because of the fog, apparently, we have people that have left their lights on. So if you're driving a Lamborghini white or the, what's the other one, the Porsche blue, your lights are on. Oh yeah, that's right, back there, right? No, no, so now we have a silver Volkswagen Jetta, your lights are on, and a black Ford Ranger, your lights are on. So just wanna make sure your battery doesn't die. So we got a lot of fog out there apparently. I kept a lot of people home and we got a lot of people traveling, so pray for people's traveling mercies because of the Thanksgiving week that's coming upon us. But let me make a point of some current events in dealing with what you saw in the Prophecy Update, the last part, with the idea of a measles thing, and you're even talking about smallpox. Now, that's not an accident. I did a prophecy update a couple weeks ago that they are war gaming or germ gaming a measles outbreak and a smallpox outbreak. Now, here's the thing, I'm going off a precedent. Back in 2019, Bill Gates and his little buddies had a meeting in New York, Event 201, and they war-germed, or germ-warmed, war-gamed, or whatever you want to call it, The coronavirus. In fact, they gave away stuffed animals to everybody who attended. Stuffed animal coronavirus, yeah, that's right. And then all of a sudden, they war game it, and then all of a sudden, the coronavirus hits. Oh, this has got to be accident, man. Brandon, you're just reading too much into all this stuff. That's not, that's not. They have no nefarious ideas, Brandon. Come on, they're just good people. No, they're not, they're evil. And they have been talking, Bill Gates and all of them have been talking about a coming new virus which will include measles and smallpox. Hmm, I think I better take that seriously. I'm not saying that it's 100%, but for some reason, evil telegraphs what it's gonna do. It's like a Scooby-Doo cartoon. The evil tells you what they're going to do. I don't understand why they do that, but they always show their hand. But anyway, something to prepare for. Something to prepare for in the days ahead as other things are happening around the world. And what we're gonna learn today with Moses, is how he prepared to go into the promised land, personally. And I think it's a good principle to learn for us facing what we gotta face. So for instance, Moses is facing the possibility of going into the promised land, and God said, I'm not gonna go with you, then he relents and says, I'm gonna go with you. And Moses is afraid, he's scared a little bit. And he needs some reassurance, so he's gonna ask for God to show him his glory. It's a very famous passage. And what you're gonna see from it, what Moses is requesting and what God gives him is exactly what we should be requesting right now and what we should expect from God to give us because Moses is scared about what's going on in the world, in his day and time, and so we see what's happening, and without what God is gonna give to Moses, we can't do this without God. We have to have him going forward. We need his lead, we need his protection, we need his presence. And so what you're gonna learn today, is how to go deeper in your walk with the Lord so that you can face these things. That's what he's gonna teach Moses. Because we all need to up our game right now. We need to get our spiritual game up to par where it needs to be in order to deal with what we're dealing with. So, we're gonna dive into that today. So as you know, this is coming on the heels of the golden calf incident. And again, this has shaken Moses quite a bit because he's not sure that God's going to be with him anymore. Yeah, he knows that God has forgiven them. They repented. And remember, 3,000 didn't, and they were killed by the Levites, but he's still shaken by this. He's like, mm, I don't know. I need more reassurance. And that's what you and I need. We need more reassurance right now spiritually. Can I bank on God providing for me if I lose my job? Can I bank on God protecting me from these crazy people out here? Okay, so he's shaken just like a lot of believers are shaken. And remember, God says, I won't go with you, otherwise I'm gonna consume you. And the idea was, if you do this again, I'm gonna kill you, but I'm not gonna go. Then God relents from this, right? This is just review, okay? And Moses basically said, if your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. Just to refresh our minds, Moses has a great attitude about this. He's basically saying, look, if you're not gonna go with us into the promised land and have to fight all these Canaanites, I'd rather stay with you in the desert than go into the promised land, because the promised land's not the same without you. And it's the attitude that you and I need to have right now. Well, how so? Well, a lot of people are leaving California. I get it. Becoming a very difficult state to live in. But if God doesn't lead you, and you go to some state, Idaho, Texas, Arizona, wherever, and he didn't lead you, you're going into the promised land, so to speak, without him. That's not a good place to be. If God says, I'm gonna be here in Bakersfield, and this is where you need to stay, then you need to stay in the wilderness, like Moses was willing to stay, rather than going to the promised land, whether that's Texas, Idaho, or any of the other states, Tennessee, Kentucky, whatever. because you want to be where God's working with you, not where he's not. So it's a good thing that Moses said. It's an application for all of us. Okay, I just want to review this. Then Moses said to the Lord, see, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. And then if you move down, he says, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray, if you have found grace in your sight, show me now your way. That's the key phrase I want you to locate. I talked about this last week, but I didn't explain this in concert with the glory of God. So when Moses is going to claim to God, I wanna see your glory, it's linked to that phrase, to know your ways. And there is a big difference between knowing God and what he does versus knowing why he does it. To know his ways is to know the why, is to know the character of God. To know what he does is simply just to know his acts. Just like people celebrate Christmas, and they, oh yeah, Jesus was born on Christmas, but they really, they know the act of it, but they don't believe in it, they don't know his ways. Why did Messiah come to be born? A lot of them couldn't answer you. or Easter for that matter. Why do they celebrate Easter? Well, because the act of God resurrecting the Messiah. But they don't know the why. Why did he do that? And see, the why is knowing God's ways. You have to know this moving forward. This is how you go deep with the Lord. When you're reading your Bible, you gotta go through their why, why, why, why, why, why is all this happening? And then when you look at your own life, you have to say why, why, why, why, why? Why is God doing this? Why did God allow me to go through this? Why is God bringing this into my life? Why, why, why? Because to say why is to try to know his ways. And when you know his ways, it actually edifies you, helps you to grow, and you draw closer to the Lord. That's what's gonna happen here. That's why we need it, okay? This is how you find grace in his sight. So here's the deal. First off, there are two levels of knowledge, okay, about God. People know his works and other people know his ways. I hope you're on that other ledger where you know his ways or you're learning his ways. That's important. See, immature Christians, baby Christians, know about his works. You can't stay there. You can't stay at that level. That's the problem we're having in Christendom. People have stayed, well, yeah, I know God parted the Red Sea. Why, though? They don't know, they can't tell you. Well, I know God's gonna judge the world in the tribulation. Why, though? Why? And so they only stay at one level. Look at the distinction in Psalm 103, 7. It proves what's happening here. He made known his ways to Moses, the why, but his acts to the sons of Israel. You see the distinction? The corporate Israel knew about seeing the Shekinah glory. They saw the Red Sea part, but they were not like Moses. Moses wanted to dive deep. He wanted to go deeper in it because of the challenge that was ahead of him. So the difference is knowing what God does versus knowing God's character and nature on a deeper, intimate, more personal level. That's the idea here. So remember that phrase, I wanna know your ways, because it's correlated to seeing God's glory, okay? So keep that in mind. In essence, Moses is saying, I do not want you to just show me what you do, but to show me why you do it. I want to understand what makes you operate as you operate. Why does God do what he does? That's the operation of God, and that's where you grow in the Lord and grow in your faith. Why is this important? A couple things. When you know the difference between the why and the what, it's the difference between victory and relapse. If you keep having struggles with sin, and you keep relapsing into it, it's because you don't know the why. You know the what, but you don't know the why. It's the difference between faith and disbelief. A lot of believers right now are in disbelief and doubt because they don't know the why, and so they follow any voice right now that tells them what to do instead of God's voice, because they don't know how God works. Think about this. Believers can't figure it out about the vaccines. They just can't for some reason. Now I know I'm speaking to the choir and you can't figure it out, but how come other believers can't? Why do they just follow what the government tells them to do? Why? Because they don't know God's ways. Those who know God's ways say, wait a second, I smell a rat. Others don't. The difference between understanding and ignorance. Understand, there's a narrative being perpetrated all over the world, and Christians are getting picked up in this narrative, and they believe the narrative, whether it's critical race theory, whether it's Marxism, socialism, whatever it might be, saving the planet, all that junk. If they knew scripture, they wouldn't buy into that junk. And so, because they're ignorant of God's ways, they're susceptible to deception from this world. It is a difference between peace and fear. What's driving everybody right now in the world to be double vaccinated, booster shots, all this junk? It's fear. And again, if they push smallpox, if a smallpox outbreak comes, or a measles outbreak comes, they're gonna be able to do the same thing through fear. So in order to avoid that fear, you gotta know God's ways, because knowing His ways will give you peace. Well, give me some particulars. Well, if you know God's ways, you know that he provides for you, you know he protects you, you know he's there for you, and so with that knowing, you can sleep at night, you can not have anxiety or stress because you know God will take care of you, okay? It's the difference between seeking and indifference. See, Moses is seeking the Lord, he wants to know more of him. Versus some Christian that might got their fire insurance, but they don't seek the Lord. They sit back and just let things play out, but they never seek. That kind of person doesn't know the why. It's the difference between a Philadelphia Smyrna believer versus a Laodicean believer. What does the Laodicean believer act like? He acts like the world. He shrugs his shoulder and says, eh. Who cares? I'm gonna keep in my little bubble and I'm gonna go about my life and not act and not even think about the reality that's out there right now. That's Laodicea. That's what's happening, okay? That's the difference. It creates a difference in how you live. Yeah, you can talk to a Laodicean believer and they can rattle off to you all the works that God has done. They haven't even memorized them, but they can't tell you the why. They don't understand how he operates, and that's what gets them in trouble. Anyway, and he said, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. Talking about the promised land, so God affirms to Moses he's going. But Moses is still unsure. Now this is the Lord's promise of presence, promise, and guidance, that hey, I'm gonna be with you all through this. But Moses is still rattled. And I get it, man, we're rattled sometimes. It rattles our cages what's going on in the world, it's crazy. So, the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name. So what he's about to do is I'm gonna give you this, what you're requesting, because you have found grace in my sight. You have come to me the right way, Moses. And I'll talk about that in just a second. In order to get God's grace and mercy, you have to come to him the right way. Moses has. So here's the request from Moses. And he said, please, show me your glory. Show me your glory. Now, this request is made to God, it is appropriate for Moses and the situation he's in, but there's gonna be caveats put on it by God, okay? So in essence, this is the request that you and I need to have. In the times I'm facing, Lord, I need you to show me your glory. Now, let's parse that out, okay, just a bit. Glory in Hebrew is the weight, has to do with weightiness. It means the full weight of who God is, basically his essence, his nature, his character. So in knowing God's ways is to know God's essential character. That's the key right there. When Moses says, I wanna see your glory, he's saying, I want to see your essential character that will reassure me that you're with us. The essential character of God, okay. So let me bring this up to speed on a modern day thing. So Moses needs this for reassurance. And here's, we need this for reassurance too. Because Moses is facing the Canaanites in the promised land and he has to fight. This will be a fight to get the land. The same is true right now. We're in a fight right now. We're in a spiritual warfare. This is big time. And what's getting ready to happen is shocking. And it could come faster than we think. Now, of course, let me put the caveat on this. We can be raptured today, we can be raptured tonight, but the closer the rapture is to the tribulation, the more you're gonna see, the more you're gonna have to endure, the more you're gonna have to deal with. So let me show you. what they planned a couple weeks ago, and what they call the great narrative. This is the great reset people, the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, the trillionaires, the billionaires that are wanting to shape and contour the world according to how they see it. They believe they're gods, and that they know better than us how to run our lives. And the idea behind it, they've created this great narrative, which is the great meta-narrative for the whole thing. What do you mean? It's a story. They're gaslighting us. They're going to gaslight the whole world for this narrative. This narrative has religious implications in it. It is a man-made religion, but let me tell you the real name of this religion from the Bible. It's called the Whore of Babylon. She is here, they're forming her, and the idea to get the great narrative is to legalize what they want all through the world. A Biden administration's in on this, Australia, New Zealand, Europe. Places in Africa, places in the Middle East are all for this. They're gonna get a global buy-in on this narrative. Now, here's the thing about this narrative. It's more of a religion, because it's not based on facts, so to speak. It's a false religion. Now, Christianity is based on evidence and facts, but false religion, there is no facts or evidence. So you're gonna think, well, this should be stopped because I'll have the facts and the evidence behind me. And you're like, you're wasting your time. It's a religion to them. And they're going to do it. What are they gonna do? First off, a digital currency is coming our way. This is what they've talked about in the great narrative. They talk about surveillance, massive surveillance over the entire planet. You think China's bad? You're gonna have another thing coming. Sustainable development is a key phrase for them. It means to save the planet-type junk, you know, from global warming, the hoax of global warming. Again, they're gaslighting you on global warming. Please understand they're gaslighting you about this. It's not real. But they're gonna have an ESG score. ESG is environmental, social, and governance. Your ESG score will be your social credit score, which allows you to either buy or sell, get loans, buy certain things. This will be a social credit score, much like it is in China, that you can't buy things, you can't go on trains, you can't fly. All that stuff that's happening in China is going to be brought here. They like it, and a green economy to go with that. Everything you buy and sell will have to be green, so to speak. Save the planet. Biometric ID is what they proposed. Ownership, think about this, the ownership and cataloging of all genetic codes, all human genetic codes, guys, your DNA will be on a file in part of the global commons. So now you don't even own your DNA. They want your genetic code. For what? I'll get to that. But that's pretty scary. Because your genetic code is who you are. And they want it. For what? Obviously it couldn't be for nefarious waste, right? They just want to catalog it, right? No, it's for this. Transhumanism. You think this is out of a sci-fi movie? I kid you not, man, this is exactly what they're talking about. Elon Musk talks about this all the time. They all talk about, the tech giants all talk about this, transhumanism. What they wanna do with our DNA is genetically manipulate the DNA for sustainability. Yes, they're putting it under the category of sustainability, saving the planet. Huh, I wonder what that's about. saving the planet, genetics, all this other stuff. Yeah, because they wanna reduce the human population, and so they gotta get rid of the weak, the old, the sick, the infirmed, the handicapped, mentally, physically, doesn't matter. They have to eliminate that. They want to eliminate that person. And so basically it's genetic coding, which refers to as DNA manipulation and coding, to be used to create synthetic life. Now here we are in 2021, and I'm talking to you about them trying to create synthetic life. This should remind you of Genesis 6, when the fallen angels were tampering with human DNA and making monstrosities. This is where all the fables came from, the Minotaurs, the Cenotaurs, Medusa, All these creatures, every ancient culture has these ideas where it's like a half human, half animal, or a giant, or something happened. That's what was going on in Genesis 6 before the flood. That's why the flood came. Because the genetic markers were ruined. And then when eventually Joshua leads them into the promised land, they go in there and they come back after the reconnaissance saying, look, there's giants in the land. That's not hyperbole. There's Anakim, Nephilim, all these giant clans in there. They were genetically modified to be giants. Goliath was nearly 10 feet tall. He was a Nephilim. There's Anakim. And so when God would tell Joshua to go in there in these certain giant clans, He says, I want them all dead. Men, women, children, animals, and then burn everything. Don't take anything from them. People think that's genocide. It's not. They're not human. They're not fully human. They were genetically modified by fallen angels, and so God says, wipe them all out, Joshua. All of them. They're synthetic. Versus other places, he won't say that to. Human DNA is preserved. And so here we are going back to Noah's day. And here we are again. What did Jesus say about Noah's day? About the last days? It will be like the days of Noah. It's happening. No ownership of property. They control all the property and the land. They don't want you to own anything, and they say, you're not gonna own anything, you're gonna be happy. They're gonna skyrocket your prices so high that you won't be able to afford housing. You'll have to just simply rent. That's where it's going. Again, how much we see, I don't know. We could be raptured in the night and not see any of this. But the longer we're here, the more you're gonna see of this. Vaccines are not done. If they do an outbreak of measles and smallpox, guess what? Another vaccine will come your way, and another mandate will come your way, okay? Because why? Why are they using mRNAs for vaccine? Because it messes with your genetic coding. Yes, it messes with your genetic coding, and we don't know what all it does to your coding. Maybe it gives you AIDS-like immunity. Control all of the energy. That's why they're getting off of gas, fossil fuels. They want you on electric, solar, and wind. Why? They can control it. Persecution then will come from those who are not conforming to the meta-narrative, the great narrative of the great reset. If you don't comply with this, we're going to eliminate your free speech. We're going to de-platform you. We're gonna segregate you from society, just like they're doing the unvaccinated right now. We're gonna cause economic persecution, and eventually we'll physically persecute you. We'll put you in jail, camps, whatever we need to do. But you're gonna go with this narrative, because you're nothing but a brick in the wall. And we want all the bricks to be the same. We will not use living stones, we will make bricks out of you, and then when you break or crack or you don't conform to the structure, we'll just take you out and replace your spot with another brick. That's the idea of replacing you with humans. Humans now are gonna be seen as resources. Elimination of guns is coming. They have to do it. Disease control, they have to do it. Massive migration. It's not gonna stop. They're wanting the populations to swarm everywhere and not have language, culture, and borders because it causes people to be more globalistic-minded. What do you mean? When you influx people into a country that don't hold to the country's values, you've destroyed their patriotism. The people hate America now, and so they're doing this in Europe. Poland, as you saw in the Prophecy Update, is resisting this. God bless Poland. They've had a revival. I think right now, Poland's a good place to live. They're fighting this stuff, and they have a lot of Christianity behind them. That's why they're fighting all this massive immigration. Global resource economy. They will control all the resources. Humans are now seen as resources to them. Massive taxation will come domestically and globally. You eventually will be taxed. imperialistically by the UN, by the World Economic Forum, or the World Health Organization, somehow you're gonna be paying tax to them on a global scale. Again, I don't know how much you're gonna see, but this is what they want. Okay, so why do I tell you that? Well, it's not the intention to scare you to death, it's to tell you, This is what you need to prepare for. How much you see is dependent on God. But I will tell you this, no matter what we're going to see, you're gonna need what Moses needs. You're gonna need God's glory. You're gonna need to know his ways, his essential character. You're needing to know this and know the why of God. Why is this happening? Otherwise, You make yourself vulnerable to the enemy. You make yourself vulnerable to deception, because you don't know God's ways. Anyway, that's the current event I want to bring to light. That's our fight. Moses' fight with the Canaanites. This is our fight, the Babylonians, the Neo-Babylonians. Anyway, let's get to the application of all this. Then he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you. Did you notice that? He didn't say, you're gonna see my presence, my goodness. So notice what Yahweh's doing. Yahweh is equating his goodness with his presence. The goodness of God, what did Moses request? I wanna know your ways. So God is answering and says, you don't need to simply see my presence, which he's not going to see. You need to see my goodness, Moses. So let me refine your prayer request. You need to know this about me, my goodness. So that's what God's doing there. So that's the equation. The second thing he says, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. Yahweh will say his name as he passes by Moses. Why is that important? Because the name of God speaks of his character and person. The essential nature of God is revealed in his name. So what Moses needs to know, notice this, it's not seeing the Lord, it's knowing God's goodness and knowing God's name which reveals his essential character and person and nature. See, what's happening here is Moses is not gonna see God. But he's going to see these attributes from God's word, which is equated to us. We can't see God's presence. But what God is saying is that, no, no, you need to understand my goodness if you need to know my ways, and you need to know my name, my essential character, I am. You gotta know what that means. And that's how you go deep. Oh, okay. Some more caveats, though. Then he follows up, and God says this, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, or mercy, it should be. So grace and mercy are here. Now, why does he say this? Because he's telling Moses, Moses, the reason I'm going to allow this and answer your prayer request, but I'm gonna put some caveats on it, the reason I'm doing this, because you have done what is required of me to approach me in order to get grace and mercy. So what God is speaking about with Moses, that he wants to be communicated with Israel, is this is the protocol in which all humans receive grace and mercy from me. And you have met it, Moses. I know your name. I know who you are. You have approached me in faith, not works or merit or your genetics, You've approached me in faith, you've approached me in humility, and you've asked for my help. That's it. That's what I've established, and I want you to teach this to Israel. There's only one way to approach me, and in Moses, you're willing to accept my provision, because notice what God's doing. He's modifying the provision. You're not gonna see me, Moses, but I'm gonna modify, and you're gonna have to be satisfied with what I show you. Again, comes back to what we talked about with Elijah being fed by the ravens. That was God's provision that came in the form of a raven. You must accept the raven. That's his provision. Now, to bridge this further, we can understand this in salvation, right? That God has made a way to him in order to receive grace and mercy. How is that so? Through his son. If you accept his son, you receive grace and mercy, right? That's the pattern. There's only one way, right? Only one system that God has established. Now, if we move further past salvation in sanctification, Hebrews chapter four says, look, if you want God's help in this world, then you must approach him under the authority of the Messiah. In his name, you approach God the Father in the Messiah's authority, and then you can ask for grace and mercy, and he will give it to you. But you must come his way. Mercy and grace is not given to anybody that simply doesn't follow the way. Jesus illustrated this many times in the Gospels. He said one thing that people are trying to climb the fence are breaking through in order to get in to see God, so to speak. And he says, you gotta go by the door. I am the door. You don't try to climb the fence and force your way into it through your good works. I am the way. So what he's establishing is how believers, how even unbelievers get grace and mercy. Now, why is this important? It tells you that there's a system that needs to be followed. This goes, if you just allow me just a second to make an application somewhere else. Paul uses this term in Romans chapter nine. Now if you've ever read Romans nine, it can be confusing if you don't know the Jewish background and the background of Moses. Because Paul is arguing with somebody, arguing with Jews, in the sense that this, the Jewish population at Paul's time thought they were automatically saved because of their heritage, because of their ancestry, because of their DNA. And so in their terms, the way of salvation was being Jewish. Gentiles couldn't be saved. This is who Paul is arguing with in Romans nine. Now just let me flush this out just a bit. Most people who read that passage think that they're arguing with Paul about, well, God just randomly gives, arbitrarily, this person grace and mercy, this person grace and mercy, and this person wrath, and he just arbitrarily decides who gets his wrath and who gets grace and mercy. That couldn't be farther from the interpretation. That is so wrong. What Paul is arguing with the Jews is the system that God has created. And the Jews are bucking the system because they won't come to faith in the Messiah. They reject the Messiah. And Paul is basically saying, look, God has the right to decide the system, and this is the system He has decided. And let me take you back all the way to Moses' day. How did Moses get grace and mercy? Through the system. that God established. So Paul is arguing not for individual salvation, any, many, mighty, mo, I'll pick you and send the rest of you to hell. No, no. He's arguing that you don't have a right to argue against the system that God has created. And this is what Moses understands. It's the system that we have to come by. So in the future, when we face these crazy things, you must come to God through the system. You must humbly approach him, not pridefully. You must submit your ways to his, not try to get God to do your ways. That's what the golden calf was about. You have to go by what God says is the condition to receive grace and mercy. Okay, so God has given that to Moses because he came by the system. In context, it's not given to salvation, but Moses needed reassurance. So it's not about, he's not talking about salvation in this passage. It's not about demand that Moses can make based on ancestry and merit, and God has designed a way that requires that people freely come to him on his terms to receive grace and mercy. That's it, and Moses found it, okay? Now, more caveats. But he said, you cannot see my face. So Moses' request to see God's presence is denied. Now, the Hebrew idiom here is my face. It means my presence. You cannot see my presence, Moses, as you requested, but you cannot do it. I will not answer that prayer. Why? For no man shall see me and live. It will kill you, Moses, if you saw my person. If you saw my essential nature in all of its glory, you would literally die, Moses. Hmm. The same thing is true today. If we saw God in his essence, it would kill us. because he's holy and we retain a sin nature and that sin nature will come apart in his presence. Isaiah saw a vision of God and he only saw the robes of God. Okay, he only saw the robes that flow from his throne. and just seeing the robes, Isaiah says, I'm coming apart, like I'm being unstitched. He felt himself actually dying and coming apart, just seeing the robes of God. So we understand, even the prophet Isaiah had a sin nature, Moses had a sin nature, and God's saying, I cannot honor that request, Moses, because you'll die, and I don't need you to die at this point, I need you to leave my people. And so the Lord said, here is the place by me. and you shall stand on the rock. It's a clue. It's a clue. It's pointing forward. It's pointing to something, pointing to someone. Who is it? It's Jesus. So metaphorically, it's pointing to the Messiah. Literally, yes, he's gonna stand on a rock, but spiritually, it's pointing forward to what God will do. Moses, in order to see what I'm going to show you, you have to stand on the rock. The rock is the Messiah. And in order to stand on the rock, you need to have a personal relationship with him and come into a personal relationship. So you're standing on that foundation of my son, the rock. You built your house on what? The rock, not sand. You build it on the rock. You build your life on the rock. Okay, first clue. The second thing is this. So it shall be, while my glory passes, it's gonna be limited, I'm gonna come right by you, I can't stay there, otherwise it'll kill you. But I'll pass by, so it's gonna be a limited experience. My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock. Cleft in Hebrew is a steep rock, a crag, a cliff, or a mountainside. It's not a cave. It's the crevice that Moses will be put into protects him from God's presence. It protects him, it closes him in to where he won't die. Another pointing forward. Cleft of the rock. Who is the rock? It's Jesus. What is the cleft of the rock? Ah. When you go into the New Testament, especially the book of Ephesians, Ephesians will mention this 27 times. That we are in Christ. In Him. In Messiah. Constantly you'll see that phrase, in, in, in. That's a reference to the cleft of the rock. Moses is actually being put inside of a rock where he's gonna be protected. Ah, I got it now. I must stand on the rock of Christ to build my life and I must be in him to be protected from God. Being in Christ means I'm in the Messiah, I'm in the body of Christ. You do that when you come into faith to him, and the Holy Spirit actually places you in the body of the Messiah, where you're protected. Protected from what? From the outside world, from Satan, to some degree. But what are you primarily being protected for by being in the Messiah? The wrath of God. The holiness of God, God's essential nature would kill you had it not been for the Messiah. Not only would you physically die, but you would be separated from him in the lake of fire. It is being in the rock that protects you from his holiness. That gives you the ability one day to be able to see him in all his glory. But you have to be in the rock. And you have to be standing on the rock. It's Messiah, it's pointing forward. And that's what he's gonna teach Israel that the coming anointed one, we will have to be in him and on him. Wow. And I will cover, there's more caveat. I will cover you with my hand while I pass by. Now the idea of a hand in the Hebrew idiom means my power. The right hand of God symbolizes power. So my power is actually going to hold you seeing me back. or I will pass by. Then I will take away my hand, my power, and you shall see my back. But my face, or my presence, you shall not be seen. Now, let's understand this. Remember, the caveat is, you're not gonna see my glory, I'm gonna pass by, and what you're gonna see is my goodness. And he says my goodness, it's basically, he says all my goodness, And all my goodness means nothing but my goodness will you see. You're not gonna see anything, my presence, but you're gonna see my goodness pass by you. Remember, goodness means that Moses would die in his goodness if he saw all of it. The full measure of his goodness, Moses will die. I know it sounds weird, but God's goodness would actually kill us. And I'm gonna pass by, so it's gonna be a short time. I'm gonna keep my hand over you so you don't see me. So Moses' request to see him is not, God says, I can't do that. I will actually put you in the cleft and then I'm gonna cover you with my hand as I walk by you. More grace, more mercy to protect Moses. And you shall see my back. Okay, most commentators don't understand that this is a Hebrew idiom. It doesn't mean the back of God. As most people translate, well, Moses looked out and he saw the back of God. No, no, no, no, no. The Hebrew idiom, the backside of anybody, means you don't see him. In the Hebrew culture, to see someone, you had to be in their face. I stand in the face of the person means I stand in the presence of that person. When you would talk in Hebrew, you would say, I see nothing but the backside of the person means I don't see them anymore. I don't see them anymore. So God is telling them, you're not gonna see me. Okay, well, what is he gonna see? Again, one more step further on understanding the backside of God. What Moses will see is not what he expected. He expected to see the presence of God, which cannot happen. So what God did is modify the request, and here's the provision. The provision is, Moses, what I can show you is the afterglow of my goodness. The afterglow. Moses can't even see God in his goodness. He has to only be able to see the afterglow. Now the afterglow of being in God's presence, obviously, remember Moses went on Mount Sinai, another set of the Ten Commandments came down. What was wrong with his face? It shined. because the afterglow of being in God's presence, so his face was radiating out glory from being around God. So what did Moses have to do? He had to veil his face, remember? To prevent Israel from worshiping him, because they saw glory coming off of him. So that afterglow is what Moses will see, and it's the afterglow of goodness. Bingo! That is all that's required for Moses to be assured that God's gonna go with him. And by the way, it's all that we require for what we're going to face. Just seeing the afterglow of goodness is enough to make sure that you know God's with you. Okay, wow. So let me show you this real quick. The cleft of the rock is right there. This is Mount Sinai, and Elijah's cave's behind it, by the way. Like I mentioned before in Mount Sinai, It has all the factors and all the qualifications. It has a burnt top. It has the pens where the animals went for sacrifice. It has an altar there. It has 12 pillars. It has the golden calf altar. It shows you where the camp was at. It shows you in that area where 3,000 were buried who refused to repent. And then, on this mountain, we should see two other locations, the cave of Elijah and the cleft of the rock. And they're there. Here's some other pictures of it. And as you get closer, the cleft of the rock is on the top, a tree now grows in there. Why it grows in there, I have no idea. It shouldn't be growing in there, but it does. It's an old, old, old tree, but it still grows there. Remember, God's life. As he walks by, maybe life happened there, I don't know. But the cave is right below it. Remember, Elijah went to the cave, when he was running from Jezebel, and he went to Mount Sinai, it says, in Arabia, and there's where he heard the voice of God. This is looking out from the cave, and you can see the riverbed that flows from the rock, and then that valley right there is where Israel would have been camped, the Golden Calf Altar is right in the distance. But that water would have flowed from the Mount Sinai right there, you can see that riverbed. And this is where Elijah would look out. This is what you would see in the camp of Israel right there from Mount Sinai. This is what the cave of Elijah looks like. and this is where he would have stayed there. And what happened in the cave, do you remember? He went and searched for an experience with God, to see God's glory, just like Moses did. So he goes there, because he needs reassurance, right? Because he thinks he's the only prophet left. And what happened? The same thing happened to Elijah. First there was wind, was God in the wind? No. Then there was an earthquake. Was God in the earthquake? No. Then there was fire. Was God in the fire? No. But where was God? In a still, small voice. So Elijah, wanting to see the presence of God, again was forbidden, and what he got is exactly what Moses got. The word of God spoke to him. This is what's happening with Moses. The word of God is speaking to Moses. And you will learn about my goodness because that's equivalent to knowing my ways. Knowing my ways is equivalent to goodness. If you know how good I am, Moses, then you will know my ways. That's the key right there. Anyway, this is inside the cave, looking out. And here's where the, a little bit above this is what we think is the cleft of the rock. And again, that tree's right there in the middle of the cleft of the rock. And here's another shot of it. And then again, this is on Mount Sinai. It's in the lower portion of Mount Sinai. So I got a drone video of it. So just relax and kind of take a couple minutes. Here's a drone video of the location. So you kind of get a bird's eye view, okay? So, just to kind of give you a better idea, and the validity tells you that this really happened. When you see all the evidence, what is that evidence supposed to tell you? This happened. God passed by Moses right there. but the same experience can happen to you. So I don't want you to think this is out of the realm. God never allowed him to see his presence, even though he requested it, because it would kill him. So what God gave him was his word. His word is, you will see the afterglow of my goodness. That's how you will know my ways, and that's how you know I'm with you. So that's the summary of it. So Moses got his reassurance from seeing the afterglow of God's goodness. And that's all he needed. That's what we need to see. Now what do you mean? How do I see the afterglow of his goodness? You gotta go to his word. And in his word, you will see the afterglow of goodness. That every chapter you read, every verse you read, God is good, God is good, God is good in everything he does. Whether it's in judgment or receiving mercy and grace, everything is good. And in your life, you have to see that everything you're encountering, believe it or not, works for your good. All things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. You have to believe that that's his way. Even though you say, I don't like this, I don't like what's happening to our country, I don't like what's happening in my world, I don't like what's happening personally, I don't like it. But it's good. You have to come back and say, God has a good purpose out of this. Whatever the situation might be. Couple points of application. The assurance of God's presence is to be taken by faith. Not by sight, which Moses requested. He requested sight, but you're to believe it. What does it say? I will never leave you or forsake you. You have to know that going forward. To see the Lord's goodness is to see his whole character, his nature, and how you do it. Through his word, obviously. How do you know and learn about the great I am? You learn it from his word. Okay, not by seeing him, but by listening to his word. And the Lord tells us to believe that we are accepted by him through the belief in the Messiah. instead of by going by feelings. Now, again, why do I say that? Because Moses is going on feelings. I don't feel like you're gonna be with me, even though God has stated, okay, I'll go with you. Moses still doesn't feel that way. It's his feelings he's drawing off of. Now, we can be governed by feelings all the time, but this is why he gets the extra measure of help from God, but he's driven by feelings. You and I cannot be driven by feelings in this war that's coming to us. Facts and evidence, the truth has to be prime, not our feelings. The one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. God has never rejected you. Even as bad as your life is getting, you might think, well, God is abandoning. No, no, no, I have never rejected you. You're with me. I'm gonna see you through this. Here's some good news. Even though we're gonna fight a battle, here's the good news. Moses right now is seeing the very presence of God right now in the New Jerusalem. He has finally got his answer to his prayer. He sees God in his essence. And one day, the same is true for you and I. We will one day behold the very nature and essence and presence of God. Look what scripture says. And I heard a loud voice from 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 will be with them, and be their God. And they, what, shall see his face. Hebrew idiom, his presence. It's promised to everybody that believes in him. You will see his presence forever. Now, one more thing. One more good thing. When we're in his presence, what will happen? What will be done? Well obviously we'll be at the behemoth seat of the Lord, a seat of rewards for those who served him faithfully. And I'm sure we're gonna be like this guy, casting his crowns before the Lord's feet and praising and worshiping our Lord for the very first time in his very presence. But here's what he promises once we're in his presence. and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Let me explain that. The wiping away of the tear has to do with every bad thing that happened to you, and then he's gonna show you how he reconciled that and made it out to be good. Everything that you have went through and now you're trusting in God for the why will be answered then. This is why your life went the way it did. This is why that person was brought into your life. This is why this person was brought out of your life. This is why this happened to your family. This is why this happened to your job. This is all why. And the idea that God has kept our tears in a bottle, it says in scripture. At every tear you have, he personally will wipe away every single tear, which means he's gonna go through the list of everything you went through and show you how he used it for good. When he does that, that's where we get the term, he redeems what the locusts have eaten. That's redemption. He redeems what we went through. And we will do that in his presence. There in his presence. It says there shall be no more death No more sorrow nor crying there shall be no more pain in his presence for the former things Have passed away That's What we have to look forward to That's his promise and we will one day see him in his full glory. Let's pray