Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Prayer

Pray

I.

The Reading

A reading from Exodus 5:1-9, reading from the English Standard Version translation of the Bible.

This is God’s Word:

Say Amen

If you receive this word by faith as the word of God and not the word of men, would you say with me, Amen?

Amen!

II.

The Exhortation

When Pharaoh speaks in Exodus Chapter 5, Verse 2, he asks one question and makes one assertion, that both point to the same result:

Pharaoh does not know the LORD.

The king of Egypt does not know the LORD —

the God of Israel, the God who speaks, the God of the Hebrews, the God who meets with His people —

Pharaoh does not know Moses and Aaron’s God.

Pharaoh does not recognize Moses and Aaron’s God.

Pharaoh does not fear Moses and Aaron’s God.

Just look at what Pharaoh does.

Pharaoh rebels.

Not against Moses and Aaron, but against the LORD and the LORD’s voice.

Pharaoh’s rebellion against the LORD, was a direct result of his unwillingness to know the LORD who was speaking to him.

A word of application for us as hearers today:

Our rebellion against the Lord, is a direct result of our unwillingness to KNOW the Lord who is speaking to us.

As we read the pages of Holy Scripture, two truths are unavoidable and unique to only one God — who is the LORD:

1.) God is knowable

2.) God will be known.

For every creature who has life and breath:

God gave you that life, God gave you that breath — God wills that you know Him, Your Creator!

Hear the words of the Apostle in Romans 1:19-20 —

At a minimum, God wills for all people to know Him as Creator, such that His fingerprints are clearly perceived in everything that has been made.

But the LORD does not limit His self-revelation only to Creation.

If He did, our Bibles would be very small.

We would only need the first two chapters of the first book of Genesis and an eye to look around and see the world, and that’s it!

But God gave us more!

We have more than two chapters, and we have more than one eye.

To the Israelites in Egypt, broken in spirit because of harsh slavery and impossible burdens, God willed for them to know Him more.

To sinners in need of God’s forgiveness and freedom, God wills for you to know Him more.

To saints in need of God’s mercy and grace, God wills for you to know Him more!

To anyone who is doubting, God wills for you to know Him more!

To anyone who is discouraged, God wills for you to know Him more!

To anyone who is dying, God wills for you to know Him more!

To know Him as more than God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth —

to know Him as Redeemer and Sustainer.

To know Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

To know Him Who is outside of ourselves but through Christ dwells within our hearts by faith.

To have a relationship with God — to know Him and be known by Him.

We could argue that there are only two purposes every person has in life:

The first is:

To know God.

This purpose is for those who are born.

If you are born, God wants you to know Him.

Many people spend their entire lives seeking this one end, and this one end only.

Just to know God.

The second purpose in life is, which really is a privilege, is:

To make God known.

This purpose is for those who are born again.

If you have been born again, that means, your sins have been forgiven and you have been made new by the grace of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ, then God wills for you to make Him known, as His ambassador, as Christ’s witnesses.

Few people devote their lives to this end — to make God known, because few ever know God.

Few know God as He desires to be known, as Creator AND Redeemer, as Lord of all.

If we knew God, we would obey God.

There is an unmistakeable connection in this text between Pharaoh’s knowledge of God and Pharaoh’s obedience to God.

And the same is true for us, Church.

If we knew God, we would obey God.

If we knew God, the true God, the only God, we would do whatever it takes to make God known, through our unwavering obedience to Him — wouldn’t we?

Yet what so often hinders us is the same sin that hindered Pharaoh.

Pharaoh believed in other gods.

Egypt had numerous other known gods, many known by multiple names.

Pharaoh knew those gods but he did not know the LORD who reveals Himself, not as one among many, but as the one and only God!

And worse, as history teaches us, Pharaoh viewed himself as a god.

The king of Egypt would not submit to the voice of the LORD, he would not obey the LORD — for why should he, if he and God were peers?

And this blasphemy, this idolatry, this pride, this rebellion, this sin is thriving in the hearts of many people who will not let go of themselves and will not submit to the Lord and obey Him, because they view themselves as divine alongside God.

But the Gospel of the grace of God proclaims a better way, and a better life.

The Gospel frees us from ourselves and from our sin, and offers eternal life through the knowledge of God.

This text in Exodus is about knowing God, the knowledge of God, God who desires to be known.

III.

The Teaching

As we consider carefully these nine verses of Scripture, may the Spirit teach us through the Word ,ways in which God is known and what our response must be to knowing Him.

First,

Know God - Through HIS Witnesses (5.1a)

Look with me again at verse 1 —

This verse begins with Moses and Aaron in motion.

They went.

They are going to Pharaoh with a purpose, to enlighten Pharaoh with knowledge of God, and elicit from Pharaoh obedience to God on the basis of His Word.

Moses and Aaron are witnesses, more specifically, God’s witnesses.

What does it mean to be a witness for God?

A witness for God is someone who speaks God’s word and testifies of God’s ways.

A witnesses is someone who speaks!

But before a witnesses speaks, a witness must first GO!

Jesus said to his disciples, after His resurrection from the dead, right before He ascended into Heaven —

How will the disciples get from Jerusalem, to all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth?

They had to first GO!

Being sent by Jesus, being empowered by the Holy Spirit, they had to put feet to the Gospel.

Moses and Aaron put feet to what God had told them to do, and they went to Pharaoh, sent by God and empowered by God and equipped by God to be His witnesses.

This is the first means by which God is made known in this text.

Know God - Through HIS witnesses.

Moses and Aaron went.

Had they not gone, Pharaoh would not have had the chance to know God.

Each one of us must examine ourselves and answer this question — If we who know God do not go — who will not have the chance to know God through our witness?