Exodus chapter three. Let's read
a few verses beginning with 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 will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. Now,
when Moses turned to behold this amazing sight of the bush that
burned but was not consumed, he was enlightened to some things
about God that he had not known before. I think I have five quick
things to give you. First, he learned something about
God's holiness. When God first reveals himself
to a sinner, he's gonna teach that sinner something about his
holiness. In verse five, we read, and he,
God, said, draw not hither, but put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Holy ground. God is too holy
for man to stand in his presence. And that's the reason that he
appeared to Moses here in a burning bush, who pictures Christ, our
mediator, who God's holy justice of fire fell on, but he was not
consumed. And because of our walk in this
life, there's too much dirt on our feet. None are worthy to
stand before the Lord. And this is why a sinner must
be made holy, must be made worthy by being washed in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the first thing Moses saw
and what was revealed to him in this burning bush was the
holiness of God. Secondly, Moses learned that
God was a covenant God. Look at verse six. Moreover,
he said, and that being God, 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. Now the covenant
that God made first was with Abraham. And in the covenant
with Abraham, the covenant was with all three. It's the covenant
of grace. It's the covenant that God made
with all His people. But the covenant that God made
with Abraham was a covenant of grace concerning the election
of God. God chose Abraham out of an idolatrous
nation. Abraham was an idol worshiper.
We've talked about that so much. We saw that so clearly in our
study of Genesis. And he did nothing, absolutely
nothing to merit or deserve the choosing or the calling of God.
And neither did you or I. It's a covenant of election,
a covenant of the election of grace. God's choosing us, us
not choosing Him. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you. And we love Him because He first
loved us. A lot of folks get that backwards. It's important to know this was
a covenant of the election of grace. God chose Abraham. Abraham didn't choose God. The covenant that God made with
Isaac was a covenant of grace concerning God's redemption.
Isaac was redeemed by the substitution of another. When he and Abraham
went into the mount, God told him to take his son, his only
son, and sacrifice him. It was by the substitution of
that ram caught in the thicket, picturing Christ and how God
provided for himself a sacrifice and he also provided himself
as the sacrifice. And that's a covenant of redemption. And then the covenant that God
made with Jacob was a covenant of grace concerning the Holy
Spirit's regeneration of a sinner. God told Jacob that thy name
shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel. And that pictures the
new birth and the regeneration of a dead sinner. Dead and trespasses
in sin. What can a dead man do? Nothing. Nothing. Such a simple but folks
just don't get it. They don't, why? Because they
don't believe that they're really dead. Oh, it's the regeneration
of the dead sinner from death into life. And if God didn't
generate a sinner, I'm telling you none would be saved. The
Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, you must, must be born again. So that's, there's a beautiful
picture there in the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Now, the third thing Moses saw, Moses was taught about God, was
something about His mercy and His compassion. God is a merciful
and a compassionate God. Verse 7, and the Lord said, I
have surely seen the affliction of My people. Boy, those, I tell
you, as I read these verses again, those two words just stuck out
on the page. God said, they're my people.
I've 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. Friends, God is a merciful and
a compassionate God. His compassion is unconditional. It's not conditioned on anything
in the world. done are by us. The people in
Israel were not calling out to God. They were calling out, but
they weren't calling out to God. They were crying out by the reason
of their taskmasters, by the reason of their bondage, the
reason of their slavery. They'd been born into slavery,
as we saw last time. That's all they knew. And you
and I were sold and born under sin. Sin's all we know. What
a picture this is of our bondage. They were under Pharaoh's law.
Pharaoh was never satisfied. There was always more to do. And you and I are born under
the law of God. It demands perfection. We can't
provide it. Can't provide what God requires. If we fail in one point, we're
guilty of the whole law. No man can be justified by the
law of God, for none can keep its demands of perfection. Fourthly, Moses learned something
about God's purpose. Look at verse 8. He said, and
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, 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 Habites, and the Jebusites.
God had determined to deliver, to save them before the foundation
of the world. God had told Abraham some 400
years before concerning their bondage and their deliverance. God's purpose was to come down
to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. And what a
picture! Christ came down from heaven's
glory to deliver His people from their taskmasters, Satan, sin,
and self. And because of him, we have victory
over hell, death, and the grave. And fifth thing, Moses learned
something about God's will for him. Look at verse 10. God said, 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 in these verses,
we see something about the certainty of God's purpose and the certainty
of God's salvation and deliverance of His people from the slavery
of sin. This is not something that's
left up to chance. This is something that is ordained
by the will and the purpose of God. Look back at verse seven.
We could spend the whole of our allotted time tonight, just on
this verse alone. Look at what the Lord did to
assure the certainty of Israel's deliverance. And the encouraging
thing, and why we study these things, is that He still does
the same thing for chosen sinners today. Now look at verse seven. God said, I have surely seen
the affliction of my people. I've surely seen. When God says
that he has surely seen the affliction of his people, the original Hebrew
reads, in seen, I have seen. I thought about that for a long
time. In seen, I have seen. What does
that mean? It means that God was keenly
aware of their affliction. This just wasn't a casual glance
at His people. This wasn't just a casual glance. It was a determined look. God
looked intentionally upon them. He looked with a purpose to help
them. I have surely seen, in seeing
I have seen, He looked on purpose. I've seen, surely seen their
affliction, not just anyone and everyone's affliction. God says,
I've seen the affliction of my people. And that brings us to
another thing that we, glorious truth that we talk about all
the time. And that's that the Lord makes
a distinction between His people and everyone else. It's a sore
subject with a lot of people. Well, were the Egyptians his
people? No. Were the six nations mentioned,
the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites
and the Habites and the Jebusites, were they God's people? In Exodus 11, seven, God says,
against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his
tongue, against man or beast that you may know how that the
Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. Who
puts a difference between them? God does. Paul said, who maketh
thee to differ from another? The child of God knows the answer,
God did. See, only God can. No one else
can make one to differ from another other than God. God's grace is
distinguishing and discriminating. Discriminating? We live in a
day of religion and political correctness with the word discriminate
has pretty much become a word that's taboo. Discriminate? Though it's true that no man,
no woman, no sinner should look down upon or discriminate against
another, that certainly does not apply to God. He's the creator. He has the right as God to discriminate
and to distinguish. When you talk about the election
of grace and God choosing some and not others, People will always
claim, you know what I'm fixing to say, they'll always claim
that God's not fair. Well, that's not fair. It's not
fair. God doesn't have to be fair.
He's God. God doesn't have to be neutral.
He's supreme. God doesn't have to be unbiased. He's perfect. He's the standard by which all
sinners fall short of. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. None deserve His mercy and grace.
None deserve His redemption and regeneration. The thought that
He would have mercy on any is in itself a great, great grace. Is it not? Is it not? God created
man in his own image, and man, Adam is our representative, sold
himself and us under sin. What does God owe us? We're sold
under sin. None deserve God's mercy, grace,
and salvation, yet God gives it to whom he will because he
has the right. Doesn't have anything to do with
him being fair. It has everything to do with his sovereign choice. The disobedience of Adam threw
us all into the same lump of clay. Does the potter have power
over the clay? You better believe he does. Can
the sovereign potter, as Brother Montgomery used to call, he wrote
a song about it, of the same lump, that fallen, sinful, depraved
lump of humanity, does he have the right, the power, to make
one a vessel into honor and another a vessel into dishonor? Yes. Yes, he does. He certainly does. And when you're holy, and when
you're God, and when you're a holy God, the judge of all the earth,
you don't have to be fair. Now, to remain holy, you have
to exercise judgment against any who offend the law. That's
something God has to do. God has to be just and judge
according to the law, or there's no holy justice. That's something
God has to do. God, because of His holiness,
must be both just and justifier if any are to be saved. He cannot
just excuse His holy justice in order to save a sinner. Justice
has to be satisfied. Therefore Christ came into the
world to save sinners. Isn't the gospel just amazing? You know, actually, God's distinguishing
and discriminating grace is really good news. It's really good news. You know why? If the Lord didn't
discriminate and distinguish, none of us, none of us would
be saved. Not a single one. It's good news
that God discriminates. I love the sound of those two
words, my people. My people. Don't you? My people. I belong to God. He's my Heavenly
Father. For the Lord will not forsake
His people for His great name's sake, because it pleased the
Lord. It pleased the Lord to make you His people. 1 Samuel
12, 22. God said, I've seen the affliction
of my people, which are in Egypt. And as you know, Egypt represents
the world and the things of the world. Now listen to me, dear
believer, listen to me. God has seen your affliction
in this world. And he's going to deliver you.
He has delivered you from and out of this evil Egyptian world
in which we live. And God not only sees, but He
also hears his people's cry. Look again in verse seven. He
said, I have heard. I've heard their cry by reason
of their taskmasters. He hears their cry by reason
of their bondage. We recently saw in Exodus chapter
two, verses 23 and 24, that Israel sighed, Israel cried, and it
says, and God heard their groaning. Isaiah said, behold, the Lord's
hand is not shortened that it cannot save, and neither his
ear heavy that it cannot hear. And you don't have to pray loud
and boasters for God to hear you. You can pray without saying
a word, and God hears you. Why? Because He hears from the
heart. God looks upon the heart. God sees and hears what's in
a a sinner's heart. David said, because He hath inclined
His ear unto me, therefore I'll call upon Him as long as I live. I call upon Him because I know
He hears me. And He's, for Christ's sake,
looking to do me good. I can just get lost in that. But that's not all. God also
said in verse seven, I know their sorrows. God sees, God hears,
God knows everything concerning his people because he was touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. You really ought to think about
that. I love to think about that. He was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. God made himself to feel what
we feel. Notice what else God does in
verse eight. He says, and I am come down to
deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. God certainly
came down to deliver Egypt and he delivered them with a mighty
hand. But I'm telling you though, it
was over 1500 years later, Christ came down from his father's thrown
his house and came down to the scenes of sin and suffering. And he saw, and he heard, and
he knew our sorrow. And he gave himself for his people. That was the purpose of Christ's
incarnation. That's why he came into the world.
Why? To save his people from their
sins. Matthew tells us that in the first chapter of his gospel. He came to save his people from
their sins. Paul said he came into the world
to save sinners. And Paul rejoiced in that because
he said, I am chief. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. Ascychius, if that's not so. Read on, verse eight, God came
down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Christ
gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this
present evil world. What a picture Egypt is of this
world. According to the will of God,
our Father. And this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world. And men love darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. And in other
words, by nature, every single one of us being spiritually dead,
we love darkness rather than light. For years, I loved darkness
rather than light. What happened? God intervened. God interrupted. Christ came down to enlighten
and give life to those he chose and to those whom he calls my
people. That's not all God does. According
to verse eight, he came to bring them up of that land unto a good
land and a large unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
He came down to bring us up. Isn't that a great grace? To
bring them into a good land, a large land, a land where dwells
nothing but good and a land where dwells everything, a large land
that dwells everything to satisfy the redeemed soul. Read on in verse eight. And to
the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites,
and the Perizzites, and the Habites, and the Jebusites. And as I read
those names again today, we saw that in Exodus 33, Sunday, those
names. I think, why are these folks
mentioned so much in here? Why does he keep naming these? I was thinking about this. the
last several days in preparation for this study, how the Canaan,
the land of promise, was not only a land of promise, but it
was a prepared land. Prepared land. What does that
mean? What do I mean by that? God sovereignly
and providentially had all the nations that lived in Canaan,
all these that we read over and over again, he had them living
in Canaan to prepare it for his people. The six nations mentioned here
in verse eight, God allowed to live in Canaan all those years
to prepare the land for Israel. The farmland had been prepared,
it'd been tilled, it'd been fertilized, it'd been made fertile for Israel. Wells had been dug, primed, and
prepared for Israel's water supply. Cities and structures had been
built and prepared for the use of God's people. God just gave
it to them. Many of you know, I'll give you
a somewhat good illustration, I think. Many of you know that
the house that God's provided for Teresa and I to live in was
owned by the Methodist Church. And in 1996, the Methodist Church,
they built an addition onto that house, which included a very
nice study office space for their pastor in 1996 to work in. The fellow that was pastor at
the time we bought the house at the closing told me that after
they built that addition, the higher ups in the Methodist church,
the bishops or whatever they are, decided that no pastor and
no preacher was to work at home. And 20 years later, we moved
into that house. And that study and that office
is where I spend the majority of my time each day. And it's
nice. It's roomy. It's got windows.
It's got air conditioning. And in a very real sense, that
study was prepared for me by the Methodist church and according
to the will and purpose of God. See how God does things. And
I'm sure all of us have familiar stories. We look back and see
how God providentially did certain things. My, what a God. In the same sense, that's how
God used these six nations of Canaan to prepare the land of
promise for his elect people. And God prepared Canaan for Israel
before they ever arrived. Maybe folks are going outside
and saying, I need to spruce this house up. I don't know why,
but I'm going to paint it. And they painted it the exact
color that whoever moved into that wanted it painted. I'm telling
you, you can't exaggerate that too far. You really can't. That's
the way God does things. How glorious is the thought that
our Lord said, in my Father's house are many mansions. And
if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and
receive you into Myself, that where I am, there you may be
also." Can you imagine what that's going to be like? The Lord Jesus
Himself preparing a place for us to dwell forever and ever. When Jacob and his family first
came to Egypt, everything was, as we say, hunky-dory. Joseph was the top man in Egypt. Out of Pharaoh's love and respect
for Joseph, they lived in the plush land of Goshen. Everything
was pretty well provided for them by Pharaoh because of Joseph. We remember what a pitcher Joseph
is of the Lord Jesus Christ. Exodus chapter 1 verse 8, we
saw that now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not
Joseph. And everything changed pretty
much just like that. Overnight, as some would say.
Overnight. I can't help in light of that
to think about Adam, who was born under the rule of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The very one who created Him
and all things. Whenever you see the word Lord
in scriptures, L-O-R-D, that's speaking of Christ. All who would
be born after Adam would be shown great kindness and provision
for Christ's sake. But Adam, by the covenant of
works, died as God said he would if he disobeyed and partook of
the forbidden tree, the forbidden fruit. And every descendant of
Adam from that day forward was born under the yoke and the bondage
and the slavery of sin, you and I included. We are servants and slaves to
our nature of sin. Our will is in bondage to our
sin. We don't just read that and hear
that. We've experienced that. We will
not come to Christ that we might have lost. Why? Because our will
is in bondage to our sin, to our nature. Salvation is not
of him that willeth, because we have no will. We're dead in
trespasses and sin. Do you see that? We are servants
and slaves to the law of God. We cannot keep the law. We're
in bondage by the curse of the law. What are we gonna do? Well, the bad news is for what
the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh,
the good news is God's sending his own son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. That's the
good news. And that's how Moses so very
well pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the human instrument
that God used to deliver Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Christ
had to be made a man. You see, in order to suffer,
bleed, and die for men and women, he had to become a man. Only
a man could redeem man. And only God could satisfy God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
God-man. He's the only one who's qualified
to save sinners. He's the only one who can save
chosen sinners, and he's the only one who will save chosen
sinners, for he's really the only one who has a will. We're
dead in trespasses and sins until God gives us life. He makes us
willing in the day of his power. Now, look at verse nine again,
and I'll hurry along. I'm not gonna keep you much longer.
In verse nine, God says, now, now, therefore, behold, the cry
of the children of Israel is coming to me. And I have also
seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, there's that word again,
now. Come now, therefore, and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people. There's those two words again.
The children of Israel out of Egypt. Now the word, that word
now in verse 10, my, it just stuck out to me when I read it.
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 was thinking about how God is never rushed. God's
never rushed. For many long years, 400 years,
matter of fact, give or take a few, God had heard the moans
and the groans and the cries of his people, but the heavens
were silent. But now, Not any longer. God told Moses, he said, come
now. You see, now is the time of deliverance. Now is the time of salvation. 40 years earlier, Moses had become
impatient with the delay. And he tried to take matters
into his own hands. You remember what happened? He
killed that Egyptian who was abusing one of his brethren. And pretty soon he's running
for his life. He tried to take matter into
his own hands. We always mess it up when we do that. We just
do. He discovered then that the time
for deliverance was not yet ready. Moses wasn't ready. The people
of Israel wasn't ready. Because God wasn't ready. But
God is ready now. Oh, we read over these words
when we read the script. Oh, slow down, friends. God is
ready now. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law, those who were
under the bondage, slavery, and oppression of sin. That's what
this book's about. God delivered us from these taskmasters
of ours. that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And doesn't that, I'm getting
ahead of myself, but doesn't that, picture what we see here. Well, I'll just wait till I get
there. God says to Moses, come now therefore, and I will send
you into Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring my people. And then immediately
he says, the children. My people, the children of Israel
out of Egypt. God sent forth a son made of
a woman, made likened to his people just as Moses was likened
to his people. Christ was made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law, just the same as Moses
was under the same yoke of bondage, his people were. He chose to
suffer with his own people than to enjoy the pleasures of sin
for a season. Christ was made like unto his
people. That's why God calls them my people. Now, now the
400 years of bondage and affliction had run their ordained course.
Now the hour of divine intervention was at hand. Now the children
of Israel would be in a spot and a condition to appreciate
the promised inheritance. Yes, the past pleasant pastures
of Goshen had turned bitter, no doubt. And the season of the
carnal attractions of Egypt had lost its savor. But now is the
accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Now captives would be emancipated. Now slaves would be liberated. Now God's children would be delivered. How would God deliver his people?
Well, he could have sent a legion of angels to destroy all of Egypt
in a single moment. He could have appeared before
the Hebrews in person and brought them out with a mighty hand,
but that's not God's way. He appointed a man to bring divine
deliverance. To Moses, God said, I will send
thee that thou mayest bring my people, the children, out of
Egypt. Now listen to me, if you're one
of his people, then you're one of his children. It's just that
simple. And that's such a glorious thought.
God's way then is also God's way now. What is Moses' response
in verse 11? Moses said unto God, who am I?
Who am I? That I should go unto Pharaoh
and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of
Egypt. Now Moses, at 80 years old, is not as eager as he had
been at 40. 40 years earlier, he'd felt adequate,
but he didn't feel adequate anymore. Solitude had sobered him. Keeping
sheep had tamed him and taught him. He realized the difficulties
within himself. He had tried before and failed.
He was very conscious of his personal failures. And the discipline
he had experienced on the backside of the desert, it wasn't in vain. I'm telling you, God's gonna
send you to the desert and he's gonna teach you some things.
And it's the attitude of who am I? Who am I? that brings a
sinner to where he or she can be used of God. In chapter 4, verse 10, Moses
confessed, I'm not eloquent. That's simply meaning, he said,
I'm not a man of words. He confessed, he said, I'm slow
of speech, and I'm of a slow tongue. Boy, I can relate to
that. I really can. In verse one of
chapter four, Moses said, they will not believe me nor hearken
unto my voice. They'll say, the Lord has not
appeared unto you. And I love what the Lord said. And as I said, this is the Lord
Jesus Christ. I love what he said here in verse
12. He says, certainly. unquestionably, undoubtedly,
undeniably, unmistakably, assuredly, indefinitely, I will be with
thee. Well now, you can take that home
with you. Certainly, I will be with thee. Isn't that what our Lord Jesus
tells us? I'll be with you, even into the ends of the earth. And
friends, If He's with you, He'll never leave you nor forsake you.
What a picture Moses is. What a comfort to know that God
will be with us in all that we do. And look at this, and I'll
stop. God said, and this shall be a
token, a sign unto you that I have sent you. What is this token? What is this sign that God will
give to Moses? Well, the last part of verse
12 tells us, look at it. God says, when, when thou hast
brought forth the people out of Egypt. He doesn't say if,
he says when, when you bring them out. When my will is successful,
you shall serve God upon this mountain. Isn't that incredible?
When God goes with a sinner, the token, the sign of their
deliverance and their salvation won't be if. It won't be if they're
brought out, it won't be if they're delivered, but when it's been
accomplished. That's what we mentioned in the
beginning of this lesson, the certainty and the surety of our
deliverance in Christ. Boy, I tell you, friends, you
can have assurance in that. Not in what you do, but in what
He does and what He did. No wonder our Lord Jesus is called
our surety. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better Testament. Did Christ succeed in His work
of redemption? He said it Himself, it's finished.
God's satisfied, it's accomplished. That's my token. that He's with
me. That's the sign that He gives
to His people. Certainly He will go with us. And certainly He will never leave
us nor forsake us. There's nothing we can do to
make ourselves His people. But being one of His people,
there's nothing we can do to cease being. Why? Because we belong to Christ. God would have to forsake His
Son in order to forsake us. You ever think about that? Our
union is such with Christ that God would have to forsake His
Son to forsake you. That's not going to happen. Not
going to happen. Remember, election doesn't shut
you out. It shuts you in. It shuts you
in. Oh may God shut you into the
ark like he did Noah, that ark be in Christ. Oh, that God might
shut the gate behind you at that city of refuge and shut you in. Oh, may God shut you in Christ.
That's where true safety and deliverance is found in the Lord
Jesus Christ, nowhere else. What a gospel. Gospel in the
book of Exodus. Who'd ever thunk it? OK. Danny, would you dismiss us in
prayer please?