Turn with me, if you would, to
Exodus chapter 2. We'll get into chapter 3 also
tonight, but let's start in chapter 2. Look at verse 23. And it came to pass in the process
of time, as all things do by the purpose of God, come to pass.
that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel sighed
by reason of the bondage. And they cried and their cry
came up unto God by reason of the bondage. Now that word bondage
in verse 23 means a work or labor of any kind. It means the act
of being a slave. Israel was in serious bondage
to Egypt. And it was by the reason of this
bondage, this work and this labor, that the children of Israel sighed
and cried. I would have you notice that
verse 23 does not say that they cried unto God. Their sighing
and their crying came up to God. God heard their sighing and their
crying, but they weren't seeking God for help. Yet God in grace
heard them and helped them. There are none that seeketh after
God. But God sure has a way of causing those that he chose before
the foundation of the world to cry by reason of their bondage. Now there are two ways that you
and I as sinners are in great bondage. We are in bondage to
our sin nature. We cannot keep from sinning. As much as we don't want to sin,
we sin. We can't keep from sinning. Our
will is in bondage to our sin. That's why the thought of having
a free will is ridiculous. People that talk about their
free will have no idea that they're dead in trespasses and sin. Their
will is in bondage to their sin. And secondly, we're in bondage
to the law of God. Because of our sin, because of
our nature, because of our depravity, We cannot keep the law in any
way, shape, or form. We're in bondage to the curse
of the law. The law of God is only for the
unrighteous. Have you ever much thought about
that? The law of God is for those who
break it. The law was not given for the
righteous. It has no claim on any who have
not broken it. You ever thought as to why folks
lock their doors at night? It's not to keep honest people
out. They lock them, their doors,
to keep crooks, robbers, and thieves out. The law was given
for the lawless and the disobedient. And the law has no claim on one
who is law-abiding. Now I want to say that again.
The law of God has no claim on one who keeps the law. And I
said that again because if you ever see your need of Christ,
you'll grow to love that statement. Because the law of God had no
claim on Christ, for He was perfect. He was made to be sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now look at verse
24. And God heard their groaning,
And God remembered His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and with
Jacob. And God looked upon the children
of Israel and had respect unto them. Now I'd have you notice
that in verses 23 and 24, again, I'll say it, they didn't cry
out unto the Lord for deliverance. They weren't seeking God for
His deliverance. They cried, it says here, for
the reason, out of reason, of their bondage. Their bondage,
their slavery, their labor, their work, it was hard. It was painful. It was killing them. But they're
not groaning and sighing and crying out to God. Their bondage
caused them to sigh and to cry. Have you cried out by reason
of your bondage? Now there are four things here
mentioned that God does for those who truly cry out by reason of
their bondage. God heard their groaning. God
remembered his covenant. God looked upon the children
of Israel. And that's more than just glancing
at them. He looked at them with heartfelt compassion. And fourthly,
God had respect unto them. And here's what makes God's grace
so amazing. It was grace that caused God
to hear their groaning. They didn't deserve it. It was
grace, the grace of God, that He remembered His covenant with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was God's grace that caused
him to look upon them and to look upon them as children. And it was saving grace for God
to have respect unto them. You'll never cry, now listen,
you'll never cry for deliverance until and unless you see the
bondage that sin has put you in. And what a blessed thing,
then, to groan, to sigh, and to cry. But it entails much more
than just an audible noise. It's a groan and a sigh and a
cry from the heart of a sinner. A sinner can groan and sigh and
cry without making a noise. And I'm convinced that's the
kind of groaning and sighing and crying that the Lord hears,
that of the heart. And God hears this groaning and
God hears this sighing and crying with the intention. This is what's
so wonderful. He hears with the intention of
doing something about it. Now, I may not be able to do
anything about someone who groans and sighs and cries, but God
can. And what a comfort that is. God remembers His covenant
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now the covenant of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob was a covenant of mercy and grace in Christ. There are really only two covenants,
the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. Adam was under
the covenant of works. God said, in the day you eat,
Of that tree you shall surely die. And this was a conditional
covenant. It was conditioned upon works. You don't eat, you live, you
eat, and you die. There was a condition placed
upon it. But the covenant of grace was really first promised
in Genesis 3.15. Remember when God said to the
serpent, he said, I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed, and her seed shall bruise your
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now that woman's seed,
as we know, is speaking of Christ. And the covenant of grace is
all about what Christ is going to do for the elect and chosen
of God. That's what the covenant of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob was all about. God was promising them the Messiah. The seed that came from woman
was going to be the Messiah. God promised to raise one up
who would crush the serpent's head. God promised a Savior,
and that Savior was the Lord Jesus Christ who would deliver
them from the curse of the law by being made a curse for them.
That's the covenant this is talking about, of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. So how does Christ deliver us? We're talking about bondage.
How does Christ deliver us from the bondage of sin and the bondage
of the law? Well, first, by keeping the law
of God for us. He kept it perfectly for his
people. Secondly, by suffering the penalty
of the law that was against us. And thirdly, by setting the chosen
prisoner free. He's moved to help those who
are in bondage to sin. He always delivers those who
groan and sigh and cry by reason of their bondage. And what a
gracious and merciful God. Now you can cry crocodile tears
and it won't do you any good, but if you cry from your heart,
if you groan and cry and sigh from your heart, God is faithful
and just. God has to make you see your
bondage. What a beautiful picture we have
of that. Israel didn't see their bondage
for over 400 years. Their bondage came natural to
them. Now you think about this. And
you think about, and you compare it to our bondage as you're thinking
about it. Their bondage came natural to
them. That's all they knew. 400 years into this slavery in
Egypt, and every one of them were born into that bondage.
That sounds familiar. They were born into hard labor,
hard work. So are we. So are we. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. That's all I ever knew. The wicked are estranged from
the womb. They go astray as soon as they're born, speaking lies.
Born in sin. Born in bondage. Born condemned. We are. Now there are two ways
Israel was in great bondage. And it's the same way we are.
They were in bondage to their sin. I'm convinced, though we're
never told, that This was all due to the brothers of Joseph,
who had sold him into sin and slavery, sold him into slavery.
Now, they and their descendants were sold into sin, and Israel
was in bondage to the law, just like we are. They were in bondage
to Pharaoh's law. Their work and their labor was
never enough to set them free, and neither is yours. Neither
is yours. No matter how hard they labored
and they worked, there was always more for them to do. Pharaoh
was never satisfied. And neither is God's law. There's
always more for us to do. God has to show you your bondage. The Pharisees said, we're Abraham's
seed and we're not in bondage to any man. And that was such a lie because
they were in bondage to Rome when they said that. They were
ignorant of their bondage. Men and women are spiritually
deceived. God has to show you your bondage.
God has to make you groan over it. God has to make you sigh
because of it. God has to make you cry for deliverance
of it. Why do chosen sinners groan,
sigh, and cry? By reason of their bondage. Those of you that know Christ,
you know that to be so. You've seen that the law was
given to show you your inability. The law was your schoolmaster
to bring you to Christ. And you saw that you could do
nothing to fulfill God's law, nothing to satisfy His holy justice. And it calls you to groan and
sigh and cry. And the wonderful thing is, is
that according to His covenant, He graciously heard your groan
and your sigh and your cry. God hears our groaning because
of His covenant. God remembers that covenant that
He made in Christ. God looks upon us in mercy, provides
for us all that He requires from us in Christ. And the most amazing
thing of all is the fact that God has respect unto us. That's just hard for me to fathom,
that God would have respect unto me. But it's not when you realize
that it's only one way, and that's by our union with Christ. Now,
moving on, when the Lord put it on Moses' heart, we looked
at it the last couple times, and that word, when he put on
Moses' heart to visit his brethren, that word visit, as we saw, means
to relieve or to deliver. He put it upon Moses' heart to
be a deliverer to these people. But the first time he attempted
to deliver them, he failed miserably. He wound up killing an Egyptian. And then the next day, two of
his own Hebrew brethren were fighting, and one of them said,
you're going to kill me like you did the Egyptian. And the next thing we know, Moses
is running for his life from Pharaoh. It didn't work out so
well. He failed miserably. Have you
ever thought about why? God's time for deliverance had
not arrived. Moses was in no way prepared
for the task. And the Israelites themselves
were not ready to leave Egypt. Time wasn't right. The timing
of God was not right. Now Moses had a zeal for the
task at hand, no doubt about it. He wouldn't have killed that
Egyptian if he didn't have some zeal. But his zeal, like many
folks today, was not according to knowledge. And his zeal caused
him some serious trouble. It will, and it can. I wish I
could take back some of the things that I've said in the past. Just
had a zeal, but it wasn't according to knowledge. Said things that
alienated folks from the mercy and grace of God. Wish I hadn't
done it. At the time, I thought it was
a good thing. I thought I was doing right.
Thought I was being a warrior. But I was just being ignorant.
Pharaoh sought his life and Moses fled to the desert of Midian
as a fugitive. But on the divine side of things,
that turned out, as all things do, to work for the good of Moses
and God's people. In spite of our mistakes, our
shortcomings, all the silly and stupid things that we do, God
causes them to work together for our good and for His glory. Now Moses had to be taught some
things. We talked about that in detail last time. He had to be taught of God how
to shepherd sheep. and how to deliver them from
their harmful enemies. And I was just thinking, as I've
thought of over that again today, how thankful we should be for
the wisdom and providence of God. He does all things well,
all things. Surely God does all things well.
He even makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and He brings
good out of evil, according to Psalm 70, 16. Aren't you glad
He does? Now, in order to learn in the
school of God, you know, we are all taught of God. All God's
people are taught of God. So it's not a stretch for me
to say to be taught in the school of God. But Moses had to turn
his back on Egypt, which, as we know, represents the world.
And so were you and I. We have to turn our back on Egypt.
If there's to be any progress made in spiritual things, our
hearts have got to be separated from Egypt or this world in which
we live and what it represents. And that's exactly what God did
for Moses. Look at Exodus chapter three,
verse one now. 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. Now I don't see anywhere here
in the previous verses where it says that Moses was seeking
after God. Moses wasn't seeking God. He
was shepherding a little band of sheep on the backside of a
desert. There's no doubt that God had
a purpose for Moses. God preserved him in the ark
when Pharaoh had determined to kill all the male children. God
gave him safety in the house of Pharaoh. God's hand was upon
him as he lived in the palace of Pharaoh and was raised into
a man. God sent Moses' trouble to move
him by sovereign purpose and providence into the desert, far
away from the noise and the confusion of Egypt. And from a prince to
a shepherd, God was with him all the way. But there came a
time when Moses had to meet God. And that's what we have here
in chapter three. This is done in the desert. This
is done in the wasteland of your heart. It's a desert and it's
a wasteland because there's nothing in there to recommend you to
God. Nothing. You're going to stand in that
dry, desolate, despicable desert and God must reveal to you who
He is and who and what you are. That's where Moses is here in
Exodus chapter 3 verse 1. He's on the backside of the desert.
You remember when God took you there, child of God? God's gonna
show sinners that they're unprofitable. He's gonna show you that in and
of yourself, destruction and misery are in your ways. Men
and women are born in a desert wilderness. Nothing heavenly
or spiritual grows there. If God's sheep are to be watered,
God must send rain down from heaven. If God's sheep are to
be fed, God must send manna down from heaven. It's the same today. If we're gonna drink, we're gonna
have to drink of the water of life. The good thing is, is that
we can drink of it freely. And we're gonna have to eat the
bread of life that came down from heaven. That's how spiritual
life is sustained in a sinner. He's gonna show you that you've
got to have him. We're born in a desert wilderness.
If God's pleased to help a sinner, if God's pleased to have pity
on a sinner, God will have to come to where that sinner is. I can surely attest to that.
Now Moses is on the backside of the desert and he's standing
before the mountain of God. God brought him there. And in
verse two, we read, 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. Now this is where and how our
experience with God always originates. The angel of the Lord appeared
unto Moses. God's gonna have to come to us.
We will not come to Him that we might have life. Isn't that
what Christ said? You cannot come and you will not come that
you might have life. He's got to come to you. He's
got to give you life. He's got to give you the ability.
Now it's important to know here that the angel of the Lord is
not a created angel in this verse. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That
is what is called Theophany. I hope I'm saying that right.
It's a big word, but it simply means a visible manifestation
of deity. This is a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. Just the same as that angel that
appeared to Abraham in the cool of the day, and that angel that
wrestled with Jacob. It was Christ. The angel of the
Lord was Christ in a pre-incarnate appearance. And the Lord is only
known by revelation, but much more than that, it's by divine
revelation. God's got to reveal himself to
you. God must appear to you, not in a physical form. You know what I call somebody
that says that they've seen Jesus? A liar. A liar. They may have seen some spirit,
but it wasn't the Spirit of God. It wasn't Christ. But God's got
to appear to you. God's got to give you a divine
revelation of who He is and what you are. And the Lord Jesus appeared
unto Moses in a flame of the fire, it says, out of the midst
of a bush. Now the Hebrew word for bush
here means bramble. A bramble bush. A bush with thorns. I would have you to consider
that this flame of fire was not burning in the midst of a big
oak tree. It was burning in the middle,
in the midst of a small bramble bush. Immediately, the verse
came to mind, God had chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise, and God had chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are mighty. A bramble bush
is a prickly vine or shrub. There are some thorns to be felt
in the dealings with this little bramble bush that's not consumed
by fire. And the physical laws of nature
were definitely being broken here. Moses knew this was a miraculous
and a divine revelation. In the desert, where something
could just burn up almost immediately when caught on fire. This bush
burned, but it wasn't consumed, it just kept burning. Look at
verse four. When the Lord saw that he, being
Moses, turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst
of the bush. And he said, Moses, Moses. And
he said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. This is the first time that the
word holy is used in the scriptures. I think that's very good evidence
that this bush, which was on fire but not consumed, has something
to do with the holiness and the judgment of God. Now you think
with me for a few minutes. All through the Bible we have
stories about the fire of God falling from heaven and consuming
whatever it fell upon. Sodom and Gomorrah. Fire and
brimstone fell and the people were consumed. In Leviticus chapter
10, I believe Nadab and Abihu, who were the sons of Aaron, They
offered incense and strange fire unto the Lord, which he commanded
them not. And there went out fire from
the Lord and devoured them. And they died before the Lord."
Leviticus 10 verses one and two. Two different times, the king
sent 50 men to Elijah the prophet. And they said, thou man of God,
the king has said, come down. Elijah's up in the mountain.
Now listen, you don't tell the prophet of God what to do. And
Elijah said, if I be a man of God, then let fire come down
from heaven and consume thee and all 50 of you. And there
came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his 50. That
happened two different times. I bet the third one that went
up there didn't ask him to come down, or didn't command him to. He may have asked him. But here
the fire of God fell on a bramble bush, which was not consumed. Bramble bush, not much more than
a tumbleweed, but it was not consumed. You remember the sacrifice
that Elijah made on Mount Carmel? Consumed the sacrifice, the stones,
the dust, all the water around it. I mean, nothing was left. But here, the fire of God fell
on a bramble bush and is not consumed. There's a picture here,
I'm telling you, there's a picture here. I think we see three things,
probably more, but I see at least three things in this bush that
was not consumed. We see the grace of God. We see
the holiness of God. And we see the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now God dwells in this bush. God spoke to Moses from this
bush. And in this bush is a picture
of God's grace. I'm telling you, it is. This
burning bush speaks of the gospel of God's grace. A bush burned
with fire, and yet the bush in that desert, a most inflammable
object, was not burnt. Fire in scripture is almost always
the emblem of divine judgment. That being God's holiness in
opposition against evil. The final word on the subject
from scripture is, our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12,
29. Here then is a deeper mystery. How can God, who is a consuming
fire, burning up all that is contrary to his holy nature,
how can he reveal himself without consuming? Let me put that another way.
How can he who is pure, of purer eyes than to behold evil, and
cannot look upon iniquity." That's what the scripture says by God.
He cannot look upon iniquity. You remember when Moses, wasn't
it? I think it was Moses, said, Lord,
show me thy glory? He said, oh, I can't do that.
You'll die if I do that. How can man? How can God have
anything to do with men other than in judgment? That's the
real question. And mercy. Nothing but the gospel
contains a real answer and a solution to that problem. The gospel tells
of how grace reigns, not at the expense of righteousness, but
through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Romans 5.21. And how has this
been accomplished? You know, we talk about it all
the time. By the Holy One of God being
made a curse for us. Galatians 3.13. Here in this
bush, We see the holiness of God. Into
the place of the curse entered our blessed substitute, and the
fierce flames of God's holy wrath engulfed him. But being the God-man,
all God and all man, they did not and could not consume him. This root out of dry ground, Perish not, it was not possible
that death should hold the prince of life. Three days only did
he remain in the tomb and on the third day, he came forth
out of that tomb triumphant and he's now alive forevermore. Why? Because death in the grave
couldn't hold him. He satisfied God's holy justice,
and it had to let him go. And I love to think about that.
What a Savior we have, friends. And here, the burning bush is
no doubt a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The holiness of
God is seen in Christ, and when God saw sin, even in His only
begotten Son, He showed no mercy. He's too holy to excuse sin. He will by no means clear the
guilty. Isn't that what the scripture
says? The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Why? Because God's too holy to sweep
sin under a rug. God's too holy to ignore it. But if you're one of His, your
sin became His. And the fire of God fell down
upon Christ and it was, it exhausted and extinguished itself. God
is so holy that when our sins was found on Christ, God punished
and killed his son for it. And that's just how horrendous
our sin is. And that's just how holy God
is. But the Lord Jesus Christ came
to earth and he lived a holy life. He's the only man that
ever did. And in order to work out a perfect holiness and righteous
for his elect, the fire of God's wrath fell down on his son, but
such is Christ's holiness that God's wrath could not consume
him. Christ drank the cup of God's wrath dry. And therefore, the tomb couldn't
hold him. And us, by union with him, can't
hold us either. Do you see why the substitution
of Christ for sinners is the gospel? That is the good news,
isn't it? And again, verse three, and Moses
said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight while the
bush is not burnt. It's a great sight. It's a great
sight. Or is it just another miracle? Well, I hope we see the gospel
in this. Look at verse four. And when
the Lord saw that he, being Moses, 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 Moses
said, look at this carefully. Moses said, I'll turn aside and
see this great sight. Now this was so encouraging to
me as I thought about it. I hope that I can convey it to
you. But it seems that the Lord waited
to see if this was going to be of any real interest to Moses.
Would this be a great sight unto Moses or not? When God saw that
it was, it was then that God called out and spoke to Moses. And yet at the same time, we
know that Moses became enamored with this great sight only because
God made it of interest to him. What great sight? Some might
ask. The great sight of this burning
bush. The great sight of what it presented. Let's talk again
about what it represented. It represents how Christ could
be just and justify the ungodly. It represents how Christ could
bear the wrath of God and not be consumed. This is the very heart of the
gospel, not some dry doctrine. No, this is the heart of the
gospel. Oh, that God would make this
a great sight to us. How God can be just and justify
the ungodly. How God can be a just God and
a Savior. Before Christ, He couldn't be
both. A just God could not cannot ignore
His law, cannot ignore His holy justice. When Moses turned aside
to see, God called Moses, Moses. And I was thinking today, oh,
I want to hear my name called of God, don't you? What was Moses' response here?
My, oh that God might enable me and you to always be instant
in season and out of season to share His Word. Verse 5, God
says, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon
thou standest is holy ground. Now listen, wherever and whenever
the Gospels preached, That's where holy ground is found. Wherever the holiness of God
is preached, wherever the substitution of Christ and Him crucified is
proclaimed, that's holy ground. There's not much holy ground
in churches anymore. Sad, but true. You don't hear
much about God being too holy to excuse sin, or you don't hear
too much about sinners being too sinful to be exonerated. You don't hear much about Christ
dying the just for the unjust to bring the unjust to God. You
just don't. Why? Because everybody's just.
Everybody loves Jesus. Everybody's saved. Where is holy ground preaching
today? Everybody's going to heaven.
I was reminded of that again this past week. Men and women
have no interest in God, don't even pretend to, but yet when
they die, folks say things like, well, they're better off now.
Well, are they? I wonder. No, not really I don't wonder.
I know they're not. Folks are ignorant of the righteousness
of God and how it's obtained. They go about to establish their
own righteousness, but it won't get the job done, friends. Look
at verse 6 in closing. Moreover, he said, that being
God, he said, I'm 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, there's a lesson there,
isn't there? The Lord revealed Himself to
Moses again as the covenant-keeping God, the God of all grace. And when God picked up Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob and made them the fathers of His chosen people,
it wasn't because of any excellence in them. No more than God having
mercy and grace on the children of Israel. He's about to redeem the Hebrews
from the land of bondage, but it's not because of any good
in or from them. It says the God of Abraham, the
sovereign father, the sovereign elector who chose Abraham out
of the land of idolaters. What a picture of election. It's
the God of Isaac, the almighty quickener, the one who gave life
to Isaac by divine promise. And it's the God of Jacob, the
long-suffering one who was nothing but long-suffering to a scoundrel
like Jacob. And this is the same God who's
about to bear his arm, display his power, and deliver his people
out of Egypt. Now I don't know if you've read
ahead, but do you think God's going to deliver His people?
Well, we've all seen the Ten Commandments. We know that answer.
No. He's going to deliver them with a strong hand. Strong. Oh my. And in the same threefold
character, God still acts today. The God of Abraham is our God.
He's the one who sovereignly chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. He's the God of Isaac, the one
who by His own power, miraculous power, made us new creatures
in Christ according to His will, purpose, and promise. And He's
the God of Jacob, the one who bears with us in infinite patience
I suppose I identify more with Jacob in the book of Genesis
than I do any other, because I'm just like him, just like
him. But God, through infinite patience,
who never forsakes us, who's promised to perfect that which
concerns us, what a God. That's all I can
say, what a God. With Him, deliverance is absolutely
certain.