Well, before we get started,
I just need to say how much I love this conference and how much
I love the people that I meet at this conference. This conference
is something that's been on my calendar for over a year, and
I've been looking forward to this. I want to thank Josh Bice
for his invitation to come and speak. And this is a great privilege
for me to be able to speak to you tonight. It's been my joy
to speak at every one of the G3 conferences, and so I've seen
it grow from a small conference to a very large conference, and
it's obvious that the hand of the Lord is upon this conference. And so it is an extraordinary
privilege to be able to be a part of this. Our conference theme
is Knowing God, a Biblical understanding of discipleship. And tonight
in this message, I want to emphasize the knowing God part, because
discipleship is not a program. Discipleship is not even a plan. It's all about a person. It's
all about you growing to know the person of God. And in order to know the person
of God, we need to know something about who He is. And so tonight,
I want to speak to you on the glory of God in a passage in
which Moses says to God, show me your glory. I want you to
take your Bible. I want everyone to take their
Bible and turn with me to the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter
33. And tonight, for our time together
in the Word of God, I want us to look at these verses at the
end of Exodus 33 and at the beginning of Exodus 34. And I pray that
God will use these verses to greatly shape your life as you
grow to know God more fully and more deeply. I want to begin
by reading this passage, Exodus chapter 33. beginning in verse
18. Then Moses said, I pray you,
show me your glory. And he said to me, I myself will
make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name
of the Lord before you. and I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will
show compassion. But he said, you cannot see my
face, for no man can see me and live. Then the Lord said, behold,
there is a place by me, and you shall stand there on the rock.
and it will come about while my glory is passing by that I
will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my
hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away
and you will see my back, but my face shall not be seen." It was A. W. Tozer who said years
ago, God is looking for men and women in whose hands His glory
is safe. And by this, Tozer meant that
God is looking for men and women who are in the passionate pursuit
to know the glory of God. God's glory is primary. God's
glory is foundational. God's glory is supreme. We live
for the glory of God or we do not live at all. We merely exist. The beginning and the end of
all things is the glory of God. The glory of God is the sun around
which the entire universe revolves. We were made for the glory of
God. And in the end, all that matters
in your life and in my life is did we live for the glory of
God? If we fail to live for God's
glory, we are reduced to living empty, shallow, trivial lives. But if we seek God's glory, our
lives will be full and abundant, and we will leave our mark upon
time and eternity. Living for the glory of God must
be our master passion. It must be our chief end. It
must be our supreme goal. We must live for the glory of
God. And every disciple of the Lord
Jesus Christ who has been bought at the cross is in the passionate
pursuit of living for the glory of God. And this is why I'm captivated
by this man, Moses. Here is a man living at full
tilt, sold out for the glory of God. Let me set the stage. Moses in this passage is at Mount
Sinai. He has already been to the mountaintop
once to receive God's law. But while he was on the mountaintop
receiving God's law, the people of God were in the valley with
Aaron crafting an idol of gold and were breaking the law. And in righteous indignation,
Moses smashed the two tablets. Leading this obstinate people
would be the challenge of his life. It will be a stress far
beyond anything that he has ever experienced to this point and
beyond what he would normally be able to bear. And it is in
this context as what lies before him is almost 40 years of wilderness
wandering, leading this difficult people. that Moses prays this
prayer, show me your glory. Do you need strength for the
ministry that the Lord has given to you? Do you face difficulty
in your church, pastor? Do you find difficulty in your
home, father and mother? Is there a challenge that is
ahead of you at the workplace? Are you facing some difficult
decisions in your life? Are you entering into a new phase
of your life in which you are facing an extraordinary challenge? Do you need to know God's will
and direction and guidance in your life? Then if so, this is
a prayer that you must pray just as Moses prayed as he is beginning
this wilderness wandering with the next four decades ahead of
him. Lord, show me your glory. As we look at this text, there
are five main headings that I want to set before you. And the first
is found in verse 18, the daring request. More than anything else,
Moses wanted to know and pursue God's glory. Look what he says
in verse 18. Then Moses said, I pray you,
show me your glory. By this daring request, Moses
is asking that he would see and experience more of God's glory,
that there would be a fuller revelation of who God is that
would be made known to Moses. that he would have a deeper apprehension
of the greatness and the grandeur and the glory of God. He is asking,
God, I want to know you more deeply and more intimately because
it is only by knowing you may I move forward in the task to
which you have called me. What is God's glory? Well, theologians
refer to God's glory in two basic categories. There is God's intrinsic
glory and there is God's ascribed glory. God's intrinsic glory
is the sum and the substance of all that God is. It is the
bright outshining of the, of the holiness of God. The intrinsic glory of God is
the sum total of God's character, His attributes, His perfections,
and His being. A scribe glory is our response
to the intrinsic glory of God. We cannot give God intrinsic
glory. God is who He is. He is the God
who was and who is and who shall be forever. A scribe glory is
the glory that we give to God. It is our praise, and it is our
worship, and it is in direct proportion to our understanding
within our heart and within our mind of who He truly is. It is His intrinsic glory. And
so here in verse 18, Moses is praying for a greater revelation
to know who God is. He prays for a fuller self-disclosure
by God of his all-glorious being to be made known to him. And that really is the tip of
the spear of all discipleship. that we are growing in the knowledge
of God. Eternal life is to know God,
John 17, verse 3. This is eternal life, that they
may know you, the one true living God, for you to grow as a disciple
at its very epicenter. It is for us to grow in the personal
experiential knowledge of God. And that is exactly what Moses
is praying here. This tells us that no matter
where you and I are spiritually tonight, none of us have arrived
in the fullness of knowing God. There still remains so much more
of God for us to know. Even Moses, the man of God, needed
to pray this. He needed to know more of God.
Moses, who has already stood on holy ground and has had to
remove the sandals from his feet as he stood at the burning bush.
Moses, who has already seen the pillar of cloud lead Israel out
of Egypt. Moses, who has already seen God
part the Red Sea. Moses, who has already seen water
come gushing out of the rock. Moses, who has already seen fire
fall out of heaven and burn Mount Sinai. Moses understood that
he had barely scratched the surface of what it is to know God. And if he is to move forward
in what God has called him to do, he must know more of God. God, show me your glory. There is this one holy passion
burning within Moses to know more of His holiness, more of
His sovereignty, more of His power, more of His love, and
more of His grace. Moses cannot remain stagnant
in his spiritual life and lead the children of God through the
wilderness. Moses cannot remain where he is and be enabled to
fulfill what God has called him to do. He must know and experience
more of God in his life. And if Moses, the man of God,
needed to pray this, how much more do you and I need to pray
this? The prayer that will change your
life is to pray this prayer. From the depth of your heart,
God, show me your glory. This prayer must be uppermost
on our mind, on our lips, on our hearts, on our tongues. This must be our one great prayer. God, show me your glory. Every time you open your Bible,
you should pray, God, show me your glory. Every time that you
pray, you should pray, God, show me your glory. Every time we
worship, we should pray, God, show me your glory. This is what
is most important. We say, soli deo gloria, for
the glory of God alone. We must live for the glory of
God alone. I want you to know second, not
only the daring request in verse 18, but the divine response in
verse 19. How will God answer this? How
did God respond? to this daring request. But what
we discover in verse 19 is that God gave a favorable, acceptable
response to His servant. And in verse 19, we have the
words of God Himself as God now speaks to Moses. I Myself, meaning
I and no one else. This will not be an angel. This
will not be one of the patriarchs. I Myself. will make my goodness
pass before you." This is an affirmative answer that God gives
to Moses. Yes, I will. You will have the
request that you have made. The glory of God and the goodness
of God here in verse 18 and 19 are one and the same because
God is a good God. In verse 18, Moses says, show
me your glory. Verse 19, God says, yes, I will
make my goodness pass before you. God has said to Moses that
you will have a greater understanding of who I am and a deeper heart
knowledge of me. And here we learn something very
important, that we can only know God to the extent that God chooses
to make Himself known to us. The greater must allow Himself
to be made known to the lesser. It's been my privilege to know
many great men. But I can only know those men
to the extent that they, the greater man, allow themselves
to be known by me, the lesser man." And Moses here receives
the affirmation from God that you shall have the answer to
your prayer. And notice what God goes on to
say in verse 19. This is extraordinary. I want
you to see this in your Bible. And I, God, will proclaim the
name of the Lord." Here God says He will mount the pulpit and
He Himself will preach His own name. Think about that. God will
exposit Himself. God will exegete Himself. God
will herald His own name to Moses. No one can preach like God can
preach. Here is the greatest preacher
in the universe, preaching on the greatest subject in the universe. Here is God preaching on God. Here God preaches His own glory. He says, I will proclaim the
name of the Lord. The name refers to the character
of a person in the Bible. And for God to preach His own
name is synonymous with God preaching His own nature, His own being,
His own character, His own person, His own attributes. And then
God says in verse 19, as he speaks more specifically to how he chooses
to make himself known to Moses in response to this request. As God has said, he will preach
his own character and his being. God now says, and I will be gracious. To whom I will be gracious. And
I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. It will only be by sovereign
grace that God will make himself known to Moses. It lies with
God to whom he will make himself known. And God will reveal His
glory to those to whom it pleases God to make Himself known. And there is nothing in Moses
that drew God to make Himself known to Moses. God answered
this prayer solely and exclusively by grace, by sovereign grace,
not because of Moses, but in spite of Moses. The Apostle Paul
quotes this very verse in Romans chapter 9 and verse 15 in connection
with the doctrine of sovereign election. And in Romans 9 verse
15, Paul records the words of God here, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion upon
whom I will have compassion. And the next verse, verse 16.
So then it does not depend upon the man who wills or upon the
man who runs, but upon God who has mercy. And so it is, please
God, to answer this request that Moses makes, because Moses can
only know God to the extent that God chooses to reveal Himself
to Moses. And so it is with you and me,
my friend. Do you know God? Have you entered into a saving
relationship with God? Do you know God in a personal
relationship? If you do, it is only by sovereign
grace. You could have never found God
in a million trillion years if you had searched for Him and
looked for Him your entire life. But the Bible says there is none
who seeks after God. No, not one. No, it is God who
came and found you. It is God who chose to have mercy
upon you and have compassion upon you because it pleased God
to reveal Himself to you. If you're a disciple of Jesus
Christ and if you are walking with the Lord Jesus Christ, it
is all of grace. The Apostle Paul said, I am what
I am by the grace of God. And those whom he foreknew, he
predestined. And whom he predestined, he called.
And whom he called, he justified. And whom he justified, he glorified.
From beginning to end, it is all of sovereign grace. What
a trophy of grace you and I are. that God would make Himself known
to us. And so this is the divine response. And so many of us, if not most
of us here tonight, have heard this same divine response. Third, I want you to see the
definite restrictions. Beginning in verse 20, And God
mercifully set restrictions upon Moses' request to see His glory. And the reason for the restrictions
is very simply this. If God were to pull back the
veil and God allow Himself to shine in fullest strength into
the heart and the life of Moses, it would kill Him. Moses wouldn't be able to bear
it up. It would be too much of God. And so God mercifully and
graciously here sets restrictions. Notice in verse 20, but He, God,
said, you cannot see my face, for no man can see me and live. to gaze directly upon the full
glory of God would be such a blinding experience. It would be like
looking into the noonday sun until you go blind. It would be like flying to the
sun and stepping out of a spaceship and walking barefoot on the surface
of the sun. It would be easier to do that
than for God to reveal the fullness of all that He is to mere creatures
like you and me. Isaiah saw the glory of God in
the temple, and Isaiah said, I am ruined, for my eyes have
seen the King, the Lord of hosts. The apostle John saw the glorified
Christ on the Isle of Patmos. His hair blazing white, his face
shining like the sun, speaking with the sound of many waters,
a sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth, his feet burnished
as in bronze. And when the apostle John saw
the glorified Christ, he fell at his feet like a dead man.
That means he went unconscious and just fainted. It was more
of God than his circuits could even handle. And so as God now
has said, you shall see my glory in greater measures, God now
sets some firewalls between Himself and Moses, lest Moses die. And so in verse 21, we read,
then the Lord said, behold, there is a place In other words, Moses,
you may stand close to me, but not too close. You will not be
able to handle it. Behold, there is a place by me,
and you shall stand there on the rock." And God is saying,
you must hide yourself in this rock so that it will shield you
lest you burn up like a crisp. And so verse 22, it will come
about, God says, while my glory is passing by. And God will make
his glory pass by in the form of effulgent, radiant, bright,
shining light. It's interesting that in the
eternal state in Revelation 21, it says that God will snuff out
the sun because the glory that will beam forth from His face
will illumine the new heavens and the new earth and there will
be no need for the sun. And on the Mount of Transfiguration,
as Jesus stood there with Andrew, James, and John, His face shone
like the sun. And so God will make His glory
pass by in front of Moses, and it will be the bright, shining
glory of God, brighter than 10,000 suns in the sky above. And so
here is the first buffer, if you will, in the middle of verse
22, the first firewall between God and Moses. I will put you in the cleft of
the rock. As a medical attendant would
stand behind a protective wall during an x-ray procedure, so
Moses now must hide himself in a rock that the rock would be
a shield of the passing glory of God. It would be far more
than what Moses could even handle. And then the second buffer at
the end of verse 22, God says, and I will cover you with my
hand. Even the rock itself, this massive boulder, will not be
enough to… for Moses to hide himself from the glory of God.
Moses has asked for more than what he realized. And so God
covers him with His hand as he's hiding in the rock. And then
in verse 23, there's a third buffer. God said, then I will
take my hand away. and you will see my back. Moses will only be allowed to
see the afterglow of the glory of God. Moses cannot look upon
a full frontal gaze of the glory of God. He can only gaze upon
and look at the backside of God. And God repeats now at the end
of verse 23, but my face shall not be seen." Moses cannot
see the full revelation of God's glory. And this is why when you
and I go to heaven, we must be given a glorified body that is
perfectly adapted to our new environment in heaven, and we
shall be made like Christ in His resurrection body and in
His now present glorified state. We will be glorified, as Romans
8.30 says, and we will be given a glorified body that will be
able to stand in the presence of God and not be consumed. We
will be given glorified eyes that can look upon God upon His
throne and not be consumed. We will be given a new glorified
body so that we can stand in the very presence of God Himself. And if Jesus Christ Himself were
to walk into this massive room this very moment, there's not
a one of us that would be able to approach Him, not in His glorified
state. We would all faint like dead
men and go to the floor. It would be too much for us to
be able to handle. And so in verse 1 of chapter
34, Now the Lord said to Moses, cut
out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, because
Moses has thrown down the tablets and smashed them and anger and
ground them into powder and put them into water and forced the
people of God, the idolatrous people of God, to drink the broken
tablets. God says, cut out for yourself
two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the
tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you
shattered. And God will now reissue the
Ten Commandments to Moses as God Himself had written with
His own finger upon those two tablets, the Ten Commandments. And so God reissues them. And
in verse 2, God says to Moses, so be ready by morning. Come
up in the morning to Mount Sinai. Moses will have only a very short
time to cut the two stone tablets. And Moses was to return to the
very same mountaintop for a divine appointment with God. It would be a one-on-one encounter
with God on the mountaintop. And God says, and you will there
present yourself to me on the top of the mountain. Moses, you
are to report for duty there. Verse 3, no man is to come up
with you. This is to be a one-on-one, face-to-face,
private, personal encounter between God and Moses. And God says in
verse 3, nor let anyone be seen anywhere on the mountain. This
is as personal and as private as it can be. And this is just
like it is in discipleship. The one who is leading sets the
terms for the follower. And here, God sets the terms
for Moses. And at the end of verse 3, he
says, even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front
of the mountain. This is a no pets allowed policy. This is not a whosoever will
may come. God is calling out Moses by name
and saying, no one else may come. This is how dramatic it is to
know God. This is how extraordinary of
an experience it is to grow in our understanding of the knowledge
of God. No one who is casual with God
ever grows to know Him more deeply. No one who is cool and kickback
and flippant and blasé will ever grow to know God more deeply. It is those only who purposely
pursue the knowledge of God and are willing to meet with God
on His terms will know God more intimately. And so in verse 4,
we read, so he, Moses, cut out two stone tablets like the former
ones. And Moses rose up early in the
morning and went up to Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded
him. Here is full obedience on the
part of Moses. And you and I need to know what
it is to meet with God like this. You and I need to know what it
is to be alone with God like this. You and I need to know
what it is in the midst of the crises of our life, when we find
ourselves in the most difficult places of life, just like where
Moses found himself. to be alone with God and to be
one-on-one with God and to seek to know more of the glory of
God so that the grace of God will be more fully multiplied
within our hearts and in our souls. So I want you to note fourth,
not only these definite restrictions, in the rock, my hand, you can
only see my backside, now in verse 5. the detailed revelation. God fulfilled His promise to
Moses. You want to know more of me? You want to behold my
glory? Then you shall have it. And as
Moses arrives on the mountaintop, notice verse 5. This is one of
the most dramatic scenes in the entire Bible. The Lord descended
in the cloud. God came down out of heaven.
God came down to Moses, to meet Moses on the mountaintop. And
this cloud was the Shekinah glory cloud. It was the same cloud
that guided Moses and Israel out of Egypt. It is the very
same cloud that stood between Moses and Pharaoh at the parting
of the Red Sea. It was the very same glory cloud
that has already appeared on this very same mountain at the
first giving of the law. And it is this glory cloud that
becomes the fourth buffer to shield Moses' eyes from the intense
glory of God in bright shining light. God is inside this glory
cloud. And the glory cloud is filtering
the full radiance of the manifestation of who God is because Moses can
only receive so much of God. So this cloud partially veiling
the glory of God. Verse 6, then the Lord passed
by in front of him. This glory cloud just paraded
by the rock as Moses is still hiding in the rock. And this
was a terrifying experience for Moses as God's glory was being
transformed into blazing light. And notice, then the Lord passed
by in front of him, verse 6, and proclaimed, now comes the
greater glory than even the blinding light. God now speaks, and God
now proclaims, and God now preaches, and the spiritual light is always
greater than the physical light. And here is God's own sermon
on Himself. It will be a two-point sermon. Point number one, God will preach
His name. And point number two, God will
preach His nature. And God will preach a theocentric
sermon. God will preach a God-centered,
God-exalting sermon. It will be by God, on God. And so first notice the divine
names that God preaches. We see this in In verse 6, the
Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, the Lord, the
Lord God. This is the only place in the
Bible where these two names come together just like this. First
he says, the Lord, then the Lord God. And the repetition of Lord
is intended to underscore its importance. This first name for
Lord is Yahweh. This name was first given to
Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3, in verse 14, when God
said, out of the burning bush, I am who I am. And these words
are from the Hebrew verb, to be. And God is saying, I am who
I am. God is who He is. Always in the
present, never decreasing, never increasing. Never that I once
was, never that I will become, I am who I am. And this indicates what theologians
call the aseity of God, that God is self-existent, that God
is self-sufficient, that all of His needs are met within Himself. God has no needs outside of Himself. And everyone is dependent upon
God for every need, and God has no need for anyone or anything
else. There is no hole in God's soul. He is self-existent and self-sufficient. He is eternal, immutable, immortal,
independent, autonomous, active, living, life-giving. All of this
is bound up in the name Yahweh, the Lord. God finds His greatest joy and
pleasure within Himself. And then the second name for
God is El, E-L, which means the strong one. the infinitely powerful
One, the One who but speaks and it comes to pass, the One who
could have just as easily spoken into being a million universes
as this One, who could have made billions of planet earths but
chose to make just this One, and He would have done so effortlessly,
this God who is mighty to save, mighty to strengthen, mighty
to sanctify. God preached His own name. And
you and I need to be reminded as we are disciples and as we
are following His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we must be
growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
it will be this growing awareness and experience of the fuller
glory of God is at the very heart of what is driving our discipleship. You lift up the hood of discipleship
and the engine that is driving discipleship is a growing, deepening
knowledge of God. Not of the culture, not of the
others around, but of God Himself. And then God preaches His nature.
You will note, continue in verse 6, as God heralds now His divine
attributes, He proclaims His own perfections now to Moses
in ways that will cause Moses not only to have a greater knowledge
of God, but now a greater trust in God and a greater reliance
upon God as he now faces the greatest challenge of his life. If there has ever been a time
Moses needed to know God more, it is at this very moment. If
there was ever a time in which Moses needed to trust God and
have faith in God and put his full reliance upon God, it is
at this one defining moment. And the only way to put the gas
into the tank of Moses' heart and to steer him on the course is a greater knowledge of God. So God will now give seven attributes. that Moses needs to know, that
you need to know, that I need to know. And when we leave this
conference, which is just such a wonderful experience, we are
going to be going back to our churches and to our workplaces
and to our schools and to our homes. And there will be the
challenges of life that will be awaiting us and the reality
of what we will face. And if there has ever been a
time that you and I have needed to know these attributes of God
and to trust God more deeply, it is at this very moment in
our lives. So notice what he says in verse
6. After he says, the Lord, the Lord God. Attribute number one,
compassionate. Will Moses need to know this? that God is compassionate, that
God is not like the ancient gods of Egypt, that God is not like
the gods of Babylon or Assyria. Ancient gods were harsh. They were cruel. They were without
feelings. They were without emotions. They
were impersonal. They were uncaring. They were
stone-hearted. They were stoic. But not the
one true living God, he is compassionate. And this word for compassionate
comes from a Hebrew root word for the womb, the womb of a mother. And it speaks of the providential,
protecting care, the warm care that a mother gives to her, to
her child, even while the child is within her. And by this attribute,
compassionate, God is saying to Moses, I am full of tender
affections for you and for my own people. God has deep feelings
for us. He has passionate love like you
and I cannot even understand toward us. He is not a stoic
sovereign making chess moves in heaven. He is not a cold,
calculating, uncaring deity, but one whose heart is ablaze
with fervent covenant love for his own people. God is so loyal
to you and affectionate towards you. and is touched with your
affections. And Moses needs to know this
as he is about to undertake this extraordinary challenge that
God has tendered towards me. Second, he's gracious. And this
word gracious comes from a Hebrew word, chin, which is a root word
meaning to bend down or to stoop down. speaks of the condescending
favor of God, reaching down to where we are in the nitty-gritty
of our lives, to where He found us. And He reaches all the way
down. He doesn't expect us to pull
ourselves up by our bootstraps and somehow reach Him, but He
comes down to us in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He is with us. And we have his unmerited favor
and his kind dealings with us. And third, he's slow to anger.
He's very patient with us. He's slow to punish. He's long-suffering. He gives us a second opportunity
and a third opportunity so many times. He is forbearing with
us. He's not in a hurry to discipline
us. He gives us time to repent. He gives us the space that we
need to, by His grace, to get it together and to get back to
where we need to be. He rarely swiftly inflicts His
chastisement upon us. He is slow to anger. And that
is why God was long-suffering with Moses and the people of
God for 40 long years. Fourth, He's abounding in loving-kindness. This loving-kindness is the Hebrew
word chesed, which is His unconditional, unfailing, unwavering, unfaltering
love that He has for us. His steadfast allegiance to us
that is unbreakable. And even when we are faithless,
He remains faithful to us. And it's not just a little lovingkindness
that He has for us. It says He is abounding in lovingkindness. an overflowing ocean of lovingkindness
for Moses' tiny little cup, more lovingkindness than Moses could
ever experience, more so than you and I could ever experience. It is the Old Testament equivalent
of agape love in the New Testament. God remains faithfully committed
to His own. And then fifth, it says, he keeps
loving kindness for thousands. At the beginning of verse 7, the same word loving kindness
is used there, is at the end of verse 6. And when he says,
keeping loving kindness for thousands, the main emphasis is not upon
thousands of people, though that is true. It is for thousands
of generations. that there will never be an end
to the love of God toward us as people. And as it says at
the end of Romans 8, verses 38 and 39, for what shall separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? Shall height
or depth nor… And he goes through that whole long litany. Nothing
will ever separate us from the love of God as we are His people. It will never come to an end. And then he adds, number six,
who forgives iniquity. Oh, Moses needs to be reminded
of this, for he himself has committed iniquities, but he is leading
a people who are plagued with iniquities. He needs to know
that God forgives iniquities and transgressions and sin. And
each of those three words means something very unique. The word forgive means to lift
up, to take away, to carry off a heavy burden. And that's what
God does through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And through
His abundant grace, He lifts the heavy load of sin off of
us and takes it far away. And the word iniquity means a
turning away from the straight and narrow path. And there are
times when even we as believers misstep and we leave the tracks
and God is so gracious to forgive us and to restore us and bring
us back on point. And He forgives transgression,
it says. And the word transgression means rebellion against God as
the highest authority in our life. And sin means to miss the
divine mark. God delights in removing sin
from His people when they repent and turn away from their sin. And this too is a part of discipleship,
that as we follow the Lord Jesus Christ day by day, our feet get
dirty. And we need a foot washing, not
an entire bath, John 13 says, but a foot washing for the Lord
to forgive us our sins, but we must confess those sins and we
must repent. But the last one at the end of…
at number 7, he says, but He will by no means leave the guilty
unpunished and those who are within the religious body of
the nation Israel, who never repent of their sin, who never
turn to the Lord for forgiveness, the Lord will not leave them
unpunished. And they will die in their sin
and be cast into the bowels of hell. And the consequences of
their sin will go on for generations. As he says, visiting the iniquity
of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third
and fourth generation, that simply means that there will trickle
down to future generations an ungodly influence that will bring
extraordinary consequences. Moses needed to hear this sermon,
to have strength for the journey that lies ahead of him. And you
and I need strength for the journey. As we follow the Lord Jesus Christ
day by day in discipleship, as we're willing to go wherever
He will send us and do whatever He requires of us and to pay
whatever price is necessary to extend the purposes of the kingdom
of God, we need to hear this sermon as well, that God is high
and lifted up, that God can supply all of our needs. He has no needs
within Himself, but He delights in meeting our needs. and He
forgives, and He's compassionate, and He is gracious, and He is
with us. And when we fall, he will pick
us up. And when we stray, he will bring
us back. And when we sin, he will wash
us and cleanse us. And when we are discouraged,
he will encourage us. And when we are down, he will
lift us up. And when we are defeated, he
will give us victory. We cannot move forward in discipleship
without knowing this God more deeply and intimately and personally. We need to know this God more
personally than whoever it is is discipling us. We need to
know this God more personally than other people in our church
or other people in our circles of relationships. We need to
know this God more personally than we even know ourselves,
or we cannot go on. So how does Moses respond in
verse 8? And I'm finished. I want you
to see the devoted reverence. How did Moses respond to this
divine sermon? And not by walking forward, but by hitting the floor and
going face down. Notice in verse 8, Moses made
haste. There was no hesitation. There
was no delay, just like there must be no delay with you and
me tonight to respond to God like this. Tomorrow will be too
late. Behold, now is the accepted time,
Scripture says. Moses made haste to bow low toward
the earth. He humbled himself. He went down
to the ground in lowliness of heart and in utter submission, and it says, and worshiped. He went so far low, he could
only look up to God. And he worshiped God in response
to this glorious sermon that God has preached to him. And
it is this high theology that produces this high doxology,
just like there must be with you and me. So this is where we must all
end tonight. within our own souls. On our
knees before this towering transcendent view of God, as we follow Christ
in discipleship, it is a high calling to a lowly walk. And
we must humble ourselves before this God. We advance on our knees. No one follows Christ strutting
like a peacock. We follow in lowliness of heart,
and the lower we humble ourselves, the higher God will exalt us.
The lower we humble ourselves, the higher we will rise to worship
God. The lower we humble ourselves,
the greater will be our service for God, and the wider will be
our outreach for God. Do you need to know God more
deeply? tonight. Do you need to know
God's will for your life? Do you need strength for the
journey? Do you need encouragement for your soul? Do you need strength
to face the challenges that are immediately in front of you?
Then pray this prayer, God, show me your glory. And as you pursue the glory of
God and a greater realization of who he is, you will be strengthened
in your inner person and you will be transformed from glory
to glory. Let us pray.