me to your Bibles, please, to
Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33. We're going to begin about mid-chapter,
but before we get there, I want to set the stage, as it were,
for us. I want to read a few scriptures
that are apropos to what we're going to be talking about tonight.
We're going to be talking about the glory of the Lord, but more
specifically, His goodness. His goodness. As a matter of
fact, that's the meaning, the expression that the Lord gives
us in Exodus 33 and 34. That's what He says. His glory
is His goodness. And we'll be looking at that
in just a little bit. But tonight, I want you to consider
what David said, O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt
his name together. Again, not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us. but unto thy name give glory
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Paul said, no flesh should
glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who
is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Paul said again in another place,
but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and
I unto the world. David said in 1 Chronicles 29,
thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and
the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and earth
is thine. Thine is the kingdom of the Lord,
and Thou art exalted above all. Now therefore, our God, we thank
Thee and praise Thy glorious name. John said it this way in
John chapter 1, And the word of God was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. Paul again says, on our record,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Job said it this way, he has
stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head. Paul said again, for us in another
place, whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever ye
do, do all to the glory of God. He said it another way to the
Colossians. And whatsoever ye do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God and the Father by Him. And then he said in 1 Corinthians
10, verse 17, He that glorieth, let him glory, in the Lord. So tonight, if we do anything,
oh, may we glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now turn with me to Exodus chapter
33, and the Lord is going to tell us what His glory means
in Exodus 33, and we'll start with verse 12. And Moses said unto the Lord,
See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast
not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Well, I'll tell
you who the Lord's going to send. We'll read it. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's who's going to walk with
Moses. That's who's going to be with him and be sent with
him. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also
found grace in my sight." Noah found grace in the sight of the
Lord. Now, therefore, 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 the Lord said, my presence
shall go with you, and I will give you rest. What a verse. My presence will go with you,
and I'm going to give you rest. That's what we're looking for,
isn't it? Rest. Rest from trouble. Rest from
this body of flesh. Rest from sin. And he said unto
them, if thy presence go not with me, carry us up not hence.
Don't take us there. If you're not going to go with
us, don't carry us up. Don't send us up there. For wherein
shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in
thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest
with us? So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also
that thou hast spoken. For thou hast found grace in
my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. His presence is going to go with
him. He'll never leave him, nor forsake him. Always be with him. He's going to do this thing because
He's found favor, grace in His sight. It is an accomplished
thing. It's a thing that's effectual.
If God said He's going to do it, it's done, right? If God
said He's going to do it, it's a done deal. He's going to do
some things here. Show me thy glory in every service
that we attend at Lantana Grace Church. We are looking for the
Lord to show us His glory. Now His glory is His goodness,
we'll see. But we're looking for the Lord
to show us His glory in these services as we gather together. He will make, verse 19, and he
said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. Oh Lord, make
your goodness pass before us tonight. Let us see your goodness. Let us know your goodness here
tonight. I will make all my goodness to
pass before thee. Well, he said that two or three
are gathered. He'd be there in the midst. Two or three of his
people gathered together. He's going to be there in the
midst of them. He's going to be there with them. Two or three
or more of his people have gathered, and he is in the midst of us,
and he's here with his goodness for his people. Well, I don't
see him, but he's here. I can't feel him, but he's here.
He's here because we know that what he said is absolute truth. He will do exactly as he said. We're two or three together.
I'll be there in a minute. You can bank on it. You can believe
in that. He's here with us tonight. And
he's passing by in all his goodness. You see, Paul said in Romans,
the goodness of God leads thee to repentance. The goodness of
God is leading us, the goodness of God passing by us. And he
said here in verse 19, I will make all my goodness pass before
thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. Isn't that what we do here? We
proclaim the name of the Lord. We preach Christ and Him crucified. We preach about the Lord Jesus
Christ and the free sovereign grace that He has given to us. We preach His name. We proclaim
His name. And the Lord said, I'm going
to proclaim the name before you. You asked about who am I going
to send with you? Well, I'm going to proclaim that
name. I'm going to tell you who I'm going to send with you. I'm
going to tell you who's going to be with you every day, every
moment of every day. He's going to be with you and
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Sovereign grace. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. We're going to see a little more
about that as we go on here. But it's sovereign grace. It's
God making the choice. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. And we'll show mercy on whom
I'll show mercy. Sovereign mercy. I'll show mercy
to whom I will show mercy. Now listen, verse 20. But he
said, and he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall
no man see me and live. Do you know that's still true
today? The only way that we're going to be able to be before
the Holy Father, God Himself, is in the person, Jesus Christ. We have to have a mediator. We have to have somebody to go
between. For there is one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. We have to have someone go for
us. We have to have someone who can
make peace with God and make our peace and bring us together
as one in Him. And that's Jesus Christ. I'll
make all my goodness pass before you. You can't see my face, but
in just a little bit, in just the next few verses, we're going
to see that mediator. Verse 21, And the Lord said,
Behold, there is a place by me. Our Savior is seated at the right
hand of the Father right now, isn't He? There's a place by
me. And that's the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. And thou shalt stand upon a rock. Not just any rock. You're going
to stand on the rock Jesus Christ. Who is our rock? And thou shalt
stand upon a rock. By the way, who's doing all this?
Moses is not doing any of this. The Lord's doing it. Moses is
a participant in it, but he is not one who participates by doing. He's one who participates by
being done unto. The Lord's doing this to Moses. And thou shalt stand upon a rock,
and not just that. And it shall come to pass, when
my glory passes by, that I'll put thee in the cliff of the
rock. I'm going to put you in the rock. You'll not only stand
on it, but I'm going to put you in Him. In Jesus Christ. In the Beloved. I'm going to
put you in the rock. And then I'm going to cover you
with my hand. What does Tim James says? Our
God is a two-fisted God. No man is able to pluck you out
of my hand. My Father, which is greater than
all, no man is able to pluck you out of his hand. He's got
us. We're covered. were covered.
And Moses didn't cover himself. Moses didn't stand on that rock.
Moses didn't go into the cliff to the rock on his own. The Lord
did all this. The Lord did it all. There is
a place by me and I'll put you in that rock. I'll cover you
with my hand and then I'll take my hand away. Verse 23, and I
will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts,
but my face shall not be seen." You're going to see my back parts.
Now I'm going to do all this because you found favor, you
found grace in my sight. I'm going to proclaim the name
of the Lord to you. I'm going to go with you. I'm going to have the Lord Jesus
Christ to go with you. I'm going to put you on that
rock. I'm going to put you in that rock. And I'm going to cover
you where I put you in that rock, and then I'm going to take my
hand away, and you're going to see my back parts. The best I
can tell, and there's probably scholars who could do better
than this, but the best I can tell, that's the aftermath. What
happens when God's goodness passes by? What happens when God's goodness
passes by? Well, we have the scripture to
tell us. Look at chapter 34 and look at
verse 5. Moses is up on the mountain in
verse 5, and the Lord descended in a cloud. and stood with him
there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Now the Lord promised
this is what's going to happen. This is what I'm going to do.
And His promises are yea, yea, always He keeps His promise.
He promised this is what I'm going to do and now Moses is
up there and the Lord says it's done. It's happened. It's going
on right now. My glory is passing by. The cloud came down, descended. That's the Shekinah glory and
stood with Him there. God's presence was with Him. The Lord said to His disciples,
Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. even to
the end of the world, I'll be with you." And the Lord passed
by him there, verse 6. And the Lord passed by before
him. and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. What did he say? He proclaimed
the Lord, the Lord God. That's Jesus Christ, Jehovah. Thou shalt call his name Jesus. Jehovah saves. Thou shalt call
his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. He proclaimed the name of the
Lord. Why do we proclaim the name of
the Lord? Because neither is there salvation in any other.
For there is none other name under heaven given among men
whereby ye must be saved. There's only one name that'll
do it. There's only one name that's great enough. There's
only one name that Jesus of Nazareth, that Peter preached to the folk
after Pentecost, that Jesus of Nazareth, there's only one name
that's going to save you. And that's Jesus of Nazareth,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that is spoken of.
He's the one who is passing by. He's the one that is here with
us. He's the one who said, I will
be there in the midst. The Lord glorified His Son at
the baptism. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. The Lord glorified Him at the
Mount of Transfiguration. This is my beloved Son. Hear
ye Him. And then the Lord glorifies him
in heaven now, because his is a name which is above every name. And at his name, everyone, every
knee shall bow. And this one that is proclaimed
is only revealed by the Father. The Father said, the Lord, the
Lord God, Jehovah, Jehovah Elohim, if you want it another way. I
noticed coming in here, I saw somebody write Yahweh on one
of their signs out here. I wonder if they even know who
He is or what He stands for or what He can ever do for sinners. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God, Peter said that to the Lord Jesus, and the
Lord said, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. It was my
Father who told you this truth. We'll only know Him when the
Father draws us to Him. He proclaimed the name of the
Lord. You see, when you read in chapter 33, they put Him on
a rock, put Him in a rock, covered Him with His hand, took the hand
away. And when you read in chapter 4, where's the rock at? Yeah,
that's everything he's talking about here. The rock is the one
he proclaims. The rock is he proclaimed the
name of the Lord, the Lord God, and this is what he said about
him. Here's the rock. He's merciful
and gracious. That's our God. That's Jesus
Christ. Aren't you glad for His mercy?
Aren't you glad for His grace? We needed both. We needed that
unmerited favor. We needed that favor despite
of who we are because we could not do anything to obtain the
favor of God. We needed that grace. And we
needed that mercy because we're sinners. And all we can do is
beg for mercy. And did you know, it's been said
here several times, He delights in mercy. He delights in mercy. He's the one that's proclaimed
as the merciful and gracious God, full of compassion. Paul
says it merciful and mercy and compassion in Romans chapter
9. Also, he's the one who is proclaimed as the long-suffering
one. God is not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance because he's long-suffering,
long-suffering. He suffered long with me for
60-odd years. and then showed me the truth.
Brought me to a place where I'd hear the truth. I'd preached
for 40 years. Lies. And I'm so ashamed of that. I think of so many, my children
especially, but so many that I'd preached to and told lies
to and they believed them. And should the Lord not lead
them to a place where they can hear the truth of the grace of
God, free and sovereign grace, they'll have been like I was
when I was 60 years old. If I'd have died, I'd have gone
straight to hell, but not now. He showed me His grace. He showed
me His mercy. He showed me that He was long-suffering,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
He's the one proclaimed as abundant and abundant in goodness and
truth. Jesus said Himself, I'm the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm
the life. He's abundant in goodness and
truth. And His goodness passes by in
each of our services. That's why we pray, Lord, those
that are your sheep, have them to hear your voice tonight. Because Jesus said, my sheep
hear. my voice. He is the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He is all that filleth, all in
all. And then look at verse 7, keeping
mercy for thousands. That's election. Let me see if
I can show that to you. The next book over is the book
of, or two books over is the book of Numbers. In the book
of Numbers, Moses was commanded to number all the men 20 years
old upward to 50 in one place, 60 in another. 20 to 50, there
were 600,000 men who could carry a sword. They became the warriors. Now, if it was just of that age
and that number of men, wonder how many children of Israel were
walking out in that wilderness. It wasn't just a small company
like we are right here. It was in the millions. Men,
women, children, under 20, over 50, over 60, all walking in that
wilderness. And notice how he says it, keeping
mercy for thousands. Well, if there are millions,
why wouldn't He say millions? Because God chose. He showed
mercy to whom He would show mercy. He showed favor to whom He would
show favor. He gave grace to whom He would
give grace. The publican was one man standing
in the temple. There was another man there,
and there's a lot of people in the temple. It was always active. But that publican stood over
in a shadowy place away, smote his breast and said, Lord, be
merciful to me, a sinner, the sinner. Now there was a publican
there who thought very highly of himself because he prayed
within himself. And the Lord said this publican
went down to his house justified. One man in the temple went down
to his house justified. There's Bartimaeus on the outside
of Jericho. Jesus Christ was walking by.
He had heard that Jesus was walking by, so he cried out, Jesus, thou
Son of David, have mercy on me! And the Lord stood still. The
disciples told Bartimaeus, shh, shh, be quiet. This is a grand
procession. We're celebrating Christ. The
Lord said, no, bring him to me. What would you have me do, Barnabas,
that I might receive my sight? And it was done. One man in all
of Jericho. Jesus passed through the whole
city. One man in all of Jericho. We heard about this last Sunday,
the infinite man at the sheep market pool. One man. There was
crowds there. But grace and mercy came to one
person. That's what happens when it's
goodness. passes by, a person, an individual. There could be several at one
time. There were 3,000 who were saved on the day of Pentecost.
But when His goodness passes by, He proclaims the name of
the Lord, His Son, Jesus Christ, who is merciful and gracious,
keeping mercy for thousands. How would I know whether I'm
one of those that the Lord is passing by and talking to, speaking
to? Well, first of all, He reveals
Himself as to who He is. He is Jehovah, the Lord, the
Lord God. He is the Sovereign One. He does as He pleases in the
armies of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth. Whatever He pleases,
He does. He reveals who I am. I'm a sinner,
awful, vile, stinky, filthy, rag, sinner, full of putrefying
sores from the top of my head to the sole of my feet. He reveals
that I'm a sinner not because of what I do, but because of
who I am. I'm a sinner. I'm without strength. I cannot save myself. I can't
do anything about any of these things. If it's going to be done,
the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have to do it Himself. He's
going to have to put me on the rock. He's going to have to put
me in the rock. He's going to have to cover me
with His hand. I will not be able to do it myself.
Flesh and blood can't do this. And he does all this through
the preaching of his word by a God sent preacher. I'm so thankful for Pastor Donnie. So thankful for him. Every time
he gets up to speak, he tells us the truth. He proclaims the
name of the Lord. He tells us about mercy and grace
and compassion that God has for sinners. Jesus came not to be
ministered unto, but to give his life a ransom for many, for
sinners. And then notice the next phrase,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Now we heard about that
Sunday too, didn't we? Iniquity, transgression and sin,
forgiving. You see, he's the one that does
it. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one that does it. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission, Paul says in
Hebrews. Paul said in Ephesians chapter
1, Christ in whom we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of His grace. Go with me, hold your
place there, go with me to Luke chapter 7. I want to show you
something here. In Luke chapter 7. There's a story here. Some people
believe that this story is about Mary Magdalene. I have no issue
with that. It just doesn't say her name
here. Beginning in verse 36 of Luke chapter 7. And one of the
Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went
into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold,
a woman in the city, which was a sinner, which he knew that
Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box
of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and
began to wash his feet with tears, and then wipe them with the hairs
of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment.
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within
himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have
known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him,
for she is a sinner. Jesus answering said unto him,
Simon, I've some what to say unto you. And he said, Master,
sayeth on. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors, the one owed 500 pence and the other
50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which
of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, thou hast
rightly judged. Now listen to the review. First of all, to the blessing. but she has washed them with
my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in
hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she
loved much. For to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. You know, that's why when God
comes, passes by, the Holy Spirit reproves the world of sin. That's
why he shows us how awful, exceeding, sinful we are. Not one good thing
can we find within ourselves. She loved much. She was forgiven. All her sins were forgiven. And
he said unto her, verse 48, thy sins are forgiven. The book of Acts,
it says, through this man is preached unto you forgiveness
of sin. And those that heard that were
ordained to eternal life by the Lord himself. You know, the Lord
dealt with our sins. He dealt with them decisively. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 26,
he put away our sin by the death of himself. Hebrews chapter 1
verse 3, he purged our sins. Having purged our sins, he sat
down at the right hand of the majesty on high. In Isaiah 40
verse 2, Isaiah said he pardoned our sin, gave us double, as Isaac
Watts says that he saved from wrath and made us pure. Paul
said in Hebrews chapter 10, he once for all gave himself an
offering for our sin and therefore he sanctified us and perfected
us. He hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Look at the next phrase. And
that will by no means clear Now, that seems to stand back-to-back
to each other, doesn't it? He's forgiving our sin, our iniquities,
our transgressions, but will by no means clear the guilty.
How does He do that? There's a word called justification
in the Scripture. God has made us to be righteous. He has perfected us. In this body of flesh, I'm still
guilty. By no means He'll clear the guilty,
but what He did was He took my sins. upon Himself. He bore the
wrath of God for my sin, and He gave me His righteousness. By no means clear the guilty,
but He justifies us. He justifies us. Visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's
children, unto the third and fourth generation. It's God,
the word visiting, I looked it up, and one of the expressions
of that word is to attend to. It's God who attends to our sin. He took care of it. I stand before
you a righteous and perfect person in Jesus Christ. outside of Jesus
Christ, and what I talked about a while ago, ugly, putrefying,
vile sinner. He's the one who visits the iniquities
of the Father, attends to them. He's the one who says, it's not
of him that runneth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who
showeth mercy. He's the one who says, born not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man,
but of God. All this is His goodness. Every service, He passes by with
it in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look
at verse 8. What should be our response?
We should do just exactly what Moses did. He made haste and
bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. He made haste. Man, when he saw it, It was just
as clear as a bell. I remember the day that that
happened. I don't remember exactly what day it was. I couldn't give
you a date. But I remember when all of a sudden I saw it and
it was just as clear as a bell. It was so clear. I knew that
God had done it. And I knew that God had moved
and touched me. I knew that God had saved me
when He opened my eyes. when he revealed it to me. And
Moses made haste. He might have cried out as some
people do, what can I do? Like the Philippian jailer, what
can I do? Don't do anything. Just believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. There's
not one thing you can do. It's all done by God himself.
He bowed his head to the earth. You know what he was doing here?
Thou art Lord, you are sovereign, you are God of all the earth,
you are my God, my Lord. He bowed his head to the earth
and he worshipped. He said, I believe everything
you said, I believe everything you did, and I believe it was
all for me. One of your sheep. He worshipped. He gave thanksgiving. Like that
woman who lavished her love upon the feet of our Lord and Savior.
Who kissed them and cried on them and tears dropped on them
and washed them with her hair and kissed them and anointed
them. She lavished her love on Him. When you see, when He passes
by and you really see who He is. You will lavish love on him. It won't be anything to give
yourself to him, because you recognize you ain't much anyhow.
As a matter of fact, you ain't nothing. But you're the one he
wants, and he called you, and is calling you. David said it
this way, in God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my
strength, my refuge, is in God. Oh, Lord, please pass by. Pass
by my heart again today. Oh, how I need it. How I need
the Lord to reveal Himself to me anew, afresh. His mercy, His grace. Him putting
me on the rock. Him put me in the rock. Him covering
me with His hand. Oh, how I need that. Tonight,
let's close with number 235 in your hymnal. Number 235.