a Chambers Bible. It is on page
1088. If you don't, I am sorry. Habakkuk chapter 3, verses 3
and 4. This is the description of God
that Habakkuk gives. God came from Teman, that is
the South, and the Holy One from Mount Paran, Sila. His glory covered the heavens
and the earth and was full of His praise. and his brightness
was as the light, and he had horns coming out of his hand,
and there was the hiding of his power. That's one of those powerful
statements in all of scripture. You see that and you think, you
try to imagine what it was like to see him like that, great light
shining, great power, his glory covered the heaven, the earth
was full of his praise, and his brightness was as the light,
horns coming out, of his hand. If you have a marginal reading
for horns, you'll find the word there is bright beams out of
his side. That's what that means. But often
when you read the word horns, it talks about authority and
power. But here it says all that greatness
and that great, beautiful, powerful thing. That was just the hiding
of his power. His true power was hid somewhere
in there. You'd think, boy, that's a representation
of power. No, that was hiding His power. Hiding His power, much like on
the Mount of Transfiguration when Peter said, I was an eyewitness
to it. I saw Jesus Christ as bright
as the noonday sun, wearing robes whiter than any fuller could
make them. He said, but I'm not following any fables. I was an
eyewitness. But we have a more sure word of prophecy. and seeing something like this
face to face. Moses' face lit up. His face lit up. Another meaning
of the word is mirror, or looking glass. And the apostles, Paul
and James, both referred to the law, or the word, which is the
gospel, as a mirror. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 3, and you can put a Bible marker there if you want to.
We'll be coming back there in a little bit. second corinthians
chapter three verse eighteen but we all with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the lord are changed to the same
image from glory even as by the spirit of the lord of the lord
is the spirit and in james chapter one james chapter one verse twenty
three through twenty five six forty if any be a hero of the
word and not a doer he is like a man beholding his natural face
in the class where he beholded himself goes away goes away straightforward
forgetting manner of man he was but who so look at the end of
the purple the perfect law of liberty that's the looking glass
god's word and continue with their he being not a forgetful
hearer, but a doer of the world, this man shall be blessed in
his deed." So the Word of God in both places is set forth as
a looking glass or a mirror. And this is one of the meanings
of this word shown. The context of 2 Corinthians
3, as we'll see later on in this lesson, is in direct reference
to this episode that we're looking at in Exodus chapter 34. And
perhaps his shining face had to do with having seen the glory
of God. What else has seen it? He's seen
it. Remember God placed him in the
cleft of the rock and showed him his hind parts or his back
parts. He'd been made privy to much
of what God would not fully reveal until the days of the apostles.
Think about that. This is long before our Lord
Jesus Christ left heaven and came down to earth in a human
form. This is long before any of the prophets spoke. this is
the first five books of the Bible. This is just a short while after
they've left Egypt. They've not entered into the
wilderness yet. They're still just outside of
Egypt. Months have passed, but that's
all. And he has seen the glory of God. Did Moses learn the gospel
that day? Did he learn the reason the law
was given? You know, it was given that,
and because of transgression. Did he find that out that day?
Did He learn of the election of grace unto salvation? Did
He learn of the suretyship of Jesus Christ? For Christ, before
the foundation of the world, assumed the sin debt of His people,
and they were never held accountable to pay for it. He had already
assumed it became His debt. He owned it. It was His. He even
called it His transgressions in Scripture. It was His. He owned our debt. Moses learned
that while he sat in the cleft of the rock. He learned about
propitiation, God's satisfying, Christ's satisfying law of justice,
of God's justice. He learned about justification
by the blood of Christ and through the grace of God. He learned
about imputed righteousness. God said, I'm going to show you
my hinder parts. The people of earth hadn't been
around that long. Think about it. This is just Exodus. This
is the first part of creation. Just a little while into it. What was behind the parts of
God? What He did in eternity. Did He see precisely where the
glory of God would be revealed? Did God show Him that? For we
know the glory of God is revealed fully in the face of Jesus Christ. made that light to shine in our
hearts to reveal the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Was this knowledge what caused men to turn their eyes from Him
and made Him put a veil over His face when He spoke the words
of God to His people? When He spoke, did they hear
it differently than anything they'd ever heard before? Did
He wear the veil? He did not wear the veil save
when He spoke the word of God. That's what it says three times
in this text. When He spoke the word of God, that's when He put
the veil over His face. The covering of his face had
to do with the Word of God. And thus, if it had to do with
the Word of God, it had to do with the Living Word of God,
the Word made flesh that dwelt among us. The law they were given
they thought they could keep. They even sometimes promised
to do so. And such promises caused Moses to immediately sacrifice
a lamb and sprinkle blood on everything, because men can't
keep the law. The veil on Moses' face hid from
the people that what was spoken could not ever eventuate in righteousness.
That was hid from them. They didn't see it. Paul makes
that fact true when he says of himself that he stood in the
flesh greater and more holy than any man. He said, I kept the
law. Before the law, I was blameless.
I was a Pharisee. So a man can naturally keep the
law. That means he don't kill people
and he don't steal. And he can say, well, I've kept
the law. But we know he hadn't kept the law. Because the law
wasn't given if he hadn't already transgressed. Paul said, I had
not known sin except for the law. I had not known sin except
for the law. What they might do to some degree
in nature was spiritually hidden from them. shrouded in mysterious
language, a shining face behind a veil. What they could not see
was that the law killed. What they could not see was that
the law was the ministration of death. What they could not
see was that the law was the ministration of condemnation,
the ministration that would be done away with. That's what it
says over in 1 Corinthians 3. I'll read it to you in verse
13. It says this, And not as Moses was put a veil over his
face, the children of Israel could not steadfastly look on
the end of that which is abolished. They could not look on the end,
the purpose, the fulfillment of the law. They couldn't understand
it. It was hid from them. That's why the veil was put on
his face. Under that veil was the mystery
of the ages, the mystery hidden from the ages, as Paul calls
it in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And what is the mystery hidden
from ages? The righteousness of God. Not His essential righteousness,
but the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The righteousness imputed
to His people. And where is that revealed? It
is only revealed in the Word of God, in the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that from faith to faith. under that veil
is the glory of God revealed. That's why they couldn't look
on me. No man shall see my face and live, God said. The people
had seen somewhat of God's power, much like the description over
in Habakkuk. They had seen God do wonders.
They had seen God cause the river to turn to blood, the great mouth. It seemed God sent flies and
frogs, pestilence. They'd seen God kill the firstborn
of every household in Egypt. They'd seen God separate the
Red Sea by his power of his wind. He caused the wind to blow in
a certain way and the sea divided and men walked across on dry
land. Millions of men walked across on dry land. They'd seen
some wonders. They'd seen manna falling on
the ground. every morning sweet brown like
coriander seed baked it made cakes out of it and it fed them
they would see water come from forth from the rock they'd seen
great things and you have seen great things we who live here
I cannot drive out of Big Cove and out of Cherokee or drive
back in or anywhere in this area without being an utter wonder
of these mountains and I've been here for forty I've been here
for 45 years and it's still locked me out. I can't tell you how
many times I've been crossing that hill going back down toward
the casino road there and looking. There's that view of that mountain
and I says, oh gosh, that's beautiful isn't it? Green and glorious
and soon it will be colorful and glorious and then it'll be
barren and glorious and then it'll be green and glorious and
then it's just a wonderful thing. You've seen God's wonders. until you are made alive by his
grace, you will never see his ways. What Moses saw was what
the children could never see and hadn't seen. Though they
had seen the power and creation as it says in Romans chapter
1, it left them without excuse. They hadn't seen his grace. Over
in Psalm 103, that's what it says about Moses and the children
of God. Psalm 103 verse 7, it says this,
He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. They saw what He did. They didn't
know His ways. That's what Moses saw when God
showed him His glory. Paul takes us to the meaning
of this veil over in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. He takes us to the
meaning of this veil. Verses 13 through 18 we read
this, And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end
that was abolished, but their minds were blinded. For until
this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of
the Old Testament, which a veil is done away with in Christ.
But even unto this day, when Moses read, the veil is upon
their heart. So it's left Moses' face and
transferred to their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn
to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is the
Spirit, is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there
is liberty. But we all, with open face, behold,
as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed. into the same
image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord,
or by the Lord that is the Spirit. Verse 13, the veil is the end
of the law, the end of that which is to be abolished. What is the
end of the law? Paul said this in Romans chapter
10 and verse 4, He said, for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to them that believe. So they
didn't see Christ. Moses did. Moses saw the glory
of God. Moses saw the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel or the Jews, when he talks
about the Israel here, Israel or the Jews applies to all religious
efforts that still seek to operate under the old covenant, and most
religions do, as a means of attaining righteousness or rule of life
or for justification or something. Look at that old covenant. That's
why preachers stand in the pulpits and add rules and regulations.
That's why some churches hang a church covenant on the wall.
It has a whole bunch of rules and regulations in it. Because they go to the old covenant,
which requires your obedience in order to see the blessings
of God. That's what the old covenant did. and when the Lord speaks
of Jews as opposed to Greeks or Jews as opposed to Gentiles,
He's talking about the religious and the irreligious or the religious
and the intellectual. When the Old Testament is read,
today, in most churches, their eyes are blind to the end of
the law. The veil remains, it says, upon their heart when the
Old Testament is read. It is only removed in Jesus Christ. In this day the veil is not upon
the face of Moses, but upon the heart of the unbeliever. It says
in verse 18, But even to this day when Moses read, the veil
is upon their heart. Upon their heart, the heart. The heart in Scripture is often
indicative of belief or unbelief. Over in Romans chapter 1, or
chapter 10 rather, says this, verses 9 and 10, but
if thou would confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ,
and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from dead,
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. The heart is what's blinded.
Now if the heart has a veil upon it, that means men are not believers. when it is turned to Christ,
the veil is removed, and the glory of God is revealed. When
it's turned to Christ, the veil is taken away, and the glory shines forth in
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of Christ. Christ said in John 14, I'm going
to send you another comforter, and when I come to Paraclete,
the Holy Spirit is Jesus Christ, for in Him dwells the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. It says where the Spirit is,
there is liberty. Liberty. Freedom. God's people are called the Lord's
free men. The Lord's free men. And that
liberty will never take you to the law for justification. That
liberty will never do that. Religion will. religion will
take you to the law for justification, for rule of life, for sanctification,
for righteousness, for a whole bunch of stuff. But that liberty, when you're
free, and how are you free? The truth shall make you free.
What is the truth? The truth is Jesus Christ and
his gospel. That's what makes men free. Not the law, not the
old covenant. But when the veil is removed,
they become the free men. We'll never go back. Now the
Lord is that spirit, it says. And where the spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. Paul talked about that liberty
in reference to the law. In Galatians chapter 5. He talked to people who had embraced
the gospel of God's grace, and some of them were going back
to the law. some of them were being duped, some of them were
being confused, some of them were being bewitched, and the
word there is pharmacon, where they've been drugged. We get
the word pharmacy from it. But in Galatians 5, it says,
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us
free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. what
was he talking about? The law. He says, behold I, Paul,
say unto you, if you be circumcised, that if you go under the law,
Christ shall profit you nothing. Now that's a pretty strong statement,
isn't it? For I testify again to every man that is circumcised.
He's talking to these Gentiles of Galatia who are listening
to the Jews and being circumcised. He said, if you be circumcised,
You do that one point in the law, you've got to keep the whole
law perfectly. You're debtor to the whole law.
One thing under the law, the righteousness, justification,
rule of life, sanctification, one thing under the law for what
is salvation in any form, in any aspect, one thing, and you
are debtor written by God, perfectly, for
it shall be perfect to be accepted, God says in Leviticus 21, 21.
Christ has become no effect to you, and whosoever of you is
justified by the law, you've left grace. You go to the law,
no more grace. You've fallen for grace. For
we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness, by
faith, by believing God's Word. Back in our text in verse 18,
it says this back in 2 Corinthians 3, Behold, we all, with open
face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit
of the Lord. verse 18, we are able to see
the word shown as a looking glass, a looking glass of God's glory.
And as we look at the glory of God, it says we are changed.
Now some people are going to take that and they're going to
say, we start living a certain way, a certain way. No, what
this means is you keep looking at Christ. Fix your eyes, your
heart, and your mind upon Him, and we're changed to the same
glory. What does that mean? You keep looking at Him, you stop
seeing yourself. All you see is Him. You are not
looking at yourself. The longer we look at the face
of Christ revealing the glory of God, we decrease and He increases. We are changed to the same glory.
We are looking at ourselves in the mirror, but we see Christ
because we are looking to Christ even though we are standing in
front of the mirror. That mirror is the Word of God. We see that
the glory is not about us on any level. It is always about
Him. He is the one who accomplishes
for the marginal release by the Lord the Spirit, by the Lord
the Spirit. And as Paul said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, he said, He that glorieth. Let him glory in the Lord. Let
him glory in the Lord. Father, bless us to understand
Him, we pray in Christ's name, amen.