Moses made two great requests
unto God. He said, first of all, down here
in chapter 33 and verse 13, Now therefore I pray thee, Exodus
33, 13, Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in
thy sight, show me now thy way. manifest to me the way for two
reasons. Number one, that I may know Thee. That I may know Thee. And number
two, that I might find grace in Thy sight. Lord, show me the way so that
I'll know Thee. It is vital to know God. Our
Lord Jesus in John chapter 17, He said, this is life eternal. And we sit on the edge of our
seats and say, Lord, what is it? That we know God and His Son
whom He sent. Lord, show me the way to know
Him. This is life. This is salvation. To know God. There is one way to know God. That's through Christ who is
the way. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. Want to know God? Not the God that
modern religion preaches about, but the God of the Bible, the
God of all grace, the God of all glory, the God who rules
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and nobody can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest thou?
Do you want to know that God? The God who is holy. The God
whose name is holy and reverend. Do you want to know the God who
has all power, all authority over all things? There is a way
to know Him. But you only know Him in Christ
Jesus. That's the only way you can know
God. And then he says, the second reason is that I might find grace
in thy sight. He had already found grace in
the sight of God, because it's interesting the way this is worded. He says, look at verse 13 again. Now, therefore I pray thee, if
I have found grace in thy sight, then show me now thy way, that
I may know thee, and that I may find grace in thy sight. He already
had grace. But you show me any individual
who has tasted of the graciousness of God, he wants to know more
about that grace. And he wants more of that grace.
Lord, teach me of your grace. This is how you save sinners,
is by your grace. This is how you preserve sinners,
by your grace. This is how you glorify sinners,
by your grace. Well, where is this grace to
be found? The same One, Christ Jesus the
Lord. God's got no grace outside of
His Son. There's no salvation outside
of the doing and the dying of the blessed Lamb of God. So would you know God? And would you find grace in God's
sight? Here's the way. Christ is the
way. And this is what we need to always
be praying, Lord, show me thy way. Show me thy way. Man has many ways to God, many
ways to heaven. There's just one way to know
the true God. One way to know about the grace
of God, and that's in the Lord Jesus, our Savior. And then he
had a second request. He says in verse 18, he said,
I beseech thee to show me thy glory. That's a bold request. He just came down from the mountain. He spent 40 days and nights in
the presence of God. Moses, didn't you see his glory
then? And yet he asked for a greater
degree of the knowledge of the glory of God. Lord, show me thy
glory. And God said to him, and we do
well to listen up now, I will make all my goodness pass before
thee. Here's the title of the message,
All God's Goodness. Where can I find the glory of
God? Where can I see the glory of
God? Where is it that I can behold
the glory of God? In all His goodness. That's where
you'll find it. In all His goodness. That's a
bold statement. Lord, show me your glory." He
had seen all the miracles. He saw a bush burning that wasn't
consumed, and he heard the angel of God's covenant, the Lord Jesus,
speak to him out of the bush. Isn't that enough for you? Show
me your glory. Moses, you beheld all the plagues
that God brought upon the Egyptians. And then finally, the death of
the firstborn. You heard the hideous cries and
yelling and weeping of moms and dads throughout the land of Egypt. And you saw what God did to them. And isn't that enough for you? Lord, show me your glory. Moses, you saw the Red Sea. You
saw it open wide. And it's so wide that hundreds
of thousands of people, it wasn't just they go through in a single
file. They've got to go through a few
thousand wide, all together, shoulder to shoulder. And here
they are, and they all go through in one night. That wasn't a narrow
entrance through the Red Sea. It's very wide. And Moses, you
saw that God so opened that way so that they walked on dry ground. And all of them got safely to
the other side. And then you saw the waves come
back together and wipe away the most powerful military force
in all the world. Isn't that enough for you? Show me your glory. I want to
see your glory. You've seen manna come down every
morning, six mornings a week. You've seen water come forth
from a rock. Isn't that enough for you? The people today In some religious
circles, they're always looking for these miracles, you know.
Miracles of healing. That's what they want. Moses
said, I've seen enough to satisfy most men, but I want to see your
glory. And God said, I'm going to show
it to you. And here's where it's to be found.
In all my goodness. That's where it's to be found.
In all of God's goodness. I think that this revelation
of God to Moses as concerning all of His goodness falls into
three categories. First of all, there's the glory
of God seen in creation. The Scripture says, Psalm 33
and verse 5, the whole earth is full of the goodness of the
Lord. Psalm 19, 1, the heavens declare
the glory of God and the firmament His handiwork. You see, all of
creation is like a natural Bible. And all of creation preaches
to us every day something of the glory of God. All of creation
preaches to us of the might of the One who made everything. And the wisdom by which He made
everything. All of creation constantly preaches
to us. Who could ever look up into the
skies at night and see all the stars and all the different constellations
by which navigators have found their way across the oceans for
many years? Who could ever look at that and
not see something of the glory of God, something of the wisdom
of God? The sun, the moon, and the stars. All the lights that God has provided
for us. These reveal something of the
goodness of God. And God has richly, richly furnished
this earth for us. He provides animals, which some
of them are our pets, That dog of yours, that cat of
yours, that horse that you think so much of, that's the handiwork
of God. Thank you, Lord. And those animals
that are good for food for us, you say, well, I'm a vegetarian.
Well, bless your heart, but the Lord told Peter, rise, kill,
and eat. And God provided these animals
for us. I had a couple of pieces of bacon
this morning. Thank you, Lord, for the pigs. Thank you, Lord, for the grain
that fattened them. All of creation, it's full of
the glory of God. It's full of the goodness of
God. And look at yourself. God has marvelously made us with
intelligence. I know it's greatly marred due
to the fall. But I'll tell you what, man is
a miraculous creation of God. You can see, you can hear, you
can speak, you can touch, you can feel. Are you not whatever measure
of health you have now, yet are you not a walking miracle every
day? The way God keeps your heart,
that pump within you, keeps on pumping blood. We've got some
medical folks here who can tell us how many times a day the average
heart beats. And it moves all this blood through
our bodies. We're wonderfully and fearfully
made, is what the Scripture says. Well, who made us? God did. We have all of these provisions
that God has given to us. He sends the gentle rains that
water your gardens. He sends the warm sunshine. Oh, there's His goodness. You
say, yeah, but God sends Natural disasters as well. Yes, He does. And that's good too because He
warns us. He warns us. You better be ready
to meet God. That's what these disasters tell
us. Pestilence, disease, COVID. You better be hidden in the rock
Christ Jesus. Flee to Him. God's good. His goodness is seen in creation. And secondly, the goodness of
the Lord is seen in divine providence. God directing all things to the
end that He created. Why, the history of mankind. Here's a history teacher right
here for many years, and we have several other teachers in here,
and you taught history as well. The history of mankind is the
unfolding of the goodness of God to our race. Behold the goodness
of God from the very beginning. He created man in His own image
and gave that man a help meat. And to them children, And He made the earth in such
a fashion as this earth is full of the goodness of God and full
of nourishing things and things that will sustain our lives for
however many years that God gives us. Scripture says He crowns the
year with goodness. We just finished up a year. That's
Psalm 65, 11, by the way. We just finished up a year. You
know what the word crowned means? He encircles the year. All of
last year, it was totally surrounded by the goodness of God. Isn't that wonderful? You see, when the angels fell,
that's it for them. God damned them. But man fell,
but that wasn't it for man. And I'll get into this more fully
in just a couple of minutes. But God sustained man. God kept him. God preserved him.
And He still does. And He provides for men and women
who actually curse His name. Isn't that something? You wouldn't
do that. You wouldn't do that to somebody
who was your enemy. You'd say, hey, I don't have
any more to do with them. Behold the goodness of God. He
sends His rain upon the just. Yeah, I'm not surprised. The
Lord sends rain to me. Hang on. He sends rain to the
unjust too. And He gives a measure of prosperity
to His people, whatever it is. But he also gives a measure of
prosperity. And indeed, we behold, even in
our own country, men who think nothing of blaspheming God, and
God has given them an abundance of prosperity. They keep on prospering. Don't
envy them. David said he envied them till
he saw their end. but the prosperity comes from
God. You see, creation and God's providence
keep on preaching to us. They're saying things about God,
about His might, about His knowledge, His wisdom, His provision. In fact, you read in Romans chapter
1, creation is such a manifold display of the goodness of God
that it holds men without excuse. Those two books, the book of
creation, Somebody said, the Bible of creation and the Bible
of providence, daily they witness to us. You read in Psalm 19,
the sun as it goes across our sky. It's preaching to you. What's it saying? I'm obeying
my master's will. And this earth that revolves
around the sun, what is it saying to us? Behold the power, the
might of my creator and sustainer. You know what the problem is?
We're not listening. Don't pay attention. Like the hogs in the pen underneath
the oak tree and the acorns fall, and they just munch up those
acorns as fast as they can and never look up to see where they
come from. That's the way most people are. And all of the good
things that God gives, not even really thankful. All these two Bibles, as it were,
creation and providence. We read them every day, paying
no attention to their message. Now listen, they manifest something
of the goodness of God. But there's some things that
creation and providence cannot tell us. They can't tell us how God can
be just and yet justify the ungodly. They can't tell you that. They can say this, we have a
powerful Creator who abundantly provides for you
all of this. But they can't tell you how you,
being a filthy sinner, can be made washed and perfectly white
in the blood of the Lamb. They can't tell you that. So that brings me to my third point,
the goodness of God. All the goodness of God. That's
what we're talking about. All God's goodness is seen in
salvation. All of His goodness. God says, I will be gracious and I will show mercy. Behold the goodness of God. While we rebelled against Him,
we've cursed His name, we've been unthankful, haven't worshiped
Him, yet the Lord says, I will be gracious. I will be gracious. To whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy to whom
I will show mercy. Listen, when the angels fell,
and I mentioned this a couple of minutes ago, when the angels
fell, God condemned them forever. And then man fell. Will he condemn
all men? Well, we're certainly deserving
of it. But he doesn't. He doesn't. So you mean God lessens
his justice when it comes to men, but he poured out all of
his justice and demonstrated his justice in dealing with the
fallen angels. Now, wait a minute. He's gracious. But He did not set aside His
justice. He will not set aside His justice
for anything. He is not going to show grace
or mercy to anybody at the expense of His broken law. When the angels fell, God said,
that's it for you. Adam fell. God didn't say that's
it for you. He still carried out the sentence
of death, God did, only He carried it out on a substitute. You see, the God of all grace,
He manifests all of His goodness in sovereignly bestowing His
grace on whom He will. Though we're ill deserving of
His grace and of His mercy, He doesn't withhold it from us. If you name the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ as your Savior, as your Lord, you understand
how God shows you mercy for Christ's sake. That's all the goodness
of God contained in there. All of it. And you know, I get quite a bit
of, encouragement when God says, I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. Why not me then? I will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy. What about me, Lord? Would you
show mercy to me? These are very encouraging words. God didn't write us off. He didn't
write off all of mankind. He didn't do that. He said, for
the glory of my grace, I'm going to save a remnant according to
the election of grace. The goodness of God. You see, when Adam fell, God
didn't stand idly by. God wasn't inactive. You listen to people speak today
about salvation, and it's presented in such a way that God having
sent His Son to make a possibility of salvation, now God stands
by and He watches to see Will we accept Him? God does not stand by idol in
our salvation. He is the only one who is active
in salvation. You've got to know that. He's
the only one. The center is passive. Lord, show me your glory. I'll
cause all my goodness to pass before you. And I'll tell you
in this salvation that is due to the goodness of God, it is
an endless parade of the goodness of God. It's just one glorious
truth after another, beginning with the covenant of grace, God's
election of some unto salvation. God's appointment of His own
Son to be our Savior, to be the surety of the everlasting covenant,
to be our substitute, to be the sacrifice for our sins. He didn't
stand idly by. God is not a spectator in salvation. He's the one who saves. I mentioned
Wednesday night to those who were here. I had an opportunity
to speak to a person this week about the salvation of sinners.
And I said, well, just tell me, what do y'all believe? She told
me the church she went to. And I said, well, what do y'all
believe about salvation? She said, well, to get saved,
you have to believe the virgin birth. You have to believe the
perfect life of Jesus. You have to believe he died,
was buried, and rose again the third day. and you have to believe
He's in heaven now, and you have to believe He's coming again.
Let me tell you something. The devil believes those things.
He knows they're a fact. There's no doubt in his mind.
So is he saved? And the presentation she made
to me, and I listened. And I wasn't harsh with her,
but I was truthful with her. But her presentation of salvation
puts God as a spectator, and the sinner is the one active. Let me tell you something, if
God remains a spectator to you concerning salvation, you're
as good as hell right now, as if you were there. If that's all God does to you,
He just watches. There's no hope for you. See,
the only hope we've got is that God will take this thing and
He'll work it out Himself. It's God who worketh in you. That's what Paul said. To will
and to do of His good pleasure. Lord, don't stand idly by. Lord, don't be a spectator. Be
active. God was active and we see the
goodness of God in leading us to repentance. Romans chapter
two verse four says that. Don't you realize it's the goodness
of God that leads you to repentance? John the Baptist came forth preaching
repentance. Our Lord Jesus came forth preaching
repentance. And then we read in Romans two
and verse four, don't you know it's the goodness of God that
leads you to repentance? You'll never turn from every
wrong way to the right way that is Christ Jesus, apart from the
goodness of God. It's the goodness of God that
turns you. Turn us, O Lord, and we shall be turned. Do we not read every good gift
and every perfect gift, where it's come from? From God. Well,
what about faith? That's a gift, isn't it? Ephesians
chapter two, verses eight and nine. Faith's good. Well, that means it didn't come
from you because you know what the Bible says about us? There's
none that doeth good, no, not one. And it leaves us out. You see, all goodness that there
is, is God. It's in God, all of it. And it's the goodness of God
that deals with us in a way of salvation. And I'll tell you this, the glory
of God's salvation is especially seen, the goodness of God is
especially seen in the, get it, cleft of the rock. That's where you get the greatest
view of God's glory and of the goodness of God. The Lord told Moses, you can't
see my face and live, but there's a rock. I got to believe this. First Corinthians 10 says this,
that rock was Christ. There's a rock. God said, I'm
going to cleft it. I'm going to split it. And I'm
going to take you and lift you up and put you in there. And from there, from that view,
you'll see my glory. See, really, nobody else can
see a view of all the goodness of God and the glory of God except
you be in Christ. That's where you behold God's
glory. The glory of how He saved sinners. He chose us. He redeemed us. He called us. He quickened us.
He preserves us. He will perfect us. Where do
you see all of this? The glory of the forgiveness
of all of our sins. The glory of being robed in the
righteousness of the Savior. Where do you see all of this?
You see it best from the cleft of the rock. When God puts you
in Christ, I know He puts sinners in Christ, put us in Christ before
the world began. He joined us to Him. And we were
put in Christ when He died for us, settled the justice of God
for us. And at conversion, He puts us
in Christ and we see we are complete in Him. He's our all in all. And I'll tell you, if you're
in Christ Jesus, you look at what God's done for you, and
you say from the bottom of your heart, I see all the goodness
of God now. I see through a veil, through
a glass, darkly. But I see it. I see the glory
of His grace, the glory of His goodness. that He didn't leave
me where He found me. He saved me. And He's keeping
me. He's taking me on to glory. I
see the goodness of all the Trinity. You know, there's a statement
in Psalm 23. Of course it begins, and many
of us can quote it, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And you get down to the last
verse, it says, surely, what's the next word? Goodness. Whose goodness is it? Well, it's
gotta be God's goodness, there's no goodness anywhere else. Surely
God's goodness, all of God's goodness, You see, His glory
is wrapped up in His graciousness to chosen sinners and all of
His goodness follows us. Well, how long? All the days
of our lives. You're talking about being secure. The shepherd is leading us And
then all of the Trinity in the goodness and the glory of His
grace follows us. Goodness and mercy follow us. All the days of our life, and
therefore, Like David, we can say with great confidence, I
will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And it's because
of all God's goodness. Isn't that something? What a
subject. What a subject. Well, may you
know the grace of God and the glory of His grace. through Christ
our Savior. Turn to 236. Let's sing this. Amazing Grace, if you need a
song book.