Okay, Exodus 3. Exodus 3, 1-6. Moses here, we've already seen
here in Exodus, Moses represents so much for us. Here in chapter three is when
he gets his orders to be God's deliverer. Look at verse 10. Chapter three, verse 10 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. There's his orders. You're going to be the deliverer.
You're going to bring them out. He also represents us. as a sinner. He was born into slavery. He's
a Hebrew. He killed a man. He killed a
man. And look at the end of verse
6. We just read it. It says, And Moses hid his face,
for he was afraid to look upon God. That ought to be every sinner
born in Adam. But it's not. It's not. Man by nature is proud. Man thinks
he's worthy to walk into God's presence. Walk straight up to
God. And I just can't stand religious
prayer, to be honest with you. This new contemporary, you know,
and God, you know, I just want to tell God, I hate that. We just hide our face and we
come in fear. But every sinner ought to fear
the Lord. Moses represents God's law, this
holy law. He's the lawgiver. We've been
looking at John and John 1 17 says the law was given by Moses. A lot of times when we see his
name, he represents a law. God said, you take these two
tables of stone to the people and you tell them, this is what
I expect. This is my demand. It's a law that just can't be
kept. It just cannot be kept. It's holy. Moses represents God's
shepherd. Look here in chapter 3, verse
1. It says, Now Moses kept the flock. Moses kept the flock. We just
heard last Sunday night that there's a lot of sheep in the
fold. But there's only one flock. One flock. Moses kept the flock. He represents Christ. Moses was the son of a king.
He was heir to the throne. And you think about this. He
humbled himself down to a keeper of sheep. Think about that. Think about everything that he
was raised to do, trained to do. And he humbled himself down
to be a keeper of sheep. Moses kept the flock. Thanks
be to God, we have a shepherd. We have a
shepherd. If God's shepherd, our Lord,
doesn't keep this flock, this flock is not going to be kept. You know what I'm saying? It's
going good right now, isn't it? It's exciting right now. Six
years passed and things are happening. But if God doesn't keep this
flock, if He doesn't keep His hand on this flock, if He doesn't
send us His Word, send us His message, send us His Spirit and
send us His blessing, this flock is not going to be kept. Psalm 121, He said, here's our
comfort, here's our reassurance. In Psalm 121 He said, He that
keepeth thee will not slumber. He'll never go to sleep. He that keepeth Israel shall
neither slumber nor sleep. Never. The Lord is thy keeper. Aren't you glad about that? I
mean really, aren't you glad about that? The Lord is our keeper. He keeps His eye on His flock. He'll never go to sleep. So you
can rest. You can go to sleep. He's not
going to. It's wonderful to be reminded
that the Lord Himself said, Fear not, little flock. This is a little flock. Fear
not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom. Isn't that wonderful? Now, Moses keeps the flock. Moses provides. Moses protects. He defends. He comforts. God's shepherd, our defender.
He keeps this flock. Now, I want us to look at chapter
3, the first six verses here, as Moses being God's messenger. We just said he represents all
kinds of things. He represents the deliverer,
the law, the sinner, the shepherd. I want to look at Him tonight
as Him being God's messenger, God's preacher, God's message,
God's witness. And here's our title, The True
Preacher's Message. And this is the message of a
true church. belief of a true follower, the
true preacher's message. This is the difference between
the truth and a lie. Okay? So chapter 3, verse 1 says,
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. Moses kept the
flock of Jethro his father-in-law." Now, it's not Moses' flock. It doesn't belong to him. It's somebody else's flock. The Lord told Peter, if you love
Me, you feed My sheep. You don't go feed your own sheep.
You feed my sheep. They belong to me. This is not
Gabe Stoniker's flock. Aren't you glad? I'd mess it
all up. I can't provide for this flock.
I can't protect this flock, defend this flock. This is not my ministry. It actually has nothing to do
with me. I'm just a pawn. You and I both belong to God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. We're His property. The triune God. We're His property. I'm so glad for that. Do you
watch out for your property? I don't want any trespassing
on my property. I lock my doors to protect my
property. We're His property. We belong
to Him. But the Lord God has given this awesome responsibility
to some of being an under-shepherd. And it's an awesome responsibility.
An under-shepherd. Verse 1 says, 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." That's what every true God-called
preacher of the gospel will do. Every one of them. He'll get
off of mainstream. He'll get off of mainstream.
He'll get off of Broadway, the way everybody's going, and
He'll take God's flock to the backside of a desert, straight
to the mountain of God. What is the mountain of God?
We just sang a song that says, On Christ the solid rock I stand. The mountain of God. Broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction. That's what Matthew 7.13 says. Every, you know, religious building,
I think church circle is beautiful. I really do. They're beautiful
buildings. You got all these places here,
there, and everywhere, and basically they're all the same. They really are. You could go,
if you want to go to one, you could go to any. Almost. Really. They're really not going to say
anything to offend one or the other. Let's all unify. Let's all, you know, come together
and let's make a broad way Broad is the way that leads to destruction. Christ said, I am the way, the
one and only way. And every other way leads to
destruction. What that means is you cannot
save somebody by starting a church basketball team. That's not the
way. You cannot save anybody by starting
an Awana program. That is not the way. There's only one way. Straight is the gate, and narrow
is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find
it. So few. This is a little flock. Few. Where is the way? Where is it? It's on the backside
of a desert at the mountain of God. That's the only way. Christ
is the way. He's the truth. He's the life. He's everything. There's only
one way of salvation. There's one way to enter into
heaven. There's one way to approach God
and not get burned up. And it's only in Christ, that's
it. Now verse 2 says, And the angel of the Lord appeared unto
him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. A flame
of fire. That had to be a little scary. That had to be a little shocking.
Talk about out of the norm. The angel of the Lord is the
Son of God, the angel of the Lord. He said, A body hast thou
prepared me. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember the first time I got
a hold of that. I remember the first time I got
a hold of that. One of the things that Well,
I mean, the thing to stress is Jesus Christ is God. You bow
to Him, right? Well, the same One that walked
this earth in the New Testament, and the same One who's coming
back, this is the same One right here. Same One. Jesus Christ. The God. The Creator. A true message comes from God. The angel of the Lord appeared
unto him. A true message comes from God. A true witness can
only tell what he's actually seen. The angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire. That's God's holiness. God's
holiness is a consuming fire. It burns things up. The true witness says, I've seen
that God is angry with the wicked. I see it. I see that He's going to consume
the wicked. I see that this same One is coming
back and this time when He does, He's going to take His flock
out and He's burning this place up. It's going to burn up. I see that all flesh is grass
and the grass is going to burn. I see it. Turn to Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6. This is when Isaiah saw the Lord. He said, Woe is me. Look at verse
6. It says, Then flew one of the
seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had
taken with the tongs from off the altar. It's a burning, fiery
ember from off the altar. A true witness says, I see another
kind of fire. A fire on an altar. A sacrifice. Verse 7 says, And
he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy
lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also
I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and
who will go forth? Then said I, Here am I, send
me. Fire, I see it. I see it. Back to our text, Exodus
3, verse 2 says, And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him
in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked. He looked. Moses looked into
the things of God. He looked into these things.
He searched these things. He searched the Scriptures to
see if these things were so. And here's what he saw. This
is the subject of our message. Okay? It says, Behold, the bush
burned with fire. And the bush was not concerned. The true message is, I have good
news. I have excellent news. You're that bush. You're that bush. Verse 3 says,
And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight,
why the bush is not burnt. How can this be? Fire has come
to this, and the flowers aren't even wilting. This great question. Scripture
says the thing angels desire to look into. Angels are not
all-knowing. They're not all-knowing like
God. They're watching time progress just like we are, looking into
these things, so curious. Why was this bush, this earthen
vessel, This frail, weak product of the ground. It was not a big,
huge oak tree. I used to think it was for the
fear of Moses. But I believe it was just a weak,
little, frail bush that should have just gone up. Why was it not burnt? Now, if you belong to Him, you're
that bush. How can this be? Seeing God's
fiery wrath for sin. I see it. I see it. It's appointed
unto men once to die, right? Everybody has to die. How can
this be? How can fire come upon this bush
and the bush not be consumed? I want to tell you a story. On July 1, 2012, I wrote it down. I was sitting in Brother Henry's
kitchen after dinner, and he said, I want to tell you a story, and I want you to use this in
a message sometime. And I said, OK. And I wrote it down because
it's long. I went home immediately and wrote it down. This is the
first time I've ever told. I've heard him tell it quite
a few times. He told me that years ago, quite
a few years ago, he met a man in Lake Charles, Louisiana. And this man's name was Sid Horn. And he loved the gospel, loved
to hear Brother Henry preach, and he was a Jewish man. He was born a Jew. Sid Horn. And Brother Henry asked him,
he said, you're not a full-blooded Jew, are you? He said, Horn,
that's not a Jewish name. And Mr. Horn said, yeah, I am. I'm full-blooded Jew. But something
happened in my family and it changed some things. He said,
my grandfather was a Bernstein. He's Jew. In Germany. That was his last name, Bernstein.
And he was 18 years old in 1918, World War I. And he knew he was going to be drafted
to fight against the Americans, and he did not want to fight
against the Americans. He told his parents he didn't
want to go. He said, it's a losing battle. He said, I know this
is a losing battle. He said, I don't want to die. He said,
I'm just going to leave. I'm leaving. So he set out to go to Switzerland. And he traveled rural Germany. Nothing there. He didn't want
to get caught. So he went to Switzerland. He
said he was on the road three or four days. No water, no food. I'm sure he brought some with
him. He ran out. And he got dehydrated. He was exhausted. And he saw,
he came up on this little house, he said, I'm going to go up to
this house, I'm going to tell them my whole story, I'm going
to tell them the truth, I'm going to cast myself on the mercy of
the house, I need some food, I need some water, and I need
some shelter. So this man and his wife, they
opened the door and he gave them a spiel and they invited him
in and they gave him some food and water. And while he was sitting
there eating, he told them the whole story. He told them the
truth, how he didn't want to be drafted. He's leaving. He's
afraid for his life. And he said, the man had mercy on
that boy. The man of the house had mercy
on that boy. And the man told him, he said,
our last name is Horn. And he said, we just lost our
son. He said, he is buried right there
in the backyard. He said, do you see that tombstone?
That's my son. He said, you give me all your
papers and I'll give you all his papers. And he said, tomorrow I'll go
out to that tombstone and I'll change the name on it. from Horn to Bernstein. And if they ever come looking
for you, I'm going to tell them Bernstein's dead. Horn is alive. That is how the bush can burn
and not be consumed. That man died in another. And that man lives in
Him. How can fire come upon this bush
and this bush not be consumed? Look at verse 4. It says, And
when the Lord saw that, He turned aside To see. God called unto Him out of the
midst of the bush. God was in the bush. God was in the bush. I died in Him. He lives in me. The life that I now live is not
me, it's Christ in me. I died. God was made a vessel of earth. And for all whom the Father gave
Him, He took God's fiery wrath for them. They live because He
died. Now, He suffered the wrath But
He was not consumed. Up from death, He arose. He's the living God. And as He
is, so are we. We died in Him, and He got up. We got up. And He's the living
God. He's never going to die, and
neither are we. As He is, so are we. We are this bush. Alright, now
look at this. Verse 4 says, 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. Preacher, witness, believer. Verse 5 says, Draw not nigh hither. Draw not nigh hither. Don't you try to take part in
this. Don't think you have a hand in
this. There's only one who could suffer
this fiery wrath and not be consumed. There's only one. Don't try to
put your hand in it. Christ is the only one. It says in verse 5, "...draw
not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for
the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Don't you dare
believe or preach that you have any part in satisfying God's
wrath and don't you dare leave this. Don't try to take part in it
and don't leave it. Take your shoes off. You're not
going anywhere. This is holy ground. Don't dare leave this. Take your
shoes off and humble yourself and stand right there. Stand
right there. Don't walk away from it. Stand
still and just watch the salvation of God. Stand on the promises. Verse 6 says, Moreover, he said,
I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. I have said it, I will do it. We just saw, and he keeps saying,
I'm the God of Abraham, I'm the God of Isaac, I'm the God of
Jacob, I made a covenant, I said it, I'll do it. Stand still. Just stand still. Stand on that. My margin for
verse 6 makes a point to reference Matthew, Mark, and Luke. All
three of them. I'll try to finish up here. But I saw something in each one
of these. Let's just turn to them real
quick. Matthew 22. Go with me to Matthew 22. Matthew 22 and look at verse
32. Now this is the reference from
that other verse. I am the God of Abraham, and
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God
of the dead, but of the living. That struck me because all three
of those men are dead. Earthly speaking. Alright now,
go to Mark chapter 12. Mark 12 and look at verse 26. And as touching the dead, that
they rise, have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the
bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of
the dead, but the God of the living. Ye therefore do greatly
err. That's where you err. He's not
the God of the dead, He's the God of the living. Alright, now
go to Luke chapter 20. Luke 20, look at verse 37. Now that the dead are raised,
even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the God
of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, for He
is not a God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto
Him." That is our message. That's our message. Thy God reigneth. He's alive. He's living. He's the living God. He's not the God of dead doctrine. Just dead doctrine. He's not
the God of dead ceremony. Ceremony. He's not the God of dead men. He's not. You know that while He walked
this earth, not one person died in His presence. Never. Not one person. Never. And every dead person He came
upon, He brought them back to life. Every single one. Never did He leave a person dead
and walk away. Now, He did refrain Himself,
what, three or four days? To make sure they were good and
dead so people knew that person was dead and He brought them
back to life. But He never left a person dead one time. He's the God of the living. This bush burned with fire. He's a living God. We're just
saying revive us again. Fill each heart with Thy love.
May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. The end of verse
6 in our text says, Moses, the true witness, the
believer, God's messenger, hid his face. He hid his face. Don't look at
me. I'm not worthy to tie shoe latches. He was afraid to look upon God. The true witness has seen things
and heard things that are just too wonderful. Just too wonderful,
just can't be contained. This God is, can't look on Him. Can't look on Him. Isaiah said,
in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord and I said,
woe is me. Woe is me. Our message for the
rest of our days here at Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church is going
to be the bush burned and the bush was not consumed. And he did the work alone. Don't
try to put our hand in it. That's our message. Stand together
with me. Let's be dismissed.