September 23, 1984 (Morning)
Bethlehem Baptist Church
John Piper, Pastor
Moses said to the LORD, "See, thou sayest to me, 'Bring up this people'; but thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.' Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy sight, show me now thy wayst that I may know thee and find favor in thy sight. Consider too that this nation is thy people." And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." And he said to him, "If thy presence will not go with me, do not carry us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in thy sight, I and thy people? Is it not in thy going with us, so that we are distinct, I and thy people, from all other people that are upon the face of the earth?"
And the LORD said to Moses, "This is the
very thing that you have spoken that I will do; for you have found
favor in my sight, and I know you by name." Moses said, "I
pray thee, show me thy glory." And he said, "I will
make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before
you my name 'The LORD'; and I will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."
In Exodus 33:18 Moses pleads with God, "Show
me thy glory!" And God answers, "I will make all my
goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name,
YAHWEH! and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
will show mercy to whom I will show mercy."
Moses asks to see God's glory. God
proclaims to him his name. In other words, if you grasp
the name of God, you have seen his glory. God is not playing
games with Moses when Moses cries out, "Show me your glory!"
and God answers, "This is my name!" The names
of God are the manifestations of his glory.
The name in verse 19 is Yahweh, the same name
we saw last week, (the LORD, in your versions). But this time
the name is given a different explanation, "I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy."
In Exodus 3:14 the name Yahweh was explained
with the words, I AM WHO I AM. Here it is explained with the
words, I WILL BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS. Notice
how these sentences are both built in the same way. In Exodus
3:14 the focus was on the existence of God -- that he is
what he is without anything outside himself determining his personality
or power. In Exodus 33:19 the focus is on the gracious action
of God -- that he does what he does without anything outside
himself determining his choices. This is what God reveals about
himself when Moses asks to see God's glory.
Therefore, I would draw out this doctrine for
us this morning: It is the glory of God to be gracious to whomever
he pleases apart from any constraint originating outside his own
will. Or another way to put it would be that sovereign FREEDOM
is essential to God's name.
God is utterly free from the constraints of
his creation. The inclinations of his will move in directions
that he alone determines. Whatever influences appear to change
his will are influences which ultimately he has ordained. His
choice to show mercy to one person and not to another is a choice
that originates in the mystery of his sovereign will not in the
will of his creature. And Exodus 33:18-19 teaches us that this
self-determining freedom of God is his name and his glory.
If God ever surrendered the sovereignty of his freedom in dispensing
his mercy, he would cease to be all-glorious, he would no longer
be Yahweh, the God of the Bible.
Before we unpack some of the practical implications
of this doctrine, let's put the context into better focus. This
will help us see just what implications this doctrine had for
Moses.
Back in chapter 32 the people of Israel had
rebelled against God by making a golden calf to worship. God
says to Moses in Exodus 32:9, "I have seen this people, and
behold, it is a stiff-necked people; now therefore let me alone,
that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them."
Moses responds to God (in verses 11-13) with
a desperate prayer for the people. He makes his case not on the
basis of Israel's worth but on the basis of God's worth. "Your
name will be profaned among the Egyptians, and your word to the
fathers will fall." God relents. Instead of destroying the
whole people, he appoints the sons of Levi to kill 3000 men (32:25-29)
and sends a plague among the people (32:35).
Then God resumes his purpose to send the Israelites
to the promised land. In verse 34 God says to Moses, "But
now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to
you; behold, my angel shall go before you." But Moses will
not be satisfied with an unknown angel. In 33:15 he says, "If
thy presence will not go with me, do not carry us up from
here."
This is an astonishing request. For God had
said in 33:3, "I will not go up among you, lest I consume
you in the way, for you are a stiff-necked people." In other
words God had said that if he goes up with them he will wipe them
out along the way. But Moses says that if God will not
go up with them he won't go either. Moses is holding out for
something unspeakable -- that a holy God will have so much mercy
upon a stiff-necked people that he will not only go up with them
to the promised land, but also, as it says in 33:16, that God
would make them distinct among all the peoples of the earth.
If Moses' request was unthinkable, God's answer
in Exodus 33:17 was doubly so. He simply says, "This very
thing that you have spoken I will do; for you have found favor
in my sight, and I know you by name," In other words God
says Yes, he will go up with this stiff-necked people. He will
let the grace that he gives Moses flow over onto this rebellious
people. You can see from Exodus 34:9 that this decision of God
to go with the people is pure grace. There Moses says, "If
I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray
thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked
people." The people do not deserve the blessing of God's
presence. They are stiff-necked. But in mercy God is going to
give them another chance to follow him in obedience.
Now the question rises why in 33:18 Moses prayed
to see God's glory? "I pray thee, show me thy glory."
I think the reason was this: Moses knew that his request for God's
presence with a stiff-necked people would never succeed if it
were based on any qualification in himself or in the people. (In
34:9 he included himself in the sin and iniquity of the people.)
So for Moses to have assurance that God would actually be this
gracious to Israel he needed to see some basis in God and not
in himself or the people. He needed a glimpse into the nature
of God.
He knew God was an all glorious God. But was
this glory of such a nature that it would encourage Moses to believe
that God would really be gracious to a stiff-necked people? So
Moses says, Show me your glory. Let me have a glimpse into the
your divine nature. Let me see the meaning of your great name.
Show me the foundation of this amazing promise. Give me some
assurance that you will indeed grant your saving presence to this
stiff-necked people!
To this God responds in verse 19, "I will
make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before
you my name YAHWEH; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." In other
words, when Moses asks to behold God's glory, God reveals as of
first importance his name, which he explains with the words, "I
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious."
So in its Old Testament context the declaration
of God's absolute freedom to be gracious to whomever he pleases
is intended to give Moses hope and assurance that God indeed can
and will be gracious to the stiff-necked people of Israel and
go with them to the promised land.
The Bible never gives us glimpses of God's
nature merely for intellectual discussion. It opens the name
and glory of God to our understanding in order to help us revere
God and love him and trust him and obey him. So when God stands
before Moses and uncovers his innermost soul -- the glory of his
absolute divine freedom -- he is doing it for a very practical
purpose, namely, to give Moses encouragement to get on with his
mission of leading a stiff-necked people on to the promised land.
The deepest doctrines of God have to do with
everyday life. Theology is the most relevant and practical of
all the human disciplines. If that isn't our experience it's
either because our theology is untrue, or because we go about
it in a spirit of irreverence and make a game of it. The doctrines
of God revealed in the Bible are of immense personal, practical
and eternal importance. O how we need to study the name and glory
of God. The God of Exodus 33:19 is virtually unknown in popular
American church life today.
The practical relevance of God's freedom for
Moses leads to some practical implications for us too. But before
we unpack some of these, let's define our doctrine more precisely
and survey its wider Biblical foundation.
We've stated the doctrine of this text with
these words: It is the glory of God to be gracious to whomever
he pleases apart from any constraint originating outside his own
will. Or: God's sovereign freedom is essential to his name.
When this doctrine is applied to the salvation of individuals
it is called "unconditional election". "Election"
refers to the choice God makes of whom he will save, and "unconditional"
refers to the fact that his choice is not based on any condition
or qualification that individuals have. It comes from the mystery
of God's sovereign will.
Last week we tried to ask the question why
God is the way he is, and the answer we received from him was,
I AM WHO I AM. There is nothing outside God that makes him the
way he is. His being originates in himself. He simply is who
he is from everlasting to everlasting. We can worship in awe,
or we can rebel in unbelief.
This week we try to ask the question why God
was gracious to me, and the answer we receive from him is, I WILL
BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS. There is nothing outside
God that constrains his gracious election of me. His choices
originate in himself. He chooses freely apart from any conditions
in us. We can stand in awe of his sovereign freedom and worship
with gratitude. Or we can rebel against this absolute authority
and confirm that we have been passed over.
The doctrine of unconditional election is rooted
in the nature of God. His very name, his innermost glory, is
this: I WILL BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS. If God were
not free in the grace he gives he would not be God. This is his
name!
Of the many passages in the New Testament which
provide the wider Biblical foundation of this doctrine let me
mention only five.
First Romans 9:14-18. This chapter so captured
my mind and heart about fifteen years ago that I wrote a book
trying to understand it. The book is THE JUSTIFICATION OF GOD
(Baker Book House, 1983). In the preface I said:
As soon as my doctoral studies were completed in 1974 I devoted myself to write a book on Romans 9. The God of Romans 9 took me captive while I was yet in seminary. No other picture of God ever commended itself to me as more true to what the Creator must be. If there is a God, he must be the God of Romans 9. After seven years of effort to understand this chapter it still seems to me that its essence is this: God's righteousness consists in his being an all-glorious God, and refusing to be anything less than all-glorious. It has been the delight of my life in these years to behold this God and to ponder his awesome sovereignty. If this book had never been published it would still be a treasure to me. No one asked me to write it. Few people knew it was emerging. The Grand Subject drew me on. And to him I owe all "the willing and running."
Paul asks, "What shall we say then? Is
there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses,
'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I have compassion.' So it depends not upon man's will
or exertion, but upon God who has mercy. For the scripture says
to Pharaoh, 'I have raised you up for this very purpose of showing
my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the
earth.' So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens
whomever he wills."
Paul draws out of Exodus 33:19 the same doctrine
we have. The basis of God's mercy to me is not my own will, but
his will. When I choose God it is because he has first chosen
me. My will is not sovereign and self-determining. God's
is.
Second, Acts 13:48. Luke records for us Paul's
preaching in the synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia. Then he interprets
for us how we should understand the response to this message in
verse 48: "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed."
In other words it is not the belief of the
people that determined whether God would ordain them to eternal
life. Just the opposite: the prior ordination of God determined
who would believe. Faith is a gift of God's grace and saving
grace is given to whomever God wills -- unconditionally.
Third, John 10:26. This is very similar.
In Acts 13:48 we learned why some people do believe. In
John 10:26 Jesus tells us why some people don't believe.
He says, "You do not believe because you do not belong to
my sheep." In other words your believing does not make you
a sheep. Being a sheep enables you to believe. You do not make
yourself into a child of God by your own initiative to believe.
God makes you into a child of God so that you have a nature that
can believe (John 1:13). He is gracious to whom he will
be gracious.
Fourth, Ephesians 1:4-5. "God chose us
in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and blameless before him. He predestined us in love to be
his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his
will to the praise of his glorious grace." God preserves
his freedom in the dispensing of his grace so that when we boast
we will boast in the Lord and not in ourselves. All his choices
are for the sake of the praise of the glory of his grace.
Fifth, 2 Peter 1:10. If the glory and the
name of God is his sovereign freedom, how then should we think
about our believing and our obedience? Peter gives us
the answer. He says, "Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous
to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you
will never fall." In other words our zeal of faith and obedience
does not make us elect. It confirms that we are
elect. Faith and obedience are a gift and the possession of the
gift is a confirmation of the favor of the Giver. God
is not moved to choose us because of our faith. We are moved to
have faith because God has chosen us. He is gracious to whom
he will be gracious.
So the doctrine of unconditional election is
not the product of an isolated text. It has a broad Biblical
foundation -- much broader even than we have seen here. And this
is what we should expect since the doctrine is rooted in the very
name of God and is the heart of his glory.
Now we must turn finally to some practical
implications of this doctrine or us.
1. Humility for the best of saints.
There is no doctrine that tends more to the humility of the saints
than the doctrine that every virtue they possess is owing to the
sovereign grace of God. O how we need to dwell on the truth that
our faith is an absolutely free and unmerited gift. It will make
you tremble when you realize how utterly dependent on God you
are.
You were dead in trespasses and sins, unable
to lift the little finger of your will to please God (Romans 8:7-8;
Ephesians 2:1; John 15:5). And God, in absolutely free and unconditional
grace, set his favor on you and made you alive. He took out your
heart of stone and gave you a new heart of flesh, with a will
to believe and obey. Therefore every act of faith and every hint
of obedience is the work of God's grace in your life. This should
humble us to the dust, and cut out of our lives every motion of
pride. The doctrine of unconditional election means humility
for the best of saints.
2. Hope for the worst of sinners. This
is what the doctrine supplied to Moses. Moses needed hope that
God really could have mercy on a stiff-necked people who had just
committed idolatry and scorned the God who brought them out of
Egypt. To give Moses the hope and confidence he needed God said,
I WILL BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS.
In other words, since my choices do not depend
on the degree of evil or good in man but solely upon my sovereign
will. Therefore no one can say he is too evil to be shown grace.
The doctrine of unconditional election is the great doctrine
of hope for the worst of sinners. It means that when it comes
to being a candidate for grace your background has nothing to
do with God's choice.
If there is anyone here today who has not been
born again and brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ, do not
sink into hopelessness thinking that the excessive rottenness
or hardness of your past life is an insurmountable obstacle to
God's gracious work in your life. God loves to magnify the freedom
of his grace by saving the worst of sinners.
Turn from your sin, call upon the Lord. Even
in this message he is being gracious to you and giving you strong
encouragement to come to him for mercy. The doctrine of unconditional
election means hope for the worst of sinners. "Come, let
us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson
they shall become like wool" (Isaiah 1:18).
3. Help for the cause of missions.
If this doctrine means hope for the worst of sinners then it also
means help for the cause of missions. David Brainerd, the young
missionary to the Indians in New England two hundred years ago
drew strength from this doctrine again and again as have hundreds
of other missionaries.
On Monday June 25, 1744 Brainerd wrote in his
journal, "I was enabled to cry to God for my poor Indians;
and though the work of their conversion appeared impossible with
man, yet with God I saw all things were possible. My faith was
much strengthened." Missionaries never need to despair as
though any people or tribe were too hard or evil for God to revive.
He will be gracious to whom he will be gracious. And so it does
not finally depend on the will or the running of the missionary
or the people, but on God. There is always hope for the worst
of sinners and so there is always help for the cause of missions.
4. Homage for the name of God. The
name of God is I WILL BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS.
His sovereign freedom is his glory. If we knew God for who he
really is, we would be a different people. O how full of reverence
and lowliness and meekness we would be. We would stand in awe
of the absoluteness of his sovereign freedom. We would bow low
in his presence. We shrink in fear from any attitude which belittles
him. And we would rejoice with unutterable and glorified joy
that he has set his favor on us. © Copyright ©1984, 1998 John Piper.
Used by permission.
Piper
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