I invite you to turn again tonight to the book of Exodus, chapter 34, just to give you a sort of map of where we're going. There's only, believe it or not, a few more sermons in Exodus. So, next week we'll go back to the Gospel of Mark, where we left off, I think it was about December, the beginning of December, and pick up in chapter 13, Jesus' teaching on the end times, and then move into those events that describe his death and resurrection. We'll go back in the evenings to finish Exodus, and then I have some ideas. It won't be Leviticus, just so you know. But Exodus chapter 34, beginning at verse 1 tonight, and we'll read the first nine verses. The Lord said to Moses, cut for yourselves two tablets of stone like the first and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. Be ready in the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain. So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first and he arose early in the morning and went up on mount sinai as the lord had commanded him and took in his hand two tablets of stone the lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the lord the lord passed before him and proclaimed the lord the lord a god merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation and moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped and he said if now i have found favor in your sight oh lord please let the lord go in the midst of us for it is a stiff-necked people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance may the lord bless tonight the hearing of his word this is um a very important section really in continuation tonight of what we um what we started and looked at uh at the end of chapter 33 this morning and i think it's helpful tonight to begin with a few words of reflection on how Paul looked at this whole phenomenon and helped us to understand what exactly was going on here, because it seemed like, and maybe you've picked this up as we've been studying this, it seems like we're going back and forth, and just the moment that we seem to have some clarity on just what's happening, things kind of get muddied up again. And the New Testament writers really help us to understand what was going on here. Paul asked the question in the book of Galatians, is the law against the promises of God? That's a really important question. He's looking at Mount Sinai, and he's wrestling with this whole thing, and his question really goes something like this. When God gave the law in Sinai, that phenomenon we've presented and we call a ministry of death that cannot save and being under it for condemnation, does God put them in an arrangement that stands in contradiction to all of these wonderful, gracious things that He said to Abraham and said that He would do? Is what's happening here something that undermines all of that? Didn't you feel some of that this morning as we wrestled with the Lord saying, I'm not going, and then He says, I'm going. We're looking at the relationship here as we look at law and gospel. Well, Paul says, no, the law, which came 430 years later, cannot cancel out. It's not annulling the covenant confirmed before by God in Christ to make the promise of the covenant of grace to give a seed of no effect. Well, then Paul says, well, why the law? Why did God do this? The answer was given. It was added 430 years later to Israel because of transgressions until Christ should come to whom the promise was made. so so god put this arrangement in order to teach us about transgressions we heard it in sunday school this morning to look at really how bad the problem of the stiff-necked heart is and then he says so the law was a tutor to bring us to jesus but now since we live by faith in him we're no longer under that tutor So he wanted us to go back and look at this and understand what the purpose of this arrangement all was. The law served a very important purpose. It made really clear why we need a Savior. It made really clear why we need a mediator who can truly deliver us. So we shouldn't view what's going on here as undermining the covenant of grace. But as something that belongs and serves the greater purpose that God had in showing us the need for Jesus. That's about as simple, I think, as it can be said. Maybe not, but at least I'm trying to. Now that makes what's happening before us tonight somewhat helpful, I think, in seeing what's going on here in chapter 34. God never wanted generations to miss what makes deliverance possible. But you'll never appreciate that until you understand the holy standard that has to be met. There's a reason, you know, I know it's been reacted to somewhat today, well, we shouldn't read the law anymore as Christians. And there's a reason I want you to know we do that in our worship services. There's a reason we find that very prominent and important. not only does it give us a way to live godly as our heidelberg puts it in a thankful way of deliverance but it does something first and foremost that we all need if you were in adult sunday school this morning in deuteronomy 8 it was captured for you you shall remember all the way which the lord your god has led you in the wilderness these 40 years that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. Well, there's the test. And the law then had the purpose of humbling us, right? Because if I said tonight, just like I, and the question is whether Israel saw that, but if I said, how many of you kept the law? How many hands are going up? This has had a real purpose of humbling us. This is at a real purpose of teaching us something about us. Well, until we know that, you'll never really appreciate Jesus. You'll never understand the greatness of His work for you, who the New Testament says Christ is the end. He's the fulfillment of the law to everyone who believes. He's the end of it. Well, that leads us to where we are tonight. You have two things going on, a really simple thing, simple things that will help you to see a sort of outline here. you have the giving of the law and then the preaching of the gospel. That's it. It's really not that hard. The first scene of chapter 34 is God renewing the Sinai covenant. You'll notice that. Remember when Moses had come down the mountain and he saw the golden calf and he saw the music, he saw the dancing, he takes the stones and he smashed them at the foot of the mountain declaring they broke the covenant. they had broke what they had promised that they would not worship any other gods other than the lord alone it's interesting in chapter 34 because substantively we have nothing different now you'll notice the arrangement is back to chapter 20 back to 19 through 24 only now Moses says is told you go cut new stones like the first ones so that that's first one here the Lord said cut for yourself two new tablets of stone like the first and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke so you be ready in the morning verse 2 and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. We have left the alternate tent of meeting. And God says, Moses, now you come back to Sinai. So there's a visual here. We leave the tent, go back to Sinai. Now, verse 3 gives some very specific instructions to this. I don't want anyone coming up. Let no one be seen back throughout the mountain. Let neither flocks nor herds be on that mountain. You remember what this was like the first time, right? Remember back to chapter 19. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. You essentially have a repeat going on here. There's something again happening. He's republishing it again. I don't even want a beast touching this mountain. Now we know what Moses thought about this. Hebrews gives us some insight as to what was in Moses' mind when all this happened. Remember in the book of Hebrews it says, for you've not come to the mountain that may be touched and burned with fire, the blackness and darkness and tempest, and a sound of a trumpet, and a voice of words, so that those who heard it begged the word should not be spoke to them anymore. That was chapter 20. For they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. So terrifying was all this that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. Moses had the first time a terrifying experience with this whole thing. And I'm standing back from this trying to get into the head of Moses. Lord, you want to do this again? You want to start this over? Have the people changed? Are their hearts circumcised? Remember, if you're not going, We don't even want to go. But now, here, before we're going, God reestablishes Sinai. Now Moses had just asked him, show me the glory, let me see the glory. God hasn't done that yet. That's coming in a minute. We had described what will happen. But now he's about ready to be hid in the cleft of the rock. But first came Sinai again. It's a really important order that's going on here so that we understand the whole plan of salvation. You see, my dilemma would be, Lord, we tried this. It didn't work. You want me to again hand them the Ten Commandments when you just told me they're a stiff-necked people. Have they changed? Will they do it? I'm sure Moses didn't want to repeat golden calf event. He definitely never wanted to see that thing again, I promise. Let me give you a few coming attractions in the history of Israel. Here's the first. Jeroboam said to the people, you've gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold, your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And He set one of the golden calves in Bethel, and He set another one in Dan. And then they made two of them. It's the very same language again. These are your gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt. This thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan before the one. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves. I mean, you'd think, you'd say, this already happened. No. We're doing it now double. But things got worse. If you look down at verse 10 tonight in 34, he said, Behold, I'm making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as not been created in all the earth, or in any nation, and all the people among you whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it's an awesome thing that I will do for you. Observe what I command you this day. Here we go. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take care lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, cut down their asherim, for you shall worship no other god for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. And when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods, you shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal. How did it go? Well, read Judges 2. They did it all. So the very covenant, the angel comes down in Judges 2 and says you've broken it again. So this is an interesting moment that he is reinstituting this and Hebrews tells us they couldn't even endure what was commanded. So the question is, is after this mess, He then now puts him back under the law again. What is going on? Moses goes up with two tablets, rises early in the morning, and then all of a sudden, the scene changes. Moses had said, show me your glory. Moses is up on Sinai in the darkness and blackness of God's holiness. And all of a sudden, the very thing that he just described starts happening. Look at verse 5 tonight. The Lord descended in the cloud, stood with Him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Show me Your way, Lord. I don't understand any of this. I don't understand how all this works. The Lord comes and stands and positions him. And notice what he does. It says that the Lord began to proclaim. He passes by Moses, hides him in the cleft of the rock, and as he is passing by that glory, there is a gospel sermon being delivered at that moment. It's really something, isn't it? He proclaimed the name of the Lord, and in one of the, probably the greatest of Old Testament sermons, preached from the mouth of the Lord Himself, all the law and the prophets, this was the model for the sermon of gospel right here. What is said now becomes the answer to the dilemma of Israel's failure under the law if they would hear it. I think it's Psalm 81 this morning. They would not listen. There's something else that it's challenging us to listen to. Yes, they didn't listen to breaking the law. We get that. We've seen that. But did they listen to the gospel that was preached to them? Now that's Hebrews. That's what Hebrews tells us in chapter 4. That the gospel was preached to them. When was the gospel preached to them? He just proclaims it right now. I'm proclaiming the gospel to you. You just came to the text. I love this. Here is the gospel sermon right after the giving of the law. Law, gospel. God calls this a ministry of condemnation, the ministry of the law, and then right after its renewal, We find here that he had ultimately given his great desire for Israel, his great announcement to Israel. The whole model of Christian ministry is all set out right here before you. Seven attributes are given by God of himself right now in a gospel sermon. So passing by Moses, hiding him in the cleft of the rock, the only basis for Moses finding grace is this good news, and here it is. Verse 6, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. You break it down and think of what was just said to you. The Lord, the Lord, first thing that's said, merciful, full of all kinds of compassion. In all of our weakness, the Lord desires to give you help. I mean, this is Psalm 103. And I've always been so encouraged by this psalm because this psalm is built off this truth right here when it was penned by David. It was this truth because this was the statement that would be sung by Israel. And it's captured in that psalm. But it says in that psalm, as the Lord pities His children, as a father pities His children, so the lord pities those who fear him you ever thought how overwhelming that mercy is that you don't deserve i'll never forget my kids are almost old enough that i can't tell these stories anymore but i'll never forget when we were having major problems with them coming down at night when we told them to go to bed i'm sure nobody else has ever had that problem but there they were and i remember one night one of them came down and i said listen i told you you come down here again you're getting it that was angry moses by the way and then i looked and he's all wet and i just sunk with compassion dad I often thought that is just us we make a mess of our lives constantly and we don't listen and we come down to dad and we call out to our father Abba father and he wants you to know that's the kind of response as you give your children that Think I'm going to punish my child for that? That's the kind of pity. That's the kind of compassion. That's the kind of mercy He has. The Lord merciful and gracious. Well, you learned about that this morning, didn't you? Grace. He knows what you are. He knows everything you've done. And He doesn't give you what you deserve. Instead, He lavishes upon you favor. Grace, we call it. Blessing. When you've been nothing but a rebel. It just keeps going. Long-suffering. You see that there? Slow to anger. Slow to anger is the way our translation reads it. Isn't that the thing we struggle with? That God's ready to fly off the handle with us? That He's ready to just lose it with us? That's not what He's like. That's not what He does. It doesn't mean He's waiting to lash at you. This is the attribute that really gets me when I look at life and I look at how behavior goes and how I've behaved. It means that God is reluctant to act against His own creation. How much more a child? How much more a son? How much more a daughter? I mean, He even gives calls to the wicked. That's why this world's still going. Turn, turn from your evil ways. For I don't desire. Turn from your ways. Why should you die in your sin? I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. I don't delight in this. If the Lord, you look over the course of life, if the Lord had not been like this to you, you think you'd be here today? You know you'd have wrecked your life. You know it would have been over. It's that attribute you've enjoyed. It's that blessing you've enjoyed. Slow to anger. Compassionate. Abounding in what? Steadfast love. That's the covenant word. Chesed. That's that word for covenant faithfulness. It's so beautiful. He's committed. He's not backing out on this. He's committed to that. He's not wavering in His love. God is saying He can't waver in those promises. He's not turning back on those promises. He's not going back on them. That's what we struggled with in Exodus. I told you it's one of the greatest gospel sermons ever preached. Is God going back on this? Notice here, it says, steadfast love and faithfulness. Keeping steadfast love for thousands. And what a beautiful thing. I'm forgiving. I lift and I carry away your sins. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove them from us. And not only that, I forgive. Notice the three-fold emphasis here. Forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. The being a stiff-necked person, all the rebellion that we've done, violation of the law, I forgive it all. Psalm 103. This is what I do. That's your God. And then He gives one more attribute. The one we don't like to read. But by no means. Clearing the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. The children's children to the third and fourth generation. You say, everything just seemed to be lost. and no it's not the final attribute that's emphasized in this sermon excuse me is his justice I've always been somewhat confused by that I like to read and then stop before I get there the Lord just said I'm merciful I'm not going to give you what you deserve I'm gracious all this is without your deserving long suffering on and on and then he said but I don't clear the guilty. And I gave reflection on that this week and I thought there's something that C.S. Lewis said that helped me to really grasp what the Lord is doing here. Mercy detached from justice grows unmerciful. In all this blessing, I don't set aside punishment. What kind of God would I be? how is justice and all this blessing reconciled? It only becomes good to us when we realize that there was a punishment of sin that He had to do to make these things possible. It's the only way all these things can exist in a sense of Him giving it to sinners. We sing that song, Who Was the Guilty? Who brought this upon thee? Alas, my treason. Who was the guilty? Us. But who took it? Jesus. You know, this was Paul's whole point in Romans working with this thought of justice and mercy. Not letting the attributes swallow up justice as if justice is set aside. Paul said this, We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth might be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God. Israel's guilty. How can anyone receive all these blessings? How do we reconcile justice with grace? It's the answer of the entire Bible. It's the crucifixion of Jesus. He didn't clear the guilty. You and I were the guilty. And on the cross, we see this reconciled as God's justice is satisfied. As Jesus pays the debt we owe, that's why we're hidden in the cleft of the rock and can be. That's the announcement of Romans. God is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And that's why Hebrews comes along and says, that's why it's so much more excellent a ministry in as much as he's the mediator of a better covenant. For if the first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second. Finding fault with them, he says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they didn't continue in that covenant. and i disregarded them says the lord for this is the covenant i will make with the house of israel after those days says the lord i put my law on their mind and i write it on their hearts and i will be their god and they shall be my people none of them will teach his neighbor and none his brother saying no the lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest for i will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds i will remember no more. This is what he's proclaiming here. You say, well, what did Israel get? I'm not talking nationally for a minute. We know what happened to them nationally. But that was that the promise might be fulfilled so that all the Israel of God would be saved. I'm talking about what I said earlier. Israel had the gospel preached to them. Hebrews says, many of them didn't listen to it. And that's why they perished. But those who came to Jesus and heard the Gospel were saved. Just like we are. And I believe Moses shows us this so beautifully at the end here when he says, and look at the structure, God gives the law, and then he announces the Gospel, and then we read in verse 8 that Moses makes haste. He bows his head towards the earth and worships. And what does he say? Quickly he bows and said, now I have found favor in your sight, grace in your sight, O Lord. Please let the Lord go in the midst of us for it's a stiff-necked people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance. What a beautiful closing prayer, isn't it? We're stiff-necked. Forgive it, Lord. That's a beautiful prayer of confession. Since I've found grace in your sight, since you're just, remain with us and we confess we're a stiff-necked people. So may that punishment we ultimately know. He's not asking for justice here. He understands it now. Lord, as we gather here together tonight to worship You, don't leave us nor forsake us. Isn't this our prayer? We confess tonight that our lives have been incredibly stiff-necked. We bow our heads to You in worship tonight, especially as we head out into another week. We are like those farm animals who refuse to wear the yoke. But we humbly ask. Humbly do we ask. Your law has done its work in our hearts. Pardon our sins. Forgive them. Forgive our iniquity and our sin and our rebellion. And take us as your inheritance. And that's the humbling that the Lord wants from us so that we might begin to appreciate the riches of His grace to us in Christ Jesus. And He wants you to know He never turns away that kind of person who calls out to the Lord with that kind of humble heart. He'll forgive you. He's announced that. all over His Word. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. And I will give you mercy. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find, what did Moses ask for? Rest. You will find rest for your souls. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we can say all these things tonight. We gather together tonight to worship. Your law crushes us. But Your Gospel is the answer of hope. Never leave us nor forsake us. We confess tonight that we are stiff-necked. We bow our heads tonight and humbly ask that You would pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for Your inheritance as Your people. All this do because of the person and the work of Your Son, Jesus. And may we go this week and this night in that hope. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.