Exodus 33 - God's Presence Removed (Part 1)

Moore's Corner Church

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December 8, 2021

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Strengthened by God / Seeking His Presence (Exodus 33 - Part 2)

00:05: All right, let's turn to Exodus chapter 33 Exodus chapter 33
00:13: Dennis you want to open us in prayer and then we'll we'll get started. Sure Father in heaven, we thank you for your precious
00:23: Holy Word and What a privilege What a liberty and a freedom we still have to sit here and to open up your word and allow you
00:35: To speak to our hearts by your Holy Spirit. So thank you for this time Thank you for your servant pastor and the things we're going to listen to and And talk about together and we'll give you all the glory and thanksgiving
00:53: For this time in Jesus name. Amen Amen Exodus chapter number 33
01:01: Lord said to Moses Depart and Go up from here
01:07: You and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt to the land of which
01:12: I swore to Abraham Isaac and Jacob saying to your descendants,
01:18: I will give it and I will send my angel before you and I will drive out the
01:25: Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the
01:30: Jebusite Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey
01:37: For I will not go up in your midst Lest I consume you on the way
01:43: For you are a stiff -necked people And when the people heard this bad news
01:49: They mourned and no one put on his ornaments But the
01:55: Lord had said to Moses Say to the children of Israel you are a stiff -necked people
02:03: I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you Now therefore take off your ornaments that I may know what to do to you
02:15: So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp far from the camp and called it the tabernacle of meeting
02:31: And it came to pass that Everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp
02:40: So it was Whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle That all the people rose and each man stood at his tent door and watched
02:50: Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle We're gonna stop there. I apologize.
02:55: So we're gonna have to have a part two for this chapter So the past two weeks we've been looking at Exodus chapter 32
03:03: Where the people did what what's Exodus 32 known for? Right the people worship the golden calf and we saw the judgment that came as the result of that which is 23 ,000 people who died
03:19: So remember the children of Israel are still at Mount Sinai And now in chapter 33 they are commanded to depart from Mount Sinai but because of their rebellion
03:33: God was not willing to go with them and dwell in their midst
03:39: So while on the one hand God made a covenant to Abraham and he is not going to revoke that promise
03:48: However, the Israelites are forfeiting Blessings and privileges because of their because of their sin.
03:55: So look at Exodus 33 starting in verse 1 Says then the Lord said to Moses depart and go up from here
04:03: You and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt to a land To the land of which
04:10: I swore to Abraham Isaac and Jacob saying to your descendants I will give it and I will send my
04:16: Angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the
04:21: Hittite and the parasite and the high bite and the Jebusite go up to a land flowing with milk and honey
04:28: For I will not go up in your midst lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff -necked people
04:36: Okay, so so here's where we're at with all of this Children of Israel have been delivered from slavery in the land of Egypt They've entered into a covenant relationship with God God has given the law to Moses which we kind of compared to like their
04:53: Constitution if you will so the the point is the nation is starting to take form They have their their leaders
04:59: Moses and Aaron and in Joshua. So the only thing they're lacking now is what?
05:06: Land they just need the land God made a promise to give them this land
05:12: But he and he isn't going to revoke that but he's not going to turn a blind eye To all of the things that they've been doing.
05:19: So now I think he's giving them another opportunity Another another test.
05:26: So leave Mount Sinai Enter into the land But notice he says even though he's not going to be dwelling in their midst.
05:35: He is going to send his angel Ahead of them to fight for them. So who do you think?
05:41: This angel is it's just a a random angel. Is it
05:46: Gabriel? Is that who who do you think this angel is? Okay Okay.
05:53: So does everyone agree that this angel is the pre incarnate
05:58: Christ? Does anyone have another another view on that? Jim Angel to be the people and they had a strict they had a very strict restriction
06:21: Right Okay, let's go back to Exodus chapter 23 so turn back there
06:32: At least the New King James Version translators chose to capitalize
06:37: Angel so that's a pretty good indicator that they believe this is the pre -incarnate
06:43: Christ, which I believe it is So when you compare scripture with scripture
06:49: That's the conclusion that obviously most of us have come to and remember what does the word angel mean?
06:58: Messenger, right So don't be confused that well, wait a minute
07:03: You're not saying that Jesus is an angel because angel doesn't always refer to a created being like the rest of the
07:09: Holy Angels sometimes the word angel can refer to a human being so it's really more generic as a
07:17: Messenger could be different types of messengers. Not necessarily angel as we normally
07:23: Think of so look at Exodus 23 verses 20 and 21 The Lord says behold
07:30: I send an angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which
07:36: I have prepared That's what we're seeing in chapter 33. God says beware of him though and obey his voice
07:44: Do not provoke him for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name is
07:52: In him so the fact that God's name is in this angel And that this angel is able to forgive their sin that's almost certainly
08:06: Proof that this angel has to be Christ Christ is
08:12: God right? He's part of the Godhead. Only God can pardon sin
08:17: I don't know that you could come to any other conclusion that this is Christ. Yes Chapter 23 doesn't do that The New King James it does and obviously that doesn't prove anything.
08:36: That's the translators Right, that's the translators choice, but it tells you that the
08:43: The translators of the New King James that's that's where they're coming from Dennis The name is that very likely
08:51: Yahweh Yeah, my name I I would say yes, because remember back in chapter 3 of Exodus when
09:01: The Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush It said the angel of the Lord appeared in the bush, but then when he speaks to Moses, he says
09:10: I'm Jehovah, I'm Yahweh. I'm the Lord so Jesus Christ is what we call him the
09:19: Lord Jesus Christ and this is this is the doctrine of the Trinity.
09:24: That's really the only explanation that he can be God and yet distinct from God at the same time that we say that maybe doesn't make any sense
09:34: Well, if you believe in the Trinity, it makes sense to the best ability that we have to Understand it
09:42: So let's go back to Exodus 33 So if I can put it this way
09:49: Christ or the angel of the Lord will go before them To fight for them, but God is not willing to dwell in their midst
10:01: Why because of this pattern it's it's a clearly established pattern now with the children of Israel that they they sin they rebel
10:08: They're stiff -necked. It's just one thing after another Look at the second half of verse 3
10:17: Lord says for I will not go up in your midst Why? Lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff -necked people verse 4 and when the people
10:26: Heard this bad news they mourned and no one put on his ornaments
10:32: What does that mean? Put on the ornaments is like ladies don't get made up and put on your jewelry
10:38: There's nothing to go out and celebrate and the men I don't know what the I guess the men wore jewelry back then too
10:43: I don't know but Yeah, this is kind of a similar idea of putting on sackcloth and ashes
10:52: This is something to lament Over God is not going to dwell in our midst verse 5
10:59: For the Lord had said to Moses say to the children of Israel. You are a stiff -necked people
11:06: I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you Now therefore take off your ornaments that I may know what to do to you so the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb Well, I thought they're at Mount Sinai.
11:25: Well, which is it Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb? Yes same thing
11:31: Good good So what's the reason God is not going to dwell in their midst because if he did he says
11:39: I'm going to have to do what? Consume you and we've talked about this.
11:45: I think many times how God is a Consuming fire. This is how
11:51: God is depicted in the Old Testament that God is completely unapproachable
11:59: Today is that how God is is Spoken of and God depicted today is unapproachable
12:09: Now in in churches In the world we're not concerned with what we know what the world does right
12:18: God is Yes, he's Santa Claus. He's like a cosmic vending machine
12:25: But even even in churches, right? God oftentimes is depicted as a grandfatherly figure who has no wrath
12:35: Jesus is depicted as he's like your boyfriend, right? That's how all not all but much of the modern contemporary praise music kind of pictures.
12:44: Jesus says like you're Your boyfriend so God is depicted even in the modern
12:51: Evangelical Church as kind of a big softy. God is God is a big softy.
12:56: You don't need to worry about him And or they say, okay, maybe God is still kind of tough but Jesus is the big softy
13:06: Is that true? Right, I mean it's all but it's love
13:11: God is love period there's nothing there's nothing else Right, he's not our grandfather either.
13:22: Well, here's the thing. Yes. God is love But it's because of his mercy
13:29: Lamentations 322 it's because of his mercy and his love that we are not consumed
13:34: It is because of God's love that the children of Israel Was not that they were not consumed.
13:41: So going back to the previous point. Jesus is God and yes, God the
13:46: Father is Unapproachable and He's displaying that here.
13:52: He's displaying his holiness and his wrath, but you know Jesus because Jesus is
13:57: God guess what? Jesus also has wrath Revelation chapter 6 verse 16 talks about what the wrath of the lamb
14:09: So the point is we have to teach and communicate the whole counsel of God.
14:15: We have to give both sides of The story because if you only give one side you get a totally distorted idea of who
14:22: God is Now I think most people would say what's
14:28: God's primary attribute What do you think the typical answer would be?
14:35: Love right, but that's not true. Right the primary attribute of God is what?
14:42: his holiness That's the only attribute of God that's elevated to the third degree if you will
14:49: Isaiah chapter 6 God is holy holy holy we have a
14:55: Him a song that we sing. Holy. Holy. Holy Here's why that matters the only way a person can really appreciate the mercy of God is to first understand the wrath of God To really appreciate your salvation you have to understand what you are saved from So in the
15:19: Old Testament God is unapproachable, but God is also Immutable.
15:24: What's that word immutable me? Yeah, he doesn't change
15:30: Malachi 3 verse 6 I am the Lord I change not
15:35: So God is still that way God is still Unapproachable But it's because of Christ because God's love and sending
15:46: Christ because of Christ now we can Draw near to God. So once you understand that and I think we all do
15:55: It helps us to better appreciate What Jesus did and of course
16:00: Moses is acting as a type of Christ. It was last week I think we talked about how
16:05: God He was ready to just do away with all of them We're going to just wipe out the entire nation and start over Right and then
16:15: Moses the type of Christ steps in and mediates the situation and the children of Israel survive because of Christ or Moses in that case any questions or comments on any of that and I don't want to be unfair
16:30: But I think that's how God is depicted in in many churches even evangelical churches
16:39: Now we don't want to only talk about his wrath. That would be bad, too Yeah, if it's just hellfire and brimstone 24 -7 that ain't right either.
16:48: So we want to do Do both? Okay Exodus 32 verse 11
16:59: Says So the Lord spoke to Moses Face to face as a man speaks to his friend
17:06: So Moses as a type of Christ, it says that Moses gets to speak to God Face to face now did
17:15: Moses actually See God's face. No, we'll get into that next week where he's put in to the cleft of the rock and and all the rest
17:24: Has anyone ever seen God Seen God's face, right?
17:30: Jesus He dwells in unapproachable light like no man has ever seen
17:35: God Christ heads Right No man has ever seen
17:41: God. No man can see God's face and live except Christ But Moses spoke to God in a sense like face to face like a friend speaks to a friend now at this moment
17:53: No man has ever seen God's face. We've talked about this before but in eternity That's the believers greatest reward where we will be like Christ and then we will see his face
18:08: Let's look at verse 7 go back to verse 7
18:16: So Christ or the angel is going to go before them Says Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp far from the camp and called it the tabernacle of Meeting and it came to pass that everyone who sought the
18:33: Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting Which was outside? the camp
18:40: So this is significant when God showed up to speak to Moses Where did it have to be?
18:49: Yeah had to be far away couldn't be in the middle it had to be on the outskirts
18:55: And just remember we've talked a lot about the tabernacle and the furniture of the tabernacle and going through all of that We might have the idea
19:05: That well the tabernacles already there. It's it's no the tabernacle has not yet been built
19:12: The plans were given to Moses, but at this moment the tabernacle has not yet been Had not yet been built so the tabernacle of meeting is basically
19:23: Moses Or Joshua's house, which is outside of the camp
19:29: Jim Right Right.
19:36: So when we talk about like the tabernacle, it's that main structure that God Gave all the instructions to to build it
19:46: But yeah, Moses 10 is called the tabernacle because that's what the tabernacle means. Okay, John MacArthur writes this about verse 7
19:53: He said in the time prior to the car to the construction of the tabernacle
19:59: Moses 10 became the special meeting place for Moses to talk
20:05: Intimately with God no doubt the people watching from afar were reminded of the removal of God's immediate presence
20:16: Okay, so let's try to get into some of the application of the text because as I said last week
20:22: We're always trying to do two things Try to communicate how this points ahead to Christ.
20:29: So Moses the type of Christ We I think we understand that the angel of the Lord is Christ. We believe but we always want to try to make application to The New Testament Church to us today before I give
20:43: What I'm seeing as an application. Does anyone want to maybe take a Take a stab at an application or two.
20:51: Yes, Dennis. Yeah, just a couple of verses from Hebrews 13 Okay. Yeah, where it says we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat
21:06: Oh Right, yeah keep going for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp
21:16: Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate, right?
21:25: so Jesus when he was crucified he was crucified outside The city right good any any other ideas
21:38: Okay One thing that I would say is that like the
21:43: Israelites Because they they have all these promises from God God wants to dwell in their midst
21:50: But they keep they keep rebelling keep sinning. They worship the golden calf. They're forfeiting their privilege and their blessing
21:58: So I think like the Israelites sometimes Christians We forfeit some of the blessings that we have
22:07: We may not lose our salvation But just like God is not going to nullify the covenant that he made with the children of Israel or through Abraham There are consequences to the
22:19: Israelites behavior. There's consequences to our Behavior, so we might not lose our salvation.
22:25: We might not have to worry about that but there's still going to be things that happen if we sin or certainly live in a pattern of Rebellion, let's turn to Revelation chapter 3 for a moment
22:44: We may always have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit But that doesn't mean we're always going to be filled with the
22:54: Spirit Being filled with the Spirit is a privilege that every believer has
23:01: Every believer can be filled with the Spirit but if you sin if you
23:09: Are living in rebellion to that you're not going to be filled with the
23:14: Spirit So the Spirit of Christ may be with us He may be on our side like the angel was fighting for them
23:23: But God is not going to be as near as he could be right Okay, Revelation chapter 3
23:33: Jesus is speaking to the church at Laodicea. It has some pretty
23:39: Strong things to say to this to this church If you want to look at the
23:46: Israelites like they through their actions they're pushing God outside the camp Almost well, that's kind of what the church at Laodicea did they kind of kick
23:56: Jesus out of the church That you know, they think they're so wonderful What do we need
24:04: Jesus for? Little did they know Jesus said no, you're actually pretty pretty wretched look at Revelation 3 verse 20
24:14: Jesus said behold, I stand at the door and Knock Anyone hears my voice and opens the door
24:21: I will come come in to him and dine with him and he with me to him who overcomes
24:27: I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on His throne he who has an ear let him hear what the
24:36: Spirit says to the churches now, I know how this verse is usually Used we've all seen that little card in the painting and the track right where Jesus is standing outside of the door
24:51: Knocking and there's no doorknob and people always point that out So this is how this verse is usually
25:00: Taught that he's he's knocking on the door of the lost sinner's heart
25:06: Saying let me in so I can save you right? We've all heard that That's the most common interpretation of this verse and metaphorically
25:15: Jesus He's doing that. I believe he's knocking on the door of lost sinners heart
25:20: That's all fine and good, but that's not what Revelation chapter 3 verse 20 is saying.
25:26: What's the actual context? What's Jesus knocking on the door of the lost sinner's heart?
25:32: No, he's knocking on what door He's knocking on the door of the church like hey
25:37: Let me in Let me you You've kicked Jesus out.
25:43: You've pushed Jesus out of his own church Or I think this is very common today
25:52: It you could say Jesus has been kicked out of churches or Jesus is replaced
25:58: By going back to this theme of idolatry that churches will replace the real
26:03: Jesus with another Jesus with fake fake Jesus the
26:09: Jesus they have concocted in their own imagination and this fake Jesus It just so happens that he's just like them and he agrees and affirms with everything
26:19: They think it's funny how that works This is of course a form of idolatry where you shape and mold a
26:31: Jesus or shape and mold a God of your own Imagination and then that's the
26:39: God that you're worshiping. But in reality that God doesn't exist and the
26:46: God that exists once people kind of go down that road the God that Exists is actually held in contempt because these people hold parts of the
26:56: Bible in contempt There are a lot of churches. That would be Absolutely enraged if certain parts of the
27:05: Bible were preached on Sunday morning What has happened
27:12: Assuming that some of these places are still You know, they still have their lampstand which obviously many of them don't
27:19: Jesus is outside Knocking on the door wanting to come back in and they're saying no. Thanks.
27:25: We got this. We don't need you now They would never say that the church at Laodicea.
27:31: They obviously wouldn't say that. Hey, we kicked Jesus out But that's what they did because Jesus says so All right, any comments on that?
27:39: Am I being too harsh or is that true? Is that is that happening? It's happening
27:46: Yeah, just one more Statement on this. I think this is one of if not the biggest issues that we have to deal with We live in a very ungodly culture
27:59: We all know that so that kind of way it affects us and we have some ideas that aren't quite lining up with Scripture Or maybe you know someone comes to faith in Christ and they're they just don't know any better regarding some things
28:15: What people end up doing they try to make the Bible fit what they already think You try to interpret the
28:21: Bible into what you know You want to be true instead of what the Bible says is is true
28:28: So we just need to be aware of that and on guard because I think that that's always a struggle
28:35: Let's go back to Exodus chapter 33 Dennis this is this could be a subtle thing, but I think it's possible for a church to Become devoted to the church right and forget
28:50: Why it's there and forget Jesus Christ really right and it's so subtle because they talk about them
28:55: But they're really just devoted to the church and not to Jesus Christ very very subtle, right?
29:02: Absolutely All right. So in Exodus 33 This is kind of how the
29:08: Israelites were. I mean, they weren't saying hey God, we don't want you But through their actions they there's consequences.
29:16: They were kind of pushing God away So without the Lord just like the church at Laodicea without the
29:22: Lord, they're wretched. They're poor. They're miserable They're naked and and all the rest and what does
29:28: God call them? He doesn't use those terms He uses this other phrase that we see often throughout obstinate or stiff -necked
29:37: Right if God calls you stiff -necked you're stiff -necked that's that's all there is to it
29:46: And because of it they were forfeiting Privileges they were forfeiting many of the blessings that God wanted to give them and we all know the story how for the next 40
29:56: Years they wandered in the wilderness and that generation that entire generation saved
30:01: Joshua and Caleb They all died in the wilderness. Of course, it didn't have to be that way
30:06: God wanted to dwell in the midst of his people
30:11: They could have experienced that if they would number one acknowledge their sin confess repent seek the
30:17: Lord's forgiveness But they weren't willing to do that because they were Stubborn they were they were set in their ways
30:27: But God still loves them and that's really a wonderful testimony of God's love that You read all the things they said and did and God God still there
30:40: He still cares about this people But because of their rebellion and because God has wrath he dealt with them 23 ,000 people were judged but because of his mercy, they're not consumed.
30:52: So all of that to say this The New Testament Church, we need to learn from this
30:59: We look at them and say what's wrong with these people why don't they just see the problem and fix it right?
31:06: Well, we need to take that as a mirror and be like, okay, what about us? That's that's the hard thing first Corinthians 10 11 says now all these things happen to them as Examples and they were written for our
31:24: Admonition, I think I've quoted that probably 20 times so far going through Exodus But this is an example of what not to do
31:33: So not only should we not worship a golden calf. We should not set up idols in our heart
31:40: We should not try to make God fit our image of what we want him to be. I think he should be if our
31:48: Opinions thoughts attitudes are not in line with the Bible the Bible's right and you're wrong
31:54: The Bible's right and I'm wrong. That's that's the bottom line If we permit that, you know going back to the golden calf and how they rose up Play and all the rest if we permit the dancing and the carousing and the fornication and the adultery
32:11: God is going to be dwelling outside The camp He's not going to be in our midst
32:17: He's going to be over there yonder with Moses and the two or three people who are trying to remain
32:24: Faithful. So in conclusion if we feel convicted about some of these things
32:29: This is the example for us to not be stiff -necked for us to actually do the the right thing
32:37: And we'll just close with verse 8 so it was whenever Moses went out to the
32:43: Tabernacle that all the people rose and each man stood at his tent door and watched