Would you turn with me to Romans
chapter 9? I've entitled the message for
this morning, God Describes His Glory. This is God's description of
His glory. Now, Paul quotes this passage
that I just read from Exodus chapter 33 verse 19 twice in
Romans chapter 9. God says, when Moses says, show
me your glory, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee,
and I will proclaim my name before thee. And I'll be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. Now the glory of God has something
to do with God showing mercy on whom he will show mercy. And
the other side of that, whom he will, he hardens. Look in Romans chapter 9 verse
15. For he saith to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. Look down in verse 18, he quotes
it again. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens. Now, this is how God defines
His glory. And that gives us some idea of
how important these words are. When God Himself describes His
glory in answer to Moses' request, He describes it as, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And then when Paul quotes that
in Romans 9, he gives the other side of that, and whom he will,
he hardens. Now looking at that statement out of the context would make
the statement seem almost arbitrary and harsh. You mean God just
saves some people and he hardens some people? It's as simple as
that? Well, may the Lord enable us to look at this in the context
in which it was said, and may God give us the grace to see
the glory of this statement. Wouldn't that be something if
we're enabled to do that? The meaning is clear enough on
the surface. Let's stay just for a few moments
in Romans chapter 9, and then we'll go into Exodus chapters
32, 33, and 34. when God made this statement,
but look in verse 11 of Romans chapter 9. For the children,
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand. And what
is God's purpose? That salvation might not be of
works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob have I
loved. But Esau have I hated." Now Paul
anticipates the objection he knows that we'll all make. What
should we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unfair in loving Jacob and hating Esau? God forbid,
for he saith to Moses, and he quotes that passage we just read
from Exodus 33, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then,
here's what we can conclude from that. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For
the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, he
quotes it again, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and
whom he will he hardens. Now just a brief statement about
this thing of God hardening somebody's heart. When God hardens a heart,
That does not mean that the person's heart that he hardened may have
otherwise been saved, but now he's made it to where they can't
be saved. The heart of the natural man
is so evil that all God has to do is let it alone. And it will harden. All God has to do to harden our
heart is nothing. The same sun that melts the wax
hardens the clay. And you can't talk about God
having mercy on whom he will have mercy without the other
side of that coin. Whom he will, he hardens. Now would you turn to Exodus
chapter 32. Now, this event that we're getting
ready to read about took place three months after the Exodus. Now, today is the 11th, January
the 11th. It's like this would have taken
place in October, October the 11th, the day the Exodus took
place. And you can imagine how fresh this still was on their
minds when they said all the Red Sea part. and they had experienced
the plagues and they had left Egypt. Now, after three months,
they're in camp before Mount Horeb and Moses goes up in Mount
Horeb and he receives the law written by the finger of God.
He receives instructions regarding the tabernacle, that beautiful
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ that's seen in the tabernacle.
And he's up there for 40 days while the children of Israel,
remember only three months earlier, they'd experienced the Exodus.
That very day they had manna come down from heaven and fed
them and they were given water from that smitten rock. So they
were experiencing all these things. But look in chapter 32 verse
1. And when the people saw that
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. For as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what
is become of him." Really? Really? Verse 2, And Aaron said
unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears
of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring
them unto me. Now there's significance in these
earrings. It has something to do with hearing,
doesn't it? Verse 3, And all the people break off the golden
earrings which 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 mated a golden calf. And they said,
these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of
the land of Egypt. How quickly they fell into idolatry. And you know what hit me about
this? How easily could the same thing happen to me or you? You believe that? How quickly. I think of what Paul said to
the Galatians. I marvel that you're so soon
removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ and
to another gospel. How quickly they fell into idolatry
after all they'd seen. Now look in verse 5. And when
Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation
and said, tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah, to the Lord. Now, he doesn't call the golden
calf a false god. He calls the golden calf Jehovah. Now, I'm going to give you a
big word, and I didn't know what the word meant when I read it.
I was reading the commentator on this passage of Scripture,
and he said that what was going on right here was syncretism.
You ever heard that word? I didn't know it, but I looked
it up in the dictionary. I looked it up in Webster's,
and here's how Webster defined this word syncretism. He said
it's the attempt to blend opposite and contrary tenets. to one system
and produce union and accord. And that's exactly what Aaron
was doing at this time. He was taking this golden calf,
this idol, and he said, this represents Jehovah. Jehovah is
the one who brought us out of Israel, and this golden calf
is a visible representation of Jehovah. And when we have this
feast to the Lord, it's not going to be so much to this golden
calf, it's going to be to Jehovah. who is represented by this golden
calf. It was an attempt to blend idolatry
with worship. Syncretism. Got a new word. Big
word. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? What I thought of when I thought
of this word, I thought back, when we started this church,
Grace Chapel, Henry Mahan brought a message that he entitled, Six
Stubborn Statements. And you know that sermon lasted
an hour and 45 minutes. And you couldn't get it back
then when you used those cassette tapes, and you couldn't get it
on both sides. That's how long it was. But you
know what? It was just like that. And in
these six stubborn statements, And he got that outline from
Barnard, Ralph Barnard. I've heard Barnard preach the
same message. But he said, God is either absolutely sovereign
or he's not sovereign at all. And these thoughts cannot be
mixed or blended. His second point, or men are
either dead in sins or they have life and can do certain things,
but these two ideas cannot be blended. The third statement
was either God chose who would be saved or man chose who would
be saved. It's up to God's will or man's
will. It's one of the two, but the
two cannot be reconciled. The two cannot be blended. Both
are not true. Either one's true and the other's
false. Then he said, Christ either accomplished redemption on the
cross, he actually made atonement and saved the people he's dying
for, or he simply made salvation available depending upon what
you do. It's one of the two, but you can't blend them. Then
he said regarding God's grace, God's grace is either Irresistible
and invincible and it actually saves or it can be resisted and
rejected and it doesn't actually save And they said God's people
either persevere all the way to the end or they don't You
can't blend these thoughts though. You can't blend these concepts.
You can't blend these tenets and That message was a gospel
message that exposed syncretism Which is what all false religion
does. It blends the false with the true. But in reality, that
can't be done, can it? You can't blend law and gospel.
You can't blend grace and works. But that's what was going on
here. They take this golden calf and they say, we're going to
have a feast of Jehovah. This is true. Verse 6 of chapter
32, And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt
offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat
down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. They were playing
religion, weren't they? You've heard that term. They
were having a good time playing religion. Verse 7, And the Lord said unto Moses,
Get thee down for thy people. Notice he calls them thy people.
He doesn't call them my people. At this time he calls them thy
people. Get thee down, for thy people, which thou broughtest
up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They've
turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them, and
they've made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have
sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel,
which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord
said unto Moses, I've seen this people, and behold, it's a stiff-necked
people. Now how God sees things is how
they are. I've seen these people. Behold,
it's a stiff-necked people. Verse 10, Now therefore let me
alone, that my wrath may wax hard against them, that I may
consume them, and I'll make of thee a great nation. And Moses
besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath
wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of
the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did
he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume
them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and
repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, and
Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine
own self. And saidst unto them, I will
multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land
that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall
inherit it forever. He reminds the Lord of what he
already said. That's wise counsel. Verse 14, And the Lord repented
of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. And Moses turned, verse 15, and
went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony
were in his hand. The tables were written on both
their sides, talking about the Ten Commandments, on the one
side and the other side were they written. And the tables
were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God,
graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise
of the people as they shouted, remember they'd rose up to play,
he said unto Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. And he said,
it's not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is
it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise
of them that sing do I hear. And it came to pass, as soon
as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the
dancing. And Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out
of his hands, and he braked them beneath the mount. And he took
the calf which they had made, and burned it in the fire, and
ground it in powder, and strotted upon the water, and made the
children of Israel drink of it. And Moses said unto Aaron, What
did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a
sin upon them? And Aaron refused to take responsibility. Aaron said, let not the anger
of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people that
they're set on mischief. For they said unto me, make us
gods which shall go before us. But as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what's
become of him. And I said unto them, whosoever
therefore hath any gold, let him break it off. So they gave
it to me. Then I cast it in the fire, and there came out this
calf. Wouldn't take the blame, would he? You know, there's a real problem
when you and I don't take responsibility for our sin. We don't ask for
mercy. The only time you ever and I
ever truly ask for mercy is when our sin is all our fault. Verse 25, and when Moses saw
that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked under
their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate
of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Now this
is the side I want to be on. Are there sides? Absolutely.
There are people on the Lord's side and there are people who
are not on His side. I'm not so much concerned about
the Lord being on my side. I don't have a side. I want to be on His side though,
don't you? Who's on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me, verse 26,
and all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every
man his sword by his side, and go in and out from the gate to
gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and
every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the
children of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And there
fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses
had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every
man upon his son and upon his brother, that he may bestow upon
you a blessing this day. And it came to pass on the morrow
that Moses said unto the people, You sinned a great sin. He didn't mollify it. He didn't
lessen it. He said, You sinned a great sin.
And now I'll go unto the Lord for adventure. I shall make an
atonement for your sin. He knew atonement had to be made.
And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Oh, this people have
sinned a great sin and made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou
wilt forgive their sin. Oh, how he loved these people.
He says, I want you to forgive them. I want their sin to be
blotted out. Look what he says next. If not
blot me, I pray thee out of the book which thou hast written.
That's amazing, isn't it? If you're not going to forgive
him, just blot me out. Now, there he is a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 33, And the Lord said unto
Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out
of my book. Now therefore go lead the people unto the place
which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, mine angel shall go before
thee. Nevertheless, in the day when
I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued
the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron had made."
Now, what is going on right now is he's saying, I'm going to
do what I said I was going to do. I'll bring you into the promised land,
but I'm not going with you. I'll send a created angel with
you. Chapter 33, and the Lord said
unto Moses, Depart, and go on, pence thou and the people which
thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt. There he says
it again, the people you brought, unto the land which I swear unto
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying unto thy seed will I give
it. And I will send an angel before thee. And I'll drive out
the Canaanite, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite,
and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey. For I'll not go up in the midst
of thee. For thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee by
the way. Now, I'm going to do what I said
I was going to do. I'm going to bring these people
into the Promised Land, but I'm not going with them. I'm sending
an angel. They're not going to have my
presence. The absolute worst thing that
can happen to anybody is to not have his presence. Worst thing that could happen
to me or you is for him to leave us alone. Verse 4, And when the people
heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and no man did put on
his ornaments. For the Lord had said unto Moses,
Say unto the children of Israel, You are stiff-necked people.
I'll come unto thee in the midst of thee in a moment and consume
thee. Therefore now put off our ornaments from thee that I may
know what to do with thee. And the children of Israel stripped
themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. Now the ornaments
are the things that you think make you look good. Get rid of them. Get rid of them right now. Honesty is not the best policy. Honesty is the only policy. If I come into God's presence,
I'm not going to come trying to make myself look good. Get
rid of the ornaments and come into his presence as you are. Strip yourselves of the ornaments. Verse 7, chapter 33, And Moses
took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp afar off
from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation.
And it came to pass that every one which sought the Lord, that
was their one desire, to seek the Lord. 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 out 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 the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at
the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy
pillar at the tabernacle, and all the people rose up and worshipped
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 camp. And this is when Moses
begins this prayer. And Moses said unto the Lord,
See, thou sayest unto me. Now, let me repeat this again. Notice how what Moses did, he
brought up what the Lord had already said. You come into God's
presence, you bring up what He's already said. Don't bring anything
else. Just bring what He has said,
not what you say, not what you think, not what you've done or
what you haven't done. You come into his presence pleading
nothing but what he has already said. It behooves us to find
out what it is he said. And Moses said unto 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 also found grace
in my sight. Now look, you said this. You
said you know my name. You said I found grace in your
sight. Now therefore, verse 13, I pray
thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way,
that I might know thee. that I might find grace in thy
sight. And consider that this nation
is thy people. You're calling them my people.
They're not my people. They're your people. That's what you
said. And here's what I want to know.
I want to know your name. I want to know your way. I want
to know you. I don't want to just know stuff
about you. I want to know you, the living God. Verse 14, And he said, my presence shall
go with thee. Not just the created angel, but
my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. Now here are the two things that
I need more than anything else. One, his presence. I need his presence. If I'm left
to myself, it's over for me. I need his presence. I need his presence to enable
me to believe, to enable me to hear, to enable me to repent,
to enable me to preach, to enable me to persevere. I need his presence. And not only do I need his presence,
I need rest. Rest is a response to a work
that's already finished. There remaineth therefore a rest
for the people of God. For he that's entered into his
rest has ceased from his own works as God did from his. Now, God makes this promise. You've got my presence and I
will give you rest. Verse 15, And he said unto him,
If thy presence go not with me, care is not up hence. We don't
want to go if you don't go with us. For wherein shall it be known
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 are upon the face of the
earth." I want this separation, don't you? I want to be separated
by Him. And I want to be His people,
different from everybody else. Verse 17, and the Lord said unto
Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken. What you're
asking for, I'm going to give it to you. For thou hast found
grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. Oh, there's what
I want. I want to find grace in his sight,
and I want him to know my name. I don't want to be of that crowd
where he said, depart from me. I never knew you. I don't want
to be in that crowd. I want to be in the crowd where
he knows me and he knows my name. Now this is amazing. Moses had
been granted all these things and yet he makes one other request. Verse 18. And he said, I beseech
thee. Now he'd already been promised
his presence. He'd already been promised I
know your name. He'd been had these prayers answered. But he says, I want more. I want more. Do you want more of the Lord? I want more. I beseech you, show
me thy glory. Now you think of what all Moses
had already seen. He saw the Red Sea part. He saw
all those plagues. He had been given the law, written
with the very finger of God, and yet he says, I've not seen
your glory. I beseech you, show me thy glory. You know, I remember one time
as a teenager, beseeching the Lord, I read this
verse of scripture, And I started beseeching the Lord to show me
your glory. But you know, when I was making
that request, I was waiting for the room to light up and seeing
something that would make me know this is his glory. And I missed the point. I said,
show me your glory. And I didn't bother really with
reading the Lord's answer. Now this is the Lord's description
of His glory. Look in verse 19, and He said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. Now the Lord's
glory is His goodness. and his goodness. Oh, the Lord's
good. Oh, he's good. And his goodness
is seen in his capacity to save and forgive such evil people. Has there ever been a more evil,
unbelieving, hard-hearted bunch of people than the children of
Israel? Actually, yeah. right here in
this room. Amen. Amen. Yet the Lord is pleased to save
people like this. People who depart so quickly. His goodness is seen in His capacity
to save. He says in verse 19, I'll make
all my goodness pass before Thee and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before Thee. In verse 5 of chapter 34, we
find out what happens when he did proclaim the name of his
Lord, the name of the Lord before. In verse 5, chapter 34, And the
Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and
proclaimed the name of the Lord. And he began to proclaim his
attributes. 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 fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed
his head toward the earth and worshipped." Now, his name is
his attributes. God is known by these attributes
we just read of in this passage of Scripture. I think they're
so glorious. He talks about how He'll forgive, how He'll have
mercy, how He'll have compassion, and He also says, I will by no
means clear the guilty. Under no circumstance whatsoever
will I ever clear someone who is guilty. Now, How do you forgive
sin and show mercy and yet refuse to clear the guilty? The cross of Christ is the display of all of God's
name. Every attribute of God is manifest
in the glorious cross of the Lord Jesus Christ where He doesn't
clear the guilty. Sin is punished. And yet he has
mercy and grace and compassion. You know, when the Lord said,
I am that I am, I've read this. I don't know enough about Hebrew
to know whether it's so. I guess it is. It certainly makes
sense. I've read where the name, I am that I am, is I save in
the manner which I save. God is known in how he saves. How he can by no means clear
the guilty, his absolute justice, and yet his grace and his mercy
and his forgiveness in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. God
was proclaiming his name while the Lord was nailed to a tree. Now, here's Paul's quote from
Romans chapter 9, verse 19 of Exodus 33. 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. Now once again, here's
what I need. I need grace, I need God to give
me what I do not deserve. And I need mercy. I need for
God to not give me what I do deserve. That's grace and that's
mercy. Grace is God giving you what
you do not deserve. You want that? Well, I do. I
want him to give me his presence and forgiveness and his spirit
and everything involved in the gospel that I do not deserve.
And I want him to not give me what I do deserve. I deserve
to be sent to hell. I deserve to be cut off and left
to myself. I don't want that. He says, I
will be merciful. And I will be gracious. And he says, I will be merciful
to whom I will be merciful. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. His mercy and his grace is sovereign. Listen to me very carefully.
That means he doesn't owe this to anyone. It's not yours or
mine by way of entitlement. And if we have A rising up in
our heart against the fact that He gives grace to whomever He
pleases to give it. And whom He wills. He hardens. If our heart rises up against
that, there's only one reason. Because we really think He owes
it to us. That's the only reason. We think
it's ours by way of entitlement. And God calls this His glory. Now, if you want to argue with
that, take it up with him. He's the one who said this, not
me. This is how God defines his glory. I'll be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. Think about it. Did he say anything
less to the Syro-Venetian woman when she came up to him? She
said, Lord, thou son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter's
grievously vexed with the devil. And he didn't answer. And she
kept crying, have mercy on me. And he said, I'm not sent but
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's the same thing
as this. I've only come for a particular people. What did she do? Then came she and worshiped him. You only worship when you worship
an absolute sovereign. Now let's go on reading verse
20 of Exodus chapter 33. And he said, Thou canst not see
my face. Now remember, he says, I want to see your glory. And
he tells what his glory is. Verse 20, And he said, Thou canst
not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the
Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon
a rock, and it shall come to pass, while my glory passes by,
that I'll put thee in a cliff of the rock. and I will cover
thee with my hand while I pass by, and I'll take away mine hand,
and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. Now you know that that cleft
in the rock is Christ himself. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee, Let the water and the blood from thy
wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save
from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These for sin could not atone.
thou must save and thou alone in my hands no price I bring
simply to thy cross I cling while I draw this fleeting breath when
my eyes shall close in death when I rise to worlds unknown
and behold thee on thy throne rock of ages cleft for me let
me hide myself in thee now God says I'm gonna let you see my
back parts now God is spirit Do I know what that means? No.
But I know it means he's not material. I know that he's spirit.
He's infinite. He's all those things. And he
doesn't have a physical behind when he says, I'm going to let
you see my back parts. What he means is this. I'm going
to let you see my salvation. God is known in seeing his salvation. You see his salvation. You see
his back parts. Look in verse 8 of chapter 34. Let me read a few more verses. We'll close. After the Lord proclaimed
his name before him, verse 8, Moses made haste and bowed his
head toward the earth and worshipped. And he said, If I now have found
grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among
us. For it is stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our
sin, and take us for thine inheritance. And he said, Behold, I make a
covenant before all thy people I'll do marvels such as have
not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation, and all the
people among which thou art shalt see the work of the Lord, for
it's a terrible thing that I'll do with thee. Observe thou that
which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee
the Amorite and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite,
and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Now you take heed to yourself,
lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where
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. Matt, you read about it
when you were reading Isaiah 42. He said, My glory I will
not share with another. Lest thou make a covenant with
the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring after their
gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and
thou eat of his sacrifice, and thou take of their daughters,
and thy sons, and their daughters go a-whoring after their gods,
and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods, thou shalt
make thee no molded gods. That's where the problem was.
when they tried to blend the worship of God with idolatry. And they made themselves a molten
God. And the Lord mercifully says once again, don't do that. Show me your glory. I'll make all my goodness pass
before thee. I'll proclaim my name before thee. And I will
be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy. Aren't you thankful for that?
On whom I will show mercy. Let's pray.