When God wants to teach us spiritual realities, he gives us physical experiences.
When Satan deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he assured them that they wouldn't die, whether they obeyed God or not. So when they tasted the forbidden fruit and didn't immediately die, Satan seemed pretty credible.
What Adam and Eve didn't realize is that they were indeed dying. From the moment they sinned, they felt naked and ashamed. In order to cover their shame, they sewed fig leaves together. Then they hid among the trees. But no matter what they did, they couldn't cover their own shame. They couldn't hide from God nor flee from God's watchful eye.
Hebrews 4:13 (NIV) says,
"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
Imagine the terror they felt knowing their nakedness, their guilt, and their shame. And imagine Adam and Eve then hearing God call out their names. "Adam, Eve! I know you are there. I can see you." Their consciences were now condemning them. Satan was now accusing them. They were self-conscious and fully aware, standing in the presence of God. It was time for them to face judgment.
Shed blood was the price that had to be paid for sinning.
But what did God do? He took a lamb (or another kind of living animal), and shed its blood in their midst. He then took the animal's skin and covered Adam and Eve with its skin. Remember the first time you killed something? Death was the price that had to be paid for their sin. Seeing that blood shed for the first time must have been as horrifying as it was humbling.
When God wanted to teach Abraham the true extent of his love, he took Abraham through the gut-wrenching terror of having to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. Imagine the emotion of a father, tears running down his face, sharpening a flint knife, gathering wood, preparing a fire, and binding his son's hands and feet. Imagine Abraham finally raising his hand to sacrifice his son, only for God to intervene, and Abraham's son to be spared at the last possible moment. It must have been as horrifying as it was a relief.
But God was using a physical experience to teach Abraham how personally costly and how painful a sacrifice it is for a father to contemplate, much less sacrifice, his beloved son. God's purpose was that if we were to ever see a father sacrifice his son, we'd immediately recognize the price being paid.
Generations later, when God wanted to teach Moses how much he loved his beloved son, Israel, he opposed Moses and tried to kill Moses' son. But Moses' wife Zipporah understood what was happening, and circumcised their son, touching Moses' feet with their son's foreskin. How horrifying! But Zipporah understood the true cost of sin. Sin would cost some father his son's life. And for that moment at least, by his grace, through faith, God was sparing Moses' son.
God used a physical experience to teach Israel the extent of his love.
Sometime later, God used plagues to demonstrate his power over all the gods of Egypt and over Pharaoh himself. But so that Israel would know the true price of her sin and idolatry, God warned that an angel of death would kill every firstborn son of every father in all Egypt, including Pharaoh's son. Imagine the terror! Their sin was so egregious that the blood of innocents would be shed.
But God was using a physical experience to teach Israel the extent of his love. They wouldn't have to pay the price for their sin because God would provide a sacrifice. So God commanded every household to take a firstborn lamb, sacrifice it, and cover each and every doorpost with its blood. If the angel of death saw blood covering a household, he would pass over that house, and every firstborn son would be spared. But without the shedding of blood, the angel of death would bring judgment on that household. In compassion, God the Father spared the firstborn son of each and every father in Israel.
Lest any of them remain presumptuous about the high price that must be paid for their sin, God led them out of Egypt by way of the Red Sea. Behind them, in hot pursuit and enraged by his son's death, was Pharaoh. Before the Israelites stood the Red Sea. Apart from God's intervention, it was impossible for the Israelites to pass across the water from their old life to their new life. They could not pass from death by the hands of Pharaoh to life in the hands of God unless God miraculously intervened.
God used physical experiences to teach the Israelites spiritual realities.
1 Corinthians 10:2 explains how in that instant all of the Israelites, recognizing their fate in the hands of Pharaoh, were baptized into the cloud and into Moses at the Red Sea. At just the right moment, God opened up the way for them to pass through water on dry ground. It wasn't a statement like, "Gee, should I get baptized?" It was more like, "We're going to die. Let's save ourselves. Let's be baptized. Let's enter this new life that God has prepared for us."
In the wilderness, God wanted to teach his people that man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. So every morning, every day for forty years, God made them trust him for their daily bread. He even brought them to the brink of death and dehydration in order to teach them to cry out for the living water that only God could provide.
Physical experiences offer no guarantee that people will learn the spiritual realities behind them. Some people are just rebellious and stubborn. When given a choice, some (perhaps most) will just make excuses, or hope to create their own luck. But what hope is luck? In all these instances, when God provided a way, he invited his people to trust and obey him. "Trust my sacrifice. Trust my baptism. Trust my love. Trust my daily provision. Cry out for streams of living water.
In the wilderness, God wanted to teach the spiritual reality of his holy character. So he gave Moses the ten commandments etched in stone. They couldn't be erased or modified. If a person was guilty of breaking even a single commandment, they were guilty of breaking all of them. But Israel hardened her heart, and committed idolatry!
So once more, in order to demonstrate his mercy and grace, God gave the Israelites yet another physical experience.
The tabernacle was another physical experience given by God.
Starting in Exodus 25 we can read the elaborate instructions God gave pertaining to the tabernacle. We learn even more in Hebrews 9-10. The tabernacle was a physical representation of heaven on earth. In the center of the tabernacle was the holy of holies, symbolizing God's presence. And within the holy of holies, was the ark of the covenant. And within the ark of the covenant was manna that reminded Israel that her very life was given and sustained by the living God. And within the ark were the stone tablets that reminded Israel about God's holy, eternal, unchanging character.
Read Exodus. The only way a sinful man could approach God, much less relate to God, was by washing with water, and by shedding blood. For the Christian, the tabernacle points to baptism and communion. The terms of God's covenant haven't changed, not fundamentally.
God sets conditions by which we can relate to him.
For us to relate to a holy God there are conditions. First, we must be washed and have all our sins forgiven. But second, the full and final price for our sin must be paid once and for all. And that price is the death of God's dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
It wasn't Abraham's son. It wasn't Moses' son. It wasn't God's beloved son Israel, or even the beloved firstborn sons of Israel that would be sufficient to pay for sin. God's one and only Son, Jesus Christ, was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. And God thought enough of us not to spare his own Son, but freely give him up for us all, so that we would not die, but have eternal life.
Do you suppose there is anything that I, a mere preacher, can add to all that God has already done for you in Christ? How can I persuade you to take God's offer of salvation?
Galatians 3:26-27 (NIV) assures us,
"You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."
Think what this means. In baptism we acknowledge that Christ died, his blood was shed, and that God has taken Christ's life and clothed us with his righteousness.
Colossians 3:3 (NIV) says,
"For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."
Do we "have" to be baptized? Or do we "get" to be baptized? Now that is the kind of attitude that allows us to pass from death to life! If you are ready to pass from death to life this morning, God's invitation is simply to come.
"Come, follow me." We have everything you need this morning to be baptized. If you're making any kind of decision, we invite you to come forward during this song.