he says, but this is the one that seems to apply to my life. That's the situation they find themselves in. Verse 11, go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least. So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. So they have to make bricks that hold together.
They have to have straw to do that. They don't seem to own a lot of land and people have already harvested the straw, so they're just running around wherever they can to find stubble just to try to piece this together. The taskmasters were urgent saying, complete your work, your daily task each day as when there was straw. And the foremen of the people of Israel, so they had taskmasters and then they had foremen. Foremen were Israelites over other Israelites to make sure the work gets done. The foremen of the people of Israel whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them were beaten and were asked, why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday as in the past?
Moses and Aaron come and say, hey, God's visiting us. He's going to rescue us. Moses and Aaron go in front of Pharaoh. That same day, the rules come down that they're not going to get straw anymore and then it says, today and yesterday, they didn't meet quotas, so on that end of the second day, they're beaten. This happened quick. That the foremen are brought in and beaten by the taskmasters because they're no longer fulfilling what they're supposed to fulfill.
Now could you imagine being the foreman? For just a moment, God's visiting us. This is changing. We're going to be set free. Then they come and announce, y'all are wasting time.
You have too much time on your hands and now you've got to get the same amount of work done with less and that's hard and impossible. And then, as they fail, while people stand over them yelling, then two days in, they're beaten for it. Verse 15, then the foreman of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, make bricks. And behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your people. Your own people is in your own people.
Verse 17, but he said, you are idle. He said, lazy. You got too much time on your hands. You are idle. That is why you say, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Go now and work.
No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks. And the foreman of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, you shall by no means reduce your number of bricks in your daily task each day. They leave and they said, well, we're in trouble. This is not going to work out for us. Verse 20, 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. Now from, Moses says, okay, Lord, I'll go.
I'll step out. If you remember at the burning bush, he said, please no. And he gave a bunch of excuses and then when God went through all of his excuses, he said, okay, you got through all my excuses, but also one more thing, please no. I have no more excuses, but please don't send me. And he sends him and Moses goes. Moses steps out in faith.
He goes before Pharaoh and it gets worse and then the people who he's coming to try to help look at him and say, may God judge you. They're going to kill us because of you. Verse 22, then Moses turned to the Lord and said, oh 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. Why? Why have you done evil?
Why has this gotten worse? You haven't delivered the people at all. Like you said you were going to deliver them, you hadn't done that at all. Like it's the opposite. It's worse. Ever since I came it's just gotten worse.
Have y'all ever thought this? Have you ever prayed this? Lord, why has this gotten harder? Why has this gotten worse? I thought this was going to be good. I thought you were going to bless.
I thought, I mean, I don't believe in the prosperity gospel. I didn't think I was going to be a millionaire and have a jet. I wouldn't be mad at you if that happened but I didn't think that was going to happen. But I didn't think it was going to be like this. I mean, it feels like I'm trying to fight uphill through briars and now there's a guy hitting me with sticks. Like I don't, it's gotten worse.
Why is this so much harder? Why isn't this easier? I've been following you for years now and it still feels like I'm in the same stuff. Why? And for Moses, Lord, I'm obeying. Why?
I did what you asked me to do. You haven't delivered at all. So chapter 6, God answers. And he doesn't answer that why. Why has this happened? He doesn't answer that.
But in his answer, I think he gives us why it's worth it. Why we should trust him. Why we should keep moving forward. In chapter 6, he says this, But the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will send them out and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. So it's interesting because right now Pharaoh's using his strength to keep them.
And God said, Watch. Pretty soon he's going to throw everything he has at getting rid of them. 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.
So this first part is an answer to Moses and then he's going to tell him what to say to the people of Israel but he says, I am the Lord and he talks about what he's done, who he is and what he's done and he talks about that he's remembered this covenant and he's going to fulfill his promises. In the next bit he's going to talk about the fulfillment of those promises. But I think that's part of the first answer we get, part of where we should start is who is he? What do we know of his character? What do we know of his nature? And we have a much more beautiful answer than Moses has when we sit and consider that.
Moses has that he fulfilled his promises to the fathers in some measure that he's working this out and that he's going to fulfill these promises now in Egypt but we actually know that he does fulfill these promises in Egypt and more than that he fulfills them eternally in Christ for us. That he loves us so much that he died for us. That's what we read earlier in Ephesians 2 that while we were still sinners Christ died for us that he loved us so that he would rescue us by grace. We start there but then here's what he's going to say to say to the people of Israel this is verse 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 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. And Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. They just couldn't hear it. They had a broken spirit and harsh slavery and there is really nothing worse than a broken spirit. And so my hope today is that even in the midst of wherever you are that you would be able to hear this answer.
That you would be able to hear what he says. When I was in seminary we they referred to a study I learned about a study where they had people tell a Bible story and then have to retell a Bible story. So you would listen to a Bible story and then you would retell it. And what were they studying? I don't know. Who's they?
Also don't know. But it's not important for this illustration so try to stay focused. What they did though was they did this with people in the United States and then they did this with people not in the United States that were more in it was either in Africa or kind of the Middle East India area but it was a very different culture. And so what I'm going to call is we'll just call it the West United States and we'll call it the East the not the United States. I remember like I said all the pertinent details. But they told them the story of the prodigal son and they had them repeat it.
And you don't need to know the whole story of the prodigal son. I mean for this illustration you don't. You should know it. It's good but you don't for this illustration. It comes from Luke 15. The main thing you need to know is that the prodigal son goes off and he does two things.
He has two problems. One is he wastes all his money and two there's a famine in the land. That's the problem he has. He wastes all his money there's a famine in the land. When the Westerners retold the story almost all of them remembered that he wasted his money. But only some remembered there was a famine.
Most of them did not. When the Easterners retold the story almost all of them remembered there was a famine and very few of them remembered that he had wasted his money. Now I don't know what they were studying but one of the things they found was that sometimes we only latch on to the things that seem to connect with us that make sense to us that we're excited about that we think about. Westerners understand wasting money. Maybe they've never really gone hungry never had to live through a famine never understood what that was like but they know about wasting money and the Easterners in this study didn't have a whole lot of connection to wasting money but they'd lived through some famines.
Now this is one of the only times I'll ever say this don't look at your Bibles just for a second don't look at your Bibles what does God promise that he's going to do? He says say this to the Israelites and he promises that he's going to do something what does he promise he's going to do? Get your answer in your head don't shout it out you'll ruin it for the rest of the class. I think that the majority of us remember he's going to set them free from slavery. He's going to get them out of the burdens of Egypt. If I had to guess what was the second most remembered thing is that he's going to take them to the promised land.
But there's a third thing that he says that I think we're likely to overlook. One of the reasons I think we're likely to overlook it is that as I was preparing this I kept overlooking it. And it's this you will be my people and I will be your God. And you see I think there's times where we read this and as Americans land of the free oh we got that freedom land land of the free home of the brave and it's like well it's land of the free home of the milk and honey but you were close. But you see the purpose of the freedom that he gives is not to get them to the borders of Egypt and say go live your dreams.
He sets them free that they might be his. He gets them away from Pharaoh that they might belong to him. I want to read this. I want us to see it. Verse 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. Amen.
He sets them free from slavery. There's a wonderful glorious thing that he's going to do and that he promises to do. Verse 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 and I will bring you into the land that I swore to gifts he's going to give them land to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob and I will give it to you for a possession I am the Lord but see what makes the freedom wonderful and what makes the land wonderful is that they belong to God. And how dare we fail to see how glorious and wonderful he is that he's actually what the point of the promise is.
The promised land is the promised land because he's there because he's making a people for himself. If you were in an orphanage and it wasn't a good one it was a rough place and someone came by to see you and they said one day I'm going to get you out of here. One day I'm going to get it lined up and I'm going to get you out of here. And you're not going to stay here anymore and you're not going to have to put up with this anymore and you're going to be free. And there's not going to be a day where you're laying and staring at this ceiling anymore and you're surrounded by these people anymore you're going to be free.
And one day they do it and they come to get you and they sign everything and they get it all worked out and they walk out holding your hand and then they look at you and say okay you're free best of luck to you and walk off. No the point of the freedom was so that you might belong to them. The point of the adoption was so that you might come live with them that you might belong to them and they might belong to you that they might share themselves with you and that's the glorious point of this promise here is that God says I'm going to make you mine. And if all we see is some of the stuff around it then it's possible in the midst of the difficulty we'll think is it worth it?
Because I'm pretty sure this other thing will give me some of the stuff. I mean I signed up so that my kids would behave. I started following you so that things would work out for me. I started following you because I thought it was going to make life easier. I started following you because I figured if I'd obey then I'd be married by now. I started following you because I figured this would happen or that would happen or I'd make work work out.
I don't know I didn't want you to I wasn't trying to think of you as like a lucky penny or something but I kind of I don't know. It just feels like you're not fulfilling the things. It feels like you haven't delivered at all. And if all we understand is that he's going to do some wonderful things for us but we don't understand that he's wonderful and that ultimately he's the prize and that heaven is only heaven because he's there. But if we understand that well it doesn't matter where he takes us because if he's at the end of that road it's worth it.
It doesn't matter how long it doesn't matter how much suffering it doesn't matter how much hardship the truth is Paul tells us that the suffering of this time are not worth compared to the glories that will be revealed to us that he's actually preparing for us an eternal weight of glory that only suffering works out in us and so that the more suffering to have the more we're going to carry a weight of glory that we cannot fathom because we're going to belong to him and he's going to belong to us and that's the point that he's redeeming a people for himself and praise God that he is. Praise God that heaven isn't just that weird rodeo place from Pinocchio where it's just like go do whatever the heck you want and that somehow it's just all the fun things that we could dream of because the truth is all of that is empty if it's not for him. If heaven isn't heaven without him and so we long for him we long for this day that he looks on us we long for this day that he sees us we long for this day that we're welcomed home and that is what we hold on to. Why does it play out like this?
Why do you have the struggle you have? Why do you have the pain that you have? Why do you have the hurt that you have? Why do you have some of the emptiness you feel? I don't know and I don't know if he's going to answer that but I know that if you get him at the end of it oh it's worth it that the suffering of this time pales in comparison to that day that Jesus Christ is reconciling the world to himself that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and that no one comes to the Father but by Christ and that it's through Christ that we're forgiven and that we get the Father and that's the point.
Now this is how the Bible ends.
Exodus 4:1-26
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Transcript
My name is Spencer and I am one of the pastors here. We're jumping right in to where we left off last week. Last week we began the calling of Moses and this is part two of that. So we're going to be in Exodus 4, which is on page 27 in your blue Bibles. We're going to be in the first 26 verses. So, we started off last week in chapter 3.
Moses is tending sheep in the wilderness. He comes upon Mount Horeb and then God calls out to Moses from a burning bush. And in this calling of Moses, God does a few things. He announces His plan. That He has seen the affliction of His people. He has seen that they've been in slavery for centuries.
And that He's going to bring them out of Egypt into the promised land. And He's going to use Moses to do it. He reveals who He is. Moses asks, what is your name? And He gives His personal name. I am who I am.
And we looked at that and the power and the mystery that is packed into that name. And He tells Moses that He's going to use them to lead them out of the promised land. They won't just leave the promised land empty handed. That He will loot the enemies. He will take from the Egyptians as they will give gold and jewels and clothing. In the midst of all this calling, we see a question that arises that starts to show that Moses has some doubts.
In verse 11 of chapter 3, Moses says, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? That Moses is focused on his weaknesses, on his inadequacies. And God is trying to help him see Moses. It's by my power. I'm the one who's going to be with you. It's going to be by my power that I bring the people out.
And we're going to see this continue into chapter 4. That Moses is going to continue to doubt. And God is going to continue to point to Himself. Moses is too focused on his weaknesses, on his inadequacies. He's too focused on himself. And he's not focused on what God is telling him.
That I will be with you. That I'm the one that is going to bring them out. That's going to be by my power. And we're going to see how God's response to Moses is incredibly helpful to us. We're going to see that God's redemption of His people and the obedience that He calls us to is only possible. It is only possible if we stop looking at ourselves and start looking to God.
Because we, like Moses, we make God far too small and ourselves far too big. So that's what we're going to see. Let me pray for us and then we'll walk through this together. Lord, we ask that You would help us be present this morning. You'd help us receive the Word of God. And that we respond.
We respond in how You call us to. In faith and repentance and to worship and delighting in who You are. So God, I pray that You would do this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so again. We're in the middle of this calling story.
We're picking right up where He left off. He just said, repeated His plan. I'm bringing them out of Egypt. I'm using you. They are leaving with jewels and gold and clothing. And then Moses answered, verse 1.
Moses answered, But behold, they will not listen. They will not believe Me or listen to My voice. For they will say, The Lord did not appear to you. So Moses, again, doubts. He says, What if they don't listen to Me? Which, absent from God, is a very reasonable question for Moses.
You've got to remember, Moses spent 40 years with one foot in the Egyptian royal family and another foot as a Hebrew. Okay? Not really belonging fully to the Egyptian royal family. Not a slave like the rest of his Hebrew brethren. Okay? So that's reasonable that they might have some doubts.
Also, he's been gone for 40 years. He's 80 at this point. I mean, he's presumed gone. Dead. Dead. And he's supposed to rock back up and say, The God of your forefathers appeared to Me.
And we're getting out of here. It's a very reasonable question. Absent from the Lord. But the Lord is with him. He's not absent. So it's not a reasonable question.
Moses is focusing on himself. He's made himself too big. He's made God too small. And God answers by displaying his power. So, pick it up in verse 2. It says, The Lord said to him, What is that in your hand?
He said, A staff. And he said, Throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent. And Moses ran from it. So, again, context here. Moses is 80.
Okay? He's 80 years old. He probably uses that staff for more than just shepherding. It's probably some support. Okay? God says, Take that.
Throw it on the ground. He throws it on the ground. And it turns into a snake. And he does what has been instinctual for thousands of years. He runs. All right?
80 Years old. Geared up his loins. Haltail it out of there. He gone. Like, just not dealing with a snake. And, listen.
We're going to see this happen later in Exodus. The staff is going to turn to a snake again. The presence of Pharaoh. And that snake eats two other snakes. So, this is not a small snake. Think 10, 12 foot king cobra.
Big, scary looking snake. So, if you're afraid of snakes, you are in good company with Moses. And then it says, verse 4, But the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and catch it by the tail. So, he tells them, catch it by the tail. So, listen. If we were a crazy snake handling church, which, if you're new, disclaimer, we're not.
Okay? And I went and grabbed some snakes, took one, and threw it in the front row and said, Pick it up by the tail. What is implied in my request? A little bit of trust. I'm telling you to pick it up. It's not going to bite you.
Which, I learned a thing this week. That actually picking it up by the tail requires even more trust. Because that's not the way you're supposed to pick up snakes. Apparently, it's by the head. Okay? We have a teaching team, Isaac and Shep, on our teaching team.
And I learned, because I grew up watching Steve Irwin. And Steve Irwin picked up lots of snakes by the tails. So, that was how I understood. That's how you pick, you just pick it up. But apparently, you don't do that because it gives them enough reach to be able to bite you.
But I grew up in the lake. We just shot snakes. I didn't grow up at, like, Isaac, at Bethel Christian Camp, out in the wilderness on his own. Like, I didn't grow up like Chet, 30 miles from the middle of nowhere. Like, this is not an activity that we did. But, you're not supposed to pick them up by the tail.
This requires a little bit of faith here. And Moses takes a step of faith. He says, So, he put out his hand and he caught it and it became a staff in his hand. And the Lord says this, That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you. He's like, Moses, do you see what I just did? I took a staff, I turned it into a snake.
I took the snake back into a staff. Do you see my power here? They will believe you. They will believe that the covenant God of their forefathers has called you. But, here's some more evidence of my power. He gives a second sign.
Verse 6, Again, the Lord said to him, Put your hand inside your cloak. So, Moses puts his hand inside his cloak. And he says, And put, he put his hand inside his cloak and when he took it out, behold, the hand was leprous like snow. Which, is terrifying. Right? It's terrifying.
Leprosy in their culture was awful. It was awful. It wasn't just the fact that you had a disease that you would slowly decay and die from for years. It was a great social stigma. You couldn't live amongst your own people. You'd announce that you were unclean.
People were scared of you. I mean, there's no cultural equivalent to what we have today. None. The closest thing you could probably make an argument for is maybe getting HIV in the 80s. But that doesn't even remotely come close to this.
Seeing your hand as leprous is terrifying. And he sees the power of God on display. Then God said, Put your hand back inside your cloak. So he put his hand back inside his cloak and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. God is showing the kind of power that he has. Moses, do you see this?
Do you see the power that I have? And then he offers one more sign. This is verse 8. If they will not believe you, God said, or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. And the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.
So they don't believe those two signs. Do this. Take some water from the Nile, pour it out, it will turn into blood. Which if you know the story of Exodus, that's going to end up being the first plague is turning the Nile into blood. So he says, listen, do this next.
Which is a little bit of future looking. You've seen these two signs. You're going to have to wait to see this one. Have a little faith here. But once you pour that out, I'm telling you, Moses, they're going to see that I am the God of your forefathers.
I am calling you. They will believe you. Moses says, well, what if they don't believe me? And God says, do you not see it as my power at work here? Moses, do you not see it's not about you? You have made yourself far too big.
And Moses has made God far too small. And yet, Moses doubts. Continue. Verse 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.
He says, I'm not eloquent. The Hebrew literally reads here, I am not a man of words. I am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue. And commentators look at this, the phrasing and how he answered this, and they say that it's very possible that Moses actually had some type of speech impediment. Some type of speech problem that he would use this type of language. So whether that is true or he's just not eloquent in speech, he's fearful.
He's looking at himself and he's like, oh, but I'm not a man of words. Which, this hits home for me. If you've, I've mentioned this in some sermons in the past, but since I was a kid, I've had a small, a minor speech impediment that I've had to work on for years.
[QA NOTE — 2026-05-10] The remainder of this sermon is missing from the cleaned transcript because Whisper produced a single unpunctuated mega-sentence at the tail of the audio. The raw text in transcription_work/ contains the rest. Recommend re-running the cleanup with timestamp-based punctuation restoration, or capturing the missing portion manually from the audio.
Exodus 3
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 3 today. We're going to walk through that chapter together. That's on page 27 in your blue Bibles.
So if you have a blue Bible that's around you and near you, you can grab that and follow along. If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that. That is our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible that you can read, but the passage will also be on the screen. So one of the more popular stories that we love and you hear over and over again is the kind of story where a hero comes in and he saves the day by defeating the bad guys.
That is a classic that we like over and over again. We love Mel Gibson when in Braveheart he defeats the English. We love watching Liam Neeson fight to get his daughter back from traffickers and taken. We love Bruce Willis in Die Hard and in Die Hard 2 and in Die Hard with a Vengeance and in Live Free or Die Hard and in Die Hard and in Die Hardest. We even love him in the sixth sense where he die hard at the beginning. Like we love stories where a hero comes in and saves the day.
And Exodus is that. We're going to see throughout this book that Exodus is God as our hero who comes and redeems his people. And we're going to see specifically in Exodus 3 when the hero God introduces himself. And then he introduces himself in a fairly unique way and then he invites Moses to be a part of his redemption story. And then he tells them how he's going to defeat the bad guys and how this is going to play out. This is the introduction.
And as we're going to see that Exodus has a sequel. That the Old Testament is going to be pointing to the New Testament. We're going to see how Christ fulfills this. So let me pray and then we'll jump through this together. Father, I pray that you'd help us be present this morning. That we'd hear your word and we'd respond.
We'd respond in faith and repentance and in worship and delighting in you. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so we're going to start with verse 1. Verse 1 gives some context for where we're going. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.
So let me stop for a moment. We have fast-forwarded here. We're going to be able to see this in a few chapters. That Moses is now 80. Which I find helpful. That Moses has lived 80 years before God calls him to this great work.
I think it's helpful for us and some of our older folks to realize that just because you get older doesn't mean that God doesn't have something for you. Doesn't mean he can't call you and continue to use you. We're going to see that throughout Exodus. That Moses is being called in his latter years. So Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro.
Now some of you are like, wait a second. I listened intently last week. And that was not his name. His father-in-law was named Reuel. Why is his name Jethro now? Glad you asked.
Jethro and Reuel are the same person that is his father-in-law. And it's not uncommon in the Bible to have someone have two names. You see that with Jacob and Israel, which is his name. You see that with Paul and Saul. That's not uncommon for someone to have two different names. It's not uncommon for a region to have two different names.
That's normal throughout the scriptures. Commentators look at this and say that Jethro is more of his formal name attached to his priesthood title. While Reuel is more of a common name. But that's just a theory. But it's not uncommon to have two different names in this.
And also to point out, he's keeping the flock. Which means he's a shepherd. Which I find incredibly helpful as a foreshadowing for where he is going. And who he is going to be as he shepherds the people of Israel. And then it says, he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. This is significant as we're going to see throughout Exodus.
Horeb is the same place as Mount Sinai. Horeb is where this redemption story is going to begin in his calling. But it's coming back here. And it's going to be called Mount Sinai. This is where God is going to deliver the Ten Commandments. So again, one region can have the same name.
Some commentators will look at this and say that Horeb is more of the region. And Sinai is more of the mountain itself. We don't know for sure. But these are the same. This is the same place. And this story is coming back here.
Alright, there's the context. Then we jump in in verse 2. It says, And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked and behold, the bush was burning. Yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.
When the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see God called to him out of the bush. Alright, let me pause there for a moment. If you read that, it can be a little bit confusing. Because it's like, wait a second. Is it an angel? Is it an angel of the Lord?
Is it a God? Like, what's happening here? Because it happens pretty quickly. And there are two main options for what's happening here. Either an angel or the angel of the Lord is first in the flame and then God shows up afterwards. Or this is God the entire time and he's just called the angel of the Lord.
Now, the angel of the Lord is a figure that shows up in multiple places throughout the Old Testament. It's as debated here as it is in the other places in the Old Testament as to who this is. The text doesn't really give us enough insight. So some people will say this is God. Some people will say this is Jesus. Some people will say this is an angel that prepares the way.
We don't know for sure. But you can get lost in the details of all of this and some of the significance of the fire and everything that's happening. And you actually miss what is really cool that happens here. That Moses, at 80 years old, is keeping a flock. And they're in the wilderness. And then all of a sudden he sees a bush that is on fire.
If you've ever been camping or out in the wilderness before, seeing anything on fire is alarming. That catches his attention. And this bush doesn't burn up. One of the most redneck things that I do is after Christmas, I burn my Christmas tree. Because it's awesome. It's a lot of fun.
Mildly dangerous, but worth it. And when you burn a bush or a tree, one of the things you see is that it quickly flames up. And then it starts to die down, to smolder. And that's not happening here. It is not consumed. It continues to burn.
It continues to burn. It continues to burn. And Moses sees this and it catches his attention. This is God uniquely calling Moses in to grab hold of his attention. And then he introduces himself. Verse 4.
When the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see. God called him out of the bush. Moses. Moses. And he said, here I am. Now, if you read throughout the Bible, the voice of God is a powerful and terrifying experience.
You pair that with the burning bush and how mesmerizing that is. I mean, this is mesmerizing and terrifying all at once. In verse 5, then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet. For the place on which you are standing is holy ground. Now, the Middle Eastern or Eastern ear that hears this, they get that immediately.
I was talking to Jamie Kern, one of our members who's currently in Lebanon for the next three months, discerning whether she's going to be there long term. And one of the things that she's been learning is just seeing some of these, some of the Bible come to life in a Middle Eastern culture. Because in that culture, she said, you take off your shoes before you go into someone's house. And that's what immediately stuck out to them, of course. You don't bring the filth of the outside that's on your shoes into a holy place. God says, take off your shoes.
This is holy ground. And then in verse 6, it says, and he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. So he announces who he is, that he's the God of his forefathers. He uses that covenant language, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, that Moses would have known. This is the God of your ancestors, Moses.
And he calls out to him, and Moses is afraid. And that happens in the scriptures. When someone is in the presence of God, they're fearful. Because of the all-glorifying, awesome power of God, that we as sinners cannot stand in the presence of a holy and perfect God without this experience happening. He is fearful. And now God has his full attention, as he calls them.
Verse 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. I know their sufferings. And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them 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. That's the promised land.
You say, I'm going to bring you into the promised land. Verse 9. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. So, for 400 years, for 400 years, the people of God have been in slavery and oppressed and afflicted in Egypt. That is longer than America has been a country. For 400 years, the people have been suffering.
That means that a generation rose up, was longing for the day when they might be saved, and they died. And the next generation rose up, and this happened over and over and over again, as the people are longing, waiting for rescue. And with every generation, more hope died. There had to have been some doubts that set in. Some doubts that set in. Does God see us?
Does He care? And in this statement to Moses, God makes it abundantly clear. He does care. He does see. He does know. And I find that incredibly helpful for us.
Some of you have suffered greatly. Over the past five years, I've had daily chronic pain in my back. It has not gone away. I'm no closer to figuring out what's happening there. And there's doubts that come in. Like, how long?
Like, what do you have? What's going on in this? Some of you have suffered far greater, for far longer. Some of you have felt financial troubles that mount up over and over and over again. And there are doubts that come in. It's like, does God see this?
Does God care? Now, what we see here is that God absolutely cares. And we don't always know exactly why we suffer. We have some biblical reasons. We see why the people of God suffered in this story. It was preparing for a greater redemption.
And we get some other reasons. But the why behind the why behind the why, that why me, like that, the greater why, we don't get answers to that. We don't know why we suffer in that regard. But don't miss for a moment. God is not distant. He absolutely cares.
And He helps Moses see that. I've seen the affliction of my people. He does care. And then the hero begins to reveal his plan. Verse 10, He says, Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. So He said, I'm coming down to deliver.
He says in verse 9. And then in verse 10, I will send you to Pharaoh, Moses. Excited? You're coming to redeem. Oh, wait. You're sending me.
Moses, I'm sending you that you might deliver the people out. I find this incredibly helpful. God is going to have a showdown with a false God, Pharaoh. We're going to see that as Exodus unfolds. He's going to have this showdown with this false God. But He involves Moses.
He involves His people in His redemptive work. He just does. It's how our God works. From Moses to today. God doesn't need us. But He chooses to use us.
And He involves Moses in this redemptive work. And when Moses hears that he's going to be involved in this, his response is, wait, me? Verse 11, He says, But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Who am I that I, you're going to use me to do this? And sometimes, because we have, some of us have the story and we've heard this story and we've seen how God works in the scriptures. It's like, Moses, you've got Him on your side.
How do you not see this? But we fail to kind of step into His shoes and realize what He's being called to do here. If God called you to go to Russia right now and have a showdown with Putin, or to North Korea, have a showdown with Kim Jong-un, that would be a terrifying calling. All right? And that doesn't really match this. It would have, I mean, Putin and his family would have had to rule over this country for 400 years, making us slaves for this to be what happened.
That's what Moses is feeling. Generations have been suffering under the hand of Pharaoh. Even more of the point, Moses knows what happened when he left there and they tried to seek Him and hunt Him down and kill Him. This is a terrifying calling. And in the midst of this, he questions, me? And I love how God answers this because He doesn't answer, He doesn't answer Moses' question.
He doesn't speak to the adequacy of Moses here. He says, verse 12, He said, but I will be with you. I'll be with you, Moses. I love this, y'all. He doesn't correct Moses for his lack of faith. He tells Moses, but I'll be with you.
God is with His people. God calls us to do bold and courageous things. But He's with His people from Moses to the Great Commission when He says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Then He goes on to say what? I am with you always to the end of the age. God is with His people.
That's so helpful. Like when I tell my kids, I say, y'all, go upstairs, turn off the lights, come on back down. They'll step, sometimes they'll get to the bottom step and they'll just look up. And they're scared. And they're scared of the dark. And I'll say, y'all, listen.
I try to reason with them. There are no monsters up there. There are no bad guys up there. I try to reason with them. And reasoning with them doesn't work sometimes. Why?
Because they want my presence. They don't want me to hear. They want me to walk with them. Because when I'm with them, they're not afraid. And God is with us. And He tells Moses, I am with you.
But I will be with you and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people of Egypt, when you've brought out, when you've brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. So He tells them, Moses, I'm going to be with you. But then He gives them a sign that's not right now. That's future looking. So He says, I'm going to be with you, Moses.
But He calls them to faith because this sign of coming back to this mountain won't happen until later when God delivers the Ten Commandments. So He says, I'll be with you, Moses. But you're going to have to take a step of faith here. And then Moses responds with another question. Verse 13. He says, Then Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me, what is His name?
What shall I say to them? Now, it's clear from the context here and what we're going to see. The people of God knew that He was the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They remembered the covenant promise. It wasn't like God was introducing himself as some foreign God. They knew who this God was.
But Moses is asking for something more significant than the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He wants to know His name. What is your personal name? Because names, they have significance. They do. We feel that a little bit today.
Right? Some of you are having children, planning families, choosing baby names. Like, names have significance. One of the things I love to do is I love to introduce my children because I love to read people's responses. And what I've realized is, is the older you are, the less of a filter you have. So I introduce my kids.
I'll say, this is my daughter, Eloise. And they'll say, oh, what a beautiful name. I'll say, this is my other daughter, Karis, Lynn. And I'll say, Karis is, you know, it's Grace in Greek and Lynn's a family name. And they'll just go, oh, how beautiful. And then I'll say, and this is my son, Bridgers.
And they'll go, oh, it's a boy. Is that a family name? Yes, it is a family name. We also want them to get picked on in high school. But, those names have significance to us. It ties into our history.
It ties into our faith. Each of their names have that built in. But it doesn't really match the Old Testament. Because the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Bible times, those names had unbelievable significance. It told who you are. It told your story.
Like, I mean, Abraham, the name changed from Abraham to Abraham was father of many. That's telling his story. He's the father of a great nation, of a multitude of people. You see, other names like Moses that we saw last week, Moses means drawn out in the Hebrew. It speaks of how he was drawn out of the water. And in the Egyptian, it sounds like sun.
Names have significance. It tells who a person is. So Moses asks, what's your name? And part of what's happening here is a little bit of the other gods have names. I mean, the Egyptians' gods, they have Ra and Osiris and Horus and all the lot of Egyptian gods. They have names.
The surrounding gods and the nations that surround the promised land had names. Baal, or Baal, as we say in the south. That God has a name. What is your name? And how God responds here is one of the most significant verses in all of the scriptures. Verse 14.
God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say to the people of Israel, I am has sent you. What is your name? God responds. I am who I am. Now, that phrase is one of the more difficult phrases to translate.
Okay? And the ESV, the version that we read from, it says, I am who I am in all caps. Saying this is the personal holy name of God. I am who I am. It's translated from four Hebrew consonants. The Hebrew consonants for Y-H-W-H.
That's where we get the word Yahweh or Jehovah from. And those consonants most likely are connected to the Hebrew verb, to be. So some form of to be. So in the Hebrew, it's Ech-Ya, Ech-Ya. So, to be is built into this. But it's also translated, I am who I am.
I am that I am. The ESV also has in the footnotes, I will be what I will be. It's some form of the word being. And what you'll notice is in the next verse, they stop using I am. In the next verse, it says, the Lord, and Lord is in all caps. Because that's built on a tradition that 300 to 500 years before Jesus came, they just stopped writing, I am who I am.
And substituted, the Lord. So, there are volumes of theology that have been written on this. There are a lot of opinions for thousands of years on what this means. I am who I am. I mean, even, we use commentaries to help us in preparing sermons, which are just comments on different parts of the Bible. And the commentaries that we're using say different things.
There are a lot of different opinions, which means preparing this and trying to understand this broke my brain a little bit. And I looked at this over and over again. And it's, what I love here is that God doesn't clarify this at all. He just goes straight into verse 15 when it says, God also said to Moses, say this to the people, the Lord, which is I am, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. And thus, I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
So, he doesn't explain it at all. He just says, you tell them I am sent you. That's how I'll be remembered. There's no clarifying from Moses at all. We're moving forward. So, if names are meant to absolutely summarize the meaning of an individual, to capture their history, their story, the essence of who they are, what does I am communicate?
That's the question. That's where volumes and volumes and volumes of writings in this have come from. I read the arguments. I listened to different teachings, different approaches on this. And then some things finally started to click to me, click for me. But the mystery of what he just said, I think is part of his response.
I think that's, that's part of the point here. When he says, what is your name? That's an unbelievable question, Moses. I think I would have asked the same. But I think mystery is part of the point.
How, Moses, how could God be summarized? How could the very essence of who God is, the vast expanse of his character, of his power, of who he is, how could that be summarized in a name, in a personal name? It's not that God doesn't have qualifying titles. It's not that he has other titles that show up throughout the scriptures. He does. I mean, even to this point in the book of Genesis, you see different titles that explain who God is.
In Genesis 14, he's called El Elyon, which means God Most High. In Genesis 16, he's called El Roy, which is God who sees me. In Genesis 17, he's called El Shaddai, which means God Almighty. In Genesis 21, he's called El Olam, which means God Everlasting. In Genesis 31, he's called El Bethel, which means God of Bethel. But Moses didn't ask for your titles.
He wanted more than the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, than the God of Jacob. God, what is your name? And God's seemingly non-answer, I think, is a part of the point. He just says, Moses, I am who I am. How could the vast expanse of who God is be summarized in a name? I just am Moses, and I've always been.
I am the God who is perfectly good. I am the God who is perfect. I am the God who is holy. I am the God who is just. I am the God who is merciful. I am the God who is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
I am the God who is omniscient, who is all-knowing. I am the God who is omnipotent, which is all-powerful. I am the God who is omnipresent, which means I'm in all places at all times. I am the God who is immutable, meaning He never changes. I am the God who is sovereign, the one who reigns supremely over all things at all times. I am the God who will right every single wrong.
I am the God who does not let the guilty go unpunished. I am the God who is perfectly wise. I am the God who is forbearing and is patient. I am the God who is kind and is gentle and who has fearsome wrath and who has unmatched wisdom. Moses, I am who I am. I just am.
You cannot summarize all of who God is in a name. And when He says I am who I am, that is sufficient for you, Moses. And that is sufficient for the people of God. I just am. And then He continues in verse 16. He says, Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, The Lord, so that's I am, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob has appeared to me saying, I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt.
Remind me, I have seen all of it. 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. And I'm going to bring you to the promised land. Verse 18. And they will listen to your voice. Moses, have no doubt.
They will listen to you. They will listen to your voice. And you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us and now please let us go three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. So, reading that last part hit me differently this time around. I've put a lot of weight on the past readings that I've done when he says let my people go because partly because I filled in the rest of the story I know what that means that they're going to be freed completely but I think also because I grew up on the movie Prince of Egypt which is a classic which, side note, I fought for that to be the branding for this series but we have a plurality of elders and that was frowned upon.
But in that movie it's like it's a big like let my people go so that just kind of became like I just hear I read this and I'm just like yeah, let my people go is kind of what I read but it's not exactly what he says. He says let us go a three days journey into the wilderness so that we can sacrifice to the Lord our God. I read that this time around and I was like why the three day request? Why not just say we're leaving deal with it. Like why the three day request? After looking at it this week I think I think God is taunting Pharaoh.
I think God's taunting him. I think he's taunting him into war. He knows the pride and the ruthless reign of Pharaoh. He knows his heart. He knows he will never oblige a three day request to worship. This is a taste of what God is getting ready to do with this nation and this leader.
Verse 19 he says but I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. so I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it. After that he will let you go. Man I think Moses to be clear I have no plans to show mercy on Pharaoh at all. That is not what's going down here. He has oppressed you all as slaves for 400 years. If he was going to let you go if I wanted that to happen just like that that's how it would go down by my mighty hand that is exactly what would happen but this nation is going to feel the full force of the wrath of I am.
That's one thing that we're going to see in Exodus is that Moses is not just a shepherd who is going to lead the people of God away from their oppressors he's a prophet and he is pronouncing judgment on Egypt.
Exodus 2
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My wife suggested that I turn my mic on and hum, but I decided not to do that. We are in the book of Exodus. We're in Exodus chapter 2. It's our second week in the book of Exodus, and we are going to walk through all of Exodus chapter 2. We will not always go through a whole chapter. Sometimes we will cover more than that, but at the beginning it kind of has made sense to do chapter 1 and chapter 2 the first two weeks.
This morning we are going to go through this whole chapter, and we're just going to read through it and talk and just try to make some observations as we go. We're going to meet Moses. Now Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. Now he wrote them under the leadership and authority of the Holy Spirit, but they are written by Moses. So Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are written by Moses.
They are known as the Pentateuch or often referred to just as the law, these first five books of the Bible. And Moses stands as a primary figure in the life of the people of Israel. You have Abraham, who's the father of the nation, and then you have Moses, who God uses in the Exodus, which the word Exodus just means going out. It's a leaving of the people of Israel from Egypt. So he leads in the Exodus, and he's the one through whom God gives the law to the people.
And so three figures stand kind of primary in the life of the people of Israel, and that's Abraham, Moses, and David. And so Moses is a major figure in God's history of salvation with his people, and we're going to get to meet him this morning. Now when this was written, Moses has already, this has all happened, and Moses is still around. He's the one pinning this, and so he writes, records for them the history of what happens in Genesis, and then he records this, again, under the leadership of the Spirit. It's not just like he got to sit down and write what he wanted, but he is the one who writes this.
So we're going to begin in Exodus chapter 2, verse 1. We're going to pray as we begin this morning. Lord, we ask for your wisdom and your help as we study your work. We ask for the work of your Spirit in us to believe, to trust, to see your goodness. Lord, we ask for you to reveal more of yourself to us, that we might more delight in you, that we might see our sin and repent, and we might find freedom and forgiveness in your grace. We ask all this in Jesus' name.
Amen. So what we're going to do is we're going to read through this, we're going to meet Moses, study through, just kind of talk through what's happening, and then towards the end of this chapter, we're going to see as the book of Exodus kind of pivots and sets up this major, here's what's about to happen kind of moment, and we're going to learn a little bit about the character of God, and what we're going to learn, which is what happens every time you learn something about the character of God, is that it's wonderful, that who he is is glorious, and it's wonderful, and it's exactly what we need. So we're going to learn a little bit about the character of God, and in so doing, see something wonderful about him, and something good for us. So, glorious about him, good for us, that's where we'll get to end this morning.
All right, chapter 2, verse 1. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son. Okay. These are Moses' parents, we're going to find that out later. He knows their names.
We find out what their names are in chapter 18, but right now all that matters is that they're Levites. Levites being the people who God later in this book is going to make the priestly people, the priestly tribes. So that hasn't happened yet in the book. It's happened when Moses was writing this, and that's why it's important to say these are two Levite people. That's why it makes a difference. It says, The woman conceived and bore a son.
Now that would normally be wonderful news. But we're in the time of the Israelites being slaves in Egypt, and Pharaoh just made a decree that ended chapter 1, which is this. Every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. So there's no ultrasounds. There's probably some older ladies that looked at her and said, Oh, the baby's in the front, so it's a boy. Whatever that means.
Because I'm pretty sure you carry all babies in the front. But those are things that would be said to my wife periodically. I can tell how the way you're carrying that baby. It's a boy. So there's things like that potentially.
Oh, you're allergic to this now. That made you throw up. It's a girl. Whatever. They had those things, but they did not have any real way to know the gender of the baby until it was born. And when it's born, this moment, it would be wonderful and delightful and exciting, even though it's troubling to bring a child into a world where they're going to be a slave.
But if it's a son, the decree now is you spot a male Hebrew child, you throw it in the river. If you have a son, you throw it in the river. And if someone sees you with your son, they take it from you and they throw it in the river. This is heartbreaking. What would be a joyful moment is met with sadness. But it says this.
She had a son. And when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. That phrase, saw that he was a fine child, in the Hebrew is when she saw him that he was good. And that's the exact same phrasing that is used in Genesis in the creation accounts. That God creates something and he sees it that it is good. And I think all that this is meant to say is not that if he hadn't been fine, she would have done something different.
But that upon having this child, maybe she in her head was thinking, I'm going to have to follow through. You know, hopefully it's a daughter, but I'm going to have to follow through like we're in this situation where if it's a son. But what happens is she has a son and sees that, no, life is good. It's too wonderful to have a son. This is a good thing that God has created that is a blessing. And she just at that moment is like, I can't do it.
I'm not going to be able to go forward with what Pharaoh has decreed. And so she hid him for three months. It doesn't tell us how. It doesn't tell us what her day looked like as a slave. It doesn't tell us how often she had to try to sneak back to him. It doesn't tell us if she hid him and tried to pretend like it was a girl.
It doesn't tell us if she tried to act like she'd never had a son. It doesn't tell us any of these things. It's just that she hid him. And I'm sure there were some close calls. I'm sure there were some times where she was trying to get him to quit crying. But she hides him for three months.
But then it gets to where it's not doable anymore. And it says when she could hide him no longer. She's reached the place now. He's three months old. She's had the joy and the delight and the stress of having a child for three months. And she's coming to the conclusion, I'm not going to be able to keep this up.
There's no way to hide him forever. And if someone sees him, if someone sees him, it's over with for him. They'll take him and they'll kill him. And so she comes up with a plan. It says when she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. And she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the riverbank.
So she waterproofs a basket and then places her child in the Nile. She in some way does technically what Pharaoh said to do, but without accomplishing what Pharaoh wanted. But can you imagine crafting this basket, hoping it'll float, knowing you're going to stick your child in it, placing him in a river and then what? Waiting to see what happens. This is an awful day. She's giving him a chance.
It's different from just casting him in the Nile. And she knows that if someone comes along and finds him, she's hoping for something. We can assume that she's praying for something, but this is awful. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. It seems as if they're going to watch. Sister's going to watch.
It says, now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. It seems as if they maybe knew this was a place that was frequented by people. It doesn't tell us that. It seems like maybe they had a bit of a plan, but the daughter just stays and watches this basket. We don't know if they stuck it in a remote place and this randomly happened, or if they knew this was a place where people bathed and they put him there on purpose. It doesn't tell us any of that.
We just know that his sister watched. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. She kind of figures out, okay, this is what's happened, but it says she took pity on him.
So she sees this baby crying and at this moment he's in her hands. His life is in her hands. She has the ability to do what her dad has said to do and throw him in the Nile. But it says she takes pity on him. We can almost see her smiling at him. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?
I don't think that they usually were allowed to just go address the Pharaoh's daughter, little slave children. But she just trots up and says, hey, I couldn't help but know she had a baby there. You want somebody to take care of it for you? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. So the girl went and called the child's mother.
And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse him for me. And I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him. This story is crazy. Can you imagine the mom's not there? The daughter runs in and says, hey, Pharaoh's daughter has your son.
I don't know if they had named him at this point. We don't know anything about that. And come. I said I would go fetch someone to nurse him. So she comes.
And I don't know. It doesn't tell us any of these details. I don't know if Pharaoh's daughter was naive. I don't know if Pharaoh's daughter saw all the way through this. I don't know how good Moses' mother's poker face was. But if you just put your child in a basket and went back to your house and then your daughter comes back.
Like the amount of sorrow and excitement. Like I don't know how you'd not have that on your face. I don't know how nonchalantly she was able to be like, yeah, it's whatever. I'll nurse him for you. I mean, I got nothing else to do, you know. Like I don't know how she was able to do that.
But she gets in a situation where she gets her own child back and she gets paid to take care of him. Now none of us wants to be in the situation that led to that. But getting paid to take care of your own children sounds nice. But the way that the Lord works in this to completely reverse the situation is amazing. That he works in a bunch of what we would say, what a random set of circumstances. How crazy is that?
It's like, yeah, the Lord's at work. And we're supposed to see that. So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, that's when he would be weaned. There's no way to feed a baby. He didn't have formula, so you needed a wet nurse if you're going to feed a baby.
And so when he's weaned, he's two to three probably. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter. Again, now another heartbreaking set of things that has to happen. Her son's going to live, but he won't be with her. But in this circumstance where his other option was drowning to death as an infant, this is a beautiful picture of God's grace to be at work for this mother.
To know her son will live. She brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses because she said, I drew him out of the water. Moses sounds a lot like the Hebrew word for drew out. It also sounds a lot like the Egyptian word for son. And so in his name, there's this picture of a son that's been drawn out.
And in his name, there's a picture of ultimately what God's going to do with the people of Israel. He's going to draw out his firstborn son, the people of Israel from Egypt. But she says, because, she said, I drew him out of the water. She names him Moses. And this is the moment where if we were good Israelite people, we probably would already know this story. But if we didn't, we'd go, oh, Moses.
Like, that's a big deal. And so that's what happens. We say, oh, God was at work in his birth. God was at work in the circumstances to keep Moses alive for God's purposes. I want to make one quick, I want to just point something out for us. Because it's not lost on the author of the book.
Multiple times in chapter 1, Pharaoh said, kill the boys, let the girls live. Let the daughters live. Pharaoh seems to not be that concerned about the threat that daughters would have. He's worried about males growing up and males fighting against him. He's not really concerned about the threat of daughters. But so far in chapters 1 and 2, five daughters have caused him a lot of problems.
Shiphrah and Puah, who didn't do what he said. Moses' mother. Moses' sister. And Pharaoh's own daughter. It's not lost on the Bible. It's not meant to be lost on us.
That how God works through daughters to accomplish his will. To thwart the plans of kings. And you will fail to acknowledge that to your own demise. And so we just need to see that and understand how God works beautifully through both sons and daughters. Alright. Verse 11.
One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. Okay. Moses has grown. Stephen tells us in Acts that he's 40. And he goes out to see his people, the Hebrews.
He sees an Egyptian. Egyptian's not his people. The Hebrews his people. And suddenly, I don't know about y'all, I have 1,000 questions. He was Pharaoh's grandson. What did it look like for him to grow up?
How Egyptian is he? Did they tell Pharaoh that he was Hebrew? Did she just show up with a baby? Is that normal? Were we okay with this? Did he get to grow up in the household?
Like, was it normal for them to do this? Why does he still understand that he's Hebrew? Were they nice to him? Or did they treat him like a Hebrew? Like, I have all these questions. And we get one day when he was grown up.
The Bible does not care about these questions. They're irrelevant to the story. The Bible gives us the information that we need to have. There's one bit of clarification that we're going to see in Hebrews 11 that gives us, shines a little light on this. But we'll see it as we keep going.
So he goes out to see these people. And it says, So what we see is that what was held out for him was pleasures of sin. Treasures of Egypt. Being the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Or aligning himself with God's people. Taking on burdens.
Taking on reproach. And looking ahead. Looking ahead. Like Shifra and Pua from last week who understood that this life's short. And at some point we stand before the ultimate king. Looking ahead to a reward that's beyond earthly things.
And how many people throughout history have pursued treasure and pleasure over following the Lord. Being willing to take burdens and reproach because he's better. And because eternity is better. How much is treasure and pleasure just a rhymey way to talk about the American dream? Honestly, I think that quite often if we're honest with ourselves. When we dream about the future.
What we dream about is me. I haven't changed. When I think about me in the future. It's not like I bet I'll be more patient. Maybe every once in a while I have that. Like for a fleeting moment.
And then I'm like maybe everybody in the future will be less annoying. Like I don't really think about my own character growth. I don't really think about maybe in the future I'll have developed. What I think a lot of times if I'm just. You catch me daydreaming. It's me.
But with more pleasure. And more treasure. It's me. But I'm on a beach. It's me. But my truck is new.
And I'm driving to the beach. Like whatever. And I think that so often. If you'll pay attention to the way you're thinking. That you probably drift that way as well. Things are more enjoyable.
That most of our lives is based off of. Let me find a little bit of pleasure. Let me get a little bit of treasure. Now it specifically says this is the pleasures of sin. Not to say that there aren't things that we can delight in and enjoy. In a non-sinful way.
But there is something about the allure. Of pleasure and treasure. That certainly makes us not want to take on burdens and reproach to follow Jesus. But Moses says no I'm going to join the slaves. I'm not going to stay in the palace. And so here's what he does.
It says when he'd grown up he went out to his people and he looked on their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew one of his people. He looked this way and that. And seeing no one he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Something happens in Moses. Viewing his people.
He sees one being abused and beaten. And it says he stands there for a second and he looks around. And then he kills the Egyptian. Hides him. The Bible gives no commentary. On whether or not this was a part of God's righteous war against the Egyptian oppression.
Or whether this was Moses' unrighteous anger. In a moment that led him to murder. We don't know if this was like killing in a war. Because God's people are oppressed. And that Moses is taking his first step as the real leader of the Israelite people. Or if this is Moses trying to get something drummed up on his own.
We don't know. We know he sees this. Premeditates it. He looks around. He steps in and does something on behalf of a weaker party. But he kills somebody.
And he hides them. And in that moment he's definitively chosen. I'm not going to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter. I'm joining with these people. I think we're meant to read Moses. If I was going.
If you were going to make me choose. I think I would read Moses. Given what we know about Moses as we keep going. And what we know about Moses as the Bible talks about him. I think I would read him in a more generous light. That he was trying to righteously defend the people of Israel.
But there is room for. That may not be what really just happened. And he certainly does kill someone. And bury them. It says. When he went out the next day.
So he goes home. Goes to sleep. We can assume. He goes out the next day. This is his thing now. He's going out to see his people.
He's going out to partake in their burdens. He's going to see what's going on here. It says when he went out the next day. Behold two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong. Meaning he evaluated the situation.
And knew this guy was wrong. Why do you strike your companion? That word strike. Has been used three times right in a row. An Egyptian was striking a Hebrew. Moses struck an Egyptian.
Why do you strike your companion? It's the same word. In Hebrew. So we're to see this situation just playing out again. And so he comes now. It's not an Egyptian beating a Hebrew.
It's a Hebrew beating a Hebrew. And he says why are you doing this? I'm going to make three observations about this. Two that I think we really need to see in the text. And one that I just think we ought to see. The first one I think we ought to see.
That I just want us to recognize. Is that I think. If you ask the Israelites. What is your problem? They would say. The Egyptians.
If you ask the Hebrew. What's the problem? The Egyptians are the problem. If you ask Moses. What's the problem? He would say the Egyptians are the problem.
But we've got back to back situations. Where one time it was an Egyptian. And this time it's two Hebrews. And I don't think we should miss the fact. That the Hebrews. Are part of the problem.
It's not just an external problem. There's also an internal problem. And the reason I think this is helpful for us. Is that I think. And I've pastored for ten years now. And I know myself.
I think we're most likely to notice external problems. Before we notice internal problems. I think. It's easier for you to understand. That your boss is the worst. The worst.
If your spouse. Would just get their stuff together. If your children wouldn't act like this. If your parents wouldn't act like this. We wouldn't have any problems. I don't know if y'all know this about me.
You would if you got to know me. I'm wonderful. And if I ever have problems at my house. It's the people that live at my house with me. That cause these problems. And if they would see things the way I see them.
And if they would understand that I was correct. When I said it the first time. So I didn't have to say it the second time louder. We wouldn't have any of these issues. That's in general how we approach life. That my problems are external problems.
If I had more money. If I just could get rid of. This thing for my life. If I could get rid of this person for my life. If they would change how they were acting. Then I wouldn't have any more problems.
And I just think it's helpful for us to acknowledge. For us to see. That I think the Hebrews would have said the same thing. And I don't want to give away the whole story. But I'm about to.
They get out of Egypt. And it's awesome. We're going to get to see it. Their problems don't stop. They get rid of the Egyptians. But there's a Hebrew problem as well.
And I think it's helpful for us to acknowledge. That works that way for us. One of the phrases I learned one time. Was that wherever you go. There you are. And it's just that.
Kind of tongue-in-cheek way of saying. You're going to keep having problems. Because you're part of them. So. That's the first thing. I just don't want us to miss.
The second thing. Two things that I think. That we really need to see in the text. And the text is making sure we see. Is this. It says.
Why do you strike your companion? In verse 14. It says. He answered. Who made you a prince. And a judge over us.
Do you mean to kill me. As you killed the Egyptian. So he goes and breaks up this fight. He says. What on earth. Why are you acting like this.
He looks at the guy in the wrong. And the guy in the wrong says. Who put you in charge. Are you here to murder me. Is that your thing now. You just run over to fights.
And murder people. Two things I think we need to see. The text. Shows us. They reject Moses. Authority over them.
This is actually a good example. Of what's going to continue to happen. He says. Who made you a prince. And a judge over us. Well the reality is.
He's not a prince. And a judge over them yet. But God is going to send him back. As a prince. And a judge over them. He's going to be the one who evaluates.
He's going to be the one who leads. And there's a rejection. Of his authority. That when he first shows up. And tries to do this. They reject this.
They don't want to have anything to do with him. Being the person who's in charge of things. Secondly. And this is the one that wasn't lost on Moses. Oh my goodness. People know I killed somebody.
That's the one that Moses. That was the big takeaway he took. And that's what it says. Are you going to kill me. Like you killed him. And he.
Then Moses was afraid. Made and thought. Surely the thing is known. And I read a couple commentaries. And they kept being like. I guess somebody saw.
He didn't think anybody saw. But somebody saw. And what I think is. The guy who was being beaten. By the Egyptians saw. And was like.
Hey guys. You know. The prince. Moses. The prince that's got a Hebrew name. Maybe they knew some of his story.
I was getting beaten by an Egyptian. And he killed him. I think that guy probably told people. If I had to guess. The one other person who was there. I wanted to write a letter to the guy.
Who wrote the commentary. Like I think I figured out the mystery. Surely the thing is known. When Pharaoh heard of it. So Pharaoh hears about it as well.
This news travels. He sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh. And stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. Thlees.
Goes to Midian. Sits by a well. This is Midian. We looked at this map last week. That's Midian. See my sweet paint skills.
So up there where it says Cairo. Where it's green. That little crescent there. Goshen's just to the right. Is where most of the Hebrew people were. And somewhere over here is Egypt.
All along the Nile River there. And then into the Nile Delta. And then he would have left. And come around to Midian somehow. But he escapes to Midian.
It's a different place. It's a good bit of way. And he's there. And he sits down by a well. Which if we know anything about arid climates. And wells.
You can guess. He's probably about to meet some people. And if you know anything about the Bible. And wells. You can guess. Those people are about to be female people.
And you'd be right. Here we go. Verse 16. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water. And filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
So he's got seven daughters. That are shepherdesses. And they are taking care of his flock. The priest of Midian. We don't know. To whom he was the priest.
The Midianites are descendants of Abraham. Through a concubine. But whether or not. They're not the covenant people of God. And most peoples at this time. It was very odd to be monotheistic.
To have one God. So most likely. He is a priest. That helps you worship. The gods in Midian. Potentially.
God. God. Is one of those. But we really don't know. He overall. In the book of Exodus.
Is seen in a fairly good light. And he does later say. That I can see now. That God is the only God. And he does offer sacrifices to him. Or that he's the greatest God.
Even if he doesn't say the word only. All right. Now the priest of Midian. Had seven daughters. And they came and drew water. And they filled their troughs.
To water their flock. And Moses is just there. The shepherds came. And drove them away. But Moses stood up.
And saved them. And watered the flock. So. Moses. Escapes to Midian. Sad.
Probably. Scared. Probably. But also like. I think I've made it far enough away. Knowing that.
He's had to take flight. Because Pharaoh was trying to kill him. He sits next to a well. Which is the place you sit. You get some water. Seven.
Daughters of Midian show up. Tend into their flock. Walk them up. They start filling up the troughs. And then another. Flock comes.
With shepherds. That just. Bully them. And run them off. And start letting their. So that.
The girls have done the work. They drew the water. They filled the troughs. These guys roll up. And they're like. Move.
Like if you ever had an older brother. That when you were brushing your teeth. Would just push you out of the way. This kind of. Same kind of thing. Like they're just.
Get out of here. We're in charge now. And then it says. Moses stood up. And saved them. And again.
I want more information. We know a few things. Usually. Men. That push women around. Are cowards.
And I'm not even sure. I'm sold on the word. Usually. I think we can just go with. Men who push women around. Are cowards.
And so that. Whenever a man shows up. And stands up to them. Quite often. They don't have any more fight in them. So we don't know.
How far Moses had to take this. We do know. How far Moses is willing to take it. And I don't know. If the shepherds picked up on that. I know that if this was a movie.
He'd have said some line like. I've killed before. And that was in my hometown. I'll kill again. Because I don't care about staying in Midian. Like he'd have something like that to say.
But he stands up. And he saves them. And then. It says. He waters their flock. And I love this.
And I don't know about y'all. But the more I learned about Moses. The more I'm liking him. Now. You might argue. That he meddles.
And he seems like he does. But there's something about Moses. That can't watch somebody being oppressed. Or bullied. Or mistreated. Without stepping in.
On that TV show. What would you do? Where something sketchy happens. And they watch people watch. I know what Moses would do. He would be all up in the middle of it.
Because there's something in him. That can't let him just hang out. And watch things happen. That aren't going. Like that people be mistreated. People be oppressed.
He can't do it. He could have been Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh's daughter's son. And he chooses. No I'm going to align with the people who are oppressed. And he goes into this situation.
And he steps up. And he. And then he waters their flock. So can you imagine. He's run these guys off. And then he sits there.
And he pours all the water back in for him. And all these guys just have to wait. However many shepherds there were. Just waiting until they're done. And they're done. He sends them on.
And he says okay. Y'all can come now. They're done. It says that he stood up. And saved them. Verse 18.
When they came home to their father Reuel. Which means friend of God. Reuel. He said. How is it that you have come home so soon today? So he's got priestly duties.
They're overseeing his flock. They don't ever get home this early. Because this was the normal pattern. Of them getting pushed around. I think they probably knew. They were drawing water.
For the other flock. But that was just how it was going to have to work. They had to get it all set up. Get it started. Then they get pushed out of the way.
He says. Why are you home so soon? And they said. An Egyptian. Meaning that's what he looked like to them. Delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds.
And even drew water for us. And watered the flock. And he said to his daughters. Then where is he? Why have you left the man? This is the best man I've heard of in this whole place.
He should have followed you here. Now it's possible. We're Western. We're like. In our mind. It'd be fine for them to invite him to come back to their house.
It is possible. That for them. They weren't really allowed to do that. But they're playing him up. And he says. Where is he?
Why have you left him? In kind of a. They say things not as directly. And it's like. He's now giving them permission. It's also possible.
That they really should have invited him. And he's like. What are y'all doing? Either way. Dads of daughters. Take an active role.
In helping them find a good one. Then it says this. Where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him. That he may eat.
Bread. Moses was content. To dwell with the man. And he gave Moses. His daughter. Zipporah.
So. Moses comes. And then we just. Jump ahead. Moses was happy to live with this guy. And be a part of their family.
And so. He's given. His daughter over to him. And he marries into the family. And she gave birth to a son. And he called his name.
Gershom. For he said. I have been a sojourner. In a foreign land. He feels his displacement. Alright.
Quick. Biblical. Dating advice. For young men. Isaac. Met his wife at a well.
Jacob. Meets his wife at a well. Moses. Meets his wife at a well. At a well. Young men.
Go get near water. Women have to drink. They gotta stay hydrated. We don't have wells. But stand next to water fountains.
And he drew the water for him. So be like. Hey. I'll press that for you. You can go hands free. And then say some like.
Good biblical pick up line. Like. I'd like to talk to your father. About marrying you. You're welcome. See how that goes.
Alright. Alright. Be willing to stand up for people. Who cannot stand up for themselves. I think that's a better thing to learn from Moses. That Moses is willing to.
In all these situations. Take on pain. Take on fear. Take on burden. For the sake of someone else. And I think it's a godly thing.
To do. Alright. Now it turns. This is where we're going to get to see something beautiful about the Lord. During those many days. The king of Egypt died.
And the people of Israel groaned. Because of their slavery. And cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery. Came up to God. And God heard their groaning.
God remembered his covenant with Abraham. With Isaac. And with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel. And God knew. There's four things that we're told that God does.
He heard. He remembered. He saw. And he knew. And in this we see. That this is exactly.
What. If we were wise enough to hope for it. What we would hope God would be like. If we were wise enough to understand. How. How we would want God to be.
This is exactly how we would want him. To be. And I want. I want to help us. See this this morning. It says he's.
He's heard. And that he remembered his covenant. With Abraham. With Isaac and Jacob. When we see that word remembered. We're inclined to think.
Had he forgotten. It's like he heard them groaning. And was like. Oh yeah. That's not at all what that means. First of all.
That's a covenantal word. The remembered. Meaning he's going to keep to his covenant. Also the word remembered. If it helps you. We can use it as.
Oh I just remembered. Where I left my keys. Or we can also use it as. You remembered my birthday. Yes I remembered. As in.
I never forgot. Another way to read that is. God had not forgotten. His covenant. To Abraham. Isaac and Jacob.
So he hears their groaning. And then it says. But God hadn't forgotten. What he promised to do. God hadn't forgotten. What he was going to do.
God hadn't forgotten. What he committed to do. God had not forgotten. What he covenanted to do. That's what it means. God remembered.
And so we actually want. We need. A God. Who. Hears. And sees.
And knows. We need that. They need that. They need the God. Who hears. And sees.
And knows. And shows up. In personal circumstances. For individual families. But we also need a God.
Who hears. And sees. And knows. And shows up. To defend. Against an entire nation.
Where there's oppression. And we need a God. Who hears. And sees. And knows. All the way into.
Our very hearts. And our interactions. With one another. That it's not just the people of Egypt. That are a problem. But the people of Israel.
Are a problem as well. We need a God. Who hears. And sees. And knows. But then.
We need a God. Who Acts. In accordance. With his covenantal faithfulness. Because him just hearing. Seeing.
And knowing. If he then had to act. In accordance. With your faithfulness. If he then had to act. In accordance.
With your merit. We'd be in trouble. What if he sat up there. And said. Okay. I hear that this is a problem.
But let's investigate. Whether or not these Hebrews. Deserve this. What measure is he using? If he looked at you. And said.
I hear your situation. I see your situation. I know your situation. And then basically. Had an interview. Where he said.
Come in. Sit down. Let's talk. I want to find out real quick. If you've made the situation worse. With your own attitude.
And your own words. I want to find out real quick. If you've ever actually been in a situation. Where you've done similar things. To other people. I want to find out real quick.
I need to evaluate. Your merit. I need you to sit down. And let's figure out. Whether or not I'm going to help. We'd be in trouble.
We know the Hebrew people. Would be in trouble. Because as soon as he said. Well let's see. If y'all are making this worse. We already have that answer.
So we need a God. Who hears. And sees. And knows. And then responds. Out of his own covenantal faithfulness.
Out of his own promises. The way he's going to do that here. Is he's going to raise up Moses. Who's an unlikely person to use. But he raises him up.
And he uses him. To bring about his promises. And what he's done for us. Moses is just a small picture. We're actually told in Hebrews. That Jesus is a guarantor.
Of a better covenant. Than Moses is. What he's done for us. Is the same thing. Where he sent Jesus. Who like Moses.
We said it earlier. He had equality with God. Moses could have had equality. With Pharaoh's household. But he chose.
To be burdened. And to gain reproach. Jesus had equality with God. But he chose rather. To join his people. To be burdened.
To take on our reproach. And to make promises. That he does not have to make. When God covenanted with Abraham. And Isaac. And Jacob.
He made promises. That he made. Out of his own goodness. And he keeps them. Out of his own goodness. He doesn't have to make them.
But Jesus comes. Does not have to do this. But he makes promises. Out of his own goodness. And he. The night before he dies.
He takes a cup. And he says. This is a new covenant. In my blood. For the forgiveness. Of sins.
And so we get to go to God. Not based off of our own merit. Our cry gets to rise to heaven. Our groaning gets to rise to heaven. And we get to plead with him. Based off of our need.
And his covenantal faithfulness. Lord. Lord. You promised. And sealed it with the blood of Christ. That you will forgive sins.
And you will not fail to do that. You promised. And you sealed with the blood of Christ. That you would forgive my sins. And that you would give me eternal life. And that you would give me a hope.
And I can trust. That you will not fail to do that. That you have not forgotten. Your covenant. But that you remember the promise.
You made to Jesus. And that he made to us. I know you see me. All of me. I know you know me. All of me.
And I know that you will act. Not in accordance with me. But in accordance with your covenantal faithfulness. And that is exactly what we need. That is good news. The band is going to come back up.
We are going to sing together. And church family. Some of you right now. You have placed your faith in Jesus. You are trying to follow him. But there is sin.
And there is part of you that feels like. How can I sin? Even though I am trying to follow Jesus. Will he get rid of me? Will he run me off? Will I be unwelcome?
Will him? And the reality is we get to go to him in repentance. Trusting in his covenantal faithfulness. That he promised and sealed with his blood. That he will forgive sins. And we get to go.
Lord forgive me. The hope that we have is not in your behavior. The hope that we have is not in your neediness. The hope that we have is that you won't somehow merit the ability to jump to the front of the line. The hope is not in you. It's in him.
That he'd remember his covenant. That he'll keep his promises. Oh and he will. Some of you have not placed your faith in Jesus. You haven't come to him. You're groaning and your cry has not come up to him.
Where you've said I need help. I need a rescuer. I need a redeemer. Maybe you think that what he expects from you is good behavior. That he's going to say hey clean up your life a little bit. Get it together a little bit.
And then we'll talk. Show me your neediness. Show me your desire. Show me that you're putting in some effort. That I'm a God who helps those who help themselves. But the reality is he's like Moses.
But to an itth degree that he helps those who can't help themselves. That Jesus is a greater Moses who shows up and rescues the people who could not rescue themselves. And then comes and makes us home with them. That he invites us in. That you don't have to earn anything. But you get to come to him and say I have nothing to offer.
I just need a rescuer. And that he Acts in accordance with his promises. That he'll forgive sins. And I would invite you to trust in Jesus. Because he will not fail to save. Because he will not fail.
Let's pray. Father we ask that you would respond to us according to your covenantal faithfulness. That you would remember your promises that you made to Abraham. That to the whole world he would be a blessing. And that you through Jesus brought about that blessing. And that you would remember the promise that you made to Jesus.
That you would hold to your covenantal faithfulness. That you will forgive sins for all those who will trust in you. That if our groaning comes to you. If our cry comes to you. That you will rescue and save to the uttermost. That you will take our sins as far away as the east is from the west.
And that you will remember them no more. And we praise you that you are a God who does not fail. You are a God who has not forgotten your promises. And that we can come to you and be washed clean. And Lord if there's a Christian in here this morning who's walking in sin. I pray that you would help them to repent.
And to appreciate and delight in the forgiveness that was purchased for them by the blood of Christ. And if there's someone in this room who has not yet come to you and said. That I need a savior. I will not do this on my own. I need someone who goes to work inside of me. Lord we pray that you would help them right now.
Through your spirit. To trust in you fully and forever. To know that you have promised to forgive sins of all those who come to you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.grown
Intro to Exodus (Exodus 1)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles. Go to the book of Exodus. If you grab one of the blue Bibles down in the chair in front of you, it'll be on page 26.
It's the second book of the Bible. We are about to work our way on Sundays through the book of Exodus. There are 40 chapters in the book of Exodus. We are going to go through Exodus chapter 1 today, and we're trying to accomplish two things. Exodus. The first thing we're going to do in the first half of Exodus chapter 1 is introduce the book of Exodus.
We're going to try to understand where we are, what's going on, what's happening, and kind of set the stage for what happens in the rest of the book of Exodus. And then we are going to zoom in because the second half of the first chapter of the book of Exodus zooms in on an interaction between the Pharaoh and some Hebrew midwives. And as we zoom in on that, we're going to continue to see one of the major themes that's going to happen in the book of Exodus. And we're going to try to this morning, take a little bit of courage and a little bit of correction from these two midwives. So that's our hope.
Introduce the book of Exodus and then learn a little bit from this story that we're greeted with in the first chapter. This all takes place in 1800 to 1400 BC, and we're going to cover about 300 years today. And so we're going to go from about 1800 BC to 1500 BC. And as you're working your way BC, if you're working your way towards Christ, it counts down. So 1800 is further away than 1400.
And we keep working our way till we get to Jesus. But we won't get to Jesus today in time. We will talk about him. But we'll go 1800 to 1400 today, or 1800 to 1500. So let's pray and then let's start reading.
Lord, we ask that you would bless our study of the book of Exodus and that you would bless our time this morning. We ask that your Holy Spirit would move through the proclamation of your word to lead us to repentance and to faith. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Exodus chapter one, verse one. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. Exodus assumes that you know the book of Genesis.
And there are a few obvious clues in this opening text. One of them we can't see in the ESV, in our English translation that we have. Some of you might have a different English translation. The first Hebrew word in the book of Exodus is the word and. The reason the ESV doesn't do it is because the English, we don't do that in English. It would be bad grammar.
But that's what happens in Hebrew. So some versions of the Bible will start with and. Some will start with now. But it just says and. And then it just keeps on going. Also the first nine words in Exodus are a direct quote from Genesis chapter 46.
And it also just assumes you know things. Like it says these are the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob. Well Israel and Jacob are the same person. It assumes you know that it also says Joseph was already in Egypt while it's listing people like you know who Joseph is and you know he was already in Egypt. If this was a new story, it'd be a little weird to introduce Joseph and then immediately kill him off because it says Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died.
OK, well, sorry for Joseph. We just met him. No, you're supposed to know what's happening because you're supposed to know the book of Genesis. In 1997, the first Harry Potter book hit the shelves. I turned 10 in 1997. And so I'm 34.
So nobody has to sit and do math. I turned 10 in 1997 and Harry Potter in the first book is 10. He starts off 10. He turns 11. These books were aimed right at me like they were intentionally designed for 10 year old boys to pick up, read and like keep going. Girls could read them, too.
That wasn't like I didn't mean to make that sexist or something, but just they were aimed at my generation to read and to like grow up with. And so that having been said, I don't think I heard about Harry Potter until I was like 21, paid no attention to it whatsoever. The first Harry Potter thing I interacted with, I was married. My wife and I had never read any Harry Potter, never seen any movies, but my mom wanted to go. And we said we would go with her to see the movie that had just come out in 2009. And she said, are you sure?
It's kind of in the middle of stuff. And we said, we don't care. We are 0% invested. We will come and watch this. So we saw a movie called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
And in that movie, the goth professor murders the Santa Claus professor. He like, he shoots him. I said, well, it's a wand. So I guess he zaps him. Said something like Havarti, Kadabra or something. And I remember watching the bearded guy like fall off this tower in slow-mo.
And you could tell that the room was upset by this. And I thought, this seems important. I probably would care if I was more invested. And the beginning of Exodus is going to feel like that to you if you don't understand Genesis. You're going to be going, that seems important. Feels like they're referencing something here, but I don't quite understand what's going on.
So what I'm going to do is we talked through the book of Genesis in 2018. It's online. You can go listen to it. Hopefully what we said was good and hopefully we've gotten better at preaching. But I think it was fine in 2018.
What we said was fine. And you can go listen to that if you want to. But I'm going to give you the five-minute version of what was, I think, 33 sermons. So, and 50 chapters. So I'm going to give you the five-minute version of that so that we can catch up.
So, Genesis. God creates the world out of nothingness. He makes the world. He makes Adam and Eve. Humanity is the pinnacle of creation. He makes it all good.
Adam and Eve exist in the Garden of Eden. So God's made people in his place, in his presence. They were meant to relate to him. They sin. They rebel against God, disobey him, run from him, choose to elevate themselves. And the fall happens.
When that happens, God curses the man, the woman, and the serpent. And in his curse to the serpent, we have what theologians call the proto-evangelion, which just means first gospel. But he tells the serpent, basically, sin won't win. You're going to be destroyed. This isn't the end of the story. The fall is not the end.
And so we turn in the opening chapters of Genesis and we turn to kind of await this promise of a son that will be born that will ultimately conquer this and we start moving forward. Then in Genesis chapter 12, 15, and 17, God takes Abram, changes him to Abraham, changes his name, and gives him covenantal promises. That he makes promises to him that he is basically choosing to beholden himself to Abraham to accomplish a thing for Abraham. And those promises are, I'm going to make you into a great people. Abraham's very old, has no heir of his own. He says, no, I'm going to make you into a great people.
He says, I'm going to give you a place. I'm going to give you this promised land where you are. It's in the land of Canaan. So I'm going to give that to you. Then he says, I'm going to be your God.
You will be my people. I'll be your God. So he's going to give them presents. So what he promises Abraham out the gate is the first three things that we already had and lost to be God's people in God's place, in God's presence was lost at the fall. And so he comes and basically is promising to undo that. My people, my place, my presence.
And then he says, and you will be a blessing to the world. And so we start looking forward to that in Genesis and we kind of get it. We've watched these promises follow from Abraham to Isaac, from Isaac to Jacob, who gets named Israel. So we already read about him in Exodus. He has 12 sons, which ultimately are going to become the 12 tribes of Israel. So we see somewhat of this building into these promises being fulfilled.
But when we end Genesis, we have some people about 70, which is a lot better than one that he started with, but it's still not a big people. It's not as numerous as the stars of the sky or as countless as the sand on the seashore. They're not in the place that he promises them. And there's some his presence with them, but it's not idealized. There is a bit of the blessing. Joseph has been a blessing, but it's hard to see exactly how this has been a blessing to the whole world, although Joseph did help stave off a famine.
And so this is kind of where we are when we pick up an Exodus. This is the world. So this is just from Google Earth. So all the names are modern names, but Egypt is still Egypt. So we're going to zoom in here.
Yeah, let's zoom in. All right. So that's top of Africa, Egypt. You can see Turkey. You can see the Middle East here. That's the Mediterranean Sea.
We're going to zoom in a little further. Yeah, zoom in. So put the arrow up over here. This is where we started in the land of Canaan, and that's the promised land. This is where he says, Abraham, I'm going to give you this land. And then Israel has four sons.
So Jacob slash Israel has 12 sons. Sorry. He has a favorite. And so the other 11 sons decide to kill the favorite, which is a really good way to, you know, bring you up in the ranking. And then they decide, well, let's not kill him. Let's sell him into slavery.
And they do. And he gets sold into slavery into Egypt. And then there's a famine. Then Joseph becomes second in command in Egypt. And everybody goes to Egypt to survive. And then they settle in the land of Goshen.
And that's where we end in Genesis. And then Exodus says, and these are the names of the sons of Israel. And it picks right up there. So here's what happens. Oh, let me say this. Sorry.
I'm getting excited. I'm going too fast here. God plans. This is, this is what he basically promises in Genesis 12, 15 and 17, that according to the purpose of his will, God will bring his people into his place and his presence to be a blessing to the world, all for his glory. I'm going to read that again. According to the purpose of his will, God will bring his people into his place and his presence to be a blessing to the world, all for his glory.
And that's what we're going to pick up and continue with in Exodus. Now to make that a little more memorable and just a skosh more Baptist, I'm going to give you five Ps. You ready? Five Ps. Purpose, people, place, presence, priests. This is, this is the promise he makes that according to God's purpose.
He's going to make a people who live in his place and his presence. And then he makes them a kingdom of priests, meaning they will be a blessing to the world and they will display to the world how to relate to God. Okay. So that's where we pick up in Exodus, hoping for, longing for, looking forward to these promises. So it says in verse six, then Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation.
So if we know Genesis, we're going, Oh, there's a moment just for a moment where we hit that period at the end of that sentence and go, wait, did what happened? Did they, what happened to the promise of making a people? Where are we in this? And then it says, but the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. One of the actual ways that's written in Hebrew is that the land swarmed with them. It's crawling with Hebrews now in Goshen.
That's what it's saying. And so we're supposed to see, because we know Hebrew, we know Genesis. Oh, this is some of the fulfillment of the promise. He's starting to do the thing he said he was going to do with making a people. We're working our way towards it. Now we know they're in Egypt, so they're not in the promised land, but he's fulfilling the promise to the people.
Verse eight. Now there arose a new King over Egypt who did not know Joseph either did not know about him at all, or just did not care about him. And he said to his people, behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply. And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. So the Egyptian people have another people group living near them, multiplying.
And they say, this isn't good. And we get some, uh, old fashioned, like ethnic racism, ethnic fear that they speak a different language. They're not our people. There's too many of them. This is dangerous. And this has been a problem since the tower of Babel, that this is what humans do so often is they fear people who are different from them.
And so they say, Hey, they don't speak our language. They're growing too fast. There's too many of them. And there's a good chance because of where they're located in Goshen, that an army comes marching in and they just go, Hey, you know what? We're not Egyptian. So we'll just move out your way.
Hey, you go get them, leave us the land of Goshen. Or actually we're glad you're here. We've been wanting to kill them for a long time and they'll just join them. And so he stirs up fear and he says, we're going to deal with them shrewdly. And his specific plan is we're going to keep them from multiplying. We're going to stop this growth that they have.
And so it says this verse 11, therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Python and Ramses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So this fear continues, but the more they're oppressed, they enslaved them.
The more they're oppressed though, the more they spread. So what we're learning is that Pharaoh does not get to work all things according to his will, because he says, I've got a plan that'll keep them from multiplying. And then it was like trying to get rid of dandelions by kicking them. It doesn't work. It actually made it worse. The more they were oppressed, there's more of them.
It's like the meaner we are to them. How, why are they all pregnant? What has happened? This plan has failed miserably. That's what's happening. So that's what he says.
The more they're oppressed, the more there are. And we're just seeing God at work here, that he's blessing them even in the midst of what is a terrible situation. It says, so they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick. And in all kinds of work in the field, in all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. Now, Joseph would have come to Israel and about to Egypt in about 1800 BC. Moses is born around 1500 BC and the Exodus takes place towards 1400 BC.
And God specifically in Genesis promise that they would be there and be oppressed for 400 years. So we don't know how long, I mean, we, we don't know how long after Joseph, this Pharaoh rose up, but we know that they are oppressed for hundreds of years. The United States is only 200 and something years old. So these people would have been oppressed slaves, building these cities, working under taskmasters, having their only value come from their labor for hundreds of years. Generations would have been born into slavery, lived under slavery, died under slavery, and that would have continued on. And it's a bitter life.
We're to see traces of God's blessing as they multiply. But this is a bad, wicked situation. And that's where we are. That's, that's the intro to this situation is they've been enslaved in the land of Egypt. And now we're going to zoom in on a story where we actually get to see some people speak. We get to meet some characters.
We get to see what's happening. We're going to zoom in on this story. And the hope is that in this story, we'll see a bit of the tension continue to grow and a little bit of where this is going in the rest of the book of Exodus. And we will take some courage and some correction from two Hebrew midwives. All right.
You're ready. Exodus chapter one, sermon one, part two. Verse 15. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, a midwife is someone who helps deliver babies. Said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shifra and the other Pua. When you serve as a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, you shall kill him.
But if it is a daughter, she shall live. So he's worried about sons growing up and fighting against them. So he specifically calls these midwives in and says, I want there to start being a lot of complicated male births among the Hebrews. I want there to start being a lot of still births. I want you to, as you're delivering babies, I want the boys to not make it. So just when you're in there, when you're helping out, just have a lot of them, just boys don't get born.
That's, that's the plan. And it's a wicked, heinous plan. Verse 17. Probably my favorite verse in chapter one of Exodus. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.
Now I want y'all to know something about Pharaoh. People don't tell him no. That's not how being Pharaoh works. We actually, there's a quote of somebody talking about the Pharaoh of Egypt. And it, he's a, a royal like counselor to the Pharaoh to two, two different Pharaohs. And he says this, what is the King of upper and lower Egypt?
He is a God by whose dealings one lives, the father and mother of all men alone by himself without an equal. The Pharaoh was understood to be a part of the pantheon of Egypt, that he was a God alone by himself, the father and mother of all men. The Pharaoh got what he wanted. If he told you to do a thing, you did it. There are very few recordings of what we have in verse 17, where it says they did not do as he commanded. That doesn't happen.
People do what he commands. And can you imagine the fearfulness of this situation? I don't know for you that some of the scary situations you've been in. I don't know if that was standing before your parents when you had done something you shouldn't have done. I don't know if that was the long walk to the principal's office. Some of you, you never had to do that walk because they just threatened you with the long walk to the principal's office and you immediately straightened up because you just, I'm not, we're not doing that.
I don't know if that's a boss. If you've ever stood before a judge. I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where you were under someone else's power, but to be before the Pharaoh was to be under his power. Even if we stood in front of the president, the president can't give a little nod to one of his, one of the secret service and they walk over and shoot us. That won't happen. But the Pharaoh can do that.
The Pharaoh has absolute control and he commands them to do a thing. And what does it say? It doesn't say they feared him. The midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. Oh, praise the Lord for these two ladies. I feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the male children live.
They have a fear that is greater than their fear of Pharaoh. They have a Lord that they are held accountable to. They fear God and they don't do what he says. So then it says this. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, so he sends them off expecting them to accomplish what he asked.
All of a sudden it doesn't work. He brings them back. Why have you done this and let the male children live now? They're before him. And he, again, they're completely under his control. Why have you let the male children live?
And the midwife said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them. They, uh, they use Pharaoh's racism against him. And they say, Oh, you know what Hebrew women are like? Just like, we don't even like they have a baby and then they go right back to making bricks. We showed up one time. It was like a box under the stairs, six babies in it.
Nothing we can do about it. And Pharaoh apparently believes this mess. So they just are like, Hey, this is, this is what they do. They're cunningly responding to him in the midst of this extremely difficult situation. Verse 20. So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong.
So now it's the first mention we have of God. God's actively involved. He's blessing. He's working that he dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Not only is he at work in the nation, but he's at work in these specific ladies' lives.
Verse 22. And this will set us up for what we're going to look at next week. But it says, then Pharaoh commanded all his people, every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. He's had two plans. He's onto his third. We're going to stop this.
And he says, now we're just going to start rounding up babies and throwing them into a river. So I want us to take a moment as we'll deal with what the ramifications of that situation, what happens next, next week as we go into chapter two. But I want us to take for a moment, I want us to consider Shiphrah and Pua. I want us to consider the fear of God versus the fear of man. Proverbs 29, 25 says this, the fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. The fear of man is a trap.
We can see clearly in this story how if Shiphrah and Pua had feared Pharaoh, they'd have walked right into a trap. They would have been snared. They would have joined in evil and wickedness. But the fear of man ultimately bends us towards honor and worship and obedience. I want you to see that. One of the ideas that comes out in scriptures is that fear is often tied to worship.
It's tied to obedience. It's tied to this idea of honoring someone. We're told to fear the Lord. Let me give you a quick example and then we'll kind of talk it through a little bit. Let's say you have a 10 o'clock curfew.
And let's say you have a group of friends who don't. And so you get the choice of going home at 10 o'clock and being a dork. I mean like a real big dork. Or staying out with your friends and being awesome. Like just so cool. Like you just can't even imagine how cool you would become.
At 10 o'clock. Like just so cool. You won't even have to buy a leather jacket. You're cool. And you have this tension. And you're actually going to choose who am I going to honor?
Who am I going to give glory to? Who am I going to obey? Who am I going to fear? And fear there can mean fear. Like the consequences will be bad. Fear can also mean honor.
It can mean who am I going to show respect to? Who is weightier? That's what glory often means is weightiness. Who is weightier in my life? My peers who get to dictate my coolness. So maybe you honored your parents.
They weren't overly fearful but they were good parents and you decided to honor them. Maybe they were fearful. Maybe you knew that your mama would snatch you up. And you didn't know what would happen at that moment but you knew you didn't want to participate. But do you see how fearfulness leads to obedience?
And how the fear of man can lead to sin? How it can be a trap? That if we base, I want to be liked. I want to have their respect. I want them to honor me. I want them to, and so that we can build our life around what do people think?
And that can lead us into a trap. You ever heard of someone and you found out they had embezzled or they had stolen from the job and you thought, how? How did they do that? How could they have gotten there? The reality is, most likely, they operated off of some fear. Fear of failure.
Fear of not being able to pay their bills. Fear of having to be people seeing what has happened to them. Fear of any number of things, however they would do it. Fear of failing themselves or failing others or failing their spouse or just being looked at poorly. And they operate under fear and so they choose sin. They obey and worship and honor money.
Fear of failure. And we could see that if this said, Shifra and Pua feared Pharaoh, how differently this story would have gone. This says, Shifra and Pua feared God. You see, Shifra and Pua understood something that Jesus teaches us later, which is this. This is Luke chapter 12. Jesus says this, I tell you my friends.
Now, that's not a joke. He means it. My friends. He's being kind when he tells us this. Do not fear those who can kill the body and after that have nothing more they can do. Okay.
Fearing someone who can kill the body seems like a thing. Like that's a thing that you should fear, right? Like, oh, what are you going to do? Just kill my body? That feels like a... Like, I mean, I'll slowly kill my own body with Mountain Dew.
But I do a lot of things to keep my body from getting killed. Like wear seatbelts and a helmet and stuff like that. I'll lock my doors at night. Like, I don't wear a helmet in the car. Somebody looked at me like... During other activities.
That would be awesome. I should start wearing a helmet in my car. I'm making a life choice right now. I'm thinking about it. All right.
But we do things to keep ourselves from getting injured. And we ought to. This feels like a big thing. But Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no. That's so short-sighted. Do not fear those who can kill the body.
And after that have nothing more they can do. But I will warn you. And this is a warning. I warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. You say, was Jesus trying to scare us?
Yes. I tell you, fear him. Yes, he wants to scare you. Because he's calling you his friend. He's trying to help you out. That's a reality.
This is something Shifra and Pua knew. Shifra and Pua were like, what are you going to do, Pharaoh? Kill us? To which he responded, yeah, that's my go-to. To move. That's the thing I do.
I will kill you. And they're like, hmm, weak. That's all you got? All you can do is kill my body? It's like, yeah, that's a big thing. That's a big thing.
He's looking at his guard. It's like, that's a big thing, right? Like, that's usually people are scared. And what they understand is that after I die, I will stand not before Pharaoh. I'll stand before the king of the universe. And after you die, Pharaoh, you get in the same line.
You'll stand before the king as well. So Shifra and Pua are guided. It's a tough situation, but it's not a tough decision. There's clarity here. And there's clarity for us. We live in a fearful time.
You are told consistently that you ought to be afraid. And I don't know which, this is often in our culture driven by politics. It's not just politics. It's like everything that ever talks about children tells you how afraid you should be. Like, I wish the internet didn't exist because it has saved my children from 50,000 imaginary diseases. People were fine.
Like, we were fine. We didn't need all this. But it often is driven by politics. And I don't know if you ever do this, but I would encourage you to go listen to the other side for a little while. If you're listening to only your side of the political spectrum, you get scared. If you go listen to the other side, you feel amazing because they're terrified of you.
You are winning if you listen to the other side. Did you know that? You're out to get them and you're succeeding. You have accomplished. You've taken over the world. Like, that's...
But when we listen to things, what we're told is they're coming for us. They're going to get you. They're going to get your children. They've already secretly done it. We've got to stop them. We're told we're supposed to be afraid of so much.
We live in a very anxious time. And then we operate this way in normal life. We're afraid of our coworkers. We're afraid of our peers. We're afraid of our spouses. We're afraid of what people are going to think of us.
We live in fear of man, and it is a trap. And Jesus says, I'll tell you who to fear. Fear the only one who actually has authority. Fear the one who actually does work out things according to the purpose of his will. Fear the one who has the keys to eternity. Fear the one who you can be cast into hell by.
But he says this. He says, yes, I tell you, fear him. And then the immediate next thing he says is this. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Now, on first glance, that feels like a drastic change of subject.
He just said, yes, I tell you to fear him. Fear him who can cast into hell. And then he says, are not five sparrows. He says it, are not, are not like this should help you. This is clarifying. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?
Not one of them is forgotten before God. What he's saying is God knows you and loves you. He's not out to get you. He's telling us this for a good purpose. There's not a sparrow that dies that God forgets about. And they're cheap, I think.
Two pennies, five sparrows sounds like a good deal. If you were needing some sparrows, two for five. Five for two. Something like that. What he's saying is that God knows you, cares about you, loves you. And then, yeah, you should have a healthy, honoring fear that he rules over the world.
This is what Isaiah 8, 12 says. Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy. And do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. There's that word. Let him be your fear.
Let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary. I love that. If he's your dread, he becomes a sanctuary. Sanctuary is a safe place. If we look to him as the most fearful being, if we look to him as the one to be feared above all else, then we're safe.
Then we can run to him. Then we can rest in him. Then we can hope in him. So, I want you to consider what is it you're afraid of? What are the things you worry about? Who are you afraid of?
Who are you likely to honor with your actions, with your efforts? Who are you likely to give glory to? And then I want you to, as you consider that, and as you really genuinely answer yourself as to what I'm afraid of, I want you to take that and mentally, prayerfully, bring it before the king and just see how it stacks up. I feel like there might have been, I don't know, I don't know how quickly Shifra and Pua came to this conclusion, but I think there had to have been a moment where they thought, I just can't do it. We're going to stand before him. I can't stand before him having killed babies.
I don't want to. I can't stand before him having lived my life in fear of Pharaoh and then go stand before the king who rules over eternity. I can't do it. And the beautiful hope for us is that Jesus offers forgiveness and grace for all the times we've failed and he warns us because he's our friend, because he loves us, to place our fear in the Lord, the only one who rules over all. You see, we're going to get to, as we walk through Exodus, see some of these promises start to be fulfilled and then stop and start and stop. We're going to get to see that even as you walk through the whole Old Testament.
The reality is that those things, God working all things according to his purpose, is only accomplished in Christ fully. That he's going to make a people. He does. By first Jesus being the one true Israel, the son that does not fail, and then by making a people who are brought in through faith in him, that he makes a new people. That he actually gives us the place. First the church, the people that belong to him.
Ultimately heaven through faith in Christ. That we actually get his presence. First the Holy Spirit. First Jesus on earth, then the Holy Spirit at work in his church, and then ultimately we will be brought before the presence of his glory with great joy. And that Jesus is the blessing that would come through Abraham. That he then makes a kingdom of priests to be sent out.
And that we actually have a God to fear. We have a kingdom to serve. And that we are commissioned to trust Jesus and to work to tell other people about how wonderful he is. And I will just say this. It's very short, but it's for anybody who's fearful over the state of the church. Enemies have risen up against God's people before.
And while they can make life bitter, they cannot stop the multiplication and the working of God's purposes. And we get to see that even now as the church spreads in the midst of difficulty. God still works to accomplish his will and to see people place faith in him and follow him just as he worked among the people in Exodus to continue to multiply to accomplish his purposes. The band's going to come back up. In a moment we're going to sing and take communion. And I want us to consider for a moment before we take communion, what is it we fear?
What are you worried about? What do you think is going to get you? What are you afraid is going to happen in life? What's your biggest nightmare? And then take a moment to set that in front of the Lord. Asking him to reorient your heart where you care more about him and his work and his kingdom and where you trust him as being gloriously, wonderfully, more dreadful than Pharaoh.
Gloriously, wonderfully, more dreadful than anything you would face so that you can run to him as your sanctuary. And then as you do that, I would invite you to take communion where we celebrate that Jesus came to rescue people, to die on our behalf, to pay for our sin, to make us his. If you are not a Christian, communion is not for you. It's a celebration of what Jesus has accomplished for us, that his life and his body and his blood, his body was broken for us, that his blood was poured out for us and that we've been brought into a new covenant of grace through the work of Jesus. If you're not a Christian, we invite you to trust in Jesus to become a Christian.
And then you would be free to take communion as you celebrate for the first time that he has covered you, that he is your sanctuary. But if you are not a believer, we ask you to refrain from participating because this is not for you. So I'm going to pray. Lord willing, you'll join in prayer, considering your own heart and your own fears. And when you're ready, take communion. It's gluten-free communion back there.
And then we'll sing together and praise our gloriously, wonderfully, loving, dreadful King who is our sanctuary and our hope. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you sovereignly work in the midst of difficulty. And Lord, we pray that we would take correction and courage, that we might step in faith to fear you, to honor you, to glorify you above all else. And God, we praise you for your grace and the redemption that's offered through the work of Christ.
Doxology (Jude 24-25)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are finishing up the book of Jude. It is near the back of your Bible. If you start at the end, run through Revelation, you'll run into Jude.
If you have one of these blue Bibles, it's on page 594. If you don't own a Bible, take one of these with you. That's our gift to you, but we want you to own a Bible. I don't need that, so I'm going to just kick it over here. All right.
My parents go on vacation to the beach in September, and they always want their children and grandchildren to come, and so I just got to go to the beach for a couple of days. And one of the things that happens if you spend time around little children is that everybody, adults and children, point out everything that they think is even remotely interesting. The children are going, hey, look at this, look at this, look at this rock, look at this. I had multiple children constantly running up to me going, hey, is this a shark's tooth? It never was. It was always just some sort of black thing.
And I'd be like, no, but it's cool. I handed one back to my nephew, and he was all excited. I was like, ah. Part of me wanted to be like, yeah, it's a shark's tooth, but that was not true. So I said, no, but it's a cool rock.
And he went, ah, and threw it on the ground and ran off. That was all he wanted was a shark's tooth. But you just point out everything. Look at that cloud. Look at this shell. Well, we were at the gas station on the way up, and I'm in line at the gas station.
And my youngest son, who's four, busts the door open. His older brother's behind him, and they go, daddy, daddy, daddy, there's a leaf bug out here. And they just turn around and run back out. The door closes behind them. Everybody looks at them. I'm in line.
And then four or five seconds later, they bust back in like, did you not hear us? Why are you still in line? They bust the door back open. A leaf bug. You come with me. Like just incredulous that I would not have already dropped what I was doing or run outside.
And I'm excited this morning because we're looking at Jude verses 24 and 25, and I get to do that. I get to say, hey, look at this. Look at how wonderful this is. Take this in. Don't miss this with something infinitely more exciting than a leaf bug, which consequently turned out to be a grasshopper. This is wonderful, wonderful news.
It is joyous and hope-filled. And so for the believers in the room, I think this will be encouraging, worshipful, the way Jude ends this letter. And for anybody in the room who is not a Christian, that you're trying to figure this out. I've got people that hang out with our community group, and that's kind of where they are. It's like just trying to figure this out, trying to see what I believe, trying to see what the Bible says. If that's the zone you're in, we're excited that you're here this morning, as we would be any Sunday.
But I think this Sunday is a good morning for you to see what we believe. And so for the Christians in the room, I hope this is some encouragement. And for anyone who's not a Christian, I want you to see this as an invitation. This is an invitation for you to today decide, no, I'm going to follow Jesus because of how wonderful he is. So let's read the text and then pray together, and then we'll start walking through it.
We've already read this once this morning. Jude, verses 24 and 25. Let's pray. God, as we draw our attention to this text this morning, help us to realize it. Help us to grasp the beauty of this. Help us to take this in and to respond in faith and worship at you, our God, our Savior, our Lord, who is glorious, majestic, and rules forever.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So the way this passage breaks down is that he says now, he's turning and he's saying, to him who is able, to the only God, be. To him, to the only God, be. That's kind of how this breaks up. So it's to, and he's describing.
He's just kind of pausing and saying things about Jesus, about God. And then he says to, and he's describing and pausing and saying things about God. And then he's saying be, belong, be given to. And so that's kind of how we're going to walk through it. We're going to walk through those two phrases and then the B sentence. So the first thing he says is, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.
The first thing we're going to look at is that him who is able to keep you from stumbling. It's the first thing we want to look at. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Honestly, him who is able is a good way to describe God. He's able. He's capable.
But it says to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Praise the Lord. Isn't that good? That he keeps us from stumbling. The TV show The Office is one of my favorite TV shows. And I've probably since college just kind of watched it at all times.
It's off and off. And if there's ever anything, like we just don't have anything to watch, we'll just watch The Office and be thoroughly entertained. Even though we know it's coming. It's still hilarious. But one of the main premises of The Office is that the boss is an idiot.
And there's a scene in The Office where he's got to go negotiate something. And he's in a good position to negotiate except for there's one thing that he can't say. If he says this, it'll ruin everything. And he's got a couple people with him and they're getting on an elevator and they're looking at him. Because they know he's an idiot and they're going, just don't say it. Just don't bring it up.
Just don't. We're not going to mention this one thing. He's like, no, we're not going to mention it. We're not going to mention it. Elevator closes. They go up like two levels.
And it shows the elevator door open and he's like this. I'm just really afraid I'm going to mention it. I just, I think I'm going to say it. Like he just knows himself and he's like, there's a real good chance that it'll just come out. And I'll ruin everything. And I feel that way with following Jesus.
That there are times where I'm like, I got this. I got this. I got this. And then a month later, a week later, a moment later, I'm going, I really feel like I might mess this up. I really feel like I might just ruin this. Like there are those moments when you just see there's something wrong with me.
There's something deep inside of me that is broken. And I really just feel like there's a chance that I'm going to derail this. That if you fast forward five years from now, there's something in me that might just choose sin. And it's terrifying. Oh, praise Jesus that he's able to keep us from stumbling. That that's the hope we have in him.
Not that he saves you and he takes you and he cleans you and he says, okay, here's your life. Your sins are forgiven. You're cleaned up. Now I'll meet you at the finish line. Keep your record clean. I've cleaned everything off.
I'll meet you at the finish line, but you've got to finish it out. No, he's the one who keeps us from stumbling. Like a father holding hands with a child. That at any moment that child can just pitch forward about to lose it and immediately be brought back to safety. That he keeps us from stumbling. And that's wonderful news that our hope is in him.
Not in ourselves. I want you to see this. This is in John six. I'm going to show you two passages where Jesus is talking about this idea. John six, 37 through 39. He says, all that the father gives me will come to me.
And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. So if you come to Jesus, if you trust in him, if you place your faith in him, he will never cast you out. This idea that maybe I'll send so much, maybe I'll fail so much. Maybe he says, no, I'm, I'm going to keep you for I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. The idea that I might fail at this is the idea that Jesus might lose me.
But he says he's not going to lose anything. The father's given him. That he is able to keep us from stumbling. John 10, a few chapters later, Jesus is talking again. He says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My father who has given them to me is greater than I, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. If we have trusted in Jesus, he keeps us. The father keeps us and he is able to keep us from stumbling. So Christian, brother, sister, that right now is seeing your sin, can feel it, can know it, and is fearful. Cling to this promise that he will keep you and run back to him. Use his hand to steady yourself and trust in the fact that he is the one who is good, who keeps you, who redeems you, who brings you to the finish line.
That's wonderful news. On my sabbatical, I started listening to some audio books and it was a three book long trilogy and it was, each of these books was very long. But they were like sword fights and magic and time travel and people who could see the future. It was very nerdy stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But one of the things, one of the main storyline plot things of the story was that one of the characters you meet when they're like 17, you're kind of following through and then you learn that they had traveled back in time and died.
But people know this because it already happened. So you meet them here, you're following them through time, but you know that they're going to travel back in time and die. So what happened in the story was that this character would get into a lot of really bad situations and be like, this might go poorly for me, but I don't die here. Because I know where I die. It's already happened in time, but not for me. It's kind of confusing.
But he would just know, like I'm getting in this situation, it's difficult, but I don't die here. This isn't the end for me. And so he would just lean into, he still had to fight, he still had to show courage, he still had to do everything he could to get out of the situation, but he knew this isn't how it ends. And I find that that's what we get to do with Jesus. I don't lose to this. Jesus is going to keep me.
I know how this ends for me. And so I can cling to that promise to give me hope as I trust in Jesus to see me through. So for Christians, this is wildly encouraging that our hope is that Jesus is the one who gets us to the finish line. And if you're not a Christian and you think, I can't be a Christian, I'd mess it all up. No. Because if you trust Jesus, he takes you and he keeps you and he brings you to the end.
He is able to keep you from stumbling. But then it says this, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. He's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. So we're going to walk through and just look at these different words that are here and just try to unpack them a little bit. So let's start with blameless.
Blameless means without blame. Without accusation. With nothing that anybody could say bad about you. Now, if you are self-aware at all, that is a poor description of you. And if you are not self-aware but have friends, which is difficult to do if you have no self-awareness, ask them. They will tell you.
This is a bad description of you. Have you ever been in the situation where you were the one to blame? Just give you some examples. But you had blame. A teacher starts to take up homework and you don't have it. Or something that happened to me all throughout my school career.
Someone would look at you at lunch and say, man, are you ready for that test? Or were you able to finish your project? And you would respond, what project? And they would look at you like, oh, buddy, life's going to be hard for you. That amount of fear. Or somebody's looking for the person who stole something and it's in your pocket.
You know that type of blame that you have? Your dad's coming home and you're the one who broke the thing and you understand how this is going to go? So, the idea that we would stand before the God of the universe in the presence of his glory, the glory of the one who tests hearts, who knows minds, who can see through us and be blameless, is shocking. And it's wonderful. Because the blamelessness does not come from us, but it comes from the one who is presenting us. Do you see that?
That he would present us blameless. 2 Corinthians 5.21, I want you to see this in another place where it talks about this idea. It says, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. Okay, so, for our sake, he, that's God the Father, made him, that's Jesus, to be sin. So, Jesus became sin. Jesus, who knew no sin.
He was sinless, but he becomes sinful. He takes on our sin. He doesn't actually sin, but he takes our sin and he puts it on himself, so that in him we might become, what? The righteousness of God. That through Jesus, we are righteous because he took our sin and he gives us his righteousness, so that he might present us blameless. And that picture of him presenting us, him bringing us into the glory of the Father, that's what he says, before the presence of his glory.
In the Old Testament, you don't get to enter the presence of his glory. Everybody who even comes into, brushes into contact with the presence of his glory, he shows up just in a burning bush and he says, take your shoes off. This is holy ground. You're not welcome here as you are. If there was only, was the high priest able to go once a year into the holy of holies, into the presence of his glory, and even that with sacrifices made on his behalf before he went. That Moses, who was the closest to God, asked, can I see your glory?
And God says, no, it would kill you. But you can see the back of it. That Isaiah gets brought into the presence of the Lord and he falls down and he says, I'm sinful, I don't belong here. You ever been in a situation where you felt dirty? You felt shameful? You felt like, I should not be here.
There's something wrong with me. I'm the one who's ruining everything. Peter meets Jesus. Jesus performs a miracle and Peter falls down and says, get off my boat. I shouldn't be in your presence. You're holy and there's something wrong with me.
The idea that we get to be presented blameless is wonderful and it points to the glory of Christ who took our sin and gave us his righteousness. And he joyously presents us. Picture this. He comes into the glory of his father, into the glory of the Holy Spirit, into the glory of the Trinity. And he says, look. Look at them.
Aren't they beautiful? Look at how clean they are. Look at how blameless. Look at these sons and daughters, these brothers and sisters who belong here. And it's all to the praise of his glory. Some of you go, I'm too dirty.
I wouldn't be able to be there. But that does not degrade you. It degrades him. That he is incapable of cleaning you. Oh, to the praise of his glorious grace will we be presented blameless before the father. Will we be presented blameless in the presence of his glory.
And we will stand there awestruck to be welcomed into a place that we should have no business being. But because of the blood of Christ. Because of this exchange that took place. That he took our sinfulness. That he gave us his righteousness. That we have the righteousness of God.
That we are now able to be there. That's wonderful. And he says, present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. Whose joy? Well, ours certainly. Can you imagine the freedom, the delight to be in the presence of God.
To be in the presence of his glory and belong. I think we can kind of wrap our head around being in the presence of his glory and not belonging. Like a moment of just this is amazing and now I'm going to die. But to be there and that to be our home. That to be where we're supposed to be. And that to be where we're supposed to enjoy being.
Because it brings glory to Jesus who's the one who redeemed us. Who's the one who presents us joyously. That we are overwhelmed. By joy. That every little bit. Every time you've laughed and laughed until your face and stomach hurt.
Every time you've been in a place where you were so at peace. That you just kind of could feel yourself just relax. That you felt safe. That you felt at home. Every time you've been around the people. Where you just have this moment of this is how life is supposed to be.
Every single one of those was just like a sniff of the meal that we're going to get to partake in. That's here and gone. Every one of those is like a drop of water on a parched tongue. Of what the joy will be like in the presence of his glory. That he cleans sinners like us. That he brings us to him.
And do you know how else's joy it is? It's his joy. That great joy is not just ours. It's his. He delights to do this. I love we were studying through Psalm and it says our God reigns in the heaven.
He does whatever he pleases. Which means that it pleases him to redeem sinners like us. That's what Jesus says in Luke 15. He says just so I tell you. There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. I was reading that book Gentle and Lowly.
While I was on my sabbatical. And a lot of you were like didn't we read that way earlier? Y'all did. I didn't. But it was good.
So I caught up. And if you'll remember. So those of y'all who walked through it. There's this illustration that he gives. It's written by a guy named Dane Ortlund. There's this illustration that he gives.
He says imagine if you will. A doctor. Who's independently wealthy. He's able to go on this. And he decides he's going to go. Halfway across the globe.
To reach out to some tribal people. And to offer vaccinations. Help them. You know things like polio. Help them with things. That would absolutely destroy them.
But there's a vaccination for it. They cannot have smallpox. If they'll just kind of go through this. They can get past pertussis. If they'll just take this vaccination. He's going to go and help save.
He says imagine that he goes. But they don't trust him. They don't know what he's talking about. It takes a long time to build trust. He says but imagine. The day.
That finally. One brave. Person. Steps forward. And receives the vaccination. He says.
What does that doctor feel? Joy. He said it's the whole reason he came. He feels joy. And that made so much sense to me. I remember sitting in my office.
Thinking. Yeah. Of course he does. Of course he delights to do that. Of course he's ecstatic that day. And how dare I.
Fail to see. The great delight. Of the God of the universe. Who since eternity past. Purposed. To redeem a people for himself.
And then came. To live. And to die. And to rescue. So that he might one day.
Present a people. To belong to him forever. That he might rescue a people for himself. To belong to him. And how I fail to miss. How joyous that is for him.
If you're in here. And you're not a believer. And you think. I can't come to him. I'm too broken. I'm too dirty.
I'm too messed up. Oh. Hear. Hear how happy he will be. To save you. Hear how much joy there is.
For you to walk forward. And say I'm a sinner. In need of cleansing. I need somebody to rescue. Can you see the smile crack. Across his face.
And he says. That's why I came. That's what this was all about. So that people. Who could not rescue themselves. Might be rescued.
And redeemed. Come. I sing to my boys. In the evenings. And one of my favorite songs. Is softly and tenderly.
And it says. Softly and tenderly. Jesus is calling. Calling. Oh sinner. Come home.
That's what he came to do. There's delight. That's what Hebrews 12. 2 says. Look. To Jesus.
That we ought to be looking to Jesus. The founder and perfecter. Of our faith. Who for the joy. That was set before him. Endured the cross.
Despising the shame. And is seated at the right hand. Of the throne of God. It is his delight. To redeem. Sinners.
So that one day. If you placed your faith in Jesus. He's going to keep you from stumbling. He's not going to lose you. And then there's going to be a day. When he brings you into the presence of his glory.
And we celebrate. A day of overwhelming joy. That Jesus can save sinners like us. A day where he receives so much glory. That he can redeem someone as broken and as busted as you. Someone whose thoughts.
Even when you're trying. Are so twisted and mangled. There are times where I think. I'm so messed up. And I'm trying. This is the Holy Spirit at work in me version.
That is trying. And I'm still like this. And to be able to stand. And know that he's going to keep me. And to be ushered into his glory. And that that day will be joyous.
Don't miss this. That's the first thing he says. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. And to present you blameless. Before the presence of his glory with great joy. To the only God.
Our Savior. Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. That's his next statement. To the only God. Our Savior.
Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. Okay. People argue. That all religions are the same. We all believe the same thing.
And I just want you to know. Christianity makes exclusive claims. That there's. He's the only God. There is no other God. And he's the only God.
Who saves us. Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. That there is no other Savior. There's no other way to the Father. But through Christ.
So if you want to argue. That Christianity is wrong. Well the Bible. Logically will fit with that. You can say it's wrong. But it won't fit with.
It's kind of right. It's right. They're all right. It won't do that. Because it says no. There's only one God.
And there's only one Savior. But I want you to see this. To the only God. Our Savior. Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord.
That through Jesus Christ. We receive salvation. And it's just so encouraging. You need a Savior. And if you become a Christian. You don't cease to need a Savior.
There's not going to be a time. Where you think. I've graduated. I'm no longer a sinner. I'm no longer in need of a Savior. High five Jesus.
I don't need you anymore. That's not how it works. He delights to redeem sinners. Now. He's also our Lord. So we repent.
We obey. We follow. We follow. But we follow. Because he's our Savior. Who's rescued us out of sin.
And given us hope. And if you're not. A Christian. You need a Savior. One of the things that. That Spencer pointed out.
When we first started Jude. Is that Jude. He highlights for us. That there is great judgment. And great joy. There's judgment for sin.
There's a. He calls it the great day. There's a day of wrath. There's a day of judgment. And that everyone. Will either receive judgment.
Or they'll receive joy. But you'll get one or the other. Either Jesus will receive your judgment. For your sin. On your behalf. And then you'll be a recipient of joy.
Through Jesus. Or you will receive judgment. And if you say. I don't need Jesus. What you are saying is. I'll stand on my own.
In that day. And be held accountable. For my sin. But the invitation. Is that you would come to him. Who delights to save.
Delights to keep. And delights to rejoice with. Eternally. Through the work of Jesus. That you would trust him. To save.
You. So he's our only God. Our savior. Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. Be.
So now he's saying. Be. This belongs to him. Give it to him. That's kind of what it means. It's his.
So we ought to respond. By giving it to him. We ought to respond. By. So he's.
Praising him. By both saying. It's his. And also. We. We acknowledge that.
We give it to him. Says. Be glory. Majesty. Dominion. And authority.
Authority. Before all time. And now. And forever. Amen. So these things belong to him.
Before all time. If we ever say the phrase. Eternity past. That's what we're talking about. That there was a time. Before time.
God invented time. There was. Something before that. It messes up. Because you have to use the word. Before.
Before. But I guess that's time. So then it was before. But then you can't use before anymore. Because there's no time. So we just say eternity past.
Before all time. He was in charge. He creates time. So now. He's in charge. And then.
Forever. Which is. We don't say. Eternity. Future. Sometimes you can say that.
You just say. Eternity. Forever works. What happens after time. Be glory. Meaning that all praise and honor.
Belongs to him. There is no boasting. For us. That when we're presented. Blameless. Before him.
We don't go. I know you're glad I'm here. Feel free to clap. If you would like. We don't do that. We're joyous.
But we're joyous. Based off of his work. Not ours. There is no boasting. There's no swagger. There's delight.
Certainly. There's tears. Certainly. There's a feeling of. Welcome. And belonging.
Certainly. But there is no boasting. The glory is his. And this. This has helped my brain so much. When I sin.
To help me know. That I turn to him. And I ask for forgiveness. And I delight in the fact. That he receives glory. From saving sinners.
Like me. I don't pursue sin. Because of that. I pursue him. Because of that. Majesty.
I looked that up. One of the definitions. Was. Regal impressiveness. He's impressive. Not us.
He has dignity. And honor. He's a king. That it belongs to him. That's his. And he's had it.
Forever. Dominion. Meaning he is. Over all things. He rules. Over all things.
That he is in charge. Over all things. That he works out. Everything. According to his. Will.
That there is not. A square. Millimeter. Of existence. In the ocean. On the earth.
In the sky. In outer space. In some sort of. Spiritual realm. We don't understand. There's not a square.
Inch. That doesn't belong to him. That isn't under his rule. That isn't under his care. That it is under his domain. When we look out.
Into the sky. And we see. Infinite stars. Like we just. We're baffled by it. That does not.
Declare to us. Our place in the universe. It declares his. Majesty. And goodness. And his.
Greatness. Authority. He's a king. And he does. As he pleases. But praise be to his name.
That it pleases him. To redeem sinners. To forgive. And to welcome. Before all time. And now.
And forever. Amen. Brothers and sisters. In the room. Cling to this. Remember this.
Believe this. That he'll keep you. That he'll guard you. That he'll. Make you reach the end. And that that day.
Will be. Joyous. And if you have not placed your faith in Jesus. Don't say no to this. But come to him and say.
Please. Save me. And he will. That all who come to him. He will not lose. One of them.
But trust in him. The band's going to come back up. We're going to join. Jude. Jude ends this by saying. Look at how wonderful.
Jesus is. Look at how wonderful. God is. To him be glory. And majesty. And dominion.
And authority. Before all time. And now. And forever. And for a moment. We're just going to let our voices.
Join an eternal chorus. Of those who understand this infinitely more than we do. We're going to join Jude in saying. Isn't he wonderful. Isn't he good. To him be the praise.
It's not about me. It's about him. And he's so good to redeem. A sinner. Like me. Let's pray.
And then let's sing. God we thank you. That it is your delight. To save sinners. We thank you. That you are able.
To keep us. From stumbling. And for those in the room. Who feel like they're stumbling. That they're going to. Fall.
That they're going to lose this. They're going to fall into sin. Lord. That you're going to. Lose them to sin. That it's going to engulf them.
Lord. May you hold them. And draw them back. In forgiveness. And redemption. That you rescue sinners.
That that does not mean. That we will never sin. It just means. That we'll never lose to it. And so Lord. May we cling tightly.
To you. Who keep us. May we hold firmly. To that promise. And Lord. May we look forward.
To the day. When we are presented. Into the presence. Of your glory. Made blameless. By the work.
Of Jesus. And may there not. Be a soul. In this room. Who enters that day. On their own account.
Lord. May there not be someone. In this room. Who stands before you. On that day. In their sin.
But may we stand. In the righteousness. Of Christ. Through the blood. Of his sacrifice. And so Lord.
I ask that through your Holy Spirit. You would help. Anyone who has not trusted in you. To believe. To run to you. And to say.
Forgive me. And to receive that forgiveness. And to receive this promise. As they might stand. With your people. On that day.
Made blameless. Through your son. To the praise. Of his glory. And his wonder. And his name.
In Jesus name. Amen.
Remember, Remain, & Rescue (Jude 17-23)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Spencer and I am one of the pastors here. We are in Jude verses 17 through 23 today. We got this week and next week in Jude and then we will move into the book of Exodus. If you want to follow along in your blue Bible, it's in the seat or around you. It's on page 594 and the text will also be up on the screen, which is bigger now, which I'm excited about, which you can read more clearly. So in sports, one of the big moments in the offseason is when you get the schedule.
You get the schedule, you look at your opponents, and what happens with most teams is that they see one or two opponents and they circle them. Literally or in their minds like this, they get really excited about facing off against those teams and there's more energy that goes into that week of prep. There's more energy that shows up in that game. And what happens with immature teams is when they show up to play that game, well, they do immature things. They get all angsty, a little chatty, extra combative, and they lack the discipline to actually compete like they're supposed to. So I'm a Gamecock fan and for five years I watched the Will Muschamp era of Gamecock football and it was this.
You could tell a couple times a year they would get all worked up for Clemson, who's a rival, or for Kentucky, which has recently become a rivalry, which is really sad for the state of our program. And they get all worked up for these games and they would just get, I mean, there'd be late hits, be mouthing off the whole time, you know. And Kentucky and Clemson are well coached and they were well disciplined and we were not. And it was very abundantly clear and it was painful to watch because we'd be all angsty with all this extra energy, but we couldn't do the basics. We couldn't do, like we couldn't break down and make tackles.
We couldn't complete blocking assignments. We couldn't do the things it takes to actually play the game like you're supposed to. I think everyone can admit that there's a few games a year that you get really excited for and you have a little extra zeal for, but you've got to come back and do the basics. You can't forget that. And I believe that Christians are very much like this. That Christians can get overly angsty about subject matters like false teaching and the corruption of morality, which we've seen in the book of Jude.
That when Christians see this kind of opposition, some of them lose their minds. They go crazy and they start to really focus on the opposition and they get online and they become keyboard warriors and they get on YouTube channels and watch discernment ministries, which for the record is not a thing in the Bible, but there's all over YouTube. You'll see email chains or Facebook posts. It's like, you got to, the Hollywood is out to get our kids and these false teachers are out doing this and we got to, and they get all worked up, become heresy hunters, but they neglect to do the basics. They get so focused on the opposition, they don't read their Bibles, they don't pray, they don't do the things that are good for their souls.
And oftentimes they look more like undisciplined fools than they actually do look like followers of Christ. Now we are certainly called to, as Christians, and as we've clearly seen in Jude, we're called to take this seriously, take sin seriously, take false teaching seriously, but we don't act like undisciplined fools. Now we're at the point in the book of Jude where he spent a lot of time hammering hard after this type of false teaching, after the grace of God that has been perverted in essentiality as we saw in verse 3. Spent a lot of time in this, but now he's going to be real practical in coaching us.
Now what? Now what do you do with that? Now that you know that, what's up? And there's three things that we'll see in this passage today. One of them is a thing we need to know, and two of them are things that we need to do, okay? The first thing we need to know is we need to remember.
And that's what we're going to see. We're called to remember, we're going to walk through what he says. And there's two things that we need to do. We need to remain and to rescue. Now, I don't know if you just saw that, but that was ultra-Baptist, y'all. Three R's.
Three points. Yes. Real practical. Jude's going to coach us up on this. So we're going to see those three things.
All right. Let me jump into the text. We'll pray, and then we'll walk through this piece by piece. Verse 17. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I said to you, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
So let me pray, and then we'll walk through this together. Father, I pray that you would help us be present right now. I pray that you would help us listen to the Word of God. That it would pierce our hearts. That it would expose what's beneath that needs exposing. And that you would give us the gospel as you give us really good coaching on what to do in a time where there's all types of things that are seeking to tear us apart and tear us down and tear us from you.
May we listen and respond in faith and repentance and obedience and worship. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so he starts out with the thing that you need to know, and that is you need to remember. You need to remember. So, he says, verse 17, but you must remember beloved.
So he says beloved. We were in, our group was meeting a few weeks ago, and we read all of Jude at once, and someone in our group said, hey, he says beloved like multiple times, over and over and over again. And I was like, that's a great observation. In the midst of a very, very corrective letter, he calls them beloved. It reminds them of who they are in Christ, that you are beloved. You are deeply loved by Jesus.
You are brothers and sisters. Yes, there's all kinds of things in opposition that you are facing. There's false teaching amongst you, but you still are the church of Christ. You are the beloved. But he says, remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, remember what the apostles said and what they predicted, and then he quotes it. He says, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. So, we don't have that saying anywhere in the New Testament. That must have been something the apostles had taught over and over again. Remember, remember this, that there will be, in the last time, scoffers following their own ungodly passions. Very reminiscent of what we saw in verse 3, perverting the grace of our God into sensuality.
That you need to remember this. Now, it's not, we don't see that verbatim in the New Testament. We see that other warnings show up like this in the New Testament. You go to Acts 20, when Paul is encouraging the Ephesian elders. He says, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.
So, this is a consistent warning that shows up in the New Testament and the New Testament church. There will be people from the outside that come in to take you away from Jesus. There will be people that rise up from within the church that will seek to lead you away. And so, Jude echoes this with this known teaching. That in the last time, there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. And these type of false teachers will cause divisions.
Worldly people devoid of the Spirit. These people will be causing divisions. And you can picture this in these New Testament churches. These New Testament churches that he's writing to. That they come together in their homes. And they're reading the Bible.
And breaking bread together. And having fellowship. And all the good things that the people of God do together. Then all of a sudden, you've got some people who are starting to say different things. Starting to say, I think it's okay. I think God's grace covers us.
I think we actually can explore these types of things. I think we can indulge in these types of things. And all of a sudden, you've got division. You've got other Christians that are saying, no, that's not what the Scriptures teach. That's not what the apostles are teaching. No, we're called to faith and obedience to Christ.
It does not indulge the flesh. You can even see the division happening as people are starting to get influenced by some of these false teachers. And being led away from the faith. Now, that's not hard for us to picture at all 2,000 years later. Because that's very much happening now in the American church. It is very easy for us to picture this type of stuff that is happening.
And if you walk with Jesus long enough, you're going to see this. You're going to see people that claim the name of Christ. Like, I've walked with people that, man, they read their Bibles. They led Bible studies. They led people to Christ. I have people that helped lead me to Christ.
They claimed the name of Jesus. They did all these great things in His name. Then all of a sudden, they fell in love with this present world. And they started to question the Bible in different areas. And they started to push back on things. And then, eventually, they started to cause division.
And I've seen it where churches were divided. If you follow Jesus long enough, you're going to see this. You're going to see ministry leaders that do horrible things. That leave their spouses for younger women in the church. And then try to justify it with the scriptures. You'll see people in your own group that slowly start to fade away.
You press in and say, what's going on? And you realize they moved in with their boyfriend and their girlfriend. And they're sleeping with them. And you're trying to engage them with the scriptures. And they're like, no, I just, and they start justifying their actions. You're going to see this over and over again.
I see this in my former beloved denomination, the United Methodist Church. Which is, I love the UMC. It's where I came to faith. And over the next two years, that entire denomination is going to split in two. Because the power brokers that be in that denomination have very much been doing some of the things that Jude is talking about. You will see this over and over and over again.
And it is hurtful and painful every time you see it. Every time you see someone that you so deeply love walk away from Jesus, it hurts. But what I've seen and noticed is that for some people, it's not just hurt. It crushes their faith. It shakes them to the very foundations of what they believe. I mean, how many people do you know that when you talk to them, they're like, you know, no, I haven't been to church in years.
I mean, I was part of a church back in the day. And the pastor ran off with so-and-so. And there's all this division that happened. And I'm done with that. I don't need that anymore in my life. You hear that over and over and over again.
And I just want to say very clearly, please do not walk away from Jesus because people who were devoid of the Spirit did evil things. Don't ever walk away from Jesus because of that. And more than that, we shouldn't be shocked. That's why he says, remember, remember, this was always going to happen. Remember the predictions of the apostles. This was always going to take place.
There were always going to be people who stirred up division. There were always going to be people that said, false teachers that say horribly evil things that are contrary to the Scriptures. There's always going to be ministry leaders that blow up their lives and blow up their ministries. Just don't be shocked. So, church family, remember this. Remember this.
Like, I mean, listen, I think as elders, the four of us, we have earned your trust. But you don't put faith in us like you put faith in Jesus. I fight with everything in us on this elder team to make sure that we are all following Jesus, that we're all correcting one another in sin, that we're all pressing into the gospel, that we're all putting sin to death. But don't for a second put your full faith in people. We keep our full faith in Christ. Because he's the one that never fails, even though the people might.
Remember the predictions of the apostles. That's the thing you need to know. That's how he sets this up. Know this. Remember the predictions of the apostles. And then he's got two things for us to do.
The first is remain. We need to remain. And then he picks it up in verse 20. He says, So he says, If you want to, with this knowledge now, knowing there will be false teachers that come into the church, that try to steal the flame of faith from you. He says, With this knowledge now you must remain. You must keep yourselves in the love of God.
Now this part is actually really fun to look at in the Greek, in the original language. It's a lot of fun. Especially if you're a nerd. Because there's one main imperative. There's one main commanding statement in this. And that's keep yourselves in the love of God.
That's the main part of this passage. Keep yourselves in the love of God. To remain in the love of God. And the really nerdy fun part is there's three what are called instrumental participles. That's just three phrases that surround it. Okay?
And those three phrases help explain keep yourselves in the love of God. So the command is to keep yourselves in the love of God. And he's like, alright. Now here are three ways to do it. Building, praying, waiting. So let's look at that first one.
Building yourselves up in the most holy, in your most holy faith. If you want to remain in the love of God, you must build yourself up in this most holy faith. Now, that word build is a very specific word choice. It's very clearly pulled from house building, structure building. That's where that word comes from. And the picture here is that if Christ is our firm foundation, okay?
If he is our cornerstone, if he is the solid rock upon which the church of Jesus Christ is built, then we are to build up our most holy faith on that foundation. So what does he mean by build? Well, Jesus explained himself when he taught the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. In Matthew 7, he said, Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. So that's what it means to build up your faith.
It's to hear the word of God and to do the word of God. As James says, not hears only, but doers. It means that we have to encounter Christ and his word and then be obedient to what his word calls us to. The reality is there's no substitute for them. There isn't. No substitute for regularly encountering God and his word.
Many of you, you know this. I was bivocational as a pastor for years. I did real estate and I was also pastoring here. And a couple years ago I came on full time here. And when I was doing real estate, you know, you go into these new build neighborhoods. You go to new construction.
There's an agent on site. I walk into this neighborhood. There's an agent on site. Start asking them questions about their build. This is like an entry level under $200,000 build, which almost doesn't exist anymore. But, you know, years ago it did.
Four years ago it did. So walking and he's kind of, you know, selling the product. And I said, yeah, well, how does this compare to the neighborhood right down the street? And he said, oh, that neighborhood? He said, I mean, if you want houses that are built with popsicle sticks and glue, sure. You can go check out that neighborhood.
And what was kind of funny was he's kind of right. That builder, I'm not going to mention the builder, but they're kind of known in this area for being the cheapest of the builders. But his whole point was if you want something that ain't solid, if you want something that doesn't have a lot of structure, if you want something that you're not going to really trust, then absolutely go down the road and you can find that. And what happens for Christians is that we hear that we're supposed to read the Bible and we're just like, no, I don't want to prioritize this in my life. And whatever you try to build your faith upon, I mean, build your faith with, it's popsicle sticks and glue.
We fill your days with entertainment. We'll fill our days with sports and Netflix and social media and distractions and all kinds of things. And then we wonder why we're not growing in our faith. I mean, there's good things that you could want to substitute for. I remember people say, like, I don't really, I'm not really big into reading the Bible, but I do really love listening to worship music. And that's how I really encounter God.
And it's like, listen, I love worship music as well. It is good for my soul. But that's not a substitute for the Word of God. It's not a substitute for regularly tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. No podcast, no sermons, no community group discussions. Or a substitute for regularly encountering Christ and His Word.
If we want to grow in our faith, we need to build and build with material that is structurally sound and good. I mean, we say this is kind of a broken record, but I'll keep playing that. Is that we talk to people in our church all the time who just say, listen, I'm, for years I was following Jesus. And then all of a sudden recently I started reading the Bible more regularly and it's changed everything. It's like, yes, you're building with the right tools now. You're building on this, you're building this structure.
You're being wise, not wasting the gift of faith that God has given us. So the first thing he says is building. Building yourselves up in your most holy faith. If you want to remain in the love of God, you're going to be building. And the second thing he says is praying in the Holy Spirit. He says if you want to remain in the love of God, prayer, and specifically praying in the Holy Spirit, needs to be a part of your walk with Christ.
Now what he's teaching there is regular prayer, acknowledging the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Praying in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is at live and at work within us. He empowers us to pray and to pray boldly. When we are too weak, Romans 8 teaches that the Holy Spirit prays on behalf of this. How amazing is that?
That God is praying for us. I mean, the Holy Spirit empowers us to regular prayer, the kind of unceasing, unending prayer that we're called to as Christians. Christians, prayer is vital. If you want to remain in the love of God, you need to be a man or woman who prays. I heard an anecdote years ago. Somebody was reading a bunch of biographies of missionaries and famous pastors.
He just said, look, one common thread you can see through each of their stories is that these men and women prayed. Normative, regular prayer. I mean, prayer is this humbling before the Lord. You cannot see humbling before Him and saying, I want you to handle my life. I want you to give me wisdom. I want you to hear my request.
Oh, Lord, we need that in our life. Regularly praying in the Holy Spirit. Now, real quick, let me address something before we move on. There are some people that look at that and go, wait a second. I heard that praying in the Holy Spirit is praying in tongues. Let me address that very quickly.
And if you want to have a longer conversation about that. Chet Phillips is on vacation. But when he gets back on Tuesday, he would love to talk to you more about this. Some people say, what if this isn't this praying in tongues? So listen, if you have the category in your theology for praying in tongues, then you have to admit that 1 Corinthians 12 says that not everyone has that gift.
And if right here he's saying, if all of you want to remain in the love of God, you need to pray in the Holy Spirit that He can't possibly be telling you to do something that not everyone has the gift. No, he's not talking about that. And if you have more questions about that, chat at millcitycasey.com. Listen, I'll talk to you about it. There are different things. We have a plurality of elders here.
We have multiple elders. We have different things that we're passionate about. That's just not something. He'd love to talk to you. Other things in theology you want to talk about? Let's go for it.
So, praying in the Holy Spirit. Third, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. If you want to remain in the love of God, we need to have a posture that is waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternity. Which means that the posture and the orientation of our soul is future looking. That your hope and your vision is on the mercy that awaits us into eternity. That your eye is on the prize.
Right? That's what it means to be forward looking as a Christian. Is that you're looking and awaiting for the day when one day Jesus will make all things new and judgment day will happen. And on that day when every record of wrong and every sin that we have in our lives has been read, that we as Christians point to the Lamb who was slain on our behalf. Point to Jesus who died for us on the cross. Point to the resurrection that gave us a new life in Christ.
Point to the mercy of our Lord that was poured out on us. We as Christians look forward to that day when we will point to the mercy of our God that leads into eternity. That we will be spared from the judgment that is to come because of what Christ has done. What Christ has done alone. The reason why that posture is so deeply important in the present is because if you have your, if your faith is so centered on that reality, on that day, on that eternity that awaits us, you will look at the present and the things that seek to destroy you. The sin and dwelling sin that's happening within and all of the things that seem appealing to your flesh.
You'd say, no, I don't want that. That pales in comparison to what awaits me. I will wait for the mercy of my Lord and Savior Christ. It leads me to eternity. My posture will be waiting for that. I don't want this.
No, I will wait. So he says, you want to remain in the love of God? Build. Pray. Wait. If we have that posture, those three things, that will enable us to do this last major calling that he calls us to, which is rescue.
We're called to rescue. Verse 22. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. So Jude has been going.
If you've been here the last few weeks, it's heavy. He's been going hard after these false teachers. He's been going hard after this false teaching that will corrupt the church. But he's not doing this so that he can be the one who's right. So that he can be the one who's vindicated.
So he can be the one that wins the debate. And if you think that's the posture of Jude, and if that's the posture of your own life, that you want to be the one who is right, you've completely misunderstood Jude and the Bible. That this warning that he gives us to remember, that this calling to remain in the love of God, is so that we can be a people that rescues. So that we can be a people where he says, have mercy on those who doubt. So that we can be merciful to those who are doubting.
Listen, following Jesus is hard. It is hard. And there are people who struggle. And there are people who go through seasons of darkness. There are people who, brothers and sisters, who doubt. And if you've ever been with someone who is struggling, mercy is sitting before them and pleading with them, please don't do this.
Please don't choose this path. Please don't go down that path. Don't do it. I'm telling you, Jesus is better. Please believe this. Don't choose sin.
And the picture that he gives here is so vivid. He says the picture is snatching them out of the fire. Snatching them out of the fire. I mean, that's someone who is looking over the cliff, looking over the cliff, indulging in their sin, starting to believe things that aren't true. And they don't see clearly the flames that are underneath that. And the self-destruction that's underneath that.
And you as a Christian are grabbing them by the shirt, saying, No. Don't do it. Please don't do it. I'm telling you, that doesn't lead to life. That leads to death. And you've got one hand that's clinging to Christ as you are snatching them out of the flame, saying, Please don't do this.
That's mercy. That's what we're called to and commanded to as Christians. Is to have that type of mercy that has one hand on them and one hand on Christ, saying, I will not let you go. That's what we're called to as Christians. That's the posture that we should have towards those who are doubting. Now, I love that he gives some additional coaching attached to that.
Because it goes on to say, To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. So the coaching that he gives is you've got one hand on them and one hand on Christ. He says, Listen, do this with fear. And what he means is with reverence. Understanding that we should not think of ourselves too highly in our faith to know that we can't be pulled into. That we should actually see the garment stained by the flesh and hate that.
We should hate the sin in others in a way that actually helps us see that we actually too are capable of falling into that as well. When I became a Christian years ago, I had two close friends. I don't know if I did the right thing, but I just, I had to, we had to stop hanging out. Because all we did together is we got high together. got high and did stupid things. I became a Christian and I was like, I, I, I thoroughly enjoyed that. I, and then my flesh is, is too strong and I am too weak.
And I had to remove myself. Because I was worried, I was concerned, I was fearfully, reverently trying to examine my own soul and realize how weak I was. And I think that's a little bit of what's happening here. We're called to show mercy, but with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh, hating the sin and realizing that it's capable of pulling us into. Some of y'all are merciful people. Some of y'all are loving people.
And it's incredible to see how patient you are with people. It's incredible to see how much you love the lost and how much you build your life around being missional. But one of the things I would say is to do it wisely. Because we should not be, think so highly of our own faith. That we can be in the world, be in the world, be in the world, be in the world. That we can run with people who are engaging sin without realizing it too can pull us in.
That is why you keep one hand on them, but you keep that hand firmly on Christ. And you make sure that everything that we do flows out of obedience to Him and you understand what is at stake. So, remember, remain, rescue. After verses and verses of just absolutely pounding on the dangers that is false teaching, pounding on the dangers that is the perverting of the grace into sensuality. After hammering that over and over again, He gives us this practical coaching that I think is so helpful for us at this moment in the American church. church. Because it is so easy to forget this.
There's some of you that get bitter. Some of you are worried and angsty about what's happening. About churches that are falling apart. About culture that's affecting Christians. And we're certainly called to take this seriously. But we get to do so from a non-anxious presence realizing this was always how it was going to be.
That's how it's been for 2,000 years. There's great movements of Christ and then there's opposition. And we're not thrown off by the opposition for a moment if we understand and remember what was so clearly taught in the New Testament. Some of you get so focused on those dangers. Some of you get so focused on what's out there that you don't do the things that are good for your soul. You're not regularly encountering Christ in this world.
You're not being men and women of prayer. You're not evaluating all of this waiting for the mercy of our God that is to come. Some of you devour podcasts and YouTube channels and Facebook posts and all kinds of things that just keep you worked up and keep you worked up and keep you worked up and keep you worked up. And if you could account for the hours that you spend doing that a week versus the hours that we spend doing the things that are good for our souls, you'd realize this command that needs to be obeyed and repentance needs to happen in our own lives. I was reading an article last week.
It was an article recounting Pastor Martin Lloyd-Jones which, by the way, if you want to know more about the Welsh pastor Martin Lloyd-Jones, mid-20th century pastor in the UK, Chet spent his whole sabbatical reading it, like reading his biography. He's like, I mean, I've heard about Martin Lloyd-Jones 15 times in the last 10 days. He's so excited. And Martin Lloyd-Jones, he's awesome. So I think if you want to learn more about him, go talk to Chet.
But I was reading, apart from that, I stumbled upon this article and I was like, okay, I was reading it and Martin Lloyd-Jones is recounting this time where he was getting coffee with another pastor. And this other pastor was the kind of pastor that, I mean, if he was here today, he would be the kind of guy who had like a YouTube channel that was calling out all the false teachers all the time and was talking about how the government's coming for us and Hollywood's coming for us. They'd be that kind of guy. So he's talking to this other pastor and they're getting coffee and this pastor says, hey, are you a great reader of Joseph Parker who was a 19th century pastor who also today would have a YouTube channel?
Are you a great reader of Joseph Parker? And Martin Lloyd-Jones said, no, I'm not. And the other pastor was like, why? Why are you not reading Joseph Parker? And Jones says, I don't get anything from him. Well, that other pastor was incredulous.
He's like, why? Why don't you get anything from him? And Jones just said, well, I mean, it's all very well to make these criticisms of the liberals. Now, pause for a second. When he says liberals, don't think our context liberals. He's talking about in the mid-20th century, this is, and the Anglican and the British churches, this would be the people that denied the word of God, said it wasn't true, and now those churches don't even exist.
So he just said, it's all very well to make these criticisms of the liberals, which is a big hundred-year fight in the British churches, but he doesn't help me spiritually. Jones says, he doesn't help me spiritually. And then that guy fired back and said, surely you are helped by the way he makes mince meat of the liberals. And I love how Jones responds. He says, no, I am not. You can make mince meat of the liberals and still be in trouble in your own soul.
You can be so focused on being the right one. You can have all the fights on Facebook. You can do all the things that make you more angsty, make you more worried, or you can obey what Jude commands here. You can remember that this is always going to happen and we will not be shocked. We will not be shocked. You can remain in the love of God by doing the things that are good for our souls, like regularly encountering him in his word and praying and being so fixated on the glory that awaits us that everything we do is in light of that reality.
And we can be merciful. Merciful Christians that engage, that plead, that snatch people out of the path that leads to destruction. And here's the thing. I don't know if the American church can grow in this. I have my doubts for a lot of different reasons, but I think we can. I've been so deeply encouraged the last few years of pastoring and seeing the people of this church who encounter God and his word that are growing and that are hungry and I just want to keep fan the flames of that.
Keep reading your Bibles and keep staying off the internet. I want to see us grow in praying. As an elder team, we're trying to work on this and being men who pray. I want to be a church that is regularly praying. I see a people that have perspective that do believe that Jesus is better than everything else and that's grounded in an eternal reality. And I see some believers who are merciful, who do plead with those who are struggling, who do care about the lost and I just want to keep fan of those flames.
Jude gives the playbook. We just got to be obedient to it.
Symptoms of Ungodliness (Jude 6-18)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I am one of the pastors here. We are in the book of Jude. It's a very short letter written by Jude, the brother, and he says servant of Jesus. It is on page 594 in one of the blue Bibles that's in the row in front of you.
I would encourage you to grab a Bible, have it open with you this morning. The scriptures will be on the screen, but there's a lot to this passage we're looking at this morning. We're going to jump right in and then I'm going to kind of set the tone for what we're going to do, but we need to start off in verse 8. We're going to look in verse 8 through 16 today. We're going to jump right into 8, explain kind of what we're going to do this morning as we walk through this, and then get to work. So verse 8 starts like this.
Yet in like manner manner, these people also. Yet in like manner, these people also. Every single word in that phrase means that you need some context. Yet means that he's referring to something he just talked about. In like manner means that he's referring to something he just talked about. These people means that he's talking about some people that he just talked about.
And also, so let's just set the context and then we'll see what we're going to do this morning. What he, what has happened so far in this letter is he has said that there are people who have crept in unnoticed. So he's writing to the church, but he says there's some people who've crept in unnoticed and they are perverting the grace of God into sensuality. So they're saying God's so loving, God's so kind, God's so gracious that we can have license to sin, that we can pursue these things because of his grace, because of his kindness, because of his forgiveness. And then he says denying our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Those are the two things that they're doing. And then we looked at verses five through seven. He gives historical examples of the ways that we've tried this before. So he talks through the rebellious Israelites after they were brought through the Exodus of Egypt, they rebelled against Jesus and Jesus destroyed them. Then he talks about angels who left their proper place.
Is he, is that he's going to give us some clarifying information as we go through this? There's a, there's a phrase that has become a part of my life, a question that, um, if a couple of years ago you had told me you will both ask this question and answer this question on a semi regular basis, I would have had no clue as to why that would happen. I'd have been very confused. If you said, here's a question that's going to become a part of your life. I would have just been like, why? I think it's actually a part of your life too.
Here's the question. Can you still taste food or could you still taste food? Now, under what circumstances prior to 2020, would you have needed that phrase, that question? Head injury, severe hot sauce, tongue burn, like what? But in 2020, we all became infectious disease experts and we learned a series of symptoms that we needed to know about in order for us to continue in life.
And I don't know about y'all, but I learned that the one that seems to only go along with COVID was the inability to taste food. Everything else was like, well, I don't know. That could be allergies. That could be something that you ate other than like completely having no energy. But if like someone's trying to hang out with you and they're like, hey, I will come, but I got to run down my symptoms with you real quick.
My throat's hurting. Okay. Have you been coughing? Not really. But we all learned how not to cough in 2020.
That's not the best test. But then you finally say, can you still taste food? Yeah, you can come hang out. If they're like, not really. It's like, stay home. That was actually how I learned when I was hanging.
I was with my family on vacation. It was like our extended family, my brothers, their families. And I realized I could not tell the difference between peanut butter and sour cream other than texture. I was like, oh no. But what we learned was a series of symptoms that helped us understand what illness we had.
If you, if you call up, you go to the doctor or whatever, they're going to ask for symptoms. Now the symptoms aren't the disease. They're how it shows up. And what we're going to see in Jude is he's giving us symptoms of ungodliness. Symptoms of someone who does not have the spirit. He calls them devoid of the spirit.
So these are symptoms that show up in our lives and in the lives of others that indicate ungodliness or a lack of the work of the spirit. And I think this will be primarily helpful in two ways for us this morning. One, so that we can diagnose ourselves. So that you can look at Jude's version of ungodliness, WebMD, and run down the list and go, oh, okay. That's actually an area where there's some lack of work of spirit in me. That's an area where there's some lack of the work of the spirit in me.
That's an area where I'm not following the Lord. If you go through the whole list and you're like, ah, this just is characterizing my life. Well, we have good news that Jesus Christ dies for sinners, but you're not a Christian, so you need to place faith in him. It's a diagnosis for ourselves that we might repent. Secondarily, it's a diagnosis for Christian leadership. Some of y'all have just moved to the area.
Some of y'all at some point will move to a different place and you will be tasked as a Christian with trying to find a church. Good luck. It's one of the most unfun things to ever try to do. It's really hard to do because you want to try to figure out what's best, but then you get in this weird consumer situation and it really messes you up. And this, I think, gives us a healthy diagnosis for trying to figure out where there's godly Christian leadership because he's talking about these leaders and how it shows up in their lives that they have ungodliness. It also helps us for, Lord willing, we stay, we grow together, we multiply groups, we continue to pursue this area with the gospel.
But also, some of you are reading books, you're listening to podcasts, you're listening to sermons, and this is a helpful framework to understand, are these people that I'm listening to, learning from, are they actually believers or do they have symptoms of ungodliness? So, that's it. We're trying to diagnose our own hearts, which is most important. Secondarily, trying to build a bit of a radar framework for understanding Christian leadership. And he says a lot of things. You ever had someone that, hold stuff in and then finally they like let one thing out, so then they say everything?
That's what this feels like. We got a lot of work to go through to just like, after he says it all, you're like, okay, let's start sorting this out. So, we're going to try to work our way through quickly as we can, but he says a lot of stuff. Let's pray for the Lord's help and the active work of the Spirit. Lord, we ask for wisdom. We ask for your help.
We ask for the Spirit to be at work in us so that we might understand your Word here. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, verse 8. Yet in like manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. Okay. Relying on their dreams kind of works as like the gear that turns these other ones, or it's the fulcrum that moves these other ones.
So, we're going to talk about it first and a little bit longer, then we're going to work on the other three. But he says relying on their dreams, meaning these leaders, we're announcing, I've had a dream. I've had a vision. God has spoken to me. Now, that kind of thing does happen in the Scriptures, but what they do is they say, God's spoken to me, and then it leads them away from what we know from the Scriptures is God's will. They start defiling the flesh.
They start running into sin, running into sensuality. They start rejecting authority, and so they're using this as somehow, I've had a dream, and therefore, I'm an authority. Some of you might come out of a church background where that's a thing, where somebody speaks prophetically into your life, or declares they've had a dream. I know I've been in sermons before where someone said, I was reading this passage, and I was praying about it, and I felt like the Lord just told me something. And then they just leave the Bible. At that point, it's almost like they could have just folded it up and set it down, and they just start talking about things.
And after a while, I'm like, no, that's not what, that's not, we're untethered to the Scriptures, but that's what's happening. And that's a thing that happens in Christian leadership. But here's how it might show up in your life. Maybe you actually had a dream or a vision or something, and the way that you ought to weigh that out is to understand what the text says, have church family help weigh in that, try to walk in the Spirit with people under the authority of Scriptures. But here's how it usually seems to show up.
I just don't feel like this is wrong. I've prayed about it, and this just doesn't seem wrong to me. Or, studying the Scriptures, and you're going, I just, I don't know how God could say that's bad, so I just, it doesn't feel right. And what you're doing is the same thing they're doing, which is this sort of mysticism that says, my experience trumps God's Word. My experience trumps God's Word. I understand it says I probably shouldn't be, like, sleeping with my boyfriend.
I understand it says that I shouldn't necessarily be smoking weed. I get that. But also, I prayed about it, and I just, I don't feel like the Lord's telling me that personally. Which is a real misunderstanding of how this is meant to work. Your assumption in that is that your experience trumps the Word of God, or that everything that you disagree with the Bible on is an indication of the Bible being wrong rather than you being wrong. But if we actually believe that there is a God who came to save sinners, we should assume, we should expect to come to the Bible and it say some things we don't like.
You should expect that. You should read the Bible and go, ooh, don't like that. And it doesn't mean he's wrong, it means you're wrong. And if you pray about it and still don't feel wrong, it just means you're double extra wrong. When anybody ever says, I prayed about it and I don't feel bad, it's like, yeah, because you don't know how to listen to the voice of the Spirit right now. You're so far away from the Lord.
Like, repent, obey. Stuff that we would not let our children say. My seven-year-old can't go, I know that you said I shouldn't do that, but I've thought about it, and it just feels like something I should do. I'd say, you're very confused about how this house works. But that's what's happening here, and that's what can happen to us, and it's a symptom of ungodliness.
It's an area where it indicates that the Holy Spirit is not at work. It says they defile the flesh, meaning they pursue indulgence in sins that work for the flesh. They pursue sexual sins specifically, but it also would be pursuing any kind of indulgence of the flesh. We're going to see later that it's like they're driven by their bellies, that their passions and desires is what leads them in life. That's an indication of a lack of the work of the Spirit, because the Spirit gives us self-control. The Spirit works in us towards obedience, not just pursuing every desire we have.
It's a symptom of ungodliness. It says they reject authority. Boy, Americans love rejecting authority. It's our favorite. It's how we got started. I get to run a firework store twice a year.
If you were wondering how classy I am, super classy. I get to run a firework store twice a year, and I tell people sometimes, we became a country by blowing stuff up, so we celebrate by blowing stuff up. But there's this idea in us that it's like we're all cowboys, and ain't nobody going to tell us what to do. Those are the movies we watch. The authority tells you to turn in your gun and your badge. Well, guess what?
You got a gun at home because you're an American, and you're still going to solve this crime. That's what we celebrate. That's what we live in, but actually, the Bible is not anti-authority. God is not anti-authority. He's just pro-good authority. He's anti-biscuitary.
Bad authority. But if your life is marked by a rejection of all authority that you never got along with your parents, never got along with your teachers, hadn't met a cop you like, don't really, you know, be in a part of a church as long as they don't tell you stuff you got to do. We're like, you should join a group. And you're like, maybe. You ain't the boss of me. It's like, okay.
But if that's your whole life is marked by a rejection of any kind of leadership, any kind of authority, that's an indication of ungodliness. The Bible teaches a king who's good that we submit to. It teaches headship and leadership that are good that we submit to. An anti-authority, a rejection of all authority is a symptom of ungodliness. All right.
And blaspheme the glorious ones. That phrase, glorious ones, is just the word doxas in Greek, but glorious ones is a good, it'd be glories would be another way to say it, but it seems like since it's on its own, it's a glorious ones. And honestly, if that was all we had, we really would not know what he was talking about. He clarifies for us some. And so let's look at verse 9. Also, 2 Peter chapter 2 says a very similar thing that helps us understand this as well to give us some context.
But let's look at verse 9. So he says, they blaspheme the glorious ones. And then verse 9, he's going to give us something that fills that in a little bit for us. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. Verse 10, then we'll come back to verse 9. But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand.
And they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. All right. Look back at verse 9. They blaspheme the glorious ones. Now, blaspheme means to denigrate something holy, something glorious, so that we can blaspheme God. We speak about his name in an unholy way.
That's actually why they killed Jesus, because he was saying he was God, and they charged him with blasphemy, meaning he's not God, but he says he's God, and we've got to kill him. He was God, so he wasn't actually blaspheming. But it's interesting for him to give an explanation of blasphemy, but show us the archangel Michael and the devil. If there was one creature that I thought you kind of couldn't blaspheme, the devil seemed like a good guess, that you could say whatever mean thing you wanted to about the devil, and it would be true and fine to say. But he's saying that that's actually, they're ignorant in their approach to this.
And he gives us the example of the archangel Michael. Now, Michael is one of the only named angels. It's Gabriel and Michael. Michael shows up in Daniel, Jude, and the book of Revelation. A very powerful angel. And Jude is referencing a story that the only place we know anything about this story is in Jude.
It's not in any other historical writing. It's not in any of the other histories of the Jewish people outside of this. In a minute, he's going to reference 1 Enoch, but that's not in the Bible, but it's in their histories. We don't know where this came from at all. But it seems like he believed his readers or his hearers did.
And it's probably some sort of oral tradition that was passed along, but he's just giving them an example. So what he says is, the archangel Michael is disputing with the devil, and the archangel Michael does not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment. Meaning that it would be presumptive for the archangel Michael to speak in a certain way to Satan. But the archangel Michael doesn't do that. He says, let the Lord rebuke you. The Lord rebuke you.
He defers the rebuke to the Lord. Meaning that Michael shows humility. Michael does not exalt himself, but he leaves the rebuke to the Lord. He says, may the Lord rebuke you. So in some ways, what Jude is saying, it'd be like if I looked at my son and said, boy, I don't even talk to your mama like that.
Meaning I don't have to call her ma'am. We're on the same level. Like we discuss things differently. There's a different level of respect in the way we show each other, but you've lost your mind. That's kind of what Jude's saying. He's saying these people speak about evil angels in a way that angels don't even do this.
That's an odd concept for us to understand, but I think that word presume helps. The leaders that he's talking about have over-exalted themselves so that they are speaking in a way that indicates their ignorance about the actual power of the enemy and over-exalts their own understanding of their authority. So I'm going to give you a leadership example. I'm going to give you a personal life example, and then hopefully we'll wrap our heads around this a little bit. This is a bit confusing as to what he's talking about, and there's only a few places that reference it, this and 2 Peter. But 2 Peter basically says the same thing.
He says, bold and willful do they not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious one, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them. So I've heard preachers preach and say things like, and we're going to storm the gates of hell and we're going to punch Satan in the mouth and we're going to bind that rat up and we're going to throw him in a hole. And it's like, uh, the problem with that, I think, in understanding what Jude is saying, is that we don't punch Satan in the mouth. We don't bind him up. We don't throw him in a hole. Jesus does.
And we, in humility, walk behind Jesus. We don't stand running our mouth behind Jesus. We defer to Jesus's glory and we, we walk behind him in humility. We don't presume to speak in such a way about things that we're ignorant about. The only, the personal example that I think is that you just need to watch how you think about, speak about Satan and demons, potentially some of the shows we watch, uh, lighten it, lighten that idea, lighten demonic things, lighten it as if it's somehow not something to take seriously. Uh, I saw this recently had never thought, never thought about it until I was reading Jude, but I know I've seen it in our church family and it's, I'm not saying it's wrong, but I'm saying this is the type of thing I think we need to consider, but there I've seen mugs and t-shirts and stuff that say not today, Satan.
When I first saw that, I thought, okay, but after reading this, I thought, maybe that's not, maybe, maybe that's a step too far and we just need to step back in a little more humility and, and actually let Jesus go before us in that, trusting in his rebuke, trusting in his leadership, trusting in his kingship and not in fearfulness of the enemy, but in fearfulness of the Lord, which is what Archangel Michael has. May the Lord rebuke you. And so that we get to walk in some authority that's in Christ, but it's in Christ. And we, I'll give you an example where this shows up in the book of Luke. Jesus sends out the 72.
It says the 72 returned. This is Luke 10 verses 17 through 20. The 72 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. So they're subject to us, but it's in Jesus's name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. He says, that's not the point. They are subject. There is some amount of authority in Christ, but that's not the thing to be excited about. That's not the thing to walk around being bold in. That's not the thing to be excited about the salvation and the wonder of the Lord, giving him credit, not yourself.
If you want to talk more about that, we can. I think some of what we would be caught on is just some humility and some understanding. Are we pointing to Jesus? Are we pointing to ourselves? Verse 10, but these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, meaning speaking about spiritual things in a way that, that their ignorance shows their ignorance and they are destroyed by all that they like unreasoning animals understand instinctively. So like unreasoning animals, meaning they're driven by their passions, their desires, their instincts, that that's, that's ultimately what's destroying them.
They're not led by the spirit. They're led by the flesh. They're like an animal. And he's going to give three examples. Now he's going to give three old Testament pictures, and then he's going to give six pictures from, uh, just kind of creation.
And y'all, it's artful. I played football in high school and college, and there were just some guys who knew how to say mean things to somebody and they were friends, but they would get into it and they would just know exactly where to like, like you're just wordsmiths. And there's a bunch of stuff that as I was trying to think about examples, I thought of some, I'm not allowed to say them here. Um, and some of them are way worse because I'm white, but I've remembered some of the things that have been said that when I was growing through high school and college. And honestly, when I read Jude, I kind of feel that it's like he masterful pictures to try to help wrap around this idea of what these people are like and what's going to happen.
And so we're going to walk through those. He gives three from the old Testament. He says, woe to them for they have walked in the way of Cain, abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. They've walked in the way of Cain, meaning that it's this symptom of ungodliness that he's saying this, this identifying marker of them is that, uh, Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel, and they presented the sacrifice to God. And, uh, Cain's sacrifice was not accepted. And God tells him sin is coming for you.
You need to have dominion over it. And Cain chooses sin led by his, uh, uh, his jealousy over his brother. And he kills his brother. He just heads in that direction. And what he's saying is they've chosen that path led by their passions, led by their desires, led by their anger, led by their jealousies. They followed Cain.
And then he says they have, uh, and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error. Balaam was a prophet who God spoke to, but who was not a part of the people of Israel. And in Numbers, when the people of Israel are coming through, a king goes to Balaam and says, I'll pay you money. Come curse the people of Israel. And Balaam says, I'll only say what God wants me to say. He says, all right, cool.
Come sit over here and see if he'll let you curse them. Balaam shows up and he blesses them because that's what God wants to do. Balaam does this three times. The king keeps being like, well, maybe come over to this side, see if you can curse this half of their army. Come over here and see him from here. Maybe you can curse him here.
And Balaam just keeps being like, okay. And it's almost as if Balaam's like, I really want this money. So I'm hoping God will change his mind. That's kind of what he's abandoning himself for the sake of gain. He's giving up this relationship he had with the Lord where he was the Lord's prophet. He's just trying to get gain out of it.
And we eventually see that he helps the Midianites trick the Israelites into sin. That ultimately he does turn. That he was, they'd be like somebody offered you a job and you were like, no, I'm supposed to stay here. I'm supposed to whatever. And they say, okay. They call you back up and they go, we've raised the, the offering amount.
You know, like, no, I've prayed about it. I feel like the Lord really wants me here. And they call you back up and say, we've raised the offering amount. Like we will pay you this. And you go, I think maybe the Lord's telling me I'm supposed to go to Memphis. I just feel like now that, you know, you said that much, it feels like, and it's, that's kind of what he's saying.
He's like, they sold themselves out for money. He sold, and that's what they've done. They're driven along by their passions. And one of the things they understand is money. It says they perished in Korah's rebellion. Korah was a priest who said in the, with Abraham, with Moses and his brother Aaron, he said, we're priests, but how do y'all get to be the ones who talk to God?
How are y'all in this special spot? How did only the sons of Aaron get to be high priests? And they rebelled against them and Korah was swallowed up by the earth. So he had a position of authority, but he didn't want to stay in it. He wanted a higher one. He wanted to rebel against God's authority.
And so what he says is they're driven along like animals and they understand three things. They understand their own desires, their own passions. They understand their pocketbooks and they understand power. Now what's scary is, if you looked at many of our lives, we've charted them out along our desires, our wallets, and power. And when you picture future you, it's future me, but I get to sit on a beach and drink mojitos. It's future me, but I'm getting to, my house is bigger, more comfortable.
It's nicer. It's future me, but I have more money. It's, it's future me, but I'm, I'm, I've moved up in my office. I've moved up in authority. I've moved up and I'm more well-respected. And all you've got is this.
And he says, that's, that's instinct. That's what animals do. And if that's all you've got, that's an indication of a lack of the work of the spirit. All right. Now he gives six, starting at verse 12, six, um, pictures from, from creation.
I'm going to read them all at once and then we'll walk back through them. But he says, these are hidden reefs at your love feasts as they feast with you without fear. Now the picture is hidden reefs. We'll explain that in a second. First, we've got to talk about love feasts. Spencer was supposed to preach today, but we rearranged the schedule.
Um, if you're new, Spencer and I preach rotating around. Um, and, uh, he was going to acknowledge that when he mentioned love feasts kind of offhandedly in his first sermon in Jude, he mentioned it in a purely negative context, but love, love feasts are not by design negative. They're mentioned kind of negatively here, but love feasts are like a fellowship dinner. So in biblical terms, we have love feasts in our fellowship hall or in our gym where we eat a meal together because we're church family. They would often do that. And then they would have communion.
Love feast sounds negative to us. Like if you came to me and said, Hey, you want to come to my house on Saturday? We're going to have a love feast. I would say, no, I'm a, I can't, I don't, I don't, I don't want to. And also I don't want, I don't want to know what that is, but I feel like I'm not into it. So it sounds negative.
It's just a fellowship dinner. And that's why we call them fellowship dinners. Because if we put on here, Hey, love feasts coming up. Some of y'all be like, not the church for me. I was just swinging by, but that's what it was. But he says they're hidden reefs.
Now a hidden reef is the water looks good. There's something underneath it. That's going to shipwreck you. So if these other things have been symptoms, he's now giving us a prognosis. He's telling us where this disease goes. He's saying, if you follow this leadership, if you follow this path, here's what will happen to you.
Here's what this type of leadership does. Seems good, destroys you from under the surface. Shepherds feeding themselves. Shepherds exist for the sake of the flock. The flock does not exist for the sake of the shepherd. The shepherd is there to defend, to guide, to protect, to care.
And he says, that's not what these, that's not what they're doing. You exist for their good. They're shepherds who feed themselves. Waterless clouds swept along by winds. In a agricultural society, clouds are a beautiful, beautiful thing. Even here sometimes it rains and you're just like, oh, we need, this is great.
We needed some rain. He's saying these clouds, they come along and they promise life and they just keep on going. Looks like it's going to do something. Doesn't do anything. Brings no life, no health. They're waterless clouds.
Fruitless trees in late autumn. Meaning it's already past the season for fruit. They should have already borne fruit. They haven't borne fruit. They're fruitless. And then he doubles down and says, not only were they fruitless, now they've been uprooted.
They're twice dead, uprooted. Dead on their own, dug up dead, twice dead. I mean, he's straight up, he's, you know, he's getting after them. He calls them double dead here. 13. Wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame.
Meaning that all their activity, all their, when they get stirred up, all it ends up doing is showing their wickedness. Cast up their shame. Wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. Use the stars to guide you. Use stars to help you navigate. And some of, and I only recently learned this.
I probably should have learned it a long time ago. Some of the brightest stars aren't stars, they're planets. And they move. And I'm always like, hey look, you can see that star. Where are the other stars? And it's not a star, it's a planet.
But the problem is they don't track with the rest of the sky. And so if you set your course by them, they get you off course. That's what he's saying. That they're a star that doesn't stay in its place, so it'll get you off course. They will lead you astray. Now I know, for many in our church family, and for some of you who I don't know, I know that some of the greatest harm that has happened to you is by following Christian leaders like this.
Christian leaders that were devoid of the Spirit, led you astray, harmed you, seemed like things were going to be good, but it was lurking under the surface. They were shepherds who were feeding themselves. And they caused great destruction. That's why Jude is saying what he says. Verse 14. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, so Adam was one, Enoch was seven.
It's just in his genealogy, in the genealogy of Adam. The seventh from Adam prophesied saying, so he's about to quote a prophecy from Enoch. He's going to quote it from first Enoch, which is not in the Bible, which immediately causes us a bunch of problems. So we want to time out and say, wait a second, should Enoch be in the Bible? Does he, does Jude say that Enoch should be in the Bible? And the answer is no.
And then we go, oh, well then should Jude be out of the Bible? These are all discussions that have been had a long time ago. First Enoch was never a part of the Hebrew scriptures. They understood some to be divinely authored, other ones not. What, what Jude is doing here is he is saying, hey, when Enoch said this, he was talking about these people. Paul does that with, um, epimenides.
And that's how you pronounce it. Don't question that. Epimenides. Um, he does this in Titus. He says, one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gullettins. This testimony is true.
Which is a mean thing to say about the Cretans. Maybe that's why he quotes somebody else. I'm not saying it, but he said it and he was right. That's what he does. But what he's not saying is go find everything epimenides said and put that in the scriptures.
He's just saying he said this and that's accurate. And that's what he's doing. He's saying first Enoch, Enoch said this and this is who he's talking about. This comes true in them. They fulfilled this prophecy. That's what he's saying.
So here's what he says. Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way. And of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against. He says ungodly four times. That's why I said these are symptoms of ungodliness. He's saying that's about them.
This is ungodly. It's anti-godly. They're devoid of the spirit. In verse 16, we're going to look at a few more and then I want to point out two things about Jesus. He says these are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. They are loud mouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
Some of us are very skillful in grumbling. Grumbling. You know, you know all the things you don't like. You can point them out. You can show up anywhere. It's like if there was a super team.
You'd be like, and everybody was yelling out their powers. You'd be like, grumbling! And put your ring in the middle. Like that's what you're good at. You can tell everything you don't like. You always know why everybody around you is an idiot.
And you don't mind telling other people. That's grumbling. Grumbling. And he says it's an indication that the spirit's not at work here. Malcontent. This constant discontent specifically with authority.
Every boss you've ever had, an idiot, all of your teachers, morons. Is life only always better in the future? Are you constantly discontent? If I can just get here. If I can just get this done. If I just get to this stage.
If we can finally fix this problem. Then I'll be happy. And if you actually trace your life back. That's never actually happened. Some of those things have happened. But you've never reached contentment.
Following their own sinful desires. We've talked about that a good bit. Led along by their stomachs. They are loud mouthed boasters. They tell you how wonderful they are. How smart they are.
How capable they are. Showing favoritism to gain advantage. That's a sneaky one. And it's more malicious than some of these other ones. I mean it can be malicious. But this idea of treating someone well.
For the sake of just using them. Coming to someone and saying. Hey I would tell our group this. But they don't understand. But you do.
Hey I would. You know you're the only person I can talk to about this. Giving gifts. Those kind of things. Just to kind of turn someone into your advantage. And some of you know that.
If you've been in a situation with really unhealthy leadership. They treated you really really well. And then hurt you very very badly. Because it was just to gain advantage. Alright I got.
Two pieces. Of good news. Look back at verse 14. The band's going to come back up here. And I want to highlight for us two things. As we close out our time.
Verse 14. He says this. Behold. Behold. The Lord. Comes.
With ten thousands of his holy ones. There is judgment coming. For those who lead in the name of the Lord. To the destruction of others. There is judgment coming. Some of you have deep wounds.
Because of what people have done in the name of Christ. And I want you to know. There is judgment coming. They will not get away with it. That he comes to bring judgment. On ungodliness.
That's wonderful news. Because every time something is ungodly or unfair. We say. Isn't somebody going to fix this? Isn't somebody going to show up? It's in us.
To see something unfair. And to want justice. We learned that with my. My. When my. Young.
My youngest son was like two. If he came running down the hall. Crying. And he ran to his mom. If we were both sitting in the room. If he ran to his mom.
He had hurt himself. He needed comfort. If he ran to me. His brother had hurt him. He needed justice. There's something in us.
That when these things happen. We go. I need someone to show up. And judge. And there's good news. A judge comes.
With ten thousand of his holy ones. But this is also fearful news. Because if we are ungodly. Unrepentant. Not redeemed in Christ. Judgment comes.
We will stand accountable for our sin. But here's the. Thing I want you to see. He says this is ungodly. Meaning that godliness is the opposite. Meaning that Jesus is the opposite.
Jesus didn't choose the way of Cain. He chose righteousness. On our behalf. Jesus didn't sell himself out for gain. He actually gave up riches. So that he could become poor.
So that he could humble himself to a cross. Jesus didn't reject authority. He actually submitted himself to the will of the father. To rescue and redeem a people for himself. Jesus is not a hidden reef. That will destroy us.
He is actually good. Calm. Glorious waters. That we can sail along. To a future. And a hope.
He's not a shepherd who feeds himself. He's the good shepherd who lays down his life. For the sheep. To rescue and redeem a people. That have hope in his name. He's not a cloud that promises water.
But doesn't bring life. He is the giver of life to all who will call on him. He's not a tree without fruit. But he brings substance. Joy. Filling.
Fills us with goodness. Patience. Kindness. Self-control. He's at work in us. That Jesus is good.
And he's a star that you can set your life on. That will guide you home. That will guide you forever. Forever. So the hope is that there is judgment against the ungodly.
And the hope is that there is forgiveness for the ungodly who will call out to Jesus. And we need both. So I'd ask you to diagnose yourself a little bit this morning. And to walk to Jesus in repentance. And hope for a future where he sets all things right. Including us.
Let's pray. Lord we thank you that you come with 10,000 of your holy ones. To bring about judgment on all of those who have sullied your name. All those who have rebelled against you and pursued ungodliness. And we thank you Lord that you already came. To pay for the sin of those who will call on you.
For forgiveness in life. And we ask Lord that on that day of judgment. That there would not be a soul in this room. Who stands before you in condemnation. But that we would stand in Christ.
In salvation. As we ask Lord that you would through your spirit lead us into repentance and faith. In Jesus name. Amen.
Examples of Judgment (Jude 5-7)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Grab your Bibles, go to the book of Jude. It is second to last book in the Bible. So if you go to the back of your Bible, run past Revelation, you'll find Jude. It's a very short book. It's on page 594. If you have one of the blue Bibles that's tucked down in front of you.
If you don't own a Bible, take that Bible home with you. It's our gift to you. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. I have been on a seven-week sabbatical. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have been able to go on a sabbatical.
We started this church about 10 years ago, and it was nice to get to take a break this summer and rest and read and hang out with my family and travel a little bit. And I am thankful to be back. And so we are in the book of Jude. Excited to be back this morning. So it's that person over there.
And we're looking at Jude. Jude is one of the brothers of Jesus, and he is Jewish. And that's not surprising because all the authors of the Bible are Jewish except for maybe Luke. And we still think he probably was Jewish. But Jude is very Jewish in the way he writes.
And he seems to be writing to a Jewish audience, but it's a very Jewish book. Kind of like eating matzo ball soup at a bar mitzvah. It's just very Jewish. Which is fine. It just throws us a little bit. We have to do a little more work to understand what he's doing because he makes some references.
We're actually going to look at three stories he references today in verses 5 through 7 that, for his Jewish audience, auto-populated a lot of information. Brought, carried with it a lot of stories that they had told over and over again. They're in our Old Testament, but they're also, these stories are referenced often in other Jewish literature, in other Jewish historical books. So the three he brings together are often paired together either in two or three in the Midrash of the Sanhedrin. It's in Jubilees. It's in Maccabees.
It's in the Sirach. Like, it's all over their other historical books, and he brings them together. And so for his hearers, these examples he gives would have just been boom, boom, boom, and brought in all this information. But for us, it kind of makes us pause a little bit to make sure we understand what the illustration is doing, what the example is doing, so that we can move forward. I was talking to Raz Bradley, one of our other pastors, about a week ago, and I made the comment that we'd leave his John Hancock on something. And then I paused, because he's Australian.
I said, do you know what that is? Do you know what John Hancock is? He said, it's a financial institution. And I was like, maybe. I don't know that, but that's not what I was talking about. John Hancock is one of our founding fathers.
He signed his name as big as he possibly could on the Declaration of Independence so that the king could see it from far off. So we refer to your signature as your John Hancock. Australians have a queen. We have a Declaration of Independence, so they don't know about John Hancock. And so what meant to add information and move the conversation along completely stalled the conversation out. So I was even asking him, is there like an Australian equivalent?
Did they say, like, put your Billy Beru on this or something? He was like, no. And I was like, oh, it's sad. So there's an opening, though, for him to make some Australian slang if he wants to. They have slang words for everything. But it was meant to help.
It slowed us down, and that's kind of what's going to happen this morning. These three examples, let's read them real quick, verses 5 through 7. Jude says, Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. That's his first quick example. And the angels, who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. Second example.
Third one. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued a natural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Third one. Now, for his Jewish hearers, that brings so much information, they understand exactly what he's talking about. And for some of us, maybe we do, but maybe not. So we're going to walk through this a little bit slower than I think Jude intended.
We're going to study each one of these to make sure we understand what this information should have brought to mind. But then we're going to have to zoom out so that we don't miss what he meant. Because each one of these was supposed to carry information and be helpful. Like if, I remember one time describing to somebody they asked what Moe's was, and I said it's like Subway for burritos. Which is true. Most people have been to a Subway that maybe hadn't been to a Moe's.
So if I asked you what Blaze was, you might say it's a Moe's for pizza. Or like Chipotle, it's like a Moe's for people who hate chips. Or Chipotle's a Moe's for people who have too much money. Chipotle's a Moe's for people who think they're better than me. Stuff like that. Just something that, you know, helps them quickly wrap their head around what you're talking about.
But that doesn't work for us. So we're going to pause. We're going to walk through it. And then we're going to have to zoom out. So let's pray for our time.
And let's get in. Lord, we ask that you would help us to understand the point that Jude is making. And Lord, we pray that you would help us to, as we study this, to see you more clearly. To see your greatness. Your exaltation. Your sovereign kingship over all creation.
Help us to see our sin in light of your holiness. So that we might respond accordingly. We ask for the help of your spirit. As we study your word. In Jesus' name. Amen.
We're going to start in verse 3 so that we have some context. This is what we looked at last week. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation. So that means he's writing to those who he sees as believers. These are other Christians. They have salvation as well as he does.
I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. So he says, I'm writing to Christians, but there's some contention over the faith. Meaning that there's some people pulling in a wrong direction. So I need y'all to hold fast. I need you to hold to what is true. That's the point of this letter.
And he's going to tell us why. For certain people have crept in unnoticed. Okay. So what he's saying now is, I'm writing this to all of you. Like I'm writing into a group of people. I specifically want the genuine Christians to hear what I'm talking about.
And I want you to be aware that there are those among you who are not genuine Christians. So this just got way more suspicious group of people. For all those who truly love our nation, let it be known there are spies in this room. That's kind of what he's doing. So immediately you go, start cutting your eyes at people.
And if you're a spy, you do it enough to look like their face. Anyway, that's what he's doing. So he says they've crept in unnoticed. And now I want you to see three things that he's going to say about them. Because they pertain to the illustrations, the examples he's about to give us. Who long ago, this is the first one, were designated for this condemnation.
So he says they were designated for this condemnation. Then he tells what they've been doing. Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality. It's the first thing they're doing. And deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. So, pervert the grace of our God into sensuality.
Grace is that Jesus Christ has paid the debt of all those who believe in him. And he offers forgiveness for sin. Meaning that the sin is real, heinous, has to be paid for. But he willingly, graciously pays our debt so that if we trust in him, we can be saved. That's the grace. That's the gospel.
What he's saying is they're taking that grace and they're twisting it. They're perverting it to somehow say, well, that means sin must not be that big a deal. If he's so forgiving, if he's so kind, they're either saying that sin's not that big a deal. Like if someone gave you a Rolls Royce and I said they gave it to you for free and you said yes. I said, well, that must mean Rolls Royce are cheap. That's what they're doing.
They're twisting this. Say it must not be that big a deal. Or they're saying, don't we just highlight how good he is by getting to, if we pursue these things, if we go this direction. It just shows how wonderful and how gracious he is. They're somehow perverting his grace into sensuality. Sensuality is a devotion to their senses.
It's an indulgence in fleshly desires. Take what you want and get it. Which I think you need to see that's applicable to us. Because if there's one thing we're told as Americans is figure out what you want and go get it. Don't hold back. Indulge.
We celebrate words like decadence. We put it on our chocolate. We pursue these things that it's going to be an experience. It's going to be something to delight in, something to enjoy. And sensuality specifically often, because of how humanity works and how sin works, works its way towards sexual sin or shows up a lot in sexual sin. And we're going to see that as we go through these examples.
So that's the first thing is that they receive condemnation. The first thing that they're doing is they're perverting grace into sensuality. And second thing they're doing is denying our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. So they're rejecting the authority of Christ. Being their own authority. Making their own decisions.
Choosing what's right and wrong on their own. It goes right back to the garden. That's what Adam and Eve did. They're going to be the ones who are the arbiters over right and wrong. They're going to be their own authority. They're going to choose.
She says that's what they're doing. The reason that's applicable to the verses we're looking at today is that each one of these examples is going to touch on those three things. It's going to highlight those three things. It's an example of those three things. It's an example of a rejection of the authority of God. Pursuit of sensuality, specifically sexual sin.
And condemnation or clear examples of judgment. Each one of the examples he gives that he says, I want to remind you those three things. Rejection of the authority of God. Pursuit of sexual sin. Condemnation. So what he's saying is, we've done this before.
This isn't our first time that this has been what we were supposed to pursue. What people have come in and said is okay. It's not the first time we've headed this track. So, we're going to walk through the examples. We're going to highlight those things to make sure we understand them. And then we're going to try to catch his main point here.
So, wilderness generation. He says, now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. Now, for us, we might stumble over the fact that he says, Jesus did that. Because if you were in Sunday school, as a little kid, or in Kid City, and they said, who led the Israelites out of Egypt? And you raised your sticky little hand. Because you're a child and they're always sticky for some reason.
The two answers that would be most acceptable would be Moses, God. You can get away with Jesus. Maybe. Your teacher would go, well, I mean, kind of. And you would say, have you not read Jude? You see, the New Testament understanding, as it looks at the Old Testament, is not that the God in the Old Testament is somehow different.
That somehow the God of the Old Testament is different from the New Testament God. That's not how this works. So we're told that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. And so we often can say things like, this shows us, in the person of Christ, what God the Father is like. How kind He is. How merciful He is.
How He would respond to you in your sin. But the New Testament authors go, yes. And it also shows us what Jesus was like as He dealt with the people in Exodus. That they are not somehow different. That this is the same God who's ruled since eternity past. So, He says, I want to remind you that Jesus, after the Exodus, destroyed a generation.
And for the Jewish people, they know exactly what He's talking about. So we're going to show another place in the New Testament, where Paul refers to this generation, but he gives a little more detail. So it's in 1 Corinthians 10. You can turn there, or it'll be on the screens. Paul's doing the same thing. He says, now, these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
So one of the things that both Paul and Jude agree on, is you should look at this example, and see how it worked out for them. I'm the middle of three brothers. My oldest brother was a senior in high school when I was a freshman in high school. So through middle school and high school, I watched him as an example of how to interact with my parents. More accurately, as an example of how not to interact with my parents. So there were often times where I watched him, and I thought, oh, don't say that in a conversation.
That's not the way to argue. You actually learned there was no arguing with my father. It just wasted everybody's time. So this is my role in arguments with my father going through high school. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Yes, sir. To the point that at one point he said, are you just saying, yes, sir, sir, I'll quit talking and you can leave? No, sir. He stared me down after that. It's hard to fuss at somebody who's being respectful. That's what Paul is saying.
That's what Jude is saying. It's, hey, look at this generation. They've lived this out in front of us. See how it worked out for them. That's what he's saying. So he says, verse 7, do not be idolaters as some of them were.
As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now that's a quote from Exodus 32. We're going to study through the book of Exodus later this year. But the Israelite people were captives. They were slaves in the land of Egypt. Moses goes.
He sings a really catchy song. God, that's not true, but anyway. God, through plagues, drives the Israelites out. He puts condemnation on the Egyptians. He brings the Israelites out. And he's going to take them to the promised land.
They hit the wilderness. And they're supposed to go from Egypt. And they cross the Red Sea. They're going to go to the wilderness. And they're going to go to the promised land. The problem is, they march over there.
It doesn't take that long. And they get to the edge of the promised land. And they say, nope, not going to work. God brought us here to die. So then they just do circles in the wilderness until an entire generation is gone.
And then just a handful that saw Egypt get to go into the promised land. An entire generation rejects God. But there's little story after little story of how they do that as they wander the wilderness. This first one is Moses has just gone to go get the Ten Commandments. While he's gone, the elders go to his brother and say, we don't know what happened to Moses. So let's make an idol.
They make a golden calf. Make it with their hands. And then Aaron says, this is the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And nobody goes, didn't we just make this one? Moses comes down. They're having, I mean, it's become a debaucherous party at this point.
And he says, whoever's with me, let's go. The Levites get swords, kill 3,000 people. They regain order. Moses grinds the golden calf up, pours it in the water and makes him drink it. 3,000 died that day because of idolatry. Verse 8, we must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did.
And 23,000 fell in a single day. This is the most that die at one time. Because they got close to the land of Midian. They start worshiping Baal. They start bringing Midianite women into now a big debaucherous party again, sleeping with them. The way that this plague is staved off is Phineas, who's the son of one of the high priests, goes into a tent, throws a spear through a man and a woman.
One throw gets both of them because they were indulging in sexual sin. And that stops the plague. But 23,000 already fell as they're rebelling against God. He keeps going. He says, we must not put Christ to the test again. Paul knows the same thing Jude knows, which is that's Jesus partaking in all of this, overseeing all of this, even in the Old Testament.
We must put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents. They began to grumble and argue against God and venomous snakes come into the camp. Nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. I think that is referring to Korah's rebellion, where actually the ground opens up. He lines them up. Moses says, if y'all are right, we'll go with you.
But if I'm right, let something different happen that nobody's ever seen before. May the ground swallow you. And it splits open and swallows them. Verse 11. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.
That's what Jude's saying. Jude's talking to a Jewish group of believers. He says, you know the wilderness generation, right? They thought they could reject the authority of Jesus. They thought they could pursue sexual sin. And they were wrong.
That's his first example. Second example. If you were like, well, that was a lot to take in. Welcome to the second example. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling. He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.
Now, it's understood in Christian theology, as we understand our Bibles, that there were angels that rejected the authority of God. And that is where we have demonic spiritual forces. It does not seem that here he would be talking about all of the angels that rejected the authority of God, but a specific group. And the reason why it would be a specific group, the evidence is really threefold in the text before I explain the story. One is he specifically is talking about sexual sin, even to the point that his next thing he says, they likewise indulged in sexual sin. So it seems like this is involving sexual sin as well.
Well, not all demonic forces are under chains of gloomy darkness awaiting the punishment of the great day. Jesus interacts with demonic forces in the New Testament, so they can't all be bound waiting for punishment. So it seems like it's a specific thing that it's referring to. He also, in this letter, refers to First Enoch. First Enoch is a historical Jewish book. He refers to some prophecy out of it.
It was not held as being divinely authored the way the Old Testament was. They had separate books that they understood to be divinely authored. Then they had ones that were like history books that they respected, but they did not treat at the same authority level. Enoch's over there. But Enoch specifically focuses on this story that's in Genesis chapter 6 in our Bibles.
So let's read it. Genesis 6, verses 1 through 4. Now, when man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. Okay. Sons of God here would be referring to angelic beings, spiritual beings. It's used this way in the book of Job several times, and it's specifically compared to daughters of men, sons of God.
So it's a separate thing. Also, you'll see that they have children, and it's not normal children. So it says, They saw they were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years. Meaning that the sons of God would be living forever, but their children can't because they're paired with flesh.
Then it says, The Nephilim, which is a word that was written in Hebrew, translated to Latin, and then just brought over to English, but it just means the giants. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. It immediately goes into the story of Noah and the judgment of the earth and the wickedness. Enoch, first Enoch, takes that section of Genesis, expounds on it. Again, it's not scriptural, so if you want to go read it, read it as not scripture.
It's not authoritative the same way the scriptures are, and the Jewish people understand that, but it's a historical book. And it highlights more the spiritual aspect of the judgment that the angels received. So, angels reject their position of authority. If you go back to verse 6 on the slides, the angels who do not stay in their own position of authority, they had a position, they had a place, they had a right spot, they were supposed to relate to the Lord. They reject it. They jump out of it, and then they pursue sexual sin, and they're judged.
It says they're bound in chains, kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. 2 Peter refers to this as well, the same thing that took place. So, he's highlighting the same things. Angelic beings. First, it was the people of Israel, the people who were supposed to be the ones God saved, then it's angelic beings that are smarter, more powerful, more capable than us. They tried the same thing.
It also did not work out for them. Now, quick pause. For some of us, you're like, oh yeah, I kind of remember that story. For others, you're saying, do what now? We do believe this is true. We believe this is reality.
I'll give you a couple of things to help you if you're trying to think through this, and I'm also willing to have more conversations, follow-up conversations. I also know, without even talking to him, that Spencer would love to talk to you about this also. We have a spiritual faith. So sometimes, we wrap our head around things like, Jesus is the Son of God. He was born of a virgin. He died in the place for our sins.
He died at substituciary sacrificial atonement for us. He swapped places with us. That he rose from the dead. That he ascended into heaven. That he'll return. We wrap our head around that, and then we go, wait, angels made children with women?
Nah. And it's like, well, actually, we have a whole spiritual faith. We believe in things that we can't see. Also, it's not a major point of doctrine. It's not like everything's built off of this one thing. That's the amount of, everything I read is everything that Genesis really says about it.
There's some mention of the Nephilim later, in some of the, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, we're in there, but there's not, it's not a main thing. Also, those stories are all over the place. The idea that some sort of gods slept with women, and had super children. And so, some people will look at that and say, see, the Bible's just saying the same thing, as if that means the Bible's made up. But I would argue, that it actually means, the reason why there's rumors of that kind of a story all over the place, is because that actually happened.
That's why it shows up in history, and other mythologies, and those sort of things, is because that idea actually did take place. The vast majority of humans on earth, and throughout history, believe in a spiritual world. It's really just a brand new, Western idea, that only the things we can see and touch are real. So if that helps, it's just an argument from the majority. But if that helps you know, that if you think, the only things that are real, is what you can see and touch and feel, you're the vast majority, minority of all humans.
So, I don't know if that helps or not, but those are a few things, to help you wrap your head around it. But the reason Jude brought it up, was because his hearers knew the story, and they understood what he was talking about. They had rejected authority, they had pursued sexual sin, and they had met condemnation. Third story. Third example. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah, this is verse 7, and the surrounding cities, it was five cities in total, it was in kind of a lower area, and it would have been cities.
So there would have been a whole city, and then some space, and some farmland, and then another city, and then some space, and some farmland. It was a lot of people. Just as Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities, which likewise, meaning that's one of the points he's making in all of these, is indulged in sexual immorality, and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example, by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. So the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, is that God comes to Abraham, this is in Genesis 19, comes to Abraham with two angels, he says, we're going to go check out the city, of Sodom and Gomorrah, we're going to go walk around, because the cry of their wickedness, has risen up to us.
Their harm that they're doing to people, has come to heaven. So we're going to go investigate. These angels go down to the city, Lot sees them, Lot is Abraham's nephew, and Lot says, come stay with me, don't spend the night in the square. Lot thinks, that these angels are in danger. He doesn't know that they're angels, otherwise he would know, that everyone else is in danger, not them. But he says, don't stay out here, come in with me.
He talks them into it, they come into his home. It says, the men of the city surround his house, and say, we want the two men that showed up, we want you to give them to us, so that we may lie with them. And what is the, one of the craziest parts of the story to me, is Lot says, do not do this wickedness, I have two daughters, take them. These men have come under the protection of my household, take my daughters. And they say, no. The angels, strike these men with blindness, and they don't go home.
They stay, still trying to get into the house. And so God says, Sodom and Gomorrah are going to be destroyed. And Sodom and Gomorrah is held up as an example, throughout Jewish history, and the Old Testament, as an example, Ezekiel mentions, they have pride, they have a lack of concern for the poor. Sirach and Maccabees mention arrogance, Maccabees mentions injustice, but the primary example is of sexual sin, specifically homosexuality. So where we saw heterosexual sexual sin, in the wilderness generation, we see in Sodom and Gomorrah, pursuit of homosexuality.
That's actually why he highlights it here. He says, verse 7, indulged in sexual immorality, and pursued unnatural desire. Not just rejecting God's authority, and pursuing sexual sin, but they actually, contrary to nature, that unnatural desire means like strange flesh, that they pursue same-sex pursuits. Now, we believe, that the Bible says, that homosexuality is a sin. And that's good news, because Jesus died for sin. He died to save sinners.
There's actually a reference, in the New Testament, to New Testament believers, who had been practicing homosexuality, but had repented, and are now Christians. It's in 1 Corinthians 6. That this was a thing, that we repent of, just like you would repent of anything else. So, don't hear, this is somehow, the only sin you can't be saved from. We're going to spend some time, talking about this later next year, talking about this idea, but do hear, that it is sin, that we need to be saved from. And so he holds up another example.
God rains down fire, on this entire area. It says that Abraham, walked up and saw, the smoke rising like a furnace, over that whole area of the world. Sodom and Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities, were destroyed. Lot and his two daughters escaped. They rejected God's authority, pursued sexual sin, and were met with condemnation. Now, let's not, because we had to slow down a bit, and our brains didn't automatically give us that information, miss what he's saying.
This is what he says. They serve as an example, by undergoing a punishment, of eternal fire. Jude wants you to see, that they serve as an example, by undergoing a punishment, of eternal fire. That Sodom and Gomorrah, are a picture, of eternally, being destroyed. And that actually, is the reality, for unrepentant sin. Eternal fire. what Jude is saying, he's writing, and he's saying, church family, some people have showed up, who are starting, to deny Jesus, indulge their flesh, and we've, done this, before.
We've, seen this, before. We saw it, in the people of Israel, the ones that God, had just rescued. They rebelled against Jesus, and he destroyed them. We saw this in angels, who, rejected the position, that they had, and God has bound them, in chains of gloomy darkness, until their destruction. We saw this, in pagan cities. It's not like, you can be a part, of a certain group, and this works out for you.
It's not for unbelievers, or it's for believers, or even for angelic beings. This, does not, work. And church family. We live at a time, where these same things, are being promoted, and celebrated. The Bible, where it's not a joke, where it's not derided, is still not held, in esteem, or authority. Not held up, as we should honor God, or submit to him.
The idea, that there's a, a creator, that you are beholden to, is at, minimum backwards, or at most abhorrent. There are people, who are standing, in a similar spot, to where I'm standing, with this open, in front of them, this very morning, who are teaching, that we can only, kind of believe this. I watched, eight minutes, of a 16 minute sermon, and sermon, I'm being fast and loose, with that word, from Greenville, First Baptist Church, that used to be, Southern Baptist, they're not, anymore. And his, his sermon was, the dark side of doctrine. And he said, that people had, religious experiences, spiritual experiences, and that was great.
But then unfortunately, people started writing things down. And as soon as people, wrote stuff down, we had problems, because then some people, thought they were right, and other people were wrong. So there are people, people, who are saying, we don't really have, the authority of God, in any sort of, authoritative way, that we have to, submit to, or beholden to. Right now, culturally, you are told, find your desire, pursue it. To the point, that we are told, find your desire, and if it's your sexual desire, it actually gives you, your identity. humanity. That's who you are.
And for anyone to tell you, not to pursue that, is harmful for you. And there are people, who have snuck in unnoticed, who hold a Bible, and say the same thing. And Jude says, it's not the first time, that's happened. We've played this song before. We've walked this road before. And it leads to condemnation.
Now, part of us, hears the echo of the world around us, and says, it's so unkind, to say this. It's so hurtful to say this. It's so mean to say this, that this is somehow, akin to assault on somebody. How dare we, say this. And I'll agree, this is unkind, and harmful, if, and only if, Jude is wrong. But if there is condemnation, if there is judgment for sin, if Jesus really isn't, to be trifled with, like the wilderness generation, thought he might be, then how dare we not, talk about this.
It is a great kindness, to tell someone, that they are headed, towards destruction. Some of you in this room, because of the onslaught, of the cultural pressure, because of the onslaught, of the clapping chorus, around us. Tim Keller says, that sometimes like, if, if it's raining hard enough, even if you put on a rain jacket, and you have an umbrella, even when you take all that off, you're somehow still wet. And right now, our culture is pouring down, rain in these two categories. Some of you, have started to question, whether or not, you really have to, submit to God everywhere. Some of you have even, started to, twist, and pervert, his grace, to somehow say, well it's good that he's, I'm so thankful he's forgiving, he's gracious, it's okay.
Rather than to hate sin, some of you are, sleeping with your boyfriend, or your girlfriend, you are confessing to your group, that you struggle with pornography, but struggle is not the right word, indulge us. Because there is no fight. You're saying, yeah, my girlfriend and I, we keep, you know, we fall into sin, and it's like, yeah, but you haven't done any of the things, to actually take it seriously, like it might lead you to destruction. Some of you are, pursuing, same sex attraction, or, supporting those that do. Some of us are, acting as if, the authority of God, isn't to be worried about.
And Jude says, I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, we've tried this before. Romans 2, Paul says this, do you suppose, oh man, that you will escape, the judgment of God? He looks at those, he's writing to, and he says, do you think, that you are exempt, from the judgment of God? That you will escape it? And he says, or, do you presume, on the riches, of his kindness, and forbearance, and patience, not knowing, that God's kindness, is meant to lead you, to repentance. Don't miss that.
He's kind. He's patient. He's loving. So much so, that Jesus went to the cross, to pay for our sin, to absorb wrath, not, to tell us, that there was no wrath. Not to declare, that there was no judgment. We needed shed blood, on our behalf, so that we could withstand, in the great day, hiding behind Christ.
That in the great day, we might proclaim, his glory, and his name, and his grace, not our own. But do not presume, upon that kindness, as if you will somehow, escape judgment. And do not think, for a moment, that because he was willing, to pay for sin, that there was nothing, to be paid for. We do not empty the cross, by indulging in sin. As if it cost nothing, of the son of God, to die on our behalf. But we worship, and we praise.
His kindness, has meant that we would run to him, not away from him. He says, but, because of your hard, and impenitent heart, meaning you don't see your sin, you do not repent, you do not run towards him, in his kindness, you are storing up, wrath for yourself, on the day, of wrath, when God's, righteous judgment, will be revealed. You are storing up, wrath for yourself, on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment, will be revealed. There is a day of wrath, there is a day of righteous judgment, and that is why, the gospel is good news. Because you do not have to, stand in your sin, and be condemned, but you can stand, in the cross, of Christ, covered by his blood, paid for, blameless.
And what Jude says, at the end of this, that he's able to keep you, from stumbling, and to present you, blameless, before the presence of his glory, with great joy. That that's able to happen, because of the work, of the cross. That is our hope. But some of us, need to see what Jude just said, you need to see this. People have tried, to belittle, and trifle with Jesus, before. There was a whole generation, that were destroyed.
You need to see, venomous snakes, entering a camp. You need to see, the ground opening up. You need to wrap your head, around that. You need to see, plague pouring through, and killing 23,000 people, in one day, as God's righteous judgment. Some of us need to see, that angels, who are, have longer lives, more power, more intelligence. They tried this, and they are at, this moment, bound in chains, of gloomy darkness, awaiting that day.
They have not been released, their sentence, has not changed, and they will, face wrath. And we stand, in between that moment, and the great day, with a hope, that's held out for us, in Christ. Some of us need to see, the smoke rising like a furnace, from Sodom and Gomorrah. Because it stands, as an example, of eternal punishment. And some of us, need to see that, so we never see, eternal punishment. Do not, undo the cross, or pervert the grace of God, to act as if God, does not have wrath, and judgment.
He does. But he is kind, and merciful, and patient, so that, we might have life, in him, to his praise, and to his glory. Let's pray. God, we ask, that right now, through the power of your spirit, that you would bring conviction, that you would help us, to see, sin, and all of its heinousness, that for those of us, who are, rejecting your authority, or pursuing sexual sin, or have not, repent, we have a hard, and unrepentant heart, that Lord, you'd help us, to see your riches, of kindness, and you'd help us, to see your wrath, and judgment. Lord, we ask for your Holy Spirit, to work, and to have people, to call out, to you for salvation, and to celebrate, the goodness of the gospel.
We ask this, in Jesus name. Amen. The band's, going to come back up, and in a moment, as a church family, we're going to celebrate, that Jesus Christ, died to save sinners. That there is hope, for us in our sin. We're going to, partake in communion, which Jesus, on his, night before he died, he took bread, and he broke it, and he said, this is my body, broken for you. He says, this is my blood, of a new covenant, poured out for you, for the forgiveness, of sins, and so we, when we gather, we remind ourselves, that we need a savior, we need someone, to stand in our place, we need someone, to rescue us, from a coming wrath, and judgment, and we have, someone who has done so, who has gone before us.
We have those, who have gone before us, to destruction, and we have Jesus, who leads the way, he's gone before us, to life. And so as a church, take a moment, to see judgment, to see the cross, to confess your sin, and then, partake, reminding yourself, that you need the gospel, you need Jesus' work, on your behalf, but you have Jesus' work, on your behalf. If you are not a Christian, this is not for you, but Jesus is. But we don't ask you, to partake in communion, until you are really celebrating, that he has rescued you, out of sin, but you can right now, tell him, Jesus I need you, to save me from my sin, and all that call on his name, will be saved.
There will not be one, who is put to shame, there will not be one, who stands before the king, on that great day, and says, I have trusted in Jesus, and he says, it didn't work. There will not be one, that will, that will, bring disgrace, to the name of Christ, by somehow escaping his salvation, if we call on him. And I would tell you, to call on him this morning.
Judgment and Joy (Jude 1-4)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer and I am one of the pastors here. We are starting a new brief book this morning. We're in the book of Jude. So if you have a Bible, you can go ahead and turn there now.
It will be near the back, just before Revelation. So one of the final books of the Bible. It's on page 594 in the blue Bibles that are around you. You can follow along in one of those Bibles. You can also follow on the screen. If you don't have a Bible at home and you see a blue Bible, take that.
We want you to have a Bible that you can read. That is our gift to you. But we're going to be in Jude the next few weeks. So Jude is one of the smaller letters in the New Testament. It is small, but it packs a punch. It is an aggressive, corrective letter written to Christians who were being led astray.
So one of the things we're going to see in this letter is that it upholds both judgment and joy. It's going to be very blunt about the judgment that is for those that do not trust God and His word. Do not abide by His word. While also upholding joy that is set before us. The joy that we have in Christ. The joy that resounds into eternity.
It's going to uphold both of those together. But with the gospel comes both of those. And He's going to be delivering that in this letter. That's something that I did not understand until I became a believer. I became a believer when I was 17. And in the years leading up to that, I didn't understand the idea of God's judgment.
Nor that the joy that He offered was better. Like I grew up in and around the church. And, you know, it has a general understanding. I think I would have at the time said, yes, I do believe that the Bible teaches about hell. And I do think that's real. But I think I basically understood that that was reserved for the worst.
That was for the worst of people. And that basically I could live my life on my terms. And that God would just kind of wink and nod at my life. So much of my high school years was doing what a lot of high schooler kids fall into. Which is partying and drugs and all the things that I thought was going to bring me joy. I didn't think that it was a big deal that I could pursue those things.
That God was just going to wink at it. And that would be fine. As long as I called myself a Christian, that would be okay. But I also missed out on the fact that God offers something that is better. And by his grace, at the height of getting drunk, at the height of drug use, realizing at 17 that, oh, no, this doesn't satisfy. That what I'm pursuing, the pleasures of this world, doesn't actually bring joy.
And I finally stumbled upon a church where I finally heard the gospel and then believed. And then started to believe this message and see it as beautiful and good. And Jude is going to a very brief, you know, 25 verses uphold both of those. Understanding that there is judgment. But there also is great joy that is offered in Christ.
That's what we're going to see as we walk through this the next few weeks. So what we're going to do today is we're going to walk through the first four verses. And then we're just going to introduce the book as a whole. And then we're going to have the next few weeks to see this theme play out. So let me pray for us and then we'll jump in.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us. Jude is a book that is difficult to hear, but you can prepare our hearts for it. God, there's undoubtedly a lot of thoughts, a lot of goodness. There's just sometimes the weeks are hard. And coming into a Sunday morning where we're going to hear your word, it's hard to hear. But I pray that you would help us receive it.
And that we walk this out in faith and repentance and belief and in worship. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, starting off in verse 1.
It starts off, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Okay, so let me pause there. There's a long time historical consensus that Jude is the brother of James. The James who wrote the book of James. The James who was a leader in the early New Testament church. James who was the literal brother of Christ.
Which means that Jude is also the literal brother of Christ. Now, if you have any Catholic background, you might say, wait, no, that didn't happen because Mary was always a virgin. That's the doctrine of perpetual virginity of Mary. Now, that doctrine goes back to the 5th century. But it's actually not rooted in its world.
When you look at the New Testament, it's very clear that Mary and Joseph went on to have other children. These are the siblings of Jesus. In Matthew 13 is one of the places where we see this. In Matthew 13, 55, it says, Is not this the carpenter's son? They're questioning Jesus. Is not his mother called Mary?
And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Which is the author of this letter. But you might go, wait a second. That's not Jude. And yes, you accurately figured that out. He had a name change.
And I think for very obvious reasons, he had a name change. Right? Right? If Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, betrays Jesus, you change your name. Like if you're a kid, you're born in 1930, and your mother says, You know what? I'm going to name you Adolf.
By the time 442 comes around, you're like, I don't know. I think I'm going to go by Aaron. I think I'm taking one for the team here. I'm going to change my name. That's what's happening here. They refer to these verses as Jude historically, and this is what we know him as.
So, we don't know much about Jude. Okay? We don't know much about him from church history. We know generally, we don't know a lot from the scriptures. We know generally that he was a leader in the church. He had authority.
We knew he wrote this letter. We don't know if this letter was written to a specific church or multiple churches. We don't know if it was written to a specific region like Galatia, which was the letter of Galatians, or Corinth, like the letter that was written to the Corinthians. We don't know that either. The one thing we can tell from the letter is that, and most scholars agree, that the audience that he's writing to is predominantly Jewish Christian. Okay?
Because there is a ton of very specific Jewish references, more so than many other books in the New Testament. There's references to the Old Testament in this, but there's also references to Jewish historical books that aren't in the Old Testament, like the book of Enoch that we're going to see later on. So it's abundantly, or I should say it's evidently clear that the audience is probably Jewish Christian. So we at least can tell that from it. It's a brief letter. It's only 25 verses, which means when we say go to Jude, we don't say go to Jude chapter 1, verses 1 through 4.
We just say go to Jude, verses 1 through 4. Also, and this is anecdotal evidence, but I don't think it's preached very often. There's not a lot out there on Jude. In fact, I was talking to a friend of mine a few weeks ago, and he's not a part of our church, and I'm just talking. I said, yeah, we're going to be in the book of Jude, then we're going to be in Exodus. And he said, Jude?
Nobody preaches Jude. I said, well, not anymore. Here we stand. We will take them. But it's true.
There's not a lot of people that preach Jude. So why are we walking through Jude? Three reasons. First, all of Scripture is profitable for teaching, for training in righteousness. Okay? So we can pull up any book of the Bible, and it is going to be profitable for us to grow into the likeness of Christ and seeing the gospel displayed.
Second, I think this letter is very helpful for our moment in the American church. As we're going to see, I think it's very helpful for this moment. A failure to not heed the warnings, to not heed the judgment and the joy that is displayed in this letter is to our detriment in the American church. And the third reason, and it's very practical, we just came out of the book of Psalms. Okay? We're going to be in the book of Exodus.
All right? And Exodus, I don't know if you know this, is long. So those of you that love long books, boy, oh, boy, it's coming. And as Chet and I were talking, we said, no, let's do something in the New Testament. Let's do something that's brief.
We were looking through this and said, oh, no, we think Jude is appropriate. We think this is a good, got a New Testament break before we jump back into the Old Testament. So we are going to spend the next few weeks learning from the brother of Jesus. So let's continue to walk through these verses. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. I'll pause.
I'll also note he doesn't say, he doesn't flex and say the brother of Christ. He could have. That would have been accurate. That's not what he says. The humility of saying, and they knew this, they knew who Jude was. But the humility of introducing himself as, I'm a servant of Jesus.
He's going, he's going to, in a few verses, he's going to say his master. To have that type of humility to say, I'm a servant of Christ, I think is telling. He says, to those who were called beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. Those phrases who were called beloved in God the Father, kept for Jesus Christ. Each one of those, you could write a theological work on those phrases alone. Like the drop down menu on just those phrases is powerful.
And that's what you see in a lot of New Testament letters. They don't write letters like we do. Where it's like, dear John, body. It's like, no, we're going to pack in as much theological encouragement as possible. So when he says, to those who were called.
What's packed into that is the doctrine of election. That God has chosen us in faith. When he goes on to say, beloved in God. That's an incredible encouragement that you are, that beloved is deeply affectionate, sacrificial love. That's the kind of love that God the Father has for his adopted children. That we get to be called sons and daughters of God the Father.
That's the language of Jesus Christ and his bride, the church, the beloved, whom he loves deeply. So much so that he left heaven and came and sought us by his blood. This deeply sacrificial, joyous language being called his beloved. He says, kept for Jesus Christ. That's Philippians. He who began a good work in us will carry it through to completion.
That's 1 Peter, who by God's power being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. That is the idea that when God regenerates us, when he brings us to faith in Christ, the secure promise is that he absolutely will carry us to completion. He will carry us home. We are kept for Jesus Christ. If you have a study Bible, and I would encourage you to absolutely study this. In the next few weeks, spend some time.
It's only 25 verses. Reading this over and over again. Get a study Bible. If you don't have one, come talk to us. If you don't know how to use a study Bible, definitely come talk to us. We'd love to be able to sit down and show you how to use one.
But if you look at a study Bible, you're going to see each one of those phrases. There's a tiny little letter called a footnote that's at the front of it. And it corresponds to some cross-references, which is probably in the middle. And those cross-references are just Bible verses that show. I mean, this is connected to this in Ephesians and this in Philippians. It's incredible how much is packed in just this introduction.
He gives this encouragement. And then he goes on to verse 2. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. This is a phrasing that shows up in other New Testament letters. May the mercy of God that we don't deserve, but He graciously bestows upon us.
May the peace of God, the peace that surpasses all understanding. The peace that calms and quiets our soul. And the love of God, the love that was perfectly displayed in Christ on our behalf. May all of this be multiplied to you. Very clear that the audience that He's writing to, He's writing to genuine Christians. He wants these blessings, these beautiful truths to be multiplied to them.
So if you are a Christian, you get to receive this letter also to you to hear its beautiful truths that He's going to walk us through. So, that's the introduction. Now we're into the body. Verse 3. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. He said, And they're starting to lead people astray.
And the tone is going to be completely different because of this. It'd be like if you, if your boss said, listen, we're going to celebrate. Y'all have crushed this quota with your sales. And everyone's excited. It's like, is it going to be, you know, ice cream cake? Is it going to be lunch?
Is it going to be an open tab at Chili's? What is he doing? And then all of a sudden, Gary from accounting sends an inappropriate meme to the office. And now, there is no celebration. The mood has changed. You have to sit through a training now about how that's inappropriate humor.
That makes people uncomfortable. Tina from accounting went home and she's not coming back. Now we've got to talk about this. The mood has completely changed. And now he's got to talk about something different. So, it's becoming increasingly clear that the common salvation that he wanted to celebrate is not so common for everyone who's a part of the church or churches that he is writing to.
And that he's going to have to address what is happening in this. He's going to have to make a different appeal. And the appeal is this. Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Contend. If you came to our spring training weekend, that word should sound familiar.
You might even have a coffee mug that says Mill City Church. On the back it says, contend. And if you're like, word, y'all got coffee mugs? Yes. That's why you should come to training weekends. We've got a fall one coming up.
Sign up. Because there's all kinds of cool swag we give out. Listen, we talked about this word at training weekend. This idea of contending. The word for contending, the Greek, it has the idea of athletic or military aggressive language in it. It's that type of contending.
Contending. It is intense exertion. That type of contending. Contending with everything that you have within you to fight for something. And not just to contend. Contend for the faith that was once in all delivered for the saints.
He says, the faith that Jesus commissioned to us, go therefore and make disciples of all nations. When the church began and started planting churches in North Africa and in the Middle East and in Asia Minor and across Europe. The faith that was delivered to you. Contend for this. Fight for this. With everything in you.
The hope that you have before you fight for this. There's a movie called Children of Men. It's a good movie. And the story is that in the future, there's no more, no one's able to have children anymore. There's 20 years. There's no babies that are born.
And the idea that they're playing on is, is in that type of world, there's no hope. And that civilizations are falling apart. That countries are destroying one another because there's no hope. And then finally, the main character stumbles upon a pregnant woman. And he gives up everything. Because what's inside her is hope.
And there's multiple factions trying to get a hold of her because she represents power. But with everything that he has within him, he lays down his life to fight for that child. Because that child represents hope. And the hope that we have in Christ is eternal. We're called to fight with everything within us to contend for that faith that was delivered to us. So we're called to contend is what he's calling us to.
Contending for faith in the midst of what we have against us is what he's going to highlight in verse 4. 4. Let's break that down phrase by phrase. He says, certain people have crept in unnoticed. There are people who have infiltrated the church of the churches that he is writing to. Now, we don't know if this is false teachers.
Which that would fit the rest of the New Testament. There are multiple letters that are talking about these false teachers who have crept in. And they're promoting a false gospel. We don't know if it's that or if it's just some people who are in love with this present world that are amongst them. That are leading people astray. We don't know exactly what is happening.
But these people have crept in unnoticed. This is deceptively. They have come in. They are leading people astray. We need to receive that. Because there is deception that creeps in and tries to lead us away.
I don't argue. I don't see this as prevalent in our own church family. So you might get comfortable and think, oh, we're okay. But listen, it's not very hard to go very far in your Facebook feed or Instagram feed before you find someone who's promoting a false gospel. Find someone who's rocking $1,000 sneakers and gripping the mic like it's a rap battle. Spitting out all kinds of just ridiculous nonsense that will lead you astray.
They've crept in unnoticed, he says, who long ago were designated for this condemnation. He says they're not of us. They're not Christians. You don't understand. They're designated for condemnation. They aren't Christians.
You need to understand this very clearly. And he goes on to say ungodly people. He says ungodly people that they don't resemble the character of Christ, the values of Christ, the love of Christ. They don't resemble or reflect the character of the goodness of God. They're un, they're not godly. And then he uses a phrase that is used nowhere else in the Bible.
He says, who pervert the grace of our God. That is a strong statement. Now we don't know if what he means there is he's saying that there are people that are abusing the free grace that God has given us. We see that in the New Testament. We see that in the letter to Romans. They are presuming upon the grace of God to sin all the more.
That grace may abound. They don't understand that grace. We see that in the book of James. Where James is writing to Christians who are presuming upon the grace of God to sin all the more. We don't know if it's people that are abusing grace or just living a hedonistic life where they're indulging in the senses and fleshly desires without any fear of God at all. But the picture here is just very generally.
It is people who presume upon the kindness of God who completely ignore that he has wrath towards sin. And do not care what the word of God says. Do not care how the word of God, how the counsel of God, how the scriptures instruct us towards joy. And that is evident. There's a lot of folks in our own culture that embody that type of sentiment. They presume upon the kindness of God, presume upon the grace of God.
Maybe claim to call themselves Christians but are going to live their life on their terms and how they want to. And Jude says that is perverting the grace of our God. Very strong language. And then he goes on to say into sensuality. Into sensuality. Sensuality is self-abandonment to follow the fleshly senses wherever they desire to indulge without constraint.
Let me say that again. Sensuality is self-abandonment to follow the fleshly senses wherever they desire and to indulge without constraint. Sensuality is self-abandonment to follow the fleshly senses wherever they desire to follow the fleshly senses. He says, and deny, that's the next phrase, our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. Meaning, they reject Jesus as Lord. There's a lordship of their lives.
They don't care what he has to say. They don't see him as master. They don't see him as Lord. They don't see him as king. They have rejected him. Peter, when you look at 2 Peter, 2 Peter has very common language to Jude.
It seems like they're maybe writing to a very similar context. But Peter in 2 Peter says, chapter 2, verse 1. Verse 1. Not asleep. I think it's the same, similar things. False teachers or people who have rejected the word of God outright will come in and lead you astray.
Why? Because they are not tethered to the authority of God. They're not bound by it. They do not fear the judgment of God. They do not fear the correction. They don't desire the correction of God.
And some of them just use the word of God to justify whatever they would like. Appealing to the basest, most fleshly desires within humanity. So, spending some time on this subject and this letter, okay? Against the backdrop of our current cultural moment. A culture that indulges in anything from exploring sexuality to gender exploration. To a culture that celebrates a wide spectrum of substance use and abuse.
To a widely celebrated freedom to satisfy the senses. Well, reading Jude in the face of that is widely unpopular. But it is unbelievably necessary. It's unbelievably necessary. Because the burning question of Jude. And the burning question of the scriptures.
Is what if Jude is right? What if the scriptures and what they teach are correct? And that satisfying the senses wherever it takes you is not good. And does bring judgment. That is where Jude is going. As he calls Christians to contend for the faith.
In the midst of a false gospel. That plays upon satisfying the senses. And when you hear that. I understand it is nearly impossible to divorce your thought process. From this current cultural counter argument. That the cultural push to enjoy as much sex.
As your senses desire to experiment with who you want to love. To drink as much as you would deem necessary. To dabble in edibles and hallucinogenics. And all the things that our flesh might desire. The cultural push for that is very much against the message of Jude. And reading that with the backdrop of our culture.
It is difficult. And in the coming weeks. We're going to wade more into the arguments that Jude and the rest of the scriptures are making. Before we do that. I just want to plead with you. Don't be too quick to dismiss this.
Don't be too quick to reject the ideas without weighing them. Without investigating them. Without questioning them. Without testing them. Without asking the question. What if Jude is right?
What if the Bible is right on this? An author that I appreciate very deeply. Her name is Vizaria Butterfield. She was a professor at Syracuse. She taught English with a focus on queer studies. As we're going to read in this quote in a moment.
And she lived a life that she thought she was happy. She had a partner. She had a great tenureship at Syracuse. And then all of a sudden some things changed. Let me just give some background. Just in her own words.
Who she was. She said, My historical field in English studies was 19th century literature and culture. My historical interest in 19th century literature were grounded in the philosophical and political worldviews of Freud, Marx, and Darwin. My primary field was critical theory, also known as postmodernism. My specialty was queer theory, a postmodern form of gay and lesbian studies. She goes on to say, As a lesbian activist, I was involved in my gay community.
I had drafted and lobbied for the university's first successful domestic partnership policy, which gives spousal benefits to gay couples. I had to put up with a lot of flack from the conservative Christian community for this. My life was busy and full. And I thought, moral. So, she published this article. I think it was defending, this is in her memoir, which is Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert.
She posted this article in the local newspaper defending the policy that she fought for and got established at Syracuse in the late 90s. And then, she got a letter. It was from a Presbyterian pastor. And it was of a small Presbyterian church in the area. And he just said, I'd love to meet you. And I'd love to just hear you out.
I'd love to hear your background, your story. And she was very nervous and didn't like the idea of this at all. But she just felt compelled to hear him out. And what happened was, over the next two years, that family invited her into their home over and over again. They had weekly dinners. And they would talk, and they would get to know each other, but they also would debate.
And she was skilled in the arguments of postmodernism. And they'd go back and forth, and he would read the scriptures. And they would go back and forth and back and forth for over two years. Until finally, she's like, okay, I'm going to read the Bible. And I'm going to see what you're talking about. And as she kept talking and walking with this couple, and as she kept reading the Bible, well, she started to change.
And her partner noticed it. Her friends noticed it. Until finally one night at a house party, one of her friends got in front of her and confronted her on this. She said, she told me point blank that all this Bible reading was changing me. And she wanted to know, before any more pasta could be served or wine glasses filled, what was going on in my life? At first I denied it, but she pressed.
Finally I said, what would you say if I told you that I'm beginning to believe that Jesus is real, is a real and risen and loving and judging Lord and that I am in big trouble? And what eventually happened is she placed her faith in Jesus. It cost her her relationship, eventually cost her her tenureship and her position at Syracuse. She left that all behind. But as you read her memoir, and I encourage you to read it, first of all, she's a great writer and it's a powerful story.
But the thing that she posts up in is not necessarily that her life was miserable. It wasn't. She liked her life. She enjoyed her life. She enjoyed being a professor. She enjoyed being a partner.
She enjoyed being an activist. It was that what if this is true? And if this is true, well then everything has to change. And when she finally submitted to the scriptures and said this is true, this is real, Jesus is real, well then everything has to change. And she gave up her life and she's been following Christ ever since. What if the wisdom of the scriptures that has endured for thousands of years is better than the moral whiplash of the last few decades?
What if Jesus is real and he is a risen and loving and judging God? If that is true, it changes everything. It means that falling in line with the current majority position of the culture, the postmodern pursuit of fulfillment through the senses, well it not only leads to less joy, it ultimately leads to self-destruction. And the next few weeks we're going to wade into this difficult truth to absorb all of this in light of the cultural moment that we are in. But this was also true at their time.
You can look at history, and there definitely has been hundreds and hundreds of years where this wasn't happening. But if you go back to the first century, there's actually a lot of parallels between the first century context of who this is being written to and our moment right now. In fact, Greco-Roman culture, that many of the sensual pursuits that we have in our cultural moment were very true in that time as well. Almost everything you can point to now was happening then. It was a cultural norm in Greco-Roman culture. There is nothing new under the sun.
And my plea is this. As we walk through difficult truths, stick around. Please, engage. Hear the wisdom and the warning in this. The judgment and the joy that you will be reminding us of that is unbelievably important for this moment. And that is difficult.
It is difficult because we're still in a moment where the majority cultural position rages at what the Scriptures teach as backward, archaic, not progressing in the direction it needs to go. You have this while also a very small minority of loud Christians that actually just harp on judgment and never look at actual joy. They just lob grenades but actually don't ever point to the joy that is found in following Christ. That's how Jude ends his letter with this beautiful doxology. He's pleading with them, don't go down this road. Don't pursue the sensual desires.
You've got to see where this is heading but he ends with, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. There's unbelievable joy in pursuing Christ. There's unbelievable joy that resounds into eternity. He says, with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. There is a God who can present us blameless.
Who does if you're in Christ present you blameless. No matter what is swirling in your soul, no matter what are fleshly pursuits that your sensual desires won't, he says, I will present you blameless before his glory with great joy. There's a God who can keep us from stumbling that if we continuously look to him no matter what is raging in our flesh that he will continue to grow us and keep us from stumbling. There is a God who we can enjoy in all of his glory and his majesty and his dominion and his authority from this time into eternity that is offered to us in Christ but we have to contend for it and that is not easy and it especially is not easy in this moment.
So that is the call as we walk through Jude stick around hear the call to contend no matter how hard it is no matter how much is swirling around us we must contend with everything within us because hope is on the line a hope that is real that resounds into eternity there is far too much at stake not to take this seriously.
Psalm 100: Make a Joyful Noise
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer and I am one of the pastors here. We are in Psalm 100 today, which is on page 287, your blue Bibles that are under you, around you. You can follow along there. You can also follow along on the screen. The text will be on the screen this morning.
So, we've been in the Psalms this summer. This is our final week in the Psalms. And then a couple of years ago we were in the Psalms. And we'll continue to come back to them because they are good for our souls to sit in. But there's a lot of similarities in the Psalms and all 150 of them.
But there's also some differences. They do different things. You look at Psalms like Psalm 19 and 139 that we looked at this summer. And those Psalms had immense depth and truth in them and doctrine that helps shape us and guide us as the people of God. You look at Psalms like Psalm 23 and Psalm 42. And those are Psalms that help us in the midst of loss and suffering and grieving.
And they help us worship God through lament. You look at Psalms like Psalm 51 that help us in repentance. Psalm 67 that gives us a taste of Jesus reaching the nations. Like there's Psalms that do all kinds of different things. Some of them are very long and some of them are very short. And then you get a few Psalms like we're going to be in today.
Psalm 100 is five verses. It is a short, succinct look at how we are called to worship God. And there's a few Psalms like this that are real short, real compact. But they just help us praise God because He's worthy of it. And that's how we're closing up our summer in the Psalms. It's looking at Psalm 100, receiving its commands to help guide us in worshiping God and then helping see why we're called to do it.
So I'm going to read through it all at once and then we'll walk through it together. Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God.
It is He who made us and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him. Bless His name. For the Lord is good.
His steadfast love endures forever and His faithfulness to all generations. Let me pray for us and then we'll walk through this together. Father, I thank You for the Word of God. I thank You for the Psalms. This beautiful Psalm book that we get to come back to over and over again that helps us worship You. These songs and prayers that guide us towards the heavens, towards You.
God, I pray that You would help us be present this morning. That You would speak to us and that we'd respond in faith and repentance and obedience and worship. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay, so there's a subtitle in Psalm 100 that kind of frames up the Psalm.
It says a Psalm for giving thanks. So this Psalm comes at the end of a five-Psalm set called the kingship Psalms. Okay? It's all about God is our king. And this one is saying, no, we're going to be thankful to our kings. That frames it up.
And then verse 1, the first of many commands that we're going to see here. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. All right. So, make a joyful noise. So, it may not be something we're as familiar with here because we're not Pentecostal. But we're better than most Baptists, you guys.
We get a little animated. But let's just make a joyful noise. Maybe the most familiar setting where you would hear this is coming up Saturdays in the fall in the south. Yep. Preach. It's college football.
That's what we're probably most familiar with. That's where you hear a joyful noise. Where you hear 80,000 plus fans. Not too far away from here. Directionally, wherever that is. At Williams-Brice Stadium.
Who may or may not. Depends to be. Or remains to be seen. Have a joyful thing to celebrate this fall. We always hope for the bestest Gamecock fans. And they never always let us down.
But, that's it. Right? That's the most joyful noise that you're going to hear in our area. Is a bunch of people. Mostly adults. Cheering on 20 year old young men playing a child's game.
It is. Silly. Can't be idolatrous. But that's where you most are familiar with this type of joyful noise. That's being commanded here in Psalm 100. And the psalmist.
In some Psalms. They're concerned with the congregation worshiping God. In some Psalms. They're focusing on the individual. Interacting with God. This Psalm is bigger.
It says. No. Make a joyful noise to the Lord. All the earth. This isn't just all the peoples. This isn't every body.
This is all of creation. That's what earth is getting at. Make a joyful noise to the Lord. All the earth. This is similar to when Jesus. Is doing the triumphant entry into the city on Palm Sunday.
And the people start praising him. And the Pharisees get upset at this. And say. You need to stop this. And he says. I tell you.
If these were silent. The very stones would cry out. He's saying. You don't understand. The whole earth. Praises.
Me. Because we're. I'm worthy. Of. This. As we're getting at Psalm 19.
We looked at this summer. The whole earth is testifying. The whole creation is testifying. To the glory. Of God. And Psalm 100 says.
Let's join in that. Let's join in the whole chorus. That's. Joyfully. Praising. God.
Don't miss this. We're called to do this. Joyfully. We're commanded to do this with. Joy. And listen.
This isn't something that we just manufacture. Okay. That's not the kind of joy that's happening here. This is what it means to behold God for who he is. And his glory. And his goodness.
And his beauty. And the. When you behold him. What flows out of you. Is. Joy.
Like if you've ever seen a. Set of new parents. Holding. Their newborn. Child. They are.
Beaming. With joy. They are. Grinning. They are. Excited.
They are. Terrified. There is an. All. In them. You see that.
Now listen. They don't have to. Manufacture that. They're not faking that. That's real. Because they're holding the most.
Beautiful creature. That they've ever seen. In their entire. Lives. And listen. Children are.
Beautiful gifts of God. Okay. They make jokes. But they're wicked sinners. And they are. But don't miss it.
They are beautiful. Amazing. Gifts of God. That reaction. Is how it should be. But our children.
Pale in comparison. To the glory of God. Our God is. More. Beautiful. More.
Glorious. More. Worthy of all. And. Joy. And when you behold him.
For who he is. You get to. See an overflow. Out of you. That is. Joy.
Because you are. Worshipping. The Lord. Okay. So. He says.
Make a joyful noise. To the Lord. All the earth. And then he gives a. Second command. Serve the Lord.
With. Gladness. Serve the Lord. With gladness. Now. Serving with gladness.
May be a category. That we're not familiar with. That's not. Like if you're. If your boss says. All right.
I need you to stay late. Okay. I need you to finish out. The reports. So we close out the quarter.
I need you to. Finish up these cars. So we can get them off the lot. Back to the customers. I need you to stay late. A few hours after.
Five. Most of you aren't like. Yes boss. I'm in. With gladness. I will serve you.
That's just typically. That's not a natural response. For us. Is this joyful. It's almost childlike. Giddy.
Glad. Service. My son. Bridgers. Is at. Like the perfect age.
He's at five. And it's awesome. Because I am like. The greatest to him. He. He thinks I'm the coolest.
He thinks I'm the smartest. He thinks I'm the strongest. Like I. He is. Very excited. When I ask him to come serve me.
I say. Hold this tool. While I'm doing this. He is. Glad. Because his dad is the greatest.
Now. He's in for a huge let down. When he realizes. Like I have the back. Of like a 60 year old man. That like I just.
I'm rarely the smartest person in the room. That includes. In my own home. So like. He's due for a let down. But hear this.
There's no let down with God. There ain't no let down with God. When you serve the Lord. And you realize how good he is. There's a lot of joy. In it.
Because his perfection. Is untainted by any. Perfection. That his power is unhindered. By any weakness. He is.
Inexhaustible. That his love. Is uncorrupted. His grace is unfathomable. His wisdom. Is unsearchable.
You see. All the attributes. Of God. Lined up. And there's. No one in this world.
That comes. Close. So as you follow God. And you're obedient. To his word. And you're obedient.
To where he calls you to. In life. We get to. Serve him. With. This.
Gladness. Because our God. Is truly amazing. Then he issues. Another command. He goes on to say.
Come. Into his presence. With. Singing. Come into his presence. With singing.
He commands. His people. To sing. He commands us. To sing. Now some of you.
Just got really excited. Because like. You're like Matt Freeman. Who just sings. All the time. He does.
He sings. All the time. Y'all. And. And singing. Singing to the Lord.
Is something. That you're all in on. Say yes. Amen. I'm going for it. I will sing to the Lord.
All the time. And some of you are like. Please no. I'd rather not. I'll go do the service stuff. But I don't.
I don't want to sing. And I want to take a few minutes. Just to. Help you see. Why this command is good. For those of you.
That don't really enjoy. Singing. Maybe you don't really sing here. On a Sunday. I want to help you see. Why this is actually.
Really really good. About working through. Some of the reasons. Why you might not sing. And the first is. Is that it's humbling.
It's humbling. Some of you may find it humbling. Because. The when you sing. It sounds more like verse one. Sounds more like a joyful noise.
Coming out. That's. Listen. I'm on your team. All right.
When I sing. It's not the most pleasant sound. In the world. So maybe that's you. You don't like to sing. Because you're just not very.
Good at it. We would never set you up here. On a Sunday. And leave others. In worship. Maybe you don't sing.
Because you think it's silly. That it's. It's a little silly. It's a little childlike. It's a little beneath you. It's just a little like.
Ah. Just I don't. I don't. I'm not all about that. Listen. It's humbling.
Okay. Whether you struggle to sing well. Or whether you. It's a humbling experience. If I sing to my wife. Which I don't do.
Because that doesn't show her love. She wouldn't appreciate that. Okay. But if I sing to her. I position myself beneath her. Right.
I'm humbling myself before her. In singing. So yes. Singing. It is. Humbling.
Okay. It absolutely is childlike. And some of you. And to be honest. And this is anecdotal. I don't have stats to back this up.
But the majority of people that don't sing. In worship. Are men. That's been here. That's been. All the churches that have been a part of.
Is that men are less likely to sing than women. You may have a lot of reasons that you don't sing. But let me tell you why you should. Because if you are willing to. Joyfully praise. 20 year old.
Young men. Throwing a football around on a Saturday. If you are willing to. Joyfully sing at a concert. While the lead singer is singing about ants marching. Or thunder.
Or a pickup truck. And a girl. Which is like a thousand different country songs. Whatever your speed is. If you are willing to join the chorus. At a concert.
If you are willing to. Cheer people online. Who are playing with a fake digital character. Playing another nerd. Halfway across the world. Who has their own digital fake character.
Listen. I don't understand it. I don't have to. You do you. But if you are willing to do that.
And joyfully cheer someone else on. But you are unwilling to sing here. On a Sunday. You have misunderstood reality. No. We need to sing to our Lord.
He is worthy of our worship. We need to joyfully celebrate him. It is humbling. If you are willing to humble yourself. Before anything else. And not the Lord.
We need a reality check. We need to change here. Repent here. And actually sing. And obey this command. The second reason.
It is about your heart. Not your ability. Okay. It is about your heart. Not your ability. You might have a very pleasant voice.
For a church our size. I am unbelievably blown away. At the amount of people. That God has gifted. To lead us. In worship.
It is such an immense. Blessing. But you might have a great voice. But guess what? If your heart is not in the right place. Right?
If it is about self. If it is about how good you sound. Or look before others. The Bible says very bluntly. God hates that. God.
The book of Amos. Says that very bluntly. In Amos 5. It says in verse 21. I hate. I despise your feasts.
I take no delight. In your solemn assemblies. Because the people of God. Were still having assemblies. And still praising God. And bowing down to idols.
And not doing justice. That God had called them to do. They were still living in sin. And acting. Doing the part. Their heart was in the wrong place.
And still doing the actions. Then it goes on in verse 23. To say take away from me. The noise of your songs. To the melody of your hearts. To the melody of your hearts.
I will not listen. That corrects the heart. That sings about themselves. But that also gives us the picture of. That it's truly about the heart. Which means.
If you sound like a bad American Idol audition. Right? That's okay. Because it's not about your ability to sing. It's about your heart's position before the Lord. Third.
It's not about you. The third reason why you should sing. It's not about you. That's one of the things I appreciate about congregational worship. It's not about the individual. It's about the corporate.
I personally. Love the cover. Of all the saints in the room singing. It's great. It means I can sing louder. Right?
The only people who have to endure my singing. Are the ones who sit directly in front of me. So. Sorry. Sing louder. You won't hear me.
But I love that. Because that's how. Listen. I would argue. That's by design. Okay?
When you zoom in on the individual. You're going to hear all the imperfections. But when you zoom out. And you hear the collective. You hear a beautiful chorus. Right?
Like we went to a pastor's conference called. Together for the Gospel. This. In April. And Together for the Gospel has these. The worship at those conferences.
Is a guy on a piano. With a microphone. And 10 to 12 thousand. Pastors and ministry leaders singing. And their albums are on. On Spotify.
And you listen to them. And it's amazing. Dear 10,000. Voices. Praising God. It's poetic.
It's. It's. It's. It's brilliant. It's so. Pleasant to hear.
And I think that's by. Design. I think that's the God view. Of worship. That's what he gets to hear. As the saints come together.
For corporate worship. Which tells you. It's not about you. You get to join in the chorus. Of all the saints. Praising our God.
For who he is. So. Listen. Obey the command. Obey the command. Come into his presence.
With. Singing. Third. Or verse three. Know. The Lord.
He is. God. That's the next command. It says. Know that he is God. Which is one of the ways.
That we do this. Is through word. And prayer. That we want to know. That he is God. And be reminded of this.
On a daily basis. To know. Him. And then he goes on to say. It is he. Who made us.
That's creator. Language. It is he who made us. And we are. His. Now we're switching into more covenantal.
Language. This is the covenant relationship between. God. And Israel. And the Old Testament. And it.
Furthers the idea. When he says. We are his people. And the sheep of his. Pasture. That's God in Israel.
That's the shepherd in his. Sheep. And the truth that's being taught there. Is that we belong. To God. We belong to him.
And that's powerful. For two reasons. First. It means that we are his possession. It means that. If you believe in.
Christ. You belong to him. He possesses. You. The Old Testament. The Old Testament taught us.
In Deuteronomy 7. When it says. For you. Are a people. Holy. To the Lord.
Your God. The Lord. Your God. Has chosen you. To be a people. For his treasured.
Possession. Out of all the peoples. Who are on the face of the earth. That's true. In the new covenant. In the new testament.
In first Peter. When he says. But you are a chosen race. A royal priest. A holy nation. A people.
For his own. Possession. That you may proclaim. The excellencies of him. Who called you out of darkness. Into marvelous.
Light. He. Possesses us. We belong to him. In that way. In the same way.
That my children. Belong to. Me. Like I helped. Make. Them.
And I have to remind them. Sometimes. That my wife and I. We bought everything. In this house. Because they'll fight over toys.
And they'll fight over territory. And it's like. Listen. Stop. We own everything. In this house.
It is on loan to you. To be able to use. For your enjoyment. But we. Bought all of this. You belong to us.
And there's a lot of benefits. That come with them. Belonging to us. We love them. More than anyone else. In this world.
Does. We. We would protect them. More than anyone else. Would want to. Like we.
If someone touches my child. It's on. Right. That's built into parenthood. I'm their biggest fan. Like I get to coach my.
I got to coach my son's. T-ball team. This last spring. And I did my best. And I think I did a decent Job. Of being the coach.
Who's objective. Okay. Who you know. Didn't. Try to favor his son. Over the other kids.
But there were moments. When I watched him hit a ball. And run. Awkwardly. To first base. As fast as he could.
That I was beaming. I was like. Yes. That's my boy. Woo. Like I was going for it.
Because. I'm his biggest fan. I'm my children's. Biggest fan. Because they belong to me. That's built into the relationship.
And it's built into the relationship. Of God and his people. That there's immense. Benefit. And belonging to him. That he possesses us.
That he's in our corner. More than anyone else. That he's for our. Good. And our ultimate good. More than anyone.
Else. That's the first picture. That I think is really powerful. For belonging to him. To being the sheep. And his.
Pasture. The second. Is that we have a place with him. I love that picture of. We are his people. The sheep of his pasture.
That we. We have a place. With the Lord. That we. Belong with him. In that way.
Because many of us. Have been searching for belonging. For a very long time. You felt it in middle school. Where you. Were searching.
For a place to belong. And you kept searching. And. You know. It might change. Middle school.
You know. Is one thing. But. That. Search. Continues.
Throughout life. Looking for a place to belong. Looking for a people to belong to. And I want to tell you. And very. Be very.
Candid. I. I think the church. Is an. Is an. Unbelievable place to belong.
I think our church. Is an unbelievable place to belong. The church. Of Jesus. The local church. Is a beautiful.
Messy. Wonderful. Place. It's a bunch of misfit sheep. That got us called together. As his people.
People. And our shepherd. Is really. Really good. So. You've been searching.
For a place to belong. The people of God. Is a wonderful place. To be. That's how it always has been. All the way back to Psalm 100.
When this was written. That the pasture of the Lord. Is a wonderful place. To belong. If you've ever. If you've ever wandered.
A long distance in life. Trying to find belonging. Hear the encouragement. That Jesus offers here. Then he gives the next commandment.
Verse. Four. He says. Enter his gates with thanksgiving. And his courts with praise. Give.
Thanks to him. Bless. His name. Now. This picture. Is the Old Testament picture of worship.
When they would travel to Jerusalem. To the temple. And the temple courts. Where they'd offer sacrifices. Where they would sing. Praises.
And offer thanks. To God. But the command to give thanks. Is something that. I think is lacking. For many of us.
I think many of us. Forget all the things. That God does for us. And all. I think we forget. How great he really is.
And we. We don't give thanks enough for that. And being as children. That. That happens. Children can be entitled.
Like I. When I was. At the end of the day. End of my junior year of high school. My mom sold her family business. And became a stay at home mom.
And she actually was. She's already. Was a good cook. She was actually going. At some point. For culinary classes.
To further just her skills. Because she wanted to. So my senior year. I had the distinct privilege. Of being able to eat. Some wonderful meals.
It was great. And what would happen. Is I would finish football practice. I would finish baseball practice. And I would call home. And my.
My school was about 30 minutes. From my house. I call home. And she said. What do you want for dinner? And I said.
I don't know. Steak. Your brown rice. That you make. Our secret family recipe. For mac and cheese.
Which was Stouffer's. Which. Is a very underrated mac and cheese. In fact. I would argue. That the Chick-fil-A mac and cheese.
Is just Stouffer's. They sprinkle some cheese on. Okay. For those of you. Love it. I can't back that up.
But. That's my theory. I was like. Can you make it? And she'd say. Yes.
She would. That whole senior year. I got to eat all these great meals. Got to come home. And I'm sure. Every now and then.
I said. Thank you. But at the same time. You just got. I got accustomed to it. For the whole year.
It was very. Great. And that happens with kids. You just. They just get. Like I realized.
As I became an adult. When I finally realized. That I didn't give enough thanks. To my parents. Is when I started having my own kids. And I started watching them.
Do the same things. That I used to do. To go through life. Expecting this. Expecting that. Expecting this.
Getting mad when you don't get this. Getting mad when you don't get that. Rarely saying thanks. And I'm trying to. I'm working. We're discipling our kids.
I'm trying to coach them. Trying to say. Hey listen. Your mama just did that. Thank her. Say.
Look at her eye contact. Thank you. Thank you. But that doesn't naturally flow out of them. But here's what I've realized.
As a parent. I don't do it for the thanks. My wife doesn't do it for the thanks. We do it because we love them. We love our kids. And we sacrifice for them.
And we do all these things for them. Not to get applause. But because we immensely love them. And that is how our God is with us. And then some. God loves us.
Deeply. It is all the things for us. And all the ways that are seen and unseen. Because he loves us. And we're missing out. If we don't thank him.
Thank the God who gave us life. Who gave us existence. Thank the God who gives us daily bread. That we take for granted. Thank the God who gives us different abilities and talents. And if you're a Christian.
Thank the God who gave himself up for you. Thank the God who in Christ gives us immense spiritual blessings. Thank the God who gives us an unbelievable unending eternity of joyous praise before him. And we have unbelievable benefits. Endless benefits. That he's worthy of thanks for.
It is good for our souls. The people of God. They had to come to Jerusalem. To be in the presence of God. To offer thanks to him. And in Christ.
We don't have to do that anymore. If you believe in Jesus. You can wake up each day. And you can thank the Lord. You can go to sleep each night. And you can thank the Lord.
One of the things. I quote Philippians 4.6 quite often. Do not be anxious in anything but through prayer. And supplication. With thanksgiving. Make your requests to be known to God.
I focus on a lot of times. Do not be anxious. Which is a powerful part of that. And make your requests. Which is a powerful part of that. But with thanksgiving.
Often gets missed. Our prayers should be lined. With thankfulness. I want you to do something this week. I want you to set a timer for ten minutes. Grab a pen and a pad.
And for the first five minutes. I want you to write out. Thanking God for who he is. Just who he is. God you're merciful. God you're loving.
God you are the creator of all things. God you are gracious. God you are a God of justice. I want you to just take five minutes. And write out. Thanking God for who he is.
And in the last five minutes. I want you to thank God for what he has done for you. Specifically. Thank God for the things he does for you. On a regular basis. The big things he's done for you in life.
The small things. Just take ten minutes. And you will start to line that paper. With all kinds of reasons. And you're not even scratching the surface. We're called to give.
We're commanded to give thanks to our God. Alright. He gives command after command. After command. After command. To help us worship God.
And the way that we were designed to. And then he says what? Verse five. For. That's purpose. For.
The Lord is. Good. Good. His steadfast love. Endures. Forever.
And his faithfulness to all. Generations. The Lord. Is. Good. Now that's hard for us.
In the English language. Because goodness. Is kind of a very generic. Vague. Category. Just is.
Try to define it. Try to use it. I can say. That the. Pork chop. Dinner.
At. Bodhi Thai. In Lexington. Or. Five Points. At Saludas.
Either one of those places. You want a fancy dinner. You get to the seared pork chop. With the sides. They're different. Different places.
But that is good. That is a good. Meal right there. I can say that the drum solo. And in the air tonight. By Phil Collins.
Do do. Do do. Do do. Do do. Do do. Do.
That is. Good. And it is. And then I can say. The Lord is good. And go.
Oh. What? Those aren't on the same level. Right? Now. A few of you.
Are going to want to fight the good fight. And say. I will never say anything is good. Somebody is going to ask me. Are you good? You don't even know what good is.
Listen. It is a losing. It is a losing battle. Okay? The English language. It is just not.
It is kind of a mutt language. It is not very good with words. Or. When you hear. The Lord is good. You elevate that.
To a category. Of spiritual. Goodness. That has. That is completely untainted. With evil.
There is no sin. In that. Goodness. There is no failure. In that. Goodness.
There is only purity. And perfection. In that. Goodness. When you are. When you are thinking of the attributes of God.
And you are just saying. God. You are so. Faithful. You are so. Gracious.
Like. One of the things that just fall back on us. I don't. You are just so. Good. And it is just almost a catch all.
For everything that he is. He is just. Good. And then he goes on to say. His steadfast love endures forever. And his faithfulness.
To all generations. Now. Those phrasings. Are some of the more. Repeated phrasings. Throughout the scriptures.
You hear all the time. His steadfast love endures forever. His faithfulness to all generations. And what is powerful here. Is the psalmist. Wasn't even able to fully.
Realize. What that meant. He wasn't even fully. Able to realize. How that was going to be fulfilled. When God inspired this in him.
Because. But this side of the cross. And this side of the empty tomb. We know what it means. That his steadfast love endures forever. And his faithfulness.
To all generations. Because the goodness of God. And his steadfast love. And his faithfulness. Was perfectly displayed in Christ. That Christ left the heavens.
And took on flesh. And dwelt among us. That he fulfilled the law perfectly. That he went to the cross. To be crushed for our rebellion. That he walked out of the empty tomb.
To make. To give us a way. To be partakers. Of this beautiful promise. Of this beautiful. Steadfast love.
He was faithful to us. Who were faithless. We understand. What this means. And we get to. Anchor this deep.
Into our soul. Over and over again. When we come across Psalms. Like this. When you look at this Psalm. And it's brief.
Five verses. It's so basic. In fact. The phrases in this Psalm. Are repeated. All over the Psalms.
You can flip and flip. And see back and forth. You're going to see this. All over the Psalms. So why at the century Mark.
Of the Psalm book. Did God. Inspire such a succinct. Five verse picture. Like this. I'd argue.
It is because these truths. Need to be. Anchored deeper. Into our soul. They need to be sung. Into our soul.
The Psalms were songs. They were prayers. They were meant to be repeated. Over and over again. So they could be.
Anchored deeper. Into our souls. That's what singing does. Y'all. Singing. Anchors.
Truths. Into our soul. There's a reason why. A whole generation. Of baby boomers. Have the philosophy.
You know. You can't always get. What you want. But if you try sometimes. You know. You might find.
You get what you need. You know why. Because the philosopher. Mick Jagger. Wrote that. And they sang it.
A thousand times. They sang that truth. Deep into their soul. That's what singing does. It sings. Truth.
Deep into your soul. And we need Psalms. Like Psalms. 100. To be sung. To be recited.
Deep into our soul. That's good for us. Y'all. When you can't remember scripture. Sometimes. You can't remember a song.
I got. When I'm struggling. With sin. And suffering. I might not be able to remember Romans 8. My mind might be all over the place.
But I can remember rock of ages. Cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood. From my wounded side. Which flowed.
Be of sin. The double cure. Saved from wrath. And made me pure. I can remember that. And that reminds me.
Of how good our savior is. We need this y'all. We need truth. Sung deeper into our soul. We need these Psalms recited. Deeper into our soul.
Like Matt Freeman. Our pastor of worship. Who's over here in the keys. Like he spends time y'all. And he has help sometimes. With some different volunteers.
From our worship ministry. But he writes the liturgy. And he's thoughtful about it. And y'all. This liturgy that we recite. Every Sunday.
It gets repeated. Like Psalm 100 gets repeated. Once every two or three months. Which is going to blow. Some of your minds. Because some of you.
Miss that every week. Because you roll in late. But if you came in on time. You'd hear Psalm 100. Once every two to three months. And you hear it over.
And over. And over again. And that truth. Would get sung deeper. And deeper into your soul. And listen.
We need that. We need to know the command. To make a joyful noise. The Lord. We need to know the command. To serve the Lord.
With gladness. We need to know the command. That we're called to come. Into his presence. With singing. We need to know.
That he is God. We need to realize. And let it sink into our hearts. That we belong to him. And all the benefits. That come along with that.
Because he's good. Because his steadfast love. Endures forever. And his faithfulness. For all generations. We need that.
And we're going to do that. As the band comes up. We're just going to sing. Two more songs. And I want us. To sing.
I want us to sing. And grow in this. To sing these truths. Deep into our soul. Listen. You may not know the songs.
I would encourage you. If you want to know the songs. Go talk to Matt. After worship. It gets in your playlist. It can send you some songs.
That you can sing regularly. To be familiar with them. But we need this. We need to grow. In actually. Worshiping.
The Lord. We need to grow. In singing. Praises. To our God. And actually.
Singing. We need to grow. In thankfulness. Thanking the Lord. On a regular basis. For all.
Who he is. And everything. That he does. For us. We need to grow. In worshiping.
Our God. Because he's. Worthy. Of it. Now some of you.
May be checking. This out. Maybe checking out. Jesus. Maybe. Feel like an outsider.
Listening into an insider. Conversation. And I just want to say. Very clearly to you. If you are exploring. Our faith.
You don't know where you stand. Before the Lord. I want you to hear. What he says. Very clearly. There's an invitation.
Here to be a sheep. At his pasture. There's a place. For you to belong. Amongst the people. Of God.
Our shepherd. Is unbelievably good. He's unbelievably loving. And he loves you. So much.
That the shepherd. Came and laid down. His life. For you. So that you could experience.
This endless joy. This endless love. This unbelievable faithfulness. There's a place for you. In the people of God. And the invitation is there.
And my hope is. Is that as we sing this morning. You'd so clearly hear. The invitation of our shepherd. And that you would place. Your faith.
In him. Because he's worthy of it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father. Thank you so much. For the Psalms.
Thank you. For a couple of months. Just to gaze upon. In your beauty. In your glory. In your faithfulness.
God help us worship. Help us be a people. That are so blown away. That are so enamored. With who you are. That the overflow of that.
Is this obedience. In Psalm 100. God I pray. If there's anyone here. That does not know you. That doesn't know.
How good of a shepherd you are. That this morning. They would. That you would break down. The doors of their heart. And they would believe.
We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Psalm 115: God > Idols
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. See, I clean up well, you guys. All right, so before we get started, it's an exciting day when we get to baptize anyone, and especially our kids. I just want to plug two resources. Some of the things we do in family discipleship, in our road mapping curriculum, which you can find online, is we plug books that we think are helpful. I have one right here.
This is the whole story for the whole family. It's a year of Jesus-centered devotions. This one's really helpful because it has really easy-to-do devotions, actually has some fun activities to go along with it. So if you've got kids from three to about nine, ten years old, this is a great book. I actually have two free copies of this, so if you want one, come talk to me, and I'll give it to you. And then we also have, out there at our spiritual formation bookshelf, the New City Catechism.
This is 52 questions and answers that help guide the process of just helping our kids know who Jesus is and what the gospel is. So I would encourage you, if you would like to go grab those, those are free. We've got plenty of those. So we have been in the Psalms this summer. We have one more Psalm next week, and then we're going to be in the book of Jude, which is four weeks, and then we'll be in the book of Exodus. So we're in Psalm 115 today, which is on page 293, and your blue Bibles that are around you.
If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that. That is our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible that you can read. But we'll be in Psalm 115 today. So my wife and I both like disaster movies, okay?
So day after tomorrow type stuff, it gets even better, the cheesier it gets. So like, you know, geostorm, computer, controlling the weather, that kind of stuff is really fun for us. I also personally like satire. When satire is done well, I like it. And finally, the two genres melded together last year for a movie that came out on Netflix called Don't Look Up. So caveats, it's got some language in it, and I always do my research when it's rated or ahead of time, because it's got some sketch stuff at the end, which I just cut off and never watched.
But I wanted to see how they took satire and combined this with one of my wife's and I's favorite genres. And the whole premise is, is that an asteroid is barreling down towards the earth. And in typical asteroid style movies, you would expect they'd come together, they'd figure it out, and they'd save the day. Bruce Willis would go up there, and they'd blow this thing up. But this movie asked the question, what if that didn't happen?
What if we weren't good at this? What if our dysfunctional society right now just couldn't handle this? And it plays on a bunch of different themes. But one of the things that I found to be incredibly telling is it asked the question, what if we're too disinterested? What if we don't care? What if we're willing to ignore reality, and just because we like, you know, social media and the movie, they're too busy, you know, scrolling on their phones to care?
What if there's too many things to entertain ourselves with, too many things to focus on? And that aspect of satire, I truly appreciate it. Because you could easily apply that to our faith. Like a few weeks ago, we were in Psalm 19, and Psalm 19 has two big ideas, that creation declares the glory of God. That it points to a creator, and it declares his glory. And then later on in the Psalm, it talks about the scriptures.
How the scriptures give us this specific picture of who God is. That it tells us beautiful truths. And when you combine the two, you see we have a God who definitely made this universe. And the scriptures tell us who this God is. And we, as especially Southern Christians, can listen to that sermon, can read that text and go, yes, amen. We can say we believe in God.
The majority of Southerners would even say they believe in Jesus. But the reality is, is we live like that's not true. We're going to see in the Psalm, it says, our God is in the heavens. And we live like that's not a reality. Because we're so easily enamored. So easily in love with created things.
That our attention and our focus and our affection, and ultimately our worship, is on lesser created things. Ignoring the reality of our creator God. To our own demise. That is what this Psalm is going to look at today. It's going to speak directly to us. Calling us out for falling in love with lesser created things.
And not beholding our creator God for who he is. So we're going to see that picture and how that applies to us. So let me pray for us and then we'll jump in. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would open our hearts to receive your word. That we would be challenged. That we would see you as glorious.
And you'd help us walk this out in faith and belief and repentance and obedience. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so. Psalm 115 is in a series of Psalms. A series of five Psalms called the Hallelujah Psalms.
Okay? So thematically they all have the same kind of Hallelujah is in its most base form is praise Yahweh. So it's praise the Lord. So that's what's showing up in these Psalms. And at the very last one in this section, Psalm 115, is a Psalm that they would have actually sang together at Passover meal. So at the Passover meal, they would have sat down and had good food and good wine.
And they'd come together and then they'd sing this joyous, challenging Psalm. Starting in verse 1. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory. For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. So it's this joyous beginning.
Not to us, O Lord. No, no, no. Not to us, but to your name give glory. Why? Because of, for the sake of, your steadfast love and your faithfulness. Because you are steadfast in your love towards us, O God, when we don't deserve it.
Because you are faithful towards us, O God, when we are faithless. Not to us, O Lord, but to you be the glory. And that is joyously sung against the backdrop of those who taught them. So we pick up in verse 2. Why should the nations say, where is their God? So, that is, the nations is the Gentiles.
So at this point in redemption history, the Gentiles are outside the covenant of God. This is non-Jewish people. These are the surrounding nations around the Jewish people. They don't worship the God of Israel. They don't believe and they're taunting and they're saying, where is your God? And this is where the psalmist starts to get a little snarky.
See, this Psalm has some don't look up type of vibes to it. It's very satirical. It's very snarky. It's very sarcastic. And this is when the psalmist begins to answer that taunt and fire back in verse 3. Our God is in the heavens.
He does all that He pleases. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. He is not like your false gods, O nations. He's not a God that is tangible and created so that you can see. No, no, no.
Our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. We don't have to do a song and dance to get His attention. And He doesn't step to our desires. That's not how our God works. He will not be coerced.
He will not be cornered. He will not be convinced. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. He is not like your gods. And then He goes on to dial up the snark even more.
And He starts to criticize and belittle and make fun of their false idols. Verse 4 and following. Their idols are silver and gold. The work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak. Eyes but do not see.
Ears but do not hear. Noses but do not smell. They have hands but do not feel. Feet but do not walk. And they do not make a sound in their throat. He is belittling them.
He is comedically belittling their false gods. He says your gods are precious. They are adorable. Look at His little mouth and His little nose. It has got little hands and little feet. I bet you put that beside your bed table at night.
That is adorable. He is absolutely stomping on false idols. He says no, no, no. Your God is not like our God. Our God is in the heavens. You have these false gods.
And it is an absurd picture. This is what Elijah picks up in 1 Kings 18. Belittling the false gods. In 1 Kings 18, he has a showdown with the prophets of Baal. Baal is one of the most prominent false gods in the Old Testament. And at this point, the prophets of Baal have pretty much taken over Israel.
And Elijah goes, all right, let's go. Let's go to Mount Carmel. Let's have a little showdown. We are going to set up an altar. Put a sacrifice on there. We are going to see which God is real.
We are going to figure out which God is going to come. Come and light this sacrifice on fire. And then in 1 Kings 18, it says in verse 26 and following, And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it, and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us. So the prophets of Baal are calling out, Baal, answer us, answer us. But there was no voice.
No one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. They started doing their little dance, going around the altar, limping around. And one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Verse 27, And at noon, Elijah mocked them, saying, Cry aloud, for he is a God. Maybe he can't hear you.
You should cry louder. Got to get his attention. He says, Cry aloud, for he is a God. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, which is a cleaned up way of saying, using the bathroom. Is your God, is he going to the bathroom? Where is he?
The mocking is on point. He says, Or is he on a journey? Or perhaps he is asleep, and must be awakened. Is he taking a nap? Go get him. Surely, and this, this does not sit well with them, and they get angrier.
And verse 28, it says, And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after the custom, after their custom was swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation. But there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention. Why?
Because Baal isn't real. He's not the one true God. And then Elijah goes on to, say, step aside. They put water all over the altar. Calls down fire from heaven, and boom, lights it up. And that's usually where the children's stories, book Bible version, kind of just stops.
If you want to take it further, and even do some dramatic reenacting, he goes and slaughters all the prophets of Baals. So, fun stuff to do in your household. More family discipleship advice for you. It's an absurd picture. That's the way Elijah's getting at. Your gods aren't real.
Bowing down to this is an absurdity. When I was in, years ago, I was in India, and I was studying Hinduism as a part of the study of God program. And I went and traveled and looked at Hindu temples. Went to Hindu temples and watched. I watched people bow down to false idols. This made, decorated idol with incense burning.
I watched them and studied how they worshipped false idols. And when you see that picture, you see, man, how ridiculous is this? That you're bowing down, seeking for this to provide, for this to take care of you. what he's hitting at over and over again here is that idols are lifeless and they are dumb. No. Our God is in the heavens. So he gives this heavy, intense critique, and then in verse 8, he gives an absolutely helpful warning. those who make them become like them.
So do all who trust in them. What he highlights is an unbelievable truth. What you worship, you will become. What you worship, you will ultimately become. And if you worship these dead, lifeless objects, then you will receive spiritual death that comes along with it. You'll be spiritually deadened by it.
Now, reading this through the lens of a 21st century Westerner, you might think, good, glad we don't have little carved idols in our bedrooms. Am I right? Might want to distance ourselves from this. Might look at the Hindu practices of bowing down to false idols that still happen today and think, good thing that's not us. But the reality is, is that we do this, we just do it in a far more sophisticated manner.
This is what Ezekiel, and the prophet Ezekiel is picking up in Ezekiel 41, and it's going to be developed throughout the rest of the scriptures. In Ezekiel 41, he says, it says, Son of man, these men have taken idols into their hearts. Taken idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? And then in verse 6, he says, Therefore, save the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God, repent and turn away from your idols and turn away your faces from all abominations.
It is here that we see a theme that gets picked up and developed throughout the rest of the scriptures that idolatry is worshiping anything in the place of God. God. It's heart idolatry. It's choosing anything and beholding that, loving that, worshiping that in the place of God. This is why John Calvin says that our hearts are idol-making factories. That we easily, because of our fallenness and our flesh, can make idols out of anything.
That we would worship anything in the place of God. We are designed to worship. That's how humanity is designed. And ultimately, we're designed to worship the Lord. But we reject that for the tangible things that are right in front of us.
And the psalmist is warning us. If you worship idols, you will become like them. For the one who worships money through greed, you ultimately, if you worship this, you will become like that dead object. Your heart will be hardened towards generosity. You will sacrifice and sever relationships with friends and church family and family. You'll sacrifice all of that because the goal is to make money, make money, make money, stacks on stacks on stacks.
If I can get that, then I will be happy. And ultimately, if you pursue this and you worship this, you will become Ebenezer Scrooge or Walter White. And it will ultimately end up to your own demise, hardening your own heart, deadened to what is ultimately good. If you bow down before the altar of pleasure, you will follow the road of sensuality until ultimately you don't have a taste, you have a distaste for God. and you fill that in with drugs or porn or explanation or whatever. But you follow that road and what happens is you eventually just, you don't want God.
I've watched people who went down that road and then ultimately they're just like, I don't care anymore. And it deadens you spiritually until you're numb and you don't want God. I stumbled upon a quote from a Sri Lankan theologian that I have never seen before until this week. His name is Vinath Ramachandra. And I thought he nailed it. He said, It is not surprising that those who worship technology eventually develop machine-like personalities.
Mark Zuckerberg. Right? I mean, develop machine-like personalities, emotionally underdeveloped, shallow and the relationships driven by a desire to control and quantify every human situation, unable to appreciate beauty and value in anything outside the artificial. What a unbelievable critique on this cultural moment. We bow down to social media, we spend all of our time and our energy in the artificial. this is going to get worse as the meta comes on board and everything else that comes with that. He says, No wonder.
No wonder we have shallow relationships. We're driven to control and quantify every human situation. You see that in kids that are on devices all the time. You see that in adults who have lost the ability to have a nuanced discussion with anyone or just lobbing grenades like crazy. Because you've bowed down before this idol over and over and over again and it's starting to make you in its image. He goes on to say, Those who worship sex, on the other hand, are incapable of trust and commitment in their human relationships and hide a lonely existence behind a mask of superficial adulthood.
Benoth is throwing bows. Man, he is going for it. I mean, he is absolutely, he can go on and on with this. He is absolutely showing us what the psalmist is teaching us that idols will ultimately create you in their image. You no longer will be conforming to the image of our creator. When you bow down to idols, it makes you in their image, ultimately to our own spiritual destruction.
You see why the psalmist has this aggressive, polemic, sarcastic defense, this aggressive nature against idolatry? There's so much at stake in the human soul. There was so much at stake for Israel as ultimately it was their own destruction because they worshipped idols. There's so much at stake for us because our flesh loves it. Our flesh loves idols. A couple months ago, I was talking with one of our pastors, I was talking with Chet, and I was just, I was confessing some sin.
I just was like, man, I'm just, I am, my flesh loves sin. Like I just, like I'm struggling right now. And he had a very helpful picture that will stick with me for probably ever. He said, you gotta see it for what it is. He said, it's, it's meth. And I was like, yes, it is meth.
Absolutely is. Have you ever seen before and after pictures of what meth does to people? They're a normal, functioning human being and then a few years, the before and after, they, it's conformed them into this horrible image as they bow down to this drug over and over and over again and it's stolen the life out of them. Yes! He knew how to get to me. I was like, that's absolutely it.
It is like that. It spiritually decays and destroys. That's what sin does. That's what idolatry does. So he gives that aggressive warning and then he pivots to beholding who our God is.
In verse 9 and following, he says, O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. He's gonna repeat that three times. Their help and their shield. That is kingship defense language. Okay?
He's saying, our God is our help and our shield. He's the one that defends us. He's the one that provides for us. He's the one that takes care of us. O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, verse 10, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. The house of Aaron was a part of the tribe of Levi. This is where the priesthood came from, was the house of Aaron. So what he's highlighting there is the priesthood is bowing down to foreign idols.
They're falling prey to this. Which absolutely fits pretty one-to-one with our current culture. Because the priesthood throughout America and those who plan to be pastors literally are leading people into worshipping idols, worshipping success, worshipping money for the sake of lining their own pockets and getting a G4 and all that mess. we're not much different. Verse 11, you who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. He's saying, you who fear the Lord, everyone who fears God, trust in the Lord.
He is their help and their shield. He's like, believe this. Believe this. He will protect you. He is better. He will protect you in the way that idols cannot.
And then he moves from this repeated promise to a repeated blessing. He says in verse 12 and following, the Lord has remembered us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great.
He's saying, this Lord, this God will bless us. Listen, Israel, Aaron, everyone who fears the Lord. And this is a deep, spiritual blessing. This is not a shallow, material one. Believing that ultimate hope is found in material blessings that will ultimately end up in a landfill one day. No, this is deeper than that.
This is the kind of blessing that resounds into generational blessings. Verse 14, he says, may the Lord give you children, or give you increase, you and your children. May this blessing resound through you, to your children, to your children's children. What a powerful legacy of faith that we might uphold when we behold who our God is. This is in verse 15, may you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. The heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.
It's highlighting a truth that God is in the heavens. He rules and reigns. But as we see in Genesis 1, he entrusts earth. He gives us the ability to have dominion over the earth. That's why it says, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over it.
That's the truth that he's highlighting there. And then in verse 17 and 18, the final two verses, he says, the dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. He says, those who ultimately worship idols, those who find their hope and satisfaction and fulfillment and idols, well, they ultimately will receive what is coming, death. And the picture we see of that is judgment.
He says, but we, we will trust the Lord. We will praise him. We won't go down in silence. No. We will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord.
All right. So this Psalm is noticeably different than many of the Psalms we've tackled before. Sarcasm shows up a little bit in the scriptures. Aggressive defenses like this show up a little bit. This is different than some of the Psalms we have covered. And he is hammering one central truth over and over again.
Idols are dumb. Idols are ridiculous. Idols are not worthy of worship. Our God is in the heavens. Behold him. Worship him.
He is greater than idols. But the problem for Israel and the problem really for us is that idols are very tangible. Idols are, you can see them, you can touch them. It's the reason why they bow down to golden calves and Asherah poles. They could grab a hold of it. The psalmist says that's foolishness.
That's foolishness. Our God is so much bigger than that. Can't you see? Our God is in the heavens. Don't bow down to these objects. Don't worship anything in the place of God.
And we may be more sophisticated. We may be more sophisticated than this time period. But we are not smarter. Not at all. We're very much like them. We may, listen, Southern Christians, we may know the Bible.
We may know stories about Jesus. We may know the right things to say. You know, all kinds of things about who our God is. But to us, He's not as tangible. Not saying that Jesus is embodied. He certainly is.
But He reigns at the right hand of God the Father. But idols are tangible. They're right in front of us. And our flesh says, I want it. Money is tangible. Put your hands on it.
Pull up your app and watch your bank account. Your crypto wallet. Whatever it is that you do. You can see that. It's material. You can purchase things that your heart desires with that.
Amazon packages are concrete and tangible. Right? I thought about this this week. I was like, you know what? I'm going to see if I can total up how much we spent at Amazon this year. So I thought I could go on Amazon and look at the order details and stuff in that section and see.
But shocker, they don't let you know that. Because I don't want you to know how much you've spent there. Because it's a lot. That's tangible. It's something you can get in two days or less. That's tangible.
You can put your hands on that. Social media is tangible. You can spend hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours obsessing, worrying, getting stirred up, getting angry, getting jealous. That's tangible. Children, spouses, relationships, friendships, success, comforts, you name it, our heart can make it and we can bow down to it. It's tangible.
It's right in front of us. And our hearts will go after it until little by little our affections, our desire and our worship towards God is slowly turned towards created objects and we're more deadened and more deadened and more deadened until spiritually it's like, I don't want God. and then we reject Him just as the nation of Israel did. One of the things we talk about in our church is the concept of deep idols. The concept of deep idols and if you want to, we have sermons that expound on this more, you can go on our website and you can go into our sermons and do it in the search bar and you can type in deep idols and hear some more teaching on this but the premise is is that we try to look at the sin beneath the sin, the motivation beneath the motivation, the idol beneath the idol and there are four main deep idols, four main categories that you can funnel most of our sin into.
That's comfort, control, power, and approval. And you can literally take any concrete idol that you'd bow down to and you can run it through those categories and see, like if it's money, not something you obsess over, you think about, you live your life for, you can try to determine which deep idols is this rooted in? Is it approval? Do I make lots of money so that I can be liked? So that people will accept me?
So that I will get claps in adoration? Or it's control. Maybe you grew up with less money and you said, I ain't doing this anymore. I will absolutely control my future and every dollar, every paycheck is another opportunity to control your destiny because you've rejected ultimately that God is sovereign over your future but you can control it with your hands. Maybe it's, maybe it's power. You make money because that gives you influence.
That gives you the ability to peddle and to meddle and to manipulate because it puts you the one in power. Maybe it's comfort. That you worship money because it brings the comforts in this life. You can buy the next car or the next house or the next vacation until you fill your life with comforts that never truly satisfy you. Listen, we're not much different. We're not.
The Psalm is for us and we we have to see idols for what they are. We have to see it for what it is. They're as healthy as meth. They're as life-giving as the wood from your kitchen table. They're as secure as a house that is built right on the top of beach sand. They are not better.
Idols are dumb. They're not worth pursuing. They're not worth worshipping. Trust in the Lord. He is ultimately worthy of our worship. With Him comes blessing and promises.
Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. The psalmist is pleading with us. See God as better than idols. And when you start to believe this. Listen, when you start to when God starts to unlock this truth in your soul.
When you start to realize that what you've worshipped doesn't satisfy. That it never truly brings fulfillment. Whatever that is for you. And when you've examined your soul and you realize that God by His grace shows how infected we are with idol worship. How we bow down to so many other things through our attention and our affections and our desire and our worship. when you see that for what it is your one logical response should be how can the God who created everything who is the only one worthy of my worship how could He possibly love me in spite of all of my rejection in spite of all of the worship that I've given towards lesser created things.
And it is in that moment that you can discover the goodness of the gospel. And the goodness of the gospel is that God knew that. God knows all of that. He knows all the idols that you bow down to. He sees all of it. And still He sent His Son to die for you.
And still He sent His Son to rise for us. And still He came to His Colossians 2 teaches cancel the record of debt the record of sin that's done against us with its legal demand. And His kindness as Romans 2 teaches leads us to repentance. Away from lesser created things back to our Creator. Our God does all that He pleases. And the good news of the gospel is that it pleases Him for you to worship Him.
And it pleases Him for you to desire Him. And it pleases Him to see you repent of idols because they are not worthy of your worship. He is.