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[0:00] Welcome. Good to see you again. And thank God that we can have the freedom again to come and worship our Saviour, our living God.

[0:11] We thought this morning briefly about the Lord Jesus and his relationship to Adam. Adam, the first man, and Jesus being the second or the last Adam in the New Testament.

[0:24] And we know that Adam was not only the man through whom God brought life to all of us, but it was through Adam's sin and fall that sin came to all of us.

[0:38] Paul, as he writes to the Romans in chapter 5, reminds us of that. He says, consequently, just as one trespass, as one sin, resulted in condemnation for all people.

[0:51] But of course, Jesus is the last, the second. He came to undo, to reverse the curse, to put things right. And so Paul says, so also, one righteous act, that's the Lord Jesus laying down his life for us on the cross, resulted in justification and life for all people.

[1:13] And he goes on to say something which is one of the most wonderful phrases, I think, in the whole of the Scripture. He says in verse 20, where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

[1:27] We live in a world of increasing sin, don't we? We see it around about us. It makes our hearts heavy. We can become discouraged. We can become downhearted. But the reality is this, that in God's wonderful goodness, wherever sin increases, grace increases much more.

[1:45] Grace is always bigger than sin, because God is always bigger than the problem. And so we're going to sing about that wonderful grace of God, that grace which I hope continues to amaze us, when we consider that it's grace to us.

[2:01] No matter what our sins, no matter how many they are, in Jesus we have forgiveness. So 501, oh how the grace of God amazes me.

[2:12] Let's stand and sing. Let's come to our God in prayer together. Let us come and worship him.

[2:24] Father, we are so grateful that when we sing of your grace, when we sing of your goodness to us, we do find ourselves lost for words.

[2:39] We find ourselves in awe, amazed, because we realize and recognize what your grace means. It means loving us, even though we're unlovely.

[2:52] It means sending your son to die for us, for the death that we deserve. It means making us your children, who have turned our backs on you and rejected you.

[3:07] It means this and so much more. And Lord, we ask and pray that we might never stop being amazed at you. Lord, we don't want to be complacent, even this evening as we come to worship.

[3:23] Lord, we've done this so many times before. Some of us, we've done it for decades. And, oh Lord, there are times when we do come and we're just going through the motions.

[3:34] Our hearts aren't engaged. Our minds are elsewhere. We're thinking about back home or even what's on the telly or what we're going to do tomorrow. Lord, we don't want that to be the case.

[3:46] We ask that even now you would take our thoughts captive. That by your Holy Spirit you would come upon each and every one of us and grant to us that single-mindedness to look unto Jesus.

[3:58] That single-heartedness to worship and adore you for all that you are. Lord, deliver us from complacency. Deliver us, Lord, from going through the motions.

[4:11] Lord, come upon us anew and again that our hearts may rise up with faith, with trust, with love, with worship, with praise, with obedience, with service.

[4:23] Lord, come again and fill us that, Lord, in this time. We may know that you are at work. We may know that we've met with you. Surely there's nothing better in the whole world.

[4:37] No experience, no sensation, no pleasure that compares with being in the very presence and the nearness of the living God. Oh, Lord, please grant us again that hunger, that thirsting for you and be pleased to hear our prayer.

[4:56] Draw near and do us good. Draw near and warm our hearts. Draw near, oh Lord, we pray, and speak and cause us to hear.

[5:09] So we ask your help, your blessing upon this time and that you would do a work in us and through us to the glory and the praise of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Saviour and King.

[5:23] Amen. Now, because we are sharing in the Lord's Supper this evening, we don't have any formal notices, but just one that needs to be made known to all of you.

[5:36] This Wednesday, we shall be meeting as usual in the Bible study downstairs in the lounge. Usually the first Wednesday of the month is home groups, but not this week. We're going to have our Bible study continuing the life of Daniel and prayer meeting 7.30 here.

[5:52] And also, please, could you remember in prayer, Dave Miller and his family, it's his mother's funeral this Tuesday at 1.30 at St. Hilda's. Please be remembering them as well.

[6:05] Well, let's come to God's Word together. We're going to read Exodus 33. So Exodus 33, if you turn there in your Bible, it's just at the end because we've been looking at chapter 33 these last few weeks.

[6:22] We've been going through Exodus these last several months. And we come to verse 18, and we're going to read through into chapter 34 and verse 8.

[6:36] Okay, so Exodus, that's page 92. Page 92, if you've got one of the Red Church Bibles, beginning at verse 18 and reading through to verse 8.

[6:48] Just to give you some background, background situation is that God's people, the Israelites with Moses, are at Mount Sinai. There Moses has received the law from the Lord, and while he was in communing with God, the people turned away from the Lord, built a golden calf and worshipped it, and Moses had to come down and sort them out, and there was a terrible judgment upon them.

[7:13] And then Moses intercedes for the people in prayer, praying that the Lord would go with them, and God has promised him there in verse 17. And the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you've asked, because I'm pleased with you, and I know you by name.

[7:28] And last week I said there's one more prayer of Moses that we're going to look at, and this is the next verse. So we're going to read from verse 18 now. Then Moses said, Now show me your glory.

[7:43] 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, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

[7:59] But, he said, you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. Then the Lord said, There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.

[8:12] When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen.

[8:26] The Lord said to Moses, Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.

[8:37] 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.

[8:50] Not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain. So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him.

[9:03] And he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and stood there with him, and proclaimed his name, the Lord.

[9:15] He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.

[9:34] Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the generations, the third and fourth generation.

[9:44] Moses bowed to the ground at once, and worshipped. We'll come to that passage in a few moments' time.

[9:58] A couple of words of explanation in that hymn, I think. Sometimes we sing hymns, and we know what they mean, but some of us don't. There's the word sojourn. Don't hear that too often.

[10:09] It means to dwell in, to live for a time in. So Jesus lived for a time in the veil of tears. Verse 1. Then we've got dwelling in an earthly clod.

[10:20] What sort of house is an earthly clod, we might ask? Is it a type of cottage? No, it means in earthly clay, in earth, because when we're told Adam was created, he was created from the earth.

[10:32] So Jesus came and dwelt in our earthly body, in that body made up of the minerals, as it were, of the earth. We need to remember that when we sing those hymns, that we know what we're singing about, even if the language is a little old for us.

[10:49] So back to Exodus 33 and 34 particularly, where we have this incredible encounter, incredible encounter that Moses has with the Lord, his God.

[11:01] I'm sure you've seen from time to time, when there are great celebrations, in places like China, or North Korea, or other countries as well, there's a great sort of display, of the glory, of that country, in military might.

[11:23] And so you'll have rows and rows of marching soldiers, in precise lines. You'll have columns of tanks, and missile launchers, and rockets, and armored cars, and so on.

[11:36] And it goes on and on, for mile after mile, the country displaying its glory. Its glory is in its power, and in its ability to destroy.

[11:47] In one sense, the governments of those countries are saying, this is our glory. Our glory is that we can crush you, if we want to. Therefore, you should fear us.

[12:01] Now Moses prays to the Lord, now show me your glory. And of course, when we're dealing with the Lord our God, his glory, like everything about him, is very different, from the world's perspective of glory.

[12:17] How we view things, how the world views things, is very different, to how God views things. But the question is, why does Moses make this request?

[12:30] Remember, as we thought last week, he's already been praying, he's prayed for two prayers already. He's prayed, that the Lord would go with him, as he is called by God, to move on from the mountain, and take the people, on that next stage, of their journey, to the promised land.

[12:45] And then his prayer is, that the Lord would go with the people. God had said he wouldn't. You remember, because they had sinned, so grievously against God, God said, I'm not going to go with them.

[12:58] You go, I'll send an angel ahead of you, and I'll destroy the enemies, that stand in your way, but I'm not going, because I may break out my anger, and destroy these people, who are so wicked.

[13:08] And Moses intercedes for them in prayer, and the Lord answers that prayer, as we saw there, verse 17, I'll do everything, or the very thing you ask. I think the reason that Moses prayed, the prayer that he does, Lord, now show me your glory, is because Moses needed encouraging.

[13:32] Because Moses needed comforting, he just faced a very, very disheartening, discouraging situation. There he was, and those of you, who've had any type of leadership, within the church, or anything else, he's worked, and he's sacrificed, and he's served, and he's been down to, stood before Pharaoh, and fear his life, and with God's grace, he has been used, instrumentally, to see the people led, from slavery to freedom, and he's been called up, to stand before God, and the moment, that his back is turned, they turn to idolatry, and sin.

[14:11] What a credible disappointment, that must have been to him. What a credible sense of shame, it must have been to him as well. There's a sense in which, all those in leadership, bear the responsibility, and it's as if like, this is my fault.

[14:25] These people have gone astray, because I haven't led them a right. I haven't been a good enough, shepherd to them, or pastored to them, or leaded to them. And I believe that Moses, is broken hearted.

[14:37] He's not only angry, we saw that before, when we looked at the first part, of what happened. He's broken hearted, by what has happened. And so when he prays now, he's praying for the Lord, to show him his glory.

[14:49] He wants to be encouraged. It's a bit like David, if you remember the story of David, and his people at Ziklag. There was David, and all of his men, had gone out to war, when they came back.

[15:01] All of the wives, and the children, had been captured, and taken away as hostage, by their enemies. And David's men, turned against him, were angry with him.

[15:12] Until David strengthened himself, in the Lord. He's our only recourse. He's our only place, of comfort and encouragement. Because no matter how much, love we receive from God's people, no matter how much, we care for one another, we're still always going to fail one another.

[15:30] We're always going to, fall into sin. So Moses prays, show me your glory. That word glory, you know I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but I like to pick things up, from other people.

[15:43] It means weight, or a sense of heaviness. A sense of, a king, in the past, and perhaps even now, to a certain degree, would measure his glory, by the riches he had, the gold that he had.

[15:58] It spoke of his worth. Show me your weight Lord, show me what you are Lord, show me your, what is it that you're most proud of, if I can put it that way.

[16:13] Moses and Winston, saying more than that, he's saying Lord, let me know you. I want to know you. I want to know more about you. Remember Moses has only really known the Lord, a relatively short time.

[16:24] I know we've gone 33 chapters for Exodus, but actually we're talking about months, that's all. From that encounter, the burning bush, and then from there, going to Pharaoh, and the people being delivered, and then being, just a matter of months.

[16:37] At the most, a year or two. So Moses is praying, Lord I want to know, you want to get the heart, of who God is. To see God's glory, is to see him as he truly is, to know him intimately.

[16:54] That's the natural desire, isn't it, of everyone, who knows the Lord. If we're Christians this evening, it's our natural longing, and desire to know the Lord, to know more about him.

[17:05] It comes out with Paul, doesn't it? Philippians 3, he says, I know all these things, and I know what God has done for me, but I long to know Christ. I forget, in one sense, forgetting what's behind, I press on, I'm not happy to be comfortable, and satisfied, with where I've arrived, so far in the Christian life.

[17:25] I want more, of Jesus. More, of God. That's the, natural spirit born desire, of every believer. And again, I think it's a very, good acid test, for us.

[17:41] If I'm a Christian, this evening, if I know the love of God, in my heart, if I've been born again, of the spirit, there will be within me, even though it may flicker at times, a longing to know God more, a thirsting after the things of God, a desire for him, personally.

[18:01] Is that like me? Is that like you? Is your prayer, and my prayer, when we spend time with God, Lord, I want to know your glory.

[18:12] I want to know you, more intimately. I want to, see you for who you are. So how is God going to answer, this prayer of Moses? What is it, that God's glory is?

[18:25] Well we, we could presume, couldn't we? We could say, well God is going to show his glory, to Moses. He's showing the great, power of creation. How he spoke the earth, and the stars, and the universe into being.

[18:40] God doesn't, does he? He says, I will cause all my goodness, to pass in front of you. God's glory, is in his goodness.

[18:54] That God is good, is his glory. It's one and the same thing. It's not power, not even holiness, righteousness, his goodness.

[19:11] Show me your glory, Moses says, and God says, I'm going to show you my goodness. I'm going to show you just how good I am, what I'm like.

[19:23] And again, we recognize that truth, which Jesus declared, when that man came up to him, and said, good teacher, Jesus said, don't you know, there's no one good, but God alone. And I think that's a wonderful thing.

[19:37] God is good, the God we love, the God we serve, the God who is, the God of our lives, is a good God. He's not like the gods, of the world.

[19:50] The gods, of man's making, those false gods, those false gods, are always precocious gods, always changing their mind gods, they're temperamental gods.

[20:01] Just caught the end, of a little program, on civilization, that's on the moment, talking about the Mayans, had these massive temples, and these massive pyramids, and what did they do, on the top, they made human sacrifices, of their enemies, to appease their gods.

[20:14] The God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God and Father, of him, the God of the Bible, is not a God, who is cruel, or untrustworthy, or greedy, or precocious.

[20:29] But we are, aren't we? They say opposites attract, and surely we should be, ever more attracted, to God, when we see his goodness, because it stands, in contrast, with our sin.

[20:42] The God we worship, is not like us, God of the Bible, is not a God, that we have made, or created, or imagined, or thought about, or brought into being. He is the God, who is God, and he is totally, unlike us.

[20:58] In him there is no sin, there is no wickedness, there is no evil, there is nothing bad, in him at all. Even if we judge him, in any way, to be failing, the failing is not in him, it's in us, and our view of him.

[21:12] The apostle Paul, that great man of God, was able to declare, absolutely with certainty, I know that nothing good, lives in me, my sinful nature.

[21:28] In fact, the very proof, surely, the very evidence, that God, of the Bible, is the true God, is that he is unlike us, transcendent, different, stands apart, and what he stands apart, with is his goodness.

[21:44] Yes, we're made in his image, aren't we? And so, from time to time, something of that goodness, does break out, in humanity. That's only because, it begins with him.

[21:57] God's glory, is his goodness. And this is confirmed, by what the Lord, has to say to him, as he passes by, in front of him, in verse six. He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, the Lord, the Lord.

[22:09] That's exactly, what God had said, earlier in verse 19. I will cause, all my goodness, to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim, my name, the Lord. God's glory, is contained, in his name, the Lord, Yahweh.

[22:25] That, that name, which literally means, I am. Not that I was, not that I will be, not that I'm only, for the moment, but I am, the timeless, eternal God.

[22:40] We had that, incredible experience, of Moses, when he first met, with the Lord, that burning bush, in the wilderness, and God said, you're on holy ground, and he commissions Moses, Moses go back, to Pharaoh, go back to Egypt, you've not been there, 40 years, but go back, and speak to Pharaoh, and say, set my people free, that they might come, to worship me.

[23:05] Moses said to God, suppose I go, to the Israelites, and say to them, the God of your fathers, has sent me to you, and they ask, what is his name? Then what shall I tell them?

[23:16] God, tell them. God said to Moses, I am, who I am. This is what you're, to say to the Israelites, I am, has sent me, to you. God's name, is the Lord.

[23:32] But notice, he repeats it, the Lord, the Lord. In one sense, he's hammering home, to Moses, this glorious truth, I am, the I am.

[23:45] It's not only stressing, the self-sufficiency, of God, that there's nothing, that I need, I am, I'm self-contained. Everything that I need, is in myself, but also that uniqueness, because there's nothing, to compare with him.

[23:59] God doesn't say, I am, like this, or I am, like that. We compare ourselves, to other people, don't we? Oh, he's his father's son, or he's, like his brother, or, there's a, I think it was, a young footballer, who was compared, to George Best, he's like another, George Best, he's, there's nothing, to compare, and no one, to compare God with, so he simply, is I am.

[24:32] And that name, the Lord, is the name he chose, for himself, it's not a name, that was given him, again, gods are given names, aren't they? By the creators, of those gods, not a name, as a parent, would name a child.

[24:47] God's name, is the name he's chosen, the name of the Lord, is a glorious name, full of his goodness, so much so, that his name, must not be dishonored, and misused, so we have that commandment, that third commandment, you must not misuse, the name of the Lord, why?

[25:04] Because contained, in that name, is the very glory, and the essence, of who he is. When we think of, that name, the Lord, we're to think of, this God who is good.

[25:17] Certain names, conjure up certain, people to us, don't they? And so it is, with the Lord. His name, is the Lord, that's his glory.

[25:27] But what about, his goodness? What does the name, of the Lord mean? What does it mean, in life? What does it mean, for us? The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate, or in some translations, the merciful.

[25:47] What does mercy mean? What does compassion mean? Here's, one, great, writer of the past, Henry Law. It is that sweet, and tender love, which has a tear, for all distress, which grieves, in grief, and sorrows, in sorrow, and yearns, over misery, and only lives, in healing wounds, and calming anguish, and converting sighs, to joy.

[26:20] Hard to quantify, isn't it? Compassion. But when we look, at the life, of the Lord Jesus, we see one, who himself, is compassion, personified. We see one, who is the very, image of God.

[26:33] What Moses is glimpsing, what Moses is being told, about the Lord God, we have had fleshed out, for us, in Christ, 1500, and more years, later on. Remember Jesus, isn't he the one, who says, I have compassion, on these people.

[26:49] And we told, that when he saw, them hungry, or weary, or without a shepherd, he would say, or we'd be told, that he was moved, with compassion, moved in his bowels, is the literal sense, of the word, for those he met with.

[27:05] The glory, of God, is seen, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his mercy, and compassion. And we know, what the mercy, and compassion, of Jesus did.

[27:16] It didn't just, make him feel emotional, or feel moved, it motivated him, to act. So when he looked, on the crowd, and had compassion, on them, because they'd not eaten, for three days, so he turns, to his disciples, and says, what should we give them, to eat?

[27:31] And so we have, the feeding of the 5000. The compassion, of God, is not that, useless compassion, which we feel, at times, when we look, at on the television, of the suffering, and the misery, of the people of Syria, or some other place, of conflict, or disaster.

[27:56] God is good, not only in feeling, but in doing. He heals, he feeds, he teaches, he ministers. Our Lord Jesus Christ, is the one, who feels and acts.

[28:10] Remember how, as he stands, at the grave side, of his dear friend, Lazarus, as Martha and Mary, and their friends, are weeping, Christ, wept. But that weeping, and compassion, of his heart, moved him, to be able to speak, to Lazarus, in the tomb, Lazarus, come out.

[28:28] He acts, with compassion. Dear friends, whatever condition, we find ourselves in, whatever circumstances, as it were, bring forth, pity in us, God has compassion on us.

[28:51] He is not unfeeling, towards us. He is not that, ivory towered God, who stands aloof, though he is different, from us in every way, yet he is not a God, who is indifferent, to us in any way.

[29:05] That's the first thing, that the Lord, wanted Moses to see. I'm compassionate. Not like Pharaoh, and the people of Egypt, who treated the people, harshly, who threw the sons, into the river, to be murdered.

[29:22] God is compassionate. And so God goes on, he doesn't stop, with compassion, he says, the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate, and gracious, God.

[29:36] What a wonderful description, the gracious God, the God of grace. Isn't that such a theme, all the way through the scriptures? So we ask ourselves, what does this mean, that God is gracious?

[29:49] What he's telling us, about himself? Well he's already said it, in one sense, a little earlier, when he says to Moses, in verse 19, I will have mercy, on whom I will have mercy, I will have compassion, on whom I will have compassion.

[30:03] Again, Henry Law says this, Grace says, I love, because I love. I will save, because I will save. I will redeem, from hell, because I will redeem.

[30:16] Grace has no cradle, but God's own heart. In other words, it doesn't come from, or find its home, anywhere else, but in the very heart of God. It has no spring, but God's own purpose.

[30:26] It draws salvation's plan. It leads forth, salvation's captain. It chooses salvation's heirs. It completes salvation's scheme.

[30:38] It lays the first stone, of the building. It adds the top stone. It cannot rest. Until the shout be heard, grace to it, grace to it forever. Everything, from beginning to end, that God has done for you, and for me, he's done because of grace, undeserved, unmerited favor.

[31:03] grace to the giver. And again, not just a feeling, is it? It's not just that God has grace towards us. It's an action. The sovereign grace of God, the working grace of God, the powerful grace of God, that is drawn to reach out to us in our sin, and lift us up from it, purely because of his love, not ours.

[31:26] Grace belongs to the giver, and yet it's given to us. We see that again, don't we, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[31:38] Not only his mercy and compassion for those in need, but we see his grace, his grace to those who were considered the outcasts of society, the scum of the earth, the unworthy, the undeserving.

[31:49] When the Pharisees passed them by, they looked down their noses at them, and they thanked God they weren't like them, the prostitutes, and the tax collectors, and the publicans. But they were the very people that Jesus himself came for, and came to save.

[32:04] There's that incredible event in Luke in chapter 7, where we're told that Jesus was in the house of one of the Pharisees, reclining and having a meal, when a woman in that town who lived a sinful life, learned that Jesus was eating at the house, so she came there with an alabaster jar, that's a very precious sort of stone jar that had been shaped, an alabaster jar of perfume, something very costly and expensive.

[32:32] As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them.

[32:45] What an amazing act of love, what an incredible act of generosity towards Jesus, but Jesus does not reject her, turn her away, and he tells her, tells the people there why she has done this.

[33:01] Verse 47, he says to her, therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, as her great love has shown. for whoever has been forgiven, little loves little.

[33:16] The Pharisee didn't feel he had anything to forgive, she knew she had so much to be forgiven. Because she knew that she was loved and forgiven, she gave of herself and of her precious possession.

[33:31] Her response did not earn Jesus' forgiveness, but was a response to Jesus' forgiveness. And so the very enemies of Jesus spoke of him as the friend of sinners.

[33:45] Dear friends, again, we're brought to this realization which humbles us, but is something which we cannot afford to ever forget, that we are saved by the grace of God alone.

[33:57] We are not saved or kept saved by anything that we have done or could do for ourselves. It's purely unconditional love that has rescued and saved you and I.

[34:09] We cannot repay that love, we cannot respond to it apart from loving in return. Here's what Paul writes to Titus in chapter 3, when the kindness and love of God, our Saviour, appeared.

[34:25] He saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy. The gracious God, the compassionate God.

[34:38] And what else do we read there? Slow to anger. That's the outcome of his grace.

[34:49] That's the fruit of his compassion. Slow to anger, patient, long-suffering. God's already demonstrated that, hasn't he, in Exodus so far.

[35:01] He's dealt with the people in such a patient and gracious way. There he was, leading them through the desert. And they start moaning, where's the food, God? We're better off in Egypt where we've got cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions.

[35:17] Then just a bit later on, they're grumbling, where's the water, God? We're thirsty, and you've brought us into this desert to die. And again and again, what does God do?

[35:28] He sends the manna from heaven, he sends water from the rock, as they've experienced, as they've experienced already, as they turn away from him and create this calf to worship and deny him his place as their God.

[35:41] He still perseveres with them. And we're going to see, if we know on Bibles, we know that again and again throughout the history of God's people in the Old Testament, they fail, he fails not.

[35:58] We see that all the way through church history, and we see that all the way through our own lives. Sometimes we think that God can only put up with us for so long, that surely he's had enough, surely he's washed his hands of us, but he hasn't, and he never will.

[36:17] We see it in the very life of Jesus, again with his disciples. And what's so wonderful about the Gospels is that they are utterly honest. They do not present Peter and the others as being sort of polished saints.

[36:30] They show them as being a bunch of proud, infighting, divisive, foolish men. Squabbling, lacking faith, small-minded.

[36:46] Jesus didn't give up on them. He continued to be faithful to them. And even when Jesus was in the garden, that very hour before his, the beginning of his sufferings, when he speaks to them, he says, please stay and pray with me.

[37:01] And he goes and he prays, and what happens when he comes back? Those disciples who he had cared for and loved and persevered with, and been patient with, he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. The one time he needed them, they let him down.

[37:17] Hasn't God been patient with me and with you? How long have you been a follower of Christ, a Christian?

[37:28] 10 years? 20 years? 30 years? 40 years? 50 years? 60 years? Has he ever let you down? The very fact that you're here is testimony to his faithfulness, his patience, his long-suffering.

[37:41] He'll never, ever let us down. If he needed patience with the Old Testament people, he needs patience with us too.

[37:53] And he is. Compassionate, gracious, slow to anger. Stop. We've run out of time. There's so much more, yet, of the glory of God to be revealed.

[38:06] And by God's grace, we shall look at that in the weeks ahead. But I want to stop us there because we're going to come now to the Lord's table. We're coming to share in that remembrance meal of Jesus Christ, who is himself, as we've seen, the very life, the outliving of God's compassion, God's grace, God's patience.

[38:38] Think about it as we come to this table. What are we seeing? What are we remembering? Remembering the compassion of God, that seeing us in our plight, knowing that we were hell-bound and that we were self-destructive.

[38:55] He sent his son into the world to save. When we look at the table, do we not see the grace of God? Not only does he compassion because of our great need and our great peril, but his grace is necessary because of our great sin that put us there.

[39:15] Nothing in ourselves drew Christ to come into this world. Nothing worthy, nothing deserving. Grace brought him into this world.

[39:28] And don't we see also the long-suffering of God in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? We see again that there he died for his people throughout every age.

[39:46] God is still, if I can put it that way, patiently working out his purposes in his church. 2,000 years since that day and we still remember with thanksgiving what Christ did for us.

[40:01] The patient, long-suffering of God. And so we're going to sing together now the first two, sorry, the first four verses of a hymn.

[40:14] 438, 438, Moses longed to see the glory of God but God said, you can't, only my back. But as we come to this table we've got something much better.

[40:28] In one sense we meet with Jesus face to face. We see what God is truly like when we see him in Christ. So let's stand and sing 438, part one as it's called there, the first four verses.

[40:42]  Then we'll share together in the Lord's Supper and then we'll sing the closing verses later. Thank you. Thank you.