May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of the Exodus, chapter 33, and we'll read verse 14. The book of Exodus, chapter 33,
and reading verse 14. And he said, my presence shall
go with thee. and I will give thee rest." We see how wonderful it is that
Almighty God condescends to speak to his people. And as he spoke
here to his servant Moses. And of course it was a time when
Moses particularly needed to know that the Lord was going
to be with him. Because in this account in Exodus
we can see that in the previous chapter there was the occasion
when Moses was in the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments
from Almighty God and much instruction and he was there for those 40
days and 40 nights and The Israelites, they got impatient. And they
didn't want to wait any longer. So therefore, they approached
Aaron. And very surprisingly, they got
him to make an idol. And he was willing to do so.
He told all the Israelites to come and to take off their golden
earrings and give them to him. And he melted them down and made
a calf, a golden calf, and all the people were found worshipping
the calf, dancing around, and many of them naked. It was a
very disgraceful and evil and wicked situation. And it's amazing
how that such a people, so wonderfully and gloriously blessed with that
tremendous deliverance from Egypt, in just a relatively short time
turned into such a sad and solemn situation. Well, God does not
wink at such an occasion. And we find out that, in actual
fact, the people were plagued. The Lord sent a plague upon them. And many of them died in that
plague. And we then come and we find
the Lord speaking to Moses in this 33rd chapter in the beginning.
He says, depart and go up hence. thou and the people which thou
has 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. And I will send an angel before
thee, and I will drive out the Canaanites, and the Hittites,
and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
unto a land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go
up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people,
lest I consume thee in the way. So the Lord therefore spoke these
very solemn words, having now told them what he had said, and
now because of their sinful condition, he said, but I will not go up
in the midst of thee. without a stiff-necked people,
lest I consume thee in the way." But of course that had a very
real effect upon the Israelites. They now realized what they had
said and what they had done. So what did they do? They mourned. They were sorry. They mourned
and no man did put on him his ornaments. The Lord said unto
Moses, say unto the children of Israel, ye are a 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. The
children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount
Horeb. And Moses took the tabernacle
and pitched it without the camper far off from the camp and called
it the tabernacle of the congregation. It came to pass that everyone
that sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation
which was without the camp. So we see how there was that
desire then to turn away from their sinful condition and to
repent of the sinful situation which they had done. And we see
the wonderful mercy of God. compassion so great. And we should
be encouraged in the day and age in which we live to realise
we have a great God who is still the same, who is still a compassionate
God, who does not deal with us today as our sins deserve. And the Lord came down Because
as Moses went into the tabernacle, it came to pass as Moses entered
in, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the
tabernacle and the Lord talked with Moses. What condescension! What favour! What blessing! And all the people saw that Moses
was in this situation and all the people rose up and worshipped. every man in his tent door. The Lord spoke unto Moses face
to face, as 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." And so we have the
backgrounds to this 14th verse here in the situation, and we
can see it was a very real and a very solemn position that Israel
was in. And now Moses comes and he addresses
the Lord. And he says, 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 have 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."
Now, this desire was a very good and a great desire. And we need
to read such a statement carefully, because he prayed to God, he
sought to God, And in praying to God, he said this, if I found
grace in thy sight, what a blessing if you and I come to God like
that. Because grace, of course, is the unmerited favor of God. And it'd be a great blessing
if you and I, therefore, found God's favor. Not because of anything
that we have done to justify ourself, but because of his mercy,
because of his love toward us, that he has shown to us his grace. And so Moses comes on this ground
and he says, if I have found grace in thy sight. And if you
and I come like that today before God with that desire, if I have
found grace in thy sight. What did he say? said this, show
me now thy way and what way was that that he wanted to be shown. See often perhaps we may come
and we pray well Lord show me thy way, nothing wrong in that
at all. We need the Lord to show us his way but Moses went on
and we see a greater situation, show me now thy way that I may
know thee. Often perhaps we forget to follow
up a very simple desire that the Lord would show us his way
and forget to carry on with these vital words, that I may know
thee. Because surely we don't want
to find ourselves just in a way without God. Surely we want to
be found in a way with God and in a way that we might know the
Lord as our God and indeed we might know the Lord Jesus Christ. How important it is then that
we have a right desire and a right prayer Here Moses came and said,
show me now thy way that I may know thee. Well I wonder whether
we do pray that. I'm sure probably many of us
have prayed, show me thy way. But have we gone on to say that
in that way it may be a way of blessing,
it may be a way of union and favour with the Lord. We may
come to a greater knowledge of himself. So this really is the
path of the true Christian. It's not just to live in this
world and to gain and be prosperous and thought well of and everything
else. The great essence of our life
is to know the Lord Jesus Christ and to know him more. A prayer
often expressed, which is a good prayer, that we may know Him,
as the Apostle said, and the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings, and be made conformable unto
His image. This should be the real and true
desire of the true believer, not just seeking for natural
guidance. Nothing wrong, my friends, In
seeking for natural guidance, we do need natural guidance,
but above natural guidance, far above natural guidance, we need
the Lord to come and to bless us, that we may know him, that
I may know thee. Again, don't forget the Apostle
Paul, the words I've just quoted, as he wrote to the Philippians,
the Apostle knew the Lord, But he wanted to know Him more. He
didn't settle down and say, well, that's good enough, I know. No,
he wanted to know the Lord more. And what a good thing it is when
God comes and graciously and sovereignly puts in our heart
that real concern that we might know Thee, that we might grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Well, this morning, you and I
stand before God, don't we? I wonder whether we come here
this morning with a concern, a spiritual concern, that we
might know Thee, that we might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou sent." That was the desire. That was the prayer of God's
servant Moses. And these things are recorded
for our benefit. They're recorded for our instruction.
How very often it is that I'm afraid you and I don't seem to
read the Word of God as we really should. And we take the first
phrase as it were and don't perhaps follow on to what it really means
or what it really contains. When the Apostle Paul was before
Festus and before Agrippa, in the 26th chapter of Acts, you
may remember that the apostle was wonderfully blessed to give
a good account before Agrippa and before Festus. And as he
comes down to the end of that testimony, He says this, verse
22 in the 26th chapter, having therefore obtained help of God,
I continue unto this day. Now, many people may make such
a quotation and say rightly and feelingly, yes, I've obtained
help of God and therefore I've continued unto this day. And
we often forget to move on. to what the Apostle spoke before
that great company. He said, I continue unto this
day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other
things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come,
that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that
should rise in the dead. and should show light unto the
people and to the Gentiles." Let us not forget, you see, such
words as this. He says, having therefore obtained
help of God, I continue unto this day, and he goes on. And
my friends, you and I might be able to say, having obtained
help of God unto this day, but can we go on? Can we say what
the Apostle said here? That's a very great statement. And my friends, it's a very searching
statement. And the Apostle, he wasn't afraid,
he wasn't embarrassed to speak of the great truths of God wherever
he was. And indeed, whenever an opportunity
presented itself, he took the opportunity. When he was in Athens,
when he was in the marketplace, by himself, he went and spoke
about the things of God, witnessing both the small and great, whoever
it was, a poor person, a worthy person, the king, whoever it
was. So let us realise there are these continuing things and
let us not therefore just take a word and latch onto it and
forget what follows. We have this here then, in these
words, in this situation. Show me now thy way." And the
great important thing was, that I may know thee. Well, let us
examine ourselves with regard to such a statement. No doubt,
and I hope we have prayed that the Lord would show and direct
us his way. Perhaps he's been very gracious,
but has our concern been to know him more, that I may know thee,
that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this
nation is thy people." Well, the Lord was very gracious. And
what a wonderful thing it is when the Lord is gracious to
us today. And let us not forget what he
asked for. Let's not shorten it. Let's not cut it down. Let us
realise what Moses asked for, what he prayed for. And therefore,
sometimes we might pray for only, as it were, half what we should
pray for. Sometimes we are afraid, perhaps,
to pray for greater blessings. But the Lord knows how to bring
about those blessings. And the good news is, the Lord's
ways are higher than our ways. Sometimes people might think
that the Lord will cause them to go through great times of
illness and sickness and affliction to enjoy the favours and blessings
of God. Well, the Lord doesn't tell us
that at all. And we make an assumption. The
Lord can bless us in that way which seems good for him. And
you know, I think sometimes of those words, and I speak them
sometimes, that the Apostle Paul wrote when he wrote to the Romans,
the goodness of God leads us to repentance. It's not the stick,
it's not the whip, it's the goodness of God. that leads us to repentance. And what a blessing it is when
you and I realise the goodness of God toward us in not dealing
with us as our sins so richly deserve. The goodness of God. He hasn't cut us off. Indeed,
as the Word of God describes it, a cumbra of the ground. He
doesn't cut us off. We deserve to be cut off. What
does he do? He deals with us in love to our
soul. Exceedingly humbling, isn't it?
To think that instead of the Lord showing to us his anger
and his wrath, he shows to us his love. How humbling. And what does that love do? It shows us himself. that I may know thee. And in that position, the presence
of God is going with us. We cannot ask for any greater
blessing than this, to know God's presence is with us, to reveal
himself unto us, that he does not unto the world. So often we think of God's presence
going with us, so that we prosper in this world, so that all things
are nice and smooth and calm and everything is good, but we
seem to forget and forsake the great requirement we have of
the health of our soul. How very important it is that
our soul may be in health. I think more and more of the
importance that when we ask each other, how are you today? Are we asking, how is your soul
today? That's more important, isn't
it? Than our bodily health, isn't it? And you may say, well why
is that? Because our soul lives forever,
our body doesn't. The health of our soul. is the
most important thing. The knowledge of Christ is the
most important thing. The knowledge of natural things
is not so important. I'm not saying it's not important. It's not so important. But the
knowledge of Christ is far more important, because if you and
I have a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Saviour, then we have an eternal inheritance. And what we shall
inherit is that which the Lord promised to Moses when he said,
My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. You see, everyone to whom the
Lord grants his presence and grants his blessing in a spiritual
way, will be blessed with the wonderful favour of eternal rest. Well, have we prayed that we
might know the presence of God with us, that he might indeed
enlarge our coast? Remember that very simple prayer
we read in the Chronicles of that man called Jabez when he
saw it, and he said, O that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and
enlarge my coast. That means to have an enlargement
of mind with regard to spiritual blessings, to have an enlargement
as regards to the great work of salvation. And it's very good
to ponder that blessed subject, the work of salvation. to realise
it goes back into eternity, between the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit, who are all involved in our salvation. There's a great depth And you
and I should seek to therefore grow in this grace and the knowledge
of our Saviour, and grow in grace in the knowledge of our Father
in heaven, and grow in grace with regard to the work of the
Holy Spirit in our hearts. Sometimes people are happy with
an experience, and they rest upon it, The true Christian is
found pressing toward the mark set before them in the Gospel.
The true Christian doesn't want to stand still. The true Christian
doesn't want to stagnate. The true Christian desires the
blessing of the Lord to be shown to them and the blessing of the
Lord to be shown to them in the revelation of the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, Moses' prayer was, show
me now thy way that I may know thee. And then the promise was,
my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. And so today, let us pause for
a moment and let us think whether God's presence has gone with
us to reveal more and more the blessed work of the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. You might say, well of course
the Lord's presence has gone with me, and I've been helped
in this and helped in that, and that's good my friends, and bless
God for it. But do not stop there. It is
spiritual blessings which we need. Because in this day and
age in which we live, this material age in which we live, we find
there is so much striving after the things of time rather than
the things of eternity. We often act as though we were
living here always. and forgetting that here we have
no continuing city, but we seek one to come. And if we are seeking
one to come, have we that desire then to find the blessing of
the Lord? verse in Scripture which I often
quote and is very relevant to our daily life in all its aspects. It is the words of Jesus in the
11th chapter of Mark, 11th chapter of Matthew, as he comes towards
the end of that chapter. And the Lord says, at that time
Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight.' Well, has the Lord revealed
himself unto us as our great and glorious Saviour? Has he
revealed himself to us as our suffering Saviour? Has He revealed
Himself to us as the sin-atoning Saviour? Has He revealed Himself
as that One who gave His life as that complete sacrifice in
order to take away our sin? All these things are so relevant,
and yet so often we seem satisfied with just a form without the
reality, without the blessing. And so here we have the words
of Jesus when he says, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because thou hast hid these things that are wise
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, those who are
wise and prudent in the things of time. All that wisdom and
prudence will leave them when they die. But those who have
had the blessing of the truth of God revealed unto us as babes,
that means young and very small and not able to do very much
and yet receiving the Word of God. And so the Lord goes on,
all things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth
the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. My friends, have we had the Father
revealed to us, the love of the Father, the love of the Father,
how glorious it is, how great it is, has the Son revealed Him
to us. And then He goes on to say, come
unto Me, come unto Me. We're not to stand back. We are
to come unto Him. All ye labour and are heavy laden.
We may labour and we may be heavy laden, because of the burden
of sin, which seems to separate us from our God. Which it does. Which it does. You won't be able
to sin. You won't be able to enter into
all manner of sin. You won't be able to go into
bad places and mix with bad company and say bad things and it not
have an effect. It will have an effect. It will
have a separating effect. And bless God if such an effect
has brought us into a condition of being before God heavy laden,
because of our foolishness, because of our sinfulness. And therefore,
how grateful we should be. We have such a wonderful word.
Come unto me such as like that. Come unto me. He tells us, and
I will give you rest. Rest. And this is rest in Christ. You won't be able to rest in
yourself. Not at all. You run away from yourself. Rest. He says, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. You see, here's a blessing. Learning
of Christ. This is a blessing. Not learning
of natural things. Sometimes we seem to spend too
much time trying to learn about natural things, about the latest
developments in science and learn about history and all those things.
Well, no, says the Lord. He says this. And learn of Me. Learn of Christ. That's the vital
thing. There's nothing more important. And how slow we are to learn,
aren't we? How slow we are. How needful we need the Lord
to give us that grace to understand such a truth as this, to realize
the blessing of this, my presence shall go with thee and I will
give thee rest as the Lord goes on to say, and learn of me for
I am meek and lowly in heart. And ye shall find rest unto your
souls. The humbling condition is this,
the Lord Jesus, he comes down to where we are. He comes right
down to where we are. He lifts us up. We might be on
the ground. We might be so low in repentance
before God. And he comes and takes us by
hand. He lifts us up and stands us upon our feet. What a gracious
saviour we have. Learn of me. We learn of his
gracious and glorious compassion. And as he says, I am meek and
lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. You shall find rest unto your
souls. We may be restless. We may seem to be making no progress. in the Christian life, which
may seem to be the same as it were years ago. We don't seem
to be making any progress. My friends, perhaps we haven't
been reading the Word of God carefully enough. Perhaps we're
making wrong assumptions. Perhaps we haven't been praying
rightly. Perhaps we've been listening to the devil. who's stopped us
in our prayers and perhaps endeavoured to show us the wrong way instead
of the right way. My friends, don't forget the
devil doesn't want us to know Christ. He doesn't want us to
rejoice in Christ. He doesn't want to have fellowship
with Christ. He hates it. He'll do all he can to turn us
away. Bless God for the Word of God.
which gives us so many encouragements to come to him and to seek unto
him, just as Moses did when he came and said, show me now thy
way that I may know thee. And to have that gracious answer,
my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. You
see, these are the words of God. This is the experience of the
people of God. This is the testimony of the
people of God. And when the Apostle Paul wrote
to the Romans and in the blessed 8th chapter, he tells us this,
for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons
of God. And previous to that, it comes
like this, he says, therefore brethren, we are debtors not
to the flesh. We don't owe our flesh anything.
To live after the flesh. For if we live after the flesh,
you shall die. But if ye through the Spirit
do mortify, that means put to death the deeds of the body,
ye shall live. And quite clearly that is something
very difficult, to put to death the things that perhaps you and
I enjoy doing. We have another word in the Word
of God which goes further when it tells us to crucify our flesh. And that means dealing with it,
however painful it may be. For if ye live after the flesh,
ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the flesh, the body, ye shall live. For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. He goes on, and I will just read
two more verses. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We are able to
come. We are able to call our God in
heaven Father. What a blessing it is. He is
the Father of all his children. And this also, the Spirit also,
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. To the true believer, We have
the evidence that we are the children of God. It is something
to be known, and it is something to rejoice in, and it is something
to praise God for. And why? It's because he's given
us his grace. now than if he has. So says the
Lord here, through the Apostle Paul, and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Well, you can carry on the well-known
words in the 8th Romans, but my friends, to the true Christian,
of course there's suffering. Of course the suffering, in mortifying
the flesh, that is suffering to our old nature. But it will
pass. And by God's grace, we shall
be found in glory. And we shall know the great truth
of this. My presence shall go with thee throughout our life,
and I will give thee rest. And that will be rest in this
life, and eternal rest. Rest because we have the evidence
that God is with us. Moses had the evidence that God
was with him. He needed it. So do we today. We need the presence of God with
us. We need to enjoy the fellowship
of the Saviour, not just as some imaginative figure, somebody
we read about, but a very personal engagement with the blessed Lord
Jesus Christ. so that we do realize he is our
friend, a brother born for adversity, our gracious God, our master,
our Lord. They're all joined together.
What a wonderful favor then to be united to Christ. Oh, my friends,
may we praise God if we are able to pray like this. Show me now
thy way that I may know thee. Whatever that way is, that we
might know the Lord. Not a way just to prosper ourselves,
the way wherein we may know the Lord. What a blessing that is,
what a prayer that is, what a desire it should be. And then to have
the answer from God himself, my presence shall go with thee
and I will give thee rest. The psalmist tells us in the
16th psalm of the wonderful favour of such words as this. In the
16th psalm we read in the last verse, Thou wilt show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy. at thy right hand are pleasures
for evermore. Now David was able to testify
of what the Lord had done for him. He tells us this, the Lord
is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest
my lot. The lions have fallen unto me
in pleasant places Yea, I have a goodly heritage. He looked
forward, you see, to the end of his life. I will bless the
Lord who has given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me. In
the night seasons, that means his heart. I have set the Lord
always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not
be moved. These are great words, my friends.
Oh, you and I might be able to Confirm them that the Lord may
have given us that grace. As he gave to Moses, as he gave
to David, as he does to give, he gives to himself, I have set
the Lord always before me, not just on Sunday morning when you
come to chapel, but every day, always. Therefore my heart is
glad and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption. Speaking of course prophetically
about the glorious Saviour, thou wilt show me the path of life,
in thy presence is fullness of joy. Now may we observe the gracious
words that we read here in this account. In this account in Exodus,
As Moses has this conversation with God. My friends, may we
have conversations with God. What a blessing when He comes. When He comes and blesses us
with a spirit of prevailing prayer. And this doesn't occur every
day. My friends, it's a blessing when it comes. And your heart
goes out to God. The words flow. Fellowship with
the Saviour. And so, Moses said, Unto the
Lord, see thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people that thou
hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast
said, I know thee by name, and thou hast said, also found grace
in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
if I have 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 will give thee rest. And the promises of
God never fail.