God's Presence

The best life is yet to come, that is true. The best life is yet to come. The life here is the most difficult time.

It's true. It's not true. The life here is probably the best time we will experience.

We should not have a reason not to be thankful. God has saved us. And opened our eyes that we could see and understand the truth.

By the way, we can't do that unless God opens our eyes and helps us, gives us understanding. We really can't do that on our own. So, praise the Lord.

He is good to us and has been good to us. And will be good to us as we go through this life. So, praise the Lord.

Well, like I said, most of our leaders here are gone, so here I am. But I'm thankful. You know, the Lord is faithful.

The word of God is true. And we can trust the Lord. If we stick to the word of God, He will give us something to say that is true and that is right.

And that is helpful and that encourages people. So, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for that this morning.

And I just want to ask the Lord to be with us. So, Father, we thank you this morning. Thank you, Lord God, that you care for each one of us, Lord.

We thank you that you are here in our midst. We trust you for that. We trust you for your spirit this morning.

Minister your word, Father, to each one of us. God, that our hearts could be opened and receive what you have for us today. Father, I pray that you would take control, Lord God, and feed your people this morning here.

Thank you for that. And I trust you in Jesus' name. Amen.

So, Jerry called me Friday night and said that his plans that he had for today are not working. And it will be up to me, I guess, to take care of things. I don't want to be in the way.

I just want the Lord to take care of things here this morning. If he can use me in some way, praise the Lord. I want to be willing to do that.

I thought this morning that we would go to the Old Testament in Exodus. And I want to talk about when the law came to Moses in Exodus 24 in verse 12. It says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount and be there.

And I will give thee tables of stone and a law and commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach them. And Moses rose up and he ministered to Joshua. And Moses went up into the mount of God.

And he said unto the elders, Carry ye here for us until we come again unto you. And behold, Aaron and Ur are with you. If any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.

And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode about Mount Sinai. And a cloud covered it six days.

Something that happens to us pretty easily, I think, is we don't always want to wait to hear from the Lord. And I was amazed when I read this. God called Moses to go up on the mountain, and he was going to speak to him.

And here, the cloud covered the mountain, and Moses was up there for six days. Six days. That's pretty long.

Just go up on a mountain and be in the cloud for six days. And if you've ever been to a place where there's real high mountains, sometimes the clouds come down and cover the top of the mountain. And when you go up there, you're actually in the cloud.

And it gets pretty, you can't see very far. There's not much there. You can't do a whole lot.

But here Moses is up there for six days. It says, And then on the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud, and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud and got him up in the mount, and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

Wow. And then God spake to Moses and for the next seven chapters, God has given Moses direction and instructions. And it's very interesting actually to read that and see what, if you haven't read that recently, it's very interesting to read that.

Just do them seven chapters and see what all God told Moses and how to do things in very detail. Very detailed about different things, about building the tabernacle and all the things that he wanted Moses to do. So we're not going to read all that.

So we'll go to the end of chapter 31. Exodus 31. Actually, I'll start at verse 12.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily, my Sabbath ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you. Everyone that defiles it shall surely be put to death.

For whosoever doth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest. Holy to the Lord, whosoever doth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

Wherefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

Then 18, And he gave unto Moses, when he had made end of commuting with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone written with the finger of God. Now God gives Moses the Ten Commandments written in stone, after all that he has said. And chapter 32, And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us.

For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings that are in the ears of your wives, and your sons, and your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a grading tool, after he had made a molten calf. After he had made a molten calf. And they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast of the Lord. And they rose up early on tomorrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings.

And the people sat down to eat, and to drink, and rose up to play. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.

They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto. And said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation. So, here's Moses. He'd been up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights with God.

And God had ministered to him, given many, many instructions. And then at the end, He gave him the tables of stone, the Ten Commandments. And what's the very first one? Somebody know what the first commandment is on the Ten Commandments? The very first one, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

And God had just wrote this on stone in front of Moses. And then God says, Moses, step back. I'm going to destroy the people.

And what does Moses say? And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountain and to consume them from the face of the earth. Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people. Isn't that amazing? Here's Moses speaking to God.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and sayeth unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven. And all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.

The Lord is reminding him what he has promised to the children of Israel. And then in verse 14, And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to be unto his people. I just think that's amazing.

It just amazes me the heart of Moses after being with the Lord 40 days and the Lord literally writing these things on the stone. And then the heart of Moses. And I said that to a brother one time, and he said, Well, he thinks the reason Moses was so forgiving and gentle was because he had just spent 40 days with the Lord.

Isn't that amazing? You think clearly he was with the Lord, and the Lord had clearly given him in all his direction and instruction. And then written this on stone, and you would think Moses is just going to say, You need to destroy him. That's it.

But really the time spent with the Lord melted Moses' heart, and he was merciful, I believe. And I think that's the way it is for us. The Lord is tender, and he melts our hearts.

And if we want to be in the Spirit and have the fruits of the Spirit, we need to spend time with the Lord, and he will bring them fruits out of us. But it's amazing to read that and just see what Moses did there and how the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. But you know he's done that for us.

He's done that for us. If you've been born again, if you've cried out to the Lord and the Lord has cleansed you, and set you free from sin, and made you holy and unblameable and unapprovable before God, what does God do? He repents of what he was going to do to you. Isn't that amazing? I think it's amazing.

Because if we don't, if we don't turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord has no choice but to destroy us. But if we repent and turn to the Lord, he will repent of what he was going to do to us. Praise God.

Praise the Lord. And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of testimony were in his hand, and the tables were on the side, were on both sides, both their sides, and on the one side and on the other, they were written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, raven upon tables.

And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. And he 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 it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them beneath the mount.

And he took the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink it. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And we could keep reading there, but we don't need to do that. But if we go to verse 27 or 26, Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let them come unto me, and all the sons of Levi gather themselves together unto him.

And he said unto them, Dost sayeth the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of the Lord, the word of Moses. And there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

So because of what they had done, many people did die. So there was a penalty that was brought upon them. For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son and upon his brother, and he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

Now if we go to chapter 33. Chapter 33 and verse 12. And Moses said unto the Lord, See thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me.

Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore I pray thee, Moses says, If I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, and I may find grace, 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 Moses said, And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence. You see what just happened there. God said to Moses, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

And Moses says unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence. So in other words, if you don't go with me, I don't want to go, Moses said. Verse 16, For wherein shall it be known here, that I and thy people who have found grace in thy sight, is it not in that thou goest with us, is it not in that thou goest with us, Moses said, that God with them, the presence of God with them, is what shows that they have found grace in his sight.

Then it says, So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. What is he saying? Moses said, If you don't go with me, I don't want to go. And if you go with us, doesn't that show the people that we have grace in your sight? And, you going with us is what separates us from all the other people on the earth.

Isn't that amazing? Think about that a little bit. We can do a lot of things to try to be different from all the rest of the people in the world. We'll try to, whatever, we can do whatever, to try to be different.

But you know what makes us different? The presence of God with us. That makes us different. That's what makes us different.

You want to be different? That's how you're different. Spend time with the Lord. Let the Spirit of God fill you and walk with God and you will be different.

You will be different. That is what will make you different. 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 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 I 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 passes by that I will put thee on a cliff of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by, and I will take away my hand and thou shalt see my back, and my face shall not be seen.

What a blessing. Chapter 34. I'm just doing a lot of reading.

I hope that's okay. I thought it was interesting. And also, if I'm reading the word of God, I'm not telling you something wrong.

I can be assured. Chapter 34. And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables 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 the herds feed before the mount. And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first.

And Moses rose up early in the morning and went up into Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord, O God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, 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 fourth generation.

And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my God, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for thine inheritance. And the Lord said, Behold, I make a covenant before all of thy people.

I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth nor in any nation, and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord, for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. Praise the Lord. The Lord made a covenant there with Moses to be with them and use them for his kingdom.

Praise God, and he wants to do that to us. He wants to do that to us. Now also, if we go back to Exodus 25, when the Lord gave Moses the commandments again, they put them in the ark, or in a ark, I should say.

And in chapter 25, verse 10, it tells us how they made the ark. I thought that was interesting too. In Exodus 25, verse 10, And they shall make an ark of shiddom wood.

Two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shall make upon it a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them on the four corners thereof, and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.

And thou shalt make staves of shiddom wood, and overlay them with gold, and thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be born with them. And the staves shall be in the rings of the ark, and they shall not be taken from it. So if you can kind of picture what they did, what they made there, this box, and they covered everything with gold, and then they put rings on the side, and then they made staves to go through the rings, that people could grab ahold of the staves and carry it.

And then this was where they put the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were in this ark. And if you, which I didn't read all of it, but if you read a lot of the stories here, it was very important for them to have the ark in their presence, and it was the presence of God with them.

So if we go to 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel in chapter 4, I just want to give a little picture here. In chapter 4, verse 11, actually in this chapter, the Philistines came and took the ark from the children of Israel. They came in and they took over and took the ark from the children of Israel.

And the ark of God was taken, it says in verse 11, in 1 Samuel chapter 4. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Benihas, were slain. And there ran a man from Benjamin out of the army and came to Shiloh and said, the same day, with his clothes rent and with earth upon his head. And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon his seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God.

And when he came into the city, they told it, and told it, all the city cried out. And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, what meaneth the noise of this tumult? And the man came in hastily and told Eli. Now Eli was ninety and eight years old and his eyes were dim and he could not see.

And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army and I fled today out of the army. And he said, what is there done, my son? And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people. And thy two sons also, Hophni and Benihas, are dead and the ark of God is taken.

And it came to pass when he made mention of the ark of God that he fell off the seat backward by the side of the gate and his neck break and he died. For he was an old man and heavy and he had judged Israel forty years. And then down in verse 22, Eli's daughter-in-law, actually I think it is, and she said, the glorious departed from Israel where the ark of God is taken.

It came and they took the ark of God with the Ten Commandments in it. And the glory of God departed from the children of Israel. So it was very important for them to have that ark with them.

Another thing that happened there in chapter 5 now, verse 1, and the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer and Ashtar. And when the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And Dagon was an idol that the Philistines had made and set up as God and they worshipped this idol.

So now they had overtaken the children of Israel and got the ark with the Ten Commandments and they took it over and brought it into the place where this idol was. Here sits the idol and they bring the ark in and set it down beside it. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon.

And when they of Ashtar rose early in the morning, in the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon and set him in his place again. So here they brought the ark in with the Ten Commandments, set it beside their idol.

And the next morning the idol had fallen off of its seat, face down. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, this is the next day, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold.

Only the stump of Dagon was left to him. Isn't that amazing? Therefore neither the priest of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon at Ashtar until this day. But the hand of the Lord, listen to this, but the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashtar, and he destroyed them and smote them with emeralds, even Ashtar and the coast thereof.

And when the men of Ashtar saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sore upon us and upon Dagon our God. So here they were worshiping another god. They brought in the ark and God destroyed their idol.

And then really destroyed them or came against them. And they decided they didn't want the ark of God after all. They decided they didn't want the presence of God there because it was working against what they were doing.

Very interesting. So I just did that to kind of give you a little bit of a picture. If you read all that, we skipped a lot.

If you read all that, it's very interesting to read that. There's another, 1 Chronicles Chapter 13. 1 Chronicles Chapter 13 is another incident here where they were moving, and you're probably all familiar with this story, but they were moving the ark to a different place.

And this man named Uzzah was walking beside the ark and had the ark on top of Cal, two cattle. And as they were walking along, Uzzah was walking beside it, and the one cow stumbled, and he just touched the ark with his hand. And just like that, he was killed.

And I often kind of feel sorry for that guy because I could see a reaction like that. But that just shows the sacredness of the ark and the Ten Commandments and all that God was doing. Just amazing.

Anyway, now let's go to the New Testament, 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians Chapter 3. Verse 1, let's start reading. Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men.

For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart. In such trust have we through Christ to God written, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious. And we just read all that. Well, not all of it.

We just read some of that. The administration of death, written and engraved in stone, was glorious. We've seen how glorious it was, and how sacred it was.

But it was the administration of death. And the reason was because it was the law. And the law shows us how we fail.

And it brings condemnation and death to us. That's what happened. So Paul is saying here, if the administration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the administration of the spirit be rather glorious? Think about it.

If that was glorious, the administration of death, of condemnation, was glorious. How shall not the administration of the spirit be much more glorious? Isn't that amazing? I think it's amazing. And that's where we're living.

That's where we live. That's where we are. It's our turn.

Right? If that was glorious, how shall not the administration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the administration of condemnation be glory, much more does the administration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory which excels. For if that which was done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

Much more. Seeing then that we have such hope, seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. The administration of the spirit, how much more glorious is the time where we're living than that? That's what Paul says.

How much more? How much more responsibility do we have now? The coming of the spirit of God, the coming of Christ, first of all, making the way, opening the way for us. Coming of Christ, opening the way for us to cleanse our hearts, to cleanse us from sin, the blood of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and then the ascension of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. How much more glorious is that? So we have a great responsibility.

We have a great responsibility upon us to show forth the glory of God. And that's what He wants to do in each one of us. That's what He wants to do.

Show forth the glory of God in each one of us. In Acts 17, verse 24, it says, God made the world and all the things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, loveth not in temples made with hands. Neither is worship with man's hands as though he needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation.

Why? That they should seek the Lord, that we should seek the Lord. That's why He has us here. He has given us life.

He has given us a time. We're here now until He takes us home. And He has given us the bounds of our habitation, where we are.

Isn't that amazing? We think we decide all these things. Do we? But God has given us life. He's given us a time.

He's given us a place. Why? That they should seek the Lord, that we should seek the Lord. If happily they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us, He's not far from every one of us.

For in Him we live and move. In Him we live. He's the one that gives us life and the ability to move.

In Him we live and move and have our being because of Him. As certain also of our own poets have said, for we are also His offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and men's device.

In the times of this ignorance, God went that, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. He commands us to repent. Not to think that somehow we can use our hands and we can build something and God is impressed or something that we can worship and use as an idol or any of those kind of things.

But He wants us to repent and come to Him and serve Him and be in His presence. And in His presence, guess what happens? Idols fall. In His presence, idols fall.

You just read that, right? Things change in His presence. Things change in us. Praise the Lord.

It's not us, it's Him. It's Him. If we walk with Him, the presence of God in us, how are we separated from people, from the rest of the people in the world? Presence of God.

Presence of God in us changes us, makes us different. Idols fall. Sin is overcome.

We bring glory to God to maybe walk in His presence. We need His presence. We need God with us.

We need the Spirit of God filling us that we can bring glory to Him. Otherwise, we don't. So here's our opportunity.

This is our time. This is when we're here. We have an opportunity to serve the Lord and walk in the presence of God, bring glory to Him.

Praise the Lord. He promised to be with us. He promised to be with us.

I'm thankful. Thankful. Maybe surrender.

Maybe surrender ourselves to the Lord. Seek the Lord. Trust in Him.

Let Him go with us where we go. And He will make us different than the rest of the people in the world. He will.

We can be a light. Bring people to Him. Praise God.

Well, I guess we'll open it.