Tomorrow's A New Day
Notes
Transcript
Reading:
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Introduction:
There are tons of testimonies from people, after they accepted the grace of Christ, that their lives entirely changed.
The town drunk who encountered Christ and His grace and through faith and struggle to change routines, his mindset, and God changing his desire was different from the man he used to be.
The business person who viewed people as a commodity to be used for their furtherance, relationships that weren’t really relationships but business contracts to be negotiated.
Throughout these stories we can find the message of Exodus 34: That God is a God of mercy and slow to anger.
There’s one specific testimony, of a man who’s misdirected convictions were used as a weapon to fight against those opposed to his thoughts.
His desire was so strong that he would remove the opposition through murder.
12 I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful, appointing me to His service,
13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,
14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
Paul, in his unbelief of Jesus pursued those who did believe, then took them to their death.
After He was confronted with the truth about Jesus and his eyes were opened to the truth and he received it.
From that point moving forward a man feared by the church would be a leader to it and for it.
Listen to the testimony that people proclaimed about how different he was.
21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?”
Hear what Paul himself had to say about the new man God made him to be:
16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.
Paul’s testimony shows what God can do with a life surrendered to Him.
Exodus 34 expresses this, and God starts with Moses.
Moses is expected to:
Labor for Ministry (1-9)
Labor for Ministry (1-9)
This labor is to receive a:
Renewal of the Testimony
Renewal of the Testimony
1 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.
2 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.
3 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.”
4 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.
Moses had to make a replica to the stones the Lord gave him at first, which He wrote with His own hand.
This would’ve been difficult, even if he was a skilled stones man.
It is estimated:
Hard stone (granite or sapphire) – Could take multiple days of steady work, especially with ancient tools.
But: Soft stone (limestone) – Possibly several hours to a day for a skilled worker to quarry, shape, and smooth two tablets.
It’s implied that Moses really worked hard at a task the Lord requested of him.
He did it!
He obeyed the Lord and worked hard, and finished them for the morning.
Moses was up all night crafting the commandment stones, which was hard; but now he had to climb the mountain with the stones.
Mount Sinai facts:
It rises about 7,497 ft above sea level.
Steep, rocky slopes with loose stones, sharp outcrops, and little vegetation.
No carved steps or modern switchbacks — just rough paths worn by shepherds and travelers.
Moses would need endurance for the climb, not to mention that he would be carrying the stone tablets and he had no one else to help carry the burden with him.
Mount Sinai today is about a 3-4 hour hike.
Application:
There was a lot required of Moses by the Lord here.
He was determined to obey the Lord and be steadfast in his efforts.
This what we can see as a perspective for us:
In obeying the Lord, we need endurance for the race He has called us to.
We have to be determined if we want to fulfill our calling.
We are going to have moments in our lives where we just want to give into our desires or fold to the pressure of the world.
How can we refrain from this?
Let your desire for Him and living righteously be stronger than the desire for your flesh.
How?
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
God is merciful and knows you won’t always make the right decision; but we find in verses 5-9 a model that Moses reveals to follow:
Entreat the Lord
Entreat the Lord
5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
6 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,
7 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.”
8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
9 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.”
Plead on behalf of yourself and others to receive grace and mercy:
6 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,
7 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.”
Knowing it is half the battle, you must believe it!
That is the loving merciful God you serve!
Praise Him at every moment of your life; because you and I know that none of us deserve it.
Transition:
The most amazing part we need to know about His attributes towards us is:
With His forgiveness we now have a:
New Opportunity (10-28)
New Opportunity (10-28)
The opportunity for a clean slate or fresh start.
When you live as a forgiven soul each moment and every day:
Watch What God Will Do
Watch What God Will Do
Listen to what He says about Israel after breaking the covenant:
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.
11 “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.
God tells Moses how He plans to reveal Himself through nations that aren’t worthy of His name and don’t know Him.
He is going to drive out all the neighboring countries, keeping His promise to bring them into the promised land.
Some were very fortified cities with well trained armies.
This would’ve been a powerful statement to Israel.
God tells Israel what His part of the deal is and what theirs is.
They must have:
Caution and Obey
Caution and Obey
12 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.
13 You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim
14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
15 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,
16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.
17 “You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.
God warns them of what they will encounter in these countries.
He also reveals an opportunity to obey Him.
A way to reveal that their desire for Him is stronger than their logic and understanding.
He says keep me as your only God and remove anything that isn’t me!
Worship only Yahweh!
He already told them it is not a shared position and He used strong enough words to convince them.
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me,
6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Don’t fall back into what I am forgiving you from.
Make adjustments in your heart, mind, soul, and daily routines to protect yourself from that pitfall.
No different than what we should do.
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Jesus used a very strong word picture to portray how serious He is about keeping ourselves pure and separate from sin.
The Lord, you notice, likes to give physical testaments for what He has done and said.
So He sends Moses with a testimony that is to be:
Confirmed and Affirmed
Confirmed and Affirmed
18 “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.
19 All that open the womb are Mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.
20 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.
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
22 You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.
23 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
24 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.
25 “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.
26 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.”
27 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.”
28 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.
They will confirm it through the keeping of the feasts and festivals.
Also affirming their faith by keeping the festivals and feasts.
It shows a divine restoration for Israel.
This allows Israel to live for today, not in the past where they broke the covenant.
They can live in the newness of the restored Israel.
Application:
We are forgiven and can live in the newness too:
We are brought from death to life. Our spirit can respond to the Lord because He revived us.
Bringing a relationship He died for and that we need and desire.
Ephesians 4:22-24 talks about this.
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
We aren’t supposed to live in the past, we were revived so we could live our lives according to righteousness and holiness.
This change provides those outside of the family of God with a testimony for all to see.
Similar to what happened with Moses because he was in the Lord’s presence.
Moses had:
A Testimony of Light (29-35)
A Testimony of Light (29-35)
Moses brought a testimony with him and was himself a testimony.
He came down the mountain with:
The Renewed Testimony and Unknown Testimony
The Renewed Testimony and Unknown Testimony
29 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.
30 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.
Moses brought the testimony of the covenant between Israel and God back down.
The 10 commandments, which if you remember is to be placed in the ark of the covenant, when they build the temple.
He also didn’t realize that his face was glowing from being in the Lord’s presence.
Which testifies to the people where he was and who he was with, just in case they forgot where he was going, like before.
Moses spoke boldly and:
Proclaimed to the People
Proclaimed to the People
What the Lord has instructed
31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them.
32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai.
33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
At the closing of the speech he covered the light with a veil.
Why? What’s the significance?
The veil showed Israel that spiritual things were covered to them; but when the veil was lifted they could understand them, since the mediator Moss relayed what God said.
This really points ahead to the New Testament believer.
When there is a veil between us and God we can’t understand spiritual things; but when He brings us behind the veil we can receive them.
Without Christ we couldn’t approach the veil.
What did Christ do to change it?
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
We are brought into the family of God through Jesus and can now understand spiritual things because of Him.
Moses reflects the importance to have:
The Consistent Confirmation
The Consistent Confirmation
34 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,
35 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.
When Moses came to the people relaying God’s words the people needed some kind of proof that it was from the Lord not just Moses’ words.
When Moses came from the Lord to the people, they saw the glow from being in the presence of the Lord.
They could trust what he was saying considering it was directed to them from God Himself.
Connection:
As you speak to people the truthful things from the Lord.
They notice something is different about you compared to other people.
When the light of the Lord shines through you, people will listen because it testifies of your relationship with God.
Closing Charge:
Moses had to work hard to prepare new stones then carry them up the mountain to the Lord.
We are called to put in a lot of difficult work like Moses.
We all need to depend on the strength of the Lord to endure the race He has called us to.
Faith will require sacrifice and dedication to endure to the end.
God instituted a new opportunity for Israel.
After their failure and breaking of the covenant, God made it possible for Israel to live in the newness of life.
Just like us we have the same opportunity every day to be new because of Christ.
Since Jesus brought us behind the veil we can know and understand spiritual things
We have the Holy Spirit to guide us.
In Christ we have the opportunity to start fresh.
Every day provides new opportunities to live differently than yesterday.
Live for the Lord every day; but if you make mistakes know and believe that the next day is an opportunity to live differently.
Every believer needs to believe that Tomorrow is a new day to be different than today; but it’s up to us to see what God wants to change and let Him!
-Pray!
