I'm going to look at the Word of God tonight as it's recorded in Exodus chapter 33. I'd invite you to turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 33, and then we shall read just a couple of verses from the very last book of Scripture, Revelation chapter 22. Listen to the Word of God then in Exodus 33. Then the Lord said to Moses, leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants. I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way. When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn, and no one put on any ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, tell the Israelites, you are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you, even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do with you. So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb. Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the tent of meeting. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshipped, each at the entrance to his tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend. And then Moses would return to the camp, but his young age, Joshua, son of Nun, did not leave the tent. Moses said to the Lord, You have been telling me, Lead these people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, I know you by name, and you have found favor with me. If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways, so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people. The Lord replied, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. Then Moses said to him, If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? And the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you and I know you by name. Then Moses said, Now show me your glory. And the Lord said, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But, he said, you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. And the Lord said, there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen. Let's turn now to the very last chapter of the scriptures, Revelation 22. And I want to just read the first five verses. And the angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamb for the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever. I wish to speak to you tonight on this passage in Exodus chapter 33, My face must not be seen. And I want to say, first of all, congregation of the Lord Jesus, that when you are in love with somebody, you want to know everything that you can possibly know about that person. When you are in love with somebody, you want to know about that person's background. You want to hear from that person how his or her day has gone at work. When you are truly in love with somebody, you want to know what that person's likes and dislikes are. You want to know that person's joys and sorrows and ambitions and plans. You want to know everything there is to know about that person. And it's not only that you want to know everything about that person. When you are truly in love with somebody, you want to be close to that person. And it hurts you when you are far away from that person. Now that's the way it should be in terms of our relationship with God. If we truly love God, we will want to know everything that there is to know about God. We will want to know about God's character. We will want to know about his plans. We will want to know about his covenant will for our daily lives. We will want to know what his word says so that we know what pleases him and what displeases him. When we truly love God, we will want to know about his mercies and his love and his patience, his faithfulness and his compassion. We will want to know his presence. We will want to be close to God because we love him. And yet tonight, if we are truly honest with ourselves, we must confess that our love for God is not always what it really should be. Far too often we as Christians are content to simply know that we are forgiven. That's the end of it. As Christians, sometimes we are content to know that we have eternal life, and we leave it there. We are quite content sometimes to keep God at a distance, at an arm's length, as if he shouldn't be really involved in every aspect of our lives. Sometimes as Christians, we are quite content to know as little about God as is necessary for us to be saved. Whereas we should love him so much that our love is deepened and grows and matures every day. We should long to be close to God. In this fascinating passage that we have before us tonight here in Exodus 33, we see a very special man in the history of redemption. Moses, as you as boys and girls also know, was one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament. A man, we might say, who was close to the heart of God. A man who knew a great deal about God. A man who pictured for the people of God what it meant to be an intercessor, a pleader. A man who went in between God and the people over and over again. A man who portrayed for us and for the people way back then the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his work. And this great man longed to be even closer to God. He longed to know God even more in a very intimate way. So he said to God, show me your glory. I would love, as it were, to see your face. And God said no. God denied his request. Why? Well, tonight we want to examine this passage and we want to discover together something of the majesty and the glory and the grace and the love of God all together so that our faith may grow and we will draw even closer to the God whom we love. I would have for you to notice three things tonight from this text. First of all, the gracious context, and then Moses' amazing request and God's astounding reply. To understand this particular situation, particularly to understand Moses' amazing request, show me your glory, we must take note, first of all, of the context. In the previous chapter, as you may remember, Moses had been gone. Moses had gone up to the top of Mount Sinai to receive from the hand of Almighty God, from the very finger of God, the law of God written on stone tablets. And at the same time, when Moses is gone, the people decide that they are going to involve themselves in gross sin before the face of the Lord. They persuade Aaron that because Moses is gone, because God's representative is not returning, they need some kind of visible representation of God to lead them on the way through the wilderness. And so they give to Aaron, as you know the account, their golden jewelry, and Aaron makes this golden calf. And then they said, of all things, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. And when Aaron saw that, the Bible tells us that he built an altar in front of the calf and he announced tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord. Now let's stop and think about that for a moment. This is indeed a terrible sin before God's face. I don't care how small you were as a boy or girl, you very likely knew that this calf had not brought the people up out of Egypt. As a matter of fact, that calf wasn't even in existence the day before. But what you see happening here is that the people were especially breaking the second commandment. The people were seeking to worship God by way of their own imagination. They were trying to worship God through this idol. They couldn't see Moses, God's representative. And so they wanted to make something visible so that through it they could worship God. That's why Aaron said, tomorrow there will be a festival. He didn't say to the calf. He said, tomorrow there's going to be a festival to the Lord. We're going to sacrifice to the Lord. And you see, this context is very crucial if we are to understand this account of Moses' request to God. We can't understand God's harsh punishment of the people, nor can we understand God's response to Moses unless we understand the context of this request. Well, as you know the account, those of you who are boys and girls here tonight, remember Moses came down from the mountain finding these people celebrating, offering sacrifices in front of this calf, in this wicked celebration in front of the calf, and God punishes those people immediately. God's righteous punishment is swift. It's awesome. The Bible tells us that about 3,000 of the people died by the sword, and there were many other people who died by the plague that God sent. God was so terribly displeased because the people were worshipping him in another way than he had commanded in his word. As I've said, they were breaking the second commandment. And the breaking of the second commandment seems to anger the Lord more than almost everything else. Now, that is why our worship must be carefully constructed upon the command of the word of God in his scriptures. We dare not introduce into the worship of God anything other than he has commanded us. So that it displeases God when we place in his worship movies or skits or plays or what have you. God has commanded in the second commandment that we worship him only in the way that he has prescribed in the scriptures. So you see this very severe judgment that's come upon the people. They're not only killed by the sword, they're killed also by the plague. But now stop and think of it, people. Even more severe than anything else that God has visited upon his people because they've broken this commandment, more than anything else that God has already visited upon his people, now God announces to the people, I'm not going to go with you anymore. I've had it with you. You can go on your own. I'm not going to go with you. That's the way chapter 33 begins. Then the Lord said to Moses, Leave this place, you and your people. The implication being, these are not my people. That's a terrible thing. Oh, twice over, God says, I'm going to send an angel with you. I'll send an angel, but I'm not going to go with you anymore. As a matter of fact, in verse 3, God says, I will not go with you because you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way. Remember now, in the context that God had already heard the plea of Moses, And apparently God had forgiven his people. Don't you notice here that God is so angry with his people that he doesn't want to be close to them. My presence isn't going to go with you. I don't want to be close to you as my people. I'm not going to go with you. I'll just send an angel with you. And so we see in verse 4 then that people repent and the people mourn because God said he wouldn't go with him. It doesn't puzzle us because they began this mourning and this repenting. You see, the land of promise would mean nothing at all apart from God's presence. What good would it do then to enter into the land of promise if God was not with them, if God's presence were absent? Think about it. Our wealth and our health and our families, our homes and our jobs, our success, are nothing apart from God's blessing, are they? Our lives would be entirely empty. Life is empty without God's presence. In verse 15, Moses says to the Lord, If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? What a beautiful picture of the work of Christ. Moses being the mediator between God and the people, reminding God now that they aren't just Moses' people, they are God's people. These are your people, O God. In verse 14, God said to Moses, My presence will go with you, I will give you rest. Those are singular you's there. In other words, God said to Moses, I'll go with you, Moses, but I'm not going to go with these people. And yet you see that Moses isn't satisfied that God would just go with him. He says, if your presence does not go with us, then don't even bring us up out of this wilderness. my friends in the Lord Jesus Christ, what makes you different from the unbelievers who live next door to you? What makes you and me as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ different from the unbelievers in our world? Is it not the case that it is God that lives in us? Is that not what distinguishes us from the people of the world? You see, God does not do that for unbelievers. Arrogant and wicked men cannot come into God's presence. One of the horrendous heresies of our day that seeks to distort the very character of God is the mistaken notion that God loves and abides with everybody. And in a certain sense, of course, everyone experiences the providential care of God. But God does not live in intimate, abiding love with unbelievers. Such a privilege is reserved only for his people whom he has graciously saved. So that the joy of a close relationship with God is reserved for his people. That's one of the richest blessings that we have from the hand of God. The world does not enjoy God's presence. As a matter of fact, the Bible teaches us that people apart from Jesus Christ hate God's presence. They will do everything to get away from God's presence. They avoid God's presence because by nature we hate God and our neighbor. Well, the amazing thing, of course, is that this first request is actually answered by God. God grants. Moses requests. He is going to go with his people because Moses has found favor with God. And because of God's great love for Moses, because of his covenantal faithfulness to his people, God promises that he will go. And again, you see, it's a wonderful picture here, is it not, of the work of Christ, that because of the mediator, our Lord God puts his favor and his blessing upon us. Neither Moses nor the people had done anything to deserve God's favor, but it is only on the basis of God's sovereign love that any of us is acceptable to God. Well, when God answers that request favorably, Moses now makes this awesome request to God. Show me your glory. Moses has acted as the great mediator. And God listened. Moses has made God to promise, as it were, that he will go with the people. And in view of that beautiful work that Moses has done, in that beautiful confidence that Moses has before the face of God, he comes to God and he says, show me your glory now. Moses, as it were, wants to see the face of God. Think about this. This is a remarkable request from a remarkable man to a majestic and a holy God. Think about the experiences that Moses has already had before the face of God. Think about standing in his shoes for a few moments. Remember when God, boys and girls, approached Moses? There was this burning bush. Moses came up to that burning bush. And God said, Moses, take off your shoes. Because you are standing on holy ground. I'm here. The great I am is here. Moses stood in the very presence of God. Moses had just been up on the mountain, right? The Bible tells us that the intimacy between God and Moses was such that Moses, when he came down from the mountain, His face glowed with the glory of God to such an extent that he had put a veil over his face so that the people could even look at him. You remember that Moses had received from the hand of God the Ten Commandments written on the stone tablets? We read here about this tent of meeting, this place where God and Moses met and fellowshiped together. God spoke directly to Moses. We think about that great pillar of fire that followed and preceded the people of Israel, the very presence of God. And after all these experiences, and now also this experience, Moses goes to God and he wants something more. He wanted to see God's great and glorious face. I believe that this request is born out of great trust in God. It is born out of a great desire to know God even better, to draw closer to Him. You know, today, you and I as believers, the Bible tells us, see through a glass darkly. But we long to see God face to face in all of His beauty, don't we? We long to see Him in all of His beauty. God means everything to us. And we want to know Him in the most intimate way. We want to experience Him in a very deep and intense way. That's the desire of all of God's children. It is not enough for us to have simply a surface relationship with God. We want to see God's face, as it were. you know the bible speaks about god's face again and and again and of course we must remember that god doesn't really have a face let me explain that you see god is a spirit god does not have a human body a human face like you and me but god talks to us in the bible in anthropomorphic language That means, boys and girls, that God talks to us in such a way that we as human beings can understand. So when the Bible talks about God's face, the Bible is indicating to us that God's pleasure, God's joy, God's blessings are being heaped upon us. When God's face shines on us, then God's blessings fall upon us in all of their abundance. That's quite the opposite of God turning his face away from us or hiding his face from us. You remember, of course, that God turned his face away from his son as the Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross. And Jesus suffered all of the righteous wrath of God that rightly was ours. But when God's face shines upon us, the opposite it is of his great anger. To turn his face toward us means that his great love is coming to us. And he gives us all of his riches in mercy and in abundance. We sang from Psalm 31 a little bit earlier. And I don't know if you caught that. I was, of course, looking for it. You didn't. But in Psalm 31, verse 16, the Bible says, Let your face shine on your servant. Save me in your unfailing love. Or Psalm 34, verses 15 through 18. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them. He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 44 speaks of Israel conquering the promised land. And it says, it was not by their sword that they won the land. nor did their arm bring them victory. It was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. And now we have Moses. And he comes and he stands in the presence of God and he says, Oh my God, show me your face. And he's denied. Why? Twice over, God says in this passage, you cannot see my face. My face must not be seen. Why? I believe that there are at least three reasons why God denied Moses' request. The first is that the Bible tells us that we must walk by faith and not by sight. So that the seeing of God's face is something that God has reserved for glory. To see God's face is something reserved for glory. Listen to 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7. We live by faith, not by sight. we forget the second part so readily. We're not to live by sight. Hebrews 11, verses 1 and 2 say, Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. To walk by faith. God wants us to walk by faith so that the sight of God is reserved for the new heavens and the new earth. This is one key reason why we are not to make visible representations of God. It's one reason why we're not to make idols and worship him by way of images. You see, it's not by chance, people of God, that this request is denied in precisely this context because Moses himself had to learn to know God only by way of his revelation. For now, you and I must be content to walk by faith, to see Christ in all of his glory, not by the eye that is in our head, But by the eye of faith, to see Christ and to hear Christ speak to us in the preaching of the word, to feast upon Christ in the sacraments, let me say that it is part of the present state of the church, living in the in-between times, living in the wilderness, as it were, just as Moses was living in the wilderness. It is part of the suffering of Christ's church to experience no sight of God. 1 Peter 1 verse 8 says, Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him. And you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Moses, God says you must walk by faith, not by sight. And that is the challenge for us too tonight. God says, trust me. My people, trust me. I have given you everything that you need. I have given you my word. And now you are to trust me. You don't need to see my face. It's something reserved for glory. There's a second reason, I believe, why God denied Moses' request, and that is that he was not yet glorified. Moses was not yet glorified. He was a sinful creature. Because he was a sinful creature, if he were to see the face of God in all of his holiness, God's holiness would strike Moses dead. That's what God says, doesn't he, in verse 20? You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. 1 Timothy 6 verse 16 speaks of God who lives in unapproachable light whom no one has seen or can see. Remember Isaiah's vision in chapter 6? The very angels that stand in the presence of God to wait upon the Lord hide their faces with two wings because they cannot look upon the majesty and the holiness of God. This is why when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, he had to go with the smoke of incense, Lest the holiness of God reach out and strike him down. Moses cannot see the face of God lest he die. Because he was not yet glorified. And then finally, I believe that God denied Moses' request because he wanted to teach Moses a very important lesson about the work of the Lord Jesus Christ that was still to come. You see, God did something very wonderful for Moses. He gave him a partial view of him, as it were. God said to Moses, I will cause all of my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. That's God's covenant name, which speaks of God's merciful and gracious covenant relationship with us. In other words, God wants us to know him by seeing his goodness. By seeing the greatness of his goodness more than seeing the glory of his face. God permitted Moses, and I can't comprehend this, people of God. But God permitted Moses to see at least part of his magnificence. He was permitted to see his backside as the radiance of God passed by. We might say that he couldn't see the sun, but he could see the radiance of the sun as the sun went below the horizon, as the sun set. But even then, you notice that God must protect Moses from seeing God's full radiance. Because Moses is creaturely and Moses is sinful. God takes Moses and he places him in a cleft in the rock and he covers him with his hand so that Moses cannot see his face and die. What an amazing picture of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ whose protection we need from the consuming glory and the holiness of God. We are hidden only by the blood and the perfect righteousness of our Lord and Savior. That is why I should say, Jesus Christ is why we shall someday see God face to face. Face to face. 1 John 3 verse 2 says, We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. This is why I read to you tonight this marvelous passage at the very end of the scriptures in Revelation 22. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. All of this because of the marvelous and the perfect work of Jesus Christ for us. What a day that will be when his glorious face we shall see. But right now, people of God, right now, is it your heart's desire to live in close fellowship with him? Is it your heart's desire to love him, to know everything you can about him? To desire him to have full control of every thought and motive and deed because you are living in fellowship with the God whom you will see someday, face to face. If that is your desire tonight, may the Lord grant that desire. And if there is someone here who does not have that desire, may it be your prayer that the Lord would change your heart, that he would draw you to repentance and faith before it is forever too late. Because those who do not love him will not see his face. Because God will turn his back on the wicked. Never to see his face again. I pray that that will never be the case with any of you. But may the Lord's face shine on you. In all of its beauty. In all of his grace. Amen. Thank you.