Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:18] Y' all can be seated.
[00:00:20] Welcome.
[00:00:21] My name's Sean. I'm one of the pastors here, and it's my great honor and joy again to preach God's word to you this morning.
[00:00:28] If you're a guest, welcome. We're glad that you're here.
[00:00:31] You find us in our third week out of four weeks in Advent. And basically what we're doing is we're taking some of these key texts throughout the Advent series from December, the readings that we're doing every day, and we're preaching through these texts. And so today it finds us in Exodus, chapter 14.
[00:00:50] And before we get started, just for the elephant in the room, because so many people have come up to me today, I've heard some wonderful stories, and I'm not going to. I'm not. I was very tempted. But, yes, I have a black eye. No, the elders did not get into a fight.
[00:01:06] My wife did not hit me. Actually, that one never came up. That's surprising. That's the one I was thinking about.
[00:01:12] But of course you wouldn't hit me.
[00:01:15] I know. I had surgery on my eyelid. They had to squeeze.
[00:01:18] Yes, it's bruised, but now you're not going to be thinking about it. The whole sermon we can focus in.
[00:01:25] And so I've read recently the book Uncle Tom. Anybody familiar with Uncle Tom's Cabin? Yes. Great book. Written in the middle of the 19th century, and it's most well known for being one of the biggest catalysts that led to the American Civil War.
[00:01:43] And it did so because it exposed the horrors and the evil and the wickedness that was present within American slavery.
[00:01:52] And it did this from a Christian worldview. It even implicitly throughout the story, calls out the hypocrisy of the church.
[00:02:01] And the story follows the main story arc, follows Uncle Tom throughout his journey. He starts in this farm where it's actually a pretty good situation. He's got his family with him. His slave owners love their family, and they love them. It's a pretty good situation, all things considered.
[00:02:20] But the realities of slavery set in, and Uncle Tom ends up being sold into slavery. And the story follows him as he's sold multiple times and ends up in this really terrible place by the end of the story under a very oppressive and wicked slave owner.
[00:02:38] And the story, long story short, is he ends up being beaten multiple times and ends up dying from his wounds.
[00:02:45] It's a dark and bleak story, and it's meant to be. It's meant to expose the horrors of slavery.
[00:02:52] But there's also Something else happening. There's another perspective that we're meant to see if we take a step back. Harriet Beecher Stowe was writing from a Christian worldview, and there's something else that's happening. In the midst of all of this horror, we see that God is at work.
[00:03:09] God is sovereign over everything.
[00:03:12] He is using all things according to his purpose, according to his sovereign will to accomplish his purpose, which is to reveal his glory into the ultimate good of his people. And he's doing this all throughout the story. So we see Uncle Tom. He's a devout Christian. He can barely read. He doesn't have a robust theology, but he knows the Lord. He loves the Lord Jesus. He knows the love of God that is demonstrated in the Son of God coming in the flesh and dying the death that he deserves.
[00:03:47] He has this childlike faith that trusts the Lord. He knows the Lord Jesus is in control, that he has all authority.
[00:03:56] And so we see throughout his story that. That he. He ends up on this farm and the. The. The wicked slave owner, the way that he would. That he would handle the slaves when they came onto the farm, would seek to break their spirits.
[00:04:10] By the time Tom gets there, the other slaves, they've been broken, their hearts are hardened. Some of them are even taking part in the wicked acts of the slave owner.
[00:04:20] But Tom, trusting in the Lord, when he gets there, he's beaten, he's reviled, but he doesn't revile in turn. He's unjustly persecuted, but he doesn't respond evil for evil.
[00:04:36] He actually all the more when he's beaten. As he's struggling and wrestling through this evil and he's keeping his eyes on the Lord, he actually seeks to serve his earthly master all the more in the midst of persecution, he has all the energy that the Lord would give him to serve the Lord. And this infuriates his slave owner, infuriates him and the other slaves that are seeing this. How are you suffering this way? Why won't you revile in return?
[00:05:05] And as a result, the fury of his slave owner ends up killing him, ends up dying from his wounds because he's beaten so badly.
[00:05:14] But that's not the end of the story. As we take a step back, we see that God is at work throughout all of it.
[00:05:20] Tom doesn't get to see everything. He ends up dying for his faithful obedience to his Lord.
[00:05:26] But after this, in the midst of him dying with his eyes set on Jesus, the Lord is at work.
[00:05:35] And he even softens the hearts of the two men. Who are responsible for beating him to death. As they see his faithful death, the Lord intervenes and softens their hearts and leads them to repentance and faith. They believe upon the Lord Jesus and even these wicked men who cruelly tortured Tom to his death. The grace of God intervenes and they repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus.
[00:05:58] And so we see God's plan coming together for the salvation of his people, even in the most wicked and evil of circumstances.
[00:06:06] And that's not even the end. There's other people in the story that's weaving together that leads to their salvation. Some of them have been hardened and have walked away from the faith. But as they see the Lord working in Tom's life through misery and pain, they're brought back to the faith.
[00:06:22] And this is what I want us to see today. As we look at the story of Exodus chapter 14, we see that God is in control of everything, even the most wicked acts of humanity and the most broken things in the world. God is sovereign over all of it, and he's orchestrating all things together for his purpose, for his glory, and for the ultimate good of his people.
[00:06:49] And this is what we're going to see in Exodus 14. But before we jump in, this is a narrative text. And so I think it's always helpful to kind of bring brush up on what comes prior to it so we can properly understand the context. And so, as we saw last week when Austin preached out of Genesis 3, the serpent has come into the garden, deceived Adam and Eve, and they've fallen into sin. God created humanity, good and righteous. In chapter one and two of Genesis, we see God creating humanity, and he calls it good. And we're in right relationship with the Lord.
[00:07:22] But when Satan comes into the garden as the serpent and deceives Adam and Eve, they willingly rebel against their Lord, and all of humanity falls into sin. And this is what we experience today, a sinful nature in us that is in rebellion against God from birth.
[00:07:40] And so God, though, again, as we take a step back, God's at work. That didn't catch him off guard. He's in control of all of it. He's orchestrating all of these things together.
[00:07:50] And Even in Genesis 3:15, as we saw last week, God promises that at some point, through the seed of Eve, he's going to crush the serpent's head, he's going to judge the serpent.
[00:08:01] And then we fast forward thousands of years To Genesis chapter 12, when God looks out at the world and sees nothing but wickedness, nothing but sin. Nothing but pagan idolatry and the worship of false gods. And in his grace, he chooses Abraham out of that. And he says, come, follow me.
[00:08:21] And he promises in Genesis 12 that through the seed of Abraham, one day he's going to bless all the nations of the world. He has a plan to redeem the world.
[00:08:31] And of course, we see that in the coming of the Lord Jesus. This is the ultimate fulfillment of that promise that through the Lord Jesus and his life, death and resurrection, he is saving the whole world. All nations are being brought into his family.
[00:08:45] But he has a nearer term plan. In Genesis 15, he promises Abraham that for through his offspring, he's gonna build a nation for himself, for his own purposes, for his glory. And of course, that is Israel. And we see throughout the rest of Genesis, God is working through all of these circumstances, all of these wicked men that are present. He's over all of it. He's in control.
[00:09:10] And by the end of Genesis, we see the people of Israel being brought into Egypt initially to save them because there was a famine in the land, and the Lord's working through Joseph and, and brings them to Egypt. And as God promised, and he's faithful to his promises, he multiplies the people of Israel.
[00:09:29] The people of Israel grow in number, and the Egyptians become fearful, and they oppress the people of Israel. They bring them into harsh slavery, as Exodus chapter one says.
[00:09:43] And in Genesis 15, God had promised, he had indicated that they were going to be in slavery for 400 years.
[00:09:50] But in the. In the fullness of time, according to God's perfect plan and according to his promises, 400 years goes by and God is at work. He calls Moses to eat, to come back to Egypt, to lead his people out of Egypt. And we see this famous battle happening where God is. Is. Is having the 10 plagues on Egypt. We see God's absolute sovereignty and authority and, and power over the Egyptians, over Pharaoh, over all of the Egyptian gods, over creation itself.
[00:10:23] God is demonstrating his absolute sovereignty. And by the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn son and all the homes of Egypt, this. This judgment upon the wickedness of the Egyptian people, they finally relent and they send the people of. Of Israel out into the wilderness. They let them go.
[00:10:43] And that's where we find ourselves this morning. The people of Israel are wandering about the wilderness, and we're meant to see them wandering about. God has a purpose in this. He's working all things together to reveal his glory and for the ultimate good of his people.
[00:11:00] And so we're going to go in to Exodus chapter 14, we're going to read verses one through four. But first, before we do that, would you pray with me, Lord God, we need you.
[00:11:12] God, would you reveal yourself to us this morning as we open your word, as we hear from your living and active word that you've given us in Scripture? Would you move in the hearts and minds of the people here? Would you encourage us? Would you remind us of your utter goodness and faithfulness to keep your promises, your absolute sovereignty over all things?
[00:11:37] Would you meet us where we're at, in the midst of our struggles, in the midst of our joys, wherever we are this morning, would you meet with us, remind us of how good and faithful you are, and set our gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ where all of your promises find their yes and Amen. In would you move in the hearts of the minds of people that are here today for your glory and for our good in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:12:03] All right, let's dig in. So if you got your Bibles, let's look at verses 1 through 4, Exodus 14.
[00:12:12] Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of PI Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of BAAL Saphon. You shall encamp facing it by the sea.
[00:12:26] For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, they are wandering in the land and the wilderness has shut them in.
[00:12:32] And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will pursue them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.
[00:12:44] And they did so.
[00:12:47] So the, the actual locations of these funny sounding names, these, these places, they've been lost to history. We don't know exactly where they are. But of course we're on the outskirts of Egypt. We're, we're close to the Red Sea. This is the area that the Israelites find themselves. But what's, what's important here is that they're wandering about the wilderness. They're on the outskirts of the land. And God speaks to Moses and says, hey, turn back, which means go in this different direction.
[00:13:14] And you can get this picture that they're wandering about. It seems as if they're lost.
[00:13:21] And when Israel had left Egypt, that this is not the normal route that most people would go. Most people would follow the road that would lead around the sea to the land of the Philistines.
[00:13:32] But as we see in the passage prior to this, God knows, he says that if I'm not going to take you down this road, Because I know, as you would, as you come upon the land of the Philistines and war is upon you, you would tuck tail and run back to Egypt. So he leads them into the wilderness, and it seems as if they're wandering about lost.
[00:13:57] And we see in our text that there's, there is a purpose behind this. God is doing something. He's orchestrating an epic showdown to demonstrate his glory, as we see in verse four.
[00:14:09] And he does this by making Israel look like they're lost. He has them turn back in verse two.
[00:14:16] And he knows that Pharaoh will think they are lost and vulnerable.
[00:14:22] And so Pharaoh certainly had military outposts on the outskirts of his land. And so he was very likely getting very up to date reports about the movements of Israel.
[00:14:34] And it had to have looked like he was. That they were lost.
[00:14:40] But they. But God is actually working all of these things together. He looks as if he's lost out in the wilderness, but he's working these things together because he has a plan to reveal his glory in the salvation of his people and the judgment of the Egyptians. And just as a side note, he's doing this.
[00:15:00] He's over everything. Nothing is outside of his control.
[00:15:04] But he's not doing this as some sort of puppet master that is, you know, controlling everybody's movements and nobody actually has any real decisions. He's not working that way. He is over everything. He's decreed everything that comes to pass, but he does it through what are called secondary causes. God is the primary cause. He's decreed everything that comes to pass, but he does so through the real and true free decisions of humanity. We are making real decisions in our lives, and he uses the laws of nature. And he's so sovereign and powerful, the creator of everything, that he's orchestrating all things according to his plan for his glory and for our good.
[00:15:47] And that doesn't diminish our responsibility in making decisions. This is how powerful and sovereign our God is.
[00:15:55] He's working all things together for his purpose, for his glory, and for our ultimate good, for the ultimate good of his people.
[00:16:04] And so let's keep going. Let's look at the narrative chapter. I'm sorry, verses five through nine. We're going to keep going. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed towards the people.
[00:16:19] And they said, what is this that we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
[00:16:25] So he made ready his chariots and took his army with him and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel. While the people of Israel were going out defiantly, the Egyptians pursued them all. Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army overtook them, encamped at the sea by PI Haharoth in front of BAAL Zephon.
[00:16:56] And so when the, when the Israelites had left Egypt at some undisclosed amount of time, it doesn't say how much time has passed, but when they had left, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants had changed.
[00:17:08] At some point, it's possible, you know, after the shock of the 10th plague wears off, they realize there's, there's over a million Israelites who have just left the land enslaved, doing all of this work for Egypt, surely part of their providing the food supply. And maybe they realize that this is going to have massive economic implications for them. It doesn't say. So we don't want to speculate too much.
[00:17:33] But there's also this other reality that would have been present in the ancient pagan mindset, and this would have been maybe they thought that their gods were going to have the victory at the next encounter. The God of Israel has just revealed how utterly powerful he is and all that he did in Egypt, and they know that he's real. But in the ancient pagan mindset, that wouldn't have necessarily meant their gods were false.
[00:17:59] It would have just meant that maybe in this encounter, the God of Israel proved the victor.
[00:18:06] And if we think about what's happening, the people of Israel look like they're wandering about lost in the wilderness. So this God who has victory over Egypt, who shames them, who judges them, now seems like he's in the wilderness, lost, leading people astray.
[00:18:23] And so maybe they were emboldened because of this to come after the people of Israel.
[00:18:32] What they didn't realize, what we can see, what we know, is that the God of Israel, Yahweh, is the all powerful and sovereign creator of everything.
[00:18:43] God created the heavens and the earth. God created Egypt. He is over all of it. And he's orchestrating everything according to his plan for his glory and for our good.
[00:18:54] So what they don't realize is he's counting on them to come after him. That's what he wants. He said in verse four that he wants to show his glory in judging the wickedness of the Egyptians for enslaving his people for 400 years. And he's going to accomplish his purposes.
[00:19:12] So this is what we see happening in this story. And we're going to keep going. Let's keep looking at the narrative. We're going to slow down a little bit at this next one. This is verse 10.
[00:19:22] We see all that God is doing, but now the people of Israel start to struggle. They start to doubt.
[00:19:29] So verse 10, when Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly.
[00:19:40] And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?
[00:19:50] What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
[00:20:08] The Israelites have been wandering about Egypt.
[00:20:13] They're starting to lose faith a little bit. They're starting to doubt in God's faithfulness.
[00:20:17] And now the circumstances around them are really putting pressure on them. All they can see is in front of them, this army that's fully arrayed coming out. They think this army's coming to crush them, when in reality, as we see in the text, they're just coming back to enslave them again.
[00:20:33] But they see this, and all they can see is death in front of them and the sea behind them.
[00:20:39] It's certain death in their minds either way. And they start to doubt. They start to ask, is God really faithful? Is God going to accomplish his purposes? He's done all of this in Egypt. He's done all of this in the forefathers. He's made all of these promises. He's been faithful throughout. But now they're in the midst of this pressure, these circumstances that seem like God is unfaithful.
[00:21:05] And so they start to doubt. They start to doubt his faithfulness.
[00:21:10] And aren't we just like the Israelites, for those who have. Who have trusted in Christ for salvation, who know personally this mighty God who is sovereign over everything, and yet how quickly we are to doubt his faithfulness?
[00:21:28] In the midst of our great struggles, in the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of real and true suffering, in the midst of the evil of this world, in the midst of our own temptation towards sin, aren't we so prone to doubt that God is faithful, that he is accomplishing his purposes, that he's going to accomplish his purposes?
[00:21:50] I mean, think about it. Even us, the people that know Jesus, that know his love, that. That have seen the glory of God as demonstrated in the perfect life, death and resurrection of Jesus. For them, we've experienced the Holy Spirit. We have the regenerating power of the Spirit that's opened our eyes to see the beauty of God. And yet how quick we are to doubt in his faithfulness, to doubt that he will accomplish things according to his plan, according to our good.
[00:22:26] Wherever you find yourself today, whatever deep struggle you might be experiencing, whatever thing that you're crying out to the Lord to change, as we, as we often do and as we should, whatever that thing is, that's that you feel like the Lord's keeping from you, whatever that is. My hope today, and myself included, I have. I've been preaching to myself all week as I've been preparing, is that we would truly believe that God is present, that God is good, that God is truly faithful, that we can believe even unto death, that God is accomplishing his purpose. And that means for our good and Christians what this means for us. When I'm talking about, when I say God's glory and our ultimate good is that we would be conformed more and more into the image of Jesus, that through whatever life circumstances, the good and the bad and the difficulties and the suffering, even death itself, that our hope would be in Jesus and that he would make us look more and more like Jesus. This is why Uncle Tom's story is not ultimately a tragedy.
[00:23:41] On the surface, it seems like a tragedy and there's much to lament about it for sure.
[00:23:47] But it's a story of awe and wonder because we see the more Tom suffered, the more he looked like Jesus.
[00:23:56] Even when he died, the light of Jesus was shining through, revealing the glory of God to the world.
[00:24:03] The world can't see this. All they can see is the surface level.
[00:24:07] We can see the glory of God in Christ Jesus.
[00:24:11] And this is what the apostle John is often getting at in his gospel.
[00:24:16] When he's talking about the glory of God, he's talking about the cross of Christ.
[00:24:22] He's talking about the Son of man being lifted up. What the world thinks of glory is victory and the destruction of people's enemies. The glory of God is most clearly demonstrated in the Son of God hanging on a cross.
[00:24:37] The justice of God seen most clearly on the cross. When the holiness of God and his wrath is poured out on Christ in instead of us for our sins, the love of God on the cross. As we see Jesus willingly going to the cross, the love of the Father poured out his wrath on his Son that he might save sinners like us that he might adopt us into his family. The grace and mercy of God in the cross. This is where the glory of God is most clearly seen. And so when we look at a story like Uncle Tom, it is devastating. There's real evil, and we shouldn't minimize that. But it's a story of awe, evil in wonder, because of the way that it demonstrates the glory of God shining through all circumstances in life. Even our most intense suffering, even death itself, cannot keep us from our ultimate good, which is looking more and more like Jesus. When he returns in glory, he's going to finish the work. We're all who are in Christ by faith, who have been grafted into God's family, who have repented of our sins and believed upon the Lord Jesus. We're going to be made whole and complete.
[00:25:52] Not just the penalty of sin wiped away, but the experience of sin completely wiped away. That's the hope we have. That's the hope that Uncle Tom had. It is a fictional character, but there's a. All of the characters in that book are based on real experiences. This is millions of Christians throughout history who have died faithfully because they know that their hopes is in the future glory that Christ has come to purchase, that God is faithful to finish everything that he's begun, to accomplish all of his purposes.
[00:26:27] And so we set our gaze on Him.
[00:26:32] So how might you. How might we be formed more into this image of Jesus, into that image that embraces our circumstances, all of the. The goodness that we have in life, but also all of the sufferings, all of the things that we feel like at times that God's withholding from us. How might we embrace these things and keep our eyes on God? How might we yearn in the midst of all of this to look more like Jesus?
[00:27:04] And I think we all know the answer, that we can't produce this in ourselves.
[00:27:09] We can't make this happen. We can't just muster up the strength. So as at least a starting point, we have to together go before the Lord and plead with him to move in our hearts to make us more needy and dependent on him, to say, God, I need you to give me the faith to move forward, to trust you, to trust that your purposes are good and that you are orchestrating everything, everything in the world according to your purposes, for your glory and for my ultimate good. If we believed that truly in our hearts, if the Lord did that work in us, how much joy and peace would we have?
[00:27:51] What kind of testimony would that be to the world?
[00:27:56] It's an amazing reality. And I pray that the Lord would do that in us. And real quick, before we move on to the last two verses, just for those who haven't experienced this, who don't know this joy and peace that can only be found in Jesus Christ, maybe you believe some of these things that we're talking about today, that Jesus came and he died for the sins of humanity. But you haven't experienced this internally. You don't know the love of God in your bones. You don't love the Lord God. You're not seeking to follow and obey him.
[00:28:32] What I just want to remind you of is what we're talking about here. It's not some special class of people whom the Lord chooses. He chooses people from all nations, from all tribes, from all peoples, and he chooses the worst of sinners.
[00:28:48] What we're saying is that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, that we can all be justified in God's sight, that we can all be made right with a holy God.
[00:28:58] And so if you don't know this God, my prayer and hope for you today is that you would realize his faithfulness and his goodness. And it's not something that's distant from you, it's near.
[00:29:09] That the Lord would do a work in your heart and you would repent of your sin, and you would trust in the Lord Jesus.
[00:29:16] He is faithful to save even the most wretched of us.
[00:29:24] Okay, we gotta keep moving.
[00:29:26] Verse 13 and 14.
[00:29:29] Verses 13 and 14.
[00:29:32] People of Israel are struggling. They don't know how this is going to end.
[00:29:36] They do know how it's going to end, because God's faithful and he's going to accomplish his purposes. But they're struggling in the heat of the moment. They're starting to doubt. And this is what Moses says. He says to the people, fear not.
[00:29:50] Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.
[00:29:57] For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.
[00:30:01] The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.
[00:30:08] Wow. Moses doesn't go to the people and say, hey, guys, let's figure this out. Let's. Let's make some decisions.
[00:30:15] Let's make it happen.
[00:30:17] He says, guys, remember, the Lord is at work here. Do you not remember all that he's done? All that he's proven himself to be faithful?
[00:30:26] He's the one that's doing this. Watch what he's going to do. He's faithful. I don't know how we're going to get out of this, but The Lord is faithful. He's going to come through. And he says, you are to be silent and watch.
[00:30:39] Watch what God's going to do.
[00:30:41] And we don't have time to go into the rest of the story and the text, but we see throughout the rest of 14 that's what God does. He parts the se, he makes a way. He leads his people through on dry ground and he crushes his enemies. He judges them for their wickedness. And he has glory in judging his enemies and delivering his people because God is faithful. But I want us to notice in this, as we, as we see this, as we see it's. So the focus is on God doing all that is necessary for salvation.
[00:31:14] It even says, just be silent. Just step back and watch what the Lord's doing.
[00:31:18] This does not mean passivity on our part.
[00:31:22] This doesn't. I mean, God didn't part the seas and then lift the people up in a cloud and carry them to the other side.
[00:31:28] He did everything that was necessary for salvation. And he's working in his people to develop obedience in them. But he desires for his people to trust Him.
[00:31:40] I mean, if we can put ourselves in their position, God is doing everything necessary for their salvation.
[00:31:47] But if you think about it, they have this miracle that's unfolding in front of them, but they have these huge walls of water on both sides of them as they have to walk through the sea. In a split second, they could have been crushed.
[00:32:01] God is desiring our hearts. He's desiring for us to trust him.
[00:32:06] And the people of Israel, by God's grace, as they walk through the sea, they're demonstrating their trust in the Lord. Yes, they have failed to believe that God will come through. They repent of their sins and they walk forward and trust that the Lord God is going to provide a way.
[00:32:24] And so God gets all the glory. He's doing everything necessary for salvation. He's doing all of it. And in a sense, we're meant to be in awe and to watch and to behold Him.
[00:32:34] But that does not mean that we'd sit back and do nothing.
[00:32:37] We have to walk forward, trusting in the Lord, giving him all the glory because he's faithful. He's always going to come through. And so as we wrap up, we see God working.
[00:32:54] We see His. He's in control of everything. He's sovereign over all aspects of history, of every aspect of our life. Not a hair falls from our head that's outside of God's will.
[00:33:07] And in this Advent season, one of the things that we're meant to see is the utter faithfulness of God that is demonstrated in the coming of the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who existed from all eternity, who through his own words, created the world. This is. This is the Son of God, the eternal Son of God comes in the flesh. He takes on a human nature into his person. And he's born of the Virgin Mary, the Son of God. He's born of the Virgin Mary in the most humble of means.
[00:33:43] And we see all of God's promises, all that God is orchestrating throughout all of history. The New Testament says that they all find their yes and amen in this person of Jesus Christ.
[00:33:57] And Advent reminds us of this reality, reminds us of all that Jesus did in his life and his death and his resurrection. Is the promises of God being fulfilled for the salvation of his people.
[00:34:13] Jesus didn't come to judge his enemies as the people of Israel. At the time, around the time of Jesus, the Jews thought the Messiah was going to come and was going to establish the throne of David in Jerusalem and was going to judge all of the wicked nations that were oppressing them, as we've seen him do before, as we saw in our story today. But God had a bigger plan that he was working out. And we see this in the coming of Christ, that. That God was coming not to judge the wicked nations, but to himself be judged on their behalf, to forgive them of their sins, to graft a people into his family. From every nation, from every background, every person in the world is offered this grace of salvation that comes through repentance and faith in Jesus.
[00:35:03] And so I want us to end.
[00:35:05] I'm going to read this hymn over us. It's actually a hymn we're going to sing here shortly. I'm not going to. I'm not going to lead it. The band's going to sing it. You don't want me to do that. I'll be out there with y', all, but I want to read this hymn and I want us to just. We're talking about all these wonderful, amazing realities of the sovereign Lord of the universe who's created everything, who is over everything, who is sovereign and good and faithful.
[00:35:31] And as we read this hymn, we're going to see that it's this same God who comes in the flesh.
[00:35:38] And this hymn is meant to stir in us this awe and wonder that the eternal God of the universe is now born in the flesh.
[00:35:47] A baby.
[00:35:50] So in closing, let me read this and let's set our gaze on the Lord Jesus.
[00:35:56] What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping Whom angels greet with voices sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping this. This is Christ the King whom shepherds guard and angels sing.
[00:36:15] They sing, haste, haste, Bring him laud, which means bring him praise.
[00:36:20] Let loving hearts enthrone him. Raise, raise a song on high. The Virgin sings her lullaby.
[00:36:29] Joy, joy, For Christ is born.
[00:36:33] The eternal Son of God is born in the flesh the babe, the son of Mary.
[00:36:42] What child is this?
[00:36:44] Who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping.
[00:36:49] Pray with me.
