Every time you take them, you
just get a little weaker, a little weaker, a little weaker. But
boy, she got the best attitude, I tell you that. The Lord's people,
there's nobody like them. There's just nobody like them.
Nobody like them. Alright, let's read verse 8 down
through 17. And Moses made haste and bowed
his head toward the earth and worshipped. Why did he do that? Because God passed by and proclaimed
his name, said that he'd keep mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin. And all he just, he fell
down and worshipped. And he says, Now, if I have found
grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among
us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity
and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. And he said,
Behold, I make a covenant. Before all thy people I will
do marvels as such have not been done in all the earth nor in
any nation, and all the people among which thou art shall see
the work of the Lord, for it is a terrible thing that I will
do with thee. Observe thou that which I command
thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee
the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite,
and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, whither thou goest,
lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy
their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves. For
thou shalt worship no other gods, for the Lord whose name is jealous. Jealous is a jealous God, lest
thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and
they go a-whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their
gods. And one call thee, and thou eat
of his sacrifice. And thou take of their daughters
unto thy sons, and their daughters go a-whoring after their gods,
and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods. Thou shalt
make thee no molten gods. Now there in verse 14 it says,
my name is Jealous. That's capitalized. Jealous. God said that's one of his names.
He's got a lot of names. The Lord our Righteousness. Jehovah
Shalom. The Lord our Peace. The Lord
our Banner. The Lord will provide. But here
he says he's jealous. Now his jealousy is not like
you and I would be jealous. And I'll get to that here in
a little bit. But the last time I preached from here, I preached
on the seven glorious attributes of God himself. But I, you know,
and here's the thing, the scripture said in John 1 and 5, God is
light, holy, righteous, infinitely so. God is love He says in John
God is love And he told the Romans in Romans 11. He says behold
the goodness of God Towards you behold the goodness of God towards
you And then he turned around and the severity of God towards
them Goodness and severity And I tell you as God reveals himself
and deals with men, we see both sides of this blessed character
of God. Light and love, goodness and
severity. I mean light is holiness, righteousness,
and yet he goes over here and says he's love. You want to see
his goodness? His goodness was in Eden. When
he gave the promise, he said, I'll put enmity between thy seed
and the seed of the woman, he told the serpent. That was the
goodness of God that gave us that blessed promise. And that
was fulfilled and accomplished on the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But you want to see God's severity
when he took Adam and drove him from the garden. goodness in
giving us a promise in the Messiah in Christ and the severity when
that man sinned and he run him out of the garden and I tell
you you lost life and you lost fellowship with me that day and
when God is love he provided the ark for Noah but as light
holiness and righteousness he destroyed the old world and only
saved eight souls God goodness sent angels to deliver Lot out
of Sodom but his severity rained fire and brimstone down on Lot
and on Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain God as
love preserved his blood his children his people under the
blood in Egypt but as light He went through there and slew all
the firstborn of Egypt. So you see love and light, goodness
and severity. As goodness, He spared the whole
nation of Israel because Moses interceded with Him. God spares
us. He spared not His own Son and
gave Him for us and with Him freely gives us all things. But
the other side of that is the long-suffering of God waits on
the vessels of wrath already fitted for destruction and I'll
tell you in the carnation of our Lord Jesus Christ when he
came made of that woman came born of that woman there's two
sides to our blessed Lord's character he was full of grace full of
it it abounded in him it still does But he is also full of truth. He never failed to tell the truth. Full of grace toward sinners.
Full of truth to them who rejected him. You know, he said, you know,
our Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture said he is a friend of publicans
and sinners. But he is also the enemy of the
self-righteous and the hypocrite. He was moved with compassion
when he saw people and people as sheep without a shepherd.
But he turned around and said he was angry at them for the
hardness of their hearts. He wept tears over Jerusalem
and he got a scourge, got a little whip and went in the temple And
drove out the money changers and the people selling sacrifices
in there. He drove them all out and overturned
their tables. Oh my! Full of grace for His
people. Full of truth against those who
were against Him. He pronounced, blessed is the
poor in spirit. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the meek. And he
went on and said, blessed are they, blessed are they. In Matthew
5, and he got over in Matthew chapter 23, and it's woe, woe,
woe, woe, woe to the Pharisees and the self-righteous and those
who would not listen to his gospel and believe him. We have the
love of Christ which passes understanding and yet all at the same time
it says that men will one day flee from the wrath of the Lamb
that sits upon his throne. and you know there in Exodus
34 7 he said God said this he said he's merciful verse 6 merciful
gracious and long-suffering abundant in goodness and truth keeping
mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's
children unto the third and fourth generation. And what happened
to Moses when this happened? It said Moses made haste and
bowed his head to the earth and worshipped. Now this, this is
the effect of God's blessed revelation of himself When God showed Moses,
the first thing he done when he met him there in Exodus 33,
hit him in a cleft of a rock. But here, when he proclaimed
the name of the Lord and told him all this, Moses made haste,
and I mean that is spontaneously, his worship was spontaneous. He quickly fell down before the
Lord, got down on the earth, and worshipped about all the
way to the earth. How come? Because his heart was
deeply, deeply affected before God in His revelation, keeping
mercy, showing me His goodness, showing
me His mercy, showing how gracious He is, how long-suffering He
is, showing me His truth, Bowed down and worshipped. Couldn't
help and do anything but that. And how many times when we sit
in a service like this and our hearts bowed down immediately
when we hear something about God. Bowed down immediately and
worshipped. And worshipped. And all look
over here, keep Exodus 34, look in Genesis 17. Look over here
in Genesis 17. Oh my, look at these first three
verses here. Abram was 99 years old. That's older than any of us here. And listen to what it said. And
the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the almighty
God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. Be upright, be sincere. And I'll
make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. How did Abraham react to that?
Clap his hands and jump up and down. So God just jumped up and
down. No, no, he fell on his face. fell on his face. That's the
response that real people, God's people, people that God reveals
himself and gives a revelation of himself to. That's the first
thing they do is they bow down. They humble themselves. They
come down before God. Abraham fell on his face. And
when he was on his face, God talked with him when he was down
there. And old Scott used to say it all the time, make your
headquarters in the dust. He got you out of the dust, so
don't get up. Don't get up. Joshua, he was
fighting the Lord's enemies. And then all of a sudden the
captain of the Lord of Hosts came to him. And he asked him who he was,
he said, I'm the captain of the Lord of Hosts. You know what
Joshua did? He bowed to him and said, oh Lord. He said, you're the
one winning all these battles, it's not me, it's you winning
all these battles. And oh my, I tell you what, I
know this without a shadow of a doubt, I remember Bruce Crabtree,
oh I've heard him talk about it all the time. But here's the thing about it.
If you don't stay low and you're one of God's, he'll put you low. And he deals with preachers different
than he does anybody else. He will not let his preachers
get up and get the feeling too good about themselves. He won't
do it. We have to get up and preach with authority. We've
got to act like we know what we're talking about. We've got
to preach with authority. We have to preach what we know. We have a message to declare.
But I do know this, that God has ways of keeping his preachers
down. He has ways of doing that. And
Moses, listen, Moses didn't resent God's ways when he said, I'm
going to visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children
to the third and fourth generation. Your father you've despised me
Your sons are going to despise me and your son sons gonna despise
me most said that's alright That's okay, then there's it God's ways
and then look what he says here now in verse 9 And he says now
if now and he said this two or three times like we talked about
this morning if I have found grace in thy sight and That's
why we say, Lord, I want to know you. I want to know Christ. If I found grace, does God give
me grace? And he said, if I now find grace
in thy sight, listen to what he says. Let my Lord, I pray
thee, go among us. Please go among us. Go among
us. We're going to be trapped. Go
among us. Come among us. Oh, listen. Moses pleads his
relationship with God for the good of others, and his life
was bound up with his people. He said, Lord, go among us. He didn't say, go with me. Go
among us. And that's what I, you know,
go among us, come among us. Lord, come down among us. And
that's what he said, come among us. He identifies with the Lord's
people. And then, oh, look what he goes
on to say. He said, for it is a stiff-necked people. It's a
stiff-necked people. You know, it was their need,
their sinfulness, their need that Moses presents to the Lord. He speaks, God, if you're gracious
and you will give us grace and show us grace, come among us.
I'm not denying that this people are stiff-necked. I know they're
stiff necked and you said they're stiff necked. You remember what
he said over here in Exodus 32, 9 and 10? Look what he said over
here. God said about these people after
they had that golden calf. and the Lord said unto Moses
I have seen this people and behold it's a stiff necked people now
therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them
and I may consume them and I'll make of thee a great nation and
Moses pleaded And God spared them that day. He pleaded with
them. And I tell you, it's a stiff-necked
people, but it was their need that Moses presents to the Lord,
to God's grace. And I tell you something, nobody
but the Lord could bear with them, and nobody but the Lord
could bear with us. Do you feel like that? That nobody
but the Lord could put up with you? Could bear with you? And then old Moses acknowledges
what God's already said against him. But in faith, he turns it
into a plea for him to go among us. Yes, they're stiff-necked.
But oh Lord, if we found grace, go among us. Go among us. Go
among us. And I tell you what, that's what
our Lord Jesus Christ said. All those Pharisees gathered
around, and they said, He's a friend of publicans and sinners, and
your master's eating with sinners. They came to Him and said, Oh,
your master's eating with sinners! That's the awfulest thing anybody
can do, is eat with a sinner! You know what our Lord said? He looked at them and said, They
that are whole, or well, they don't need a doctor. They don't
need a physician. You know who needs a physician?
You know who needs a doctor? They that are sick. And he said, I'll tell you what,
I'll have mercy. That's what God said, I'll have
mercy. And I'll not have sacrifice.
Don't bring me anything you got. He said this. He said, I'll have
mercy and not sacrifice. You go learn what that means.
And everybody, you look, I think it's in Luke, 1411 or somewhere in there it says
that they brought everyone that was sick and everyone that had
diseases And they brought them to Jesus and laid him at his
feet And you know what the next verse said he healed all of them
who had a need of healing Everybody that's got a need that's who
Christ deals with and And here's His blessed, here's how glorious
He is. He creates the need, so we will. We didn't even know we was needy
people, till He taught us we was needy people. I was a self-righteous Pharisee,
legalist, holiness, call it what you want to. And I didn't know,
listen, I could, I could, oh man, oh God have mercy on me,
but I tell you what, Well, He made me know who He was. I prostrated
myself on my living room floor and said, God, if you let me
live and you have mercy on me, if I ever say another word, I'll
always tell the truth on you. He brought me, beloved, where
I'd rather die than live, because He brought me that low. And I'm grateful he did. If he
hadn't I'd still be out lying on God or I'd be out in the world
one or the other. So he brought, he brings us to
the place where he gives us a need. Then he makes shows us grace
and makes us do like Moses did plead for grace. Oh I'll tell you what. I'm glad this man received sinners. They said I sure as ain't God
he does Then look back here in verse
9 what else he says I He says, not only is it a stiff-necked
people, now watch what he says here, and pardon our iniquity
and our sin and take us for thine inheritance. What he does, he
uses us all the way through here. He identifies himself with these
stiff-necked people. He said, our iniquities and our
sins. That's what he says, our iniquities
and our sins. Moses just puts himself right
among them. You say, yo, they're stiff-necked.
Oh, Lord. But I tell you what, forgive
us, forgive us of our sin and our iniquity. He identifies himself
with them. He said, oh, and you know, God
just so blessed him. But he took his place right with
the Lord's people. Right with them. And then look
what he says, take us for thine inheritance. Well they're stiff necked people,
oh yes, but you're a God of grace. You're a God that keeps mercy.
You're gracious and long-suffering and good and truthful and blessed. So take us. I know we're just
sinners. I know, Lord, pardon our iniquity
and our sins. But take us. Take us and make
us your inheritance. How would you like to inherit
me? He said, inherit us, Lord. God don't need no inheritance. He owns it all. He owns everything,
this world and everything, and it belongs to Him. But Paul said
this, he said, oh listen, that you may know what is the hope
of His calling and the inheritance of the saints in light. God don't
need no inheritance, but yet He says, make us your inheritance. It had a bunch of sinners. Yeah. He said he was gracious. Take us for thine inheritance.
Oh my. You know what Jeremiah said like
this. You know, we're the Lord's portion. Now in the world, the Lord's
portion. Just a few of us are here tonight. God says, they're my inheritance.
Moses says, take us for your inheritance. What in the world
would God want with us? But you know when he done it? He took us to be his people. And his inheritance for the family.
And Moses said, take us to be your inheritance. Oh my. Then look what he says you in
verse 10. Oh boy. To be in there. Take us for yours.
Pardon our iniquity and our sin. It's ours. It's ours. And he
said behold I make a covenant. God's a covenant God. You know,
Sheridan and I was coming from somewhere the other night and
I said, see that rainbow? He said, yeah, I see that rainbow.
Every time you see a rainbow, that's God. That's a sign of
the covenant that God made with Noah. And how would we know that if
we didn't find out in God's Word? There had never been a rainbow
because it had never rained. But now when you see a rainbow,
say, oh, that's God's promise. Sometimes you'll think it's going
to rain and then the rain get up close to you, you know, get
up close to you. But God said, I'll never destroy
the world with water ever again. How come? How are we going to
know, Lord? You'll see a boy in the cloud.
Every time I see one, I think of that. And then I think of
how pretty it is. You know, you see a full rainbow.
I said, boy, that is beautiful, ain't it? And you know why it's
beautiful? It's God keeping a promise. And
His promises, all of them are beautiful. Oh my. And then He says here
in verse 10, I make a covenant with you. And before all thy
people, I'm going to do marvels. Oh, I'm going to do marvels. such as not been done in all
the earth nor in any nation and among all the people which thou
art shall see the work of the Lord I tell you what the greatest
act I've seen God do the greatest act I've seen God do save me That's the greatest marvel he's
ever done that I've ever seen. He saved me. Now that's a marvel,
ain't it? Look at marvels all over the
place. He said, I'll do marvels. Look
at all the marvels. And what are your marvels? And I tell you what, see the
work of the Lord, oh we see his work. It's a terrible thing that
I will do with thee. Now watch what he says now. Observe
that which I command thee this day. Pay attention to what I'm
telling you. Observe it. Behold, I'm going to drive out
the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perisite, the Hivite,
and the Jebusite. And he drove out the Moabites.
Seven nations. And here's what he said. He said,
I'm going to drive out all of the enemies. I'm going to destroy
them. And then he says, take heed to
thyself. Take heed to thyself. He's talking to Moses now. Take
heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants
of the land where you go. Don't get in a covenant with
them. He said, now you're going among a bunch of heathens. He
said, now don't you get in a covenant with these people. Because if
you do, it'll be like a snare. It'll get you. It'll get you. It'll snag you. And he said, and that's just
what I want you to do when you go amongst these people. They've
got altars. Break them down. They've got
images. Destroy them. They've got groves
that they set up and go in these places to worship. He said, tear
them down. Tear them down. Be separated
from the people that you go into. For thou shalt worship no other
God, be separated, you'll be snared. Destroy their altars,
destroy their altars. And I'll tell you what, I'm going
to tell you something, God destroyed my altar, did He destroy yours?
You know what He said? We turn from idols to serve the
living God. And he said, for thou shalt worship
no other God. Don't you ever worship another
God. Don't ever consider worshiping another God. Look what he said. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous,
is a jealous God. You know why he says he's jealous?
He said, I'll have no gods before me. I'll have no gods before
me. Here's the thing, God's jealous
for his glory. He said, I will not give my glory
to another. And if any man glory, let him
glory in the Lord. Don't glory in the flesh. Don't
glory in any accomplishments. Don't glory in any word. Don't
glory in any doctrine. Don't you dare go to another
God. You'll rob me of my glory. And
I tell you, I forget where it's at over in Psalms, but it says,
you know, they rob God. And that's what it says, rob
him of his glory. You know what robs God of his
glory? Man bragging about the ability of his free will. That
robs God of his glory. Man talking about he can live. He got to live such a life that
he don't sin anymore. People say, as far as I know,
I ain't got any sin in my life, and if the Lord calls me, I'll
be ready to go. You know why I don't have any
sin in my life? I'm going to tell you, I don't
either. And you know why? Because Christ put it all away. And because
of Christ, I'm ready to go. Not because I've done anything.
Because He did everything. And oh, God said, I'll not give
my glory to another. And God is jealous for the affections,
for the heart of his people. He said, my son, give me your
heart. Give it to me. Give it to me. Give me your heart. If a person's
got your heart, they've got everything there is about you, if they've
got your heart. And God said, give me your heart. Oh, give me your heart. He says,
set your affection on things above, where Christ sits on the
right hand of God. Oh my, set your affection on
things above. Oh listen, God knows where our
hearts are, where our affections are. And like I said this morning,
if there's any spot, any spot in my heart, in my soul, that
would keep me from Christ, God Himself, destroy it, take it
away. Oh my. And then I'll tell you
something else God is jealous for. He's jealous of His people. What do I mean by that? He says,
listen, touch not my prophet, do my people no harm. And he
said this in Zechariah, he that touches you, touches you, touches
the apple of my eye. Oh my, he's jealous for his glory. I'm not going to give my glory
to somebody else. And that's what we do by God's
blessed grace. When we gather to worship, we
gather to bring glory to Him. Oh my. Then look what he says
in verse 15. God is jealous. His name is jealous. You know, if somebody's got your
heart, There's no reason to be jealous.
People say, I ain't got a jealous bone in my body. Jealousy is
not in your bones, it's in people's hearts. And as far as men go,
you know what God said about men's jealousy? He said, Jealousy
is crueler than the grave. Huh? Crueler than the grave. And you know when you got somebody,
you got them. When they got you, they got you.
And that's why God said, I'm jealous. I'm jealous over my
glory. I'm jealous over your affections. I want your heart. I want your
heart. And listen, and then he's jealous
for his people. Don't you dare touch them. Don't
you touch them. You know what our Lord said,
it would be better for a man to offend one of these little
ones. That's what he calls us. It would
be better for him that offends one of these little ones. Take
a millstone. You ever seen a millstone? Grind, grind, grind. Put a millstone
around his neck, take him out, throw him in the ocean. That
would be better for him doing that. That's how God what he
thinks of his people. He ain't going to let his children
be mistreated. And I tell you today, nobody is going to get
one of them. Then look what he says in verse 15, 17. And oh
my, this is, lest thou make it, my name is jealous, so don't
you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. See,
talk about your affections now. Don't you, don't you make a covenant
with the inhabitants of the land. Don't enter into agreement with
them. and they go a whoring after their gods. If you make a covenant
you will end up going a whoring after their gods and one call
thee and thou eat of his sacrifice of an awful God. Need a sacrifice
of a false God. And thou take of their daughters,
don't take their daughters to your sons and don't take your
sons to their daughters and go a whoring and make thy sons go
a whoring after other gods. This whoring here means spiritual
adultery. That's what he's talking about.
He's talking about, listen, and this is the reason why God says,
be not unequally yoked together, a believer with an unbeliever.
This is the very reason. He said, if you make, you know,
if you yoke up with an unbeliever, you know, if you yoke up with
somebody that doesn't believe like you and you enter into covenant
with them, That person is going to pull you away. You're not
going to bring them. It's a rare, rare instance that
somebody would bring somebody. That's why I said don't you be
unequally yoked together. Don't do that. And that's what
he's telling here. Don't you go out in the world
and don't you go to these people with their strange gods. Don't
you go and see their idols and don't you go because that's spiritual
adultery. And I tell you what, I've seen
angels standing on church doors, setting up in church doors, statues
of Jesus in church yards. Cement made out of cement. Why
would you put something made out of cement? If you want something
cement, get you something worth looking at, a deer or something. Paint it. You know, get you a turkey and
paint and set it out there. A frog on a log or whatever.
But you know, I'm not trying to be funny, but get anything
besides make it out of cement. Molding. Oh, listen. Made out of gold. Made out of
silver. And that's why I said don't be unequally yoked together. Don't do that. Because you're
going to suffer for it. You'll suffer greatly for it.
And you know, God give us a single eye and give us a single heart
after Him and His glory. You see crosses, oh I don't know
how many people, you know they have crosses. And they have them
on buildings, have them around their neck, have them in their
ears and everything. See them in people's yards. Easter time
they stick them out there and they put these scarlet scarves
around them, you know? And Paul, he said he gloried
in the cross. He said, God forbid that I should
glory in anything but the cross. Now what did he mean? He was
not talking about a wooden cross. He wasn't talking about that.
He wasn't talking about a Celtic cross. It wasn't a physical thing that
he was talking about. He's talking about who was on
that cross and what was accomplished on that cross and who it was
accomplished for. He said that's why we're going
to glory in the cross. We're going to glory in Him who
was on that cross. We're going to glory in what
He accomplished on that cross. And we're going to glory. And
that's why Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ. And our Lord says, take up your
cross and follow me. Now He didn't mean for us to
go out here and get us a wooden cross and put a wheel on it and
follow Him around. He's talking about taking up
our daily burdens and our daily trials and our daily things that
goes on in our life. Take it up! If you're going to
follow me, you're going to suffer with me. That's what He's talking
about. So God, His name is Jealous. Give us a single eye. See Him. Give us a single heart to worship
Him in His glory. Amen. Oh, our blessed, blessed Master.
Oh, our Lord Jesus. Lord, You've been merciful to
us again. You've been gracious to us again.
You've been kind to us again. Lord, as Moses said, come among
us. Go among us. Lord, you've come upon us, and
we bless you for it. And Lord, make it our heart's
desire, make it in our heart's desire to love one another, to
love you, love your word, love your people, and Lord, most of
all, desire your glory in our thoughts, in our hearts, in our
wills, in our homes, Where we go, help
us please to glorify You. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, I appreciate you and I'll
see you Wednesday, God willing.