And when the people heard these
evil tidings, they mourned and no man did put on his ornaments.
What was the tidings they heard? God said, I'll not go up in the
midst of you. I'm not going to go with you.
I'll send my angel before you. But I'm not going. I'll not go
up in the midst of stiff-necked people, lest I consume them in
the way. And when the people heard these
evil tidings, they mourned. And no man did put on his ornaments. For the Lord said unto Moses,
Say unto the children of Israel, You are stiff-necked people.
I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume
thee. Therefore now put off thine ornaments
from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children
of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount
Horeb. And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp,
afar off from the camp, and 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. And
it came to pass when Moses went out unto 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 and
it came to pass as Moses entered 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. Our Father, in the name of your
blessed Son, our gracious, glorious Savior, who is God over all,
blessed forever, who is truly God, come down, our Savior, our
Redeemer, our Mediator, our Interceder. Lord, we thank you and bless
you and praise you because of who you are, who you are. We worship you for who you are.
We worship you and call on you for who you are. You're God over
all. Glory and power, might, And Lord, you let people like
us, frail, frail children of the dust, come into your presence
and speak to you. Speak to you. We don't have to
stand afar off. We can come into your holy presence. And Lord, when we come, we are
conscious of where we're at. Conscious, oh Lord, of our need.
our weaknesses, our inability. But Lord, we also are reminded
where you said in your word, we can do all things through
Christ which strengthens us. So Lord, meet with us tonight.
Bring glory to yourself through this congregation. Pray for those
that we mentioned this morning and thank you for them and pray
that you'd continue to bless them, strengthen them by your
spirit and grace. And oh Father, we ask for your anointing as only
you can give it, your understanding as only you can give it. So we
look to you for all things in Christ's holy name. Amen. Alright, let's look back here
together and you'll notice that it says that verse 7, Moses took
the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, far off from
the camp and 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 outside the camp. Without the
camp. You know over in Hebrews 13.13
it says there that our Lord Jesus went without the camp. They crucified
him outside the camp. Outside of Jerusalem. Now why
it says he moved to without the camp was because God said I'm
not going to dwell in the midst of this people anymore. and the
tabernacles where God dwelt. That's where God met men, in
the tabernacle. He dwelt on that mercy seat,
behind that veil. And what we need to do, when
we're reading and studying the scriptures, we need to see how
it applies to us today. And the second thing is, is do
we see the Lord Jesus Christ in it? And how is it typical of our
Lord? How is it typical for us today?
We don't need a history lesson on Israel. We don't need that.
And why is Moses pitching the tent outside the camp? And those
who sought the Lord, they had to go outside the camp too. They
had to go outside the camp. What does that say to us? Well,
when we consider the horribly, horribly wicked sin of Israel,
when they made that golden calf. Got naked and danced around that
golden calf. Had a big feast, sat down to
eat, and then they jumped up and started playing. Playing
church is what we, I guess is what you say they was doing.
Playing at worship. And you consider the Lord, God
said, He said, this is the only reason I'm not going up in the
midst of you, because if I go up, I'll end up consuming you. You're such a stiff-necked, hard-hearted,
wicked, miserable, bunch of people, that if I come in the midst of
you, there's nothing else I can do but annihilate you. Nothing
else I can do but that. And I'll tell you what, and the
Lord didn't annihilate them. And that's because, you know,
God didn't annihilate us. He could have. He could have
very easily. All He had to do for us, being
you, is just leave us alone. Just leave us alone. He didn't
have to do anything positive. All he had to do was just say,
ignore us. But here he says positively, if I come in the midst of you,
I'm not to consume you. And that should cause our hearts
to bow and worship before him. That he has got somebody between
them. And it was because of who it
was And what he did that turned God's righteous anger away from
them. Moses pleaded with them. He was the mediator between them
and God. You remember he said, Lord, if
you destroy this people, what are they going to say down in
Egypt? What are all your enemies going to say? You made them a
promise to Abraham. You made a promise to Isaac.
You made a promise to Jacob. So if you destroy all these people,
how are you going to fulfill that promise? How are you going
to keep that covenant? And what are they going to save?
You just brought them out to destroy them. Just brought them
out to destroy them. And that's the reason why God
has not destroyed us. A fella called me all the way
from Australia last night and talked to me for a while. And
he said over and over again, he says, you know, without Christ
we have no acceptance, but with Christ we have perfect acceptance. And he's right. I mean, we have
acceptance, perfect acceptance with Christ. But why God didn't
annihilate us? Christ stood between us and God
from all eternity. He was the Lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. And then when He come into this
world, He interceded for those God gave Him in the covenant
of grace. He prayed for them. He said, I'm not only going to
pray for them that believed on Me through Your Word, but I'm
going to pray for them who shall believe. Who shall believe. And had there been no Moses to
plead with them and intercede for them, Israel would have perished
that day. God would have slew them all.
And that's the way it is without Christ. Without Christ, God cannot
even look in a man's direction. I've said it a time and again,
Scott Richards said God cannot look at a man, God cannot have
anything to do with a man apart from Christ. Wouldn't touch him
with a hundred foot pole apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Won't
even look in his direction. And he also said this, he said
if there's an inch of ground and anywhere in this world that
God's not control over, I don't stand on it. I don't want to
stand on it. But so here what happened. Moses
greatly, greatly loved this people. He loved this people. And God
greatly, greatly loved us. Oh, how He loved us. And how
could He love us? How can Moses love a people that
murmured against Him? Said harsh things against Him?
He said, went to God one time, said they're about ready to stone
me. But he unselfishly devoted himself
to Israel. They didn't appreciate him. Murmured
at him, rebelled against him. Yet He loved them through their
trials, through their testings. Their sin could not kill their
affection for them. No more than our sin can kill
Christ's affection for us. If our sin could have killed
Christ's affection for us, He would have killed it the first
day for me when He saved me by His grace. And so Moses' intercession
saved them from consuming wrath of God. But it didn't save them
from being plagued. You remember there in verse 35
of chapter 32? And the Lord plagued the people
because the calf which Aaron had made. He put a plague on
them. Chastised them. And then God, like I said, He
said, I will not. I'll send an angel before you.
I'll send an angel and he's going to fight your battles. He's going
to drive out all these people before you. But he said, I'm
not going to go up. I'm not going to go with you.
But yet God is faithful to the promises that he made. He said,
I will give unto thee the land that I told them that I would
give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm going to give them the land.
I'm going to give them the land. Now let's start here in verse
4 and see what they got to say, what it says here. And when the
people heard these evil tidings, what do you, God said, I'm not
going with you. I'm not. I'm not going to be in your midst
no more. I'm not going to do that. And when they heard, you
called them, I'm not going to go with you, stiff-necked people.
And when the people heard these evil tidings, that's an evil
tiding, God said, I'm not going to go with you. That's an evil
tiding. That's why we say, Lord, come
down in our presence. Please come and meet with us.
Give us of your presence in our worship. And I'll tell you what,
to not have God's presence is a miserable place to be. And
when the people heard, when the people heard, they mourned. And no man did put on his ornaments.
Now here's the first hopeful sign for the people. They began to mourn. And they
understood this was a bad, bad tiding from God himself. God
said, I'm not going to have anything else to do with you. I can't
come down among you. I'm righteous and I'm holy. And
you've made an idol and I can't come and dwell in your midst.
And I tell you what, they mourned. They had sorrow. They lamented.
For God not to be in their midst, it moved them. It stirred them.
It scared them. It troubled them. Caused them
to mourn. But now Laodicea wasn't like
that. God wasn't in the midst of them.
And you know what they said? We're rich and increased with
goods and have need of nothing. And you know how many people,
I'm telling you this, there's no telling how many people meet.
And God never, ever, ever, ever comes among them. And they don't
miss Him. Because He's never been there.
He's never been there. You know how many places where
God does not go in the sense to come down and meet among people
like us? There's places that gather around
to meet. They got great big bands going.
and they got people standing waving their hands and everybody
shouting hallelujah and they're having people dancing in the
aisles and they got people speaking in tongues, God's not in that
and they don't know it and don't miss it they go in the energy
of the flesh one of these days they're going to get up and they're
going to be like Samson was, he got up and shook himself and
the Spirit of God had left. And oh my, now they was troubled. They was troubled. It would be
awful to come here for three or four services in a row and
God not be here. That would be awful. It's awful
enough to get up here and God helping you and God being with
you. But to be up here looking at you and talking to you and
preaching to you and preaching to myself and looking at the
Bible together. What if I got up here and God
didn't help me? If He didn't help me, He wouldn't
help you. If God's presence was with me,
He wouldn't be with you. That'd be a horrible, that's
a frightening thing to think of, ain't it? And look what it
says now in verses 5. In verse 4 it says, And no man
did put on his ornaments. Ornaments. For the Lord said
unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, You are stiff-necked
people. I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and
consume thee. Therefore now put off thine ornaments
from thee that I may know thee. They didn't put on their ornaments. You know what the first ornament
anybody wore in the Bible? It was a fig leaf. It was a fig leaf. It was an
ornament. God wouldn't see his nakedness. I watched a little old squirrel
yesterday morning. She was making her a nest. She'd run up the
limb and grab her a leaf and carry it down there and grab
another and count. She'd build her a big old nest. But every
time you pull a leaf, it dies. And by the time she has her youngins
and brings them out of that nest, every one of those leaves will
be brown. And every ornament that man puts on It got to keep
putting it on over and over and over again. Done. If you're going
to wear ornaments, religious ornaments, and people have religious
ornaments, they really do. I remember years ago, maybe some
of you all do, people used to go around and sell the Bible. Young men going to school and
things like that, they'd go around and sell Bibles. And they had
these great big Bibles. You get them in black or you
get them in white. How big are those huge family
Bibles? And they'd say, look at all the art in this thing.
And they'd start turning to all the pictures. There was pictures
of Moses, there's pictures of Jesus, there's pictures of Abraham.
Oh my, there's all kinds of pictures in there. And the pictures is
what people sold them to people. It was the pictures in them. It was the ornaments. They didn't
care a thing in the world about what the Bible said. You know
most of them, I know two or three people that bought the things.
I've seen lots of them laying on people's coffee tables and
stuff. And I've often said this, if
everybody picked up that Bible and opened it at the same time,
it'd be a dust storm. Ain't that right? But that's the truth. They didn't care what the Bible
said. They're not going to read it anyway. But they'd open that
thing up and they'd open up all these beautiful pictures. And
that's what they bought it for. And you know how many people
have crucifixes over their bed? And pictures of Jesus over their
bed? And praying hands in their house
that light up? And they got religious calendars
so you know that they have a different picture of Jesus every month. And they put fish on their cars. Put things on the back of their
vehicle. They want people to know they're
religious. That's an ornament for them. And you go down to
Mexico. You go down to Mexico and you
go around and they have all these little pagoda-like things. And they got every religious
saint that you can imagine from Mary, a little baby Jesus, and
crucifixes, and every saint. And they got them things decorated.
And they've got every saint that they can get to hang over their
mirror. Them fellas that drive them big trucks. And they'll go by those places and go tut tut tut
tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut
tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut
tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut
tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut
tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut
tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut
tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut
tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut
tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut to be seen of men. They gave their arms to be seen
of men. And God said put them off. Put
them off. Don't you wear, don't you have
anything on you. Don't have anything. You come
in my presence without any ornaments. Don't want no ornaments. The
only thing I can look at and approve of is the blood, and
when I see it, I'll pass over you. The only thing I can look
at about you is the righteousness of my Son, yours, given to you. That's the only thing I can look
at. That's the only thing I can look at. And I tell you what,
when they put off their ornaments, this is evidence of their genuine
sorrow, of them humbling themselves. And I do know this, the more
ornaments people have, the less of God they have, and the less
of God's presence, the more, the less of God's presence, the
more ornaments people need. The more ornaments they need.
Then look what it says there in verse 6. Verse 6. And the children of Israel, listen
to this now, stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount
Orb. Here they are. They find they're obeying God
now. They're obeying God's command.
Strip themselves. Repentance is stripping off the
ornaments. You know, Peter said it like
this, God resists the proud and giveth grace unto the humble.
He that exalteth himself shall be abased. He that humbleth himself
shall be exalted. And that's what happened here.
These folks stripped themselves. Stripped themselves. I'll tell
you, fella, that you talking about ornaments, and you can
read it yourself, but I thought about this before I come to service
tonight. Paul the Apostle, you read in Philippians 3, of all
his accomplishments, how dedicated, how committed he was Pharisee
of Pharisees circumcised the 8th day, a tribe of Benjamin
and he went through all everything that he amounted to when he was
a Jew and had all the Jewish religion and had all the commandments
and all the trappings of it and then he turned around and said
That's all. Everything that I thought I was
good at, thought I had something gory at. He said that took away
from Christ. And he says now I count everything
that I ever had, I count it but done. I count it garbage. He said he stripped himself right
then and there of all hope he had. And he comes down to say, I want
to win Christ, be found in Christ, I want to know Christ. And that's why he got rid of
all his ornaments. And I tell you what, that's a
hard thing to do, isn't it? Give up a false profession? It's
a hard thing to do to give up self-righteousness. But I tell you, if God does it,
it goes. It will go. It will go gladly.
And then look what happens here. I've got to hurry on. I'm taking
too long. And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without
the camp, afar from the camp, and 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
that was without the camp. Now why, you know when this,
the tabernacle sat right in the middle of the camp. There was
tribes that pitched over here, tribes pitched on the west, tribes
that pitched on the north, tribes that pitched on the south. And
the tabernacle was right in the middle of them. God said, now
listen, I'm not going to dwell amidst these people anymore.
You take that tabernacle and you move it off, way off away
from all these people. Move it far away. Get it out
of the camp. Get it out of the camp. Get it
out of a bunch of these people. Far off out of the camp. This
shows us three things. Three things. An act of submission,
faith, and grace. You know when he talked about
an acts of submission. He was bowing, Moses was bowing
to God's righteous verdict. I'll not be in the midst of them.
So if they're not going to be in the midst of them, he's got
to go outside the camp. And so he took the tabernacle
outside the camp. And so Moses submits to God's
judgment. And he leaves the place where
God no longer will dwell. He went without the camp. And
the second thing is it was an act of faith. God cannot dwell
here. I'll move him outside the camp. And when he goes outside the
camp, I'm going to go outside the camp with him. If this is
where God is going to dwell, I'm going to go out there where
he's at. Wherever God's at, that's where I want to be. And that's
what Moses is saying is an act of faith. God said, move the
tabernacle out here. Well, this is where I'm going
to go to worship. And everybody else who sought
the Lord had to go without the camp. And I'll tell you what, we go
without the camp of religion, go without the camp of self-hope
and hopefully pride, we go without the camp. We leave religion behind
and go to Christ. And then secondly, secondly,
thirdly, it was an act of grace. Even though God would dwell in
the midst of this stiff-necked people, there was still a dwelling
place you could go to and meet with him. Oh, where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. There's a place to meet and it's
outside the camp. And then it came to pass that
everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle
of congregation without the camp. And God's holiness wouldn't allow
him to dwell in that defiled camp. And so what God does is
he maintains his righteousness, his holiness, but grace made
it possible for people to still meet Him and worship Him, go
outside the camp. Go outside the camp. You know
when our Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross, was on that cross,
you all might remember this, there stood talking with Him.
Now He's outside the camp, He's on the cross. He said it's not
possible that a prophet perish in Jerusalem. They took him outside
the camp. And you know how many, you know
a lot of folks out there screaming and hollering and crying at him. But his mother Mary, two other
Marys, and John, they stood there and talked with him while he
was on that cross. They come out there and identified
with him and him on that cross. They talked with Him. Converged
with Him. And that's why, you know, our
Lord said, Mother, behold thy son. Son, behold thy mother. So they went without the camp.
And then they all got scared to death after Christ was crucified.
Thought the Jews were going to get them. And they all hid. And
then when Christ rose from the dead, He just... First thing,
you've got to be not afraid. Peace be unto you. All right,
all right. These people, grace made it possible
for people to meet him outside the camp. And the reason these
people went without the camp was because of idolatry. God
had been replaced with a golden calf. The tent was moved without
the camp. wasn't moved without the camp
when they murmured, when they desecrated the Sabbath, when
they fought the Amalekites. But when they built them a golden
camp, God moved out. He said, I'm not going to dwell
here. And I tell you, let's not leave the camp because when things
don't go our way, let's not do that. Let's not
do that. Stay put. to stay put until another
Jesus is preached, a false God set up. And until that happens,
let's meet. I remember your daddy praying
when we first opened this building. January 6, 1991. He prayed and
said, God, don't let nothing ever be preached in this building
but the grace of God in Christ. Don't never let anything else
be preached in this building. And so far it hasn't. So far
it hasn't. God answered that prayer. Has
answered that prayer. And okay, so when Moses went
out, verse 8, I got to hurry on here. When Moses went out,
until the tabernacle now watch this now 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 Moses entered
that tabernacle and everybody stood outside their tent and
they're watching Moses as he walks out of the camp and walks
over there and gets in and goes to that tabernacle they all stand
outside their tent they're watching him watching him And they stood
before their tent door. Not every man responded to the
call of separation when the Levites could there. The majority stood
at the tent doors. There's interested in Moses,
there's interested in looking after him. And then it's look
what happened here. And it came to pass that they
looked after him until he was gone into the tabernacle. They
watched him until he went into that tabernacle. And it came
to pass as Moses entered the tabernacle the cloudy pillar
descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord
talked with Moses. Moses entered that tabernacle
and that cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door Now there's
three times, three times that this Cloudy Pilgrim is mentioned.
The first time it's mentioned, let me just look at them together.
Exodus 13, 12, look at this. Three times it's mentioned, once
for guidance, once for protection, and here it is for communion.
Look here, you know three times this cloudy pillar is mentioned.
That cloudy pillar means God's presence. That's what it is.
It's His visible presence. This visible symbol of God's
presence. Third time. Look here in verse
12. Let's see, 1321, I'm sorry, 1321. and the Lord went before them
by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them in the way oh my
this is how he led them and by night in a pillar of fire so
they could have some light so he was with them day and night
now look in 1419 Now here's where they get protection.
Now there's Pharaoh's army coming up on them fast. Coming up on
them fast. And the angel of God which went
before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them. And the
pillar of the cloud went from before their faces and stood
behind them and it came between the camp of Egyptians and the
camp of Israel. So he's only for protection.
And over here is the third time it's mentioned. When the cloudy
pillar came down. And here it speaks of communion. Because God spoke to him. And
the Lord talked with Moses. Talked with Moses. God honors
them that honor him. And look what happens now in
verse 10. Verse 10. And all the people saw the cloudy
pillar. Stand at the tabernacle of the
door. They saw it now listen to what
happens down and all the people rose up and Began to worship
God Every man in his tent door I Mean they became conscious
of God. They really saw his manifestation
that cloudy pillar they'd seen it before and And I'll tell you
nothing, nothing but the real manifesting of God's blessed
presence will produce real worship. The more conscious we are of
how unworthy we are, then the more of the grace of God The
more thankful and the more worship. Oh my. God's worthy of our worship. He's worthy of our adoration.
He's worthy of our love. He's worthy of our whole being. He don't come in a cloudy pillar
anymore. Comes through this. And by the
Holy Spirit, don't He? Amen. Our Father, oh blessed Father,
thank you again for the day. For your presence today, I'm
so thankful for it. So thankful to have the Holy
Spirit be in our midst. And I pray it was a blessing
to the saints that were gathered here today. Oh Lord, if it's
not edifying, not encouraging, not uplifting, Lord forgive me
if I don't be edifying and be honest and be truthful with myself
and with others. Lord, I want so for your children
to be established in the faith, all of us, to grow up under Christ,
under a full man, under the stature of a full man. Grow up and be
mature and honor Him. Live to His glory. Give ourselves
to Him a way every day, every day, get up and give ourselves
to Him again. Say, Lord, here I am. Take me. Do with me what You will. Whether
I'm on the job, whether I'm in my home, whether I'm in my car. Oh God, let our lives, let our
lives honor You. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen.
Amen. Well, Lord bless you and I'll
see you.