A passionate pursuit of God Part 2
By:Dave Bakker
Exod 19:10-20
10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,
11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.
12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:
13 There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.
14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.
15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.
16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
20 And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
(KJV)
Exod 19:21-25
21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.
22 And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.
23 And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
24 And the LORD said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he break forth upon them.
25 So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.
(KJV)
Exod 20:18-21
18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
(KJV)
1. God’s Pursuit of Mankind
He was freeing them from external bondage
He was delivering
He was providing for them for in the desert
With the preparation complete, not the complete revelation, but he had prepared the heart of the people and he had brought them to a place where, now he was going to seek to reveal himself to the people.
The preparation complete God’s invitation says come up to the mountain.
But we see the man’s choice
In exodus 20:21
21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
2. You see the people stood back
They did not wish to stand in the presence,
Think about this,
Think about the miracle,
He had taken them out from underneath Pharaoh,
He had was leading through the wilderness,
He parted the Red Sea,
And led them across on dry ground,
And when the army of the aliens came in the water surrounded them and he took them out.
He continued to lead the children of Israel,
A cloud led them by day and a pillar of fire by night.
They had enough bread or what is called manna fell from heaven to feed three million people.
Experts say us there was enough mana that fell each day to fill two trains with 110 boxcars each.
And these people after all of this did not want to move into the presence of God.
They’re not much different from our modern church today.
As for Freedom they had experienced deliverance
As for miracles they had the fire, the cloud, the manna, the water, the quail
Num 20:11
11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
(KJV)
As for healing Psalm 105:37 it records the people during the forty years in the wilderness that there was none feeble among them.
Ps 105:37
37 He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes.
(NKJ)
There was no one sick among them
God kept them well while they moved towards his presence….
They were drawn to his miracles but they withdrew from his presence.
The reason for this brings to point three
3. Man’s Condition
They were comfortable with his miracles,
But His presence would bring to light their sin.
The presence would bring the person they really were to the forefront of their life…
Luke 12:2-3
2 "For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.
3 "Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
(NKJ)
Everything will be brought forth,
Everything will be brought into the light,
But you must catch the revelation of the word
When you approach God, he exposes by virtue of His light
He exposes those inconsistencies
Those character flaws,
Those labels that we call ourselves Christian
But we’re not very Christ like
He exposes who we are so that when it comes to the surface or is no longer hidden
As Christians in the kingdom of God and body of Christ
We learn how to justify things….
We learn how to validate and justify those ingredients and commodities that we have brought to ourselves.
You see the church hasn’t gotten hotter, the church has gotten if anything “colder.”
Many will say Pastor you are just old fashioned,
No, I just commit myself to an old book that is new everyday.
When I was growing up going to the bowling alley or pool hall was the unpardonable sin.
You laugh,
We’ve even justified now why we can watch thing that are not fit to watch….
So what I am trying to tell you is, that by lowering the bar are we in reality losing or winning.
I don’t know only God can say,
But I do know this I am finding more and more Christians, who drink,
commit all kinds of sexual perversion, backbiting, slander, malicious and gossip and these things are running rampant in the church.
Ah now pastor
We sleep with women in the church who are not our wives.
We sleep with men who are not our husbands.
We drink, we carouse, we do everything the world does and many feel there’s nothing wrong.
What would have been wrong to stand up with the righteousness of God which is holy and pure. We might be celebrating the blessing of God but we are doing it with the trinkets of the world.
You would have breached their relationship with the god that they know and called them to account with the God that you know who knows no sin.
Something was wrong and is wrong
The problem is that the church is no longer coming out and being separate.
We’re not peculiar because we want to be politically correct
We’re not peculiar because we want fit
We’re not peculiar because we don’t want to be anti social
We don’t want to be set apart
We don’t want to be over in the corner next to the cross where the bright and shinning light of his presence is peering into our lives and exposing sin, and pouring out forgiveness and freedom.
We need to qualify what church we want to be a part of…
The church of the wilderness experience or the church of the mountain experience.
They were comfortable with His miracles but uncomfortable with his presence….
My friend if God exposes the inconsistency’s of your life he is doing you a favor.
Exod 33:12-23
12 And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.
13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
15 And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.
17 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.
18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
(KJV)
If you begin to think back over the span of your life and seek out God’s goodness I think you like I will be overwhelmed at how many times God has come through.
As I began to preach this morning we brought out that God was leading the children of Israel to a rendezvous in the wilderness and that there was approximately 3 million people God was taking care of, 3 million that God was sustaining, there was 3 million that God had delivered from the hand of the enemy, enough mana was falling to feed them enough water was flowing to give them drink.
The cloud showed up every day, the pillar of fire was there every night.
Now they have come to the base of the mountain, God has brought them to this place, it’s the epitome of the reason, by which God has brought them out of the tyranny of Pharaoh
It’s the reason of the wilderness,
It’s the reason that God was taking them towards the promise land,
But the promise land was a mere deposit geographically if they were not to enjoy this moment that God was bringing them to
He brought them to the base of the mountain, you’ve seen my lighting’s, you heard my thundering, you’ve ate my mana and the quail, you’ve drank from the river out of the rock that I have provided for you.
He said oh I have something for you,
But when you come up to me, you’re gonna have to have to die,
Something that you are is going to have to stay down at the base of the mountain.
You see there are a lot of people in the kingdom of God going round and round the base of the mountain.
There is a lot of people happy, hearing the thunder, seeing the lighting and smelling the smoke.
There are a lot of people very satisfied coming and hearing what Pastor has to say to them.
But my bible tells me that I am to equip you for the work of the ministry.
You will have no ministry unless my equipping that goes inside of you,
Will be matched by your commitment on a daily basis that says, I am going to leave the plain of the valley and I’m put my foot on the mountain by doing I am saying to the father I’m going to deny myself, I’m going to take up my cross and I am going to follow you.
But you see you have got to send the message to God, you’ve got to separate yourself, you have got to become a peculiar people; you’ve got to want pursue the unapproachable light wherein he dwells.
You can’t be happy with the manna,
You can’t be sustained with the quail,
You can’t be refreshed with just the river from the rock,
You’ve got to look up on the mountain and say I know who I am here, but I don’t know who I’ll be up there. But in light of the fact that you’re God I am beautifully and wonderfully made I’ll trust my flesh to the dust of the earth.
But I’ll only trust my spirit to the God who gave it, so I begin to march up that mountain in the direction of God, because I want to see him…
Is there anyone here that wants to see him?
So what are we going to do?
What are you going to do?
I want to see God….
This morning if you feel like you are standing at the base of the mountain and you can see God moving all around you, yet not in you I challenge you to run to the mountain this morning, will you let Him change your life this morning?
As we sing this song will you come from all over the building, you can leave changed this morning and knowing the God of the mountain.
