All right, Exodus 33. Separated by Christ's presence. Christ is our sanctifier, and
he's our sanctification. And we're separated individually
as his children, and we're separated as his church, One way, that's
by Christ's presence. By His presence in our hearts,
by His presence in our midst. He is the one who separates and
sanctifies His child and keeps us separated. He does it. We're separated by Christ. Now,
verse 12, Moses said unto the Lord, See thou sayest unto me,
bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou
wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee
by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore,
I pray thee, if I found grace in thy sight, show me now thy
way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight,
and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, my
presence shall go with thee, and I'll give thee rest. And
Moses said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not
up hence. Now watch this. For wherein shall
it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy
sight? Is it not in that thou goest
with us, that your presence is with us? So shall we be separated,
I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face
of the earth. And the Lord said to Moses, I will do this thing
also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight,
and I know thee by name. Now, the Lord had said that he
would give Moses and the children of Israel all the blessings of
Canaan, that he would deliver them and he would take them into
Canaan. And he said he would give a created
angel who would lead them there. And that was a test. It was a
test. If they were satisfied with those
blessings, without having God's presence,
that would reveal their true heart. That would reveal their
true heart. But if they came pleading for
His presence, it would show a heart God gave. It would show a sanctified
heart. Now, would we be satisfied with
every blessing God can give if we didn't have Christ's presence? You think about God can give
somebody good blessings. Would you be satisfied with those?
You could have everything this world has to offer, never come
hear God's word again, never assemble with His people, never
have Christ's presence, but you got all the blessings. Would
you be content with that? He promised them the land of
Canaan. He promised them a land flowing with milk and honey.
But was it a land flowing with milk and honey without God's
presence? Look at it. Look at it now. Without God's
presence, it's a wilderness that eats up the inhabitants. What
made it a land flowing with milk and honey? God's presence. If
we had all the blessings God could give, but we didn't have
Christ, even a created angel to go with
them wasn't enough for Moses. He said, I don't want this created
angel to go. I want your presence, Lord. God's people need His presence.
We need Christ's presence. I need His presence in my heart,
and we need His presence in our midst in His church. That's true
sanctification. That's true separation. That's
what makes His child differ from every other sinner in this world.
That's what makes His church differ from every other worldly
so-called church. His Christ's presence. He sanctifies. He separates. He makes it holy
by His presence. Now, first of all, God's presence
is how we're separated from the broad way into God's way. He says here in verse 13, now
therefore I pray thee, if I found grace in thy sight, show me now
thy way. Moses is praying for God's presence
and he asked God, show me your way. I want to see your way,
Lord. Why? That I may know thee. That I may know thee. That I
may find grace in your presence, in your face, in your sight.
and consider that this nation is thy people. I think there
that Moses is not saying, he's not asking God to consider this
nation as your people. He's saying, this is how I'm
gonna know this nation is your people, by your presence. Before Christ's presence enters
our hearts, we don't want God's presence. We don't want anything
to do with God's presence. Whenever Adam sinned in the garden
and sin entered in and his heart became corrupt, this is the heart
we all have by nature. Do you remember this? They heard
the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. Now that's an
impossibility to do, to hide yourself from the presence of
God, but they didn't want to be in his presence. And that's
our heart by nature. Men don't want to be in God's
presence. Just a believer who represents
God aggravates them. They don't want to be in his
presence. And they sure don't want to be in his church where
the gospel is preached because they don't want to be in God's
presence. That was my heart and your heart
before God entered in, in his presence. There's a way that
seems right unto man. But the end thereof is the way
of death. It's the way of destruction. It's the broad way. The Lord
said there's a broad way that many go in. But He said the way
to God is a straight gate. It's a narrow way and there's
few that find it. That way is Christ. I've given you a similar illustration,
but I was thinking of this when I was thinking of this this week.
You take a man that's got a desk, a big desk, he's got all these
books on this desk, all these commentaries, all these religious
books scattered out on his desk so he can read all about God,
know all about God. And imagine if that desk just
started getting more narrow and more narrow and then books started
falling off the sides until it gets down to just this one book,
God's Word. Well, that's how it is with this
broad way. When Christ enters in, in His
presence, He starts narrowing it down for you, and narrowing
it down for you. And you start out with all these
things you think you need, and He narrows it down, and narrows
it down, and narrows it down to one thing needful, and that's
Christ. When we get through with this
life, all the running and the doing and the acquiring and the
success that we acquired. We're going to come down and
we're going to stand before one man and he's the one we needed. Then we're going to find out
if we used the time he gave us to obtain the one thing needful
or if we wasted our whole life. We just need one, we need Christ,
just one, just Christ. He's the only one you need. Everything
else in a believer's life should be subservient to that one. Whatever we're doing in our occupation
ought to be for him, for his gospel. Whatever we're doing,
whatever we're doing, it ought to be for him, for him, for that
one. in some way being a spiritual
benefit, in some way being spiritual edification, in some way furthering
the gospel of that one, for our own benefit and the benefit of
those around us, for that one, because he's the one we need.
He's the only one we need. How are we going to be separated
from this broad way that all the world's running into? How
are we going to be made to come in this one way? Show me thy
way, God, that I may know thee. How are we going to know him?
Moses is standing there begging God for God's presence. That's
how you're going to know him. That's how you're going to be
saved out of this broad way and brought into this separated,
separated, sanctified, taken away from the broad way into
this one way. It's going to have to be by God's
presence in your heart. This is life eternal that they
may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. He's God's way. He's God's way
of justifying us from all our sins and making us the righteousness
of God. making us accepted of God, making
us, sanctifying us through the sanctification of the Spirit,
belief of the truth so that we're holy in heart, righteous before
God's law, and holy, righteous God can receive us into His presence
and look upon us with delight. Christ is the one way. He's the one way of making us
know we found grace in His sight. He's the one way of making us
know that we're His people. He's the way, Christ the way. And the only way we're separated
out of the broad way is by Christ entering in, in His presence. Read it there with me, Exodus
33. Look at Exodus 33 and verse 16. Wherein shall it be known
here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is
it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated,
I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face
of the earth. It's only gonna be by his presence. And then
his presence is the way we're given rest. Look here in verse
14. God said my presence shall go
with thee and I will give thee rest. God's presence gives rest right
now, right wherever we are, not just when you get to the end
of the journey, but on the way. He gives you rest right where
you are. Because Christ separates us by leading us all our days. Think of the rest in knowing
you're not going to get lost. It's not pleasant in any way
when you're trying to get somewhere and you don't know how to get
there and you're looking for streets and trying to figure
out how to go and trying to listen to your phone talk to you and
all. But if you know there's no way you can get lost, that
the way's going to be plain for you, you can rest. You just enjoy
the drive. Well, he's leading his people.
In Exodus 13, look back there in Exodus 13 verse 21. It says, the Lord went before them by
day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way. And by night
in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night.
He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar
of fire by night from before the people. That's rest, brethren. Christ's present with you, leading
you wherever you go. At night, in the darkest season
of your life, Christ is leading you. He's the light leading you.
And by day, when the sun's bearing down and it's like a hot desert
sun and it would scorch you and burn you, to have Christ the
cloud covering you, keeping you cool, and leading you all at
the same time. Do you realize that wherever
Christ has entered in, in His presence, in the heart of His
child, and in His church, He's not going to let His people be
lost. He's not going to let them be taken out of the way. He's
going to lead them in the way they should go. That's rest. That's rest. His presence is rest because
He separates us and protects us from all our enemies. In Joshua 1.5, there shall not
any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will
be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. That's what he says to each of
his children and to his church. He says, there's nobody gonna
stand against you. The same as he was with Moses
that whole way. Think about Moses leading that
great multitude of people. We don't see all the trouble
they had, the Lord just gives us some highlights of the trouble
they had, but can you imagine the constant everyday trouble
that went on in that camp in Israel? And God gave one man
to lead them? How did he do that? God was with
him the whole way. He was present with him the whole
way. Nobody was able to stand against him. Amalek tried to
kill him. Pharaoh tried to kill him. But nobody could stand against
him. And he told them when he brought
him to the land of Canaan and he made Joshua their leader,
he said, nobody's gonna stand against you. I'm gonna lead you,
I'm gonna protect you. I will not fail thee nor forsake
thee. Our Lord Jesus Christ, you look
to those three hours of darkness on the cross and you see Christ
there bearing the sin of his people, being forsaken of God
to satisfy justice. God hid the face of his presence.
He hid his presence from our Savior. That's what that darkness
was, is from the presence of his glory. He turned his back
on the sun. And because He forsook him, and
He made us the righteousness of God in Him, Christ promises
you and me, I'll never fail you, I'll never forsake you. My presence
will go with you. I'll be with you. And that's rest, brethren. It
says in Isaiah 63, 9, talking about our text, it says, in all
their affliction, He was afflicted. Our Redeemer is not a thoughtless,
senseless God. He, in every affliction that
His people are afflicted, He's afflicted. And it says, the angel of His
presence saved them. That's Christ, the angel of His
presence. That's what He is to you and
me, the angel of His presence. He saved them in His love and
in His pity He redeemed them. You mean He could love and pity
that wretched, sinful, rebellious bunch? Those that He saved He could.
Those He chose He could. Those that He viewed in Christ
He could. He loved them and He pitied them. He knew they were
dust. and He led them, and He redeemed them, and He bared them
and carried them all the days of all. That's what He's saying
to His people. My presence with you, I'm afflicted
when you're afflicted, I'm going to love you and pity you, and
I've redeemed you and I'm carrying you all your days. That's rest. Christ's presence is rest because
He separates us from lives and unites our hearts with the truth,
in the truth, with Him. That's what makes us fear His
name. That's what makes us give Him the glory. Listen to this
cause and effect. Here's the cause, Psalm 86 11. He said, teach me thy way, O
Lord. Here's the effect. I will walk
in thy truth. Here's the cause. Unite my heart
to fear thy name. Here's the effect. I will praise
thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I'll glorify thy
name forevermore. And his presence teaches us he's
the way. And when he teaches you that,
you'll walk in his truth. You'll walk in his truth. There's not a believer on the
top side of this earth, born of the spirit of God, that doesn't
have a heart to do the will of God and diligently seeks to do
that will and walk in the will of God. Everyone does. Because
you can't have Christ's presence without it. Every one of them
do. And Christ can make them walk
in that way much better than you can, much better than I can.
And he does. He does. There's only one way
a spiritually dead sinner is separated from the broad way
of destruction. Only one way we're kept following
him. Only one way we're made to walk in his presence. Only
one way we're sanctified. Christ is the sanctifier. His presence is our sanctification. Moses said, if your presence
doesn't go with us, carry us not up hence. And then lastly,
Christ's presence separates us from this world. His presence
separates us from this world. He said there in verse 16, wherein
shall it be known that I and thy people have found grace in
thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest
with us? So shall we be separated, sanctified, set apart, kept apart,
I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face
of the earth. It wasn't but one thing that separated Israel from
all the other nations in the world. Christ's presence. That was it. The only thing that
kept them differing from anybody else was His presence. They didn't
separate themselves, He separated them. And they didn't keep themselves
separated by law. No! He separated them and He
kept them separated. He separates us from this world's
mere form of religion and gives us true worship. The world of
religion, just because you see churches and you see people assembled,
that don't mean they worshiping God. The only way you can truly
worship God, the only way we can truly worship God is if Christ
is present. That's the only way. Moses pitched
that tent, but it was just a tent. That's all it was. It was just
a tent that he pitched until God's presence entered it. It's not our gathering, it's
not our going through the motions of outward worship, that is worship. That's not true worship. Worship
is when Christ enters in, in His presence, in your heart,
and makes you worship Him. That's the only way we can. He
said, the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship Him. God's a spirit. If we're gonna
worship God, we have to worship Him in spirit and in truth. You
don't worship Him with your hands, with the carnal, with the temporal.
You worship Him in the heart, in spirit. Anybody can learn some doctrine.
You can learn the five points of Calvinism and none do that.
Anybody can assemble in a congregation, go through the outward form.
Anybody can polish up the outside of the cup. Anybody can do that.
Only Christ can make you holy. Only Christ can make you truly
worship Him from a new heart. It's got to be His presence in
your heart. If his presence is not with us,
all the outward forms is useless as dancing around a golden calf.
In fact, that's all it is. If his presence is not with us.
What was his complaint to Israel? These people draw near me with
their mouth and with their lips they honor me, but they've removed
their heart far from me. Their fear toward me is taught
by the commandments of men. They're doing what they're doing
to be seen of men. I pray God don't let us do anything
to be seen of men. Don't pray to be seen of men.
Don't do anything simply so you can be seen of a man. Bodily exercise profiteth little. He's not talking about going
to the gym. He's talking about the outward form is very little
profit. What's profit? Inward godliness. The godliness of Christ being
in the heart, making you enter into the word in spirit and in
truth and hearing God speak in the heart. That's what matters.
That's what's gonna make the outward be true living for God
and true following after Christ. Until he's done it, all we are
is a Pharisee. That's all we are. You know what
you get when you get a reformed man? The same man just reformed. That's all. It takes God making
you a new creation. It's the spirit that quickeneth
the flesh, profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
there's spirit in our life. Christ has got to speak. And
when he's done that, when he's circumcised the heart, we are
the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. Oh, that tears up a natural man.
You can't take that too far. Take it as far as you can take
it because God said it. It's not what you do in your
flesh that matters. Don't you put confidence in it.
We rejoice in Christ alone, and we worship God in spirit alone,
and we don't put any confidence in our flesh. Zero. Zero. I hope I'm being plain enough.
Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where
thou makest thy flock to rest at noon. Tell me where your word
is, Lord. Tell me where you're feeding
your people. Tell me where your people are resting. That's where
I want to be. For why should I be as one that
turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? I don't want
to go to another shepherd. I want to be where the shepherd
is. And His presence sanctifies and
separates us from this world's religion by the way He governs
His church. You look here at this, Christ
is the head of His church. He's the governor of His church.
He's the shepherd of His sheep. That word pastor means shepherd.
He's the shepherd who is God. He's the one who is the bishop
of the souls of His people. He is. He redeemed us, He called us,
He teaches us, He governs us, He leads us, and He shows us
He's the head in a way that you and I would have never done it.
He shows us He's the head of His church by using an earthen
vessel preaching the gospel to lead His people. I'd have never
picked that way to show if I'm the head of the church. I'd have
never picked that way to show it, but that's how He does. The
Lord used one man, Moses, to lead the whole nation of Israel.
Just this one man. Had a speech impediment. Couldn't
even talk very well. This one man. He was a faulty,
fumbling, fickle sinner is what he was. That's all he was. And it was a constant visual
reminder that Christ alone leads his people. a constant assurance
to them that it was Christ doing the work and not a man. When you put your hand in a puppet
and you move that puppet and you use that puppet to speak,
do you have any hesitation in believing that that puppet ain't
the one doing it? Well, that's why he uses an earthen
vessel. That no flesh glories in his
presence, but he that glories, glories in the Lord. Moses knew he was nothing. That's
why he's sitting there begging God for his presence to go with
him. You ever beg God for his presence?
You ever just beg God, Lord, please go with us. Please be
in my heart and in the hearts of your people. Please be in
the midst of your church. If you don't take us forward,
don't send us up. We need his presence. That's
what Moses is there praying for. And I'll tell you what he does.
He doesn't do this for everybody. But for his people, he knits
their hearts together with the man he gives to lead them so
they can be taught. And they love it to be so. And
not everybody's teachable. He doesn't do that to everybody.
He just does it to his people. And the man that was saved some
other way, without this means that he uses, he'll never bow
to it. Eventually he'll get sick of
it and he'll leave it. I've never seen one do it. Why? He hadn't experienced it. He hadn't experienced God's presence
through the preaching of His Word that makes you want to be
taught and led of whoever God sends. Whatever worm, whatever
maggot, whatever sinner God uses, He'll make you want to be led
of. Because you know it ain't Him leading you, it's Christ
leading you. Why did he pick that means? Because it's foolishness
to men. Because it ain't the way men
would do it. It offends his wisdom. It offends
his pride. It offends everything about us.
That's why God chose that way. You can look this up. Every time
Israel had a problem, you know what the problem was? The people
rose up and pushed Moses out of the way and said, here's what
we're going to do. Why did they make a golden calf?
The people rose up and said, Aaron, make us a god. Korah rose up with his followers. Moses, you take too much on yourself. We're all holy. Aaron and Miriam, Moses' own
brother and sister, rose up against him at one time. And every time,
you know what it did? It caused them trouble, every
time. I don't have a problem declaring
this because I know that those that the Lord's teaching delight
in it. It's only those that hate it.
Korah hated it. Korah hated it because he hated
Christ. But where he's giving you this
heart to know it's Christ leading, that's where you have a teachable
heart. And you know what Moses did every time that trouble came
about? This shows you Christ is the head of his church. Every
time that trouble came about, Moses hid his face before God
and begged God's presence to come with him. Every time. And you know what the Lord did?
He'd send Moses with the Word to preach the Word to them and
God would chasten them in their heart and turn them and lead
them. Every time. That's how he does,
that's how he leads his church. It's Christ who's the head of
his church. This world's church is not governed that way. I told
you about when I went to talk to that banker who was a religious
man, and he told me about all these committees who everybody's
watching everybody, and everybody's governing everybody, and he said,
well, who governs you? The head of the church, Christ. And here's another thing that's
different than this world. is he makes his messenger preach
Christ and Christ alone. Somebody probably setting their
objection to what I'm saying about him using a man and saying,
well, papacy, they all look to the priest. That ain't the only
thing God does, make his church different from another. He makes
his man preach Christ. The Pope doesn't preach Christ.
The Pope says he's the vicar. He says he's the mediator. That
ain't so. He's just a man. He's just a
sinner. Christ is the mediator. And he's going to make his preacher
preach Christ. Because Christ is going to get
the glory for this thing. Christ is the one leading his people.
Christ is the one who's been, he created this world, he created
his people, he redeemed his people, he formed his church, he sends
his gospel, he's the one preaching the word. We didn't form this
church. If it's of God, Christ did it. And ain't a man here, the world
says you can't spell church without you, God can. And if it's His, He can make
us know that. He'll be a man that'll stand
up and tell you, I'm not that light. Christ sent me to bear
witness of that light. He's the light. He's the light. And His presence chastens and
restores and strengthens with the message that gives Christ
all the glory. Oh, the depths, the riches, both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His
judgments and His ways past finding out. Who's known the mind of
the Lord? Who's been His counselor? Who's first given to Him and
it'll be recompensed unto Him again? This is the message we
preach. Of Him and through Him and to
Him are all things to whom be glory forever. He's the only
one gonna get the glory. That's the message that separates
us from all other churches. Christ and Him crucified. And
then three, His presence makes His church walk by faith which
works by love. When He gives you faith in Him,
He makes you love Him and you want to serve Him. You love Him
and you want to serve Him. The devil is trying to criticize
you, the devil is trying to charge you, the devil is trying to use
whatever he can use to turn you from Christ to your own flesh
to something else. And God's child just wants Him
to be present. He just wants to honor Him. He wants to serve
Him. He wants to live for Him. That's what He wants to do. Every believer has a will to
obey Christ and give due diligence to live for Him. If we don't
want to live for Christ, if we really don't want to live for
Christ, we don't know Christ. It's just that simple. If we
know him, we're going to want to live for him. He makes a change in his people,
but don't make yourself the bar as to what that change is and
what it ain't. Don't set yourself up to be the
measurement of what is separation unto him and what's not. He has
to do that. He's the only one that can do
it. And not everybody grows at the
same rate. But He's doing the growing. And
He makes His child walk by faith, obeying Him, but especially when
a trial comes. He put us together with sinners
so that we're going to be offended. And that's when you find out
whether you really know Him or you don't know Him. Because He's going to make you
walk by faith then and love. You walk by faith knowing that
by His presence you believe He's really sovereign and He sent
the trial. And you believe that He sent
it to convince me personally I'm a sinner incapable of doing
anything by myself or working anything myself. That's what
He's going to teach us through a trial. And he shows us how fleshly we'll
respond at first. How fleshly and ugly and hateful
we'll respond at first. To show you, you really aren't
anything. And we need that constantly.
We need to know that constantly. Oh, we'll get ugly and we'll
get lifted up and we'll defend ourselves and we'll justify ourselves
and we'll accuse and we'll blame. If you're God's child, eventually
that's coming to an end. He'll let you do that to let
you see what you are, but eventually He's gonna make you believe Him
and walk by love. He just did. His presence makes
us walk by faith, trusting Him, convinced that He can do the
saving, and He makes faith and love reign over judgments. He keeps faith looking to Christ.
He keeps you believing He's going to work it out for good. He keeps
you patiently waiting on Him. And love, His presence makes
you love. And it makes you say this, how
would I treat this brother if this was my son? What if it was
my mother? He makes you love His brethren. How would I want others dealing
with my mother? I want them dealing like this,
the way I'm dealing. How do I want them to deal with
her? Love is the mother who shows
up at the car wreck, runs to her hurt child, comforts him,
and gets him to the physician because she loves him. Law is
the police officer shows up and immediately starts trying to
find out who's to blame and who to charge. Why? He don't love anybody at the
accident. Sometimes Christ lets us go to
Moab. We're just bound and determined.
Moab's the place to be, whether it's in the sin of our sin or
the sin of our self-righteousness. And nobody can tell us otherwise.
We're going to Moab. So he lets you go to Moab. And
he lets the fool's gold, to be seen what it really is, is fool's
gold. And he keeps working on you until
you're crying out and saying, don't call me Naomi anymore.
Just call me Mara. Call me bitter. But all the while, he's got his
brethren in whom he's working in his presence, strength of
faith and strength of love, so that they're bearing with you
and saying, the Lord's been gracious. He's brought bread to his house.
He's delivered bread to his house. And by and by, he turns you back
to the house of bread and brings you and reintroduces you to our
great Boaz. and restores that union and produces
that fruit, and you think, what a sanctifying, separating, gracious
Lord we have whose presence is always with us. That's not how
this world's church is governed. This world flies into a legal
spirit and they're going to bite and devour and accuse and constrain
and cast out the devils so they can glory in what flesh made
flesh do. That's just not how Christ's
church is going to operate. I'm not telling you something
I read in a book or read in a commentary. I'm telling you what I know by
experience from 30 years of being in fellowship with the same assembly
of churches. I know this is how Christ operates.
I've seen it. I'm a weak, worthless maggot
standing here in front of you. And ain't but one reason I still
believe him. That's his presence. That's the
only reason. He's shown me enough of what
I am to know that's the only reason. But that's what His presence
does. His presence puts us in Christ's way. His presence takes
us to the whole way, leads us, gives us rest, knowing He's never
going to let His child go out of the way. And His presence
governs his church and keeps his people united in faith and
love and it makes us separate from this whole religious world.
That's what he does. When mine enemies are turned
back, they shall fall and they'll perish. How? How's the enemy
in your flesh going to fall and perish? How's the enemy without
going to fall and perish? How's the enemy of the church
going to fall and perish? at thy presence. That's the only
way. It's His presence. You know when it thunders really
loud, what do we do? If you're outside and all of
a sudden just out of the blue, lightning cracks and it thunders,
what do you do? You go down. You bow. It's just reaction. When He makes
His presence known, that's exactly what you do. You bow. That's
a good bow. I pray He makes us do that. Amen.