 Exodus chapter 34 verses 1 through 8. I'm going to read those eight verses. Actually, I'm going to read verses 1 through 9 for the sake of context. As it says there, verse 1, chapter 34 of Exodus. And the Lord said to Moses, cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets of the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. So be ready in the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain. And no man shall come up with you and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain. Let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain. So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him. And he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and bounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Then he said, If now I have found grace in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as your inheritance. Most people have an opinion about who God is, what God is like, and whether he exists or not. And what I kind of find that when it comes to belief, your belief or your disbelief in God will have drastic effects on how you live your life on this side of heaven. In essence, what you believe will determine how you behave. What you believe will determine your priorities in this life, how you view God, whether you believe in God or your disbelief in the Creator, in God. You know, I read recently that 89% of Americans say they believe in God. That's a pretty high percentage, don't you think? 89%. But the question that comes to my mind is what do they mean by that? 89% of Americans. That's a lot of people claiming that they have belief in God. Well, as I did some research, I found that that whole 89% actually translates into this, that nine in ten Americans believe in a higher power but only a slim majority believe in God as described in the Bible. That is why it's such a high percentage because you can go down to a store and you can ask perhaps a stranger that's in line and just simply ask him, do you believe in God? Most, I guarantee you that most of the time when you ask a stranger, they're going to tell you, yes, I believe in God. But the thing is this is what is their definition about God? What do they believe who God is? What's their understanding of God? And so, the majority of people in our states most likely believe in God but, however, their understanding of God is not as described in the Bible and that's what I want to look at this morning. I want to look at the question. I want to answer the question, who is God? That is a great question. In fact, that is a great question to start a conversation with somebody that you're trying to evangelize and witness. You simply ask him, hey, who is God? And they'll either say, I don't believe in God or they'll tell you, well, this is who I believe God is. We come to this section here in Exodus chapter 34 and this actually started way back in chapter 33 of Exodus where Moses in verse 18 of chapter 33 says this to God. He requested, Lord, show me your glory. To understand that, we have to kind of go back a little bit of the history of the nation of Israel. When God chose the nation of Israel, the Hebrews, the Israelites, he chose them because he wanted to set them apart and to be different than all the other pagan nations. You've got to understand that throughout the Old Testament, paganism was the norm in the culture and the society. Everybody had a deity they worshiped. They worshiped the gods of the weather, of the storm, of the rain and all of this stuff. So they had a variety of different gods. So to be an atheist during the time of the Old Testament, you'd be the weird one. And so God says, you know what, I'm going to take this nation, I'm going to set this nation apart because I'm going to reveal myself to them. I'm going to show them through them that I am the real God and all the other gods are false. So God began to work in the life of this nation. And God started with this nation and his heart, his desire was a theocracy, one nation under God. That's what he wanted from the beginning. And so he led them himself. He provided for them throughout the wilderness. He took care of them. It was just one nation under God. But then the Israelites rebelled against God and they said, we don't want a theocracy. We want kings. We want people to lead us. And that's when God says, you want a king, then I'm going to give you your very first one by the name of Saul. Remember Saul? He was a maniac. He's a crazy guy. And so the children of Israel went under kings and they went through that. And then even through that, they rebelled against kings. They rebelled against the prophets. So they couldn't be under God. They didn't want God. Then they got given, they gave him, God gave them a monarchy. They became a nation under kings and they rebelled against that. And then what happened? When that happened, God says, you know what, you guys have fun. And it became an anarchy, a nation without any ruler. That's pretty scary. Would you move to a country where there's no ruler? The Bible says in the Book of Judges that one of the darkest histories in the life of Israel, that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Everybody did what was right in their own eyes. We're kind of like heading there, aren't we, in our world today, right? It's like what feels right is right to me. What just seems okay is my truth and whatnot. That's moral relativism. What's true for you is true for you. What's true for me is true for me. Leave me alone, right? That's the way it is today. Well, you see, we see that God wanted to establish a covenant with the nation of Israel. And back in chapter 20 of Exodus, God laid out the Ten Commandments. He spoke the commandments to the people. They freaked out, rumbles, thunder, all this stuff up in the Mount Sinai. And then what happened then? God called Moses back up and he wanted to ratify these commandments. So he had them put together these tablets and all of that. And then when Moses was up there for 40 days and 40 nights, getting this revelation from God, establishing this law, this covenant, then God says, there are people down below. My people are kind of having a party. There's things going on. I think you need to go back down. And so to make a long story short, Moses goes back down the mountain, guess what? He finds the children of Israel in this testable sin, worshiping a golden calf, all promoted by Aaron. Moses is right-hand man. You're like, really? What happened here? See, Aaron was pushed by the peer pressure that the people wanted. They said, you know what? What is it with Moses? He's taken too long. We need our God. And so he caved in to their peer pressure. And then he asked for everybody's earrings that are gold. He asked for all the bling. Everybody bring it in. A big offering came in, right? I find it interesting that people will give to serve their own gods, but they won't give to the real God, the church. It's under the church. And so he molds this golden calf. And then he says, here is your God. And the people start worshiping this golden calf. So when Moses comes and he finds that, the tablets they break. What happened after that? God got angry. And his wrath was against the children of Israel. And Moses begged God in chapters 32, and all the way up to chapter 34, he says, God, show me your glory. Please give us a chance. Forgive the iniquity of your people. And here's where we come to chapter 34 where now God says, OK, I'm going to give you a chance. Get back up to the mountain. But this time, it's just going to be you. And we come to this chapter 34 and notice God instructs Moses. He gives Israel a second chance in verse one of chapter 34. Notice what it says here. He says, to come up to the mountain and there's two tablets once again. And these are the tablets that are now brand new. These are not the same tablets, although the content of it was going to be the same. But he says, cut two tablets of stone, like the first ones. And I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. Kind of reminds them. Remember, you broke those? I find it interesting that the very first time that Moses had these tablets, it was God who cut the tablets. In fact, it was God who did the whole thing. And all of a sudden, now he's telling Moses, you know what? You're going to cut the tablets and bring them up to me. I'm just going to write on them. It says in Exodus 32 verse 16, the tablets were the work of God back in 32. And the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. It was God who wrote on these tablets. God did not need Moses' input to say, Moses, what do you think I should write on these now? Since the other ones broke and the people rebelled against that. So what should we do? No, it wasn't like that. God says, you know what? Based on my own authority, I'm going to write again the same thing because I want them to stay accountable to what I wrote before. Well, the covenant was an agreement that he made with his people, the Israelites, to keep keeping the law. Moses broke the first ones. And yet we see that God now is telling Moses to get ready to come up. And so we see here the Lord requiring Moses to cut these two and to get back up in the mountain. And notice in verses 2 and 3 what it says here. God says, so be ready in the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain. In the morning. I'm not a morning person. Are you a morning person? If God said that to me, I'd say, Lord, how about noon? Just let me sleep in. I got a three-year-old. They're waking me up. Daddy, get up. Let's go downstairs and play. No, we don't do that. But God says, get up in the morning. He says it very clearly here. What happens? Look at it. It says there, God sets a boundary. No man shall come up with you. And let no man be seen throughout all the mountain. Let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain. Why? Well, a few reasons here. One is, God wanted to deal with Moses alone. The last time Moses was up on Mount Sinai for 40 days, Joshua was with him. Joshua was right there. And so this time he says, you're not bringing anybody up there, but yourself. And I want you to make sure that no shepherds come near the mountain because that's why these animals would even be close to the mountain because of the shepherds would be taking care of their flocks. So he had to make sure that all those shepherds stayed far away from the mountain. Why? Because there would be a place of holiness. And there's no way that they could have survived. Remember when God would reveal himself up on the mountain. There was thunder, lightning, rumblings. People were far away from Mount Sinai. The awesome view of that must have been scary and crazy that people were scared. The Bible says they were afraid. God was showing himself how powerful, how holy he is. And so he says here, set this boundary. Keep everybody away. Set it apart. And so what happens? Notice it says there, when he said that, Moses immediately went up to the mountain. He wasted no time. And then it says in verse 5, now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. A cloud. Do you know that a cloud in the Bible is associated with the presence of God? When you see clouds in Scripture, most often you see it associated with the presence of God. Let me give you a few examples here just to show you what I mean. In Exodus 19, we see a cloud in Mount Sinai as God was there presently with Moses. In Exodus chapter 13, verses 21 and 22, God led the children of Israel by a pillar of cloud in the daytime, signifying his presence. In Chronicles 2, Chronicles 7, 2, at Field Solomon's temple, a cloud as God's presence came upon it. In the New Testament, Luke chapter 1, verse 35, it overshadowed Mary at the conception of Jesus. In Acts chapter 1, when Jesus ascended back to the Father, it says that a cloud, he disappeared through a cloud, again associating it with the presence of God. And in Revelation chapter 1, verse 7, it will be present at the return of Jesus. It's very fascinating if you want to do a study on clouds in the Bible. Here we see that God comes down in a cloud. What Moses is about to experience here is a divine visitation of the presence or dwelling of God on earth. This is a spectacular experience. This is something that is dramatic. It's the dramatic self-revelation of God. And God didn't do this often with people. Moses was one who got the privilege to experience such a wonderful thing. But what does this say? This says this to me, that God wants to be known. God wants to be known. God is not trying to hide from people. He wants to reveal himself to you, to me. You see, this is what sets Christianity apart from all the other religions, because all the other religions promote an impersonal God. It's a God that you know, but you kind of don't know. He's a God who's up and you're down below. There's no relationship at all where Christianity is all about a personal God to earth, to establish a relationship with all of us here. And we can know God on a personal level. We can talk to God on a personal level. Isn't that awesome? That's what Christianity is all about. That is why we say having a relationship with God is having that personal relationship with Him. It's a relationship. It's based on that relationship. And here we see that God comes down to Moses and he's showing himself as a personal God. And Moses got what he requested when he said, show me your glory back in Exodus 33, a proclamation of God's name, His character, who He is. God revealed as much of His glory as Moses could possibly take in. Why is that? Because it tells us in Exodus 33, verse 20, God says, you cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live. If God revealed himself 100% to Moses, Moses would have been dead. See, it's not until we get to heaven that we get to see God. We can, as the Bible says, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God because we cannot enter into heaven with this fallen body. We have to have a new body that's adaptable to eternity. And so we will see God in heaven, but at this time here, it's through the Holy Spirit that we relate to God because of Jesus Christ. And so here we see that God is revealing himself to Moses but not fully because of that. But notice in verse 6, and this is where it gets very interesting, and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord, and he goes on with something that I'll talk to you in a moment. What God proclaimed is of utmost importance here. He's proclaiming to Moses. This means that this experience that Moses had was not a subjective experience. What do I mean by that? What I mean is this, it wasn't a feeling that Moses had this feeling that God was there. It wasn't some kind of emotion that Moses was emotional at the time and he felt the presence of God. What Moses was experiencing was an experience that was objective. It was an experience that he saw, he experienced something not based on feelings. And Christianity is not based on feelings. I'm not a Christian because it just feels right. When I got saved, I didn't come forward because I just felt like, you know what, just something in me just feels right. I just got to do it. It was an objective faith. That's what the Christian faith is. It's an objective faith that puts my faith in Christ, who died on the cross for me. He's the one I'm following. He's the one I know. So Christianity is not based on a burning of a bosom. It's not based on some kind of thing that stirs up in me that says, okay, I think this is true. It's an objective faith. And here we see something cool, is that here God is proclaiming something that is objective, not subjective. Like the burning experience, burning of a bosom experience, Moses saw something. It wasn't a feeling that God was in a bosom. God gave him something to see. And so the Christian faith is an objective faith. And so what happens here? Notice God reveals himself. And what does he say? Notice what he says. He says, the Lord, the Lord God. This is an incredible revelation of God. And the repetition, if you're wondering, God did not stutter here. The repetition of God's name here, some Hebrew scholars believe it's to emphasize his immutability. What does that mean? That God is not, is unchanging. He doesn't change. In other words, like the Bible says, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This is who he's revealing himself to, to Moses. God presents himself as the eternal, unchanging God. And this is who God is. And he doesn't need man to define him or to try to describe him. God here is telling you and me who he is. He's telling us who he is. And the word Lord here, you see in the Bible, in the Old Testament, you see Lord capital L-O-R-D. This is actually the very name of God, Yahweh. This is actually the I am that I am. This is the name that God revealed himself to, the patriarchs, Isaac, Jacob, Abraham, and also to Moses. This is his promised name. And this name of God, by Jewish tradition, it's too holy to voice, is actually spelled Y-H-W-H, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh. They can't even spell it. It's so holy. This is the name of God, Yahweh. In fact, in the Old Testament, Yahweh occurs 6,519 times. This name is used more than any other name of God, and it was first used in Genesis chapter 2, verse 4. This is God, God's name. Why is this so important? You know why it's important? Because God's name is vital to a proper understanding of God. To a proper understanding of God. You see, knowing God should be the top priority of every human being, especially Christians. Your pursuit to know God should be top priority in your life. As a Christian, and if you're here as a non-Christian, that should be your top priority. Now, the secular world, the non-Christian world, it's a very spiritual world, if you noticed, and there are some prominent, secular people, non-Christians who are in pursuit of knowing God, and there are a lot of intelligent men and women who are not Christians, who are pursuing God, but they come to wrong conclusions about God. I read recently about this woman. Her name was Nancy Abram. She's a philosopher, a very well-known philosopher. She's married to a world-renowned cosmologist, and she wrote a book entitled A God That Could Be Real, Spirituality, Science, and the Future of Planet. And this is what she says. I quote, God is arguably the most powerful concept in the human mind, but there is no single idea of God. Rather, they've been evolving or they've been evolving nonstop for thousands of years. And then she goes on by saying this, there are five things we need to accept to truly understand God. Here they are, five things. One, God could not have existed before the universe. Two, God did not create the universe. Three, God cannot know everything. Four, God cannot intend everything that happens, meaning everything's by chance. And five, God cannot violate the laws of nature. But he did, didn't he? Jesus walked on water, right? He stopped the storm. So we know he can. Her view of God is based on science, matter, and the laws of nature. And she even said, and I quote again, we need to let the universe teach us about God, she says, rather than the other way around. And you're like, where did this woman get her information? I mean, she's speaking so authoritative. She's saying, she's doing big conferences with a bunch of people, very well-known women. And you're thinking, where is she getting her information? I'll tell you one thing, she's not getting it from the Bible. She's not getting it from the Bible. She's speaking with authority, but she's not getting that information from the Bible. This is where, when I see things like this, Romans chapter one verse 22 immediately comes to my mind that says this, professing to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible got into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. That's the secular world for you, right? That's the non-Christian, right? There are a lot of spiritual people today, right? Trying to figure God out. Oprah, I can name more, right? There are a lot of people out there that are having shows and things about God that this is who God is and they are so far out in left field, it's not even funny. We can look at the world and be like, oh, you guys just don't understand God because you're not reading the Bible, but did you know even within evangelicalism, even within evangelical Christian churches, there's a movement that is very dangerous today. And this is something I see when I'm on the Internet, when I'm on social media, when I see a lot of young people eating this stuff up tremendously and what is it? There are churches, leaders that are attempting to redefine God. They are presenting a radical rethinking of God. It's a popular theological trend today. Why is it like this? You know what they're really doing in these so-called preachers of the Bible, why they're trying to redefine God, what they're really doing is they're stealing God's identity. That's what they're doing. I mean, identity theft is one of the biggest criminal activities in our world today. What is that? It's a thief that steals someone's social security number and personal information and misrepresent that person in order to make purchases in their name. How many of you guys here have been victims? Right? I remember one time I was at home and I got a call from our credit card and they said, hey, Mr. Baltidano, there's a family here, or I think it was a family or a person, whatever it was, that they're spending $1,200 on your credit card and they're buying furniture and this and that at this department store. Is it you? Well, at first I had to look for my wife first, right? When I confirmed that she was right next to me, I said, no, it's not me. And they knocked that off, right? We see things happening like this. There's also, which you saw earlier, some churches are trying to promote a Burger King God who says, have it your way. Have it, just have it your way. Right? All sin is acceptable. Love trumps all judgment. The way I live is because that's the life I've chosen and totally oblivious to what the Bible says. I call these really designer gods. These are kind of designer gods. What are designer gods? They meet people's sinful desires and promote a God who serves them rather than a God who they serve. These beliefs are a misrepresentation of God. That's called false identity. And even within the church, you have pastors and preachers that are redefining God. Why is that? Why are they going that far? Because they're trying to be cultural relevant. Because the culture is moving so fast that they're saying, we've got to catch up to this culture. We've got to somehow get the millennials. We've got to get the young people. This is the way they're going. This is the way they're thinking. So let's try to somehow reduce God. Let's dumb down God so they can come into our churches and get caught up in this bad theology for the sake of having people come to the church. And then you have this crazy theology that these young people are living with. With this skewed idea, this understanding of God that God allows their sin and God is okay with this and God is okay with that. Listen. If you're there this morning, you're not getting it from the Bible. And that's one thing we have to be very careful as believers is that we have to get our knowledge of God from the Bible. And this is the important thing for us as we see here in the life of Moses that for us to ensure that our understanding of God is accurate lest we slip into false teaching is that we need to go to the Bible to ensure that we have a correct understanding of God. Not Barnes and Nobles' religion section. I haven't done it in a while but I always like to go to Barnes and Nobles because I always like to see what's current, right? There's a lot of authors there that have all these books about spirituality and God and this and that and all of them are all just attempts to understand God outside of the Bible. And so you have pastors, unfortunately, that are getting duped by that trend and they're bringing that into their churches and they're trying to water down the gospel, dumb it down so they can have millennials come into their church. I love young people, trust me. I love young people. But I also see when I go on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook, some of these preachers, some of the crazy stuff they quote and then all these young people, amen, God bless you, amen, I love it. And I'm like, hold it! What's going on here? It's scary. You need to know truth and truth is found in Scripture right here. And so what we see here is that God has laid us to who God is in philosophy, but here God himself says, this is who I am. This is who I am. So who is he? Notice what he says in verse 6. This is who God is. He says, I am merciful, I am gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth. Isn't that interesting? I mean, right now God is revealing himself to Moses after Israel sinned, right? And Moses says, I am a mad God, a God who's going to smash you guys down, right? I'm a God who's going to just pick you up, Moses, and hurt you off this mountain right on top of Aaron. He didn't say that. What does he say? I am gracious, merciful. Wow, really, God? Listen, guys, out of all the scriptures in the Bible we're trying to say, listen, this chapter 34 of Exodus is the only chapter in the Bible where God is revealing himself in this way. Every time you see a repeat of this is from chapter 34. What is God saying? This is who I am. When I hear people say, oh, God is a terrorist. Your God is really, let's go back to chapter 34 of Exodus. Your God is mean. Your God does this. You're going to allow evil. Really, let's go back to chapter 34. This is where God says, this is who I am. Don't get your information from the media as to who God is. Don't get it from Yahoo. Don't google anything. Always remember Exodus 34. If you want to know who God is, go here. This is exactly what God is doing to Moses and he's saying, I am gracious. Let me define these words for you real quickly here. He says I'm merciful. Your Bible, your translations perhaps has compassion in it. Same word. This word, merciful is from the Hebrew word Raham and what's interesting about this, it's the same root word for the word womb. And so we see here that this word describes the tender love of a mother for the child who came from her womb. What is this saying about God? He's saying this, that God has that compassionate, parent type love for us. That's what it's saying. Listen to what Jesus said in Luke chapter 13, verse 34. You who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you how often I have long to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not have none of it. Psalm 103 verse 13. The Psalmist said, just as a father has compassion on his children so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. The parent type love of God. That's what he's saying. This is who I am, Moses. The second thing, notice he's gracious. This is where we get the names Hannah and the name John. The root means to bend, to be inclined. It means to be inclined to help someone. What is God saying to Moses and to us? He's saying this, God is gracious to us. He is inclined to want to help us. He is inclined to want to help us. This is the sad part of some Christian's lives is that they refuse to receive help from God. They try to do it themselves. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 11 28. Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and loathe of heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I wonder how many of you here this morning are carrying a heavy burden. How many of you here this morning walked to the church, heavy-hearted? Have you gone to Jesus and said, Jesus, help me? You know it's an invitation. He says, come to me. He's not going to force himself on you. He says, I'm inviting you to come to me. When you're going through a hard time in your life, listen. Just come to me. It's an invitation. And see, we see that God is gracious. He's inclined to want to help us. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 says, let us therefore come boldly and find grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. One of my commentators said this and I want to quote him. He says, God cares when he doesn't even have to care. He cares when he doesn't get anything out of the relationship. He cares when you can't even ever repay him for what he's done in your life. He cares without any ulterior motives. Wow. You know, we could be jerk sometimes, right? We can choose not to care for people, right? When you have the power to care for somebody, you have the power to say yes or no to care for somebody. Aren't you glad God is not like that to you? Aren't you glad that God doesn't when you go into prayer and you're asking God to help you and God says, you know what, I've helped you enough. You're on your own, dude. Go. We would be devastated, right? Tell me if I can handle it without God. I can live without God. Okay, try it. See where it leads you at the end of life. But we know that God wants to help. He's inclined to help us. The third thing he says, he's long suffering. That word literally means slow to anger. That means he's patient with us. Someone once put it, and I like what he said, he said this, and I quote, God has a long fuse. I think that's a good way of putting it. Do you know people with short fuses? They don't want to be around, right? They hang out with these guys or whatever. You're like, man, this guy blows up all the time. I can't stand this. I don't know when he's going to start just to explode. God is not like that. God doesn't get mad. We mess up when we blow it. God is not like, I can't stand this anymore. I saved you 20 years ago. What's wrong with you? He doesn't do that. We do, right? He says he's long suffering. And I love this one. Notice a bounding in goodness. A bounding. He's a good word. He's a bounding in goodness. That word is translated perhaps in your translation, loving kindness. He said is the Hebrew word. This is one of the most marvelous words in the Hebrew vocabulary. It means to be faithful, to be loyal, to show goodness and mercy. And not because the object deserves it, but because the giver chooses to give it. He says that while you were still sinners, Christ died for you. He didn't have to. He doesn't have to. God is not obligated to show mercy to anyone. Did you know that? God is not obligated to show grace to you, to show love to you, to show patience to you. He has no obligation, but he chooses to show those wonderful characteristics as he's showing Moses here. No wonder David said in Psalm 23 verse 6, mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Isn't that awesome? Don't you want those things to follow you instead of the police? Don't you want to be on and look at for God's goodness and grace and having it follow you for the rest of your life? And it follows you. It's unconditional. That's the crazy thing about it. It's unconditional. God is good all the time. And so we see that in goodness here, there's no shortage of God's love. This is the best the Hebrew language has to offer in describing the gracious nature of God. You see, in the Bible, man tries to describe the attributes of God. Sometimes you find them just coming to a dead end and just stopping like Paul did with God. He said this in Romans 11.33. He says, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. Have you ever come to a place in your Christian life where God is just overwhelming to you? He's just too much. You know that He's giving you chance after chance. He's extending mercy. He's extending grace. He's forgiving you and you're just like, God, you're too much. It's overwhelming to understand for the human mind to grasp the character of God. It's hard. We could only grasp just a little bit in what we have here in Scripture. But notice, though, God reveals something to Moses, but he also reveals to Moses something else about who God is. And this is not just that He's gracious. He's loving, but also God is just. Notice what he says in verse 7. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin by no means clearing the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. His loving and gracious character does not counsel out His righteousness. He's still a righteous God. He still deals with sin. He still punishes sin. God is the guilty. Do not go unpunished. Those who refuse to get right with God listen, God extends grace. He extends mercy. But there's a point where you could exhaust all of that and God steps in and begins to punish sin. Because He isn't a God who just allows things just to go. He's patient. He's lung-suffering. But God does deal with sin. And this is what He's revealing to Moses. God is slow to punish. He gives us chance after chance to get right with Him. But if we refuse to get right with Him, then we will pay for the consequences of our sin. And so what does Moses do at the end? Notice in verse 8. Does Moses get mad at God? No, notice what he says in verse 8. So Moses made haste, bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Wow. He didn't say, huh, God, what are you saying? He says, this is too much. He just bowed down and worshiped him. Moses was reminded right here of who God is. He knew that he was not equal to God. He knew that he was the servant and he knew to let God alone be God. This is who he is. You know, Isaiah had a similar reaction to the presence of God. You know, when God revealed himself to him, what did he say? He said to me, for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. When the apostle Paul, when the risen Christ appeared, the apostle on the way to Damascus, what happened? He got knocked off that horse and then the first thing that Paul said was this, who are you, Lord? Who are you, Lord? Maybe that's where you're at this morning. You're saying who is the Lord? Listen, today, this morning, the Lord is coming to Damascus. Another prominent leader in the Bible, his name is Jonah. How many know Jonah? Jonah ran away from God because of his character. The Assyrians were barbaric people. They were crazy. They were horrible. Those that lived in Nineveh. In fact, they say that when the Assyrians were heading into a town and the people of that town found out that they were coming, they were going to commit suicide before they would hit their town because of the torture that would happen under the Assyrians' hands. So I get it, Jonah. I'd say, yeah, let them go to hell, God. They're mean, right? But God says, no. I'm going to have mercy on these guys. I'm going to give them a chance to repent. What did Jonah say? Nope, I'm going the other way. I'm going on a cruise. God, see ya. And then God begins and created a storm and God created a big fish and all these things were happening in the life of Jonah that he finally gave up, right? When he was sucked into that belly of that fish, right? And so what happened after that, then he went and he preached and then there was a revival in the city of Nineveh, in the capital city of Assyria and they got saved. And you would think that Jonah was in the city. He was upset at God. This is what he said to God. Jonah chapter 4 verse 2, really Jonah? Seriously? Could you imagine a Christian like that? Man, he got saved. I can't believe he got saved. He doesn't deserve to go to heaven. You're like, whoa, brother, excuse me. Who made you the judge here? You know what I'm saying? I get it. People that cut you off on the free, you're like, they're going to hell. There's no way they're going to do that. No way. And you see him in heaven, you're like, hey, I cut you off. Remember? You did? Praise the Lord, right? Jonah was like, no. This is why he didn't want to follow you. God, because you're too good. Listen, God will have mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he'll be gracious to whom he wants to be gracious to. It's not up to you. It's not up to me. It's not up to us at all. God is who he is. There's a wonderful song. Casting Crowns has this song. It's an old song, Praise You in the Storm. There's a line in the song that I always like and I love it. It goes like this. You are who you are, no matter where I am. God, you are who you are, no matter where I am. In other words, you never change. Because of me going through trials on this side of heaven, because I am mad, you don't change for me. You still stay as God. Steady. Psalm 46.10 says, Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. This should always be the response of every human heart when confronted with the amazing revelation of God is to bow down and worship him. Instead of questioning God, you just bow down and worship him. This revelation of God forever puts away the idea that there's a bad God in the Old Testament and there's a good God in the New Testament. It crumbles that thought, because there are so many out there that believe in that. Well, how do you know that, Robert? Well, the love and mercy of God is throughout the entire Bible. It doesn't change. And, in fact, to take it a step further, Exodus 34 verses 6 and 7 is a fulfillment in the New Testament in Jesus. Listen to what it says in John 1.14 Speaking of Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and what? Truth. The same God in the Old Testament is the same God in the New Testament. Jesus dwelt. The word dwelt means tabernacle. The tabernacle in the Old Testament was moved around. Jesus Christ's became God's tabernacle on earth as He dwelt among men and women. So what I'm trying to say is this is that the same God of Sinai is the same God of Calvary. Same God. There's no two different Gods in the Old and the New. In Christ we see the visible manifestation of God Himself in the second person of the Trinity. John 1.18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father He has declared Him. We have a wonderful picture of who God is here. A wonderful picture. A beautiful picture of the God of the Bible. Remember Philip's response in the New Testament? He came to Jesus. John 14.8 Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us. Remember that? What did Jesus do? Did He go there's the Father right there. See? He didn't do that, right? What did He say? Listen to this. Have I been with you for so long and yet you have not known me Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say show us the Father? See in Philip's mind he's thinking of the Father the Old Testament God, right? He says show us the Father as it's a different one. He says if you've seen me you've seen the Father. That's deity. That's a proclamation of deity that Jesus Christ is God. In the New Testament Jesus Christ is the dwelling place of God's glory. Everybody saw it. God's self revelation to Moses should be an encouragement to some of you this morning. As I wrap this up here perhaps you're saying to yourself I've messed up. I deserve punishment and in a real sense you do. You deserve punishment. I do deserve punishment too. But listen the good news is this as gracious, merciful, long suffering and ready to parting your sin the God that revealed himself to Moses is the God that has just revealed himself to you here. I don't know where you're at and who you are and what you believe about God perhaps 80% of you here are born again Christians. Perhaps there's a 20% chance here that there are some in here that have no clue whether they know God or not. They don't understand God. Maybe this morning you were like I didn't realize that your God was that loving. I was always told he was a mean God a God who just did not like people that's not the God of the Bible. God is gracious God is merciful I have a neighbor across the street who is an agnostic. I've invited him to church functions and church and all of that and he tells me you know what Robert I don't want to enter a church what does he mean by that? He's saying that I'm such a sinner that if I walk into church everybody's going to know I'm this big sinner right? Maybe you've probably felt the same way you're like somebody brought you into church today and you're like I've never been in church at all okay they're going to stare at me if the roof caves in that's your fault real problem you know and you're sitting here and listen you just heard God reach out to you and say to you I love you I want to forgive your sins but you have to be willing and to ask God to forgive of your sins I want to show you something I want to close with verse 7 he says this by no means clearing the guilty are you guilty here today have you sinned have you been living a life apart from God you just haven't been really following God anymore listen you stand guilty before the Lord but the good news again is that God is willing to forgive you he's willing to forgive you of your sins that's the gracious nature of God is that he gives you a chance for that