That was beautiful, thank you
all for that. Would you turn back to Acts chapter seven. Stephen has been charged with
speaking against Moses against God, against the temple, and
against the law. Those are the charges that are
brought against him. And the high priest says in verse
1, are these things so? These charges that are brought
against you, And I love where he begins, the
God of glory. And this is the only time this
particular phrase is used. We read of the glory of God many,
many times, but here he's called the God of glory. Men begin with men and their
need. Stephen begins with the God of
glory. And isn't this where we ought
to always begin? The God of glory. Now let me say at the outset
that what I'm going to say is going to fall short of what ought
to be said. The God of glory. This is transcendent. It is beyond the range of normal
or physical human experience. The God of glory. So pray for me as I attempt to
speak on this. God's glory is the infinite beauty, the infinite beauty of His manifold
perfections. Now we understand that or I understand
that about the same way I understand the holiness of God. Not very
well, not very well. But I know this
The glory of God and the holiness of God are never separate. They always go together. I was
so thankful that Aaron read that passage of scripture about Uzziah.
How he was turned into a leper because that he thought he could
come into God's presence without Christ. And God turned him into
a leper. And he died a leper. And Isaiah
said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. That's when I really saw it,
in the year the King Uzziah died. I saw him sitting on a throne
high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. Above it stood
the seraphims. Each one had six wings, with
twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and
with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
holiness? No, glory. holiness and glory. Turn to Leviticus
chapter 10. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons
of Aaron, took either of them his censer, that's what priests
are supposed to do, offer up incense on a censer and put fire
therein, and put incense thereon, and offered up strange fire before
the Lord, which he commanded them not." They offered this
fire that didn't come from off the altar of sacrifice. It's
what is called strange fire, fire that he didn't command them.
The only acceptable fire was fire from off the altar, but
they thought, well, does it make any difference? Does it really
make any difference? Verse two, and there went out
fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the
Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, this
is that which the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified,
I will be regarded as holy in them that come nigh to me, and
before all the people I will be, what? Glorified. Now do you see God's holiness
and God's glory go together. Now God's holiness, his otherness,
his separateness, the infinite perfections of his being that
cannot be improved, cannot be imitated, and is utterly incomparable
to anything else. Obviously we're in deep water
and we don't really know how everything ought to be said,
but we're trying. God's holiness. His holiness determines all he
is and is determined by nothing outside of himself. It's the
adjective of all of his attributes. God's holiness. His love is a
holy love. His wrath is a holy wrath. His justice is a holy justice. His mercy is a holy mercy. His sovereignty is a holy sovereignty. Every attribute of God, this
is the adjective of it, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Now God's glory is the infinite
beauty. of all of His manifold perfections
and attributes. It's His honor. It's His splendor. It's His majesty. It's His brightness. It's His magnificence. It's His
excellence. Oh, the glory of God. Now, here's the thing about God's
glory, though. You have to have faith to have any appreciation
of it, to see the beauty of God, the beauty of His attributes.
Didn't the Lord say, said I not to thee that if thou wouldst
believe, you'd see the glory of God. But if you don't believe,
this is going to be meaningless to you. It's going to be dry
theology. It's going to be concepts that
you can't see. I have to be given faith by God
Himself to be able to behold the beauty of all of this, the
beauty that emanates from His character. Now listen to this. God's glory is the reason for
all things. Whatever it might be, God's glory
is the reason. God's glory is the reason for
the creation. He created the world for His own glory. God's glory is the reason for
man. One reason God created man, His
own glory. God's glory is the reason man
fell. Could God have prevented the
fall? Of course He could have. Did He? No. Why? For His glory. Regarding everything, now people
will think, well, how could, that seems almost severe. Well,
whatever it is, it's the truth. God's glory is his reason for
everything he does. And salvation, the salvation
of the sinner is for the glory of God. Every attribute of God is displayed
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and God did this for
his glory. I think of that scripture, the
Lord hath made all things for himself. Yea, even the wicked
for the day of evil. God's glory is his reason for
everything. And you and I will glorify God. You will. I will. I want to glorify
his grace. I don't want to glorify his justice,
but if God sends me to hell, it'll be for his glory. But oh, what glory he achieves
in the salvation of the sinner. Now the gospel is called the
gospel of the glory of the blessed God. God is called the God of
glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
in James, the Lord of glory. The spirit of God is called the
spirit of God and of glory. Listen to this. We'll turn to
this. Second Corinthians chapter four. Verse six, for God, second Corinthians chapter four,
verse six, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
speaking of creation has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure, the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in jars of clay,
earthen vessels. And I feel it so acutely right
now, trying to speak of the glory of God. David said in his temple, doth
everyone speak of his glory. That's the subject. Heaven is
described like this by our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I will
that they whom you have given me be with me where I am that
they may behold my glory. That's heaven. Beholding the
glory of Jesus Christ. Paul defines sin Like this, Romans
3 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You want to know what sin is?
It's coming short of his glory. Listen to this statement regarding
faith, talking about Abraham in Romans chapter four. He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God. If you believe the gospel, if
you trust Christ as everything in your salvation, you give glory
to God. That's his reason for everything.
Listen to this from Revelation chapter 16 verse 9, they repented
not to give him the glory. When you repent, when I repent,
you know what we're going to do? We're going to give Him the
glory. And if you do not repent, it's
going to be a failure on your part to give Him the glory. Turn with me to Romans chapter
1, verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold or hold down the truth in unrighteousness, because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has
showed it to them. 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're without excuse. Because that when they knew God,
They glorified him not as God. That was their sin. Neither were
they thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise. They became
fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed
beasts and creeping things. Now, the issue of the salvation
of a sinner is who gets the glory. That is the issue. You know, this is like a teeter-totter. The higher you view God, the
lower you'll view man. And the higher view you view
man, the lower you do God. Who gets the glory? Now in creation, who gets the
glory? Well, God does. There wasn't
anybody else to get any glory. He did it by himself. In providence,
and I'm talking about everything, providence includes everything
that happens in time. Who's the cause? Who gets the
glory? Everything in Providence. He's
in absolute control of it. Doesn't matter what it is. He's
in control of it. Somebody says, God allowed that to happen. Well,
that's kind of a weakened way to say it. I don't really like
it. God allowed that to happen. No, He did it. He did it. He's
in absolute control. You say, well, He used other
causes. I know, but He did it. I form
the light. I create darkness. I make peace.
I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. And you know what? We're not
going to apologize for that. He's God. I'm not going to. He's God. Whatever he does is
right. Whatever he does is holy. Whatever he does is just. He's
God. If he did it, it's right. He doesn't do it because it's
right. It's right because he does it. He's holy. He's in control
of everything and everybody. He gets the glory. Oh beloved,
in the salvation of the sinner, who gets the glory? In your salvation,
who gets the glory? Does any credit go to you? Are
you saved because of something you have done? Now every unbeliever
would say, yes. Every believer would say, no,
they'd say with David, not unto us, not unto us, but into thine
and give glory for thy mercy and thy truth say God's glory.
I love the way Stephen began this message in his defense. The God of glory appeared. Now, what I would like to do
is go to that passage of scripture where God tells us. what his
glory is. Now I have preached from this
passage of scripture, I don't know how many times, but there's
not a more important passage of scripture in all the Word
of God than Exodus chapter 33. So would you turn back to Exodus
32 first? Now this is what God says His
glory is. This is not what the preacher
said. This is not what you look up in some kind of book of theology
or systematic theology. This is what God says His glory
is. And that's what makes this so
very important and very interesting. Now what happened? Chapter 32,
verse 1. And when the people saw them,
Moses delayed to come down out of the mount. The people gathered
themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, up, make us
gods, which shall go before us, a man-made God. For as for this
Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
we want not what has become of him. And Aaron said unto them,
Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your
wives, of your sons, of your daughters, and bring them unto
me. And all the people break off the golden earrings that
were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received
them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after
he had made a molten calf. They may took the glory of God
and changed it into an image, making a man or four footed beasts
or creeping things. Now, anything that is not just
like the God of the Bible is an idol. As a matter of fact,
anything that I didn't say that right, there's nothing just like
the God of the Bible. God is nobody's like him. Anything that's not Him, as He
reveals Himself in this book, is pure idolatry, nothing else. That's what they did at this
time. They took the glory of God and changed it into an image
of golden calf, a four-footed beast and said, these be thy
gods that delivered thee. These be thy gods. And they knew
it was a man-made God. wickedness. If I was, if I was
the Lord, I wouldn't save him. After all he'd done for them.
And beloved, believe me, I know I'm just as bad as they are.
I'm not saying I wouldn't have done this, but I'm saying if
I was the Lord, I I wouldn't have saved them. I'd say, send
them to hell. I mean, that wickedness is unparalleled. After all that God had done for
them, they forget him, they make a golden calf, and they worship
it, and they're playing religion. When it says they rose up to
eat and drink and rose up to play, they were playing religion.
That's exactly what they're doing. People are doing that all over
the world right now, playing religion, worshiping something
that is not God. idolatry. Now, while all this
is going on, Moses is still up in the mountain, communing with
God. And God tells him about what's
taking place. And God says, I'm going to wipe them out. And Moses
prays for him. He's praying for him that the
Lord wouldn't wipe them out. And he comes down to the mountain
and he sees them doing this. You remember when he took the
law and broke it and ground it into powder, took the golden
calf, ground it into powder, put it in the water, made the
children of Israel drink it. And now he's seeking the Lord. Look in chapter 33. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast
brought up out of the land of Egypt, into the land which I
swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed
will I give it. I'll send an angel before thee,
and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the
Perizzite, the Hivite, and Jebusite into a land flowing with milk
and honey. I'll not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art
a stiff neck people, lest I consume thee in the way. You're not going
to have my presence. I'm going to have an angel do this. And
angels are very mighty. Verse four, and when the people
heard these evil tidings, this was not good. They mourned, and
no man did put on his ornaments, for the Lord said unto Moses,
saying to the children of Israel, you are stiff-necked people.
I'll come up unto thee in the midst of thee in a moment, and
consume thee. Therefore now put off thine ornaments from thee,
that I may know what to do with thee. And the children of Israel
stripped themselves and their ornaments by the mouth of Horeb.
Now whenever the Lord deals with you or me, you know what we're
gonna do? We're gonna get rid of all of
our ornaments. the things that we think make us look good, they're
gonna be stripped away. You can't come into his presence
in any other way. Verse seven, and Moses took the
tabernacle, now this is not the tabernacle that was used for
the holy place and holy of holies and all the first, that stuff
hadn't even been made yet. This was the tabernacle of meeting,
and Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp
or far off from the camp, and call it the tabernacle of the
congregation. And it came to pass that everyone would sought
the Lord." Now that's the difference between a believer and an unbeliever. A believer seeks the Lord. He seeks the Lord. Verse 8, Verse 7, Moses took the tabernacle
and pitched it without the camp far off from the camp and called
it the tabernacle congregation. Everyone which sought the Lord
went out into the tabernacle of the congregation, which was
without the camp. And it came to pass when Moses
went into the tabernacle, that all the people rose up and stood
every man at his tent door and looked after Moses until he was
gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass as Moses
entered into the tabernacle, The cloudy pillar descended and
stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord talked with Moses. Now this is a pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one speaking with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy
pillar stand at the tabernacle door. And all the people rose
up and worshiped, every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake
to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the
camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle." Now, we're going to look at the
prayer of Moses at this time. He's praying for these people.
The Lord said, I'm going to take him into the promised land through
an angel. I'm not going with him. Those
were evil tidings. They were upset about this. But
Moses is praying to the Lord. And look at this prayer. And
Moses said unto the Lord, see thou sayest. Now that's where
we need to begin in our prayer with what the Lord has said.
That's a good way. Lord, you said this. You said
this. Bring up to the Lord what he
has said. Find out in his word what he
said and say, Lord, you said this. And Moses said to the Lord, see
thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast not
let me know whom thou wilt send with me, yet thou hast said,
I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight. Now, what I want us to notice
is Moses does not talk about how he left Egypt. And he left
all the wealth and all the influence and all the power he could have
had. But I've left Egypt in obedience to what you said to do. And I
have led these people out this far only because you told me
to. He doesn't talk like that. I hate for religious people to
talk about what all they've left and what all they've given up.
I like what Paul calls it, done. Done. That's it. I counted, but
done. All that I've given up, it's
done. Moses doesn't mention anything
like that. There's one thing Moses is interested in, grace. Grace. Now therefore I pray thee,
if I found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way. the way of grace that I may know
thee. That's what I want. I want to
know you. I don't want to simply know right stuff about you. I
want to know you. I want to know the living God.
And the only way I'm going to know you is if you give me grace
that I might know thee. Favor that I might know thee. Then I might know thy way, the
way of grace, the way of Christ. I want to know you. I want to know the living God.
That's what Paul said in Philippians 3. Oh, that I might know him. I want to know God. I want him
to know my name. I want to find grace in his sight.
I don't want for him to give me what I deserve. I want grace.
I want to know the way of Christ. I want to know the way of his
grace that I might know him. The Lord said, this is eternal
life that they might know thee. The only true God in Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. Now, what did Moses want? He
wanted to know God. Find grace in his sight. He said,
consider that this nation is thy people. Don't talk about
being my people. You know, Moses loved these people.
And you know, I'd like to have somebody like Moses praying for
me because you read about Moses. Every time he prayed for these
people, the Lord answered him and did what he asked him to
do. And in that, he's a type of Christ. The Lord Jesus prays
and represents his people and the father won't say no to him.
Everything he asked for, he gets because he's the son. Now look
what Moses says or what the Lord says to Moses after he makes
this request, verse 14, and he said, My presence shall go with
thee. It ain't said I'm not going with
you. I'll send an angel, but after Moses prays for grace,
for favor, he says, my presence shall go with thee and I will
give thee rest. Now here's two things this sinner
needs. I need the presence of God. I need the presence of Christ.
You see, the opposite is being left to myself. And the worst
thing that could ever happen to me is for God to leave me
to myself. Oh, I need his presence. And
I need rest. You tired? Yeah. Tired of trying
to please God by my works? It doesn't work. I need the rest. They which believe do enter into
a rest for he that's entered into his rest have ceased from
his own works as God did from his. You see, when he was finished
with creation, wasn't anything left to do. And that's the rest
of believing. Verse 15, after God makes this
promise, He said unto him, if thy presence go not with me,
carry us not up hence, I don't even want to go without you.
For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have
found grace in thy sight? Is it not that thou goest with
us? So shall we be separated, I and
thy people from all the people that dwell upon the face of the
earth. Now grace is his presence and grace separates you from
everybody else. What a blessing of grace. To
be separated. God separated. We're not like
the world. You believe grace, you're separated
from everybody else. Verse 17. And the Lord said unto
Moses, I'll do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou
hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, Now before I read this, let me
say that this is the highest request any man has ever made. This is higher than Solomon's
request for wisdom. This is the highest request anybody
could ever make. He said, I beseech thee, show
me your glory. No higher request than that.
Now Moses had seen the burning bush that could not be consumed.
He'd seen the ten plagues He had seen the Red Sea part and
he marched through it with the children of Israel. He saw the
Red Sea come back down on the Egyptians and killed every one
of the enemies of Israel. He witnessed this. He saw the
manna come down from heaven. He saw water come out of a flinty
rock. He was there when God wrote the
law, the finger of God wrote the Ten Commandments in the table
of stones. He'd seen some pretty glorious
things, but Moses was actually saying, there's something I'm
not seeing. There's something I'm not seeing.
I want to know more. I want to know more of you. I
love that song, we sing more of Jesus, not just more about
Jesus, but more of Jesus in his Word. He's saying, there's something
I'm not seeing. I know it. There's more, there's
more of you. And I want to know, I beseech
you, show me your glory. Now this is God speaking of himself. This is God's answer to Moses'
question. Verse 19. Now this is not what I would
have thought he would have said. It's just not what I would have
thought. Look at his answer. Verse 19. And he said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee. That is God's glory. His goodness. He is entirely good and everything
about Him is good. God is good. His name is his attributes and
they're all good. His justice is a good justice. His grace is good grace. His wrath is good wrath. Listen to me. I say this fearfully,
but I say it knowing the truth. Hell is because of the goodness
of God. How can you say that? Because
everything regarding the living God is good. And if he puts me
into hell, It's an act of goodness to the rest of creation to get
rid of somebody like me. God's love is a good love. His sovereignty is a good sovereignty. His glory is his goodness. And his goodness is seen in this,
my name. My name, my attributes. That's what his name is. We're
going to look at that in closing in just a minute. But his name
is his attributes. It's every one of his attributes,
characteristics. They're all good. And his goodness
is most clearly seen in saving people like me and you. Show
me your glory. I'll be gracious. To whom I will
be gracious. I'll have mercy on whom I will. I will be gracious. I don't know
if I've said it. Maybe I have. I've heard preachers
say it. God doesn't have to be merciful, but he must be just. No, God must be merciful. That's
his nature, his goodness, his grace. He says, I will be gracious
to that group that made that golden calf. I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. You know, Paul quotes this in
Romans 9 as God's reason for election. You know, people complain
about election. It's the goodness of God that
causes people to be elected. It's his goodness. How dare you
stand in judgment on God and think, well, he's wrong about
that. No, whatever God does is good. It's all good because he's
good. The goodness of God is his glory.
God is good. He said, I'll make all my goodness
pass before thee, I'll proclaim 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. You can't see my face, it'll
kill you. I mean, the cherubims and seraphims, what'd they do?
They covered their face. They couldn't look on him. These
were sinless creatures too. They couldn't look on him. Nobody
can see my face. He dwells in the light that no
man has seen nor can see. Still that way. Verse 21, and the Lord said,
behold, there's a place by me and thou shalt stand on a rock. I'm going to answer your request.
And it shall come to pass while my glory passes by, that I'll
put thee in a cliff of the rock and will cover thee with my hand
while I pass by. And I'll take away my hand, thou
shalt see my back parts, but my face thou shalt not see. What are God's back parts? I
don't know. I know this, it's all we can
see. It's all we can see. Some have said that's his works.
Maybe. This is where we get that hymn,
Rock of Ages, collect for me. Let me hide myself in thee. And
at this time, the God of glory is revealing and concealing. He's blessing and he's protecting. And he takes a man like Moses,
who's just as sinful as me and you, and he puts him in a cleft
of the rock and makes himself known as much as a creature can
know the infinite creator through the gospel. I'll take away my hand and thou
shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. And
the Lord said to 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 tables, which thou breakest and
be ready in the morning and come up in the mountain and unto Mount
Sinai and present thyself there to me at 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 stones
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 he took in his hands the
two tables of stones. And the Lord descended in the
cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. This is when he's in that cleft of the rock with the Lord's
hands on him. He proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The
Lord Jehovah, the self-existent one. The Lord Jehovah God, El,
the almighty one. Self-existent and almighty. He doesn't need you. He doesn't
need me. He doesn't need anything. He's
God and he's all powerful. But look what he says. The Lord,
the Lord God, merciful and gracious. First thing he says about himself. He delights in mercy. Long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy. You see, it's eternal. It's always
been, and it's not going to stop. He keeps it. For thousands, forgiving,
The three headed monster, iniquity and transgression and sin. How
many times do we read of those three words together? Iniquity,
that's the good stuff. Transgression, that's the bad
stuff. Sin, that's the nature. It covers
us. And what does he do? He forgives
iniquity and transgression and sin. And that, look in verse 7, this
is so important. And that will by no means clear
the guilty. Under no circumstance whatsoever
will God clear somebody that's guilty. Well, how can He forgive
sins if He's not going to clear the guilty? There we have the
gospel. Justification. If you're cleared,
beloved, it's because you're not guilty. It's because you
don't have any sin to be judged for. Isn't that glorious? That's
what God does. He will by no means clear the
guilty. I'm thankful for that. 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. I love to think of him doing
this. After he heard the voice of God, he made haste and hit
the dirt. He bowed his head and he worshiped. You will only worship a God just
this God. I don't want to say just like
this. That's wrong again. You only worship this God. And
if this is not the God, you're not worshiping. You're an idolater. you don't know the living God. He made haste and he worshiped
and he said, verse nine, if now I found grace in thy sight, O
Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee go among us. We're a stiff neck
people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for thine
inheritance. Now that is the God that Stephen
preached to those, his accusers, the God of glory. Let's pray.