Shew me thy glory (Quality: Very Good)

[0:00] Feeling much to need, divine help, I venture again this evening with the word that you will find in the book of Exodus, the 33rd chapter, reading verse 21.

[0:16] The book of Exodus, chapter 33, reading verse 21. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock.

[0:40] And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock.

[0:55] Many of you here this evening will know that we have been seeking to speak from this chapter, and have sought, with the Lord's help, to speak from it, not only in connection with God's servant Moses, in the blessings and favours that he obtained, but also, as it speaks, of the way in which God is pleased to bless every one who is quickened into life by the Holy Spirit.

[1:44] And every living soul will be brought into the exercise of truth, which is contained in this chapter, and every one will be led by the Holy Spirit to the rock, Christ Jesus.

[2:07] And their great concern will be that they may be found in him, that they may be found standing upon this rock.

[2:24] Now, seeking help just to gather up the fragments, we came this morning to the sacred petition contained in verse 18, where we read, and he said, and this is Moses that is speaking, and he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory.

[2:57] Now, in speaking of Moses' petition, we have tried, with the Lord's help, to make it clear as to what this really means.

[3:17] And Moses cried, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. God had favoured him much in the preceding verses.

[3:34] He had received the wondrous promise, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. He had continued to speak in his great need, as he watched, to see whether the Lord would fulfil the promise.

[3:53] And this, of course, is contained in verse 16. And then, as he went on to say, So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people which are upon the face of the earth.

[4:10] And so it is, as we said again this morning, that the nearer we live to Christ, the more we are favoured to commune with him.

[4:22] And this will separate us in our lives, and in our heart's experience, it will indeed. And how we need it.

[4:35] We shall have this exercise given to us, that we may honour him, in all we do, in all we say, in every aspect of our lives.

[4:51] Now the Lord had said, in verse 17, that he would grant him these further blessings and favours. And then he comes, as we've said, to this, I beseech thee, show me thy glory.

[5:08] Now very briefly then, and yet we would not wrongly hasten. No one, no person, that has ever lived upon this earth, has ever seen the glory of God the Father.

[5:32] This glory cannot be seen by man, because it would indeed bring us to nothing.

[5:46] We little realise, and it is only as the Holy Spirit reveals this, but we little realise what the glory of God the Father, and all that it means, is.

[6:05] And we have already spoken of how Moses was called up into the mount. You can read of it in Exodus 24, and how he was with God for 40 days, and 40 nights, there to be instructed in what he was to do with the children of Israel.

[6:27] And if you've read your Bibles, you'll know the solemn consequences as the children of Israel made a golden calf and set it up to worship it.

[6:38] And yet, may the Lord help me just to make this point clear. You will read how that Moses saw God, but he did not see God the Father.

[6:58] That is, he did not see God, who is a spirit. And the Apostle John, writing in the first chapter, says plainly, no man hath seen God at any time.

[7:16] He cannot be seen with mortal eyes. His glory is such, and I speak with reverence, we would be burned up, as it were, because out of Christ, God is a consuming fire.

[7:31] And how then can mortals, sinners, be favoured to see the glory of God? They can only see it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[7:47] There, his glory is to be seen in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If we stop for a moment further, you will know, and there are those here that will certainly know this, that you've never seen the Holy Spirit.

[8:08] You've never seen God as it, as this means in the Word of God. Now, if we are here tonight, standing on praying ground and pleading terms with God, it is because the love of God the Father has reached our hearts.

[8:31] We've been drawn by him, by the eternal love of God the Father unto God the Son, and there to bow before him.

[8:41] And all this through the sacred work. and how true it is that the beloved of the Lord are favoured to know, and I say this with reverence, to know a triune Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[9:04] They are brought to know when the Holy Spirit moves within them in prayer, in confession, repentance, and as the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Jesus and reveals them and makes them known to sinners, and they are favoured to feed upon him.

[9:27] And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory, so that the glory of God then can only be seen in the person of his beloved Son.

[9:38] We read in the first chapter of the Revelation this morning the sacred sight of Christ that the Apostle was given.

[9:50] And I would encourage you to read that account again, and I would encourage you to pray over it. The Lord, knowing how many of us have been compelled to take up the prayer of Moses, is, I beseech thee, show me thy glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and his glory shines in Jesus' face.

[10:20] Sing and tell the pleasing story, O ye sinners, saved by grace. And again, I mention this because I feel it is important.

[10:34] When the Apostle John was given a sight of the glory of Christ, it did not destroy him, but it did this for him.

[10:45] He fell at his feet as dead, and yet in the person of Christ, he was accepted. And yet we know what happened.

[10:58] I fell at his feet as dead. But what did the eternal Son of God do for his servant at that time in his life? He knew what the Apostle needed.

[11:10] He knew what the Apostle must walk in. And so he does with every one of us here tonight. And so we read this. He laid his right hand upon me and said unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last.

[11:30] I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. So then the glory of God can only be seen in the face of Jesus, in the person of Christ.

[11:51] And here it is to be seen. Here it shines and shines forever. And poor sinners can come to him and they will seek his face and they will know him as he reveals himself to them in and under the gospel dispensation by the Holy Ghost.

[12:15] And have you known what it is to pray with the hymn writer, Jesus, reveal thyself to me. Oh, do you long for a revelation of Christ?

[12:28] It's to be known in his person, in his work, in his atoning sacrifice, in his righteousness, in his merit, in everything to do with him.

[12:40] And the apostle Peter speaks of him like this, Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious.

[12:58] And to be favoured to believe in him, to view him by faith, to see him as our Jesus, to be favoured to see him.

[13:12] Let me just remind you that Christ is holy. Oh, Christ is holy. And when he was transfigured before his disciples, three favoured disciples, Peter, James and John, they beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

[13:41] And yet, in their condition as sinners, as mortals, I'm sure of this, that really, they only had a glimpse, they couldn't have stood very much of his glory in the mount.

[13:57] They couldn't have stood very much of it. Any more than poor sinners can stand very much of the presence of Christ in their hearts here.

[14:09] Oh, when they are favoured, and when they are really blessed, they know what it is to feel something of this, and when their full soul can hold no more of never-dying love, and it is to be known, it is to be prayed for, it is to be asked for, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.

[14:41] And I was just going to add this, concerning the transfiguration of Christ, they beheld his glory, his raiment was white and glistery, as he was there with Moses and Elijah in the holy mount.

[15:04] And they feared as they entered into the cloud, poor mortals, cannot stand, very much of his glory here.

[15:15] We cannot stand it. I do not know how many of you have been favoured with even a glimpse of his glory. But it's filled your heart.

[15:28] It's filled your heart. And you've known what it is to feel you could not bear very much of it. You may have known what it is even to ask the Lord to relieve you, as it were, this, because you could not bear, you could not bear much.

[15:53] And yet, when the cloud was passed, who did they see then? They then saw Jesus. So we would try to make this clear, that Christ, the anointed of the Father, his power is infinite.

[16:13] To him is given all power, both in heaven and in earth. And his power is everlasting, eternal. And he is Zion's king.

[16:26] He reigns upon the throne. And yet, he is to be known as Jesus. And the disciples were so thankful for this.

[16:39] And when the cloud was passed, and the voice came out of the cloud, this is my beloved Son, hear ye him. And then what do we read? When the cloud and glory was passed, they saw no man, save Jesus only.

[16:58] Now in Jesus Christ, God is approachable. He is the saviour of sinners. And poor sinners can approach him.

[17:10] And they can indeed plead his name. And his precious name, the name of Jesus, which many of you will know, means this, he shall save his people from their sins.

[17:30] Well, have you been brought to know him then as the saviour of sinners? Do you long to know him as your Jesus, as your saviour, and as your friend?

[17:45] And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. I do feel this, that Moses was moved by God so to plead.

[17:57] The Lord does move his dear people to plead the prayer of Moses here. One is not a stranger to this prayer. And although one feels to know so little, and the Lord has granted from time to time revelation of himself, his person, and his work to a poor sinner, the one that stands before you this evening.

[18:24] Yet at the same time, as I said this morning, one longs to know more. I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Now we must go on.

[18:41] How did God answer his servant? He never gave him a direct answer. He said to him in verse 20, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live.

[18:56] that before God favoured him with his sacred blessing, when Moses was put in a cliff of the rock by God himself, and in the cliff of the rock, God's glory passed by.

[19:18] And Moses was favoured with this. But first of all, we must seek now to bring before you truth contained in verse 19, the answer, or the commencement of an answer to Moses' prayer.

[19:37] And it's this, and he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. This is the first precious answer to Moses' cry.

[19:55] And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. What sacred word this is.

[20:06] Who can begin to fathom it? The goodness of God. His goodness, which runs an endless round.

[20:20] All glory to the Lord. His goodness to this earth as he maintains it. His goodness to mankind upon the earth as he maintains them.

[20:35] We know that there is much that is going on in the world today. And it is always something that unbelievers cannot understand.

[20:46] And yet, as believers, oh, how we need the compassion of Christ as we think of the thousands of poor people here and there in the world that have scarce enough to eat and know what it is to be starving.

[21:01] and yet, the sovereignty of God is over it all. But we don't need the spirit of Christ. We don't need the spirit of compassion.

[21:17] And yet, this was the commencement of an answer to his cry. I will make all my goodness pass before thee.

[21:33] In Psalm 31, we have a very blessed word that speaks of this goodness and I hope that it will help us better to understand the meaning of this truth.

[21:55] Oh, how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men.

[22:12] Oh, how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men.

[22:27] What then is his goodness? It is a vast subject. But in God's goodness there is virtue, there is excellence, and there is kindness.

[22:44] I will make all my goodness pass before thee. Now, dear friends, do we know something of this in our lives? I must, I feel, speak, first of all, of God's great goodness, and in a very special way, his goodness to his beloved people.

[23:12] Do we know something of his goodness goodness in our lives? Oh, how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men.

[23:32] Have you been the subject of the goodness of God to you? There is a word that speaks like this of his goodness. His goodness leads to repentance, and a sense of God's goodness to us in our life, his mercy to us in Jesus Christ, his many favours and blessings that he showers upon us.

[23:57] When this works for our good, and when it works rightly in our hearts, it will certainly lead us to repentance. Have you known what it is to be amazed at his goodness?

[24:11] Dissolved, the hymn writer says in one place, dissolved by his goodness, I fall to the ground and weep to the praise of the mercy I found.

[24:27] Every day of our life, whether we are aware of it or not, we are the subjects of his goodness. His goodness in his providential favours and blessings, his goodness to this earth, as his covenant with it, is continued and every one of you here tonight, in measure at least, will know that that wondrous promise, the covenant that God made with Noah to this earth has been fulfilled from that day to this.

[25:05] It has never failed fall, and we've seen his bow in the cloud, that wondrous covenant that he made, and what a mercy it is if we've had a glimpse of the rainbow that is about or around the throne of God in heaven.

[25:25] And yet, think of it, seed time and harvest, summer and winter, day and night, cold and heat, shall not cease.

[25:37] We are the favoured recipients of his goodness in this and in every aspect of our life. The Lord help me just to bring this thought before you.

[25:50] Have you ever thought that you could not breathe one breath? We would not be able to breathe one breath.

[26:02] and how many times we need to breathe in the course of a day, in the course of an hour. But friends, you would not be able to breathe if it were not for the goodness of God to.

[26:19] We're dependent upon him for every breath we draw. They'll take us away their breath, they die, they return to the dust. But his goodness to sinners, his goodness in their lives.

[26:36] Oh, and the Lord will make us aware of this, his goodness and mercy. It brought the psalmist, even though he had known what it is to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and could say, I will fear no evil.

[26:53] But he ends that precious psalm with these words, surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

[27:07] Well, the Lord help us to consider this evening. Could you say with the psalmist, surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life.

[27:19] Oh, how good, how gracious God is. His goodness. goodness. And I will make all my goodness pass before me.

[27:35] The sacred virtue and the excellence that is in his goodness. But one sweet attribute of the goodness of God I desire particularly to mention and it's his kindness.

[27:52] His kindness. kindness. As mortals and in our lives we are made very aware of kindness.

[28:06] What a wonderful blessing it is, even in a natural way. And the greater our need, the more thankful we shall be for kindness. Kindness shown to us by others.

[28:21] And at times we shall feel so thankful for their kindness. Even this, under a sense of God's goodness, will humble us. It will.

[28:32] It will humble us. I'm just going to turn to the prophecy of Isaiah for a moment and read there what the prophet Isaiah was directed to Penn.

[28:51] Isaiah 1. Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

[29:11] For thy maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy redeemer, the holy one of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called.

[29:23] For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

[29:36] But then, oh may we listen to this, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. for a small moment have I forsaken thee.

[29:50] There might be those here tonight who perhaps feel that the Lord has forsaken. You feel forsaken by God.

[30:01] You feel alone. And every door is shut, but one, and that is mercy's door. God. But if any of you should feel to be forsaken by God in your life and in your soul, and any that may be saying in their heart, will the Lord be favourable?

[30:23] Will he be gracious? No more. Is his mercy clean gone forever? You may be in the place in which you will acknowledge that God has blessed you.

[30:38] He has favoured you in time past. And yet now you long to receive another token, another time of blessing, another time when the Lord will seal home upon your heart that he is your saviour and that you're his, and that you might know the pardon and forgiveness of all your sins.

[31:02] Now you may feel at this present time to be in this word, for a small moment I have forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.

[31:14] In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but then there's this, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer.

[31:29] But then there's this particular word, for the mountain shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy upon thee.

[31:52] Well, how sacred is his goodness, the virtue that is in God, in Christ, in the eternal spirit, and his excellence, because he is God, the almighty Jehovah, the Lord of heaven and earth.

[32:14] But dear friends, do you feel thankful for his kindness, his kindness to sinners? I will make all my goodness pass before thee.

[32:31] Now, another thought concerning his goodness is this. You may not have been favoured to look at it in this night.

[32:42] Perhaps there are those here tonight that feel to be under the correcting hand of God. You may indeed be wondering where the scene will end.

[32:57] His chastening hand may be upon you. Great mercy if you're aware of it. Great mercy if you're exercised about it, because there will be, and nevertheless afterward, the yielding of the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby.

[33:19] And we shall never view the goodness of God to us in his correcting hand, only as grace is given. I just speak a very simple word and think particularly of the children that are here tonight, and I'm glad to see you here.

[33:38] And to those of us that are old, none of us are too old to listen to this thought. If we, as we think, or as we look back and remember our parents, and those of you that have parents, and as we consider the Lord's goodness to us in this, it will do us good.

[34:01] Because what a mercy if we have been favoured with parents that corrected us. Oh, what a favour that is, to have parents that corrected us.

[34:13] us. But when we were little and as we grew older, and as children, no doubt there were times when we did not always understand why, or the purpose of correction that we received from parents.

[34:30] But let me add this, as we reflect upon this, when we were shown, and we may not have known it, but as we were shown by God that we were guilty in that that we had committed our sins even against our parents or in our lives, we shall have known this, to be brought by the Spirit's teaching to thank God for the correction of our parents.

[35:05] As I look back in my own life, and as I think of my childhood and youth, I was favoured with a dear father who corrected me.

[35:16] And as I think about it from time to time, I have to say this, that I deserve far more correction than ever he gave me.

[35:27] Now thinking of it then concerning God in his dealings with us, for whom the Lord loveth, he correct it, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

[35:40] But have you seen it in this light, that his correcting hand is in his kindness to sinners. And then of course we must speak of it like this, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, to be favoured in being led to Jesus, to know what it is to commune with Jesus as our friend, to hold communion with him in our life.

[36:10] Oh, the goodness of God to sinners in this. I'm going to ask you all a question here, and I would say it with reverence, that dear friends, when were we last favoured to hold communion with our Lord?

[36:30] Has it been during the past week? When were you last favoured to hold communion with your Lord? To recognise his great goodness to you?

[36:44] That you've not been cut off as a cumber of the ground, that he's extended mercy, that you've received mercy day by day. His mercies are new every morning.

[36:55] Great is thy faithfulness. Oh, his goodness to sinners, his mercy to sinners. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

[37:21] Now, we must seek for a little while to continue, and now with this, and these are the words of God, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.

[37:38] The Lord help us to think of this in our lives, and when this is fulfilled, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.

[37:53] What it really means is this, as God proclaims his name, his name to sinners in their life, but as he proclaims his name, the name of the Lord before them.

[38:08] Now, we have this spoken of in the next verse, and I trust that you will feel it to be the word of God. Now, it's this, again with God's servant Moses, and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

[38:31] What a very sacred thing it is for the Lord to descend, as it were, into our hearts, and he stood with him there. When you have known what it is to feel the Lord standing beside you, for him to stand beside us in our life.

[38:53] And when we're in the fire, to know something of that precious account in vital experience that was known by the three young men, when the presence of Christ was with them, his person, he was there in his person and presence as they were in the fire.

[39:13] And I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. Well, in this short, account here, I bring it before you and then leave it.

[39:25] And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, proclaiming the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, made his presence now, and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving in iniquity and transgression and sin, and then the solemn words that follow, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation.

[40:07] But then what? And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. see the Lord proclaimed his name before him.

[40:23] Just in closing, I feel that there is a word in the prophecy of Isaiah that I trust will be a word for souls that are here tonight and that you might understand perhaps a little more clearly what this means.

[40:41] I will make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. Well I leave you with this. The Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your reward.

[41:03] Now there you have it really. Proclaiming the name of the Lord before us, making us aware of this precious truth, the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your reward.

[41:25] Amen. May we be helped to conclude our service this evening by singing hymn number 554.

[41:44] Though we walk through this wilderness, God's promise is our stay. His goodness he will make to pass before us in the way. Hymn number 554.

[41:58] видим. Next timeiembre CHOIR SINGS Piano plays

[43:21] Thank you.