And we're running if you would
please turn to Exodus chapter 33 Exodus chapter 33 and I want
to read some I hope I hope very familiar passages of scripture
One in particular Exodus chapter 33 I'm going to
begin reading in verse 18 and He said these are the words
of Moses I beseech thee Show me thy glory And he said, this is the Lord,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee. And I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And we'll show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. And he said, thou canst not see
my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord
said, behold, there is a place by me. Thou shalt stand upon
a rock, and it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by
that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock and will cover thee
with my hand while I pass by. and I will take away mine hand
and thou shalt see my back parts but my face shall not be seen. I've entitled this for Paul's
benefit since he ain't here, I will be gracious. I will be
gracious. I've been looking at this for
a couple, three weeks and I've had it in my head and I finally
got it down on paper and I hope It's a blessing because it was
a blessing to study. But the first thing I want to
say today here in this place and before you all is that I,
this is me personally, I love grace. I love grace. I love mercy also. However, I
do know that his mercy, his compassion, his love, is gracious. Our Lord is gracious. Father, Son, and Spirit is gracious. I'll say it again, I love grace.
However, I will specify that statement because of what goes
on around us and what other people, if they put this on the TV, have
heard. I love God's grace. And there's a world of difference
between the grace around us, the grace in most churches and
the grace what that is revealed and taught in the scriptures. Because lots of people use the
word grace badly, but they use it. Because when they describe the
grace they're talking about, it's always a mixture of grace
and works. Or they're talking about saying
a blessing over some food. Let's say grace. Walter always
threatened to just bow his head and put his hands together and
say grace. Exactly. Well, see, I used to say that
when I was a kid. That's what we said. And then
we repeated a prayer. Same prayer every meal, every
time. That ain't grace. It's not even
prayer. The Lord doesn't work that way.
The Lord doesn't need you to supplement his grace with your
works. That's not God's grace. This
is the third time, I looked it up, this is the third time the
word gracious is used in the scripture. In Genesis 43 and 29, Joseph
tells Benjamin, God be gracious unto thee, my son. Now that's
when Benjamin didn't know who Joseph was in Egypt. In Exodus 22 and verse 27, the
Lord says, I will hear, for I am gracious. But here in Exodus
33, We have the third mention of the word gracious, ah, but
more, we have the first definition. The first exposition of gracious,
of God's grace. Therefore, I think I need to
give the more earnest heed to it. because the first truth about
the grace of the Lord is carried on and expounded upon throughout
all the rest of the scriptures. But this is where it starts. And it starts with this, Moses
saying, and I beseech ye, show me, what? Thy glory. Now, let's be clear here. There is no way to see the glory
of the Lord unless he shows you his glory. Moses had been talking
with God. God had been talking with Moses.
This is Exodus 34. They're out of Egypt. They've
been through all the plagues. They've been through the talking
with Pharaoh. They've crossed the Red Sea. Stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. But here in 33, Moses is telling
God, let me see your glory. Let me see your glory. He hadn't
seen it up till then. Not this glory. It had happened
to him, but it hadn't been explained to him. This is the thing. Let me see your glory. Let me
see your glory. Moses knew this. The only way
to see the glory of the Lord is for the Lord to show you his
glory. Men don't know this, okay? Men do not know this. They think
they can see God's glory in nature, oh, in trees and sky. Now, the
heavens reveal the glory of God, his handiwork, but that ain't
the same thing as the Lord showing you his glory. You're not gonna
learn anything of the truth, the character, the holiness,
the righteousness, the grace, or the mercy of God looking at
trees. Now, I like trees. I like them
fine. I love creeks and waters and
rivers and I love waterfalls. And I see the handiwork of God
in all of that. But that is nowhere near the
case for the glory of God. That might tell you, if you've
got half a brain, that maybe God is. But that's not gonna
tell you anything about him or his work. All we see in that is his handiwork
that man is in the process of trying to defile. And here's
the thing, God's glory cannot be defiled or polluted by man. Not God's glory. His handiwork,
maybe. He's allowed us to go on out
and tear things up, to pollute things, but never his glory. He's jealous of his glory. So what was God's response to
this? What was the Lord's response to this statement? And he said,
and he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. First three words, I will make. I will make. These are the words
of the Lord of glory. These are the words of the Lord
of hosts. These are the words of the creator.
I will make. He's the only creator. He's the
only creator. This book is a book of the work
of God, the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. This book clearly
shows the work and the behavior of men in their obedience and
in their rebellion. But this is not a book of man.
This is a book of God. He's the only creator. And what
does he say when he says, show me thy glory? The first thing
he says is, I will make. The glory of God depends solely
upon God and no one else and nothing else. This is a book of his work. And when he makes something,
guess what? It's made. He said this, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee. All my goodness. God is the only good. His goodness
is unique. Singular goodness. His goodness is holy. His goodness
is intrinsic to his being. There's no way for God to be
anything but good. Because he is goodness. But here's the thing. God's glory
is seen in his goodness. And he's gonna explain exactly
how. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord because his name is his glory. In the name of the Lord,
in the true name of the Lord, not the one that men preach,
but in the Lord that's in this book, his name is his glory. How can a man know God? There's
only one way. God has to proclaim his holy
name, his own holy name. I wanna be clear about this. We endeavor to preach the gospel
here. This is what I wanna do. I wanna
preach the good news and bless, this is good news. I haven't
got to all of it yet, but this is good news. But here's the
thing, the gospel first came from God. The first part of it
we see is in Genesis 3 and verse 15 when he promises, he promises. that the seed of the woman will
bruise the head of the serpent. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ was promised
in Genesis 3.15 to come and defeat the serpent. The serpent had
beguiled Eve They had been cast out of the garden, getting ready
to be cast out of the garden. But before they went, the Lord
preached the gospel to them. He proclaimed his name. There's
one coming. There's one coming. And before the gospel came, before
you knew the gospel, before I knew the gospel, I knew
nothing of grace, of mercy, of redemption, of justification,
of sanctification, until, what? The revelation from the Lord. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord. What did he just say about Moses
at the end of chapter, verse 17? He told Moses, said, I know
thee by name. And Moses says, show me your
glory. He says, I'll make all my goodness pass before you.
And what, I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Here's the
good news, the gospel preached by God in the Old Testament. The only message, the only gospel
we have is thus saith the Lord. He has proclaimed his name. It
is a name above every name. It's the name of a man, Jesus. And every knee's gonna bow and
every tongue's gonna confess because of what and who Jesus
Christ is and what he has done. He is the description of his
name, Jesus. And here is the description of
his name that the Lord says he will proclaim. Four words, I
will be gracious. I will be gracious. Now, I looked this word up, just
read it in Strong's, and I really, really like this definition. Literally, literally, this word
means to stoop in kindness to an inferior. I fit there. I fit there. One of the reasons I like this
definition, well, you know, I give unmerited, unearned kindness
to inferiors. I will be gracious. In Exodus
22, he said, I am gracious. And here he says what? I will
be gracious. You know why he will be gracious?
Because he is gracious. But you know why I like this
definition? I like this definition because the natural man hates
it. And to be fair, I know that because
I am a natural man. At one time, all I was was a
natural man. And I really didn't like somebody
referring to me as an inferior mason. That offended me, Jack. That offended my pride. That's
OK. Sometimes my pride needed to
be offended. But I didn't like it. And I used to tell people,
no, I don't have any superiors. I have some equals, but I don't
have any superiors. But see, I had just come out of the Army,
and the Army and I had a few disagreements. They usually won,
but I escaped. Because you have to follow your
superior officer. You have to do with those of the superior
rank. And I knew some of these guys, trust me. But that's not
the point. The point is we are prideful
creatures. That's why men all around us
and why churches are full all around us preaching a God who
needs your help. Because it appeals to your pride.
It appeals to my pride. But grace, being gracious, is
the act of one who is superior, the superior, the only superior,
the superior above all, stooping to give kindness to its inferiors,
his inferiors. Man doesn't even like to think
he's inferior, and he sure doesn't want anyone else to say it. Please understand this When you
speak of the Lord Everyone else is inferior That's the way it is that's the
way it is I'm not gonna go and call us maggots again because
some people get offended by that But that's what we are in God's
sight Oh Jacob thou worm It wasn't just Jacob, it's all
of us. There's God, and then there's
everyone and everything else. But God stoops in kindness to
his inferiority. He says what? I will be gracious. This is a state of being for
the Lord. I will be gracious. I am gracious,
so I will be gracious. Does that offend you? I'm gonna tell you something. If
being an inferior offends you, you don't know grace. Because if the Lord is gracious
to you, you will know that you are inferior. You'll know some,
some of your sinfulness. And you will know some of your
depravity. Then he says this one statement,
and this is the one that will choke the mule. I will be gracious, to whom I
will be gracious. So here's the point. To whom
will God be gracious? He tells us, to whom he will. The only prerequisite for grace
is the will of God. That's it. That's all we have
here. There's no additions. There'll
be no subtractions. There's no addition. This is
it. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Now you understand, that's an
offensive statement to the natural man. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. Well, who do you think you are? Well, I'm nobody,
but he's God. You understand? He doesn't have anybody but inferiors.
The angels are inferior to God, much less man and worms in the
dirt. I'll let you have mercy on me. No, you're not gonna let anybody
have mercy on you. I'll have mercy, I'll have grace
on whom I will have grace. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. Man likes to think he has at
least in some small part in why or to whom God is gracious. But you won't find that in the
scripture. You'll find a lot of things you will do because
of God's grace. We are saved by grace, through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Lest any
should boast. Lest any should boast, because
we would. For we are his, what? Workmanship. Created in Christ
Jesus unto good works. And he doesn't stop there either. Which is ordained, ordained that
you should walk in them. Grace leads to works. Works don't get you grace. And
look in Romans 11, you can see Paul's definition of grace. If
it's grace, it's not works. If it's works, it's not grace.
They're separate. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. The only qualification is that
God is willing to show grace to a man. That's it. It's it. God's grace is totally
and completely tied to God's will, not the will of the flesh
and not the will of man, but of God. Oh, I've heard them. And you
can hear them in church. I pulled myself up by my own
bootstraps. I never had any bootstraps. I've made it all, done it all,
walked all the miles on my own two feet. And my personal favorite,
God helps those that help themselves. You know that's scripture, don't
you? No, it ain't. He helps those that can't help
themselves. That's grace. That's grace. Then he says this, I will show
mercy. God is merciful. What? Full of mercy. Full of mercy. This word is compassionate love. Grace and mercy, I will tell
you this, grace and mercy cannot be separated. I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. I will show mercy to whom I'll
show mercy. And guess what? They're the same
people. They're the same people. You
can't separate his grace from his mercy. Because I'm gonna
tell you something, there's no way for him to show kindness
to an inferior without showing mercy to that inferior. because
we are born sinners. We sin because we are sinners. And if he doesn't show us mercy
for our sins, that grace ain't gonna do me no good. Grace and
mercy are inseparable. And mercy comes from his grace.
It comes from His decision, His will to show grace, to show mercy
to His people. To whom will I show compassionate
love? The answer is the same as His
grace, to whom He will. To whom He will. You understand,
God is always holy to all people. God is always righteous. God
is always just. God is always, always perfect
and good and righteous and holy and just. God sees all, God knows
all, God has all the power all the time and God is gracious
and merciful to whom he will. God always has been, is now,
and shall always be particular in his grace and in his mercy. Understand, justice is on everyone.
Justice is upon us all. God's righteousness is totally,
totally, completely perfect righteousness. His holiness is totally and completely
righteous. His justice is completely righteous. But if he has grace and mercy
upon you, his justice fell upon his son and not on you. When he bore in his own body
our sins on the tree. His justice is perfectly satisfied
in you. What? Because of his grace and
his mercy to whom he will. His grace and his mercy are given
only by his will. Only by his will. What about
that verse? What verse? Well, you know what
verse. Second Peter's three in verse
nine. Second Peter chapter three verse
nine. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. See, God's not willing that any
should perish. Now I'm gonna tell you something
I have seen for my own eyes in books. You can sort of tell who's writing
this stuff by this verse right here. You see those two words
in the middle of this verse? To usward. In an Arminian book,
you will not see those words, you will see three little dots.
They call that an ellipsis. I call it a lie. Because they
will leave those two words out, Mason, every time. And I'm gonna
tell you something, every Arminian will do it. They'll quote this
verse, they'll say, oh, God's not willing that any should perish.
That ain't the whole verse. That's not the whole thought.
No, he's long-suffering, what? To us-ward. Not winning that
any should perish. That's the any he's talking about,
is the us-ward. And if you're not part of the
us-ward, you're not part of the any that should not perish. That's
the three words, the two words they leave out, or well, three
words, whatever, because they got us-ward, they got it hyphenated
here. They leave it out every time. Because if you read down
to what? Verse 15. Well, verse 14. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him,
of Christ, in peace, without spot, and blameless, and account
that the long-suffering, what? But is long-suffering to us word.
The long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. Even as our beloved
brother Paul, also according to the wisdom given unto him,
hath written unto you. God's grace and God's mercy are
only given according to his will. And that's it. That's all you
have. And he said, verse 20, thou canst
not see my face for thou shall no man see me and live. God said, you can't. No man shall
see my face and live. But he's gonna say, you're gonna
see. He says, no man shall see my face and live. You won't see all. But he does
speak to the ones whom he is gracious. He does speak to the
ones to whom he shows mercy. And you are going to see. Because
here, in verse 21, God says this. And the Lord said, behold. Behold. Take a look. Behold. There is a place by me. Now those are some words of grace
right there. And thou shalt stand upon a rock. Behold, because of my grace,
because of my mercy, behold, behold, because of my proclamation
of my name, behold, behold, God wants us to see some things and
God wants us to see someone. Now what are we to behold? There is a place by the Lord. Isn't that great? Isn't that great? There's a place
by the Lord. You won't know anything about
it until he shows you grace and mercy, but there's a place by
the Lord. And guess what? That place is
a rock. A rock. Behold the place that
is by me. And thou shalt stand upon a rock. There is a place for inferiors
because of his mercy and because of his grace. because that's
what I need. I need a place I can stand. The
only place you can stand is on his rock. That's the only place
by the Lord that you can stand is on his rock. There's a place
by me, he says, but it's a rock. Come on now. I like this. That's what I need, Mason. That's
who I need. I need the rock. I need the rock. That place by the Lord is the
place of the Son. What did the Lord say? He said,
I in them and thou in me. And we're gonna be one. We're
gonna be one. There's a place by me. Thou shalt
stand upon a rock. And I'm gonna tell you something
right here, right now. This rock is Christ. Just as much as that rock that
followed him around in the wilderness, Paul said that rock was Christ.
Well, this rock here is Christ. The place by me where you're
gonna stand, the only place by the Lord where you're gonna stand
is in the sun. In his sun. In the sun. Thou shalt stand upon a rock.
The rock Moses stood on because he was placed there because there
was a place by the Lord. That rock was Christ. And that's
the only place a man can stand on the rock Christ Jesus. And
if he has placed you there, guess what? You shall behold that place
by me. Who shall you behold? Verse 22, and it shall come to
pass while my glory passeth by that I'll put thee in the cliff
of a rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. Oh, goodness. And I will take away mine hand
and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. Guess what? I'm gonna put you
there upon a rock. There's a place by me to stand
on a rock, and I'm gonna put you up in the cleft of the rock. And when I take away my hand,
what did, he had his hand in front of Moses so he couldn't
see. But there comes a day, he takes that hand, and David, you
read it this morning. You're gonna see. It says he's
gonna see his back, you'll see his back parts, okay? Paul said
it. You're gonna see as through a
glass darkly. But bless God, you'll see. And
guess what? You're gonna see him. Him. He says, my face you shall
not see. Paul give us that great word
of hope that David read this morning. You see through a glass
darkly, but, but then, Later, we are going to see face to face. Mm, I like that. And I'll tell you this, once
you have seen him, you can never unsee him. Now my computer doesn't
think unsee is a word, but I made it in there. You understand? You can't unsee God, not if you've
seen him. The fellows on television after
us, they were talking about the book
of Romans and that some people think the book of Romans talks
about predestination arbitrarily. It ain't arbitrary, it's according
to his will. It ain't arbitrary, it's according
to his love. It's according to his choice, not my choice. And he says, well, you know,
does the book of Romans teach about predestination, being arbitrary? It's like, man, have you ever
read the thing? I mean, forget about everything,
how about Romans nine? I wanna hear somebody preach
from Romans nine and be an Armenian at the same time. Because I'm
gonna tell you something, you can't be truthful and do that.
When he takes of the same lump one vessel and makes it under
honor, and of the same lump makes another vessel under dishonor,
what did the vessels have to do with anything? It has to do
with the will of the potter. And guess what? I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. Matter of fact, I think it might
refer to this a little bit in Romans 9. And I will show mercy
to whom I will show mercy. Man will never see any part of
the Lord until it be given to him. How about it? Except it be given to him. Jesus Christ said, no man can
come unto me except the Father which has sent me to draw him.
No man can come unto me except it be given to him of my Father. Guess what? I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. I will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy. And I will take away my hand
and thou shalt see. Thou shalt see. When God gives you life and God
opens your ears, he opens your eyes, he opens your heart, you
can't help but see. Now you're not gonna see his
face. You're not gonna see everything. You'll see through a glass darkly,
but you will see him. Everyone that sees the son and
believes on him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up
at the last day. I will raise him up. What can we say to these things?
Let God be true and every man a liar. Believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, believe his words. Psalms 116 verse five says this. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yay! Our God is merciful. Merciful. Notice in that Psalm,
grace comes before righteousness or mercy. You know why? Because that's the order we need.
Because God is the source of all graciousness. We need his
grace. We need his mercy. God is clear in the scripture.
The problem is men are unclear. His will is the deciding factor. It says he's chosen you before
the foundation of the world. It said that he chose Jacob over
Esau before they ever did anything. Not according to works, not according
to works. His will is the deciding factor. His will is the only factor,
not our behavior, not our attitude, not our words, not our deeds. None of it. None of it. Nothing
else. You understand? God never said,
Jesus Christ never said, I'll be gracious to those that choose
me. That's what's taught. That's
what's taught. I've heard it with my own ears. He didn't say, I'll be gracious
to those that follow me or obey me. You know why? Well, there is this thing Jesus
Christ did say. He said, you didn't choose me,
I chose you. Men hate that too. Well, I chose
the Lord. No, you didn't, unless he chose
you first. And you didn't choose him anyway,
because he said you didn't. You calling Jesus Christ a liar? People do every day. People do
every day. The Lord said in Exodus 22, I
am gracious. I am gracious. In verse 17 of
this chapter here, chapter 33, Moses, And the Lord said unto
Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken. Why? For
thou hast found, what? Grace in my sight. And I know thee by name. Then in verse 19 he says, I'll
be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll show mercy to whom I'll
show mercy. You know what that is? That's a definition of what
it means to find grace in the sight of the Lord. God told Moses,
you found grace in my sight. Then he told Moses what it meant.
I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. Moses wasn't looking
for God. He was on the backside of the
desert, hiding from Pharaoh. God found him. God called him. God brought him. God used him. And God taught him. And he wrote
this down for us. Here in Exodus 33, we're told
what that means. I have found, thou has found
grace in my sight. That's what it said about Noah.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. What's all that
mean? I will be gracious, to whom I
will be gracious. I will show mercy, to whom I
will show mercy. He is gracious. Therefore, He will be gracious. And praise His holy name. Amen. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again for this time. Lord, help us to Believe your grace, understand
your grace. We know all of your grace is
in your son. And to know your son, our Lord
Jesus Christ, is grace, is graciousness from you and mercy from you. For you have given him for our sins. You have accepted
his offering of his body and his blood, and you are pleased
with him. And us being in him by your power,
we are acceptable to you in him. Thank you, Lord. In Christ's
name we pray, amen.