If you would, open your Bibles
to Exodus chapter 33. As you're doing that, I'll start
off by saying I don't reckon I have to tell anyone how awesome
this is and frightening this is to be here. But I know that
if the Lord blesses it, I've got his word here and it'll be
a blessing to his people. So I just pray that tonight we're
gathered in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and that he'll be
among us and we'll be able to get past this clay pot and my
lisping, stammering tongue and the Lord will bless his word. I didn't know what a devotional
was. And I asked Frank, what do you want me to do? He said,
well, just pick a scripture that you like, that you enjoy, and
just say a few words on it. So with that in mind, I'd like
to look tonight at what is God's glory? Now, that doesn't sound
like a very short message, does it? Or a devotional. I mean,
I could spend the rest of my life talking about the glory
of God and not even scratch the surface. But tonight I wanna
look in Exodus 33 at what God said when Moses beseeched him,
show me thy glory. So let's, I'm just gonna go ahead
and read starting in verse 12 through the end of the chapter
and then go back and make some comments. And Moses said unto
the Lord, see thou sayest unto me, bring this people and thou
hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast
said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in
my sight. Now therefore I pray thee, if
I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may
know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that
this nation is thy people. And he said, my presence shall
go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him,
if thy presence not go with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein
shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in
my sight? Is it not that thou goest with us? So shall we be
separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are
upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses,
I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast
found grace in my sight. and I know thee by name. And
he said, Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, God said, 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 will 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, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall
come to pass while my glory passes by, that I will put thee in the
cliff to 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. So the first thing I
wanted to look at tonight was starting in verse 18, and Moses
beseeches the Lord, show me thy glory. And that seems like such
an odd question or such an odd request for Moses to say when
we think of all the things that Moses has already seen. I mean,
he saw a burning bush that wasn't consumed. He saw all those plagues
in Egypt. He saw the Passover. where the
firstborn in every house was killed. And that Passover lamb
took the place of the firstborn of all the Jews. He saw the parting of the Red
Sea. They saw the manna from heaven. They saw water from a
smitten rock, picturing Christ, that life-giving water coming
from that smitten rock. And that rock followed them everywhere
in the desert. I read this and I'm just flabbergasted
that if I saw any one of those things, you would think, I've
seen God's glory. Surely I've seen God's glory.
But Moses knew something. Moses knew that the power of
God wasn't God's chief glory. All those powerful deliverance
out of Egypt, That picture is of Christ, but that's not his
chief glory, the power of God. So what does God respond? Well, if we look in verse 19,
the first thing that God says is, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee. So there we see that the very
first thing, if we're gonna see God's glory, we need to see that
only God is good. Man is not good, only God is
good. I'm going to read a few scriptures
in the interest of time. I won't ask you to turn to them,
so we'll just kind of go through these. But in Romans 3.12, we
read, they are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
And if you had any question about it, it repeats, no, not one. Then Mark 10.18. And Jesus said
unto him, why callest thou me good? When someone came to him
calling him good master. There's none good but one, and
that is God. So before we're gonna see the
glory of God, we're gonna know that his goodness, he is only
God is good. And then the next thing that
God tells Moses, he says, I will proclaim the name of the Lord
before thee. So who is the name of the Lord? The name of the
Lord is none other than Jesus Christ. Christ is the manifestation
of God here on earth. And it's in Jesus Christ that
all the goodness of God towards man is going to be made manifest.
In Philippians 2 verses 9 and 10 it says, Wherefore God also
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow
of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the
earth. So not only is the name of Christ
exalted above every name, but Christ, the name of the Lord,
is the way to the Father. In John 16, verse 23, Christ
says, verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask
of the Father in my name, he will give it, he will give it
you. And then another scripture, John 14, verse 13. Once again,
Christ speaking. And whatsoever ye shall ask in
my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son. So, and then one more scripture
in Romans 10, verses 13 and 14, we see that we get instruction
that we as men, as believers, are instructed to proclaim that
very same name to sinners, that they might call on the name of
the Lord for salvation. It says, For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe on him him of whom they have not heard and how shall
I hear without a preacher so then we see that we are to proclaim
the name of the Lord and sinners are to call upon the name of
the Lord for salvation so now we see that not only that only
God is good and that goodness is going to be proclaimed in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ but the next thing we see is
is how God is gonna show that goodness to men. In Exodus 33
verse 19 it continues, And I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. So that tells us that God will,
will be gracious to a people. And he will show mercy on a people. And those are a people of his
own choosing. Those people were given to Christ. In John 17, 24, Christ says,
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast
given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the
world. Those people were given to Christ. And salvation for
those people is found in Christ. Ephesians 2, verses six and seven,
and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward
us through Jesus Christ." And then one other scripture here, is that lamb in glory for all
eternity. I thought this was a very interesting
scripture. In Revelations 21-23, we read
about, And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon
to shine in it. For the glory of God did lighten
it, and the lamb is the light thereof. So we see Christ, the
glory of God, through all eternity. No need for a sun or a moon.
Isn't that just amazing? Okay. Now, we've been through
this, and verse 19 is that verse that I mentioned, you know, Frank
said, pick a verse that you really like, you know, kind of a favorite.
And that's always been, if you can call any scripture a favorite,
that has always been a favorite to me because when I first started
attending church and started reading my Bible on my own, this
is one of the first times that Christ was revealed to me in
the Old Testament through my own studies. And the very first
time I saw that, I was so new to the doctrines of grace. These
were things I'd never heard before. And these are things that children
that have grown up here could list right off the bat. Tulip,
right? Men are totally depraved. T. Unconditionally, God elected
people unconditionally to be saved. And that there's a limited
atonement, L, limited atonement. God did not die for everyone,
but he did die for specific people, and Christ died for their sins. Their sins were put on him and
put away. And then the irresistible grace.
There's going to be a call for those people, and it's going
to be irresistible, and they're going to come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then P for persevere. They can't lose that salvation.
they're gonna persevere through the end. So here I was, I was
all excited and I was reading this and I saw, that's it. Right there it is, election.
God himself says, my chief glory is election. And I wanted everybody
to see that. Why can't you see this? Why in
the world can't you see this? I had a head knowledge, but I
still didn't have it in my heart. Needed it in my heart. And that's,
As we continue, let's look at the rest of this, okay? Because
that's doctrine there. And the doctrines of grace, they're
glorious truths, they really are. But they're not God's chief
glory. To think so, or to try to convince
men that mere doctrine is salvation, that's just pride of grace. And
God, I don't believe God's gonna bless that pride or that arrogance. And I hope that we never come
across, when we're talking to sinners like us, who's prideful
and arrogant, that we know something that they don't know, so we're
better than them, and we're saved just because we know that. God's glory is not a doctrine.
It's not a what. It's a who. It's the person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not knowing doctrine.
Salvation is knowing, believing, loving, and trusting the Lord
Jesus Christ for all. So let's look at verses 20 through
23 and see where God sets forth a picture of his chief glory,
the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 20, we
read, And he said, thou canst not see my face, for there shall
no man see me and live. Now, why couldn't Moses see God
and live? Well, because Moses, just like
any man, is full of sin. And if any man were to see the
holy face of God, he would be struck with such fear and trembling
and self-loathing that he would just die. But Moses also represents
the law, doesn't he? We've seen that throughout scripture,
Moses represents the law. Well, when the fullness of God
is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, the law dies. Verse 21, what's the solution? And the Lord said, behold, there's
a place by me and thou shalt stand upon a rock. So that rock,
the revealed Christ Jesus, that's the rock on which the Church,
the God, Church of God stands, all His elect, the chosen Church
of God, they stand on Christ. Matthew 16, verses 15 and 18,
Jesus asked Peter, but whom say ye that I am? They'd been having
this conversation. Whom say ye that I am? And Peter
responded that Jesus is the Christ, That means the Savior's sacrifice,
the Son of the living God. Jesus tells his disciples that
that knowledge wasn't something they got themselves. That knowledge
had to have been revealed to them. And then he says, upon
this rock that revealed Christ, I will build my church. That
rock, Christ Jesus, is where the church stands. And we see
a picture of it right there. thou shalt stand upon the rock.
But it's interesting in verse 22, we see, and it shall come
to pass while my glory passes by that I will put thee in the
cliff of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass
by. So in verse 22, we see it's not just on the rock, but we
must be in the rock. We must be in Christ Jesus. A cliff, it's an opening. It's like a wound. And that cliff
in the rock represents the wounds of our Savior. In his hands,
in his feet, in that spear in his side, they made that cliff
in our rock. And we need to be hidden in that
cliff. He was wounded for our transgressions.
we're going to be sheltered from the holy wrath of God by being
put in that rock. A few other scriptures for that,
where sinners find salvation in Christ. Just as Christ prayed
in John 17, 21, and this is a glorious scripture, that they may all
be one as thou father art in me and I in thee, that they may
also be one in us. that the world may believe that
thou hast sent me." So we see that we're going to be in Christ,
in God. And it's more than just being
in Christ. It's a complete mystery. We're
in Christ the way he's in the Father, and the Father's in him
as well. And Christ is in us as well.
And it's a mystery, but we are made one with the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Colossians 1.27, we read,
to whom God would make known, talking about the Gentiles, to
whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of
this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. So we've got that blessed union
of we're in the rock and Christ is in us as well. And we're not
just saved from the wrath of a holy God who's going to condemn
sin. We're not just saved from death
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're made righteous in him as
well. Second Corinthians 5.22 talks
about that double cure. This is a scripture that we all
have heard many times. For he hath made him, God hath
made him Christ, to be sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him." So going back
to that cleft rock, when that spear was thrusting in Jesus'
side when he was on the cross, both water and blood came out. Blood to cover that sin, to satisfy
the wrath of God, and water, to cleanse and make us pure,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The next thing you see, though,
in verse 22, is that God put Moses in the rock. He didn't
just say, go over there and stand in that rock. He said, I'm going
to put you in the rock. We're saved. It's not anything
that we've done. There's nothing that we can do
to save ourselves, but God puts us in the rock. And not only
did God put Moses in the rock, he covered him with his hand.
He kept him in the rock. That's the center security. No
matter what, if we're put in the rock by the Lord Jesus Christ,
by God, He's going to keep us there and we'll be kept there
to the end. God's going to finish the job
and protect us all the way. Then in verse 23, after God passes
by and Moses lives because he's found in the rock, God says he's
going to take his hand away. Salvation's accomplished. Moses, you're going to see my
back parts. What in the world could that mean? You're going
to see God's back parts. Well, we know that Moses isn't
going to see God because in John 18, we read that God's spirit
can't be seen. No man has seen God at any time and only the
begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father. He hath
declared him. So no man's gonna, Moses didn't
see God. What Moses saw was a pre-incarnate
vision of Christ. And this is interesting. If I
were to walk away from you, for the most part, the thing that's
furthest back from me, if I'm walking away from you, God was
walking away from Moses, would be my heel. The backmost part of God that
Moses saw was his heel. And the heel of God, that represents
Christ's humanity. He was made lower than the angels. He was made a man. It represents
that seed of woman, that seed that was promised to Eve when
God spoke to Satan in Genesis 3.15 and said, and I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, And between thy seed and her
seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
That's the humanity of Christ, who came and died for sinners.
And we saw this just a few weeks ago, our pastor brought this
out, that that bruised heel is also a picture of the death that
Christ accomplished on the cross. Crucifixion is such a horrible
death. They're people, you know, your
hands are nailed to that cross and the weight of your body is
weighing down and people eventually they die from not being able
to breathe because you can't take a breath. You can hold yourself
up a little bit with your arms and take a breath, but eventually
you lose that strength. And one of the injuries that
people would have during crucifixion would be they'd use their feet
and they'd push their feet against the back of that cross to try
to raise up to get just one more breath. And they'd have a bruise on their
heel. And that bruised heel is a picture of the work that Christ
accomplished on the cross for his people. That's what I have, a small glimpse
of the glory of God, Jesus Christ, that Rock of Ages who's cleft
for us. He's the very glory of God. And
I pray that tonight that we might look to the Lamb, look to him
and be saved.