In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding the deep things of God and the covenant upon which His promises are built. The speaker highlights the significance of comprehending the depths of Christ's work on the cross, including the shedding of His blood and the absorption of God's wrath. The sermon also emphasizes the need for both intellectual and emotional prayer, recounting a personal experience at a prayer meeting where people were filled with the Holy Spirit and praying for healing. The preacher warns against letting our guard down in prayer and emphasizes the importance of worshiping God in spirit and truth, engaging both our minds and emotions.

Exodus chapter 32. The other day, Brother Nathanael and I were looking at Acts chapter 1, and the word in there that Jesus says, you shall be my witnesses. And it really has been bearing witness in these last few weeks with exactly what John Carlos said, because that word witnesses is actually the same word used for martyr. So Jesus isn't saying you shall be my witnesses, he's saying you shall be my martyrs. Saying you shall be my martyrs is a serious thing. And there is a time coming, the Bible clearly says, we're not going to be raptured before all the trouble hits. We're going to go through the tribulation if we're alive at the time. No such thing as a pre-tribulation rapture. The time is swiftly approaching and we're all going to be tested, but consider it joy, the testing of your faith. And it will be a fiery trial. I just want to begin by briefly saying that if you didn't come here tonight to meet consciously, consciously, with this in the forefront of your mind to meet God, leave. I'm serious. Because if you didn't come here tonight to meet with God, you're a saver of death to the meeting. Now I want to address the issue of prayer, especially in the life of Moses. And I think that apart from Jesus himself, that Moses is the greatest example of prayer that we have in all of Holy Writ, all of Scripture. And it's dangerous to make sweeping claims upon Scripture, but I think that it's a well-grounded claim. And I think that tonight we'll see how that Moses truly is, not just intercession, but truly is the greatest example of prayer, the whole spectrum of it. And our principal text is going to come from Exodus 33. In most of the chapter, we're just going to go through verse by verse a lot of the chapter. But I want to start with Exodus 32, starting at verse 30. Let me open up and read it here. It says this. It says, Let's pray. Father, we just come before you now and we thank you that you've already come before us. We thank you, Lord, that you saw fit to come here. You saw fit to speak to your people of things to come, as your word says. Lord, and we just look to you this night. And Father, I pray that we could be as the spear that pierced your son's side, that we could come and enter into your very heart. Show us what is on your mind, Lord. Speak through me now, I pray. Don't let my words drop to the ground, Father, but let these words that come forth tonight be your words and your words can never return void. So open our hearts, we pray, to receive what you have for us this night. Show us the depths of prayer. Show us how close we can actually come to you and how much we can actually know you. And Lord God, I pray. I agree with Brother Josh when he said, Take us to a new level. Take us to a deeper depth and a higher height and a wider width, Lord. Show us more of your face. Show us more of your favor and bring us on. Lord, we just pray it for the glory of your son and in his name. Knowing that if we come together as touching this thing, you will do it. So we come and ask you, Father. Glorify yourself in our midst and let your word come forth tonight. Let your word be spoken here, Father. Lord, I almost just want to stay and pray. But Lord, I pray, speak tonight. Don't let us go away unchanged. Don't let us go away unchanged. Show us your glory. Show us your glory. Come, Holy Spirit. Have your way in each and every one of our hearts tonight. Let us go forth blazing with love. We thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. We find this incident directly proceeding Moses' descent from Mount Sinai. Aaron, though a priest, had fallen into some vicious rebellion. He not only fell into this gross idolatry, but succumbed into the pressure of the people when they said, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us. And as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him. You can almost hear them patronizing Aaron in the very tone of the Scripture. So Aaron, he said to the people of Israel, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. Out of this ornamentation, the man Aaron fashioned a calf and declared to Israel, He said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of Egypt. Now these ornaments mentioned are traditionally known to be emblematic of spiritual things. And also said to be the emblems of divine protection. The choicest of these emblems was likely a gold plate inscribed with the name Jehovah. When Aaron commanded these ornaments to be taken off and used to make this idol, imagine thousands of God's people taking this beautiful gold plate off and throwing it into a melting pot to make a golden calf. The very name of God being melted down. Not only that, imagine these people, when they removed these ornaments, they also forfeited the symbol of protection. And they forfeited the very protection of God Almighty in order to transgress against Him. All of this is rooted in one sin. As the people entreated their priest, Aaron, that he would make a wicked statue. And the fear of man always carries with it grave consequences. The fear of man itself is idolatry. And will always lead to more idolatry. Aaron, a priest chosen by God, fell because of this one simple yet rebellious act. And the last one it's conceived brings forth sin. And the wages of sin is death. We can see the vileness of the sin by the reaction of God when He says, Go, get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside again 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. 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, that I may consume them, and will make of thee a great nation. Now God told Moses verbatim, word for word, the words of the wicked, rebellious, stiff-necked people of Israel. Nothing escapes the ears of the Lord of Lords. He that made the ears shall he not hear. God then says, I have seen this people. He that made the eye, does he not see? And how true are the words of the psalmist. They say, How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? But David asks the question that truly needs to be asked. He says this, Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? For they call not on the Lord. God is not the one who lacks knowledge, but rather those who live in rebellion. And it seems as though Israel unconsciously had this mindset of saying, Surely the Lord does not know. But the Lord saw they were stiff-necked people, and He longed to let His wrath pour upon their heads, and they deserved every drop of it. And here we get an amazing insight into the prayer life of Moses. And Moses, he was prone to often argue with God, not with contentious battle of the wills, but rather an intelligent and thought-out debate of why God should do this or why God should do that. And this is an amazing form of prayer, and it deserves our investigation. Moses said in response to God's burning anger towards His people, Lord, why doth Thy anger or 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 in 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 sworest by Thine own self and said unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land which I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. Now, right away we can see a difference in the prayers of this man, Moses, in the prayers of the modern prayer meeting. Moses comes inquiring, asking of God, what's on God's mind, what God is thinking, and why God has done a thing, rather than bringing him a shopping list. He doesn't ask for anything other than an answer to this dilemma that was directly facing him. He asks the Lord why His anger is burning against His own people. He doesn't stop there. He goes on to say, Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them in the face of the earth? He challenges God. He asks Him why He would cause reproach to come to His own name. The Egyptians were just pillaged by plagues and plundered by the people of Egypt as they left the land. And if God were to strike them down here in the mountains, and the Egyptians would throw their reproach at God, God would suffer the reproach. And Moses used this as the basis of his prayer. And in the light of that argument, he then offers up his supplication to God. He says, Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people. And then Moses says something truly amazing to God. He says, Remember. It's an amazing thing when a man calls God to the remembrance of His own covenant. It's not only amazing, but it's dangerous. Moses, he needed to have a close bond to his God. And he did. He was obedient. But Moses says, Remember. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, or Jacob. It says, Thy servants to whom thou swearest by thine own self. And not only did Moses call the covenant to God's remembrance, but he also called the foundation of the promise to his remembrance. God didn't only swear this thing. He swore it by his very self. Why? Because he could swear by nothing greater. Nothing higher. God can't be unfaithful to himself. Now already the application is becoming clearer and clearer. But what was the result of this powerful and thought out praying? The scripture says, That the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. I'm not going to sit here and get into the theology of this. But it must be remembered that Moses has not yet seen the camp. Moses has been at the top of the mountain. He didn't yet see the rebellion of the people. He didn't see that all the people on the face, down at the bottom of this mountain, were committing this wickedness. And he had prayed this, a most powerful prayer. Based solely on the word of God. And this type of praying is not accomplished in the realm of emotionalism. It's not accomplished in the realm of intellectualism. It's not accomplished in the realm of tongues. Or any of these false assumptions that we think requisite powerful prayer. Now intellectualism is good if it's used rightly. Emotions are good if they're used rightly. Tongues are definitely good. But these things aren't what make powerful prayer. And this type of praying, And this power in prayer comes from two things. One, tearing in the presence of God. And two, a deep and active knowledge of God himself. We can never hope to have any power in prayer. We can never hope to have any knowledge of God if we never tarry in his presence. And you know, often people's tongues start going and their lips start flapping before their knees even hit the floor. And that's a danger. To talk and talk and talk and talk. You might pray for a half hour, say a million words, get up and go through your day, and you wonder why God doesn't move. Because you spoke to him, but never let him speak to you. You never took in what he had for you. And you don't want God to go where you are. You want to go where God is. And sometimes the most powerful times of prayer can be when we say nothing and simply be still and know that he is God. A.W. Tozer was accustomed to stay on his face for five hours a day, every single day. And you say, well, he was a pastor. Yes, but he was the pastor of the largest alliance church in the country. So if you say you're too busy to tarry in the presence of God for five hours, look to A.W. Tozer. Five hours a day, but yet, how did he do it? He sacrificed sleep if he had to. He'd stay up all night if he needed to, just like Jesus did. But you cannot claim you're too busy. There's a modern liberal pastor, I really like one of his quotes. He says, you're too busy not to pray. If we don't have a living knowledge of the living God, we can never hope to prevail in prayer. If we don't have a living knowledge of the living God, we can't tarry in His presence like that, because you'll fall asleep, or you'll get bored, or you'll want to go do something else, and your mind will wander. Because if you don't know God, you won't want to tarry there. You won't want to be in His presence. And if His presence does come, it might convict you, and you'll get up and run away. This knowledge, this knowledge of God comes from a knowledge of His Word, first and foremost, and what He has done on our behalf, that we might come boldly before Him. If we don't know the covenant promises, then we cannot plead them before God as Moses did. And how can we truly come to God believing and not wavering if we don't truly know the workings of the covenant of grace, the inner workings, the deep things of God? How can we plead in this way before God if we don't understand by what this covenant and its promises are built upon? And if we truly don't understand the depths of Christ's work on the cross, the blood shed for us, the wrath He absorbed for us, the glorious resurrection, then how can we know how to say as Moses, You've swore by yourself. Salvation is of the Lord. And this type of prayer is both intellectual and emotional. I was in Montana one time. We were preaching at a campus there, and we stopped at a four-square church there in the area. Great brethren, great brethren. But we were in a prayer meeting, the kind where you all sit in a circle and put a chair in the middle, and people come and they get prayer. People getting filled with the Holy Spirit, and they're praying for healing and whatnot, and anointing each other, and everybody would go in the middle. Well, I was sitting off praying with my legs crossed just like now. And I was praying, and Eli, my friend, went in the middle of the circle. And this lady turns to me, and she looks me square in the eyes and says, You need to stop thinking. And I thought about that. I didn't really think too much there. I just kept praying. But I thought about that later on and didn't take her advice obviously. And I realized the fact that if we turn off our minds in prayer and just get on our face before God and just, as it were, pray from our hearts, like there's modern movements today that teach this all wrong. Just clear your mind and let come out what comes. That's very dangerous. You open yourself up to many things, demons especially, because if you turn your mind off and aren't thinking things through, you're opening up yourself to very, very bad things. And that's why this prayer must be intellectual. It must be thought out like Moses's. Moses didn't just go up to God and start rambling. He thought about what he said to God because if you don't think about what you say to God, you're in danger there too. Because imagine you going before God, saying something outrageous, God answers your prayer, and then you wonder where it came from. Prayer must be thought out and fully engage our minds as well as our hearts. We must love God with all of our mind as well as entrust to Him all of our emotions. If prayer does not move us emotionally, then I would submit to you that a checking of your hearts is in order. Now, we must worship in spirit and in truth, with mind and emotion, and we must never let our guards down. Because in meetings, especially like meetings tonight and like amazing meetings that I've been to here. Well, I've been here. The devil is just as present as God is. He's just looking for somebody to let their guard down so he can swoop in there. And the next thing you know, you're in a bondage that you don't know where it came from. There's some area of your life then that you're not in control of for some reason. Maybe you fall asleep when the anointing gets heavy. Or something else. But that's why. That's why. Now, if prayer doesn't move us emotionally, then we should check our hearts. We must worship in spirit and truth. And all of this praying, and all of this pleading, and all of this arguing must be done by faith. See, Moses had no other evidence of the rebellion of Israel than what God had told him. Now, you see, we must not look for any other evidence than the very promises and words of God. Martin Luther said this, There's no greater insult to a holy God than to not believe his promises. Now, after this great victory of prayer, the Scripture says, Moses turned and went down from the mount, and in his hands he carried the tables of stones. And the tables were the work of God, the Scripture says. And the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables. Moses was going to present these wonderful commandments to the people of Israel. Far off in the distance, they could hear the people of Israel shouting. And Joshua said to Moses, There's noise of war in the camp. How quickly can we fall into the error of mistaking the sounds of war and the shouts for mastery for the frivolous revelry of singing to idols? Too often, people can fall into false pretenses in regard to prayer and make this awful mistake. There's movements within Christendom that make awful mockeries of prayer and worship. They have spiritual mapping. They'll send you holy miracle water. They'll tell you to lay your hands on the television and you'll be healed. And people are deceived and they mistake the cries of war for singing to idols. The emotionalism that I mentioned before can draw people into this blunder. False views of God can do so as well. If we don't spend the time we ought to in the Word of God and in the presence of God, then the heresies and movements that surround us can easily sweep us up. We may never know it. But Moses, the one who knew God in such an intimate way, said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that sing do I hear. And who are they singing to? Certainly not God, but that idol they had built. Moses' anger waxed hot against these people and he tossed the tables of stone to the foot of the mount and they broke to pieces. Then we have the mighty drama of the calling of the people of Israel to the Lord's side and the slaying of those who remained rebels. And 3,000 fell by the sword that day and everyone deserved what they received. And now we come to our text, the basis of all true prayer. It says, And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord, perhaps peradventuring. I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, O, 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 this Scripture shows us the foundation of Moses' prayer. Here we see a similar heart to that of Paul who says that he could wish himself that he were a curse for his brethren. This is the basis of true prayer. A desire to take the very place of the person prayed for, if it were possible. Moses said he was going up the mountain that if possible, he could make an atonement for their sin. He had already determined that he would be that offering made to God for the necessary sacrifice, as God says later, that whosoever sins against me will I blot out of my book. Moses pled with God. This people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin, and it seems as if Moses here cuts off mid-sentence, knowing Moses had the prophecies, knowing that one day God would send salvation. Knowing that these people knew that. And also knowing that these people in the light of that knowledge rebelled anyhow. But Moses cuts off mid-sentence it seems. This man continues, and he says this, And if not, blot me, I pray, the out of Thy book which Thou hast written. Moses went to offer himself in the place of Israel. And this is the heart of praying. This is the heart of his praying. The depths of passion he had for his people. It's an interesting thing that Moses, he never made it to the land of Canaan. The people were spared. It's debatable whether or not God did truly answer the prayer of His servant here. But nevertheless, we see the heart of all true prayer. And this is also a beautiful type of the atonement that our Lord would make on Calvary's cross. Going up that hill in order to offer Himself in the place of the people of God, to bear the sin of many, and make intercession for the transgressors. He stood in our place as God's people. And that's what an intercessor does. But the topic of intercession is not our focus, our primary focus tonight, but just rather prayer in general. And the heart of all prayer is the disposition of an intercessor. And that's the disposition of giving up your very life if it would gain the answer to your prayer. But this Moses had a friendship with God that as far as I know, no one in our day has. And if even one person had this closeness to God that Moses would have, we would have a revival that would shake this earth. If just one man had this relationship to God, a revival stirs, starts and stays in the very person of God, in the deep knowledge of who He actually is. Not in theory, not in practice, but in practice. Not in experiment, but in experience. Andrew Murray says this, The divine life within us comes from God and is entirely dependent upon Him. As I need every moment of fresh air to breathe, and the sun every moment of fresh sends down its light, so it is only in direct living communication with God that my soul can be strong. The man of one day was corrupt when the next day came. I must every day have fresh grace from heaven, and I obtain it only in direct waiting upon God Himself. Begin each day by tearing before God and letting Him touch you. Take time to meet God. We are in very grave danger of being labeled a mystic if we begin to seek after God Himself. People who are misinformed or simply misunderstand always give derogatory labels to those things they misunderstand. I remember when I first, since I've been saved, this passage of Scripture in Exodus 32 and 33 has burned on my heart. And I've always probed into how God and Moses can speak face to face, but yet nobody can speak to Him face to face because anybody who sees His face will die. Those mysteries have been burned upon my heart since my salvation. And I used to, we have a message board, Jesse Morrell and me and Eli and Miles, Open Air Outreach, our message board. And I used to post these things about union life, about being united to God and this closeness and knowing God and how we should yearn after it. And I'd always be called a heretic and a mystic. And the thing is, and then you talk about guys like, or women like Madam Guillaume, guys like Meister Eckhart. And they say, oh, those guys are Roman Catholics. And they forget that those people got kicked out of the Roman Catholic Church because they sought God. But to be a mystic is to be one that seeks after experience with God, yea, God Himself. And to pray this precious prayer, the mantra of modern Christian mysticism and ancient Christian mysticism, Oh God, come feelingly near. Come feelingly near. Now that's not saying that you base your theology on feelings or you base truth on feelings, but that you want God to come near so badly that you get on your face and cry out to Him. Come feel. Let me know that You're here to be as the people on the road to Emmaus. Do not our hearts burn within us. And this was the disposition of Moses in the 33rd chapter of Exodus. Let's read in that 33rd chapter. Verses 9-23 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 unto the camp. But his servant Joshua, that son of none, 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. 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? 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. And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I will 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, for there shall no man see my face and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in the cliff of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. Now the first thing that we begin to see is the fact that the people knew that there was something different about this man. He departed from the people. He went outside the camp and entered into the presence of the Lord. The seal of God's presence, the pillar of smoke, would descend, and all the people knew that God was there. If we ever hope to truly know God, we'll have to separate ourselves from the people. The noise and ruckus of the world will drown out God's voice in gentle prompting He gives our hearts. The great example of this is Jesus Himself. He was given whole nights of prayer, nights of agony, nights of strong crying and tears, nights in the garden with droplets of crimson blood falling to the ground. The Scripture says of our Lord, He would tread the winepress alone. No one there to comfort Him as in the end even His Father forsook Him on the tree. He came to His own, and His own received Him not. The very ones for whom He was smitten smote Him and spit in His face. He was derided and taken without the camp, seen by most as a malefactor destined to die the death of a criminal. The cross is a symbol of rejection. There's not a single man on this planet that did not flee from Jesus and reject Jesus except for a few that were at the foot of that cross. He bore the reproach of sinners as they chided Him and hurled insults at Him because they were ignorant of who it was that hung on that tree. That the Son of God might sanctify His people He suffered without the gate and shed the sanctifying blood. Let us go therefore unto Him without the camp bearing His reproach. Says the Scripture. If we ever hope to grow in grace and to know the One we claim to love, we must be willing to suffer. When you try to go on with God and follow the shepherd's voice, the goats will ridicule and even the misguided sheep will lead you into the ditch they have fallen into. No one will support you when you give yourself to God without reserve. Think of the crowds that derided our Lord as He was drug from the city to the Mount of Crucifixion. This man, God in the flesh, bruised, bloodied, broken, being shoved down stairs, laughed at, spit upon, being cast into the dust over and over again. And why? He suffered this agony in order to hang on a cross for the sin of God's people. We are to bear His reproach. We are to walk the narrow path and suffer the reproach of this world as they see us as malefactors, criminals, the scum of the earth. They will see us as a liability to society, unprofitable, worthless men and women who look to some invisible man and forget the things of the world. If we yearn after God, we will without a doubt suffer persecution. The Bible says all, all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. In an age that tells us knowing God will make us rich and respected, we can too easily lose sight of the narrow path Jesus walked. And that road to Calvary, that road to Calvary, I believe is the picture of the narrow road that all Christians walk. On it the people of God willingly carrying their cross upon their backs, suffering the reproach and rejection of even their dearest friends, all with one goal in mind, dying on that cross they carry in order to bring life to God's elect. Our Master tread that way. Should not the servant tread it still? When we give ourselves to prayer, we begin to walk this road. With prayer comes power because when we truly know God, nothing can come against us. And when this power and boldness comes, the world will hate us. But we are to take comfort because it first hated Jesus. And if we are to be perfect, we are to be like our Master. It's not a hard thing to separate ourselves from the people of the world. The hardship comes when we must separate ourselves from the people who claim to be Christians. Jesus suffered the greatest torture and opposition from the religious people of His day. There is nothing new under the sun and the same holds true for us today. When I was first saved, I went to a megachurch, a Lutheran megachurch, believe it or not. They never preached the gospel. And I came, got radically saved, saved under Leonard Ravenhill's preaching and Paris Reedhead's preaching and Tozer's preaching and all of these guys that God so mightily used. So I came to this Lutheran church, religion, with two messages, holiness and revival. Two of the messages that religion hates the most. They don't want revival. That would lower the offerings. They don't want holiness. So would that. That would lower the offerings as well. So I came to this pastor because my family was great friends with the pastor's family. And I would always be bringing, I would handwrite out the Ten Commandments of Revival from Ravenhill's book. Put it on his desk and say, this is what we need to do. I'd bug him and bug him and bug him for prayer meetings. And it turned out that he gave me $500 to get me out of his hair and on the road to preach. But nobody likes Christians who pray, except other Christians who pray. And just like Jesus and just like Moses, we are to separate ourselves from the people and go outside the camp to attend a meeting. What comes next is an amazing thing. And what most believers are looking for in our day. After the Shekinah glory of God descends upon the tent door, we read this amazing thing. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door. And all the people rose up and worshiped. Every man at his tent door. The entering in of Moses into the tent of meeting. And the communion that Moses had with God at that time resulted in the people who were observing standing up to worship God on their own. So often we can fall into the snare of seeking revival for others when in actual fact we should be seeking it for ourselves. This isn't selfishness if we are seeking after God. When God takes up residence in our soul, then much more will change than simply you. One time, how many of you have seen the Revival Forum DVD that Greg sends out? It's Ravenhill and Manly Beasley and the Satira brothers. No, just one of the Satira brothers, Ralph Satira. Anyway, there's another man on there that was in a revival in, I think, Canada under the Satira brothers. And this man was totally changed. He even tells a story of when that revival struck. He was so convicted that it turned out he thought of something in his past and he had to make it right. He had not told the whole truth in a court case that he was in. And he was so convicted by God that he called up that judge and ended up telling the judge, this federal court judge, of what he had done, which is perjury, what he had done. He was in danger of going to federal prison for lying on the stand. But he did it anyway, obeyed God and God honored him. Repentance and restitution God calls us to. But I was so convicted by that that I ended up doing similar things. Me, just by hearing that man's testimony, I went out and I ended up apologizing to people I had stolen from before I was Christian, before God had saved me. And making things right that were wrong and mending fences, as it were. And Ravenhill would often say, I don't want revival in you, I want revival in me. And the outpouring of our own lives and our own deep relationship with God will be what brings about true heaven-sent revival. Revival that's sent down, not worked up. We cannot try to employ earthly means to see heaven-born revival. And in order for God to send us revival these days, we must be individually seeking Him. When Moses went out to the tent of meeting, he was only doing what God had commanded him. And the result was that the people still in the camp were worshiping. And the result was that the people still in the camp were worshiping. And revival came. Just by one man, or two men, walking out to that tent. They saw the pillar descend and wouldn't you know it, people started worshiping God. And isn't that revival? When God comes and people fall in worship? So we go out to the tent of meeting. We're only doing what God commanded us. And the result will be that others will be mightily affected by our influence. People who live in prayer have an unusual air about them. They're often thought to be rather strange. But it cannot be avoided that the only people God desires are those of much prayer. And the glory of God will be seen in us. And the result will be that others standing up to worship God as well. And why the people in the camp stayed in the camp is a mystery to me. The tent of meeting was placed there and as the Scripture says, everyone which sought the Lord went there. They went there to inquire of Him in a sense. Why there was not a mile long line of Israelites waiting to get into the presence of God is rather odd. But you see, the same thing happens today. People would rather observe from afar and revel in the accomplishments of others than actually go there themselves. We're all too eager to read about men like John Hyde, David Brainerd, Robert Murray McShane, Edward Payson. We're not as eager to sacrifice and live like them. We admire them, but we're too scared to imitate them. And the reason is beyond my understanding. It must always be remembered that these men were nothing more than men. Foolish, ignorant, weak, beggarly men. They were all men of like passions as we are. They were all made of the same flesh as we are. They all served the same God we serve. And they all had the same Bible we have. And all of what they did we can do as well. Because they didn't do it. But it's God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Now they prayed to the same God we pray to. Have you ever really thought about that? Pondered and meditated on that fact? The same God of Israel, Isaac, Jacob, Abraham, the same God of Isaiah, the same God of Ezekiel, the same God of Daniel, the same God of Moses is the same God to whom we approach when we come before Him in prayer. The same God. And let that humble you because God has heard the prayers of men as the likes of Moses. And then He hears our feeble prayers. If it weren't for the Holy Spirit quickening those prayers and making them acceptable to Him, like incense rising up before Him, those prayers would be nothing more than smoke rising up before Him from Baal's altars. When the inkling comes into a person to meet with God, we can look forward to meeting with God as Moses did. It says, And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaking unto his friend. I've pondered this passage, meditated over it, groaned over it, prayed through it for years now and have gotten a very short distance. But the times have been wonderful. And this passage has been the thorn in my flesh because of all the preaching that I've ever done, all the things that I've written, I feel as if I've come nowhere because I've not yet to see what it is and what it's like to speak to God face to face. The cry of our hearts should be that God would come and speak to us. We must settle it within ourselves to wait on God until He does. But this isn't just for anyone. This type of experience could stagger and kill the babe in Christ or make him grow by leaps and bounds. It could shatter the young man. It could give the old man a heart attack. But it's good to die. But God will reveal Himself in this manner to all who are willing to sacrifice for it and all who will wait. God's not partial. God's no respecter of persons. And He does not respect anyone's person. Remember the Pharisees saying that to our Lord. We know that you are a good man and you teach the word of God in truth, not respecting any man's person, they said. He'll come to any who wait for Him. When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, it seemed as though He would walk right by them. But when they recognized their Master and beckoned Him to come near, He turned into them. When God talked to Moses from the burning bush, Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight. Why? The bush is not burned. And the Scripture goes on to say, And when the Lord saw that He turned aside to see, God called unto Him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And He said, Here am I. Notice what the Scripture says. It says that the Lord called to Moses only after He turned aside to look on the wonder that was the bush. Moses looked away from tending the flock and looked to the Lord. Moses looked away from his plans to see what God was doing. And only when we look away from our lives, when we look away from ourselves, when we look away from what we want to do, when we look away from the world and look upon the majesty of God, will God call us onward. If Moses had not turned aside, then God would not have called His name. If the disciples had not called to Jesus, He would have walked right by. If the people did not go out to the tent of meeting, they could not meet with God. And if we do not kneel before God in much prayer, then God will not call our name, we will not meet with Him and He will just walk by. Or as John says, He will stand at the door and knock. Take heed that He does not stop knocking and walk away and leave you in an apostate condition. When we do turn aside, we are in for amazing things. This text is amazing. Notice it does not say that God talked with Him as a dictator to a subject. Nor does it say that God talked with Him as a shepherd to His sheep. It does not say that God talked to Moses, that God talked and Moses listened. However important that is. It says that God spoke to Moses as a man speaks to his friend. Conversation. What a blessing to be a friend of the Most High. To have Him as a king and serve Him as such. To have Him as a prophet and hear the words of God. To have Him as priest and stand as our mediator. To have Him as a father and kneel before Him as sons and daughters. But what a blessing to know that we are friends of God Almighty. We are brought nigh by the blood of His Son. The middle wall of partition has been broken down and we are free to come and speak with God. The joyous truth that God wishes for us to see in this is that we need not fear to approach His throne. Let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace. Boldly God says. Immediately we begin to think that we are inadequate to come before the throne. These thoughts are well grounded to say the least and it is true. We are entirely unworthy to approach this throne. This throne of glory. We have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. Jesus the Son of God. So as the hymn writer says. Come to the Father through Jesus the Son and give God the glory great things He has done. As the friend speaks to his friend the scripture tells us. God spoke to Moses. So often we can fall into religious forms and patterns of prayer. It is all too easy to just repeat vain repetitions and say the same thing over and over again and become like hypocrites. This mindset becomes because we forget. And we forget very easily that God is a person. It may sound like an elementary truth but the depths of it are amazing. Tozer said it this way. The modern scientist has lost God amidst the wonders of His world. And we Christians are in real danger of losing God amidst the wonders of His word. We have almost forgotten that God is a person and as such can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities. But full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored. It is true that the word of God as long as it is quickened to our hearts and our minds by the Holy Spirit is the primary way God communicates with His people. But it is just as true that God desires that we commune with Him on a personal level. We can lose God and His word and reduce Him down to a proposition. And we then become pharisaical and have no warmth or depth. And everything that should be inward becomes outward and hypocritical. The Savior says, Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you they have their reward. But when thou doest thine alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. That thine alms may be in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when thou prayest use not vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for they are much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye asketh him. After this manner therefore pray ye our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil for thine is the glory and the kingdom and the power forever and ever. Amen. The outward religious forms and practices if they don't stem from inward desire after more of Christ are nothing but dead religious activities. Like we've been hearing God desires your heart and your whole heart. If you seek him with your whole heart he'll allow himself to be found of you. 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. Despite the fact that God had said to Moses such amazing things as to tell him he found grace in his sight that he knew Moses by name he still had not given Moses a full answer to his prayer. And I believe that this was not purposeless but it had behind it a profound potential to either ruin Moses or spur him on to greater depths than he had never known. And often God will not give us a full answer to our prayer. Why? Simply because he desires that we trust him and not our sense. He desires that we walk by faith and not by sight looking to him and away from mere human reasoning and circumstances. This was a testing for Moses. Would he obey by faith trusting in the sovereignty of God? Or would he shy away from obeying because he lacked just that tiny bit of information? Abraham had a similar trial. And the scripture speaks of him thus By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive foreign inheritance obeyed. And he went out not knowing whither he went. And he sojourned in the land of promise living as if he was in a strange country residing in tents with his sons. A man that leans on God alone will ultimately have this disposition. He lives like a man in a strange country never settling but seeking another country. And he knows that his time here is but a vapor. He does not depend on his ability to hear the voice of God and follow but rather depends on God's ability to speak clearly to him and guide him. Knowing it's a futile and foolish thing to trust in man even himself so he looks to God and casts himself at his feet in utter helplessness and total dependence. Now that's not wrong. That is it's not to say it's wrong to inquire of God and seek answers. This is what God desires that we do. And we should desire to seek God even if he never gives us a complete answer. If God withdraws himself for a time it's for a reason. Consider it a joyous thing when your faith is tried. Look at your heart to see how you respond when God withdraws himself. If you refrain from seeking God simply because he withdraws for a time then you can be sure that your heart is not right and you have a desperate searching to do. If the lost presence of God causes you to fall on your face and seek him and stay on your face until you find him and seek him with your whole heart then you can be sure that God will open the heavens to you and you'll find grace in his 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. The prophet leaves us without excuse to stagnate in our present state. He uses the very fact that he has found grace in God's sight as an argument before God that he may find more grace in his sight. So many Christians are duped into teachings that tell them they can be satisfied and stay that way. Great Bible teachers today that travel the country teach you to be satisfied and just stay that way. They don't really say that. They place that tad bit of fear in your heart by saying that's the only way God can be glorified is if you're satisfied in him. There's a ring of truth to this but the folly comes when this is said. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. You won't find that in the Bible. It's simply not true. And for me to say I'm satisfied in God would be a lie. And according to these great Bible teachers I'd be a backslider. If we'd be honest with ourselves it'll become quite obvious that each and every one of us as long as we're born again are truly not satisfied in God. Now what do I mean by this? I mean simply what the psalmist said. I will be satisfied when I awaken thy likeness. He said. The day that the true Christian will come to a place of perfect satisfaction in God is when they are awakened from death and sat in glory to worship him for all of eternity. Now if taken too far this teaching can lead to complacency. It can lead to a people instead of following hard after God reclining back and telling themselves that because they read a book that told them to be they're satisfied in God. If taken wrongly it can also lead to much licentiousness. We were in Santa Barbara preaching at UCSB there. And we always get invited if there's solid campus groups or seemingly solid campus groups to come and you know have dinner with them or pray with them or preach to their campus group or what not. We went to one in Santa Barbara and they're heavily influenced by this teaching and I'll name it. It's called Christian Hedonism. And the very name sends shudders down the spine of the true Christian. It's utter selfishness but the fruit you'll know a tree by its fruit. And these Christians were hanging all over each other talking to each other in baby talk. People your age exactly like a group just like this. And that's the fruit of this teaching. It may not be what is taught but it's the fruit and you can know a tree by its fruit. But Moses didn't say he was satisfied in God. He said he wanted more of the grace of God. He yearned after more and more of God. He pressed on toward the mark of the fullness of Christ even to the point of crying out even after God had given him wonderful promises. He cried show me thy glory. This is the disposition that brings revival both corporate and personal. God said to Moses my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. What a wonderful promise that the very manifest presence of God will go with him. But Moses was still not yet satisfied. And he said if thy presence go not with me carry us not up hence for wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people shall 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 that are upon the face of the earth. So the evidence of the presence of God going with us is that we shall be separate from the people that are upon the face of the earth. What did Paul say? Come out from among them and be ye separate. Be not conformed to this world. Don't let the world press you into its mold. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And if the presence of God abode with us these meetings would throb with power and no one would dare leave. The lights would not be out. The electricity bill would be higher than a kite. Not only would people not want to leave they wouldn't even want to utter a word. I was in Lansing one time preaching with a great friend of mine one of the first you know hardcore street preachers I ever had preached with. And I stayed with him for the weekend. And we had a meeting just like this house fellowship meeting it was smaller maybe five, six people. But they met all the time and they prayed and agonized prayed in tongues just agonized for revival and that Lansing would be saved. And that was the very first time that I had truly experienced what true revival is. It was on that small scale. But God came in such a way that none of us would even dare move. None of us would utter a word. We could think of nothing other than God. And He and the glory like we heard a couple weeks ago from another preacher the weight of that glory pressed down upon us in such a way that we couldn't move. We dare not to quench the Spirit. We'd be apart from the world and apart from sin. We'd be united in God in a way that only few ever know. Now the omnipresence of God is a doctrine almost forgotten that everywhere you are so is God. That in the deepest and darkest secret in the innermost parts of your heart God is there. But the abiding manifest presence of God would change the climate of not only our life but also this city. Even here just in this place the manifest presence of God abiding here would change Riverside. Would change California. Would reach to the other most parts of the earth. It's done it before right in LA. In Wales it's done it. Brownsville has done it. Revival starts in places like this. This abiding manifest presence of God is found obtained and retained in the place of prayer in no other place. In closing I just want to read and just briefly comment upon this last portion of Scripture. It says and here and Moses said I beseech thee show me thy glory. And he said I'll make all my goodness pass before thee and I'll 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 for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said Behold there is a place by me and thou shalt stand upon a rock 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 and thy glory will I pass by and I will take away mine hand and thou shalt see my back parts but my face shall not be seen. We've sung the hymn by Wesley If I cannot see thy face and live then let me see thy face and die. We've heard the truth preached and expounded upon many times but it must be real in our lives. The only way for it to be real in our lives is if for us to actually seek the face of God in prayer. The only way we can actually seek the face of God is if he sets us in the cliff of the rock and covers us with his hand. It's a great thing to know that he has set you in Christ. That's the point. The cliff of the rock. He's covered you with his hand of grace. And we're safe to see the glory of God pass by. But there's one thing that we must look at before I close and it's this. Listen here. And I will take away mine hand and thou shalt see my back parts but my face shall not be seen. There's great significance to Moses only being able to see the back parts of God. Great significance. In order for Moses to follow God and be where God would have him to be, he must be behind God. When we seek God and even when we find God, it will be only to see his back parts and run with him with all our might after him. If we yearn to get ahead of God, we'll not only be discouraged at the pursuit, it's entirely impossible to do, but God will reveal his back so that we can follow. And we see that pillar of fire in the wilderness. He'll guide us and call us to follow after him. If you look at a child following his father, treading through a foot of snow, what do you see? You'll see this little boy trying desperately to keep pace with his father, jumping from footprint to footprint with all of his strength. It's nigh impossible for this little boy to do, but no matter how foolish he looks trying to stretch his legs to meet his dad's stride, no matter how many times he falls, no matter how fast his dad walks, this little boy will do all in his power to continue the pursuit. We ought to be like this little boy with the faith of a child desperately trying to keep pace with our father, no matter how much of a fool it makes us look like or who says it's impossible and mocks. We must keep our eyes on the Father and follow those giant steps until we grow into the full stature of Christ and are finally able to walk perfectly step by step. So let this be our goal and nothing less to seek God in fervent prayer and continue the pursuit until the final day. If it means that we give up the time of fellowship, so be it. If it means that we give up a meal for our few days worth of meals, so be it. We must sacrifice time, effort, energy and our very self in order to follow hard after God. Seek and you shall find, but you must seek Him with your whole heart. He takes pleasure in nothing less. It takes determination, discipline and willpower. When you decide to give yourself to prayer, the devil will oppose you with everything he has. Resist him and he'll flee. When you give yourself to prayer, the world will oppose you on every side. This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. When you give yourself to prayer, the flesh will scream and you must die if you ever hope to truly get on with God. Die to yourself. Die to sin. Die to the world and live unto God. This is a matter of urgency in these days. This world goes to hell because you don't allow that God would pray through you. That's why the world goes to hell. So get to your knees. Don't get up until God does something in you. Don't be hasty with God. Don't just get to your knees and not get up until God does something in you. But get to your knees and don't get up until you don't want to get up. Until the last thing you want to do is leave that place of prayer. Stay there until there's nothing you desire more than that time alone with God in the closet. So examine yourself this night in the presence of God and see if you stand or fall. See whether or not you're even saved. And the way to know is if you have an all-consuming love for the prayer closet in the presence of God. Now God's not obligated to let you go on even one more night in the state you are in. So come out from where you are and move on with God. Beg God to shed His love abroad in your heart that you might love Him with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Father, we pray, help us. Help us, Lord. Change us, Lord, and give us greater discipline. Let us be true disciples. Help us. In Jesus' name, Amen.