Ex 34:6, Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth…
This morning, we will bring our considerations of this glorious passage to a conclusion. It is not that we will ever be far from the truth of God expressed by His own words to Moses. As we push ahead in our readings, we will discover even more wondrous and amazing and awesome realities that are essential aspects of the Character and the Nature of Our Marvelous and Splendid and Majestic Lord God Almighty, the Only living and True God, Creator of all that is created.
This is fully in line with the manner in which we will begin this morning’s study if you would please open your Bibles to Eph 1:3-9. In this passage, the Apostle Paul gives honor and praise and reverence to the Lord God Almighty in the amazing declaration of how God has blessed us so fully and freely and abundantly in His Only Begotten Son. Eph 1:3-9, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him… 
 	The Apostle Paul is enthralled with the view of God that he had received through the revelation of the fullness of Jesus Christ. His personal experience with the Risen Lord Jesus opened Paul’s heart and being to seek after every truth that God would reveal of Himself. He spent years with those who would teach him about Christ. All his learned expertise in the scriptures served to open up the full course of how God had been manifesting Himself through the entire history of humanity as evidenced in His dealings with the nation that He had called unto Himself. 
	Then, in the giving of His Own Son, God had increased the scope of His salvation beyond merely a specific nation, to all who would receive the Only Begotten. It became very apparent, despite the initial opposition of the early church leaders in Jerusalem, that God had opened His salvation to all those whom He had chosen from before the very creation of time. It mattered not the pedigree, or the social status, or the economic condition. All that meant nothing in the heart of the Heavenly Father. He chose to bless those whom He chose to bless through the just and holy and perfect wisdom of His grace and mercy. …the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth…
	This is what is bound up in the blessing that is ours by the working power of God in Jesus Christ. Everything is set into place as ours by the fact that God has so chosen to bless us in Jesus Christ. He chose us, He called us, He saved us, and He is glorifying us all because He is Who He is, praise His glorious and awesome name forever and forever. And that is exactly what we will be doing forever and ever. We will be declaring His glory. Our testimony and our praise will join the swelling chorus of the eternal ages in giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the honor and the adoration that He is due simply because He is the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth…
	The Apostle Paul, in Eph 2:4-10, gives further details to this manifested nature and character of God as displayed for all to see in Jesus Christ. Please read along with me in the joy filled and wonderful truth of how the love of God is made to be ours in His Only Begotten Son. Eph 2:4-10, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 
	The every character and nature of God as declared to Moses on Mount Sinai is livingly presented in Jesus Christ. The full measure of God’s grace and long suffering and mercy and lovingkindness and truth are shown in the beauty and the self-sacrifice of the Son incarnate. His so great love came down to earth and took upon Himself our sin and our trespasses and our separation from God and nailed them physically, in His own body, to the cross to pay the price of our sins for all of eternity. 
He showed in life and death what God so straightforwardly and candidly made known through all the prophets and writings of the Old Testament. In His every dealing with mankind, He always did so according to the reality of His nature and character of being. There was never a time in which He did anything other than what proved Him as …the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth…
	That certainty and fact of eternity then led the Apostle Paul to make the proclamation that we can read together in Eph 3:14-21. Eph 3:14-21, For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. 
	The infinite and unsearchable riches of the Essential Being of God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, can only be made known through Jesus Christ. This is something that the Apostle came to realize in his life. As much as he had been a scholar and taught by the greatest of the Pharisees and Scribes, it all meant nothing apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ. Even the prophets of old, including Moses, could not come into the manifested truth of the Person and the Being of God without looking to the Messiah, the Christ to come. They had their glimpses and they had their prophesies to relay but they did not know exactly what they were detailing as they wrote down what the Holy Spirit gave them to express. They had the real sense that God was going to do something beyond any comprehension. Yet that was veiled by the working power of God until the fullness of time had come to open Heaven and to send forth His Son, born of a virgin to bring His plan and His purpose to fruition. Everything is centered and revealed and expressed in Jesus Christ!
	The Apostle declared this to his protégée, Timothy, as we read in 1 Tim 1:12-17. 1 Tim 1:12-17, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service; even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. And yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 
	God chose whom He chose to reveal the full measure of the glory of His salvation in Jesus Christ. This was evident in the choice of Saul of Tarsus as the chief persecutor of the Church of Christ. In his zeal to utterly eliminate the name of Jesus of Nazareth from the face of the earth, Saul, soon to be Paul, was the perfect choice of God to redeem and then use to spread the Good News to the Gentile nations, whom Saul had despised as a leader of the Jews. He thought they were worthless and but fuel for the fires of hell. That all changed when Jesus showed him that God’s salvation was for all who would but believe in the name of Christ and freely receive that which God gave forth by the mercy and the grace of His lovingkindness. 
	Now please turn to James 5:7-11 and read what Brother James related concerning the fact that God has expressed His Character and Nature in Jesus Christ for all believers. James 5:7-11, Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. 
	We finish with the realities expressed by the Apostle Peter as he relays what he learned through the teaching and the life of the Lord Himself. We start with 1 Peter 1:3-5. 1 Peter 1:3-5, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 
	Note that this is very similar in tone and content with the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Ephesus. There is the same blessing of God as the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the expression of the treasury of heaven that is ours in the grace of Jesus Christ unto salvation.
	Now please turn to 1 Peter 5:10+11, where Peter then gives a very concrete explanation as to what must happen in accordance with the pouring out of this vast and endless supply of God’s grace and mercy, and loving-kindness upon us. 1 Peter 5:10+11, And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. 
	We are supplied with all the spiritual riches of heaven in Jesus Christ, but not for just banking it away and sitting on it. No, it is for living forth on this earth in that grace and mercy and compassion and long-suffering and love and truth to be in evidence in everything that we do and say and show forth unto others. We are the testimony of what God has done in Jesus Christ and that must be evidenced in the lives that we live. We do not hide and cower in fear and trembling, but rather we live our lives knowing the One by Whom we have this very life in the first place. We join the chorus that …To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. No matter what we might have to endure and face and suffer, we know the One Who Holds this entire realm and all of creation in His hand to do as He so chooses to do.
	And finally, in this great truth, the Apostle Peter gives us the following encouragement in 2 Peter 3:8+9. 2 Peter 3:8+9, But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 
That is to be the heart with which we approach everyone whom God brings into our lives. It begins with parents and children and brothers and sisters and all other family members. Then it extends to neighbors and fellow workers and associates and fellow believers. It covers those who serve our needs at restaurants and market places and any other locale in which we are brought into contact with souls who need to see the reality that in Jesus Christ Alone, God has so eternally manifested His great love. The words spoken to Moses are our reality shown forth for all mankind. So be it!
Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is 1 Cor 1:4-8. I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.