The Window on God

Well, thank you for that introduction. You left out the most important thing, that is I have five grandchildren. And one more on the way. Two children. It is a great privilege to be here. I am quite humbled to share a venue with Dr. Ware, and I've been looking forward to that. It's great to meet in the flesh Lloyd Sprinkle, with whom I've spoken on the phone and with whom the seminary cooperates at times on various projects. I, like many of you, have an immense debt of gratitude to this man for the books that he has so wonderfully made available to us. And to meet new friends, it indeed is a wonderful opportunity and I thank you men for inviting me. We have a small book table in the back of the fellowship hall with some books from the seminary and I also have some literature there. I realize that you now have a very good seminary, a southern seminary, but if you decide you want to come south and not go to Kentucky, we do have a number of Reformed Baptist students that attend and have graduated, and you would find a great welcome there in our midst as well. Please open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 34. And we're going to read the first 10 verses, and I happen to like standing. Well, I think it's biblical. So let's stand again for the reading of scripture. And I'm reading from the New American Standard Bible. Now, the Lord said to Moses, cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which he shattered. So be ready by morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. And no man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the fox and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain. So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him. And he took the two stone tablets in his hand. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious and slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. And Moses made haste to bow low to the earth and worship. And he said, If now I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and do thou pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as thine possession Then God said, Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people, I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations. And all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you. Thus far, God's holy word. Let us pray. Holy God in heaven, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you who are exalted and on high and yet condescend to come to us through your word, revealing yourself, the spirit illumining our understanding. We thank you that you have given us a word that is sure and perfect. And we thank you for the spirit who illumines us in the grasping of the truth of the word and meeting you and communing with you there. And we thank you that you've appointed the ordinance of preaching and exposition as the means by which you make your word live and be effective in our lives. And that is what we ask for now in Christ's name. Amen. Be seated. In John, chapter 17, our Savior, in the beginning of his prayer, says that eternal life is to know God, God the Father, to know the Lord Jesus Christ. That eternal life is coming into this intimate communion and fellowship with the triune God. Now, Adam had that communion and Adam had a knowledge of God. He was created with knowledge, righteousness and holiness. And God came to the garden and they walked together. They communed. But when Adam rebelled and sinned, he lost his knowledge, righteousness and holiness. And God, by his grace, had worked all this out that he might bring yet greater glory to himself through the great renovation of mankind through the Redeemer. And at the foundation of that renovation of mankind begun in Adam is the knowledge of God. Now, God, in his wisdom, didn't make Adam perfect overnight, and we know that he didn't make us perfect overnight. He deals with all of us in that renovation in a progressive manner. Each of us grows from light to light, glory to glory, learning more, commuting more, seeing more, being conformed more. Now, what God does in our lives individually is a pattern of how God revealed himself redemptively to our race. Again, when he promised Adam and Eve a seed miraculously provided, that seed that would deliver them from Satan, they initially thought, well, this will happen soon. Eve named her firstborn Cain, I've got a man from the Lord. Now, the time Abel was born, Cain had proven that he wasn't the seed. And so the second son was named Vanity. And they realized they were in for a wait. The father of Noah thought perhaps his son would be the seed, the rest giver. And he also gave rest, but it was the rest through judgment. the rest by which a remnant of the church was preserved in salvation in the ark. No, God wasn't going to reveal the knowledge of himself quickly to the human race. He took 4,000 years in his divine wisdom to unfold who he is until he came to the culmination of his own incarnation. The unfolding of that revelation through the millennia is rich and profound and remarkable for the revelation of God given to us in a progressive manner, like a great mosaic with one set of stones or tiles added, and the picture takes a little more shape. And at each stage of that covenant redemption, new names, new revelations, new works, new attributes manifested until they all came to their great fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the text that we're going to examine tonight, I think, is an epical revelation in the history of the unfolding of the name of God. In this text, God reveals his goodness. And he reveals his goodness with a multitude of his attributes. And if you took a concordance and you looked up these attributes, you'll find a little mention of any of them. Before this event, you see, this was a great event in the life of the church that God had designed by his sovereign decree. to reveal his goodness. Now, what an event it was. We began our reading in the first few verses of chapter 34. But what has been going on for Moses to cut again these tablets of stone and go back up the mountain to meet with God? Well, you remember when he was on the mountain for 40 days, the children of Israel grew impatient and restless and they turned to idolatry. They constructed a golden calf and worship that calf as if it were Jehovah who delivered them from Egypt. God, in his wrath, said he would destroy them. In fact, he was testing and training Moses, the mediator, and Moses pleads with God to spare them. God then sends Moses down the mountain when Moses sees what's going on, he actually throws the two tablets of the law to the ground and shatters them in smithereens because people have broken the covenant. This was the law of the covenant and they've broken it. And Moses broke the tablets to emphasize their dangerous condition. God moves in his wrath to chasten his people. And he then tells Moses, I'm going to I'm going to lead the people to the land, but I'm not going with you. I'm going to send a God, an angelic God, and he will take you into the land. Now, again, God's testing and training Moses, the mediator. And Moses, again, intercedes with God boldly. Lord, I'm not leaving. If you don't go with us. What good is the land? The land's nothing without God. Just as the garden would have been nothing without God. And God said, I will go with you. Even though you're a sinful and obstinate people, I will go with you. For you, Moses, have found favor or grace in my sight. And Moses says, Lord, I want to know of that grace and favor. I plead with you. Show me your glory. God responds to Moses. In chapter and verse 19 of chapter 33, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. Then the Lord said, behold, there's a place by me and you shall stand there on the rock. It will come about while my glory is passing by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. Now, that leads up to the events that are recorded here in chapter 34. Moses obeys God, cuts the tablets, and he goes up to Mount Sinai early in the morning. Now, we're going to examine verses 5 through 10, this revelation of God's glory, and we see that God reveals and confirms his goodness in such a way as to provoke humble worship and bold prayer. God reveals and confirms his goodness, the glory of God, his goodness, in such a way as to provoke humble worship and bold prayer. We'll consider three things as we look at these verses. The revelation of God's goodness. The response to God's goodness and the confirmation of God's goodness. Revelation of God's goodness is the primary place that we camp tonight in these verses five through seven. And we see in the first place that God comes down now. He humbles himself and he condescends to reveal his glory to Moses. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he, and I take the he here as God, proclaimed the name of Yahweh. Now later, I'm sure we're going to hear about the transcendence of God. He dwells in light. He's unapproachable. He's shrouded in darkness. He's content with himself. If he chose to remain with himself, he would have been perfectly holy and happy in all of that. Anytime the Bible tells us that the Lord descended, that he came down, it's a remarkable manifestation of condescension, of humbling himself. He comes down to his servant. He comes down and stands beside this man and he is going to reveal his glory to Moses. But the proclamation of God's glory is not primarily what Moses saw. For you will note that God proclaims the name of Yahweh and God proclaims his attributes. And in fact, Moses doesn't tell us a thing about what he saw. Now, evidently, when he came down in verse 5 and he stood by God, God did what he said he would do for him in chapter 33, verse 21. Behold, there's a place by me, and you shall stand there on the rock. It will come about while my glory is passing by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away, and you shall see my back, but my face you shall not see." A human being cannot look on the infinite and matchless glory of God. But God said, I'm going to stand you beside me. The cleft of the rock, I'm sure, is a type, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. For any of us would be consumed by God if he did not preserve us in our Savior. And so he puts him in the cleft of the rock in that safe hiding place and covers his eyes and allows him to see something. But you see. What was important for Moses, what's important for you and me is not what Moses saw, because we can't see it. The God's glory was revealed, not in some afterglow. Here, God's glory is revealed. in his attributes of goodness. And so God reveals his glory. He does so through his names, through particular attributes and through his work. He reveals his glory through two of his names. And you know that the name of God we're taught in the catechism are those ways that God, by his names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word and works, makes himself known to us and the attributes of God. are, in a sense, the primary way that you and I know God and relate to him. And that's why I title this the windows on God, because it's through the windows of the attributes that we look on God. But God wants us to understand this relationship between his name and his attributes. And so he first proclaims his name. And we read in verse six, the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed. Yahweh, Yahweh God. Now, the second term, God, is a term that would point more to His transcendence. It's a word that expresses might and power, akin to the word that's used in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, this sovereign and infinite transcendent being. And even as we think about the goodness of God, as he relates to us in these wonderful and tender ways, he never wants us to forget that this is God with whom we are dealing and that we don't separate these attributes. It's not that God is in part kind and good and in part just and in part sovereign. No, all of his attributes are part of a whole. Now, we have to talk about them individually, but God's not divided up. That's the doctrine of the simplicity of God. He is all of these things, and so he attaches this great name of his transcendence here to give us the proper awe and reverence. He concludes with that in verse 10 when he says, for it's a fearful thing that I'm going to perform with you. He never wants us to forget. The word God is coupled with the personal name that God himself chose, and that's repeated twice. It's the name Yahweh or Jehovah. Most often in your English Bibles, it'll be all in caps to signify that this is the special name of the Lord. Now, the name itself further reveals to us his infinite majesty. For you remember the story when it's revealed in Exodus chapter three? When God determines to reveal that name, Moses sees a bush that is burning and not consumed. And as he approaches and God says, take off your sandals, you're in holy ground, God reveals himself as the I am who I am, a verb, a verb that continues. And what he's saying there is, is that I am eternal, self-existent and self-sustaining, just like this bush, because What happens when fire consumes fuel? Can fire live without fuel? No. And can fuel exist if fire is consuming it? No. But here's a bush burning and not consumed. Beautiful picture of Yahweh. Eternal, independent, self-sufficient. But this is the name that he chose as his surname, his given name. He is Yahweh God. This is Dr. Ware's Bruce Ware. Ware, the surname, the family name, that's God. And he's one God, but how does he distinguish himself from all the others? I'm Yahweh, the true God. But this infinite God takes this name to say, I am the God of covenant. I am the God who comes to you now and will deliver you from the oppressions of Egypt. And I am the God who now reveals to you my glory in my goodness. So the particular attributes that we see revealed now in verse 7, these attributes of God's goodness, the glory of God, these are the attributes that Yahweh manifest to his people as he delivers us and as he lives with us. You'll notice that he reveals himself to us by five tender attributes, truly the essence of goodness. He begins by saying that he who is Yahweh God is compassionate. He is the God who is moved with pity and compassion. You know, the biblical expression for the movement of compassion is one's bowels are moved within him just as your own stomach will turn when you are emotionally involved with something. God takes that figure to talk about his compassion. But, of course, the most beautiful expression, I think, of compassion is the compassion of a parent for a child. And that's the figure that God uses in Psalm 103. A psalm that is a reflection of this revelation. In fact, this particular revelation of God's goodness is repeated throughout the psalms and the prophets. In Psalm 103, in verse 8, the Lord is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness. He will not always strive with us nor will He keep His anger forever. He's not dealt with us according to our sins or rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. But look at verses 13 and 14. Just as a father. has compassion on his children. For the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows, he himself knows our frame. He's mindful that we are dust. Now that's beautiful. Every one of you who is a parent has had those times you've looked down upon a tender child, the body wracked with fever and pain and your heart broke over them and their frailty. Or many of us have experienced a child who temporarily continues to apostatize and to turn away from the Lord and how our hearts break over such a child. Well, that's a vague reflection, my friends, of the heart of God who delights in telling us that he is compassionate. And that compassion manifests itself in his grace. He says that he is compassionate and he is gracious. And the grace of God is that attribute by which he delivers us from the consequences of our sin and renovates and restores us. It is that attribute at which God's compassion meets us in the depth of our sin, not because of who we are or what we have done or what potential is in us, but purely for His grace. He bestows saving favor. As the apostle summarizes that grace in Ephesians 2, for by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works. lest any man should boast. The grace of God. Without it, we all would be headed straight to hell. Without it, we wouldn't even be drawn a breath tonight. We'd be in hell. The grace of God that has intervened between us and hell and provided the remedy of salvation. Our God is compassionate. And our God is gracious. But coupled with those is this most remarkable statement when he says in the third place of himself that he is slow to anger. Now, you and I are often quick to anger and 99 percent of the time we have no grounds to be angry. There is a righteous anger, but most of my anger is not righteous and I can be quick to anger. Are you quick to anger? But here's the one being who has every right to be angry. with anything that anybody does wrong against him. Angry with you and me. And yet, he's slow. Slow to anger. He is long-suffering. The psalmist says, by his gentleness, he makes us great. We see that long-sufferingness of God these very covenant people after this occasion in the wilderness, time after time, chasing their sin and yet bearing with them, carrying them on. We see it throughout the pew to the judges. We see it in the lives of great saints like David. a long-suffering God. But we see it, don't we? Surely, you're well aware of God's great patience with you and your foibles and sins and repetition of things that you've repented and grieved over and you do again. And He's so patient. He's so slow. Think of the Savior with the Twelve Apostles. There's long-suffering. what he put up with in their ignorance and pride and stupidity, and yet how he bore along with them and nurtured them and brought them along. You see why God says that these attributes of goodness are his glory, because they paint him in such resplendent beauty. But he gives us two more, two that he often puts together. He says, he is full of loving kindness and truth or faithfulness. Now, the word loving kindness, and some of your Bibles translated mercy, is a beautiful word in the Old Covenant. It's a word that means covenant love and mercy. It goes beyond God's compassion, which can be exercised on the sinful and reprobate as well as his people. This is God's love on behalf of his people. This is his covenant mercy, where compassion and grace and long suffering are all packaged together. as he ministers to us in his loving kindness. As I said, it's often, and just notice it as you read, particularly in the Psalms, coupled with his truth of faithfulness. Psalm 92, the Sabbath psalm. The psalmist says that we will sing God's loving kindness in the morning and his faithfulness in the evening. He is true. He is faithful. He does all that he says he's going to do. And even our sin cannot hinder the purposes of God. But notice he's full of loving kindness and mercy. And the psalmist often pictures this fullness for us by using spatial analogies. such as we read in Psalm 108. And you'll often find this type of figure. He says in verse four, For thy lovingkindness is great above the heavens, and thy truth reaches to the skies. Now, there's a distance for you, isn't it? Look up. The heavens, the stars. God's loving kindness is as bountiful as that distance. Look at the sky and its clouds. And God's faithfulness is as bountiful as that distance. That's what he means when he says he is a God who is full of loving kindness and faithfulness. He cannot be exhausted. He will always accomplish for his people that which he has covenanted to do for us. And so God gives us these five attributes. Five windows on his character, five expressions of his goodness. And I just remark in passing here because there are those that criticize the short of catechism definition of God. Some of you know it. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. And they say there's no mention of love or grace there. Well, that's just a failure to understand the Bible to the depth that those divines understood the Bible. Because God's goodness is, in fact, the term that captures all of these attributes. And that's His glory. Now, in the Confession of Faith, Chapter 2, Paragraph 1, when it lists these attributes, it will talk about God's love. But God's love is a part of God's goodness. But the psalmist goes on. I mean, God goes on as he speaks to Moses, and he shows how God reveals his goodness through his works. So what does this loving kindness mean for us, the people of God? What does it mean for you tonight that God is a good God and he's compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abundant, loving, kindness and truth? Well, verse seven, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, the word Keep is he preserves it, he guards it. In other words, he's exercising his loving kindness to his church unto a thousand generations. And what he's saying by that term is, is that he's going to keep his church, which means he's going to keep you and me, that he covenants in his loving kindness to preserve us. And he does so by pardoning our sins. And he keeps together three terms here, iniquity, transgression and sin. Iniquity, reference to the defilement and guilt of sin. Transgression, the violation of God's law. Sin, omission, falling short. They're all put together, not even maybe even be distinguished as clearly as that, but to realize that every aspect of sin and defilement and guilt is pardoned by God as he exercises his loving kindness. Through the generations until the Lord Jesus Christ returns, he will not lose one of his elect, not one for whom Christ died shall perish, not one shall fail to go to heaven. But God himself and his loving kindness will keep them. He keeps you. And as he keep you, he keeps you by pardoning your sins. But this grace of God is not Something that is to be taken advantage of. It's not a grace that is unholy or unjust. And so God adds this warning, a needful warning. Visiting the iniquity, the guilt of the sins of the fathers on the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. Now, this verse bothers some people. God's not saying here that he's going to punish Children and grandchildren and great grandchildren for the sins of the parents and the people being punished are innocent. No, God does this again covenantally that when one lives in sin, God will give over subsequent generations to sin. It's a very sober thing to keep in mind as you live your life before God, because the decisions that you make and the choices And whether or not you will have God as your God are not just decisions for yourself, they're decisions that are going to affect subsequent generations. Because God is not unjust. His grace is not a cheap grace. And you see how this exposes the modern heresy that I can be saved and do what I want to do. That once I'm saved, it really doesn't matter. No, God doesn't wink at sin. God forgives sin, says the psalmist, that he may be feared. And as he forgives sin, he changes our hearts. He also wants us to be mindful he's sovereign in his grace. He said that in the prefatory remarks to Moses in chapter 33, verse 19, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim to you the name of the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. So he's sovereign. But there's also a contrast. A contrast between three or four generations and a thousand generations. One is innumerable. One would take tens of millennia to accomplish. And you see the grace of God. That's why the Puritan said that God's judgment was a strange work. It's this pardoning work that is the glorious manifestation of God's glory as he wants us to see it here. But now, the revelation of God's goodness doesn't stop with these abstract attributes and brief descriptions of work because they come to a beautiful completion in the one who we're told is the effulgence of God's glory, the one who is the image of the invisible God. You see, God incarnate was the personification, is the personification of all of these attributes of God's goodness. And that's what John tells us in his preface In verse 14 of Gospel chapter one, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. Talking about God's glory in Exodus, the glories of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace, grace and truth. My friends, if you tasted of that grace of God, if you come to the one in whom it is so beautifully manifested, you realize what God has done. You see, there's a great piece by John Owen in volume one, the person of Christ, the wisdom of God revealed in the incarnation. And what he does with that is to show us the beauty of God's wisdom and coming to us as the God man. Approachable. Because God's goodness makes him approachable. Approachable in this one. Manifestation of compassion. How many times do you read in the gospel of our Savior? He had compassion. The widow at Nain. The hungry multitudes when he and his disciples were bone-tired, hungry, and weary. The compassion. The grace of our Savior who plucks a little tax collector down from a tree. who dined with harlots and tax collectors and the riffraff of society that they might come to know Him, whom to know is to know God. I've already mentioned His long suffering with His disciples and with you and me. And He is the epitome of loving kindness. And He is the faithfulness of God, as Paul says, because in Him all the promises of God are yes. That's our Savior. In Him, is the full manifestation of the goodness of God. Is he not lovely and altogether glorious? Well, quickly, as I said, that would be where we would spend most of our time. And we're actually going to cross over very quickly over the response then. We've seen the revelation of God's goodness. The response is humble worship and bold prayer. What does Moses do when he hears the glory of God revealed in this fashion? We read in verse eight, he made haste. To bow low toward the earth and to worship. Worship. Hearts of worship. Hearts struck with the beauty and glory of God will humble themselves before God in humble adoration and praise. But that's what we're going to deal with tomorrow. So I'm just passing over that. But also the worship of bold prayer. What does Moses do in verse nine? He now is encouraged by the revelation of God's goodness once again to plead what God had promised. If now I have found favor, he said, show me your glory so I'll know I've found favor. If now I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst. I've seen you in your goodness. I'm encouraged now and I'm made bold to ask. Yes, it's a dangerous thing, but go with us because of who you are and because you are compassionate and long-suffering and gracious. Go with us as you have promised. But for God to go with them, Moses realized two of the things had to occur. He says, even though the people are obstinate, Do thou pardon our iniquity and sin. You see, he's emboldened by God's goodness to confess their sin and his sin. Again, the catechism's definition of repentance is a work of grace whereby a sinner out of a sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ. There can be no repentance only if there's a sense of sin against the Holy God. It's when the scepter is inclined, when we know that God is willing and ready to receive sinners, that we can repent. And so Moses is bold to confess, knowing that the good God has revealed His glory and His goodness will pardon. And then he says, take us as your possession. When he first entered into covenant with him in Exodus 19, he said that they were his peculiar treasure, his possession. They've broken covenant. They forfeited that. If God is to go with them, he is not to go as a stranger. Moses wants him to go as their covenant God. He wants him to go as one who has taken them as his own peculiar treasure and possession. He's bold. But you see, we can be bold when we pray. Because we're praying the promises of God. Proclaiming the attributes of God. We rest on the goodness of God and we can be bold to plead with God. Bold like Abraham. Bold like Moses. Bold like Daniel. Bold like the Lord Jesus Christ. Bold like the Apostle Paul. We may be just as bold because we've seen the full revelation of the goodness of God. But God is so good, not only does he reveal his goodness that we might respond to him in this way, but now he confirms to Moses all that he has promised. Now, you and I might have some differences over the covenant. But we recognize that in covenant is when God condescends to bring us into the special relationship and show us goodness. And what does God do now? This is why Moses was to bring the tablets back. God said, behold, I'm going to make and this is a renewal. It's not a new covenant. I'm going to make a covenant. I'm going to renew this covenant they've broken. Very interesting theological point, you know, there are those like Meredith Klein that say that the Mosaic Covenant was a covenant of works and there's no grace involved. This is not grace. I've never met it. God said, I'm going to make the covenant and I'm going to forgive your sins. I'm going to make the covenant. You broke it, but I'm going to renew it and I'm going to dwell among you because I'm a good God and I'm a God of grace. And he says on the basis of this covenant. I am going to perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations, and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I'm going to perform with you." He says, yes, I will come and I will take you as mine and I will walk with you and I will live in your midst. And he did. He brought him to the wilderness, he brought him into the land, eventually established his throne on Mount Sinai, dwelt there in their midst, gave them a king and did great wonders for them. Psalm 105 describes the wonders of God in Egypt, but Psalm 106 describes in response to this, the wonders of God in the wilderness and in the land. Great miracles that men and women had never witnessed before. The people might be filled with awe, as was Rahab the harlot. And the Gibeonites and so many, when they heard of the works of Jehovah, their hearts melted within them. They were lifeless. They knew if he did not have mercy on them, there was no hope for them either. But once again, what's the greatest, most wonderful work of God? It's the incarnation. It is this mystery of all mysteries that God took to himself a human nature and as a God-man obeyed the law of God perfectly and offered his sinless soul as a sacrifice for the sins of his people. that God, in fact, could and would forgive our sins. For apart from that great work, none of this other could happen. And that is the work above all works, isn't it? And then you experience it. And each one of you, as you experience this work of God, you become one of these wonders. God's work in the world. How many times when I talk to Christians and I learn their testimony, they say, you know, I had this friend and their life was different than mine. And eventually, I had to have what they had. You see, when God's great wonders take place in you and me, that's what happens. The world is filled with wonder about this God. It's so great. And he's so good. We're going to sing in a moment, and it's a wonderful providence because we had not communicated this, that I was going to close with this part, with this great hymn by Samuel Davies. And if you can buy, beg or steal his three volumes of sermons, do so. Twenty three. Great God of wonders, all thy ways are matchless, godlike and divine. All that he is. But the fair glories of thy grace more godlike and unrivaled shine. Who is a pardoning God like thee? Or who has grace so rich and free? In wonder lost with trembling joy, We take the pardon of our God, pardon for crimes of deepest die, a pardon bought with Jesus' blood. Oh, may this strange, this matchless grace, this godlike miracle of love fill the whole earth with grateful praise and all the angelic choirs above. You see, my friends, when we see the revelation and confirmation of the glory of God's goodness, we worship, we pray, we are filled with joy, wonder, and awe. I trust that's your response tonight to the glory of God's grace. I hope that some of you would wrestle with assurance of salvation or you'd be set with weakness and frailties. You'll say, here's the place to rest in the goodness of God. Because it's not your performance that makes you acceptable to God. He's done it for you in Christ Jesus. And ministers, this is the gospel. What a message that we take to the lost, the hurting, this dying world around us, that the glory of God is found in his compassionate grace. And he says, come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And my friends, I trust that you here tonight have found that rest. If some of you haven't, I trust that you've had some glimpse of the beauty of God and thus you must make a decision. Would you forfeit this beautiful God for the destructive trinkets of your sin? for your own pleasures that will last but for a moment, that even now afflict your conscience and drive you to despair. Why would you hold to sin when you could have such a beautiful God as your God? For that is the message of His goodness. Father, we thank you for this revelation of your goodness. Comfort us with it. Invigorate us with it. Cause us, Lord, to respond to you in all love, wonder and adoration. And if there are those here who have not yet tasted of grace, may your spirit even now work in their hearts to bring them unto you. In the precious name of our Savior, we pray. Amen.