All right, let's open with a word of prayer. Lord, just thank you for this word, this word of truth that we can rely on 100% of the time, something that we don't have to wonder. We may struggle with interpretation and how to apply it to our lives, but the truth is there for us to dig out. And we thank you for its concreteness and its anchor and the path you made for us to be brought into salvation. We just ask that you would bless this time and guide my words. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. All right, Ephesians. We're working at one word today. And it's about the smallest, well, it's almost the smallest word. Verse 6, I usually read all of it, we'll just jump straight into it. Ephesians 1-6, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. And I want to focus on this word in, I-N, little word, okay? Amazing word in context here. Now we talked last week about in the Beloved, who is the Beloved? It's Jesus Christ, right? In the Beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. It's a capital B in your Bible because it's Christ, okay? As I was looking at that word and thinking about other words, okay, like next to versus in, right? When you're in something, right, You're in it, right? If you're in trouble, the trouble has surrounded you, right? If you're next to trouble, trouble's over there and you're over here, right? So this in is just, it's an intimacy, right? It's a connection, okay? And as I was thinking of that, I was thinking, I went to this passage in Exodus, and I know that we've spent a lot of time on It's all over Scripture, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. But I just want to look at it in a slightly different way and maybe that this illustration that we're about to...this history in Scripture will pop into our heads when we think of in. Exodus 33, starting in 17. So this is getting the second version of the Ten Commandments, I think. And the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing of which you have spoken, for you have found favor in my sight, and I have known you by name. Then Moses said, I pray you, show me your glory. And he said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. You can write this in your sovereignty of God list. But he said, you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there's a place by me. and you shall stand on the rock. And it will come about while my glory is passing by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. Now, I don't think I'd ever seen this until I really started looking at it. What happens in verse 22? It looks as though he gives a command in 21, you shall stand on the rock. So there's an approach to the rock, right? He's required to approach the rock and get on it, okay? 22 And when my glory is passing by that I will put you I Will put you in the cleft God says I'm gonna I'm gonna cram me in the crack. I'm gonna force you in that place that you can't get yourself for some reason Okay. Whoa the sovereignty here, right? He goes to stand on the rock, and God puts him in the rock. Now, what's he protecting him from? The glory of God, right? Now, the first thing that is interesting to note is the first thing God says is, about who he is, is, I'm compassionate, right? Let me not mess it up. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. He talks about his character and his sovereignty, right? But you can't see my face, okay? For no man can see me and live. Behold, there is a place by me, close to me. How close is the rock to Christ, right? I mean, how close is the rock to God? Christ is the rock, okay? And God's putting him, by his choice, into the cleft. Isn't that cool? What an amazing illustration of future fulfillment of in Christ, okay? I will put you in the rock. and cover you with my hand until I have passed by, then I'll take my hand away and you shall see my back and my face shall not be seen." So, I'm thinking about this and thinking, okay, he's protecting Moses from his glory in the rock, okay? Now, I'm gonna just jump to a little different subject. How many of you faced this little children's paradox? I think it happened on a bus ride one time for me, where some little guy stood up and said to me, knowing that I was a pastor's son and a Christian, said, is there anything God can't do? And of course, I get to show off all my knowledge of his omnipotence. I boldly proclaim, no, there's nothing that God can't do. He is all powerful. And then this little smart Alec says, can he make a rock so heavy that he can't lift it? No, he can't do that. The other says, well, then there's something that God can't do. Right, now it's a foolish paradox, right? God is outside of his creation. It's a logical fallacy that you're putting there. You're pitting two types of omnipotence against each other, right? And then later, when you grow up a little older, you start to find out there's a lot of things God can't do. He can't sin, he can't break his promises, okay? He is love, so anything not love can't be him, right? So he's restricted by his divinity in a way that, you know, thank goodness. If he could change his mind, right? Can God change his mind? No, or we'd be destroyed. So there's something God can't do, right? So there's many, I was an error to say, you know, gather stuff, God. He can do anything, okay? In keeping with that, I was thinking about this God that is exposing himself to Moses. God, of course, is outside creation, right? He is the creator. So he's outside his creation. Go to Romans 1.20. I think this is a verse that should be underlined, because it explains a lot of things. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Mankind is without excuse because of the creation. This is the kind of thing I talk about frequently. I hope I don't bore you with it. This is without a telescope. This is without the microscope. This is without E equals MC squared. This is without understanding of chemistry, a deep understanding. Understanding the complexity of the cell. That's stuff that you can study your whole life and get a PhD in one little thing. This is outside of the complexity of the body and the understanding of the size of the universe. Keep reading. For even though they knew God, meaning that evidence is so concrete there that not only are they without excuse, is they actually know there's a God. They did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculation. And their foolish heart was darkened." You know, the speculation that comes immediately to mind for me is atheism and Darwinism, right? That speculates God out of his creation. Hey, I got an answer for how we got here. Bang. Okay, a big bang, right, they say. And, you know, molecules and lightning and small little molecules. Basically, molecules to man, evolution, right? And basically, you could take it all the way back to nothing exploded and created everything, is what they believe. This is the speculation. This is what, I think Ray Comfort says when he deals with scientists, so what you're saying is nothing exploded and made everything. I'm thinking of God, the creator of the universe, and thinking about the frailty of man and who God was as he exposed himself to Moses. When he exposed himself to Moses, He turned down the dial, right? How far down? Well, really, really far down and then hit him in a rock, okay? You know, we feeble humans, we die from falling from like 20 feet or less, right? We fall on our heads, we're exposed to a little cold or hot, we die. A little explosion, simple, you know, chemical reaction near us and we're taken out. Poisons take us out. This is a God who Created a nuclear fusion fireball 1.3 million times the volume of earth to keep us warm 1.3 million Volume, so if you had 1.3 million earths and put them in a jar, that's the size of the Sun Okay That's his creation That's not him, right? That's his, well, we'll get to the verse. That's his creation and we couldn't stand for a moment in the power of just his creation. He turned himself way down and hit us in the rock, right? That's not the biggest son. The biggest son is UY Scooty. It's, 750 million times the volume of the Sun our Sun If it were to become our Sun like if we were just to replace it with our Sun it would engulf Mercury Venus Earth Mars and most of the asteroid belt on the way to Jupiter. That's how big around it is and Now our sun is about average of the 200 billion trillion suns in the universe. Okay. Try to think of another way to say it. So I took the volume of our sun and made it a cup of water. How many cups of water is UY Scooty? It's just 4.5 Olympic swimming pools worth of water. It's a really big sun, and it's one of 200 million trillion. The sun burns it at the upward amount of 3.6 million degrees, and God could wade right through it. all 360 million degrees God can pass right through the sun. No, no, no, it's more impressive than that. He made that thing, he created it. And Moses says, I wanna see your glory. And he says, I'm gonna turn myself way down, and I'm gonna hide you. And guess what, the rock didn't melt, okay? And it would have if it was close to the temperature of the sun. Now, one other thing I think is really important, E equals mc squared. I've talked about this. People just look at the mass of the universe. But E equals mc squared says, hey, let's focus on the energy. And the energy that it takes to create mass is the mass times the speed of light squared, which speed of light is a big number. Square, it's an even bigger number, even if you multiply it times one, it's huge. And my question has always been, stop trying to explain the mass, explain the energy. Because it's a lot harder to explain the energy than the mass. For example, The Tsar bomb, that's the biggest bomb that has ever been detonated on the face of the earth in 1961 by Russia, was detonated 13,000 feet up. And it created a shockwave in the earth, like a ripple, that went around the earth, like if you drop a pebble in a water, made a ripple around the earth three times before it stopped rippling the earth. It was the equivalent of 3,800 Hiroshima bombs. That's how big that Tsar bomb was. How much mass was converted to pure energy in the Tsar bomb? Ready for this? Only five pounds. Five pounds of mass was converted to pure energy, and that's the explosion from the Tsar bomb. That's how much energy is contained in mass. So in your body, average human body, 150 pounds, you've got, holding you together by God, you've got 114,000 Hiroshima bombs worth of energy being held together in your cells atoms and okay that's 30 czar bombs in your body if it were to can be converted the mass destroyed to pure energy isn't that amazing okay this is the energy god inputted into The massive universe, like where did the energy come from? It came from God, it's the only, it's not okay that nothing exploded and made everything, because nothing is something, right? I mean, the end result is this massive thing called the universe, and that mass is filled with so much energy you can't even imagine it, okay? Go to Psalm, and this is such a great verse. Psalm 8.3, when it says, now that we have all this, oh wow, information, that science reveals that God has allowed us to see. When I consider your heavens, the works of your fingers. Isn't this great? Yeah, all that stuff, finger work. Finger work. Didn't break a sweat making all of this stuff, right? That's just finger work. That's like engraving, you know? It's like knitting. Finger work. This is not like sweating and deadlifting for him, okay? Finger work. And then, of course, And the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you take thought of him? And the son of man that you care for him? That is an amazing question, right? Down a little further to verse nine, here's what a statement like that should always be ended in. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. I've heard a praise and worship song that uses this chorus over and over again, but it's an appropriate statement, right? How majestic is your name in all the earth? And the people writing this didn't know all that. They didn't know there was that much energy contained in mass. They didn't know how many suns. They didn't know how big a sun was. But they still wrote things that we, knowing all this stuff, don't even give God credit for. We speculate Him out of His creation. Romans 1, probably ought to do that. 25. Feudal in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. You give up the truth, you're going to have a dark heart. Professing to be wise, they became fools. And boy, don't they profess to be wise? And they ridicule anybody who says there's a God and it's a better explanation. They became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God. This is an amazing part. They don't stay, I mean, well, they aren't enlightened, right? They're speculators. But what do they end up trading it for? What do they trade this non-God proposition for? They exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures, so idol worship, right? Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. So there's no moral standard once you release God from the universe. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. So back to Exodus. This is a foreshadowing of salvation through Christ, isn't it? Now, can you think of any verses that talk about a rock in Christ? The first one I found was Psalm 62. So is this rock Christ or is it just a rock? All we needed was protection from, you just put Moses inside of Deep in this rock crevice, because the rock itself, the material rock is what was in view. No. Psalm 62, verse 7. On God my salvation and my glory rests. the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. So here it is, a rock, and what's a refuge? Hiding place, right? A place of protection, okay? Now when you think of it, this rock shielded Moses from the glory of God. Isn't that what salvation does? Being in Christ, we were shielded from his wrath. because Christ took that punishment on us. I think the most ignored, no, that's too much. I think a very strongly ignored part of the crucifixion is the three hours of darkness. That's, man, something's going on here that's between the Father and the Son. that is so magnificent, so terrifying, so brutal, so terrible, in a good way, right, that you're not even allowed to be part of it, we turn off the lights. This is between the Father and the Son judging our sins. We were not covered by the blood of Christ through blood that wept from Him at the beating of men. We didn't beat. All of the pain that Christ suffered at the hands of men did not take away one sin. What took away a sin was the Father judging the Son, and I think when the lights were off, because man doesn't get to see. This is so powerful and beyond you, you can't even look. And then it says, at the end of that, it is finished, paid in full, tetelestai, right? Whoa, okay. This is, if you were to bring it back to the Exodus, If the rock was absorbing the power of God going by, right, the rock is protecting Moses, okay, as whatever the assault is of the glory of God on the rock. That rock typifies Christ. Next verse, 1 Corinthians 10, one. One through four. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ. Boom, right? What? The rock was Christ. Yeah, even back in Exodus, the rock was Christ, okay? Psalm 18.2. I'll start in verse one. I love you, O Lord, my strength. Where's the strength come from? His, the Lord. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my rock. It's synonymous, right? My God and rock, okay? In whom I take refuge, again, hiding. My shield and a horn of my salvation, my stronghold, I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. And I am saved from my enemies. So think of Christ as a rock to hide in, right? We think of that hymn too, Rock of Ages, that is basically based on the Exodus passage. Cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. In the idea of being in Christ, there's a uniting that happens, right? So, while his hand was covered and he was in the rock, if God looked, actually is facing him. If God looked at Moses, what did he see? A rock. He saw Christ. That's the only reason that Moses wouldn't be destroyed. If he sees Moses, right, he's destroyed. Moses would be destroyed by the mere gaze of God, okay? He's protected by God, the hand covering and the rock, Christ. It's just an amazing picture in this situation that unfolds. Great passage to talk about this connection is Colossians. So when you think of yourself in Christ, Think of, every once in a while, think of being hidden in the rock, okay? The rains can come down, and the storms pelt, and the holiness of God, and what does He see? The rock, because you're hidden in Him. If He sees your sin, right? No, he sees the blood of Christ, he sees the righteousness that is imputed through Christ. Colossians 3.1. have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. So there's a call to live differently, seek these things of Christ in your everyday life, if you are indeed in Christ. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. That's really hard to do, but it's a command. What are we supposed to spend our time thinking about? These eternal things. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Hidden, covered up, right, in Christ. Another passage, go to 1 Timothy 6.16. We'll start a little bit up in 15. Have you ever been in a place where the light is so bright that you can feel the heat and you can feel it too much? Okay. If the sun is 3.6 million degrees, what is the face of God, right? Now, another passage that's worth mentioning on this subject is Revelation 6. And this is a different kind of person, one that's not hidden in Christ, and he's trying to find a rock to hide himself. He's not hidden by God. He is trying to find a place to hide of his own good, of his own works. And in verse 15, as Christ is, well, we'll just read. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free men hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. What, wood buildings aren't enough? Evidently not, right? We're looking for real protection here. But then you get to verse 16 and Don't forget that we're talking about kings and great men. This is not the activity you would expect from kings and great men. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. What? They're trying to find a place to hide themselves from the presence of God on their own and they want the rocks to kill them rather than face the consequences of the wrath of God. If there were ever, I mean, compare this to What is Moses seeking? Moses is seeking to see the glory of God. I want to see this God that is my everything. And he goes to God. God says, got to hide you. Got to turn myself way down and hide you. as a metaphor in Christ, okay, and then who are these people? They're going as far away from God as they can and trying to find another rock, and they just want to be destroyed by rocks rather than face the wrath of God. Such an interesting difference in, obviously, they're not seeking Christ here. They're not seeking the rock of Christ. For the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand? Like rhetorical question, no one. Not king, not commander, not slave, not free, no one. And neither would Moses if he wasn't hidden in the rock by God. All right, I just had a lot of fun with that. Next week, we'll move on to Ephesians 1-7. The little word in is so important, and hopefully next time you see in, you'll be like, that's a big deal. That's a really big deal that I'm in Christ, that I'm in the rock, that I'm hidden, and that he put me there. Another Sovereignty of God verse I wrote in my Sovereignty of God. Go get next to the rock. I got a job that I'm gonna do to hide you." Wow, what a testimony to Christ. All right, we thank you for this word of yours, that the connection between the Old Testament and New Testament, and how it just comes to life with the things that you revealed thousands of years before Christ, and hundreds of years before Christ, and all these things pointing to Him. We pray that we would focus on our thoughts and our prayer certainly and our Attention our hope on him and the the payment that was made on our behalf to hide us From the wrath of God. We thank you for these things and ask that you'd be with us in the time to follow in Jesus name. Amen