The Attribute Of Attributes - [Exodus 33:19]

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Father in heaven, we are thankful that you have given us tongues to sing your mighty power.
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When we used to sing fame and fortune, hedonism, pleasures of this world, you have redeemed us.
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You have made us born again and given us a new heart, new mind, new will, new affections.
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And although we couldn't do it ourselves, yet in your mercy and grace, in your steadfast love for us, you did it.
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And Father, in response to that, by the power of the Spirit of God, we'd like to show you our thankfulness.
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We'd like to be living sacrifices to burn out for you and your kingdom and your glory here on earth.
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So Father, today I pray that you would give us a mindset that we'd like to learn and then, by your grace, obey what we've learned.
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Help us not to just learn from another sermon, applaud a sermon, critique a sermon.
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But Father, we want to know you better. We want to know the Word better so we can get to know you better and respond appropriately.
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In Jesus' name we pray, amen. It was 1996 in Pasadena when
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I first met Sinclair Ferguson. It was at a Ligonier conference and I was talking to him in the parking lot. And as some of you know,
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I asked him the question, what is God doing right now? He stopped and thought just for a moment, and I wish
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I could give you his Scottish accent. And he said, God is simultaneously exercising all of his attributes.
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God is simultaneously exercising all of his attributes. What an answer!
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A glorious answer, a biblical answer. Simultaneously exercising his righteousness, his justice, his love, his mercy, his faithfulness, his wisdom, his power.
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But if you could take all of God's attributes and somehow hypothetically distill them down to, let's say, one attribute, what would you pick?
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If you could just look at God's attribute and say, there's one that seems to stick out a little bit more.
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Remember those old stereograms? We talked about that several months ago. And you stare at the pictures for long enough.
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It seems like it was just a weird kind of picture. It made no sense. And you looked at it long enough, and what would happen?
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Something would kind of be pronounced, and it would come out, and you'd say, oh, it looks like some kind of yacht. It looks like some kind of tree.
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If you looked at God's attributes long enough, wouldn't there be one that, like Mount Everest or K2, would just begin to protrude?
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I think the answer is yes. Turn your Bibles, please, to Exodus chapter 24.
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Today, I'd like to talk about the attribute of attributes, that if we could see
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God's nature, God's essence, who God is at his core, you are going to find a very interesting attribute there.
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It will encourage you. I trust it will also convict you. And it's an important topic because we want to make sure our view of God is biblical, don't we?
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If we think about God according to the Bible, we're thinking properly.
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If we just kind of do the cultural thing that says, well, my God is this way, well, my
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God is that way. If it's not the God of the Bible, it's just a made -up God, and we want to make sure we don't slump into or slink into idolatry.
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Any thought about God that's not true is idolatry. I've been around the world, and I've seen little idols.
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I've seen big idols. But with the Puritans, I think mental idols are worse than mental idols.
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Mental idols are a lot worse than mental idols because we can see the obvious flaws in the mental idols, but the mental ones are difficult.
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So this passage today will help you think properly about God. So that you might trust
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Him more, so that you might worship Him more, that you might be more thankful, and that you can see
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God as He shows Himself in Scripture. We want to make sure our thoughts about God are worthy of Him.
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The attribute of all attributes, if you could distill the nature of God and see one attribute, you would see the sovereign grace of God.
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You say, well, you know, Isaiah chapter 6, the seraphim sing, holy, holy, holy, maybe that's the attribute of attributes.
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I think we'll see in Exodus chapter 32 and 33, God showing Moses His sovereign grace.
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And it's going to be important for us today. It'll be important for you today because we live in a culture where we have my rights.
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What was the slogan of the war of American independence?
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The American war of independence. We serve no what? We serve no sovereign here.
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So sovereign grace is going to be very important because we do serve a sovereign
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God who's gracious. I do not believe in accidents. I do not believe in luck.
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I don't want you to tell me good luck because you know I will nicely rebuke you if you ever say good luck.
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I'll pretend like I don't hear you. Excuse me. I do not believe in karma.
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I do not believe in coincidence. I do not believe in kismet. I do not believe in chance.
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I do not believe in fate because there is one
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God and there's no one like Him because He is utterly sovereign. And if He speaks something, it will come to pass.
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Well, Exodus chapter 32 and 33 is where I want to go today but I need you to go to 2418 to start.
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As we dive into Exodus, we're going to take a little detour from 1 Corinthians in light of the funeral last week and my trip was delayed this week getting back here.
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So I'd like to preach the sovereign grace of God from Exodus 32 and 33 but it's fair to ask the question, what is
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Exodus about? And it is the temporal deliverance of the
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Israelites by God. And of course, it's going to be pointing to the greater deliverance, the spiritual deliverance that God grants to us through Christ Jesus, the spiritual redemption that we have of our sins.
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In chapter 24, verse 18, today's sermon is going to be a potpourri of ESV and NES.
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But Exodus chapter 24, verse 18 says, And Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
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So the scene, the backdrop, the stage that is set is Moses goes up into the glory of God for forty days and forty nights.
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Then if you just quickly look at your Bibles, chapter 25 through 31, that is 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, deal with the plans of the tabernacle.
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So chronologically, 24, 18, and 32, 1 go together.
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We just have this interlude about the construction details, but if you'd like to know what's happening, where we are in chapter 32,
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Moses has gone up into the glory of God for forty days, forty nights, and now temporally, or chronologically, 32, 1 starts.
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Now my outline is going to be very easy today. There is no outline. Why? Because this passage is so awesome, it doesn't need one.
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Sometimes you do outlines as a pastor because you want to give some mental hooks for people to hang, not themselves on, but to hang onto.
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Just a few words difference makes all the difference in the world. And you want to have them see progression and see
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I'm moving towards the end of the sermon. There's kind of a climax building. But this passage here, 32 and 33, there's almost nothing like it in the
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Scripture. And so the outline is we'll work through 32 and 33, and then we'll ask some questions at the end.
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So I guess that is an outline. And you're going to see to start in chapter 32, 1 and following, some kind of gross split screen.
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You ever see split screen TVs? There's one thing going on here, and there's another thing going on here.
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Part of that split screen is going to be just awful though. 32, 1,
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Exodus. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled around Aaron and said to him,
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Come, make us a god. ESV, make us gods who will go before us.
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As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
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And now something weird is going to happen. It's going to be a terrible incongruity. It is going to be like Bernard Ramm saying it's going to be like a rape at a wedding.
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It's going to be clowns at a funeral. Things that don't go together.
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Things that ought not to be together. Murder in a church. Moses, he's been there 40 days, 40 nights.
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Maybe he's dead. Maybe he's been translated. Maybe God consumed him for some of his sins.
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But we've got to go to the promised land, and we need a leader. And we need somebody to bring us into the promised land.
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You can even see how this is phrased. As for this Moses, this
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Moses here, we don't know who he is. We don't know where he is, and we need a leader.
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What are we going to do now? Moses is up in the glory cloud talking about the construction of the tabernacle, and now we're going to see
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Aaron and the people down below talking about the construction of a false god.
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And these people, there goes my ring, these people can see the glory cloud.
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It's not like they're on the other side of the planet. They need some god. They want somebody to take them into the promised land.
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You don't know how long he's going to be gone. And now in verse 2 and following, you can feel the language of acceleration.
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It's just like when you're going to sin at home. Let's just sin really fast, because if I stop and think about it,
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I might say to myself, God's holy. He saved me. He's redeemed me in light of my salvation. I ought not to do that, so if I want to sin,
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I better sin fast so I don't have time to think about it. And this passage right here from 2 and following, it reminds me of a motorcycle throttle that's just been stuck on wide open.
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It's just fast. Listen to the language. It's rapid. There's an alacrity to it.
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It just slides. So Aaron said to them, take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.
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And all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf, a golden calf.
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And they said, and As, this is your
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God. Esv, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
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Let's pick a strong Egyptian god like some cow because we need a strong leader to take us into the promised land.
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Now when Aaron saw this, do you see verse 5? He said, stop it.
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Quit. Repent. Quit. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it.
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And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow shall be a feast to the
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Lord. We'll worship God. We'll worship the cow.
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It'll be a good synchristic kind of worship. And this is as weird as it gets.
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This is Twilight Zone, X -Files, Bizarro kind of thing. Verse 6, so the next day they rose early and worshiped this false god with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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They offered burnt offerings. They brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to play.
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Sinai is covered with the cloud of glory, and down here they're eating, they're drinking, they're playing.
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Now this word play is kind of a nice word in the
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NAS. The ESV says they rose up to play.
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It's a nice word there. But this is a dirty word.
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This is a filthy word. This is a very gross word.
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This is a word used for orgies, drunken orgies.
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And the only thing more gross than a drunken orgy is this idolatry. This is egregious.
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This is just grotesque. There's the glory cloud, and here is a drunken orgy.
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One lexicon translates it conjugal caresses. If only it was that nice.
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It is shameful, flagrant, rank unbelief. And you mark it.
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Unbelief leads to lawlessness, leads to immorality every time. Show me some immoral people,
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I'll show you people that have been lawless, but ultimately have been not believing
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God. Some drunken sex party.
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Then the Lord spoke to Moses, verse 7. Yahweh, the covenant keeping
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God, spoke to Moses. Go down at once for your people. How many times did
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God call the Israelites, my people? It's kind of like when a husband and wife watch their kids disobey, and the husband says to the wife, would you kind of make your son obey?
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I won't mention any names. Go down at once for your people,
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Moses. They act more like you than they do me, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt.
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They've corrupted themselves. The same verb found in Genesis 6, 12.
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The people on the earth were corrupt before God. Now then, let me in alone,
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God says, that my anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make you a great nation.
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God's holy, righteous indignation says we're going to start over. We're going to just take that board, that white board, and wipe it clean, and we'll start over with you.
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Two million executions, and we start over with you. Have you ever seen those little etch -a -sketches?
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Small little things like that. They kind of look like an iPad almost, red borders, and you have two knobs, and you have to draw things with those two knobs, and how do you get a diagonal line with two knobs, and drawing things, it takes such a long time.
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And when you want to erase an etch -a -sketch, what do you do? And here, it's like God says with the
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Israelites, who are acting worse than the Canaanites. He says, here's what
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I'm going to do with them. And Moses, we're going to start over with you.
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Start from scratch. And then Moses prays.
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This is as good as it gets from Moses. Verse 11, you've chosen
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Israel, God. Verse 12, your name should be vindicated, God. Verse 13, you've made promises.
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Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them,
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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.
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Moses just beseeches the Lord. He cries out in verse 14, it says, and the
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Lord relented about the harm which
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He said He would do to His people. He relented from the disaster that He had spoken of bringing on His people.
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Verse 15, then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides, on the front and on the back, they were written.
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Now just imagine, Moses is sent down by God, he's got the tablets, and it's going to be one against two million, one against two million people who are in some kind of frenzied state, some kind of sexual, whirling, dervish kind of activity.
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And you can imagine the sweat and the smell and the saliva and the sounds, and Moses now descends.
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Joshua must have been at a strategic meeting spot, for the text says in verse 17, now when
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Joshua heard the sounds of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there's a sound of war in the camp.
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But he said, it's not the sound of shouting for victory or the shout of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing.
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It's the sound of singing. It was so loud it first sounded like some war.
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It sounded like some kind of defeated army. And then it's singing.
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Stuart says, Moses heard probably a mixture of sounds from such things as drunken singing, wild dancing, men shouting as they chased women and women screaming as they were being chased, people fighting over food and drink, women fighting over men and men fighting over women, and the sort of shrieking that pagans thought appropriate to rousing the gods.
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I'm positive that for as long as Moses and Joshua lived, they never forgot that sound.
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Ever been in a car wreck and you hear two multi -ton vehicles hit each other and that sound of metal and you think,
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I never will forget that. I call this a cacophony of carousing.
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Verse 19, it came about as soon as Moses came near the camp and he saw the calf and the dancing,
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Moses' anger burned and he threw the tablets from his hand and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.
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Now, if you go back to 1917, I'll just read it if you don't want to go back. The foot of the mountain is not just, oh, he just threw them at the foot of the mountain.
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It's the bottom of the mountain. It's just some kind of indiscriminate place. No, 1917 and 1912 are going to let you know.
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This is the official meeting place. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet
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God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. You say, oh, that's kind of like burning the flag, isn't it?
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No, it's a lot worse. It's like taking the Constitution of the United States and going over to the
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Supreme Court building and burning it on the steps of the Supreme Court on TV.
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And he took the calf which they had made. It's not a real God.
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They made it with their hands. He took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it over the surface of the water.
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Those are all actions that if you want to try to obliterate something, you can't make matter matterless, but you can try to grind it down to the smallest possible thing.
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And this is used in Hebrew language for just trying to get rid of it. But you know what?
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If you just grind it up, these worse than Canaanite people are going to find it and they're going to remake it.
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And so there's one sure way to stop a scavenger hunt. There's one sure way to make sure people don't go panning for proverbial gold.
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You make them drink it because then it'll be defiled.
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Then you'll have to go through human waste to try to get this pulverized God. So what does the text say?
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And he made the sons of Israel drink it. I call this an owning up to sin drink.
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There's going to be no panning for gold here, friends. And Aaron, he's still full of excuses.
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Verses 21 to 27, specifically verse 26, Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said,
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Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. All the sons of Levi gathered around him.
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He said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from the gate to the camp throughout the camp.
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And each of you kill his brother and companion and his neighbor. Two million of the people deserve to die.
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But here God, even in His mercy, says, You either kill the ones who are continuing in the worship or you kill the ringleaders.
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They all deserve it, but just go kill these. And so, verse 28, the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed.
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And about, it should have been two million, except for the mercy and grace of God, they were all guilty.
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About 3 ,000 men of the people fell that day. 3 ,000 out of two million?
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I don't know what that number is percentage wise, but it's not very large. True or false?
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He could have justly slain the whole nation. True. And on a side note, you will never understand the sovereign grace of God unless you understand man's guilt, man's depravity.
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Chapter 33, verses 1 to 11, basically show us that the journey is resumed.
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The angel is going to be sent to drive out the people. Moses has a tent of meeting, chapter 33, verse 7 to 11.
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And then he prays. What a wonderful prayer again, verse 12 of chapter 33.
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Moses said to the Lord, "'See, You say to me, "'Bring up this people, "'but You have not let me know whom You will send with me.'"
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I need guidance. I need a leader. You've been rightly mad at the people.
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Does that mean You won't go with us anymore? You won't lead? I can't lead these people. I need divine guidance.
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"'Yet You have said, "'I know You by name, "'and You have also found favor in my sight. "'Now therefore,' verse 13, "'if
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I have found favor in Your sight, "'please show me now Your ways, "'that
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I may know You "'in order to find favor in Your sight.'" Consider too that this nation is
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Your people. Verse 14, and He said, "'My presence shall go with You, "'and
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I shall give You rest.'" Literally in Hebrew, my presence is my face.
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I personally will go. My face will go. Closely, intimately,
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I will guide you. I assure you that I will be there to lead the people into the promised land.
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And you can hear an echo of this very verse in Matthew chapter 11. "'Can't you,' when our Lord Jesus said, "'come to Me, "'all who labor and are heavy laden, "'and
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I will give you rest?' I need guidance.
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I need leadership. And God said, "'I'll do it.'" Now we're almost up to the verse for today.
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This has all been introduction. The Lord said, verse 17, to Moses, "'I will also do this thing of which you have spoken, "'for you have found favor in My sight.
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"'I have known you by name.' And then Moses said, "'I pray you, "'show me your glory.'"
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ESV, please show me your glory. Now think about this for a second. What do you mean, please show me your glory?
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Take a look over there. Wasn't he just in the glory cloud? Can't he just see the glory cloud now?
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And now Moses prays, I want to see your glory. What is Moses talking about? I want to see your weight.
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Septuagint says, show me yourself. I need to know that you're going to lead us or all else is lost.
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Now is Moses saying, I want to have some kind of mystical experience? No. No, he's saying,
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I want you to confirm your willingness to take us there. I want to see your glory.
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I need to know you. Nothing to do with what you look like, God, but I need to know you.
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Not how he looks, but how he is. I need assurance. Now stop right there. What doctrine or doctrines regarding the nature of God give you the most assurance?
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Give you the most encouragement? When you're there at the worst trial in your life and you say,
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I just need to know about God, these things come flooding back to your mind, what is the doctrine that gives you the most assurance?
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I think it's going to be the sovereign grace of God if you're like most people. And Moses wants to know that God is there to lead.
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Now we're not Israel. We're not back here at this time. But certainly the same truth applies, doesn't it?
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That when you say, I'm moving forward in an unknown time with unknown medical issues, with unknown personal strife,
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I'm moving forward and I need to go with someone because I can't go on my own.
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I need a leader. I need a sovereign leader, a gracious leader. That's why this whole evangelical kind of sappy, you know,
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Barney God, I can't use. I love you and you love me.
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We're one happy family. Yes, there is a God who loves, but it's a covenant love.
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It's a sovereign love. And if you get this today, this is an evangelical second blessing.
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When I first got saved, everybody said, you've got to get the second blessing. I'm thinking, whatever is the blessing, I've got to get it.
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Sign me up. I want the second blessing. Just tell me where I need to go and how I need to get it and I'll get that blessing. Well, you know, you've got to speak in tongues.
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I thought that was a second blessing. Nobody ever told me speaking in tongues according to the
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Bible was a language, that was a real language, that you didn't even have to learn and that God gave you at salvation.
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And I was just sitting there just saying Chickamauga Hilo and shaman a shaman a pop, pop, pop. That's what they said to my wife.
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All right, you're a Christian now, you need to speak in tongues. And you need to say over and over and over, shaman a shaman a pop, pop, pop.
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I don't know what that is. It sounds... I don't know what language that is. Jack MacArthur was grabbed by a charismatic pastor.
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He said, I'm going to teach you how to speak in tongues. So he grabbed his arm. Jack MacArthur, John's dad, grabbed
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Jack's arm and said, now repeat after me, Chickamauga Hilo. Jack MacArthur said, number one, don't touch me.
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When you first get saved, you think, my sin is great, but my Savior is greater. He died in my place.
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He was raised from the dead. I believe in His Word. The second blessing,
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I think, is when you understand really the character and nature of God and who is going to lead you and who is going to guide you and who does all
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His pleasure all the time with His great, sovereign, gracious hand.
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Moses needed it and you need it as well. The problem is, it's going to get very, very sticky because what we love in ourselves, we're not too sure about in God.
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We want to be sovereign. Don't you tell me that that means God's sovereign and whatever He determines will always happen.
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He purposes, He ordains, He determines, He elects, He selects,
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He condemns, He saves at His own good pleasure. We don't like that in God if we're not thinking properly, but we love it in ourselves.
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Why is that? The answer is because we're made in God's likeness and image and God is a sovereign
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God and we are made in His likeness and image and so we are little sovereigns too, but sadly affected by the fall.
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When I was a kid, we didn't have Wii, we didn't have any kind of other games like that, you know what we had?
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We had a 2x8 with another 2x8 with another 2x8 with another 2x8 and in the center, a big pile of sand and I had army guys and they were some
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Yankees and they were some Confederates. I have to be careful and remember where I am when
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I use the illustration because when I just was in Virginia, I said to a guy at church,
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I said, I just had a tour of Gettysburg and it was really great and this guy said to me, well, if you ever want a personalized tour,
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I'll show you where the Yankees and the Americans fought. He didn't laugh and we did not request for the hymn sing
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Battle Hymn of the Republic either and I would be in that sandbox and it was the
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Yankees and it was the Confederates and there was the war of all wars. People getting killed.
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This guy would get killed and then one of the good guys would get killed and then at the very end there would be about 19
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Confederates left and there would be one Yankee left and that one Yankee with great skill, with great intrigue, killed those 19
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Confederates. Killed them all to the very last one and there was one
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Yankee that stood victorious on Mount Sand and who was that Yankee?
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It was me of course because I'm the little sovereign and this is my universe and I determine who lives and who dies and may
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I suggest to you that I'm acting just like God because I'm made like you are in the image and likeness of God but what we love in ourselves, we get to vote, we get to determine, we determine who we get to marry, etc, etc.
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What we love in ourselves because the fall has corrupted our mind, sometimes we don't love in God but you ought to love this doctrine of God because if you haven't buried anyone lately, 8 o 'clock,
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I pick up the cell phone, Luke and I were surfing, I hear the answering machine on my cell phone,
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Mike I'm sorry to tell you this on the phone but Tom Frank is dead. Get home.
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Luke and I quick scrambled to get our wetsuits off, get the boards on, we're driving down the street and Luke said, I think
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I left my sweatshirt at the beach and then he goes, but it doesn't matter does it? We get there, there's the coroner, paramedics just left, the police,
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Kim said, Mary's upset, I don't think you should go in there. I said,
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I have to go in there, somebody has to be there besides the coroner and the police.
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And so I walked in, I just saw Tom the night before, there lays
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Tom with a blanket from here to here, dead, blood, and Mary comes running over and since I represent
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God as the pastor, she comes running over and not trying to hurt me but just striking me saying,
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Why did God do this? Now I don't want to be flippant, but some little contrived, hokey, made up, jingoistic, speaking in tongues is not going to help me one little bit.
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What can help me? Police don't have the answers, coroner doesn't have the answers, the nine year old has no answer, the eleven year old has no answer, the wife has no answer, and just like in Psalm chapter 42 and Psalm chapter 43, when the question is asked,
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Why God? The answer has to contain who God is and that God can be trusted and that God is faithful and that God is sovereign.
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And I didn't just run over and say, Here Romans 8 .28, let me pat you on the back. I just grabbed her and said,
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I love you. There will be a time to preach and there was a time, but for now it's just,
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I love you and I'm thinking, God, help me. But as I'm thinking God, I'm thinking this is the sovereign
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God that can lead the two million people. This is the sovereign God that can take a baptismal testimony and somebody wants to be in Wicca and then they get saved and born again by the grace of Christ Jesus.
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This is a God who's not just sovereign, but He's graciously sovereign. What's the difference between Islam and Christianity?
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There's lots of things different, but Islam is a fatalistic religion. Christianity is not fatalistic even though God is so sovereign.
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Why? Because God is a personal God. Even by nature, Father, Son, and the
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Spirit interacting. This personal nature of God. That is what you need. And like I said before, if you haven't buried anybody lately, you're going to.
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And you're going to need somebody to guide you. You're going to need a God who is going to be there.
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It could be burying people, it could be finances, it could be health. And Moses says,
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God, I want to know you. And I want to know that you're going to lead me. Who are you?
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Verse 19. If you could take the essence and nature of God and boil it down, what would kind of protrude?
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Verse 19. Exodus 33. And He said, I Myself. If you ever see that in the
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Old or New Testament, that's emphatic. He could say, I will make. But if you ever see, I Myself or He Himself, it's very emphatic.
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I Myself. No one else will make all My goodness pass before you.
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And will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. Two thoughts. God has no badness, so why does
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He say, I'm going to let My goodness pass by you? This is just a term for who
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God is. I'm going to show you who I am. It's just summarized by goodness, but in the text it's,
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I'm going to show you everything that I am. And will proclaim, number two, the name of the
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Lord before you. The name is not, well, my first name is Mike, my last name is
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Abendroth. It is the character of the person. I'm going to show you my character. What do you need,
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Moses, to guide you in the future? Let me show you my nature and essence.
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And here it is. And I will be gracious to whom
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I will be gracious. And I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.
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God said, I'm going to show you myself. And it's not going to be an angel who's going to show you. It's not going to be some kind of intermediary.
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I'm going to show you. And if you boil down all my nature and attribute, here's what you get, Moses. I'm a sovereign
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God who's graciously sovereign. I will be gracious to whom
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I'll be gracious. And show compassion on whom I show compassion. You see the text there?
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I will, I will, I will, God said,
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I'm going to convince you that I can lead you. And what will convince you is by showing you that I'm graciously sovereign.
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The distinguishing, sovereign love of God. Basically, He says,
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I'll show you who I am as I lead you. And here's who I am. I do what I want to do, when
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I want to do it, as often as I want to do it, with grace and mercy. Now, the context is 3 ,000 people
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He gave grace and mercy to, right? Did they deserve it? I want to ask you a question.
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Is it wrong for God to give mercy? Is mercy deserved? Is grace deserved?
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I'll tell you what, I know I'm not going to get into it today, so I'm going to have to pick it up next week.
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But society today, evangelical churches in New England, think that grace is deserved.
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The first thing when you start talking about unconditional election, you feel this pushback, this kind of revolting thought, because in their heart of hearts, they're thinking like a works righteousness person who thinks that grace is deserved.
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And I want you to know, by nature, God is a God who gives grace to some, and the others get justice.
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They all deserve justice, but He can give grace to some. Is that wrong for God to do? Jesus says in Matthew 20, verse 15,
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Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? God's free to act as He pleases.
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The triune God, the Father, Son, and the Spirit, all in agreement, but all doing what they want, when they want, how they want.
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Thankfully for us, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are graciously sovereign.
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3228, sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about that day, 3 ,000 men of the people fell.
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Only 3 ,000 died, because He was gracious to the other people, merciful to the other people.
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And you know what this is? This is the sovereign free will of God. I need you to lead me in the future,
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Moses says, and God said, I will lead you, and I'm a God who is sovereignly gracious.
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Could Satan really tell God what to do, and then God has to do it? Can an angel really tell
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God what to do, and God has to do it? Can you tell
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God what to do, and God has to do it? We know the answer.
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God answers to no one. He doesn't consult, He doesn't take a vote, and hallelujah, praise be
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His name, He is not under Robert's rules of order. I first got here, and people said to me, well, you know, here's what
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Robert's rules of order said, and I just thought, I know
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Titus, I know 1 Timothy, I know 2 Timothy, I'd like to know them better, but I know them now. Maybe they forgot to teach me something in seminary.
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And then the other guy said to me, yeah, I second that. Just kidding. Fast forward to your salvation.
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If you're a Christian today, you're a Christian for one reason, and one reason only.
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You deserved hell, but God, by His grace, gave you heaven, and He punished
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Jesus on your behalf, and then raised Him from the dead. If you know that, you can sing
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Amazing Grace. If you don't know that, we'll learn more about it next week.
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If your job's horrible, your health is horrible, your finances are horrible, everything in your life is horrible, but you have been saved by God, you ought to be the most joyful person
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I've ever met in my life. And I'll tell you, when you bury people, it kind of cuts to the chase, doesn't it?
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And I don't like it in my own life, and I'm not here to scold Bethlehem Bible Church, but if the shoe fits, then
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I want you to wear it. Joyless Christians, after all you've been taught, after all you have experienced, ought to be very, very ashamed of themselves.
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I want to be the kind of person that begins to talk about the riches of Christ Jesus, even when
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I'm hurting. I don't want to be the type of person that I'm sure I have been in the past, and you have been as well, where the first thing when we talk to you, it is this big litany of all your woes, and all your problems.
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Now if you have problems, we want to help and serve, this is the body, right? But why don't you just pepper that with a little bit of, the joy of the
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Lord is my strength. God has loved me with an everlasting love, and even though He might kill me,
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I'm still going to praise Him. And I get better than what I deserve. And I have a
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God who's sovereignly, graciously going to lead me in the future, even though I don't know what tomorrow brings.
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Our God, our help in ages past, our hope in years to come.
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We are thankful today, that we worship a Savior, who completely trusted in your sovereign grace.
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As human, relied on you perfectly. Who had complete joy, and had the fruit of the
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Spirit. And Lord, we know you see us in Christ's perfect obedience. But Father, we'd like to live up to our name.
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We'd like to live up to the name Christian. Help us to be the ones who are joyful, thankful, in awe of your great salvation.
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You shouldn't have chose us, but you did. Father, rid us of any silly notion that somehow we let you save us.
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Or we chose you first. Or we opened the door. You chose, Satan chose against, and we let you.
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Father, help us to realize, that you, the great, sovereign, gracious God, who answers to no one, who gives no account, for the reasons
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He does anything, stooped low to give us all that you had.