Well, David, you just won't sing
it any better than that, I don't think. That was great. Thank you. As we anticipate the conference
beginning next weekend, this is my desire for you, for me. This is my desire distinctly
and specifically for this assembly. You will everyone avail yourselves
of the opportunity to hear these eight men preach the gospel of
God's grace. Don't miss a service if you can
avoid it. And I pray that God will do this for those whom he
gathers across the country to this place. Show me thy glory. Show me thy glory. That's Moses' prayer in Exodus
33 verse 18. Open your Bibles to this passage
and just hold them open if you will. I beseech thee, show me thy glory. He could not have asked for more. And God couldn't give more. I
beseech thee, show me thy glory. Abraham showed great, great faith
when he approached the throne of grace and made intercession
for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jacob laid hold of the angel
of the Lord, the Lord Jesus, who wrestled with him. And the
Lord said, let me go. And Jacob said, I will not let
thee go, except thou bless me. And Jacob, that supplanter, prevailed
with God. And so the Lord blessed him and
called him Israel. Elijah was a man strong in faith. when he was able to rend the
heavens as he cried to God in prayer and caused rain to fall
from the skies that had been shut up and sealed so long before. But those things pale almost
into insignificance with this. Moses prays, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory in all the book of God. I find no prayer
from a mere man that compares with this. Moses' bones must
have trembled when he said what he did. He must have just quaked, realizing
what he had just said. Sometimes we speak things before
God that we oughtn't. Should I have said that? Moses surely must have thought
now, what's God going to do? I say that for these reasons.
Jacob, when he saw the Lord revealed to him, was astonished. Astonished that he was still
breathing. Jacob called the name of that place Penteel. For I
have seen God face to face, he said, and my life is preserved. How can this be? I've seen God
face to face and I'm still alive. And his wife, you'll remember,
saw the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ. All of
these revelations of God in the Old Testament are not just some
kind of a hocus-pocus, mystic, visionary thing. They are pre-incarnate
revelations of Christ. They're the Lord Jesus Christ,
the angel of the covenant, coming and showing himself as the God-man
before ever he came in human flesh into this world. Manoah
and his wife saw the angel of the Lord, and they didn't really
know what was going on until they offered a sacrifice, and
the angel did wondrously as the smoke from the sacrifice ascended
up to heaven. And Manoah concluded, we shall
surely die because we've seen God. Man can't survive this. And his
wife was more reasonable than he. She concluded, Would the
Lord have shown himself to us if he intended to kill us? Manoah
said, we shall surely die. We've seen God. Isaiah said,
in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and
lifted up. And he describes in Isaiah chapter
6 how that seeing Christ sitting on his throne is the fulfillment
of all that was typified in the Old Testament ceremonial worship
of the tabernacle and the temple. Because this throne on which
Christ is seated is the mercy seat, where the seraphim are
facing one another, where the angels of God are looking constantly
on the sacrifice, crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of
Sabbath. And the fires of the altar are
there. And one comes and takes the tongs
and picks up a live coal from off the altar and touches Isaiah's
lips. He said, when I saw this, I cried,
woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. I'm cut off because I'm an unclean
man and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
And here's the reason I'm cut off. Mine eyes have seen the
King. I've seen the Lord, I've seen
God. When the Apostle John saw the
Lord Jesus Christ exalted, magnified in his glory. This one, this
one who had leaned on the Savior's breast while he walked on this
earth, he said, I fell at his feet as one did. Moses surely must have been astonished
when he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. He speaks
as one who was astonished that God would even speak to him,
let alone show him his glory. Listen to this. Moses said, Behold,
the Lord our God hath showed us his glory and his greatness. And we've heard his voice out
of the midst of the fire. We've seen it this day that God
doth talk with man and he liveth. For who is there of all flesh
that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of
the midst of the fire as we have and live? Now, look at our text here, back
up into chapter 32. How did Moses come to have inspiration
to pray as he does in the passage we've read here in Exodus 33? What did God use to plant this
prayer in his heart? Mark this, understand it. If ever you pray, Bobby, we try all the time, but
we don't often pray, do we? Not often, not often. We call on God, we worship him,
but pray. I'm talking about pray. If ever
you are enabled of God's spirit to pray, it will be because God
put it in your heart. pray as you do. The Lord told
David, I'm going to seek to it that your throne lasts forever,
you'll never lack a man sit on your throne, your house and kingdom
will last forever. Speaking of David's house and
kingdom as Christ's house and kingdom. Then David said, you
put it in your heart, put it in my heart for your servant
to pray this prayer. He said, do what you say. Where did Moses
Get this prayer put in his heart by God. How is it that he is
inspired to speak to God as he does in this passage? Moses had
been in Mount Sinai in communion with God, just him and his God,
for 40 days. For 40 days. Didn't want any
food, didn't want any water. That's called fasting. Not that he did without food
and water. He didn't want any. He was with God in sweet communion
for 40 days and 40 nights. Walking in God's presence with
God speaking to him as a man speaks face to face with his
friend. Walking with God as to best I
can find. No man had walked with God since
Adam walked with God in the garden. Walking with God in blessed,
blessed communion. And after that, he seems to have
a boldness. A boldness characterizing this
man who's described in the book of God as the meekest man upon
the earth. Moses' prayer was the culmination
not only of communion with God, but of the Lord's gracious dealings
with him. He prays as he does here because
of what he had experienced of God's grace in the days before.
Moses says, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. But he does so
because he's had many tokens of God's grace. The Lord God
came to Moses while he was tending sheep on the backside of the
desert. and showed himself in a bush that burned with fire
and was not consumed. And standing on Horeb's holy
ground, God spoke to Moses out of the bush and showed himself
to Moses by his name that he had revealed to no one else before.
His great name Jehovah. His great name God who saves,
his great name of salvation, the I Am, the eternal, self-existent,
saving, redeeming Jehovah. He showed himself to Moses in
the bush and showed his goodwill. That is the goodwill of God,
the salvation of his people by his power and grace in Christ
Jesus. The Lord spoke to Moses and he
showed wonder. in the land of Ham. The plagues
brought on the Egyptians. The psalmist calls them wonders
in the land of Ham. They were plagues upon the Egyptians,
judgments of God upon the earth. But they were wonders performed
for the salvation of God's people. And Moses, he saw Pharaoh and
his armies in the Red Sea. and led the children of Israel
to sing God's praise as they went around and picked up all
the weapons and the spoils of the Egyptians while those carcasses
lay on the shore of the sea. Look back to chapter 32 I say,
verse 16, or verse 10 rather. The Lord was angry with the children
of Israel because they had made this golden calf and bowed down
before this calf and worshipped it. And the Lord said to Moses,
let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that
I may consume them, and I'll make of thee a great nation.
Get out of my way, I'll kill them, I'll kill every one of
them, and I'll give you sons and raise up a nation out of
you. But Moses was a true pastor. He was far more concerned for
God's glory and God's people than he was for himself. So he
puts God in remembrance of his covenant with Abraham and of
his deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt. And he argues that
if the nation of Israel is destroyed here in this wilderness, Lord,
your name will be mocked and blasphemed in Egypt. And then
he prays, verse 32. Yet now if thou wilt forgive
their sins. And if not, blot me, I pray thee,
out of thy book which thou hast written. He may have gone too
far there. Obviously he did. God corrected
him and said, I'll blot out whom I will blot out. But Moses is
earnest. And he's pouring out his heart
to God in earnestness for his people. Like Jacob of old, he
prevailed with God. and receive fresh testimony of
God's grace in sparing that guilty nation. And then in our text,
verses 12 through 23, verses 33, Moses makes four great prayers
of intercession, four mighty requests of faith, all of which
God answers favorably and graciously. Let's look at them. They're leading
up to the culminating word. First, Moses prays in verse 12. He said to the Lord, see, thou
sayest unto me, bring up this people. God commanded him to
do so in verse 1 of the chapter. And thou hast not let me know
whom thou wilt send with me. The Lord said, I'm not going
with you. I'm not going to go up in the midst of you. Yet thou hast said, I know thee
by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. The Lord told Moses in verse
3 that he wouldn't go in the midst of Israel's stiff-necked
people anymore. Christ, the angel of the covenant,
would go before them and go behind them. He promised him that. But
he said he would not go in the midst of them anymore. And Moses
knew, Lord, I can't do this. I can't bring these people through
this wilderness. I can't guide these people into
the land of Canaan. I can't bring them to possess
the land of promise. I can't drive out the enemies
before them. I can't protect them. You've
not shown me, Lord, who will go with me. Joshua was with him,
but Joshua was just another man. Joshua was with him, Aaron was
with him, but they're just fickle, sinful men. We're talking about
a work God alone can do. Moses said, I'm insufficient
for this. He knew that without God's grace
with him, without God's presence with him, he could not perform
the task. Now watch him plead his cause
with the Lord. Watch him put God in remembrance. You ever have your children, one
of them gets on your lap, especially when they're little. Get a little
older, they're not quite as careless about offering their arguments.
But when they're little and they want something and they think
you're not really inclined to give it, They think maybe you're
not really inclined to go get it for them. They will start
offering every reason under the sun why they just got to have
that little toy, that new item, that new shirt, or that new pair
of shoes, just every argument under the sun. The Lord God tells
us to pray like that. He tells us to pray like that.
Listen to this. Isaiah 43, he said, put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. God says, Nephew, if you want
to talk to me, put me in remembrance of what I told you. Put me in
remembrance of what I've done. Put me in remembrance of who
you are and who I am. Put me in remembrance. Let us,
you and me, argue this thing together. You come to me for
the grace you want, for the mercy you need. Let us plead together. He says, declare thou, state
your case. that you may be justified, justified
in the thing you ask. Now watch how Moses declares
himself. He says, thou hast said, I know
thee by name. He said, Lord, Lord, now you've
not shown me who's going to go up with me, but you've said,
I know you by name. No, no. What a word. Not only am I acquainted
with you, that's not much of an argument. I know you like
I know nobody else. Lord, you've told me that you
know me distinctly, that you love me, that you've accepted
me, that you approve of me. You've told me that you've chosen
and ordained me distinctly. And thou hast also found grace
in my sight. Lord, you've told me that I'm
the object of your favor. You told me that I'm the object
of your mercy. You told me that you have designed
nothing but good for me. Now watch and pray. Verse 13.
Now therefore, In the light of these things, in the light of
the fact that you said, I know you by name, in the light of
the fact that I found grace in your sight, I pray thee, if I
have found grace in thy sight, read it this way, since I found
grace in thy sight. He's not questioning what God
said. He's not doubting God's word. He's using it as an argument. He says, since I have found grace
in thy sight, show me now. way. Show me now thy way. Moses knows that he must guide
this people through the wilderness and he knows that God's going
to take them in a direct way but he knows it's not going to
be anytime soon. He's going to guide them for a long time through
the wilderness and the Lord's made them a tabernacle to carry
with them through this wilderness. He's going to guide them through
the land of many enemies. Men and women who desired their
destruction. He's going to guide them into
the land of promise. And he says, God, I can't do
this. I can't do this. I'm utterly ignorant and weak. I've got to have your help. Guide
me in your way. He knew that God's way is never
the way that man would choose. Lindsey, if you read these chapters
of Israel's wandering in the wilderness, as we call it, how
many steps do you reckon they took to the left, to the right,
to the north, to the south, that they would have chosen to take?
Never. Not one of them. Everywhere they
turned was trouble. Everywhere they went was calamity. Everything they experienced brought
them in the face of one who sought to destroy them. Moses knew God's
way was not the way a man would choose. He knew God's way would
likely be rough and dark. He knew God's way was the best,
the wisest, and the only good way. Only as Israel walked in
God's way would the name of God be glorified. So he prays, show
me now thy way, thy way through this wilderness, thy way among
all these enemies, thy way to the land of Canaan. Lord, show
me your way of providence, your way of grace, your way of salvation. Show me the way I should go.
Show me your way day by day. Obviously, this has reference
to our Redeemer. He said, I am the way. I am the
way. David prayed like this, lead
me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies. Lead
me in your righteousness. Make thy way straight before
my face. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and
lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Our heart is
not turned back, neither Have our steps declined from thy way.
Teach me thy way, O Lord. Teach me thy way. I will walk
in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. Now look at the reasons Moses
gives. He urges these as reasons why God should make his way known
to him, that I may know thee. Lord, show me your way. Because I know your way will
teach me to know you. Show me your way that I may know
you. All what we learn, God's way. Just God's way. There are things that we can't
learn. except as God directs us our
every step in his way. We learn to depend on him when
he's the only one we can depend on. We learn to trust his faithfulness
when we're made to experience his faithfulness. We learn to
seek him when we've got to have him. We learn that his grace
is sufficient. when nothing but all sufficient
grace will do. Show me thy way. Lead me in a
plain path. Teach my heart to fear thee,
that I may know thee. Now watch this. That I may find
grace in thy sight. Well, you can't pray like that.
We're talking about saved people here. That's how saved folks
pray. That I may know you. Oh, that
I may know him. in the power of his resurrection,
in the fellowship of his suffering, be made conformable unto his
death, that I may find grace, oh, grace to help in time of
need, grace sufficient for every need. Show me thy way, that I
may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight. All right,
read on. Last part of verse 13. God's servant prays, consider
that this nation is thy people. Again, he puts the Lord in remembrance
of his elect people, his covenant people, the people whom he had
chosen for himself, for his own heritage. He says Jacob is the
lot of his inheritance. Jacob is his people in Israel,
his inheritance. Listen to this, you can look
at it later in Deuteronomy 9. I prayed therefore unto the Lord, and
said, O Lord God, destroy not thy people, thine inheritance,
which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast
brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand." In Joel chapter
2, verse 17, we have an urgent pressing upon God's servants.
He says, let the priest, the ministers of the Lord, Weep between
the porch and the altar, and let them say to God, spare thy
people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that
the heathen should not rule, that the heathen should rule
over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, where is
thy God? Lord, Moses says, consider. always consider that these are
your people. They're stiff-necked people.
Yes, but you've sanctified them. They're sinful people. Yes, but
you've chosen them. They're weak and fickle people. Yes, but you've redeemed them.
They're your people. But these people act like the heathen.
Yes, but you've given them your name. Remember, they're your
people. I can speak to that a little.
I pray for you, not just for you and this assembly. I pray
for you and your children and your grandchildren and your life
situations and ask God's mercy upon you. And I use this more
than anything else as an argument for my intercessions. Lord, they're
yours. They're your people. You chose
them. You redeemed them. You called
them. They're your people. So be gracious to them. Speak
to them. Preserve them. Uphold them. Revive
them. Refresh them. They're your people.
The lot of your inheritance. Don't let anything happen to
them. Now look at verses 14 and 15. Here's his third request. Verse 14. The Lord said, My presence shall
go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Oh, what a promise. My presence. What's he talking
about? My presence. Turn to Isaiah 63,
verse 9. I'll show you exactly what he's
talking about. My presence shall go with thee. My presence. Some kind of a mystical thing?
Is this some kind of an airy thing that anybody can decide
what it is? No, God tells us exactly what it is. Isaiah 63
verse 9, And all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel
of his presence, the angel of his presence saved
them. In His love and in His pity,
He redeemed them. And He bared them and carried
them all the days of old. My presence shall go with you. That is, my Son, the Lord Jesus,
your Redeemer, your Savior, He'll go with you. The rest, He speaks
of, is the promised rest of Canaan. No question about that. He'll
give you rest. He's going to go with you through
all this journey. He's going to direct your steps. He'll order your affairs, and
He'll bring you at last into the land of Canaan. He'll give
you rest. The rest in Canaan speaks of
the rest of faith. The blessed gospel Sabbath of
grace and the final rest that is ours in Christ Jesus in the
full salvation experience in heaven's glory. Look at verse
15. And Moses said to the Lord, if
thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. I looked this up last night.
I wanted to be sure my memory wasn't slipping. at least concerning
this. None of you will remember it,
I'm sure. August 31st, 1989, or 1980, excuse me, we met for the last time at the
utilities building downtown. We were coming the next week
to begin meeting here in this place that God's given us. And
I preach to you from this 15th verse If thy presence go not with me,
carry us not up hence. And I call you to witness. God's been as good as his word.
His presence has manifestly been with us almost 30 years. But let us not presume. Make
it our earnest prayer continually now as then, if thy presence
go not with us. Lord, God, our Savior, if you won't go with us, don't
let us move. Now to stem. Without his presence, without
Christ, everything else is worthless, insignificant, and useless. No matter what you have, no matter
what you do, it's worthless, insignificant, and useless. Would you hear me, you who are
yet without the Redeemer? You young people and older alike,
hear me? Please listen to me, please listen
to me. Without Christ, no matter what
you have, Where you are or what you do, it is utterly meaningless
and insignificant. All the riches you may gather,
all the pleasure you may enjoy, all the things you may do in
life without Christ, will but increase your eternal misery
in the pit of the damned. Without Christ, everything is
utterly meaningless and insignificant. Doesn't much matter what we have
or where we are if we don't enjoy our Redeemer, His presence. We have nothing. It's as though
Moses said, Lord, If you go with me, I can do whatever you require. I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me, Paul said. If you go with me, our sufficiency
is of God. But if you go not with me, then all this will come to nothing.
He goes on to use even stronger pleas by which he urges the Lord. He says in verse 16, For wherein
shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in
thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest
with us? So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth. Christ's presence with us is
the manifestation that we're gods. Christ in you, the hope
of glory, is the evidence that God chose you, redeemed you,
and called you. Christ with us is that by which
we are sanctified and separated from all the people that are
upon the face of the earth. The word separated might better
be translated marvelously separated or marvelously distinguished. Truly, we are marvelously separated
from the world. Look at verse 17. And the Lord
said to Moses, I will do this thing also that
thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight, and
I know thee by thy name. Oh, God teach us to pray Like
Moses here prays. When you go to God's throne,
the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace to help
in time of need, remember you're coming to the throne of God. The great God with whom nothing
is impossible. The great God from whom we should
always expect great things. Now look at this fourth great
request. And I'll just skim the surface
now, and we'll come back to it tonight, the Lord willing. Oh, may God the Spirit teach
us. I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Verse 19, and he said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the
name, the name of the Lord before thee. and will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. And he said, thou canst not see my face, for there
shall no man see me and live. In this present state, we see through glass darkly. We see nothing perfectly. We
certainly can't see God's glorious face. That is, we can't see all
the fullness of God's magnificent being. Verse 21, and the Lord
said, Behold, there's a place, just one place, right here by
me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. I think I know the place
and I think I know the rock, don't you? And it shall come
to pass that while my glory passeth by, that I will put you, you
can't get in there unless I put you there, I will put you in
the cleft of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while
I pass by. It is while my glory passeth
by, it is while I pass by. Verse 23, and I will take away
mine hand and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall
not be seen. Now I have struggled, earnestly
struggled, seeking both by prayer and by study, to find out what
on earth God meant when he said to Moses, you can't see my face,
but I'll put my hand over you, hide you in the cleft of the
rock, and you'll see my back parts. Back parts. God doesn't have any parts. God's
spirit. He talks about his hand and his
eyes and his mouth and his ears and his feet and his arm, but
those are just metaphors speaking about strength and power and
wisdom and knowledge and so on. God doesn't have any parts. He's
spirit. We're talking about fat parts.
Fat parts. See what that is? That's a heel. It's on the backside of this
piece of flesh. It's a heel. Back in Genesis
chapter 3, verse 15, the Lord God said that the woman's seed
would have his heel bruised as he used his heel to crush the
serpent's head. His back parts? Burl, his back
parts are the crucified Redeemer, the incarnate God our Savior,
Christ Jesus, by whom Satan is crushed and God's glory is seen. His back parts are Christ our
Redeemer. The word back parts may have
reference to a king's regal train. He puts on his robes, he walks
and His majesty and His train flows behind Him, but His back
parts speak of our Redeemer, and He is the royal revelation
of God our Savior. When I was a boy, we used to
go several times a year to visit my dad's folks up in Spruce Pine,
North Carolina. We lived down in Winston-Salem.
And every time we'd go, we'd drive by Grandfather Mountain.
And I visited Grandfather Mountain a number of times when I was
a kid. But we'd drive by that thing, and I'd ask invariably,
why do they call this Grandfather Mountain? And my dad would tell
me, well, if you look up there, look at the mountain, you'll
see a picture of an old man and his beard. And I looked in the
summertime, and I looked in the wintertime, and I looked in the
fall, and I looked in the spring, and I couldn't see an old man
in that mountain. I thought, well, they say he's there, I
reckon he's there. And then one day, we drove along the other
side of the mountain, got to Grandfather Mountain. Nobody
told me it was Grandfather Mountain, but I looked up, and just from
that one perspective, you could see that old man laying there,
his hair and his forehead and his nose and his mouth and his
beard, just laying down on top of the mountain. Why, now I can
see it, now I can see it. but you could only see it from
one place. Where is it that you see the
glory of God? Only one place. Where is it that we see the fullness
of God's being, all his glorious attributes revealed, all his
mercy and grace and justice and truth? Just one place. Standing on the rock, Christ
Jesus. Hidden in the cleft of the rock,
Christ Jesus. Now, we see in Jesus Christ crucified,
the glory of God shining. Now I see it! Now I know God! Now God's revealed himself to
me. for I beheld God in my flesh,
satisfying justice, putting away my sin forever. That's the revelation
of the glory of God. We seek, we want, we beg God
to give continually. Amen.