Getting a Glimpse of God, Part 1

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33 as we continue our study on Moses, the man of destiny. Moses was a great man, and Exodus chapter 33 is going to help us understand a little bit more. About this man's greatness and why the Bible says that God would speak to this man face to face.

As a man would speak to his friend, Exodus 33, 11. You know, I read that and I think to myself, you know, that's what set Moses apart from everybody else. Remember Psalm 103, verse number 7? He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. That's a very profound com on Moses and the people. You see, Moses understood the ways of God, Israel did not. Israel just was able to observe the works of God and they did it from a distance. But Moses was different. He was a man who understood the ways of God.

And so in our study of Moses and his life, our purpose is to get you to a place where you are not just seeing God work from a distance, but actually understanding the ways of God through your life. And how God operates from day to day. Moses was that kind of man. He would see God up close and personal. In Exodus 33, the chapter we're going to study, he would ask God, I just want to see your glory. There was a longing and a passion for Moses to see his God. And my prayer is that when we're done with Exodus 33 and Exodus 34, you'll be able to say, you have gotten a glimpse of God, as Moses did.

Exodus chapter 34. You say, why? I can't see God. The Bible says, no man has seen God at any time. Oh, oh, oh, but you can see Him. Don't be mistaken. Blessed are the pure in heart, for what? They shall see God. Well, yeah, that's in the future. We're going to see God. No, no, no, no. Hebrews chapter 12, verse number 14 says, Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. How is it you and I get a glimpse of God? Oh, you're going to love this study of Exodus 33 and 34 because you're going to want to be able to, with clarity, See your God as you've never seen him before.

And that's what would set Moses apart from the nation of Israel. He had a great relationship with his God, a great one. And I want you, and I want myself to have a great relationship with the living God of the universe. Moses was a man who would face many problems. Leading the people of Israel. And what did Moses do? He would go to his God and talk to him about those problems. And God would honor him because of that. Israel, when they faced a problem, they didn't go to their knees and talk to God.

They complained, bellyach, and grumbled. But Moses was the man who would go to his knees and go to his God and seek his face and say, Lord, what do I do here? He was the perfect embodiment of 1 Peter 5:7, where it says, Cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you. And when we come to Exodus 33, what's he doing? He's going before his God because of the great sin of Israel, the sin of idolatry. And chapter 33 begins with an introduction. A pronouncement made by God to Moses. And it covers the first six verses, and that's all the further we're going to get this morning.

I thought maybe we might get into point two and look at the location of his encounter with God, but you know what?

We're not going to make it. Because we're going to focus in on what God says to Moses. Because God says, you know what, Moses?

I got good news. And they got some bad news. So, what do you want to hear first? And God is gracious, and God gives the good news first.

And then God gives the bad news. And before you leave today, I want to let you know something. God's got good news for you, but He's also got some bad news for you. And when you leave this place, I'm hoping that all of us understand that good news a little bit better than when we came this morning. Let me read you the first six verses, okay?

And then we'll talk about it. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your descendants I will give it. And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Peris, the Hiv, and the Jed. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst. Because you are an obstinate people, lest I destroy you on the way.

When the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments. For the LORD had said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, You are an obstinate people. Should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now therefore put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what I will do with you. So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward. The good news and the bad news. I read this and I think, you know what? Moses had to go to the people and say, I want to let you know something what God's commentary is on you folks.

God says, you are an obstinate people. You are stiff-necked. You are rebellious. Now, remember, Moses is the greatest leader in the history of Israel. Moses is the greatest leader in the history of man if push comes to shove. There is no greater leader than Moses. And Moses had to give them the good news and what? The bad news. You know, most preachers today just give you the good news. That's just not good enough. You got to give them the bad news, right? Because the good news is only as good as the bad news is bad.

Isn that true? And Moses had to tell the people, I want to tell you what God says about your life. You're rebellious, you're stiff-knit, you're obstinate, and God's going to kill you. Now, that's not what people want to hear when they come to church. So, what do we do? We just give people the good news. God loves you. He's kind. He's merciful. You know, just follow Jesus and He'll take care of you. That's all. We just give the good news. People say, yeah, that sounds like good. That's good. I'll do that.

And we wonder why people never change. It's because they haven't realized how bad they are. And so here Moses, being a great preacher of the word, as Paul would say, you've got to give the whole counsel of God, not just part of the counsel of God. So God says to Moses, this is what I'm going to do.

Here is the good news. And the good news centers around two things: the tenderness of God and the truthfulness of God. God says to Moses, listen, you tell him it's time to leave Sinai.

Well, that's good. Why? Because in Exodus 32, in verses 1 and 2, what do they do? We got to leave. Moses is gone. So let's make a God who will lead us out of here into Canaan. They're ready to go. So, what does God do? I'm going let you leave. It's time to go. Now, it'll be another 40 days yet because Moses is going to go back on top of the mountain. But in perspective, they understand that now they get a chance to go to that great and wonderful land. The land that God promised to His people, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land that they knew about over 4 years ago, because Joseph had spoken about that land.

And now it was about time for it to happen. It was finally here, and God says, You know what? It's time for you to move on. You go down and tell the people we're leaving. That's good news. And that's the tenderness of God. Because, in all reality, they should have all died. Only 3,000 of them died. The Bible says at the end of chapter 32, they were all plagued.

But God and His tenderness. He says, you know what? It's time to move on. And that not only speaks of the tenderness of God, but the truthfulness of God. God kept his word, he's completely true to his word. He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's going to keep that covenant. He says, Listen, now you go. To this land that I promised to your forefathers. God was true to His word. That's the good news. When God makes a decree, He keeps it. Now, that's good for me. Because you see, you know, I sin and I sin lot.

Now, maybe you don't sin as much as I do, but I know that I sin lot. And I experience the goodness of God knowing that God in His tender mercies doesn't say, you know what, Lance. I said you could go to heaven, but I think I'm going to change my mind. I'm going change my mind because you're not doing so good, you're not being as obedient as you could be. You're a little bit too rebellious as a pastor. So, you know what? I'm not going to give you heaven. I'm going to take it from you. See, God doesn't do that, does He?

Because God made a decree that if you believe in me, you'll never perish, but have everlasting life. There is an inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled, that never fades away, reserved in heaven. What? For you. See, the great thing about that reservation is never, it's never canceled. I can't cancel it, and God can't cancel it because God gave me His Spirit, Ephesians 1:1 to 14, which is the down payment of my inheritance. God guaranteed my inheritance by giving me His Spirit. And therefore, I realize that I am one day going to be in heaven.

Now, my sin is not going to keep me out of heaven because Jesus died for my sin. He paid the penalty of my sin, and I've accepted his substitute on Calvary's tree on behalf of that sin, and therefore I am guaranteed eternal life. And that's good news. That's good news. Because I'm sure there are probably times God says that Lance is an obstinate man.

He's a rebellious man. He's a stiff-nicked man. But I'm going to bring him into glory. I'm going to let him go to heaven. That's good news. That's the tenderness of God. That's the truthfulness of God. That's why Paul could say: being confident of this very thing: that he who hath begun a good work in you will complete it. In the day of Christ, which is our appearing before Him. And nothing's going to change that. Nothing. And so I realize my God is truthful, and my God is tender toward me. Because when I sin, the wedges of sin is death, and there should be the taking away of my life.

But God allows me to live because His tender mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness to me as well as to you. And Israel gets the good news. We're leaving. We're going from Sinai, we're going to Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. What is God going to do? He's going to drive out the Hittite, the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Term. Now, all of them. You're going to have all of them. You know, that's what God's going to do. He's going to move them all out of there.

This is amazing. We just committed idolatry. Okay? 3,000 of us die. We've got this plague, not knowing necessarily what that plague is, but we have it. But God says we still get the promise.

That's our God. He is tender. He's kind. He's compassionate. But there's the bad news. And Moses has got to tell him this too. He says, we're leaving. We're going to that great land of promise, but I need to let you know that God's not going with us. That's the bad news. He's not going. God says to Moses, Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst.

You see, God is one who helps the afflicted, but he has to humble the stiff-necked. In one way, he's saying, I'm coming down to them, I'm going to deliver them. Now he's saying, they are an obstinate people. They are a stiff-necked people, so I'm not going to go with them. What's the bad news? They lost God, His presence. Say, wait a minute. God is omnip. He's everywhere. So how can He not be there? Oh, that 's good. Because that will help you understand how we lose the presence of God. In our lives.

But understand this. Because some of you will say, well, Matthew 28 says, I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you. That's a promise by God. When God's glory departs, it's His presence departing. That is, it is the clear recognition of His working among His people. And you know what? That happens in our lives when we sin, doesn't it? That the glory of the Lord departs. That beautiful, radiant blessing of God is no longer seen in our lives because of our sin. Isaiah 59 says it this way, Behold, the Lord's hand is not short that it cannot save, neither is his ear so dull that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face far from you, so that he does not hear.

Now, is God deaf? No. So, how is it my sins can separate me from God? Our God is a holy God. And the statement now becomes very clear when God says to Moses, I'm not going to go with you.

You know why? Because this is an obstinate people. And if I go with you, here's the good news again: if I go with you, I'm going to have to kill you. See the tenderness of God? If I go with you, I got to kill you because I am a holy God. I got to consume you. And so I'm going to withdraw my presence from you. To allow you to experience the promise I gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's the graciousness of God because they deserve to die. And so they were in this state of rebellion against God.

And God says, You know what? If I go with you, I got to kill you, so I'm not going. I'm not going. Instead, I'm going to send my angel. That's the tenderness of God again, the goodness of God again. I'm going make sure you get there, but I'm not going. God was so good to them. He showed them mercy after mercy, kindness after kindness, giving them water when there was no water, making the bitter water sweet water, giving them food every day so they had something to eat. Making sure that they were saved from the Egyptian army, making sure they were able to be delivered from Egyptian bondage.

He did all those things, for he is so good to them. And what do they do? They complain, they biliate, they murmur, they commit idolatry, they commit sexual immorality, they do all kinds of things against their God. And God in his tenderness says, you know what? You get to land, you get to leave. That's the good news. The bad news is, I'm not going with you. And what's it say? It says that the people, the people mourned, doesn't it? When the people heard this sad word, verse 4, they went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments.

His jewelry to beautify themselves. Because they were in mourning. The text would go on to say that God would say to them, Therefore, put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what I will do with you. And they obeyed. So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward. It's a sign of contrition, a sign of outward repentance. When someone would repent in dust and ashes, they would sit in dust and ashes, they would put ashes all over themselves as a sign of contrition before God.

And God says, You what? Remove your ornaments. Where were the ornaments from? They were from Egypt. How did they get them? They asked the Egyptians if they could have their jewelry. And the Egyptians gave it to them. Because God was going to use that gold and going to use that silver in his tabernacle to make it a beautiful place. But instead, what do they do? They took those ornaments and they made themselves an idolatrous calf. And they denounced their God by committing idolatry. So they had some ornaments left, and God says, remove those ornaments.

Turn from your wicked ways. And I will determine what I will do with you. There's a great lesson here, isn't there? Great lesson here. Not only did they lose God, they also lost gladness. We mourned because sin always brings sorrow. Remember Hebrews 11, 25, I believe it is, where Moses would forsake The pleasures of sin for a season. See, back in Exodus 32, at the first part, when Israel was danced around the golden calf naked and committed sexual immorality, they were having a great time.

Sin is pleasurable. Don't deny that fact. That's the truth. If it wasn't pleasurable, we wouldn't do it. And it was pleasurable for them, and they were enjoying themselves until Moses shows up with the commandments of God, and everything changes. And they would enjoy their sin for a season, but now they're going to experience sorrow because they have lost the presence of their God. But listen to this. They get to go where they want to go, but it's not enough. Is it? Because what good is the land without the Lord of the land?

It's no good. The Bible says, What should it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul, right?

See, material blessings just don't do it. What God gives to us are good things because of his gracious and kind, loving heart toward us sinners. But yet, if God's not there, we experience a loss of joy, an emptiness, a sense of missing out on that which is of utmost importance for our lives. Because you see, there is no happiness without holiness. None. If you want gladness in the heart, there can be no guile in the heart. And so we have to understand what God is telling His people. They would lose their joy.

Now, all this is just introductory to Moses going to his God again. And he will plead, you know the story. If you're not going with this God, guess what? We ain't going. Right? If you're not going to go before us, God, we not going to go. Because we know that if you don't do it, it ain't going to happen. You can send us an angel, and that's a good thing. Thank you for that. And we're sure he's a powerful angel. And we're sure he's going to be pretty good at what he does. But Lord, that's not good enough.

We've got to have you. And Moses is going to plead before his God: unless you go, we ain't going. I'm staying put. But on this day, at this moment, in the first six verses.

God says, Here's the good news. I'm tender. I'm going to allow you to live, and I'm going to allow you to leave Sinai and go to the land flowing with milk and honey. Because I'm a truthful God. I keep my word, and I made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and you're going. But here's the bad news: I'm not going with you. And if I don't go with you, there will be no joy. Now, listen, this is such an important truth for all of us to learn. Because you see, God wants us to realize. That without Him there is no joy.

Life is not worth living without God, no matter what you get, because it's all about God and His glory. You see, Israel refused to glorify their God, didn't they? They glorified themselves. And the Bible speaks over and over again, Ephesians 3, 21, to him be glory in the church and to Christ Jesus. From generation to generation. Paul says there needs to be glory in the church. That is, there needs to be people who give glory to their God, who somehow are able to reflect the radiant Blessings of their great Redeemer to live to His honor and glory.

We have to do that individually as members, corporately as a church, and perpetually from generation to generation. The book of Isaiah tells us that God created man for His glory. For His glory. And when we refuse to give Him glory, what happens? His presence departs. The glory of the Lord departs. Ichabod is written across the doorsteps of our homes. And unfortunately, there has been Ichabod written across the doorsteps of many a church in America. The glory of the Lord has departed. What does that mean?

That means that when you go to that church, you don't see God. You see some people, you see some things that are happening, but you don't see God. And God has removed Himself from that facility and from those people because their refusal to repent of their sins is getting right with God. If there's to be glory in our lives, listen.

There needs to be the conviction of our sin and the confession of our sin. Folks, a lot of us today are here and have absolutely no joy in our lives. And we call ourselves Christians, but there is no joy. Why is that? It's because in our lives the glory of the Lord has departed from us. That is, that radiant reflection of His wonderful glory is no longer being seen in our lives. Why? Because of our sin. It might not be the sin of idolatry. It might not be the sin of immorality. It might be some sin that we're trying to cover up.

Because we like to cover up our sin, don't we? But the Bible says in Proverbs 2:1 that he who covers his sin shall not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes his sin shall find mercy.

Mercy? We like to blame other people because of our sin. All the way back in Genesis chapter 3. It's the woman you gave me, Lord. Adam blamed God because he sinned. We love to pass the buck. We love to say, you what? If I wasn't in this situation, if I wasn in this relationship, I wouldn't have said that. Yes, you would have, because what you said is what's in your heart. It's there. Don't be saying, well, the so-and-so made me do it. That's like saying the devil made me do it. No, he didn't. You did it.

I do it. We sin because we're sinners. Not because somebody made me sin. Someone doesn't make me sin. Yet we blame other people because of our sin. We try to rationalize it away, try to rename our sin. We look at immorality, we call it an affair.

We look at sodomy, we call it an alternate lifestyle. We look at our anger, we call it self-expression.

We have to rename what it is we're doing as if it's not as bad. If we just rename it, it's not that bad. But let me tell you something.

When David sinned against The Lord. He named his sin. He made it very, very clear what it was he did. David said, King David said, I'm a rebellious person. I've rebelled against the law of God because I've said, you know what, Lord, I know what your law says. I'm going to do it anyway. Your law says, do not commit adultery. but I going to do it with Bathsheba. Your law says do not lie, but I'm going to lie about what I did. Your law says do not commit murder, but I'm to kill Uri anyway, because I got to cover up my sin.

In Exodus chapter 33, God just wants his people to realize that they have sinned again. Against Him. That's all. So He gives them the good news and the bad news. He wants them to confess their sin. He wants them to be contrite before Him. He wants them to be broken before Him. That's all God has ever asked of any man, right? To this man will I look? To him who is broken and of a contrite heart and who trembles at me. My word. That's the person God's looking for. And what did David say over in Psalm 32?

He said this: How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. David confessed his sin. The glory of the Lord had departed from his life because of his sin. He had to give God glory by recognizing that he was a sinner and to confess his sin before Almighty God. He did, and God forgave him the guilt of his sin. That's good news. That's good news. Have you experienced that good news?

Have you experienced the forgiveness of God for your sin? Have you acknowledged your transgressions? Have you told God that you are evil and rebellious and stiff-necked? Because He's faithful and just to forgive us. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and respond to Him out of obedience to His Word and thus experience once again the goodness of our God. Let's pray.