The Goodness of God Made Manifest

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Good morning, my name is Constance St. Clair and I'm part of the Christ Church Youth Group.

A reading from the book of Exodus, chapter 34, verses 1 to 14 and verse 29.

Exodus 34:1–14

The Lord said to Moses,

Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones,

and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.

Be ready in the morning and then come up on Mount Sinai.

Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain.

No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain.

Not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.

So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones

and went up to Mount Sinai early in the morning as the Lord had commanded him.

And he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.

Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him,

proclaiming his name, the Lord.

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming,

The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God,

slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,

maintaining love to thousands,

and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.

Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.

He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents

to the third and fourth generation.

Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.

Lord, he said, if I have found favor in your eyes,

then let the Lord go with us.

Although this is a stiff-necked people,

forgive our wickedness and our sin and take us as your inheritance.

Then the Lord said, I am making a covenant with you.

Before all your people, I will do wonders never before done

in any nation in all the world.

The people you live among will see how awesome

is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.

Obey what I command you today.

I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites,

Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land

where you are going, or they will be a snare among you.

Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones,

and cut down their Ashereth poles.

Do not worship any other god, for the Lord,

whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai

with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands,

he was not aware that his face was radiant

because he had spoken with the Lord.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God stands for it.

Today we are continuing in this sermon series.

We're about 10 weeks into this sermon series on revival

and the simple prayer,

Lord, revive us.

And in Exodus 32 through 34,

we're learning to pray from Moses.

Just like Jesus and the apostles teach us how to pray

and what to pray in the New Testament,

so this first and greatest of all the prophets,

Moses, teaches us how to pray and what to pray.

And we notice that he prays in a way

that's different than many of us pray

because he prays with a persistent urgency.

Moses, as we've seen these past weeks,

he argues with God.

He makes a case.

He piles up evidence.

He claims the promises of God.

And when God answers one prayer,

he doesn't stop.

He's not satisfied.

He just keeps going,

asking God for more and more and more.

We remember Jacob, right?

This great character in the Bible

and how God changed the name of Jacob

to the name Israel.

And why did he do that?

Because Jacob was a man who prayed

and he grabbed hold of God

and he said, I will not let you go

unless you bless me.

And we're told that Jacob,

he struggled with God

and he wrestled with God

and that he overcame.

And isn't that what it means

to be the people of God,

to be the children of Jacob,

to be the new Israel

and to be the church?

It's not to say,

you know, God has already chosen me.

God already knows everything.

So I'm just going to sit back

and relax and let go

and let God know

to be the people of God

means to struggle with God in prayer,

to wrestle with God in prayer

and to say like Jacob,

I'm not going to let you go

unless you bless me.

And that's what Moses is doing.

He's arguing with God.

He's like a lawyer who goes to court

to wear out the judge with his case.

And so my question for us is,

have we begun 10 weeks

into the sermon series

to pray like this yet?

I hope that maybe we've started.

This kind of prayer

is what calls down

the reviving presence of God

and the reviving power of God.

But Moses doesn't just pray persistently,

he prays persuasively.

And again, this is different

than how many of us pray

because many of us chit-chat with God.

How many of us chit-chat with God?

We say, Lord, bless him and bless her

and give us a good day

and keep us safe, et cetera, et cetera.

And that's good.

If that's where you're starting out,

that's great.

But it's kind of boring.

You know, it might just bore God to tears

with these vague sort of,

you know, indefinite general prayers.

And that's why we're studying this prayer of Moses.

What does he pray for?

Well, we've seen so far

that he's praying for the revival

of the people of God.

He's saying, Lord,

have mercy on your compromised people.

Lord, cause your presence to return among us.

Lord, give us an assurance of your love.

Lord, cause us to be distinguished

by your holiness.

And we see Moses in prayer, as it were,

rising from one step to the next step

to the next step in prayer

until he finally gets to this highest step

where we looked last week.

He says, Lord, now show me your glory.

And this is really how Jesus prays.

When we look at Jesus' great prayer

in the Gospel of John chapter 17,

John 17 · chapter mention

Jesus says, Father,

I want those you've given me

to see the glory that you've given me.

He says, now, Lord, show them your glory.

And that's what the people of God

are meant to pray.

That's how we pray for revival.

God, manifest your glory.

God, cause your glory to pass by us.

Show us your glory.

Are we praying this yet?

Like Moses, are we advancing step by step in prayer,

rising from this argument to that argument

to that argument before God

with an ever-increasing boldness?

Like Moses, do we have that longing

and that desire for more and more from God?

And can we say with the Apostle Paul,

I haven't already obtained this.

I haven't already arrived at my goal.

But what I'm doing is I'm straining forward

and I'm pressing on that I might gain the goal

and win the prize of Christ.

And friends, where is that straining

and where is that pressing among us for revival?

Like Moses, are we striving and seeking

and rising on the wings of faith

where we get to the point that Moses gets

where he says, God, I'm no longer seeking your gifts.

I'm seeking your glory.

Lord, I no longer am after your blessings.

I'm just after you.

This is what the psalmist says in Psalm 42.

As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, my God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God?

Psalm 63, it says, you, God, are my God.

Earnestly, I seek you.

I thirst for you.

My whole being longs for you

in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

This is how the people of God pray in the Bible.

And I just wanna begin by saying,

week 10 of the sermon series,

are we praying like this yet?

Because these are the kind of prayers

that call down God's glory and lead to revival.

Well, to get into this text today, Exodus 34,

this passage is one of the greatest passages

in all the Bible.

And it teaches us that God wants to show us

his glorious name and character and ability.

That God is wanting very deeply

to show us his glorious name and character and ability.

And I wanna start by how God wants to show us

his glorious name.

Perhaps you are here and you're exploring Christianity today

and you're wondering, you know,

who is God and what is God like?

Well, today is your day because this is the high point

and the center point of God's revelation of himself

in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.

And he answers that question directly.

Who is God?

And if you're a Christian today,

I'd like to suggest that 99% of our troubles

as Christians are that we don't know God,

that we don't know his name,

we don't know his character, his attributes,

his person and his goodness,

which here in this text is like a diamond

shining in all of its facets.

If only we knew God as he is,

we would be like the Lord Jesus himself.

He lived in this world as we do.

He faced the same difficulties, the same trials,

the same temptations that we have,

although much, much worse.

And yet how different his life is from mine

or perhaps from yours as well.

That he knew God.

Jesus knew the name of God

and the character of God

and the ability of God.

And that is our greatest need.

And how does God meet our greatest need?

Well, he says here in this text,

I'm gonna give you a deeper insight,

a deeper understanding into myself,

into what I am.

Of all that you need to know,

this is the greatest of all possible knowledge.

And think about that for a minute.

Think about all the goodness of God

that he's already revealed to Moses

up to this point.

And now he says,

I'm gonna give you a deeper view.

I'm gonna display it before you

in a way that you've never experienced it before.

And that's what happens in revival.

God gives us a fresh

and a deeper experience of himself.

And what does he say in verse six?

He says,

well, it says,

and he passed in front of Moses

proclaiming,

the Lord, the Lord,

the compassionate and gracious God,

slow to anger,

abounding in love and faithfulness,

maintaining love to thousands

and forgiving wickedness,

rebellion and sin.

Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.

He punishes the children

and their children for the sin of the parents

to the third and fourth generation.

Now notice that God is not mumbling here.

He's proclaiming.

That God is not suggesting.

He's not hinting.

He's not implying.

That God is declaring.

God is preaching, as it were.

And this is a plain, clear,

simple revelation of who God is.

It's not hard to know

what God has revealed about himself

and about salvation

and about doctrine and ethics

and the way that we should live.

It's not hard to understand it.

In fact, people understand it so well

that they just don't like it very much.

Because when God reveals himself,

what happens

is that he removes us

from the center

and puts us over here on the margin

and says that he's in the center.

When God reveals himself,

what we realize is that

we are not the creator.

We're just mere tiny little creatures

that are dependent upon him.

And when God reveals himself,

we understand that

it's not we

who get to decide

what's true and what's false,

what's right and what's wrong,

but that has in fact

been decided for us

by someone much greater than us.

And this revelation,

if we're honest,

it hurts our pride.

It hurts to be de-centered

and to be so humbled.

And this is what happens to Moses

in verse 8.

Moses bowed down to the ground

and he worshiped.

God's preaching of himself

is plain, it's clear, it's simple,

and when it's rightly received,

we fall down on the dirt

and we worship.

That's what happens in revival.

You guys with me?

Okay.

Well, what does God preach

about himself?

What does he say about himself?

We get these two names here,

Lord and God,

or Yahweh and Elohim,

and a name reveals

the essence of a person.

So what do these names mean?

Well, Elohim,

our word for God,

it means the all-powerful creator.

The God who said,

let there be light,

and there was light,

let us create human beings

in our own image,

that's who this God is.

There's no limit

to his eternal power,

his infinite power.

He is almighty.

He's God.

He's Elohim.

But what about this other name,

Lord, or Yahweh?

This is the name

on which we should focus

our attention

because it's the name

that God has always chosen

to reveal

what's most vital

about himself.

And notice he repeats it twice,

the Lord,

the Lord.

This name means I am.

I am the self-existent one.

When God comes to Moses

at the burning bush

in Exodus 3

and Moses says,

well, Lord,

who am I to tell them

sent me?

He says,

well, tell them

I am who I am.

That's who sent you.

And he is.

He always was.

He forever will be.

He has no beginning like me,

no end like you.

And this is the name

that the Lord

has always used

when he makes a covenant

with human partners.

And think about that

for a second.

This self-existent,

independent God

who has absolutely

no need for me

and no need for you,

he humbles himself

and he commits himself

to protect

and to redeem

and to save us.

So here's Elohim,

the almighty creator

and here's Yahweh,

the self-existent,

covenant-keeping redeemer

who says to Moses

at the burning bush,

I've seen the misery

of my people

and I'm coming down

to rescue them.

That is the gospel.

The Lord descending.

The redeemer coming down

to save.

And I wonder

as we're seeking revival,

is this what we're praying?

Lord, come down.

Lord, descend upon us.

Lord, show us

the glory of your name.

Show us the glory

of our omnipotent,

all-powerful creator God

for whom nothing is impossible.

Show us the glory

of our self-existent,

covenant-keeping redeemer

who parted the Red Sea

and who raised Christ

from the dead.

In revival,

these names of God

become a precious treasure

of his people

so that we're praying them,

we're singing them,

we're talking about them

with all the richness

and beauty

of their meaning.

This is what God

wants to show us.

He wants to show us

his glorious name.

But he doesn't just want

to show us

his glorious name,

he wants to show us

his glorious character

as well.

Look at verses 6 and 7

where God is preaching

to us this list

of his own attributes.

And what's the first

in that series

of attributes?

It's compassion.

It's mercy.

That's what's given

emphasis and priority.

And if the first

in the series

of attributes

is compassion,

what's the last

in that series?

It's that he will not

declare the guilty

innocent,

that he punishes

the guilty.

Now in Jewish thinking

you build up

to a climax,

you save the best

for last, right?

And so what's the crown jewel

of all these attributes?

It's that God

is a holy God.

God is a righteous God.

God is a just God.

And that means

that he does not

wink at wickedness.

He does not

respect rebellion.

He does not smile

at sin.

And it's important

for us to ask

the question,

is this holy God

of the Old Testament

different from the God

of love

in the New Testament?

Well, Jesus,

when he prays

in John 17,

what does he pray?

He prays,

Holy Father.

Holy Father.

And he teaches us

over and over

that God,

in fact,

does not clear

the guilty.

He does not declare

the guilty innocent,

but he punishes evil.

And why does he do that?

Because he's a righteous God

who has an eternal hatred

for sin.

Because his wrath

burns

against all that

would spiritually

and morally

degrade

and destroy

the creatures

that he's made.

In fact,

if he doesn't

feel those things,

if he doesn't do

those things,

then he's not

a good God.

He's not a just God.

He's definitely

not a loving God.

If we look at

the teachings of Jesus,

the most loving person

who ever walked

planet Earth,

we hear it right here

in Matthew 13.

He says,

Just as the weeds

are gathered

and burned with fire,

so will it be

at the end of the age

the Son of Man

will send his angels

and they will gather

out of his kingdom

all causes of sin

and all lawbreakers

and throw them

into the fiery furnace

and that place

there will be weeping

and gnashing

of teeth.

So this first attribute

of God,

his compassion,

it does not mean

that God neglects

the moral order,

that he forsakes

just judgment.

In fact,

we should not expect

to escape

the consequences

of our sins.

God's compassion

does not mean

that people can do

whatever they want,

that in fact

he punishes

the children

who perpetuate

the sins

of their parents.

He will not put up

with a generation

of people

in their impenitent

rebellion

that continues

what their parents

and their grandparents

were doing.

No,

they're going to get

what they deserve.

That's the high point

of the revelation

of God

in the first five books

of the Bible.

And you say,

that's terrible.

This is awful news.

I mean,

how can you love

this sort of God?

How could Moses

bow down

and worship

this kind of God?

Well,

listen to God's

whole sermon

about himself

because what does he say?

He says,

I'm the Lord,

the Lord,

compassionate

and gracious,

slow to anger,

abounding in loving kindness

and faithfulness,

forgiving wickedness,

rebellion,

and sin.

His compassion,

that first term,

is like a mother's

tender feelings

for her vulnerable

infant child.

He's deeply moved.

When Israel was

in bondage in Egypt,

it was the compassion

of the Lord

that compelled him

to come down

to the rescue.

That's the first word

he uses to describe himself.

But what's the second key word?

The word is grace.

Grace is this beautiful gift

of favor

given with delight.

It's what Moses prays

when he says,

Lord,

look upon these

golden calf

worshiping people

and don't give them

what they deserve.

Give them what they don't deserve.

Give them grace.

And that third key word,

he's slow to anger,

it means that he's patient

with human evil

and that he gives us

lots of time

to come to our senses

and to change.

That when he's with

his wandering people

in the wilderness

and they're grumbling

and they're complaining

and they have hard hearts

and stiff necks,

we see that God

is long-suffering.

And he's slow to anger

with his people.

But what about

the fourth and the fifth

key words

of God's preaching

about himself?

That fourth word

is that he's loyal

in his love.

He's got a promise-keeping

commitment

where he displays

his generous,

steadfast loyalty

to the promises

he made

to weak

and helpless

covenant partners

like us.

And it's that kindness

of the Lord

that softens us

and leads us

to repentance.

And that fifth word,

his faithfulness,

that's his truth.

That's his stability,

his reliability,

his trustworthiness

that he can always

be counted on.

And when you take

these words,

his emet

and his chesed,

his love

and his faithfulness

and you combine

those terms together,

what you get

is the expression

of an absolute

and eternal

dependability

of the Lord

to dispense

his goodness

upon us.

How can he maintain

his love

and his faithfulness

to wicked

and rebellious sinners

who are guilty

like me

and like you?

Well, what's the sixth word?

He's forgiving.

He's forgiving

for those who

humble themselves,

for those who

repent and turn away

from themselves.

For those who cling

to all these attributes

of his compassion

and grace,

the Lord is forgiving.

And you see,

in revival,

we experience

the glory

of all of this

character of God

passing before our eyes.

That's what revival is.

Lord, come and show us

the glory

of your character

in a fresh way.

And so I wonder,

friends,

have you been tempted

to say,

you know,

God is love

and he's nothing else?

many people,

many churches,

many Christians

are tempted

to say that.

You know,

in order to be relevant,

we need to stop

preaching the way

that God preaches

about himself.

And to attract people,

we need to tone down

his holiness,

we need to extract

his justice

and his wrath,

and we need to let people

know that God

just declares

everybody innocent.

He just accepts

everybody without demands,

without expectations.

He's not a troublesome God.

He just,

you know,

he doesn't punish

the guilty.

He just declares

everybody great

without any need

for genuine repentance

or costly forgiveness

or real faith.

But my friends,

that's not true.

That is to cut

the very heart

or attempt to cut

the very heart

out of the living God.

A church in revival

like Moses

bows down

before this God

and worships

the glory

of his goodness

in all of its paradox,

right?

His compassion

and his holiness,

his mercy

and his justice.

A church in revival

is reveling

in verse 7

where it compares

this massive number

of maintaining love

to thousands

of people

and yet he punishes

three or four generations.

we delight

that God

has put a limit

on his just judgment

and that his kindness

actually seems

to know no bounds.

Thousands

upon thousands

upon thousands

is the idea.

You see,

in a revived church,

the glorious character

of God

is made manifest

so that we are

believing

and we are praying

and we are singing

and we are experiencing

and we are living

not just a few

of these attributes,

not the ones

we like the most,

not the ones

that make us

the most comfortable

and fuzzy inside

but all of them

and we delight

in the full truth

of God's preaching

about himself

and we say,

Lord,

make us like you.

Make us more like you.

Help us to know you

and make us like you.

All right,

I'm preaching now.

Here we go.

God wants to show us

his glorious name

and he wants to show us

his glorious character

but he also wants to show us

his glorious ability,

right,

his glorious ability

and I'll end with this.

You know,

this text is so important

that it's referenced

and repeated

over 20 times

throughout the rest

of the Old Testament

and it becomes

kind of this

confessional statement,

this short list

of God's,

Israel's basic commitments,

her basic convictions

about her God

and when people read it,

you know,

over the centuries

they've said,

well,

wait a minute,

wait a minute.

This is impossible.

There is a tension here.

There's a conflict here.

There's a contradiction here

in the very heart of God.

There's an either or

in his character

and you can't have it all,

right?

God,

either you're going

to forgive everyone

or you're going

to punish everyone

but you can't do both.

So what's it going to be?

Is it going to be

the forgiveness of sinners

or justice for sinners?

Because the sense here

is that God is too merciful

to let sinners just perish

but he's too just

to just let sinners

off the hook

and if he's forgiving

but not punishing

then he's not just

and if he's punishing

but not forgiving

he's not merciful.

So how in the world

can you people

worship a God

of such contradiction?

And how is God able

to reconcile in himself

these apparent contradictions?

Or remember that Moses says,

Lord,

show me your glory

and God says,

well,

actually Moses,

you can't handle that

but let's make a deal.

What I'm going to do

is hide you in this rock,

I'm going to cover you

with my hand

and I'm going to give you

a partial glimpse

of a very small portion

of my back parts.

That's all you can handle.

But you see,

Moses gets the back part

of God's glory

but what do we get?

We get the whole thing.

We don't just get

a partial glimpse,

we get a full glimpse

of not the back of God

but the front of God,

the face of God.

This is what Paul says

in 2 Corinthians 4,

he says,

God gave us the light

of the knowledge

of God's glory

displayed in the face

of Christ.

You see,

in Jesus Christ,

this creator God,

this redeemer God

came down

and he took on flesh

to display his glory.

And in Jesus,

we see the fullness

of the goodness

and the glory of God

passing before

our very eyes.

And my friends,

there's no more

wonderful discovery

that a human being

can ever make

than that this

self-existent God

who is all-powerful

in his majesty

and his glory,

who is light

and in him

is no darkness at all.

For this God

who is a consuming fire

to love you

so much

that in his

holy righteousness

he has put your sins

not upon you

but upon his beloved son.

And he's given

to him to bear

the anguish

and the suffering

of those sins.

He's put upon him

the shame

and the punishment

for all of your sins

that you and I

might be forgiven

and delivered

and that we might be called

the children of God.

How do we see

the glory

of God

in the cross of Christ?

Well, there

in that one place

and in that one time

we see God's

compassionate,

forgiving glory

and we see

his holy,

punishing glory

coming together

to embrace each other.

It's in that place

that God's mercy

and his justice

come together

and they kiss one another.

Right there

where Jesus is crying out,

my God,

my God,

why have you forsaken me?

And right there

where he's praying for us,

Father,

forgive them

for they do not know

what they are doing.

And it's right there

in that place

that he yells

at the top of his lungs.

It is finished

that he,

the innocent one,

was declared guilty

so that we,

the guilty ones,

might be declared

innocent.

In Jesus Christ,

our sins are both

punished

and forgiven

all at once.

and it's his resurrection

that tells us

that that cross

of his,

it was not a defeat,

it was in fact

a victory.

So thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God

that he has made a way

to get rid

of my guilt

and my sin

without getting rid

of me.

Thank God

that he's made a way

to get rid

of your guilt

and your sin

without getting rid

of you.

This is the greatest news

in all the world.

It's what the Apostle Paul

summarizes

in Romans chapter 3

Romans 3 · chapter mention

when he says,

God presented Christ

as a sacrifice

of atonement

through the shedding

of his blood

and he did this

to demonstrate

his righteousness

so as to be

both just

and the justifier

of the one

who has faith

in Jesus.

And how can you tell

that a person

knows this?

How can you tell

that a person

has experienced

this God

who is both

just and the justifier?

How do you know

that a person

has come to experience

the atoning

of their sins

through the shed

blood of Christ?

Well we get a hint

in verse 29

it says,

when Moses came down

from Mount Sinai

with the two tablets

of the covenant law

in his hands

he was not aware

that his face

was radiant

because he had spoken

with the Lord.

You see a revived church

and a revived Christian

is someone

who so experienced

the presence

and the power

of God

that they're radiant

with the glory

of his name.

They're radiant

with the glory

of his character.

They're radiant

with the glory

of his ability

in Christ crucified

to save us.

And that radiance

of God's glory

just seems to ooze out

of every pore

of somebody

who's really

encountered

this living Lord.

And that person

I think

begins to pray

and to sing

this way

and I'll close

with this.

This is from

Charles Wesley.

They say

oh for a thousand

tongues

to sing

my great

Redeemer's praise

the glories

of my God

and King

the triumphs

of his grace

my gracious

master

and my God

assist me

to proclaim

to spread

through all

the earth

abroad

the honors

of your name.

He breaks

the power

of canceled sin

and he sets

the prisoner

free

his blood

can make

the foulest

clean

his blood

availed

for me

for you

for all

of us

that's what

he wants

to show us

Lord

come show

us your glory

in the name

of the Father

Son and Holy

Spirit

Amen