Great sunshine and rain, heartless to pray, he's my friend.
Jesus, all the world to me, and true to him I'll be.
Oh, how could I this friendly guy make peace so true to me?
Following him, I know I might.
He watches or he day and night.
Following him, I day and night, he's my friend.
Jesus, all the world to me, I want no better friend.
I trust him now, I'll trust him when life's leading days shall
end.
Beautiful life with such a friend,
beautiful life that passed away.
Eternal life, eternal joy, he's my friend.
There would be a sacrifice when God would come to face its
cries.
Precious land of glory, love's most wondrous glory.
Lord of gods, redemption of man, worship the man of glory.
On the cross, God loved the world while all the gods
fell for her.
No one can ever understand the one they saw was Christ the
man.
Precious land of glory, love's most wondrous glory.
Lord of gods, redemption of man, worship the man of glory.
Take the name of Jesus with you, child of sorrow and of
gold.
It will join come forgive you, take him and bring him gold.
Precious name of us sweet, hope of earth and joy of
heaven.
Precious name of us sweet, hope of earth and joy of
heaven.
Take the name of Jesus ever as a shield from every
stair.
If temptations round together, bring them holy and
fair.
Precious name of us sweet, hope of earth and joy of
heaven.
Precious name of us sweet, hope of earth and joy of
heaven.
Oh, the precious name of Jesus, how it grills our souls
with joy.
Come to see us and his sons are come to boy.
Precious name of us sweet, hope of earth and joy of
heaven.
Precious name of us sweet, hope of earth and joy of
heaven.
At the name of Jesus, how we, holy cross we have
received.
Be God's kingdom and we'll crown him when our
journeys complete.
Precious name of us sweet, hope of earth and joy of
heaven.
Precious name of us sweet, hope of earth and joy of
heaven.
Christ the Lord is risen today, hallelujah.
Sons of men and angels sing, hallelujah.
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast
Baptist Church.
It's great to see everybody here this morning.
We can go ahead and find our seats.
We will get started.
Once everybody has found their seat, go ahead and
grab a hymnal and we will start this morning with
song number 230.
Song number 230, heavenly sunlight.
Song number 230, let's all sing it together.
Heavenly sunlight, all of my journey over the
mountains through the deep air.
Jesus has said I will never forsake thee, promise
be mine and never give in.
Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight flooding my soul
with glory divine.
Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus
is mine.
As the rounding shadows above me never conceal my
savior and guide.
He is the light and giveth the darkness ever I'm
walking close to his side.
Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight flooding my soul
with glory divine.
Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus
is mine.
In the bright sunlight ever rejoicing, resting my way
to mansions above.
Singing his praises, gladly I'm walking, walking in
sunlight, sunlight of love.
Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight flooding my soul
with glory divine.
Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus
is mine.
Let's open up the service now with a word of prayer.
Lord, thank you so much for this church, this awesome
weather we're having, Lord.
Thank you for just all the blessings you bestowed upon
us this morning.
We love you, Lord, just ask you to fill this room with
your spirit and help us to sing out loudly unto you and
be edified this morning as we continue the service.
Lord, we love you, and it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, let's go to song number 88.
Song number 88, I know this is somewhat of a newer song,
probably the most, and the tempo does change quite a bit
on this song, so if you can follow me as we move through
it, I think you'll find it easiest to sing by the time we
get to the second and third stanza.
Song number 88, sometime we'll understand.
Let's all sing it out loudly together on the first.
Not now, but in the coming years,
it may be the good land.
We'll be the meaning of our tears,
and there sometime we'll understand.
Let's trust in God on all the days,
we are born in a full-time age.
Oh, Lord, my faith must be embraced.
Sometimes the time we'll understand.
We'll pass the broken path again,
and give this life to you again.
And will the mysteries explain?
And will our faith we'll understand?
Let's trust in God on all the days,
we are born in a full-time age.
Oh, Lord, my faith we'll sing in praise.
Sometime, sometime we'll understand.
We'll know and imagine still time.
We'll hold you, make each other's plans.
Why stop as reasons please be done?
Tears clear, sometime we'll understand.
Let's trust in God on all the days,
we are born in a full-time age.
Oh, Lord, my faith we'll sing in praise.
Sometime, sometime we'll understand.
God loves the way we hold our key.
He guides us with a little faith.
Sometime, until His eyes will see.
Let's fear, and fear we'll understand.
We'll trust in God on all the days,
we are born in a full-time age.
Oh, Lord, my faith we'll sing in praise.
Sometime, sometime we'll understand.
And on the front, we have our Bible memory passage.
We've been going through and memorizing Matthew 28.
If you can memorize the entire chapter,
we do give out a prize for those who can
quote it to a non-family member.
And if you can quote the verse of the week,
you can get an ice cream treat on our Wednesday night service.
On the inside, we have our service times.
Take note, we have a Spanish service at 9 a.m.
and then we also have evening at 4.30,
Wednesdays at 7 as a Bible study.
We've been going through the book of Matthew
and so we'll continue that.
Churchwide soul winning just meets here at the building.
So all you have to do is show up Sunday 2 p.m.
here at the building or Wednesdays at 5.15.
We usually go out around 5.30 on Wednesdays for about an hour.
And then down below, we have our regional soul winning times.
And so these meet in all kinds of different parts
of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
If you'd like to go soul winning with us,
we would love for you to participate.
We have a soul winning time every day of the week.
We also have a ladies time that my wife organizes
on Thursdays around 10.30.
So if you'd like to go with the ladies,
that's a great opportunity.
Down below, we have some church stats.
And so we have our February stats,
year to date, last year,
Evangelist Urbanic and I think that's,
I believe that's just one month.
I don't think that that's the updated for both.
And then the other is also we have a couple of missionaries
out there in the Philippines right now
that are also doing a lot of soul winning.
And so our numbers are just off the charts this year so far
to start the year.
And you know, I've been really encouraged
just how zealous everybody is for soul winning.
And I'm very excited because God willing,
our evangelist, Evangelist Fur,
and some of that group, Brother Marcel
and some of the other people that went out,
I think it was Ms. Garcia and Ms. Miller,
they all went out to a cruise missions trip
and went to several parts of the Caribbean
and they're gonna hopefully be back this afternoon.
God willing, we'll get a testimony from Evangelist Fur
and some of them about how that went.
But the numbers that he initially gave me
were just incredible.
The one day they had in the Bahamas,
it was just four of them,
plus Brother Kenton who lives out there.
They had 95 salvations
in just about five hours of soul winning.
And so it's really incredible.
And the thing is, is like,
I've advertised this for years
and tons of people have gone out there
from other churches, other areas,
and they all agree.
I mean, the Bahamas is just one of the biggest hotspots.
It's just one of the most receptive areas
we've ever been to.
Other Caribbean areas are receptive,
but it just doesn't quite compare.
It's just, you know, really a great country,
great group of people.
And it kind of just fits all the perfect things you want
in soul winning as far as just,
you know, the people are very hardworking,
educated, smart.
There's like no distinction in their English.
The accent's very minimal when it comes to speaking.
And of course it's a little bit poorer of a nation
in comparison to America,
but obviously it's kind of one of the nicer islands
in the Caribbean.
And so it just, all of those factors
just kind of come together
and allow for it to be just a fertile ground.
Plus many people out there were not saved.
I mean, when we went out there the first time
we ever went out there, no one was saved.
Second time no one was saved.
I think now it was funny because Pastor Steven Anderson,
he went two days after our evangelists went there
because he was on a different cruise mission out there.
And he said he was checking our fruit
because he said he ran into somebody
that Brother Marcel had gotten saved.
And he's like, hey, I ran into somebody
that Brother Marcel talked to.
And I was like, is that a good thing?
And he was like, yeah, he was totally saved
and he was checking his fruit.
So it's great to see the overlapping,
but here's the thing.
Eventually people are gonna get saved.
So this is a great opportunity when it's really easy
to go out and get a lot of people saved
because eventually it's not gonna be the same.
We're gonna get all those receptive people saved.
And so if you can, we have that trip in October,
October 6th through the 11th, our Bahamas missions trip.
I highly encourage you if you'd like to participate.
I think that we're gonna have,
as far as participation, the biggest soul winning
missions trip that we've ever had,
plus anybody that our friends have had.
And so I'm really excited.
It's gonna be a big, big trip.
We're gonna try and go to the schools.
We're gonna go to the college a lot.
We're gonna try and pick up all the handfuls on the ground.
And then even just in the neighborhoods,
it's still very receptive.
There's still a lot of good areas that you can go to.
And so I think Nassau specifically is 250,000 people.
So it's actually got a pretty large population.
And so there's still a lot, a lot of work to do out there.
But I would highly encourage you if you want to participate
in foreign missions work, you know,
the Bahamas is just gonna be one of the greatest opportunities.
Plus any of these other cruise missions trips that we have,
they apparently work really, really well.
And so I'm excited to hear the testimony from our soul winners
and what they experienced out there.
And so that's just a quick plug for some of those missions trips.
But let's keep up the work.
You know, we've started the year hot,
but let's just keep up that zeal and keep going.
I know there was a group that went to Brownwood yesterday
and a small group of soul winners.
You all had about nine soul winners, I believe.
And you had 15 salvations. Is that right?
So praise God for you guys going out there and doing some hard work.
And they were evangelizing the white man.
And so, you know, they did a really good job out there.
And I think that's extra bonus points or something.
No, I'm just kidding. It's a joke.
On the right, we have the list of our expecting ladies.
And then we have upcoming events.
We have a Spanish soul winning marathon March 8th.
And that's going to be where we're going to target areas
that predominantly speak Spanish.
Of course, if you want to participate, you can.
But if you don't speak Spanish,
you may not have very many opportunities to speak.
But if you're wanting to work on it, practice.
I'm sure silent partners would be very much appreciated.
So we can just double our efforts.
But if you'd like to participate that Saturday,
we're going to be meeting here, going out soul winning for a couple hours,
have lunch, and then go soul winning again in the afternoon.
And then we're going to be handing out flyers and invitations
for people to come to our Spanish service in the morning.
And we'll be having a Spanish breakfast.
Also, we have our kids choir going to be beginning in March.
If you'd like to participate,
that's just going to be in between services during our soul winning time.
Also, Evangelos Urbanic.
So our evangelist in the Philippines,
he's been there, and forgive me, I'm not going to remember the exact timeline,
about a year or maybe a little over a year out in the Philippines.
Maybe it's a little under.
And so he's going to be coming back as what the old IAB calls furlough.
But it's really just a couple weeks to come back and just refresh himself
and get to give us some testimony of what's going on out there.
And so we're really excited to have him and his family come.
Plus, he wants to cast his vision for the church
of what they're going to be doing for the next year or so
in the Philippines, specifically as far as the church work
and the evangelism and everything like that.
He's going to be preaching for us that Wednesday, March 12th.
And so if you can, please, please come.
I won't be preaching, so you can show up.
I know, it's going to be okay.
And March 12th, that Wednesday,
if you don't normally come on Wednesday nights, please, please do for him.
It would be just really encouraging.
It would be great to see a lot of people supporting him
in person if he's going to travel, you know, literally thousands of miles
and takes days to travel all the way here.
You can travel for an hour or whatever that one Wednesday.
Please, please come out and support them and love on them
and hang out with them.
And so I'm very excited for them to be here.
I won't be here for the service, but I will be here while he's here
and get to see him, too.
But I'm excited to have him out here.
Spring Recital.
Also, if you are wanting to participate,
we're going to get a sign-up sheet of Times for you to sign up
so you can practice that.
And then down below, we have a couple church reminders.
On the back, we have our prayer list, a couple updates.
That's pretty much all I really have as far as announcements.
The only thing I was going to say as I was planning on filming this morning
a particular sermon, but we decided to postpone it just one more week, I believe.
So just FYI.
But we're working on a soul-winning documentary
where we're going to really emphasize the importance of soul-winning
and just kind of what that looks like.
And so we've been working on this project for a while,
but when we get to the phase we're actually doing for the sermon,
we're getting closer and closer.
So very excited about that.
And we'll go ahead and sing our third song.
Brother Dustin is going to come and lead for us.
It's going to be holy, holy, holy in our handouts.
All right, that was holy, holy, holy.
Black binder.
Holy, holy, holy.
Let's all sing it out together on the first.
Holy, holy, holy.
Lord God Almighty.
Early in the morning
our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy.
Personal and mighty.
God in three persons.
Blessed Trinity.
Holy, holy, holy.
All the saints adoring.
Passing down their golden grounds
around the classy sea.
Swear of Him and stare of Him.
Falling down before Thee.
Whispered and honored
evermore shall be.
Holy, holy, holy.
Lord God beside me.
Holy are Your sinful men
by holy day are seen.
Holy now I'm holy.
There is none beside me.
Perfect in power.
Love and purity.
Holy, holy, holy.
Lord God Almighty.
All thy works shall praise
Thy name in the earth
and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy.
Personal and mighty.
God in three persons.
Blessed Trinity.
Good morning, everybody.
Now, as the offering plates
are being passed around,
go ahead and turn in your Bibles
to Genesis chapter number three.
That's the book of Genesis
chapter number three.
piano plays softly
Genesis three, the Bible reads,
Now the serpent
was more subtle
than any beast of the field
which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman,
Yea, hath God said,
Ye shall not eat
of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said
unto the serpent,
We may eat of the fruit
of the trees of the garden,
but of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst
of the garden,
God hath said,
Ye shall not eat of it,
neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die.
And the serpent said
unto the woman,
Ye shall not surely die,
for God doth know
that in the day he eat thereof
then your eyes shall be opened
and ye shall be as gods
knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food
and that it was pleasant
to the eyes and a tree
to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof
and did eat and gave also
unto her husband with her
and he did eat.
And the eyes of them
both were opened
and they knew
that they were naked
and they sewed fig leaves
together and made
themselves aprons.
And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking
in the garden
in the cool of the day
and Adam and his wife
hid themselves
from the presence
of the Lord God
amongst the trees
of the garden.
And the Lord God
called unto Adam
and said unto him,
Where art thou?
And he said,
I heard thy voice
in the garden
and I was afraid
because I was naked
and I hid myself.
And he said,
Who told thee
that thou wast naked?
Hast thou eaten of the tree
whereof I commanded thee
that thou shouldest not eat?
And the man said,
The woman whom thou
gavest to be with me,
she gave me of the tree
and I did eat.
And the Lord God
said unto the woman,
What is this
that thou hast done?
And the woman said,
The serpent beguiled me
and I did eat.
And the Lord God said
unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this,
thou art cursed above all cattle
and above every beast
of the field,
upon thy belly shalt thou go
and dust shalt thou eat
all the days of thy life.
And I will put enmity
between thee and the woman
and between thy seed
and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head
and thou shalt bruise
his heels.
Unto the woman he said,
I will greatly multiply
thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow thou shalt
bring forth children
and thy desire shall be
to thy husband
and he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said,
Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice
of thy wife
and hast eaten of the tree
of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it,
cursed is the ground
for thy sake,
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life.
Thorns also went thistles
shall it bring forth to thee
and thou shalt eat
the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread
till thou return
unto the ground,
for out of it
wast thou taken
for dust thou art
and unto dust
shalt thou return.
And Adam called
his wife's name Eve
because she was
the mother of all living.
Unto Adam also
and to his wife
did the Lord God
make coats of skins
and clothe them.
And the Lord God said,
Behold, the man
is become as one of us
to know good and evil.
And now, lest he put forth
his hand and take also
of the tree of life
and eat and live forever,
therefore the Lord God
sent him forth
from the Garden of Eden
to till the ground
from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man
and he placed at the east
of the Garden of Eden
cherubims and a flaming sword
which turned every way
to keep the way
of the tree of life.
Let's bow our heads
for a word of prayer.
Father in Heaven,
we thank you, Lord God,
for this day, for our church
and for our pastor.
I pray that you fill him
with your spirit.
Give him clarity of mind
as he preaches the sermon
you've laid on his heart.
And I pray also, Lord God,
that you would help us
to apply this message
to our lives
and to pay close attention
to the sermon.
We love you
and in Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
I've been doing
a Trinity series
in the evenings
and this evening
I was planning on
finishing that series
but I realized I had
so much material
that it would be better
if I kind of broke it up
into two parts.
And so this morning
I'm going to be
continuing that series
and in the evening
I'm also going to be
kind of finishing that up.
And this morning
I want to talk about
Old Testament appearances of God.
Or in the fancy
theological terminology
it's called a theophany.
So they're basically saying
God appearing unto man.
And in the evening
I'm going to be talking about
the incarnation specifically
and talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just a quick refresher,
what we've already learned
is the first sermon
that I preached in this series
was about the fact
that Jesus is God.
The Bible is very clear
that Jesus Christ is divine.
And the second sermon
that I preached on
was talking about
the Trinity specifically
that we believe God
is one God in three persons
and we understand
that the Father is God,
Jesus Christ is God,
the Holy Ghost is God.
Yet these three persons
are distinct from one another.
That the Father is not the Son,
the Son is not the Father.
There is a distinction.
And I also described
how I believe that
each one of them
does have their own
unique conscience
and will and self
yet they all are in perfect unity.
And so when we talk about
this Old Testament
appearances of God
we could also just talk about
a theological term
called Christophanies.
But as I was studying
I believe that God the Father
also shows up in places
in the Bible
and the Old Testament.
So I want to look at both
and I want to kind of
contrast the two.
I think it's going to be helpful.
One other thing
I want to mention though
anytime someone reads
the Old Testament
you kind of have to make
a decision about if you're
going to believe the Bible.
Now some people
when they read stories
like Genesis they say
well this isn't literal
history or these things
didn't really happen.
They're just metaphors
or they're symbolic
or they're representative
of something.
I don't believe that
whatsoever.
I believe that
Genesis is history.
Now of course when we talk
about things that happen
in the Old Testament
many of them foreshadow
things in the future
or they're prophetic
or they have double meanings.
There's often multiple
meanings we can glean
from the text.
But I believe that God
literally created the world
in six days.
I believe that God
literally put Adam and Eve
in the garden.
I believe that Adam and Eve
were told not to eat
of the tree in the midst
of the garden.
I believe that a literal
serpent came unto Adam
and Eve and specifically Eve
and beguiled her,
deceived her that she did
eat fruit off of that tree.
She did give to her husband.
They were kicked out of
the garden literally.
And I also believe in
this passage what's being
described is an appearance
of God here in the Bible.
Notice what it says
in verse number eight.
And they, talking about
Adam and Eve, heard the voice
of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the
cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees
of the garden.
Now again, some people
read these passages
and they'll read all the
different parts of the Bible
and they'll say,
this didn't really happen
or God didn't really show up
or you must not understand
who God is.
And they'll have all these
theological ideas of why
this isn't saying
exactly what it's saying.
But I am not really
going to address that.
I literally believe
this happened.
And I believe that
God was really walking
in the garden there
with Adam and Eve.
Now who would have been
walking in the garden
talking with Adam and Eve?
It would have been
the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ
was there with them
in the garden talking
with them and of course
this must have been
something that happened.
We can kind of read
between the lines
and realize this must have
been a pattern.
This must have been
something that had happened
prior to and they're used
to his voice, right?
I mean you wouldn't hear
his voice and know who it is
if you've never heard
his voice before.
If you haven't had
some kind of a relationship
with him before.
You wouldn't need necessarily
hiding yourself from him.
It is possible that maybe
they've never experienced
him or talked with him
but I don't think
that that's reasonable.
I think it's very likely
obviously they already had
a relationship with God.
They're walking and
talking with him.
They're having a fellowship
but because they've sinned,
they're afraid.
Because they've sinned,
it's caused them to want
to hide from the Lord God.
Notice as soon as they
just hear him approaching,
they run and hide.
Think about this.
If God was not literally
walking in the garden
with them,
why would they hide, right?
The only reason you would
hide is because he has eyes
and he's walking around
and they literally want
to hide from his presence,
from his physical presence
that's there in the garden
with them.
Additionally, they hear
his voice which is obviously
coming from his mouth.
So the Lord Jesus Christ
is walking around in the garden
with Adam and Eve.
They hear his voice
and they want to hide
from him, from his presence,
from his eyes so as to
conceal their sin.
Now, there's a lot of
metaphors that we learn
from this particular passage.
Of course, we see just
some carnal truths.
The Lord God has a voice,
he walks, he has presence
and he has sight because
they want to hide themselves.
Those are things we can
learn from the text.
Notice it says in verse 9,
And the Lord God called on Adam
and said to him,
Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice
in the garden and I was afraid
because I was naked
and I hid myself.
Now, in this passage,
we have symbolism of sin
coming into the world.
And what does sin do
is it causes us to be ashamed.
It causes us to be ashamed.
And of course, that's what
nakedness represents.
Nakedness would represent shame.
If anybody were naked
in front of someone
that's not their spouse,
they would be ashamed.
The Bible tells us when Adam
and Eve were together,
they were not ashamed.
It's not embarrassing.
But when you're not clothed
appropriately around someone
that you're not married to,
well, it brings an element
of shame.
And this is kind of symbolic
of what sin does,
that our sins cause shame.
It causes us to want to depart
from God and to feel bad
and to feel, you know,
basically guilty before God.
And so we want to hide ourselves
and get away from God.
And of course, this does cause
a severing of the relationship
between us and God.
Sin is something that God
cannot be around.
He cannot tolerate.
And so there is this divide
that happens.
Now, in this book of Genesis
chapter number three,
I'm sorry, in this chapter,
we have the reconciliation
being brought in.
And for the sake of time,
we're not going to read
this whole chapter.
But notice what it says
in verse 21.
It says unto Adam also
and to his wife,
did the Lord God make coats
of skins and clothed them?
Now, he pronounces kind of
a judgment upon them.
We see that Adam's going to
have to work very hard.
Eve's going to have to
toil in her labor.
As a result, the serpent's
going to crawl on its belly
and eat dust all the days
of its life.
And we see those three
punishments doled out.
But then God also provides
a remedy for the situation.
He clothes them.
Now, the Bible says that
the Lord God is the one
that clothed them.
So the same Lord God
that was walking with them
in the garden is the same one
that clothed them.
Now, think about this.
He made coats of skins,
a skin coat.
Now, if you know anything
about animals, they can't live
without their coat of skin.
Now, you could take a lamb
and you could shear it.
You could just basically
just take that outward layer
of their body
and you could use that wool
and you could make
a woolen garment
and you could just shear them
and they can live.
You can basically shave
an animal, but you know what?
You can't get rid of their coat.
Their coat is their actual skin
that that fur is on.
And so in order to acquire
coats of skins, you know
what you'd have to do?
You'd have to slaughter
the animal.
You would have to slaughter
the animal in order to acquire
the coat of skin
in the first place.
And so it's being implied
in the text is that the Lord God
must have slain an animal here,
must have offered a sacrifice
of an animal to then take
those coats of skins and then
to put them on Adam and Eve
to cover their skin.
Now, of course,
what would this be symbolic of?
It'd be symbolic of how
the Lord God is going to offer
a sacrifice to cover our sin.
And that sacrifice
is the Lamb of God,
which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And of course,
it's his sacrifice that gives us
the forgiveness of sins
and covers our skins.
So think about it.
In the garden, you literally
have Jesus Christ covering
Adam and Eve's transgression
with the coat of skins
as a representation of what
Jesus Christ is going to do,
how his sacrifice is going
to clothe us and cover our sins.
And so you have this great
imagery.
You have the gospel being
preached and being taught here
in the book of Genesis
with the Lord Jesus Christ
literally clothing them
as a symbol of how he clothes
our sins spiritually
when we believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ.
When you believe in Jesus,
you're saved from all your sins.
And the Bible gives you
that symbol or that picture
of him putting his robe
of righteousness onto you
and covering your sins.
Of course, there's lots of
symbolism when it comes
to salvation.
We also have our transgression
given to him, and then he's
righteousness is given unto us.
And we see that transfer.
And essentially, in a sense,
their transgression was given
to the animal, which is a symbol
of how our transgression is
given to the Lamb of God,
which is Jesus Christ,
and they swap places.
And we see that death
is a result of sin.
There in the garden,
when they sinned,
a death had to take place.
But instead of them dying,
there was a substitute.
The animals died.
The animals died
as that representation.
And of course, then they were
still kicked out of the garden
because this was symbolic
of what was going to happen
for all of humanity
and the gospel.
But so many great pictures here
that we've already learned
from the first, what I would
call theophany, or the
appearance of God unto man.
So the Lord Jesus Christ
is already there with them.
He has a voice.
He's walking presence.
He has sight.
And of course, he even offers
sacrifices, and he clothes
Adam and Eve.
Now, go over to Genesis
chapter 14.
Go to Genesis chapter 14.
I'm not going to say that
I have a replete list
of all the appearances of God
that I'm going to teach you
this morning, but I am going
to teach you many of them.
And I want to cover
the really clear ones.
Now, when it comes to
Genesis chapter 14,
verse number 18,
we're talking about Abraham,
and it brings up a mysterious
character called Melchizedek.
Look what it says in verse 18.
And Melchizedek, king of Salem,
brought forth bread and wine,
and he was the priest
of the Most High God,
and he blessed him and said,
Blessed be Abram of the
Most High God,
possessor of heaven and earth,
and blessed be the Most High God,
which had delivered
thine enemies into thy hand,
and he gave him tithes of all.
Now, that's the only verses
that we really have
on Melchizedek in the
book of Genesis.
I've often believed that this
is an Old Testament appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but I think it's a viable
theory to suggest that maybe
it was just another person,
that it was just simply
another man, and that
Melchizedek was just a figure
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, in the book of Hebrews,
the Bible tells us about
Melchizedek that he was
without father, without mother,
without descent, having
neither beginning of days
nor end of life, but made like
unto the Son of God,
abideth a priest continually.
So the Bible gives us a
description of him in
Hebrews chapter number 7,
but you could argue that
either, A, that's literal,
then I would say it would
have to be Jesus Christ,
or you could say that that
was a symbol or figurative
of somebody who's mentioned
in the Bible as having
none of those characteristics,
because Melchizedek literally
shows up, and it doesn't
tell us who his father was,
it doesn't tell us who
his mother was, it doesn't
tell us when he was born
or how old he is,
it doesn't tell us when
he dies or if he dies,
and it doesn't really give us
any idea, anything about him,
he just shows up,
Abraham gives him some tithes,
and then he disappears,
as far as from the text,
not necessary saying literally.
So that could be symbolic
of what Jesus Christ
is literally like,
that Jesus literally has
no beginning and no end,
and that he was not
a created being,
but rather the Son of God
is eternal.
And so I just wanted
to bring this up,
I'm not going to really
believe at this point,
go to Genesis 18,
we could just say,
to be conservative,
that it was just some random guy
that pictured Jesus.
Or you could believe
it was literally Jesus,
I think that it makes
perfect sense as well,
because obviously I think
Jesus Christ was always
the high priest in a sense,
because he's always been
the Lamb of God,
he's always been
the Son of God,
so really it doesn't truly
matter which side of the aisle,
because I think both
can be explained biblically,
and neither of them really
have any significant difference
depending on what
interpretation you take,
it's not going to,
I'm not going to decide
to tie my shoes now
because of it or not
tie my shoes,
like there's really no
practical difference
between those two opinions,
you can just have your own
idea of which one you prefer,
which one you like.
Now here's one though
I believe is clear,
Genesis chapter 18,
unto Abraham, verse 1,
the Bible says,
and the Lord appeared unto him,
talking about Abraham,
in the plains of Mamre,
and he sat in the tent door
in the heat of the day.
So the Bible tells us
that God or the Lord
appeared unto Abraham.
Now this is what I think
is kind of interesting,
and you could chalk this up
to a complete coincidence,
and that's fine,
but I just think
it's interesting,
the Bible says,
the Lord appeared unto Abraham,
and then let's read
verse number 2,
it says,
and he lifted up his eyes
and looked,
and lo three men stood by him.
Isn't that kind of interesting
how it just words that?
It's like hey,
you saw God,
and then it's like
there's three men.
Now we know from the text
very clearly,
this is the Lord
and two angels.
It's not the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost,
but it's just kind of
interesting that he's like,
hey, I saw God,
and then it's like,
lo three men.
This is kind of an interesting
way the Bible words this.
That could be a total coincidence,
but I'm not much of a believer
in coincidences,
but here's the thing,
the Bible does say
the Lord appeared unto Abraham,
so he literally saw him.
Did you see that in verse 2?
And when he saw them,
he ran to meet them
from the tent door
and bowed himself
to the ground.
Now you only worship God.
This is God.
So again,
this is another appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ
appears unto Abraham
with two angels.
Abraham comes out running
to meet them
and bows down and worships them.
Now he ends up feeding them
and all kinds of stuff.
Look at verse 8.
And he took butter,
talking about Abraham,
and milk and the calf,
which he had dressed,
and set it before them.
And he stood by them
under the tree,
and they did eat.
So, you know,
he's got that southern
hospitality, right?
Brother Ben, you know,
preached about hospitality.
You want to feed them
the calf, right?
You want to feed them
that Texas brisket or whatever.
You want to give them
that steak.
You know, you want to give them
that good with butter
and with milk.
I mean, these are the good
things to eat, right?
And we see the Lord Jesus Christ.
He likes to eat beef.
Amen.
Right?
You know,
you read in the New Testament
about fish,
and I'm like,
man, you know,
it's fish.
I'm like,
hey, Old Testament,
you got the calf, right?
Yeah.
So Abraham knows
what's going on,
and it's our father Abraham,
right?
So I'm following his faith
when I live in Texas
and eat the calf, right?
He came,
well, you got to think about it.
In the New Testament,
he came humble.
That's why he's eating fish.
But here, you know,
it's a little bit more honorable,
so that's where you're
getting the beef, right?
Okay.
But, of course,
this is just good doctrine.
It's biblical.
Amen.
You have to understand
that the Bible tells us
something specifically
about Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.
Keep your fingers,
we're kind of just
going through Genesis,
but go to Exodus chapter 6
for just a moment.
I want to show you something
that the Bible kind of tells us
later in the text
about the Lord God.
And in Exodus,
we have God appearing
under Moses
in the burning fiery bush,
like the burning bush.
He's there,
and it kind of makes sense
because God's consuming fire,
so oftentimes He's shielded
in either fire or clouds.
And so sometimes His appearance
just seems like fire or clouds,
but it's just Him
shielding Himself.
Exodus chapter 6, though,
look at verse 1.
The Lord said unto Moses,
Now shalt thou see
what I will do to Pharaoh,
for with a strong hand
shall he let them go,
and with a strong hand
shall he drive them
out of his land.
And God spake unto Moses
and said unto him,
I am the Lord,
and I appeared unto Abraham,
unto Isaac, and unto Jacob
by the name of God Almighty,
but by my name Jehovah
was I not known to them.
So the Bible tells us
explicitly, go back if you would,
that God appeared to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.
So what we should expect
is in the book of Genesis
for God to appear unto
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
that it wasn't a metaphor,
it wasn't just a symbol,
it literally happened.
God literally appeared
unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God appeared to Adam and Eve.
They talked.
They were in the garden.
God appeared unto Abraham.
He ate with them
and they had fellowship together.
Now the Lord God
has a conversation
with Abraham and Genesis 18
about destroying Sodom.
That's a long conversation
that they have.
So apparently, you know,
he likes the Sodomite deception.
You know, that's what I,
he eats beef and likes
the Sodomite deception movie.
I mean, I'm kind of liking
this character in the Bible already.
And then what does he do?
Look at Genesis 19 verse 24.
Then the Lord rained upon
Sodom and upon Gomorrah,
brimstone and fire
from the Lord out of heaven.
So when there was a city
full of Sodomites,
kind of like San Francisco,
the Lord God just rained fire
down from heaven on them.
But notice it says,
the Lord rained down fire
from the Lord in heaven.
So you have a Lord on the earth
and then you have a Lord
out of heaven.
How does that possible?
Again, that's how we understand
the Trinity, right?
We have the Lord Jesus Christ
there on the earth.
He's raining down fire
from God the Father,
which is in heaven.
And they're working together
in unity, in perfect unity.
So they both agree
with this doctrine
of literally destroying
the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Now, of course, they extracted
the righteous first.
They took out Lot
and his daughters and his wife,
but she turned into a pillar
of salt for looking back.
And, of course, sometimes
people can't handle that
doctrine, but we need to
sometimes just realize
the judgment of the Lord
is a fiery indignation.
It is a destruction.
And this is the second mention.
The first mention,
he shows up,
slaughters animals.
The second mention,
he slaughters Sodom and Gomorrah.
Of course, he eats beef first.
You've got to work
on his appetite first.
He's got to get an appetite
for this.
Go to Genesis chapter 26.
But now we're going to get
the third mention.
This is God appearing
in the Bible.
You should think about this,
though.
When God shows up,
it's pretty serious.
I mean, think about it.
He shows up.
There's serious sin.
He has to slaughter animals.
God shows up again.
He has to destroy Sodom
and Gomorrah completely.
And you can think about this.
This is what's kind of interesting.
This is just another coincidence, right?
The first time Jesus shows up
what happens?
He offers a sacrifice, right?
He offers a sacrifice
and covers the sin.
The second time he shows up,
what happens?
He pours out wrath on the earth.
And if you think about it,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
the first time he showed up
was what?
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
He came humble
and he sacrificed himself.
And the second time
when Jesus Christ comes back,
what is he going to do?
He's going to pour out
wrath on this earth
in the end times.
Again, another just coincidence, right?
I don't think these things
are coincidences,
but I'm just using that
in case someone wants to accuse me.
Genesis chapter 26,
look at verse number one.
And there was a famine in the land
beside the first famine
that was in the days of Abraham.
And Isaac went unto Abimelech,
king of the Philistines,
unto Gerar.
And the Lord appeared unto him
and said,
Go not down into Egypt,
dwell in the land
which I shall tell thee of.
So Isaac has here in verse number two,
and the Lord appeared unto him.
So we have Abraham
has God appear unto him.
Isaac has the Lord appear unto him.
Go to Genesis chapter 32,
go to Genesis chapter 32.
And then we of course have Jacob
has another appearance
of the Lord God,
of what I believe
is an Old Testament appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now in Genesis 32,
look at verse number 24.
The Bible says,
And Jacob was left alone,
and there wrestled a man with him
until the breaking of the day.
And when he saw
that he prevailed not against him,
he touched the hollow of his thigh,
and the hollow of Jacob's thigh
was out of joint
as he wrestled with him.
So Jacob,
it's kind of funny
because he's afraid of meeting
his brother Esau,
and he's kind of separated himself.
And then just randomly,
then a guy shows up
and they just start wrestling.
It's kind of a funny story.
Just think about it,
you're just like out
in the middle of nowhere
and just like,
hey, you want to wrestle?
Sure.
I don't even know
how this works exactly.
But yeah,
Jacob's just there.
Some guy shows up
and then they just start wrestling.
Now this is pretty incredible
because the Bible's talking about them
having a wrestling match
for a very long time.
It says until the breaking of the day.
So this would have been
a very long drawn out wrestling match.
Most of us,
if we started wrestling,
we'd be tired about 30 seconds,
60 seconds,
maybe a couple minutes
if you're actually in really good shape.
But it's physically exhausting
to wrestle like this,
especially another grown man,
two grown men wrestling.
This is extreme.
So Jacob must have been very strong.
Jacob must have been
in very good shape
to have wrestled
and he's wrestling with Jesus.
I mean,
this is a serious wrestling match.
And the Bible says,
when it's talking about
he prevailed not,
he prevailed not against him,
that is Jesus that is saying.
It's saying when Jacob
is wrestling with Jesus
and they're contending one with another,
that somehow neither can win.
It's kind of like a deadlock.
It's kind of like they just,
no one can really win over the other
and for him to end up winning,
Jesus basically touches
the hollow of his thigh
and then Jacob's thigh
was out of joint
as he wrestled with him.
So basically,
you know,
I hate to use this metaphor,
but it's almost like he pulled
a Mike Tyson kind of,
you know,
it's just like they couldn't really win.
And so he gets him
with this touching the hollow of his thigh
and then he basically wins.
So he kind of overcomes him
because he can't defeat him
in this other way.
And Jacob's hollow thigh
is something that the Jews celebrate.
That's what it says down in verse 32.
Therefore, the children of Israel
eat not of the sinew,
it shrank,
which is upon the hollow of the thigh
unto this day,
because he touched the hollow
of Jacob's thigh
and the sinew that shrank.
So he's permanently injured,
he's permanently altered
as a result of wrestling with God.
Here's a lesson.
We shouldn't wrestle with God.
You know, when God wants us
to do something in our lives,
we need to just submit.
We need to just obey
and do what he said.
Otherwise, there's going to be
a consequence to wrestling with God.
And Jacob suffers the consequences
of wrestling with God
and there's many people today
that are wrestling with God.
They don't want to submit
to reading the Bible.
They don't want to submit
to going to church.
They don't want to submit
to actually raising their family
the way God would have them raise them.
They don't want to actually go out
and preach the gospel.
They don't want to actually
live a life pleasing unto God.
They want to sit here
and wrestle with God.
But let me tell you something.
Eventually, he's going to just touch
the hollow of your thigh.
Eventually, he's going to say,
obviously, I can't force you to submit,
but then I'll just punish you
and you'll submit.
Think about it.
God gives us free will.
He never even stopped
Jacob's free will.
Jacob's free will is completely intact.
You know what he did?
He said, if you won't submit,
then I'll harm you
and then you'll submit.
And what's sad is how so many people
will not submit to God
until God humbles them.
Many people will not submit unto God
until God has to permanently
alter their future.
I don't want to go through the situation
where God's trying to get my attention.
God's trying to get me to do something
and instead of just submitting,
I'm going to just be stubborn enough
and allow him to harm me
so that then I'll finally submit.
Then I'll finally obey.
Sometimes it takes somebody
like destroying their marriage,
destroying their family,
destroying their health,
destroying their finances.
We see the prodigal son
going out and having to eventually
get to the point where he's eating pig slop
to finally recognize and humble himself
and say, yeah, I screwed up.
I did wrong.
We need to realize that we need
to humble ourselves way before that point
so that God won't touch the sinew
of our thigh and cause us
to be permanently injured,
permanently harmed,
permanently suffer as a result
of wrestling with God.
And look, there's many people
that have screwed up their lives
permanently because they wrestled
with God for a long time
because they just would not submit
onto whatever decisions he had
for them in their life.
And so we need to be careful
that when we are contending
with God on something
that we just go ahead
and submit and relent.
Now, in this story, it says in verse 26,
and he said,
Let me go, for the day breaketh.
And he said,
I will not let thee go
except thou bless me.
And he said unto them,
What is thy name?
And he said, Jacob.
And he said, Thy name shall be
called no more Jacob, but Israel.
For as a prince has thou power
with God and with men
and has prevailed.
So somehow Jacob kind of wins
because even though he injured him,
Jacob was not going to let go.
He didn't let go of him.
And essentially he was waiting
for the blessing for him
to finally let go
and for this transition to happen.
You could argue that some
of the symbolism here
is Jacob prevailing over Jesus
is a picture of how Jesus
is going to allow the Jews to kill him.
Right?
Because we actually see them
prevailing in a sense.
And through that prevailing,
then comes the blessing of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we see him change into Israel.
That's kind of interesting
because here's the thing,
when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
you know what happens?
You change and you become Israel.
Many people believe that being Israel
is of a physical descent,
but the Bible tells us
they are not all Israel
which are of Israel.
That's what the Bible says.
They're not all Israel
which are of Israel.
You know who's true Israel,
who's spiritual Israel?
Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and they become Israel
through faith in Jesus Christ.
We are the true Israel.
We are the Israel of God
as the New Testament describes it
and we get that blessing
through the Lord Jesus Christ
and through his sacrifice,
that's what we get.
And so there's so much symbolism in this.
I don't have the sake of time
to unpack every single part of this,
but I just want to talk about
a few of these things.
Now this is interesting.
Verse 29,
And Jacob asked him and said,
Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.
And he said, Wherefore is it
that thou dost ask after my name?
And he blessed him there.
So it kind of just leaves it ominous,
kind of just leaves it hanging,
a mystery.
He's like, Hey, my name is Jacob.
What's your name?
Why are you asking about my name?
And then just never answers it.
Just we don't know.
It's just kind of hanging.
But you know what?
We finally get the answer to this question
in the New Testament
when the Bible tells us the name
that God gave unto the child
that was going to be born
and thou shalt call his name Jesus.
That is the name that God gave,
but he didn't reveal it yet.
And we see that pattern.
Didn't we see in Exodus chapter six
when we already read
that when God appeared unto Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob,
that he was known under them as God Almighty,
but he was not known under them as what?
Jehovah.
And so God has a consistent pattern
of not revealing all the information
at the same time,
slowly revealing new information
as time goes on.
At first, it's God Almighty.
Then he's revealed as Jehovah later.
Then we have in the New Testament,
we understand the name of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
And so God has many names.
Don't let the Jehovah's false witness
gaslight you and tell you there's only one name.
Say, well, it says for his name alone is Jehovah.
Yeah, but you know what it also says
in the New Testament, I'm sorry, in the Psalms?
It says for his name alone is excellent.
Right.
Why don't we have the excellent witnesses?
Wouldn't that be funny?
I am one of the most excellent witnesses, man.
You know, that would be kind of funny
if they came around, right?
But it would be the same concept
because it's the same verse.
It's just saying that there's only one person
that really has the name Jehovah and it's God.
It's not saying that's the only name he has.
He has multiple names.
It's just that he's the only one with Jehovah.
If you're referring to Jehovah,
it's only God that you can be referring to.
And it's only him whose name is excellent.
He's the one alone that has the name excellent.
But he also has the name God Almighty, the Lord God.
There's a few different variations
that we have in the Old Testament.
But let's kind of finish here.
It says in verse number 30,
And Jacob called the name of that place,
or of the place, Peniel,
for I have seen God face to face,
and my life is preserved.
This is another theme that's going to be brought up,
is this tension.
There's this tension in the Old Testament
of how some people see God,
and they see his face, and they survive.
And then there's a tension of the Bible
also talking about how people can't see God's face,
or they would die.
And you're kind of like not understanding
this tension fully, I believe,
until you get to the New Testament,
where it starts to really unpack what that means
and why that was different.
How can some people see God's face and live,
and then how can people not see God's face
because they would die?
How does that tension get resolved?
But as we keep reading,
we're going to understand this better.
Go over to Exodus chapter 19 now.
Go to Exodus chapter 19.
So we have God appearing unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We have him appearing unto Adam and Eve.
We could say Melchizedek was a possibility,
but just to be conservative, I'm just leaving that off.
Then we have him for sure showing up to Abraham, though,
as Lord in Genesis chapter 18.
That could possibly give a little bit more credence
to the fact that Melchizedek was a random dude
because it differentiates between a guy just Melchizedek
showing up and then the Lord showing up.
I don't know.
I think you could argue with both sides of this.
You could also say, well, he gave him tithes,
and Hebrews says that the less is blessed of the better,
and how in the world could anybody be better than Abraham
unless it was Jesus?
So honestly, I think I could argue both sides very well.
I don't know what the right opinion is entirely,
but just to be conservative, I'm saying, hey, for sure,
he appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18.
We have him appearing unto Isaac.
Then we have him appearing unto Jacob.
Now, in the book of Exodus, we have God appearing again,
but I believe that when we get really specific on these details
that it's not Jesus that's showing up.
It's actually God the Father that's showing up.
Now, I want to show you in Exodus chapter 19.
Look at verse number 3.
And Moses went up unto God,
and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying,
Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob,
and tell the children of Israel.
So in Exodus, God has delivered the children of Israel
out of Egypt.
They've gone through the Red Sea.
They've gone through the wilderness.
They've come unto Mount Sinai,
where God had already appeared unto Moses at the burning bush,
and he said he was going to show him this mount
that he was going to bring them back out to.
That was where they were going to worship.
That's the whole thing that's being brought up by Moses
consistently to Pharaoh.
He's like, hey, we need to go outside
and worship the Lord, and we want to take our sacrifices,
and we want to take everybody.
No hoof left behind, essentially.
We want to bring all the hooves.
We want to bring everything with us.
And so they spoiled the Egyptians.
They've come out to this mountain.
God is coming down to appear unto the children of Israel
and to talk with Moses,
and this is where we start out with God talking to Moses specifically.
Look at verse 9. Skip down.
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud that the people may hear
when I speak with thee and believe thee forever.
And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord.
Now this is kind of an interesting verse if you think about it.
They have this idea in modern culture called the Abrahamic religions.
Who's kind of heard about this, the Abrahamic religions?
And really they would say that you have Christianity, Judaism,
and Islam all going back and giving credence to saying,
like, yeah, Abraham's legit,
and they're all kind of claiming Abraham as their own.
But additionally, if you think about it,
they pretty much all also agree with Moses.
And so you kind of have like locked into time,
apart from just atheism and paganism,
pretty much just everybody agrees God did appear himself to Moses
and that it was a legit experience no matter what angle you're coming from.
And this is what the verse is telling us.
It says that the people may hear thee when I speak with thee
and believe thee forever.
This was such an epic event that took place that just for all of history,
for all of eternity, people will recognize God met with Moses
and that this was a unique special event of God appearing unto Moses on the mount.
Now he clothes himself in what the Bible says, a thick cloud.
Did you notice that?
I come unto thee in a thick cloud.
This is unique from all the other experiences we've had.
In the Garden of Eden, the Lord God walking is not walking around in a cloud.
When he appeared unto Abraham, he wasn't walking in a cloud.
When he appears to Isaac, there's no mention of the cloud.
When we see him with Jacob wrestling, again, no mention of the cloud.
So now we have a unique appearance where God's coming unto Moses,
but he's clothing himself in a very thick cloud, as the Bible describes.
Now, let's keep reading here.
It says in verse 10,
And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow,
and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day.
For the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.
And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying,
Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount,
or touch the border of it.
Whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death.
There shall not in hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through,
whether it be beast or man, it shall not live.
When the trumpet sounded long, they shall come up to the mount.
Now, I just want to, this has nothing to do with my sermon.
But I just want to point out verse 13.
Because you've got to think about this.
You have a verse in the Bible called Leviticus 20, 13.
And Leviticus 20 verse 13 says that if a man lie with another man,
that they would be stoned to death.
Notice when it says in verse 13, it says they should be stoned or shot through.
So you know what?
The Bible has no problem with someone being lined up against the wall
and shot in the back of the head.
That is biblical when it comes to an execution method
because the Bible literally says that the equivalent to being stoned
is being shot through.
And if you think about it, a gun is just an advanced slingshot.
I mean, right?
You put a rock in a slingshot and you shoot a rock,
that's what a gun does is it takes a smaller rock that's pointy,
you know, 5, 5, 6, and it just goes right through the barrel of an AR
and it just, it's really effective.
Okay?
So, nothing to do with my sermon.
I just wanted to prove to you, biblically,
that being shot is equivalent to being stoned to death.
Fact, all right?
If you touch the mountain that God says not to touch, shot.
That's what the Bible says.
These people would be shot.
Now, why?
Well, he's too holy to look upon.
You can't do this.
You're going to die anyways, but it's just a principle that God has.
Go over to verse 18.
At Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke
because the Lord descended upon it in fire
and the smoke there ascended as the smoke of a furnace
and the whole mount quaked greatly.
So, you got to get this picture.
The children of Israel have come out of the wilderness.
There's this giant mountain that they're looking at.
They can't go up on this mountain.
They can't touch the mountain.
They have to kind of stay off the mountain.
He says, Moses, you're going to come out on the mountain
and then three days later, what's going to happen?
The whole earth is going to quake and it's going to shake
and there's going to be this fire and cloud and smoke
descending down on top of the mount
and everybody's going to be terrified out of their mind.
And the Bible literally says this, that they were literally terrified.
I mean, look at chapter 20 and it says, verse 18,
And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings
and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking
and when the people saw it, they were moved and stood afar off.
And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us and we will hear,
but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
I mean, this was a terrifying experience.
And if you've just been outside and you hear lightning crack really close to you,
it's a terrifying experience.
I've been caught in a lot of thunderstorms
where I've seen lightning strike within just a dozen feet of me or so.
I remember walking out of a movie theater one time
and this is back when I lived in Amarillo,
and we walked out and there was a fire hydrant
just kind of at the end of the enlarged patio there.
And I mean, the fire hydrant got struck with lightning right in front of us.
I mean, it couldn't have been more than like, I don't know, 40 feet
or something like that right in front of us.
And I mean, the noise was a noise I can't even describe
because, I mean, lightning and thunder is loud,
but when it's that close, you feel it.
You can feel the sound.
You can feel the electricity.
I mean, the hair on your body is sticking up.
The women that were there screamed the blood-curling screams
you only hear in movies.
It was a terrifying thing.
So people were literally driving their cars all the way up the patio
up to the door so they could just get in their car
because it was such a terrifying experience.
But I've been in other times when I've seen lightning crash
very close by or near, and it's a very terrifying experience.
So you've got to think, I mean, this is just lightnings and thunder
and smoke and fire and just like the whole earth is just quaking and shaking.
I mean, this was a terrifying experience.
This is different than when you're just showing up and wrestling
and just showing up and walking around in the garden.
I mean, this is a completely different experience
than all the prior experiences, okay?
I'm trying to paint the picture here so you don't get confused.
In Exodus 19 verse 20, the Bible says,
And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mount,
and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount,
and Moses went up.
Verse 21, The Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people,
lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.
So it's saying if people came and just kind of got a glimpse,
they would just die.
This is something, this is serious.
You can't just come up here, you can't just look at this.
So, of course, Exodus 20 is probably one of the most famous chapters in the Bible
because now we have God giving the Ten Commandments,
and we have the God talking with Moses,
he's delivering the Ten Commandments, very famous portion of scripture.
I want to look at, there's another portion of scripture I'm trying to think here.
Go to chapter 24 for a moment.
So the Lord came down, he descended upon fire,
the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai,
Exodus 24, look at verse number 1.
And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu,
and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship ye far off.
And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come nigh,
neither shall the people go up with him.
So, in this setting, he's bringing up other people with him,
they get to come on the mount, but they don't get to get super close,
only Moses is the one that's going to get to come really close to God specifically,
he's special in this situation.
And look at verse 10.
And they saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet,
as it were, a paved work of sapphire stone,
and as it were, the body of heaven and its clearness.
Verse 11.
And upon the nobles of the children of Israel, he laid not his hand,
also they saw God, and did eat and drink.
So, you have God showing up in a thick darkness,
not everybody gets to see God, and these people though, they get to see him.
Now, again, this appearance, I don't believe this is,
we don't want to contradict the Bible.
They're not like actually seeing his face and everything,
they're just kind of seeing him from afar,
and they just kind of can see like his throne,
and they can see this man just kind of on this throne,
because that's similar to all the other Old Testament appearances we have of God,
where people can kind of just see this man on the throne,
and they can kind of get a glimpse of what he is looking like from afar,
but they're not really getting to see the intricate details of what God looks like.
No one has seen God's face and lived, no one, is what the Bible says.
So, but they did get to see God,
and every time God the Father is described in the Old Testament or New Testament,
it's the exact same, where we have this paved work of sapphire stone,
then it talks about, as it were, a body of heaven and its clearness.
The Bible paints this picture, there's a throne,
and then there's a sea of glass,
somehow there's this like transparent sea that he kind of just sits on,
and then underneath there's this live coal pit that's just this fire burning,
then you have these seraphims that basically guard and surround this particular throne.
Above God there's a rainbow, is what the Bible says.
Isn't it interesting that there's a rainbow above God's head,
and then that's the image that the devil loves to desecrate
and use to attack God on a regular basis,
because there's literally a rainbow behind God at all times,
and of course the devil wants to be like the Most High,
so what symbol does he use for his ministers?
The rainbow, again.
None of these things are a coincidence by any stretch of the imagination.
The devil always tries to imitate God and be like God
and desecrate and mock God and defile the things of God.
The rainbow is a beautiful thing that God gave us as a promise that he would not flood the earth.
Of course, in the book of Revelation, the Bible tells us that the Antichrist, or the devil,
is going to try and flood the earth again and is going to fail,
because God already promised that he would never allow the earth to be flooded.
But we see this picture, and I believe again,
this is an Old Testament appearance of God the Father coming down
and being there with Moses and with these other elders.
Go to chapter 32 and look at verse 15.
We're going to get more information here as we kind of go on.
I just find this really fascinating.
Maybe you don't really like to study the Bible too much.
This is more of a teaching sermon. I'm not really preaching too much,
but I think it's good that we balance ourselves with some teaching too,
that we learn a little bit and not just always get some rah-rah.
Exodus 32, look at verse 15.
At Moses' turn it went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand.
The tables were written on both their sides.
On the one side and on the other were they written.
And the tables were the work of God.
And the writing was the writing of God.
Graven upon the tables.
Now, for you children, when we think of table, I think of like our kitchen table.
Or I think of essentially something that you sit and eat at.
But table means tablet.
Now, you all know what a tablet is because you all love tablets.
I know. You like to watch movies and stuff.
But this is talking about a stone tablet.
So you think about like a notebook, but it's out of stone.
And then it says that it was written on one side
and then written on the back side.
And it's saying God is the one who did this.
This is the work of God as it's being described.
Look at verse 32.
Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book, which thou hast written.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
So the Bible tells us that the book that God has is something that he has written.
Now, it's funny because in my, I always point this out, but in my Bible, it says if thou wilt forgive their sin-o.
You know, it's like it's a typo or whatever. It's kind of funny.
But it's Exodus 32, 32 in mine.
It's like they put Tex-Mex in here, you know? Sin-o.
But it's because they're supposed to be sin and you all have a bar.
Who has the bar right next to sin? Yeah, yeah.
Whoever made this one, they got their character screwed up on the printer and it put an O there.
A Spanish O with a tilde. It's kind of funny.
But yes, there can be a typo in your Bible sometimes, but that doesn't change that the King James Bible is the word of God.
It is without error and it is reliable.
Of course, when someone writes it down, they could make a mistake.
But the King James Bible is not a mistake.
I believe it's a perfect translation of God's word.
So all I have to do is just put a bar there. You know what I mean?
All right, there. Fix it.
Now, we also have in verse, chapter 34, look at verse 1.
Notice that God writes books.
God is a writer.
You got to think about it, like all the things that we do, God does.
God's a builder. God's a creator. God's a writer.
God, hey, was a fashion designer in a sense.
He clothed Adam and Eve. That's where clothes even came from. It's from God.
God has the best fashion.
When he clothes the priests, I mean, we're talking about elaborate, elaborate clothing decisions that he has for the priests, for his work, for his construction.
He built the greatest building, Solomon's Temple.
He has the best everything. Everything God does is just the best.
He's the best at creating, walking, talking, books, you name it.
Never man spake like this man spake.
He was the best preacher, best evangelist, best everything, period.
He's great.
Now, obviously, look at verse 1, Exodus 34.
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Hue thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou breakest.
I just love this line, which thou breakest.
He's like, hey, remember, Moses, when you went down off the mount and you broke those tablets that I gave you?
Here, have them again.
And, you know, this is to show that God's gracious, too, isn't it?
Right? I mean, hey, when we break the law, you know, God fixes it for us.
He'll write it again.
He allows us to do it again.
Couldn't He just be like, you broke it.
I'm done with you.
You broke it.
No more.
No, no, no.
He just gives it back.
Also notice when man destroys the word of God, God just gives it back.
It's like those pagan gods where you chop the head off and it just grows back or something like that.
It's like, hey, you try to get rid of the word of God and it'll just multiply it or something.
It'll just be like two more, three more.
You can't get rid of the word of God.
They just keep printing NIVs and we just keep printing more King James.
And we're just, you know, it doesn't matter how many bad versions of the Bible they're going to print.
We're just going to out print them.
And we give out more King James Bibles than they even dream of selling NIVs and all these others.
I mean, we're just going to snow them with King James Bibles.
We're going to snow them with Spanish New Testaments.
We're going to get the word of God out there.
The word is nivy.
Why?
You're out there passing it out to everybody.
Go back to chapter 33.
You're right here and just look at the end of this chapter, verse 18.
Now, this is part of the time that God was communing with Moses on this mount.
It says in verse 18,
And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory.
So Moses wants to see the glory of the Lord.
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee
and be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
And he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live.
And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock,
and it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cliff of the rock
and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by, and I will take away mine hand,
and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen.
So you can almost have this, and again, I don't know exactly how this worked,
but just in my mind's eye, I just see God the Father is clothed in a cloud, right?
I mean, that's what the Bible describes him as in a sense.
He's coming up to Moses, and he's covering his eyes, and then he kind of just does one of these, right?
So he didn't ever get to see his face, and then he just kind of turns,
and then Moses gets to see his back parts.
Now what ends up happening is Moses' face shines, like as brilliant as the sun almost,
from having just seen the back parts of God the Father.
And again, this is unique to this appearance. Adam and Eve's faces aren't shining bright.
We don't see Abraham's face shining bright. We don't see Isaac's face shining bright.
We don't see Jacob's face shining bright. In fact, Jacob, he's all injured after it.
We see Moses, his face is shining bright, and I believe, again, this is a unique experience
because we're talking about the distinction between the sun and the Father here
and how they appeared unto man in the Old Testament specifically, okay?
And I'll just give you my idea of why this is happening.
Go to Joshua chapter 5. We're going to look at a few more here.
I think you have to understand that God the Father is so holy, He's so righteous,
He's so good, He's so excellent, He's so wonderful, and He shines so bright
that we just can't handle it. We have a physical limitation.
Just like we can't look at the sun with the naked eye for very long because it will injure us.
We have to look at pictures or photographs or video evidence of the sun
because if you just go outside right now and you just stare at the sun with the naked eye,
you'll eventually go blind. It will blind you. It's not a good thing.
Someone was telling me, I don't know if you've ever heard this, someone was telling me,
like, hey, your vision problems are because you're not staring at the sun enough.
And they said if you just stare at the sun for like 10 minutes every day, it'll improve your vision.
Do not take this. Who's heard this? Has anybody ever heard this?
Okay, there's a couple other weirdos out there. Do not do this, okay?
I do not recommend this. Just like we shouldn't, we couldn't look at God the Father.
If we looked at God the Father, it's just so bright, it would harm us. It would kill us, okay?
But God doesn't want that to be the case forever.
So what's going to happen is after the reconciliation with the Lord Jesus Christ,
once he's conquered all sin and all death after the millennial reign of Christ,
the Bible literally teaches then at that point God the Father will dwell on the earth
and we shall see his face and we're going to live.
And so that's that reconciliation. I'm so glad that we have the capability
and the possibility of actually seeing the Father and living, but right now we can't handle it.
So why does he show up in a cloud? He's doing it for our protection.
Why is he covering himself in fire? He's protecting us from his own holiness,
his own righteousness, his own goodness, his own brilliance, because if we were to see him,
we would not be able to handle it at this moment.
So he's shielding it from us until the day that we can actually see it.
It's because he loves us. You know, as parents, sometimes our children can't handle things.
Sometimes they can't handle certain knowledge. Sometimes they can't handle certain situations.
There's going to be adult situations. There's going to be situations for children.
And if your parents tell you, hey, you can't handle this right now, just trust them.
If your parents say, hey, if people are bringing up this subject or talking about things that are adult,
you don't need to hear that right now. Just trust them.
Just like we should just trust God that, hey, I can't handle looking at him right now.
And you know what? There are some things that we just shouldn't be learning when we're children
and when we're young. They're adult subjects, and they're off limits.
You know, it's a shame that our society in many cases is not shielding the youth from all kinds of adult topics
and information, and they're spoiling the innocence of our youth.
I want our youth to stay youth. I want our 10-year-olds to be 10-year-olds, not 20-year-olds.
I've seen in the world today, it's like five-year-olds learning about adult subjects and adult subject matter,
and you're just thinking, like, that's just not right. We don't want to rob the innocence of our children.
We want them to still just not understand how it works and to stay children and to stay young
and not get so consumed with everything.
You know, I'm not interested in my 10-, 11-, 12-year-olds figuring out how to get married and all this stuff.
Like, that's, don't worry about that. You know, let's worry about that when it's even a reality,
when you're at that age, when it actually matters. Right now, let's not talk about it.
Let's not go down those paths. Just kind of stay away from that kind of stuff.
You know, and if you're a child, you know, and you're coming across some adult information,
just try to stay away from it. You know, you sometimes can't unlearn things or unsee things,
and you just want to stay away from those.
Now, Joshua 5, I believe, is another appearance here of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is why I broke out the sermon. There's just too much information, but
Joshua chapter 5, look at verse 13.
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lift up his eyes and looked,
and behold, there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand.
And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
And he said, Nay. I love that. Hey, are you on our team or their team? No.
You're on my team. Right? Or you're not on my team, right?
But as the captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come?
And Joshua fell on his face of the earth and did worship, and said unto him,
What saith my Lord unto a servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua,
Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place wherein thou standest is holy.
And Joshua did so.
So, here's another time when God is showing up unto man, and they see him,
they're seeing his face, but they're not melting, there's not the clouds, there's not the fire.
Now, the Bible does tell us that in the wilderness, Jesus was still leading them there.
So I don't think that Jesus wasn't present throughout the time of the children of Israel in the wilderness,
I just think those experiences we read about Moses were unique to the Father.
And of course, Jesus was still with them, Jesus was still leading them throughout the wilderness.
Jesus is the one that's going to bring them into the Promised Land,
and that's why he's appearing here, unto Joshua, to bring them unto the Promised Land.
But you kind of have to understand, like, it's mostly focusing on the Father with Moses,
and then it's mostly focusing on Jesus with Joshua.
Why? Because Moses pictures the law.
It pictures the law of God, and the condemnation of the law, and the fiery wrath and indignation of Almighty God,
whereas Jesus pictures the warrior, the Savior, the one that's going to bring you into the Promised Land.
And of course, Jesus is our advocate with the Father.
You know, it's God the Father's wrath that's going to be poured out on the unbelieving in hell,
and it's only through the advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, that brings you into the Promised Land and gives you that salvation.
So that's why I believe it's focusing on the Father with Moses, and then it's focusing on Jesus with Joshua.
Which, of course, that root name in Hebrew is shared by both of them.
If you kind of understand the root name of Joshua, it really is Jesus and Joshua, in a sense.
Of course, in English, we kind of have a dividing here where they can kind of be referred to as either,
but it's the same name. In Spanish, you have names like this.
We have the name James. It can be referred to as Santiago or Jaime. Isn't that right?
Who here speaks Spanish? Isn't that right? Yeah. Jaime Escalante. That's who I always think of.
Stand and Deliver. Who's seen Stand and Deliver? No one. Okay, okay, there we go.
I needed to talk to older people here. I'm showing my age. Great movie. Stand and Deliver.
It's an old movie with Jaime Escalante. But you read in your Bible, it's Santiago, but it's still James.
Okay, and you have to understand, like, the root of Joshua and Jesus is the same root, in a sense.
That's why you see Joshua being the one bringing him in the Promised Land and picturing Jesus in many different ways.
So a lot of cool symbology. Go to symbolic nature. Go to Judges chapter 13.
Judges chapter 13. I'm going to have to speed up to finish this.
So we have Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua. Now we have another one.
This is Manoah and his wife. Judges 13, look at verse 3.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren and barest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son.
So we have the angel of the Lord. But later, look at verse 18.
And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it a secret?
It's kind of interesting. Jacob asked for the name of this guy he wrestled with. Hey, he doesn't answer it.
Here they asked for the name and he just point blank says, hey, it's a secret. You don't get to know what my name is.
And then, of course, as we keep reading in this passage, let's read verses 20 through 22.
It says, For it came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar.
And Manoah and his wife looked on it and fell on their faces to the ground.
But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife.
Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die because we have seen God.
So he's afraid that he's going to die because he's seen God. But again, that's where that tension has been unresolved.
We've seen, hey, God say, if you see me, you're going to die.
But we have these other mentions where people see him and they didn't die. And it's confusing to them.
They're asking for his name and he's not giving it. It's a secret.
So we just kind of have this this tension here of like, how are these things working? How does this make sense?
How are some people seeing God? Some people are not. And of course, we have the New Testament.
We have the Book of Revelation, where things have been revealed unto us and been made manifest, that this was a distinction between the Father and the Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ appearing unto them and then the Father. Go to Isaiah six one for a moment.
Go to Isaiah six one. I'm just going to kind of briefly touch on a few more here.
Isaiah six one again is another appearance, I believe, of God the Father, where they're seeing where he's seeing a vision of God the Father.
He's appeared. He's appearing in a sense. Isaiah Chapter six.
And we're just going to read this first verse here. In that year that King Isaiah died,
I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple above it stood the seraphims.
Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face and with twain he covered his feet and with twain he defied.
Now he's seeing this. The Bible says, Who shall go for us?
It's kind of interesting how a lot of times the Bible uses the plural when it's talking about, hey, he's become as one of us.
Let us make man in our image. It's going to say here, verse eight.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us?
Then said I, here am I, send me.
So you have sometimes the singular being mentioned. Sometimes you have the plural.
Go to Ezekiel one. Now, a lot of people make a big deal about that, about how many times when we talk about God,
it'll talk about him in a singular sense. He, him, his, his will, his eyes, his whatever.
You have to understand that any time it's bringing that up, it's just talking about that one person.
And most of the time it's just talking about the father. It's just talking about the father's eyes, the father's will, the father whatever.
So, of course, it's going to be singular because the father is one person, but the son of God is another person.
And so sometimes they'll talk in a sense that says, hey, who will go for us? He's become as one of us.
Let us make man in our image. The Lord raining down fire from the Lord in heaven.
But, of course, then when it's talking about the father and talking about his will, it's going to be in a singular sense because the father has one will.
OK, so don't get confused by the Bible bringing up singular mentions of God or his will or him or his eyes or anything like that,
because, of course, that's how you would speak if you're talking about the one person, either the father, the son or the Holy Ghost, because they are a person.
Now Ezekiel chapter number 1, look at verse 24.
And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech as the noise of a host.
When they stood, they let down their wings. And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads when they stood and had let down their wings.
And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone.
Now this is exactly what we've read already. And you have to understand that the word firmament is talking about a space.
So when it talks about the sea of glass, when it talks about this transparent thing, it's also describing a firmament.
So there's just somehow there's this space and obviously you see something that's transparent, you kind of see it and you kind of don't, right?
If you were to see something that's like glass, you can kind of see it and you can kind of not see it and it kind of looks like a space and it kind of doesn't.
So that's why you have these different kind of descriptions of the same thing where it's talking about there's this throne kind of like above this, again, sea of glass that's being described here.
And upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
So when they look at God, what does it look like? It looks like a man. Why? Because we were created in His image.
He's not looking like us, we look like Him. And of course to us, what does God look like? He just looks like a man in a sense.
Now obviously not like a man that you've normally seen, obviously it's unique, but He has generally the attributes and the physical characteristics of a man.
It says, and I saw as the color of amber as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward and from the appearance of his loins even downward.
I saw as it were the appearance of fire and it had a brightness round about. So He looks like a man, but notice it's saying He looks like a man that's on fire.
It's like, and again, what does the Bible call? Our God is a consuming fire. So it's like if you saw God, somehow He looks like a man, but He has this appearance of fire.
It says from His loins upward and from His loins downward, He just has this appearance of fire.
Verse 28, as the appearance of a bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face and I heard a voice of one that spake unto me.
So again, every time you have this picture, you have that live coal pit, you have the seraphims, you have the sea glass, you have a throne, you have one seated on the throne that looks like a man.
The man looks like fire and there's a rainbow round behind him. This is how the Bible describes God, and it describes Him being seen here in the book of Ezekiel, Isaiah.
We have it also mentioned in Exodus, and then we also have it in the New Testament in the book of Revelation.
And we're going to go there in a minute, but go to Daniel now, chapter 3, verse 25, and I just have a few more verses and we'll finish.
I just find it's really interesting, I've never really heard a sermon where we kind of just go through and just look at all the appearances of God.
I just think it's kind of unique when you get to compare them all together.
Daniel 3, 25, he answered and said, lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
So, of course, modern versions change this and twist this and say something stupid, but the King James Bible says the Son of God.
Now, I'm not saying this is a replete list, but this is what I think is kind of interesting.
We look at Christophanes, this is Jesus Christ appearances.
We have one Adam, right, in the garden, two Abraham, three Isaac, four Jacob, five Joshua, six Manoah, and seven Daniel.
And it's almost like you have these seven appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ in like a perfect manner and the ultimate picture, if you think about it,
when we get to completion, we have specifically the deliverance from hell.
And it's kind of interesting, we should do a whole study on this.
But think about it. What was number six? He shows up to Manoah.
And what is Manoah? That is when we talk about Samson and Samson pictures what?
The Lord Jesus Christ's death on the cross where he comes and he pushes over the pillars and he pictures that ugliness of sin and dying.
And then what's that seventh picture is the deliverance from hell is how he rescues Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of the fiery pit and there's no hurt on them.
There's no death, there's no destruction.
So it's kind of incredible when you think about these kind of appearances showing up.
Now go if you would to Revelation chapter 21.
I'm just going to remind you of a few verses while you turn there, just for sake of time.
But John 1 verse 18 says, No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
The Bible says in John chapter 6 verse 46,
Not that any man has seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.
So the Bible says, you know, no man shall see my face and live.
A couple places in the New Testament says no man has seen God at any time.
Don't let that be a contradiction unto you.
Allow that to just be understood by the fact that when you haven't seen someone's face,
you haven't really seen them.
And I can prove that.
I don't want to have you turn back there.
If you want to, go back to Exodus, but keep your finger in Revelation.
But I'm just going to show you one more verse again.
We've already read it, but I just want to show it to you again.
Exodus 33 verse 20, the Bible says,
And he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live.
So when God is describing what it means to see him, he's clarifying that it's seeing his face.
He says that, he makes that distinction.
But think about it this way, any of these young single guys,
if I said, hey, there's a girl that I think you might be interested in.
And you're like, okay, well what does she look like?
And I just show you a picture of her back, you're going to be like, well, I haven't seen her yet.
You're going to really care what that face looks like.
If she's just wearing the hijab, if she's just wearing the tent,
and you just kind of see the outline, you're going to be like, I want to see what's under the tent.
Can we take off the hood, right? Can we take off the veil?
Can I see what her face looks like?
Think about this, if you were out somewhere, and there's a commotion,
and there was a crime being committed, and you see two guys arguing and wrestling,
and then one flees out, and they're like, did you see him?
If you didn't see his face, you would probably say, no, I didn't really see him, I just saw a guy.
You know, I just saw a person there.
It's really when we talk about their face.
Whenever you're telling a detective what someone looks like,
what is the one attribute that you're typically giving?
You're sitting there trying to describe what their face looks like, okay?
And so the face is really what we distinguish as having seen someone,
and what they look like, and what is the most important part of the body to all of us.
We want to look at their eyes, we want to look at their face, we want to look,
that is really a major component of what someone looks like.
When we think about beauty, I mean, it's pretty much the face.
I mean, if you think about it, obviously, you know, there's other aspects of beauty
that comes to just being healthy in general, but if we were to think about it,
it's kind of the face that's the make or the break when it comes to physical beauty, isn't it?
And when we think about this, the Bible is talking about, hey, no one has seen God the Father's face,
except for Jesus. Jesus has seen him, Jesus was in the bosom of the Father, and he has declared him.
And when Thomas asks, like, hey, what does the Father look like?
He's like, hey, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, because they share the same face, right?
He's the express image of his person.
Just like I look a lot like my dad, my, you know, but not exactly, just very similar,
Jesus actually looks exactly like his dad.
And so you kind of have, if you've seen Jesus, you've seen what that looks like, albeit not exactly the same,
because every time Jesus shows up, you can handle it.
When the Father shows up, you couldn't even handle that.
And, of course, when Jesus even shows up glorified, you know, it's a lot different, too.
But this is where we kind of get the conclusion of this whole situation.
Revelation 21, look at verse 2.
And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a pride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.
So the Bible's talking about a great white throne judgment.
This is after the thousand-year millennial reign of Jesus Christ on the earth.
Everything's been defeated. Death has been swallowed up in victory.
The Bible says everyone that was judged has been judged.
Everyone that's name was not found in the Book of Life has been thrown into the lake of fire,
where they're going to be tormented day and night with no rest forever and ever.
And the rest of us will live on the earth in the new heaven and the new Jerusalem
that's going to descend out of heaven onto the earth, and God is going to dwell with us.
Now it says in verse 1 of chapter 22, let's read a little bit.
And he showed me a pure river of water, of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was there the tree of life,
which bare twelve manna of fruits and yielded her fruit every month,
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servant shall serve him.
And they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads.
So in the new heaven and the new earth, we'll finally get to see God's face and we'll have his name in us.
And of course you can see if that's God's ultimate goal is for him to rule and reign in Jerusalem
and to have a name in the hand of the forehead.
You know who's going to counterfeit that? The Antichrist.
Who's going to want to rule in Jerusalem, in a temple, declaring himself God,
and causing all small and great to receive a mark in their hand or their forehead.
Why? Because the devil is an imitator.
The reason why the devil's doing that is because that's what God's going to do.
And we're not going to fall for the substitute because we're saved.
We also need to warn other people about the real God and the real future
so that they don't get sucked into this Antichrist system,
because those who are not saved will get sucked in very likely.
I mean it's pretty much just like impossible not to get sucked into that system.
And who knows how close we are?
You know there's a lot of tension in the Middle East, there's a lot of war going on,
a lot of people want to rebuild the temple, you know.
And I'm telling you, when they have that building rebuilt, we might be right there at the end.
You know, who knows if he's going to strike a peace treaty.
I think it's very likely that Islam is the enemy of the end times
and that the Antichrist is going to destroy Islam.
He's going to go through Europe and destroy all of Islam.
And of course Islam isn't going to like it if you knock their stupid Dome of the Rock off
and start rebuilding a temple.
Now of course I'm not pro-temple. The temple is the Antichrist temple.
The real temple is the Lord Jesus Christ's body.
You know, that's the real temple. So I'm not into this whole temple thing.
But let me tell you something, the temple being rebuilt on that Dome of the Rock
is going to be a big major event signifying we're entering into the end times.
And so we should be paying attention to that and realizing we could have a short time.
Now while it's not up, I'm not really worried about it.
Well there's no temple, there's whatever, I'm just going to keep going soul winning and preaching the gospel.
I mean they've been wanting to build this thing for decades.
So, you know, who knows? It could be 50 years, it could be 100 years.
I'm not trying to scare anybody, but I also am saying we should just always be watching.
We should always be paying attention.
And there will be a day when finally God is there and we get to see His face
and we get to enjoy His presence.
But until then, we walk by faith, not by sight.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us all these shadows and pictures
and just giving us the Bible so we could have some idea of what you look like
and your desire to dwell with us and to have fellowship and to hang out.
And I pray that we would have reverence and respect for the Word of God.
I pray that you would give us faith to actually believe what the Bible says,
that we wouldn't fall victim of dumb and weird interpretations that cause us to deny what the Bible clearly says.
And I pray that we would help other people to accept that free gift of salvation,
that clothing of righteousness that Jesus Christ offers us through His sacrifice.
And I pray that you would help us to be motivated to keep preaching the Gospel until the very end.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, closing.
Let's go to song number 410.
Song number 410.
Faith is the Victory.
Song number 410.
Faith is the Victory.
Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world.
On every handful full we find,
honor is read away.
Let's dance to these we left behind,
head onward to the fray.
Salvation's held head on each hand,
the truth over the bow.
Fear shall tremble deep our turn,
and end the wind of shouts.
Faith is the Victory.
Oh, glorious victory
that overcomes the world.
To live that overcomes the flood,
by faith it shall be given.
Faith for the angels each stronger,
is made confess to them.
Head onward from the hills of life,
our hearts will love and play.
We'll relinquish all the hosts of night,
in Jesus' concrete name.
Faith is the Victory.
Oh, glorious victory
that overcomes the world.
Great singing everybody, we're all dismissed.
Thank you for watching.