Open my mouth and let me hear. Gladly the Lord is everywhere. Open my heart and let me prepare. Loved with my children's blood
to share. Silently now I wait for thee. Ready, my God, I will be. Open my heart, illumine me. Here, here keep us. All right, let's go back to Exodus
23 again. Exodus 23. And let's read verses
20 and 21 again. Behold, I send an angel before
thee to keep thee in the way. and to bring thee into the place
which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him." Now,
this should be very interesting to you, but I don't want this
to be merely interesting. I want it to be edifying. Edifying
means to be fed, and I want you to be comforted as God commands
the preacher to comfort his people. I hope this will be so. The angel
of the Lord is our subject, and angels are spoken of quite often
in the scriptures. They often appeared to men and
women in scriptures, Old and New Testament. The Lord Jesus
Christ often spoke of angels. An angel, the word angel, means
messenger. That's what it means, sent by
someone, messenger. Of course, God, they are his
angels, his ministering spirit. So they do his bidding. God,
who is spirit, often sent angels. in bodily form, angels, messengers
to do his bidding. Now, and I don't, I told you I didn't
want this to be merely interesting, and I don't want to be like those
people that Peter said, intruding into things they don't understand,
the worshipping of angels. I don't want to do that. But. Scripture speaks a great deal
of anger there are a multitude of these heavenly have a multitude. And we really don't know much
about angels because none of us have ever seen one. But. I'm quite sure we've entertained
them unawares. Because they are amongst us that's
true. Don't pay attention to what Hollywood
says. These foolish shows and so forth
are blasphemous. But nevertheless, there are angels
among us. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
said concerning his little ones, his children, he said they're
angels. Behold the face of the heavenly
Father. So there are angels. They have been given charge over
his people, lest they dash their feet against stone. That's what
the scripture said. Now, sometimes angels are identified,
such as Gabriel. And I think you're an angel too,
buddy. I really do. I think all of his people are.
But Gabriel is one. Michael, you've heard of Michael
the archangel. What that means I'm not really
sure. But that means the highest angel. Michael the archangel
Daniel spoke of both of those and was. They appeared to him
both Gabriel and Michael. But here in our text. Did you
notice something different about the word angel. As a capital
letter. Capital A. God sends the angel,
it says. The angel of the Lord, he is
called in other places. In other places, also he's called
the angel of his presence. God said, the angel of my presence. Now, while this, in the Old Testament,
this particular story may or may not have been Gabriel Michael
we don't know but I believe. For our sake and. Our study and
I believe he represents. Both the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit. Can be the
one. certainly represents the Lord
Jesus Christ, it said, he's the angel which shall keep thee in
the way and bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
The Lord said, behold, I send my messenger before thee, the
angel of the Lord, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, which shall
bring thee in. And Hebrews says that it became
him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing
many sons unto glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
angel of the covenant, the messenger of the covenant who brings us
to God, who prepared the place for us, who prepared the way
who went before us in the veil. the Holy of Holies did and prepared
that place for us. But now I want to dwell tonight
on the angel of God as the angel of the Holy Spirit. I think you'll
see how this applies so well to the Holy Spirit, because what
God says here of this angel, the Lord Jesus Christ said of
the Holy Spirit in John 14, and sixteen and look at it again
it says in verse twenty behold I send an angel capital A before
the to keep the in the way an angel before the that is in front
of you to lead to guide you one you will follow. He's before
you and you will follow him read on and he will bring the he will
keep you in the way and bring the into the place which I have
prepared. This could be the Lord Jesus
Christ himself speaking here. He is the word, is he not? He
is the one who speaks. He's the mediator between God
and man. All right, he says, I'll send
an angel. Now go over to, well, look at verse 21 one more time.
Beware of him, obey his voice, provoke him not. But he will
not pardon your transgressions. My name is in him. Now go over
to John 14, where I said that our Lord says some things about
the Holy Spirit. John 14. I believe the Lord says the same
thing about his spirit that God said there of that angel. All
right? And we are like, we are the Israel
of God, are we not? And he's bringing us out of Egypt.
That's what this whole story in Exodus is about. He's bringing
us out of the world into the promised land. It's a place full
of Chabites and Hittites and Jibbes, all of that. And the
Lord Jesus Christ is bringing us in, but he's doing it by his
Spirit. All right, John 14, verses 15
through 17. The Lord says if you love me
keep my commandment. You remember that Sunday morning
keep my commandment and I will pray the father and he shall
give you another comforter. Christ is our comforter and he'll
give you another comforter the Holy Spirit capital C is also
our comforter. that he may abide with you for
ever. So this is the one who is with
God's people. Since Christ left the circle.
I just looked at a message by my pastor entitled divine expediency
when the Lord said it is expedient that I go away for if I go not
away the Holy Spirit comforter will not come. When Christ went
back to the Father, he sent someone to take care of his people, to
lead them, to guide them. Who is that someone? It's the
Holy Spirit. And verse 17, he says, Spirit
of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him
not, neither knoweth him, but you know him. He leads you, he
guides you, he dwells in you, he dwelleth with you and shall
be in you. All right, verse 26. But the
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he will teach you all things and bring all things
to your remembrance. What things? All things. What do we need to know? Where
are all things to be found? All wisdom, all knowledge, all
salvation, all Christ is all. way around. All that's what he'll
do. He'll lead you. He'll guide you.
He shall teach you all things. He'll keep you. Go over to, well,
look at verse six there. Verse six, Christ said unto them,
I am the way. You remember our text back there,
it says, he shall keep you in the way. He shall, not might, not will
if you let him, not even if you ask him to, but
he will keep you in the way. He'll keep your eye, go over
to chapter 16, he'll keep your eyes on Christ. That's how you know the Holy
Spirit. He'll keep your ears hearing the gospel. Keep your
heart longing for the gospel. Look at chapter 16 verses, let's
read verses 8 through 14. The Lord says, when he has come,
the Holy Spirit that is, he will reprove the world of sin. Here's another one of those times
where the word world is used, like John 3, 16. Has everybody
in the world reproved or convinced, the word reproved is convinced
or convicted. Is everybody in the world convicted
of their sin? No. No more than God loves every
single person in the world. This is talking about people
out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue. Rather than
just say Jews, he says the world, right on. He will prove the world
of sin, read on, and of righteousness and of judgment And look at how
all of these things where all these things are concerned who
of sin because they believe not on me. When God convicts when
the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. First thing he convicts
us is of our sin against God. Our unbelief we didn't care about
Christ. Didn't believe. Read on. Verse
10. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see
me no more. Or that is, if we're going to
get to God, we've got to have a righteousness. And doesn't
the Holy Spirit show us that? That we have to have a righteousness.
And we don't have one. But Christ is our righteousness. He went to the Father and there
He is on our behalf. Of judgment, because the Prince
of this world is judged. We're no match for Him. Holy
Spirit teaches us you're no match for him. This is how you know that the
spirit that's in this world is not the spirit of Christ. Because
they talk about all this devil bashing and all that, you know.
When Michael, remember, Michael the archangel would not contend
with the devil, but said the Lord rebuked thee, Satan. And
the Holy Spirit teaches us that we're no match for him. I love
old Martin Luther's hymn, don't you? We're not the right man
on our side, the man of God's own choosing. One little word
from him will fail the adversary. But we're no match for him. But
he teaches us that the prince of this world is judged and convicted
and sentenced and in chains by the Lord Jesus Christ. Read on. He says, I have yet many things
to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. How be it when
he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. What truth? The mystery of the
stars and all? No, no. The mystery. The gospel of Christ, look at
it. He shall not speak of himself, whatever he shall hear, that
shall he speak. He will show you things to come.
He shall glorify me. He shall receive of mine. This
is the message that God sends the Holy Spirit with. It's the
message of the gospel for his people. That's what the Holy
Spirit He receives from the father this commission to bear witness
of his son. And he'll show it on you. See
that? He'll show it on to you. So the
Holy Spirit is the one. Now it's vital that we know the
true spirit, that we be led by the true spirit of God, the Holy
Spirit of God, the spirit of truth. Our Lord said there are
many prophets, false prophets gone out in the world and many
evil spirits. There's a lot that goes on today
under the name of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to show you in a minute
how that I believe it's the sin against the Holy Spirit. All right, but the Lord said,
or Scripture says, as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God. Turn over there, I want you to
look at that, Romans 8, Romans chapter 8. Turn over there with
me. Now we, it says there back there,
I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way. Keep you
looking to Christ. Keep you needing Christ. Keep you hearing the gospel.
Keep you trusting Christ and him alone, not yourself. The
Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and it's not a one-time thing.
It's a lifelong thing. If we ever lose sight of what
we are, if we ever lose, if we ever quit being convicted over
our sin, we won't need Christ. We won't need the gospel. That's
why people leave the gospel. They quit being sinners, I guess.
Sinners always need to hear the good news that sin's put away
in Christ. And the Holy Spirit is ever reminds
us of what we are and our need of Christ to keep you in the
way. See that. And he'll bring you into the
place which I prepare our Romans eight verse one says there's
therefore now right now. No condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. Right now. Don't you love that
part. Who This is not a condition that
we meet, but it's just a fact. Who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. And unless you doubt yourself,
I'm going to show you in a minute what this means. Look at verse
five. It says, They that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit. the things
of the spirit, after, what does that mean? You're back here,
he's up here, he's leading, and you're following. All right? Later, after the spirit, the
things of the spirit. Verse six, for to be carnally
minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. All right? Now, you may not think
of yourself as being spiritual. you wouldn't be if you did. I may repeat that you may not think
of yourself as being spiritual. You wouldn't be if you did. Because to be. Led by the spirit
of God is to be humble. If anybody thinks, well, I'm
I'm you hear this a lot today, don't you? Well, he's a spiritual
person. She's very spiritual. What they mean is they sit on
some hillside somewhere, whatever they do, practice yoga or something,
or read a lot of Thoreau or somebody. He's real spiritual. That's what
they mean by that. I'll tell you who's real spiritual.
It's who's led by the Holy Spirit of God to think on Christ. Would you stay with me? And it's
not these people that all seem to be slain in the Spirit and
all this stuff that goes on in the Spirit. That's that. You remember that story of the
demoniac, the demon-possessed fellow? It says he cut himself
and nobody could tie him down and he jumped up and ran around
and screamed. He looked just like one of these
Spirit-filled fellows today in average. So called church. Running and jumping and shouting
and screaming and so forth. What happened to him when the
Lord Jesus Christ came and healed it? He had an evil spirit in
him that made him do those things. When the Holy Spirit, when Christ
came to him and removed that evil spirit, Whenever God removes
an evil spirit, he puts Holy Spirit in play. And when the
people came, they found that man. It says clothed. And that's a picture of being
clothed in Christ Christ. Seated, not jumping up and down,
screaming and hollering and carrying on and falling on his face and
waving his hands and all that. Anything can make you do that.
Drugs make you do that. But he was seated and clothed,
and it says he was in his right mind. What's that? What mind is that? The mind of
Christ. Philippians 2 said, let this
mind be in you, the mind of Christ. What was he doing seated? What
was he sitting down? What was he doing? We ought to
get up and work for Jesus. He was hearing the Lord. He was
listening, but he was sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ worshipping him. Now that's what happens when
the Holy Spirit indwells a man. It doesn't make him act like
a fool, it makes him look to Christ. And the minding of the
flesh, if I'm not careful I'll stay here in Romans 8, but the
minding of the flesh is thinking of having any confidence in the
flesh. The true circumcision was worship
God in the spirit. from the heart does not worship
with all this stuff and rejoice in Christ Jesus. He is a source
the sum the substance the center of our worship everything revolves
around him all the songs all the messages everything we do.
Points to him points the center to him. We rejoice in him. We don't rejoice in our rejoicing,
we rejoice in him, in the Lord. And again I say, we rejoice in
the Lord. And have no confidence in the
flesh. That's what it means to be spiritually
minded. Are you hearing me? That's what
it means to be spiritually minded. For the mind and the flesh, thinking
that flesh can be anything more than flesh. is dead. Thinking that this flesh
can, we can do something to please God. But to be spiritually minded,
and that's the Holy Spirit indwelling you and pointing you to Christ,
and if he points you to Christ, there's life and there's peace.
There's no peace if you look to yourself, is there? Do you
find any peace after all these years of of believing and following
Christ, I still don't feel like I'm any better than when I first
started. But by God's grace, I'm holding fast the beginning
of my coming. The day I die, I want to hold
the beginning of my coming. What's that? A sinner saved by
the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's peace. That's life, and that's peace.
See that? Led by the Spirit. That means
influenced by the Spirit. You may not think of yourselves
as being spiritual, but you are, if you think of Christ. Let me
ask you some questions. It says we're convinced of sin,
righteousness, and judgment. Are you convinced of your sin?
What you are? I mean a Roman seven sinner.
Are you convinced of that? That in your flesh dwelleth no
good thing? Are you convinced of that? Are you convinced of your need
for righteousness before Holy God? Are you convinced of that?
Do you have one? Well, who, where are you going
to get one? Who is yours? Sound like you're spiritual to
me. A judgment? Are you convinced that someday
you'll stand in a judgment, but you're not? There's therefore
now no judgment, no condemnation? to them there in fact that there
will be no judgment for you because Christ stands there. Are you
convinced of that? It'll give you peace. It'll give you peace. Are you convinced that salvation
is one hundred percent in Christ alone? Are you convinced of that?
Well, you didn't convince yourself of that. I was talking to somebody
after the service Sunday, how that we're all self-righteous
until the day we die. And by that I don't mean necessarily
that we think too highly of ourselves, but
I mean that we think, we still, till the day we die, we still
look to ourselves for some, something in us to, I don't know, to make
us feel better about ourselves, to give us some comfort that,
that God, that we're a believer. There's only there's only one
one way so one way only one. One way we're going to get to
go. It's back. I am. He shall keep thee in the
way. Let me ask you about some things
I mean just let me ask you what you what you think about. The truth. What is the truth. Let me ask you some questions
here, and just give me the shortest answer you can give, OK? One
or two words. How are you going to put away
any sin, no matter how great it is? Are you going to put it
away? How is sin put away? Cry. How are you ever going to be
righteous before God? Cry. What is truth? What is heaven? Christ. How should we live? Christ. He's everything. He's all in
all. Go back to our text now. Let's look at this. It says,
He shall keep thee, the Holy Spirit shall keep thee in the
way and bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Did not
our Lord say? I go to prepare a place for you. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
went into the Holy of Holy and prepared a place for us, made
it certain that all of his people would be with him. Father, I
will that they be with me where I am. Who's going to bring us
there? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Do you remember this talk about
the place over in Deuteronomy? Turn over there real quickly.
If some of you haven't seen this, you may want to study this on
your own. Do you remember looking at this?
Deuteronomy, beginning in chapter 12, all the way on through chapter
16, says this several times. Anybody remember this? The place
which God has chosen to put his name there? Look at chapter twelve,
verse five. He says, unto the place which
the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put
his name there. What's that? Judah, tribe of
Judah, to put his name there. Even under his habitation shall
you seek and thither shout, thou shalt Look at verse eleven. There shall be a place which
the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. Thither shall ye bring all that
I command you. Verse fourteen. In the place
which the Lord shall choose one of thy tribe. There you shall
worship. Verse eighteen. And they eat
before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God
shall choose. Thou, thy son, thy daughter,
thy man. What is the place? The Lord has chosen Christ as
our dwelling place. Heaven is where Christ is. And that's where the Holy Spirit
brings us. He brings us to Christ. He brings
us to Christ. He takes the things of Christ
and shows them to all of his people. Go back to the text.
It says in verse 21, Beware of him. Fear him. But obey his voice. Obey his
voice. Heed, listen, follow. Seek his
leadership. Isn't that how you pray? Isn't
that what we pray? Lord, lead me by thy Spirit. Don't grieve the Spirit. Grieve not the Spirit. Provoke
not the Spirit. Look at this. It says, He will not pardon your
transgressions. My name is in Him. He's called
the Spirit of Christ. His name is in Him. Now, the
Lord said, and I'm going to wrap this thing up, Matthew 12, go
over there, Matthew 12. The Lord said of the Holy Spirit
that those that sin against Him, that sin will not be forgiven.
That's the reason I believe this is speaking of the Holy Spirit. Well, God's people cannot commit
that sin. We're going to see that in 1
John. They cannot sin. They cannot do that. They're
led by the Spirit. They can grieve Him. They can
quench the sin, but they cannot commit the sin against the Lord.
I'm thankful for that, because they're led by the Spirit. But
some do. John said, I do not say you should
pray for them. There is a sin under that. What
is it? John, Matthew 12, look at verse 27. Now, these Pharisees,
the Lord was casting out devils, and the Pharisees said in verse
24, this fellow cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils.
And the Lord said in verse 27, if I, by Beelzebub, cast out
devils, by whom do your children cast them out? A lot of devil As I said, bashing
today in religion. Man, they love to do that. Who's
going to dispute them? I am. By God's Word. People who know the truth will.
But the world doesn't. We don't. If I cast out devils
by the Spirit of God, verse 28, see that? Then the Kingdom of
God is coming to you. Or else how can one enter into
a strong man's house and spoil his good, except he first bind
the strong man, and then he will spoil his house? He that is not
with me is against me. He that gathers not with me scattereth. His aim, his goal is not to point
to Christ. Look at verse 31 and 32. Wherefore,
I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven
unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven
unto men. Whosoever speaketh the word against
the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. And you did before you knew
Christ. You talked about Jesus just like
they do out in the world, didn't you? Like some pitiful fellow
standing out. You believe he was outside your
heart's door and you let him in. That's precisely what you
did. But that was forgiving you, wasn't it? But whosoever speaketh
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither
in this world, neither in the world to come." So to provoke
God's Holy Spirit is to reject the gospel, the truth, and attribute
man's work to the Spirit and the Spirit's work to the devil.
And you know that's what people say about the gospel of God's
grace. Most people call it the doctrines of the devil. I've
had them tell me that in my class, the doctrines of the devil. And that's the sin against the
Holy Spirit. Now, Heretic, after the first and second admonition,
rejected. But God's people can't. Go back
to the text. Go back to the text. Now, it
says, But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that
I speak. You see that? He'll obey his
voice and do all that I speak, the Lord said. He'll take the
things of mine and show them unto you. The Holy Spirit directs
us to what Christ said that we did. Then I will be an enemy
unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine
angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites,
and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off. All that enemy,
all those sin, all that world, will not afflict God's people. effectual that should not bow
down to their gods. And we don't we won't we won't
have anything to do with nor serve them. The reason we don't
gather together with all this stuff going on is that we refuse
to do so. Nor do after their works. We
don't do like they do. We're very circumspect. We're
very circumspect. Remember that? And what we do. But thou shalt utterly overthrow
them. We're We're trying to bash down
old Dagon. Whenever I get on the radio,
if you'll notice, if you listen to it, I try to say something
to kill people's gods. Barnard used to say that all
the time. I'm trying to kill your god. I'm trying to cut old
Dagon's head and arms off. Bow down before the ark. Don't
do that. Thou shalt utterly overthrow
them. Quite break down their image. You shall serve the Lord
your God. And he shall bless thy bread.
He will. And he has, hasn't he? And thy
water. He has, hasn't he? And I will take sickness away
from the midst of it. What does that mean? We're not
supposed to get sick? Oh, no. That's not what that's
saying. They said to the Lord, he whom
thou lovest is sick. Isn't it? Lazarus. I'll tell you what that
means. Take away sick. In Isaiah 1,
there's a description of the modern religion of those who
please claim to be Jews. And it says the whole head is
sick. heart is fine. You don't take away that sickness.
They have sickness. Because you don't give us a mind
to cry. That's what that is. Exactly what that is. There's
many instances in scripture, New Testament, where God's people
were sick. We're going to die of something,
aren't we? So that sickness he takes away. His whole world is
sick. They're sick with religion. They're
sick with a sense of their own worth. They're sick in the head.
The whole head is sick. The heart is pained. From the
sole of their feet to the top of their head, there's no sound
that's in them. But not God's people. There's sound in Christ. We've got to learn that Christ
took that away. All right, stand with me. Our Lord, thank you for your
Holy Spirit. We worship and praise your Holy
Spirit as we do the Father and the Son. Thy Spirit has led us
and guided us in all truth. He's taken the things of Christ
and showed them unto us. And you promised that he would
keep us looking to Christ, keep us in the way, and bring us to
Christ. Oh, Lord, we thank you for the
angel of your presence. The Holy Spirit abides with us. Thank you, Lord. Take not, we
say with David of old, take not thy Holy Spirit from us. Let him remain with us. Let us
be led by thy Spirit. Follow after, follow after him,
we pray. Let us seek thy will in all things. Let us seek wisdom from above.
Let us seek to do thy will, to obey the leadership of thy Holy
Spirit, who does teach us and speak to us through the Word
and through experience. So, Lord, may we take heed to
him, obey his voice and not provoking, we pray. Keep us ever believing
and looking to Thee by Thy Spirit. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.