Pastor John Ortberg writes about the time he and his wife went fly-fishing for the first time: He says:
“Our guides told us that ‘to catch a fish you have to think like a fish.’ They said that to a fish life is about the maximum gratification of appetite at the minimum expenditure of energy. To a fish, life is ‘see a fly, want a fly, eat a fly.’ A rainbow trout never really reflects on where his life is headed. A girl carp rarely says to a boy carp, I don't feel you're as committed to our relationship as I am. I wonder, do you love me for me or just for my body? Fish are just a collection of appetites. A fish is a stomach, a mouth, and a pair of eyes.”
Ortberg says, “While we were on the water, I was struck by how dumb the fish are. Hey, swallow this. It's not the real thing; it's just a lure. You'll think it will feed you, but it won't. It'll trap you. If you were to look closely, fish, you would see the hook. You'd know once you were hooked that it's just a matter of time before the enemy reels you in.
“You'd think fish would wise up and notice the hook or see the line. You'd think fish would look around at all their fish friends who go for a lure and fly off into space and never return. But they don't. It is ironic. We say fish swim together in a school, but they never learn.
“Aren't you glad we're smarter? (John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be, Zondervan, 2010,, pp. 137-38; www.PreachingToday.com).
Or are we? How often do people get caught by their own appetites, which the enemy uses to reel them in? Do you find yourself hooked by sin? Then I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 34, Exodus 34, where God restores a whole nation hooked by sin.
Exodus 34:1-4 The LORD said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone (ESV).
Moses had broken the first tablets of stone, containing the 10 Commandments, because Israel had broken God’s Law. Now, in response to Moses’ intercession, God forgives the nation and gets ready to renew the covenant they had broken on new tablets of stone.
Exodus 34:5-9 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance” (ESV).
God reveals His character—His name—and Moses responds with worship and prayer. In light of God’s mercy and grace, Moses asks for God’s presence, God’s pardon, and God’s possession of the nation as His own.
Tell me. How can Moses pray for such bold requests? It’s because God reminds Moses about the character of the God he serves. God had revealed His character when he first gave the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:5-6. There, He talked about visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children first and then described His steadfast love. Here, He talks about His steadfast love first, adding a much fuller description, before he describes visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children.
In light of Israel’s recent rebellion, God wants to emphasize that He still loves them, even though their sin will have serious consequences for three or four generations to come. So, if you are hooked by sin and want God to set you free, start there.
REMEMBER WHO GOD IS.
Recall His loving and just character. Recollect His grace and integrity.
Remember how much God loves you. Remember that He is merciful and gracious (vs.6). That is to say, God is deeply moved when He thinks about you and favors you even when you don’t deserve it. Remember also that God takes a long time to get angry and remains loyally in love with His people for a thousand generations (verses 6-7).
The Hebrew word for “steadfast love” is hesed, which is rich in meaning. It speaks of a God who keeps his promises to us. It speaks of a God who is faithful and loyal to us, not because He HAS to be, but because He WANTS to be. He is faithful and keeps His promises to us, not out of obligation or duty, but freely, because He really does delight in us.
And God remains fiercely loyal to His people for a thousand generations—that’s nearly 40,000 years! Thank God that the effects of sin last only for 3 or 4 generations, but the demonstrations of God’s love last for a thousand!
That is what happened to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. When they chose to enter into a relationship with God, through faith, God promised to bless them and their descendants forever! Even when God had to discipline the children of Israel for their rebellion and idolatry, even when God had to send them into captivity in Babylon for their refusal to repent, even when God had to scatter them among the nations for their rejection of His Son, His love still pursued a relationship with them. In fact, God is still pursuing a relationship with the children of Israel, more than 3,500 years after He spoke to Moses.
Jeremiah 31 says, “Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name: ‘If this fixed order departs from before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.’ Thus says the Lord: ‘If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord’ (Jeremiah 31:35-37).
God is going to continue passionately pursuing His people until the sun ceases to shine and the vast regions of space are explored. Just look at how God is protecting Israel today with all the attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. He hasn’t given up on His chosen people, the people He claims for His own possession, the people of Israel.
And what’s true of the children of Israel, is also true of you and me who put our trust in Him. He will never stop loving us no matter what even though at times He must discipline us. So, my dear friends, when you get hooked by sin, remember how much God loves you, remember His mercy and grace.
Gregory Boyle, in his book Tattoos on the Heart, tells the story of a 15-year-old gang member named Rigo. Rigo was getting ready for a special worship service for incarcerated youth when Boyle casually asked if Rigo's father would be coming.
“No,” Rigo said, “He's a heroin addict and never been in my life. Used to always beat me.”
Then something snapped inside Rigo as he recalled an image from his childhood.
“I think I was in fourth grade,” he began, “I came home. Sent home in the middle of the day… [When I got home] my dad says, ‘Why did they send you home?’ And cuz my dad always beat me, I said, ‘If I tell you, promise you won't hit me?’ He just said, ‘I'm your father. Course I'm not gonna hit you.’ So I told him."
Rigo began to cry, and in a moment he started wailing and rocking back and forth. Boyle put his arm around him until he slowly calmed down. When Rigo could finally speak again, he spoke quietly, still in a state of shock: “He beat me with a pipe… with… a pipe.”
After Rigo composed himself, Boyle asked about his mom. Rigo pointed to a small woman and said, “That's her over there… There's no one like her.” Then Rigo paused and said, “I've been locked up for a year and half. She comes to see me every Sunday. You know how many buses she takes every Sunday [to see me]?”
Rigo started sobbing with the same ferocity as before. After catching his breath, he gasped through the sobs, “Seven buses. She takes… seven… buses. Imagine.”
Boyle concluded this story with an analogy. God, as revealed in the person of Jesus, loves us like Rigo's mother loved her son—with commitment, steadfastness, and sacrifice. According to Boyle, we have a God “who takes seven buses, just to arrive at us” (Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart, Free Press, 2010, pp. 26-27; www.PreachingToday.com).
Think about the journey Jesus made from heaven to a feeding trough, from a feeding trough to constant opposition, from opposition to a cross to die for you and me. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
When you remember how much God loves you, you can’t stay away from Him very long, no! Instead, His love motivates you to return to Him as soon as you can. So, if you’re hooked by sin and want to be free, 1st, remember who God is. Then 2nd…
RECOMMIT YOUR LIFE TO HIM.
Rededicate yourself to obeying Him completely. Surrender again to God’s sovereign right to direct your life.
After God reveals Himself to Moses, God renews the covenant He made with Israel previously.
Exodus 34:10 And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you (ESV).
God promises to do some amazing things for Israel. In response, He asks Israel to obey Him.
Exodus 34:11-17 “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods. “You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal (ESV).
1st, God asks Israel to refuse alliances with enemy nations and their gods. Then God asks Israel to worship Him through the Feast of Unleavened bread and the dedication of their firstborn to Him.
Exodus 34:18-20 “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt. All that open the womb are mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed (ESV).
Worship always costs. Otherwise, it is not worship at all.
Exodus 34:21-24 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year (ESV).
God also asks Israel to keep the Sabbath and to observe three annual feasts every year. Then He prescribes how they should handle their sacrifices.
Exodus 34:25-28 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments (ESV).
God asks Moses to rewrite these covenant obligations in verses 12-26, which are a summary of the detailed obligations God told Moses to write the first time in Exodus 21 to 23. Then, Israel committed themselves to obey all that the Lord commanded. They declared, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do” in Exodus 24:3. Now, God asks them to make that same commitment again to obey Him in everything.
And that’s what you must do if you want to be free from your sin. Commit yourself totally and completely to the Lord, holding nothing back.
Dale Hays describes a trip to Haiti, where he I heard a Haitian pastor illustrate to his congregation the need for total commitment to Christ. His parable:
A certain man wanted to sell his house for $2,000. Another man wanted very badly to buy it, but because he was poor, he couldn't afford the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the original price with just one stipulation: he would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door.
After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So the owner found the carcass of a dead dog and hung it from the nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable, forcing the family to sell the house to the owner of the nail.
The Haitian pastor's conclusion: “If we leave the Devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit [unlivable]” (Dale A Hays, Leadership, Vol. 4, no. 2; www.PreachingToday.com).
Don’t let Satan have even one small part of your life. Give it all to God and commit yourself fully to Him. If you’re hooked by sin and want to be free, 1st, remember who God is. 2nd, recommit your life to Him. And 3rd…
REMAIN IN HIS PRESENCE.
Linger in His company until you reflect His glory. Stay with the Lord long enough to display His goodness on your face and in your life. That’s what Moses did.
Exodus 34:29-35 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him (ESV).
When Moses returned from Mount Sinai and broke the first set of tablets, his face displayed great anger with flared nostrils (Exodus 32:19-20). This time, his face radiates the glory of God, so much so that He wore a veil to protect the people around him. But he also wore a veil to hide the fading glory on his face, according to 2 Corinthians 3:12.
Warren Wiersbe says, “The glory of the Old Testament Law was temporary and finally faded away, but the glory of new covenant grace grows brighter and brighter. Moses only reflected God’s glory and had to wear a veil so the people could not see the glory disappear, but God’s people today radiate God’s glory from within as they see Jesus Christ in the Word… and become more like Him" (Wiersbe, Expository Outlines on the Old Testament).
2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”
The longer we linger in Christ’s presence, the more we radiate His glory.
D. L. Moody once said, “We ought to see the face of God every morning before we see the face of man (D. L. Moody, Christian History, no. 25; www.PreachingToday.com).
If you want people to see Jesus in you, look into His face every day. Linger in His company until you reflect His glory.
Several years ago (2015), Julius Yego won a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing. How did he do it? He watched YouTube videos of other top javelin throwers—Jan Zelezny and Andreas Thorkildsen. They both had won Olympic and world titles. Now, Yego is from Kenya, a nation known for running, so it was hard for Yego to find a coach. In an interview with CNN, he said, “I do not have a coach, my motivation comes from within. Training without a coach is not an easy thing” (Omar Hohammed, “A Kenyan won the gold medal in javelin after learning how to throw on YouTube,” Quartz Africa, 8-27-15; www.PreachingToday.com).
Yet he was able to win gold, simply because he watched others who won gold, and he kept watching until he reflected their glory.
You do the same. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep looking into His Word every day until you reflect His glory.
If you’re hooked by sin and want to be free, remember who God is, recommit your life to Him, and remain in His presence.
The renowned child psychiatrist Robert Coles recalled the despair of a highly regarded psychiatrist. The psychiatrist told Coles, “I have been doing therapy with a man for 15 years. He is as angry, as self-centered, and as mean as he was the first day he walked into my office. The only difference is that now he knows why he is so angry and mean.”
Dr. Coles commented that although the psychiatrist provided his client with insight as to how his childhood emotional wounding had affected his adult dysfunction, the man still hadn't changed. Then Coles asked, “Could we conclude that what this man needed wasn’t just information but transformation? But is transformation possible for human beings?” (Rebecca Manley Pippert, Stay Salt, Good Book Company, 2020, pp. 137-138; www.PreachingToday. com).
Yes it is! Transformation is possible for you, but not in your own human effort. Instead, commit your life to Christ, or recommit your life to Christ, if need be, and stay with Him until you reflect His glory.
