Let us turn in our Bibles tonight to Exodus chapter 32. We are going to read some verses from chapter 32 and 33. Exodus chapter 32, and we'll begin in verse seven. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them. and I will make of thee a great nation.' And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidest unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. And then, if you will, look down to verse 30. And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, you have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord. Peradventure, I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out. of my book. And then, if you will, in chapter 33, verse 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I swear, unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it. And I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perezite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite unto a land flowing with milk and honey. For 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 when the people heard these evil things, they mourned, and no man did put on him his ornaments. For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people. I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee. Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do with 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 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 worshipped every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. 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. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. 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, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. We'll stop our reading here. The most prominent thing that we see in these verses of Scripture, these two chapters that I've read, is the intercession of Moses with God for the nation of Israel. And in this, Moses serves as a type. as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, who even now, as we're sitting here this evening and every day of our life, is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. And how many times do we sin in a day? How many times do we sin through ignorance? We don't even know. Yet, we see that the Lord continues there, making intercession for us. Moses is a type of our Savior in this sense, but Moses also is an example unto us as believers. Remembering Paul's exhortation in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 1, two believers. He wrote, I exhort therefore that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. Now, you know, I don't need to say much about this, but when Paul said, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks for all men. He certainly did not mean every single individual who's ever been on the face of God's earth. There were many when Paul wrote this who were already in eternity, many in hell, many in heaven, and we don't pray for the dead. That's a false teaching, isn't it? Of a false church that has men and women praying for the dead. No. As the tree falls, that's the way it's going to lay throughout eternity. When a man leaves this world, if he's saved, if she's saved, to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. But if not, to be damned forever is a lot of those who have not trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. So when Paul tells us, exhorts us, I exhort thee therefore, you and I, he exhorted us. He exhorted us to pray for and intercede and give thanks for all men. He's talking about all sorts of men. All sorts of men, poor men, rich men, learned men, unlearned men, Jews, Gentiles, all men. Men of all walks of life, men of all races, yes. Well, I have four parts to the message tonight. First, I want us to say that we have in these verses examples of where God God descends to speak as a man. He condescends, I should say. He condescends to speak as a man. Let me point some of these out. Back in chapter 32 in verse 10, when God told Moses, now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them. and I will make of thee a great nation." When God told Moses, let me alone, what could Moses have done to hinder God? If God had determined to destroy every one of this nation and raise up another great nation from Moses, what could he have done? How could he have impeded or stopped that from happening? No, it is another time when God speaks as a man would speak. Also, in this chapter, it tells us that he repented, that God repented. You know the word repent means change of mind, doesn't it? Has God ever changed his mind? Of course not. No. The scripture is very clear that in him, there's no variableness. There's not even the shadow of turning in God. He is of one mind and who can turn him? The immutability of God is one of the wonderful truths about God that gives God's people such comfort. If God could change, he might love you today and hate you tomorrow. No, God is immutable and He chose in these instances, there's one, of course, early on in the scripture, in Genesis chapter six, verses five and six, where we read, God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and it repented the Lord. Now, is the writer telling us that God changed his mind? It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Of course not. Matthew Henry had this comment on this matter. God speaks, he says, in these instances, God speaks after the manner of men. who would have none to intercede for those they resolve to be severe with. If there was someone that had For whatever reason you felt like you needed to be severe with, you wouldn't want anyone to intervene for that person. And that's the way we speak. And so God, as I said, he condescends. Because if this could be literally true of God, it would show a fault in God, wouldn't it? It would show that he was not perfect. And that's not the God of the Bible. God of the Bible is perfect in every way. Everything he does, everything he says, all of his thoughts, yes, he's perfect. Well, the second thing I want us to think about here is Moses intercedes for Israel, and he does so using several arguments. God tells him, let me alone that I can destroy these people. They're stiff-necked people. And Moses, it's interesting as you read through this, God said, the people, talking to Moses, the people you brought out of Egypt. And Moses said, the people you brought out of Egypt. Right? Have you ever noticed that? Yeah. Well, let's look at this, how, in chapter 32, a few instances here of how Moses intercedes for the people. First of all, in chapter 32 and verse 11, he mentions God's great power. God's great power. He pleaded, first of all, for God's great power in what he had already done for these people. And Moses besought the Lord, his God, and said, Lord, why doth thou wrath wax hot against thy people? Notice, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand." So he pleads with the Lord, first of all, for these people, this stiff-necked people that had sinned a great sin, yes. And it's hard, isn't it? It's hard for us to understand maybe how they could do that until we look in the mirror. until we look in the mirror. And then it's not so hard to understand how these people, these Israelites, were guilty of committing the sin that they committed. We have much more light. The gospel has been more clearly revealed to you and I than it certainly was to those people. And yet we fail. We fail. Thank God we have a great high priest, advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, but he pleads his power. God had already, Moses is in fact saying, look what you've already done. How God had destroyed those gods of Egypt. The Egyptians, every one of those plagues, the 10 plagues, but each and every one of them pictured one deity that the Egyptians worshipped in some way, and God just destroyed them, just made a fool out of those would-be gods. His power, think about that, the power of God that was displayed in those plagues. I mean, it's amazing, isn't it? I mean, one of the most amazing ones is there being light over here in the land of Goshen and darkness over here where the Egyptians lived. Think about that. But this world is his creation, isn't it? I mean, he caused the light to shine in the beginning. Let there be light. And light was. And yes, he caused the light to shine in the houses of the Israelites and no light among the Egyptians. And then, of course, at the Red Sea, what power did God demonstrate in bringing the Israelites through the Red Sea and destroying all the armies? It's a mighty army. Had to be a mighty army, chariots that Pharaoh had. And all of them, every one of them was destroyed. Not one of them was left. What a picture that is of the Lord Jesus Christ who destroys our sins, who took them away. There wasn't one left. No. He's already showed great power and Moses pleads that first of all. And then secondly, he pleads God's honor in verse 12. Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Would God do something like that? Would he just for mischief bring these people out for them to be slain in the wilderness? Of course not. I say he pleads God's honor, the accusation that God had brought them out only to destroy them. And then third, and this is probably the greatest argument he brings, fourth, and that is God's holy covenant in verse 13. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. What's he talking about? He's talking about that covenant, isn't he? A covenant that God made with Abraham, renewed it with Isaac and Jacob to give them the land of Canaan. That was God's gift to them. Is God going to break his covenant? Is he going to go back on his covenant? Yeah, he confessed. He confessed that they had sinned a great sin. There's no question about that. He didn't try to excuse it in any way, but he pleads for God, who is a God of mercy and God of grace, to forgive his people. These three arguments that I've just mentioned, that God's power, God's honor, and the covenant, those three things are true of you and I as believers. To give us security and comfort and assurance that God has the power, I think about that King Darius, I believe it was, who came out to the lion's den that morning, what did he say? Oh, Daniel, is thy God able? He knew that none of the gods that he had ever worshipped was able, but he knew there was something different about Daniel's God, didn't he? Is thy God able? He is able. to save all that come unto God by him. Yes, he's able. Well, here's the third point. Moses pleads here for a special promise, and I want us to look at this. We'll have to look at a couple of verses here, but turn with me back to chapter 23, first of all. Chapter 23, and verse 20. Chapter 23 and verse 20. Now God is telling Moses, this is, this is before they've made the calf, you know, this is before they send this great sin. Behold, I will send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Now that angel here, this is very important. That angel is the angel of the Lord. You say, how do you know that? Look at the next verse. Look what God said about that angel. Beware of him and obey his voice, provoke him not for he, he, this angel, this uncreated messenger of God, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, Yes, he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. Now, when it says my name, that means he's God. That's what that is saying, he's God. And only God can pardon transgressions and sins. Even the Pharisees knew that, didn't they? When the Lord told that man who was a paralytic, Rise up and walk, thy sins are forgiven thee. And they said, well, he's blaspheming. Only God can forgive sin. And he asked them, well, what's easier to say? Thy sins be forgiven thee or rise up and walk? And you know, it's easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee. Nobody can see that. I mean, you can go to a priest today. You can sit outside that box and talk to him inside the box and confess your sins and he can say, go in peace, your sins are forgiven. Well, are they? But I tell you what, if a man's paralyzed and you tell him, rise up and walk, people know right away. Does he have power to do what he just said he was doing? Well, the Lord Jesus does, doesn't he? Amen. This was not just any angel here. This is the angel of the Lord who could pardon sin. Only God can pardon sin. All right, now go with me from here. Let's go back to chapter 33. and verses one and two, and the Lord said unto Moses, chapter 33, verse one, depart and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, unto thy seed will I give it, and I will send an angel before thee. Now, this angel is not the angel of the Lord. How do we know that? Well, look there in verse three. In verse one, he said he would send this angel, but in verse three, notice he said, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in the midst of thee. Well, it can't be God, this angel, can't be God that he said he would sin because God says he won't go in the midst of them. No, this was a created angel that God now tells Moses, I'll sin with you. Now, he pleads, if you look down to verse 12, 33 in verse 12, now Moses, He knew, he knew the difference. He knew this wasn't what God had promised in the beginning. This angel, verse 12, 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. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I 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. And he said, my presence, my presence. Now God promises him again. that he would go with him. My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. You know, Moses pleaded with the Lord to send an angel, God, the angel of the Lord with him, and he pleaded, reminding God, if you please, you told me I know thee. You told me then, I know thee. Now God knows everyone, doesn't he? He knows all things. But there's some people in this world he knows. His chosen people. You tell me, I know thee. Yeah. And you told me I found grace in your sight. And he had. And every child of God that he knows finds grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, if that's true, and it is, won't you go with me? Show me who you will send with me. And the Lord said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. He received the answer to his plea. God promises his presence and that he would give them rest. Did you know we look at this promise and we marvel, but God has given you and I the same promise? He's given every child of His the same promise. Lo, I'm with thee until the end of the ages. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Yes, He's given every one of us the same, same wonderful promise. Now here's the fourth and last point I wanted to make. Moses is an example to all of God's people. When we contemplate or consider a new work or in some way to serve the Lord, this should always be our plea. Lord is found there in verse 15. Lord, if thy presence go not with me, Curious not hymns. In other words, I'd rather stay here in the wilderness, Moses said, if you're not going to go with us. And that's been my prayer as we've thought about moving, leaving this place and going to a new location. Lord, if you're not going with us, and I trust he is, well then, Lead us not, carry us not up hence. That should always be our prayer, shouldn't it? In anything that we attempt or begin to do in serving the Lord, Lord, if it's not your work, we don't want it to prosper. We don't want it to prosper. If you're not in it, we don't want to be in it. Amen? Well, I pray the Lord will bless those thoughts to all of us here tonight.