Let us turn again to God's Word
in the portion, the chapter that we read, Exodus 23. I'm directing you for a while
this morning to the words that we find here at verse 20 through
to verse 23. Exodus 23, reading from verse 20, I send an angel before thee to
keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which
I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. But if
thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then
I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto
thine adversaries. For mine angel shall go before
thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites,
and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
and I will cut them off. Consider then what is said here
concerning the angel of the Lord, and really it is a promise of
Christ. It's a promise of Christ that
we have then in these verses that we've just read in Exodus
23 through to 23. What is the promise? Well, we have the promise here
of God's leadings through all the wilderness. And then after
that, if we'd have continued reading, We see it's the promise
also of that provision that God will make in the land from verse
24 through to verse 26. What does God say? Verse 25. He shall serve the Lord your
God, He shall bless thy bread and thy water. I will take sickness
away from the midst of thee, there shall nothing cast there
young, nor be barren in thy land. The number of thy days will I
fulfill, every provision to be made, and then also What follows
is the promise of the subduing of all their enemies, from verse
27 right through to the end of the chapter. Verse 27, I will send my fear
before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom they shall
come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto
thee, and I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive
out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before
the verse 30, by little and little I will drive them out from before
until they'll be increased and inherit the land. All of these
promises then are given with regards to how the Lord God himself
is going to lead and guide and direct and bring them into the
possession of that land that he had promised to Abraham and
to Isaac and to Jacob. But centering attention, as I
say, upon what we have here in the verses 20 through to 23,
the promise of the angel. Who is the angel? Well, it is
certainly not a created being. But it is God Himself. As I said,
it is a promise of Christ. It anticipates the incarnation. In the fullness of time, God
will send forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
without controversy. Paul says, great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And in the angel, the angel of
the Lord, we have in the Old Testament what is referred to
as a theophan, it's an appearance of the Son of God in a human
form. And as I say, it is that that
is an anticipation of what God would do in the time that he
had appointed from all eternity. Look at what is said concerning
this angel in verse 21. Beware of him, says the Lord
God, beware of him and obey his voice, provoke him not for he
will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him. It is God's prerogative to forgive
sins. As the psalmist says, that was
the God that forgave us though thou tookest vengeance upon their
inventions God does forgive sins he is a God ready to forgive
and when we have Christ as he comes in the fullness of the
time in the New Testament we see him as that one who is the
forgiver of sins Remember in Mark 2 when those men bring their
paralysed friends to the place where Christ is and seek healing. What does the Lord say to the
paralysed man? Thy sins be forgiven. And there were scribes who were
present on that occasion and there they murmured and they
said, right, who can forgive sins but God only? And then the Lord Jesus Christ
goes on to demonstrate that he is God by healing the man when
he says take up my bed and walk. We see him then there in that
miracle revealing something of his deity. He is that one who
has power to raise a man paralyzed, give the man legs as it were,
but also there we see him as one who has authority to pardon
sins. We know that in the wilderness
the Lord Jesus Christ certainly was there with the children of
Israel because the Apostle says as much there in 1 Corinthians
chapter 10 how many a time they were guilty those Hebrews of
provoking the Lord, of tempting the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 10.9
Paul says, neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted
and were destroyed of serpents. How was Christ with them? It
is Christ who is here. Christ who is this angel of the
Lord. Furthermore, see what God says
in this 21st verse with regards to the angels. God says, My name
is in Him. My name is in Him. And think
of the ministry of Christ and the words of the Lord Jesus in
the course of His ministry. There in John 14, 11 He declares,
I am in the Father, and the Father in me. Why? He is the only begotten
of the Father. The Father begets, the Son is
begotten in the great mystery of the doctrine of God, the doctrine
of the Triniton. I and my Father are one, he says. And we see here how they are
one in the language that follows in verse 22. God says, if thou
shalt indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak, His voice
and what God speaks is one and the same thing. These are parallel
statements that we have at the beginning of this 22nd verse. This angel then, of whom we read
in the text this morning, is none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I want, as we consider the
verses for our text, to observe with you some four things concerning
this promise of Christ the angel of the Lord. First of all, see
how the angel is identified with God's very presence. Wasn't that
the promise that God gave later in chapter 33 of this book, after
the awful episode of the golden calf? They'd grown weary of Moses
being away in the mount those 40 days, and Aaron in his folly
had made them a calf, and they thought they presumed to worship
the Lord God by means of this image. And yet God had commanded
quite explicitly they were to make no graven images, though
God would disinherit them. Moses comes down from the mount,
Moses breaks the tables of the commandments there at the foot
of the mount the covenant is broken now and God will disinherit
them but Moses stands there before the Lord God as a mediator for
them, pleads for them and though God would disinherit them Moses
longs that the Lord would yet have mercy and that he would
still lead them and direct them and take them forth into that
land that he had promised. He had delivered them out of
Egypt, but they must yet come into the possession of that promised
land. And there in chapter 33 and verse
14, in response to the pleadings and the prayers of Moses, God
does ultimately say, My presence shall go with them. But the word
that we have there present is literally the word face. My face,
God says, my face shall go with them. And God reveals himself,
God shows himself. We see the face of God in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can go back further in scripture
to the experience of Jacob. in Genesis 32 at the place called
Peniel where as he is returning and he's fearful remember as
to the meeting he's going to have with his brother Esau and
he sends all his family and his servants before him and there
at the brook he meets with the angel of the Lord this angel
the same angel, the angel of the Lord meets with Jacob and
Jacob wrestles with the angel and he will not let the angel
go except he bless him and remember it was Jacob who gave the brook
that name Penia which literally means the face of God Jacob called
the name of the place Penia For he said, I have seen God face
to face. Oh, he'd seen the very face of
God in that angel and his life had been spared because no man
can look upon God and live. Oh, it's the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. And we have all the fullness
of that of course when we come to the New Testament. As Paul
says here in 2 Corinthians 4.6, God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is Christ who is that one
who is the image of the invisible God. Or the wonder of it that
God who really is altogether unknowable because he is the
eternal, the infinite one altogether above and beyond our comprehension
and yet how God has revealed himself and how it is only in
Christ no man has seen God at any time the only begotten Son
who is in the bosom of the Father he has declared We sang it just
now, did we not, in our opening praise? See where it shines,
in Jesus' face, the brightest image of His grace, God in the
person of His Son, as all His mightiest works outdone. Of all the great works of God,
that that we have when we come to the New Testament, ultimately,
and the coming of Christ and the revelation of God, in the
person of the Savior and that remarkable work that he accomplished
in reconciling sinners unto God. This is the angel then. Here
is that one who is the revealer of God, the face of God. Didn't God say to them when he
brought them out of Egypt there in chapter 13 that he would go
before them in a cloudy fiery pillar a pillar of cloud by day
a pillar of fire by night we have it there the promise at
the end of chapter 13 the Lord God and that is the triune God
Father, Son and Holy Ghost going before them but how God reveals
himself ultimately in the second person in the Godhead, in the
person of his only begotten son. And look at the language that
we have here in the text and how we see a distinction in the
persons. God speaks, the Lord God speaks. Behold! I send an angel before
thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place
which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice,
and provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions,
for my name is in him." God speaks, of course, in the first person.
God says, I. I will send. God says, My. my name. But then we have the third person,
we have the angel and he's referred to as he, him, his. There's a distinction of persons
here. And of course Moses, who is the
author, the human author of the book, Moses is writing under
the gracious inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Holy men of God,
they spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God. The Spirit
is here also. We have the three Persons. We
have the Father, we have the Son, and we have the Holy Ghost. But it is in the Angel of the
Lord that God reveals Himself, the face of God. in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ but in the second place observe another name that is
given to him here later at verse 27 God says I will send my fear
before thee behold I send an angel before
thee I will send my fear before thee Isn't this, in a certain
sense, another name that is being given to the angel? He will go
before the children of Israel, but he will trouble, he will
disturb all these nations who are dwelling in that land that
God had promised to the patriarchs. again think of the language of
the psalmist in psalm 34 we read of this angel then at verse 7
the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him
and he will deliver them all the angel whose name is fear
is the one who is about those who are the fearers of God We learn something then here
about how we are to stand in awe before this one, how we are
to reverence his name. Is his name not a holy name? We know in scripture there is
a fear even in the demons. James reminds us of that, he's
rebuking certain individuals as he writes there in his epistle
they'll believe us there is one God he says they'll do us well
the devils also believe in tremble how the devils tremble and even
when the Lord Jesus Christ begins his ministry we see the trembling of the demons when
he performs that miracle in the synagogue in Capernaum in the
opening chapter of Mark he casts the demon out of that man who
was there in the synagogue, and what does the demon say? Let us alone! What have we to
do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. Art thou come to destroy us? All the devils know him, and
they fear him. but God deliver us from such
a tormenting fear as that of the demons and grant us rather
that true fear of the Lord, that failure fear that fear that is
spoken of by the Psalmist as he knows something of the grace
of God and the goodness of God and the pardoning of all his
sins the words that we have there in the 130th Psalm Thou, Lord,
shouldst mark iniquity, who shouldst stand. But there is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Oh, friends, the fact
that God is a forgiving God should cause us to fear His name. It
doesn't give us license to sin because God forgives sins. We're not to sin cheaply. We're
to remember the tremendous cost of the pardon of every sin God
will by no means clear the guilt why is there forgiveness with
God because in his great goodness he has visited the punishment
of the sins of all his people upon the person of his only begotten
son even upon this one whom we consider here this morning the
angel of the Lord ought to know something there of that filial
fear to know this God Isn't that knowledge, something
that goes hand in hand with the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord, we're told,
is the beginning of knowledge. It's to know the true God and
Jesus Christ whom God hath sent. It's to be made wise unto salvation. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Oh, how vital it is that we're
those then who know what it is, to recognize the one who goes
before. I will send my fear before thee. Think of the words of the hymn
writer. This fear's the spirit of faith, he says, a confidence
that's strong, an unctuous light to all that's right, a bar to
all that's wrong. an unctuous lie to all that's
right, to bar to all that's wrong, or that we knew more of that
fear of the Lord, that we might be brought from sinning lightly,
that we might see sin for what it is. It's a grievous offence
against God. What does the Lord God say concerning
the angel in verse 21? Beware of him. Provoke him not. We live in a day in which there's
very little reverence in so much that goes under the name of Christian
worship. Multitudes do what is right in
their own eyes. They come before God and their
language is so chummy and so familiar. Where is that war of
the Lord? It was there in a previous generation. I was struck recently reading
something about Queen Catherine Parr, the last of Henry VIII's
six wives. Of course, she outlived him.
And I was interested to read that when she died, it was the
first Protestant burial that ever took place in England. Her
funeral. It was the first real Protestant
funeral that ever took place in England. She was a gracious
woman. And she wrote a book called The Lamentation of a Sinner.
And she was that sinner. It's a remarkable piece of literature,
really, written by that gracious woman. And I thought, well, what
a different day it was. Of course, the Reformation was
a time when there was a remarkable outpouring of the Spirit of God.
Probably the greatest outpouring of the Spirit since the day of
Pentecost itself. And in those days, they had such
a sense such a sense of God and the glory and the greatness of
God and the holiness and the righteousness of God and even
a queen you see had to lament the lamentation of a sinner or
we are to be those friends who would not be familiar with our
God in an unholy sense or we want to know him, we want to
know his gracious presence, his nearness But we need to heed
the exhortation of the Word of God, beware of Him. Provoke Him
not. How they tempted Him in the wilderness.
And they were destroyed of the serpents. That's what Paul says
there in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 when we come to worship God.
Do we take to heart those words in Ecclesiastes 5? Keep thy foot
when thou goest to the house of God. Be more ready to hear
that to give the sacrifice of fools, they consider not what
they do. Be not rash with thy mouth, let
not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God. God is in
heaven, thou upon earth, let thy words be few. Or that we might be those then
who know something of the fear of God, because we're familiar
with that revelation that God has given to us in Christ, the
face of God. the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Does He fill us with awe? But then also, in the third place
here, with regards to the angel, we do see something of His favour,
His blessing. Isn't there protection from all
their enemies, even the overcoming of all their enemies? Verse 22, If thou shalt indeed
obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy
unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine
angels shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites,
and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hymites,
and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off. Oh, the Lord God gives His gracious promise, the
overcoming of all their enemies. Now, we don't have to do with
these nations. They were wicked nations and
God was visiting His judgment upon those wicked nations, but
we don't have to do with Amorites and Hittites and so forth. But
surely we are aware that if we're the people of God, if we're real
believers, we do have many spiritual enemies. There are spiritual
enemies, aren't there? They're Satan. He goes about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. Oh, is that one who is the great
tempter? He dared even to tempt the Lord
Jesus Christ, and what blasphemies, if thou be the Son of God, questioning
the very Sonship of Him who is God the Son. He's an awful foe. He's not only
a tempter, but he's an accuser, the accuser of the brethren,
we're told, accusing them day and night before God. He tempts
us, we sin, and immediately He turns and He accuses us and He
silences us, we're ashamed. Oh, we feel how can we ever come
and make genuine confessions, we sin so easily. How He'll silence
us in our prayers. We're not to be ignorant of His
devices, but He's a grateful. And the world, oh the world,
love not the world, Those are the things that are in the world.
All that is in the world, the lust of the eyes, the pride of
life. All these things are not of the
Father, they're of the world, and the world is passing away.
We're assured of that. The whole world lies in wickedness.
It lies in the wicked one. We're to shun the ways of the
world. We're not to conform to the world's ways. It's an attractive
world. What allurements are all around
us we want to be. In many ways we want to be like
the worldlings. We want what they want. We have a fallen nature.
We're lost after these things. We're not to kid ourselves. But the world lies in wickedness.
And it's a great foe to the people of God. But then, I think in
many ways, The worst enemy of all, really, is ourselves, is
it not? And that fallen nature. Ralph Erskine said, all that
I had not of myself. It's myself, it's me. It's what
I am. It's my fallen nature. The good
that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. Paul knew it, all wretched man
that I am. shall deliver me from the body
of this death there are these dreadful foes satan, the world sin, self but
here God gives us a gracious word of promise when he says
the angel is going to go before and all our enemies are going
to be cut off that all be destroyed. Ultimately they will all be destroyed
of course. But all our days we're going
to find ourselves in a conflict with them. No release from this
warfare until in the goodness and mercy of God we reach heaven
itself. That's the place of rest. But
there's conflict here. But what do we have to remember?
Well the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty
through God to the pulling down of all these strongholds. What
are we to do? We're to be those who are constantly
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to be those who are trusting
in Him. That's where our trust is to
be. He is the one that we are to obey, if they shan't indeed
obey His voice. and do all that I speak, then
I will be an enemy unto thine enemies. Oh, is our faith in
Him a genuine faith? If it's a genuine faith, it will
be evidenced by obedience. James is right, I will show thee
my faith by my works. Where there is real saving faith,
there will be the fruit of that faith, that desire to walk in
the path of obedience. And how can we obey? We can only
obey as we're constantly looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
only by Him that we can overcome anything. Revelation 12, 11, "...they overcame
him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony,
and they locked not their lives unto death." We cannot of ourselves do anything. Isn't that the life of faith?
Complete, utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus. And looking to
Him and that victory that He has obtained, or death. Where
is thy sting, or grave? Where is thy victory? The sting
of death is seen, we're told. The strength of sin is the law.
Thank me to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Why? He has answered. all the
demands of the Holy Lord of God for us. He has done everything. There is in a gracious provision
that the Lord has made. He keeps His saints, kept by
the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
at the last time. And now He makes constant provision
for His people. as we see here in verse 25 He
shall serve the Lord your God and He shall bless thy bread
and thy water and I will take sickness away from the midst
of them there shall nothing cast there young nor be barren in
thy land the number of thy days I will fulfill oh it's all God,
it's all the works of God It's the shalls, it's the wills of
God. And so ultimately what are we to have? Well finally this
morning surely our faith is to centre in this Angel of the Lord. We're to be trusting in Him as
that One who will indeed grant every deliverance to us and lead
us all the journey through. We must not follow any false
gods. They are told quite explicitly
in verse 24, Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve
them, nor do after their works, but thou shalt utterly overthrow
them, and quite break down their images. That's what we are to
seek, you see. the destruction of all enemies. What does that mean? Isn't there
such a truth as the mortification of sin? There is that in scripture.
We sought to say something just now of those spiritual enemies
of the people of God. Satan, the world, sin, self. What does Paul say as he gives
exhortation time and again in those various epistles? Doesn't
he speak of the need to mortify? Mortify your members, he says,
which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry. What are all these things? They're
idols. Anything that we put in the place
of our God is an idol. and we can easily make an idol
of ourselves and want to satisfy ourselves all covetousness is
spoken of quite clearly then as idolatry desire that word
concupiscence that we have in Romans 7 evil desire it was that
10th commandment that found out Saul of Tarsus, that self-righteous
Pharisee, touching the righteousness which is of the law, he boasted
he was blameless when he was a Pharisee. Oh, but when that
commandment came, thou shalt not covet. What did he say? He
saw what his heart was. It was full of evil desire, wanting
to be satisfied, concupiscence, covetousness which is idolatry. We have to turn from all these
idols. Those Thessalonians, how Paul
writes so graciously in those epistles. They're lovely epistles,
aren't they? So tender, Paul, in the way in which he writes
to the church of the Thessalonians. And what does he say there in
the opening chapter of that first letter? Ye turn to God from idols. He turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God. Oh, is that us? Is that us? Are we those who are trusting
then in this angel? It's the promise of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And those who were the true Israel
of God, those who were God's spiritual Israel, we know they're
not all Israel that are of Israel, but there were those who were
part of that remnant in the midst of ethnic Israel that spiritual
remnant would they not look beyond what we have here in this
theophany and see that one who was the promised one even the
Messiah of God and we are to look to that same one looking
unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and he sat down at the right hand of God. Or consider him
that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, says
Paul, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds. They did So often
in the wilderness wanderings grow faint and weary, they mumbled,
they murmured, they complained, they accused Moses and Aaron,
they accused God of many things. Oh God, preserve us from such
a spirit as that, that we tempt not the Lord Jesus Christ, but
rather look to Him and trust in Him and know His favours and
know His blessings. Behold, says God, I send an angel
before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into
the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. But if
thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then
I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto
thine adversaries. for mine angels shall go before
them, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites,
and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
and all our spiritual enemies, Satan, the world, sin, self,
and God says, I will cut them off. Oh, the Lord grant them
that we might in good measure by his fiver enter into the spirit
of the text. The Lord bless his word to us.
Amen.