I want to say thank you to everyone
here at Rescue Baptist Church for your graciously inviting
me out to preach to you. I love it whether I'm preaching
or sitting here in fellowship with you, worshiping and hearing
and rejoicing in the gospel of God's marvelous grace. I just
want you to know that Gene and Judy have been A real example
to many of us over the years when it comes to hosting the
Lord's table and calling his saints to fellowship. For those
who are part of Grace Bible Church, especially our younger crew of
people, the pattern that you see among us, well, we stole
it from Gene and Judy. I love to be with God's people,
and so it's a joy to be with you. My wife is delighted in
her time, and we thank you. We thank you from the bottom
of our hearts for this opportunity. We've heard some good preaching
this conference, haven't we? We've heard some good, good preaching. I have too. I want you to turn
back in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 34, and I want to share
with you God's box. I want to share with
you seven things in Exodus 34 that are so explicitly clear,
the only way you could miss it is if you wanted to. I don't mind saying that the
infinite, eternal God has a box. And I say that with great reverence
and great care and great thought as I seek to refute anyone who
would dare to suggest that men and women can be saved any kind
of way. I don't mind saying that God's
love has never been and will never be unconditional. I will quickly refute anyone
who would suggest that God loves men willy-nilly. To do so is
to deny the glory of God, which is the whole business of the
church and the whole business of the ministry of preaching.
As soon as your target is something less than the glory of God, You
are God's enemy. So when I say that God has a
box, here's what I mean by that. Don't put God in a box. God put
himself in a box. And I think I heard it hinted
a little earlier yesterday that that box that God placed Himself
in, by which men and women can know Him with the utmost certainty,
is His Son, Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes unto the Father
but by Me. That's a box. That's a fixed
set of parameters and inviolable law. an immutable council a set
of principles by which God operates in order to glorify himself and
to save his people and apart from this no man will know God
and no man will ever see God's glory This is what God is doing
for Moses in order to help Moses understand God's ways. Let me put it this way, God's
ways are also his box. To know God's ways is to know
Christ. To know Christ is to know God's
ways. All of God's ways are found in
Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No one comes unto the Father
but by me. and Moses is going to learn this
as the grid through which he understands everything that God
is going to do from this point until he lays down in his grave
and departs for glory. Everything that God is going
to do in the life of Moses in his ministry dealing with the
children of Israel bringing them from Mount Sinai to the land
of promise will all correspond with this one objective the glory
of God and the person and work of Jesus Christ. I know you hear
it all the time, but I want you to understand that Christ is
all the counsel of God. Everything about God that can
be known must be known and will be known only in Jesus Christ. Outside of that you cannot know
God. We talked last night about the
comfort, the assurance of knowing God, and this is eternal life.
That they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom He has sent. This is so absolutely necessary. You and I are saved through a
knowledge of Him. We are delivered through a knowledge
of Him. We are sanctified by a knowledge
of Him. But what a word of comfort to
know that God knows us. What a word of comfort to know
that God knows us. I think that that's what Paul
meant when he said to the Galatians trying to help them come out
of the stupor of once religion when someone had come in there
daring to say that Christ is not enough. He says now that
you have come to know God Or rather, are known by God. See what he's saying? More importantly
than you knowing God, God knowing you. Well Pastor, how can I know
that God knows me? Do you know Him? Then He knows
you. You see, if we love Him, it's
because He what? Loved us first. And if we know
God, it's because He what? Knows us. What a joy! What a joy! Now watch, saints,
how God works when He answers Moses' request to show him his
glory that's chapter 33 verse 18 and Moses said I beseech thee
show me thy glory and what God shows Moses is what he shows
every one of his people and that is he shows them his glory from
a specific place from which you cannot see the glory of God and
live Exodus chapter 33 verse 21, and the Lord said, Behold,
there is a place by me. and thou shalt stand upon a rock. Do you see that? And it shall
come to pass that while my glory passes by that I will put you
in a cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand while
I pass by. Do you know that that rock is
Jesus Christ? Do you know that that cleft in
the which God put Moses is Christ crucified? Do you know that the
place from which men can and must see the glory of God is
in Jesus Christ? Everyone who knows God knows
this, that I must be in Christ to know God. I want you to mark
what God said. Here's the first of seven necessary
things by which we know the true and the living God. You must
be placed in Christ. Did you notice what I said? You
don't place yourself in Christ. God places you in Christ. To
get in Christ is a work of God. You don't get in Christ by something
you do or something you say. You only get in Christ by something
that God did. Men and women who are in Christ
are in Christ by the sovereign act of God. More than that, those
who are in Christ have been in Christ from eternity past, before
the world began. God placed His elect in Christ
in old eternity in order that it might be clear to you and
me that our salvation is a person, not an act. a person, not an
event, and that our salvation from beginning to end could never
be according to our works. Therefore, God must place us
in Christ in order for us to behold His glory. Notice what
he says, having declared the place Wherein he would put Moses,
this rock, this fortress, this foundation, this refuge, this
strong tower. He says to Moses, when I put
you in this rock, I will cover you with my hand while I pass
by. Amazing! Here in this place,
the sinner gets to see the glory of God. As God protects him from
God's glory destroying him, he allows the sinner to see something
of God's redeeming glory. And I will take away my hand,
and you shall see my back parts, but my face shalt thou not see
God declares to Moses what he is going to do and in chapter
34 he does exactly what he tells Moses he is going to do look
with me in chapter 34 I want you to see verse 5 part A are
we there? Exodus 34 verse 5 part A declares to us that God must
come down in order that we see Him. Look at it. And the Lord
descended in a cloud. Do you see that? And the Lord
descended in a cloud. The Lord here is Jehovah. He
is Jesus Christ. And in order to see God's glory,
God must descend. God must manifest Himself to
us. God must reveal Himself to us
in order that we see His glory. We must have Christ come down
and manifest the glory of the invisible God to us. Moses here
has the blessing that every child of God has, and that is to see
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Christ must
come down. If you will, chapter 34 verse
5 corresponds with our Lord taking on a human nature you read it
in John chapter 1 verse 14 and the word was made flesh and dwelt
among us And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now saints, listen
to me. This is not just a nice comparison
between Exodus 34 and John 1 14. I submit to you that Jehovah
here is the Lord Jesus Himself. Come down to Moses. I submit to you that Jesus Christ
has in his own purpose of redemption revealed himself to Moses who
is a great, great, great picture of the law of God. And he is
that chief prophet under which all the other prophets follow,
who also must see the glory of God in Christ. For it is Christ
who informs the prophets in terms of who He is and what He does. And the prophets, all of them,
from Moses to Malachi, preached Christ. All of them declared
His glory. All of them saw His glory. It
was the Spirit of Christ working in the prophets to tell men and
women who God is and what God does. Moses being the first. Lord show me Your glory. Show
me Your ways. Here is my glory and here is
my way. I put sinners in my Son and then
in time I reveal my Son to sinners. by the manifestation of my son
in the incarnation by his glorious work as their mediator and representative
in his life down here in his sufferings in his atoning work
in his death burial and resurrection in his ascension to glory Christ
is revealed to us as the glory of God What a glorious truth! He must come down as the revelation
of the invisible God that men might see the redeeming glory
of God. Christ must come down. The Bible
tells us in John chapter 6 verse 39, and this is the will of Him
that sent me, that all that seeth the Son and believeth on Him,
everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day.
How important is the revelation of the Son of God to your soul?
It's exceedingly important. It's everything. The revelation
of Christ to our souls is everything. I want you to mark what takes
place. Moses then not only serves as a great picture of every believer
who then got places in this box called his immutable purpose
of grace, his eternal counsel which he hid in himself before
the world began and reveals to us in the person of Christ. But
Moses here serves as that model of the law which being a witness
To the glory of God in Christ must declare that Christ is the
one that saved sinners Let me help you look at the text again
verse 34 part of 34 verse 5 says and the Lord descended in a cloud
part B and Stood with him there Do you see it Moses is standing
on the rock and the Lord Jesus descends to stand with Moses
right there. I submit to you that what's being
fulfilled is what the scripture says in Romans chapter 3 verse
21. But now the righteousness of
God is revealed apart from the works of the law. being witnessed
by the Law and the Prophets. What is Moses doing? Moses is
witnessing God's righteousness apart from himself. In other
words, Moses knows that righteousness cannot be found in him, nor in
the Prophets. It's only found in Christ. Christ has come down in his own
glory to manifest himself to Moses to confirm Moses and in
order for Moses to confirm him. This was our Lord's contention
with the Pharisees and the rulers all the time. You say you believe
Moses. But if you believe Moses, you
believe me, because Moses spoke of me. You are searching the
scriptures, and in them you think you have eternal life, but they
are they which testify of me. Part A reveals to us the coming
down of our master in his incarnation to reveal his father's glory
to us. Part B reveals to us how that
he stands over against his own law, over against his own prophets
in order to declare through them to us that righteousness is found
in another, even in Jesus Christ. And saints, listen to me. You
and I need that righteousness. You and I need that righteousness.
I want you to see it. Listen to it. This is necessary.
Chapter 34 verse 5 part A teaches us clearly that Christ must manifest
Himself. He did. Chapter 34 verse 5 part
B reveals to us that He is God's righteousness manifested and
revealed apart from the law and the prophets being witnessed
by them. Chapter 34 verse 5 part C This
is glorious. Why did he come down? Why did
he stand over on the side of Moses? What did he do just stand
there to be a pillar? The text tells me that he came
down and he stood with Moses and he proclaimed the name of
the Lord Do you realize what you see taking
place here? You see God Himself in the person
of Jesus Christ preaching Himself! Do you see it? This is glorious! Because the Lord himself, Jehovah
himself, Christ is the quintessential preacher. He is the one that
gives dignity to this ministry that we have. Our master himself,
when he came to this world, yes, he was Mary's son. Yes, he was
Joseph's adopted son. Yes, he was a carpenter. But
he came to preach the gospel. He came to declare His glory
and His Father's glory. But He came many, many thousands
of years before that in the law, and in the prophets, and in the
Psalms, declaring through the Spirit by His prophets that He
would come. And He did come to Moses. And
He revealed to us. And Moses This wonderful truth. Listen to it now. He stood with
Moses and proclaimed the name of the Lord. This fulfills what
we've learned in Titus chapter 1 verses 1 through 3. Have you
heard it before? Paul said, I am a slave of Jesus
Christ. I am sent by God. Sent by God
as an apostle. Watch this now. According to
the faith of God's elect. Do you know what that is? The
gospel? According to the faith of God's elect. Now watch this
now. According to the faith of God's
elect. Which is the acknowledging of
the truth. And that truth is in Christ,
which is according to godliness. What then is godliness? Telling
the truth! Godliness is telling the truth
as it is in Jesus. How do you know a man is godly?
He believes Christ. How do you know he's godly? He
tells the truth about Christ. How do you know he's sent of
God? His call is to preach the glories of God in Christ. Will
you hear me? And nothing else. Now watch this,
Paul said God sent me to preach the faith of God's elect which
results in them telling the truth which is a result of the Spirit
of God in them and this God promised before the world began. Let me
ask you a question. To whom did he promise it before
the world began? You weren't there and I wasn't
there, but I know that the triune God was there, which means for
us there was a promise before the world began, which was part
of a covenant before the world began, which was a covenant filled
with stipulations and statutes and precepts and watch this now,
conditioned of which the Godhead themselves agreed to fulfill
on our behalf. Isn't that good? Oh not, which
God who cannot, what, lie, promise before the world began. Do you
see what Paul realizes is the enormity of his calling as a
preacher? He realized that God set him
up before the world began to be a preacher of this glorious
message of redemption which was hidden God and in Christ before
the world began. I don't know about you, but if
you read Paul carefully, he's excited about the gospel. He's excited about the gospel. For Paul, his common phrase was,
God has a box. You know what that is? In Christ. By Christ. Through Christ. For Christ's sake. We heard it
the other night. For his name's sake. Paul loved
to use that term. And then just in case there were
some work mongers around, he said, not according to your works.
and before the world began. That sets you out, doesn't it? Before the world began. Before
the world began, God purposed to save a people through His
Son, Jesus Christ. Now listen to me. Here is the
box. He has determined to do it through
preaching. Now singing, Not dancing, not
theatrics. Preaching. Authoritative proclamation
of the glories of God in Christ through the scriptures. If men
and women are going to be saved, they are going to be saved through
preaching. That's God's promise. Well, God
can save any kind of way. No, He can't. He won't. He won't. He only saves through preaching. He only saves those He has placed
in Christ. He only saves by the manifestation
of the God-man, Jesus Christ. That's how God saves. He saves
through the proclamation of His Word. I believe that, do you? Faith comes by what? And hearing
by what? Listen to me. The only way a
sinner's gonna be saved is if the gospel is preached. Now if
you preach, but you don't preach the gospel, sinners won't be
saved. God has shut his whole scheme
of redemption up to this box. His Son. His gospel, His means,
the means and the process by which men see the redeeming glory
of God is Jesus Christ. Do I have to help you understand
that a little bit more? Oh, it's good, isn't it? This
is what my pastor meant the other night when he says, men must
preach the gospel with simplicity and earnestness. When you do,
God honors it. When you do, God honors it. Do
you know why? Because it shuts you up to such a narrow way.
You don't get to consider anything other than this. Am I in Christ
or out of Christ? That's all. That's all. Am I in His Son or am I standing
on the outside? And you can answer that right
now. Are you ready? Do you believe the gospel? Then
you're good to go. Then you're good to go. Now you get to enjoy what God
had prepared for vessels of mercy before the world began. You get
to enjoy the riches of His glory. You get to enjoy the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge which are unending all in Jesus Christ. Saints, this is the mystery as
to why Sunday in and Sunday out we come to hear God might just
open the heavens and pour out a blessing on our soul and show
us one more time a glimpse of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Just one more time. That's all
I need. That's all I need. Show me the
Lord Jesus and I'm good to go. He must be revealed as that righteousness
which is apart from the law and he must be manifested through
preaching which is committed unto us who are called by the
commandment of God. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel. That's a huge subject. God is
a huge God and His glory is infinite. There is no room for us to preach
anything else. If you preach up Christ, then
you can preach something else. But I'm here to tell you, you
will never exhaust the counsel of God concerning the person
and work of Jesus Christ. You know Moses is enjoying what
he's going through right now. Do you know that? He's standing
on the rock and he's standing with the rock as the rock is
preaching himself to Moses. That's a good worship service,
isn't it? Yes. Now I want you to see how he
unveils Christ in relationship to everything he's been called
to do and you and I as well listen to what the text says in chapter
34 verse 6 and 7 as our Savior is proclaiming his own glories
The text says this is how he preached himself. Are you ready?
The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed. That's our Hebrew
word for preach, for declare, to declare, to testify, to proclaim. It's the same word for preaching.
Christ is preaching and here's what he said. Here's the first
thing that comes out of his mouth. The Lord. Do you see that? The Lord God. Listen to me saints,
the gospel is about God. And when we hear the gospel in
power, it's God himself talking about himself. It's what we call
true theology around our camp. True theology is God talking
about himself and letting us in on the conversation. Did you
get that? True theology is God speaking
about Himself. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. If we're going to know about
God, God has to tell us about Himself. Isn't that right? And
gospel preaching. is God taking the sinner and
put him on the sidelines so that he is very much aware that the
subject that he is hearing has nothing to do with him. That's
gospel preaching. That's gospel preaching. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? We get to behold it. Remember
what God says, I'm going to put you in a cleft of a rock and
then I'm going to put my hand over you and then I'm going to
remove it and I'm going to pass by. He's passing by Moses now
as he reveals to Moses his essential Intrinsic and redeeming glory
Moses is doing what you and I are called to do Beholding as in
a mirror the glory of the Lord and as a consequence we are being
changed From glory to glory to glory even as by the Spirit of
God. Well, what are we doing pastor
nothing? but looking Is that good? Nothing but looking. My job is
to raise that mirror up and let God do His thing. The Spirit
of God will show you Christ. And as you look to Him, He will
change you. So that not only will you believe
on Him, you will love Him. I love God because he first loved
me And gave himself a propitiation for my sins that revelation of
God has changed me That's God's promise is that not so that's
God's promise now listen to what he says he says Jehovah Jehovah
Elohim Well, what is Jehovah Elohim? He's merciful Did you
get it he's merciful Ladies and gentlemen, the God we know and
own is a God of mercy. Isn't He? He's a God of mercy. Listen, this is at the top of
His attributes as He discloses them to Moses. He says, Moses
is the first thing I want you to get. I am a God of mercy. and of grace. Isn't that what
it says? Merciful and gracious. Now you
know those are two sides of the same coin, right? You know that
in the Old Testament Hebrew, the term mercy and grace fall
under God's everlasting compassion to His elect. They are both one
and the same for God. For God to be gracious to me
is for Him to show mercy to me. For God to be merciful to me
is for Him to be gracious to me. For God to be gracious to
you is for Him to show mercy to you. God showed mercy to us,
right? But God, who is rich in mercy,
wherewith He loved us. Even when we were dead in trespasses
and sins. What did He do? He quickened
us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. Do you notice that you're still
on the sidelines? God's doing all the work. Telling you what
he's doing Moses is getting a glimpse of the covenant God So that Moses
might know that as he makes his way through the wilderness dealing
with God's people that God is going to act a certain way that
Corresponds with his nature and his purpose and God won't change.
Can I tell you something? It's because God won't change
that we aren't consumed and This is called the immutability of
his nature. I am Jehovah. Do you hear it? Therefore you
sons of Jacob are not what? Consumed. It's because God won't
change in his nature that I'm not destroyed in hell. Because
God has purposed to be merciful to me and his son Jesus Christ
before the world began. He'll chase in me That's part
of the covenant stipulation, isn't that right? Remember what
I told you? All whom the Lord loves, He what? That's right! And if you be without chastisement,
you're a bastard. Pastor, what does that mean?
I'm glad you asked. Are you ready? For God to chasten
His elect in the ultimate redemptive sense is to set you in front
of the crucified Christ and to show you how He bore your sins. and to break your heart by the
stripes of his own darling son who bore your chastisement so
that you might have the peace of God. God looking upon you
as his own darling son. That's the chastisement that
God uses to break chosen, called, redeemed sinners. Nothing's going
to break a sinner's heart but the cross of Christ, and the
Christ of the cross. Nothing's gonna change your heart,
but you being able to look on Him whom the Lord Himself smote
as your substitute, and as your surety, while you hear the Spirit
of God say to you, I'm satisfied for His sake. That changes things,
doesn't it? That changes a whole... Listen,
I'm still trying to... I'm trying to find out, is there
another gospel in the world as glorious as this? You hear all
of this stuff out there. And I scratch my head and I say,
but there's no glory in it. There's no glory in free will
works religion. There's no glory in Islam. There's no glory in Buddhism.
There's no glory in paganism. Where's the glory? I need God's
glory, don't you? Don't you think this is a glorious
love story? Christ died for our sins. That's glorious. That's glorious. I'm still trying to get over
it. I won't ever get over it. We heard it in the song. Our
brother Mike sung it so well. He said it last night. I am grateful. I am thankful. He included me. Isn't that good? Christ must
be manifested through this box we call the declarative proclamation
of His Word. We preach Christ boldly. We preach
Him plainly. We preach Him consistently. We
preach Him with God's help. And when He's preached, He's
revealed as merciful, as gracious, as long-suffering, as abundant
in goodness and in truth. Isn't that right? Isn't that
your experience? It overwhelms you how that God can be so good
to his people. It's the goodness of God that
leads you to repentance. You do know that, right? But
now I want you to see what he goes on to say about his covenant. Keeping mercy. Do you see that? Keeping mercy for thousands. Forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sins. That's who God is. He's a God
of mercy and grace, long-suffering and compassion, keeping, keeping
mercy to thousands of generations, forgiving sins and iniquity.
Now saints, if we preach Christ, His person and work, and these
characteristics and attributes do not dominate that preaching,
we have not preached Him rightly. This is His character! This is
the character of God to needy sinners. Now watch this now.
Notice what he says. Keeping mercy and yet will by
no means clear the guilty. Do you see that? Visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children until the third and the fourth generation listen
to me I want you to get this now what Moses has just beheld
and it's necessary for you and I to behold it is that Jesus
Christ has become the embodiment of all of God's mercy and justice
To know Christ is to know a God of righteousness, a God of justice,
a God of holiness, a God that must punish sins, yet a God who
can be merciful and gracious and long-suffering and forgiving
at the same time. Hear me now as I wrap this up. What Moses sees is the covenant. What Moses sees is the Covenant. Our folks in Reformed Theology
love to talk about Covenant Theology. Reformed Theology. The Covenant.
They have a system of hermeneutics called Covenant Theology. Are
you ready? Christ is my Covenant. Christ is my Covenant Theology.
All of who he is and all of what he does and has done is the whole
of the Covenant. Every aspect of the Covenant.
Christ is Is that okay as Isaiah chapter 42 verse 8 Isaiah chapter
49 verse 1 through 3 I will uphold you with my right hand I'll keep
you I'll preserve you and I'll give you as a covenant to the
people That's a light to the Gentiles. Christ is our covenant. Listen, that simplifies the matter
for dummies like us, isn't that right? World Covenant, big old
theological term, sterile, dry theological term. Well, here
you do. Take the whole covenant, the
whole book, the whole volume of all of God's stipulations
and promises and warnings and threats. Necessarily so, because
God saves on conditions. And put them in a person. And
if you put them in Christ, you've got it all. He is the whole counsel
of God to those who believe. Get Christ and then take your
time figuring out the stipulations in the covenant. Did you hear
what I just said? And if you don't get to all of
them before you get to glory, that's okay. One more thing, having said that,
I want you to hear me now. I want you to hear me now. If
God shows you this box, this one place, this one narrow way,
if He shows it to you by His Spirit, you will worship. You will worship Him. You might
be worshiping Him now. I'll tell you, Moses worshipped.
Look at verse 8. Are you there? When God revealed
himself in Christ to Moses, the necessary response was Moses
making haste and bowing his head toward the earth and worshiping
God. When God reveals Christ to the
sinner's heart, then the sinner worships God. And not until then. Moses fell on his ground and
worshiped God because it was revealed to him that this business
of getting God's people from Egypt to Canaan was not about
him. He said, I thank you. Good. I
can just go ahead and you'll do your thing because it's already
accomplished in Christ. Here's the beauty of what's going
on in our text. And I'm done. Moses was on the
top of the mountain. Receiving the law of God, the
covenants of God, the revelation of the tabernacle. All of this
points to Christ, his righteousness and his redemption. The people
of God are down at the bottom of the mountain committing pagan
rank idolatry. They should have been thrown
in hell. God exercised a small measure of his wrath. which shook
Moses up, rightly so. You and I want to reverence God.
Listen to me, children of God. You must reverence the God that
loved you and saved you and called you. And the one thing that our
God will not tolerate is the worship of other gods. Do you
hear me? His name is Jealous. That's what he said in the text.
That's what he said in the text. And you know what he told Moses
to do before he revealed his glory to him? He told Moses,
go make another set of covenants. I'll write on them again. And
come up and meet me, let me show you something. The first time
he wrote the Ten Commandments and gave him the law, the Decalogue,
Moses didn't know what he knows now. What he knows now is those
Ten Commandments And that set of covenants that God made with
the people of Israel really was only a foreshadow of the covenant
that God made with His Son in glory. And once he saw Christ,
you know what he realizes? God's already fulfilled this
covenant in spite of our rebellion and disobedience. He can breathe
now. Because God's gonna take his
people into Canaan. Not by works of righteousness
which they have done, but by his mercy, because he himself
has already accomplished their eternal redemption for them.
Look at the text, I'm done. Verse 10. Verse 9 and 10, and
Moses said, I know that I have found grace in your sight, O
Lord. Let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for this is a stiff-necked
people we are. and pardon our iniquity and our
sin take us for your inheritance and he said behold I make a covenant
before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been
done in all the earth nor to any nation and all the people
among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord for it is
an awesome thing that I will do You know what he's talking
about? His own glory being manifested
in his darling son to the salvation of his elect amongst the world. Moses said, oh okay, good, I
can go. Amen.