SPEAKER_00: Excited to be with you today.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be in Exodus chapter 34 in our Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to turn there, Exodus chapter 34.
SPEAKER_00: And we are working through a series I have titled Leaving the Darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Working verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: And this is going to be sermon number 89 through the text today.
SPEAKER_00: And again, if you're just joining us, you can always go back and listen to all of the past sermons online.
SPEAKER_00: We've got all of them archived.
SPEAKER_00: All 88 of them, if you want to.
SPEAKER_00: But we're going to work through verses 29 to 35 in the text today.
SPEAKER_00: And I titled this series Leaving the Darkness as we watch Moses lead the people out of Egypt, out from under the hand of Pharaoh, into the promised land, into a relationship with God, truly leaving the darkness of the gods of Egypt and entering into the light of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Title of the sermon today, if you're taking notes, is Borrowed Light.
SPEAKER_00: Heard of a story, maybe you heard of this one.
SPEAKER_00: A doctor of psychology was making his morning rounds when he walked into a patient's room.
SPEAKER_00: He found the first patient sitting on the floor, sawing away at an imaginary piece of wood.
SPEAKER_00: Hanging from the ceiling by his feet was the second patient.
SPEAKER_00: The doctor asked the first man what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Can't you see?
SPEAKER_00: I'm sawing a board in half, you see.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, what's your friend doing up there?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Oh, him, he's a great guy, but he's a little crazy.
SPEAKER_00: He thinks he's a light bulb.
SPEAKER_00: He's hanging upside down.
SPEAKER_00: The doctor looked up and noticed the second man's face was turning red as a beat.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, If he's your friend, you ought to get him down from there before he hurts himself.
SPEAKER_00: And the first man looked up at him and thought he like he had lost his mind.
SPEAKER_00: He says, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Work in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: That's all I got.
SPEAKER_00: Someone gave me a pity clap over here, so thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00: But have you ever been outside on those nights?
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a full moon, clear skies.
SPEAKER_00: The moon, though it's dark, is shining so bright that you don't even need a flashlight outside.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing when that happens.
SPEAKER_00: The land starts to glow.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're in the desert or you're out on the water, when the moon hits right and completely bright, it will illuminate the sky.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the wild thing about the moon.
SPEAKER_00: In all its history, it has never produced one particle of light.
SPEAKER_00: Not one.
SPEAKER_00: It's really this dead rock floating through space.
SPEAKER_00: It's cold, gray, cratered, lifeless.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you have ever seen when you looked at the moon was really light borrowed from the sun.
SPEAKER_00: It's reflection.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody stands in a driveway saying, you know, that moon is a fraud.
SPEAKER_00: We don't expect the moon to make uh light.
SPEAKER_00: We expect it always to just keep reflecting it.
SPEAKER_00: We know exactly what it is and what it does.
SPEAKER_00: There's a question I want you to consider this morning as we work through the text is where does your lights ultimately come from?
SPEAKER_00: Um it's not a question of whether or not you are shining.
SPEAKER_00: Uh some of you are, but some of you are the uh, you know, very again, very kind, dependable, decent people in your workplace.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows that everybody loves you, and you shine that there.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not ultimately the question.
SPEAKER_00: The question is what is the source of your shining?
SPEAKER_00: Where does it come from?
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a way to shine that runs on our own batteries, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um and there is a way to shine uh that doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: And today we see Moses, uh the the kind of the main guy uh next to God is the character in our story.
SPEAKER_00: His face will shine as bright as the sun.
SPEAKER_00: And he gets his shine from borrowed light.
SPEAKER_00: It's not his own light that's shining.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's sh it's light that he has received from Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: And it really is it's wild that Moses takes time to write about this.
SPEAKER_00: Um there are six verses sitting here before us that give uh he gives extensive talk about this shining of his face and what the people are doing and how they responded.
SPEAKER_00: Um again, you think it would be a one-line thing, but again, there's emphasis here in the text, and that's why we'll take time to talk about it and look at it closely today.
SPEAKER_00: We're in Exodus chapter 34, we'll cover verses 29 to 35.
SPEAKER_00: Can we stand for the reading of God's word?
SPEAKER_00: We always stand for the reading of God's word to pay honor to him.
SPEAKER_00: Remember whose word we're reading, not my words.
SPEAKER_00: They truly belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter 34, take a look at verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: Now it happened when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand, and he was coming down from the mountain, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him.
SPEAKER_00: And then Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near to him.
SPEAKER_00: Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke to them, and afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them everything that Yahweh had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: Then Moses finished speaking with them and put a veil over his face.
SPEAKER_00: But when Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him, he would take off the veil until he came out, and then he would come out and he would speak to the sons of Israel what he had commanded.
SPEAKER_00: And the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses would return the veil over his face until he went in to speak with him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: We ask God that you would reveal its truth to us again today.
SPEAKER_00: Why did you have Moses write this down?
SPEAKER_00: What is this shining of his face having to do with us?
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, God, that you allowed Moses to meet with you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray, God, that you would allow us to meet with you today.
SPEAKER_00: And that we would come close and that we would be refreshed, we would be rejuvenated.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, that you would restore our batteries, Lord, that you would recharge us, you would bring us close in relationship with you, that the fruits of the Spirit would shine through our lives, that we would shine in such a way that people would see our good works and want to glorify our Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your word today.
SPEAKER_00: We ask you would speak to us by the power of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We ask it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_00: These lights are just a touch too hot.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, yay! So when I came out, I was like, oh, I mean, do I look gray?
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure I look gray, I think.
SPEAKER_00: They're just, I can't see, so uh bear with me.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses had been on Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: The trip, uh, he was up there for 40 days and 40 nights.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 28 tells us that he didn't eat bread or drink water for 40 days.
SPEAKER_00: No food, no water, sustained by Almighty God, while he wrote down the words of the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what's behind him.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what had happened before, the golden calf, uh, the shattered tablets, remember?
SPEAKER_00: And really the worst uh worship service in the history of Israel as they worshiped other gods.
SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys.
SPEAKER_00: This is great.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and he came down the mountain for the first time in absolute chaos because of what Israel was doing.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's coming down again with the second set of tablets from God and second chances, and this time the people are ready to listen.
SPEAKER_00: But something's changed.
SPEAKER_00: Back in chapter 33, Moses prayed the boldest prayer any man's ever prayed.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember?
SPEAKER_00: Please, God, he said, Show me thy glory.
SPEAKER_00: And God did.
SPEAKER_00: God hit Moses in the cleft of the rock and he covered him with his hand and passed by, and he proclaimed his own name to Moses, Yahweh, who is compassionate, gracious, faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And now Moses is walking back down Sinai and he is glowing.
SPEAKER_00: His face is a shone, the text says.
SPEAKER_00: This is verses 29 and 30.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 29 again.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Moses did not know that the skin of his face was shown because of his speaking with him, or speaking with God.
SPEAKER_00: The one man on the mountain who couldn't see it, that his face was a shone, was Moses.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know that he was glowing.
SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew is, the Hebrew word here is unusual.
SPEAKER_00: It literally says, the skin on his face sent out horns, which is why the old Latin Vulgate rendered it that way, and why Michelangelo carved Moses with two little horns right in his head.
SPEAKER_00: But the word is describing rays of light, beams, beams of light coming off a man's face.
SPEAKER_00: And notice the reason the text gives it to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a technique, it's not a discipline he mastered.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it was because of his speaking with God that his face was a shown.
SPEAKER_00: He talked with God and it changed the way he looked.
SPEAKER_00: Is that amazing or what?
SPEAKER_00: What a statement.
SPEAKER_00: He talked with God and it changed the way he looked.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when you're with uh certain people, it can change your face.
SPEAKER_00: I mean a good way or a bad way, huh?
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize that even until as of recent.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh the the countenance of face can change very quickly by the people that you are around.
SPEAKER_00: But talking with God with Moses actually changed his face.
SPEAKER_00: Now watch verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron and all of Israel, they see him, and it says in the text, they run.
SPEAKER_00: They run.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: They were looking at God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: They were looking at not exactly into the face of God, but a reflection of the afterglow of God's glory on the face of a mortal man.
SPEAKER_00: And Aaron's, this is Aaron's little brother.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron knows his brother, and they all couldn't take it.
SPEAKER_00: They start running for the hills.
SPEAKER_00: R.
SPEAKER_00: Kent Hughes' commentary, he put it this way: the very glory shining from Moses' face searched their hearts and consciences, being what they were, sinners.
SPEAKER_00: They were afraid because they knew in their souls they could never stand before the one from whose presence Moses had come.
SPEAKER_00: They were seeing a glimpse of the glory of God through the face of Moses, and even just a glimpse of his splendor, a glimpse of his glory, they were running for the hills in fear.
SPEAKER_00: It means our God is holy.
SPEAKER_00: Herbert Carson wrote of God's transcendent majesty, whose glory fills the heavens, whose mighty power spans the wide compass of history.
SPEAKER_00: If a millionth part of that glory bouncing off a man's cheekbone sent a whole nation scrambling backwards, what will it be to see him as he is?
SPEAKER_00: And church, one day we will.
SPEAKER_00: We will see God.
SPEAKER_00: But don't forget this: we will all stand before him by ourselves, alone, nowhere to hide.
SPEAKER_00: We all die alone.
SPEAKER_00: We all stand before God alone.
SPEAKER_00: What we also see in the texts here is they were not scared of Moses, they were nervous about the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, just a couple chapters before, they're denying Moses.
SPEAKER_00: They're making fun of him, they're putting him down.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, Moses comes back down, his face is a shown, and they're scared to death.
SPEAKER_00: The light, the shining of his face was borrowed light.
SPEAKER_00: It's always been borrowed, always.
unknown: C.
SPEAKER_00: S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis said it as well as anyone in the weight of glory.
SPEAKER_00: He described us as mirrors and said, Whatever brightness we have is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us, wholly derived, not partly.
SPEAKER_00: There is no percentage of that light that originates from us.
SPEAKER_00: If there is any light in our eyes, in our face, we are reflections of the sun.
SPEAKER_00: How do we apply this?
SPEAKER_00: There's two ways here.
SPEAKER_00: We can look at this.
SPEAKER_00: First, we must stop looking at ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Moses didn't know he was shining because Moses wasn't looking at Moses.
SPEAKER_00: He was so taken with the beauty of God that he never once checked his own reflection.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, looking extra shiny today.
SPEAKER_00: The facial care is working extra today.
SPEAKER_00: That's a mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Because the minute a man notices his glow, he starts polishing it.
SPEAKER_00: He starts managing it.
SPEAKER_00: A.W.
SPEAKER_00: Tozer said, until until we have seen ourselves as God sees us, we are not ready to see God as he is.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to see ourselves for who we are, huh?
SPEAKER_00: You ever get those mirrors in the hotel?
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're like those round ones that have like the X the extra zoom in on, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: The ladies love the skinny mirrors, you know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: The skinny ones.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great mirror.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: That's a bad mirror?
SPEAKER_00: Moses wasn't looking at himself.
SPEAKER_00: He had no clue he was even shining.
SPEAKER_00: Second, remember the people around you are better judges of your walk with God than you are.
SPEAKER_00: If you have to tell people you've been with Jesus, you probably haven't.
SPEAKER_00: I just spent four hours with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Man, it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see my face?
SPEAKER_00: Talking with God will change the way you look.
SPEAKER_00: I found it near impossible to change my own heart.
SPEAKER_00: I try with all that I have.
SPEAKER_00: These broken hands, these broken feet.
SPEAKER_00: You can't muscle yourself into true desire.
SPEAKER_00: Desiring God.
SPEAKER_00: How do you do that?
SPEAKER_00: We can't take steps of faith around us to try and produce fruit in our lives, but we don't determine the amount of fruit we produce.
SPEAKER_00: You can yell at the tree all day to grow.
SPEAKER_00: Produce more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: But there are things that you can do to take steps of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God to build your faith in relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I have found it near impossible to change my own heart.
SPEAKER_00: But just one moment of locking eyes with God and a man will literally be changed forever.
SPEAKER_00: If you get hit by a train, are you going to be changed?
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be dead.
SPEAKER_00: You know who's bigger than a train?
SPEAKER_00: You come in contact with the living God and you will be changed.
SPEAKER_00: Talking with God literally changed the way Moses looked.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many layers there.
SPEAKER_00: If we are made to know God and made to walk with him and know him to make him known, being with the Lord is what changes us to be the right person, talking to Him, and it's really true.
SPEAKER_00: If you have to tell people you've been with God, you probably haven't.
SPEAKER_00: It's seen, it's shown in a person's face and the way that they live.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't even fake that.
SPEAKER_00: You can do fake religious works, but people feel through all of that.
SPEAKER_00: You could do all the holy things, but it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: You can do all the exterior.
SPEAKER_00: That's the beautiful thing about this.
SPEAKER_00: Moses didn't know he was changing.
SPEAKER_00: Other people notice you are changing.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to grade your own life.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I'm holy.
SPEAKER_00: Have you seen my own report card?
SPEAKER_00: I gave myself all A's.
SPEAKER_00: Read my Bible, did my prayers, went to church, helped the old lady across the street, check, check, check.
SPEAKER_00: All doing it for the wrong reason.
SPEAKER_00: I love verse 29 because it says Moses didn't know that his face was shining.
SPEAKER_00: It actually says it in the text.
SPEAKER_00: Moses himself writes it down.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I didn't actually know.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know until they ran from me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what's going on, Aaron?
SPEAKER_00: Your face.
SPEAKER_00: Never forget this.
SPEAKER_00: Over 20 years ago, it was in Mexico with a guy named John Corson, and he talked about this very interesting picture illustration in Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: It is when the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles, and the room is filled with the presence of God, and it says, flames of fire, tongues of fire come sitting on each one of their heads.
SPEAKER_00: This is a very wild text to read.
SPEAKER_00: That flames, tongues of fire are sitting on each of the apostles' heads, and he pointed this out that each one of them could not see their own flame above their own head.
SPEAKER_00: But they could see the flame on everyone else.
SPEAKER_00: And this is oftentimes true.
SPEAKER_00: It's the people who have the brightest flames can't even see their own flame.
SPEAKER_00: They think everybody else's flame is so much more bright than mine.
SPEAKER_00: If you think your flame is brighter than everyone else's, you have the smallest flame.
SPEAKER_00: David knew it.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 34, 5.
SPEAKER_00: Those who look at him are radiant.
SPEAKER_00: Their faces are never covered with shame.
SPEAKER_00: This is a New Living Translation.
SPEAKER_00: Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy.
SPEAKER_00: No shadow of shame will darken their face.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful picture.
SPEAKER_00: Moses couldn't see his own light.
SPEAKER_00: Talking with God brings light.
SPEAKER_00: Point number two, if you're taking notes, Moses carried the light to the people.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 31, then Moses called to them.
SPEAKER_00: He could have enjoyed that moment.
SPEAKER_00: He could have stood at a distance and let them tremble.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he called the terrified crowd back to him.
SPEAKER_00: He calls the elders first and then the whole nation.
SPEAKER_00: Elders, people.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 32 says, He commanded them everything that Yahweh had spoken to him on Mount Sinai, everything, not the parts that would land well.
SPEAKER_00: He said everything that God had told them.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't hold back from telling them all that God had said.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 33, well, we must say everything God has said.
SPEAKER_00: We must not hold back anything that God has said or not said.
SPEAKER_00: We must say exactly as he has said it.
SPEAKER_00: That is our job, is just to speak the truth of God's word into this world, to shine that light into this world, regardless of what people think.
SPEAKER_00: And again, if I do believe if Christians uh across America would just do this in their homes, uh do this uh in their lives, if pastors would do this in their churches, we would see great revival.
SPEAKER_00: It is the truth that sets a man free.
SPEAKER_00: If he can't hear the truth, if no one will tell them the truth, they cannot be set free.
SPEAKER_00: And he told them the truth.
SPEAKER_00: He told them everything.
SPEAKER_00: Then, verse 33, don't miss this year.
SPEAKER_00: Then Moses finished speaking with them and put a veil over his face.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the order here.
SPEAKER_00: He finishes speaking with the light shining.
SPEAKER_00: Then he puts the veil over his face.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: The veil went on after the message went out to them.
SPEAKER_00: Every time God gave Moses something to say, the people saw his face shining while he said it.
SPEAKER_00: And again, why?
SPEAKER_00: Because back in chapter 32, the people had rejected Moses as their mediator.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to know this word was from God.
SPEAKER_00: And how would they know?
SPEAKER_00: One look at his face.
SPEAKER_00: There was no arguing with it.
SPEAKER_00: God had authenticated the message by making his face shown.
SPEAKER_00: It was supernatural, it was spiritual, it was the glory of God beaming through the face of Moses, setting a precedent with the people.
SPEAKER_00: We see this happen in Matthew 17 as well with the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes up on a mountain with his disciples, and the text says in verse 2, he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light.
SPEAKER_00: And the Father says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to him.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: So authenticating the Lord Jesus once again before the disciples, those standing there, the Father says, Listen to him.
SPEAKER_00: Look at his face.
SPEAKER_00: It shines like the sun.
SPEAKER_00: Look at his garments glowing.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the other place where we see someone's face shining in the New Testament?
SPEAKER_00: It is when Stephen is being martyred.
SPEAKER_00: When they're picking up stones to kill him for preaching the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He said he looked up to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: His face starts to shine.
SPEAKER_00: Saying once again, what he's saying is true.
SPEAKER_00: Is that why you guys turned up the lights a little extra today for me?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00: I had to, it was perfect.
SPEAKER_00: It's better than the first joke.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: Moses' face shone because light landed on him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' face shone because the light actually lives in him.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3 says, He is the radiance of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Moses had a reflection.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the radiance.
SPEAKER_00: Moses had borrowed light.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has never borrowed from anyone, and it has never dimmed for one second in all of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of the Lord will illuminate heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There will not be any need for the sun or the moon.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 4, 6 says, For God who said, Let there be light in the darkness in creation, has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we apply this?
SPEAKER_00: We've got to first remember, you are not the mediator in me either.
SPEAKER_00: That is the Lord Jesus, but you are a messenger.
SPEAKER_00: And we aren't to veil our face until the message has been delivered.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 5, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know, church, you are the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: Man, this world is dark.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know who the light is?
SPEAKER_00: You are.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said this: you are the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: And a city on a hill can't be hidden.
SPEAKER_00: You can't hide a city on a hill.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody ever tried to hide a city on a hill?
SPEAKER_00: Neither do people light a lamp and then put a basket on it.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, church, let your light so shine before men and women that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been covering your light for years.
SPEAKER_00: A Christian at church, but a ghost at work.
SPEAKER_00: Should take off the veil.
SPEAKER_00: Take the basket off your head.
SPEAKER_00: Let your light so shine that people may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but they might not like it.
SPEAKER_00: I know.
SPEAKER_00: The darkness hates the light, huh?
SPEAKER_00: But don't you want light in this town?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want light in this city?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want light in your workplace?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want light in your neighborhood?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want light in your family?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want light in this nation?
SPEAKER_00: Then take the basket off your head.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis wrote a novel late in his life called Till We Have Faces.
SPEAKER_00: It just dawned on me when I was working through this sermon.
SPEAKER_00: There's a band, there's an emo band I used to listen to like 20 plus years ago called Noise Ratchet.
SPEAKER_00: The title of their album is called Till We Have Faces.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite songs, Till We Have Faces.
SPEAKER_00: It never dawned on me until that that was them.
SPEAKER_00: And he got inspired by C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis' book.
SPEAKER_00: I've been listening to the album, going back through it, and the entire I didn't know it.
SPEAKER_00: The band is fully Christian.
SPEAKER_00: All of the lyrics, the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even know it.
SPEAKER_00: They're not signed with a Christian label.
SPEAKER_00: Little side note.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna go listen to it later.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Josh used to listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Still listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis wrote a novel late in his life again called Till We Have Faces.
SPEAKER_00: The book that he thought was the best he had ever written.
SPEAKER_00: It retells an old myth through the eyes of a woman named Oral, a queen who believes she's too ugly to be looked at.
SPEAKER_00: So she starts wearing a veil.
SPEAKER_00: But it becomes her power.
SPEAKER_00: People fear what they cannot see, and rumors start to grow.
SPEAKER_00: She rules from behind that cloth for decades.
SPEAKER_00: She keeps it on so long that she loses track of what's underneath it.
SPEAKER_00: She forgets her own face.
SPEAKER_00: She has no face left.
SPEAKER_00: Just a covering, a mask.
SPEAKER_00: A life spent managing what people were allowed to see.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not what's really under there.
SPEAKER_00: She was hiding her real face.
SPEAKER_00: She forgot her own face.
SPEAKER_00: She forgot her real voice.
SPEAKER_00: Her old tutor had taught her that the whole art of words was saying exactly what you mean.
SPEAKER_00: Standing there, she calls that a glib, saying, Because wait until the day you're finally forced to speak the thing that actually has been at the center of you all along, the thing you've been murmuring your whole life without ever knowing it.
SPEAKER_00: You won't be talking about the joy of words that day.
SPEAKER_00: And then it dawns on her while why heaven had seemed so quiet to her.
SPEAKER_00: It was never that God wouldn't speak.
SPEAKER_00: It was that she had nothing real to say until that true word gets dug out of a person.
SPEAKER_00: Why would God listen to the babble we only think we mean?
SPEAKER_00: And then she asks it, How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?
SPEAKER_00: Now put those two veils side by side.
SPEAKER_00: Moses covered a full face of God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: Oral covered a full face of shame.
SPEAKER_00: Borth wear this veil, but only one of them had something underneath worth showing.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to ask you plainly, which veil are you wearing?
SPEAKER_00: Some are hiding behind shame, terrified of being seen, and there are others in this room maybe hiding behind God's veil, terrified of being known as a Christian in the real world, different fears, but the same veil.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus told us very clearly, you are the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: You're not shame.
SPEAKER_00: You are the light.
SPEAKER_00: And you're not to put the veil on, you're not to hide behind there, you're not going to truly see your own face until you look into the mirror of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You look into the face of God.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not until you're honest with yourself, whatever you've been murmuring your whole life about yourself, but won't say openly.
SPEAKER_00: They only shine.
SPEAKER_00: We put on the mask, we put on the veil, and we pretend.
SPEAKER_00: We play to the people around us.
SPEAKER_00: We hide.
SPEAKER_00: We do it in two ways.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want people to really find out who we are, the negative within us, but then we also don't want people to really find out who we are.
SPEAKER_00: A Christian who loves God with all of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We must shine.
SPEAKER_00: Moses knew he took off the veil to say the message to the people.
SPEAKER_00: He had to, and then he put it back on.
SPEAKER_00: We have to be honest with ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We must take off the veil, look in the mirror, and see who we really are.
SPEAKER_00: Stand before God today and be honest and let him use you for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Point number three, and finally, the light he kept coming back to.
SPEAKER_00: The light he kept coming back to.
SPEAKER_00: This is verse 34 and 35.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really amazing.
SPEAKER_00: It stops being a one-time miracle and becomes this pattern.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the language, it says here in verse 34 whenever, whenever Moses went in before Yahweh, he would take off the veil and then he would come out and speak.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses would return the veil over his face until you went in to speak with him.
SPEAKER_00: So in, veil off, face to face, out, he would shine, speak, veil back on, back in again, veil off, meet with God, go back out, speak to the people, veil on.
SPEAKER_00: You do it over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a mountaintop experience.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like some type of rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: It's a lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: And the honest part is what Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: He said that the glory faded.
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking about Moses.
SPEAKER_00: He says the glory would fade from his face.
SPEAKER_00: Moses had to keep going back like a flashlight getting low on batteries.
SPEAKER_00: The shine was wearing off, and he would have to go back in and get a recharge, and then his face would shine again.
SPEAKER_00: And legacy, we are running on borrowed light.
SPEAKER_00: Our lampstand as a church has to be refueled by Christ over and over again, Christ and Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: Moses' light had to be borrowed again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: And we must go back to him again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: If your light is running, running weak this week, maybe it's you're running off the battery or the light from uh a few Sundays ago.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a Sunday from three months ago.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a Sunday from three years ago.
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: You're dim, your battery is low, you need a refilling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Ask God to fill you.
SPEAKER_00: Create in me a clean heart, oh God.
SPEAKER_00: Renew a right spirit within me.
SPEAKER_00: Refresh me.
SPEAKER_00: Repent, therefore, that times of refreshing may come in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: Restore to me the joy of my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Gotta get in the tent.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get near to God.
SPEAKER_00: Draw near to God and He will draw near to you, James chapter 4, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Or come close to God and God will come close to you.
SPEAKER_00: Sinners, wash your hands, please.
SPEAKER_00: Purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.
SPEAKER_00: The battery is dim because you're trying to recharge it in the world.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: It's only found in the sun.
SPEAKER_00: And the moon reflects the sun.
SPEAKER_00: Phil Wickham writes a song, maybe you've never heard.
SPEAKER_00: He's I mean, you've heard all of his great songs, but this is a hidden one that not very many know, and it's called Sun and Moon.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if you are the sun, then I want to be the moon.
SPEAKER_00: I want to reflect the light that shines from you.
SPEAKER_00: And if this is war, then I'm gonna draw my sword.
SPEAKER_00: This time I know what I'm fighting for.
SPEAKER_00: God, I want to let you know I love everything you are.
SPEAKER_00: I'm waiting for the morning light to show fire in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: Shine your light.
SPEAKER_00: I want to feel you now.
SPEAKER_00: He says, God, I need a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Take my heart, make it glow, shine your light from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be more like you.
SPEAKER_00: If you are the sun, I want to be the moon.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be the moon.
SPEAKER_00: That means the word open on a Tuesday morning when nobody's watching, seeking the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It means prayer that isn't an emergency call, just talking with the Lord, just walking with him.
SPEAKER_00: Walking in his presence, talking with the Lord each day.
SPEAKER_00: It means gathering with God's people, taking the bread in the cup, singing songs of worship and praise to the Lord with your whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter if it's loud or quiet, it doesn't matter if it's hands lifted high or low, it's with your whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on inside?
SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget that principle I was taught years ago again in Mexico, John Corson, the four P's.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer in private gives you power in public.
SPEAKER_00: There is no substitute, no shortcut.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one thing the disciples that we see in the text asked Jesus to teach them to do.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, teach us to what?
SPEAKER_00: Pray.
SPEAKER_00: They watched him go away with his father all the time in the secret place and be with God.
SPEAKER_00: Peter and John stand before the most educated men in Jerusalem, and Luke writes at the council in Acts 4.13 were marveling and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: These disciples, these apostles, they have no credentials, they have no training really.
SPEAKER_00: They had a glow in the room that couldn't be explained, and people perceived that they had been with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we know their credentials and their training as they spent three years with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You have to remember that we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, Romans chapter 8, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: And that we figuratively have a backing of a power plant behind us, trying to shine light through this flashlight here of this life.
SPEAKER_00: Infinite energy.
SPEAKER_00: And you can shine as loud, as wide, as awesome as you want.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are walking around with their flashlights with their hand on it.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing over there?
SPEAKER_00: Take your hand off the flashlight.
SPEAKER_00: Shine.
SPEAKER_00: But I can go away into my room and in prayer and get nearer to God in heaven than I can when assisted by all the telescopes of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Spurgeon said, when we get away from self to God, there all is truth and purity and holiness, and our heart finds peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, and victory.
SPEAKER_00: Again, self has to get out of the way.
SPEAKER_00: That's the hardest part.
SPEAKER_00: The amount of time spent alone with God in prayer is telling of the depth of our relationship with Him.
SPEAKER_00: Moses went back time and time again, and he kept shining.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the key, church.
SPEAKER_00: It's as simple as that.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we don't want it to be that simple.
SPEAKER_00: I think we want to climb the mountain of Mecca.
SPEAKER_00: We want the pilgrimage.
SPEAKER_00: We want to climb the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: The mountain's already been climbed.
SPEAKER_00: Christ tore the veil.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of heaven is open.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who wants to draw near can draw near.
SPEAKER_00: If you seek me, you'll find me.
SPEAKER_00: If you seek me with all your heart.
SPEAKER_00: He says it to a grown man.
SPEAKER_00: He says it to both.
SPEAKER_00: That the access to the King of all kings is sitting right there.
SPEAKER_00: It's always been there.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to change, you have to go be with God.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has made a way.
SPEAKER_00: You understand it, how it works theologically.
SPEAKER_00: But now you must do this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Talking with God, don't forget, brings light.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was shown because he'd been with God and he was the last man in Israel to even know that he was shining.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Moses carried the light to the people.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't veil his face, he spoke every word to them.
SPEAKER_00: And then don't forget, he went back for the light over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was in and out of that tenant meaning again and again, all the way to the end of his life.
SPEAKER_00: And again, the question that I gave you at the beginning is where is your light coming from?
SPEAKER_00: The good news is it's already available for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's better than anything Moses carried down from that hill.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3 that when Moses is uh is read, a veil lies over the heart, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is completely taken away.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that you remove it, it says it is removed, that you cannot tear that thing off yourself, that God has actually removed the veil for you.
SPEAKER_00: Orl couldn't take her veil off with C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the book, she finally stands before the gods, the veil comes off, and for the first time she sees what's being under there all along, and she asks the question the book is named for.
SPEAKER_00: How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, how can God meet me if there's no real me to meet?
SPEAKER_00: And that's our problem.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't just that something's covering us, it's that we've been spent so long being who people expect that we're not sure there's anything left underneath there anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But that's exactly what Jesus came to do.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just pull off the covering for you, he gives you a face and he makes it shine.
SPEAKER_00: He tells you who you are and he makes it shine.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here this morning and the veil is still on, the church, maybe the the Bible is confusing and church is boring, and this whole thing feels like somebody else's story.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you don't need to try harder.
SPEAKER_00: You need Christ to take it away, and you can ask him to do so.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God help me understand.
SPEAKER_00: Lead me to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Give me faith in Jesus so I can be saved forever.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive me of my sin.
SPEAKER_00: I make you Lord and Savior over my life.
SPEAKER_00: You say, seek me, I am seeking you.
SPEAKER_00: Church legacy, please never forget that our light is borrowed.
SPEAKER_00: But you can borrow it infinitely, isn't that great?
SPEAKER_00: You never have to pay this loan back.
SPEAKER_00: Interest free.
SPEAKER_00: No payments forever.
SPEAKER_00: He will keep shining upon you, and every day you come to him.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me, all ye who are heavy laden and burdened, weary, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, I can't help church but close and saying the blessing we sing over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord bless you and keep you.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord make his face shine upon you, the Lord be gracious unto you.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.
SPEAKER_00: Very obscure text, very interesting text.
SPEAKER_00: This guy's face is shining like the beams of the sun.
SPEAKER_00: But what a picture.
SPEAKER_00: Especially knowing, church, that we are the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a dark city, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Would somebody turn on the light?
SPEAKER_00: If everybody turns on the light here, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Joy will explode in this city.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Some people may hate it, but guess what?
SPEAKER_00: There will be thousands that love it.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to pray for us that God would do that work in us, that He would help us to see that we are the light.
SPEAKER_00: You are the light right now.
SPEAKER_00: And that God would do that work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we turn to you now with all of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And God, I pray that you would help each one to see not that someone else is the light, but that they are the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And that each of us would turn the lights on.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us for returning to darkness over and over again and trying to hide our lights.
SPEAKER_00: Help us, God, we can't do it, we can't do it without you.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us for putting the veil on.
SPEAKER_00: We don't even know who we are.
SPEAKER_00: We never look in our own face.
SPEAKER_00: Not honest with ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, would you give us a face?
SPEAKER_00: A spiritual face for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Remove the veil, let us shine for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: We want to reflect the sun with all of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot do it without you.
SPEAKER_00: We yield to you today.
SPEAKER_00: We give you our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We do it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.