In this sermon, the preacher reflects on the glorious audience with God and the desire for more of His presence. The sermon references hymns and emphasizes the peace that comes from knowing God. The preacher then focuses on Exodus 33, where God instructs Moses to lead the people to the promised land but states that He will not go up in their midst due to their sinful nature. However, God promises to protect and cover Moses, revealing His desire for a close relationship. The sermon concludes by highlighting the better covenant established through Jesus Christ, where God deals with us through His grace rather than the law of Moses.

Wonderful. I think I must finish here with something that I started about earlier. Chapter 33, I would have liked to have carried it a bit further, and this is where 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 hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, and to the land which I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I finish. And I'll send an angel before thee, and I'll drive out the Canaanites, and the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Pentecostites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and to a land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-knit people, lest I consume thee in the way. Moses' heart thanks. I know it did. It's all right. I'm going to ask him. I've told you a lot of things I'm going to, questions I'm going to, I'm going to heaven full of questions. Moses' heart. How do I know his heart thanks? Because when I got into Moses' spirit, you say, really? Yeah, I got into Moses' spirit. I often do that. I get it in yours sometimes, and you don't know it. My heart thanks. 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 know you 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, see, he says, thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wouldst 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 mind. 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 hast not let me know whom thou wouldst send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast 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 particularly want all these other things. That I may know thee. That I may find grace in thy sight. Isn't that marvellous? I may know thee, that I may find grace. Lord, I'm utterly dependent on thy grace. He'd already broken the law. Smashed it. There he is. Smashed it. Consider, he said, that this nation is thy people. The people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt. God said in verse 1. 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 how their eyes will go. I'll know the tone of their voice. Because I'm intimate with them. And I know them. And His love is. 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. Sinner, thou canst have me, Moses. In all glory. I will give thee rest. And he says to God, if thy presence go not with me, I don't want to exercise any power on our behalf. Carry us not up then. He's reflecting back to the time when God had said, in Exodus 19, when he gathered the people at the foot of the mountain. And he said, you ought to go back down there and you ought to say, Moses, say to them that I've borne thee on eagles' wings for myself. I've carried them for myself. You see, that's it. 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 said. 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 brought attention to the redemption. Of course it brought 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 had a presence and Moses knew he was in the presence. God. That's life to him. Nothing else matters much to Moses. What's the use of you going anywhere? What's the use of you going anyplace? What's the use of God taking you anywhere? By some angelic this, that, or the other? Kill the Lord. Have them all, 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's 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. They 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? Along the day when God, when Moses broke the law, when God gave it finally and God broke it and Moses broke it three thousand souls were slain. Were slain on the day of Pentecost when God came. Three thousand souls were slain. I don't know how many Bites there were at that church. 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. 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 want to 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 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 hadn't he broken the law hadn't he smashed it. Moses' anger waxed hot and he smashed it. Smashed it. Did God say, right, excommunication? No. No. Isn't it a wonderful thing when God comes and through all our bloomers and blunders and mistakes and stupid things we do and lots of, and lots of 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 his come on all, let's all get down shall we? 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'd better 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 words 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. And all the world become silent and dim. Yesterday and tomorrow vanish. Now Lord be all in all. Thank you blessed Lord. Thank you. I live with all and with all I fall and with all I fall. Now perhaps we'll turn to 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 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. 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 in 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 whispered 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 as Moses talked with them. And afterwards 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 156 you find a hymn which has these words in it Moses thy backward path might do but not a perfect sight obtain. And I would like to sung that hymn but I don't think we are 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. Marvellous 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 Saviour 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 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 are not as Moses who put a veil over his face we are 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 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 half way to 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 half way I'm not speaking with reference to time I mean half way through the things I want to say now you will remember I hope seeing that I've spoken of this being about 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 see Horeb and sometimes you will see Sinai well it's just like saying Alps and Mont Blanc alright 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 at Sinai that he saw the cast 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 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 had 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 it's 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 thirty it came to pass on the morrow that would of course be the forty first 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 sins Moses returned unto the Lord and said oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin couldn't go on and if not blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written and the Lord said unto Moses whosoever has sinned against me him will I blot out of my book well 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 rag-tag bobtail people into a fighting army I don't know what he didn't do he was a philosopher statesman prophet general I don't know what he wasn't one of the most wonderful men that's ever lived he could compose psalms he sang a ma lit them 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 God 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 roll 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 am I 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 so you and I have to know that our names are written in the land'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 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 out 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 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 thirty 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 thanks God for men and women who throughout the centuries no less than Moses knew and have known that their names are written there and listen you can't write it in yourself 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 no 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 is 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 motives I haven't counted, I suppose I ought to have done but we'll count it shall we one, I'm looking in verse thirty-one count with me will you, I'm counting the words one, I'm saying prayer starts 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 dash 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 hmm 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 laboured 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 that 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 watch your arms in so much that's called prayer it's only people labouring 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 he he good you will know what I know too and it's hard all the time oh I've got to go on I've got to find this it would have gone through his mind it would have coursed 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 and I do so my Bible well the Bible doesn't say anything about my spectacles but it does say that his eye was undimmed here then is the glory of it the presence of God now know this it's a marvellous thing the privilege that's open 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 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 we've got no assurance of this that 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 rejoiced with somebody over the phone today because this I heard coming over the phone what had happened to this particular person personal 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 to 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? yes? ok 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 are 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 it's all 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 go 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 reminds me of another one of those great hymns of wisdom you know about I have power and I have power out of peace what more can a poor sinner have well he can have more than that he's always more more more more more oh hallelujah let's have a look at this shall we and in this marvellous 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 seen coming all the way through but when it says this in verse 6 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 decked themselves up in all their finery to go dancing in front of 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 Moses 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 himself 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 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 tent 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 that 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 marvellous 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'd offended 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 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 and 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 loveless 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 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 wondered and wondered and wondered and they blasphemed they turned against God they turned against Moses they sought to murder him 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 I wasn't listening critically tonight but I knew what I was going to talk about 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 was saying 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 absolute rest one thing about which you can be certain that if you really have the presence of God with you you have rest the things that upset other people they don't upset you an undisturbed rest oh now that's what God intends which promises these aren't they would 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 it's effect in it's art working should be rest rest how about the unknown tomorrow well one writer wrote this it can bring with it nothing but he will see me through who grants them in his clothing will clothe his people too they'll vine 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 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 when you come into their presence you come into rest you discover it what a marvelous thing well now that was wonderful you say rest, that's marvelous I 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'll have to continue reading what we read and he says this and Moses said to him, said to God 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 pretense 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 you're not restful 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 they've gone into sin well you couldn't save them? go to rest didn't say go to sleep but you know what I know there are 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 it is 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 the earth well 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 the difference you don't seem to be in their worries, fluxes, frights and fears this is what it's all about you can pursue your steady course 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 now here's the next thing he says I beseech thee show me thy glory Amen glory beyond rest he wanted to see God's glory did you 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 said 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'll read glory glory comes from a full integration of the personality full life that 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 he was travelling I know which way his thoughts were going 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 that's the next thing he's 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 his face is that in your heart? is it in your heart right now that without fear he said Lord I'd love to see your face 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 Egypt, 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 Amen 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 we move in the symbol of the bread and the symbol of the wine and we move in the symbol of baptism and 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 feel thoughts of things and they speak to us but I don't know whether your heart often wants to see that great hymn face to face with Christ my saviour face to face what will it be when with rapture I behold him Jesus Christ who died for me this is what Moses was going to ask for so God cut him off he wouldn't let him ask for that one because I tell you what 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 the Lord says behold there is a place by me verse 21 and I shall stand upon a rock and it shall come to pass while my glory passes by that I will put thee in a clip of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by and I will take away my hand and I shall see my back part but my face shall not be seen he must have been a god with anticipation lead me to the rock that's higher than I Lord let me come there this is 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 are longing for I don't know what you count to be life and glory and blessings and goodness I don't know but here is 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 ten 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 car but what have you made nothing that the fire can't destroy nothing God said 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 are able to know me as a mere man mere 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 mere natural gifts I have eulogized Moses with his natural gifts and glorious abilities statesman king, leader prophet, psalmist I don't know what he was tremendous man it wasn't that that he veered into God it was right down in that heart Lord I want to get close close close I want to know you I want to feel you I want but God goes on this is what he says verse 1 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 hew 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 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 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 getting ready for tomorrow morning tomorrow morning I guess he labored away there cut out these two tables of stone and you can imagine 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 day break where are you going Moses I'm going to meet God don't know whether anybody has asked you there I'm going to meet God you 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 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 I don't know what on earth the hour of God in the morning 7000 feet up we were nearly 8000 we went up higher I was mad anyway but I was lodging at 7000 feet you weren't with me when we went up to Tiger Mountain oh sorry well if Jack can finish the story we away we went what time did we get up about 4 something like that and away we went to see the sunrise peak on a little pinpole over there called Everest it didn't look as big as some of its neighbours because they were nearer got our perspectives wrong 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 loomed as part of a to us the ability to look on the 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 got up I can remember I can always picture him stumbling up the foothills gaining a little ground these stones are heavy but I'm coming up to you Lord I'm coming up to 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 him listen if you want to know the glory of God if you want to live in the future in the rest of God that is present with you you've got to present yourself to God here on the top of the mountain just you and I just you and I I want it to be personal yes 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 never saw his face he saw God but he didn't see him 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 longed for it God wanted it it was a personal thing when he wrote your name in the book it was a personal thing when Jesus died to 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 I wonder if that sunk into your heart, and have 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 of God to you and his grace, you know it personal you don't hide behind anybody else, you don't go this, that or 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 tabernacle there's a place on the mountain up there alone, and away with God, it's got to be not only his presence with you, but God said I want your presence with me present yourself present yourself in other words, present yourself with this further intention of giving yourself, present yourself not in adventure glory he was up and gone away, away it's wonderful amen and this chapter 34 you'll know we've 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 alright let's read the Lord verse 6 pass by before Moses and proclaim the Lord that's the word Jehovah 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 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 a 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 he didn't clear the guilty he judged our guilt in Jesus alright so if you reject Jesus and won't have him you can't be clear he was God's final sacrifice where in 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 unto 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 it's father's sin or it's 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 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 plain 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 want to 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 O Lord let me let my Lord I pray thee go among us for it's the 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 of Israel our God 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 terrible my wife and I were invited out to to a dinner last night and we went and we were informed 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 so