Compassionate and Gracious // Exodus 34:6-7

Join us as we continue our Yahweh series!

Chapters

• 0:00 Cruise Story And A Heavy City
• 3:09 Why God’s Name Matters
• 5:51 Elohim As A Category
• 9:06 Power Of Spiritual Beings
• 11:51 Places And Principalities
• 14:31 Divine Council And Injustice
• 17:36 Framing Evil And Free Will
• 21:36 Be Careful With “Spiritual” Stuff
• 24:31 Idolatry’s Modern Faces

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:32

Well, earlier this spring, Christine and I got to go on a cruise for our five-year anniversary. Now, a whole nother part to that story, let's just say uh before we got on the cruise, we realized we didn't have our passports and had to have our elderly neighbor break one of our windows and then break into my thing. But that's a different story, right? The cool thing about this cruise is that it was the exact same cruise that we were supposed to go on uh for our honeymoon. But we got married in 2020, and so you can guess what happened to the cruise that we were supposed to go on, COVID, right? Nixed it. The only difference was this uh this cruise, uh, or sorry, the original cruise left out of Galveston and this cruise left out of New Orleans. And so no big deal, right? We planned to go through Houston where Christine's family lived. Uh, we dropped off the kids and we spent a night in New Orleans because you know it's a cool tourist city, right? We'd never been there before, we were interested to check it out. And so we really kind of wanted to spend some time looking around the city, but we were hungry, right? Because we've been driving. And so we stopped and we were getting pizza from like a domino's in like the middle of the downtown area, like near near Bourbon Street area. And I'll say, so we got out and we're navigating our way there and we're walking to get, at least on this night in New Orleans, there was just this heaviness. There, there was this uh like darkness that you could feel. You couldn't quite put your finger on it. And yeah, it could have been um, you know, the same homelessness and drug problem that a lot of big cities have, right? Like cities in general feel a little bit different, but but it was something a little bit more than that. And you see, like you see some shop windows and things selling like these voodoo dolls and like palm readers and things, because there is kind of a history around that type of stuff in New Orleans. Uh, and while that stuff was being sold as souvenirs, it it felt like there was something real there, like something dark behind that. And I've felt it other places too. I've felt it uh at times in Nashville. We were there for a trip and we were walking the street where there are all these bars and concert things going on, and there was just this like darkness that you could almost feel. And you almost wonder in that moment, like, what is this? Like, why does it feel heavy? Like, what's going on here? Well, that's tonight's topic. Reason is last week we started our Yahweh series, Exodus 34, 67, and we talked about how God revealed his name to Moses, and not just his name, but his character, who he is. And really, we learned that by giving Moses his name, what God was saying is, I'm a personal God and I want to have a relationship with my creation. But we're actually going to camp out on that name, Yahweh, for one more week because we're gonna try to answer the question, why does God need a name? And that goes back to that whole spiritual thing, because what we're gonna see is that there's a God who made everything and every being in the universe. But what we're gonna see is there's also other created spiritual beings at play as well. And we're gonna see this in scripture, and knowing that will shape how we live. And so I'll give you the disclaimer. This is gonna be a little bit of a weird, different sermon. We're gonna be talking a little bit about spiritual warfare, some things that we know stuff about, but we're not certain on. Uh, and it's just gonna feel a little bit different, but promise, uh, yeah, I promise you, if you'll stick with me, hopefully there'll be something helpful at the end. So, Exodus 34, 6 through 7, we're gonna read the verses one more time and then we're gonna dig in. All right. Then the Lord passed by in front of him, talking about Moses, and proclaimed, the Lord the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. And so remember last week we learned about God's name. Y'all tell me, what's God's name? What did he tell Moses? Yahweh, right? I am. And we talked about how that means that he's personal, he wants to relate to us, but think about this. Why didn't God just tell Moses, hey, I'm I'm personal, I want to relate with you? Why does it have to be a name? Well, there's a really important reason, and it has to do with that Hebrew word that we usually translate God, because normally we just typically call God God, and we have ideas that we latch on that conjures up in our mind when we think about the word God. But in Hebrew, it was much less of a name and more of a category. That word is Elohim, and it's talking about um really any invisible but real spiritual creature. Like you see the word Elohim get used about a lot more things than just uh the uncreated creator gods. So hear me, I'm not saying that there are multiple gods, right? There's one uncreated creator God who made everything and every being in the universe. He's all powerful, he's all knowing, he's all present. Nobody's anywhere near his level, and that is Yahweh. But then there are these other Elohim. You could call them little G gods, you could call them angels or demons, but they are created spiritual beings that exist and actually interact and have a part to play in the universe. And so we we have to kind of wrap our heads around that. Of that title, that term God is thought of differently in the Bible. And so when we read this here, we have to try and think about how they're thinking about it as a category, whereas Yahweh is God's actual name. And so then we have to ask, what are these spiritual beings like? Right? They're not all powerful or all-knowing like God is. Remember, when it comes to how we think about the one word God, like that is God, but they they are real. And there's a lot that we don't know, but there's a lot that the Bible does tell us. One story is from Exodus, and Moses has just come to Pharaoh and he's let my people go. And Pharaoh says no. And so Moses starts performing miracles to prove that he's been sent by Yahweh. And so he throws down his staff and it turns into a snake. But then it says, Pharaoh's magicians manage to do the same thing. You read this, you're like, what? Like, how are they like I get Moses? It's it's God, but how are they doing it? Right? And then God starts to bring curses on Egypt, and he brings uh Moses turns the Nile River into blood, and again it says that the magicians are able to replicate the miracles. Like, what? Like, how? And then lastly, or at least in this uh how I'm sharing it here, Moses calls up frogs from the Nile and they cover the land, and it's this big, like, pest, just not great thing. And it says the magicians were able to pull that off too. And I remember reading this, just being so confused, like, how in the world are they doing this? Well, if you think about it, it's likely that they are conjuring or channeling some actual spiritual power that's not from Yahweh, the creator God, the uncreated God, the one true God, but is from these Elohim, these spiritual beings. Maybe you would call them demons or principalities or rulers, but but there's a power there that they have in the real world to even perform these types of miracles and things. And then there's another passage in Daniel 10. Daniel's been praying for three weeks and it's gone unanswered. And an angel comes to him and says, Hey man, sorry I was held up. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for 21 days. You're like, What in the world? Like, prince of the kingdom of Persia? Like, what is he talking about? Seemingly a created spiritual being that has some connection to an actual place. It's not a physical prince. This is an angel talking. Like, this is a spiritual being that's connected to this geographic area and people. And I know that sounds crazy, but think about it. Now, there's there's a country called Haiti, and if you know the history of Haiti, there's just been a lot of brokenness, like time after time, uh just a lot of struggles and things. And, you know, some people will blame it on poverty, some people will blame it on other sorts of things, but you really start to think about it and you start to see that there's a lot of history there with different religions and different calling on gods and things, and there is this spiritual darkness. And so while we just look at the earthly things that contribute to the brokenness that's there, who's to say that there's not a spiritual force behind that? And it's not just other countries, right? That America is this shining thing. Think about a place like Las Vegas. If you've ever been to Las Vegas, there's just this kind of spiritual like darkness. When you walk those streets, you feel the brokenness there. On the outside, it's all shiny and bright, but there's this heaviness that's caught up with all of the addiction, uh, the bankruptcy, the loneliness, the broken families, the exploitation and trafficking. You start to wonder, is there something spiritual that's behind what I see? And look, I can't for sure say this is this or this is that, but there is some biblical evidence that there are these spiritual strongholds in certain places. And so these Elohim seem to have some supernatural power. Two, it talks about how they use this power. In verse one, uh, God is pictured in this divine council. And it says, God has taken his place in the divine council in the midst of gods, he holds judgment. And the word translated gods here is again Elohim. So he's not talking about God how we think about it, but he's talking about these created spiritual beings, demons, angels, whatnot. And so it says he's judging them. But what is he judging them for? Verse 2, how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? So these spiritual beings are doing bad and evil stuff. Like these spiritual beings have a will, they can choose to do things, and they're choosing to do evil stuff and hurt people. And so I know that's a ton of things, and I really try to move through that quick because you can get in the weeds, and there's some things that we have to infer, and we want to keep our hands open. Like I cannot tell you, Garrett McCord for sure knows this is how it works. But if you look at the evidence, what you start to see is that there is one true creator, God, who made everything in the universe. He's all powerful, he's all-knowing. There's nobody his equal, he's in control of everything, but he created not just human physical beings, he created spiritual beings. Call them angels. Uh, those angels fell and became demons, call them principalities, whatever. There's these spiritual beings that have limited supernatural power. They can influence people and places, and they can use that power to either honor God, you have angels who bring God's message, and you have demons who bring injustice. And so, why does God need a name? Because there's other spiritual beings at play. And I know you're probably asking, like, why does any of this impact me? Well, there's actually some really important implications. Like, there's some stuff that, hey, if this is true, this means some things for us in today's world. Specifically, how we think about three things how we think about evil, how we think about spirituality in general, and how we think about idols. One is evil. One of the most common objections to God is how could God be all-powerful yet there be so much evil in the world? And it's hard to wrestle with, right? Why does God allow evil to happen? And one of the most common explanations for that uh is because evil is a product of free will. Well, why do we have free will? Because God desires a genuine relationship with us. He wants us to love him and follow him and worship him genuinely. And for that to happen, remember what we said in our last series: real love requires a real choice. And a real choice requires free will. And as a product of that free will, that means that we can choose to use our free will to do hurtful bad things. There's people who use their free will to kill people, to steal things, to hurt people, to do terrible things. And so some of the product, some of the evil in the world is a product of humans using our will to do bad stuff. But then, like we just saw, there's also spiritual beings who also have a will. And the reality is that we live in a world, then there's a whole spiritual war going on that we can't see, that we don't have all the details about. And so here's the point of all of this. When some right, when you face evil, when somebody's done something really terrible to you, my plea is don't be so quick to point the finger at God. God is not the author of evil, it's the story of Job. That when Job goes through all of this and the answer he gets from God, God does not give him all of the reasons, he does not give him the A, B, C, D's. He just says, Hey, Job, there's a lot going on that you don't know about. But here's the beauty when we acknowledge that, hey, there's a whole spiritual thing going on that we don't know about, all these things behind the scenes, like God is not at fault, he did not cause this evil to happen. It frees us up to just sit in our hurt and our pain with God. To not blame him, but to just be honest with him about your suffering. If you read the book of Job in its entirety, Job says a lot of kind of harsh things about God. And towards the end, he he's almost accusing God of being this monster who did all these things and is unjust. But at the very end of the book, when God finally comes and answers Job, he rebukes all of Job's friends who gave him terrible advice. And he says, Only Job, my servant, has spoken rightfully about me. And you read that and you're like, What do you mean? Like Job said some crazy stuff about you, God. Like, why are you commending him? Because Job did the one thing. God, Job gave God the one thing that he was asking for, and that's honesty. See, God's a lot less scared of our honesty than we are. And in the middle of the hardest moments of Job, Job to put on a face was not for Job to just recite things the perfect way. He just wanted Job to be honest before him, to say, God, I don't know why this is happening, that this is hard, this is painful. Lord, why me? Why these things? And God met him in the middle of that. And God restored him. And it doesn't always happen this way for us on this side of heaven, like it doesn't always get fixed on earth, but it will be fixed in eternity. And so the whole point of that is when we understand that there's a whole spiritual realm beyond us that we can't see, it frees us up to not just point the finger at God for every evil thing that happens in the world because God doesn't cause evil. There's so much going on that we can't see. But we do know that God will meet us in the middle of that and he'll give us freedom, he'll give us hope, and he'll give us joy, even if things don't change right away. And he's in the process of pushing back that evil little by little. More on that here in a minute. Two, it changes how we think about spiritual stuff. Um, a lot of times you'll hear people say, hey, I don't go to church, I'm just like really spiritual. Or we see things out in the world like Ouija boards, crystals, astrology, manifesting. A lot of stuff on TikTok is all about that right now. Uh, even think about some of the media that we've seen, like horror movies, more and more musicians are using demonic imagery lyrics. Uh, there's literally a song called Demons by Doja Cat, Unholy by Sam Smith, Little Noss X put out Satan shoes. Uh, and a lot of times we just laugh that stuff off like it's a joke, like it's no big deal, and we certainly don't need to be afraid. But if we believe, hey, there's beings that are not for us and who want to harm us, then we have to take that stuff a lot more seriously. Right? We have to be careful what we invite. We don't want to mess around with stuff. We want to pay attention to what we pay attention to. What are we listening to? What are we watching? What are we reading? Because that stuff shapes us. And there's a darkness behind some of it that's not good for our souls. Again, I'm not trying to make you afraid, but we should be aware. And then thirdly, it changes how we think about idolatry and idols. Uh, most of the time, you're probably not going to be running into some explicitly demonic like possession or something crazy like that, right? I'd say most of the time when this issue pops up, it's actually with idolatry. And there's a pastor and an author who passed away recently named Tim Keller, and he defines idolatry as this. He says, if anything becomes more important to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it's an idol, which is how most of us think about it, and it's absolutely true. But idolatry goes a little bit deeper than that, even. And for the biblical offers, an idol was an actual thing. It was a statue that was meant to represent a God. Remember, we talked about this in Genesis 1, right? It's the visible image of an invisible God. And when we're made in God's image, we're supposed to be that visible image of God. But look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10, 14, and then 19 through 20. He says, Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. And then later in verse 19, he gives some reasons. What do I imply then? That food offers to idols as anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. And see, for Paul, the biggest issue with idolatry is not just that your priorities would be out of whack, but that you'd end up in a relationship with some spiritual demonic power. That there's a spiritual presence and force behind all this stuff that we see. And look, we might not interact with like a physical idol, but that doesn't mean that we're off the hook. To explain what I mean, I pulled this quote from one of my favorite authors and have kind of reworked it, but this is what he says. In a culture like ours, the gods, little g gods, don't always look spiritual anymore. They look like money, popularity, sex, success, influence, better bodies, more followers, anything that takes God's place in your heart. And the temples aren't made of stone. They're shopping malls, gyms, concert arenas, even our social media feeds. And worship looks like the sacrifice of your time, your health, your family, your purity, whatever it costs to get what you think will make you happy. But here's what we can't forget. Behind these so-called non-spiritual little g gods, there's often a very real spiritual power. Just like in the ancient world, behind the idol wasn't just wood or metal, it was something alive, something dark, and something with real influence. And then he goes on to quote a different author in this passage. He says, When we worship something that isn't God, we give it power over us that we were meant to have over it. And here's the big point. So every time we idolize something, whether it's success, a relationship, or approval we were meant to carry, and that thing starts to master us. Think about how true that is. If you idolize how you look, all you're gonna be able to think about is a number on the scale and an image in the mirror. If you idolize popularity, you're gonna be consumed with anxiety about what people think about you in comparison. If you idolize sports, all it takes is a slump or a bad game to cause you to spiral. If you idolize a relationship, you'll do or give away anything you can to keep that person's interest. I could go on and on and on, but whatever it is for you, the point is whatever you worship will eventually rule you. And we all worship something. And so ask yourself, what do you spend your money on? How do you spend your time? When you're struggling or hurting, where do you run to? Where do you look to find meaning and purpose and happiness in life? Have you ever thought about any of those questions? Like maybe tonight, it's the first time where you're really asking yourself, like, where do I turn when things get hard? When I'm sad, when I'm upset? How am I spending my time? If you've never thought about those questions, I would highly encourage you to because they're going to tell you what you worship. And so is it some janky little g God? Or is it Yahweh? And so to sum everything up, I know this has been a lot and it's kind of hard to wrap your head around. I hope it was helpful, but there's one true God, Yahweh. He created everything, he's all powerful, he's all-knowing, he is the one God. But there are these created spiritual beings that have some power and influence, and some are evil. And so we have to be aware, we have to guard our hearts, we have to protect what shapes us and remember that what we worship will end up ruling us eventually. Is it God or is it something else? And I want to close with this C. S. Lewis quote, though. He says this there are two equal and opposite errors into which people can fall about devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. So to think the devil's not real, demons aren't real, the spiritual stuff is all hokey. Like you're setting yourself up for failure. And that's what we've been trying to talk about tonight. But the second error, and this is what C. S. Lewis says, the other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. And so the other ditch on the other side of the road is that you walk away from this sermon and you're terrified looking for Satan under every rock. You don't need to be afraid. You don't need to spend every hour of your day, could this be a demon, could this be a demon, this, that, and the other? We need to be aware, but we don't need to be afraid. Why? Because Colossians 2.15 says that Jesus has disarmed the rulers and authorities, these spiritual beings that are not for us, that are evil, and he's triumphed over them by the cross. Because 2,000 years ago, Jesus was hung on. Jesus exposed these spiritual powers for what they are. So wicked that they would kill the one innocent man in history. And on that cross, he took on the full force of sin and death. Because before that point, all of humanity, and past that point, all of humanity had sinned. And sin leads to death. And so death had a claim on everyone. We all deserved death. But then Jesus submitted himself to death. And he took that wave of guilt and wrath and death that we had earned, and he took it on himself, absorbed all of it so that we wouldn't have to. And in that moment, he defeated death and he defeated Satan. He defeated all the evil spiritual powers because at that moment Satan lost his leverage. Because the only power Satan ever had over any of us was to accuse us. Was to say, Hey, God, you're just and these people are wicked, wicked, you need to destroy them. He was not winning, he's just trying to take as many people down with him as possible. And so he could accuse and he could say, Well, look at him, look at him, look at him. They deserve punishment. God, if you don't punish them, you're not just. And then God says, No, I'm gonna punish their sin, but I'm gonna take it on myself. And so Satan lost the one thing he had against us. And on that third day, Jesus showed the whole world that he had defeated death because they put him in a buried tomb, but he didn't stay dead. He got up and walked out. So Romans 10, 9 says that if you confess with your mouth and raise him from the dead, you will be saved. And you get to stand in the victory that Jesus bought for you with your blood with his blood. And what can be true of Paul as he writes can be true of you. Paul says this neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God. So, yes, is there a spiritual war going on that we don't have all the answers for, but does affect us in some way? Yes. But if you are in Christ, you have the victory. Not by your own power, not by your own knowledge, but by the blood of Jesus. And so if you made him your king, are you his child? And man, I'd encourage you, if you don't know the answer to that question, I would figure it out tonight. Don't put that off another moment. Step into the freedom that Jesus has bought for you. Just surrender. Right? Because here's the thing. We talked about this this morning in a Bible study. When we talk about faith in Jesus, that's so much more than just like mentally acknowledging that God is real. Like I believe that God is real just like I believe George Washington was real. No, faith is a belief, but it's also a position of your heart. It's to say, I don't only believe God is real, but I'm gonna surrender to him. I'm gonna make Jesus king of my life. I'm gonna stop doing it my way and I'm gonna start doing it his. My life's not about me anymore. And in that moment, when you lay down all of your attempts to earn holiness or get your own way into heaven, when you lay down at the feet of Jesus, you are saved. And then you can walk out in freedom. And so I'd encourage you, if that's something that you want to do tonight, if you've never made that decision and for the first time you say, I'm gonna lay it at the feet of Jesus, I want to surrender. God, I'm done doing it my way. I want to do it your way. Stay after, find a leader, have a conversation. We would love to help you walk through that decision. And we're actually about to have a time of response here in a second. The worship band's gonna come up, and um, that would be a great time to do that. You can just stand up, slip off to the side, slip off to the back, and have a conversation. I'll be over here, we'll have leaders around the room. And so if that's you and says, Hey, I've never made a decision to follow Jesus. I've been to church my whole life, my parents have raised me here, maybe they've drugged me here. But if I'm honest, I've never done this for me, I've never chosen to surrender. Tonight can be the night.