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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (24-10-1999 Guisborough Evangelical Church)
As we go through the story of Moses, some sections particularly focus on the work of God and the children of Israel. In these chapters, we see the promises of God to His people, and His compassion for them. The true and living God speaks for Himself. He tells us who He is and what He will do, and on what conditions He will act. We see Him in action, among His people, in His servants, dealing with enemies and sins and the forces of nature. We learn of His love and compassion, but also see Him as a God of judgement and holiness and wrath. His power and authority is the same today as it was when He led the Children of Israel out of Egypt.
In Egypt, the Israelites were downtrodden and oppressed,
under the tyranny of the Egyptian slave-masters. Their existence was miserable,
up to their necks in clay, making bricks, under the lash of their taskmaster’s
whip, utterly degraded. They were so spiritless, they submitted to any demand of
the tyrant, and lost any hope of liberty. But God makes an astonishing claim: Israel
is my first-born son (Exodus 4:22). To the Egyptian, the first-born was
special and sacred. The first-born had special rights and privileges. Israel was
God’s treasured possession. Let my people go (Exodus 5:1).
Despite their downtrodden, oppressed circumstances, God
was not ashamed of them. He loved them for they were His own people, people of
His choice, and He had a concern and interest in them. He owned them before they
owned Him. He loved them before they ever loved Him. He was determined to
deliver them. Even when the plan was announced, and they continued to doubt and
complain and argue, God’s love persisted and He did not give up on them. Even
Moses complained and expostulated, but God did not give up on him.
We never understand the love of God until we realize we
are totally and completely undeserving of any favour whatsoever. We think it is
our right for God to make us healthy and wealthy, and for the sun to shine on
us. We think He should be there for us, after all, He is love. What a
misunderstanding. God is the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, the
thrice-holy God, and He demands perfect holiness and obedience from us. How dare
men and women who break His law in word, thought and deed hourly and daily, who
live for self, who never open His Word, who ignore His day, reject His Son,
arrogantly strut into God’s presence and expect and demand Him to do this and
that for them.
We need to have a better picture of what we are: Christ
died for the ungodly … while we were yet sinners Christ
died for us…. We were enemies (Romans 5:6,8,9). There is no one
righteous. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have
turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good,
not even one… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans
3:11-13, 23). There is nothing attractive or desirable in us. And God loves us
when there is nothing good about us, nothing good to be seen in us, nothing good
to be said about us. We might be all right when we are on parade, but what of
darkened rooms and deep cells and all they are full of – lust, pride, and
deceit. None deserves God’s favour. There is no reason why He should accept
us. There are thousands of reasons why He should damn us. We have no claim on
God, and no rights before Him. We will never understand the love of God till we
are quite clear about this.
“I
stand amazed in the presence
Of
Jesus the Nazarene
And
wonder how He could love me,
A
sinner, condemned, unclean”
The love of God is not just about the blessings and good
things He pours on us. Behind it all is God Himself. He is involved personally
in the blessings. There are seven great “I will’s in Exodus 6:6-8.
I
will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.
I
will free you from being slaves to them.
I
will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of
judgment.
I
will take you as my own people.
I
will be your God.
I
will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham,
to Isaac and to Jacob.
I
will give it to you as a possession.
He personally gives all these promises, and above all He
gives Himself. Not only will they have the gifts, but they will also have the
giver. This is supremely seen in the gift of Christ. In His Son, God gave
Himself. God was in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18). In Christ all the
fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Colossians 2:9). The Son was His
most priceless possession. What more could He give? The greatest gift anyone can
give is himself or herself. Apart from that, all other gifts are relatively
unimportant.
Someone’s analysis of John 3:16, entitled “Christ,
the greatest gift” – For God the greatest lover so loved the
greatest degree the world the greatest company that He gave
the greatest act His only Son the greatest gift that
whosoever the greatest opportunity believeth the greatest
simplicity in Him the greatest attraction should not perish
the greatest promise but the greatest difference have
the greatest certainty everlasting life the greatest
possession.
We have seen this already in the promises God gave to
Israel – His promises to set them free, redeem them, take them as His people,
and bring them to the Promised Land. And all these things He did. He did indeed
use His outstretched arm with mighty acts of judgement (Exodus 6:6).
How very different from us. He is not only compassionate
and loving – as we can be – but He is also able to do something about it. We
can talk a lot, but when it comes to the practical side we are helpless. God
speaks with authority, power and assurance, and events prove Him right. When He
sets His mind to do something, He does it. There are so many evidences of that,
but the supreme one is the Cross of Calvary. There He fulfilled His richest
promise. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all … It pleased the Lord
to bruise Him (Isaiah 53:6,10). He did not spare His own Son but gave Him
up for us all (Romans 8:32). This is how God showed his love among us: He
sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is
love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:9,10).
In His love, He transferred our sins and punishment to
His Son. Christ’s death does not mean He started to love us from that point.
He always loved us. But from that point He treated us differently because the
law had been satisfied and sin was punished. Augustine described the Cross as
“the pulpit from which Christ preached God’s love to the world.”
God’s active and practical love is also seen in His
dealings with us. He awakens us to our need when we are careless and
indifferent; He disturbs our complacency, shatters our pride and draws us to
Christ. He is behind all those influences in our lives, events and experiences. For
those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he
predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he
justified, he also glorified (Romans 8:29,30).
Salvation is the outworking of the eternal plan, which began in eternity past and will reach fruition in eternity future. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).
The love of God is so misunderstood. The phrase is so lightly trotted out, and so misused. It is a totally undeserved love, something that should amaze and astound us. It is a personal love. We do not just receive gifts in an impersonal way, but we receive the giver Himself. His love is practical and active, in providing us with a Saviour and salvation.
This should thrill our souls. God loves us with an everlasting love. Karl Barth, one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, with a massive intellect, was asked by his student, “Dr Barth, what is the greatest thought that has ever passed through your mind?” The aging professor paused for a long time as he pondered his answer. Then with great simplicity, he replied,
“Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so”
I have loved you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Romans 8:35). God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5). God is love, whichever way the wind blows.
