Exit is 33. Exit is 33. Sweep over my soul Sweep over
my soul Sweet spirit Sweep over my soul My joy Let's start reading
here in verse 18. You know that Moses is the one
speaking. And he's speaking to the Lord
and he said, I beseech thee, I beg thee, I ask thee, I entreat
thee, show me thy glory. Show me thy glory. And he said,
I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. And 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
and he said thou canst not see my face for thou shalt no man
see me and live and the Lord said behold there is a place
by me and thou shalt stand upon a rock and it shall come to pass
while my glory passes by that I'll put thee in a cliff of the
rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by and I'll
take away my hand and thou shalt see my back parts but my face
shall not be seen you know when we Sovereign mercy
is what I will talk about tonight. Sovereign mercy. You know the whole testament is when you start with the book
of Genesis it's called the book of beginnings. That's where any
truth you find there is where the foundation of it starts.
You find the truth there it will carry out throughout the Bible.
And that's the way it is you know when you get to Exodus We
have this precious, precious truth about our Lord Jesus Christ
and His redemptive work bringing us out with blood and power. Bringing us out of bondage like
He did Israel. Bringing us from being slaves
to being free men. Bringing us from being servants
of sin to being now servants of righteousness. And I tell
you what, then you know when he done all he did because he
made a promise to Abraham. And that Abraham's seed which
was going to be the Lord Jesus Christ. And the book of Leviticus
of course is about the gods of worship. The priesthood and the
sacrifices and the providing of means for his people to worship
him. But right here, we are fixing
to wind up the book of Exodus very soon. But it said here,
Moses did I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Now how in the
world does someone speak of the glory of God? How do you speak
of it? How do you describe it? He just
says, show it to me. I won't see it. And who is sufficient
for these things? To tell the glory of God. Describe
Him. How do you describe Him? Is not
the buying? Not the buying and longing of
the redeemed? Is it not the heart longing of
the redeemed? And the goal of our redemption?
to see the glory of God. To see God's glory. One of these
days we'll see it as He is. And you know I'll tell you something.
I can show you in the scriptures that we're going to reach that
goal. We're going to see God's glory. Look with me in Revelations
22. I want to show you. Our goal
is to behold the glory of God. That's what Christ redeemed us
for. To see God's glory in the face, in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I tell you, that's the longing
of our hearts. That's the longing of our souls.
To see God's glory. Look what he said here in Revelation
21-22. And I saw no temple therein,
for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon to shine in it. Now listen to this, for
the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof. That's where we are going to
end up. Start it out over here in Exodus. Show me thy glory. And we end up seeing that city
where God is the glory and the Lamb is the light. That's our
end. He says show me your glory. And
you know the only people interested in that is people that have had
fellowship with God. Fellowship with God Moses had
intimate fellowship with God look there in verse 11 back over
here in Exodus 33 Look here in verse 11 and the Lord spake unto
Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friends Then I'll tell
you what this is the thing about it the more you know of the Lord
Jesus Christ The more you know she played it more about Jesus
would I see I? More of His love and grace for
me. More of His saving fullness see.
More of His love who died for me. The more I know that you
know of Him, the more you want to know Him. And the more you
see God's glory, the more glory you want to see. You're never
satisfied with your sight. You're always longing and desiring
to see more. To know more. To hear more. And
that's what Moses said, but God, David said, lift up your light
on me. Lift up the light of your countenance
on me. Oh Lord, let your glory shine on me. Shine on me. And I tell you, we're going to
see His glory one of these days. We sit here, and I'll get into
that, but this should encourage us to pray. Moses prayed. And you know what he said, Lord?
I want to show you my glory now you know when if you was coming
to a king and you know this king had this great kingdom and had
all this wealth and all this power and all this ability would
you come to him and ask him just for a little bit you go to him
and ask him for a lot Well that's the way it is. You're talking
about a mouthful and asking for a lot. Show me your glory. What more can you ask of him
than to show you me glory? Oh, let us all come to him. One
old hymn writer said, we're coming to a king. Let us with him large
petitions bring. It's his honoring to him. And
then God said to him, the Lord spoke back to Moses. And he said,
I'll make all my goodness pass before you. I'll make all my
goodness. Now how in the world? That's
another thing. How can you describe God's goodness? God's glory is His goodness.
And here's the thing, human definitions, human definitions are worthless,
worthless to describe God's goodness. How can you possibly describe
God's goodness? People say it's the good Lord.
They say it like it's just Something that's that's they say so glibly,
but here he said I'll cause my goodness to pass before you God
said this is my goodness my goodness How do you talk about his goodness?
How deep is it? How wide is it? How high is it? How Full is it? How far does it reach? God's
goodness And his glory seen in his goodness You're talking about
good Good when that when that rich young ruler came to Christ
and said master good master. That's what he called him good
master And he is a good master But what
he was doing, trying to flatter the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
turned around and said, you're a good master. You're a good
teacher. You're a good rabbi. So tell
me what good thing I must do. And you know what Christ said,
there ain't nobody good but God. Either you're going to say I'm
God or you're going to hell. And he said I'm nobody's good
but God. And if there's any goodness comes
from a human being to another human being, it comes from the
goodness of God that he gives you to express that to somebody
else. And I tell you, you know, His
goodness is seen in what He says. Oh, listen to His words. How
good is God to say, come unto Me! How good is God to say, I'll
give My Son! How good is God to say, listen,
come unto Me and I'll give you! Oh, and His words, oh His words
are so good. It was good words to Moses when
he said, I'll cause all my goodness to pass before you. And then
you look at His deeds. How good are His deeds? Just
look at yourself. And you'll get some idea, just
a little idea of how good God is. Just look at what He's done
for you. Look back when you was a child. God was good to you from the
day you was born. He was good to you when you start
being raised up and He was good to you at all the days of your
life and then one day His goodness came to you and He made you know
how good He really is. There's never been a day that
God ain't been good to His people. And then, whoa, look at His gracious
acts, His majesty, His kindness, brought to one word, goodness. How good is God in creation?
The heavens declare His glory. The firmament shows His handiwork.
Every time that sun comes up, it's like a bridegroom. It says,
running a race. He runs all the way across the
sky and starts back. The moon comes and starts back.
And He said, you know what? Every time that sun comes up,
that's God speaking. And we see it. we see it all
my providence you read there all things all things work work
for good nothings bad for good to who? them that love God to
them that are called according to His purpose There's never
been any bad thing ever happened to me. Nothing. You say that's a foolish thing
to say. It couldn't possibly be bad.
Because God said it's good. Are we going to call Him a liar? He said it worked for your good.
Everything that's happened in our lives, everything, And I
know it's hard for us to grasp that and get that, but He's good
at making everything come to pass that works in our life to
make everything work for our good. He's going to one of these days
bring us down to our sick bed, bring us down to our last breath,
and whatever it is He uses to bring us down there, it's going
to be good because we're going to end up in glory. And then
we'll see the goodness of God. Now ain't that something? Oh my, that blesses my heart.
Oh my, and oh how good He was. to his people and our Lord Jesus
Christ for God to be good to a creature to a creature that's
something and we should be thankful for it but that he should be
good to a sinful creature now that's goodness that he would give his son As their substitute. As their
sin offering. As their sacrifice. As their
salvation. To be their all in all. That's
goodness. That the Holy Spirit should come
to us one day in the gospel. And make His goodness. And to
make His glory. And to make His salvation. And
to make Christ known unto us. That's goodness. No wonder Moses
said show me your glory. I'll show you what it is. I'm
going to show you goodness. And his goodness lies not only
in what he does, but his goodness lies in his sovereignty. Look
what he says again, I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before you.
I'll proclaim the name of the Lord for you. Now go back to
Exodus 3. Go to Exodus 3. What is God's
name? I was asking Gary the other day,
I said, you know he's got Adonai, Jehovah, Elohim, and they all mean some particular
aspect of God. and one of these days I'm going
to figure out what Adonai is and Elohim is and I know what
Jehovah means but I'm going to learn those things and find out
what they mean and I'll explain them to you one of these days
so if God said I'll explain it to you oh my look what he said
here in Exodus 3.13 Moses said unto God behold when
I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them the God
of your fathers has sent me unto you and they shall say to me
what is his name what am I going to tell them God said unto Moses
just say I am that I am I am that I am and he said thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel I am has sent me unto you. God said,
I am. What does that mean? That means
there's a time, there was a time that he wasn't. I am. In eternity,
I am. In time, I am. In eternity, I
am. Who are you? I am! I just am. Nobody like me. Nobody got a name like I do.
Nobody existed before I did. That wouldn't be a foundation
on this earth if I had to put it here. That wouldn't be a pillar
to hold up the earth if I didn't put it here. Who sent me down
here? I am. Well, I say, what's your name?
Donnie Bell. That don't mean nothing to nobody,
just a very few people. But when God says, I am, And
they understood that's what Christ meant when he said, before Abraham
was, I am. You know what the scripture says?
They pick up stones to stone him. What are you going to stone
me for? What good work? We're not going to stone you
for good work. We're going to stone you because you say you're
God. They understood clearly when
he said, I am, that he was who he was talking about. The same
one that spoke to Moses on that mountain, that's why they pick
up stones to stone him. Because he said, I am. Oh my. And then look what he says back
over here in our text. His goodness lies in his sovereignty.
Oh, I love the sovereignty of God. I just love it. And I will be gracious. To whom? You see, to whom I will. God's not bound to be gracious
to no one. But he said, I will be gracious.
I'll be gracious. He's not bound to be gracious
to anyone. And then I'll show mercy to whom
I will show mercy. Why does grace come first and
mercy come second? That happens in a lot of the
epistles that Paul wrote. Because grace was given us in
Christ before the world began. That's the first thing that God
does. He gives grace. We're saved by grace. Chosen
by grace. Saved by grace, kept by grace,
upheld by grace, will be taken to glory by God's blessed grace. We will not add one thing to
our salvation. God said, I will be gracious
to whom I will. That's why our Lord said, are
you mad at me because I will do what I will do? Don't it all
belong to me? One fella come out, give him
a penny. Work 4 hours, give him a penny. Work 12 hours, give
him a penny. That's not right. We worked all
day. He said, I don't care what. He said, it's not right for me
to do what I will with my own. And that's what people, they
don't like the idea that... Listen. Whatever belongs to you,
I don't care what you do with it. If you got a... If it belongs to you, I don't
care what you do with it. It's yours. It belongs to you.
God gave it to you. I don't care what you do with
it. And if we're that way, and ain't nobody's business what
we do, it ain't nobody's business what God does. But He is. He said, I'll be gracious. Do you know how many people He's
not been gracious to in this world? But he said, I'll be grace. Grace is first in choosing us,
loving us, providing for us, keeping us. Oh my. And then mercy. Mercy. Oh mercy. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. Mercy is for those who are in
distress, who feel a need. We come to the throne of grace
to obtain mercy. When? In time of need. We come for help. Mercy is for
people that's in distress. Huh? And I tell you what, ain't
that what we preached on last week there in verse 7 of chapter
34? Keeping mercy. Merciful and gracious. Keeping mercy for thousands.
And mercy is for those who are in distress, for those who have
failed, for those who are pitiful, for those who need pity. And
I'm going to say something right here and I can prove it. I can
prove this. Mercy, mercy throughout this
Bible is only manifested to God's people. He never shows mercy
to anybody but His own. Do you know that? Oh, listen. You know what he said? I will show mercy. You know what
he calls us in Romans 8, 9? Vessels of mercy. Vessels of
mercy. When that publican went to the
Lord and beat on his heart, he said, God be merciful to me. Now listen to what he said. The
sinner. Huh? And ain't you, how many
times have you, you've been pitiful. I mean you've been in distress.
Real distress. I mean in such desperate need
and all you can say, Lord be merciful. Show me mercy. Wake up in the middle of the
night, oh God be merciful to me. If you please let me go back
to sleep. Huh? Oh my. When Job, you know,
I wanted you to see this in Jude. Jude, that last little book before
the book of Revelation. Look at this verse right here.
Jude, that last little verse before Revelation. Last little
chapter. Look in verse 21. Depths of mercy,
can there be mercy still reserved for me? Oh, mercy, mercy, mercy. mercy
mercy look what he said here in Jude 21 keep yourselves in
the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life looking what? looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ I should have looked it up but
there's a place where Paul said I pray that he obtain mercy in
that day. Obtain mercy of the Lord in that
day. Oh my, ain't you glad that he's
God? And grace is in his hands to
give it to whom he will. And that he's merciful and he'll
show mercy to whom he will. He said, you can will all you
want to, and you can run all you want to. But he said, there's
one thing I know, it's not of him that willeth, it's not of
him that runneth, but it's of God that shows mercy. My will and my desire is to see
people know Christ. To enjoy Christ. To have the
peace of Christ. The joy of Christ. That we enjoy.
That we enjoy God. I enjoy God. Don't you? I enjoy
Christ. I enjoy my salvation. I enjoy
God's book. I enjoy you. I enjoy it. If I enjoy it here, imagine what
it's going to be like here. But I enjoy it. And wouldn't
you love the people that you know and love? Wouldn't you love
them to be brought to enjoy it the way we do? This is enjoyable. Isn't it? Then look what he says here.
And he said to Moses, he's still talking to Moses now. He says,
Moses you can't see my face. He just said he talked with him
face to face. For there shall no man see me
and live. You know the last message that Cody Gruber preached here?
Whose can a man see God and live. That's the last message he preached
here. In September. And he died that November. The
Lord called him home November. But that's what it was the title
of his message. And that was the verse he used right there.
Can a man see God in him? Yes he can. But you know where
you see him at? You see God's glory in Christ
Jesus. That's where you live. That's
why he told Moses, no man can see me and live. And so he gave
him a way to see and live. And you know where he gave him
the place to see him and live? It's in a rock. But not only did he say, put
him in that rock, but he said, I'm going to make you stand on
the rock. Look what he said. And the Lord said, behold, there's
a place right here. Right here by me. Right here. In my right hand. Now he sits on his throne. It
is in his right hand. And he said, thou shalt stand
upon a rock. There's a rock right here. On
Christ the solid rock I stand. Huh? Christ is that rock. He's the rock. Our rock is our
salvation. Our rock is greater than their
rock. Oh my. And it shall come to pass And
it will, it always does. While my glory passes by, now
listen, I love this right here. I will, you see what he said,
I will. He didn't say crawl in there,
sneak in there, hope you can make it in there. But he said,
I am gonna put you in the cleft of that rock. There's a little
cleft in there. And Christ had a side that was
riven. His side was riven with a spear. And His side was open. And blood
and water came out of that side. Blood to cleanse us from sin,
water to wash us and sanctify us. And He said, I'll put thee
in the cleft of the rock. Oh my goodness. And then He said, and I'm going to cover you with
my hand. It's one thing I put you there,
then I'm going to put you in my hand. I'm going to keep you
in my hand. Put my hand right there. Our Lord said, Father they're in my hand, they're
in your hand. And Tim James said, well that's
a double fisted salvation. God's got you in both hands.
Hand of the Lord and the hand of God. Whose hand? Well that's wonderful hands to
be in. Oh what hands to be in. And oh
my. And then he put him in and he
said and I'm going to cover you with my hand while I pass by. I'm going to pass by you Moses.
I'm going to pass by you. I've done everything for you.
I've done everything for you Moses. And then when I put you
in there, I'm going to take away my hand. And you're going to see my back
parts. But my face shall not be seen.
I'm going to tell you something, beloved. We see through a glass
darkly right now. We're like Moses. We see through
a glass darkly. Don't we? I mean, you know, for
what little do we know about God, you could put a thimble wouldn't hold it. I mean
a thimble wouldn't be enough. You know, we wouldn't even fill
up a thimble with what we know about Him. We are such as to
look through a glass darkly. But I tell you what, that God
said put you in that cleft of the rock and apart from the Lord
Jesus Man cannot see and will not see the goodness of God. He will not see the glory of
God. He will not see the grace of God. He will not see the mercy
of God. Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ
and being in Him, man will never see God's sovereign rights to
do what he will and God's righteousness How to save, how he saves sinners
to his glory. Without Christ. Rock of Ages left for me. Let me. Oh Lord would you let
me. Would you just let me. Just let me hide. Myself in thee. Lord, be my hiding place. Let
me hide in you. Safest place to hide from God's
in God. Well, I told Cody Henson yesterday,
I said, I asked him to come preach, he won't be able to come, but
he said, boy, there's some places you go where it's so easy to
preach. And I said, yeah. I said, you know, preaching here
is like preaching to the choir. And the choir knows the songs
and they love to hear the songs over and over and over. So I don't mind preaching to
the choir. I'm going to go up north next week and preach to
that choir up there. And I'm going to sing the same
song. And they're going to enjoy the same tune. You know that? Amen. Our Father, O our Father, in
the precious, precious name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
O Lord, You're so infinitely, gloriously good. to your people. And Lord, we've experienced that
goodness and that grace today as we experience it every day.
But there's times, Lord, when you give us an abundance. Oh,
you make our cup absolutely run over. You make us so full that,
Lord, we just bless you and praise you and thank you. Thank you
for the day. Thank you for the gospel. Thank
you for your goodness. Thank you for your grace. Thank
you for your mercy given us in Christ our lord Jesus. Amen and amen. Rock of ages.