Char Chpl Christianity a Unique Religon

On any particular Sunday, any Sunday of the year, we would give a welcome to students, but especially on this Sunday. This Sunday is a day where both services are especially focusing on students, so I've got various students taking part, and one of them, Cameron, is now going to come and bring the Bible reading. But before you do, Cameron, do you just want to say who you are, what you're studying, and where you're studying? Hi, I'm Cameron.

I'm studying Mechanical Engineering at Edinburgh University. Cameron's going to do our reading now, so over to Cameron. Today's reading is from Exodus, chapter 33, starting at verse 7. That's on pages 92 and 93, if you're using a pew Bible.

Exodus 33, verse 7, through to chapter 34, verse 7. Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.

As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshipped, each at the entrance to his tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.

Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua, son of Nun, did not leave the tent. Moses said to the Lord, You have been telling me, leave these people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, I know you by name, and you have found favour with me.

If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways, so I may know you and continue to find favour with you. Remember that this nation is your people. The Lord replied, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

Then Moses said to him, If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people, unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? And the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you, and I know you by name. Then Moses said, Now show me your glory.

And the Lord said, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But he said, You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.

Then the Lord said, There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed. Then I will remove my hand, and you will see my back, but my face you must not be seen.

The Lord said to Moses, Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain.

No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain. So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and went up on Mount Sinai.

Early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hand. Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and stood there with him, and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.

Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. Well, it's good to be back here in Edinburgh.

A city in which many of my students say is actually an overspill of Glasgow. I must have got it wrong, but I thought that England was playing Scotland. Because I was going to preach this evening on how to cope with a national disaster.

I didn't say who was going to have to cope with the disaster. But it really is nice to be back in Edinburgh. It brings back many memories of being in this pulpit before.

Also doing some doctoral studies here in this wonderful city. Nice too to see so many students from differing nationalities. Our own college convened at the beginning of last week.

Some of our freshers just on their second week. And some of the returning second and third students came in last Monday. International Christian College to which I'll make some reference this evening more particularly.

Actually an amalgam of a couple of colleges. And the leaflet that I inflicted on some of you as you came in actually shows our new buildings which we're quite proud of. Because we've just bought out the northern flank of the Caledonian University in the heart of Glasgow.

Diagonally across from the cathedral and straight across from the Royal Infirmary. And how we got that building is just a wonder. It's only occurred within the last two and a half months.

And from convening in a very unacceptable complex. Converted church for one year. We suddenly find ourselves in God's grace occupying a building worth four and a half million pounds.

And in the remarkable economy of God all we need to find now is just a half million. And even that at the moment is interest free. And all my Presbyterian lecturers have gone charismatic for a while.

Because nobody quite believes that we're in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. I work very closely with Operation Mobilization. And since we bought Doulos I've never seen something as incredible in terms of an answer to prayer.

We just go around this palatial place with even a well equipped theatre. Along with a magnificent facility for a library. We just can't believe that God in his grace has given us this.

Right in the centre of one of Scotland's larger cities. A sort of living memorial for the millennium. As we move through into the third millennium.

Celebrating two thousand years, not after Christ. But two thousand years of people being able to be with Christ. Knowing him as their Lord and their Saviour.

I'd be glad if you'd have your Bibles open at the reading which was brought to your attention. From the book of Exodus. And the thirty third chapter.

Moving into a new situation is very difficult. I know something of that myself because for twenty eight years I was pastor of a church very similar to this in its dimensions. Known as the Tabernacle in the south of England.

And if you had told me that two years back I would be ministering in Scotland and resident in Glasgow. I would have said you're overworking and need to see a psychiatrist. I love my people and to leave our church.

Several hundred strong family. Is the hardest thing that I ever did. And I guess for some of you who have come from different countries.

To move from the unknown. Or rather to move from the known into the unknown is not easy. One of the reasons why I felt when I had the invitation, the privilege of coming to minister again from this pulpit.

One of the reasons why I thought we'd spot like Moses. Is because he is a man who is going through change. He is a man who unsought by him has a new extension.

Another portfolio added to his ministry. And I want to know how he coped. And I want to tell you a little bit about how in God's grace we've coped too.

With modern illustration and biblical example giving stimulus. For the way that we go on this next week and this next month. And this next year.

And if you're not a student it doesn't really matter because we've just made a comprehensive definition of what a student is. At 88 you're still learning. And if you finish learning in the school of Christ you really are finished.

So in one sense my address though directed to students actually involves everybody. Why were we made? What was the reason for us coming on this earth? Have you ever asked yourself that question? I come back to it in just a moment. A.W. Tozer is a man whose writings I turn to quite often.

And sometimes he makes some very daring statements especially about God. And he says this. God is often lonely with a cosmic loneliness.

God is often lonely with a cosmic loneliness. God made man. And this was the sixth epoch in his creation activity.

And after each stage according to that beautiful narrative in Genesis 1 God says it's good. It is good. The creation of the heavens of the earth.

The creation of the seas. The creation of the plants. The creation of the flowers.

The creation of the animals. It's good, it's good, it's good. And then almost with the language befitting the French cuisine.

When a cook has given already five delightful contributions to the menu. He now brings out his pièce de résistance. And he smacks his lips and kisses his fingers.

And says it's very good. God makes man as arm. And he says it's very good.

And by the time you get to the second chapter you discover that God is interacting with man. He's coming down to man. I don't quite know how you understand the metaphors but this surely is a spiritual application.

He comes down to his arm because he wants his fellowship. The reason why man is distinct from the rest of the creation is because he bears the imago Dei. There is something about God in you.

And despite the consequences of the fall there are fragments of that imago Dei that still remain. God seeks your company. He wants to know you.

And for you to enjoy fellowship with him. I wrote a book fairly recently which has become somewhat controversial. It's called Animal Rights and Wrongs.

I wrote it because the animal rights movements in the university are generally anti-Christian. And one of the things that I discovered as I sifted the three thousand plus references that there are in the Bible to animals is this. That sometimes God will speak of himself as though he were an animal.

In other words he'll draw certain lessons from the animal kingdom. The Lord is a lion. The Lord is an eagle.

Moses speaks in the final address that he brings to his congregation. On behalf of the Lord. As though he is an eagle that has come down and disturbed the nest of the Israelites.

Bringing them from Egypt to the very frontiers of the land of promise. Sometimes God does disturb. He moves like an eagle and disturbs the nest so that the young eaglets will move away and be forced to fall.

And discover that in their free fall that they have wings, they have a potential that they never realize. As the eagle, so the Lord. And here is Moses.

And he's drawn the short straw. He's a pastor. And he's got one of the most difficult congregations that ever a pastor ever had.

The authorized version describes the Israelite congregation as a gainsaying and a disobedient people. And Moses, if you move into the 33rd chapter of the book of Exodus, has had horrendous circumstances to cope with in terms of the disobedience of the Hebrews. And when you move into the 33rd chapter you discover that God, far from allowing Moses some sabbatical, far from saying, well you've done enough service, now move over so someone else can take on this task.

God extends his life's ministry. But he changes his portfolio in some degree. The divine eagle swoops down.

And Moses is given something else to do. When that happens, how do you cope? When that happens, when the unexpected comes and you find yourself in free fall, to where do you go? To what do you look? And the answer is from nature as far as the young eagle is concerned. He looks for Mother Eagle who spans the great wings and spirals downwards and ensures that there is no fatal disaster in the rocks at the bottom.

As she keeps her eyes on her young and persuades them to use a potential that they never had before. I tell you before my maker, in this last year, to quote the words of Abraham Lincoln, I have sometimes fallen down upon my knees because I have nowhere else to go. And don't you think this is exactly what you find with Moses? Moses has been receiving from the Lord this extension to his portfolio.

You have been telling me, lead these people, that you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, I know you by name and you have found favor with me. If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.

Remember that this nation is your people. If you surmise that, what Moses is saying to the Lord is simply this. The task that you have given me to do is too difficult.

It's actually your responsibility. And if I am going to be used in the performance of your will, then great God, I sue you for this. I ask that you will be with me, that I might know the infilling of your spirit, that I might be able to lead these people to the place where you want them to go.

Lord, unless you are with me, I quit. And the phenomenon of the Christian faith is this. That it proclaims a God who is transcendent and also imminent.

Who can be distant but also near. And the thing that you need more than anything else in the world, be you a student or be you a senior citizen, is a consciousness of the presence of the Lord. And in response to what Moses has to say, the Lord is in no way off-put.

He is in no way annoyed. The Lord replies, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. Now listen, we're not dealing with a fresher with Moses.

The years have gone into history since the bush burn that was not consumed. When Moses received this dynamic revelation of who God is, Jehovah, Yahweh, I am that I am. Twenty years, thirty years have been spent leading this congregation, and yet Moses is still speaking in terms of, Lord, show me your ways.

Lord, teach me about yourself. And Moses gives each one of us here a living example of our attitude. To know God wants is not sufficient.

To bask in the blessings and the revelation of yesterday or yesteryear or a decade or so ago is not adequate. The manna fell on a daily basis. On a daily basis, we need to know Him.

Charles Spurgeon says, as a result of the phenomenon, the theophany at the burning bush, when the presence of God and the voice of God is revealed to Moses, I confer upon Moses at that point a Doctor of Divinity degree. He understands more about God than all our divinity colleges, says C.H. Spurgeon, because he has a living encounter. And yet the decades have rolled by, and here is this mature man, who is being disturbed once again by the sovereign will of the Lord.

And he says, I'll do it with you. I want to know you. I've been asked fairly frequently in these last few months, or the last academic year, what are the goals for this new theological seminary in Scotland, which represents the fusion of two colleges with a somewhat different charter? And my answer is this.

And you must listen very carefully, or else you will misunderstand me. I do not want our students to be turned out just for the degree. That in itself is a very honorable thing.

Nothing amiss at all. I too am tied into a sort of academic way of life, though not as able as some of my colleagues in their specific disciplines. But theology alone is not enough.

There was nothing wrong with the theology of the Pharisees when Jesus was on earth. But they missed Him. They had an understanding of the Word of God, but when the God of the Word manifested Himself, they missed Him.

The important thing is not only to understand the Word of God, but to have an experience day by day of the God of the Word. Theology that does not lead you into theophany is inadequate, for theology means the Word of God, and theophany means an experience of God. And one of the things I believe that is basic to coming together in Charlotte Chapel, not only today but down the decades since the foundation of this remarkable church, is that men and women here encounter God.

Because, as Moses says, it's the encounter with you that makes the difference. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? When the disciples had been with the Lord Jesus Christ, it made a difference. There was that imperceptible change.

It didn't happen overnight. And there were starts and stops, as there always are in the Christian life. You take a step forward and sometimes you take a step back.

But provided there is a progression of sorts, at least there is reason for this great God who seeks your company to be pleased. Don't you realize that Moses' teaching is something about the school of sanctification? I don't understand the theology of celebration. I believe I'm saved by God's grace.

For a reason unknown to me and which will ever be a mystery in eternity, you see, He drew me to Himself. He loved me. He gave Himself for me.

Had I been Him, I wouldn't have done it. But He did it. I can understand Him loving my wife.

I can understand Him loving my students. But I don't understand Him loving me. But I know He does.

Now, when you move from the school of salvation, so to speak, into the department of sanctification, it's a different ballgame. What I mean is this. You can be as holy as you want to be.

You can be as disciplined as you are prepared to exercise those spiritual commitments in terms of the study of the Word of the Lord. And coming before the Lord. There's a man by the name of Leonard Ravenhill who was tutored in Cliff College in Derbyshire.

I believe he was from Derbyshire or from Yorkshire. But he took off and went to the States and wrote many a book. And in one of his books, sort of capitalizing on his British heritage, he says that God has no aristocrats.

What he's trying to say is this. That here in the United Kingdom, there is the aristocracy. There are the lords.

There are the ladies. There are those who are titled. Some who inherit their title by birth.

They didn't do anything. It is just the luck of the draw. Their mother, their father, their great-grandfather, or so on and so forth.

They were honored by the country. And the honor is transferred down the generations. But God does not have an aristocracy in the sense of one by inheritance.

The aristocracy of God is granted to the individual who wants to be into that fraternity. And you get into that fraternity depending upon your desire. Your salvation is completely in his hands, in his sovereignty.

But the way that you graduate, the way that you increase in your spirituality, it's left to yourself and those basic disciplines. And so Moses comes before the Lord and he says, What else will distinguish me apart from you being present? And Moses, he's already been in the tent of the meeting. The seventh verse makes reference to this.

It's his practice to wait upon the Lord day by day. And there is a differentiation that occurs over the years as a result of doing that. To me, it was not the truth you taught to you so clear to me so dim.

But when you came to me, you brought a sense of him. From your eyes he beckons me and from your lips his truth is shared. Till I lose sight of you and see the Christ instead.

If my students leave Glasgow, if you students here leave Edinburgh stuffed with knowledge, but without having a day by day encounter with him, then as far as the advance of the kingdom is concerned, you will not be as effective as you could be. God wants you to be effective, efficient in his service. Lord, show me your glory.

God has already conceded that he will grant Moses' request in terms of his presence. I will do the very thing you've asked because I'm pleased with you and I know you by name. But Moses, he uses almost impudence at this point.

And he goes on and says, show me your glory. Lord, what you have said is wonderful, but I want to enter into a deeper experience of you now. Show me your glory.

I have a desire for you. And God responds to what Moses has to say. I go back to A. W. Tozer.

I believe it's in the same volume that I quoted from in terms of God being lonely with a cosmic loneliness. But Tozer also has this to say as a corrective to Christian people. The problem is that having known God once, we fail to increase our desire to know him more and more.

And what is more, as A. W. Tozer with inexorable logic, we sometimes believe that to have lived in the days of the patriarchs, the writers of the first volumes of the Old Testament, to have lived in the days of the prophets, to have lived in the days of the apostles, that would have made things far more easy. But to live in the 20th century, that puts us at a disadvantage. And Tozer says, I want to argue against that.

Moses says, show me your glory. The glory of God passes by. As Moses finds himself hidden in a rock.

It's a remarkable event that is here highlighted in the 34th chapter. You've got this picture of this Hebrew leader hiding between these rocks as the glory of God passes by. And Moses is overwhelmed with a sense of who God is, his immanence, his omnipotence.

And Tozer will tell you, and if you think it through yourself, it's something that you could arrive at without his help. But there is an equal, perhaps an even greater possibility that is offered to the likes of you and me. You see, Moses never lived to see the day of Jesus Christ, not at least physically.

The Lord Jesus was going to come on earth, but it would be hundreds of years hence. And yet you and I live retrospectively in the glow of Calvary. We know that God's own Son took flesh and blood and died for us.

We know that the benefits of the cross are made over to our account. And we know that that's not just a theological equation, 2 plus 2 equals 4. It goes beyond the comprehension of the mind into the will and the emotions. Thus those hymns that came from the 18th century revival, they're invariably experiential.

When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, and poor content on all my pride. See from his hands, his head, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingle down. Did there such love or sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? Here's Isaac Watts in old Southampton, writing his hymns.

The church are not very happy about these new hymns, they've had the old ones. They don't want Watts' whimsies, but thank God Watts' whimsies have survived and are sung today. But they're experiential.

There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall, Where the dear Lord was crucified, who died to save us all. What is the cross? As you take up your position there, as you sing, Jesus, you lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly. What are you doing? Surely it's an equivalent.

It's even an advance on. Moses hiding in the cleft of the rock, trying to work out the incomprehensible, trying to come to terms with this great God who is reacting with Moses at a personal level. Don't you understand that's the hallmark of Christianity? To stand in front of that cross, to gaze and to gaze, and to realize that the value of your life is such, the economy of God.

He sent his Son to die for you. What is man's chief aim? It is to know God and enjoy Him forever. What is God's desire? It is to know man and enjoy him forever.

How do you know this God? We move to the fulcrum of the Christian faith. The old rug of cross. Again, the old hymn writers have got it correct.

Alas, and did my sovereign bleed and did my saviour die? Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? Was it the crimes that he had done he hung upon the tree? Nay, it was his own undying grief and grace beyond degree. The hymns, they speak of the experience to which Moses makes reference. Only the experience here, as far as Christians are concerned, is even greater than that of Moses.

How do you cope with change? By developing an increasing intimacy with God. How does that come about? By prioritizing your life. You see, Moses is told, having made that request, the opening verses of the 34th chapter, come in the morning, be ready, and come up on your own.

No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere else on the mountain. Intimacy with God is something that cannot be transferred from one person to another. God only deals with us on an I-you basis.

And the more you want, the more he's available. Because he longs for your company. He's not satisfied with a cosmic loneliness.

How do you cope with change? By knowing his presence. By taking his word to him. One of the old Puritans says, when I quote the promises of God in his presence, I've got him trapped.

I've got him trapped. A daring statement. And yet it is true.

Out in the hills of North India, way in Calcutta just a few months ago, in East Africa, down on the south coast of England, here in Glasgow, at Nome, his promise, his presence, not just me, hundreds of people here, in this church, could say exactly the same. Wherever he leads, will go. When you walk with the Lord, in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on your way.

And they knew it. The Hebrews, they knew it. The glory, it was there.

Moses comes down the mountain. They recognize, he's been with God. I could take you to a little basti, that's a slum in Karachi.

I could introduce you to a man, whose name is Gabriel Marcel, who you've never heard of at all. But he's one of the holiest men I've ever come across. Chucked out of his village, during the days of the British Raj, when Bangladesh and Pakistan were part of India.

Pot marked with what seemed to be small pots, but wasn't. Comes to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. Never has any contact with a missionary.

Never goes to any theological college. But he has a dynamic experience of Jesus Christ. And he establishes churches along the whole borders, of what was India, and on into Pakistan.

And when you see him, you know. You really know. He's made the priorities.

He's been up in the mountain. He's digested the word of the Lord. And it's made a difference.

And it still does. And it's over to us. The challenge is there.

You cope with change by invoking the God of all change to be with you. As you start to flutter downwards, feeling that you'll never fly, you hear the eagle, the great eagle, as he stretches. She stretches those magnificent wings to their 40-foot span.

And you hear this wish. You know you've no need to be afraid. I'll never leave you.

I'll never forsake you. Wherever you are, you, with me, can cope. Father, we're grateful.

As a deer slakes its thirst at the water brooks, so we thank you we can slake our thirst, the fountain that flows from Jesus Christ. We thank you for revealing yourself to us through him, for his impeccable life, for his vicarious death, for his mighty resurrection. And we praise you that in the glory there's one who remembers us, who's got every student on the roll.

And he works through their names, commends them to you because they are his, because you gave them to him. So enable us in the school of Christ to be studious and help us to engage in not just academic theology, but applied theology. And whether we're 18 or 80, may the benefits of this word this morning live on and continue to change our lives for your honor, for your glory.

Amen. Amen.