Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - A Leader’s Passion

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

Exodus 33-34 remarkably depicts, in the most concrete way, how to find God. And not only how to find God, but how to find him when you’ve lost him.  The Bible often talks about our relationship with God as if it’s fire. It comes down into our lives. But the second you stop tending a fire, it burns down. See, if you’ve never found God, or if you have but it’s been a long time, for both, this passage tells you the path. Because basically the path of “new-al” and the path of renewal are the same.  How do you find God the first time? How do you find him again and again? We learn here 1) that we desperately need renewal, and 2) how we get renewal. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 2, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Exodus 33:4-9, 15; 34:1-7. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Did you know that the Bible is all about Jesus from beginning to end? But sometimes you need signposts to point you to Christ. Today Tim Keller is looking at how we can see Christ and his mission in glory. After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospelunlife.com and sign up for email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly newsletter with articles about gospel change lives as well as other valuable gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at GospelUnlife.com Exodus 33, starting at verse 4, skipping over to verse 15 and reading over into chapter 34,

verse 7. When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, tell the Israelites, you are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now, take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you. So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horib. Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling

it the tent of meeting. And anyone inquiring of a Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. And as Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Now there's a break here, and Moses is speaking to God, then Moses said to him, And Moses is speaking to God, then Moses said to him, if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? The Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you and I know you by name. Then Moses said, show me your glory. And the Lord said, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have

mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." But he said, you cannot see my face for no one may see me and live. Then the Lord said, there's a place near me where you may stand on a rock. And when my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft,

in a cleft in the rock, and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. And then I will remove you in the cleft, in a cleft in the rock, and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. And then I will remove my hand and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen." The Lord said to Moses, "...Ches' a lot to stone tables like the first one, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tables which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai.

Present yourself to me, there on top of the mountain. No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain, not even the flocks and the herds may get grazed in front of the mountain. Somosus chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up on Sinai early in the morning as the Lord had commanded him and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.

And then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him, proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slowed anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness rebellion and sin. Yet, he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generations. This is God's Word. You remember at the very beginning of the fall, I said that there is a movement, there's

a spiritual seeking going on amongst people who are sharp, savvy, sophisticated, urban and therefore supposedly secular. But I mentioned of all places, Naomi Wolf in the Mademoiselle magazine, Blue the Whistle and said there's a lot of smart people who are seeking for God. We're just afraid that our friends are going to think ill of us. But we are. We're out looking for him.

How do we find him? And I've been saying all along that in our modern situation, in a culture that's much more into sites, sounds, and images than in the text, exposition, and logic, the Old Testament might be the very best place to go to find God. Because what is so interesting about the Old Testament is in there, in that Old Testament, you usually have very important truths that are explained in the New Testament, that are expounded in the New Testament, that are sort of rationally, propositional analyzed in

the New Testament, but in the Old Testament, they're depicted. You have stories, you have concrete things that show the embodiment, in a sense. And in some ways, of these principles, and in some ways, it's maybe a better place to go, and that's where we've been. This particular chapter is a remarkable chapter because it depicts in the most concrete way how to find God. And not only how to find God, but how to find Him when you've lost Him. You see, this is maybe the quintessential place where we find out how to renew our relationship with God.

The Bible very often talks about a relationship with God as if it's fire. It comes down into our lives, and we know that fire, unless you tend it, in fact, the second you stop tending it, fire burns down. And an awful lot of us have had an experience of God and it's been a long time since then.

And I think a lot of us have to agree that one of the reasons why the people around us, the people that we love, the people that we know, one of the reasons why a lot of those people are not being helped by us, they're not certainly being attracted to God by us, they're certainly not having their lives changed. One of the reasons why is because we're so cold, because the fire of our relationship with God has burned down so far. How does a person who's had the fire build it back up? How does a church that's had the fire build it up, maintain it or turn it up? And see if you've never found God or if you know you have but it's been a long time, this tells you for both, it tells you the path because basically the path of new will and re-new will

are the same. Some of you need to be renewed. Some of you need to be renewed. Any WED. How do you find it in the first time? How do you find it again and again? It's all here. First of all, and we're going to look at this just under two headings. First of all, we learn here why we need renewal. If you take a look, you see right here in verse 33, verse 5 in the very beginning, probably chapter 33, verse 5, we see back on the first page, God says, you

are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you, even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now by the way, he's not talking about his instability. He's not saying, I don't know, you know, I might get up one morning and be on the wrong side of the bed. No, he's not talking about his instability. He's talking about theirs. He's a just God. And these are people who are capable of tremendous injustice and tremendous oppression, and tremendous violence and tremendous licentiousness. And he says, he says, therefore, you're a stiff-neck people. If I were to go with you, even for a moment, I might destroy you.

I'm not going with you. I will not go up in your midst. Now, A, what is he referring to? He's referring to what happened in chapter 32. What happened in chapter 32 is this. The Israelites, as we all know, if you've ever seen any movies at all, or if you've been to a read the Bible, you know that the Israelites have been brought out of Egypt, out of slavery in Egypt, through the mighty arm of God, through great deeds

and miracles and the parting of the Red Sea and you know the story. So God had done tremendous things. They had seen God. They had seen the pillar, the cloud by day, the pillar by night. They had seen what happened to their enemies. They had seen all this and yet they get into the desert and Moses goes to the top of Mount Sinai to talk with God. And he's up there for days and days,

and the Israelites feel abandoned. They get scared. They feel like they've been deserted. And so they form the golden calf. They create the golden calf, and they worship it. And of course, what do we have here? What we have is, as hot as they were spiritually, they'd now become ice cold.

So, the God says, I can't. I can't be in your midst. I can't know you. I can't get close to you. I won't. And so, you see what we have here is a rejection. Because when Moses says in verse 7, when Moses takes it and pitches it outside the camp, that is a sign of rejection. God says, I'm not coming in. See why the Old Testament depicts things graphically, why it's so helpful. God says, because of all that I've done for you and yet how you've turned away from me, I'm not coming in. And so if you want to meet God, you have to go out.

He stays on the periphery of the people. And now Moses has a job. And Moses' job is how do I get God back into the middle? How do I get his presence, how do I get his glory back in the center of these people's lives? How do I get them not just to believe in God? You know, the problem is not they don't believe in God. The problem is not even right now that they're not obeying God.

The problem is they don't know Him. His glory presence is outside. And therefore, that's Moses' job. How do we do renewal? How do we get God back into the center? Now before we go and see what Moses did, let's ask ourselves for a minute, what is his teachers? Okay, now the first thing it teaches us is this, we desperately need renewal when you look

at the Israelites. One of the ways I can tell, and you should be able to tell too, if you've really had not just a belief in God, not just you comply with Christian ethics, but if you've actually had a sense on your heart of the reality of God, if you've actually known his love, you will not laugh at the Israelites. When you first read the story, when you read the story in Sunday school, let's say, if you were a kid and you went to church, you read the story in Sunday school, and you say, what idiots, how could they not believe in God? The red sea. Didn't you see the movie? It was unbelievable.

You know every little kid, you see the movie. Look at how we don't know if it was just like that, but boy, it really, Cecil B. DeMill made it look pretty good. And you said, can you imagine having an experience like that, the sea is parted. And we're removed from how in the world could just days later, weeks later, months later, I don't know, we're not sure, but a certain period of time later, how in the world could they say, oh, maybe there isn't a God?

I don't know if there's a God. How, what idiots? And if you say that would never happen to me, I know right there, and you should know now, you don't know God. Because if you've actually experienced God, you know that's exactly what your heart does. If you've actually experienced God, you know that what you'd say when he's so real to you is you say, I'll never forget this. You always say something like this. You say,

Lord, why was I ever afraid? Lord, why did I ever feel so bad about myself? Why was I always so hopeless? Lord, now that you're real, I'll never be daunted again. I'll never be afraid again. I'll never be discouraging it. Now that you're wrong, never forget what I know right now. And you will. In fact, some of us can say this, God has parted whole oceans for us.

God has done things for you. Astounding things for you, amazing things for you. He saved you from amazing things. He's intervened in certain places. He has protected. The sea has parted, and yet today, your heart is hard. Your heart is cold. You feel almost complete indifference toward God.

God is just, he's outside. He's there, I know him, I know he's out there, I believe him, but I don't have any sense of his presence. I mean, anybody who's experienced God's knows that you're just like the Israelites, we're absolutely like the Israelites. And one of the things that bothers me this morning, and I want to say, is new Christians in particular,

people who are newer in their Christian walk, really get slammed the first time this happens. And so many of you at Redeemer are newer. And what I mean by that is this, you always will underestimate the power of the spiritual entropy of your heart. You know what entropy is? Entropy is, the physicists will say, it's that thing which goes to disorder. It's entropy. The reason why you take a roast out of the oven and you set it down immediately becomes cold. Because of entropy, it's running down.

And of course, if you leave it there long enough, it'll start to stink. And long enough, you know, the bugs and the rats will come. It's entropy. In other words, do nothing. Do nothing to the meat. And pretty soon it'll be an absolute stench in your nostrils. And it'll be a health hazard. Do not listen.

If you say I've had this wonderful experience of God, and if you do nothing about it, if you just sort of expect it to sort of just be there when you wake up every morning, you misunderstand, you underestimate the spiritual entropy of your heart. And what usually happens when newer believers have their first experience of this,

they can't believe, they've forgotten, they can't believe how cold they've gotten, they can't believe how far God seems away. The first thing you do is you say, maybe I'm not a Christian at all. But you know, there's a hymn that's really helped me, a couple of lines from an old hymn, and the hymn goes like this.

Where is the blessing I once knew when I first saw the Lord? Where is the soul refreshing view of Jesus and His Word? What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, how sweet their memory still, but they have left an aching void the world can never fill. Now, here's how you know you need renewal, but here's also how you know you're a Christian. They have left an aching void, the world can never fill. Have you ever lent your clothing, a piece of clothing, to somebody who was a little bigger than you, but you said, well, it'll stretch, you know, it's a knit. And so you get it back from your friend and it's stretched but it didn't snap back. And so now only your friend will ever be able to fill

that sweater again. Now, here's how you know your Christian. You know your Christian because when you actually have tasted his goodness, I don't mean you've just signed up. I don't mean you said, I'm going to clean my life up, I'm going to start to do this and then I'm going to get religious, I'm going to be moral, I'm going to subscribe, I'm going to go back to church, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about, if you've ever actually tasted what Moses is after here and that is God's reality, if you've had a sense of the heart, if you've had an experience of his love,

God will stretch your heart and will never snap back. Even when God's gone, it won't snap back. You will be miserable, but your misery will be a sign of His faithfulness to you. The way you know you're a Christian is even if it's been years since you've had an experience of His love, even if you've tried to go to other things, you go back to the things that used to give you a high and they don't. And you say, what's going on? It doesn't give me the high that it used to, these things have changed. Oh no, oh no, oh no, you've changed. Your heart is bigger. Once God has come into your heart, even when you turn away, even when you get ungrateful, even when you and God are kind of on the outs, you have been permanently changed.

You stay miserable until you get them back because anything else you turn to doesn't fill the sweater. It's not the thing. I mean, you don't get the rush out of you know, you don't get the rush out of making money. You don't get the rush out of sex. You don't get the rush out of the things that used to really kind of give you meaning in life. And you say, what happened to them? Well, it's your heart. Your heart has gotten greater because God has been in there. It's stretched and it'll never snap back. Do you understand? Until you get them back. So you see we see the absolute necessity of renewal.

The absolute necessity of continual renewal. Oh, one more thing before we go see how Moses actually does it. The other thing we learn about our need for renewal is not just that our hearts are stretched forever and we need to find them and we continually lose them because that's the way the entropy of our heart is. Here's the other thing. Look at Moses. If you want to see how to be a good friend, Moses cares about his people. Moses sees that his people are stiff-necked. Moses sees that there's all sorts of brokenness in his people. And what does he do? Continually, he goes to talk to God face to face. See, the people are not on speaking terms with God, but Moses is. And what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. Would you like to renew the people around you? Would you like to renew Redeemer? Would you like to renew the city? The best thing, are you worried, let me give you an example. Are you worried about your children?

Do you wish they were matured? Are you scared about where they are right now? Do you have friends that you care about? You just ache for. Listen. The best thing you can possibly do for them is to get full-wook God. The thing they need, they don't even know it, the thing they need most from you, is not you constantly coming up with schemes and talking with them and giving them advice

and trying to get them to do the right thing. That's not what they need. They need for you to go outside the camp wherever it takes them to be filled with God, to speak with them face to face, to have your life radiating with peace and love. That's what they need. Now look, it's very dangerous to see Moses, you say Moses, or in fact this illustration, I'm about to give you, it's a minister. And I want you to, this is not talking about ministers,

this is not talking about great spiritual church leaders. If you assume the responsibility, the personal responsibility for anybody, if you have assumed responsibility for the good of any person, the main thing that person needs from you is not to be fixed by you. Needs to have you be filled with God. Robert Worry McShane was a Scottish preacher he died at the age of 29 and it gets at the end of the 1830s. And one of

the things that always just struck me so much was he when he when he was dead and they came into his room they found a letter under his pillow. The week before, the Sunday before he died, he died on a Sunday and the Sunday before he died, he had preached on the text Isaiah 60 verse 1 which says, a rise shine for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. And when they found him dead from the fever, they found a letter under his pillow, a letter that somebody had brought him that week. And this is what the letter said.

The letter said, dear Dr. McShane, dear Reverend McShane, the letter that you, pardon me, that the sermon that you preached brought me, the sermon that you preached, yeah, here we go, sorry, the sermon that you preached brought me to Christ. It was not mainly what you said, but it was what you were as you preached. You were talking about the glory of God resting on the Savior, and I don't really remember much about what you said, but I do remember thinking I could see the glory of the Savior resting on you. That's what brought me to Christ.

Now, do you get it? The point is, it's not what you say, it's what you are, and what makes you what you are. What you are is a function of what you worship, what you adore, what you spend your time fondling in your heart as the most beautiful thing in the world. Whatever you fondle in your heart is the most beautiful thing in the world, the most attractive thing to your heart, to the eyes of your heart, whatever you, in a sense, obsess over, whatever you delight in the most, that is what you become. And you are a function of what you worship.

And that's what you're going to be. And that is what your people, the people around you most need. They need to renew you. That's the way. So we need renewal, we desperately need it, we profoundly need it. Okay, how do we get it?

Well, there's three things that Moses essentially helps and leads or God actually also. There's three things, I don't even know how to say this. There's three things in the text that show us what we have to do if we're going to experience this renewal ourselves. One of the biggest obstacles for people to believe in Christianity is that they think they already know all about it. But if we look at Jesus' encounters with various people during his life, we'll find some of our assumptions challenged.

We see him meeting people at the point of their big unspoken questions. The Gospels are full of encounters that made a profound impact on those who spoke with Jesus. And in his book Encounters with Jesus, Tim Keller explores how these encounters can still address our questions and doubts today. Encounters with Jesus is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel and Life reach more people with the amazing love of Christ. Request your copy of Encounters with Jesus today when you give at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Not just the sign-up for doctrine, but actually meet God.

How do we do it? Or how do we remit God? Here it is. Number one, there is the prayer for glory. There is a prayer for glory. There is a refusing to settle for crumbs, there is a praying yourself hot with desire. Now, if you want to see the prayer for glory, part of it you see in the people.

It says they mourn. They mourn. But really, if you want to understand how to find God, You have to look at Moses. The first, I hope I can make this, I hope this is specific enough for you to see, that this is something in addition to repenting in anything else. Moses in chapter 32, God comes to him after the golden calf incident and says,

I'm gonna destroy these people, and I'll take your family and make a people out of your family. And Moses says, not good enough. No, no. Don't do that. And God gives them His will. And then God right here says, okay, I won't destroy them, but I won't live in their midst. I'll come on the side. I'll send my angel ahead of them, but I'm not really going to, you know, I'll help. I'll even give you success, but I won't give you me. See? I'll give you success, but I won't give you me.

Now, I'll tell you something. An awful lot of people would settle for that. If God came down to you and said, you know what? I won't let you ever really experience my love and my glory, but I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll make you rich. I'll make you beautiful. You know, I'll give you everything. If God did that, by the way, if God does that,

actually, that's probably not God. It's another guy. That you can, that did it to Jesus. But if God would do that, how many people would say, sure, I mean, hey, after all, well, you wouldn't know what you're doing. And I'll tell you one thing, Moses knew. And God actually says, I'll give you success,

but I really won't give you myself. And Moses says, not good enough. If you don't go up with us, if your presence doesn't come up with us, I want more of you. I want more of you. And that's even not enough. Because finally you see, down here in verse 17, God says, okay, fine, I'll do it. And then Moses says, no, show me your glory. Now it means Moses refuses to settle for crumbs. And I get embarrassed when I read this because I realize the first thing I've got to do is I've got to work on my own desires.

Think desires for God are a terrible sin. Just like if you expect people who love you to want you, to want more of you. You're not just a cook for you, not just to make money for you, not just to mow the grass for you, to want you, to want more of you. You're not just a cook for you, not just to make money for you, not just to mow the grass for you, to want you. And of course, there's no greater sin than what many of us are doing.

We're walking through our Christian lives and our conscience is clear because we're basically not falling in any kind of gross sin. And we're doing our duty for the community and maybe giving our money to the poor. We're moving right along. And no, we don't know in Frank. Frankly, a lot of you would say, I have no idea quite what you're talking about. I've occasionally

felt a little inspiration. I don't know what you mean by sensing God on your heart in this incredible glory. I don't even know what you mean. I'm happy enough as I am, but boy, that's really like saying to somebody, I don't want you. I want you, I want the things you to somebody, I don't want you. I want the things you can do for me. I want you to motor the grass. I want you to make money and put it into a bank. I want you to cook for me.

I want you to clean for me. I want you to do all these things. I really don't want you. Do you see how awful that is? If you're willing to pray yourself hot, if you're willing to ask God to help you desire this glory. It's hard to explain this, but the prayer for glory is a willingness to say to yourself,

I have settled for too little, I have settled for too little for too long, and to feel the absence of God, and here's what's so weird, to actually become conscious of your lack of satisfaction is satisfying. To desire God is the one desire that even to feel the absence of God in a sense is to begin to experience his presence.

To feel the lack of satisfaction in your life is to begin to feel satisfied. This is the thirst that actually refreshes. This is the hunger that actually fills. This is the longing that hurts refreshes. This is the hunger that actually fills. This is the longing that hurts, and yet it feels so good. I mean, God is so much at the center of what we were built for, that even to begin to say how dare I not love him like I do, how dare I love him so little, how dare I not even want to love him more, how dare I not even hunger for him.

Do you realize as soon as you start to do that? Why do you see how strengthening that becomes? Why do you see the prayer for glory, the not settling for the crumbs? That's the first thing, the second thing. They stripped off their own glory. In verse 4 and in verse 6 we see they took off their ornaments. Now that is much more significant than it looks. You have to quickly realize that in those days actually it's not that different. Did you notice when the stock market looked like it might really really really go bad? I remember that the commentators were starting to say, well we haven't started

seeing a lot of money move into precious metals yet. That's when you know things are really going bad. Everybody goes on buys gold, okay? Now, but you know what? Things haven't changed that much. In those days, whether you were richer, whether you were poor, where did you put your money? You didn't put them in stocks, you didn't put it in savings,

you put it into ornaments. Why not? I mean, that was, that mean, that was your savings. That was your capital. The more ornaments you had, the richer you were. But the beautiful thing about ornaments is opposed to stocks and bonds as you can't wear them. The ornaments really literally were the people's glory.

The richer they were, the more beautiful they were. The more dazzling they were, the more wonderful they were. And what they did was, in order to develop a hunger for God's glory, they stripped themselves of the things that they were looking for for their own. Now, this is pretty important, and there's a macro and a micro principle in this case. Here's the macro principle. You will never experience God's glory unless you're willing to see that you've been trying to steal glory from other things. The word

glory in Hebrew means weight, substance, matter, import, impact. And therefore, the glory of God is the importance of God. To say that God is the most glorious being is simply to say, He is real and everything else is unreal compared to Him. He is important and everything else is unimportant compared to Him. That's what glory means. Now, what's interesting is that all of us, when we're born, have an incredible experience of attention when it comes to glory. The Bible tells us why. On the

one hand the Bible says you were built to last, you were built to live forever, you were built to never die. But on the other hand because of sin we are dying, we're decaying. Unlike the animals we have a desire to do something that lasts, we have a desire to be significant. We desire to make an impact. We're scared of being ghosts. We're scared of being ephemeral. We're scared of being ignored. There's nothing worse than to be ignored.

Give me a critical review. Tell me the book was terrible. But don't ignore it. I mean, we desire glory because we were built for glory, but because of sin and because we're trying to be our own masters, we've been trying to get glory from other things. And everybody in this room has been trying to be sure that you exist by saying, if I had the love of these people, or if I had a good career, or if I had this, or if I had that, if I had money, then I know I've got glory.

Then I know I'm important. There's a deep desire. There's a deep need. The only way you're ever going to experience God's glory is if you do a number on yourself, if you look at yourself and say, where am I trying to get other, where am I trying to get glory instead of God? This is repentance. That's what it means.

They mourn and took off their ornaments. This is repentance, but's what it means. They mourned and took off their ornaments. This is repentance, but be careful and listen. That's the macro point. The micro point is this. The reason...this is very interesting with this teaches. The ornaments back in chapter 32 is what made the golden calf. They had taken off their ornaments to serve a golden calf. And in chapter 35 you're going to see they use the ornaments to build a tabernacle. Now here's the teaching, is money an idol? It can be. For some people money is an idol. Just having lots of money makes me feel important. It gives me a sense of glory and it becomes a God. It becomes an alternate God. But it's not true of everybody, it's not true of all of us, and I'll tell you this, everybody's stripped off their ornaments, everybody took their money off and said,

I'm going to give it to God and put it at his disposal. Why? The teaching of this text is not that money is an idol, but that money will always serve your idol. The way to find out what your golden calf is is to ask, where is your money going most effortlessly, most, most quickly. If you want to know what your alternative glories are, if you want to know where you have been going to steal glory, what you have been using instead of God, the reason why God is not real to use or something

else that you're fondling in your heart, all right. If you want to know where it is, ask yourself, where are my ornaments going most quickly? I have to give you a couple of, I'm going to give you a very personal and then some, a couple of other ones. I spend money on books like that, like that. I don't even think about it. I don't even look at the price tag sometimes. I just know, oh my gosh, I don't have any books on that.

Sometimes I get home and I realize I paid for a $40 book. It's $40. Now here's the reason why. I'm not saying this is true of all book lovers, but I know why I spend money like that on books. Because even though I say Jesus Christ is what makes me know that I have had an impact. Jesus Christ love for me is what makes me significant. It's what gives my glory. It's my importance.

But basically, functionally, I know that what makes me feel good about myself is that people know I'm a teacher. I'm an expert. People come and ask me things because I know so much. I look at a book and I say, I don't know much about that subject, but if I have that book, I'll know about that subject and people will come to me and they ask and I'll have an informed answer. It's an idol. It says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 21, where your treasure is there is your heart. If you want to know what you're really

worshiped, what you're really looking to, where you're real glory, where you're trying to steal glory, where do you spend your money like that? There's some people, for example, who spend their money It's not money, but the way that they use their money to serve their golden calf is they want approval And because they want approval you spend money on clothing and you spend money on getting into the right neighborhoods because it's not the money It's it's to know that you are in the inner circle And so you see your idol is the approval of certain elite groups It's to know that you are in the inner circle. And so you see your idol is the approval of certain elite groups.

Then you'll know that you're important, then you'll know that you're somebody, then you'll know you have glory, and your money's flowing right to it. Now over here, here's somebody else who snares at that. You know, some of you are very frugal. Some of you have an awful lot of money, investments, an awful lot of money in the bank, and all you ever do is where you wear older clothes, and you don't dress all that up, and you don't live in real nice neighborhoods. You don't do any of that stuff, and you sneer at the people.

Yes, look at those people spending all that money on that house to get into that circle, to have those clothes look at those people. You don't do that, you save, and you're're stingy and you're always worrying about money. And here's why. You've made an idol out of control. The way you know that you keep control of your life by knowing that nothing can go wrong because I've got so much money in the bank.

You make an idol out of trying to control your circumstances. And of course, you're not spending your money on yourself. Don't you see? It's not money that's the idol. It's money that will show your idols, and that's the reason why there is no better way to identify the idols of your heart than to do what they did. They took off their ornaments and gave it to God. As soon as you begin to do radical giving, as soon as you begin to assess where your money

is, as soon as you start to give to God's causes and to the poor and to the people around you instead of giving it to your idols, you'll start to see what your idols is. As soon as you start to give to God's causes and to the poor and to the people around you instead of giving it to your idols, you'll start to see what your idols are. If the best way to know what your idols are, your golden cast, and to starve them out, is to check out your money. So the macro point is you have to repent, you have to find out what your idols are, you have to. You have to see what things you are giving your heart to besides God and one of the best ways is the money. Now thirdly and lastly, the prayer for glory, the stripping of glory, and the sight of glory.

And the third thing that happens is Moses says, show me your glory and God says, fine, but here's what he says, follow this carefully. Moses says, show me your glory and God says, sure, I'll show you all my goodness. You see that? Moses says, show me your glory and God says, okay, the way I show person my glory is I let all my goodness pass in front of you. And then when he does let all of his goodness pass in front of him, he does it. Moses does not see a bright light. Moses gets a biblical truth. Now this means that if you want to see the glory of God, you don't sit down in, you know, even on the high mountain top and

just start to wait, Lord, come hit me. Show me your glory. Absolutely not. When God shows you his glory, he gives you his name, He gives you the truth. You meditate on the Word of God, you meditate on the truth that He's revealed. The real problem is not that you You know you have the truth and now you need the glory. The glory comes to the truth. Always the glory comes to your meditation on the truth The glory comes through the Holy Spirit using the truth But it's not just any truth. It's this truth. He says, and look what he says, he says, the Lord, the Lord, who get this, who forgives everybody, that's the first verse, see verse six, he forgives everybody, and then verse seven, who never forgives anybody. That's what it says. There's no doubt about

it. Did you see it? When you listen, you know that you're starting to see the glory of God when you see that contradiction. In verse 6, it says, verse 7, excuse me, 6 and 7, the Lord, the Lord, the compassion, for giving wickedness, for billion and sin, yet, verse 7, he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He will never clear the guilty. Well, somebody says, that's not leave the guilty unpunished. He will never clear the guilty. Well, somebody says that's ridiculous. How could that be?

Well, I'll tell you why. You're seeing all the goodness of God. What do you mean you're seeing all the goodness of God? You're seeing all the goodness of God. The reason that he must punish sin, that he can never leave sin ever go unpunished. He can never leave even one offense unpunished is because he's too good.

A judge that winks at sin is a bad judge. He's so good he can't ever let anything go unpunished. On the other hand, the reason he's forgiving and the reason he's compassionate and the reason he doesn't want anyone to die is because he's so good. Well, you say, okay, that's nice, but you can't be both. Either he can be good in terms of justice and then really can't be totally good in terms

of love, or he can be good in terms of love, but then he can't be totally good in terms of justice. He couldn't be all good. We can't have all of this goodness. No God can be all that good. When that truth begins to dawn on you, the only way you'll see the full glory of it is if you get into the rock. You need a truth to shine out and into the rock. And this is what I mean. Jesus Christ is the rock.

Paul says the rock of Moses is Jesus Christ. Only if you hide yourself in the rock, in particular, only if you believe that Jesus Christ died for you, can you see all the glory of God? What do you mean? I'll tell you why. Do you understand that Jesus Christ died on the cross? A, to satisfy the justice goodness of God? He had to die.

God could not wink at your sin. He had to die. Or on the other hand, do you understand that when he poured out his wrath on Jesus Christ, he was doing it because he loved you so much, so he was willing to sacrifice his son for you. And Jesus loved you so much, he was willing to sacrifice himself for you. Without the cross of Jesus Christ, without getting in that rock, you can't see that.

If you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you might believe in a very loving God, but you know, you don't believe in a God that punishes people. In other words, he's not all good. He's not as good. When somebody says to me, I don't believe in Jesus, but I believe in a loving God, I always say, what did your God, what did it cost your God to love me? And you say nothing. Right, you can't see. Only in the rock when you see how incredibly loving God was, but on the other hand, only in the rock can you see how incredibly holy He is. Only if I know what Jesus Christ has done for me, can I admit just how holy He is.

I look at this 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet, and what do you know what that means? Thou shalt not covet means. You must love God so much and recognize His goodness and glory so much that you'll never be discontinued. You'll always be grateful. You'll always be happy. That's what the Camamana is.

You say, that's impossible. Right. It's perfectly just. It's perfectly reasonable. He's given us everything. Why shouldn't we live that way? You see, unless you understand that you are absolutely forgiven in Jesus Christ, you will not actually be able to even see the glory of God.

You won't see how holy He is. You won't be able to see it. You actually be able to even see the glory of God. You won't see how holy He is. You won't be able to see it. You won't be able to see all the goodness. But in the rock of Jesus Christ, if you believe in that, what will happen? Finally, the truth of the gospel will shine out. Listen, without the cross, you can only be a liberal or a conservative. You can be a liberal that says God's loving, but you really don't see His holiness. And so, how is the knowledge of His love without the cross, the wrath, the knowledge of His

love doesn't electrify you, doesn't change you, or you can be a conservative. You believe He's a wrathful God, and you say, yes, you have to be good, and you don't really see just what it cost Him, and just how much a sinner saved by grace you are, and you're not going to be changed by that. If you don't stand in the rock, you won't see all the glory of God, all the goodness of God, and you'll never be changed. You have to pray for his glory. You have to strip off your own glory, and you have to see his glory through the truth of

the gospel, through the truth of the gospel, through the power of the Spirit. Now we're going to go to the Lord's stuff right now and all I've done is I've told you about how an individual can be renewed. But what I want you to know is that we don't have question and answer and we don't have classes afterwards. We have one general meeting and in that general meeting I'm going to apply this text to Redeemer. I'm going to apply this text to Redeemer.

I'm going to do it in a very detailed way. I'm going to do it in a very applicatory way. We're going to take questions and answers. I don't want to bore those of you who might just really be searching for God and you're not that into Redeemer. But if you have any interest in Redeemer's future, I'm going to give a vision talk after the service. It's the most important talk I've given since I got here. Because usually I just say,

here's our vision for next year, but today I'm gonna say here's our vision for the next 20 years. Very specifically, all based on Exodus 33. So if you can possibly stay, I ask you to do so. In other words, I'm gonna finish the sermon there. Right now, let's pray.

I pray, Father, that you would show us that you are a reality that we need and that we can have through your Son, Jesus Christ. It's in His name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it

and it equips you to know more about God's Word. You can find more resources from Tim Keller at GospelAndLife.com. Just subscribe to the Gospel And Life newsletter to receive free articles, sermons, devotional, and other resources. Again, it's all at GospelAndLife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.

This month's sermons were recorded in 1997 and 2017. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. you