Complete dependence upon the
Lord for all needed help this evening. Wish for a short time to direct
your very prayerful attention to the chapter that we read,
namely Exodus and chapter 33. And by way of text this evening,
verses 17, 18 and 19 but I shall read from
verse 13 that we may ascertain the immediate sense now therefore I pray thee if I have found grace in thy
sight show me now thy way that I may know thee and that I may
find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is
thy people. And he said, My presence shall
go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him,
If thy presence go 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 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. And he said, I will make all
my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. and will show mercy on whom I
will show mercy." It has been said that if it were
not laid down in Holy Scripture plainly for us to see that the prospect
for the believer would almost be too good to be true. And in the natural sense, who
could receive such things? In continuing from where we were
this morning, the end of Exodus 32, we can see Moses venturing with this offering,
which was the sin offering, the atonement that he makes on behalf
of the people, which is, of course, a foreshadowing of that great
atonement that would, of course, one day take place on Calvary's
tree. We have a very natural break
in chapter 33. We have to remember that, of
course, the chapters and verses are not found in the original.
They are simply there that we may find our way around the Bible
in a most convenient fashion. Sometimes they're in quite strange
places, the chapter divisions. But this is a very natural one.
And we see the Lord speaking to Moses, and he says in verse
1, Depart and go up thence, thou and the people which thou hast
brought up out of Egypt, unto the land which I swear unto you,
which I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, and unto
thy seed will I give it. And he goes on in this way. But you see, Moses was way before
the people, wasn't he? Because we read in verse 4 that
when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned. And no
man did put on him his ornaments. And the Lord speaks to Moses
in a powerful manner. And says, say unto the children
of Israel, you are a stiff-necked people in verse 5. I will come
up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee. Therefore
put off thy ornaments from thee that I may know what to do unto
thee. the sin of idolatry had been
delivered another mighty blow. And we read in verse 6 that the
children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. Now what follows gives mention
of the tabernacle. It says Moses took the tabernacle
and pitched it without the camp. Now we're apt to think of the
Tabernacle. Some of our chapels, of course,
have been named Tabernacles. We have the famous Surrey Tabernacle. We have the former Brixton Tabernacle.
And they're usually called Tabernacles because we associate them, as
strict Baptists, with huge chapel buildings, with Colosseum-like
pillars. But actually, that's quite different
here. If you have a Bible with a margin in it, you will see
that the margin speaks of a tent meeting, or a meeting in the
tent. It was a very temporary setup. And of course, again, we mustn't
think of these things in Western European terms. It was quite
a suitable situation the weather been much more favourable than
ours in temperament and therefore this was a more suitable place
to come and worship. And we read that they sought
the Lord in the tabernacle. And every man at his tent door
worshipped the Lord. What do we see here in verse
9? The cloudy pillar descended. The cloudy pillar descended and
stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord talked with Moses. We read every man worshipped
at his tent door. Now this brings us into a for
a different situation. Moses now had an exercise of
mind and of heart that was distinct. And he walked with the Lord in
a way that none of his forefathers had done so. We read, if I have found grace
in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee. And this brings us on and he
seeks the Lord's approval in respect of their moving, his
exercise of mind when he says, if the Lord go with us, carry
us not up. Hence, And he asks this question, wherein
shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in
thy sight? In verse 16. Is it not in that
thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are on the face of the earth. Now, the Lord speaks to Moses
and he speaks in a particular way
he says, I will do this thing that thou hast spoken for thou
hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by name. Here we have a declaration of
Moses' state before the Lord. The first time we have this statement
of a mind finding grace is Noah, back in the book of Genesis. It's a phrase and a statement
I haven't considered how many times it was said directly to
the Old Testament patriarchs, but it's certainly a phrase that
is used sparingly This is one who walked in communion with
the Lord. And the Lord speaks to him. Now, we are not to expect the
Lord to speak in an audible voice today in this manner. I shall
never forget the day I went to a chapel anniversary And the
man preaching spoke about God speaking in an audible voice.
Well, I mean, such things ought never to be. You know that. You
know that. But here, we're speaking in the
Old Testament time where the Lord directly spoke to the prophets. The Lord, we read in these days, speaks to us by His Son. We can
read that in the first book of the Hebrews. The Lord at sundry
time and divers manners, speaking time by the prophets. But in
these last days, in these final days, that is the days between
the Lord's resurrection and ascension and His returning to the earth,
He speaks to us by His Son, who He has declared in and by the
Canon of Scripture. But here this was close communion. Now, as a result of this we have to
underline the exercise of mind that Moses had it didn't make him presumptuous
nor did it make him lethargic he had the spirit of what Gatsby
speaks of in his hymn when he says, be thankful for present,
yet still ask for more. This brought an exercise of mind
and heart in this man Moses. And thus he says, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. This isn't a man who has either given up or a
man who has sat with his arms folded and said the Lord is with
me no one can touch me he was desirous to see more of the Lord
to see a greater manifestation of love toward him and thus This
is a man clothed and in his right mind. We'll see from the answer
he gets that his desire was right. It wasn't the answer perhaps
he was expecting, but even in this the Lord is merciful to
him. He says, show me thy glory. Such was the love the Lord had toward him Thou hast found grace in my sight."
Now we must define what grace is. It is unmerited favour. It is unmerited favour. See, grace is quite distinct
from kindness, isn't it? Because you may take me in, look after me, in that sense,
you're showing me kindness. But if I rob from you, yet you
still take me in, and look after me, that's grace. That's unmerited
favor by an offended party. That's the difference. That's
the difference. And this is what the Gospel is
and this is what the gospel does. It's quite distinct from anything
else. And how this ascends much higher
than any human affection. You know, sometimes we perhaps
can go too far or not be sensible in what we ask of our loved ones. But here does not the Lord prove
that there's no greater thing to bring before him. I beseech thee. I love that phrase. There's such an urgency about
it. Of course, many would say, oh
it's archaic language. But there's nothing to replace
it, is there? I beseech thee. There's something behind this. there's an urgency to it, show
me thy glory show me thy glory and thus the Lord answers him in a wonderful manner he says
I will make all my goodness pass before Thee and I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before Thee." I will make all my goodness pass
before Thee. Well, what is His goodness? What is His goodness? Well, we
find this just over the page in Exodus 34 verse 6, "...the Lord passed
before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children unto the third and the fourth generation notice here
we have mercy and judgment mercy and judgment see today
people want all mercy and no judgment and we do meet some
Admittedly, they're a small band of people, but they're all judgment
and no mercy. But here we can see the gospel
is indeed a two-edged sword. And thus, what is the Lord's
goodness? Well, he is in his very essence
good, isn't he? His very character. Everything
that he does in nature speaks of his goodness. What did the
Lord say when he created the earth? It was good. What did he say when he created
man? It was good. Adam was created
an upright man before he fell. And what did the Lord say when
the Lord Jesus there is spoken of in the Gospel? This is my
Son in whom I am well pleased. You see, in Him is all light
and in Him is no darkness at all. His very essence is good. And thus, There is goodness. There is goodness. Now we here, which is one of
the reasons why men call us hyper-Calvinists, deny the doctrine of common grace. Because grace is never common.
But we would state this, and this is where people get confused.
The sun shines upon the righteous and the unrighteous. And indeed, the wicked lead,
in most cases, much better lives than most of the Lord's people,
in the natural sense. And they partake of perhaps many
of the natural things some of the Lord's people don't have. But that's not grace, is it?
It's not grace. It speaks of the Lord's goodness.
It speaks of his long-suffering toward the reprobate. But it's
not grace. And thus, it's different here. Moses experiences all the Lord's
goodness to pass before him. What's this speaking of? This
is speaking of the Lord's divine, sovereign, eternal purpose to
this man. Distinct and for this man. Oh my goodness to pass before
thee. What does that mean? Well that
speaks of course in that sense of the very salvation which is
here proclaimed. We'd found grace in this site. And a subject of divine grace is an elect vessel of mercy,
of whom, and of course we see this in Romans 9, part of Exodus
33 is quoted in Romans 9, we can see that everything that
happened in Moses' life fell out unto the furtherance of the
truth and the salvation of his people. and even in his own life,
and even in Providence. Isn't this particularly so? Making
his goodness pass before him. That includes some very disagreeable
things to the flesh. And perhaps those things which
are somewhat perplexing. It may cause us to raise the
question, Lord why am I thus? But it all proves to be goodness.
Doesn't it? It all proves to be goodness.
Because this is how Moses must learn. And this is how the Lord's
people must learn. It's goodness that passes before
us. Notice this, that the Lord is ever going before His people. He doesn't go behind us. You
see, this is how men preach today. They're always trying to whip
you into shape and get you to do more. Moses and his rod, as
you might call it, to do more, to do more, to do more. Or, to
press men, to make professions of faith. The Lord is not needful
to do that. The hearts of all men are in
the Lord's hands. This is a sovereign God. This
is a sovereign God. And you will not trifle with
Him. You will not trifle with Him. The Lord here is working. He is working. He makes His goodness
to pass before. In other words, everything that
we experience in our life is grace, kindness, mercy, and truth. Now the question is, are those
things sanctified to us? Can we not say that we wouldn't
have it any other way? That's what a truth been sanctified
to us is. Now, don't misunderstand me. You're
saying, oh you're making God the author of sin. Absolutely
not. Absolutely not. We can't point
the finger and blame anyone else for our sins. Our sins are our
sins. And we own them. and we have
to confess them. Without the shedding of blood
there's no remission of sins. And sin unconfessed is sin retained. But it all works out to the furtherance
of the Gospel. Look at the circumstances Solomon
came into this world. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean thing? Only the Lord. only the Lord. Oh, and here it's goodness passing
before. In grace, in providence, and
what about the Eternal Son of God? He'd pass before Moses, hadn't
he? He'd pass before Moses! You see, Moses was secure in
the covenant of grace. Why? Because of the Eternal Son. In covenant bond with the Father.
An elect vessel of mercy. And here Moses pleads. He says,
show me thy glory. I will make all my goodness pass
before thee. Notice he says his goodness.
He doesn't say His glory. We'll come to that in a moment. The name of the Lord is to be
proclaimed. You see here, everything that
happened in the circumstances of Israel was seen by the pagan nations around them. It was all seen. They took note
that the Lord had dealt with these people. Now again, you
see, we must deal with Israel in type. Don't think that as
those who came out of the Red Sea and those who continued with
Moses after then, that every one of those was an elect vessel
of mercy. They weren't. They weren't. It was only those who saw the
same Christ that Moses saw. It was only those. It's the same
today, isn't it? We can have and know people who
may be in providence partakers of the favours that the Lord
has to a particular congregation in a natural sense. But unless
the Lord quickens them into life, they're not partakers of the
promise, are they? They're not partakers of the promise. And
thus here, the name of the Lord was to be
proclaimed. Men know far more than what we
realise. In fact, the pastor at Brixton
Tabernacle, Mr Holt, You used to apparently say, the world
knows you better than you know yourself. I think that's quite true. Very often. You see, and it's
a declaration of truth, isn't it? Men know far more about what
we preach here than what we realise. It comes out from time to time. Dear soul, the Lord will be glorified
and He'll be glorified in this glorious truth of His sovereignty.
What do we see here? He says, I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. This is a declaration that the
Lord will deal with men, how, when and if He please. What a glorious truth! This is
God in His fullness and this is God as God, declaring that
He is God. Not the man in Rome who claims
he's God. That's not Him. This is the Lord
Himself speaking here. Glorious sovereignty, which we
see repeated in Romans and chapter 9. By necessity, of course, we
must go to it. Very often, chapters in the Old
Testament are made very clear in the New Testament. And here
we can see the lessons of Esau and Jacob And then moving on,
from therefore he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Moses believed in free grace. He believed in free grace. It's
as simple as that. You see here, the Lord is dealing with this
man and speaking to this man and teaching this man. You might
say, well what does he teach him? Well he teaches him that God is so holy he can only be
seen and he can only be known through the God-man. And there's one sense in which
of course It's a difficult verse this but there's one sense in
which we cannot see the Lord in his fullness and this is what
Moses makes known here. He says, Thou canst not see my
face for there shall no man see me and live. If the Lord were
to reveal himself to us tonight here at Portsmouth Chapel in
the fullness of his glory we could not stand to see it. Such is the holiness! Such is
the holiness! Whilst we're in these bodies
of sin and death, we couldn't see it. That's why the Apostle
speaks of now seeing through a glass darkly. But then, face
to face, that's the difference. That's the difference. And thus, and thus, that's why he speaks
in verse 23 I will take away mine hand and thou shalt see
my back parts but the face shall not be seen and thus and thus the Lord shall
only be seen in the fullest of glory in eternity here we can
see there is though a glorious salvation
to be known, and a glorious salvation to be felt. The Lord said, Behold, there
is a place by Me, in verse 21, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. Now, I would defy anybody here
to say this is any other than the person, than the work, than
the glorious God-man, the Lord Jesus himself. He's making his
goodness to pass before his people. He's having mercy on whom he
will have mercy. Well what does that mean? Well is this not experientially
applied? We can remember in 2006 Travelling into Leeds city centre,
having read a sermon of Mr Philpott, and feeling somewhat downcast,
as though there were no hope and as though there were no mercy
for us. But in ascending into Leeds station on that train,
we felt the application of those words, I have set thee upon a
rock. and I could take you to the place
therein we can see that the Lord is ours and He is mine that our
title is written in heaven by the glorious hand of God in divine
sovereignty nothing else would do nothing else would do but
I'll tell you when the Lord applies His word to you You won't have
any qualms about His mercy then. You will have to come to Him.
You will have to see Him. You will have to say that the
Lord is yours. And thus we can say that the Lord's goodness
has gone before us. Another example of this is in
facing horrendous opposition and slanderous statements in
respect to the ministry. And we walk into Fitzwilliam
Chapel. And Mr Ince preaching, on those days I shall never forget
it. He spoke from those words, he didn't have a clue about my
case. And he said, for thou art now I know, that thou art a servant
of God, and the word that thou speakest is truth. We went out
of that chapel. and we knew that not a hand could
touch us, because the Lord's goodness had gone before us in
the way. You see, that's what the Lord
does for His people, experimentally applied. That's what He does
in the souls of men. And really, it matters not what
men say then. It matters not what men may attempt
upon us then. Moses here was bound up with
the problems, with the idolatries, with the sins of those of whom
He was attempted to lead. They murmured against Him frequently. But here, the Lord spoke to Him. And the Lord applied His Word
to Him. Today, do we not have this glorious
Scripture before us now? Divine Sovereignty. laid before
us what a glorious truth nobody can touch these things no man
can say what doest thou the potter has all the power over the clay
and we being the clay can we not say his goodness has gone
before us despite what we are and still despite what we are
we haven't grown any better have we? But I trust we grow to see
more and more our need of Christ. And I trust we come to see more
and more that this Sovereign God will
be glorified. And He leads us to the Rock. Amen. Closing praise is 554, and the
jewel is Cremant 800.