Would you turn back to Acts chapter
9? David said in Psalm 9 verse 10,
they that know thy name shall put their trust in thee. Now it's my prayer that the Lord
will cause everybody in this room to know his name and to
put their trust in him. Now the Lord has appeared to
Ananias verse 10 and there was a certain disciple at Damascus
named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a
vision, Ananias, and Ananias said, behold, I'm here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, arise
and go into the street, which is called Straight, and inquire
in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold,
he prayeth. Now he'd gone through the motions
of prayer many times before, but he'd never prayed. He is
now. Behold, he prayeth. And hath seen in a vision a man
named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might
receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord,
I've heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to
thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from
the chief priest to bind all the call on my name. It's almost
like he's saying, do you know who you're asking me to go see?
This man is evil. This man has one purpose to blot
out your name. Do you know who you're asking
me to go and preach to? If you ask the early church,
who's the last person you would expect to be saved? You know
who they'd say? Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus. Last person. And look what the Lord says to
him. Verse 15, but the Lord said unto
him, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name
before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for
I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's
sake. Now, there are two things that
stand out to me in reading this passage of scripture. is number
one, extreme wickedness does not prevent the Lord from saving
anybody. There is no more evil man than
this man, Saul of Tarsus. And that does not prevent the
Lord from saving him. You know, Paul's own testimony
was that he was the chief of sinners. So you can't be too
bad to be saved. Isn't that good news? You can't
be too evil to be saved. And the second thing that stands
out to me in that passage of scripture is the reason for salvation
is God's choice. What he says in verse 15, go
thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me. The reason for salvation
is God's choice. Now, most of what goes on under
the name of Christianity, and let me say this about Christianity.
It's a religion. I don't even like the term. It's
a religion. Christ is the truth. He's not
just a religion. He's the truth. Christianity
is a religion. It's one of the seven great religions of the
world. Big deal. Christ is the truth. He is the
gospel. He is all. Now, religion at any
rate, Christianity, pretty much makes man's choice the deciding
factor in salvation. God loves all men. Christ died
for all men. God wants to save all men. But
He can't save you unless you make a decision as an act of
your will to allow Him to save you and to allow Him to forgive
you of your sins. Now, let me say, there's not
a drop of gospel in that message. Not a drop. It's a false message
concocted by Satan and no one who believes that will be saved. That's how serious this is. That's
a false message. Man's will, man's choice is not
the cause of salvation, but God's choices. Did you notice how he
said he is a chosen vessel unto me? Election. That's what chosen
means, elect. Elect. He is an elected vessel
unto me. Now, election is God's choice
of his people before time began. That's election. He's a chosen
vessel unto me. Now, let me make a few statements
with regard to election. Number one, election, God's choice
of who would be saved before time began. Election is a declaration
of the character of God. He really is God. He controls
everything and everybody. and your salvation is in His
hands. You don't have any control of
this. It's up to Him. It's up to Him. Now, you can
complain about that if you want to, but it's not gonna do you
any good. It's up to Him. Now, I like it that way because
if that's not the case, nobody in this room will be saved. and
nobody outside of this room will be saved. Election is not God
preventing certain people from being saved who want to be saved,
but no, they're not elect. It doesn't work that way at all.
Election is God's choice of his people to salvation before the
world began, and it's a declaration that God really is God. He's
in control of everything. Election, secondly, is a declaration
regarding the true character of man. Me and you are so evil that we
will not be saved unless God chooses us to be saved. We will
always reject him. We'll go to hell if God doesn't
do something for us. Election is a declaration of
the true character of man, so evil that he'll never come to
God, never love God, never believe the gospel unless God does something
for him. Thirdly, election is a declaration
of Christ crucified. You see, you can't preach Christ
crucified and not preach election. You gotta tell who died, gotta
tell why he died, He died to accomplish the salvation of the
elect. You've got to tell who he died for. He died for his
people. You've got to tell. You can't
preach Christ and not preach election. Somebody says, you're
making election salvation. It's who God is. It tells us what Christ accomplished
on Calvary's tree. You can't preach the gospel and
not preach election. You can't preach the cross and
not preach election. Somebody says, well, he preaches
the gospel, but he doesn't preach election. No, he doesn't. It's
impossible. Everybody who's ever preached
the gospel without exception has preached divine election. You can't preach the work of
the spirit without preaching election. Listen to this, 2 Thessalonians
2.13. bound to thank God always for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. You see, in this thing of the
sanctifying work of God, the Holy Spirit, regeneration, he
gives life to those the father elected and the son redeemed.
And you can't understand anything with regard to regeneration without
believing that he regenerates the elect. That's his purpose. You see, he's a chosen vessel
to me. Election and salvation by grace
are the same thing. Now, let me repeat that. Election
and salvation by grace are the same thing. You can't preach
grace and not preach that God chose who would be saved before
time began. And that's what the Lord says to Ananias regarding
Saul of Tarsus. Lord, do you know who this guy
is? I mean, he kills people that believe on you. You want me to
go to him? As if the Lord didn't know who
he was. Go thy way. He is a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles
and kings and the children of Israel. I'll show him how great
things he must suffer for my name's sake. Now he was chosen
to salvation, but listen to this. He's chosen to bear his name. And if you're a believer, you
are chosen by God himself to bear his name. This is not unique to Paul. This
is true with regard to every single believer. You were chosen
for this one purpose, to bear his name. Now, if I am a believer,
Here's my name, Jehovah Zedekiah. That means the Lord, our righteousness. Is that your name? This is the
name wherewith she shall be called. Speaking of the church, every
believer, a bearer of the name of the Lord. This is the name
wherewith she shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. Now the word bear here is the
same word used of Christ bearing his cross. It carries with it
the idea of a burden. He shall bear my name and he's
going to suffer for it. I'm going to show him how great
things he must suffer for my name's sake. Remember Philippians
1.27 says, it's given to you not only to believe on him, but
also to suffer for his sake. That's a great privilege. That's
a great privilege. And this thing of bearing his
name being a burden, I think I know a little bit about that
because I, I know the burden of fearing, misrepresenting what
the Lord's saying and giving my thoughts rather than what
the Lord's saying. That scares me. I don't want to do that.
I don't want to just give my thoughts. No, I want to give
what God says only. And so I fear. I feel a burden in that sense.
I understand what the prophets meant to some extent. I know
I don't feel like they did, but still, they spoke of the burden
of the word of the Lord, didn't they? And indeed, it is a burden
to bear His name. But what a special privilege
of grace it is to be chosen to be a name bearer. That's what I entitled this message,
the chosen name bearer. And if you're a believer, you
are a chosen name bearer. Now the name of the Lord is who
he is. It's not just, you know, when
my name's Todd Nybert, well, you don't think, well, he's Todd
Nybert, you think of the person behind the name. You think of
the attributes behind the name. Don't tell me what you think,
I don't wanna know. But the point is, when you speak
of the name of the Lord, there's a person that that name represents. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Now you can't call on his name
if you do not know the person behind the name. It's just an
exercise in futility to invoke a name when you don't know the
person behind the name. How should they call How shall
they believe on him who they've not heard? How shall they hear
without a preacher? How shall they call on his name? That's
the questions he's asking. Now, turn with me to Exodus chapter
three. I think it's interesting that
Dwayne read this passage of scripture back in the back, and then the
passage Claire read this morning. They're both passages scriptures
I'm going to look at this morning in considering his name. Remember
the Lord said, he's a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name
before the Gentiles and the Kings and the children of Israel. And
if you're a believer, if I'm a believer, we're chosen to bear
his name. Now look what he says in verse
13 of Exodus chapter three. And 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, I know
what they're going to say. And he knew. They'll say to me,
what's his name? What shall I say to them? I know
they're not going to just take what I say on face value. They're
going to say, what's his name? Verse 14, and God said unto Moses,
I am that I am. That's his name. I am that I
am. I'm not what you think. I'm not
what that very important person that you know thinks. I am that
I am. The self-existent one. The one who doesn't need you
to fulfill some kind of hole in my personality that I can't
get unless I have you. I am that I am. Not I was, not I will be, not
I could be, not I should be, not I want to be. I am that I
am. Now let's see what led the Lord
to make this glorious revelation of his name. Look in verse one.
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest
of Midian. And he led the flock to the backside
of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
And the angel of the Lord 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. And Moses said, I'll turn aside
and see. this great sight, why the bush
is not burnt. Now that defies anything I've
ever seen. Why is this bush not burnt? And when the Lord saw that he
turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of
the bush. Now the simplicity and the awesomeness
of this is just glorious. God presents himself as a burning
bush that could not be consumed. That bush How long had it been
on fire? I don't know. Moses maybe seen
it for hours. I'm not sure how long he saw
it. But the one thing that he was struck with was this bush
could not be consumed. The fire didn't go out because
the bush did not need the energy of the wood to keep burning.
Now what that is a reference to is the utter independence
of God. He doesn't need anything. You know, people almost present
God as if he's got some kind of need and that's why he made
you so he can fulfill himself. That's what you're about. No,
God doesn't have any needs. You know, a God that had needs
wouldn't be much of a God, would he? But he doesn't have any needs.
He didn't need the energy of the wood to keep the flame going. And that bush could not be consumed. The Lord Jesus Christ could not
be consumed by the wrath of God. That's the glory of his person.
That's the greatness of his person. God's wrath came down upon him
and couldn't consume him. He consumed the wrath. It is finished. The wrath was
consumed. And the scripture says God spake
out of that. This is a appearance of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God spake from the bush. And when the Lord saw that he
turned aside to see verse four, God called him out of the midst
of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. I wish I could say it the way
the Lord said it. I can't. Every time I read the scriptures, I
get in a measure frustrated because I think I'm not reading this
right, but I'm doing my best. And he said, draw not nigh hither.
Put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place wherein thou
standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of
Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon
God. Look down in verse 11. And Moses
said unto God, who am I that I should go into Pharaoh? and
that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Now he used to thought that he was up to the task. You remember
when he thought I could bring them out and he tried to rescue
his brethren. And now 40 years later, he's
been spending time in the backside of the desert and he says, I'm
not qualified for this. And he said, certainly I'll be
with thee. And this should be a token to thee when I've sent
thee, when thou hath brought forth the people out of Egypt,
ye shall serve God upon this mountain. That's when Moses said
unto God, behold, when I'm come unto the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto
you. And they say to me, what's his name? What shall I say? And
God said unto Moses, I am that I am. Remember when the Lord said in
John 8, 24, if you believe not that I am, you will die in your
sins. The Lord said that. Look in chapter 33 of Exodus. Moses asks this question, verse
18, and he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said,
this is God's answer to Moses. I will make all my goodness pass
before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. and will show mercy on whom I
will show mercy. Verse five of chapter 34, and
the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and
proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him
and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long suffering. abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin that will by no means clear the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
and to the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste
and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Now that's what folks do when
they hear the name of the Lord. They make haste. They hit the
dirt and they worship. Now if that's not your response,
you haven't heard anything. It's that simple. You've not
heard anything. You've not really had him make
his name known to you because if you did, you'd make haste
and you'd bow yourself before the earth and you'd worship him
for who he is. Now in the preaching of the gospel,
what's going on is a declaration of his name. Now I'm going to try to give
you these Hebrew names of God, and I might mispronounce some
of them. I'm sorry, I don't know how to
speak Hebrew. But the first time his name is
mentioned is as Elohim. In the beginning, God. That's
the first mention of his name, Elohim. In the beginning, God. He created the universe in the beginning God. Now, the
second name is El Olam, the eternal God. I love thinking about that. Well, I can't think about it. Whenever I think about it, I
just almost have to quit thinking. He is outside of time. He's eternal. He doesn't see
anything in a sequence of events the way you and I do. He's eternal. He's not bound by time. He's not bound by space. He is
the eternal God. And then there's the Lord of
Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies, armies which
can't be defeated. I love this name, El Shaddai,
Lord God Almighty. You know what that means? It
means he's omnipotent. That means he has no limitations
the way you and I do. Whatever he wills, he has the
power to make it come to pass. Whatever he wills takes place. He doeth according to his will
because he's El Shaddai, the Lord God omnipotent. Elyon, E-L-Y-O-N,
the most high God. Now look, David calls him this
more than anything else. I love to read the Psalms where
it goes, O thou most high. We can't speak of him in high
enough terms, can we? The most high God. And then there's Adonai. That
means Lord. He's Lord of creation. He spake
the world into existence. He's Lord of providence. That
means everything that takes place. I don't care what it is. You
can't take this too far. Everything that takes place.
He is the cause. He's Lord of salvation. That
means if you're saved, it's because he willed your salvation and
he's your Lord. If you're not saved, Understand
this, he's your Lord if you're not saved. When I've heard people
talk about the Lordship issue, there's no issue, he's the Lord.
He's the Lord. I love that scripture in Romans
14, nine, he's Lord both of the dead and the living. Somebody
that's dead and sins, he's their Lord. He's using them for his
purpose. The Lord has made all things for himself, yea, even
the wicked for the day of evil, that's who he is. And he's Lord
of the living. Like Thomas said, my Lord. and my God. That's who he is. He's Kanna, jealous for thou
shalt worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous
is a jealous God. He is intolerant of rivals. He's intolerant. And then there is Jehovah. Now
every time in the Old Testament we read LORD in all caps, it's
Jehovah. And the translators thought it
was a name too holy and exalted to even pronounce, so they put
LORD. But in the original, in the Hebrew,
every time you see LORD in all caps, it is Jehovah. The proper name of the one true
and living God, the existing one, the one who saves and he
makes himself known as the Jehovah who saves. Who God is, is seen
in how he saves sinners. And that's why this is so important
to make an error on how he saves sinners is to make an error concerning
his character. It's to lie on his character.
It's to not tell the truth concerning who he is. Now, this isn't about
making people happy. This is about declaring who God
is. But the thing is, I'll make God's
people happy. They love who God is. They don't want to hear anything
else. But Jehovah is who he is, the self existent one. And you've
heard these, I would say before, but there's seven or eight names
with Jehovah in them. The first of all is Jehovah Jireh. Now, if you want to know who
God is, if you want to know how he saves, it's critical that
you understand this. He is Jehovah Jireh. That means
the Lord will provide. The Lord will provide. That's
exactly what Isaac asked as he was going up the mountain. He
said, Lord, here's the, he said to his dad, father, here's the
wood. Here's the fire. Where's the
lamb for the burnt sacrifice? My son, the Lord will provide. Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will
provide Himself a sacrifice. Now, three things that means. I hope you and I can get hold
of this. God's the one that does the providing. You can't provide
anything He'd accept. Do you think there's anything
that you could provide Him that He could accept? If He could accept
it, there wouldn't be much to it. Isn't that so? If He could
accept something that comes from you, He's not very holy. Oh,
He's holy. But here's the point. God provides. Everything He requires of you,
He provides. Aren't you thankful for that?
But secondly, He provides for Himself. For God to do something
for me or you, He had to do something for Himself. I read that passage
in Exodus chapter 3. He said, I'll by no means clear
the guilty. If me and you are guilty, something
has to be done about our guilt. God's got to provide for himself. And that's what he did. Somebody
says the blood was shed for you. Well, I guess I can see somebody
saying that, but the blood was shed for God. The blood was shed
for God so he could make a way to be just and not clear the
guilty and yet accept somebody like me or you. And God provides
himself as the sacrifice. That's way beyond. He provides
himself. Behold the Lamb of God, behold
the Lamb of God's providing. And I've already quoted this
Jehovah's Akenu, the Lord, our righteousness. Jeremiah 23, six,
this is a name where with he shall be called Jehovah's Akenu,
the Lord, our righteousness. And then in Jeremiah 33, this
is the name where with she shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. Now this is shrouded with mystery. I realize this, but if I am saved,
If you are saved, here's why. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. If I'm saved, Here's how saved
I am. How saved is the righteousness
of God? How saved is that? Every believer is the very righteousness
of God in him. And that's what Paul, he made
this so clear in Philippians chapter 3, verses 8 and 9. He
said, O that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. Jehovah Zekinu, the Lord our
righteousness. And then there is Jehovah Shalom,
the Lord our peace. If the Lord provides and the
Lord is our righteousness, oh, the Lord is our peace, isn't
he? You know, I, I can say I have peace. I've,
I've, I've heard people say, I have peace. Well, I hope you
do. I have joy. I hope you do. But here's the
point. The peace that the believer has
is that Christ is our peace. Colossians 1 20 says he made
peace. Don't skip that. He made peace. Have you made your peace with
God? No, I haven't. He did. He made my peace with
God on Calvary's tree. He accomplished my peace so that
God's at peace with me. There's nothing for him to be
mad at. He's completely, completely satisfied with me. He looks at
me and says, I'm satisfied. How could that be? Because Christ
is my peace with God. He made peace with God. Ephesians 1 or 2, 14 says, he
is our peace. And then fourthly, he's called
Jehovah Rapha. I am the Lord that heals thee. Healing. Boy, people put a lot
of emphasis on it, preachers. talk about getting healed and
so on. And particularly the charismatic
movement puts a big emphasis on healing. It's God's will for
you to be healthy and wealthy and wise. And that stuff's a
big bunch of foolishness. I mean, and you know, if you're
sick, I hope the Lord heals you. I do. You're dying something
though. Isn't that so? Let's say you
get healed today. Well, something else is going
to get you. I've had cancer twice. And I just almost feel like I'm
probably going to get it again. At some point, I mean, I'm going
to get it again. It just seems like it's part of my genetics
and probably is going to kill me. And when I have been healed,
Lord healed me, I realized that. But something's going to get
me. I'm dying to something. You are too. The Lord's already determined
what you're going to die of. You've probably already got the
disease that's going to kill you somehow. And maybe it hasn't
come. Boy, this is negative, isn't it? Negative. I'm sorry.
But it's just the truth. It's just the truth. But thank
God for this. I am the Lord that healeth thee. Now here's my real disease. Sin. Sin. By his stripes, we are healed. I'm already healed. I'm already healed. Yeah, I'm
going to die something physically, but I'm already healed. Because
by his stripes, I am the Lord that healeth thee. And then there's
Jehovah-Raha, the Lord is my shepherd. I love the way David
said that, the Lord is my shepherd. Oh, what a shepherd he is. I
know my sheep and have known of mine. He knows every one of
his sheep. The Lord's my shepherd. And because my shepherd is the
Lord, I shall not want anything. I'm completing him. Oh, what
a shepherd he is. As a matter of fact, if you read
that 23rd Psalm, you can find all of his names of Jehovah in
that Psalm. How he's our righteousness, and
he's our peace, and he's our, just on and on. The Lord is my
shepherd. And then there's Jehovah Shammah,
the Lord is present. The Lord is present. Now, he's
always present because he's omnipresent. I realize that. You can't go
anywhere where he's not. Somebody says hell is the place
of the absolute separation from God. No, it's not. You can't
go anywhere where he's not. He's in control of everything,
at all times, He's everywhere. But this is not so much talking
about His omnipresence, although we know He's omnipresent, because
He's God, He's the Spirit, you can't go anywhere where He's
not. This is talking about His saving
presence. With every believer, every believer,
He has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Whether you feel it or not, somebody
says, I'm going to feel God's presence. Well, that's, it's
good to feel his presence, but if you don't feel it doesn't
mean it's not, he's not there. He's always there. You can't
get away from him. David said, whither shall I go
from thy presence? Well, you can't, you can't. And then there is Jehovah Kadesh. I am the Lord that sanctify thee. I love what the writer of the
Hebrews said in Hebrews 2 verse 11, both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified. That's every believer. He's the
one who sanctifies, we're the ones who are sanctified. Set
apart, set apart by God in eternal election to be His. Set apart by the Son in redemption
to make a way for us to be His. Set apart by God, the Holy Spirit,
regeneration, where I'm given a heart, a new nature that can
worship him, that believes. He is the one who sanctifies. Then there's Jehovah Nisi, the
Lord, our banner. He is our message. Now listen
to me. We're not trying to make the world a better place. I'm all for the world being made
a better place, but that's not the purpose of the preaching
of the gospel. It's not to make the world a better place. It's
not to teach you how to have a better life. It's the declaration
of His name. That's what the purpose is, to
declare His name. Remember, all that know His name
will put their trust in Him. This is the record that God has
given us eternal life, And this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life. He that hath not the son of God
hath not life. Now all of these names are realized
in this one name. It's that passage from Philippians
chapter two. Would you turn there? Verse five, let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form
of God thought it not robbery, thought it not a thing to be
grasped for because this is how it is. He's equal with God because
he is God. Now, the only way you can be
equal with God is if you are God. He is God. equal with God. But here's the
mind we're to have in us, being found, but he made himself of
no reputation. Verse seven, took upon him the
form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also
hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. Things in heaven, things in earth,
things under the earth, Every knee will bow and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Every name of God is realized
in his name. For he is a chosen vessel unto
me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children
of Israel, for I will show you how great things he must suffer
for my namesake. And you know, Paul tells us in
Acts chapter 20, he said, the Holy Spirit has shown me that
wherever I go, bonds and afflictions abide me. He goes into one town,
and I can imagine him having his arms wrapped around a pole,
tying it up, and having that cat of nine tails beat his back.
He goes in another town, he's stoned. The next town, he's beaten
with rods. Lord says, I'll show him how
great things he must suffer for my name's sake. Now, one of the
martyrs, it's told in Fox books of martyrs, but he's one of the
earliest believers. His name was Polycarp. And they
put him to death. And his last words were, to die
for Christ. It is an honor. I do not deserve. I hope that is our thoughts. Let's pray. Lord, how we need your grace,
your spirit. Lord, how we need to have your
name is our name. How we need you to provide for
us. How we need you to be our righteousness
and our peace. How we need you to heal us. How
we need you to be our shepherd. How we need you to be present. How we need you to sanctify us.
How we need you to be our banner. Lord, bless your word according
to your will and bless our time together of fellowship and bless
it for your glory. We give thanks for you. In Christ's blessed name we pray.
Amen.