The Revelation of Glory

Well, in some of our previous conversations, I have referenced

Ligonier Ministries' recent State of Theology 2025 survey that was conducted and the findings released a month or so ago.

One of the conclusions that is listed in the key findings from that survey is noted in these words, the 2025

State of Theology survey makes clear that many evangelical churches and individuals lack a firm grasp of the essential

Christian faith revealed in Scripture. Now, for many of us, that does not come as a shock.

Perhaps even all of us sitting here today have come to an understanding that in the majority of evangelicalism today, there is much of the true faith that is lost.

One of the things, however, that this survey does help us as leaders to do is pinpoint places where we see this information lacking and so that we can begin to hopefully help train the body of Christ appropriately.

It probably would come as no surprise to many of you to learn that one of the fundamental issues that the church faces today, in fact, that the church has faced for many years, one of the failures of the church and Christians alike, is that we as a group are biblically illiterate.

The professing Christian, the average professing

Christian, has barely a minute grasp of what

Scripture teaches. Part of the problem here is that as a church, as the universal body of Christ, we as the individual

Christians who make up that body have failed the great mission that we have been given, which is not just to merely make converts, but to actually make true disciples.

So one of the reasons that we here at Christ Reformed continually hammer the authority and the sufficiency and the certainty and the completeness and the infallibility and the inerrancy of Scripture is because that is the cornerstone of where we learn and understand how to make disciples.

Now, as we look throughout all of Scripture, we know that there are many great truths that we find there, and there are fundamental elements that we see in Scripture that guide us in our understanding.

One of the most fundamental of those and one that, quite honestly,

I fear is one of the greatest places that the Christian people have missed the point deals with the true nature of God.

Understanding God as he reveals himself to us in Holy Scripture.

In fact, in that exact same survey, just to give you an example, the third statement of that survey reads like this,

God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

So that's the statement, and the way you answer these questions is you strongly agree, you somewhat agree, you're unsure, you don't agree, you strongly disagree.

So there's this range. Well, as we look at that range, what we see is that out of the 3 ,001 responses that are not limited to people who are

Christians, 45 % of them were either undecided, unsure, or disagree.

That means that 55 % of those 3 ,001 people that were asked believe that God accepts the worship of all religions.

Well, now we can very simply go, oh, well, you know, we wouldn't expect people who aren't Christian to get that question right.

So we narrow down the results to those who are evangelical

Christians or those who claim to be evangelical Christians. When you narrow down the pool, you get the exact same result, meaning 55 % of the 637 evangelical or professing evangelical

Christians who responded to this survey were either unsure or agreed that God accepts the worship of all religions.

For me, that is a strong indicator that we have a lack of a fundamental understanding of the true nature of God, especially when we have the

Ten Commandments that literally begin with the statement that He is the only

God and He would not suffer any other gods before Him. And so it is the reality that this true nature, sadly, is available to us in all of nature.

It is readily available. Paul wrote in Romans 1 .20, for since the creation of the world,

His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and His divine nature, have clearly been seen, being understood through what has been made, so that we are without excuse.

So in general terms, all of humanity is without excuse for understanding that God exists and that He alone is

God and understanding the attributes of God. But then when we get down to those who profess to be evangelicals, it should become even more clear that He alone is

God. Over and over in Scripture, we see repeatedly many of the attributes of God given to us designed to show us the true nature of Him.

Last week, as we looked at the final few verses of chapter 33, which we record the conversation between God and Moses, the conversation that's taking place in the

Tent of Meeting, before Moses actually ascends onto Sinai, we see

Moses, after having received assurance that God would pour out His grace on the people and that He would restore

His presence in their midst, God cries out, or Moses cries out to God for God to reveal

His glory. And we talked about how

God promises to Moses that He would demonstrate that glory by proclaiming His name, by showing

His goodness, and by reminding Moses of His sovereignty. Now in chapter 33, as we discussed last week,

God is declaring to Moses what is to occur. And now this morning, as we move into chapter 34, we will see these events unfold as God commands

Moses to once again return to the top of Sinai and to meet with Him there.

So if you have not, please make your way in your Bible to Exodus chapter 34.

We will begin reading in the first verse and we will continue down through the ninth.

Having found your place, please stand in reverence for the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, complete, and certain word.

Beginning in the 34th chapter of Exodus, the first verse, we read these words.

Now Yahweh said to Moses, carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones.

And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered.

So be prepared by morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.

And no man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain.

Even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain. So he,

Moses, carved out two stone tablets like the former ones. And Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai as Yahweh had commanded him and he took two stone tablets in his hand.

Then Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him and he called upon the name of Yahweh.

Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and called out, Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.

Yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.

And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. And he said, if I now have found favor in your sight,

O Lord, I pray let the Lord go along in our midst, even though they are a stiff -necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin.

And take us as your own inheritance, gracious Heavenly Father.

As we once again bow in your presence, we enter with thanksgiving and with praise, magnifying your name, recognizing you and you alone as above all things.

Precious Lord, we long for the day when our faith is made sight.

But we pray for your continued guidance and protection and mercy as we continue to sojourn along the way.

Lord, we ask for continued and renewed strength to walk according to your word in full faith, in full obedience.

Let each step we take be grounded in your truth and be anchored in the hope that we have in Christ alone.

Father, we are thankful for the gift of your son. We are thankful for his work on Calvary's cross, his resurrection, his ascension, and his intercession now on our behalf.

And eagerly we wait the day when we see him face to face.

We are thankful for the gift of the Holy Spirit who guides our lives, who illuminates your word and leads us into all truth.

Lord, we are so thankful that your tender mercies are new every morning. And that as we confess our sins before you, you are faithful to forgive us.

Or may we be faithful in our forgiveness of others. Father, we know that it is only by grounding ourselves in your word, seeking to know you more deeply, that we have the sure footing that life requires.

It is only by finding rest in you that we were able to walk in this life and stand firm in the face of the enemy.

We ask now that this time together is pleasing in your sight, glorifying to your name.

And we ask all of this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated.

One of the things that most of us enjoy least in life is being reminded of our past failures and mistakes.

When we are reminded through conversations, maybe through interactions with people or specific things or just memories that randomly float through our mind throughout the day, one of the questions that we need to ask ourself is, how do we respond?

Typically speaking, people respond in a couple of different ways. We have those who will try and just shut those memories out.

We have others who will immerse themselves in activities with the intention of distracting themselves from those memories.

We even have some that look at them and are reminded that even though that is not who we once were, it is our past, and it is no longer who we are.

Oftentimes in Christian circles, we are told that we are supposed to forget about our past just as God has forgotten our sin.

In fact, some go so far as to give us scripture, quoting things like Philippians chapter three, verses 13 through 14, where Paul says, brothers,

I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The problem is, is that the context of that passage doesn't support this teaching.

In fact, scripture does not teach us anywhere that we are to forget our past.

Rather, scripture teaches us that we are to be reminded and to remember.

In Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus in the second chapter, after he so beautifully and aptly defines who we were, and that we were saved by grace through faith, which are both gifts from God, he goes on to write these words in Ephesians two, 11 and 12.

Therefore, because of all of this, because you have been made new, because you have been saved, because you are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus, therefore, remember, formerly you, the

Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so -called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world.

So he's contrasting for you to remember the person we were, but then in verse 13, he reminds us of the person that we now are.

Chapter two, verse 13 reads, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

So it is not that we are to forget who we were.

We're not to be held back by it, but we are to recall who we were, because the more that we recall who we were, the greater the grace of God is understood.

And you may be thinking, what does all of this got to do with Exodus? Well, as our passage opens up, we find

Moses still convening with God in the tent of meeting outside the camp of the

Israelites. And before God tells Moses to come up on the mountain the following morning, he first tells him to go and hew from the rock two tablets like the first set.

Carve out for yourself two stone tablets. Now earlier when we talked about these original tablets, we kind of spoke at length about them.

So we're going to stick to the basics this morning and be reminded that these original tablets were hewn from rock by the hand of God and that by the finger of God, he inscribed on them the law.

Now, recall the hand of God and the finger of God are anthropomorphic terms that we use to help us understand.

This is putting it in human terms to help us understand what's occurring. The grace of God that was promised to Moses and the people in chapter 32 verse 19 actually begins right here with this command.

For you see, it is demonstrated in the fact that God is going to once again write the words of the covenant that he had already provided to Israel, symbolic of the restoration that would occur as he has told

Moses that he would reconcile with the people. However, you may notice that there is one slight difference.

You see, the original tablets were completely provided by God. Here, God instructs

Moses to supply the tablets. Now, I will tell you that there are those who will take this particular verse and they will misconstrue it into the argument that sounds something like this.

Just like Moses had to offer God the tablets, we have to offer him our hearts.

That's not what this is about. That doesn't weigh out throughout the rest of scripture.

It has no legitimate backing or standing and therefore is a false understanding.

What we see here is a reminder of who they were, who the people of God were, the

Israelites. We are reminded, they are reminded of the fact that the original tablets, the ones that were destroyed by Moses in response to their sinful act, that this is who they were.

Calvin writes, although the renewal of the broken covenant was ratified by this pledge or visible symbol, that being the two tablets, still lest his readiness,

God's readiness to pardon should produce indifference, God would have some trace of their punishment remain, like a scar that continues after the wound is healed.

In the first tables, there had been no intervention of man's workmanship for God had delivered them to Moses engraven by his own secret power.

A part of this great dignity is now withdrawn. Moses is commanded to bring the tables polished by the hand of man on which

God might write the Ten Commandments. Thus the ignominy of their crime was not altogether effaced whilst nothing was withheld which might be necessary or profitable for their salvation.

Your salvation, my salvation, their salvation depends on Christ and Christ alone.

But our reminder of who we were amplifies his glory.

Whenever these tablets would have been seen, the people would have been reminded of their past.

They would have been reminded by God's grace alone of their future and that they had been reconciled.

My past, your past, just like the Israelites past is something that is real and true.

And we should be sorrowful for the sins that we have committed, for the iniquity in our lives, for our many transgressions.

But even as we are reminded of those things, we see greater beauty in the grace of our

Savior. The one who willingly went to the cross, paid the debt to set us free.

And so as we continue here in chapter 34, looking at verses two and three, one of the things that we should note here is the similarity with which

God delivers the instructions regarding Moses to come up on the mountain to ascend to the top of the mountain.

You may recall earlier in Exodus chapter 19, God gave Moses instructions before he first ascended.

We read these words in verses 10 through 13. Yahweh also said to Moses, go to the people and set them apart as holy today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments.

And let them be ready for the third day for on the third day, Yahweh will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

And you shall set bounds for the people all around saying, beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it.

Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or surely shot through.

Whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.

And so we see in those original commands, something very similar. Although this command is not nearly as elaborate, what we do see is

Moses still receiving the command from God that as he comes up in verse three, no man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain.

Even the flocks and the herds sit and graze in front of the mountain. Don't let them get anywhere close.

And we ask, why? God has promised grace.

He's promised mercy. He's given Moses this truth that he is going to restore these people.

And so as the people restored, why were they not then allowed to come forth?

It's a reminder. You see, if you recall our original discussion, one of the things that we talked about was the truth of God's holiness.

And the reality that sinful man cannot approach a holy

God. And so one of the things that we need to be reminded of, that Moses and the people needed to be reminded of is that although God has shown them grace, and although he will once again dwell in their midst, he is still almighty

God. And as such, he is still holy, holy, holy.

He does this because he knows the tendency of humanity in our heart.

He knows that we are typical to take things for granted, to presume too much upon his grace.

And in so doing, we fail to recall the truth of his holiness, his nature.

And we can sit here this morning and we can have one of those mindsets that says, oh, not me,

I never forget the God that I worship. But the truth is, if we are honest with ourselves and we are honest with one another, what we will find out is that we frequently forget the

God that we serve. We frequently forget that the God we serve is creator, that he is alpha, that he is omega, that he is the author, that he is the finisher, that he is the one whose hand is not too short to save, that he is the one whom is described by himself in Isaiah chapter 45, verse 22, where he says, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am

God and there is no other. By the way, if you've never done it,

I would invite you to find Charles Spurgeon sermon from Isaiah 45, 22 and read it.

This was the converting text.

As Charles Spurgeon sat under the teaching from someone that was just a congregation member in a little

Methodist church on the hillside in the winter in England. One of the truths about our methods of evangelism is that we create in our shallow conversion centers with our easy methods of salvation and our absolute failure to disciple, that we have left millions of people who have professed faith with zero clue as to the true nature of the

God that they serve. We presume upon his grace.

We believe that because of Christ's work, that we can enter into his presence and that as we get there, we can do as we please with no regard to where we stand.

But as you study the word of God and you see the reaction of those who come into contact with God, it tells a different story.

We look at the reaction of the kings in heaven and they cast their crowns at the feet of the almighty.

We see the angels covering their faces. We see the kings of the earth bowing low. Yet we think in our churches, in our places that are so -called churches, that as long as we throw a couple of cute lyrics out there, a quote a couple of New Testament Bible verses and have a 20 -minute self -help

TED talk that's focused on living our best life now, that we're fit for heaven. And the truth of the matter is, the truth of the matter is, is that we have, what we have truly done is spit in the face of almighty

God and profaned his name. That's the reality of much of the church or those who would call themselves the church.

The truth is whether they sugarcoat it or not, whether they want to acknowledge it or not, what they have done is just as Paul wrote in Romans, they have traded the truth of God for a lie.

That's what's occurred. And it's occurred because they do not understand

God. One of the beautiful things about this passage is that over the next few verses,

God unveils for us the glory that he has promised

Moses. Moses was promised in verses 19 and 20 and 21 and 22 and 23 of chapter 33 that God would reveal his glory.

And as Moses ascends the mountain, as he comes up so that the law could be re -given, and the subtle reminder that although grace has been outpoured, that the true nature of God has not been diminished in any way, that Moses is obedient and ascends to the top of the mountain.

What we see in verse five is that although Moses ascends, God must still condescend to us.

It's interesting. You look all through scripture. You see people approaching, but they never attain.

The only way that we attain is that God condescends to us.

By the way, that word condescends doesn't mean he's being negative to us. It means he comes down to us.

He comes to our level. And so even as Moses ascends the mountain, we see in verse five where it says, then

Yahweh descended in the cloud. Matthew Henry wrote these words, his descending bespeaks his condescension.

He humbles himself to take cognizance of those that humble themselves to walk with them.

Psalms 113 verse six, Lord, what is man that he should be thus visited?

What is man that you should come to us? The same cloud.

The same cloud is the cloud that has been following the Israelites, leading the Israelites as they move through from Egypt to Sinai.

It's the same cloud that descended in fire and smoke on the top of Sinai when the first encounter, the first time

Moses went up. You may recall the reaction of the people. Exodus 20 verses 18 through 21, after God has given the 10 commandments audibly to Moses and to the people, what we see is this response.

And all the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, and the people perceived it and they shook or trembled and stood at a distance.

Then they said to Moses, speak to us yourself and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die.

Moses said to the people, do not be afraid for God has come in order to test you and in order that the fear of him may be with you so that you may not sin.

So the people stood at a distance, but Moses came near the dense gloom where God was.

The people's reaction reminds us again that this is the

Almighty, Holy God, creator of heaven and earth.

And as he descends on the mountain in verse five, he begins to demonstrate these attributes of himself.

Now the end of verse five actually contains a short clause that has created some disagreement among scholars.

The clause in mine here, the one that gives pause is this last little clause.

And the reason that it is not a hundred percent clear is that in the original Hebrew, the personal pronoun that it's used is not tied directly as it is often.

And so what we read is in verse five, and he called upon the name of Yahweh.

The question is whether this he is referring to Moses or whether it is referring to God.

Personally, I like Calvin's approach. At the end of the verse to call in the name of the

Lord is equivalent to proclaiming his name or promulgating what God would make known to his servant.

This expression indeed frequently occurs with reference to prayers. Some therefore understand it of Moses that he called on the name of the

Lord. In this opinion, there is no absurdity. Let us be at liberty then to take it as applying either to Moses or to God himself.

That is either that God himself proclaimed in a loud voice, his power and righteousness and goodness, or that Moses himself professed his piety before God.

Regardless of whether you think he here is

Moses or is Moses speaking or God speaking, the calling leads directly to what happens.

And what happens is the revelation of God, the glory of God, the attributes of God, because if you remember last week, when we talked about glory, we defined glory as the sum of all of the attributes of God.

And so this is what is being revealed to Moses. Now, before we jump into this discussion of the attributes,

I want to point out two things to you. The first is that you may have noticed from the reading of this passage that there is no mention of the cleft of the rock.

There are a couple of theories on this. One of this is some theologians attribute this to Moses' response that happens in verse eight.

And in that response, they say it's not necessary for God to have hidden him in the cleft of the rock because Moses takes care of himself.

The other theory, the predominant theory, is that quite simply God has already told Moses that this would happen, and there was no need to include this detail again, the assumption being that the events unfolded exactly as the sovereign

God of the universe declared them to happen. The second thing that I want to draw your attention to is verse eight itself.

It's Moses' response. The reason I want to draw your attention to this first is because it frames the way that we see the importance of what occurs in verses six and seven.

Moses has interacted with God face to face. He has communed with God as with a friend.

We saw that back in chapter 32 in verse 11. And so Moses' reaction here means that there is a little more that is conveyed here than what

Moses' typical interaction with God contains. And so what we see here is that verse eight says that Moses made haste to bow.

The made haste part demonstrates that it was an immediate response to the words of God.

Immediately after God professes what he does in the next two verses, six and seven, that we'll deal with in just a moment, that Moses feels compelled to bow.

Now the word bow here is significant in the fact that this is not the typical

Hebrew word that we translate into bow. This is something different.

This is not just a nod of the head or a way that we would think about bowing.

This is a literal prostration of Moses before the almighty

God that not only puts him down before God but also demonstrates his devotion to God.

It elevates what's happening here. This word was used in Israel's reaction after Moses and Aaron delivered

God's message to the elders and then the people in Exodus 4 verse 31 where he says, so the people believed and they heard that Yahweh cared about the sons of Israel and he had seen their affliction so they bowed low and worshiped.

In Nehemiah chapter 8, if you don't know what Nehemiah chapter 8 is that you ought to go home and study

Nehemiah chapter 8 for the first time in a very very long time.

The word of God is given to the people of God. In fact it says that Nehemiah opened the book or Ezra opened the book and he read from the book for about six hours as the people stood and listened.

A little bit further down it says in Nehemiah 8, 5 and 6, and Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was above all the people and when he opened it all the people stood up.

Then Ezra blessed Yahweh the great God and all the people answered amen amen while lifting up their hands then they bowed low and worshiped

Yahweh with their faces to the ground. So again the reason that we needed to understand that and kind of unpack it a little before we step into six and seven is so that we see the importance of these words.

In fact these two verses these two verses demonstrate for us seven different attributes of God named by God Himself.

This is one of those passages that speak to us of the majesty and the wonder and the awe of Almighty God.

You'll note that as this begins in verse six it says then

Yahweh passed by in front of him and called out. The passing by in front of him references back up to Exodus 32 where he says that I will pass by you verse 22 of Exodus 32.

But then when he calls out when God calls out he says Yahweh Yahweh God.

Now the word that we have translated God is a

Hebrew word El which can literally mean God or it can literally mean

God's plural. Typically most of us are familiar with El as it's combined with other things such as Elohim.

The term combined with the transliteration of Yahweh repeated twice reminds us that this is the covenant name of God and reminds us of exactly who the

God is that is speaking. He's not just the covenant

God of Israel he is the named covenant

God of Israel that is above all other gods. That Moses is hearing the one true only

God. Matthew Henry again eloquently puts it this way the strong God a

God of almighty power himself and the original of all power this is prefixed before the display of his mercy to teach us to think and how to speak even of God's grace and goodness with great seriousness and a holy awe and to encourage us to depend upon these mercies they are not the mercies of a man that is frail and feeble false and fickle but the mercies of the

Lord the Lord God therefore sure mercies and sovereign mercies mercies that may be trusted but not tempted.

This proclamation reminds Moses that that these words that he is about to speak regarding himself are truthful they are dependable that they are not just the words of God but the very definition of God himself and he first describes himself as compassionate or merciful.

Personally I find it very interesting that this is literally the first way in which

God describes himself in this passage in the Old Testament. Moses had just been a witness to the mercy of God.

He saw that God did not utterly destroy the people. I wonder if we were to ask most people who profess to be

Christians today to describe for us one of the last terms that we'll hear predominantly will not be merciful.

The reason for that is is because so many churches today are demonstrating and teaching that there are two gods in the

Bible. You're like but wait a minute preacher I've seen a lot of churches they don't say that no they're not going to say it but what they do is they divide it right you have the left side and the right side.

Yahweh that's the God of the left side Jesus that's the God of the right side and never the two shall meet that Jesus is the improvement.

The problem is problem is is that God himself right here in the

Old Testament names himself as merciful.

Churches today would define God as mean spiteful vengeful wrathful and not merciful but God describes himself names himself as merciful.

It's this mercy that as we move through the Old Testament it's this mercy that that David and Solomon and Nehemiah and Jehoshaphat and others hope in it's those this same mercy on this same ground that we now have hope in the finished work of Christ who is

God himself the one true God the the God who is the one true

God of both the Old Testament and the New Testament the entirety of scripture the one who stepped out of eternity and into flesh of man once again condescending himself to us to demonstrate that mercy to pour out that grace through faith into all those who believe in the

Lord Jesus. He identifies himself as merciful but not just merciful merciful and gracious that the mercy is literally demonstrated on the grounds of the grace.

A few weeks back we talked about grace we talked about it being the unmerited unwarranted unearned undeserved favor of almighty

God and we know based on verse 19 or being reminded in verse 19 that the sovereignty of God in his sovereignty he pours out his grace on whom he will.

Verse 19 and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. God pours out his grace ex mero motu merely by his good pleasure on his children.

David cried out in the Psalms verse 86 14 through 15 oh God arrogant men have risen up against me and a band of ruthless men have sought my life and they have not set you before them but you oh

Lord are a God compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and truth.

Hezekiah cried out Jonah presumed upon this grace in Jonah chapter 4 verse 2 and he prayed to Yahweh and said ah oh

Yahweh was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land therefore I went ahead to flee to Tarshish for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate

God slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and one who relents concerning evil.

Joel encouraged the people in Joel chapter 2 verse 13 to cry out and he says and tear your heart not your garments now return to Yahweh your

God for he is gracious and compassionate slow to anger abounding in loving kindness and relenting concerning evil.

Isaiah assured the people in Isaiah 30 verse 18 therefore Yahweh waits with longing to be gracious to you and therefore he is on high to have compassion on you for Yahweh is a

God of justice how blessed are all those who wait for him and now and now in the fullness of time

Christ came and visibly demonstrated this grace to make ready the way so that we by faith can be reconciled to God the

Almighty God who is gracious and out of his own good pleasure through the power of the

Holy Spirit works in the hearts of men so that we can hear his word and by faith receive that grace and the world proclaims that God is mean and that he is angry to which

God responds by defining himself as being slow to anger.

I don't know about you but the the blessedness of that truth hits home with me every time

I think about it I prefer the term long -suffering because he suffers long with us

I think about the description of Moses in verse 9 we'll get to in a few minutes where he calls

Israel stiff -necked people as God had referred to them earlier and I'm reminded of his long -suffering it is because that he is slow to anger that we have an opportunity to see his compassion to see his mercy to partake of his grace it is it is that long -suffering that stays his hand against sinful humanity listen were he not long -suffering were he not slow to anger if we backed up to the beginning when all of this first happened in chapter 32 the response would have been entirely different you remember he sent

Moses back down to deal with the people so that he would not consume them were he not long -suffering he could have merely eliminated and he would have been just in his judgment were

God not long -suffering Adam and Eve's physical life as well as their spiritual life would have ended the moment that they ate and you and I oh the truth the truth of it is that we would simply have been destroyed because of the sinfulness of our very nature but God best two words in all scripture but God God is long -suffering

David saw it he poured it out in a in a praise recorded for us in psalm 145

Daniel mentioned to you this morning that we've the last few psalms have been psalms of David crying out and lamenting and what happens is we'll move into a a song a psalm where he places and understands that it's all based on the rock and then the next psalm psalm 145 is a psalm of praise and in the midst of psalm 145 we read these words in verse 8

Yahweh is gracious and compassionate slow to anger and great and loving kindness

Jesus himself pointed out the long -suffering of God as he overlooked

Jerusalem we said these words in Matthew 23 verse 37

Jerusalem Jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her how often

I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under his wings under her wings and you did not want it

Peter Peter reminds us Peter reminds us that the reason that God hasn't returned is because he is compassionate and slow to anger and merciful but not only is he compassionate and merciful or compassionate and merciful and gracious and slow to anger we see that he is abounding in loving kindness now we see loving kindness repeated again in verse 7 and what we need to understand about the term loving kindness the the

Hebrew word is chesed is that there are different approaches based on the context of that word and so it doesn't always mean exactly the same thing surely it can be translated the same but there are different ways that it comes out based on the context so here this first use we have this word surrounded by compassion and grace and long -suffering and then is followed by truth now be sure that we understand that truth here and long and loving kindness are different attributes but as they are combined together in this statement it gives us this understanding to determine exactly what's being described and so what's being signified here to us and what was being signified to Moses is the steadfastness the faithfulness of God here and in other places in scripture it is in reference to God's covenant engagements so as we think about the nation of Israel as we think about that he has chosen this nation above all other nations that he is determined to covenant with them that we see his loyalty to his covenant that covenant which is a sign of his an expression of his love so that's why we get loving kindness it is a description and a show of the loyalty of God to the love of his people

Matthew Henry again writes it this way this bespeaks plentiful goodness goodness abounding abounding above our desserts above our conception and expression the springs of mercy are always full the streams of mercy are always flowing there is mercy enough in God enough for all enough for each enough forever it bespeaks promised goodness goodness and truth put together goodness engaged by promise and his faithfulness pledged for the security of it he not only does good but by his promise he raises our expectation of it and even binds himself to show mercy and he binds himself with truth now we see the second time we're going to come back again in a minute to truth but but we see the second time that this word loving kindness is used that it is coupled there with forgiveness so what this helps us to see is that this loving kindness this use of that term is tied to the to the extent of that mercy referenced again in the quote from Matthew Henry reminded by uh to us by Isaiah in Isaiah 59 verse 1 behold the hand of Yahweh is not so short that it cannot save nor is his ear so dull that it cannot hear when we when we bring this together with the attribute of forgiving that we see we see that God forgives all manner of sin notice the the threefold use of terms here iniquity transgression sin each one of those are different terms each one of them has a slightly different meaning when we bring them together this is demonstrating the entirety of it in fullness that that there is no depth of our sinfulness that God cannot forgive and that we can trust that we are fully forgiven by grace through faith because of God who

God proclaims himself to be to Moses and to us in these passages because not only is he abounding in loving kindness he's also abounding in truth that he is all truth in the sense of he is always full and complete the last line of verse seven here circles us back around to the preparation that God commanded earlier in Moses ascending to the top of Sinai to be sure that the people did not approach remember this is about his holiness and so God has identified himself as forgiving as merciful as long suffering as graceful as loving as good and that he is all truth and oftentimes when we think on his mercy and his grace we get to the place that Paul points to in Romans chapter 6 verse 1 where we say what then are we to continue to sin so that grace may abound

Paul's resounding answer to his own proposed question is

God forbid here by this statement that he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished

Paul or God reminds Moses and through Moses the people that although these things are true that that he is this forgiving merciful long -suffering graceful loving good and truthful