Two Identifying Marks of a True Believer — Fred Tomlinson

Hello, my name is Fred Tomlinson and I am delighted to have this opportunity to talk to you and I wanted to say at the outset that one feature of this process is particularly amazing to me. One half of that is that I'm able to address so many people from the room where I'm recording this right now, but just to see the numbers of people on Sermon Index that are tuning into it is amazing and thrilling.

The other aspect of it is when I think about the fact that so many people are listening to what I am saying and yet they have no concept of who I am at all. I've not been around for a long time on the internet, I've not written lots of books or anything like that.

I'm just anonymous. Anyway in the light of that I thought I'd just take a few minutes just before I say anything else to give you a little idea as to who I am and I should start I suppose by saying well of course I'm English, my accent probably betrays that fact, but my wife and I have been adopted by Canada and this has been our home for quite a long time now.

We married 57 years ago, isn't that amazing, 57 years ago and we were courting, there will be people listening to me who don't even know what that word means, but we were courting for four and a half years before we actually married.

So we've been around with each other for a long time since we were quite young and that union was clearly ordained of God and provided by the Lord and the journey has been and continues to be very wonderful.

I thank God for giving me such a wonderful life partner as he has with my wife or in my wife Sheila. Together we have four children that are now completely grown and have their own families. One of our daughters, we have two sons and two daughters, one of our daughters went back to the UK, she's married and has a family in the north of England and attends a fellowship in the north of England and the other three, again all married with their own families, live within a five hour drive journey from where I am speaking right now in western Canada.

And those, our children have given us 16 grandchildren and they have given us 12 great-grandchildren. So we've gone forth and multiplied and that's wonderful. With regards to myself, I started a career with the Liverpool City Police in the UK of course and I felt at that time that I had found my niche so far as employment was concerned.

It was not merely employment, it was so incredibly enjoyable and seemed to suit me and fit like a glove. But something happened that changed everything and that was that the Lord intercepted us. We had been raised in a Christian home, in a good evangelical home, sound Bible teaching and so on and we were committed to the assemblies.

But we ended up meeting a group of people and those people made a profound impression upon Sheila, my wife and myself, as we sensed that they were experiencing something in the Christian life that we really didn't know anything much about and it wasn't so much that the words were different but the life factor was enormously different.

These were a people who knew God and as a result of meeting them we made our own responses to the Lord ourselves. This was not some outlandish charismatic type of situation at all. To help you understand a little more about that, way back in those years when we first met the people, which would have been in the 1960s, a newspaper reporter came to one of the leading brethren in the group and asked if she could have an interview actually and then write an article about what was happening there and that brother said, well I'd rather not do an interview but you're most welcome to come to one of the meetings and write and just write whatever you find.

Some people would have thought that was a rather risky thing to do with the media but she did a fantastic job and when the article was published we were thrilled to read what was going on in our group through her eyes and particularly we were impressed with the title that she gave to the article which was, Knowing God for Themselves.

When we read that we thought, well that's exactly what this is all about. We were a group of people who were definitely not satisfied to know God via hearsay. We wanted to know God ourselves and we believed that that was a possibility that God had arranged and so that was wonderful.

We were, in so many ways, we were intent upon rediscovering and experiencing the life and power of New Testament Christianity and so once again that pivoted our lives, my career, everything. We gave our all to what the Lord was opening up and before long I was included in the leadership of that group and from there I travelled here, there and everywhere and had opportunities in many places to preach this wonderful Gospel of God, as the Apostle Paul calls it.

We ended up in Canada and that's the way the story goes. There's ever such a lot more of course that I could share with you but there's a start and maybe I'll share something else in other sessions. But now I would like to turn your attention to what we want to focus on in this session.

Moses: From Providential Preservation to Divine Commission

There will be those of you who listened to the message that I brought a week ago and in many ways this is a continuation of that. I had chosen to focus my thoughts and base my thoughts around aspects of the life of Moses.

These are very abridged, tight little sessions because quite a while ago now I did a series that started in the children of Israel in Egypt and moved all the way through and into the Promised Land and so on and that took months of time to accomplish so these are just tight little abridged sessions.

Not that I'm repeating anything that I said back then, that I remember anyway. When we were in the session last week we had joined Moses when he was 80 years of age. Many of you will have recognised as you read through the story of Moses that his 120 years of life was separated into three categories of three 40 year periods and he had spent 40 years living with the royal family in Egypt and 40 years then in the backside of the desert having become married there.

The thing is for those who are not quite so familiar with the story, the fact is God had sovereignly and providentially protected his life at birth and shortly thereafter when he would have been killed because of what was going on in Egypt at that point in time.

But God not only preserved his life and acted providentially to do that but the fact is there was a further aspect of that sovereign providential hand of God in that he arranged that although Moses was taken over and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter and taken to the palace, Moses' mother was actually commissioned to be the baby's nurse and so she had the privilege of raising her own child in so many ways under these new conditions.

Of course all the setting was alien to them because they were in a pagan setting but God had his hand in it all, not merely preserving his life and not merely even having his mother there but this gave a tremendous beginning for Moses in the sense that his mother, who was of course Jewish and fully recognising what was going on and how God's hand was in all of this, we can rest assured that she gave herself unreservedly to teach the young child the things of the true and living God and the history of God's work with his people, with their people and that was a very essential foundation for the remainder of his life.

But at the end of 40 years there was an incident that took place and he saw something taking place which was clearly wrong. He intervened and as the result of his intervention an Egyptian soldier was killed and Moses fled for his life I'm sure and that was the end of his time in the palace in Egypt.

He started a new life, met his wife and so on but then we find him looking after his father-in-law's sheep and many of you will remember and we touched on this last time, how that there must have been many many times during those years when he looked back on the way that he had intervened in that situation and was he too rash in doing what he did, he may have thought to himself but there was more going on in Moses than just that and I know that from reading Hebrews chapter 11 but in the New Testament of course but the fact of the matter is being human there must have been times when he thought I just screwed up so badly and messed everything up and here I am here in the desert somewhere looking after my father-in-law's sheep.

What has my life come to? You know what I think there's a lot of people today who think along those lines. In fact I've met a good many of them in the course of my own life and ministry. People who feel that as the result of something they've done or something they didn't do that they ought to have done or whatever it was that they have just completely messed everything up and there's no hope now that God could ever make anything of their lives.

Nothing could be more wrong actually and what I believe to be true is this that if the call of God is on a person's life, no matter what goes on and what twists or turns they take in life, that which God starts he will finish and I believe it's true to say that through all of those long years, all 80 of them, the eye of God was upon that man and he was God's man.

He was here and he was there, he was doing this and he was doing something else but the fact is God had not forsaken him at all and this is the wonderful thing about God. In fact there's one amazing thing to me is that God in his own unique genius, if I may refer to it like that, he is able to take the things that we have done which even we have looked back on and said that was a mistake to have done that or we shouldn't have gone there or whatever it is but God, he is able to weave together even those events and even those activities and somehow weave them all in together into his great purpose.

There's other things that happen to us, people disappoint us, people hurt us in our journey and seem to you know throw us for a six as we'd say in England and but God is able to overrule and continue to work out his plan and his purpose in spite of everything and that is a wonderful thing and all of this to get us to the place and position that he needs to get us to in order for us to be or do what he has in his heart.

A couple of months ago is it now I think I spoke about Joseph and he's a classic example of this. Do you remember when after all was said and done he said to his brothers you meant it for evil but God meant it for good and he was thinking of all of the twists and turns that are taking place in his life as the result of the behaviour of his brothers toward him but God was in it all and God used it all to get Joseph to the place where he needed him to be in order to become his servant, God's servant in the situation which would develop in the fullness of time.

Oh that's very very wonderful and so in the life of Moses he's there one night looking after his father-in-law's sheep. I don't know what in the world he was thinking or whether he was going over some of these things I've just suggested I don't know but there he was and then God broke in right on time.

You will have noticed that phrase in scripture at least it comes in the Old King James like this and that's the translation I was raised on for many many years and still still use it largely as well at this time but in the fullness of time such and such this is God he has not just a program he's got a timetable and for Moses this man with 80 years of wandering and doing and what not and disappointments and hurts in the fullness of time that particular night in the backside of the desert in the dark except for a starry sky God broke into his life he broke the silence.

I've got no record in the Bible of actual conversations between Moses and God prior to that I'm not saying they weren't there but I don't have them but all that changed that night God broke into this man's life and as the result of what took place there which we talked about last time that triggered a whole series of events then and many many things happened that we can read about.

I'm thinking of you know the actual commission that God gave to Moses that night and how that began to work out and I'm thinking of the contest that took place between Moses and Pharaoh you remember with his repeated visits to Pharaoh with his command let my people go and then of course there was the great spectacular deliverance from Egypt's bondage when under Moses' leadership but God was working and brought the people forth from that place and then caused the Red Sea to open and Moses was watching all of this he was he was a key player in it all in many ways but he knew it was God doing this he couldn't have done any of these things and he watched the Red Sea part and how they crossed through there and he knew that God was in it the next morning when they saw all of Pharaoh's armies all washed up on the seashore and and so on such an amazing deliverance and so on.

Moses at Sinai: Two Marks of a True Believer

And then now and coming more particularly to where we where we want to be tonight they come to Mount Sinai and in this area of the mountain and a number of things happen lots of things took place that are very very interesting very significant and instructive and very important in the whole program of God that would take place there.

But you know for tonight and in this session I want to focus in on two particular enormous gains that Moses sort of garnered as it were as the result of these stunning encounters with God that he had there at the mount and on the mount amen.

And I want to view these two encounters in this session but I want to do it through the lens of the New Testament we're in such an incredible position. Are we not where we can we can re-read the Old Testament but we can read it from the perspective of the New Testament or the New Covenant and we can look back through the cross and all that was part of the great redemptive work that took place there and then look back through that lens to the Old Testament and God who if I may refer to his genius which is probably a completely inappropriate way to refer to God but in his masterly way of operating he has woven so much into the Old Testament.

And in some of the sessions I would like to take in the new year I want to look at some of the the Old Testament shadows and types and see how God arranged so many particulars and so many situations and so many people in such a way that they would be symbolic and helpful to understand New Testament truth.

Sometimes I've referred to the Old Testament as being like the pictorial section of the Bible. It's far more than that of course but nevertheless some things are sort of worked out as is the case in this that we're looking at in this session and then just when we look at them from the perspective of the New Testament we see that they're incredibly significant and helpful for us today.

And so what I'm looking at with these these two I've called them gains that Moses garnered. I'm looking at them as two features that in a very real way mark the identity of all true Christian believers.

Hunger for Deeper Knowledge of God

Now there are many more marks that fit into this category than just two but we limit things to two for this session. The first mark that I'm looking at in Moses is that Moses' knowledge of God never fully satisfied him.

That's my first point it never fully satisfied him which is amazing because I've already listed to some degree some of these amazing events that took place where Moses as I have said was as it were standing back watching God doing these things that were so supernatural so amazing so staggering in so many ways and he was a man who who was watching he was.

He was taking a front row seat and watching God work. I'm reading here in Exodus chapter 33 and reading just two verses in this chapter for now and I think I'm going to read three verses verse 7 of chapter 33.

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside of the camp. This was not the tabernacle this was a this was before the tabernacle was constructed. This was a temporary tent and location where it was understood that God's presence would be and where people could.

You'll see that when I read this section but he took the tent and pitched it outside of the camp. Forgive me but I must just stop and just tell you he's doing this because some terrible sin has come into the camp and when sin comes in the presence of God and the blessing of God is lost.

So that was happening sort of symbolically and in a real way actually so Moses he moves the tent outside of the camp and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.

And it came about whenever Moses went out to the tent that all the people would arise and stand each one at the entrance of his own tent and gaze after Moses until he had entered into the tent. Whenever Moses entered the tent the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses listen to this.

And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent all the people would arise and worship each at the entrance of his tent. Thus the Lord used to used to speak to Moses face to face just as a man speaks to his friend.

And when Moses returned to the camp his servant Joshua and the son of nun a young man would not depart from the tent. He'd gone in and joined him at some point obviously. But what an amazing thing we're talking about Moses and his knowledge of God.

And these verses are amazing. We're talking about. We're talking about the almighty God who had chosen to make his himself known. Bear in mind that God is a self-revealing God. We may get there again in a few minutes.

But but God you know this wasn't Moses idea. He didn't dream up any of these things that we've been referring to. God is always the initiator. Never man. God is the initiator. He's the alpha and he is the omega.

He'll finish it all as well. And so God arranged all of this. And God has chosen to become involved in the life of Moses and in the life of the people. Of course that he represented. And what a wonderful thing.

Um we could pause and and and be amazed at just so many phrases right there in those verses. But that that the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. How amazing is that.

It's remarkable. And uh if you know Moses Moses carries on speaking here. He said to the Lord in verse 12 of this 33rd chapter of Exodus. See you say to me bring up this people. But you yourself have not yet let me know whom you will send with me.

Moreover you have said I have known you by name and you have found favor in my sight says the Lord. How about that now. Therefore says Moses I pray you if I have found favor in your sight let me know your ways that I may know you so that I may find favor in your sight.

Consider too that this nation is your people. And he said my presence shall go with you and I the Lord will give you rest. Amen. And uh so I'm talking about Moses. I'm talking about his knowledge of God.

And you do remember I said my heading for this part of the the message is that Moses' knowledge of God never fully satisfied him. And uh I I think I I'm hearing him. You know this is this is the way it goes.

You know God has just said my presence shall go with you and I will give you rest. And then Moses responds to the Lord and he said Lord if your presence doesn't go with us don't lead us up there. Do you hear Moses.

It's as though he's saying Lord this is a wonderful thing that you're saying that you're going to go with us he said but you know what. Lord I'm taking that for granted because if you're not with us I'm not going.

There's no point at all in going any further. And and then he he it's as though he's saying Lord I want I want something more I want something more. He was never satisfied. And uh so I can I can read on.

And I could uh I could go to uh well let me just turn over the turn over the chapter a little here in um verse 13 where am I going to here. Um in verse 13 where I read to you a moment ago he says now therefore I pray you if I have found favor in your sight let me know your ways.

And it's this phrase I want that he goes on to say he said that I may know you that I may know you. Well do you not. Do you not know the Lord already Moses is this is this not uh enough that you have at this point in time.

Um he's saying Lord I want more. I just want more and uh. And then he he goes on and uh um he says um Lord I so desperately want to know you I can't rest. And and so God actually makes a concession for Moses and we can read about that.

God says to him all right I'll do this thing which you have spoken for. You have found favor in my sight and I have known you by name. Then Moses said I pray me I pray you show me your glory. Now do you see what I'm meaning when I say he's never satisfied.

He's got all these miracles taking place. He's got God speaking to him in some way in this tent of meeting and this cloud of his glory descending. But Moses saying Lord there's there's more I know there's more.

Um I want to really know you. Now he's saying show me your glory. And this was an audacious thing that he's requesting of of God. But you know the wonderful thing is God of course knew exactly what Moses was up to and what he wanted.

And so he responds to that question in verse 18. And he says I will make myself and all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you and I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious.

And then he goes on to say and show compassion on all I will show compassion. And then listen to this. This is God he said but you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. Here's my point again when Moses said Lord I'm not satisfied.

I'm not satisfied show me more. I want to know you show me your glory. God knows what he's up to. He knows that what Moses really wants is Moses wants to see his face. It's as though he was saying in sort of a strange vernacular Lord I just want to see your face.

That will be your glory if I could just see your face because all this was under the old covenant and but God made this concession that I've been saying and and that was very wonderful. And but God said well no one can see my face and live.

I can't help but just interject a phrase that's come into my mind of Charles Wesley. I love so much of Charles Wesley's hymns but but Charles Wesley responding to this very situation in one of his hymns he said then show me your face and let me die.

That was that was Moses that was John forgive me. That was Charles Wesley saying that you know fact of the matter is what one I'm suggesting here may sound sort of well doesn't everybody want this really.

But that's not the point that we need to get to. I believe that today there are this tremendous complacency within what would be referred to as the body of Christ and so many are just too easily satisfied and satisfied with shallow.

And as the result there's such a widespread low view of who God really is of God's true identity and familiarity in terms of words and even scripture tests thick text has created this sort of complacency in so many people very sadly and there's no real interest in in being shown that there's actually more to remember when Apollos was shown by Priscilla and Aquila the way of God more perfectly.

I think it's tremendously to the credit of Apollos because he was told right in the text that he was a gifted preacher mighty in the scriptures and preached boldly and so on. But after he'd finished preaching Priscilla and Aquila this husband and wife took him to one side and they showed him the way of God more perfectly.

And the credit due to Apollos is because he opened his heart to what they were saying and he received what they're saying. For a preacher to open his heart to what someone else is seeking to show them which is higher or better or richer is not so common.

But there you are and sadly that's true for so many people they're just not interested in anything that would challenge their own status quo or the comfort zone that they found in the nominal form of Christian commitment that they're engaged in and so on.

And that's very very sad. But you know praise God there are still those around who have as it were a fire burning in their bones today who have a longing to really know God in a much deeper and richer way and like Moses they suffer from a very healthy form of dissatisfaction and although they may have some knowledge of God it never fully satisfies them.

That's what we're taking away from Moses here and applying to ourselves in this day that sadly there's so few in this category but the fact is those in this category they're a great company of people.

They've just got a hunger for God and a passion for God and no challenge is too great and no sacrifice is too great and no temptation is too strong or strong enough to draw them away from that place. Amen.

I think once again Charles Wesley probably says it best in one of his hymns relating to this section of scripture. Let me just read two verses to you of what he wrote. By faith I see thee passing now he's thinking of the cleft in the rock the hiding there and God moving past and covering over the opening as he moves past we've got this in the text here and then removing his hand after he's passed so that Moses is able to see the backward parts of God but he couldn't see his face right.

So here's Wesley by faith I see thee passing now I have but still I ask for more. A glimpse of love cannot suffice my soul for all thy presence cries. I cannot see thy face and live. Then let me see thy face and die.

Moses thy backward parts might view but not a perfect sight obtain the gospel does thy fullness show to us by the commandment slain the dead to sin shall find the grace. The pure in heart shall see thy face.

I cannot see thy face and live. Then let me see thy face and die. Amen. What a wonderful and profound statement of faith and confidence in God which is based solidly on the teaching of scripture hallelujah.

God made a concession for Moses. He took advantage of it. And the fact is as the glory of the Lord passed by on that occasion Moses was hidden in the in the rock side and he sees and he bows. When this took place.

True Worship as a Response to God's Glory

I'm reading in chapter 34 verse 8 Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship hallelujah under the line from a well-known Wesley hymn goes lost in wonder love and praise. And I if I know anything at all I believe that Moses as he saw this sight this awesome stupendous staggering sight of the almighty God revealed to him in this way vague in one sense but incredibly clear and powerful in another.

He must surely most assuredly be filled with wonder wonderful God. And he bows himself down to the earth and worships. Amen. Even that fact itself would be highly symbolic for us looking through the lens of the new testament.

Um surely it all points to the new covenant glory of the life hidden with Christ in God as we read one of the apostle Paul's beloved phrases that he uses repeatedly is in Christ in Christ in him. He is the rock in whom we shelter.

And it is there where he reveals his glory to men and women today. Amen. And you know when when a man sees him yes it's by faith but somehow it's a it's something that only those who are spiritual can understand.

Paul explains that in first Corinthians 2 uh it doesn't mean anything to those who are not uh moved upon by the spirit of God. But here's the truth for every man and every woman who is truly hidden in that cleft in the rock hidden in Christ to whom the Lord by his spirit begins to reveal himself.

That individual always falls always falls. And I might say uh not intending to be provocative uh in a careless way but never never on their backs which suggests helplessness but always on their face. They bow down to the earth.

We just read they bow down. When a man sees him he always falls. Uh true worship is exclusively a response to a revelation of the glory of God. I read this in many different passages. But certainly perhaps a classic is in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 17 where John is talking about his experience where the Lord is revealing himself in that glorious way in the midst of the church as you remember.

And but then there's this one succinct statement. It's so telling where John says this. And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead. It's the most natural the most obvious thing in the world. Uh in Malachi chapter 3 I read.

Who shall stand when he appears. And the answer to that is no one no one. Amen. The fact is that his presence the presence of the Lord made real to us by the Holy Spirit today under the new covenant is such that it always gives birth to worship always inevitably spontaneously.

And the key factor to true worship is wonder. Is wonder lost in wonder love and praise. Moses was lost in wonder when any man or any woman today is so privileged as to have a sense that the very Spirit of God is revealing something of the glory of God to them.

It fills you with wonder and causes you to bow down and to worship. Amen. Do you know that there's no higher more lofty experience or activity in which a human being can engage than in true authentic worship of God.

You know we're pretty good at making a joyful noise and I'm not saying as long as it really is the right kind of joyful noise there's anything wrong with it. I'm not saying that but we're good at doing that.

We're pretty good at bringing prayer requests. We're pretty good at deathly like silence as well. But you know true worship is something else altogether. And you know in my experience even just looking at the effect of men and women truly worshipping God.

I've seen it cause men and women to get up from their seats in a meeting and run out of the meeting and leave the building it reminding me each time of the scripture. It says in the book of acts that in that early church no man dares join themselves to them.

You know if the presence of God is being revealed in the context it always exposes sin and it always exposes self or the flesh. I've seen demons cry out in meetings where true worship is taking place.

But you know I've seen I've seen and almost feel as though I've heard strong chains breaking in men and women's lives in the presence of God. And I've watched as adamantine hard hearts have been melted in the presence of God as he's revealed himself as worship is taking place at the same time.

Amen. His true presence will always produce true worship. Amen. And such worship is never a form of entertainment and such worship can never be controlled or led by mere men. We're talking again of something so incredibly lofty and that's the first thing.

Radiance from Abiding in God's Presence

I'll be a little briefer with the second point I want to make here but with respect to Moses when he descended from that place where he'd hidden in the rock and seen this great sight take place he descended from the mount.

And the wonderful truth is this that I'll read in verse 29. I can do no better than read the scripture. It came about. This is chapter 34. If you're following me in verse 29 it came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai and the two tables or tablets of the testimony were in Moses hand as he was coming down the mountain that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him with him with the Lord.

So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses behold the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near to him. Then Moses called all of them together and so on. And when he talked to them he had his he put a mask on his face and when he talked to God he removed it.

It goes on to say here amen when he was in the presence of the king of glory he could take the mask off and worship with open face there. Amen. And as he came down the mountain he had no idea he had no idea that that being there in the presence of the glory of God had actually changed his appearance dramatically.

And but he was unconscious of the radiance that was shining there reminding me of Psalm 34 where we read they looked to him and were radiant. Amen. The apostle Paul in the New Testament back to the New Testament lens he seizes this event and builds upon it.

And I want to read now some other verses from 2nd Corinthians and chapter 3. I'm not going to read all the verses here and perhaps I need to leave the reading because of time sake but if you'd like to read from verse 7 through to the end of the chapter wonderful I'd like to take the rest another session just right on these verses here.

But what Paul is doing here. He he is expounding the superiority of the new covenant over the old covenant and he seizes upon this event. We've been looking at in exodus to illustrate his point. And he's talking about the the old legal covenant having a glory.