The Work of an Advocate

[0:00] Amen. Okay, let's get into the Word of God. And we are in chapter 32 now. And it got me a workout too. Exodus 32.

[0:14] And we began the chapter last week where the scene in the wilderness below the Mount Sinai was quite drastically different than what was going on up above. And it was deteriorating, sadly.

[0:27] And in just a few weeks, the people had gone from submission to God to rebellion against God. And we studied last week three things they were guilty of as they were ready to walk away.

[0:39] They were just ready to walk away from that mount, from that cloud on top of the mount and say, we'll find somebody else and we'll get out of here. And it can happen to you too. So when the passage ended, as we studied it up into verse 10, God was primed to execute judgment upon this people.

[0:57] He was going to exterminate them. He said they're a stiff-necked people. And He was ready to start all over with Moses. And it's such a dramatic and drastic thing that God is, He's on the verge of doing this.

[1:11] He's dead serious. Moses is with Him. He's got a great relationship with Moses. I mean, incredibly great. And down below, though, what is going on down there is so against God and against what He brought them out here to be.

[1:26] A holy people unto Himself. A peculiar people. A kingdom of priests. And holy nation, He said in Exodus 19. And what's happening, this is not what His design is.

[1:36] And He's just ready to poof away with them all. And He's very serious. Now we're going to pick up this, kind of back a little bit up into verse 10. I mean, sorry, verse 7. And let's pick it up in verse 7 and read down to verse 14 today.

[1:50] Follow along. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.

[2:03] They have made them a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed thereunto and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

[2:20] Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

[2:43] Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say for mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people.

[2:56] Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it.

[3:15] And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. Now a lot of preachers have taken this passage and declared that prayer is powerful, and prayer can turn the mind of the Lord, and it's a nice thought to kind of make this about prayer.

[3:37] And you know I believe in prayer and God answers prayer, but to use this text to drive and to get a message about prayer, I find that to be a bit of a stretch. To say that your prayer requests are anything comparable to what's happening in this situation.

[3:54] This one, right here. These are rebellious people. A proud people. They have sacrificed, slain animals, and sacrificed to a golden image of a calf.

[4:12] The scene is so horrible. It is not anything like what we just throw up some prayer requests about.

[4:22] God's wrath is kindled in this situation, and the people have horribly corrupted themselves. And God has obviously had enough.

[4:34] He's done with this people. And so what we're actually peeking in on is not some man praying to God, but we're peeking in on a very unique relationship of Moses and God.

[4:49] An extremely unique relationship. It's much more than a prayer meeting. Let me show you what I mean by this. Turn in your Bible to Deuteronomy. A couple books to the right.

[5:00] Deuteronomy 34. The very last few verses of this book and of these books attributed to Moses. Deuteronomy 34.

[5:13] Something said about Moses when it comes to the end of his life. The Lord testifies something about him. Deuteronomy 34.

[5:24] And let's look at the last three verses. After he dies, it says, And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.

[5:38] In other words, there's never been anybody like him. In all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel, there's been nobody, nobody like Moses.

[6:00] What we're peeking in on in Exodus 32 is taking place still up there on the mount. It's just two, it's God and Moses communing. We're not looking at a prayer meeting or a group meeting together to let your request be made known unto God.

[6:15] It's not really a prayer here. But what we're looking at is Moses doing the work of an advocate. An advocate. He's standing between an angry God, a righteous and pure and holy and powerful angry God, and those people down there that have corrupted themselves.

[6:38] And they are so stiff-necked. And now Moses has on his one hand almighty holy God. He's in his presence. And down there he hears of what they've done and how they've turned their back on God.

[6:52] and Moses is in between. What's he gonna do? He's gonna do the work of an advocate. Can God overlook what they've done? He can't.

[7:04] You might say, well, you sure he can't? No, he can't. He's holy. He's perfect in holiness. They've broken his covenant. He's established this is how it's gonna go.

[7:16] They've broken it. They've kindled his wrath and they deserve what they get. Anything that God does, whether it's great consuming them or whether it's small plaguing them, whatever he does is righteous and it's the right response from him.

[7:31] Can the people atone for their sin? Could the people fix this thing that they've done? The answer again is no, they can't. Look a little later in the chapter after Moses goes down and deals with them.

[7:43] He goes back to God and look at verse number 30 of Exodus 32. Sorry, we're back in Exodus 32 now. In verse 30, it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin and now I will go up unto the Lord.

[8:02] Peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin because the people couldn't do a thing about it. Moses said, I'll try to do something about this.

[8:13] with the Lord. He's doing the work of an advocate and the advocate here stands in between and he makes some appeals and he makes some pleas to God and he calls on God to consider some things before he acts.

[8:27] Now, I wonder because Moses responds in verse 11, 12, and 13 and he says three things that we'll study today but I wonder if he sat there and thought on it for a while or if this just came to him.

[8:40] Boom, boom, boom. But I imagine because what we'll see there he makes three separate distinct cases before the Lord. I wonder if he sat and realized God's right.

[8:51] This people, they deserve it. All of this is just a horrible, horrible scene and what can I possibly say to him to talk him down?

[9:03] I wonder if he didn't take some time but before we look into the passage and study how the advocate here intercedes, I need to take you to something pretty important to us. Look at 1 John all the way to the back of your Bible and find 1 John chapter 2.

[9:20] We need to understand exactly how and why this story is going to apply to us today and we need to do that by looking at somebody in 1 John chapter 2.

[9:32] And so notice verse number 1 when you get there. the previous chapter is dealing with people sinning and confessing their sins and maintaining a fellowship with God.

[9:43] And so now in chapter 2, my little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. That's ideal. That is definitely the will of God. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.

[9:58] Jesus Christ, the righteous. Back in Exodus, there's nobody like Moses that could speak to God, that could intercede, that could sway the mind of God toward what this sinful, rebellious, stiff-necked people had done.

[10:15] And today, there's nobody like Jesus Christ that can go to God and that can sway his mind toward the sins that we commit every day of our lives.

[10:29] When you're looking in Exodus 32, you're looking at yourself in the mirror. And you think, no, they're just, I'd never do that. But no, you don't even understand the sin of your filthy heart. And I want to show you and declare and let the Scripture speak that if it weren't for the advocate that we have that's with the Father right now, he would have consumed us long ago in his wrath and be right to do it.

[10:53] So let's come back to our passage now. in Exodus 32, when the Father looks down from heaven above, when he sees the wretched sin of our lives, and when his wrath is kindled against our flesh and against our sinfulness and our rebellion and our pride and our selfishness, we have an advocate.

[11:18] And we're going to learn a little bit just from this story with Moses of how our advocate acts on our behalf today. So Moses did convince God the change is mine. But how did he do it?

[11:30] Let's notice verse number 11 again. Exodus 32, verse 11. And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why did thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

[11:49] I want you to consider that he doesn't say why are you so upset, God? because that's kind of obvious. That's very obvious why he's upset. But what he questions, God, is why are you so upset with thy people which you redeemed out of Egypt and you delivered them out of Egypt with a great power and a mighty hand?

[12:14] The first thing the intercessor does or the advocate does is he appeals to God's work of redemption. all of that drama in Egypt, all of that grandstanding, all of that contest, God's wonders and acts that were on display, they weren't just a means to escape Egypt.

[12:35] Like surely he could have went with the death angel from the door. He could have done whatever he chose to do but he did it in increments and he did it to show himself powerful and strong and to show his mighty hand.

[12:47] It was all purposed. And Moses appeals to his work of redemption. He says, God, what's the point of all of that if you destroy them right here and right now?

[13:02] You weren't only showing your power to Egypt, you were showing it to them. You were proving yourself to them. You were causing them to fear you and trust you and obey you.

[13:13] And Moses appealed in verse 11 to his great power and to the mighty hand that he brought them out of Egypt. Let's consider something like why does that carry such weight? Why should that influence God's heart and decision on this matter?

[13:29] We'll turn back to chapter 13 and I want to show you maybe a thought here why. I think it carries weight because God wasn't just using his strong hand or his mighty hand to get them out, to get them away from Pharaoh.

[13:44] Pharaoh. But when he did that he insisted that this people, this nation of Israel never forget what he did in that land.

[13:58] And I want to show you just in this chapter, I feel like we could look at others but there's two things that show up here. In this chapter there's the sanctification of the firstborn. It's an ordinance that he's instituting upon his people perpetually.

[14:10] And a second thing is the feast of unleavened bread, another feast that he's instituting upon them that they're going to keep this forever. Why are these two things significant to God? So I'm not going to read the whole thing but you'll see in verse 6, seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread.

[14:26] Verse 7, unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And you're going to explain this to your children in verse 8. And it says, thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, this is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.

[14:39] This shall be a sign unto you upon thine hand for a memorial between thine eyes that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth. Why? For with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt.

[14:51] He's tying this into a remembrance of what he did back in Egypt. A little later in the passage, he's dealing with the sanctifying and setting apart verse 12, set apart the first that openeth the matrix.

[15:04] Every first sling in verse 13 again. And then verse 14, when thy son asketh thee, why are we doing all this stuff? You're going to point back to something and I'm just going to skim through and see in verse 16, it shall be for a token upon thine hand and for frontlets between thine eyes.

[15:20] For by strength of hand, the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt. The point here is that God obviously wanted them, them, this people, to remember the work that he did in redeeming them from the land of Egypt.

[15:35] that was in God's heart, that they forever remember that mighty hand. And Moses appeals to that, knowing that nobody else can comprehend but this very people, the strength of hand, what you did and how you did it and who you are.

[15:55] Those people knew and understood the bondage of Egypt and now they're the very ones experiencing the freedom and liberty of being in the wilderness away from all of that. And Moses says, God, that was all you.

[16:08] And you want them to remember that. You can't get rid of them. You did too much to get them. And you didn't do it in secret either. You want all the nations to know who's recognized as the God Almighty.

[16:23] And as it goes into the time future, the nations all know. They come into the land, we heard what your God did. We know you're the children of Jehovah. Moses appeals to the work of God in his redemption.

[16:41] The people were in bondage. The people were helpless and miserable. The people had a wicked man, Pharaoh, over them, under his thumb, afflicting them and abusing them and making their lives miserable with hard bondage.

[16:56] But you, God, you heard their cry. That's what he said to Moses at the beginning. I have heard the cry. I've heard their cry in Egypt. And I've come down to deliver them.

[17:09] You came down. You gloriously delivered them. You executed judgment upon their enemy. You alone brought them out from under the hand of the oppressor. You gave them a name.

[17:20] You gave them a covenant. You gave them promises. They may be full of sin. They may be stiff-necked and rebellious, but they're your people that you delivered. You can't abandon them now.

[17:33] You can't wipe them out now. You did marvelous things to get them out. Does that notion ring a bell to you at all, Christian, today? Not about being under Pharaoh in Egypt, but the picture there is so strong.

[17:48] Does that notion of being in the bondage of sin and being controlled and corrupted in a wicked land ring true to you and having somebody more powerful over you and leading you into temptation and pulling you away?

[18:06] Do you remember that God heard your cry and gloriously his salvation was offered and he delivered you from your sin and from the oppression of the adversary and enemy?

[18:20] Do you remember that you were dead in your sins? that you were without hope? That you're just a slave in this filthy world to your sin and corrupt? And he heard your cry in his great love and his compassion and his mercy.

[18:34] He delivered you. He made you his eternally. He made you his people. And so the advocate, the advocate stands up there on the right hand of the father, up there on the mount of heaven and says, but father, they're your people.

[18:55] Do you remember what I did? Do you remember the work that I did to deliver them from their corruption? Remember the work of redemption, father.

[19:07] Don't destroy them. Look at me. Look upon the wounds in my hand, upon the wound in my side. The advocate appeals to God's work of redemption.

[19:20] The Holy Father might view our sinful hearts, our filthy, wicked deeds of a daily basis and weekly basis, and he might just say it's enough. But then the advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, steps forward and he says, Father, remember the work.

[19:38] Remember redemption. Remember the price that I paid, the blood that I shed to redeem them from corruption. Don't let your wrath wax hot against them today.

[19:49] Have mercy on them. So Moses appeals. What an advocate in this situation. What a great point to bring up to God when he's angry. The second thing we see is that he appeals to God's reputation.

[20:04] And look in verse number 12 now. He says, Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth?

[20:16] Moses is saying, You know, the Egyptians could say that the whole reason he forced us to let them go was so that he could take them out there and destroy them.

[20:28] Is that what you want them to think about you when they hear your name? Is that what you want the nations of this earth to think about when they hear about the God Jehovah and his people?

[20:40] and all of this great massive exodus that this hand is strong. Do you want the whole world to think you did it just to kill them all? You want them to think evil about you?

[20:55] Because right now the nations know that you are all powerful and you are almighty and nobody can stop you and those Hebrews are your people. That's what they know.

[21:06] That's been clear. you brought them out to make them a great nation, to be a holy people, to reflect your holiness to this world.

[21:18] You destroy them now and it's going to look bad on you and all the nations of this earth will presume evil about you God and they won't want to know you at all.

[21:31] You want to do it? Now God has something to consider. This is an incredible argument that the advocate makes to God. In his wrath he has something to consider and whatever he decides it's going to be right but he has something to weigh.

[21:47] How do I want this situation to make me look? Do I want to say I'm holy? I judge evil? I'm righteous and I will always do right and you will taste my wrath?

[22:02] Or do you want them to know something else about you? Turn to Psalm 78. Find Psalm 78. How do you want your reputation to look in the eyes of mankind?

[22:15] The human race? Psalm 78. It's a pretty good argument.

[22:27] It's one that you probably weigh yourself in situations all the time and not realize it. It's like how's this going to make me look? you think like that about yourself. You don't want to look like a fool in front of others and I don't mean that against God but just in your own life you understand this is a good argument.

[22:44] Psalm 78 is a recount of the history of Israel and specifically with bringing them out of Egypt and it references that several times and I want to point out the reputation of the people first.

[22:59] And so we'll just point out a few verses here starting in verse 8 and might not be as their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

[23:18] Verse 10 says they kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in his law and forgot his works and his wonders that he had showed. Talks about Egypt and the Red Sea.

[23:31] Talks about the feeding them and the water in the wilderness. In verse number 17 it says and they sinned yet more and more against him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness and they tempted God in their heart.

[23:46] And it discusses some things with how he took care of them but again they sinned. Verse 32 For all this they sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works and so he deals with them and continue moving to verse 40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert?

[24:13] The answer is many, many, many, many times. Look at verse 56 When he brings them into the land it says Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God and kept not his testimonies but turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers.

[24:34] They provoked him to anger in verse 58 So this is the reputation of the children of Israel throughout all these generations from out of Egypt all the way into the promised land and far on through that.

[24:46] That's the reputation they have. But what reputation would God get himself? How would he act in this situation and in many others? Look at verse 37 in Psalm 78 verse 37 where it says Their heart was not right with him neither were they steadfast in his covenant but he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not yea many a time turned he his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath for he remembered that they were but flesh a wind that passeth away and cometh not again the reputation God got was of being full of compassion and mercy and forgiveness being patient and long suffering and remembering and understanding their flesh this is a record of his reputation against theirs now in years to come in years to come when the Jews find themselves enslaved because of their rebellion because of the sins of their kings and generations of that they find themselves in captivity in other nations you know what they have to appeal to you know the prayer they can make to a

[26:10] God because he has a reputation for forgiving iniquity and for being full of compassion and they continually make that prayer for mercy and for their God to forgive if they didn't have that side of God to know that reputation all they would know is when for instance if he would have consumed them in his wrath and took Moses and made a generation that generation would have only known if we slip up we're dead it's over and he'll find somebody else and start over they would have feared him to no end but that's not his response and that's not his reputation before we go back to Exodus look at Nehemiah chapter 9 just one more place here Nehemiah Ezra Nehemiah Esther Job Nehemiah 9 and Nehemiah is a very much a case in point somebody that was in the captivity comes back to the land recalls some of all of this much like

[27:16] Psalm 78 Nehemiah 9 I want to read from verse 16 to 19 give you a little second here to find it 9 16 but they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their necks and hearken not to thy commandments and refused to obey neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them but hardened their necks and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage but thou art a God ready to pardon gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and forsookest them not yea when they had made them a molten calf and said this is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt and had brought great provocations yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way neither the pillar of fire by night to show them light the way wherein they should go thou gavest them thy good spirit to instruct them and on and on and on he cared and protected and loved and had compassion so Moses the advocate appeals to God's reputation this is an opportunity

[28:41] God for you to establish right now and forever that you are a merciful and compassionate and patient and understanding God one that delights in mercy they deserve the wrath but here's a chance for you to show an attribute of you now you don't have to turn for time I'll just go and I'll read this to you in Ephesians 2 I don't even know if it has to be said but I'm going to read it anyway in Ephesians chapter 2 in reference to our Lord Jesus Christ the Bible describes in the first three verses how we're dead in our sins and how we're just following the course of the world and how we've just got fleshly lusts that's all we are and it says but verse 4 but God despite all of that but God who is rich in mercy and for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace you are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus none of that would be on display in the ages to come if we get what we deserve none of that would be on display but instead

[30:08] God has a reputation a reputation for being the most holy and the most glorious and the most powerful but also the most merciful the most forgiving the most patient thank God and long suffering and kind his goodness is immeasurable his mercy is everlasting that's an attribute we know about him because he chose for that to be his reputation towards sinners the advocate appeals to God's reputation what attribute do you want to be revealed here God your wrath or your mercy it's a great argument and you see it affected God's heart because he is justified in whatever he chooses to do but he chooses instead to make himself look good and I'm thankful that that's the God I know because of Jesus Christ

[31:09] I get to experience that same compassion and mercy come back to our passage here's one more thing and we'll go in verse 13 the advocate appeals to God's relationships that he has had with some men in the past he says remember Abraham Isaac and Israel thy servants remember those guys remember them to whom thou swearest by thine own self and said unto them I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and all this land that I've spoken of will I give unto your seed and they shall inherit it forever those men walked with you God and you revealed yourself to them turning your back on this people will be like turning your back on them you made promises to them they obeyed you and Moses is saying don't punish the father for the sins of the son he says you swear by your own self to those men implying that if you do this you'd be violating your word to these men now yes

[32:16] God as I said in Sunday school he's ten steps ahead of everybody always and yes in his wrath he can make a way to fulfill his word to those men by saying I'll make of thee Moses I'll make of you a great nation and you're of the seed of Levi and he comes from Israel so it all can technically work out here but notice those are the only three names he mentioned you know why because those are the only three men that he promised to multiply their seed like that the promise did not go to Reuben it didn't go to Judah or Joseph the promise exactly came to those three men it did not go to Levi and so Moses is making a great statement even though God on a technicality could get by Moses knows you only promised it to them and so the advocate appeals to those relationships God had with those men in the past he's already promised to bless them now let's do something off the norm

[33:25] I need everybody to go to John 17 but I want to get some of the readers please so John you're going to be one Romans 8 I'll tell you the verses in a minute and Greg can I have you go to Galatians 3 and 4 just be right there and then Mark I'll have you over here read Ephesians 2 and be ready in Ephesians 2 I want to look at John 17 with you all and we'll get there in a minute and point out something to do with a relationship because that's what the advocate appeals to to the line so in Romans 8 I want to start showing you now we are children of God we belong to him through Jesus Christ so I'll start I just need 15 through 17 please loud and slow thank you so we are children of we are present tense children of God and it said heirs of God now we are we are going to receive like his child we are going to receive what he has to give and joint heirs rather on top of that with Jesus Christ whatever is given to the son we are a joint heir with him just like a husband and a wife are joint ok so go to let's see read Galatians 3 27 oops 26 first sorry yeah that was what I wanted there it is you're all the children of God how do we get there by faith in Christ

[35:32] Jesus and now our joint heirs read also verses 4 through 7 of the next chapter 4 through 7 verse 1 so when the fullness of the time was come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons and because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying Abba Father wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son and if a son then an heir of God who cried so there's some of the same language you're no more a servant elsewhere he'll say no more a stranger you're a son alright Mark you got Ephesians 2 verse 19 now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the same and of the household of God of the household of God you're no more strangers and foreigners by the blood of Christ you've been brought nigh you're of the household of God you're his child you're a joint heir with Jesus

[36:44] Christ joint together so this is something about our relationship we have with God you're in John 17 we'll get there in just a second when you and I sin after the flesh and we do it you do it and when we sin after the flesh we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he appeals to his Father on the basis of a relationship that we now have with him because of the Son he promised the Son to be heir of all things to have a throne and to have dominion and it's all for you it's all created by you and you're going to receive it all he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit and we are now joint heirs with the Son we are of the household of God he will not banish his own he will not leave nor forsake us he knoweth them that are his nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ

[37:47] Jesus our Lord all of that is true because we're in Jesus Christ our advocate reminds the Father hey they're with me they're they're in me it's not just that I paid for them but they're in me they're part of me God did that work he sealed us with his spirit declared us to be his child and so look at John 17 when Jesus Christ is praying before the cross for his disciples he also prays for others in verse 20 and 21 he says in verse 20 neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou have said

[38:49] Jesus Christ is standing before the throne spiritually speaking from his prayer here and he is asking that we can have what he and the Father has that he would let us have that too with him I want them to be me and you God we're one I want them to be one with us too and he prays for that look a little later verse 24 Father here's another request another desire the son has I will also I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am he said God Father I want to bring them home I want to bring them to where I am with you that's my request that they may behold my glory which thou has given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world O righteous Father the world hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it now watch the end that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them

[40:05] Father I want you to love them I want you to treat them I want you to look upon them the same way you love me and treat me and look upon me the advocate is making that statement to the Father the prayer is going to get answered too by the way when we receive the adoption of sons when we are officially and permanently physically conformed to the image of his son so Moses the advocate in Exodus makes a threefold appeal to God to turn from his wrath to repent of the evil that he thought to do and to his people he appealed to the work of redemption God did a great work and in our lives the Lord Jesus Christ has done such a great work to redeem us to make us his people he appealed to God's own reputation and God how do you want this to make you look

[41:08] God chose mercy and that's how we see him and that's how we can call we understand if there wasn't that mercy we wouldn't know it we would know wrath and he appealed to that special relationships and the promises that were made in them in those relationships all of this matches the work of the son as he that stands up in the mount of heaven at the right hand of the father is an advocate for us he intercedes to God let's get one last verse and we'll go home Romans chapter 8 find Romans 8 and around verse 31 we'll start there just a couple verses here 31 what shall we then say to these things the things that he mentions is the promise that God will make us to be like his son that we will be glorified together it goes back through about a dozen or 15 verses that we will be the sons of God it will be manifest our bodies will be redeemed and changed in a moment he says what shall we say to these things if God before us if God this is

[42:37] God's will and his pledge and promise then who can be against us nobody who can step over God to do something to counteract what he promised this is the argument Paul makes verse 32 he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things in plainer words if he allowed his son to deal with that of course he's gonna give us that I mean there's nothing bigger of a sacrifice than his son and if he did that then of course he wouldn't withhold anything from us who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us you know just plainer and simplified if you sin and you do and you deserve because you sin willfully you deserve

[43:53] God's wrath you have an advocate with the father and if God justifies you on the basis of his son then there is nobody in this universe or the multiverse that could possibly lay anything to your charge God has already wiped the slate clean because of the righteousness of his son nobody can do that and that son makes intercession for us he's our advocate now shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God addresses Paul addresses that too and says God forbid but if any man sin we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous and John said he is the propitiation for our sin not me he is the propitiation as long as God accepts that I'm good and I'm forgiven and I'm justified father thank you for the lesson this morning and the teaching and preaching of your word thank you for the example back in the old days of what took place how

[45:01] Moses stood there with you and he convinced you in these three ways these three points to not let your wrath wax hot against your people thank you God for the picture that we see and for the work of our delightful and wonderful and glorious savior thank you for for doing it for redeeming us for taking the sin God thank you for for your mercy thank you for in my life and the lives of these here today Lord we can never repay you we can never deserve or be worthy of the pardon that we've received Lord help us to understand it help us to realize the great cost that it's free to us but it wasn't free to you may we appreciate it more may we understand more clearly the doctrines of the

[46:04] Bible that apply to us because of Jesus Christ and then thank you finally for that promise that will be your sons and that will be conformed to your image and that will see you and will be like you and that our fellowship with you will be pure and eternal and holy and as we long for that and desire it God help us to walk as children of God today help us to walk with those promises on our shoulders and in our hearts help us to please you give us the courage and strength to go forward we love you we thank you for what you've done it's because of Calvary and it's in the Lord Jesus Christ name Amen