The Response of God's People

Introduction:

I want to start today by saying, I tried.

I tried really hard to finish out chapter 20 today.

As I was writing yesterday it became apparent that I was writing two different sermons.

It’s not that the text aren’t related, but rather the Holy Spirit was telling me to slow down.

So, we are going to pick up in verse 18 and go to verse 21 in Exodus 20.

When we left the narrative in Exodus 19, we were learning that God is using us to prepare people to know Him.

Now since this was two months ago, let me take a moment to recap.

In that message we talked about the importance of us being authentic and vulnerable with the people God has placed us around.

We saw that God gave Moses very specific instructions on how to prepare those people to come near to Him.

Because God uses us to reveal Himself to those people in our lives, we have to make sure that we are spending the time that is necessary for us to know Him.

By doing so we are allowing God to shape us into the people He needs to reach those people.

We considered what our motivation is for spending that time and that we must always be motivated by the love of God.

Not because we have to, but because we can’t help but do other wise.

We ended with acknowledging that God has us doing this study because their are people in our lives that need hope, freedom, and love.

We are the vessels that God wants to use to bring those things to the people in our communities.

As we pick back up in the narrative today, we are going to see that idea continued.

We are going to see God revealing Himself to Israel, their response to God, and Moses’ response to Israel.

Isreal had a reaction to God that is not uncommon, but the way they responded is not what God was wanting.

Today we are going to talk about an aspect of God that is not often talked about, or at least I haven't heard many speak on while growing up in the church.

Fear of God

Israel is afraid of what they are experiencing.

They are seeing, feeling, and hearing God in a way that they never have before.

This new experience causes Israel to fear God.

If you put yourself in their place and think about what they have seen God do to Egypt, there is a good reason for them to fear.

They are not the only ones to respond to God's revelation in this way.

Isaiah 6:1–5 ESV

1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

We don't use the word "Woe." Ever.

It's not part of our regular vocabulary.

It is used to express grief, regret, or distress.

Isaiah is afraid because of what he is experiencing.

We see the same reaction here from Israel.

Because of what they are experiencing, they are afraid.

Their fear causes them to back away from God and to tell Moses that they don't want God speaking to them.

Moses' response made me double-take.

Exodus 20:18–21 ESV

18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

So let's talk about fear.

There are two different words for fear used in verse 20. The difference between the words is subtle but relevant for our understanding of the passage.

1. Fear of God because we do not know Him, and we are afraid of what we don't know.

2. Fear, as a result of knowing God, of not believing, not having faith, or running from God because we do know Him.

"There is a fear that is slavish and drives us away from God, and there is a fear that is sweet and draws us to God. Moses warned against the one and called for the other in the very same verse, Exodus 20:20" - John Piper

yārē - verb - an emotional reaction of fear, terror, or apprehension. As I look at the uses of this word, it seems to have the feeling of impending doom. This fear is a result of a lack of understanding or uncertainty.

Examples of this kind of fear are:

Exodus 14:10 ESV

10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.

Israel was afraid when they saw Pharoah and his army coming after them.

1 Samuel 21:10–12 ESV

10 And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” 12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

David fears for his life before the King of Gath.

Nehemiah 2:1–2 ESV

1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid.

Nehemiah was afraid when King Artaxerxes questioned him.

People fear God because they do not know Him.

They had an irrational fear of God because they still did now fully know Him.

Even though God had shown Himself to be loving and compassionate, we as people, tend to focus and remember the negative things that happen rather than the good.

People fear or are turned off by God because they do know him. They think they know Him, but they have an incomplete concept of God.

Think about how much we have learned about who God is as we have studied the Ten Commandments.

Our understanding of the intent of the ten commandments has changed, and therefore our perception of who God is has been increased because of the new knowledge He has given us.

We understand the truth about who God.

He has set us free, and that same truth is what sets others free.

We have been set free from our small understanding of the Ten Commandments.

Think about how freeing it will be for others when they realize that God isn't just trying to make them act a certain way or conform to a pattern of behavior.

There are people in our communities responding as we have and as Israel did.

The people that God has called us too are running from Him because of a lack of knowledge.

So we must ask ourselves, do I fear the wrath and punishment of God?

If our answer is no, it is because we are in a relationship and we know Him.

We understand that we are all sinners, separated from God by that sin, but redeemed and forgiven by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

There has been a transformation of our understanding of who God is and what a relationship with Him means.

Because we know Him, we want more of Him and it is our call as a body to share that knowledge with others.

Moses wanted what Israel dreaded.

Moses wanted more of God because he knew God.

Once you know God, you worship what you have found.

yirʾâ - emotion, feeling, or state of being afraid, terrified, or in awe. The majority of the time, this noun appears concerning the fear of God, either in the sense of proper reverence for God or in the sense of fear at the awesome power of God. This fear is a result of knowledge.

Examples of yira:

Psalm 5:7 ESV

7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.

Because David knew God’s steadfast love, he was drawn to bow before Him.

Psalm 90:9–12 ESV

9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. 10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

David is contemplating the course of our lives and the frailty of it if we do not know the Lord. He is saying that our fear of God is paramount if we are to live in a way that has lasting value.

Job 28:28 ESV

28 And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’ ”

Psalm 111:10 ESV

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

Proverbs 1:7 ESV

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 9:10 ESV

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

This is the kind of fear that Moses and we share.

Because we know the nature and character of God, we find ourselves being drawn to Him.

This is what we see happening in Ex 20.21

Exodus 20:21 ESV

21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

Moses has had so much time and interaction with God that he fully knows that there is no need for him to fear for his life.

He knows that God revealing Himself isn't going to cause him any harm.

Listen, we know this, but I'm going to give some examples for the sake of clarity.

We fear what we don't know, but if we try it, we either love it and want more or hate it and don't want to try it again.

There are some exceptions, but generally, this is true.

Dogs - if you are a dog person and you get one, what happens? You want another one.

Chickens are the same.

Cats - no one likes cats unless they are insane.

All the dog people are laughing, and the cat people are offended and/or triggered. Time will tell.

Here's the point.

If you take the time to know God and move beyond preconceived or ill-informed ideas, you see Him as a loving God that wants to be in a relationship with you.

He is a God who loves His people and gave up His Son so that He could restore the relationship that we broke.

If you are here today and you understand that God has redeemed you and you live under grace, you know him in a way that most don’t.

Now, you no longer fear God, but instead, you fear to lose what you now know.

Do you know how I know that? Because I fear it.

I am so careful about what authors I read, what podcast I listen to, who I follow on social media and all because I know the freedom that I have found in understanding the grace of God.

I want to protect it. I don't ever want to go back to living under the law.

This is what Moses is explaining to Israel.

You don't need to be afraid of harm from God.

God is revealing Himself to you so that you can know Him, and then you will be afraid to live even a moment without Him.

Our call to Join God to Set People Free is to help others understand that they do not need to be afraid of God.

The way we live and the stories we tell help move people to understand the truth about God.

Drawing near to God is the only way we can ever join Him in anything.

Next week we are going to dive into several chapters of God setting forth the legislation of the covenant that He is making with Isreal.

However, we must notice that before Moses can share anything with Israel, he must do what?

Get with God.

I know that it must feel for you guys like we have belabored this point enough, yet here we are again.

We cannot ignore, and we cannot deny that we see this same pattern over and over again through Exodus and the rest of the bible.

We cannot join God to set people free without joining God.

If you and I agree that we are going to go to the movies together, but we ride separately, don't sit together, and don't discuss the movie afterward, did we go together?

No, of course not.

If you think we did, it's because you are a stalker.

Spoiler alert, when we get to Exodus 24.3 Moses is going to layout all the laws before the people.

Everyone is going to agree together that they will do all that the Lord has spoken.

As I was studying this section this week, I asked myself this; How many times have we as a church, agreed unanimously, that we were going to do what God has told us?

Have we followed through yet?

We have spent the last several years talking about what it means and how to share this message of grace that we have been given to others.

Maybe we are confused.

Maybe we think that if we do it once, then we can sit back and relax.

Maybe we are still living confusing being a follower of Jesus with the American dream.

God is not asking us to join Him every now an then.

He is asking for our lives.

He is asking for us to wake up every day and choose to join Him, to live for Him, to die to ourselves, to die to our desires, and to die to the expectations of others (including your pastors’).

I ran across a motivational speaker on Facebook this week.

His name is Inky Johnson and he was eight games from being in the top 30 NFL draft and was injured and completely lost the use of his right arm.

He has an incredible story and it’s worth your time to go listen to the whole thing, but he said one thing in particular that jumped out at me.

“Commitment is doing what you said you were going to do long after the mood you have said it in has left. You see, people think commitment is saying yes, I’ll do it on the days that feel good.” -Inky Johnson

We all fully understand that this life we are called to cannot be lived by just being self motivated.

However, we have to move beyond thinking that it is only asked of us on the days we feel like it.

God’s call does not change when we are tired.

God’s call does not change when we have had a bad week.

Peoples’ need for love, freedom, and truth don’t go away because we haven’t made them a priority.

When we gave our lives to Christ, we gave up our right to ourselves.

We all know from experience that God is not going to give us a new task until we complete the one He has given us.

The message will not change until we allow the Holy Spirit to change us.

Israel backed away from God. They ran because they were afraid. They were fearful because they did not know Him.

The church has backed away from God. It has run from Him because it does not know Him.

We see it every day on the news, twitter, or Facebook.

Every day there is a new story of abuse or scandal.

Those things happen because most of the people in those churches are standing far off.

They have backed away.

We must draw near.

We must ask God to give us the courage and desire to draw near to Him.

No church is any better or worse than the individual Christians who compose it… - Tozer on Leadership

Ask Coby to come up and start playing.

Our God is a God of transformation.

He loves us where we are but cares for us too deeply to let us live with the lies, perspectives, and pursuits that rob us from the abundant life Jesus died to give us.

Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

God longs to renew your mind to the truth of his love, nearness, power, and grace.

He longs to transform you into a better reflection of Jesus that you might live to the fullest.

He longs to fill you with longings and passions that will guide you to a life of purpose and eternal impact.

Say yes to being transformed by God's Spirit and word that you might experience the abundant life only available in God.

Lastly, God longs for you to live this life freed from the sins and ways of this world.

1 Peter 2:16 says, "Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God."

Galatians 5:1 says, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

2 Corinthians 3:17 says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

Freedom has been bought for you by the blood of the Lamb.

You are no longer a slave to this world but a slave to righteousness.

In the Holy Spirit you have freedom from every past pursuit and present temptation if you will simply follow his guidance into a lifestyle of righteousness.

Choose freedom today.

Choose to follow the Spirit away from that which will lead you to sin and toward that which will fill you with a longing for holiness.

Let us choose together, to choose to follow the Spirit and draw near to the Lord.

Part of the reason that we are making an effort to start service on time is because I want us to take some time each week to consider what God is saying.

I know how easy it is to rush out of here and completely forget what we talked about.

Let’s take some time this morning to worship together and allow the Holy Spirit to work this into our hearts.

If you need to speak to or pray with an elder we are available.

If you aren’t sure what it means to be a follower of Christ and would like to talk about that, please come see me or one of the elders.

Let’s pray.