Turn with me again tonight to
Exodus chapter 33 if you would please. I want to begin again in verse
12. And Moses said unto the Lord,
see thou sayest unto me, bring up this people and thou hast
not "'let me know whom thou wilt send with me. "'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." And looking upon
verse 13 again this week and study, it would be spiritually
profitable for us when we begin our personal private prayers
to begin them this way. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
if I have found grace in thy sight. Moses does not say simply,
Lord, show me your way that I may know thee. He proceeds that request
with a statement. And that statement is, Lord,
if I have found grace in thy sight, then show me thy way that
I may know thee. Moses did not say, Lord, I've
served thee faithfully all these years. He did not say, Lord,
I went down to Egypt and did what you told me to. He didn't
say, I went before Pharaoh as you asked. I obeyed your word.
I served you loyally. I've given you my time. I've
given you my talent. I've given you my tithe. Men
and women, when praying, often remind the Lord of all they do,
but not Moses here, nor should the child of God. Moses begins
where our prayers ought to begin. He said, Lord, if I found grace
in your sight. We talk about grace a lot. Men
say pretty flippantly, you know, I'm saved by grace. Grace is
undeserved and it's unmerited favor. And grace is found with
God in Christ. We know that. If I found grace
in thy sight, this is the fountain of God's blessings. This is the
fountain of mercy. For by grace are you saved through
faith. That's not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. I found grace cause grace found
me. A man can receive nothing except
to be given him from above. It must be given by God. Moses
said, if I found grace in your sight, Where did Noah find grace? He found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. The gift of God is eternal life. This is a gift. It's not anything
that we work for, anything that we deserve, certainly not anything
that we merit. And people today pray like they
expect and deserve and merit an answer from God. The people
of God know what they deserve, naturally speaking. There's not
one here tonight that's trusting in Christ that does not know
what they deserve in and of themselves. They deserve judgment. They deserve
God's wrath. They deserve eternal condemnation. They deserve hell. And we've
said it many times, grace is God giving us what we don't deserve,
and mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve. Peter said
in the book of Acts chapter 15, he said, we believe that through
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. Not gonna
be saved any other way, but by grace. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15, he said, I am what I am by the grace of God. Now, Moses
was a servant of God, there's no doubt. He was a victorious
leader whom a whole nation followed. He was courageous, he was fearless,
he was bold before the people of God. But when he came before
God, whether in prayer or for any other reason, He prayed and
he trusted God like a small child. Lord, if I have found grace in
thy sight, would you show me your way? Would you show me your
way? It's God's grace that saves us.
It was through the election of grace is what it's called. God's
given grace to us in Christ before the world began. Salvation is
by the grace of God in Christ, in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins. According to what? The
riches of his grace. It was grace that called us.
Paul said, God separated me from my mother's womb and he called
me by his grace. It's God's grace in Christ that
provides our every need. The Lord told Paul, he said,
my grace, is sufficient for thee." And it certainly is. Lord, if
I have found grace, now listen, if you ever know Christ, it'll
be by grace. If you ever love Christ, it'll
be by grace. If you ever are saved, it'll
be by grace. And that grace comes only one
way, and that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a simple message,
impossible to believe apart from revelation from God. It won't
be because of something that you gave God. It will be because
of something that God gave you. Moses said, if I found grace
in thy sight. Now, what did Moses want and
what did Moses ask for? He said, show me thy way that
I may know thee. And that's the true desire of
every child of God. Lord, show me your way. Not my
way, show me your way that I may know neither. Now, how does a
man and woman know God? How does a sinner get in God's
way? God's gonna have to show you,
I know that. God's gonna have to reveal himself to you. You won't know God's way by going
your own way. You'll have to be shown by God
his way. Our Lord said, and you know this
very well. He said, I am the way. There's only one way. He's the
way. And he said, no man, no woman,
nobody cometh to the father, but by me. No other way. And that's how you know God.
Jesus Christ is God's way to know God. This is eternal life,
that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. We've got to know him. We've
got to trust him. Now, Moses wanted to know God. Moses wanted to see God's righteousness. He wanted to see God's sacrifice. He wanted to see God's salvation. He wanted to see God's glory.
Christ is the brightness of God's glory. Christ is the express
image of God's person. You learn of Christ and you learn
of God. You love Christ and you'll love
God. If you come to Christ, you'll come to God. If you worship Christ,
you'll worship God. And if you deny Christ, you'll
miss God. Lord, if I have found grace. Now, if a man or woman truly
wants to know God's way, I have good news for you, they'll know
it. They'll know it. He's never refused one who wants
to know his way. He's never rejected one who wants
to know his son. Never, never. The problem is man by nature
wants his own way. All we like sheep have gone astray
and we have turned everyone, where? To our own way. We want
it our way. There's a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. God said,
my ways are not your ways. Moses didn't want his way. You
know what? I don't want my way either. I think I've learned
that by God's grace. I think by his grace, he's shown
me, I don't want my way. Moses said, if I found grace,
if I'm the object of your grace, if I'm the object of your love,
would you show me your way that I may know? The child of God
wants to know God's way so that they might know God, so that
they might know Christ. Now in verse 15, Moses said this,
he said, Lord, if your presence go not with me, then carry me
not up hence. If you don't go with me, I don't
want to go. Egypt was behind him now, the land of promise
was before him. More than anything, Moses wanted
reassurance of God's presence with him. That's something that
I constantly want reassurance of. God, I need your presence
every hour of every day. I need thee every hour. It's
the same with every child of God. Egypt's behind you. God
took care of that. God delivered you. Egypt's behind
you. The world and our sins behind
us. Christ's all of that. We've been delivered. God delivered
us. The curse of the law is behind
us because Christ was made a curse for us. Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on a tree. We're not under the curse because
of him. The condemnation of the law is gone. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. Again, no
condemnation because of him. The penalty of sin has been satisfied. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Again, it's by God's grace in Christ that these things are
behind us. The land of God's presence is
before us. The land of God's glory is before
us. Lord, if I found grace in your
sight, show me your way. Make me to know you. And if your
presence don't go with me, don't let me go. Everything I do, everywhere
I go, Lord, cause your presence to be with me. Isn't that the
resolve that God has given you, child of God? Has God revealed
to you that you like Israel are walking through a wilderness?
We're walking through a barren, bleak, pagan, heathen, sin infested
world. It's true. I don't believe that's
ever been more apparent to me than right now. The world is
doing all it can to discourage us from worship. The world is
discouraging us from fellowship with one another and with our
Lord. The world is discouraging us from being in the presence
of God. The world we are in is a spiritual
wilderness. Don't think for a minute that
it's not. I think about all those that walked no more with Christ.
The Lord asked his disciples, will you leave also? And Peter
said, Peter knew something, didn't he? He said, where else would
we go? Where are we going to go? Only
the Lord Jesus Christ has the words of eternal life. I mentioned
this briefly Sunday. David said, though, I walked
through the valley of the shadow of death. Friends, we're right
now walking through the valley of the shadow of death. What
is it that we need? We need God. We need his presence. We need to know his way. We need
to know him. We need to know his substitute
for us. And as we walk through this valley,
as we journey through this wilderness, we shall fear no evil. Why? Because
God is with us. Do we really believe that God
is with us? Do we walk through this valley,
this wilderness of a world because we depend on a positive mental
attitude? Is it because we're positive
thinkers? No, sir, the child of God fears
no evil because God is with them. God's presence is with us. He's
always with us, even to the end of the earth, he said. Now, Moses
said here in verse 16, how shall it be known that I and thy people
have found grace in thy sight? If you don't go with us, if your
presence is not in our life, how can we say that we found
grace in your sight? If we don't have your presence,
what evidence do we have that we found grace in your sight?
We don't have any evidence at all if your presence is not with
us. The scriptures are very clear. He that hath not the Spirit of
Christ, he's none of his. Every believer has the presence
of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within. And that's
exactly what Moses is saying here. He's saying, if your presence
go not with us, then we haven't found grace in your sight. But
if we have found grace in his sight, his presence will go with
us. I can assure you of that. Your
grace and presence distinguishes us as your people, a particular
people who have found particular grace. The presence of the Lord
is evidence of the grace of the Lord and it distinguishes and
it separates God's people from the people of the world. And
God said in verse 17, Moses, I will do what you ask for thou
has found grace in my sight and I know thee by name. My, my,
I take those words to be my own, David, I'll grant this request
for you because you found grace in my son. Most everybody today
claims to know God, but in the judgment, the Lord said to many
who said, Lord, Lord, he said, depart from me, ye that work
iniquity, I never knew you. Salvation is God knowing me.
Salvation is Christ dying for me. But the amazing thing here
and the comforting thing here and the encouraging thing here
is that Moses wanted to see more. Moses saw that bush that burned
but was not consumed. He saw Christ. Christ is that
sacrifice that was burned but was not consumed. You know, many
would have been satisfied to just have seen that, but Moses
wanted to see more. Moses saw the plagues. Moses
saw the death of the firstborn. He saw the Red Sea divided. He
saw manna fall from heaven. He drank water from a smitten
rock. Moses had seen all those things,
but he wanted to see more. Verse 18, and he, Moses said,
I beseeched thee. Now that word beseech is a strong
word. It means a request with incitement
and urgency. I beseech thee. This is urgent
to me, Lord. This means everything to me.
Show me thy glory. The glory of God that Moses had
already seen only made him want to see and know more of God's
glory. That's the way it is with every
believer. We want to see more and more.
The true child of God loves to know more of their God and their
Savior. And it's grace that gives God's
people that desire. It's the gift of God that gives
you that desire. When God granted Moses those
requests, according to the grace found in Christ alone, Moses
pushed for more. You wanna know why? Because the
more you know of God, the more you want to know of God. And
God is pleased and he's willing to grant this knowledge. Remember
what Peter said? Peter said, but grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And
then he said this, to him be glory both now and forever, amen. Jesus Christ is God's glory.
That's what I want you to see tonight. Jesus Christ is God's
glory. To Christ be glory now and forever. Salvation in Christ is God's
glory. The grace and knowledge of Christ
is the glory of God now and forever. Verse 19, and he said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee. God's goodness is his glory. God's glory is his goodness.
It's the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance. It's
not God's miracles that lead men and women to repent. Many
times in the Lord's day, they said, show us a sign, show us
a miracle, do the miracles here that you did there. It's not
God's miracles that leads men and women to repentance, it's
His goodness. It's His grace, it's His mercy,
it's His love. He said, I'll make, I'll cause
all my goodness to pass before you. Christ is God's goodness. "'I will proclaim the name of
the Lord before you.'" Friends, Jesus Christ is the Lord that
this gospel we preach proclaims. God is going to cross your path
with a preacher who preaches the gospel, if he's ever gonna
save you. He'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before you, and he does so by the means of preaching.
The world calls it foolishness, but it's not foolishness to you,
is it? God said, I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. And
I'll show mercy on whom I'll show mercy. And here we see the
glory of God's sovereignty in the salvation of his people.
It's God who shows mercy on whom he will. It's God who shows compassion
upon whom he will. God does as he pleases and it's
good. Everything God does is good.
It's good because he does. God is gracious to whom he'll
be gracious. God is merciful to whom he'll
be merciful. That gives me great hope because
just maybe he'll be gracious and merciful to me. Maybe he'll
be gracious and merciful to you. That's the sovereignty of God
and salvation. And I'm telling you, it's all
good. It's good. was just as wicked as Esau. Yet
God exercised his sovereign right to say, Jacob have I loved, Esau
have I hated. And the child of God doesn't
waste time asking God how he could hate Esau, he knows how
he could. And the child of God doesn't
ask how God could love Jacob, because it's only in Christ that
he could. The child of God, the safe center
wonders this, how could God love me? And they're taught the answer
only in Christ, only by the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. I never grow tired of hearing
that. That's my only hope of ever being saved. You can only
be by God's grace, by God's glory in Christ to save by his sovereign
choice. God chooses so that salvation
is of God. not by man's work. In this we
know the salvation is not of him that willeth nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." God's greatest glory
is his redemption in Christ. In Christ, there is grace for
the guilty and there's mercy to the miserable. The glory of
God's goodness is seen in Christ alone. Now, our Lord Jesus prayed.
He said, I finished the work that you gave me to do. Now,
Father, glorify thou me with the glory that I had with thee
before the world was. God's glory is in Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ. God's goodness is in the Lord
Jesus Christ, nowhere else. There's no love for sinners apart
from that which is found in his beloved son. He said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him. God is
pleased only in Christ and those that are found in him. Look at
verse 20, and he said, thou canst not see my face, for there shall
no man see me and live. Now we know why that is. God's
too holy and too just for us to look upon him while we're
in our sin. We'd be consumed. But in Christ,
we can see God and not be destroyed. If we've seen the Lord Jesus,
then we've seen the Father because he and his Father are one. And
according as he had chosen us and him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. And as I said, I love to think
about it. I think about it often. Before any sinner had done any
good or evil, God saved a people. Why? That the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that
call it. Before any of us were ever born, before we ever did
anything good or anything evil, God determined to save a people. And we can only deduct from that
the salvations of the Lord, not based upon anything good that
we've done. That's what God tells us here
in Exodus chapter 23. Look at verse 21. And the Lord
said, behold, there is a place by me and thou shalt stand upon
a rock. No doubt who that's talking about.
And it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by, that I will
put thee in the cleft of the rock and will cover thee with
my hand while I pass by. And it's only in Christ that
sinners behold God's glory. Christ has to be revealed to
us. God said, behold, there's a place by me. Friends, Christ
is that place by God. He sits at the right hand of
God in all power and authority ever making intercession for
us. There's a place by me, that's Christ. God said, thou shalt
stand upon a rock. Christ is that solid rock on
which we stand. All other ground is what? Well,
it's sinking sand. Christ is that rock, that firm
foundation that we build our spiritual houses upon. And that
foundation stands when the test of the waves and the wind and
the storms come and beat vehemently on these earthly dwelling. They
stand because of the rock that we've built these spiritual houses
upon. God put Moses in the cliff of
the rock. God puts all his people there.
That rock was Christ. He's the rock of ages. He's the
solid rock. He's the firm foundation. He's
what we sing of in those songs. He had at my soul in the cleft
of the rock. God hides my life in the depths
of his love. God covers me there with his
hand. God has in Christ provided a
place of refuge, a place of salvation, a place of strength for chosen
sinners. In Christ, God's people are safe
and secure by Christ's finished work of redemption for them. Now that word cliffed there in
verse 22 means fissure. A fissure is a narrow opening. That's what it means. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the only narrow opening. Narrow is the gate that
leads to eternal life. Christ is that gate. Christ is
that door that the sheep go in. The Lord Jesus is the only opening,
the only way to God for a chosen sinner. Christ is that cliff
of the rock. He's that narrow opening. Christ
is the way to God. Our Lord said, no sinner comes
to God, but by me. All the honor and the glory of
salvation is found in Christ and in his finished work for
us. Salvation is accomplished for
the sinner by what Christ has done for them. Did you notice
that it's God who puts us in a cliff to the rock? We didn't
put ourselves there. He said, I'll put you in the
cliff of the rock. It's the Lord that covers us
with his nail scarred hand. He's the one who covers us as
God passes by. Look at verse 23. He says, and
I'll take away mine hand and thou shalt see my back parts,
but my face shall not be seen. I think God's back parts here
no doubt refer to the Lord's humanity. We can't see God's
face and live, but God shows us his glory in Christ's humanity,
does he not? You think about that. Christ
was made a man so that he might be made sin. Christ was made
sin so that his people might be made righteous. Was it not
the back part of the Lord's foot, the heel that was bruised in
our redemption? Was it not Christ becoming a
man and suffering on the cross that crushed the serpent's head?
God is going to allow His children to see the Lord Jesus' humanity. God is going to show them Christ
and Him crucified. God became a man that He might
die for sinful men and women. And if you, like Moses, desire
to see the glory of God, you must but look to Christ. He's
the crucified lamb of God, and it's there that you'll see the
glory of God every time. When we cease from our so-called
wisdom and see that in Christ alone we have wisdom, we'll quit
glorying in self and in the works of our hands, and we'll trust
in Christ alone. When we see that our righteousness
is nothing but filthy rags and the only righteousness that God
will accept is the perfect righteousness that we're made in Christ, I'm
telling you, we'll glory in Christ's righteousness and do all we can
to separate ourselves from our filthy self-righteousness. When we see that we cannot set
ourselves apart, that true sanctification is found in Christ alone, we'll
cease boasting in our imagined progressive sanctification. When we see that we cannot save
ourselves, that Jesus Christ has made in us wisdom, he's made
under us righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The people of
God see the true glory of God in Christ's face. Have you seen
God's glory? Well, it's in a person. And that's
exactly what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4, verse six. He said, for God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts. The same light that God said,
let there be. In the beginning is that the
same light that he commands to shine in our hearts, to give
the light of the knowledge. Now listen, of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. You want to see God's glory?
Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Don't look within,
look to Christ. And if you've seen Christ, you've
seen the Father. If you've seen Christ, you've
seen God. And if you've seen Christ, God has shown you his
glory. What happens to a saved sinner
when God reveals in their heart the glory of God in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Look over a page or so, chapter
34, verse eight, and I'll finish up. And Moses made haste and
he bowed his head toward the earth and he worshiped. When
you see God's glory, you're gonna worship. You're gonna bow to
Christ and you're gonna worship him. And he said, if now I have
found grace in thy sight. We never get away from God's
grace, do we? We keep asking for it. We keep
pleading for it because we know we continually need it. We're
kept by the power of God, but it's in the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, if now I found grace
in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us. for it is a stiff-necked people."
That's what we are, stiff-necked. And he said, and pardon our iniquity
and our sin and take us for thine inheritance. May God enable us
to continue to look to Christ. He is God's glory. When Moses
said, show me thy glory. He was saying, show me your savior.
Show me your redemption. Show me my only hope of being
reconciled to you, dear Lord. Show me Christ. Show me him crucified. Oh, that I may know him and the
power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable unto his death. When we are, that's when
we have life. May God be pleased to make it
so for Christ's sake.