Face to Face

Well, in John Bunyan's famous allegory,

The Pilgrim's Progress, his hero Christian comes to face a situation that is much like one that many of us face on a day -to -day basis and just much like what the

Israelites are facing in Exodus chapter 33. Christians encounter reads in this way,

I then saw in my dream that as far as this valley stretched there was a very deep ditch on the right hand, that is the ditch into which the blind have led the blind in all ages and have both miserably perished there.

Behold on the left hand was a very dangerous quagmire into which if even a godly man falls he can find no bottom for his foot to stand on.

Into that quagmire King David once fell and no doubt would have been smothered had he not, had not he who is able plucked him out.

The pathway through this valley was exceedingly narrow, therefore Christian had great difficulty, for when he sought in the dark to shun the ditch on the one hand, he was ready to tip over into the mire on the other side, and as he carefully sought to escape the mire he would almost fall into the ditch.

Thus he went on sighing bitterly, for besides the dangers mentioned above the pathway was so dark that often when he lifted his foot to step forward he did not know where or upon what he would set it next.

About the midst of this valley he saw the mouth of hell which was very close to the narrow path.

Now thought Christian, what shall I do? The flame and smoke would continually come out in such abundance with sparks and hideous noises, things which

Christian could not fight with his sword as he did Apollyon before. Therefore he was forced to put away his sword and to take up another weapon called all prayer.

So he cried out, O Lord, I beseech you, deliver my soul.

Thus he went on for a great while with the flame still reaching towards him. He also heard doleful voices and rushings to and fro, so that sometimes he thought he would be torn in pieces or trodden down like mire in the streets.

This frightful sight was seen and these dreadful noises were heard by him for several miles.

Arriving at a place where he thought that he heard a company of fiends coming forward to meet him, he stopped and pondered what was best for him to do.

Sometimes he had half a mind to go back. Then again he thought he might be already halfway through the valley.

He also remembered how he had already vanquished many dangers and that the danger of going back might now be much more than for him to go forward.

So he resolved to persevere on the dangerous path. Yet the fiends came nearer and nearer and when they were almost upon him he cried out with the most forceful voice,

I will walk in the strength of the Lord my God. With this the fiends retreated and came no further.

It is important to note that now poor Christian was so bewildered that he did not know his own voice.

Just when he had come near the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones snuck up stealthily behind him whispering and suggesting many grievous blasphemies to him, which he thought had proceeded from his own mind.

This tired Christian, this was more than anything he met with before. To think that he would now blaspheme him who he loved so much.

Yet if he could have helped it, he would not have done it. But he had not the discretion either to stop his ears or to know from whence these blasphemies came.

When Christian had traveled in this disconsolate condition for considerable time, he thought he heard the voice of a man somewhere ahead of him saying, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil for you are with me.

Then he was glad and for these reasons. First, because he realized by this that someone who feared

God was in this valley as well as himself. Secondly, he realized that God was with him in that dark and dismal state, though he could not perceive him.

Thirdly, he hoped that he could overtake the person ahead of him and to have company soon.

So Christian went on and called to the person ahead of him, but that person did not know what to answer for he also thought that he was alone.

By and by the day broke. Then Christian said he has turned the shadow of death into the morning.

Last week when we left the Israelites standing beneath Mount Sinai the position that they were in was one in which they had been separated from God.

Their world had become dark, if not literally then certainly spiritually.

The light of God had gone out of the camp. We read that Yahweh declared that although they were still to go into the promised land and that he would prepare the way for them, they would do so without the blessing of his presence among them.

As the reality of this begins to dawn on them, we see a transition from this state that they are in to a state of mourning.

In verses 6 and then we see Moses's response in verse 7.

In the remaining verses in this passage that we started last week, we see how even in the midst of what seemed to be the darkest of nights, there was hope.

So if you will please take your copy of God's Word. Make your way to the 33rd chapter of the book of Exodus as we once again read verses 1 through 11.

And having found your place, please rise in reverence for the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, complete, and certain

Word. In the 33rd chapter of the book of Exodus, beginning in the first verse and following, we read these words.

Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, Go, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which

I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying to your seed

I will give it, and I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the

Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the

Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst, because you are a stiff -necked people, lest I consume you on the way.

Then the people heard this sad word and went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments.

So Yahweh said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, you are a stiff -necked people.

Should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would consume you. So now put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what

I shall do with you. So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Oreb onward.

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting.

And everyone who sought Yahweh would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

And it happened, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand each at the entrance of his tent and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent.

And it happened, whenever Moses entered the tent, that the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent.

And Yahweh would speak with Moses, and all the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent.

And all the people would arise and worship each at the entrance of his tent.

Thus Yahweh used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.

Then Moses would return to the camp, and his attendant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Our prayer this morning is adapted from piercing the heavens, entitled to approach an infinite

God. Oh infinite and majestic Lord, you who dwell in unapproachable light and yet stoops to commune with man.

We bow before you just as Moses did, desiring your presence above all else.

You are vast beyond measure, perfect in holiness, and unsearchable in wisdom.

No mind can contain you. No heart can fathom the depths of your mercy and your justice.

Lord we confess that our understanding is but a flickering candle before the blazing glory of you.

We think of you too lightly, and often too casually before your throne.

Teach us the reverent fear that delights in your nearness, while trembling at your majesty.

Lead us, lead us as you led Moses, not merely by your angel but by your own presence.

Let us know you, not in shadow or in symbol, but in the brightness of your revealed grace in Christ.

Kindle within us a longing to behold your glory and to be conformed to it.

For to know you is life eternal. We ask these things in the name of your blessed

Son Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. John Calvin once wrote, we are not our own, therefore as far as possible let us forget ourselves and the things that are ours.

On the other hand, we are God's. Let us therefore live and die to him.

We are God's, therefore let us wisdom and will preside over all, let his wisdom and will preside over all our actions.

We are God's. To him, then, as the only legitimate end, let every part of our life be directed.

As we open up our text this morning, we are going to begin our study in earnest with verse 7.

Now briefly, last week we mentioned verse 7 with the intention to demonstrate how this particular verse drives home the point that God will no longer dwell with his people as a result of the sin, the unrepentant sin, in their lives.

We saw in verses 4 and 6 a display of the people demonstrating sorrow and mourning that God would no longer dwell within their midst.

However, if you will notice in the final sentence here of verse 7, that although God does not dwell among his people, his people were not expressly forbidden for coming to him.

In fact, it reads, and everyone who sought Yahweh would go out to the tent of meeting, which is outside the camp.

In the Old King James Version it would read, and it came to pass that they would come.

Now this particular passage contains some challenges that theologians have dealt with over the years.

In fact, this entire chapter does this for some theologians. Many question the particular tent of meeting that is mentioned.

In fact, one of the things that we see in the original language is that there is a definite article contained before the tent, meaning the.

We've translated into the English as the. It means a specific tent that was known to the people in some way.

Now this has led some people to believe that this particular tent was the tent that Moses describes, that God gives him instructions to, meaning the tent of the tabernacle itself, which if you've paid attention to the text and you understand the flow of the history, has not yet been constructed.

There are some who believe that because the tent had not yet been constructed, but they are still convinced that this tent points to the tabernacle, that this chapter of Scripture is actually misplaced within the text, that it belongs somewhere else.

However, I believe that this passage is exactly where the Holy Spirit intended for this passage to be for the purpose of demonstrating something to us regarding the people of Israel, their response to God versus Moses's response, and what it should teach us as believers today.

One thing we do know for sure, beyond any doubt, that this particular tent is used on multiple occasions.

It is highly unlikely that this is the tent described, the tent of meeting that is associated with the tabernacle, but probably a tent that was used in an intermediary sense.

If you'll notice in verse 7, it says how Moses used to take and everyone who sought

Yahweh would go, describing past events that occurred in a plural manner, meaning that more than one of these things happened.

Now this adds to the confusion, because again, although it is clear that these are past events, right, this is the first time that we've talked about this.

And so we don't really understand the flow of exactly where this happened, but what's important here is it was a known event for Moses to take this particular tent, take it outside of the camp.

The only reason for Moses to go outside of the camp is that God has determined that he cannot be in the midst of the people.

The other thing that we need to keep in mind is that as Moses descends, and we'll see in a few moments,

God, or not in a few moments, but in a few verses, God determines that he will continue to be with the people, and he will continue to instruct

Moses to proceed with the construction of the tabernacle that he may dwell in their midst.

If you'll recall the intricate details with which the tabernacle was given, and all of the implements, and the institution of the priesthood, these things will take time to construct.

So it is very likely that this was a temporary place that Moses would use to meet with God in the interim between the command given regarding building the tabernacle and the actual construction and institution of the tabernacle.

The most important fact beyond all of these things is not when and how long it is the fact that when

God declared to the people through Moses that he would not go with them, they mourned from inside the camp while Moses went outside the camp to where God was.

A .W. Pink wrote, in this action of Israel's leader, we may discern the exercise of real faith.

Faith. Faith that comes by hearing. Hearing of the

Word of God. Moses had been hearing the Word of God yonder in the mount.

The desire of Moses' heart was to continue to hear, to continue to drink deeply from the flow of living water that had become a necessity to him in his life.

How we should heed Moses' response in this dark time.

Listen, God had already told the people he would not go with them.

Now what I need you to understand is that this is as if all of the light has gone out.

Listen, day, night, all of these things are still occurring, but it is the darkest of dark nights of the soul when

God determines he would not go with them. Imagine for a moment, believer, if God withdrew his

Spirit from your life. Some of us can remember before we had

God's Spirit and the darkness that existed there. This is a situation of the people.

Moses. Moses determines. We find no command where God says to Moses, Moses take a tent, pitch it out here, this will be the tent of meeting.

You come and meet with me there, leave all of those knuckleheads back in the camp. We don't see that. What we see is that as a result of what

God has told Moses in verses 1 through 6, Moses takes the tent and pitches it outside the camp where God is.

Because where God is, is where Moses desires to be.

In the darkest time he wanted to be in the presence of Almighty God.

I wonder how often we feel darkness, we feel difficulty, we feel far from the presence of God.

You see our response in those moments speak and tell much of our character as believers or they possibly even demonstrate to us that we are not in fact believers.

That we maybe lack true faith and true repentance.

You see the people stood back and mourned and they watched Moses approach but they never left.

At this point they never went out. How often do we sit back and and never go to God?

We just wallow in whatever's happening in our lives. We never turn to his word, we never see the response of Moses as being the response of ourselves, taking ourselves to where God is, to where we can hear his word, to be saturated with his love and his grace and his mercy and his truth, to stand in awe and wonder at his holiness.

Now be sure and understand that if you do this, even in the midst of when you are down and when you are dealing with situations,

God is there but you need to know and understand that inevitably in the midst of this you will be confronted with the depths of your sin.

I know, I know we want to come to church and we want to walk out feeling better right?

Well in order to feel better sometimes you have to feel worse because sometimes it comes to this point of truly acknowledging who we are.

Be sure that you will be laid bare. You will be split open.

The word says that his word is sharper than any two -edged sword.

I love the passage we read today, David says, search me O God and know my heart.

See if there be any wicked way in me and if there is, expose it, bring it into the light.

I may be repent. Oftentimes we want to think that it's all love and grace and mercy and but to truly understand the love and grace and mercy, to truly know what it means, then we have to understand that we deserve the wrath and judgment.

But in that confrontation, in that exposure, in that realization, that is where we began to be overwhelmed by the extent of his grace and his mercy and his love because we understand and we realize that there is absolutely nothing that we are worthy of and by his choice, by his will, he has poured out his grace and mercy on us.

For Moses, for Moses that meant going outside of the camp to go where the place that God was.

For Moses that meant to go outside of the camp. For you and I, it means a lot of things but it means first and foremost, first and foremost, the absolute necessity and you think

I'm gonna say come listen to me preach, that's not what I'm gonna say. Listen to me preach, don't listen to me preach, but go to the word.

Listen to somebody else preach or don't listen to somebody else preach, go to the word. Listen, if you go to the word, you will be convicted.

As you're convicted, as it's exposed, you will deal with it and it will drive you to where the people of God are.

Your desire will be to learn and you will quickly know that you aren't capable.

Go back to our psalm from this morning, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is too high.

I cannot attain it. I desire it,

I seek after it, but I need to be taught.

When we, when we surround ourselves with the word, when we open the Bible, sacred scripture, the written word of the living

God and we plunge headfirst into its depths, life changed.

John wrote in Revelation, and I took the little scroll out of the angel's hand and I ate it and in my mouth it was sweet as honey and when

I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel wrote, your words are found and I ate them and your words became joy for me, joy and gladness in my heart, for I have been called by your name,

O Yahweh of hosts. Ezekiel writing says, now as for you, son of man, listen to what

I am speaking to you, do not be rebellious like that rebellious house, open your mouth and eat what

I am giving you. Then I looked and behold a hand was sent forth to me and behold a scroll was in it, then he spread it out before me and it was written on the front and the back and written on it were lamentations and sighing and woe and he said to me, son of man, eat what you find, eat the scroll and go and speak to the house of Israel.

So I opened my mouth and he fed me this scroll and he said to me, son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with the scroll which

I am giving you. Then I ate it and it was as sweet as honey in my.

That's what it means to truly encounter the word of the living God.

Yes, it's bitter in many ways because it confronts you with the reality of who you are, but it is so much sweeter because it shows you that he has made a way for that to no longer be your reality.

That by Christ you can be transformed. When you approach it openly, now you have to be honest with yourself, okay?

And let's be honest with each other. Let's be frank with each other for a minute.

This is church after all, we should be that way, right? I know we're in the South, we're in, you know, the

Bible belt and most of us, if you grew up in church, you probably grew up in one of those churches that we couldn't really admit things to each other because we were all church people, so we were all supposed to be had it all figured out, right?

No, that's part of the reason people don't trust church now because we go in and we parade around as if everything's okay and we're broken and we aren't willing to share and show and demonstrate that we're broken over our sin.

That we are thankful that we serve an amazing God, but when we confront

God's Word openly and honestly, and we have to be honest again with ourselves, which is the hardest person to be honest with.

It's hard to be honest with yourself than it is with anybody else, but if we come to it honestly, we will be confronted with truth.

And listen, I don't care if you've been a believer for 75 out of 76 years of your life, or if you've been a believer for two days, there is still something within you that the

Word of God will confront. In fact, I believe that the longer you're a believer, the more you feel remorse over your sin because the more you realize how deep it is.

Moses had a passion and a deep desire to be in the presence of God, so much so that he was willing to go where God was, even if it meant going outside of the camp, even if it meant leaving the relative safety of the camp.

Notice last verse, in verse 7, there is an emphasis that is actually placed here on the distance that the tent is from the camp.

Now, we aren't given like a measurement, but the word that's used here in the

Hebrew language is a word that is developed theologically throughout

Scripture. It's more than just a description of a location. It's got more to do with, oh, well he was 575 .6

feet from the camp. It's got more to do with the separation between God and sin than it does with the actual physical separation of where the camp is.

As you travel through Scripture and you study this term, this word that is used here, it demonstrates almost this sense of being unreachable, unattainable.

It's used by Jeremiah to describe the state of those who have transgressed the law of God, where he writes, thus says

Yahweh, what injustice did your fathers find in me, that they went far from me and walked after vanity and became vain.

Isaiah uses it multiple times to develop this idea of things being at a distance from God.

The word itself again demonstrates that this unreachable, it makes it clear that the people could come.

Look at the last clause, and all who sought God could come into the tent.

They could come. But when we look at today's passage, who actually came?

Only two. Only two. Moses and Joshua.

The people simply were not going, but they knew

Moses was. Look at verse 8. Verse 8, it says now, and it happened that whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would rise and stand each at the entrance of his tent.

They would gaze after Moses until he entered the tent. Now, first of all, notice the stark contrast between this statement and what began all of this in Exodus chapter 32 with the creation of the idol.

Remember, they went to Aaron and they said to Aaron to make us an idol. Why did they say that?

Well, this Moses, right, this Moses, this guy that we've been following, that we have no respect for, this guy, he's disappeared up on the mountain.

We don't know where he is. We don't know if he's coming back. We don't know if he's dead or alive. But now, as Moses makes his way to this tent, they stand in a reverential manner.

The fact that they stood and they watched demonstrates this. C .A.

Coates writes, the people stood at their tent doors interested in Moses, looking after him, and then seeing the pillar of clouds stand at the entrance of the tent, but they still didn't go out.

They seemed to represent those who have reverence for divine things, those who seem to be interested in the truth, but who remain in the safety of the camp.

God -fearing persons, but not knowing the presence of the Lord in its attractive and satisfying power.

Those who were okay to witness it from afar, but not dare to approach at this point, to move forward.

Now to be sure and to be fair to the Israelites, they had just come off of God telling them, if I am within your midst for even a moment,

I will destroy you. So I'm sure there was a little fear and trepidation, but they watched their leader go.

The people, much like many people today, they like the idea of God's presence, they like the idea of God's protection, they crave the idea of God's favor, as long as it doesn't come with any commands or demands.

As long as it doesn't have any of those things, then we're good. Bring on the blessing.

But the moment that challenge arises, the moment that difficulty comes, they want to walk away.

You see, they want the love of God without the holiness or the wrath of God. They want his favor, they want his protection, but they don't want the demand for obedience.

They want the things of God as they see beneficial without the things they see as hindrances.

As many of you are probably aware, there were some quote -unquote protests around the country yesterday.

In the midst of one of them, I saw a sign that read, something along the lines of justice and equality for everyone.

Now my immediate thought was twofold, I've got to be honest. First of all, they didn't really know what they were asking for, and they really didn't mean everyone.

That was the first thing that popped in my mind. First of all, true justice means we all get what we deserve, whether that is from the law of man or the law of God.

If we transgress the law of man, we should receive the punishment for that transgression. If we transgress the law of God, we should receive the punishment for that transgression.

That's justice. They don't want justice. The other part of this is they don't really mean it for everyone.

Now I want to be clear, this is not a political statement. This is an internal statement.

Let's draw the real lines here. We can paint donkeys and we can paint elephants all day long.

This isn't about either of those. This is about those who are gods and those who are not.

Because you see, there's only two types of people. That's exactly right.

Believers and non -believers. I wish the camera could hear. We have grown adults running around, don't understand this, and we've got a child in the back that can distinguish the difference.

There's only two, believers and non -believers. Let me just tell you brothers and sisters, man, ain't nothing better than to a preacher's heart than to stand in a church and have a kid answer a question like that that most adults would just lose their mind over.

Almost threw me off my game, but I love it. It's awesome.

That's the question. That's what's before us. It's being described and situated in other ways.

The enemy is doing everything he can. This has got nothing to do with political party, ethnicity, origin, culture group.

It's about those who reject Christ and those who by faith are saved in him. That's what it all boils down to.

True justice means we get what we deserve. Equality for everyone means that we are held to the same standard.

Period. And I'm here to tell you brothers and sisters, that standard ain't the code of laws for the

United States of America. That standard ain't the code of laws for the state of South Carolina.

That standard is the code of laws by God Almighty. It is his word.

When you stand before him on that final day of judgment, he's not gonna ask you, did you drive the speed limit every time you got in your car?

He's already gonna know that you have faltered and fallen and sinned because that is all of us.

The question is, is do you have faith in Christ? As the people watched

Moses enter the tent, they witness a visible manifestation of the presence of Almighty God.

A visible manifestation of the presence of Almighty God. As Moses enters, it says the pillar descended to the tent.

Later we know that God is speaking to Moses. Verse 11 will describe it beautifully as this conversation.

But as these people witness these events, they have only one response.

They bow. They bow in worship. Listen. A clear and a right view of God, a clear and a right view of God will always result in one and only one thing.

You will bow. It may be now, it may be later, but every knee will bow.

Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. There is no question.

A right view of God, a right reality, a right understanding will put you in a place of worship.

Even though these people didn't draw near, they witnessed the presence of God descending.

I'm reminded of the effect of the real presence of God on the real people of God as we worked through the

Old Testament. How it affected Isaiah as he was undone.

Habakkuk felt rottenness creeping up in his bones because of the presence of Almighty God.

Moses in just a few verses will not be able to stand in the presence because God says, if you see my face you will surely die.

And so we get to this place in verse 11 where it says, thus

Yahweh used to speak to Moses face to face just as a man would speak to a friend.

This one verse, this one verse contains so much to rejoice over.

So much that is amazing. First of all the reality that God and man could be reconciled to the point where this level of communion was possible.

Pointing us forward to the reconciliation that we experience by faith in Christ.

The only way that we can draw into this kind of a close relationship with God.

It's necessary here to make sure that we understand that this face -to -face is an idiom.

A form of description. That it's not literally God's face otherwise we have a problem down here in verse 20 where it says you can't see my face for in the moment you see my face you will surely die.

Both of these are simply descriptors used by the writer to help our feeble minds comprehend what's happening.

And so when Moses says here that they communed face to face it is this understanding of the close intimate relationship which with which these two were talking.

The other thing to rejoice over is it in this term face -to -face one of the truths that we get from here is that Moses is receiving the

Word of God literally verbally not through a vision not through a dream not through someone else he is speaking directly to God.

Why is this so important? It's important because as we deal with the reality of the

Word of God in our lives it is necessary that we understand the veracity of the

Word of God the truth behind the Word. You see we have two general terms for revelation in theology we have general revelation which basically is that demonstration of who

God is that we see in nature that all people all places can see.

So when you look outside and you see a beautiful sunset or the stars at night or the ocean or the mountain grandeur these are general revelation.

Book of Romans Paul writes about them as being this display of the invisible attributes of God within nature.

All of creation can see by this general revelation that God exists.

And then we get down to this understanding of special revelation.

Special revelation in contradiction to general revelation is a direct and self -disclosure of God that leads to salvation.

It's this giving of the truth about himself and it is revealed to his people describing exactly who he is exactly who we are and giving to us

God's redemptive plan. We know it is the Word of God. This is the primary source but contained within the

Word of God we have these other sources we have theophanies which is what the cloud descending on the tent was.

We have miracles that happen. We have the Word made flesh in Christ. We have

God speaking directly to those people like he is to Moses here. Over the coming weeks we will develop this theme more often but in this particular passage again we see two forms of special revelation the theophany and God speaking directly to Moses.

This drives us to a question. What will you do with God's self -revelation, self -disclosure?

What will you do with the information that God has given to us from his lips? If the

Lord indeed has drawn near in the cloud if if the Lord indeed has spoken his word to Moses and if in these last days he has indeed spoken to us in his son as Hebrews tells us neutrality is impossible.

Goes back to our statement earlier. There's believers and there's unbelievers. It is a summons.

This is not mere information. This is not the just come get your weekly download of Christiology.

This is a summons to the throne of God and an answer to the question do you believe?

The same God. The same God who would consume a stiff -necked people in a moment invites us sinners to approach through a mediator and live.

For Israel that mediator as we have talked about in the past is Moses. For us it is the crucified and risen

King. Listen, Christ is the living word attested to by the written word.

If we were to stand off at a distance and admire the pillar like the

Israelites are doing at this moment it's not the same as drawing near.

The people they rose and they watched and they fell and they worshipped but Moses was transformed.

It's just getting ahead of ourselves but we know that the way we see that Moses has been transformed and understand that Moses has transformed in the very presence of Almighty God is it's the way he is and appears to the people when he comes out of the presence of God mirroring the holiness and glory so much so that they can't bear to look upon him.

The word that the revelation of God is still the same design.

It's designed to not leave us as spectators but to bring us in to worship, to eat the scroll, to receive the word so deeply that it's sweetness humbles us and it's bitterness of conviction heals us by this word.

By this word and through the conviction of the

Holy Spirit our sins are exposed but as our sins are exposed and they are dealt with our path is steadied.

Our steps on the narrow way becomes sure. We are conformed to the image of the

Son. We cannot be content with reverence at the door.

Let us go outside the camp to the place of meeting that God has appointed.

Open the gates of scripture, bow beneath their authority and find Christ the presence that turns the shadow of death into morning.

Only then are we a people shaped, steadied and sent by the voice of the

Lord our God. The scene that sits before us is sobering but it is also full of hope.

Israel's camp is heavy with mourning, with sorrow, with sadness. The pillar descends outside the boundaries of their comfort and Moses goes to where God is into the presence that both exposes and restores.

Christian, Bunyan's pilgrim felt the heat of hell's mouth and the hiss of blasphemous whispers and yet he took up a weapon called all prayer and pressed on.

Moses, Moses determined not to remain a spectator.

He pinched his tent a good distance from the people, away from the sin and there the

Lord spoke to him as a man speaks to his friend and there the

Word of God becomes life, direction, renewal.

Special Revelation again is not mere information, it is a summons. This Word is a summons to you and your life every day.

God's self -disclosure calls for a movement of heart and life away from stiff -necked self -rule and toward humble, obedient communion.

The people watch from the doorways and they worship from afar. Moses enters. This is the dividing line in every generation.

Will we remain admirers or will we become worshippers who approach by the mediator that God provides?

Will we by faith in Christ, the crucified, risen, reigning

King? He who himself is the true and living tent where God meets man. Through him these scriptures become honey to the mouth, holy fire to the conscience.

The Spirit steadies our steps on the narrow path. Through him the shadow of death becomes the rays of first morning's light.

Therefore, as the writer of the letter to Hebrews says to us in the 13th chapter, in the 13th verse, let us go outside the camp to Christ.

Let us open his Word. Let us bow beneath its authority. Let us answer its call.

Let reverence give way to repentance. Repentance to obedience. Obedience to delight in the presence of God.

The God who would ensue, consume, the impenitent in a moment is the very God who welcomes sinners through his

Son and transforms them by his Word, through his

Spirit. So the question that demands an answer for you today is will you stay at the tent door, respectful but distant, when we come to Christ?

Will you draw near by faith? Will you be changed by the

Word that speaks life? The morning has broken. The Lord who turned the valley's shadow into light still calls, saying, come all you who are weary and heavy laden.

I will give you rest. Let us pray. Most holy and gracious Father, Lord, we bless you that through our, though our sins deserve your judgment, you have made a way for nearness through the mediator

Christ Jesus. Lord, we confess how often we stand at our tent doors respectful, interested, even moved, and yet remain distanced from obedient fellowship.

Lord, forgive our stiff necks. Forgive our cautious reverence.

Forgive our reluctant hearts. Lord, grant us the courage of faith to go to where you are, to seek your face in your

Word, and to yield ourselves wholly to your will. Lord, by your

Spirit, make your scripture sweet to our taste, searching to our souls, sweet that we may delight in your ways, searching that we may turn from every false path where fear whispers and accusations arise.

Teach us the weapon of all prayer, that we may walk in the strength of the

Lord our God. Father, draw near to the broken.

Steady us, the wavering. Embolden the repentant.

Turn our sorrow into worship that is not from afar, but face to face through Christ, conforming us to your

Son. Father, that our homes and this congregation is a people shaped by your presence, humble, holy, and hopeful.

Set our feet on the narrow way. Keep us from the ditch of error and the mire of compromise.

Lead us by your Word and your Spirit until the shadow yields to morning, and we behold your glory in the face of Christ forever.

We ask this in the name of our Redeemer and our friend, the