God is Glorious – Exodus Ch33v12to33

Sermons Archive - Greenview Church

(0:00 – 0:23)

God is glorious, that’s what we’re looking at together tonight in this series. Now, it’s the time of year, isn’t it, when you get wasps and blue bottles in your house? And they fly repeatedly into windows, yes. They sense the light, don’t they? They know to fly that way, but they can’t seem to sense that there’s glass.

(0:24 – 1:23)

And you open a window, come on, out this way, out you come, but they insist, don’t they, on head-butting the window. Stupid creatures. They see partially, but not fully.

And as we come to think about the glorious God, creator of all things, we need to recognize our limitations as creatures, created things, created beings. Because we, wasp-like, cannot begin to grasp the limitless, infinite God, because we just do not have capacity. In fact, we can only get anywhere near the light of understanding because God opens his word and reveals himself to us in a way.

(1:23 – 2:06)

He ushers us through that window, if you like, all in a way so that we can understand. And so as we think tonight about this vast subject of God being glorious, we need to recognize we understand a sliver. And what we do understand is only through what God has revealed about himself.

We are fully reliant on him. So the passage we are going to read from Exodus, starting at verse 12, is slap-bang in a narrative. So let me bring you up to speed of the storyline.

(2:08 – 2:33)

Gloriously, up the mountain, the Lord has given Moses the Ten Commandments. But shamefully, down the mountain, the people have persuaded Aaron to make them a replacement God in the form of a golden calf. All that glitters is not glorious.

(2:35 – 3:27)

And because of this great sin, the Lord tells Moses he’s going to destroy the people. But Moses intercedes for them. And because the Lord is faithful to his promise to Abraham, he says he will not destroy them.

God is faithful. Remember that from before. We read, though, that the Lord has just told Moses that in order for the people not to be destroyed, the Lord will not go with them into the promised land.

And so here we are at Exodus 33, verses 12 to 23, which is the bit that Colin asked me to read, but I’m going to jump on a wee bit as well and read verses 4 and 9 from the next chapter. So here we go. Exodus 33 at verse 12.

(3:29 – 3:57)

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 favour with me. If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways, so I may know and continue to find favour with you.

(3:58 – 9:33)

Remember that this nation is your people. The Lord replied, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And 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 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. Then 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. Well, let’s skip on just a little to chapter 34 at verse 4, and live this glorious moment with Moses.

And so Moses chiseled out two stone tablets, like the first ones, and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him. And he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord.

And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and the fourth generation.

And Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped. Lord, he said, if I found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin and take us as your inheritance.

Wow, this is the awesome magnificence of God shared with his chosen leader. And amazingly, we then read about the Lord entering into a covenant with Moses and this stiff-necked, stubborn people. So in terms of glory, because that’s what we’re thinking about tonight, take note of this.

Moses asks to see God’s glory. And the Lord, despite all that the people have done, he says yes to Moses. How kind of God, wouldn’t you agree? He desires to share his glory with us.

He says, yes, but not all of my glory, lest you be consumed. Kindly, God protects Moses. For if he was to see the face of God, he would perish.

What was the request? Let me see your glory. What’s the response? I will show you my goodness, declare my name in your presence, and describe my character, but I’m going to give you only as much as you can take. Show you my goodness, declare my name in your presence, describe my character, but only as much as you can take.

Note then that in this part of scripture, God’s glory is his goodness, his character, his name, and in its fullness, his glory is dangerous to sinful humanity. And so I want you to keep those ideals in your pocket for later. Just put them in there.

And we’ll look at our first point, which is that God’s glory is weighty. God’s glory is weighty. Not a term I advise you use to most people, but God’s glory is weighty.

(9:33 – 10:54)

So glory is a word in the Bible that is used a lot, isn’t it? We sing it a lot. It’s even generally used a lot in society, isn’t it? Now of all the lights in the sky, I just love the moon. I love the moon.

Have you ever seen the moon rise in the evening from behind a mountain? I had this view once in Spain, evening in Spain, and the moon came up from this mountain. It was glorious. You hear people say that a lot.

Today I said, Claire, that soup was glorious. Have you seen the full moon shining so strongly in the dark night sky that it casts shadows? And if you’re childish like me, you maybe jump about and just enjoy that. Glorious, the moon.

Don’t you think so? Can you picture that moon in your head and then just keep that for later? Think of Psalm 19 verse 1 with me, because creation speaks of God’s glory. The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the works of his hands.

(10:55 – 11:13)

Glory, a word we associate with kings, rulers. He had a bit of a wait, didn’t he, in being crowned, but Charles did on his day look glorious. We associate glory with achievements, superstars.

(11:15 – 15:26)

When Josh Kerr wins the 1500 metres at the Paris Olympics, it will be a glorious moment. You’ve got great seats at the Hydro to see your favourite band or singer, and they sing your favourite song for you. It is glorious.

Now, when we use the word glory in the Hebrew Bible, it actually has a real sense of weightiness, of substance, of honour, and it contrasts entirely with the flimsy, breakable glory of human beings. As I’ve already mentioned, I played for about 25 years in the Strathclyde Evangelical Churches League, and when I hear the name Greenview Church, I immediately think of football games against you, usually at Netherpolk. I managed a team, and so did Andy.

He managed your team, and I can’t speak for him, that’s Eilidh’s job, but I spent too much energy and time chasing glory for my silly little football team. I played yesterday for the first time in about a year for SOA. I was quite good at football, and unlike Andy, I was a regular goal scorer.

Look, here’s one of my trophies for being top goal scorer, how glorious. It’s very good at gathering dust, and look, it came apart. Compared to God’s glory, who cares about your Olympic gold medal? Sold out stadiums, platinum records, it’s frivolous, transitory, pathetic attempts at glory, and if idols that was prayed about earlier, it’s sinful glory.

I need to put this down now, hang on. Paul is right, is he not? All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. That’s the human story.

What’s the story? It’s morning glory, but what’s God’s story? It’s everlasting glory. The glory of God is weighty and is substantial. The stars, the shining lights and the galaxies of the universe speak of his weightiness, of his substance, yet even when they’re compared to his eternal rule, they’re just mere moments.

They eventually fade. God’s glory, weighty forever, and Moses is right, therefore, to pursue it. Our second heading that we’ll look at is God is glory.

So in preparing for this sermon, the more I thought about it, and this was a bit disconcerting, the more I thought about it, the more I thought I didn’t know what I was talking about. What do we mean by God’s glory? It just became so difficult to define. I was thinking, is glory something that must be displayed, shown for it to be glorious? Is it an external display of what God is internally? Can God be glorious if there’s no creation to witness his glory? Well, if glory is an internal attribute of God, then that can’t quite be right.

(15:27 – 17:14)

Glory is all over the Bible. It is vital to every single doctrine of Christian theology. We speak about God’s glory descending or filling.

We might speak of seeing God’s glory. We might speak about humans being the crowning glory of creation. We speak about Christians who have died and gone to glory.

We might say we give glory to God. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. See how it’s getting hard to define? The Old Testament associates God’s glory with creation, with God’s image being shared with humans.

God’s glory is linked with the exodus and fire and light and a cloud. God’s glory is linked to the Sabbath and it fills the tabernacle, it fills the earth, it fills the temple. It is identified even with God’s people and is revealed to prophets like Ezekiel and Isaiah in visions.

God’s glory is linked with his holiness, his otherness, do you remember that? His perfection. Remember, round the throne of the Lord, the angels cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory.

(17:15 – 18:08)

You may be expected after three holies to say the whole earth is full of his holiness, but it’s glory. Glory is like a mega theme of the Bible. 30 minutes, Colin.

And all of this before we’ve even discussed Jesus Christ, who is the word. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. So, this all being so, theologian, I found that word hard to say there, Christopher Morgan agreed with my musings and said, glory is virtually impossible to define.

(18:08 – 18:46)

Oh, I took a sigh of relief when I read that. I thought, oh, it’s not just me. But Morgan continues though with this.

In a sense, God’s glory is the magnificence, worth, loveliness, and grandeur of his many perfections. Often, glory communicates God’s special presence. Morgan says it’s virtually impossible to define, but it didn’t stop him writing a book on the subject that helped me write this sermon.

(18:47 – 19:34)

So, in saying all of that, let’s land with God is glory. When thinking of God’s glory as an attribute belonging to his nature, we need to be thinking that the glory of God includes his moral excellence, his complete and utter beauty, his unfailing love, his eternal perfections. And we need to remember that this is all being fully possessed and communicated within the three persons of the one being that declares himself the Lord God.

(19:35 – 20:11)

Head hurting a wee bit, isn’t it? Beyond our full comprehension, yet when we sense this about God, it is glorious. And it’s not just that he is glorious, but more that he is glory. He is what it means to be glory.

And God’s glory, third point, is all that he is. God’s glory is all that he is. And so this is really a development of point two.

(20:13 – 20:59)

You see, it’s really important that when we think of God’s divine nature, that we don’t think of God like a cake. I’m sure you thought about God like a cake or a pizza in slices. He’s a slice of love, a slice of faithfulness, a slice of holiness.

And it’s all held together by his glory. No, that is not it. That’s not it.

You see, God is not made up of different parts. He is fully all that he is all the time. All that is in God is God.

(21:00 – 24:34)

So God is fully love, fully faithful, fully holy, and all the other attributes that he is, he is fully and is that all the time. All that he is, is fully glorious. And so he is the very definition of faithfulness.

And this faithfulness is completely glorious. His love is glorious, and he is what love means. So anything that humans say is love, but is not love as found in or declared love by God, is not love.

All of God is glory, and nothing in him is not glory. Well, the glory of God is wide ranging, isn’t it? It’s comprehensive, and it belongs entirely to him. And I wonder, do you feel like a wasp banging your head off the window yet? Let’s open the window of scripture.

Let’s get to more familiar ground. What is Moses asking for? He’s already met the Lord as a burning bush, heard the name of God, revealed Yahweh. He, Moses, had been the announcer of 10 plagues.

He’s led Israel through the Red Sea. Moses had seen the cloud and the fire of the Lord. He’d heard the thunder and the earthquake of the holy God at the mountain.

So after experiencing all of that glory in our pasage today, what did he expect by saying, show me your glory? Isn’t it encouraging that after all of that, Moses is still pursuing the glory of God? I mean, what else was there to see? Well, I take it from the passage, and by the way the Lord responds, that in some way, he wanted to see God physically. He wanted that vision of God that we sang about earlier, sometimes known as the beatific vision. He’s asking to be shown who God is.

Let me see your face. Let me see you. But in understanding God’s glory, God’s response is more important than Moses’ request.

Right, Bilbo Baggins, bring out what’s in your pocket. Remember, I put something in there. I told you that God’s glory is his goodness, character, and name, and in its fullness, his glory is dangerous to sinful humanity.

Remember that. Spot this now as we go through. And the Lord said, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you.

I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

It may be useful just to have that in front of you. When the Lord shares his glory, he proclaims his name in Moses’ presence. By doing so, he says, my glory is all that is me, because his name is, I am who I am.

(24:34 – 24:54)

I will be who I will be. I have been who I’ve always been. My glory is all that is me.

My glory is all that I am. I am glory. He proclaims his name and then his character.

(24:56 – 29:42)

Now, although God’s not made up of parts, the Creator reveals himself to his creatures in a way we can take it in. He’s not made up of things, but to help us have some understanding of his glory, he says, everything about me is glory. My mercy is glory.

My compassion is glory. My will is glory. My goodness is glory.

It’s all intrinsic to who I am, and all I am is glory. When he passes in front of Moses, he speaks to say who he is. Moses asks for vision, but the Lord accompanies the vision with words about his character.

My glory is this, the Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion, sin, what a great God, and yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Well, there’s a whole sermon series there, and we don’t have time to talk about that, but I want you to know, when asked to show his glory, he talks about who he is and how he deals with his creatures.

If I remember rightly, this is the longest description of God’s character by God in the Bible worth learning off by heart. His glory, therefore, is all that he is and all that he does. He describes his character as if to say, my glory is all that is intrinsic to me.

My glory is all that I am, and I am gloriously good, which is why God being concerned for the glory of his name in all the earth is a good thing. It’s not an ego trip. This is not Muhammad Ali declaring, I am the greatest, or Jose Mourinho, I am the special one.

No, God being concerned for the glory of his name is right and good because he is the very essence of perfect goodness. And if his glory is the very essence of what goodness is, then that is what the world needs now and forever, and thus God being good, he must necessarily be concerned for the glory of his name. All right, final point.

God’s glory is to be displayed. How are you doing? You all right? Give your neighbor a shake if they’re snoring. Even if your head is hurting, keep going because this stuff is good for your heart, okay? Keep working away at it.

We’ve seen that God’s nature is all that God is, and thankfully, he does not keep this to himself. He displays this throughout creation. Yes, through the stars, and the mountains, and the animals, and all he made, he displays his glory.

But will you think Sam 8 with me for a minute? Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants, you’ve established a stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars which you have set in place, what is mankind? In other words, who are we? What is mankind that you are mindful of them? Human beings that you care for them. You made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands.

You put everything under their feet, flocks and herds, animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the sea. Lord, oh Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. David is saying, what? God’s glory is displayed through us.

(29:43 – 30:41)

Yes, he’s stunned at creation, but supremely, he’s stunned that the Lord would make humans his crowning glory. The Lord displays his glory to creation by making us his image bearers, meaning we are to rule as he would rule. He crowns us with that glorious task, therefore, of ruling well, because glory is a communicable attribute.

He shares the task of ruling gloriously with us. Now, maybe you can see better the utter tragedy of sin, of falling short of God’s glory. Instead of embracing God’s glory, we reach for false glories that were no glories at all.

(30:42 – 32:01)

We’re so unclean, aren’t we, that God’s full glory is a danger to us. You cannot see my face, lest you die. And yet, in line with his glorious character, compassion, gracious, slow to anger, God is still eager to share his glory with mankind.

And so God the Son added human nature to his divine nature in the person of Christ that we might be restored to glory. He became flesh. He dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory of the only Son of the Father.

He who did not see equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but in order to display God’s glory, he took the low place, became human, lower, a servant, lower, a crucified criminal, lowest. Thus God has exalted him to the highest place that all should confess him as Lord to the glory of God. God’s glory is ultimately displayed to us in Christ.

(32:02 – 32:30)

We’ve just touched on that. We’ve not even mentioned the transfiguration, the glorious descriptions of Christ in Revelation or the eternal city, where, unlike the Moses scene, we don’t need protection from God’s glory, because the Lamb on the throne has dealt with the sin problem in that city. In that city, his glorious presence is the light.

(32:30 – 33:43)

A glory that is weighty forever and comprehensive. God’s glory is his perfect goodness. It is all that he is and is best displayed in Christ, and it is to be displayed in you.

So let me finish with one final image from Philippians 2, 16, which says that in this crooked generation, we are to shine like stars. You know those things that declare God’s glory? You have to shine like them in the world, however light or however dark it is. Paul tells the Philippians, no grumbling, no mourning.

Be blameless and innocent. Shine with God’s glory. And so, Greenview, your task is to shine and to be God’s glory.

You have to be like the moon. It’s mostly seen at night, isn’t it? But sometimes in the day. I made you picture it earlier.

(33:45 – 34:44)

It can shine so bright in the darkness, it makes shadows on the earth, but it has no light. Of its own. It only reflects the greater light, the sun’s glory.

Oh yes, the moon can be gloriously beautiful in the darkness, but it is only lit by the sun. And so Greenview, to shine in this world, you need to be so lit up and filled by Christ that no matter whether it’s a bright morning, or twilight, or it’s getting really dark, or it’s the darkest of dark nights, you are shining with God’s glory, the glory of God. Let me pray with you.

(34:45 – 35:49)

Father God, we can only begin to scratch the surface as it were. You are fully what glory is. You are glory.

Lord, forgive us when we look at our lives right now and think, it doesn’t feel very glorious. May we remember our lives are hid with Christ. But when Christ returns, it will be revealed that the service of Christ that did not look glorious was the glorious life.

Teach us more about you. Teach us to glory in you. Teach us to glorify you to a world needing your light.

This we pray in Jesus’ great and glorious name. Amen.

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