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Exodus 19:1-20:7

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In Exodus 19-20, the children of Israel prepared themselves for a new conditional relationship with God and the Mosaic covenant was introduced. When we examine their preparations, we gain a greater understanding of the purpose of the Law and the function of the Ten Commandments in the lives of Christians.

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4/27/2011
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Exodus 19:1-20:7
Exodus 19:1-20:7
Skip Heitzig
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In Exodus 19-20, the children of Israel prepared themselves for a new conditional relationship with God and the Mosaic covenant was introduced. When we examine their preparations, we gain a greater understanding of the purpose of the Law and the function of the Ten Commandments in the lives of Christians.
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02 Exodus - 2011

02 Exodus - 2011

Beginning in the brickyards of Egypt and ending in the tabernacle filled with God's presence, the book of Exodus chronicles the deliverance of God's people from Egypt and records the end of their oppression under Pharaoh. It also provides an account of the beginning of a prophecy fulfilled: God promised Abraham descendants beyond number, and on the pages of Exodus we see Israel become a great nation.

In this verse-by-verse study, Pastor Skip Heitzig presents an in-depth look at Moses, the ten plagues, the ten commandments, the desert wanderings, the construction of the tabernacle, and more. As we study, we'll see the grace of God, witness the glory of the Lord, and a catch a glimpse of Israel's coming Savior.

Visit expoundabq.org for more information on this series.

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Detailed Notes

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  1. Introduction
    1. In 2003 a monument of the Ten Commandments was removed from an Alabama state building
      1. Placed by Chief Justice Roy Moore
      2. Ruled Unconstitutional: violated the separation of church and state
      3. Presence a symbol: God's laws supreme
      4. Removal a symbol: we have our own way to do things
      5. When God's laws are set aside, we lose the standard
        1. No moral consensus
        2. Existentialism: every man does what is right in his own eyes
        3. Previously a set standard of right
        4. Now do what you feel is right for you at the time
    2. Exodus
      1. Chapters 1-12: Domination by Egypt
      2. Chapters 13-18: Liberation from Egypt
      3. Chapters 19-40: Revelation after Egypt
    3. Covenant: an agreement that governs a relationship
      1. A covenant moves God to release the slaves from Egypt: "And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant." (Exodus 6:5)
      2. Differences in Covenants
        1. Abrahamic  Covenant
          1. Unconditional
          2. Given the land as an everlasting possession: "Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." (Genesis 17:8)
        2. Mosaic Covenant
          1. Conditional
          2. Tenure and blessing in the land are conditional: if they fail to obey they will be kicked out until they get it right
          3. Ad interim: temporary (from Moses until Christ)
          4. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Galatians 3:24-25 KJV)
    4. Moses at Mt. Sinai
      1. Moses received the Law: facilitates people's obedience to God
      2. Moses received blueprints for the Tabernacle: facilitates people's worship of God
      3. Obedience and worship form two basic parts of God's covenant with Moses
        1. Parity covenant: a covenant between equals (not this covenant)
        2. Suzerainty covenant: Between a king and his subjects (this covenant)
  2. Preparation for the Covenant: (Chapter 19)
    1. Israel camped before the mountain (possibly Jebel Musa; 7500 ft)
    2. "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself'" (vv. 3-4)
      1. Remember who you used to be
        1. House of Jacob
          1. Small family
          2. Childlike and fleshly
        2. Children of Israel: grown from a family to a nation
      2. Remember when I took you from
      3. Remember how I cared for you: Eagle: nesher: griffin eagle
        1. Builds nest in inaccessible places
          1. Eaglets totally dependent on the parent
          2. God took Israelites to the wilderness; totally dependent on Him
        2. Very protective
          1. Eagles stop at nothing to protect their young
          2. God stopped at nothing to protect Israel from Egyptians
        3. Eaglets mature slowly (3 years to mature)
          1. Parent trains eaglets to fly and kicks them out
          2. Purpose of the wilderness: train Israel to be spiritually mature
    3. Bilateral Covenant: if/then, conditional
      1. How can you prove you love God?
        1. Not warm fuzzy feelings
        2. Obedience makes our love for God visible and tangible: "If you love Me, keep My commandments." (John 14:15)
        3. סְגֻלָּה segullah: treasured possession
    4. God's Designations for His people
      1. A special treasure
        1. Because of what Jesus did, the "if" has been removed
        2. Value of something is determined by what one is willing to pay
        3. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." (Matthew 13:44)
          1. We don't sell all for Him
          2. The Lord gave up all to purchase us
      2. Kingdom of Priests
        1. "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;" (1 Peter 2:9)
        2. A priest stands between God and the people
          1. A mediator
          2. Represents God to the world; attracts the nations to God
          3. Israel became too restrictive and not embracive (we do the same thing when we lose our passion for the lost)
      3. A Holy Nation
        1. Different from the world
        2. Not mimic the world, but represent God
    5. "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." (v. 8)
      1. Bold, ambitious statement
      2. Good to say, but they will eat their words
        1. "You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.' Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: 'I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!" (Deuteronomy 5:27-29)
        2. Right intentions, weakness of heart
      3. "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, 'You shall not covet.'" (Romans 7:7)
        1. The law reveals sin
        2. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." (Galatians 3:24)
          1. Παιδαγωγός - paidagogos- schoolmaster
          2. The law leads us to the cross - we need a Savior
        3. The law examines you in light of the standard
    6. Inward consecration and outward preparation
      1. Washing of clothes
        1. Symbolic of inward consecration
        2. מִקְוֶה mikvah: pool for cleansing before worship; spiritual cleansing
      2. Watch your step
        1. The restrictions were given so they wouldn't die
        2. Moral man can't handle the revelation of God's power
      3. Fire: symbolic of God's holiness that purges and refines
        1. "No mortal can gaze on the unveiled majesty of God."—Ancient Rabbis
        2. "No one has seen God at any time." (John 1:18)
        3. "For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest…but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem… to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." (See Hebrews 12:18-24)
          1. Distinction between the old law and the new covenant
          2. Synagogue: looks to the covenant of Moses as an eternal covenant
          3. Church: relies on the covenant of grace through Jesus Christ: the covenant of Moses, while valid, simply points to Christ. It is an ad interim covenant.
    7. "Also let the priests who come near the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them." (v. 22)
      1. Priesthood not yet established
      2. Probably "priests" are firstborn sons of Israel
        1. "Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine." (Exodus 13:2)
        2. "Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord." (Exodus 24:5)
        3. Priests for the families: Job acted as priest for his family during the patriarchal period, (see Job 1).
    8. There's distance between holy God and sinful man
      1. Unlike Nadab and Abihu who will presumptuously come
      2. There is a veil separating them from God
  3. Preface to the Covenant (Exodus 20)
    1. God tells His people to look back
    2. Know where you are going, where you come from, and the ground you have covered
    3. Learn from the past: let it be a guidepost, never a hitching post
  4. Principles of the Covenant: God's Top Ten
    1. God expects supreme devotion to Him and sincere affection for others
    2. Two tables of the Law
      1. First four commandments are vertical: your relationship to God
      2. Second six commandments are horizontal; your relationship to humanity
    3. According to Harper's Bazaar, only 40% of Americans can name more than 4 of the ten commandments
    4. There were ten commandments
      1. Commandments (not suggestions or ideas)
      2. Ten (not five, not nineteen)
      3. As Judaism developed, they came up with 613 laws
        1. 248 positive laws (what you should do)
        2. 365 negative laws (what you should not do)
    5. The Ten Commandments
      1. "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bandage. You shall have no other gods before me" (v. 2-3)
        1. Beside me
        2. "I stand alone," there are no other gods, so you don't have any other gods
        3. God is practical (all other gods are fake!)
        4. Worshiping any other god is like hugging a mannequin: it can't respond
        5. "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell; They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat." (Psalm 115:4-7)
      2. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." (vs. 4-6)
        1. The first commandment tells us whom to worship
        2. The second commandment tells us how to worship
        3. Two sources of information about God
          1. Revelation: what God tells us about Himself (self-disclosure written in the Bible and in the creation)
          2. Imagination: made up
        4. Not about art; about idolatry
        5. There is no image you could cast that would capture who He is
        6. Images are limiting and cannot convey the truth
        7. "Metal images are the result of mental images."—J.I. Packer
        8. The children of Israel will form a calf to represent God's strength, but that neglects His other attributes
      3. "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain." (v. 7)
        1. Knox translation: "lightly on your lips"
        2. Amplified Bible: "lightly, frivolously, in false affirmations, or profanely"
        3. Jerusalem Version: " not utter the name of YHWH your god to misuse it"
        4. שָׁוְא shav: to empty something of its content or meaning

Hebrew Terms: nesher: griffin eagle; סְגֻלָּה segullah: treasured possession; Παιδαγωγός - paidagogos- schoolmaster; מִקְוֶה mikvah: pool for cleansing before worship; spiritual cleansing; שָׁוְא shav: to empty something of its content or meaning;
Publications referenced: Harper's Bazaar
Figures referenced: Chief Justice Roy Moore; J.I. Packer
Cross References: Genesis 17:8; Exodus 6:5; Exodus 13:2; Exodus 24:5; Deuteronomy 5:27-29; Job 1; Psalm 115:4-7; Matthew 13:44; John 1:18; John 14:15; Romans 7:7; Galatians 3:24-25; Hebrews 12:18-24; 1 Peter 2:9

Transcript

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A reminder, this bible study is interactive or it can be that you can text.  If you do that, you can text your questions in to us.  We can review them, they'll send them up to me and I can decide if I want to answer them or not.  Let me rephrase that, I'll decide if I can answer it or not.  If I even am remotely close to knowing the answer, but sometimes we have a lot of questions and sometimes we don't have very many.  Last time I think we didn't have any and I asked why and that is simply because they said we were about to put them out and you started answering the questions that were coming in.  So we didn't put them up since you're already answering them.  So that's a good sign but if you desire to do that, we invite you to text the questions in.  I presume that they have already or will give instructions on the screen as to how to do that and to be reminded of that every week.  And then also on the way out you can stop by and ask any of our technical people how to get involved with receiving the updates on Expound.  If you want to make this a part of your daily, weekly spiritual diet, we invite you to do that as well.  Well turn in your bibles tonight to Exodus Chapter 19.  We want to look at Chapter 19 and 20 if possible tonight.  Of course, that all depends on questions we get texted and just how long it takes to get through Chapter 19 itself before we get into 20, but let's pray together.

Father, we've had such a glorious week.  Looking back, we thank you for the way you orchestrated the weather on Friday, Good Friday and then Easter Sunday.  It was so beautiful both days and it was flanked by pretty nasty days on either side of that.  So we just thank you for your mercy extended.  And so many people came out and what we're really grateful for is the hundreds of decisions for Christ that we were able to see and be a part of.  We thank you for that, thank you for them and pray that they would grow every single day in your grace and in your knowledge.  We also thank you, Lord, that we do live in a nation that is protected by a foundation of laws that gives us the freedom to assemble on a night like this and freely worship you.  We don't take that for granted but we count that as one of your mercies to us.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

Some of you remember back to the year 2003 when a monument, an Alabama State building, a monument of the Ten Commandments was removed by a judge.  It was placed there by Chief Justice Roy Moore and it was placed there but then the courts deemed that it was unlawful and had it forcibly removed because they said it violated the separation of church and state.  Now obviously, Roy Moore wanted the monument of the Ten Commandments placed in that public building as a symbol.  The symbol was like the symbol of Moses.  We want it known that God's laws are greater than ours or our opinions.  Having it removed was also symbolic.  The symbolism was -- you could miss it.  It meant "No thanks, God.  We don't really want your laws that would govern our laws.  We have our own way of doing things."

So more and more we have seen this over the last couple hundred years of our nation's history where God gets edged out, put out and man's ideas or opinions are placed there in place of it.  Now whenever God's laws are pushed aside, we lose the standard and when we lose the standard that is objective, that is God's law, we then don't have a moral consensus, a standard that we can all agree on.  And when you lose a standard and a moral consensus, you have pure existentialism, every man does what is right in his own eyes whereas at one time in our country people were saying, "Do what is right."  More and more people are saying, "Do what you think is right for you at the time."  Can you see how different that is, one from the other?  Do what is right is fixed.  There's a standard, there's a moral consensus, there's no existential or something fixed.  But now it's do what you feel is right for you at the time.

It's very, very different.  Well, we've been in the book of Exodus and we come really to the core of it in these chapters, especially Chapter 19 and Chapter 20 as the highlight.  We told you before that the book of Exodus can be broken up into three parts and I want to remind you of those parts right now.  Chapters 1 through 12 are the first part of the book of Exodus.  That's the domination by Egypt.  The children of Israel are slaves for 400 hundred years in Egypt, domination by Egypt.  Section number two, liberation from Egypt.  That's Chapters 13 through 18.  And Number three, revelation after Egypt, and that begins here in Chapter 19 all the way to the end of the book.  This is the revelation that God gives his people.  At the heart of this revelation is a word that you have to know.  You need to know this.  It's a must know word.  It's the word 'covenant.'  I know you've heard that term before, covenant.

If you are to look up what a covenant is, a covenant means an agreement that governs a relationship.  That's all it is.  An agreement that governs a relationship.  It could be a relationship between two cities, two people, two nations or in this case, a relationship between God and people.  That's a covenant, an agreement that governs a relationship.  Now, a covenant is very important to God.  It's the covenant that moves God to release the slaves from Egypt.

You may remember back in Chapter 2 when they're crying out to God.  It says, "And the Lord remembered the covenant that he had made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.  Therefore he heard their cries."  See God had promised to Abraham a land that his people would occupy, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  And so remembering that covenant, not forgetting that covenant, is the reason God continues with his plan to redeem Israel from out of Egypt and place them in the land we call Israel today, they called Canaan back then.

Now when it comes to a covenant, we mentioned to you before but it bears reiterating tonight that there were, for our purposes, a couple of different kinds of covenants.  One was an unconditional covenant, one was a conditional covenant.  An unconditional covenant has no conditions.  A conditional covenant has conditions.  The covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was unconditional.  God says, "I'm going to give you and your descendants the land, the land of Israel, the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession."  Sounds pretty unconditional, doesn't it?  "I'm going to give everlasting possession."  Here's the catch, in comes covenant number two at this point when it comes to the land and that is a conditional covenant, the Mosaic covenant, because it was named after Moses.

The Mosaic covenant is a conditional covenant, so follow me closely, where as the covenant God made with Abraham, Abraham a covenant, was unconditional.  The Mosaic covenant was conditional.  The land they are to occupy, unconditional.  Their tenure in the land and God's blessing them in the land is conditional.  So what might happen if God puts them in the land, if they don't obey God, if they fail to obey God, God says, "I'll kick you out of the land.  I'll bring you back, but I'll kick you out and I might keep kicking you out until you get it right."

I'm giving you the land.  It's an everlasting possession for you and your descendants but their tenure in the land and God's blessing them in the land based on the covenant of Moses is a conditional covenant.  Something else about this covenant, not only is it conditional, it's "to use," the Latin term, an ad interim covenant.  That is it's temporary.  It's going to last from Moses until Christ.  The law was given by Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  Paul in Galatians 3 will refer to this covenant of the law as a school master that would lead us to Christ, that would point us to Christ, so that first covenant isn't binding on us any longer.

Moses and the children of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai.  They get there.  It's a frightening scene because there's lightning and thunder and earthquake and the people are in fear before the mountain.  Moses will go up the mountain and receive the law and come down and give it to the people.  When he goes up onto Mount Sinai, he's going to get two things.  Number one, he's going to get the law.  Number two, he's going to get a set of blueprints for the tabernacle.  He's going to get the law and the tabernacle and both will be discussed in the rest of the Book of Exodus.

The law will facilitate the people's obedience to God.  Got it?  The tabernacle will facilitate their worship of God.  Obedience and worship, those form the two basic parts of the covenant with Moses.  Obedience and worship, the two central expressions of their faith.  I wonder if I should get a little deeper.  If you don't mind, I will because people that study near Eastern documents have studied Chapter 19 and 20 and even the rest of the Book of Exodus and they've discovered that the form of the Covenant, the terminology used in the covenant is something people thousands of years ago, at Moses' time were very familiar with.  It was very much like other covenants that were drawn up between kingdoms or even between individuals, between a king and its people, and in those ancient structures, there were a couple of different forms.

There was number one, the Parity Covenant, which means two parts we're equal.  We'll make a covenant based upon our equality, a parity covenant.  The second type of covenant from ancient times was called a Suzerainty Covenant.  After the word Suzerain or Suzerain which means a covenant between a superior and an inferior, between a monarch and its people, between a King and the servants.  It's this second form that we read about in Exodus.  God is the Lord.  He's supreme and all of the rest of the people, the people of Israel that God is making this deal with are the servants of the most high God.  So that sort of frames it.  Now if you want an outline, Chapter 19 is the preparation for the covenant.  In Chapter 20, we'll have the preface to the covenant and the principles of the covenant, and the people or the participation of the covenant if we make it that far.  If not, we'll get to the preparation.

I have a text question that says, "What's the difference between a covenant and a contract?"  Well, it depends on the nature of the contract.  You can have a contract for anything, but a covenant is more formal and the stipulations of a covenant are more public than a contract.  I'll give you an example.  You could go in and buy a house and you'll just -- we'll have a couple of people signing it and understanding what's on the document.  When you make a marriage vow, that's more of a covenant.  There's public accountability.  You state the vows and you understand the vows and people hear the vows.  So there's more of a public accountability and a public stating of a covenant more so than a contract and you'll see that here.

Let's look at Chapter 19 Verse 1.  In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai, for they have departed from Rephidim, which is a rest spot and they had come to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness.  So Israel camped there before the mountain.  Now, we don't exactly know which mountain it is.  People, most scholars will point to a mountain peak in the Sinai desert called Jebel Musa, 7500 feet above sea level.  You can go there on August.  It's so hot during the day.  You get up to the top of Mt. Sinai early in the morning.  You'll need a coat, high Altitude.  And the best thing to do if you ever see Mt. Sinai is climb it about three in the morning with flashlights so that you get up on top as the sun is rising.

It's the most magnificent sight you have seen.  It's utterly spectacular.  We've taken a group there before and been up on Mt. Sinai.  And Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel."  Notice two names are combined.  House of Jacob, children of Israel.

"You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself."  In that little statement there are three things the Lord tells them and Moses is to tell them publicly.  Number one, remember who you used to be.  Notice again the two names.  They're synonyms for the same people.  But two names, House of Jacob, it used to be a small little family.  Now you're the children of Israel.  You've grown from a family to a nation.  Now oftentimes, the Lord, even though Jacob's name was changed -- yes, to Israel.  That was his new name, Israel.  Jacob is a name that refers back before that man was changed by God after that wrestling match.  You know about it in Genesis when he acted as a man of the flesh conniving and scheming.

So many times when the children of Israel act really childlike and fleshly, God will give them their old name.  "Hey, sons of Jacob," a little reminder to them, "you're acting like the guy before he was changed by God."  But both of these are synonyms.  Remember who you used to be.  I think it's always good for us to look back and remember who we were, where God took us from, which brings us really to the second thing God is telling them, "Remember where I took you from.  You have seen what I did to that Egyptians.  Remember the 400 years of slavery you were under when you cried out to me in despair and I brought you out."  And the third thing, "Remember how I cared for you."  Notice he says, "And how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself."

The word for eagle in Hebrews is the word 'Nesher' and it refers to a particular type of eagle that was well-known in that area.  It's called the Griffin eagle.  The Griffin eagle, a majestic bird, becomes here a symbol or a metaphor for how God treated his people, the relationship God wanted and was having with his people.  There are some characteristics about this eagle.  Number one, it will build its nest in inaccessible places like on high canyon ledges way out in the wilderness so that the little eaglets were totally dependent on mama eagle.  Inaccessible places, way out of the way, where those little eaglets had to totally depend on mom.

So God took the children of Israel to his nest, the wilderness, way far away from any natural provision at all.  There was no running water, there was no Nile River, and there was no food like they had in Egypt that grew because of the Nile Delta.  God took them to an inaccessible place where they learned complete and total trust.

Number two, the Nesher, the Griffin eagle, is very protective.  It's got a heavy beak, strong legs, sharp-curved talents.  It's a bird of prey.  And all I can say if you ever try to steal eggs from the nest of a Griffin eagle or to steal young eaglets, you better be born again.  They will stop at nothing in protecting their young.  So when God brings his people out to the nest of the wilderness and the Egyptians come to destroy them and the children of Israel, the little eaglets cry out to God.  God himself, the mother eagle with the strong, heavy beak and curved talents goes after the Egyptians and stops at nothing in destroying the enemy of his people.

Number three, here's something interesting about this particular eagle.  The Griffin eagle matures very slowly.  It takes up to three years for that little eaglet to become mature.  Now, when it reaches around that age of maturity out there in the inaccessible place, in the wilderness, totally dependent upon mom, the mother wants to teach the little eaglet to fly and the best way to do it is to just kick it out of the nest.  And what does the little eaglet do?

It just spirals downward.  Gravity takes it down to splat on the earth.  But before it splats, that mother comes down and sweeps up the little eaglet, lifting it up by her wings and bears it on the eagle's wings back up to the nest.  That's lesson number one.  Lesson number two, kick it out off the nest.  Little eaglet flaps its wings because it's seen mom do it.  Eventually, it matures slowly.  But eventually, it will learn how to use its wings.  It will grow.  The purpose of God taking these people out to the desert, to an inaccessible nest protected by the mother with a strong care was to get them to spread their wings and fly, to become mature, to totally depend on God and to learn how to be spiritually mature.  So it's very telling the language that God uses.  I bore you up on eagle's wings.

Now therefore, now watch this verse.  "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine."  There's a relationship between two words, if and then.  That shows you that it's a conditional covenant, a bilateral covenant.  It's not unilateral.  It's not God saying, "I will, I will, I will.  I'm going to do this.  You just sit back and watch it happen."  This is if you do this, then I will do that.  The covenant is spelled out in general terms.  Now there's a principle behind this.  How can you prove that you love God?  There has to be some visible tangible proof.  Is it a fuzzy warm feeling you get when you think of God or you hear the word Jesus?  "Oh, whenever I hear the word, I get fuzzy feelings inside.  It's like my soul starts to glow.  I feel positive thoughts."  It's a big whoop.

It has to be something more than ethereal.  It has to be tangible.  It has to be visible.  It has to be real.  And the way you can tell it's real is by obedience.  Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."  It's the same principle.  It's under a completely different covenant, but the principle still remains the same.  If you do this, then you'll be a special treasure to me.  The Hebrew word 'Segula.'  It could be translated to treasure or a special object of care, something of great value to me.

Now in the New Testament, the 'if' is removed.  Because of what Jesus did for you in purchasing you, you are a special treasure to God.  I wonder if you actually think of yourself as God thinks about you.  I wonder if you put in your mind that you are to him a special treasure.  Because you see, the value of something is determined by what a person is willing to pay for it.  Makes sense?  Jesus gave a little parable.  He talked about a man who sold all that he had to buy a field for the treasure that is in it.  I think that's a picture not of us selling everything to buy Christ.  That's ridiculous.  It's by grace we are saved, not by works, not by us doing anything.  I think that's a picture of the Lord giving up all of the prerogatives of heaven coming to this earth and being willing to purchase us by shedding his own blood.

Now that proves that if God was willing to spend that amount on you, you're pretty valuable to him.  You're pretty special to him.  So I don't know what self-talk you live with.  "I'm nothing.  I'm no good for nothing."  But if you do that, that's sin because God says you're a special treasure to him.  Now Verse 6, "And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."  So a special treasure, there's God's intention for his people.  Special treasure, kingdom of priests, and holy nation.  "These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."

A kingdom of priests.  Peter picks up on this thought, does he not?  In his epistle, he calls us a royal priesthood.  A royal priesthood here is called a kingdom of priests.  I love that.

God says, "Here's my intention for you."  Not a kingdom of politicians.  That would do no one any good.  A kingdom of priests.  A priest is a mediator.  A priest stands between God and men and mediates and grabs the two parties into covenant and brings them together, super intends the covenant.  God's original intent for the nation of Israel was to be a kingdom of priests, to be able to represent God to the world and bring the world, attract the world, the gentile nations to God.

The problem with the Jewish nation is as time went on, they turned inward and not outward.  They became very restrictive instead of embracive.  And so by the New Testament times, very strict Jews would walk trough the streets of the city of Jerusalem and take their robes and pull them close to their body, lest the robes would touch a gentile, somebody form another nation, a non-Jewish nation and they would become defiled.  They'd have cooties, spiritual cooties.

We do exactly the same thing when we lose a heart for the lost world and it becomes all inward, all about us, all about just Christians and we lose our focus of what our intended purpose by God in this world is.  Sort of like a priest, sort of like a mediator to bring other nations, other people to know Him.  A kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood.  Notice the third designation, a holy nation.  Holy means different, set apart.  You know why we're different?  Because we march to a different drum beat.  We are supposed to not mimic the world's values but God's values.  We obey God, we love God, our life centers around him and if you live that way, you're different.  You're set apart.  You're holy.

Verse 7, "So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him."  Then all the people answered together and said, "All that the Lord has spoken, we will do".  Really?  That's quite a statement.  That's a very ambitious, bold statement.  So Moses brought back the words of the people. They will eat those words as time goes on.  They're good words to say, right?  It sounds good.  They're saying, "Bring it on, God.  Everything and anything you tell me to do, us to do, we're going to do it."

This is something that later on God will commend them for and comment on that.  In Deuteronomy Chapter 25, as Moses restates the law, let me just read it to you.  "You will go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you," this is the people talking to Moses, "and we will hear it and we will do it."  Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me and the Lord said to me, "I have heard the voice of the words of these people which they have spoken to you.  They are right in all that they are spoken."  Now listen to this, "Oh, that they had such a heart in them."  "Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep my commandments, then it might be well with them and with their children forever."

God said they have the right answer.  I like the intention of their heart.  But God also recognized the weakness of the human heart and their ability to carry out what their intention was.  That's why God says, "Oh, that they had such a heart within them."  Look at all the laws of Moses and there are many of them.  We're going to look at them in the next several weeks and months.  And here the people, even before God says what they are -- whatever they are man, we're going to do it.  Now, they won't do it completely.  They're going to fail at it.  In fact, when we turn to the New Testament and we get the whole story, Paul the Apostle in the Book of Romans says, "Is the law sin?"  Certainly not.  On the contrary, "I would not have known what sin is except for the law."

In other words the law, when I read the law, it showed me, "Man, I'm blowing it."  "Man, I have blown it".  I start understanding what sin is because I read all the thou shall not, thou shall not, thou shall do this, don't do that, do the other thing.  And so when I read the law, Paul said, "It simply pointed out what sin really was."  That's why in Galatians 3, the same apostle calls the law a schoolmaster.  In Greek, a Paidagogos, someone in the Greek or Roman household that was superintending the upbringing of a child.  That's a schoolmaster.

In wealthy households the schoolmaster would feed the child, would bathe the child, would discipline the child and when the child got old enough would leave the child to the place of education and point out the school he's now to go to.  He was the schoolmaster.  Now he's leading them along.  This child is growing up and he says, "Okay, go there for the rest of your education."  That's what the law was.  The law shows us what sin is and then when Jesus Christ comes the law says, "Okay, I've taken you as far as I can take you.  I've shown you how bad you are.  Now here's how you can fix it.  There's a savior.  By his blood, by his power, by his work, by his finished act on the cross a person can be saved."

A local newspaper in the South, I think it was -- decided to take an empty column.  The editor didn't have an article to put in this blank column.  So he just ran a copy of the Ten Commandments.  No editorial comments, just the Ten Commandments listed in the newspaper.  A couple of days later somebody wrote to him and said, "Cancel my subscription.  You're now getting too personal."  No comment, no editorial comment, just simply the Ten Commandments.  The law does that.  Have you ever seen those commercials, those shampoo commercials where the gal's hair is so thick and so shiny and so luxurious and the promise is if you buy this shampoo and use it, your hair will miraculously look like that?  It never happens, but that's the promise.  Compare the hair on the commercial with if you were to take one of her hairs and put it under a microscope.  If you took one of those beautiful shiny hairs, put it under a microscope, what would it look like?  Rough, irregular, gnarly.  The law is like that microscope.  It examines you in the light of the standard that the children of Israel never fully kept.  That's why they needed a sacrificial system as part of it and it tells us the truth and hopefully it drives us to Christ.  More on that as we go.

Verse 9, And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak to you," they can't see him but they're going to hear God's voice, "and believe you forever."  So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.  Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes."

There's an inward consecration and there's an outward preparation.  The washing of the clothes was symbolic of two days worth of consecration inwardly.  Now in ancient times, you got to just go back a little bit because we don't relate to this.  You go home and you have a closet.  You have more than one set of clothes.  You have a few.  They didn't.  So the changing of garments and the bathing was very, very irregular back then, especially way out in the wilderness.  So when somebody would bathe and change their clothes, it was often employed in a covenant to symbolize a new beginning of something.  Now later on the children of Israel will be called upon to bathe before they go up to worship and they'll dig out these little pools.  They still use them in Judaism today.  It's called the Mikvah, which means a collection, a gathering of water.  A Mikvah or the plural Mikva'ot, these pools that you would walk in completely, get cleansed by water, put your robe on and go up to the temple to worship.

So the symbolism of that is employed here.  And let them be ready for the third day.  For on the third day, the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

You shall set bounds on the people all around saying, "Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base.  Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death."  So not only wash your clothes, but watch your step.  Don't come too close.  Now before you go, boy is God mean.  I would say God is nice.  I would say God is simply giving them the parameters and the restrictions so they don't die because here is God's power being revealed from a mountain top to mankind.  God and all of that grandeur and all of that glory, mortal men can't handle it.  God, out of love, puts a restriction.  As a parent you know what that's like.  If you have a son or a daughter and you wrestle with them.  I remember wrestling with my son.  I didn't give him my full strength when I wrestled with him.  He wouldn't be here today.  So I would restrict my power and I would set up boundaries that I had to protect him so he would think like, "Boy, I really did good.  In fact, I beat dad tonight."  Yeah, right, in your dreams.

So God sets up the boundaries, sets up the restrictions, lest they die.  So Moses went down from the mountain top to the people, sanctified the people, purified them for worship and they washed their clothes.  And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day.  Do not come near your wives."  Then it shall come to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain.  The sound of a trumpet was very loud so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.  And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God and they stood on the foot of the mountain.  Now a trumpet wasn't a silver trumpet.  You've seen this before.  It was a ram's horn.  It was a shofar.

So you're ready?  It would have sort of sounded like this ----- only better.  The trumpet was very loud it commanded their attention.  This was the giving of the law.  Moses receives it from God.  Verse 18, "Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in a fire.  Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked."  It was not a comforting, pretty, oh, isn't that a beautiful sight.  It was scary.  It's like being close to a volcano.  Fire, symbolic of the purity of God, the holiness of God, the purging of God reinforced by the quaking that went on and the smoke that went up.  The ancient rabbis used to say, "No mortal man can gaze at the unveiled majesty of God."  The New Testament says, "No man has seen God at any time."  He wouldn't be able to handle it.

Now before we move on, I want to insert something that I hope will now make sense to you.  If you've ever read the Book of Hebrews and you thought, "Gosh, this is a little bit cryptic.  What is it saying when it speaks about that?"  There's a passage in the Book of Hebrews Chapter 12 I want to ready to you now.  It says this, "For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire," the physical real Mount Sinai, "and to the blackness and the darkness and the tempest, but you have come to Mount Zion, the city of living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant."  The writer of Hebrews makes the difference between the old law, the old covenant and the New Testament, the new covenant and herein lays the difference between the synagogue and the church.  The synagogue looks back to the Law of Moses, the covenant of Moses.  The church looks to the covenant of grace through Jesus Christ.  The synagogue looks back and sees the covenant of Moses as an eternal covenant.  The church says the covenant of Moses, while valid, simply pointed to Christ.  It's an ad interim covenant and it ended when Christ came.  In terms of having jurisdiction over a person's life, it's the schoolmaster that pointed me to Christ and so I live in grace.  We have a text question.  Let's throw it up.  It's a great question.  How were people saved in the Old Testament?  You know what the answer is?  The same way they were in the New Testament, by faith.

Any kind of a covenant, even if it means you had to obey God to fulfill the terms, even if it means you had to bring animal sacrifices, you had to believe that those sacrifices were efficacious that they would work, that your obedience mattered to God.  So that same principle of faith, even though it was through the works of the law, was employed in the Old Testament.  The Old Testament looked forward to the new, anticipated the new and the new covenant is the fulfillment of the old.  But the big difference is the old covenant said do, do, do, do.  The new covenant says done, done, done, done, fulfilled in Christ.  You're a special treasure because of God's grace.

Verse 19, "And when the blast of the trumpets sounded long and became louder and louder," no I'm not going to try that, "Moses spoke and God answered him by voice then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain.  And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up."  I remember reading this.  When I was on top of Mount Sinai, I had just climbed hours and I'm panting and I see that Moses went up to the mountain and then God says, "Go back down the mountain and come back up."  I've never read this verse the same since that experience.  I almost thought about actually doing it just to reinforce it.  I said, "No."

Verse 21, And the Lord said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people lest they break through to gaze at the Lord and many of them perish.  Also let the priests who come near the Lord consecrate themselves lest the Lord break out against them."  That's sort of puzzling, isn't it?  What priest?  There wasn't a priesthood even established yet.  The priesthood will be established in the law.  Who were the priests?  Well, probably first born sons of Israel.  God said a few chapters back, "Consecrate to me the first born."

Later on in Chapter 24 I believe, these young men are called upon to make sacrifices for the people.  Again, before the priesthood is established and then the priesthood will be established, but in the interim time, these young men, first born, leaders of families will act as priest.  In those days, ancient times, there were often priests for the family.  The father was the priest and would pass it on to the first born son.  Job acted as a priest for his family during the patriarchal period.  He prayed for his kids, made sacrifices for his kids, Job Chapter 1.  So that's probably what it refers to.  But Moses said to the Lord, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for you warned us saying set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it."  The Lord said to him, "Away, get down and then come up."  Thank you very much.

"You and Aaron with you, but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord lest he break out against them."  So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.  There's an overarching message that God is getting through and that is between Holy God and sinful man, there is distance.  You can't just rush in to God's presence go, "Hey God, what's up it me," because if you did, if you acted presumptuously you could become like a couple of people you read about, Nadab and Abihu.  God killed them, priests of his who act presumptuously in the way and the manner in which they approach God.  So one of the overarching signals you get in the old covenant of Moses, unlike the grace of the New Testament, is the distance.  The veil will separate the holy place and the holy of holies.  Ripped at the crucifixion, we discussed that last week, very present in the old covenant.

Now we come to Chapter 20 and we'll see how far we get.  Now we come to the preface to the covenant.  Just a couple of verses, And the Lord spoke these word's saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."  I find it interesting that God constantly tells his own people to look back.  Now I remember hearing from people, "Don't look back, just move forward.  It's not profitable.  It's not healthy to look backwards."

Well I think they're wrong.  I think it's important to look back for a point of reference to see how far you've come, to measure how far you've come, how your relationship is going with the Lord.  I think it's important to know where you're going, where you've come from and the ground you've covered.  So God tells them to look back.  Now as you look back, learn from the past.  Don't get bogged down by the past.  Let your past be a guide post, never a hitching post.  Don't stop there.  Don't say, "Well this is who I am, I can never get past this."  Yes, you can by God's grace and by the power of his spirit.  But it's good to look back and he's done a couple of times so far that we have read tonight.

Now we come to the Ten Commandments.  Let's call these the principles of the covenant.  You can call them God's top ten list.  He takes all of life and he breaks it down into ten principle segments that govern all of life that is important to him, in your relationship with God and your relationship with people.  Basically, God expects two things of his people.  You'll see here, number one, supreme devotion to him and number two, sincere affection for one another.

So, in the Ten Commandments you can divide them in two.  Look at them as two tables, two tablets.  The first four are vertical.  They deal with your relationship to God.  The second six are horizontal.  They deal with your relationship to humanity, to other people, to your brother, to your sister.  Vertical, horizontal, two tablets, sincere affection for one another, supreme devotion to God.

I found a video tonight quite enlightening, quite interesting.  Harper's magazine actually did a little survey to find out how many Americans knew the Ten Commandments.  Their survey said only 40% of Americans could name more than four of the Ten Commandments.  Now before we go, wow I can't believe it.  If you were just asked cold to name the Ten Commandments, I wonder how you'd do.  I wonder how I'd do.  If we've committed them sufficiently to memory these ten words.  These are ten commandments.  They're not ten suggestions.  They're not ten great ideas.  They're ten commandments and there are ten, there's not five.  You can't say, "I like this one, but not that one."  There are 10, not 5.  There's 10, not 19.

As Judaism developed, they came up with what they called 613 laws, 248 positive, what you should do and 365 negative, what you shouldn't do.  That governed all of life.  God gives us ten, our relationship to him and our relationship to each other.  Here's the first commandment, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  You shall have no other Gods before me."  A better translation, "besides me," or literally "over against me."  You know God is pretty simple and practical.  I'm God, you're not.  I, as God, am unique.  I stand alone.  There are no other Gods besides me, so you don't have any other gods besides me.  Now before you think that God is some paranoid being who has to say this, "Why would God have to say this?"  It's simple, it's practical because all of the other gods and goddesses the people were worshipping, listen carefully, we're fake.  The reason God says, "You'll have no other gods before me," is because there are no other gods and goddesses at all.  Worshipping any other god but him is like hugging a mannequin.  That's what it's like.  You can have a mannequin if you want.  You can talk to it and you can dress it up and carry it around.  You're a nut.  It's not real.  It's not a real person.

You can have false gods and goddesses, you can name them all sorts of things, you can feel really good about addressing them.  They're powerless.  It's ridiculous.  They don't exist.  The only God that does exist is this one.  So it only makes sense for God to say, "I'm unique.  I'm God, you're not.  There's only one and that's me.  Forget about it, none others."  The writer of the Book of Psalms, one of them, David, will say in Psalms 115 about these false gods and goddesses, "They have eyes, but they can't see.  They have ears, but they can't hear.  They have hands, but they can't handle.  They have feet, but they can't walk.  They have mouths, but they can't speak."  So here's a guy, carves it out, paints it up, big deal.  I mean, can you take your little God shopping with you and say you get the vegetables and I'll get the meat?  You fill up the car with gas while I make the phone call.  You can't.  It's -- no power, helpless.  That's the first commandment.

Second commandment, "You shall not make for yourself a carved image of any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, that is in earth beneath or that is in the water underneath the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I am the Lord your God.  I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and forth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments."

Now let me just add this because we're not going to go into extreme depth in this.  We did a whole series.  You can get any of these things, download them for free on our website.  We did a series called God's Top Ten.  We took every commandment.  Sometimes we took two weeks to do one single commandment.  So we went into great depth as to the meaning of all these verses and all these words, I'll just commend that to you.  Now, if the first commandment tells us whom to worship, then the second commandment tells us how we are to the worship.  The first commandment says, "You will have no false Gods."  The second commandment says, "You will not worship the true God in any false manner."  You can see the distinction and you can see the difference.  There are basically two sources of information about God and two only.

Source number one, revelation, God reveals it to us.  He tells us about himself, God's self disclosure written to us in the law, in the prophets, in the gospels, the bible, the word of God, that's revelation.  Second source of information, imagination, God reveals it to us or we make it up and he reveals about himself in his word and in his creation.  We can see his power, his majesty, his splendor, his beauty by looking around us, but it didn't tell us about his love or his moral attributes, so we need the word.  That's revelation.  If you don't get your information about God from revelation, then all you're left with is your imagination.  And you have people standing around or writing books or teaching college courses going, "I imagine God to be," and you fill in the blank and then you teach the class whatever you've made up.  So those are the two sources, either God reveals it to you or you imagine it.

So God says, "This is who I am.  Have no other gods before me and I want you to worship me the right way."  No images, nothing.  Why is that?  And by the way, he's not whole sale condemning art.  It's not about art.  A lot of times people leave the question, "What about art?"  It's not what it's dealing with.  It's dealing with idolatry.  That's what it's dealing with.  Totally different realms.  Why no images of God?  It's simple.  There is not a single image you could ever cast or paint or make of God that would capture all who he is.  So any image you make is by necessity limiting and therefore it doesn't convey the truth.  So God says, "Forget about it.  Don't even make an image."  And sometimes people will say, "Well Skip, when you pray, what do you picture?"  Answer, nothing.  I don't need to picture God as anything.  God has sufficiently revealed who he is.  I can accept that by faith.  I don't need to picture Jesus with auburn hair and blue eyes or a certain color of skin or the way he parts it or a mullet or anything like that.

J.I. Packer said something interesting.  He said, "Metal images are the result of mental images."  You can tell what a person thinks about God by what image they make to represent him.  So the children of Israel will make a bull, a golden calf to represent God's strength, but boy, that didn't tell you anything about his mercy or his grace or his generosity or his love, only one particular attribute that doesn't tell you the rest of the story.  So God says no images.

Third commandment, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain."  Now what does that mean exactly?  Is that referring to swear words?  Is that referring to certain kinds of prayers, certain kind of verbiage that we would use in describing God?  Well, it's 8:30 so we're going to have to answer that next week.  We'll let that third commandment hang until then.  Oh come on, we can wait.  Okay, let me read that to you in three different translations to help you understand it and then we'll close.  The Knox translation, the John Knox, who took it from the Latin Vulgate translate it, "You will not take the name of the Lord your God lightly on your lips."  Another translation, the amplified bible, "You will not take the name of your God lightly, frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely."  All of the above.

The Jerusalem version of the bible, "You will not utter the name of Yahweh your God to misuse it."  The word vain in your text is the Hebrew word 'Shav', which means to empty something of its content or of its meaning.  So, what does it mean?  It sort of means all of the above.  It means the name of God should never be used, uttered, sung, written in an empty, frivolous, or insincere way lightly on your lips.  And Verse 8 is so controversial about the Sabbath, we will save it for next time.  So let's pray.

Father in heaven, thank you that we can study the law that points us to Christ, the very law that Paul the Apostle said that slain him.  He realized that it wasn't just dealing with outward actions, but inward attitudes as we will see next week in our study.  And thank you Lord that not only does the law reveal sin, but it points to a savior and I pray we will not rely upon the law to be cleansed, but upon Jesus who is the savior.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

Additional Messages in this Series

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1/12/2011
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Exodus 1
Exodus 1
Skip Heitzig
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Message Summary
The Lord has the pages of history and the plans for our lives in His sovereign control. Through blessings and hardships, His Word is true and His promises sure. Join us as we launch the interactive expound Bible study, with a look at Exodus chapter one, where we'll examine the people, their prosperity, and the pharaoh's problem.
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1/19/2011
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Exodus 2
Exodus 2
Skip Heitzig
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What legacy will you leave when you pass into eternity? How will your faith influence those who come after you? As we consider the life of Moses from his birth to his banishment, we witness the providential hand of God and the impact of his parents' wholehearted faith.
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1/26/2011
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Exodus 3-4
Exodus 3-4
Skip Heitzig
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When God calls you, how do you respond? Do you make excuses--running in the opposite direction? In this study from the book of Exodus, we see the Lord present Moses' calling on a silver platter. As we examine his encounter at the burning bush, let's explore five common excuses for disobeying God's will.
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2/2/2011
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Exodus 5-6
Exodus 5-6
Skip Heitzig
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Message Summary
After presenting his list of excuses before the Lord, Moses finally asks Pharaoh to let Israel go. But when Moses submits himself to the Lord things get harder for Israel. We'll learn some important principles about spiritual warfare and the sovereignty of God as we dive into Exodus 5-6, where "The Great Confrontation" between Moses and Pharaoh begins.
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2/9/2011
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Exodus 7
Exodus 7
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After 400 years in bondage, the LORD is about to deliver His people out of Egypt. In dramatic fashion, He targets the false gods of Egypt and reveals Who is boss. As we examine the first plague, we'll see the water of the Nile turned into blood: a sign of judgment to the Egyptians--a sign of deliverance to Israel.
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2/16/2011
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Exodus 8
Exodus 8
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Frogs, lice, and flies--Egypt endures further hardship as Pharaoh refuses to heed the Lord's command to let His people go. We'll discover how each of these plagues brings a false Egyptian deity into the scope of God's judgment, and examine the condition of our own hearts to God's Word.
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2/23/2011
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Exodus 9
Exodus 9
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Through a series of ten plagues, the LORD reveals to Egypt both His person and His power. As we examine the plagues of diseased livestock, boils, and hail, we see the LORD specifically target the lifestyle of Egypt as He again takes aim at the gods in their pantheon. Join us in our study of Exodus 9, where God hardens Pharaoh's heart for the first time--and we weigh the conditions of our own hearts as well.
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3/2/2011
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Exodus 10-11
Exodus 10-11
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As we study the ten plagues on Egypt, we see not only a preview of future judgment in the tribulation, but also a picture of the believer's standing before God. Let's examine the plagues of locusts and darkness and hear God's warning of the ultimate plague--the death of the firstborn. We'll learn how the Lord targets the false worship systems of this world, and sets His children apart from condemnation.
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3/9/2011
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Exodus 12
Exodus 12
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After nine previous plagues, the LORD ensured the deliverance of His people in the plague of the death of the firstborn. Before the Angel of the LORD visited Egypt, God provided a way of escape for His people, and the Passover was instituted. Let's take a careful look at this commemoration of Israel's deliverance and learn how Passover predicted our own deliverance as well.
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3/16/2011
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Exodus 13-14
Exodus 13-14
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Emancipation -- to free from bondage, oppression or restraint; to liberate. In Exodus 13-14, a portrait of deliverance is painted; as God's people were set free from bondage in Egypt, so we are redeemed in Jesus Christ. Let's look closely to gain a greater understanding of our freedom from sin and our new life in Him.
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3/23/2011
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Exodus 15
Exodus 15
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When the children of Israel were delivered from bondage in Egypt and their enemies were destroyed, they responded with songs of praise. As we review Exodus 15, we'll consider the songs of Moses and Miriam and learn some important characteristics of true worship.
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4/6/2011
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Exodus 16
Exodus 16
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At first, the children of Israel celebrated their deliverance--but then they looked back to Egypt. In the midst of their grumbling, the Lord showered them with grace and rained manna from heaven. As we examine Exodus 16, we learn more about God's faithfulness and discover some interesting parallels between that bread from heaven and the true Bread from heaven: Jesus Christ.
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4/13/2011
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Exodus 17-18
Exodus 17-18
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The children of Israel were on a 40-year road trip, but in spite of God's gracious provision and protection, they were never satisfied! In Exodus 17-18, they encounter two road hazards: confrontation and disorganization. As we travel life's path, bumps in the road are inevitable; this passage reminds us that when there is no way, God can make a way.
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5/4/2011
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Exodus 20:8-21:36
Exodus 20:8-21:36
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In this study from Exodus 20, we take a look at the Ten Commandments and the precepts of the Law. We'll learn to apply these teachings to our daily living and gain a greater understanding of its role in pointing us to salvation through Jesus Christ.
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5/11/2011
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Will the Real Exodus Pharaoh Please Stand Up?
Dr. Steven Collins
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In this message, Dr. Collins explains that the Bible is trustworthy, even in matters of history. Using logic, historical analysis, and a firm belief in the historical reliability of the biblical narrative, he demonstrates why he believes Tuthmosis IV was the Pharaoh at the time of Israel's deliverance from bondage in Egypt.
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5/18/2011
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A Legal Defense of the Biblical Gospel in an Age of Secularism
Craig Parton
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In this message from Craig Parton, we consider the topic of apologetics. We'll explore the history and value of lawyers' defense of Christianity, dealing with objections to the faith, what apologetics is and is not, and why and how all believers are called to defend the faith.
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5/25/2011
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Exodus 21
Exodus 21
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As we turn our attention to the precepts of God's Law, we remember that it serves as a tutor leading us to Christ. Let's consider how God's Law applies to our lives, remembering we cannot have a relationship with the Lord based upon the Law--only upon redemption through Jesus Christ.
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6/1/2011
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Exodus 22:1-23:14
Exodus 22:1-23:14
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While God's Law can never make us righteous, it does reveal God's standard, providing a gauge of just how bad we are and pointing us to the Savior. Let's take a look at more particulars of the Law in this study of Exodus 22-23. We'll consider both God's great care for us and the choice He provides: to obey or to disobey.
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6/8/2011
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Exodus 23:14-24:18
Exodus 23:14-24:18
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In this study from Exodus 23-24, we discover some interesting parallels between Israel and the church. We'll consider three Jewish feasts, the Promised Land, and the covenant relationship between God and his people through a mediator.
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6/15/2011
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Exodus 25
Exodus 25
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The book of Hebrews calls the tabernacle "a copy and shadow of the heavenly things" (Hebrews 8:5). As we look carefully at each article included in the tabernacle and consider the detail of God's instruction, we discover a beautiful picture of Christ.
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6/22/2011
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Exodus 26-27
Exodus 26-27
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Jesus is our great High Priest, who makes a way for those who follow Him to have fellowship with the Father. As we examine the details of the tabernacle recorded in Exodus 26-27, we'll see shadows of heaven and of Christ Himself, and come to appreciate Jesus even more.
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6/29/2011
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Exodus 28-29
Exodus 28-29
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In Exodus 28-29, we learn about the calling, ordination, and consecration of the Old Testament priests. As we study the preparations and details, we consider our calling as a royal priesthood, and remember our freedom in the Lord must be balanced with submission to Him.
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7/6/2011
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Exodus 30-31
Exodus 30-31
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It is easier for us to grasp and remember what we see and experience. For example, if you watch a chef on television prepare a cake, or better yet if you actually get out the ingredients, bake it yourself, and eat it, you have a greater appreciation for the food than if you just read a recipe. The tabernacle is God's picture of Christ, His ministry, and our home in heaven. Let's continue our careful study of Exodus, beginning in chapter 30, and uncover the significant truths revealed in the furnishings of the tabernacle.
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7/13/2011
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Exodus 32:1-29
Exodus 32:1-29
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The Lord revealed His tender care and awesome power to the children of Israel--yet in just forty days they became disconnected from Him. As Moses communed intimately with God on the mountaintop at Sinai, the people attempted to worship Him in the wrong manner on the valley floor. As we examine Exodus 32, let's consider their sin and how it was dealt with.
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7/20/2011
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Exodus 32:30-33:23
Exodus 32:30-33:23
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As Moses stood on Mt. Sinai receiving a revelation from God, the people in the valley engaged in revelry and pagan worship. In the aftermath of their sin, we peek into Moses' prayer life: his intercession for the people and his hunger for the Lord.
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7/27/2011
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Exodus 34
Exodus 34
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In Exodus 34, God's covenant with Israel is reestablished. Moses returned to the top of Mount Sinai, again received the Ten Commandments, and God's choice, presence, greatness, and power are confirmed.
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8/3/2011
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Exodus 35-37
Exodus 35-37
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In these chapters, we see God's people walking in obedience to what the Lord had commanded them--the people used their resources and talents to honor Him. A free will offering is collected, the construction of the Tabernacle begins, and the vessels, oil, and incense are made. Let's learn from their example how we too can be joyful givers and obedient followers.
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8/10/2011
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Exodus 38-40
Exodus 38-40
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In Exodus 38-40, the construction of the tabernacle is completed by the craftsmen, presented to Moses, set up, and dedicated to the LORD. Israel had been delivered from bondage in Egypt, and God had become the center of their lives.
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There are 28 additional messages in this series.
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