Exodus chapter 32, and also Exodus
chapter 33. The children of Israel had fallen
here upon some difficult times, mainly because of their sin.
And in these two chapters, Moses prays before the Lord four times. And I want us to look just briefly
at each one of these prayers. Here in Exodus chapter 32, the prayer is found here in verse
11. But I want to remind you of the
context and let you know what the context. You remember here
in verses 1 through verse 6. In Exodus chapter 32, Moses and Joshua had gone up
on to Mount Sinai. The Lord had gave them the commandments. These two tables of stone. And
they'd stayed up there for quite some time. The children of Israel
said, we don't know what's becoming Moses. This man Moses. And they came to Aaron and said,
Make us gods. And they took off all of their
earrings and gave them to Aaron. He put them in the fire and fashioned
it a god. He tried to get out of it by
saying, I really didn't make it. It just came out. But he
carved it and made it and molded it. And Moses and Joshua was
here with the Lord in Mount Sinai. And the Lord speaks to them and
tells them. here in verse 7. The Lord said
to Moses, Get down, for your people that you brought out of
the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves, and they have turned
quickly out of the way. And he tells them there in verse
8 that they had made a molten calf and had worshipped it and
sacrificed their own saying, These be thy gods, O Israel,
which brought thee out of the land of Israel. In verse 9, the
Lord spake to Moses and said, I have seen this people. It is
a stiff-necked people. Now, therefore, let me alone,
that my wrath may wax hot against them, that I may consume them,
and I will make of thee a great nation. Now, that is the context
of this first prayer. The Lord seemingly was ready
and even desired to destroy this nation and make a greater nation. out of Moses. And here in verse
11 is Moses' prayer in the light of what had just happened. In
the light of the Lord's anger towards His people. And I tell
you, I don't know of any prophet in the Old Testament that could
pray like this man prayed. And he had an understanding of
what had happened. He had an understanding of how
to pray. How to approach unto the Lord.
And so he says here in verse 11, when the Lord said, Let me
alone, that my wrath may wax hot. In verse 11, he says this,
Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why doest thy
wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought out of
the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Now, this is very strange. Because
up in verse 7, I just read to you where the Lord said, Moses,
thy people, which you brought out of the land of David, have
turned quickly aside. So Moses simply reminds the Lord,
these aren't my people. I did not by my power bring these
people out. He tells the Lord what He's done. He reminds them, this is your
people, and you have brought them out with a mighty hand and
with great power. Now, brothers and sisters, that
teaches me something right off the bat about how to pray. The
Lord needs to be reminded, if we can say that, and we are looking
at it from our perspective, Does the Lord have a church in this
world? Does God have a people in this
world? Has He redeemed them? Has He redeemed them at a great
cost to Himself? Has He taken them out of the
kingdom of darkness and translated them into the kingdom of His
dear Son? If He has, then let's remind Him of that. Let's often
go to Him and just remind Him, Lord, the church is Your people. And you've redeemed them by great
and mighty hand. You've done it yourself. They're
your people. Isn't that a good way sometimes
to start? Old Scott Richardson said, what is it to preach? And
I would say, what is it to pray? Isn't it sometimes just reminding
God of whose people He has, of His people, and what He's done?
Just remind Him of who He is and what He's done. That's all I'm here to do, to
tell you who He is and what He's done. And go tell Him that. Lord,
these are not my people. There's a friend of mine one
time, he's a pastor, and he was visiting the hospital, and he
went in on some of these folks that went to a church somewhere,
and he was talking to them, and they're so thankful that he'd
come in. They seemed to like him very well. And word got back
to their pastor. And the pastor called my friend,
who was a pastor, and he said, I'd rather you wouldn't visit
my people. And you know what my friend told him? I didn't
know you had a people. I didn't know you had a people.
Moses said, no, they're not my people. The Lord kept saying,
Moses, they're yours. And Moses said, no, they're yours.
They're yours. You brought them out. No, you
brought them out. You brought them out. Remind him they're
his people. You're not my people. God have
mercy on you if you're my people. God have mercy if I'm responsible
for you. So Moses said, Lord, these are
your people. You've redeemed them. You've
brought them out. They're yours. That's where he
began. But then he does something in verse 12 that's very wonderful. Look at this. Look at this. Brothers and sisters, God help
us. God open our understandings and our hearts. The whole motive
behind our prayer is right here in verse 12. Wherefore, if you
destroy this nation, 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. Now look over here with me, hold
your text, and look at Numbers chapter 14, because I think he
explains it much better in Numbers chapter 14. Look here where Moses
begins in his prayer. And he's concerned. He's concerned
about the Lord's glory. That's his motive for praying
and asking the Lord to turn from his fierce anger. Look at Numbers
chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14. And look
in verse, I think it's verse 11. Yes, look here in verse 11, that
angered the Lord again. The Lord said unto Moses, How
long will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they
believe me? For all the signs which I have
shown among them, I will smite them with a pestilence, and disinherit
them, and I will make of thee a greater nation, and mightier
than they. And Moses said unto the Lord,
Now look at his motives. Then the Egyptians will hear
it, For you brought up your people in thy might from among them,
and they will tell it to the inhabitants of the land. For
they have heard how the Lord was among his people, and that
the Lord is seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over
them, and that thou goest before them by daytime, and a pillar
of cloud, and a pillar of fire by night. They have heard of
this being your people. They know what you have done
for them. If thou shalt kill all this people at one man, then
the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak,
saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people
into the land which He swore unto them, therefore He hath
slain them in the wilderness." And now I beseech thee, let the
power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken." What was
Moses concerned about when he prayed? You know, it wasn't so much,
and it was, and we'll see in a minute, no doubt it was a concern
for the children of Israel. He perceived the Lord was angry
with them. But there was something more important than their well-being,
and what was it? His glory. His glory. Don't you get weary sometimes
turning the radio on? And I've never seen a time in
my Christian life that I've heard so many preachers preaching on
the family. And preaching on what we're going
through. We're just all faced with troubles
today in what a country, what we need to do and do this. And
you seldom hear anybody talking about the Lord's glory. And isn't
that the way we should begin our prayers? Oh, Lord, what will
You do to Your great Name? You could kill us. You could
wipe us off the face of the earth. But, Lord, what would You do
to Your great Name? That's what we're concerned about,
isn't it? The Lord's glory. I remember when I preached from
this three or four times, and I'll probably preach on it again
pretty soon, You remember Acts chapter 4, when the Sanhedrin
told Peter and John, we better never catch you preaching in
the name of this Jesus of Nazareth again. And remember they went
back to their own company. And remember they lifted up their
voices. And remember not only how they prayed, but what they
said. They said, Lord, why do these heathen rage? Why do they
imagine the main thing? And they're gathered together.
against the Lord and against His Christ. You know what they
recognize? It's not about us. They're not
so much against us. They're against the Lord. So
what did they pray? Lord, stretch forth Your hand
and do great signs and wonders by the name of Your holy child
Jesus. They wanted His name to be exalted. They wanted His grace and His
person to be known. That's how we should pray. Oh
Lord, you can't destroy your people. What will it do to your
fame? What will it do to your honor?
In everything you do, whether you eat, whether you drink, or
whatever you do, let it all be done for the glory of God. You and I don't know very much
about praying, brother and sister, and I'm not getting on you, it's
me too. But sometimes we just rush into the Lord's presence
and start asking Him for one thing and then another. And we'll
never take time to realize whose presence we're coming in. How
we should begin our prayer. Oh, our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Holy and honored and exalted.
Majestic, you're majestic, you're God. And just dwell there for
His honor and His glory. Oh, do whatever you do. I don't
care what you do. Oh, but just glorify your name.
That's what it's about. That's what it's about. And he reminds him here in verse
14, quickly, chapter 32 and verse 13. And he says this, Lord, remember
Isaac and Abraham, Abraham and Isaac, and Israel, thy servants,
to whom thou swearest by thine own self. And saith unto them,
I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and all this
land that I have spoken will I give unto you, and to your
seed, and they shall inherit it forever." One of the best
things in our prayers is just to take the Word of the Lord,
and in a sense, use it on Him. And I mean that in a good way.
You know, Moses wrestled with Him, didn't he? The Lord wants
us to wrestle with Him, wrestle with Word. And sometimes the
best way to wrestle with him, as Jacob did, is just take his
word and say, Lord, remember. Remember what you said hundreds
of years ago. Confront him with his promises,
with his word. Let's go on. Look on. And the
second prayer in Exodus, chapter 32. Chapter 32. Here's the second
thing. It's found here in verse 31 and
32. And here's the context of this
prayer. And Moses always prayed in the
context. He prayed to the Lord because
the Lord said, I'm going to destroy those people. They made me angry.
So he tells the Lord, don't do it for your own glory. It's about
you. Now he gets these commandments, these two tables of stones, he
and Joshua, and they go back down to where the children of
Israel have made this calf. And young Joshua, he said, boy,
they're dancing. They're in battle down there.
Moses said, no, they're not in battle. They're singing and shouting
and worshiping. Something's going on. They go
on and Moses comes down there upon the plain and he sees the
calf and he becomes so angry that he throws the two tables
of the commandment down and they shatter there at the bottom of
the mountain. He goes and gets the calf and
rebukes Aaron. He grinds it up to powder, throws
it on the water and makes them drink it. And then he says here
in verse 30, And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said
unto the people, You have sinned a great sin, and now I will go
up unto the Lord, preadventure, I shall make an atonement for
your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord
and said, All these people have sinned a great sin and have made
them gods of gold. Notice here how he doesn't seek to cover
their sins. He doesn't seek to lessen their
sins. He tells the Lord what it is.
The Lord knew, but He told it. They have made gods of gold. And they've worshipped them.
And this sin, He said, is a great sin. You know, you look at the
prayers of some of these great men of old. Daniel and Hezekiah. And look at some of those men.
Solomon and David. Look how they prayed. And one
of the things that's so evident in their prayer is this thorough
confession and acknowledgment of sin. They call them such things
as abomination and evil. One of the things that you and
I will know, if the Lord ever is pleased to send us a revival,
you know one of the ways we know it's coming and it's gotten here.
We'll begin to see sin in its true light. That it's an evil
thing. That it's a great thing. And
we'll be confessing it before the Lord. That's why Moses went
back up and he said, Oh, this people, they have sinned a great
sin. He acknowledges it. He acknowledges
it. But now notice what he says here
in verse 32. Notice this. And yet now, even
though they've sinned, this awful sin, and they deserve to be destroyed. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive
them, That's wonderful. If you'll put away their sins,
if you'll forgive them, restore the fellowship to them, that's
wonderful. I'll praise you for it. And if
not, and if not, what's going to happen then? Look here at the love that Moses
had for this people. And here's why he prayed as he
did. He prayed the first prayer because he loved the glory of
the Lord. His honor. He prays this prayer because
He loves His people. If you'll forgive, and He stops
there. We'll have to fill in the blank.
That's wonderful. But if not, look at this. Blot me, I pray
thee, out of the book which thou hast written. I don't know of
anybody else that comes close, any mere man that comes close
to Moses' attitude here for the love that he has. for his people,
the church, other than the Apostle Paul. Remember what he said in
Acts 9? I could wish myself were a curse
for my brethren, my children of Israel. I could wish myself
a curse from Christ. And some have tried to just twist
that and say it don't mean that, but it does. He just felt such a burden and
such a love and a desire for the salvation of his Jewish brethren,
he said, like Moses, Lord, if it would do any good, if it would
accomplish something, blot me out to it. Blot me out. The Lord had already told Moses,
He said, you let me alone and I'll kill them and make of you
a great nation. Moses said, I don't want that.
It's not about me. It's about the church. It's about
your people. What's the most important thing
in your life? Are you the most important thing in your life?
Is your well-being and what you possess, is that the most important
thing in your life, brothers and sisters? I'm talking about
as we look around us. Is it not the church? Is it not
the Lord's people? Wouldn't you rather be defrauded
if it would bless them? Wouldn't you rather keep quiet
and bear the load if it blessed them? How much do we love His church,
His family, His blood-bought ones? How much do we love our
brothers and sisters? I think this is the height of
love for the church. Oh, Lord, if You'll forgive them. Well, if not. If not, let me
perish with them. Just blot out my name. That's
why Bill and Diana drive three and a half hours to get down
here, I think. They want to be with the church. Save a lot of
money and time and labor to stay home. Just a small group. But they want to be with the
Lord's people. How good and pleasant it is for the Lord's people to
dwell together in unity. I couldn't make it without the
church. And I tell you what, I wouldn't want to. I wouldn't
want to. And if the church is in trouble,
Paul said if one member is in trouble, all the members are
in trouble. If the Lord is afflicted in Chastity and Psalm, then others
are weeping for Him because we love. We're one body, aren't
we? We're one body. That's Moses' prayer. What a
prayer of love it was. Now, in chapter 33, here's his
second. prayer. And here's what happened here
in chapter 33. Moses took such a drastic step,
and I've often thought of what they thought of Moses and said
about him when he did this. The Lord comes to the people
here in chapter 33, and he's still somewhat angry with them.
And he said, I want you to take off all your earrings and your
nose pieces, and I want you to humble yourself. I don't know
yet what I'm going to do with you," he said. And boy, there
was a mourning throughout the camp. Moses had even went in
among them and killed a bunch of them. He sent the Levites
and they slew a bunch of the children of Israel. And they
were mourning and weeping about all this. There was unrest here
in the camp. And verse 7 of chapter 33, look
what Moses did. Look what he did. And Moses took
the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from
the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. Now what
a drastic step this was. He had the tabernacle set up.
It wasn't the tabernacle they finally wound up with. This was
a tabernacle where the Lord came and met with the children of
Israel. It was the meeting place. where the Lord met with the people.
You see that down there in verse 9. And Moses takes this tabernacle
and he takes it down and he carries it a long way outside the camp. And he says, here is where the
Lord meets with his people. This is the tabernacle of the
congregation. And most everybody else is there
in camp. Can you imagine what they said
and what they thought? How dare him? How dare him? He's telling us that that's the
tabernacle. That's where the Lord's going
to meet with us. That's the only place the Lord's going to meet
with us. And it's where he took it and set it up. How judgmental,
how cruel on his part. But that's what he did. That's
what he did. You know what this tabernacle
is. You know who it is. This tabernacle that was set
up outside the gate. Let me show you. Hold that and
look over in Hebrews right quickly. And you begin to see then why
Moses did this. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. Look in verse 9. Hebrews 13,
9. Be not carried about with divers
and strange doctrines, different doctrines. It is a good thing
that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which
have not profited them which have been occupied therein. We
have an altar. They have no right to eat which
serve the tabernacle. Christ's altar is For the bodies
of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by
the high priest for sin are burned without the count. Wherefore
Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the count, bearing his reproach." Who is this tabernacle? It's Jesus Christ. And Moses said, He's not in the
camp. He's not among that idolatry. He's not among all the unrest
and rebellion. So he took Him and set Him up
outside the gate, away outside the camp. Far off from the camp,
he said. I tell you something, brothers
and sisters, if you're going to get to the Lord Jesus Christ,
you're going to have to go outside this religious mess that we're
in today. You're going to have to go outside
yourself. You're going to have to go outside this old nature,
outside your human efforts and works. You're going to have to
go outside and you'll find Him out there by Himself. And that's
where you'll have to go if you're going to be saved by Christ.
You have to go outside the camp. And that's what happened. Look
back in our text. Look here in our text again. Look in verse 7. He said it far
off from the camp and called it the tabernacle of the congregation.
And look at this. And it came to pass that everyone which sought
the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation which was
without the count." See that? It had no secret Christians.
If you was content to remain among those idolaters, you could
stay there. But if you was going out where
the Lord met with His people, you was going to have to go out.
And everybody saw you. Everybody saw you. He was a way
out there. And people's looking out that
way. Here somebody went. Out there they go. Oh, there
goes old Glenn. There goes old Glenn. I miss
the old Glenn going out there. There goes Bob. How could you
see him? It was for all. You couldn't
stay inside the camp and come and be saved. You had to go to
Christ. And where's He at? You'll not
find him, brothers and sisters. You'll not find him this man
made. Don't go to Billy Graham Crusade looking for Christ. Don't
go to Robert Shuler's Crystal Cathedral looking for Christ. If you're going to meet God and
have God to meet you, you've got to find Him in one place,
and that's Christ. But you're going to have to go
to Him. It's Him. He's set up without the count.
He's out there by Himself. And when you go out there, people
are going to see it. You may at first try to hide it, but
you can't hide it. I hear one fellow said him and his wife,
he's supposed to be a preacher, said him and his wife was going
to Florida to get away. They didn't want anybody to know
they were Christians. Going somewhere and nobody knew they were Christians.
The Lord don't have any secret Christians. He don't have anybody
trying to hide away. Everyone who sought the Lord
went without the count. And you can be seen. He'll see.
He'll show. But anyway, this brings us to
the third prayer here in verse 13. Look at this. This brings
us to the third prayer. And boy, you can understand it.
You can understand it now. Why Moses prayed this. He set
up this tabernacle. And here a few people come out
there, the honest ones, the ones that really wanted to meet with
God. They came out there. And now Moses prays this prayer.
It's found here in verse 13. Look at this. Now therefore I
pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy
way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight,
and consider that this nation is thy people. Can't you imagine
why he prayed that prayer? Things were getting rough for
him. People began to come and say, how dare you? You think
your way is the only way? You've got so narrow? Boy, there
was some pressure. I can get pretty bold standing
up here talking to you Christians. But let me get out in the world
trying to defend what I'm saying. I tell you, sometimes I'll have
a second thought, and I'll wind up praying with this, Lord, have
I really found grace in your sight? Lord, is this little congregation
really your people or not? I want to know. Well, here's
what Moses was really praying for in verse 14. Here's what
his prayer was. The Lord said, My presence shall
go with thee, and I'll give you rest. Moses said, If your presence
go not with me, don't carry me up hence. For wherein shall it
be known that I am thy people, and have found grace in thy sight.
Is it not in your presence? You go with me. So shall we be
separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are
from the face of the earth. Notice the first thing the Lord
says here. You know what will answer all these questions? Have
I found grace in his sight? Am I his? Is this people his? You know what will give you rest?
You know what will answer that question for you? The Lord's
presence. The Lord's presence. That will
answer it. That will answer it. My presence
shall go with thee, Moses, and I'll give you rest. Rest about
what? About whether or not you've found grace in my sight. I want
more assurance about that, don't you? I don't want to be presumptuous.
I want assurance, but I don't want to be presumptuous. Well,
give me your presence. That will prove to me I've found
grace in your sight. Do I know the Lord? Do I know
Him? Do I know His way of salvation?
Do I know anything about walking with Him? Do I really know? I want to know. How can I know? My presence shall go with thee,
and I'll give you rest. How can we know the Lord without
His presence? How can I know I'm saved? How
can I know I'm one of His without His presence? If He don't send
the Spirit of His Son into my heart, I can't know Him. You can't know Him. The only
way to know Him, the only way to know we've found grace with
Him is in His presence. His presence. His Spirit bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Oh, that I may know that I've
found grace in your sight. And notice something else here.
Not only that I may know that I found grace in your sight, that this people is your people,
I want to know that. Give us your presence. But look
here in verse 16 also, what Moses said. You give us your presence,
and I and thy people shall be separated from all the people
that are upon the face of the earth." This people had gone back to
idolatry so quick they had turned out of the way. And Moses knew
the only remedy, the only remedy for these people being separated
from the world and stopped going back to Egypt in their hearts
was for the presence of the Lord to be among them. Boy, that's
what makes Christians of us. Do you know that? Somebody wants
to know what a believer's rule of life is. You can frighten
him to death with hell, hold hell over his head all the time,
see if you can separate him from the world by that. Hold a bunch
of do's and don'ts to the law over his head and just keep him
cursed all the time, burdened down. But you know what will
go a long way in separating us from this world? His presence. That's what Moses said. Give
us your presence and we will be separated, I and thy people,
from all the people of the world. It's no wonder then when the
Lord saves you, you don't run with the same old crowd, do you?
Have you been down at the nightclub lately, listening to some filthy,
vulgar jokes? I haven't. You say, are you bragging? No, we ain't bragging. We just
don't have any use for that anymore. Why? We know something about
His presence. I may cheat somebody, but I tell
you what, I feel bad when I find out about it. Don't you? You
can't just do whatever you want to do just to get by. You cannot. Come out from among them, and
be ye separate, saith the Lord." You know what he said just before
he said that? Just before he said, come out
and be ye separate. You know what he said? I will
dwell in you, and I will walk with you, and I will be your
God, and you will be my people. Then he says, come out from among
them, and be ye separate. What is it that brings us out
of this world? In spite of having to live in
it. and often calling back into it. What is it that has a tendency
to sanctify us in our daily walk? Is it not His presence? It's
His presence. I tell you, once you leave here
this afternoon and you go home to your houses, I don't have
to follow you there to see what you're doing. Why would I? If the presence of the Lord don't
separate you, I can't do it. And there ain't no sense of me
and the teachers and the deacons getting together and writing
out a little covenant of faith and rules to live by. Ain't no
sense of doing that. I won't do it either. Give us
your presence, Lord. Your presence. That'll do it.
That'll do it. The last prayer is found here
in verse 18. I think I see the correlation
between this first prayer and this last prayer. He says here
in verse 18, Moses said, I beseech thee, I beg of you, show me thy
glory. That's his last prayer. Show
me your glory. I want to see you. I've seen you do your miracles
down in Egypt. I saw you divide that deep red
sea and send your people through there, but there's something
about you, something else about you, I want to see. I want to see your glory. And what did he tell him? In
verse 19, the Lord said, I will make all my goodness pass before
thee. And I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee. And you read in the 34th chapter,
look in the 34th chapter, and look at this, when he actually
did this. In verse 6, And the Lord passed by before him, and
proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God merciful, and gracious, and
longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. That's
His glory. That's His glory. God has His
essential glory. If He'd have never lifted a finger
to redeem anybody, He'd have been the glorious, eternal God.
But this is His redeeming glory, His goodness manifestly His mercy
revealed, His grace made known forgiveness of our sins. That's His glory. That's His
glory. Oh, my soul, we talk about His
creative glory creating this universe and the power that's
revealed in there. But I tell you a greater glory
than that. is taking a miserable, wretched, hell-down sinner and
showing him mercy and giving him grace and being good to him. We live in a world that's just
all messed up among evil people. Look at the evil in our society
and we see it in ourselves. We just have to keep ourselves
beat down to keep from fighting in our homes, don't we? So much
evil until we turn to the Lord. So much badness until we look
to Him and see His glory. And what do we see in Him? Goodness. Oh, David said, Let thy goodness
follow me all the days. I want to look back and see it
falling behind me. The goodness of the Lord. How
good is it? I tell you, your salvation is
owing to His goodness. The goodness of God leads you
to repentance. Grace and mercy. Don't you relish
it. Don't you glory in it. You say,
I have no use for His mercy. It's because you've never obtained
it. I don't believe in this free grace that you've found. It's
because He's never showed you grace. He's never saved you by
His grace. Oh, if He ever brings you to
see a need of it, you'll glory in it then. That's His glory.
Redeeming glory. Redemptive glory. But you know
there's something else about this too, isn't there? There's
something else that he told Moses here. Not just my grace and my
goodness and my mercy, forgiveness of sins and iniquities, clearing
all of it from the conscience, putting it all away from before
my eyes, taking away the guilt, taking away the wrath, taking
away the condemnation. I've done it all. I've saved
you. I've saved you. All my redeeming
glory. But it goes farther than that,
doesn't it? Look back over at it again. In
verse 19 of chapter 33. I'll make all my goodness pass
before thee. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy. on whom
I will show mercy." What is that? That's His distinguishing
glory. That's His distinguishing grace,
His distinguishing mercy. It's glorious because He's not
obligated. He's free in the dispensing of
it. He owes nobody anything. Nobody has any claims upon Him
at all. It is not of Him that willeth,
nor of Him that runneth, but of God which showeth mercy. He passeth by one, and hardens
him, and stops at another, and calls his name, and kinders and
breaks his heart, and saves him. You have two sons born of the
same woman. And He says, one have I loved,
and the other have I hated. And that's His glory. That's
His glory. And what happened when He showed
Moses this? Look at it over in chapter 34.
Look at it in verse 8. And Moses made
haste. Boy, he got in a hurry. He wasn't
undecided about this, Glenn. He had saw the glory of the Lord.
It had a tremendous effect upon him. And he didn't mess around.
What did he do? He made haste and bowed his head
down to the dirt. And he worshipped. And he worshipped. And I tell you, if God has revealed
His redeeming glory, in Jesus Christ to you. If He's revealed
His glory as He did to Moses, that it's in His hands to show
you mercy or to pass you by. I'm telling you, what if He showed
you this? You've got your face towards the dirt. And you're
blessing His name. You're worshiping Him. That was Moses' prayer. And as
far as I know, the Lord answered them all. He answered them all. I think when we start our prayers
with a motive of His glory in view, then we'll probably end
by saying, Lord, show me. Show me. And He'll do it for
me. He'll do it. Let's pray.