God's Leading Presence

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Exodus 13:17-22

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Well, this morning we continue on as we complete chapter 13. We are very much on our way out of Egypt, and yet not out of the grasp of Pharaoh quite yet.
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This morning we are considering the leading of God's presence. Next week we'll consider the protection of God's presence.
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And so there's, of course, much relationship between the two. But by way of emphasis, this morning we consider
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God's leading. Next week, God's protection. As we look at the conclusion here in chapter 13, we find the
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Israelites taking a roundabout way by the leading of God. As God leads them, we'll see in verses 17 through 22, he leads them in four distinct ways.
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First, God leads them in an understanding way. That'll be verses 17 and 18. God leads them in an understanding way.
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Secondly, God leads them according to his word and the testimony of his word. That's verse 19.
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Third, God leads by his own presence. That's verses 20 and 21. And then lastly, we're encouraged to see that God's leading presence never fails.
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God's leading presence never fails. So beginning with verses 17 and 18,
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God leads in an understanding way. It came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the
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Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest perhaps they change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.
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So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.
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The Israelites are being led by God, but he's not leading them in the instinctive natural path that is close by hand.
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He leads them out of the way in a roundabout way, in a way that would almost seem backward or against the purpose of being brought up out of Egypt.
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The direct route would have been the so -called Via Maris, the way of the sea. This would take them up past the
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Nile River across northern Sinai into the coastal plain. This is a route along the
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Mediterranean coast that at this point in time was already a well -established trade route that amounted to a coastal highway.
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Actually very poignantly, this is sort of where the Gaza Strip runs along as part of this natural way across the sea.
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So still you can see the turmoil that occupies this stretch of land. However, this was also the most likely route for invaders.
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So the Egyptians had heavy fortifications all along this coastal route.
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For that reason, the Lord leads them around it. He understood the character of this newly freed people.
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Though these are his armies, they're a very weak army and they're not battle -tested, very much unlike Pharaoh's armies.
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And so recognizing their weakness at this point in time, recognizing their preference would be not to fight the established
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Egyptians that had been taskmasters for so many centuries, but rather to fold and buckle and return to Egypt once again as slaves,
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God does not lead them by that way. We have the land of the Philistines here that's largely held to be an anachronism, if we understand by it what later becomes a civilization of Philistia, but we've already encountered this even in Genesis.
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And so whether it's anachronistic or not, we have the people that correspond to the Philistines and this is their land.
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We're certainly dealing with Canaanites in terms of this great exodus. Once again, more importantly, we have held out to us the sovereignty of God, and yet right alongside his omnipotence, his omniscience, we have the real freedom and responsibility of man.
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We've seen that with Pharaoh and now we see it with the Israelites. God, who sent the angel of death to strike down all of the firstborn and bring
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Pharaoh's great ego down into the dust, nevertheless, understands the character and heart of his people and he says, "'Lest they turn back, "'I will not lead them in that natural near path.
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"'I'll lead them out of the way and around.'" And so we see the sovereign hand of God and yet also that responsibility of man.
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These things are not contradictory, but rather complimentary. God is sovereign, and yet look at how he corresponds and leads his people.
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So we find God dwelling with his people in an understanding way. Just as we saw in 1
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Peter 3 on Tuesday, for those that were present, that a husband is called by God to dwell with his wife in an understanding way.
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So God is this great example and he doesn't drive little lambs that are unable to tread the journey.
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He's not harsh in his manner of leading, but he's sympathetic and full of compassion.
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He understands what would cause them to flee, what would cause them to melt or break, and he will not put that burden that they cannot bear upon them.
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He dwells in an understanding way. Matthew Henry says, "'Their spirits had already been broken by slavery, "'and so it was not easy for them to turn their hands "'all of a sudden from the trowel to the sword.'"
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This was not a tight -fit military unit, though it is the army of the
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Lord, as still the army of the Lord is often not running according to the militaries of the world.
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But thankfully, we have our king, our commander, the great captain of our salvation, so he can take unfit ranks and he can lead them in such a way that they will be victorious.
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God knows our frame, in other words. He considers our weakness. He's not ignorant. He's not somehow arbitrarily prodding, poking, and shoving us along the way.
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He considers our weakness. He meets our need. He introduces lesser trials in such a way that we are prepared for greater trials to come.
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This is all of how God leads us in an understanding way. He leads us like a shepherd would lead a flock.
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Not running a marathon and only the three rams that could make it cross the finish line.
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But no, the shepherd has a vested interest in every lamb, every sheep, every member of the flock.
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In fact, the good shepherd is willing to leave the 99 even to pursue the one that is missing. He doesn't grate on a curve.
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He doesn't say, well, at least most of them are along. He faithfully ensures the protection and guidance of every lamb.
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The shepherd, of course, is a model leader. God is the shepherd of his people, and therefore, every leader is to be like this great shepherd.
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Moses comes to be called a shepherd. David comes to be called a shepherd.
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The leaders are the shepherds. Bad leaders are false shepherds, hirelings. Good leaders are like the good shepherd himself.
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Isaiah, speaking of the Lord in this very way, says in chapter 40, like a shepherd, he will tend his flock.
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In his arm, he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing youth.
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He leads in an understanding way. Have you known, Christians, something of this gentle leading in your life?
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Have you seen the gentle hand that guides you, that understands your weakness? John Trapp says the
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Lord carefully chooses their way out of Egypt. Not the nearer, but the safer. This is how
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He orders matters all around us. The evils are not ready for us until we are made ready for them.
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God leads in an understanding way. Secondly, God leads according to His word and His testimony.
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Verse 19, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under Solomon saying,
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God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.
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So secondly, we see God leads according to His word, His promise, but also the testimony of that word.
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We're brought back here with verse 19 to the framework of Genesis, and with it, the patriarchal promise.
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In Genesis 48, verse 21, Jacob says this to Joseph, behold,
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I am dying, but God will be with you, and He will bring you back to the land of your fathers.
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And Joseph, at the very end of his life, in Genesis 50, says this to his brothers,
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I am dying, but God will surely visit you, just like Father, so like Son.
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He repeats the same promise in the same way that Jacob had once spoken it to him.
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God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land of which
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He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying,
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God will surely visit you. You shall carry up my bones from here. And Joseph died, being 110 years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
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So for this long stretch of time, the body of Joseph, embalmed, lying in a coffin in Egypt, has awaited the fulfillment of this very day.
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God will surely visit. That was God's word. It was said from Abraham to Isaac, and from Isaac to Jacob, and from Jacob to Joseph, and from Joseph to the children of Israel.
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God will surely come. And when He comes, don't leave my bones here in Egypt.
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When Israel is brought out of this land of bondage into the land flowing with milk and honey, make sure that even my bones come with you.
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And in the meantime, let my bones be a testimony of the surety of His word. That's why
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He requires an oath from them. Of all the things that could be summarized about the life of Joseph, so many of you remember the time that we spent last, at the beginning of this year perhaps even, looking at the life of Joseph at the end of Genesis.
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And of all the things that could be said about this man's remarkable life of faith, the one aspect of his faith that is brought into the gallery of faith in Hebrews chapter 11 is this very thing.
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We have nothing else recounted about Joseph, though of course everything is brought up with Joseph as soon as he's mentioned.
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But the explicit description of Joseph's faith in the gallery of the faithful in Hebrews 11 is this.
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By faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones.
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Does that strike you as somewhat odd? Of all the things that would demonstrate the faith of Joseph, his absolute integrity in the house of Potiphar, his absolute trust on this rollercoaster of providence when he goes from the very height to the very depth again and again, of all of the ways that he received the revelation of God and then acted his whole life in accordance with it, such that he ended up saving all of his countrymen the world over through seven years of famine.
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And not one of these things makes it into the gallery? That would be like having at your disposal the great paintings of a master painter.
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Say you could collect all of the masterworks of Rembrandt and you have a gallery at which to display some of these great masterworks, priceless pieces of art, and you take a sketch from his sketchbook and that's the only thing that you put on the wall.
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You say, this is the Rembrandt Museum and everything else is stored away and here's this little sketch and you're like, yeah, that's neat that he talked about his bones but there was a lot more that he did that was very faithful.
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So why this? Why Hebrews 11, 22? Well, like Abraham, like Isaac, and like Jacob, the most important part of Joseph's life was the promise of God.
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Not the promise of God for Joseph himself, but the promise of God for the people of God.
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The promise that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, that their descendants would be taken out of bondage, that the spiritual seed of Abraham would be taken out of the land of death and out of the chains of misery and brought into the dwelling place of God Himself.
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Joseph believed that God would fulfill his promise. And now in verse 19, not only are we reminded of that, we're pointed forward as Israel itself is pointed forward.
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How greatly did Israel need the same faith that Joseph had? Just as it was said,
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God will visit you, so on this day, Israel, look, God has visited us. And let the bones of Joseph lead the way even as his faith corresponds to our faith.
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They're literally being led by the testimony of their forebears. They're being led not only by the promise of God's word, they're being led by the testimonies about that promise.
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So Abraham has a testimony and Isaac has a testimony and Jacob and Joseph. And now this generation will have a testimony for the next generation.
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And you can see very easily how we as the church gather today, not as a one -off, not as something new that drops out from the sky, but as those who look forward in faith, standing on this great foundation that has been laid by the promise and all of the testimonies that accord with that promise.
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It's one of the reasons I love that we peruse through this blue hymnal. We go back to the 19th century, the 18th, 17th century, sometimes the 5th century, the 6th century.
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And we're looking at words that were penned as a testimony for the people of God. Their faith and their hope, their trust in the
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Lord God. Could we not sing with them how great a foundation is laid for us? Not only in his word, but in the testimony of his word.
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So we see in verse 19, God leads according to his word and his testimony. Third, God leads by his own presence.
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God leads by his own presence. Exodus 13, beginning in verse 20. So they took their journey from Sukkot and camped in Etham, the edge of the wilderness.
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And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.
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Once again in Exodus, we're introduced to the theophanic presence of God. We've already seen
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God manifest in the burning bush in Exodus chapter three. And here now we see a further manifestation of God's presence, now not only in fire once more, a pillar of fire on this occasion, but also in a pillar of cloud.
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Psalm 78, 14 records this. In the daytime he led them with the cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
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Psalm 105, 39, he spread a cloud for a covering and a fire to illumine by night.
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So the Lord desired to manifest his presence in a perceivable way, a pillar of cloud by the day, a pillar of fire by the night.
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Whatever the exact visual phenomena of this manifestation may have looked like, this was a direct revelation of the presence of God.
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A revelation not only for the guiding, but as we'll see next week, also the protecting of his people.
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That's why Psalm 78 says he led them. Psalm 105 says he spread a cloud for a covering.
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We have the leading presence of God and the protecting presence of God. Now cloud and fire are often associated with the presence of God.
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If we go back to Genesis 15, when God cut the covenant with Abraham, what do we see?
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We see the flaming torch in the brazen oven, as it were, billowing out smoke like a cloud, but also this blaze of fire.
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Later on in the Pentateuch, we see the glory cloud that descends upon the tabernacle. When we get to Acts 1, we see
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Jesus ascending in a cloud, or we see God described as a consuming fire.
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In Acts 2, we see the Spirit descend, in part, as a manifestation of fire among the apostles.
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And so over and over, these emblems of cloud and fire correspond to the presence of God.
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Now we would say this is a theophanic manifestation of God's presence. Some press further, and I think there's good reason for this, and they say this is a
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Christophanic presence, in other words, a Christophany, not a generic manifestation of God's presence, but a manifestation of the presence of Christ.
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This is very widespread, especially among the Puritans. They connect the presence of the pillar of fire and cloud to the angel of the
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Lord in chapter 14. So you'll see that when we get to chapter 14, verse 19.
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I think there's good reason to see this as the case. In chapter 14, we once again encounter the angel of the
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Lord. And it seems to be coterminous with the presence of the fire in the cloud.
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And so John Gill writes, this is not a created, but the uncreated angel, capital
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A. The angel of the Lord, the angel of His presence, in whom His name, nature, and perfections were, even the
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Word and Son of God, the Lord Christ, who went before the armies of Israel as their king and commander.
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And I think Gill's right. The main point is this. God leads by His own presence.
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He doesn't sit aloof in the heavens and say, go. He leads by His own presence.
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Although God's people are called to travel in an unknown way through an unknown territory, they have no reason to fear.
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The Lord Himself will guide them. The Lord Himself will direct them. The Lord Himself will uphold them.
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Nehemiah 9, this great prayer that breaks out as God's people return to the land after such a long exile.
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And in Nehemiah 9, we have the sort of micro history of Israel. And in Nehemiah 9, verse 12, we have this very thing recounted.
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You led them by day with a cloudy pillar and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the road which they should travel.
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You see what's being recounted there. You, yourself, led them. You didn't say, hey,
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Moses, here's what you should do. No, you, yourself, led them.
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And you did not forsake them, as he goes on to say. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light in the way that they should go.
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So God is leading them, and God will not withdraw His presence from them.
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Oh, how Moses was beginning to learn how much he needed the presence of God.
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He had seen that at the very beginning when he came and tried to go through a rolodux of reasons that he could not be a mouthpiece for God.
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He was not fit to reenter the courts of Pharaoh and stand before that mighty ruler that divinized himself in his reign.
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He was not one, as this shepherd in the wasteland of Midian, to go stand before that kind of royalty and say, thus saith the
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Lord. He's a stutterer. How could he be equipped? Well, what did
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God say? I will be with you. I will be with you. I didn't call you because you're sufficient for these things.
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I called you in such a way that my sufficiency would glow through you, that in your very weakness and inability,
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I would show forth and I would be magnified. And now here again throughout every single plague, we see
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Moses depending upon the Word of God. And in the great Passover event himself as the angel of death sweeps across the landscape,
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Moses trusting in the testimony of the blood of the Lamb, Moses now depending upon the leading presence of God.
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No wonder when we get to Exodus chapter 33, we have this great exchange where Moses says this to the
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Lord. You have said to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.
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Yet you have said, I know you by name and you have found grace in my sight. Now therefore
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I pray, O Lord, if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way that I may know you, that I might find grace in your sight and consider that this nation is your people.
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And he said this, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.
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And this is perhaps the greatest part. He already has the promise. It's not the first time God has promised his presence, but Moses has finally learned the lesson that unless God's presence leads, there is no hope.
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And so Moses cries out in response, if your presence does not go with us, don't bring us up.
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If you will not be with us yourself, don't lead us out. Don't tell us where to go unless you're with us.
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Don't bring us out of this land unless you're guiding us. Moses learned to depend upon God's leading presence.
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When the pillars advanced, the Israelites advanced. When the pillars rested and stood, the
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Israelites rested and stood. When the pillars turned to the left or to the right, the Israelites turned to the left or to the right.
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They were not called to reason through maps. Manna didn't come bundled with big old atlases and roadmaps.
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The elders weren't called together to move chess pieces and figure out the course based on the geography.
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No one had to hold their iPhone up for reception and ask Siri for directions. They didn't have to gain confidence as God kept on giving them answers to all of their questions.
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No, nothing was needed but for them to follow the presence of God. Nothing was needed but to follow the presence of God.
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Brothers and sisters, nothing is needed for you but to follow the guiding presence of your
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God. Our heavenly Father does not change.
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If Christ is the guardian of His church, as Calvin says, He's not less truly present with us now than He was formally manifest to them then.
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Christ still leads His people in this way. Lo, He says at the end of Matthew, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
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The disciples thought, oh, here you've been with us, literally guiding us by your presence. You say go to this village, go to that village.
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Rest here, spend the night here. Go forth here, gather these things. Oh Lord, you've been with us. All these three years guiding us, but now you'll leave.
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And He says, no, I'm with you always to cheer, to guide.
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Not only is God with us, as Spurgeon says, He will be with us. That's what
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Emmanuel means, God with us. So the presence of God signals not only the guidance as we'll see today, but the protection of His people.
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His guidance is His protection, and His protection is His guidance. As we follow
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Him, being sensitive and tender to every prompt along the way, we are being protected in the leading presence of God.
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There's a beautiful, we don't have time to get into it today and we're gonna look at it next week, but in Isaiah chapter four, this incredible depiction of this being fulfilled in the
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New Covenant, as it were. God leading by the cloud and the fire in such a way that He spreads
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His glory over all of His people in this great vision that Isaiah begins to see. God leads presently, not absently.
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You don't come to Scripture to be led by the Word of God as though God was removed, abstracted from your life and from your daily experience.
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You know, sometimes we give a sideways glance in a knowing smirk when we come across our charismatic brothers and sisters, and it seems like they're prompted by God for every jot and tittle of their day.
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Well, I was going to here and I was gonna get a medium coffee and a pumpkin donut, but the Lord told me, in fact, to get a glazed donut and a small, and so I, you know, it's just like, oh, really, the
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Lord gives you orders? Literally orders, like drives you to orders? I don't read my
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Bible in that way, and we sort of give a knowing smirk, like, you sure that was the Lord?
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Does He really have a vested interest in your caloric intake? If you're getting a donut either way, do you think
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He has a preference on flavor? So we give this knowing smirk, but I think they're probably closer than we are to an understanding of the abiding and active presence of God in their life.
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Far better to think that God is in the midst of every decision you make throughout your day than to think you're coming by yourself to the
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Word to be guided as best as you can figure it out, or as best as the things that you put on your podcast playlist can help you figure out, and you have no thought of the personal presence of God, the personal leading of God, that there's no sense of the
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Spirit moving, imploring, convicting, illuminating, cheering, prompting.
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Oh, that would be a far worse way to live, I would think. So I ask the question, are we acquainted with the leading presence of God?
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The leading presence of God. Octavius Winslow, tremendous book.
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You can find this online very easily, it's an older work. Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the
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Soul. That's a mouthful. Just look up Winslow Declension and you'll find it. He says this, he who knows
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God, who with faith's eye has discovered some of his glory, and by the power of the
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Spirit has felt something of his love, will not be at a loss to distinguish between God's sensible presence and absence in the soul.
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Let me say that again. He who knows God, who with faith's eye has discovered some of his glory, and by the power of the
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Spirit has felt something of his love, will not be at a loss to distinguish the sensible presence or the sensible absence of God in the soul.
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Some professors, he doesn't mean college teachers, he means people who have a profession of faith.
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Some professors walk without communion, without fellowship, without daily close dealings with God.
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They are so immersed in the cares and lost in the fogs and mists of the world that that fine edge of their spiritual sensitivity has been blunted and their love has become frozen through this contact with worldly influence.
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So much so that even the blazing sun of righteousness would cease to shine upon their soul and they wouldn't even know it.
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You see what he's saying? So blunted, so insensible, so clueless to the presence of God that the absence of God isn't even registered.
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And he says this. Yea, a more strange thing would happen to them if the
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Lord were suddenly to break in upon their soul with some visit of love than were he to leave them for weeks and months without any token of his presence.
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You see what he's saying? It would be more bizarre for a person in this state, more stirring, more stunning for God to all of a sudden break into their hearts and into their mind with some glow of his affection than for them to be absent of God's presence for months at a time.
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Do you know something of what Winslow calls the sensible presence of God?
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Are you led in abstraction through various doctrines? Are you led by God's Word according to the presence of God by the
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Spirit in your life? Are you able to keep in step with the Spirit? Martin Lloyd -Jones once used an illustration.
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Got it from Thomas Goodwin. He's talking about this time of sensible presence, what we might call manifestations of the love of God in a special and unique way, or the impression of the
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Spirit. This is what he says. There are times when
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God especially manifests his fatherly love through the Spirit. A man and his little child are walking down the road and they're walking hand in hand and the child knows that he's the child of the
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Father and he knows that the Father loves him and he rejoices in that. He's happy in that.
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There's no uncertainty about it at all. But all of a sudden, the
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Father scoops him up in his arms and he squeezes him and he kisses him and he showers love upon him out of nowhere and then he just puts him down and holds his hand and they just keep on walking.
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Dads, does that sound familiar? I hope it does. Now you're sitting next to maybe your kids at night and you're reading to them and all of a sudden you just feel this wave of love, like I love you so much and now you must be squished near death, you know?
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You just start kissing them and they're, you know, if they're four or five, they're like, ugh, get away. You're just like,
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I love you so much. And then you just go back on. It's not that the love was doubted beforehand, it was just made manifest in a special way.
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And Winslow says our communion with God should be such that his absence is felt.
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That his absence is felt. Just like if that same child walking down the road had been embraced and kissed and sat down and then the father was gone and the child is left bewildered looking around.
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We should not think a child that was loved in that way, that was walking that closely with their father would just carry on their way without any thought, without any regard.
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We should think that that child would begin to cry out and say, father, where has your presence gone?
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When will you embrace me again? Is there any unclean or unright way within me?
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Don't keep me from your presence, Lord. But give me a greater sense, a fresh manifestation of your leading presence in my life.
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God leads by his own presence. I don't mean to make this sound very subjective.
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Because there is so much to say about the life of faith and trusting God at his word. When he's tangibly manifest to you in perceptible ways and a working within your soul by his spirit or when that's not the case, you still as a believer must trust and live this life of faith.
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But it would be hard to read the experience of any Christian in the New Testament to not see this close dealing with God, this intimate communion with God as something that is held out normatively for Christians.
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If God's presence is indistinguishable from God's absence to you, you're in a very dangerous place.
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Fourth, in drawing this out, God's leading presence is unfailing.
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God's leading presence is unfailing. It comes by day and by night.
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In other words, it's comprehensive. There is no time where God's presence was not there in front of the
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Israelites. When they closed their eyes to sleep, when they awoke in the morning, there was the pillar whether by cloud or by fire, by day or by night,
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God was with them to lead them and guide them. He did not, verse 22, he did not take away the pillar of cloud by day.
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He did not take away the pillar of fire by night. He did not take away his presence from before the people.
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So let's boil all this down just by way of application. Just kind of make a sentence that I'm then going to elaborate about God's leading presence in the life of a
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Christian. So here's the sentence and then we'll open it up. God leads by goodness in truth through temptations, through valleys to living fountains.
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That's how God leads his people. God leads by his goodness in truth through temptations and valleys to living fountains.
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So let's begin first with God leading in his goodness. Romans chapter two uses
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God's leadership in this way. Do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
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Here we see the goodness of God is something that God uses to lead us. Do you not know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
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He goes on to say, no, in accordance with your hardness, with your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath.
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You notice again there in Romans two, sovereignty of God right alongside the accountability of man.
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What does he say? Do we read, do you not know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance, but he has hardened your heart and you will not repent.
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He is preparing you for, no, is that what we read? No. What does he say? Do you not know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
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No, in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring for yourself wrath in the day of wrath.
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Don't blame God for your hardness. Don't blame God for your refusal, your rejection.
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Don't blame God for your sinfulness. You yourself are treasuring up wrath in the day of wrath. You yourself have an impenitent heart.
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You yourself have hardened and rejected the Lord God. Yet even so, even still, in the midst of all that, the goodness of God would lead you to repentance.
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The goodness of God would lead you to repentance. Consider, our sins are committed against the prompting and leading of God's own
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Spirit. As surely as it would have been for the Israelites seeing the pillar guiding along the path and just saying, no,
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I'm going this way. We go astray, not in some sort of innocent, beguiling, white little way.
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It's like rejecting the clear, prominent leading of God and saying, no, and turning our back to His presence.
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We sin against the Spirit's attempt to restrain us from sin. We sin against the
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Spirit's attempts to reclaim us from sin. We sin against the Spirit seeking to renew us to repentance.
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And yet even still, the goodness of God leads us to repentance. Consider that our sins have been committed against a constant river of mercies from God.
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Every morning, His mercies renew, and as the day carries on, we sin against that mercy.
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And yet the next morning comes, and His mercy renews. Even still, the goodness of God leads us to repentance.
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Consider that our sins have been committed against not only mercy, but even against discipline, against His chastening, which
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He does as a good Father does to rebellious children. And just like rebellious children, as soon as we're set down, and as soon as His love is affirmed, we right back up, look up in defiance.
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And yet even still, God's kindness never fails. In the midst of our failure, His goodness leads us not to draw away, but actually to draw close.
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Wherever sin abounds, grace abounds. Much more. This is the faithfulness of God's leading.
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He leads by His goodness. This is why His people trust Him to lead. This is why they'll follow
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Him. He doesn't lead like Pharaoh leads. He's a
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God that is merciful, gracious, full of compassion, abounding in long -suffering. William Gernal says, what more powerful consideration can be thought of to make us true to God than the goodness of God to us?
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The goodness of God. And understanding that perfect goodness of God helps you settle those things in your life that just don't look good to you.
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Lord, I can see that I'm supposed to be walking in this way, not in that way. Even though this seems near and easy, and your way seems really difficult and hard,
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I don't know how I'm gonna get there, it doesn't look good. But you are good. And your goodness can lead me.
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The situation doesn't look good, the cost doesn't look good, but you are good. And so by your goodness,
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I will follow. Matthew 11, remember Jesus teaching.
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And in Matthew 11, right before He says what I'll read, He's rebuked all of the cities.
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Of course, in giving this sort of prophetic denouncement, just like every mighty prophet, the hope would be that the scribes and the leaders and the teachers, those who professed
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God and served Him, would repent and understand that God is now speaking through the prophet.
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But just like the prophets of old, Jesus' testimony, His sermons are rejected, the lies turn away. And we can read this as somehow
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Jesus abstractly, unemotionally responding to that. We ought to read it in the fullness of His humanity, just like Jeremiah, just like Isaiah.
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Just like He says later on in Matthew 23, overlooking from the
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Mount of Olives, the great city. And He says, see, your house is left to you desolate.
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I was willing, I was willing. Why wouldn't you come to me? We have to read that with the full humanity beneath that.
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And He says this in Matthew 11. He's preached now through the cities and all of the wise, all of the prudent, all the leaders, all the scribes, all the
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Pharisees have all rejected His testimony. All rejected the prophetic revelation of God. They've rejected
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Him. And so He turns to God in prayer. And He says, I thank you,
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Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent.
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And He wanted the wise and prudent to hear Him and to follow, but they rejected
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Him. And so He sees the Father's sovereignty in that. Father, I thank you. You've hidden these things from the wise.
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Even so, it seemed good in your sight, He says. Even so, it seemed good in your sight.
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From an earthly perspective, that doesn't seem good. Doesn't seem good that the leaders and the synagogue rulers are rejecting the word of God.
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But if you're hardening them and blinding them and that seems good in your sight, then I thank you,
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Father. You can apply that prayer to any difficulty, anything in your life that doesn't look good.
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You can say, Father, if it seems good in your sight, I thank you and I follow.
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God leads by goodness. Secondly, God leads in truth. Now I say in truth here, because I love how this word truth holds together word and spirit.
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Word and spirit. So take truth as the umbrella for God leads by word and spirit.
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That is the spirit working through the word in the life of His people.
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God leads us in truth. This is not a social app that we get and then we're led by it.
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No, God leads in His truth. Not the rational product of man, but rather the abiding, guiding presence of the
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Holy Spirit. John's Gospel especially draws out this connection between the Holy Spirit and His guiding in truth.
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As early as John 14, we have the spirit of truth. The spirit of truth.
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The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows
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Him, but you know Him because He dwells with you and He will be in you.
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So how is God going to guide His people? We don't have His physical presence to follow,
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Lord, how can we follow you? You will have the spirit of truth dwelling within you. John 15, 26, when the helper comes whom
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I shall send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the
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Father, He will testify of me. So again, it's not just that the Father sends the spirit, it's who the spirit is.
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He's the spirit of truth. By His presence, by His prompting, you will discern what is true, what is the right way.
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John 16, 13, however, when He, the spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into truth, into all truth.
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So the spirit has come, He dwells within, the spirit guides us into what is true. That we learn by His presence, by His guidance, to shun those things which are false, to avoid those ways that are false ways, to follow after God's will and God's path.
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We have, as Peter says, purified our souls in obeying the truth. Well, how could we ever do that?
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How did we obey the truth? Through the spirit. You have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit.
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What spirit? The spirit of truth, the spirit who leads you into truth, the spirit who is truth.
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Charles Simeon, asking this sort of question when we compare the Israelites, I ask you the question, would you rather be an
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Israelite and be able simply to look to a pillar of cloud and fire and follow it?
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Does that seem easier than being a Christian and I've gotta read the word and I've gotta pray, gotta constantly examine myself and consider the
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Lord's leading, what does His word call me to? How will I walk in such a way that I know that I'm on His path?
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How will I seek His presence, not neurotically or nervously, but rather as that warm embrace, that budding confidence and assurance that truly
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I am His and I'm walking in a way that is pleasing to Him? Would you rather be an Israelite?
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Wouldn't it be nice just to go outside after the service today and just find some pillar cloud and okay, start walking after it?
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Wherever it goes, you go. It almost seems more desirable, doesn't it? Being a Christian's hard compared to that.
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I love what Charles Simeon says. Has Jesus come into the world to lessen our privileges?
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Has He not rather come to extend and enlarge them? In the external manifestations of God's presence, we may seem inferior to the
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Jews, but we have so much more that counterbalances what we may see as loss.
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We have the internal, not the external. The internal spiritual communication of His grace.
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We have not the external guiding presence, but the internal presence of God, the
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Spirit of truth. And so our God will, by His Spirit, guide us into all truth.
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The Israelite could pray with this great hope, Psalm 25, four and five, show me your ways,
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O Lord, teach me your paths, lead me in your truth and teach me. You are the God of my salvation, for you
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I wait all the day. That whole prayer, back at this point in time, is external. Lord, show me your ways.
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Where's the pillar, where's the pillar? Show me your ways. Lord, lead me in your truth.
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Again, where's the pillar, where's the pillar? There wasn't anything internally correspondent to the presence of God.
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It was all external. But you, upon whom the end of the ages has come, God, by His own
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Spirit now, dwells within you. Now the pillar of fire and cloud is within you, guiding you, illuminating your steps, convicting you of sin, examining yourself in the presence of God, drawing you to the presence of God, groaning on your behalf, faithful things that you cannot even utter.
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Such is God's desire to lead you. So God leads in truth.
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In other words, He leads by His Word and Spirit. And therefore, God leads through temptations.
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God leads through temptations. The everyday temptations, the things that so easily encumber us, those things that we constantly have on our minds when we come to the
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Lord in prayer. Our own flaws and shortfalls, our failures. Perhaps some shackle that has been dragged along with us as we come out of Egypt.
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His care and His protection are assured to us in this way. 1
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Corinthians 10, 13. It's ought to be a life verse for some of you, fridge magnet for everyone. God is faithful.
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He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able but with temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it.
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So we have sort of a dual promise. And it all begins with the faithfulness of God. God is faithful. The problem is we are not faithful.
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The hope is God is faithful. And that's a confident hope. That's an anchor hope. God is faithful. So believer, as you walk in the midst of this life and face many fiery darts of temptation, know this,
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God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.
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That's the first aspect of this promise. He knows what lies ahead if you take the near path and He will not guide you on that near path.
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He will not bring you to that which you cannot bear. We have it right here in Exodus 13. So He takes you around another way to something that's still hard, but you can bear it.
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He provides in that very way, as it were, a way of escape. This is how
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He leads His people, especially new believers, young believers in the faith. Again, Charles Simeon writing on this very day, he says this,
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God is graciously pleased to hide from them, from young believers, at the present, trials which they will hereafter sustain, well knowing that they would be far too discouraged by a sight of them, maybe even tempted to despair.
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Isn't that amazing to you? I know this isn't my testimony alone.
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In fact, I've heard it from other people in the congregation that when you first came to the Lord and you repented of your sin and the presence of God and God was empowering your life and you had this insatiable hunger for His word and insatiable hunger to be with His people, and sometimes that was a little disappointing.
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You're like, why is no one hungry like I am? Why is no one powerful and excited like I am? And you didn't realize what you couldn't have realized then was that God was giving you so much grace and withholding from you those trials that would have discouraged you early on.
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You were not strong, you felt invincible like every teenager feels invincible. There's a reason they go careening down the highway at 90 plus miles an hour.
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They feel invincible. And just like God protects
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His people in such a way that He never gives them more than they can bear, those young believers, He hardly puts anything in their path that would discourage them.
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This is a work of preparation, of building them up, lesser things. And they're broken in, they're brought low, and they're humbled.
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And 13 years later, they're there when that next bursting, what's with all these lazy, slothful Christians?
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Why does no one have this power and conquering power in their life like me? And they're like, oh, I used to feel that way too.
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The Lord's got some things on your path, brother. We can be sure as our day of temptation will be, so shall our strength be.
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That's a promise from God for His people. As your temptation will be, so shall your strength be.
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As the trial shall be, so shall my grace be. Perfectly suited, perfectly measured for all of my good purpose, for your good and for my glory.
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So let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have, with such things as you face, with such things as you're enduring.
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He Himself has said this, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So God leads us through temptations.
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And often, and there's a reason the Greek word can go both ways here, often temptations are trials, and trials are temptations, though I think it's helpful to understand the difference between temptation and trial.
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I see temptation as more those things which call upon our flesh in a way that corresponds to the will of the world and of the devil, a temptation to sin against God's ways, where a trial is not drawn upon our flesh, we're not being tempted to sin against God, though temptation may come with a trial, trial is more of a thorn or a difficulty or a setback that we are walking through, okay?
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And the Christian face is trials of many kinds, trials of many kinds.
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We're a young church body, and yet I think back, just looking at different faces this morning, and I just think of how many trials so many of you have faced in such a short amount of time.
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How many trials the Lord has brought different marriages and families through, how many trials even our church body has faced.
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It's interesting, when we go to Psalm 23, I don't know if I've ever noticed or recounted this so much, it's so well -known and cherished for that reason that sometimes we don't pause to reflect on what's being held together, and just notice it this week.
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Psalm 23, in part. He leads me beside the still waters.
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We have the leadership of God, we have the shepherd presence of God, the leading presence of God.
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He leads me beside the still waters, he restores my soul, he leads me in the paths of righteousness.
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The paths of righteousness, doesn't that sound amazing to you? Oh, the paths of righteousness, golden paths with violet -hued lilies and crystal streams.
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Oh, the paths of righteousness. Is that where those paths of righteousness lead? Well, keep going.
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Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Wait a minute. I thought we were on the path of righteousness.
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How did I end up walking through a valley of shadow of death? You see, the path of righteousness, so often for the
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Christian, is a path that leads us through the valley. And so we're not changing the imagery at all.
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This is the path of righteousness, God is leading you through it. And that's why he can say, though I walk on this path of righteousness, through a valley of shadow and death,
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I will fear no evil. Why? Because you're with me. How is
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God with him or her? He leads me. He leads me in the path of righteousness.
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He leads me. So we have held together times of blessing and peace where we're not facing trials.
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He leads me beside the still waters. And then we have times of trial. We're on this path of righteousness, we're led through a valley.
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But whether it's by the water or through the valley, God's presence is leading us. You are with me.
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You know, all too often we focus on how uncomfortable and painful even this roundabout way is to us.
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We murmur, we grumble, we become discontent, we begin to despair, even doubt God and doubt his word because something was near and it was good.
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And we could have been out of this whole mess, but by his own providence, by his hand, we've been led on this roundabout way and look at all the trouble that this has caused.
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Look at all the misery that this has brought into my life. And sometimes we just try to acknowledge that, grin and bear it as best as we can.
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What we fail to do so often is stop and think about what the roundabout way has spared us.
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What it has spared us. The Egyptians may have never understood what laid ahead with that near, short, easy, good -looking path.
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The fortresses of the Egyptians and with it a ticket back to slavery. But they don't think about that.
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They don't know what's beyond that. All they know is this long way that's now really hard, really grueling, and look at the cost, look at the loss, look at the pain.
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And they're unable to stop and reflect. What have I been spared from?
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What have I been spared from? Stop and think. At different junctures in your life as a
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Christian, if God had allowed you to pursue the path that at that time seemed so good, that you wanted it so bad and you prayed for it to come, and now as that path dissolved and you were brought in a very different path, a very difficult path, and you begin to groan and murmur and complain and say, look at the loss, look at the pain.
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How could I trust God if he's leading me in this way? Stop and think. If he had given you your way, you'd be back in Egypt.
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You'd be back in bondage. You're beginning to doubt God now on the roundabout way. You would have abjectly rejected
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God had you gotten your way. Stop and think. Not only where does
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God's providence lead you, but what has God's providence spared you from?
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Soren Kierkegaard. I love Kierkegaard. I wish I had more time to read him, but I'm thankful I remember this passage from a work,
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Every Good and Every Perfect Gift. And he's a Christian, a Danish philosopher, very elaborate thinker, an existentialist philosopher.
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You take it with a grain of salt, but he has these incredible passages in his writings. And he's reflecting,
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I think, on this point in a way that's so helpful. He's preaching it practically.
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He's writing it in the second person. He says this. You wanted God's ideas about what was best for you to coincide with your ideas, right?
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Let's start there, right? What do we always want? Lord, here's what would be great for me. Now make that happen, right?
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We all agree this would be great, right? I need a Bugatti Chevron, and all right, this would be great for me,
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Lord. Now make it happen. You wanted God's ideas about what was best for you to coincide with your ideas, but you also wanted him to be the almighty creator of heaven and earth, because he has to be able to properly fulfill your wish, right?
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He can only do that if he's the almighty creator. So you want him to be almighty, the wise, infinitely wise creator, but you also want his ideas of your best to be your ideas of your best.
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And yet, if he were to share your ideas, he would cease to be the almighty. If he reasoned like a man reasons, if he thought your short, naive, ignorant thoughts, he would not be the almighty, all -wise
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God. In your childish impatience, you wanted, so to speak, to distort his eternal nature, and you were blinded enough to delude yourself as though somehow you would benefit if God in heaven did not know better than you yourself know what is best, right?
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Just put me on the throne, God. I'll straighten all this out. I know how to get me from here to glory.
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And then Kierkegaard says, you know, let me reason like a man reasons. He says, let's just pretend that you're reasoning and trying to persuade a man, not even the almighty, all -wise
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God, but just a man. You're trying to persuade this man about what is best for your life. And he says this. If by my pleas,
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I moved him to do what he did not consider right, then something terrible would happen. I would have been weak enough to make him just as weak.
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I finally convinced him. I finally persuaded him. And in my own ignorance, my own weakness,
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I've now made him just as weak and just as ignorant. And then he says,
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I would have lost him. I got my way and I have no place and no need for you now.
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And I would have lost him and I lost my trust in him. And at that time of intoxication, you see
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Kierkegaard is like a drunken man. I would have called his weakness love.
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Isn't that fascinating? In that time of absolute delusion and idiocy,
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I would have said the fact that he is now ignorant and weak to what is best for me, like I am ignorant and weak,
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I would have called that ignorance, that weakness, his love for me. So what is he saying?
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When we don't get our way, in our childish impatience, we think, I don't know that God loves me.
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I don't know that God is loving. I don't know that I can trust him. I know that he has all power, but can
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I really trust that he loves me? And Kierkegaard is right. You would make
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God like unto yourself. Be thankful that God is nothing like you, that his ways are not your ways, that his thoughts are not your thoughts, that his best for you is actually something that is best for you rather than some nightmare that you would pull upon yourself.
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Brothers, sister, if your current lot, if your trial is painful and it's against everything you had expected,
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I never thought my life would look like this. I never thought I'd have to deal with this.
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Do not conclude somehow that God has forsaken you. Reflect first and foremost on what he has spared you from, and then reflect on what he is forming in you.
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Remember that the way that God chose for the Israelites was longer, more grueling, and against their best plans, but it was the only way that led them to the promise.
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It was the only way. And old Puritan said, the Israelites would be astonished at the way that God chose, and they were disposed to complain.
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And heaven is a path paved with Ebenezers at every left and right. Those that are on a heavenward journey constantly are reflecting on the trustworthy mercies of God.
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Those that are on their way to hell have no ability to reflect on their life or on God's providence upon them.
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They have no reason to give thanks to God. They go to their deathbeds with complaints and bitterness. You know,
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Edna on her deathbed, and she's complaining about the soup, completely ignorant to the reality of mortality setting upon her.
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When you can see how the trial is working in you, a consciousness of God, a consciousness of His hand guiding your life, of holding your life in the grasp, of myriad blessings and memorial stones that you build almost daily, then you come to count even the sharpest thorns of trial as sweet messengers, sweet messengers.
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A mature Christian is one who doesn't shrink under trial or melt like snow.
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A mature Christian is one who, when that sharp thorn begins to press into their side, they can say, oh
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Lord, you must want me to draw so close to you now that you've brought this into my life. This is painful.
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Lord, you are going to draw me close. You are going to magnify your presence in my life. This is painful, but I'm about to drink more deeply of the presence of my
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Savior than I ever would have otherwise. Lord, this is painful, but you're bringing me closer on the verge of Jordan.
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Will I not bless you who calls me to himself? That's a mature Christian.
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Elizabeth Payson Prentiss in her tremendous hymn, More Love to the O Christ, let sorrow do its work.
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Let sorrow do its work. Lots of people can come to some sort of relenting, fatalistic embrace of difficult providence, but that's not what
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Prentiss is saying. Let sorrow do its work, and then it actually becomes a prayer. Send grief and pain.
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I so trust you. I trust you. I never doubt your love.
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I have trusted you. Let me never be ashamed of you. Send grief and pain, and this is what she says.
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Sweet are thy messengers. Sweet their refrain.
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Wait a minute, a trial is not sweet. A thorn is not sweet. Even if you recognize it's from the hand of God, that doesn't make it a sweet messenger.
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What makes a trial, a pain, a loss, an absolute wrestling match, some shocking, stunning tragedy?
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What makes that kind of trial a sweet messenger in your life? What makes that refrain sweet?
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Listen, let sorrow do its work. Send grief and pain. Sweet are thy messengers. Sweet their refrain.
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When they can sing with me, more love, O Christ, to thee.
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That's when trials become sweet in the life of a believer. Lord, I would place thine hand in mine, nor ever murmur, nor ever repine, content whatever lot
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I see, since it is thine hand that leadeth me. It's a nail -scarred hand that leads us through difficult providences.
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It's bloody footsteps that have gone before us unto glory. Sweet are thy messengers.
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When they sing with us, more love to thee, O Christ. So commit yourself to him and trust yourself to him in all of your ways.
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Acknowledge him. He will make straight your paths. Not one path, you know, not one way.
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No, in all your ways, acknowledge him. He will make straight all your paths.
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And that brings us, lastly, and we close here, God leading us through the valleys to living fountains, to living fountains, all the way our
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Savior leads us. Search me, O God, we read in Psalm 139. Know my heart, try me, right?
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This is Octavius Winslow, sensible presence. Know my anxieties, see if there's any wicked way in me.
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Lead me in the way everlasting. Lead me to the fountains of living water.
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All the way the Savior leads, from beginning to end, from birth through death to new life.
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All of the way, not part of the way, not temporarily, not coming and going at times, not checking in, all of the way, step by step, whether by day or by night, the
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Savior leads. Thomas Brooks said, a man were better to say there is no God than to say that God is unfaithful.
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All the way my Savior leads me. We're gonna close with this hymn. All the way my Savior leads me.
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Cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread.
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And on that day, when we are called to that last embrace, when the voice is nearer than ever, the moment before our eyes open to glimpse the one who loved us and seeing him being made like him.
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On that day, when as Revelation 7 puts it, they neither hunger nor thirst anymore, and the sun does not strike them, nor any heat covered by the cloud.
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For the lamb who's in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them.
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And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. We said in Isaiah 40 that God is like a shepherd and he tenderly leads his flock in an understanding way.
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And in Revelation 7, we see who that shepherd is. The shepherd is the lamb. The slain lamb is our shepherd.
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The lamb will shepherd us and lead us to living fountains. The lamb who poured out his own life through his own blood to atone for our sins, that lamb is the one who's leading us.
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By his own crucified and resurrected body, he beckons us and guides us in greater ways by his spirit than any cloud of pillar of fire could ever hope to lead.
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We all like sheep have gone astray, but this lamb followed perfectly the leading of his heavenly father.
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We all like sheep have gone astray, but this lamb never turned back even when God led him through the valley of death to death, even death on a cross.
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And when this lamb bore the wrath due for our sins upon his own body on the tree, he faithfully was walking on the path that God had prepared before him.
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He was led, Isaiah 53 says, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter so that as the slaughtered lamb, he might lead us as his sheep to glory.
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That's the gospel. That's why we'll never hunger nor thirst anymore.
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Why the sun will not strike nor heat consume. The lamb who's in the midst of the throne will shepherd and lead us to living fountains of waters.
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We will enter and dwell within that cloud of glory and the fiery presence of God through the blood of the lamb.
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Amen. Here is the boundless grace of Jesus. As Henry Law says, the pillar does not leave until the full blaze of heaven breaks forth.
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Like Bethlehem star, it brings us finally to the place where Jesus is. That's God's leading presence.
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God leads by goodness in truth through temptations and valleys to living fountains.
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This is God's leading presence. Amen. Let's pray.
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Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your presence. Lord, let that sun arise and melt any coldness.
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If there's any wicked way within us, Lord, wherever that gap is between our sense of your abiding presence in our lives,
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Lord, close that gap with greater measures of your love through your spirit,
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Lord. May we be drawn to you, drawn to the one who loves us in this way. Lord, may this church not be a church that can go weeks or months at a time without any sense of you being present,
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Lord. May we be a church who mourns your absence, longs for your presence, such that we seek and pursue it daily with every renewing mercy by the morning and by night, seeking your presence in our sleep.
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And may we do this corporately as a body, seeking to follow your will and what you have for us as you take us not only individually, but even corporately through temptations and valleys unto glory.
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Help us, Lord, we pray. If there's one here who's ignorant to your grace, might you turn them from a goat into a sheep, from a sinner into a saint, even this day, by trusting in the cleansing blood of the
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Savior and shepherd them unto glory, Lord. We ask this and we pray for this in your son's name, amen.