Well, we're about to embark on
our journey in John's Gospel again, and we're in John Chapter
8. But I wanted us to spend a little
time this morning, as the Lord has laid on my heart, that we...
He declares Himself in the Gospel accounts to be God Almighty. He takes upon himself the name
that was given to Moses in Exodus chapter 3, and he says in John
chapter 8, he says, if you do not believe that I am, if you
do not believe that I am God Almighty, You will die in your
sins. I cannot think of how horrifying
a prospect that is to die in your sins. And I cannot be more
thankful that our Lord comes as a saviour to us to bear our
sins away so that we can stand on holy ground. I'd like you
to turn with me to Exodus chapter 3. The question that the Pharisees
asked the Lord Jesus Christ in John Chapter 8 is, who are you?
Who are you? As if he hadn't already told
them. He'd been telling them for three years by this stage.
And in Exodus Chapter 5, Pharaoh. Moses goes to Pharaoh and they
told Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people
go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And
Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? Who is he? Who is he? Who is
he that I should obey his voice to let Israel go and not? I know
not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. Let's go back to Exodus
chapter three. And 30 times in John's gospel,
the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am. world, I am the bread of life,
I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way, the truth
and the life. He just says I am, and when he
says I am he is saying I am God and it comes from this passage
in Exodus chapter 3. So let's just read these first
14 verses. Exodus 3, 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. You might know something of Moses'
story. He's now a man of 80 years of age. For 40 years, he has
been in the service of his father-in-law, Jethro, and he has been a shepherd,
an occupation despised in the eyes. of the Egyptians. Verse
2, and this is a remarkable thing that happened, this is a remarkable
event, and this is, I trust, something that is pictured in
the salvation of all of us here, that we might go from here having
experienced something of these things. that Moses experienced. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in the flame of fire out of the midst of the bush
and we have no doubt about who the angel of the Lord was. The
word angel just means messenger. The angel of the Lord is the
Lord Jesus Christ as we'll come on to see. 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 will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that he
had turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst
of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. I pray that God will call
your name, call your name. And he said, here am I. And he saw it said, draw not
nigh here, don't come near. Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. We have no question about who
was speaking out of the bush. And the Lord said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have
heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know
their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that
land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites
and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel is
come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith
the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God,
Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, God
said, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token
unto thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth
the children out of Egypt, thou shalt serve God. You shall worship
God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold, When I come unto the children
of Israel and say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent
me unto you, and they shall say to me, what is his name? And it's more than just words,
the name. The name is actually the character of God. It encompasses
all of the very being of God, as we will see. What is His name? What shall I say unto them? 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. What's the name of God? What's the name of God? I am. I am that I am. that I am. What's saving faith? Saving faith is believing in
the isness of God, that God is. Hebrews 11 verse 6. But without
faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God
must believe that he is. and He is the rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that You would take us to a place of holy ground and
that You would speak our name and call us to Yourself, Heavenly
Father, and that we might May you, as you reveal yourself to
your people throughout the Scriptures and throughout history, Heavenly
Father, the great God who is, And we pray, Heavenly Father,
that we would be found simply having a childlike faith in your
dear and precious Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that we would commit
all of our eternal soul into his tender care, for he cares
for us. Bless your words, Heavenly Father.
May we rest in what is written. and the who that is written about. We pray your blessing on us in
Jesus' name. Amen. So let's go back and look
at this and examine this in light of the glorious character of
our God that's revealed here. Who is God? Who is God? What's he like? One day, You and I and all of
humanity will leave here and you will stand on holy ground.
You will stand on holy ground. You will stand in the presence
of this holy God. What a remarkable privilege and
what a remarkable joy it is the good will of him who dwells
in the bush. The good will. Good tidings of
great joy we have a glorious, glorious gospel to proclaim. Our great God Let's just go back
and examine how the Lord dealt with Moses and how he dealt with
Moses. Our God is unchanging. Our God
is a consuming fire. Our God has no need to change. Our God moves all circumstances.
Our God is absolutely sovereign. So the God who met Moses is the
God who now sits on the throne of this universe. The God who
met Moses is the God who will meet you if he saves you. What's salvation? What's salvation? One of the things I like to think
about in terms of salvation is it is to be in the presence of
a holy God and not be consumed. I'm sure when Saul of Tarsus
met the Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus road, he thought
instantly, this is the end of my life. I'm sure Isaiah, when
he met the Lord Jesus Christ in the temple, he thought, this
is the end of my days. And he cried out, woe is me. Salvation is to know God. This is eternal life that you
know him. You know him as he has revealed
himself. You know him as he is revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, as Norm showed
us earlier. Who is like unto thee, O Lord? You cannot compare our God to
anything on this earth to understand him. Who is like unto thee, O
Lord, says Moses, after this redemption had been accomplished,
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. So let's go back to our text
and just look briefly at the journey of Moses. As you know
Moses 40 years earlier thought that he would actually take upon
himself the redemption of the children of Israel. And I love
you can go and read the account of that in Hebrews chapter 11
and you will be in wonder and awe at how the New Testament
explains the Old Testament to us because you'd never ever get
the picture that Hebrews 11 draws of Moses esteeming the riches
of Christ far, far more significant than all the treasures of Israel.
He was destined to be the king. Egypt and yet for 40 years he'd
been on the backside of the desert and now Moses kept the flock
of his father-in-law the priest of Midian and he led the flock
to the backside of the desert and he came to the mountain of
God and listen to what happens what's the first thing that must
happen in you getting to know who God is and the angel of the
Lord, the messenger of God, appeared unto him. God is known only by
revelation. God is known only as he chooses
to reveal himself. Can man, by searching, find out
God is the question the scriptures ask? The answer is absolutely
not. God must come. is known by revelation to a chosen
person. Moses was being ordained here
and set on this remarkable mission to go and declare the glories
of God to Egypt, to declare the glories of God to Israel and
to draw his people out and redeem them by blood. So God is known only by revelation
to a chosen people at a time of his love and in the circumstances
which That's morning and I'm sure he didn't think a thing
about the possibility of meeting God. And when God speaks, he's
always going to speak through his angel. He's always going
to speak through his messenger. He's always going to speak through
his word. The word is a living word. The word is an active word.
The word always speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. He spoke,
he appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the
bush. And Moses looked, and behold,
the bush burned with fire and was not consumed." Now we mustn't
think of this as being some enormous glorious bush. This is just a
little thorn bush in the midst of a field of little thorn bushes
in that desert land. Just a thorn bush. And what was
in the bush? A flame of fire in the midst
of the bush. A flame of fire in the midst
of the bush. And the bush burned with fire
and the bush was not consumed. So this is an incredibly significant
fire, isn't it? The fire needed nothing of the
earth to burn. It needed no fuel from the bush. It was the fire that came from
heaven that burnt there. And this fire comes from heaven. This fire speaks of the divinity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fire had no need of anything
on earth. The fire is that fire that is
represented when Moses comes to build a tabernacle and they
build the altar, and where did the fire on the altar come, that
perpetual fire on the altar? Where was it lit? It was lit
from heaven, wasn't it? When Solomon built the temple
and the altar was built, that magnificent altar, and everything
was ready, where did the fire come, that fire that the men
kept going perpetually? The fire came from heaven. The fire speaks of God's divine
judgment against evil. You might remember the many,
many pictures in the Old Testament of the fire of God falling upon
the likes of Sodom and Gomorrah. The fire of God fell. As Elijah was mocked and 50 people,
you can read about it in 2 Kings 1, 50, a captain and 50 of his
troops came to deal with Elijah. And Elijah says, I'm a man sent
from God, let fire come down from heaven. And twice, 50 of
them consumed. The third captain with his 50
came along and he had far more sense than he came and he bowed
before God Almighty. Our God is a consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire. He will and does burn up all
that's contrary to him. He's of two purer eyes than to
behold evil, and he cannot look on iniquity, says Habakkuk. But
the bush speaks of Christ's humanity. It was lowly. You might recall
that God cursed this creation and all the thorns and all the
prickles that you've ever had in your feet, in your hands and
elsewhere, have all been a sign of the curse of God upon this
world. You can read about it in Genesis
3.18. The Lord Jesus Christ was crowned
with thorns on the cross. He was crowned with thorns as
they mocked him. The thorn bush speaks of our
Saviour being made a curse for us. And the fire speaks of the
wrath of God against sin falling on the Lord Jesus Christ. The
fire is a fire that was lit in heaven. It pleased the father
to crush him. It pleased the father to bruise
him. But the Lord Jesus Christ was made a curse. He came to
a cursed place to save his people, to find his bride. And the flames
of God's holy wrath fell on the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no idea. We have no idea
of the agonies that he suffered. He was given a cup by his father. in the garden. He held that cup
in his hands and he looked into that cup and his holy soul was
horrified and his heart broke within him as he looked into
that cup and great drops of blood were shed on Gethsemane's garden
floor as the Lord Jesus Christ saw what was in that cup and
saw what he must do. What was in the cup? All of the sins of all of God's
children were in that cup. All of my sins were in that cup. The Lord Jesus Christ looked
upon that cup and he was horrified and he said, Father, if you can
take it away from me. And then he says, but your will
be done, not my will, but your will be done. This thornbush speaks of that
fire that fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The fire came from
God and it consumed a sacrifice. The fire fell on the Mount of
Elijah when Elijah was there judging all of the false prophets,
all the prophets of Baal, all of those who preach a works religion
about what man must do. You remember that fire that fell
on Mount Carmel? It's remarkable, isn't it? The fire fell, and
there was the bullock on the altar, and there were the 12
stones that Elijah had placed there, and there was water in
the trough, and when the fire of God's wrath fell on that,
that sacrifice which represented the Lord Jesus Christ, everything
was gone. The sacrifice was gone, the stones
were gone, the water in the trough that had been made around it
was gone. When the fire of God's wrath fell on the Lord Jesus
Christ, he consumed the wrath. He consumed the fire and he wasn't
destroyed. He died, didn't he? He bore all
of the fire of all of the wrath of God. All of my sins that you're horrified by. All
of the sin that you are committing now and ought to be horrified
by and all of the sin that you will commit in the future is
all forgiven sin. The wrath of God's fire has fallen
on my sin in my saviour. He's consumed it and he rose
gloriously. This is what this picture is
about, isn't it? It's the gospel in the bush. It's the gospel
in the bush. If you turn with me briefly over
a couple of chapters to Deuteronomy 33, there's a lovely description
that's used. It's mentioned a couple of other
times in the Bible, this bush and this particular event. But
the Lord Jesus Christ is referring to this event every time he says,
I am. But in Deuteronomy 33 verse 16, he says, and for the precious
things of the earth and the fullness thereof, and for the goodwill
of him that dwelt in the bush, let the blessing come upon the
head of Joseph, upon the top of the head of him that was separated
from his brethren. The goodwill of him that dwelt
in the bush. That word dwelt is the word from which we get
the word Shekinah. You might have heard of the Shekinah
glory of God and that's where it comes from. It comes from
this word dwelt and it's the goodwill of him that dwelt in
the bush. God is revealed in the Shekinah
glory and the Shekinah glory is all about the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what Hebrews 11 says of
Moses. Isn't that remarkable? We see
him through the eyes of faith who is invisible. Here we have
Shekinah glory dwelling on the earth. The bush burned with fire,
that fire from heaven, and the bush was not consumed. He was
made a curse for us, the scriptures say. He was made a curse for
us. He was made sin for us. And the fire didn't consume the
bush. The bush consumed the fire. And listen, I love these next
couple of verses. In Moses, verse three, Moses said, Now I will
turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And people often talk about God's
sovereignty and human responsibility. Here's a lovely description of
it. Who came to whom first? Was Moses
looking for God? God was looking for Moses, wasn't
he? God came to Moses. But I do love what verse 4 says. Look at it with me. And when
the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside, he had this extraordinary
sight, didn't he? And when the Lord saw that he
turned aside, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush. If God's gonna call to you, he
will call to you out of the midst of the bush. He will call to
you out of that place where the Lord Jesus Christ consumed the
fire of God's wrath. And when he calls, he's always
gonna call personally, isn't he? He will call you personally,
and he will call you powerfully to himself. Listen to what he
says. Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. My prayer for you is that you'll
be turned aside to a great sight. You'll be turned aside from the
things of this world, and you'll be turned aside to a great sight,
the great sight of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he said, here I am. And he
said, draw not nigh hither. Don't come near. You take the
shoes off your feet, Moses. For the place whereon thou standest
is holy ground. Holy ground. No doubt, thousands
of sheep and thousands of people had walked over that ground.
What makes the ground holy? What makes the ground holy? It's
the presence of God that makes it holy. Where is the presence
of God promised to be now? Where is the holy ground on this
earth right now? Where is the holy ground in this
town right now? The holy ground is where the
Lord Jesus Christ, as both the fire that couldn't That's holy ground, brothers
and sisters. And if you make God on holy ground
here, and you are not consumed, as the Egyptians were, and countless
multitudes have been ever since, then when you come to meet him,
when you leave here, it will be the most glorious day of your
life. It'll be holy ground. And for
the rest of eternity, we'll walk on holy ground. If you're gonna
walk on holy ground then, you must walk on holy ground here.
And how does it happen? He comes, he reveals himself
in his dear and precious son, and he calls you by name. Norm
read it out of John chapter 10. You go and read it again. He
calls his own sheep by name, and they hear a voice. They hear
a voice. It just comes as the words of
a man, but they hear a voice. It's the voice of God Almighty. And listen to what he says, listen
to how the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself. And keep remembering,
we are trying to understand what the word I am says, what it means,
because we need to know it in its context. And moreover, he
said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob. When God reveals himself, he's
going to reveal himself in the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And when God reveals himself, he's going to reveal himself
as a covenant God. He made a covenant with Abraham.
It's not the Mosaic covenant that he was going to make with
him. No one was saved by the Mosaic covenant. No one learned
to live holy lives under the Mosaic covenant. The Mosaic covenant
had one purpose and that was to show you how sinful you were
and to show you how much you need a saviour. And that's why
Moses meets the saviour in glory before he goes to Mount Horeb
to receive the law of God. He's the covenant God. He's the
God that makes an eternal covenant. He's the God that promises, I
will and you shall. I will and you shall is the great
promise of the eternal covenant. It's the covenant in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the preaching of the
covenant, there is no preaching of the glory of God. I am the
God of thy father, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob. And what's the response of a man who hears God speaking?
What's the response of a man who's going to be sent by God
to do these remarkable things in Egypt? Moses hid his face. Moses hid his face, for he was
afraid to look upon God. You go through the rest of the
scriptures and every time you find a person meeting God, this
is exactly the same response. Isaiah met God. What was the
response of Isaiah when he heard those angels saying, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God of hosts? What's Isaiah's response? Woe
is me. He was a priest. He was a mature, religious man,
and he was undone. He says, I'm unraveled. All of
what held me together in my existence is now unraveled. Woe is me. Not woe is someone else. Woe
is me. And what happens? hide their faces and they're
afraid. Exactly what happened to Isaiah,
isn't it? Isaiah hears these remarkable
words. He says, I'm a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,
and for mine eyes have seen the King. He only ever knew those
things to be true when he saw the King and the Lord of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphs unto me, having a live coal,
a flaming coal, from that altar that came to him, which he had
taken with tongs from the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth.
And so it says, lo, this has touched thy lips. Thine iniquity
is taken away. All of your sins, Isaiah, have
gone in this sacrifice, on this altar, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thy sin is purged. You are washed clean. You are
washed white. And listen to our great God. Anytime you ever think that you
go through this world and no one understands, just remember
there's someone that's walked these paths before and he knows
exactly what it's like and he's more intensely aware of the pains
that you feel and the pains that will come your way. Listen to
what he says in verse seven. Have you cried to God? Have you
cried because of the affliction? Have you cried because of your
sin? Have you cried because of your
inability to do anything about your sin? Have you cried? Have
you cried to Him? I've heard their cry. for the reason of their taskmasters. I don't have time to look at
it but that's all about legalism and all the bondage that religion
puts upon people to do and to do and to do and to perform so
you can be right with God. Listen to verse 8. I'm come down
to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptian. He didn't come
to try and deliver anyone. When he comes to deliver, he
delivers completely and perfectly. Not only to deliver, but to bring
them out of that land unto a good land and large unto a land flowing
with milk and honey. When the God comes to redeem
and to bring his people, he not only brings them out of doesn't he? For everyone he's
redeemed they are taken out of this world they are transferred
from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear
son and from that moment on they are perfectly perfectly secure.
They always were secure but now they realize it for the first
time in saving grace. The cry of the children of Israel
is come unto me, and I have seen the oppression wherewith the
Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt. I thought God was going
to do it all. Moses is going to do it as God's
representative, as God's spokesman. God is always going to deal with
people through his servants and through his messengers. And Moses, again, if you go on
reading and you have time at your leisure, you'll see that
Moses causes God to be really angry with him because he keeps
saying, I'm not able to do this, I'm not up to the task. That's
exactly how everyone that's sent of God feels about themselves. If you ever feel as if you are
adequate to bring the message of God to his people and chosen
sinners, then you're not adequate. inadequate you are. Moses said,
Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, that I should bring
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? This is the great
promise, isn't it, of all gospel preaching. It's a great promise
for all of God's servants who are sent to speak in this world,
isn't it? I certainly will be with thee.
I'll be with thee. You might remember, if you ever
get a chance to go and read 2 Timothy chapter 4, and you're horrified
at the end of Paul's life, that he had been abandoned by so many.
And I don't know why, and we're not given all the circumstances,
and Paul prayed for their forgiveness. But everyone left him, and he
was abandoned. And then he said, and the sword
of the Romans was about to sever his head from his body. And then
he says one of the great buts of scripture, He was abandoned
by so many, but the Lord stood by my side. Certainly I will
be with thee. What a great gospel promise that
is. Certainly I will be with thee. I will be with thee. That God of the bush is going
to be with thee. And when you've brought forth
the people out of Egypt, you shall worship. shall worship
your bow down before God as who he really is. You might recall
that extraordinary scene when they came to that mountain and
the mountain burned with fire and the mountain trembled and
the mountain shook and Moses himself was absolutely terrified. God came to that mountain bringing
that law. We've come, we've come to a God in ways that according
to the Scriptures is far, far, far more evidently in judgment
than Moses met on Mount Sinai. That's what Hebrews says. Hebrews
12 says, This, for you are not come unto
the mount that might be touched. This is Mount Sinai, Hebrews
12, 18. That burned with fire, and o'er unto blackness, and
a darkness, and tempest, and to the sound of a trumpet, and
to the voice of words, which voice they heard entreated that
the word should no longer be spoken to them. They couldn't
stand the words of God. They said to Moses, you speak.
For they could not endure that which was commanded. If so much
as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned, thrust through
with a dart, an arrow. So terrible was the sight that
Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake." In the context of
the Book of Hebrews, you are in a more serious place right
now. But you are come to Mount Zion
under the City of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem under
innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and the
Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to
the God, the Judge of all. and to the spirits of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks of better things
than the blood of ables. What's the response? See that
you don't refuse him that speaks. They were not spared. Their voice
shook the mountains. Our God is still the same God
that met Moses on Mount Sinai. And what's his name? So this
is the name that the Lord Jesus Christ declared himself to be. This is the name that he declared
himself to be. Throughout the gospel accounts,
it's the name and it's the reason for which the Jews put him to
death. claim to be God. You, a bush
like the rest of us in this world, claim to be God. What's your
name? What's your name? And God said
to Moses, don't you love to think that the Lord Jesus Christ is
God? I love to say it. I love to dwelt in a body, Colossians 2.9. All of the fullness of God dwelt
in that body. And God said to Moses, I am that
I am. I am that I am. Thus shalt thou say to the children
of Israel, And just in closing, a couple of things. I am is in
the plural. I am God the Father. I am God
the Father. I am God the Son. I am God the
Holy Spirit. Embedded in those words and in
the names that God declares himself to Moses from the burning bush,
is salvation. Jehovah is salvation. And so
you could well say, I will save as I will save. God the Father
will save as God the Father will save. God the Son will save as
God the Son will save, and God the Holy Spirit will save as
God the Holy Spirit saves. Just in closing, this is referred
to in Luke chapter 20. As I said, to know God is to
have eternal life. To believe God is to have eternal
life now. He gives them everlasting life
and they shall never perish and no one will pluck them out of
his hand. When the Lord Jesus is speaking
of resurrection, he speaks of this particular event. He said,
now that the dead are raised, you might remember the context,
the people are, the Sadducees who didn't believe in resurrection
brought him this ridiculous notion of the woman who was married
seven times and so on and so forth, you know, the rest of
the story. The Lord Jesus is preaching resurrection in this
passage. He said, now that the dead are raised, even as Moses
showed at the bush, when he calls the Lord the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not the God of the
dead, but of the living. Abraham's alive. Abraham's been
alive for 4,000 years. He's been alive for much longer
than that. He was alive from before the foundation of the
world. We live for a long, long time, brothers and sisters in
Christ. And we live in him, isn't it? For he is not the God of
the dead, but of the living, for all live unto him. That last verse can easily be translated,
all him lives. Because I live, says the Lord
Jesus Christ, you also shall live. All him live. Why must we live? Because the
fire of God's wrath has consumed our sin and it no longer exists. The wages of sin is death. There
is only one reason for people dying in this world. Only one.
Sin. And if your sin is gone, you
must live forever. All him lives. It's a story of
the glory of God. It's a story of his name. It's
a story of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's a story
of our life in him. It's a story of redemption. It's
a story of being brought into heaven's glory. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, your people
are promised to know your name. And we pray, Heavenly Father,
that you would reveal your name to us, that we would see you
in your dear and precious Son as glorious, as high and lifted
up as an absolute sovereign that rules, who rules over all things. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
that you have places on this earth where you, as you did to
Moses, reveal yourself. And may we, Heavenly Father,
find ourselves like Moses. Caused to believe. Caused to be turned aside to
see a great sight. The Lord Jesus Christ and him
crucified is the great sight. for all of this world and him
and the scars he bore on Calvary's tree will fill all eternity with
awe and wonder. All in him live. Heavenly Father, as we take these
emblems that remind us of his broken body and his shed blood,
May we drink in remembrance of him. May you cause us, Heavenly
Father, to know him. May you appear that we might
know you. that we might then remember you,
Heavenly Father, for we are so, so, so forgetful of your wonders
and your glory. We pray these things in the name
of your dear and precious Son, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause him to be glorified, our
Father, in our midst. Amen.