The First Tent Revival

THE FIRST TENT REVIVAL

Ex. 33:1-11

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR:

1. WHAT’S THE GOOD NEWS?

a. Lucas was sitting at the breakfast table, reading the paper. He came across an article about a beautiful actress who was about to marry a football player known for his lack of IQ and common sense.

b. He turned to his wife with a look of question on his face. “I’ll never understand why the biggest losers get the most attractive wives.”

c. His wife’s quick reply was, “Why, thank you, dear!”

2. Bernie says man is incomplete until he gets married, then he is finished.

3. They say that when a man holds a woman's hand before marriage, it is love; after marriage, it’s self-defense.

4. But we know that a man who finds a wife finds a GOOD THING and receives favor from the Lord!

B. TEXT

33 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ 2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.” 5 If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’” 6 So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.

C. THESIS

1. We’re going to look at the consequences of sin, what repentance is, and how to be one of those whom God chooses to fill with His Spirit.

2. The title of this message is “The First Tent Revival.”

I. SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES OF SIN

A. ALMOST DESTROYED

1. "Go,’’ says God to Moses, "go and tell them that they’re willful and obstinate; they refuse to improve themselves, and they don’t want the True God to reign over them.” They deserved to be destroyed. If He’d dealt with them according to their sins, they would’ve been annihilated.

2. As the Psalmist observed, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” Ps. 103:10-12.

3. Notice: those whom God wishes to pardon must first see what their sin deserved, and how terrible it would’ve been if they’d been punished. Only then can they perceive how merciful God has been!

4. HUMOR. If we have a “stiff neck,” we don’t need to go to the chiropractor, we need to go to God!

B. REDUCTION OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE

1. Verse 33 says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’”

2. God promised to make good his covenant with Abraham, in giving them Canaan, but he denies them the extraordinary tokens of his presence, that He’d been manifesting up to then.

3. God places them under Moses as their leader, and substitutes for Himself a guardian angel: “I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites” Vs. 2.

4. WHY? If they sinned in the presence of an angel, it would be bad, but not as insulting as sinning in the very presence of the King of Glory! If we wish to truly have God with us, we must maintain holiness of heart at all times!

C. IMPETUS TO HOLINESS

5. Paul said, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 1 Cor. 6:15-16.

6. Since God is living inside us we must be careful what we watch, think, and do, if we would really have God’s presence with us. Impure lives will force God to distance Himself from us.

II. BEGINNINGS OF REPENTANCE

A. PUT ASIDE THE SOURCES OF TEMPTATION

1. God told them to take off their ornaments (v. 5), because they’d used their ear-rings to make the golden calf.

2. Anything which contributes to our sin should be set aside when we’re humbling ourselves in repentance. So they got in a posture of repentance before God.