You know, one of the great statements in all of the Bible is a statement in the book of Jeremiah, where God says, I know the thoughts that I think toward you. God thinks about us. In fact, Jeremiah tells us he thinks about us personally, individually. You ever paused and thought about that. Baghdad may be the most important statement you will ever hear, that God thinks about you. In fact, the Bible says he not only thinks about us, he knows our name. He doesn't forget who we are, where we are, or anything about us. In fact, he knows things that you and I don't know about ourselves. says he knows the very hairs on our head right now. What a comfort, what an encouragement it is to be reminded that although we forget about each other, we forget anniversaries and birthdays, names of people, even people in our fellowship here, God doesn't. God's thoughts are always upon his people. And he not only thinks about us, but the Bible tells us he forgives us. He's a God of forgiveness. He's a God of second chances. Moses, as he led this nation, he was acutely aware of that truth because God had forgiven him. God had even forgiven Moses' murder, restored him, made him a man of God. And now as Moses intercedes with God for this nation, a rebellious nation, a nation that Moses says in this chapter are a stiff-necked, stubborn, incorrigible nation. Moses says to the Lord, give them another chance. Have mercy upon them. Don't destroy them. Don't cut them off. God now calls Moses back up the mountain. And God makes clear he's willing to give the nation another chance. Maybe that's you here this morning. that you have failed the Lord like Israel and you need a second chance. Maybe you started out doing something for the Lord and something got in in the middle of it, distracted you, took you away, led you onto a path you shouldn't have went. Well, here's the opportunity to get back on track with the Lord. And he brings Moses back up the mountain. And sometimes we forget this is an old man. He's over 80. And this is not just a gentle walk up the side of the reservoir there, Bali Boli. This is a walk up Mount Sinai. And this old fellow, he has to do it alone. It's a long walk. It's a difficult walk. And as he goes up the mount, God says to him, Moses, bring two tables of stone with you. Last time, I gave you the tables and you lost your temper. And instead of anger, you broke them. And now I'm giving you another chance, Moses. But this time, you bring the stone. Moses, he has to bring the stones. And you could imagine, these were heavy stones carrying him up this great mountain. He's alone. And God makes it clear, nobody's to come near the mountain. The animals keep away from the mountain. I'm going to be here. And I want Israel to fear me. I want them to realize who I really am. As he makes his way up, we're told in verse 5, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Moses there. And then God gives a description to Moses in verse 5 to 7. He reveals to Moses something about himself. It's always worth pausing and reflecting on when God tells you more about who He is. He says in verse 5 to 7, I am the Lord. Don't forget this, Moses. Don't forget this, Israel. I'm not like you. You're not my equal. You're not capable or fit to stand in my presence and argue with me. And we had our church in Singapore. Many of the churches in Singapore sing a little phrase at the beginning of every service, and we would sing it. And it's taken from the Old Testament, and it says this, the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent. Keep silent. And really that phrase has the idea when you come into the presence of the Lord, you're not coming as an equal. You're to keep your mouth closed and listen. You're to be still and know that I am God. And when you come into a church meeting like this on a Sunday morning, you're not coming to discuss something, to debate something, You're coming to hear what God declares to you and to me. Thus saith the Lord. That's what this book is about. And at the center of every evangelical Christian church, or should be at the center of every evangelical Christian church, is a pulpit. And if you remember, the architecture of a Christian church, a true New Testament Christian church, will always have the Lord's table below the pulpit. Why? Because it's telling you, even by the architecture, that the bread and the cup are under the authority of the Word. That's what it's saying. And any time you go to a church that the altar or the bread and the cup are central and take the place of the pulpit and the preaching of the Word of God, you run away. Because this is God's voice speaking. to guide and direct what happens here and through what happens here. And the same for the baptismal tank must always be under the Word of God. And the pulpit must be at the center of the church to reflect, even in the architecture, that the Word of God is over the people, not the preacher, the word. Moses, he comes up this mountain not to discuss with God, but to hear what God has to say. And as he does so, God reveals a number of things about himself. He says in verse six, the Lord God merciful and gracious. Now that word merciful is, as it says, it means full of mercy." Full of mercy. That's God. It also describes him as gracious. Now, what's the difference between merciful and being gracious? Some people think they're synonyms. They're the same thing. They're not. Maybe I could use an illustration that will help you understand that. Imagine if a little boy was outside your home, and he was kicking a football, and he deliberately kicked it at your window, and it smashed, shattered. Or he threw a stone at your window, and it shattered. Now, a merciful person is a person who says, I will punish you for what you have done. If the child comes and says, I'm sorry, I was wrong. I was rebellious. I shouldn't have done it. A merciful person says, I won't report you to the authorities and I will punish you for what you have done. That's mercy. But grace goes much further than mercy. Grace is where the individual says, not only will I not punish you for what you have done, but number two, instead of making you pay to repair, I'll pay it myself. That's grace. See the difference? Mercy is where you don't get what you deserve, you get the very opposite of what you deserve. And God is a God who shows mercy. He's full of mercy. When a sinner repents, he's willing to stop the punishment. But not only is he full of mercy, he's full of grace. He goes beyond that and does the very opposite to what you deserve. And here in the case of Israel, God shows mercy to them in that he doesn't punish them for their idolatry, for their immorality, for their rebelliousness, for their stubbornness. But he goes beyond that. He says, I'm going to show kindness to you, the opposite of what you deserve. Isn't that what God does to you and I every day? Isn't that what God does to you and I, especially when it comes to salvation? He not only shows mercy, but he then also shows graciousness, loving kindness to us. You know, if God just saved us from our sins, forgive us our sins, and says, from all eternity, you're going to be my slave. Well, that would be mercy, wouldn't it? That would be more than we deserve. But in grace, God goes much further. He says, not only will I show mercy to you, but I will extend grace. You'll be my child. You'll be blessed with heaven. You'll reign and rule upon the earth. You'll sit on thrones of glory. Oh, that's grace, abundant grace. And God here says to Moses and to Israel, I'm a God who's full of mercy, but I'm also a God who's full of grace. And he says, I'm an abundant God in goodness and truth. If you're looking for truth, this book is full of it. If you're confused today, everything you need to get through life is in this book. Full of truth. It's abundant with truth. You can never exhaust it. If you want to know how to bring up your children, it's in this book. In this book. If you want to know how to get through the difficulties of life, it's in this book. It's full of truth. Just read it. Not only abundant in goodness, and truth. He says he's also keeps mercy or loving kindness for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression. You know if there's one word that sums up God is forgiveness. He gives forgiveness. The word forgiveness means to send away remission of sins, to send away sins. And God is able to send away the punishment for your sins and my sins over and over and over again. Now, with that revelation, and we've only just skimmed the surface this morning of who God is, how will Moses respond? I mean, after all, Moses has been especially chosen by God. to come up this mountain. Out of a nation of millions of people, just one gets up the mountain. Out of a nation of millions of people, only one does God not say anything negative about. Out of a nation of millions of people, only one does God say, I'll rebuild the nation through him. Out of all the millions of Israel, only one does God say, he is my friend. And I speak to him face to face. And I give him special revelations of me. And I do wonderful miracles through him. Only one man. So how will Moses respond to this special privilege? and this special revelation of God. Will he be proud? Will he look down the mountain and he say to those down there, huh, see? He talked bad against me. Look at me now. Aaron, who's the leader? But notice how Moses responds in verse eight. This is what makes Moses so great. Such a great leader. Such a great example, because it says, and Moses made haste. Quickly, this is his response. This is his instinctive response. It says he made haste, and notice what happens next. And he bowed his head toward the air, as low as he could get physically. to reflect what's in his heart, to reflect what he thinks about God. He knows he's very close to the Lord here, and in such a time, you need to be especially humble, and even your posture must reflect it. Moses puts his head to the ground to get as low physically as he can, and it says, and worshiped. does it mean to worship? It means to give God the praise that he is worth the awe. Moses began to thank the Lord and praise the Lord, magnify the Lord for who the Lord is, what the Lord has done. That's his first response. And it's so telling But then notice his second response, which is equally telling of the character of Moses, verse nine. It says, And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord. Oh, he's careful with his words. Since the Lord, you've showed grace to me. May I also request this? What's his request? I pray thee, go among us. Go among your people. Not just Moses. Don't just bless Moses. Bless Aaron. Bless Miriam. Bless the nation. have mercy upon them. And he says, for it is a stiff-necked people. Moses doesn't, he knows when you're in the presence of the Lord, you don't cover up. You can be transparent. And he says to the Lord, you know there are rebellious people. There are stiff-necked people. But he says, pardon our iniquity and our sin as a nation. He doesn't say, pardon their sin. Moses says, I'm also a sinner, our sin. And he finishes by saying this, take us, us, not just Moses, for thine inheritance. Moses' reaction When he comes into the presence and the privilege and the power of God in his life, is to first of all worship the Lord, humble himself, and then pray for others. Is that your reaction? When God meets with you, Do you come into the house of the Lord today, and as you drove in through the gates, do you look to those housing estates across the way and shake your head and say, huh, sinners? Maybe like that old Pharisee, I'm glad I am not like other men are. Or do you come into God's house and say, I'm here to worship? I'm so privileged that God has chosen me. God has given me the privilege of knowing him, loving him, being in his presence. And I am here to worship him. And then does your heart say, Lord, don't just bless me, but bless everyone around me. We pray for our community around us. Yes, they're lost in sin, but so was I. And you showed mercy. Yes, they've let you down, but so have I. And you showed mercy. Oh, do you see how pride disappears when you get close to the Lord? That's how you know that you're not close to the Lord. It's like a little spiritual thermometer. When pride rises in your soul and in your thoughts and in your heart towards others, you know you're not close to the Lord. Remember what Peter said when he was close to the Lord Jesus Christ? Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. He says, I can't be in the presence of a holy Savior like this. It exposes me. It humbles me. It rebukes me. Moses humbled himself. Moses worshipped the Lord. And Moses was concerned to others. But then in verse 10 to verse 27, just to sum up what happens here, the Lord restates the previous 10 commandments and written law that he gave Moses. Because Moses broke the tables the first time. And when you fail to do what God tells you to do the first time, it's like doing your GCSEs over again. You have to repeat them. You have to do your driving test again if you fail it the first time. God says to Moses, you failed it the first time. Now go and do it again. This time Moses has to record what God said the first time, the second time. Now God hadn't changed his mind, but Moses had to learn a lesson here. You have to do it the second time. But then in verse 28, and now we come to the end of this chapter, we come to a most amazing situation. It says in verse 28, and Moses was with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. He did neither eat bread nor drink water. Now, a man or a woman could last 40 days without food, but they can't do without water. And for 40 days, Moses is up on this mountain. No food, no wine. And he's so caught up in the presence of the Lord, he doesn't even have time to eat. He doesn't even think about eating. In fact, we don't even read that he slept. And yet, at the end of the 40 days, without eating, without drinking even water, probably without sleeping Moses hasn't lost weight. He hasn't got haggard looking. In fact, the very, very opposite. Because we're told the physical change comes to Moses that he doesn't even know has happened to him. Because it says in verse 29, and it came to pass that Moses came down from Mount Sinai. Now here's just something to say in passing. It's good to come to church on a Sunday. In fact, you should be in church on Sunday, because when you come into the presence corporately of the people of God, there's a special blessing And it's wonderful on the Lord's Day when you come here and you sing and you participate in the albums around the table and you hear the Word of God preached and you enter into the prayers. And when you come out of a meeting like this, you feel better. Even physically, I always feel that you feel cleansed if you've come in the right way. Same in the prayer meeting. I like to attend The prayer meeting, I have to say, and particularly if you can find a little prayer group. I've attended it over the past, prayer unions. There's one up at Castle Warwick, I'm sure there's ones in other places. And you see, when you come out of a prayer union meeting, it's special. You feel different, and you should feel different. Because something different has happened in there. Met with God. But you know, here's the problem for a lot of Christians. It's wonderful to be on the mount. It's wonderful to be at the place of prayer. It is wonderful to be amongst God's people, but you can't stay there. That's heaven. But we don't live in heaven. We live on earth. And although the mountaintop was wonderful for Moses, God says it's time to go down. And you have to leave God's people and go out into the world and mingle with the lost. And let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. You have to walk among them and talk among them. And that's where it's hard, isn't it? It's easy to be a Christian in here. It's easy to use the right language and vocabulary in here. But outside the church, oh, that's difficult. But that's where we're called. I remember being in a church one time, and maybe we should put one of these signs up here. At the gate of the church, when you leave, drive out, they had a big sign, big arch. We have a lot of arches, don't we? this country. Maybe we should put one up here in our mission hall. And as you leave the church car park, it says on the arch, you are now entering the mission field. You're now entering the mission field. Good words, isn't it? A good reminder that when you leave the church, where the presence of God is in a special way, you have to then go out to the world. walk amongst men, and be tested, tried, and tempted in the world outside. And Moses has to come down of the mountain. But then as he comes down the mountain, he doesn't realize that the blow of the Lord is upon him. He says he wished not. He didn't even know. Ladies would pay a fortune for those cosmetics, wouldn't they? Moses got it free. And he comes down to this mountain, and it says in verse 30, when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, they were afraid to come close to him. Do you remember Aaron wanted to be the leader? He thought he was better than Moses. In fact, when Moses left and went up the mountain the first time, Aaron quickly took over. But now when younger brother comes down, Aaron keeps away. Now, why has God marked Moses physically, not just spiritually, but physically this time? He didn't mark him the same way when he went up the first time, but this time when he comes down of the mountain, God physically marks him. It's almost like God colored him in highlighter pen, if I could say that in a reverent way. God does it, I think, for a number of reasons. Number one, to honor Moses. Because of all the people in the nation, Moses stood strong with the Lord. Moses refused to go with the crowd, unlike Aaron. God was going to honor him for that. I think number two, God was doing it to teach Israel a wonderful lesson, an encouraging lesson, that the glory of God that they could see on Moses hadn't left their nation. Remember, God had threatened to leave them. And every time they would look on Moses and see the Shekinah glory shining upon him, it was a reminder to them that God had not left them. But I think a third reason, amongst other reasons, that God chose to mark Moses in this way was to teach you and I in Lorne in 2023. that there's a special blessing that comes when you come into the presence of the Lord. You meet God and you don't leave the same way that you went in. Turn with me to Psalm 133. Very short psalm. It's really a psalm, you could say, of coming into the house of God on the Sabbath, on the Sunday, on the Lord's Day, choose whatever term you like. Because it says, behold, and the word behold means pay attention. God says, pay attention. It's a very short psalm. He says, I want you to pay attention to what I'm going to say. the psalm of King David. David knew this. It says, behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren, for God's people, to gather together in unity as one. And he says, it's like the precious ointment upon the beard or on the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirt of his garment. You know, when Aaron was anointed as high priest, what happened was they took the oil and they poured it over his head. And the oil would run from the top of his head over his garments, on his shoulders. down the sides of his robes, and even where the little tassels were at the end, and it would drip, drip everywhere Aaron went. As Aaron walked up and down the tabernacle, walked up and down the nation of Israel, going from house to house, everywhere he went, the fragrance and the dripping of the oil And David says, when you come into the presence of the Lord amongst the people of God, there are leaves of fragrance, a special anointing that touches not just your life, but many lives. And notice what verse three, it says, Psalm 133, as a Jew of Hermon, as a Jew that descends upon the Mount of Zion, for there, where's the there? Go back to verse one, where the brethren dwell together in unity, where God's people meet the Lord. It says there's a special blessing. that touches your life. If for no other reason, it's worth coming to the Lord's house on the Lord's day. Now, Moses was given a special blessing because Moses had a special heart. Because unlike Aaron, and unlike the people, Moses, he had a heart that was fixed on God, and God especially chose him. to demonstrate the presence and power of God in a person's life. Not everybody here will leave the church this morning, the church building, if I could use that term, the same way. And you can't do anything about other people. The only person you're responsible for, ultimately, is you. Your heart, your desire, your passion for God. And although Moses loved Aaron, he couldn't make Aaron a godly man. Moses could only take care of Moses and made sure that he was right with God. Everybody else noticed. the presence of God in his life, but not Moses. You know, if a lot of people had experienced what happened to Moses that day, they'd be very proud, wouldn't they? They'd say, well, take a selfie, take a photograph, load it up to the website, start a new website, theanointedone.com, but not Moses. Moses, he just said, let's all serve the Lord together. And from that moment, in fact, from before that moment, but especially from that moment, to the very end of Moses's life, nearly 40 years later, Moses never once boasted In the blessing and the power of God in his life, he just kept on serving, and serving, and helping, and praying, and teaching, and correcting, and rebuking, and encouraging the people of God to go on with God. At the end of his life, when he was an old man of 120 years, Moses gathered the nation, four or five million of them, and he preached a series of sermons called the Book of Deuteronomy. The word deuter means the second, normos, law, deuteronomy, the second reading of the law. Moses just got the Word of God and he said, before I die, I want you to know what God's Word says the second time. and I want you to walk in it. And my prayer for you as a nation, he says, is that you know God, walk with God, and right up to his last breath, Moses served the nation. It's no wonder when he died, they mourned a month for him, 30 days, because someone great had left their presence. someone who was filled with the glory of God, the power of God, the anointing of God. And you know, it would have been very difficult for Moses when everybody turned against him, including his own brother. It would be very easy to be bitter. It would be very easy to lash out. But you see, Moses' heart was anchored to God's heart. Many years ago, with this story I'm finished, a man called George Matheson was engaged to be married. George Matheson was a brilliant, talented Scottish preacher, but he had one problem. His eyesight was going, and eventually he lost his sight. And his fiancée said to him, George, I don't think I could live with a blind man. And she called off the engagement. And he was heartbroken. And his sister said, George, I'll walk with you and guide you so that you can continue as a preacher And wherever you go, I'll go. And for many years, the sister of George Matheson walked alongside him. Everywhere he went, she was there. Helped him into the pulpit, helped him out of the pulpit, brought him visiting the people, brought him to the funerals and the weddings. But you know, there came a day when George Matheson's sister got engaged. fell in love and got married. At her wedding, George Matheson was delighted for his sister and happy for her. What a woman she was. But his heart was heavy for himself. And who would be with him? Who would take care of him? Would his ministry now be over? as he sat and thought about the Lord and the goodness of the Lord. He read, or he could feel in the braille and remembered the words of the statement in Jeremiah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. And he took up a pen and paper and he wrote these words. O love that wilt not let me go. Maybe you know the hymn. I rest my weary soul in thee, I give thee back the life I owe, and in thine ocean depths it flow, may richer full be. God's love will never let you go. Moses had that. Do you have that? in your life. Do you need a second chance today? God's love is still here. O love that wilt not let me go. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the story of Moses, for the example of Moses, for the glory of God in the life of Moses. We pray, Lord, even as we have thought about it here this morning, that you would speak to us about our lives, that how we need to be close to God. Draw me nearer, nearer to the cross where thou hast died. For these things we ask in Jesus' precious name. Amen.