We come to the Word of God. Let us read together from the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 33. Exodus 33. This is the account just after the first tables of stone were broken and the golden calf was made. And this is what immediately follows after that. So Exodus chapter 33. 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. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and no man did put on him his ornaments. For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people, I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee. Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.' And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount Horeb. And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation which was without the camp. And it came to pass when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door and looked after Moses until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses, and all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshipped every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. 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. And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cliff of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by, and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. Thus reads the Holy Word of God. The Lord bless His Word to us. With the Lord's help, I direct your prayerful attention to the portion that we read together, Exodus chapter 33, and reading from our text, verse 14. Verse 14. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. We have here a promised presence and rest of the Lord. Mentioned when we started the reading of the context here. This is and would be some 96 days after the children of Israel left Goshen. The 50th day, which was the Pentecost, was when they first came to Sinai and the law was given. This now is 40 days later. because they have had the law given and on the tables and we read in the preceding chapter, chapter 32, how Moses came down from the mount, he saw the golden calf, He broke and cast down the tables of stone and the Lord at that time plagued the people because they made the calf which Aaron made. And so we have now what follows, remember when they came out of Egypt, the Lord had promised to go before them And in fact, immediately the fiery cloudy pillar went before them to show them the way that they should go. And when the Egyptians followed after them, then the cloud went between the children of Israel and the Egyptians to preserve them in that way. And you would remember that the promise that was given of the Lord's presence with them was the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of the covenant, and he that was set forth by the Apostle Paul later on they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. We must be very clear on the Lord going before his people in that way. That was the promise and we have this in the chapter here in verse 3 we read I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee. But in verse 2 he says, And I will send an angel before thee, and will drive out the Canaanites. So because of their sin, what the Lord was saying was, originally I in person was going before thee, but now I'm going to send an angel before thee, and you'll still go to Canaan, you'll still attain there, but it won't be myself. And you see the response of the people in verse 4, when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned and no man did put on him his ornaments. They were still going to get to Canaan, They were still having the promise fulfilled, but the Lord wasn't going to be with them, just an angel. And how is it with us, dear friends? Would we be content to get to heaven, which is the spiritual Kynan, the land of promise for the people of God, to attain that rest, but not to have the Lord's presence here below, not to be blessed with Him to go before us? Just to have a created angel and not the Lord Himself? The Lord has said when He ascended up into heaven, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. We have that promise. The children of Israel had that promise. But the children of Israel sinned against the Lord And the Lord threatened to take away that blessing. But he didn't take it away. Moses made intercession and he pleaded with the Lord. And what we notice is the tabernacle was taken and put outside the camp. Now at this time, that would not have been the tabernacle. that the pattern was given on the mount. They would not have had time to make that tabernacle at that time. The tabernacle that that would have been was the tabernacle like Moses judged the people from when his father-in-law came and he judged them from morning until night and his father-in-law said, it's too much for thee, thou canst not bear it alone. It was the tabernacle of judgment. But at that time it was a type, it was a type of Christ, because as soon as the tabernacle is put outside the camp and Moses goes out to it, then the cloudy pillar came on. That tabernacle, a sign of the presence of the Lord, was there. Now, there are other times in their going in the wilderness that this also happens, but the Apostle Paul takes this up in Hebrews and he says, let us therefore go unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. and there is pointed out of Christ's sufferings and Christ's death and in that then there is a reconciling again and the Lord's presence again. And what Moses wants, he says that the Lord knows him by name and that he makes this intercession, he wants the Lord to go before them, he says, you have not told me who thou wilt send with me. He has Joshua, his servant, the son of Nun, But the Lord has said, an angel shall go, and Moses, he wants to know, who is it? And it's really very plain, there is only one that he wants. And so the Lord himself says, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And how Moses responds to that, you can see how he so embraced it. This was what he wanted above everything else. And he says, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. And what father, what husband, what church leader, what one wouldn't join with Moses in that way and wants the Lord presence with him. and to carry us and those that you bring up with us, the Lord's presence. And so that is promised here. Why? With our first parents, Adam and Eve, they were banished from the garden, from the communion and fellowship with the Lord, with the promise of Christ and the promise of Emmanuel. What does Emmanuel mean? God with us, God's presence with us, that he should come and dwell with us. is a very sacred, blessed truth, right here, right at Mount Sinai, right in the midst of a sinful people, right in the midst of a people that didn't deserve it, and yet the Lord would still go with them and be with them. Why? Because at Calvary he puts away their sin, blots out their transgression, takes away that which is written against them, and then he goes and he walks with them. And so we have in the passage here a promise, a promise of the Lord's presence and the rest of the law. So I want to, with the Lord's help, look at three points. Firstly, the presence of the Lord, the presence of the Lord. And then secondly, his promised presence to go with his people. And then thirdly, the promised rest. Firstly, I want to consider the presence of the Lord. that remember that God is an invisible God. No man has seen God at any time. And yet he fills heaven and earth. When Solomon dedicated the temple many years later than this, and he said, the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this building that I have built. And he says then, but will God in very deed dwell upon the earth? And the idea of this great God that fills all things, that is everywhere present, this is so hard for poor man to grasp. And yet we have it, we have it set forth in the Psalms, that beautiful Psalm 139, is the Psalm of David. And he says this, he says, In verse 7, wither shall I go from thy spirit or wither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. And he's describing the Lord's presence everywhere. You think of Jonah. Jonah was given a commission to go and to preach the word, preach the warnings to the Ninevites. And you read an amazing thing. He fled from the presence of the Lord. What? One of the servants of the Lord thinking he can come to some place where the Lord is not. But when he goes and he flees, The Lord sends out the wind, the Lord knows where he is, the Lord follows him, and then he ends up in the whale's belly, and he says then, I am cast out of thy presence, yet will I look again toward thy holy temple. And his prayer came unto the Lord out of the belly of hell, cried I, says he, and my prayer entered into the ears of the Lord God. of Sabaoth. And the Lord heard and the fish vomited him out onto the dry land. But we have this picture then of the presence of the Lord everywhere. And we think of Hagar when she conceived, when she despised Sarah because Sarah couldn't have children and she did. And Sarah dealt hardly with her, she ran away and the Lord found her and Hagar, where art thou? And she called the name of the Lord there, thou God seest me. Or lookest after him that seest me. And the people of God have the sense of the Lord's presence everywhere. But here is spoken of a special presence. It's not to be thought, well, If the Lord doesn't go out with them, then he's not there, he doesn't see them. This promise is a special way, in a way of blessing, and especially in the angel of the covenant, the salvation of the Lord, his presence in that way. And we have it in Isaiah 63 and verse 9. In all their affliction, He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them. Saved them. In His love and in His pity, He redeemed them, and He bared them and carried them all the days of old. And so what we're looking at here with this promised blessing, it is in salvation. And especially when you think that the children of Israel were a typical people. They were typical of the people of God who are redeemed from this world, redeemed like they were at the Passover, brought into the wilderness, and the Lord is to save them and to bring them to heaven to be with himself. And so that presence is bound up. in the Lord, in Emmanuel, and in a saving way. And it is especially united where Moses, he's looking at seeing that he has the grace of God, the grace of God is with them that they have found that grace. 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? And so how very important this is if each of you here to know that you have grace in the sight of the Lord is that the Lord goes with you. in a saving way, in a blessing, in the way that is set before us here, not in the same way as what He is, good to all, His tender mercies are over all His works, that He is a God over all of the earth. His dominion is over every nation and kindred and tongue. But with the children of Israel, as typical of people of God, He says, you only have I known of all the people of the earth. And you say people, those people redeemed by Christ have I known. He's with His people. in a very different way, a saving way, a way that a shepherd is with his sheep, a way that shows the union between him and his people, and a way that assures them that that same Jesus who has been with them here below shall bring them to be with him in heaven. We should really desire, as Moses did, that we have the Lord's presence with us here below in this saving way. And so I want now to look at the promised presence of the Lord with his people, the way Emmanuel God with us, the presence of the Lord with us. All of the promises of God are yay and amen in Christ Jesus. And these promises here, the promises given to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, They had their fulfillment in the bringing into the promised land, but they had their fulfillment in Christ. Abraham saw my day and rejoiced at it. And so they have a fulfillment that is to be embraced by us in desiring the Lord's presence to be with us. How are we to know his presence? We must be very, very careful on this. Some people think that if they have real liberty in prayer and feel much freedom in prayer, that is a sign of the Lord's presence. But we've got to be very careful because sometimes we can so really want something, we can really just pour out our heart And we mistake the very fact that we really want something for actually the Lord's presence with us and giving us spirit of prayer. We can make mistakes as well and think, well, we're gonna watch providence. We're gonna see if things all work together. Because things work together for good to them that love God, don't they? But if we look at Jonah, and he was running from the Lord's presence, but he found a ship And it was going where he wanted, and he had the fare. It really looked right, didn't it? But it wasn't right. Because it wasn't according to the word of God. Everything must be tested by the word of God. And what mistakes people have made when they think, well, we have the Lord's presence. You think of the children of Israel. They did have the Lord's presence. Did that mean that everything that they did was right? Did they never murmur? Did they never complain? Was there not any that were destroyed because of their sin? Did they not after this even turn back from Canaan and then were destroyed in the wilderness 40 years? They still had the presence of the Lord with them. We read he withheld not the manna from their mouths. He fed them all the time. But yet he took vengeance on their sins and their iniquities. A parent might be with the children all the time. But that doesn't mean the children never do anything wrong. If they do, they're not cast out as a child, but they're chastened, they're corrected. But a child wouldn't think of saying, well, the parent's with me, so I can do whatever I like. God's children, they know if God is with them. We read in Hebrews, he chastens every son whom he receiveth. If God is with them, he will correct them, but not cast them away. And so we do have to be very careful I've heard it solemnly in more than one occasion, one of our hymns in Gatsby's hymn book, and in one sense it's a beautiful verse, I wouldn't take it from anyone that has found it precious, but it goes like this, the way I walk cannot be wrong if Jesus be but there. And it's been a grief to several of us in the churches when that has been quoted to support openly sinful and wrongful conduct to the word of God. Just because they say, we have the Lord's presence, we can do it. And we won't listen to you, we won't listen to the word of God. So be very very careful on that. And so we want to look in a biblical way. You want to see what is actually set forth in this passage. that tells us what we are to expect if we have the Lord's presence to be with us. And so there are seven points that follow on in this passage of which we may know. The first one you'll find in verse 12 And that is that the Lord knows his people. He knows like as a shepherd, he knows his people. Because the Lord says, or Moses says to the Lord, yet thou hast said I know thee by name, thou hast also found grace in my sight. The Lord knows his sheep. bring your attention to when the Lord was on earth, and how did he reveal himself to his people? If you think of Nathanael, Nathanael was underneath the fig tree, remember the account, and Philip goes and he says to Nathanael, we have found him, of whom Moses and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, and Nathanael, he said, but can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Philip says, come and see. Well, as he's coming to the Lord, the Lord says, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. And Nathanael said, whence knowest thou me? Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Now, when I was young, in our garden, we had a fig tree. And it was like an umbrella, the great big leaves and it went right down to the ground. You could get a chair and you could sit under that fig tree and someone could walk right beside it and they'd never see you. And Nathaniel knew no natural man would have seen him under that fig tree. He was completely covered. And so he responded immediately and said that thou art the Christ, thou art the Savior. He knew who that was. Why? Because the Lord knew him and revealed to him that he knew him, where he was, what he was doing. You think of the woman at the well of Samaria. She desires of the Lord that she might have some of this water, this water of everlasting life. How does the Lord start to give her this gift, this blessing that she's asked? He says, go call thy husband. She says, I have no husband. He said, thou hast said right, thou hast no husband. Thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that thou says truly, and she says, I perceive that thou art a prophet. And later he tells her very clearly that I am the Christ, but she goes and tells the people, and she doesn't say to the Samaritans, this man has told me that he is the Messiah. She says, come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Because she said, I know that when Messiah's cometh, he shall tell us all things. The one thing that she knew about the promised Messiah was that he would tell about all things. And here is this man, this stranger, that has told her about herself and about her life, convincing her that he knew her, convincing her, not only by his words, but that in what he'd revealed that he was who he said he was, with her. His presence was with her there. And so that's why we say here that it is as a shepherd that knows his sheep. That beautiful John 10, he says that my sheep, they know me, I know them. They are my sheep, I go before them. And he'll make it known to them that he does know where they are, what they're doing. Do mark those providences. Mark those things that happen in your life that you have to say, like Hagar, Thou God, seest me. He knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, he shall bring me forth as gold. It's a blessed thing to be able to say even with dear Peter, Lord, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love Thee. to actually make it a plea of the Lord's knowledge of us. By nature, there may be things we'd like to hide from the Lord. The Lord gives us grace, we know we cannot hide anything from Him. And it will be our blessing if He knows us, everything about us. And this is the first token here of the promised presence of the Lord with his people, is that he convinces them that he actually knows them. And I tell you one instance that was very recent years over here, and it was great comfort to me. and down in Cranbrook and I was heading off to preach up here in Luton and at that time my father was not that well at all and in and out of hospital and that day I was very very low In my mind, my dear one, she said, if you stop pacing the house, you must get in the car and go. You can't not go. So I went. And as I pulled up outside the chapel at Luton, just as I turned the key off, my mobile phone went. And I answered that, it was my dear wife, and she said, I've just heard from your sister in Australia, and your father has just been taken into hospital. She said, I didn't know whether to let you know, you're already very low. But it had the opposite effect on me. And I thought, the Lord knows exactly where I am. He knew the moment I turned that car engine off. and timed that phone call exactly. He knew where my father was 12,000 miles away, he knew where I was, and he knew what had brought me from Australia to here. And you know that so picked me up and strengthened me. I had a good day in the Lord's house that day. It just so changed everything. And it was a simple thing, but the timing of the Lord is always perfect. And you can see the Lord's hand in the Lord's presence. And that's what I felt then. And mark those times. So that's the first, the shepherd, he knows his sheep. The second is Jesus the way. In verse 13, Moses says this, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way. that I may know thee. It's the other side, isn't it? The first point is the shepherd, he knows his sheep. The other side of it is the sheep to know him and know the way. And you think in John 14, where the disciples said, we know not whither thou goest. And how can we know the way? And the Lord said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And we read in Psalm 170, led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation. And so the Lord is the way, not a set of instructions, not a directory, not a map, but the Lord. Now those of you children here, if you were told that someone wanted to put you up the other side of London, and they give you a map and some directions and say, now you've got to take this bus and this train and get the other side of London, it might be quite fine. Am I going to make a mistake reading this map? Am I all on my own? But if that person said, no, I'm not going to give you any directions at all, but I'm going to come over to you and I will take you with me to my home. So you don't have to need to know the way, I am the way. I'm gonna be your guide. And all you have to know is that I am with you, and then you will get to where I am going, and you shall be with me. And this is what the Lord says with his people, I am the way. That's what makes it so important that we have the Lord's presence here. You imagine then if you're the child and halfway through, you looked around and thought, where is my guide? They've gone. Where's your assurance? Where's your comfort? All gone. How are we going to know the way when we don't have the Lord's presence? We need the Lord's presence. That is His chosen way of salvation. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. With my eye. Not as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, It's like the rider on the horse, but instead of pulling the head around and forcing it, the rider just says, turn right here, turn left there. We are to obey the voice of the Lord. And that voice is close with his people, not far off, but near to them. And so we have Jesus the way. Moses wanted to know that. Show me now thy way. None of you here can show me another way of salvation than Christ. There's no other way in the Scriptures than Christ. The Old Testament saints weren't saved in one way, and the New Testament in another way. There's only one way, and that is by faith in Christ. There's only one savior. There's only one sacrifice that was offered at Calvary. Not a whole lot of ones. No, the types and shadows pointed there. But it is all in Christ. From Adam, or from Abel, right through to the end. And so then we have in the third place, a separating presence. We go back to verse 16 that we referred to before. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight." See all the time he's wanting to know how, how can I know we've found grace? How can we know we have thy presence, thy blessing? And each time he gets an answer, but he says, is it not in that thou goest with us? Again, he wants the presence. So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. Never be ashamed of the separation that a faith in Christ brings. Come ye out from among them, touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, you shall be my sons and my daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty. He mentioned before, let us go unto him without the camp. Clearly separating, everyone could see a person separating from the camp and going out unto the tabernacle without. Never be ashamed. of the testimony of the Lord. The Lord said, I have given them thy word, and what happened? The world hath hated them. Woe is you when all men speak well of you. So they did the false prophets. The Lord is a separating God. Lot must come out separate, otherwise he'd be destroyed in the overflow. Noah must come out separate and into the ark, otherwise he'll be destroyed in the overflow. The Lord, by his grace, he says, I'll take you, two of a family, one of a city, and bring you unto Zion. Now, when I was a child, that verse used to puzzle me, because a child always thinks that a family unit will always be together. They don't think, like our dear friends are here, to leave father and mother joined unto his wife, be one flesh. And I used to think, well how can it be the Lord takes and blesses two in a family but only one in a city? Because the family's all together in one city. But you know my puzzling over that as a child prepared me for when I was 20 and my parents moved from Victoria in Australia to Tasmania, 250 miles away, and I stayed on my own. And now, I'm 12,000 miles away from my family, brothers and sisters in Tasmania, so really my whole life has walked out that separation of that verse. But the Lord will have his people to come out unto him and to be with the Lord and be a separated people. They are not the same as other people. They are redeemed people. They are peculiar people. They are special people. They're the Lord's people. And there needs to be a separate path. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. He cannot serve God. And mammon, there must be. How can two walk together except they be agreed? There must be a party. And so that again, is a very clear evidence here of the Lord's presence with the people, and don't be ashamed of it. It's hard, it's hard when your friends say, well, if you're gonna be a Christian, we don't wanna go with you. The apostle says, I am crucified unto the world, and the world is crucified unto me. In other words, I don't want the world and its so-called pleasures But the world doesn't want me either. And the Lord says, they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. The world will bring about that separation for you. You won't have to go out to find it. But don't be ashamed of it. It is a cross. The cross the Lord has bid his people take up and follow him. that he has promised his presence, what would we rather? The presence of the world and worthy friends and company or the presence of our God? And so then we have also in the fourth place the goodness of the Lord that is to pass before us. And we have this when we go further down in verse 19, And he said, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. All the goodness of the Lord pass before thee. That won't just be providential goodness, won't just be things of earth, but spiritual blessings. The psalmist in Psalm 23, he finishes that psalm. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. He joins the two together. The Lord with him in life, and the goodness of the Lord, and then to be with the Lord's house forever. And so the goodness of the Lord, he is good to all. His tender mercies are over all his works. But the people of God see a goodness in temporal things, in every blessing he gives, but also in all things that work together for good in a spiritual way. Remember the Lord values our souls more than any temporal thing. Those things we must leave behind one day, but our souls. The Lord deals with our souls faithfully. I remember the first time the Lord brought me into a trial, a path, that I came out of it and I thought, well, what good has that done? It hasn't bettered me in any providential way whatsoever. And up to that time, I'd noticed and watched blessings and helps of the Lord. The Lord had helped me in my exams, he'd given me good employment, he'd given me a home, I'd seen him go before, all of these things, and thanked the Lord for them. But in this particular path and trial that I was in, I looked and I thought, I can't see any profit in this trial and this tribulation that I've been in. Then I saw the Lord show me there'd be spiritual teaching, be teaching for my soul. And you know, the sense of that, Lord, thou hast a love to my soul. Thou'st not yet done things for my outward life, but for my soul. When I realized that, the joy that that brought, the thanksgiving and Because sometimes, you know, Satan, when he attacked, when he accused Job, he said, doth Job fear God for naught? He said, that's put a hedge about him, that's blessed everything he had. You touch what he has and you curse. Job thought, or Satan thought, that Job only served the Lord for what the Lord gave him in providential things, not for what the Lord was. but how wrong he was, but how right Satan is in many, many, many cases. Many cases, so many that make a profession, and when things go wrong in their lives, and illnesses, and the Lord sovereignly brings affliction and trouble and so on. If this is the Lord, and this is, I've served him, and I've attended chapel, and I've done this and this, and he's rewarded me in this way, and this has come into my life, and I'm having nothing more of religion. Satan knows that. And that's why he tried it with Job. Don't follow the Lord just for the loaves and the fishes, for the things that we can get out of him. The Lord has clearly said that to follow him is taking up a cross. It's not an easy, it's not a pleasant path, but there is a promised rest at the end of it. And so, maybe look for the goodness of the Lord not just in providential things, but in correcting us, teaching us, opening up the scriptures, blessing the word to us, feeding our souls, and strengthening our faith in Him. That is real goodness, the goodness of the Lord in a spiritual, particular way for us. Then in the fifth place, we have the name of the Lord. In the same verse, verse 19, he says, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. The name of the Lord. This is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And the church as well, this is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. And then when the Lord came into the earth, into the world, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. When the Lord revealed himself like to Manoah and his wife, like to Gideon, in those pre-incarnation appearances, when they asked him his name, he said, Wherefore askest thou after my name, seeing it is secret? It was secret then, but then revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ with Jacob, they wrestled a man with him until the break of day. They wrestled with God and with man and has prevailed again the Lord Jesus Christ in time before he came. And so the name of the Lord, how sweet, how precious is the name of Jesus to us. a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. If we know the presence of the Lord, those that had Him revealed, they worshipped Him, they bowed before Him. He's not then just Jesus of Nazareth. It is, but they see the Saviour, they see the Son of God, and they have His name revealed. So also we have in the sixth place the sovereignty of the Lord. And he says again in verse 19 at the end there, he says, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. The whole of salvation of the Lord is mercy and grace. It's undeserved, free, unmerited favor by grace. You are saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And that is sovereignly given. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And it is very sovereign. It comes into families, comes very close. Many of us, we have, like myself, four children and only myself at the moment, called And why, says the hymn writer, why was I made to hear his voice and enter while his room? Millions rather starve than come. The constraining, sovereign work of God in a sinner. Choosing one, passing by another. Calling one, not calling another. the sovereignty of the Lord. Sometimes we see it also in the providences. When I was before I was called, there were things that happened that now afterwards I look back, and I did register the time when I was 11, and I had a very severe bicycle accident, so bad they thought I'd had a car accident, and yet my life was spared. But a girl of similar age, She was just sitting on a bike on a curb and she fell over and she hit her head on the curb and she died. I remember thinking, but I've had a great, a really bad accident and I was spared and this girl just fell over, wasn't even going anywhere on the bike. Why? And yet that wasn't saving at that time, but I think back to it. And other things as well, the sovereignty of God. Why does he deal with one in one way and then with another in another way? And that is revealing of the Lord. A lot of people will like to worship the Lord as long as they can tell him what to do and what not to do. That's what an idol is, isn't it? An idol's an amazing thing. You can put it where you want it. You can make it say what you want it to say. You can imagine it's hearing what it wants to hear. And some people think the Lord is like that. But God's people, they know He is sovereign. And when they come before Him in their petitions and in their prayers, it is if the Lord will. We don't dictate to the Lord. We supplicate, we ask, we petition Him. And so again, His presence is known in that He is a sovereign God. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. But lastly, we have that the Lord is a rock and a hiding place. Beautiful how this closes, and we think of the hymn, Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Behold, there is a place by me thou shalt stand upon a rock, and then there's a cliff in the rock, I'll cover thee with my hand while I pass by. What a secret, what a hiding place, what a rock. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid. which is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And it's in these things that are revealed. Is Christ a rock to us? Is He our foundation stone? Is He when all troubles and our life falls apart, we can back cling to Him? When all the storms of life, we flee unto the rock for want of a shelter, and we find a shelter. in Christ. And so we have these in this portion here, very clearly setting forth what it is to have his promised presence to go with us. And in gospel days it remains the same, it follows through as we mentioned there in the New Testament. That we have his promised presence to go before us. But what about then our last point, the promised rest? We know with the children of Israel that this meant the Canaan. It was to be the land that was promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But, of course, when they got to Canaan they had many wars. You always must remember the types of the Old Testament. They never follow through. in every particular, if Judah is a type of Christ because he's a shorty, if Joseph is a type of Christ because he goes before and preserves their lives, doesn't mean to say that all aspects of their lives are like Christ. Jonah, our Lord himself, said that as Jonah was three days and three nights in the wild's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. But that didn't mean that Jonah's running away was typical of our Lord at all. So we've got to be very careful with times and illustrations in that way. They're put there by God to illustrate that only as far as the tide goes. And so with the children of Israel, they had that promised land. But I do like to think of how the Lord prepares everything. In the Garden of Eden, the Lord prepared all that wonderful garden and he put in man. With the children of Israel, he said, you should not need to plant vineyards or build houses. They're all there. You go through the wilderness and you go into a prepared place. You think of John 14, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I come again, I'll receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. Again we have the picture, the Lord prepares and then he puts his people in it. It's a beautiful time, a beautiful promise that the Lord would do this for his people. A rest remains to the people of God, a rest where they're not going in to do all the labour he's done for them. They enter into the rest that God has prepared for them. And so we would think of heaven as being that rest. He bringeth them unto their desired haven into those mansions that he has prepared. That rest remaineth to the people of God. And how the apostle, when he writes to in Romans 8, and he says about the tribulations and sorrows of the way, he says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And we have what is spoken of with the Old Testament saints looking to gospel days and days of the Gentiles brought in, and it was said, it hath not entered into the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that love him. The Old Testament saints could hardly have pictured what it is today. One unique nation of the Jews, and now in every nation, kindred, and tongue, and the Gospel so clearly set forth. They could not see that, but we see it. But then when we look forward, and the Apostle says, we see through a glass darkly. It hath not entered into a heart of man. what he hath prepared for us, heaven, and what is to come. As much as it wasn't in the Old Testament saints' hearts to really know what we enter into, we can't enter into what God hath prepared for them that love him. that we know it shall be most blessed and make amends for all of the way to it, all of the journey, all of the tribulation before it. But the very way it's set forth as rest the way it's set forth as a haven, it really reinforces what our Lord says, that here below is not our rest, it is polluted. And here we have toil and wrestlings and fightings, and every child of God that is called into God's kingdom, they must know that they are called to do a daily battle with the corruptions and sins of their own evil heart. Your heart, my heart, will never get better. That corrupt, evil heart. The apostle said, the sin that I would not, that I do. The evil that I would not, that I do. The good that I would, I do not. A wretched man that I am. But grace, it shall reign. Sin shall not reign, for you're under grace. And so with the people of God, We're not to despair when we see and feel that corruption and evil within. We're told it is there. But grace, the Lord shall through His Word, through His presence, through His help, deliver us from that. He has taken away our love of it, made us willing to be free from it, and given us those precious promises of His present help. in time of need. And so we have also the Lord Jesus Christ here below as our rest. And we think of what our Lord says in John 16 and verse 33. If I can turn to it. He says, These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So here is the presence of the Lord with his people here. And in the midst of tribulation, they have peace. Peace in Christ. A rest in Christ. To come apart and to rest a while, said the Lord. And the people came unto him. They sat down on the green grass, as it were, and they heard the word of the Lord. A blessed rest. We think also of our gathering together as we do on this occasion. The Lord has given one day in seven. It was a day of rest, hallowed, sanctified by the Lord. In the Old Testament, The seventh eye. in the New Testament, the first day of the week when the Lord rose from the dead, but the principle of rest and a hallowed day, a day not for labor, but the day of rest and a day of worship is still the same. And it is a sacred thing to come apart, to leave. We think of the separation we spoke of before and to come apart from the world and come before the Lord and come before his word and to revive our souls, freshen our souls, and to have a little time of that rest which is away from the world and which is reserved in heaven. It's a very sad thing for those who profess to be Christians who find it so irksome and hateful to come apart from the world and to spend one day in heaven with the Lord. If we truly love the Lord, and we love his people and the communion of his people, then we'll want to be with them. Want to be with them here, want to be with them in heaven, and that is a beautiful foretelling of that rest that is in heaven. rest that remaineth to the people of God, and the Lord has given us His Sabbaths, has given Himself as our rest, and again is bound up with His presence. What would heaven be without His presence? What would be our assemblies without His presence and blessing, but rounds of dead service, forms and ways? But if the Lord draw near, like He did with the two on the way to Emmaus, and their heart burned within them, and their sorrows turned to joy and with gladness. And so we have here a blessed, promised presence of the Lord and of the rest that the Lord has for his dear people. And may the Lord bless you with it, bless me with it, and to prize these precious promises, and that we might know the Lord's presence here below and value it and when we see it that we might rightly read into it according to the word here that we have found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And so he has been pleased, mercifully, graciously to come and to go with us. What a precious promise then. And he said, my presence shall go with thee. And I will not maybe, not mine, but I will give thee rest. The Lord had his blessing. Amen.