Turn to Exodus 33. I have entitled this message,
A Prayer for Grace. Now, if I'm ever going to have
the grace of God, I'm going to ask for it. Now, His grace precedes my asking
for it, I realize it. It takes the grace of God to
cause you to ask for grace. It takes the grace of God to
enable you to receive grace. It takes grace to receive grace.
We're utterly dependent upon the grace of God, but if we're
ever going to have grace, we're going to ask for it, and we're
going to feel our utter need of the grace of God. need the
grace of God. And I can tell you why. Because
I am a sinful man. And a sinful man needs unmerited
favor. Nothing else will do him any
good. And I ask for His grace. I must have His favor. And this
is Moses' prayer for grace. Look what he says in verse 13
of Exodus chapter 33. Now therefore I pray thee, 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. I love that. If
I found grace in your sight, let me find grace in your sight.
Moses' prayer for grace. Now remember the setting. Look
at verse 2 of this same chapter, chapter 33. God says, I will
send an angel before thee, And I will drive out the Canaanites,
and the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, into a land flowing with milk and honey. And I'll do these things for
thee, I'll bring thee into this land, for I will not go up in
the midst of thee. I'm going to send a created angel.
I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked
people, lest I consume thee in the way. And Moses is speaking
to the Lord about this very issue. This was bad news to think of
not having the Lord's presence. Now here's something else I'm
very aware of. I must have His presence. The worst thing that could happen
to this sinner is for the Lord to leave me to myself. That is
absolutely the worst thing, for Him to withdraw His influence
and just let me alone. I must have His presence. And
that's what Moses is praying for at this time. He's upset
over these evil tidings. He must have grace. He must have
the Lord's Now, look in verse 12 of Exodus chapter 33. This
is when that prayer begins. And Moses said unto the Lord,
See, thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast
not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Now this is, Moses
is uncertain at this time. He's concerned. He doesn't like
what he heard. And he's saying, Steve told me
to go up, but you've not let me know who's going to go with
me. Yet, thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also
found grace in my sight. Now, this prayer begins with
a great need, the Lord's presence, and there's also great uncertainty. in the beginning of this prayer.
But I like this word, yet. This is a glorious word in the
Bible, yet. I think of David's words, although
my house be not so with God, yet. Hath he made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure Habakkuk
said, Although the fig trees shall not blossom, neither shall
fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall
fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut
off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls
yet. I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. And Moses says, see, you tell
me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom
thou wilt sit with me, yet thou hast said. Now, here's what we
hold on to. What he said. That is the very foundation of
our faith. What he said. And this is the
plea Moses makes. He says, you said, now I'm uncertain
about the way things are going. I don't like the way things are
looking. That's what he's saying. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by
name, and thou hast found grace in my sight. I've known thee
by name. Does the Lord know my name? Now
I realize he knows my name's Todd, he knows everything, but
does the Lord know my name in the sense of knowing my name,
where I have a relationship with him, where he knows me as his
child, where he knows me as someone who loves him, someone who believes
on him, someone who, by the grace of God, would die for him. Does
the Lord know my name in that sense? I thought of that seen in Acts, I think it's in
chapter 19, when the sons of Sceva said to the demon-possessed
man, we adjure thee by the Jesus whom Paul preacheth, come out. And the evil spirit answered,
Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? And I tremble
at the thought of the Father saying to me, who are you? I think of our Lord saying to
that crowd in Matthew chapter 7, Depart from me ye that work
iniquity, I never knew you. I never knew you to be mine.
I never loved you. I never had a relationship with
you. Does God know my name? How can I know if he knows my
name? I want to know if He knows my name. I want God to know me
personally. That means I'm somebody He loves,
somebody His hand is on. How can I know if God knows my
name? And how can I know, how am I not sure that my religion
is just in my head and not real? How can I know? I can know if He knows my name
if I know His name. I love that passage of Scripture,
Paul. Or Clare just read out of Romans 10, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I'm calling on his name. Everybody he calls, here's what
they do. They call. They call upon his
name. Everybody who calls upon his
name, there's a reason. God knows their name. I know
His name, Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. I'm holding
on to that name. I know His name, Jesus. Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. That's that name that's above
every name. The name at which angels are going to bow. Every
knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I know His
name. Now, all my salvation is in his
name. And the only way I can know that
he knows my name is if I am relying on his name. And he says, you
found grace in my sight. What does that mean? We just
read about it. In Genesis chapter 6, when God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And you know what, when I read
that, bingo, that's me. That's me. I really believe that.
You know, when I said I'm a sinful man, I am a sinful man. Sinful! Sinful! Not just some sin, sinful! I understand what that scripture
means. I understand it in my heart.
And I know that in and of myself, when God sees me, That's all
he sees. But Noah found unmerited favor. Noah was in that group described
in Genesis 6, 5. He was by nature evil, sinful. All his thoughts were vain. All
his imaginations were wrong. Noah was just like everybody
else. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Unmerited
favor. That's what I need, unmerited
favor. Now he says, you've told me you know my name
and I found grace in your sight. Now verse 13, now therefore I
pray thee. If I have found grace in thy sight, if this is not
just me imagining things, if this is real, if I have found
grace in your sight, he asked for four things. And we would
be wise to ask for the same things. Now, make this by the grace of
God your prayer. I'm making this by the grace
of God my prayer. I'm asking for these four things. He says,
if I found grace in thy sight, he says, one, show me now, not
tomorrow, but right now, by your grace. I can't wait. I can't
wait. Today is the day of salvation.
Today is the day to believe. Show me now thy way. Secondly, that I might know thee,
Thirdly, that I might find grace in thy sight. And fourth, and
consider that this nation, this bunch of rebels, is thy people. And show me now thy way. Cause
me to ascertain by seeing. Cause me to understand your way. I love that scripture in Psalm
103, I think it's verse 7, where it says, God made known his ways
to Moses. his acts to the children of Israel,
the stuff he did, but he made known his ways to Moses. I want to be somebody that knows
his way. And I know that Christ is the way. I know that just
from the scriptures. He's the way to God. I am the
way, he said, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father
but by me. Christ is the way. He's the narrow way, He's so
narrow that you can't carry anything on this way. You can't carry
a thing with you. This is a narrow way. He's the
way of truth as opposed to the way of error. He's the way of
peace. This is the only way I can have
any peace is through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, these
things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace.
Peace is a feeling. Boy, it's a wonderful feeling,
isn't it? It's a feeling of a harmonious relationship. He's the way of...
He said, God can be at peace with me. He's the way of righteousness. He's called in Scripture several
times, the way of righteousness. There is a way that this man
who talks about himself being so sinful, and I mean it when
I say it, yet I'm righteous before God. Really righteous, not virtually,
but actually really righteous before God. He's the way of righteousness. He's the new and living way. New is why he's always effective. I never will forget what a blessing
it was to find out what that word new means in that passage
of scripture in Hebrews chapter 10. It means freshly slaughtered. What's the point? Well, I say
to my shame, I commit the same sins over and over and over and
over again. And one would think the Lord
would just say enough's enough. But you know the blood of Christ
is always new. It's always powerful. It's always
fresh to the Father. It's never old. It's always new. I love what Martin Luther said,
I preach as though Christ was slain yesterday, rose today,
and is coming again tomorrow. That's the way it is. Oh, show
me now thy way that I might know thee. This is what I want. I
want to know God. I want to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't want to just know stuff about Him. I don't
want to just have accurate information and accurate data. I want to
know Him to where I know Him. I know Him. I know this woman. I know her. I want to know the
living God. Paul said, O that I may win Christ
and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God, by faith, that I might know
Him. Paul doesn't already know Him.
Yeah, but O that I may know Him. Our Lord said, this is eternal
life, that they might know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. Now, I want to find grace in
His sight. I want to know His way, that I might know Him. That's what I want. You see,
we seek God. We seek the living God. We're
not just seeking to have our marriages blessed, or our kids
blessed, or our finances blessed, and all that kind of stuff that
the world seeks. No, I want to know Him. I want to know the
living God. I want to know him so that he
knows me too. He knows my name. Oh, I want to know your way that
I might know thee, that I might find grace in your sight, just
like Noah did. Now, here's the evidence that
you found grace in his sight. You want grace in his sight. That's all you want. You want grace. You want unmerited favor. You
don't want the Lord to deal with you according to your sins or
according to your righteousness. No. You want unmerited favor
in the eyes of the Lord. I surely do. And he says, and
consider that this nation is thy people. This bunch of rebels,
as evil as they are, that's what he's saying. Consider these people
that just made this golden calf and they've done these terrible
things, consider that they're thy people. Turn with me for
a moment to Hebrews chapter 8. Let's see what thy people means. Verse 7, for if the first covenant
had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for
the second. You know what the fault was with the first covenant?
It could not save. That's a pretty big fault, isn't
it? It could not save. For finding fault with them,
he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I make a
new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of
the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant. And I regarded them not, saith
the Lord, for this is the covenant that I'll make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be
to them a God. And they shall be to me a people. I want to be the people of God,
don't you? I want to be part of that nation that God is their
God. You see, if God's for you, who
can be against you? Don't you want to have the Lord
on your side? If God be for us, who can be against us? They shall
not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for I also know me from the least to the greatest.
For I will be merciful, I will be propitious. The reason for
my anger will be removed. I will be propitious, is the
word, to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities.
Will I remember no more? Now that's the benefit of being
his people. My sins, even of this very day,
are fresh on my mind. God doesn't remember them. You
know why? There's only one reason. Because
they are not there. That's the only reason. It's
nothing. Consider that this nation is thy people. Now, let's go
back to our text, verse 14. Now, here's the Lord's gracious answer. And He said, My presence, that's literally
my face, my face, shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. My presence. What is a head without
a face? When you think of a person, what
do you think of first? You think of their face. Their face is
who they are. This is the heritage of every
believer. He says, you've got my presence. At all times, the Lord is with
me. I've got his presence. Now sometimes
I don't feel his presence. Matter of fact, a lot of times
I don't feel his presence. But I have this assurance. Thou art
with me. That's what the Bible says. And
I believe the Word of God. I have His presence. And you
think of His presence. His presence is salvation. His
presence in the covenant when He became a surety for His people.
There's my salvation when He stood as my surety. His presence
when He became man. There's my righteousness before
God. His presence on the cross. That's when He put away my sins.
I think of His presence on judgment day when my name is called and
He'll answer for me. I think of His presence right
now. Seated at the right hand of the
Father, representing me. God sees me in Him. Oh, His presence,
that's what I need. And what a blessed, gracious
promise. My presence shall go with thee. This is the promise of grace. And He says, I will give thee
rest. You know, if I'm in His presence,
I really don't have anything to worry about, do I? I rest. The Lord is my shepherd. And
because my shepherd is the Lord, I shall not want. You see, he makes me lie down
in green pastures. There's that rest. He leads me
beside the still waters, waters of quietness. He restores my
soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness
for His name's sake. In His presence, there's rest. Nothing can get me. I can't destroy
myself. I'm in His presence. And that's
where that rest comes from, from simply being in His presence.
He makes this promise My presence shall go with thee, and I'll
give thee rest. And I love what Moses said in
verse 15. He said, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not
up hence. This is what we must have, and
there is no point in us going if we don't have that. Actually,
we don't want to go anywhere without your presence. And if
your presence doesn't go with us, don't even carry us up. And
what I thought of is one of my favorite hymns. I love what John
Newton said. How tedious and tasteless the
hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds,
and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. The midsummer
sun shines but dim. The fields strive in vain to
look gay, but when I'm happy in him, December's as pleasant
as May. His name yields the richest perfume,
and sweeter than music, his voice. His presence disperses my gloom,
and makes all within me rejoice. I would, were he always thus
nigh, have nothing to wish or to fear, no mortal as happy as
I. My summers would last all the
year, content with beholding his face. My awe to his pleasure
resigned. No changes of season or place
would make any change in my mind when blessed with a sense of
his love, that's his presence. A palace, a toy would appear,
and prisons would palaces prove. if Jesus would dwell with me
there. Moses said, if we don't have
your presence, don't even carry us in that direction. You see, I want to be where He is, and I
do not want to be where He's not. I want His presence. Here's heaven. Father, I will. that they whom you've given me be with me where I am that they
may behold my glory. Would that be heaven to you?
Seeing his face. David said, ask for me. I'll
behold thy face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. His presence. If we don't have
your presence, we don't want to go anywhere. Remember, the
Lord said, without me, you can do nothing. So I must be with
Him. Verse 16, Moses goes on to say, For wherein
shall it be known that I and thy people have found grace in
thy sight? That's not just meaningless. Is it not that thou goest with
us? That we have your presence, that you're with us? So shall
we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are
upon the face of the earth. Now, I think that's interesting.
He says, having your presence, we're going to be separated from
all the peoples of the face of the earth. Scripture says, the
people shall dwell alone, talking about God's people, and shall
not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob
and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the
death of the righteous and let my last end be like his. Now what is this separation he's
speaking of? So shall we be separated from everybody else. I think
it's interesting that there are two words in the Bible that mean
separated one. They have the same definition,
a separated one, and yet they have complete different meanings.
The two words are the Nazirite and the Pharisee. Nazirite means
separated one. Pharisee means separated one. Yet they have two completely
different meanings although the definition is the exact same
thing. Now how can that be? Pharisee
separated one. A Pharisee is one who separates
himself. They believe that some work that
they do separates them from others. They believe that God loves everybody,
Christ died for everybody, God the Holy Spirit calling everybody.
He gives everybody an equal chance to be saved, but the difference
in salvation is what you do. All you've got to do is believe
that you make the difference in some way. All you've got to
do is believe in universal redemption and believe that it's your faith
that makes the difference. You're a Pharisee. That's the religion. That's the religion of the natural
man, a Pharisee. God, I thank Thee that I'm not
as other men are. I've separated myself. I've done
something to make myself different. Oh, He gave God the credit, but
I've done something. to make myself different. Then
there's the Nazarite. We know the religion of the Pharisee.
We're all by nature Pharisees. Everyone knows something about
that because we've been in that religion. That's our natural religion.
Every one of us are Pharisees by nature. And then there's the
religion of the Nazarite and that one is one who is separated
by God. Let me show you how this same
word is used. Turn to Exodus chapter 11. Verse 6, And there shall be a great cry
throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it,
nor shall be like it any more. Against any of the children of
Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast That
you may know how that the Lord doth put a see that word difference.
It's the exact same word a separation a Difference between the Egyptians
and Israel now, here's what a Nazirite is. It's someone who God has
separated and I'm I know that the reason I know the Lord is
because He separated me. I know it's nothing I did. I
know it's because God the Father separated me in eternal election.
It's because God the Son separated me on the cross when He put away
my sin and made me holy before God. It's because God the Holy
Spirit separated me and gave me life that I did not have.
It's God that did this. I know that. I know that. And you know what? Anybody who
believes knows that. That's as natural as breathing
to a believer. They understand that God made
the difference. They're not Pharisees. That's
their natural religion, but they're Nazarites, someone in whom God
has made the difference. Now, Moses said, For wherein
shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in
thy sight? Is it not that thou goest with us, that we have your
presence? So shall we be separated. I want to be in this crowd, don't
you? Listen, I don't want to be in a crowd that hates the
Lord, that doesn't believe the Gospel. I want to be in this
crowd that He's separated. That's who I want. I want to
be in that crowd. He said, So shall I and thy people
be separated, I and my people, from all the people that are
upon the face of the earth. And hear our Lord's gracious answer.
And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that
thou hast spoken. I'm going to answer this prayer.
You're going to find grace in my sight. You're going to know
my way. I'm going to give you exactly
what you're asking for. I want that assurance, don't
you? That He's going to give me what I'm asking for. And here's
why He's going to do what He said for. Here's why. Here's why I'm going to answer
this prayer. Because you found grace in my
sight. That's why. You have found favor. in my sight. And because you found favor in
my sight, that's how I know you by name. Now the Lord knows my
name. He knows me. And that's true
of every one of His people. He knows my name. He knows me. He knows me as one that loves
Him. He knows me as one that believes
on Him. He knows me as one of His children.
He knows me as His friend. And here's why He knows me in
that way. I have found grace. in his sight. Now that's my prayer. Oh that I might find grace in
the sight of the Lord. Let's pray together.