Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week we completed Exodus chapter 33 and specifically looked at how Israel finally came to the realization of what they lost by choosing to break the covenant.

They had seen the death of the three thousand and went through a plague, but it wasn’t until they saw the physical separation between God and themselves that it got their attention.

Daily they had to watch Moses go out to the tent of meeting, God’s presence would descend, and it would be a real reminder that God was separating Himself so that he wouldn’t have to kill them.

God also tells them that they are about to move on from the mountain and towards the promised land.

However, that generation would never enter it because they broke the covenant.

Only their children would enter.

The application we see there is that if we refuse God, He will find someone else that is willing to do what we were not.

Israel forfeited their chance to walk with God, and He gave that opportunity to someone else.

When we choose to not obey God, we are forfeiting our opportunity to walk with God and experience Him here and now.

This breaks God’s heart because we are giving up the best and replacing it with a lie that something else will be better than God.

Israel watches the relationship that Moses has with God from afar, and it is God’s presence that sets Moses apart, not Moses' activity.

The same is true for us.

It is God’s activity that sets us apart from the world, not our religious activity.

Religious activity just makes us more like the world and less like God because our motivation is self-serving.

We are doing for appearance or to make ourselves feel better.

Lastly, we saw that God’s revelation of Himself is what fuels ministry.

Every time that Moses experienced God, it caused him to want more.

At the end of chapter 33, he asked God to reveal His ways so that he may know Him.

We often find ourselves not desiring God because we have purposely separated our selves from Him.

We are afraid of what He may ask of us, and so we avoid entirely Him so that we don’t have to face uncertainties.

The only way we will ever join God to set people free is by coming to know Him by experience through abiding.

Today we are going to see the results of Moses' request to know God.

We are going to see that God reveals Himself to Moses in a very particular way, and our lives should reflect the characteristics that God reveals to Moses.

The only way that can happen is by us, allowing God to speak correction into our lives so that we can be more like Him.

Lastly, our experiences with God are going to change us, and that change of nature is going to be God’s revelation of Himself to the people in our lives.

As God’s representatives, we communicate the gospel through our words and actions.

In this conversation, God lists six attributes of His character.

I think it is helpful for each of us to consider how we have personally experienced each of these and how it has affected our lives.

God describes Himself in this way:

Merciful (רחום, rchwm)—Expresses deep compassion that leads to action.

Most occurrences of the word רחום (rchwm) are in descriptions of God.

The result of God’s mercy or compassion is forgiveness and a new relationship.

Gracious (חנון, chnwn)—Represents the emotional experience that leads a person to help another person in need (Exod 22:27).

Even when His people threatened to return to Egypt from the wilderness, God’s graciousness and compassion made Him ready to receive them back and forgive them (Neh 9:17).

Slow to anger (אַפַיִם אֶרֶךְ, aphayim erekh)—Literally “long of nostrils,” depicts self-control.

God is patient with His disobedient, rebellious people.

Abounding in loyal love (חֶסֶד, chesed)—A covenant term for trust and faithfulness.

Loyal love represents that which ties together family, friends, and associates.

God’s granting of success, answering prayer, and fulfilling His promises expresses such love and commitment (e.g., Exod 34).

Faithful (אמת, 'mt)—Refers to what is true and consistent, what is trustworthy and reliable.

The faithful one is morally upright and can be trusted to do what is right, even when the other person has done wrong.

For example, God accepted and renewed covenant vows even after His people had built a golden calf (compare Josh 24:14).

Forgiving (נָשָׂא עָוֹן, nasa' awon)—Refers to lifting or forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin (Psa 85:2; compare Lev 5:17; 17:16).

Because of these very characteristics, God is doing the work of restoring the covenant that Israel just broke with God.

It is because of who God is, that He redeems us.

God describes Himself in this way and then proves it in His actions.

He is in the process of restoring the covenant that Israel just broke.

His plans for them haven’t been changed.

He continues to work in them and through them, even in their sin.

We see God doing the same thing again by sending Jesus.

God, again, does all the work of the new covenant through Jesus.

None of the work of restoring our relationship with God is done by us.

It is only through the work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to enter into and participate in the new covenant.

We, in our natural selves, do not exhibit any of these characteristics.

It isn’t in our nature to be merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, faithful, or forgiving.

Those Godly characteristics are only exhibited in our lives as we allow the Holy Spirit to work.

Just like it was God’s presence that set Israel apart, the same is true for us.

We are set apart by God’s presence, and they are revealed through the change from sin nature to Godliness as we walk with God.

It is these characteristics, exhibited through our lives, that draw people into the person of God.

The world doesn’t exhibit these characteristics.

It tries to but falls short.

Like we talked about last week, when we try to fake these things, we don’t come off as godly.

At least not for any lasting amount of time.

If it isn’t authentic, the truth will come out at some point.

I know you have all heard it, but I hate the phrase, “fake it till you make it.”

It encourages people to be something or someone other than they are.

Us faking, makes us like the world.

Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are full of people who are portraying one life while living a completely different one.

We can give away freedom, not by pretending we are free, but by allowing God to free us.

If we are abiding in God, that process is going to cause us to love Him more and more.

That will give us a desire to not only know him but to want to be like him.

We cannot live in these characteristics without the power of the Holy Spirit.

Only He can make these changes.

We must allow God to bring correction to every area of our lives.

“God issued a corrective against the natural human tendency to accept grace on the assumption that because an infinite God can produce an infinite amount of grace, sin has no consequences.”

-The New American Commentary: Exodus, Stuart Douglas

As we discussed last week, Israel didn’t understand the consequences of their actions.

They knew it was against the covenant, but they decided to do it again.

Based on my experience as both a former child and as a father, I can tell you that most of the times I disobeyed my parents, it was because I thought the thing I wanted to do was worth the punishment I knew was coming as a result of that action.

Example: Playing with gunpowder when I was a kid.

I knew that it could very easily hurt me, well, if I wasn’t careful.

I knew that my dad would eventually find out, but oh well.

I know it’s easy to laugh at me.

My actions were so stupid that they could have killed me, but don’t we approach sin the same way?

Don’t we, most of the time, know exactly what we are doing when we sin, and make a conscious decision to do it anyway?

Grace is not a free pass to do whatever we want.

We cannot go on living under the lie that it doesn’t matter how we live.

We have seen over and over through the book of Exodus, how the decisions that Pharaoh, Moses, Israel, etc., all made huge changes in the lives of the people around them.

We have been told and have accepted a lie that we choose to live “our” lives doesn’t matter.

When Moses’ mother made the decision to go against the pharaoh and save her son, it mattered.

When Moses choose to obey God’s call to deliver Israel, it mattered.

When Pharaoh repeatedly said no, and his people suffered, his decision mattered.

When Israel chooses to yield to their fear and build an idol instead of having faith in God, it mattered.

When we ignore God’s call, it matters.

When we choose to obey God’s call, it matters.

We see in our text today, that sin had a significant impact on the rest of Israel’s lives, but also the lives of their children.

God is having to do all this because the decisions that Israel made mattered.

How we live, who we allow to be in charge, and whether we obey will have a generational impact on your family.

That change will exponentially affect the kingdom of God.

In verse seven, God is telling them that what they do is going to change their lives and the children’s lives.