Amen. Please be seated. But let's open our Bible again to Exodus chapter 13. Today we'll be looking at verses 17 through 22. Exodus 13, verses 17 through 22. If you're able, please follow along as I read the Word of God for us this morning. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you will carry up my bones with you from here. And they moved on from Succoth, and they camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord will endure forever." We were talking about Christianese in a recent sermon, and so I want to go back to that. For me, someone who was raised outside of the church, one of the phrases I found to be the most Christian-y. That's just a phrase that means words Christians use. Christian slang, if you will. Because I remember we would pray Campus Crusade for Christ, where I came to know the Lord. We would have a prayer meeting that would meet on the campus of Old Main on Sunday nights. And Old Main is the center. It's a very pretty old building. So we would gather there, and we would pray for the week ahead. And inevitably, when we were praying, someone would pray for traveling mercies. And I did not have it in me as a new Christian to ask what that was. In a sense, you kind of get it. It's self-descriptive, mercies for traveling. But it was said with such confidence. I was like, surely that's a Bible verse, right? Surely Psalm 172 says, thou will give me traveling mercy. It was just a phrase that everyone knew what it meant. I had no idea what it meant. Well, it is simple. It just means that God would bless us as we travel. And there's nothing wrong with praying for traveling mercies or a hedge of protection or all the other kind of phrases we use in our prayers, they're all okay. But what can happen sometimes is, is Christianese can, can replace the thought, right? We don't pray unthinking prayers, right? It's, it's good to pray for God's protection as we travel. It's actually probably more important than we tend to realize because we are a traveling people. We don't need traveling mercies just to get to Disneyland and back, although we do need them for that. And parents need them while they're at Disneyland more than anyone. But we are a traveling people. And that's what we're going to find in Exodus 13, 17 through 22. This is a traveling people. And we need God's mercies if we're going to travel at all. Otherwise, we will be stuck where God found us. So God's going to lead his people on this journey as they're walking through the Egyptian wilderness towards the Red Sea. I think kind of like Traveling Mercies maybe sometimes obscures the deeper thought, this small passage, you've probably heard of the pillar of fire and cloud, but it happens right before the crossing of the Red Sea, right? That's the big dramatic moment. So it's good for us to pause and see what God is doing here through his pilgrim, through his traveling people. So there will be three points this morning to help unpack this passage. The first is this traveling people, this Israel, this church. The first thing we say, and this is a term that the church has used for the church on this earth. The first thing we see is a church militant. That's our first point, verses 17 through 18, the church militant. And then in 19 and 20, this really interesting discursus. Kind of jumps out of the story for a minute to talk about Joseph. This traveling church is also a church triumphant. Verse 19 through 20. But then most of all, we'll see 21 through 22, our third point, is this is a church that is shepherded. A church that is shepherded. And these things, we're gonna find out what God's traveling mercies on our behalf really are. Let's read 17 and 18 again. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness, toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt, equipped for battle." So the first thing we see in verse 17 is that Israel is reluctant. That's our first sub-point. God sees it. They are a reluctant people. That will stay true. for several thousand years, until Jesus comes back. But this morning, we see a reluctant Israel. God has saved them from Egypt, but they still need more saving. They don't have strength in their own hands, and God sees them. I just pulled them out of Egypt, but if I ask them now to carry this banner on their own, they will go back to the very thing I saved them from. God saves them, and they still need Him. But even in a reluctant Israel, the reluctance of God's Israel always shows the mercy of Israel's God. I'll say that again. The reluctance of Israel always shows the mercy of Israel's God. God didn't save them so that they would be slaughtered. That's important because Israel is going to accuse God of that very thing several times before Exodus is over. You brought us out so that we would die. How can they say that with verse 17? Look, the straight path was straight through the Philistines. Brothers and sisters, if you've read your Bible, what's God going to do to the Philistines? Defeat? God's going to conquer the Philistines like He conquered the gods of Egypt. The Philistines aren't going to stand, but His people aren't ready for that. And so God is merciful to reluctant Israel. I know that you're weak. I know that you're needy. And so I will take you the long way around. When you are reluctant, God is not reluctant to be merciful to them. And so He brings them around slowly. God knows who we are. But then something really interesting happens. When God is merciful to reluctant Israel, all of a sudden His mercy makes them a ready Israel. Because how does verse 18 say? And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt. How? Equipped for battle. This is a whole story in two verses. At the beginning of the story they are cowards. They are unwilling to go up against the Philistines. They're already wanting to go back to Egypt. Where God sees that they could be. And so He's merciful to them. And then nothing else happens except for all of a sudden now they are ready for battle. And the only one who's done anything in between those two events is God. Once Israel was reluctant, God is patient and merciful, and now all of a sudden they are ready. The Hebrew word here is an interesting one. It could mean a ton of things. If you go to Calvin's commentary on this verse, he spends basically all of his time on this one word. Which is to say, not helpful for sermon preparation. No offense, John. But it is an interesting word. Because it kind of has a numerical value, ranks of six. It can mean an army. It can mean a people who are ready. It could just mean traveling boldly. Hamusim is Old Testament traveling mercies. So Calvin's like, which one is it? And then this is one of the gifts of the Hebrew language, right? Every word has like five meanings. The answer is all of them. Israel is ready because they have the mercy of God. Israel is ready because God has formed them in ranks. They were once the sinful people and now God has formed them... ...into a real institution, a group with meaning and organization and purpose. And yes, even they are an army now. All of these things are true. But the only thing that took Israel from reluctant to ready was God. God was merciful. God always had this purpose for them. But God must be the one to get them ready. God's work of redemption not only saves them from their enemies, but prepares them for what's next. And that's why, throughout history, the church on earth has been called the church militant. The church that has been formed and fashioned into ranks by God... ...for a purpose. God mercifully saves us... ...but then he prepares us... ...for purpose, for battle, we could say. Just as a reminder, right? We're talking about Israel here. How did we get to the church? The answer is Romans... ...chapter 9, verses 6 through 8, where the Apostle Paul says... ...that the children of Abraham... were always those who had faith. The children of promise were those who believed in God's covenant promises, not the pure ethnic relations. This builds into God saying, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. So Israel has never been, Israel has never been this ethnic nation state. It has always been a community of God's promises. And that's why from the beginning, those who were not ethnically Israeli, were Israelites. Rahab, the Canaanite. Ruth, the Moabite. David's mighty men, if you go into them, most of them are Canaanites. Right? And so it's always been those who have faith. The covenant community is the Israel of God here. And so that's why we say this church militant, this Israel, that's reluctant but now ready, is the church. That's who we were. We were redeemed from our sin. Our chains were made with our own hands, weren't they? Pharaoh didn't have to clamp irons on us. We chose those irons and it was our sin. But God redeemed us. He delivered us. What did Paul say in Corinthians? You have been washed. Right? You have been baptized just like they were. And so now the church, this fulfillment of God's covenant promises, is this church militant? We were once reluctant, but God is making us ready for a purpose. This is what our confession says. Westminster Confession, chapter 25. Introduces the church by saying this. The church is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is the house and the family of God. So what's said here of Israel is us. We have been redeemed for our sin, but we're weak. And so God is merciful to us, but he's merciful to us to get us ready. Israel is going places. They are doing things in the rest of this book. So that's why it's a militant church on the move, fighting the good fight, reclaiming sinners from the kingdom of darkness, battering down the very gates of hell. Just like Israel is on the move and will wage warfare, now the church militant wages spiritual warfare. One of the early generations of reformers, Wilhelmus of Brackel, says this. The church militant is militant because it is continually assaulted but never overcome. So it's both a negative and a defensive thing, right? Is the church being persecuted? Yes. Yes. So whether or not you want to be a part of the church militant, the world is going to make you a part of the church militant. You will be assaulted. You will be persecuted. Both by the powers of this world and heavenly powers, which say, the kingdom of darkness. So, you are a part of this militant, whether or not you want it. But the good news is, merciful God will make you ready for it. You may be reluctant, He will make you ready. And it's not just that we're being assaulted, it's that we are assaulting the gates of hell. That's what Jesus promises us in the Gospel of Matthew. The gates of hell will not stand. So it goes both ways. And the reason that we are not overcome... Wilhelmus of Brackel says, the church militant is continually assaulted, not overcome, because why? Because her captain fights for her. It's not our strength that wins this war. That's what we see in Exodus 13, 17, 18. The God that redeemed us is fighting on our behalf. He's making us ready. He will win this war for us. Our Captain Jesus Christ will not lose us. That's the hope of the church militant. But we do have to know who we are. Right? Israel at the beginning doesn't know who they are, and so God is patient and merciful with them until they realize that they are a church militant. They are people on the move. We're here for a reason. By way of illustration, I want you to think you go home this afternoon, you open up your email, and you get an email saying, hey, you've won, in all expenses, paid trip to Paris. And it's a real email. It's not give us your social security number and wire the money through Western Union. It's a real, I'm saying you've really won. You and your family. A week in Paris. And you get to Paris and you check into your hotel room and you never leave your hotel room. And then you spend seven days in the hotel room and then you come back. Did you get a trip to Paris? Yes, you did. Were you in Paris? Yes, you were. Is that why you went? Did you go to stay in a Parisian hotel? They don't put ice in their water. You did not go there for the hotel. That's not good enough. Now, here's a good thing. You were in Paris. You were there. You belong to the Lord. But Israel is having to see, the church is having to see here that it's for a reason. And that reason is the church militant. The church will be assaulted even as we are assaulting the gates of hell. There is good business to be done in light of the mercy and redemption of God. Now we said the hope here is because the captain fights for her. And there's going to be this little introduction, interstitial here, verse 19 through 20. But it's so important because if we're talking about the church militant, and that's all we hear, that can weigh heavy on our shoulders. If all we have is continual warfare, that's harder to square as good news. Is it only ever warfare forever? Pain and suffering forever? And that's why God puts this story here, verses 19 through 20. Let's read it. Moses takes the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here. And they moved on from Succoth and they camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. So turn with us back to Genesis chapter 50. That's what Moses is quoting here. And you're going to see that, that line, in Genesis 50, 25. But let's do context. Right? We never want to do what Sinclair Ferguson calls fortune cookie Bible reading, where we read one verse out of the Bible and just, oh, that's for me. It'd be really easy to do. Oh, well, God made promises to Joseph, carried my bones. Well, he's promising me, you know, good things are going to happen for me. What happens right before this death of Joseph? And it's probably a story you're familiar with. It's when Joseph's brothers realize that this vizier of Egypt, the salvation for themselves and their kids and this whole host of Israel, is the very brother that they tried to sell into slavery and probably killed. Verse 15, when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave us this command before you died. Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you. Now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. This is another blessing of kids, is you get to see what a conditional apology looks like if you have kids. Right? You tell kid A to kid B, you need to apologize to kid B. And kid B says, I'm sorry that you feel like I was mean to you. Nope. Well, I'm sorry that I hit you because you did 10 bad things to me. And I forgive you. No. This is their apology. Our dad said that you should forgive us. Dad says, please. But there's this mustard seed of faith with them. Please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. So even as these brothers remain sinful, remain their apologies conditional, at the very end they have this hope, and it's in the covenant promises of God. The God of our father is our God and your God. So even in his name, please have mercy on us. And Joseph's reaction is beautiful. He weeps. He weeps. And his brothers came down and fell before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. And Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God. Joseph is moving them away from the horizontal to the vertical. I'm not God, you're not God. But then what Joseph appeals to is the very mercy of God. The same mercy we saw in verse 17 through 18 of Exodus. As for you, you meant evil, but God meant it for good. And listen to this. to bring about that many people should be kept alive. So Joseph is realizing everything that's happened is so that God could fulfill his covenant promises. What was God's promise to Joseph and all of his brothers and their father Jacob and then Isaac and then Abraham? What was the promise? Through you the nations of the earth we be blessed. I will save for myself a people. That's why Joseph says, of course I forgive you. This is God's covenant mercy. This was always going to happen so that God could save for himself many people. It's this full apprehension of the mercy of God that Joseph had. They don't have it. They have the seed of it. Well, the God of your father and our father is merciful. And Joseph says, you have no idea how merciful he is. Even when you tried to enslave me, God was doing this to save you. You threw me in the pit. And God allowed that to happen so that I could save you. Joseph says, that's the mercy of God. And then when Joseph dies, he realizes that his brothers need to still know that. Joseph realizes that the children of Israel always need to hear that. We are always forgetting the profound mercy of God. And so, Joseph makes them swear. Basically, he's making them repeat this. Joseph says, the very same God that allowed me to be sold into slavery so he could save you and your children... Now repeat this to me because it's going to happen. God will take you out of Egypt. Why does Joseph believe that? Because God promised it to Abraham. All the way back, Genesis 12. I will save you and your children and the nations of the world through your offspring. But you will be in Egypt for 400 years. And so Joseph knows you're going to forget that there is a fulfillment to God's promises. He always keeps his word. So repeat back to me. God will take you up out of Egypt. 400 years later, Moses goes to gather Joseph's bones as this profession of faith in God's covenant promises. Look what God did. He said he would do it, and Joseph told us he would do it. And so now Joseph gets the blessing. As does all of God's people who believe in him. This is this clinging to God's covenant promises. And so that's the first point here is that Israel remembers. If we're going to be a church triumphant, then we must be a church that remembers what God has promised us. What this world intends for evil, God means for good, that He might save many people. So a church triumphant is a church that remembers and then rallies. They go to Etham, which in Hebrew means strong. They go to a strong place on the edge of the wilderness. This is now Charles Hodge. Israel's journey is not just geographical. It is eschatological. That's a big fancy word. It means the eschaton is the end of times. So Hodge is saying correctly that this journey of Israel through the wilderness to the strong end of the wilderness is a picture of the church moving out of sin and death to the very consummation of God's kingdom. Because what's on the other side is going to be what? The promised land. So this is what we call a type and a shadow. Right? As Israel moves through, we see the church moving through this age. But always remembering God's covenant promises, even to dead Joseph 400 years ago. That he will keep his promise. And so they come to this strong place at the edge of the wilderness. Because where God's promises are there, his people are strong. So we remember this. This is to the church. The church remembers and rallies. What God has promised to Joseph, he's promised to us. Though our bones may become very dry, Ezekiel 37, one day they will live. Joseph doesn't just want his bones to be in Israel. Joseph wants to come back to life in the land of his fathers. This is a resurrection hope. When I come back, I want to be in my father's country. Psalm 115 says this. The dead do not praise you, right? But we will praise you forever. We will die, but we will live. This is why God gives Ezekiel that vision of the valley of dry bones. And God's messenger asks Ezekiel, what can be done for these? And Ezekiel just says to God, you know. You know what we will do. And so in taking Joseph's bones, it's not just remembering that God promised Abraham to come out of Egypt. It's a promise of new life. That Joseph's not done living yet, right? And so this is why we call the church triumphant. The church is militant on this world, but then when we die and pass over that river, we are triumphant. I love the way Calvin says this. Everyone who is a pilgrim on earth becomes a prince in heaven. Because like Joseph, the covenant promises are given to us. And we have to remember that. That the church militant becomes the church triumphant. That when we pass across that river of death, it's not the end, it's the beginning. It is the beginning. And so that's why we can be militant, right? Think of this strength that Joseph Bones gave God's people. God said 400 years ago that this would happen. Joseph made us swear by it and it happened. What else has God promised us that will come true? That you die, you will live. That God's Son will be the atonement for your sin. That you will have life eternal as prince and princesses because you're co-heirs with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the King. These are the promises that Joseph's bones speak to us. That's why even when we pass, we become the church triumphant. That's what gives us strength while we are militant. I've used this illustration before, but I don't think in a sermon, and so we'll see if I get through it, and I apologize in advance. A couple months into the planting of this church, and you know, church planting is this exciting thing. It's the church militant. I have not been persecuted like our brothers and sisters in China and Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. But it's difficult, right? Church planning's hard. You're probably leaving an established church where there's a youth group, and there's children's ministry, and people know where to get the communion ready, and there's a microphone that works. None of these things we had the first Sunday. But one of the great things about being the church militant is that it is exciting, right? The kingdom's moving, and you get to see it moving. This is the gift of church planning, home missions, foreign missions. And so there's this new growth and this new revival. But right as we started, we lost one of our first members. Reverend Dr. Carl Bogue. And it's this picture of the church militant, right? As the church is moving, and sinners are being saved, right? We see new conversions. This holds across all Reformed churches, right? That newer, younger churches see way more conversions than older churches. That's not a bad thing. Older churches have other stuff, right? They're caring for their covenant people. They're caring for their old and their needy and the poor. Church plants, you're seeing new people become Christians, and then we lose one. And what's the temptation there is to think of it as arithmetic. Like, ah, we gained some, we lost some, how sad. I think that's sometimes the way we think of the end of things. Well, we lose in the end. And it's OK that we lose in the end, because Jesus loves us. But we're all going to lose in the end, right? Death claims us, the world's going to pot. It ends poorly. So Reverend Dr. Bogue passes. But in our tradition, and I think the Bible teaches this, the ministers are members of the regional church. We think that's true of Timothy. That's why Timothy's moving through Crete. Paul's a member of the regional church. So my membership and Dr. Bogue's membership was in the Presbyterian Center in California. And so I remember the Presbyterian meeting after he passed. And I'm a great Presbyterian. I do not love going to Presbyterian meetings. A lot of you know that. I'm not a meetings guy. We have some people here who go for fun. God bless you. And we're going, and then I kind of think as we're driving to California, God save us. Oh man, we're going to have to remove Dr. Bogue from the roles. He's not a minister in our presbytery anymore. He's not here anymore. It's going to be sad. We all need to be constantly reminded of the church triumph. Because we think that, like, oh, it's going to be sad. Everything's going to end poorly. And so we get there, and then there's a motion. to remove Dr. Bogue from the roles, but not to subtract him. The motion before the floor is that this body promotes Dr. Bogue from the roles of the church militant to the church triumphant. He got promoted. He didn't lose. He won. That's the victory. That's Joseph. That's the church triumphant. We win. That's how the story goes. That's what God is showing us in Exodus. Man, it doesn't feel like we're winning sometimes. It doesn't feel like we're winning when your dad dies. It doesn't feel like winning when your wife dies. It doesn't feel like winning when your child dies. It doesn't feel like winning when you see a flood wreak havoc through this camp. It doesn't feel like winning. But that's because there's a church triumphant. And when it looks like we lose, we win. And Joseph's bones are in Israel right now. And one day, they will rise again. Joseph will be in his body. And so we have to remember this promise, Exodus. 19 and 20, this is the hope, that we are on the edge of the wilderness, and we are in a strong place, brothers and sisters, not a weak place. We have been brought to a strong place, and God's covenant promises will be for us. One day, unless Jesus comes back quickly, and please, Lord, you will be promoted. to the church triumphant. That is not losing, it is the victory. That's why Christ gets the victory in the very end. And if that is not the goal of the church, to be the church triumphant, then it cannot be the church militant. People who are afraid of the end will never get there. And so that's the gift of this story, right? Is Canaan gonna be fun? You guys have read your Bible. Not much fun in Canaan. Are the judges just going to be this unqualified success story? Very much the opposite. What about the king they choose for themselves, Saul? What about the king that God chooses, David? Is that just unbroken success? It's not. But where is David now? Where is Joseph? Where is Samson? Where is Ruth and Boaz and their son, Jesse? They are the church triumphant. That's what makes the battle worth it. And we can be secure in all these things because of our final point, the church is shepherded. This is now, go back to Exodus with me. Verses 21 through 22. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they could travel by day and by night. And the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. Yahweh went before them. When you see L-O-R-D capitalized, Yahweh. Most Bibles translate it that way as an act of humility and respect to our forefathers. who wouldn't write down God's name. It's not wrong for us. We don't need to be superstitious. You can write Yahweh. That's also why it's not inappropriate to do it this way. It's kind of the church being humble and leaning on tradition. But when you see Lord like that, it's Yahweh. And that's important because it's saying God himself is going before them. The word for this in the Bible is theophany, which means an appearance, a vision of God. And we know that the cloud is not God, right? God is not in substance, a cloud. That's why Jesus can say no one has seen the Father. But it's a vision of God, right? It's the appearance of God. So God is not made of fire, he's not made of cloud. But this is a theophany, and the Israelites know that. It's not like just, oh man, there's a pillar of fire, isn't that neat? Yahweh goes before them. And so the church militant and the church triumphant must be the church shepherded. And here's the first sub-point, that that happens because Christ is revealing himself. That's how God leads us. What do we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 10? That all of your fathers were under the cloud, and they were baptized and fed, but who does 1 Corinthians 10, 3 say that was? The Christ. The cloud, the rock that followed him, all these things were Christ. And this is held throughout history by pastors and theologians before us. That Old Testament appearances of God are the second person of the Trinity. This is His work in the economy of redemption. That it's Yahweh, and it is the Son of God. We have come to know and see as Jesus the Christ. First Corinthians said, and that's who's before Him. And by the way, that fits with biblical theology, because this cloud of pillar and fire, as it leads Israel through, what happens? Does it just fade away one day? Like, poof, you were bad people, so you don't get the cloud no more. No. Exodus chapter 40, verses 34 through 48, tell us what happens to the cloud. The tabernacle is constructed, and it's such a beautiful passage. We don't have time to read it right now, but go home and read it. And it details the ark and the mercy seat. And the lampstand, and the beauty of this tabernacle, and all the appearance of God. But then what happens at the very end of all of it? The cloud goes inside and rests on the tabernacle. It doesn't go away, it rests. And it records when the people see the cloud in the tabernacle, they know that God is there meeting with them. That's a verb, even. Tabernacling is what God does. He tabernacles with us. He dwells with us. He makes a dwelling place for Himself among His people. In the Greek Old Testament, known as Septuagint, that word is ekinosin. It's a tabernacle. So in Exodus 40, verse 48, it says that when a cloud is there, God is tabernacling with His people. That's the exact same word. In John. When it says, The Word was made flesh and the Word dwelt among us. The Word there is echinocent. The Word tabernacles among us. It was always Jesus. It was always Jesus. And now He is the dwelling place of God with man. That's what Jesus says in John chapter 2. This temple I will destroy and I will raise up in three days. And the Pharisees said, oh, that's dumb. There's no way you can destroy the stone temple. Jesus is the dwelling place of God with man. These stone bricks. Are you kidding me? The point was the cloud, the Shekinah, the glory of God dwelling with his people. Jesus said, that's always been me. The cloud was a shadow of me. I was there with you. Now I'm here. I am revealing myself. I am the cloud. I am the dwelling. That's why Colossians talks about him, right? As the expressed image of the invisible God. He is the exact imprint of his radiance. How does the story end, Revelation 21-22? There is no temple in the new heavens and the new earth. Why? There's always been a temple, right? The garden was a temple, and there's a tabernacle, and then there's a temple. Why in the new heavens and the new earth is there not a temple? I bet there'd be the prettiest temple ever. This is the Sunday School answer. Why is there no tabernacle in Revelation 21-22? Jesus is there. Jesus is the dwelling place of God with man. He has always been the one leading us by cloud and fire. It's always been him. We don't need a temple, we have him. But the church shepherded, both militant and triumphant, is not just Christ revealing himself. Verse 23, the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. The church is shepherded because Christ resides with the church. The pillar doesn't depart. What was the prophecy from Isaiah? A virgin shall give birth to a son, and they shall call him Immanuel, which means what? God is with us. He will not depart from us. God is with us. This is Jesus' promise in John 12. If anyone loves me, my Father will love him. And then listen to this. We will come to him and make our home with him. Not, if you love us, you better come to us and build a home with us. If you love me, if I've opened your eyes and you've come to love me, then this is Jesus' promise. We will come to you and we will make a home with you. We will dwell with you and we will never leave you. That's how Revelation 21 starts, right? This great, beautiful passage. Behold, the dwelling place of God is now with man. Herman Bobbing says this great. This pillar of cloud, the shadow, This is the gift we read in 1 Corinthians 10. That the full revelation of this is for those it's come upon you at the end of the age. Herman Boebing says, the guidance of the church is no longer by shadow, but by sun. And so what Israel has had, we have so much more fully than they could have ever hoped for. And it's so important, because it's so easy for us, misreading our Bible, to go, oh, I just wish there'd be a pillar of fire. Then I would believe. No. Read Exodus. No. Do they believe just because they're, no. Here's what you need to believe, God needs to dwell in you. That's how you're gonna be secure. You don't need to go build a house with him and if I just saw a pillar of fire, then I could do it. No, you wouldn't do it. Read Exodus, read Numbers, read Leviticus. No, you wouldn't. Your hope is that he comes and builds a house with you. And now we don't have a shadow that's cloud. We have him by name. His name is Jesus of Nazareth. He is the son of God and he dwells now with your people. And so the church is shepherded. The church can be both milted and triumphant because Christ is revealing and residing with his people. What did we read just this morning? Romans chapter 8, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. He dwells with us. John chapter 14, verse 18, Jesus says, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come for you. Hebrews 13, 18, ending this magnificent book. I mean, this is subtitled in the book of Hebrews, it is the supremacy of Christ. And it ends with God saying, I will never leave you or forsake you. The cloud and the fire will never depart from my people, but now it's better, it's Jesus. And this is the last thing he says to us, right? Matthew 28, verse 20. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of this age. He dwells with his people. That's why we can be militant and triumphant. Not because we dwell with him, but because he dwells with us. The illustration of this, is a man named Rick Husband, who was clearly fated by his last name to be a very good one, which he was. Rick Husband was a fighter pilot, war hero, and astronaut. So good news, don't try to compare yourself to him. Because you're gonna lose. And Rick Husband loves Jesus. So as he's about to go up to space, he records 36 videos. because he's going to be gone for 18 days. So 18 of them for his son, and 18 of them for his daughter. And in those 18 videos, he leads his son and his daughter through worship. They're family worship videos. He reads the Bible to them, and he explains what the Bible means. And that's important because Rick Husband doesn't come back from space. When the shuttle was coming down, and upon reentry, A little piece of one of the wings starts to come off, and then the reheating shield breaks, and the shuttle is destroyed in midair. Rick Husband never comes back. He doesn't lose. He's triumphant. Rick Husband is promoted. But what does he leave his kids with? 18 videos of him reading the Bible for them. That's why I said you lose compared. This guy's a better husband and dad than me. What a gift. What a gift. The last thing he leaves his kids is these videos. Can you imagine how much those kids cherish those videos? Could you offer those kids a hundred million dollars? And would they sell them to you? And the answer is no. So Rick Husband's pretty great. He is not the king of Israel. He's not the savior of mankind. What's the last thing Jesus left you with before he went? I will never leave you. I am with you always, even to the end of this age." That's the last thing He gave us. And we hold fast to that above everything else. Surely there's nothing this world can offer you to peel that promise away from you. I am with you now and always to the end of this age. But that presence of the Christ, better than shadow and fire, leading, is why we can be militant and triumphant. So to end now with traveling mercies. What are the traveling mercies that God gives us? One, above everything else, that as we walk through this land, the Son of God dwells with us. He is with us always to the end of this age. To pine for some kind of sign from heaven, a pillar of fire, a pillar of smoke. I remember praying this many times as a young Christian, like, God, if you're there, just, you know, make me trip while I'm walking. Make this water hot. God says, I gave you my son. He's with you now. If you want something besides him, do you know what you have in him? That the traveling mercy of a church militant is that their captain is with them and in the midst of them. And man, do we need to drive that down in our inner being. Because it's so easy for the church to think, well, we've just got to do it to make Jesus proud of us. Right? Man, we're rough, and we've got to get our act together if Jesus is going to be proud of us. Jesus says, I'm with you in you. Right? This is just a small word for those who spend all of their time attacking the Church of Jesus Christ. You're attacking Him. The Church deserves a lot of criticism. We are reluctant. We are slow. We are a stumbling people. But our Christ is in the midst of us. And we belong to Him. And He does not look at us with condescension or anger or frustration. He delights to dwell in the midst of His people. And if you cannot start there, better than fire or cloud, the Son of God dwells in the midst of His people, then I promise you, being a militant or a trumper, it's going to be nigh impossible. So that's a call to everyone here this day who thinks, well, I can be a good person. Jesus can be a good teacher. I can make this work. No, you cannot. If you love Him by faith, then He and the Father will come make a home with you. That's the only way through, is by faith in the Son of God. You cannot be a good person and make this work. You will die in Philistia. You will die in Canaan. You will die in Egypt. There's a call now. Now, the Son of God dwells in the midst of His people, and He would make you one of them. if you would bend the knee and have faith. To those of you who do believe, two things. Number one, are you trying to travel without your captain? It's not gonna work. Sometimes the church becomes un-militant because it becomes un-shepherded. We would have another captain but Christ. We would think there's some cause that we need to adopt. Look around, this is what we need. They need Jesus, right? And that has implications for everything. Literally everything. my family, my marriage, my status, my time, a shared people, a shared government, a shared culture, all of these things. But they're in Christ, right? That's how we come to them. And so the church militant must be the church shepherded. So the church needs to hear that again and again. Are you trying to steer the ship? Right? Are you like Percy Brice Shelley? No matter how near the gate, no matter how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. You cannot believe that as a Christian. And so if you would be a faithful church militant, then you must be a church that's shepherded. But then, one last application. It says that Yahweh, the Son of God, Christ dwells with his people, that they might travel by day and by night. So the question here is, how many of us are taking nights off? Well, I follow Jesus a little bit. And he's in the midst of us, but now it's Now it's David time. And this is not against recreation or rest. God created those things. He wants you to do them. But God dwells in the midst of his people, and the church militant is defined because they're traveling by day and by night. God is in the midst of us. How could we not? God is on the move. We're going to take the night off? Maybe in Phoenix we're going to take the day off because it's 118? No. This is the travel and mercy of God. Day and night we're on the move. Day and night we're on the move. Brothers and sisters, I promise you that I and the officers God has put you here are fully aware of how hard that is. But we are here to point you to your shepherd, to remind you that Christ dwells in the midst of you now, and that one day you will be triumphant. You will not lose, you will win. But in light of that, we need to travel day and night. And so if you're struggling with that right now, if you have a life that feels very haltingly, like I don't want to be, I'm reluctant Israel, not ready Israel, that I want to invite you to come and speak with me or speak with one of the deacons or elders of this church. And they don't know I was going to volunteer them, but I get to do this because it's in our book of church order. The job of the elders and the deacons and pastors is to comfort those who are suffering and instruct them in the way of the faith. There is a way. Christ is in the midst of his people. We are moving day and night. That's for you. That's not a threat. That's a promise. It can and it will happen. Because he is with us always, even to the end of this age. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, our great and only hope is in our great High Captain, Christ Jesus, who dwells now in the midst of his people. Jesus, forgive us for forgetting. Forgive us for forgetting that you are here with us, for living and acting and talking as if you were somewhere else. You are with us to the end of this age, and then when this age is over, we will see you with our own eyes. We are with you now and will be closer with you when we are triumphant. And so Father, give your church the grace to live Coram Deo in front of the very face of God. You are with us. your church will not be moved. Father, for those of us who struggle to remember that Jesus Christ is in the midst of us, give us a firmer and stronger faith in the very presence and mercy of Christ on our behalf. Lord, The closeness of Jesus and the forgiveness of Jesus is the only thing that changes people and can strengthen us. So for those who lack that, please strengthen them, O God. Strengthen us in the nearness of our Savior and in His goodness in shepherding His church. But for those, Father, and perhaps for all of us, who often shift back into a reluctant Israel, too afraid to go into the land that you promised us. Father, strengthen us with your presence that we might be ready to travel day and night. You are doing great and wondrous things in front of our sight. You are saving sinners. You are restoring marriages and families. You are speaking truth to those that are perishing. You are establishing the very kingdom of heaven on earth. Father, we desire to be a part of that work. And so strengthen your church, O God, that we might travel by day and night. Give us In Christ Jesus, the greatest traveling mercies we might ever have. We ask for these things now in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.