Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleShow Me Thy Glory
Bible TextExodus 33:18-23 34:5-9
Synopsis God’s glory is his dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ; God reveals his glory to his people in the face of Jesus Christ through faith. Listen
Date04-Oct-2020
Series Exodus 2016
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Show Me Thy Glory (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Show Me Thy Glory (128 kbps)
Length 38 min.
 
Series: Exodus 
Title: Show Me Thy Glory 
Text: Exodus 33: 18-23; 34: 5-9 
Date: October 4, 2020 
Place: SGBC, NJ 
 
Exodus 33: 18  And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. 
  
Everything of himself that the Lord had shown Moses only made Moses want to know the Lord more.  Moses saw the Lord in the burning bush.  He had seen all the Lord’s dealings with Pharaoh.  The Lord had shown Moses deliverance in the Passover Lamb and at the Red Sea and the Lord’s defeat of Amalek.  He saw the Manna fall from heaven.  Moses had seen the Lord in the cloudy pillar by day and the fire by night.  He had been in the mount with the Lord and had received the ten commandments from the Lord.  But all of that glory made Moses want to know the Lord’s glory more. 
  
Believer, do you find it to be the same way with you?  The more you know of our God the more you want to know.  Moses desire was by the operation of God's grace; put into his heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. 
  
Exodus 33: 19: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 20: And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. 21: And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: 22: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: 23: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
 
Proposition: God’s glory is his dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ; God reveals his glory to his people in the face of Jesus Christ through faith. 
  
GOD’S GLORY IN CHRIST
  
Exodus 33: 20: And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. 21: And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: 22: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, 
  
We can only see God’s glory in Christ by faith.  While in these mortal bodies of death we cannot see God and live.  One, God is spirit: he can only be worshipped in spirit and in truth.  Two, our mortal capacity cannot withstand beholding eternal God; if we look directly at the sun it will blind us; if we get shocking news it will make us pass out; imagine beholding God whose Light makes the sun look like a candle.  But three, even when we stand glorified in heaven, we shall behold the glory of God in the person of the God-man. 
  
John 1: 18  No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him 
  
It is only in Christ that sinners behold God’s gloryThe LORD must reveal Christ to us.  He said, “Behold there is a place by me”; Christ is “the place by God”; Christ is “the Rock”; God put Moses in the “clift of the rock”; that Rock was Christ; the Rock of Ages!
  
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
And covers me there with His hand, 
  
God has provided a place of refuge, salvation and strength for chosen sinners in his only begotten Son.  In Christ, his people are safe and secure by Christ’s finished redemption of his people. 
  
Rage as ye will. O, ye portal of hell, 
Safe in the Rock do we ransom'd ones dwell.
  
God the Father gave Christ the honor of manifesting him fully in this gospel age 
  
John 1:14: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 
  
By the Spirit of the Lord taking the veil off our hearts and turning our hearts to Christ, 
  
2 Corinthians 3: 18: we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 
  
Only the Spirit of the Lord can turn the heart in a sinner, remove the veil, make us behold God’s glory.  Therefore, we use great plainness of speech 
  
2 Corinthians 4: 3: But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5: For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7: But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 
  
Brethren, this was a great thing Moses asked of God.  But when I enter the study seeking a message from God for you, this is what I ask God, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory.”  In order to preach any passage of scripture in spirit and in truth, God has to show us his glory in the passage, that is, God must show us Christ.  The only way ruined sinners like us can understand and be spiritually edified is for God to shine his light and reveal his glory in the face of Christ Jesus.  Christ is “the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person” (Heb 1: 3). 
 
God speaks of his glory in three headings: God’s goodness, God’s name, and God’s sovereignty. 
 
THE GLORY OF GOD’S GOODNESS

Exodus 33: 19: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee,…
  
In Christ God makes all his goodness pass before us.  Everything God reveals about himself shows us his goodness.  The glory of God is his goodness.  
  
The glory of God’s goodness is seen in Christ Jesus.  The rich young ruler thought Christ was only a sinful man.  He came calling Christ “good Master.”  The Lord said to him, “Why callest thou me good; there is none good but one, that is God” (Matthew 19:17). 
  
In Christ we behold God is altogether good; only good comes from God; everything God does is good—"God is light and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).  God is eternally good, immutably good, continually good.  And everything God does in the salvation of his people is “good.” 
  
Ephesians 1:5: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the GOOD pleasure of his will,…9: Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his GOOD pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 
 
Philippians 1:6: Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a GOOD work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: 
  
It is Christ’s goodness toward us, his chosen people, that saves us.  Christ speaking said to the Father, 
  
Pslam 16: 2: O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: MY GOODNESS extendeth not to thee; 3: But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. 
  
Romans 2:4…the GOODNESS of God leadeth thee to repentance? 
  
Jeremiah 31:14  And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with MY GOODNESS, saith the LORD. 
  
THE GLORY OF GOD’S NAME
  
Exodus 33: 19: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee;--
  
In Christ God proclaims the glory of his namehis name is all his attributes.  
  
Exodus 34: 5: And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6: And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7: Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
  
The first thing is his name itself—"And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God.”  Beholding Christ, we behold the LORD—Jehovah, God.  Christ said, “He that seeth me seeth him that sent me” (Jn 12: 45)We behold in Christ “The LORD God”—Jehovah Almighty to save by everlasting Covenant (Is 42: 6).
  
In Christ we behold the glory of God’s mercy and grace.  God in Christ is “Merciful”—from eternity God looked to Christ therefore God was merciful, withholding from his people what we deserved.  Christ is the glory of God’s name in his “Grace”in Christ God freely gives to us what we do not deserve, blessing his elect with all spiritual blessings in Christ according as he chose us in him.  It is not law that makes the child of God be merciful and gracious, it is beholding God’s glory in Christ being merciful and gracious to vile wretches like us!
  
Christ is the glory of God’s name in his “longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.”  God was longsuffering toward us when we sinned in Adam for the sake of his Son.  God did not destroy us in the days of our rebellion for the sake of his Son.  Even in current trials God is longsuffering to the believer for his Son’s sake. Christ is the glory of God’s name in how abundantly good and true God is to us in Christ—he “hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.” (Eph 1: 8)  When we speak of being constrained by Christ’s love, it is when you have experienced God’s longsuffering to you in the sorest trial, when you sinned, when you didn’t deserve God’s patience yet he was longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth to you for Christ’s sake—that is what makes you be longsuffering, good and true to others. 
 
In Christ we behold the glory of God mercy and righteousness—"Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.”  In Christ, God is just.  Christ upheld his holy law for us by bearing the sin of his people, the justice we deserved, the curse, the shame, the pain, and the death.  It is what I deserved!  Can you say that believer?  Yet, for Christ’s sake, since he upheld God’s justice for us, we behold the glory of God’s mercy.  Christ is our Mercy Seat; the Propitiation for our sins, our Advocate with the Father. 
  
Believer, our rejoicing is the glory of God’s name! 
  
THE GLORY OF GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY
  
Exodus 33: 19: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
  
In Christ, God shows us the glory of his sovereignty.  God is good in his sovereign good pleasure.  He does as he pleases and it is good.  That includes God being merciful to whom he will.  He says,“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”
 
Wicked, sinful Jacob was as wicked and sinful as Esau.  Yet, God exercised his sovereign right to say, “Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated.”  But I do not ask how God could hate Esau.  I do not even ask how God could love Jacob.  I ask how could God love me?  It has to be, it can only be, by God’s glory to save by his sovereign choice.  He chooses whom so that salvation might be of God that calls rather than by our works.  It is so that sinners might know that salvation is “not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that showeth mercy”  (Rom 9: 11-15). 
  
No wonder men filled with enmity hate this doctrine: it is God’s glory"I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”  But when God makes us behold his glory in the face of Christ Jesus, when he shows you what a vile sinner you really are, then you delight in God’s sovereign electing grace!  I have never heard a real sinner hate God’s glory to save whom he will!  Only the proud, self-righteous hate it. 
 
THE EFFECT OF GOD’S GLORY
 
Exodus 34: 8  And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9  And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.
  
This is what happens when God reveals in our hearts the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.  We bow and worship God, begging mercy for ourselves and other sinners.  We beg for God’s presence to be with us. 
  
There is only one way we will cease glorying in men—in what we have done and in what we made others do—it is to behold God’s glory in Christ.  When will we cease glorying in our so-called wisdom—when we behold God’s glory in Christ.  It is not wisdom for someone to boast of being a wise-old believer longtime in the faith; a wise believer long time in the faith knows he is ignorant apart from Christ our Wisdom.  When will we  cease glorying in our so-called goodness? It is when we behold God’s goodness in Christ.  We cease boasting in our so-called righteousness and sanctification when the Holy Spirit truly gives us a pure heart to behold God’s righteousness and holiness is in Christ his glory alone.  Then we cry 
  
Rock of Ages! cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in Thee. 
  
Isaiah preached woe on everybody else for six chapters. But when God made him behold the glory of Christ high and lifted up then Isaiah said, “Woe is me!  I am the man of unclean lips.”  Then God said, “Who will go and declare my glory?”  Then Isaiah said, “Here am I, send me.” 
  
Amen!