I want you to turn in your Bibles
to Exodus chapter 33. Did you enjoy what you just heard?
Let me ask you another question. Did you hear? Well, I want you to take a deep
breath, relax, and let's see if we can do this again. The book of Exodus. like all the other books in the
Bible, as you heard our pastor so amply set it forth, is just
one other aspect of the same glorious truth about a God who
works the same way in the redemption of sinners. In this portion of
the book of Exodus, we are dealing with a man named Moses. Moses was a blessed man. He was
blessed of God. He was called of God. And he
was used of God. He was used mightily of God.
And Moses experienced things that many men will never experience. But what Moses also experienced is what every redeemed sinner
must experience. What Moses also experienced is
what every preacher of the gospel must experience. And what Moses
experienced uniquely to his calling was an office by which God and
His triune persons would be glorified as it would set forth the redeeming
work of Jesus Christ. In the 33rd chapter of Exodus,
we have a very marvelous account. I'm going to read verses 12 through
17, give you some background and see if we can understand
what God does. for his people he's talking to
God in verse 12 Moses said unto the Lord see you said unto me
bring this people bring up this people and thou hast not let
me know whom thou wilt send with me,
yet thou hast said, I know you by name. And you have also said,
I have found grace in your sight. Now therefore I pray thee, if
I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way. that I
may know thee that I have found grace in your sight and consider
that this nation is your people and he said this is God speaking
my presence shall go with you and I will give you rest And
he said unto him, this is Moses, if your presence go not with
me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and your people have
found grace in your sight? Is it not in this? thou goest
with us is it not in that thou goest with us and we shall 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 you have spoken for you have found grace
in my sight and I know you by name now here's the verse that
is interesting to me and I want us to think about it a little
bit and Moses said I beseech you show me your glory show me your glory Moses was
a very special man uniquely used by God in such a way that the
Bible says that God spoke to Moses in a manner in which he
spoke to none of the other prophets in the scriptures notice what
verse 11 says and the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a
man speaketh unto his friend And he turned again into the
camp, that is Moses, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun.
A young man departed not out of the tabernacle. God spoke
to Moses face to face. He spoke to Moses in a direct
fashion. Unlike all the other prophets
to whom God had spoken by dreams and by visions and sometimes
by angel visitations, not Moses. Moses heard God's voice in an
unmediated way. God spoke directly to Moses. Saints, that's remarkable. I
hear people from time to time that come to me saying that God
spoke to them. And I know they've got problems. But God spoke to this man Moses.
In the original language it means mouth to mouth. This is that
sort of human language that God uses when he's talking about
having a special relationship with an individual where he speaks
directly to him. Now, if you think about that,
one might consider that with that kind of relationship with
God, nothing in the world could trouble you. With that kind of
close relationship with the true and the living God, there shouldn't
be a care in your life, there shouldn't be a trouble in your
life, there shouldn't be a problem in your life, you who get to
talk to God personally. and yet Moses was a man full
of trouble just like you and just like me in fact in our text
the verses I've just read to you verses 12 through 17 we find
a man here who is pleading with God pleading with the God he
has come to know to help him have some assurance that what
God has called him to do, he will in fact help Moses accomplish. Have you ever been there? Have
you ever been in those times in your life where you wonder,
will I ever be able to experience all that God has called for me?
Have you ever been in the kind of trouble and difficulty that
the people of God go through, wondering whether or not what
God said, God meant. Have you ever been in the kind
of trouble, we heard it a moment ago with our pastors, it's so
refreshing, isn't it, when pastors can be honest about what goes
on in the hearts of sinners, isn't that right? Haven't you ever asked the question
when will the day come when I will stop being fearful when I will
stop doubting When I will stop retreating from the difficulties
and the challenges and the trials in my own life When God has done
all that he has done for me. Have you ever been there? That's
really what's going on here with our brother Moses The Bible tells
us many are the afflictions of the righteous. Our lives are
full of trouble. A lot of times it's the consequence
of our own sins. Is that true? A lot of times
it's the consequence of our own sins. But this situation that
Moses is dealing with, this one is a huge situation. It's a very, very pressing issue
for which Moses is pleading with God to do something to settle
his soul. To settle his soul. The troubles that Moses is going
through now They don't have to do with Moses personally, but
they have to do with Moses' call, they have to do with Moses' ministry,
and they have to do with the people under Moses' care. He's
pleading with God to give him that which is necessary for him
to know that for which God has called him to do will indeed
get done. You know what his request is?
For God to show him His glory. But hadn't Moses already seen God's
glory? Hadn't Moses already beheld the
glory of God? Well, yes he had. Many times
over he had seen God's glory. But because you've seen God's
glory once, Does that mean that you don't
ever have to see His glory again? May I submit something to you
as I work through this with you? The man or the woman who has
seen God's glory wants to see it again and again
and again and again and again. I would venture to say to you,
the reason that you are here today. If you have any sense
of the enormity of this type of gathering, it's because you
want to see God's glory. I can say safely with many of
you, we have seen His glory, haven't we? We have tasted His
glory over the last couple of days. But we're here, children
of God, because we want to experience the glory of God again for the
settling of our souls. For the comfort of our souls. To be reminded once again of
the God who redeemed us by His grace and His power. I want to
see God's glory again and again and again. Now unique in this
passage of scripture are some things that will be of great
importance to us. Moses is calling upon God to
show Him His glory. What is the glory of God? What
is the glory of God? We're going to answer that, but
let me start off by saying this, if you don't know. The glory
of God is all that God is and all that God does. The glory
of God is all that God is and all that He does. That's the
glory of God. The glory of God for Moses is
all that God is and all that God does. God is glorious. And everything that God does
is glorious. Now listen to me, and it requires
a revelation of that glory for you to know it. The Bible calls
Him the King of Glory. It calls Him the Lord of Glory. It calls Him the Prince of Glory. And do you know that God's salvation
is glorious? Do you know Him calling sinners
out of darkness into His marvelous light is glorious? Do you know
His keeping His people is a glorious preservation of His grace? And
saints, do you know that those who have seen God's glory are
headed to glory? Do you know that? This whole
business, right now, at this moment, is all about the glory
of God. Everything our pastors have said
from Pastor Gene this morning expanding on the whole concept
of God's providence and God's work is God's glory to us. What we heard last night from
Pastor Don on the concept of prevenient grace is an aspect
of God's glory. Everything in between the decree
of God in eternity past to that final culmination of all of God's
purpose for His people in Christ to His own glory is God's glory. You and I right now are objects
of that experience. The glory of God. And the Bible tells us, He that
cometh to God must believe that He is. And is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him. Moses is diligently seeking God,
although Moses is found of God. Is that contrary? Can I say this? If you sought God in the beginning,
it's because He sought you first. And if God sought you out and
drew you to Himself so that you found Him, guess what? Your whole
life is all about seeking God. I want to help you understand
that in terms of what was going on in Moses' life just 16 months
earlier. Turn with me in your Bible to
Exodus chapter 3. You've seen this account before,
I just want to share it with you. Now this is 16 months earlier. That's not a long time, isn't
it Saints? 16 months earlier. 16 months
earlier, Moses was on the back side of a desert, herding sheep. for his father-in-law Jethro,
just 16 months earlier. 16 months earlier, Moses was
in darkness. Moses was lost. Moses was under
the wrath of God. Moses was ignorant of his calling
and ignorant of his purpose. Just 16 months earlier. And you know what happened? 16
months before the account we have in chapter 32, 33. What happened is what we heard
just a few moments ago. God called Moses. Look with me
at verses 1-4 in Exodus chapter 3. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro,
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock
to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God,
even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the mist of a bush. And he
looked And he behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. Now notice the next two verses,
saints. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned up. And when the Lord saw that Moses
turned aside to see it, God called unto Moses. He called him. He called Moses the same way
He called Lazarus. He called Moses the same way
he called Lazarus, specifically. See, this describes what happens
when God calls a sinner out of darkness into his marvelous light. You're going about your own business,
lost, just lost, lost, and God calls you. Now, do you know what
he uses to call you? His glory. His glory. Moses saw a bush overwhelmed with fire, and yet
the bush didn't burn up. And do you know what that glorious
fiery bush did? It caused Moses to turn. You
know the Bible teaches us, as our pastor had said, men must
repent and believe the gospel. Is that not true? But do you
know until God shows you His glory you can't repent? You won't
repent. That repentance is of the Lord.
That it has its origins in God. And that when God calls a sinner
to repentance, it's because He reveals His glory to that sinner. And when He does, that sinner
turns aside. And when he turns aside to behold
the glory of God, guess what? God calls him specifically. Just
like He's calling Moses now. Listen to what He says. Quite
interesting. And when the Lord saw that he
turned aside, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush
and said, Moses, Moses, now watch this, and he said, here am I. See, that's what our pastor meant
when he was speaking of that particular call versus that general
call. That specific call versus that
general call. That call where God speaks to
your heart in the preaching of the gospel. See, what we have
here in the burning bush is the glory of God in Christ. God speaking
out of this burning bush to His servant Moses. To call Moses
to Himself. To sanctify Moses. And to bring
Moses into the purpose for which God had called him. And children
of God, He did that for you. And He did that for me too. I
think I recall Pastor Don saying this, The soul that hears the
Master's voice, will not mistakenly hear His voice, but will certainly
respond to that voice. Isn't that true? The soul that
hears the Master's voice, He will not mistakenly hear that
voice. He will hear that voice specifically. It will be purposeful. It will be powerful. And from
that moment on, your whole life is changed. Everyone whom the
Lord called, He called that way. Everyone who hears the gospel,
they hear it just that way. The gospel speaks specifically
to you. And that's what happened to Moses.
Now, when God called Moses, He called Moses to one of the most
Magnanimous, the largest, one of the most monumental tasks
any man could be called to do, with the exception of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lead almost 1.8 million people out of the greatest
country, greatest nation of the world. That nation was Egypt,
you guys know it. And you know how God used Moses
to bring the people out. God went into Egypt with Moses
and Aaron, and God destroyed Egypt with 10 major plagues. This was something that God did
day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month
out. And the last judgment that God
brought upon Egypt to bring his people out, as you heard earlier,
was blood. The destruction of the firstborn
and the shedding of blood in order for His people to be delivered
out of Egypt. A great type of the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ to deliver you and me out of the bondage of
sin. That was a remarkable account with many redemptive lessons.
So many redemptive lessons that you and I, again we would be
amazed to find Moses even now in Exodus 33 asking the kind
of question that he's asking. I mean, if you had seen God Come
into Egypt and do the kind of plagues that he did. Wouldn't
it settle itself in your soul that the God with whom I have
to do is a sovereign almighty God? If you saw God open the
Red Sea and deliver all of his people through dry shod and then
destroy all of Pharaoh's army allowing you to see it when you
got into the desert to turn and look and see all your foes destroyed
knowing that God did that Wouldn't that settle it in your heart?
That I know God and God knows me and I'm fine. To have seen
those things, seemingly that would be enough to carry you
to glory. Isn't that right? To see God
keep his people for approximately 3 months after that in the wilderness. Opening up a rock causing the
waters to gush out to To quench their thirsty souls and then
bringing manna to them Every morning to feed their hungry
souls to provide for them like God did in such a miraculous
way Wouldn't you think? that that would be enough for
God's people to settle down. Would you think that would be
enough for God's servant to be settled in his calling and his
purpose with God? Yet, Moses is here requesting
that God Show Him His glory. Why is that? Well, because a
number of things has taken place, saints. A number of things. First,
God called Moses up in chapter 32. Actually started back in
chapter 19 to the top of Mount Horeb to receive the law of God
God called Moses to that mount for 40 days to give him the law
of God the covenant of God to give to the people of God and
God had given Moses all of the instructions to build the tabernacle
to build the temple. Moses received from God the law
and the gospel, the ten commandments, and that tabernacle that pointed
to Christ, that pointed to Christ's atoning work for his people,
that means by which God's people could continue with God without
being destroyed. While Moses is receiving the
law and the instructions for God's people by which they might
worship God acceptably, He's up in the mountain and they're
down at the bottom worshipping a golden cow. They're down at
the bottom in rank paganism. hostile apostasy against the
true and the living God. Moses is up in the presence of
God in the most blissful situation any person could imagine being
in and yet the people that he's leading is down at the bottom
of the hill in a drunken religious apostate condition. This is one
of the most marked accounts of the Hebrew people in all of scripture. God responds to this account. He records this account over
and over and over and over again in the scriptures as that marked
account where God's people should have just totally perished altogether. And as Moses is sent down off
the mountain by God, God tells Moses, go down you need to see
what your people are doing and as Moses heads down the mountain
what he think is just shouting and joy when he beholds what
he beholds he is told by God to do something that I think
shakes Moses up look with me in your Bible in Exodus chapter
33 and let us see the instructions that God gives Moses in relationship
to what's going on with the people of God. As Moses comes down off
the mountain, here's what God tells Moses to do. I'm in Exodus
33, I'm going to read verse 27 through 29, and then verse 35.
Notice it. Exodus 32, I'm sorry. Exodus
32, verse 25. And when Moses saw that the people
were naked, for Aaron had made them naked,
unto their shame among their enemies. Then Moses stood in
the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let
him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered
themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and
go in and out from the gate. to the gate, through the camp,
and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion,
and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did
according to the word of Moses. And there fell of the people
that day about three thousand men." Look at verse 35. And the Lord plagued the people
because they had made the which Aaron had made. What had just happened was something
that God had not shown to Moses before this time. What had just
happened in this account was an aspect of God's glory that
Moses didn't anticipate. And it's this. While God demonstrated
the destruction of the people of God's foes in Egypt, and while
God demonstrated the destruction of the Amalekites in the wilderness,
the Lord will make war with Amalek all his days. What Moses didn't
quite get was how God would destroy his own people the way he did
in the midst of the wilderness. There was something about God
and the destruction of these people that brought Moses to
an awareness of an attribute and a characteristic of God that
he hadn't quite come to realize. God will destroy the sinner in
the midst of the church. Because the church is not your
hiding place. Now Moses is called to lead these
people to Canaan. And yet God reveals His wrath
upon these people in such a way that chapter 33 tells us that
God said to Moses, listen, Look, you take these people into Canaan
and you will, I'll send my angel, but if I go into the midst of
this people, I will consume every one of them. That was a bad day
for Moses. That was a bad day. I want you
to hear me. That was a bad day for Moses.
Because Moses is the leader of God's people. And Moses has been
called to this task that only God can accomplish. Who is sufficient
for these things? And yet Moses is now seeing God
operate in a way that Moses had never calculated. God's exercising
a clear, sovereign act against sin, and it doesn't matter who
it is. Are you hearing me? This is so
important. This is so important. It was
so important to Moses that when he accomplished what God had
instructed him to do, you called the people out. Now watch this
saints. You called the people out in the midst of this rank
apostasy and find out who's on my side. In the midst of the
church, he said, who is on the Lord's side, let him come to
me. Do you guys remember reading
that? This is in the midst of the church. This is in the midst
of rank pagan idolatry. What that means is, God had a
people in the midst of this craziness. God had a people whom He had
chosen in the midst of this wrath and judgment. And saints, all
it required for them to be exposed to be the people of God was for
them to be called out. There's some lessons for you
and me. Because by nature, you and I would be no different than
those rank pagan idolaters who committed worship of that golden
calf. Am I telling the truth? In fact, if you look at the text
carefully, they all were worshiping that golden calf. Even Aaron. And yet God in His, I told you
last night, His distinguishing love, His distinguishing grace,
His sovereign love, His sovereign grace, only had to do one thing
to deliver His elect out of an abominable act like that, which
I know you would never commit, is to call you out. is to call
you out. Can you imagine with me what
it must have felt like to have been separated from your own
flesh and your own blood to join with Moses in what would essentially
amount to an absolute slaughter of your own kindred because they
rebelled against the gospel. That's what the text taught us.
And yet, if what I said to you last night holds any merit concerning
the character of love, necessarily being conditional, because love
is rooted in God's nature, and because God is holy and just
and righteous, and He must, at last, love Himself. It's only
right that what they did, they did because what's at stake is
the glory of God. This is something that Moses
is coming to learn. And this is something that I
think that if you've been in the Lord long enough, you're
coming to learn too. You know we have these notions about God,
and we have these notions about what God will do, and we have
these notions about what we hope God will do. Isn't that true?
But as we grow in grace, and as we grow in a knowledge of
the Lord, and as He teaches us, experience upon experience, what
we come to learn is, our thoughts are not God's thoughts. And our
ways are not God's ways. It doesn't matter how much Bible
we learn, how right the doctrines are. What you and I come to learn
is by nature we don't know God. And He has to reveal Himself
to us continually again and again and again and again. And the
thing that's going to sustain us in the midst of our trials,
when God acts the way that He acts, because He is who He is. The thing that's going to sustain
us in the midst of God being sovereign, because He must be. It's him revealing his glory
to us again and again and again and again Moses was in a conflict
Moses was in a dilemma because he had learned some things first
of all what he learned was God was high and holy Why don't we
talk about it? But the holiness of God is a
matter that we have to consider continually. Because it's His
holiness that causes God to act the way that He does. It was
His holiness that caused God to do what He did. And Moses
couldn't quite get a handle on that. He got a handle on how
sinful God's people were. But he couldn't quite get a handle
on this. God had told him, I'll destroy
every one of them. That's a lot of saints. That's
a lot. I'm just laying a foundation
for us to understand the significance of Moses' request. Because as
Moses thought it through, if the way things are going, and
we're only in the fourth month, Between now and the land of promise,
it doesn't look like we gonna get there. Because what Moses has come to
understand is God will not tolerate sin. He won't tolerate it. Have you come to understand that?
God can't continent sin. God can't look upon sin. And
see the operative word in Exodus 32 that was so horrible and wretched,
and some of you have learned that, is they made themselves
naked before God. You can't do that. Not with the
true and the living God. Nakedness corresponds to your
own sinful depravity and your own wicked nature and God won't
have it. God must deal with you and I
behind the covering. Our nature doesn't qualify us
to have a relationship with God. See Exodus chapter 33 opens up
God telling Moses Get these people to the promised land. I'll send
my angel before you. But I'm not dwelling in the midst
of them anymore. If I do, I will kill them. God
knew these people, didn't he? And Moses had to separate the
tabernacle from the midst of the people. Here before, it was
in the midst. Now Moses is on the outside of
the camp. They were in four encampments.
Moses is on the outside of the camp. And if people were going
to see God's glory, they would see God's glory from a distance
as God spoke to Moses himself. indicating that God cannot come
in the midst of this people lest he destroy them. Their relationship
had totally changed. It had totally changed. And this
was Moses' dilemma. Moses was furthermore troubled,
saints, by this experience given to us in chapter 32 Verse 30
through 33, where when the people of God had sinned against God
so grievously, it was Moses' rightful thinking to go before
God and to intercede for them. Look at verse 30, And it came
to pass, on to Maul, that Moses said unto the people, You have
sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord. Peradventure,
I shall make an atonement for your sins. You see that? Moses'
objective was to go before God and offer sacrifice to know that
the only way that God could be appeased was through, as you
heard, blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no what? Remission of sins. Moses is going to God with
the expectation that the sacrifice that he would offer would mediate
for the people and they would continue with business as usual. But look at what the text said.
We are told in verse 31, and Moses returned unto the Lord
and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have
made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive
their sin, and if not, now notice this, blot me, I pray thee, out
of thy book which you have written. What a noble gesture on the part
of Moses. What an admirable trait on the
part of the pastor. Something that is necessary to
do ministry. We are called, as Don had rightly
said, to preach the gospel. To preach it constantly, to preach
it incessantly. There are two sides, however,
to the ministry. Particularly for the pastor.
The one side is prophetic. Prophetic. We declare God's Word. We declare His glory. We preach
His truth. We proclaim His glories in Christ. The other side is priestly. We pray for you. We pray for
you. Do we pray for the people of
God? We beg God's mercy on the people of God. We want God's
blessings in the life of the people. Ours too. Don't get me
wrong. We are just like you. We need God's mercy. Don't we? Moses is going to God pleading
for this people. I can see God's grace operating
in the life of Moses to teach him to be a much more effectual
leader. I can see that. Can you? Some
of you, as well as myself, have had children that we have raised
up now. And from our children's youth
up to their adulthood, probably when they're three, four, five
years old, you're under the delusion that your children is not as
bad a sinner as your neighbors. But you come to realize after
a while that they are equally as bad, if not worse. And then
you also come to realize that it is your job not only to train
them up in the fear and the nurture of the Lord, but to get on your
knees and beg God to save your children, because you love them.
The pastor is the same way. But experiences teaches us to
pray for our brothers and sisters. Isn't that right? Experience
teaches us and experience pours into our hearts the kind of empathy
and sympathy that is required to be a pastor, a prophet for
God, a minister of the gospel. We are called priest of God in
the book of Isaiah. And they shall be called ministers
of our Lord. And therefore, my job is to pray
for the saints constantly that God would have mercy on us. But
children of God, do you know when Moses made this request,
he was shocked to hear God's answer. Listen to it. Verse 33,
And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against
me, him will I blot out of my book. Whosoever has sinned against
me, him will I blot out of my book. Do you see that? Therefore
now, go, lead the people unto the place which I have spoken
unto you. Behold, my angel shall go before
you. Nevertheless, in the day when
I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. Whoa! This is a side of God that Moses
had not quite calculated. You know what that is? God is
sovereign in the execution of His judgments, in the life of
His own people, and Moses can't do anything about it. Moses now
knows that God may just, in His own righteous indignation and
vengeance for His glory, even in the midst of His people, decide
to punish them. And Moses can't do anything about
it. That's a precarious state for
a pastor, isn't it? I just want you to hear this a little bit
more before I bring you to where I want you to be. God knew Moses
and he knew why he told Moses that Moses couldn't be the man.
Moses said blot me out of your book. But what good would Moses
being blotted out of the book do for the rest of those sinners?
It wouldn't do a thing, right? See, when God rejected Moses
from being the mediator, it was in order for Moses to know that
he's not their savior. Let me help you a little bit.
You can fall prey to this. I love what our pastor said in
the preach. That's why I said, did you hear
him? As he opened up, he talked about the seriousness of this
thing called the ministry of the gospel. The pastor can fall
prey to thinking that somehow he can lead God's people. That
he can save God's people. That he can sanctify God's people.
That he can bring God's people to glory. That he can actually,
effectually mediate for God's people. Nothing is further from
the truth. Nothing is further from the truth.
It's a great great blessing for us to be able to pray to be able
to preach to be able to as it were be the mouthpiece for God's
For God's glory to God's people, but I'm here to tell you God's
sovereign And if anybody knows that it has to be the preacher
that God's sovereign He also said in the preaching which was
so wonderful get these messages listen to him ten times we preach
And then we wait on God, don't we? We preach and we wait on
God to do what God's gonna do. Ain't that right? While I wait
till the election comes in, we've come to learn that, didn't we?
Haven't you learned over the years? You can't look out into
somebody's heart and really know if they heard the gospel. Tears. Words of, oh, I really like that
message. Oh, I was really moved by that
message. But our pastor said it. You're
dead. Until God quickens you. And when
God quickens you, God is the one that's done it. And we'll
know. You know how we'll know? You'll
give God all the glory. You won't even remotely mistake
your conversion for our work. Ever. Are you hearing me? See,
in the house of God is where God will be glorified in all
of his attributes. And Moses came to understand
that. So here is where we're going. Go back to chapter 33
because I want to just share with you a few more points to
lay this foundation down for my burden for us understanding
how God works. I could title this message many
things, show me thy glory. I could title this message Moses,
the man, the preacher, a type of the law of God. but what I want us to understand
is that Moses is now being driven to ask a question that is very
critical for us to ask because he finds himself without assurance
as to this God who is so sovereign and so determined and so transcendent
that what he does he doesn't have to tell anybody
And what he does, no man can require it of God. And what Moses
now needs to know about God is more than what he saw When God
destroyed Egypt with the 10 plagues. And more than what he saw when
God opened the Red Sea. And more than what he saw when
God sent the manna. And more than what he saw when
God opened the rock. See all of those are glorious
redemptive truths, are they not? Each and every one of them speak
to the total sufficiency of Christ's triumphant work to redeem his
people. Do they not? And yet, listen
to me. What Moses came to understand was, knowing about those things
is not the same thing as knowing God. Knowing about the fact that God
has done these things is not the same as knowing God. Look
at what the text says. I'm at verse 13. Here's what Moses said after
pleading with God. God you know you said you brought
these people out. You're delivering these people
to the promised land. You called me to do it. Now therefore
I pray thee, if I have found grace in your sight, show me
now your way. What a question. What a question. Show me your way. Didn't Moses
know his ways? Well, obviously not. Because
what he's actually asking is, now that you've called me out,
and called these people out, and you have a purpose for us,
to lead us somewhere for your own glory, what I need to know is how you work and why you work
the way you work. See, that's knowing God's ways.
It's one thing to see God work. It's another thing to know why
He does it. Am I making some sense? See, this is what Moses
is doing. Moses is saying, God, I've seen
what You've done and sometimes it makes sense and sometimes
it doesn't. that the moment is not making
sense. And if I, a man who is nothing but flesh, am going to
be able to accomplish my task, you have to show me your ways. The word means your purposes. It means your pattern. It means
your course. It means why you do what you
do in such a way that you do it that you won't ever not do
it that way because that's who you are. And when I come to know
you for who you are, then I can know why you do what you do.
Now, that's what I mean by God has a box. And I say that over against those
folks who say God doesn't have a box. You can't put God in a
box But God has a box If what if what I mean by that box is
he has a set of immutable principles by which he acts If God operates
in certain ways that are inviolable he doesn't change Then God has a box God has ways
that he works, that when we learn them, we'll realize why he does
what he does. And there are ways that God acts,
that will not change. And when we learn the way that
God acts, and why he acts the way he does, we'll have comfort. That's the whole problem here
with Moses. Will these people make it into the promised land?
They will, and Moses will be confident that they will when
Moses comes to understand why God does what he does. Because
when we understand why God does what he does, we can rest with
whatever he does. So what we want to know are God's
ways. Show me your ways. Show me your ways. Show me your
glory. And how does God respond? Look
at what God says. This is glorious. Verse 18. For wherein shall it be known,
here, that I and thy people have found grace in your sight? Is
it not in that thou goest with us, and we shall be separated,
I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face
of the earth? Now listen to what God says in
verse 13. Now therefore I pray thee. I'm
sorry. Verse 14, listen to this. And
he said, my presence shall go with you. Do you see that Moses? Don't worry. My presence will
go with you and I will give you rest. And all that you do, I'll
be with you, and I'll give you rest in all that you do. Isn't
that important for us? As we go through our life, as
we make our journey through this world. Don't we want God's presence?
More than that, don't we want the rest that comes from His
presence? And here's the final thing that
God says to Moses in requests in answering Moses his request
is down in verse 17 I want you to see this and the Lord said
unto Moses. I will do this thing also that
you have spoken This is so remarkable For you have found grace in my
sight. Do you see that? Now watch this
and I know you by name Isn't that good I know you by name. God's response to Moses was this,
I will answer your request. I will show you my ways. I will
help you understand more of my character, more of my nature,
more of my attributes, more of my purpose in order to comfort
you and all those who trust me. I'll help you do that. And I'll
be with you and I'll give you rest and moreover, I thought
that this was so remarkable. I know you by name. Think about that with me for
a moment as I close. God didn't say to Moses, I'll
go with you, I'll be with you, I'll give you rest, because you
know me. Now that's good, isn't it? Don't
we have to know God? Doesn't the Bible say in John
17, 3, and this is eternal life, that they might know you, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. This is critical
to a saving knowledge of our God. We must know Him. We must
know Him in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must know Him in His redeeming
work in order to know that we have eternal life. That's what
our pastor just preached. It's necessary to know God. Isn't
that right? The Bible says in Philippians chapter 3, around
verse 10 and 11, as Paul extols the virtues of Christ's righteousness,
O that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection. be
made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead. Paul says, I want to know
Him more and more. I want to know Him more and more.
And yet, you know something that's more grand than us knowing God? Is God knowing us. Let me help
you a little bit for a moment. See, this is very practical for
us. Very practical for us. Because saints, will you hear
me? There are troubles, sometimes in our life, that are so intense
and so difficult, our knowledge of God is not adequate enough
to bring us peace. See, I'm just telling the truth
right now. Am I telling the truth? Let me say it again. Maybe some
of my religious brethren didn't get it, but I want you to get
this now. Sometimes our trials are so intense, so profound,
so difficult, so humbling, that our knowledge of God is not enough
to bring us peace. To remove the fears, but to remove
the doubts. And I think that that will be
that way until we die. But when you come to know that
God knows you, especially in the midst of your
difficulties, that will float your boat. that will give you
peace that will sustain you when your brain starts to lose all
its synapses and is unable to recall scripture or even able
to find comfort in the scripture am i telling the truth now watch
this i need to know god i want to know him more and more but
do you know what's a great great comfort to me right now is that
god knows me What he's telling Moses is this, and I'm going
to wind it down here. Moses, don't worry that your
knowledge right now of me is inadequate, because it is. Your knowledge of God and my
knowledge of God is inadequate to be able to always know why
God is doing what God is doing. We have come to, by the grace
of God, learn how to rest in God and trust God. That's a gift
from God. But here's what I want to give
to you by way of the scriptures in the midst of your journey
to glory. It's wonderful and securing for us to know God. But it is comforting for us to
know that He knows us. Let me give you a couple of passages
to make this come home. And God does this a lot through
the Scriptures. Remember Abraham? God called him out of Ur of the
Chaldees to give him the promise of the promised land. To give
him the blessings of the promised land. He's the father of the
faithful. Abraham had his trials, didn't he? Abraham is in the
desert of Mamre. His nephew Lot is over there
in San Francisco. And God is about to destroy it. And He will once He pulls this
elect out. But he goes to Abraham, his friend, and he says to Abraham,
this is what I'm getting ready to do. And as he's leaving, you
know what he says to the other angels? Genesis chapter 18. Around verse 18 listen to what
he said I know Abraham God I know Abraham. I know him and I know
what he will do Therefore I will hold I will withhold nothing
from him. I Isn't that good? Now watch
this. Here's another brother who had
some difficulties too. Cause see I'm talking about difficulties
right now. His name was Job. You remember
Job. Didn't Job go through some difficulties? Is there anybody
in here who has been through what Job has been through? And
yet, God loved Job. Job knew God. Job was the apple
of God's eye. God mightily worked through Job
as a gospel preacher. Job was a preacher of the gospel.
He ministered the gospel to many in his day. The all of God was
upon Job. The Spirit of God was in Job's
life. But Job went through some troubles that God knew, that
God allowed, that God determined for God's own glory, which Brought
Job to his wits end too. Job came unraveled, didn't he?
But do you know what Job said in the 14th chapter of Job? When he finally settled down,
realizing that God is sovereign and will do whatever he wants
to do? Watch this. He says, God knows the way I
take. See it? And that when he's done,
I'll come forth as gold. Listen to what I'm saying. Joe's
confidence didn't lie in what he knew. His confidence lied
in what God knew. Isn't that remarkable, Saints,
to be able to rest in this reality that God knows you and He knows
the way you're gonna go? Give you another one, King David.
King David went through his troubles, didn't he? I love David. I love everything about David.
I mean, I love everything about David. I love his humanity. I
love his manliness. I love everything about David. I can identify with David. Can
you? God loved David. David was a man after God's own
heart. But David wrote many psalms where he said, where's God? Where's
God? I am like a dead man out of sight,
forgotten. Many of the Psalms can identify
with the deep, deep depression of God's people. We get comfort
from that, don't we? Oh, they are all messianic. They
all point to the sufferings of our great Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Every one of them. But listen to what David said
in Psalm 139. Lord, you have searched me and
you have known me. From my uprising to my down setting,
you are acquainted with all my ways. There's not a word fitted
in my lips, but that you know it all together. Wherever I go,
you are already there. Whatever I do, you have already
seen it. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. Listen to me. He's talking about
the comfort that you and I derive from our sovereign, immutable,
unchangeable, unfailing God knowing us. Isn't that good? Now watch
this as I close out on this point. The comfort that I derive from
the fact that I know that God knows me is that I never have
to hear God ever say to me, I never knew you. Depart from me ye workers
of iniquity. What do you mean, Pastor? God
knows me in every facet of my life. He knows my sin. He knows my rebellion. He knows
my propicities. He knows my tendencies to depart
from Him. He knows my weaknesses. He knows
my fears. He knows my anxieties. He knows
my stresses. God knows everything about me. And yet because He knows me,
I'm good to go. That's good. That's good. That's good. See, prevenient
grace taught me that last night. Did it teach you that? It taught
me that last night. That God created this world for
His glory as a ship to get me there. That's amazing. and that there's nothing about
me that would ever stand to jeopardize the fact that He knew me and
decreed my salvation and purposed my predestination and shut me
up in the person of Christ and preserved me unto everlasting
glory with all of the fickleness that I must be. Am I making some
sense? What he tells Moses then is,
I'm going to answer your request. I know what you're asking. You're
asking to know me in a way in which you can be certain that
what I am doing, you know why I'm doing it. But I want you
to know that if you never come to such a knowledge of who I
am, know this, I know you. Now here's what he does as I
close. And we're coming back here tomorrow. to deal with God's box. God has a box. It's a big box. But it's a box. It's a box of
God's ways. Of God's purposes. That don't
change. They can't fail. And He can't
lie. It's a box based upon His character. His nature, his immutability,
his impeccableness, his perfections, his faithfulness. It's a box
that shows every one of his elect, every one of his people who he
is and what he does and why he does it. It's a box that allows
us to be able to walk with one accord, to say the same things
and believe the same things. It's a box that allows us to
be one in God. It's a box by which we can tell
the world this is the true and the living God and that's a lie.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? See, God has to show us His character
and nature and purpose and glory in order for us to know who He
is and why He does what He does. So here's what He says to Moses,
having said, I'll answer your request. I'm going to close it
this way, saints. Moses says in verse 18, I beg
you to show me your glory. God says in verses 21 and 22,
and I'll come back to the previous verses tomorrow, and God said,
you cannot see my face, for there no man shall see me and live. Moses was asking to see God's
glory. Do you know if you and I were
to see God's glory in an unconditional way, It would destroy us. Conditions are required for mere
human beings like you and I to see the glory of God and live. And yet the heart of the believer
who has been called to virtue and glory, we have been called
by a glorious gospel and a glorious God and a glorious Savior wants
to see God's glory. Isn't that right? And here's
what God does in order for you and I and any sinner to see the
glory of God. Verse 22. I'm sorry, verse 21. And the Lord said, Behold, there
is a place by me. Do you see it? And you shall
stand upon a rock. I call it God's box and it shall come to pass when
my glory passes by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock
I call it God's box because this is the way God acts every time
God acts in redeeming mercy to sinners He will not act any other
way. God will not save any other way. He will not reveal His glory
any other way than this way. And if folk don't like it, they
just don't like it. This is how God shows His people
His glory. And we'll talk about it tomorrow.
Amen.