Let's turn in our Bibles to Exodus
chapter 3. In Exodus chapter 3 and verse 13, Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they
shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said, God said unto Moses,
I am that I am. And He said, Thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. Now here God is sanctifying Moses
and sending him to the work that He would have him to do and being
an instrument in God's hand as God calls out the children of
Israel out of bondage. And since God was speaking with
a sinful man, we know that this is the pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. Because God only deals with a
sinner through a mediator. And this is Christ in the flame
of fire in the bush speaking. There's one God and there's one
mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus. So this
is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. This is the angel
of God that dwelt in the flame of fire that is speaking here
who is called God. This is the Son of God. And so
wisely as Moses is going forth, he asks God, what shall I say
to them? Who shall I say sent me? What's
his name? That's a reasonable question.
Whose name am I to preach? Whose name am I to declare? And God said this amazing name,
I am that I am. That just is too much for us
to comprehend. I am that I am. And this declares
that Christ is eternal God. He is eternal God. He is Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. He's always been
the eternal God. It declares Christ as the Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which
was, and which is to come, the Almighty. That's who He is. He is He who is, and He who was,
and He who is to come. I am that I am. And now our Lord
when He walked this earth, He called Himself I am many times. He said it many times. Go to
John 8 just a moment. John 8 and you can hold your
place in John because that is where we are going to be the
majority of our time. But in John 8 and verse 24, notice here
John 8 24, This is Christ speaking. He said,
I said therefore unto you that you should die in your sins for
if you believe not that I am. You see that? If you believe
not that I am, you should die in your sins. Look down at verse
28. Then said Jesus unto them, When you have lifted up the Son
of Man, then you shall know that I am." You see, He is in italics,
that means it was added by the translators. He simply said,
I am. I am. And He is declaring He
is that I am. And He said there, when the Son
of Man, then you shall know I am, and that I do nothing of myself,
but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." And
look down at John 8 and look at verse 58. They began to reason,
you know, and they began to say, well, how could you possibly be How could Abraham have known
you? He said there in John 8.56, or look at John 8.55, he said,
You've not known him, but I know him, speaking of the Father.
And if I should say I know him not, I should be a liar like
unto you, but I know him and I keep his saying. Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day and saw it and was glad. And
then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years
old, and hast thou seen Abraham? And look what he said. Jesus
said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham
was, I am. I am. He is declaring that He
is God eternal. asked me the question, you know,
when I talk about Christ created the world and that He's the one
who spoke to all of the saints of old that appeared to them.
And He'll ask me sometimes, how could He have done that when
He wasn't born until thousands of years later? But God wasn't
born. A child was born as a man. There was a son of man that was
born. His humanity came forth. at that time. But He is the Son
given. He is the Son of God eternal
that was given to represent His people. And so He always existed. There has never been a beginning
and there will never be an end with Him. He is the I Am. I Am that I Am. Now, each time
that He declared Himself I Am in the New Testament, He did
this many times, And each time he did it, this is what I want
you to see. By that name he was declaring
exactly what every one of his people need to enter into glory. He was declaring he is what his
people need to be saved. And when he said I am, and he
followed it up with what he is, he was showing I am what my people
need to enter into glory. I thought about saying some things
about the name, I am that I am, but it's just too big for me
to try to talk about it. So the best way I know to show
what that means is to see where Christ said I am and see what
He said He is. And this is how we'll understand
that name. Now there's so many here, we're
going to look at three in the first hour, we'll look at the
rest of them in the second hour. But let's begin now in John chapter
6. John chapter 6 and we'll be in
John mostly here. John 6 verse 35. Now the first thing that a sinner
is going to need, a dead sinner, to be saved is we need life. We need life to be created in
us in righteousness. That's the only kind of life
there is, is righteousness. So we need life, we need righteousness. Now look, John 6, 35. Jesus said unto them, I am. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Look
at verse 48. I am that bread of life. I am that bread of life. Verse
51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. Can you imagine
if somebody told you that? If somebody said, I have some
bread here. If you eat this bread, you'll live forever. You couldn't
keep that bread on the shelf. Everybody would be eating that
bread. Well, I'm telling you about the bread that you eat
and you live forever. It's Christ. Listen to this.
If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the
bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world. Look at verse 54. Here's what
he means. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life. And I will raise him up at the
last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink
indeed. Look at verse 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. Now, why does he say that
my flesh is meat and my blood is drink? Because when the sinless
Savior who had a real body and real blood, when he was made
sin for his people, God poured out justice on all his people
when God poured out justice on him. God poured out justice on
all his people when God poured out justice on him. When his
body was broken and his blood was shed, he wasn't doing that
for himself. He's the sinless perfect God-man. He was doing that for His people.
And when He did that, when His body was broken and His blood
was shed, that was God pouring out justice on Him in the place
of His people so that we wouldn't have to have justice poured out
on us, but we were in Him. So that when He bore that justice,
all His people died in Him. We all bore the justice of God
in Him. God now will not impute sin to
His people because He has made His Son sin and He has imputed
sin to His Son and He has paid the debt. And God won't impute
sin to His people now. God will only impute the righteousness
of Christ to His people now because of what Christ did. And that's
the reason Christ won't take no for an answer from His people.
We go through our life, well I'll talk about that later, I'll
deal with that later, I'll deal with Christ later. And one day
if you're His, Christ is going to speak and He's going to make
you irresistibly begin to believe on Him. Because justice has been
satisfied for His people and that justice demands His people
be given life and have that righteousness imputed to them. So His body
is meat indeed and His blood drink indeed because believing
on Him, that's what He is talking about when He says eating. Believing
on Him is because we already have life.
He said, He that believes on Me, He dwells in Me and I dwell
in Him. That's when you will begin to
have life and that's when you will believe on Him. And He that
believes on Him, has His righteousness imputed to us by God, so that
God is going to receive us. And God won't, He will not impute
sin to one of His people. So He is going to make His people
alive and bring you to Christ, bring you to believe on Him,
so through that He is going to impute righteousness. Now, He
talks there about that life being righteousness and that's, first
of all, Go to Romans 8, I want you to see this. The reason His people should
be filled with the Spirit is because of righteousness. Understand
that. The reason His people shall be
filled with the Spirit and have life is because of righteousness.
Christ has made them righteous and so they must be given life.
And then when that Spirit of Christ is within them, That spirit
is life within them because that spirit is righteousness. And
that new man within them is righteousness. There is no life but righteousness. You know, you think about Adam
in the garden. Adam was created upright and
he had never broken a law. He was righteous. That's what
righteousness is, is to have never broken a law. And he was
righteous. And he had life, didn't he? He
had to have life. with God, righteousness is life.
But the moment he broke that law, what happened? He lost his
life because he became unrighteous. Now look here, I want you to
see this in Romans 8 verse 9. You are not in the flesh but
in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now you
and I know that in our flesh dwells nothing good and we are
There is a fleshly man with us, but before God you're not in
the flesh, you're in the Spirit. When the Spirit dwells in you.
Remember Christ said, I'm the bread of life, he that dwells
in me, I dwell in him. And he's saying here, you're
in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God is in you. If He's in
you, then you're in Him. That's what He's saying. Now,
if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of His.
Now look at verse 10. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. Because Christ our righteousness
fulfilled righteousness on the cross, and because that Spirit
that is now in you is righteous, and it's life. Now that's not
why God imputes righteousness to you because you have a new
man created. He imputes righteousness to you
because Christ is that righteousness and accomplished that righteousness
on Calvary's cross. But when He imputes righteousness
to a sinner in the court of our conscience, that sinner is altogether
righteous because of what Christ has done for him and what Christ
has done within him. He's righteous. That's the reason he has life.
He wouldn't have it otherwise if he was not righteous. So if
you have the Spirit in you and you believe Christ is because
He is that bread of life. I am the bread of life. And that's
righteousness. He is your righteousness, what
He's done for you. And the reason you have life
and believe Him is because He's that righteousness dwelling in
you, that Spirit of life in you. Alright? Now that's the first
one. Let's go to this next thing in John 8. And not only do we
need life, not only do we need bread, we need light. Because
we're in darkness by nature. We know nothing about God by
nature. We need light. John 8 and look at verse 12. He says here, Then spake Jesus
again unto them, saying, I am, I am, I am the light of the world. This is what he was telling Moses
when he said, You go tell them I am have sent you. He is telling
them, go tell them, I am the bread of life has sent you. Go
tell them, I am the light has sent you. I am the light of the
world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And that is
what it is, the light of life. Not only are we born dead spiritually,
we are in complete, total darkness spiritually. You don't know a
thing about the true God spiritually. We think we do and we have our
ideas on who God is, but even if we are talking and saying
we believe the true and living God, our ideas of Him by nature
are all wrong. They are totally wrong. We think
it, you know, you hear men talk about God like He is just some
grandpa upstairs that feels sorry for sinners and just as long
as they do the best they can do, He will have mercy on them.
That is not God at all. That is not God at all. It's
holy God, strict holy God that is going to, you're going to
have to have satisfied divine judgment for Him to receive you. You're going to have to have
no sin for Him to receive you. And that can't be except Christ
has done a work for us and in us. We've got to be totally created
anew. Now what does He mean when He
says, I am the light of the world? Does He mean He's the light of
everybody in the world? Well, he is the life of everybody
in the world. John said that. He's the light
of everybody that comes into the world. In a sense, the only
reason you have life right now is because of God, because of
Christ. But what he's saying here when
he's talking about being the spiritual light and the light
of eternal life of the world, he doesn't mean he's that light
for everybody. He means He is that light for
His people that are called out of every nation and every kindred
and every tongue and every people. When Timothy over there is talking
about, he said pray for kings and pray for everybody from sitting
on the throne to the peasant. He said pray for them because
God will have all men to be saved. He is not saying God would have
every man on this earth be saved. He is saying God will have all
kinds of men to be saved. And when He says here He is the
light of the world, He is not saying He is the light of everybody
in the world. He said He is the light of all kinds of people
in the world, out of every nation, all over the world, every kindred,
every tongue, every kind of people. He is the light of His people
wherever they are and wherever they dwell. You think about the
Son. God created the Son to and picture
Christ. And when the sun comes up in
the morning, the sun shines light to people all over the world.
Wherever you are, the sun is going to reach you. And Christ
is called in Scripture the Son, the S-U-N, of righteousness.
And when He shines forth in the heart, that's when for the first
time you'll have light. You'll have life and you'll begin
be taught of Him and understand something about Him, because
you have light now. And He said there clearly, He
that has that light, He is not going to walk in darkness. You
know, I walked in here this morning and it was dark, and when I turned
on the light, the darkness is gone. Darkness and light can't
dwell in the same place. If you got light, the darkness
is gone. And so when He is your light, you are going to have
light, and there won't be darkness. You will walk in His light. And
now let's go to the next one in John chapter 10. A sinner, we not only need the
bread of life, we not only need the light of life, we've got
to have access, we've got to have entrance into the presence
of God. The door's been slammed shut.
When Adam sinned in the garden, the door was slammed shut to
us. And we're going to come to God, we have to come God's way.
So we need access, we need an entrance to God, to His presence. Well, look at John 10 and verse
7. Jesus said unto them again, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, I am. I am the door of the sheep. I am the door. All that ever
came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not
hear them, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and he shall go in and out and find pasture.
The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have
life and that they might have it more abundantly. Now he's
telling us there's no way to enter into life, there's no way
to enter into peace with God, there's no way to enter into
God's presence and be accepted of God except through Christ
the door. He's the door. Aren't you glad
that he didn't just say, I am that I am and leave it at that
for you to try to figure out what that meant? He's so... He's so... general and teaches us what he
is in ways we can understand. I know what a door is. We all
came in this room one way, through a door, through the door. We're
going to go out through the door. He said, I am the door and this
is how you enter in. And now he tells us here that
anybody that tells us there's some other way to enter in other
than Christ the door, that person is a thief and a robber. They
come to steal and kill and destroy. A thief doesn't enter in by the
door. A thief will climb in a window.
Or a thief will come in some other way other than, you know,
he's not going to come in the way that will reveal him as a
thief. He's going to come in some other way. And when you
hear people telling you that, you know, it's Christ plus something
that you do, that's a thief. He's telling you to try to sneak
up to God some other way than Christ the door. Just because
he includes Christ in it. By adding something else, he
totally disavows anything good that he said. You hear a man
preach and a lot of times they'll say a lot of good things. But
it's what they don't say that's dangerous because they won't
shut you up to the fact that Christ is the only way. He's
the only way. And the man that does that is
a thief and he's a robber. He's trying to fleece God's sheep
and he's trying to take advantage of people. And all he's doing
is killing and destroying people. That's all he's doing. But Christ
said, I am come that they might have life and that they might
have it more abundantly. That's what He does. And this
life is not just having life, it's having it more abundantly.
And that has something to do with Him saying here, they shall
go in and out and find pasture. You know, if you have life but
you're shackled somewhere and in bondage, that's not You've
got life, but that's not life in abundance, is it? Because
you can't enjoy that. But Christ says, my people are
going to come in and out and have plenty of pasture. It speaks
of liberty. Having true life is not just
being born of God and having His righteousness and Him being
made the holiness that's given you this new heart and this new
desire for Him, but it's knowing now you have liberty. Acceptance
with God. Everything is done. The law is
satisfied. Justice is settled. God receives
you. And there is liberty now. Going in and out is liberty.
It doesn't mean you are going to go in Christ and then leave
Christ. It just means that in this door, once you have entered
this door, You are free now. Christ has given you liberty
to go in and out and there is plenty of pasture and that pasture
is Him, that liberty is Him because He satisfied, completely satisfied
the law and He is everything you need to enter into glory.
I have heard brothers say this to me and I have heard a lot
of people say this, same thing. You know, it dawns on them at
some point. They're in the church and the
church is strict and they're legal and they're whipping people
and they're binding people. And it's like, I had more fun
before I knew Christ than I do now. And you have people say,
I don't believe this is how a believer's life is supposed to be. I think
a believer is supposed to have more liberty than them. What's
this stuff Christ talked about, about going in and out and finding
pasture? What's this He talked about, about the Son setting
you free. It's not a freedom to sin. God's
people don't want to do that. That's, you know, the man that
talks about that had been, his heart had been sanctified. He
don't even have a clue. But I'll tell you, people that
are in that kind of religion, that are bound and shackled and
think that they're so strict on what they do because they
know somebody else is watching. We've experienced Pharisees come
and go here. And a Pharisee, while they're
around, they make everybody's life miserable. because you're
being scrutinized for everything. And a believer don't want to
give anybody ammunition and load their own gun for them to shoot
at us. So we try our best not to do anything to offend them,
but that's a miserable life. And when they leave, the whole
congregation is just... Now, we can get back to just
enjoying the gospel again, you know. And that's not liberty
to go through that. And those people that are in
that situation, they'll tell you that they don't like what
they're doing. They'll tell you if I preach the gospel like what
you're preaching, then I just live like I want to live. You're
not doing that now? No, they're not doing that now.
They don't want to be doing any of that bondage. I'm living like
I want to live. The only thing I can't do that
I wish I could do is I wish I could live totally without sin. But
as far as having freedom and peace and knowing that He saved
me and I'm accepted and there's nothing else to do to try to
keep myself in God's good graces, that's peace and that's going
in and out and having this rich, rich green pasture. We sing with
the psalmist, free from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus has
bled and there's remission. It's forgiveness. He said, I
blotted out your sins as a thick cloud. I won't remember them
anymore. God who knows everything, God
who knows the end from the beginning says, I won't remember the sins
of my people anymore. They'll be sought for. He said,
they won't be found. They don't exist. That's how
thoroughly Christ purged the sin of His people. They don't
exist. They're gone before God. They're blotted out of God's
record book. They don't even exist. They never did. Past,
present or future. You know, talk about fulfilling
the law, talk about, you know, keeping the law. If you are the
righteousness of the law and the law cannot say anything to
you past, present or future to lay any charge to you because
it's God that justified, it's Christ that died, brethren, that
is the fulfillment of the law. That's the fulfillment of the
law. If the law says I'm righteous and it can't blame me for any
sin past, present or future, I've kept it then. That means
I've fulfilled it. And I didn't do a thing. Christ
did it all. Jesus hath bled and there's remission.
Cursed by the law, bruised by the fall, grace hath redeemed
us once for all. It's done. It's done. That's
the Slippery. That's going in and out and having
this pasture. I pray for you that He will reveal
to you today that name, I Am. I Am the Bread of Life. make
you hungry for righteousness. You can only be found one place,
eating that bread. Eating that bread. Wouldn't we
be foolish if we knew there was a place and there was a bread?
And if you ate that bread, you would live forever. Wouldn't
we be foolish not to eat that bread? You'd be a fool not to
eat it. And yet sinners... I wouldn't
have any, thank you. I wouldn't care for any. Sinners
love death. Sinners love death. God's got
to be that bread of life and dwell in us and make us hungry
for Him. And then He said, I am the light. I am the light of the world.
We're total darkness unless He gives us that light. I pray He
would give you that light, make you see. For the first time in
your life, make you see. And He said then, I am the door. The only way into any of this
is Christ. The only way. You want true liberty?
A true liberty is peace. That's what true liberty is.
True liberty is having peace. And that's what Christ is for
his people. My peace I give you. And then
he said there that my sheep won't hear thieves. They just won't
hear thieves. They'll hear Christ only. How's
that? Why's that? We'll look at that
in the next hour. We'll take about four more of
these I am's and look at them. Alright, let's stand together,
brethren. Our gracious God and our Father,
thank you for speaking to us in language we can understand.
Thank you for giving us light to be able to understand it.
Thank you for giving us life to be hungry to have it and to
partake of it. Thank You, Lord, that You've
made us come in now through this one door. And we thank You most
of all that all of this is Christ. Everything is Christ and we have
Him, we have all. Lord, make us to know that more
and more and make those that You haven't yet revealed this
to, to know it. And have the joy that Your people have. Forgive
us, Lord, of our unbelief. Forgive us of our sins and acting
like we need anything. We thank you, Father, in Christ's
name, amen.