Now in verse 11 where we read
in Exodus 33, it said that God spoke with Moses face to face,
as a man speaketh with his friend. Now Moses in the text represents
the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes in and he communes with
God as the representative of the people. But also, as Christ
is, so are we in this world. As it is with our representative,
so it is with us. The people knew that, and that's
why they worshiped God when they saw that God had received Moses
and was speaking with him this way. They were encouraged and
blessed. God speaks with us, with all
of his people. also in communes with us, as
with a friend. In James 2 23, it says that scripture
was fulfilled, which saith Abraham believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness. And he was called the friend
of God. He believed God. righteousness
was imputed to him and God called him his friend. You see, do you
believe like Abraham did? Do you believe God? Then you're
righteous in his sight and he calls you his friend like he
did Abraham. What does it mean to be the friend
of God? Well, as in so many ways, the
Lord teaches us heavenly truth with earthly illustrations, comparisons. Everybody pretty much knows what
a friend is. There are people, no doubt, in
this world who go through this life without ever having a true
friend, and that's very, very sad. But I doubt if there's anyone
in this room who has never had a real friend. So when we read this, you know
what it means. I have one person in mind when
I think of a friend, and many, but one in particular, and you
may very well have one friend that stands out in your mind.
Let me tell you what makes my friend who he is to me and see
if you have a friend like this. And by the way, before I Again,
let me just say this Vicki is my friend in a whole different
sense as well as my wife She's my friend like nobody else So
she's in a category all by herself We know that our relationship
with our God is also compared to that relationship Christ is
the bridegroom of his people And we are his bride. His church
is his bride but here He speaks with us as with a friend. And so I thought about friendship
and what my, I guess, probably my best friend in this world
means to me. And there are several who I could easily say these things
about. But I think just about everybody probably has one in
particular that they think of. My friend, first of all, and
I believe this is key to the text. I believe this is what
our Lord would have us understand about him speaking to us as with
a friend. My friend is somebody that I
can trust. If you can't trust somebody,
it's tough to be friends with them. But I can trust my friend
with my very life. I believe that he would defend
me to the death if he was called upon to do so. I would trust him readily with
my family and their lives, and there aren't very many I can
say that about. I can trust him to be honest
with me. I trust him to seek my best interest. I believe he wants me to be happy
and to do well. I believe that he's really for
me. He's on my side in just about every situation. You got anybody
like that? I feel the same way about him.
Now, I know that no man is completely trustworthy, no matter how good
a friend he seems to be. Judas showed himself to be a
friend to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he came to betray our
Lord, our Lord said to him, friend, betrayest thou the son of man
with a kiss. No man in himself is better than
that. We're all treacherous by nature
and untrustworthy. And yet, by God's grace and in
his providence, we do have a level of trust for some. And there
are a few that we trust implicitly. And I'll say this to you, and
take this for what it's worth, it's just me talking here. If
you trust somebody who you believe to be a child of God, you may
very well be betrayed by them. But if you know someone who is
clearly opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel, I suggest you be real careful
around them. The Lord restrains the wicked
from doing what they would to his elect in this world, and
we know that, but that don't mean we play with rattlesnakes.
The Lord protects me, but I don't play with rattlesnakes. If you go pick up a rattlesnake
and play with it and say, well, the Lord protects me, you're
crazy. The Lord don't teach us to behave like that. He said, beware of wolves in
sheep clothing. Taught us to stay away from them.
Now, if God is your friend, if God is your friend, you can trust
him completely. We sing a song sometimes that
says, they who trust him wholly, find him wholly true. And I have
found him to be that. It's impossible for him to lie.
My best friend in this world might lie to me. There might
be a situation where he would lie to me for some reason or
another. God can't lie. It's impossible for him to lie.
You got to be true to his character, his veracity. He's immutable. All of his promises
can be completely relied upon. First of all, because he can't
lie. And secondly, because he's almighty. He can follow through
on them. He not only told the truth about it, I may tell the
truth and make you a promise, and I may be completely sincere
about it, but I may not be able to follow through on it as much
as I'd like to. God doesn't have that problem. And he's omniscient. He foresees
every And I'm speaking in a language
of men to even say that, that he foresees every possible contingency
or alternate circumstance. There's no such thing as those
things in God's world, really. We have to talk like men because
that's what we are. He's almighty and omniscient.
And he can't lie, so he can't fail. He never changes. And he loves me. as he loves
himself. That's somebody you can trust. And then there's something else
and I'm not just whistling Dixie here tonight. I'm not just thinking,
you know, I don't this is not an imaginary friend. This is
something I know what the Lord talking about when he uses the
word friend because I have some. And I'll tell you this is the
truth. I'm comfortable around my friends. I'm comfortable around
them. I delight to be with them. I
don't have to be careful to say things exactly the right way,
you know, because I know that my friend understands me. He
knows me pretty well. He understands. I was talking
to somebody on the phone the other day, who's one of my dear
friends, and he said something and he said, oh, I shouldn't
have said that that way. I don't want you to take that
the wrong way. And I said, look, you don't ever
have to worry about that with me. I'm not going to take it
the wrong way. You know what I mean by that?
Don't think you have to worry about that. Don't think you have
to walk on eggshells around me. That's not how friends act with
one another. And that's especially true with
my best friend. I can pretty much say whatever's
on my heart to him. and he to me. And I know he'll understand.
He always has. He knows me as well or better
than just about anybody, and he still likes me. That's a friend. I've had some that, you know,
I thought were my friends for a while, but then they found
out too much about me, I guess. And it just didn't last. The text speaks of friendship
with regard to the way that God spoke to Moses. He spoke with
him as with a friend, and that's what I'm talking about here.
Face to face. Bared our hearts to him. You
can do that before the Lord. like no other. Now, my friend loves me and I
love him and I'm completely unashamed of that. I don't care who knows
it. He doesn't either. He's proven
it many, many times over, over many years that he loves me.
I don't have any doubt about it. Love is the motive of all of
these things that I'm talking about. But the third thing itself
is this, he'd do anything for me. do anything for me. I'm comfortable around him. I trust him. And I know that he'd
do anything for me. And again, we know that there's
limitations with men to that. But I'll tell you this, if I
had to make that phone call in the middle of the night, do you
know what that is? You know what a phone call in the middle of
the night is? Have you ever had to make one of those? I know
who I'm going to call. Do you? I know who I'm calling. That's my friend. It doesn't
matter what it is. Doesn't matter what I've gotten
myself into or what kind of a fix I'm in. He's coming. And I don't even doubt it for
a second. And that's a short list. That's a real short list. And I feel the same way about
him. When my friend has a problem, I have a problem. His happiness is my concern and
vice versa. I've called on God in the middle
of the night a time or two also. Have you? You ever called on
him? And there are different kinds
of night. Our Lord told the parable of
the unjust judge in Luke 8 verses 1 through 6. And then he said
this, and shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day
and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you
that he will avenge them speedily. That's my friend. I know that there's nothing God
won't do for me because Paul said, he that spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? If he would give
his only begotten son for me, I know that there's nothing that
he will not do for me, nothing. Psalm 46, 1, David said, God
is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Very
present. I think he's probably already
there before we even cry, you reckon? Solomon said in Proverbs 18,
24, a man that has friends must show himself friendly. And there
is a friend. that sticketh closer than a brother. And I, like the disciples in
the middle of that storm on that little ship, when they woke up the Lord and
said, don't you care? I've questioned and I've doubted,
and I've been in every way unworthy of the friendship of my Savior,
but that doesn't affect His love for me at all whatsoever. doesn't change our friendship. Our Lord said to his disciples
in John 15, 13, greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends. And here's the wonder
of wonders. I wanted to read that verse so
I could read this verse that we could consider them together.
No greater love than a man lay down his life for his friends.
Romans 5, 8, but God commended his love toward us and that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. As God spoke with Moses as a
friend, we didn't read this far, but
he spoke with him as a friend. And then if you read the rest
of the chapter, you see what he said as a friend to him. In verse 14, he promised that
he'd always be with him. And he promised that he'd give
him rest. He said to him in verse 17, you,
Moses, have found grace in my sight. And then in the final verses
of the chapter, as they spoke friend to friend, face to face,
God showed him his glory. revealed to him his goodness
and his mercy and his grace in Christ. What a friend. And then I know this about friends
because I have some friends by God's grace. By the way, a friend
is a gift from God. It's a special gift. A lot of things have to come
together in God's providence. for people to be friends, real
friends. And I know this about them, friends
have some things in common, not always everything and not always
a lot of things necessarily, but they have some things in
common. They're like each other in certain ways, have the same
interests, the same values. If I don't care about anything
that somebody else cares about at all, it's unlikely that we're
going to be friends. And I know a few people like
that. I've got nothing in common with them. Everything that's
valuable to them is meaningless to me and vice versa. Have a
nice life. You know what I mean? But it's
not that way with my friend. It's not that way. What matters
to him matters to me too. Sometimes it matters to me just
because it matters to him Listen to Acts 13 21 The preacher
here is talking about the people of Israel It says and afterward
they desired a king and God gave unto them Saul the son of sis
a man of the tribe of Benjamin by the space of 40 years and
when he had removed him from He raised up unto them David
to be their king, to whom also he gave their testimony, and
said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine
own heart, which shall fulfill all my will." And so if you're
God's friend, it's true like it is with an earthly friend.
There are some things that you have in common. What's important
to God is important to his sheep. What's good to him is good to
his sheep. And what's evil to him is evil
to us. And this is that new heart that
God gives a sinner when he saves that sinner. If we have a heart
after God's heart, it's because he gave it to us. He said, I'll
give him a new heart. And he does. That's what he does.
God said concerning Job in Job 1.8, and the Lord said unto Satan,
have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like
him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears
God and hates evil. That's all of his people. We
hate what he hates. We love what he loves and hate
what he hates. That's by his grace. That's what
it is to be after his heart. What matters to God matters to
me. By his grace. We not only love what he loves,
but we love who he loves. And then I'll hurry along, but
friends are jealous over one another. And I mean by this, they defend
one another. If you insult my friend, you've
insulted me. That's what I mean by jealousy.
They're loyal to one another. There's a loyalty among friends. Don't try to come between me
and my friend. That's not going to end well
for you. You got a friend like that? And God is our friend in this
sense too. This is what he's teaching us.
The friend of God. Abraham was called the friend
of God. Don't come between us. Don't
try to hurt me. He said, if you've done it unto
one of the least of these, my little ones, my brethren, you've
done it to me. And then being friends with my
friend affects relationships with others. There are those
that have a problem with my friend. And again, I'm not making this
up. This is reality. There are those who have a problem
with my friend, and they've got a problem with me because they
have a problem with Him. You see what I mean? Now, isn't
that true of our Lord Jesus Christ? If you have a problem with Him,
you have a problem with His people. And if you have a problem with
one of His sheep, you have a problem with Him. Automatically. Automatically. That's just the way it is. James
said in 4.4, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that
the friendship of the world is enmity with God. If you're going
to be friends with somebody, there are going to be others
that you can't possibly be friends with. That's what he's saying.
If you're going to be God's friend, you can't be the friend of this
world. You can pray for them. Your heart can go out to them
and you can teach them and you can desire to see them saved. Friendship is something else.
How can two walk together except they be agreed? And there's nothing
more important to be agreed on in this world than the truth
of God in Christ. Paul Let me finish the rest of
that very the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever
Therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. It's one of the other Galatians
614, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. I love that first part of that
verse rejoice in that And it's it's a rebuke to me
I Because I glory in too many other things as flesh does. But
the last part of the verse is what applies here. By whom? By whom? The world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. By whom? It's because of a person
that this world is dead to me. And I'm dead to them because
of him. And that's absolutely fine with
me. Absolutely fine. The natural man is the enemy
of God. That's all of us. Romans 8, 7,
the carnal mind is enmity against God. And so if God is my friend, that isn't automatic. I wasn't
born the friend of God. There's got to be a change from
what is true naturally if God is going to be my friend. And
we see this in our text, too. Bear with me a little while longer
and we'll look at this. Look at verses 3 and 4 again.
We see this gospel in our text. This is what happens now. How
did you come to be God's friend, Chris? I'll tell you about it.
In verses 3 and 4, there were evil tidings. Evil tidings. What were the evil titans? God
said, I'm not going to be in your midst anymore. I'm going
to send an angel with you. He was going to send a created
angel because that was the Lord Jesus that was saying that to
Moses. So he's not referring to, to the angel of the covenant
here. He's talking about a created
angel. I'm going to send one of my messengers with you, but
I'm not going with you. You're a stiff necked and rebellious
bunch of bunch of bunch of wretches. And I'm not going with you. And
he sent his angel, and that was evil tidings. When Moses told
him about that, that was bad news, bad news. And I know this,
the good news, the gospel, starts with bad news. And it's the same
bad news that they got. What were they mourning about?
It says that it caused them to mourn. Did you see that there
in verses three? Unto a land flowing with milk
and honey, I will not go up in the midst of you, for you're
a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way." And when the
people heard these evil tidings, they mourned. What were they mourning about?
Well, they were mourning about the fact that God said, I'm not
going to go with you. But why did God say, I'm not
going to go with you? There's the root of the problem
right there. Why did he say that? Because of their sin. because
of their rebellion. It was because of the kind of
people that they were. It wasn't just what they did,
it's what they were. Did you see that in verse three?
You're a stiff-necked people. It's what you are that separates
between you and your God. And me too. And these people,
they mourned over it. They picture here sinners who
are given an understanding by grace of their sin. Paul said,
it killed me when God revealed his law to me and showed me the
exceeding sinfulness of sin. The old me died. He mourned over
it all of his life. Even after the Lord saved him,
he mourned over his sin. And he said, I'm not worthy.
I was injurious. I'm less than the least of all
saints. I'm not worthy to be called his apostle. He mourned
over his sin. And all of God's people do. They picture sinners who have
an understanding of what sin is. What is my sin? What is sin
boiled down to? We've talked about this many,
many times over the years. What does sin boil down to? It
simply boils down to this. I hate God. That's why I do everything
I do by nature. Because I hate God. That's the
problem. What's the solution? I need for
God to call me his friend. That's what I need. That's the
answer to the problem right there. I need to be just the opposite
of what I am by nature. I need to be God's friend. I
need for him to look at me with favor and with all of the things
we talked about with love and communion and fellowship. We know this is true because
we know what the fulfillment of the whole law is. What's your
problem? I'm saying that I hate God. Where'd
you get that, Chris? What's the fulfillment of the
whole law according to the Lord Jesus Christ? Thou shalt love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and
with all your soul. That's the first commandment.
And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law hangs on those two things. Our problem is we
hate God. And we hate everybody else, too,
because we think we're God. And when people don't agree with
that, we hate them, too. I got you figured out, because
I know me. Because God has revealed it to
us, what we are. That's our problem. Do you mourn
over that? Do you mourn your sin? The Lord
Jesus said, blessed are they that mourn. He said, I'll comfort
you. Blessed are they that have heard
the evil tidings and it causes them to mourn by God's grace. They see why God can't be with
them. God can't go with them because
of what we deserve. If he, if he came into our midst,
he'd have to destroy us in a moment. He said, that's just the truth.
Something got to change. It's not true of everybody. Not
everybody mourns over that. We saw in this same study how
the sinners just don't really much care what they are or what
they've done or what God thinks about it. Just don't much care. I notice that every day. Don't
much care. Blessed are they that mourn.
You're blessed of God. And this is also the consequence
of our sin. It's our sin, it's our problem,
it's what we are, the kind of people that we are. And here's
the consequence, separation from God. Separation from God. And even though, now think with
me, this is very important, even though God had said he would
give them the land that he had promised to them, they still
mourned. You know why? Canaan, the promised
land in the Old Testament, pictures heaven. But heaven's not just
a place. It's a person. What good is the
place unless he's there? What's Canaan? What's a land
full of milk and honey if the Lord doesn't go with us? What's heaven if my Lord Jesus
Christ is not there? It's not heaven. He said, I'll send my angel,
I'll take you into the land that I promised you, but I'm not going
with you. We don't want to go if you're not going with us.
You read the rest of the chapter. Paul didn't say being in a different
place was far better. He said being with him is far
better. Isaiah 59 to Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God. And your sins have hid his face
from you that he will not hear. That's what troubles those who
are blessed with a sense of their sin and its consequences. That's what we lost in the garden
in the very beginning is our fellowship with him, communion
with him. And if the Lord ever opens our
eyes, we're going to have to have it back. We're going to
have to. Look what they did in verse 7,
verses 7 and 8. It says, Moses took the tabernacle
and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp. God said,
I'm not going to be with you. Moses took the tabernacle. And
this is not, I don't think anyway, that Moses had built the tabernacle
to the specifications that the Lord gave him on the mount yet.
I think this was a tent of some kind that they used to worship
God. There's always been a place of worship, always been a time
of worship. We've seen that before, even
Cain and Abel. They came to the place that God had established
that they would bring their offering. They brought them to a certain
place and they worshiped him at a certain time. And so this
tabernacle was clearly for worship, but I don't think it was the
tabernacle that we talk about later, that we see that they
built later to the specifications given him in the mount. But he
called it the tabernacle of the congregation. He took it far
off, far off from the camp. And it came to pass that everyone
which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation,
which was without the camp. They said, wherever he is, that's
where we're going to be. 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. They brought their tents out
there with them. Far off from the camp. We're going to camp wherever
he is. Is that you? Has God given you that? They stood every man at his tent
door and looked after Moses until he was gone into tabernacle. Now this bad news that these
evil tidings caused them to mourn and they did something else when
they heard it. Look at verses 4 through 6. They heard the evil
tidings in verse 4, and the Lord said to Moses saying to the children,
for the Lord had said, look at the end of verse 4, and no man
did put on him his ornaments. That word ornaments there is
not just, you probably thought of jewelry immediately, but that's
clothing. It's adornments. Anything that
would make you look good. People like to look good. Have
you noticed that? Everybody wants to look good. You're going to
wear something. You're going to do your hair a certain way.
You're going to put jewelry on and accessories and things so
that you'll look good. They didn't put any of them on
because the Lord had said to Moses, you tell them. put off
your ornaments from you, the last part of verse five, that
I may know what to do unto thee. In other words, the Lord's gonna
wait and see. Time is gonna go by and then
the Lord is gonna do something. That's the way he does. He's
not waiting to see because he don't know what's gonna happen.
He's just giving them space. And then verse six, and the children
of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount,
adornment, stings worn for the purpose of beautification. That's the definition. This pictures
everything that the sinner does in order to make himself look
good before God. Sinners like to look good before
God. They say, oh I went to church
today and I brought my Bible with me and I read my Bible through
last year and I'm on track to read it through again and I'm
bringing a visitor with me and I tithe and Oh, God looks upon
me favorably. You're going to have to take
off your ornaments. If you're ever going to be God's
friend, you've got to take them off. Paul in Philippians 3 did exactly
that. That's what he's talking about.
He took off all of those adornments that he thought made him look
good in the sight of God, and he cast them on the dung heap
and said, having not my own righteousness, But instead, I must have the
righteousness of God, which is by the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ. All of our so-called righteousnesses
are filthy rags in God's sight. Christ alone is our righteousness. If you're going to put on the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to have to take everything else
off. We're going to have to realize
that we're naked before God. We have no adornments. We have
nothing that recommends us to God. We're filthy and vile and
wretched in his sight by nature. God is pleased with one man,
his son. This is my son in whom I'm well
pleased. And everybody in him and only
them. He only is our righteousness,
He's all our righteousness, and He's our perfect righteousness.
We don't need any jewelry or fancy clothes before God. We
stand in Christ. Everything but Him just detracts
from the appearance. He's all together lovely. We
must put on, here's what we're going to put on. We're not going
to stay naked before God. We're going to put something
on. We put on the clothing and jewelry that God gives us to
wear. We must wear the wedding garment that he provides. Listen
to Ezekiel 6, 16. Let me, you can turn there with
me. I got to turn there anyway. I
didn't put it in my notes. So look at it with me if you
would. Ezekiel chapter 16, verse eight. Now when I passed
by you, and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time
of love. And I spread my skirt over you
and covered your nakedness, yea, I swear unto you, and entered
into a covenant with you, saith the Lord God, and you became
mine. Then I washed thee with water, yea, I throughly washed
away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil, I clothed
thee also. with broidered work, and shod
thee with badger skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and
I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments. You're going to have to take
yours off, because you're going to put his on. I put bracelets
upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck, and I put a jewel on
your forehead, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown
upon your head. Thus wast thou decked with gold
and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen and silk, embroidered
work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful, beautiful. And thou didst prosper into a
kingdom, and thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy
beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee. saith the Lord God." That's pretty
clear, isn't it? If you're going to be beautiful to God, truly
beautiful, you're going to have to put something on you. He puts
upon his people the righteousness of his Son, the best robe, and
our stuff has to come off. He must put his comeliness upon
us if we're to be his friend. His comeliness is himself, and
all that he did as our representative. What did he do as our representative?
Well, listen to it in his own words. Always those things that
please the father. That's what he did. That's what
makes a sinner beautiful in the sight of God. His comeliness is that whiteness
that can only be achieved by being washed in the blood of
the lamb. Now, verse nine in our text,
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. Those who sought
the Lord came out where his presence was and pitched their tents right
there. Is that you? Are you God's friend? The natural man would be satisfied
with the land, the earthly blessings of living in Canaan. God already
told him that he'd send an angel to take him there, but that wasn't
enough for everybody. They said, wherever the Lord
is, that's where we want to be. And they watched their representative
go in and speak with the Lord face to face. And they saw that
cloud signifying his presence and favor in the camp. and they
worshiped him. And may God give us grace to
mourn our sin, to put off all of our ornaments and seek him,
press toward him, say with Paul that I may win Christ and be
found in him. Seek to be adorned with his comeliness
alone and stand in the door of our tent, pitched in his presence
and look to him and worship. May He give us grace to do that.
2 Corinthians 5. I just want to
read it as I close. Verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. He reconciles. All things are of Him. not of
us, of him, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Are you God's enemy? We have the ministry of reconciliation
to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for this gospel
and that we're able to preach the word of reconciliation that
sinners were reconciled unto God by the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And may we, Lord, be faithful
in this ministry of reconciliation to preach unto sinners and to
beseech them by your mercies to be reconciled to their God. Because of him who was made sin
for his people, he who knew no sin, your people are made the very
righteousness of God. You call us your friend. Let's
go from here rejoicing. in your mercy and grace, in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In his precious name we pray.
Amen.