Address—D. Rule
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Let's sing it 327.
Lord, save the sorry.
My birthday, Oh my God.
And everything.
No one in heaven.
Of all.
Such was thy grace.
Like for our sake.
Louder from heaven.
Calm down.
Flash.
And blood party.
And make our.
Sins are guilt.
And love divine.
I'm born by the the the curse.
Word lying.
To set as thy.
Some free.
Standard.
Now and glory bright.
Life.
Glorious day.
On.
The.
Shelter.
Wandering World's display.
That we.
Will stay.
As God's help.
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Would you turn with me to James Chapter 2?
James chapter 2 and verse 23.
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith Abraham believed God.
And it was imputed unto him for righteousness.
And he was called the friend of God.
Some here may remember that I made some.
Remarks recently, a few weeks ago at Addison.
On this subject, and they were rather brief. And afterwards the brother came to me and asked if I would consider speaking a little more at length about it. And I also realized that some of the thoughts in my heart I hadn't been able to communicate very well either. And so with God's help, again this afternoon we're going to take up.
What we have brought before us in this verse, friendship with God.
Here the only man in the whole of the Bible that I know of that.
Is so-called the friend of God? Is the man Abraham? And yet I would desire, brethren, that everyone of us would want.
To enter into and enjoy that relationship with our God.
That he too might refer to us as the friend of God.
We're not talking about being a believer. We're going to look the Lord willing, at Abraham a little bit, and he had a relative Lot. And I don't think it would be right to say that Lot was a friend of God.
At least not in the scriptural sense of it. And so Lot was a believer. Abraham was a believer. We expect to see both of them in the glory. But we.
Realize that their relationship with their Lord, their God, during their lives here on earth was not the same.
And of Abraham, it said he was the friend of God.
This subject came before me by the way of the conscience rather than the heart after September 11.
After September 11, there were many people addressing why the events of that day happened and what God was saying.
And.
We.
All perhaps have had our own thoughts on such a subject, and it's not my intent, not a call from the Lord, to speak about that this afternoon.
But what struck my conscience was the statement in a conversation between the Lord and Abraham.
When?
The Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham?
That which and Mr. Darby's translation, that which I am doing.
Brethren, we're not talking this afternoon about the sense of having an understanding of prophecy.
That's not what is meant or on my heart about having friendship with God.
Abraham.
Knew about the future. And if you would ask him in his equivalent to what we call prophecy, he could say, well, the children of Israel are the people. The seed that are going to come from my loins are going to be down in Egypt for 400 years. And after that they're going to be delivered and they're going to go back into their land. And he could talk about the future in that way.
But before the judgment.
That took place.
In a neighboring town, if you will, to where he lived.
Of Sodom, the Lord stopped by his house to have a conversation with Abraham, and he said Abraham. And he said, the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that which I'm doing? In other words, to the Lord, He couldn't think of exercising that judgment that was planned on Sodom the next day or two without first stopping and talking about it with Abraham.
And in fact, giving Abraham a chance to intercede, which he did with God concerning his that city.
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And so here it says, shall I hide from Abraham? Or can I say not here? But it says he was called the friend of God.
I'd like to introduce perhaps something that helped me in meditating a little bit on friendship. I'm going to tell you about a friend that I had, but I don't think anybody in this room knows or knew, including my wife.
His name's Bobby.
And I'm going to describe him as my friend, as he was.
So that you perhaps, though you don't know him, you might relate to somebody that you've had in your life that you've called a friend.
And by doing so, we might make relationship in a sense to have a better sense of what it is to be a friend of God.
When I was seven years old.
My family moved to the house in which I continued to grow up until the day I was married.
And when we moved in to that house on Lenape Drive, across the street from us was another family that had three boys.
And the middle boy's name was Bobby.
He was within.
Five days of my age.
Six days. We born the same week, so we were the same age. And from that point on, Bobby and I were buddies. We were pals, we were friends. I got to know him.
And it seemed like we did everything together. I was seven years old.
When we came to know one another, we went to the same grade school together. We went to the same.
Junior high that our city had, we went to the same high school and in fact we went to the same college.
Together. Thank you.
Bobby was my friend. We walked to school together. We were in the same classes together. When we went home, we went home, we walked home together. And summertime was especially a great time for us because right behind our houses.
Was a ravine that went down into woods with a Creek and we could go up and down and explore maybe 2 miles in each direction along the the Creek bed and catch our crawdads and our little fish and go fool's gold mining and building our tree houses and our hideaways and our forks together. And I would go out in the morning and or he would and when I'd come outside the house and he started out across the street from me, but his house parents built the house.
On a vacant lot right beside her house. So most of the years he lived right beside me and his house and my house were maybe 20 feet apart. And I'd go out in the morning. And I don't know, I haven't done it for years and I'm not sure I still can, but it's nostalgic to me in that sense. But.
We had a special whistle that I never used with anybody else, never even used it on my children, but Bobby and I were pals.
And so when I would come out in the morning, I would crank up the whistle better than that.
And he knew it because it was special. It was just used for communication between the two of us and he would come out and we would.
Buddies. Friends have secrets they share together. I wouldn't have thought of not having some something important to me that I wouldn't share with him. And I think it was true of him.
You would share with me?
I had brothers in my family, some of them older, some of them younger, and they were friends and pals too in a way, but he had brothers too.
But we were close, closer really, and some of our Blood Brothers at that time.
When I was in grade school there came a year I remember it with considerable feeling to this day.
There was a particular organization that Bobby joined that my parents said no to me.
And that was a little cloud really on the horizon of our friendship because he joined with some other boys to do certain things and my parents said I was not allowed to do that.
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And so we couldn't be together all the time in the same way.
Well, I don't want to spend the hour talking about Bobby, so I'm going to kind of cut it short except to say when when we got into junior high.
We had different responsibilities in life and.
And there was another family, another house was built on the street behind us. And there was a boy named Jeff that.
Moved in there and.
We all went to school together, and when we were in high school, our high school had a fraternities and sororities. I know that's not common, but ours did. And Bobby joined the fraternity and so did Jeff. And there's a certain secretness to that, a certain bond there.
And to make that part of the story short, our friendship waned.
Because we didn't share the same things in common. There were any fights about it. There were any parting of the ways, really. If we saw each other today, I'm sure we would embrace.
But what was in common between us wasn't there in the same way anymore.
And so there was gradually, you might say, a certain separation.
I'm thankful to see in those same years there were people in this room. Bob's one, Doug's another.
That went the other direction, from getting to know them to getting closer. Until today, I would call them my friends.
I want to turn back with you to Genesis.
Chapter 15.
Genesis chapter 18 and consider with you a little bit about the friend of God.
And to me, some of the things that made him the friend of God.
So that you too and I might enter more.
Into the enjoyment of it, and perhaps into the reality of being a friend with God.
Genesis chapter 18 verse one. And the Lord appeared unto him, that is Abraham in the land.
Planes of mammary. And he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day, and he lift up his eyes and looked and loathed. Three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord.
If now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water I pray thee be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, and I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort your hearts. After that you shall pass on, for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do as thou said. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly 3 measures of fine meal.
Need it, and make cakes upon the heart. And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man, and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter and milk in the calf, which he addressed, and he said it before them, and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
This is the first step here, something significant I think in it in.
Abraham's home was open to the Lord.
His friend. He was always welcome there and he was free to come at any time.
Sometimes we compartmentalize our lives in such a way that, well, we're here this afternoon and we expect to be here tomorrow and the next day, and the Lord is going to have our attention and the things of God are going to be foremost before us.
But then Monday or Lord's Day afternoon, for some of us, we're going to leave and other things easily take up our time and attention in such a way that sort of the Lord is on the side for a little bit.
While we take up something else. But to me Abraham was a man that.
Always.
Had time and was ready for God's visit in his life and he serves him. He was ready to give of his substance to the Lord.
Especially of his time and of his energy, really. It's amazing how much diligent Abraham is here. He hates to do this. He hates to do that. And what is he? He's 199 years old and it's the heat of the day.
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But it was nothing if it was the Lord that had come.
And so he says.
Verse 9.
And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee, according to the time of life.
And lo, Sarah, thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him. And Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age, And it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child?
Which I'm old is.
Anything too hard for the Lord?
At the time appointed, I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. And Sarah denied, saying, I laugh not, for she was afraid. And he said, Nay, but thou didst laugh.
Next little part of the story here, Abraham and his friendship with God.
It strikes me, is that the Lord?
Comes into the House of Abraham. Comes to the house and he addresses need that he saw with Abraham and his wife.
That's the characteristic of friendship.
You know, sometimes when somebody needs to be told something, we think about the person we think is closest to them and then go to them and say, why don't you say so and so to them?
That's because we recognize that that person to whom we have gone to do the saying of the talking is someone who is close to that person, and we might even go so far as to say they'll accept it from you.
And, umm, we're acknowledging that our own relationship with that person is not on the basis where.
They might be open to receive from us.
Something that can I say the wounds of a friend.
That come in, but here with the Lord he talks to Abraham, friend to friend.
And he looks first after the needs of Abrahams heart, confirming a promise to him.
And dealing with perhaps some unbelief that was found there, but nonetheless dealing with the need in the household first.
And then he's ready, if you will, to go on. Now verse 17 it says, and the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham?
That thing which I do or which what I'm doing.
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after them, after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him.
And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, because their sin is very grievous.
The Lord was about to do a very important thing. He was about to bring judgment down upon Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, He was on His way to do it.
And I don't want to speak irreverently or disrespectfully, but I'm going to put it this way to help you to understand the exercise of my soul.
Did the Lord stop by your house?
On the way to what he allowed on September 11.
Did he stop to commune with you? I'm not talking about what you had to think about after that date.
I'm talking about before.
Was there, is there such a relationship between your own heart and the Lord in your own life that as it were, the Lord said, shall I hide from you that thing which I am doing?
Perhaps it's no wonder that there's only one person in all the Bible that for which the words are actually used, the friend of God.
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So he says to him.
Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I am doing?
Now what does he immediately say after that, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
Everything that's happening in the world today is, in a certain sense, associated.
With God's purposes and affecting your life.
God had certain purposes with respect to Abraham's life and what he was going to do and everything that the Lord plans to do with this earth. He's going to have you in association with him, with himself when he does it.
And so he recognizes that your life is today in all that's passing before it in this world in which you live.
Has an effect.
Has a relationship to himself and yourself and the Lord. When he says I've got to talk to Abraham about this, I can't just do it without bringing Abraham into it. He said. I know that he will command his children and his household. They shall keep the way of the Lord, He says, to do justice and just afterwards.
What is that?
Why does he say that right there?
It appears to me from looking into the word a little bit on this question of friendship that there's a difference.
A fundamental difference between friendship with God and friendship with peers, that is, people of your own class, if you will. My friendship with Bobby was boy to boy, equal to equal.
And we were friends, sharing common things, but neither one of us, you might say, had the 1St place over the other. It was one to one equal equal.
But it appears to me from the word of God that can I put it this way if you want to be a friend of God.
It's going to be on his terms.
He is absolutely supreme and it has to be that way. It can't be any other way.
And God in his friendship with Abraham. And I believe there will be time. We'll look at Moses who spoke with God as it says, face to face as a man does with his friend. And I think we see in Moses characteristics of friendship with God as well.
But when it brings it out here, it says I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him.
God knew Abraham, He knew the character of the man, and he knew that here was a man that was going to walk with him in what he did.
If you and I are to walk in a practical friendship relationship with God, we're going to have to do it. We're going to want to do it.
In fellowship with him, in his thoughts and in his ways.
Hold your finger here. We're going to come back. We see the same point made when the Lord Jesus talks about friendship with the disciples.
And which I believe can be applied to us as well in John 15. So we'll come back in a few moments to where we are, but let's go over to John 15 to see another example of this same point, that friendship with God, friendship with the Lord Jesus is not as an equal to an equal.
Verse 9. John 15. Verse 9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue, ye and my love.
If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments.
And abide in His love.
Verse 12 This is my commandment that you love one another.
As I have loved you, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my father.
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I have made known unto you.
Paramount or preeminent in the thought of friendship is the communication of the heart of one to another. And here the Lord Jesus, in addressing the disciples as His friends, He says to them, I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made out unto you.
He to them, the things that were his were theirs. That's what friends are all about, and so they share together.
In relationship with one another.
And so he says, though in verse 14, Ye are my friends if.
You do whatsoever I command you.
In other words, you can't be a friend. I can't be a friend of the Lord Jesus.
If I don't do the things.
That would give fellowship between us if we don't share in the same things.
And here he emphasizes 1 tremendous thing that he wants the.
That he expects of those of us that would desire to walk in friendship with him.
What is it that we love? One another?
That we love one another to the point where we would really, truly called upon of the Lord physically give our lives.
For one another, not only physically but in a practical sense, deny our own lives for our brethren.
Tremendous mark of friendship. David and Jonathan were friends.
And in one sense, it almost seems like Jonathan, as much as he loved David, couldn't quite go to the point.
Where it would be to give down his life.
For David.
But here the Lord Jesus said greater love.
I know, brethren, in the abstract and in the nature of our hearts, God has given us the capacity to love even our enemies. But I'm going to speak of it in the practical sense. Let's try starting at least and learning how to do it with our friends.
And then let it grow by the Lord's power to extend even to enemies.
Sometimes we know these things in a very.
Wordy sort of way that doesn't really affect day-to-day life. But here the the Lord Jesus counted the disciples as his friends, and he saw their love and he called upon it.
This is my commandment.
That you love one another as I have loved you. Now let's go back to Genesis.
18.
Mentioned before, and now we're going to see an example of it in the verses. We're going to read that friendship.
And I say this is a tremendous privilege. Friendship with God brings a person into the place of intercession.
We see it with Moses, We see it here with Abraham. Isn't that something to be desired? The nature of your relationship, your personal and private relationship with God our Father, is that that brings you into a role of intercessor for others.
So we read here in verse 20 the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great.
Because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it.
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Which has come unto me, and if not, I will know.
Then the men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom. But Abraham stood yet before the Lord.
Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Per adventure, there would be 50 righteous within the city. Wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place where the 50 righteous that are therein?
That be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? It's interesting to me. It's the Lord that says that you'd ask me before meditating on this subject. I would have said, I don't know. But it wasn't the Lord that said, Shall not the judge of all the earth you write? But here there is such a relationship of a friendship that the Lord himself.
As it were. Almost, you might say. I don't say quite pleads, but he's talking face to face.
One-on-one with Abraham. And so he says to Abraham, he says to Abraham, won't the judge of all the earth do right?
That's closeness, brethren.
Verse 26 And the Lord said, will I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city.
Then I will spare all the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which him but dust and ashes per adventure there shall lack five of the 50 righteous. Wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there 40 and five, I will not destroy it.
Spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there, there shall be 40 found there. And he said, I will not do it for 40's sake. And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry and and I'll speak for adventure. There should be 30 found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find 30 there.
And he said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Per adventure, there shall be 20 found there.
And he said I will not destroy it for 20 sake.
And he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak at this, but this once her adventure 10 shall be found there. And he said.
I will not destroy it for 10 sake.
And the Lord went his way as soon as he had left, communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place.
Please forgive me, that seems too strong but.
I'll say it again to try to get, can I say, communicate it to your conscience? What's on my conscience?
Did the Lord stop at your house on the way to New York?
And give you the chance.
To say, but Lord, if there's.
50 Righteous in the building.
Will you spare it?
I have no doubt in my own soul that Abraham had a primary concern. He had a generic general concern for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
But he had a very particular concern for one man and his family when he did this interaction with God, and that is he had affection, he had a love for his nephew Lot, and he knew where Lot lived and he knew where Lot's family lived.
And so he interacts with the Lord for the city.
Cared about it, but I don't doubt in my soul that in Abraham's heart and in the Lord's knowledge.
He said I know the man, Lord said I know him.
And the wonderful thing is, Abraham talks to God as one that knows God.
Lord says I know him and Abraham in a way. He says, well you would you destroy the city with righteous in it?
That is, he speaks friend to friend, somebody he knew carefully and on a daily basis in such a way that their thoughts could communicate with one another. And if there was uncertainty in one, he wanted it to be said. And there was an answer given to the questions asked. It wasn't just be quiet, let me do my thing. It's important. I'm on a very serious business here. No? And so Abraham went as far as his faith could go.
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God went beyond Abraham's faith.
God knew what he was going to do.
He knew and he was going to satisfy in the end the heart of Abraham, because when he went down to Sodom, before he brought the judgment on Sodom, he had a job first to do, and that was to go to Lots House.
And take the righteous out, so that the right, the judgment, would not fall.
On lot at least, and even on some of his family who were in position with him.
Although not of the same faith. And so the Lord goes his way to do what has to be done.
And Abraham had the privilege of intercession and I believe the real desires of his heart, even if he couldn't fully express it and enter into it with God.
Completely, he could see that his nephew Lot, a righteous one, had been spared.
Now turn over with me to another example of this in Exodus chapter 33.
We'll read a little bit of the chapter to get the context, and I don't know that it's particularly a different point than we find in with respect to Abraham, but it emphasizes the same point at least you'll notice in verse 11 before we start reading Exodus 33, verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.
That's a characteristic.
Feature of what friendship is all about. And here we find Moses, in a way, in what's taken up here, in the same way as Sodom and Gomorrah really. That is Moses interceding with God face to face, as a man, with his friend.
Verse One And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart and go. 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, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hibite, and the Jebusite, under 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.
So here we have the.
The problem, if you will.
The Lord says to Moses.
Moses, I promised you that you could have that to your seed. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that you could have that land.
And I'm going to fulfill my promise, so I'm going to send an Angel ahead of you.
And that Angel is going to clear the way for you. He's going to drive out those that oppose, and you're going to have your promises fulfilled.
But I myself, I can't go with you.
Because the people are stiff necked and if I come into the midst, I'll have to consume the people in a moment.
So you go on and as it were, I'll send the Angel, but I can't go with you.
So it says the children. Verse six. 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.
The Tabernacle was the place where God dwelt in the midst.
Of his people.
That all the people rose up and stood every man at the 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.
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Friendship, right?
And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the Tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshiped every man at his tent door. Going to stop and interject at the moment doesn't come to me where the verse is found, but it says the Lord.
Made known unto Moses his ways, and his acts unto the children of Israel.
I may not be quoting that correctly word for word, but I think I have the thought right.
The children of Israel saw what happened as they went from Egypt to Canaan. All the events that took place, they could describe them, some of them could say I saw this happen, I saw that happen they that is, they saw the axe, the acts of.
Of the Lord.
But have you ever had a situation in which something happens and someone says, what did he do that for?
Not a clue as to why that thing was done, and with the children of Israel, in many cases they didn't have any idea.
But with Moses it was different. He was walking, as it were, a friend with God.
And what He was doing, what the Lord was doing, and why He was doing it before He even did it.
You discuss it, communicate it.
To Moses. So that's what takes place here. Moses goes into the presence of the Lord in the Tabernacle. Everyone else waits around on the outside, if you will, while Moses talks, as it says, while the Lord talks with Moses.
Verse 10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the Tabernacle door. And all the people rose up, and worship every man at his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as the 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 this people, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know.
Whom thou wilt send with me.
Yet thou has said, I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight.
Moses says, Lord, you gave me the job. I'm supposed to take these people up.
But as he says here, you haven't let me know who you're going to send with me.
We've got to have it out. We've got to get it understood. And Moses had liberty.
To express himself in that way, not as one at a distance, but as face to face.
As a man with his friend.
And he said you said.
What does he say? Lord says to him, I know thee by name.
He appreciated that. You know me, you know how I feel, you understand me.
Now Moses wants it both ways in that sense. Verse 13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I 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.
Lord.
Said you know me, you know me by name, you know all that I am, and I want to know you in the same way.
And you say I found grace in your sight. And if I found grace in your sight, then?
What about these people?
The Lord said your people to Moses. Moses turns around and he says, the Lord thy people.
He's not going to let, if I could say it that way, he's not going to let the Lord be disassociated from those people.
God had put a love in their heart for the people and had called them his people. And Moses says they're your people.
We've got to do this together, as it were. You can't leave me to go on alone.
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You're going to have to, well, what are you going to have to do?
Verse 15.
Verse 14 So the Lord says to him, My presence shall go with thee.
And I will get the rest. It's almost as if the Lord says, OK Moses, I'll go with you.
And the Lord figures out, you might say, the proper way that he could go with Moses.
And maintain His Holiness with the stiff necked people.
But here I'm talking more about the personal relationship between the two. And Moses responds and says to him, 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?
Oh Moses, he won't stop. I love him. It's not only I found grace in thy sight, but he says to about the people. They found grace in your sight too, Lord.
Do you intercede for the Saints of God, all of them gathered and scattered as His people?
I was thankful for a remark a brother in this room made to me after some of these thoughts were expressed before.
Said you know.
I thought about that in connection with the assembly.
Thaddeus is our friendship with the Lord in such a way that when the Lord is dealing.
When he has his hand on his people.
That he, as it were, comes and sits down with us.
We might discuss the matter together, that he might make known to us what he's purposing.
At the present time, what he's doing now.
Not simply what he's going to do when he takes this home and we're all in his presence together in perfect harmony.
But when he has a needs be where you live, in the assembly, where you are.
Or where I am or in a particular family circle need, is there a sense of it has to be discussed between us, that is our own soul and the Lord. Well, that's the way it was here with the Lord, with Moses.
And so he says.
Verse 16. 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 we shall 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.
Also that thou hast spoken. OK, Moses.
Go the extra mile. I'll do that too. Also that you brought into the conversation.
Tremendous thing to be with God.
And so he says, 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 in the end of the chapter, Moses has a very personal and wonderful opportunity for the Lord to make himself known to Moses in in even a greater way than Moses had up to that point experienced. And I believe that if we, as it were, cultivate that friendship with the Lord, as the closeness develops, so will his heart be communicated in a deeper and fuller way to our own souls.
Just want to spend a few moments before we close back in James chapter 4.
Mentioned before that if we are to have fellowship.
As friends with our God, with our Lord Jesus Christ, it will be on their terms, not our own.
God is consistent and perfect within himself, and the only way to be in fellowship with Him is to be on the same wavelength as He is. And here we find in James chapter 4 something that hinders friendship with God, so we should take note of it.
Chapter 4. Verse One. From whence come wars and fighting's among you come they not hence even of your lust, that war in your members Ye lust and have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight in war you have not because you ask not you ask, and receive not because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. The adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God.
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Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Solemn, isn't it?
The world is governed by its lusts.
Mr. Darby translates the verse here pleasures and defends the translation in part by saying that.
The things that we lost, we find pleasure in.
And this world lives for its pleasures.
It knows nothing else. It has no other benefit to finding satisfaction in life than to go after and try to satisfy the lusts and the pleasures that come from them.
And we can even ask God for things, that we might consume it for our own pleasure.
But when we do that.
When we join in that.
We're not on the same page with God, and in fact, for those of us that belong to the Lord Jesus and to our God, we have a relationship with Him.
That is such that it's actually here called adultery.
It's to violate the very nature of the relationship that we have with God.
To seek.
To find the friendship of the world in place of friendship with God.
This world is at enmity with God.
And if I'm going to be the friend of the world, I can't be God's friend. We won't share in common.
Oh, brethren, Abraham's home was open.
To his God, may He find a place to come and visit us any hour of the day.
Anytime and find us ready and welcome, that we might share together, that he might commune with us and tell us what he's doing, that we might intercede.
And enjoy his friendship. Let's pray.