In this sermon, the preacher focuses on Exodus chapter 33 and 34. He begins by discussing how God instructs Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and promises to send an angel before them to drive out their enemies. However, God also tells Moses that He will not go up in their midst because they are a stiff-necked people. This revelation causes Moses' heart to sink. The preacher then highlights the importance of seeking God's presence and emphasizes the mercy, grace, and long-suffering nature of God as revealed in Exodus 34:6. Moses responds by bowing down and worshiping God.

Wonderful. I think I must finish here with something that I started about earlier. Verse chapter 33, I would have liked to have carried it a bit further, and this is what I'm going to finish for tonight. On the same note, the Lord says to Moses, Depart and go up hence. Thou and the people which thou has 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'll send an angel before thee, and I'll drive out the Canaanites, and the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, 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. Moses' heart sank. I know it did. It's all right. I'm going to ask him. I've told you lots of things I'm going to, questions I'm going to. I'm going to, I'm going to heaven full of questions. Moses' heart, how do I know his heart sank? Because when I got into Moses' spirit, you say, really? Yeah, I got into Moses' spirit. I often do that. I get into yours sometimes when you don't know it. My heart sank too. So God was saying it to me. And you've never got anywhere with your Bible till you see that spirits are encaptured there. I may have said encapsulated, but I don't want you to be taking capsules all your life. Here is the tremendous thing. Let's go to verse 12. We'll have to come back to this next week, some of it, I guess. Moses says to the Lord, Seize it. Thou say'st unto me, Bring up this people, and thou'st not let me know whom thou would send with me. Listen, Lord, thou and I are on first name terms. What's the name of this angel you're going to send with me? I don't want to know. I don't know him. I know thee. This is what he's saying. Did you know that's what he was saying? I told you, you've got to get into his spirit. You've got to get into his thinking. You say, bring up this people, and thou'st not let me know who thou would send with me. Yet thou has said, I know thee by name, and thou has found grace also 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. See, that's all he wanted. He didn't particularly want promised land. He didn't want all these other things. That I may know thee. That I may find grace in thy sight. Isn't that marvellous? Thou have found grace. I may know thee. That I may find grace. Lord, I'm utterly dependent on thy grace. Glory. He'd already broken the law. Smashed it. Yeah, he had. Smashed it. Consider, he said, that this nation is thy people. The people which thou has brought up out of the land of Egypt. God said in verse one, this nation is thy people. He felt emboldened to say so. He felt emboldened to say so. And he said, no, when God said, I'll kill them all. Make a new nation out of you, Moses. No, he won. He saw he's standing with God. You know, you can be absolutely certain with God. You can know what God will do and say, if you get intimate enough with him. Persons that I'm intimate with, I can tell you what they'll do. I know their reactions or responses on certain issues. I can see their faces. I know where their eyes will go. I'll know the tone of their voice. Because I'm intimate with them. And I know them. And this is Moses. Listen, have you got this intimacy with God? Or haven't you? It's so glorious. And God said to him, my presence shall go with thee. I will. Moses, you don't want me to leave thee? An angel's not good enough for thee? No, that's right, Lord. Thou canst have me, Moses, in all glory. I will give thee rest. Then he says to God, if thy presence go not with me, I don't want, I don't want you to exercise any power on our behalf. Carry us not up thence. He's reflecting back to the time when God had said in Exodus 19, when he gathered the people at the foot of the mountains. And he said, Moses, say to them that I've borne thee on eagle's wings to myself. I've carried them to myself. You see, that's it. He said, I don't want thee to carry us another yard, Lord. I want to stay here. I'd rather have this fragrant moment of thy presence and talking to thee than all the flesh pots of Egypt or all the gold of Pharaoh or all the trees in Canaan and all the rivers of milk and all the honey. I'd rather have thee than life itself. That's what he's saying. That's the secret of Moses. This was the great moment of his life. This was beyond bloodshed, because it was only a lamb's blood that was shed. Now it's reality. Only lambs that were shed. Of course, it draws attention to the redemption. Of course, it draws points to the glorious land. And it's marvelous. But that was only an animal. Now it's God. He's there. Hallelujah. This is the God that met him in the bush. This is the God to whom he'd gone up. This is the God into whom he'd passed. He was presence to presence. That glorious thing that we speak about when we say, this person has a presence. And Moses knew he was in the presence. God. That was life to him. Nothing else matters much to Moses. What's the use of you going anywhere? What's the use of you going anywhere, any place? What's the use of God taking you anywhere by some angelic this, that or the other? I don't know this other angel. Thou hast myriads of them. I don't want them, O Lord. Not a substitute for thee. Because he didn't want an angel, God gave him myriads to look after. And because he didn't particularly want to live to fill his stomach up with cow's flesh and lumps of lamb chop and dates and figs and pomegranates and milk and I don't know what. Because he didn't want mountains that were made of iron and silver out of the veins of the earth. But he wanted God. That's it. That was the secret. I don't want anything else but that. What a marvelous truth. Well, that's how it's supposed to be with us. May I say something? That on the day when God, when Moses broke the law, when God gave it finally, and God broke it and Moses broke it, 3,000 souls were slain, were slain on the day of Pentecost when God came. 3,000 souls were saved. I don't know how many Levites there were at that time. I guess there were probably more than 120. But what a marvelous thing. On that glorious day of life when God comes down and he writes the law in people's hearts and he baptizes them in the Holy Ghost and fire and the work of the covenant is in wrought in a man or a woman's soul. From then on, he has the presence. He has the presence. Of the Lord. The known presence of the Lord. So he says, Oh, Lord, let me never pass away from the consciousness of this moment of being alive in God. I don't want to go anywhere from here, Lord. If I will go anywhere, go with me, Lord. Carry me up. Oh, what a marvelous thing. What was special to Moses can be, if you like, special. So I want to bracket it with the word common to all of us. We shall never be a Moses. Never. But I tell you what, you've had grace shown to you that you may know God. And that knowing him still yet, grace shall be shown unto you that you may know him better. For he knew that grace had been shown to him and he broken the law and he smashed it. Moses anger waxed hot and he smashed it. Smashed it. Did God say, right, excommunication? No, no. You know the wonderful thing? When God comes and through all our bloomers and blunders and mistakes and stupid things we do, and loves us and loves us until in the end we say, Oh, Lord, just your presence is all. Are you there? Moses wasn't reaching out for it. He had it. Come on, let's all get bowing down to him. Let's all bend our spirits unto him. Shall we? Maybe tonight, I don't know who, someone will pass into this. You don't have to try and blow your mind on it. Amen. But listen, woman, man, you gotta be willing for it. I didn't say inert and impassive, feeling nothing this way or that way. Hungry, thirsty, not screwed up, but already with a sense of the divine power through the word that God has spoken to you, knowing that this is God's will and intention for you. Amen. Do you know trust? This is what Moses knew. Trust. Whatever you do, don't let your mind float away without you this night, Lord. Be thou thyself unto hearts that men and women may really pass into thee. All the world becomes silent and dim. Yesterday and tomorrow vanish. Now, Lord, be all Thank you, blessed Lord. Thank you. Lord, I'll be with and with all souls, and with all, and with all. In terms of the word for this evening, as has been announced already, this is the next to last study in this series on Moses. If you were here last week, you may recall that we finished our reading and study together in that wonderful 34th chapter of Exodus. I'm afraid I'm inclined, or if afraid is the word, to call every chapter in the Bible wonderful, because I always discover something wonderful in it wherever I go, even in the least likeliest chapters sometimes that just contain a list of names, when you know that in those days, names meant something. So they didn't sort of look around for an uprising film star to name their children after, but they looked to God. And they sought his guidance, and they felt that names had some significance. I suppose, too, that in looking back, in hindsight, we know that God chose a special name for his own son, because it had significance. And he didn't look around for some king or somebody on earth, for there wasn't a king on earth called Jesus to name him after. And it was a wonderful and glorious thing. All right then, may the Lord bless us and lead us into his truth tonight. May I then direct your attention, having told you that we finished I beg your pardon, it was 33 where we finished our reading, may I direct your attention to the last part of chapter 34. And in verse 29, we read this, It came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone, while he, that is God, talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him, and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. And Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him. I should think that at some time in your life you will have heard some reference to this section, if not heard sermons or whatever about it. For this is one of the great highlights of Moses' life. It's glorious. In the next hymn in that blue book from where we were singing, we sang hymn 56, you find the hymn which has these words in it, Moses thy backward paths might do, but not a perfect sight obtain. And I would like to have sung that hymn, but I don't think we're very familiar with it. I can remember a time in my life when it just about swept me off my feet. It was one of the great discoveries of Wesley I made. And I can remember with what joy I sang it again and again, in public and in private. And even when my voice was silent, that is, you know you can't keep singing all the day long, it was going over and over and over in my heart. Marvelous truth. This unconscious thing, something had happened to Moses that had absolutely transformed him. I suppose we can find a parallel with it when we think about the Lord Jesus going up the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses had this kind of transfiguration, not at the depth of course that the Lord Jesus had it, but nevertheless it was a very, very real experience with him. And I dare say that every one of us in this room that professes the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior would long to know something of the wonder of that. I know that Paul makes a lot of it, or at least quite a bit of it, when he writes to the Corinthians in his second letter, you will remember in the third chapter, and referred to the fact that Moses put a veil over his face. But he said we're not as Moses who put a veil over his face. We're just not like that. Perhaps if we had all spent time in the presence of the Lord as Moses did, we may have to think about it. For at this period he had spent an almost unbroken period of 80 days, nearly three months, away with God. He had neither eaten nor had he drunk. So virtually as every medical person in the room knows, why even a profound idiot like myself knows, he was a dead man. He'd virtually come back from beyond the veil. That's where God was speaking to when Moses spoke, from beyond the veil. He was a man just about come back from the dead. And what a message he brought. You will know the message that he finally brought, at least I expect you will, but I'm somewhere about halfway through what I want to say to you. So I'll go back and start at the beginning. This is one of the wonderful things about Moses. When I say halfway, I'm not speaking with reference to time. I mean halfway through the things I want to say. Now you will remember, I hope, seeing that I've spoken of this being somewhere around 80 days, that Moses had been up into the presence of God before. He had gone up, as you remember, at the command of God. He'd gone up into Sinai, which was one of the peaks of the Horeb range. In case when you've been reading through here, sometimes you'll see Horeb and sometimes you will see Sinai. Well it's just like saying Alps and Mont Blanc. All right, that's the difference. That's just one of the peaks of the Alps, you see. And so he'd gone up there upon the first occasion and he'd come down because of the tragedy that had taken place. God had informed him of it. And we're told upon this occasion, in verse 19 of chapter 32, that as soon as Moses was come nigh unto the camp, that is when he had descended Sinai, that he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses' anger waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder and strode it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it. And we looked at it in rather more detail earlier, so I won't do it tonight. But that was after the first occasion and it was a dreadful thing because up in the mountain there God had been telling them they would have no God beside him. And so what Moses did, he just took and destroyed this golden calf and strode it on the water, made them drink it, which you will know was the great jealousy test. God says he's a jealous God. And he demonstrated to them that this thing that they had made, like any other thing that man can make, could be destroyed and burned. And what was the use of worshipping anything like that? I hope that nobody in this room, whether blatantly and openly or subtly underneath, is worshipping something which you know very well can be destroyed. You and I have got to have a God that is the true God, that cannot be destroyed. You will know of course how easily God demonstrated that in the person of his son by when raising him from the dead when everybody thought they'd destroyed him. And so he is indestructible. They couldn't even destroy flesh and blood. Moses found it quite easy to destroy metal. And he rose from the dead. Amen. Now that was the tragedy of it all. Sometimes when my mind goes over it again and again I want to talk something more of the flood of indignation that rises in my heart at least. To think that God in the mountains had been telling Moses about himself and all that he wanted and down there the people were worshipping a golden calf. Well you know what that deserves. It deserves destruction. I don't mean the calf. I mean that when people's hearts go in that direction they deserve destruction. To lower God down to some bit of wood or stone or metal as though he's that and no more is terrible. Well when Moses goes down and he sees what's happening he breaks the commandments straight away. He smashes them. People who worship false gods can't have anything to do with the commandments of God. They can't. All right. Well after dealing with it this it says in verse 30. It came to pass on the morrow. That would of course be the 41st day. Moses said unto the people you have sinned a great sin and now I will go up unto the Lord. Peradventure he shall make I shall make an atonement for your sin. 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 will forgive their sin. Couldn't go on. And if not blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou has written. And the Lord said unto Moses whosoever has sinned against me him will I blot out of my book. What a thing. All right now here is the background to what I want to say. Moses is our chosen subject. And we were thinking about the face shining and glowing with the inner glory. Now if ever you and I are going to be in this position remember we've got to have the knowledge that Moses had. I mean the basic knowledge. I suppose that as a man goes he must have been one of the most wonderful men that's ever been on the earth. This I think would be generally agreed throughout the civilized world. Must have been one of the most wonderful men. So he must have known an awful lot. Well you think that he by God's grace of course went down into Egypt. Affected the deliverance of a nation. Took them a lot of slaves and turned them into a nation. Gave them a rule and a government. Gave them a system of worship. Turned a lot of ragtag bobtail people into a fighting army. I don't know what he did. He was a philosopher, statesman, prophet, general. I don't know what he was. Most one of the most wonderful men that's ever lived. He could compose psalms. He sang a ma let them in in a psalm in Exodus 15 when they came over the Red Sea. I don't know what he couldn't do this man. But basic to it all and you've got to know this that your name is written in God's book. Now that's where you start. Do you know your name is written in the book of? Do you? Now it was nothing that God kept on earth. It had nothing to do with church registers. There wasn't a church. You know that. It had nothing to do with an electoral role where everybody is registered. It had nothing to do with anything that we know along this line. But God who himself wrote the ten commandments apparently has a book. Now how we're going to describe it I don't know. But this I do know. That just as we read here in this chapter of God's book this same thing is told us in the New Testament. Though you and I have to know that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life. That's what the apostles of the Lord Jesus tell us. So I want to ask you this question. Have you got this supreme confidence this night? I mean we've been praying about brother and sister Hastie and their two children. Well what if it was you that was facing the surgeons night to night? What if there was some mysterious thing in you that could be your death before the night was up? Are you confident that your name is written in the book of life? Now Moses was. And listen he wasn't talking like some empty-headed philosopher. He was a man who was intimate with God. And he knew just as though if you get close to me and you came to my home you'd find I had books too. You might find my name written in one or two. I mean that I own them. But here is the the glorious thing and we've all got to know it and Moses knew this. That the only way a name could be in God's book is by what he says. An atonement for your sin. In the end of verse 30 if you're following me in the scripture. He went up as you will remember with the desire that he wanted to make atonement somehow for the sin of the children of Israel. Now similarly as he knew that atonement has to be made for sin that names may be in God's book. So you have to know that it is only by the grace of God through the blessed sacrifice of Jesus Christ and all that he did on the cross that your name can be in that book. That's all. That's all. Now you've got to know this and you've got to know it deeply. Moses did. Thank God for men and women who throughout the centuries no less than Moses knew and had known that their names are written there. And listen you can't write it in yourself. It's written by God. Glorious isn't it? To know this. You think of yourself probably you think of yourself as some kind of nobody as I think of myself. You know my name isn't Charles. I don't belong to the royal family. I'm a nobody but it's a marvelous thing that I know that my name's in God's book. I know it's there. I know that he's my father. I know that I belong to him. I know that he can say about me he's mine and I can say about him he is mine. Now you've got to be certain like that and not because you know some texts in the bible or that you go to some place of worship but surely through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I shall never cease to wonder at this marvelous love of God. There's something else too I want to say here and it's this. There's no doubt about this great man of God. He knew what prayer was. I don't know whether you know what prayer is. Real intercessory prayer. Motus. I haven't counted. I suppose I ought to have done but we'll count it shall we. One. I'm looking in verse 31. Count with me will you. I'm counting the words. One. It's prayer. Start with O. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 and he prayed one of the mightiest prayers that's ever been prayed. I wonder if you spoil real prayer by verbiage. You talk too much. Moses had mastered the art of intercession. He wasn't a chatterbox that couldn't hold his tongue. Some people pray like that and you wonder whether it's a sort of a bubbling stream that's flowing and that's all. Just about as shallow. Moses had learned the art of prayer. What was it? He got right into the presence of God. He labored to go up the mountain and get there but when he got there he could do it all in 30 odd words. What do you know about prayer? And and beloved God did what he said and I think perhaps you may have come to the conclusion that I have unavoidably come to. Do you know what it is? Yes you do. You don't need me to tell you. It's an unavoidable one so you will all come to it. What's wrong? In so much that's called prayer it's only people laboring up the mountain to get into the presence of God. He got right there. That's what took him the time going back up the mountain. Because you will know what I know too that his heart all the time it would have gone through his mind it would of course through his very veins with every panting step he took for he was over 80 years of age. Remember? Not that he was worn out. He died at 120 and apparently he was stronger than I am. At least he didn't need spectacles than I do. So my Bible doesn't say anything about my spectacles but it does say that his eye was undimmed. Here then is the glory of it. He could go right up into the presence of God. Now know this. It's a marvelous thing the privilege that opened to every one of us in this room. Once you know that you're right there with God by his mercy and grace and your name's in the book. I want to tell you this so one of the reasons it's there is not just to guard against you falling into a flat spin or dropping into a depression here and there again because you've got no assurance of this step and the other. It's there to grant you knowledge that you have the right of personal audience with God. Did you know that? You don't have to get a priest to pray for you or a parson or a pastor or somebody else like that. Some person. Wonderful when you have personal dealings with God yourself. I rejoice with somebody over the phone today because this I heard coming over the phone was what had happened to this particular person. First personal dealings with God. First person. Not even we are they them. First person with God. That's glorious and that's why your name is there. Perhaps to astound you all, though I hope not, in that I want to believe that you are scripture readers. Did you know this? That Jesus told his disciples when he was on the earth. He said, I tell you not that I will pray for you because we've always been brought up on the sort of idea that Jesus is praying for us. How many of us have heard that? Yeah, okay, yeah, that's right. But Jesus told them. I'll tell you where you'll find it. Check it out. John chapter 16. Don't take my word for it only. Read the Bible and Jesus said there, I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father loves you. You ought to go in and pray for yourself. That's your privilege. Glory. Because some of our hymns are fashioned that way. Oh Jesus pray for me or, you know, or somebody else, some saint or someone else to pray for us, you see, according to the background that we've been in. Here it is. Glorious audience with God. I don't know what you wish for more than that. Is there anything more? Oh yes. Let's go on. We must do because the clock is. Turn that clock round the other way so that nobody sees it. Well we've only got one more night after tonight. And it's so glorious. Now it's wonderful when this truth comes in to the heart. It rather being reminds me of another one of those great hymns of Wes as you know, about I have power, I have the peace. What more can a poor sinner have? Well he can have more than that. It's always more, more, more, more, more. Oh hallelujah. Let's have a look at this shall we? And in this marvelous chapter 33, we looked into this a little bit last week. Apologies to those who may sort of not be able to catch on quite so quickly as those that have been coming all the way through. But when it says this, in verse six when Moses had come down and done all spoken to them, it says the children of Israel they stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount Horeb. They'd all deck themselves up in all their finery to go dancing in front of of the the horrible effigy. And they stripped themselves by the Mount Horeb and Moses took the tabernacle, pitched it without the camp, far off from the camp and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. Now this was not yet the tabernacle of the Lord. They had not yet built it. But here's another wonderful thing about Moses. In Moses tent it was his home. You know they all lived in tents. But his home, if I may say so, had been turned into a little house of God. Whatever the others did, whatever the rest of Israel did, he had turned his family tent into a tabernacle of God. And he used to meet God in his home. Do you? Do you meet God in your home? Well do you? Hmm. Well do you or don't you? I mean you might meet a lot of other people called television stars or radio this or LP people, jockeys they call them and all this sort of thing. Well who do you meet in your home? It was the tabernacle to Moses and he took his tent and he pitched it outside the tent. And I guess everybody's heart sank into their boots. For they knew this and it's like so many people on earth today. They knew that Moses knew God but they didn't know him themselves. And there are too many people relying on somebody else that knows God. And this I want to say to you. If you really want to know God, your home's got to be the tabernacle in that sense. I don't mean you should write the letters up and put them up in neon lighting or anything like that. It's got to be the place where you meet God in a very very wonderful way. He took that and he put it outside the tent, outside the camp. He called it the tabernacle of the congregation. I'm looking at verse 7. 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 spoke unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. That's really mouth to mouth in the Hebrew. And he turned again into the camp but his servant Joshua the son of Nun a young man departed not out of the tabernacle. It's a marvelous thing. Of this I'm absolutely sure and I think that this makes it very very plain that you and I have got to know constant communion with the Lord. There is the mountaintop experience but there's the normal everyday thing. Moses went into that tabernacle and God came down there. Well do you know this? Do you? Glorious isn't it? And there they are communing. Last week we looked at a little of these things so I don't want to go over that ground again. And God speaks to him and in verse 14 he says to Moses my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. My presence shall go with thee. I wonder if there had been somebody outside listening but they weren't because they were dead scared because of what they'd done. They thought they defended God mortally as far as they were concerned. There's nobody listening but if you'd have been listening outside that tent or would you have sort of sort of sunk down on your knees and said oh God I wish I could have that or would you have dropped on your knees beside Moses said Lord I thank you I have it. Where are you? Where are you? My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. Moses Moses you love this people but don't try and get your rest from them. Poor Moses. I say poor Moses though I say great and privileged Moses but if he could have looked ahead 12 months or if he could have looked ahead for 30 odd years he would have known how true it would it was if God had said to him you won't find your rest in this people because you know how that through their sins and constant unbelief they wandered and wandered and wandered and they they blasphemed they turned against God they turned against Moses they sought to murder him and all sorts of things I tell you you can't see ahead you cannot see into the next hour leave alone the future at all you can't see tomorrow what's it going to bring for you well I'll tell you what it can bring rest if he's with you my presence shall go with thee hallelujah you know I I I wasn't listening critically tonight but I knew what I was going to talk about you know when it when the prayer session was on at least I hoped I knew because sometimes I switch off as you know I mean switch off onto other lines and everybody's Lord give them peace inside I was saying oh Lord there's something beyond peace rest rest I hope you know that far far beyond a state of peace it's good to have peace of mind it's good to have no warfare no conflict with others but oh how few people know rest absolutely there's one thing about which you can be certain that if you really have the presence of God with you you have rest there's things that upset other people they don't upset you an undisturbed rest oh now that's what God intends rich promises these aren't they when you like God to make that promise to you listen do you know you're letting your names in the book for a start that's where it starts do you know that the great redemption in Jesus Christ is effective for you tonight its effect in its outworking should be rest rest rest how about the unknown tomorrow well one hymn writer wrote this hymn writer wrote this it can bring with it nothing but he will see me through who grants the linnaeus clothing will clothe his people bovine and fig tree with it and so it was a woman by the way that wrote this and I don't know whether women are more restless than men but it's a marvelous thing to have rest have you got it rest comes from the confidence of the presence of God supreme that's where it comes from I would not have the restless will that hurries to and fro seeking for some great thing to do or secret thing to know I would be treated as a little child and guided where I go to have the presence of God you can generally tell those that have it because they when you come into their presence you come into rest you discover it what a marvelous thing well now that's wonderful you say rest that's marvelous I'd give my right arm to have rest well you needn't it's a gift to you you don't give anything for it what a glorious thing is there anything beyond rest oh yes well that's wonderful I'd have to continue reading what what we read and he says this and Moses said to him as to God verse 15 if thy presence go not with me I don't want to be leader of this people anymore carry us not up hence don't want to go here's the secret of leadership you must resign from leadership or any pretence there too if you're not in rest it's a pretense you've got to come to rest you know why you get rest I'll tell you because you've been up into God and prayed your prayer and you know it's done it's because you're not restful in God that's why that's why you're not restful see the secret's out the secret's out it's written on the bible your life your psychology your actions and reactions are written on this page here they are simple as anything well he did this she did that look what they've done no they've got me to send them you know oh well you couldn't save them go to rest didn't say go to sleep because you know what I know there's lots of people who sleep but they don't rest here is the glorious thing for us to understand look let's go on 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 so shall we be separated I and thy people from all the people who are upon the face of this I told you this is the distinctive factor that marks you out separates you not that you try to be exclusive it isn't that but in people's minds they can see a difference separate it you don't seem to be in their worries flusters frights and fears this is what it's all about you can pursue your steady course the lord said under 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 now here's the next thing he says I beseech thee show me thy glory this is amen glory beyond rest he wanted to see god's glory did you to see the glory of god you will remember if you're familiar with the bible that this was the thing that jesus wanted as a man you can read his prayer I quoted john 16 to you and I'll quote you from john 17 that's the next chapter father he says I want you to glorify me with the glory I had with thee before the world was I want you to give these disciples of mine thy glory too he didn't put it in those words but that's what you read glory is glorious is is it comes from a full integration of the personality full life as god wants you to have it I want to see thy glory lord good old moses I can understand him and I know just which way his he was traveling I know which way his thoughts were going um do you do you know what he's going to ask for next do you no well I know here it is let's read on and he said god said I'll make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy and he said thou canst not see my face that's the next thing you're going to ask for lord I want to see thy face that's right he'd seen god manifest in fire in the bush he'd seen the manifestations of god but oh he longed to see him faced he said in your heart is it in your heart right now that without fear he said lord I'd love to see I want to see your face lord I've seen your works I've seen your salvation I've seen all sorts of things how truly they had they'd seen god work in ethiop they'd seen god's salvation at the red sea they'd seen sinai all on a slope with the presence of god they'd seen all sorts of things moses had been up for 40 days with the lord and he still hadn't seen his face on then he wanted to see his face he didn't just want to move in symbols and types and signs which you know he did you know and we do today you know we move in the symbol of the bread and the symbol of the wine and we move in the symbol of baptism when we move in this symbol and that symbol and they have a message and they speak to us and we can learn much from her we see the symbol of human marriage where one is joined with another and see that this speaks to us of being united with god we can see all sorts of things and they speak to us but i don't know whether your heart often wants to sing that great hymn face to face with christ my savior face to face what will it be when with rapture i behold him jesus christ who died for me oh this is what moses is going to ask for so god cut him off he wouldn't let him ask for that one because i tell you why he doesn't like to have to deny his children anything that's right so he got in a bit quickly and he told moses all about it and uh the lord says behold there's a place by me verse 21 and i should stand upon a rock and it shall come to pass while my glory passes 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 will take away my hand and i should see my back parts but my face shall not be seen he must have been a gog with anticipation lead me to the rock that's higher than i had lord let me come there this was a heart that was longing for deeper knowledge this was a heart that was longing for that glorious intimate union this was a heart that was real i want to tell you beloved that you should have a heart like this it should be there i don't know what you're longing for i don't know what you count to be life and and glory and blessings and goodness i don't know but here's the truth have you got a heart in you that longs to know the lord more and more have you or are you frustrated and embittered and cynical in fact perhaps 10 years ago you had more zeal after god than you have now love of the world crept in all these other things you might not have made a golden calf but what have you made nothing that the fire can't destroy nothing god says i'll put you upon a rock and i'll put you in a cliff of the rock and i'll cover you with my hand i want you to know me moses as near as you're able to know me as a mere man near man that you are i want you to know me you can't see me face to face i'll cover you i'll cover you i want you moses this is what makes a man a leader among men it doesn't come from the unnatural gifts i have eulogized moses with his natural gifts and glorious abilities statesman king leader prophet psalmist i don't know what he wasn't a tremendous man it wasn't that that endeared him to god it was right down in that heart lord i want to get close close close i want to know you i want to see you i want but god goes on this is what he says first one chapter 34 hew thee two tables of stone like the first and i will write upon those tablets the words that were in the first tables which thou breakest and be ready in the morning and come up in the morning unto mount sinai and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount and no man shall come up with thee neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount and he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first and moses rose up early in the morning and went up into mount sinai as the lord had commanded him and took in his hand two tables of stone wonderful i tell you what there was no man perfect on this earth except jesus nobody and poor old moses he broke the first two tablets of stone he never had to make those but he had to hew out a couple more stones because of his folly oh yes this was one of his little faults all right says god now you cut them out yourself this time and you can imagine with what zeal he went we're getting ready for tomorrow morning tomorrow morning i guess he labored away there cut out these two tables of stone and you can imagine him can't you toiling up that mountain with these two tables of stone ready for god to write on but he didn't care he didn't care he was going up to meet god moreover he was going to get the laws for life that's what he was going up for the ten commandments of god not only for him but for all with whom he came in contact unto whom he was the minister he was up in the morning i guess he was up long before daybreak where are you going roses i'm going to meet god don't know whether anybody's asked you there i'm going to meet god be ready i love that verse too look at it it says come up in the morning at the mount sinai and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount oh as high as you can get moses right out of this dark old world you know when you're climbing mountains i don't know whether you've ever done it i can remember when i was in india in the himalayas and uh i don't know what on earth they are we got up in the morning everything called 7 000 feet up we were and up nearly 8 000 we went up higher than that anyway but i was lodging at 7 000 feet you weren't ejected oh when we went up to tiger mud oh sorry well jack can finish the story we away we went what time did we get about four something like that and away we went to see the sunrise pink on a little pimple over there called everest it didn't look as big as some of its neighbors because they were nearer got our perspectives wrong of course it's easy how you can do that but this is certainty we were up on the mountain and we were looking across and of course high although distant loaned a sort of a touristy ability to look on a low plane and not like this because we were up fairly high ourselves and there we saw the sun come on the mountains and i think we took some pictures of it but all down below it was still dark still dark down there still dark very dark mistily dark coldly dark that's right but he went up there where it was light he'd gone i can remember i could almost picture him stumbling up the foothills gaining a little ground he stowed the heavy but i'm coming up to you lord i'm coming i'll tell you it cost you nothing this salvation that i'm talking about but it cost you everything and up he went and he left everybody now god intends that you and i should have this personal audience with himself listen if you want to know the glory of god if you want to live in the future in the rest of god with his presence with you you've got to present yourself to god here on the top of the mountain just you and i he says just you and i moses i want it to be personal yeah that's what happened the lord came down met him there put him in the cliff of the rock stood him on the rock put him in the cliff of the rock and moses saw the glory of the lord he only saw his back parts he never saw his face he saw god but he didn't see him hmm if you really want to see a person you must see their face that's what the people below saw you know moses face later but that's how it is with god you've got to have this face-to-face meeting with the lord god's longing for it god's wanting it it was a personal thing when he wrote your name in the book it was a personal thing when jesus died for you on the cross it was our member of the church this is a love thing when will it sink into our hearts that it's the personal love of jesus to me hmm i wonder if that sunk in your heart and never let him have you personally if you haven't let him have you personally it's because you don't know his personal love once you know the personal love of grace and uh of god to you and his grace you you know it's personal you don't hide behind anybody else you don't go this that of the other you don't just get into churchianity and get lost in the crowd or seek to hide it's wonderful to say well he's with me his presence with me my little home's a a tabernacle there's a place on the mountain up there alone and away oh god it's got to be not only his presence with you but god said i want your presence with me present yourself presents yourself in other words presents yourself with this further intention of giving yourself presents yourself not in adventure glory he was up and gone away away it's wonderful amen this chapter 34 you'll know we read the end of it we've traced a lot of the steps to it what else will you discover well you say moses went up there to see the glory of the lord hoping to see his face still you see all right let's read it the lord verse six passed by before moses and proclaimed the lord that's the word jehovah as you know jehovah jehovah the triune god that's the hebrew jehovah elohim merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth oh let this sink into your heart and go and tell everybody this is it it's glorious keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation and moses made haste and bowed down his head toward the earth and and and worshipped well there's one thing i'm very happy to tell you tonight although we see in this man moses the things that we long for i'm happy to tell you that we're in a better covenant for god was establishing the old covenant and you know that he finished it and brought in the new that's why our bible has the two testaments or covenants in it because in these days god isn't dealing with us by moses law he's dealing with us by the grace of jesus christ and going back to verse 7 read it through to yourselves and you'll get down to this he will by no means clear the guilty that's true and i'll tell you that he doesn't clear the guilty unless you are guilty of rejecting jesus christ then you can't be clear that's impossible because on jesus christ on that blessed day on calvary god laid our guilt and the price of our redemption all on jesus christ glory he didn't clear the guilty he judged our guilt in jesus all right so if you reject jesus and won't have him you can't be cleared he was god's final sacrifice price wherein guilt was cleared and he visited the iniquity of the fathers and the children and the children's children unto the third and if you like out of the fourth generation or any generation on jesus christ he laid it all on him this is the marvel of our salvation i don't know whether we shall ever understand it truly i promise you this that as you go on with the lord you will come into greater understandings of it because i have god is not visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children now the little child that's in hospital isn't in hospital because of its father's sin or its grandfather's sin or anything like that it's not being made to suffer this is the crude ideas that people have god's not that kind of god not now he he he's dealing with us in jesus christ amen i know that all sickness and disease is a result of sin coming into the world but not through the father's sin particularly we're all heirs in the flesh to all the sicknesses and diseases there are in this world we are but what a glorious thing that god isn't visiting these things on us now and aren't i glad are you we're in a new covenant this is why the angels hasten to start to sing it over bethlehem's play this is why jesus rose from the dead to proclaim say see here i've dealt with it all it's all been laid on me god raised up a great prophet named isaiah to tell them this hundreds of years before jesus christ was born god has laid on him the iniquity of us all glory to god what mercy and grace this is i more than ever want to see this glorious god face to face i want to thank him face to face i i i won't see him do you more and more what must he be like terrible world we're living in doesn't seem right all these things that are going on and they aren't jesus christ told us they wouldn't be but this is absolutely true and it was all visited on jesus christ there marvel of marvels moses bowed down his head toward the earth and he worshipped he said i if now i have found grace in thy sight oh lord let me let my lord i pray thee go among us for it's a stiff-necked people pardon our iniquity and our sin take us for thine inheritance and so god went on verse 11 observe thou that which i command thee this day behold i drive out before thee the amorite the canaanite the hittite the perizzite and the hivite and the jebusite take heed to thyself lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land with the lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee but you shall destroy their altars break down their images cut down their groves that's a terrible thing you know that's smitten our land uh my wife and i were invited out to to to a dinner last night and we went and we were informed uh much to our horror that this is in your country i suppose it's in england too but i don't know i know it's here in scotland