Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: So Jesus says, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the true vine.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor of biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled First Things First. Let's listen as JP gives us part three of The God We Worship.

JP Jones: If you have your Bibles, would you open to Exodus chapter 3? This is our second study in this series First Things First. We're talking about who is the God that we worship and how do we worship the true God? Our highest calling, the very purpose for which we've been created is to be worshippers. God created us for his glory. God does everything for his glory, and we most glorify God when we worship him. And Jesus said God is spirit, and those who worship him are to worship in spirit and truth. Wherever you are in your spiritual journey here this morning, God wants you to seek him in worship.

In fact, some of us here are here as seekers. We're here with questions. We're here because somebody invited us. We're guests. Maybe we haven't been to church in a long time. Maybe we've never been to church. And maybe we are the unconvinced. God wants you to be a worshiper. In fact, Jesus said that God seeks worshippers. You're not here by accident. God wants to reveal himself to you, bring you to a glorious experience of his forgiveness and love and salvation, and have your surrender of your life to him be your first act of worship, which will be followed by many, many, many acts of worship.

In fact, a life of worship. If you're here and you know Jesus Christ, what Jesus is calling you to more than anything else is to wholeheartedly seek him, surrender to him, love him, obey him, serve him as a worshiper. In Exodus chapter 3, we have the story of God revealing himself to Moses and calling Moses to go to Pharaoh to proclaim freedom for the children of Israel. And we have in this passage a revelation of who God is and how God is to be worshipped. Here's my first observation from this. God reveals himself naturally, supernaturally, and personally.

God reveals himself naturally, supernaturally, and personally. This is what the text says in Exodus chapter 3. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight why the bush does not burn up.

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush. Moses, Moses. And Moses said, Here I am. Now Moses is the author of the Book of Exodus. So he's writing about his own personal experience. But he's also writing as all of the biblical authors write under the leading and guiding and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So Moses is recording what actually happened. He was an eyewitness. He personally experienced it, but he's also recording the significance of what happened not only for him, but for all who would read it after him, so that we from the scriptures might receive teaching, rebuke, correction, training in righteousness, and be equipped for every good work, as 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 declare to us.

In this passage, we see God revealing himself. God makes himself known. It's a paradox of scripture that on the one hand, God is incomprehensible, dwells in unapproachable light, New Testament tells us, absolutely holy, infinite, transcendent means he's above and beyond all that we ask or think. Isaiah 55 says that my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Yet at the same time, this incomprehensible, transcendent, infinite God shows up, and he makes himself known.

And he reveals himself, and he speaks. We need to embrace the fact, the truth, and be changed by the truth that God reveals himself naturally, supernaturally, and personally. He reveals himself naturally because the very creation declares the glory of God. Psalm 19 says the heavens declare the glory of God. Romans chapter 1, Paul in making this great case for the gospel and showing us how every person is accountable to a holy God, says no one can say, I didn't even know that there even was a God. And so Paul says in Romans chapter 1, since the creation of the universe, God's invisible attributes, his personal nature, his holy power have been clearly seen by what has been made.

God reveals himself naturally. So there's things we can learn about God, know about God just from observing nature and creation. God reveals himself supernaturally. Here's an example of it. He appears within a burning bush. And the fact that the bush is burning is not hugely significant, but the fact that it's burning and doesn't burn up, that's what captures Moses's attention. God reveals himself through miracles. He reveals himself supernaturally. The very beginning of the Bible is a miracle. Out of nothing God created. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and he created them out of nothing.

And the whole story of God's calling of his people and guiding of his people and leading of his people and speaking to his people is a story of supernatural revelation. I guess the greatest demonstration of supernatural revelation is the incarnation of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. I mean John 1 says in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and nothing came into being that has come into being apart from him. For all that has come into being has come into being through him.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Drop down to verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten son who's in the bosom of the father, he has revealed him. Jesus has revealed God to us. He is God in the flesh. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ proclaim the veracity, the truthfulness, the validity of the gospel. Romans 1:4 says that as to Jesus's human nature, he was a descendant of David, but he was by the spirit of holiness declared to be the son of God by the resurrection from the dead.

So the very resurrection of Jesus is so outside of our categories that we're left to conclude it's either all a hoax or it is the only truth. And agree with what Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father but by me. So God reveals himself naturally. He reveals himself supernaturally. God reveals himself personally. God said, Moses. Moses. And Moses said, Here I am. Don't let the simplicity go by unnoticed. God spoke to Moses, and God speaks to us. God wants to speak to us. This morning God wants to speak to me, and he wants to speak to you.

God is a God who reveals himself, and he reveals himself naturally. He reveals himself supernaturally, and he reveals himself personally. Jesus said in John 10, I know my sheep. My sheep know me. My sheep know my voice. Are you hearing Jesus speak to you? Is God just some theoretical abstraction to you? Is the Christian life just a set of rules to you? Is theology just an intellectual game to you? Or do you really know God because God's revealed himself to you and you see what he's revealed, you've heard what he's revealed, and he's speaking to you personally?

It is your Christian experience something that happened in the past that God spoke to me a long time ago, but I haven't heard from him in a long time. Or do you engage in a relationship with God and you hear him speak to you? God said, Moses, Moses. And Moses said, Here I am. And he stopped and responded to God's revelation. Here's the question. Am I hearing God speak to me? Because if I'm not hearing God speak to me, then I am not worshiping in spirit and truth. I am not engaging with the one true God with the kind of worship that most glorifies him and gives me the greatest joy.

Here's a second observation from the text. God is holy and awesome. God is holy and awesome. Verse 5 says, Do not come any closer, God said to him. Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground. And then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. At this Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. God's holy and awesome. Let me ask you, when was the last time that you consciously were aware that you are afraid of God?

You see we we live in a culture where we have Bible translations that change. He Here's God speak. He starts walking up to the burning bush, and God says, the ground that you're on is holy ground. I'm the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Now all of a sudden Moses is aware it's not just a strange bush that's burning. God is speaking to me. Oh my gosh. He was afraid to even look any after that because he became aware of who he was looking at, not just what he was looking at. The fear of the Lord, it's we're told in Proverbs, it's the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the holy one is understanding.

And we're told in in also in Proverbs at the end I I've shared with you many times that I've claimed scripture passages to preach to my children that God gave me at at their birth, and for my daughter Ashton, my youngest, who is 15, still at home. I can't determine yet whether she's keeping me young or making me old before my time. Proverbs 31, Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. That's a scripture that I pray for her ever since she's been born. The fear of the Lord is a beautiful thing because the fear of the Lord is an appropriate response to the awesomeness of God, the greatness of God, the holiness of God.

Moses experienced the fear of the Lord because he met God. And how did he meet God? He met God as the one who is holy and awesome. God is perfect and infinite in his holiness, and his holiness is consuming. That's why sometimes it's compared to as in this passage a fire that doesn't burn out. See Moses didn't have the kind of relationship with God that we think is the biblical relationship with God. Hey, you know God and I are buds. He's my main man. Moses understood the creator-creature relationship, the infinite-finite, the holy sinner. I I really believe cuz I'm going to put myself in the same category that our our problem as worshippers is we bring God down and we lift ourselves up.

We have a small view of God and an exalted view of ourselves. And therefore our worship is just pitiful. It's mediocre. It's not life-transforming at times. It's not contagious. But when we see God for how awesome he is and we rightly respond with humility and with the fear of the Lord and with absolute surrender, that kind of worship glorifies God, blesses us, and is contagious to bless others. But we've got to see God for who he really is. God is holy and he's awesome. And if we don't feel this sense of we're the creature, he's the creator, we're finite, he's infinite, we're sinners, and he's holy, and we fear the Lord in the appropriate positive sense that that is to have upon us as the Bible clearly declares it.

If we don't have that, it reveals that we have a small view of God and a very casual understanding of a holy relationship. So the application is, do we embrace a view of God that acknowledges his holiness, that acknowledges that he's the awesome God, and do we have a healthy fear of the Lord? Here's a third observation from this passage. God works providentially. God works providentially. Now this might be a word that's not in your vocabulary, not a word that you use quite often. It might be one of those words that you relegate to something you see in a systematic theology textbook, and therefore it's probably boring and not relevant to your life.

Actually it's a great word. And it and it represents a great truth about a great God. This is what providence means. God has a sovereign plan for history. He responds to our prayers. He works miracles. He moves in the hearts of men and nations. He intervenes in the affairs of men in order to accomplish his kingdom purposes. Let me read that again. God has a sovereign plan for history. He responds to our prayers. He works miracles. He moves on the hearts of men and nations. He intervenes in the affairs of men in order to accomplish his kingdom purposes.

It means that God is king and in control, and he works that out in history, and he works it out in churches, and he works it out in families, and he works it out in our lives. And when we really understand that's what the Bible teaches about God, then we humbly thank him for all the blessings in our lives because we know they come from the hand of God. And all the things that we see as trials and difficulties, we have hope because we know that a sovereign God is working them for a good and holy purpose.

So whether your lot in life is from a human perspective everything's great or everything sucks, the providence of God gives you hope and joy and faith. Well this is what God says that reveals his providence. Exodus 3 verse 7. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the Canaanites and Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, mosquito bites, flea bites.

And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I've seen the way of the Egyptians, how they are oppressing them. So now go. I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out of Egypt. Drop down to verse 18. The elders of Israel will listen to you, and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him.

So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. And after that he will let you go. And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor, and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing which you will put on your sons and daughters, and so you will plunder the Egyptians. This is amazing stuff that God's revealing here in Exodus 3 about his providence.

Here's a pattern. I have seen He says, I've seen the oppression that you're under. I have heard I have heard your cries and your prayers. I am concerned. I care. I love you. I have compassion on my people. So I have come down to rescue them and to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. That's awesome. That's fantastic. But here's the part that we got to remember, Rudy theology. Remember the movie Rudy? Rudy goes to the priest. Haven't gotten into Notre Dame. I haven't made the football team. That's all I want. How come it's not working out?

The priest finally says to him, Rudy, I've been a priest for over 30 years. There's two things that I know with certainty. There is a God, and I'm not him. So here's Rudy theology. God heard. God was concerned. God came down to rescue. But the text says, I've heard that for 400 years. Oh, why didn't God do it in year one? Why didn't God do it in year two? Year three, four, five, 400 years. Now God is doing it. What about the people who lived before this happened and died in Egypt? But now God is doing it.

God is God and we're not. God is sovereign. So whether you experience what you perceive to be blessing or cursing, the providence of God is meaningful because if it's blessing, thank you God. This came from your hand. If it's cursing, God, this has come from your hand as well, and you are good, and you're going to use it for your kingdom purpose. God was just as good to that generation that he rescued as he was to their parents and to their grandparents and to their parents before them. But God gets to decide when and how and where he works.

Why? He's God and we're not. So I come back to the beauty of providence. The beauty of providence is it gives us a humility to thank God when we want to take credit for what we've done, but really it's come from God's hand. And it gives us hope and confidence and faith when we would never choose what we're experiencing. But again we understand it's come from God's hand. Providence means God hears, he cares, he responds, he does miracles, he works out his kingdom plan within history. And the whole of the Bible testifies to this, gang.

Just read the Bible. How God sovereignly revealed himself to people, worked miracles, moved things along according to his plan and purpose. Nothing happens by accident. Nothing happens haphazardly. We have a a a God who watches over the sparrow and knows the very numbers of hairs on our head.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 233 31 Multon Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or give us a call at 949 916 0250. That's 949 916 0250. For your gift of $25 or more we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book Facing Goliath.

Please join us every Sunday at 9 or 11 a.m. at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 233 31 Multon Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment. But before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a series talking about the God that we worship. Worship is our response to God. Worship is surrendering to God. It is praising God. It is loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Worship is honoring God and giving worth to God. A.W. Tozer in his book Knowledge of the Holy says worship is either base or noble depending upon the thoughts of God in the worshiper. Did you catch that? You see what we think about God, that's what matters in worship. Do we have a high view of God or do we have a low view of God?

Do we have a biblical view of God or an unbiblical view of God? In the Bible God is revealed in many ways through his attributes, through his names, through his descriptions, through his works. God is a covenant keeper. God establishes covenant with his people. God makes promises, and God presents himself, and we respond to those promises. The Bible is filled with specific covenants, and they reveal that God in his very nature is a covenant keeper. He's faithful. He's reliable. He's dependable. He's holy. He's awesome. He's sovereign. He has all power. God accomplishes all that he wills to accomplish.

Do you have a relationship with the real God? Do you think true thoughts about the true God? Jesus said in John chapter 4 that God is spirit, and those who worship him are to worship in spirit and truth. Are you a worshiper who worships God in spirit and truth? You see these are the things that matter most in life. What do we think about God, and are we worshiping the true God and worshiping the true God in true ways? We need to realize that our God is a covenant keeper. Do you have a covenant relationship with God?

Have you accepted his promise of forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ? Have you experienced the forgiveness of your sins, the cleansing of your sin? Have you been made right by God, justified by faith, by putting your faith in Jesus Christ? The Bible says that when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, God declares us righteous. We become righteous with God when we believe in Jesus. We enter into covenant with God when by grace through faith we receive salvation. You can worship the true God by being made right with him through his son Jesus Christ. If that's what you'd like to do, I invite you to pray with me right now.

Lord Jesus, forgive my sins. Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Lord Jesus, be the Lord of my life. Save me by your grace. Thank you God for what you've done for me. Thank you for being a covenant-keeping God and entering into covenant with me. I receive that in Jesus's name. Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 233 31 Multon Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or call us at 949 916 0250. On the internet you'll find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.