Moses, as you know, has been
up on the mountain two times now. On the first occasion, he
went up and received the Law of God on two tables of stone. He came back off that mountain
hearing celebration, and in anger, he broke those tables of stone
which was an illustration of what Israel was doing. They were
breaking God's law. He had spent 40 days and nights
up on the mountain with God. And then, after spending a couple
of days with the children of Israel, in which he offered a
sacrifice for them, And He sought forgiveness for them. He was
their advocate. He was their mediator. He prayed
for them. And in that, He was a picture
of our Lord Jesus, who is the mighty intercessor of His people. He who died to justify us, He
rose again because He did justify us, and He ascended back to heaven,
where the Scripture says He makes intercession for all of His people. Moses interceded for the people
of Israel. And then he came down from the
mountain. And I got to thinking about this,
that's 80 days he spent with God. 80 days he spent with the Lord. And we know that in the 33rd
chapter, He said, Lord, I beseech Thee, would You show me Your
glory? And God said, I'll cause all
my goodness to pass before You. All my goodness. And my mercy
and my grace, which are sovereign. And He said, I'm going to split
open a rock in this mountain. and I'm going to hide you in
that. That rock is our Savior. We are hidden from all dangers
in the cleft of the rock, even that one who is the rock of ages." His bold request, before he went
back up on the mountain where that request was answered, was,
Lord, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory. What is the glory
of God? Where can that glory be seen? Where can it be observed? For 40 days, He is going to behold
the glory of God. And He'll never get over it. In fact, it had such an awesome,
profound effect upon him, not only inwardly, but even outwardly. So that his face was bright. It just was glistened. And such was the glory that was
seen in his face. The people were afraid of him. And he could not speak to them,
he could not minister to them, unless he covered his face. Now when he went later to do
business with God, to worship God, to pray to the Lord, he
removed the veil. But when he came out before the
people, he had to put the veil back on. And the Jews say, for
what it's worth, they say that his face glowed the rest of his
life. And I wouldn't doubt that. I
wouldn't doubt that because if you're ever in the presence of
the God of grace, If you ever see the glory of God in the face
of Christ Jesus, you'll never get over it. It will affect you all the days
of your life. In Isaiah 60 we read, the sun
in the last day, in the eternal day. We read that the sun shall
be no more thy light. By day, neither for brightness
shall the moon give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto
thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." Where can
the glory of God be seen? I want you to look at a few verses
of Scripture with me. And just hold your place in Exodus
34. We'll come back to that. But
I want you to go to Hebrews chapter 1. Look in the book of Hebrews chapter
1. And I want to lay this down right from the beginning of the
message. If we ever really are given a faith view of God's glory
in the face of Christ. We'll never get over that. A religious experience, you can
get over that. A lot of people do. Somebody who walks down an aisle
and makes a decision at what they think is the altar down
front, they can get over that. Somebody who says, I want to
go into the waters of baptism. And they foolishly think that
in the waters of baptism they'll wash their sins away, which will
never happen that way. They may get over that, and they
will get over that eventually. But if God the Spirit ever reveals
to us That glory that is in the Son of God. That is something
we'll never, we'll never get over. Moses didn't get over being
in the presence of God for 80 days, and 40 of those days, he
was viewing the glory of God. He didn't get over it. There
was a difference about him. He had been keeping different
company in all of those days that he
was with the Lord. The personal issues of his life,
his family, the children of Israel, all the daily responsibilities
that he had, they all seemed to disappear there in the presence
of Him who is God's glory. And I know that while we live
in this life, we still have our duties, we still have our responsibilities,
we have our families, we have things that we must take care
of, and we know that things that must occupy a portion of our
time. But I'll tell you in the heavens,
glory. we shall be totally absorbed
with this one who is the very glory of God, Christ Jesus. And then, it can truly be said,
the things of this earth will grow, not only dim, but invisible
to us. And even now, those of us who
have seen the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus, who
have seen God's glory in His saving grace, in the way in which
He reveals Himself in His mercy to us, when we see and understand
and realize with a faith understanding of the necessity of Calvary,
and of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that He who
died for us has always loved us. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. He purposed to come into this
world and lay down His life for us to save us because of His
infinite love and grace to us. He endured God's justice for
us. He felt the rod of God's wrath
in his soul. If we ever see our Lord as our
substitute, and as the satisfier of divine justice, we shall then
behold His glory. We'll never get over it. The
gospel won't become wearisome to you. You won't get tired of
hearing of Christ and Him crucified. You'll not grow weary of hearing
of the grace of God. And every time you enter in the
door, you'll say, Pastor, tell us the story again. Set it before
us again. Tell us of Him who satisfied
law and justice for us. Tell us of Him who loved us from
all eternity, that One who is our surety, the surety of the
everlasting covenant. For you see, it is in Him that
we see God's glory. Look here in Hebrews chapter
1. Hebrews 1.1, God, who at sundry
times and in diverse manners spake in time, passed unto the
fathers by the prophets, Hebrews 1.2 now, hath in these last days
spoken unto us by His Son. He's God's messenger. John identifies
Him as the Word of God. He is the Word of God. He hath
in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds, who being
the brightness of God's glory." Get that. Well, creation shows the glory
of God, but not the brightness of His glory. Well, divine providence, God
working all things out, fulfilling His predestinated purpose. God
directing all things to the end which He Himself ordained. We
see something of the glory of God there, but not the brightness
of His glory. The brightness, the word is effulgence, The brightness of God's glory
is only seen in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His sacrificial
death for sinners. So, who, let's continue reading,
being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His
person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power, when
He had by Himself purged our sins." There is His glory. What did He do? He purged Himself
our sins. There was no one with Him because
no one could assist Him. Your faith in believing Him,
your repentance in repenting of dead works and idolatry, those
things do not add to the purging of sin. Only one sacrifice could
purge us of our sins. That's the sacrifice of that
One who is the brightness of God's glory. And once He did that, He sat down. on the right hand
and the majesty on the high. What does this indicate that
He sat down? His work was finished even as
He spoke upon the cross shortly before He died. It is finished. All the Old Testament prophecies
and pictures of His death, they're finished. They're finished. That salvation He came to accomplish,
it's finished. That righteousness He came to
work out by His obedience unto death, it's finished. the removal
of all of the transgressions and all of the iniquities and
all of the sins of His people, He put them away. It's finished. It's finished. And therefore He sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high. You know, our Lord, He did reveal
to His disciples while He was on this earth something of His
glory. Turn back to Matthew chapter
17 if you would. Go back to the first book of
the New Testament. Matthew chapter 17. I direct your attention to just
a few verses here. Matthew 17 and verse 1. You know, our Lord, He is divine. He didn't cease to be divine
when He came. He just joined His deity to our
humanity, to our flesh. Which this flesh, I suppose the
best way to describe it, it veiled His glory. It veiled His deity. But make no mistake about it,
it was still there. He was still God over all, blessed
forever. But one day, he took his disciples,
three of them, Peter, James, and John, up on a mountain. He
just said to them, let's go for a walk. Come with me. He chose these three. Why did
He choose the other man? Well, he's the sovereign Savior. He's the sovereign reveal of
the secrets of God. He just chose these three men.
So we read, Matthew 17, verse 1, And after six days Jesus took
Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high
mountain apart, that is, apart from the rest. and he was transfigured
before them. And his face did shine as the
sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there
appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said
unto Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If thou wilt,
let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses,
and one for Elijah. While he yet spake, behold, a
bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the
cloud which said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased. Hear ye him. And when the disciples heard
that, they fell on their face and they were sore afraid. And
later, John will write a little bit about it. Peter will also
write something about this. in 2 Peter chapter 1. But John
writes about this later in his first book, in the book of John,
the Gospel of John, chapter 1 in verse 14. He says, "...and the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." He pitched his tent
among us. And then John says, "...and we
beheld His..." What's the next word? Glory! Well, when did they
behold His glory? Right here. They beheld His glory. And then He went on to say, "...the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, who is full of
grace and truth." Remember that Moses, he had prayed
back in Exodus 33, Lord, show me Thy glory. And all the goodness
of God passed before him there in chapter 34. And God said before him, sovereign
mercy and sovereign grace. And this glory was in association
with God taking, as it were, the rod of His justice and cracking
a rock open. And then putting Moses in the
rock where he was safe. Oh, behold the glory of God in
our salvation. In our salvation. All of His goodness, all of His
mercy, all of His grace is in His darling Son. All of the love
of God is in Christ. There's no love, grace, or mercy
anywhere else except in Christ. And He was put to death by the
Father. And in that death, we were in
Him, having been put in Him by the Father Himself, by the grace
of God. And there we behold that glory
of God. We behold the majesty of God. the wonders of God's grace in the Savior. Let me give you
a couple more references. Look at John 17. John chapter 17. A marvelous portion of Scripture
because here we are enabled to listen in on Savior's high priestly prayer. And make no mistake about it,
this is the Lord's Prayer. That which men commonly refer
to as the Lord's Prayer, that's a pattern prayer for His disciples. They have said, teach us to pray. But if you want to hear Him pray,
you go to John 17. And he has, of course, many,
many things to say and to pray about. He prays for his people. He says, I pray not for the world.
I pray for those that you've given me. But he says this in
his prayer. Verse 24. Father, I will. You can't pray like that. You have to pray the Father's
will. We can't will anything. But He says to God, this is My
will! This is one equal with God. Father,
I will that they also whom Thou hast given unto me, given me
in the covenant of grace and divine election, the sheep given to the shepherd,
I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where
I am. And for most people, they just
pretty much end the sentence right there. I want to go to heaven. I want to walk the streets of
gold. I want to enter in through the gates. I want to be in paradise. But he says, he gives here a
specific reason that he prays this prayer. That they may behold
my Glory which Thou hast given me, for
Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Lord, show me Thy
glory. That's what Moses prayed. And for 40 days, he got a little
glimpse of heaven. That's right. He got a little
glimpse of heaven. It lasted 40 days, but such was
the brilliance of the God of grace and mercy in the face of
Jesus Christ, it affected Him even on this earth. What are we going to do in heaven? The departed saints of God, what
are they doing now? They're beholding the glory of
God in the face of our Lord Jesus. Can I give you another reference?
Revelation 21. Revelation chapter 21. John is here. He gets a glimpse
into heaven. The Lord in this last vision
that He gives to John, He shows him heaven's majesty, the wonders
of that great city of God. And then He gives this piece
of information in chapter 21, verse 23. and the city that is heaven. The city had no need of the sun,
nor of the moon to shine in it. For the glory of God did lighten
it. And the Lamb is the light thereof. Such is the brightness, such
is the glory, such is the majesty of our Lord Jesus that in heaven
we will not need that sun that's shining outside now. And we won't
need a moon at night or the stars at night because there is no
night there. And in the presence of Him who
is the S-O-N of God, the S-U-N of righteousness, in the presence
of Him who is the very glory of God, even the sun that shines
by day will be invisible. It's sort of like you go out
on a night that's really clear. And you look up and you see the
bright moon shining. And there are all these stars. Oh, they just twinkle. There's
such a beauty there. And then it gets toward the dawning
of another day. And if you are out watching as
the sun begins to make her appearance, all of those stars will slowly
disappear. and eventually the moon will
disappear due to the brightness of the sun. In heaven's paradise,
all other things will vanish away in the brilliance, in the
brightness, the glory of the Son of God. Go to 2 Corinthians 4. Look at verse 5. We preach not ourselves. We don't
preach our church. We don't preach our denomination.
We don't preach our opinions. We preach not ourselves, but
we preach Christ Jesus the Lord. And ourselves, here's what the
apostle writes, he says, we're your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has yet shined in our hearts, to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Where can I see the glory of
God? By faith you see the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. But He has to give you light
to see that light. You see, the psalmist says, the
Lord, He's the fountain of life. And in thy light, we see light. It's like this. People who, you
know, you wish they'd come to church, you wish they would watch,
you wish they would have interest in the gospel, but they don't.
They don't. You can't get upset about that.
They just don't. But once they see the glory of
God in Christ, in His substitutionary sacrifice, in His just as satisfying
death, once you see that in Him God is a justifying God and a
saving God and a gracious God and a merciful God, Once you
see the death of our Savior and His resurrection, like Moses,
you won't get over it. Nobody will have to beg you to
come and hear the Gospel. Nobody is going to have to bribe
you. The preacher is not going to have to get on the telephone
and say, boy, I hadn't seen you. Are you kind of nervous about
things? Are you watching on the internet?
No, no. I have other things that have
got to be taken care of. I have other factors in my life
that are important, preacher. Do you understand, preacher?
I understand far more than you think I do. It's only when you see in God's
glory in the face of Christ. That's when suddenly you'll be
different. You'll be different. And go back
to my text just real quick, and I'm going to have to leave some
things for tonight. But let me just show you this.
Here in Exodus 34. It says here that he came down
from the mountain. Look at verse 29. He came down
from the mountain that Moses wished not that the skin of his
face shone while he talked with him. In other words, this wasn't
a change that he brought about. He didn't even realize anything
happened. The ones who noticed something
happened was people who observed him. Now, this is where the Armenians
especially say, you know, if the Lord ever does something
for you, you'll be different, you'll dress different, you'll
talk different, you'll comb your hair different. Well, if you're
an outwardly wicked person, it will bring a change. There's
no question about that. To the woman caught in adultery,
our Lord said, go and sin no more. Stop this lifestyle. But it really isn't so much an
outward change. That's where the legalists go. They run too. It's an inward change. And it's
evidenced by, you'll love to speak of His glory and you'll
love to hear His gospel. You'll be different. But you didn't bring about the
change. And you know what? The Scripture
says, the last of verse 30, that people were afraid to come not
to Him. Let me tell you something. If
you ever see Christ's glory, the people you hang with, they will observe, maybe not
so much in your outward behavior, But in your speech of loving
Christ, they won't be comfortable in
your presence. Not really. Because you've got
a different goal now. Your life's different. You've
seen the majesty of Christ. Now we deal with people, and
we're kind with people, and we certainly, all of those things
are true, but they're gonna be, you can't talk, and some of you,
you'll know this, you can talk about everything under the sun,
but you can't talk about religion. I mean, they don't want you to.
And the reason is because it makes them uncomfortable. And
the reason they're uncomfortable is you're speaking of glorious
things that they've never witnessed. You know what the difference
is between a believer and an unbeliever? The believer has
seen the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And the
unbeliever, they haven't. And they never will. Till God
takes them up on the mountain. Till He gets you all alone with
Himself. For 40 days. Moses and the Lord. And I say that's just a little
foretaste of what heaven's going to be like. We're going to behold
His glory. That is, after all, request Moses
made. Show me thy glory. When you come
up here on this mountain, I'm going to show you something you
ain't seen before. You didn't see this the first
40 days you was up here. Boy, I tell you this time, he's
different. He's different. He's got eyes that have beheld
God's glory in the face of Christ. Well, I'm going to come right
back to this passage tonight because there's actually a New
Testament passage of scripture that is the best exposition on
this portion of scripture of any portion of scripture at all.
Let's sing a closing song and we'll just sing one verse of
198. One verse of 198. There is power
in the blood.