“Our Gracious God” (Exodus 34:6-8)

Posted on 2012/03/18 by Shawn Thomas

     They should have been consumed by fire, every last one of them.  With their own eyes the people of Israel had just watched the Red Sea split in two, and had seen God gloriously save them from the Egyptian army in the greatest act of deliverance history had yet seen.  Moses, the man of God, had left them to go up on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments.  And while he was gone – but for a short time – the people “sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play” in immorality; they forsook the God who saved them, and began to worship the Golden Calf.  God should have destroyed the people for their iniquity, but He did not.  Moses interceded, and God allowed the people to live.  In fact, He promised that He would go with them to the Promised Land.  He was gracious to them, and treated them much better than they deserved. 

     When all of the dust from that incident had settled, Moses again stood before God, and he made this request in 33:18, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”  And God said that He would pass before him, but that no man could see His face and live, so He would put him in “the cleft of the rock” and from there see the back of His glory.  As chapter 34 begins, the Bible tells us that Moses went back up on Mount Sinai, and stood in that place in the rock.  And in verses 6-8 describes what happened:  

“And the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed: ‘The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.’  And Moses made haste to bow low towards the earth and worship.” 

 I.  The Doctrine of Our Gracious God Continue reading →

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“Do You Love The Multitude?” (Mark 6:34)

Posted on 2012/03/12 by Shawn Thomas

Several years ago, there was a missionary mom who had told her child repeatedly that they were there in that foreign country to reach “the people God loves”.  But we can get so busy, that we forget what is really important.  One day when they had moved onto the mission field, that mom was trying to get all the household chores done, while she was taking care of the kids — and she was baking a cake at the same time!  Just then, some of the native people came up to their house and knocked on the door, and it was JUST the wrong time, and the mom said she went to the door in a huff, and was really going to let them have it, but just before she got there, her son, running beside her, said, “Who is it, Mom? Who’s come to see us? Is it the people God loves?!” Needless to say, she said she answered the door with a different attitude than she was going to have.  Most of us have times like that when we forget that what Jesus has called us to do – more than anything else – is to love His people.

In Mark 6, it was “not a good time” for Jesus – just like it wasn’t for that missionary mom that day. Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist, had just been put to death. His twelve disciples had just returned from their first mission trip after He had commissioned them and sent them out. They needed debriefing and rest. Verse 31 says that Jesus commanded them to get away to a secluded place and rest for a while. But when they went away in the boat, :33 says the people saw them going, and ran on foot ahead of them to meet Him. How would you feel, if you were in Jesus’ shoes? What would your response be? Like the frustrated mother who can’t get away from her kids for 5 minutes to have her prayer time? “Can’t I have a few minutes just to myself?” That kind of response would have been understandable. But that is not how Jesus reacted. Verse 34 says that when Jesus went ashore, “He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them …”. We can just stop right there for now. Even in that busy, “needing to get away” context that Jesus found Himself in, when He saw the multitude, He still felt compassion – He loved the multitude.

I have to tell you, when I read this the other day, it challenged me with the question: “Do you love the multitude?” Maybe some of you here tonight need this same challenge. I want us to think of 4 different arenas in which we can apply this question, and then I hope you’ll be challenged by a special, closing exhortation: Continue reading →

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“Our Just God” (Genesis 18:25)

Posted on 2012/03/11 by Shawn Thomas

     Some months ago, a woman wrote to the editor of a New Orleans area newspaper, upset that someone had suggested that homosexuality is forbidden in the Bible.  “My God,” she wrote, “is a God of love, and not a God of judgment.”  That is a very common sentiment these days. 

     A couple of months ago, when we began this series, “Our Great God”, I mentioned that many people today serve a God of their own imagination, not relying upon the truths God revealed to us about Himself in His word.  There is perhaps no concept that people understand least about God today than the concept of His justice.  People think that God is just a God of love.  And He IS a God of love.  But they overlook the vital fact that He is also a God of justice, and they overlook it to their own detriment.   It is an integral part of who He is.  In Genesis 18, Abraham said, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”  The answer to that question is, “YES!”  He is “Our Just God.” Continue reading →

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“Morsels From Mark” (Mark 5-6)

Posted on 2012/03/05 by Shawn Thomas

     I have repeatedly said from this pulpit that each of us needs to read our Bible daily, just for our own personal spiritual edification – NOT to prepare a “Sunday School lesson” or church Bible study, or anything we intend to deliver to someone else.  We each need the “pure milk” of the word of God, which means that we read the Bible only (no commentaries or helps) and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to our own hearts, for our own benefit.

     Now, I can imagine someone saying: but Bro. Shawn, YOU often share messages and you say that they came out of your daily Bible reading.  That is true; I do, and in fact that is what I am going to do tonight.  The difference is this: I am not reading my Bible every day just so that I can get messages to share with you.  I read the Bible every for MYSELF and for what God is speaking to ME.  Now, sometimes I share the “overflow” with you – or share with you things that God said to me first, that I think you might profit from.  But I don’t read the Bible to have something to share on Sunday night; I share something on Sunday night because I have been reading in my Bible – for MYSELF.  There is a big difference.

     Having said all that, I do want to share some insights that I received from my Bible readings the last few days, from several verses throughout the 5th and 6th chapters of Mark.  This is not a “sermon” so much as three “morsels” of spiritual truth that the Lord showed me as I read.  So we might entitle the message tonight: “Morsels From Mark”: a Morsel of Practicality; a Morsel of Faith; and a Morsel of Application.  Continue reading →

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“Our Omnipotent God”

Posted on 2012/03/04 by Shawn Thomas

“I believe in God the Father, Almighty.”  These words have been repeated by Christians for almost 2000 years, in both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, and the truth of those words is fundamental to the Christian faith: we believe that God is “almighty”; “omnipotent.”  The past couple of weeks as we have studied what the Bible teaches us about “Our Great God”, we have seen that He is “omniscient” (all-knowing) and that He is “omnipresent” (all-present).  This morning we will look at the third of these three classic attributes of God, that He is “omnipotent.”  Omnipotent comes from the Latin: “omni”, meaning “all”, and “potent”, meaning “powerful.”  Our English word “Almighty” means the same thing: God has all power!  The word “Almighty” is used at least 56 times in the English Bible, and it is used of NO ONE but God!  From Genesis to Revelation, the doctrine of the Omnipotence of God is taught: Continue reading →

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“The Reward of Faith” (Genesis 15:1)

Posted on 2012/02/26 by Shawn Thomas

A couple of thousand years ago, the Roman statesman and orator Cicero wrote what has become a well-known maxim: “Virtue is its own reward.”  It is an interesting statement, but it is not quite true Biblically.  The Bible tells us that God will reward us for obeying Him in faith, and it also gives us some specific indicators of what that reward will be.  One of the places where it does so is Genesis 15:1:

“After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying: ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.’”

This verse refers to the context of the reward that God offered to Abram, as well as the certainty of that reward, and just what that reward would be.  I pray that God would use this verse tonight to challenge each one of us to obey and please Him, and attain the rich reward that He has planned for us, both in this life, and in eternity. Continue reading →

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“Our Omnipresent God” (Psalm 139:7-10)

Posted on 2012/02/26 by Shawn Thomas

Years ago, a Christian preacher went to India, and there he saw Hindu worshipers tapping on trees and rocks and asking the gods they believed were present: “Are you there?  Are you there?”  The Scriptures tell us that we never need to ask that question regarding the Living God: He IS here.  Wherever we are; He is always there. 

     This morning, we continue our study “Our Great God” by considering the omnipresence of God.  “Omni” means “all”, “present” means “here” – the doctrine of God’s omnipresence means that God is always present; He is everywhere.  We find this doctrine taught in Psalm 139, as well as in other places in the word of God.  Let’s turn to Psalm 139:7-10 and see what it teaches us about this doctrine, and what it means for us that we have an Omnipresent God. Continue reading →

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“Our Omniscient God” (Psalm 139)

Posted on 2012/02/19 by Shawn Thomas

“God is watching and you can’t fool Him” — these were the words of Mrs. Pope Adams, former Westlake teacher, according to a retired school teacher who was reminiscing on Facebook last week about her school experiences.  She wrote that Mrs. Adams had a great influence on her as a young teacher, admonishing her and others: “If nobody else is watching you teach, God is”.  That teacher said she never forgot those words, and they influenced her life greatly.  We would all do well to remember that same thing – God is always watching, and He sees and knows everything that we do.  Today we are continuing the study “Our Great God” by turning to Psalm 139, where we will focus on “Our Omniscient God.”  “Omniscient” means “all-knowing”, and that is what our God is; all-knowing.  Let’s see what this passage and others teach us about the omniscience of God, and what that means for us today.  Continue reading →

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“Our Attitudes Toward the Failures of the Faithful” (Genesis 9:18-29)

Posted on 2012/02/05 by Shawn Thomas

It is presidential campaign season, and as you probably know, it has already gotten pretty ugly.  Candidates always look for some flaw or weakness to exploit in their opponents – and of course they never fail to find something!  We shouldn’t be surprised; because every one of us has flaws and failures. 

     In fact, one of the great arguments in favor of the authenticity of scripture is that the Bible does not present a “glossed over” version of its heroes – rather it portrays them “warts and all”.  It shows us their strengths to encourage and challenge us – but it also reveals their weaknesses, that we might learn from them too. 

     One such place is in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 9, which describes what happened after Noah and his family came out of the ark after the great flood.  God gave the rainbow as a covenant, saying that He would never again destroy the world with a flood.  In :18 it reminds us that the sons of Noah were Shem, Ham & Japeth.  And the narrative continues in :20:  “Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard.”  And :21 says “He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.”  We will stop right there for now. 

     When I came to this passage the other day in my Bible reading time, I thought with chagrin, “Oh, I had forgotten about this.”  When I think of Noah, I don’t generally think about this scene. I think of how it says earlier that he “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (6:8), and how he was a righteous man, and how Chapter 6:22 says that he “did according to ALL that God had commanded him”.  Noah was a great man of God.  His faith is immortalized in the great chapter of “The Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11.

     And yet we find him here, after the ordeal of the flood is over, planting grapes and getting drunk and “uncovering himself inside his tent.”  Now, there are a number of different interpretations of just what that “uncovering” means, and what Ham’s sin was in relation to it, but we are not going to delve into that tonight (“thank goodness!” you may be thinking!)  But what struck me when I read this recently, and what I want to focus on for just a few minutes tonight, is the fact that even this great man of God, this forefather of the faith, who was so strong in so many ways, had his own failings.  This one of whom it was said that “according to all that God commanded him, so he did” regarding the ark and the flood, acted dishonorably on this occasion.  Which serves to remind us of the universal truths: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  “There is none righteous, not even one.”  “There is none good, not even one.” 

     It is just a good reminder of the sin nature that is in us all, and that there are no perfect saints.  Not Noah, who got drunk; not Moses, who got angry and struck the rock; not David, who sinned with Bathsheba; not Elijah, who lost his faith under the threat of Jezebel; not Peter, who caved in to the “peer pressure” of the Judaizers in Galatians 2 …   NO saint is perfect!  Here in this patriarch is what most of us today would consider a MAJOR flaw – drunkenness!  Can you imagine the scandal if one of our staff members or deacons or Sunday School teachers was found drunk?!  It would be scandalous!  And this in a man who had such faith, and who had found favor in the eyes of the Lord, and who had seen God do such miraculous things in the flood.  It is needed reminder of the sin nature that indwells us all – and that such failings are not beyond any of us!  Now, let me make it clear that the universal nature of our sins and failures does not excuse them; but this truth should remind each one of us to have three important attitudes about the failures of others: Continue reading →

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“Our Eternal God” (Psalm 90:2)

Posted on 2012/02/05 by Shawn Thomas

     I thought we had answered the final question at our Outreach Luncheon a couple of Sundays ago — but there was one final request.  We had a great time at the luncheon, during which our guests and new members could ask me any question they wished.  But just as we were getting ready to close, one of our new little 7-year-old girls ran a little paper up to me with a question, and it read: “How is God made?”  I told her, that is SUCH a good question, and the answer is that God never was “made”; He never had a beginning; He always has been.  But I told her that if this seems difficult for her to understand, not to feel badly, for A.W. Tozer wrote years ago that of all of the concepts of God, His eternity is perhaps the most difficult for us to grasp, because everything else we know in all the world has had a beginning: we have all been born, everything we know has come into being at some point. But not God.  He had no beginning.  So, I told her, don’t feel badly if it is hard to picture God as having no beginning – some of the very greatest minds in all the world have the same problem!  Well, she was very sweet and very attentive, and I hope she truly grasped that idea – a truth that I hope that we ALL come away with a better grasp of today as well!

     We are continuing our series: “Our Great God” this morning, with the message, “Our Eternal God.”  Psalm 90:2 says “From everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”  We are going to look this morning at the doctrine of the eternal, unchanging nature of God, and then several applications of that truth. Continue reading →

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