Okay, go ahead and turn with
me to the book of Exodus chapter 32, if you would. We'll begin
in verse 31. Let me say again in the beginning,
to me, our study in the book of Exodus has really just been
a steady dose of Christ and Him crucified. You know, I used to
study the Old Testament scriptures to find types and pictures of
Christ, but I understand now that all the Old Testament is
pretty much a picture and type of the Lord Jesus. That's never
been more evident to me than in the study of Exodus and Genesis
that we've done. The Lord Jesus did say, Moses
wrote of me, and he most certainly did. This book, the Old Testament
in particular, is how God saves his people by delivering them
from their sin and by putting that sin away. And there's only
one way that God can justly do that, and that's in a substitute,
that's in a sacrifice. And that's what we preach time
and time again. And the child of God never gets
tired of hearing it. It's our life. That's how we're
reconciled to God. Now here in verse 31, we see
that after the people sinned against God in the making and
the worshiping of the golden calf, Moses returned unto the
Lord and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin. and
have made them gods of gold." Now that's what a mediator does.
A mediator, an intercessor, he pleads the cause of the people
that he loves. There's no doubt that Moses loved
the people of Israel. Verse 32, yet now, speaking to
God, Moses says, if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not,
blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
And the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever hath sinned against
me, him will I blot out of my book. Now, it's important to
remember with that statement that sin never goes unpunished. God doesn't just sweep sin under
a rug. Sin must be punished. God is
gonna either punish your sin, he's gonna punish you for your
sin, or he's going to punish your mediator and your substitute. Verse 34, therefore, now go,
this is God speaking, says, leave the people unto the place of
which I have spoken unto thee, and behold, mine angels shall
go before thee. Nevertheless, in the day when
I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued
the people because they made the calf which Aaron made. Now Moses goes between the Lord
and the children of Israel here. as their mediator, as their intercessor. And Christ goes between his people
and their God. We've seen that time and time
and time again in the study of the high priest. That's what
pictures Christ going before God, making the sacrifice before
God in our place. And the Lord Jesus is the only
one who can work repentance for us. You see, salvation can only
be accomplished by his perfect work of righteousness. We've
never done a work of righteousness that God would accept. Salvation
can only be accomplished by His perfect faith. Our faith is imperfect
at best. It's only by his perfect obedience
to God's law. We've never kept one of God's
commandments perfectly, therefore we're guilty of the whole law.
Now, when Moses asked that question of all questions that we discussed
last week, who's on the Lord's side? That was much more than
what modern day religion calls an invitation. Men stand before
sinners and they say, Once you make a decision, once you decide,
once you come to the Lord's side, but this is much more than an
invitation. It's a call of judgment for those
who will not bow to Christ. Are you on the Lord's side? Well,
if you're not, there's consequence. You see, to worship, adore, and
attribute anything of our deliverance, our salvation to something or
someone other than Christ is to be on the other side, and
it's to perish. It's Christ that grants sinners
repentance. That's the first thing I want
you to see tonight. Secondly, it's Christ who gives
chosen sinners faith, and it's Christ that strengthens that
faith. And thirdly, it's Christ who reconciles us to God. There's
no reconciliation at all to God, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ,
without the Lord standing in our place. We would and we could
never repent. We have no ability at all to
believe, none. And we would never be reconciled
to God. So I remind you again, the Old
Testament scriptures and our study of them are no less about
the Lord Jesus Christ than the gospel accounts written in the
New Testament and the epistles written by the servants of God.
It's all the Word of God. Now, beginning with me in Exodus
chapter 33, look at verse one. And the Lord said unto Moses,
depart and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast
brought up out of the land of Egypt and to 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 Canaanite, "'the Amorite,
and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, "'and the Hibite, and the Jebusite,
"'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.'" Now
that word stiff-necked there, it's pretty self-explanatory,
but in the original Hebrew language, it means hard-hearted. And that's
exactly what these people were. And that's what we are by nature.
God says, thou art a stiff neck people, lest I consume thee in
the way. And when the people heard these
evil tidings, they mourned and no man did put on him his ornaments. Now the ornaments there basically
means their best clothing decorated with their shiny trinkets and
ornaments. In times of mourning, typically
the people of Israel, they put on cycloth and ashes or something
of that sort to show that they were in mourning. Now look at
verse five, for the Lord had said unto Moses, saying to the
children of Israel, this is what I want you to say to them, Moses,
you are a stiff neck, hardhearted 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. Now, this is not my first point,
but this is one of the first things that I want you to see
tonight. And that is that God made Abraham a promise way back
in the beginning of the book of Genesis. And that promise
was twofold in the sense that it was a temporal, physical promise
to the natural seed of Abraham. And it was also a spiritual,
eternal promise that would be fulfilled only in Christ the
seed. Now, this is what is amazing.
Even though the natural children of Israel here sinned against
God, even though they broke the covenant of works that they had
made with the Lord, they broke nearly every commandment of God
that he gave in the making and the worshiping of the golden
calf, still, God fulfilled his temporal promise to the natural
physical seed of Abraham. We read it at the end of chapter
32. And again, 33, God says, I'm sending an angel before you.
I want you to go and possess the land that I promised to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, but I'm not going with you. I'm not going
with you. God delivered the natural seed,
the physical, natural children of Abraham's seed into the land
of Canaan as he had promised Abraham that he would do. Now
there would be many who crossed the Jordan River into that land
of promise, that land that flowed with milk and honey. that would
eternally perish, but not all of them. And that's why it's
even more wonderful to understand that God's promises to Abraham
was also a spiritual promise to the spiritual seed. And it
was an eternal promise to true Israel, spiritual Israel, given
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I hope you're following
me. Do you remember what Paul wrote? He said, they are not
all Israel, which are of Israel. Not all those of Abraham's physical
seed were of the spiritual seed. They were not all the children
of promise. God promised and he was faithful to fill all his
everlasting covenant promises of grace to spiritual Israel. He promises them mercy and grace
and forgiveness. And it's all, it's to all the
elect of God, every single one of them. God's elect are the
spiritual seed of Christ. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were
God's elect. They were true children of God.
But not all the children of Israel were the spiritual children of
God. Most were the seed of the flesh,
no doubt, the natural descendants of Abraham. But there were some
who were also of the spiritual seed of Christ. And here's the
blessing. Here's the blessing in this.
If God fulfilled the temporal covenant, if God, in spite of
all that Israel did, still allowed them to enter into this land
that he had promised Abraham, even though they sinned against
him, even though they broke his covenant, even though at every
turn they were griping and complaining, if he would do that, how certain
is he to fulfill all the promises to those who trust in Christ?
Now you think about that. That's something you can hold
on to there. That's something that you can
grab hold of and cling to. All who trust in Christ, even
those who are Gentiles, according to the flesh. Abraham's spiritual
children, spiritual seed, can be sure that God will fulfill
every promise of God. All the promises of God in Christ
are what? Yay and amen. There's not a promise
in this book that the child of God cannot claim for himself. We can ask God for it and God
is faithful that promised. God's promise to Abraham was
unto the land, which I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob, saying, unto thy seed will I give it. Christ is the
seed of Abraham, to whom all God's promises were made. And
it's by Christ, the seed. He's the seed, as we'll see here
in a moment. It's by Christ that God promises
to his people are fulfilled. It's our union with Christ. being
one with him, that we are the spiritual seed of Abraham. Christ is that seed that God
promised, immediately following the fall of man. Christ has fulfilled
the everlasting covenant of grace for his people. And by the shedding
of his precious blood on behalf of God's elect, he's the seed
that crushed the serpent's head. So it's for Christ's sake that
God, our Father, promises to give his people all spiritual
blessings. Isn't that what Paul said in
Ephesians? All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. So what we have in our text is
this. Moses goes between the Lord and the children of Israel,
and God still fulfills the promise to give them the physical land
of promise. But that in itself is nothing
but a picture and type of Christ, the mediator, fulfilling for
us and giving to us all the new covenant promises. And that's
what Paul tells us in Galatians chapter three. Stick your marker
here and turn there with me. I want you to see this. Galatians
chapter three, beginning in verse 13, if you would, please. I want
to look at this passage in connection with what we're talking about.
Galatians chapter three, verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Well, that's good news, isn't
it? How did he do that? Being made a curse for us. For
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now look
at this, verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles, not just Jews, but those who are not the physical
descendants, the natural seed of Abraham, the Gentiles. How
does this blessing come? Through Jesus Christ, that we
might receive what? Now look at it, the promise of
the Spirit through faith, simply by believing and trusting in
Christ. Look down at verse 16. Now to
Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not,
and to seeds, plural, as of many, but as of one, singular, seed,
and to thy seed, which is Christ. You see, the eternal promises
of God was made to Christ and to those who are found in Him.
And there again, that is what makes our union with the Lord
Jesus so important. All the promises of God are yay
and amen in Him, in Him. Apart from Christ, there is no
love, there is no grace, there is no forgiveness, there is no
mercy, nothing but judgment and wrath. But in Christ, all God's
promises are, so be it. Yes. Verse 17, and this I say
that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the
law, which was 430 years after cannot disannul that it should
make the promise of non-effect. Now, what does that mean? Well,
it means this, I know, Israel's ability and ours to keep the
law of God cannot keep us from being reconciled to God. Why? Because Jesus Christ, the seed,
shall keep the law of force. He kept the law of force. He
satisfied God's justice in our place. Verse 18, for if the inheritance
be of the law, it is no more a promise. but God gave it to
Abraham by promise. What good news that is. It's
not by works of righteousness that I do. It's by the promise
that God made to Christ. Verse 19, wherefore then serveth
the law. Why do you serve the law? It
was added because of transgressions, till the seed, Jesus Christ,
should come to whom the promise was made. And that's just so
plain and simple, isn't it? And it was ordained by angels
in the hand of a mediator. Now there's no doubt. that Moses
is in type a mediator. But in the next verse here, Paul
shows us that Moses was not the mediator. Moses was only a type. Moses could only represent man
because he was a man. Since Moses was a man, he could
only represent man. But Christ is the God-man who
can represent both parties, both God and man. And that's what
Paul is saying in verse 20, look at it. Now a mediator is not
a mediator of one, but God is one. And then he asked, is the
law or the old covenant law then against the new covenant promises
of God? That's a good question. Are they? No. God forbid. For if there
had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin. Not a single one of us can keep
God's law in order to be saved. It's impossible. Weak through
the flesh. That is our flesh, as you well
know. "'But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, "'that
the promise,' now look at it, "'by faith of Jesus Christ, "'might
be given to them that believe.'" Now there's your hope and there's
mine. That's the only hope that we have. And that's the beauty
of the gospel. God's promise of eternal communion
with him comes only by Christ's faithfulness to the law and the
justice of God. Now that means something to you
when God finally shows you that you cannot be saved by keeping
the law, but there's one that's kept it for you. It's so difficult
for folks to understand, but the eternal promise of God is
given freely to those who do nothing but believe on Christ. Just believe on Christ, trust
in Him. I'm not concerned about God's
law in the sense of being saved by it, because Christ has kept
it for me. He's kept it perfectly. He's
kept all of it. And therefore in him, by my union
with him, I'm as perfect as he is. Our faith is the gift of
God. The promise of God comes by the
faith of Christ. We see that again. I've been
thinking a lot about that lately. Not our faith in Christ. One
of my favorite new sayings is I have faith in the faith of
Christ. That's a good way of saying it.
I put all my hope and all my confidence in Christ obedience
to God, Christ obedience to the law, Christ fulfilling the law,
the faith of Christ, his faithfulness, not mine. Oh, my faith's high
one day and low the next, but the faith of Christ I can count
on. And it's God's gift to all who
trust in him. We trust in what Christ did,
not in what we do. We rest in his faithfulness,
not in ours. We dress in his righteousness,
not our fig leaf filthiness. No, sir. Look at verse 23. But before faith, the faith of
Christ now, before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut
up unto the faith, the faith of Christ, which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us where? Unto Christ. That's where we
have to be found. That's where we have to get.
That we might be justified by faith. Now, is it our faith that
justifies us? Well, we were dead in trespasses
and sin. You see, it's the faith of Christ
that gives us life so that we can believe. That's why I said
a moment ago that I have faith in the faith of Christ. The believer's faith is in Christ
who has justified them. We're justified by his faith,
his obedience, his work of righteousness for. And that's why we can't
be lost. Because if we can do a work of
righteousness to save ourself, then we can most certainly do
a work of unrighteousness to lose our salvation. When we say
that one saved, always saved, that's not just a little slogan
for a Calvinist. No, it means that if Christ died
for me, I cannot be lost. Never, ever. because it's by
his faithfulness and not mine that I'm saved. Lord, help us
to get a hold of that. Verse 26, for you are the children
of God by faith in Christ. Yes, trusting in his faithfulness
to God in our place. For as many of you as have been
baptized unto Christ and have put on Christ, there is neither
Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there's neither
male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, now watch
this, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. All God's promises are carried
out because of God's faithfulness to us in Christ. Our knowledge
of the sinfulness of sin comes by us seeing our rebellion and
our sin in the face of God's faithfulness to us. When God
does grant the sinner repentance, he makes that sinner, and I know
you've experienced this, those of you that trust in Christ,
he makes that sinner hate their sin. Now, not as we ought, I
know that, but we hate our sin because we see that all our sin
is against God who has been so good and so faithful to us. When I was an arrogant young
man, and that's what I was, I thought I knew everything. I used to
get upset very often and very frustrated with my father because
I didn't think he was as smart as I was. He had a fourth grade
education. He could barely read or write
his name. And I just, I thought he was
an ignorant man. I mean, I'm ashamed to say that,
but that's how ignorant I was. It seemed that the older I got,
the smarter he seemed. But one day I not only discovered
that my father was smarter than I was, but I finally understood
that everything that he had ever said to me and everything that
he had ever done for me was for my good. for my best interest. He had my best interest at heart.
And in the light of that, it made my sin and my rebellion
against him, my lack of respect toward him seem much, much worse. How could I have been so disobedient
to one whose purpose was to only do me good? I suppose we all
have a story like that. How much more so is it true concerning
God God reveals our sin through Christ and through the preaching
of his word, I know. But when Christ makes us hear
the law, like Israel heard Moses, he declares that we're stiff-necked,
hard-hearted. And what proof Israel gave of
that after all God had done for them, delivering them and all
that they had seen him do on their behalf. They were stiff-necked,
and so are we. When the believer hears the gospel
preached, I can assure you that if God reveals the gospel to
them and the power of the Spirit, they won't be thinking of someone
else's sin. They won't be thinking of someone
else's guilt. They'll think of theirs. We see
that all our sin is against Him who loved us and gave Himself
for us. We hate that sin. When God the
Holy Spirit makes us to truly hear the gospel, the believer
sees that they're the guilty one. What I want you to see here
is that God would still fulfill His temporal promise of a promised
land to Israel for the sake of Abraham. But the bigger picture,
much bigger picture, is that we see that God will fulfill
every single promise that He's made to Christ to us. Christ, our substitute, is the
seed to whom these things were promised, and they're promised
to us in Him. The people of God, by their union
with Christ, receive all the same promises. In a nutshell,
dear friends, Jesus Christ is salvation. Got to have Him. God, to fulfill His promise to
the natural seed, would send an angel before them and would
drive out their enemies, but God said He would also withdraw
His presence from these stiff-necked, hard-hearted people, lest He
consume them. But to those who are in Christ,
God will never leave you nor forsake you. Concerning the children
of God, God breaks their hearts. God causes them to mourn over
their sin. They take the Lord's side against
themselves. Now look again at verse four
here in Exodus 33. Turn back there with me. Verse
four, Exodus 33. And when the people heard these
evil tidings, this horrible news of God withdrawing his presence,
they mourned and no man did put on him his ornaments. You know,
the gospel is no doubt good tidings of good things. The gospel is
good news, we know that. But God also makes his gospel
afflicting news to some. The gospel often makes sinners
aware of God's displeasure. The gospel reveals to men and
women that they have displeased God, that they've offended the
God who has been so very good to them. It's what the Bible
calls godly sorrow. And it's not godly sorrow simply
because it's God that revealed it. It's godly sorrow because
the chosen sinner knows deep down within that he's displeased
his faithful heavenly father who is so good to him. Even those
that hate God without a cause ought to be thankful why the
very next breath comes from him, the very next heartbeat comes
from him. The sun and the rain fall on
both the just and the unjust. God takes care of all people. He's the God of heaven and earth.
But this godly sorrow most definitely works repentance. Verse four
says, no man did put on his ornaments. Look at verse six, it says, in
the children of Israel, we see there that they stripped themselves
of their ornaments. What a picture this is of the
putting off of the old man of sin, no man put on him his ornaments,
while others here stripped themselves of the ornaments that they'd
already put on. God enables saved sinners to put off the old man
with his sin, and in another, Christ makes them diligent not
to put on the old man with his sin. God not only saves us, but
God keeps us. That's a beautiful picture of
that, I believe. Not that any believer is ever
without the old man of sin. We know that. He rears his ugly
head every day, doesn't he? But Christ works in his people
to make them fearful of walking in sin. I do not want to disappoint
my Lord. It hasn't always been that way.
You know, the Lord makes us ashamed of disappointing him. Only the
power of the Spirit can make us and enable us to mortify the
deeds of the flesh. Now, I hope that we can see that
it is Christ pictured in Moses, who's the cause of repentance.
And I think that's what we have here in this chapter, a very
good picture of that. Matter of fact, we know that
when our sin was put on the Lord Jesus, that God killed him. And
when you see that, you'll repent of your sin for if you see in
the light of God's goodness, mercy, and grace, It just makes
your sin that much more horrific to you. I would be that way to
one who loved me so much and does so much for me. When God
grants a sinner repentance, he gives them a change of mind.
That's what the word repent means. We don't just keep going on like
we always have. First and foremost, we change
our God. We see that we're not our own
God. We see that He's our God. When
God shows us what Christ suffered in our room instead to reconcile
us to Him, oh, we repent of our sin. We hate our sin that caused
His suffering. Now, look at verse seven here
in chapter 33. And Moses took the tabernacle. Now let me just interject this
quickly. The tabernacle that God showed
Moses in the mountain was not yet made. Moses has just come
down not too long ago from the mountain where he received the
law of God and received the instructions of the tabernacle and the high
priest. So this is not the finished tabernacle. This is long before that. But
this is speaking of what most commentators believe to be a
large tent that was erected for worship before the real tabernacle
was made. So Moses took that tabernacle
or that tent, and he pitched it without the camp. Did you
notice that here in verse seven? He pitched it without the camp,
afar off from the camp, 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 camp." This was a place where they came
to worship God. Now here we see something else
that just miraculously happens in the child of God. And it's
my second point. Our repentance firstly is granted
by Christ, but secondly, Christ gives his people faith and he
continually strengthens their faith. Christ makes us go out
of the camp, out of our own sinful flesh, turning from our sins. The spirit of God makes us go
out of the camp, out of the camp of our own lukewarmness He makes
us zealous for Christ and His glory. The Lord Jesus makes us
go out of the camp of our own self-righteousness, that we might
flee to Christ in humility. Oh, we got to get outside of
ourselves and we can't look within for anything. There's no confidence,
there's no hope, there's no comfort in looking to ourselves. We've
got to look to Him. Faith in Christ, yes. It's a
gift from God. This is faith and enables us
to submit to Christ and to worship Him who mediates between us and
God. We see a type of Christ in the
people's respect for Moses here. Look at verse eight, verse eight.
And it came to pass when Moses went out into the tabernacle,
that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door
and looked after Moses until he was gone into the tabernacle. Now, if you can picture this,
as Moses is walking to that tabernacle outside of the camp, all eyes
were on him. Every man stood in his tent door
and watched Moses going to that tabernacle. And their eyes stayed
on him until he went into that tabernacle. The same way the
Spirit of God brings God's elect to give Christ all reverence,
Just as God calls Israel to keep their eyes on Moses while in
their tents, God turns the believer's eye of faith to the Lord Jesus
Christ in their hearts. That's why you're here tonight.
Many of you are here tonight because you want to hear again
how Christ died for sinners. You want to keep your eyes on
him who loved you and gave himself for you. And it's with this same
reverence, the Spirit gives us submission and enables us to
worship the Lord Jesus. Verse nine, and it came to pass
as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and
stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord talked with Moses. 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." Now that cloudy
pillar, talking to Moses, stood between Moses and the people.
And that's also a picture of our Lord mediating between his
people and God the Father. And when Israel beheld the Lord
to sin in that cloudy pillar and talked to Moses, you see
what it caused them to do? They bowed in worship at their
tent door. Christ does this for us in our
hearts, in the Spirit. God makes us go to Christ outside
of the camp. He makes us reverence the Lord
Jesus. He makes us submit and worship
through faith in Christ. And that brings me to the third
and final thing that I want us to see tonight, and save the
best for last. Actually, the Holy Spirit did.
It's how it's written in the Scriptures. Thirdly, God's elect
are reconciled to Him. My, my. Look at verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned
again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun,
a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Verse 12,
and 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 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 look at verse 14. And he,
being God, said, my presence shall go with thee and I will
give thee rest. Only Christ is our mediator can
reconcile a sinner and restore us to communion with God. God
said, I'm not going up with you. If I do, I'll kill you. And now
he says, my presence shall go with thee and I'll give you rest. Only Christ is our mediator.
Complete our calls before God. How beautiful is the picture
we see here of Christ in that God the Father spoke with Moses
face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. I immediately
thought about that song we sing, what a friend we have in Jesus.
All our sins and griefs he bore, what a friend he is. The Lord
Jesus Christ is one with God the Father, and as our substitute,
he has communion with God, and we have communion with God in
him. And he speaks into our hearts, calling those who are his disciples,
his friends. The Lord did say, henceforth,
I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth, but I've called you friends for all things that
I've heard of my Father. I've made them known unto you.
You're a blessed people, child of God. Our communion with our
holy God is in Christ alone. While he alone is our righteousness
and he's our holiness with God. Christ is our propitiation. Christ is our mercy seek. It's in Christ that we find mercy
with God, despite all our sin. Christ is the advocate of his
redeemed people. He's our righteousness. He's
our acceptance with God the Father. It's for Christ's sake that God
forgives his repentant children of all their sins. And one last
thing, did you notice that when Moses went back to the children
of Israel, Joshua stayed in the Lord's presence? Verse 11 says,
and he, Moses, turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua,
the son of Nun, a young man departed not out of the tabernacle. Now, as you know, Joshua is the
same name as Jesus. and it means the one by whom
we shall be delivered. Moses went to the people, Joshua
stayed with God. In both, we see a picture of
the Lord Jesus. When Christ comes into our hearts,
when he comes to minister to us, he is still yet in the bosom
of the Father. As the one and only mediator,
Christ is in us while at the same time, he's always with God
the Father. But in that we see that Christ
is the one by whom we shall be delivered. And men's great sin
is what Israel's was. They made a God of their own
imagination with their own hands. And they said, this is the God
that delivered us out of Egypt. When it was God alone who did.
Well, with Moses, you and I can confidently say, if I found grace
in thy sight, show me now thy way. And he will. He says that
I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight. Consider
us to be your people. Oh Lord, my greatest desire is
to be yours. My greatest desire for this church,
this assembly, you here tonight, is that you might be the Lord's
people. That's what this is all about. When it's all said and
done, friends, this is the only thing that really matters in
life. It's the only thing that really
does. And one day we're going to see that clearly. And those
that don't see it now are going to see it clearly. There's going
to come a time when those who will not submit now and bow to
the Lord Jesus, there's going to come a time very soon where
every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God. It's by the grace of God
through the faith of Christ that we're saved. And as I said, that's
why you're here on a rainy night like tonight, to learn more about
Christ, to hear again what He does for sinners. And it's in
studying these things and reading God's word. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. It's by the foolishness of preaching
that God saves those that believe. That's why we're here. And by
hearing these things, we grow in the grace and in the knowledge
of Him. May God be pleased to make it
so for His own great name's sake. Amen.