Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Exodus chapter 33, and reading
from our text, verse 18. Verse 18. And he said, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. Moses' request of Jehovah Exodus 33 verse 18. Show me thy glory. This chapter follows on from
the making of the golden calf, the breaking by Moses of the
first tables of stone. the wrath of God against Israel
for their sin of idolatry. And it begins with the Lord saying
to Moses to go on their way, but instead of him going with
them, he would send an angel with them. And they called that
evil tidings. Well before we come to the request
of Moses, the showing of Jehovah's glory, I want to note the three
things that precede the text, and beginning with this evil
tidings. This word of the Lord that said,
because of their sin, he himself would not go with them, but would
send an angel instead. They called that evil tidings. The verse that we finished on
in chapter 34, it has the other side. After all what had happened,
Moses into session, the glory of the Lord shone. Then he finishes,
If now 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 in this case, It's Lord,
not Jehovah. This is pointing to our Lord
Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. But I want to think of how
the people viewed this. An angel was no substitute for
God himself. And I would say this, that those
who would rob our Lord Jesus Christ of his divinity, as such
as Christadelphians, Jehovah's Witnesses do, they make him to
be but created and not as equal with God, not as one with the
Father. Here is very evident that what
the people of Israel wanted, what Moses wanted, was no less
than God Himself. And unless our Lord Jesus Christ
is truly God, then it really means nothing that Moses accomplished
here, that all the glory of God and all that was done to achieve
that the Lord be with them. If that is not God Himself, then
that is not salvation, that is not what Moses sought after. May we never, as the Israelites
did here, settle for anything less than God himself. When Solomon
dedicated the temple, he says, but will God in very deed dwell
upon the earth? That is their expectation. He says, the heaven of heavens
cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have built. The expectation of the Old Testament
church, the people of God, was that God would be manifest in
the flesh, not some created angel, not any other than God himself. Abraham said to his son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering, not delegate
someone else, but himself. And so we have that in the leader
to the text here. Then we have another type of
our Lord Jesus Christ in the way that the tabernacle was put
outside of the camp. And the people had to leave the
camp and go out to their tabernacle. And remember, at this point,
this is not the tabernacle that was patterned on the mount. This
is the tabernacle of the congregation where Moses sat and heard the
judgments of the people, that where his father-in-law Jethro
said that he'd wear himself out and all his people out unless
he delegated to others. This was put without the camp.
And we think of Hebrews, let us therefore go out unto him
without the camp, bearing his reproach. Our Lord suffered without
the gate, without the camp. And here is what follows the
children of Israel, their sin. And what things are being done
in this chapter that are showing the way that God himself would
then come again with his people, his sinful people, and would
dwell with them and walk with them. And part of that was the
removing of this tabernacle. It also meant that those that
were to be identified with the Lord Those that were to be identified
with Moses, with Joshua, they were to leave the camp. They
were to go outside the camp unto Him. Right through scripture,
it speaks of the people of God as a separated people. Come ye
out from among them, touch not the unclean thing and I will
receive you. You shall be my sons and my daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. And it is in the presence of
all. One couldn't just quietly go out to the tabernacle. They'd be seen by all of those
that were doing it. It was a public profession, as
it were. Later on, Joshua is to say, as
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And there is
a coming out and testifying as to being the people of the Lord,
and it is identifying with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what
a Christian is, a follower of the Lord, one that goes from
this world, those that seek unto the Lord, those that the Lord
said, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them.
A peculiar people, a people formed for his praise, a called out
people, a separated people, the people that are gathered to the
Lord Jesus Christ, unto him shall the gathering of the people be. But then we have another illustration
as well of our Lord, and that is the intercession of Moses. Moses says that a prophet, will
the Lord thy God raise up unto you like unto me, him shall ye
hear. And Moses himself very often
made intercession, and he does at this time, pleading that this
people was the Lord's people, and that he would not forsake
them, that he would abide with them, and that his presence would
be with them, and that they would find grace in his sight. The
intercession of Moses was effectual. The Lord did abide with them.
The intercession of our Lord is effectual, a voice there is
that speaks for us in heaven's high court for good. We have
an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He appears in the presence of
God for us, and his first instance of that intercession, I will
pray my Father, and he will give you another Comforter, which
shall abide with you forever, tarry at Jerusalem, until you
be endued with power from on high. The day of Pentecost is
abundant evidence of that intercession and prayer heard, and the Spirit
that was sent down. Also we might say that following
that, because our Lord had foretold, He said, marvel not at these
things, greater miracles shall ye do because I go to my Father. And we would think of the parallels
between Elijah and Elisha. Elisha performed twice as many
miracles as what Elijah did. Elijah had asked Elijah that
he be given a double portion of his spirit. And Elijah said,
if thou see me when I am taken from thee, that thy petition
shall be granted. It was a hard thing. But he saw
him, saw him taken up. And a double portion of the Spirit
rested on Him. With our Lord, He was taken up
into Heaven, and the disciples saw Him being taken up into Heaven. When our Lord then ascended up
into Heaven, the Spirit was given The disciples, they raised the
dead through the Lord Jesus Christ, they performed miracles, and
more than that, they preached the word and thousands were brought
to believe and repent and to follow the Lord. In a way, they
had twice as much success in converts than our Lord did. How
could it come? When our Lord was crucified and
all those thousands that ate of the loaves and the fishes,
where were they? Where were the disciples? Where
were those that followed Him then? But when the Lord had risen,
that power attending and the blessing and the spread of the
church of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples were
very clear, not by our name. not by our power, but by the
Lord Jesus Christ, that these powers were done. And so with
the Lord in heaven, those things that were done on earth were
a witness that He truly was in heaven, alive, and He was working
through His servants and through the ministry of the Word, and
many were being converted and changed. The Lord's promise was
true. He said, Lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. And they proved that with that
power of God. And Moses here, the Lord had
given him the promise, My presence shall go with thee, and I will
give thee rest. He said unto him, If thy presence
go not with me, carry us not up hence. He valued, he desired
the presence of the Lord. So we have our Lord, His true
divinity, His true manhood. We have the Lord suffering without
the gate and a separated people going out unto Him. And we have
the intercession of our Lord for His people. But then we have
Moses in our text desiring that he might see the glory of God. And he said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. What a reminder here that when
we pray, we are not dictating. We are beseeching. We are supplicating. There are some, I've had some
people ask me to pray for them. And they said, no, I want you
to pray that it be now, it be given today, that I have the
blessing. I said, I will not dictate unto my God. If you feel faith and you feel
that you can pray in that way now, then you pray, but I will
supplicate the Lord. We do not dictate to him. He
is not a puppet in our hands. When Satan came to tempt the
Lord, he said, command. these stones that they may be
made bread. Did our Lord obey Him just to
prove that He was truly the Son of God? No. His glory, His sovereignty
was that He did according to His will, not Satan's, and not
according to sinners, except it be along with His will. So
we beseech Him We come asking, supplicating, as sinners aware
of who we are, coming before a holy God. Well, how much do
we know of the glory of God? How much do we know that we do
not have to come in with Moses and ask, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. Under Hamminghurst here, if we
were asked by someone, how would you describe the glory of God? Would we be able to answer? Would we know? Well this is what
Moses asked, show me thy glory. So I want to look with the Lord's
help at the Lord's answer. to him in the following verses,
where the Lord does show him his glory. Now we're talking
about Jehovah, his Lord, in the uppercase, is a triune God, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, and in salvation, the glory is to them all, to
them all, to one triune God. We always close our services
acknowledging the Trinity. Acknowledging the glory of God. And so here we have seven points
that are put before Moses. They're showing forth his glory.
And the first is his goodness. In verse 19, he said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee. That is what he is going
to do. I proclaim the name of the Lord
before thee. We have a good God. That is to be established right
at the start. He is good to all. His tender
mercies are over all his works. When he formed man, He formed
man of the dust of the ground, He formed the creation, He pronounced
it all good, and it was done by a good God. He is the Saviour
of all men, especially of them that believe. Paul says, in Him
we live and move and have our being. He causeth his rain to
rain upon the just and unjust, his sun to shine upon the just
and unjust. He makes no distinction. He is
a good God. He is not a tyrant. He is not
one that says one thing and does another. He is holy. He is pure. He is good in every
sense. One came to our Lord on earth
and he said, Good Master, And the Lord said to him, Why? Why
callest thou me good? There is only one good, that
is God. The Lord was testing him. Did
he really believe that he was God? Was he coming viewing the
Lord Jesus Christ as truly God? But our Lord was testifying this,
that God is good. And if Satan is saying anything
other to any here, then Satan is a liar, because God is a good
God. There is no sin, no evil, nothing
in him at all that is not good. And so this is the first point
of which Moses is presented with the glory of God. Our Lord has
said, there is none good but God. In other words, that is
a glory that belongs to God alone. We might speak of each other
of being good, but it can never be in the sense of that goodness
that belongs to our God. The second thing of the glory
of God is his sovereignty. In verse 19 again we read, I
will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I
will show mercy. God's sovereignty And that is
above everything else. Who is he that saith, and it
cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? He is the
King of kings and Lord of lords. Late at home we've been reading
through Jeremiah. And you read what the Lord is
saying about Babylon and saying about those other nations round
about. When we were first reading it,
I thought, well, how does this relate to gospel times. What
profit, what help can we get from this? And then it came to
me, the Lord is so showing, He is not just a God that deals
with Israel. He is a God that deals with the
whole world. And He is the sovereign ruler
of the whole world. And that's good to remember when
we have the Putins and the Bidens and the rulers of this world,
that God is above them. And if He brought down the Babylonians
and He brought down the nations of old and dealt with them and
punished them, well, we are warned by the Lord not to fear man.
And there shall be wars and rumours of wars. But we are not to fear
that. All these things shall come to
pass. Why? Because God in His sovereignty
is working out His will. Providence unfolds the book and
makes His counsel shine. He is at perfect peace with His
will and what is happening. Sometimes we can have a plan
And we're not at peace, we think something's going wrong with
this, this is not working well, and that person's not doing what
I thought they would do, and we have a sleepless night over
it. But the Lord is at perfect peace that all what He is decreeing
is coming to pass. Nothing has gone wrong at all. The Lord said to Pilate, when
Pilate says, Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify
thee, or to release thee? The Lord said, Thou hast no power
upon me at all, except it were given thee from above. And what a reminder to us. This
is the glory of God. In our day, in our world, That
He is a sovereign God. He doesn't consult with our leaders.
He doesn't consult with the current ways of this world. No. His undisturbed thought moves
on. His undisturbed affairs. He knows
what He will do. And the world's course and history
is mapped out and ordered. And it has been sovereignly carried
out and brought out. And that is the glory that was
shown to Moses. A sovereign God, says the hymn
writer, I wish to see. And I hope that is our desire
as well, to see a sovereign God in all the things that we do,
in all of our lives, in all that affects us. The third thing is
the Lord's glory itself, as a glory that cannot be looked upon. In verse 20, He said, Thou canst
not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. That belongs to Almighty God. Those who felt that they had
seen God, or realized they had, like Manoa and his wife Samson's
parents. Manoa said, we shall surely die
because we have seen God face to face. His wife said, well, if the Lord
were pleased to kill us, he would not have told us such things
as these, nor shown us such things as at this time. And yet this
is what belongs to the Lord, a glory that we cannot see, we
cannot see without a veil between, without a mediator between. We must have a means of seeing
Him, and it is seeing Him through our Lord Jesus Christ. So the
glory of God is known in this, that He is above man, that man
in his fallen state, he cannot see God, he cannot look upon
God and live. Moses is being given here unfolding
from one facet, from one way to another way, a picture of
the glory of God, the greatness of God. The thing about man today
is God is made small. They make him low, they make
him like an idol. God says, Thou thoughtest that
I was altogether one, like unto thyself. And because they think
that, then it makes that the laws of God are small, and it
makes it that we do not need a righteousness that is not our
own. We do not need forgiveness, we
do not need a mediator, we do not need a way to appear before
God. But when we realize how great
God is, the thought of you and I dying without a mediator, without
our sins forgiven, and appear before this great eternal God
is a terrifying thought. Is a terrifying thought. How
shall we stand before Him? How shall we stand before His
anger? Before His wrath? before his
eye. We want to hide, but in that
day there will be no hiding place. But fourthly then, there is a
provision for sinners. And it is set forth in verse
21. The Lord said, Behold, and remember
Moses had said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. So the Lord says, behold, look,
pay attention to this. This really is the culmination. This is the greatest glory that
I will show you, the provision for sinners. There is a place
by me and thou shalt stand upon a rock. Our Lord said, upon this rock
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not withstand
against it. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
rock of ages. He is the one upon which the
church is built. He is the one upon whom all the
promises are founded. in the Garden of Eden as soon
as man fell. Remember this here follows just
as the law is given on Mount Sinai. But the law there in Eden
was broken then. And immediately was given the
promise of the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's
head. Here is a foundation to build
our hopes of heaven upon the seed of the woman that should
bruise the serpent's head. Here is He that should come.
Here is the foundation of the church. Here is the provision
of God, a place by me, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord spoke
of the glory He had with His Father before the world was. And we read of the creation,
that us may We have the Lord Jesus Christ
again set forth as with the Father, one with the Father, and here
is the provision for the Church of God. The foundation stone,
that of which the Church of God is built upon. Other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. and him crucified. Paul, he determined
to know nothing among men save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And this is the glory of God,
that he has provided for his church such a foundation, not
a foundation on our works, not a foundation of man's providing,
not a foundation that can be moved, but a foundation that
is solid, remains, and is that rock of ages. Jesus Christ, the
same, yesterday, and today, and forever. That is the glory of
God, to make such a provision for sinners. There is none other
name given among men whereby we must be saved than the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is none other that has
the ascent of heaven from heaven. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. This is the one
that the crown and glory of salvation is placed upon, His name which
is given, which is a name above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. He it is that
is really the glory of the Father, the glory of Jehovah, the glory
of salvation. It hath pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. He that honoureth the Son honoureth
the Father. the messengers that point to
the Lord Jesus Christ, he that receiveth you receiveth me and
he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. There's a beautiful
link and adjoining together and where the glory of the Lord is
in a congregation, in a people, then their hopes will be placed
upon Christ, and Christ alone. All what they build upon will
not be feelings and frames and men's devices, but upon Christ
and what He has done, the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that which is accomplished at Calvary. So there is another
glory, that is revealed as well. And
this is the provision again for sinners in verse 22. And this
is a hiding place. It shall come to pass while my
glory passeth by. Now that glory that we cannot
look unto and live, that great glory of the eternal God, that
I will put thee in a cliff to the rock and will cover thee
with my hand while I pass by. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. There in the Lord Jesus Christ
is his sufferings, his death, that which he endured to put
away the sins of his people. In John's epistle, he refers
to the sacrifice of our Lord as a propitiation for our sins. That is a wrath-ending sacrifice,
that the wrath of God fell upon him and not upon his people,
extinguished in him. I often think of that upon Mount
Carmel with Elijah. He gathered the people, he made
up the altar, he put the wood in order, the bullock upon it,
no fire therein, water round about the trench and on the sacrifice,
and he prayed unto God that the people might know that he had
turned their hearts back again. And God answered by fire from
heaven. Now fire fell not on Israel who
had gone after idols, not on the Baal prophets, but on the
altar itself and on the sacrifice. And it burnt up the sacrifice,
the altar, the wood, and everything. It must have been a fearful sight. to have fire come down. Any of
you that have seen lightning, come in such a way to see fire
from heaven in that way. And the people cried out, the
Lord, he is God, he is God. And then they were willing to
go and take those prophets of Baal and to slay them. But they had abundant fearful
witness of the wrath of God falling upon what was setting forth our
Lord Jesus Christ, setting forth Calvary and what was to be done
there. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? that hiding her father's face,
the agony of his soul, the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ so beautifully
set forth in Isaiah 53. The glory of our Lord as the
Redeemer, the hiding place of the people of God, we mention
this morning concerning the Passover. When I see the blood I will pass
over you. The people sheltering in their
houses. Rahab sheltering in her house
with the scarlet line down the window. And here we have the
rock. Christ Jesus. Another illustration. with the day when the world was
destroyed by the flood. In the end it shall be destroyed
by fire. But in Noah's day, the ark is
a beautiful type of Christ. Noah went into the ark. The Lord
shut him in. And then the wrath of God fell. It fell on all those destroying
them outside of the ark. But the ark was it that bore
that rain and that was lifted up on the flood. But Noah and
those that were with him were safe in that ark. Another beautiful
type of being found in Christ, not having our own righteousness
which is of the law, found in Him that we then may not fear
the wrath of God. It is a beautiful thing in that
the Lord will gather His people to Himself and destroy then the
world like He plucked and He brought lot out of Sodom, but
they are brought unto the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our hiding
place in His wounded side. It is His blood that cleanseth
from sin. It is His blood that blots it
out. I think it was Luther that had
a vision And the devil said to him, you see this long list? These are all your sins. And he said, yes, he said, they
are all my sins. But right on the bottom of that
list, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses from all
sin. And I think those of you who've
read the The deaf mute, I think it is. And he made out that he
had, God couldn't see any of his sins at all. And then he
showed that they were all blotted out with blood. They were all
covered. And that was what he was hiding. That was his shelter. That was his refuge. And this
again is what is set before us again and again as churches in
the Lord's Supper. Reminded, this doing remembrance
of me. I am your hiding place. It is my blood that was shed. This is the church's hope. This
is for sinners. This is not for you to rejoice in anything of yourself.
It's not a fresh sacrifice, but it's what I have done, what I've
accomplished. the sacrifice that has been made,
and that we shall give assurance that everyone that trusteth in
that shall not perish, but shall have eternal life. This is the
glory of the Father. This is the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. The provision, my son, God will
provide himself, a lamb, for a burnt offering. And this is
why the Apostle Paul determined not to know anything among them,
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Sinner, if you feel your sin,
your burden with your sin, there's no other hiding place but this
rock in the Lord Jesus Christ and a trust in His sufferings
and His death and what He has done for you. They shall look
upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him,
and be in bitterness for him. It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, and ascendeth, and sitteth at
the right hand of the throne of God. This is the glory of
God. But Moses was shown even more
than that, because then we have In the next chapter we have the
two tables renewed again. They weren't remain broken, they
were to be renewed. The Lord was to write them again.
At this time they were to be placed in the Ark, another beautiful
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The work of the Lord is to fulfil
the law and make it honourable. Death reigned from Adam until
Moses, but where there is no law, sin is not imputed when
there is no law. Therefore the law then was given
at Mount Sinai and written, and written in tables, and really
established it is a broken law, but it is fulfilled in Christ. The reason why the law is given
and magnified in every jot and tittle is that all the world
might be brought in guilty before God, that no man can be justified
by the deeds of the law. It is only to be looked for in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear friend, if you are like
the Jews whom Paul longed that they might be saved in Romans
10, and you have a zeal for God but ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish your own, you will never be saved
that way. You will never be saved by works
of righteousness which we have done, but only as a poor sinner
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Romans 10, a very important
chapter, because it joins together the preaching of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. And may it be this evening, that
through the word preached, the Lord gives some poor sinner here
faith in Christ, faith in his finished work, to see what he
has done on your behalf. that the Lord reveal that to
you and show that to you. Where the Lord reveals it, it
is that abundant token, we have the tokens this morning, that
he has died for our sins. He shows to his people, he is
showing to Moses his glory, and he will only show his glory.
to His dear people in a day of grace, and this glory to see
the law fulfilled in Christ, to see it perfected. Know that
time is most precious to me, that what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son,
and in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8 verses 2 and 3. It's
a blessed thing. that we have here as part of
the glory shown to Moses to see those tables renewed, complete,
and put in the ark. May we see that glory and that
glory on the head of our Lord and the glory of the Lord, the
Lord himself fulfilling his own law on behalf of his people. And then we have 7.3. The glory
of the Lord amongst his people again. The verse 9 in chapter
34. He said, If now 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. Right through this, the Lord
had given the assurance his presence would go with him, he would give
him rest. And Moses' desire for that presence
of God. I hope that is something that
we each desire. The Garden of Eden, man was banished
from God's presence. But when called by grace, our
desire is, when shall I come and appear before God? Paul says, we shall see him as
he is, for we shall be like him. Then we shall be known even as
we are known. And our Lord said, Father, I
will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am.
Why? That they may behold my glory. Behold my glory in heaven. See it clear without a veil between. See all what he has accomplished
and what he has done. us darkly here. But it's a blessed
thing to know the presence of the Lord, to know His blessing
upon the Word. You know where the Lord is present,
He'll be present by His Spirit, by His grace. The Spirit, He
shall not speak of Himself, He shall receive of mine and show
it unto you. where the Lord is present, His
Spirit is present, and He is revealed to His dear people.
Those torn away to Emmaus, before He was revealed to them, their
heart burned within them while He preached that sermon to them.
But then it came that He showed Himself in the breaking of the
bread. And may our desire be that the
Lord's presence be with us. His goodness go before us in
the way, and that we might know the presence of the Lord by the
grace that he gives, by the spirit that he gives, by the revelation
of himself, and we be able to testify of the glory that we
see in the Lord. By nature he is a root out of
dry ground, no form nor comeliness that we should desire him. And
we do not see the glory of God Man only consults, as the psalm
says, to cast him down from his excellency. But with the people
of God, this people, have I formed for myself, and they shall show
forth my praise. They shall, in his temple, every
one shall speak of his glory. You think of that. May we be
of those ones in that temple at last, speaking. of His glory. Amen.