I m going to read 33:1-11. It relates how God s plan to dwell among the Israelites in the tabernacle has been sidelined.

Transcription

1 The Grace Of God At Sinai Exodus 33 Grace is one of those little words that have big meaning for us as Christians. Here are two definitions that many of us have heard before. First, there is the definition of grace in the form of an acronym meaning, God s Riches At Christ s Expense. God in His grace forgives repentant sinners who come to Him because of Jesus death on the cross. The second definition is simply this: God s undeserved, unearned, and unmerited favor. I think these definitions of grace are good, but think examples of God s grace in the Bible are even better. Exodus 33 is an Old Testament passage about grace, and it s smack dab in the middle of the law. The people of Israel whom the Lord has set free from Egypt have arrived at Mt. Sinai where God has given them His law. But they will not leave Sinai until they have received His grace. I m going to read 33:1-11. It relates how God s plan to dwell among the Israelites in the tabernacle has been sidelined. Exodus 32 tells us about the low point of the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. While Moses was up on the mountain, the people grew impatient. They didn t know where he was and being a walk by sight people they asked Aaron to make them a god who would take them to Canaan and he fashioned a golden calf. There are no coincidences in life but there are ironies. The moment they started to worship the calf, Moses came down the mountain. First he heard what was going on (they were singing something along the line of 99 bottles of beer on the wall), then he saw the revelry going on and was so angry He broke the stone tablets, which held the words of God s covenant. Then he took the calf, ground it into powder, spread it over the mountain s stream and made the people drink it. Moses called what they did a great sin three times (32:21, 30, 31). Moses rebuked Aaron and gave an altar call and the Levites came forward. The immediate result was that 3,000 men were put to death by the Levites. As chapter 32 ends, Moses is praying for the people. He intercedes that God would forgive them. As 33 begins God tells Moses something very disheartening. He informs Moses that He will still send His angel to drive out the Canaanites, but He Himself will not go up with the Israelites in their midst or else He would destroy them. So there will be no pillar of cloud, no pillar of fire, no tabernacle, no priesthood; just some off in-the-distance angel. This is an example of God s wrath and judgment according to Romans 1. One aspect of God s wrath and judgment is to give people what they choose. In chapter 32 the Israelites didn t want the Lord in their midst. So in chapter 33 the Lord has given the people what they chose in 32. They no longer have His promise to dwell in their midst. All the plans for the tabernacle (25-17) have been sidelined. In fact as I said earlier, their choice for another god has placed God on the sidelines of their camp. He quite literally is outside their camp (33:7).

2 33:4 tells us that the people went into mourning and put off their ornaments when they heard what their punishment was. Their joy is fizzed out. They re a soft drink gone flat. That s not always a bad place for someone to be. That s why the apostle Paul can write this in 2 Corinthians 10:7. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation. This is a tense time for the nation. The covenant that was made between the Lord and the people has been broken. Just how broken is the covenant? It is Humpty Dumpty broken. No human can repair it. God has told them that He s not going to go with them to Canaan. It is also a moment of repentance. As a whole, they ve had a change of mind and a change of heart. They re ready to listen to God. They re humbled. For the moment they get it. Only God can put things right. Moses can and will plead, but it s up to God. It s up to His goodness and His grace to fix the broken covenant and the broken relationship 33:7-11 lets us know that Moses is still meeting with God at the tent of meeting which is outside the camp, as I said, on the sidelines. This tent is not the tabernacle of There is no altar, there is no ark, there is no courtyard it s just a tent. Picture this: Every time Moses leaves the camp and goes out to this tent to meet with God, the people stop what they re doing, gaze at Moses, stand up and worship at their own tent. But now, after the discipline from the Lord (32:35) and after this sad word from Him, they are worshipping the Lord and not a golden calf. They can clearly see that Moses has something that they now want and know they need: God s presence, His help, and His friendship. Moses has face-to-face friendship with God and the people can see and sense how empty life is without His friendship. Jesus says this in John 15:13. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. Most of us know those words. Now here s what Jesus says next: You re my friends if you do what I command you. Friends with Christ That s a good train to catch and ride all the way to heaven. I remember asking my oldest son Campbell, when he was around four years old, who his best friend was. I thought he d say Zachary or Kyle or Andy. He said Benjamin. That was the name of His stuffed rabbit that He took to bed each night. Benjamin made him feel safe at night. That s why he was Cam s best friend. The truth that Jesus calls us His friends should make us feel very safe as well. Not safe from sickness or physical harm, but safe in the reality that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What would you say to someone who asked you who your best friend was? A best friend not to have, is what the New Testament writers call the world. James will write this: Friendship with the world is enmity toward God. The people of Exodus 33 are sad because they aren t able to enjoy friendship with the Lord. They see the friendship Moses has with God and long for it

3 That reminds me so much of being a junior in high school. I saw my sisters and some of my friends come to Christ and I wanted what they had. I wanted to know my sins were forgiven, that I was at peace with God and that I could look forward to eternal life. Unfortunately, I went about trying to get what they had in the wrong way. I thought I could reform myself or reinvent myself and earn His favor and forgiveness. I came to understand that He wasn t asking me to reform or reinvent myself. He was calling me to repent of my sins and trust in His grace in Christ alone. Exodus 32 shows us how easy it is to get our eyes off the Lord when we only see our predicament. I think that s why the New Testament writers will tell us to fix our eyes, our minds and our hearts on Christ. Exodus 33 shows us what happens when people get their eyes back on the Lord. It also shows us that God s grace is the very basis for forgiveness and fellowship with Him 33:12-23 is a record of Moses prayer for God to change His mind about not going with Him and the nation to Canaan. Remember Moses prayer in 32:10-13? He pled with God not to destroy them and God changed His mind about that. Now he will plead for God to change His mind about what He said in 33:1-3. Let s read 33: :12-17 let s us know that Moses prays for at least three things. He prays to know God way s, he prays for God to go forward with him and the people and he prays for God to show him His glory. This is an emotional prayer. It s also the Reader s Digest version. As I said last week, Deuteronomy 9 will tell us that Moses has been praying for 40 days, not just a few minutes. Since the golden calf, the people haven t moved from Sinai. The Lord has told Moses to get going to Canaan, but Moses knows that He can t fulfill this task without God being with him. And it s as if God is saying, I m staying here at Sinai. So Moses is praying for God to change His mind about going with them and proceeding with the plans for the tabernacle. Moses gets it: If God isn t with him, he shouldn t lead the people on to Canaan. And if God isn t with all of them, then they most definitely shouldn t go forward. Some of Moses words to God recall the burning bush commission. God called him to do this task and promised, I will be with you. Now the Lord has said, I m not going with you. As a young man, Moses tried to do things his own way and in his own strength and failed miserably. As an older man, Moses now understands what Jesus wanted His disciples and wants us to understand as well. He wants us to understand, Apart from Me you can do nothing. Interestingly, Jesus also said that in John 15. Again, here are Moses three requests: 33:13 Let me know your ways that I may know you that I might find grace. 33:16 Don t just go with me, go with us. 33:18 Show me Your glory.

4 Those are three good things for us to pray daily Let me know your ways, don t ever leave my side, and show me Your glory. Moses had seen the burning bush, he d seen all of God s miracles in and around Egypt and the dessert, he d seen the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night He d even talked with God face to face. Now in 33:18 Moses is asking God, not just to show him, His greatness. Moses is asking God to show him, His very essence. The Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint used the reflexive pronoun in this sentence as if Moses were praying, Show me yourself, the glory that is the real you. It s almost like Moses is asking the Lord to show him His heart. We are going to see how God answered Moses request in 33:18 next week when we read the first part or chapter 34. For now, let s notice how Moses request in 33:15-16 reveals his heart and his commitment to these people these grumbling, and sinfully stumbling people. Moses prayer is not just a go with me request. It is a go with us request. This is the heart of leader. It s not about me, but about us. I hope we all understand just what kind of man we had in the pulpit for 30 years. Tom was not just a faithful preacher to us. He was a faithful prayer for us; and he still is. One super important thing that we must pay attention to: Moses entire prayer is bathed in God s grace. It s difficult to see this in the NASV and the NIV, but let me put the New KJV on the screen. See, You say to me, Bring up this people. But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight. Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people. And He said, My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. Then he said to Him, If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth. So the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name. The Hebrew word for grace appears five times in six verses. The Lord changes His mind because of His grace. He openly states in 33:19 that He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious. His willingness to forgive and go with them was undeserved, but it wasn t unasked for. The apostle Paul will quote 33:19 in Romans 9:15 to teach us that salvation has always been the work of a gracious God and was never based on our goodness, our merit, our will or any human effort. Grace from God is getting what we haven t earned and don t deserve; forgiveness and eternal life. But even in Romans, Paul writes that God s salvation come to those who call upon the name of the Lord (10:13).

5 Next week we ll read how God answered Moses last request. Right now, I want to talk about the grace of God as we close. If I were to summarize this passage historically, I d say something like this: Exodus 33 relates how the Lord renewed His covenant and commitment to the people due to Moses appeal to His grace. But this slice of history gives us an amazing example of divine grace. God in His grace does not forsake us when we sin. He forgives us when we call on Him to do so. But He most definitely wants us to humbly acknowledge our sin and understand that life without Him is empty. I hope no one here thinks that somehow they will make it into heaven by their own goodness. I also hope that no one here thinks that they will make a day without God s goodness and I might add, His grace. When we repent and confess our sins we have a mediator, Jesus Christ, who by His goodness to us, forgives and restores our fellowship or friendship with Him. This means that we can see His power and His glory in our own lives, not just in the lives of others. We can enjoy the benefits and blessing of face-to-face friendship with Christ. In a very real sense, Exodus 33 is the 1 John 1:9 of the Old Testament. Exodus teaches us our need for a savior who will do the following: Set us free from the penalty of sin; Restore our relationship with God; Make it possible to have fellowship with Him in this fallen world where sins besets us. My older brothers and sisters would tell me how much better I had it as the youngest child. I didn t believe them then and I still don t. But if Moses were standing next to me and said, I hope you know how much better you have it because of Christ. I would say You re right, I do have it better. We have experienced grace in the person of Christ. Grace in salvation and grace in restoration or cleansing from sin. Grace upon grace, as the apostle John will write in John 1:16. No wonder that the apostle Paul began and ended his letters with a prayer for God s grace to be with the Christians he was writing. The apostle Paul understood grace. He understood what he had done to Christians before Damascus and call himself, the chief of sinners. One of my favorite authors is Philip Yancey. I read an interview in which he was asked to define grace. He said he doesn t even try defining grace. Then he said this: I remember getting stuck in LA traffic and arriving 58 minutes late at the Hertz rental desk. I walked up in kind of a bad mood, put the keys down and said, How much do I owe? The woman says, Nothing, you re all clear. I said I was late and she smiled, Yes, but there s a one-hour grace period. So I asked, Oh really, what is grace? And she said, I don t know. They must not cover that in Hertz training classes. I guess what it means is that even though you re supposed to pay, you don t have to.

6 Yancey went on to comment that sometimes our own English expressions capture the spirit of what s involved with grace. There s the graceful athlete who is characterized by beauty in form and movement. There s the grace note in music, which is something added to make the composition better and more complete. There s the grace period, which is a time added to pay a bill without any penalty. God s grace in Christ is like all these things. His grace makes our life beautiful and better and more complete because we are without the penalty for sin. If you were to ask me to describe an experience of grace in my life, I would recall the first report card I got when I was in 6 th grade. For some reason I had spent my days in class as a goof off and probably a show off. My teacher, Mrs. Bonaventure, handed me my report card and asked to see me after class. I felt doomed because I knew that I deserved an F based on the work I had done. I went to her desk when school was out and she told me to open the report card. To my amazement there was a C in Language Arts instead of an F. She very clearly told me that I deserved an F, but she had given me a C because she knew how my dad would react if he saw an F on my report card. Then she told me to starting doing my work, and out of gratitude, I did for the rest of the year. Mrs. Bonaventure gave me what I didn t deserve in order to spare me from the penalty and punishment of my father. We live in a world that runs by laws that attempt to enforce fairness and reciprocity. How many times have we said or heard, That s not fair. God s grace, by definition, is unfair. We deserve His punishment but get His pardon. We deserve His wrath and but receive His forgiveness. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. That s grace. Can Christians abuse and insult the grace of God? Yes, and that is a very sad state of affairs in their lives and the lives of those who love them. Here s what grace is to do: For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men; instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly righteously and godly in the present age; looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. That s Titus 2: The grace of God should teach each of us that indulging in the passing pleasures of sin leads in one way or another to a life that puts God on the sidelines. That s what we saw in the first part of this chapter. God on the sidelines. But God was not on the sidelines in Moses life and here is our takeaway: The more we understand our need for God s grace, the better equipped we ll be to care for others. Moses never quits praying for those who desperately need God s grace in their lives. The better we understand God s grace, the better equipped we ll be to understand the connection between confession and forgiveness; the better equipped we ll be to understand how to pray for ourselves and others; and the better equipped we ll be to understand what friend we truly have in Jesus.

7 As we began this morning we sang this hymn: Marvelous grace of our loving Lord Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt Yonder on Calvary s mount outpoured There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled Grace, grace, God s grace Grace that will pardon and cleanse within Grace, grace, God s grace Grace that is greater than all our sin Let s sing it again as we close.