Praise that the Lord is faithfully
with thee. Praise, praise, God's praise. Praise his greatness in all our
seasons. Thank you, John, Jerry. Alright, go back to Exodus 33. Read verse 16 again with me. Moses asked the Lord, he says,
Wherein, or how shall it be known here? on earth, that I and thy
people have found grace in thy sight." How can we know that we've found grace in your
sight? is by grace. By grace are you
saved, meaning it's something that God does for you. It's a
gift he freely gives, not offer, but bestows. By grace are you
saved. Not by grace you're offered save
and want to let Him save you. No. By grace you're saved by
this. You see? It's a gift bestowed. It's not of works. If you're
lost, you can't save yourself, can you? If you're dead, you
can't give yourself life. He gives life. You don't offer
life, you give it by grace or you say. It's not of works lest
anybody would boast. Only one who can boast, and that's
the Lord Himself. And we boast in Him. There's
no room for boasting except in Him. Glory in Him. Salvation is by God's grace. what He does for us, to us. And it's all to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
blood. But that's the reason we changed
our name out here, Zion. Grace, central grace, to the
praise of the glory of His grace. That's what sums up salvation,
our salvation. That's what sums up the Church,
what the Church is all about. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath done that. Alright, grace. Alright,
how do you know if He's saved you by His grace? That's what
Moses is asking. Show up here. We want to know
here. We want to know. John says it
over and over again. Hereby we may know. Hereby we may know. Five times
it speaks of finding grace in God's sight here in the few verses.
Five times. Not the first time. You remember
where that's found? First time? Noah found grace
in the sight of the Lord. Well, five times. Look at verses 12 and 13. Moses said unto the Lord, Thou
sayest unto me, You told me, bring up this people. And Thou
hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. No, He will. He will let you know. Yet Thou hast said, You have
said to me, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace
in my sight." God said to Moses, I know you
by name, and you have found grace in my sight. How do you know
if you've found grace in God's sight, that he saved you by his
grace? Well, it first begins with God
Almighty knowing you. and putting your name in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world." It
began. Here we go again. You're not
going to say it again, are you, preacher? Absolutely. From the bottom of my heart and
the top of my lungs. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, according as He hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in the Lord Jesus Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Had He not done that, I would
never have chosen Him. All the elect know that had not
God chosen them, they would never have chosen Him. Moses knows
that. He was in Egypt, destined to
be the next Pharaoh with all the riches this world had to
offer. What could make a man renounce
all that to be a slave? Nothing. Nobody but God Himself. God said to Moses, I know you. Long before Moses knew Him, God
foreknew him. For whom He did foreknow, He
did predestinate. Whom He did predestinate, He
called. The Lord came to Moses not to
ask him anything, but to tell him. And when God Almighty, when
you find grace in His sight, this is the first thing you're
going to hear. I knew you. Long before you knew Me, I knew
you. Before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew you. And the reason you know Me is
because I foreknew you. And put your name in the Lamb's
Book of Life, and you're going to know Me. You're going to know
My glory. You have found grace in My sights. That's how. You know? You know
that? Roberta, I know you do. You're
smiling. Most people in the world don't
smile when they hear that. They grit their teeth. They don't
like that. All of God's people like it. They love it. They can't believe it. Why me? Why me? They don't argue because
they deserve it. They glory. in the marvel that
He did this for them who are undeserving. I know you. I know you. I've put your name
in the Lamb's Book of Life. I've graven thee on the palms
of my hand, He said. You're mine. My, my. That's what it is to find grace
in his sight. Look at verse 13. Now therefore,
Moses said, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy
way that I may know thee. Moses said, you told me that
you foreknew me. You foreknew me. You know me
and know my name. Now I want to know you. I want to know you. You know, this is salvation.
This is how you know that God Almighty has shown grace to you,
saved you by His grace, that you know who God is. Most people have a conception
of God, have an imagination of what God is like. Most people,
it's a fact, pray to a God who cannot save. And preachers stand
up all the time and say things like this, he has no hands but
your hand, no feet but your feet, he can't do anything except let
him be. He wants to be your God. Let
God be God. And you know, the Scripture says
that they'll say that very thing. That's what David said in the
Psalms. He said that they have a God,
but he has no eyes and no hands and no feet. Psalm 115. Don't
they? That's what he said. He said,
those that have gods like that are just like him. They're blind. They're dead. They're dumb. They
don't see. They don't know that God is God. They think you can
let God be God. Are you kidding? And throughout
the Scriptures, God says, who let thee do anything? Where were
you when I made the planets? In the beginning, God said, let
there be light. And this God, if you found grace
in his sight, this God came to you and said, God who caused
the light to shine out of darkness, shined in your heart to give
you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. What's his
glory? That he is God. Reigning, ruling,
creator as a concerted Universal conspiracy effort to make all
men believe that there is no creator. Because if you can disprove that
there is a creator, that means everything is up to luck, chance,
man's will, whatever. He doesn't own you. You create something, you own
it. You can do with it what you will. That's exactly what God
says in this book. Can I not do with my own what
I will? If you're the creator of it, you can save it or destroy
it. If you're the creator of it,
you're the judge of it. It must do what you say. If you're
the creator of it, you're the controller of it. Right? That's
God. That's God. Few people understand
that. Few people know that. Isaiah
43. Turn there real quickly. Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43. Here's what God says
that He's going to show His people. Those He's chosen, they all know
this. That He's God. That He's Lord.
Isaiah 43. Oh, I want to read the whole
chapter. Don't you? Verse 1, Now thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by name. You
belong to me. I'm not in your hands to do with
us, you please. You're in my hands. This is the
fear of the Lord that all of God's people have. That's why
he keeps saying, fear not, doesn't he? Verse 5, fear not, I'm with
thee, I will bring thee. I will say, verse 7, I will,
I will, God who worketh all things after the counsel of his will.
God is the only one who has free will. Whoever can do as they will,
because they will, with whom they will, is God. Now, you can't have two. You can't have man and God being
free will. God says, I will. And he says in verse
8, bring forth the blind people to have ears. They're blind.
I'm going to open their eyes, to have eyes. Deaf to have ears. They haven't heard them. Verse
10, but God says, You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, my
servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and
understand that I am he. Before me there was no God-form,
neither shall there be after me. I am the Lord. I, even I,
am the Lord beside me. There is no Savior. I have declared.
I have saved. I have showed. When there is no strange God
among you, you are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am
He. There is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will work,
and who is going to let me do anything?" Moses, you've found grace in
my eye. And so has everyone who's found
grace in his eye. They know him, that he's God. He's God. And they love it. How many times have you heard
this? That? How many times have you read
that with me? And yet you're still smiling
and enjoying it. That's proof that you've found grace in God's
sight. Well, Moses said in verse 13
of our text, show me now thy way. If I've found grace in thy
sight, show me thy way. In verse 18, Moses says, I beseech
thee, I beg you, show me thy glory. Are you with me? Come on now. Hitch up your breeches. It doesn't
get any better than this. This is how you know that God
saved you by His grace. By grace you are saved. You found
grace in His sight. This is how you know. The first
thing He tells you is He has a people. I remember hearing
that and believing that. That God chose a people. But I remember thinking, I don't
know if I'm one of them. If I believe it, if He's God,
it has to be so. Right? Men and women get together
and they decide to have children. Decide to have children. They
take it so for granted, don't they? We're going to have a baby.
We're going to get together and we're going to create a life.
Oh, are you now? That's what we thought, didn't we, Menden?
We'll wait a while. We'll wait a few years and then
we'll have a baby. Yeah, right. You will if God
wills it. And they told us, you can't have
children. It's impossible. Well, we've got some. But anyway,
men and women get together and they say, we're going to have
a baby. And before it's born, Sherry, they say, we're going
to name it this. We're going to name it that. But God can't
do that, can He? That's exactly what God did. before the world began. He said,
I'm going to have a family. And they're all going to look
like my son. He determines every hair on their head. He names
them all. Puts them in his book. And nothing
and no one can stop it. Praise God. And they're all particles. And they're all coming home.
Why? Because he's dead. That's why. That's His glory. God says, I've
decided to have children. Can I holler? Scripture says, cry aloud, despair
not. That's how preachers started
hollering. Not long before PA systems, they
had to. God says, I will, I will, I will,
I will, I will. Alright, look at verse, Moses
said, Lord, show me your way, show me your glory. And the Lord
did. The Lord did. The Lord showed
him his glory, the glory of God and the way. He saved sinners. This is God's cheap glory. Moses
had already seen some glorious things, hadn't he? Already seen
some glorious things. The Red Sea parted. Can you imagine? We can't even
imagine what that must have been like. That was Christ. Picture
of Christ. Everything the Lord showed Moses
was a picture of Christ. All the plagues and so forth
he saw. Well, but he says, Lord, I want to see your way. Show me your glory, your way.
You know, we say that about people. He has a certain way about him.
When we're talking about somebody, this is the way they are. Something
that defines them. Moses says, I've seen your creative
glory, I've seen your providential glory, I've seen the glory of
your wrath. The heavens declare His glory.
The wrath of God is seen from heaven. He saw the plagues and
so forth. He saw the Passover lamp. Show me Thy glory. That is His
glory. Show me Thy glory. And the Lord did. He showed him
His glory in the way He saved sinners. In God's way. Look at verse 19. Here it is. God's glory. God said to Moses, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee. 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
way of salvation, God's glory is seen in Jesus Christ who came to this
earth, the goodness of God, and passed before us thirty-three
years The mercy of God, the grace of
God, the salvation of God is all seen. The glory of God is
all seen in Jesus Christ and the way, the truth, and the life. His greatest glory, to the praise
of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
blood." I may quote that ten times before this day is over. God Almighty in love, sovereign
love. Sovereign love. He said, I have
loved thee. God set His love on nobody worth
loving but God. Those that know they're unlovely
don't have a problem with that. They're amazed by the love of
God. They don't expect it. They don't
presume upon it. They don't demand it. They don't
think they're worthy of it, deserving of it. They're amazed that God
would love them. And as I said, preachers throw
that out there so much, they make people, who cares? God loves you. No. God sovereignly set His love
upon many. Yes, many. They're unlovely. God sovereignly shows grace. Saves by grace. whom he will. God sovereignly is merciful. You know, if it's mercy, it's
got to be sovereign. If it's mercy, it's got to be
sovereign. Mercy is not getting what you
deserve, okay? The law says you're guilty. You must. The soul that sinneth
must surely die. Guilty. Whatever the law says,
it says to everyone. Guilty. You must die. You must. All right? Mercy is not getting
what we deserve. And so it has to be sovereign.
He has to show it to whom he will. It's not something that
you can accept. It's not something that you can
demand. It's not something that you can
have anything to do with. It's up to Him. God says, I will
show mercy. That's amazing. As we've said before, you know,
Adam and Eve, when Adam and Eve sinned, and it wasn't just eating,
I don't even think it was an apple at all. Probably a fig. It's the only tree the Lord cursed. That's what they tried to cover
themselves with, fig leaves. Anyway, when Adam and Eve sinned,
it was not just eating a piece of fruit. It was putting their
fist in God's face and saying, you're God, we know that, but
we don't like it. We want to be God. That's exactly
what every human being does. Pride. Faulty. That describes man, doesn't
it? Defying God. Tempting God. Dare devil. You're not daring
the devil, you're daring God. And the angels saw this. The
angels saw this man and this woman shake their fist in God's
face and say, you're God, yes, but we've got something to say
about that. We've got our free will, you know, and we don't
like you withholding anything from us. We've got a right to
that tree if we want it. We're little gods. And the angels
saw this. All the angels saw this. They
saw some other angels do this very thing. Lucifer was a high
angel and he did this very thing. He said, I will, I will. God
said, you will not. And he brought him down and it
says he's been in chains ever since. And someday going to be
cast in the lake of fire. And the rest of the angels might
saw this. And they saw this man and this woman do this. And they
thought, he's going to kill them. Would you? Huh? Our Lord said this in Isaiah
1, I've brought up a people and all they've done is rebel against
me. That's all they do. All their lives. Human beings.
I clothe them. I feed them. I'm kind to them. God is merciful over all His
works. Rain falls on the unjust as well
as the just. And they don't give Him a thought.
They take His name in vain. Oh God! He's being worshipped one day
a week. Nobody comes. They don't care. They steal His
glory. They say, I did this, I did that.
You did nothing. You'd be nothing if I didn't
give it to you. What would you do if you were God? You better
be glad I'm not God. I'm glad I'm not God. Here's
His glory. Here's what makes Him God and
not man. And I'm so thankful. God says, I will be merciful. Look at them. Are you going to
kill them? No. I'm going to die for them. What? I'm going to go down there. I wish I could preach this. I'm
going to go down there and let them spit in my face, throw me
in the face, tell me to leave, go back where you came from,
malign me, abuse me, despise me and reject me and hang me
on a cross. You're going to do what? That's right. I'm going to take
their place. I'm going to die and Go through
hell for them. What? That's what I want to do. What it takes to save them. We've never heard it on
this fashion. We've never heard it like so.
What it's called is mercy. I'm full of it. Preserving, keeping
mercy for thousands. For the Chief of Senate, the
worst. You bring the worst. Show me the worst. If I choose to do so, I'll save
them. That's glory in it. To the praise
of the glory. I'm going to give them what they
didn't earn. I'm going to give them what they
don't deserve. I'm going to give them what they don't Hmm, aren't
expecting. I'm going to do something. Scripture
says, he said there, a terrible thing with them. It ought to
create, there's forgiveness with thee that thou mightest be feared.
Wonders and marvels, this is the work of the Lord. He said,
I'll show them that they won't believe the old man tells them
to. Only God would do something like that. To the praise of the
glory of His grace. Where am I? I had a whole bunch
of notes here. I was hoping I wouldn't have
to use them. Amen. God has shown grace to
you in His sight. You see, it says in His sight,
in His sight, in His sight. All things are naked and open
before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do it. Scripture says,
God looked down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there
were any that He'd understand. Preachers are lying to people
that say, God loves you, needs you, and God doesn't want you.
No, no, no, no, no. That's not what the Scripture says. Scripture
says, Psalm 14, God looked down from heaven upon the sons and
children of men to see if there were any that he could understand.
Any that did seek God. Any. He said, there's none that
do us good. Not one. They're all together filthy,
it says. God looks at us like we would look at maggots in and
of ourselves. That's right. That's what it
says. Fear not thou worm, that's maggot. But God, rich in mercy, became a worm. The only way He could save us, to bring us to God. One time, some of us were standing
down here after the service, and there was a worm on the floor.
It was a little caterpillar. And the fellas started to do
that. Who needs one of them? Seriously. You all kill all of
them, you're fine, don't you? Except if you go fishing with
them. You kill them. They're earth. Made of the earth.
Creatures of the earth. Earthy. Alright? The fellas started to settle.
I said, hold it. Let's not do that. I said, let's be like our
God. And I picked that worm up and
put it on a pedestal right there. I spared him. I spared him. And we all sat there and thought,
that's us. That's what he's done for us.
God does more than that though. He changes worms into butterflies. They call it metamorphosis. What
Scripture calls it is transformation and regeneration, making new
creatures in Christ. And so that they are no longer
in His sight, God sees that new creature. God looks on His children
like you look at your children, with utmost love and affection
and tenderness. are sinners like us, aren't they?
But we, you know, love is blind, they say, Teresa. Well, it just
pretty much is, you know. Isn't she a good little girl?
No, she's not. You don't see it what we see
it. She is to you. But to God, God said to Noah,
with thee have I seen righteous. In Christ? Yes. Imputed to us
in Christ. Hidden in Christ. Covered in
Christ. God put Moses in that cleft of the rock. That's my
next poem. It's in there somewhere. That
God, if you found grace in His sight, God Almighty put you in
Christ. Put you in the cleft of the rock.
Of God are you in Christ, crucified with Christ. Look at that there
in chapter 33. It says there's a place by me.
You have a person, a place, and a thing here. These three things.
These three are one. There's a place by me. There's a thing, a rock. And it will come to pass when
my glory passeth by that I will put thee in the cleft of the
rock and cover thee with my hand while I pass by." He said this
long before, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. When you
are covered and you are in Christ, God Almighty, when His wrath
that abides upon the ungodly comes through, He will pass by
you. Because you're in the cliff of the rock, being crucified
with Christ. You're hidden. You're hidden.
And God sees you righteous in Christ. God sees you righteous.
He's that new man in you, your hope of glory. You've been put
in Christ. Noah found grace in the sight
of the Lord, didn't he? So what did God do? Put him in
a ark. Shut him up. Moses found grace
in the eyes of the Lord too. So what did God do? Put him in
the cliff of the rock. Put him in the cliff of the rock.
Show me your glory, Moses said. This is his glory. His way of saving sinners. By
Jesus Christ the way. His sovereign mercy is his glory. His sovereign grace. To whom
he will. Now, look at this. I want to
show you this. He said, you cannot see my face,
verse 20, and live. No man can see me and live. But
there's a place by me. And verse 23, he says, thou shalt
see my back parts. My face shall not be seen. Scripture says, and I quote this
again, we've seen the glory of God in His face. We have seen the face of God.
What is it? It's Jesus Christ. God has a
face, and His face is Jesus Christ. His image is Jesus Christ. Let me bring this out. To see His glory is not to just
see a man named Jesus. We see Jesus made a little lower
than the angel. We saw a man. People back then
saw a man named Jesus. They said, You're Jesus, the
carpenter's son. And people are still saying that about Him,
aren't they? My employer is a carpenter. Still talk about Jesus this and
Jesus that, don't they? Huh? Sir, we would see Jesus,
they said. They didn't see Him. They didn't
know who He was. Even His disciples, although
they saw Him do many things, glorious things, they still did
not really know who He was until one day. He took three of His
disciples up on a mountain. Peter, James, and John. Remember
that? To show them His glory. And it says up on that mountain,
Moses and Elijah appeared, the law and the prophet. And it says He was transfigured
before their eyes. He peeled the flesh back. And
they had to hit the dust. They had to cover their faces.
They couldn't look on Him. He was too glorious. You can't
look on the Son for ten seconds. It's no accident that the Lord
describes Him as the Son of Righteousness. You can't with natural eyes see
His glory. You can't look upon it. Are you with me? And all men see is a man named
Jesus for the most part. But those who have found grace
in His sight, Jeanette, do you see that that
man named Jesus is Jehovah? Why? Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to you. The natural eye can't look upon
it, doesn't believe it, but it's a revelation. Moses said, show me your glory. God said,
you can't see my face and live, but I'm going to show you my
back parts. God's back parts are that a body has to have prepared
me. The fullness of the Godhead in
a body. He came. Alright? Someday. We can't behold
Him right now with these natural eyes. We behold Him with the
eye of faith. And to see His glory. It's to
see Him as the only begotten of the Father. I said, Father,
I will that they whom Thou hast given me, those whom Thou hast
given me, be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. The glory of God in the face,
the person, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we do what
we do every Sunday, every Wednesday? Why are we doing this? We've seen His glory. And this
is it. Those who have found grace in
God's sight, that's what the glory is. I've got to quit. I've
got to quit. One more thing. Moses said this,
and look at verse 12. Moses said, You've not shown
me who you'll send with me. Verse 14, God said, My presence
will go with thee, I will give thee rest. Moses said in verse
16, How do we know we've found grace in your sight? Is it not
that you go with us? Isn't this what separates us
from all the people on the earth, that God is with us? Now listen
carefully. Everybody says that about God.
God's with us. All religions say that. God is
with us. People love that verse of Scripture in Romans 8, verse
31. If God be for us, God's for us. The South said it in the
Civil War. The North said it in the Civil War. People all
say that. God is with us. How do you know? That's what Moses said. If God is really with us, Isn't
that what separates the people of God from everybody else? Well, how do you know? Is it that God makes you rich,
healthy and wealthy, and houses and lands and possessions and
so forth? Is that proof that God has blessed you? Children
of Israel didn't have any of that. Didn't have any of this stuff.
Jesus Christ didn't have any of this stuff. Well, is it freedom
from troubles? God's with you, all your troubles
are over. You have no more sorrow. God's
with you. God's for you. Nothing can be
against you. No troubles, no problems, no
sorrows, no sickness, no afflictions, no tribulations, no trials. No.
As a matter of fact, it's the opposite. It's exactly the opposite. If God is with you, he said,
you're going to have nothing but troubles. that there be no adversity, no
trouble, no tribulation. No, the children of Israel had
nothing but trouble for forty years. They had no earthly possessions. They wandered through. They had
here no continuing city. Well, what is it then? How do
you know they're the people of God? How do you know they found
grace? What's the blessing of God? What's
the presence of God? How do you know God is with them?
The Hivites and the Hittites and the Jebusites and all these
ites. They passed by and they looked at Israel and they thought,
those poor people, they think God is with them. Look at them,
struggling, wandering. I'll tell you how you know. And
this is what God said. God Almighty told them through
Moses to make a tabernacle, a tent, and put a golden box inside that
tent. A brown tent covered from view
of everybody, or hidden from everybody in the world, hidden.
But inside that tent, in that golden box, was all the counsel
of God Almighty in heaven. And He revealed that to them.
He said, that's where I'm going to dwell. And as long as that's
with you, you're going to be alright. What? That's it? Do you know what that box is?
You just heard it. What do you all have down there
for your children? The ark of the covenant. And it's not a box. It's a person. What do you all do down there?
We behold His glory. You say God is with you. God
is doing wonderful things for you. He's just got a handful
of you. Yes. Isn't it wonderful that God Almighty
would save ten people? Isn't that amazing? We think
it's the most wonderful and marvelous thing that's ever been done,
that God Almighty would save ten people. Let alone sixty or seventy years. But God said thousands. I've
reserved, kept mercy in store, preserved it for thousands and
thousands. Ten thousands times ten thousands.
Oh my. My, my. My, my. Is that the way of man? No, it's
not. Lord, show me your glory. How
do you know that you've found grace in God's sight? He knew
you. The poor knew you. You know Him. He's God. He put you in Christ. You've seen His glory, the glory
of Christ. You've seen that salvation is
in Christ. Christ is all and in all. And you've got the gospel
with you. And as long as you've got the
gospel with you, the gospel of Christ, and you don't need anything
else, you've got the presence of God. You've got the favor
of God. You've got grace in the sight
of the Lord. Let's sing that great song that
we've been singing all those years, Rock of Ages. It's left for me. What number
is that? One twenty six. One twenty six. It's all the same. Number one
twenty six. We sing the first and last.