Nov. 1, 2020 - The Wilderness
Notes
Transcript
• Last week we walked thru the Ten Plagues that God poured out on Egypt...
• ...and these plagues had a two-fold purpose.
• They proclaimed God - They proclaimed His authority and power
• They also brought judgment on those who disobeyed, specifically Pharaoh.
• See Pharaoh, during this time continued to resist the grace the God...
• ...and in that resistance, his heart was hardened.
• It got to a point where God ended up hardening Pharaoh's heart.
• Why?
Because after continuing to resist God's grace...
• God justly gave him over to his own heart's lusts and desires.
• And that's a scary thing to think about.
• We ended up coming to the 10th and final plague...the killing of all the Egyptian first-born.
• And we discussed the first passover, where all the Israelites were to take a lamb...
• without blemish
• male
• a year old
• ...kill it, eat it, and take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts of the house as well as the lintel.
• When God saw the blood, He would pass over the house, and the plague would not come upon those inside the house.
• And so the blood covered the sins of the household...regardless of the sins inside.
• This was great news for the Israelites...
• Not so much for Pharaoh and his first-born.
• There was a great cry in Egypt that night...
• ...and the Egyptians ended up urging the Israelites to leave...just as God said that they would.
• So the people head out into the wilderness, and God leads them to the Red Sea.
• See God had a purpose in mind.
1 Then the Lord said to Moses,
2 “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea.
3 For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’
4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.
• So Pharaoh and his men came after Moses and the Israelites...
• ...and the Israelites were - exceedingly fearful
And what we’re going to see is this - -
SLIDE: Doubt In God: Leads to the Fear of Man
Doubt In God
Doubt In God
• Listen to what they say here:
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.
11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
• We can already see how this thing is gonna play out right?
NOW - we can HEAR the doubt of God being displayed here...
The problem with THAT IS:
• They had just left Egypt.
• They had just seen, firsthand, the power of God.
• And yet what?
• "Let's go back to Egypt...we don't want to do this anymore!"
• Fear had taken over.
• Doubt had taken over.
• Doubt in God will kill your ability to live by faith.
• If you're a Christian in this room, and you are not living by faith...
• ...it's because of your fear of man, and your doubt in God.
• And actually, the fear of man is birthed from a Doubting of God...
• ...and so it all comes back to Doubt in God.
• You doubt in God, therefore you fear man, and will not live by faith.
• They were done. Waiving the white flag.
• What did Moses say:
13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
• Isn't this great news...
Isn’t it AWESOME to know there’s an ANSWER to the DOUBT that we face…the FEAR that comes…in life
SLIDE: Trust In God: Leads to Him Fighting Your Battles
Trust In God
Trust In God
• The the battle is the Lord's.
• Living by faith is getting ourselves out of the way, and letting the Lord work thru you.
• So Moses here basically says to the Israelites what God had said to him.
• Moses had told God - I can't do this...I'm done!
• And God said what? - Fear not...Stand firm...Let's go, you're going to Pharaoh...and I'll work thru you.
AND WHAT HAPPENED?
• Moses had experienced and lived out God doing for him, what he could not do for himself.
• And so NOW Moses is able to encourage others to - live by faith...
• He's been there done that.
• He's saying - I've been afraid...I've wanted to run away...BUT..
• ...stand firm, don't be afraid...
• He'll do what He says He's going to do.
• And He did.
• God parts the waters...
• the Israelites pass thru on dry ground
• The Egyptians follow in after them...
• ...and then God closes the water in on the Egyptians....
So YES - Trusting God leads to God fighting your battles...
WHICH MEANS...
SLIDE: Trusting God: Leads to More Trust in God
Trust In God
Trust In God
• and we see in verse 31 of chapter 14 the result of what took place.
31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
• And so the Israelites saw what had been promised to them, and their unbelief had turned to - - belief.
• They actually go as far as having a little church service at this point.
• Before they continue on, they start singing praises to the Lord.
• More than 2/3's of chapter 15 is dedicated to this Song of Moses.
• What follows at this point is how the Israelites respond in the wilderness.
• And so for today, we're going to focus on a couple of different things.
• What do I mean?
• We're going to look at the Wilderness story as a whole, with God as the focal point...
• ...AND we're going to look at the Israeiltes response to Him, and then on the flip side...
• ...how we should respond to God today.
• Soon after the singing ended, the people set out into the Wilderness of Shur.
• They had traveled for 3 days and they couldn't find any water.
• And so verse 24 says:
24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
• And so we can already see how this might play out.
• Within 3 days of singing songs of praise to the Lord...within a week of being powerfully delivered from bondage, by the Lord...
• ...we find them...
• "grumbling".
• Well, they grumble to Moses....
• ....Moses cries out to the Lord, and the Lord supplies.
• Now, God didn't drop bottles of AquaFina from the sky...
• No, He actually performs a miracle that allows the people to drink the bitter water of Marah...(point along the journey)
• ...A miracle that the people would have seen and experienced. (file that)
• Then, about 2.5 months after leaving Egypt the people make their way to the Wilderness of Sin.
• And this is what state we find them in.
• Chapter 16 verse 2.
2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,
3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
• We saw that they were thirsty....and God - - supplied.
• Now...they're hungry.
• And they say this...
• We would have rather died in Egypt, when we sat next to the meat pots and ate bread to the full...FOR YOU have brought us out here to starve us to death.
• Now I'm all about sitting next to pots of meat, I'm not downing that...
• ... But what do the people really say here?
• They've concluded that they ARE going to die.
• Again - they had seen God deliver them...yet it didn't matter.
• They doubted God...and it lead to - walking by sight.
• Well, God heard what they said, and now He's going to step in and put these people to the test.
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.
• So God tells the people that He's going to supply bread for them, and that they are to gather it every day for six days.
• On the 6th day, they're supposed to gather up twice as much as they normally would (2 days full)...
• ...BECAUSE, on the 7th day, no bread will come.
• So the people obey, and they gather twice as much on the 6th day.
• On the 7th day however, some of the people head out looking for bread.
• They refused to listen, they doubt God yet again, and God responds.
28 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?
29 See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”
• So God tests them...He tests their faith, and we're beginning to see a pattern here in the wilderness.
1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.
2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”
3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
• Here we go again right?
• This is a dangerous place to be.
• These people are testing God...
• And this is a dangerous place to be.
• James 1:7 says:
7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
• What kind of person?
• verse 6:
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
• Did these people doubt?
• Absolutely...at every turn they doubted.
• The Israelites had just experienced God’s delivering power in removing them from Egyptian bondage…
• YET, once they were free to now worship their deliverer, they instead murmured and complained.
ISN’T IT INTERESTING - last week we saw how Pharaoh responded to God...
Pharaoh - during the plagues - lived SITUATIONALLY…**
• Their gaze had turned inward.
• Instead of using their newly found freedom as a spring board to worshipping God,
• ...they used it as an opportunity to elevate themselves in their own eyes.
• “Entitlement” became their mantra.
• James says - Let them not think that they should receive anything from the Lord, and yet, they're so ready to demand everything.
• Where does that come from??
• It comes from a sense of entitlement.
• SO......
QUESTION for us:
• Do you walk thru life....mainly feeling...."You owe me!"
• You owe me a certain look when I walk by you on the street
• You owe me a certain behavior in the neighborhood
• You owe me a thank you wave when i let you in
• You owe me the morning paper before 6:30
• YOU OWE ME...and i get mad when you don't pay
• If that's you, then you're not humble...
• ...you have a sense of entitlement.
• ...you're not humble....and I'm not humble.
• We need to work on this.
• We need to know and understand what happened to these people in the wilderness...
• WHY?
• Because as 1 Corinthians 10:5-6 says:
5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
• So how do we live in the humility that God wants?
• Have the mindset of Paul.
• He said in Romans 1:14: I am debtor to both the Greeks and the Jews...meaning - to everybody.
• I owe EVERYBODY
• Nobody owes me!
• Where does THAT come from?
• It comes from being STUNNNED at the grace of God!
• That when He owed you nothing but Hell, HE went thru hell FOR you.
• Until you are STUNNED by that...you WILL have a sense of entitlement.
• You will walk thru life and your basic orientation will be - "you OWE me!"
• But as soon as it lands on you that you were owed hell, and you got God, at the cost of the life of the Son of God...
• ...So much for your sense of entitlement.
• Now it's a battle...we need to preach the Gospel to ourselves everyday.
• These people in the wilderness were NOT stunned at the grace of God.
• In their minds they didn't need or desire God...for God.
• As we fast forward a bit in this journey...
• We see God lead them to Mount Sinai.
• He reveals His glory to them.
• He gives them His law. (The Ten Commandments)
• He makes a covenant with them (which we'll get into next week).
• Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God while the people wait at the foot of the mountain.
• And while the people's representative (Moses) stands on the top of the mountain with God...on their behalf...
• This is what happens.
• What we have here is a people who were so blind to the reality around them
...that at the very time and place where the Law was given...
...their hearts bowed down to another...
• ...their hearts desired other gods.
• And this was a clear indication that the Law was no more able to sanctify than it was to justify.
• The purpose of the Law is to reveal sin, not cure it.
• The Law revealed the sinfulness of their idolatry.
• This was a stiff-necked people indeed.
• And God here is ready to destroy them.
• He actually tells Moses to leave Him be, so that His wrath can burn hot against them.
• But what does Moses do?
• Moses, being the mediator between Israel and God, intercedes and pleads mercy on their behalf.
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”
14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
• So did Moses change God's mind here?
• Was God about to destroy these people, and Moses steps us and says - "Hey, don't forget what You said....Don't forget about that covenant"...
• ...and then God changed His mind??
• Is that what happened?
• No - God's purposes, God's plans, God Himself HAS never and will never change.
• The wages of sin has ALWAYS been death.
(Romans 6:23) - For the wages of sin is death...
• These people (the Israelites) deserved God's wrath.
• BUT, we need to finish the verse (Roman 6:23) -
...But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Moses here, being the chosen mediator between God and Israel, is the conduit through which God's mercy flows.
• This here - (MOSES) is a representation of Jesus Christ being the One mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5)
• It's through the Mediator that God's mercy flows...
• ...and so no, Moses didn't change God's mind here...
• He simply fulfilled the purposes of God in praying and interceding on behalf of God's people.
• And God relented His wrath.
• And this wilderness journey eventually leads to God telling Moses:
1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.”
• So these men go and spy out the land that God said He was giving to the people of Israel.
• They're gone for forty days, and then come back and give a report on what they saw.
• They basically say, that they cannot take the land because the inhabitants are too big, too strong, and the cities are fortified too heavily.
• Are they walking by faith here?
• No - they're doubting God - - again!
• ...they're walking by sight.
• The interesting thing is that due to this bad report, the Israelites rebel and begin to complain again.
SLIDE: Doubt in God: Leans On the Wisdom of Man
Doubt In God
Doubt In God
• So they have the [promises of God], and they have the [wisdom of these men].
• Which do they lean on?
• Those who walk by sight will always lean on the wisdom of man.
• The Pharisees walked by sight...not by faith.
• The Rich Young Ruler walked by sight...not by faith
• Sell all I have and give it to the poor?? That's a dumb idea...why would I do that...that makes no sense.
• How would I live? How would I eat? Where would I sleep?
• The Israelites, doubting the promises of God...Lean on the wisdom of these men.
• They conclude that they're incapable of taking the land, even though it was already given to them (they just needed to believe).
• Yeah, the land that God commanded them to go in and take was already theirs...
• ...they just needed to trust and obey.
• And so just know this -
SLIDE:
God will never lead you where His grace cannot provide for you, or where His power cannot protect you.
• Good news?
• So if you find yourself in a valley of life, with no visible way out...
• Stand firm...
• ...believe...
• He's there.
• AND KNOW - there is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
• No condemnation - there isn't ANY...
• Therefore, when you find yourself in a valley, it's not due to God's wrath toward you...
• ...BUT rather due to His mercy.
• It's by His mercy that He walks us through trials, that He might draw us closer to Him.
• But the Israelites didn't see it this way.
• They doubted God.
• And so God renders judgment here.
20 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word.
21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,
22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice,
23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.
24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.
25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me.
28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you:
29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me,
30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected.
32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.
34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’
35 I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”
• And so why did they wonder for 40 years?
• 1 year for each day they spent spying out the land that had been promised.
• AND, none of them were to enter into the promised land (except Joshua and Caleb).
• In looking back at all that had happened to them from when they left Egypt, had anything really changed?
• Had anything changed with them?
• No, nothing had changed.
• From their cries to the Lord standing at the Red Sea with Pharaoh closing in, to the refusal to take the promised land...
• ...nothing had changed.
• Hebrews chapter 3 mentions this event.
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
• What does it say?
• "Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion"...
• This is goes out to the professing church.
• Do not treat the grace of God with contempt—presuming to receive it as an escape from the Egypt of misery...
• ...but not being satisfied with it as guidance and provision in the wilderness of this life.
SLIDE:
How many professing Christians want the mercy of forgiveness so that they won't go to hell, but have hard hearts toward the Lord when it comes to daily fellowship with him?
• Listen to what verse 14 says in this same chapter of Hebrews:
14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
• That's a big "IF" isn't it?
• We have become partakers of Christ (in the past)...IF we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.
• So IF we do NOT hold fast our assurance firm until the end, THEN WE HAD NOT BECOME partakers of Christ (in the past)...
• ...We never got saved.
• It's not about you getting saved, you don't hold fast, and then you LOSE your salvation.
• No, not holding fast until the end shows that you never became a partaker of Christ (in the past).
• These people DID NOT hold fast.
• They did not persevere.
• But we need to be careful.
• What is perseverance?
• Perseverance begins - - inside!!
• A lot of us think - ok, I need to persevere...what should i "DO" for Christ.
• But that's not where this starts.
• Before you move a muscle...this is a heart issue...right now.
• "They always go astray in their heart".
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
• Why didn't the people get to enter the promised land?
• You could say, (well, they did bad things) - they sinned and they rebelled and they murmured.
• Yes.
• But look at how this writer ends the chapter. Verse 19: "And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief."
• Persistent sin in the face of God's mercy is a sign of unbelief.
• This chapter in Hebrews is looking back at the example of the Israelites in the Wilderness, and it's using it as a warning for us!
• Ok, so we've looked at the response of the Israelites to God in relation to His guidance and authority in their lives.
• Now, let's look at the flip side...
• ...how should our lives look in relation to who God is.
• This wilderness story has definitely shown us the effects of the fall has it not?
• the utter hopelessness of man.
• But it also showed us the importance of God as "everything" in our lives.
• ...as the central focus of all of life...of our lives.
• Now that's a very "Christian" thing to say...
• ...a very "Churchy" thing to say...
• But do we live that way??
• With Him as the central focus of everything??
• It shouldn't be lost on us that God lead the Israelites wherever they went.
• He lead them in a pillar of cloud during the day, and a pillar of fire by night.
• So they literally followed God wherever He lead.
• These unbelieving people, followed God everyday, for 40 years.
• They relied on Him to guide their steps.
• So...do we?
• You might say - well, I don't think God shows Himself anymore as a cloud or a pillar of fire...
• You're right...but we have His Word.
• Does His Word guide your steps??...daily?
• See in our society and culture, more often than not, religion or spirituality is seen as just one aspect of a person's life.
• SO - here's my life:
• and in this corner i have my sports...
• in this corner i have my love for music
• and in this corner I have my desire to be wealthy
• and in this corner i have my desire to be on the cover of Sport's Illustrated...
• and then over here I have my church life.
• This is not what we see here in this Wilderness story.
• God shows that He IS involved in every facet of our lives.
• Not only did God lead the Israelites, but He also proved Himself as their provider and their sustainer. (food and water)
• He sustained them.
• And so as we live our lives and we eat and drink daily, do we acknowledge the giver?
• Do we rely on Him as our provider, our sustainer?
• Or are we trusting in our abilities to sustain ourselves?
· If we’re relying on our own abilities, then when we do come to a valley, what will we do?
We’ve talked about it all day…
• Also, how the Israelites camped helps reveal the importance of community in our spiritual lives.
• Our society today is pushing individualism on us at every turn.
• BUT the Israelites worshiped at the tabernacle, celebrated Passover and other holy days...operating daily in community.
• The tabernacle, the place of worship, was placed in the center of the people, in the very heart of the camp.
• This was God's plan.
• Worship was not a thing to do once a week but a daily expression of a heart devoted to God.
• I was thinking about our song time before service this week, and thinking about how it should relate to our lives.
• How that time of song should relate to our lives...
• AND I thought, it seems that the time that we spend in song before the sermon could be looked at as the punctuation of the sentence we lived out during the week.
• And so then I thought...ok, I sing on Sunday mornings...
• So i have my punctuation...
• The question is - after providing the punctuation on Sunday mornings, does my sentence make sense?
• Do my sentences play out this way:
• I pursued money above all things this week
(And nothing formed against me shall stand
You hold the whole world in your hands
I'm holding on to your promises / You are faithful)
• I relished in being prideful of my possessions this week (Song)
• I had no inkling this week at all to pursue God in His Word (Song)
• I delighted and boasted in my sin this week (Song)
• Do our sentences make sense?
• The way the Israelites traveled reveals our total dependence upon God.
• Throughout this Wilderness story, God proves Himself over and over again to be faithful, and merciful.
• Do you walk by faith...
• ...or walk by sight?
• I need you to ask yourself this question:
• When was the last time I walked by faith?
• I'll even say it this way - When was the last time you did something risky for Christ?
• Because here's the thing - often times - Living by faith, will require you to step out of the boat and onto the water!
• And while the world looks out at you and says - WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?
• You stand firm, in faith, with complete confidence in Christ to be your strength.
• in the words of James: I’m just going to READ IT...
James 1:2–4 (ESV)
Testing of Your Faith
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
SUMMARY:
Doubt In God:
Leads to the Fear of Man
Leans on the Wisdom of Man
Trust in God:
Leads to Him Fighting Your Battles
Leads to More Trust in God
Let's pray...