I'm reminded of an old preacher.
I remember hearing the story and I may not tell it exactly
right, but I think close enough to where I'm not stretching the
meaning that I'm trying or the point that I'm trying to make.
There was a preacher by the name of Christmas, I believe his name
was Evans. I'm not sure about the last name.
But he pastored a church and he preached the gospel and he
had He had a pretty good sized congregation. And one day before
Sunday morning services, They couldn't find him. And two
of the deacons, elders or whatever, got together and they said, have
you seen the pastor? And the other said, no I haven't.
So they determined it was getting close to service time, so they
determined that they would divide and conquer. One would go one
way and one would go the other. They would do their best to find
their pastor as service drew nearer and nearer. And within
a few minutes, they met back together to give each other their
report. And the one deacon asked the
other, he said, did you find the pastor? And he said, yes
I did. And he said, where is he? And he said, he's in the
study. And he said, well, what was he doing? He said, you know,
there's a time to study and there's a time to preach, and right now
it's time to preach. And he said, no, he wasn't studying.
And he said, well, what was he doing? And he said, he was praying. And he said, well, you know,
brother, there's a time to pray and there's a time to preach. And right now it's time to preach.
And he said, no, you don't understand what he was praying. And the
deacon said, well, what was he praying? And he said he was praying
and telling the Lord that he had gone into the pulpit for
the last time without Him. and that he wasn't going to preach
until he knew God was going with him. I appreciate that story
because any man, mere man, sinful man, and preachers are. Never think for a minute that
a preacher or pastor is any better than you are. We're all the same
in God's eyes. We've all come short of the glory
of God. There's none of us that doeth
good. No, not one. And the one desire, I think,
of every man that has stood in the pulpit and preached the truth
about Christ, the one desire he has is that he go not alone. That he go not alone. And that
just touches a little on what I want to talk to you about tonight.
I actually started looking at this passage of scripture several
weeks ago. And in the process of studying
it, I had a couple other messages come forth. And not until just
in the last couple days has this kind of come together. And I
hope that it will be a blessing to you tonight. And my text is
taken again out of Exodus. Tonight, last time when we considered
Moses as a type of Christ and his mediation for his people,
you know the story. He went up into Mount Sinai to
receive the law of God, took Joshua with him, was gone for
a long period of the time, and the people said, where's Moses?
Well, I don't know what's happened to him. I don't know what's become
of him. And they decided, they got the bright idea, and this
always happens when men get together and conjure up a way to worship
God not according to scripture. And what they did is they threw
all their gold in the pot together and they got Aaron to mold him
a calf, a golden calf. And they even went so far as
to say, these are the gods, this calf is a god that led us out
of Egypt. Seeing the powerful hand of God
again and again. All the plagues that fell upon
Egypt. All the deliverance through the
Red Sea. God sent a cloud in the day and
fire at night to lead them and guide them. Why even their shoes
didn't wear out, their clothes lasted. God sustained them. And
I, before I'm too hard on these people, I want to stop and think
about myself a little bit. How many times in my life have
I seen God providentially and sovereignly work all things after
the counsel of His own for my good and His glory and yet I
struggle with unbelief every minute of every day. So I won't
be too hard on them, but I will identify with them. And thank God that Christ our
Lord identified with us. That is our only hope, dear friends,
that Christ died for our sin according to the scriptures.
Okay, Exodus 33, let's start reading in verse 11. And these
are amazing words in the very beginning. And the Lord spake
unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. I just find that to be an amazing
statement. God is infinitely holy. I am desperately wicked and the
only way that I can be reconciled to God is through a mediator
and that mediator is Christ my Lord. The Lord spake unto Moses
face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. Now he didn't
speak to him by an angel but he himself in person spoke to
Moses. He didn't speak to him by a dream
or a vision, but apparently in a real visible appearance. It says the cloud filled the
door. Now no man can see God's face and live, and we'll see
that towards the end of the lesson. But apparently Moses saw the
Lord in a real visible appearance as the smoke filled the doorway. And he didn't hear these things
in parables or speeches, but he heard clearly in plain words,
easy to be understood. When friends talk to one another,
they don't talk with big long words that neither one of them
understand. They talk as friends, plain,
familiar, cordial, openly. Without any reserve. Not showing
authority one over the other. We're friends. We're on equal
ground here. We're speaking as two people
who care for one another. Not causing dread or fear. You
can be comfortable. Be yourself. That's the way God
talked to Moses. Our desire in this life should
be to commune with our great God as a friend. He's closer than a brother. You'll know something about love
if a man will lay down his life for you. There's only one way to do so,
and that's by the Lord Jesus Christ pleading as our mediator
on our behalf. We don't want to deal with God. We don't want to speak to God.
We don't want to commune with God on the basis of justice. Judgment, no. Or wrath. That would be a conversation
that would surely lead to death. Our desire, our wish, our hope
is for God to speak to us as a friend. In mercy, in grace,
in love. as a friend speaks to a friend.
He spoke to Moses not as a king to a servant, but as a man to
his friend. He spoke to Moses as a friend
whom he loved and with whom he took sweet counsel. And this was great encouragement
to Israel to see their advocate, their deliverer, their mediator,
who is such a picture of Christ here. to see if their advocate so great
a favorite of their God, and that they might be saved by his
mediation. My dear friends, you and I have
the same encouragement from the scriptures our mediator pleads
on our behalf. And he's a great friend of God. It's His own Son. The Lord Jesus found great favor
and pleasure in the eyes of His Father God Almighty. One day
in Matthew, as they stood, Scripture says, Behold a voice out of the
cloud which said, What? This is My beloved Son, in whom
I am, what? I'm well pleased. hear ye Him." Have you heard Him? Have you
heard Christ? So we're told in verse 11 that
Moses turned again to the camp and I thought about that a lot.
I believe he turned to the camp to assure the people what hopes
he had of bringing this business to a good end. After what these
people had done And the fact that God, that Moses
had already petitioned God on their behalf
and brought him in remembrance of his covenant. And God says
in Exodus 32, 14 that he repented of the evil which he thought
to do the people. These people had by their sin
deserved the wrath of God. And my friends, you and I are
born condemned. We come forth from the womb speaking
lie. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. God would be just. His judgment would be perfect
if he condemned us to hell. That's the beauty of the gospel.
He didn't have to show mercy. He's not obligated to man in
any way, shape, or form. He could send me to hell a hundred
times over and still be a sovereign, just, holy God. Verse 12, and Moses said unto
the Lord, See thou sayest unto me, Lord, the first time I met
you, you told me to bring up this people. And thou hast not
let me know whom thou will send with me. And what he means there
is simply this. Are you going to go with us,
Lord? Are you going to go with us? And we'll see that as we
move through these verses. Yet thou hast said, I know thee
by name." That's what God said to Moses. And thou hast also
found grace in my sight. But you see, they had forfeited
God's favorable presence and all the benefit and comfort of
that. And Moses here is begging for
the return of it. And by the intercession of Christ,
my dear brothers and sisters, we obtain not only the removal
of the curse, but an assurance of a blessing. Double cure. Double cure. We're not only saved from ruin,
but we become entitled to everlasting happiness. We not only receive forgiveness
of sins, but we receive Christ's perfect righteousness. Now I don't know about you, but
I think that's good news. And that's the best deal I've
seen in a long time. What a value Moses here expresses
for God's favor. What a concern for God's glory. What a concern for the welfare
of Israel, God's people. Notice how he pleads. He begins
by insisting upon the commission that God had given him to bring
up his people. He said, Lord, you're the one
that told me to bring your people, to deliver your people. You see, how many times had Moses
went before Pharaoh and said, thus saith the Lord, the Lord
sent me here, Pharaoh, to tell you to let my people go, that
they may serve me. And those words, I'm sure, those
two words, my people, my people, must have rung through Moses'
head as he stood this day. Lord, you're the one that called
them your people. You're the one that told me to
go and deliver them and tell Pharaoh to let your people go.
He speaks on the grounds of the honor of God's own name. And
the promises God made, God said those are my people. And Moses
says, are you going to cast them off now? Are you going to let
me go alone with them to the land you promised? Dear sinner, if you want the
ear of the Almighty, learn today that you must appeal to Him on
the grounds of His Son. You want to get God's attention?
You start pleading the blood of His Son. You start begging
for mercy from the One who did for us what we could not do for
ourselves. And you've heard me say this
and you'll hear me say it again. Beg for His mercy which He delights
in giving. Beg for His grace in which He
is plenteous, abundant. begged for His power and might
to save. And you know what? If you do,
I can't find anywhere in Scripture where someone didn't come to
the Lord in need. See, that's a big key. You've
got to have a need. Christ said that those that will
have no need of a physician. Well, in their own eyes, Oh, you find a sinner and I've
got a message for him. But finding a sinner is the tough
part. What Moses is saying here, he's
saying, Lord, you've given me a great work to do. And now you're telling me you're
going to leave me alone to do it? I think I'm beginning to understand
a little of what Christmas Evans was thinking that day. But I'll tell you this, and I've
seen it firsthand, men and women who endeavor to do their duty
in faith toward God, they will beg for the direction and strength
from God to do it. They will. What Paul said, he said, I didn't
come with you enticing words of man's wisdom. I came to you
in the power of the Spirit. It's God's doing. I'm just a
vessel. I'm just a piece of clay that
God formed and calls to be a mouthpiece. Moses pleads God's gracious expressions
of kindness to him. He says, Lord, you told me that
you knew me by name. I took that to heart. Lord, you
told me that I'd found grace in your sight, that you know
me by name, that you consider me a particular friend and a
confidant. And so it is with the Lord Jesus
in His intercession for us. He presents Himself to the Father
as one in whom God the Father is always well pleased. Christ obtained mercy for us
with whom He is justly displeased. And we're accepted in the Beloved. You know who that Beloved is?
Christ His Son. That's the only way we're ever
accepted in Christ. Accepted in the Beloved on the
merits of our Lord. And I pray in my heart right
now, right now, that we may learn from this prayer of Moses. Verse
13, Now therefore I pray thee, This is his prayer. I think there's
some things to be learned. He said, If I have found grace
in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that
I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation
is thy people. We say along with Moses, Lord,
if I found grace in your sight, I pray thee. This is a good prayer. The first thing he says is, he
says, show me now thy way. Show me now thy way. This should
be my prayer each and every day of my life. Show me now thy way. If I don't know thy way, show
me now. Right now. Show me the way. First, show me. See, friends,
for you to trust Him is no profit to my soul, and for me to trust
Him is no profit for your soul. Moses is clear. He says, Show
me, Lord. Salvation is my personal relationship
with Christ. Scripture asks me, what think
ye of Christ? Who's Lord? Who's Son is He? Christ must be my all in all. And then He says, show me now.
If I haven't gotten it, show me now. And notice those last
two, thy way. Don't just show me a way, show
me thy way. Now there is a way of man, but
that is a way that leads to destruction. I don't need to know that way.
Show me thy way. Proverbs 16.25 says there is
a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death. I don't want that way. I want
thy way, God's way. Christ said, Enter ye in at the
straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that
leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.
I don't need the directions to that way. I need to know thy
way. I need to know your way. Show
me your way. God himself said in Isaiah 55
verse 9, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. You see, dear friends, we need
to know God's way. It's His way in origination. The origin of all things is God. It's His way in execution. God chose a people, elected them,
foreordained them, called them by His grace, made them His own,
saved them, keeps them, and one day glorifies them. It's His
in execution. It's His way in application.
It's His way in sustaining. I can't keep myself. I can't
save myself. I definitely can't keep myself. And most importantly, it is in
His perfection. This is how God is both a just
God and a Savior. Notice the second thing in verse
13. He says, "...that I may know
thee." Moses prayed that God Almighty might show him His way
and that he might know Him. Every day I pray that I might
know Him more. I've said to myself many times,
Lord, if I don't know You right now, I want to know You before
the sunset. Right now, be fine. I want to
know you. I want to know that I know you. The Lord Jesus Himself said,
and this is life eternal, what? That they might know Thee. The
only true God in Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Christ says
that this is life eternal, that what? They might know Thee. I've
got to know Him in spirit and in truth. Christ told the Samaritan
woman, those that worship God, worship Him in spirit and in
truth. I can't worship God in lies and
untruth. You're worshiping a different
God than the God of the Bible. I must worship Him in truth. I need to worship Him and know
Him as He's revealed in Scripture. If you don't know Him as both
Lord and Savior, you just don't know Him. If you don't see Him
as both just and justifier, you've yet to see Him. Your eyes are yet blind. Many people today speak of a
God and it almost seems like they've got a leash on Him and
they're leading Him around, telling Him what to do. You better read
this Bible. You better read it. People every day tell me, God
loves you. Maybe He does, maybe He don't. I see them bumper stickers, you've
heard me say before, can you see a bumper sticker on the back
of that ark as thousands are drowning in the wrath and violence
of God? Smile, God loves you. That'd
be a cruel kind of love. If He loves me, He's going to
save me. Because He loves me with a love
that began before the world was ever made. Is anything too hard
for the Lord? That's what Genesis 8.14 says. At the time appointed, He said,
I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah
shall have a son. Abraham, you old man, God told
you you're going to have a son. Your wife's 95 or however. She's barren. Anything too hard for the Lord?
They had a son, didn't they? One day Job answered the Lord
and he said, I know that thou canst do everything. I've seen
with my own eyes you can do anything and that
no thought can be withholding from thee. David said they said
David. Where's your God? He said my
God's in the heavens and he's done whatsoever. He has pleased
And then he went on in a few chapters later another psalm.
He said whatsoever the Lord pleased That did he oh I wish I could
get those words down in my heart God ain't never been frustrated.
He's never tried to do anything. I And He's definitely never been
dependent upon me in any shape, way or form. Even in the salvation
of my own soul. I love Him. Why? Because He first
loved me. He prepared this heart before
this heart could ever believe. The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass." Now,
I've got a lot of big ideas. I've got a lot of things going
on in my head. And I think, oh, one of these
days I'm going to, you know. And most of the time, it never
happens. It never happens, first of all, because providentially,
it's probably not a good thing for me. And secondly, is that
my want-to's have gone up and went. I can be a professional procrastinator. That's something I'm good at. But when the Lord says, I've
thought, so shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed,
so shall it stand. I'm so glad God's in control
and I'm not. And I tell you, dear friends,
to know God is to know something about yourself. You've got to
hear the bad news before you'll ever receive the good. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean thing, Job asked. Nobody but God. So that closes
me up once again to the grace and mercy of God Almighty. David said, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. He said, the wicked are estranged
from the womb. They go astray as soon as they're
born, speaking lies. That's me. The wisest man other than the
Lord Jesus Christ that ever lived, Solomon, he said, there's a generation
that are purer in their own eyes. I believe that generation's still
around, at least their descendants. They're people that appear in
their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
We're all as an unclean thing and our righteousness is filthy
rags. And we do fade as a leaf and
our iniquities are like the wind, they've just taken us away. The
Lord asked Jeremiah, He said, Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? Can a dark skinned man make himself light skinned? Can a leper change his spots? Then may ye also that do good
that are accustomed to do evil. It's as hard for me to do good as it is for a leopard to change
the pattern of his spots. It's impossible. God tells me that my heart is
deceitful above all things. I can think of some pretty deceitful
things in people, and yet God says, My heart. My heart. And you know what? I'm beginning
to see He's right. God help me bow to that. It's
deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, only God can know it.
So my prayer for us this night is that God might show us His
way and that we might know Him. If we seek Him first and His
righteousness, He's promised all these other things. All the
things that we worry and fret over be added unto you. Boy, we're just backwards, aren't
we? We want all the things but don't want to seek the giver
of the things. God gives. It's all His. Every bit of it. Oh, shoot, Matt. Okay, look at verse 14. Let me
try to wrap this up. After Moses said these things,
notice the words of God. And He said in verse 14, My presence
shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And Moses said
unto him, it's like Moses wasn't going to just take the first
answer he got. He said, well, I'm just telling
you right now, I'm glad that's so. And I'm paraphrasing here,
but you can see it. He said, because he says again,
he said, Lord, if your presence go not with me, carry us not
up hence. In other words, if you're not
going, I don't want to go. I don't want to go. Verse 16, for wherein shall it
be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy
sight. Notice there, he didn't say, I just found grace in thy
sight. He said, your people found grace
in your sight. There again, what a mediator. He says, Is it not in that thou
goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth? And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also
that thou hast spoken. For thou hast found grace in
my sight, and I know thee by name. Friends, our Heavenly Father,
Christ found grace in His sight. Why? He was perfect. He kept
God's law perfectly. He never sinned in word, thought,
or deed. And God looked down from heaven
and He said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. My only hope is to be found in
Him. And when he looks now at me,
he sees his Son." Isn't that amazing? That's substitution. The Lord said, I'll do this thing
that thou hast spoken. Mercy beggars find mercy. They
do. Nowhere in Scripture, as I said,
is a mercy beggar denied mercy. God tells us His presence will
go with us and He'll give us rest. I need rest. I'm a restless man by nature.
The fact that God goes with us is where the rest is found. Did
you know that? And we say with Moses, Lord,
if you don't go with us, then we'd just do best not to go.
Don't let us go without you. That's what he's saying. Don't
let us go without you, Lord. In verse 16, let me finish this
up. For wherein shall it be known
here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is
it not in that thou goest with us? He said, I'll do this thing
in verse 17. Now how do we know we found grace?
Well, the Lord goes with us. We see His providence. We see His love. We see His mercy every day of
our lives. If we just look, we do. And then the last thing, the
glory of God. You see, to the child of God,
the glory of God is everything. The Apostle Paul said, whether
therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do it all
to the glory of God. Now here's the glory of God.
Moses said in verse 18, He said, Lord, I beseech thee, show me
thy glory. And you know how the Lord answered
that? He said, I'll make all my goodness
pass before thee. You see, God's goodness is His
glory, and God's glory is His goodness. And what is His goodness? He said, I'll proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and here's my goodness. I'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. Not only do we see the sovereignty
of God there, that He has compassion on whom He will, whom He hardens
if He will, Don't miss the beauty in this. He says, I will be gracious. He's going to be gracious to
somebody. Why not me? Why not me? He says, I will show
mercy on whom I show mercy. But he said, I'll show mercy.
Maybe he'll show mercy to me. He saved others. Maybe he'll
save me. God's glory is His goodness,
and His goodness is His glory. And He said to Moses in verse
20, Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man see Me
and live. You see, God is too holy. I'm
convinced that if we saw the fullness of His glory, it would
kill us and consume us. And I'm about convinced that
if God showed us the fullness of our sin, that that would kill
us too. But we see through a glass darkly,
possibly for our own good, don't you think? One day when I shall
see Him, I'll be like Him. Then I'll see clearly. But then I'll be in a body without
sin. If we ever, he said, nobody can
see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, and
now here's the gospel. Behold, there is a place by me,
sitting at the right hand of God the Father, in all sovereign
power and might and authority, says the Lord Jesus Christ, ruling
and reigning, as a sovereign king. Behold, there's a place
by me. You want to see my glory? There's
a place by me. And thou shalt stand upon a rock. You're going to have to stand
upon the one that you got to see. Thou shalt stand upon a rock.
There's one who sits at the right hand of God and he is Christ,
the solid rock. Oh, if we ever see the glory
of God, the goodness of God, the grace of God, it will be
standing on the merits of our substitute, Christ the solid
rock. The Lord God said in Isaiah 28,
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation of stone, a tried stone. A precious
cornerstone, a sure foundation. That's Christ. That's Christ. And he that believeth shall not
make haste. Verse 22, I'm done, I promise
you. And it shall come to pass while
my glory passeth by that I will put thee in a cliff of the rock
and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I'll take
my hand away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but
my face shall not be seen." Oh, that gives a little more meaning
to me, that song, Rock of Ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself
in thee. To show us His glory and the
fullness of His face, His sinful creatures would kill us and consume
us, but God's put us in the cleft of a rock. And that rock is Christ. This is all God's doing. God
put me in the cleft of the rock. I didn't climb up there. God
put me in the cleft of the rock. And He covers us there with His
hand. That's all God's doing. And we see His glory. The back
part. but not His face. As I said,
we see through a glass darkly, but then, one day, face to face,
face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face, how could it be? When I shall see Him. Oh, what glory that would be. I didn't quote that right, but let me leave you with just this
thought. I believe it was Moose Parks, Brother Parks, was one
day in an open air service with an Irish preacher. I believe
it was in Ireland. But if it wasn't, it was quite
obvious that the man was from Ireland because of his accent. And they were outside preaching.
And as this man began to preach, passerby hecklers began to holler
and make fun. And the man was unmoved by their
tactics and he continued to preach the sovereign grace of God. The
more he ignored them, the louder they became. And their little
heckling became hollering. And to make, add insult to injury,
they begin to holler, preach the shamrock. Show us the shamrock. Now a shamrock is that little
Irish clover that's supposed to bring luck. They were just
being sarcastic because he was from Ireland. Ain't no more interested
in Christ or what he was preaching. And to be funny, they said, preach
the shamrock. Preach, show us the shamrock. And the preacher from Ireland
kept right on preaching. And they hollered all the more.
And at the end of his message he said, my hope is built on
nothing less. than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name." He said, on Christ, the
solid rock I stand. He said, all other ground is
sinking sand. He said, all other ground is
shamrock. People's decisions. I have decided
to follow Shamrock. Works. Somehow or another you
gotta work your way. You gotta be so good before God
can accept you. Shamrock. Shamrock. Free will religion. Shamrock. God saves on purpose. Universal redemption. Christ
died for everybody. Shamrock. Shamrock. He truly is the solid rock. And on Him, and in Him, and by
Him, and through Him, this sinner finds life. If that doesn't encourage you, Let me preach it again.