Turn back with me now to Exodus
chapter 34. The lesson tonight will come
primarily from verses 29 through 35. And my subject is veiled
and unveiled. When Moses came down from the
mount, this was his second time, going up into the mountain of
God. And he came down with those two
tables of stones upon which the moral law of God was written.
It is very clear here what he is talking about. He says the
Ten Commandments. And it was not in the hope that
Israel would reform or do better this time than they did the last
time. That's not how Moses represented
the people before God. He said they are stiff-necked
people. Stiff-necked. And it was not in hope that Israel
would reform, but in the hope that Israel could see the glory
of God in Christ as he saw it on the mount. The glory of God
in Christ in that law preserved in the ark. and placed under
the mercy seat which was above it. His hope was that he could
show them that the law which had been broken, this law which
they had broken, this holy law of God could only be repaired. The damage that was done could
only be repaired by God Himself or one who was God. And he hoped to show them that
this law could only be fulfilled, honored, and exalted by faith
in the coming Redeemer. That's the only way you're going
to keep this law. And then he hoped, as God had
written this law with His own finger, that He would write them
as they were honored in Christ fulfilled in Christ and magnified
in Christ upon the minds and hearts of his elect. In this law that he carried,
there was no explanation of the depth or concerning the extent
of the demands or the nature of the demands of God's law which
He had written on these stones. If you'll notice in the reading
where I read it to you, He says He gave it to them in commandment. That's it. He read them to them
as God wrote them on the stone. Written upon the hearts and minds
of His elect, we're brought to see the depths of these requirements. We're brought to see the very
nature of God in His commandments. You remember when our Lord, those
Pharisees approached Him and He said, He said, you say, you
say that the law says thou shalt not commit adultery. He said,
that's how you interpret the law. You read it in commandment. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
And that's how you teach it in commandment. He said, but I tell
you this. This is the law giver and the
law fulfiller. And he reveals the depths of
that law. And he said, but I tell you to
look on a woman and lust after her is to commit adultery already
in your heart. Written upon the hearts and minds
of his elect They are brought to see the depths and requirements.
We're brought to see the very nature of God in these commandments. And these laws which are written
upon the minds and hearts of God's elect are not written there
to do. To do. That's not why He writes
them there. You can no more do them written
on your mind and your heart than you can do them written on tables
of stone. He didn't write them there to
do. But as they are accomplished and fulfilled in Christ, declaring
to us both the glory of His holiness and justice and the glory of
His mercy and grace. That's what He revealed to Moses
on that mountain. And as Moses came down from the
mountain, he was not aware that his face shone with this shining,
this glory. He'd been in the presence of
God for 40 days. You know, scientists will jump
up and down and argue with you here now. He didn't have any
water for 40 days? No way. He was in God's presence
and he needed neither food nor water. And for 40 days, he didn't
eat or drink anything. And as he came down from that
mountain, he wasn't aware of it until he come into the presence
of his brother and the elders, but everybody else was. Everybody
else saw the glory, whether he saw it or not. And they weren't
even sure if he was alive or dead. I think they saw this glistering,
this shining, whatever it was upon his face, and he appeared
like an apparition to them. He appeared like a spirit or
something to them. They didn't know if he was dead
or alive. They didn't know if he was coming to bless or curse.
They didn't know what this was all about. And they were afraid
and backed off because they already knew Moses was angry with them. And then finally, if I understand
the text right, Moses put a veil over his face or else God put
one. It really doesn't say. But at
any rate, a veil was put over his face And then Aaron and the
rulers of Israel came to him and listened to what he had to
say. He put this veil over his face
to take away their fear. Now let me tell you something.
Natural man fears the unveiled glory of God. He fears it. He'll run from it like it's the
plague. The minute you start telling him something about God's
absolute sovereignty, he's sovereign over everything that walks, crawls,
flies, or swims. He's sovereign. He's sovereign
over the planets. He's sovereign over the spirit
world, those things which you can't see, the principalities
and powers and things not seen. He's lord over those things.
He's lord over the dead. And he's lord over the living.
He's Lord over all. He's absolute Lord. You begin
to talk to them about that glory, and they fear that kind of thing,
don't they? They run from it. They run from it. Why? Because it ain't natural. It ain't natural. Think about
it. It's out of place in their mind
and in their experience. It don't seem right to him. And he won't prove of it. without
a veil. Well, what was it that made the
face of God's servant shine? Well, the shining of Moses' face
is directly connected to the revelation God gave him in the
mount concerning his glory in the accomplishing of his salvation
in the person of his dear son. The shining of his face indicated
the enlightenment of his heart. And I guarantee you this, your
face won't shine until your heart's enlightened. It's not going to
shine. It'll wear that old religious
frown. It'll wear those tears. But it
won't wear that shining until God enlightens the heart. And
having veiled his face, he talked to Aaron and the elders of Israel
about the things which God had told him on the mount, the tabernacle. and the priesthood, and the ark,
and the mercy seat, and the sacrifices, and all those things he talked
to them about. In short, he talked to them about
those things which were typical of the coming Redeemer. Well,
Pastor, how can you be so sure that this is what this shining
and veiling was all about, and this is what he was talking to
those people about? It don't say that in Exodus 34. No, but it does in 2 Corinthians
3. Turn over there with me. This is how it's explained by
the inspiration of God in His own Word. And this is how we
know what these things are all about here in the Old Testament.
We come over here to the New Testament. where these inspired
men of God preached these things and established these doctrines.
And then we see what was taking place back there in the Old Testament.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul tells us that God had made him
and all those who preached the gospel with him able ministers
of the New Testament, the New Covenant. There was an Old Covenant. covenant of works, the covenant
of the law, and a covenant of do's and don'ts. And there is
a new covenant. That is, it is newly revealed,
newly manifested. And this is the covenant of grace
manifested in Christ and brought to light through the preaching
of the Gospel. And both old and new covenants are glorious. They
are all glorious. Now look here in verse 6. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 6. who
also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, New Covenant. Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit. That is what's declared in the
letter. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. Now I want you to notice in both
places there, Spirit don't have a capital S. He's not talking
about the Holy Spirit there, but he's talking about the message
of the Spirit, which is the gospel. Verse 7, But if the ministration
of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face
of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was
to be done away. And here again, I'm going to
call your attention to this word, done away. He uses that several
times as I read through this chapter. And then he uses the
word abolish. Look them up in your Strong's
Concordance. Every one of them is the same word. So when he's
talking here about that which is done away, he's talking about
that which is abolished. How shall not the ministration
of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory
that excelleth." If you put these two glories side by side, the
glory that shone on Moses' face and the glory that shined in
the face of Christ, it's like Moses had no glory at all. That's
what he's telling us here. For if that which is done away
was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech. And not as Moses, which put a
veil over his face that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to the end of that which is abolished, but their minds
were blinded. For unto this day remaineth the
same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when
it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away." Now,
the Lord is that Spirit. This time it's capitalized. And
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. We all
with open face beholding in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed
into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit
of the Lord. Now there is a glory manifested
in both the law and the gospel. The glory of the law is the righteousness
and holiness of God who is the lawgiver. The lawgiver. You see the difference between
them and us When we look at the law, it's the same law. But we
know the lawgiver, and we know his character, and we know some
things about him. We know his attributes. We've
seen his glory in his son, who is his expressed image. And we
know something about the living God. And I'll be honest with
you, a lot of the things that they preach today, I don't understand
all that they're saying. But I just know this is contrary
to the character of God, and that's enough for me. It's contrary
to the character of God. The glory of the law is the righteousness
and holiness of God who gave it. And the glory of the gospel
is he who has manifested the righteousness of God and satisfied
the law's demands and made it honorable. He exalted the law
and made it honorable. I just want to talk to you for
a little while tonight about that veil that keeps men and
women from seeing the end of these things. They can't see
it. Well, I just don't see how you get that out of Genesis chapter
1. I just don't see how you get
that out of Exodus chapter 34. I don't see where you're coming
from with those things. I know you don't. I know you
don't. But you will if you ever see
Christ. You will. But right now, there's
a veil. There's a veil there. And it
keeps men and women from seeing the end of these things, seeing
that which God has clearly set forth in the Scriptures, the
Lord Jesus Christ and the redemption accomplished by Him in His life
and death. What is this veil all about?
Well, in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 14 and verse 15, Paul tells us
that this veil is a veil which blinds their minds. You see it
there? It blinds their minds and it
covers their hearts. So let's just begin there. The
natural man has a fallen nature and this nature acts like a veil. It's a veil. You'll be amazed
sometimes when you're witnessing to a guy or trying to teach someone
something and they're just looking at you like you're from another
planet and you're reading them things you're a four-year-old
to pick up on. You know, I talked to you a week
or so ago, and I was using as plain a scriptures as I know
to be found when we were talking about election. And I quoted
that scripture there that our Lord said. He said, you have
not chosen me, I've chosen you. Huh? Those folks here that day
didn't believe that. Didn't believe that. Isn't that
amazing? Now, the only way you can not
believe that, the only way you can not interpret that is to
have a veil. Is that right? Huh? There is
no other way. I mean, a small child would know
what that says. But they reject it. Why do they
do that? Because there's a veil. And as the veil upon Moses' face
prevented them from seeing the glory of God's righteousness
and holiness and justice in that first covenant. So there is a
veil of carnal nature upon the hearts and minds of fallen men.
And they don't see the glory of the lawgiver. God is perfect
in His nature and attributes, and He demands the same from
us in motive and in thought and in deed. I know a lot of folks
go to church, and they say, well, I went to church. Why'd you go? Well, I was supposed to go to
church, so I went to church. Didn't have good motive. Didn't
have good motive. Didn't really want to be there.
Didn't have a good affection either. Had to be there. Well,
God demands perfect deeds in motive, thought, and deed. And God's unchangeable in His
nature and attributes, and therefore demands unbroken, continual obedience
without breach. To be guilty of one thing, somebody
said, I saw a sign not too long ago, it was in a parking lot,
and they had this wooden framework built that looked like a couple
of scrolls, and this thing in between had the Ten Commandments
all listed on it, and there's a little sign down at the bottom
that said, the Ten Commandments are enough for us. And I thought
when I drove by, it's too much for me. You don't need ten, you
just need the first one. If you could keep the first one,
you wouldn't have a bit of problem with all the rest of the law.
But you can't love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
It's not in human nature to do it. They do not see the glory of
the lawgiver. Paul wrote to the Galatians and
he said, Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law. Now they
came into this grace church, established by the grace of God,
began in power from the Spirit of God, established, strong,
rejoicing in Christ. And Paul left and he went elsewhere. And in come these creeping in,
boy, creeping in like a bunch of little snakes, creeping in,
unawares. And before you know it, this
whole church is in an uproar over circumcision. That's all
they wanted. They weren't going to bring the
whole thing in all at once. We're just going to bring in
circumcision. Because after all, that's the sign of the covenant.
That's the seal of the covenant. And you're going to have to be
circumcised. And Paul listened to them for a little bit. And
he said, tell me this, you that desire to be under the law, do
you hear the law? Do you really hear the law? Do
you hear what that law demands? Do you see the perfection of
God? Do you see the glory of God?
Not even a beast could get around that mountain when that law was
being given. They couldn't feed. Not even
a beast could feed at the foot of the mountain. Anything that
got around there was going to die. Of course, we're talking
about God's justice and God's holiness. Do you hear what it demands?
Can you see the glory of God's character who wrote this law?
Do you understand what this law commands? Turn with me to Romans
chapter 7. I read to you in 2 Corinthians
chapter 3 that the covenant of the law is called both the ministration
of death and the ministration of condemnation. The law reveals
the righteousness and holiness of God, but it gives no hint
how it can be obtained. The law speaks of judgment and
truth, but it says nothing of mercy and grace. The law exposes
sin, but it reveals no forgiveness for it. The law demands obedience,
but it gives no power to obey, no ability to obey. And here
in Galatians 3.10, Paul said, for as many, now listen to this,
for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. That's what he called it. They're
calling it life. Paul said it's a curse. And the
reason, why would he call the holy law of God a curse? Because
it's written, cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do. Romans 7 deals with the veil
of man's nature being lifted from the minds and hearts of
believers, bringing them into an awareness of the nature and
glory of God in the law. In Romans 7, 5, listen to this. Paul is talking about his own
experience here. He said, for when we were in
the flesh, The motives of sin which were in the law did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. That is a false
sense of the law. A false sense of the righteousness
of the law giver. And it rendered in us an ignorance
of the law and it brought forth fruit unto death. What kind of
fruit? Self-righteousness. That's right. Self-righteousness. self-glorification,
a false sense of pride, a false hope, a false witness, and a
false profession. And that's what it always does.
It does that in everybody who practices it. We were taught
that God demanded and would be satisfied with the best we could
do. Huh? But God said man at his
best states altogether vanity. So that kind of washes that out
of the way. And then religion told me that
I, by my works, could produce a righteousness acceptable to
God. But God said all my righteousnesses
were filthy rags. Religion told me that by the
works of the law I could be justified before God. But God said by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in my sight. Watch this now, Romans 7, 9. was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. When God lifted that veil from
my eyes and I saw His glory in the law, I died. I died. And the commandment which
was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me. and by it slew me."
Verse 14, for we know, that is those who are enlightened know,
that the law is spiritual. Now watch this, but I'm carnal,
sold under sin. What's a carnal man going to
do with the spiritual law except break it? Verse 18, for I know,
Paul said, I know this, that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. There was
a willingness on Paul's part and an ignorant zeal to produce
a righteousness, but no answer as to how to produce it. And
this is the conclusion of all those whose hearts and minds
are unveiled to see the glory of the law of God and then to
see also the pitiful condition of all those who are under it.
Verse 24, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? And this is the only answer given
in the Word of God. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, that is with the mind of Christ, but
with the flesh the law of sin. There's a veil over the hearts
and minds of all men to the glory of the righteousness and holiness
of God in the law. And then secondly, there's a
veil of false religion that prevents men and women from seeing the
glory of God. I read 2 Corinthians 3 to you. Look over there at 2 Corinthians
4. Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 said
God had made him an able minister of the New Testament. And then
over here in chapter 4, he said he's denounced all those things
that he used to walk in, all that tomfoolery. He got rid of
all that. And then he says in verse 3,
but if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in
whom the God of this world 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. Satan's ministers
are not all that they're identified to be in false religion. But
they're transformed, he tells us in the scripture, transformed
as the ministers of righteousness. And all of which are regarded
of God as filthy rags. You know, free will works religion
seems reasonable to the flesh, don't it? Seems logical to the
natural man. It appeals to his pride. It appeals
to his love of self. And it appeals to his nature.
Religion veils the hearts and minds of men and women so that
they cannot see the glory of God in Christ. And they love
to have it so. They love to have it so. Why?
Because everything about it appeals to them. Everything about it
seems logical to them. And then thirdly. This veil,
he said, is done away in Christ. 2 Corinthians 3, 14 and 16. Those who look to Christ find
no veil. No veil there. Everything clearly
revealed in Him. Fallen man brought under the
conviction of sin and brought to see what the law truly says
and sees himself a hopeless, helpless sinner. He finds that
his mouth has been shut, and now he sits before God guilty
without excuse. And then Paul tells him, but
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no difference. When the veil
is lifted from the hearts and minds of men, they're brought
to see the glory of God in Christ. And it so far exceeds the glory
of the law that it makes it appear as though it had no glory at
all. What does the believer see when God lifts the veil? He sees
that the law, both moral and ceremonial, have been fulfilled
in Christ. That law called for a perfect
obedience and motive, thought, and deed. And as a man, Christ
exalted the law and made it honorable. He was made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. And
everything the law demanded from man, Christ fulfilled. The law demanded supreme love
in all its commandments. Christ always loved the Father. He loved Him with a perfect love.
The law demanded continual service and sacrifice. Christ never ceased
to please His Father in all that He did. And the law demanded
a great debt on the part of the sins of God's elect, and Jesus
paid it all. The law demands death from the
sinner. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scripture. And as Boaz redeemed Ruth from
all her debts, so our Lord has redeemed us with His precious
blood. The blood as of a lamb without
spot and blemish. And the law promises blessings
to anyone who keeps it. And so all the blessings of God
come to the believer by way of the law keeper. I like what a
fellow said. He said, boy, he said, I'm so
troubled. An old fellow from out in California
called me and he was so troubled over some of those scriptures.
He said, that if, he said, that just, that's like a full page
ad to me. He said, it jumps off that page.
If, if, if. And I said, well, let me tell
you what a fellow told me. He said, take all them ifs and
put them on a golden chain and hang them around the neck of
Christ. And you'll have peace. You'll have peace. All that we
could possibly desire, all that law can possibly demand, every
bit of it fulfilled in him. And that was the point of the
tabernacle. That was the point of the priesthood and the sacrifice
and all them things was to show them how that law could be fulfilled,
how they could be redeemed and God could still be just and justified.