Getting a Glimpse of God, Part 6

Exodus chapter 34 is where we are today. Exodus chapter 34, and we are going to conclude this chapter by understanding what it means to get a glimpse of God. If you have not been with us over the previous Six weeks of our study of this wonderful chapter, Exodus 33 and Exodus 34. I would love to be able to go back and review it all for you, but if I did, I wouldn't be able to finish the chapter this morning. Moses had that great plea, show me your glory. He really truly wanted to see his God. And the Bible says, if you seek me with all your heart, you will find me.

Jeremiah 29:1. He wanted to seek his God. He wanted to see his God. And what he would see would really be different than what he expected because it wasn't what he saw that changed him. It's what he heard God say that changed him. God would hide him in the cleft of the rock. He would pass by him. He would cover his face because Moses would not be able to look on the full glory of God and live. And Moses then would see his hind parts. But the Bible says, Moses, Exodus 34, this is what you got to do.

You got to cut out some tablets of stone. You've got to cut yourself off from everybody else. And you've got to ascend the mountain. And you got to do as I command you. And so God would set forth the demands from Moses. Once Moses arrived on Mount Sinai, the Bible says that God then descended.

Downward to him in a cloud, and stood with Moses there on Mount Sinai. And then he would make that great declaration in Exodus thirty-four, verse number six. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and Proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kind and truth. who keeps loving kind for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.

God proclaims his name. It's not what Moses saw, it's what he heard that opened his eyes to seeing God for who he truly is. And now com the reward for those who diligently seek him. It comes in two ways: one is veneration, the other, illumination. Notice what takes place in the life of Moses.

Verse number 8. This is where we left off last week. And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. We'll stop right there. Notice the veneration.

Notice the promptness of his worship. Notice the humility. In his worship. The text says that Moses made haste to bow down before his God. Now, when you think about that, what is worship? Worship is my response, the human response, to divine revelation. Once God has been seen because he's been properly heard, what now is my response but to bow low before him? Genesis 17, that's what Abraham did. When the Lord appeared to him and spoke to him, Abraham immediately would bow down prostrate to the ground.

It's a natural human response to divine revelation. How do you know you have encountered the living God? You humbly bow before him and reverence his name. That's what Moses did. You know, we live in a world today where people don't know much about worship, but it begins with making haste. To bow down. You see the eagerness there? You see the desire there in the life of Moses? It was almost a spontaneous act. In fact, He would bow before his God because, having truly seen him, this is how you know you truly worship God.

Think about this for a second. What caused him just to fall prostrate before the king of kings and lord of lords? Simply this, whenever you see God, you have an overwhelming sense of your sinfulness. And because you do, you fall to the ground and beg for mercy. Now that's how you know you've worshiped God. Isn't that what Paul said way back over in 1 Corinthians chapter 14? He says. If all prophesy, that is in the assembly of the church, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all.

The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. That's why it's so important to proclaim the name of God. Without his name being proclaimed, people will not worship God no matter what they say they did during church that day. That's why I never get upset when people say, you know, Pastor, that sermon was really a hard one today. I didn't feel good when I left today. Well, that's probably pretty good. See? Because you're coming to grips with your sin.

You're coming to grips with the reality of where you fall short when God's law is proclaimed. And so you come to Him and you beg for Him for mercy. That's where God wants you to be. He wants you on your knees before Him. He wants you, as Paul said, Ephesians chapter 3, verse number 14: We bow our knee before our God. Why? Because we know where we stand with God. Moses was in touch with the significance of his God and how it related to him. And he made haste to do that. This veneration, this reverence of his God was seen in the promptness of his worship, and number two, the prayer in his worship.

Listen to what he says. If now I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and do thou pardon our iniquity and our sin. And take us as thine own possession. Listen to the prayer of his worship. He says, Lord, we need to have reassurance. That you're going to go with us. Now, didn't God already tell him in chapter 33 that he was going to go with? Yes. But Moses, having realized that God doesn't let the guilty go unpunished, Realizes that, Lord, I need to have some reassurance that you're still going to go with us.

And you know what? Whenever you ask God for assurance, He always gives it to you. Don't be afraid to ask God for assurance for something. God's word is that which assures us of the promises of God. When I need assurance about the forgiveness of sin, what do I do? Trust how I feel, or trust the facts of what the Bible says about the forgiveness of sin.

When I need assurance about my eternal destiny, what do I do? Do I trust what I think God's going to do, or do I trust believing in what God has said He's going to do in His Word? And God gives us that assurance. Moses was asking for reassurance. Lord, reassure me that you're going to go with us, that we can't make it without you, and we need your presence. And then he goes from the reassurance. To their repentance. Listen to what he says. Even though the people are so obstinate. So obstinate. They're stiff-necked people.

Now, there's something about repentance that we need to understand. Now Don't think that Moses is calling somebody else a stiff-necked people because look what he says. He goes on and says this: And do thou pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as thine own possession. So Moses is not excluding himself. He is including himself. But what he's saying about them being stiff-necked is exactly what God had said about them in Exodus chapter 33. You see, that's something really unique about repentance.

When you repent of your sin, you say the same thing about your sin that God says about your sin. That's what it means to confess your sin and stating it as God Himself states it. And that's exactly how Moses would speak in this prayer. He called them stiff-necked people. And then look at the remission in the prayer.

He says this. Pardon our iniquity, our sin. You can't be forgiven unless you've repented. Forgiveness. Is conditional. It's not uncond. Forgiveness is conditioned upon the repentant spirit, upon the repentant heart. Now, we've said this a million times. Well, maybe not a million, maybe a couple hundred thousand, maybe. But the fact being is that we've said it so many times that we forget. We think that God's forgiveness is uncond, that God just forgives everybody. No, He doesn't. Because then everybody would go to heaven, right?

Forgiveness is conditioned upon repentance. So Moses isn going to ask for their iniquities to be pardoned unless he repents of his sin and the sins of the people. And God had already said that he was a God of forgiveness. He was abounding in loving kind. He was slow to anger. He forgives transgressions. Sins and iniquity. And so Moses goes to God and appeals to Him based on that and says, Lord, because you are a forgiving God, would you pardon our iniquities? Would you cleanse us from our sin? Lord, the Bible says in Psalm 8 that God is ready to forgive all those who call upon Him in truth.

He 's ready to forgive. And that's what God wants to do in everybody's life. But they've got to call upon Him in truth. And then listen to what Moses says. If you forgive us of our sins, because we are a stiff-necked people, we are a hard-hearted people. Lord, forgive us and take us, he says. Take us as thine own possession. This is our acceptance. Make us yours, God. Now, you know, there is something sweet about that, isn't there? Lord, we want to be yours. We want to be your possession. We want to be your inheritance.

Now, think about that. Psalm 2, verse 8, the Lord says, God the Father says to his son, Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. Wow. What is the Son inheriting? He's inheriting a whole bunch of sinful people. That's what he's inheriting. We become the possession of God. 1 Peter 2, verse number 9 says that we are a holy nation, we are a chosen generation, we are the people of God. Now that's important. Why? Because we need to be able to proclaim the name of God. Remember what Jesus said over in Luke chapter 24 before he ascended into glory?

He said these words. He said, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance.

for remission of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations. Now we as the people of God have become that inheritance. And Moses would worship his God based on what God had said was true about him. He'd fall down promptly before his God and pray to his God. Beseeches God because he recognized who was sovereign, who was ruler, and God would reward him. They would become the possession of God, the people of God. And you see, God rewards those who diligently seek Him. If you're wanting God to reward you, you've got to ask yourself: Am I a diligent seeker of God?

Am I willing to do what it takes? Moses was up on the mount how long? 40 days, having no food, no water for 40 days, because he was so focused on God. That's all he wanted. No distractions, no disruptions, nothing that would keep him from seeing his God and focusing totally upon him. And God will reward him, and that's where we come to our last point: the illumination. The illumination. Something happened to Moses. Turn over to verse number 29. And it came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai.

And the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand as he was coming down from the mountain. That Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him. And Moses spoke to them. And afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the LORD had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.

When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take off The veil until he came out. And whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with him. This is absolutely fascinating. Here is Moses. And I want you to see this illumination three ways.

Number one, the reasons for this illumination, the reaction. To that illumination, and the reference in the New Testament to this illumination here in Exodus 34, to bring it all together for you. First of all, look at the reason for his illumination.

He had spent 40 days on Mount Sinai beholding the glory of the Lord. Now, this was different than the first 40 days.

You say, Well, if he was on the mountain for 40 days before, how come his face wasn't shining when he came down? But this time. It is shiny. It's because the Bible says very clearly that he communed with his God for 40 days.

There was a significant intimate relationship between God and Moses because Moses was diligently seeking after his God. And the glory of the Lord would so permeate this man that when he came down off the mountain, his countenance would shine because he had come in contact with the glory of the Lord. Now, this is remarkable. You need to understand this because it's the exact same thing that happens to you and me when we commune with the Lord. And I'll explain that to you in a moment. Moses' face shone.

Because of his communion with God, because of his worship of God, because of his commitment to his God, Moses, having been with God, could not help. But reflect his God. Let me tell you something.

When you spend time with God, it's evident. Did you know that? We can all see it. Now, you might not think we see it, but guess what? We do. We know when you spend time with God. And the opposite is true. We know when you don't spend time with God. When you spend time doing the things of the world, guess what? You reflect the world's attitude, right? You reflect their words, their actions. But when you spend time with God, you begin to reflect his attitude and his actions. Spend much time with God, and you'll come out smelling like God.

Spend much time in the world and you come out smelling like the world, right? And here was Moses looking. Like as God, his face was all agl because he had come in contact with the glory of Almighty God. You know, as a husband, that when you spend time with God, your wife sees you differently than when you don't spend time with God. And vice versa. Versa, ladies, that when you spend time with God, your husband knows that you are reflecting his image and his character and his nature, and you're more like God than if you don't spend time with God.

And so the reason for this radiance was the fact that Moses had spent time with his God, commun with him. The Bible tells us very clearly. It says that the scale of his face shone because of his speaking with him. How do you know you're spending time with God and it's affecting your life? Remember how God described Himself? Slow to anger, compassionate, abounding in loving kind and truth, forgiving the iniquities? And sins and transgressions of many. When you spend time with God, guess what? You become a forgiving person like God.

And that's what happened to Moses. His face would shine. The reason for that was because he spent time with God. How much time do you spend with God? Did you spend time with him this morning before you came to church? Or did you figure that going to church was the substitute for spending time with God? How much time do you spend with him throughout the week, alone in secret? Communion with him, looking into his word, reading his word, that you might come to understand the nature and character of your God, the glory of your God.

The brilliance of your God, the beauty of your God. You see, the glory speaks of the brilliance and beauty of God. So that's why Moses' face was so brilliant. And beautiful because he had been with God. But notice the reaction to this time with God, to this illumination.

The Bible tells us very clearly that. Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone. Now how could that be? How can Moses not know? Well, first of all, he wasn't able to stop by the bathroom on the way down to look in the mirror to make sure he was all prim and proper before he met the children of Israel.

See? You see, that's the great thing about being with God and Him affecting your life. You don't know it, but everybody else does. Isn't that great? How do you know someone who's spending time with God, they don't talk about themselves, they don't focus on themselves, life is not about them. Life is about God. See, Moses has spent time with his God, communicating with his God. He was so absorbed with his God, he was no longer absorbed with himself. And that's how you know you're becoming more and more like our Lord Jesus.

That's why John the Baptist said, He must increase, I must decrease. And you know what? The Bible says they were afraid.

They were afraid of what they saw. Why? Because you see, his face would radiate the glory of God, and the glory of God is about the holiness of God. And they would come face to face with the fact that they had fallen short of that glory. Remember, he came down off the mountain with the tablets. The Bible says very clearly that he held the tablets in his hands.

As he walks down the mountain, you can just picture it. Here comes this glow down the mountain. What is that? Oh, I don know. What is that up there? What's that light? I don't know, but it's getting closer. It's Moses. No, it's not Moses. Yeah, it's Moses. And here he stands with the law of God. Now, as they talk about the reaction, I want to pick up point number three: the reference.

In the New Testament. So turn with me over to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 for a moment. I want to show you something. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse number 7. Listen to what Paul says to those in Corinth as he relates back to Exodus chapter 34. to kind of wrap up this whole situation with Moses coming down out of the mount with his face shining and why he would veil his face. But if the ministry of death, that is the law, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory. The law was glorious. Why? Because the law was the perfect reflection of the character and nature of the Holy God.

The law was the ministry of death because you couldn't keep it. And so when Israel comes out to meet Moses, what do they see? They see a shining face. They see the tablets of stone, and they know that they're guilty. It's interesting to note that when someone is with God, spending time with Him, reflecting the glory of God. That those who are sinners have a hard time being around you because they are completely convicted of their sin. And with Moses, you see, it was that perfect picture of conviction for them.

It says, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face fading as it was. You see, the old covenant was full of pictures, types, and symbols. That's why it was all fading away. Because Jesus then would be the fulfillment of all those types, all those symbols of the Old Testament. And he was the ministry of life, the ministry of the Spirit that would bring righteousness to them. Now listen to this. But their minds were hardened. For until this very day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.

But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. You see, there's a veil over the heart of Israel. Why? Because you see everything in the Old Covenant pointed to the coming of the Messiah. Everything did. And when the law of Moses is read today, there's still this veil over the hearts of the nation of Israel because they refuse they hardened their hearts. To what all those symbols, all those types, all those pictures pointed to, they hardened their hearts against it and did not receive Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

And that veil of unbelief, that veil of ignorance keeps them from believing in Jesus Christ the Messiah. Christ has to lift that veil. That's what it says. It says, but whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is a Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, there is liberty. You see, what took place on Sinai was so remarkable that Moses' life was changed by virtue of how man would perceive him. And Moses would represent that old covenant that all this stuff was going to fade away because everything we're doing is pointed to something.

It's all pointing to the coming of the Messiah, and yet Israel would harden their hearts. In unbelief, they've hardened into this very day. But listen to this: this is where it is applicable to you and me. Verse 18: But we all, not just Moses. Not just certain priests, but we all. Who's that? People who have removed the veil. People who have seen that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the old covenant. We all. With unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit.

Let me tell you something about Moses, and let me tell you something about us. We have a greater opportunity than he had, than Israel had. The text says, We all with unveiled face. There's no veil over our eyes. Every one of us who have given our lives to Christ are beholding as in a mirror, the Word of God, the glory of the Lord. Can you imagine what we have today? Moses had not the slightest idea. He heard what God said on Mount Sinai, God gave him the law. But we have the fulfillment of that law in Jesus Christ our Lord.

And we have a greater opportunity because now we can all come with boldness before the throne of grace. And not only do we have a greater opportunity, we have a greater clarity. Because we, with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we understand more about God than Moses ever did. Because of what is portrayed in the word of Almighty God, we're able to know the beginning and the end. And we now have a greater clarity of the glory of God than Moses did on Mount Sinai when God descended in a cloud Cloud stood with him and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

We have the word of God, and not only do we have a greater opportunity, and not only do we have a greater clarity. Listen.

We have a great conformity to the image of God than Moses ever had. You know why? Because of the Spirit of God within us. The Lord is the Spirit. He's taken up residence in our life. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God would come upon certain people at certain times to perform certain duties. But in the New Testament, under the New Covenant, God indwells every believer. We now are being metamorphosized. We now are being transformed from, listen, from one level of glory to the next level of glory to the next level of glory.

How? By the Spirit of the Living God. We are being transformed from the inside out to be more like God than Moses could ever dream of becoming like God because the Spirit of God ind our lives. And that's the lesson of Exodus chapter 34. And that's what it means to get a glimpse of God. And that's what it means to realize what God has done in our lives. And that should cause us to want to diligently seek him. Why? Because if he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, how are we rewarded? We become more and more like God.

He wants us like him. Because we have a greater opportunity, because we have a greater clarity, because we have a greater conformity, guess what? We have a greater ministry. A greater ministry. Why? Because we understand What Moses was pointing to. And we understand how Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all that. And we can tell people about that. And they can become a part of the inheritance. A part of the possession, a part of the people of God, by virtue of the fact that God has given us the ministry to proclaim his name from nation to nation.

Let's pray.