The God Who Hears
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
There was an unwed mother who was on the run from a dire situation.
To make matters worse, she was pregnant from her boss’s husband.
Her boss was unable to have children, so in a desperate act, had her husband sleep with this lady.
Of course, you can guess this went south pretty quick.
This lady started to despise her boss now that the lady was pregnant.
Her boss is enraged by the whole situation and abuses her employee.
So this unwed mother runs away to the middle of nowhere and stops near a lake.
It is in this terrible, messed up situation that the Lord speaks to this woman.
Of course, I’m talking about Hagar, pregnant from Abram, husband of Sarai.
Also know as Abraham and Sarah.
Her is what the Lord says to her through the Angel of the Lord in Genesis 16.
8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.”
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.”
10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.”
11 And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
The Hebrew word Ishmael means “God Hears” or “God Will Hear.”
In the midst of her affliction God heard Hagar’s cries and acted on her behalf.
God took the initiative.
Teaching
Teaching
Today we are going to look at the promise that God hears us.
We will look at a connected yet reversed story.
Instead of Sarah, a Hebrew, afflicting her Egyptian maidservant.
We will look at the Egyptian King afflicting the Hebrews in Exodus.
So turn to the Book of Exodus chapter 1.
Before we see how God hears the Israelites let’s look at their situation.
5 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.
7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.
12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.
13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves
14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
The situation looks bleak. A new king arises who is afraid of the shear number of the Israelites.
So he enslaves them, and afflicts them.
This is the same word we saw in Genesis 16 when Sarai afflicted Hagar.
They ruthlessly made the the people work as slaves and made their lives bitter.
Notice that it says twice that “they ruthlessly made” them work as slaves.
The situation is certainly terrible.
But don’t let the terribleness of the situation cause you to miss something very important.
God is fulfilling His promise to Abraham to multiply his descendants.
Paul House, an Old Testament Theologian points this out when he says:
SHOW PAUL HOUSE #1 QUOTE
SHOW PAUL HOUSE #1 QUOTE
“The book’s opening verses are to be read as a theological affirmation of God’s ongoing faithfulness, kindness and provision for Abraham, Issac and Jacob. The promise-keeping God continues to act across centuries, keeping pledges to men and women.”
(Paul R. House, Old Testament Theology (Downers Grove, Il: InterVarsity Press, 1998) 89.)
We serve the God of Promise and He will do all He says He will do.
So let’s dive in to this story.
1. God is transcendent, yet He remains with His People.
1. God is transcendent, yet He remains with His People.
(All Transcendent and Immanent discussion from Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Second Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020) 343-344.)
The word Transcendent means is that God is far above or distinct from creation.
He made it, He rules over it, but He is not part of it.
Thought He isn’t part of it, he is very much involved in creation, it is continually dependent on Him to exist and to function.
His involvement in creation is called Immanence.
He remains with His creation.
If you were in Life Groups last year, then you head these terms in relation to the Hagar story we looked at earlier.
FYI starting June 2nd we will start meeting on Wednesdays and going through our Life Group material the Gospel Project, so don’t miss it.
Wayne Grudem is helpful here as we understand God’s Transcendence and His Immanence, Grudem says:
SHOW WAYNE GRUDEM QUOTE
SHOW WAYNE GRUDEM QUOTE
“The God of the Bible is no abstract deity removed from and uninterested in his creation. The Bible is the story of God’s involvement with his creation—and particularly the people in it.” (Grudem 344)
God is transcendent, above His creation, outside of it.
But He also remains with His people. He enters in our story, and He cares for us.
Let’s look at God’s care for these afflicted Israelites.
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
Look at these last two verses: God heard, God remembered, God saw, and God knew.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
God is intimately concerned for His people.
The original Hebrew has the word God, Elohim, before each of these verbs.
The author of Exodus doesn’t want us to miss that God is near: God Hears, God Remembers, God Sees, and God Knows.
Let’s take a few minutes and explore each one of these:
God Hears
God Hears
In chapter 3 of Exodus we read the Lord’s response to the the Israelites affliction:
7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,
9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
When it says God hears, it isn’t that God finally put in His divine hearing aids.
God has heard their cries.
It is more in the “sense of “to take heed of; to hear and respond to”.
(Quote plus the following Hagar reference from Terence E. Fretheim, Exodus, Interpretations: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1991) 48. See also House 91. for God’s hearing meaning he will act)
We see this same kind of hear and respond in the story we looked at with Hagar in Genesis 16, God heard her, and He came comforting and guiding her.
Ed Welch points to two things we need to notice in these verses:
“First, there is no reason to believe that the Israelites’ cry for help was directed to God.”
“God rescued his people even before they called out to him.”
“Second, whenever Scripture says anything about God hearing, watch out, because you know something is about to happen.”
(From Edward T. Welch, Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest(Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2007) 72-72.)
Listen to these words from Ed Welch:
SHOW ED WELCH #1 QUOTE
SHOW ED WELCH #1 QUOTE
“The lesson is clear: He doesn’t hear because of us and the quality of our prayers. He hears because he is the God Who Hears.” (Welch 73, emphasis original)
God doesn’t just hear the Israelites, God also Remembers.
God Remembers
God Remembers
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
God’s remembering the covenant doesn’t mean He forgot about it till now.
It means He will “act in faithfulness to His word of Promise.”
(Allan Harman, Exodus: God’s Kingdom of Priests, Focus on the Bible (Scotland, U.K.: Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 2017) 64.)
God knew exactly how long the suffering would take place hundreds of years before it took place.
In God’s covenant with Abraham he told Abraham:
13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.
14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
The time that God set has finally come.
Paul House sums it up nicely:
SHOW PAUL HOUSE #2 QUOTE
SHOW PAUL HOUSE #2 QUOTE
“The work of deliverance must now commence, and it will be enacted by the God who has been faithful to Abraham for four centuries and who will prove just as faithful to those who suffer, cry out, hope and dream of freedom in this new era.” (House 91)
God Hears, God Remembers, and God Sees
God Sees
God Sees
As with hearing, it is not as if God forgot to put on His divine spectacles.
God begins “to move toward the [Israelites] with kindness and sympathy.” (Fretheim 48)
He has seen the affliction and oppression of His people—now he will act.
8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
The fact that the Lord had seen them brings great comfort to and evokes worship from the Israelites:
31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
God Hears, God Remembers, God Sees, but perhaps most importantly God Knows.
God Knows
God Knows
God knows does not mean He has some sort of “head knowledge.” (All God Knows discussion from Fretheim 48-49, unless otherwise noted. )
God so shares in the Israelites’s experience that their experience can be called God’s experience.
Isaiah the Prophet, reflecting on the Exodus experience, says of Israel:
7 I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
8 For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” And he became their Savior.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
(Isaiah’s reflection from Harman 64, 68)
God knows their sufferings, He experiences their suffering intimately. He is not just far above His creation, He also, is intimately close to his people.
Terence Fretheim reminds us:
SHOW FRETHEIM QUOTE
SHOW FRETHEIM QUOTE
“Israel does not have a monopoly on oppression or on God’s compassion. God knows the sufferings of all.” (Fretheim 61)
2. God enters into our sufferings.
2. God enters into our sufferings.
The Prophet Isaiah is again helpful here.
God allows Isaiah to see a vision of the Suffering Servant.
This Suffering Servant has his ultimate fulfillment in Jesus.
Jesus enters into our sufferings.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
He is a man of sorrows, knowing our grief.
God Hears, God Remembers, God Sees, and God Knows.
The Author of Hebrews picks up this idea when He talks about Jesus as our High Priest.
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
We have this High Priest who can sympathize—He has entered into our suffering.
He has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
But the Author of Hebrews goes on to tell more.
There is now something extraordinary we can do!
Look at the next verse:
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
This phrase “Let us then with confidence draw near” is one word called a Hortatory Subjunctive.
It’s actually just the verb “draw near” but the mood and ending of the verb make it an exhortation.
The Author is compelling us to draw near to the throne of grace—to petition God in prayer.
Jesus has entered into our suffering and now we get to enter into His grace, mercy and help!
So how do we do that?
How do we draw near in prayer?
3. Our prayers must be made in fear, humility, confidence, and hope.
3. Our prayers must be made in fear, humility, confidence, and hope.
Let’s look quickly at each of these in turn.
Fear of the Lord
Fear of the Lord
The first is our prayers must be made in the fear of the Lord.
You’ve likely heard this saying, “Fear of the Lord”.
If you are like me you’ve heard it, read it in the Bible, and secretly wondered what this means!
I remember reading it in Proverbs 1:7:
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
I have to admit for a long time I was like “Great! I have no idea what the fear of the Lord is so I can’t even begin to have wisdom!”
I’ve got some help if you struggle wrapping your head around this idea.
Timothy Keller in his book Prayer gives us this illustration:
Imagine that you suddenly are introduced to some person you have always admired enormously—perhaps someone you have hero-worshipped.
You reached out to shake her hand and suddenly it hit you.
You can't believe you're actually meeting her.
You discover to your embarrassment that you are trembling and sweating, and when you try to speak, you're out of breath.
What is going on?
You are not afraid of being hurt, or punished.
Rather, you are generally afraid of doing something stupid or saying something that is inappropriate to the person and the occasion.
Your joyful admiration has a fearful aspect to it.
You are in awe, and therefore you don't want to mess it up.
(Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2016) 98.)
Ed Welch gives us a helpful definition of the Fear of the Lord:
SHOW ED WELCH #2 QUOTE
SHOW ED WELCH #2 QUOTE
The Fear of the Lord “is walking with reverence and joy with the God who is with us. It is our response of obedient love and devotion to the Holy One who has pursed us, loved us, received the wrath of the Father on our behalf, and is with us by the Spirit.”
(Edward T. Welch, Addictions—A Banquet in the Grave: Finding Hope in the Power of the Gospel, Resources For Changing Lives (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2001) 221.)
Our prayers must be made in the fear of the Lord but also with Humility.
Humility
Humility
Keller helps here too:
SHOW TIM KELLER QUOTE
SHOW TIM KELLER QUOTE
“We should come to God knowing our only hope is in his grace and forgiveness and being honest about our doubts, fears, and emptiness.” (Keller 100)
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Fear of the Lord and Humility, are accompanied by the last two Confidence and Hope.
(Discussion of Confidence and Hope from Keller 101-107)
There is no contradiction between Humility and Confidence.
Humility acknowledges we don’t have the power, or ability to make God do anything.
Yet, the Scriptures are filled with exhortations to pray expectantly.
2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
We should pray confidently, full of hope that God will answer.
From where does this confidence come? JESUS CHRIST.
Jesus is the only one who can say confidently:
41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
R.A. Torrey says it this way:
Show R.A. Torrey Quote
Show R.A. Torrey Quote
“We must give up any thought that we have any claims upon God....But Jesus Christ has great claims on God and we should go to God in our prayers not on the ground of any goodness in ourselves, but on the ground of Jesus Christ’s claims.” (Quoted in Keller 107)
Jesus is the One who intercedes for us.
God sees us as righteous if we’ve placed our faith and trust in Jesus.
Yet there is a very real sense in which
4. Our prayers can be hindered by sin.
4. Our prayers can be hindered by sin.
Don’t take my word for it, let’s look at the Scriptures:
The Psalmist knows sin would hinder his prayers:
17 I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
Isaiah identifies sin as the reason God has not rescued the Israelites:
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
James tells in the NT that our sinful motives hinder our prayers:
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Peter warns us that the way we treat others can hinder our prayers:
7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
Wives, Singles, and everyone else aren’t off the hook either, Peter warns all:
7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
Peter gives us the solution:
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
John gives us the key:
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Jesus is the solution!
God’s will is the key!
5. Our prayers must be made in Christ alone through faith.
5. Our prayers must be made in Christ alone through faith.
R.A. Torrey gets it right again:
SHOW R.A. TORREY #2 QUOTE
SHOW R.A. TORREY #2 QUOTE
“In order that a prayer should be really unto God, there must be a definite and conscious approach to God when we pray; we must have a definite and vivid realization that God is bending over us and listening as we pray.”
(Quoted from Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).)
When God Heard, God Remembered, God Saw, and God Knew. Then he called Moses to lead the Israelites by faith.
(Discussion of Moses and the Burning bush from Fretheim 61-62.)
Look at God’s call of Moses at the Burning Bush in Exodus 3:
4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
The Lord tells Moses that He has Heard, Remembered, Seen, and Know his peoples afflictions so He calls Moses to:
10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
Moses “Here I am” quickly became a “Who am I?”
His initial readiness turns into reluctance once God tells Moses what He wants him to do.
How true is this of us!
But look again at verse 12:
12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
God will be with moses in whatever he may face.
Moses is assured of constant divine presence.
Moses “I” will be accompanied by the divine “I AM.”
Application
Application
Because we know God Hears Us we can obey the exhortation of the Author of Hebrews:
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Maybe you need to come for the first time in repentance
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
6 He will render to each one according to his works:
7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;
8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
Maybe you’ve trusted Jesus for salvation but now you feel distant
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
He’s waiting to welcome you home.
What If you’ve blown it?
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Take time now to confess your sins, maybe for the first time or maybe to prepare you heart for the Lord’s Supper.
I’m going to be down front after the Lord’s Supper and Pastor Matt is down here as well.
We would love to introduce you to the forgiveness in Jesus.
προσευχωμεθα
Communion
Communion
In remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice, let’s remember that He is coming again:
26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Let’s remember his death, resurrection, and return as we take this bread—Christ’s body offered for us.
Let’s remember his death, resurrection, and return as we take the cup—Christ’s blood shed for us.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fretheim, Terence E. Exodus. Interpretations: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1991.
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Second. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020.
Harman, Allan. Exodus: God’s Kingdom of Priests. Focus on the Bible. Scotland, U.K.: Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 2017.
House, Paul R. Old Testament Theology. Downers Grove, Il: InterVarsity Press, 1998.
Keller, Timothy. Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2016.
Ritzema, Elliot and Elizabeth Vince. eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).
Welch, Edward T. Addictions—A Banquet in the Grave: Finding Hope in the Power of the Gospel. Resources For Changing Lives. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2001.
________. Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2007.