Salvation by The Law Or Grace

Danger Beyond this Point

Beginning With Moses & the Prophets

"Danger Beyond this Point"

Scripture reading is Exodus 19: 7 - 15

Introduction  

God is transcendent, surpasses everything; He is supreme; He is way beyond anything we can perceive, yet at the same time He is imminent. God is involved with everything that happens in the universe all the time at the same time.

There are scholars that say the church has a tendency to emphasize one over the other - In the middle ages people approached God in awe & wonder. Cathedrals built then were constructed to praise God’s majesty, His loftiness. I’m sure you have visited the Basilica of St. John here in Savannah.

We live though in an age of immanence, we see God more as a personal friend, which He is, than as a supreme Deity.  He has come to be more of a user-friendly-God than One Who is Holy & Majestic. That results in a rather casual approach to worship. This isn’t meaning the style of worship but the attitude that most worshipers seem to have.

Granted that the place where believers gather is just a building, whether at home, in a rented theater, in a restaurant, but Jesus said that where two or more are gathered in His name there He is in the midst of them. Many go to church in the same way they’d stop by a friends house to watch a ball game, rather than the way in which one would enter the room of a King, or even the Oval Office.

Could it be that we’re too comfortable worshipping God than we ought to be?

Annie Dillard, and American author of prose, poetry & criticism wrote in her book of essays, Teaching a Stone to Talk, that she worries many have forgotten how dangerous it is to come close into the presence of God.

“I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely hold? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats & velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers & signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.”

 

This chapter began with God assuring His love for His people - They now have reached Mt. Sinai, the mountain of God, & here they would actually meet with God.

God had reminded them how He carried out in eagles wings like a mother bearing up her faltering young. He spoke tenderly to them; they had a special place in His heart. The goal for their salvation was fellowship with Him. They were His royal precious treasure.

They would be His people & He would be their God. Israel responded in faith - and Moses called the elders & told them what God commanded him.

When the elders passed to the people what God had said the people said they’d do all God had said so then Moses took that reply back to the Lord. Now God tells Moses that He is coming down personally to the mountain, Mt. Sinai, but He’ll be in a but will be able to hear Him when He speaks to Moses so that the people will believe in Moses, that he truly spoke with God.

The Creator is willing to come down from His throne, from heaven, to His people. Nehemiah would later say as the people gathered to hear the reading of the Law - Then You came down on Mount Sinai, And spoke with them from heaven; You gave them just ordinances and true laws, Good statutes and commandments. (9:13).

We are shown that if God weren’t willing to stoop down to our level & visit us, because of His transcendence, his separateness, there would be now way whatsoever we would be able to see Him or talk to Him. 

But He is willing to come down to us. He is transcendent & immanent, He says- the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell [on] a high and holy place, And [also] with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15.

Now redemption is the story of God stooping down to save. From the very beginning God walked with Adam & Eve. They heard Him as He walked, they had to have known who it was; their actions of trying to hide implies they were accustomed to waking and talking with Him in the cool of the day. Again from Isaiah 57:15, the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell [on] a high and holy place, And [also] with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.

We know sadly that Adam & Eve lost the immediacy of God’s presence, but because of His great love, he’s been reaching out ever since to restore our fellowship with Him. That’s why He sent his Son into the world, to restore that fellowship. That Son’s name is Emmanuel, God with us. 

The Lord brought His people close & as they did, they clearly saw there was a vast distance separating them from God. God was revealing Himself & at the sametime concealing Himself - In different ways God kept His distance; hiding in a dark cloud of glory as in verse 9; Psalm 97:2a - Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; Isaiah 6:4 - the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. At the transfiguration in Matt.17:5 - While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them,-- 

The clouds of glory suggest heavenly majesty & concealment of the divine for our security, mankind’s. Being shroud in mystery shows His otherness & separateness from His creature - Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior! Isaiah 45:15.

 

He also kept His distance by telling Israel to stay off His Holy Mountain - Coming down on the mountain alone made the mountain itself holy by His presence. When God called to Moses from the burning bush he told Moses Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. Exodus 3:5. So now Moses has to set up a perimeter around the mountain so no one would try to go up the mountain or even touch, I guess any part of it. I’m sure there would have been souvenir relic hunters then. Mostly it would have been for public safety. How do you describe God? He’s holy, majestic, so -- awesome, that He is dangerous. Nadab & Abihu, Aaron’s sons in Leviticus 10:1-3:  Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the LORD spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent. 

Uzzah in 1 Chronicle 13:10 who just touched the Ark to keep it from falling:  The anger of the LORD burned against Uzza, so He struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark; and he died there before God. For sinners coming into His presence means sudden death, when He tells Moses, You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live! So, the Israelites being brought by God to Himself were somewhat too close for comfort so He kept them safe.

Could this be a warning to us? To believers, christians to not have a presumptuous attitude in our worship? We all are in the presence of a Holy & transcendent  God & we should then - show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire. As Scripture tells us in Hebrews 12:28b-29.

The Israelites have a dilemma. Being drawn close into a personal relationship with a Holy God who was too dangerous to even approach. God says, come here but if you do you die. What do they do to be safe?

Well, no problemo, God has got it covered, He has the answer. They are to prepare for His arrival - They were to be consecrated - wash their garments demonstrating they knew God was holy & to meet Him requires holiness. The preparation would be three days. I couldn’t find why three days; maybe time for the garments to dry. Then to refrain from being with a woman, just abstain from personal indulgence that would take their minds off of God. Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 7:5-- 

What about our preparation? What was true for Israel is true for us but in a different way. The King of kings & Lord of lords is coming, Jesus Christ. He came once to be born in a manger & to die on a cross for sinners, us, the world. Soon He will come again to judge the world -- Are we ready to meet Him?

Paul told the Corinthians in his second letter, 7:1  beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. David says in Psalm 4:3 & 4a - know that the LORD has set apart the godly man for Himself; The LORD hears when I call to Him. 4 Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.

Don’t get ahead of me; but when it comes to meeting with God you can’t come as you are, recall we have already been redeemed, we have been saved from our bondage - Scripture tells us to  Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. Now, we can’t make ourselves holy enough, pure enough, clean enough to meet God. Manhas been trying to do that ever since sin entered into the world with the fall. Just about every religion in the world has some sort of self-purification - The religions of the world are all just a bunch of different ways to wash your clothes as a way of getting ready for God. Unfortunately there isn’t a soap made where we can clean up ourselves well enough for God. Our best efforts, scrub as hard as you might, will still leave a stain, even a tiny speck. God is perfect in holiness - all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6).

A Mediator

To be ready to meet the King is more than personal consecration - We need a mediator, a lawyer, someone to advocate for us. Someone who can bridge the gap between the finite sinful people & the holy transcendent God.

For Israel, Moses served as their mediator ever since God called him to be a prophet at the burning bush -- Moses was given special access to Him. when God had something to say to His people, He said it to Moses who in turn said it to the people.

Moses represented the people before God. He cried out to God when they were in need. Moses had to answer to God when the people grumbled. Moses interceded for the people in prayer before the throne with his hands raised. -- Moses was a two way messenger. He had to keep the lines of communication open at all times. He was the signal officer -- 

But as mediator he was charged with sitting Israel apart as holy unto God. He consecrated. How? There’s nothing specific in Scripture, but he did something & washing their clothes wasn’t enough. God has to make them pure & this He did through His mediator Moses.

What action did Moses take? Most likely he performed some kind of sacrifice. That is something that God always required for holiness. That’s what Adam & Eve needed when they failed to cover up their sin. But there God Himself covered them. (Gen. 3:21).

Moses offered a sacrifice to consecrate the Israelites. He had precedence for this in his own experience. Before bringing the Israelites out of Egypt God told Moses to Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it belongs to Me, and by sacrificing for their sins an animal, a one year old lamb.

Moses will do this later to set apart Aaron & his sons as Israel’s priests. As mediator Moses’ role wasn’t just to converse with God, but also to consecrate His people by making atonement for their sins.

To wrap this up,

This brings to what we need; A mediator who will cleanse us from sin & consecrate us for God’s holy service. And we have such a mediator - He has been retained for us all. He is a better mediator,  the best, He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6). The only one we’ll ever need - Jesus Christ - If there was a riddle concerning God’s transcendence & immanence, the answer is Jesus Christ.

He is Emmanuel - God with us - He is truly divine - He possesses all of God’s Kingly majesty - He shares our humanity because He is a real human being. He speaks with God for us & makes us pure enough for God, Scripture says we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb. 10:10).

Through the person of His Son, Jesus the transcendent God is immanent. He said to His disciple Phillip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Without giving up His divine nature Jesus took on our human nature & entered fully our lost condition, yet remaining sinless.

            As a man Jesus revealed God to us; as a man He suffered all the indignities of life on earth; as a man He suffered and died on the cross for our sins.

“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail th’incarnate Deity, Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.”

From Hark the herald angels sing.

 

 

 

Jesus IS The Banner of the Cross

Beginning with Mose & the Prophets

Lift Our Hands in Prayer with the Banner of the Cross

Exodus 17: 8 - 16

Introduction   

During this part of the journey of the Israelites in the wilderness they’ve learned some powerful lessons: “God saves”. “Don’t be whining.” “Trust your leaders.” “God will, guide you, He will protect you, and He will provide for you.” “He will always, 24/7, be with you.”

Now they are going to learn about prayer. Then, as it is even more prevalent today, there is a spiritual battle, and invisible war, between the powers of darkness and the children of light. In these hostilities, the enemies of God attack God’s people. The only way to prevail in this spiritual battle is by persevering in prayer.

Transition 

After escaping from Egypt the first enemies that they would face weren’t external forces but internal. There was a war within, a battle, skirmishes that are waged in every human heart. What they had encountered at Marah, in the desert of sin, at Massah & Meribah was caused by their own disbelief & discontent, not by the outward circumstances they encountered.

It came down to the fact that they just didn’t have any confidence, no trust in the Lord God that He would provide for them. They were discouraged, their moral was at an all time low. 

Then it seems that out of nowhere the Amalekits come on the scene and hit them with a surprise attack; their Dec. 7th, or 9/11.

The Amalekites were nomads that traced their lineage back to Jacob’s brother Esau through Eliphaz, one of the sons of Esau with one of his concubines, who gave birth to Amalek, (Gen. 36:12).

Now, no one is certain why the Amalekites attacked on this particular occasion - some think the Amalekites felt threatened by the Israelites presence, maybe they wanted the water, the area of Rephidim was supposed to be an oasis.

Whatever the reason; The attack was a cowardly one - We learn in Deuteronomy 25:17-18 that the Amalekites had attacked the rear of that long procession of people - Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. 

Hitting the ones at the rear, the old, the children, the women? The Amalekites were following orders which had there origin from the leader of darkness - Not the Scyths from Star Wars - but Satan - He was determined in preventing the Israelites from ever reaching the promised land.

He knew enough that the one promised in the garden, the one that would eventually crush his head would come from the Israelites but obviously didn’t know that he could actually stop Him.

So, he entices the Amalekites to attack the Israelites there at Rephidim. This does relate to our own spiritual experience - Look, the Israelites were already saved, they had been delivered from their bondage back at the Red Sea. they didn’t go up against their oppressors, they didn’t take up arms against the Egyptians. Why? They had someone to fight for them. Fight in their place.

The God of Israel won their salvation all by Himself; As He always does. Now here at Rephidim their survival was at stake again; but this time around they would have to stand & fight. - It wasn’t just a defensive fight, they were fighting a holy war for the glory of God.

Don’t think in terms of a Jihad like the Muslims. They weren’t fighting to conquer and convert others, but they were fighting so that God would be glorified.

Their encounter with the Amalekites is a picture of the church in its spiritual warfare. We can see in this battle another Old Testament type that shows a pattern of our lives in Christ.

This was a historical event that pointed to a higher spiritual reality. Our victory, the ultimate victory, is a done deal because Jesus Christ has won the critical battle with His death on the cross.

Scripture is very clear that God has defeated, has taken the weapons, the ability of the rulers & the authorities & put them in open shame, triumphing over them in Christ - (Colossians 2:15).

Everyone, because of this, who comes to Christ is free from the power of death & hell. - the enemies of Christ though, like some of the Japanese soldiers that never surrendered after WWII, also haven’t surrendered. They may be left with rocks & sticks, but that means that on our pilgrimage we are going to be ambushed by Satan and his minions, over & over again.

All true Christians believers, regardless of denomination, are engaged in a continuous spiritual struggle to resist temptations & carry on with the work of Jesus Christ & His gospel. The attacks are spiritual, yet even if physical, they will come on sudden & often. . . we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12). Though God permits Satan to bring evil into the world, the real battle isn’t visible - It’s invisible. Job - 

What we see going on in the world are only skirmishes in the cosmic spiritual strife between God & Satan.

You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. 16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; (Ezekiel 28:13-17).

Isaiah writes: How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' 15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. 16 [During the millennial reign and after] Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, 17 who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?' (14:12-17).

After being saved, our real enemy is Satan himself with all his unholy helpers who keep attacking us hoping that we’ll do something to dishonor God & rob Him of His glory.

How do we fight back?

What is our counter strike? Jesus is! Jesus will win the war, He will be victorious. What’s our part? Are you a morterman, a rifleman, an artilleryman - well, we are really more than that. Our MOS, Military Occupational Specialty is to handle the most powerful weapon known in the universe. More powerful than any nuclear weapon. 

We join the battle just as Moses did: with prayer! By persevering & prevailing in prayer we are victorious on the battlefield.

The Iraelites used real weapons - Moses tells Joshua to pick men & go fight the Amalekites and that he will be on the hill top with God’s staff in his hand.

So Joshua oges and selects men, Army Rangers, some airborne, Marine Recon and goes out to the battlefield.

Moses was on the hilltop lifting his hands up in prayer accompanied by Aaron and a mutual companion named Hur. Scripture doesn’t elaborate on who Hur was. So Moses stood, with his hands lifted, the usual posture of prayer along with the staff in his hand.

It’s not recorded what he said, but it is sure he was appealing to God to show His power by saving His people, asking for divine intervention.

By his gesture he was appealing a total dependence upon God’s power, the type we all show express through prayer.

Now as long as his hands were up things would go well on the battlefield. When he lowered his hands the fortunes would turn against the Israelites on the battlefield. When he raised his hands again, the fortunes would turn in their favor. When his arms got tired Aaron and Hur would hold them up for him.

This shows me that there are times when we are to pray for one another, in James 5:16. The success on the battlefield was dependent on prayer - so today for our own spiritual warfare: our battle against the world, the flesh & the devil is won & lost through the artillery of prayer.

That is why Paul tells the Ephesians & us to pray “at all times in the spirit with prayer & supplications . . .” (Eph. 6:18).

What happens when we don’t pray? We start losing the battle - we get dragged down into doubt & discouragement. This isn’t true just for us individually, but to the church, the body of Christ. A local congregation, nationwide, worldwide.

If we don’t ask God to defend us, the members will be divided, we will be like sheep and go astray, each of us has turned to our own way; (Isaiah 53:6). We will fail to see any fruit & the lost will not hear the gospel.

We can all fight like Joshua like the 101st & 82nd Airborne, but we will not win the battle unless we pray like Moses.

Why is everything dependent on prayer?

Simple, God is the difference between victory & defeat, & prayer is how we depend on Him to win the battle. It’s good to pray often, but don’t think that just praying often enough & long enough God’s going to do what you want Him to do because then the focus becomes the method, or how you pray & the one praying will be the one being glorified.

I hear sometimes someone say how an individual has such great prayers and so on, but in the end, who is getting the praise & glory for the prayer? God, or the one praying? Like everything in the Christians life, prayer is for the glory of God. It shows that victory belongs to God, to Him alone.

There’s the banner of the cross

Moses never forgot the way God answered his prayers - feeble though may have been - being tired lifting his hands all day or however long the battle lasted.

To make sure the Israelites also remembered, the Lord said to him -  "Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." 15 And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD Is My Banner, 16 saying, "A hand upon the throne of the LORD! The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." (Ex. 17:14-16). 

The altar Moses built was for God’s honor, for thanksgiving - Israel won the battle by the grace of God; this was the way to properly respond, by giving praise back to God.

Moses wrote a scroll of remembrance - When they would meet the Amalekites again, they would need to remember they were their mortal enemies & God promised to destroy them for attacking His chosen people.

He also wanted them to remember what He, the Lord, did for them so whenever they came under attack they would look to Him for salvation.

They would fight many battles before they would reach the promised land & within it. But if they remembered what happened at Rephidim it would help them look to God for help.

YHWH, YAHOWAH- NISSIS

THE LORD IS MY BANNER. That is how Moses summarized it - A banner, a military banner bearing the insignia of the Army unit - the soldiers look to it - it establishes their identity - It helps them know who they are.

Do we have a banner? Yes we do - Isaiah 11:10, In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples- This has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is the root of Jesse, the Son of David & the Son of God. He stands as a banner for God’s people who rally to Him from all nations.

He is the banner - by looking to Jesus we are saved, specifically by looking to His cross, we remember what He has done for us.

. . . as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14-15).

Now, by looking at the cross, the crucified & risen Christ, we live.

Some people wear a cross on a chain, some on their lapels, some use a crucifix; It is all a reminder that our banner in the cross where He bled & died for our sins - 

When we are ambushed, come under attack, Jesus the Banner of the Cross gives us courage for the fight because He has won the battle for us.