Sunday 11/06/16
Series: …but by My Spirit Pt. 21
Message – Knowing the Holy Spirit IV
Living in the Kingdom
POINT #4 – We unite with God’s heart through Intercession.
-
(Sub-point) God is a God Who LOVES both Justice and Mercy. He WILL NOT pervert justice and show partiality to NO ONE!
In my opinion, one of the BEST verse to illustrate this is Isaiah 30:18,
“Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.”
Left off last week with Moses Interceding for Israel in Exodus 33
-
In vereses 1-3, The Lord told Moses He would NOT go with them, but would send His angel to protect them and lead them into the promised land.
-
What reason did God give for saying He would not go with them?
-
They were stiff-necked and He might destroy them on the way!
-
Here we are told that in response to this Moses pitched a tent FAR outside the camp and called it the tent of meeting.
-
In verses11-18 God spoke face to face like a friend to Moses. Moses and Moses begins his work of intercession by saying,
“You said, ‘I know you by name, and that I have found favor in Your sight.’
(13) Now if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight. Now consider that this nation is Your people.”
Then God said, “I will go with YOU and give YOU rest”
Moses intercedes more and says, “If you do not come with all of us – please do not make any of us go up to the land You’ve promised. Otherwise how will the world know You’ve placed Your favor upon this people – if You do not go up WITH them?”
God replied, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”
Summery statement…
This spiritual intercessory dance drew Moses closer to God’s heart…so MUCH so that in the throws of deep adoration and soul hunger he cried out “Please, let me see Your glory.”
QUESTION – At this point – how would you describe the emotional state of God? How is He responding to Moses’ intercession and his new found zeal desire to know God’s glory?
God has found a friend in Moses and is delighted to have an intercessor to lay hold on God’s dream of a covenant people and remain true to His justice at the same time. God had allowed Moses a look into His heart and Moses in turn, allowed God to look into his…..as a result Moses spent himself on the heart of God and God on the heart of Moses! THIS is a ‘type’ of the parachoresis!
In chapter 34:5-7
God reveals Himself to Moses in TWO ways…
-
He came down and manifested His goodness (glory) to Moses.
-
He proclaimed His name ‘Yahweh’ by word AND definition!
(That essentially means that He was named before Moses by that which identified Him. This is why Jews see the name of Yahweh as God’s Own personal name.)
Before you can fully appreciate What God was promising here you need to know a little about Hebrew language and culture…
This is very similar to the name Jehovah God revealed to Abraham.
This is, by the way, why the religious leaders got so angry at Jesus for the following statement,
So what God was telling Moses here is that He would reveal His Own character to him and describe it.
“(6)Yahweh–Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth, (7) maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin. But He will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.”
This gets a reaction out of Moses to say the least!
Moses intercedes for Israel
(8) Moses immediately bowed down to the ground and worshiped and said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Even though this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wrongdoing and sin, and accept us as Your own possession.”
NOTE: God had JUST revealed Himself as loving, compassionate, gracious and slow to anger – forgiving wrongdoing…rebellion & sin. So that was the basis of Moses’ Intercession!
Of course God knew the outcome of these events and revealed His nature to Moses SO THAT Moses WOULD intercede.
Warning to obey – God’s favor does NOT supplant His justice
“(10) And the LORD responded: “Look, I am making a covenant. I will perform wonders in the presence of all your people that have never been done in all the earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see the LORD’s work, for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring. (11) Observe what I command you today. I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. (12) Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are going to enter; otherwise, they will become a snare among you. (13) Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles. (14) You are to never bow down to another god because the LORD, being jealous by nature, is a jealous God.”
Christ Intercedes for US – revealing Intercession as the heart of the Father….
-
Isa 53:12, “(12) Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.”
-
He CONSTANTLY intercedes for us – Rom_8:34 “(34) Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also makes intercession for us.”
AND…
Heb_7:25 “But this (priest), because He abides forever, has the priesthood which is non-transferable, for which reason He is able to be saving those completely and forever who come to God through Him, being always alive for the purpose of continually making intercession for them.”
-
EXAMPLE via Parable…
Luke 13:6-9 “(6)He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. (7) Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ (8) But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. (9) And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ “
So we see that even though we are born anew and are the off-spring of God, we STILL need an advocate – One to intercede for us before the Father WHO is a God of JUSTICE.
This is further seen in other passages as well…
Next week we will begin looking at the Goodness and Severity of God in regard to His church as the basis for intercession for and among believers.
We will continue here next week….Blessings!
I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
You have a special place in God’s family & kingdom. If you do not know Him, please use our ‘Contact Us‘ page and reach out so we may have the privilege of introducing you to the Lord. Neither money nor attendance at our church will be mentioned.
If you have been spiritually fed by this ministry and wish to give, we truly appreciate that and you may do so here, but all outreaches of this ministry are FREE for you and anyone to enjoy at no cost.
Blessings!