461. All of you know it, or most of you know it? 461, do you know it? Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul. Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God. Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within. Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee can rid me of this dark unrest and set my spirit free. Thy grace alone, O God, to me can pardon speak. Thy power alone, O Son of God, can this sore bondage break. No other work save thine, no other blood will do. No strength save that which is divine, can bear me safely through. I bless the Christ of God, I rest on love divine, and with unfaltering lip and heart, I call the Savior mine. His cross dispels each doubt I bury in His tomb Each thought of unbelief and fear Each lingering shade of gloom I praise the God of grace I trust His truth and mine He calls me His, I call Him mine My God, my joy, my light, it is he who saveth me and freely pardoned gives. I love because he loveth me. I live because he lives. That's a good one. Was that the first time for any of you to have sung that? It was? You too? I like it, it's a good one. And filled with meaning, and if there's something that's unmistakable about it, it's sovereign grace. That isn't what we sing of there, it's not synergism. So, put it in those terms. Okay, well why don't we open up or continue, but let's pray together, shall we? And I'll ask Jerry if you wouldn't mind leading us in prayer. Almighty God, the words of this hymn, Lord, it's not what my hands have done, but it's all of you, Lord, from beginning to end, it began in your mind, and you chose each one of us. baptized into him. Father, cement that truth in our minds and in our hearts today. Be with our pastor as he teaches us, and oh Lord, let all glory, all praise belong to you through Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, what other requests have you? 535. 535. I'm sure everybody knows this one, right? Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus Lasts unmeasured, boundlessly Rolling as a mighty ocean In its fullness over me Underneath me, all around me, is a current of Thy love. Leading onward, leading homeward, to Thy glorious rest above. O the deep, deep love of Jesus, Spread his praise from shore to shore. How he loveth, ever loveth, Changeth never, nevermore. How He watches o'er His loved ones, nigh to call them all His own. How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o'er them from the throne. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best. "'Tis an ocean vast of blessing, "'Tis a haven sweet of rest. "'O the deep, deep love of Jesus, "'Tis a hymn of thanks to me. And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee. I like it. How about 533? 533. Did we do that before? Seemed like we did. Oh, no. This one we have. You know what? We have done this. Well, it's been a number of months. When we tried it, it failed terribly. So I didn't have the courage to try it again. But you guys are my choir. You see? We practice here, and then you go in the service, and then you carry the load. So we're going to do this. Maybe this is the one I'm thinking of. Ah, the music. I've run into that many times over the years. I remember I'd never sung out of this particular hymnal 33 years ago. That's the first time I sang out of it. I thought, oh, I know this one. So you're ready to sing it? I sing out, and I'm, oh, wait. It's wrong music. Because I knew the other tune for it. This one is, I am thine, O Lord. Is that this one? Yes. That's the same. I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice, and it told thy love to me. But I long to rise in the arms of faith, and be closer drawn to thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, and my will be lost in thine. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. O the pure delight of a single hour that before thy throne I spend. When I kneel in prayer and with thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. There are depths of love that I cannot know till I cross the narrow sea. There are heights of joy that I may not reach till I rest in peace with Thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. Let me put this up here. Well, let's return to Exodus 33 and go into 34. When you think of Mount Sinai and you think of Moses interceding on behalf of the people there, we realize that he spent 40 days and 40 nights up there, you see, in 34, for example, without eating. And so fasting those 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. By the way, does that remind you of someone else? Yeah, it's Jesus Christ. We've mentioned before how, you know, Matthew is one of those books. Well, in parts of all the Gospels really, but especially Matthew, that you see a deliberate parallelism between Moses and the ministry of Jesus Christ, I believe. And when you think here of what we're looking at in this text, we think of the horrible sin that's occurred of the Israelites, that even though, you know, here we come 32 chapters, at least biblically speaking, since the extraordinary miracles and grace and demonstration of power and love the Lord had for the Israelites, how they could so completely apparently turn to a false God. And it's fascinating and yet frightening to consider the, well, what you find here that the gods, you know, you think of Leviticus 17.7, you think of Deuteronomy, what is it, 36.7 or something like that, 35.17, or 35.17, whatever it is, it talks about, I'd even mention New Testament, 1 Corinthians 10, verses 18 and the like. where it mentions the fact that the gods, that is to say, the idols and that which they represent, the entities they represent and that kind of thing, and the ones to whom they sacrificed, it mentions that, and even talks about sacrificing their children, so it'd have to be Baal or Molech, probably, one of those two. It says that they're actually worshiping demons, And it's fascinating, I know we're not in Colossians at the moment, but just some stuff you might care to know. Thrones, principalities, powers, dominions, all those words you've seen in the New Testament. And if you look, well, if you look in a number of writings of the pagans, and we may do that by the time we get to chapter two, I may mention a few, a couple. They would, in their language, they would actually talk about their idol that says represented daimon. Now you can hear it in English. It sounds like it right out of Greek. That their god, they would equate their god with the word daimon, a demon. And so when you think That's very biblical, actually. You know, they hear these pagans are equating these, but they were thinking of it in a good way. You know, there were all kinds of things they believed in. They believed that you could use them for good, you know, to protect you. and you could use them for good, these false gods to provide for you, you know, rains for your crops and whatnot, and protect you, defend you from your enemies, from invasion, that they were good to put curses on people. You ever heard of someone putting a hex on you? And of course, you know, you can always knock on wood, you know, if someone says something, or don't say that, don't say that, you know, And you even have other pagans talking about, don't use that language because you're speaking this into your life. Ever heard that? In religious circles here in America? Word faith? That, or heard of it, read of it? Where they speak in that fashion where, you know, words create the reality. And so the idea here is, anyway, as you look at the pagan practice here, Israel, you know, made the big turn when Moses was up on the mountain. And so anyway, when you see that Moses is here, remember everything that has occurred, that there was, you know, eventually the confrontation that who would be on the Lord's side, the Levites come to the aid of Moses. And he says, take out your sword and take it out, use it against your brethren. And so they go throughout the camp. And there's God's corporal punishment that he is the one commanding and he's the one who is causing this to be so as a punishment of the lost of these reprobates who would worship false gods and chastisement for those who would tolerate it to show them. And by the way, what else did he do? That was a terrible, terrible punishment. Well, he sent plagues, too. That's true. But I was thinking of something else, and you couldn't read my mind, so that was a good answer, but he did something else that was a terrible, terrible punishment. The Lord said, I will not go among them. The tabernacle, right, was moved. Not yet a tabernacle, it was a tent of meeting. was moved outside the camp, that's right, far from the camp, actually. But anyway, as you see, the presence of God not among his people, that was cause of great mourning. And by the way, we should think in those terms, too. That's why I'm rushing to that, is we should think of terms. Now, what does the Bible say about the spirit of adoption and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and that sort of thing in the believer? First of all, how many believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit? Well, the ones who speak in tongues, obviously, because they have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. No. No. Put down the stones. I was being facetious. No, but I was bringing that up for a very good reason. How many of the believers, and I think I heard it, how many of the believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit? New Covenant, right? At Christ's ascension, he sent the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, in these last days, indwells every believer. But what else about the ministry of the Holy Spirit? Think of the Ordo Salutos, think of the idea of adopted into Christ and also into God's family, and you have the seal, they have the spirit of adoption and they have the seal unto the day of redemption. So when you think of those things, that this is, you know, the idea that the Lord indwells those who are his and he keeps those who are his. by this indwelling spirit and sealed now by, what will he do to believers? Can they lose the spirit of God? You say, well, of course, because I read it in Psalm 51, where it says, take not your Holy Spirit from me. And we've gone through that and mentioned, okay, here's, first of all, Old Covenant, New Covenant, but remember the ones who were, the Holy Spirit was upon them, and you would have maybe a couple of exceptions, but upon whom or with whom was the spirit dwelling? Kings, prophets, and priests. Okay, so kings, prophets, and priests, you say, that's right. And so you have, you know, that's a principle that's a common principle in the Old Testament. Now, and so when we think of this then, and we think of what's happening in the Old Testament, those who are truly the Lord's people were ultimately historically fast-forwarding through time and history beyond their lifetimes, they were saved in retrospect in union with whom? In Jesus Christ. So all those sacrifices and everything were types anticipating the ultimate once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Okay. So here we've got this mediator and the Lord here in this entire situation is showing the demonstrating, showing forth, and even foreshadowing the ministry of the ultimate mediator. And that would be Jesus Christ too. And so Moses here is interceding on behalf of these sinful people. And remember, there were those who, the Lord had executed by means of his priests in this case, but the rest who remained, you've got the people that are being interceded for with Moses. And so we've looked through that a bit, and we've talked about how Moses said when we left off last time, he says, Lord, if you will not go with us, then do not lead us from this place. If you will not go, then let us stay right here. There's no use going on. And we talked about what the promises of God were in the promised land. The promised land was, this would be a land, it's not just it'd be a prosperous land flowing with milk and honey, although that was promised, but it was, it's not just that they would be given it as an inheritance, you know, that the, all of the pagan peoples who indwelt it would be disinherited, right? And, but it is the fact, the greatest fact, that God would dwell in the midst of his people. And that would go through progressions, you know, where not just a tabernacle, but it'd be ultimately a temple, you know, there'd be a city, the city of God, a Jerusalem, and et cetera. A king of God who would mediate his rule. So anyways, we look at this intercession by Moses, and this, all of this about the presence of the Lord Look at verse 14, just to remind you, it says, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. And then he said, if your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here, that's what I was talking about. For how then will it be known that your people and I have found grace in your sight except you go with us? And so we shall be separate, your people and I, from all the peoples who are upon the face of the earth. So in other words, God's people are sanctified unto him, and that demonstration and proof that they are sanctified unto the Lord is that the Lord is among them. Think of you and me. Think of the Holy Spirit. Think of the ministry of the Holy Spirit because of Christ's cross work, his active obedience, passive obedience, his ascension, he ever lives to make intercession for us, et cetera. We're in union with him and all the way carrying into it even an eschatological sense. And so when we put all that together back with this, it's not a temporary intercession Jesus does. Let's put it another way. Why do believers not fully and finally fall away? Now, can believers stumble? Can believers sin? Can believers even vacillate and look like they're backsliding and that sort of thing? Yes. And I've used the example, I think last time it was with Judas and Peter. You know, Judas never really was a believer. It was obvious he was there for, you know, that perhaps he would have power and influence and being the only one from the tribe of Jesus, right? Judah, et cetera. And anyway, Peter, when Judas ultimately regretted what he did, and Christ was taken to the cross, he went and committed suicide. So how did he end this life? Murder, right? Self-murder, but murder. Peter, what did he do? He denied the Lord three times. And so you know what happened with Peter, you know, he went out and wept bitterly. The Lord restored him. This was one who had weakened, who had lost his courage, and who denied the Lord, and all of that was terrible, but he was also one who realized everything he had done, and the great remorse that was over it, and also the idea of still believing in Jesus Christ, although weakly, by that I mean very weak, not every weak. So at the resurrection, remember, he ran to, news of the resurrection, he ran to the tomb, remember? And so this isn't someone who abandoned faith entirely. He was confused, as all the apostles were. But when Jesus rose again from the dead, he was there, ready to go. Peter lost the race. John liked it when that happens. Yes, John was faster, probably younger. And in any event, the big thing is not how fast we run that race, but if we endure. But the resurrection was given to a woman. Yep, yep. The first, our first eyewitness, I should say. But there were also a couple of other witnesses to the resurrected Christ who were not expecting it. The two men on the road to Emmaus, The Lord's grace. So in any way, as we look at this, and that's where I wanna go to, is the grace of God. Before we get there in the next chapter, I wanna look at verse 17. Let's look at 16 first. For how did we be known except you go with us, so we shall be separate, your people, I and all the people, from the face of the earth. Let me, one more comment or two about that. You know, the Bible talks about our being separated unto the Lord, that we have been set apart. Everything that God, or a lot of the things that God gave in the, well, take, for example, in his law, but think, for example, not just ceremonial, but the dietary laws, or think of the statuary laws, and the other things that were involved, and see how they were set apart doing things in the way God had ordained. And they, I remember, had the feasts. I remember three of those feasts where they would go to, you know, Jerusalem eventually, and to the temple, and they would observe those unto the Lord. And there were several things that would set them apart, but one big thing that would set them apart was the Sabbath, right? And it was, if you recall, for example, Leviticus 25 and 26, we aren't there yet, but some of you are familiar with it. The Lord gave the Sabbath, and he talks about how he gave the Sabbath as a sign between him and his people, the Jews. And he said, even their land, now remember this was a theocracy in the land that he was giving them, all of this typological and et cetera, okay. So he gives them Sabbath in the land. So they have Sabbath weekly, of course, and they have Sabbath years, you know, every seven years, and then ultimately 49, 50th year jubilee, et cetera, were to be observed. Of course, they blew that last one there, and maybe a couple of times they observed it. But the point here being that was a sign to set them apart, that God would provide for them. So with weather and fruitfulness of the soil and everything, protection from, you know, blight and insects and everything else, that God would do that as they were faithful to him in the land, right? Remember, theocracy, that's important to remember, old covenant. So if they didn't do it, God would bring certain curses upon them. He said, I'll punish you seven times. And ultimately we see in Daniel, quoting Jeremiah, and in 2 Chronicles and Ezra, all of them reporting that that was the reason for the 70 years in exile, at least one of the biggies. So they were set apart in a very special way, and the Lord being among them. And so when you think of these people, they were to be If there's anything we should say they should be is worshipers. Would you agree? Worshiping the one true God in God's way and in God's place. And so in verse 18, he said, please show me this Moses to the Lord of your glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you. I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face for no man can see my face and live. Let's start with a part about I have compassion on whom I have compassion. This is quoted, of course, probably most of you know this, it's quoted over in the book of Romans. And there the Lord is in chapter nine, you know, and he uses this, that's a chapter that whole chapter is a big one emphasizing the fact that it's according to God's choice. Now, that's a chapter that flies in the face of an Arminian perspective. Now you can make the case, excuse me, you can make the case that there are single verses, maybe a couple of verses and that sort of thing, that the way they're worded, it does indeed sound like free will. You can agree with that, can you not? But as one looks at those, you have to take scripture as a whole and say, what is it teaching? And so there are those things that are within the context of history, where God gives the prophet a message, and the people that are listening don't realize that the end has been determined from the beginning, and yet God gives these things in a conditional way, knowing that things are going to be different. But here the Lord is making it clear about his choice of his people. Now, I've had people argue against it and say, well, yeah, but that's talking about a nation, Israel. As if that changes the principle. It does change the principle only to this degree. it multiplies it, right? Instead of an individual God has chosen, he's chosen a whole nation of individuals, right? And by the way, nation out of many nations. If you look at the table of nations, you know, early on, you look at all of the table of nations, and what do you have, 72 nations or so? that are there mentioned. And so you've got all these peoples. And by the way, nations really means peoples. They become geopolitical entities later. History, they've split up and do a multiply and all kinds of stuff. But anyway, it's peoples. So you think of those in China, you think of ancient China, you think of those in ancient India. You know, I'm looking at Kenneth back there and thinking of people groups. Or you think of Africa, the whole continent, but it's huge. You know, the continent of Africa, only Egypt, you know, is really involved early on, or maybe Ethiopia. And then you think of the Americas. How about North America? How about South America? How about, you know, Australia, New Zealand? You know, what about people all in lots of Europe? You know, all of Europe, and going over to Russia, looking at the whole globe, and here's teeny tiny Israel, and God said, I've chosen you. Now, if you're a good, if you're looking at it in a consistent Arminian fashion, what is the way one would react? God just say, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will, you know, choose whom I choose is the idea. Not fair is what they would say, correct? And you're right, it isn't fair. I will uphold that argumentation. It's not fair. Fair would mean this is what they deserve. How many would be lost if we got what we deserved? All of it. All. So the fact that God shows grace to any is all of grace, isn't it? And I know you, I'm preaching to the choir here, I think, but the whole point here is, as we look at this, I just wanted to remind you, you go back and look at Romans 9, it lays out a case that's even more powerful, you know, starting with twins. Jacob have I, while Rebecca was carrying the twins, in the womb it says, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. And so he starts from there making the argumentation. He says, it does not depend upon him who wills or him who runs, but upon God who has mercy. And so the point here is it's rooted, and this is the fundamental principle underlying it, isn't it? That salvation is not rooted in man's or humanity's nature. Because nature, it's a sin nature, so none will be saved. It's not rooted in the nature of mankind, it is rooted in the nature of God. Having said that, what does God say to Moses about his nature? That's why I introduced it that way. So it introduced, the text introduces itself that way. It says, I will make all my goodness, verse 19, pass before you. and proclaim the name of the Lord. That sounds odd to us, doesn't it? God's preaching to Moses his name. Well, you know, yeah. But we've gone through the idea of Lord, all caps, Lord, Yahweh or Jehovah. or Yehovah, there's been all kinds of theories, and Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, if you wanna just say the four Hebrew letters and be safe, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, the Lord. What does it mean, the I am? Remember, that's out of the burning bush. So here is the one who is self-existent. No one brought him into existence, and no one keeps him in existence. He is independent, not dependent. He is the one who is, you know, everlasting. You know, you think of this, this is talking about, you know, time, and we had this interesting discussion a bit ago about time and that kind of thing. And you think, this is the one who says, I am. And all others had a starting point, and time begins for them from that starting point. So he's proclaiming his name. I'm the one who is. Now what's implied as the I am, because all that exists owes its existence or our existence to him, the self-existent one. So what is implied? Creator. He is the one who created all things, right? And if his existence is that only independent existence and every other existence is dependent, right? That's what's implied in all of his name. that being the case, then the fact that we continue to exist, the fact that there is ongoing existence, and everything that goes on, and we're talking about, and this morning we'll touch on it again in Colossians 1, but it talks about Jesus Christ as creator, everything was created by him, everything was created through him, the agent of creation, and everything was created for him. It says three things. in one verse about Jesus, the Son. And so when you're looking at the triune God, right, the Holy Trinity, that He's pre-existent. He pre-existed anything created. But it says everything He created visible and invisible. That is to say spiritual beings invisible to us. And so you think of all of those in the heavenly places. Let's think of one who is especially ornery, especially wicked, especially ugly. He's got many names. He's called the serpent. He's called the dragon. He's called Satan and the devil. He's called Abaddon or Apollyon. He's called many things and all of it bad. And so when we're thinking of him, he was created. And that's important to remember, he's a created being and subject to the sovereign. And so when, as we go through this, God proclaims his name. Remember God gave his name in another very important sense, though, that goes back, refers to what we already touched on. He says, this is the only way we will be separate unto you, Lord, is if you're with us. Remember what Exodus 3.15 brought up, 3.14 brought up, that it is the idea that this is my covenant memorial name. So as we get explained or expounded for us in Hebrews 6, for example, about God and Abraham, and remember it says that God bound himself, did God have to make a promise? Did God have to do anything? Well, of course not. But God condescended to reveal himself to make promises to Abraham and to bind himself to these promises. And he said he gave an oath. He says men usually give an oath, right? But God vowed that he would do these things based upon, and it mentions two things in particular in Hebrews 6. Well, first of all, it's implied there that God's holy, right? So God cannot lie. And then another attribute of God, remember attributes are really talking about God's being and nature and that sort of thing. He cannot change. And so the fact that God made a promise, you know, it says men promised by something higher than themselves, nothing higher than God. and no one higher than God. And so he said, I will. What is the word that it's rooted in? I am. And he said, that is my covenant memorial name throughout your generations. Thinking of that then, when God proclaims the Lord, all of that is what's underlying what he's saying or getting at. I am. This shows, by the way, we've mentioned this a couple of times, so no need to go into it in depth, but this shows just how blasphemous it is when there are those, and the only ones I've heard, there may be others that do this, but the only ones I've heard actually use this I am and apply it to themselves are those of the Prosperity Gospel or Word Faith Movement. And you can readily recognize now the utter blasphemy that it is. Of course you did already, I mean, but it's absolutely out of the darkest corner of darkness to say that and apply it to oneself. And so God proclaims this to Moses. So I won't change and I gave promises. Now think of those things and will you go with this question that Moses posed? Well, it was a sort of a question. And the whole idea here is I can't change, I promised. Of course I'll go. Now, by the way, when God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, by the way, the burning bush illustrates the I am, right? the fire that continues, you don't see any fuel, it's not burning up the bush, continues to be self-sustaining and self, you know, everything is there rooted in the fire itself. And God says, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Some of you are familiar with that, with regard to, as we pointed out before, God is the God of the living, not of the dead. Okay, initially then, of those three men, to whom did God give the promise? Was it Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob? This is multiple choice. All of them. Well, all of, yes, of course. I said, well, which one first? Abraham. So Abraham. And yet, so in pursuit of the promises to Abraham, look at Genesis, excuse me, Exodus chapter two. It says, God looked upon their affliction and he remembered his covenant with Abraham and he acknowledged them. So in other words, God remembered his covenant that he had made a long time before, you know, over a thousand years prior, or I'm sorry, not over a thousand, 600 years prior. And so 430, but it's also other things going on when the promises were given. And so here you got half a millennium before that, God gave a promise and he's keeping it. And so God's keeping his promise here. So when God proclaims his name, and when you think of the names of God in the Bible, and proclaiming the name of the Lord, when he says name, he's talking about who and what he is. Now we might name a kid, you know, I remember in the army, when I went and processed in the army in the AP station, it's called, some of you may identify with it. You know, they give you all of this basic issue, they call it, you know, all your, you know, they give you fatigues and boots and belt and all kinds of stuff. And you get this one duffel bag, you know, you can identify with this. Well, you were West Pointer, maybe not. Anyway, they give you all of this stuff and you got to fit it all in that bag, you know, and it's enough for two duffel bags. And I weighed 137 soaking wet, you know. And so they had a guy that was there, I don't know how big he was, but if any of you guys know what a helmet liner is, and you got the webbing in it, you know, to keep it away, like that far around your head, you know, keep it away from your head. He had cut out all the webbing just to fit it on his head. Huge guy. And he came over and he helped me, and I'm trying to get all this in, I'm trying to stuff it in. Of course, they're yelling at you to hurry. He takes one time and he goes, And it all goes, you know, thank you. You know what they called him? Tiny. See, the name didn't mean anything with us. All of that was just to illustrate the funny thing about the name. But with God, you see, in the scriptures, it is a revelation of who and what He is. He proclaims the name of the Lord before him. And he says, I will be gracious to those I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on those I have compassion. So what is the Lord getting at here? Will you go with us? Will you stay with us? Lord, I promised. And secondly, I will show compassion. I will show grace. You can't guilt me into it. You can't manipulate me into it. You can't do anything, name it and claim it me into it. It is declare me into it, I guess you would say. I will be gracious and I will be because I bound myself by my nature to do so. And so the idea here is important for us to remember. as we have faith in Him and recognize Him and worship Him, it is to think of the reason we are here this morning is not because of us, entirely because of Him. And not what my hands have done, right? So in verse 20 he said, you cannot see my face, for no man can see my face and live. I'll just have an opportunity to touch on it. And I don't want to use it all anyway because I might use it in the sermon, so. Forgive me. Limited capacity, so I gotta save what I have, you know. And okay, no one can see my face and live, why? Over in Hebrews chapter 12, I think it's verse, or 10, verse 29, maybe it is. The Lord says, it says there about the Lord, The Lord is a consuming fire. It's 1229. The Lord is a consuming fire. And remember at first John chapter one where it says, you know, the God is light and in him is no darkness at all. When you think of the revelation, of the glory of God, think of the prophets. If anyone would, you would say, well, these are great guys and God called them and God empowered them and the Spirit was with them, certainly, you know, they would be able to handle seeing God face to face. And remember Elijah? Elijah had fled from the presence of Jezebel And he'd gone all the way back to here, by the way, Mount Horeb, Sinai. And there was a cave in there. And remember, he was so exhausted that he just collapsed, fell asleep. And he was awakened, you know, slap on the side by an angel. And here's a fire with fresh cakes of bread and water for him to eat and drink. So he does that a couple of times, you know, and here he is, you know, strengthened, recuperating from an incredible feat that beats a marathon. And suddenly, remember, there's an earthquake. There's a wind that blows. It's so bad it even breaks the rocks and all kinds of stuff. Can you imagine? I mean, wind breaking rocks. Anyway, the... Maybe it dislodged them and they fell and one broke another, who knows. The whole point here being, in all of that, he hears finally a still, small voice. Elijah, what are you doing here? What does Elijah do? He's seen the power of the wind, he's seen the power of the earthquake, but he's heard a still, small voice. What's his immediate reaction? He takes his mantle and covers up his face. Remember that? It's the Lord. And he recognized that. Isaiah chapter six. In Isaiah chapter six, remember, it says he saw the Lord high and lifted up in the temple and his train filled the temple and the portals shook and everything like that. And what is the reaction of Elijah? Great, I get to see God's face. No, he heard, you know, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory from the seraphim. And so he sees Seraphim, he sees this, and he recognizes the message that's being declared. It's declaring, like, this is what must be declared before God. His praise, the acknowledgement of Him, His glory goes before. There must be the acknowledgement of it. And here's the proclaiming of it, like you see here on this mountain. What does Elijah do? Woe, woe, that means, you know, cursed. Woe is me. from a man of unclean lips, immediate conviction of sin. Immediate, just the holiness of God has a convicting power upon the sinner. And so when he says, woe is me from a man of unclean lips, I dwell among a people of unclean lips, but that wasn't the worst of it. Mine eyes have seen the king. That's, I think, ultimately why it was, whoa, I'm undone. Remember, he was undone. That means I'm coming about to come apart. I'm going to be turned to ashes. Remember Nadab and Abihu that offered strange fire before the Lord? You know, that here we've got these priests, you know, descendants of Aaron, and so They didn't follow the directions exactly, and they took fire from the wrong place and put it on the altar of incense. And what did God do? Struck them dead. Fire goes out and strikes them dead. How about Uzzah? All of you remember Uzzah, right? I know it's not a name we name our kids much anymore or ever, but what did Uzzah do? Remember, they were wrong way, by the way, transporting the Ark of the Covenant You know, in the days of David, anyway, they got it on an ox cart, the priests are with it, and the oxen stumble, right, the oxen stumble, and the Ark of the Covenant does this, and Uzzah, good intentions, good intentions, reaches forth his hand to steady it. The fire goes out and God strikes him dead immediately. Yes, sir? I like what Sproul said about that, is he made the mistake of thinking that he was cleaner than the dirty ground. I like that. But the point here is, you see, the holiness of God, the being of God, and what God has declared holy. You know, as he says here, no man can see me and live. Why? Because we're descendants of Adam. We're merely, you know, feet of clay, we're merely creatures and he is creator. And so when we look here with Moses, we're gonna follow this development in the 34 and say, what does Moses want? He wants to see the glory of the Lord. You know, we already went through the fact that he spoke to him face to face. That means without a mediary, he spoke to him. but not face-to-face vision of God. So anyway, that's as far as we go today. Let's close in prayer. Our righteous Father, as we have touched on the surface of this text, it nevertheless moves us to worship. As we consider the being, your being, Father, your attributes, your glory, We don't think of it enough. We're too flippant. We don't take you seriously. We take you too lightly. If there's anyone in all existence never to take lightly, we realize, Father, it is you. And so, Father, may you give us hearts that are filled with deference to you, in exaltation of your name. And may we be they, Father, who proclaim the name of the Lord and the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. This we ask in Jesus' name, amen.