You may have heard the story about a family that was entertaining another family of friends in their home for an evening of food and fellowship. After a good meal, they were all seated in the den visiting. There was a little four-year-old playing quietly on the floor with his toys. There was a lull in the conversation, and the four-year-old spoke into the silence, repeating something he had heard his older brother say while reciting his math problems. “Two times two is four,” the little boy said thoughtlessly. Everyone gasped at the child’s ability. The mother just knew she had a child genius on her hands! She said proudly, “What did you say dear? Say it again”. The little boy, surprised by all the attention he was receiving, said, “two times two is four.” And they expressed their amazement that a child so young could know so much. But suddenly, while they were discussing his brilliance, he interrupted and said, “Mommy… what’s a two? You see he had the information but he lacked the understanding.
When I began studying this text in Exodus, I kinda felt like that four year old! In my heart, I hunger for more than the “information”, I hunger for “understanding”. Amen?
The passage that we are going to focus on this morning is Exodus 20:1-6. Together we are going to see ………that God gave the Law to express His love.
The text says: Then God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
"You shall have no other gods before Me.
"You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
"You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
I think it is important to note that this is the first time that God speaks directly to the Israelites after bringing them out of Egypt. Before this, and interestingly after this, God used Moses to communicate with them. If you look back in chapter 19 we see that Moses had been preparing the people for three days for this meeting with God! On the third day, chapter 19 verse 17 says, Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. When I read that, I am reminded that very little has changed, people still need someone to bring them to Jesus!
How appropriate that God begins his address to the people in chapter 20 with giving them His clear identity. He says, “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery”. God knew that the Israelites had been in a land that had many gods. Their hearts were open to anything; they were not exclusive in their worship. For them to add another god would not have been a problem. The Israelites had become familiar, too familiar with having many gods for different needs. We see this very thing in our own society today don’t we? People are still comfortable with many “gods” As a matter of fact, you can talk about god, as long as you don’t mention Jesus.
I see God revealing two principles to them in this verse. He is saying to them, “I am the I am Moses told you about! I am the Yahweh, the only one worthy – In the same breath God is reminding the people of the bondage that He rescued them from. He is making clear in their minds and hearts who He is, the only true God that is capable of rescuing them.
Thus, the first commandment comes for the people.– “You shall have no others gods before me” – A more accurate translation of the Hebrew there is besides me! God is saying I am and there is no other! He is calling them into an exclusive worship with Him being the only one true God.
After God gives His clear identity to the people He then proceeds in giving HIS people clear instructions to follow.
One could refer to the entire passage with this in mind. God has provided the Ten Commandments as instructions to be followed for His people’s protection. I’ve shared with you before that I teach ninth and tenth grade girls. So often I find myself repeating this again and again to them – WHEN GOD SAYS NO, HE IS SIMPLY SAYING PLEASE DON’T HURT YOURSELF. Young people, well, even adults, have a hard time understanding that. Jesus is absolutely crazy about you, crazy about His people! He is not holding back anything from us that would bring us joy!
When God spoke to His people and told them not to make any idols for themselves, he was telling them how to protect their hearts from being deceived. He was protecting them.
Not only did God meet with the people to give them His clear identity, and equip them with clear instructions but to also reveal to them His clear intentions.
While I was meditating on this passage of scripture, I found my self asking the Holy Spirit to help me understand, one of my questions was:
Why did you speak to the people in this moment? If you guys remember with me, up until this point the people had Moses telling them God’s message. This chapter even concludes the same way, Moses as mediator. Then later on in chapter 32 and again in 34God gives Moses the tablets with the commandments on them. So why does God speak to the people here?
The Holy Spirit drew my attention to verse 6 in this passage. It says, “but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.”
The purpose of God speaking to the people here, and giving them the commandments was to show them His loving-kindness! God is a personal God, “I am”, personal pronoun. He desired then and still does today, to have a love relationship with the people, for them to know Him personally.
I thank God that we have the full Bible, that He has reveled Himself completely to us. Later on we read Paul writing of the law in Galatians 3 when he says the law was added because of transgressions then He says the law is our tutor to lead us to Christ. Kay Arthur calls the Law our coach, a good and effective coach, but it can’t give us the ability we need to play life’s game without breaking the rules. Once the tutor has done its work, we come to the place where we throw our hands up in surrender and say, “I can’t achieve righteousness. I’m a sinner, a transgressor of the Law; there’s no hope. And we hear Jesus say, I can. Will you believe in me?
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Unclean!
Today we are going to re-examine our need to come to Jesus in desperate humility, and absolute submission.
The Gospel of Mark is a wonderful Gospel. As a matter of fact I have four favorite Gospels and Mark’s is one of them! Amen? When I read the Gospels, I like to put myself at the scene. Do you know what I mean? I like to use my sanctified imagination and place myself in the story as a by-stander, watching Jesus and the people as the intricate details unfold.
This is precisely what I am going to challenge each one of you to do this morning. Let’s go back 2000 years together and see what the Holy Spirit wants to show us about desperate humility and absolute submission.
Mark 1:40-42 gives us a beautiful picture of what I’m talking about.
It says:"And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on His knees before Him, and saying, "If you are willing, You can make me clean." Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed."
In the few minutes we have, I want us to closely examine the word of God. Quickly, let’s look at the first person mentioned in this section of the passage, the leper. Lepers were considered UNCLEAN – they were often times made to live outside the villages away from society because of their horrible condition. Leprosy would eat away and decay the diseased from the outside in. Often times the decaying flesh would cause fingers, ears, perhaps even the nose to completely fall off the body. This man was in the most desperate condition.
If we read just a few verses before the leper comes on the scene, we discover that Jesus had been going all throughout
I can almost hear the sound of mothers crying, fathers singing, brothers and sisters laughing. The sounds of rejoicing at what Jesus was doing.
What about the leaper? I can picture this man watching on from a distance. Each time Jesus would touch someone or speak a word of healing or cast out even the most violent demon. I imagine this mans heart skipped a beat. Little by little he began to be filled with hope. As the crowd grew larger and larger around Jesus, the leper was forced farther and farther away from his only hope.
Until, his desperation overflowed out of him.
This man knew that there was no hope for him apart from that man who could heal with a spoken word.
The Bible says a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” You can see this man’s desperate humility, and we can hear his absolute submission. “If you are willing…
You see, leprosy is an outward manifestation of our inward condition. Sin is the heart of every man. We are born with a spiritual disease; our sin separates us from Jesus just like that crowd separated the leper. Our hopeless spiritual condition causes us to respond with desperate humility at the feet of Jesus.
Promise
You may have heard the story about the elderly woman who passed away. She had always been very active in her small church, and although she did not have much to live on, she tithed faithfully every week and did everything she could to help other people. If ever a prayer warrior lived it surely it was this woman. She loved the Lord and often told others about His great love for them. The only surviving family she had was two grown grandchildren.
While the grandchildren were sorting through their grandmothers belongs, they found their grandmother’s Bible still lying open on the night stand by her bed. As they walked over to pick up the Bible they saw their grandmother’s handwritten notes all in the margins of the page. As they flipped through the pages they noticed again and again the letters “TP” written in red. All throughout Genesis, “TP”, Joshua, “TP”, the book of Psalms “TP”, throughout the Gospels, Acts, Romans and on and on, every book, nearly every page, “TP”.
They could not figure out why their grandmother wrote that, what did it mean? On the very last page of her Bible the grandmother had a key of what different markings were and there they found just a little hand written note that read this, “Promises of God – “TP”, tried and proven.” This woman experienced the promises of God because she knew what they were.
This morning we are going to see that in order to live in the promises of God we need to know what He has promised to us.
Read with me 2 Peter 1:4 it reads, "For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."
The first key we need to identify is The Source of our promises
Read with me again in verse 4 if you will and look how Peter starts off this verse. He writes “for by these” well what are the “these” that Peter is writing about in this verse? In order to discover that we need to dig into the word of God; look back up with me in the context of this passage in the beginning of this letter. Second part of verse 1.
So you see the “For by these”, the source of our promises is all that precedes verse 4. It is the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ; its by His grace, His peace, it is in the true intimate knowledge of God; His divine power; it is His own glory and His own excellence that He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises! The Source of our Promises flows from the very character of Jesus!
I made a promise to my son that for his fifth birthday we would have a birthday party and celebrate at Pump It Up. That is every kids dream! Well, I’m embarrassed to admit it but when it came time to have his party, we just didn’t have the money to have it at Pump It Up. And I disappointed my son. You see, I’m a fallen person, I wanted to give Him the desires of His heart but I’m limited! I have flaws in my character, but not God! His Character is faithful and righteous. He will never break a promise made to His children.
Once we identify the source of our promises as being God Himself the second key to living in the promises of God is to identify the Substance of our Promises.
You see Peter says that He (Jesus) has granted to us precious and magnificent promises. As you read Peter’s letter you can’t help but to notice that in the first part of his letter he is telling them to remember, remember, look back don’t forget where you came from, don’t forget what Jesus has done in your life.
When I look back at the precious promises of God in my own life, I can’t help but remember when God was calling me to seminary. I tried to talk His out of it! I really did…I would pray, “God, I’m a women, isn’t seminary for men?” God answered me through His word, “I’ve called women. Not to preach, not to be pastors but have I used their voice in past in my Word? YES. I have used women and raised them up for a time such as this? YES. Have women cried out praises to me in my Word? YES. So God would not let me off the hook on that. So then I reminded God, “God, I’m a tenth grade drop out, I never learned how to write papers, I don’t even read well! I’m not smart enough to do this. That same morning, God took me to Joshua 1 and these words jumped off the page at me, “I will not leave you nor forsake you!” God’s promises have substance!
Now that we have identified the Source of God’s promises and know that His promises have substance we see the third key to living in the promises of God which is understanding the Significance of our Promises.
Go with me again to the text, Peter writes “So that By them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” You see God’s promises are significant because it through His promises that we can become partakers of the divine nature. The divine nature is the nature of being born again, being called no longer an enemy of God, but instead a child of God.
Think on these verses, promises, of God…
Temptation: No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also. 1 Corinthians 10:13
Comfort: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1
Salvation: that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made resulting in salvation. Romans 10:9, 10
Those promises of God are Significant!
The Key to living in the promises of God is to first know what He has promised us.
You may be asking, Krystal where do I start! The Word of God is BIG! How can I sort trough and point out His promises. Well, the key is spending time in His word daily, ask God to show you His promises in scripture. Lay hold of the victory we have in Jesus and live your life in His presence.
While the grandchildren were sorting through their grandmothers belongs, they found their grandmother’s Bible still lying open on the night stand by her bed. As they walked over to pick up the Bible they saw their grandmother’s handwritten notes all in the margins of the page. As they flipped through the pages they noticed again and again the letters “TP” written in red. All throughout Genesis, “TP”, Joshua, “TP”, the book of Psalms “TP”, throughout the Gospels, Acts, Romans and on and on, every book, nearly every page, “TP”.
They could not figure out why their grandmother wrote that, what did it mean? On the very last page of her Bible the grandmother had a key of what different markings were and there they found just a little hand written note that read this, “Promises of God – “TP”, tried and proven.” This woman experienced the promises of God because she knew what they were.
This morning we are going to see that in order to live in the promises of God we need to know what He has promised to us.
Read with me 2 Peter 1:4 it reads, "For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."
The first key we need to identify is The Source of our promises
Read with me again in verse 4 if you will and look how Peter starts off this verse. He writes “for by these” well what are the “these” that Peter is writing about in this verse? In order to discover that we need to dig into the word of God; look back up with me in the context of this passage in the beginning of this letter. Second part of verse 1.
So you see the “For by these”, the source of our promises is all that precedes verse 4. It is the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ; its by His grace, His peace, it is in the true intimate knowledge of God; His divine power; it is His own glory and His own excellence that He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises! The Source of our Promises flows from the very character of Jesus!
I made a promise to my son that for his fifth birthday we would have a birthday party and celebrate at Pump It Up. That is every kids dream! Well, I’m embarrassed to admit it but when it came time to have his party, we just didn’t have the money to have it at Pump It Up. And I disappointed my son. You see, I’m a fallen person, I wanted to give Him the desires of His heart but I’m limited! I have flaws in my character, but not God! His Character is faithful and righteous. He will never break a promise made to His children.
Once we identify the source of our promises as being God Himself the second key to living in the promises of God is to identify the Substance of our Promises.
You see Peter says that He (Jesus) has granted to us precious and magnificent promises. As you read Peter’s letter you can’t help but to notice that in the first part of his letter he is telling them to remember, remember, look back don’t forget where you came from, don’t forget what Jesus has done in your life.
When I look back at the precious promises of God in my own life, I can’t help but remember when God was calling me to seminary. I tried to talk His out of it! I really did…I would pray, “God, I’m a women, isn’t seminary for men?” God answered me through His word, “I’ve called women. Not to preach, not to be pastors but have I used their voice in past in my Word? YES. I have used women and raised them up for a time such as this? YES. Have women cried out praises to me in my Word? YES. So God would not let me off the hook on that. So then I reminded God, “God, I’m a tenth grade drop out, I never learned how to write papers, I don’t even read well! I’m not smart enough to do this. That same morning, God took me to Joshua 1 and these words jumped off the page at me, “I will not leave you nor forsake you!” God’s promises have substance!
Now that we have identified the Source of God’s promises and know that His promises have substance we see the third key to living in the promises of God which is understanding the Significance of our Promises.
Go with me again to the text, Peter writes “So that By them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” You see God’s promises are significant because it through His promises that we can become partakers of the divine nature. The divine nature is the nature of being born again, being called no longer an enemy of God, but instead a child of God.
Think on these verses, promises, of God…
Temptation: No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also. 1 Corinthians 10:13
Comfort: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1
Salvation: that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made resulting in salvation. Romans 10:9, 10
Those promises of God are Significant!
The Key to living in the promises of God is to first know what He has promised us.
You may be asking, Krystal where do I start! The Word of God is BIG! How can I sort trough and point out His promises. Well, the key is spending time in His word daily, ask God to show you His promises in scripture. Lay hold of the victory we have in Jesus and live your life in His presence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)