I'd like you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 34. Exodus 34. I'm going to be dealing actually
with the last, well, verses 5 to 7 in 34. Before we come to that place, the Lord had told Moses, I'm going to go with you. You'll
lead the people. I'm going to go with you. And
Moses asked the Lord. question, made a request that
just intrigues me. Every time I read it, it just
arrests my heart. He said in Exodus 33 verse 18,
I beseech thee, Lord, I'm asking you, I'm asking you with all
of my being, I beseech you. show me thy glory. Oh, what a request. Lord, show
me your glory. And you know, you can have all
kinds of interpretations. You know, what was he asking?
I can look in the New Testament, that word, their glory. There's a word for the glory
of the Lord and actually this is what it means. It means opinion. It's what he asked him, show
me what you think. Lord, what do you think? But
the greatest definition of what Moses asked The Lord answered. You want to know the definition
of what Moses asked? You know what Moses was wanting
to know? Listen to what the Lord said.
Verse 19, And he said, I will 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 will
show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Well, I think to myself,
to ask the Lord, Lord, what is your thoughts? What do you think? Lord, what is your opinion? He
said, this is what I think. I'm going to have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. This is my goodness. This is
all of my good. I'm going to make all my goodness. And I'm going to make it pass
before you, Moses. David said, Psalm 31, 19, Oh,
how great is thy goodness, which thou has laid up for them, which
thou has hidden from being discovered, you've laid up for them that
fear thee, for your people, those that you've given a heart and
a fear, which thou has wrought for them that trust in thee before
the sons of men. The goodness of Almighty God
and the blessings that he has reserved and kept eternally in
the Lord Jesus Christ, the one in whom all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily dwells. Lord, show me your glory. I'm
going to make all my goodness pass before you. And then the
Lord told Moses in that verse 19 of chapter 33, I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. I'm going to teach you something,
Moses, concerning my nature and my character. I'm going to teach
you something of myself, not just for a few minutes, just
tonight for a few minutes. I'm like you, Donny B. If we
can just settle down for a few minutes. Lord, would you teach me something
of yourself? Would you tell me something?
Lord, show me your glory. Show me, Lord, who you are. I know that everything that I'm
ever going to know concerning the Lord, God's going to have
to teach me out of this Word right here. This is all I've
got. And here's what the Lord Jesus
Christ said, John 17, 6, concerning the proclamation of the name
of the Lord. He said, I've manifested, I've
made visible what was hidden. I have manifested thy name, I
have manifested the perfection of your character revealed in
this glorious gospel that the Apostle Paul said I am not ashamed
of. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Now you talk
about a miracle of God's grace that we are sitting here tonight
and we know anything concerning the glory of God. I mean, what
a subject. What a request. But what a blessing
in the answer. He said, I'm going to make all
my goodness pass before you. Moses, I'm going to teach you
something of myself. I'm going to proclaim the name
of the Lord. And this is what I'm going to
do. I'm going to be gracious to whom I'll be gracious and
show mercy on whom I show mercy. Would we truly see the glory
of God? Would we behold his goodness
this evening? I truly believe I want to. I
want to. I want to hear, I want to see
by faith that He's given me, that I know I didn't have when
I was born. It was given to me to believe. There's a miracle. And for the
Lord to cause His goodness to pass before me and for me to
behold it. Every time I go doctors and get a checkup or
something like that. And the doctor says, well, everything
looks great. I tell my wife, I don't know
how to be thankful. I don't know how to thank the
Lord. I don't know how to thank the Lord tonight for the glorious
revelation of his goodness. But would I see the Lord tonight
when He says, I'm going to have mercy and compassion on whomsoever
I will? You know what I know about that
statement? That it is Almighty God who does
as He will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And I know this, that nobody stays His hand. To show mercy and compassion
is His goodness. When Rebecca, the scripture says,
had conceived, she had two boys in her womb. And the scripture
says that the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil. Now they've not been born. They
hadn't done anything. The scripture says that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth it was said unto her, the elder shall serve
the younger. It's written. And it's not going to change.
Because God don't change. It is written. Jacob, the younger,
have I loved Esau? Have I hated The world will read that. The
world's religion will read that, and they'll say, no, that's not
fair. You know what God says? This is my goodness. Show me your glory. I'm going
to cause all my goodness to pass before you, and I'll have mercy
and compassion on whomsoever I will. What shall we say? The Apostle Paul said, Romans
9. Is there unrighteousness? Is
there wrong? Or is there a deed that Almighty
God has done that violates His law? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. For or because He
said to Moses, quoting Exodus 33, I'm going to have mercy. on whom I'll have mercy and I'll
have compassion, on whom I have compassion, I will have compassion. So it's the Lord's goodness to
show mercy and compassion. Well, having told Moses that
I'm going to make all my goodness pass before thee, and I'm going
to proclaim the name of the Lord now in Exodus 34 and verse 5. Here's what the scripture says.
and the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there,
and proclaimed the name of the Lord. God Almighty manifested
Himself, speaking from the cloud, that's
what He said, the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with
Moses there, and proclaimed His name, proclaimed His character. But when I read that concerning
Him descending in the cloud, here we are tonight and we're
hearing the glorious message of God's honor, God's goodness,
God's glory, God's character. But don't we see through a glass
darkly? He descended in a cloud. And he spoke, he spoke with Moses. But how much is concealed in
what we know? We see, when it says, we see
through a glass darkly. You look in your, in the margin
of my Bible here, it's, we see through a glass in a riddle. We see like in a riddle. We know,
but how little we know. Oh, but then, then, face to face. And I think about the wonder
of seeing him and knowing, knowing as he is known, knowing him as
we are known. I think, Lord, that you'd teach
us anything, but Lord, that you'd teach us in that day, we'd see
you as you are. But knowing here again, knowing
that the Lord is proclaiming His name and His character and
His glory, here again concerning His goodness. Moses asked again
in verse 18 to 33, Show me Your glory. Now look at this part of His
answer too in verse 19. I know I'm going back and forth,
but that's okay. He said, in verse 19, I will 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 will
show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Oh, the will of Almighty
God is going to be done. His counsel is going to stand,
isn't it? Show me your glory. I'm going to do whatever I want
to do. That's what I'm, that's my glory. I'm God. He's God Almighty, God of purpose
and promise and of power. Show me your glory. I will. And then in verse 6 of chapter
34, and the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, I am that I am. I am God. I'm God. Let all the earth keep
silence before Him. Just hush. Just be quiet. Be quiet. I'm not trying to make any kind
of a comparison. I'm going to say something about
Brother Scott right here in a minute. And I want to make this perfectly
clear. I mean, I'm talking about being quiet before the Lord,
but it made me think about Brother Scott. I was telling Brother
David here when I went to Fairmont 14 and a half years ago, it was
it was such a blessing to me. I was able to sit and visit Brother
Scott in a way that I'd never had before. But one of the blessings
that the Lord allowed me to experience would just be to take him out. He liked biscuits and gravy,
and I'd take him out once or twice a week, you know, go get
biscuits and gravy. And the best thing that I could
do was just sit down and shut up. Just be quiet and just listen. The Lord had taught him something. This was a man taught of the
Lord. And I think about the respect
that would be due, but for God Almighty, for the Lord God to
proclaim the Lord, the Lord God. And then he said, merciful, plenteous
in mercy. He who delights to show mercy
in Christ, who is our mercy seat. Merciful. What he did was, he
said, this is my glory. This is my goodness. That I have
a people everlastingly loved. chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have been pleased, eternally
pleased, to not give them what they deserve. I've been pleased
to pass over them through the merits of my blessed Son. This
is my glory. you're not going to perish. This
is my goodness, I'm going to show you mercy. Merciful and gracious without any merit being found
in the vessels of his mercy. Almighty God who was pleased
to bestow his grace upon all that he Loved in Christ. Kept in Christ. And where He
put them, He kept them. Kept them by the power of God,
through faith. Gracious. To give them what they
in themselves didn't deserve. Life in Christ. Show me your glory. I'm not going
to give you what you deserve and I'm going to give you what
you didn't deserve in you. I'm going to be merciful and
I'm going to be gracious to you. And then the scripture says concerning
the Lord's proclamation of his name, long suffering, slow to
anger. I love this passage. Second Peter
3 19. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise. That is to take vengeance on
rebellion in this world. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise. As some men count slackness as
if God's forgotten what He's promised He's going to do. But
His long-suffering to us-ward. Long-suffering to His people.
long-suffering for the sake of His people, toward His people,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now let me see if I can make
good on this. If Almighty God has chosen to
show mercy upon a vessel of His mercy, and that vessel of His
mercy is going to be born in 2017. Is it not the glory of God to be long-suffering? And if
this great, great grandparent and grandparent and then parent
who knew not the Lord and God Almighty was long-suffering and
did not At that time, pour out his wrath on those vessels of
unbelief and to show mercy to one that was going to be born.
If Almighty God was pleased, I, a lot of my family, a lot
of it goes back a long way. It was my mama and my dad on
his side too. but came through a long lineage
of unbelief. And as far as I know, my mother,
who was the last of the children to be born out of 11 kids, 11
kids, and finally my mama was born. And as far as I know, the
only one that the Lord has been pleased to show mercy for as
I know. Long-suffering. It is the goodness
and the glory of Almighty God to be long-suffering. The Lord
sovereignly does as He will concerning His sheep Because they are going
to be saved. If Almighty God has ever chosen
to show mercy to a hell-deserving sinner, He is going to have them. All that the Father has given
me, listen to this, how sure this is, shall come to me. And Him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Isaiah 30, 18, Therefore will
the Lord wait. that he may be gracious unto
you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy
upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for him. The Lord passed by and before
him proclaimed the Lord. The Lord God merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness. Oh, how kind, how kind is the
Lord to His people. Psalm 31, 21, Blessed be the
Lord for He has showed me His marvelous kindness in a strong
city in Christ. The haven of rest, the city of
rest, of refuge. Blessed be the Lord. Bless His
holy name. He showed me. He showed me. You talk about a rebel. I mean,
you know. Y'all may have some stories. He showed mercy to me. I'll tell
you that. Abundant in goodness and abundant
in truth. John 14, 6 declares the Lord
to be the truth. I am the way, I am the truth,
abundant in truth. He is abundant in truth in the
fulfilling of His promises. He is abundant in truth. If the Lord has made a statement
concerning Himself in these scriptures, let me tell you how sure it is.
He is abundant in truth. Listen to this promise. Call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
What do you think the probability of that not happening is? None.
None. Listen to this promise. And oh,
how often I quote this to myself. I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. Never. I'll disappoint you. I might
not mean to, but I'm just not going to make good on it. And
I can tell you this, I'll try, I'll do my best. He said, I will
never, never leave thee. Listen to this promise. In my
father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I think about the tenderness
of that. I mean, he's talking to his disciples
and he tells them, said, now you listen to me. In my father's
house are many mansions. And if it wasn't this way, I'd
have told you. I'm not going to lie to you.
I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place
for you, now listen to this, I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. And a
believer says come quickly Lord Jesus. The Lord's never going to suffer
his truth, his promise, his word to fail. Listen, talk about the Word of
God. You know this, Psalm 138, verse
2. I will worship toward thy holy
temple and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy
truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. I don't even know what to say.
I mean, what do you say? Lord, you've magnified your word
above all thy name. What should I consider concerning
his word? Lord, as you've said, it is at
your word. And then closing verse seven,
here's his, his show me your glory. Show me your glory. And he said, I'm going to make
all my goodness. Now in this last verse right
here, we're going to behold the marvel of all of God's goodness. This is it. Verse seven. This
is it. He says, keeping mercy for thousands. keeping mercy according to that
everlasting covenant of grace. David said, these be the last
words of David. Although it be not so with my
house, he'd made with me an everlasting covenant. And I love, I love
this. It's ordered in all things and
it's sure. It's sure. He's keeping mercy for thousands. And listen to this. Here's His
goodness right here. There's forgiving, iniquity,
and transgression, and sin according to His goodness. There's a lifting
up, taking away of His people's guilt. How? He had made Him. to be sin for us as people who
knew no sin. He knew no sin. When he went to the cross, I
cannot say, I've said this so many times. I'll have to tell you this. One day I was sitting down with
Brother Scott. And I said, Brother Scott, 2 Corinthians 5.21, I
said, according to that scripture, when the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross, I said, now, according to this word, when it said the
Father concerning His holy, harmless, the Lamb of God, He who personally
knew no sin. No one ever convinced Him of
sin. It was of the Lord that the Father said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. When He went to the cross, this
is what the scripture says, He was made sin. He was made sin. He was made what we are. And Almighty God, according to
His law, according to the law, where sin was found, the law
demanded justice. and he as the divine substitute. If my mama murdered somebody
and was sentenced to die in an electric chair, and because I
love my mama, I was going to say, well, look, I tell you what,
since somebody's going to have to die, Why don't I go ahead
and I'll just die for her? I'll die in her place. Now this
is what most religions teach. The Lord, he was just gonna make
a blanket death. Now if I would, they're gonna
let me die in her place. And she shows up for the electrocution. She shows up. Because I'm her
son and she loves me and I love her. So I'm gonna die. So I'm
electrocuted. But if that was me dying, and
somebody said, boy, he sure loved his mama. But the only problem
is, and they turn to her and say, but she's guilty. She's still guilty. But if I could become my mama,
and as my mother, be electrocuted. And it was actually Marian Stoniker
being electrocuted. Now that would be a different
matter. He was made sin. He was made
what we are. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. forgiving iniquity and transgression
is sin. And the Scripture says concerning
His glory and His goodness, and that will by no means clear the
guilty. The soul that sinneth is going
to die and Almighty God put away. by
him being made sin, what we are. Oh, I know this. When he died
at Calvary, he died and those iniquities that he bore, they
were his. You say they were ours. Yeah. And they were made his. In Psalm
40, he said, mine iniquities have taken hold. They're more
than the hairs of my head. Paid the debt to the exact demand
of God's law. And then he said, it's finished.
It's finished. This is his glory. Put away the
debt of his people. Show mercy and compassion. But
in the end, now, nobody's going to have a problem talking about
the goodness of God. Show me your glory. I'm going
to cause all, all my goodness to pass before you. I'm going
to show mercy, compassion. But I want you to look at the
last part. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
and upon the children's children unto the third and the fourth
generation. There was two boys in Rebecca's
womb and God Almighty was pleased to show mercy to one and grant
faith, called him out of darkness because he chose to show mercy.
But concerning the other boy, concerning Esau, he said, Esau,
I've hated. And almighty God, according to
his goodness, he said, I'm going to cause all my goodness to pass
before you. And according to his goodness,
he let Esau do exactly what he wanted to do. Now, let me ask
you this. Is God good? if he leaves one
to themselves. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. I'm gonna cause all my goodness
to pass before you. It is by the grace of God that
any man, any woman has the mercy of God shown to them. And it
is all to the honor and glory and praise of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But if Almighty God leaves one to themselves to do what
they want to do, they did exactly what they wanted to do. And Almighty
God is good. May the Lord bless these words
to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.