Okay, if you would turn to exodus
chapter 33 Exodus chapter 33 and I want to begin reading in
verse 17 Or I have lines across my paper
Right where it's gonna read Exodus 33 in verse 17 and the Lord said
unto Moses I Will do this thing also that thou hast spoken for
thou has found grace in my sight and I know thee by name and He
said I beseech thee Show me thy glory He said I will 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 I'm
just gonna stop right there There was a relationship between
the Lord and Moses Now when you go back to the beginning, you
will see quite clearly this relationship was initiated by the Lord and
not by Moses. He appeared to Moses. He saw
a burning bush that spoke. He spoke to Moses. There was
this relationship. And actually, it's kind of summed
up here in chapter 33 in verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned
again unto the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun,
a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. But it says
that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks
to his friend. There's a relationship here,
again, instituted, initiated by the Lord with Moses. Enoch walked with God and was
not because God took him. Abraham was called a friend of
God. David was a man after God's own
heart. Paul was the apostle of Jesus
Christ to the Gentiles, taught by Jesus Christ. But it says
here the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks
to his friend. There's a fellowship here. There's
a relationship here. And we have the record in writing
of some of this relationship. And this is one of the instances
here. And it's singular. You don't see this anywhere else.
But the Lord granted this to Moses. I'm not saying it didn't
happen, but we have no record of it if it did. We don't know
what Enoch and God did when they walked with God. He pleased God. That's what it says. That's all
we have. But here we have this record
here where Moses asked him. In verse 33 and verse 17 is the
response of the Lord to Moses' response to his question. Moses said, actually, where is
it? Let me read it because it's just
before this. Don't want to I don't want to In verse 14 and he said
my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest and
Moses responded to that and he said and he said unto him if
thy presence go not with me Carry us not up here If God is with you You're with
him And if you're not with God, it
doesn't matter where you are, because you're not with God. Don't let me go anywhere without
thee. That's what Moses was saying.
Keep me with thee. If you're not going there, I
don't want to go. Lead me. And this is a man whom
God spoke to as a man speaks to his friend. I don't want to
be without God. I don't want to go anywhere without
God. Don't carry us up hence. Don't send us away from you. Moses left it up to God. You know how rare that is today?
for anybody to leave anything up to God. Walter and I mentioned
that we were talking about something else, but it always hits me. It's a quote when Henry Mahan
was talking about Romans, about people going about to establish
their own righteousness, talking about his brother. There's a
lot of going about today. People are going about to do
this for God. People are going about to do
that for God. And people aren't saying, if
thou don't go with us, don't let us go. You understand? We are trying through preaching
to reach others. But if God doesn't go with us,
we're not going anywhere. We're using a radio broadcast
now. We're on the internet, on YouTube.
We've got our website. We're on sermon audio now. Haven't
heard a response from any of them, hardly. We have had a few
from the website in times past, but nothing recently. But this
is the whole thing. If God doesn't bless it, it won't
be blessed. But if the truth is preached,
it is blessed. Amen. Because the response is
totally up to God, whether it's positive or negative, either
way. Moses left this up to God Believers are kept by the power
of God through faith It's his power that keeps us and I believe
Moses knew that But God told him I will do this thing that
you asked I Will do this thing that thou has spoken and But he told him why. Four, thou
hast found grace in my sight. Now let's be clear, there's no
way of earning grace. Grace can't be bought, grace
can't be purchased, grace can't be gotten. It is given. But he told Moses, you have found
grace in my sight. And in a couple of verses, he's
going to tell us how it comes. It's given. But then he says it in this way.
And this is exactly what he said to Noah. Thou hast found grace
in my sight. In the Lord's sight, because
his sight is the only sight that matters. You can be the finest man around. And I can think the world of
you. And you can be the best person I know. And I can have
confidence in everything you tell me. But that's not gonna
do you a bit of good. It's in his sight is the only
sight that matters. It's exactly the same thing as
when the Passover happened. And when he said, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. I was reading, starting to read
a book. It's basically a bit of a commentary
on Exodus. And at the very beginning of
it, this fellow was saying that the main story of Exodus, the
main lesson from the book of Exodus is this. Without blood,
there is no salvation. And that's true. If there is
no blood, there is no salvation. But I will tell you this, the
main lesson of the Passover is without blood there's death. With blood there's salvation,
yes, but without blood it's not that there's just no salvation,
it's that there's death. But it didn't matter what Moses
saw, it was the Lord's sight that mattered even. And then
he says this statement, You found grace in my sight. I know thee
by name. People don't think that's an
amazing thing. People don't understand that
is grace that God knows your name. There are those that don't understand when he
told Moses, I know thee, I know thee, I know thee by name. The religious world makes this
nothing. Because God knows everybody and God loves everybody. They
generalize everything. Oh, well, God loves everyone.
No, he told Moses, he says, I know thee by name. This is a special
relationship. But all of God's relationships
are special. If he's got a relationship with
you, it's special. It's actually miraculous, if
you want to know the truth about it. It takes a miracle of grace. It takes the work of God. It takes the conscious will,
purpose, and decision of God. Christ told somebody, Well, he
told us that there were some going to come to him one day.
And they're going to say, hey, we've done many wonderful works,
marvelous works. We've done miracles in your name,
Lord. And he's going to look at them,
and he's going to say, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
I never knew you. The Lord told Moses, I know thee
by name. There's a difference there, and
the difference is God. Christ told him, depart from
me. God said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. Christ told us. The Lord told
Moses here, my presence will go with thee. Will give thee
rest And then verse 18 Moses said
and I beseech thee show me thy glory Show me your glory show
me your abundance Moses wanted to see more of the
Lord Do you Moses wanted to know more
of God Do you? He wanted to see more. He wanted
to know more. So what did he do? He asked.
He asked. Do you want to know more? Ask. Do you want to see more? Ask. The Lord is... You can look through
these scriptures. I have never seen a place where
somebody actually, sincerely, truthfully, in the spirit, in
grace, asked God for knowledge of his son or himself, the father,
the son, the spirit, and it had not been answered in the positive. This book is full of teaching
of him. And Moses asked. And what does
it say? It does say, ask and you shall
receive. But here's how God answered him
in Exodus 33 and verse 19. He said, and he said, I will
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. Moses said, show me your glory.
Show me your abundance. Show me your splendor. And the
Lord said, I'll make all my goodness pass before you. God is good. God is all good. And God is nothing
but good. And God's goodness is part of
his glory. He says, I'll make it pass before
you. I'm going to show you something, Moses. But it starts with my
goodness. Now of course there is no sin
there is no error in the Lord everything is he is good Understand
he's good Christ said it to that rich young
ruler When that rich young ruler came to him and the first thing
he said was good master. What must I do to be saved? Christ
look at him and said why call us thou me good There is none
good but God. Paul said in Romans 3, there's
none good, no not one. He was talking about people.
But God is all goodness. And what's word goodness here
is translated, it means good things. It means the best. It means the
beauty of something. God is telling Moses, I'm going
to show you my best, my goodness, my good things. What'd you say next? I will proclaim
the name of the Lord. The Lord is jealous over his
name. The Lord guards his name. Excuse me. His namesake is why
he said there's, there's a lot of places in the scripture. I
wrote a few of them down here. that he does things for his namesake,
for his namesake, that he's going to proclaim to Moses. Psalms
23 and 3 says, he restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path
of righteousness for his namesake. 25 and verse 11, still in Psalms,
for thy namesake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. Thou art my rock and my fortress
therefore for thy namesake lead me and guide me these are the
prayers of David Do this for your namesake? Help us. Oh God of our salvation for the
glory of thy name and deliver us and purge away our sins for
thy namesake Nevertheless This is Psalms 106 and verse 8 nevertheless. I He saved them for His name's
sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known. Hear the word of the Lord, ye
that tremble at His word. This is Isaiah 66 and verse 5. Your brethren that hated you,
that cast you out for my name's sake, said, let the Lord be glorified. But he shall appear to your joy,
and they shall be ashamed. You may be cast out and hated
for his name's sake, but let the Lord be glorified. happen You may be cast out by
your friends by your family by everyone you know But if it's
for his name's sake That's also glory that's part of God's glory
and let him be glorified and He shall appear to your joy and
to their shame I Think There's a couple of things
you can find in the Gospels Where it says believers are hated for
Christ names sake Christ said it and ye shall be
hated of all men for my name's sake But he that endureth to
the end shall be saved it's Matthew 10 and 22 Matthew 24 9 says then
shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you,
speaking to his disciples, and ye shall be hated of all nations
for my name's sake. That's glory of God. Declare his name. And ye shall
be hated of all men for my name's sake. But he that endureth unto
the end, the same shall be saved. That's in Mark. Luke 21 and verse
17 says, and ye shall be hated of men for my name's sake. Don't be surprised when people
don't care about what you want to tell them about Jesus Christ
or about the Lord. They'll hate you because of what
you say. They'll hate you because of his
name. The next two words are before
thee. The Lord doesn't do this for
everybody. The Lord doesn't do this sort
of thing for everyone. I'm gonna make my goodness past
what before thee. Where's the rest of the house
of Israel? Where's the rest of the congregation? This is for
Moses alone. This is for you, Moses. I'm gonna
do this for you. Why? Because I know thee by name. Thou hast found grace in my sight. And then he answers his own thing
there. And I, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Now this word gracious in the
Hebrew literally means to bend or to stoop in kindness to an
inferior. Can you fit in that category? Can you fit in that category? The Lord spoke to Moses face
to face just like a man speaks to his friend. But the Lord is infinitely superior
to Moses. It is a gracious thing. It is
to bend, to stoop, in kindness, in favor, to an inferior. And beloved, that's what we are. We are inferior. And if you don't
know you're inferior, you don't know the Lord. Because he'll
show you. Grace by the definition of the
word comes down. You can't be gracious to your
superior. Okay? You owe your superior. I am not gracious to my boss.
I am subordinate or supposed to be. Grace comes down. to an inferior. The less is blessed of the better. This is the way it works. Because the superior, that's
the Lord, has all the power. The superior has all the gifts
to give. To whom does the Lord show his
grace, this unmerited favor? To whom he will. To whom he will. Grace comes down to the inferior
according to the will of the Lord. And that's the only way
grace works. And that's what he told Moses
here. This is the statement of grace. The very first time the
word grace is used is when it says, Noah found grace in the
sight of the Lord, okay? Now we're here talking to Moses.
He says, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Where
is any qualification there met by man? There isn't any. There isn't any. He gives us
a qualification. It's His will. That's the only
qualification. It's His will, it's not our will. When it talks about those who
are born of God, they're born not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man, not of the will of anybody but of God. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious That's what he told Moses And then he goes
on and clarifies it even further and will show mercy on whom I
will show mercy again, the only qualification here given is the
will of the Lord and now this word mercy when I looked
at the definition Walter first thing comes up it says to love
to love deeply to be compassionate in love to have mercy to have tender
affection God will be gracious to whom
he will be gracious. And God will show love, will
love, deep love to whom he will love. God's compassion, God's love,
and God's mercy is bound to God's will, just like his grace. And
it is mated to You'll see it here with this. There's no compassion
without God's graciousness. There's no compassion without
grace. There's no mercy without grace. There's no love without
mercy. And there's no mercy without
love. For everyone that God loves,
He gives grace and mercy and that is according to His will. And what's the conclusion of
all this? Well in Exodus 34 and verse 6, and the Lord passed
by before him and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord God merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
in truth. Keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin that will by no means
clear the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
unto the third and to the fourth generation. But there's one last verse I
want to read. This is verse eight. And Moses made haste and bowed
his head toward the earth and worshiped. What is the result
of God's grace, God's mercy, God's goodness, God's glory?
You're going to bow to him. Understand this was one of the
most glorious things that had ever happened to anybody on this
planet The Lord passed by he said I'm gonna do it, then he
did it and Boy why didn't somebody what a great thing I feel see
the Lord That's what they do on television That's because
they haven't seen him on television They're lying Because if you
see the Lord, you're going to do what Moses did. You're going
to make haste and bow down. You're not even going to slow
down. You're not going to be contemplating
it. What is the awful wonderfulness of God? No, you're going to hit
the ground. What did Isaiah say when he saw
the Lord? Holy, holy, holy. He said, woe
is me. I'm a man of unclean lips and
I'm stuck a bunch of bunch of people with unclean lips. This is the reaction to seeing
the Lord's goodness and grace and mercy. You bow down. You submit yourself to your superior
because you know, you see this, you are inferior. if you see
him. I am merciful and gracious and
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and in truth. Mercy
for thousands. How? Forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. If your sins aren't forgiven,
you don't know what mercy is. You don't know what love is.
unless your sins are forgiven. When Moses didn't shout and jump
for joy, Moses made haste, bowed his head,
and worshiped the Lord. The Lord showed Moses his glory
Declared to Moses his glory He is the Lord. God is good the
Lord. God is gracious the Lord. God is merciful To some I gotta throw this in
here. I'm sorry keeping mercy for what
for thousands There's a limit It's particular. However you want to say it, it
doesn't matter. The Lord does not do this for
everyone. And that's what he told Moses
right here. And he made a point of saying it, so I'm going to
make a point of saying it. Because the Lord God said that.
What is salvation? I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. And I will show mercy to whom
I will show mercy. Because the Lord's grace is particular. The Lord's mercy is particular. And the Lord's forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin is particular. It is to whom he will. And I don't think we really understand
how wonderful this is. I know I don't. I wish I did.
But how marvelous this is. How miraculous this is. Because the Lord's justice is for everyone. He is just. The Lord of all the
earth, the judge of all the earth shall do right. And it says it here, I will by
no means clear the guilty. I already had this written down,
Walter, before we talked on the phone. The Lord is always just and full
of justice to everyone, and the soul that sinneth shall surely
die. The only escape from that is
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. He is always holy. He is never
not holy. I don't know how you say that.
The Lord can't even look upon sin. And He is holy to everyone
and everything whether you know Him or not. He's always just. He's always holy. He's always
truthful. Never spoke a lie. There is no
error in Him. And the Lord is always glorious
whether we see it or not. The same goes for his justice,
the same goes for his holiness. Whether we know it or not, he's
always that, and he's always that all the time. But he is gracious and merciful
to whom he will. You understand? God has limited,
and for lack of a better term, limited, Grace and his mercy
to whom he will he is not gracious and merciful to everyone That's
what he's saying here His justice is for everyone you're either
going to be judged in yourself or in Christ That's the way it
works Justice has got to be satisfied his holiness has got to be what
met I'm holy be holy But His grace and His mercy is
reserved for those only according to His will. Whom He will, the Lord will save. The Lord God, the Adonai Elohim,
said, here is my glory. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. Will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy This is the second book of the Bible And here this
truth is laid flat out God say some God say some and he says
whom he will I Don't think God's changed either
I'm the Lord, I change not. He hasn't changed. He never will
change. So what's true in Exodus was
true in Genesis. What's true in Exodus is true
in what? Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
the New Testament. And I'll tell you something,
what's true in Exodus is true now. Concerning the Lord and
his grace and his mercy and his goodness. Said you can go back further
said Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord you can come
forward to Paul's time There is a remnant according to the
election of grace And if by grace then it is no
more of works otherwise grace is no more grace Jesus Christ the same yesterday
and today and forever He will be gracious to whom he will be
gracious. He will show mercy to whom he
will show mercy. And the less is blessed of the
better according to the pleasure of his good will, his will, his
will. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Our God is in the heavens
right now. He is doing whatsoever He has
pleased. He is working everything according
to the purpose and the plan and the will of the Father. It's
happening now. There is no difference. God's
goodness, God's grace, and God's mercy is given to whom He will. And that's the facts. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful
again for this time, this place. But most of all, most of all,
your son who came and purchased his people, your son who came
and fulfilled every prophecy about him, about how he would
come, about what he would do, and then what he would accomplish,
and about his return to you, our Lord. Thank you. In his name we pray, amen.