If you would, go back to Exodus
chapter 3. I want to talk to you about God's
message to Israel. The Lord gives Moses some information
and speaks to him about his identity, and then he has a message that
Moses is to take to the elders of Israel. Now, we've already
stressed this, but let me begin this way. And here's the very
first thing. First of all, the Lord says to Moses, you tell
them who I am. See, there isn't any use in speaking
about what God is going to do if we don't know who God is.
No use speaking about Jesus Christ work of redemption and reconciliation
and bringing in everlasting righteousness about Him being the scapegoat,
about Him being the Lamb of God who was smitten of God and afflicted. There's no use speaking about
the things that He did unless we know who He is. Because His
real identity gives value and gives worth to all that He did. And so the Lord is going to tell
Moses to tell the children of Israel that He's going to deliver
them. But first of all, He tells Moses, tell them, the one who
has sent you is I Am. That's what He says in verse
14. God says to Moses in response to Moses saying, what is his
name? When I tell them I've come to
deliver them and the Lord has sent me, and they say, well,
what is his name? Lord, what shall I say? Who are
you? Tell me, give me more information. And the Lord said, God said to
Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel. This is my message to Israel. That I am. That's my name. I am. This speaks of his self-existence. He's the being of all beings. God speaks to Moses and he speaks
about who he is. He's the eternal God. You know,
Moses wrote the 90th Psalm. And in that psalm, Moses writes
of the Lord that he's from everlasting to everlasting. He's the great
I Am. Speak to the children of Israel.
Tell them I'm going to deliver them. I'm going to be with them.
I've visited them. I've seen the mess that they're
in. I've seen their bondage. I've
seen their captivity. But before you tell them what
I'm going to do, tell them who I am. And the reason people in religion
today, the reason for the most part that they don't believe
the things that the Lord says that He does and that He's already
done and that He's going to do, here's the issue. They don't
know who He is. They read of His name, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
And they don't labor on His name, the meaning of His name. Who
is this Savior? Who is this Son of God? Who is
this Messiah? And Moses is told by the Lord,
tell them, I am. I am. Established in their minds who
I am. I'm the same yesterday, today
and forever. I am. This is His eternality. This is His immutability. And
immutability just means God does not change. He cannot change. I heard a preacher one time preach
that God used to hate us. before we came to faith in Christ,
and we came to faith in Christ, then God loved us. You would
never stand for hearing that, would you? Because you see, if
that's true, that's a God who changes. God doesn't change. If He loved you before the world
began, He loves you now, and He'll always love you. And if
God hated you before the foundation of the world, He still hates
you. And He'll hate you forever. This
is a God who knows no change. He is the great I Am. I understand this. Before a man
can speak before other men and tell them about God, His words
have no real worth unless He knows the God who has sent Him
and the God whose message that He bears. That's the problem today. Preachers
today are ignorant of the identity of God. They don't know who God
is. They speak of Him in vague language. But they can't identify Him because
they don't know Him. And they don't know Him because
God has never revealed Himself to them as the great I Am. As the unchangeable God. They've
never seen the glory of God in all of His attributes. And I
know and recognize that those of us who believe God as He set
forth in the Word of God, our knowledge is just a little. It's a little bit of knowledge.
I mean, the Lord is so vast. He's so great. He's so glorious
that we have gotten just a glimpse of His glory. But a glimpse of
His glory has really impressed us. And if more men were to see
who God is, then they wouldn't have any difficulty with the
magnificence of His works. His work of creation, His work
of providence, and His work of grace. He is the great I Am. And the Lord says, Moses, you
tell them. That's my name. That's my name. This is the God who chose a people
unto salvation. Will He save those people? Well,
if He is the Great I Am, He will. If He's the Almighty God, He
will. If He's the One who rules over
all things, He will. This God who descended to this
earth and lived and died, as the Scripture says, to save a
people from their sins. Did He accomplish His purpose?
Did He do what He set out to do? The reason that He came into
the world was to save His people from their sins. Was He successful? Did He finish that work? If He
is the Great I Am, Yes, He did. If He's anything less than the
Great I Am, if He's anything less than Almighty God, then
what He did means nothing. You see, His works are dependent
upon who He is. This God of grace, will He draw
people effectually unto Himself? And when I use the word effectually,
I mean, will He get the job done? Will He really draw people unto
Himself? If He's almighty, He will. If
He has all power in heaven and earth like He said that He did,
If that's who He is, He will draw His people unto Himself.
Will His people be safe throughout this lifetime? If He's God over
all, blessed forever, the great I Am, His people are safe forever. He said, I give to my sheep eternal
life. Well, can we believe that? Well,
yes, we can believe that. Because of who said it? Who said
it? He sends forth His preachers
to preach. Will the purpose for their ministry
be successful? You see, and you can look this
up later, 2 Corinthians 2. All of God's preachers, our ministries
will be successful. We will triumph. That's what
He says. We'll triumph over those who
are saved and we'll triumph over those who refuse to believe the
gospel. Well, why will we triumph? Why will? I thought about this
today. What is the reason that my ministry
will be successful? Well, it's not because of who
I am. I'm just flesh and blood. I'm just a sinner saved by grace. Why will I be successful? Because
of who has taught me the gospel and who has entrusted me with
this glorious treasure in this earthen vessel. And as I give
forth the gospel of the sovereign grace of God, I am assured from
the Word of God, this message will do exactly what the great
I Am ordained to be done. I represent God Almighty, I have
his word. He sends his preachers forth
to preach. So he's the great I Am. And then
he says this, he's identifying now who's sending the message
to Israel. He makes known, he wants Moses
to make known to the Israelites his identity as he made known
his identity to Moses. Now notice this, go back up in
verse 6. This is when he's standing at
the burning bush. He hears a voice say in verse
4, Moses, Moses, and he said, here am I. And the voice said,
draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place where thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, and
this is the Lord giving to Moses His name. He's telling Moses
who He is. I am the God of thy father, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God
of the patriarchs. That's who I am. In other words,
I am the covenant God. That's what he's saying. I'm
the covenant God. And so down here in verse 15, the Lord tells Moses to identify
him exactly that way to the Israelites. And God said, moreover unto Moses,
thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord
God of your fathers, and I pointed this out last week, here's the
Trinity, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob, has sent me unto you. This is my name forever. This is His covenant name. And
this is my memorial unto all generations. Hear me and understand. God never deals with anybody
except on the basis of a covenant. That's important to know that.
It's always on the basis of a covenant. God made a covenant with Adam. Here's this tree in the middle
of the garden, the fruit thereof. He must not eat. God said, in
the day you eat thereof, you'll surely die. And God didn't say
if you eat of it, but in the day you eat. you'll surely die. And the implication is, as long
as you don't eat of that fruit that I have forbidden you to
eat of, the fruit of that tree that I've forbidden you to eat
of, you'll continue to live and will continue to have fellowship.
But that tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a symbol
of God's absolute authority over Adam. To Adam, God said, rule
the garden. Name all the animals. Name all
the trees. Name all the flowers. It's all
for you to enjoy. But remember, I'm God. You're not God. I made you. You
didn't make me. I made you. And I have the authority. That
tree right there is a symbol of my authority. Don't you eat
of the fruit. in the day ye eat thereof, you'll
surely die." God established a covenant with him. That's a
covenant. Don't eat, live. Eat, die. He said, the day ye eat thereof,
you'll surely die. Well, what happened when he ate?
Well, he died spiritually. And all of us did too. Everybody
Adam represented. That's a whole human race. We
all died spiritually in Adam. Like it or not, God deals with
the whole human race through a representative. Adam represented
all of our race. When he fell, we fell. And then
another man came, the last Adam. That's the Lord from heaven.
He came. And you see, God deals with the
people that He represents on the basis of another covenant.
A covenant made and established before that one was made and
established with Adam, the everlasting covenant of grace. And in that
covenant, we had a representative, the Son of God, called the surety
of the covenant. And God deals with us. Let me
tell you something. We all profess to know God and
believe God here tonight, and most of you who are watching,
God deals with us on the basis of that covenant of grace. He
deals with us through the mediator, through the surety of that covenant. And so the Lord tells Moses,
you tell him, I'm the God of Abraham. I'm the God of Isaac. I'm the God of Jacob. And immediately
in their minds, they think the Abrahamic covenant. God is the
covenant keeping God. That's who He is. Tell them who
I am. Let me show you one more passage.
I got time, I think, to turn to this. Look at 1 Kings chapter
18. Many of you here and who are
watching, you'll recognize very quickly that this is the passage
where Elijah kind of squared off against the false prophets
of Baal. Okay? You remember that? I mean, he's
told the people, listen, if God be God, worship him. If Baal
be God, worship him. And he challenged the prophets
of Baal. He said, well, let's do this.
Let's both have altars and we'll bring a burnt offering. And you
go ahead and kill yours first and put the carcass of the animal
up there. And then you cry to Baal to strike
fire down from heaven and burn up, burn up the sacrifice. And
then I'm going to do the same thing, calling on the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You call on Baal, all you fellows,
450 false prophets, 400 prophets of the grove, whatever it was,
850 prophets all together, if they were all together there.
You go ahead and call on Baal, if he hears you and he burns
up the sacrifice, Israel said, then we'll worship Baal. But, if Baal doesn't answer, and the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob does answer and burns up the sacrifice, we'll worship
God. They said, we've got a deal.
Got a deal. Oh, I'm sure they put on their
religious garments and they were fit to kill. And they started
crying out the bells. Send lightning from heaven and
burn up the sacrifice. And nothing happened. Nothing
happened. They got so desperate. Look in verse 28. Are you there?
1 Kings 18, 28. And they cried aloud. These preachers now. You're talking
about sincerity. A lot of people say, All you've
got to be is sincere. Well, there's been a lot of people
sincere about their religion, but it was wrong religion. They
wound up dead and in hell. Here's some sincere people. They
cried aloud, cut themselves after their manor with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon
them. That is really sincere there
now. That's somebody who believes
that they're absolutely right, when in fact they're absolutely
wrong. It's not good enough to be sincere. You've got to be
sincere about believing the truth. The truth. They miss the truth. Well, they kept on praying and
nothing happened. And they give up. Elijah verse 30, he said to all
the people, y'all come on in now. Let's close in around me. This is not going to be any abracadabra
stuff. It's not going to be a sleight
of hand or anything like that. I want you to come near. He repaired
the altar of the Lord that had been broken down. He took 12 stones, according
to the number of the tribes, the sons of Jacob, on whom the
word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And
with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord.
He made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two
measures of seed. And he put the wood in order
and cut the bullock in pieces. He laid him on the wood and said,
fill four barrels with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice
and on the wood. And he said, do it the second
time. They did it the second time. He said, do it the third
time. They did it the third time. Twelve
barrels. Twelve is the number of God's
elect. Twelve is the number of God's
purpose of election. Verse 35, And water ran down
round the altar, and he filled the trench also with water, and
it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice.
Three o'clock in the afternoon. My friend, that's when Christ
died. That's when the Son of God laid down His life for His
people. There are no accidents in the
Word of God. The Lord was arranging all of
this. When that bullock was being offered
up at that particular time of the day, this pointed forward
to another sacrifice that God would offer unto Himself. The
sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Three o'clock in the afternoon.
So about that time Elijah the prophet
came near and said, watch it, here's 63 word prayer. And watch
how he begins. Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and
of Israel, that is Jacob. This is the same name that hundreds
of years before this, that God said, you tell them I am, I'm
the Lord, I'm the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. Let
it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I'm
thy servant, that I've done all these things at thy word. Verse
37, hear me, O Lord, hear me, that thy people may know that
thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart
back again. Who has to turn hearts? God has
to turn hearts. Then, then the fire of the Lord
fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust,
and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all
the people saw it, they fell on their faces and here's what
they said, The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God.
The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He is the God. He's
the only God. The great I Am is the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's a covenant God. We'll go
back to Exodus chapter 3. Well, then He says, here's something
else the Lord says. Secondly, not only tell them
who sent you, but number two, Tell them I have visited them,
and I've seen what's going on. Look at verse 16. Go and gather the elders of Israel
together and say to them, the Lord God of your fathers, the
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me saying,
I have surely visited you, and I have seen, I have seen, I've
seen what's done to you in Egypt. You see, God in His eternal purpose,
He had already visited Egypt to see His people. He did that
in old eternity because all of God's decrees are eternal and
they come to pass in time. He said, I visited you. I see. I see your dilemma. I see your
captivity. I see your inability. I see your
helplessness. And the Lord visited us and He
saw us in our misery. He saw us in our sin. He saw
us in our helplessness. He saw us mired in the miry clay. We couldn't get ourselves out
of our captivity to sin and what's more, we didn't want to get out
of the captivity. We were quite comfortable where
we were. But the Lord came to our rescue.
Tell them I've seen. Tell them I've visited. I've
visited you. And then he says in verse 17,
here's the third thing I want you to tell them. I'm going to
deliver them. Oh, what a blessed promise. I
have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt
under the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the
Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and the land
flowing with milk and honey. I'm going to do it. I will bring
you. I will deliver you. I will save you. And that's what
he says to us. I'm going to bring you into a
land more glorious than you can ever imagine. a land more wonderful than the
land of Canaan to which the Israelites were going while we're going
to the Father's house. And the Lord says in verse 18,
and they shall hearken unto thy voice. Here's our God making
certain that they're going to listen to Moses. Now watch this. they shall hearken." Now get
this, 40 years before this, they wouldn't pay any attention to
him. Right? 40 years before this, and we've
studied already in the book of Acts that when Stephen is preaching,
or we will be studying this more fully, Moses thought back then
that they knew, I've come to deliver him. Man alive. They've
turned against me. That wasn't in the time. It'd
be 40 years later. 40 years later. And God says,
they'll hearken to you this time. Tell you something, God's Word
will be effectual in the hearts of His people in His time. That's right, isn't it? In His
time. May not be tonight. You may be
listening. You may be watching. And be an
unbeliever. Say, well, Jim, I see you're
earnest and you seem to be sincere, but I don't see what you see. I don't believe what you believe. Well, the only voice you're hearing
is my voice. But when God the Spirit takes
the Word of the Gospel directly to your heart, then you will
hear and you will believe. Because where the Word of the
Lord is, the Word of the King is, there's power. He says in verse 18, Thou shalt
come down, the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, saying
to him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us, and now let
us go. We beseech thee, three days'
journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the
Lord our God. The Lord said, They'll receive
you this time, Moses. And then he says this, And here's another thing. The
Lord says, and this is for certain, God says, I am sure. That's a powerful statement.
God says, I'm sure that the King of Egypt will not let you go,
no, not by a mighty hand. God said, I'm sure of it. I tell
you what, if God says, I'm sure of it, then that's the way it's
going to be. He's not going to let them go. Because you see, God's going
to harden his heart. Because God has something in
store for Egypt, and he's got a gospel lesson that he's going
to teach Israel, and he's going to teach us. By the blood of the Passover
lamb. You see, if Pharaoh had let him
go, Before that, there'd been no Passover, but there must be
a Passover. See, God works in all things
His sovereign will. Everything accomplishes His purpose.
He said, He's not going to let you go. You say, well, when the scripture
says God hardened his heart, does that mean God forbade him
to let Israel go? It means this, God just purposed,
He purposed that that man would fulfill his own will and his
own desire. And in doing that, he's going
to fulfill the purpose of God. And you can mark it down. God's
purpose is always going to be fulfilled. Always. And then God says in verse 20,
and then I'm going to stretch out my hand. I'm going to smite
Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the midst thereof.
And after that, He will let you go. Did you know God even rules
and reigns over all sin? He is the only one who can bring
good out of evil. I point you to the death of our
Lord Jesus Christ and all the surrounding circumstances. The
betrayal by Judas. That was all determined by God. I know there's a great mystery
in the presence of sin in this world. But I'll tell you this
in a way that I can't comprehend. I know this. If God had willed
for sin to never appear, it would never have appeared. I know that. And I know this, that God overrules
sin by making the existence of sin to bring glory to His name
when He washed the sins of His people away by the blood of His
Son. You see, God got more glory through
the sin of man and the remedy that He provided and accomplished
for that sin than He would have received in the Garden of Eden
if it had forever remained in innocency. He got greater glory. And you
can read in Ephesians chapter 1, election and predestination
is to the praise of the glory of His grace. And redemption
to the praise of the glory of His grace. And the work of the
Holy Spirit in sealing us to the praise of His glory. That's
how God got His glory. He even makes the sins of men,
wicked men, and even the sins of His people to accomplish His purpose. You
remember when He said to Peter, shortly before the Savior's death,
He said, I tell you, Peter, Satan has a desire to have you and
sift you like wheat. But I prayed for you. that your
faith fail not. Did you know that God appointed
Satan to sift Peter like wheat? And he'd be the better for it.
Because you see, he had to be brought down. Peter was cocky,
arrogant, Though all men deny and forsake you." I never will.
Not me. He can count on me. Oh, Simon
Peter, you don't know what you're made out of. You're made out
of the same stuff that all the other people of God are made
out of. You're just a sinner saved by grace. And so it's going
to happen according to the purpose of God. And Peter will be the
better for it. That's why the Lord says, and
when you're converted, when you're converted. Help you,
brethren. I tell you, the Lord took a lot
of starch out of him. And God, I would never excuse
Adam's sin and I would never excuse our sin. I wouldn't do
that. But I'm thankful for this. Our
sovereign God governs in all things. He even governs our sins,
which will ultimately give Him the glory, because He forgives
sins in a righteous way through the death of Christ Jesus. And
then one more thing, and I'll give it to you. In verses 21
and 22, you tell the elders that I'm going to make certain when
they leave Egypt, they're going to receive unexpected provisions. Look at this, verse 21. I will give this people favor
in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall come to pass that
when you go out, you're not going out empty. I wonder if a lot
of the Israelites, if they didn't think, About this, well, the
Lord says He's going to deliver us, but we're a people in captivity. We don't have anything. We got
nothing. How are we going to exist leaving
out of here? And God says, don't you worry about that. I'll take
care of that. The Lord says He'll provide for our
needs. He says, you're not going to
go out empty. Verse 22, but every woman shall borrow And the word,
if you'll look it up, means require or even demand of their neighbor. And of her that sojourneth in
her house. Jewels of silver, jewels of gold,
and raiment, and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon
your daughters, and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. Just take
it from them. Because here's what God's going
to do. As they're leaving, The Egyptians
are going to be favorable to them for this reason. They're
glad they're going. Good riddance to all of you.
Here, you need something for your trip? We don't want you
to hang around here any longer. And here's the silver, and here's
the gold, and here's this, and here's that. And the Israelites
said, alright, alright. And they go out. Originally you
would have thought they'd have gone out and impoverished people,
but they go out a wealthy people. Who could bring that about but
the great I Am, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And I tell
you what, you seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. All these other things He'll
take care of. I tell you what, we're rich.
We're immensely rich with the riches of His grace in Christ
Jesus. Well, I'll get you songbooks.
Let's ask Joe to come, the musicians to go to the organ and piano.
We're going to sing 228. Our faith has found a resting
place. I tell you, we rest Christ crucified,
buried, risen again. 228, my faith is found a resting
place. Let's stand together and sing.