Well, it's good to see this burgeoning
crowd out tonight. Julie and Cloris, somewhere down
South Carolina, as far as I know. That's from the text they sent
me anyway. And Arlene's feeling some better, so we're thankful
for that. Larry Brown is improving, and Marvin has started in speech
therapy and some other things, so continue to remember those
folks in your prayers. And we'll just sing one song
tonight since there's just so few of us. So sing real loud
and say, we've got a quartet. Hymn number 118. 118. When I surveyed the wondrous
cross on which the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I
count but loss, and for contempt all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm
me most, I sacrifice them See from his head, his hands,
his feet. Sorrow and love flow, mingle
down. Did there such love and sorrow
meet? O'er thorns composed so rich
a crown, Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present
far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands
my soul, my life, my all. Exodus chapter 34. I want to
read verses 1 through 8. And the Lord said to Moses, Hew
thee out two tables of stone, like unto the first. And I will
write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables,
which thou breakest. And be ready in the morning,
and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself
there to me at the top of the mount. And no man shall come
up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the
mount. neither let the flocks nor the
herds feed before the mountain. And he hewed out two tables of
stone, like unto the first. And Moses rose up early in the
morning, and he went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded
him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the
Lord descended in a cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed
the name of the Lord. The Lord passed by before him
and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord 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, the third and the fourth
generation. and Moses made haste and bowed
his head toward the earth and worshipped. Let us pray. Our
Father, great God in heaven, you who are the Lord God, the
Lord, the Lord God, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, who
upon thy throne rules the universe's absolute sway, doing as you please
and as you have pleased since the beginning, purposing all
things and seeing to it that all things come to pass by your
power and your strength. We bless you for your goodness
and mercy, for your kindness and tenderheartedness, for the
forgiveness of sins and iniquity. We know we had nothing to do
with that. All we ever did was sin. All we do even today is
touched with evil. We can't do anything good where
evil is not present with us. We thank you, Father, that you
did not include us in the transaction of our salvation. We thank you,
Father, that you finished salvation and redeemed your people by the
blood of Jesus Christ. that great and sacred head that
was wounded, crowned with thorns, and crowned with glory. Father,
help us tonight to remember that, and also to remember those who
are sick and afflicted, those who are going through trials
and tribulations. Thou knowest every case. It is
the lot that you have given your children, that in this world
we'll have everything. Everything belongs to us. Nothing
is withheld from us. with all that you've given us,
you've also given us tribulation and trial. We know that it's
for our good and for your glory. We know that without the trials
and tribulations we would go along without even thoughts of
Thee. But you bring us to the feet
of the cross all the time, making us know our weakness and our
inability and our incapability, and revealing to us our great
need for our Savior. We pray for Brother Marvin, that
you be with him and those therapists as they work with him. We pray
you bring him back to a good measure of health. By all accounts,
it seems like he's on a long road ahead of him. We know, Lord,
nothing is impossible with you. We pray for Brother Larry Brown
also, that you continue. We're glad to hear that he's
off the rest of our respirator now and breathing on his own.
We pray that you help those who minister to him in therapy Father,
for the others who are sick, lost loved ones, and troubled
in their heart, we pray you would watch over them. Pray for Cynthia. She's prepared for this operation
on her knee. We pray the Lord you'll be with
her. We pray with Arlene that she's recovering from this COVID.
Help us now, Father, to worship you in spirit and in truth. Speak
to our hearts through your word. We pray in Christ's name and
for his glory. Amen. Now this is the account of Moses
being called up again to Mount Sinai. In Jewish tradition and
Jewish historians assert that this was the third forty-day
stint and forty-night stint that he spent on Mount Sinai with
God. Now this time Moses is instructed
to hew out two more tables of stone like the ones he had broken
at the site of the golden calf. That's what's covered in verses
one through four. The Lord will again write the
Ten Commandments on these tables and they will be placed in the
Ark of the Covenant. They will not be necessarily
shown to the people, they will be placed in the Ark of the Covenant
under the mercy seat. Over in Deuteronomy Chapter 10, verses 1 through 5, It says, At that time the Lord
said unto me, Hew out two stones, two tables of stone, like unto
the first, and come unto me and to the mount, and make thee an
ark of wood. And I will write on the tables
of stones that were the first tables, which thou breakest,
and thou shalt put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shiddom
wood, and hewed out two tables of stone, like unto the first,
and went up to the mount, having the two tables of stone. And
the Lord wrote on the tables of stone, according to the first
writing, The Ten Commandments, which the Lord spake unto you
in the mount in the midst of the fire the day of assembly,
and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came
down on the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had
made. And there they be, as the Lord
commanded." We know that this Deuteronomy was written 30 days
before they went into the Promised Land. And when they went into
the Promised Land, they crossed the Jordan and walked and carried
that ark with them when they went in. But in that ark was
the tables of stone, and on top of that ark of the covenant was
the mercy seat. And the significance of the placement
of the law in the ark under the mercy seat will not be fully
understood until after Pentecost with the pinning of the epistles
from the apostles. Much of it remained a mystery
even in the days of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ over
in John Chapter 16 when our Lord was talking about dying. Remember
He talked about dying to His disciples many times. I'm going
up to Jerusalem. I'm going to be manhandled. They're
going to kill me there. They didn't get what that meant.
Most of them, Peter said one time, not so, Lord. You don't
have to do that. You're the Lord. You're the Lord.
And others were troubled with those sayings, but in John Chapter
16 In verse 12 he says, I have yet many things to say unto you,
but you cannot bear them now. What he's talking about is what
we just read about over here, this wondrous thing where the
law, the tables of stone were written and they were put in
the Ark of the Covenant under the Musher Seat. Now what was
also in the Ark was a golden pot of manna, which talked about
the provision for the journey to the Promised Land, and Aaron's
rod that budded, which spoke of the Resurrection. You have
the law, you have the sustenance, and you have the Resurrection.
It's all under the mercy seat is in the ark of the covenant
and he says I have many things that you're not ready to hear
our Lord said that but you cannot bear them they said in other
words if he had told them what was going on why he was going
to the cross he said Christ must need suffer he must need suffer
but they never really understood that until they were gathered
together in the temple and the Lord sent the Holy Spirit down
to them at Pentecost and then things become and they went out
preaching Christ throughout all the world and then the apostles
began to write what God gave them in understanding, inspired
them to write, and they began to explain these things that
were mysterious, mysterious in these old days. In verse 13 it
says, Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide
you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself. But whatsoever
he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things
to come. And he shall glorify me, for
he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things
that the Father hath are mine, therefore said I unto you, that
he take of mine, and shall show it to you. a little while and
you shall not see me and again a little while you shall see
me because I go to my father." Now these words of our Lord Jesus
Christ showed that as the Apostles knew Him and they believed Him
and they were the children of God, they were the elect according
to the grace of God, yet they were not fully aware of all that
the Gospel was. Not fully aware of it. They knew
that Christ came into this world to save sinners because He told
them He did. They knew the parables He taught,
the parables of the sower of the seed. They knew the parable
of the lost sheep. They knew all these things, but
they never truly understood until the Holy Ghost was given at Pentecost.
In Paul's first epistle, he said that the mystery, this mystery
was the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. All the way through
this thing was Christ and Him crucified. And he went on to
say this mystery, which was the Word of God, was ordained for
your glory. That's the fourth time the word
predestination or pro riso is used in the New Testament and
it talks about the mystery of the gospel, the revelation of
what God has done. That was predetermined by God.
Then God talked about His predestination of His children to be conformed
to the image of His Son. And those He predestinated, that's
the third use. He also glorified, justified,
called, all these things. And then He said, and this is
how you find out about it. This mystery, which was mystery from
the ages, was predestinated for your glory. for your understanding. We know that glory is of Jesus
Christ. Paul said to the Thessalonians,
2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13-16, Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
we are thankful to God that He has chosen you unto salvation,
truth, and sanctification of the Spirit, and belief in the
truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what we're reading
here is this mystery of the gospel shrouded in the Old Testament
language. It's a wonderful thing. The ark
pictured Christ. The ark pictured Christ. The
Shittim wood was common wood, but very durable. And it wouldn't
rot, and that pictured the durability of Christ. The mercy seat was
that golden plate that was placed upon the ark that had the two
cherubims facing each other. And that's where the blood of
the Day of Atonement was put, on that mercy seat. God said,
this is where I'll meet with you. on the mercy seat in Deuteronomy. He said, this is where I'll meet
with you. Now the law which effectively revealed the sin and the iniquity
of people, why the hell did it? It wasn't given as a rule of
life. It was given to show that they
were sinners. The law was added because of transgression. when
those 10 commandments came down from the Sinai, everything that
was going on that was against the law was going on down there
at Sinai, at the bottom of Sinai. They're making a gold of cash.
They was partying. They was having a good time. They was probably
committing adultery like most of those idolaters did. The law effectively was covered. It was in that ark, but it was
covered with what? The mercy seat. The mercy seat. which shows that the atonement
covered the mercy seat. Now when you go to the New Testament
you have the mercy seat used four times and each time that
the mercy seat is translated propitiation. which means satisfaction. This assures the believer that
the law was not only covered, as in the atonement, but was
satisfied by the blood of Christ. The people had already been proven
to be idolaters and would remain so. We know that in our study
from Jeremiah. But God, unbeknownst to them,
they didn't know this. They were going on in their idolatry.
Unbeknownst to them, God had provided for the salvation of
His elect among them. those to whom he will be gracious
and those to whom he will be merciful. He had the law placed
under that mercy seat, hidden and covered under the atonement. The gospel gives understanding
to that. Now, what follows here in verses
five through seven is the Lord doing what he told Moses he was
going to do back in chapter 33 and verse 19. He says, when Moses
said, Show me your glory, he said, I'll make my goodness pass
before you, I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before you,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Now he's going to show it. And
he also said, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock, and I'll
go by you, I'll pass by you, and you can see my hinder parts,
but you can't see what I'm doing. And that was that whole scenario.
Well, this is Him doing that. This is Him doing that the first
time. We know it's fully revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
But look at this. It says in verse 5, And the Lord descended
in a cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name
of the Lord. He said He was going to do that, didn't He? as his
glory. I will proclaim the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed
by. He says, I'm going to pass by. You'll see my hinder parts,
but you'll not see my face. Pass by him and proclaim the
Lord, the Lord God. That's how you describe the Lord. L-O-R, capital L-O-R-D, the Lord
God. And notice that the definite
articles are also capitalized here. This is all capitalized
clean across the board. So he's reiterating his glory
here. The Lord descends from a cloud.
First he descends. He must, you see. God is separate. The word holy means separate,
unapproachable, dwelling in a light to where unto no man can approach.
God in his person, God in his person, in his spirit, we cannot
approach him. He must approach us. He must
come to us. This is the only way that man
can have contact with God if God initiates the contact. He
must come to us because we cannot go to Him. And this speaks of
the glorious truth of the Word being made flesh and dwelling
among us. The lost sheep does not seek
the shepherd, the shepherd seeks Him. And our Lord said in Isaiah
62, 12, one of the things I'm going to call my people is that
the people are sought out. I've sought out my people. Secondly,
he descends in a cloud, and this also speaks of his kind of glory,
his brightness so great that human eyes cannot behold it.
Secondly, the cloud speaks of God forgiving the sins and iniquities. He says, Like a dark cloud, like
a great cloud, I will blot out your sins and your iniquities.
And as he descended, he proclaimed the name of the Lord. This is
what came out of his mouth. He proclaimed the name of the
Lord, capital L-O-R-D, that's Jehovah, Savior, and he told
Moses that name. He told Moses that he would,
what he would do, and now he does. This is the Lord, the Lord
God, declaring the gospel, proclaiming the only name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. The proclamation of that
name is seen in verse 6. he says it's the Lord passed
before him and proclaimed what's in that name the Lord the Lord
God merciful I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy and
gracious I will be gracious unto whom I will be gracious long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth goodness and truth what
a thing there is no other Lord but God This name means the Almighty
Savior, the Lord, the Lord God, Jehovah Savior, the Almighty. It is Jehovah El, Yahweh El,
and El is used as one who is Almighty. Also, El is used sometimes
with the word Emmanuel, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Anytime
you see the word El at the end of a Jewish word, that means
God is the instigator of the situation. Emmanuel is God with
us, the Lord God, the Lord, the Lord God. I love that. I just
read it and I read it again and again and it just spoke to my
heart. Almighty Savior, include that
name. All the characteristics of that name envelops and is
expanding and an illumination of God's glory. In the name of
Christ, we find grace and mercy. In that name, we find grace.
There ain't no grace outside of Christ. There ain't no mercy
outside of Christ. If you're going to have mercy
of God, if you're going to have the grace of God, you're going
to have to have it in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ alone, we find long-suffering. What does that mean? Putting
up with us. in all our years of rebellion and throughout our
years of continued rebellion. He's long-suffering toward us.
And goodness. He said, I'll make my goodness
pass before you. And truth, he said. In Isaiah,
or rather, Psalm 85, 10, 11, it says, and mercy and truth
are met together. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. And we know
that this speaks of the Lord coming down here. The Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as the
only begotten of the Father, full of what? Grace and truth. Grace and truth. Later on in
the same chapter of John, the first chapter of the Gospel of
John, he says the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came
by the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 14, he says, I am the
way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to me except
the Father which has sent me to draw him, and I raise him
up again in the last day. 2 Peter 3, verse 15, after it
talks about the Lord being patient, being patient, long-suffering,
You remember those mockers who hated the truth were saying in
those days, well, the Lord hasn't come yet, so He's probably not
coming. Nothing's changed. Everything's the same. He's not
coming. Let's look at 2 Peter chapter
3. he says after the balkans say
the lord's not coming again in verse eight chapter he says beloved
be not ignorant of this one thing you think it's been a long time
and you know it's really long time it looks like it's a long
time he said be not ignorant of this one that one day is with
the lord as a thousand years and a thousand years what does
that mean? time is not an issue the lord
will come back when he said he would and he will but we can't
measure it in time you know the preachers every time something
happens in the world it looks like the world is falling apart
they all go crazy they all go crazy and start looking at the
newspapers and magazines and listen to TV and say oh that
proves the bible they don't prove the bible they don't prove the
bible is the lord nearer than he was before yeah he's at least
77 years closer than he was when I was born But a year is nothing
to the Lord. A thousand years is like a day.
A day is like a thousand years. Neither one of them are important
to Him. But these mongers say that. So he says, The Lord is
not slack concerning His promise. He's promised to come. He's not
slack concerning His promise. As some men count slackness,
the ones who say, Well, He's not come again. But His long-suffering
to us works. not willing that any of usward
should perish, that all of us should come to repentance. But
the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, and
in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat in the earth, and
also the rocks that are therein shall be burnt up. Seeing thee
in awe that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner
of persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness,
separate and godly? Looking for and hasting, wishing
ye would come soon, hasting unto the coming of the day of the
Lord, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and
the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. Nonetheless,
Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, brethren,
beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent
that ye be found of peace without spot and blameless, in account that the longsuffering of our
Lord is our salvation." He puts up with us. until He
makes us like Jesus Christ. That's what that says. What does
the Lord say is His glory? Long-suffering. That's what that
name entails. Back in our text in verse 7,
the Lord expands on the element of His glory that He will show
mercy on whom He will and will do so not clearing the guilty. What a strange thing. Keeping
mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, and that while by no means clear the guilty, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children until the third and the fourth generation, he will show mercy on whom he
will, and he will do so not clearing the guilty. The question of all questions. How can a man be just with God? That's what Job said. Job said
if I give him one argument to justify me, he'll give me a thousand
arguments to say I'll never be justified. One against a thousand. Here's
another question. How can a just God He says, I will show mercy to
thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin, but I'll not clear the
guilt. This is a divine dilemma, a glorious
quandary. For mercy to be shown, the recipient
must be a sinner. Mercy is for sinners. Mercy is
keeping you back from what you deserve. So if mercy is shown,
you must be a sinner. And if a sinner, you must be
guilty. You must be guilty. And if guilty,
you cannot be cleared. And that word clear is being
justified. Something must take place beyond our comprehension
and so full of wonder. And what takes place Wherein the one who is shown
mercy is not personally involved with God in the showing of that
mercy. Something must happen outside me, beyond me, that I
don't have anything to do with. Because I'm a sinner, and He
shows mercy, and He's saying I'm guilty. That's what He's doing. Mercy
must be shown. He said, I will show mercy on
whom I will show mercy. Mercy must be shown and a not
guilty verdict must be published and the recipient not be present.
What in the world? There must be a judicial transaction
entirely outside the fortunate center and God must be just and
declare his righteousness in returning a not guilty verdict
and showing mercy. First comes the not guilty verdict.
Then the mercy comes. justice or mercy flies on the
wings of satisfied justice. First you must be declared not
guilty and then mercy is shown to you. What a wondrous thing. So the sinner must be justified
or declared not guilty and yet be accounted a sinner because
he's not, he's shown mercy. How does he do that? He left
that old nature in us. No sinner can be involved in
this, however. How can God be merciful to a
thousand and know why it's clear they're guilty? How can He do
it? Enter the substitute. That's how it's done. The substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Lord God, the Lamb of God. entirely outside the elect center,
outside His knowledge and approval. Even before He existed in His
sin, the Father and the Son and the Spirit devise a means that
His banished be not expelled from Him. For those sinners chosen
to salvation before the foundation of the world, God took on the
form of sinful flesh, yet without sin was made to be sin for them
by imputation, paid the sin that they owed, which was an eternal
death, died in their place, put away their sin to be remembered
no more, and by blood and grace justified them. And they didn't
even know it happened. They didn't even know that. delivered a verdict of not guilty
by the blood of Jesus Christ and He showed us mercy. He's shown mercy for thousands
and in no wise it's clear to God. It may not have been clear, but we've
been punished in a substitute. In a substitute, the believer
is amazed by this. Paul sets it forth pretty clearly
in Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 beginning with
verse 19, he says, Now we know that whatsoever things of the
law saith, and saith unto them that are under the law, that
every mouth might be stopped, and that all the world become,
what? Guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law
is the knowledge of sin. We wouldn't have known it was
sin unless God made a law and showed us it was sin. Where there's
no law, sin is not imputed. But now the righteousness of
God without the law, that is, not without the law being fulfilled,
but without US fulfilling the law or doing the law, is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. What is witnessed
by the law and the prophets? All the law and the prophets
gave witness to Jesus Christ. That's what the scriptures say.
Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Christ.
When you see that phrase, the faith of Christ, that's not your
faith in Christ. it's the work of Christ what
he did on Calvary Street unto all and upon all them who believe
for there is no difference in those who believe and those don't
there is no natural difference for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God but what a wondrous thing all
these people just described talking to the Roman believers he said
being justified freely what does that mean? without a cause."
Where were we? We were nowhere. We didn't cause
it. The cause was not in us. God
caused it, justified freely, without a cause, by His grace,
through the redemption, the buying and paying for, that is in Jesus
Christ, whom God set forth to be a what? Mercy seat. appropriation
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness his righteousness for the remissions
of sin that are passed through the forbearance of God for the
Old Testament saints to declare I say at this time now his righteousness
that he what might be just and the justifier of him that
believeth in Jesus So when God saved old Sylvester Crow many
years ago and revealed his son in him, if anybody would ask why in the
world he saved Sylvester Crow, God would say, I was right to
do that. It was my righteous act. It was
a righteous act. That's a wondrous thing. It boggles
the mind, I'll be honest with you. I've been looking at this
for a lot of years and I ain't got over it yet. The believer
both understands it and cannot fathom it. There is mercy for thousands.
There is mercy for some, but not for all. Not for all. That's not a specific number,
thousands. It's a distinctive number. It
means there is mercy for some, thousands, but not for all. Those
whose sins were not made to meet on Jesus Christ are yet guilty
and will never be clear. Their sinful nature will be inherited
generation upon generation. And when by mercy and grace the
believer is made aware that he was and is unworthy of such kindness
and favor, when he realizes that there is absolutely no difference
between him and those who perish in their guilt, the only one
thing he can do or say moses made haste now it is here
when you really consider greatness when you understand laws you
grasp it in your heart over and over again. Father,
bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen. God bless
you.