All right, let's begin by opening
our Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. As Mark said, I've been going
through this chapter, which is called the Hall of Faith, mentioning
Old Testament believers. And now we're down to Moses.
And what I've been trying to do is go back into the Old Testament. and shown you some of the details
of the revelation that God had given unto these people. Because
here's the thing that comes through this. That is this, if we're
ever going to experience salvation, if we're ever going to see God,
God must reveal himself. I call this message Faith and
God's Revelation. It talks about Moses here, how
you know the story of Moses. We won't go into all that. We've
already read about it. He was raised in the house of
Pharaoh. He was a Hebrew child raised in the house of Pharaoh
by Pharaoh's daughter. And it says that when he was
old enough, when he came to manhood, He refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God. That was the Hebrew children,
God's chosen people, based upon a promise that God made to Abraham. He chose rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. Verse 26 of Hebrews 11 says,
He esteemed the reproach of Christ Now whatever God revealed to
Moses, it had something to do with Christ, the Messiah. That's how he would be referred
to, the anointed one, in the Old Testament, Messiah. God had
promised a Messiah, a Savior, who would save his people from
sin. This was revealed to Abraham. It was handed down to Abraham's
son Isaac, and then Jacob, and then go on to Joseph and all
through. Somehow Moses, he heard it too. And Christ himself in the book
of John chapter 5, he told the unbelieving Pharisees who were
so intent on studying Moses that they had missed the whole point.
You've missed it. It's like people today who read
their Bibles. who memorize it, who even sometimes
write commentaries, but they miss the point. That's what the
Pharisees were. That's what the scribes were.
And the reason Christ told them, the Lord Jesus Christ told them
that they missed it is because they missed Him. They missed
the glory of His person, the power of His finished work. They
missed what grace is all about. Salvation conditioned on Christ,
who fulfilled those conditions. You see, people are intent on
hearing and believing a false gospel of salvation conditioned
on us. I've got to do something in order
to get God to smile on me, to bless me, to save me, whatever. And that's not what it's all
about. It's all about what Christ did. And that's what Moses understood. He esteemed, verse 26, he estimated
The reproach of Christ of being greater riches, greater value
than the treasures of Egypt. He found something better. Something
better than what men value by nature. And it says in verse
26, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. Now what is the reward? The reward
is Christ. The reward is the reward of grace.
But look at verse 27. This is where I want to go today.
By faith, by revelation from God. That's what that means now.
Faith here is a revelation from God. You say, somebody says,
well, I thought that meant believing. Well, if what you believe is
not based upon, founded in, and supported by what God has revealed,
then it's not faith. It's not saving faith. It's not
godly faith. It's just like, you know, you
can say, I believe the moon is made of green cheese. Well, That's
not faith. That's just a pipe dream. That's
a children's story. And it's not true. It's a lie.
You believe a lie. You know, a lot of people believe
a lie. They believe it sincerely. They're dedicated to it. It may
even make them better people in the eyes of men. But it's
still a lie. A lot of people say they're worshipping
God when they're worshipping an idol. What do you mean, preacher? I mean that they're not worshipping
the one who reveals himself. So faith, he says, by faith,
verse 27, Moses forsook Egypt. He did it because God revealed
something to him. Not fearing the wrath of the
king. In other words, he had fear of
God, not fear of Pharaoh. And that fear of God is a reverence,
a respect. Listen to this, now. For he endured
as seeing Him who is invisible. Now that sounds like a contradiction,
doesn't it? Moses saw Him who is invisible. Now how do you
see someone who's invisible? And if you see them, are they
really invisible? Well, there's no contradiction
here. This is, again, based upon a revelation from God. God has
revealed himself from the very beginning. Even to Adam and Eve
after the fall, you know, God made a promise to Adam and Eve.
It's found in Genesis 3.15 and illustrated in Genesis 3.21.
It's the seed of woman. That's Christ. who would come
and die for the sins of his people and provide a righteousness for
them by which God justifies them. It's the imputed righteousness
of Christ. It's illustrated in Genesis 321 when God slew an
animal which I believe was a lamb and made him coats of skin. So
the substance of God's promise as is revealed here in Hebrews
11 has to do with the sacrifice, the blood,
the righteousness of Messiah, of the Lord Jesus Christ. God
revealed that same promise down through the ages to his people,
and here we see Moses. Moses had faith in God based
on what God revealed to him concerning salvation by God's grace, and
it was grace. Brother Mark read it there in
Exodus 33. God told Moses, he said, now I'm going to show you
my glory. What is God's glory? Well, think about it. God's glory
is that which identifies Him and distinguishes Him and exalts
Him. Now, men and women, we have certain
things we glory in. For example, the genius glories
in his intellect. The athlete glories in their
accomplishments, their physical power and success. The rich man
glories in his riches. Now when it comes to a right
relationship with God, what does God say in Jeremiah 9, 24? Let
not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man
glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. But let he that glorieth gloryeth this, that he knows
God, who reveals himself. God's glory. You know, I learned
this a long time ago after the Lord brought me to a saving knowledge
of Christ. If I stand behind a pulpit or
a lectern, and I make a statement, God is like this, or God is not
like that, or God will do this, or God will do that, I had better
make sure that I can back that up with this book, the Bible. because that's God's revelation
of himself. Years ago, I was up in Huntington,
West Virginia. Y'all know where Huntington is?
If you watched President Trump's speech, when was that, Friday?
Or Thursday? You saw Huntington, West Virginia,
that's where he was. That's about 10 minutes from
Ashland, Kentucky, where I was pastoring then. In fact, if you
watched that speech, you might have seen a guy in a red cap,
right to the right, that was my cardiologist in Kentucky.
He's retired now. Just a side note. But anyway, in Huntington, West Virginia,
we were up there, Debbie and I were up there, we were eating out
somewhere, and I drove by a church building, and they had a sign
out in there, the marquee, and here's what the sign said, it
said, the God who hates We don't worship him. And I thought, well,
you might as well put on that sign, we don't worship the God
of the Bible. Because the God of the Bible does hate. The scripture
says that. You say, well, I don't like that.
Doesn't matter what you like. There may be a lot of things
about me you don't like that are probably not gonna change.
There may be a lot of things about you that I don't like that
they're not gonna change. God is God. Bible said, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. That's what God said. God said
in Psalm 5, he hates all workers of iniquity. God does love his
people. He is a God of love, but he's
a God of hate too. His hatred is not like our hatred.
Our hatred is sinful. When we hate, it's sinful. But
when God hates, it's justice. Did you know that? That's what
this book says. So whenever I say this or that
or the other, it better be based upon his revelation of himself.
So Moses had faith based upon a revelation from God. Now, ask yourself this question.
You say, well, I believe the gospel. I can say that. I know what the gospel is because
I read this book. This is God's revelation of himself.
Why don't more people believe this gospel? You know? I mean, all through the scripture
we read passages, you know, where it talks about the broad road
that leads to destruction. Many will be there who are on
that road. Straight is the gate. Narrow
is the way. Few there be that find it. Many are called. Few
are chosen. You see things like that. Why
don't more people believe this God? You know, even in the Old
Testament, the prophets talked about a remnant. Isaiah. He said, though the children
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, there's so many of those
Israelites. But he said, but only a remnant,
a small part, will come to know Christ, basically. Why don't
more people believe it? Well, number one, because the
God of salvation, the God who made this promise, is invisible. Huh? He's invisible. That means this. He cannot be
seen with the natural eye. You can't, listen, you can't
touch him, you can't feel him, you can't see him in that way,
with the natural eye. In speaking of eternal glory
and the state of God's people in glory, Paul wrote this. He
said, we walk by faith, not by sight. In other words, what we
believe is not based upon what I see with these physical eyes.
Everything we believe must be because God said it in His Word.
The Bible says, faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word
of God. So if what I believe concerning
God, if what I believe concerning myself, if what I believe concerning
Christ and salvation, if it's not found in God's Word, what
is it? It's a lie. You know, I was thinking about
this when we start back our Wednesday service. I was going to do a
series on the most fundamental necessary beliefs of the Christian
faith. And if I were to ask you what
is the most fundamental truth of the Christian faith, what
would you say? And I'll tell you what I would
say. The Bible is the word of God. And the reason I say that's
the most fundamental, because it's like the ABCs of the English
language. Everything that I tell you And
everything that we believe must be based upon this Word. Isn't
that right? If I talk about Christ being
God in human flesh, God and man in one person, that's who He
is. He's Emmanuel, God with... He
shall save His people from their sins. His name shall be called
Jesus. His name shall be called... How
do I know that? Because it's what God's Word
reveals about Him. That's the glory of His person.
If I tell you what He accomplished on Calvary was the salvation
of His people, He put away our sins, He finished the transgression,
He brought in everlasting righteousness, the righteousness of God revealed
in the gospel, which is His righteousness charged to my account so that
I can be accepted with God and be right with God and have life
from God, how do I know that? This book says it. Everything. Living the Christian life, whatever
you're talking about, it's got to be based right here. So that's
the most fundamental truth. Well, sinful fallen man wants
a God he can see, wants a God he can make, wants a God he can
manipulate, that he can touch. He can move from here to there.
He wants one like himself. Isaiah called him a God that
cannot be saved, that cannot save. Romans 1 speaks of it. Talks about that which can be
seen of God in his handiwork in creation. What does man do
with it? Look at the sun, the glory of the sun. What does man
do? He becomes a sun worshiper. What should he do? He should
seek the God who made that. Whoever made that, he's something.
That's right. Whoever may, Dave, you think
about it, you know, the human body, we were talking about this
the other day, the human body is so meticulously put together. I mean, it's, what are we going
to do? We're going to worship ourselves?
No, let's seek the God who made that. All of these things. But what does man do? He turns
the glory of God into corruptible things. He makes gods out of
statues and he makes pictures, all of that. That's idolatry. But you know where it all begins?
In the imagination of the natural man. There's where the idol really
is. That's where the idol resides.
God is invisible. Secondly, because man by nature
is spiritually blind. He doesn't see. Spiritually speaking,
Christ in John chapter 1 is called the light of the world. And that
light entered into the world and what does it say? It entered
into darkness and darkness comprehended it not. You remember when Christ was
speaking to the disciples, the parables of the kingdom in Matthew
chapter 13. The disciples asked him, why
do you speak in parables? And he answered them, he said,
because they seeing, see not. They hearing, hear not. They
don't want what I have to say. He preached the gospel to them
and they refused. But he looked at the disciples
and he said, blessed are your eyes, you see. Now how did they
get spiritual sight? Blessed are your ears for they
are... How did they get spiritual? Were they better folks than the
Pharisees? Is that how it comes about? Did they make the right
decisions over and above the rest of the unbelieving crowd?
Is that the way salvation is portrayed in the Bible? And the
answer is absolutely not. Christ said you must be born
again or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. The new birth is an
act of God in his sovereign purpose. And in His choice, the natural
man is blind to the things of the Spirit of God. And then thirdly,
because God must reveal Himself as the God of sovereign grace
in Christ. Now go over to Exodus chapter 33. I want to show you
something here. I hope you paid attention when
Mark was reading that. We could spend days on this one
chapter, and I'm not going to do that. Thank the Lord. There's some things in here that
really kind of seem contradictory, don't they? I mean, here's Moses. Moses, at this point in time,
this was after the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. And he'd
seen a lot of things. I mean, you think about what
Moses saw when he left Egypt and he went to the back side
of the desert, and that's where he met his wife. And that's where
God first called him up to the mount and commissioned him to
go back to Egypt to bring the Hebrew children out. Remember,
he saw the burning bush there, and God spoke to him. And then
when he went back to Egypt, all the great and marvelous works
of God there, the 10 plagues, all leading up to the Passover,
the blood of the Lamb, all of that, we're gonna talk about
that next time. And then when he brought the Hebrew children
out of Egypt, how the pillar of the cloud during the day and
the pillar of fire at night, that was manifestations of the
presence of God going behind the people, protecting them.
And you remember when they stood on the shore of the Red Sea,
and Pharaoh's army coming after them, and they all began to play.
And you remember he said there in Exodus 3, you're a stiff-necked
people. You know what that means? That
means you won't bow. You won't listen. You won't hear
what God has to say. Left to ourselves, that's what
we are. Proud, self-righteous, uncaring, unconcerned. And they
complained and they murmured and Moses stood upon that rock
and he said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,
which he will show you today. And what happened? Parted the
Red Sea and they walked across, dry shot. Then up on Mount Sinai,
all of that. We could go on and on. Moses
had seen some things, hadn't he? Well, look here. He says in verse 11, look at
Exodus 33, verse 11. The Lord spoke unto Moses face
to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Somebody said Abraham was the
only one in the Bible called the friend of God. No, Moses
was too. But you know what? Every believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ is a friend of God, and God's a friend to
him. Look at it again, verse 11. The Lord spoke unto Moses
face to face. Huh. Isn't that something? But
look over at verse 20, Exodus 33. God said, thou canst not
see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. Now here's
Moses over here talking to God face to face as a man talks with
his friend. And here's God over here saying,
you can't see my face and live. Is there a contradiction there?
And the answer is no. There is no contradiction there.
What's happening here? Well, the Lord's making a point.
Who's Moses seen face to face? Who is he talking to? Well, you've
got to understand, first of all, how does a sinner go to God and
find friendship? In other words, you know the
Bible says that when Moses came down out of Mount Sinai, there
was such a glory about his face and the fiery mountain that the
children of Israel were so scared they couldn't even look at Moses'
face and they had to put a veil over his face. And they said,
don't let us meet that God. He's a God of wrath. And that,
in Hebrews 12, when that's kind of summarized, you know what
it says? It says, our God is a consuming fire. Think about that. Somebody said,
well, I just want to meet God. Well, how does a sinner meet
God? You know what the biggest problem that we have? We got
a lot of problems. We got sickness. We got some
money problems, job problems, school problems. We got a lot
of problems. But you know what the biggest problem that faces
every one of us? God is righteous, and we're not. And God must punish sin. Do you
want to meet God? Do you want to see Him? He's
a consuming fire. So the question comes, well,
how can I, a sinner, be right with God? How can I be reconciled
to God? How can God be reconciled to
me? How can I meet God in friendship? Well, hold your finger there
at Exodus 33 because I'm coming back to it, but I want you to
go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Now here's what the Bible says. Here's what God reveals about
how sinners must approach Him if they're going to meet God
in friendship and see the invisible God. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
4 and verse 3. Listen to it. But if our gospel
be hid, It's hid to them that are lost. In whom the God of
this world, now that's Satan, hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them. There's Satan's
goal. To keep you from seeing the glory
of God in the gospel. You go out today unaffected,
unmoved, Satan has accomplished his goal. Isn't that right? You go out of this place today
not believing the gospel. Satan has accomplished his goal.
You say, well, I thought his goal was to get me down at the
bar or get me down at the drug den. No, that's just sinful human
nature, folks. His goal is to get you unconcerned,
unaffected by the gospel. And here's what Paul writes,
look at verse five. He says, for we preach not ourselves,
but we preach Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. I'm not your savior, I'm just
a servant. Christ is the savior. But look
at verse six now. Here's what he, for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. You want me to tell you who Moses
spoke to face-to-face as a friend? He spoke to the Lord Jesus Christ
in a revelation of Christ, even before Christ came into the world
and became incarnate. It's called a pre-incarnate visitation
of Christ. That's who Moses was seeing.
That's who he saw in the burning bush. You see, you can't see
God face-to-face without a mediator, without a savior, without the
blood of the Lord, without a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. The only way that I, a sinner,
can approach God and speak with Him face-to-face as a man speaks
to a friend is through God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and
based upon His finished work alone. That's it. Now go back to Exodus 33. That's
what he's talking about. Now God commands us to seek Him.
He commands you to seek Him. How are you going to seek somebody
that's invisible? That sounds like a contradiction,
doesn't it? Well, I'll tell you how you seek
someone who's invisible. You listen for the sound. You
listen for His voice. When Christ was telling Nicodemus
about the new birth, He said, you must be born again or you
cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. He said, the Holy Spirit
is the agent of the new birth. And He says, like the wind, you
can't see it, but you hear the sound thereof. What is the sound? It's his word, it's the gospel
message, which is the power of God unto salvation, wherein the
righteousness of God is revealed. My sheep hear my what? Voice, and they follow me. He's
not talking about an audible sound, like the crack of thunder. There were some times in the
Old Testament they heard audible sounds. But here's what we hear,
the word of God. Isaiah said, to the law and to
the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, there's
no light in them. What does this word say? Well,
look here. Moses said in verse 13, he said,
if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way. If I found grace. You know, people
say, well, if God's invisible and we're blind, boy, think about
that. God's invisible and we're by nature blind. That's a mess,
isn't it? Somebody said, we're in a pickle.
God's invisible and we're blind and deaf spiritually. So somebody
says, well, then it really don't matter what I do, whether I seek
the Lord or not. Well, let me ask you this, what'd
Moses say? He said, if I found grace in
your sight, do I really desire to seek the Lord? You know, most
people who go to church, quote, go to church, unquote, They're
not seeking the Lord. They're seeking validation. Get
a preacher that'll tell me, I'm okay, you're okay, we're all
okay. They're seeking social acceptance. They're seeking religious
activity, family-oriented entertainment. But they're not seeking the Lord. If you're seeking the Lord, you'll
go somewhere where this book is preached, where Christ is
preached. Do you really desire to seek the Lord? How do you
seek somebody who's invisible? You listen for his voice. You hear what he has to say.
You know, in the book of Revelation, when John saw the vision, and
he saw an actual vision of Christ, it says in Revelation 1.15 that
his feet was like undefined brass. That's talking about the vision
that John saw of Christ. As if they burned in a furnace,
and it says, and his voice as the sound of many waters. Blessed
are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall
be filled. Where am I going to find righteousness
that enables me to approach God as a friend? There's not but
one place, folks, that's in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from
the dead. And then, how do you seek somebody
who's invisible? You listen for his voice, and
secondly, you look at what he's done. Now look over here, he says in
verse 19 of Exodus 33, Moses said, Show me now thy glory.
Listen to this. God said, I will make all my
goodness pass before thee. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. That's Jehovah, our salvation.
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, shall show mercy
on whom I will show mercy. That's God's sovereign mercy,
sovereign grace. Verse 20, he said, thou canst
not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. Sinners
cannot approach God without Christ. That's what he means there. If
you approach God without Christ, you'll be rejected, you'll be
consumed. Our gods are consumed. There's
nothing but wrath. For sinners who approach God
without Christ, without His blood, without His righteousness. David
said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.
Where's my iniquity going to be imputed? It was imputed to
Christ. It was charged to Christ. It was laid to His account. And
He died under the wrath of God for my sins. See, I don't have
to fear God's wrath now. I don't have to fear His face.
because all the wrath that I earned and deserved was totally quenched
and satisfied by my Savior on the cross, God in human flesh. I have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice. It's Christ. If you
can see God, speak to Him face to face as a man speaks to his
friend, that's how. There's no other way, is there?
Not in the Bible. But look at what he says in verse
21. He said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt
stand upon a rock. Who's the rock we're standing
on? If we're believers, if we're speaking to God face to face
as a man, we're standing on the rock Christ Jesus. What's that
old hymn? I hold not the rock, but the
rock holds me. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Dare not trust the sweetest frame.
Wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
And then verse 22, he says, it shall come to pass while my glory
passeth by that I will put thee in the cleft of the rock. Put
you in Christ. and will cover thee with my hand
when I pass by." What did he say next week we'll talk about?
When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Just as satisfied by
the Lamb, I'll pass over you. And then listen to this, verse
23, I will take away mine hand and thou shalt see my back parts,
but my face shall not be seen. You know what that's saying?
That's a metaphor. And God is saying that The approach
unto Him, wherein we find reconciliation, peace, friendship, salvation,
is based upon what God has already done. His back parts, that's
what that means. It's a finished work in other
words. In other words, those who tell you that you've got
to do this and got to do that in order to get God to smile
upon you, or to be friendly to you. They're telling you a lie. The only way that God's going
to look at you and look at me with favor is based upon a work
that God has already done. What works He's talking about
the cross. He's talking about Christ on
that cross as the surety and the substitute of his people.
When he cried, it is finished. It's done. Salvation is based
upon a work already done, already accomplished, already perfected,
already completed. It's righteousness already established. in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
want to meet God face-to-face? You want to see the invisible?
That's how He reveals Himself, His glory. You want to meet Him
face-to-face and speak with Him as a man speaks with a friend?
You look to Him through Christ. You come to Him through Christ
on the basis of His blood and righteousness alone. There's
no other way.