If I have found grace in thy sight (Quality Good)

[0:00] They came to Mount Sinai and there they trembled rightly so as they beheld the majesty and the glory of God on that mount and heard that voice and the trumpet sounding louder and louder and oh what a solemn view they had of the holiness, majesty and justice of Almighty God and there the Lord gave His law the Ten Commandments as you will well remember and then just taking one more step also in this selfsame book chapter 24 and verse 3 you read and Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord all the judgments and what did the people do?

[1:31] now listen this is very important all the people answered with one voice and said all the words which the Lord had said will we do it?

[1:48] you remember again that was after Moses gone again to the up the mountain and the Lord had bidden Moses and his servant Joshua to go up and there in the mountain for those 40 days and 40 nights the Lord gave the details of the construction of the tabernacle now the Israelites as they saw to them that Moses delayed in coming down from the mount they went to Aaron and then they said make us gods which shall go before us but as and just listen to this for this Moses the contempt the scorn of the dear man that had been so gracious a leader I would not think that all Israelites said that it would appear not all but this was the language of those that came to Aaron and then they thought that Aaron would make them a god that they may have something to see and as for this

[3:06] Moses the man that the man doesn't say God brought us out the man that brought us out out of the land of Egypt we don't know what is become of him as much say we don't care and this was only a short time after they said that they would do all that God had spoken Aaron oh poor Aaron he failed miserably thought that they would part with their golden earrings and the people willingly parted with them and as he received them then as you know he fashioned them and there was the golden calf a calf or ox were the chief gods of Egypt a remembrance of

[4:09] Egypt and then Aaron said tomorrow is a feast of the Lord and he had built an altar they would then offer sacrifices and then early in the morning and we read the people they came the sacrifices were offered and they sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play and you know the detail of how they were found naked and so forth today we have the Catholic Roman Catholic his mass in the morning rise up eat and play the ritualist is the same many churches today are satisfied with the morning service some have an early communion for the rest of the day they do as they wish

[5:22] I do not wish to spend long on this but I want to speak of this enormous sin and see how this is traced out today and Moses comes down from the mount God has spoken he hears the sound and Joshua speaks as he comes down from the mount and he says this is a noise of war but he says not the voice of those that shout for mastery not the voice of them that cry for being overcome the noise of them that sing do I hear and when Moses saw that golden calf his anger whetched hold and he cast the tables out of his hand and break them beneath the mount and took the calf ground it to pieces and made the people drink the powder strewn upon the water

[6:29] Aaron what do you mean says Moses and what did these people do that thou has brought so great a sin that's it I'm emphasizing it's not very pleasant is it and I want you to think my friend of your own life it's very solemn think of our sins but here the great and Aaron tried to excuse himself and said how that the people had come to him and he says they gave it to me and I cast it into the fire and out came this calf oh friend and Moses saw the state of the people and then said who is on the Lord's side now there were those that were separate the Levites particularly and there again came the solemn word put on their sword and to attract the justice of God and many were slain about three thousand that day and

[7:39] Moses says ye have sinned a great sin what did he say but they said this Moses I says Moses will go unto the Lord and peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin that is to plead that God will have mercy upon you and spare you at first there was no sign of repentance and how Moses pleaded with God to have mercy upon them but I mustn't take too much time but I want to just stress this dark solemn background and then the Lord threatened that he would not go with the people and told Moses to go and lead them through and he would send an angel before thee and then the people were brought to sorrow they were brought and they mourned and no one put on their ornaments and we read here that they stripped themselves of the ornaments by

[8:44] Mount Horeb and seem to be an evidence of true repentance just one more thing Moses took the tabernacle now that must not be confused with the tabernacle that has not yet constructed there would be a tent where Moses would occupy and people would come to him and this tent now Moses took outside the camp but there outside the camp the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle as the Lord taught with Moses now I've just spent a little time I hope you may say I do wish you hadn't dealt with all this sin sin sin but my friend you've got sin sin sin I've got sin sin sin and God is going to deal with it make no mistake about it it's not just something that we do and nothing else will come off it it's going to be dealt with it will be because

[9:49] God is so holy God is so just and God demands that sin be dealt with and therefore we have to examine ourselves shall I die in my sin exposed to the wrath of God or is it the blood of Jesus Christ my only hope is it the blood that I plea is it the blood I look to is this my only hope is this my earnest prayer that the blood will cleanse me from all my sin and that bring me to glory not only to escape the hell and its awful eternity and the just wrath of God but can I can you bear the thought of being separated from the dear people of God for a never ending eternity and your companions to be those of the ungodly the blasphemer the dead professor oh friend there's some comfort here and we can truly say

[10:53] I love to meet among them now and at thy gracious feet to bow though vilest of them are and now the Lord spoke to Moses like face to face that that mustn't be confused over the end of the chapter where he says but my face shall not be seen this face to face means as a friend it means communion it means closeness dear Moses oh the Lord's compassion upon his servant how Moses had suffered how Moses had pleaded how Moses had in his prayer as it were pleaded with God still to have mercy and now Moses now takes up what God had said now you take go up hence thou and the people which thou hast brought up and I'll send an angel before but he says now I want God to be with me so we have this prayer Moses said unto the Lord see thou sayest unto me bring up this people thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me yet thou hast said

[12:01] I know thee by name test your memory when you think of a place where Moses could truly say that well it's the burning bush wasn't it the voice that called out of that bush Moses Moses God knew him by name God knew all about his and he says I know thee by name and thou hast also found grace in my so come to that in a moment now we come to the text now is somebody praying this tonight is somebody needing guidance now when I say guidance not only as to which way to go which path to take which step to tread but you may need guidance in handling matters you may have hard things you don't know how to handle them you may have a decision to make and you want

[13:10] God to show you that which is right now the thought here then is to wait upon God not to choose your way and then ask God to bless it but rather to say no Lord do keep me from taking a step of my own choice preserve me ever and from going in my own path and here we have now therefore he looks back and you can see now the wonder compassion of God in the way now which he speaks to his servant Moses despite all the sin dreadful sin of the people yet God is merciful and I say that because surely we're not little sinners surely as we go to

[14:17] God and plead with him to guide me help me show me the way to walk yet one so conscious of one's sinfulness and unworthiness and perhaps to look back to how I can think of one way in which I started to go as a friendship in the war years actually as a young person in Wales but I only went so far and the Lord stopped it my friend and I've had to thank God again and again and again where God has at time said no that's an answer to prayer that's in his mercy and that is in his love now therefore he says I pray thee now did you see it it's personal isn't it I thee

[15:17] I a poor sinner on this earth thee the great and holy God I pray I come because thou almighty God holy as thou art just as thou art glorious as thou art there's a throne of grace that there's a way of approach to thee that thou just bid us to come and thou hast said ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you I pray thee and oh friend you may think of those personal prayers that go up from your heart in times of terrible need and distress Lord help me Lord save me oh say unto my soul I am thy salvation personal prayers this this doesn't mean to say as you well know that we don't pray for others of course we do because if we pray and have tasted the blessings of the Lord we should pray that others especially those near and dear to us that they will know the same blessings but now therefore

[16:24] I pray thee I turn to no other I seek that thou wilt appear for me that thou wilt go and he says if I have found grace in thy sight now you may say why this if I do not feel that this if is the if of doubt it is as I have found grace because in the previous verse it says yet hast thou said I know thee by name and thou hast also found grace in my sight surely that was seen in the dear man's life in his that life spared three months as cast out in that little ark preserved and kept and then the forty years in Egypt there God was training preparing him instructing him in all the wealth and the knowledge of Egypt for the great work that he got before for him to do and then the forty years in the back side of the desert what a contrast from the glories of

[17:28] Egypt to the back side of the desert with sheep and yet there Moses I believe was instructed taught many a lesson and then the time when God appeared to him as we just hinted that the bush that burned with fire and commanded him and said he was going to send him into Egypt to bring his people out and he said surely these are the blessed evidences of the grace of God that what my dear friend can you trace out in your life as this grace reached your heart these great blessings spiritual blessings because it is his blessing that you are praying for blessing and so my friend that may be an encouragement to the seeking soul and he says thou therefore

[18:45] I pray thee if I have found grace in thy sight no not enlarging this but just to give an example of another one Noah was one that found grace in the sight of God in that world of wickedness now here is Moses found and he said thou hast not let me know thou thou have said thou have found if I have found grace in thou said show me now now what my way no thy way this is it oh friend not mine friend their natural being if we face with a decision a path to take or alternatives our first thought would be naturally speaking what is the easiest what is the most prosperous what was the best for me oh friend rather no Lord not my way but lo and be done did not that come in the hymn that you just sung it just comes it says now harsh so e'er the way dear saviour still lead on nor leave us till we say father

[20:03] I will be done so in that way as it may be a hard way a difficult way a perplexing way at most we do but taste the cup but thou thou alone has drunk it up lord I tremble at the way where there's a bitter cup in it but I want to pray for grace lord that I say lord give me that if that's the right way because that's the blessing thou will help me in that way I should be helped through and in it I shall find fellowship with thee and it's a sacred experience but now come back to the earlier part of it where he says here that show me now oh the times when you were brought I go back to certain crises in my own life of course particularly when I joined the air force

[21:03] I knew of course that I had got to go but I volunteered a little earlier but the point was Lord do guide me and the Lord gave me this word I have told you so I won't go into the details of it I will instruct thee and teach in the way that thou shall go I will guide thee with mine eye and then again in the call to the ministry oh how I remember walking down from my home to the chapel and begging the Lord to stop me if it was not his will oh friend it was the Lord was not my will I felt the Lord had directed but still I wanted the Lord to confirm it and I believe he did and then again in the call to the pastor here oh the agony oh the exercise and then again in certain events in one's life decisions to make show me now not my way thy way

[22:06] Lord that's the best way that's the right way show me now thy way that I may know thee what does he mean he's been up on the mount he's been in fellowship with God and God has spoken to him as we read face to face as a man speak unto his friend what does he mean that I may know thee I believe this friend as I understand it and I believe it's the prayer of those that have rightly exercised Lord not only to guide me into the path that thou dost choose for me but also that I may be blessed in that path that I may be brought into a deeper knowledge of thyself thy grace that is all sufficient that help in every time of need that wisdom that I so greatly need and that I may know thee the God of all grace and in my sorrows that thou art the

[23:07] God of comfort that thou hast promised that as thy day so shall thy strength be that I may know thee that I may know thee personally by a personal experience I have recently quoted that word be still and know that I am God and that's an experience when we walk in those paths of the blessings of God and to know know something of the presence of God the help of God and a word given to sometimes to confirm and yet that word that God gives sometimes has to pass through the fire and sometimes you fear well have I gone wrong have I made a mistake that I may know 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 you see friend as a grace is bestowed the God of all grace well you know the word of

[24:11] God says he giveth more grace and you should need it in the way that the Lord leads us which is not the path of our choice and it may be a path of trial but it's to bring us closer to him it's the right way it's to wean us from the world it's to humble us to try us oh I think in the book of Deuteronomy where we have in the 8th chapter if I remember rightly what God described was the purpose of coming through the wilderness and this is the way which God leads and he says that thou should remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humble thee mark that the way that we're to walk is to bring us down to humble us make us dependent upon him to prove thee to show to you the reality of God's work in your heart to know what was in thine heart whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no he humbled thee suffered thee to hunger fed thee with manna which thou knewest not neither did thy fathers know and so forth again a little later in this selfsame chapter who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions drought where there was no water who brought thee forth water out of the rock of him you look back and trace out the hand of your

[25:39] God supplying that need and the blessing in the path so it says here that I pray that if I have found grace in thy sight show me now thy way that I may know thee that I may find grace in myself Lord I need more grace grace to be more like Jesus grace to be still grace to be humble grace to be submissive grace for everything and he says and consider that this nation is thy people Lord it is thy people thou hast promised to bring my people through now the promise now it's spoken as a promise but it is also sometimes considered by learned translators that it is put rather more shall my presence go with thee and shall I give thee rest there's something in that because the next verse seems to be the answer to it as Moses said if thy presence go not with me carry us not up hence for wherein shall it be known here that

[26:42] I and thy people have found grace in thy sight is it not in that thou goest with us so shall we be separated marked as a way that God chooses and I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth then the Lord said I will do this thing that thou hast spoken for thou hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by name I will do it says God I will do it and this is our mercy but now come back to the promise my presence and this is a promise and this is sealed up in it whether it is spoken as first shall I then God says I will do it so the promise is there my presence and if thy presence oh how can I bear it why my sin drove thee out as it were drove me out of that garden and broke into the communion with God but Christ Jesus in his precious blood brings me back and oh that I may know more and more of that closer walk with

[27:50] God my presence and I was thinking a little on this my presence and I in the Deuteronomy again in I think chapter 2 verse 7 about the 40 years and how the presence of God God had been with his people and then again later the promise to Joshua have not I commanded thee be strong of a good courage be not dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest and then later you read when David was encouraging Solomon in the great work to build the temple he says the Lord my God will be with thee so often we look at it past present and future Jesus was saying yesterday today and forever and so his purposes he that has helped does help will help his presence yes with us oh friend what a comfort and I will give thee rest and that rest in your own mind that peace of God that quietness of spirit oh and that inward trust and calm and oh as I not long ago tried to preach when the Lord said peace be still there was a great calm and so it is and I will give thee rest now therefore

[29:18] 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 oh may the Lord grant a blessing from these scattered thoughts tonight I'm conscious of it but I do pray there may be spiritual profit and I hope you can see the little line of my meditation the darkest possible scene and yet God still has mercy there we mustn't presume on that because people suffered for their sin we shall suffer for sin but our comfort is this our God changes not now may the Lord help us to go step by step in thy presence I am happy in thy presence I am secure in thy presence all affliction

[30:20] I can easily endure and then this oh to be found in his presence and this will be the end and yet a never end when the end of the journey the end of the pilgrimage to be in his presence forever and I shall be satisfied when I await in thy likeness well may the Lord in his mercy bless his own word and help us to trust in him at all times amen amen to be