Exodus 24 Actually, we're going to be in Exodus 33, but this act the the lesson or the the The message starts in Exodus 24 and look with me at verse 12 Exodus 24 in verse 12 So we kind of know where we're at in the in the text and the Lord son of Moses come up to me into the mount and Be there And I will give thee tables of stone, a law, and commandments, which I have written, that thou mayest teach them. Verse 13, And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua. And Moses went up into the mount of God. And verse 18 of this same chapter, And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and get him up into the mount and Moses was in the mount 40 days and 49 so he was there a long time okay and then as we work our way to to Genesis I'm sorry to Exodus 33 here these 40 days what took place well he mentioned what took place in in in verse 12 but here they as in Moses and Joshua now Aaron was still down with the people getting ready to sin terribly. Moses and Joshua go up, it says, to the Mount, to Mount Sinai. Here they received the tables of stone, the dimensions of the ark, the tabernacle, all the specifications of the furniture and the various utensils. They received the priest about, a word about the priestly garments, how they were to consecrate all the items either worn by the sons of Aaron, or those things within the tabernacle.

Now, we're now in chapter 32. And look with me at chapter 32 verse 7. He's still up in the mountain, 40 days, 40 nights, and this is where it breaks in. And the Lord said unto Moses, verse 7 of chapter 32, Go get you down, for thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. That's our sin nature. You can blame God. You can blame other things. But the truth of the matter is, we corrupt ourselves. They have turned aside quickly, quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed thereunto and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee out of land of Egypt. Now, how insulting, how brazen for them to say this, but that's what they said.

Verse nine, and the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. So was the people at Jackson. So was the people at Cape. So was the people right here, all of us together. If God doesn't give us grace, we'll walk in the flesh, and that's always stiff-neckedness.

Okay, the people, or the congregation, have sinned horribly and immensely by building a golden calf for the camp while Moses and Joshua were up in the mount. Now look at verse 10. Moses, like our Lord, he's a type of Christ here, for sure. Look at verse 10. The Lord said, this people's a stiff-necked people. Therefore, let me alone, that my wrath, says God, may wax hot against them, that I may consume them, And I will make of thee a great nation. I'm gonna wipe these people out and I'm gonna make you, you. I don't know if Joshua was included. I'm sure he was up there with them. He didn't have anything to do with that.

And look at verse 11. Moses is interceding for the wickedness of the people. And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, Why does your anger wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? And then a few other verses, he's interceding for him. He's pleading that the Lord would not take out his anger. Moses, like Christ, intercedes for the people.

The beautiful thing about this is that Moses himself was promised greatness, but he looked not after himself. Or you could say in Philippians chapter 2, he made himself of no reputation. That's Christ. The beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, he did not think of himself. Who else would volunteer if you knew after 33 years you were going to get killed? Who would do that? Not for yourself. He didn't sacrifice himself for himself. For the sins of his people was he slain. He himself had no sin. You talk about intercession, you talk about selflessness.

But now let's center in on chapter 33. So Lord says to Moses, depart and go up hence, and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt unto the land that I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, saying, unto thy seed will I give it. See, he's honoring his covenant. No matter how corrupt these people are, he's gonna honor his covenant. But he says, I will send an angel before thee, and will drive out these inhabitants of the land. Verse three, until a land flowing with milk and honey, for I myself will not go up with thee in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff necked people, lest I consume thee by the way. That's the Lord's rebuke. I'm not going to go up with you, you're a stiff-necked people. And how often is that us? I mean, after grace, after the Lord has been gracious to us, when we should be the most tender, the most loving, the most kind, we often are not. We often have our interior motive as self. We love self. We love self. So that's the Lord's rebuke in verse 3 through 5.

But look at the people's response. Look at the people's response. Verse 6, 7, and 10. Verse 5, the Lord says again, you're a stiff-necked people. I'll come up to thee in a moment and consume thee. Therefore, now put off thine ornaments, the Lord says to the people, that I may know what to do unto you. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of the ornaments by Mount Horeb. They stripped themselves. That's repentance. We could say that's repentance. That's humility. But importantly, that's receiving rebuke. That's receiving rebuke. Now, rebuke is hard. It's hard to take. Because we think we're in the right all the time. But they received rebuke. They stripped themselves of their ornaments. Now, we know the Holy Spirit is the author of repentance. Because we can't do it ourselves, we're naturally opposed to him. But this tells me that the Lord's doing something for them because of their reaction. They stripped themselves.

Okay, look at verse 7, And Moses took the tabernacle, he had the dimensions were given to him, he didn't have a tabernacle yet. And all authors said this probably was his own tent that he had pitched for his own family. So he sacrifices that and he took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp. It's not in the midst of the camp because that's where the sin was going on. So he puts it outside the camp. Now this is a picture of the church. When we come to worship, we come outside our own places. We gather together to honor and glorify Him. But look at what it says. He pitched it without the camp, afar from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation, which another, it was a tabernacle of meetings, so that your children, or even adults, if you want to know what church is and what it is, this is it right here. It's a place set aside, set apart, to honor and worship God. It can be a building, it can be a tent, it can be a tree. But look at what else. And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out under the tabernacle of the congregation, or the tent of tabernacle meetings, which was without the camp. It's voluntary. You don't want to be here? Now, if you're under your parents' authority, too bad. That's what they should be doing, is raising you in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Not what you want. but what they know to be the best thing for you and for themselves.

But I don't know if everybody went, apparently not, but everyone, no name, everyone which sought the Lord, that's what we do. We gather together, simply, they sought the Lord and they met together. It's the tabernacle of congregations or it's the tabernacle of meeting or gathering together, to worship, prayer, notice it's voluntary. Everyone which sought the Lord went out. Some didn't, some did. It's voluntary, it's desirable, it honors our King, and we help each other.

Can you imagine going, now, this just came to my mind, I was talking to a family, and they're at a large church, and it's a grace church, but there's not many of them, but this is one that's pretty good size. And I was asking them, so how's it going? How are you doing and everything? And they said, I said, well, do you know this guy? Because I knew this family. He said, no. Well, do you know this family? No. And this is the first time I've ever, ever thought this, the disadvantage of a large congregation. And we, we sat there and we listened to what they were saying. I said, well, we kind of hang around after service, but most people just leave. How do you get to know one another? I had never, never thought about that. Never. Now I've, the Lord brings people in. But I've never thought about that.

But these, can you imagine? Everyone which sought the Lord, they're all seeking the Lord, or those who are going, seeking the Lord together, and spending a little time and just talking about His commandments, His grace. What did they have to talk about? They just got taken out of Egypt. You could spend centuries on that. The free grace of God. They didn't do anything. Matter of fact, when they left, the Egyptians gave them stuff. This is worship.

And then in verse 10, And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshipped every man at his tent door. So, the Lord rebukes, the people respond, they stripped themselves, they received the rebuke, they repented in humility, they sought the Lord, they met together, and now they're worshipping. The one and only true God in the person of Jesus Christ. That's amazing.

But what I want to get to is the next verse. Verse 11. This, what a rather glorious verse we have here. I want us to observe a couple things. Look at verse 11. And the Lord, not a substitute, not a servant, But the Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaks to his friends." As a man speaks to his friends. Now Moses is the mediator. He's a type of Christ between God and the people.

Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy 2, verses 5 and 6. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. That's it. So if anybody says there's a mediator between us and God who is not this, they're lying. There's one This is a scripture written by inspiration of God, God breathed. Verse six, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time, a ransom. Hebrews chapter eight. Hebrews chapter eight. And verse six, in the previous verses, he's speaking about Moses, But in verse six he says, but now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much more also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. The first covenant had been Moses, but the second covenant is a better promises because it's a better mediator. Moses typifies this here as he's speaking to the Lord, face to face, as a man with his friend.

Hebrews 9, 14 and 15. Hebrews 9, 14 and 15. This is why if we come to God, we must come through Christ. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this cause, he, Christ, is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive the promise eternal inheritance and Hebrews 12 starting in verse 22 Hebrews 12 verse 22, starting verse 22, but you are come unto Mount Zion, not Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Speaks better things than that of Abel, speaks better things than that of Moses, speaks better things than that of any of the Old Testament. But they pointed to Christ. They saw Christ. And this is what's going on back to our text in Exodus 33. So first of all, the mediator. He's mediating. And the Lord spake. Moses, face-to-face is a man speaking to a friend. Face-to-face, or the literal translation is mouth-to-mouth. Well, that shows me that it was open, it was free, voluntary communications. There was nothing kept back. Nothing kept back, nothing hidden, but speaking as a father to his dearly beloved son.

What were they talking about? What were they talking about? Well, I would say the things of Christ, I would say the things of redemption, and the things of God's ultimate glory. What was the conversation, you ask? It's the gospel. Whether it's the gospel in Genesis, the gospel in Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, it's the same gospel, because there's only one mediator. So I suppose How God could be both just and justify all these sinful people that he's bringing out from Egypt. Secondly, how the son would freely take upon himself all of their transgressions and iniquities and how they who could not do for themselves would have everything done for them by this ever gracious firstborn son.

I also suppose that what they spoke about is how then the Holy Spirit, the third person of the sacred trinity, would illuminate these vile sinners, us, through his truth, through the everlasting gospel, to the saving of each soul for whom the son bled, suffered, died, and rose again. I remind you Christ said Moses spoke of me. He knew him. Abraham saw my day. He saw my day and rejoiced. So this is not Old Gospel, New Gospel, Old Testament, New Testament. I can't remember. I was talking to somebody the way they had it phrased. I can't remember. With Old Testament versus New Testament. Thirdly, He says, they spake one to another as a man speaks to his friend. Brethren, nobody can question the father's love to his immaculate son. So therefore, no one can question his love for his people. If you question one, you've got to question the other. And we see this here as one spake one with another, as a man speaketh with his friend. It's like the father speaking to the son. And we can't question that love. Greater love hath no man than this. Therefore, the love for his people whom he foreknew and predestinated to be conformed to his image.

Back to our text. If we would go forward, just going to make a statement. In chapter, in verses 12 through the end, Moses petitions the Lord and the Lord grants his request. So, of course, will not our gracious God grant every single request from the Son? Emphatically, yes. But I want us to go back to verse 11 because I think, and Matt and I talked about this months ago, there's a duality, you could say, of the scriptures. David, David speaks of Christ, and there's prophetic. He's definitely speaking of Christ. But David wrote it. David is a man. It came from David's own heart. So let's go back and look at this verse 11.

Return to verse 11. In the first part, and the Lord, I don't know if that's capital L, if that's Yahweh, if that's Jehovah, Jehovah God, spake unto Moses face to face, face to face. You and I? Moses is a man, is he not? I ask you, is Moses a real person? Yes. Is Moses a true sinner saved just like we are by sovereign grace? Now, I'll tell you right off the bat, I don't know what's going on here. I can't enter into the depths of this. But if you are in Christ, the scriptures are very plainly, you can go boldly to the throne of grace and seek help in time of need. The Holy Spirit, which is the third person of the Trinity, takes these things and intercedes for us. This is amazing, unfathomable grace. Hebrew tells us that we can do that.

Now, in Ephesians chapter 2, if you want to look there, in kind of closing, We need to live up to our privilege. Our privilege is if Christ has died for me, I can go boldly and ask last week's message. Seek, knock, ask. Look at Ephesians chapter 2, verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, You, if you're a sinner, saved by grace, who were sometimes afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Nigh. Is that true or not? Is that true or not? What a privilege. You have the Father's ear through the Son, because of the Son, through the Spirit, 24-7. Look at this verse again. It's just way over my head. And the Lord spake, put your name there. Face to face. As a man speaks to his friend. As a person, as a man, as the Lord speaks to his friend. Remember, in Matthew 11 and Luke 7, is Christ not the friend of sinners? Seek God and seek His face. Pour out our sinful selves unto Him. And if we ask in faith, it be granted. It's granted. I don't know what more to say. Just keep looking over that verse 11.

Yes, stiff-necked people. Guilty. You're right. In my hand, O Christ, I bring simply to Christ. May we be found clinging, petitioning, asking, seeking of Him. And may God grant the request. Matt, would you close us, please? I want to thank you for this message.