I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Exodus chapter
33. Exodus 33. I'd like to look at this whole
chapter, just touch each verse, but there's a a precious passage
found within this chapter that we read often, quote often, a
passage that's concerning a blessed conversation that took place
between the Lord God of Heaven and His friend Moses. And in chapter 33, Moses, asked this question, verse 18. He said, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. He said, I'm asking you for an
exhibition of your honor, of your thoughts, your will,
your desire, show me that which honors you mostly before men. And the Lord said in verse 19,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee. And 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." Now, when we hear what the Lord said, I will be gracious,
I will show mercy, and we might think that He was basically saying
the same thing, but He wasn't. There's a truly distinct difference
between the grace of God and the mercy of God. Grace is the Lord giving us what
we do not deserve. Mercy is the Lord not giving
us what we truly deserve. Whenever Almighty God is gracious
to us, His people, He has chosen to love us before
the foundation of the world. That's grace. He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. That's grace. He came into this world in the
person of His Son to redeem us from the bondage and penalty
of our sin. That's grace. Mercy is when we have rebelled
against Him. and He does not give us what
we deserve, wrath, because He's chosen to not impute our sin,
our iniquities to us. That's mercy. Grace is giving
us all of the benefits of Himself. Show me Your glory. I'm going
to give to a people what they don't deserve. I'm going to love
them. I'm going to choose to show mercy
to them, compassion to them. I'm going to place them in my
son. I'm going to redeem them by his blood, call them by his
power. And then I'm not going to charge
them with their rebellion. Now that's mercy. Show me your
glory. He said, I will be gracious to
whom I'll be gracious. and I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. Well, in Exodus chapter 33 and
verse 1, we began this blessed chapter after, in 32, chapter
32, that golden calf that was made by Aaron. know the history,
just start reading about chapter 19 through 32 and you'll come
right up to this chapter right here and you'll find out what
the Lord has done graciously for His people. Graciously after
calling them out of bondage in Egypt and through the Red Sea
and the wilderness and everything, now they've come to the place
of I'm coming to Mount Sinai, and the Lord told him, he said,
I'm going to have my servant Moses come up. Don't anybody
else touch this mountain. I'm going to talk to Moses. And
God gives him instruction. He gives him instruction in all
those chapters, 19, 20, 21. And he comes in and he tells him,
this is how I have the altar built. And he gives him all the
laws. And I was reading all those chapters
prior to it, and I was thinking, man, all the instruction. that God was giving him. This
is the way it's going to be. This is what I'm going to do
for my people, and I'm going to have a tabernacle for them,
and there's going to be a picture of my son, and all of these things
that he was doing for them while Moses was on the mountain with
the Lord. God tells Moses, we've got a
problem in the camp. People have fallen into idolatry. And they told Aaron, Moses has
been up there now 40 days and 40 nights. We don't know what's
become of him. Make us a God that we can worship. And so Aaron tells them, give
me all your golden earrings, bracelets, necklaces. And he
takes them and he makes a golden calf. God sends Moses back down. He's got the tablets. You know
what happened. Moses in anger throws those tablets
and breaks them. And he takes that golden calf
and he grinds it up and makes them drink it. After that golden
calf was destroyed, 3,000 were slain. Moses, under the inspiration
of God's Spirit, said to the Levites, you take your sword,
you go through here. And they went through and they
killed all those men for their idolatrous action. Moses, as a blessed type of our
Savior, pled the people's cause and received a command from the
Lord that he would be They would be, let me say it like that,
they would be brought to the land of promise. Okay, I'm going
to send you to the land of promise. I'm not going to leave you without
a witness. But the Lord said, I'm not going with you. Look
at verses 1, 2, 3, Exodus 33, And the Lord said unto Moses,
Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast
brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I
swear unto Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, saying, unto thy seed will I
give it. And I'll send an angel before
thee. I'll drive out the Canaanite, Amorite, Hittite, Perizzite,
Hivite, Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
For I will not go up in the midst of thee. For thou art a stiff-necked
people, lest I consume thee in the way. Now, let me just make
a statement here, and then I'll proceed. God said, in my justice, I'm not going to go with you
in my justice. Because if I do, I'm going to
pursue you. I'm going to send an angel, the blessed angel,
the mediator. He'll go. But he told them, he
said, I'm not going to go with you. And that word, that's what
the people knew. That's all they knew. God said,
I'm not going with you. I'm not going with you. Not in
my justice. Oh, the mercy. Already you can
see the mercy of God. I'm so thankful that the Lord
would not tell us. I'm not gonna dwell with you
in justice. I'm not gonna be in your midst
in justice. You know, where two or three
are gathered together, aren't you glad that the Lord Jesus
Christ, the mediator, the advocate, said where two or three are gathered
together in my name, I am in the midst of you. Oh, thanks
be unto God for that. He's a just God, but he's a savior. And that word from the Lord,
when the Lord said, I'm not going, I'm not going with you, that
broke the people's heart. Look at verses four to six. And
when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and no
man did put on his ornaments. For the Lord said unto Moses,
say unto the children of Israel, you're a stiff-necked people.
I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume
thee. Therefore, now put off thy ornaments from thee that
I may know what I do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped
themselves of their ornaments by the mount. Horrible. God commanded them, they had
ornaments. They wore those in Egypt. They
wore those decorations, adorning themselves. God said you take
off everything that has any kind of adorning to yourself. And you stand before me without
anything that would bring any kind of honor or attention. You humble yourself before me
like that publican in Luke 18, 14. I tell you, the Lord said
this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. What did that man do? He wasn't
like the Pharisee. God, I thank you I'm not his
other man. I don't do this. I don't do that. I do this, I
do this, I do this. And he said the publican, he
wouldn't even lift up his eyes toward heaven. Smote upon his
breast, God. Be merciful, merciful. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. The Lord said, everyone that
exalteth himself shall be abased. He that humbleth himself shall
be exalted. Then the Lord moved. Moses to
do something that further revealed the Lord's displeasure and their
need of mercy. Exodus 33 verse 7, And Moses
took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp afar off
from the camp and called it the tabernacle of the congregation.
It came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out
unto the tabernacle of the congregation which was without the camp. Moses took that tabernacle. It was a tent, that's what it
was. At that time it had not been
constructed like we think of the tabernacle in the wilderness
and had the holy place and the holy was a tent. Pitched it without
the camp. Now that action right there was
truly revealing what he did. Moses loved those people. You know that. He pled for him,
interceded for him, asked God's blessing upon him. But that act,
when God told him, he said, I want you to take the tabernacle and
I want you to remove it. I want you to take it out of
the camp where it is. That tabernacle was the evidence
of God's presence and blessing. And he said, I want you to take
that tabernacle and I want you to put it outside the camp. Moses He did exactly what the
Lord told him to do. That act of moving that tabernacle
was an act of absolute submission to the Word, to the will, to
the verdict of God. He did exactly what the Lord
said His people all do. The Lord said, My sheep hear
My voice. And they follow me. Moses knew what that tabernacle
represented. God's pleasure and God's presence. God's safety. And the Lord told
him, I want you to move it. The Scripture declares concerning
our submission unto the Lord's Word. Now listen, this was so
convicting to me when I wrote this down this morning. Luke
14, 26. The Lord said, if any man come
to me and hate not his father, mother, wife, children, brethren,
sisters, yea, his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. He cannot be my disciple. Yeah, but my husband or my wife,
my dad, my mom, my sister, my brother, I'd like to do this,
but this, you know, When one of the disciples came to the
Lord and asked Him one day, he said, concerning that other disciple
over there, you know, what about him? And the Lord said, if I
will, that he remain till I come back. What is that to you? You follow me. I've told you this I just brought
back to my memory, I'll make it real brief, because I know
I've told this illustration before. When I was in Louisiana, pastoring
a church where the gospel had not been preached, the Lord pleased
to reveal the gospel to me while I was pastoring it. One family came out. A man, his
wife, and their infant baby came out. All the rest stayed. That three of them started going
to a place where the gospel was preached. And stayed there for
years and years and years. And this infant girl grew up
there. Her mom and dad brought her there.
But then she got to a place where the Lord was pleased to save
her. And her mom and dad quit. And they're not there now. They're
still there in Louisiana. But they're not where the gospel
is. And that one little girl is still there. Well grown woman
now. Married. Children. One. Out of that. Follow me. You follow me. He told Moses, you take that
tabernacle and you pitch it without the camp. Whenever the disciples
were commanded not to teach anymore in the name of the Lord, Peter
said, we ought to obey God. rather than man. I would exhort
all of us. There's going to come times when
things are going to cross our paths and we're going to be tempted
to forsake or not to follow after the Lord as He's revealed Himself
to be in these scriptures. I give us all warning. We ought
to obey God rather than men because we're not going to stand before
any other save the Lord. And then the latter part of verse
7, It says this, and it came to pass that everyone which sought
the Lord went out into the tabernacle of the congregation which was
without the camp. The Lord had shown in type, when
that tabernacle was moved, that was in type, the setting forth
of the Lord Himself that would be slain without the camp. And
there were some within this camp, all that came out of Egypt, there
were some within that camp, and you know not all of them were
the elect of God because many of them died in the wilderness.
But there were some, there were some among the people that had
been given a spirit of life and liberty. and a heart for supplication
before the Lord. And they went unto that tabernacle.
That's what it says. Every one, not all of them did,
but all that did, they sought the Lord where the tabernacle
was, outside the camp. Hebrews 13, 12 and 13, Wherefore
Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood
suffered without the camp. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp, bearing his approach. Many of us, starting right here
in this pulpit, as I said before, grew up in false religion. Let us be identified with him,
quitting All this self-righteous religion of this world, even
if we're reproached by the religious world. They went out of the camp. They went where the Lord was.
That was the presence of God. Verse 8 and 9, it came to pass
when Moses went out into the tabernacle that all the people
rose up, stood, every man at his tent door, looked after Moses
until he was gone into the tabernacle. It came to pass as Moses entered
into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at
the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. The Lord, though displeased,
revealing His displeasure with the rebellion of the people,
He's a just God. He purposed to show mercy to
those that He had everlastingly loved. And that pillar of a cloud
was the evidence of His presence. God didn't cut them off. Here
they were in their rebellion and idolatry, and I'm thinking,
what about us? We've done the same thing. We
think, how could they have done that? We've done the same thing. That pillar of God's guidance
that was with them by day, the pillar of God's protection that
stood between the camp of Israel and the Egyptians, and now the
pillar of the assurance of God's presence and communion. God talked
with Moses. Moses is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Advocate. You see, they're watching. There's
the tabernacle outside the camp. They see Moses going out there
and they're watching him. And Moses goes in there to talk
with God and God with him. And the pillar's there. God is
still here. God's still with us. Oh, where
sin did abound, grace did much more abound, doesn't it? Verse
10 and 11. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at
the tabernacle door. And all the people rose up and
worshipped. Every man in his tent door. And
the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto
his friend. And he turned again into the
camp. But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle." Now, we don't know. We don't know. Never could know
how many of the people truly possessed a heart for the Lord. And that word right there, worship,
it could also indicate a position or an outward appearance of worship. I mean, you know, we're all here.
We're all here right here. We're all sitting in this congregation. There's quite a few people here
today. How many are worshiping? How
many are sitting? How many are here? How many are
going through the motions? I mean, everybody looks like
to me. You're all doing the same thing. Everybody's looking at
me. That's what I see. I don't know your heart. I don't
know the hearts of these people. But I can tell you this, whenever
the people saw, they all stood up. They all were going through
the motions. But I know that all that possess
a heart of reverence, And no one knew but God. They
all, all of them by faith sought Him. And whenever Moses entered
into that tabernacle and talked with the Lord face to face, oh,
glorious picture and type of our great high priest, you know,
interceding God with God. God-man with Jehovah. all according to that everlasting
covenant of grace. And I think about even now, right
now, our great high priest that ever liveth, just as Moses interceded
for those people. Think of the intercession of
the Lord Jesus Christ right now. But what we're doing right now,
in our hearts right now, someone said, well, I'm just sitting
here worshiping. Oh, listen, there's none good. Not one. There's not one. good,
all that he ever liveth, to make intercession. The scripture says
they saw that cloudy pillar and they knew that God was a God
of mercy. And they rose up and they worshiped.
And they beheld, they saw that the Lord was pleased to speak
to his friend, the mediator, a picture of Christ Jesus our
Lord. Let us muse upon that blessed thought. We need a priest, the
high priest, the great high priest. And scripture says, Moses turned
again, he spake, he turned again, verse 11, middle part, he turned
again into the camp. But his servant Joshua, the son
of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Now
listen, there's something so amazingly wonderful. Moses, again,
is a picture. And in that part right there,
Joshua is also a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll show
you how. Moses, the scripture turned again into the camp. Moses
himself went into the camp. A beautiful picture of our mediator,
our great high priest who was made flesh and dwelt among us. There was Moses, a picture of
Christ. who now has been made flesh and
dwells among us, has come into this world to live and die for
his people, those everlastingly loved of God who earned their
righteousness that is imputed to those that believe. He who
magnified the law and paid the debt of his people by his own
shed blood. Moses turned again, but his servant
Joshua, whose very name means Jesus, the son of Nun, a young
man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Again, Joshua is
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and his indescribable, immutable
glory set forth. Moses turned. Joshua did not
depart from the tabernacle. Listen to the words of our Lord.
And I'm not even going to try to explain it. I'm going to read
it. and let the Word stand for the Word. John 3.13, the Lord
is speaking. And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven. Who's He talking
about? Himself. Even the Son of Man
who is in heaven. Here was the Lord speaking to
those while He was on earth. And they're looking at Him. And
He's right there. And He said, I Myself, who I'm
even now, right now in Heaven. How do you explain that? The
mysteries of God are beyond our comprehension and explanation.
Here's what we say, Lord, as You say it is. It is. Verse 12 to 17, 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.
Yet Thou hast said, I know Thee by name, and Thou hast also found
grace in my sight. 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. Can you behold? This is the Lord. This is the Lord. Picture of
the Lord interceding. This is your people. This is
your people. People of your choosing. And
He said, My presence shall go with thee. I will give thee rest. And He said unto him, If thy
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. 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 him, 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. Though rebellion brought the
nation of Israel into a state of absolute separation from God. Moses is again here revealed
to be our great intercessor who intercedes for his people. Now obviously Moses is a man
and he exhibits his own personal frailty and weakness and ignorance,
and we thank the Holy Spirit for showing us the way of the
Lord, to hear the plea of Moses, even though Moses admits, I don't
know, I don't know what you're going to do. But we behold Even
in Moses and his frailty, we behold the one who absolutely
interceded in absolute knowledge. The wisdom of God who knew exactly
what Almighty God was going to do. He who bore all the guilt. I know you're not going to go
in absolute justice. But Lord, let me bear all their
guilt. Let me bear all the penalty of
that which they incurred against the law of God. Let my blood
answer to every infraction. Let my righteousness robe them. Lord, You go with us. I will
go only in You. Moses speaks without a full knowledge
of the Lord's will and purpose, but he does say this, consider
that this nation is thy people. I'm so thankful. I'm just gonna
speak right now for Katie Baptist Church. I'm gonna start with
this rebel and sinner against God right here. Lord, for Christ's
sake, Lord, look not upon our iniquity. Don't charge us with
our guilt. Lord, we are guilty people, but
Lord, consider This is thy people. This nation is your people. Lord, forget not to show mercy. And then he said, my presence
shall go with thee. Did he relinquish or just pass
by his justice? Absolutely not. Who's he talking
to? He's talking to the mediator.
I will give thee rest only in my Son. It's a blessed thing
to have a heart made sensitive to God's presence and promise
to say, I will never leave you. He never did put aside his wrath. The soul that sins is going to
die. Oh, but thanks be unto God there was a group of people in
that congregation that came out of Egypt that Almighty God had
eternally seen the blood shed for, for the foundation of the
world, those that were Christ. And He may allow us for a while
to pursue a direction that's contrary to teach us something
of our frailty and ignorance, but I'm telling you, He's not
going to leave His people. He's not going to forsake His
people. Look at verse 18. After all these things, Moses
is now seen. He's seen the absolute justice
of God. I'm not going with you as the
just God. Why? I'll consume you. I will,
lest I consume you. Oh, but I will go with you in
my Son. I will go with you in mercy.
Almighty God moves upon Moses now to ask that question that
we started with as I conclude this. He said, Oh, I beseech
you. I'm asking. Lord, I'm begging.
Show me thy glory. Show me the wealth, Lord, of
your opinion. Show me and manifest to me the
goodness of your revelation, oh, in the Messiah only. Show me your goodness to these
hell-deserving sinners like myself and this group here. For us right
now, we see the glory of God only by faith, in part through
a glass darkly. But we do want to know. That's
what he said. Lord, show me. I want to see
it. And the Lord answered, as we
looked at, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. I'm going to proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I will show mercy on whom I show
mercy. The glory of Jehovah is to make
all of His goodness pass before His people. All of His goodness
is set forth and exhibited in one. the sum of His excellence,
He in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells." How can
God be just? Did they deserve wrath? Yes. Did they deserve for God to go
with them? No. No, they didn't deserve that. Have we deserved To be here for
63 years? Did we deserve to be here? Oh,
we preach the gospel. We've done this, that, and the
other. Did we deserve to be here? No. Why has Almighty God allowed
this assembly to be here all these years? I will show mercy. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. His glory is to proclaim the
name of the Lord before His people, to cross their paths, to call
them out, address effectually His people, call them by name,
those that He's everlastingly loved. Now, we behold that marvelous
difference between grace and mercy. Grace gives us what God
Almighty has been pleased to give us, what we don't deserve.
Grace has given us what we don't deserve. Mercy is not giving
us what we do deserve. And he said in verse 20, God
speaking to Moses, thou canst not see my face, for there shall
no man see me and live. No man can behold the fullness
of the thrice holy God, and live, but Jehovah has graciously provided
for us a sight of Himself. How is that, Lord? Look at verse
21, 22. And the Lord said, Behold, there
is a place by Me, and I shall stand upon a rock, and it shall
come to pass that while My glory passes by, that I will put thee
in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover thee with my hand
while I pass by." We behold Jehovah as we're founded upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, the rock Himself, placed in Him in electing grace,
hidden in Him. I'm going to put you in the cleft
and split with the riven part. I'm going to place you in Him
who was wounded for the transgressions of my people, bruised for their
iniquities. I'm gonna cover you with my hand
for a while. We're on this earth walking by
faith, not by sight, and his hand's gonna be taken away, and
we're gonna see but a shadow, an obscure portrayal of himself
for now. That's what we see. I'm gonna
put you on a cleft or a rock, and I'm gonna cover you with
my hand while I pass by. How much do we know of God? Just a little more. I'm going
to put my hand over you. Verse 23, I'll take away my hand,
thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. We're going to see obscured. Obscured. Not as we would desire,
not as we would want, but as God Almighty mercifully allows
us to see. exactly what Almighty God knows
is right for us to see right now. The just shall live by faith. And Almighty God causes all of
His goodness to pass before us and opens these scriptures to
us and causes us to hear. And He said, I'm going to put
my hand over you. And you're going to see. You're going to
see. And you're going to know. And you're going to believe.
But you're going to see what I allow you to see. And that's
merciful. That's merciful. Paul said, Oh,
that I may know Him. And the power of His resurrection,
the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His
death. Oh, that I may know Him. And
one of these days, one of these days we will. One of these days,
the scripture says, we're going to see Him as He is. Show me
Your glory. You can't do it now. But one
day, one day, we're going to behold Him, and here's the marvel,
we'll be like Him, like Him. Lord, I pray would you bless
this word to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.