God’s Impressive Presence
(Exodus 19:10-25)
Whenever we "camp out" on certain verses or pick an emphasis of Scripture to the exclusion of the rest of the Word, we are in trouble.
2 Tim. 3:16-17 tell us that all Scriptures are inspired; they also tell us that all Scriptures are profitable for doctrine! That means we need to develop our doctrinal positions by searched the entire spectrum of Scripture. It is not just completely inspired, it is completely profitable and completely useful for doctrine.
Almost every false system specializes in sections of Scripture. Without integrating individual verses into the whole, here are just a few errors we might develop:
You have to give all your possessions to the poor in order to be saved.
Jesus was a sinner "Why do you call me good?"
Jesus is just a man but not God.
Jesus is God but not man.
You are not saved until you are baptized.
It is okay to kill pagans like the Jews did the Canaanites.
Being a Christian means being a pacifist.
You are saved by faith alone, even if it is a dead faith.
You are saved by works alone, even apart from Christ.
You are saved by a combination of faith and works.
Hell is a place of darkness but not fire.
The lost are annihilated.
A Christian who dies is not conscious until the resurrection.
The Lord’s Supper and Baptism are unnecessary to salvation.
It is good to be ignorant and unlearned.
We should baptize people in the name of dead relatives.
We should not see a doctor.
If I focused on a few select verses, I could make a case for any of these things. And this is precisely what cults and false religions do.
The same is done with God’s nature.
Many people believe our God is a loving God, and He is. But some of these people do not believe our God is an angry God, a holy God, and a God whose wrath is to be feared.
In Exodus 19, we see a picture of God that presents part of the equation as to Who God is and what He is like. It is not the entire equation, just part of it.
In verse 9, God told Moses that He would affirm Moses’ as God’s true representative by allowing all Israel to hear God talking to Him…
Probably like Paul’s experience on the Road to Damascus; the others with Paul could hear the loud noise of Jesus talking to Paul, but could not understand what He was saying to him.
Main Idea: We experience God in many ways, for He our God has many facets.
I. We Experience Him As the God Who Demands RESPECT (10-15)
1. By PREPARING ourselves to meet God (10-11a)
• Get clean…God looks on the heart, but teaching a lesson --God wants us spiritually clean… confession…discipline…
• Also demonstrates that the Law could only clean them on the outside…our concern is not ritual cleanness, but the condition of our hearts…OT both
[Source: Chris Talton, Sermoncentral]
• Consecrate means "the devoting or setting apart of anything to the worship or service of God." (Easton)
• In a sense, a communion service is supposed to be such a time for us…
2. By recognizing God’s SEPARATENESS (11b)
• They could only approach God on His terms
• Hearing God was not like visiting a human being…
• That’s why we reverence His Name and do not misuse it; that is why we do not refer to God as "the man upstairs."
• He has to come down to us…
• God condescends, "to descend to the level of one considered inferior; lower oneself…"
3. By respecting God’s BOUNDARIES (12)
• Put to death if violated
4. By accepting His INVITATION
• When the trumpet sounds
5. By PURITY (14-15)
• Much of the Law deals with ritual cleanness
• The Jews were not expected to maintain ritual cleanness except for some of the holidays…
• This was one such occasion
• So anything that would make one ritually unclean had to be avoided, including physical relations…
Main Idea: We experience God in many ways, for He our God has many facets.
II. We Experience Him As A Consuming FIRE (16-25)
1. God REVEALED Himself Thusly on Mount Sinai (16-19)
? Thick CLOUD
? LIGHTNING
? THUNDER
? Loud Trumpet-like VOICE
2. God Graciously WARNS (20-25)
Walter Kaiser comments, "The triple emphasis (vv. 12-13, 21-22, 25) is a standard literary practice when the text wants us to notice an important subject. Thus the boundary between the human and the divine was not to be taken lightly by mortals."
The priests were the descendents of Aaron who already understood their calling based upon God "leaking out" preview information about the Law in Exodus 15:25b
3. This THEME is found throughout Scripture
"See, the Name of the LORD comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire." Isaiah 30:27
This is not unique to the Old Testament
" for our God is a consuming fire…" Hebrews 12:29
2 Thessalonians 1:7b-8 reads, "… when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."
"Awe is one thing: the submission of the will is another." (Ron Chadwick)
Main Idea: We experience God in many ways, for He our God has many facets.
III. We Experience Him As Our GRACIOUS Father (Hebrews 12:18-24)
Here is another example of how we cannot understand the New Testament very well without grasping the Old…our Exodus text is foundational to this text in Hebrews…
A. Beyond the FEARFUL Mount Sinai (18-21)
B. We have come to the HEAVENLY Mount Zion (22)
C. We experience angels and JUSTIFIED men (22-23)
D. We have come to the Father through JESUS (24)
Main Idea: We experience God in many ways, for He our God has many facets.
Note: This is the last in the "Desert of Disciple Series" for now; I hope (in about two years, around 2009) to do Part 2, but that remains to be seen. Ed
