Well, for those of you who have just arrived and were expecting to see Pastor Chansky here, it was mentioned in the last hour, Pastor Chansky introduced the session that due to his own physical ailments that he's been wrestling with, due to particularly some very heavy pastoral concerns, counseling concerns, which have consumed days of time rather than just hours of time at times, He asked if he could have some relief. We encouraged him to take that break and take that relief. I just didn't expect it was gonna fall to me to fill in, so. Might not have been so gracious, but no, we're thankful to be able to give him. It's one of the blessings of having a plurality of elders and to be able to help one another and shepherd one another and fill in for one another. Maybe next year we'll talk about biblical eldership, but I think that's the typical topic for RBNet. Isn't it something along those lines? What's that? Okay, yeah, so if we just, we'll just mainly do pastoral eldership and how to have a good eldership. We'll talk about that. If you have any input on the next topic, please let me know. All right, so as you come to this matter of counseling, some of those circumstances that we face could be described as Pastor Martin does in his third volume of Pastoral Theology, crisis counseling. It's those circumstances where things just seem completely out of control. Sin has just dominated a particular situation in such a way that you're left just saying, where do I go from here? And my goal in this particular session is to encourage you to seek a fresh sight of God and to recognize His grace. Because those circumstances come and how can we persevere? I've heard, because I've not attended many baby showers, that some of the devotionals, baby showers and wedding showers for that matter, can sometime be a little bit of a downer. Wow, marriage, it's really tough living with this guy. You're going to have to give up this and you're going to have to do that. And the ladies aren't trying to be, they're trying to be biblically oriented and help the ladies recognize there's change coming and difficulties associated with living with another sinner or training up this little sinner that's going to come into your home and all that biblical realism that we need. to understand lest we become overwhelmed because we're being naive, Pollyannish about the world that we're living in. Yet sometimes that can just end up weighing us down more rather than actually helping us with the difficulties. And so as we come to this conference on biblical counseling, my goal in this particular session is really to seek to encourage you that you have access to everything you need. And we've already talked about the Word of God as being sufficient illumination and revelation from God to guide and direct us. But I want to take an Old Testament example of a man who prayed to highlight some things for us. And I'm going to apologize right up front. I thought about, should I do this at the beginning or the end? I'm gonna apologize right up front. Anybody who was in Michigan in March is gonna hear things you've heard before. So I trust that it's gonna have a little bit different twist, but nevertheless, I trust that it will be helpful to you. So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to the gospel according to Moses, the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 30. As we come to this section in Moses' life in the book of Exodus, we come to one of the dark times in the history of the people of God, a significantly difficult and dark season because in Exodus chapter 32, we have the people of God committing a great sin. And in chapter 32.1 through 33.7, I entitle it, The Glory of God Exchanged. And then in chapter 33, beginning at verse 7, going to verse 18, we have the glory of God requested. And then in chapter 33, 19 through 34, 9, we have the glory of God revealed. And then the fourth point, which we won't get to anywhere near this morning is, or this afternoon, is God's glory restored, and that's found in chapter 34, 10 through the end of chapter 35. If ever there was a circumstance that's called probably crisis management in one sense, it could also be applied I think to crisis counseling, right? This challenging circumstance that has come in the life of God's servant as he seeks to lead the people of God from where they had been in bondage through the wilderness to the promised land. And as he's leading them along, they commit this great sin, which I call the glory, God's glory exchange. So if you're looking at Exodus 32, just follow along. I'm not going to read the text, but I'll refer to various verses in the midst of it. This is, again, one of the darkest times. The people have been opposing Moses. They're an obstinate people. This is the first thing we see under this exchange. They came to a place called Marah in chapter 15 and are grumbling over water. We see in Exodus chapter 16, they're in the wilderness of sin. I don't know if God meant it to be called that, but it certainly was that in just about every way you can think of it, where they're grumbling for food. And then in Exodus chapter 17, we come to Rephidim, where there's again a grumbling regarding water. So there's opposition from an obstinate people, and this is Moses's, the people that Moses is working with. But then as we come to chapter 32, we see treason, by an unfaithful people. Moses goes up on the mountain, he's up there for 40 days, and 40 days is too long for the people of God. They become impatient and they begin to grumble. And we read in chapter 32 and verse 21 these words, then Moses said to Aaron, he's come down from the mountain, what did this people do to you that you have brought this such great sin upon them." Verse 30, you'll see that phrase again. On the next day, Moses said to the people, you yourselves have committed a great sin and now I'm going up to the Lord. And in verse 31, he says it again. Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, alas, this people has committed a great sin. They have made a God of gold for themselves. Now, I highlight this reality of great sin because it only appears here and one other section of the Old Testament, and that's when Jeroboam caused the people in the north to commit a great sin. And how did he do it? Two golden calves. So this sin is highlighted for us, I think, in the Old Testament in this way to show us just how horrible this sin was. This is treason of the worst kind. It is spiritual treason of the people of God, the subjects of God's kingdom, rejecting their king, that is God himself, and his servant Moses. Now, in one sense, it's not surprising. For 430 years, these people had lived in a polytheistic religious environment. They had been seeing this kind of worship going on and had been breathing this air where idols abounded. And isn't that where every sinner comes from? Is that bondage to sin where their idolatry is all around of all different kinds, truth being rejected, and they're breathing that in on a regular basis. So even once they're in the path of redemption, they can fall back into these old patterns of sin. And in the process of making this golden calf, they violate at least three, if not four, of the Ten Commandments. They worship other gods. They created a golden calf, First Commandment, Second Commandment, because then they call it a feast unto Yahweh, the Third Commandment. This is their spiritual treason. Now Moses, when he comes down from the mountain in chapter 32 verses 15 and 19, he comes down with the two tablets of stone and he addresses the people for their sin. I believe and understand this to be a righteous wrath. He is expressing the wrath of God. You broke the covenant. Here's what you've done, smash. You violated the covenant, that which you said, whatever the Lord says, we will do. And Aaron shamelessly lies to Moses. I call it the world's worst lie. Now, thankfully, children, when they're young, you know, they don't know how to lie. They come from the womb lying, but they don't know how to do it very well, right? One of the men was telling me about he and his wife have one daughter left at home, and there's none of the others, and they're looking and saying, why are these socks in the hallway? Man, husband and wife, they know they didn't put the socks there. They're not on our house socks. And then the one daughter says, did you put those there? No, I didn't do it. It's like, okay. But Aaron's like, okay, throw this stuff into the fire and boom, out comes this calf. Moses, it was a miracle. How could we not worship what God had created? Well, this leads to Moses then directing the Levites, and the Levites executing 3,000 people, verse 28 of chapter 32. And that may be what is being spoken of in verse 35, or there may have been another act of God in verse 35 when it says that Yahweh smites the people. So the sin is confronted. There's this obstinate people. They've been delivered. They act in a treasonous, unfaithful way, exchanging this glory for a lie. Moses confronts them. And then in chapter 33, verses 1 to 11, we see God drawing back. He draws back from them, verses 7 and 10 of chapter 32. God threatens to destroy Israel, and He says, your people, These weren't Moses' people. But God's saying, they're not my people, they're your people, Moses. It's almost as though he's saying, I'm distancing myself from them. And then in verses 3 and 5 of chapter 33, he says, I will not go up with you, and if I did, I'd just consume you. Moses pleads with them, won't go into the intercession there. And in chapter 3 and verse 7, we have the Tent of Meeting being pitched a good distance from the camp. Everything suggests, God says, you've sinned, you don't want to follow me? Sin puts a distance between you and me. Now, I call this the exchange of God's glory because of what the psalmist said in Psalm 106. So if you have your Bible, turn to Psalm 106 verses 19 to 23, one of those historical Psalms that describes this circumstance here in Exodus. In Psalm 106 verses 19 to 23, we read in verse 19, They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous deeds in the land of Ham, and awesome things in the Red Sea. Therefore He said that He would destroy them had not Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach before Him to turn away His wrath from eradicating them." So many spiritual realities in there and gospel realities, I can't go into them at this point in time, but you just see, here is what this sin is, it's exchanging the glory of God for a lie. And the only thing that stands between them and destruction is one who stands between them. Yet God commands Moses in chapter 33 in verse one, take them further. Take them further. So God's glory requested. What's Moses' response to this crisis situation? His response is found in chapter 31, or excuse me, chapter 33 and verse 18. Chapter 33 and verse 18. Then Moses said, I pray you, show me your glory. This is a very respectful yet earnest request. It's seen in that little phrase translated, I pray you, particle of entreaty. It's a respectful request because it's about the closest you can get, from what I understand in Hebrew, to please. Please. I beg you, please. The New King James, the ESV, I believe use the word please in the translation. But it's also an earnest request as it could be translated, I beg you. And so it's a very earnest request. He's being very respectful to God, but he is earnest. I have a very significant request I need answered by you. I pray you. Show me. A very simple yet profound request. this request for God's glory. It's simple yet profound. Show me your glory. Simple Hebrew here translated, show me, cause me to see, display to me, make known to me, enable me to understand. Now, this is not the first time that Moses has seen God's glory. Right, he saw God's glory in the bush, the burning bush. He saw God's glory when he gave manna to them in Exodus 16. He says, look, and they saw the glory of God there on that occasion. He has seen God's glory. It says that he spoke with God face to face, 3311. So he has seen something of God's glory. So what's he praying for? Though he had seen God's glory, he's not content. He needs a fresh awareness of, a clearer understanding of God's glory. Now, while that's a simple request, just show something to me, make me to see it clearly, it's also very profound for he's asking for glory, for God's honor, something of weight. Show me something extremely important. And it's this little preposition, not preposition, it's this little possessive pronoun before it, your, which really makes it so profound. Your glory. Don't show me my glory. Don't motivate me by showing me what you're gonna elevate me to. Don't show me the glory of the promised land to show me the wonders of what we're going to have when we get there. Show me your glory. I don't need to see the glory of the world. I don't need to see the glory of pleasure. I don't need to see the glory of position or the glory of power. I need to see your glory, God's glory. And as Pastor Nichols was wont to say, it's the outshining of God's attributes. The glory of God can be used to speak of one attribute or can be used to speak of the whole sum of God's attributes. His displaying of himself. And I believe in this particular context, what he's asking God for is a fresh awareness of God's special presence with him. He wants to know that God is yet with him and his people. Moses in this third place wants a validation, a confirmation that God's presence will go with them. He had seen how God had displayed His glory in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, and had led them by that pillar. As I said, he'd seen the glory of God when he provided for this grumbling people who wanted food, and God said, I'll show you my glory, and manna is given, bread from heaven, and then the display of the glory in the morning. He'd seen that. He'd seen how God had provided for them. when He was there with them. He's seen God's glory when He covenanted with them. Remember what was attended? The voice that came from the mountain, the shaking of the mountain, the fire, the thunder. It was just this massive display. God is on that mountain. And so he prays, show me your glory. If you look back at Exodus 33 and verse 13, we see, I think, a fuller explanation of what this prayer means. He says, now, therefore, I pray you, if I have found favor in your sight, or you could say, since I have found favor in your sight, but if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways that I may know you. so that I may find favor in your sight. Consider, too, that this nation is your people." He had known God being with them. He'd known God's grace in helping him thus far. But now he has seen these people act in such a treasonous way that he's questioning, in a sense, are you really going to go with us? You've got to go with us. He has heard God speak in anger. He's heard God speak his judgment and say, I'm done with this people. Stand aside. I'm going to wipe them out. I'm going to start over with you, Moses. He's heard God speak of restoring his relationship with Moses. Moses wants to make sure that he's restored it with the people as well. And so, he wants to gaze upon the face of God to be assured that God's gracious presence will go with them. Moses recognizes, I believe, one thing most needful in this crisis, a fresh, vibrant, personal, ever-deepening, ever-broadening acquaintance with God. This request is so bold that John Calvin actually believes that Moses has erred. I don't like to disagree with John, Calvin, but I do. This is what Calvin said, Moses is carried beyond due bounds and longs for more than is lawful. Let this passage act as a restraint upon us to repress the speculations which are too wild. Well, if Moses is asking for some grandiose display of some miraculous kind of thing, then maybe that's what Calvin is addressing. Or that is what Calvin is addressing. Maybe that's what he's asking for. I don't think that's what Moses is asking, nor do I think that John Calvin's comment is fully accurate with regard to this request. And I think the answer to the request makes that plain. we see in the third place, God's glory revealed. God's glory exchanged in this great sin, God's glory requested, show me your glory, and God's glory revealed. God graciously grants Moses a fresh life-changing revelation of himself, a revelation which is so dangerous he has to cover him up when it happens, lest it destroy him. And it's so life-changing that the words that we're going to look at here in a little bit, we'll see reverberating throughout the whole rest of the Old Testament, constantly being repeated in part or in whole. This is a fresh awareness that has not yet been seen in the revelation of God's Word. And so God promises to reveal something to Moses, something of himself. Notice chapter 33, verse 19. In response to the prayer, and he, that is Yahweh, said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and show compassion to whom I will show compassion. God promises to reveal something of himself to Moses. Now about the fourth or fifth time I preached this message, something struck me. And it was this, God reveals his goodness. I would have wanted to know something of God's power, or maybe God's wisdom, or maybe God's sovereignty, but God chooses to show him his goodness. Now, the passage highlights for us that God is essentially good. Yahweh is good. He does what he does because he is who he is. It's part of his very being to be good. He is uniquely good, Psalm 135. The essentially good God, verse 3, is great, verse 5 of Psalm 135, and does good and great things in caring for his people, which distinguishes him from all the idols. And he is consistently good. Isn't it wonderful that our God is consistently good? He's not moody. James says, every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift comes down from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. There's no change of seasons. There's no change of the day. It is constant. He is good and does good. And that's what he promises. I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will, and then there's a revelation, proclaim my name. I'm gonna tell you something about what it is to be Tov. A term which is so broad that it's almost impossible to capture. And I want to kind of summarize this very quickly. So I'm just going to go straight to Charles Bridges' comments on Psalm 119. I believe it's verse 68. God is good and does good. And this is Bridges' comments on goodness, the goodness of God. All the acts of God are nothing else but the outflowings of his goodness distinguished by several names according to the object it is exercised about. When he confers happiness without merit, it is mercy. When he bestows happiness against merit, it is grace. When he bears with provoking rebels, it is long-suffering. When he performs his promise, it is truth or faithfulness. When he sympathizes and comforts a distressed person, it is pity. When he supplies an indigent or a poor person, it is bounty. When he suckers, aids, or assists an innocent person, it is righteousness. And when he pardons a penitent person, it is forgiveness. All summed up in this one name, goodness. I will make all my goodness pass before you and proclaim my name." Moses hears those words. And then in a short time, we read in Exodus chapter 34, that event happening. If you look there in Exodus 34, beginning at verse five, we see the continued answer to this prayer. Not only does he say this statement and promise to make his goodness pass before him and to proclaim his name, now he does it. And Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of Yahweh. Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh God. He says, listen, I'm just telling you something about myself. What sets me apart is unique. It's me, Yahweh. I'm saying it to you, Moses. Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, and yet, He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and the fourth generation. And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. God gives him an expanded, clarified revelation of himself. And he labels it his goodness. This is exactly what Moses needed. And I think it's exactly at times what we need when we go into some of those crisis situations. God's goodness specifically applies to sinful people. He reminds them of His name. He proclaims the two ways that He is good, compassionate, word like a picture of the womb in its warmth and love and grace, that which is undeserved. And he declares two general ways in which he relates to men. He says, he is patient, I love this word, slow to anger. I think it's the phrase, if I remember correctly, long and nostril, right? He is taking his time. Don't you just love that goodness from God as a sinner? And He's benevolent. He abounds in chesed. Oh, what a word. I can't even begin to start on that word. It's so full and so rich and so abundant in His lovingkindness, His covenant faithfulness. But He ties to it His faithfulness and His truth. He is so unchangeable that everything He says is absolutely true and certain to come to pass. And at the same time, He is good in dealing with sin. It's not just for one generation, this goes on for thousands of generations to those who believe forgiveness, but also justice. Moses needs to know that God's going to be just. They're going to face some pretty wicked people. He needs to know that he's going to deal with them according to his goodness. And Moses' raunts is just amazing. He humbles himself before God. So Moses prays, show me your glory. And God says, I give you revelation of myself. I don't think that's beyond bounds to pray that prayer. Especially when he then tells him. And then we see that God actually goes beyond that for what an amazing answer that was. Yet there's going to be more in Exodus chapter 40 when Moses does all that God commands him to do and the tabernacle is built. What happens? The glory of God comes down in that Shekinah, that outshining light that displays that God is present in their midst. In Leviticus chapter 9, when they appoint Aaron and his sons as priests, what happens? The glory of God comes down again. If this was a prayer that was beyond bounds, God goes beyond bounds in answering it. Now, I want to do something here that is going to sound a bit strange because it seems a bit strange to me. I'm going to do it anyway. I want to go to a New Testament verse which I think is equivalent or at least comparable to what we've just seen in the way God has revealed Himself. So if you would, turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 9. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is all about the gracious work that God is calling the people of Corinth to, or Paul is calling the people of Corinth to, to be like the Macedonians in the way that the grace of God was manifest in them. Act graciously, fulfill your promises, and give. There's a verse in here which I think is a verse which is, much broader than just God dealing with people who give. 2 Corinthians 9 in verse 8, and I'm going to be quoting it from the Legacy Standard Bible, which I think has a balanced way of translating this so that it captures something of the Greek. 2 Corinthians 9.8, and God is able to make every grace abound to you so that in everything, at every time, having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed. If God is good, as he displayed himself to Moses, then what does that mean to us? It means that he has a vast resource of grace to give to those who have needs. Even those who have crisis situations that they're dealing with, because he is good even in those circumstances. And so, this verse highlights for us, what do we need? Well, what we need, according to this verse, is grace. Unmerited, unearned, undeserved goodness or kindness shown toward us. What do we need? We need undeserved, kind activity by God enabling us to accomplish the task. I've got to go in and I've got to go into this crisis situation and I've got to untangle this thing and find out where the sin is and address it righteously and properly. I need God to work in me to enable me in the task that I can do that faithfully. Paul says, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and the grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all, yet not I, but the grace of God within me. Sometimes we just need the grace of God to go into the situation. God says, guess what? I have all the grace you need. And grace can also be described as God acting in a situation. beyond what we would expect. And work in people things called graces, that they actually then act the way they're supposed to. Stephen was full of grace and power, was performing miracles and wonders. Peter describes the people of God in his letter in 1 Peter 4.10 as a people who had received a special gift and were to employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold, multicolored grace of God. The grace of God comes to people and they act in a certain way, the way they're supposed to act. This is what we need. We need grace. What does the verse say? Where do we get it? God gives it. God is able to make every grace abound to you. It's not earned by us because we're good pastors and we've studied lots of hours for our sermons. We don't earn it because we prayed more earnestly this time for this situation than the last one. We don't earn it. And guess what? You can't find it on TikTok or Instagram or YouTube. There's no influencer who can give it to you, no 90-day program that you can get in the gym and make it. It's a gift from God. God promised grace. He made grace abound to these Macedonians. I love the way he says that in chapter eight in verse one. He says, now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia. He says, I've so worked in them, this gift that they're giving beyond their means is all of grace. And so, I don't think he's doing that to shame the Corinthians as much as to say, and that grace is available to you. Because I'm the same God for you as I was for the Macedonians. Now it says God is able to make every grace abound to you. Now there's certain verses, certain words in this verse that just make me kind of stagger because that sounds so bland. He's able to make God. As though he has some ability to do something. But it's not just some ability to do something. It's all ability to do something. Manton says, and when he says God is able, it not only implies that God is the fountain of all plenty and sovereign disposer of it, and has power to make you the richer rather than the poorer by your liberality, to make every alms you give like the oil of the cruise, to multiply as you pour it out, that there shall be enough for every object and every occasion, but he is sure to make it good. It's not just that he's able in the sense of he's got a little bit of ability to do this, or a lot of ability, he's actually certain to give that grace. And this is why Peter, one of my favorite titles for God, uses the title, the God of all grace. He's able to make grace abound. He does not lack any ability, he does not lack any resources, he does not lack a heart to do it. Why? Because He is the God who is good, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who gives iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation. Because He is that good God, He does give that good grace. And how does He give it? Well, listen to the words of the verse again. You have it there in front of you. Here's the LSB. Every grace in everything at every time, having every sufficiency for every good deed. And then there's other words sprinkled in the middle of that. Make grace abound, sufficiency, and have an abundance. So what does he give? Every grace. Somebody was just talking about, or was praying, we're not just Sunday people. It's not just Sunday grace. It's everyday grace. It's every grace. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold, multicolored grace of God. It comes in various ways, in abundant ways, and all the different ways that God described himself to Moses. All those ways are descriptions of the grace that he gives. And when He gives it, every time, for every circumstance, not just on Sunday, not just in the easy cases, not occasionally, sovereignty dispenses the goodness of God, this sovereign goodness that was described in verse 19 of chapter 33 of Exodus, is that same sovereign grace that's dispensed to us, sovereignly dispenses in the time of need for what is needed. You need courage? He can give courage. You need gentleness? He can give gentleness. You need patience? He can give patience. You need the wisdom of Solomon, or better, the wisdom of Jesus? He gives it. Every grace in every time. How does He give it? Abundantly for every sufficiency in every thing. These words abound in abundance. These words speak of just this overflowing nature of the gift that's been given. Sufficiency. Some of those words, you know, did you ever get an S on your report card when you were in elementary school or one of those? S, satisfactory. I read sufficiency, okay, he's sufficient. Try that with your wife next time she serves a meal. That was sufficient, dear. But if by sufficient you mean completely satisfying, fully satiating, supplying everything I needed in nutrition and flavor and pleasure, then you can say, yeah, that was sufficient. That's what it means. That's what the word means. He probably, and again, Leon Morris this time says, probably he means that as one piece of divine grace, so to speak, recedes, it is replaced by another. God's grace to his people is continuous and is never exhausted. It's like the waves coming up on the beach, that one comes up and starts receding, the next one's just right behind it. And where did that next one end and the next one start? They just keep coming. That's the abundant, sufficient grace of God. But you say, I'm a great sinner. Great. There is a God who has great grace. Remember what it said in Romans 5.20? Oh, you know, I'm not talking to Trinity Baptist Church this morning, am I? Because we heard what Romans 5.20 said, the law came in so that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, what? Grace abounded all the more. How does David cry out to God when he needs forgiveness after his sin? Be gracious to me, O God, according to your lovingkindness and your compassion. Blot out my transgressions. According to your lovingkindness, be gracious to me. He lays hold of these two handles on the character of God. Be gracious to me. Oh, I'm incredibly weak. Wonderful, you're right where you need to be. Because when you are weak, then he is strong. My grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, Paul says, I would rather boast in my weaknesses then so that the power of Christ might dwell in me. Would we expect anything less from the God that revealed himself to Moses? Why did he reveal this to Moses? Because Moses needed to know that God wasn't going to destroy these people the next time they turn around. He needed to know that God was going to be able to sustain him in leading these people who were so obstinate and so treasonous. He needed to know that God was good and going to continue with them and wouldn't leave them. He needed to know that when they did sin, that God was still going to be there to forgive them. If they did it once, I don't know if your dad said this, but he said to me plenty of times, if I told you once, I've told you a thousand times. Well, he probably told me a million times then. God says, listen, I told you this. And Moses says, okay, I've got to believe that's who you are in every crisis. But why does God give the grace? Go back to our verse in 2 Corinthians. He gives the grace for every good deed. It's not extraneous, irrelevant, unrelated kindness that's shown to us. It's not that He just gives, you know, frivolous gifts. It's for the deeds He's made for you to walk in. That grace that saved us made us His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them. When He gives and what He gives, He gives that it might be given. As one man put it, God invests where He gets the greatest returns. It is a surpassing grace of God, overflowing, abundant. Now, there's that little phrase, This little phrase, every good deed. Did you remember I said when we were in the first session, remember that phrase? Do you remember where that was found? 2 Timothy 3, 15 and 16. The Word of God is inspired and profitable for teaching, for proof, for correction, for training in righteousness. that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good deed." God gives where it is needed. Brethren, we all need grace. I serve with some amazing counselors, men who have verses and illustrations on their mind that I just say, man, I wish I'd thought of that. So I like doing tandem counseling with them, because then, hmm, yeah, hmm, what he said, hmm. Did you catch? That was good, hmm, yeah, right? Because the books of Proverbs comes alive, and other places, the Word of God, and the searching nature of being able to say, but wait a minute, you said this, do you realize that's a sin? The Word of God describes that as greed or pride or a lie. Stop with all the smokescreen and calling it something else. And men who can be compassionate and say, you know, I really believe you, what you're saying to me. I really want to believe you. We all need grace. Because none of us has everything that we need to be able to face the things that we're going to face in the ministry. And over the last six months, it sounds like all of you, at least at some point in time, really needed grace. And we need it every day, right? In some of those circumstances, we just need the grace that the Spirit works in us. Where when we're sitting across the table with that couple, we need to know, Lord, give me love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, especially. But brethren, we have a God that Moses only first heard about, who is this God full of compassion and grace, who's slow to anger and abounding, loving kindness and truth. And I'm sitting across from these two sinners, and I have that kind of God to set before them. And that God is full of grace, and they serve that God, so there's grace abundant for them. And so I should be encouraged, I should be strengthened, we should come to those circumstances and say, I am truly confident. Not because of you, but because of the God of grace. Because this is the God that I come, on whose behalf I come to you and whom you serve. So we have hope. We have confidence. We need grace, brethren, don't we? We need grace to be able to tame our tongues, to do our duty. We need grace to be all that God calls us to be and to do. As I did this study some time ago, I came across a fact that was really astounding to me. How important is grace to Paul? It is so important that almost every one of his letters, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon, if you take Hebrew, and even Peter, 1 Peter 1, every one of those letters begins and ends with grace. Now, that's a bookend. That it's like, I'm gonna start by telling you this, keep this in mind, because I'm gonna give you some things along the way that you're gonna need this grace, and guess what? When I come to the end, I'm gonna commit you to the grace of God. And we don't need to worry that he's got enough for our circumstance. He has enough. And his word, we need to study and apply God's word. Why? Because that is one of the primary means by which we get grace. It is called the word of his grace. And it's through that grace that comes that we are able then to teach, and to correct, and to reprove, and to train in righteousness. Because it's His word which makes us sufficient. So brethren, we need to study the word. And you know, did you ever have anybody tell you, oh, you pastors always say the same thing, everything comes down to study, word, and pray. Well, that's pretty basic, that's true. But sometimes what I'm saying is, well, study the word with this in view. that you might see the character of God's goodness as he deals with people through the Old Testament or deals with people, the goodness he showed to Peter when he denied him, or to Paul when he upheld him in his fear. Study the Word of God and find places. And then I would say, coming back to the first half of this sermon, Pray this prayer, show me your glory. I want to know your ways that I might know you so that when I go into this crisis situation, I will know what you want to do. Show me your glory. Get my eyes off my own weakness, get my eyes off my own abilities, get my eyes off of all of these things and fix my eyes on you. And you know what's most amazing? When Moses prayed that prayer, there's one other place in the New Testament where that prayer is answered. And it's found in the Gospel of Luke. And they're up on the Mount of Transfiguration. And Jesus' glory is displayed. And who's standing there to see it? Moses. It wasn't just he got to see this shining light come down on the tabernacle a couple of times. He got to stand on the mount and see something of the display of Jesus Christ's glory. Brethren, how can we be sure that such a promise, that God is able to make every grace abound for every circumstance and everything that you might have every sufficiency for every good deed. How can we ever believe that that's gonna be true for us? Because if you turn the numbers around and look back at 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 9, you'll see the answer. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich. Jesus died to procure that grace for us. He died to procure that grace for the people that we're sitting across the table from. You think He's gonna fulfill that promise? I can assure you He is. He died to make it certain, sealed it with His blood. Go to them and set before them Christ. Here is your Savior with all the grace necessary. He sits at God's right hand interceding for you to give you all the grace you need to be able to love her as Christ loves the church, to be able to submit to Him and fear Him as the church does to Christ. He's there for you to help deliver you from the bonds of that sin of pornography, of that sin of arrogance, of that sin of self-pity. He's there to work out that tension that you have with sister so-and-so. Yodia and Syntyche, you know what? He's got grace to solve that. Sometimes that grace comes in the person of a Clement and says, listen, let me help you. But brethren, this is the God that we serve. As we talk about this week, counseling. There's a whole lot that can leave us totally despairing. And sometimes I sit there and it's almost at the point, I'm just saying, you know what, I don't know what to do with this situation. But you know what, even that, we've prayed this more than once, Lord, make it plain. Blow the lid off this. You're the God who is righteous and will not leave the guilty unpunished. Make it known." The God of all grace. Well, brethren, I trust that that will encourage our hearts. If you've been ever reluctant to go into the counseling arena and be one-to-one with your sheep or one-to-two or one-to-a-small, then you rest on these things. Pray this prayer, rest on this promise. This is the God whom we serve. This is what he promises to give. We can serve him by his grace. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we plead with you to help us to look upon the Lord Jesus Christ and keep our eyes fixed on him, as well as to keep our eyes fixed on you, the God of all grace, sealed in the blood of the Savior, that you would fulfill this promise to give us every grace, to make it abound to us, we will have everything we need to serve you. Thank you for these men and the determination to want to be pleasing to you. Fulfill that desire, that good desire, that desire born out of faith, and grant unto them, grant unto us the grace we need to serve you faithfully. For the glory of King Jesus, for the good of the people you've put in our care, in his name, in Christ's name we pray. Amen.