PRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE
Exodus 34:21-26
INTRO:
God will not bring revival to those who harbor sin in their lives.
READ TEXT
There was a cartoon several years ago in the Saturday Review of Literature which showed little George Washington standing with an axe in his hand and lying next to him on the ground is the famous cherry tree. He has already made his admission that he did it -- after all, he "cannot tell a lie." But his father is standing there exasperated saying, "All right, so you admit it! You always admit it! The question is, when are you going to stop doing it?!"
2 Chron. 7:14 states “if my people … will turn from their wicked ways”
We are studying about Revival.
Hebrew Words translated "Repent"
Shoob - "To Return, to turn back, to turn away." This word carries with it the thought of turning, both to and away from something. So to repent of something is both turning from sin and turning to God.
It is the word most commonly used by OT writers to describe Repentance.
This word represents the "Volitional Aspect" of Repentance or the exercise of the will.
Nacham - "To be sorry, to regret, to suffer grief."
This word describes the "Emotional Aspect" of Repentance.
Sorrow over sin… not worldly sorrow because you got caught, but Godly sorrow because you recognize that it offends a holy God!
True Repentance is best defined as a combination of the two: "A sorrow over sin because of how it grieves God and affects others. Broken over his sin, the individual chooses to turn from his sin and turn in his heart to God."
The first is the word "turn." It means to turn back, to with draw, to lead away. It is the Hebrew equivalent to the Greek word "metanoeo" which means repent. Probably the best way to define it is with the word "abandon." That is what God calls upon His people to do when He says "turn from you wicked ways." He means for them to drop their sinful habits and walk away, to abandon them and never to return.
What wicked ways do we need to turn from:
I. PERFORMANCE v. 21
A. Why do we obey the commands of the Lord?
Are we obedient to the commands of the Lord?
In either case, do we justify our behavior for having a wrong motive?
B. The verse says: “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.”
C. This would be a hard time to rest with all that needs to be done. Isn’t that what God would want? The weather could have been bad, and now it is nice.
D. Isn’t it easy to justify our behavior? We have a way of making what we want to do right.
E. Is God tired of our excuses and justifications to our actions?
Is it more important what God thinks or:
1. What others think.
2. Compromise to modern times.
3. What others are doing.
F. One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it.
Illus: John Kenneth Galbraith, in his autobiography, A Life in Our Times, illustrates the devotion of Emily Gloria Wilson, his family’s housekeeper:
It had been a wearying day, and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while I had a nap. Shortly thereafter the phone rang. Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House.
"Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson."
"He is sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb him."
"Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him."
"No, Mr. President. I work for him, not you. When I called the President back, he could scarcely control his pleasure. "Tell that woman I want her here in the White House."
John Kenneth Galbraith, A Life in Our Times, Houghton Mifflin, Reader’s Digest, December, 1981.
II. PRESERVATION v. 22-24
A. Do we really trust God to take care of your life?
B. In verses 22-24 God wants the men of Israel to come before Him three times. This leaves the woman and children behind. Who will take care of them should the enemy want to attack.
C. God says He will:
1. Drive out the nations
2. Enlarge their territory: give them more than their needs
3. Take away their desire to attack and want your lands.
D. A great sin of our time is our lack of trust in God.
We either believe we can do it ourselves or that God will not intervene for us.
E. Heb 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please God.
F. Do we think:
If I pay tithe there will not be enough money.
If I don’t do something my boss wants but is against my faith, I won’t get the promotion I deserve.
If I put God first before my family and job, won’t they suffer?
G. Matt. 6:33 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.
Illus: There is no situation I can get into that God cannot get me out. Some years ago when I was learning to fly, my instructor told me to put the plane into a steep and extended dive. I was totally unprepared for what was about to happen. After a brief time the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out-of-control. It soon became evident that the instructor was not going to help me at all. After a few seconds, which seemed like eternity, my mind began to function again. I quickly corrected the situation.
Immediately I turned to the instructor and began to vent my fearful frustrations on him. He very calmly said to me, "There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of. If you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again." At that moment God seemed to be saying to me, "Remember this. As you serve Me, there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of. If you trust me, you will be all right." That lesson has been proven true in my ministry many times over the years.
James Brown, Evangeline Baptist Church, Wildsville, LA, in Discoveries, Fall, 1991, Vol. 2, No. 4.
F. 2 Cor 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
III. POSSESSION v. 25-26
A. Who is in control of your life? Who is in charge? Are we still the owners of our life and feel that we are in charge of what happens?
B. The Word says:
“offer anything containing yeast” Do we add things to our worship of God that do not belong? Do we mix it with what we want?
“remain till morning” Do we live according to God’s timetable and not our convenience?
“bring the firstfruits” Do we give God the best of our lives, or just the leftovers?
“cook a young goat in it’s mother’s milk” Superstition: cook the goat and then spread the milk over the trees and crops and there would be a bountiful harvest.
Do we use the world’s concepts and thoughts in our decisions?
1 John 2:15-16 15Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
Are You a Wanderer
Dr. Andrew Bonar told me how, in the Highlands of Scotland, a sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places that they couldn’t get out of. The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it, and they will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can’t jump back again, and the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. They may be there for days, until they have eaten all the grass. The shepherd will wait until they are so faint they cannot stand, and then they will put a rope around him, and he will go over and pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death. “Why don’t they go down there when the sheep first gets there?” I asked.
“Ah!” He said, “they are so very foolish they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if they did!” And that is the way with men; they won’t go back to God till they have no friends and have lost everything. If you are a wanderer I tell you that the Good Shepherd will bring you back the moment you have given up trying to save yourself and are willing to let Him save you His own way.
Moody’s Anecdotes, pp. 70-71
C. Have we surrendered the control of lives to God? Are we living a life of what we want?
Mark 8:35-36 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
CONCLUSION:
Complete About Face
Wabush, a town in a remote portion of Labrador, Canada, was completely isolated for some time. But recently a road was cut through the wilderness to reach it. Wabush now has one road leading into it, and thus, only on one road leading out. If someone would travel the unpaved road for six to eight hours to get into Wabush, there is only way he or she could leave—-by turning around.
Each of us, by birth, arrives in a town called Sin. As in Wabush, there is only one way out—a road built by God himself. But in order to take that road, one must first turn around. That complete about face is what the Bible calls repentance, and without it, there’s no way out of town.
Brian Weatherdon
