And turn with me again tonight
to Exodus chapter 3. Moses saw a bush that burned
with fire but was not consumed. An angel spoke out of that bush
and in verse 6 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. 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." The last time
we saw the competence that we can have in the Lord Jesus Christ
as our Savior, He has surely seen our affliction. He calls
us His people. I love that. And he says that he's heard their
cry by reason of their taskmasters. He's heard our cry by reason
of our sin and our bondage in sin. And he knows our sorrows. And in verse 8, he said, I came
down not to try to deliver them, no. He said, I've come down to
deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring
them up out of that land into a good land, and a large, and
to 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.
And in verse 10, he says, come now, therefore, and I will send
thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children
of Israel, out of Egypt. As I was reading these verses
again this week, when God told Moses about saving and delivering
his people out of the bondage and the slavery, their slavery
in Egypt, and bringing them up out of that land that they were
in into a land that flowed with milk and honey, Moses didn't
say a word. But in verse 10, when God said,
come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, Moses couldn't
stop talking. It was as if Moses said, whoa,
wait a minute here. I think maybe you've mistaken
me for someone else. But God doesn't make mistakes.
And in verse 11, 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? We looked at that in detail last
time. Moses no longer wore the royal robes of Pharaoh's palace. He no longer had clout and influence
in the land of Egypt. He had left Egypt in a hurry.
40 years earlier, he'd been a fleeing fugitive on the run from Pharaoh. Many in Egypt and in Goshen both
have forgotten him and Moses was only spoken of in what we
call remember when conversations. Remember when that Hebrew boy
was raised in the palace with Pharaoh and then killed one of
the king's men and took off in the desert? Someone would say,
I don't remember that. That's been a long time ago.
My dad talks about it sometime. It was a remember when conversation. Moses had traded his life as
prince of Egypt for the title of a murderer. And he was no
longer royalty but a shepherd on the backside of the desert. He said, who am I? Who am I to
go into Pharaoh? Who am I to deliver your people
out of Egypt? But God is never unsure about
His will and purpose. We're unsure about a lot of things,
but God never is. His will and His purpose is always
certain, and that's why it's called the sovereign will and
purpose of God. Just like there's no grace but
sovereign grace, there's no will but the sovereign will and purpose
of God. Everything God does, He does
sovereignly. He does it as God would do it. And in verse 12, and he, God,
said, certainly. When it comes to my salvation,
that's a word that I rejoice in, certainly. I will be with
thee, he told Moses, and this shall be a token unto thee that
I have sent thee. Now, here's the token of God's
grace to Moses. He said, when thou hast brought
forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this
mountain. The token of God's grace to us
is the certainty of God's continued mercy and grace to us. God's
token unto Moses was that when, not if. He didn't say now if,
if this all works out like I hope it does. Can you imagine God
talking that way? God doesn't talk that way. He
says, when, when you bring the people out of Egypt, I will receive
all the honor, the glory, the praise, and the worship for your
redemption. You shall worship God upon this
mountain. And I'm telling you that is a
real token of God's grace to us. It accompanies that which
God promises. When you bring them out, you
shall worship me on this mountain. And then as a continued token,
God enables us to serve and worship Him because He's promised for
us to do so. And God always gets His way.
Now verse 13, 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? What shall I say unto them? And
God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thou shalt
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. How does God reveal His name
here unto Moses? The same way He reveals Himself
to us, by divine revelation. We use that terminology often,
but it's really an amazing truth. If God doesn't divinely intervene,
if God doesn't divinely reveal things to us, we'll remain in
darkness. And we'll like it because men
love darkness rather than light. Because by nature, our deeds
are evil. If you're ever to know God, that's
how you'll know him, by divine revelation. God must teach us
something about himself. What is the name that God told
Moses to tell them? I am. I am. This is the great
name of Jehovah. It contains each and every tense
of the verb am. As you know, I'm not an English
scholar, but am is a present tense verb. I am. Presently,
I am. But this word in the Hebrew language
takes on a much deeper meaning. Every tense of the verb is included
here. Present tense. Past tense, future
tense. Not just present tense, even
though God is always in the present tense. What God is saying here
is, I was God. I am God, and I'll always be
God. It could be rightly translated,
I was, I am, and I shall always continue to be that which I am. And I rejoice in that. Our God
is a God who never changes. Never changes. The name God here
in verse 14 is Elohim, which denotes the plurality of God. It speaks of the Trinity of God. God in three persons. God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And this is
God in all three of His persons speaking. In verse 2, The angel
of the Lord, as we've seen, was speaking in and through the burning
bush. That angel was a pre-incarnated
appearance of Christ. That angel was the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was the one who had the flame
of God's fire upon Him. and the flame of justice and
judgment and wrath, but was not consumed. Why? Because He's the
one mediator between God and men. And He's the one that speaks
on the behalf of men and on the behalf of God. He can approach
God because He is God. And He can represent you and
I because He's a man. He's the God-man. That's a terminology
that every believer loves to hear about over and over again.
And in these verses, we find no attempts, no attempts of God
to prove His existence. He simply says, tell them that
I am that I am sent you. No time is wasted with sinful
man and an effort by human reasoning to explain who God is. God doesn't
have to explain who He is. He simply declares, I am that
I am. And what proof this is, that
we are to simply declare and proclaim the being of God as
He reveals Himself. Now this is how Christ reveals
Himself in the New Testament. It's quite amazing when you think
about it in all the ways. Let me show you that. Stick your
marker here in Exodus 3 and turn with me to the Gospel of John
chapter 8. I want to just look at a few
passages here that are close together beginning in John chapter
8. In verse 24, the Lord Jesus says, I said therefore unto you that
ye shall die in your sins for if you believe not that I am
he. And you notice that the word
he there is italicized. So what he's saying is that you
shall die in your sins for you believe not that I am. You shall
die in your sins. Christ is saying very simply
and plainly here, if you believe not that I am, that I am God,
you shall die in your sins. As you know, in John 1.1, you
don't have to turn there, we pretty much all know that passage
by heart. In the beginning was the Word,
was the Word. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The Word, Jesus Christ, who is
the Word incarnated, was with God. The Word, God's Son, was
God, and He was God the Son then, and He's Christ the Word now. He's still God. I am that I am. That's who Christ is, I am. Look
at verse 55 here in John chapter 8. Our Lord Jesus said in verse
55, You say that you know God, and
you say that He's your God, but you've not known Him. But I know
Him, and if I should say I know Him not, I shall be a liar unto
you, but I know Him and keep His saying. Now your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. And then
said the Jews unto him, thou art not yet 50 years old, and
hast thou seen Abraham? And Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am, I am. In other words, before Abraham
was, I already was. Now listen, the Jews knew exactly
what our Lord was saying here when he referred to himself as
I am. They knew exactly what he was saying. He was referring
to himself as God. And it wasn't that they misunderstood
him at all. You know how I know that? Look
at verse 59. Then, when he said, I am, they took up stones to
cast at him. Only after he referred to himself
as I am did they desire to stone him. And that also happened in
John 10. Turn over a page or so. In John
10, verse 32. The Lord said to the Jews, many
good works have I showed you from my father, for which of
those works do you stone me? And the Jews answered him in
verse 33, saying, for a good work we stone thee not, but for
blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. They didn't like that. They didn't
like for him, they called it blasphemy. Jesus Christ didn't
make himself God. He was God before time ever was. Jesus Christ is still God. He
is presently God. Jesus Christ will always be God. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Now look over at John chapter
18. John chapter 18. Look at verse three. Judas then, having received a
band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees,
cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. And
Jesus, therefore knowing all things that should come upon
him, went forth and said unto them, who seek ye? And they answered
him, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said unto them, I am. And he there again, as you see,
is italicized. And we're told, and Judas also,
which betrayed him, stood with them. And as soon then as he
had said unto them, I am, they went backward and fell to the
ground. None can stand in the presence
of I am, not without a mediator, not without a mediator. And they
asked him again, verse seven, whom seek, or he asked them again,
excuse me, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
And Jesus answered, I have told you that I am. Therefore, if
you seek me, let these go their way. And in verse eight, there's
pretty much the gospel in a verse right there. It refers to the
substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ. The great I am stood
in the chosen sinner's place. And the Lord said unto his holy
law, if therefore you seek me, let these go their way. And that's
exactly what happened. With all our sin, all the sin
of all the elect throughout all time upon him, the law condemned
our Lord and poured out all God's wrath, judgment, and justice
on our substitute. And then he let God's people
go their way. Verse nine, that the same might
be fulfilled which he spake of them which thou gavest me, have
I lost none. The great I am of the burning
bush, friends, now stands fully declared in the blessed person
of our Lord Jesus Christ who said, I am the bread of life. He said, I am the Good Shepherd. I am the light of the world. I am the resurrection and the
life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. I am the true vine. Oh, do you
have faith in Christ? who is, as Hebrews 11 verse 6
says this, but without faith it's impossible to please Him. Who? God. For he that cometh
to God must believe that He is. Now have you ever thought much
about that? What does that mean? Must believe that He is. What
does that mean? Well that means that we must
believe that God is who He says He is. I am that I am. By faith, I believe that Christ
did what He said He did. One may believe this way, one
may believe another way, but neither have any bearing on who
and what God is. Who God is is in no way influenced
by what we think Him to be. God is who He says He is. And
my faith must line up with that. Now God says, tell them, Moses,
tell them that I am that I am has sent you. And doesn't that
declare his self-existence? He's always existed. This declares
His self-sufficiency. He's without beginning. He's
without end. He's from everlasting to everlasting. And only God can truly say, I
am that I am. Our God is past finding out. But we believe it. We believe
He is who He says He is by God's grace, by divine revelation.
The name of God declares who He is. You know, we looked at
Exodus 33 a couple Sundays ago, and we saw when Moses asked God
to show him His glory. God said, I'll make all my goodness
pass before you, and I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.
Now, I don't know if you ever thought about this much. I've
been giving it a lot of thought lately. God said, I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. And immediately, without so much
as even taking a breath, God added, I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I'll
show mercy. You see, the name of God reveals
who he is. The attributes of God's grace
and mercy are a part of his name. I heard someone say not long
ago that they were going to do a theological study on the attributes
of God. What they meant was that they
were going to study the attributes of God as they were revealed
in the scripture. But to understand the attributes
of God, they have to be revealed to us. The same way all scripture
has to be revealed to us. They must be revealed to the
heart by the Holy Spirit's divine revelation. And this is what
I'm trying to say. A mere theological study won't
get it done. His attributes, who God is, are
wrapped up in His name. God must be gracious. He said,
I'm gonna proclaim the name of the Lord to you, and He said,
I'll be gracious. God must be gracious. to those
whom He gave to Christ, to those who love His Son, to those who
trust in Christ alone to do what they can never do for themselves.
Why? It's God's character to be gracious. He's a gracious
God. He was gracious, and He'll always
be gracious. And He's gracious right now.
And you can study the word gracious until you know every definition
in the dictionary or Bible dictionary or anywhere else, but it won't
profit you unless and until you know that God is gracious to
you. And He's gracious to you in Christ. God must show mercy. He said, I proclaim the name
of the Lord. I will be gracious. I will be merciful. God must
show mercy on those who trust solely upon His Son and His fulfilling
of the law and His satisfying of God's justice on the sinner's
behalf. Why? Because that's God's character.
God was a merciful God. God is a merciful God. God will
always be and will always delight to show mercy. He said, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin. David said his mercy endures forever. But just studying the
mercy of God will do you no spiritual good until you know that in Christ,
God is merciful to you. I don't want to say that it's
by experience, but you truly know something about God's mercy
and grace when you've experienced it. God must be just. He must be just in punishing
sin. He can by no means clear the
guilty. His justice won't allow it. The
soul that sins, it shall surely die. Holy justice is His character. You can't separate God's just
justice from him. He's a just God. He must be just
in the justifying of his people. He would cease to be God if he
wasn't. That's why Christ came and died
the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God. God
in Christ has always been just. He will always be just, and He
is just right now, for justice is His character. One of His
many attributes for the name of God is who He is. But the
satisfying of His holy justice will never be sweet to you. Never be sweet to you until you
see that His justice has been satisfied against you. Psalm
9 verse 10 says this, I just ran across this verse, I never
read it before, it said, and they that know thy name will
put their trust in thee. That's a fact. That is a fact. This is the Lord God of your
fathers. He's the one who made heaven
and earth. He's the one who spoke creation out of nothing. He's
the one who made man out of the dust of the ground and breathed
into him the breath of life. He's the one who made woman out
of the rib of man. He's the one who caused man to
become a living soul. This is the God that called Abraham.
This is the God that promised Isaac forth from promise. And this is the God that saved
Jacob in spite of himself. What a picture we have of ourself
in all three. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. And God, look at verse 14 again,
back in Exodus. We'll stay there the remainder
of the time, I believe. But look again at verse 14. 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. Have you ever thought about why
God makes himself known? It's really a simple answer. Why does God make himself known? He didn't have to. Israel didn't
deserve that God should make himself known, but God makes
himself known in order to save. He declares his name to men and
women that he intends to deliver out of bondage. He said, you
go tell my people. These are my people, which are
in Egypt, that I've heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. He said, for I know their sorrows.
Why? Because they're mine. You go
tell my people that I am come down to deliver them out of the
hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land
into a good land and a large into a land flowing with milk
and honey. And you know the most wonderful
thing about the promises of God is the fact that they always
come to pass. They always come to pass. What
a great sin it is not to believe God. Unbelief, we've said this
often, but it's so true. Unbelief is the only sin that
God will not forgive. Unbelief is the only sin that
will send a sinner to hell. You cannot know someone without
knowing their name. Since we're talking about the
name or the names of God, I want you to see the name that God
chooses for himself. Look at verse 15. And God said, moreover unto Moses,
thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord,
capital L-O-R-D, the Lord God of your fathers, the God, the
Lord of Abraham, the God, the Lord of Isaac, the God, the Lord
of Jacob has sent me unto you and this is my name forever. And this is my memorial unto
all generations. God's name of choice is L-O-R-D,
Lord, and it means Jehovah. When you see the name Lord in
capital letters, it means Jehovah. That's the same name, that's
the name that God prefers above all of his other names. The God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the God of sovereign
grace. Moses was to say, this is Jehovah that sent me unto
you. This is God's name forever. The
God who saves. This is the name that is a memorial
to all generations. The Lord, L-O-R-D, Jehovah. The one true God. God manifested
in the flesh. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was Jehovah to Abraham. He was Jehovah to Isaac. He was
Jehovah to Jacob, the God who saves. And you know what? If I'm redeemed, He's Jehovah
to David Edmondson. and he's Jehovah to you if you
trust in him. God tells Moses in verse 16,
he said, go and gather the elders of Israel together and say unto
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 seen that which is done to you in Egypt. Now, as I read
that verse, I tried to put myself in Israel's place. Now you try
to imagine you're being afflicted with hard bondage. That's all
you've ever known. Slavery is all you've ever known.
Hard work is all that you've ever done or experienced. Being oppressed by taskmasters. Do more. Always got to do more.
It's never enough. Pharaoh's never satisfied. That's
all you've ever known in your life. That was the case with
these who had been in bondage for 400 years. What a picture
that is of our bondage to first our sin, sold under sin, and
as we've talked about several times now, the law of God. And then all of a sudden, this
supposed deliverer is gonna deliver you out of the hands of your
Your taskmasters comes to you and says, the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob told me to tell you that he has surely visited
you. Past tense, visited you. Not
going to visit you, not planning on visiting you, not going to
visit you if everything works out okay. He surely has already
visited you. And they're thinking, well, we're
still in bondage. We're still making bricks. How has this visit from Jehovah
helped? What has this visit done for
us? Well, we often question the same
things. Immediately, I'm reminded of
Romans chapter eight, verse 29. I did lie to you, not intentionally. Turn there with me. Romans chapter
eight. I know most of you can quote
it, but let's look at it. Romans chapter eight, look at
verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now if God predestined
or predetermined, that's what the word means, determined beforehand,
If God determined beforehand something for you, then it had
to be done in the past. You cannot predestinate or predetermine
anything that's already come to pass. God in the past predetermined
and predestinated some things. He predetermined to choose and
to elect a people. He determined back then to give
those that He chose to Christ. He determined back then to conform
them to Christ's image. Those God predetermined to conform
before creation, God called by His grace. That's what we're
told here. God predetermined to justify them, to make them
just. God predetermined to glorify
them, Moreover, whom he did, past tense, predestinate, them
he also called, past tense. And whom he called, them he also
justified, past tense. And whom he justified, past tense,
them he also glorified, past tense. According to Scripture,
I'm already all these things. That's one of the hardest things
for us as believers to get a hold of. We are already these things. Glorified, justified, called
by God according to Scripture. If I'm trusting in Christ alone
and believe that He's done for me everything that God requires
of me, then I've been predestinated, I've been called, I've been justified,
and I'm right now in Christ glorified. Do I look glorified? No, not
at all. Do I look justified? Well, what
does justified look like? Can you look at me and tell if
I've been called? No. No, we'd like to be able
to do that, but we can't. Can you tell by looking at me
that I'm chosen and predestinated? Absolutely not. But in Christ,
I'm all these things, and all these things have already been
done. You see, faith is believing what we can't see. Isn't that
what faith is? All men make faith to be so many
things that it's not. Faith is simply believing what
we can't see. If God says, I have surely visited
you, then you can be certain that that's so. If God says,
I've seen what has been done to you in Egypt, then you can
certainly believe that He's seen you and seen how you've been
treated. Faith is believing what we can see. And when God told
Abraham that his seed, you remember that back in Genesis 15? Seems
like so long ago now that we looked at that. But God told
Abraham, He said, your seed will be more in number than the stars
in the sky. dust of the ground, the sand
on the beach. And Abraham hadn't even had a
child yet. But the Scriptures say this, that Abraham believed
God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Do we
believe God? Sometimes I wonder. Help thou
my unbelief. I'm talking about me. God said,
I have surely visited you. And you know what? He has. He
has. He done so long before I ever
professed Him to be my Lord. God said, I have surely visited
you. And He had long ago visited me before the foundation of the
world when He gave me to Christ and conformed me to His image.
And He called me and He justified me and He glorified me in His
beloved Son. I surely have visited you. God is the one who can successfully
call those things which not as though they were. Romans 4, 17. You know, that's just who God
is. I am that I am. That's just what God can do.
Anything and everything. Whatever He so desires. Our God is in the heavens. He's
done whatsoever He had pleased. So let me ask you one more time,
do you think that God can deliver his people out of Egypt? Do you
think that God will? Well, we've read ahead, most
of us, and we know how the story turns out. But let me ask you
that in a more pertinent and revelant way. Do you think God can deliver
you out of this world? Do you think God will? Well,
if you trust in Christ, He most certainly will. Did He depend
on Israel to lend Him a hand? Does He need you to lend Him
a hand to save you? Will Israel have to let go and
let God? Will you have to let go and let
God? No. No, you can't let go and you
can't let God do anything. These are ridiculous questions
to those who don't know God, but not so ridiculous to those
who don't. Some of you know God, and you
can rejoice in the fact that He says, I am that I am. Tell them that I am has sent
you. If I am has done something for
you, there's no need to worry, friends. It'll be accomplished.
He is faithful, the promised.