Exodus 33:17
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Well, good evening, church. It's always good, and it's always a delight for me to bring the Word of God to our church family. If you don't mind, join me one more time in the word of prayer before we begin. Father, we pray that you would speak and give us ear to hear your Word and to obey it. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Many of us may have seen the commercial, State Farm commercials. There are many of them, but at the end, there's always this slogan, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Well, I think that slogan captures somewhat the context of the passage that we will look at today. It is in Exodus chapter 33. It's on page 74 in your Red Pew Pie Bible. In the context, Israel had just sinned grievously against the Lord. And they were about to receive judgment from God. But, like a good mediator, Moses was there to intercede for them. So, if you have a Bible, turn to page 74.
Our main verse today is Exodus 33, verse 17. But for context, I will read verses 15 through 17. This is in the middle of the intercessions that Moses has with the Lord on behalf of Israel. Verse 15, And he said to him, If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from there. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people?
Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth? Verse 17. And the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken, I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name. The main idea that I want to highlight from this verse is this. We need a mediator, and praise the Lord, we have one.
We need a mediator, and praise the Lord, we have one. I'll say it one more time. I'm Trinitarian. We have a mediator, and praise the Lord, we have one. We want to look at this text in three parts. First of all, the need. Second, the mediator. And lastly, the responses. So the need, the mediator, and the responses. Basically, what I would do is I would walk us through this text, explain this, and then help us to apply this to our lives.
So let's look at the first point, the need. Look at verse 17. Look at what Moses asked the Lord, or how the Lord answered him, rather. The Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken. Now, what is that very thing? Well, we just read in verses 15 and 16, the very thing that Moses asked of God is God's presence. Now, you remember the context. This is chapter 33, and what happened in Exodus chapter 32.
It's real sin. Moses went up to Mount Sinai to get the law of God, and Aaron, the assistant pastor, led people into idolatry. And because of that, they were about to experience God's judgment. They were about to lose his presence, his protective, caring presence to watch over them and to bless them. So that is their problem. They sinned, and they were about to receive judgment. They were about to lose the presence of God. And so Moses asked God, don't leave us.
Go with us. Take us with you. Don't leave us in the desert. Now, in many ways, we are in a very similar predicament as the people back then, Israel. Because like Israel, all of us are prone to sin. We are all sinners. We are all born sinful. And the scripture says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Spiritually speaking, we all have the same blood type, the A blood type, the Adam blood type.
We all inherit our sin from Adam. We get it from our ancestors. And because of that, we sin. It is in our nature to sin. And because of sin, there is judgment. There is death. There is eternal condemnation. We forfeit God's presence and blessings. And the problem is we cannot come to God on our own. We cannot come to God on our own merit. We need a mediator who stands between us and God.
And that leads us to the second point, the mediator. The mediator. In the old covenant, their mediator was Moses. So he pleads their case. What a mediator does is that he stands between the people and God to please the people's case before the Lord. And guess what? God hears the mediator. God accepts him. Look at verse 17 again. And the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken, I will do, for you have found favor in my sight.
So the Lord said, this very thing that you have spoken, guess what? I will do it. I will grant it for you. And in fact, when we read the rest of the book of Exodus, we know that God keeps his promise to dwell with his people, because later on they will construct the tabernacles. And then in the last chapter, chapter 40, the Lord comes and dwells with them and be with them. So because of Moses' intercession, God stays with his people.
Have you ever asked why God answered Moses' prayer in that way? Why did God grant Moses that request? Well, look again in verse 17. The Lord said, for, and that's how you, he explained in the reasons. For you, Moses, have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name. You have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name. Basically, he's saying, God say yes to Israel because of Moses, because of what Moses does.
God accepts Israel because he listened to Moses, Because Israel has a mediator. Now, like I said, in the old covenant, we have Moses was their mediator. But in the new covenant, we had a better mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is even a better covenant, as the book of Hebrews says it. We have a better covenant. We have a better mediator, the Lord Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, who pleads our case before the Father.
He is the mediator we need, and he is better than Moses. Well, that leads us to our last point, the responses. So we have to see the need, the mediator. We need a mediator. And praise God, he gives us one. So what should we do? What should we do? He has three responses that I would recommend to us tonight. First of all, trust Jesus for salvation. Trust Jesus for salvation. Secondly, tell Jesus about your sins and temptations.
Lastly, thank Jesus for his intercession. Trust him for his salvation. Tell him about your sins and temptations. And lastly, thank him for his ongoing intercession on your behalf. So let's look at the first point. Trust Jesus for salvation. Obviously, if you are not a Christian, if you have not put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is our hope. This is our prayer that you would do that.
Now, you may have doubt. You may say, I don't think I need a mediator. I think I've lived a good life. I'm a good person. I don't think I need a mediator to stand between me and God. Or you may say, or you may think, Well, yes, I think Jesus is a good mediator, but maybe he's not enough. Maybe I need to supplement what he does with my good works, my piety, my religious devotion. Or maybe praying to Jesus is not enough.
Maybe I need to pray to Mary or to the saints or to other people. And friends, all of that is simply not true. It is not necessary because the truth is you do need a mediator. As Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5, there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So you do need a mediator. And guess what? You can never be good enough. You can never be good enough. That is the bad news. But the good news is that all you need to do has already been done for you. Everything you need to do has already been done for you.
The Lord Jesus came, died for your sin, was raised again for you so that if you put your faith and hope in Him, you will have eternal life. You will be forgiven. He will cleanse you of your sins. And you can ask Him to remove all your doubts even right now. So trust the Lord for your salvation. But if you are a believer, here's what I would encourage you to do. Tell the Lord about your sins and temptations.
Tell the Lord about your sins and temptations. We all experience sins and temptations in so many ways. Think about today. Think about this morning. Think about yesterday. Think about this past week. Think about this past month. All of the different sins and temptations that come our way. Don't you hear the psalm, the hymn? Prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. prone to leave the God I love. Many of us have been tempted to sin without words, without tongue.
Many of us were tempted to be impatient. Many of us gave into anger. Many of us became discontent. Many of us got selfish. Many of us became unthankful. Many of us gave to ungodliness. None of us is perfect. None of us. We all experience sin and temptation, and sometimes we do sins. So what should we do? What should we do? 1 John 1.9 said, If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So if you sin, here's what you need to do. Come to the Lord Jesus boldly and confess your sin to Him. Bring your sins and temptation to Him. Again, 1 John 2, verse 1, John reminds us. He said, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. So guess what? Before the Father, you and I have a defending attorney named Jesus.
And guess what? He has never lost a case. He has not lost a case for thousands of years. And because of that, you can come to Him, confess your sin boldly and ask for His forgiveness. And He will give it to you. He will forgive you. Do you feel dirty because of your sins? Do you feel unclean because of your sins? Come to Jesus. Confess that to Him. Come clean before Him. And He will make you clean. He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
So trust Jesus for your salvation. Tell him about your sins and temptation. And lastly, thank him for his intercession. Thank him for his intercession. Again, we all face sin and temptations very often. And because of that, we get weak sometimes, Physically, spiritually, we get weak. Life is hard. But the good news is that when you feel weak, Jesus is interceding for you even at that moment.
He works 24-7 on your behalf. He never takes a day off from interceding for you. He never drops your case before the Father. He always works on your behalf. Like Romans chapter 8 verse 34 said, Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25 reminds us that Jesus always lives to make intercessions for his people. And remember this, he does not do it based on your strength.
He does it based on his person and work. before the throne of God's abode, I have a strong and perfect plea. It is because Jesus works in person. He pleads the case based on his work in person, not on your strength, not on how strong your faith is. So that is good news for us, brothers and sisters. So trust the Lord, tell him about your temptation, and thank him for his intercessions.
If you have been a member of this church, whether you just join this month or even if you have been a member for a long time, every week you see we get a lot of emails, right? A lot of emails about, and that makes us aware of the different needs that we have in our congregation. And it is always so encouraging to see following up email and say, need me, need me, need me, need me, yes. English is my second language. Need math, need math, need math.
And it is always encouraging because the Lord cares for our daily need. He cares about that, and He provides for our daily needs. But how much more, brothers and sisters, our greatness is a Savior, a mediator, and He met that need for us. And the Lord Jesus Christ, praise Him for that. We need a mediator, and praise the Lord. We have one. So, trust him for your salvation. Tell him about your sins and temptation.
And lastly, thank him for how he intercedes for you. Join me in a word of prayer. Father, we pray that you would be with us now. Help us as we are about to take the Lord's Supper. Help us to take this moment to reflect on you and what you have done for us. Help us to confess our sins before you and help us to thank you for your work of intercessions.
We thank you for what you have done for us at the cross. And we pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen.