Let's take our Bibles and turn
to Exodus 33. Thank you for revealing that. It's encouraging. Exodus
33. I would like to look at one passage of Scripture, verse 11. Looking at this one passage of
Scripture, let me just share with you how I look at the struggles that I have within
myself. I started this chapter last week,
where it's the first message. While I was looking at that passage
of scripture that I dealt with last week, verses 1 to 10, I
considered if you'll look in your Bibles, verse 12 starts
a new paragraph, which you would normally think would be where
you begin a new message. You go through, you know, that's
not always right. But as I began to look at this
particular verse right here, I went days. days looking at that
11th verse, and it was a tremendous struggle for me. In fact, the last part of it,
which says, But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle. That was the part right there
that I struggled with. I came to a point to where I
decided that the only thing that I could do is just read the last
verse 11. I would just read it. That's all I could do. It was
one of those verses of Scripture that I, in my mind, I had asked
the Lord to help me. I don't know, Lord, I don't know
what this means. I'm struggling with it. One commentator
that spoke on this particular passage of scripture made this
statement. He said, I can see no profit
whatsoever, no value in that first scripture. I was just taken back with that
statement. I thought to myself, it would
be better to admit your ignorance and just say, I don't understand
it, than to say there's no profit in it. Foolish, foolish, foolish. In time, I think that the Lord
has given me some light on it. An actor beginning to see something. of this precious verse of scripture,
verse 11, I have felt that I can, I'm going to
preach a message on this one verse, a verse that I at first
thought I don't think I could read it. I'm telling you, you're
looking at a frail creature, a struggling creature. And I
pray that the Lord be pleased to bless this, after having looked
at it and considered it, I feel that in this passage of scripture,
this is absolutely one of the most glorious passages of scripture
that any believer will ever see. And in this one verse of scripture,
the totality of God's grace and mercy to mankind is set forth.
Just one verse. Let us look and pray that the
Lord give us the light as we look at this one verse of scripture.
It says, verse 11, And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face,
as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the
camp. But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle. In our last study, the Lord had
told Moses concerning the children of Israel going into Canaan.
The Lord said, I'm going to send an angel with you, but I'm not
going to go in the midst of thee. For thou art a stiff-necked Probably one of the most arresting
passages of scripture that you could possibly read for a believer
to read something like that. Put yourself in this spot right
here. I'm going to let you go through
the rest of your life, but I'm not going to be with you. Then Lord, then let me die. If you're not going to go, just
let me die. Lord, if it means going by myself,
can you imagine? The people come out of Egypt, come across that Red Sea. God
had brought them to the mountain. Moses and Joshua had gone up
into the mountain to receive the law that God stands in. The
people had erred, building a golden calf. And there they set forth
the very heart of rebellion in every man, to worship an idol,
an idol of man's own imagination. Let me tell you, every false
system that men think is their salvation. Our salvation is in
this, and our salvation is in this. That's an idol. That's
a golden calf. That's a golden calf to you.
You worship that. But the Lord was long-suffering
and merciful that He revealed to them what they were. That's what Paul said in Romans
7.25. He said, I thank God. But in my mind, in your mind,
I worship, I serve the law, the word of God. I vowed, not that
he said he could keep it, I vowed to it. It was right, Christ had
fulfilled it for him. He said, I thank God. But he
said, with my flesh, continuing to thank the Lord, I serve the
law of sin. Was I proud of that? No. Thankfully,
God showed me the way it was. You take a man or a woman that
God has shown what they are by nature, I'm telling you that's
a blessed man or woman. The Lord told Moses, I'll send
an angel, I'm not going with you. Told the people, he said,
abstain from putting on your ornaments, don't put those symbols. What you think makes you beautiful,
makes you worthy. And I'm telling you, man by nature,
they'll stick on that pretty necklace of all security and
self-righteous works, and they'll just deck themselves out, and
they've got the bracelets and the rings, and they jangle and
jangle, and they just, oh, I'm so beautiful in the sight of
God. I said, don't put on your ornaments. People didn't. But thanks be to God that he
didn't leave his people without hope, those who are under the
direction of God's Spirit, pitch a tent, that's what we looked
at last time, outside the camp, a tabernacle, a place, a tabernacle,
where God Almighty could be approached. If any man sought the Lord, they
went out into that tabernacle that was outside the congregation. You think of the tabernacle.
You know the tabernacle in the wilderness? That was a picture
of Christ Himself, who tabernacled among us. Christ. Here was a place outside. Any
man going to seek God, that we're going to have to go to that place.
Any man going to seek the Lord today, he's going to seek Him
in Christ, the God-man, the man that restored that which He took
not away, honor, salvation, peace, comfort, joy, hope. And it came to pass when the
Lord made known Under the people, through Moses putting that tent
outside, there is a mediator. There is. There's an advocate. And when Moses, the type of our
Lord, the scripture sets forth last week, we looked at, went
out into the tabernacle. And all the people rose up and
stood every man at his tent door and looked after Moses until
he was gone into the tabernacle. We have an advocate today. We
have a Mediator. There's one Mediator between
God and man, which is the man, Christ Jesus. We've got a hope,
a peace. Now as we look to our great high
priest, Mediator, on faith alone, beholding him as he is revealed
in the Holy Scriptures, We see Him today as ever-living to make
intercession for us. There's joy in the house of the
Lord because we know that our God reigns seated in the heavenlies,
seated, interceding right there. Now today, we're going to look
for just a few minutes at that verse 11 right there. I'm telling you, this is all
of our hope right here. All of our salvation, all of
our comfort is in that passage of Scripture, right there. Amazing
to me. Unless God Almighty, just like
I said a while ago, I mean, when I tell you I struggled days,
days, just... It is only when the Lord gives
a man eyes to see that he sees. He is to hear that he hears.
I know in verse 14, Lord willing, we'll look at this next week,
it's said in verse 14 of this chapter 6, and he said, My presence
shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Oh, man, what
a passage. I know what's coming. I know
next week, we're going to look at that. Lord willing, if we're
here, We're going to look at that.
How did that come about? How was it? Did Almighty God
change his mind? No. How do you know? Because
he said, I don't change. I don't change. You say, well,
he said he wasn't going to. He said, my ways are not your
ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. He said, I will go with you.
But something happened. Something happened between verse
2 or 3. Back in that first part of that
chapter when he said verse 3. He said, I won't go, something
happened. And this morning that's what I want to talk about. What
happened? The Lord spake unto Moses face
to face. As a man speaketh unto his friend,
and he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua,
the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. I don't want to rest or twist
the Scriptures, for what I pray this morning is that we might
truly see In what happened in that 11th verse, all of the Pope
are sinners today. This glorious passage talks about
a meeting that took place, and obviously there were three persons
in that meeting, in that tabernacle. That the L capital L capital
O capital R capital D, I know that Jehovah, I know the triune God was there. That's what capital L O R D,
when it says that, that means the triune God. I know that's
what it means. Jehovah. I know that Jehovah
was there. The Scripture sets forth that
Moses was there. It sets forth that Joshua was
there. Joshua stayed there. Of the two men that are spoken
of as being in this passage of Scripture, those two men set
forth the Lord Jesus Christ. in both of them, Moses and Joshua. And what we're going to see,
and this is the only way that you can behold the glory of that
passage of Scripture right there, the only way you can behold it
is to see it as it deals with God Almighty in that everlasting
covenant of grace to redeem a people by the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's
a type, here's a picture, here's a shadow, but what a glorious
picture. For reconciliation to be established
between Almighty God and His people that He's everlastingly
loved, who fell in Adam, in rebellion against Him, for there to be
any kind of hope that God himself would say, I will go with you,
and I will give you rest. If there's going to be any hope,
then something's going to have to take place in this meeting that's going to
give sinners like me. Here's what's set for us. Jehovah, God Almighty who is Spirit, who
cannot be looked upon by a mere man. To look upon him in the
totality of his glory and honor would kill a man. God said that.
Jehovah spake unto Moses unto the one that Moses sets
forth. And I'm going to show you that
in Hebrews in just a minute. when Jehovah Himself spoke unto
the one that Moses sets forth, face to face, as a man speaketh
unto his friend. Here we behold the intimate relationship
possessed by the Father and the Son in that everlasting covenant
of grace. A beautiful picture of him who
was possessed by the Father in the beginning of his way. The
one before whose works were ever brought into being. I was ever
before him as one brought up with him. Intimately knowledgeable
of Jehovah's pleasure and purpose to save his people. Because He
is Jehovah. God Himself. Jehovah. Dealing with Almighty
God Himself. Doing something. That's what
you just read. God's going to do something for Himself before
He can do anything for man. Back in Numbers. Numbers chapter
12, let me just read this to you. Numbers 12 verses 5 to 8. The Lord came down from the pillar
of a cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle and called
Aaron and Miriam. They both came forth and he says,
Hear now my words, if there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord,
will make myself known unto him, the vision, and will speak unto
him, the dream. My servant Moses, and I'm going
to show you in Hebrews now who he's talking about. My servant
Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house. Let me show
you who he's talking about. It's like when he's talking about
that Elijah was going to come and that Elijah was John the
Baptist. Who is this great Moses who was faithful? Faithful. Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter
3, verses 1 to 6. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful. him that appointed
him, as also Moses was faithful in his house. But this man was
counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who
had built the house had more honor than the house. For every
house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God.
And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant
for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken of of
Christ. as a son over his own house,
whose house you are, are we, if we hold fast to confidence
in rejoicing, behold, burn unto the end. We look back and we
behold the one that Moses set forth, Christ Jesus the Lord. Here we have a blessed glimpse
into the relationship and communion of the Godhead in the eternal
councils of grace. Jehovah, the triune God, spoke
face-to-face with the one whom Moses was tying a picture, the
one Jesus Himself. God Almighty, you consider the
faithfulness of our Lord and the accomplishment of God's will. Now back in Exodus, Exodus 33,
verse 11. Now I want you to watch what
happens. The Lord Jehovah spake unto Moses
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend confidently, intimately. You think Moses was in himself
that instrument of God? That he would know the eternal
counsels? My friend, look to the one of
whom Moses is a type. Don't look to the law. Look to
the fulfiller of the law. Look to the one who has honored
the law. Look to the one who has accomplished
the purpose of Almighty God. And the scripture says forth,
there you see that indescribable, glorious picture of that everlasting
covenant of grace, where God himself spoke face to face, bore
his heart, all that he was going to say. And the scripture says,
and he turned again into the camp. That word turn there, I was just
elated when I looked it up by that way, man. He turned again. Here's what it means. Movement
back to the point of departure. He went back into the camp. According to that everlasting
covenant grace, Moses, I don't doubt for one second, went back
into the physical camp of Israel. I don't doubt that one second.
I'm sure that was. But we're not looking at this
thing historically. I want to know what does this
have to say to me right now. If history of all this is, we
don't have anything. You tell me what the Lord has
done for me. Almighty God in that everlasting
covenant of grace declared and bore all of his heart with himself
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses in this passage
right here, a picture. of the Word. God Himself. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God. The Word was God. In verse 14
of John 1, and the Word was made flesh. He turned again and began. He
went back to the point of departure. That's what she's talking about
now. That point. Where was the point of departure? The Word of His main flesh, Adam
had rebelled against God, and in that indescribable covenant
of God's grace, do you think that God was fooled when Adam
sinned against Him? The Lamb was slain before the
foundation of the world, before men were ever brought into being. were in God's eternal purpose
and will and heart, and He, I've always loved you, and they weren't
even made yet, and there was a lamb slain. Do you think God
was fooled? Had to come up with a new way? He turned again in the camp.
The Lord Jesus Christ, made of a woman, made under the law,
came back and appointed departure. Second Adam. Faithful Adam. Whereas by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. God himself, who was just, and
no wise, cleared the guilty. For man that had any hope, the
law is going to have to be honored, it's going to have to be magnified
in time, in time. He turned again. turned again into the camp, turned
again, made life into his brethren, yet without sin. Why? To redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Our problem
was that we couldn't keep God's law or demand for obedience. for what the law could not do
in that it was weaved through the flesh, God sending his own
Son in the likeness of sin into the flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin into the flesh, thanks be unto him. He turned again. He came back to the point of
departure, made flesh, lived as our Federal Head, died as
our Redeemer. and magnify God's law as a man
earning a righteousness, as a man that rose every one of his people,
redeemed, regenerated believers, robed in the righteousness of
Christ. There is that eternal glory,
magnified, God's purpose, everlasting covenant, God spoke face-to-face
as a man speaketh unto his friend. And the Word was made flesh,
he turned it in. A man, the God-man, turned again
into the camp of his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young
man, which means a servant. departed not out of the tabernacle."
Here's Joshua. Humanly speaking, again, someone
may say, well, that's just history. Well, what a wonderful compliment
to Moses that the Lord had provided him a servant, and he remained
in the tabernacle. That was a place where the Lord
was pleased to meet with him. I'm thankful, I'm thankful for
friends. I'm thankful for faithful friends. I'm thankful. But I
want to talk about a friend that's closer than a brother. Moses
was a picture of Christ and his humanity that came back into
the camp. Here is a picture of Christ. Almighty God, set forth in his
absolute deity, the one who never left the tabernacle, the one
who is always deity, the one who is ever of the triune God. Moses Joshua, a picture of Him, who
is God Himself, who never left the tabernacle. I want you to
look at a couple of verses, Matthew 13. Matthew 13. Oh, I tell you, yes, I know,
I know. Moses set forth the humanity,
the humanity of Christ. No doubt. No doubt. No doubt. Cain is a man. God-man. Yes. But let me tell you who our great
Redeemer is. He is God Himself. Look at Matthew
13, starting with verse 53. It came to pass that when Jesus
had finished these parables, He departed thence, and when
He was coming to His own again so much that they were astonished,
and they said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty
works? Is not this the carpenter's sons?
Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James and Joseph
and Simon and Judas, and his sisters? Are they not all with
us? Whence then hath this man all these things? They were offended
in him that Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor,
say, in his own country, in his own house. And he did not many
mighty works there because of their unbelief. Who is this guy? Do we know him? He's just Dick
of Davidson. We know that thou art a prophet. Come from God, nobody could do
what you do. God wasn't ready. Who is this? I'll tell you who
this great Joshua is. He's God. God who never left
the throne. I want to show you that right
now. God Almighty who never left the throne. John 3.13, this is
our Lord speaking. No man hath ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is
in heaven. No one could that be said of
except the Lord Jesus, God Himself. speaking to Nicodemus while on
the earth, in human flesh, and in heaven. I'm not present. He never ceased to be God when
he was incarnate. He was with God, and he was God. As God in heaven, never changing,
while tabernacling among us. You say, I don't see how in the
world that he could be in both places. Yes, you do. Yes, you
do. How could he be living in you
and living in me? How could he be hearing the prayers
of the saints on the other side of the world? How can He do that? Because He's
God, and we think way too lowly of Him. Almighty God, Jehovah,
spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. And Moses, the one who was a
type of our great Redeemer, went back to the camp. And Joshua
never left the Temple. He is God Almighty. May the Lord
bless these words to our heart and comfort us as we readily
admit we see through a glass darkly, we know in part, we prophesy
in part, but thanks be to God we know something, for Christ's
sake.