Going Without God

Exodus 33:1-6

-The Reality of Sin Calls for Humble Repentance

There’s a hole in my island. As many of you know, South Mobile County holds a special place in my family’s heart. Outside of Wetumpka, it’s the place that Suzanne and I consider home and where we grew up. A couple of times a year, we visit family on Dauphin Island and it’s always a blast being at the beach. We grew up going to the Island and now most of my family lives there. Everything changed about the Island in August of 2005 though. Hurricane Katrina came through and cut it in half. Imagine it: a storm with the power to open a gap in an island! It took some time, but the gap widened from a few dozen feet to 1.5 miles. The gap has been closed today, but it took 9 years and millions of dollars to fix. The repair only comes when you face the reality of what you are up against in the aftermath of the storm.

I. God Keeps His Promises vv. 1-2

Our story continues and God has instructions for Moses and the people:

Get up! They cannot stay there at Mt. Sinai any longer

God is going to fulfill the mission that He started by delivering them from Egypt

They are going to go on to the Promised Land, just as God always intended for them

There is an awful lot to be grateful for here:

He is going to keep His promise to them and give them the land

He is going to protect and guide them with His angel going before them, defeating their enemies

He is going to provide for each need and the land will be all that He said it would be, flowing with milk and honey

In the face of an awful failure on the part of the people, God remains faithful

There will certainly be consequences to their actions, as we will see in just a moment

But God does not relent of the good that He intended to do for them

He is consistent in completing the work that He started in them

This is an important truth for us to remember as well.

Failure is not final or fatal; though it has consequences, we must not develop a false picture of who God is

He does not forsake His people or abandon them in any way

Despair must not be on our tray of options as God’s people

George Bernard Shaw is perhaps most renowned as a free thinker and liberal philosopher. In his last writings we read, “The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should have established the millennium, led, instead, directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshippers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith.”

II. God Withholds His Presence vv. 3-4

God does, however, proclaim a serious consequence to them:

There is one very serious problem, God will not be going with them

They will get His protection and provision, but they will miss His presence

Why would God withhold His presence from them?

Because they are a stiff-necked people and are unwilling to be directed by Him

His holiness would overwhelm them; they would be consumed by it

They cannot continue to live with this attitude towards God without facing greater judgment, to their own destruction!

I think we underestimate just how big of an issue this would be for the Israelites

Up until this point, they have seen God lead them in a visible way, with consistent displays of His power

Now, that will be gone; the thing that marked them as His people, the visible presence will be gone.

This should be terrifying for them, because they would be going without God

Stop and think about it, isn’t this where many of us are living?

We seek God’s provision and protection

We trust God to keep His promises

But if we lose the near presence of the Lord, relationally, we have lost the thing that matters most!

Psalm 51:10–12

[10] Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

[11] Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

[12] Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit. (ESV)

5. What does this look like in the New Testament?

We grieve the Spirit- Ephesians 4:30

We quench the Spirit- 1 Thessalonians 5:19

We outrage the Spirit- Hebrews 10:29

Galatians 5:16–17

[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. (ESV)

The worst part of all is that you can be out of step with the Spirit and miss it completely. Sometimes, it’s as easy as going to sleep. I’ve always been amazed, the few times that I’ve ever been under general anesthesia how quickly it happens. They instruct you to count backwards, and in just seconds, you are out. You never even know what happened to you until you are awake again. There is a spiritual anesthesia that we find ourselves under!

III. God Calls For Repentance vv. 5-6

The news is hard for the people and they are called to respond:

The Lord issues His decision: He will not go with them

The Lord gives His reason: He will eventually have to judge them

The Lord asks for a response: He wants them to change their attitude

This action is intended to be a serious step towards recognizing their sin and pursuing repentance:

It has an internal dimension: they begin to mourn, understanding that their sin has grieved God and brought them into judgment

It has an external dimension: they take off their ornaments, a show of humility

It is transformative: they leave Sinai and do not put them on again

It is constructive: they will eventually give these ornaments for the building of a tabernacle (Exodus 35:22)

Things change when we repent and turn to the Lord!

I have a confession to make: Suzanne and I have had the same Sunday morning ritual, pretty much our entire marriage. We watch HGTV before church. I’ve seen a lot of shows come and go, but one I will always remember was Holmes on Homes. In it, a contractor named Mike Holmes would show up to someone who had tried to renovate a house and failed. Typically, they had either attempted the work themselves and it had gone poorly, or more likely, they were taken in by an unscrupulous contractor and received poor workmanship in return. Holmes always told his clients: “We’re going to make this right”. However, this was always predicated on one thing, the humility of the homeowner. You have to admit that there is a problem and seek the answer!

-Are you ready to turn to the Lord in humility and let Him change your heart and your life?

-Are you ready to lay down your pride and trust Him?

-Are you missing His presence in the middle of His blessings?