When I was younger, I would go
and speak to my grandfather, who was my pastor. Things would
be going, just in my estimation, just going awful. Trouble would
be on us, and just be terrible things happening. And I would
go talk to him, and he would tell me, well, everything's just
fine. Everything's good. Everything's
just running right on track. I think I'm slowly learning what
he meant. When you truly believe that God's
leading His people by His Spirit, you can be sure that He will
lead them in the right way. He's leading us by His Spirit.
That's why Paul told the Galatians, if you're led of the Spirit,
You don't need the law. He's going to lead you in the
way you should go. You're not under the law, He
said. Because He will lead His people alright. He makes no mistakes. No mistakes. And that's what
we see here in this text today. As we see Moses go between the
Lord and the children of Israel. We see a picture of Christ our
Mediator, who is the go-between between God and His chosen people. Christ is able to show His child
our sin through the Spirit, through the preaching of the Word, and
He's able to bring us to mourn our sin. He's able to grant us
repentance so that we have a total change of mind and heart concerning
our sin. We hate it. And at the same time,
he's able through the Spirit to strengthen his child in faith
to make us flee to Christ and lay hold of him. And while he's
working this in his child, representing God to his child, he also represents
his child to God. And he's able to advocate for
us with the Father so that God continues his presence with
us and keeps us in communion with him so that he brings his
child, turning him from his sin, brings him to Christ and brings
the Father to where They meet in Christ and have communion
together. We don't like trouble and we
murmur when it comes, but this is when he teaches us this most
abundantly. It's when he shows us that he
really is ruling everything in heaven and earth, and he's really
able to lead his child in the way we should go. Elias is going to learn, well
he's already learned how to walk, You learn how to walk by falling
down. And God will allow us to fall down to show us He's the
one holding us up. He's the one making us stand.
He's the one leading His children. And that's what we see here in
our text. I want to show you a picture
of Christ granting repentance. Then we'll see Christ strengthening
faith. And then we'll see Christ restoring
communion. I want to preach from each one
of these sections individually because there's so much here,
but I just wanted to give you this overview at first so you
can see all this picture together. Now, first of all, Christ grants
us repentance. He says there in verse 1, and
the Lord said unto Moses, and you have Moses between the Lord
and the people. Picture Christ the mediator.
The Lord said to Moses, depart and go up thence, thou and the
people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt unto
the land which I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying
unto thy seed will I give it. Now the Lord said this to Moses.
This picture is Christ our mediator. As Moses went between the Lord
and the children of Israel, Christ is the mediator between God and
his people. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself
a ransom for all. And all for whom he gave himself
a ransom, he purchased from sin and death and hell, and they're
all his. And he's gonna testify to them
in due time and make them know it. He's the mediator between
God and men. Now in our text, God speaks of
the promise that God made to the patriarchs. He says, you
lead them to this land, this land that I promised Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob that I'd lead them to. Now, God fulfilled that
temporal promise. He led them to that land of Canaan.
Now think of this. The natural children of Israel,
before he ever came down out of the mount with the old covenant
law, they had made him a calf and had broken that whole law.
They had broken it all. Worshipped another god. And yet,
as soon as he gets finished with this, he tells Moses now, lead
him to the land I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God fulfilled that promise for
the Father's sake. He fulfilled it. He delivered
the natural children, the natural seed into the land of Canaan
because he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that's what
he would do. And he did it. Now brethren, that is a picture
of God's spiritual promises that he gives us through the everlasting
covenant of grace. That old covenant and those promises,
they were temporal promises in the old covenant, but it pictures
spiritual promises that he gives us through Christ. Now you think
about this, God is faithful to fulfill all his everlasting covenant
promises. He's faithful to do so. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were
his elect, they were spiritual children. And those that He's
going to save are the spiritual children of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. Now, if God, for the Father's
sakes, if He led these temporal children who had sinned against
Him and broken the whole law of God, if for the Father's sakes
He led them to that land He promised and fulfilled that promise to
them even though they broke every promise they made, then you and
I who believe on Christ can be certain of this, for Christ's
sake, for the fact that he's fulfilled the whole covenant
of grace for his people and honored and magnified the law on our
behalf, for his sake as well as for the Father's sakes, God
shall make good on every spiritual promise that he's made to us
and bring us into heavenly Canaan. If He did that for them, who
had broken His law and went ahead and delivered them into that
temporal land anyway, we can be certain He will do this for
His people. Notice His promise to Abraham
there at the end of verse 1. It says, I swear unto Abraham,
to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it. You know who the seed is? Christ
is the seed. Christ is the seed of Abraham
to whom God promised he would deliver him and his people. He's the seed who fulfilled the
everlasting covenant of grace. He came and worked everything
God gave him to do and he promised, I will lead you and all your
people into the glory I promised you before the world was. Go
to Galatians 3, let me show you that He is the seed that the
promise was made to. Just like God said, I made this
promise to the patriarchs, He made this promise to Christ first
and foremost. Look here, Galatians 3.13, Now
listen, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on the tree, that the blessing of Abraham, the
promise He made to Abraham, that it might come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of
the Spirit through faith. Now brethren, I speak after the
manner of men. I'm gonna give you an earthly
illustration here. Though it's just a man's covenant, just a
man make a covenant, yet if it be confirmed, if he's entered
into a covenant with an oath, no man can disannul that covenant
or add thereto. Now, to Abraham and his seed,
see it there, verse 16, now to Abraham and his seed were the
promises made. And he said not into seeds as
of many, but as of one, to thy seed, which is Christ. God made
that promise first and foremost to Christ. He says, and this
I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in
Christ That covenant was already confirmed of God in Christ. Before
the world was made, it was confirmed. He says the law, which was 430
years after, 430 years after he made that promise to Abraham,
the law entered. The old covenant law, we just
saw it given. But it cannot disannul that it
should make the promise of none effect. That's what God's showing
us here by going ahead and delivering the temporal children to that
temporal problem. He's saying my spiritual promise can't be
broken by the law. Now watch, for if the inheritance
be of the law, if it's of your works under the law in any way,
it's no more of promise. It ceased being the gospel of
God's promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Well, wherefore then serves the
law? It was added because of transgression till Christ should
come to whom the promise was made. He just said Christ is
the seed. It was just till Christ came
and fulfilled it. And it was ordained by angels
in the hand of a mediator. He's saying Moses going between
me and the mount and the children is a picture of Christ the mediator.
What I'm showing you here is a picture of Christ the mediator.
But he says, now he wasn't the mediator, he just pictured Christ,
because a mediator's not a mediator of one. Moses was a man, so he
couldn't represent God, he wasn't God. But Christ is God and man,
he could represent God and man. So verse 21, is the old covenant
law then against the new covenant promises of God? God forbid.
If there had been a law given which could have given life,
verily righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture
has concluded all under sin so that the promise by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ fulfilling the law for us might be given to
them that believe, that don't do anything, trust him alone.
He said, but before faith came, before Christ came, we were kept
under the law, shut up until the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. So the law was a schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.
But after that faith has come, we're not under the law anymore.
for you're all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Many of you's been baptized unto
Christ, have put on Christ, and there's neither Jew nor Greek,
there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female.
He's saying whether you're of the natural lineage of Abraham
and you're a natural Israelite or natural Jew or whether you're
a Gentile, that don't matter. Why? Because we're one in Christ. And if you're Christ, then are
you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So
what does this have to do with God giving us repentance? It's
God's faithfulness to us. It's our sin being made known
to us by God in the face of God's faithfulness in spite of our
sin. for the sake of Christ that makes
us see our sin as awful as it is. You get what I'm saying? It's beholding God's faithfulness
to continue to deliver us, to continue to make good on His
promise to Christ and to His people. It's that faithfulness
of God in the face, our sin in the face of his faithfulness,
that makes us really see how awful our sin is. And that's
what makes a child of God mourn his sin. And we see a picture
of that here, how God grants this repentance. He makes us
to see our sin, even though he's told us he's gonna still deliver
us. Watch in verse two. I'll send an angel before thee.
Now he's not saying God's presence, he's saying, a created angel
here, and I'll drive out the Cainite, the Amorite, the Hittite,
the Perizzite, the Hivite, the Jebusite. I'm gonna deliver you
as I promised, God said. I'm gonna drive out your enemies.
I'm gonna deliver you to a land flowing with milk and honey,
for I will not go up in the midst of thee. Now he's answering why
he said, I'm gonna send this angel. God said, but I'm not
going up in the midst of you, for you're a stiff-necked people,
lest I consume thee in the way. Now, what he's doing here is
a picture of God granting repentance through Christ. He sent Moses
down to tell them their sin. And God, through Christ Jesus,
through the preaching of his word, through the spirit of God,
he's gonna make us know our sin in our heart, like only he can
do. He's gonna say to you and me
who have sinned, you are the stiff-necked child. You're the
stubborn one. That's why it's so important
when we hear the gospel that we don't sit and hear the gospel
and think about others, because we're missing it if we do that.
If he's speaking to you, you won't hear it about others, you'll
hear it about yourself. You'll hear, he's talking to
me, I'm the stiff-necked one, I'm the stubborn one, I'm the
one that insists on sinning against God. And he'll make you to know
this, but then he tells you, but I'm still gonna fulfill my
promise to you. I'm still going to be faithful
to you. I'm still going to drive out your enemies. And He makes you to know this,
but at the same time, He makes you to sense that He has withdrawn
His presence from you. He said, I'm not going up in
the midst of them. Brethren, for Christ's sake, God will never
leave one for whom Christ died. If you've been born of his spirit,
he'll never leave you, he'll never forsake you. But he will
come to you and he will make you know your sin and he'll make
you perceive that his presence is drawn away, that you've lost
communion with him. If you're a believer and been
a believer for very long, you know what I'm talking about.
You've experienced it before. And that's an awful thing, a
believer hates that You have to have the Spirit of God to
perceive the Spirit of God drawn away. Now He never draws away,
He never leaves you completely, but He makes you think He has.
He makes you think He's not in your presence anymore. Listen
to this, the bitterness of this statement together with the promise
of this statement. Paul said in Ephesians 4.30,
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Oh, that's a bitter thing
when you know you've done that. You grieved the Holy Spirit of
God. But the second part says, whereby you're sealed unto the
day of redemption. He's not going to leave you.
He's sealed you. He's going to preserve you. But
He lets you know that you've grieved Him. He lets you know. It's a feeling of having displeased
God. It's an awareness that my sin
is against God and God only. And when he does that, that's
when you will sorrow godly sorrow. Look there in verse 4. And when
the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned. And no man did
put on him his ornaments, For the Lord had said unto Moses,
Say unto the children of Israel, your stiff-necked people, I will
come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee.
Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what
to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped
themselves of their ornaments by the Mount Horeb. The gospel
is good tidings. The gospel is good news. It's
good tidings of good things. But it's a two-edged sword. It's
how God mortifies our flesh, too. When the gospel comes in
spirit and you hear the gospel in spirit, he's going to mortify
that old man. He's going to put down that old
man of sin within the believer while he renews the new man.
And when he does this, gospel becomes afflicting news. It's
good news, but at the same time, it's afflicting news. This is
something somebody without the Spirit knows nothing about. Only
you who are born of the Spirit of God, who have an old man and
a new man, understand this. People say, how could you stand
to go hear the messages constantly telling you what a depraved sinner
you are, what a stiff-necked rebel you are? Because that same
gospel also tells us that all our salvation is in Christ. And
while it convicts us and while it makes us see our sin and puts
down our old man, at the same time, he's renewing the new man
and strengthening the inner man. And when he mortifies your flesh,
that's when you really mourn. True godly sorrow is not simply
over God exposing our sin. That's not godly sorrow. Just
to mourn because you got caught. That's not godly sorrow. Godly
sorrow is when you see our sin displeasing your Heavenly Father. When you see that He's displeased
with you, when you know that you don't have the communion
you've had before with Him, that's when you see your sin in light
of His faithfulness and you mourn your sin because it's against
Him. That's godly sorrow. And when
you love somebody, you want to please them. When you love somebody,
if they withdraw from you, you'll mourn and do everything to try
to get back in to their favor. So true godly sorrow works repentance. Look at verse 4. It says, no
man did put on him his ornaments. And then in verse six it says,
the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments
by the Mount Horeb. The idol that they made, remember,
was made out of the gold of their ornaments. And in another scripture
that's called their sin, because it was. And so what you have
here is a picture, you have some who didn't put on their ornaments,
and you have others who stripped themselves of their ornaments.
Christ's church is his body. and where each member's one of
another. And in every trial that he sins,
he's working in each member of his body. It's not ever for one
member of the body, it's for the whole body, always. And while he's making one mourn
his sin and put off the old man of sin, He's warning another
and teaching another and making them diligent not to put on the
old man of sin. He's working in us both at the
same time and only the Spirit of God can do this. Only the
Spirit of God can make you mortify your flesh. Only He can. If that
wasn't so, wouldn't you just quit sinning? No believer wants
to sin. We delight in the law of God.
If we could keep the law of God, we'd keep it. But we have this
man of sin with us so we can't do what we would do. But thankfully,
we have the Spirit of God so that that old man can't do everything
he'd do either. And he will mortify the old man. And while he does, he renews
the new. and he works repentance. Look at 2 Corinthians 7. I'll
show you the fruit of the Spirit when he does this. Paul said
this over in 2 Corinthians 7.10. He says, Godly sorrow worketh
repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow
of the world worketh death. If it's just a sorrow that you
know, for some temporal reason, that won't help at all. This
has got to be a spiritual sorrow that he works. For behold, this
selfsame thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness
it wrought in you, there's one of the fruits, it means diligence.
It made you diligent, it woke you up and it made you diligent.
Yea, what clearing of yourselves, that's the word from where we
get apology. It made you apologize, I made you sorry. Yea, what indignation,
righteous anger against self. I abhor myself in sackcloth and
ashes, scripture said. Yea, what fear, he renews a reverence
for God, a reverence for Christ in your heart. What vehement
desire, that's for Christ, for God's presence, for communion,
it makes you have a strong desire. Yea, what zeal,
that's jealousy for Christ. You don't want him to be offended
or displeased or dishonored. Yea, what revenge, it makes you
take revenge on your own sinful flesh. In all things, you've
approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. And then in 2
Corinthians 2 and verse 7, he shows us what God's heart is. This was Paul's heart towards
the man who had repented who the Lord had given repentance. Now this is God's heart right
here. It was Paul's heart toward him and it's God's heart toward
you when he made you to repent. Verse 7, he says, now contrarywise
you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps
such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. Wherefore
I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him. That's what God's going to do
in his child. That's what he's going to do
in his child. Let's go back to our text and we'll see it. This is the
second point. He strengthens faith when he
grants us repentance. And it makes us leave the old
behind and go to Christ. when he does this. Look at verse
7, Exodus 33, 7. And Moses took the tabernacle.
Now this was a smaller tent. This is not the big tabernacle
that he just got the pattern for. This is a small tent they
had set up as they traveled. He set up the tabernacle. He
pitched it without the count afar off from the count. And
he called it the tabernacle of the congregation. And it came
to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle
of the congregation which was without the count. When He grants
you repentance, He grants faith, and He strengthens faith, and
He makes you go out the camp to Christ. He makes you leave
the camp. Listen to this, Hebrews 13, 12, Jesus also that He might
sanctify the people with His own blood suffered without the
gate, outside of Jerusalem. Let us go forth therefore unto
Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. leave the camp
and go to him. For here we have no continuing
city. There's nothing we ought not
be willing to leave for Christ, nothing. Because nothing we have
here is lasting. But we seek one to come. By him,
therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to his name. Repentance. and faith are two
sides of the same coin. You can't have one without the
other. It's like having a piece of paper. They're gonna have
two sides. When he grants your repentance, he's gonna strengthen
your faith. And he's gonna make you go out of the camp to Christ,
bearing whatever reproach you have to. He's gonna make you
go out of the camp of your own sin. He's gonna make you abhor
your sin and turn you from it for Christ. He'll make you go
out of the camp of the indifferent, the lukewarm, who are religious
but could care less one way or the other. He's going to make
you go out of the camp of the self-righteous. You're not going
to care what any man says. You're going to Christ. And He's
going to make you go out of the camp of anything that would separate
you from Him and make you flee to Christ. This is what He does
through faith. And it's submission to Christ.
It's worship of Christ in the heart. Look here. It's between
us and God and Moses is The picture of the mediator, look at verse
8. And it came to pass when Moses went out into the tabernacle,
all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door and
looked after Moses until he was gone into the tabernacle. They
had respect for Moses. When he went to that tabernacle,
they came to the door and they stood there as he went by. He's
gonna create that fear, that reverence for Christ, our mediator. Now watch, and it came to pass
as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the pillar descended and stood
at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.
That's a picture of Christ standing between God and his people, between
our heavenly Father and his people. And all the people saw the cloudy
pillar stand at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose
up and worshiped every man in his tent door. They had reverence
for the mediator. And when they saw the Lord, they
bowed and they worshiped him. They submitted to Christ. And
the Lord spake to Moses face to face as a man speaks unto
his friend. And he turned again into the
camp, Moses did. But his servant Joshua, the son
of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. So
picture Christ going before the Father, just like Moses went
before the Lord, And Christ has communion with the Father on
behalf of his people as our advocate. And when he does this, he gives
you faith and he makes you go to Christ without the camp. Makes
you go to Christ and believe on Christ and submit to Christ
and worship Christ. And then we have communion with
God in Christ. This was a picture of Moses restoring
that presence and that communion they had lost. He's doing it,
but God's gonna do it through faith. We're gonna stand in reverence
before our Lord within our abode, in our tent, in our heart, and
we're gonna be made to bow to Christ. This is how this communion
is going to be restored. And as God speaks with Christ
face-to-face, as with a friend, remember Christ said of his disciples,
that I call you friends. As Moses spoke with God face-to-face
as the friend, he was speaking on behalf of them. And he was
bringing them back into communion with God. as a friend. And that's what Christ does for
his people. And then look, not only did Moses
do that with God at the tabernacle, he would turn and go back to
the people and talk to the people. Christ is representing us to
the Father, but He's representing the Father to us as well. And
you see this in Moses and Joshua. Even though Moses went out of
the tabernacle and went back to the people, Joshua, whose
name means Jesus, whose name means the one by whom you'll
be delivered, he stayed in the presence of the Lord. And there's
a picture there of Christ. Whenever Christ comes to his
child, and he's ministering to us, and he's bringing us into
communion with the Father, he's always the Lord Jesus in the
presence of the Father. He's the one by whom you'll be
delivered. So he's never in one place or the other. He's in his
child, and he's with the Father. And he's bringing us together
in one, just like Moses was doing for them. Now lastly, by his
intercession for us, by Christ's intercession for us. He turns
us from our sin, makes us to believe on Christ and seek communion
through Christ, submission to Christ. And as he does that,
he restores that communion with us, the presence we have with
God. Look at this, verse 12. And Moses
said to the Lord, see thou sayest unto me, bring up this people,
and thou shalt not let me know whom thou will send with me.
Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found
grace in my sight. In Christ, God knows each of
his people by name. We have Christ's name, we wear
Christ's name. and we found grace in God's sight,
free unmerited favor in God's sight. We didn't do anything
to earn it. Now watch, now therefore I pray
thee. Now you picture Christ interceding
for us. 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. You ever prayed anything like
that? Lord, be gracious to me. Lord, these are your people.
Save your people, commune with your people, be gracious to your
people, show us the way, Lord. And Christ presents that petition
to the Father perfect, perfect, like Moses was representing them
to the Lord. Look, here's the result. And
the Lord said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give
thee rest. When Christ intercedes for us,
God says, I'll go with you. My presence shall be with my
people. I'll commune with my people. And Moses said, he says
this for our benefit, if your presence doesn't go with us,
don't carry us up hence. Wherein shall it be known here
that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not
that thou goest with us? 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. It's only
by God's presence with us that we're sanctified. A man is sanctified
and made holy when Christ, the Holy One, through the Holy Spirit,
enters into him and gives him a new Holy Spirit, he is sanctified. He is made holy because he is
one with Christ. And as He is present with us
in our midst collectively, but in our hearts individually, He
keeps His child separated from sin and death and hell and anything
that would separate us from Christ. What shall separate us from the
love of God in Christ? Paul gave that long list of things
and he said, nope, none of those things gonna separate us. Why?
Because you got Christ in you keeping you separated from all
those things. He's our sanctification and the
only way, the only thing that makes us to differ from every
other child in this world is Christ keeping us separated.
The presence of God in our hearts, working in us. And this is what
Paul meant when he said, if you're led of the Spirit, you're not
under the law. The world doesn't believe this. The religious world
doesn't believe this. God is working in the hearts
of his people. You know what we really need
to do for one another? When anybody's overtaken in a thought, we need
to remind them what Christ has done, who He is, what He's doing
now, how that He's God, He's able, how that He's all power
and He's able to work in the heart, He's able to turn, He's
able to keep, He's able to keep us at His feet, trust in
Him. Because it's through the same
Word by which He separated us in the first hour that He keeps
working in the hearts of His people and leading us. But we say we don't believe Him
when we try to affect obedience by some other way. It's the only
way. It's the only way. It's why I
don't stand here and preach law to you and preach works to you
because the way he's going to do this is through the message
that gives his son all the glory. And he's going to enter in and
correct his children and lead his children. When Paul said,
if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law, it's
the same as saying, if you be led of the Spirit, you don't
have to bite and devour one another with the law like you're doing.
Because it's not a Gentile or a Jew that makes a difference.
It's not what you've done with the works of your hands that
makes a difference. It's being made a new creation.
It's the Spirit of God making you new. And brethren, in a sense,
He's continually renewing us in the knowledge of Christ after
His image and continually putting down the old man and renewing
the new man. And it's through this Word that
He does it. He does it for Christ's sake.
As long as Christ is our mediator, as long as he's the head of his
people, as long as he's the prophet, as long as he's the priest, as
long as he's the king, as long as he's our righteousness and
our holiness, our wisdom and our redemption, as long as he
is all, He will not allow one of His children to be separated
from Him. Nothing will separate us from
Him. He'll keep His people following Christ. You can just mark that
down. He hadn't lost one yet, and He
never will. I pray that'll be a blessing
to you.