What a pleasure it is to be with
you again. Good to see each and every one of you. And we look
forward from time to time visiting with you here at this facility. And we're going to be in the
book of Hebrews for a short reading today. The book of Hebrews chapter
11. In the book of Hebrews chapter
11 and verse 23, it tells us about a man by the name of Moses,
only when he was in a youth, he was a child that was born
and the command had been given by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that
all the boy babies should be thrown into the river. He didn't
want Israel to get so big that they would overthrow Egypt, his
country. So he ordered that and no doubt
many young children, young boys, were taken care of that way.
But his mama and his dad, Moses' mama and dad, says here, by faith
Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents. So they disobeyed the law and
kept their baby boy. Now this is all in the providence
of God because God's gonna use Moses in a very mighty way. He is going to come to Moses
in a very special way, but here he is being preserved. God is
preserving him, and it says, because they saw he was a proper
child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. Now,
we know the account, if we go over to the book of Exodus, we'd
find there that he was hidden in the Nile River in a little
ark his mother had prepared, his dad had prepared, and Pharaoh's
daughter found him, and she raised him as her own child. What providence of God, what
blessing of God that he would save this young baby and let
him grow up there. He grew up among Pharaoh's household
and he learned to speak, I'm sure, whatever language the Egyptians
were speaking at that time. And he was raised just like Pharaoh's
son. And he was raised with the blessings
of Pharaoh's son. But we also find out that in
the process of time, he came to this conclusion. in Hebrews
chapter 11, verse 24, by faith. And I wanna say just a word about
faith. Faith is a gift of God. Faith
is a gift of God. God must give us faith. And we
find that it is so important that we have faith, but it's
a gift of God. And by faith, we will believe
that the worlds were made just like God said they were. And
by faith, we will follow God. And by faith, we will see in
his word the Lord Jesus Christ as the high and lifted up one
will see him as the Lord of glory and that by faith. Well, here
by faith, Moses, when he was of come to years, refused to
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season. esteeming the reproach of Christ,
greater riches." Did you hear that? He's esteeming the reproach
of Christ. Now, in the Old Testament, we
find the word Messiah is used. Messiah in the Old Testament
is Christ in the New Testament. One's in Hebrew, one's in Greek.
But here we read, as the writer was led by inspiration to write
here in the book of Hebrews, that this one, Moses, so long
ago in the Old Testament, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater
riches. So he knew something about this
one. He knew something about Christ.
We read in the New Testament that the Apostle Peter was asked
one time, who do men say that I am? or the disciples, he asked
that. And they went and he said, well,
some think you're John the Baptist, come back. And some think you're
Elijah, come back. Well, you know, they thought
that he had come back to life. One of those had come back to
life. And they had very little knowledge about life, didn't
they? Well, anyway, he asked Peter,
he said, Peter, who do you say that I am? And Peter said, thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. Now, Peter, before
he could get too proud about that, the Lord said, flesh and
blood did not reveal this unto you, but my Father, which is
in heaven. So this is a revelation, the
revelation of Jesus Christ. And we can go over here to Moses
and find out that God had worked the same grace with him as he
had with Peter, esteeming the riches. esteeming the riches
of Christ, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God than to enjoy pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming
the reproach of Christ's greater riches than being third in command
in all of Egypt." Oh, the gold that flowed through there, all
of the nice things flowed through there. But he said, by faith,
I am choosing Jesus Christ. I'm choosing Christ over all
these riches. and he had respect upon the recompense
of reward, and by faith he first took Egypt, not fearing the wrath
of the king, for he endured seeing him who is invisible." Now, if
we go over to the book of Exodus, we find out that Moses killed
an Egyptian he thought was afflicting an Israelite. It's wonderful
when we get to the New Testament that that subject is not brought
up. We find it was by faith he left.
By faith he left Egypt. But here we go over there and
we find the history. We find out he was a sinner.
He was a sinner like we are. He was a sinner that had all
the same afflictions in his life. And he went even to the point
of killing the man and burying him in the sand. And then we
find out that Pharaoh was mad at him and was going to come
after him. But under grace we find that he left by faith. Going, I'm gonna take that story
and go over to the book of Exodus for just a moment. And in the
book of Exodus, we pick up Moses and it tells us here that he
was about 40 years of age and he's become a sheep herder. Can
you imagine what it was to leave the grandeur of the Pharaoh's
household and become a sheep herder out on the backside of
the desert? Most people think, well, he went
downhill. He chose the wrong profession. He could have stayed
there and look how rich he'd be. His children would be rich
and everything else. But he chose by faith. He left that position by faith. He thought that Christ was much
more valuable than staying there. And he went out there and he's
herding sheep on the backside of the desert for his father-in-law. And you know what herding sheep
in the backside of the desert, when there's nothing out there,
you just kind of let him travel. And he just followed them. And
one day, it tells us here, when Moses kept the flock of Jethro,
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock.
Oh, I said he was after him. What did we find out about sheep?
He led them. Jesus said, my sheep hear my
voice and they follow me. He led the flock to the backside
of the desert, and came to the mountain of God even Horeb. And the angel of the Lord, the messenger of the Lord, the
messenger of the covenant, appeared unto him in a flame of fire out
of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the
bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Now, God's
doing something very special here for Moses. He's attracting
his attention with fire in a bush out there in the backside of
the desert, and it was not being consumed. Normally, it'd already
been burned up and going to somewhere else, but it is not being consumed. God is here, and God is going
to share something very particular with Moses this day. He's gonna
share his most important name, a name that is brought into the
New Testament. He is going to share that most
important name, I am. I'm the self-existent one, and
that's God speaking. I am self-existent. I depend
on nothing for my sustenance. I depend on nothing for my progress. God is an everlasting God. He
rules and reigns even as Nebuchadnezzar confessed. He said he rules in
the armies of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth and
none can say his hand or say what doest thou. That's this
God, the great I Am. Well, the angel appeared unto
him, and in verse 3, Moses said, I will now turn aside. Wasn't
that interesting? He's going along there, leading
his flock, and he looked over there and saw something that
attracted him. And in his heart, he said, I
want to go find out what that is. You know, I'm so thankful
that the Lord sets up road markers for us in our life, as he brings
us to a point where we get to hear the gospel. He is going
to meet God. Now he's already had faith in
God, but he's gonna meet him, and the greatest name of God,
I am. All right, Moses turned aside
to see the great sight, why the bush was not burnt. And when
the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out
of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said,
here am I. Now there's two names for God
used in that verse of scripture. The first one is Lord, and if
you'll notice, it's always in capital letters, and that means
Jehovah. We have Jehovah here, saw him,
and God, Elohim, the powerful one, is the one that called unto
him. And he said, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from
off thy feet, for the place wherein thou standest is holy ground.
In the presence of God is a holy place. We go to the book of Isaiah,
we find holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And that means
we can only approach Him through the Son that pays for our sin. We can't approach Him in our
sinful nature. We have to go through the Son.
And it says here, moreover, He said, I am the God of thy father,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
No, He's telling him here, I'm the covenant God that has been
with you. I chose Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. Stephen
said, The God of glory appeared unto him in Ur of the Chaldees. The God of glory. Not just some
God. Abraham worshipped all sorts of gods. But the God of glory
appeared unto him. The God of heaven appeared unto
him. The God of salvation appeared unto him and drew him out of
that place. And he says, I'm also the God of Isaac. The son,
remember what Abraham was requested to do? Take your son, your only
son, up on that mountain and offer him as a sacrifice. And
you know what? Abraham was doing that. Why?
He believed God. Nothing was too hard. He believed
God. And God had given him the information, if I must do this,
he will also raise him from the dead. We see there was a picture,
a picture of our deliverance. There was a goat, another animal
caught there by its horns, and Abraham offered that animal instead
of his son. God stopped him from doing that,
but he believed God. Lord said, I'll have surely seen
the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and I've heard
their cry by reason of the taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. Egypt
had been, excuse me, Israel had been in, slavery in Egypt for
400 years. You know what? God told Abraham
they're going to be in slavery 400 years long before it took
place because of the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
Well, I don't understand all I know about that, but I know
this, they're there on purpose and they're going to be delivered
on purpose. I am come down to deliver them out of the hand
of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land into the
good land and enlarge into a land flowing with milk and honey,
with the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites, the Amorites,
the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I'm going
to bring them out of that land." And we drop down here. It says,
Moses said unto God, behold, when I come unto the children
of Israel, and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers
has sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, what is his
name? What shall I say unto them? That's
in verse 13. The God of your fathers has sent
me, and they ask your name, what shall I tell them? And in verse
14, it says, and God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. That's the name that Moses was
to go tell the children of Israel as being prisoners, if you please,
slaves, if you please, in Egypt. The deliverer is I am that I
am. And when they asked his name,
say, I am. You know, it's so wonderful when
we travel from this point to the New Testament, we find in
the book of John, and that's kind of where I'm headed in our
next few studies together, in the book of John, Jesus Christ
uses that name about himself eight times. Eight times he brings
that out. And the very first one, and we're
not going to go into this, but we just want to bring it up.
The very first one that he brings up, he says, I am the bread of
life. Moses understood that. He understood
that the Messiah was his bread of life. Now we know that word
bread means more than just a loaf of bread. It means meat. He's
our food. The Lord is our food. We must enjoy him spiritually
as we enjoy meat and other things. It's almost like assimilating
him, taking him in. So we're gonna go through these,
there's eight times that we find in the book of John, and over
the next few weeks together, we'll go over those. We have,
I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world.
I am the door of the sheep. I am the resurrection and the
life. I am the good shepherd. I am
the way, the truth, and the life. And I am the true vine. And lastly, he says, I am he. to a group of people that come
to take him and crucify him. Now, the word he is not found
in the original language. It's just, he just said, I am.
And to those Jews, when he said that, they knew what he was talking
about, but they didn't like it. This guy cannot be that God. He appeared to Moses and said,
I am that I am, but this guy, he can't be. Well, they crucified
the righteous one. that crucified Christ, the son
of the living God, and he crucified him and he went to that cross
to lay down his life, a ransom for many. That's what he said.
So I am, we'll look at that beautiful statement, beautiful name of
our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ over the next few weeks together.
And we look forward to doing that the next time we get together,
starting with I am the bread of life. Brother Mike, if you'll
come, we'll have one song in closing and a word of prayer.
And it's been good to be with you this afternoon. Thank you
for being with us. And it's just been a pleasure.
I just enjoy this. Sometimes I come a little bit
tired, but I always get rejuvenated here. Get picked up. So, Brother Mike. Number 51. Number 51. I know
whom I have believed. Or believe it. Number 51. Number 51. OK. I know not why God's wondrous
grace to me he hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love
redeem me for his own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day.