Thank you so much. A great improvement
upon the words of that song, the words that appear in our
song books. That's a much, much needed improvement,
and we appreciate that, appreciate you, and love you. Thank you
for that. Well, I want to go tonight to
the book of Exodus, and I'm going to read in verse chapter 13 in
just a little bit, chapter 13. And if God the Spirit would enable
me this evening, I want to speak to you on the subject of the
pillar of cloud and fire, pillar of cloud and fire. Let's ask for God's blessings
again. Lord, it is such an honor to
be able to speak with you, to know that through the Lord Jesus
and His sacrificial death and resurrection, that we have admission
into the presence of God. In fact, we are instructed to
come boldly before you and to do so through that Mediator,
that only Mediator between sinful men and women and a holy God
that is the God-man, Christ Jesus. We thank you, Father, for the
word of the gospel, for the word of grace. And this message of
redemption has come to the hearts of many of us. And it has come
to us in great power and in the assurance of the Holy Ghost We
bless you, O God, for your grace that you gave us in the Lord
Jesus before you made the world. And we bless you for sending
to us your Spirit, who took the word of the gospel, which you
enabled us to listen to, and you made that gospel to us a
savor of life. unto life. By the grace of God
we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and upon the authority
Lord of Your Word we say we have everlasting life. Give us this evening another
glimpse of our glorious Redeemer Let us behold him as that one
who is our God, who is our protection, as that one who is indeed our
all in all. Bless these who sit before me,
the ones who are gathered around computers, and cell phones, wherever
they may be. Lord, we ask that you would enable
us to hear a word from our gracious God. In this wilderness in which
we dwell, let us, oh God, be bathed in the light of the grace
of God and the glory of God. And let us be reminded that we're
always under the canopy of your protection. Lord Jesus is indeed
to us the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. So bless
these words that shall be spoken and speak, oh Lord, to your dear
people, words of encouragement and instruction. And Lord, we
ask that you would magnify your great name. These things we ask for Christ's
sake. Amen. We are involved in a study from
the book of Genesis on Wednesday evenings, and we know that the
book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. And in the book of
Genesis, we find our ruin. Here's the very beginning of
man's awful dilemma. when we fell in Adam's transgression
and we were ruined, ruined spiritually. And of course, over a matter
of years, Adam and Eve, they gave every indication and proof
that they were ruined physically as well because they died. It's interesting to read in the
very end of the book of Genesis in chapter 50, the last verse
of the book of Genesis speaks about the death of Joseph. That's what sin has done to us.
It's rendered to us a condition called death. Spiritual death? Yes. Physical death, yes. And unless God is gracious, there'll
be the second death. And that's the death, the everlasting
death of the soul and the body in hell. So the book of Genesis
teaches us ruined, ruined by the fall. But as we get into
the book of Exodus, we find there's a remedy. for our condition. And the remedy is God's remedy
and it has to be that way. And the remedy is redemption. Redemption by power and redemption
by purchase. Now we see at the end of the
book of Genesis, Joseph dying, and before he died, he said,
bury me, and of course they did bury him in a coffin in Egypt,
and they embalmed his body. But he said, I believe God, and
I believe God's going to deliver our people, his people, into
the land of Canaan. And he said, when you leave Egypt,
and you will leave Egypt because God said so, he said, you take
my bones with you and you bury my bones in the land of Canaan,
near my father and my grandfather. And so we get into the book of
Exodus then, and we find Joseph's family, all of them in Egypt. And they grew quickly. Multitudes,
they quickly multiplied and there became thousands and thousands
of Israelites. And another Pharaoh took over
who wasn't kindly favored toward Israel and the offspring of Joseph. And he was a very cruel man. And of course, he made their
bondage and their captivity very awful. But Gahat came to their
rescue. And he purposed that he would
deliver his people from Egyptian bondage, first of all, by power. The arm of the Lord was made
bare. Now, none could deliver Israel
from Egyptian bondage, but God, he would take the power of God.
Israel isn't an army. They don't have any weapons of
warfare. They have no way to go against
the Egyptians. The Egyptians, they have a mighty
army, the most powerful military force in the world. And here
the Israelites, they have no weapons. They have no knowledge
of warfare. They're a peaceful people and
they have been building for the Egyptians. The Egyptians use
them as slave labor. People talk about slavery today. What about the Israelites? And
what about their slavery? And yet people go and they marvel
at the pyramids and the great structures that the Egyptians,
they had made by slave labor. People tend to forget about that. Isn't it amazing how easily people
forget real history? But that happened. But nevertheless,
be that as it may, The Israelites are in Egypt, but they are in
Egypt due to God's eternal purpose. God had directed them to Egypt. He's the one who arranged for
Joseph to go to Egypt. And he had his coat of many colors
and then his brothers were envious of him and jealous of him and
the love that the father had for Joseph. And so he wound up
in being sold into slavery and while some of the brothers wanted
to kill him and all of these things happened to Joseph, but
God had ordained that he He go right up to the next throne beside
Pharaoh. He's second in power. And he's
the one in charge of the granaries. And then Joseph sends for his
family. And so his dad comes in and the
whole nation of Israel, as we have studied before, numbered
70 people. And they are in Egypt according
to the direction of God, according to the purpose of God. We must
ever remember that God governs all things. They're not there
by accident. They're not there by their decision.
They're not there because they made a wrong turn somewhere and
they wind up in this very strange land of Egypt. This is where
God purposed for them to be. and this captivity that they
enter into and this bondage that they will experience, that's
all under the providence of God because God is going to show
forth his power in delivering them from this captivity. Nobody
else could do it. Only God could save them. Only
God could deliver them. And of course, here's a beautiful
picture, none but God can save a sinner. None but the arm of
the Lord can manifest grace and mercy. None but God can overcome
our enemies. Could we? Never. We wouldn't
do battle with Satan. That'd be foolish. We can't do
anything about our own sinfulness. We can't do anything about the
enmity of this world. We're totally dependent for salvation
upon the might of God, upon the power of God. We're not willing
to come to Christ Jesus and we have no ability to come to Christ
Jesus. Therefore, if we're going to
be saved, if we're going to be delivered from Satan, from sin,
from the world, it must be an act of God. And this is what
the scripture says, that salvation is of the Lord. It's His might
at work. It's His power. He makes us willing
in the day of His power. You forget about free will. Free
will, who is a top lady said free will can't cure a toothache.
Much less can it relieve you of your spiritual woes. Only
God can do that. So God redeemed them by power,
first of all, and then he redeemed them by purchase. He bought them
with the blood of a suitable substitute. The firstborn, God
said, I'm gonna pass through Egypt and all the firstborn's
going to die unless the blood is shed and put out there on
the doorpost for my eyes. I said this morning, the blood's
for God. It's always for God. You read
through the book of Leviticus, it's the blood before the Lord. It's for the Lord. He redeemed
them by price. Behold the Lamb of God, John
the Baptist said, that taketh away the sin of the world. Well,
how's he gonna take away the sin of a multitude of people
spread among all the nations of the world? He will do that
by price, by purchase. Well, who are we to be purchased
from? Or who were we purchased from?
Not Satan. But divine justice, law, the
strictness, the severity of the demands of God, they had to be
met. There had to be death, death
for sin. That's what God said was the
penalty. And the day ye eat thereof, you shall surely die. God himself
provided the purchase price, the blood of his son. And so
here come the Egyptians. They're released from their Egyptian
bondage. They're released from their captivity. God did it. To God be the glory. Great things he hath done. He
did it by his power and he did it by purchase price. And they
come out of Egypt with a high hand, marching like a mighty
army, 600,000 men. Men between the ages of 20 and
50, 600,000 of those besides all the rest of Israel. At least two and a half million
people, maybe more than that. And here they come marching out
of Egypt. I can almost see them, can't
you? So joyful. Oh, they're singing in Exodus
chapter 15. They're singing the song of redemption. The song of Moses. And they go
out of Egypt. But now, where are they going
to go? Where are they gonna go? There's
no GPS, there's no roadmap. Where are we going? Well, the
Lord will lead us. I'm sure they spoke to one another
as they were leaving and said, this is a wonderful day. Where
are we going? Going to the promised land. How
are we going to get there? I don't know, but God will lead
us. But notice what the scripture says here in Exodus chapter 13
and verse 17. And it came to pass when Pharaoh
had let the people go, that God led them. Oh, bless his name. He led them, but he led them
not through the way of the land of
the Philistines, although that was near. It would have been
only estimates varying where between a seven day and a 10
day journey for all of them. Go from Egypt to the land of
Canaan. That's the nearest way, but it
involved dealing with the Philistines. And so God didn't lead them that
way. He didn't lead them the nearest way. For God said, lest peradventure
the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt.
But God led them, he led them about. And we know that due to their
own wickedness and sinfulness and the report that the spies
brought back that they had sent in, that God led them through
the wilderness for 40 years, but still God was leading them. God led the people about, they
just wandered around. And I'm sure to them that had
no rhyme, no reason. Why are we going this way? This
is not the right route, but it's the route God's leading us. Do you wonder on occasion in
your life, why am I going this direct? Why
am I on this road? Why has my life taken so many
twists and turns? And the lives of believers do
that. There are sometimes, it almost
seems to us, and I'm sure it seemed to the Israelites, and
you look at a map, as I did today, there are sometimes when, instead
of going toward the land of Canaan, they're going directly opposite. And the Lord, oftentimes, he
leads us in ways that don't seem reasonable to us. but he leads. He leadeth me,
O blessed thought! O what words with heavenly comfort
fraught! Where'er I go, what'er I do,
still tis his hand that leadeth me. He leads us. He may lead us to fall. He may
lead us to the hospital. He may lead us into a disease. He may lead us into hardships
in the family. He may lead us to the cemetery. He may lead us in paths that
we can't comprehend, but still it is his hand that leads us. And that's what we've got to
hold on to. God led the people about. through
the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. You can look in a map, there
was a route that would have avoided altogether the crossing of the
Red Sea. But it was good for them to cross
the Red Sea. Well, how shall they know the
might of God again? How shall they see an illustration
of one way to life, one way to salvation, one way to deliverance,
unless God led them right to the brink of the Red Sea, And
that one way is typical of Christ Jesus and His bloody death. One way to God. Christ said,
I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. You're not going to the land
of promise except by Christ Jesus. And that crossing of the Red
Sea therefore was necessary. That's gospel instruction. And how should they ever see
the total devastation and destruction of the Egyptian military might
except at the Red Sea? God led them about and they saw
lots of things. But something they always experienced
was this, the provision of God and the protection of God. And
I'm telling you and I'm telling me, God leads us in ways to set
before us with certainty that God is the one who's providing
for us and God is the one who is with us. And he makes us to
know by experience. We always say experience is the
best teacher. Well, I'll tell you a teacher
better than experience, that's the Holy Spirit. And he uses
these experiences in the life of a child of God to instruct
us, to teach us, to bow before God and to believe and know that
he is God. He is the governor of all things. He is our guide. He will guide
us all the way to glory. He who gave us grace will give
us glory. And between grace and glory,
we have a pathway that we must walk. It's known only to God
and ordained by God for his glory and for our good. And so here
they go. And the children of Israel, verse
18, they went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt, marching
by fives or maybe by fifties, something like that. And Moses
took the bones of Joseph with him. There you go. He packing
up the bones of Joseph, for he had straightway, he had straightly
sworn the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit
you. you shall carry up my bones away hence with you. And so they
took their journey from Sukkoth and encamped in Etham in the
edge of the wilderness and the Lord went before them by day
in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way and by night in
a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night. And notice this, he took not
away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire
by night from before the people. For 40 years, for 40 years, they
experienced in the daytime a pillar of cloud, and in nighttime, a
pillar of fire. And God never forsook them. He
never deserted them, not at all. Now this way that God would take
them was a way that he chose and the way in which he directed. Because as we shall see, as I
read some scriptures here in a little bit, They were only
to move, they were only to break camp and go when the pillar of
cloud moved. And when the pillar of cloud
stopped or the pillar of fire, when it stopped, they were supposed
to make camp. And don't move anymore, don't
go any further until the pillar of cloud or the pillar of fire
started moving. They were to keep their eyes
upon the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Let me show you a passage and
then I'll come right back to this. Look in Isaiah, if you
would, chapter four. And I'm going to give you a few
references tonight as time allows for us to read these. Isaiah
chapter four. And here's what I want you to
see is that this pillar of cloud and pillar of fire is our Lord
Jesus Christ. This is a picture of him. He
is to his people a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of
fire by night. You see, in their hour of need,
where are we gonna go? What's the direction, Moses?
Ah, the Lord is with us. You see that pillar of cloud?
We follow that. You see that pillar of fire?
We follow that. Our Lord Jesus is the eternal
guardian and guide of his church. Look at Isaiah chapter four,
verses five and six. And the Lord will create upon
every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies
a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire
by night. For upon all the glory shall
be a defense." God calls his people his glory. Did you see
that? This pillar of fire, pillar of
cloud, and pillar of fire, the cloud and the smoke by day, The
shining of a flaming fire by night. It's upon all of his glory. What is God's glory? God's glory
is his saving grace to sinful folks like you and me. This is
his glory. Now look at verse six. And there shall be a tabernacle
for a shadow in the daytime from the heat. for a place of refuge and for
a covert from storm and from rain. Tapernacle. The Word was made flesh and dwelt. He tapernacled among us, John
says in John 1 14, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He's
the shadow in the daytime, They're out there in the burning
desert. That sun shining in all of her
brilliance in the desert, it would scorch people who stayed
out there for very long. And yet the children of Israel
are out there 40 years. It never scorched any of them.
Why not? Because of the pillar of cloud.
And that pillar of clout absorbed the heat of the sun. It took
all of those rays and the children of Israel underneath that pillar
of clout. They were safe. It didn't scorch them. Behold
our Savior who is a pillar of clout. Behold Him at the cross
of Calvary. Here he is absorbing all the
wrath of God, the heat of God's wrath. And none of those in whose
stead he suffered, bled and died shall ever suffer any of the
wrath of God. The heat of God's anger and vengeance
will never touch any of us. Why not? The pillar of cloud
is over us. He took all of the heat for us.
He absorbed it. He is the place of refuge, and
he is a covert from storm and from rain. This pillar was to
the Israelites a perpetual presence of the Lord with them. As long
as they were making their journey, that pillar stayed with them.
It stayed with them all the way until they crossed the Jordan
River and entered into the land of promise. And then their journey
was ended. So they didn't need the pillar
of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. And our Lord
is with us. He is the protective canopy over
his people. He is the pillar of fire who
warms us, who illuminates us, who's leading us through this
world. And he will lead us and be with
us all the way. We cross the river Jordan and
we enter into the land of promise. Consider this pillar that sets
forth our savior. What is a pillar? A pillar is
that which upholds. A pillar is that which is fixed. A pillar is that which is established. This is the Son of God. He's
the one who upholds us. You have never upheld yourself. He has been holding you up from
old eternity. He has been holding you. He's the one appointed by God,
established by God. This is God's doings. And I want
you to notice as you go back, go back to the book of Exodus
again. It was one pillar. It was one
pillar that manifested itself in two different ways. This one
pillar manifested itself during the daytime by a cloud. And this
one pillar manifested itself in the night by fire, really
a pillar or a column of cloud and fire, cloud and fire. This is our savior. This is the
Godman, the fire of God's holiness burns within him. He is God. Our God is consuming fire. He's
God, but He's also a cloud. Many of you, most of you perhaps,
you've flown before and you're up 35,000 feet and you see all
those clouds. Why don't you try stepping out
on one, if you dare. And look, I think I just walk
on it, it sure does look stable. Boy, you just go right through.
Here's a picture of our Savior. Our Savior is the mighty God,
He's the pillar. There's His strength. There's
His stability. He's the established one. but
he is also, he's also the cloud. He's the man, Christ Jesus, having
the infirmities that you and I, some of the infirmities that
we possess. He got tired. He got hungry. He got thirsty. He wept. Here is the blending of the two
in one. this pillar of cloud and fire,
one pillar manifesting itself two ways. And this pillar was
unique and mysterious, but it couldn't be denied. Even the
other nations would have had to have acknowledged, look at
that. all of those people and look
how that cloud just hovers over them. And they watch from the
mountains perhaps and they see here's this great crowd of people
just inching their way across the wilderness. And they say,
hey, we've got to seek out a shade tree before we can find any shadow
that will give us any coolness. But look at those people, look
at that cloud. You ever seen anything like that?
And they went to some of the elders the Assyrians or the Amorites
or Gergesites or whoever they went to. Have you ever seen anything
like that before? I'd never seen anything like
that before. Look how they're protected. And then as the sun
began to go down that pillar of cloud, it turned into a pillar
of fire. and it illuminated all of their
camps. This was a spectacle to all of
the people, but know this, it was only for Israel. It wasn't
for anybody else. Nobody else had a pillar of cloud. Nobody else had a pillar of fire.
This was for a special people, for a specific group of people,
for Israel only. It leads me to say there are
a lot of people today who say, well, you know, I know God has
an elect people, but there is a sense in which God loves everybody
and God wants to be gracious to everybody. There's a sense
in which He cares about all men. No! No! He loves his people. He redeemed
his people. He calls his people. He protects
his people. That pillar of cloud and that
pillar of fire was for one special nation that God chose. One special nation that God redeemed. That's for his Israel. And our Lord Jesus, He's the
one who guides us and who directs us and who watches over us. One pillar. Mysterious, yes. Unique, absolutely. But it couldn't
be denied. No way. I'll tell you something
about this pillar. It indicated the presence of
God. God was there. Visualize in your mind that pillar
of fire by night, that Shekinah glory of God. That's God's presence. When they built the tabernacle,
per instructions given to them by God, when they built the tabernacle,
that pillar of cloud hovered over the tabernacle, and the
pillar of fire at night, it hovered over the tabernacle. That's God's
glory right there. That's God's presence right there.
And you see Jesus of Nazareth walking about in Galilee and
in Judea and in Jerusalem. That's the glory of God there.
That's the God man there. That's the presence of God. Do
we not read in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself? And I'll tell you something,
this pillar divided the righteous from the wicked. Look over into
that passage that Matt read for us. Look at verse 19, chapter
14. Verse 19 of chapter 14, and the
angel of God, the angel of the Lord, the messenger of the covenant,
the mediator of the covenant, the angel of God, which went
before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them. The pillar
of cloud went from before their face and stood behind them. Here
it goes like a big pillar and it moves in back of them and
stood behind them. And it came between the camp
of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was, the scripture
says, a cloud and darkness to them, to the Egyptians. Well, it's already night, but
now you've got this pillar of cloud hiding any moonlight, Any
light from the stars. It's just pitch black back there. They can't see anything. They've
been in mad pursuit of the Israelites. I'm gonna get my slaves back
is what Pharaoh said. And then all of a sudden the
lights totally went out. Why is that? Because the pillar
of cloud was back there. No light for them. But, look
at verse 20, it gave light by night to these. One pillar, to
the one group is darkness, to the other group is light. So
that the one came not near the other all night. Let me tell
you something, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is a saver
of life unto life for some and death unto death for others.
He's light to his people, he's darkness to the enemy. He's protection
to those whom he's chosen unto salvation and redeemed by his
blood, but he's death and darkness to those who are his enemies.
This separated the righteous from the wicked as it were, as
it were, but this pillar I'll tell you what it did. It covered
all the congregation of Israel, both the weak and the strong. Psalm 105 verse 39 says it, the
Lord, he spread a cloud for a covering and fired to give light in the
night. Whether you're strong in faith
or weak in faith, when you're confident or when you have doubts,
when you're worshiping or when worship is far from your thoughts,
still the cloud covers you. And He's the light that illuminates
your pathway. He's our protection. Several weeks ago, months it's
been now, I brought you a few messages from Psalm 91. Verse one, and I'll just read
it. You don't have to turn to it. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the, what does it
say? Shadow of the Almighty. That's where we dwell perpetually. We're under the shadow of the
Almighty. And if I'm there by his grace,
then let come what may, I'm safe. Then no harm can come to me.
No evil can come to me. I gave this illustration up in
Almont last Lord's Day. Brother Rupert Reichenbach, and
he preached here. Didn't Brother Rupert preached
here? I'm sure he did several times in Bible conferences. I
preached for him on a number of occasions. He's with the Lord
now. But his daughter, Melody, committed
suicide. She, in a car, just left the
motor running. She died, she left behind a little
girl. to be raised by Rupert and Betty. Well, of course, Brother Mahan,
and maybe some of y'all went with him, I don't know. I wasn't
able to attend. But Brother Mahan went down and
he preached the funeral for Melody. And Rupert chose not to have
any major part in the service. He only said one thing. But what
he did say was quite powerful. He said, and this is all he said,
we have come here today to kiss the hand of providence. We have come here today to kiss
the hand of providence. You know who can say that? Those
who dwell in the shadow of the almighty. His heart was breaking, but he kissed the hand of divine
providence. When Job's 10 children died,
his heart was breaking, but he kissed the hand of divine providence. He worshiped God. He said, the
Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. This pillar was a pillar of fire
by night, but the fire didn't harm him. I say to you who have to endure
fiery trials, they won't harm you. Those three Hebrew children,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Nebuchadnezzar turning up the
heat, he's so mad at them, they won't bow before his image. He
casts them into the fiery furnace. And the only thing the fiery
furnace burnt off was the ropes that bound them. And when they
left, when they left, when he had them released from the furnace,
they didn't even have the smell of smoke on them. Isn't that
amazing? But in that fire, in that furnace,
they were not alone. The Son of Man was with them.
And I say to all of you who are the people of God, you may go
through a fiery furnace, but it can't harm you. The Lord said
to his people in the book of Isaiah, when you pass through
the waters, you're not gonna drown. Why not? He said, I'm with you. I'm your
pillar of cloud by day and your pillar of fire by night. And
when you pass through the fire, it's not gonna harm you. I'm
with you. Look at Nehemiah chapter nine.
I do want you to look at this with me. Nehemiah chapter nine. The Lord was His presence was
known in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire
by night. And I'll tell you something else
as you go to that passage of scripture in Nehemiah chapter
nine, the Lord spoke to them out of this pillar of cloud and
pillar of fire. God speaks to us through Christ
Jesus. He's not gonna be spoken to nor
be spoken to. He's not gonna speak to nor be
spoken to except through this mediator. And he led them by this pillar.
Nehemiah chapter nine. Look at verse 15. And here, eight
of the Levites have been kind of rehearsing the things that
God has done for Israel. And for the sake of brevity,
drop down to verse 15. He gave us them bread from heaven
for their hunger and brought us forth water for them out of
the rock for their thirst. He promised them that they would
go in to possess the land which thou had sworn to give them. But they and our fathers dealt
proudly. They hardened their necks, they
hearkened not to the commandments. They refused to obey, neither
were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them, but hardened
their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return
to their bondage. But thou art to God ready to
pardon gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness,
and forsookest them not. Yea, when they had made them
a golden calf and said, this is thy God that brought thee
up out of Egypt and hath wrought great provocation, yet thou in
thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness. I
expect I would have forsook them, but God didn't forsake them.
I expect you would have forsook them. But God didn't forsake
him. Why? He says, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. Why is that? Because he was forsaken
for us. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And notice this, the pillar of
the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way,
neither the pillar of fire by night to show them light. and
the way that they should go. Thou gavest them also thy good
spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from
their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. Yea,
forty years did thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that
they lacked nothing, their clothes waxed not old, and their feet
they swelled not. He stayed with them every step
of the way. And the Lord will stay with you,
children of God. And I got one more passage I
want to read to you, the book of Numbers chapter nine. Let
me show you this. And we need to be reminded that
the Lord is always leading us. His presence is always with us. It may very well be that he'll
lead you and me in the path of difficulty, of trouble, of trial,
but throughout your wilderness journey, he will be leading you. Numbers chapter 15. I'm sorry,
Numbers chapter nine. Numbers chapter nine and verse
15. And on the day that the tabernacle
was reared up, God had given all the instructions pertaining
to the building of the tabernacle. On the day that the tabernacle
was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely the tent
of the testimony. And it even there was upon the
tabernacle, as it were, the appearance of fire into the morning. And
so it was always. There it is, the cloud covered
it by day. and the appearance of fire by
night. And when the cloud was taken
up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel
journeyed. And in the place where the cloud
abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents at
the commandment or at the determination of the Lord, the children of
Israel journeyed and at the commandment or the determination or the decree
of the Lord, they pitched. As long as the cloud abode upon
the tabernacle, they rested in their tents. They were contented
in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long
upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept
the charge of the Lord and journeyed not. And so it was when the cloud
was a few days upon the tabernacle, according to the commandment
of the Lord, they abode in their tents. And according to the commandment,
or the foreordination, the decree of the Lord, they journeyed.
And so it was when the cloud abode from evening unto the morning,
and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they
journeyed. Whether it was by day or by night
that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it
were two days or a month or a year that the cloud tarried upon the
tabernacle remaining therein, the children of Israel abode
in their tents and journeyed not. But when it was taken up,
they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord,
they rested in their tents and at the commandment of the Lord,
they journeyed. They kept the charge of the Lord
at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. And here's
what they did. They kept their eyes on the cloud. They kept their eyes on the pillar.
This is the only way to live life is keep your eyes of faith
on Jesus Christ, the Lord. He's the pillar. He's a pillar
of cloud by day. He's a pillar of cloud by night.
Keep your eyes on the cloud. I bet you Moses said, don't look
to me. You see that cloud? See that pillar of fire? You
watch that. Because right there is our safety. That's the presence of God. He
speaks to us out of that pillar of cloud and pillar of fire. Keep your eyes on the cloud.
The Lord led them. He led them. He led them in the
way that they should go. And that pillar of fire, it gave
them warmth. When I think of fire, I think
of warmth. I think of illumination. Our
Lord Jesus is all of that to us. It protected the people. You know what the Lord says to
his children? Jot this reference down and look it up later, if
you would. Zechariah chapter two, verse five. For I, saith
the Lord, will be unto her and to his people a wall of fire
round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. You know what fire does at night? Protects you from wild animals. Protects from the wolves that
would lead you astray from the gospel. Protects you from the
serpent who would beguile you. This pillar of cloud and fire
was for defense to the people. And you know how long we're gonna
have the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night?
until we get to the land of promise. And the city to which we're going,
it has no need of light, for the Lamb of God is the light
thereof. We sing the song of shelter in
the time of storm, shade by day, defense by night. a shelter in the time of storm. No fear is alarm, no foe is a
fright, a shelter in the time of storm. As long as you keep
your eyes on the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire
by night, you won't be alarmed You won't be disturbed. Oh, you're
gonna have troubles, there's no question about that, because
you're in a wilderness journey. But the Lord is leading you.
But know this, even when you take your eyes off the cloud,
the eye of divine omniscience is always on you. And he says, I'll never leave
you. and I'll never forsake you. Oh, how blessed is this pillar
of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. And he warms us. I hope and I pray that he has
warmed us today by his word. You're just like me. Sometimes
our hearts get cold. The spirit of God comes and he
warms us again. It's one of the necessities of
public worship. We keep coming under the sound
of the gospel. Someone continues to tell us,
behold, the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
Keep your eye on him. Keep your eye on him. You say,
yeah, thank you for reminding me again, Pastor. I've got to
do that. I tend to take my eyes off of
him. I know. I know. But then He warms
you. He warms you up and you thaw
out. And you realize He's still there. He is a blessed canopy to all
of His people. And that helps me. I hope that
helps you. To know that He's there no matter
what, that his presence with me is not dependent upon my faithfulness
or upon my goodness. He's always faithful and he's
always there. Well, let's pray. Lord, we thank
you for the gospel of your grace for the Lord Jesus. We thank
you that he is Always to your people the pillar of cloud by
day to protect us, to watch over us, to make sure that the heat of
the trials of life don't consume us. He is over us as a pillar
of cloud, as our Savior who absorbed the heat of your vengeance against
our sin. And He is the pillar of fire.
His Word is a light unto our paths and a lamp to our feet. Lord, You illuminate the Word
of God to us. You make Yourself known to us
through the Lord Jesus. And You speak to us through Him.
And we speak to You through Him. Oh, what a blessed people we
are. And we find, to our astonishment, that those times when our faith
is weak, yet He's always there, always
gracious, always merciful, always faithful. And so, dear Spirit
of Grace, enable us to keep our eyes on the pillar of cloud and
the pillar of fire. One pillar, our Lord Jesus, the
author and the finisher of our faith. In his name I ask these
things, amen.