Can I ask you to turn with me this morning to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33. We shall read a few verses starting at verse one. Exodus 33 from verse one. And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it, and I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way. Turn now with me to verse 12, verse 12. And Moses said unto the Lord, See thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people.' And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here, that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. Amen. This passage that we have read. It comes so soon after Israel's dreadful fall into sin and into idolatry, when they are wearied with Moses' delay up in the mountain. And so they ask Aaron to make them a golden calf. And they fall to worshipping this image and this statue that Aaron produces. They are fallen into great and terrible sin, and the tables of the law are broken to show that they have broken God's holy law. And then comes this command then in chapter 33, that they should depart and go up hence, that they should move on their way toward the promised land. And it might seem, perhaps, that this was a blessing to them. They were to go unto the promised land, that land which the Lord had sworn unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And unto thy seed will I give it. that God would send an angel before them, and that that angel would drive out the enemies, that they would have victory over them, and that they would be brought into a land flowing with milk and with honey. What a blessing that was, the promise of taking Israel into the promised land, but yet there was something amiss, and there was something wrong, something that grieved Moses to his very heart of hearts, And that was the Lord's words in verse 3, I will not go up in the midst of thee. What good was it to Moses if they had the promise of going to the promised land? What good was it to have victory over their enemies? What good was it even to have an angel with them if God himself was not with them? If they were devoid of the presence of the Lord, their God. That was what Moses longed for most of all. He longed that God should be with Israel. And so he says to the Lord in earnest plea in verse 15, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. What would it be to enter the promised land without God with them? Oh, what a wonderful and earnest plea this was then of Moses. We know, don't we, that if we have a journey to make in this life, it's a much harder thing to do that alone than it is to do that in company, in company of friends. If there is someone close to us who we care for, who we highly value, then we can hardly bear to be separated from that person. And so it is for the Lord's people that they cannot bear the thought of being separated from the felt presence of their God. They want the Lord to be with them in all times and at all seasons. And the thought of God departing is what gives the Lord's people their greatest grief and their greatest distress. We want the Lord with us. But we have then a wonderful promise A wonderful promise of the Lord to Moses and to his people. There in verse 14, the Lord following Moses into session, he says, my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Isn't this a wonderful promise? Not just made to Moses, not just made to Israel, but can rightfully be taken by the Church of Christ and by every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We, dear friends, can take this promise as our own, that God's presence shall go with us, and he will give us rest. Spurgeon, when he thought upon this promise, he quoted the verse, enough, my gracious Lord, let faith triumph and cry. My heart can on this promise live, can on this promise die. If we have God with us, we have all the riches we could wish, having the Lord among us. And so with the Lord's help, I'd like us to consider this promise of God for a while this morning. My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And I'd like us to see three things from this text. I'd like us to see, firstly, a daunting prospect. I'd like us to see, secondly, a precious promise. And I'd like us to see, thirdly, a blessed result. a daunting prospect, a precious promise and a blessed result. Well, let us begin then with a daunting prospect. And you might look at the promise of the text and you might say, well, where do you get that point from? This is a rich blessing. The Lord will be with his people. He will give them rest. Where's the daunting prospect in this I find this daunting prospect to be shown there in one small word in our text, and that word, go. Go. You see, this is a pilgrim's promise, a word to people who are on the move, a word to people who cannot rest still where they are, but have a journey to make. And that word go, that command to go, has so often been a cause of great distress to the Lord's people in this life, because there are seasons where we have to move. Life develops, things change, and we cannot stay still, as it were. Moses was commanded in verse one, depart and go up hence, and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt. They had to move. They couldn't remain where they were. We would so dearly love life to be so consistent, to stay the same, wouldn't we? Maybe there are a few who have the adventurous spirit and like change, but many of us, I think, do not. We would be very happy for things to be in a comfortable situation and that never to change, that never to come to any flux, But that is not the way it is in life, is it? We know from the Word of God that we have no continuing city. Life comes to a point where things must change. Sometimes it feels as though it's just when we get settled, just when we feel most at home and most comfortable, that providence directs. And the command comes, go, go. There's a different way to take. There's a change in providence. And my people, I command them to go. We must depart and go hence. This is a daunting prospect so often. And I wonder if I'm speaking to some who face great change in their lives this morning. You know that in the weeks and months ahead, things are going to look very different. You don't perhaps know how they will be, how things will pan out, but you know things are changing, and that not entirely of your own making. You are being pushed into this. Things are being moved for you. Go. What a daunting prospect. But friends, it's helpful to know that the Lord's people are not alone in this. This is something that every believer has faced. We can think of how daunting it must have been for Abraham to have that command to leave, err of the Chaldees to go, and to follow where the Lord would direct. Maybe in his heart there was a part of him that wished to stay, that wished to remain where he was comfortable, where he was at ease. But no, go was the command of the Lord. Maybe this was a great concern and a daunting prospect to Lot. There he was to be snatched out of Sodom and Gomorrah and that command to leave, to leave quickly. And oh, how his heart tarried, how he was in some way slow to go so that he had to be snatched out of that place. We could think of how it must have been for Gideon to come and have his life so disturbed, have his ease and comfort disrupted, that he should go and be the leader of Israel to deliver them from the enemies. We could think of how daunting it must have been for Daniel and his three friends. There they were in their homes. And then one day the Babylonian army came, ransacked the city, took them away captive, all forced to be on the move, forced to go. How was it for Jonah? commanded to go, go to Nineveh with that message to the wicked heathen nation and how he was daunted by that prospect, how everything in him resisted it. He did not wish to move and wish to go. And how it was perhaps for the Lord's disciples with that great commission, go into all the world. What a blessing that was, but it must have been a daunting prospect too. and how it can be for us. Maybe it is in your life at the moment. It is as though the Lord is saying, go, go. There's change on the horizon. There's things to face. We cannot stay where we are. Maybe your job is to change. Maybe your home is to change. Maybe you're faced with a move. Maybe there's disruptions in your own health and you face prospects that you don't relish. There's treatment to be had. There's operations to be faced. Maybe you feel that your life is at the moment at a crossroads. You don't know which way to take. Maybe it's worse than that. Maybe you feel you'd be in a better position if you could see roads to take, but it feels that you're in a wilderness with no set path. There's no track trodden out. You don't know what it will be. You don't know how it will go. And it is a daunting prospect. You see, this was no pleasure trip for Moses. This was a pilgrimage journey through a wilderness. This was a hard path to tread, a difficult way through a barren land. This was a long journey to face with a gruelling journey in front of them. This was, for Moses, a weighty responsibility, bearing the weight of the people. The Lord says, go thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt. What weight of responsibility was upon him, and the task was too great for Moses alone, too much for him to bear. Maybe we feel that way when we face the prospect of the future. And as with Moses, we have a fear of going alone. And so we could cry in our hearts, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. So sincerely do we feel that need for God to be with us in this change of life. But we feel that it would be better for us not to be carried up if God would not be with us. You see, Moses, he would have Joshua with him. He would have Jethro to advise him. In time, he would have the 70 elders appointed to help him bear the burden. But none of that was enough. None of that would satisfy him. He needed God. He needed God by his spirit with him and with Israel. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Nothing short of God will do. I need his presence every hour. I need the Lord. A daunting prospect. Is it so with some this morning? Daunted by that command to go. Daunted by the providence that is changing circumstances in your life and you don't know what the future will bring. Or see secondly, a precious promise. Because here is a promise for a pilgrim people. My presence shall go with thee. Yes, I am calling you to go. Yes, events in life are changing. Yes, it isn't comfortable, but here's something to rest on. My presence shall go with thee. You go into the great change of life, but I ensure you don't go alone. I will be with thee every step of the way. I will be your company. I will be your guide so that you will not be alone. My presence shall go with thee. That is a wonderful expression, isn't it? My presence. What more could we want for than that? But what does that mean readily? Well, we know that God is present everywhere and at all times. There's nowhere we can go to flee from the presence of God. He is present everywhere in his general presence. I remember reading of a bitter atheist. He saw a young boy reading his Bible and he went up to that young boy and he said to him, if you can show me where your God is, I'll give you an orange. And the boy faithfully, quick as a flash, he replied, well, if you can show me where he isn't, I'll give you two oranges. You see, he showed that man exactly God is everywhere and at all times. But that is something more than that here in this promise that we have. We have here the special presence of God, the felt presence of God united to his people We have the Lord with us in that wonderful, gracious, and comforting way. My presence shall go with thee. What a wonderful thing this is, the presence of God. And we could ask ourselves a bit more, who is it? Who is it that will go with us? Well, we have earthly friends. We have earthly helpers. That is a comfort. But we want more than that, don't we? For we have promised the presence of the triune God. He will be with his people, my presence. Do you ever stop to wonder at that? God, almighty, high and infinitely holy God, condescends to be with his people. Where will you find God? In a sense, you'll find him with his people. You'll find him with them. He is with them. He condescends to be among them. There's a precious verse in Isaiah 63 and verse nine. In all their affliction, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. The angel of his presence. Who does that refer to? but the felt presence of the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Saviour, the angel of his presence, he who is so wonderfully close to his people by his Spirit that he will never leave them nor forsake them. He is present at all times with his people. Ephesians 3 and verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That is the promise that we have, Christ with us, His Spirit dwelling in our hearts by faith, that we might have Him, our dear Redeemer, our blessed Savior, ever with His people, my presence. Oh, you might want, perhaps, for some things. You might not have the luxuries that many other in the world have. You might not have the great scores of friends that the rich have surrounding them. You might not have all the creature comforts of this life. You are in the wilderness, after all. But here, I promise you, is one thing you will never lack. My presence shall go with thee. You will have me, your God, with you at all times. And what more could you want than that? My presence shall go with thee. And friends, what does this show to us? If we have the presence of God, then we have union with him. We have fellowship with him. It is a gracious presence. How wonderful it was that God could give Moses and Israel this promise so soon after they should sin so dreadfully, so grievously with that golden calf. Fell into utter idolatry, they had gone away from God, and yet here he graciously says, in spite of all that, my presence shall go with thee. How was it that that could be so? How was it that Moses could, almost as it were, change the heart of God when he said in verse three, I will not go up in the midst of thee? Because they had angered him, being a stiff-necked people. Well, the presence of God was won by intercession. won by intercession. They had a high priest in Moses who fell before the people, fell on their behalf, and who in times said, if thou would not bless them, if thou would cast them off, blot my name out of thy book. And so God, accepting the intercession of his servant, gave his presence to them again. And how is it that we, so sinful in heart, can have the presence of God with us? Is it not won by the intercession of Christ? Is it not won by Him who fell for us before Almighty God, who pleaded with the Father to lay their sin to my charge, who took all their offense away by the sacrifice of His body on the cross? Oh, the presence of God with the church is won. by the intercession of our great High Priest, our dear Redeemer, who made sacrifice for us that we might be reconciled to God, brought back to Him, and now in the presence of the Almighty. My presence shall go with thee. But see further, this presence, it is an assuring presence. What a wonderful comfort it must have been to Israel to know that God would be with them. How the heart of Moses must have been buoyed by this promise that they had. We had this promise also made to Joshua in Joshua chapter 1 and verse 5. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. What an assurance would that have been to Joshua, leading the people into the promised land. A great task, a great responsibility, but there that certainty that God would not fail him. God would not forsake him. And friends, is there any prospect on the future that we cannot face with boldness, knowing that God will be with us? Knowing that we have this assurance, that God will be with us not to fail us, nor to forsake us, but that by his presence he will draw close. Oh, we can face anything, can't we? with God at our hand, with God at our side, with God going before and God keeping us behind. What an assurance this should afford. My presence shall go with thee. But see also what a wonderfully cheering promise this is. My presence shall go with thee. You will never, under no circumstances, find yourself alone. We can say, as the Lord Jesus was able to say, when he told his disciples that all would scatter and leave him, yet he said, And though we might feel bereft of human helpers, yet we are not alone. God is with us, our Heavenly Father by our side. No matter what turmoil comes or what trouble we face, God is with us. What a cheering promise this should be. We have this evidence in the life of the Apostle Paul, how often the Lord reassured him of his presence. Acts 18 and verse 9, Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. What a wonderful cheering promise that must have been to Paul on that occasion. We have it also in Acts chapter 23. Acts 23. And in verse 11, And the night following, the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul. What a wonderful comfort that must have been. The Lord stood by him. They are wonderful words, aren't they? The Lord stood by him. And in whatever situation we go out to meet, the Lord will stand by us. He will be present with us. It is a cheering presence. It is also a very comforting presence. What a wonderful comfort it is to have someone with us. A child knows that, the wonderful comfort of a mother when they're distressed or upset or hurt, but all to have the Lord with us. of the presence of the triune God, what comfort that should bring. Isaiah 41 10, fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. What a wonderful comfort. And friends, in these days in particular, in which we live, I find this promise the greatest of all comforts. We look out in the world and we see utter devastation. We see wars increasing and violence everywhere. And we have this thought, don't we, that it feels like it will come closer to home before long, maybe, unless the Lord prevents. And we can be so despairing if we look at the news too much. What is our comfort in this wicked world? My presence shall go with thee. We don't know what a day may bring forth, but we know that God will be with us. And friends, I would say, when you look at the news, try only to look at it through the lens of this text. Whatever may come, God will be with his church. God will be with his people. My presence shall go with thee. Do not be overcome with despair. Let not your heart be troubled. My presence shall go with thee. But we have the guiding presence of the Lord as well, that he will direct his people. We are told to go, go in life, a way we know not, but God will be with us to guide. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Psalm 107, he led them forth by the right way, that they may go to a city of habitation. What a wonderful guiding God we have, who said to Joshua, that ye may know the way by which ye must go, for ye have not passed this way heretofore. Friends, we have not passed this way heretofore. We've not been in the situation we find ourselves now in. Maybe we're perplexed as to what to do. We feel that we lack wisdom. But we have the presence of God and he will be our guide. Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, this is the way, walk ye in it. And God will before long make it plain. He will open doors to you. He will show by answers to prayer, by the word powerfully speaking, by providence attending your way. He will show the way that you should take. He will lead you and he will guide you. A guiding presence. He will show by that pillar of cloud and fire where Israel should go, and he will lead his people. We have also the helpful presence of the Lord, that he will bear us up. He will be with us to sustain us. He will be engaged for us. He will see that we overcome in our faith and that we go on. He will be our protecting presence. James Smith said on this verse, he went with Moses and he persevered, with Joshua and he conquered, with David and he reached the throne, with Paul and he was more than a conqueror. And oh, what good will be if God goes with us? If his presence is with us, he will bring us into blessing. He will keep us safe. He will preserve our faith that we do not fall. What blessing we have in the presence of God And we have the communion of the Lord with us. What fellowship we know if we have the Lord with us. We have his favour. The word presence, it could more literally translated, his face. We have the face of God. What a wonderful verse there is in verse 11. The Lord spake unto Moses, face to face. The presence of the Lord, that close fellowship with him, that is his blessing. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. All the favour of his presence. If God is near, then God favours his people. He shows that he is united to them, that he is not ashamed to be called their God. What a wonderful witness this presence is as well. A witness to all the world. And this was what Moses pleaded in verse 16. Wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? That wonderful signifying factor that God favoured them above all nations, that God went with them. What a witness it was to all the world. The Lord was with that people. The world took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Oh, the felt presence of our Lord. Friends, we are never alone. Maybe you might say, well, I can understand this promise being made to such and such a Christian. Those who I hold in my view as eminent saints, oh, I'm not like them. I have no claim upon this, surely. But all of us have this wonderful promise, the Lord will be present with us. J.C. Ryle said, in every believer, whether high or low, or rich or poor, or young or old, or feeble or strong, the Lord Jesus dwells and keeps up his work of grace by the power of the Holy Ghost. Friend, however small your faith, if it be but a grain of a mustard seed, you can take this promise, take it home with you, take it as your own, plead it at the throne of grace and realise it in your daily life. For God says to you as much as he says to all his people, my presence shall go with thee. What a presence, what a promise to hold to. We have his promise of his presence in time of trouble. When the three friends of Daniel were there in the fire, or was the Lord not with them, present there in the furnace, he will not leave us to fear, for he is with us. He is present Rael says, when the hour of special storm comes, the Lord who walks upon the waters will come and say, peace, be still. And friends, notice how wonderfully Moses cherished the presence of the Lord. He would not go without it. If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. There was nothing he valued more than the felt presence of God. Israel would not dare to move. until the pillar of cloud went first. And all my friends, how is it with us? Do we cherish the presence of God? Do we have such a desire in heart that we will not, we dare not move unless we can be sure God is with us, God has gone before us. Do we know and realise that we cannot live without the presence of God? And friends, if we have this promise, if the Lord is present with us and we have Him always to look to, we have Him always to look to, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, Who is the Lord who is with us, the almighty, all-sovereign, all-powerful God? Why do we not then more readily look to him in every day and in every state? If we have this promise, we have him also to lean upon. Why do we try to go in our own strength so often? We are spent so readily, but friends, we have him with us, so lean upon him. Be like the song of Solomon at Shulamite who lent upon her beloved coming up out of the wilderness. Lean not to your own understanding. Cast yourself on the Lord. He is with you. He is there, then, to be relied upon as a faithful friend. We have him to lean upon. We have him also, friends, to call upon. Shouldn't this be a wonderful incentive to prayer? My presence shall go with thee, so call upon him. Pray without ceasing, commune with him in every time of your life, whenever you feel that daunting at the command to go, or call upon he who is with you. You lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Call out to the Lord. It would be a strange thing, wouldn't it, if the richest man in the world was starving to death because he would not use his wealth to buy bread. We have the wealth of the presence of God. Why do we not use it? Why do we not use the Lord who is with us and rely on him and look to him and call upon him? And if we have the Lord with us, then we have him to rejoice in at all times. Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say, rejoice. Find your joy in him. Why do we sometimes go along so miserable? My presence shall go with thee. Shouldn't that be our joy? The joy of the Lord is our strength. And friends, this promise is made to the church. What wonderful promises we have as a church here, that Christ will be with us by His Spirit. And when we look through the lens of this promise, how bright does the future look now for the Church of Christ. My presence shall go with thee. The gates of hell shall not prevail against thee. And friends, this ought to stir up our worship, shouldn't it? If we come to the house of God and we know that his presence will go with us into his courts, Or how much more sincere would we be in our praise and in our worship if we grasped the reality of that more often? Spurgeon said the presence of Jesus consciously enjoyed is the sweetness of our worship. My presence shall go with thee. O Lord, be ever near us. Fix in our hearts thy home. By thine appearing, cheer us and let thy kingdom come. Fulfill our expectation and give our souls to prove thine uttermost salvation, thine everlasting love. But see thirdly and finally a blessed result My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. What a wonderful result will come to Moses and to Israel. I will give thee rest. We can say on the one hand, this is ultimate rest, isn't it? The Lord would bring them into the promised land. They would be there where they had longed to be, there in that place of promise in the wonderful land of Canaan, and there they would know rest. Their journeying would be at an end. They would be where God desired them to be. And Spurgeon said, if God's presence be with us here, we shall be in God's presence hereafter, and there we shall have rest. We have the wonderful hope of ultimate rest Rest in heaven. Rest in the presence of Christ forever and forever. Hebrews chapter four and verse nine, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. This way of life is wearying. It is tiring. We struggle on with the trials of this life and the difficulty of the way, but there remaineth a rest. Do you look forward to that rest? Is your treasure laid up there? Can you say, even so come? Lord Jesus. Friends, I say it to my own heart because I feel how easy it is to be too earthly-minded. Oh, I wish and pray that God would break us off of that more and more and set our sight on glory, on eternity, on the promised land. There will be our rest. Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest. But there is a rest to come, and all his people will be brought into it before long. But friends, I think there's more also in this text for us now, because Moses was not to see that ultimate rest of the promised land. He was not to be brought unto it, but there would be rest while on the journey. There would be rest in the presence of God with them, rest drawn from the Lord with them. There would be rest, rest for the Christian in his conscience. Rest, knowing that our sin is dealt with, that there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Oh, what wonderful rest we have in heart, knowing we are at peace with God. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. What wonderful rest that is. There is rest of the soul, isn't there? Rest of peace, knowing peace with God. Rest in the service of Christ. Didn't he say, take my yoke upon you and learn of me? For I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your soul. There is rest knowing that we are in the will of God. knowing that we are following him in his providence and in his guiding. But then isn't there the wonderful rest, rest that we have of hope? As we read in Psalm 16 and verse 9, therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope. Or do you rest in the presence of the Lord that is with you? Do you find that though you might not know what a day may bring forth, yet your soul can be at peace because God is at your right hand? How important rest is. It is a gift of God and the Lord is willing to give it. But friends, before we close, may I apply this to those who do not know Christ. Does your soul have rest? In all your life long, can you ever say that you've known quiet rest in your heart? Have you ever known peace that has been lasting? You struggle on, desiring rest, but you do not find it. Friend, without Christ, do you think you will rest in eternity to come? People say that, don't they, that dying is just resting of the body, rest in peace. Will you have rest in peace if you don't have a savior? Oh, you will not. But the glory of the gospel is you may. You may, if you will trust in Jesus Christ, if you will lay down the weapons of your warfare, if you will put away your sin and your unbelief, if you will trust only in Jesus Christ for salvation, your soul may have this rest, and you may have this promise, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. What the Christian knows to their uttermost joy, you may know too. And you will find the great benefit of salvation is that you will not only be forgiven your sin, but that you will be reconciled to God and you will have God with you. My presence shall go with thee. Amen.