Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1583
“And He said, My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14.
MAY the inexpressibly precious promises of our text be fulfilled to every one of you throughout the whole of your lives. What could heart desire, or mind conceive beyond the heaped-up blessedness of my text? God’s Presence and God’s rest—a ring of finest gold set with the choicest pearl! The benedictions are worthy of God, Himself, and such as only His boundless love could have uttered. Think them over and use them as food for your souls—with them you may well be content even if the preacher’s lips should be shut up as a spring, a sealed fountain! You do not need any sermon—only let the Holy Spirit speak these words with power as coming directly from the great Father’s lips to you and your inmost soul will be satisfied as with marrow and fatness!—
“Enough, my gracious Lord,
Let faith triumphant cry!
My heart can on this promise live,
Can on this promise die.
‘My Presence will go with you,
And I will give you rest.’”
It is instructive to remember that a very short time before this promise was given, the Israelites had greatly grieved their God by setting up an image of gold before which they prostrated themselves, saying, “These are your gods, O Israel.” They had seen the greatness and Glory of God at the Red Sea and during their journey in the wilderness up to that time—and yet they were so foolish that they bowed in worship before the image of an ox which eats grass! We do not marvel that the living God was angry, but we are filled with astonishment that, after such wanton provocation, He should, nevertheless, turn away His wrath from them and say to them—for the promise was not to Moses only, but to them as a people—“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Will God, then, go with sinners? Will He go with those who have provoked Him so grossly, with those who have sinned against Light and knowledge in so shameful a manner? Will He put away the iniquity of great offenders and speak comfortably to them? Yes, He will, for He is slow to wrath and bears with our ill manners for many a day. Here are His own words—“For My name’s sake will I defer My anger and for My praise will I refrain for you, that I cut you not off” (Isa. 48:9). O my Brothers and Sisters, what a consolation it is to us, while laboring under a sense of sin, that the Lord is able to put away sin so that we shall not die and He will come and walk with us and dwell in the midst of us, notwithstanding all our former wickedness!
You know what a righteous God He is and how jealous He is, especially of those He loves. And yet, for all that, though He is a consuming fire, He is so gracious that, passing by transgression, iniquity and sin, He will still return unto His people and again speak comfortably to them. There is a secret, however, which must never be forgotten, namely, that Moses had made mightily prevalent intercession for the people, crying with many tears, “Oh, this people has sinned a great sin and has made them gods of gold! Yet now, if you will forgive their sin—and if not, blot me, I pray You, out of Your Book which You have written.” He had gone up into the fiery mount, even up into the eternal Presence and there he had in will, though it was not accepted in deed, offered himself as a sacrifice for the nation in that memorable sentence, “If not, blot my name out of the Book which You have written.”
Though the Lord could not accept the substitution of Moses, yet He remembered a greater One—He remembered One that was then, to Him, as much present as if it had already taken place, for He sees the end from the beginning and the Sacrifice of Christ was always present in the mind of God, before whom His Son, Jesus, is “the Lamb slain from before the foundations of the world.” If, then, we carefully search to the bottom of things we shall find that it was by virtue
of the Mediator that this promise was given to Israel and God thus spoke to Moses and the people! Atonement had been made, intercession had been offered and, therefore, the Lord’s Presence was guaranteed and rest was promised. This is the only ground upon which God can dwell with you and with me and give us rest—an Advocate, one of a thousand—has stood in the gap, presented His life for our life, obtained favor of the Lord and turned away indignation by the power of His intercession!
God in Christ Jesus has come down to dwell with sinful men! And that Presence will never be removed from us, for He says, “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you.” He invites Himself into our company. He offers to sup with us. Do not our hearts cry, “Come, Lord, manifest Yourself to us, we pray You, and let the promise which has been read in our ears be now fulfilled in our hearts by the power of Your Spirit!”—“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” It may be that I am addressing some who are about to leave this congregation for other assemblies at a distance and, if so, I hope I may be the bearer of seasonable comforts. I have spoken to some, just now, whose faces we may not, perhaps, see again, who are going far away to their great sorrow and to our intense regret.