Open your Bible tonight to Exodus chapter number 34. The book of Exodus chapter number 34. As we continue on with our study of the book of Exodus, we've been trying to go chapter by chapter through the Bible. From time to time we'll group a few chapters together, but we're going chapter by chapter. It's sort of the goal. Tonight we are in chapter number 34. Before we dive into this, I want to ask you this question. Have you ever broken a promise so badly that it seemed irreparable? Like there was no way to fix it, no way to turn it around, like it just brought disastrous results in your life. Well, I think about what's been going on here in the book of Exodus, and I'm very, very thankful that the narrative reveals to us that we have a God who doesn't give up on His people even though they are unfaithful to Him. We think about this incredible covenant that God made with the nation of Israel, and do you remember after God made the covenant what the nation of Israel said? All this we will do. And they have failed miserably, haven't they? And you know, when you go through all of this, you think, man, this is over. This is messed up. They violated the covenant. It's done with. It's over. But what we're to be seeing last week and here again tonight in chapter number 34 is that God's grace is coming to these people after their horrible failure. And so we're supposed to be seeing this about our God, is that God is such a forgiving God. He is so kind to His people. He is so forgiving. And that really becomes the theme of what we're studying here tonight. It's a little bit of a lengthy chapter. Three major divisions. I guess I'll take it up in that way instead of reading it all at once. Let's think about verses 1 through 9 first. And you'll remember last week I told you that since the covenant had been broken, for things to continue on with God's presence among the people and the tabernacle and all of that, the covenant needed to be renewed. And that's actually what we find here tonight as we study chapter number 34. But verses 1 through 9 give us some details to the preparations that had to take place for that covenant renewal. The Lord said to Moses, Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.' So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first, and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance. As these verses begin, what we actually have here is a bit of a restart. And so what is it that God is doing? God is giving instruction to Moses. And of course Moses was of an obedient disposition and that's exactly what he does. And so God is arranging the circumstances to give the tablets of stone back to the people of Israel Moses is told to cut him out, come up on the mountain. He's going to meet with God. God's going to write on the tablets of stone again. And so that's how this whole thing starts out. It's almost like a repeat of what had happened before when Moses had gone up on the mountain. And so it's a restart. And that's what's going on. There's instruction. There's obedience. And then what's incredible about this opening section is that as the Lord descended and came down and stood there with Moses and begins to talk with Moses, we have some of the most staggering words in all of the Bible concerning the revelation of who God is. And so God is giving Nick self-revelation to Moses. And what we find here are some of the attributes and some of the characteristics of God. If you say, I want to know who God is more and more, this is a great place to look. Notice I've already read it, but look at it again. The Lord's passing before me and there's a proclamation. The Lord is making a proclamation. He is telling Moses some things. Look at all of these attributes about God. And you've got to notice here before I read them, in verse 7 there's a but. And so we're going to see one side of the equation and then another side of the equation. It's pretty interesting. He's a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Now that's wonderful in light of everything that's just happened. You know, it's almost like a whopping of the brow going, whoo, I'm glad he's like that. Because we've really blown it. We've really messed it up. And God is a merciful God. But notice the but there in verse 7. That's interesting. "...but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation." Well, I kind of like that first bit, but not that second bit so well. What's interesting is... I want you to simmer on that for a moment. Let me move on and I'll come back to that here in just a second. So verses 1 through 4, you've got this restart. Here you have the self-revelation of God. And then Moses, after getting this revelation, makes a request to God. You notice there, first off, he quickly bows down. He's worshiping the Lord. That's great, isn't it? There's revelation of the Lord, and that's followed up by worship. Is that ever your experience when the Word of God is preached, you get revelation from the Scriptures? Maybe the Holy Spirit's working in your life to quicken some truth or remind you of something that you knew. Really, the posture of the believer is to respond to that worshipfully, isn't it? We praise God, we thank God, we get this new insight about who God is, and it should lead to this humility. I mean, beloved, anytime we get a grander vision of who God is, it should lead to humility in our life and a worshipful disposition. And I want to tell you, that can happen at 5 or 6 in the morning when you're doing your reading of the Bible and commuting with the Lord before you go to work. That can happen in the middle of the day when you're dwelling on who God is. You may be thinking about this passage tomorrow at work and have to just bust out and praise and worship to the Lord because of these truths that are quickened to your soul. Moses gives us a good example of what that's supposed to look like when we receive revelation of who God is. In any revelation of God, really, it leads to this worshipful disposition. And then Moses, in that posture of humility and worship, he comes right alongside that and he makes a request of the Lord. This is going to sound familiar to you. If I found favor in your sight, oh Lord, you have to go in the midst of us. I know Lord, we're a stiff-necked people as well, and so we need pardon, and our iniquity needs to be pardoned, and we need forgiveness. I mean, we've been sinful, and I want you to take us for your inheritance. And so you see the heart of Moses. If I found favor in your sight, go with us. Do you remember that from the previous chapter? Lord, what's the use? What value is it of moving on ahead if you're not going to go with us? I mean that attitude of heart for Moses is kind of what really set the stage for the covenant needing to be renewed. Because if God's going to go with them, the covenant's got to be renewed. There can't be this God meeting outside of the camp. God has to be in the camp. God has to dwell in the tabernacle. And for that to happen, this covenant that's been broken has to be renewed, right? So this is the heart of Moses. Think about that, beloved. Do you approach life that way yourself? That you say, Lord, what use is facing this day unless you go with me? Lord, how can I make this decision? How can I take this path? How can I go here? How can I do that if you don't go with me? And Lord, if you do go with me, that solves so many of my problems because I don't have to know everything as long as you go with me. You see, that means everything, doesn't it? That's Moses' heart. So think about this. There's worship of the Lord for the revelation that he received from the Lord. There's this humble disposition that is praying to the Lord that he'll go with the people, that he'll be with them. And then the third idea here is that he's asking for the forgiveness of the people. Lord, we're stiff-necked people, people of iniquity, people of sin. We need forgiveness. Now, let me just pause there for a moment before we move on. This request of Moses in asking for forgiveness, when you read back about how God has revealed Himself, don't we find a little bit of a dichotomy here? And the question is, how do you harmonize the verses that we read there from verses 5 to 7? Now, I want you to think about it. Go back. The Lord has revealed Himself to be merciful and gracious. Right? He keeps steadfast love, forgives iniquity and transgression and sin. Moses is asking for that forgiveness for the people. But then it also says, oh, but by no means will He clear the guilty. Wait a minute. That requires some harmonization, doesn't it? It's a dichotomy, it's a dilemma, it's a problem. And so, what would be the teaching of the Scripture in regards to how those attributes of God are harmonized? How can God forgive sins, which the Bible says He does. How many of you read that in the Bible, that God forgives sins? We read it right here, didn't we? How can God forgive sins, which the Bible says He does, without compromising His holy character, which the Bible says He won't. Will God compromise His holy character? No. He can't do it. So that becomes the big question of the Bible all the way until the Lord reveals the ultimate resolution to that dichotomy, to that problem. You know it well, but the answer is found in a name. It's in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 3, picking up in verse 23, says this, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's not just Israel. That's us too, right? That big all. Alright, well how is that problem solved? Well, there's justification that takes place by the grace of God as a gift. Where do I find that gift? It's through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance He passed over former sins. Okay, look. God didn't obliterate the nation of Israel after they broke the covenant, did He? They still lived. They moved on. God passed over. God was patient concerning those sins in terms of dealing with all of those sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. You see, there was a time in history when God put forward as a public demonstration to the world that He deals with all sin. And that public demonstration took place some 2,000 years ago on a hill called Calvary when He placed His Son on the cross and poured His wrath out on His Son. Why did God placard His Son on a cross for the whole world to see and to hear about? It's because in that moment God was declaring Himself righteous. You see, because in the past, God passed over. God made pronouncements of sins forgiven. Do you believe that David was a sinner? Do you believe David was forgiven? You believe you'll see David in heaven? What about Moses? Do you think Moses was a sinner? You believe Moses was a forgiven sinner? You'll see him in heaven? How could God forgive all of them? How can He forgive Moses and David and other Old Testament saints? God forgave them. God made pronouncements that they were forgiven. But the way that He forgave is the same way He forgives you. There's not different ways of forgiveness in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The people who participated in the Law Covenant and the sacrifices, they weren't forgiven any different than you. All that Law Covenant did, all those sacrifices did was paint a picture, and teach people that it required sacrifice, and that one day God would bring an ultimate sacrifice, and the ultimate sacrifice was the Son. And on that great day, He put Christ forward as a satisfaction to declare to the world that God is righteous, and that He deals with all sin, and that forgiveness has a basis. And that it's through the Lord Jesus Christ that the dichotomy that we read about these attributes of God in Exodus 34, it's there that they're solved. It's on the cross that these issues are solved. Isn't that wonderful? Aren't you thankful that God didn't compromise His holy character to forgive? He couldn't. It wouldn't be real forgiveness. God would cease to be God if He compromised His holy character. And He won't do it, and He can't do it, and He didn't do it. He satisfied it. And that's why verse 26 of Romans 3 is so important and so striking and so valuable where it says, God did it this way, this was His plan, this was His method, so that He would be just and the justifier of the wicked. He maintains His justice, satisfies His justice, but also because of Christ as a substitute, He can justify the wicked. I'm so thankful for that truth. That's the only basis by which we can be forgiven. And so the resolution of these incredible verses about who God is ultimately is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's move on as we pick up there in verse number 10. And what does your Bible say at the top of verse 10? The covenant renewed. This is again the grace of God. The gracious renewal of the covenant is what we see here. There's a lot of verses here. This actually takes us all the way to verse 28. Let me just read a little bit as we go on. Look at verse 10 and 11. And He said, Behold, I am making a covenant, and before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. You know, I think what's interesting about this portion of Scripture, if you took somebody who was a little bit new to the Bible, and they hadn't really read beyond this too far, Now I know you've read the Bible and so you've read these things before, but if you think about those verses, I think it's great because God is making promises about what He's going to do. He's talking about doing marvels. He's talking about doing amazing things with these different nations that He's going to drive out and deal with as His people end up taking on the land. And I read that and I think, wow, this is going to be exciting. What kind of marvels am I going to encounter as I read the Bible, as I think about the story of God and as He worked with His people? Beloved, sometimes, let's be honest, we're so familiar with the things of God, sometimes we forget to marvel at the things that God wants us to marvel at. We should read that and say, this is exciting! What's going to happen next in the story of the nation of Israel? This is part of the covenant. This is part of what God is saying He's going to do for the people that He is in covenant with. And basically, the big promise here in these verses is that God is going to do incredible things to drive out Israel's enemies and establish Israel as His people. Verse 12, I have it underlined in my Bible. What's it say? Take care. So God has some warnings here for His people. Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go. Why would it be dangerous for them to make a covenant with the people of the land? Because they're not in covenant with the people of the land, they're in covenant with God. You need to take care. Because if you do this, it's going to be a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars, and break their pillars, and cut down their ashram. For you shall worship no other God. For the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. And when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and you are invited to eat of His sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods, and make your sons whore after their gods, you shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal." What's all that warning about? Well, the people, as they travel on and as they make their sojourn to the land of promise, God is telling them ahead of time that they are going to meet pagan peoples that already occupy the areas that they're going to be going through. God's making great promises. You follow me. You be true to the covenant that you're in with me. Let me deal with the enemies. Let me do marvelous things to show myself to be your powerful God. You trust me. You lean on me. And as you go through and as you see men, as you see these beautiful foreign women that belong to these pagan nations, don't allow your heart to be set on them. Don't take foreign wives. Women, don't take foreign husbands. Don't pay any attention to their false gods. Don't worship their gods. Don't make other altars. And then verse 17 has to be just a little bit of a... It's kind of like God sticking his hand out and doing the kind of pop across the face a couple times saying, You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal. Why would he say that? Hello, the Golden Gaff. We've already done that. Let's not have a repetition of that. And let's obey God. That's the idea here. God is giving them this massive warning. You have to watch out for alliances. There's a lot of truth in that for us, isn't there? Matter of fact, this idea is picked up on in the New Testament. You know, we're not to be of the world. We're not to, you know, we're to be separate. We're to be distinct as the people of God. We're not to be in league with the unconverted world around us and not to do the things that the world does. It's the same idea. Well, verse 18, as we keep on reading here. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread seven days. You shall eat unleavened bread as I commanded you at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. All that open the womb are mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep, the firstborn of the donkey. You shall redeem with the lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and none shall appear before Me empty-handed. Six days you should work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders. No one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover remain until the morning. The best of the firstfruits of the ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk." Now what in the world is all of that about? Well, what we have here in these verses is that God is basically restating many of the key elements of the law. This is part of the Law Covenant. There's feasts. We just read about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Firstborn Redemption, the Sabbath, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of In-Gathering. We have this household faithfulness that's supposed to be demonstrated by the heads of the family. There's prohibitions in verse 25 and 26 of things not to do. And so what God is doing there, He's just restating these important elements that are there with the Law. And then verse 27 and 28. The Lord said to Moses, write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. These are the covenant stipulations of the king, is the idea. So he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant. The what? The Ten Commandments, which is the summary of the Ten... of the law, of the law covenant. So, the covenant was supposed to be written in stone. Why do you suppose it needed to be written in stone? Obviously, it was so it would be remembered, so the people would know that they were in covenant with God. Never supposed to forget that is the idea. Now look, as we look at those verses, verse 10 all the way to verse 28, I think the thing that's being highlighted here is the idea of the distinctiveness of the people of God. We've already talked about that a little bit, but everywhere you look in the Bible, whether it's Old Testament or New Testament, there is this message that's being spoken, and that is that the people of God are a unique people. They're different from the rest of the people in the world. Now, right here in the Law and Covenant with a big ol' section like this, I mean, you've got a lot of verses that are pointing that out and talking about that. And in the New Testament, it comes to us in shorter statements, but the idea is exactly the same. In 1 Peter chapter number 2, listen to this, verses 9 to 12. Just turn to it. Go ahead and turn to it. You can flip over to it pretty quick. Look at it with me. 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 9 through 12. Incredible passage of Scripture that really teaches the exact same thing for the people that are in the New Covenant to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same idea. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9. But you are a chosen race. Was the nation of Israel a chosen people? Yes, of course. A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession. That's what the covenant is all about. That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. See the connection? Above darkness you can actually just write out of Egypt into the promised land. That was the story for Israel. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among who? Among the Gentiles, the outsiders, the people who don't belong to God. Keep it honorable. so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Wow, what a powerful New Covenant parallel. The idea is that the people of God, listen, the people of God are supposed to have a unique identity. Here's another word we hear a lot in today's times. It's the word culture. There's a culture out there in the world, right? Today's culture, we've all heard that. Christians are supposed to have a distinct and a unique culture. As a matter of fact, I'd go so far as to say we have a responsibility as Christians to set forth the God-prescribed culture. In our life, in our own circles, beginning in our homes and expanding out as far as we can in terms of influence, what should we be doing as believers? We should be demonstrating the ways of God, the purposes of God. There should be a unique way in which we live that's different than the world around us, there is a unique culture that's supposed to be set forth, certainly, so that the Gentiles of the world, the pagans of the world, would recognize the difference, would inquire about what's so different about Christians, and ultimately would come to salvation and glorify God. That's the end goal. That's the purpose. That's what we're supposed to do. But another reason that we have culture, and we have an identity, and we do certain things, we set up memorials, and we have traditions, and we have distinctives, it's so that we remember who we are. You know, the Lord in the New Covenant Church has given us two memorials, so to speak, hasn't He? What are those things? Two ordinances. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. It's beautiful really when you think about it because on a regular basis, however regular that may be, it's different for different churches. Sometimes it's weekly, sometimes monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, whatever. The point is, is that the Lord has set up those memorials so that we constantly remember who we are and who we're connected to. There's other legitimate things too that can highlight our identity. Certain traditions that we create in our families, for example, that point to the goodness of God. We think about even as a nation with Christian roots. Think of some of the holidays that we have. Think of Thanksgiving. Where does that come from? That comes from the heart of those believers back then who were thankful to the God of heaven who brought them to the new world so they could live out their faith in peace so as to glorify God and build a city set on a hill. That was really their mission. That was what was on their heart. I remember when Brother Stuart Allyot came in. We were talking about the difference between America as a nation versus where he lives as a nation. He said, Yeah, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving. That's unique to you Americans. I hadn't really thought about that like that until somebody from the outside made that statement. That's a unique American tradition, isn't it? That has Christian roots. I think things like that are really good for us as a people, aren't they? I think it's good for us to do things like that in our home, things in the church. Traditions aren't bad in and of themselves. When is it that traditions become bad? Traditions become bad when you elevate those things above the commandments of God and that which is revealed by God. But I think traditions and remembrances and things that can point to our Christian distinctives, those are wonderful things. You know, as Christians, we eat a meal, we pray before we eat, right? When we pray, what is everybody being reminded of? Let's say you show some hospitality and somebody that's not a Christian comes to your home. And you want to just show them the love of the Lord Jesus and hopefully look for an opportunity to witness. And they're pagan. They don't pray. They don't thank God for the food that's set before them. But you, what do you do? You bless the name of the Lord for providing that meal and here's that pagan listening to you do it. That's uniquely Christian, isn't it? And I think that's what this is talking about. God has set up in His covenant for these people things that are very unique to the people of God that says to the whole world, you belong to another. I wonder, are we living in such a way where people know that our life and our heart and our soul and our affection belongs to another? That's a really good thing to think about. So we need to, as part of our Christian identity, demonstrate that culture, build culture, build identity, live those things out so that people can see God at work in our life. Well, let's move on. We go to verse number 29. And what we see here is that the glory and the presence of God is being revealed through a mediator, Moses. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone. And they were afraid to come near to him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward, all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining, and Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him. Let me give you three observations from that section there. In verse 29, We see that being in the presence of God changed Moses. Moses came out different than he went in. Wow, that's a powerful truth, isn't it? Our communion with the Lord should do the same thing to us. Is that when we commune with the Lord and come out of the closet and the secret place with God, there should be a glow. There should be something radiating about our life. Another observation there is that Moses' being in the presence of God also had a profound effect upon those who were around Moses. You notice the people, when they saw Moses, I think this is really interesting. In verse 30 it says, "...they were afraid to come near him." I wonder if our walk with the Lord and the effect that it has upon our lives causes people to encounter a little bit of a holy fear. You ever have that experience around other Christians where you feel an intimidation, not necessarily because of the person's natural temperament or whatever, but there was an intimidation being around them because you knew that they were a holy person. They were a godly person. They were someone you knew walked with the Lord. And there was just a little bit of an intimidation in being around them. I think that's what's happening here with Moses. He's been with God. The people are obviously a little bit afraid because he's been in the presence of God. He's radiating the glory of God. Which brings us to another truth. There in verse 34 that I read to you where you got this whole deal going on about the veil. He's having to veil his face in some measure. I think that observation there shows us that unless protections and provisions and preparations are made, like mediation like we see here, men cannot handle the glory of God. Moses has the veil because when the people saw Moses and they saw the glory of God radiating through the life of Moses, what do you think was going on in their own soul as they thought about themselves? Listen, holiness and glory always exposes something about ourselves, which is what? Sin. That's what's happening to the people. The reason they're afraid in the presence of holiness is because it exposes sin. And we learn the truth here as we see in other places in the Old Testament that makes itself clear in the New Testament is the reality that mediation is needed. There has to be preparations. You can't see glory, you can't come in contact with the holy God and the glory of God without a mediator. And Moses is the mediator for the people of God which speaks incredible truth to us as it concerns spiritual realities. Look, I want you to turn to another text. Go to 2 Corinthians 3 for a moment. What Paul does here in 2 Corinthians 3, this is a chapter in the New Testament that directly refers to Chapter 34 in Exodus. So everything that we've just been studying there about the shining face of Moses, Paul is picking up on that in 2nd Corinthians to teach us some incredible truths concerning a contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Alright, test time. Here's a quiz. Alright? In Exodus chapter 34, when the covenant was renewed, what covenant are we talking about? The mosaic, the old covenant. By the time Christ comes into the world and does all that He does, He inaugurates what covenant? The new covenant. Well done! You get an A in class. Alright? If we have an old covenant and we have a new covenant, it's important to understand the difference between those covenants. Wouldn't you agree? Paul does exactly that in 2 Corinthians, and here's how he's framing it. What Paul wants to tell us is that the Old Covenant certainly had a glory to it, didn't it? I mean, we see that in 34 because the people are gazing at Moses' glory. There's a glory to the Old Covenant. Certainly that's true. But the New Covenant surpasses the Old Covenant in glory. Alright? Listen to this. Let's read. Pick up verse 7, chapter 3. Now, if the ministry of death, that's talking about the Old Covenant, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, and that was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? Alright, pause. What's the ministry of death? That's the Old Covenant. Alright? What's the ministry of the Spirit? That's the New Covenant. For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, that's the Old Covenant, because the Old Covenant couldn't save, right? All it did was expose sin. The Old Covenant was a ministry of condemnation. Then the ministry of righteousness, that's the New Covenant, must far exceed it in glory. In other words, if the New Covenant has salvific power and the Old Covenant didn't have salvific power, which one has more glory? It's the one that has the salvific power. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. What does that say about the New Covenant? The New Covenant is what, class? Permanent. Is there another covenant to come after the New Covenant? No! Alright, get this. If the New Covenant is permanent and you're in it, what does that say about your situation? It's permanent. Amen. Isn't that glorious? Alright, watch. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened, for to this day when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted. Because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, wherever Moses is rid, a veil lies over their hearts. But, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. What do you think of that? Alright, listen to this. Listen to a few things. In light of the new covenant, When you compare the New Covenant to the Old Covenant, the Old Covenant is actually a veil that hides the glory of God. Anybody who's trying to relate to God on the basis of law will never see the glory of God. No one who is seeking righteousness by law-keeping will ever attain to righteousness. And if you don't attain to righteousness, you don't see the glory of God. You don't experience the glory of God. Isn't it so sad how many people, even that sit in church, still live with the attitude of, I have to commend myself to God. As long as a person approaches God that way, they will never ever see the glory of God. Okay? What fixes that? Well, Paul said it a couple times here, and it really is strong in verse 17. Look at verse 17. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. What takes away the veil? Only through Christ, verse 14, the veil is taken away. So Christ and the New Covenant, that alone allows people the freedom to see the glory of God. And so the New Covenant and the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the provision from God to us. That's the protection. That's the mediation. That's what allows us to see ultimately the glory of God and not be consumed by that glory. Without the covering, without the mediation of Jesus, without Him being there in our stead, the glory of God that's meant to bring joy and delight to your soul would consume you. You know, when I think about the fact that God has made a provision through His Son so that we can see and experience the glory of God, I am amazed on even another level of the love and the kindness and the mercy of God to humanity. I mean, the Bible says that God demonstrated His love for us and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. But think about what the death and the resurrection of Christ gave access to. It didn't just save us from the negative stuff. It actually opened up a pathway to such positive realities, the ultimacy of which is believers throughout all of eternity will experience and will embrace the glory of God and will not be consumed by that glory. That is the power of the New Covenant. That is why the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of the New Covenant, therefore Paul says, what does he say in verse 1 of chapter 4? Therefore having this ministry, which is a mercy of God, we don't lose heart. The ministry, the Christian ministry, which is a ministry that ministers the New Covenant, is the most glorious thing in the world because it opens up access to the glory of God. Wow. That's absolutely amazing. Now get this. Last thing. If you look there in verse number 18, what does Paul say is happening to the people who are in this New Covenant? And we all with, what's that word say? Unveiled face. We're beholding the glory of the Lord. And look at this. And our being, what's the word? transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. And that is blessing upon blessing because not only are we gazing at the glory of the Lord, we really see because we have eyes to see through the Lord Jesus Christ. We only see in part right now, but the good news is that you really do see the glory of God, don't you, if you're a Christian? You see how glorious He is. You do see that. But the added blessing on top of that, the text says that we're being transformed into the same image. In other words, our life is taking on the characteristic of the glory of God and that's growing in our life. When you grow as a Christian, you are glowing in the ability to radiate the glory of God to other people. And so as Moses radiated the glory of God when he came off the mountain to other people, every single Christian as they behold the Lord with unveiled face, unrestricted access to God. You can get all God you want of Him. You have access. You can take Him in. And when that happens, you're going to grow. And one way to define Christian growth is that there is a glory that radiates off of your life. That's a neat way to think about growth as a Christian, isn't it? That you're growing in glory. Do you demonstrate, because of your pressing into God this year, more glory radiating from your life than you demonstrated last year? That's a great way to think of Christian growth. that we're growing in glory, that we commune with God, we see Him through Christ. We have all of the blessings given to us because of Jesus. No restrictions. We see God through Christ and we're being transformed into that so that we, as we live in this world... This is why Paul would say in other places, you shine as light in the world. What do you mean we shine as light? You radiate the glory of God and so you give off light in the world. And I think that that is just absolutely wonderful. That you're a reflector of the glory of God if you're in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me close. Big picture pullback. If you think about chapter 34, I told you it had three divisions. If you go back and read it later and think about these connections I've made in the New Testament to Christ, if you look at chapter 34 through the lens of Jesus, I think that you can come to understand at least three things. Certainly there's more than that, but at least three things. This chapter teaches us something about forgiveness, doesn't it? Moses said, forgive these people. How can that happen? God's merciful, yes, but by no means will He clear the guilty. The chapter teaches us, if we impose Christ on the chapter, we come to understand that through Christ we have forgiveness. The chapter also teaches us something about uniqueness. Because through Christ, we are made unique and distinct. The third thing it teaches us is that through Christ, we behold the glory of God. And as you go home and as you reflect on these verses of chapter 34, maybe you can just remember those three words. Forgiveness, uniqueness, and glory. If you're a Christian here tonight, aren't you thankful for all of that? If you're not a believer here tonight, you need to press in. You need to come to God through Christ. You need to humble yourself before the Lord. If you're trying to approach God through law, stop. Repent of it. Just turn from that bankrupt way because there's a greater glory. There's a greater message and it's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And it's the covenant of the Spirit and that's the way to behold the glory of God. You'll never see the glory of God without an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you don't have Him, I pray you'll run to Him. And today is the day. Not tomorrow. I'm not telling you to run to Him later. I'm not telling you to go home and think about it. I'm telling you that today is the day of salvation. This is the day that you run to the Lord Jesus. Amen? Father in Heaven, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this chapter. I pray, Father, it's been enlightening to Your people and helpful. Lord, thank You for these wonderful, wonderful truths that have been preserved for us. Lord, I know we just barely scratched the surface of all that's there, but I just pray we see Jesus tonight, Lord, through the passage. Bless Your people, help them as they go throughout the week, that they would discover wonderful things about their salvation, wonderful things about the inheritance that they have in Jesus. And Father, if there's one here tonight that doesn't know You, I pray, Father, that You would open up their eyes and that they would see Jesus. In His name we pray, Amen.