Let me kind of bring you up to
speed on what has happened before this. Moses has been up on the
mountain 40 days and 40 nights receiving God's instructions
pertaining to the tabernacle in the wilderness. And of course,
all of the laws of God, laws that God wrote with his own finger
on two tablets of stone. But as the people waited down
in the valley at the base of the mountain, they grew impatient. And they said
to Aaron, we don't know what's happened to Moses, this man who's
our preacher, this man who's our pastor. We have no knowledge
of what's become of him. Here's what we want you to do.
We want you to make us an image that represents God." And Aaron said, well, give me
all your gold. Give me your earrings and so
forth. And he fashioned an idol out
of the gold. And I really don't believe that
they, at least not consciously, meant to make an idol. Rather,
it was a representation of God. It represented Jehovah to them,
and they knew the Egyptians, their gods, had likenesses of
animals and so forth, and so they just wanted a likeness of
God, and then they would actually address that likeness as being
God. And so he fashioned for them
out of gold a golden calf. And then he said, here's what
we're going to do in the morning. We're going to meet together.
We're going to offer burnt offerings. We'll offer peace offerings.
You say, what's the difference between a burnt offering and
a peace offering? Well, a burnt offering was an
offering that was offered to Jehovah or, in this case, to
an idol as that which would appease God. And then on that basis,
they would offer a peace offering. The peace offering was offered
because in their minds, peace had been established now on the
basis of the burnt offering of the blood that was shed by the
animal. And then they sat down, and then
the scripture says they rose up to play. But this was an awful
thing. It was an awful thing. And it
was, in fact, idolatry, whatever they intended by it. And, of
course, I can't enter into their minds to know exactly what they
had in mind. But this was a terrible thing.
It was a great offense to God, as indicated by the punishment
that he doled out to many of the offenders. Moses came down
from the mountain, having been spoken to by the Lord. The Lord
told him what had happened down in the valley, down at the base
of the mountain. Moses came down. He took those
two tablets of stone. He threw them on the ground.
He broke them to pieces. And then he took that golden
calf, and he ground it to pieces. And then in the fine powder,
Deuteronomy says there was a brook coming forth out of that mountain.
Moses, he strode the dust of the gold in the waters of the
brook that came from the mountain, and he told the people to drink
the water. And then he said to them, who
is on the Lord's side? Let him come over here. Who's
against idolatry? Who believes Jehovah? Who is
looking for that one Jehovah will indeed send into this world? Who's on the Lord's side? Come
over here. And the Levite stepped over and he said, you see your
enemies over here? Kill them. And there died that
day 3,000 men. And then Moses, on the next day,
he says to the people, you've done a terrible thing. This is
just awful. He said, I'm going to offer for
you an atonement. That means reconciliation. He
offered a sacrifice, not to an idol, not to a golden calf, but
to God whose justice was offended. You see, in that very law that
Moses threw to the ground and broke, that law written on both
sides of the stone with the finger of God, it began by saying, Thou
shalt have no other gods before me. And they broke that law. And so, In order for that law
to be repaired, in order for the sin to be forgiven, there
had to be an atonement. There had to be a sacrifice offered
to God. God's justice has been offended,
not only by their sins, but by our sins. And every sin must
be dealt with in accordance with God's law, and that means death. And the death of that animal
that Moses killed as he offered an atonement for the people,
the death of that animal, they pictured the death of our Lord
Jesus. God's angry. He's angry about
sin. This is a great offense to Him. And He must be punished. All
sin must be punished. The Lord Jesus, He suffered the
vengeance of God. He was punished for all of the
sins of all of God's people of all ages. And then we get to chapter 33. That lays the foundation for
you. We get to chapter 33, and I want
to give you 4, 5, 6, points on this as time allows. Number one, I want you to see
that notwithstanding man's rebellion and man's awful transgressions,
God keeps his covenant promises. Look with me in verse one of
chapter 33, verses one or just verse one. And the Lord said
unto Moses, he said, depart. Go up hence, thou and the people
which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go
into the land that I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,
saying, Unto thy seed will I give it." God made a covenant with
Abraham. He promised him a people. He
promised him a land. And He promised him a seed, that
seed being the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, indeed, Israel had violated
God's holy law. They're a bunch of sinners. They're
a bunch of rebels. They've done exactly what God
forbade them to do. They built a visible image of
God. God is invisible. And God is
holy. And God can only be approached
by means of a mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. But know this, all of man's transgressions
cannot nullify God's covenant. Nothing can interfere with that
which God is purposed to do. He purposed all things before
he made the world. And in purposing all things,
there was in that purpose His greatest purpose, to save sinners. In the covenant of grace, God
chose a people unto salvation. The Lord Jesus came into this
world in order to save those people, and to save them from
all their sins, and to save them by His own death upon the cross
of Calvary. And God, in the covenant of grace,
He purposed that His Son, having finished the work of redemption,
would be raised from the grave, and He would ascend up on high,
and He would take the seat at the right hand of majesty, ruling
and reigning over all things. That's in the covenant of grace. and man's iniquity, Adam's transgression,
and all of our transgressions, which are too numerous for us
to even begin to commence to get started to numbering. All
of our transgressions, they cannot interfere with God's covenant
of grace. Israel had done an awful thing,
but God's gonna keep his promise. He always does. And as Moses made atonement for
the sins of these people, which His atonement only pictured the
atonement of our Lord Jesus that He would offer many hundreds
of years in the future. Even so, our Lord Jesus, He has
pacified divine justice. He's appeased God. by His death
upon the cross. Number one, God keeps His promise. And all of you who are the people
of God, think of the many promises that God has made to us. He said,
I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. Well, will
He keep that promise? Well, sure He will. He has said,
where two or three are gathered together in my name, I'll be
in the midst. Will He keep that word? Will
He keep that promise? Will He keep that oath? Will
He meet with us this morning? Is He meeting with us this morning? You who are watching by way of
the internet, there are some small groups who watch and enter
into this worship service. Will the Lord meet with you this
morning? Absolutely He will. And though
we be a needy people and we be a sinful people, yet God will
keep His word. and He'll keep it to you individually
as well. Here's the second thing. Let
me show you, number one, a sinful people, then a holy God, and
an angel to go before them. This is all, I want to cover
these together. Number one, the character of
these people. God has a word for them. He says
in the third verse, A stiff-necked people. A stiff-necked people. In fact, he had already said
something along this line back over in chapter 32, verse seven. The Lord said to Moses, this
is before Moses even gets down to see the people. The Lord said
to him, Go get thee down, for thy people, which thou broughtest
out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They've
turned aside quickly out of the way, which I commanded them.
They've made them a molten calf. They've worshiped it. They sacrificed
unto it. They said, these be thy gods,
O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I've
seen this people. Behold, it's a stiff neck people. You know, it's interesting back
in Exodus chapter three, When the Lord revealed himself to
Moses out of the bush that Barnabas wasn't consumed, the Lord said
to Moses, I've seen my people in their affliction. Therefore,
I'm come down to deliver them. And now he sees these people
and he doesn't say that they're an afflicted people. He says,
they're a stiff neck people. You see, an afflicted people
is a people in need of mercy. A stiff-necked people, that's
a people in need of being humbled and brought down. And God has
brought down these people. Their character is, they're stiff-necked. What does stiff-necked mean?
They won't bend before God. Several years ago, I had three
discs in my neck fused together. I have a little bit of a stiff
neck. My mobility looking either way,
but especially this direction, is somewhat hindered. And I often
still am troubled and plagued with a neck ache, which causes
a headache. But I'll tell Nancy, my neck
is so stiff, And what that means is you go to get in a car and
you can't bend your neck down as far as you used to be able
to do. And some of you, as you're aging, you know something about
being stiff-necked physically. Not that anybody in here is aging
very much. But we know a little bit about
being stiff-necked. You see, these people would not
bow to God. They would not submit themselves
to the Lord of glory. They were a stiff-necked people.
And it was no different in the days when our Lord Jesus came
into this world. They said, we will not have this
man rule over us. What was their condition? They
were stiff-necked. They were obstinate. They would
not bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see, that's what we must
do, is bow to Him. Bow down, proud sinner, and worship. You must fall down before the
living God, and honor Him, and worship Him, and respect Him,
and believe Him. Reverence Him. The Lord said
to Moses, these are a stiff-necked people. They don't bow. They'll love me. And God said,
I'm just gonna wipe them off the face of the earth. But Moses said, Lord, don't do
that. In fact, earlier, or just a few verses up from at the end
of chapter 32, Moses says to the Lord, don't kill them all.
In fact, he said, kill me instead. You take my life. Well, Moses didn't die for the
people, but what he pictured in his willingness to die actually
happened when our Lord Jesus laid down his life for his friends. Obstinate, that's us. Stiff-necked,
that's us. Transgressors, that's us. Idolaters by nature, that's us. What's to be done with these
people? And Christ said, I'll live for
them. I'll die for them. I'll suffer
for them. I'll bleed for them. I laid down
my life for the sheep. That's what he said. He gave his life to save a stiff-necked
people. Here is grace indeed that our
Lord Jesus would lay down His life for us. And I'll tell you this, it is
only effectual, almighty grace that can make a sinner bow down
before the Lord. I think of Saul of Tarsus on
the road to Damascus. He hated the name of Jesus Christ. He hated everybody who believed
in that way, that way of grace, that way of salvation through
Jesus of Nazareth. He hated everybody because he
hated Jesus. Stiff-necked. Stiff-necked. He rides high on his horse as
he rode that steed into and toward Damascus. Well, the Lord has
a way of breaking stiff-necked people. Knocked him right off his horse.
Have you been knocked off your horse? Oh, what mighty grace it is that
saves the sinner. Effectual grace, grace that gets
the job done, grace that makes that stiff-necked sinner to bow
down willingly. And we hear Saul of Tarsus say,
would you say, Saul? Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do? He first said, who are you, Lord?
I'm Jesus. Lord, what will you have me to
do? No longer stiff-necked. And then here, secondly, on this,
I wanna talk about a holy God. God could not and God would not
dwell with a sinful people. Notice what he says there in
verse three. I will not go up in the midst
of thee." Why not? Chapter 33 and verse
3, I will not go up in the midst of thee. Why not? You're a stiff-necked people
and I'm a holy God. I cannot abide your presence. I'm not going with you. You see,
if God, pure, holy God, just, righteous, invisible God, if
He goes with them, He is a consuming fire and He'll kill them. They
can't abide His presence. God said, I'm not going with
you. But here's what He had said already
back up in verse 34 of chapter 32. He told Moses, therefore now
go lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee.
Behold, mine angel shall go before thee. And now again he says down
here in verse 2, I'll send an angel before thee. I'm not going
with you. But I have a very special angel
who's going to go with you. He's your mediator. He's your
Savior. My friends, our God's consuming
fire. You don't want to do business
with God who's a consuming fire. Thank God for the angel of the
covenant. Thank God for that one who not
only goes before us, but goes with us. He is our friend. Our friend. God said, your iniquities have
separated between you and your God. Your sins have hid his face
from you that he will not hear. Pure, holy, invisible God, you
can't abide his presence and he won't abide your presence.
But thank God he has the messenger of the covenant. That word angel
is messenger. And sometimes it is a winged
creature. But oft times in the Old Testament
especially, this is the Son of God. The Son of God's going with
you. And this messenger of the covenant
was with them the whole way. You can read in Deuteronomy and
in various other passages of Scripture as well, how that this
angel stayed with them all the way to the Promised Land. And
I'll tell you, our Savior, the angel of the covenant, the messenger
from God sent to us, the second person of the blessed Trinity,
He is with us. He goes before us. He's already
gone into death for us and into the grave for us and out of the
grave. He's already gone back to glory
for us. He's paved the way for us. And
He's with us all along the journey too. David therefore could say
when he spoke of the shepherd of the sheep, he said, Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for Thou art with me. The angel of the covenant. And
I tell you, all of you who are the people of God and those out
there who are watching, you who know God by the sovereign, free,
effectual grace of the Holy Spirit, He says, I'm with you. I've gone
before you and I'm with you always, even to the end of the world.
Now that ought to help you. Well, here's the third thing
I want to show you in this message. A mournful people. It says in verse 4, when the
people heard these evil tidings, they mourned. And they didn't even wear any
ornaments. Because you see verse 5, 4 means because the Lord had
said to Moses, say to the children of Israel, you're a stiff necked
people. And I'll come up into the midst
of thee in a moment, I'll consume you. Therefore get rid of all your
adornments. Get rid of all your ornaments
from you. that I may know what to do with
thee and the children of Israel. Therefore they stripped themselves
of their ornaments by the Mount Horeb." They had to be stripped. You see, someone who's naked,
I'm speaking spiritually now. Someone who is spiritually naked
is ready to be robed, ready to be clothed with the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But those who have ornaments,
who have adorned themselves with outward religion only, and they
do things, they say things that they think make them more beautiful
to God, those things have got to be stripped off of you. and
it got to be brought to just utter nakedness before God. They're now a mournful people.
Now listen to me. When it comes to the worship
of God, get rid of as many religious ornaments as you can. See, that's
the reason And it's been this way from day one, ever since
this church was established by the grace of God. No religious adornments. We don't wear crosses. We don't
have stained glass windows. We don't have any religious statutes. You see, the more of those things,
the more of that kind of junk that you bring into the worship
service, the less worship there will be. I don't wear a robe. I don't wear a backward clerical
collar. This is just simple worship. Get rid of the adornments. Oh,
you watch religion on television. Oh, the ornaments. The ornaments
of religion. And the more of those you've
got, the further you are from pure worship. We come in here. We greet one another. We open
with Scripture. We sing. We have more scripture. We seek God's face in prayer.
We hear a message from the Word of God. We sing. We're dismissed. We greet one another. We go home.
It's simple. And I know there are a lot of
so-called churches, I would call them goat pastures, all around
us where you can go to be entertained and they'll have sweet little
manger scenes. My immunologist, bless her heart,
she's always concerned about my sinuses, which are kind of
acting up again today, but also she tries to take care of my
immune system. But she always tells me, she
said, you don't burn incense in your church, do you? I said,
no. She said, well, I was going to
tell you not to do that. She said, I tell my priest, why
do you burn that stinking stuff? That was to cover the stench
of a dead body. We don't have dead bodies in
the earth. I started to say, well, you don't have dead bodies,
but you have dead souls. That's the truth. And she said,
do you sell Christmas trees at your church? I said, no, we don't
do that. She said, that's good. She said,
that's hard on your sinuses. All that religious ornamentation. Oh, I'm so thankful that God
stripped us of those things years ago. Just simple worship. God is spirit. They that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And then here's
the last thing I want to show you, a tabernacle without the
camp. Now remember, the tabernacle
in the wilderness has not yet been built. Now we have studied
previously all the different pieces of furniture of the tabernacle,
the duties of the priest and the high priest, their clothing,
But the tabernacle has not been built. Moses is up on the mountain
receiving instructions and blueprints for the making of the tabernacle
and the wilderness. Moses just received instructions
for that. And remember this also, previous
to the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness, they did worship
God. They've been out here in the
wilderness for nearly a year. And it would seem, that there
was a temporary tabernacle called the tabernacle of the congregation
that was within the group of Israel, within the camp of Israel,
where people met with Moses. Moses was the judge of the people. Whenever any decisions had to
be made, they would come to the door of that tent, not the tabernacle
that would be built, but that temporary structure, that tabernacle,
had come to Moses and also they'd come there to worship God, to
offer sacrifices unto God. But you see now, now Israel has
proven themselves to be a stiff-necked people. And God says, I want
the tabernacle moved out of the camp. without the camp, because
you've rejected me. You've rebelled against me. You're
an idolatrous people. I'm going outside the camp."
And that's where the tabernacle was. This temporary tabernacle
was relocated. Notice this in verse 7, Moses
took the tabernacle and he pitched it, which indicates to us it
had already been pitched. It had already been made, this
very simple tent or tabernacle, and he moved it, he pitched it
outside the camp. Watch it. Far off from the camp,
away from the people. And it came to pass, everyone
which sought the Lord went out into the tabernacle of the congregation,
which was without the camp. Outside the camp. Now, hold your
place here and go to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. And look at verse 12. In fact,
I'll back up to verse 10. Hebrews 13 verse 10. We have an altar. Hebrews 13
verse 10. We have an altar. Who is that? The Lord Jesus. Where is He? He's in glory. Which means there
is no altar, not down here, not anywhere on this earth. There
is no altar. That which is normally called
the altar call is just religious tradition carried
over from the mid-1800s. There is no altar in here. Oh,
I do call you to come to the altar, but the altar is in glory.
That's Christ Jesus. I admonish you to come to Him.
We do have an altar. Look at verse 13. For the bodies
of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by
the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Things that were considered rubbish
or trash, or even on the Day of Atonement, the carcasses of
the beasts that were offered to God, they were taken without
the camp. They weren't eaten by the people
like the other sacrifices. Look at verse 12. Wherefore Jesus
also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered
without the gate, outside the gate. Verse 13. Let us go forth therefore unto
him. Where is he? Without the camp. Without the camp. Now listen. When our Lord Jesus was crucified,
he was crucified without the camp. That is, outside of the
walls of Jerusalem. Inside the walls of Jerusalem,
just like inside the camp of Israel, there was much idolatry
and hatred for God and irreverence from God. And our Lord Jesus,
when He came into this world, Religious camp, Jerusalem, they
say, we don't want him. Kill him outside the camp. Kill
him outside the walls. I'm telling you, religion, false
religion, has always been opposed to our Lord, to the Lord Jesus
Christ, to his person and to his work. And he has, therefore,
been without the camp. You won't find him in these religious
edifices. You're not going to find him
there. He's not there. Where are you going to find him? Without the camp! Outside the
camp! away from the idolatry, away
from the false religion, away from all those things, the ornaments
of false religion. He's without the camp. Let's
go to Him without the camp. Go outside the camp. That's where
He is. And then go back to the text,
and let me hurry and bring this to an end. Go back to Exodus
33. And by the way, I say, if you
want to worship God, come to the tabernacle. The tabernacle
of the congregation is Christ Jesus. He's the tabernacle of
the congregation. Now here's one more thing I want
to show you. When Moses went in and when he came out of that
tabernacle, everybody paid attention. And here's the reason, their
lives depended upon him. Now watch this, verse seven again. And Moses took the tabernacle
and 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, are you a seeker? Everyone who sought the Lord
went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was
without the camp." If you're a seeker of the Lord, you'll
only find Him in the tabernacle of the congregation. That's Christ.
Now look at verse 8, and it came to pass, when Moses went out
unto the tabernacle, so he goes out there, he's been up on the
mountain, he comes back, the Lord talks with him, and now
he goes He goes out to the tabernacle without the camp, that all the
people rose up and they stood every man in his tent door. What's
the significance of this? He's their representative. He's
their representative. They looked after Moses till
he was gone into the tabernacle. Hey, there's no frivolity now. There's no playing religious
games now. It's a matter of life and death.
Moses is going up there to the tabernacle, and look at verse
9. And it came to pass as Moses
appeared under the tabernacle, this cloudy pillar descended
and stood at the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord talked
with Moses. He's the representative of the
people. And everybody stood at their
tent door watching in solemnness and in reverence. Here's the
man of God. Here's our mediator. Here's our
representative. He's doing business with God
for us. You see a picture of our Lord
Jesus there? And verse 10 says, And all the
people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door,
And they all rose up, and they worshipped every man in his tent
door. Now watch verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And Moses, he
turned again into the camp, and his servant Joshua the son of
Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. They had watched Moses walk into
the tabernacle of the congregation, and now they see him coming out. Their representative, let me
tell you something, our representative did business with God for us.
He settled the issue. And we read the gospel narratives
of the sufferings and the bloody death of our Lord Jesus and how
He was put in the grave. And we watch, is He coming out? Is He coming out? And lo, He
comes out! He comes forth! Triumphant! over our sins, over the evil
one, over death, hell, and the grave. And Joshua, he stayed back at
the tabernacle of the congregation to assist and give directions
to those who would come to worship God. And he's a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Jehovah is salvation! That's
what His name means. And of course, that's the Old
Testament name. Josh was the Old Testament name
for the New Testament name Jesus. And by faith we see Jesus, the
author and the finisher of our faith. We hear Him cry, it is
finished. And we see with the eye of faith
Him come forth from the grave. triumphant over all our foes. Thank God there's a tabernacle
for the congregation. There's a tabernacle for those
who seek God. Do you seek God? To know God,
that's eternal life. How can I know God? Only through
this tabernacle, the God-man, Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's
get our hymn books. Let's sing number 64, the name
of Jesus, hymn number 64. Hadn't sung this in a long time,
and I thought it'd be good to sing it this morning. Number
64, the name of Jesus. Let's stand, please. The name of Jesus is so sweet.
I love its music to repeat. It makes my soul so full and
complete. The precious name of Jesus. Jesus, Lord, how sweet the name
Jesus, every day the same Jesus, that all saints proclaim His
worthy praise forever I love the Name of Yisra'el Who
knows all my griefs and bears a part Who gives all angels fierce
depart I love the Name of Jesus Jesus, oh how sweet the name! Jesus, every day the same! Jesus, the Word all saints proclaim,
His worthy praise! That it may my fondly loved to
hear It never fails my heart to cheer Its music cries a falling
tear Exalting the name of Jesus Jesus, oh how sweet the name
Jesus, every day the same Jesus, when all saints proclaim His
worthy praise No word a man can ever tell Now
speak the name I love so well Oh, let its praises ever swell
Oh, praise the name of Jesus Jesus, O how sweet the name! Jesus, every day the same! Jesus, let all saints proclaim
His worthy praise!