I'm going to be preaching this
weekend for Paul Mahan for the Bible conference there in Rocky
Mountain, Virginia. And Chris Cunningham is going
to be preaching here, and I have really enjoyed getting to know
him and hear his preaching, and I think it's going to be a great
blessing. I'm excited about him coming here and preaching this
Sunday. Exus 33, I forgot to get my thing
on. So, Claire, before I forget to
ask you, as I always do, you take care of that. I usually
call him after it's already, you know. Exodus 33, verse 18. And he, Moses, said, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. I have entitled this message,
What God Says, His Glory Is. What God Says, His Glory Is. Now Moses had been asking for
some great things, as we saw last week in verse 13. He said,
Now therefore I pray thee, if I found grace in thy sight, show
me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace,
unmerited favor in thy sight, and consider that this nation
is thy people. Now he's asking for some great
things in that verse, but in verse 18, He asks for the highest
thing a man can ask for. Now I want you to meditate on
that. I beseech thee, show me thy glory. No greater request could possibly
be made. I beseech thee, show me thy glory. I will not see it unless you
show it to me. And I cannot see it unless you
make it known to me. I beseech thee, show me what
you would call your glory. Now remember, Moses had seen
some very great things. He had seen the bush that burned
and was not consumed. He had seen the ten plagues. He had seen the parting of the
Red Sea. He had seen manna come down from
heaven. He had seen water come out of
a rock and provide water for all the nation of Israel. He had seen the giving of God's
holy law. He had been given the ten commandments,
yet he says, show me thy glory. I haven't seen it yet. Now that's a remarkable request.
He'd received the law, and yet he says, Show me thy glory. There has never been a more noble
or greater request. I wonder if it's a request that
I make. I wonder if it's a request that
you make. Do you want God to show you His glory? That's a very sobering a very
humbling and almost a scary proposition. I beseech thee, show me what
you say is most glorious about yourself. Now how do you think God would
answer that? I said before, the chief attribute
of God is His holiness, and I wouldn't argue against that. He is glorious
in holiness, but that's not what He says to Moses. His justice, justice and judgment
are the habitation of Thy throne. Oh indeed, His justice is a glorious
justice. His wisdom, His power, His righteousness. Oh, there's many things that
we could say, and I can see where God would use those words to
describe what He considers to be most glorious about Himself. And He gives an answer that upon
the surface, that's not what I would have picked. When Moses
said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory, he said, I'll make
all my what? What? Goodness pass before thee. God's chief glory is his goodness. Would you turn with me for a
moment to Matthew chapter 19? Hold your finger there and turn
to Matthew 19. You remember this story of the rich young ruler. Verse 16, And behold, one came and said
unto him, Good master, what good thing shall I do? that I may
have eternal life. And he said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? There is none good but one, God. Only God is good. Now, this man, our Lord understood,
was coming to him as a man. He was saying, I'm a good man,
you're a better man. What can I do to attain to your
goodness, good master? What can I do to be like you?
And he knew, our Lord knew that he was only seeing him as a man,
so he corrected him. He said, why are you calling
me good if you believe I'm nothing more than a man? Why are you
calling me good? There's none good but God only. Now we read in the scriptures
of a good man, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. But where did their goodness
come from? You know, Paul said to the Romans, I'm persuaded
that you're filled with goodness. And I wouldn't debate that. Every
believer's got God the Holy Spirit in them. But where did their
goodness come from? Where did their, whatever that
goodness means, where did it come from? It came from God.
God only is essentially good, independently good. only God
is good. You know what the Bible says
about you and me? There is none good, no not one. And the first time the word good
is used is in Genesis chapter 1 verse 4, and God saw the light
that it was good. And The created life, the sun
and the moon and the stars didn't come around to the fourth day.
This is a reference to the second person of the Blessed Trinity,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the light of the world. God saw the light
and it was good. Turn with me to the book of Nahum.
That's right after the book of Micah in the Old Testament. Right after Micah. Nahum. Right
before Habakkuk. Verse 2. Nahum. God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth. The Lord
revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on His adversaries. and he reserveth wrath for his
enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, and
great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The
Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds
are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea and maketh
it dry, and dryeth up all the rivers. Bashan languisheth, and
Carmel and the flower of Lebanon languishes. The mountains quake
at him, the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence.
Yea, the world and all that dwell therein, who can stand before
his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is what? Good. a stronghold in the day of trouble,
and he knoweth them that trust in him. This God who is furious
and angry is good, and his fury is a good fury, and his anger
is a good anger. He is good all the time. You believe that? He is good. all the time. We read in the
scripture several times of the good pleasure of His will. I like that. The good pleasure
of His will. You see, whatever He wills is
good because He willed it. I'm thankful for health. God's
so good in giving us health, but He's just as good in giving
us sickness. Whatever He does is good. Everything he brings
our way is good. We're called upon to give thanks
for everything, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. It's good. I may not see how
it's good, but I believe it is because God is good. Everything
he does is good because he is good. Oh, it's his goodness that
saves sinners. But if he doesn't save a sinner,
if he passes a sinner by injustice and lets him go to hell, does
that detract from his goodness in any way? The answer is no. God is good. In Romans chapter 2, verse 4,
we read, it's the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance. Now that doesn't mean it's us
seeing God's goodness that causes us to repent. It means that it's
God's goodness that takes somebody as unrepentant and wicked and
evil as us and leads us to repentance. Only the goodness of God can
do that. God is good. Turn back to our text in Exodus
chapter 33. Now there is not a more important
passage of Scripture in all the Word of God than this because
God declares this to be His glory. He's the God of glory and this
is His glory. So that gives us some idea of
the importance of this passage from His Holy Word. Now, verse
18, He said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And He said,
I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. All my goodness. And I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee. You see, when His goodness passes
before thee, When we see his goodness, it's a proclamation
of his name. What is God's goodness? It's
the proclamation of his name. He says, I'll proclaim my name
before you. That doesn't simply mean he's going to tell us what
his name is. We already know what his name is. His name is Jehovah.
But the person behind the name, every one of his attributes are
good. God is good. And whatever he does is good. And I believe that. And it doesn't
matter whether I believe it or not, because it's so. God is
good. Now, we know what he means. He
says, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee, and I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. Look down in verse 5 of chapter
34, and he tells us what he meant by proclaiming the name of the
Lord before him. And the Lord descended in the
cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him, and proclaimed the Lord Jehovah. Jehovah, the self-existent
one, the independent one, the one who needs nothing. That's good. That's good. You know, I love to think of
the Lord as having no needs. Utterly independent and self-sufficient. How generous He is. You know,
there's nothing we can give Him that'll add to Him. There's nothing
that we can give Him that He needs. He is utterly independent. The Lord, the Lord God, the Almighty
One, all-powerful. Whatever He wills, He has the
power to bring to pass. Isn't that good? I love His power,
the all-powerful One. And then look what He says next.
Merciful and gracious. This is His nature. His nature
is to be merciful to people who deserve to be damned. And to
be gracious to people who deserve nothing from Him. And remember
that graciousness is unmerited favor. This ought to give any
sinner hope. His favor is unmerited favor. He gives it because it's
His nature. He's gracious. Isn't His mercy
and His grace good? Aren't you thankful for who He
is? He's merciful. He delights in
mercy. He delights in giving grace. You feel sinful. You feel far away. Do you know
He delights in giving mercy to folks just like you? He enjoys
it. He delights in mercy. Look what it says, abundant,
in verse 6, abundant, overflowing, in goodness and truth. Do you
want to know what goodness is? God. God is good. If you want to know what is goodness?
God. That's his chief attribute. That's
what he says, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. He's
full of truth. He is the truth. Look what it
says in verse 7, keeping mercy for thousands. keeping mercy,
watching and preserving it. You see the gifts and callings
of God are without repentance. He never takes his mercy away.
The mercy of the Lord endures forever. Isn't God good? I'm
so thankful. Forgiving, iniquity, that's the
good stuff we do. That's the religious stuff. That's
the prayers. That's the motives. That's the
good stuff. It can all be summed up by this
word, iniquity. That's our righteousnesses. What
does the scripture call them? Filthy rags. Transgression, that's
the bad stuff. That's the breaking of His law.
Sin, that's our nature. What does He do? He forgives.
And I love that word means He lifts up. He lifts up my iniquity. He takes it off of me, my iniquity
and transgression and sin. I love that song. We just heard,
glorious day when my sin was taken away. That's what forgiveness
is. It's lifted off of me. Oh, my
burden's taken away. And look what it says next. This
is our God. Keeping mercy for thousands,
verse 7, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that
will by no means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
unto the third and the fourth generation. Now, how is it that
He forgives sin and forgives transgression and forgives iniquity
and is merciful and gracious and yet it says He will by no
means under no circumstance whatsoever will He clear somebody that's
guilty? Well, the only way this can be understood is in light
of the glorious truth of justification. You see, when Christ died My
sin was put away. When He was raised from the dead,
I was justified. That means not guilty. Not guilty. I am as pure as the
driven snow in the very sight of God. I have perfect righteousness. That's my personal righteousness
before God. He's not, under any circumstance,
will He ever clear somebody who's guilty. If you're guilty, you're
going to hell. If you've committed sin in the
sight of God, you're going to hell. He will by no means, under
no circumstance, will He ever clear a guilty sinner. Our justification. See, my sins aren't going to
pop up one day because I don't have any. I've never sinned.
That's what justification means. I'm perfect in Christ Jesus.
He said, I'll by no means clear the guilty. Isn't God good? The
goodness of God to do this. Do you believe God is good? Do
you really believe and rejoice in your heart that God is good? Can you not praise Him for He
is good and His mercy endures forever? You see, His goodness
is seen in all of His most excellent and glorious attributes. Every
one of His attributes are good. Now, back to our text. Exodus
33, 19. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass
before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee,
that's his attributes, and will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Now his goodness is seen in his
sovereign Now, remember who this bunch was. They had just made
that golden calf and bowed down before it and said, these be
thy gods, O Israel, that delivered thee. And they said, that's for
Moses. We don't know what became of
him. I mean, this was a wicked bunch. He said they're a stiff
neck, a cruel, a hard-hearted people. And that's what they
were, the children of Israel, just like me and you, or just
like us by nature, a wicked people. And God says, I will be gracious. to whom I will be gracious."
God is good. God delights in being gracious. Now, it's sovereign grace. If
it's not sovereign, it's not grace. Understand that. If it's grace, it's sovereign
grace. It's because God decided to give it. His grace is sovereign
grace. Let's look where Paul quotes this in the New Testament. Turn to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. I love this chapter. Verse 11. And this is talking about Jacob
and Esau. For the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. Esau the elder is going to serve
Jacob the younger, as it's written. God said this, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Now, remember, Esau didn't care
a thing about God. He sold his birthright for a
bowl of soup. He didn't care a thing about
God. Matter of fact, he hated it.
He saw no value in God. And God's hatred of Esau is a
just hatred. I mean, Esau deserved the hatred
and the righteous indignation of God. God's holy. God's just. God's righteous. But Jacob, he's
just as bad. If anything, he's worse. He was
a deceiver. I mean, you look at the character of this man,
and it's not pretty. Jacob, his name means heel, supplanter,
deceiver. And he was a deceiver. But God
said, I love him. Why? Because God is gracious. Because God is merciful. Now
let's go on reading. Verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unfair in loving Jacob and hating Esau and saving
Jacob and passing by Esau? Is God unfair in doing that?
God forbid. Perish the thought. You know,
when we think things like that, you know what we're doing? We're
sitting in judgment of God. You think you're qualified to
do that? You think you're qualified to judge God and say, I agree
with this and I don't agree with that? Who are you? Who are you to set judgment on
God? As sinful as you are, as sinful
as I am, and we sit there and think, I think this is right
and I don't think this is right. Paul said, God forbid that we
should think anything so wicked. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth. In salvation by man's will? No!
No! It's not of him that willeth.
Free will is the biggest lie ever been told. Your will's controlled
by your nature. There's no such thing as free
will. It's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that show with mercy. Divine election. Let me say a
few things about divine election. Divine election is the fact that
God chose who would be saved before time again. First thing
I want to say about it is it glorifies God. It says God is
God indeed. He controls everything. Election glorifies God. Divine
election destroys salvation by works. And it shuts up a sinner
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And divine election gives the
vilest sinner this side of hell hope since it's an election of
pure, free grace. Listen, election doesn't damn
people. Election saves people. The God
of election. And I know this. I know this. You can't preach the gospel and
not preach election. It is impossible. Election simply
says that salvation is by grace. And I know in my own experience,
when I had to deal with the fact that God chose who would be saved
and there wasn't one thing I could do to make myself one of them,
I had no control of this. There wasn't anything I could
do to get God to save me. It was only then that I cried
out for mercy because there's nothing I could do. I was in
His hands. Whatever He did was right. Oh,
be merciful to me. Election never keeps anybody
from coming to Christ. It drives you to Him. Lord, be
merciful to me, the sinner. Do something for me. I can't
do anything for myself. You know, election's a doctrine
of divine praise. You know, it amazes me that preachers
particularly, They'll cover election in silence. And they'll call
it a doctrine of secondary importance. And God calls it His glory. Do
the math. Do the math. This is a doctrine
of divine praise. Moses says, show me Your glory. I'll make all my goodness pass
before Thee. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee, and I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy." Now
let's go back to our text in Exodus 33. Verse 20, now remember, Moses
has requested, I beseech thee, Show me thy glory. And he gives
his answer in verse 19, and then in verse 20 he said, And he said,
Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and
live. He says, You can't see my face,
it'll kill you. No man has seen God at any time.
You see, God is spirit. We're flesh. You can't see a
spirit. We're completely unable to see
God absolute. You know, even in heaven, the
only sight we're going to have of God is Jesus Christ the Lord. No man has seen my face at any
time. No man's heard my voice at any
time. He said, you can't see my face,
for there shall no man see me and live, verse 21. And the Lord
said, behold, there's a place by me. and thou shalt stand upon
a rock." The Lord Jesus Christ. This is where the hymn, Rock
of Ages, cleft for me comes from. He is the rock of our salvation. He said, Thou canst not see my
face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord
said, Behold, there's a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon
a rock, and it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by. That's when he proclaimed the
name of the Lord when he repeated what he said in verse 19 down
in chapter 34. And it shall come to pass while
my glory passes by that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock
and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And that is
in the Lord Jesus Christ in the cleft of the rock. And I will
take away my hand, verse 23, and thou shalt see my back parts. but my face shall not be seen."
Have you ever wondered what is meant by God's back parts? He
said, you'll see my back parts. God is spirit. Listen real carefully. God is
spirit and he's not made of parts. He's not part justice and part
mercy and part grace and part wisdom and part sovereignty and
all the parts come together to make the whole. He is simple. He's not made of parts. Me and
you are made of parts. That's why we're unperfect. That's
why we're sinful. That's why we're mutable. We're
made of parts. God is not made of parts. You don't balance one attribute
against another. God is altogether as He is. He's made of pure Godhead, whatever
that means. His substance is pure Godhead.
holy sovereign, he's holy just, he's holy gracious, he's holy
merciful. He's not part this and part that
and all the parts make the whole. He's simple. Now some have thought
that these back parts is a reference to the humanity of Christ, but
I don't think so. He's not the back part of God. When we see God, what do we see?
We see his works. We don't see him absolute. We
see his works. Most especially, we see him in
his work of salvation. Now, do you see me? You look
at me, what do you see? You see a sinful, weak man. That's what you see. Now, here
is the glory of God. He takes a sinful, and I mean
full of sin, full of weakness and impotence and inability,
can't even have a good thought, can't keep myself weak, weak,
weak. He takes a sinful, sinful man
like me, and by His gospel, He makes me to be conformed to the
very image of Jesus Christ. So that as He sees me, He sees
not a sinful, weak man, but He sees me as I really am, united
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He sees me as holy and unblameable
and unreprovable. The glory of God, the back parts
of God, is seen in His works. Taking a sinful man like me,
a sinful man or woman like you, and making us to be conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, every attribute
of God is glorified in the salvation of the sinner. You know, He said
in Exodus 3.14, I am that I am. And they tell me, whoever they
are, they say what that means in the Hebrew is, is I save in
the manner which I save. If you want to know who God is,
look in the manner which He saves. Every attribute of God is displayed
in the salvation of the sinner. His wisdom, what wisdom to take
somebody like me and make me just when I'm so unjust and sinful
in and of myself. Only God could do something Only
God can take somebody as corrupt as me and make me holy and righteous
and perfect in His sight. What power to actually put away
my sin to where there is no sin. What genius there is in the gospel. I mean, we couldn't come up with
that if we had eternity to do it. And if we could, we couldn't
execute it. It's the glory of God in the salvation of a sinner.
every attribute of God is displayed so that every one of us can say
with David every believer as for me I will behold thy face
the face of God the face that no man can see I'll behold thy
face in righteousness I'll be satisfied when I awake in thy
likeness. Now let's go on reading. Verse
1, let's close up with this. And the Lord said unto Moses,
You thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will
write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables,
which thou breakest. You remember him doing that in anger when
he came down from the mountain. And be ready in the morning and
come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there
to me in the top of the mount. And no man shall come up with
thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount,
neither let the flocks nor herds feed before the mount. And he
ewed two tables of stone like unto the first. And Moses rose
up early in the morning, and went up into the Mount Sinai,
as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two
tables of stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood
with him there, and proclaimed, The name of the Lord, just like
he said he would do. And the Lord passed by, and remember
this is while Moses is in the cleft of the rock. And the Lord
passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting
the iniquity. of the fathers upon the children
and upon the children's children, and to the third and to the fourth
generation. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the
earth and he worshipped. What was his response? Hit the
dirt and worship. You see, you worship God for
who He is. He had the same worship that
leper had when that leper came and worshipped Him bowing before
Him. You worship God for who He is. And remember, you'll only
worship a sovereign. If you can manipulate Him, if
you can bargain with Him, if you can get Him to do things,
you're not worshipping. You only worship a sovereign,
one in whose hands you are. And He can do with you whatever
He's pleased to do. And Moses made haste and bowed
his head toward the earth and worshipped, and he said, If now
I found grace in thy sight, he knew that was his only hope,
grace, unmerited favor in the sight of God. O Lord, let my
Lord, I pray thee, go among us, be with us, grant us your presence,
for it's a stiff-necked people, a cruel, wicked people. But be
with us graciously and pardon our iniquity and our sin. And
take us for thine inheritance. Let us be your special people. Separated from all the peoples
of the earth. I want to be one of those people,
don't you? I want to be one of those people.
His people. Show me your glory. I'll make
all my goodness pass before you. I'll proclaim my name, my attributes
before you. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. Let's pray.