Weekly Sermons

God Reveals What He Will Not Do

One ship drives east and another drives west,

With the selfsame winds that blow.

‘Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales,

Which tells us the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,

As we voyage along through life:

‘Tis the set of a soul, that decides its goal,

And not the calm or the strife.

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

When God tells us who He is, we need to believe Him, and turn from our sin to Him or back to Him, and re-build our life around His steadfast love and truth.    

Read Exodus 34:1-9

In the first message we saw God tell us He is merciful and gracious!

In the second message we saw that God is slow to anger.

In the third message we saw God tell us He is abounding in steadfast love.

In the fourth message we saw God tell us He is also abounding in truth.

In the fifth message we saw God tell us that He forgives sin.

What will God not do?

He will not clear guilty sinners who refuse to repent of their sin and turn to God.

You and I can’t be forgiven of sin if we don’t repent.

None of what’s in verses 6-7 is for you if you refuse to repent and live by truth as God defines it in the holy Bible. You are simply deluding yourself, and to keep you from doing it God tells you one final component of His name.

What do we expect a Judge to do with a guilty person?

Declare them guilty, pronounce their penalty, and insure that justice is satisfied.  

Why is it one way in Exodus 20 and the reverse in Exodus 34?

Because to live a balanced faith sometimes we need to be reminded of God’s grace and forgiveness first, and other times we need to first be reminded of God’s holiness and how much sin can mess up!

Our sin can have consequences for years to come, but turning back to God and His steadfast love will impact eternity.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?      -Romans 6:1-2

“Nothing the enemy offers me is better than what God has already given me or plans to as my future unfolds.”              -Chuck Lawless

By the end of Exodus 34 we see that Moses’ face was glowing because he had met with God. And that still happens to people today who repent, believe, and buld their life around their relationship with God.

“My own plans are made. While I can, I shall sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise.”                                                                                                       -Reepicheep, the Aslan-loving mouse in C.S. Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Lost person, how can you be declared not guilty of your sin?

Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.               -Romans 5:1

Even more astounding, how can you be declared righteous in God’s eyes?

Abraham believed God, and it was counted to Him as righteousness.   -Gen. 15:1

How can that be?

God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.                -2 Corinthians 5:1