Sermon Tone Analysis

Spurgeon said of the wilderness journey that it was “the Oxford and Cambridge for God’s students”.

After the first great victory came the first big test.

The wilderness was God’s (School of Sanctification).

Egypt was necessary for God’s (School of Salvation) while the wilderness was necessary for God’s (School of Sanctification).

Salvation delivers us out of Egypt and sanctification delivers Egypt out of us.

In Egypt God delivers us from sin’s penalty.

In the wilderness He is delivering us from sin’s power.

Israel was first rescued and given their requirements.

These requirements were not the basis of their salvation.

God brought them out of Egypt, and then He instructed them on how to live.

The book of Exodus illustrates salvation’s tenses.

; salvation as deliverance from sin’s penalty.

; salvation as deliverance from sin’s power.

Sanctification 101: Process.

Notice was does not happen in

They do not go into the wonder of The Promise Land but into wilderness wandering.

You can get people out of slavery in an instant, but you can’t get the slavery out of people except through a long process.

Though legally they were free, actually they hadn’t learned how to be and think and work out their liberation into their lives, and that’s the reason why they don’t go right to the Promised Land.

Exodus makes no sense if you don’t read Deuteronomy.

Keller, T. J. (2013).

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive.

New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

This wandering was not aimless but calculated.

In other words, the purpose of God in the wilderness was not rapid transportation.

It was education.

It was counseling.

It was training.

That’s the reason why Moses says, “The reason why you didn’t immediately go to Canaan was, even though you can get people out of slavery in an instant, you can’t get slavery out of the people except through a long process.”

Though legally they were free, actually they hadn’t learned how to be and think and work out their liberation into their lives, and that’s the reason why they don’t go right to the Promised Land.

Keller, T. J. (2013).

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive.

New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

This wandering was not aimless but calculated.

In other words, the purpose of God in the wilderness was not rapid transportation.

It was education.

It was counseling.

It was training.

That’s the reason why Moses says, “The reason why you didn’t immediately go to Canaan was, even though you can get people out of slavery in an instant, you can’t get slavery out of the people except through a long process.”

Keller, T. J. (2013).

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive.

New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

You can take the person out of slavery in a moment, but you can’t take the slavery out of the person.

The liberation he knows in principle in his head is not yet worked out into his life in the way he actually feels and the way he actually reacts and the way he actually lives.

That has to happen through a process.

It’s in the sufferings of our lives we actually access in our hearts what we know with our heads, where we actually work out something in principle into actuality, where we actually take hold of the things we believe and know and work them out and say, “If this is true, then I should be acting like this.

I should be looking like this.

I should be living like this.”

Keller, T. J. (2013).

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive.

New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

Therefore, the simple fact is you can be zapped legally into freedom, you can be pardoned, you can be forgiven, you can be liberated in all those kinds of ways, but it’s only through the wilderness experience that the principle of liberation becomes our practice of life.

the wilderness experience that the principle of liberation becomes our practice of life.

Keller, T. J. (2013).

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive.

New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

Do you see that?

You say to God, “O Lord, make me a joyful person.

Make me a happy person.

Make me a loving person.”

How does that happen?

Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “This present suffering is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory.”

What does that mean?

I’ll bet you, if you just read it kind of quickly without thinking about it, you think he’s talking something about a future, heavenly reward, but it’s more than that.

He says, “No suffering, no glory.”

Do you know what glory means literally?

The Hebrew word, kabed and the Greek word, doxa … Do you know what the word literally means?

It means weight.

It means substance.

Here’s what he means.

Let me consult your personal experience.

Common sense.

Not even the Bible here.

Do you know people who have had what we might call a charmed life?

It’s possible to be born when everything goes right.

Everything is just fine.

Everything is falling into place.

If you know anybody like that (of course, it’s a temporary condition) you know they’re shallow.

They’re not people of substance.

They’re not people of depth.

They’re not people of glory.

They’re not people of stability.

They’re not people of weightiness.

There’s a weightlessness about them.

There’s a superficiality about them.

No suffering, no glory.

First, they really aren’t very good in relationships because they can’t sympathize with you.

They don’t understand how other people feel.

If you have a problem, they’re either indifferent to it or they kind of judge you.

Secondly, in their thinking, intellectually they tend to be superficial.

They don’t have much in the way of insight about how life works.

Of course, if anything really goes wrong, they freak out.

They don’t know what to do! Paul is saying, “Do you want to be a happy person no matter what the circumstances?

Do you want to be a strong person?

Do you want to be a sensitive person?

Do you want to be a deep person?

Do you want to be a wise person?

Do you want to be a person of substance, stability, and depth?

This only happens through wilderness training.”

It only happens through the hard things.

It only happens through the difficult things.