Would you turn back to Exodus
34, and there's some sign-up sheets for Vacation Bible School
in the foyer, and please sign up so we can prepare accordingly
and know how many kids will be there. I've entitled the message for
this morning, God Proclaims His Own Name. If I want to know the truth concerning
God's character, who he is, what he's like, it's best to go to
the source. This is his proclamation of himself. He is giving us a full disclosure
of himself in this passage of scripture. Now, the word disclosure
means to make something that was secret known. Don't you want that to take place? When the angel of the Lord appeared
to Manoah and Manoah asked his name, he said, why askest thou
thus after me, seeing my name is secret? Now, in this passage
of scripture, God takes what is secret and makes himself known. Now hold your finger in Exodus
34 and turn with me to Romans chapter one. And before I read this scripture,
there are some things that we can know about God without any
special revelation. Verse 20 of Romans chapter one. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen. being understood by the things
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse. What's that mean? Everybody can look at this creation. and know somebody created this. And that one who created this
is all powerful. He had to be all powerful to
create this universe. And he must be eternal because
nobody could have made him. And this actually is a logical
inference. You look at the creation. And you say, God must be. This could not be here without
a divine being who is all powerful and eternal. You can get that
just from looking at creation. Everybody in this room can. The
very thought of atheism, I realize there's some very intelligent
people, people whose IQs are higher than mine. that are atheists. No doubt about that. But atheism
is irrational. It's illogical. It's intellectually
indefensible. It doesn't even make sense. And
you've got to take a real leap in the dark to be an atheist. And an agnostic, somebody says,
well, I just don't know. You look at the creation and
say, I just don't know. I'm not sure. That's like an ostrich
sticking his head in the sand. Everybody knows. Everybody knows. Now, there's some things we can
know about God without any special revelation, just by looking at creation. But there are many things concerning
God that we cannot know without revelation. And that's what this
thing we call the Bible is all about. This is God's revelation
of himself. Now, I know I say this a lot,
but I'm going to say it again. If God can create the universe,
God can inspire men to write a book and preserve it up to
this time. It's not hard for God to do.
He's God. He's all powerful. Just as He can create the universe,
He can inspire men to write a book. And we have to have this. We
have to have this. We have to have a written revelation. If we don't have this, all we
have is man's opinion. What's that going to do us? No
good at all. But God has made Himself known
in this book. Now, like I said, if we want
to know what God's like, best source to go to is his own
description of himself given in this passage that I just read. This is a very important passage
of scripture. Somebody says, here's what I
think God's like. I don't want to be harsh, but
I don't care what you think God is like. And I'm sure you don't
care what I think God is like. What does he say he's like? Now in this passage of scripture,
look with me at verse, back to Exodus 34. Look with me at verse seven.
When God is giving this description of himself, he says, 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." Now, think of what
he says. He forgives iniquity, transgression,
and sin. Now, to have iniquity, transgression,
and sin, you got to be guilty. Isn't that so? You got to be
guilty. And yet in the same passage of
scripture, he says, I will by no means, under no circumstances
whatsoever, will I ever clear anybody that's guilty. Now, how in the world can that
be? That is the most important question
you and I can consider. How can God be just? and clear somebody like me or
you, when he said, I will by no means, under no circumstance
whatsoever, clear the guilty. Now, the Lord had first made
himself known to Moses in the burning bush. I love that picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The bush is on fire and it's
not consumed by that fire. It just keeps going. That's what
Moses first saw that drew him to find out who the Lord is.
And you think about that fire that didn't need the energy of
the wood to burn. It was utterly independent. It didn't need that wood. It
could just keep on going. And that speaks of the deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's independent. He has no needs. There's nothing he needs to survive
and to continue. He has life in himself. He has
no needs. And then that wood, the part
of the bush, it couldn't be consumed by the fire. What does that represent? The perfect humanity of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He could not be consumed. The
wrath of God couldn't consume him. He consumed the wrath. Now,
the Lord is continuing this self-revelation when he's proclaiming his name
to Moses. He tells us what he is like. Right after the revelation in
the burning bush, he said, I am that I am. Do you know he's the
only one who can say that? Nobody else can say that. Nobody
else could use language like that. I am that I am. Not a used to be, not a wanna
be, not a could be, not a should be, not a will be. I am that
I am. He's telling who he's like. If somebody says, Todd, tell
me what you're like. Well, I'm pretty much like about
7 billion other people. Pretty much the same. I like
what Paul said. There's no difference. Now, I know we're all unique
individuals. Nobody's totally alike. I realize
that. And I'm thankful for the diversity and so on. But still,
I'm pretty much like everybody else. all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. What a definition of sin to come
short of the glory of God. And Paul says regarding all men,
you take the most moral, you take the most immoral, you take
the most educated, the most uneducated, no difference, no difference. I'm about like 7 billion other
people, but there's nobody like you. He's utterly unique. There's no one you can compare
him with. He said, regarding himself, there's none like me. Now, pick up in verse 18 of chapter
33. And Moses said, and we looked
at this last week, Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. the highest request a man can
make. And he said, I'll make all my
goodness pass before thee. And I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. Now that's God's glory. His goodness. God's good. His name is his attributes as
we're going to see when he proclaims his name. He proclaims his attributes
and it's most specially seen in how he can clear the guilty
and yet forgive iniquity and transgression. That's the glory
of his nature. And he says, I'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. I'll show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. You see, God's grace is sovereign. That means you
don't have any control in it. It's up to him as to whether
or not you're going to have mercy and whether or not you're going
to have grace. And if somebody has a problem with that, you're
saying, I deserve mercy and grace. And so you're coming on the wrong
footing altogether. If you have a problem with that,
if you know who you are, you'll know the only hope you have is
his sovereign mercy and grace and saying, I will be gracious
to that one who does not deserve to have my mercy. And what he
said in verse 20, he said, thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see my
face and live. It gilless the seraphims that
fly around his throne as Isaiah depicted in Isaiah chapter six.
You know what they did? They covered their face. They
covered their eyes. They couldn't look. They covered
their feet because even they were ashamed of their walk because
they knew that though they hadn't sinned, the only reason they
hadn't is God preserved them from it. And they would if He
didn't keep them. No man can see my face. God's
glory. No man can see His face. and
live. Verse 21, and the Lord said,
behold, there's a place by me that I should stand upon a rock
and it shall come to pass while my glory passes by. Then I'll
put thee in a cleft of the rock and will cover thee with my hand
while I pass by. That's where the hymn Rock of
Ages comes from. And I will take away mine hand
and thou shalt see my back parts. His back parts are His works.
God's a spirit. He's not made of parts. His back
parts are His works. And God is known by His works. His works in creation, His mighty
power, His works in providence, His mighty power, but most especially,
His work in salvation. Every attribute of God is displayed
in the salvation of a sinner. His holiness, His love, His mercy,
his wisdom, his power, every attribute of God is displayed
in the salvation of sinners. That's the back parts that reveals
who he is, that Moses was to see. But my faith shall not be seen,
chapter 34, and the Lord said unto Moses, you the two tables of stone like
unto the first. And I'll write upon these tables,
the words that were in the first table, which thou breakest. You
remember when he threw the tablets down and broke them. But I think
the Lord is also saying, Moses, you broke them. You broke them.
Moses knows that. Moses, the Lord used him to give
the law, but Moses was a breaker of the law, just like me and
you are. And I think that's the reason this language is used.
And he said in verse two, 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 the herds feed before the mount.
And he ewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and Moses
rose up early in the morning in obedience to God, 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. Now this is the Lord, as he said
in verse 19, when Moses said, show me your glory, I'll make
all my goodness pass before thee. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. This is God's disclosure of himself. There really is no knowledge
of God, no true understanding, no knowing him apart from understanding
what this passage of scripture is saying. Now, I realize when
I'm talking about understanding, we don't really understand anything
we believe. We just believe it because the
Bible reveals it. It's not like I can intellectually
comprehend God. If I could intellectually comprehend
God, there wouldn't be much to it, would there? So I'm not talking
about a full intellectual grasp of this, but there is some understanding
of what's being said in this passage of scripture. If I would
know the living God. Verse six is where he begins
this proclamation of himself. after he had covered Moses with
his hand and the cleft of the rock. And the Lord passed by
before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God. Jehovah. That's the Lord. That's Jehovah. That's where
I am that I am comes from. Jehovah. The self existent one. The one who is utterly independent. The one who has no needs. Now let me remind you of something. God doesn't need you. You need
him. Amen. God doesn't need you. God has no needs. He's God. He has no needs. But how you
need him. The very next breath you take
is it up to him as to whether or not you'll have it. You need
him in every respect. You need him. Jehovah the Lord,
Jehovah God, Jehovah El, the almighty one. Now this one we're
speaking of, he's almighty. He's all powerful. omnipotent. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? No. You see, whatever he wants,
he has because he has the power to make sure he has it. He is
omnipotent. The Lord, the self-existent,
independent one, the Lord God, the Self-existent, independent,
almighty one. Oh, what a description he gives
us of himself. And look what he says next. The
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. Now let me remind
you of a couple of real simple things. Mercy is God not giving
you what you deserve. And grace is God giving you what
you do not deserve. Now understand, everybody in
this room, everybody outside of this room, what me and you
deserve is hell. Being forsaken by God. God's holy. God's just. And that is what we deserve.
But thank God, there are a great multitude of people that he does
not give them what they deserve. And he gives them what they do
not deserve. Now that is mercy and grace. And it's sovereign. He said,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. And if you have problems with
that, it's because you think you deserve mercy and you think
you deserve grace and you think you deserve God's favor. And
if you think like that, be assured you're not going to have it.
You're not going to have it. It's only for those who need
mercy and need grace. Do you need mercy? Do you need
grace? He delights to give mercy and
grace. Now, if you come on the footing
of your merit, you're not going to have it. But if you come on
the footing of your need, your need for mercy, your need for
grace, he is merciful. and he is gracious, and he delights
in mercy. Then it says he's long-suffering.
And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord,
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering. I love that passage
of scripture in 2 Peter chapter three, verse nine, where Peter
says, The Lord is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I think it's
interesting that men try to take that passage of scripture and
use it to prove that God wants everybody to be saved. It doesn't
say that. It says he's long-suffering to
usward. Speaking of the elect, not willing that any of them
perish. And they won't. If God's not
willing for somebody to perish, they're not going to perish. Peter goes on to say in the 15th
verse, the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation. He is
long-suffering with his people. If he wasn't, you'd be in trouble. But he is a long-suffering patient. Abundant, it says next, in goodness. God is good. Every aspect of
God is good. It's the goodness of God that
leadeth thee to repentance. I was dealing with that, and
Claire pointed this out to me last week. And I thought this
was such a good illustration. I wish I would have had it last
week, but I'll use it this week. Came from Claire. If a very wicked person who perhaps
is a murderer and a sociopath and kills all kinds of people
and just he's a horrible criminal and he gets caught and the law
punishes him, puts him to death, you know what the population
would say? That's good. That's good. That needed to happen. That's
good. Even God's punishment of the
wicked is good because everything God does is good. That's who
he is. Abundant in goodness. Abundant, it says next, in truth. I'd like to read a passage from
Deuteronomy. I will publish the name of the
Lord, ascribe ye greatness to our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all
His ways are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity,
just and right is He. He's a God of truth. The Lord said, I am. verse seven, keeping mercy for
thousands. Now, why does it point out thousands?
Because it's covenantal mercy. It's the ones he's covenant to
have mercy on. It's not everybody. God's not
going to save everybody. Christ didn't die for everybody.
Not everybody's going to be saved. There is a place called hell.
And I say that without apology. God's good. And even if he sends
a man to hell, God's still good. And if he sends me to hell, he's
still good. But there is no fear of damnation
to those that are included in this covenant where he says he's
keeping mercy. He's keeping mercy for thousands,
a whole bunch, a great multitude. Why not you? Why not you? Somebody says, what if Christ
didn't die for me? What if he did? What if he did? What if I'm not one of the elect?
What if you are? Keeping mercy for thousands. And what does
he do in keeping mercy for thousands? Forgiving. This three headed monster, iniquity,
transgression, and sin. Now listen real carefully. How
many times is this mentioned together, iniquity, transgression,
and sin? Iniquity is the good stuff you
do. Transgression is the bad stuff
you do. Sin is the nature from which
they both proceed. You have and I have a sinful
nature that causes us to break God's law. That's the transgression. And the good things that we think
we do, they're evil in God's sight. They're not good. But
thank God, He forgives. He forgives. And understand this about forgiveness. And you don't really understand
forgiveness until you understand this. Salvation begins with the
forgiveness of sins. It's not the end of a process
where you do this, this, this, and this, and then God forgives
you. No, no, no, that's salvation by works. Salvation begins with
all your sins being forgiven for Christ's sake. You see, forgiveness
is not God's response to you being sorry, or you promising
to never do it again, or you straighten it. No. God's forgiveness
is the beginning of salvation. That will by no means Verse seven,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. Now, this is who God is. Remember, this is God's disclosure
of himself. He forgives. Aren't you thankful
for that? He forgives iniquity and transgression
and sins, but he will by no means, under no circumstances whatsoever,
will he clear the guilty. He will not let one sin go unpunished. Somebody says, why can't he just
forgive sin? Why can't he just forgive it?
Why does there have to be satisfaction? Why does there have to be punishment?
Why can't God just forgive sin? Well, that's something that probably
every one of us thought. Well, let's say somebody brutally
murdered your child, and they were apprehended by
the law, and they were brought before the judge, and the judge
said, I'm a merciful and gracious judge. You're forgiven. Going
back out to society, how would you feel? You know how you'd
feel. And one thing is for sure about
that judge, he would be an unjust judge. Justice was not done. It was an act of immorality. Let's take the drug cartel or
the mafia, some kind of criminal organization. Who are they afraid
of? Not an unjust judge. They can
buy him off. They can get what they want.
I'll tell you who they're afraid of is a just and righteous judge. And that is who God is. He will by no means clear the
guilty. This judge is utterly just and
not one sin will go unpunished. And if one sin could go unpunished,
he'd no longer be just. He wouldn't be God. Now, I hope
that you and I, by his grace, admire the justice of this judge. He will by no means clear the
guilty. Now here's the question of the
ages. How can he forgive sin? Because
if your sin's forgiven, that means you're guilty. And yet
by no means clear the guilty. How can that be? Turn with me, hold your fingers
there, and turn with me to Luke chapter 18. God uses the 66 books of the
Bible to expound on this parable. Verse nine, Luke 18, verse nine. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Now, before I go on reading,
if you have any personal righteousness, this describes you. Do you have any personal righteousness?
Well, if you do, this is about you. This is who this parable
is directed to. And What always happens when someone
has self-righteousness, you despise others. You can always find somebody
that you're better than. I might be this way, but I'm
better than that person. At least I got something going
for me. This always happens with self-righteousness. You look
down in a judgmental attitude toward others. Verse 10. These are the two representative
men. You and I are described by one
of these two people. Verse 10, two men went up into
the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, a religious man, and the other a publican, a dishonest
man, a man who robbed his brethren unjustly through working for
the Roman government, a tax collector. He would always pad what he charged
people to go into his own coffers. And he was despised by the Pharisees.
The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself. Now that's
very important. He thought he was praying to
God, but what was he? He prayed thus with himself. Now, if you're
praying to yourself, not much can come out of it. It's not
gonna do you much good. You can't do anything for yourself,
but that's what this fellow was doing. God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men are. That's what self-righteousness
does. I'm not an extortioner, I'm not unjust, I'm not an adulterer,
or even as this publican. Now, let me make this comment.
A self-righteous man has no understanding of the law of God. If he had
any understanding of the law of God, he would know that he
was an extortioner, that he was unjust, and he was an adulterer. So what he was saying is a lie,
but he believed it to be true. I think it's amazing how men,
me and you included, have the ability to deceive ourselves
and tell ourselves things that just are not true. Well, this
is what this man did. Twelve, he said, I fast twice
in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, thee,
sinner. Guilty. Remember God said, I by no means
clear the guilty. This man is confessing his guilt. And look what the Lord says in
verse 14. I tell you, I love the way the
Lord says this. I tell you, he spake as one having
authority, not like the scribes. I tell you when I say this, oh,
his word. that this man went down to his
house, and what's that next word? Not shown mercy, not forgiven,
justified. That means he didn't have anything
to feel guilty about. He didn't have any sin. This
man who described himself as the sinner went down to his house. This is what the Lord says about
him. He went down to his house justified. That's what we call the gospel. That's what the entire Bible
is about, how God can be just. And here's how this happens.
The sins of God's elect were given to Christ. He became guilty
of those sins, and God punished him for those sins. The sins
you've committed, if you're a believer, he was made to bear in his own
body on the tree. He was punished. and he put away
that sin so that it is no more. He was manifested to take away
our sins. In him is no sin. If you're in him, you have no
sin. And not only do you have no sin,
that perfect righteousness that he worked out is given to you
and you have the very righteousness of God. That's what justification
is. Now back to our text, let me
go through this. 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 to the fourth
generation. Now does that mean that children
are punished for their parents' sins? No, but I do know this. My sin affects my children to
the third and fourth generation and yours does too. Now, what was Moses response?
And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and
worshiped. You worship a God like this,
won't you? That's the only response to seeing this, your worship. And he said, if now I found grace
in thy sight, that all he was concerned about was grace. He
wasn't saying, oh, Lord, look what I've given up to lead these
people. No. If I found grace in thy sight,
oh, Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us because we're
really not that bad. No, for it's a stiff neck people.
and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for thine inheritance. He said, behold, I make a covenant. God speaks of that covenant before
all thy people. I will do marvels such as have
not been done in all the earth nor in any nation. And all the
people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord, for
it's a terrible thing that I'll do with thee, this thing of salvation. Now observe that which I command
thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee
the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite,
the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, whither thou goest,
lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But you shall
destroy their altars, break their images, cut down their groves,
for thou shalt worship no other God. For the Lord, whose name
is jealous is a jealous God. Lord's name is jealous. Now,
jealousy in the Lord is a good thing. You remember when Paul
said to the Corinthians, I've presented you, he said, I'm jealous
over you with a godly jealousy. Second Corinthians 11, I've espoused
you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ, but I fearless by any means of Satan, deceived
Eve through his subtleties, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that's in Christ, the onlyness that's in
Christ. You see, God's jealous of it, And it's a good jealousy. And
if he sees me or you looking anywhere other than Christ, he's
jealous. He's jealous. If you have any
more than Christ, you're in trouble. Have you been corrupted from
the simplicity, the onlyness of Christ? He's jealous of his
attributes. If someone presumes him to be
less than he is, It provokes his anger. He's jealous of his
glory. He said, I'll by no means clear
the guilty. And this is something, this just
hit me last night like it never has before because this always
scared me, this thing of him being jealous toward me. And
I thought, what an honor that he's jealous of my affections.
That he's jealous of my love. He's jealous of my trust. He's
jealous of my company. What an honor for him to be jealous
with regard to me. That he wants me. That he loves
me. That he's intolerant of my Well,
all I am is me. He's got to be tolerant of it.
I mean, because we're all prone to wonder, I realize that. But
think of this thing about the Lord looking at you and being
jealous of your affection. There could be no greater honor
than that. The Lord being jealous of you. Now, this is who God is. This
is God's disclosure of himself. This is the God that will all
stand before on judgment day. And our cry is, may we be found
in Christ. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for who
you are. How we thank you that you'll
by no means clear the guilty. and you forgive iniquity and
transgression and sin. Lord, reveal yourself to each
heart here according to your will. In Christ's name we pray,
amen.