For those who are reading this blog, but have never visited our church, let me give an example of the sermon notes that appear in the bulletin for the morning worship service.  This particular sermon, taken from a short series on Exodus 32 - 34, fits into the larger theme of authentic Biblical worship compared with the false worship of contemporary idols.  I fully realize that in the dynamic of preaching, people will never immediately digest all the information that might be presented to their minds.  In some sense the most important thing that worshippers can carry away from the service is a deep, reverent impression of the true character of God Himself.  But because there is a need to reflect and meditate on the message that was heard, these notes are offered to help the congregation remember the content of the message with the hope that they will be encouraged  to "search the Scriptures daily to verify that what was said is indeed what the Bible teaches (Acts 17:11).

Sermon Notes, the Lord’s Day, February 14th, “Show Me Thy Glory” 

1.  I am always excited about Sunday sermons, but especially about this message.  In this passage we touch the heart of the Bible’s theme as closely as anywhere else in all of Scripture.  Why?  Because the message concerns the glory of God and the grace of God!  (I’ll read this morning from the NKJV because it translates the Hebrew noun chen [used first in Gen. 6:8, ‘Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD’] as “grace,” although other translations, not incorrectly, use the word “favor.”)  I made a list of all the sub-themes I could draw from these verses: the cause of grace; the result of grace; the goal of grace; the freeness of grace; the extent of grace; the desire for grace; the source of grace; the evidence of grace; the reasonableness of grace; the objects of grace; the distinctiveness of grace; the circle of grace; the beauty of grace; the reward of grace; the knowledge of grace.  Grace is the free, unmerited favor of God bestowed on those who are justly liable to punishment.

2.  Our story continues like this.  But don’t read on until you first stand in amazement of the fact that the LORD is willing to enter into redemptive, worshipful dialog with a man.

Moses: “I can’t do this task by myself, without You!  You have said, ‘I know you by name.  You have found grace in My sight.’  If that is so, show me Your way so that I might find (more) grace in Your sight.  Remember, this nation is Your people.”  What preconditions had Moses met for this grace?  Was this grace the cause or the result of Moses’ favor in God’s eyes?  Grace is the cause and the result of grace.  

Yahweh:  “My Presence (lit. My 'face') will go with you and I will give you rest.”  

Moses:  “If that is not the case, do not bring us up from here.  What makes me/us who I am/we are?”  It is Your Presence with us, which happens as a result of the expression of Your grace.  How is Your grace shown?  It is Your Presence among us which makes us uniquely distinguishable and separate from all other people.  

Yahweh:  "I will do this thing that You have spoken.  You have found grace in My eyes and I know you by name."

So this mediator pleads, “Show me Your glory.”  (How does the mind of Moses proceed from “grace” to “glory”?  “The LORD will give grace and glory” (Psa. 84:11).  

Yahweh:  “I’ll hide you safely as you stand on a rock, in the cleft of the rock, and declare My Name to you, cause My goodness to pass before you, and allow you to witness that I will have mercy on those I choose to have mercy.”  No wonder Moses came down from the mountain with his face shining.  

3.  My life was forever changed years ago when I read this comment in Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible: “Thus we see that the sovereignty of His grace is the very glory of God.”  His glory is summed up, not only in His power to show mercy, but in the right to bestow His mercy as He chooses.. 

4.  This prayer, “Show me Thy glory,” (ie, “the inescapable ‘weight’ of the sheer intrinsic godness of God.”) is answered incrementally.  Moses’ last words are introduced with, “For I proclaim the Name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God.  He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He” (Dt. 32:3, 4).  But these are not really Moses’ last words.  He is conversing in the LORD’s Presence on the Mount of Transfiguration.  That glory is being shown to us in transformational ways today (2 Cor. 3:18).  And the full unveiled glory is still to be seen in the future.

5.  But do not fail to understand that as the Apostle Paul gives full explanation to the gospel of God, he cites this Sinai revelation as the proof of the manner in which God saves some (Romans 9).

6.  Why are we here?  To know God, in and through His grace, and to make Him known.

7.  Why does the biographer of Augustus Toplady feel constrained to say “he turned to ‘extreme’ Calvinism” three years after his conversion in 1755?  Because he has caused millions of worshipping Christians to sing, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling; naked, come to Thee for dress, helpless, look to Thee for grace; foul, I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die!”? ("Rock of Ages")  That should sound like basic Christianity for any believer.

8.  Look at the Lord Christ!  Go to Him!  He is willing to receive those who come to Him!  He is God's “Last Word” Who expresses the free grace of God to sinners.

“What is the primary act of faith?  It is not the acceptance of certain propositions, although it cannot exist apart from the belief of the propositions of the Gospel.  Faith is essentially an entrustment to Christ as Lord and Savior. It is self-commitment to Him.  It is not the belief that we have been saved, not even the belief that Christ died for us, but the commitment of ourselves to Christ as unsaved, lost, helpless, and undone in order that we may be saved.  This is the specific character of that act of faith whereby we respond to the free overture of Christ in the gospel.  With this act of faith there is one thing that is congruous, and one thing only that provides its proper warrant.  It is the presentation of Christ in His fullness and freeness as the all-sufficient, all-suitable, the perfect Savior.  Faith is the engagement of person to Person, the engagement of a lost sinner to Christ, in the commitment of faith.  How can there be such engagement and entrustment except as lost and helpless sinners are confronted with the Savior. And they are confronted with Him in the full, free, and unfettered overture which He makes of Himself in the Gospel of His grace.” (John Murray)